Bucolic Bridport Vermont: Home of the Brave
This Bridport Home, called Deerwood, was built in 1832. Click on the image to view the MLS listing.
Nestled along Vermont’s West Coast, Bridport is a sleepy bucolic agricultural town of rolling hills, and Lake Champlain views. It is home to beautiful farms, historic homes and incredible B&B’s. But it wasn’t always this peaceful…
In the days leading up to the American Revolution, Bridport was the Wild West. And like women in the Wild West, the women of Bridport had to be brave, rough and ready. General Burgoyne’s army was approaching form the north and the natives were restless. Any pioneer woman was vulnerable to violence on many different fronts, unless, of course, she was invulnerable…
The first woman ever to be married in Bridport, Vermont was such a woman. Miss Ward of Addison (I could not find her first name) became Mrs. Stone on November 25, 1773*. Her family was subject to raids by “marauding natives.” On one such occasion, as she saw a plundering party creeping up the banks of Lake Champlain toward her home, she quickly tossed her household possessions of value out the window into the backyard. She also hid some valuables in her ample bosom.
Lake Champlain Views from Bridport
As the party approached, she sat on her porch and began casually carding wool. She ignored the natives as they searched her home for treasures until one of the party took particular interest in Mrs. Stone’s bosom. As he made to reach down her décolletage, she slashed out at him and lacerated his face with her wool-card (for those of us new to wool carding, a card is a brush with many rows of sharp, bent metal bristles). The injured man lifted his tomahawk to dispatch Mrs. Stone, but the band’s leader stopped him and insisted that a brave woman should be honored instead of slain. As the party retreated, she resumed her carding.
At about the same time, another brave woman, this one in Washington, made an important observation to her husband regarding his work on the Declaration of Independence: she reminded him that women “will not hold ourselves bound by laws which we have no voice.” That woman was Abigail Adams (this quote comes from her letters). Her old man was of course, the second president of the United States.
Since Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Adams, brave American women fill the pages of history: Susan B. Anthony in the 1890s; Jeannette Rankin in1916 (first woman elected to Congress) Alice Paul in 1917 (19th Amendment crusader); Rosie the Riveter in the 1940s; Rosa Parks in the 50s; and more recently Condoleezza Rice and Nancy Pelosi.
On the eve of elections, and in honor of the 90th anniversary of women’s suffrage, it is appropriate that we remember the brave women who have strengthened our democracy. I encourage women to exercise their right November 2nd!
* Source: VermontGeneology.com
Bucolic Bridport Vermont: Home of the Brave
This Bridport Home, called Deerwood, was built in 1832. Click on the image to view the MLS listing.
Nestled along Vermont’s West Coast, Bridport is a sleepy bucolic agricultural town of rolling hills, and Lake Champlain views. It is home to beautiful farms, historic homes and incredible B&B’s. But it wasn’t always this peaceful…
In the days leading up to the American Revolution, Bridport was the Wild West. And like women in the Wild West, the women of Bridport had to be brave, rough and ready. General Burgoyne’s army was approaching form the north and the natives were restless. Any pioneer woman was vulnerable to violence on many different fronts, unless, of course, she was invulnerable…
The first woman ever to be married in Bridport, Vermont was such a woman. Miss Ward of Addison (I could not find her first name) became Mrs. Stone on November 25, 1773*. Her family was subject to raids by “marauding natives.” On one such occasion, as she saw a plundering party creeping up the banks of Lake Champlain toward her home, she quickly tossed her household possessions of value out the window into the backyard. She also hid some valuables in her ample bosom. (more…)
