USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Woodbury > History of ancient Woodbury, Connecticut : from the first Indian dead in 1659 to 1854 > Part 43
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Col. Allen was engaged in various public services till the 24th of September, 1775, when he and thirty-eight of his men were taken prisoners in a rash and hazardous attempt to take Montreal. IIe was carried to England, and afterward brought back again to New York, when after enduring a cheerless captivity of two years and seven months, he was finally exchanged for Lt. Col. Campbell, May 3, 1778. During much of the time he was retained as a prisoner, he, together with those with him, were treated with the greatest bar- barity. He was for eight months shut up in the provost jail, a con-
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finement of which the prisoners were ever accustomed to speak with disgust and horror.
While a prisoner in England, being somewhat anxious as to the disposition that might be made of him, especially as Gen. Prescott had threatened him " with a halter at Tyburn," he bethought himself of trying the effect of a stratagem. He asked permission to write a letter to the Continental Congress, which was granted. He depicted in vivid colors the treatment he had received from the beginning of his captivity, but advised Congress not to retaliate, till the fate that awaited him in England should be known, and then to execute the law of retaliation, not in proportion to the small influence of his char- acter in America, but to the extent demanded by the importance of the cause for which he had suffered. The dispatch was finished, and handed over for inspection to the officer who had permitted him to write. This officer went to him the next day, and reprimanded him for what he called the impudence of inditing such an epistle. - Do you think we are fools in England," said he. "and would send your letter to Congress with instructions to retaliate on our own people ? I have sent your letter to Lord North." This was precisely the des- tination for which the writer intended it, and he felt a secret satisfac- tion that his artifice had succeeded. He wished the ministry to know his situation and his past sufferings, and to reffeet that his country- men had it in their power to retaliate, in full measure, any acts of violence meditated against his person. A letter on these subjects, written directly to a minister by a prisoner in irous, would not have been forwarded.
While Allen was on his parole in New York, a British officer of rank and importance sent for him to come to his lodgings, and told him that his fidelity, though in a wrong cause, had made an impres- sion upon Gen. Howe, who was disposed to show him a favor, and to advance him to the command of a regiment of loyalists, if he would join the service, holding out to him, at the same time, brilliant pros- peets of promotion and money during the war, and large tracts of land in Connecticut, or Vermont, at its close. Allen replied, " that if by faithfulness he had recommended himself to Gen. Howe, he should be loth by unfaithfulness to lose the general's good opinion ;" and as to the lands, he regarded his offer of them as similar to Satan's offer of large landed possessions to the Saviour, when he did not own a single rood, as he was by no means satisfied that the king would possess a sufficient quantity of land in the United States, at the end of the war, to redeem any pledges on that score. The officer sent him away as an incorrigible and hopeless subject.
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Upon his release from captivity, notwithstanding the strong asso- ciations and tender ties, which drew him toward his home and friends, the impulse of gratitude was the first to be obeyed. The lively inter- est taken in his condition by the commander-in-chief, and his efforts to procure his release, were known to him, and he resolved to repair, without delay, to head-quarters, and express in person his sense of the obligation. The army was at Valley Forge, and as he advanced into the country, on his way to that place, he was everywhere greet- ed by the people with demonstrations of strong interest, not unmin- gled with curiosity at seeing a man, the incidents of whose life had given him renown, and whose fate, while in the hands of the enemy, had been a subject of public concern. Gen. Washington received him cordially, and introduced him to the principal officers in camp, who showed him many civilities.
This duty discharged, he turned his face toward his long-lost and much-loved home in the Green Mountains. In the evening of the last day of May, he arrived at Bennington, unexpected at that time by his friends, and a general sensation immediately spread through- out the neighborhood. The people gathered around him, and with a delight, which could be realized only under circumstances so pecul- iar, he witnessed the joy that beamed from every countenance, and heard the accents of a hearty welcome uttered by every voice. It was a season of festivity with the Green Mountain Boys, and the same evening three cannon were fired, as an audible expression of their gladness. Next day, Col. Herrick ordered fourteen discharges of cannon, " thirteen for the United States, and one for young Ver- mont," as a renewed and more ample compliment to the early cham- pion and faithful associate of the Green Mountain Boys.
Congress was equally mindful of the services and of the just claims of Col. Allen. As soon as he was released from captivity, a brevet commission of colonel in the Continental army was granted him, " in reward of his fortitude, firmness and zeal in the cause of his country, manifested during the course of his long and cruel captivity, as well as on former occasions." The pay and other emoluments of a lieu- tenant-colonel were awarded him during the time he was a prisoner. He was also to be allowed seventy-five dollars a month from the date of his present commission, till he should be called into actual service. How long this allowance was continued is not now known. It does not appear that he ever joined the Continental army.
Ethan Allen arrived at home just in time to buckle on his armor, and enter with renewed vigor into a contest with the authorities of
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New York, in which he had been so conspicuous and successful a combatant from its very beginning, and with all the taeties of which he was so perfectly familiar. He was very efficient in numerous ways in the contest with that state, and was greatly relied on to pros- ecute the affair to a successful issue.
Shortly after his return, he was appointed a general and command- er of the militia of the state. He was not however entirely occupied with the duties of his military station. At the next election after his return, he was chosen a representative to the Assembly of his state. When peace was restored, he seems to have resumed his agricultural habits, and devoted himself to his private affairs. He was a practi- cal farmer, accustomed to labor with his own hands, and submit to the privations and hardships which necessarily attend the condition of the pioneers in a new country. In his retirement he published a work on a series of topics very different from those which had hereto -. fore employed his pen. The work was entitled, " Reason the only Oracle of Man, or a Compendious System of Natural Religion." In its literary execution, it was much superior to any of his other writ- ings, and was evidently elaborated with great patience of thought, and care in the composition. It is nevertheless a crude and wortli- less performance, in which truth and error, reason and sophistry, knowledge and ignorance, ingenuity and presumption, are mingled together in a chaos, which the author denominates a system. Some of the chapters on natural religion, the being and attributes of a God, and the principles and obligations of morality, should perhaps be ex- cepted from this sweeping remark ; for although they contain little that is new, yet they are written in a tone, and express sentiments, which may sereen them from so heavy a censure. From this publi- cation and other circumstances, principles of infidelity have been very generally attributed to him. That he mistook some of the errors of the Christian seets for the true doctrines of revealed religion, and that his views, as to the reality and nature of the system itself, were perverted by this misapprehension, is undoubtedly true. But no per- son could declare more explicitly his belief in a future state of re- wards and punishments, and a just retribution, than he has done in the following passages :
" We should so far divest ourselves of the incumbrances of this world, which are too apt to engross our attention, as to acquire a consistent system of the knowledge of our duty, and make it our constant endeavor in life to act con- formably to it. The knowledge of the being, perfections, creation and provi- dence of God, and the immortality of our souls, is the foundation of our religion."
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" As true as mankind now exist, and are endowed with reason and under- standing, and have the power of agency and proficiency in moral good and evil, so true it is, that they must be ultimately rewarded or punished according to their respective merits or demerits ; and it is as true as this world exists, and rational and accountable beings inhabit it, that the distribution of justice there- in is partial, unequal and nncertain ; and it is consequently as true as that there is a God, that there must be a future state of existence, in which the dis- order, injustice, oppression and viciousness, which are acted and transacted by mankind in this life, shall be righteously adjusted, and the delinquents suitably punished."
Only one edition of this work was ever published, and the greater part of that was destroyed by the burning of the office in which it. was printed. It is now rarely to be met with, and the existence of the work upon which Ethan Allen confidently relied for enduring fame, is scarcely known to one in a thousand of those who remember with patriotic pride, the sturdy hero of Ticonderoga.
Gen. Allen, who had at various times resided at Bennington, Ar- lington and Tinmonth, at last took up his residence at Winooski. Ilis first wife died during the war. His courtship of his second wife was characteristic. During a session of the court of Westminster, Allen appeared with a magnificent pair of horses, and a black driver. Chief Justice Robinson and Stephen R. Bradley, an eminent lawyer, were there, and as their breakfast was on the table, they asked Allen to join them. He replied that he had breakfasted, and while they were at table, he would go in and see Mrs. Buchanan, a handsome widow, who was at the house. He entered the sitting-room, and at once said to Mrs. Buchanan, "Well, Fanny, if we are to be married, let us be about it." "Very well," she promptly replied, "give me time to fix up." In a few moments she was ready, and Judge Rob- inson was at once called upon by them to perform the enstomary ceremony.
We have thus sketched the principal events in the life of a man who holds a place of inch notoriety in the history of bis time. His character was strongly marked, both by its excellencies and its de- feet : but it may safely be said, that the latter were attributable more to cirenmstances beyond his control, than to any original obliquity of his mind or heart. The want of early education, and the habits ac- quired by his pursuits, in a rude and uncultivated state of society, were obstacles to his attainment of some of the higher qualities, which were not to be overcome. A roughness of manners and coarseness of language, a presumptuous way of reasoning upon all subjects, and his religious skepticism, may be traced to these sources. Faults of this stamp, and others akin to them, admit of no defense, though when
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received in connection with their causes, they have claims to a chari- table judgment. Had his understanding been weak, his temperament less ardent. his disposition less inquisitive, and his desire of honora- ble distinction less eager, the world probably never would have heard of his faults ; the shield of insignificance would have covered them ; but it was his destiny to be conspicuous, without the art to conceal, or culture to soften his foibles.
Yet there is much to admire in the character of Ethan Allen. He was brave, generous aud frank, true to his friends, true to his country, consistent and unyielding in his purposes, seeking at all times to pro- mote the best interests of mankind, a lover of social harmony, and a determined foe to the artifices of injustice and the encroachments of power. Few have suffered more in the cause of freedom-few have borne their sufferings with a firmer constaney, or a loftier spirit. His courage, even when apparently approaching to rashness, was calm and deliberate. No man probably ever possessed this attribute in a more remarkable degree. He was eccentric and ambitions, but these weaknesses, if such they were, never betrayed him into aets dis- honorable, unworthy or selfish. His enemies never had cause to question his magnanimity, nor his friends to regret confidenee mis- placed, or expectations disappointed. He was kind and benevolent, humane and placable. In short, whatever may have been his pecu- liarities, or however these may have diminished the weight of his in- fluence and the value of his public services, it must be allowed, that he was a man of very considerable importance in the sphere of his activity, and that to no individual among her patriot founders is the state of Vermont more indebted for the basis of her free institutions, and the achievement of her independence, than to ETHAN ALLEN.
He died at Burlington, Vermont, February 12th, 1789, of apoplexy, while yet in the full vigor and maturity of manhood, and his remains rest in a beautiful valley near the Winooski, where his grave is sur- rounded by many of his kindred. A plain marble tablet marks the spot, upon which is the following inscription :
THE CORPOREAL PART OF GEN. ETHAN ALLEN, RESTS BENEATH THIS STONE. HE DIED THE 12TH DAY OF FEBRUARY, 1789, AGED 50 YEARS. IIIS SPIRIT TRIED THE MERCIES OF HIS GOD, IN WHOM HE BELIEVED AND STRONGLY TRUSTED. 28
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HON. SETII P. BEERS,
Was born at Woodbury, July 1st, 1781 ; commenced his profes- sional studies under the direction of N. B. Benedict, Esq., of Wood- bury, August 13th, 1800, where he remained till November, 1801, when he entered the office of Hon. Ephraim Kirby, of Litchfield, supervisor of the internal revenues of the United States for this state ; continued there as a clerk till February, 1803. He then at- tended the law lectures of Judges Reeve and Gould, till March 20th, 1805, when he was admitted to the bar of this county, and settled in the practice of his profession in Litchfield, where he has since resided. September, 1807, he was married to Belinda, daughter of Reuben Webster. In November, 1803, he was appointed by President Mad- ison, collector of the direct taxes and internal revenues of the United States, for this county, which office he held until it was abolished in April, 1820. In September following, he was appointed state's at- torney for the county of Litchfield, and held that office five years. He was a representative in the General Assembly from the town of Litchfield, in 1820, 1821, 1822 and 1823. At the session of 1821, he was clerk of the House, and in May, 1822 and 1823, was chosen speaker. In 1824, he was elected a member of the Senate of the state, and while a member of that body, was appointed assistant com- missioner of the school fund, and upon the resignation of the Hon. James Hillhouse, he was appointed sole commissioner, June 1st, 1825, which office he resigned to take effect December 1st, 1849. On receiving his resignation, the legislature, at its session of 1849, passed the following resolves, viz.
" Resolved, unanimously, that the thanks of the people of this state be, and they are hereby tendered to the Hon. Seth P. Beers, for his long, laborious and faithful labors as Commissioner of the School Fund."
" Resolved, unanimously, that the resignation of Mr. Beers be accepted with the sincere desire on the part of this General Assembly, that the residue of his life may be as happy as the past has been useful to the people of this state."
Mr. Beers was an ex-officio superintendent of common schools from May, 1845, to September, 1849, and was one of the presiden- tial electors in November, 1836.
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CAPT. REMEMBER BAKER,
Was son of Remember Baker, and born in Woodbury, June, 1737. The life of Capt. Baker was one of peenliar usefulness. At the age of eighteen he served in an expedition against Canada. IIe became a resident of the New Hampshire grants in 1764, where he at once became one of the most influential and useful of the leaders of the Green Mountain Boys. On one occasion he was seized by the offi- cers of New York, and hastened toward Albany, but his comrades pursued them, and rescued him without opposition. In the com- meneement of the Revolution, he was found at the post of duty, but he was destined to fall in the very opening of the contest, at the early age of thirty-five. In Montgomery's operations against St. John's, Canada, he had been sent forward to reconnoiter the enemy's position. When within a few miles of St. John's, he secreted his boat. with the intention of marching through the woods. He had scarcely left the boat when a party of Indians took possession of it. IIe called to them to return it, and on their refusal to do so, attempt- ed to fire at them, but as he drew up his gun, he received a shot through the head. His companions then fled, and made their way back to the army with the sad intelligence. As an officer and soldier, he was cool and temperate in council, but resolute and determined in the execution of his plans. As a neighbor he was distinguished for his kindness, and his memory was held dear by many families whose distresses he had generously relieved.
DANIEL BACON, ESQ.1
North Woodbury has been eminently prospered both as a religious and civil community, and it is well for those who now sit down in the " goodly land," to remember those who fought their battles and won their victories. Of these men Daniel Bacon was the acknowledged leader. It is not, however, as the leader, or man, of a section, that he is to be spoken of, if justice is done him, but as one who was widely and well known throughout this section of the state.
He was the son of Jabez Bacon, elsewhere mentioned in this his- tory, and inherited a large share of his father's commanding energy.
1 The appropriate place for this sketch is in the preceding chapter, but having been inadvertently omitted there, it is inserted in this place.
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He was a plain, strong man-strong in every sense. Little polished in manner, educated at a common school, yet familiar with the world, he well filled the place by providence assigned him.
In early life he was a merchant, as was his father before him, and in business added largely to his patrimony, already large; but he subsequently relinquished this for a semi-public life of ease and inde- pendence, employing his leisure in the care of a large landed estate, on which he resided until his death. It was here providence assigned his place, and this place he filled. In the struggle whence originated the north church, he had a large share of responsibility and labor, which he cheerfully bore. In the community also, as an eminently useful citizen, he had his place, which he filled with credit to himself. Toward all ecclesiastical expenses he contributed a tenth of the sum to be raised, and said to others, " Come, fill the rest," and it was done. Such a man, one to take the lead, and mark out the way, occupies a position in community seldom appreciated till he is removed from it. He was the friend of every young man in the town. Did a boy, "just out of his time," in a trade, want a hundred dollars, Daniel Bacon gave it to him. Many of these, now first in society in point of wealth and character, leaned on Daniel Bacon's purse and counsel in their "trial day." Many in political life, had to assemble first, in Daniel Bacon's "old counting-room," in the old store now demolished, and take counsel of his foresight, and catch a little of his vigor, be- fore they felt they were well prepared for the fray ; and many, in different parts of the state, still remember him, pushed into the van and bearing the brunt of the fight in the legislature, at Hartford, in those somewhat Hudibrastic contests, for which our legislatures are making themselves every year more and more remarkable. When he died, it was found that men of moderate means, all over the town, were indebted to him, in small sums from fifty to two hundred dollars, for which he had their paper. Some of it, though regularly renewed, had been outstanding nearly a quarter of a century. This was be- cause such persons found it inconvenient to pay, and he let the paper lie to accommodate them. Aets like this, in a man of large wealthi, constantly dealing in public stocks elsewhere, where his money was worth double the legal interest, show the usefulness of the individual, and the sort of character he chose to make. It should be added, that he was a sincere Christian, and his monument has no epitaph but that consoling one of " Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord."
In private life he was beloved by a large circle of relatives and friends. His doors were always open, his house always full, his tables ever
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groaning under the " old-fashioned profusion." IIis descendant, now occupying the " old homestead," said to the author the other day, " he could not but hear, almost every hour, as he walked about the grounds, the bustle, and almost roar of active life, that onee swelled through the old mansion." Alas, these old-fashioned men of strength and girth, this ancient hospitality of country life, are they not passing from among us? and do we not forget, in the hum and progress of the present, the old-fashioned, solid, country worth, that gave to such hospitality its greatest charm? We live, indeed, in a progressive age. Society is hurrying on with great velocity to a state of the highest intelligence, and the most extended power. The author is not of those who fear this state of affairs. He would, however, look back occasionally, receive the light of the past, and never forget the foun- ders of that edifice that is so rapidly rearing its top in the sky.
Daniel Bacon was born December 8th, 1772 ; he was married to Rebecca Thompson, daughter of Hezekiah Thompson, Esq., else- where mentioned in this history, June 22d, 1793 ; he died July 1828.
JEREMIAII DAY, D. D .. LL. D.1
Jeremiah Day, late President of Yale College, was born in New Preston, a parish of Washington, Conn., in 1773. His father, Rev. Jeremiah Day, who graduated at Yale College in 1756, was pastor of the Congregational church in New Preston, and lived to an ad- vanced age, much respected. President Day entered Yale College as a freshman, in 1789, but on account of infirm health, did not com- plete his collegiate course with the class to which he at first belong- ed. After an absence of several years, he rejoined college, and graduated in 1795.
This was the year of Dr. Dwight's accession to the presidency of Yale. By the removal of Dr. Dwight from Greenfield, the school which he had established in that village, and which had flourished very greatly under his instruction, was destitute of a preceptor. Mr. Day was invited to take charge of this school, and continued in it a year, when he was elected a tutor in Williams College, Mass. IIere he remained two years. In Yale College, he commenced bis
1 This sketch of President Day is taken from Kilbourne's Litchfield Biography.
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tutorship in 1798. IIe had chosen theology as a profession, and while officiating as tutor, began to preach as a candidate for the min- istry. On the resignation of Professor Meigs, who had been called to the presidency of the University of Georgia, Mr. Day was elect- ed in 1801, to succeed him as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. At this time Mr. Day was in feeble health, and was obliged to suspend the business of instruction. By the advice of his physician, he passed one winter in the island of Bermuda. In 1803, his health was so far restored, that he entered upon his professorship ; the duties of which he continued to discharge, till the death of Dr. Dwight, in 1817, when he was elected to the office of president. Ife was inaugurated in July of the same year. On the same day in which he was introduced into the presidency, he was ordained, by the clerical part of the fellows, a minister of the gospel.
While President Day was professor, he published several mathe- matical treatises for the use of students in that department, which are used in Yale College, and some, or all of them, are extensively used in other institutions. While he was president of the college, he published several occasional sermons, and " An Inquiry respect- ing the Self-determining Power of the Will, or Contingent Volition."
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