Franklin H. Dewart Papers

Franklin Henry Dewart was born February 3, 1861 in Norwood, Ontario, to Reverend James Hartley and Mary (nee Day) Dewart. When Dewart was about 10 years old, his family crossed the border into the United States and settled in Chardon, OH. A highly educated man, he attended attended several prepratory schools in Ontario and Ohio and graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1879.

Dewart married Stella Clement in 1880 in Willoughby, OH, and began his career in education that same year as the principal of the Warren, OH, grammar school. He later accepted a position as the superintendant of schools at Hanging Rock, OH, before receiving a life certificate to teach from the state of Ohio in 1885. Additionally, he served as a principal and superintendent in two other Ohio school districts before deciding to return to university studies. He was accepted into Harvard University from which he graduated in 1888 with a degree in math and engineering.

Soon after he received his degree from Harvard, Dewart accepted a position as principal and superintendent of the Saint Albans, Vermont, Academy and later served a term as the president of the Vermont State Teachers Association. In 1894, Dewart left his position at Saint Albans Academy and began his career as a civil engineer. He initially supplemented his income with other teaching positions until about 1903 and later served as the Franklin County Examiner of Teachers from 1904 to 1906.

Dewart participated in engineering projects throughout the state of Vermont and earned a reputation as an expert land surveyor. He was the acting Saint Albans city engineer for one year after his graduation from Harvard and in 1902 accepted the position of the Saint Albans city assessor, which he held for six years. Additionally, he served as a representative in the Vermont State Legislature and as the state engineer for the improvement of the grade and alignment of highways from 1906 to 1908.

Around 1909, Dewart relocated to Burlington while his wife and several of his children remained in Saint Albans. In Burlington he began a business in land surveying, title-searching, and civil engineering. Some of his more well-publicized work came five years later when he served as Vermont’s chief engineer in the surveying of the Connecticut River as part of the legal battle over the Vermont-New Hampshire boundary line.

Dewart’s specialty in finding and interpreting old deeds and in tracing chains of title led him to an appointment by the Vermont secretary of state, Frederick G. Fleetwood, to read and index the state papers of the surveyor general. He spent long hours making accurate modern copies of hundreds of 18th and 19th century local surveys and in studying the work of Vermont’s early surveyors. The result of his work in the Vermont state archives was the publication of the first two volumes of the State Papers of Vermont series, "Index to the Papers of the Surveyors-General" (1918) and "Charters Granted by the State of Vermont" (1922).

In the early 1920s, Dewart married for the second time to Laura A. Barstow, a commercial photographer. The two joined forces and operated a business out of their home at 159 Loomis Street in Burlington with Dewart providing the surveying and civil engineering expertise and his wife providing photographic and copying services for court exhibits, maps, deeds, and other legal papers.

Franklin H. Dewart passed away at the age of 67 on February 23, 1928. Through his life’s work he made an invaluable contribution to the preservation of Vermont’s cartographic history and recordation of late 19th and early 20th century Vermont land development.