Hard-working, God-fearing, and often clever, these were literate, respectable, and fairly well-off folks. They were, also, all too human - and certainly not always 'nice' or 'admirable'.

The history that spills out from this archive - of documents, letters and postcards, diaries, photographs, and oral history - encompasses family tales, curses and scandals; working lives of farmers, store-keepers and merchants, and railway men; education, teenage life, and courtship; building homes and becoming consumers; serving in the militia and in war; early tourism, and local entertainments; with a discursion on Vermont family names along the way.

It is a fascinating story, generously illustrated with reproductions of documents and photographs.