Brattleboro16. Dec. 1857

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Dear Sir,

I learn by the public papers that citizens of Burlington are raising funds to procure a statue of the late Ethan Allen to be placed upon a monument which is now being erected to his memory. Allow me to ask whether any artist has been employed to execute the work, and if not, whether it is open to competition I am led to make these enquiries from the fact that we have a very promising young artist in this town, a vermonter, whom we think a man of genius and is destined to make his mark in the world. The young man, Larkin Mead, has been employed the last year upon a piece of Statuary for M. Longworth of Cincinati The work is now completed and Mr. Longworth proposes to have it set up in the capitol at Washington the present winter The statue is of Vermont marble, has been examined by some very competent critics, and is much admired by them I can only speak of the work from the opinions of those who have examined it, and who are deemed competent judges If M. Mead should be thought by your people to be a suitable man, competent to the task, he would like to be an applicant for the job.

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I can cheerfully recommend M. Mead as a young man of good mind and most excellent character, modest and unassuming in his deportment, and most thoroughly devoted to his profession.

Very respectfully yourfriend & ob. sv.Daniel Kellogg

Hon. Geo. P. Marsh

Burlington.

References in this letter:

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.

Daniel Kellogg, (1791-1875) was a lawyer and a probate judge, as well as holding several positions in Vermont State government. He was elected to the Supreme Court, once in 1843, which he refused, then again in 1845, which he accepted.