Why “Putnam’s”?
Kelsey’s roots in New England run deep.
The old colonial Puritan Putnam family was founded by Kelsey’s 11th great-grandparents - John and Priscilla Gould Putnam. Originally from Buckinghamshire, England, the family immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. John Putnam was well equipped for the work of settling in a new colony, and he and his sons were granted land. Each of his sons would have children of their own, and it would be this third generation of Putnam’s who would be involved in the Salem witch trial frenzy of 1692.
In 1750, Kelsey’s 8th great-grandfather, Seth Putnam, moved to “Fort Number Four” - now Charlestown, NH - an exposed frontier post. In 1755, the inhabitants, 14 in number, petitioned the state of Massachusetts for protection, and the state garrisoned the town. By 1760, Charlestown was no longer on the frontier. A tide of emigration set in which filled the area with settlers and gave the inhabitants of old Number Four, among them the Putnam family, the opportunity long wished for: to cultivate their farms and establish a flourishing town.
Her 6th great-grandfather (also a) Seth Putnam was a farmer in Charlestown, New Hampshire. But in 1785, he became the first settler to move his family to Middlesex, Vermont where he built a log cabin near the (Onion) Winooski River. He was elected the first town clerk in 1790, and was a member of the Revolutionary War in Bellow's Regiment at Ticonderoga.
Why “yard”?
Putnam’s vine/yard is in the location of a c. 1873 train engine roundhouse for Vermont Central Railroad. It is also in the location of the c. 1849 A. Latham & Sons Iron Works complex, with a machine shop, train car shop, foundry, forging shop, and offices - the first industrial business in White River Junction. All of these 19th-century buildings were destroyed by a fire in 1860.
The Freight House, built in 1930, is an excellent example of an early 20th century railroad/industrial brick building. Concrete plaques on the northern and southern elevations read, “1930” and “Central Vermont RY, Inc., Boston & Main RR, Freight Office.”