Burlington Mch 22 58

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Dear Sir

Mr Mead sent me a model of his design for the statue on the dome, while I was at Boston. It was badly broken, & I returned it to him for repairs, & for some changes deemed necessary. He has now repaired & changed it & you will receive it by express. There will be needed some verbal explanations

about the execution of parts which could not be clearly represented in so small a model, & these Mr Mead will furnish the carver, if he is not employed to execute it himself. Mr Silloway will give directions with regard to the and the mode of & the work which directions are authorised to be prepared by them for the statue. I have conferred with Mr Silloway on this subject,

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& perhaps he has already sent the directions. If not, he will do so soon.

Yours respectfullyG. P. Marsh for self & other commissioners

Hon T. E. Powers
Supt. construction
of State House

References in this letter:

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.

Thomas W. Silloway, (1828-1910), was only thirty years old in 1857 when he was chosen architect for the new State House in Montpelier. Silloway was from Massachusetts, and had worked in the office of Ammi B. Young, the architect who designed the previous building. Silloway and Dr. Powers, the superintendent of construction for the 1857 job, had worked together to design and build a new courthouse in Woodstock, Vermont, that burned in 1854.

Governor Fletcher named three commissioners to oversee the construction of a new State House in Montpelier: Norman Williams, John Porter, and George Perkins Marsh. Dr. Thomas E. Powers was named the Superintendent of Construction.

Dr. Thomas E. Powers, (1808-1876), of Woodstock, Vermont, was appointed by Governor Fletcher to be the Superintendent of Construction of the 1858-1860 project, to build a new State House in Montpelier to rebuild the structure burned in 1857. He and the architect, Thomas W. Silloway, were soon at loggerheads over their roles in the project. Powers became State Senator in 1861.