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Jerusalem Village and the Russell Young Family
Jerusalem is a small village in South Starksboro, and is populated by approximately 57 households. It is said to have gotten its name because “Jerusalem!” was one of the favorite exclamations of one of its original residents. The village boasts a schoolhouse that was built in 1874 and is still standing and currently in use as an informal meeting place for the area residents, a home for the local Volunteer Fire Department, and a church. The schoolhouse was designed to accommodate up to 75 students, making it the largest schoolhouse in the town when it was built. It has a bell on the roof that called the people to church on Sunday, and the children to school during the week. In its day, the schoolhouse was the center of almost nightly meetings and activities. Across from the schoolhouse is the Jerusalem Cemetery. There was also a saw mill, shingles mill, clapboard and stave mills, Blacksmith shops, a post office, hotel, and general store. Today the old post office and general store are private residences (although there is a newer General Store, The Jerusalem Country Store, located on the corner of Jerusalem Road and Route 17.) Many of Jerusalem’s roads are named after farmers who used to live here, such as Russell Young, Robert Young (Russell’s Uncle,) Sam Stokes, Jim Dwyer, Dan Sargent, and Frank Orvis. The Russell Young Family moved to Jerusalem in 1917. Many farmers preferred living in the hills because the soil was easier to work than the clay in the valley near the lake. The house was already here and had been previously occupied by another family. Russell Young developed it into a dairy farm. The original Russell Young Farm was 150 acres with an additional 50 acres on the mountain. It boasted a 110 foot barn and silo across the street from the house. The milkhouse that was attached to the barn and kept the milk cold in a cistern fed with spring water from up on the mountain behind the house until it was time to go to market, still stands across the street from the house. The Youngs hand-milked 45 cows daily, as there was no electricity. Power didn’t come to Jerusalem until 1947 and then it was only used for light. The old barn on the side of the house was an icehouse with oats for feed kept upstairs. The old horse barn was located behind the house near the current garage and held four horses (two working teams.) One of the horses’ jobs was pulling the wooden plow in winter to help keep the road open. The Youngs had two trucks to gather milk from surrounding farms. One truck went to Vergennes and the other truck went to New Haven. They had 500 chickens that were cared for by Ralph, Russell’s son. There was also a sugarhouse on the property at the foot of the mountain in back, and it was said Russell would sugar into April because the north facing slope would cause the sap to start running later here than in other areas. From the front porch you could see all the way down the hill to the Jerusalem schoolhouse. Mrs. Young used to watch the children walk down the road every day to the schoolhouse and would wave at them when they arrived there (according to Ralph.) The original house was a 1 ½ story cape with a porch in the front and an L on the side housed a large kitchen. It had three bedrooms upstairs which Ralph and two hired hands occupied. Doris, Russell’s daughter, and Russell and his wife had bedrooms downstairs. Russell was also involved in local government and was town representative in Montpelier starting in 1935. Russell and his wife, Luthera, are buried in a cemetery in Lincoln. Ralph lives in Williston, and Doris lives in Burlington. |
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