Print Resources for Researching Historic Townshend, VT
including Books, Documents, & Maps
(Some are available in the Townshend Historical Society Library and Collections and some available for purchase at our on-line Store.)
Barns and Agriculture in Townshend
Agricultural Census, 1850-1880, U.S. Bureau of the Census. Farm Census for the Towns in Vermont Based on the Bureau of the Census Unpublished Data, Jan. 1, 1945 (Burlington Vermont: University of Vermont and State Agricultural College Cooperative Agricultural Extension Service, 1946, 1935 figures from WPA report, 1946) available at UVM Libraries Special Collections.
Agricultural Resources of Vermont, Multiple Property Documentation Form, National Register of Historic Places (Montpelier, Vermont: Vermont Division for Historic Places, 1991), E6, E7, E29
Agricultural Trends in Townshend, VT, Official Project No. 665-12-3-56, Works Progress Administration, “WPA,” (Burlington, Vermont: The Agricultural Extension Service, UVM.
Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings, Thomas D. Visser, (Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1997), p 9-19, 180. An excellent guide to VT barns; can be purchased on line.
Long Deep Furrow, A by Howard S. Russell, with foreword by Wayne D. Rasmussen (Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1976), viii. About early New England farming. Excellent book available on line.
Townshend Barn Tour: A Self-Guided, Roadside Tour, Heidi Clawson for Townshend Historical Society, photos by Amie Schiller, Kaitlin O’Shea, etc. Available on this website. Go to “Historic sites/Townshend’s Barns”.
Bridges
Crossings: A History of Vermont Bridges, Robert McCullough, Published by VHS & VT Agency of Transportation, 2005. Includes bridges of Townshend.
James Otis Follett Bridge Builder , Dan Snow, The Stone Trust Newsletter, Summer 2018
Keystone Arch Bridges, Conservation Society of Southern VT, republished by Townshend Historical Society, c2012. A pamphlet about the James Otis Follett bridges in Townshend.
Update on the Follett Arch Bridge Restoration, The Stone Trust Newsletter, Summer 2020
Video by Brattleboro Community TV: A Talk on Townshend’s Stone Arch Bridges by Certified Stonemason Michael Weitzner, November 4, 2018, Townshend Town Hall at the THS 2018 Annual Meeting.
Histories of Townshend
A Stitch in Time: Townshend, Vermont 1753-2003, Townshend Historical Society, with Castle Freeman, a book that can be purchased on-line at www.townshendvt.org.
Collections Relating to the History and Inhabitants of the Town of Townshend, Vermont, Part I & II, James H. Phelps, (Brattleboro, Vermont: Geo. E. Selleck, 1877 & 1884). A rare book for which text is available on line at various universities by using the title and author in the search.
New England Year, Muriel Follett, Stephen Daye Press, 1940; Yankee Publishing 1988. A wonderful journal of farm life in Townshend –grange meetings, town meetings, 4-H club, harvest, health education, the hurricane (1938), cooperatives, and a sense of fundamental values.
Townshend and the Founding of Vermont, Jocelyn Brodie, J. B. Stearns, and Ann Braude, W. (Townshend Historical Society, 1991). A well-researched pamphlet about events leading up to the Dorset Convention and the formation of Vermont as an independent republic and then as a state. For sale only at THS.
Townshend: The Way It Was ‘Til Now, 1979, Rose Tarbell and Committee, A very helpful and interesting book about the community available at the THS history room.
Maps
Atlas of Windham County, Vermont, F.W. Beers, (New York: F.W. Beers, A.D. Ellis,& G.G. Soule, 1869).
Cemetery Map of Townshend, Charles Marchant, c 2001.
McClellan Maps of Windham County, 1856.
Sanborn Insurance Maps of Townshend & West Townshend, 1915
Note: The Beers Map, McClellan Map, and Cemetery Map are also on view at Townshend Historical Society web site.
People of Townshend
Edge of the Sword: The Ordeal of Carpetbagger Marshall H. Twitchell in the Civil War and Reconstruction, Ted Tunnel, pub 2001, Louisiana State University Press
Former Slave Becomes a Doctor, Townshend Historical Society, 2014. A pamphlet about Winfield Scott Montgomery (1853-1928).
John & Ethan: A Revolutionary Friendship, Ronald D. Jones. About the friendship between two well-known American Revolutionary War figures, Ethan Allen and Col. John Hazeltine. Limited number for sale at THS. [Click HERE]
Frontier Feminist: Clarina Howard Nichols and the Politics of Motherhood, Marilyn S. Blackwell and Kristen T. Oertel, A book that examines Nichols’s important role in women’s rights, antislavery, and westward expansion. . . .a window on pre-suffrage political engagement and the creation of public womanhood in the nineteenth century. Pub 2010. For sale through the Grace Hudson Museum.
Full Duty: Vermonters in the Civil War; Nine Months to Gettysburg; The Battered Stars; and Something Abides: Discovering the Civil War in Today’s Vermont, Howard Coffin, There are various references to Townshend men who participated in the Civil War.
Revolutionary Heart: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women’s Rights, Diane Eickhoff. A book about.a great American reformer and the turbulent times in which she lived. Clarina Nichols (1810-1885) crisscrossed the country as a newspaper publisher, stump speaker, political agitator, and ally of mistreated women everywhere. Pub 2008. For sale through the Grace Hudson Museum in CA.
Other Writings that Mention Townshend
Gazetteer and Business Directory of Windham County, VT, 1724-1884, Hamilton Child, (Syracuse, New York: Journal Office, 1884), section 304, p 20-21; Town of Townshend section in the Business Directory of Windham County: individuals are listed with their occupation and address by road. Those listed as farmers sometimes have a specific type of farming listing . p 46-47; 486-495. Map with road numbers also included.
Gazetteer of the State of Vermont, Contains a Brief General View of the State: A Historical and Topographical Description, Zadock Thompson, (Montpelier: E.R. Walton, 1824), p310.