Home Of The Union Meeting House at the “Rock” and the Baptist Church, East Sheldon

The East Sheldon map clearly indicates the location of “Union Church” but does not indicate a location for Baptist Church Shown below. The structure is uniquely different that the Union and was said to be on the road south out of East Sheldon. The building is said to have been erected in 1860. Philo Dunham, who lived nearby, indicated that the building was “torn down around 1908”. The only “Baptist” church we located happens to be in nearby Fairfield.

Considering the population of Sheldon and the surrounding area, this crowd from Sheldon, Enosburgh, Franklin and the area clearly demonstrates the influence of the church on community life.

 

 

 

Picture  of the Union House at the “Rock”

Union House at the Rock used by the Methodist and the Congregationalists occupied a lot in East Sheldon  It appears that most of our early settlers found church a good place to be.
Some of the “Journals” and “Memories” from people in the past mention going to the “Rock” twice each Sunday and once during the week.

 

 

 

A Recent Excellent Article by Andy Crane – January 2026

“By 1829, a Union church was proposed, serving several denominations, and the Town’s leading citizens were ordered to meet “at the rock, midway between East Sheldon and Sheldon village”.

This rock was giant glacial erratic, deposited millennia ago by the great ice sheet that scraped and bulldozed across most of North America. It was left along the East Sheldon road, near the present Kane Road, on today’s Richard and Doris Archambault farm. In our time, the rock -of uncertain depth- appeared about 7 feet high, and perhaps 15 feet across. The road and rock existed comfortably, side by side. For generations, neighboring children: the Soule, Draper, and Riley kids hiked to the “picnic rock” to discover adventures, share stories, swap secrets and tell lies.  Early in the 1980s however, town officers decided this rock offended the highway right-of-way, and on a summer afternoon they blew the rock to smithereens.

A small fragment of the meeting rock remains, at the edge of the Town right of way, roughly across the road from the Archambault’s equipment shed. Invisible among the dense vegetation in the summer, you can see it in spring and fall. Take a look, and listen for those early settlers deciding “who will lead” “what do we need” and “where do we go from here?””