USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > North Brookfield > History of North Brookfield, Massachusetts. Preceded by an account of old Quabaug, Indian and English occupation, 1647-1676; Brookfield records, 1686-1783 > Part 47
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The country through which they were to pass was in possession of powerful savage tribes, then in their full strength, and whose intimate connection with the French afforded them every inducement to hate the English and attempt their destruction. They left Montreal on the 13th, two hundred men in fifteen whaleboats. Stemming the surges of La Chine and the Cedars, they gained Lake Ontario, skirted its northern shore amid rough and boisterous weather, and crossing its western ex- tremity, reached Fort Niagara on the Ist October. Carrying their boats over the portage, they launched them above the cataract, and slowly pursued their voyage. Four hundred Indian warriors were in ambush near Detroit, waiting to attack the Rangers, but were influenced by the renowned chieftain, Pontiac, to abandon their design. In De- cember, Detroit and the surrounding forts were taken possession of and the garrisons were marched to Philadelphia.
The Rangers returned to New York in March, 1761, where they were disbanded. The war being ended, and the colonies no longer fearing the incursions of French and Indians upon the frontier towns, the spirit of emigration from the older settlements revived and surpassed all before witnessed. The continued passing of the Massachusetts troops
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over the highlands of Vermont and down the Connecticut river valleys during the war, caused the value of the lands to become generally known. Joseph Waite received several grants, and also made pur- chases of large tracts of these lands, and was active in inducing settlers to locate on them, personally conducting some emigrations from Massa- chusetts by way of Springfield and up the Connecticut river.
In Springfield is still standing a monument erected by him in 1763 as a guide to travellers, which is described and illustrated in 'Frank Leslie's Illustrated Paper,' Jan. 2, 1875. It is of red sandstone, about six feet high, two feet broad and one foot thick, and on it are masonic emblems, the Latin motto, " Virtus est sua merces," and another, now illegible, though the first word, " Pulsanti" is still clear. Beneath is this inscription, "'Boston Road.' This stone is erected by Joseph Waite, Esq., of Brookfield. For the benefit of Travelers. A.D. 1763."
The Masonic fraternity of Springfield have appointed a committee to take measures for the preservation of this venerable land-mark.
Captain Waite held several important town offices in Brookfield, where he was highly respected for his indomitable energy and upright- ness of character. In 1762 he married a sister of Colonel Nathan Stone of Shrewsbury, Mass., who, with his father Zedekiah and brothers David and Samuel, were prominent in the French war. In 1767 they were all living in Windsor, Vt., which had been chartered to them the previous year, and where, by their exertions and enterprise, they in- creased the wealth and prosperity of the place, and rendered it, at an early period, one of the most flourishing and popular villages in the " New Hampshire Grants," as Vermont was then called.
About 1768, the settlers of Vermont were placed in a peculiarly aggravating situation. They had derived the titles to their lands from the royal governor of New Hampshire. A claim to this territory, how- ever, was soon set up by the government of New York, and certain statesmen of the latter province corruptly combining with influential land speculators, procured, by their intrigues at the British court, a decree establishing Connecticut river as the boundary line between the two belligerent provinces, and thus throwing the whole disputed territory within the jurisdiction of New York. But when, by one of the most bold and singular perversions of law and justice to be found on record, the tribunals of New York decided this decree to have a retrospective opera- tion, so as to involve the titles of the lands as well as the jurisdiction of the territory, the voice of the indignant settlers unitedly rose in loud and determined remonstrances ; for this decision, of itself a legal paradox, destroying the right of property already granted by the Crown - the same source of power by which it was now proposed a new right should be established - subjected them to the exasperating alternative of either
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relinquishing their farms which they had once honestly purchased and paid for, with all the improvements that had cost them so much labor and privation, or of purchasing and paying for them again on such terms as those who claimed to be their new masters might choose to exact. After vainly exhausting every argument in petition and remonstrance to the governor and his council, and as vainly attempting to defend a few of the first suits brought for the possession of their farms before this obsequious tribunal, they paid no further attention to the summonses to quit which now poured thickly upon them ; but they soon found their settlements invaded by their cormorant foes, attended by sheriffs, each with a large armed posse for a forcible ejection of the inhabitants, and surveyors with their assistants for laying-out and locating the territory. Having thus found that peaceable measures were wholly unavailing, the now-aroused and determined settlers unanimously resolved on resistance, and immediately placed themselves in an attitude to carry their resolu- tion into effect.
This controversy called into existence an effective military organiza- tion, known by the name of the Green Mountain Boys ; and although the shedding of blood was generally avoided by them in repelling these intruders upon their soil, yet punishment of some kind was sure, on the commission of every offence, to be promptly administered. The most common mode consisted in the application of the beech rod or beech seal, in allusion to the emblem of the great seal of New Hampshire. In this spirited manner was the contest commenced and continued by the settlers ; and although armed forces were several times sent into the Grants to aid the authorities in ejecting the inhabitants, and although all the leaders of the latter were indicted and outlawed as felons by the courts of New York, and proclamation after proclamation issued by the governor of that province, offering large rewards for the delivery of those marked for the punishment of death, and teeming with denunciations against all those who should offer further resistance, yet so united were the people, and so determined the character of their opposition, that their baffled antagonists were never able to accomplish but the most insignificant results for their years of labor in endeavoring to obtain a foothold in the territory of Vermont. Most of the inhabitants of Wind- sor adhered to the jurisdiction of New Hampshire, denying the authority of the courts established by New York, and were ever ready to resist the execution of writs issuing there from. In May, 1770, Daniel Whipple, the High Sheriff of the county, under a New York commission, in order to retake Joseph and Benjamin Waite and Nathan and Samuel Stone of Windsor, who having been arrested by him a short time previously on a precept from the court, had been rescued by a number of armed men, collected a posse of a dozen or fifteen persons and with
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them repaired to the house of Joseph Waite in order to arrest him, but were met by a party led by the latter, and were overpowered and retained as prisoners several hours. On the 5th of June, Colonel Stone, Joseph Waite and others, appeared at the court in Chester and denied the au- thority of New York to establish the county of Cumberland.
Most graphic descriptions of actual characters and incidents connected with the early settlement of Vermont, are given in the entertaining, historical tales, entitled "The Green Mountain Boys " and "The Rangers," by Hon. Daniel P. Thompson. The Green Mountain Boys were formed into a regiment as early as 1771. Their colonel and leader was Ethan Allen. Among the captains were Seth Warner, Remember Baker, Robert Cochrane and Joseph Waite. The latter removed from Windsor about 1773 and settled in the adjoining town of Claremont, N.H. He was with Ethan Allen in the memorable capture of Ticon- deroga, in May 1775, and served in Canada during part of the following campaign. He was a member of the House of Representatives of New Hampshire in December 1775 and January 1776, and was on several committees of the House. In the latter month, the Continental Con- gress resolved : "That to make up the battalions voted for the defence of Canada, one battalion be immediately raised in New Hampshire, one in Connecticut and one in New York." In accordance, with this resolve, the General Assembly of New Hampshire voted "to raise one regiment of soldiers forthwith, to consist of eight companies ; and that Joseph Waite, Esq., be colonel of said regiment." But Colonel Tim- othy Bedel, a senior officer, having just returned from Canada, this regiment was placed under his command, with Joseph Waite as Lieut .- Colonel. General Arnold ordered Colonel Bedel, with a portion of the regiment, to Cedar Rapids, above Montreal, in April, where they were besieged by the enemy; and on the 15th of May, in the absence of Colonel Bedel, they were ingloriously surrendered by the officer left in command. Colonel Waite, with the balance of the regiment, partici- pated in the unsuccessful attack upon Three Rivers, which was followed by other reverses, and by the disastrous retreat of the entire army under Generals Sullivan and Arnold in June, decimated by death and worn-out by sickness and disease.
On their arrival at Crown Point on the 3d of July, two thousand eight hundred out of five thousand two hundred were taken to the hos- pitals. Col. Waite, at his own request, was immediately ordered by General Sullivan to Onion River with two hundred men to guard the frontiers until Colonel Seth Warner arrived there with his Green Moun- tain Boys, when Colonel Waite joined the army at Ticonderoga. In September, his command moved down Lake Champlain and landed on Rangers' Island, off Isle la Motte, as the advance guard of Arnold's
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fleet. In a severe skirmish a few days before the naval battle of " Valcour," Colonel Waite was wounded in the head by a splinter from a gun carriage and died on his way home in Clarendon, Vt., where a monument still stands, on which is the following inscription : "To per- petuate the memory of Lieut-Colonel Joseph Waite, an officer in the American Revolutionary War, who died on his return from an expe- dition into Canada, September 28th, 1776 ; this stone is erected in testi- mony of respect by his brethren in arms." On the monument is a figure of an officer in full uniform with a raised sword, and beneath it this inscription : "Our common country claims our aid. Living or dying I will defend her."
His character as a private citizen was unblemished, and he was ever held in respect as a courageous and heroic soldier. He has a grandson now living in Chicago, Ill.
Of THOMAS WAITE, the third of the brothers, but little is known. In May, 1754, he entered the army in the same company with his brother Joseph, and doubtless continued through the " seven years war." He also removed to Windsor, Vt. Was a patriot in the Revolution ; among the Rangers in the battle of Bennington, and was killed in battle the following year.
BENJAMIN WAITE, the fourth of the brothers, at eighteen years of age enlisted in the French war in 1755, as a private in one of the provincial regiments. Though still a boy he was tall and large for his age, and as he was known to be a keen and successful hunter he was transferred to Rogers' Corps of Rangers, where his hardihood, skill and daring soon caused him to be included among those selected for the most hazardous undertakings of that famous corps. In 1756 he was captured by the French, taken to Quebec and sent with other prisoners to France, where, before landing, they were re-taken by an English man-of-war and carried to England, from whence they soon returned to America, and Waite enlisted again under Major Rogers, in the same company with his brother Joseph, and distinguished himself in many desperate encounters with the enemy. In 1757 he was taken prisoner by a scouting party of Indians and carried to their village of St. Francis, in Canada, where he was compelled, with two other prisoners, to undergo the ceremony of "running the gauntlet," which was to pass through two lines of the young warriors of the tribe, armed with clubs, and when highly exasperated, with deadly weapons, to strike the prisoners as they passed. The captive was frequently killed before he reached the council-house, at which the two lines of Indians terminated. Waite's companions were severely whipped as they passed through the lines, but he, more athletic and
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adroit and better comprehending the Indian character, snatched a gun from the nearest Indian and laid about him to the right and left, scatter- ing the Indians before him, and escaped with hardly a blow, greatly to the delight of the old men of the tribe, who sat at some distance wit- nessing the scene and enjoying the confusion of their young warriors. As he arrived at the end of the race a French woman appeared at the door of a house near by, and beckoning with her hand said : “ Venez ici, Anglais, venez ici " (come here, Englishman, come here). He placed himself under her protection and was well treated during his captivity, which lasted about three months, when he managed to escape with his companions, and arrived at the English lines in a starving condition. He was with General Amherst in 1758, at the capture of Louisburg, and had command of troops crossing the St. Lawrence River in bateaux, under fire of the enemy. Some of the men faltered and lay down in the boat to screen themselves from the leaden hail falling thick and fast. He abruptly told them they could follow his example and stand up and work or take the river and " paddle their own canoe." They chose the former and behaved gallantly. He was with Rogers in the celebrated expedition against the St. Francis Indians in September, 1759, that broke the power of the tribe, and was among those sent to Detroit in September, 1760, from whence he was detached with Lieutenant Butler and twenty men to bring in the French garrisons of the forts in Illinois, which difficult service he performed successfully in a winter's march through the storms and gathering ice of the lakes and streams. In describing this march, he said the men would become so benumbed with cold and disheartened that they would beg of him to shoot them, but instead of doing so he would make them angry and willing to resume their march by switching them, and arriving at streams that were fordable he considered it a light task to shoulder a couple of the "little fellows " and carry them across. Before he was twenty-four years of age he had been engaged in over forty battles and skirmishes, and although his clothes were several times perforated by musket balls, yet he never received a serious wound. In 1767 he married a daughter of Captain Thomas Gilbert of Brookfield and removed with his brother Joseph to Windsor, Vt. In 1769 he was employed by Benjamin Whiting of New- burg, one of the Deputy-Surveyors-General of New York, to arrest depre- dators upon the " King's timber." In 1770, and afterwards, he identified himself decidedly and conspicuously with the Green Mountain Boys in their opposition to New York. He was the sole delegate from Windsor in the Whig Convention of the county of Cumberland, assembled at Westminster, 7th February, 1775, when he was chosen one of the Stand- ing Committee " to keep the county well informed as to the doings of the friends of liberty in the different colonies." In May, 1775, he joined
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the expedition under Ethan Allen and Seth Warner for the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Although an avowed opponent of New York in the pending controversy about jurisdiction and land titles, yet, as there was no legally organized government in the "Grants," he united, in June, 1775, with Major William Williams and Major Joab Hoisington, in a letter to the New York authorities, which is charac- teristic both of their patriotism and stern Puritanic religious principles. In it they urged the raising of a regiment of " good, active, enterprising soldiers," in order " to keep under proper subjection, regulars, Roman Catholics and the savages at the northward," and to defend their own rights and privileges "against ministerial tyranny and oppression." August 14th of the same year he signed a list of the officers of the upper regiment of militia in Cumberland county, chosen by their respective companies, as Benjamin Waite, Major; but the New York Provincial Congress refused to confirm the nomination on account of his opposition to their authority over the New Hampshire Grants. On the 10th of October, 1776, he was commissioned captain of one of the ranging companies established under Major Hoisington to protect the northern frontiers and guard the Crown Point road between Connecticut river and Canada, with headquarters at Newbury, Vt.
Upon the death of Major Hoisington early in the following year, he succeeded to the command of the battalion. He was a member of the conventions assembled at Westminster and Windsor that gave the name of Vermont to the New Hampshire Grants, declared the State inde- pendent, and formed the State Constitution. While the latter conven- tion was in session, July 6th, 1777, the alarming news was brought to them that Ticonderoga, the supposed impregnable barrier of frontier defence, had fallen, and the scattered American troops were flying in every direction before a formidable British army that was sweeping, unopposed, along the western border of the State, attended by a horde of merciless savages. Major Waite immediately joined his command and they opposed the progress of the enemy by incessant attacks upon their flanks, felling trees across their pathway and destroying bridges.
When the new Vermont Council, with no money in the treasury, voted to raise a regiment of State Rangers and arm and equip them from the proceeds of the confiscation and sale of Tory estates, this battalion, with their leader, left the service of the New York province and enlisted in a body under Lieut .- Colonel Samuel Herrick, and on the 16th of August " led the attack on the rear of Baum's right," in the battle of Bennington, where by their " quick and deadly fire," they "piled the ground with the British slain," and driving the Indians in terror from the field, charged with the other troops up to the cannon's mouth, and mounting the earthworks with irresistible force, swept everything be-
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fore them. On Sept. 3, Waite was commissioned major by the Vermont Council, and on the 24th of the same month he was sent, with Colonel Brown and five hundred men, to the landing at Lake George, more than forty miles in the rear of the British army, to cut off the enemy's com- munication with Canada.
Colonel Brown's troops gained command of the lake by capturing two hundred bateaux, an armed sloop and several gun-boats, while Major Waite with his men, including Captain Ebenezer Allen's company, surprised and took possession of Mounts Defiance and Hope - both parties capturing 293 prisoners and releasing American prisoners from confinement. What was left of the grand expedition under Burgoyne, that had in great power and splendor ascended Lake Champlain, were ordered to abandon their posts, and Ticonderoga was evacuated.
Major Waite's command pursued the retreating garrison, overtook them at Gilliland's creek, and captured their rear-guard, with horses and bag- gage. The quickness and secrecy with which these Rangers moved from place to place, their sudden and mysterious attacks, and the deadly exe- cution of their rifles, unnerved the British troops whenever they were supposed to be near, and caused them to be known, in English prints, as " White Indians." This incessant and harassing warfare drew forth from the despairing Burgoyne his best apology for his final defeat and surrender, viz : " The Hampshire Grants -a country unpeopled and almost unknown in the last war-now abounds in the most active and the most rebellious race of men on the Continent, and hangs like a gathering storm on my left."
The Vermont Council, in a letter to Colonel Herrick, November 21st, 1777, dismissing his regiment from further service, expressed much pleasure at the "spirited conduct of Major Wait and Captain Allen in their late expedition," who were also highly complimented by General Gates.
The surrender of Burgoyne terminated the campaign in the northern department, and Vermont was not the scene of any important military movement during the remainder of the war.
On the 10th of February, 1778, Major Waite was authorized by the Council of Safety to co-operate with Colonel Herrick in raising three hundred men for an intended expedition into Canada, under General Lafayette, and of this force he was appointed major ; but the project was given up for want of the necessary number of men from other parts of the country. On 23rd October, 1776, the General Assembly of Vermont resolved that North and South Hero, in Grand Isle county, should be chartered unto Ethan Allen, Samuel Herrick, Benjamin Waite, Jonas Fay and their associates, for the sum of 10,000 pounds. The Heros were so named, because it was meant to have no other grantees than
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such as were brave and felt warmly disposed toward the revolution ; and on the 27th of the same month, the Legislature granted to Governor Thomas Chittenden, Benjamin Waite, Samuel Herrick, Ebenezer Allen, and their associates, the " Isle of Motte."
Major Waite was appointed High Sheriff of Windsor County, October 23d, 1779, which office he held for seven years, with the exception of a brief period, when he resigned the office for other service. In 1781, having been appointed colonel, he built a fort in Corinth, Vt., at which a constant garrison was maintained, and from which scouts traversed the country to the northward.
He was one of seven elected a Board of War, 1778-84. On Oct. 22, 1783, he headed a military force to assist the civil authority in suppress- ing an insurrection in the county of Windham, and on January 19th, 1780, his regiment of State troops marched against the "Yorkers " dis- turbers of the peace.
As high sheriff, and also colonel of the third regiment of Vermont militia, he was called upon, on the 16th of November, 1786, during the " Shays' rebellion," to aid the civil authority against an armed mob who demanded certain legislation, and with forty men left Windsor for the encampment of the insurgents, where, after a march of five miles, they arrived between three and four o'clock in the morning, and finding over fifty insurgents assembled under arms, the militia, after a short but "very resolute " attack, captured twenty-seven of them. So expeditiously was the service performed, that the culprits were lodged in Windsor jail before sunrise.
Several of the sheriff's party were wounded, among them Stephen Jacobs, the State's attorney, and Colonel Waite himself was badly wounded in the head. He used to lament over this affair, saying it was too bad to go through an eight years' war without receiving a scratch, and then to be nearly killed in the discharge of his duty by some of his old fellow- soldiers.
On March Ist, 1787, he was chosen brigadier-general of the third brigade of Vermont militia, which office he resigned August 24th, 1788 ; but his resignation was not accepted, and he was appointed Major-Gen- eral, the highest military title that could be conferred.
The record of his military achievements is far from complete. He was looked upon by the Vermonters as a man of great energy, firmness, intrepidity and perseverance in the accomplishment of his plans, and a perfectly fearless enemy of every species of injustice and oppression. He transfused into each soldier enough of his own untiring activity to more than double their ordinary military value.
He was nearly six feet in height, well-proportioned, of remarkable bod- ily strength, and his whole appearance was dignified and commanding.
RICHARD, JEDUTHAN, AND WILLIAM WAITE. 447
At the beginning of the revolution, he converted his property into gold, and loaned the government $4,000, which was repaid in Continental money, so nearly worthless that at one time he gave $1,200 of it to a pedler for half a pound of tea and a quarter pound of indigo.
The township of Waitsfield, near Montpelier, was chartered to Benja- min Waite, Roger Enos and others, February 25th, 1782, and General Waite removed from Windsor and was the first settler there in 1789. He was the first representative chosen in 1795, and was re-elected until 1802. He was truly the father of the town, which became the last and best fruits of his life in the intelligence, piety and thrift of its people, and where he was held in the greatest respect.
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