life in the Kearsarge area
what's happening in the Kearsarge/Lake Sunapee area of NHArchive for book
Discover Thetford’s History
Just released: Thetford is a pictorial history authored by Thetford, Vt., resident Susanna H. French. It has over 200 images depicting scenes of days gone by.
Soon after Thetford was chartered in 1761, settlers from southern New England arrived and began transforming the forestland into a community. They took advantage of both the Connecticut River and the Ompompanoosuc River to forge a lively and self-sustaining collection of mill villages within the town. The railroad arrived in 1848, enabling three depot villages to blossom. Thetford Hill, with neither mills nor transportation, became home to the renowned Thetford Academy, the first coeducational secondary school in Vermont. Thetford’s mill-based commerce ebbed significantly by 1900, but tourism became a prevalent industry, with city dwellers flocking to summer retreats such as Camp Hanoum and the Lake Fairlee camps. Despite fires, floods, and hurricanes, as well as the construction of the Union Village Dam in 1950 and Interstate 91 in 1971, Thetford has retained its resilient spirit and looks much as it did a century ago.
Highlights of Thetford include:
- Thetford Academy is Vermont’s first—and oldest—coeducational secondary school. The first woman in America ever to earn a college degree was a Thetford Academy graduate.
- Philanthropist George Peabody, who founded the company that would become J.P. Morgan, spent time in Thetford as a child. He later founded Thetford’s Peabody Library.
- Thetford had two stops on the Underground Railroad: one in Thetford Center and one in Post Mills.
Thetford is available at area bookstores for $21.99.
An unlikely vineyard
Did you know there is a vineyard in Barnard, Vt.? Caleb Barber and Deirdre Heekin, proprietors of osteria pane e salute in Woodstock, Vt., planted their vineyard at their home in 2007. 2011 heralded their first vintage from Vermont grapes grown near Lake Champlain as well as their own orchard’s champagne-method ciders and aperitivi.
If you’re interested in food, farms and wine, you might like their third book: An Unlikely Vineyard. It is a narrative of their farm and vineyard and its evolution from overgrown fields to efforts at creating a fertile, productive, beckoning landscape that melds with its natural environment. The book also charts how to think about almost every aspect of gardening and how all parts of the farm relate to each other: from composting to trellising; from cider and perry making to old garden roses; from pruning (or not) to dealing naturally with pests and diseases.
You can pre-order at your local book store or through local publisher Chelsea Green.
life in the Kearsarge area 