How We Came To Vermont, Part 1

So this is how we came to Vermont. Part 1 (of 4): (written by Virginia S. Deane, our aunt, in 1987)

After spending the summers of 1926-28 in Connecticut (Gloucester and Sound Beach, now old Grennwich), Mother and Father decided to try the mountains. I don't know what the dissatisfaction with the shore was - and it seems odd that we would move so far from NYC that Father could come only rarely. I suspect that Mother was in one of her low moods and dawdled investigating possibilities. At any rate, we heard of Shannon’s Boarding House in Stevensville (Underhill Center) from Marion Gratz Carr, who knew of it from a Vassar friend, who had found it a quiet retreat for writing a thesis. We must also have heard of it from the Howard’s (Betsy Mathiasen’s parents)- Mother and Betsy MacMillian Howard had been college classmates; the Howards had bought an old farm and land adjoining the Levi Smith place; Levi, George Howard and Judge McLane had been law school classmates. So, the Carrs and we “booked in” at the Shannons for June 1929. After we had decided to come, Father, on a visit to his oculist, Dr. John Wheeler, learned that the Wheelers, too, had a place in Stevensville. We were invited to use their pool and court - certainly made a difference.