The Interstate was more than just another road it was a belief in progress. When a new section of I-89 opened up near Montpelier in 1960, 300 cars lined up to drive the six miles to Middlesex. It was the shape of things to come, and they couldn’t wait. It ran from the Massachusetts border to just south of Brattleboro, and drivers marveled at what we now take for granted: It was straight and smooth.
Vermont’s first six miles of Interstate highway, a section of I-91, opened in 1958. He was a happy man–until his farm was destroyed to build Interstate 91. He loved his family: his many brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces. Romaine was born on the farm and spent his life there. “He had a wonderful twinkle in his eye,” said his neighbor, Rolly Cann. “He was always smiling.” And that’s what everyone said.
“What I remember are his beautiful blue eyes and his eternal smile,” said his niece, Rosemary Safford. Tenney Faily and the Weathersfield Historical Society It was as if Romaine held the office of Bachelor Farmer in town. “You could drive by at midnight and there he would be in his barn, fixing some harnesses or just puttering about,” said Deputy Sheriff Robert Gale. He rose late and worked late into the night.
His farm was right on the major road between Ascutney and Claremont the road hugged his cow barn, and neighbors would often stop to chat. Romaine enjoyed visiting on these rides, and all his neighbors liked him. With his long beard, felt hat, and overalls, he was a familiar sight. When he went to the nearby big town of Claremont, across the river in New Hampshire, he’d walk the six miles–except that he probably never walked all the way. He cut his firewood with an axe and a saw cut his hay with workhorses. He had no electricity in his house, used no gas-powered machinery. He milked 25 cows by hand on his farm in Ascutney, Vermont.
In the summer of 1964, Romaine Tenney was a bachelor farmer.
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