USA > Connecticut > Historic towns of the Connecticut River Valley > Part 36
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Captain Stevens and his men were as dull and stubborn as only New England Protestants could be. They actually failed to see why they should add to the glory and honor of His Catholic Majesty, or why it should be a joyous thing for them to voluntarily furnish entertainment at the stake, or under the scalping knife, for the noble allies of The Beautiful France. They were actually so dull and stupid that they decided to defend the fort -till the last man of them fell dead. When this decision became known, the French and Indians spent the night in firing off their guns and their mouths at the fort or, as Captain Stevens expressed it in his report ; " Upon which they gave a great shout, and then fired,
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and so continued firing and shouting till daylight the next morning."
At noon of that day the French actually made a liberal pro- posal. It was, that if Captain Stevens would sell them provisions they would cease fighting and leave the place. To this the Cap- tain replied, that it was contrary to the law of nations to sell them food, but if they would deliver up one of their number for each five bushels of corn he would supply them. A few shots were fired at the fort and the soldiers of His Most Catholic Majesty retired, perhaps to confess and do penance for failing to kill heretics, or, possibly to purchase indulgences in prospective of the joys to be had in Montreal or Quebec. This was the last of the French and Indians in Charlestown in the year 1747. Captain Stevens, however, was most active against the enemy in other parts of New Hampshire and in Vermont till death ended his useful life.
From the time of the first settlement by the Farnsworthi broth- ers in 1740, down to 1753, Charlestown had no other name than Township No. 4. When the news of the defence of the fort at No. 4 reached Boston, Commodore Sir Charles Knowles, who was at Boston with his ship, wished to express his appreciation of Captain Stevens' skill, and admiration for his courage, so he sent him a handsome sword. This act gave No. 4 its present name. When the petition for incorporation presented by Cap- tain Phineas Stevens, was granted by the Legislature, Township No. 4 was called Charlestown, in honor of Sir Charles Knowles.
The war, which practically ended in 1760, had been the means of making hundreds of soldiers and scouts acquainted with the desirability of Charlestown, and its unsettled neighborhood, as places for making new homes, so a new and very prosperous life began for Charlestown. The demand for farms in the town and home-lots in the village was so great, that prices of real estate rose to fictitious values, and for this reason many desirable set- tlers who had intelligence, muscle and honesty, were forced to go further into the neighboring wilderness to make their pitches. There were two other causes for Charlestown's prosperity ; it was on the great water-highway of New England, the Connecticut River, and it was near the great land-highway, through Vermont from the Connecticut River to Lake Champlain, known as the
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Crown Point Road. For these reasons there was a constantly increasing number of persons passing and repassing through Charlestown, from the east to Vermont and New York ; and from the large towns down the river to those smaller ones higher up, in New Hampshire and. Vermont. After 1760, Captain John Spafford's gristmill was for several years the only mill where · grain could be ground. Settlers went to Charlestown for this pur- pose from great distances. Captain David Page, the pioneer of Lancaster, New Hampshire, came down the river 125 miles once
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a year to have his grain ground into meal. Charlestown was also the trading center for all this great territory.
Charlestown became an important military center in the Revo- lution. So far as furnishing men for the Continental Army is concerned, at the beginning of the war the town was reasonably patriotic, but not up to the average of the towns on the river in Massachusetts and Connecticut. In 1775, but twenty-two men cut of 116 between the ages of sixteen and fifty, were in the army from Charlestown. In one Connecticut town - Windsor
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Locks -the heads of every family but one in the town were in the Continental Army at the same time. The men who composed Charlestown's Committee of Safety were Samuel Hunt, William Heywood, Abel Walker, Samuel Sterens and Elijah Grout. As a military center, the town was a State depository for military stores, with Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Hunt custodian and Elijah Grout distributing commissary. It was also a recruiting station. Later on, so many of Charlestown's men were taking part in the war that it was difficult to obtain men to do work of any kind.
Charlestown did not have a settled minister till fourteen years after the settlement in 1740, but there was occasional preaching. This was probably due to the unsettled conditions caused by the French and Indian War, rather than to indifference in the matter of worship on the part of the inhabitants. The first minister was the Rev. John Dennis, of Ipswich, Massachusetts, a graduate of Harvard, in 1730. He was ordained on December 4, 1754. From 1737, to 1749, he had served as chaplain in the army. After a few months more than a year, Mr. Dennis was dismissed for cause.
The second minister was the Rev. Bulkley Olcott, a descend- ent of Thomas Olcott, one of the early settlers of Hartford, Con- necticut. Mr. Olcott was a graduate of Yale, in the class of 1758, and was ordained over the Charlestown Church in May, 1761. He was not only a studious, well educated minister, and an agreeable companion in society, but he was also one of the strongest champions of Charlestown's temporal prosperity. His wife was Martha Pomeroy, a daughter of Colonel Seth Pomeroy, of Northampton. His death occurred in June, 1793. The Rev. Dan Foster, who had settled in Charlestown and had opened a school there, was the principal supply of the Church from 1796, till 1809.
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SPRINGFIELD.
T HE first settler of Springfield was John Nott, in 1752, on the meadows, where he built a log house. It is possible and even probable that this John Nott was a descendant of Sergeant Jolin Nott, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, the first American ancestor of that family.
In the following year he was joined by Daniel, Jacob and Oliver Sartwell; Combs House, Oliver Farnsworth, Joseph and Samuel Douglass; Noah Porter, Nathaniel, Simon, Sr., and Simon, Jr., Powers. It is believed that they made their pitches on the ridge near the Stoddard Tower. As settlers, they were such in the primitive meaning of the word for they had no title to the land by purchase or grant, but were what was later called squatters. They, however, made an effort to obtain a title from Governor Wentworth, of New Hampshire, and later, after the New Hamp- shire grants had been turned over to the jurisdiction of New York by the King, they petitioned the New York authorities for titles, but nothing was done for them in either instance. But they were not easily driven away from the land they had reclaimed from the wilderness, and made valuable by their energy and labor, on the contrary, they defended their homes and nearly all of them later became permanent settlers.
The first charter of Springfield as a town was given by Gov- ernor Wentworth on August 20, 1761, to a company of pro- prietors, nearly all of whom were residents of Northampton, Massachusetts. The territory granted was six miles square, on the west bank of the Connecticut River. Joseph Little was the only one of the original proprietors who settled in Springfield. The meetings of the proprietors were held, and all business of the town transacted, in Northampton for the first three years. The records are complete from 1761, to September 3, 1764, when they cease till August, 1771. This last meeting, of August, 1771, was held in Springfield, with the proprietors - Simon Stevens, John Barrett, and Abner Bisbee - present to transact business for
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themselves and the other proprietors. The town was divided among the proprietors by lot.
In 1762, they elected Gideon Lyman, of Northampton, to act for them in ejecting any person not a proprietor whom he found occupying and improving land in the township. Encouragement for those who should make improvements was offered in 1763, by a vote to give to any person who should build a sawmill, twenty acres of the undivided land, but the building of the mill and its site had to be in accordance with the approval of a com- mittee appointed for that purpose. The individual was required to keep the mill in good repair, to retain his ownership; and he was loaned a " set of mill irons " for fifteen years, on condition that they should be kept in repair and be returned to the Town at the expiration of fifteen years.
The records of the meetings of May, 1763, and March, 1764, are not pleasant reading, for it was voted to raise money for the ejectment of John Nott - the original settler -and Nathaniel Powers, at the first meeting and at the second, it was voted to allow Gideon Lyman four shillings a day for thirty-nine days, for ejecting the two settlers named. Judging by the number of days required for their ejectment, they must have put up a stiff fight.
There was as little sentiment in those days as there is now, when money, or its equivalent, was to be considered ; but it really seems a pity that the man who first opened the territory was not permitted to retain possession of the little land he required for his home. By 1771, the inhabitants of the town liad organized a town government and were managing their affairs with success and wisdom.
On July 20, 1764. the King and Council fixed upon the western bank of the Connecticut River as the boundary between New York and New Hampshire, and by so doing mixed matters greatly. The governor of New Hampshire had made many grants of land, to the west of the river, but after the fixing of the boundary by the King, the Governor of New York not only claimed jurisdiction over the territory, because of the King's act, but he also claimed that the western bank of the Connecticut had always been the boundary between the two Colonies and so, of course, the grants made by the Governor of New Hampshire
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were worthless, from the point of view of the Governor of New York. But the people of the New Hampshire Grants had views of their own on this subject.
The Northampton proprietors of Springfield, petitioned to have their titles confirmed and Sir Henry Moore, the Governor of New York, seemed disposed to grant their request, but be- fore he did anything in the matter, he was succeeded by William Tryon who granted the land to Richard Morris and Colonel John Barrett, who had presented a similar petition after Gideon Par- sons the representative of the Northampton proprietors, had pre- sented his.
The first Church and first school of Springfield came into existence in the same year, 1773, and in the same building, the home of Joseph Little, but it is probable that religious meetings were held before that year. It appears that the Church did not have a minister in 1773, for Hezekiah Holmes read sermons, probably written by some one else. Because of his sermon reading Mr. Holmes was called by his neighbors "Bishop ".
The early records seem to be lacking or very vague for, while £56 due the minister was appropriated in 1779, no mention of his name is made. At the same meeting at which this appropria- tion was made, the people voted to settle the Rev. James Tread- way. He was born in Colchester, Connecticut, and was gradu- ated from Yale in the class of 1759, and preached in Alstead, New Hampshire, from 1773, to 1777. In 1777, Mr. Treadway went to Vermont and probably to Springfield, but there is no record of his pastorate. There seems to be no doubt that he ceased preaching in Springfield in 1780, for in May, 1781, the people voted to raise money for preaching and to secure a minis- ter. A vote was also taken to fix upon a site for a meeting-house. In July of the same year, the people voted to give the Rev. John Foster a call and to pay him a salary of £45 a year for two years, and to increase the salary by f5 a year till the sum of £65 was reached. The Churches of Claremont, Charlestown, Lebanon, and Rockingham, were called as a council to organize the Spring- field Church. The Revs. Bulkley Olcott, of Charlestown, and Augustine Hubbard, of Claremont, with their delegates, formed the council which met on October 3, 1781. The Rev. Mr. Olcott drew up the Covenant and the Church was organized with a
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membership of eight men and eight women. They were, Lemuel and Thankful Whitney; Newcomb and Abigail Bourne, Simon Stevens, Samuel and Ann Cobb, Abigail Barnard, Sarah Draper, Lucretia Burge, Simon Spencer, John Barrett, Asher Evans, Hannah Walker, Isaac Smith and Betsey Tower. Mr. Foster did not remain long after that important event.
The war with Great Britain, and another war between the people in regard to the location of the proposed meeting house, were so greatly disturbing to the little community that there is little information in regard to preaching and ministers till after 1788.
The Rev. Abishai Colton preached in 1788 and '89. Mr. Colton was born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, in 1761, and was gradu- ated from Yale in the class of 1783. His death occurred on Jan- uary 12, 1823. Mr. Colton was given a call to be the settled minister but refused it. From 1789, till 1792, the Rev. Thomas Russell and the Rev. Benjamin Stone officiated. Mr. Stone was followed by Elder J. Watkins, a Baptist minister. Then followed the Rev. Joseph Prince, and the Rev. Stephen Williams, in 1796; then the Rev. Nicholas B. Whitney, who was invited to become the settled minister, but his terms were not satisfactory; and the Revs. Messrs. Stoddard and Remington, in 1799. This makes it seem that the Church was in a very disrupted condition.
At this time the salary of the minister was raised, by tax on the grand list, from £45 to fioo a year. In 1800, the Rev. Robin- son Smiley preached as a candidate and the next year he became the settled minister of the Church, his ordination taking place on September 23, 1801. Mr. Smiley was born in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, on April 19, 1771, and was graduated from Dart- mouth College, in 1798. "Father " Smiley, as he was called by his people, was a man who saw the bright and beautiful side of life, before and after death. He was sociable, refined and pos- sessed of a keen wit which he used, upon occasions, to silence his adversaries. It was his custom to bow smilingly to the congrega- tion as he entered the church, and after the benediction the con- gregation would remain standing, while Father Smiley passed out, bowing with the same courtly manner. One prayer of the service was usually a half hour long, and the people were required to stand while this long petition was being made. An example of
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his ready wit and appreciation of humor was strikingly shown one Sunday after meeting. He had preached a powerful sermon upon "Worldliness ", which seemed to fit one of the parishioners so closely that he was much stirred up about it, so he determined to give the minister a dig. As they passed out of the church he said to "Father " Smiley :
You preached a very excellent sermon to-day Mr. Smiley, and I am obliged to you for it, but wouldn't you better take a little of it for yourself ?
Oh, most of it, most of it, but what little I do not take, I hope you will make good use of.
" Father " Smiley was as fond of the good things of this life as was any one of his parishioners, for he believed they were Divine blessings, but he strongly disapproved of the abuse of these blessings. It is rather odd that, although the Church had been organized for twenty years, "Father " Smiley was its first regu- lar minister.
The second minister was the Rev. Eldad W. Goodman, who was born in South Hadley, and was graduated from Union Col- lege, in the class of 1820; and the third was the Rev. Oliver Morton. Mr. Morton was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts, and was a graduate of Middlebury College in the class of 1812. In Mr. Morton's pastorate the new meeting-house was built and 290 persons joined the Church. Mr. Morton was the father of Hon. Levi P. Morton, former Governor of New York, and Vice-Presi- dent of the United States.
In 1795, there was a Universalist Church; and a society of Freewill Baptists in 1787; in 1801, the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized; in 1803, there was a Baptist Church in North Springfield.
Springfield's first school was in 1773, in the home of Hezekiah Holmes, in which the first Church meetings were held, and Miss Sarah Stevens was its teacher. The second school was in Eureka. It was built in 1794, and Mr. Coffin was its teacher in 1795. This schoolhouse was situated on the corner opposite the present school building.
While there is reason to believe that there were societies formed soon after 1800, for the purchase of books, for entertainment and instruction, there is no record of anything of the kind before
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1819. Such persons as were interested in the institution of a library met in the home of Colonel Moses Fairbanks, in 1819, for the purpose of organizing a library association, under the act of the Legislature of November 6, 1800. On January 12, the society adopted the name of the Springfield Central Library and on January 18, the by-laws were adopted and the officers were elected.
Vermont Lodge, No. 17, F. and A. M. of Springfield, received its charter from St. Andrew's Grand Lodge, of Massachusetts on November 10, 1781. This was the first lodge in the State of Vermont. The first meetings of this lodge were held in Charles- town, in New Hampshire. This was no doubt due to the fact that thirty-five New Hampshire towns on the east side of the Connecticut river in New Hampshire were admitted into the State of Vermont, in 1781. This union was dissolved seven years later and Vermont Lodge was moved to Springfield and became No. I. Colonel John Barrett, who held the office for several years, was elected the first master of Vermont Lodge, on December 18, 1781. In 1795, the lodge was moved to Windsor and when the anti-masonic feeling was strong, in 1831, it was suspended. In 1850 the lodge was revived and was given No. 18 instead of No. I. Roger and James Bates and James Martin were among the prominent members before 1788.
Jesse Sanderson was the proprietor of Springfield's first store, which he kept at the Ferry, in 1788. The chief source of profit was obtained from the sale of liquor. There was a store in Eu- reka, in 1790, kept by Ashabel Wells, who was succeeded by Jo- seph Selden. This store was on the road from Boston to northern Vermont and a large business was done in it. In the same build- ing with the store was the tavern, jail and court. Other early stores were those kept by Michael Lincoln on the Common, in 1800; Goodwin & Lynde, on the Common, in 1803; Daniel Lock- wood, on " Ginnery " Hill, in 1804.
The first doctors were; Dr. Samuel Cobb, whose home was in Eureka, in 1781, where he practised till his death in 1806; Dr. Samuel Brown, also of Eureka, lived on the Streeter farm in 1789. In 1806, he built a house in Springfield and moved from Eureka to it.
The Hon. Jonathan H. Hubbard was the first lawyer, in 1790.
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He moved to Windsor and became justice of the Supreme Court. The Windsor County Court was organized in 1782, with Judge Joseph Marsh presiding and Lewis R. Morris clerk.
The Record of the Times was Springfield's first newspaper. It Was started in 1834, and was published by Horatio W. Houghton. At the same time, his brother Horace Houghton published a paper in Castleton, Vermont. One side of this paper was printed by Horace and then sent to Horatio who printed the other side. The brothers Houghton were the originators of the "patent in- sides " with which every country paper, and many small city papers, are to-day supplied.
Springfield's first Post Office was established in 1817, with the Hon. S. W. Porter, its postmaster. He was postmaster from November of that year to July, 1828, and his remuneration for those ten years was the munificent sum of $847.03.
The historical military road known as the "Old Crown Point Road", connecting the Connecticut River, at Springfield, with Lake Champlain, by way of Otter Creek, was begun in 1759. The making of this road was a great undertaking but it paid well for it opened interior, western and northern Vermont to settle- ment, as well as provided a means for troops to rapidly reach Lake Champlain, the great water-highway to Canada.
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WEATHERSFIELD.
A LTHOUGH differing in orthography, Weathersfield in Vermont was named for Wethersfield in Connecticut, the early settlers of that part of the Connecticut River Valley in Vermont being from Wethersfield and neighborhood. The situation of the Vermont town is fine and the surrounding scenery is a mixture of the beautiful and grand, and that the first settlers chose it for the little village is but another of very many instances, that the Yankee settlers had an appreciation of natural beauties as well as for fertile and easily worked soil. In the vicinity are the Connecticut River and rich meadows. To the north is Mount Ascutney, rising abruptly to a height of more than 3,000 feet and just west of it is its diminutive offspring - Little Ascutney - a partially isolated peak of 1,200 feet elevation. To the west are the lower heights of Pond Hill and Black Hill, and Black Mountain.
The grant of the township was made by Governor Benning Wentworth, on August 20, 1761. The usual Wentworth reserva- tions were included, such as a large tract of land for himself, and other tracts for the Church of England, the first minister, etc., and the provisions of the charter were similar to those of other towns. When the town had a population of fifty families there were to be one or two public market-days in each week, and fairs could be held; proprietors were required to cultivate five acres of each fifty they owned before the expiration of five years from the date of the grant, and for each successive five years; all of the gigantic pines which were plentiful in the forests, were reserved for masts for the Royal Navy. For cutting them without a special license, there was a heavy penalty. Near the center of the town, land was reserved for the village which was laid out in town lots, or home-lots, as they were generally called. The tax for the first ten years was one ear of corn. After ten years, every land owner was required to pay a tax of one shilling for each hundred acres owned.
Many of the proprietors were from New Haven, Connecticut,
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and Northampton, Massachusetts. Among them being Enos, Benjamin and Stephen Alling; Thomas and Joseph Trowbridge; John Mix, Silvanus Bishop, John Pierpoint, Joseph Wooster. Of the Bradleys there were, John, Jr., Phineas, Josiah; of the Lymans, Gideon, Daniel, Sr., and Jr., Phineas, Elijah, Phineas (of Hadley), Naomi, John, Jr., George, Elias; of the Wrights, Silas, Reuben, Elnathan, Ephraim, Jr., and Bildad ; of the Thomp- sons, Abraham, Jacob and Joseph ; Wiseman Claggett, and Beni- jamin Sheldon.
The proprietors held their first meeting in the home of Daniel Lyman, in New Haven, on September 16, 1761. At this meeting Samuel Bishop, Jr., was elected clerk and treasurer. Phineas Bradley, Abraham and Joseph Thompson, of New Haven ; Phineas Lyman, of Hadley; and Silas Wright, of Northampton, were appointed a committee to view the property and lay out the town.
Benjamin Alling spent some time in Weathersfield, in 1764, for the purpose of making roads. He made three miles of roads there, but he did not make a settlement at that time. There was no actual, permanent settlement effected in the town till 1769, when this same Benjamin Alling with Moses Alling, Aaron Blakslee, William Rexford, and Gershon Tuttle settled in the southern and the eastern portions of the town. From the time of . this first settlement till after the Revolution, the growth in popu- lation was very slow. In 1772, Joseph Douglass, Timothy Park- hurst, William Richardson, Eliphalet Spafford, Dan Tuttle, Benoni Tuttle, Asa Upham and Captain William Upham become inhabitants. In 1773, they were joined by Christopher Brockett, Israel Burlingame, Edward Grannis, Hezekiah Grout, Tucker Hart, Oliver Kidder, John Marsh and Amos Richardson. Grout settled in the western portion of the town where his wife was cap- tured by Indians and taken to Montreal and after three years of captivity was ransomed. Grout, Burlingame and Kidder became two of the most prominent men in the welfare and prosperity of . the town. In 1774, William Dean settled near the foot of Ascut- ney. He was from one of the Connecticut settlements. Either through ignorance of, or in defiance of the law, he cut down some of the great pines reserved for masts for the ships of the Royal Navy, and was arrested and taken to Albany, New York, where
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