Plymouth Notch, Vermont

 This town in Vermont has its place in history as the boyhood home of President Calvin Coolidge.  He was vacationing here when President Harding died and Coolidge as Vice President had to be sworn in as President.  That happened in the middle of the night and his father who was a notary public did the swearing in ceremony. 

Coolidge is the only President born on the 4th of July.  Apparently there's a tradition that flowers are placed on Presidents' graves on their birthdays with full military honors.

Below is his mother's home.  She died when Coolidge was only 12.

The church was built in 1840.

Coolidge's one room school stood on this site but was replaced with this one in 1890.  He graduated from 8th grade in 1885.

Coolidge moved to this house when he was four.

We had a very knowledgeable guide.  He couldn't take us through the house but we could walk through on our own social distancing from others.

Another president from Vermont is Chester Arthur but I understand his birthplace may be more difficult to find.  In New Hampshire the only president the state can lay claim to is Franklin Pierce.  We'll save that trip to his historic site for another time.

A Year Ago ...

... we were in Barcelona having arrived on Wednesday October 2nd and staying for two weeks.

We traveled there with friends and shared an apartment. Last night we zoomed with our friends over dinner to do some reminiscing.  How life has changed in one year. No long trips on airplanes are in our future at all at present.  Can't even think about planning such a trip until there's a vaccine.

Here are some photos I put together for a slide show to the Photography group at Vantage Point early last year.  I named it "Arches".

Enjoy a virtual trip to Barcelona.

 

New England Fall

 

Answers to some questions posed on other posts.

TahoeGirl asked why we had relocated to New Hampshire. 

Our oldest daughter has lived here and in Vermont since graduating from Dartmouth in 2003.  We kid her that she got the granite of NH in her brains when we first brought her on a visit to the state when she was two.  She and her husband who hails from GA have settled in to the way of life here.  Our two oldest granddaughters live here. 

Our second daughter was a world traveler and lived and worked in China after college.  She returned to MD, got a graduate degree from Georgetown, married and settled in MD not far from us.  When her husband completed his MBA he was recruited by a firm based in Buffalo and off they went in summer of 2019 with our youngest granddaughter.

That left us with neither daughter close by.  We realized our isolation from them when Covid hit and we lived in a retirement community that basically shut down to avoid infections. In April we made the decision to move from MD and weighed Buffalo v. New Hampshire and the latter won out.  Daughter in Buffalo fine with our decision not to settle in NY state near them.  

Two plus months after moving here in July we have no regrets.

TahoeGirl also asked if this area of NH is liberal.

Lots of Black Lives Matter signs, Biden/Harris signs out number the other one, the newspaper has more anti-tRump editorials than those favoring him, so yes to that question.

Margaret asked the difference between Vermont and New Hampshire.

The former has income taxes and the latter none. Vermont's population is less.  More services there and less in NH.  Both have Republican governors at present but heavily Democratic in Congress for both. Vermont seems to be more environmentally committed than NH.  That's my sense of it.

The Fort at No. 4

Having taught Maryland history to 4th graders for many years and visiting the site of the first Maryland settlement founded in 1632, I've realized that New Hampshire is a much younger European settlement.

The Fort at No. 4 in Charleston, NH was established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735 along with 3 other settlements along the east side of the Connecticut River. It wasn't until 1740 when one of the first persons to purchase shares of the town came to settle. By 1743 there were 10 families owning shares of this the most north western British settlement, thirty miles from the nearest town.

There was a lot of danger living out in this wilderness, especially with England and France not on good terms. French settlements were to the north in what is now Quebec and alliances made with native peoples brought war to these settlers. There was fighting in 1746, 1747, 1749, 1753, and 1754 when killing changed to taking captives for ransom.

The fort was actually a fortified village of 6 houses.  It was surrounded by a pike stockade with gaps between the pikes. 

So why the gaps? Apparently at Deerfield, MA the stockade had no gaps and when it snowed the snow piled up.  Enemies could climb over the stockade when the drifts were high. Gaps prevents the snow from creating drifts.

We visited a re-creation of the Fort on Sunday, September 27th when a Revolutionary War re-enactment was taking place. During that war Charlestown was an assembly point for troops and troops involved with the Battle for Bennington marched from here.

Views from the watchtower that we climbed.

The Connecticut River is just visible on the right side.  That hill is in Vermont.

I learned the difference between the musket, shown above and the flintlock rifles used in Colonial times. Flintlock was more expensive to purchase but easier to ignite the charge. In Colonial militias each man in the community had to have a rifle to help defend the settlement.  See the armor in the background?  A re-creation of the outfit a soldier in the Plymouth Colony would have had.  Those hanging cylinders contained the charges needed for one shot from your flintlock.

Below these re-enactors are holding flintlocks.

These historical markers were in town.

The original fort stood west of Main Street in present day Charleston though the exact location has been lost to history.

We enjoyed our visit on Sunday morning, arriving at the Fort as it first opened at 11.  The local fire department offered lunch items for sale so we purchased and ate at a nice picnic spot right there. Since there was still much of the day left we drove on to see President Coolidge's boyhood home in Plymouth Notch, VT.  A post on that will show up soon.