March

March 2, 1839

Mathematical prodigy Zerah Colburn died at his birthplace in Cabot at the age of thirty-four. Zerah amazed his family when he was five years old by adding and multiplying long numbers in his head. Zerah spent ten years touring France and England, exhibiting his remarkable ability.

March 3, 1936

Voters on Town Meeting Day vote against building the Green Mountain Parkway, a highway to connect the peaks of the Green Mountains.

March 4, 1791

Vermont becomes the fourteenth state, the first to join the original thirteen.

The 14th State

March 7, 1935

Amelia Earhart, who later became the first woman to make a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, speaks to the legislature on the future of the airplane.

March 11, 1992

An ice jam caused the Winooski River to flood Montpelier. The water rose fast. Flooding lasted for 12 hours. The high water damaged many homes and businesses. The city closed for three days as people cleaned up.

March 15, 1801

George Perkins Marsh, lawyer, congressman, ambassador, and language scholar, is born in Woodstock. Marsh observed the destructive washing away of topsoil by rain and guessed correctly that this was due to the cutting down of the state's forests. Many believe that his book Man and Nature (1864) started the conservation movement in the United States.

March 17, 1878

Redfield Proctor, founder of the largest marble company in the world, became governor of Vermont.