USA > New York > Essex County > Westport > Bessboro: A history of Westport, Essex Co., N.Y. > Part 26
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worth, Lewis. Henry Farnsworth, Fort Ann. Martin Farrand, Jeremiab Fliou. AbielGould. Randolph, Vt. John S. Gould. Essex. Luther B. Hammond, Rensselaer B. Ham- mond. Heury Hapgood, Edwin Hatch, Percival Hatch, George W. Henderson. Willian Higby. Willsborough. William Holcomb, Benjamin Frank Holcomb, William Hod- ges. John Howard, Moriah. Lucius Howard. Daniel Howard, New Haven, Vt. Cyrus Kellogg. Elizabethtown. Richard Henry Lee, Lewis. Benjamin F. Lee. Lewis. Diadorus H. Loveland, Ralph A. Loveland, Solon Lovell. Lucius Lyon. Henry Marks, Elizabethtown. Foster Me- Kinney. John L. Merriam, Essex. Ira Myrick. Natbau Myrick. Rowland J. Nichols, Lewis. William H. Peck. Keeseville. Michael Pbyfe, New York City. William Phyfe, New York City. Orrin Reed. Jay. Alva C. Rog- ers, Anson Rogers, David Rogers, Samuel Root. Stephen Rowe, Chesterfield. John N. Rust, New York City. Cyrus Richards, Charies Richards. John Savre. Samuel M. Scott, Keene. William G. T. Shedd, Willsborough.
Henry. Shedd. Willsborough. Marshall Shedd. Wills-
borough. Edward Shumway. Essex. Dennis B. Stacey. Charles Stacey. Thomas D. Stafford, Essex. Miroa
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* Stearnes. Elizabethtown. Alpheus Stone. Stillman Stone. Jonatban Tarbell, Moriah. David T. Taylor, New York City. Obed Taylor, Essex. John C. Thompson. Burling- ton, Vt. Higby Throop, Willsborough. Daniel Wballon, Essex. Reuben Whallon, Essex. Samuel M. Williams. Russell I. Williams, Sudbury, Vt. Barnum Winaus, Ferrisburgh, Vt. Sarell Wood, Jay. Alva Woods. Crown Point.
Female Department.
Eliza Angier, Nancy Angier. Sally Bisbop. Lewis. Lucy Bruce, Keone. Irene Cali. Eliza Cole. Stillwater. Martina Ann Cole, Mary Cole, Roby Cole, Marietta Clark, Julia Clark. Pamelia Clark, Mary Cutting, Mahala Drake. Sophronia Drake. Mary Ann Ferris, Pamelia Finby, Anda Finny, Betsey Fisher, CynthiaFisher. Mary Foster, Moriah. Jane Agues Flack, Willsborough. Mariah Gibson, Spring Arbor, Mich. Mary Gould, Essex. Emily P. Gross. Keeseville. Mary A. Hammond.Jane E. Hammond. Phebe F. Hall, Jav. Eunice Hatch, Mary Ann Henderson. Mari- etta Hickock. New Haven, Vt. Sybil Agues Hagar. Middle- bury. Vt. Elvira Henderson. Elmira Holcomb. Nancy M. How- ard, Moriah. Sary M. Howard, Benson, Vt. Betsey Isman. Caroline Isman. Essex. Augusta M. Kent. Catharine Kent. EstherKetchel, Essex. Catharine Low. Lewis. Isa- bella G. Mead, Jane M. Mead. Sarah Mead, Sylvia Mer- riam, Essex. Mary F. McLeod, Betsey Morse, Louisa Morse. HarrietNettleton, Jay. Mary Ann Parkill, Essex. Caroline E. Peck, Keeseville. Esther P. Ranney, Eliza Ann Reynolds. Anna Jane Reynolds, Clarissa Richards. Cathaline Rising. Sarah Ann Rust, New York City. Samantha Sawyer. West Haven. Vt. Christeen Shelden, Essex. CarolineSpencer. Harriet Spencer. Eliza Sprague, New Haven, Vt. Esther Stafford. Essex. Annia Stearnes. Elizabethtown. Jane A. Stoddard, Burlington, V't. Celia Stone, Clintonville Jane E. Stow. Keeseville. Al- mira Sturtevant, MariabSturtevant. Harriet Tarbell. Mo- riah. Jerusba Young. Sarah Young. Eluorah Wballon, Charlotte Wballon, Essex. Rebecca Wyman, Sebroon.
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Primary School.
Males, 25. Females, 15.
Recapitulation. Male Dept., 91. Female Dept., 77.
Primary School, 40. Total 208.
Attending Ist Term, com. Ist Monday in Jan., 124.
.. 2nd
May, 101.
3rd
Sept., 111.
Average per Term, 112.
Tuitiou per Quarter, for the Common English Studies, $3.00
For the Languages and Higher Branches, $4.50
Music with use of Piano, $10.00
Chemical Lectures,
$3.00
Charles Hatch, President of the Board of Trustees.
Aaron B. Mack, Secretary.
The Principal, Orson Kellogg, graduated from the University of Vermont in 1823, having entered from Elizabethtowu, N. Y. He remained at the head of the Academy for eight years, presiding over the busy hive of the boarding house, and is remembered as exceed- ingly efficient in every capacity. From Westport he seems to have gone to New York, where he taught school for a number of years, and died there in 1853.
Following Mr. Kellogg as Principal was William Higby, of Willsboro, whose name appears as a student in this year's catalog. He graduated from the University of Vermont in 1840, and practiced law. When gold was discovered in California he joined in the rush to the Pacific coast, in 1850. He became District Attorney of California, District Judge, went to the State Legisla- ture, and to Washington as Congressman from 1853 to 1869. He died at Santa Rosa, Cal., in 1887.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Another principal was a Mr. Bates, son of the Rev. Joshua Bates, president of Middlebury College. As I find that he had five sons, this is not very definite.
Around the name of Emily Gross, the "Female teacher," cluster memories of the most engaging ro- mance. She was beautiful, talented, highly educated, 'beloved by all who knew her. She was daughter of that Ezra C. Gross to whom William Ray paid such a flourishing compliment when he told Governor Tomp- kins the name of his fellow editor of the Reveille. Her mother was a Miss Fisher of Elizabethtown. After the death of father and mother she was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Keese of Keeseville, and she was given "a finished education" by the Free Masons. She after- ward married a millionaire, or at least a very wealthy man, Mr. Ransom E. Wood, and one romantic incident of her life is that of her daughter's receiving the auto- graph of Prince Bismarck, after having been received at the court of Berlin. And now the beautiful Emily, who once smiled upon the half-grown boys and girls who flocked up and down our Washington street-the grandfathers and grandmothers of the present genera- tion-lies buried in an English church-yard, at Matlock, Bath, in Derbyshire, and there in the little church you may see a memorial window which com- memorates her virtues. Perchance some of our own girls who are now teaching school in Westport may, sixty years hence, have a hike romantic story of beauty and good fortune for some chronicler to write down.
Another teacher in the Academy was Miss Charlotte
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Holly Kitchel, a sister of the Rev. Harvey Denison Kitchel, president of Middlebury College from 1866 to 1873. She married the Rev. Daniel Ladd, a Congrega- tional minister who went as a missionary to Turkey, and in that foreign land she spent thirty-one years of her life, bearing five children while in exile.
Other teachers, according to the memory of some of our old people, were Lucy Ann Clark, daughter of David Clark, Mrs. Farrar, Miss Ursula Kelley and a Miss Whittlesey, said to be a sister of the Rev. William W. Hickox, who built the stone cottage on the hill south of the village, now owned by Mr. Sherwood.
Some of the girls whose names appear in this cata- log as pupils afterward taught in the Academy and in the district schools in town, as Mary Ann Hammond and Augusta and Katharine Kent. Sarah Young, daugh- ter of Alexander Young, had the great good fortune to finish her education at the Troy Female Seminary which Miss Emma Willard made so famous between the years 1821 and 1838. To attend this seminary was the height of every studious girl's ambition at this time, in this region. It was a place where girls learned no overwhelming amount of science or dead languages, but they did learn good manners and fine needlework. Beautiful embroidery Sarah Young brought back from Miss Willard's school, and much of the delicate work of our grandmothers, still preserved in many of the old families, was done after the patterns used by Miss Willard's pupils.
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Among the boys who became famous was William Greenough Thayer Shedd who received the degree of A. M. from the University of Vermont in 1813, that of D. D. from Andover Theological Seminary, and of LL. D. from the University of New York in later years, was professor of Sacred Literature, Ecclesiastical History and kindred subjects at Andover, Auburn and New York, and published a long and heavy list of books on Philosophy of History, Dogmatic Theology, Doctrine of Endless Punishment, etc. John L. Merriam, in later years, went to Minnesota, was elected to Congress, and became Speaker of the House of Representatives. His son became Governor of the State. Jonathan Tar- bell was Provisional Governor of the City of New Or- leans during its occupation by United States troops, in the Civil War. Edward Samuel Shumway went from Westport to Middlebury College, graduating in 1839, and spending the rest of his life as a lawyer in Essex.
Judge James B. McKean of Saratoga, Member of Congress and first Colonel of the 77th Regiment, N. Y. V., was at one time a student of this academy, as was also Captain Samuel C. Dwyer, of the 38th.
The name of James W. Eddy shows that this family were now in town, probably coming not long before this. The father of James Walker Eddy and Charles Heury Eddy, afterward so well-known as business men in Westport, was Justin Eddy, who came from Rocking- ham, Vt., having previously lived at Saxton River, Vt. He was a lineal descendant of that William Eddy, Vi- car of St. Dunstan, Cranford, County of Kent, England,
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
who was the progenitor of so many of the American Eddys. The Hon. Matthew Hale of Albany was also a descendant of the Vicar of St. Dunstan's. C. H. Eddy married Marietta Hickok, but J. W. Eddy remained a bachelor, and when he died left his property to his brother.
The Lecturer "appointed for the ensuing year" was Dr. Evander W. Rapney, who had not then been long in town. He was the son of Dr. Waitstill Randolph Rauney of Townshend, Vt., a man very well-known throughout Vermont in those days, with the versatile New England ability for doing many thing, and doing them all well. He practiced as a country doctor, being at the same time almost continuously in some public of- fice, rising gradually to be State Senator, and then Lieutenant Governor. He was also a farmer, and a successful one, as would appear from a remark made near the end of his life: "It was in a great measure through the products of the farm that I acquired the means of giving four of my sons a collegiate, and three others a medical education, at the same time laying up something for future necessities." As he had thirteen children, he might well have been proud of making professional men of seven sons. Of the three who were doctors, twosettled for a while in Westport, Dr. Evander W. Ranney practicing here from 1835 to 1844, and then removing to New York, while his brother Dr. Henry D. Ranney succeeded to his practice here, remaining until 1857. I think both of the Doctors Ranney lived on Washington street, in the house which has been occu -
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
pied almost continuously since by succeeding doctors, -- by Dr. Richardson, Dr. Barber and Dr. DeLano, and now by Dr. Holt.
Dr. Evauder was not the first Ranney in town, as his unele Eleazar H. Rannoy had been here at least since 1824, living north of the bay, on the present John Brown farm. Eleazer Ranney and his family were faithful members of the Congregational church at Wadhams, and the church books show that they went away in 1850. The father of Eleazar, an elder Waitstill, lived with him, died in 1839, and was buried at Northwest Bay. There was another brother of Dr. Evander who is known in Westport annals as "Elder Ranney," being Darwin Harlow Ranney, who graduated from Middle- bury College in 1835, and came to Westport the same year, preaching in the Baptist church, and being or- dained to the Baptist ministry in August. He seems to have stayed no more than a year. He married Sybil Hale Mckinney, sister of Norris MeKinney.
1836.
Town Meeting held at Spencer's Hotel.
John Chandler. Supervisor.
Diodorus S. Holcomb, Clerk.
Gideon Hammond and Lewis Cady, Justices.
Ebenezer Douglass, Isaac Stone and Calvin Angier, As- sessors.
Marcus J. Hoisington. Collector.
Newton Hays, Alanson Barber, John Greeley, Jr., Road Commissioners.
D. S. Holcomb, Aaron B. Mack, Abiathar Pollard, School Commissioners.
Joseph R. Delano, Miles M'F. Sawyer, Enos S. Warner, School Inspectors.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Hezekiah Barber and Levi Frisbie. Poor Masters.
Marcus J. Hoisington. Alanson Denton. John Stone, Seymour Curtis. Constables.
Newton Hays. Scaler of Weights and Measures.
Pathmasters. -- Horace Ormsby. John Stone. Charles Fisher. Levi Frisbie. Amos Culver. Miles. M'F. Sawyer. William Viall. Isaac D. Lyon. E. H. Ranney, Elijah Angier. George W. Sturtevant. Jason Braman, Jason Dunster. Justin Prouty. Benjamin Caldwell, John Lobdell. Johnson Jill. Theron Slaughter. Gideon Hammond. Joseph Stacy, Jr. Horace Holcomb, Solomon Stockwell, Wilson K. Low. Moses Felt, Joseph Farnam, George Skinner, Nathaniel Allen. George Vaughan, Jonathan Cady. Emory Mather.
Adjourned to the Inn of H. J. Person.
Spencer's Hotel stood where the Glenwood Inn now stands, on the hill, at the junction of North and Pleas- ant streets. Alexander Spencer had been here since 1826. There was a Dr. Spencer in this family, (which is not that of Victor Spencer,) who was a student in the office of Dr. Wright.
It was about 1837 that the Congregational church at Wadhams was erected, on the top of the hill just west of the river. In those days it seems to have been al- most a rule that the churches should be built on the highest hill-top available, perhaps with an idea of let- ting their light so shine. The same thing may be ob- served of many of the school houses. Later, this church, like the Baptist church at the Bay, was moved to lower ground. At some time not far from 1875, one winter when the river was frozen, the church members came together with horses and oxen and chains and serews, and all things needful, and moved the church down the bauk. upon the ice, and across to the opposite side, where it How stands. This was the only church edifice in Wad-
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
hams until the Methodist Episcopal church was built in 1893.
This year Liberty street was first opened, its exist - ence up to this time having been ouly witnessed by the fast yellowing paper of the Ananias map. There was also another street, which has never yet received a name, thus described in the survey bill : "Also one other road, beginning on the south side of Washington street, thirty-seven and one-half links from the west end of the Essex County Academy in said villago of Westport, running from thence south fifteen degrees, east nine chains and six links, until it intersects said Liberty street in said village. Said road to be three rods wide at least." Dated Westport, May 20, 1836, and signed by Diadorus S. Holcomb, Surveyor, and by the roa.l commissioners of the year.
The necessary permission from the owners of the land through which the new street was opened is thus given : "I am willing that the above-mentioned road should be opened agreeable to the above-mentioned sur- vey bill, with such alterations to be made as I have suggested to Mr. Sawyer. It is understood that my father and myself are not to be at any expense in fenc- ing any part of said roads." Signed Platt R. Halstead. May 31, 1836. Then further : "I hereby agree to build the fence on the side of the road adjoining the land now occupied by John Halstead, or that which he has not released his claim to, mentioned or described in the within survey bill." Signed Miles M'F. Sawyer, who
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
married the daughter of John Halstead, and seems to have been carrying on bis Jand.
1887.
Town Meeting at the Inn of H. J. Persons. w most common Benajab P. Douglass, Supervisor.
Diodorus S. Holcomb, Clerk.
Charles Hateb. Calvin Augier, Joseph Hardy. Assessors. Seymour Curtis. Collector.
William L. Wadhams, Justice.
Isaac Alden. Granville Stone, Hezekiah Barber. Road Commissioners.
Miles M'F. Sawyer, Albert P. Cole. Jason Dunster, School Commissioners.
Diodorus S. Holcomb. Orson Kellogg, Asabel Lyon. School Inspectors.
Horace Holcomb and George B. Reynolds, Poor Masters. Seymour Curtis. John A. Hill, Erastus Loveland. Alan- son Denton. Constables.
Enos S. Waruer, Sealer of Weights aud measures.
Patbmasters .- Alvin Burt, Otis Sheldon, Charles Fish- or. Levi Frisbie, Lorrin Cole, Aaron B. Mack, William Viall. Isaac D. Lyon. Noel Merrill, Henry Royce. John Stevens, William L. Wadhams, John Lock. Joel Finney. John S. Stanton. Jared Goodall, Harvey Smith, Albert Stringham. John Chandler. Henry Stone. Frederick T. Howard. Charles Doty. Lee Prouty. Darius Merriam. Jos- eph Farnam. Stephen Sherman. William Olds. Erastus Loveland, Jonathan Cady. Elisha Royce.
Survey of a road in the Iron Ore Traet "from a beech tree on the east line of Lot No. 47 to beech sapling in the south line of No. 7." This is a fine example of the landmarks often indicated by the early surveyors. Surely a beech sapling was not very satisfactory as an enduring monument. The writer remembers a deed in which a certain boundary was made to depend upon
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
- the fence "around the five-acre lot that was sowed to corn last year." As the lot had been abandoned to the forest years before and was overgrown with a fine young grove of pine and hemlock at the time at which it was desired to transfer the land, it was necessary to supplement the documentary evidence with that of the memory of the Oldest Inhabitant.
This is the year that Victoria was proclaimed Queen of England, and that in which Martin Van Buren was inaugurated President. At Shelburne Harbor was built the Burlington, the largest and fastest steamer yet seen on the lake, one hundred and ninety feet long, twenty- five feet wide and nine feet deep, with a speed of fifteen miles an hour. Her captain was Richard W. Sherman, the famous "Captain Dick," of whom President Van Buren, often his passenger, said, "He imagines that all the world is the deck of a ship, and he the captain." It was upon the Burlington that Charles Dickens passed through Lake Champlain on his American tour, five years after this. The old Phenix was just condemned, and for fifteen years the people in Westport saw the Burlington steaming back and forth upon the lake. Not yet were regular landings made in the bay, passengers going on board in a small boat, although the steamers stopped at the wharf at Barber's Point, and on that account it was common for those who wished to take the boat to go to the Point for the purpose.
This year the Methodist Episcopal church was fin- ished and dedicated, the movement for its erection hav- ing begun three years before. The building committee
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT 397
was Dr. Diadorus Holcomb, Charles B. Hatch and Levi Frisbie, and subscriptions were to be paid "one-fourth in cash and three fourths in good merchantable neat- cattle, grain or iron." The house was about forty by sixty feet in outside measurement, aud built of stone brought from Button Bay island, four miles away across the lake. At this time the Rev. Peter C. Oakley was presiding elder, and Lewis Potter and H. Stewart act- ed as circuit preachers. Two years afterward Westport was made a station, with John W. Belknapp as station- ed preacher, and soon after a parsonage was built, just north of the church.
In the Baptist church very important action was taken in the adoption of what they called "the temper- ance resolution." It ran as follows :
"Resolved that we resolve ourselves into a temper- ance Church, so that any member of the church who shall use or traffic in, or promote the use of or traffic in ardent spirits or wines as a beverage, shall be liable to labour by any member of the church who shall be ac- quainted with the fact, and to exclusion in case of re- fusal to reform." It is evident that this resolution was not passed without some difficulty, as it had been under discussion since April, and it was at least six years since the national temperance movement may be said to have begun. There is no doubt that drinking habits were exceedingly prevalent in Westport as well as in all other places, as we know too well from accounts with which we are all familiar. It is startling to read the old church records, and note the large proportion of.
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cases of drunkenness which came under the reproba- tion of the church, showing that conscientious people were laboring faithfully against overwhelming odds. There is a horrible story told of some one of the offer offenders (but not a church member,; sitting at the table one night drinking, near the end of a prolonged period of indulgence, reaching for his bottle with his arm close to the flame of the candle, and seeing a blue flame run up his arm as though the blaze hadt touched the surface of alcohol. It is added that the horror of the sight led to the draukard's reformation and wheth- er it be literally true, or invented by some one who had just read Dickens' "Bleak House," in which the case of spontaneous combustion is so subtly and powerfully managed, the story goes to show something of the cou- ditions needing reformation. . When the Baptist church adopted the temperance resolution, the pastor was the Rev. Cyrus W. Hodges, the church clerk Joel A. Cal- hoon, and the deacons Gideon Hammond and George B. Reynolds.
1838.
Town Meeting held at H. J. Persous.
John Chandler, Supervisor.
D. S. Holcomb, Clerk.
Diodorus Holcomb, Justice.
Barnabas Myrick. Alauson Barber, Joseph R. Delano. Assessors.
Seymour Curtis, Collector.
Granville Stone. Hezekiah Barber. Jason Braman. Roast Commissioners.
Ira Henderson. Asahel Lyon. William Frisbie, School Commissioner-
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David M. Sayre. J. R. Delano, Miles M'P. Sawyer. School Inspectors.
Calvin Angier and James W. Coll. Poor Masters.
Seymour Curtis, Erastus Loveland. Alanson Denton. Constables.
Sewall Cutting. Sealer of Weights and Measures.
Pathmasters. -- Ruph Bigalow. E H. Coll. Harry Cole. Newton Hays. H. J. Persons. William Viall. Jonathan Holcomb. Asabel Lyon. Luther Angier. George W. Sturte- vant. Elf Wood, David M. Sayre. Augustus Hill. Orrin Skinner. Joshua Slaughter. Johnson Hill. Leonard Avery. John Chandler. Alouzo Slaughter. James McConley. Eze- kiel Pangburn. Le Prouty. Moses Felt. Joseph Farnam. Stopben Sherman. William Olds. Leonard Ware. Jonathan, Cady. Jonu Stone. and Mr. Knights.
In the dreary obscurity of the descriptions of the road surveys we catch such words and phrases as "the King- dom," "the bridge on the Town Line east of Lobdell and Myrick's forge," "Storrs and Hatch's forge," with some locality unerringly determined by "the small brook southeasterly of Paddock MeGuyer's house." The surveyor was Platt R. Halstead. The Justices were Diodorus Holcomb, William L. Wadhams and Ira Henderson. The Member of Assembly from our dis- triet was Gideon Hammond.
1838 was the year of the "Papineau War" in Canada. It was no great confliet, but our town lay near enough to the froutier to share a little of the excitement, and renewed attention was paid to military matters. The militia trainings had fallen somewhat into negleet, but how behold our martial youth once more arrayed for conquest, and formed into an artillery company, of which Asahel Lyon was the captain, while Harry J. Person was colonel of the regiment. The general mu --
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
ter was at Lake George at this time. The Westport company consisted of thirty or forty men, but the ouly names given me are those of Edmund J. Smith, James A. Allen and Edwin Person, son of the colonel. They were never called forth to fight, and so never became famous, but they owned a real cannou, probably the first one seon in town since Gov. Tompkins ordered canuon sent in to the arsenal at Pleasant Valley by way of Northwest Bay. This piece of ordnance figured at celebrations for many years afterward, and at last burst in an excess of euthasiasm on some Fourth of July.
Before the Canadian troubles were settled, Gen. Winfield Scott was sent into Canada by our government to inquire into matters a little. He went north in the winter, by the live of stages which Peter Comstock had early established between New York and Montreal, and passed through Westport, stopping at H. J. Person's hotel. This, of course, was a great event, and it is to be hoped that there was not a boy in the village who had not sufficient spirit to try to get a look at the fa- mons general. Among the many stories of this period in regard to the sympathy felt with the rebellious col- onists among a people who had within twenty-five years fought with England themselves, is one which Mrs. William G. Hunter told me, (fifty years afterward,, of the driver bringing his sleigh around to the door for the General to resume his journey to Canada, and ob- serving that it seemed unnaturally heavy. Ou examiu- ation it was found that muskets had been packed in the bottom of the sleigh and covered with the buffalo robes
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by some Canadian sympathizer, who intended thus to send them across the line to the insurgents. Mrs. Hun- ter added that there was no reason for believing the story, which was probably invented long after Gen. Scott had disappeared upon the snowy horizon, but that it showed the kind of fiction which was then popular among the groups of men who lounged around the stove in the bar-room or the store.
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