Then Again: Vermont and New Hampshire, a long rivalry

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Then Again: Vermont and New Hampshire, a long rivalry

VTDigger / by Mark Bushnell / May 19, 2024 at 7:02 AM

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New Hampshire’s colonial governor Benning Wentworth started a feud with New York when he issued grants to scores of towns in what is today Vermont. Wentworth’s goal had been to raise money to repay his colony’s debts — and enrich himself in the process. Image from Wikimedia Commons

Comedian Paula Poundstone noticed this dispute some years ago while performing in Burlington. When she mentioned New Hampshire, the audience hissed. She was shocked, or at least she pretended to be. (Poundstone grew up in Massachusetts, so she probably has more than an inkling about New England rivalries.)

She tried to get to the bottom of things. “How can you hate New Hampshire?” she asked. “The people there seem so nice.”

“Because it’s upside down and backwards,” offered one audience member, who clearly wouldn’t appreciate my peas-in-a-pod/yin-yang imagery.

Then an audience member in the balcony offered another possible reason: “Because of Ethan Allen and the New Hampshire Grants!” she shouted.

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[EYESORE 9001]

1. As I recall, Vermonters were none too enamored of New York either

Read a passage about Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys at their headquarters, which featured a full-grown bear, taxidermied into a fierce, upright, attack-mode bear, positioned straight toward New York some miles distant.