Somebody has to keep all this safe
Take Me Back Inc. preserves the history of Vermont's Mad River Valley — the books, the building, the photographs in the shoeboxes, and the stories that so far existed only in somebody's kitchen.
Waitsfield. Warren. Fayston. Three towns, no traffic light, no fast food, one very long memory.
A Vermont 501(c)(3). Founded and led by Mary Kathleen Mehuron.
Our Work
Three things, done properly
We publish.
Three volumes of Take Me Back: An Anecdotal History of the Mad River Valley, all sold out, plus a column that has run continuously in the Valley press for years — and other people's family histories when they deserve a proper edition.
We save buildings.
One so far: General Benjamin Wait's house, the oldest and most significant in this valley. We led the fundraising that saved it, and documented the whole thing on film.
We save photographs.
We bought a scanner and started digitizing the family archives of the three towns, before another generation of shoeboxes goes into a dumpster.
Every contributor to every project has donated their work. There are no salaried employees. That isn't a slogan — it's the reason a small organization has gotten this much done.
The Column
Start here
The Take Me Back column is where all of this began: a few articles that became a column, a column that became a non-profit, and a non-profit that has not stopped since.
Mary Kathleen has written more articles than anyone has counted, blending personal narrative with the people and organizations keeping this valley's history alive.
The Books
Three volumes. All sold out.
Take Me Back: An Anecdotal History of the Mad River Valley, Volumes I, II and III.
The limited keepsake first editions sold out. The winter hardcover sold out in days. So there was a third, in autumn, because at that point it seemed rude not to.
Every contributor donated their work. Every dollar of profit went to organizations and individuals showcasing this Valley's history. Written here, made here, sold here — and now on shelves in houses across three towns, which is exactly where we wanted them.
Want the next one?
There will be a Volume IV. We don't know when. Leave your name and you'll hear before the print run is set, which is the only moment at which it's possible to get one.
Preservation
We put a roof on a house built in the 1790s
General Benjamin Wait chartered this town. His house — the most historic building in the Valley — was losing its roof and rafters. The town tarped the worst of it to keep rain and snowmelt off the hand-hewn beams, which bought time and nothing else.
Take Me Back led the fundraising to fix it properly. It now has a new roof, fresh paint, and repaired shutters, and it made it to the Fourth of July looking like something worth saving. Our founder sat on the Wait House Commission through the repairs, and resigned once they were done.
We also made a film about it — written, directed, produced and paid for by Take Me Back, with our local Mad River Valley TV (MRVTV) and the videographer and editor Christopher Wiersema.
The Photo Project
We bought a scanner
Our founder also serves on the board of the Rural Resource Commission, where she proposed digitizing the old photographs held by the historic families of the three towns — the shoebox pictures nobody outside the family has ever seen.
So Take Me Back bought a good scanner, and she went and recruited people.
That's the whole story. It isn't a dramatic one. It may be the most useful thing on this page, because those photographs were going to be lost and now they are not.
Have photographs?
We'll come to you and bring the scanner. Nothing leaves your house and you keep every original — we just need to know who's in the picture, which is the part no scanner can do.
Have photographs? Write to hello@takemebackvt.org and we'll come to you with the scanner.
Transparency
Where the money goes
There are no salaried employees and no office.
Every contributor to the books donated their work, and every dollar of profit went back out to organizations and individuals showcasing this valley's history.
Take Me Back Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3), EIN 92-0509176. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Keep Up
What we're saving this month
Restored photographs, whatever the column is chasing, progress on the building, and an honest word when something takes twice as long as we said it would.
No spam. Roughly monthly.
About
Somebody had to have kept his papers
That was the whole hunch. That's where this starts.
General Benjamin Wait fought in the French and Indian War and the Revolution, was made High Sheriff of the newly invented Republic of Vermont, and chartered the town most of us are sitting in right now. A man like that does not vanish without a trace. Families keep things. Somewhere out there was a descendant with a box.
So Mary Kathleen Mehuron went looking for the box.
She found a person instead
Dr. C. Leon Knore — teacher, author, direct descendant of General Wait, and at the time eighty-five years old.
He hadn't just kept the papers. He had spent years turning them into the most complete account of Wait's life that exists anywhere: Wait, Unpretentious Pluckiness. Four hundred and sixty pages. Self-published in 2021. Almost nobody has read it.
He did not simply put copies in the mail. First he wanted to know exactly what she intended to do with them, and the vetting was, by her own account, rigorous.
We think that was entirely correct of him. A man in his eighties holding the only full account of his ancestor's life owes nothing to a stranger who turns up saying she's interested in history.
She passed.
He sent her the last twenty copies he had. They are, as far as we can tell, priceless — and they are the reason we know what we now know.
What was in it
Wait helped delay Burgoyne's march south from Canada toward his defeat at Saratoga — the turning point of the Revolutionary War. He and his brother Joseph were outlaws in New York before joining the Green Mountain Boys. After the war he was handed responsibility for establishing law and order in a country roughly ten minutes old. Then he chartered and built Waitsfield.
The founder of our town was a wanted man in a neighboring state, and then became the sheriff.
This is extremely on-brand for Vermont, and we have stopped apologizing for it.
Who goes looking for a dead general's paperwork
Take Me Back Inc. — a Vermont 501(c)(3) with one mission: raise awareness about, and money for, the history of the Mad River Valley.
Waitsfield, Warren, Fayston — and Moretown, which the Valley has always counted even when the maps did not. The Valley went from mills and farmland to three world-class ski mountains without picking up a single traffic light or one fast-food restaurant on the way. That was not an accident and it was not quiet. It took a specific, locally abundant kind of stubbornness.
That stubbornness is the entire focus of everything we do.
It started with a few articles Mary Kathleen Mehuron wrote. The articles became a column. The column became a non-profit. The rest is below.
The record
Three books. Take Me Back: An Anecdotal History of the Mad River Valley, Volumes I, II and III. The limited keepsake first edition sold out. The winter hardcover sold out in days. So there was a third, in autumn, because at that point it seemed rude not to. Every contributor donated their work. Every dollar of profit went to organizations and individuals showcasing this Valley's history. All three are sold out — and there will be a fourth. → Join the waitlist
A roof. Wait's house — the most historic building in this valley — was losing its roof and rafters. The town tarped the worst of it to keep rain and snowmelt off the hand-hewn beams, which bought time and nothing more. Take Me Back led the fundraising to fix it properly. It now has a new roof, fresh paint, and repaired shutters, and it made it to the Fourth of July looking like something worth saving.
A film about the roof. Written, directed, produced and paid for by Take Me Back, with our local Mad River Valley TV (MRVTV) and the videographer and editor Christopher Wiersema. → Watch it
An archive. Our founder serves on the board of the Rural Resource Commission, where she proposed digitizing the old photographs held by the historic families of the three towns — the shoebox pictures nobody outside the family has ever seen. So we bought a good scanner and she went and recruited people. That is the whole story. It is not a dramatic story. It may be the most useful thing on this page, because those photographs were going to be lost and now they are not.
Other people's books, and a play. We edited and published the Eurich family history — their story in words and photographs of this Valley you have genuinely never seen. And we were a main sponsor of a local production, recorded and archived, on the grounds that a play nobody records is a play that happened once.
A column that will not stop. Mary Kathleen is still writing it, in the Valley press, with no end in sight. → Read it
How we work
No staff. There is a founder, a board, and whoever turns up. Every contributor to every book donated their work. When we say the money goes to the work, we mean it structurally — there are no salaried employees and no administration to pay for.
Take Me Back Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3), EIN 92-0509176.
We show our sources. Everything we publish gets footnoted, and we would much rather be corrected by a neighbor now than by a historian later. The Valley has a long tradition of repeating a good story until it becomes a fact. We try not to add to it.
We finish things. The roof is on. The books are printed. The scanner is running. This matters more than anything else.
Take Me Back Inc. · Waitsfield, Vermont · a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit. Founder: Mary Kathleen Mehuron.
Donate
Fund the next rescue
Take Me Back Inc. is a registered Vermont 501(c)(3). Your donation is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law, and it pays for specific, unglamorous things.
Secure checkout by Stripe — you can direct your gift there, and receipts come from Take Me Back Inc.