USA > Vermont > Rutland County > Poultney > A history of the town of Poultney, Vermont, from its settlement to the year 1875, with family and biographical sketches and incidents > Part 1
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Go 974.302 P86j 1307933
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01100 2984
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofp1875josl
A HISTORY
OF THE
TOWN OF
POULTNEY. VERMONT
FROM ITS SETTLEMENT
TO THE YEAR 1875,
WITH
FAMILY AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS.
PUBLISHED BY
J. JOSLIN, B. FRISBIE AND F. RUGGLES.
POULTNEY: JOURNAL PRINTING OFFICE. 1875.
1307933
TO THE CITIZENS OF POULTNEY, OF THIS AND COMING GENERATIONS, WHO WOULD KNOW THIE INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH THE ORIGIN OF THE TOWN: HOW THE FATHERS OF THE EARLY TIMES LIVED;
HOW THEY TOILED AND HOW THEY STRUGGLED, AND HOW THEY CONQUERED THE WILDERNESS AND ITS DIFFICULTIES, LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIETY ON A FIRM BASIS, AND LEFT FOR THEIR DESCENDANTS
THE PLEASANT VILLAGE HOMES AND CULTIVATED FARMS
THEY NOW ENJOY,
his ork is
ost espectfully Hedicated,
BY THE AUTHORS.
al301 #89-11.
PREFACE.
We have completed the History of Poultney according to the best of our ability and the means of information within our reach, and such as it is we dedicate to the "present and coming generations."
At the annual town meeting in Poultney, in March, 1873, a resolution was adopted appointing Joseph Joslin, Barnes Frisbie and Frederick Ruggles a committee to collect materials for the History. That committee, soon after their appointment, com- menced the work assigned them, and before the year closed had the larger portion of the body of the history prepared. But in the year 1874 very little was done. In the spring of 1875 the committee took upon themselves the responsibility of publish- ing the History, and made their arrangements accordingly. That our work is incomplete we are aware, and how could it be otherwise? We could obtain no information from the first set- tlers, for they had all passed away. Some items had been cop- ied from the town records prior to their destruction by fire, in 1862. Church and family records, inscriptions on monuments in the cemeteries, old account books-all that would throw light upon the history of the town were sought and examined. We consulted the oldest inhabitants, both personally and by letter; availed ourselves of tradition, when it was deemed reliable. With such sources of information we have done the best wo could, and hope critics will pass charitably over our work, for, notwithstanding its incompleteness, we think we have saved much from oblivion which in a few years would have been beyond the reach of the historian.
In the spring of 1875 we decided to go more into biographi- cal and family sketches than was at first contemplated. This gave us more work, and of the most tiresome and perplexing kind. We published a request in the Poultney Journal to fam-
vi.
PREFACE.
ilies to furnish the necessary information for these sketches, and, in addition to the published notice, we made personal applica- tion to very many for the desired material; but few complied, leaving us to pick up the materials as best we could. We are aware that some families have been omitted, others have meagre sketches, and our only apology is, we cannot give information unless we can procure it.
It would be strange if some errors were not found. Writers and printers are liable to mistakes, and those furnishing dates and other information are not free from such liability. We ask the reader to make due allowance for the literary execution of our work, for it has been done amid the cares and interruptions of other business, and we are aware that the literature of the family sketches will not endure close criticism. We did not engage in this work with any idea of making money out of it; we knew when we commenced that the profits would not be in dollars and cents. A hundred years had passed away since the town was settled, and no historic record had been made. We believed that even a partial history of the first half century of the town's existence would be written soon or never. To pre- serve what we could of that history has been our aim. Our work, such as it is, is before you.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Page.
Introductory-Charter-Changes in the Charter Lines-Proprietors' Meet- ings-Streams of Water, and something of the Topography of the Town .. ..
9
CHAPTER II.
The First Settlement and the First Settlers. 23
CHAPTER III.
Burgoyne's Invasion in the Summer of 1777-The Settlers driven off- Interesting Incidents ....
34
CHAPTER IV.
The First Town Representative-Reorganization of the Town-Grand List of 1781-Settlement of Ithamar Hibbard-First Meeting House erected -Division of the Town into School Districts. 39
CHAPTER V.
The Poultney Library-Other Libraries-The first Census-Mills erected prior to 1800
46
CHAPTER VI.
Population of the Town by Decades, 1791 to 1870-The villages in 1800-The Business at and about that time-Post Offices. ...
53
CHAPTER VII.
The Poultney Turnpike-The Flood of 1811-Damages by the Flood-Inci- dents ..
62
CHAPTER VIII.
The War of 1812-Political Excitement-Its Effect among the People .. ...
70
CHAPTER IX.
Agriculture and the Industries-Social Habits
F
CHAPTER X.
The East and West Villages-Their Growth-The Poultney Gazette and Northern Spectator-The Poultney Band ...
89
CHAPTER XI.
Ecclesiastical-History of Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal, Advent and Roman Catholic Churches
98
CHAPTER XII.
Masons-Odd Fellows-Temperance and Temperance Organizations. ........ CHAPTER XIII.
157
The Troy Conference Academy-Ripley Female College-Poultney Nor- mal Institute-St. John's School. 162
viii.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIV. Page. The Bank of Poultney-Rutland and Washington Railroad-Telegraph .... 176
CHAPTER XV.
181
The Slate Interest CHAPTER XVI.
Poultney in the War of 1861. 188
FAMILY AND BIOGRAPHICAL .. 197
APPENDIX 267
HISTORY OF POULTNEY.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY-CHARTER-CHANGES IN THE CHARTER LINES- PROPRIETORS' MEETINGS-STREAMS OF WATER, AND SOME- THING OF THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE TOWN.
LITTLE more than a century ago, Poultney was an un- broken wilderness. No foot of white man, unless it may have been some adventurous explorer, had ever trod its solitary pathways. The same venerable summits, "Old Herrick," Spruce Knob and Bird Mountain, stood then as now, and from their tops a grand and beautiful view could have been obtained of the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain at the north- west, the Catskill Mountains at the south-west, and the Green Mountain chain on the east, for nearly a hundred miles in extent. Town Hill and Howe's Hill (the latter formerly known as Parker's Hill) then, as now, looked down upon the Valley of Poultney River, which seperates these two prominences. That river, too, was then here, and its tributaries. They were filled with the speckled trout, larger and much more plentiful than now found in those streams; and Poultney River, then without a name, unchecked by dam or crossed by bridge, coursed its roaring or babbling way beneath the tufted foliage of the primeval forest into the quiet waters of Lake Champlain. Bears growled, deer bounded, and wolves howled amid the thickets, which no woodman's axe had invaded. No voice of man had for once awakened the echoes of these hills and glens, save some Indian hunter, as he pursued his game, or uttered the defiant war-whoop as he met his foe in deadly conflict. Then, every- thing was in its rudest dress-hill side and hollow, forest and rock-all as nature made, all as their untutored occupants left them.
2
.
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HISTORY OF POULTNEY.
The Indian passed away, and with him perished the story of his race. All their tender loves and their revenges; every ad- venture of chief or subject-all alike unrecorded, have gone forever into an oblivion from which the pen of the historian can never recover them.
The white man came. In defiance of a frowning forest, the inclemencies of a severe climate, and in the midst of blood-thirsty beasts of prey, he sought his home. He counted and accepted the cost; he set up the altars of his faith, and taught the wilderness to " bud and blossom as the rose." He made of the forest tree his comfortable dwelling; the virgin soil soon answered his call, and loaded his table with luxuries, and filled his barns with plenty. Idle streams were made to work their passage, as they were made to turn his machinery, and thus, with tireless gladness, to aid and assist him in the business of life. The patient genius of religion and education built the church; the school-house took his little ones in care, and traincd them up to execute new triumphs in the arts of civilization.
And now for a hundred years, on this ground, that race have plied their intelligence, their invention, their industry and their skill. And why may we not-why should we not gather up the story which those busy ycars can furnish? Who would refuse to trace the record of their sayings and doings? Who withhold from the hardy pioneers who inaugurated, and the wise and valiant men who have transmitted to us this noble inherit- ance, that meed of praise their names so richly deserve ? much less shall we allow their names to sink into oblivion. Surely not the worthy sons who inherit their names and virtues; surely not the natives of other towns, who have been drawn hither by the prospects of good, and who are now gathering the fruits of a prosperity which others planted. Every just, every filial, every honorable son or citizen of Poultney, must respond to the claim which his native or adopted town has to a permanent and in- structive history. It would be undutiful and unjust to the departed generations-the ancient worthics of our town-to refuse it. No efforts should be deemed too costly which can secure it.
11
HISTORY OF POULTNEY.
On the 9th day of January, 1862, the town clerk's office, kept by Nelson Ransom, then town clerk, in the Union store, in the East Village of Poultney, with nearly all the records and valu- able documents which had been accumulating for a century, were burned. A Centenial Celebration was held in Poultney on the 21st day of September, A. D. 1861. Henry Clark, Esq., then of Poultney, now of Rutland, delivered an address on the occasion, and, fortunately, he had, in his preparation, gathered much from the records and documents which otherwise would have been lost. He saved an essential portion of the proprietors' records, and of other documents, by copying, and kindly furnished to the writers of this work what he had thus saved, with much other material that he had collected in preparing his address.
Mr. Clark, in his address, says: "The grants of Charters in this State by Governor Benning Wentworth, commences with Bennington, January 3d, 1754, and extends to August 4th, 1764. Only sixteen charters, and most of those for towns located on the east side of the mountain, were granted until 1761. In that year, sixty charters were granted. In the month of September, eleven were granted, and seven of these were within the present limits of the County of Rutland, viz .: Shrewsbury, September 4; Clarendon, September 5; Rutland, September 7; Tinmouth and Wells, September 15; Poultney, September 21; and Castle- ton, September 22."
Here we have the beginning of the history of the town of Poultney-the Charter, which we find was granted by Benning Wentworth, the "Royal Governor of New Hampshire," Sept., 21, 1761. The following is a copy of the Charter:
1761. Province of New Hampshire.
GEORGE the Third, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain,
. France and Ireland, King and Defender of the Faith, etc. To all Persons to Whom these Presents shall come :
KNOW YE, That we, of Our special grace, certain knowledge and motion, for the due encouragement of settling a new plan- tation within Our said Province, by and with the advice of Our
12
HISTORY OF POULTNEY.
trusty and well beloved Benning Wentworth, Esquire, Our Governour and Commander-in-Chief of Our said Province of New Hampshire, in New England, and of the Council of said Province, have, upon the conditions and reservations herein- after made, given and granted, and by these presents for Our Heirs and Successors, do give and grant, in equal shares, unto Our loving subjects, inhabitants of Our said Province of New Hampshire, and to their heirs and assigns forever, whose names are entered on this grant, to be divided to and amongst them into seventy equal shares, all that tract of land situate, lying and being within Our Province of New Hampshire, containing by admeasurement 23,040 acres, which tract is to contain six miles square, and no more, of which an allowance is to be made for highways and unimprovable lands, rocks, ponds, mountains and rivers, 1,040 acres free, according to a plan and survey thereof made by said Governour's order, and returned into the Secretary's office, and hercunto annexed, butted and bounded as follows, viz .:
Beginning at the north-west corner of Wells, a township lately granted in this Province, and from thence inning due north, six miles; thence turning off at right angles, and running due east, six miles; thence turning at right angles, and running due south, six miles, to the north-east corner of Wells afore- said; thence due west, by Wells aforesaid, to the north-west corner thereof, being the bounds begun at, and that the same be, and hereby is, incorporated into a township by the name of Poultney. And the inhabitants that do, or shall hereafter in- habit the said township, are hereby declared to be enfranchised with, and entitled to, all and every the privileges and immuni- ties that other towns within our Province, by law, exercise and enjoy. And further, that the said town, as soon as there shall be fifty families resident and settled therein, shall have the liberty of holding two fairs, one of which shall be held on the -, and the other on the -, annually; which fairs shall not continue longer than the respective - following the said - -. And that as soon as the said town shall consist of fifty families, a market may be opened, and be kept one or more
13
HISTORY OF POULTNEY.
days in each week, as may be thought most advantageous to the inhabitants. Also, that the first meeting for the choice of town officers, agreeable to the laws of Our said Province, shall be held on the second Tuesday of October next, which said meeting shall be notified by Mr. Samuel Brown, who is hereby appointed the Moderator of said first meeting, which he is to notify and govern agreeable to the laws and customs of Our said Province. And that the annual meeting, forever after, for the choice of such officers for the said town, shall be on the second Tuesday of March annually.
To have and to hold said tract of land as above expressed, together with all privileges and appurtenances to whom, and their respective heirs and assign forever, upon the following conditions, viz .:
1st. That every grantee, his heirs and assigns, shall plant and cultivate five acres of land within the town in five years, for every fifty acres contained in his or her share, or proportion of . land in said township, and to improve and settle the same by additional cultivation, on the penalty, or forfeiture of his grant or share in the said township, of its reverting to Us, Our heirs or successors, to be by us or them regranted to such of Our sub- jects as shall effectually settle and cultivate the same.
2d. That all white or other pine trees within the said town- ship, fit for masting Our Royal Navy, be carefully preserved for that use, and none to be cut and felled without Our special license for so doing first had and obtained, upon the penalty of the forfeiture of the right of such grantee, his heirs and assigns, to Us, Our heirs and successors, as well as being subject to the penalty of an Act or Acts of Parliament that now are, or shall be enacted.
3d. That before any division be made to and among the grantees, a tract of land, as near the center of the township as the land will admit of, shall be reserved and marked out for town lots, and of which shall be allotted to each grantee of the contents one acre.
4th. Yielding and paying therefor to Us, Our heirs and suc- cessors, for the space of ten years, to be computed from the date
14
HISTORY OF POULTNEY.
hereof, the rent of one ear of Indian corn only, on the 25th day of December, annually, if lawfully demanded; the first pay- ment to be made on the 25th day of December, 1762.
5th. Every proprietor, settler or inhabitant shall yield and pay unto Us, Our heirs and successors, yearly, and every year from and after the expiration of ten years, from the above said 25th day of December, which will be in the year of our Lord 1772, one shilling, proclamation money, for every hundred acres he so owns, settles or possesses, and so in proportion for a greater or less tract of the said land, which money shall be paid by the respective persons above said, their heirs or assigns, in Our Council Chamber in Portsmouth, or to such officer or officers as shall be appointed to receive the same, and this to be in lieu of all other rents and service whatever.
In testimony whereof, we have caused the seal of Our said Province to be hereunto affixed. Witness, Benning Went- worth, Esquire, Our Governour and Commander-in-Chief of Our said Province, the 21st day of September, in the year of our Lord Christ 1761, and in the first year of Our reign.
SEAL.
By His Excellency's command, with advice of Council.
THEODORE ATKINSON, Secretary Province New Hampshire.
September 21, 1761.
Recorded in the Book of Charters, page 201, 202.
Then follow the names of the grantees on the back of the Charter :-
Samuel Brown, Woodbury Langdon, Moses Boynton,
Isaac Lawrence,
Elijah Wilson, Titus Salter,
Timothy Hopkins,
Abraham Brown, Elijah Cobb,
Ezra Whittlesey, Stephen Hallock,
Eli Cowles, Solomon Whitney,
Riduff Dutcher,
Samuel Brown, Jr.
William Buck,
Elijah Brown,
Isaac Brown, John Chamberlin, Coffee Vanshaus, Samuel Southgate, David Whitney,
Benjamin Cowles,
Ephraim Hewitt,
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HISTORY OF POULTNEY.
Abraham Vandusen, Gideon Lawrence,
Caleb Colver,
Conrad Vandusen, John Nelson,
Daniel Wolditch,
John Vandusen,
Isaac Davis,
James Cornwall,
Matthew Vandusen, John Douaghy,
Elkanah Parris,
Jacob Vandusen, John Hart,
Richard Southgate,
Isaac Vandusen,
Aaron Whitmore,
Thomas Gage,
Jonathan Nash,
Thomas Sumner,
Tiny Demick,
Reuben Pixley, William Douaghy,
Stephen Dewey,
Joseph Patterson,
Thomas Ashley, Abner Dewey,
John Brown,
Nathaniel Fellows, Stephen Fay,
John Fassil,
Isaac Garfield,
Daniel Warner,
John Langdon,
David Glasier,
Thomas Bradford.
Theodore Atkinson,
His Excellency, Benning Wentworth, Esquire, a tract of land, to contain five hundred acres, as marked "B. W." in the plan, which is to be counted two written shares; one whole share for the incorporated society for the propogation of the Gospel in foreign parts; one share for the glebe of the Church of England, as by law established; one share for the first settled minister of the Gospel, and one share for the benefit of schools in said town.
Province of New Hampshire, September 21, 1761.
Recorded in Book of Charters, page 203.
THEODORE ATKINSON, Secretary.
Recorded by SOLOMON WHITNEY, Proprietors' Clerk!
We have no record of any action which preceded the grant- ing of the Charter, but it was understood by the old inhabitants that the grantees were at the time residents of Litchfield County, Connecticut, and Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and it was evidently so, in the main at least. The first Proprietors' Meet- ings were held in those counties. Those two counties were con- tiguous-one the north-western county of Connecticut, the other the western county of Massachusetts. The work preliminary to obtaining the Charter was doubtless performed in the locality named; but whether any of the grantees had hitherto visited the locality, since known as Poultney, we know not. We are left, too, in ignorance as to the origin of the name of our town.
16
HISTORY OF POULTNEY.
There has been a tradition, but perhaps not reliable, that there was at some time, in England, a Lord Poultney, and that a know- ledge of this lord suggested the name. Mr. Clark informs ns that some years since he visited a family in Baltimore, with the hope of ascertaing the origin of the name of our town, and that, in the interview, members of the family gave it as their impression that Benning Wentworth was a friend of some distinguished personage or family in England by the name of Poultney, and hence came the name. Poultney may be found on the map of England, as the name of a small lake, and it is the name of one other town in the United States. The name is, not common, but it is a good one.
The town of Poultney, as will be seen, was chartered by the Governor and Council of a Royal Province, and the first set- tlers and occupants of our soil were subjects of George III., King of Great Britain. It is evident that at the time of grant- ing the Charter, no survey had been made, except on paper. This, however, they were enabled to do in a manner that the lines could be located to a certainty, as it was a town six miles square, and the east and west lines running "due north," from the north-west and north-east corners of Wells. The lines have since been surveyed, and it is found that they run eight degrees from a due course north or south, cast or west. Time has produced this variation, as surveyors will understand. The south-west corner, the starting point of the survey in the Charter, is in the east line of the State of New York, and was the south-west corner of a farm formerly owned by Samuel Hyde, and is some fifty rods west of north of the Williams Slate Mill. The north-west corner is in a swale in the east line of Fairhaven, and is also the south-west corner of Castleton. This corner is not far from the Farnum and other slate quarries. The north-east corner is on the west side of Bird Mountain, near the south end, and is in the west line of Ira, and is also the south-east corner of Castleton. The last two corners named have remained unchanged from the day of the Charter. The south-east corner, as located by the Charter, is about half a mile nearly north of Middletown village, on what has been called
17
HISTORY OF POULTNEY.
the Loomis farm, recently owned by Royal Coleman, and the north-east corner of Wells, as chartered and originally located, was also there.
On the 13th of October, 1784, the town of Middletown was incorporated by an act of the Legislature, approved at that date, and the territory of which it was composed was taken from the the towns of Poultney, Ira, Tinmouth and Wells. The survey embodied in the act, gives 2,388 acres as taken from the south-east part of the town of Poultney. The piece taken is nearly triangular in form, the base resting upon the original south line of Poultney.
It will be seen that the Charter survey begins "at the north- west corner of Wells," and runs "due north, six miles." In a portion of the distance on this line there has been this change. Preparatory to the admission of Vermont into the Union, in 1790, Commissioners were appointed on the part of the States of Vermont and New York to examine and report a boundary line between the two States. The Commissioners report a line " be- ginning at the north-west corner of Massachusetts; thence west- ward along the south boundary of the township of Pownal, to the south-west corner thereof; thence northerly, along the west- ern boundaries of Pownal, Bennington, Shaftsbury, Arlington, Sandgate, Rupert, Pawlet, Wells and Poultney, as those town- ships are now held and possessed, to the river, commonly called Poultney River; thence down the same, through the deepest channel thereof, to East Bay."
The report was accepted and ratified by the two States, and the boundary line established as reported. The amount of land gained or lost by the town of Poultney in this settlement of the boundary question was but a trifle, as the "due north " line was made thereby to follow the river from a point a little south of west from West Poultney village, to a point a little north of where A. M. Knapp now lives, and where it strikes the east line of Fairhaven, a distance of about two miles.
On the 31st day of October, 1798, five thousand five hundred and forty-two and three-fourth acres and thirty-nine rods were set to Poultney from the north part of Wells, by an act of the
3
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HISTORY OF POULTNEY.
Legislature (the inhabitants of the respective towns having pre- viously assented and agreed thereto in town meetings called for that purpose). This annexation to Poultney carried the south line of the town some two miles farther south, and gave to Poultney over three thousand acres more than it had by the Benning Wentworth charter. The town of Poultney is now bounded north by Castleton, cast by Ira and Middletown, south by Middletown and Wells, and west by Granville and Hampton, N. Y., and Fairhaven, Vermont.
The five hundred acres reserved to Benning Wentworth, the Governor, were located in the south-west corner of the town as chartered. The tract was for a long time familiarly known as the Governor's farm. He, doubtless, disposed of it at an early day; but who his grantee or grantees were, neither the town records, as they were destroyed by fire, nor tradition informs us. Samuel Hyde at one time owned a large portion of this tract. It is now owned mainly by Ira M. Clark, N. C. Hyde, N. P. Beach, Friend Martin and William R. and John R. Williams.
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