TA News

The community is invited to a presentation by David Briggs on Saturday, May 2 at the Thetford Center Community Association building (on Rte 113), with a potluck gathering at 5pm and the presentation scheduled for 7pm.

David will share stories and reflections from both sides of his family tree from earliest settlers through the 20th century. He feels like the pieces of his family’s roots and stories comprise a ‘crazy quilt’ of the Thetford fabric to add to others’ collections and oral histories.

As part of his talk, David will be reciting a poem of his great-great-grandmother, Mary Hosford, who migrated from Hebron, Connecticut with her husband to Thetford, Vermont. They were among the very first English settlers in Thetford along with the Palmers and the Howards. Up through the 1990s, Hosford descendants still lived on the land by the Connecticut River that Mary and her husband John settled in 1765.

David Briggs is a multi-faceted Hartford native, known for his skills as an engineer, musician, hotel operator, patron of the arts, and more. As the owner of Hotel Coolidge and Briggs Opera House, David has been part of White River Junction’s renaissance, a decades-long transition from what he calls a “railroad economy” into a “creative economy.”

The potluck and presentation on May 2 is part of a series of local events planned to mark Vermont’s 250th anniversary and Thetford’s place in our nation’s history. Thetford Academy is one of many community partners supporting the SQC initiative. Visit thetfordvtsqc.weebly.com for info.