Letter from LARKIN GOLDSMITH MEAD to GEORGE PERKINS MARSH and JOHN NORTON POMEROY, dated August 1858.
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Hon Geo. P. Marsh & John N. Pomeroy, Esq.
Gentlemen,
All things considered, I think if you can made it convenient to come to Brattlebor
this week Thlursday Evening or Friday morning it will be well. I shall have the Ethan Allen Statue sufficiently far advanced to give you a
good idea of its general effect. On Friday the wooden figure will be in a condition
to be seen. It has to be worked lying down and on Friday the front will be partially
finished (the carving) and it will be standing up ready to turn for finishing the
back. As the wish is to have the Allen Statue finished July 4.59. I think the
marble
should be grained forthwith and then it will be a pretty close fit to complete it,
in the time proposed.
If you should not find it convenient to come on Thursday or Friday please let me know as my carvers are making calculations accordingly. --
Yours respectfullyLarkin G. Mead, Jr
I like very well the photograph of the column. The effect is grand.
References in this letter:
The lawyer, John Norton Pomeroy, (1792-1881) was a lawyer and prominent resident of Burlington, Vermont. He held several position in Vermont state government and was named chairman of the Statuary Committee to oversee the construction of the monument placed over the grave of Ethan Allen in Green Mount Cemetery in Burlington.
Ethan Allen, (1737/38-1789), is considered, with Ira Allen and Thomas Chittenden, one of the founding fathers of the state of Vermont. As a commander of the Green Mountain Boys, a local militia, outlawed in New York, Allen was a considerable force in the defense of the newly formed state against the British.
Larkin Goldsmith Mead Jr.(1835-1910) was a sculptor from Brattleboro, Vermont. although he spent most of his life in Florence. He created the statue of Agriculture that crowns the Vermont State House in 1857, and the statue of Ethan Allen in the same building in 1861. He was also responsible for the statue of Allen in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol and for an elaborate memorial to Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois.