Ferrisburgh battle with the letter "h" ensues

Author: Kelly Janis

Trek fifteen miles north of Middlebury, and you will land in the quaint, rolling hills of the town of Ferrisburgh. But is it Ferrisburg or Ferrisburgh? The proper spelling of the town's name has evolved into quite a debate among members of this small rural community.

Ferrisburgh was established in Addison County in June of 1762. By 1850, a post office was built to serve the town's few inhabitants and at that time was given the name Ferrisburgh. Forty two years later, the 'h' was cut from the post office's name in line with a trend on the part of the postal service to shorten the term "burgh" - which denotes a borough or chartered town - to "burg." A century later, Ferrisburgh's residents sought to reattach the town's abandoned 'h' to the town's title and restore the consonant to its former glory.

A representative for Town Clerk Chester Hawkins explained that, "Our earlier land record books had an 'h' on the end of Ferrisburgh, and somehow the 'h' got dropped." According to this source, "In 1990, we voted to add the 'h' back, and the library agreed to do it. The post office, though, had never recognized it before. About a month ago, we wrote them a letter, and they finally agreed to recognize it." Finally the defenders of the 'h' in Ferrisburg have proved victorious, though it took them sixteen years.

When asked if he defended the post office's original move to remove the 'h', Todd Skulnik, District Communications Coordinator for Postal Services in New Hampshire and Vermont, was at first tentative. "Oh," Skulnik said, "This is the first I'm hearing about it. But things don't always come across my desk the way they should." He said "I guess we're putting the 'h' back into Ferrisburgh at the end? Interesting. Let me do some research and get back to you."

Skulnik was prompt in getting to the bottom of the matter. After doing his research, he explained, "The town, in July, requested in writing that the post office add the 'h' back into the town name. The procedure that we follow is to review it here at the district and see if there are any conflicts with other towns. We then run it by the plant managers who process the mail for the town to see if there are any issues there. The National Customer Support center reviews the process. That was done in early July. We also submitted at the same time a request for the change of North Ferrisburgh, as well."

Soon, however, the motion to change the town's name hit a rough patch. "Unfortunately, the Center was unaccustomed to having two requests stapled together, and so they missed the one for North Ferrisburgh, and we had to resubmit it." Committed to the ascension of the embattled 'h,' the office was undeterred and, eventually, saw the approval of their request.

Residents of Ferrisburgh may now take heart. "I believe, to the best of my knowledge," Skulnik said, "they have been notified that the change has been made, and it is available to use the 'h' now." What about those who insist upon clinging to the 'h'-less version? "It's in the system as both spellings. Both will remain in the system indefinitely, so anyone who is slow to make the change in their mailing address will not have their mail delayed in any way."

Perhaps Mrs. Brace's third grade class at Ferrisburgh Central School harbors the best remedy for any lingering uncertainties. After detailing "fun things in third grade like cooking apple jelly, macaroni salad, apple salad and apple snack-wiches," the class website reports, "We have also done Ferrisburg projects. We learned that burg means a city or town. There are two ways to spell Ferrisburg. The United States Government spells it Ferrisburg. The town offices spell it Ferrisburgh." And what do they say to the debate? "We say that both ways are correct to spell the name." Now, back to the jelly and snack-wiches.