St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1905-08-02
ANN STORY.
Her Monument Unveiled at Salisbury
A Splendid Address by Judge Stat.
ford.

Thursday OF last week was great day
for Salisbury, in Addison county. Six
hundred people, including the gov
ernor ofVermont and many of the states
prominent sons and daughters, saw the
unwilling of a monument to Ann Story,
famous for heroic deeds in the Revo-
lutionary period.
The monument, white marble trun-
Gated pyramid, the gift of Fletcher D.
Proctor, of Proctor, has been erected
near the Otter Greek on the site of Ann
Story's cabin, which has been given to
the Vermont Society OF Colonial DANES
by Columbus Smith, Of Salisbury
The exercises were presided over by
Fred L. Hamilton OF Salisbury, and a
welcome was extended by Mrs. Wallace
c. Clement, OF Rutland, state regent OF
the Vermont Society of Colonial Danes.
The monument was unveiled by twelve
school children of the town, dressed in
white, who were given badges on which
appeared in gold letters the words "Ann
Story, 1774". A salute, yankee Doodle"
by drums and fife followed the unwilling.
Miss Anna c. Park OF Bennington spoke
briefly to the children. Mrs. Clement
accepted the monument and the site In a
graceful speech. A poem was read by
Vermont's gifted poet, Mrs. Julia c. R.
Dorr, OF Rutland. The address of the
day was delivered by Judge Wendell P.
Stafford of the supreme court of the
District OF Columbia. Judge Stafford
said, in part:
When God is going to make the world
great man he begins by making a great
woman for his mother. do not say he
could not bring forth brave and mighty
son from weak and timid mother; but
think it would trouble you to find an
instance where he ever did. There was
never a great State that was not great
in its women. The French king said, II
am the State" He lied. The State was
never born in palace. 1t never Wanted
cottage; and it bears the throne upon its
massive shoulders, as the elephant carries
the himsy and gaudy trappings of the
circus on its back. The State is the
people. 1t is born in the homes OF in
dustry, frugality and truth. 1t is Graded
in the arms of love, fed at the breast OF
hope and brooded on the knees OF faith;
and if it dies at last 1t dies because love,
faith and hope have died before it in the
! homes where it was born. Pity the child
that must blush for it's parents. Envy
the man who is proud of his race. The
son who forgets will be forgotten by his
children; and the state that will not
remember it's founders will not be long
remembered by the world.
This monument is erected to mother
in Israel-one of Plutarch's women,
worthy to have been a Roman matron
in Rome's early days, Brutus' wife and
Cato's daughter, woman of heroic
mould, of uncompromising truth, of un-
daunted courage-6t companion to that
race of young giants which made the
name of Vermont synonymous with
liberty, and the name of the Green
Mountain Boys terror unto its enemies.
This is the spot, above all others,
where her memorial ought to- stand.
Here, after her husbands sudden and
tragic death, she came herself to occupy
his cabin and widen the clearing he, Degan;
Here was that G+et strong rouse burned
to the ground by savages. Here with
her own hands she felled the trees for a
second dwelling and without the aid OF
horse or OK rolled them to their place and
rebuilt her home. Here she staid when
other settlers prudently withdrew at the
approach of war. Here, summer, with
sturdy arm and unfaltering spirit she
pushed back the borders OF the wilderness,
planted her crops, gathered and reared
her brood. Here IN the time that tried
mems souls the friends of freedom came
for counsel and succor. From this spot
and by her direction started the little
= expedition that captured 20 tories and
posite bank of the creek she dug that
,, secret cavern, her mighty shelter against
, Indian and tory the fruitful source Of
q romantic traditions that have thrilled
q the hearts OF three generations. And here
at last she saw the end of war and the
fair beginnings of security and peace
Surely here if anywhere one OF the
foundation stones of the Green Mountain
/. Republic was laid.
{ This woman was a whig-a Revolu
4 tionary whig. She had the vigor O.
!. mind to do her own thinking. She livet
? in time when political opinions meant
{ something. The American Revolution
e was not so much struggle between
! wing and tory. Ifyou could have taker
D up all the American people and set then
J.. down in England, and taken up al
r the English people and set then
j. down in America, historians tell us tina
Vt the Revolution would have gone on jus
n the same. 1t was a line of cleavage tina
- divided the English people wherever the,
happened to be. The wing believed il
progress, in the people. in selfgovern
ment. The tory believed in staying as h
was, in the divine right OF kings, in tn
doctrine that Rumbod denounced upo
I'll the scaffold-"that one part of the rae
er is born booted and spurred, ready t
:, ride, and the other part is born read
L. saddled and bridled to be ridden"
as was time of intense convictions. T
ct conceive an opinion was like being Dor
Is OF the spirit. The man was nev
- creature. He held to his view with til
e tenacity of life and death purpose
KS The love OF liberty was consuming fir,
if The questions that divided men wer
n. not questions of policy. They wer
~ questions of principle, OF patriotism
~ -, Opponents were separated by the mora
Ill ehasm which cannot be bridged owe
re- One side was eternally wrong New
nd papers did not sell their space to tt
10 opposite party at the usual advertiser
~ rates. To show the contrary view wa
es' to plant treason. The cry of the age wa
d. the cry OF Henry: "Give me liberty c
m give me death" 1t was one thing or tt