From The Connecticut River Valley in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire: Historical Sketches by Lyman S. Hayes, Tuttle Co., Marble City Press, Rutland, VT., 1929, page 251:
LAUGHABLE TRANSPOSITION OF SIGNS–A GOAT AT IMMANUEL CHURCH SERVICES
It is a well-known fact, often commented upon by the older citizens, that the traditions of the humorous happenings of a century or more ago are longer rememmbered and more often rehearsed than some of later years. This is particularly true of this town and the writer has treasured several told him many years ago, actual occcurrences of this locality. It often seems that the present generation is lacking in the keen sense of humor that was so often perpetuated by word of mouth a century ago.
On October 31, 1833, during the navigation era of the Connecticut river, a rule was adopted by the Bellows Falls Canal Company requiring that all boats entering the canal at either the upper or lower end should do so stern foremost. Notices of this were posted near each entrance to the canal and other public places in Bellows Falls.
One of these signs with large letters, ' 'All Enter Stern Foremost," stood many years at the head of the canal. One Friday night some of the practical jokers, for whom the town was noted, removed the sign and nailed it up over the door of a tenement house on Westminster Street occupied by two maiden ladies. The public efforts of these worthy women Saturday morning to remove it by pulling it down with spike poles were ludicrous. Worshipers at Immanuel (Episcopal) church the next morning smiled broadly as they approached the church and discovered the sign nailed high over the door of that edifice. Men who in after years were among [252] the most sedate and sober of our citizens often admitted with a sly wink that they were responsible for the transposition.
Col. Roswell Shurtleff built the Island House, which from 1849 to the Civil War era was one of the most noted hotels of the entire Connecticut valley. In the early fifties he kept two or three goats, which used to stray about the village. One warm Sunday evening while vesper services were in progress at Immanuel church one of these strayed in at the open door and stalked solemnly up the right-hand aisle of the old church until at the head of the aisle it stood and faced the rector as he proceeded with the service. Capt. Henry F. Green, then one of the most prominent of the local citizens, who occupied the front pew on that side, warned by the tittering of the younger worshipers that heroic measures must be adopted in order to save a serious disturbance, suddenly swung wide open the high pew door used at that date and administered to the intruder a most vigorous kick. The goat turned and scamperen back the length of the church aisle and out of the open door, the clatter of his hoofs upon the carpet, and later the uncovered floor of the vestibule, beating a tattoo which for many years rang in the halls of memory of those who heard it, and the leap from the steps is said never to have been excelled by that of any goat upon record.