VT

Borderland Civil War History

Sarah Powell Giddings of Enosburgh, Vt. self published a narrative of her experiences with her Civil War veteran husband, Alexander Louis Giddings. Repeated abandonment from her childhood, the death of her sister has the consequences of limited attachment capacity. Her writing is decorated with christian biblical references. The prevalence of spiritualism renders her faith-based text peppered with arcane moments.

1899 her book arrived and she spent the rest of her life in Enosburg; until 1927, when Dr. Hinman signed her death certificate. As a wife of a masonic lodge member, her expanded view of safeness created a constellation of beliefs. She felt threatened by the local Masonic lodge. Members of the lodge, by her own account, intimidated her by failing to compensate her when planning a street extension. The direct fear they provoked was being locked away in a mental hospital. Communities were often placing indecent, non-compliant women in these sanitariums.

Her daughter was taken, within three months of her mother's death to the Vermont State Psych Hospital. There she spent most of her son's childhood. Grace Giddings Lowden's son, Thomas Lowden, stayed with his uncle Hugh and Lulu Giddings, on Maple Park. Grace kept her mother's home, in the 1940 census. The local historians tell me they were unaware of her time in the hospital. They report that she kept boarders, as her mother had.

The research of this particular Giddings family reveals no surviving descendants. Sarah Powell Gidding's book is available at archive.org; titled “In the Enemies Land”, 1899. This writer is looking for more input/feedback/commentary to further develop a local memorial to celebrate the elevation of women who write.

In 2020, I was selling a little grey Subaru that my mom had given me. It had low mileage and for everyone who doesn't live in New England; it was your typical 4 wheel drive economy car. It is very common for people to drive these because our seasonal conditions require some extra handling capacity.

Many lookers, I could have sold it over and over again. One couple wanted it for their mom. Another guy was a mechanic and thought he could flip it. Then, a young woman, maybe 22 years old came by in a rusted out VW. Her car was running but you could see the road through the floor. I know personally several people who thrive on this situation. That being a car that may or may not go another 10 miles. She stopped back with her boyfriend. I was ready to get rid of it and thought she was the one to have it.

Her boyfriend was talking to me about growing up in Vermont, living in Waterville. “You know, its all family farms. If you don't inherit a farm, then there's nothing for you here.”

There is nothing for you in Vermont, unless you have inherited a farm.

This brings to light the generational abuse that is a native Vermonter's burden. All my early childhood friends no longer live in Vermont. What is here are the transplants from New Jersey and New York; we don't talk about the Massholes. These family farms were all sold over the past three decades to make way for low income housing, multiplex condos, out of state retirees who need a break from the neighbors and flee to the Vermont countryside.

The farms that remain are gigantic mega-dairies. These mega-dairies have abusive labor practices, animal welfare issues, and water contamination secrets. The second home owners can't enjoy the evening walk due to the absurd number of cow manure spreading vehicles passing them by.

Getting to my point. Actually, my point is just this. How we all know there is this ridiculous problem of labor shortages when mega-dairies are sucking the economy tits and doing so at the cost of soil health, woodlands depletion, and water quality?

https://youtu.be/9SKV1tgggoQ

Problems with the historical society.

https://pixel.tchncs.de/i/web/profile/524731056915998547

What is so unsettling in the video (man in costume), is just the hidden hand in every work from Confucius, to Middle ages St. Hildegarde, to our own colonization of America.

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