On October 6, 1883, Allen Foot presented Henry Sheldon with a piece of a chest buried by his grandfather Daniel Foot, along with several other “relics.”[1] Below is a photograph from Sheldon’s diary on the day he procured the specimen:
The diary reads, “Warmer partly clear + pleasant AM, I hung some pictures in upper rooms, PM I went to Allen Foots and got several old relics.” As his acquisition ledger indicated, Foot donated several objects, including two spools, a churn, a knife, and a candle rod.
Although little is known about the function of the chest, Sheldon’s log book entry of the woods used in the relic chair suggests that it stored sentimental heirlooms and was buried when the British drove the Foot family out of their home during the Revolutionary War. A copy of the entry is displayed below:
Sheldon’s records suggest that the specimen was procured from Daniel Foot’s plot of land. As the map below indicates, Foot’s property was located in southeast Middlebury roughly half a mile away from Middlebury College’s campus today.
-Harry Rich ‘17.5
Footnotes
[1] H.L. Sheldon Diary entry, 6 Oct. 1883. Collection of the Henry Sheldon Museum, Middlebury, VT.
See also the entry on the relic from Daniel Foot’s barn, also donated by Allen Foot: https://sites.middlebury.edu/sheldonrelicchair/2018/02/01/daniel-foots-barn/