Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-10-30
Erected by Vermont Society,
Sons of the American Revolu-
ton, Marking Places Where
Governor Thomas Chittenden
and Gen. Ethan Allen Tarried


presided and the tablets
were unveiled by Byron n. Clark and
George NJ Hawks, Mr.. Clark using the
game flag that was used at Wi,liston.
w. II. Crockett, secretary of the So
clety, was also present. James *.
Batch eldor read the historical address
and Miss Sarah n. Clcehorn read the
following original poem:
"a Thousand Years are as Yesterday
They are Even as a Steep"
How little Ethan Allen thought
As he rode NJ and down
The clearing in the woods that now
Is such pleasant town.
How little Thomas Chittenden
AS ne stased ont his cabin
Thought of tablet such as this
TO celebrate his name
We look behind us to admire;
Our heroes must be dead
The living lacks the rIists of time
TO halo round his head
Great Allen thought of Chittenden
And Chittenden ot him
AS men of common mould compared
with Hampder, Vane or Pvr,!
"a thousand years as yesterday
And even as sleep
Each reaps the field another sowed:
Each sows that others reap.
We picture out the patriarchs
As suits our fancy best;
We read about their household gear
And how their wives were dressed
linz cine how this valley looked
FIRST dawn!ng on their view
And how II looked when first they built
Their cabins small and few
But what IL we could feel the dreams
That warmed their round of care?
Who did not live by bread alone
But some more vital fare.
To them as to ourselves. there came
Beauty beyond these hills
The burning bush, the mystic flame,
The not forgotten thrills.
"a thousand years like yesterday
Pass even as a sleep:
The destines of Time and Man
/ Are secrets hidden deep.
Like us. they lived and felt at home
With many a heartless law:
I Shocked at old horrors past and gone.
/ But blind to those they saw
! What was. was right; the debtors jail
They could and did defend;
The Captain trading slaves and rum
Was their congenial friend.
And do we think we would have beer
More squeamish of that trade?
We have trade in making shells;
! We have a food blockade.
Would we at bear-bats draw the lines
We let white children see
The baited negro burned alive
/ Chained to a blazing tree!
"A thousand years as yesterday
And even as a sleep
To see the savage deeds we do
Would make our fathers weep.
hundred years and more from now
II people gather here
To dedicate memorials
To names they then hold dear.
What boys and girls alive to-day
VIII they remember then
As twentieth century pioneers
And chiefs of modern men?
There Is another wilderness
Beyond stormier sea.
To be explored and tanned and built
BY better men than we
Then who will chart and who will plan
The nation fully free
The nation founded not on force,
Our country yet to be?
What Is a lifetime. what an ago
Beside the Eternal Right?
a thousand years will pass and go
Like watches in the night
Mrs. Dorothy Garfield Fisher the
gave short talk describing the charac
terstics Of the Green Mountain Boys tn
early pioneers. and compared them to tn
Vermont boys OF to-day, showing how tn
same sturdy determination to do thei
duty was still apparent.
The two tablets are simple but beaut
full. The Chittenden tablet Is simila
to that erected in Williston with the fe,
necessary changes, and the Ethan ALLIE
tablet reads as follows
"Near this spot stood the residenc
occupied during part of the conflict fo
American Independence by Ethan Aller
resolute leader Of the Green Mountai
Boys whose outrageous deeds and spoke
and written words contributed powerful
to the establishment OF the Independer
State of Vermont. He led tho first suS
cessful aggressive military expedition {
the American Revolution when he car
tured Ticonderoga. Erected by the Vel
mont Society Sons Of the American RevS
luton. 1919" Signed with the seal
the society.