DEERFIELD VALLEY- When residents of most Vermont towns need a second opinion on their lumber or need to get the weight of their coal verified, there’s a good chance they’ll be able to find a local government official to help them with those vital tasks.

Every year, after Town Meeting wraps up and the new selectboards sit down to their first meetings, most boards are tasked with appointing an official weigher of coal; an inspector of lumber, shingles, and wood; three fence viewers; a tree warden; and a few towns still appoint a poundkeeper. In some towns, selectboard members fill the roles. In other towns, the titles are an honor bestowed upon the most venerated members of the community.

The jobs are a connection to Vermont’s more rural, agrarian past. Some of the ancient offices even have their roots in pre-colonial English tradition, brought to the New World by the colonists. Although many of the offices are now superfluous, they were once vital to the well-being of the community.

“Some of the old offices reflect the early local subsistence economy,” says Vermont State Archivist Greg Sanford. Before railroads and interstate highways, almost all goods were traded within a radius of a few miles. “So what you needed were standards and people to enforce them to ensure quality for the local market,” Sanford says.

Secretary of state Deb Markowitz says the municipal inspectors were an early type of consumer protection system. Local officials who inspected lumber, shingles, wood, barrel staves, and even leather were, literally, putting their seal of approval on a product made in their community, certifying its quality or content. “These were the people that made sure that you got the right value,” she says. “The weigher of coal was the person who made sure that a ton of coal was a ton of coal.”

But commercial standards weren’t the only thing local officials were empowered to enforce. Montpelier attorney Paul Gillies, an authority on Vermont legal history, says that, before 1800, some towns elected one or more “tithingmen” at Town Meeting. A tithingman was an official who was tasked with “waking sleeping voters at Town Meeting by tapping them with their long staffs. They also watched taverns and stopped travelers on Sundays to ascertain whether their travel was really necessary,” Gillies says.

Several of the old offices attest to the difficulties of managing an agriculture-based community. Although a modern-day poundkeeper might actually operate the town’s temporary stray animal facility, 150 years ago the poundkeeper was responsible for looking after stray livestock that might have found its way into a neighbor’s garden.

At one time, many towns also appointed various “reeves,” or wardens, charged with corralling loose animals. Some early towns also appointed a “deer reeve,” who acted as a type of game warden.

Hogs, it appears, were of particular concern to residents of 18th and 19th century Vermont towns. In Whitingham and other local towns, for instance, Town Meeting voters set the dates when hogs and other livestock could be allowed to run free. At Whitingham’s Town Meeting of March 3, 1783, townspeople “voted that sheep, horses, and swine shall not run at large from the fifth of May ‘til the middle of October next.” The rule, no doubt, was intended to keep voracious livestock from gobbling up crops during the growing season.

Sanford notes that Rockingham appointed a “hog reeve,” who “had the oversight of swine” and could enforce the town’s rules that “swine allowed to run at large must be yoked and ringed.” A hog yoke was a device placed around the hog’s neck, which prevented it from going through or under fences. A nose ring prevented it from rooting.

When the reeve nabbed an animal that was running loose during the months that livestock were to be penned, the beast was turned over to the poundkeeper. The poundkeeper was responsible for the care of stray animals, and was allowed to charge their owners fines and levies for his services. The town pound was often located on the village common.

Although the fence viewers may sound like a group of people who just admire a nice picket fence, they played an important role in 19th century farming communities.

According to a Vermont League of Cities and Towns handbook for municipal officers, at one time Vermont law encouraged the fencing of land to mark boundaries. Owners of adjoining properties were equally responsible for establishing and maintaining the fences and walls dividing their properties.

Fence viewers were called upon to settle disputes between landowners, determine where fences should be placed, and allocate costs of maintaining fences and walls.

In 1989, however, the Vermont Supreme Court struck down a portion of the statute that empowered fence viewers to allocate costs to property owners without livestock. Although, according to the secretary of state’s Opinions, selectboards can still call upon fence viewers to settle disputes regarding fence placement and responsibility for maintenance, their services are rarely requested.

In the late 19th century, as transportation methods and networks improved, goods traveled farther afield and the economy became less localized. Federal and state governments standardized weights and measurements and established quality standards. Gillies notes that Vermont’s Fairbanks family, manufacturers of Fairbanks scales, contributed to the standardization of weights. Their portable, easily calibrated scales ensured that a pound in Pittsburgh was the same as a pound in Peoria.

Thanks to standardization, local quality control became less vital. “The expansion of the economy into state, national, and international markets moved standard setting away from the towns,” says Sanford. “This eroded the importance of these local officers. Where they persisted, they were often accorded as humorous honors.”

One of the ancient jobs that remains relevant, however, is that of tree warden. Both Markowitz and Gillies say towns should have tree wardens, who are tasked with matters involving shade trees on public property and in public rights of way. Gillies says the Vermont Supreme Court has ruled that even a tree that casts a shadow on a public road falls under the purview of the tree warden. “Public shade trees are at the heart of it,” he says. “Even if a tree is dying, it can’t be cut without the tree warden.”

But to Gillies’ consternation, the Legislature recently made the office of tree warden optional for towns. “It was clearly done out of ignorance,” Gillies says.