Martha B. Warren is one of America's great unsung heroes.  Well, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but she surely merits a lot more attention than she's received till now.  Google her name and what do you get?  Five hits, including this page.  Considering the magnitude of her gift to the public and the State of Vermont, that's more than paltry -- it's plain unfair. 

     In fact Martha B. Warren was a paragon of public-mindedness.  She made it possible for thousands of people each year -- women, men, and children of all ages -- to camp, swim, hike, and enjoy the natural wonders of one of the State of Vermont's premier public parks.  Heiress of the Samuel L. Hazard legacy, in 1959 Martha B. Warren willed her house and all her lands in West Castleton, more than 600 acres, to the State of Vermont, on the condition it be turned into a state park, and that her house and everything in it remain accessible to the public.  And so it remains.

     So when you hear children laughing or playing or splashing in the waters at Bomoseen State Park, think of her.  It was her largesse and civic-mindedness that made it possible. 

     The basic outlines of her life story are inscribed on the rear of the lovely gilded-frame portrait of her that hangs on the wall in the Hazard or Park Ranger House in Lake Bomoseen State Park:  

Front and rear of the gilt-framed photograph of Martha Ballard (b. 1891) at age 9 on the wall of the Park Ranger House, Bomoseen State Park (see Photo Page 24, photos 788 & 789).

     The top part of these inscriptions identifies her marriages and name changes over the course of her life:

Toward the bottom there's a further explanation of why she deserves to be remembered:

Inscription reads:  "Who donated her property to the state for a park on her favorite Lake Bomoseen Vermont on West Castleton Bay.  Her mother (Ballard) a doctor's widow, of Lafayette Ind. married Lester Hazzard the last of the original owners.  He ran the old stone store (now Colonel Storm's Home)."

     Martha never knew her father.  Her mother, Annie Ballard Strickland, was widowed soon after Martha was born in 1891.  When Martha was 7 or 8, her mother married Lester S. Hazard, Jr., scion of the Hazard family of Boston and West Castleton.  The family of three moved to the shores of Lake Bomoseen, where Martha spent her childhood and much of her youth, as amply documented in the hundreds of photographs, letters, and other artifacts in the Hazard House. 

     In 1904 in West Castleton, Samuel & Annie Hazard had a son -- Rodman O. Hazard -- Martha's step-brother, 13 years her junior.  She went to a prep school or college of some sort, where she gained a bevy of sorority-sister friends whose photos are sprinkled throughout her photo albums.  On reaching adulthood she married Arthur (Art) Pratt, moved to Albany NY, and in 1916 gave birth to her only child, Martha Jane Pratt.  In the mid-1920s Art started a high-tech tomato farm and canning factory just outside Albany.  By this time she and Art were drifting apart.  By 1930 they were still married but separated, with Martha and Mary Jane living in Albany and Art living and working as a farmer outside the city.  Right: Martha Ballard's mother Annie Ballard Strickland, 1898  (photo no. 406d). 

     By the mid-1930s mother and daughter made their home in West Castleton, and in 1939 Martha and Art divorced, Art being found guilty of "willful desertion."   Soon after Martha married Frederick Warren, keeping her "Ballard" middle initial (Martha B. Warren).  In what must have been a terrible blow, in September 1954 Martha's daughter Mary Jane died, at age 39, at her home in West Castleton.  Martha was doubtless devastated.  Yet her only child's tragic and premature death also made possible the creation of Bomoseen State Park five years later-- for had Mary Jane lived she surely would have inherited the family legacy.  (Left: Martha Ballard, ca. 1910; photo 393b on Photo Page 10)

     There's enough material in Hazard House for some budding biographer or historian to craft a more detailed portrait of Martha B. Warren's life.  Looking out on the crowds of squealing children and happy campers at Bomoseen State Park, one can't help but think that she deserves at least that.

     Here is her last will and testament, probated in Castleton, Vermont in 1959 (also reproduced on Photo Page 39, photos 1124-1127):

Above:  the last will & testament of Martha B. Warren, Castleton Town Probate Court, Aug 12, 1959; below, section 10 of the will, which bequeathed her properties to the State of Vermont for the creation of a public park.

And here are the relevant census pages:

	1900 census, Indiana.  Nine year-old Martha Ballard living with her widowed mother Annie Ballard, and Annie's family, in Indiana.  [Photo no. 406 has photos of Martha Ballard's grandfather, grandmother, father, and mother, with labels that all fit these census data]
	1900 census, West Castleton.  Samuel L. Hazard, age 45 and single, living with his 85 year-old parents (and a 20 year-old servant of Irish ancestry named Mary Doran!).
	1910 census, West Castleton.  Samuel L. Hazard and wife Annie, with step-daughter Martha Ballard, age 19, and son Rodman Hazard, age 6.
	1920 census, Albany NY.   Martha Pratt, Arthur Pratt, and daughter Jane Pratt, in Albany NY.
	1930 census, Albany NY.  Martha Pratt and daughter Martha J. Pratt living in Albany; mother Martha is married but her husband is not living with her.

     Finally, some curious coincidences:

•      Martha Ballard was born the same year as Grandma -- 1891.  Both had one daughter, middle name "Jane."

•      Rodman O. Hazard was born the same year that John Delehanty turned 18 and migrated out of Vermont:  1904 (best as we can reckon, 1903-04).  Comparing and contrasting the lives of Roddy Hazard and John Delehanty might prove very interesting.  Roddy was privileged, in line to inherit the family property and become a quarry owner.  John was poor; his future in Vermont, were he to have one, led straight into the slate quarries and finishing factories.  Both of their lives were inextricably bound up with the slate industry of West Castleton and Hydeville, but in very different ways.  Both died before their time, and on the cusp of a new phase in their lives:  Roddy was 21, John 42 -- exactly twice as old.  We have tons of photos of Rodman, from birth to death; we have none of John.  It's an intriguing series of contrasts.

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