Coolidge State Historic site hosts civil War program with historian David Book

Saturday, Aug. 9 at 2 p.m. — PLYMOUTH NOTCH — The Vermont Division for Historic Preservation hosts Civil War historian David Book at the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site on Saturday, Aug. 9 at 2 p.m. The presentation is sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council through its Speakers Bureau Program. It is free, open to the public, and accessible to people with disabilities. David Book will present “A High Price to Pay, A Heavy Burden to Bear: One Family’s Civil War Story.” In this stirring fi rst-person performance, he portrays Abel Morrill, Sr., an early settler of Cabot, Vt., whose life refl ects the hardship and heartbreak suffered by those who lived at the time of America’s greatest confl ict, the Civil War. Book draws on primary resources, and tells a story that could be repeated by many families in every town in Vermont during this era. “A High Price to Pay” complements the new seasonal exhibit at the Coolidge Site, “The Coolidges, Plymouth, and the Civil War.” Designated a Top 10 Vermont Civil War Sesquicentennial Event in 2014, the exhibit examines the Civil War from the perspective of the Coolidge family and their neighbors. It offers fi rst-person accounts told with period letters, photographs, and personal items on loan from private and public collections. The visually exciting display also reveals President Coolidge’s life-long interest in the subject. The President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site is open daily May 24 – Oct. 19 from 9:30 a.m. to 50 p.m. For more info, call 802-672-3773, or visit historicsites.vermont.gov.