{"page_1": " CHARLES H. BROWN\nATTORNEY AT LAW\nBRANDON, VT.\nPHONE 306\nOctober 9, 1956.\nMr. Albert P. Congdon, Danby, Vt.\nMy dear Mr. Congdon:\nThank you very much for your very kind letter, and I\nappreciate\nvery much\nYour reaction to\nthe little talk which\nagree with you on practically every-\nI save in Whiting don't think there 1s any question but what\nthing you say.\nmore than one messenger was sent out throughout the country-\nthe Green Mountain Boys ready for Ethan Allen,\na known fact that among the first of these Green\nMountain\nBoys or Minutemen to arrive at Castleton were Gershom\nand Samuel,\nfather and son, and the chances are they both did\nstart out.\nHowever, I think you will have to agree with me\na father of 47 would not\ntake on the run which Samuel,\nat 23, took on.\nagain suggest to you, if you have not already\nthat you read the article by\nKarl S. Brong,\na descend-\nant of Samuel,\nwhich appeared in the Vermont Quarterly of the\nVermont Historical Society of July, 1951.\nThis article, I\nbelieve, explains better than any. I have ever read about Samuel, and I do know that Mr. Brong spent much of his lifetime in trying to determine which one should be considered.\nin that\nYou are also right as to the military title of Samuel, I have a photostatic copy of the commission which was\ngranted to\nSamuel by Thomas Chittenden,\nso his rank\ncomes from\nche State Militia, and I believe, also the rank of his father of Sergeant.\nIt is always interesting trying to determine these histor-\nical facts,\nactually, it is almost impossible, because the\nvarious statements of later historians are merely heresay, and therefore,\nunreliable,\nand any statement becomes a legend\nas it\nis repeated.\nAs I said in my letter to you,\nit is incredible\nthe descendants, that Samuel's own daughter I am sure\nDelia Beach,\nshe wouldn't.\nI am also sure that Samuel was\nthat he went\nthrough those\ncommunities, and I am not doubting\nfor one moment but what Gershom had a lot to do about it too, because he was as vitally interested in it as Samuel.\nAs I\npreviously said, it really doesn't matter too much to us, in that the honor is ours, regardless of whether it was Gerghom or Samuel, but again, we will go with Samuel.\nsercepts yours,\nCH B/S.\nCh\nBrown "}