FtV - General Ethan Allen’s Missing Corpse
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Subject to availability. Restrictions apply. Visit Safeway.com for more details. Welcome, legendary listeners. Thanks for tuning in to From the Vault, a second look at some of our classic episodes. Look for a new episode every week. Now, can you go back and listen on your own at OurNewEnglandLegends.com? You bet.

But you won't get the added bonus of an After the Legends segment featuring new commentary about that episode from your old pals Jeff and Ray. So let's open up the New England Legends vault and revisit another legendary episode. Hey kids, welcome to the vault. We're so glad you're here with us in the vault where there's something missing. What? Specifically, General Ethan Allen's corpse. Not here. First aired November 5th, 2020. Enjoy.

I thought today would take a walk through history, Ray. That sounds good. I mean, it's a brisk fall day. Yeah. A great day to check out Green Mount Cemetery here in Burlington, Vermont. I agree. The snows haven't fallen yet, so we can clearly see the grounds and all the monuments. This is a good-sized cemetery. Yeah. Not the biggest we've seen, but it's pretty well-maintained. All right, so what are we looking for?

We're here searching for a Revolutionary War hero. Also, the guy who's considered one of the founders of Vermont. He's a fascinating historical figure. We're searching for the grave of Ethan Allen. So keep your eyes open for his stone. And there it is. That was pretty quick. Well, it's pretty impossible to miss, Jeff. It's over 40 feet tall, and it features him holding a sword in one hand and pointing his other hand at the sky.

Yeah, here we are at the towering monument to Ethan Allen. But there's only one problem. He's not buried here. Hi, I'm Jeff Belanger. And I'm Ray Ogier. Welcome to episode 168 of the New England Legends podcast. If you give us about 10 minutes, we'll give you something strange to talk about today. Thank you so much for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England, one story at a time. And we do that through this weekly podcast.

We'll be right back.

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If you can help us out, head over to patreon.com slash newenglandlegends to sign up. Also, be sure to call or text our legend line anytime at 617-444-9683. We do love to hear from you and would love it if you left our show closing on there for us. All right, Jeff. So we're standing below a 42-foot tall monument with a statue of Ethan Allen at the top. Right. In the middle of Greenmount Cemetery in Burlington, Vermont. Correct. And he's not dead.

buried right here. No, he's not. All right, then where is he? Well, that is a mystery. All right, let's head back to 1789 and figure out what happened. It's the winter of 1789 here in Burlington, Vermont. General Ethan Allen moved his family to Burlington just two years ago because small-town life suited him much more than the growing city of Bennington that he left behind. Though he's 52 years old, he's

He's already led a colorful life. To many people around these parts, Allen is a hero. He fought in the French and Indian War. He headed up the Green Mountain Boys, this unauthorized patriot militia that organized in this vague area between New York and the New Hampshire territories. New Hampshire was establishing land grants in this region, and New York believed it was their land to give, so there was tension. And

In 1775, the Green Mountain Boys were instrumental in the capture of the British Fort Ticonderoga on the New York side of Lake Champlain, and that propelled General Ethan Allen into the national spotlight. Feeling good about his victory at Fort Ticonderoga, Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, along with Benedict Arnold and his troops from Massachusetts, they head north to capture Crown Point, New York. And then he gets a little greedy when he tries to seize Montreal.

Allen was captured and spent two years in prison in Cornwall, England. By the time he gets back to America, the American Revolution is in full swing, and Allen has already hailed as a hero. The Vermont Republic had declared its independence, and now Ethan Allen is involved in the politics of this new territory.

One of Ethan Allen's new duties in this region was to serve as a judge in Vermont's Banishment Act. Now, the Banishment Act basically allowed Vermont to confiscate an auction property owned by known Tories or British loyalists. Allen personally escorted some of these banished Tories to the British lines in New York. It's a dark time. Ethan Allen is instrumental in the formation of this new Vermont territory, and he's eager to make Vermont an actual state in these forthcoming United States.

Allen also tends to wear his opinions on his sleeve, which wins him both friends and enemies. When the governor of New York said Allen's actions were unjust because the governor still considered Vermont a New York territory, Ethan Allen responded with a published pamphlet saying the governor's words were filled with, quote, folly and stupidity. He doesn't mince his words. No. And those who know him consider Ethan Allen at times kind of crude and rude. But...

It's a book he published in 1785 that earns him the most enemies. The book is titled Reason, the only oracle of man. Reason was an attack on Christianity and the Bible. Allen had a real problem with the power of established churches and especially priests. The solution, Allen proposed, was more of a deistic approach, where man is a free agent in the natural world. The book was a flop in all senses, a critical flop and a financial flop.

It sold only 200 copies. Of course, most of his critics were clergy, who were the very target of Allen's attacks. But still, in the late 1700s, clergy hold a lot of sway. So that catches us up on this colorful historical figure. He's complex, a patriot, but anti-religion. He's opinionated, but also family-minded. Like I said, complex. So small-town life here in Burlington suits Allen just fine.

It's February 11, 1789, when Ethan Allen and one of his workers makes the 25-mile journey northwest to South Hero, Vermont. He's headed in a wagon to visit his cousin, Ebenezer Allen, and pick up a load of hay. That night, there's a small gathering at Ebenezer's house. Friends have come to chase away winter's chill with some lively conversation.

The following morning, Ethan Allen and his worker begin the carriage ride home to Burlington. After a few hours on the road, Ethan isn't feeling well. Then suddenly, his body starts to shake. He's having some kind of a fit. Then he slumps over unconscious. His driver knows there's nothing he can do for his employer out here. His best bet is to double-time it back to the house.

When they reach Ethan Allen's home in Burlington, he's still not conscious. They carry him into his bedroom and lay him down on his bed while his family runs to fetch the doctor. Ethan Allen survives only a few more hours before passing away, leaving behind his second wife, Fanny, and their three children. Four days later, Ethan Allen is given a funeral filled with all the pomp and circumstance befitting a war hero and state founder. Though

Though some of the newspapers extol the Patriot as a great man who served the public, his clergy critics have not forgotten what he wrote about them and are pretty quick to offer a good riddance kind of sentiment. Back to the funeral, though. After the public said its goodbyes, the family reports holding a burial at Greenmount Cemetery here in Burlington. Let's head back over there and take a look around.

Okay, I can see there's a headstone. Yep, there it is. And it reads, The corporal part of General Ethan Allen rests beneath this stone. The 12th day of February, 1789. Aged 51 years. His spirit tried the mercies of his God, in whom he alone believed and strongly trusted.

It's worth pointing out that Alan was actually 52 years of age at the time of his death. Also, that's quite a godly epitaph for someone who wrote a whole book against religion. That's a good point. Still, that pretty much settles it, right? He's buried in Greenmount Cemetery right here. I'm not so sure. From here, we're going to jump ahead about 60 years into the future. ♪

It's 1851, and not a whole lot has changed in Greenmount Cemetery. No, I mean, there's more people buried here now, which makes sense. Right, but look over there. Notice what's not there. Oh, look at that. You're right. General Ethan Allen's headstone is missing. It's been stolen, and it won't be seen again. And we can only guess as to the reasons it went missing in the first place.

Now, a few years later, in 1758, the Vermont legislature authorizes the construction of a grand monument, 42 feet tall, on a majestic Vermont granite column. A statue of Ethan Allen sits atop the giant pillar. Of course, the statue is just a guess as to what Ethan Allen looked like. We don't really know.

And the stone at the base reads, Vermont to Ethan Allen, born in Litchfield, Connecticut, 10th January, A.D., 1737, died in Burlington, Vermont, 12th February, A.D., 1789, and buried near the site of this monument. All right. Well, that's fair.

His original headstone is missing. The massive new monument now stands here. I mean, he's somewhere nearby. Close enough, right? Sure, close enough. Except when they were laying the foundation for this massive monument to Ethan Allen, they decided it would be proper to excavate the original grave of the hero and place his bones underneath his new tower. So they looked at the cemetery plot maps from 69 years ago. They see about where Ethan Allen's plot should be, and they dig and dig and dig.

They dig up the whole area and are shocked to find there's no tomb. Pretty soon, there's talk of grave robbers, which has happened in the past, of course, but there's no record of it here at Greenmount. Grave robbers also tend to be sloppy. I mean, once they get what they want, they don't really spend a lot of time covering their tracks.

And now locals are buzzing. Where is Ethan Allen? Another theory comes up that maybe someone close to Ethan Allen dug him up shortly after he was buried because there's no way someone so opposed to religion would want his mortal remains surrounded by all these church-going folks. And then the plot thickens when a letter is written to the local newspaper from a man in Kalamazoo, Michigan, who claims his wife's aunt is Aries B. Allen, the widow of Captain Hannibal Allen, General Ethan Allen's oldest son.

The aunt claims Ethan Allen was buried in Bennington, Vermont, not Burlington. The only problem with that is we can find no record of Ethan Allen's burial in Bennington, short of this letter to the newspaper. Right. It's not a popular theory, probably just a confused old woman. And that leaves us scratching our heads next to his impressive monument to a guy who probably didn't really look like that figure at the top because there's no paintings or drawings of him in life. And that brings us back to today.

With no bones or mortal remains to place under the new monument, the folks in Vermont did place a time capsule underneath the base back in 1858. But where Ethan Allen's body is buried remains unknown. The funny thing is, I bet Ethan Allen would love the fact that what he looks like and where he's buried is a mystery today. I mean, this is a guy who lived for speculation, whether in politics or his philosophies or even buying and selling land.

The crazy thing to me is that Ethan Allen isn't even the first missing historical corpse we've searched for. That's right! Back in episode 91, we searched for the missing corpse of Governor Enoch Lincoln from Maine. Maybe it's a New England thing to lose bodies. Maybe. Obviously history has judged this guy a hero considering Vermont calls him one of the state's founders. And they erected this giant monument to him. And they look past his anti-religious views so they don't offend anyone.

Ethan Allen has been turned into an idea, a patriot, a founding father, and we ignore any parts of the story we don't like. We don't know what he looks like, and we don't know where his bones rest. And that mystery only adds to the man, and the legend, behind it. We love when you legendary listeners get more involved. Yeah. I mean, our super secret Facebook group has almost 2,400 members now actively sharing strange stories and discussion.

We get a lot of story leads from you guys, so please don't be shy. Reach out to us anytime. Please do. Also, in the latest version of our free New England Legends smartphone app, you can now have the ability to check in and upload your own photos from the hundreds of locations we've covered so far. Be sure to check that out. And of course, our theme music is...

is by John Judd. Thanks, John. Hi, it's Jody Maruca from Norwood. Until next time, remember, the bizarre is closer than you think. We'll break it down right after a word from our sponsor.

Hey there, it's Ryan Seacrest for Safeway. Now through June 26, score hot summer savings and earn four times the points. Look for in-store tags on items like Kinder Bueno, Cheesy Crackers, Oscar Mayer Lunchables, and Just Bare Chicken Bites. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event-long savings. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in-store or online for easy drive-up-and-go pickup or delivery. Subject to availability restrictions apply. Visit Safeway.com for more details.

missing bodies. Where'd you find him? Behind the dresser. Right. You always find your keys or your sunglasses. Yeah. That's where they eventually found him. Who's buried in Grant's tomb. Yeah. Yeah. Who? Probably Grant, but Ethan Allen, I don't know. Nobody. So I think the conclusion we reached is that he's probably around there somewhere. Yeah. And it was just sort of lost to time. And you say like,

Like literally the founder of Vermont. Like how do you misplace where he was buried? It's kind of an important figure. Yeah. Like I get like old family graves and stuff get lost or whatever. But he was a big deal at the time. Nobody's keeping an eye on him. Yeah. Like that was like, it wasn't like he became a big deal later. Like he was a big deal then. You know, like, oh, Green Mountain Boys and everything else. And you'd think that, be like, he needs the biggest headstone we can find. Right. Right.

And then if you end up moving it, it's where we left the biggest headstone, right? Like, you know, when we put up this giant monument. It's clear. It's chiseled just right so you know who's in there. You'd think. You'd think. I also love that the statue of him...

uh is based literally on someone's imagination there's no there's no painting of him there's no there's no like image obviously no photo of him but like no image of him uh ever yeah so you're just like eh wing it you know um which is cool you forget that there's a lot of people that we have no clue what they actually look like absolutely because they didn't have their portrait painted or what they sounded like right that's another big one too yeah we've talked about um you know uh

Abraham Lincoln. Right. How every actor has mimicked the four score and seven years ago. He's got that voice. But he probably talked like this. Four score. That's what they described. I read a newspaper account that described him. They said his voice doesn't sound like it fits his body and that he moves through very high timbers up and down, but it's mesmerizing. That he was clearly in amazing order, right? But he would pull you in, but it was not with like this stately, you know,

voice. It was more whatever. And then some actor many, many years ago decided four score and seven years ago was how Lincoln must have sounded. And every actor since then has mimicked that. Or a director didn't like the way the actor was portraying him factually. Like, why do you talk like this? That's not going to work for this movie. Yeah. He needs to sound powerful. Right. Well, in the movie Lincoln, I forget the actor who played him. Daniel Day-Lewis. Yes, Daniel Day-Lewis. Apparently that was a lot closer to the mark.

Oh, was it? He didn't do the traditional Lincoln voice. Did you see it? I did, and it was great. I tried watching. It was like four hours long. It's a doozy, yeah. It's an investment in time. Yeah, and it's not exciting. You know what was good? It was Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. That was a little better. Vampire Slayer. Slayer, excuse me. I was just talking about this movie literally yesterday where we were saying how...

how like we all sort of love that movie and I made the point I'm like okay with a title like that let's admit your expectations were pretty low and

So given how low they were, it's easy to exceed. Yeah. Yeah. Right. If you expect a movie, if you call a movie star Wars, your expectations are very high. Right. And it's going to be very difficult to hit that bar. Lincoln vampire slayer. You're like, this is going to be stupid. And then you're like, wow, it was way better than I thought. The action was good. Yeah, sure. And you're like, you're suddenly like, wow, this is good. And then I think they did pride prejudice and zombies or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh,

Remember Dude, Where's My Car? Yes. A movie whose plot can be summed up in the title. You're like, this is going to be the dumbest piece of trash I've ever seen. You're right. But it was funny. It was good. I made it to the end. There's plenty of movies I've shut off, right? Where I'm like, you lost me. I'm out. I can't get into this. But that one, I was like, all right. I had some yucks. Stayed to the end. Any movie that has dude in the title, low expectations. Right. I know. So, you know.

Dude, you know, here's Abraham Lincoln slaying zombies. Dude, here's my speech. Dude, here's my speech in Gettysburg. But yeah, no, these old figures, you know, something else that happens to them too is that we sort of deify them. We turn them into gods.

especially once they're dead because they can't mess it up. Right. It's the same reason Catholics will never make someone a saint who's alive because they could still go off the rails. You can remember and promote all the good things, and you can forget about the bad things. You have to make sure they're good and dead and all the secrets have come out.

And you can live with whatever dirt might be out there. And then you go, yeah, okay, there's... Or you just don't talk about it and eventually it goes away, the bad stuff. Enough time, sure. So Ethan Allen was one of those figures. We talked about his book selling 200 copies, you know, like where he's ripping apart religion. Mm-hmm.

But that's a stain on this glorious political figure that helped, you know, in the revolution and everything else. And so, yeah, we just talk about, you know, what he must have been to the point of making a statue that probably looks nothing like. Who knows, right? But he became something much bigger than he was, which is exactly what a legend is, right? A legend is the story that is bigger than the thing it was based on. And the legend is powerful. And so...

and sometimes well-deserved, but at the same time, it is a thing. It's a story that, that gets bigger than whatever the thing it was based on. Are we sure he even existed? Yeah, probably pretty sure. Okay. Pretty sure there's a, there's enough writing about him that, uh, could be all fiction. Can't make a lot of people in on that one. Yeah. That's a lot of conspiracy. That'd be a lot of people in on that one. Um, but, uh, but no, I, and, and, um,

but but to me the biggest thing though is like i said he was a big deal when he died you would have thought they would have been like yeah we can't just do a regular headstone here he needs a proper monument right which clearly they eventually put in this massive 42 foot tall one it's the tallest thing in the cemetery by far you cannot miss it and um and so you know um but you would have thought even at the time they would have said like yeah we got to do a little more than average here how many

How many times did people ask to paint him? And he said, no, maybe tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow. Not today. Maybe tomorrow. Yeah. Or he was just one of those people that was like, I don't need that. That's not important to me. Nobody's going to care what I look like in the future. Yeah. Well, you never know. There'll be no way to document images anyway in the future. So why start now is what he's saying. Not one selfie. Can you believe it? Like, oh, my God.

Well, I was going to say, how about a painting selfie? Yeah. It's been done. Yeah. Da Vinci, right? Sure. A lot of the painters painted. A lot of his stuff. Van Gogh painted himself a bunch of times. Right. Yeah. Kind of considered a selfie in paint form. This is my acid trip, how I perceive myself, right? Like with Van Gogh. Yeah. No, but that's Ethan Allen. But yeah, so we suspect probably in the ground there nearby, but we don't know for sure. And I love the fact that he is not the first nor the last-

notable historical figure that's whose body has been lost. And we've covered at least one other in Maine. So, yeah, the governor that was... Yeah. ...body is still missing to this day. Well, grab your shovel. Yeah. And let's go find him.