BERNARDSTON — It’s a long way from Minnesota to Bernardston, but Tom Ryther has a grasp of early town history that could rival that of most local residents — anyone, that is, except Louella “Lou” Atherton, Bernardston Historical Society’s president and, as it turns out, a distant Ryther relative.
Ryther, 79, a retired television news and sportscaster, visited Bernardston this week to meet with Atherton and to revisit the historic home that his Bernardston ancestor built in 1745.
Ryther is a direct descendant of one of Bernardston’s first settlers, David Ryther, who moved to Bernardston in 1739. Lt. David Ryther, also listed in Bernardston history books as “David Rider,” fought in the French and Indian War when he was 39 and then fought again in the Revolutionary War, at age 60, with his two sons, Hophni and David Jr.
Tom Ryther’s great-great-great-great-grandfather, Hophni, died at age 25 during the Revolutionary War, leaving two sons. Many of the Rythers eventually moved farther west, to Ohio, before moving on to Missouri in 1865.
According to Tom Ryther, the family changed its name from “Ryther” to “Rider” for a while, because of religious persecution in Britain. His first ancestor in America, Thomas Rider, arrived on “The Good Ship Hercules” in 1634, during the Puritan migration.
Tom Ryther was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but his career took him to the Twin Cities. Stories of his family from an elderly aunt, and from a 1979 visit to Bernardston, helped to fuel Ryther’s interest in his family’s past.
The house that David Ryther built is famous locally not only for its age but also for its “spy-painted walls.” According to a pamphlet at the Powers Institute Museum, a man passing as a “wandering artist” during the War of 1812 sought room and board at the house, and agreed to earn his keep by painting murals on the plaster walls.
After a few months, two men from New York state showed up to arrest the man, and took him away. That was the last anyone heard of him, but they believed he may have been a spy in hiding.
The northeast corner room painted by the artist is filled with panels one might mistake for wallpaper, but the lines and color are still clear.
“I’ve heard that Henry Ford wanted to buy the entire room and take it to his museum in Dearborn (Michigan),” says Joan Coombs, who has lived in the house for 21 years. More recently, she said, Kringle Candle Co. decided to duplicate the mural above the fireplace mantel and photographers spent a week photographing it.
“This is home,” Ryther said, almost in wonder, as he stepped out of his car. “It’s a pretty special place.”
Ryther was planning to give the Historical Society his family geneology research but hadn’t brought it on this trip. At the Powers Institute, Ryther and his wife, Kelley, looked at family references in historic books put aside by Atherton. They were accompanied by Town Clerk Paul Luther and Selectboard Chairman Stanley Garland.