When I was a child and we vacationed in Rutland, Vermont, where many of my mother’s Woodward ancestors were from, we would drive down Woodward Road in Mendon, VT, to look at the farm house that previously belonged to her Uncle John. Mom had some memories of playing there as a young girl, especially in the iconic red barn on the property. As this beautiful farm house property is now a popular Vermont inn, I wanted to know more about John Woodward and his farm.
Born in Poultney, VT in 1870, to Adrian and Ada Woodward, John graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point, NY in 1892. His parents must have been most proud of him, as Adrian was a Civil War Veteran himself and active in the Vermont GAR.
Following his marriage to Frances Judge in 1896, John saw service in the Spanish-American War in 1898, and the Philippines Insurrection from 1899-1902. In World War I, he commanded the 24th Brigade at Camp Devens in Middlesex and Worcester Counties in Massachusetts. Fort Devens was a training facility and was hit hard by the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic.
In fact, Camp Devens was hit so hard, it is the primary military camp featured in the book “The Great Influenza” by John Barry which chronicles the Spanish Flu pandemic. Despite first rate medical staff, so good that the staff were doing scientific experiments in addition to normal medical duties, and a modern hospital that could accommodate up to 1200 patients, the epidemic started and exploded out of control. On one day, 1,543 soldiers reported ill with influenza at Devens, Barry wrote on page 187.
The top military brass and top national doctors descended on Camp Devens to determine the identity of this terrible new sickness. While they did not identify the illness at Devens, some progress was made and emergency calls were made to the Rockefeller Institute Laboratory in New York and the Surgeon General in Washington, D.C. presumably to alert President Wilson.
John Woodward survived Camp Devens and must have been tremendously affected by the tragedy and mass death he saw there. After the war, he continued his rise in the US Army ranks, serving in New York and Washington, D.C. and ultimately attaining the rank of Brigadier General. It was in 1923 that he purchased a 12-acre farm in Mendon, Vermont, which he owned until his death in 1944.
Mendon is just to the west of the renowned ski area of Mount Killington, off Highway 4, to the northwest of the City of Rutland, Vermont, in the south-central part of the state. Locally, this area is called the “Killington Valley.” It’s speculation on my part but very easy to see why John Woodward would be motivated to purchase a summer retreat in a remote area with fresh air, after the horror he endured at Camp Devens and the subsequent assignments in big cities.
The property in Mendon is now an inn known as the “Red Clover Inn,” and their website implies the main house was built in the late 1840’s. The newer carriage house, with additional rooms, was built in the 1970’s. While the name Woodward Farm is lost, the name of the road remains “Woodward Road.” There is also a framed bit of Woodward history hanging on the wall near the inn’s check-in desk today.
Following John’s death in 1944, wife Frances continued to own the farm. Frances died in 1952 and during probate of her estate in August 1954, notice is given in the Rutland Daily Herald, the local newspaper, of intent to sell the “Woodward Farm.” John and Frances had 5 children so perhaps probate was complex. The family owned the property for about 30 years in total.
Although the property has long left the Woodward family, it’s cheerful to think of the happy times the farmhouse sees now. And, the red barn still stands.
