7VERGENNES BURYING GROUNDCorner of School Street & Mountain View LaneThis cemetery, the first in the area, containsthe graves of several notable city residents,including Phineas Brown (1747-1818), asurveyor, farmer, legislator and alderman inVergennes who was in the ContinentalArmy and participated in the Battle ofSaratoga during the Revolutionary War.Another important marker is that of Gen.Samuel Strong (1762-1832) who led theVermont Militia into battle with Britishforces advancing on Plattsburgh, New Yorkduring the War of 1812. Strong was a farmerand businessman whose commercialventures included a wool-carding factory.He served as the Addison County sheriff forseveral years along with elected positions ofVergennes alderman and mayor. Anothermarker commemorates Capt. JahazielSherman, a steamboat pioneer, who lived inVergennes from 1813-1844. He constructedand operated six steamboats on LakeChamplain and helped start steamboatservice on Lake George. There are threegraves for members of the Storm family,one of the first black families to settle inand around Vergennes. There are alsoseveral graves for French Canadians whocame to the city to work in the mills at theOtter Creek falls.8STEPHEN BATES HISTORIC MARKERCorner of Park and North StreetsStephen Bates, born into slavery in 1842 on a plantation in Virginia ownedby Robert E. Lee’s grandparents, was the first Black police chief and sheriffin Vermont. He was elected and served as Vergennes’ top lawenforcement officer for almost 25 years until his death in 1907. Batesescaped the plantation with his brothers during the Civil War,accompanying the Union Army to Washington D.C. in 1866. There hebecame friends with Frederick Woodbridge, a member of the U.S. House ofRepresentatives from Vermont who hired Bates to drive his coach. WhenWoodbridge's term in office ended and he returned to Vermont, Batesfollowed, becoming a resident of Vergennes. He married, raised twochildren and in 1879 won his first election as sheriff and police chief. He isburied along with his wife, Frances, in Prospect Cemetery, 264-344 W.Main Street, Vergennes.
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