Carla Occaso
On the eve of this country’s semiquincentennial, I remember the fuss made about the bicentennial celebration 50 years ago. East Montpelier started planning in 1974 — two years before the event, according to the East Montpelier Bicentennial Souvenir booklet. They held about 20 meetings plus more among various subcommittees and task forces.
In November 1974, East Montpelier was designated a Bicentennial Community by the National American Revolution Bicentennial Administration. On Town Meeting Day 1975, the Bicentennial flag was given to the town by Secretary of State Richard Thomas.
Events commemorating the year included erecting signs designating historical road names, beautification and restoration of certain parts of town, the formation of a fife-and-drum corps, and creating a biographical booklet of all Revolutionary War soldiers who lived in East Montpelier.
One such soldier and his family settled in the area at the top of Gould Hill Road. Sergeant John Gould of Sutton, Massachusetts, enlisted as a private in the Revolutionary War on Aug. 27, 1777, according to text on the “Find a Grave” website. By October, his regiment left Boston to join General George Washington’s main army outside Philadelphia.
The following year they followed the British across New Jersey, where, on June 28, 1778, they fought in the battle of Monmouth. From there, they traveled to Providence, Rhode Island, and played a big role in the Battle of Rhode Island. They withdrew from the area after the British departed Newport, Rhode Island. More involvement ensued and he was promoted to Sergeant.
Gould and his family moved to what was then Montpelier in 1799. This writer now lives in the house lived in by his son, Jacob Gould. The family (roughly 25 members) are buried in the former Gould Cemetery located on Sparrow Farm Road under where a new house was recently built.
As a commemoration to the earlier centennial celebration, this stanza of a longer poem was written in 1876 by Ellen Peck Bailey of East Montpelier:
Ring, Freedom’s bells, across all lands
Ring, happy bells, from shore to shore
Until your echoes, from all strands
Come back to us once more
Ring out a blood-bought country’s praise,
To celebrate a nation’s birth
One hundred years ago
