Tunbridge, Vermont - May 12, 2011
For 250 years Tunbridge has been the kind of town that people don't want to leave.
"I'm eight generations on one side and seven on the other and if that isn't roots in Vermont then I guess I don't know what roots are!" declared Euclid Farnham of the Tunbridge Historical Society.
Deep roots that have weathered the storm of time. The town's first residents had less than 20 years to make the land their home before tragedy struck.
"1780 was an important year in our history," Farnham noted.
That's the year the town's first baby was born, that the ground yielded its first crop, and the year the Revolutionary War nearly wiped it off the map.
"Right on top of that hill. The highest hill right over there. That's where it started," Farnham said.
On October 16, 1780, 300 Indians enlisted by the British descended from that hilltop trying to stop Americans from building settlements farther north. They killed two men including Peter Button who was taking his first wheat to the mill to have ground into flour.
"I maintain it should be the Raid of 1780 to equalize things among all the towns," Farnham said.
The so-called Royalton Raid continued through the valley, ultimately claiming four lives and taking about 30 men as captives to Montreal. But the British plan to stop the Americans was trashed by the tenacity of the Tunbridge townsfolk.
"Almost all of them came back to the valley after the Revolution was over and settled here, and a good share of them died here," Farnham said.
And the town flourished. Twenty-one school houses cropped up like fiddlehead ferns. And nine of the valley's 16 covered bridges stretched their wooden limbs across the White River, though that didn't make everyone happy.
Farnham explained, "At Tunbridge Town Meeting they were talking about building still another covered bridge and one exasperated taxpayer rose in wrath and said 'Why don't we bridge the whole damn river lengthways and get it over with?'"
Needless to say that plan wasn't accepted. But the bridges provided crucial connections for the valley's stagecoach drivers, charged with ferrying products and people.
"The stagecoach driver had a tendency to run the bridges. You're supposed to walk, there was always a sign on the portal saying 'Walk your horse,'" Farnham said. "One day the constable decided he was going to catch him and it was a $5 fine, which in that time period was a lot of money. So the guy ran the bridges, the constable caught him and fined him the five bucks and the guy said 'Here's 10, I'll be back and run your damn bridge tomorrow.'"
In the early 1800s the town offered Elias Curtis-- a man taken hostage in the 1780 raid-- 100 acres if he built a sawmill and gristmill. He did, creating the geographical center of the town.
"This blacksmith shop was built right around 1800 and the first blacksmith in town was my great-great-grandfather Phillip Farnham," Euclid Farnham said.
But over the years the number of farms dwindled from 200 to seven. Local jobs shriveled up. And today the once-bustling center of town is silent.
Euclid Farnham: That's why Tunbridge looks so empty.
Reporter Rachel Feldman: Because everybody's at work.
Farnham: Everybody's down in Hanover working.
Everybody except Scott Terami, the new owner of the Tunbridge Store. Built in 1830 it's changed hands several times, and in 2009 the store's third owner in just a decade closed up shop.
"It seemed to actually be a hole in the community to have the store closed," Terami said.
But Terami loves the town and, along with his wife, decided to fill that hole. He says it's brought the town back together.
"Someone may walk into the store for groceries and then convergence is what happens because they bump into a number of people and conversations ensue," Terami said. "It's very diverse but diverse with respect and that's something that's sometimes hard to come by."
Farnham says Tunbridge is a town that works together. And he says it won't be dropping off the map any time soon.
Farnham: Tunbridge will definitely be here. It will be here different than it is now because it's different than it was 100, 200 years ago... And I can illustrate that by telling you we haven't had an Indian raid recently, so I think that makes my point.
Feldman: Well, you know where to look for it now.
Farnham: I know the direction they'd be coming from, let's put it that way.
Feldman: Go for high ground.
A town that's weathered the tests of time because of the tenacious people who refuse to let it go.
Feldman: Oh, so you would have done it again.
Farnham: We absolutely would have done it again!
Rachel Feldman - WCAX News
