Randolph's early history predates the history of Vermont. The first people to settle this area "from away" were in the East Valley, near the Second Branch of the White River where there was a rudimentary route to Canada as well as backcountry trails used by indigenous residents and transient trappers and traders. The first white settlers squatted the land that was to become Randolph in the 1770s and the town was established shortly thereafter in 1781. Vermont entered the US in 1791.
Older accounts of the state mostly discuss the achievements of these white men and the history of Vermont, including the fact that the early Vermont Republic banned adult slavery. However, the legacy of Black people's experiences in Vermont were not quite as straightforward or well-documented.
Alexander Twilight, whose life has been extensively researched, did six years of schooling at Randolph’s Orange County Grammar School–on what is now the VTSU campus–but eventually settled in Middlebury.
(Alexander Twilight, not Ben Robinson, Randolph resident from 1815-1821)
Ben Robinson was one of the first documented African American people to have settled in the Randolph/Braintree area, but people mostly only know him from his gravestone in the South View Cemetery. Here's what else we know about him–his story has a lot of familiar Randolph names and places in it.
According to the Herald, Robinson was born an enslaved person in New Bern, North Carolina. Members of the Ninth Vermont Regiment encouraged him to come North with them when he was a teenaged boy. He left with them in 1863 where he worked for and possibly fought alongside members of the regiment. At the time, his surname was Furbey after the family who had enslaved him. He changed it to Robinson, the name "of an earlier master," which was the name he preferred.
He arrived in Vermont after the war in 1865, working for Lieutenant William Holman. Holman, who lived in Braintree, sent the young Robinson to school "with white boys" and staked him $200 (about $5000 in today's money) to set up a life for himself upon his 21st birthday.
Of note is the fact that while Vermont did not allow "adult slavery" there were many loopholes in this provision allowing for both indentured servitude and legal enslavement of children. These loopholes were finally closed by a statewide vote in 2022. Robinson's status as a free man is not entirely clear until the point at which he left Holman's home.
He remained close with veterans. In 1892 he went to Washington DC with his comrade John Manney for the annual G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) National Encampment, a nationwide veterans gathering. He attended to try to get more information about what had happened to his father, but he was unsuccessful.
(Souvenir program from the 1892 National Encampment)
Robinson's obituary notes that he lost the money he was given by Holman "through misplaced confidence in the man to whom he loaned it" but he continued to work locally. He found employment first on farms as a milk driver for E. N. Rising (where he also lived), a job at Salisbury's mill, a porter for the Red Lion, and then later as a night watchman in local mills. He worked for W. H. Du Bois in the late 1890s when he was living on Pearl Street. He was working as a night watchman at the E. F. Emerson company–where he helped the company avoid a serious fire–when he retired because of health reasons in 1900. When former President Theodore Roosevelt came through Vermont, Robinson was on hand to listen to his speech and was said to have shaken the President's hand.
(a receipt from E. F. Emerson)
Robinson died a few years later of heart disease on June 2nd, 1910, at Park Street home of Charles Flint where he was living. His obituary describes him as the only Black person in Randolph, "honest, quiet, well-meaning and worthy of respect." The pallbearers at his funeral at the Methodist church were John Manney and three of his classmates: E. S. Abbott, Allen Flint Jr., and Henry Seymour. Robinson was said to have had "a little property" but left no will so it is believed that, after his burial expenses were paid, his estate went to the town.
(Robinson's grave in Southview Cemetery)
His gravestone, made of Italian marble, was placed in the South View Cemetery by the U. S. Grant Post No. 96 of the G A.R. on Memorial Day 1912. It reads, "Ben Robinson of African descent born a slave in North Carolina. Escaped to freedom by the aid of Co. G, 9th VT Reg. in 1863 and brought to Vermont by Lieut. Wm. G. Holman in 1865. Died in Randolph, VT May 31, 1910 aged 60 years. Under God and the Strong Arm of our American Republic, the Negro Slave is Free." Next to it is a G.A.R. medallion and an American flag. Someone regularly places flowers beside it.