Good morning from Halifax, Republic of Vermont
2023-07-01
Dear friend,
Below is a collection of weekend reading including recent posts from my column "This Spot on Earth," from my constituent newsletter, and other writing.
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First, a brief good morning from Halifax, Vermont. Formerly Halifax, Republic of Vermont.
Our town is not the capital of Nova Scotia 400-plus miles away, but both were named for the same guy.
George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, England became President of the Board of Trade for Great Britain in 1748.
In that role he aided in the colonization of Nova Scotia. The capital was named in his honor on June 21, 1749.
Earlier that same year but hundreds of miles away, the Governor of the Province New Hampshire had given himself the same honor.
Governor Benning Wentworth chartered the first town in what later became Vermont on January 3, 1749.
When the Governor considered naming options, I imagine there were two and I imagine he crossed one out pretty fast.
Maybe it's just me, but "Bennington" rolls off the tongue like silk compared to "Wentworthton."
Having used up his own name, who would Gov. Wentworth think of on May 11, 1750 when he founded Vermont's second town?
He thought of a Brit across the Atlantic Ocean, the influential Earl of Halifax.
The Earl had no direct involvement in the formation of Halifax on May 11, 1750. It appears that Governor Wentworth was flattering an important person. Earl Dunk later became known as "father of the colonies" due to his support of commerce in North America.
At the time, Gov. Wentworth needed friends in high places. The 1664 grant to the Duke of York specified the eastern border of New York as the Connecticut River.
But the Province of New Hampshire also claimed the land, and they had a couple points in their favor.
For one, New York looked weird on a map jutting out over Massachusetts.
It’s a little much, New York.
Also, New Hampshire was provisioning Fort Dummer (now in Brattleboro, Vermont) on the west side of the Connecticut River.
That wasn't enough for Gov. Wentworth. Apparently he had a vision for strengthening New Hampshire's claim on the land, and he executed on it.
New York claimed Vermont for itself but wasn't doing squat with it. Governor Wentworth saw an opening.
Starting with Bennington in 1749, Halifax in 1750 and a total of 131 towns by 1764, Gov. Wentworth's New Hampshire Grants got the settlement of Vermont going.
Naming some of these towns for important Brits like the Earl of Halifax would have been strategic for Wentworth.
New York ended up winning the day. George III ruled in their favor in 1764.
But while the New Hampshire Grants didn't work out for New Hampshire, they did for Vermont.
New York had the law on its side, but they took things too far. The colony demanded that settlers with land claims under the New Hampshire Grants buy back their land from New York. New York's Supreme Court invalided the claims in 1770.
That same year, a disgruntled Ethan Allen and friends founded the Green Mountain Boys to push back New York's surveyors. It was only another seven years from there to the founding of the Republic of Vermont under its own Constitution on July 8, 1777.
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Here are my recent newsletters on legislative action in Vermont:
--the citizen Legislature goes home.
We filed back into the chamber Tuesday for a “veto session.” Here’s what transpired on our last day.
Honesty is one of those things I'm willing to stick with even when it's inconvenient. That's how I know it's a core value.
Humans have been celebrating parents for a long time.
And here are the most recent headlines from This Spot on Earth:
--To blame is to interrupt responsibility
Thoughts said out loud become dialogue. Dialogue becomes action, a journey taken together.
In my experience, where there is joy in achievement, it’s not because it fill’s one’s cup of self-worth.
--How I fell for the Afghan "war rugs" story
I've been a lifelong news junkie, since well before citizens of Saudi Arabia and three other countries not named Afghanistan attacked my country on September 11, 2001.
And here's a quote from an essay I enjoyed by Derek Sivers: dashing dog, searching for purpose.
Imagine you put a GPS tracker on a dog, then you set him free to run in the countryside. He dashes. He digs. He stops to sniff. He romps with another dog.
Later, when you map his recorded GPS data, you see that he generally went north-east. But would you say that going north-east is his passion and purpose?
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What have you been reading lately? I'm catching up on recommendations. Let me know what I should queue up.