Thomas Davenport was born on the West Hill on July 9, 1802, and died at the age of 49 on July 6, 1851, in Salisbury, Vermont. He was buried in Brandon. Near the site of his blacksmith shop, where he learned his trade, he invented and made the first electric motor in Brandon, Vermont, in 1834. He had a vision of the great future of electricity and devoted his life to its development.