You can take the boy out of Vermont, but you can't take Vermont out of this boy...Charles Durkee's story.

Charles Durkee was born in Royalton on this day in 1807. He would leave Vermont, but his legacy would revolve around an issue close to Vermont's heart: the abolition of slavery.

Durkee became a Wisconsin Congressman and then Senator. He was the first well-known congressmen from the north central United States to stand solidly against slavery. Durkee served as a delegate to the peace congress of 1861, which was one of the last attempts to preserve the Union without resorting to a civil war.

Durkee eventually become a Senator from Utah, and in 1865, President Johnson appointed him Utah's Governor.

Image courtesy historyforkids.utah.gov.

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