USA > Vermont > Rutland County > Rutland > Historical Rutland; an illustrated history of Rutland, Vermont, from the granting of the charter in 1761 to 1911 > Part 1
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.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
IVI. Soda
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01100 3248
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historicalrutlan 1761 davi
HISTORICAL RUTLAND
An Illustrated History of Rutland, Vermont, from the granting of the charter in 1761 to 1911
Reproductions and Original Photographs by Louis F. Brehmer Press Matter Written and Compiled by Rev. F. E. Davison
Published by Phil. H. Brehmer, Rutland, Vt. THE TUTTLE CO., Printers
840
-
илития ларияотан
.
J Cam
J Cam
.
uor' Waliamt
cool Williams
to Whom:
GROVE
M
F
MAP
RUTLAND VT
W
ES
S
REE T
MERCHAR
WALES
PARK
L 1- Hodges
1852
on
d
RUTLAND
BURLINGTON
PROSPECT STREET
PLEASANT
S
-R.
T
T
P
R
R
---
M
ADISON
STREET
E
RUTLAND HWANHI IL ON
M
manicon
SESTIAN VERMONT DEPOT
Gw abony
.R'UND
head
Brook
.
₸
STREE
ASHING
ON
GREEN
MECHANIC TT
OCPOT GROUND
TITI
CROS
ILPOT UN .UND
T
Prch Tant
Clark
1767967
REPRODUCTION COPYRIGHT
NE
STREET
CLANNU
COTTAGE PLACE
-
ST
Z
STR.
GT Hade
ACADEMY
3TR
N
E
Runteon
THE SPILLAGE
J Cam
.
vaesas
Horeword.
O A TRAVELER entering Rutland for the first time the most conspicuous thing is the mountain peaks, under whose shadows the city rests. The whole landscape is dominated by the sky-piercing summits. It is much like that in writing history. When the historian, as in this instance, sweeps the horizon of 150 years his eye is caught and focussed upon the principal events that raise themselves out of the dim distance and it may well be possible that at such long range, fog bank and cloud may be credited with substantial reality. Out of the wealth of material put into permanent form by his predecessors, the author of this souvenir volume has selected what he conceives to be the subjects of most vital importance to future generations.
It has not been his province to create-only to compile, rearrange and set in order for ready reference some of the facts concerning the past and present with which this generation may not be fully conversant. Grateful acknowledgment is hereby made to the files of Rutland Herald, the "History and Genealogy of the Mead Family", Graham's History of Vermont, History of Rutland County by Smith and Rann, Hemenway's Vermont Gazetteer and Child's Gazetteer and Business Directory of Rutland County. No work of man is perfect and the maker of this book does not flatter himself that it will stand the test of absolute accuracy. It is sent forth with the satisfaction of knowing that it is an honest attempt to secure the facts and to present them in a concise and readable form. As such the author craves the reader's con- sideration.
F. E. DAVISON.
810889
3
Titatoriral Rutland.
N ORDER TO GET the proper perspective for a history of Rutland, it is necessary to go back to the earliest records and trace events which have followed in succession the discovery of Lake Champlain, July 4, 1609. The discovery of that body of water was also the disclosure of the territory now comprised in Rutland County, of which the City of Rutland is so important a part.
Muder Five Different Umuers
Rutland County has the distinction of having been in the course of its history under the jurisdiction of five different powers: first, the native aborigines, next, the French by right of discovery, then, the English by conquest and colonization, after that, by the independent republic of Vermont up to the time of the admission of the State into the Union, March 4, 1791, and finally, the government of the United States of America up to the present time.
Five Umminties Carved Out of Onte
Not only so, but Rutland County has been carved out of at least five different counties since those early days. In 1683 Albany County embraced all the territory of the present county and much more. In March, 1778, Vermont was divided into two counties, Unity on the East side and Bennington on the west side of the Green Mountains. In 1770, the territory north of the present Bennington County and west of the mountains was given the name of Washington County. February 13, 1781, Rutland County was incorporated, embracing the territory Washington County had previously covered. So that Rutland County at that time extended from Bennington to Canada, and from the Green Mountains on the east to the Hudson River on the west, including within its confines Lake Champlain and Lake George. The population of the county at that time was a little more than 4,000 and the appraisal of property for taxation less than $100,000. The county seat was established at first at Tinmouth where it remained until 1784 when it was removed to Rutland. When Addison County was formed in 1784 Rutland County was brought to its present limits, with the exception of the loss of the town of Orwell, which was annexed to Addison County in 1847.
The territory of Rutland County during the Colonial and Indian wars was trodden by many hostile expeditions. It was subject to the depredations of both French and English armies at a later period and because of the dangerous conditions incident to the times, settlements were rare, and it was not until after the complete conquest of Canada bv the English in 1760 that any considerable move was made in the direction of populating this section of the country, a few points only having been occupied as military posts up to that time.
First Settlement of County
The principal towns in Rutland County were chartered in 1761. But the time of the first settle- ment is a matter only of conjecture. It is certain that a brisk trade had been carried on between Canada and Massachusetts before any white man had settled in this territory, and that business was transacted and goods transported into Canada, and that the line of travel was directly across what is now the county of Rutland. There is a journal still in existence of a trader who made the journey from Massachusetts to Crown Point, N. Y., in 1730 in which he writes in glowing terms of the richness of the soil along Otter Creek.
But when the French War terminated in the surrender of the province to the north to Great Britain, many of the soldiers who had crossed Vermont on their warlike expeditions, decided to settle within its limits, and Governor Wentworth, the colonial governor of New Hampshire, received numerous applica- tions for charters, and in 1761, the principal towns now included in Rutland, Bennington and Addison counties were chartered.
4
Ten Charters Granted in One year
Ten towns in Rutland County were granted charters between the 26th of August and the 20th of October, 1761, in which settlements were commenced at the following periods: Pawlet, 1761; Claren- don and Rutland, 1768; Castleton and Pittsford, 1769; Poultney and Wells, 1771; and Brandon, 1772. By the terms of the charters an ear of Indian corn was required to be paid annually by the trustees of each town until December, 1772, after which one shilling proclamation money was to be paid annually for each hundred acres.
Rutland's Rival Charters
Rutland, the shire town of Rutland County, was granted by charter September 7, 1761, by Governor Benning Wentworth of. the province of New Hampshire to Colonel Josiah Willard of Winchester, N. H. The first named grantee of the charter was John Murray, an influential citizen of Rutland, Massachusetts, and without doubt he gave the name to the township, although he, nor anyone of the other grantees ever settled within its limits. Murray sold his right in Rutland, about 350 acres, for 2 shillings, or at the rate of ten acres for one cent.
During the same year (1761) Rutland was granted under the name of Fairfield, by Colonel John Henry Lydius of Albany, who claimed the territory under a deed issued by a Mohawk Indian Chief of New York. There ensued a long and bitter controversy and struggle on the part of the New. Yorkers to dispossess the settlers, and on the part of the Green Mountain boys to maintain their hold upon the ground to which they believed they were legally entitled. The troublous times continued until the final adjustment of the Land Title controversy determined the legality of the charters issued by New Hamp- shire.
First White Settlers
During the year 1769, Timothy Mead, Zebulon, James (Col. ), Stephen, Ezra, and one daughter, emigrated from Nine Partners to what is now Rutland County, Vermont. Three of the sons, Zebulon, James (Col.) and Ezra settled on Otter Creek, West Rutland, between what is now Center Rutland and Proc- tor. These were the first white people that ever settled in Rutland.
Colonel James, on the 30th of September, 1769, made his first purchase of land in Rutland. There were seventy rights in the whole town, one right containing 350 acres. He bought twenty rights for £100 and sold ten the same day for £40, retaining 3,500 acres. The following year, 1770, he was forty years old, with a wife and ten PROVERI -- --- children. The first white child born in Rutland, is said to have been William, September 12, 1770, the eleventh . ... OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS: child of Colonel James Mead. The twelfth and youngest child, James, was born December 12, 1773. William, the APOCRYPHA eleventh child, moved from Vermont to Ohio. He died at .LATFD But « the Original Congars. Granville, Ohio, November 24, 1854, and on his tombstone -- B) the Special Comumend of King Jewest, of England. .... is the following inscription : F x
CAPT. WILLIAM MEAD, DIED Nov. 24, 1854. AGED 84 YEARS. HE WAS THE FIRST WHITE CHILD BORN IN RUTLAND.
His family consisted of three children. Mrs. Mead died May 11, 1823, aged ninety-two. The inscription on her tombstone in the old cemetery at West Rutland is:
MERCY MEAD RELICT OF COL. JAMES MEAD.
This Bible was brought to Rutland by Col. James Mead and for a long time was the only Bible in the settlement. It was borrowed for various purposes social, reli- gious and judicial. It has been handed down from one generation to another and is at present the possession of Gov. J. A. Mead. The book contains the genealogies of the various families, and is still in a good state of preservation.
5
1
URST
MAIN STREET LOOKING NORTH FROM WEST STREET.
Stephen, the fourth child of Timothy (1), settled on Otter Creek, three miles below Sutherland Falls in the present town of Pittsford. He had a family of thirteen children. The daughter of Timothy married one of the Stark family.
Zebulon and Ezra, who also settled on Otter Creek, had families consisting of eleven and fourteen children respectively.
These immigrants were three days moving from Manchester to Rutland. They came over the mountains, stopping the first night in Dorset, the second in Danby, and thus on to Tinmouth and West Clarendon. The third evening they camped in Clarendon, but as it was a moonlight night, they pushed on to their destined home. Fortunately a band of Caughnawaga Indians were encamped in the vicinity, and upon applying for shelter, the red men generously gave their hut to the weary travelers, and built another for themselves. Here Mead and his family lived until late in the fall, during which time a substantial log house was erected in which they wintered.
First Four Families
Simeon Powers, a cooper from Springfield, and his wife Lydia, established themselves in the spring of 1770, west of Otter Creek, on the so-called Kelly farm. In the fall William Dwinell, with his wife, came and resided with his relative Powers. And these four families, Mead, Powers, Dwinell and John- son, are the only white persons positively known to have been living in Rutland in 1770. The population of the town in that year could not have exceeded twenty-five white persons. Of the hardships endured by those early settlers, it is impossible to judge. It is related, for illustration, that a few days before the birth of William Powers, his mother and others were upset in a boat on Otter Creek, a short distance above Center Rutland falls. She floated down near the brink of the falls, where she caught hold of a slippery log and held to it until she was rescued.
6
In 1770 the best land in the settlement of Rutland sold for a few cents an acre, and there was not a wagon bridge in town. Mead kept a boat each side of Otter Creek at Center Rutland for convenience in crossing.
In 1774 Rutland had a population of 35 families, a log meeting house and a Congregational Church composed of 14 members, organized October 20, 1773, which was the tenth church organized in Vermont, the second west of the Green Mountains, and the first in the County of Rutland. It was located on North Main Street opposite the old Governor Williams residence.
Among the early settlers of New England was Rev. John Graham, who came to America in 1720. He was a grandson to one of the Marquises of Montrose. He settled at Southbury, Connecticut, where he remained as pastor of the church for fifty years. The only remarkable thing known of him is that he was the father of fifty-seven children and grandchildren. His fourth son, Andrew Graham was a prom- inent physician of Woodbury, Connecticut, dying there in 1785.
His son, John Andrew Graham, who was educated for the law, emigrated to Rutland shortly after his father's death. Here he rose in his profession, till in the year 1790, he was called to the bar of the Supreme Court of the State. He practiced in this court until June, 1792, when at the circuit court of the United States of America for the District of Vermont, at Bennington, he was called to the bar of that court and admitted and sworn as attorney and councellor. In January, 1794, Governor Chittenden appointed him Aide-de-Camp on his staff, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel Commandant.
During his residence in Rutland, Mr. Graham, wrote a series of letters, "inscribed to his Grace, the Duke of Montrose", descriptive of the present State of Vermont, one of the United States of America. These letters were printed in London in 1797 and form what is sometimes called 'Graham's History of Vermont'.
The tenth letter descriptive of Rutland County reads as follows:
Rutland is a shire town, and capital of the county of the same name ; il lies on Otter Creek, between Killington and Ira Mountains; it is divided into two parishes, called East and West Rutland. On the east side is the main street, three miles in length, the center of which, for nearly a mile lies high, straight and level, and much resembled Hartford.
5
€
7
8
Desniet # 1840
MAIN STREET IN 1840.
1. Reed's Tavern. 2. 5. Court House. 6.
3 Franklin House. 7. Hodges & Owen. 8.
4. Chas. Burt and Post Office 9.
7
3
4
2
4
2
3
6
5
7
MAIN STREET IN 1852.
Stearns & Pierce. 2. Mason & Cheney. 3. Chas. Burt. 4. Court House. 5. Franklin House.
6. Hodges & Owen. 7. Frederick Chaffee.
8. Mason & Dorrance.
Federal Square
In the center is a square, containing about five English acres, known by the name of Federal Square (which name I had the honor to give it); in front of this, on the east side, stands a court house, built of wood, by no means an ornament to the place, owing to the bad taste, and want of judgment in archi- tecture of the committee appointed to lay out the money, which was raised by voluntary contribution, for the purpose of erecting this building. In this are held the sessions of the General Assembly (established here and at Windsor alternately), the District Court under the Federal government, the Supreme Court of the State, the Court of Common Pleas, and the Court of Probate for the District of Rutland. The Goal [Jail] stands about one hundred rods south of Federal Square, on the west side of the main street ; it is a good building and answers every purpose for which it was designed. About half a mile north of the court house is a neat church. On each side the square and main street, are built some handsome and elegant houses; particularly on the east side are several which draw the attention of all travelers, the largest of which was intended for the residence of the Bishop of Vermont.
Agriculture
The upland is filled with lime-stone, the low lands abound with clay. The intervale lands on the Creek are of a deep rich soil and produce excessive crops of hay and Indian corn; but, unfortunately for the husbandman, the Indian corn is often cut off by the frost. The uplands produce wheat, rye, oats, barley, beans, peas, hemp and flax.
8
Silver Mine on West Street
About half a mile from the court house, in the main street, a silver mine has lately been discovered. said to be of great value; but for the truth of this I cannot be answerable; though beyond a doubt there is a copper mine in the vicinity ; and there are great quantities of iron ore near Rutland.
Mater Power
There are two great falls of water here, known by the names of Mides' and Sutherland's Falls, on each of which are corn and saw mills. Mr. Osgood, in the year 1794, erected on Otter Creek, the best corn mills in the country.
Manufarturica
Here also is a printing office, an oil mill, a hat manufactory, a large brewery, and a manufac- tory of nails. The water is conveyed from the mountains to the town in wooden pipes, laid about two feet under ground. Every material for building, except glass and paint, is made here. The principal timber is pine, maple, hemlock and birch. Pot and pearl ash are made in great abundance.
14
3
5
6
OC
WEST STREET, CORNER MAIN, 1835.
1. Judge Pierpoint. 2. A. L. Brown's Residence. 3. James Barrett's Store. 4. American House, A. Dyer. 5. S. G. Staley's Tin Shop. 6. Residence, Hannibel and Cyrus Porter. 7. General Store, Porter's. 8. Lester & Mann, Groceries; Myhat, Boots & Shoes; Dr. Lewis, D
9
.
1
C.A.PARKHURST
WEST STREET LOOKING WEST FROM MAIN STREET.
Wild Beasts
The wolf and bear often descend from the east mountains and do much damage, destroying the sheep and corn.
The value of land is from twenty shillings to £60 an acre. The number of inhabitants is about 1,600, emigrated from England, Ireland, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and the State of New York.
Grading Residents
Doctor Williams, Mr. Mattocks, Mr. Smith, Mr. Buell, Mr. Bell, Mr. Osgood, Messrs. Chipman, Messrs. Williams, are the leading people of the town.
Citizens Described
Of Samuel Williams, LL.D., member of the Meteorological Society in Germany, of the Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Massachusetts, it may with propriety be said, that he is the most enlightened man in the state in every branch of philosophy and polite learning; and it is doing him no more than justice to say there are very few in the United States possessed of greater abilities or more extensive information; added to which, he is a most excellent orator, and always speaks in a manner best adapted to the understanding and capacity of those whom he addresses. In the year 1794 the Doctor wrote and published the natural history of Vermont, executed much to his honor and to the great satisfaction of all naturalists. In politeness, ease and elegance of manners, Doctor Williams is not inferior to the most polished European gentleman.
10
Mr. N. Chipman is one of the first law characters in the state. He has been district judge and chief judge of the supreme court. Mr. Darius Chipman is a good lawyer, assiduous and persevering in his pro fession, a gentleman of wit and humor and a most agreeable companion.
Mr. Mattocks is treasures of the state, which office he discharges to the universal satisfaction of the people.
Mr. Smith was educated at the University of Connecticut, and was bred to the law; he is a good scholar, conversant in special pleadings, and is now a representative from the state in Congress; his manners are mild, modest and agreeable ..
Mr. Buell is a practitioner at the bar, and much merit is due him for his ambition and perseverance in the objects of his pursuit, the more so perhaps for his devoting himself to a laborious profession, while nature has endowed him with great original talents for poetry, the fascinating charms of which few minds Have sufficient resolution to withstand.
Mr. Bell is high sheriff of the county, a gentleman of the strictest honor and veracity, has a tena- cious memory, and I can with propriety declare he is better informed in point of the local business, and the true situation of individuals, in the different counties, than any person in the commonwealth.
Mr. Stephen Williams is one of the selectmen of the town, and claims my particular notice and atten- tion ; with him for nine years past I have had the honor to be on most friendly terms of intimacy. The hospitality of his disposition toward strangers would alone be sufficient to endear him to all who know him; but the same generous turn of mind leads him to far nobler exertions of benevolence-to cheer the broken heart, to wipe the tear from the pale cheek of poverty, and to bid the friendless widow and orphan look up and smile. These are the actions that crown his days and give to his temper that sweet serenity which only goodness can bestow. To those whose hearts resemble Mr. Williams' it would be unnecessary to
7
3
8
9
6
7
10
2
WEST SIDE OF NORTH MAIN STREET, 1865.
1. 2. Dr. O. Cook. 3. Episcopal Church. 4. Francis Fenn. 5. C. Burt.
6. Dr. J. Porter. 7. Gershorn Cheney. 8. Tin Shop. 9. Joel B. Harris. 10. Moses Hawkes.
say, that if in his power, he would literally fulfill that divine precept of the gospel, "Not to let his left hand know what his right hand did," but take what care he will to conceal them, his paths are traced for his footsteps are known (as by irresistible impulse) to be drawn towards the abode of affliction. The sacred deeds of charity which have come within the ken of my knowledge are numberless.
Samuel Williams is one of the council of state and one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas. Mr. Osgood is a civil magistrate, and clerk of the court of Common Pleas.
Negro Congregational Minister
On the west side of the town, the farmers are better husbandmen than those on the east, and raise the best wheat, butter and cheese; great quantities of wheat they send off to foreign markets.
In this place also is a handsome meeting house, of which the Rev. Mr. Haynes, an African (from the state of Connecticut) is the minister. And here let me pause to pay a tribute to nature and humanity. Violated, alas! how cruelly, how often, is that unhappy race who are of this excellent clergyman's color, and who are supposed by some (Grant, Oh Gracious Heaven, that the number may daily decrease) scarce to possess faculties above the "brutes that perish." But let me ask, when at the Great Day, the secrets of all hearts shall be laid open, whether Mr. Haynes' color will be objected to by that Almighty power, who took him from the dust of the earth and made him man? Who gave him the form, the soul, the affections, the feelings of a man? Will his being a negro be then objected to when his life is found to be conformable to his preaching? When he is known to have been the disinterested friend of mankind, to have been assiduously employed like the Good Samaritan, in pouring balm into the wounds of the unhappy? Oh, Great God! What will then be Thy judgment day sentence? Wilt Thou regard the shade of his complexion, (if indeed there be any difference in the shades that distinguish the human race) or the beauty of his mind? Poor suffering sons of cne common parent, may your task-masters regard ye as brothers; may their kindness draw forth all yours, and may ye so live, as hereafter, in common with the worthy pastor I have been describing, to hear those blessed sounds pronounced in your favor, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter ye into the joy of your Lord."
Eminent Men
Among the eminent men who have made Rutland their residence, the following is but a partial list. Nathaniel Chipman, one of the ablest lawyers and statesmen of New England; his brother, Daniel, pre- eminent for conversational powers; John A. Graham, the first lawyer located in Rutland, and author of the first history of Vermont, a series of letters inscribed to an English Duke and published in London; Jesse Buel, founder of the Albany Cultivator; Thomas Green Fessenden, founder of the New England Farmer and the friend of Hawthorne; John Mattocks, unlearned but capable and eccentric judge; Samuel Williams, philosopher and historian, founder of the Rutland Herald; Governor Israel Smith; James Davie Butler, mechanic, merchant, scholar, wit; Moses Strong, great landholder, who it is claimed, married a descendant of Cotton Mather; Robert Pierpont, descended from a favorite officer of William the Conqueror; Robert Temple, a descendant of Governor Bradford of the Mayflower; George T. Hodges, polished and successful merchant; William Page, attorney, safe and upright cashier; Walter Colton, popular author, announcing the discovery of California gold; James Meacham, eloquent preacher; F. L. Ormsbee, pioneer of marble and railroad enterprise ; Solomon Foote, prosperous politician, president of conventions and senates; James Porter, physician; Jesse Gove, gentlemanly clerk; Rodney Royce, popular young lawyer, and a host of others whom we have space only to name, Gersham Cheney, John Rugeles, Edward Dyer, Avery Billings, Samuel Griggs, Benjamin Blanchard, the Meads, Chattertons, Reynolds, Purdeys, George A. Tuttle, who established the Rutland Daily Herald in 1861 and the Tuttle Company in 1832; Shel- dons, Smiths, Reeds, McConnels, Barnes, Greens, Kelleys, Thralls, William Fay, Charles Burt, Ben- jamin Lord, Nichols Goddard, Nathan Osgood, Osgoods, Greenos, Parmiers, Clements, John Bissel, Alansom Clark. The above comprises the unique description given by John A. Graham.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.