Letter from LARKIN GOLDSMITH MEAD to GEORGE PERKINS MARSH, dated February 18, 1858.
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Hon Geo P. Marsh
Dear Sir
The day after I sent the little model to you in Burlington I was obliged to go to
Washington. I have this morning received your kind letter. I can see the importance
of the several changes which you suggest in the model and shall make it my first
business to attend to them on returning to Bratteboro. I was sorry the head should
have broken off, however it is only a few minutes work to replace it. My little
statue seems to be very much liked here in Washington. I[t] stands in the Rotunda of
the Capitol. I am hoping to get a commission from Government to make a Statue but
dont know how I may succeed. I find it depends considerably upon the number of
influential friends a person has. I shall remain here a few days
more and then
intend going to New York for a week or more. If you should wish to say anything to
me in the time please direct a line to me. (No 34 Garden St. Brooklyn N.Y.) If Mr Powers thinks it proper for me to do the Statue in wood I
hope I shall be faithful and make a worthy Statue,
With much respectI am Your Ob SrLarkin G. Mead Jr.
Hon George P. Marsh
Burlington
PS. I hope I may have a letter from Pomeroy in relation to the Allen Statue.
References in this letter:
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.
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.
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.