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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
m 3 1833 01096 2774
Gc 974.302 B780 1981
7116913
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/historyofbristol00unse_0
History of Bristol, Vermont
1762-1980
third edition
History of Bristol, Dermont
1762-1980
Compiled by OUTLOOK CLUB OF BRISTOL, VERMONT in cooperation with Bristol Historical Society
Third Edition-1980
Kenneth W. Dike Joan Frenzel Anna Boynton Gladding
William A. Kilbourn Lillian Gere Lambertson Ruth Sherman Lathrop
Barbara Eisele Maloney Adaire M. Mckean Prudence Lyon Tomasi
First Edition-1940
Carrie K. Harvey Clara M. Kellogg
Second Edition-1959 Bertha H. Estes Frances P. Kneeland Helen N. Trombley
i
DEDICATION
We would like to dedicate this 1980 edition to the spirit of the Bristol Inn, a gracious place for gracious living.
Allen County Public Library Ft. Wayne, Indiana
BRISTOL
In the shadow of two low mountains, which stand like sentinels on the south and east, lies a little village. One mountain has its foot in the very edge of the town, the other stretches away across a shining river. The last is more beautiful; but the first, rising like a sturdy protector, with its homely scarred summit has a certain quality of belonging there. On the west, long, rolling plains sweep away to Lake Champlain, and on the north the countryside is dotted with miniature lakes and ponds.
But it is not the mountains, not the river, nor the rolling plains and the lit- tle ponds that make my village lovely; it is the people - progressive men and women who have lived their lives to the best of their ability and now are striv- ing to give their sons and daughters all that life can offer. A feeling of neighborliness and good fellowship pervades the very atmosphere. None are very wealthy and none very poor, and so, for most of them, life flows on smoothly and satisfyingly.
Often they dip into the whirl of a big city, enjoy it, are thrilled by its effi- ciency; but when the sunset sends one last glow of golden light across the valley like a benediction, when neighbors talk from porch to porch secure in the thought of a day's work well done, then my little village seems the only place where life is real.
by Margaret Levarn
Miss Margaret Levarn (now Mrs. Margaret Siska) spent her early years in Bristol. She moved to Burlington in 1925 and graduated from Mount St. Mary's Academy there in 1931. Miss Levarn's bit of prose appeared in the "Mount St. Mary Journal" that year. It was felt that what was said about Bristol about fifty years ago still holds true today.
Copyright @ 1981
by
Outlook Club of Bristol, Vermont
ii
7116913
HOW THIS BOOK CAME TO BE
The Second Edition of the History of Bristol, Vermont relates the events which first prompted the Outlook Club of Bristol to prepare a history of the town. The following is quoted from pages 28 to 30 of the Second Edition:
"In 1941, Bristol, Vermont, was the first of the seventeen Bristols in the United States to contribute aid to the people of the maternal city of Bristol, England which had been severely bombed. A sum of $700 was collected and sent. The Lord Mayor of Bristol, England responded most kindly to this aid, by making a radio broadcast thanking us. Because of his interest in us, a scrap book history of all the informative data of the town was written by Merritt Parmelee Allen, and photographs by George N. Lathrop were sent to the mother city. Since the war years, we have had letters, books and photos of Bristol, England. Many of these are in the library.
"It was after the work of getting the scrap book history that the Outlook Club decided to publish a bound edition of Bristol history from the years 1762 to 1940."
In 1959, a second, soft-cover edition of the history was printed, updating the information from the 1940 edition.
About 1971, the women of the Outlook Club began discussing a third edi- tion. In 1975, work was seriously initiated to produce a Bicentennial Edition of the history. In spite of all the interest, it was not until the winter of 1977-78 that this present edition began.
iii
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Table of Contents
I Early History
1
Gazetteer description 2
Indians 2
The Little Notch 3
II Manufacturing 4
Drake & Smith 4
Howden, Daniels & Company 4
Howden, Bosworth & Company
4
Bristol Manufacturing Company
4
O.K. Clothes Dryer Company
6
James Whitney Chair Company
6
Bartlett Plow Manufactory
.6
S. Bartlett & Company
.6
Sumner & Prime
.6
Prime & Gove .6
Cyclone Gristmill . 6
A. B. Kilbourn Estate
7
Kilbourn Brothers
7
Cold Spring Creamery
7
Riverside Condensed Milk Company 7
Hewitt and Wright's Mill
7
Bristol Novelty Company
7
New Haven Mills Manufacturing Company .7
Vermont Box Company
7
Drake, Smith & Company, Inc. 7
A. Johnson Company 7
Frank E. Lee Company 8
Peterson & Lee. .
8
Van Raalte Company 8
Claire Lathrop Bandmill, Inc. 8
Kennedy Brothers
9
Pittsfield Potters
9
Deerleap Furniture Company
9
Freemountain Toys, Inc.
.9
III Business Center 11
Main Street Blocks 12
Haymarket Square 15
Early Hostelries 15
Bristol Inn
15
Banking
17
Post Office
18
House Numbering 20
IV Other Businesses
21
Bristol Herald 21
The Bristol Press 21
Bristol Market 22
The Bristol Motor Inn. 22
The Bristol Trading Post
22
Brooks Discount Store
22
Brown-McClay Funeral Homes, Inc. 23
Clark's Greenhouse. .
23
Filling and Service Stations 23
Grand Union Store
24
Green Mountain Nursery
25
Gus A. Kusch, Chair Caning -
Rush Weaving 25
Hill-Crest Kennels 25
Jackman's Inc.
25
Jeffers' Farm and Garden Center
26
Lyon Hardware and Building Supply 26
Peter A. Nelson Memorials, Inc.
26
Pine Tree Farms
26
Vermont Sprout House, Inc. 26
V Farms 27
VI Government
33
Town Government 33
Village Government
37
VII Bristol Cliffs Wilderness Controversy
39
VIII
Public Buildings
40
Holley Hall 40
Lawrence Memorial Library
41
IX Bristol Fire Department
42
Major Fires
43
X Utilities
Cable Television .45
Electricity 45
Telephone
46
Water
46
XI Transportation
48
Bristol Airport 48
Bristol Railroad 48
Vergennes-Bristol Plank Road
50
XII Churches
.51
Bristol Seventh-day Adventist Church 51
The Federated Church 51
First Baptist Church
53
St. Ambrose Catholic Community
54
XIII Cemeteries
56
XIV Education
60
School History 60
Union High School District #28 63
Bristol High School Alumni Memorial 64
Middlebury College School of German
65
XV Professional Men
66
Attorneys 66
Physicians
.66
Dentists
68
Addison County Dental Center, Inc. 68
XVI Prominent Persons
69
The Munsills 69
The Munsons 69
The Hasseltines .70
Noble F. Dunshee
.70
Jeremiah Curtin
70
iv
Table of Contents (Continued)
William A. Lawrence 71
Arthur W. Prince
71
Colonial Theatre 89
John Guinan 72
Japanese Dance Garden 90
Merritt P. Allen 72
Ski Rope Tow 90
Dr. David M. Bosworth 73
Swim Teams .
90
XVII Clubs and Organizations 75
American Legion and Military History 75
Boy Scouts 76
Bristol Town Band 76
Bristol Chamber of Commerce
77
Bristol Historical Society 77
Bristol Rescue Squad 79
4-H Club 79
Girl Scouts
80
Grange
80
Green Mountain Senior Citizens
80
Homemaker Clubs
80
I.O.O.F.
80
Jaycees
81
Lions Club
81
Masons 81
Mount Abe Snow Sports
82
Onawa Rebekah Lodge 82
Order of Eastern Star
82
Rotary Club
83
XXIII
Veterans' Lists
99
Civil War
99
Spanish-American War 99
World War I.
100
World War II 100
Korean Conflict 101
Vietnam Era
101
XXIV Bristol Checklist
103
XXV
Credits and Acknowledgments
108
Bristol Riding Club 88
XIX Campgrounds
92
Elephant Mountain Camping Area 92
River Haven . 92
Winona Recreation Area 92
XX Interesting Spots .93
Lord's Prayer Rock 93
Money Diggings 93
Rattlesnake Den
94
Barker Charcoal Kiln
94
The Cobble Caves 94
Bristol Veterans' Memorial Park 95
Lake Winona (Bristol Pond) 95
Burnham's Falls and Drake Woods .95
Bartlett's Falls
96
Chain Saw Sculptures 96
XXI Epilogue 97
XXII Business Directory 98
The Committee
83
Outlook Club. 84
XVIII Recreation and Entertainment
86
Baseball
86
Bowling 87
Bristol Country Club
87
Bristol Recreation Club and
Bristol Country A-Fair
88
Salvation Army 83
Bristol Softball League 89
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vi
I Early History
The Town of Bristol, Vermont, was chartered by the Governor of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth, on June 26, 1762. The charter was granted to Samuel Averill and sixty-three associates in the name of Pocock, in honor of a distinguished English ad- miral of that name. The original charter contained a grant of twenty- three-thousand-six-hundred acres with the usual reservations of land for the governor, the support of the Gospel, the Glebe right, the minister lot, and the schools. The name was changed from Pocock to Bristol, by an act of the legislature on October 21, 1789, but no reason can be found in town or state papers for this change. It is quite possi- ble that the new name was chosen after the town of that name in Connecticut, for some of the early settlers came from Connecticut.
By an act of the Legislature passed November 18, 1824, about four- thousand-four-hundred acres of land originally contained within the charter bounds in the east part of the Town of Bristol was set off and annexed to the Town of Lincoln. This left about nineteen-thousand-two-hundred acres of land in Bristol.
The Town of Bristol is situated in the northeastern part of Addison County, bounded on the north by Monkton and Starksboro, on the east by Starksboro and Lincoln, on the south by Middlebury, and on the west by New Haven. On the eastern side, running the entire length of the town is a spur of the Green Mountains com- posed of three separate mountains known locally as Hogback Mountain, South Mountain and Elephant Moun- tain. The only stream of importance in the town is the New Haven River which enters Bristol on the northeast from Lincoln and follows a southwest course into New Haven. Two small streams, both tributaries of the New Haven River are O'Brian Brook in the southern part of town and Baldwin's Creek in the northern part. There is a small pond in the northern part of Bristol, extending into Monkton, known as Lake Winona or Bristol Pond, which is of interest to fishermen.
The first settlement in Bristol was begun in 1786 by Samuel Stewart and Eden Johnson whose wives were sisters. The two families came together from Skenesboro (now Whitehall), New York. Mr. Johnson traveled by land to drive the cattle, while the rest traveled as far as Vergennes by boat. They erected the first building in town, a log cabin which they occupied jointly until Mr. Stewart could build another one for his family. Stewart's daughter, Polly, was the first white child born in Bristol.
Although the Stewart and Johnson families are considered the first permanent settlers, when a com- mittee of proprietors surveyed the town in 1785, they met a man who gave his name as John Brodt and said he had lived in the place for twelve years since he fled from New York State as a fugitive. A pardon was secured for him and he returned to New York, leaving no mark of his stay in Bristol. He had erected only a crude shelter for himself and cleared no land other than a small patch where he raised a few vegetables.
The first male child born in Bristol was Horace Griswold, son of Benjamin Griswold. The first marriage was that of Samuel Brooks and Betsy Rora- paugh, an Indian woman, which took place March 16, 1791.
According to the restrictions of the charter, as soon as fifty families had settled in the town they would be allowed to hold a meeting and organize. Each grantee of land was re- quired, within a reasonable length of time, to cultivate five out of every fifty acres, live on it, and improve it. The first proprietors' meeting on record was held at the home of Benjamin Griswold in Pocock, March 3, 1788. Miles Bradley was chosen Moderator, and Henry Mclaughlin, Proprietors' Clerk. The original survey of the town made in 1785 was reported and ac- cepted and a tax of two dollars was laid on each proprietor's right, to pay the expenses of surveying and laying out roads and bridges. A committee con- sisting of Timothy Rogers, Miles Bradley, Justin Allen, Cyprian Eastman, and Henry Mclaughlin was chosen to lay out and care for the
highways and bridges. The meeting was adjourned until May 13, when the proprietors were to meet at the home of Benjamin Paine in Addison. At this meeting it was voted to lay out ninety acres to each right as the first division.
It is evident that meetings were held prior to the one on March 3, 1788, for at that meeting, the report of the surveyors, who were chosen in 1784 or 1785, was given. The "Munsill Papers," as printed in The Early History of Bristol, Vermont state that although no records have been found, a surveyors' committee, comprised of John Willard, Jonathan Hoyt, and Miles Bradley was appointed by the proprietors at a meeting held in Ca- naan, Connecticut, in 1784. Some early deeds show this survey or first division, as one-hundred-twenty acres per lot. Following the meeting of the pro- prietors on May 13, 1788, a new first division was made consisting of ninety acres per lot. Four more divisions followed: a second division of one- hundred-ten acres; third division of one hundred acres; fourth division of fifty acres; and twenty acres to the fifth division now regarded as the legal divi- sion of land among the original pro- prietors of Bristol. This fifth and final division was made in the year 1808, ac- cording to the proprietors' minutes.
The first town meeting was held in Bristol at the home of Justin Allen, March 2, 1789. Henry Mclaughlin was chosen Moderator and Town Clerk; Amos Scott, Treasurer; Justin Allen, Constable; Cyprian Eastman, Samuel Stewart, and Robert Dunshee, Select- men. The second annual meeting was held March 23, 1790, and a more com- plete list of town officers was chosen: Moderator, Jeremiah Burroughs; Town Clerk, Samuel Renne; Treasurer, Cyprian Eastman; Select- men, Cyprian Eastman, Henry Mclaughlin, and Gurdon Munsill; Listers, Robert Dunshee, Amos Scott, and Timothy Allen; Constable, Henry Mclaughlin. They also chose a tax col- lector, leather sealer. grand juror, pound keeper, tythingman, two haywards, three fence viewers, three highway surveyors, and a sealer of weights and measures.
1
The meetings of the original pro- prietors were suspended after the first Saturday of July, 1815. The state laws declared that "whenever the pro- prietors of any town shall neglect to hold a proprietors' meeting for the term of ten years, all the proprietors' records and papers shall be turned over to the Town Clerk who shall be forever thereafter proprietors' clerk." Accord- ingly, all the proprietors' records and papers were turned over to the Town Clerk.
The information in this article is drawn from The Early History of Bristol, Vermont published in 1979 by the Bristol Historical Society. The book includes the Honorable Harvey Munsill, Esq. manuscript presumably written during the early part of the nineteenth century.
The following is quoted intact from A Gazetteer of the State of Ver- mont by Zadock Thompson, A.B., published by E.P. Walton (printer) in Montpelier, Vermont, 1824. It is in- cluded for its informative historical content.
"Bristol, a post town in the north- eastern part of Addison county, in Latitude 44° 7' and Longitude 3º 55 '*, is bounded north by Monkton and Starksborough, east by Lincoln and Starksborough, south by Mid- dlebury and Avery's Gore and west by New-Haven. It is 25 miles south-west from Montpelier, and the same distance south-east from Burlington. It was chartered to Samuel Averill and his associates, by the name of Pocock, June 26, 1762, and contains about 26,000 acres. The settlement of this town was commenced, immediately after the Revolutionary War, by Ben- jamin Griswold, Cyprian Eastman, Robert Dunshee, Justus Allen, Samuel Brooks and others. The town was organized March 2, 1789, and Henry Mclaughlin was first Town clerk. The religious denominations are, Baptists, Congregationalists and Methodists. The Reverend Mr. Sterns was ordained here about the year 1818, and con- tinued a few years. The Reverend Mr. Ware, a Congregationalist, preaches half the time. The Baptists and Methodists are without preachers, but are generally supplied with preaching.
There are two meetinghouses, both erected in 1819; one belongs to the Methodists, and the other was built by the Congregationalists and Baptists together, and belongs equally to each. The latter is a commodious and hand- some building. The epidemic of 1812 prevailed here, but was not very Mor- tal. The physicians are Joseph Need- ham and Oren Smith. About one third of this town lies entirely west of the Green Mountains, and is very level, rich and productive. The remainder of the town is broken and a considerable part incapable of cultivation. A con- siderable mountain extends through the town from north to south. That part of it north of the New-Haven River, is called the Hog Back, and that on the south is called South Mountain. A part of the latter has been very much infested with rattle snakes; their num- bers, are however, yearly dimin- ishing. New-Haven River, enters this town from the east, and, before it reaches the centre of the town, receives Baldwin and Lewis Creeks. It runs off to the west into New-Haven. There are three natural ponds here; the largest, called Bristol Pond, is a mile and a half long and three fourths of a mile wide. In the west part of the town is a spring which is slightly medicinal and is sometimes visited. There is a bed of iron ore in the part of the town next to Monkton, and there have been several forges here, but there is now only one which does much business. Most of the ore which is wrought here, is brought from Monkton and from a bed on the west side of the lake, a little north of Crown Point. The village is near the centre of the town, upon New-Haven River, immediately after it passes be- tween the Hog Back and South Moun- tain. It contains thirty seven dwell- inghouses, two meeting houses, two school houses and a variety of mills, shops, etc. It is ten miles from Ver- gennes and eleven from Middlebury. There are in town nine school districts, seven school houses, two grist mills, two saw mills, two fulling mills, two carding machines, two stores, two distilleries, two tanneries and one. tavern. Population 1051. In 1823 there were two hundred and eight horses and eleven hundred cattle in the town."
Indians
There is abundant evidence that at some time Indians made Bristol their home. When the first settlement was made in Bristol in 1786, there were discovered many small places which had the appearance of having been cleared and afterwards grown up and covered with a second growth of timber, grass, and weeds. In these places, there was found a profusion of arrow points and spear heads. Gouges and pestles were also found. One unusual object discovered in one of these clearings was a stone resembling a rolling pin. Later settlers questioned an old Indian nearly one hundred years of age about the use of this particular instrument and he told them it had been used in dressing deer. This object is now in the Sheldon Museum in Mid- dlebury. A fifteen-inch gouge, also shown to this old Indian was said to be used in dressing deer; the gouge is now in a Hartford, Connecticut museum.
At one particular place, there was evidence of the wholesale manufacture of arrow points as there were many perfect arrow heads, some only partly finished, and a large quantity of broken fragments. The Rev. C.F. Muz- zy, a graduate of Middlebury College in 1833, examined some of these stones and stated that they were formed from quartz rock, slate, and feldspar, all indigenous to this section of the country. Phillip E. Tucker of Ver- gennes, a collector of Indian relics, stated he had some spearheads in his collection made of black jasper. It was his impression that the spears found in this vicinity were used to spear fish, not human beings.
After the English arrived in this section of the country, the Indians secured iron tomahawks; they also got firearms from the French.
The old Indian questioned about the relics found around Bristol Pond and other places in this vicinity stated he had never used a stone arrowhead or spearhead, but had heard of others possessing them. He said he had heard discussions about how these stone im- plements were made, but he had never seen any of them used. He said he had always, even in his youth, used a steel arrow point made in the same shape as
*Modern geographical information indicates longitude is 73° 05.'
2
the stone arrow point. So it must be presumed that the very first settlers of Bristol were here even before the In- dians who used the steel arrow point.
The Little Notch
The section known as the "Little Notch" is supposed to have derived its name from the fact that it is the smaller of two notches or clefts in the moun- tain range which extends through the entire length of the town of Bristol in a north and south direction. The Little Notch supplies the outlet for the water- shed of the entire southeastern corner of the town, and covers approximately three thousand acres.
Five small streams from different directions join together forming what is known as the Notch Brook. This is the same brook which is called "O'Brian Brook" in the early records of Bristol, after the three O'Brian brothers who operated a mill on the stream. A body of water known as Gilmore Pond is situated about one and a quarter miles easterly from the main highway leading through the Lit- tle Notch. This pond formed by springs covers some ten acres, with a depth of three feet and a black muddy bottom. The outlet of this pond is one of the five streams that form the Notch Brook. The name is supposed to have been derived from a man by the name of Gilmore who at an early period had a mill about fifty rods downstream from the outlet. Decayed timber of the old flume and log dam can still be seen.
The first road leading to the "Notch" left the main highway near the school house in South Bristol, turn- ing to the east and following up the westerly side of the Notch Brook. In the year 1859, the present highway leading up the easterly side of the Notch Brook was opened for use af- fording not only a better grade but also a connection with the road leading south from Bristol Village along the foot of the mountain, this section hav- ing been settled for some time. Late in the year of 1860, the road was com- pleted over the mountain to the southern part of the town of Lincoln. At the point where the road crosses the divide into Lincoln, the altitude is one-
thousand-eight-hundred-ninety-nine feet above sea level.
The date of the first settlement in the "Little Notch" is unknown, but it would seem that lumbering was the oc- cupation that attracted people to this locality. Records show that on November 11, 1831, Rufus Barnard sold to Curtis ten acres off the south end of lot No. 6 for a mill site. This site was at the point where the five brooks unite and for one hundred years following, a mill was in operation there. But nothing in the lumber in- dustry of importance was established until the late 1860's when Eastman and Durfee built sawmill for the manufacture of lumber, clapboards, and butter tubs which were in great de- mand at that time. The mill was soon destroyed by fire, thus ending the first real attempt at a lumber industry in the Little Notch.
In 1879, Joseph Jimmo built a lumber mill below the Eastman site which he operated for a few years. In the summer of 1880, Noah Lathrop and H.L. Parmelee purchased Mr. Eastman's mill site, together with two houses, a blacksmith shop and a barn. They then erected another mill on this site. In 1885, Mr. Lathrop bought Mr. Parmelee's interest in the firm. In 1903, the mill burned and was im- mediately rebuilt. That year Clarence Lathrop entered the firm which was known thereafter as N. Lathrop and Son. It grew to be the largest lumber concern in Addison County, turning out dressed lumber, shingles, and clap- boards. The business continued until 1925 when all the timber of commercial value had been cut in this section.
Among the early settlers living in log houses in the decades 1850-1880, were families of the following names: Harris, Peckham, Cormier, Cousino, Scarbough, Carpenter, Eubar, Odette, Jimmo, Parmelee, Booska, Pecott, Sears, Swinyer, Vincent, Rivers.
At first small clearings were established and log houses erected to be followed by frame houses. Farming on a small scale was attempted but the land was so uneven and the soil so rocky that it never proved successful. Many of the settlers turned to lumber- ing, selling their logs to the mill
owners, while others converted their hardwood into charcoal which they sold to the owners of forges in Bristol. There was a very good market for char- coal around 1850.
In 1879, school district Number Nine was organized and a school building was erected. The school had an attendance of fourteen pupils. As the lumber industry increased, the population became larger, and in the school year 1887-88 there was an atten- dance at the school of fifty pupils, all taught by one teacher. About 1900, a two-room school was built and for ap- proximately ten years, two teachers were employed. In the spring of 1938, the school was discontinued as there were not enough pupils to maintain it longer.
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