This story was originally published by the Times Argus on October 31, 2025.
IRA — A steady rain was pelting the roof of the Ira Town Hall as Vermont State University Castleton history professor Andre Fleche spoke to a gathering of Ira’s residents inside.
“The good news is that we have a dark and stormy night. The bad news is that we have a dark and stormy night,” Fleche said.
Translation: The weather outside was in keeping with the Halloween theme of this history event on Thursday evening. But it was raining hard enough that the event had to be moved inside, making the presentation a little less ghostly.
Members of Fleche’s class titled “The Antebellum U.S.” were giving presentations on different aspects of Ira’s history and nearly two dozen people came to soak it all in.
Plan A was that the format would be a walking tour with students giving their talks in front of historic buildings like the Town Hall, Graves Tavern, the Ira Baptist Church and an old school building.
“We had been practicing out in front of the buildings,” student Brookelyn Kimball said.
Nobody was complaining about Plan B. The warmth of the Town Hall brought people together to learn about the history of their small town.
Tyler Buxton was hoping to make a little history of his own in two days, as a member of the VTSU Castleton football team. He and his teammates would be at Kean University to try to earn the Spartans’ first victory in the New Jersey Athletic Conference.
This day, the presentation focused on the history of the wool industry in Ira. Buxton described a process that made for softer wool than could not be attained in most places, making the product much sought after.
Stryder Bouchett discussed the sawmill industry and said that Ira was the home of one of the oldest sawmills of the antebellum era.
There is a noteworthy connection between a Castleton graduate and an area sawmill.
John Cottone lost his arm while working in a sawmill in nearby West Haven. He was an athletic training major and went on to great acclaim in that profession.
Many people tell the story of how he learned to tape ankles and perform other treatments at an incredible speed despite having but one arm.
Cottone became dean of the School of Professional Studies at Cortland State in 2008.
He has been inducted into the Castleton Athletic Hall of Fame and the New York State Athletic Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame.
Evan Primeau, who came to Castleton from Ottawa, Canada, discussed the religious revival in Ira from 1827 through 1834. He said there were baptisms nearly every weekend and that church membership doubled.