Before Your Time is a podcast about Vermont history. Every episode, we go inside the stacks at the Vermont Historical Society to look at an object that tells us something unique about our state. Then, we take a closer look at the people, the events, and the ideas that surround each artifact. Listen below or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Google Play.
John Aubrey Gordon was one of Barre’s most prominent public figures: an attorney and a proud socialist, he fought for the safety and labor rights of the city’s granite workers. As mayor, he expanded the city’s infrastructure, and he helped build the Barre-Montpelier Airport and the Barre Municipal Auditorium.
But Gordon may have taken a different path if not for his experience at the Italian front during World War I.
Gordon spent a year as an ambulance driver, shuttling the wounded away from the front lines. He fought during the “seven days of hell” at the Battle of Piave River, and he received the Italian War Cross for his heroism.
Brennan Gauthier, an archeologist for the Vermont Agency of Transportation, collects photos of World War I soldiers. He says Gordon’s story reveals how strongly the war affected young men.
“You look at photographs of them and you can hardly believe that they know how to tie their shoes, let alone ship overseas and fight an enemy they may have never met before,” Gauthier says.
Gordon was not alone: over 16,000 Vermonters served in the war. And while about 600 died overseas, thousands of others brought their experiences back to their home state.
World War I ended 100 years ago this month. On our latest history podcast, experts describe the war’s effects on Vermont:
- At the Vermont Historical Society, Linda Radke, Paul Carnahan and Amanda Gustin discuss the subtext of a patriotic song penned in Burlington.
- Brennan Gauthier tells the story of Barre hero John Aubrey Gordon.
- Amanda Gustin talks about Anne Squire of Weathersfield, who shipped overseas as a reconstructive aide.
- Kate Bright and Sarah Dopp, from the UVM Medical Library, describe how Canadian poet John McCrae, famous for the WWI elegy “In Flanders Fields,” kept roots in Burlington.
Produced in partnership with the Vermont Historical Society and the Vermont Humanities Council.