Henry Stevens / Henry Stevens, Jr.

Born in Barnet on December 13, 1791, and educated at Peacham Academy, Henry Stevens was at various times a farmer, innkeeper, mill owner, legislator, postmaster, temperance leader, stage line proprietor, and operator of the Passumpsic Turnpike. A dedicated antiquarian who assembled Vermont's first great collection of historical materials, in 1838 he became a founder and the first president of the Vermont Historical Society. Stevens died on July 30, 1867, and is buried in the Stevens Cemetery. -continued on back side of marker- Henry Stevens, Jr. -Born in Barnet on August 24, 1819, Henry Stevens, Jr. inherited a love of books and historical research from his father. In 1845 he went to England, where he became his generation's greatest antiquarian book dealer, helping to build the Americana holdings of the British Museum, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and such eminent collectors as James Lenox and John Carter Brown. Fond of signing his letters G. M. B. for Green Mountain Boy, Stevens died in 1886 and is buried in London under a monument made of Barre granite that bears the inscription Lover of Books.