USA > New Hampshire > The Connecticut River Valley in southern Vermont and New Hampshire; historical sketches > Part 20
USA > Vermont > The Connecticut River Valley in southern Vermont and New Hampshire; historical sketches > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20
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running over a drum operated with a crank. When one bucket ascended, full, the other one descended. Many residents of 50 years ago remembered seeing this well, and the house over it, and recalled going there for water. Until 1848, when the first pipe was laid from Minard's Pond, but few families in the village had the luxury of running water in their residences.
The next hotel of the village was built, sometime previous to 1826, on the location now covered by the block where Fenton & Hennessey's furniture store is. Its ell and barn extended as far south as the School Street stairs. In the yard was dug another well almost in the center of the ground now covered by the Boston Store building. Over that well for many years was a large wooden pump with a long handle. In front of it was a long trough into which the water was pumped for the animals, and buckets for the use of the hotel were filled by hanging them on the spout of the pump. A picture of the old building in the History of Rock- ingham shows the pump and its surroundings clearly.
Traditions of the Hapgood family state that Solomon Hapgood was the first village resident to bring running water to his dwelling. His residence was on the west side of Westminster Street, on the north corner of the present Hapgood Street, where the home of John E. Babbitt now is. Mr. Hapgood's aqueduct was made from pine "pump-logs," later changed to freestone from the quarries near Cambridgeport.
In 1822 a corporation was formed to lay a pipe and bring a supply of water from the large spring near North Westminster, and it supplied a dozen or more families many years. It was first laid with freestone
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cut about two inches square and twelve or fourteen inches long, bored lengthwise, and the sections were connected by lead thimbles. This was later replaced by lead pipe. A few sections of this old freestone pipe are still treasured by citizens as souvenirs of a most prim- itive water-supply aqueduct. There are two in the town clerk's office.
The first pipe from Minard's Pond, the present water supply of the village, was laid in 1848 by a pri- vate corporation, chartered under the name of the "Bellows Falls Water Company." The pipe was only four inches in diameter as it left the pond, reduced to three as it entered the village. Water was first used from it in 1850. The works were purchased by the village in 1872, the price paid being $22,000. The village at once relaid the pipe by an eight-inch one, which was in turn replaced by the present one twenty inches in diameter.
Early in the history of the use of the pond as a water supply a dam was built on the east side increasing the storage capacity. In 1904 this dam was relaid and raised five feet higher, again increasing the supply and making it adequate for many years to come. The pond now covers an area of 431/2 acres and has an estimated capacity of 125,700,000 gallons. Frequent analysis of the water by the state laboratory has always shown it to be of remarkable purity, and this has been proven by the average good health of the citizens.
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ORIGIN OF NAMES OF PLACES, INCLUDING "COWARD-ICE AND "HORSE-HEAVEN"
The origin of many of the names of places, streets, etc., in this vicinity is interesting. The name "Bellows" was first given to the falls in the Connecticut river at this point from that of Colonel Benjamin Bellows, the second settler of the neighboring town of Walpole, N. H., who was instrumental in securing the charter of this town, and was one of its grantees under King George. He was later the most prominent resident in all this locality and as the village beside the falls grew and required a name it was given his. The family name of Bellows was derived from the French words "belle eau," meaning "beautiful water."
The name of the Town, "Rockingham," was chosen by Governor Wentworth of the Province of New Hamp- shire, when he granted the town charter in 1752, being chosen, as were so many names in colonial days, because of its historic English association. It was so named for the Marquis of Rockingham, Charles Watson Went- worth, first lord of the treasury and prime minister of England 1765 and 1766, and again in later years.
The name "Charlestown" of our near New Hamp- shire neighbor, was given because Sir Charles Knowles of England presented an elegant sword to Captain Phineas Stevens of "Old No. 4 Fort," as the town had formerly been designated. Captain Stevens had com- manded the fort, the site of which is now marked by a bronze tablet on a large boulder in the village, and had successfully defended it from a large party of French and Indians, under command of Monsieur Debeline,
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during the French and Indian War. In admiration of the skill displayed by Captain Stevens, Sir Charles presented the sword, and in acknowledgment, the town, when incorporated in 1753, was named Charlestown.
"Coward-ice is a name found in the town records as early as 1792, and always so known most commonly in the intervening years. It is a section of rocky hill road about 6 miles north of Bellows Falls near the Roundy farm. It is close to the Connecticut river and is so called from a legend handed down through all the intervening years that one winter a bear of particularly savage appearance was seen out on the ice of the river opposite. A citizen living near started out boldly to shoot him, but he became alarmed and retreated without firing his gun. Both he and that locality were there- after known as "Coward-on-ice," later shortened to "Coward-ice."
"Horse-Heaven" is applied to a steep hill and sec- tion of the highway about half way between the north and south lines of this town, near the Connecticut river, just north of the present residence of Lewis C. Lovell. The name is a most common one, used at least during the entire last century. The legend is that a man draw- ing a heavy load up the hill with a pair of horses became stalled. As the load ran back it went over the steep side of the highway and he is said to have remarked to his horses as they disappeared over the side of the road and fell to the jagged rocks below, "Go to Heaven" instead of the more common profane expression. Evidently the early residents thought such praiseworthy and pious remarks should be perpetuated, and they have been to this day.
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PHINEAS GAGE LIVED NINETEEN YEARS
AFTER A TAMPING
BAR WAS BLOWN
THROUGH HIS BRAIN
During the building of the Rutland road, Septem- ber 15, 1847, a peculiar accident occurred which in all the intervening years has been considered the most remarkable in its results of any recorded in the medical world. A workman named Phineas Gage had a long iron bar blown entirely through his head and brain, by a premature discharge of a blast while making the rock cut a mile east of Cavendish station. The strange thing was that the man recovered and was able to work about 19 years thereafter. It was such a marvelous thing to relate that it was doubted by physicians every- where and close investigation was made by surgeons from other states. The "tamping bar" was three feet and a half long and tapered at the upper end a distance of eight inches to half an inch in diameter at the lower end. It was very smooth like a spindle and passed through the left cheek. The bar entered the head on the lower part of brain and through the skull at the top of the head. In later years, the man expressed a desire that after his death his skull, as well as the bar that passed through it, should be preserved, and the two are now in the museum of the Massachusetts Medical College at Boston.
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JABEZ HILLS-THE MOST ECCENTRIC CHAR- ACTER IN THE HISTORY OF BELLOWS FALLS
If any person had asked the business men of Bellows Falls of 60 years or more ago who was the most eccentric person, or interesting character, ever prominently iden- tified with the business interests of the town, without doubt the response would have been unanimously "Jabez Hills." He died September 16, 1871, at 83 years of age, in an old forlorn room in what was then known as the "Pettis" block on the west side of the Square where is now the building occupied by the Goodnow, Jewett & Pillsbury store. Mr. Hills had owned that building over 40 years and it was replaced by the present block in 1899. He never married, and during his entire life he had evinced a singularly miserly instinct, approaching greed, for money getting that in his later years became a mania, and he was often spoken of as of unsound mind.
He lived the life of a recluse, having few friends or intimate acquaintances. Those who looked over his room after his death found on top of an old cupboard a tin teapot which contained about $700 in gold. Nothing else in the room was of value, it being filled largely with old tin pans that contained old rusty nails and bits of iron which he had picked up about town. His bed, which was nothing but rags, was of that nature that demanded that it be buried immediately in the bank behind the block.
A will was found containing only a dozen lines, which bequeathed his entire estate to a niece, Mrs. Harriet H. Bingham, of Boston, whose son-in-law, Hales
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W. Suter, administered upon it until his death, and a portion is still owned by his descendants. That portion is now the Goodnow block, and the frame buildings leased to S. J. Cray. When Mr. Hills died he owned everything on the west side of the Square from the Trust Company's block to the School Street stairs, the location of the pres- ent Corner Drug Store, the old paper mill site with its valuable water power rights, and other property, all of which he had accumulated by foreclosures of mortgages. He never purchased but one piece of real estate, al- though he owned many at his death. He never sold one, the nearest to it being when he signed a lease of his water rights "under the hill" to Hon. William A. Russell, April 15, 1869, the beginning of the important development of the water power, and the starting of the Fall Mountain Paper Company, and other important manufacturing industries of Bellows Falls. He had gold in the bank amounting to $545 and currency $338, and other personal property amounting to $4,637, the total value of his real estate and personal property being $20,537.32 as appraised at that time. Probably he held more property than any other man here in his day.
Mr. Hills was born in New Ipswich, N. H., in 1788, and came to Bellows Falls in 1805. He was employed in the country store of Hall & Green, in a frame build- ing standing where Union Block now does, on the east side of the Square. The Mr. Green was the father of Edward H. Green, the husband of Hetty Green of later years. For many years Mr. Hills wore an English queue and knee buckles, as many Americans then did. When Quartus Morgan, the first postmaster of Bellows
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Falls, died, he was appointed to succeed him and he held the office 20 years, keeping it in the Hall & Green store. After 1830 he never had any business except to tend his hay scales, which were in the Square in front of where the bank block is now, and to accumulate money. He lived entirely alone and upon crackers and bread and mo- lasses, purchasing them in large quantities and keeping them in his one room. He dressed like a beggar, had a peculiar stooping posture and for the last 20 years of his life he wore the same old stove pipe hat, greasy, battered and worn beyond any semblance of shape.
In his old building where he lived was a basement used as a bakery, and in it was an immense brick oven. In this oven residents of years ago told the writer they had seen his bed and knew that he slept in the oven in cold weather. In his room in the second story of the building, in the southwest corner, he had a small wood stove in which he used to burn wood four feet long, pushing the sticks in as they burned off. Over this he would crouch and one spring when he came out it was found that his shins were burned from the ankles to the knees from sitting day after day so near the stove. Before he was 60 years old he, at times, would "dress up a little," having a blue coat with brass buttons with his then new beaver hat, but he was never guilty of such a sin later in life.
With only two men did he ever in his later life ap- proach intimacy : John Sawtelle, the village cooper, whose shop was in the basement of his dwelling that stood on Westminster Street where the "Barry Block," now owned by Theodore Scurtelis, stands; and John
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Billing, the village miller, and father of Mrs. Charles W. Butterfield.
It was common knowledge that for many years he started out of the village late in March, with his trunk containing his valuables and old clothes loaded on the center of two long poles. He would take up the front end of these, dragging the rear ends on the ground, and go across the river into New Hampshire for a few weeks to avoid taxation. The writer was told this by citizens who saw him on these pilgrimages. One year his trunk was found high up on Mount Kilburn and turned over to the Walpole authorities.
Late in life he rarely spoke to anyone on the street. He was pleasant to those who befriended him, but petu- lant and cross to those who made fun of, or laughed at him. Naturally a certain class of boys picked upon him and shied sticks and old boots at him, leading to many encounters and laughable, but pitiful, situations. Old residents used to tell many stories of Mr. Hills' oddities and almost unheard-of eccentricities, which fully justi- fies the statement that no business man of Bellows Falls ever exhibited so many marked and singular charac- teristics as he.
The line of ancestry of Jabez Hills was from Joseph who came from England in the "Susan & Ellen" in 1638, one of the first Speakers of the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the subject of this sketch being of the 6th generation from him.
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TWO NOTED EDUCATORS BORN IN ROCKING- HAM-PEABODY AND SABIN
The town of Rockingham has been the birthplace of a number of persons who have become of national repute in the line of educational matters. Among them have been Selim Hobart Peabody, who became president of the University of Illinois, and Albert Robbins Sabin, who served many years as superintendent of the public schools of the city of Chicago.
Selim Hobart Peabody was born in Rockingham, Vt., Aug. 2, 1829, the son of Charles H. and Grace S. Peabody. His father was a minister of the Baptist Church of Saxtons River, and of him the only further local information found is that during the period of eleven years from June 10, 1822, Charles H. Peabody was one of eight young men from the close-communion Baptist Church of Saxtons River who were licensed to preach. The father died at Randolph, Mass., when the boy was thirteen years of age. The mother's name was Grace Stone Ide.
The lad had already made promising progress in school work when his father died, and was ambitious to prepare for college. He entered the Public Latin School of Boston in 1842, where he remained one year, but owing to his father's death was compelled to quit school and help earn a livelihood for himself and others. For five years he worked at various forms of manual labor and taught school; then at the age of nineteen he entered the University of Vermont, where he graduated in 1852, supporting himself meantime by teaching. For one year he was principal of the Burlington High School.
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In 1854 he became professor of mathematics and physics in the Polytechnic College of Philadelphia, Pa.
After three years he became chief clerk of the United States Land Office at Eau Claire, Wis .; in 1859 he took charge of the city schools of Fond du Lac, Wis., and in 1862 he became superintendent of schools in Racine, Wis. Three years afterward he removed to Chicago, where he became an instructor in the city high school and prepared a series of juvenile books in nat- ural sciences, and text books upon arithmetic and astronomy.
In 1871 he went to the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst as professor of physics and engineer- ing, after three years returning to Chicago as secretary of the Academy of Sciences. In 1877 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Vermont. In 1878 he accepted a position in the Illinois Industrial University (which later became the Uni- versity of Illinois), of which he later became president. In 1880 he was in New York City as editor-in-chief of the International Encyclopedia, and while there prepared a volume of orations and addresses entitled "American Patriotism. " In 1881 he was elected Regent of the University of Illinois. About this time he declined the presidency of Rose Polytechnic Institute at Terre Haute, Ind., and a position as Assistant Secretary of Agricul- ture at Washington under President Harrison. He was prominent in many parts of the country; manager of the National Educational Exhibit in Chicago in 1887; installed the Illinois exhibit at the New Orleans Ex- position in 1885; in 1889, he was president of the National Council of Education; received the degree of
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Doctor of Laws in 1881 from Iowa State University, and was actively associated with many scientific and educational societies in this country, England and France. He was made Acting Director-General of the World's Columbian Exposition; editor and statistician under Commissioner Peck for the Paris Exposition. He was president of the University of Illinois from 1881 to 1891, where he gained wide popularity. In 1890-91 he was Superintendent of the Division of Liberal Arts of the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo; and was Superintendent of Awards at the Exposition of Charles- ton, S. C. He was in the service on the staff of the Director-General for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at the time of his death at St. Louis on May 26th, 1903.
Selim Hobart Peabody was a descendant in the eighth generation of John Peabody, who emigrated from England and who settled in Plymouth, Mass., in 1636. William, a son of John, married Betty, the daughter of John and Priscilla Alden.
Albert Robbins Sabin, another widely known edu- cator, was born on the ancestral form of the Sabins, just north of the "Sabin's Bridge" between here and Saxtons River village, September 20, 1837, a son of Elisha Stearns Sabin, a lifelong business man of this vicinity. While a student at Middlebury College in 1862 the young man enlisted, was made captain of Company C of the 9th Vermont Regiment and served in the Civil War. After his return he went to Chicago and ultimately became one of the noted and influential edu- cators of that city.
His first connection with the schools of that city was as a teacher in the old Dearborn School located at
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the corner of Madison and Dearborn Streets, now cov- ered by a huge department store. In 1887 he was made assistant superintendent of the Chicago schools, and in 1899 superintendent, which position he held until his death in 1913. When the news of his death was an- nounced all school flags in Chicago were placed at half mast for ten days. Many tributes were paid to his memory, and to his services to the city. A leading edu- cator said, "He was one of the greatest men the schools of Chicago have ever known"; another, "He was a great man, and one of the most useful the schools have ever had." A beautiful school building erected by the city since his death has been named in his honor "The Sabin School."'
Mr. Sabin was twice married: July 11, 1862, to Mary Barber of Middlebury, Vt., who died in 1891; and he married Helen Mackey of Fredonia, N. Y., in 1893. He had two sons, Stewart and Albert R., Jr.
Florence Rena Sabin a niece of Albert R. Sabin and daughter of George Kimball Sabin, was a student at Vermont Academy and graduated from Smith College in 1893. She is today repued to be the most eminent woman scientist of the United States. She is a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and has been made a life member of the National Academy of Sciences of America, the first woman to be so honored. She is noted for her wonderful success in research work in blood cells. A scientist elected to the Academy is the highest authority in the country on his particular subject.
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A NOTED POETESS ONCE LIVED AT BARTONS- VILLE-NANCY AMELIA WAKEFIELD
From 1865 to 1869 there lived in the village of Bartonsville, a small village in this town, a poetess, who, although her fame rests largely upon a single production, was one whose writings have been read and admired by thousands and in all countries.
This was Nancy Amelia (Priest) Wakefield, the wife of Lieut. Arrington C. Wakefield, a soldier of the Civil War, who was credited to this town, and who made Bartonsville his home from about 1859 to 1869. He spent the last years of his life in Springfield, Mass., after the death of his wife. Nancy came to Bartonsville upon her marriage, which took place at her home in Winchendon, Mass., December 22, 1865. She was born in Royalston, Mass., December 7, 1836, but had spent the greater part of her life previous to her marriage with her parents in Winchendon. Between the years 1851 and 1855 the family lived in Hinsdale, N. H., and Miss Priest worked in the paper mill then owned by George Robertson. Her parents lived at some distance from the mill and she did not go home to dinner. Dur- ing the noon hour, as she sat upon a bale of rags in the rear of the mill looking over the Ashuelot river, the inspiration came to her to write the poem, "Over the River They Beckon to Me," which struck a responsive chord in the hearts of the reading public and has gained in popularity in the succeeding years. It has been con- sidered among the most pathetic and tender expressions upon that subject that has ever been published, and is to be found in many of the finest collections of poetry in
-
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the English language. At the time of her death the Congregationalist of Boston said: "It may be doubted whether a single week has transpired in the last ten years when the verses might not have been picked up from one or more of our American newspapers in their issue of that week. We know, indeed, of no bit of poetry of late, from any pen, that has struck the popular mind so exactly." This popular estimate has strengthened rather than diminished in the years that have elapsed since her death in 1870.
Following are the first two verses of the poem, which indicate the beauty and tenderness of the entire eleven verses :
"Over the river they beckon to me, Loved ones who cross'd to the other side ;
The gleam of their snowy robes I see, But their voices are lost in the dashing tide.
There's one with ringlets of sunny gold, And eyes the reflection of heaven's own blue ;
He cross'd in the twilight gray and cold, And the pale mist hid him from mortal view."
While living in Hinsdale Miss Priest became ac- quainted with her future husband, who was then em- ployed in the same paper mill. He later removed to Bartonsville and after his return from the army he brought her as a bride to this town to live. Lieut. Wakefield was an employe of the A. C. Moore mill in Bartonsville and the Wakefield and Moore families re- sided in the same dwelling. Mrs. Wakefield is still remembered by numerous older residents as of a beauti-
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ful nature and attractive ways, although exceedingly plain in features.
From the time she was 14 years of age, Mrs. Wake- field always exhibited marked natural ability in the line of poetry, although she had but a common school educa- tion, supplemented by a term or two at Powers Institute in Bernardston in 1858, where she was a pupil of Prof. L. F. Ward, who in later years was a prominent teacher in Bellows Falls and Saxtons River.
Twelve years after her death her mother selected enough of her poems to fill a book of more than 300 pages, and, with an interesting memoir of the talented woman, it was published in 1882 by Lee & Shepard under the titile, "Over the River, and Other Poems." An edition of only 300 was quickly exhausted and it has never been reprinted, so that it is extremely hard to find a copy at the present time. The talent, pathos and beautiful spirit which pervade the most of the poems show a mind of exceedingly fine instincts. Many of her poems were written carelessly in pencil, as if under sudden impulse of the heart, and a number of these were found after her decease.
Lieut. Arrington C. Wakefield, the husband, was born in Gardner, Me., December 22, 1833, and in 1906 was still living with a son in Springfield, Mass. He enlisted in Rockingham June 1, 1861, and served until July 11, 1865, being mustered out as second lieutenant of Co. I. A son, Francis Arrington, was born in Bar- tonsville July 6, 1867, and a second, Harry Cavino, was born May 28, 1869. Both were living in Springfield ; the former was captain and the latter lieutenant of the Springfield company of militia. Both served through
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the Spanish-American war and were at El Caney. Their only daughter died in infancy. Mrs. Wakefield died in Winchendon August 27, 1870, and her memory is held in high esteem by many old residents there, and by a few who knew her in this town.
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DEACON THOMAS PUTNAM OF CHARLESTOWN HAS AN UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE IN CHURCH
In all the early meeting-houses of New England in colonial times there was a large box pew built directly in front of the pulpit where all the deacons were accus- tomed to sit during morning service on communion days, and which on other Sabbaths was regularly the seat of the senior deacon. The old meeting-house in Rocking- ham was built largely after the pattern of that which had previously been built at Charlestown, as shown by the record of a town meeting held April 10, 1787, at which the voters of Rockingham decided to "Build the town House Just as Large as Charlestown Meeting House as to the square of it" and "5ly Voted to have the plan of the inside of s'd House agreeable to the inside of the Meeting House in Charlestown."
An incident which was in early years often told throughout Rockingham is worthy of being repeated although it occurred in the church at old "Number Four," the first name for Charlestown.
Thomas Putnam of Charlestown was, for many years, deacon of the old South Church in that town. In his official capacity Deacon Putnam occupied this square "deacon's pew" in the meeting-house of old Number Four on the Sabbath for some years as constantly as the day came round, until he was induced by the follow- ing circumstance to change it during the afternoon service for another.
Rev. Buckley Olcott of Charlestown and Rev. Thomas Fessenden of Walpole, father of Thomas Green
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Fessenden, the noted editor and writer, were contem- poraries in the ministry, the one having been settled in 1761, and the other in 1767, over their respective congre- gations, to which they continued their ministrations until called by the Master to go up higher ; and as Mr. Olcott lived until 1793, and Mr. Fessenden until 1813, they were brethren side by side in their pastorates for up- wards of 25 years, during all of which time their ex- changes were frequent, and the pleasantness and har- mony of their intercourse uninterrupted.
It happened during the summer of 1790 or 1791, that Mr. Olcott, being in feeble health and feeling as though he would like an exchange, dropped a line to Mr. Fessenden requesting him to accommodate him with one on the following Sabbath. Having received an affirmative answer, the respective gentlemen appeared in each other's pulpits at the appointed time.
Tradition informs us that Mrs. "Squire West," who was said to be the most notable woman of that time in Charlestown, with her accustomed hospitality invited Mr. Fessenden home with her to dinner. Among other things she placed before him for his repast was a platter bountifully laden with baked beans. As this was just such a dinner as Mr. Fessenden liked, he ate very heart- ily, praising highly as he did so Mrs. West's cookery. Dinner being over, they again repaired to the church where at the appointed hour the service commenced and continued favorably through the introductory. But the first head of the sermon was scarcely reached ere Mr. Fessenden, as a result of his over-heavy dinner, began to feel an almost over-powering nausea; and what to do under the circumstances became to him a subject of no
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inconsiderable interest. Unfortunately with such rapid- ity did his sickness increase that all deliberation was out of the question, and the decision he was obliged to make was rather involuntary than voluntary. Finding that, whether he would or not, his dinner was about to leave him, he leaned over the pulpit and delivered it with a sudden outpouring on poor Deacon Putnam's head, which, already silver gray, was made more varie- gated by the descending shower. Of course it was not long before the seat of the senior deacon was vacated and he was looking up to see what was coming down. When he comprehended the situation, the following colloquy took place between him and the occupant of the pulpit, if not to the edification, yet much to the amusement of the congregation :
"Mr. Fessenden," cried the unfortunate deacon, his locks still dripping, "don't you think you had better go out ?"
"O no," replied the good minister placing his hand on his stomach and looking down at the deacon, unable to resist a smile at his ludicrous appearance : "O no, Deacon Putnam, I guess not for I feel greatly relieved."
But though Mr. Fessenden did not go out, Deacon Putnam did; and while in the forenoon he often after- ward occupied the seat of the senior deacon, he never was known to do so in the afternoon again, but invaria- bly took his seat at the head of the family pew, where he appeared to listen to the service with great attention. He had received one baptism and he did not care to receive another like it.
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THE STORIES OF BARTONSVILLE AND LA GRANGE
The little village of Bartonsville in the extreme northwest part of this town, located on the Williams river, was once a much larger and thriving place, but of which the present generation know but little. Previous to the disastrous flood of 1869 there were two paper mills, two stores, a hotel and blacksmith's shop. Now there is only the small country store and post-office and about fifteen or twenty dwellings.
The village received its name from one of its earliest and most prominent men, Jeremiah Barton, Jr., con- nected largely with the manufacturing and farming industries of the place. Quite early in the last century the village had a saw and grist mill located on the upper falls in the river, there being at that time two falls there, each capable of being utilized for power. The river was considerably larger then than at the present time. These mills were at one time owned by Mr. Barton, who came to town about 1830. As a young man he had been a purser on a line of lake steamers on the great lakes. He built the old tavern building which was opened as a hotel in 1841. In 1865 he sold the farm on which he had lived since coming here, located just out of the village. He then became the landlord of the hotel, which he conducted many years. His wife was Sarah Wether- bee of Grafton, Vt., to whom he was married December 30, 1823. He died at Bartonsville in December, 1879, at the age of 82 years.
In 1851 or 1852 the saw and grist mills were re- placed by a paper mill, established by the late E. R.
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Robertson, who later was a prominent manufacturer in Bellows Falls, who had a partner named Dunham of Westminster West. One of the employees in this mill was Albert C. Moore, who was later the senior member of the firm of Moore & Thompson in Bellows Falls. He learned the papermaker's trade in this mill, utilizing his knowledge of the business in the establishment of a business in Bellows Falls which became one of its lead- ing industries.
About 1856 John Stearns and Noyes L. Jackson built a second paper mill on the lower falls, and these two mills furnished the life and activities of the little village until the disastrous flood of October, 1869. This flood changed the course of the river for a mile or more and left these mills, and the village, at some distance, entirely ruining the power that had been the life of the hamlet. When this flood came Albert C. Moore owned the upper mill and had just thoroughly rebuilt it at a large outlay of capital. The mill was to be started for the first time on the very day that the flood came. He was also the manager of the lower mill for its owners, who were the Union Paper Company of Springfield, Mass. From that time the business of the village of Bartonsville declined rapidly, there being no manufac- uring or other industries except farming.
Until about 1840 there was a little hamlet known as La Grange, of which present residents know but little, situated upon the plain where is now the town farm, about one-half mile west of the present Bartonsville post- office. Until that time it had for some years two taverns, two blacksmiths' shops, a country store and a dozen or more dwellings. Now only four dwellings are in sight.
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The Connecticut River Valley
This was a noted stopping place for stages between Rutland and Boston, different ones putting up at each hotel, and business for some years was as promising as that of almost any other village in the vicinity. The utilization of the water power at Bartonsville drew the business to that hamlet, and La Grange gradually dropped out of existence as a village. A post-office was established at La Grange in 1835, and continued two years with Samuel Jackson, the storekeeper, as post- master. The post-office was established at Bartonsville in 1842.
As an instance of the small streams of this vicinity which formerly carried important mills: In Rocking- ham village, just beyond the old meeting-house, in the ravine on the road to Rutland, is a brook which at the present time is hardly to be noticed in passing the locality. Some portions of the year it is entirely dry. In the early part of the last century the extensive tannery of Manessah Divoll, grandfather of Natt L. and Oscar J. Divoll, was located on the north side of the ravine, but a few rods from where the old hotel stood. The brook furnished water power for the tannery, as well as for a cider mill, carriage shop and other indus- tries. The tannery was burned in February, 1858, and no trace of it is to be seen now, although the power was used for other purposes for some time after the fire.
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