James Otis Follett

Born in East Jamaica, Vermont in 1843, James Otis Follett lived and worked most of his life on a farm in Townshend. His farm was up the road from the Charles A. Cutler farm in Brookline, Vermont. Follett and Cutler both served in the Civil War during 1862-1863. Follett served with Company D of the 16th Volunteer Regiment in 1862, fought in the Battle of Gettysburg, and returned to Vermont in 1863 as an Army corporal. His neighbor Charles A. Cutler served with Company H of the 8th Vermont Volunteer Regiment in 1862-1863. How well these two men knew each other is speculative, but the fact that they farmed the hillsides of neighboring towns during the same period, both served in the Civil War, and that Follett was paid for the bridge work over Cutler Brook make a personal relationship likely. 

Among other public activities, Follett served Townshend for several years as road commissioner, being responsible for the maintenance and improvement of its public highways. During the 1890’s, when Follett was in his fifties, he seems to have shifted his vocational emphasis from farming to masonry. The first known entry of payment to Follett for the construction of a “stone bridge” appears in the Townshend town records in 1894. Thereafter, Follett built one or two bridges almost every year until his death in 1911, creating substantial yet inexpensive structures to meet the needs of at least three small rural towns. Additionally, he constructed foundations for buildings and abutments for wood covered bridges, including in 1900 a center pier for the famous Holland Bridge (demolished in 1952) across the West River in Townshend.

The total number of bridges built by James Otis Follett is not known definitely. A grandson, Robert Follett of Ascutney, Vermont, estimates that he may have built about forty bridges. Entries in the Putney and Townshend records list payments to Follett for a total of about twenty bridges and culverts built on public highways in those two towns. 

Although Follett lacked formal training in engineering, apparently he did consult a popular engineering text of the period, A Treatise on Masonry Construction by Ira Osborn Baker. A copy of the ninth edition, published in 1899 and apparently used by Follett, remains in the possession of the Follett family. The book describes methods of constructing stone arch bridges; however it is not known to what extent Follett actually depended on the book in his work, for he built at least four bridges in Townshend prior to the publication of his copy of the Baker text. 

Whatever the source of his skill, Follett succeeded in building durable and handsomely crafted bridges. Some of them now carry truckloads which Follett could not have imagined, yet it has not been necessary to alter or reinforce them significantly. Complementing their structural integrity, the Follett bridges possess distinctive aesthetic qualities in their individual variations of the arch form and stone material. 

Currently the greatest general threat to the surviving Follett bridges is inadequate maintenance, both of the active and disused ones. Follett bridges often are in inconspicuous locations on back roads, which tends to keep them from becoming more widely known and appreciated by the public. 

The c.1901 Brookline Stone Arch bridge has survived in part due to Follet’s masterful construction and to the Town’s repeated decision to retain the bridge when demands on the road increased. The date of the center stone section is not known but given its poor construction, mainly the reliance on the mortar/concrete to “glue” it together, it was not constructed by a master stone mason. It is possible that the center section was constructed in the 1920s or 1930s as increased automobile traffic was a common reason to expand road widths. And then again about another 30 years later c.1960 the town constructed the concrete section to expand the full structure to 28’. 

Harlan Allbee

Harlan Allbee was the Brookline Road Commissioner at the time of the concrete addition. Allbee was born and raised in Brookline and lived there all his life. He had a farm and wood mill across the street from the stone arch bridge and always said the stone bridge was built by James O. Follett. When again the road needed to be wider Allbee pushed the state to keep the stone arch bridge, because it was built to Follett’s exacting standards, and, in his view would last longer than anything they might replace it with. Apparently, Allbee’s view carried and that is when the concrete arch extension was added to the upstream end. Because of this act of determination by Harlan Allbee, and the exceptional skill of its builder, the stone arch bridge in Brookline, VT still exists today.

Taken together, the surviving bridges constructed by James Otis Follett constitute a highly representative and intact record of the work of an extraordinary native builder. The Brookline stone arch bridge, as well as all of Follett’s bridges are significant and deserve public recognition and careful preservation to ensure the continued survival of this unique legacy from late nineteenth and early twentieth century rural Vermont.