Did you know that wooly mammoths once roamed the area that is now called Richmond, Vermont? Did you know that Salmon Green, Richmond's town clerk from 1866 to 1925 could write a report with his right hand and at the same time make a copy with his left?  These are the kinds of tidbits you can find in "Richmond, Vermont – A History of More Than 200 Years," sponsored by the Richmond Historical Society and out this week from Queen City Printers in Burlington.

Editor and chief writer Harriet Riggs has presided over a history book with a difference. It combines dry facts (think land records) with glimpses of people, living and dead, to result in a book that is both a detailed reference and a good read. Over 500 pages long, it contains more than 300 photos, illustrations, and maps, an index, and appendices in which you can find more names and numbers. The dust jacket design is based on a Friendship Quilt made by Richmond women in the 1850's.                               

Riggs sees the life behind the real estate records. In describing the early development of mills along the Huntington River, she notes that John Preston bought 37.5 acres along the river from John Hallock in June 1806 for $88.04. Preston then sold the property on February 16, 1808 to Samuel Hinkson for $600. "Preston must have been building his gristmill," writes Riggs, trying to account for the huge increase in the land's value – more than in any current real estate bubble. The owner of a neighboring tract, Truman Avril, took out a mortgage on his property in 1813, half to be paid in cash, half in "American gin – 300 gallons worth." The gin may have been a corollary to the milling operations, notes Riggs. Gin is made from fermented grain, and people using a gristmill would pay the miller with a portion of the grain they brought for grinding. So, when you try to imagine gristmills along the Huntington River 200 years ago, picture stills as well.

The Onion (Winooski) River and the Huntington River made Richmond, especially the Jonesville area, an early industrial site because they provided easy access to waterpower. Besides gristmills, there were sawmills, spool mills, cider mills, and fulling mills. People brought their coarsely woven woolen cloth to the fulling mill to be soaked and beaten for days with water-wheel powered mallets until it was cleaned of the sheep's oils, and made more compact and softer.

Not one of these mills exists today. Electricity superceded waterpower; roads made many goods easier to obtain, and manufacturing in Richmond changed with the times.

Instead of following a chronological line, "Richmond, Vermont – A History of More Than 200 Years" is divided into nineteen chapters, each covering a different aspect of the town's life, such as: schools, farms, roads, early settler families, creameries and co-ops, and the townspeople's involvement with America's wars. Riggs wrote eleven chapters, and the others were written by people with a special interest in the topic. That way, the town's story is seen through multiple voices and perspectives.

In the chapter about Jonesville, we learn how the area came to be part of Richmond, instead of Bolton, its closer neighbor. And we are introduced to generations of Jones's – starting with Jabez Jones, Bolton's first town clerk and first state representative. He was one of three petitioners from Bolton who successfully argued in 1805 for their area's annexation to Richmond.

Jabez's nephew, Milo, became a surveyor and traveled west, eventually settling in Wisconsin with his family. They arrived according to Milo's great grandson, "after a long and arduous journey from Vermont by stage, canal boat, and wagon, which took them 81 days." Milo's wife, Sally, took her recipe for pork sausage with her on that trip, and today, six generations later, Jones Sausage is still made and marketed by the Jones Dairy Farm in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin.

The chapters on schools and roads offer perspective on current discussions of these topics. In 1880, Richmond's population was 1264, with seven school districts and ten schools, employing five male and nine female teachers. The school budget for the year was $1470.00. In 1994, the population had more than tripled, and an addition to an elementary school cost the town $890,000. But people debated the same issues:  how to provide a good education for the children, how to plan for increasing or decreasing enrollment, and how to pay for it all.

The chapter on roads calls to mind current discussions about the Circumferential Highway. From the beginning, road construction in Richmond was slow and expensive; and people argued about routes, affect on neighboring land, source of funds, and the reality of the expected economic benefits.  In 1933, a Green Mountain Parkway was proposed - a 250-mile road, which would go over Vermont's mountaintops from Massachusetts to Canada, passing through Richmond. It promised to bring in tourists, and much of the cost would come from federal funds. After three years of heated debate, the parkway was rejected by the state legislature and by voters in a statewide referendum. The citizens of Richmond voted "yes."

Harriet Riggs has worked on the Richmond history for 23 years, ever since the idea was born at a meeting of the Richmond Historical Society in 1984. She came to Richmond with Heath, her husband now for 65 years, and their children in 1953. A free-lance writer, she has had articles published in many magazines and newspapers, including Adirondack Life, Yankee Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Burlington Free Press.

This history project has been a labor of love for Riggs. She started writing chapters on a typewriter with carbon paper and then learned to use a computer. The work is based on original sources – deeds, diaries, original laws and petitions, and early newspapers on microfilm – found in the state archives, UVM's special collections, and town clerks' offices. "I enjoy the research," she says, "tracking it down to the very basics. It's like detective work. You follow up clues like a puzzle."  Today she has more material than she can use. Her next project is to figure out how to preserve it for future researchers. "At some point you just have to stop," she says. "After this is done, I think I'll just relax."

Copies of "Richmond Vermont – A History Of More Than 200 Years" by Harriet Wheatley Riggs and Others can be purchased at the Richmond Town Clerk's office. Or order them from Fran Thomas, 1635 Hillview Road, Richmond, VT 05477; (802) 434-3654. Price: $25 plus $5 for shipping and handling.

• Book sale and signing – October 13, 10 am – noon, Old Round Church in Richmond
• For more on Richmond history, including photographs, go to the Richmond Historical Society's web site: www.oldroundchurch.com

Barbara Leitenberg writes on senior issues for the Champlain Valley Agency on Aging. This article originally appeared in the Burlington Free Press.