History Space: Early days of Vermont wrestling

Years ago wrestling was a sport looked up to by all classes, the young and old, as an enjoyable occasion. The same as the young and old of today do a ball game. Fashions have changed. Have they changed for the better is a matter of taste, as each individual looks upon the matter.

— “Brief Sketches of the Life and History of George W. Flagg” (1909)

If one were to make the claim that professional wrestling started in Vermont, it would just sound silly. What does the pastoral beauty of the Green Mountains have to do with comic-book villains and heroes in tights? Well, plenty, it seems.

In the 19th century, Vermont was home to national wrestling champions, and the grapplers and scufflers from north of Boston were well-known for their legendary prowess, especially in the “collar and elbow” version of the venerable pastime. The ancient sport, a staple of the original Olympic Games, has had a long and noble tradition in America.

Both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln had nominal success as wrestlers, and, closer to home, even Calvin Coolidge, according to his father, was a “tolerable good” collar and elbow wrestler.

Collar and elbow

In this early and orderly version of wrestling, the opponents started in a standing position with each wrestler grasping an approximation of their opponent’s collar and elbow. One reference source succinctly describes a contest:

The beginning stance is the foundation of the style as well as the origin of its name. This very stance forced the scufflers to use technique rather than a sudden aggression or strength on their opponent. The beginning of the match was often a test of strategy and balance. The scufflers would often try to pull the other off balance or use “toe taps” to the opponent’s foot, ankle or knee to knock them off balance as a set up for a takedown. This stage of the match could last a very long time, indeed, there are accounts where the standing portion of the match had lasted over an hour. Inevitably a take-down would occur.

Some 150 years ago there were few sports for spectators. Aside from the occasional baseball game, horse race, or bare-knuckle boxing spectacle, there were hardly any opportunities to cheer a local champion or wager on the performance of a home-grown favorite.

Wrestling, in one of its traditional iterations, was the primary athletic contest to which one might aspire as a contestant or spectator.

In the late 19th century sportswriter E.L. Persons observed that “wrestling is and for long years has been the popular sport of Vermont’s sturdy yeomanry; town meetings, fairs, cattle shows, house raisings, etc. being incomplete and void of special interest without a wrestling tournament to wind up with.”

Henry Moses Dufur

The first wrestling champions were from the farming communities of Vermont’s Franklin County — Richford, Fairfield, and Bakersfield, in particular. In the 1850s the Dufur family became a legend in those parts, and the youngest son, Henry Moses Dufur, prevailed most frequently. According to wrestling historian Charles Wilson’s “The Magnificent Scufflers” (1959), young Dufur accumulated a string of 127 consecutive victories, a remarkable achievement then as it is today. They wrestled in the once popular collar and elbow style that the elder Dufur had learned in his native Ireland. This older style of the grappler’s art was the standard form of the sport in the Emerald Isle, and Irish immigrants brought the technique and their enthusiasm for the pastime with them when they came to America. According to Wilson, Franklin County led Vermont in the number of Irish immigrants and “developed as a stronghold for Collar and Elbow” with Fairfield a “world capital and fountainhead for champions.”

Wilson notes that the 1870s were the heyday for the sport in Vermont and no social gathering was complete, in Franklin County and beyond, without a friendly contest between a pair of Vermont grapplers. The sport became a common spectacle throughout Vermont. Barre architect and builder A.W. Lane was well-known as an expert. The Barre Times observed that “it was an exceedingly clever man who could floor him, even up to the age when most men halt in athletic performances.” Tournaments were popular, and the largest one of the era was the G.A.R. competition held in Bethel in the late 19th century.

George Washington Flagg

Perhaps the favorite son of Vermont wrestling was George Washington Flagg of Braintree. As stated in the “History of Braintree,” his family moved to Vermont in 1816, the year without a summer: “whole families were reduced to one meal a day and birds froze on their nests in June.”

Flagg was born in Braintree in April of 1839. Although he started wrestling as a teenager, like many of the early champions, he continued to face challengers well into his middle age. His towering physique – he was 6 feet 4 inches and 220 pounds – made him a formidable opponent in the years before the Civil War, and after traveling to Montpelier to enlist in the 2nd Vermont, he was soon the wrestling champion of the Army of the Potomac. Flagg’s military resume demonstrates a commitment to the cause of the Union:

“He participated in every engagement in which the old Vermont brigade bore part from Bull Run to Appomattox. He was constantly on duty, but for one month was disabled by a wound received in the Wilderness. May 3, 1864, his brigade was the first to enter Petersburgh, when General Grant advanced on Richmond. Mr. Flagg enlisted as a private, served four years, participated in twenty-five battles and was promoted to the rank of sergeant; he as such more than once commanded his company in the absence of all the superior officers. He was honorably discharged as 1st lieutenant with brevet captain, July 25, 1865.He was in command and took home to the state the only company organized in the capital of the state during the war.”

Before the war Flagg had labored on his mother’s farm. Once mustered out of the infantry, he became noted for the fine stock of Cotswold sheep he bred on his 350 acres in Braintree.

According to the Braintree history, “in breeding sheep he was wonderfully successful. He exhibited sheep at county, state and New England fairs, and took more premium money and more gold medals on flocks than any other man in New England.” His orchard, as well, was highly regarded, and his fruit was in great demand. Despite his great successes and many awards as a farmer and orchardist, Flagg began to wrestle professionally, his 1908 biography notes, at the age of 32.

“From the age of thirty-five to forty-eight, he travelled extensively in most of the northern states, giving exhibitions of his proficiency, and his only rival was Henry Moses Dufur with whom he had many hard fought battles.” Such was his fame that he was in demand for matches throughout the northeast.

Flagg was 44 when he defeated all comers at a wrestling tournament in Bethel and won the championship belt and a purse of $500. A biographical pamphlet at the Vermont Historical Society notes that the Bethel contest “hosted twelve of the best wrestlers congregated that will ever meet in a town in the United States again.”

His biographical essay in the Braintree history elaborates on his career:

“He traveled through Western New York, where he won many matches, also Ohio. He wrestled in almost every town of importance in Michigan where he defeated the renowned Indian chief Tipsico at a back hold match. In New England, he wrestled for agricultural societies, one of which was the Vermont State Fair, also at July 4th gatherings to thousands of people under great excitement. In his travels, he challenged all comers for any amount with perfect confidence.

After each campaign of travels he returned to work on his farm, never training for a match or series of matches.

During Mr. Flagg’s wrestling career he doubtless wrestled two hundred matches. Athletic sports had a great fascination for him. A game that was very popular in his boyhood days, the champion wrestler being the lion of the day at all public gatherings. In all of his matches he always manifested good cheer towards all, never losing his temper, being strictly honest.

As a temperance man none were more zealous in the cause than he. In all of his travels he never tasted liquor; making speeches in the Legislature in the cause of temperance, never tiring in advocating its cause.”

Wilson reported an interview with Flagg later in life when he finally retired from the ring. “I quit money wrasslin’”, he said, “because it was taking me outside Vermont. I never truly liked being outside Vermont: drinkin’ water don’t taste right, air don’t breathe right, and a man don’t sleep right.” He was elected to the Vermont Senate in 1886 and was famous for successfully introducing legislation requiring the display of the American flag on schoolhouses.

“Catch as catch can” style

As the 19th century drew to a close, the Vermonters began to be eclipsed by wrestlers from the rest of the country. The traditional collar-and-elbow rules were supplanted by the “catch as catch can” style and the orderly tournaments were replaced by a hodge-podge of competing titles. While not suited to radio broadcasts, professional wrestling slumbered for decades until the advent of television gave rise to the histrionic entertainment that one associates with the spectacle of professional wrestling today.

For all the flash, filigree, and foolishness of the modern wrestlers it is pleasing to think of a more dignified time when the men of the serene Green Mountains were known as champions throughout America.

Paul Heller of Barre is a former innkeeper and librarian who enjoys reading and writing about bygone times.