EAH Enrichment Program: When Fanny Met Ethan - Fanny Allen’s Sojourns in Westminster

Hi everybody. My name is Emory Gerlock and I am the weekend manager here at the museum. I'm going to tell you all a little bit more about our upcoming events before we get the program started. So our next lecture series is on September 17th from 2 to 3 p.m. on capturing indigenous history through 3D scanning by Chief Don Stevens. Our next reenactment event is September 26th from 11:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. and it is central around Vermont Archaeology Day with a home and hearth reenactment and a mini archaeology dig. Our annual summer fundraiser is August 19th. It's called Cruising Through Time and it's a private cruise on Lake Champlain for homestead supporters. There are only a few seats left and you can buy your tickets at the front desk after the talk. Our homestead programs on the road include on August 17th, Angie Grove, our homestead director, will present on Vermont's revolution for Monton Historical Society at Monton Town Hall. And this is free to attend. As well as on August 28th through September 6th, you can see our Green Mountain Boys display in the Vermont State Building in partnership with the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War. You can see our flax production program on the road on August 30th at the Wooki Fiberf Fair and on September 19th at the Old Stone Houses fall fiberf fair. You can support these programs with a membership or a donation at the front desk after the presentation. We'd also like to thank our sponsors for this event. Richard and Linda Smark, Mnt Bank, and Northfield Savings Bank. Thank you to [applause] Thank you to CCTV for recording today and thank you to Margaret Rushlo as well for the refreshments. I am now going to introduce Andy Angie Grove who is our executive director. Thank you all. [applause] >> Thanks Emory. Okay, [snorts] lots of fun events coming up so I hope you get to come to some of them. Um, okay. So I am here to introduce our speaker today who is become a friend of mine over the last couple of years um because we have a mutual friend who lived in the 18th century [laughter] and that um we're going to learn about today. So [snorts] um Jesse Hos grew up in Westminster, Vermont in a house that was built by Benjamin Hall's historian Benjamin Hall's great uncle on a farm that was first settled by a minute man who fought at Bunker Hill. So, a lot of connections to history right at Jesse's youth. As a child, she was lured into the love of history because historical novels frequently had horses on the covers. And if you don't know anything about Jesse, you should know that she loves horses. [snorts] She studied English and history at Welssley. And she sold her first novel, which was a children's horse story, of course. Um, she sold that first novel a month before she even graduated college. That was back in 1981. [snorts] uh horses and history account for most of her 43 published books. She has also written two histories of the town of Westminster, um including [clears throat] Revolutionary Westminster, which covers the period from settlement to statehood. We're good. Thanks. >> [clears throat] >> And it was while researching this history in Westminster that Jesse learned about Fanny Allen, uh, who was living only 100 feet away from the courthouse during the Westminster massacre. Uh, Fanny and her stepmother Margaret encountered the sheriff's posy. They lived through the massacre and uh, Jesse has studied all of that. Um, little known facts from that event occur in Jesse's novel, Dearest Blood, which we do sell in the gift shop, and she is here, so you might as well get an autographed copy um after this presentation. Uh, Jesse Hos is president of the Westminster Historical Society. No surprise after all that research. And she spearheaded the 250th anniversary commemoration of the Westminster massacre. And in 2025, that effort included drafting a resolution that was passed by the Vermont State Legislature, which described the massacre in only 330 words, which Jesse has told me she considers her greatest writing achievement. [laughter] When she's not writing and doing historical research, she lives in an off-grid cabin with her husband, Michael J. Dailyaly. So, please help me welcome Jesse Hos. Thanks, Angie. And yeah, it's been uh fun to connect here with Ethan Allen Homestead. And um I I love being here and u thanks for inviting me. So the title of my talk is When Fanny Met Ethan, but I could have titled it where Fanny Met Ethan. The focus is on my hometown of Westminster, which was her home for three pivotal periods of her life. In 1775, she was 15 when she was living next door to the courthouse during the Westminster massacre. In the aftermath, the family fled to New York where Fanny was forced into an unwelcome marriage. In seven in 1783, she returned as a young widow seeking to recover her stepfather's confiscated land and met Ethan Allen, who had the same lawyer she did and his own strong interest in confiscated Tory lands. After Ethan's death in 1789, she returned to Westminster with their children. And there in 1793, she married Dr. Jabis Penman among whose patience was US Senator Steven Row Bradley's wife in 1803 following his wife's death Bradley named Penman to a lucrative post which sent the family back to northern Vermont. So Westminster was Fenny's launching pad the longtime home of her stepmother and a place where she was remembered as a woman of wit and spirit. So, a major source that I'll be referring to is Benjamin Hall's history of Eastern Vermont where which I almost feel I have a family connection to. This is published in 1858. And Hall was 22 years old and newly graduated from Harvard when he came to Westminster, which was his father's hometown, and started work on his history. He was 168 years closer to the revolution than we are and was able to interview participants of the massacre and children of the participants. He also delve deep into the official records of five states. And when you check his work, you find the documents say what he says they do. But his book should also be understood as oral history and as local history. In the course of my research, I came across a clipping from a small no local newspaper that ran a weekly history column. It reprinted a story from an 1895 article in the Vermont Phoenix, a Brattleboro newspaper. And that article quoted an 1805 newspaper story whose source was Mrs. Francis Penman, the former Fanny Allen. It was the first time I had any idea that Fanny Allen, our Fanny, was in Westminster at the time of the massacre. I included the story in Revolutionary Westminster, but I didn't fully believe it. Later, I changed my mind, which I'll get into, and the historical conjunction is the basis of my novel, Dearest Blood. So, I come at this material now from two viewpoints. Historical, what we know, and fictional, what we can imagine. Westminster is a Connecticut valley town between Rockingham and Putney with a landscape created over 11,000 years ago by the draining of glacial lake Hitchcock. This left fertil fertile lake bottom soil laid out in a series of table lands along the banks of the Connecticut. And you can easily see this as you drive on I 91. Westminster Village occupies a plateau above the river with farmland on the flats below and to the north. There was a Paleoindian presence starting 13,000 years ago. At the time of European contact, the Abenaki occupied the area with a concentrated settlement called Squaki at what is now Northfield, Massachusetts. Following European contact, Squaki experienced plagues in which 90% of the inhabitants died. An attack by the Mohawks drew the remnant drove the drove the remnant, I'm sorry, north to Canada. So now the upper Connecticut Valley was a settller's dream. Empty of Indians, enormous, fertile, flat fields in which you literally cannot find a rock if you want one, and the river with easy access and trade routes. And yeah, Squawk might be gone, but the wars with the French and their Indian allies made the place far too dangerous. For decades, Massachusetts was overcrowded. The government was under pressure to find new territory for settlement. And at that time, Massachusetts considered that it had title to a large swath of the land that is now Vermont. In one of the pauses in the long war, the general assembly ordered a survey of land from Rumford to the Great Falls and laid out 28 six mile square townships. In 1735, Westminster was chartered as township number one, granted to citizens of Taton and nearby towns as compensation for their service in the war. The new proprietors surveyed the town, and eventually three men came up and built a gate, a boat landing, a little short section of road, and two cabins. And then they found out they weren't in Massachusetts anymore. In 1740, the boundary with New Hampshire was settled. New Hampshire considered that it went all the way west quite into the nebulous west and the the Massachusetts line fell south of Westminster. So the risk was just too much and the settlers gave up. 11 years later, another batch tried again. And instead of solitary men this time, these were family groups who formed a little community, eight adults, a dozen kids from teenagers to infants. In 1753, New Hampshire granted a charter and uh named named the town Westminster. But in 1753, war broke out again, and the town emptied for the next five years. Only in 1758 did a few young men begin sifting back to take up homesteads. In 1760, which is the year Fanny was born, the fall of Montreal and the final defeat of France, open the floodgates. New settlers came flocking in, mostly from Massachusetts, a few from Connecticut. They were all young and middle-aged couples with a lot of kids. So, it was a very youthful place. If you happen to remember growing up at the tail end of the baby boom, it was like that. Elders were rare. There were even 10 years later, there were only eight men over 60 in the whole town of Westminster. And it was a place full of cousins. Many of the families had already extensively intermarried before they arrived. [snorts] So people came, you know, adult pe adult couples came with their siblings, their in-laws, you know, all the little cousins. So the in even in a strange place there were many familiar faces. But with all this homogeneity, political beliefs differed widely. And one good example is a set of farms down on the flats settled by soldiers who' scouted the location while canoeing up river to reinforce fort number four. Azeriah and Midad Wright were double third cousins of Ethan Allen. Samuel Wright married Elizabeth Bert in 1653 and their greatgrandsons were Azeriah and Midad Wright. Samuel's little brother Judah married Elizabeth's little sister Mercy and their great-grandsons were Ethan and his brothers. In a town where almost every man was a former soldier, Azeriah Wright stood out as a man fully adapted to frontier life and fighting. Hall says he was an Ethan Allen on a smaller scale. He was bold, rough, independent, outspoken, quote, with a singular recklessness of character. He was a church member in good standing, but he loathed the second minister, Joseph Bullan, and would tweak his nose or cuff him whenever they met. And so the church tried to excommunicate him. Wright prevented this by bringing his musket to church and aiming it at the minister when he started to read the language and then uh aiming it at deacon when the minister handed off the document to the deacon. So he stayed in church. He became an increasingly radical wig through the 1760s. His brother Midad was more mildmannered, some would say more sane, and favored New York government and was a moderate wig. John Norton of ScotsIrish descent was a fervent loyalist. He ran this inn which was called the Tory Tavern and fellow soldier Joel Holton stayed out of politics completely. So these four lived on farms next door to each other. Midad Wright married one of Joel Holton's sisters and John Norton married another one. So that put Westminster's most radical revolutionary and its most prominent Tory in the same family. So luckily Thanksgiving dinners were not a thing yet. [laughter] The families built a large log cabin schoolhouse to educate all the little cousins, maintained their friendship, which is saying a lot for Azeriah Wright, and pulled in opposite directions politically. So through the 1760s, Westminster grew by leaps and bounds and changed its locality once again. In uh 1764, the king declared the western banks of the Connecticut of the river Connecticut to be the boundary line between New York and New Hampshire. In Westminster, this didn't change much of anything. Nobody was trying to take anybody's land. And whatever the map might say, this was New England. It was entirely settled by New Englanders. New York then created Cumberland County encompassing present Windham Windsor and parts of Orange County to give residents better access to the legal system. The new county seat was in Chester which was the home of the influential Chandler family. John was county clerk. Thomas was chief justice. It had a rudimentary courthouse and a jail so sketchy that incarceration was pretty much voluntary. You could just like push up the ceiling and get out of the cell. In 1768, unrest led the British to declare Massachusetts in a state of insurrection and to quarter two British regiments in Boston. This set the clock ticking on the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Massachusetts Farmers Rebellion, and the Westminster Massacre. In Westminster, Azariah Wright responded by forming a pure wig, essentially private militia. He drilled them at his farm just down the road from the Tory Tavern. There were 37 members, including Captain Wright, and they called themselves the Liberty Boys. Many of these men were related. There were three Averils, three Fippens, and one Rand. All connected by marriage. Three Crooks, three Burks, three IDEs, three Robinsons. This militia was quite separate from the normal town militia, and it was a big time commitment as Wright just drilled them avidly. In 1771, Westminster's first ever Yorkers moved to town. This is Korean brush, an Irish Tory lawyer, very well connected in government circles. His wife Margaret um said to have been a widow Montazan and a girl named Francis said to be her daughter. As you all doubtless know, Fanny probably wasn't Margaret's daughter. And if she had a claim to a surname, it should have been Montrasaur, not Montean. She was the daughter of Margaret's 15-year-old sister, Anna, and her seducer, British Army Captain John Montrasaur. Maybe Fanny and Margaret were women of mystery. Some people believe Fanny was Margaret's daughter. What people believed in the 1850s was that Margaret was never legally married to Korean brush at all but was living with him so she could continue to draw the pension she was entitled to as the fictional officer's widow. So which she would have forfeited if she had married again. She did marry Korean brush out of the Albany home of General Bradock. So it seems unlikely. But I think it goes to show that people sensed something smoky about this setup. even if they didn't know exactly what it was. Nope. I want to go back. Fanny was a pretty poshl looking little girl as painted here in her silk gown. But you can see how young and gawky she was with her big head and long arms. This portrait and the one of Margaret were painted just before they moved to Westminster. You can read a lot into that face or nothing. To me, she looks sad and guarded. And she had reason. Everything had just changed. And she may have been the reason why. The story handed down through the family of Elizabeth Norman, who was Korean Brush's daughter from his first marriage, was that the Brush family exodus occurred because Fanny had begun to come out in society, and her presence was embarrassing to her natural father. So, come out in society. She was 11. But that gown isn't the kind of thing a girl would have worn to study or putter around in the garden. And you know, where did she wear it? What parties and gatherings would a girl that age have attended? Margaret was certainly out in society. Was she claiming to have been a widow Montazanne as she did in Westminster or a widow montasaur? In either case, it was embarrassing. Captain John Matrasaur was handsome, popular, a brilliant military engineer, and had another Francis Montasaur's feelings to consider, his beautiful and wealthy wife. So, according to the Norman family history, Korean Brush was awarded thousands of acres of land. And this is a map of Westminster excluding the village lots with Korean brush's name written all up and down the the lots of you know the 100 acre lots and the west range. Um so thou 6,000 acres of land in Westminster and was told by the governor to take his embarrassing family elsewhere. So, what would Fann's state of mind have been when she arrived in Westminster? She's 11 years old, which is an awkward age. She's illegitimate. She's been she's living under an assumed name and a false backstory. Her family's been sent into exile because of her. She was 11 years old. I'm sure that's how she would have thought of it. She came from a multicultural city to a little log cabin village in a town of less than 500 people. She left behind everyone she knew, her beloved New York garden and a world of wealth and luxury to come to this place where most people rel were related and everyone agreed to a set of social norms that were strange to her. She was rich, at least on paper. Everyone else was poor. Her family owned the only private house with glass windows in the entire town. They had a clock that chimed. They had oil paintings of themselves hanging on their walls. Nobody here even pronounced her name right. She was FA, not Fanny. Like Hannah or Anna. Every other girl in New England was called Anna. And that sounds right to our ears. But Fanna and Salah don't. Um, and Bill doesn't either, but that was what was commonly used in Westminster. sometimes spelled B E L A which made me wonder, wow, what's the eur Eastern European connection here but um so William Zar Bradley the congressman was called bilazar as a child usually run together into a single word so in Fann's position I think I would have curled up like a cutworm for the next 20 years she emerged an outwardly confident sharp tonged witty and spirited young woman even at who even at 15 was prepared to state her opinion. At least that is how she was remembered in Westminster and how she remembered her girlhood self 30 years later. The brushes were new and exotic and were at first welcome to Westminster. According to Hall, quote, "Mr. Brush was feasted by the inhabitants from house to house. The display which he affected in his dress contrasted with the simple garb of the villagers, and for some time pomp and parade availed to conceal the defects of character. But as vulgarity of mind became apparent, and novelty of appearance ceased to attract, Mr. Brush found, in spite of his aosted attainments as a man of large information, and his pretensions to gentility, that his only friends were a few high- toned and arrogant loyalists. End quote. Other memories of brush from New York political circles paint him as rude, uncou ugly, a quote stupid fellow. But he also seems to have been an extremely useful man in New York politics. An excellent writer and orator in a rather Floridaid style and absolutely loyal to his political masters. Though greatly despised in hindsight, he wielded and benefited from extensive political influence. and he seems to have been a good stepfather. Um the you know the tangible evidence that is left is his will in which he divided everything that he thought he had equally between his daughter in Ireland, his stepdaughter here and his wife. Um so I think he cared about Fanny. Um it was a family. So what did family think Fanny think and feel as she watched him go through this process of making and losing friends in his new town? Unfortunately, we have no idea. And nor do we know if she and Margaret made friends. In dearest blood, I did give Fanny a friend, a fellow outsider, but someone from Massachusetts who had already witnessed the kind of unrest that was coming. But the truth is, we don't know. In the novel, I also gave her a horse because it's me. It was my book. But I had some reasons. We know that she had a Joseph, which is a riding habit, in 1784. She mentioned it when replying to Ethan Allen's proposal. By then, she'd come down in the world, and I imagine she might have been wearing clothes from an earlier, more prosperous time. If she did have a horse, it could have been a good one. Korean Brush served in the assembly with James Delansancy who had a racing stable in the Bowery and it was a stolen Delansancy stallion who sired figure the founder of the Vermont Morgan breed. Korean brush believed in putting on a good show. And so in my novel, a beautiful mayor of the wild air strain descended from this horse whistle jacket. And a beautiful green riding Joseph like this made their way up from New York to Westminster. But that's fiction. What we know is that Korean brush rapidly changed the political situation in Cumberland County. Chester is the ge was was the geographic but not the population center of the county. So that meant a long trip for most people on terrible roads with no good in to stay at and this miserable little courthouse made of tacman attack poles besides Korean brush lived in Westminster. In February he contrived to get county clerk John Chandler removed and himself appointed. Two days later, a petition requesting that the courts be moved to Westminster was read to the New York Assembly. A bill allowing the county to vote was passed a month a month later. Westminster still had a 1760 New Hampshire charter. This would not do for the Shire town of a New York county. So, two days after giving Cumberland County the chance to vote, New York issued Westminster a charter. In May, surprise, the county supervisors chose Westminster as the Shire town and voted to build a courthouse and jail just a few hundred yards from Korean Brush's house on the edge of the plateau looking down on the upper street. And just just to confuse everybody in Westminster at that time, the street down below that you can see is the northern most part of the street and is called the upper street. Up here and the high on the higher part is called the lower street and which has I think contributed to the fact that when you're in Westminster Village I almost everybody gets confused about which is north and south. We're just like upper lower. We we don't. So, it was an imposing new courouses compared to the one in Chester with a courtroom, two bedrooms, two jail rooms, and it actually had a tap room. So, when court was in session, it functioned rather like a tavern. Now, Brush and his cronies maneuvered to have the sheriff removed, and he put in a fellow Irishman, William Patterson, in his place. Cumberland County citizens including Korean brush wrote to gen governor try requesting the right right to representation in the New York assembly. They got permission to elect two representatives. Lo and behold Korean brush is one of those elected and this puts him back in New York at the center of power and Fanny and Margaret remained in Westminster. Brussia's first act in the assembly was to draft and help pass the Bloody Act, which was the anti- riot law aimed at Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys. In response, on May 19th, 1774, Ethan Allen wrote a letter to Brush and his fellow representative Samuel Wells, in which he called them land jockeyies, which is a classic pot calling the kettle black. and in a postcript he which he directed to brush personally this is kind of a masterpiece of of that of the period PS [clears throat] Mr. brush. Sir, as testimony of gratitude for the many unmmerited kindnesses and services you have done us the last sessions at New York, etc., etc., We intend shortly visiting your abode, where we hope to have the honor of presenting you with the beach seal, which we beg your kind acceptance of as a mark of the high esteem we have of your person, and as a token of our appribation for the eminent exertions you displayed of your abilities in bringing about the salutoy act of the 9th of March last, we have the honor to be yours sincerely, the Green Mountain Boys. And as you probably all know, the beach seal was a severe flogging. So, did Fanny ever see this letter, which is um was among her father's papers um threatening him in their home, and did the family discuss it? Again, we don't know, but it is one way she could have had early contact with Ethan Allen. She may have also had glimpses of him as he passed through Westminster. He was a friend of the Tory Tavern owner, John Norton, and he probably had business to discuss with his cousin Azariah Wright, who they were both in the patriotic militia business. Uh, and more so as time went on. In 1774, Parliament closed the Port of Boston and took over elective government in Massachusetts in response to the Boston Tea Party. Town meetings were limited to once a year, and all judges and representatives were appointed by the crown. This led to great upheaval in uh Massachusetts, which may seem like a long way from up here, but is very close to us down in Westminster. In August and September, enormous crowds of farmers armed only with sticks closed the courts in Worcester, Great Barington, Plymouth, Conquered, Northampton, Springfield, and Taton. In W. In Worcester alone, there were five or six thousand men on the street. the actions were deliberately nonviolent, uh, which was a directive from Joseph Warren because you could get the death penalty for taking part in riots, especially if you had a firearm. In response, the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and passed a trade embargo against Great Britain known as the Articles of Association. The fourth article stated plainly that the colonies resolved to have no trade, commerce, dealings, or intercourse whatsoever with any colony or province in North America that did not accept the association. It promised to hold the violators of the association quote as unworthy of the rights of freemen and as enimical to the liberties of their country. In Fann's backyard on the very same day the articles of association passed, Cumberland County towns met in the first Westminster Convention. It came about due to government duplicity. In May, the leader of the New York Committee of Correspondents, which was a patriot organization, had written to the Cumberland County Supervisors asking what local sentiments were about what was happening in Massachusetts. The supervisors suppressed the letter, but somehow there were certainly spies in both camps. Somehow word got out. So Azariah Wright and his fellow radical who taught at the school right across the road went to the next meeting and asked just casually quote whether any papers had been received which ought to be laid before the several towns of the county. The supervisors fessed up and sent a copy of the letter to each town and a county convention was called to decide what action to take. The Westminster convention of October 19-20 1774 was the first held in Vermont to oppose the pressure from Great Britain. After deliberation, Cumberland County towns passed a resolution condemning the recent acts of Parliament as arbitrary and saying, quote, "Be it right or wrong, we resolve to assist the people of Boston in defense of their liberties to the utmost of our abilities." They went on, "As true and loyal subjects of our gracious sovereign, King George III of Great Britain, we shall spend our lives and fortunes in his service, that as we will defend our king while he reigns over us, and wish his reign may be long and glorious, so we will defend our just rights as British subjects against every power that shall attempt to deprive us of them, while breath is in our nostrils and blood in our veins." In November, in responding to the articles of association, which they hadn't heard about yet, the towns met again in Westminster and voted to quote, "religiously adhere adhere to the association's provisions." The trade embargo went into effect in 17 in December 1774, but in early 1775, the New York Assembly rejected it with Korean Brush, of course, voting with the majority. So now we had a situation. Cumberland County had voted to support the AR embargo. New York had not. Local government was in the hands of Yorkers. According to a summary of events written up for a wig committee of investigation just a few days after the massacre. Quote, "Our [snorts] men in office would say that they did like the resolutions of the Continental Congress and they ought to be strictly adhered to until our general assembly voted against them. Then they said that this would do for the Bay Province, but it was childish for us to pay any regard to them. Some of our court would boldly say that the king had a just right to make the revenue acts, for he had a supreme power, and he that said otherwise was guilty of high treason, and they did hope that they would be executed accordingly. Executed. They were talking about their neighbors. The wigs further wrote that quote the people were of opinion that such men were not suitable to rule over them. And as the general assembly of this province would not aced to any power from or under them, they would be guilty of the breach of the 14th article of that association and may be justly dealt with accordingly by all America. So the good people of said county thought it was time to look to themselves, and they thought it was dangerous to trust their lives and fortunes in the hands of such enemies to American liberty, but more particularly unreasonable that there should be any court held, since thereby we must aced to what our general assembly had done, and not acceeding to what the whole continent had recommended, and that all America would break off all dealings and commerce with us, and bring us into a state of slavery at once. Therefore, in duty to God, ourselves and posterity, we thought ourselves under the strongest obligation to resist and to oppose all authority that would not aced to the resolves of the Continental Congress. But knowing that many of our court were men that neither feared nor regarded men, we thought that it was most prudent to go and persuade the judges to stay at home. So they feared violence at the hands of their government and they wanted to avoid the risk of bloodshed. To that end, on Friday, March 10th, 40 quote, "good, true men, wigs from Rockingham, visited Judge Chandler at his home to dissuade him from attending court." He gave them a mixed answer. Said he thought it would be a good idea not to hold court, but there was a case of murder he had to try and then they'd all go home. Quote, "One of the committee told him that the sheriff would raise a number with arms and there would be bloodshed." End quote. Chandler said he would give quote his word in honor that there should not be any arms brought against us. And they all agreed to meet at the court in Westminster on Monday the 13th. The following Monday, as soon as the wigs left, Chandler sent messages to the other members of the court and they made plans to occupy the courthouse before the Wigs could arrive. The Wigs found out almost immediately. Somehow they were on their phones. Um, they were on horses on in March and god-awful roads, but somehow everybody found out everything the exact same day. And so [clears throat] now it turned into a race. Each side's trying to get to the courthouse first. Uh, Sheriff Patterson violated the Sabbath laws and spent Sunday rounding up a posi and started off from Brattleboro on Monday morning. Many of his group carried firearms. The wigs gathered at Azeriah Wright's farmhouse. There were about a hundred of them by midafternoon, and they were all unarmed. In fact, there was a man carrying a sword who tried to join a group of wigs marching toward Westminster and they sent him home. They gathered at Wright's farm. They took up, let's see, we went to go back on that one. They took up sticks from his wood pile. And here we have Israel Proanche of the Vermont 250th Commission carrying his stick in our commemoration last year on the site of the old courthouse. Uh, so they took sticks, marched up courthouse hill, and went inside the building about 4:00 p.m. And literally 20 minutes later, the posi arrived. The sheriff read the riot act. Now the wigs were under legal obligation to disperse or they could face lethal consequences. They didn't budge and there were lots of profane back and forthings and threats um which the children of Westminster have enjoyed reenacting for many years in the plays. This is sanctioned swearing um and this I I don't know if this will enlarge a view. This is the S Daughters of the American Revolution monu um monument of on the site of the of the courthouse in Westminster. So following during this standoff as it's in gathering darkness, Fanny and Margaret had a conversation with the posi and it seems likely [sighs] and I don't know when you look at that woman Margaret to me she looks like a dangerous woman. Um, if you like put your hand up and cover like so you can't see the dress and the the neck frill and you would think that you're looking at a you know an officer in a wig who a very dangerous man who'd have a sword out and run it through you and I that was Margaret >> so [laughter] could yes I it looks exactly like a hand grenade so it seems likely that the officials went to the Brush home which was just a few steps away from where they were gathered and it was a place all of them would have been familiar with the home of their absent leader Korean Brush. They might have been hoping for refreshments and what they got instead was a talking to. According to what Fanny told the reporter, Margaret quote told them that if the judges were not women in men's clothes, they would give the order to drive the rebels out of the courthouse at once and bring the leaders to trial for treason. that they had authority and arms and had only to contend with traitors who would run at the sound of their own voices. Her daughter, Francis Monttoan, told her that she thought they had a just cause. Does this give us Fanny again? That she thought they had a just cause and to remember that there were Green Mountain Boys on the other side of the mountains and that Ethan Allen would come to assist them. Her mother answered that she should not be more surprised to see her sneaking after Ethan Allen than she was at that and told the others that the girl was crazy and Sheriff Patterson that the king expected him to do his duty. So, did this really happen? When I wrote Revolutionary Westminster, I assumed that it was a, you know, invented after the fact that the widow of Ethan Allen might well have wanted the story to go that way and that surely Fanny and Margaret would have been in New York with Korean brush. But I've come to realize that wasn't the cultural norm. The wives and children stayed home while the men went to the assembly or the Asises. And furthermore, it seems like Leanny and Margaret weren't particularly welcome in New York. And also there's sworn testimony from a witness to the massacre um in which the the deponent speaks of being in the brush home on March 14th. It seems unlikely he would have been there if no one was at home. Um also Fanny said it happened and I don't see why she should not be believed. So what happened next was tragic. Judge Chandler arrived. Azeriah Wright reminded him of his promise that nobody would be armed. Chandler said it was none of his doing and promised to disarm the posi. He did not. He promised the wigs could stay in the courthouse overnight unmolested. Also a lie. Following a supper at the Tory Tavern consisting largely of rum, the posi marched up to the door just before midnight. Here I'll give the words of Ruben Jones writing for the wake committee. A few days later, the sentry at the door spied some men with guns and he gave the word to man the doors and the walk was crowded. Immediately the sheriff and his company marched up fast within about 10 rods of the door. And then the word was given, "Take aim and then fire." Three fired immediately. The word fire was repeated. God damn you fire. Send them to hell. was most or all of the words that were to be heard for some time. Fanny and Margaret would have easily heard those shouts and shots being practically next door. The moon was nearly full, so they may well have seen the fighting as the unarmed men on the steps were mowed down. The protesters fought back with their clubs and then fled out all four doors of the courthouse. and Jones again. There were several men wounded, one was shot with four bullets, one of which went through his brain, of which wound he died the next day. Then they rushed in with their guns, swords, and clubs, and did most cruy mammic several more, and took some that were not wounded, and those that were, and crowded them all into close prison together, and told them that they should all be in hell before the next night, and that they did wish there were 40 more in the same case with that dying man. When they put him into prison, they took and dragged him as one would a dog and would mock him as he lay gasping and make sport for themselves of his dying motions. That laughter would also been audible at the nearby brush house. The sheriff, judges, and court officials remained in the courthouse overnight while they drank and caroused. William French, a young farmer from Brattleboro, died. Daniel H. Hotton and another man lay gravely wounded. Azerai Wright was a dangerous and aggressive man, but he was no fool. There was no attempt to retake the courthouse that night. Instead, couriers rode in all directions, and the next morning, Fanny would have seen men beginning to gather in Westminster's one street, singly and in large groups from all the surrounding towns and from across the river in New Hampshire. Now, they were armed. The crowd swelled to 400 or more over the course of the day. The sound of so many angry men in this usually quiet place must have been terrifying. They threatened to fire into the courthouse and kill everyone inside or to set it ablaze. The threats grew so severe that Captain Benjamin Bellows Jr. who was the leader of the New Hampshire contingent formed up around the courthouse to prevent further violence. He later fought in the Revolutionary War and was a committed patriot. But he said later in life there was nothing he was prouder of than his action on March 14th in Westminster. For Fanny and Margaret, the emotions must have been intense. The men upstairs in the courthouse were their friends and political allies. They were the cavalry that had ridden to [clears throat] the rescue and now needed rescuing themselves. The men downstairs in the cells, some of them were their neighbors of the last four years. And so were the men outside just outside their door. But they were also their political enemies. And there were so very many of them. How could this end accepted more bloodshed? But about 4 in the afternoon, two wigs went inside the courthouse and suggested that the court officials surrender. We don't know who they were, but since one of them heranged the court officials extensively, the name Azeriah Wright does spring to mind. In any case, the officials looked out at a sea of furious armed men and must have felt they had no choice. They could only rely on whatever guarantee of safety those two wigs were offering. So they surrendered. After much discussion about what to do with them, the wigs packed them into the same cells where French had died and his comrades bled. And that was the end of New York government in Cumberland County. Men kept arriving the next day with more threats of violence against the prisoners. And Fann's prediction was half right. Some 50 Green Mountain boys did come, but under Robert Cochran, not Ethan Allen. The boys took no part in the action. Everything was settled before they arrived. Roving parties captured every county official except the coroner and put them in the cells. An inquest was held over French's body, and he was buried with a salute fired over his grave. The cemetery easily seen out of Fanny and Margaret's windows. The brush house was never harmed or threatened as far as anyone reported, even though it was enemy headquarters for the court party. At some point in the next few days, Fanny and Margaret crossed the river to a friend's home in New Hampshire and from there went to New York. And I've often wondered what they took with them, what that packing up was like. Probably they took away their portraits as those were in family hands until they were donated to Fort Ticonderoga. probably some of Korean Brush's legal papers, maybe Fann's guitar. She had one a few late years later. But they left behind so much of what made their life comfortable and luxurious. You know, their glassear, china, pewtor furniture. When we next see them, they're living in lodgings and fannies dusting a cracked decanter. So they came down on the world and the contents of the house were scattered. Hall wrote that Brush's law books quote bearing on their fly leaves his name in the round full autograph are still to be found in some of the houses which border the Connecticut and the old clock whose strokes fell on the ear of the jovial Tory at midnight oftener than at morning is still preserved and continues to mark with accuracy the fleeting hours as it has done for the past hundred years. I would so love to find that clock or to even to know whose house it marked the fleeting hours in. But Hall was very discreet about that. So we do we don't know. So the New York Assembly voted money to put down the rebellion. General Gage gathered arms and put them on a ship bound for New York. And we don't know what would have happened next. If the army or the New York militia marched on Cumberland County, the countryside would have risen from miles around. But before anything like that could happen, Lexington and conquered happened and everything changed. Fann's life in New York is beyond my scope and not much is known about it. She was married at 15 and she said wept the whole day of her wedding. soon fell pregnant, was soon widowed, soon lost her infant son and then her stepfather. Soon lost the property he'd left her in his will. Soon came back only eight years later. And I've often wondered what that implies about Westminster or about Fanny and Margaret. They'd witnessed terrifying events in Westminster. They knew full well how hated Korean Brush was in Vermont. He was banned from the state after his death. [laughter] So they were the enemy, but they came back, two women alone. Margaret had married another Irish loyalist, Patrick Wall, but he'd gone to Canada trying to recover his own property. They did have a friend here in John Norton, who welcomed them. Oh, let's see. We want to go on past Steven for a minute. who welcomed them back into the old Tory Tavern in that complex neighborhood that still included Azeriah Wright. There was a new neighbor just across the road, a rising young lawyer named Steven Ro Bradley who had built a large house just opposite the Tory Tavern. Bradley had come to Westminster because the court was there, Korean Brushes Court. He was a patriot who fought in Connecticut during the war, but he was a great friend of John Norton's They had another friend and client who was very interested in confiscated Tory land, Ethan Allen. The Westminster Fanny and Margaret returned to was the same and different. People were still pouring in. Thanks to Steven Bradley, there was a printing press in town, Vermont's first. Spooner and Green printed government pamphlets, laws, and Vermont's first newspaper, the Vermont Gazette or Green Mountain Post Boy. [snorts] So Vermont politicians like Ethan Allen visited Westminster to put political pamphlets into production. In 1781, um Spooner and Green printed Vermont's [clears throat] first paper currency. And in June, the press generated Vermont's first counterfeit case when an apprentice and a printer's boy forged the official signatures. The town had only been lightly marked by war. Just one Westminster man spent the whole war in the Continental Army, but 27 did fight during the Saratoga campaign and one was killed there. Vermont had declared its independence from New York, right here in the courthouse. But New York didn't accept that. So there was a sort of double government. Vermont and New York both made appointments, but all the personnel were local. In other towns, it wasn't that safe being a loyalist in Vermont at the end of the war. Judge Wells and County Clerk Sam Gail had fled to Canada, as did many others. Even people who changed sides and became patriots, like Judge Thomas Chandler, had their sins held against them. But John Norton, openly a Tory and well known as a supporter of New York, somehow remained a popular citizen. That may have been the factor that made Fanny and Margaret feel safe to return and look into their property situation. It was a mess. Many neighbors had just grabbed land in a very ad hoc manner. And then there were two commissioners who were supposed to sell off the land in a more official way. But that was the point. They sold it. Money changed hands. Titles changed hands. Margaret and Fanny didn't have money to buy the land back. And besides, they've they thought it was theirs. Nobody was going to give it to them. John Norton had bought some brush land. Steven Ro Bradley had bought some. and he now became Fanny's and Margaret's lawyer. After living for a time in the Tory Tavern, Fanny and Margaret moved uh let's see, moved now. Now, well, aren't we going in a circle? There we are. [clears throat] Moved across the road into a couple of rooms in Bradley's house. Bradley was married and father to a two-year-old named William Zar Bradley. Bilazar. But I've often thought if they'd ever been single at the same time, Fanny and Steven Bradley would have made a great couple. Be that as it may, living at Steven Bradley's house, it was inevitable that Fanny would meet me Ethan Allen. And I wonder if she was apprehensive about that. Anyone who's read Allen's narrative of his captivity knows how bitterly he hated Tories at that time. >> It's likely Fanny read that book. It was a bestseller, but several years had passed and you know based on our own recent experience with the COVID epidemic. It seems to me likely that for most people the big changes had already been metabolized. The war was over. The Americans had won. Time to get on with life. So certainly these people from different sides of the war, Ethan Allen, John Norton, Steven Ro Bradley were happy to belly up to the bar together and pick the carcass of Steve K and Brush's estate. So how and when and where exactly did Fanny meet Ethan? It's frustrating that we simply don't know. He had lost his first wife early in the year to tuberculosis after a long illness and who knows what shape he was in emotionally. Mary Brownson's never gotten great press, but there's no evidence to suggest they didn't love each other. She supposedly had a sharp tongue and seems like Ethan liked that. He was not afraid of strong women. But with Mary's death, he was more free to travel. At some point, both Vermont militia and private business would have brought him over to Westminster to consult or instruct Bradley on various matters. At some point, he found himself face to face with a stepdaughter of his old enemy. He was 22 years older than she was. He had a daughter almost her age, but still he was just 45. And I have to say that now seems relatively young to me. He was active, fit, an outdoorsman, an intellectual rebel, and a man of great importance. And not just in his own view. She was 23, attractive, I imagine, fashionably dressed in comparison with the frontier women around her. She had a lively mind. He liked bold women, and she was able to hold her own with a strong man. Hall makes a lot of statements about their romance that can't be verified, but yet can't be fully discounted either given his access to local and family lore. At the same time, Fanny moved to Westminster again. His grandfather, L. Hall, had just moved there to set up as a lawyer. He would have known them. He would have known Fanny and Ethan. And um although Benjamin Hall never met his grandfather, the stories could have been passed down through his grandmother, a woman who also was married at age 15 and who Benjamin Hall certainly knew. The other source is in all likelihood Williams R. Bradley, who was a toddler at the time of Ethan and Fann's marriage. And for this reason, u the the story is often regarded as suspect. And I get that Williams R. Bradley was a remarkable intellect. But even he kind of observed all this as a two-year-old. But what I think is forgotten is the long family friendship between Fanny and the Bradley's, between Ethan Allen and the Bradley's, and between Jabus Penman and the Bradley's. William didn't just know Fanny when she was when he was two. He knew her again when he was a teenager all the way through at least 1803. And I can easily imagine he was a friendly and loquacious guy. He was living his own great romance. I can imagine him asking Fanny, "So, what drew you to Ethan Allen? What was that like?" So taking it all with a grain of salt, Hall describes an acquaintance that quote ripened into a warm but for a time singularly intermittent friendship, pleased with the originalities of his view and conversation, flattered at her own ability to arrest the attention of a man whom all feared but whom few loved, and imagining that she should find more sympathy in the companionship of his strong, active nature than in the society of those by whom she was surrounded. Mrs. Buchanan found herself on some occasions irresistibly attracted towards him. At other times his rough manners would render him equally repulsive to her. All their friends could see what was going on, and John Norton, a good friend to both, was trying to promote the match when he said to her, "Fanny, if you marry General Allen, you'll be the queen of a new state." "Yes," she replied. "If I should marry the devil, I would be the queen of hell." >> [laughter] >> And this this was a little shocking to Hall who was after all a Victorian and he kind of hastens the softness of go by one who knew her well. She is said to have been a fascinating woman endowed with an ease of manner which she had acquired with the polite society of that day in which she had been brought up possessed of a refined taste and many accomplishments and on most occasions soft and gentle in her ways and speech. The aversion with which she occasionally regarded General Allen disappeared at length in the stronger admiration which he entertained for him. And so one cold winter morning, General Allen pulled up at General Bradley's front gate with his sleigh, horses, and driver. The court session was about to start, and all the judges were at breakfast. Invited to join them, Allan answered that he had breakfasted at Norton's and would just step into Mrs. Wall's apartment and see the ladies. He found Fanny in a morning gown standing on a chair to rearrange some items on the top shelf of a china closet. She held up a cracked decanter and made a joke about it. Ethan laughed and then said, "If we are to be married, now is the time, for I am on my way to Arlington." So, I wonder, had he proposed before? Was this a pre-arranged plan that they were just executing? Or was he nervous maybe and rushing his fences? If the latter, Fannie's answer was masterfully cool and calming. Very well, she said, descending from the chair, but give me time to put on my Joseph. They walked into the next room and asked Chief Justice Moses Robinson to marry them immediately. Uh, that the justices were all in town for the court session. So, all the all Vermont bigwigs were there. Ethan made it sound like he [clears throat] was willing to forego the ceremony. For myself, I have no great opinion of such formality. And from what I can discover, he says she thinks as little of it as I do, and I don't know why he thought that. Um, [laughter] Judge Robinson urged him to slow down and asked if he had given it serious consideration, >> which is one of the things that makes me think it, you know, it was a lightning quick romance. Certainly, he said, but looking at Fanny, I don't think it requires much consideration. and after which flattering remark they were married. Allan bought briefly when he was asked if pro he promised to live with Fanny quote agreeable to the law of God. But looking out the window he found his loophole. Quote the law of God is written in the great book of nature. Yes, go on. And they did go on putting Fann's trunk and guitar case into the sleigh and heading off across the mountains. There are plenty of interpretations of the attraction between Fanny and Ethan that center on that land, Korean Brush's land. Did he marry her because she was an aerys? I doubt it. Nobody knew better than Ethan Allen. That you could have titled to thousands of acres and still be poor if there was any if if there was nobody around who could afford to buy it. Did she marry him because she thought he'd be able to get the land back for her? I doubt that, too. She already had one of the best lawyers in Vermont and he couldn't do it. Absent a diary, and I predict the homestead will discover one on or around April 1st, one of these years, [laughter] we can't know, but I think it was love. They appeared to have lived happily together, as far as we can tell. They had some babies and Ethan did a lot less roaming until that winter night in 1789 when he went out to sled some hayome and Fanny was widowed again. Again she returned to Westminster after their third child was born and took shelter with Margaret and Patrick Wall. The house was the old one she had lived in as a girl just down the street from the old courthouse. New Fain was now the county seat and Westminster was trying to figure out what to do with its once great claim to fame. At that time they were using it as a school. One of the kids who studied there was little Daniel Hall who would be the father of the historian Benjamin Hall. Westminster wasn't frontier anymore. Instead of one little shelf of goods in the front room of Reverend Bullan's house, there were now three whole stores. The villagers had made a covenant to pipe water down from a spring up the hill through pine logs and the so-called hydrostatic society that they formed became the aqueduct society which operates today uh with village households sharing the cost to pipe down water into the sistns in their cellar. So modern life fully modern life had arrived. The meeting house got glass windows and a bell. Steven Ro Bradley gave the bell. Vermont was a state and Steven Bradley helped make that happen. He was now a US senator, had been widowed and had recently remarried. In 1793 at age 33, Fanny also married again. Her new husband was Dr. Jabus Penman. And this is a f a photo. Yes, this is a portrait of him in older life, but he was four years younger than Fanny. He's usually described as being of Burlington, but he was in Westminster at this time and was doctor for Steven Bradley's family. He and Fanny lived in what's still known as the Penman House on a high hill overlooking Westminster Village and st soon had children of their own. And this house is actually the only building in Westminster assort associated with Fanny that's still there. I I took um members of the homestead on a tour of invisible Westminster last fall so we could see all the places where the buildings aren't there anymore. And we were generously given a chance to tour inside the Penman House as well. So they they were raising uh Fanny and Ethan's children. They had children of their own. They soon made the acquaintance of Elizabeth Norman, Korean Brush's daughter from Ireland, who came to Westminster to take up the quest for those lands. Uh Ethan Allen had been occupied with that for quite a while until Margaret Wall requested that he turn it over to John Norton. Norton had no luck. Mrs. Norman bought out Fanny's and Margaret's interest and moved to New York State, hoping that the New York lands might be easier to come by. But all the states had confiscated Tory land and nobody ever proved able to untangle the affair. Hall described Mrs. Norman as a lady of fine manners, dignified department, and in every respect and ornament to her sex. She enjoyed in early life the advantages of a good education and never failed to receive that regard and attention to which her merits entitled her. So she was a lady. Fanny was a lady. She was only two years older than Fanny. And it would certainly be fascinating to know what their meeting was like. They they were so they seemed so alike. It doesn't mean they necessarily liked each other. Uh but it it does um make me wonder. We can be sure the Penmans stayed in Westminster for several years from a letter Jabzis wrote to Senator Steven Bradley in 1801. Mrs. Bradley had been ill since spring. Different doctors had tried different remedies with no success, and she was under Panaman's care again. He was unable to offer much more than the promise that quote, "no attention or exertion of mine shall be wanting at any time or season to make her as happy and comfortable as possible in the nature of things," which is not exactly a confidence inspiring turn of phrase. He goes on to ask Bradley to update him if he learns anything new about the treatment of quote the complaint which was tuberculosis. He had only calaml which is a purgative made of mercury and chlorine along with opium and decoctions of med medicinal bark and the the description of her sufferings is is really harrowing. Poor Gracia Bradley died that year, leaving three young children. And it seems likely that purgative treatments would have hastened her death. But they were standard at the time. And Steven Bradley was grateful. In 1802, he was elected president prom of the US Senate and was one of the most powerful men in the country. Along with passing the 12th amendment, which led to the present system of presidential and vice presidential running mates, he used his power to reward his friends. In March 1803, he named his late wife's doctor to the most lucrative federal post in Vermont, collector of customs. The Penmans mortgaged their Rocky Hill farm to post the substantial bond required of the collector of customs. Steven Bradley bought that farm from them in 1811. It appears that Fanny was in Westminster once more. These, by the way, are thrown in at random. They're in the the earrings worn by Fanny. Garnet and brass and are in the collection of the Vermont Historical Society. I couldn't figure out where to fit them in, but uh she she wore them. There they are. So, it appears that Fanny was in Westminster at least once more. Um, Margaret died in early 1805, the same year that Fanny gave their massacre story to a Brattleboro reporter. So, presumably Fanny came down to from Burlington to nurse Margaret through her final illness. And we have no suggest suggestion, no evidence that she ever came back again. I do wonder how she remembered Westminster. Three times her life took a turn there, which sent her out into the wider world and into a marriage. Most of her supposed wealth was there, firmly in the grasp of others that may have left a bad taste, but probably she was just busy with kids and grandkids and gardens. And that's what I would say. And um I'm happy to take questions if we still have time. [applause] >> We do have time for questions. So please raise your hand if you have a question. >> Okay. >> Um you mentioned, if I understood it, uh Fanny Ethan was never able to get Fanny and Margaret back their land. >> Yep. Yes. Now, the question was, could um did Ethan ever get Fanny and Margaret back their land? No. Um we still see letters after well after Fanny and Ethan married a letter to Steven Ro Bradley in which Ethan talks about having been asked to turn the whole quest over to John Norton that Mrs. wall had asked and then we know that Elizabeth Norman came back, came and bought them out, you know, so they did get something for it. Whatever Elizabeth Norman paid, that was, as far as I can tell, all they ever got from from that bequest of the land. >> Yes. >> If women can't inherit property, then why did Mrs. Norman come from Ireland over here to try and get land that supposedly she couldn't inherit it anyway. >> Well, people certainly seem to think they could inherit it. Um, so I I have to say you the question is could if women couldn't inherit, how how could they think they could inherit? And they certainly seemed to think they could inherit. But I that's a question that takes me beyond my area of expertise. Um, Stephen Ro Bradley seems to have put some effort in to try and get them to inherit. So, um, yeah, I the qu the answer is I don't know. >> Yes. Were the men who perpetrated the Westminster massacre ever held accountable? The question is, were the men who perpetrated the massacre ever held accountable? Well, they were they were sent to jail in Northampton. Um, they were then transported to New York and they was since the inquest had had found that William French was murdered and several of them were named, they were sent to New York. Uh and but the with the outbreak of the war everything became very confused and so they they were not um they did not pay a price and in fact some of them seem to have been rewarded and they were turning in their like their expenses to to the government of New York. I mean, there's a there's a bill from for the from the sheriff for >> for the um you know, the the bar bill at the Tory Tavern for the four gallons of rum that you know that Patterson had paid for and wanted to be a reimburseed for the four gallons of rum. And the people the the man who claimed to have shot William French came home in a a handsome new coat that everybody thought he had been given as a reward. So, so no, they did not pay the price. That man died insane, so maybe he paid a price, [laughter] but but it wasn't a government that imposed the price on it. >> It might have been. [laughter] >> Yes. >> Another question. The portraits of Fanny and Margaret. Um I've always wondered if um some of them some of that was enhanced. to know portrait painters came often with backgrounds already painted in like the beautiful backgrounds on those portraits and at least I I look at fannies more than I look at Margaret's but you know the bird in the hand the gorgeous silk dress I mean they had some wealth but I wonder if that was exaggerated in the painting >> well I think it could well have been I mean certainly the backgrounds are probably generic um Fanny seems seems like the kind of girl who might well have had a pet bird. You know, she loved nature and flowers and things like that. Um, and and the I think that what's likely to have been real was the clothing. I mean, that portraits in those days were very carefully portraits of clothing as well as of faces and and the detail. you know, when you when people want to know about the clothing, they're able to zoom in on on those portraits and find, you know, exact exact detail. So, I think the dresses are real. I'm not, you know, I'm not going to claim the bird or the little hand grenade, you know. I I I don't know about that, but I believe in those dresses, and I believe in those faces. I believe I believe in that dangerous look on Margaret's face and and that that look on Fann's face. Um I I believe in those. Yes. >> I might even help you out there. I used to be a dosen at the Wister Art Museum. That was a >> the the symbolism of having flowers and a bird, small birds or uh lambs, you know, was a symbol of youth and purity, >> innocence. Yes. >> European paintings as well from Europeans anyway. So, >> right. >> Didn't mean she owned a bird. They would have put one in there anyway. >> Right. So, it's symbolic. It's symbolic. It's symbolic. >> Yeah, that makes sense to me. And and also probably having a portrait that resembled portraits that people had in Europe was symbolic of we are very important people and and you know, look at us with paintings of ourselves on our walls. >> Copying others, >> copying others to artist. >> Absolutely. >> Jesse, will you be around for more questions and will you be sticking around for a few minutes? >> Sure. Yes. So, I just um we are we are out of time. So, I want to thank everyone for coming today. Um and Jesse is going to stick around so you can grab her for more questions. >> Absolutely. >> Before you get up, a few announcements, but we do have Jesse's book, Dearest Blood, available in the gift shop. And nicely, Jesse might >> Yes, I would. >> And it's a great historical novel just full of research about Fanny's life. And additionally, we have membership forms at the front desk. If you're not yet a member of the homestead, it really helps us to have your membership. And there's also donations on the door if you're able to help our nonprofit programming. Very appreciate it. Could you please help me in one more time?