An excerpt from a 1724 letter containing a plan of Fort Dummer (Thomas Stoddard)
Today we’ve added eight new sketches to Early Vermont Settlers, 1700-1784, highlighting families who lived at Fort Dummer. The new sketches include Major John Arms, Valentine Butler, Joseph Kellogg, Col. Josiah Willard, Col. Josiah Willard, Jr., Nathan Willard, Wilder Willard, and William Willard. We’ve also added “Fort Dummer Soldiers“, a document containing shorter notes regarding the lives of soldiers who served at Fort Dummer (but did not become residents of Vermont). See the first page of “Fort Dummer Soldiers” for more information on who is included and why. Scholars of this region and time period should also consult Scott Andrew Bartley’s article, “The Connecticut River Valley Before Settlement and the Soldiers of Fort Dummer,” in Vermont Genealogy, (24 [2019]: 135-162).
Scott Andrew Bartley’s study project tracks heads of families who lived in Vermont prior to the Revolutionary War. His sketches so far have focused on Windham and Windsor counties.
The latest cluster of sketches focus on families who lived in Fort Dummer, the precursor to Brattleboro, Vermont. Fort Dummer was established during Dummer’s War, a series of conflicts between settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Native Americans. The main conflict of Dummer’s War centered around boundaries–what belonged to the American colonists? What land belonged to the Native Americans? What land belonged to the British? These conflicts took place from 1722-1725 along the Kennebec River in Maine, in Nova Scotia, and in western Massachusetts. Brattleboro was established in 1753 as part of the New Hampshire land grants (when both New Hampshire and New York laid claim to the present state of Vermont).
Steel Smith‘s sketch (from Windsor) was also updated.
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