1927 Burlington Fire Destroys Colonial Archives
Several weeks before the 32nd annual court of the Vermont Society of Colonial Wars a fire destroyed the YMCA building at the corner of Church and College Streets in Burlington. The building included the offices of Society Secretary Byron W. Clark. At about 4 o’clock in the morning of February 1, 1927 fire was discovered, and by the end of the day the building and all of its contents were destroyed. Articles lost included bookcases, a filing cabinet containing letters and photographs, the Society flag, seal, gavel and records of most meetings since the founding, reference books, and various publications by the Society. The original applications and three scrapbooks, in a vault in the Fletcher Free Library nearby at the corner of College Street and South Winooski Avenue, survived. Built in 1904 the Fletcher Free Library is the first Andrew Carnegie Library built in Vermont. With 9,000 volumes in its collection the old library was outgrowing its space in City Hall.
Fort Ethan Allen
In 1980, the Society of Colonial wars in the state of Vermont, together with others, dedicated a tablet to commemorate Fort Ethan Allen, which is located in the town of Colchester, Vermont.
Fort Ethan Allen was a U.S. Army installation named for Vermont's most recognized Revolutionary War figure. It was first occupied as a cavalry post in 1894. By July 1897, the Regimental Headquarters and four troops of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment were stationed there.. The U.S Army's 10th Cavalry Regiment of African American soldiers was stationed at FortEthan Allen from 1909-1913. After Returning from World War 1, the 7th Field Artillery Regiment moved to the fort as a 75mm towed-gun regiment.It remained there until it became inactive on December 1st, 1934 (to be activated again at the fort in 1939). Under Roosevelt's New Deal, the fort was made into a headquarters of the Vermont Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933, and remained as such until 1938.
Fort Ethan Allen was decommissioned in 1961 and is now the center of a designated national historic district straddling the border between Colchester and Essex. The buildings have found fresh uses as college dormitories, apartments, condominiums and as the broadcast studio of Vermont Public television.
The tablet , which is imbedded in a large boulder, was dedicated on May 10, 1980.
Captain Remember Baker, Camp Ethan Allen Training Site
A Brass plate in memory of Remember Baker was in 1988, placed by the Vermont Society at the Howard C. Lewis Chapel at Camp Ethan Allen Training Site, located in the town of Jericho, Vermont.
Remember Baker was a first cousin of Ethan Allen. He enlisted as a private in a company of provincial troops in 1755. He was stationed at Fort William Henry at the time of its surrender to the French General Montcalm in 1757. Baker and his Allen cousins were involved in a dispute with New York over title to the land of Vermont Settlers. Following their attacks on New York Loyalists, the governor of New York offered a reward for the capture of Ethan Allen, Remember Baker and others. In March 1771, New York troops attacked Baker's mill and took him prisoner, but he was soon rescued by the Green Mountain Boys and returned to Vermont.
Baker was with Ethan Allen for the capture of Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775 and two days later he helped capture the garrison at Crown Point. In August, of that year, Baker left Ticonderoga for a scouting expedition along the Richelieu River, the outlet of Lake Champlain. He was shot and killed by Indians, who had taken his boat. His body was plundered and the Indians presented his head, raised on a pole, to horrified British Officers.
the Howard C. Lewis Chapel is on the grounds of the 11,000 acre Camp Ethan Allen Training Site, which contains a complete weapons-testing area for the development, qualification, and testing of arms systems. As a training site of the Vermont Army National Guard, upwards of 20,000 troops are trained here annually. The facility is also home to Vermont's Mountain Warfare School, one of the premier cross-country ski and biathlon facilities in North America.
