Before the last remaining tree from the historical Romaine Tenney Farm was cut down in Weathersfield, Vt., on the early morning of March 17th, 2021. C

Goodbye to a Yankee Farmer, the Ghost of Exit 8

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2021-05-27 22:00:06

Before the last remaining tree from the historical Romaine Tenney Farm was cut down in Weathersfield, Vt., on the early morning of March 17th, 2021. Credit... Kelly Burgess for The New York Times

WEATHERSFIELD, Vt. — The morning sun was just slanting through the trees when a crew arrived with chain saws to remove the last sign of Romaine Tenney.

It was only a tree, a gnarled rock maple that stood for generations on the Tenney farm, and somehow survived what happened there on that September night in 1964.

Now Vermont had ordered the tree cut down. A chain saw began to whine, and clouds of sawdust bloomed into the air. Then the first limbs began to fall, light and springy, coming to rest in a shower of twigs.

A dozen townspeople stood watching, mourners at a graveside. The tree was mostly dead, but they associated it with Mr. Tenney, the bachelor farmer whom they had called “Whiskers,” and who had died in such a terrible way.

They were old enough to remember when the Interstate was built, on land taken from farmers up and down the Connecticut Valley. The state offered compensation, but if landowners refused, it could seize land by eminent domain.