Filmmaker visits Cornwall Historical Society for info on Ethan Allen’s early life

CORNWALL — Documentarian Rick Moulton visited Pine Street Friday, Oct. 24, to learn more about the early life of Ethan Allen.

Moulton is working on a film for Vermont PBS titled “Ethan Allen: The Man and the Myth” that will be part of the Public Broadcasting Service’s recognition of the United States’ 250th birthday in 2026.

He met with Suzie Fateh, curator of the Cornwall Historical Society, and First Selectman Gordon Ridgway. The group reviewed early maps of town showing where the Allens lived in the 1740s.

“Ethan Allen was born in 1738” in present-day Southbury, said Fateh. “The family came up to Litchfield soon after that... and then two years later they’re in Cornwall.”

The family settled on a large plot near Cornwall Center on Town Street. “That was the center of town in the 1700s. There was a church there, the minister’s house and a two-story tavern,” said Fateh.

Allen’s father, Joseph, was on Cornwall’s first Board of Selectmen in 1740. “The fact he got elected right from the start of the town shows that he had to have some substance,” said Ridgway.

Filmmaker Rick Moulton, left, saw documents from Cornwall Historical Society’s Friday, Oct. 24, while meeting with curator Suzie Fateh.Riley Klein

Allen grew up in Cornwall. Moulton said in his research he found Allen credited the nearby Native Americans as his hunting teachers.

As an adult, Allen became rebellious and reportedly caused some commotion in Salisbury.

“He was an agitator,” said Moulton. “He not only broke the formal religious rule against smallpox inoculation, he did it on the front steps of the church.”

“He was arrested for blasphemy,” said Ridgway.

Allen’s defiance shaped his later leadership. He ultimately moved north to Vermont, met with the Green Mountain Boys and famously took Fort Ticonderoga in 1775.

“We’ve found out he really had very little authorization from anybody to take the Fort Ticonderoga,” said Ridgway. “It wasn’t until the following year that the Continental Congress actually declared independence from Britain. So they were sort of, I would say, freelancing a little bit.”

When war began he joined a failed campaign to capture Montreal and was captured, spending two years as a British prisoner.

After his release he helped establish the Vermont Republic, which operated independently until joining the Union in 1791. Allen has been called the “Founding Father of Vermont.”

But, as Moulton pointed out, his story began in Cornwall.

Moulton said he expects his 57-minute film to air on PBS in early fall of 2026. A 90-minute director’s cut will be released for “limited theater engagement” on July 4.