Major Ira Day
Inscription
Hosteler and Turnpike Investor
Ira Day (1777-1853) was one of the earliest settlers of South Barre. A prominent tavern and storekeeper, he was the town’s first postmaster (1801), operated a grist mill on Stevens Branch, and served as a director of the Bank of Montpelier. In 1803, Day chartered a turnpike through the Williamstown gulf that would become the main thoroughfare to Massachusetts. The successful turnpike, finished in 1825, enabled the efficient shipment of goods throughout New England. The Marquis de Lafayette traveled on the turnpike and visited Ira Day’s tavern during his 1825 tour of the U.S. With Mahlon Cottrell, Day owned the Pavilion Hotel in Montpelier, and created the first stage and mail route between Burlington and Boston.
Location
Sources
More markers in Orange
Randolph State Normal School -- 1867-1911
Randolph, VT
Near this site stood the first Public School in Vermont for special training of teachers.
Davenport Birthplace
Williamstown, VT
Thomas Davenport was born on the West Hill in 1802 and worked in a blacksmith shop by the Village stream.
Jacob Bayley -- Founder of Newbury and Revolutionary War General
Newbury, VT
Founder of Newbury and Revolutionary General Veteran of the Indian Wars, Bayley led a migration of settlers from Newbury Mass.
Justin Smith Morrill/Morrill Homestead
Strafford, VT
Justin Smith Morrill 1810-1898 Born in Strafford Village, Justin S. Morrill was the son of a blacksmith.
Site of 1780 Raid
Tunbridge, VT
On the Tunbridge hilltop, across the meadow, three hundred Indians, led by the British in the waning years of the Revolutionary War, laid...