OldDashMapsDotCom

  This may be the oldest view of Shelburne Falls village. It is taken from the John Warner Barber "Historical Collections..." book published in 1839. The view is, i believe, taken from High Street looking down on the Shelburne side of the village.  The Buckland hills are in the background.  The houses are along either side of Main Street which is seen as a narrow band extending from left to right at a slight diagonal.  I have added numbers to the house as an aid to discussion.  House #13 is Franklin Academy, a brick building which still stands as # 77 Main Street.  #9 is the Baptist Church. We know #9 and #13 because the original manuscript map made by Barber exists.  You will note that there is no house #1.  It was omitted from the published view, see below. The Massachusetts Historical Society has the manuscript sketches made by John Warner Barber. This is what he drew, presumably on the day he visited Shelburne Falls, probably in 1838. I have n...

  Whoever heard of West Vermont State - extending all the way to Lake Erie?   A huge Vermont, divided into 3 sections, appears on an old manuscript map in the British Public Records Office. "Middle Verdmont" on the old map went from the Green Mountains to Lake Champlain. "West Verdmont" went fron Lake Champlain to Lake Erie.       Residents of Rochester and Syracuse may be surprised to learn that they might have been part of Vermont.  The heavy band "Verdmont State or everlasting Hills"  depicts the Green Mountains. "East Verdmont" is shown with lots of settlements along the Connecticut River.  The "270,000 souls" could be a population count for the entire area of Verdmont. (By the way "Verd" was archaic French for Green.)  The map needs more study to nail down the year it was drawn but it  may be ca 1780 as it refers to the United States of America. I have annotated my scan with bold type and the yellow shading to make it ...