Witness to history
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By Gordon Dritschilo Staff Writer - Published: June 7, 2009
CASTLETON — Joseph Doran was trying to find out whether Keturah Briggs was black — a subject of speculation among local history buffs.
He found the memoirs of her granddaughter, an early Mormon. Doran said the text, available online, not only solves the local mystery but paints a picture of early westward migration from Vermont in the mid-19th century.
Keturah Briggs died in 1828, and her grave is located beneath the sole identifiable headstone in what some believe was the town's "Negro Cemetery." The site is in the woods of the Lake Bomoseen State Park, and other worn stones jut up from the ground in a manner at least suggestive of gravestones.
Doran said he's not sure why the stones were placed there, but that his research has indicated that Castleton did not have enough of an African-American population to support such a cemetery.
An African-American Briggs featured in an incident in town in the 1870s, Doran said so the racial identity of Keturah Briggs became a piece of the puzzle.
He traced Mrs. Briggs to the Taunton, Mass., area, where she was born Keturah Allen and married Gideon Briggs. They had 11 children together, several of whom married siblings from the Macumber family. The records show them as a white family.
Around 1804, Doran said, several people from that part of Massachusetts came to Vermont en masse. Keturah and Gideon Briggs came to Vermont with all 11 children.
That's as much as Keturah Briggs' story ends.
Doran's searches online, however, turned up something more of the family saga.
"I came across this in the long winter months when I putter around," he said. "As the years go on, I feel genealogical sources online have been getting better than they have been."
Keturah's middle son, Allen, had a daughter named Electa in 1805. Doran found her memoir, written in 1885, and kept in the Latter-Day Saints Church archives, excerpted in a family genealogy Web site. Electa takes the family story from there.
Doran said the Briggs family arrived in Vermont at the tail end of what were called "the good years." Vermont's economy, he said, did well from the end of the revolution in 1783 to 1808, when it was damaged by Thomas Jefferson's embargo on trade with Canada.
In 1811, summer storms triggered serious flooding in Rutland and Windsor counties, destroying mills and bridges. The War of 1812 saw meningitis outbreaks spread from military camps, decimating towns. Tuberculosis took a toll, as well.
"The straw that breaks the camel's back is 1816, when you had three inches of snow in early June after the crops had been planted," Doran said.
With freezing temperatures continuing into July 1816 was known as the Year of No Summer.
At the age of 18, Electa followed her father to western New York, where he had remarried. Within a year, she married an older man who died before her their first child was born.
Mormon prophet Joseph Smith was one of several religious leaders competing for converts in New York at this time, and Electa heard of him, but did not become involved with the Mormons until later.
That would come at her next stop, in Michigan, where her half-sister introduced her to the religion.
"She's going to meetings, but she's not necessarily sold on it yet," Doran said.
Joseph Smith was nearby visiting his cousin when Electa's daughter took ill. Electa asked him to lay hands on the girl.
"He shows up and prays and does whatever prophets do," Doran said. "The little girl becomes better the next day."
When a "Mr. Williams" proposed marriage to her, Electa wrote she accepted on the condition he bring her to the Mormons.
Electa and her husband found trouble with the law after helping shelter a teenage girl beaten by her father for associating with Mormons. A mob looted her home while she was in jail before a former West Castleton farmer helped secure her release.
Electa and her husband joined the Mormons in Nauvoo, Ill., and then journeyed on to Iowa after the Mormons were expelled from Illinois before finally settling in Utah.
Doran said the narrative showed how history is not just the stories of the famous.
"History can come to you," he said. "You don't have to be the head of the army. You don't have to be an elected official. You can still be a witness to history."
gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com
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