  amuel
de Champlain was the first European to venture deeply into the territory
now called Vermont, in 1609. He had sailed south from Quebec with a
Huron Indian war party where he discovered a beautiful, huge inland
lake, which he named Lake Champlain. Despite being the first nationality
in the region, the French didn't build any permanent settlements in
the area until 1666. During that year, they built a fort and a shrine
to Saint Anne on Isle La Motte, an island in Lake Champlain.
It wasn't until circa 1724, settlements began
to appear, first near what is now Brattleboro, where the British
built Fort Dummer. In 1741, Benning Wentworth, royal governor of
New Hampshire was commissioned by the crown to govern an area westward
across the Merrimack River until it reached the crown's other governments.
Difficulties arose because the eastern border of New York had not
been clearly defined.
Wentworth believed that the borders between New
York and Connecticut and Massachusetts would continue northward
to the west of the Hudson River. His first New Hampshire Grant was
bestowed upon Wentworth's cronies and family, establishing the township
of Bennignton. Governor George Clinton of New York saw the grant
as an incursion into New York. He argued that New York's borders
extended eastward to the Connecticut River. That meant that the
area that is Vermont today would have belonged to New York in its
entirety. To resolve the dispute, Wentworth recommended that he
and Clinton put the matter before the king. While the matter was
being debated, the French and Indian Wars of 1754 erupted, diverting
the crown's attention elsewhere.
In 1759, the British captured Ticonderoga and
Crown Point. After the wars, Wentworth again assigned land grants
in the Vermont area. However, in 1762, the British found for New
York and its claims to the area. New York moved aggressively in
attempts to nullify Wentworth's grants and issue their own. That
didn't sit well with the New Hampshire population and what had a
simmering issue exploded into something far greater. The dispute
gave birth to the rebelliousness of Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain
Boys. Allen and his men disrupted New York court hearings and engaged
in considerable armed resistance against New Yorkers. That continued
until the American Revolution, during which Allen and the Green
Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga.
In 1777, natives of the region, and weary of
the dispute between New Hampshire and New York, carved the territory
that is Vermont into an independent nation. They chose the combination
of two French words to name the land they possessed. The shortened
combination of "verre" and "mont" gave the state its name. It remained
an independent nation until 1791, at which time it gained statehood.
The dispute with New York was resolved with the payment of $30,000.
Often mistakenly considered one of the 13 colonies,
Vermont became the first state of the union after the U.S. Constitution
was ratified by the true 13 colonies.
After its admission into the union, it's population
surged, as did its politics. Vermonters were not at all happy with
the Embargo Act of 1807 because it hobbled the state's ability to
continue its lucrative trade with Canada. During the War of 1812,
smuggling goods between Canada and Vermont became so prevalent that
the British threatened to invade. The Battle of Lake Champlain,
won by American Thomas Macdonough in 1814, ended that threat.
Politically, Vermont has been very definite in
its points of view. For instance, it was the only state in the union
won by William Wirt, candidate of the Anti-Masonic party, during
the presidential election of 1832. The state also disliked slavery
to the point that it voted for Lincoln rather than native Stephen
O. Douglas and was very pro Civil War. It was in Vermont that one
of the most unusual Civil War incursions took place.
On October 19, 1864, approximately 25 rebel soldiers
rode from Canada into St. Albans, Vermont. There they killed one
man and robbed all three of the town's banks, escaping with approximately
$200,000. A posse was quickly formed and gave chase. They captured
several of the Confederates, but because they were in Canada, they
had to turn them over to Canadian officials. While the money was
returned, Canada also freed the captured men. So fierce was the
anger of Americans at Canada and Britain that there was talk of
war. To avoid the potential for war, the Canadians quickly recaptured
five of the Confederates and charged them with breaking Canadian
neutrality. It was a long time before talk of war subsided. During
the first part of 1865, 2000 Canadian militiamen were deployed along
the border with Vermont.
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