Murder in Plain Sight? An Abenaki/Settler Mystery on the New England Frontier

Presenter: Damian Costello

Calling all genealogists, local historians, and amateur detectives! This program will examine an unsolved story of murder from northern New England: Local history briefly records that in 1790, the original American settler to the Montpelier area, Jacob Fowler, killed an unnamed “Indian” in a dispute over a trapline. Together, participants will draw on historical documents, genealogical work, and the fiction of local historian D.P. Thompson to reconstruct the biographies of the two participants and explore this formative time in New England history.  

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