For many years, Waterford residents have relied on the conversational town history assembled by Dr. C. E. Harris in 1941, A Vermont Village. Perhaps Dr. Harris would have quickly confirmed that he was no professional historian, but his achievement in assembling the material around him has given us a powerful foundation for examining the town's past.
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| David J. Carpenter |
David J. Carpenter, whose mother was Beatrice Elizabeth Kinne of Upper Waterford, labored for decades to take the work further and deeper. He too was not a historian by training, but his forestry education and his U.S. State Department career both impacted his research and writing. Though he was not able to complete his grand outline of the town's story by the time of his death in 2013, he provided the first half of it for the willing editorial hands of his daughter Betsy Carpenter.
Now that history, taking Waterford from its frontier settlement years in the late 1700s, to the aftermath of the Civil War, is available in polished and highly readable form, thanks to Betsy. It's a remarkable work, with discreet footnotes that don't interrupt the compelling reading. The "Tribute" at the front of the book WATERFORD'S WORLD gives a sense of David J. Carpenter's love for the town and its past as he described the view from the ridge on the east side of town:
On a clear night the lights of farms and distant villages gleamed silently in place. Quiet sounds from the woods bespoke the private world of the guardian creatures of the hill In the dark sky above, Polaris lit a path across the north side of the big field of sheltering stars.
And now, in the valley below, you can touch the faint presence of the past at the cellar holes, beside the stone walls, along the thrown-up roads and in the graveyards, where those who came before us lived, and worked and died, and entrusted to our care the prized legacy of this special world—this town.—DJC
The book probes the facts available about noted early settlers James and Submit Adams, explores religious frictions in the town in the early 1800s, and details Waterford's industrial and agricultural growth through that century. Family diaries add specifics, like the ones about the Ladd family members. And there are more journal entries from Waterford's contribution to battles in the War of Rebellion (the Civil War).
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| Treasures in the book. |
Betsy Carpenter plans to take part in the Waterford Historical Society's Rhubarb Festival on Saturday June 19, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., at the Conte place by the intersection of Route 18 and I-93 (uphill from today's Pettico Junction Country Store corner) -- older town residents will know the location better as the Begin place, or even as White Birch Farm, its moniker from when the Ide family owned it. She will bring copies of the new book for purchase. They may be limited in number, so pre-ordering with a phone call TODAY to Roberta Smith (treasurer of WHS: 748-0923) is a good idea.
This book will be treasured doubly: in the pleasure of reading it, and as a resource for years to come.
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