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Where past meets present in picturesque beauty... 
By Kristen McDonald Arlington was founded on the New England ideals of independence, industry and good old Yankee ingenuity. Its early history found Arlington in the middle of a tug-o-war: Its land was claimed by both New York and New Hampshire, although it was chartered in 1761 by Benning Wentworth, governor of New Hampshire. Arlington settlers owned their land under New Hampshire grants and enlisted the help of Ethan Allen to discourage those folks touting New York grants. His group became known as the Green Mountain Boys and they were fairly successful in promoting the cause of the New Hampshire grantees although the ownership issue was not settled until many years later. Arlington became the center of another struggle caused by America's declaration of independence from England in 1776. It was a Church of England stronghold and many of the citizens wished to remain loyal to the king. To this day Arlington is sometimes referred to as "Tory Hollow." Outspoken loyalists, however, were forced out of town. Their land was confiscated and sold to raise money for the patriot cause. One of those buyers was Thomas Chittenden, popular local farmer and governor of Vermont both when it declared itself a republic in 1777 and after it became a state in 1791. Gov. Chittenden lived in Arlington during the Revolution, thus making the town the first capital of Vermont. By the end of the Revolution, Chittenden moved north to Williston and Vermont remained an independent republic for 14 years until 1791 when it became the 14th state. At a Proprietor's meeting in 1764, town fathers voted to give 50 acres of land to the first man to set up a grist mill in Vermont. This offer was accepted by Remember Baker, a Green Mountain Boy and first cousin of Ethan Allen, who built a grist and sawmill. The first mill burned but the existing mill has been on the site on Old Mill Road since the 18th century. Other Vermont firsts can also be traced to Arlington. It boasts the state's first fulling mill, first furnace and foundry, rope factory, chair factory and marble quarry. Later developments saw the addition of a chisel factory and the Hale Company furniture makers. A railway car wheel factory, which in the 1860s became a refrigerator factory, is now Mack Molding Company, a custom molder of plastic products and a major area employer today. Agriculture also played an important role in Arlington's early years. Farmers prospered, especially those who raised Spanish merino sheep for wool. It is said that by 1840 Vermont had six times as many sheep as people! Eventually, however, competition from the West and Europe made wool prices drop. By 1860 Vermont farmers were selling their sheep to be used as meat and dairy farming took on new significance as a major agricultural market in the state. Arlington is still graced with the presence of some lovely old farmhouses. One of the oldest farms in Vermont is on Hill Farm Road. Some of the fine old homes have been transformed into inns and can still be enjoyed by travelers and diners - the Arlington Inn, the Inn on Covered Bridge Green, the Ira Allen House, the Keelan House, the Warm Brook Inn and the West Mountain Inn, to name a few. The friendly, gurgling waters of the Battenkill (a Dutch name meaning "fertilizing stream") flow through Arlington and have been its lifeblood in past and present. In the early years, the Battenkill provided power for the mills along its banks. Today, a world-renowned trout stream, the Battenkill attracts thousands each year to fish, canoe, swim and tube along its scenic path. The typical image of a New England town would not be complete without a covered bridge and Arlington has two. In East Arlington the Chiselville Bridge spans the Roaring Branch and was featured in the movie Baby Boom with Diane Keaton. The covered bridge at the Green in West Arlington crosses the Battenkill River just off Route 313. People make history and perhaps the most interesting aspect of Arlington's past are the people it has attracted. Because of its early military struggles, Arlington was host to many revolutionary figures who met at local gathering spots to share food and drink and to discuss affairs of the day. Ethan Allen, rowdy leader of the Green Mountain Boys, nonetheless became Vermont's representative in Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C. He has been depicted, along with his brother, Ira, as both a speculator driven by greed and as the earliest American businessman, making wholesale purchases of land with the intent of selling it at retail to working farmers. Although the lesser known of the two, Ira Allen nonetheless held a distinct place in the early history of Arlington and of Vermont. Ira was one of the largest landowners in New England and also one of the wealthiest men in the country in 1795. For years he was Treasurer and Surveyor General of Vermont. While in a London debtor's prison in 1797 for a small debt, he wrote from memory what some consider the best political history of Vermont ever written. He also founded the University of Vermont with a gift of £4,000 in 1791. Another famous statesman made his way to Arlington in the 1840s to speak at a rally in support of Presidential candidate William Henry Harrison. Orator and U.S. Senator Daniel Webster made his famous Kelley Stand speech in a tiny clearing off a road leading down into Arlington. A monument now marks the site of the speech and it is only a short distance from where James P. Taylor in 1909 conceived the idea of a "footpath in the wilderness," which resulted in the Long Trail, the nation's first long-distance hiking trail. Here in southern Vermont, the Long Trail is the name for this segment of the Appalachian Trail. No doubt in part because of its scenic beauty, Arlington was also home to many artists and writers. Dorothy Canfield Fisher was at the heart of this creative community. She was a noted author of over 50 books, was founding board member of the Book of the Month Club and resident chronicler of the village of Arlington. Fisher was a world traveler and attracted many of her artistic friends to her town. Poet Laureate Robert Frost stayed in the Canfield home on the Arlington Village Green while his Shaftsbury home was being renovated. That building is now the Community House and Library. Composer Carl Ruggles, also a friend of Fisher's, is considered by some to be the only true "New England" composer. He called Arlington home from 1924 to 1966 and lived for many of these years in the old schoolhouse on School Street. Another friend of the group was Norman Rockwell, who lived in Arlington from 1939 to 1953, where he lived in two different homes on the banks of his beloved Battenkill. This legendary painter and illustrator produced approximately 4,000 illustrations and was noted for his depiction of everyday people and situations. Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post magazine covers, for which he gained great popularity, can be viewed at the Norman Rockwell gallery in St. Columban's gothic-style church on Route 7A in the village of Arlington. One of Rockwell's most famous works, "The Four Freedoms," was painted in Arlington and neighbors Jim Edgarton and Rose Hoyt of West Arlington were his models. Although she was a resident of Eagle Bridge, N.Y., artist Grandma Moses has her own place in Arlington history because she frequently visited her friend Norman Rockwell while he was here. Grandma Moses painted more than 1,500 pictures in the last 23 years of her life. Her work has been exhibited all over the world and over 30 pieces are on exhibit in the nearby Bennington Museum on West Main Street in Bennington. A lesser known artist, Rockwell Kent, also called Arlington home for a while. He is perhaps best known for the wood engravings he did while living in the beautiful woodlands on Arlington's Red Mountain. In 1930, Kent used wood engravings to illustrate Herman Melville's classic, Moby Dick. He was also the first living American to have an exhibition in Russia and received that country's prestigious "Lenin Peace Prize." Visitors to Arlington, Vermont, cannot escape the rich fabric of history and tradition woven through the landscape but neither can they deny the ripe treasures the village offers them today. Come to Arlington and experience past and present in a quintessentially New England town. |
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