by Andree Reno Sanborn
Our longtime patron and volunteer, Eleanor Waller, died on January 12 in St. Petersburg, Florida. Mrs. Waller volunteered at the library desk on Friday afternoons until 2009.
I wish I had known Mrs. Waller but I never was at the library much on Fridays. From my walks on the roads near my home, I did know her home on Doyle Lane. Eleanor loved Barton. Her husband’s father was from Irasburg and he spent much time here in the Kingdom. In 1974 the Wallers moved to Doyle Lane in Barton. They spent their summers here and their winters in Florida. They had three children. Adrien gave us permission to use this beautiful photograph of her mother that appeared in the Barton Chronicle. Daughter Carol lives in Maryland, and son Fletch published a book of photographs of Barton in 2008 that is in our collection.
Inside the cover of his book, which is dedicated to his mother “in celebration of her 96th birthday,” Fletch Waller wrote:
In 1974, Fletch and Eleanor Waller rediscovered Waller roots in the Irasburg, Derby and Orleans area. This country called out to them.
The next summer, Eleanor and Fletch embarked on developing 56 abandoned acres of granite quarry; woods of pine, birch and maple; open meadows; a spring-fed stream and a neglected apple orchard. They first built a pad and lean-to shed for their RV and brought in electricity. Fletch successfully dowsed for a well. They trimmed the orchard and impounded the spring. The rest is history.
Fletch Waller spent a week in the area photographing the sights of Barton. He continues on the back flap:
I learned much during this week-long prowl around Barton and from reading the history of the Allens, of Ira’s drive to create a Vermont independent of New Hampshire and New York (and for a while, of the USA, as well.)
His Irasburg was home base for Wallers, where Henry and Josephine died four months apart in 1880, leaving four young boys to be raised among Templetons and Slocums. Halley, our grandfather, was four.
Ira H’s refusal to sell railroad rights of way in Irasburg led to the road being laid into Barton’s Landing (now Glover) and to Irasburg forever being over-shadowed by Barton.
The people of Barton are Vermonters through and through — The Damndest Yankees, indeed. One is conscious of being an outsider every waking moment . . . but an outsider made warmly welcome, nonetheless.
We are indeed fortunate that the Wallers returned and felt warmly welcomed. A memorial service is planned for the summer. Mrs. Waller will then be interred in the family plot in Irasburg.
