Among the Society's more unusual artifacts is a mess kettle said to have belonged to General Moses Hazen, whose Revolutionary-era military road runs through the town's history. It is one of many objects in our museum that connect Cabot to the founding years of the nation.
The kettle was donated to the Cabot Historical Society in 1960 by Rev. Dow Lee Hilliard at the request of the owner, Mr. Lysander Walbridge. The kettle was found by John Damon, Sr., on the campground on Cabot Plain, under an old treetop. Damon presented it to Ames Walbridge, who worked for him at the time, as a wedding gift. When Ames's brother Lyman moved to Cabot in 1841, Ames gave him the kettle to boil sap in. It stayed in the Walbridge family until 1906, when it was presented to the Town during Old Home Week. Mr. Walbridge specified it must be “kept in the basement of the Congregational Church until such time as the Town may provide a safer and more appropriate place.”