For most of its two and a quarter centuries, the Northeast Kingdom town of Walden has been a farming community.
In fact the town’s most famous native symbolizes the power and the influence that Vermont’s farmers once wielded.
Charles Johnson Bell was elected Governor of Vermont in 1904. It was an occasion that prompted the largest gathering in the town’s history – and a celebration of Vermont’s agrarian roots.
As part of our ongoing series profiling Vermont towns, Walden historian Betty Hatch recounts the history of a once-prominent town family that is no more.