[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 143 (Wednesday, September 21, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5947-S5948]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
VERMONT PRIDE RETURNS AN ICONIC BUILDING HOME
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, Vermonters have long believed that the
preservation of our history, from buildings to manuscripts to
celebratory traditions, inform the present and future as much as they
honor the past. Last month, the people of Orleans County, in Vermont's
rural Northeast Kingdom, came together to restore an historic school
house to its original location. What makes this story all the more
remarkable is that the physical journey to return the schoolhouse was
undertaken by a team of 40 oxen assembled by residents and chapters of
the 4-H.
It was Alexander Twilight's vision, as headmaster of the school, to
have a central school in every Vermont county that would bring together
and educate Vermont's students from neighboring towns.
Born and raised in Corinth, VT, Alexander Twilight studied at
Middlebury College and became the first African American known to have
graduated from a U.S college or university. An active community member,
Twilight was not only an educator, but also served as a local minister
and politician.
In Vermont, we take great pride in being a forward-thinking State.
This progressive nature dates back to the mid-1800s, pre-American Civil
War, when the town of Brownington in Orleans County was an intellectual
hub in New England. Twilight, and his beloved Orleans County Grammar
School, have become a symbol of these times.
The recent move of the schoolhouse by the pulling of a team of oxen,
coaxed on by area children as they walked beside the team, would surely
have delighted Mr. Twilight. I ask unanimous consent that an August 2,
2016, article from The Burlington Free Press, ``1823 school to move by
oxen to original site,'' be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Burlington Free Press, Aug. 2, 2016]
1823 School To Move by Oxen to Original Site
(By Sally Pollak)
An 1823 schoolhouse will be returned to its original site
Monday when 40 oxen pull the Orleans County Grammar School
one-third of a mile down Hinman Settler Road in Brownington.
The journey by oxen will take the school from Brownington
village to a neighborhood of historic and educational
significance.
The school will return to its place near the Old Stone
House Museum, a four-story building that was constructed in
1836 to be the school dormitory. The granite dormitory,
called Athenian Hall, was built by Alexander Twilight, who
served as the school's headmaster from 1829 until a stroke in
1855. Twilight died two years later.
Twilight, who was black, grew up in Corinth and graduated
from Middlebury College in 1823. He was the first African
American person to graduate from a college or university in
this country, according to Middlebury and other sources.
``Alexander Twilight actually imagined that this was going
to become a big center of learning,'' said Peggy Day Gibson,
director of the Old Stone House Museum. ``When he built the
Old Stone House as a dorm in 1836, I think he envisioned that
this was the first big building. He felt that a central
school, a really good institution in every county, was the
way to go.''
The school fell into disuse after the Civil War, the
school's account book indicates. It appears the school did
not operate from 1865 until 1870, Gibson said. By then, it
had moved from its location at Prospect Hill into the village
center, Gibson said.
``It was more convenient'' to have the school in the
village, Gibson said. The relocation was in keeping with a
trend to de-centralize education, a movement that was opposed
by Twilight when he served in the Vermont Statehouse,
according to Gibson.
Twilight's election to the Vermont Legislature in 1836,
representing Brownington, made him the nation's first black
elected official.
``Alexander Twilight thought education is better served if
you have a very high quality central school,'' she said.
But local towns, including Barton, Craftsbury, Derby and
Glover, began to establish their own schools. ``One by one
these towns got their own schools,'' Gibson said. ``They took
back their kids and their tax money.''
Students from Brownington and beyond
In Twilight's life, Orleans County Grammar School educated
students from
[[Page S5948]]
Brownington, surrounding farm towns, and Quebec. The
dormitory housed 50 students, boys and girls. Twilight and
his wife, Mercy Twilight, housed 11 female students on the
top floor of their house across the way.
Students moved to the grammar school after attending one
room schoolhouses in their villages through eighth grade.
Under Twilight's direction, Orleans County Grammar School
taught students from grades nine through the first two years
of college. The school offered classes in Greek, Latin,
trigonometry, physics, chemistry and other subjects, Gibson
said.
As its curriculum expanded, Twilight saw the need for a
dormitory--a building that bears a striking resemblance to
Painter Hall at Twilight's alma mater. The building, which
opened as a museum in 1925, has Twilight's signature on the
back of a fourth-floor door.
Twilight was a teaching principal who also served as
minister of the Brownington Congregational Church. Services
were held on the second floor of the school before a church
was built in 1841. The church and the school (in its original
site) were on either side of the town green.
Moving the school back to this place will enable the
historical society to tell the story of a region more fully
and accurately, Gibson said.
``There has always been this desire of the Orleans County
Historical Society--which owns and manages the museum--to try
to get the neighborhood back to its (original)
configuration,'' Gibson said. ``To tell the story, the
history, it will be great to have the school back here.''
The enclave of historic buildings in Brownington includes
the former home of Samuel Read Hall, a colleague of
Twilight's at Orleans County Grammar School. Hall taught at
the school and was, according to Gibson, the country's first
teacher-educator.
Hall founded the first teacher training school, which was
in Concord. He was the author of the first training manual
for teachers published in this country, ``Lectures on School
Keeping,'' Gibson said. Hall succeeded Twilight as
headmaster.
(The museum purchased Hall's house in 2005, and restored it
in 2008. It is used for a variety of events, including on
Monday a barbecue for the oxen teamsters.)
``This was a really happening, intellectual vibrant
neighborhood, all built during the 1820s and 1830s,'' Gibson
said. ``It was a center of progressive education in New
England. This was the main road, the stage route, between
Boston and Montreal, and this is what was happening.''
Town gives school to historical society
Last year at Town Meeting, the people of Brownington voted
to give the grammar school to the Orleans County Historical
Society, according to Gibson and the town clerk.
Terms of the gift include the building's continued function
as a community gathering place. The Brownington Grange, for
example, has met on the second floor of the building since
1874, and will continue to do so at the new site, Gibson
said.
With the addition of the school, Orleans County Society
Historical Society now owns seven historical buildings in
Prospect Hill, built from 1823 to 1841. The Brownington
neighborhood is on the National Register of Historic Places,
Gibson said.
The 40 animals that will move the school Monday come from
4-H groups in Randolph and North Haverhill, New Hampshire,
and from local residents, Gibson said.
Messier House Moving from East Montpelier will move the
building onto the road. The oxen will get hitched to the old
school, and start walking.
``If the oxen can pull it up the road, it will be smooth as
silk,'' she said. ``This is performance art.''
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