USA > Michigan > Clinton County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 70
USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 70
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she saw but one white person, and thankful enough she was to have her husband and neighbor baek again.
During the ague period of 1839 Mr. Cross started for Detroit to make the last payment on his land, and although he was more fit for bed than for a journey he had no alter- native but to push forward, since non-payment would be serious in its results. Towards the first night out he grew so ill that he could proceed no farther, but unfortunately failed at four places where he applied to find lodging-room. Ilis fifth effort was at a miserable-looking roadside hut, which promised poor comfort, but siekness and exhaustion had so prostrated him that any shelter was welcome. Push- ing open the cabin door he east a hasty glauce within, and thankfully exclaiming, " I know I ean stay here," sank helpless upon the floor. Telling of the story of his trip, subsequently to those at home, he said, " I knew I could stay there, for when I looked in and saw how the woman of the house was moulding eandles in a coffee-pot I said to myself, 'Surely people who can make shift after such a fashion will provide a shelter for me,' and I was right, too, for they took excellent care of me and did me a great deal of good."
The first birth in Sciota was that of Charles, son of Gideon M. Cross, born March 5, 1837. Upon reaching manhood he became a preacher of the gospel, and died in Livingston County in 1858. That infant's cradle was sim- ply a hollowed log furnished with rude rockers. Iu that eradle he and his sister (now Mrs. A. D. Sherman, born May 15, 1839) were roeked, and when Ashbel Thompson, during one of his annual visits to the West, saw the babes thus bestowed he called them infants in a swell-box cradle. Apropos of infants, the first female child born in the town was Helen, daughter of Mason Phelps, born May 7, 1837, and now the wife of II. P. Dodge, of Laingsburg.
Stories about wolves and bears are of course plentiful among those who deal in recollections of life in Sciota, and recollection concerns itself, moreover, with the exploits of some early settlers who were mighty hunters. Henry Leach was considered a wolf-hunter of skill, and within a spaee of about four years captured upwards of thirty wolves, for whose sealps he realized a handsome bounty. Barnet Put- nam achieved a wide notoriety as a bear-hunter, and claims to have killed no less than nine during twenty-two years of his residence in Seiota, his last victim having been dis- patehed in 1871. He was a wonderfully successful deer- slayer. During the fourteen years preceding 1862 he slaughtered fully five hundred with an old reliable shot-gun, having in one autumn killed fifty-eight.
It was in 1840 that the first bear was seen by any of the members of the Cross family. While Mrs. Cross sat braiding hats one night she saw Bruin approaching, and raising a sudden alarm she frightened him away. Intelli- genee of the bear's appearance being conveyed to the neigh- bors, they assembled the next night to capture him, but somehow his bearship was too eunning for them. They watched for him four nights, chased him one night and lost him, and then giving up the task of capturing him left him to roam at will. Mrs. A. D. Sherman tells how when she was but seven years old she and Ashbel Thompson " treed
293
SCIOTA TOWNSHIP.
a bear." It was on a day when she was plodding through the woods towards William Swarthout's, when she en- countered Ashbel Thompson hurrying towards her and exelaiming as soon as he saw her, " Ilurry over to Swart- hout's and tell him there are bears here." Frightened, she ran to give the alarm ; hunters quickly gathered, and the game was captured. "That's the way," she remarks, " Little Thompson and I treed a bear."
Milton Phelps says it was common enough at his house to have wolves come about the doors at night, and go as far even as to peer into the windows at the inmates.
Among those who came into the Putnam neighborhood in the winter of 1836 were Franklin Herrick, Abram Lewis, and Daniel Dennison to section 2, and S. B. Fuller to section 10, while early comers into the Leaeh settlement ineluded Allen Smith and Reuben Rogers. In 1843, Godfrey Wert, accompanied by his family, George Joslyn, his son-in-law, and Stephen McCarty, eame to the town. MeCarty and Wert settled on the Grand River road, the former on section 26 and the latter on seetion 27. Joslyn continued on to Ovid. At that time there were in Seiota, on the Grand River road and near it, a number of settlers, including Mason Phelps, Moses Wallis, - Smith, - - Hill, - Sanford, and Mitehell Blood, the tavern-keeper.
In 1845, John Scoutten, of Ohio, located on a farm near Laingsburg. Later, there came to the town Thomas J. Burt, Almeron Sherman, John N. Seely, A. J. Beeman, Thomas Simpson, M. S. Beardslee (a settler in Bennington in 1839), John Runciman, P. B. Ladue, F. Chant, W. R. Putnam (an Ovid pioneer in 1840), S. T. Headley, and George Parker.
During the summer of 1838 a smallpox epidemie broke out among the Chippewa Indians who lingered about Sciota and Victor, and many died, including Chippewa, the chief, and one of his sons, named Jackson. There was great ter- ror and demoralization among the red-skins consequent upon the ravages of the disorder, and in many cases patients were left by their fellows to die in the woods, where their bodies became food for wolves. Report has it that despite the fatality of the disease among the Indians no white person took it, although contact with it was frequent, and report goes even further by saying the white people were not affected simply because smallpox cannot be transmitted to a white person from an Indian.
Mrs. Gideon Cross obtained disfavor among the Indians because of her earnest and emphatic protests against the sale of whisky by Henry Leach to the natives, and the latter sought by various means to show their dislike towards her. While the smallpox was raging, a squaw carried into Mrs. Cross' house a papoose sick with the disease, and placed it within the eradle occupied by Mrs. Cross' babe, hoping that the latter might be stricken. The scheme mis- carried, and the Cross child, although slightly affected afterwards, was not seriously troubled. Many Indians were buried about Laingsburg, and many upon the place now occupied by Ralph Swarthout, where indeed at this day several mounds are still to be seen.
The first town burial-place was laid out in 1843. On
April 3d of that year the town voted twenty-five dollars to purchase an acre of ground for a cemetery and to fence the same with a rail-fence. April 14, 1849, a committee was appointed to secure a burial-ground for Laingsburg. The first person buried in the town burial-ground was the wife of Elisha B. Smith. Previous to that Mrs. Walter Laing died in the town, but was buried in Bennington. The first burial in the town, however, was that of Samnel Carpenter, who, as has been told, was killed while driving homeward from Detroit.
The progress which had been made in the settlement of Sciota prior to 1849 is pretty clearly shown by the follow- ing list of tax-payers resident in the township in that year, viz. :
RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS IN 1849.
Names. Acres,
Thomas J. Burt, section 22
James Collins, section 28. 100
G. M. Cross, section 9. 80
B. F. Childs, section 25 .. 120
D. Dennison, section 2 .. 80
Stephen Finch, seetion 28. 72
S. B. Fuller, sections 3, 10 400
C. J. Fester, section 11. 10
John Fester, section 11 40
M. B. Grilly, seetion 9,
J. Hill, Jr., section 25.
80 120
F. Ilerriek, section 2.
113
Henry Kinney, section 33.
10
P. D. Ladue, seetion 27.
120
Walter Laing, section 28 ..
Peter Laing, sections 21, 26, 28, 36.
328
Stephen MeCarty, section 26
60
Silas Phelps, sections 26, 27. 67
Cornelius Putnam, section 3.
80
Barnet Pntnam, section 3
10
Allen Smith, section 9.
160 74
E. B. Smith, seetion 21 ..
Ralph Swarthont, seetion 17. 93
Swarthout and Reed, section 17 133
Ephraim Trumbull, section 28, 130
23
Godfrey Wert, section 27.
120
Stephen White, section 36 40
Phelps, Laing & Co., section 28. 334
James M. Blood, section 25 80
149 38
John Miller, section 26.
60
Milton Phelps, section 26.
78
John Scoutten, section 28.
Moses Wallis, section 27
Ashbel Thompson, a Philadelphia lawyer and extensive land-owner in Michigan, made purchases of something like fifteen hundred acres in the northwestern corner of Sciota at an early date. About 1850 he concluded to make an effort to sell it, for up to that time he had neither sold any of the traet, nor yet caused any improvement to be made upon it. Thompson used to come to the Michigan wilds every summer for recreation, and made his abiding-place on such occasions at the house of William Swarthout, in Ovid township. Ilis visits continued usually during the sum- mer season, and were employed in forest rambles and hunt- ing and fishing excursions, of which pastimes he was ex- ceedingly fond. Ilis visits began about 1839, and they have been repeated yearly since that time to the present, with the exception of but one year. llis temporary home has been each summer with the Swarthouts, and more par- ticularly in the pioneer days was he known for miles around, and always welcomed as a genial companion. To distinguish him from another land-owning visitor, William Thompson by name, Ashbel was designated as " Little
Ifenry Leach, sections 9, 10.
294
HISTORY OF SHIAWASSEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Thompson," and as Little Thompson he became engrafted upon the pioneer history of Sciota and neighboring towns. During his visit in 1850 he resolved that to sell his land he must begin to clear it. To this end he determined lit- erally to clear it himself. He bought an axe and attacked his first tree. Between early morning and the hour of noon he managed, by dint of most distressing labor, to sub- due the forest monarch, but alas! the cost of his victory stood revealed in blistered hands, almost total exhaustion, and a general disgust with a woodman's life. Satisfied to end that experience then, he announced that he had an axe to sell, and that he wanted no more employment as a wood- chopper. Thereupon he engaged Barnet Putnam to clear and break some of the land for him, and proceeded east- ward. When he came out the next year he found that Swarthout's barn contained a crop of wheat gathered from the land Putnam had cleared ; and when Mrs. Swarthout asked him what he wished done with the wheat, he replied, " Give it to the first poor preacher who comes along." And sure enough, the first preacher to come along was made happy with the gift.
In 1851, Thompson sold four hundred acres on sections 4 and 5 to Charles Balcom and James Hills, and in 1852 they came on and occupied their purchases. Theirs were the pioneer settlements in that corner of the town, and in 1854 they were joined by S. A. Balcom and William H. Stanhope, who located on section 5. Following them came Orrin Blanchard to section 8, Luther Ryon to section 4, Willard Ryon to section 4, and Samuel De Haven to scc- tion 3.
TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION AND LIST OF OFFICERS.
Township 6 north, in range 1 cast, was embraced in the township of Woodhull until Feb. 16, 1842, when by act of Legislature it was given a separate organization and named Sciota, in accordance with the request of Oliver Westcott, one of the town's carly settlers. The first town- meeting was held at the tavern of Cyrus Miller, in Laings- burg, April 4, 1842, when Mason Phelps, William P. Laing, James M. Blood, and Ilenry Leach were Inspectors of Election ; O. B. Westcott, Clerk ; and Cyrus Miller, Moderator. One hundred and fifty dollars was voted for contingent expenses, twenty-three dollars for the support of common schools, and twelve dollars for the crection of a pound " near O. B. Westcott's." Twenty-three votes were cast at the election of town officials, the result being as appended :
SUPERVISOR.
Mason Phelps 10
A. Smith* 12
CLERK.
O. B. Westcott
Henry Smith# 14
TREASURER.
S. B. Fuller* 12
William P. Laing 10
ASSESSORS.
Levi MeDaniels“ 21
C. Putnam#
12
* Elected.
J. M. Blood
5
F. Childs
Cyrus Miller. I
HIGHWAY COMMISSIONERS.
Cyrus Miller.
9
Henry Lench
A. C. Laing. 10
R. Williams" 12
G. M. Cross# 12
D. F. Randall#
12
L. MeDaniels
1
Silas Phelps
1
W. P. Laing
1
M. Phelps,
1
JUSTICES OF TIIE PEACE.
R. W. Williams# 13
Cyrus Miller* 23
B. F. Childs#
A. Smith* 13
William P. Laing
F. Childs.
7
A. Ilolcomb
S. M. Bloud
1
SCHOOL INSPECTORS.
O. B. Westcott.
0 Henry Smith#
21
William P. Laing
A. P. Smith* 15
S. B. Fuller* 19
O. B. Westeott
1
CONSTABLES.
M. Wallis* 10
D. F. Randall#
Henry Leach 9
A. C. Laing#
Harvey Randall
L. McDaniels#
William P. Laing.
1
OVERSEERS OF THE POOR.
O. B. Westcott 9
Henry Leach.
A. Smith* 12
G. M. Cross*
S. Ilill I
From 1843 to 1880 the supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace elected annually have been the following-named persons :
SUPERVISORS.
1843. M. Phelps. 1862-64. J. M. C. Bennett.
1844. William P. Laing. 1865. G. J. MeClintock.
1845-47. Peter Laing. 1866. ]]. Carnahan.
1848-50. F. McClintock. 1867. G. J. MeClintock.
1851-54. L. Smith. 1868-70. H. Carnahan.
1855. G. J. MeClintock. 1871. G. A. White.
1856. 11. Carnahan. 1872. M. Burt.
1857-58. F. MeClintoek. 1873. J. Lawler.
1859-60. H. Carnahan. 1874-80. S. H. Manzer.
1861. S. Treat.
CLERKS.
1843-44. IJ. Smith. 1863. A. Holmes.
1845. P. McGannis. 1864. G. J. MeClintock.
1846. O. B. Westeott. 1865. M. Burt.
1847. E. D. Smith.
1866. W. Levanway.
1848-50. L. Smith. 1867. J. G. Pope.
1851. F. McClintoek.
1868-70. J Crum.
1852-54. G. J. Mcclintock.
1871-72. G. L. Gibbs.
1855. S. Treat.
1873. G. D. Millspaugh.
1856. M. Burt.
1874. H. P. Dodge.
1857. G. J. MeClintock. 1875. A. F. Place.
1858. M. Burt. 1876. L. B. Huntington.
1859-60. James Lawler.
1877-79. W. W. Levanway.
1861. M. Burt.
1880. George S. Culver.
1862. C. D. Harmon.
WILLARD RYON.
MAS MARIA C RYON.
B
R
A
RESIDENCE OF WILLARD RYON, SCIOTA SHIAWASSEE, CO. MICH.
295
SCIOTA TOWNSHIP.
TREASURERS.
1843. William P. Laing.
1863-65. 11. S. Partridge.
1844. M. Phelps.
1866. J. Rnneiman.
1845. J. M. Blood. 1867. S. Treat.
1846-47. B. F. Childs.
1868. S. HI. Manzer.
1848. P. Laing.
1869-70. J. Runciman.
1849. E. B. Smith.
1871-75. P. Bacon.
1850. G. Wert.
1876. 11. Rohrbacher.
1851. E. B. Smith.
IS77-79. P. Bacon.
1852-62. J. Runciman.
1880. S. N. Pierce.
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
1843. A. Holcomb.
1862. B. HI. C. Howe.
1844. G. Wert.
1863. J. Runciman.
1845. Allen Smith.
1864. B. J. Putnam.
1846. S. B. Fuller.
1865. 11. Carnahan.
1847. Mason Phelps.
1866. D. D. Shannen.
1848. J. Woodhull.
1867. J. Runciman.
1849. IT. Leach.
1868. F. Mcclintock.
1850. T. J. Burt.
1869. J. Lawler.
1851. M. Wallis.
1870. D. Hlolly.
1852. C. Putnam.
1871. 11. P. Dedge.
1853. E. B. Smith.
1872. J. Sherman.
1854. J. Runciman.
1873. J. Mabin.
1855. T. J. Burt.
1874. D. R. Holly.
IS56. A. Sherman.
1875. H. P. Dodge.
1857. 1I. S. Partridge.
1876. B. J. Putnam.
1858. C. Ilills.
1877. J. Crum.
1859. M. Phelps.
1878. G. M. Kinney.
1860. A. Sherman.
1879. JI. P. Dodge.
1861. J. M. C. Bennett.
1880. J. D. Sherman.
EARLY TOWNSHIP ROADS.
March 15, 1843, the town was divided into five road dis- tricts, as follows :
No. 1 to embrace sections 2, 3, 4, 5, and the north half of section 10. No. 2 to include sections 1, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16, and the south half of section 10. No. 3 in- cluded sections 17, 20, 21, 28, 29, 32, 33. No. 4 included section 22, the west half of section 23, the north half of 26, sections 27, 34, and the north half of section 35. No. 5 embraced section 24, the east half of section 23, the south half of 26, sections 25 and 36, and the south half of scetion 35.
The annual report of the highway commissioners, made April 1, 1843, presented the following details :
Whole amount of labor assessed .. $405.93 Days worked. 136.73
Amount of improvements, eight miles cut out and fifty- five rods of causeway.
Amount of labor under contract, eighty-five rods of cause- way. One mile under contract of chopping and elearing, four rods wide.
The annual report made April 6, 1844, had the following : Number of days worked, 69; number of days worked and not assessed, 28.
Amount of improvements : Four hundred and eighty- four rods cutting and clearing four rods wide ; one hundred and seventy-six rods of causeway; $46.31 worth of dig- ging, covering causeway, and leveling down hills.
Amount of labor under contract : Leveling down hills, $72.12 ; amount of orders drawn on above, $227.09 ; money left last year, $96.19 ; county orders in hands of treasurer, $75
The annual report, March 21, 1849, was as follows : Number of days assessed for highway labor in 1848, 250. " The whole amount of resident highway tax has been performed ; no money drawn by order of the commissioners ; no commutations."
A road was laid out June 7, 1843, beginning at a point where the Grand River road intersects the line between sections 20 and 21, and running thence north to a stake 28,79% chains due north of the southwestern corner of sec- tion 21 ; thence north 57 chains to a stake on the principal meridian. Dec. 23, 1843, a road was laid beginning at the quarter post on the east side of section 21, and running thence south on the meridian line 6 27, chains; thence south 23,42 chains ; thence north to Dr. Peter Laing's sign-post.
SCHOOLS.
Sciota's first school was taught in 1837 by the wife of Cornelius Putnam in her own house, and contained as pupils her own children and the children of Henry Leach. Mrs. Putnam had had experience as a school-teacher in New York, and was therefore happily enabled to undertake a renewal of that experience in Michigan with an intelli- gent assurance of success.
The first board of school inspectors comprised Henry Smith, Allen Smith, and S. B. Fuller, but there is no record of their proceedings, for the reason, probably, that they performed no services. This view of the case would appear to be correct, since the school records certify that School District No. 1 was organized Sept. 15, 1843, and contained sections 26; 23, the cast half of 27, and the east half of 22. That year a log school-house was built near Henry Leach's house, and in that school-house the first teacher was Oliver B. Westcott. District. No. 2 was formed May, 1844, and in that district the first teacher was Mrs. M. A. Phelps. District No. 3 was organized May 22, 1844, to include sections 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, and 15. The report of the inspectors, dated April 1, 1845, contains this: " Moneys received, $00; moneys expended, $00." How the schools were supported does not appear.
District No. 4 was organized May 28, 1847, and included the west half of section 22, the west half of 27, the west half of 34, and the whole of sections 20, 21, 28, 29, and 33. June 18, 1850, the school districts were reconstructed as follows :
No. 1 .- Sections 20, 21, 28, 29, 32, and 33 ; originally No. 4.
No. 2 .- Sections 22, 27, 34, the west half of 23, the west half of 26, and the west half of 35.
No. 3 .- Sections 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, and 15.
No. 4 .- East half of section 23, east half of 26, the east half of 35, and the whole of 24, 25, and 36 ; originally No. 2.
No. 5 was organized in 1853, and embraced the west half of section 4, the whole of 5, the north half of 8, and the west half of the northwest quarter of 9.
TEACHERS.
From 1845 to 1857 teachers reecived certificates in Sciota as follows :
Dolly Richards, May 3, 1845.
296
HISTORY OF SHIAWASSEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Cordelia Collins, Margaret Johnson, April 10, 1848. Frances Hill, June 15, 1848.
Layton Swarthout, John Brunson, Dec. 5, 1848.
Elisha Cook, Dec. 6, 1849.
Lounsberry Swarthout, Dec. 17, 1849.
George W. States, Nov. 4, 1850.
Miss Achsah Blood, April 12, 1851.
Miss Armina Pitts, April 23, 1851.
Lewis Bennett, Nov. 5, 1853.
Ann M. Aldrich, April 14, 1855.
Margaret I. Johnson, Dee. 20, 1855.
Caroline Phelps, Jan. 15, 1856.
Clarissa Brewer, May 24, 1856.
Miss C. Carnahan, May 23, 1857.
Miles Burt, Nov. 7, 1857.
The official school report for 1879 presents the following details :
Dist.
Director.
Enumeration.
Average Attendance.
Value of
Property.
Teachers' Wages.
1. M. Burt.
183%
180
$1000
$891
2. George Sherman .....
36
28
50
93.50
3.+ J. D. Sanderson
29
28
200
169
5. F. Lee ..
38
31
400
114
6. George Dean
55
53
300
156
7. W. T. Riddale ..
29
21
50
84
S. C. Crutts.
48
35
50
99
9. L. J. Kemp ..
12
23
700
98
THE VILLAGE OF LAINGSBURG.
Laingsburg, a station on the Jackson, Lansing and Sagi- naw Railroad, is a prosperous village of about eight hundred people. Its manufacturing interests are limited, but as the centre of trade for a considerable tract of rich farming country it carries on much profitable mercantile business, and rests its prospective improvement upon a very sub- stantial and prosperous present.
The village was founded in 1836, by Dr. Peter Laing, but was not platted until 1860, after which the construction of the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad gave the town a decided impetus, and led to its rapid development.
Dr. Peter Laing, formerly of Saratoga Co., N. Y., located land upon the present site of Laingsburg in the summer of 1836, and September 24th of that year came to the place for a permanent location, in company with his son William, his son-in-law, Mason Phelps, and the wife of the latter. About thirty rods west of where the Cooper House now stands they put up as a temporary habitation a brush shanty, in which they lodged, and outside of which, at a log-heap fire, they did their cooking. As quickly as the work could be accomplished Mason Phelps built a log cabin, and Peter Laing (assisted by Mason Phelps and Barnet Putnam) a log structure which he intended for a tavern, both buildings being just west of the Cooper House lot. The great Indian trail between Pontiac and Grand Rapids passed that way, and, as travel over the route was at that time very brisk, Dr. Laing wisely judged that a tavern at that point would be not only a publie convenience, but a profit to its landlord. In that conelusion subsequent events proved Dr. Laing to have been correct. The volume of travel inercased materially with the opening of the Grand River road over the route of the trail, and for years Dr.
Laing's tavern was a famous landmark and a place of popular resort.
During the fall of 1836 the rush of land-lookers to Michigan was like a swarm of locusts, and the Grand River road was alive with wayfarers. Laing's tavern was insuf- ficient to accommodate the travelers who sought its shelter, but about it in the open air around log-heap fires there was always room, and there scores of people slept every night. A story now extant tells of a well-dressed traveler, who came to the tavern one night and requested lodgings. Dr. Laing took him out to a log-heap fire, and pointing to the sleepers about it said, " My friend, our house is running over with people ; there you see at that fire plenty of extra lodgers ; lie down and make yourself comfortable for the night." The traveler looked unhappy, but determined to make the best of it ; he pulled off his boots, turned his feet towards the fire, and was directly snoring in concert with about fifty others. In the morning when the traveler woke he failed to find his boots. " Landlord," cried he, " souic- body has robbed me of my boots, and I look to you to re- place or return them." " You d-d fool," returned Dr. Laing, " don't you know better than to leave your boots outdoors all night in a country like this? The wolves ate your boots, and if you don't get away from here pretty quick they'll cat you, too." The unfortunate traveler could scarcely credit the story, but when he presently dis- covered mutilated remnants of his once handsome boots he shudderingly believed it, and made, indeed, all haste to get out of a country where stopping at a tavern meant a bed near a log-heap, and midnight visitations by wolves.
-
Laing's tavern was the chief stopping-place on the Grand River road, in Sciota, when that road was the principal thoroughfare. It was, moreover, the town post-office loea- tion, and when a line of stages was put on the road, Laing's was made a stage-house. The mail was carried over the route at first on horseback, later, as the road got better, by buggy, and still later by the stages.
About 1840, James M. Blood opened a temperance tav- ern on the Grand River road, about four miles east of Laingsburg, and at the same time Oliver B. Westcott es- tablished a similar place of entertainment " on the hill," in what is now Laiugsburg village, June 3, 1844. The town board granted to Peter Laing a license to keep tavern and retail ardent spirits on section 21, and charged him there- for six dollars and twenty-five cents. On the same day James M. Blood and O. B. Westcott were granted licenses to keep taverns for sixty-two and a half cents each. June 1, 1848, J. W. Putnam applied for a license " to keep pub- lic-house, with the privilege to sell spirituous liquors." The town board granted the license upon the payment of six dollars, " exclusive of fees," with the remark that " a public- house with the above-named privilege would promote the publie good." Except at brief intervals, during which Cyrus Miller and others kept the place, Dr. Laing eon- tinued to be the landlord of Laing's tavern until his death in 1865, after which it was kept no more as a public-house, but was not demolished until recently.
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