At the corner of the Morrill Highway and Old City Falls Road is a small detached building on what was for many years the property of Arthur and Selena Robinson. It now sits empty and a little forlorn adjacent to the recently renovated farmhouse nearby awaiting a new owner. Like most older buildings, this little building has stories to tell. Some 175 years ago, a small residential tinsmith shop here made maple syrup equipment and cans, sap buckets and skimmers and many other necessary household items.

A cenotaph is a tombstone that has been relocated and no longer rests in place on the original burial site. The Strafford Historical Society has received two cenotaphs: (1) the Pennock family tombstone (James Pennock, died Nov. 2nd, 1808, aged 96 years: and Thankful Pennock, Esq., died Dec. 23rd, 1798, aged 81 years), and (2) a white marble tombstone that commemorates George Day, a Union soldier from Strafford who was captured in the Civil War and sent to the infamous Confederate prison in Andersonville, Georgia.

Adapted from John Freitag’s Historical Note, “Why Justin Morrill Got His Stamp”, printed in the 2023 Strafford, Vermon Town Report.

In the Strafford Town House, there is a sounding board with a carved hand clasping a ring connected to a decorative rod attached to the ceiling. If you look up at the ceiling the next time you are in the Strafford Town House, BEWARE!