—Gwenda Smith (updated May 2023 by Stephen Willbanks)

Half a century represents only one-fifth of the history of Strafford but almost the entire history of the Strafford Historical Society (SHS). Founded in 1955, its mission is to preserve the sites, records, relics, and related materials pertaining to the history of the town, a field broad enough to challenge far more people than we have ever counted as members. But we have not been idle.

Seventy years ago, the site that was in most obvious need of support was the Morrill Homestead, which had been in private, non-Morrill hands since the 1930s and was again on the market. The Historical Society negotiated an option to purchase the property in order to buy time for our first president, C. William Berghorn, to rally support and financing from some of the nation’s land-grant colleges and universities, the beneficiaries of Morrill’s chief legislative accomplishment. The resulting Justin Smith Morrill Foundation was able to purchase the Homestead in September 1961, and progress was soon being made in bringing the place the recognition it deserved. For many years SHS membership overlapped that of the Foundation, and many of our local members, most notably Josephine Fisher, were instrumental in keeping the house open for visitors up to and beyond April 14, 1969, when it was donated to the State of Vermont.

Especially under the successive presidencies of Floyd Campbell and John Freitag, we later enjoyed a collaboration with the State that culminated in two very different but equally successful highlights: the Ice Harvest of 1994 and the Morrill Symposium of 1998. Both men were enthusiastic promoters of the Senator’s legacy and worked to establish a Morrill Committee within the Strafford Historical Society that evolved into a separate organization, the Friends of the Morrill Homestead. This we have occasionally supported financially, including as recently as one year ago. Among other things, John Freitag helped raise funds to bring important Morrill items back to the house and worked with Michigan State University professor James Anderson to organize the Symposium, a gathering of academic speakers and avid listeners from far and wide, to study aspects of Morrill’s life and work. Floyd Campbell, with his wife, Kay Campbell, raised the money and arranged to have Vermont Public Television produce an hour-long documentary on the same subject. We also kept the Homestead open for several summers and produced Sunday afternoon programs to enhance visitors’ experience.

The Town House has also naturally been a major concern of the Society. With a formal contract with the Select Board and under the leadership first of president the Reverend Arthur Pope and later of member Robin Mix, a major restoration was carried out in the 1970s. Following stabilization work at the base of the steeple, all interior walls and ceilings were replastered, the woodwork repainted, and the gallery pews painstakingly restored with suitably old wood. Member contributions rounded out the major grants obtained from the Eva Gebhard-Gourgaud Foundation and other sources. Talks and slide shows described the work and outlined the history of the building. In 1992 we published Gwenda Smith’s book, The Town House, which won commendation from the American Association for State and Local History. In 1999 we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the building with a public presentation of music and a series of imagined “reminiscences” of eyewitnesses from 1799. We were also able to unveil a large fragment of the original pulpit, lost since it was vandalized in 1886 during alterations.

Our third major historic site is Copperas Hill, important for the mining and production of copperas and copper between 1809 and 1958. Its most salient feature below the hill was a vast yellow tailings “pond” of materials laboriously drawn out of the earth in the 20th century and, above it, a hillside covered with intriguing structures and piles of mostly orange and dark red materials left from even earlier work. Member Carrie Judd led a large crowd on a successful tour of both parts of Copperas Hill in May 1992, shortly before she suffered a massive stroke that ended her work. Since the Environmental Protection Agency arrived on the scene in 1999 and the so-called Elizabeth Mine was designated a Superfund site, we have had to accept the fact that literal preservation is impossible, but we have done what we could, especially by gathering all available information and a few hundred photographic images. The EPA was responsive to our concerns and has provided excellent archaeological work and extensive records of the site as well as funding a documentary, "Riches & Remains: The Legacy of Vermont Coppermining," by Phyllis Harmon. Informational panels have been created and installed although not all are yet available to the public. The EPA completed its work at the Elizabeth Mine in 2021. The following year, it was announced that the EPA has scheduled the remediation of the Ely and Pike Hill Mines, so eventually all three mines along Vermont’s historic Copper Trail will be cleaned up.

Seven decades have also brought changes in the physical location of the materials in our care, once scattered among such places as the basement of the Library, Mr. Berghorn’s Brick Store, the servants’ quarters at the Morrill Homestead, and the files of a succession of curators. Our collections have since been enriched by donations from persons too numerous to mention in this brief report, making them a priceless resource regarding Strafford’s past. Over the years a concerted effort was made to recover these materials from scattered locations in various homes in Strafford, including the house of former president and longtime curator Gwenda Smith, where they remained until in 2003 to space generously provided in the Brick Store by its then owner, Kendall Mix. Since that time curator Stefanie Johnston created innumerable exhibits there about Strafford's history, early families, and other subjects of historical interest.

With the passing of Kendall Mix, her daughter, Phoebe, of the Brick Store and in Fall 2020 began making other plans for the space and the Historical Society lost its lease. After several fruitless months of searching for new quarters for the Historical Society and its collection, the Masons, with an aging membership and upkeep challenges, offered to sell the Masonic Temple building to the Historical Society for $1. Realizing that as an organization not open to everyone and therefore not eligible for public historic restoration funds, they felt that making the building available to the Historical Society would be a way in which they could both preserve the building and at the same time make contribute to the community. We thank them for their generosity.

Update: May 2023

In addition to the major historical sites already noted, the Society has given moral and financial support to work at Barrett Memorial Hall, the Rosa B. Tyson Gym, the Red Barn in South Strafford, the conservation easements on Huntington Farm, and the Coburn Farm, the repairing of the Town House clock and tower, and the naming of Pennock Road and Hemenway Road. Our collection of historical documents and vintage photographs and other artifacts for the time being is unfortunately in storage for the time being as we renovate the Masonic Temple building. With no available working space and a lack of access to our documents, our genealogical research and other programs are unfortunately on pause. Fundraising is our principal focus at present. The original estimate for the restoration of the building was $300,000, a tall order for a small, volunteer organization and we are making progress. Once the renovation is complete, we look forward to returning to our mission of making people more aware of Strafford's history and at the same time to create a community center for South Strafford and the wider Strafford community.