Vaccines, pediatric medicine transformed childhood

 

Childhood Diseases and a Pediatrician

Larry Coffin    Journal Opinion 11/19/2025

Some of us grew up with a myriad of childhood diseases. We understood that highly contagious illnesses, such as mumps, measles, German measles, whooping cough, flu, and polio were both epidemic and endemic.

Our parents understood that a sick child at school could spread, infecting other children and adults.

I have recently written about six family physicians and two nurses.  These articles can be found on my blog at larrycoffin.blogspot.com and in the archives of the Journal Opinion.

This column continues to explore local health care by surveying history of childhood diseases in the area as well as the career of pediatrician, Dr. Mark Harris.

Before 1850, there were several deadly regional epidemics of spotted fever, lung fever, erysipelas, as well as regular outbreaks of influenza, affecting residents of all ages.

Another often deadly disease was tetanus or lockjaw. It is caused by bacteria entering through a wound. Before the development of a vaccine in the late 1940s, it had a 25 percent fatality rate. While common among soldiers, the rough-and- tumble activities of children made them vulnerable as well.

 Because tetanus was not contagious, it received less attention from both newspaper editors and public health officials alike.  

All of the diseases described below have some common characteristics. While adult cases were normal, cases in younger children were especially serious or severe.

Smallpox struck down old and young alike. It was “one of the most terrifying and deadly scourges known to man.” It is also one of the earliest examples of inoculation limiting its spread. prevention. As early as 1803, a doctor in Orford inoculated against smallpox.

By the early 20th century, the only outbreaks of smallpox in the two states were of a mild variety and were quickly contained by vaccinations.

 In 1921, children entering school in New Hampshire were required to have mandatory vaccinations for smallpox. By midcentury, smallpox was eradicated in the United States.

Diphtheria was a major cause of illness and death among children. During the great “throat distemper” epidemic of 1735, at least one town in southern New Hampshire lost one-third of its children to the disease. 

In the nineteenth century, diphtheria outbreaks were common. Between 1858 and 1865, there were 366 deaths from the disease in Orange County and 482 in Caledonia.

Advertisements promoted “celebrated,” but ineffective, diphtheria remedies were common.

A diphtheria vaccine became available in the 1920s and local inoculation clinics were held.

Mumps is another highly contagious disease that is characterized by swelling of the salivary glands, fever, and body aches. In rare cases, it can cause inflammation of the brain, infertility, and hearing loss. Prior to a vaccine, most children experienced the disease.

The United Opinion reported local outbreaks of mumps especially before 1970. In 1889, mumps were widespread in all area communities. During a 1906 outbreak in Vermont, there were over one hundred cases or more in some communities.

 In 1921, the newspaper alluded to one outbreak: “The Newbury New Year’s Ball has left a lasting impression on several who attended it, as their swollen chops testify.” There were other local epidemics in 1936 and 1952.

In 1967 a vaccine became available and immunization led to a decline in the number of cases. There were still outbreaks in West Fairlee, Thetford, and Corinth in 1968-9. 

Measles was another widespread viral disease, characterized by fever and rash. It was generally considered a disease of childhood. Complications could lead to severe and lasting outcomes, especially in adults.

Local health officials quarantined some households experiencing mumps or other contagious diseases with a warning sign posted on the house. In Groton, during a 1915 mumps epidemic, “about every other house in the village is ornamented with a red card.”

Pertussis or whooping cough is a highly contagious disease that is especially dangerous to young children. It gets its name from “short expiratory bursts of dry, non-productive cough followed by a long gasp.”

The following notice appeared in the Green Mountain Patriot in June 1806. “Died at Ryegate, of the Whooping Cough, on Tuesday evening last, Susan, a child of Mr. Robert Whitelaw, aged 18 months.”

In 1872, the United Opinion reported the following Vershire news: “Measles and whooping cough are all around town, and in fact, through the whole vicinity. Some with both at once or one immediately following the other have died.”

The traditional treatment was to let the disease run its course. Another was “a blister of onion juice applied to the back of the neck”

In 1905, local pharmacies were offering Weeks’ Magic Compound to deal with the symptoms of an outbreak. “It is pleasant to the taste, yet so active in its results. It truly works like magic.” It usually didn’t work.   

Scarlet fever is characterized by rash, swollen glands and fever. It is very contagious and particularly fatal to young children.

The first newspaper notice of a death from the fever was of a young Bradford child in 1846.

In the 1850s, there were extensive cases of scarlet fever  throughout the region. In the late 1880s, it became evident that unpasteurized milk could transmit the bacteria that caused the disease. 

The disease was so contagious that even a single case would cause schools to close. Those affected were quarantined.

A major outbreak in New England in the 1930s was attributed to raw milk. The rise of pasteurized milk and antibiotics reduced the number of cases. After 1951, only a few cases were reported locally.     

Another extremely common disease that was considered “a rite of passage” for children was chickenpox. Nearly all children suffered from its blister-like rash, itching, and fever.

The disease was the last major childhood disease for which there was no widely available protection. From the 1890s to the 1960s, newspapers frequently reported the plight of those afflicted with chickenpox.

In 1895, 1910, and 1920-23, reports of widespread infections caused closed schools. Even before the introduction of a vaccine in 1995, the number of cases had diminished.

Prior to the introduction of a vaccine in 1969, outbreaks of rubella or German measles was also endemic and epidemic in the area.

Newspapers often referred to households “entertaining” the disease. The disease has symptoms similar to those of regular measles, but usually less serious.

In 1894, many West Fairlee children were ill with German measles. During the 1925-26 outbreak at least one month saw over 600 cases in Vermont. In 1943, when it “raised havoc with school attendance” in Orfordville. And in 1964 when a nation-wide epidemic found its way to the area.

In 1981, an outbreak of the disease occurred in Wentworth and its neighboring towns. 

The first polio epidemic in the nation was in Rutland in August 1894. For those who survived, it meant deformed limbs, braces, crutches, wheelchairs, and, after 1938, breathing devices like the iron lung.

Between 1891 and 1925, approximately 800 cases were reported annually in Vermont. In the years that followed, increases in the number of cases led to the cancellation of public gatherings. 

Between 1935 and1938, outbreaks caused similar closures. In the years that followed, the number of annual national cases increased from 11,000 to 33,000.

 In the 1952 outbreak in New Hampshire, there were 95 cases and 10 deaths. 

After 1954, Salk vaccine clinics began to reduce the number of cases, and, by 1961, there were only 161 cases in America.   

In March 1978, one of several clinics was held in Woodsville offering immunity shots against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, and tests for TB.

The Journal Opinion notice stated, “These diseases can only be prevented and kept in control through a series of immunizations that every child should receive.”

The physicians covered in previous columns dealt with these childhood diseases as part of their family practices, but none were specialists.  It would not be until the arrival of Dr. Mark Harris that dedicated pediatrics services were available.

Harris grew up in Maryland and, using the example of his own wonderful childhood pediatrician, was drawn to pediatrics. After graduating from Georgetown University Medical College, he interned at Dartmouth Hitchcock, completing in June 1977.  

In 1977, Bradford found itself without a family doctor. The local area within a 30-mile radius was without a pediatrician.

So Harris came to Bradford with the intension of filling both those voids. 

Harris told the Journal Opinion in 2017, “We thought we could offer something that Hitchcock couldn’t in terms of better access to care and we could see patients more quickly, that we could give them more time.”

“And that we would know the people from the community because we also lived in the community. We could also be less expensive and more personal than Hitchcock.”

I am including information from newspaper articles, interviews with Harris, with his long-time nurse and office manager Carol Reed, as well as Nancy Foote, Lisa Jensen, and Lynne Chow who worked with him as Nurse Practitioners for up to 30 years.

The nurse practitioners summed up Dr. Harris’ “dedication and commitment to the healthcare of the Upper Valley pediatric community as deep and heartfelt

His approach was based on a “medical home” model, an “approach to providing comprehensive primary care that facilitates partnerships between patients, clinicians, medical staff, and families.”

Harris opened his first office on South Pleasant Street in Bradford and, in 1980, relocated to the Upper Plain where established Upper Valley Pediatrics.

His wife Joan, a nurse practitioner, played an important role in the practice.

The office was open six days a week, “but he treated many patients at his kitchen table on nights and weekends rather than sending them to the emergency room.” 

One of the key features of the practice was its focus on mental health. It operated on a “co-location model” providing both physical and mental health services.  Counselors were hired beginning in the mid-1990s, “long before that aspect of care became part of the standard.”

In 1993, the American Academy of Pediatrics awarded Harris a $10,000 national planning grant. The purpose of the grant was to establish a program to track access to health care for young children in adjacent Grafton County towns. 

In addition to treating young patients, Harris was very involved in the education of medical students and residents, “many of whom become lifelong friends.”

 By 1994, the UVP had become the only local medical office with a nighttime answer service and one of the few that still made house calls.

Harris also provided care for up to 14 area summer camps “so that campers away from home were not taken to emergency rooms, but seen by Dr. Harris.”  He worked community at blood drives and immunization clinics.

He also worked with local schools “advocating for parents and students in getting the services needed.” He spoke strongly in favor of services for students with special health needs.   

Not all of his impact took place in the Upper Valley. Up to six times, he traveled to China to help American families adopt a Chinese child.

 In later years, he and his wife Joan spent a winter break in Hawaii. There Harris became affiliated with a local medical practice and also answered calls from his UVP patients.  

Dr. Harris played a role in community affairs, serving on the Orford school board for five years. During his tenure, a new elementary school was built.

An avid fan of professional sports, he coached Little League and youth basketball in both Orford and Bradford and was President of Bradford Youth Sports.

At a meeting in 1987 to consider a memorial for Elizabeth Claflin, Harris suggested “Why not a big park?”  The resulting Elizabeth’s Park remains a Bradford landmark.

In 2012, in recognition of his role in the area community, Harris was named, along with Bradford’s Nancy Jones, as Co-Citizen of the Year by the Cohase Chamber of Commerce.  

By 2015, the UVP practice had grown to employ about 20 people and had offices in both Bradford and East Thetford.

That year, Harris turned over the operation of the UVP to others on the staff. He continued seeing patients until retiring in 2017. The loss of his wife in 2014 played a significant part in these decisions. 

Today. Harris lives in Ohio near his daughter Kate’s family. His other daughter Kyra lives in Massachusetts. Chauffeuring his grandchildren is a treasured activity. 

Over the past few years I have had a number of conversations with Mark. He frequently recalled in detail patients he treated decades before. Our two daughters were among them. He took great joy in seeing his patients grow up and often welcomed their children for treatment. 

The three nurse practitioners summed up Dr. Mark Harris career.” He is still widely loved and respected by colleagues, by his employees, by the community, and most importantly, by his patients and their families.”

 

 

 

The Country Doctors

 

Journal Opinion     October 8, 2025

 ” The quiet country doctors of many a country town.  Whose lives are spent to service bent, with scant hope of renown.  Those sturdy country doctors, that walk the healer’s way. At beck and call of one and all, that pain be smoothed way”  

“Country Doctors”  C. J. Dennis 1876-1938

                                         Dr.  Franklin P. Dwinell  1892-1978

                                        Dr. William F. Putnam 1909-1988

                                         Dr, Harry M Rowe 1912-2012

This is the fourth column I have written on medical practitioners in the area. It covers the service of three rural physicians and their dedication to the area. They are Drs. Franklin Dwinell, William Putnam, and Harry Rowe.

The three previous columns include “What Ails You” covering early medical practices, and a two-part series “Women In Medicine” honoring the local careers of two nurses and three groundbreaking doctors.  These columns can be found using the search feature on my blog at larrycoffin.blogspot.com or by accessing the internet achieves of the Journal Opinion.

Dr. Franklin P. Dwinell served the area from his Bradford office for over four decades.  He was born in East Calais in 1892, graduated from Montpelier Seminary before entering UVM’s five-year pre-medical program.

When World War I began, he enlisted in the Navy and served at the Naval Hospital in Boston. In 1919, he married Elizabeth Smith. During their 58 years of marriage and the raising of four children, “Betty” served as the Doctor’s wife “almost as much a part of his public image as the Doc’s own quietly preserving personality.”

He opened his general practice in Bradford in Oct 1920. For the next 44 years, he gave exemplary medical service to the residents of the area from his office above Main Street. His office hours often extended to all hours of the night and into weekends.

One of the outstanding features of that practice was maternity care. Night-long vigils were not uncommon, and during hard times, they would be rewarded with one dollar and sometimes nothing at all.

I was one of over 1100 babies he delivered. In October 1942, my mother was in labor and had no ride as my dad was away.  Dwinell came to Fairlee, picked us up and delivered us to Woodsville, where I was born.

His patients wrote letters of appreciation citing him for his “sympathetic and tireless care.”

In a letter to the Journal Opinion in 2009, West Topsham’s lawyer Bud Otterman recalled that Dwinell had not sent a bill for his services to one of Otterman’s clients. 

When asked, Dwinell recalled that he had been called to the home of a dying man. As nothing could be done, he sat with the wife until the man passed away at 1 a.m.

Dr. Dwinell reasoned that “he had performed no medical services and was therefore not entitled to a fee.”

Dwinell’s son, Dr. Stanley Dwinell, joined the practice after returning from World War II. The younger Dwinell family lived in the neighboring Low Mansion in Bradford. The two doctors took turns treating patients.

That partnership came to a tragic end when, on the morning of Dec 11, 1952, the car bearing Stanley Dwinell and his three sons collided with a southbound train at the crossing south of Newbury Village. The elder Dwinell carried on the practice alone.

 Dwinell participated in community immunization clinics, free physical examinations, and blood drives. For the latter, he received a special citation from the Red Cross.

Much of his practice involved Woodsville’s Cottage Hospital, and he devoted a significant effort to its operation as trustee and fundraiser.  To recognize his contribution, the hospital established the Dwinell Fund, with money collected from the area. 

In addition to his medical practice, Dwinell was deeply involved in the Bradford community. He served as a trustee of Bradford Academy, on the Selective Service Board during World War II, and as town health officer. He was active in the Masonic order and the Bradford Community Club.

 A member of the Bradford Congregational Church, he served as moderator, trustee, and as chair of the finance committee. For his many years as a deacon, he received the title of deacon emeritus.

When Dwinell retired in 1964, the community honored him for his 44 years of service. The UVM Medical Alumni presented a citation for his “exemplary medical practice and outstanding community service.”

He and his wife Betty continued to be a presence in the community until his death in 1978. Betty passed away in 1986.

If Dwinell was a country doctor so was Dr. William F.Putnam. In an interview for the Valley News in 1968, Putam is quoted: “I still think that rural general practice is the best possible mode of life, and I continue to be fascinated and challenged by the tremendous variety of problems that confront me.” 

Putnam was born in Vergennes in 1909, graduated from Dartmouth in 1926 and after graduating from Philadelphia’s Jefferson Medical School, he interned at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital.

 He married Margaret Best in 1933. He opened a practice in Lyme and saw his first patient on New Year’s Eve, 1935. 

Putnam met the needs of his patients within a wide area of the two states and was available around the clock. Home visits were normal and it was not unusual for him to drive 700 miles each week. 

Lyme’s Charlotte LaMott recalled “He’d go on skies or snowshoes if he couldn’t get there any other way.” One time a patient called to cancel an appointment because of impassable roads, but then asked if the doctor could make a house call.

When the flood of 1936 took out the bridge to Thetford, Putnam maintained an office at Thetford Academy and a car on each side of the Connecticut River while the bridge was being rebuilt.

 He also opened an office in Fairlee in t945 and, until 1966, one in Strafford to meet the needs of both the copper mine employees and the general public. He was the camp doctor for hundreds of summer campers.

In 1946, he established Lyme Medical Associates to bring other doctors into the practice. He also mentored more than 100 medical students. He had a significant impact on the young doctors who joined him.

 In addition to raising their six children, Margaret played a role in the operation of the office.  

Often, his car was his office and lunch room. He had a portable dictating machine and an electrocardiograph powered by the car’s electrical system.

In a series for the Valley News, Putnam’s daughter Constance wrote that it was not unusual for him to see dozens of patients in a day. “He took his busyness pretty much for granted.”

He delivered more than 2,000 babies, with many of them being born at home. He was the doctor for my wife Carolyn’s family and delivered siblings Gene and Kathy at their Martin farm in Fairlee.  

 After we were married in 1968, he became our family doctor. As he was on the staff of Alice Peck Day Hospital, delivered both our daughters there.

He was active in state medical groups, as atrustee of Alice Peck Day Hospital, a regional medical examiner in both New Hampshire and Vermont, and as the health officer for at least four local communities.

In Lyme, he was at one time or another a member of the fire department, town budget committee, and recreational council.

He was active in the Lyme Congregational Church as trustee and treasurer. He was also a member of the board and president of the state conference of Congregational churches.

For a while, he even found time to teach Greek at Thetford Academy during his lunch time. He had majored in Greek at Dartmouth as an undergraduate.

Parkinson’s disease began to impact his practice. LaMott wrote that his hands shook, “but when it came to stitching up a cut he was just as steady as ever.”

Dr. Putnam retired in 1977 and died in 1988, having been predeceased in death by his wife in 1985.

Dr. Harry M. Rowe was born on October 4, 1912 in Peacham. He graduated from Peacham Academy in 1929. He enrolled in UVM, but the lack of funds meant that he had to work to pay his way. He graduated in 1936 and took a position as a school principal before entering UVM College of Medicine from which he graduated in 1943.

During his time at UVM, he met Mary Whitney and they were married in 1940. During World War II, Rowe served as a captain in a U.S. Army medical unit and earned a Bronze Star for meritorious service.

During his 15 months overseas, he and Mary wrote letters to each other daily. After her death, the recovered letters inspired him to write, with the help of a local author, a memoir entitled “The Grass Grows Greener.” 

In 1946, the couple moved to Wells River, where they raised their six children. Rowe established a medical practice in the family home on Main Street and continued to serve patients for the next six decades.

Those decades were filled with innumerable house calls, the delivery of over 1,400 babies, and a dedication to the residents of the Grafton County Nursing Home.

In 1962, Rowe established the Wells River Clinic. Dr. Elizabeth Berry, the first female doctor in that area, joined him until her retirement in 1986. In the 1970s, Rowe’s son, Dr. John Rowe joined the practice.

Over the years, he brought other physicians into the practice, He also was a preceptor for military physician assistants. Mary Rowe participated by keeping the books.

As with Dwinell and Putnam, Dr. Rowe held many childhood immunization clinics and served as regional medical examiner in both New Hampshire and Vermont.

Dr. Rowe dedicated his life to more than the practice of medicine. He believed in the contributions of public schools and in 1948, became a trustee of the Well River school district.

Recognizing the limitations of small schools, he advocated for  the consolidation of local districts.  For two decades he served on committee that led to the construction of the new District 21 K-12 regional school.

In 1969 he became the chair of the board for what became known as Blue Mountain Union School. He continued to take an active interest in Blue Mountain’s student sports, activities and graduations.

When he retired, he had served on school boards for 61 years, certainly setting a record for Vermont.  He received several honors for his contributions to public education, including one from the Vermont School Board Association. 

He was an active member of Rotary International and of the Wells River Congregational Church. In addition to holding leadership positions in the latter, he sang in the choir. 

A review of newspaper articles frequently mentioned Rowe’s other musical interests. He sang in the North Country Chorus for 64 years and played an important supporting role to Mary for the 50 years she directed the chorus.

His dedication to the practice of medicine was widely recognized. He received professional awards from the UVM College of Medicine and its alumni organization. He had served as president of the Vermont Medical Society and was an active member of the American Academy of General Practice. He received distinguished service awards from both organizations.

He was also recognized by both Cottage Hospital and the Grafton County Nursing Home for decades of outstanding support and service.

While these honors were significant, he especially valued the personal comments from appreciative patients.

Mary passed away in 2002, and Dr. Rowe died in 2012, just two months short of his 100th birthday.

In 2006, Little Rivers Health had taken over the Wells River Clinic and, in 2022, renamed it the Whitney-Rowe Clinic.  In 2015 Cottage Hospital named its new facility on Swiftwater Road as the Rowe Health Center to recognize his role in “recruiting and stabilizing health care for the Cottage Hospital service area.”

Drs. Dwinell, Putnam, and Rowe served the area for a combined century and a half. All three started out as solo independent practitioners. Changes in medical practices, economic considerations and lifestyle demands have made their mode of medical care unsustainable.

Other physicians have served our local area with dedication, but few have been are able to reach the bar set by these three.

That being said, my next article will focus on childhood diseases and pediatrician Dr. Mark Harris, who met that bar from his clinic in Bradford for 38 years.

    

 

Warm Weather Woes Part Two

 

Journal Opinion August 27, 2025

From the Sanborn House on South Pleasant St. in Bradford to the Brock House on Route 5 in Newbury, the Hurricane of Sept. 1938 spread damage throughout the area. 

Weather stories have always been important news in local newspapers. Some of those stories are local, while others are about major weather events elsewhere. So often, the latter makes the local stories insignificant by comparison. We are lucky to live in an area infrequently subject to major storms.

However, to those whose personal welfare is impacted by a lightning strike, hail storm, flash flood, high wind, or unseasonable frost, the result may be devastating. This column will deal with those local impacts in times past.

 This is the second column to deal with weather impacts. On July 30, part one of this series was published in the Journal Opinion. It dealt with historic heat waves, droughts, pest infestations, polio, and forest fires in the period before 1970. That article is available on my blog at larrycoffin.blogspot.com.

Since we began gardening in Bradford in 1969, the growing season has expanded, with gardens now planted several weeks before Memorial Day and often continuing until early October without freezing temperatures.

There is little that is more discouraging to farmers and gardeners than frosts outside of the regular late May to mid-September growing season.

 Last month, I wrote about the cold weather in 1816, when there were freezing temperatures every month of the year and snow on Mt. Moosilauke twice in July and three times in August.

The history of Newbury mentions a cold snap on June 10-11, 1773, during which an “uncommon great frost” killed a considerable part of the corn crop. On June 11, there were two inches of snow.

Early June frosts are not that uncommon, but the likelihood diminishes as the weeks go by. When they happen, they can have a devastating impact on early vegetable and fruit crops.

 Local newspapers reported on June frosts. The United Opinion reported that on June 7, 1878, “a frost cut down the corn in Caledonia County.”  In 1914, Haverhill farmers were “discouraged with the weather” having suffered a hard frost on June 1. 

Killing frosts have also occurred in July. Some examples include frosts on July 4, 1844 and July 11, 1898. The heavy frost of July 10, 1895 reportedly injured crops extensively in Corinth. 

Frost sometimes hit in unexpected ways. Frosts that do occur are often spotty, hitting one field, garden, or area but not another. In Aug 1923, serious crop damage occurred in the southern portion of Vermont, while northern portions escaped. In late August 1965, “highlands which normally escape the first frost were hit hard, while areas in the fog-shrouded valleys escaped.”

In that same way, summer rainstorms may hit one community and skip over neighboring ones. Warmer climatic changes have caused the atmosphere to be more storm-prone with additional moisture content.

When Tropical storm Irene sit in 2011 it brought over 4 inches of rain statewide, with some areas received up to 7 inches. In July 2023, up to 8 inches of rain fell in central Vermont. 

In reviewing the news of flooding from summer storms in New Hampshire and Vermont in times past, amounts of less than 3 inches were considered heavy and newsworthy.

 One of the earliest reported summer cloudbursts occurred in Newbury in June 1795. The storm caused a torrent of water to rush down Harriman’s Brook and created a deep channel on Newbury’s common.

The so-called Great Vermont Flood occurred in the vicinity of Woodstock on July 22, 1811. Observers described it “by far the most memorable flood…in violence anything of its kind ever known in these parts.”

Damage from a July 1877 cloudburst in Bath caused a freight train to plunge deep into Poor’s Creek, which had been “swollen to a rushing torrent.”

In Newbury, on the morning of June 29, 1922, “the flood gates of heaven were opened, the rain descended in torrents. Old inhabitants who harken back to Noah’s time claim that this down-pour beats all.”

On July 8, 1932, a short-lived summer storm caused a brook in South Ryegate to overflow causing damage to crops, gardens, highways and tracks of both the Montpelier and Wells River and the Canadian Pacific railroads.

The United Opinion described a summer storm in June 1952 as “Town roads throughout the area suffered severe damage by water Sunday afternoon when a prolonged downpour…touched off flash flood that overtaxed normal stream beds and road culverts.”

Nearby roads were flooded, and “many farms showed damaged fields and crops.” Stones, gravel, and weed seeds are often deposited on farm fields during such floods.

Hail is a destructive feature of summer storms. The following are some of the most tumultuous. In July 1843, a storm struck Bradford with hailstones the size of robin’s eggs and larger. One pellet was reported to be over 8 inches in circumference. “Scarcely a house in town that did not have broken glass.” There was also significant crop and fruit tree damage.

In July 1856, the Orange County Journal reported on a storm that hit St. Johnsbury village “with stones of five or six inches in circumference…leaving hardly a pane of glass left in many houses.”

On the afternoon of May 2, 1899, a storm hit West Corinth, breaking glass and shredding gardens and crops.

Storms such as this were especially damaging to apple and other fruit crops, with damage depending on the stage of growth of the fruit.  It was not unusual for apples to be advertised “without hail damage.”

The most unusual hailstones fell in southwestern Vermont on July 7, 1950. “The hail pellets came loaded, with many of them containing small metallic fragments.”  It was thought that the metal was picked up when the storm passed over a coke plant in nearby New York.

The hail storm that hit northeastern Vermont on August 18, 1969 left hail the size of golf ball and deposited what looked like “a new layer of snow, exceeding a foot deep” in some spots.

Summer storms often include lightning.  Buildings, trees, cattle, and even individuals were often struck with devastating results. High structures, such as church steeples or taller trees, were likely targets. 

One of the largest fires caused by lightning occurred on Sept 26, 1892 in Wells River. The resulting fire consumed 3 major Main Street buildings, including the Coosuck House, as well as 3 adjacent homes. The area was labelled “the burnt district.”

On July 29, 1933, the summer home of Sarah Hoyt, one of the finest homes at the far end of Orford village, was hit by lightning and suffered widespread damage.   Fire companies from Orford and Fairlee were able to keep the fire from spreading.

On August 30, 1945, Bradford’s Town Hall on South Main was destroyed by fire. It had served the town since it was built in 1857. It is believed that a bolt of lightning hit it, starting a fire that went unnoticed until it was well established. 

Less damaging, but no less frightening to Bradford’s Merrit Davis family was when, on August 8, 1938, lightning struck their home. The lightning entered by way of the dining room, resulting in a wrecked china closet, broken windows, and “splinters shot across the room.”

Knowing that lightning could enter homes along electrical or telephone wires or pipes, as children we were warned to avoid using the telephone or household water and stay away from trees during electrical storms.

 High winds often accompany electrical storms. They were especially damaging when trees and crops were in full leaf.

On August 23, 1969, “a sudden wind storm ripped through Newbury, hitting with great force trees along Newbury’s Main Street…great maples seemed to be singled out for destruction.”

Sometimes high winds developed into tornadoes. It is estimated that Vermont gets one tornado yearly, while New Hampshire may have two.  Slight by comparison to other parts of the nation. 

On July 27, 1848, a tornado hit Windsor, VT and Cornish, NH, leaving a fifteen-rod wide path of destruction. One house was completely demolished, killing a woman and her three children. While injuries from tornadoes are common, fatalities are not.

John Forsyth of Newbury narrowly escaped injury when a tornado struck “Beadle’s Bridge” in South Newbury on July 4, 1866. He and his horse were on the bridge when the storm hit, but they made it to shore. “Looking back for the bridge, it was gone.” High winds blew apart a later restored covered bridge on Sept. 4, 1979.

Danville’s North Star described a tornado that hit rural portions of Hanover on July 23, 1880.  “Nothing approaching this fury was ever known in this region.” The number of injuries would have been greatly increased if it had hit the populated center.  

A “baby tornado” visited Newbury on August 16, 1936, leaving significant local damage. On September 28, 1938, a tornado “did all kinds of damage to the town of Lyme.” Barns were unroofed, houses damaged, and many trees toppled.

The workers on the Union Village Dam ran for cover when a tornado hit in May 1949. “Hiram Judd, boss carpenter, grasped a 4 x 6 ft panel” to hold himself down.”

One or more small tornados caused considerable local damage on August 11, 1966. Farm property on both sides of the Connecticut River “were the heaviest losers in the encounter.” The United Opinion front page article described damage to power lines, farm buildings, homes, and roads that were blocked by fallen trees.

Damage varied from town to town. The storm that hit South Newbury with full force that afternoon “seemed to be more in the nature of hurricane winds, followed by an electrical storm.”

In the West Indies, the natives refer to hurricanes as the “evil spirit.” Northern New England has not received the kind of annual direct hurricane hits regularly experienced by southeastern areas of the nation. 

The Great Colonial Hurricane of August 25, 1635, was not replicated until the Great September Gale of 1815. The storm’s impact was felt in the southeastern section of New Hampshire. 

In Oct 1846, another hurricane had a more direct hit on the area. The North Star “understood that in the vicinity of Haverhill, N.H., barns were unroofed, sheds blown down, and fences almost without number laid prostrate.”

The September Hurricane of 1938 was one of the most destructive storms to strike the Northeast, with 680 Northeast residents losing their lives, thousands injured, or left homeless. With little warning, the storm charged north along the Connecticut River and then veered northwest across the Green Mountain with Burlington in its sight.

The local area lay in the windy eastern danger zone. Rainfall, added to the significant rain of the previous week, caused considerable flood damage. Some towns even suffered greater flood damage than they had in the historical flood of 1927.

The Sept. 23, 1938 edition of The United Opinion described the storm as it hit the area. “Power lines were taken down by falling trees and light and power were completely gone when an early darkness set in. Roofs were ripped off and tossed aside like kindling wood, and hard old maples were uprooted like field flowers.”

The Woodsville Times reported that the main street of Wells River “looked like an upside-down forest.” In many communities, schools were closed for up to two weeks. Surrounding towns reported over 100 buildings with significant damage.

 Residents began to repair the damage, but the damage to orchards and woodlots was either permanent or took decades to recover. There was “a windthrow” of billions of board feet of lumber, some splintered beyond use. One positive result of the recovery was increased employment at a time when the area suffered from the Great Depression. 

During 1954-55, Vermont and New Hampshire suffered damage from the remnants of several tropical storms. Although not hit directly, they suffered significant wind and/or rain damage. Beyond the time period of this article, Vermont was impacted by additional tropical storms, including Agnes and Irene. 

To the various disasters described in this two-part series could be added the personal turmoil experienced by locals during the warmer months. From the tragedy of drownings to the inconvenience of poison ivy to heat exhaustion, summer brings its special problems.

There seems no doubt that climate change will increase the number of warm weather woes experienced by both locals and others around the world. Unlike in times past, modern forecasts give us adequate time to prepare.

Warm Weather Woes Part One

 

Journal Opinion         July 30, 2025

The July 6, edition of The Boston Post declared the 1911 heat wave as "the worse weather disaster in New England." That day's temperatue reached 103 degrees.  Hundreds of New Englanders died from the heat during that July. 

In the 1940s, debris and slash from the 1938 hurricane fueled major forest fires in New Hampshire and Vermont.  Pictured are firefighters believed to be responding to the 1947 fire near Mount Sunapee, which was among the most severe. 

 This summer’s news is filled with climate change-driven stories of heat waves, forest fires, and flooding. My thoughts turned to historic climatic distresses that local residents endured during warmer months in times past. Where particular hardships were frequent, I selected some from before 1970 for reference.  

The hardships of one particular summer were remembered for decades. 1816 has been described as the “year without a summer.” Locally, there was “a chilly spring and a disastrous summer.”  “The corn was entirely destroyed in that year…even the wheat did not fill.”

This weather aberration was the result of the massive eruption of Mt. Tambora in April 1815. The ash and gases from this South Pacific explosion caused abnormal worldwide weather patterns until 1817.

In May 1816, winter-like temperatures with up to 5 inches of snow falling locally on May 15. It got worse. June was severe with some places receiving up to 18 inches of snow on several days in June.

The impact was disastrous as newly shorn sheep froze to death and newly sewn crops destroyed.

Early July experienced frosts, with the summit of Mt.Moosilauke snow covered twice that month. Farmers struggled to secure enough fodder for their livestock. 

Between August 9 and 13, a cold wave hit the region with frost with another snow covering the mountain tops in late August.

September was miserable with additional frosts. Winter arrived in late October with 12 inches of snow in Haverhill.

The impacts of this so-called summer included food shortages, loss of livestock, and a psychological gloom and apprehension. It made the idea of moving to the west all the more appealing.

Years later, many elders recalled the plight of the residents of “1816 and froze to death.” By 1818, things began to return to normal.  

Normal included frequent heat waves that caused significant hardships for Northern New England residents. Before the current century, the heat waves of 1896, 1911 and 1936 stand out as being among the most severe.

Local residents used a variety of strategies to deal with the high temperatures. Houses were built with wide porches and windows that would allow for cross ventilation. There were always the local lakes or mountain-side retreats. Mid-afternoon naps were available for those whose schedules allowed. Many urban dwellers just suffered.

After 1900, electric fans and refrigerators helped to keep things and people cool. In the 1930s commercial air-conditioning began to be installed. In 1938, the new Chimes Restaurant in Bradford advertised that added feature.

There were several periods of scorching heat during the late spring and summer of 1896. Area newspapers carried the news of local and national impacts. It began in May when central Vermont experienced several days with temperatures of 93-degree.

At one point in July and August, there were 10 days of relentless heat in many parts of the nation, with temperatures hovering about 90. The Rutland Daily Herald summarized the “suffering and mortality in many places around the nation” from Philadelphia to Chicago.

On Aug. 14, the Brandon, Vermont newspaper mentioned “nothing like the terrible heat of the past ten days has ever been experienced in Brandon. We have had hotter days before, but not such a long time of continuous, hot weather.”

Vermont newspapers carried advice for dealing with the dangers of the heat, including the purchase of cooling clothing. The traditional outfits of the day for many included layers of heavy clothing year-round.

 The Vermont Watchman warned that the high temperatures could cause spontaneous combustion in sawdust that had accumulated in icehouses.

The press also advised that the high temperatures led to bad tempers and a rise in assaults and murders, although none of the latter were mentioned locally. 

A different heat wave hit the state on July 2, 1911. A thermometer in Bellows Falls register a temperature of 108 on July 3, 1911. Nashua, New Hampshire recorded its highest temperature at 106 degrees on July 4, 1911. Thermometers in Orleans County registered up to 124 degrees in the sun.

There were five days of excessive heat during which stores and factories shut down. In neighboring New York, apples baked on the trees by the intense heat.

Boston and New York residents suffered multiple heat-related deaths and prostrations. Boston had 49 deaths in one day on July 6.  New England suffered 2,000 heat-related fatalities.

The heat wave was temporarily broken on July 6, by “the most severe and widespread electrical storm that ever visited the state.”    

One of the worse nationwide heat waves in U.S. history occurred in the late spring and summer of 1936. In May, the Piermont correspondent reported that individuals were overcome with the heat, and activities were cancelled.

Nationally, there were nearly 5,000 heat-related deaths during this period. Vermont newspapers carried news of the impact, especially in urban areas where many residents were forced to sleep outdoors to get relief.

Day after day, communities in Vermont recorded temperatures in the mid-90s. People and the landscape wilted under the unrelenting heat.

An electrical storm on July 8 brought both relief from the heat and much-needed rain. Bradford’s United Opinion reported, “gardens look fresh and green and the whole countryside has taken on new life.”  

These prolonged periods of high temperature were sometimes accompanied by drought. What follows is a description of several of New England’s most severe.

During the summer of 1816, northern New England experienced a severe drought. In some areas of Vermont, there was no precipitation other than snow for 4 months. Water levels in rivers, lakes, and wells sank. Smoke from forest fires blackened the sky. Rain, sometimes falling as snow, gave some relief in October.

Beginning in April 1859 and continuing until early September, there was little to no rain in Vermont. The Bradford Telegram described the drought as “remarkable, much greater than has been known for years.” Wells and springs were dry, and “mills in the village are compelled to suspend work.” In Danville, “the earth is completely parched…the pastures afford but little feed.”

One of the most severe drought periods was from 1929 to 1934. The conditions, which impacted large areas of the nation, were felt locally as well..    

By the late 1920s, there was a severe drought in southern Vermont. It resulted in reduced mill output and led to considerable crop loss.

By September 1930, Vermont newspapers reported water rationing in the worse drought in 15 years. In October, The Groton Times reported that the governor had closed the state’s woodlands.

The lack of regular rainfall led to a continued period of droughts throughout the state. As late as July 1934, it was reported that the drought had caused considerable damage to Vermont farms. There was a shortage of hay, leading to a reduction of herds.

That same condition marked the droughts in the period from 1962-5. It was described “as the most severe and long-lasting one in the previous fifty years.”

In October 1963, The United Opinion reported, “In this community, as elsewhere, the extreme drought is of a serious nature.” Statewide the impact on crops led to an increase sell-off of dairy herds. Christmas tree farms began to feel the effects of the reduced rainfall.

As late as early 1965, rainfall was still one-third of normal. Tinder-dry conditions led to increased forest fires and periodic closure of the state’s woodlands to hunting.

This was not the first  time forest fires resulted from drought. From colonial times, forest fires resulted from lightning strikes and outdoor burning. In 1816, smoke “blackened the sky, blocking the sun and obscuring the view everywhere.”

One of the most “catastrophic fire seasons” in New Hampshire and Vermont was in 1903. Every section, especially in the White Mountains, experienced fires that year and in the period following. In addition to the numerous forest fires, newspapers reported on smoke from Canadian fires. Sparks from railroad trains were sometimes the cause of fires. 

In the years that followed, town, state, and federal programs were established to deal with forest fires specifically and woodland management in general.  Fire towers were built in both states.

In the early 1940s, there were numerous forest fires fed by the debris left from the 1938 hurricane. The 1941 Marlow-Stoddard fire in southwestern New Hampshire and the 1947 fire near Mt Sunapee were two of the most severe.

In 1944, the U.S. Forest Service introduced Smokey the Bear as part of a public relations effort aimed at preventing these fires. Debris burning, campfires, and carelessly thrown cigarettes were targeted. In 1952, Bradford’s Veneer Mill management organized volunteers to fight forest fires in the local valley.

Droughts and fires were not the only warm-weather woes. Warm weather encourages infestations of pests. More than just the irritation of black and house flies and mosquitoes, these plagues included army worms and grasshoppers in the millions.

In 1770 and 1781, northern army worms descended on the local area in late July and disappeared in early September. One Thetford observer wrote, “Whole pastures we so covered that one could not put down a finger in a single spot, without touching a worm.”

The worms devoured wheat and corn crops, leaving little except bare stocks. Farmers dug ditches to save their field crops.

The destruction caused significant food shortages. The pumpkins that Haverhill and Newbury farmers had were not destroyed and they shared them with the neighboring towns. 

 In 1898, the army worms were described as “one of the most persistent and hard to exterminate pests known”

In July 1938, the worms appeared in Bradford and attacked the fields of oats. Earthen barriers were dug, but were ineffective. My father-in law, Harry Martin told me of their attempt to keep the army from crossing the River Road (Route 5) to reach their fields near the Newbury line. They had limited success. There have been occasional spotty outbreaks since.

Locusts are grasshoppers that swarm. While they often appear in western and plain states, on occasion, they have been a problem in New Hampshire and Vermont. When they do, “they eat everything in sight, but stone walls.”

In 1805, the Peacham newspaper reported, “seldom have these insects been more troublesome…leaving nothing but naked stumps and stems.”

In 1819, an infestation destroyed every green thing in areas between the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers. In 1914 and the late 1930’s these were widespread swarms. In August 1948, grasshoppers swarmed Burlington streets.

The impact of a swarm in 1962 led to a special town meeting in Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Currently, ticks  have replaced army worms and grasshoppers as problem pests.

While these pests were very visible, an invisible one attacked during the summer months from the 1890’s to the 1960’s. It was infantile paralysis, better known as polio. Polio season typically began in early summer and peaked in September.

The first epidemic in the nation was in Rutland, Vermont in August 1894. There were 118 cases and 19 deaths. For those who survived, it meant deformed limbs, braces, crutches, wheelchairs and, after 1938, breathing devices like the iron lung.

Little was known about the causes, with suggestions that it was the common house fly or something contained in dust.  Only later was it determined to be a virus that attacked the nervous system.

Between 1891 and 1925, there were approximate Vermont 800 cases annually. In the years that followed, increases in the number of cases led to the cancellation of schools, motion pictures, and public meetings. 

In 1935-1938, seasonal outbreaks caused theatres to be closed to children under 16, and youth camps also closed. In the years that followed, the number of annual national cases rose from 11,000 to 33,000 cases.

 In 1952, 3,100 victims died nationally from the disease in the worst epidemic In New Hampshire, there were 95 cases and 10 deaths. The polio ward at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital was filled with local patients.

When, at the age of 10 years old that year, I visited my grandmother in Brattleboro, there were no swimming places or movies. I recalled injuring my hand and, for a brief moment, my parents’ fears were real.

After 1954, the widespread Salk vaccine clinics began to reduce the number of cases, and, by 1961, there were only 161 cases in America.  - 

Next month, I will continue this topic and address other warm weather-related topics including flash floods, hail, tornadoes, and hurricanes. In the meantime, we can only hope that warm weather woes will miss us.  Captions:

Boston Post Heat Wave News.  The July 6 edition declared the 1911 heat wave as ‘the worse weather disaster in New England.” That day temperatures reached 103 degrees. Hundreds of New Englanders died from the heat during that July.

NH Firefighters Battle Forest Fires. In the 1940s, debris from the 1938 hurricane fueled major forest fires in New Hampshire and Vermont. The 1947 fire near Mt. Sunapee in New Hampshire was among the most severe.   

Life in the borderland

 

The border station at DerbyLine was just one location where travelers croosed one of the world's longest unarmed borders. 

Journal Opinion June 25, 2025

On an almost daily basis the news is filled with the relationship between the United States, New Hampshire and Vermont, and Canada.

It is only about 80 miles from here to the Canadian border. That means our area is located in what might be referred to as a borderland. Its history has been impacted by that proximity to another nation and somewhat distinct cultures.

This column covers several highlights of that history from colonial times to the 20th century. I have drawn on material from vintage publications, interviews and articles that I have written over the past 18 years.

Before 1763, the French and Indian War made the area unattractive for settlement because of the danger of attacks from the north by the French and their native allies. Those forces passed through the area to attack English settlements such as Fort #4 at Charlestown, New Hampshire. 

Nevertheless, men from southern New England explored the area in the early 18^th century. . Massachusetts’s Capt. Benjamin Wright led expeditions in 1709 and 1725, visiting present-day Haverhill and Ryegate.

In October, 1759, men in Robert Rogers’ Rangers, returning from an attack on Quebec’s St. Francis native village, passed south through the area. Capt. Joseph Waits shot a deer in the meadow near the mouth of the river that now carries his name.

 When the French and Indian War ended in 1763, the French ceded their interests in Canada to the British.

The boundary between Quebec and New York, including what is now Vermont, was established at 45 degrees north latitude. The boundary between New Hampshire and Quebec was not finalized until 1842.

With the immediate threat of attack gone, the royal governor of New Hampshire chartered many local towns, and settlers flooded in from southern New England.

 The outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775 brought a new succession of alarms for the early area residents.

During the earliest years of the Revolution, residents believed they were on the planned British invasion route from Canada to Massachusetts. Haverhill built four stockages to provide a secure place for citizens in case of attack. Loaded weapons were never far from willing hands.  

The British successes at Fort Ticonderoga in 1777 “caused great consternation” in surrounding communities. They felt they were in “a dangerous and critical situation…open to sudden attack.”

Newbury’s Col. Jacob Bayley repeatedly wrote to General Washington promoting the idea of a preventative invasion route from Newbury to St. Johns on the Richelieu River.

When he received approval, Bayley began construction from Wells River following a route laid out by James Whitelaw of Ryegate. Col. Moses Hazen of Haverhill  led the construction of a second portion of the road.

The fear that it would become an invasion route for British forces caused construction to stop 40 miles short of St. Johns. The road became known as the Bayley-Hazen Road.

In October, 1780, a force of 300 natives and Tories headed to attack Newbury, but being warned that they were anticipated, they veered west and attacked Royalton and Tunbridge instead.

In May, 1782, Capt. Robert Rogers came into the Coos with a strong force, and encamped among the hills back of Bradford village, and communicated with other local Tories.   

Rogers was not the only loyalist who had roots in the local area. In 1776, John Peters of Bradford was forced by the “rebels” to escape to Canada. He spent the rest of the war fighting on the British side.

This fear of attack from Canada continued during the last two years of the Revolution and was again raised during the War of 1812. The only other attack from Canada came during the Civil War when a group of Confederates raided St. Albans in 1864.  

A different type of invasion, a peaceful migration of French Canadians, began in the early 1800s. Most Canadians of French descent were subsistence farmers and their number outgrew the available farmland. This shortage made the farmland of northern New England beckon.

Some migrants from Quebec came as seasonal workers with intensions of returning to their families. Others brought their families and settled on farms close to the border.

An additional French migration following the failed Patriote Revellion (1837) against British rule in Quebec.

It was estimated that by 1850, 62% of the 20,000 French Canadian immigrants had settled in Vermont. 

By the late 1800s, New Hampshire and Vermont had established programs to fill their abandoned farms with migrant families. In 1889, a St. Johnsbury newspaper said that French Canadians “own a good share of the farms in the northern tier of counties.”

By 1900, over a half-million French Canadians had migrated to the urban centers of New England. 

As with other immigrant groups, French Canadians were attracted by employment in New Hampshire and Vermont mills, forests, and mines. 

These immigrants were a major source of workers for the Fairbanks Scale Co. of St. Johnsbury, the Estey Organ Co. of Brattleboro, the granite industry of Barre, the paper mill in Berlin and the textile mills of Manchester, Lebanon, and the Burlington-Winooski area.

French-language newspapers, social organizations, credit unions, church parishes, and parochial schools flourished in many “petit Canada” neighborhoods.

From the west side of Manchester to border communities like Newport, VT, French was as common as English. As third and fourth generations became assimilated into the American culture, dedicated French Canadians became Franco-Americans.

The arrival of the French Canadians was not without controversy. The ugly reactions of discrimination and disapproval from the older Yankee stock began early and continued throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.

One local resident who grew up near the border in the 1960s said some residents who spoke French at home were still reluctant to do so in public places.

One must not search far to find current local residents with French-based last names.  They include Coutermarche, Gagnon, Couillard, Lefebvre, and Trombley. Other names were anglicized.  

Immigration was a two-way street. Migrants from New England settled in Canada.  Many British loyalists settled in the Eastern Townships of Quebec during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

These English-speaking Quebec residents kept their ethnic identity in an increasingly French oriented province, but other relocated.

Rufus Pierson was one example of those who left Quebec and returned to the United States. He was born in 1852 in Danville, Quebec and moved to Topsham with his wife Luella. Together, they had 14 children most of whom lived to adulthood and formed the large local Pierson family which remains prevalent to this day.

There were others who settled locally. Over the years, Bradford residents with the last names Hutchinson, Haskins, and Morrill have been mentioned in local news when visiting relatives in Quebec.

Lee Morrill, who grew up in Bradford around 1960, said that, as a youngster, he often made summer visits with both his parents’ extended families who lived in the Eastern Townships.

Aside from familial ties the economic links have bounded both sides of the border.  

 In the late 18th century, overland routes were established from Boston and New York to Montreal and Quebec City. These routes connected with communities in New Hampshire and Vermont for both stage passengers and commercial products.  Steamships also accessed Quebec on Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog.

“The state’s economy was heavily reliant on trade with Canada, with Vermont wheat, beef, pork potash, and timber among the major exports.  In return, Vermont imported liquor, manufactured items, foodstuffs and other goods.”

The building of a railroad opened transportation to Quebec and beyond. The Connecticut & Passumpsic Rivers railroad reach Bradford in 1848 and St. Johnsbury in 1852. Newport became a railroad town in 1863 and, in 1870, the railroad was linked to Canada’s Grant Trunk line at Sherbrooke, Quebec.

In 1876, a Bradford passenger could buy a round-trip ticket for a grand tour of Montreal and Quebec on the Passumpsic for $12.50.

In 1888, the Orange County Gazette noted,” The people of Canada and along the line of the Passumpsic united in the enterprise, giving assurance that they would continue the road from Wells River to Montreal.” 

By then there were regular trains for Montreal and Quebec City from both Wells River on the Passumpsic and Haverhill on the Concord and Montreal line.

There were frequent newspaper notices of locals traveling to and from Canada for both personal and business reasons.

 Improved highways added an additional route to the border and beyond.

In 1927, the Connecticut River Highway became Route 5 to Derby Line and Quebec highways beyond Stanstead.  In 1931, Route 5 was improved by being paved. Bus routes connected Vermont and New Hampshire with Quebec.

The completion of I-91 increased the amount of personal and commercial traffic between Quebec and the Upper Valley, with connections to urban areas to the south. 

While legitimate trade passed back and forth across the border, there is also a tradition of smuggling of illegal items dating back to the founding of the two nations. 

Legitimate trade became a serious issue for Vermont’s economy when an embargo was placed on foreign trade in 1807.  President Jefferson took this action in reaction to the impact on America of a war between the British and the French.

The following year, Congress passed the “Land Embargo” which made the import of “any goods, wares or merchandise” illegal.

This prohibition’s impact on farmers, lumbermen and merchants made it both unpopular and ignored as many continued to trade with Canada.

Strategies were devised to prevent Vermonters from being branded and arrested as smugglers. Products were brought to the border and retrieved by those on the other side.

It was said that one farmer took his herd of pigs right up to the border, allowing them to be called across to corn feed bearing buyer on the other side. 

“Smuggler’s Notch lived up to its name.” with exports, now deemed illegal, passing in opposite directions through the mountains. 

There was so much illegal action that customs agents could not stem the flow, especially in the face of determined men on both sides of the border. For many smugglings was “not deemed dishonorable.”

Legal trade between the two nations resumed when the embargo was lifted in 1809.  However, illegal trade continued to evade import tariffs or other restrictions.

Historian Christopher Klein referred to the northern border as “a lawless no-man’s-land frequented by counterfeiters, transnational criminals, and outlaw gangs smuggling alcohol, produce, gypsum, and livestock.”

Lawmen from the two states sometimes had to coordinate with Canadian authorities to apprehend criminals who had fled to Canada.

An early example of this occurred in 1806 when Orange County Sheriff Micah Barron traveled to Lower Canada, and with the consent of Canadian authorities, apprehended the notorious counterfeiter Stephen Burroughs.

Smuggling continued throughout the 19th century. In July 1865, reports in the Newport newspaper mentioned items smuggled from Canada, including silk, nutmeg, and alcohol. Lake Memphremagog n the international border was a well-worn route for smugglers.

In 1893, the newspaper reported that treasury agents had broken up “an underground railroad’ involved in smuggling Chinese over the border in violation of U.S. immigration laws.

Smuggled items also passed into Canada. In 1879, the St. Albans Messenger reported an increased in smuggled goods into Canada of cotton goods, hardware, and “every kind of manufactured goods.” An increase in Canadian tariffs on American goods created “a strong inducement” for smuggling.

Prohibitions against the sale of alcoholic beverages first enacted by New Hampshire and Vermont, and then by the federal government, opened the market to widespread smuggling from Canada. 

 While efforts were made to interrupt smuggling at the border, smugglers made their way along local supply routes to markets south. Heavily loaded vehicles were often noticed speeding along local roads, sometimes followed by pursuing enforcers.

Some smugglers were apprehended. In May 1917, a car with 375 bottles of Canadian ale was captured at Wells River.

Even after Prohibition came to an end, smugglers, to avoid federal taxes, still moved large amounts of Canadian liquor across the border.

Over the years, since smuggling has continued across the border in both directions. Human trafficking, drugs, and goods legal or taxed in one jurisdiction but not the other.     

Vehicles with Canadian license plates are common on area highways often passing American vehicles going north. For those living along the border, reactions to the meeting of two nations range from frequent contacts to discounting the impact of the transnational economies.

Recent events may change the latter as we become very aware of the impact that the transnational economies of the two nations have on the economy of Northern New England.

Beginning with a senior class trip to the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal, I have taken hundreds of students to Quebec for student exchanges or day trips. My hope was that those visits would create a favorable awareness of that what exists on both sides of this borderland.