December 12, 2023:  The Annual Colchester Choral Concert and Party was held at the United Church of Colchester.   In case you missed it the Historical Society presented a check for $500 to the United Church of Colchester for their Save the Steeple Campaign. 

The "Brick Church" on the Town Green, the chief landmark of old Colchester Village, was built in 1838 as a place of worship and meeting for the Colchester congregations of the Congregational and Baptist Churches. The Sanctuary is a prime example of a Romanesque-Georgian New England Congregational church, with its tall steeple and bell tower, tall windows, and red brick, as well as its interior features, including a classic white rectangular interior with balcony and box pews.

Old Coins:   At our meeting Rick Heh presented a history of coins from antiquity to the present day, showed us some of his extensive collection, and provided some collecting tips.

Dick Mazza presented the history and some stories about his family's store on Lakeshore Drive.  Here is a link to a recording provided by Pam Heinrich MacPherson.  Thank you, Pam.

The Historical Society members took a road trip to the Vermont Granite Museum in Barre, plus a side trip to the famous Hope Cemetery. The museum has undergone a major renovation and has plans for working with Vermont colleges to implement a course in the art and crafting of granite. Director Scott McLaughlin showed us around the facility and described the various processes involved in producing a granite product - slabs of granite or works of art. Of course the Hope Cemetery is the local showcase of the skills of the granite artists. 

Dr. Carleton Young told us a fascinating story of finding in his parents’ attic a box of approximately 250 letters, written by two civil war soldiers from Williamstown, VT serving in the Vermont Brigade.  Carleton and some friends spent several years transcribing the letters and exploring the sites described by the soldiers.  He subsequently published "Voices from the Attic" which contains excerpts of many of the letters. Reading from several letters, Carleton provided us a view through the eyes of the two brothers of the action of Vermont Brigade: life in the camps, thoughts about their commanders, and about the Civil War in general.

May 11, 2019

The Colchester Historical Society and Burnham Memorial Library co-hosted an Appraisal Night!   People from the community brought in their "treasured items" and Peter O'Brien and Mike Heath of Estate Sales & Consignments shared with the group their estimate of its origin and value.  It was fascinating to hear an explanation of each item and its value as a collectible.  

April 15, 2019 

We traveled back in time with Martha Lang, who told us about life at the Lang Family Camp on Spaulding West Shore or was it Spalding West Shore?  It depended on who was writing about it. 

Members traveled to the Fort Ethan Allen Museum. Dr William Parkinson took us on a virtual tour of the Fort, showing then-and-now photos and details of happenings at each place.  The museum is located in the old pump house for the stone water tower.  

Feb 9, 2019   

Reid Allen presented the history of the Heineberg Bridge.  Actually, there have been 4 bridges:  the first was built in 1853 - named the Heineberg bridge presumably because Dr J.B. Heineberg was instrumental in getting it built.  He had a farm off Porter's Point road and wanted to have a bridge across the Winooski instead of using the Richardson ferry.  The second was built in 1862 to replace the original bridge which burned down that year.  Then in 1935 the old wooden bridge was replaced by a steel bridge. Finally in the mid-1980's the steel bridge was replaced by the current concrete bridge as part of the Burlington Beltline project. Reid presented the society with a framed copy of the original bridge. A digital file of this presentation is available at the Historical Society.

A special Veteran's Day program was presented by Rick Heh about his father, Lt Richard J Heh, "A Prisoner Log of World War II POW". Lt Heh, a navigator on a B17, spent the last year of WW II as a POW after his plane was shot down on a mission over occupied Belgium. While a prisoner, he kept a log of his activity. After his release, he shared his logs with his family. His son Rick shared them with the Historical Society in a fascinating and moving account of life in Stalag Luf III. As a point of interest, this was the prison which was the site of the "Great Escape," which occurred shortly before Lt Heh was incarcerated there. Check out the Past & Present Events link for some pages from the presentation.

May 14 2018:   

Bob Furst presented the results of his study of Marble Quarries and Lime Kilns in Colchester. There was a large commercial Lime Kiln and quarry located at the northern end of Lime Kiln Rd that was in operation until 1970 when a lost contract caused it to shut down. The site was cleared and one of the two quarries was filled in. In the Bay area several attempts were made to quarry marble at Malletts Head and Marble Island in particular. The material while beautiful when polished was actually dolomite and not a pure marble. It was much harder to cut and polish. In the late 1800's a processing plant was built on Malletts Head but costs drove it out of business by 1900. The plant was converted into a club house which existed until 1976 when it burned down. The walls of the NY State House in Albany are lined with marble from the Malletts Bay quarries. This presentation was recorded and available at the Historical Society on a DVD.

The North Country involvement in the War of 1812 was the topic for the April meeting.  History and civics teacher Jason Barney presented the story of the origins and first year of the War of 1812 and Vermont's role in it. If you missed this talk, you missed an interesting introduction to the war. Great Britain started taking US sailors off merchant ships to man their war ships in their war with France. In response the Federal government restricted trade with Britain (Canada in this case for Vermonters). This affected the livelihood of many Northern Vermonters as Canada was their biggest trading partner. Smuggling goods to and from Canada became a way of life for many. The Black Snake was a notorious smuggling vessel that drew the attention of the Feds. The locals had to deal with both the Feds and Great Britain. So began the story.

Researching Your Family History was the topic for the March meeting of the Historical Society. Christine Eldred, Colchester High School librarian, demonstrated how to begin researching family histories using methods from her own family history research. Her presentation focused on the best places and ways to get started with genealogy research. She also pointed out many of the free resources that are available to investigate your own family tree.

Feb 10, 2018:   

Carmen Brunelle told us all about the First 30 Years of Barbie Dolls illustrated by selections from her large collection. In 2003 she set a goal of collecting Barbies from the first one in 1959 but stopped when she reached 30 years of them. The original Barbie was modeled after a German doll, Lilli, but had her own unique features which continued to evolve over time. Many of the early dolls had very expensive, well-made clothing, some being designed by well-known designers such as Dior and Yves Saint Laurent. It was a fascinating story. This presentation was recorded for future researchers.

Dr Daniel Bean told us about Orphan Trains in Vermont - trains that transported orphaned and homeless children from crowded Eastern cities of the United States to foster homes located largely in rural areas. "It was fall in Enosburg Falls, VT in 1905 when the train from New York City arrived with about a dozen 3-4 year-old children from the New York Foundling Hospital.  As the children lined up on the loading dock a nurse who had accompanied them read their tag and called the name of the family that had agreed to accept a new child into their home. This was Enosburg’s introduction to the concept of orphan trains and their riders. The concept of sending New York’s street children and foundlings out of the city and into the countryside for adoption or indenture was the brainchild of Charles Loring Brace, founding director of the Children’s Aid Society of NYC. By the time Congress put a stop to the practice in 1928 it is estimated that about 250,000 children had been “shipped out” of New York City. They traveled to every state, territory and Canada, including Vermont. A report by the CAS in 1910 lists 125 children having been sent to Vermont. That list does not include the children sent from the New York Foundling Hospital run by the Sisters of St. Vincent. The Enosburg Falls stop was to be the last stop for this particular train. Children on that train were left in Enosburg, Fairfield, and other towns along the way. Dr. Bean’s own father was on that 1905 train."      Information on these, and other orphan trains is sketchy at best. Many of the riders never mentioned the circumstances to their families, or if they did tended to downplay it. Others did write reports in later life. It is estimated that fewer than 500 of the riders are still alive today. Our current sources of information are the records of individual families and their relatives.  A DVD of this presentation is available at the Historical Society.

Chief Jennifer Morrison along with two early police officers, Ron Tatro and Jim Lockwood, described changes over the last 50 years in policing, women in law enforcement, equipment and technology improvements.   Ron and Jim gave us a real insight into the early days of policing with only three officers, 4 weeks of training and no radio communication equipment in the police car..  Chief Morrison described what it is like today, focusing on more community policing including youth and school involvement. She also talked about why Colchester officers tend to have long tenures - "this is a place where people truly come to make a difference,"   A DVD of this presentation is available at the Historical Society.

Did you know that Ray Collins from Colchester, VT was the starting pitcher in the first ever World Series game to be played at Fenway back in 1912?

He pitched in two games in that series both in losing causes. In Game 2, which was the first one played at Fenway, he was relieved in the 8th inning with the Boston down 5-4 against the NY Giants.

Boston tied the score in the bottom of the 8th and the game was finally called after 11 innings because of darkness. The game was officially ruled a tie. Ray pitched again in the the 6th game, coming on in the second inning with Boston down 5-0 and pitched shutout ball for the rest of the game. Unfortunately, the Giants won 5-2. However, Boston did win the series in the 8th game to become World Champions.

Ray played for the Red Sox from 1909 to 1915 and retired to the family farm in Colchester. Ray, a graduate of UVM and star of the UVM baseball team, was inducted into the UVM Hall of Fame in 1969.

Check out the Ray Collins blog for some great information on Ray.

Tom Mulcahy, a Historical Society Member, and some friends who own Model A Fords show off their cars.