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HISTORY OF WATERBURY, VT.
LEWIS
Gc 974.302 W2918 1162760
M. L
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
4.00
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01092 5672 E
GENEALOGY 974.302 W291L
HISTORY OF WATERBURY VERMONT
1763-1915
EDITED AND COMPILED BY THEODORE GRAHAM LEWIS
PUBLISHED BY HARRY C. WHITEHILL
THE RECORD PRINT WATERBURY, VERMONT
Copyright, 1915 BY HARRY C. WHITEHILL
$1.00
Secure Boot Shop-3
1162760
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF JUSTIN W. MOODY, WITH GRATEFUL RECOLLEC- TIONS OF HIS LONG AND FAITHFUL SERVICE TO HIS TOWNSMEN AS PUBLIC SERVANT, CITIZEN, NEIGHBOR, AND FRIEND.
iii
FOREWORD
Conscious that there are many imperfections in this volume, the Editor nevertheless ventures the hope that it may be found to contain in convenient form matter concerning the more important periods of Waterbury's history, biographical data of a certain interest and information about some of the men whose words and deeds have earned distinction for the town. No pretense is made at giving full genealogies and many of the biographical sketches are regrettably incomplete. Omission of much that might properly have been included is, of course, one of the inevitable incidents to the undertaking. Acknowl- edgments are made to Mr. Harry C. Whitehill, Senator William P. Dillingham and Mr. O. A. Seabury for their effective assistance and unwearied interest without which the work could not have been accomplished. Thanks are also due the members of the staff of librarians at the Waterbury Public Library and the Vermont State Library for their help- ful courtesy. Many others have evinced a kindly disposition to assist in the compilation of military and biographical data; to all such the Editor expresses his sense of obligation. It will be apparent that material in many instances has been verified by recourse to such sources as Hemenway's Gazetteer, Child's Gazetteer and Thompson's Vermont. The subscriber takes this occasion to hazard the remark that some such paraphrase as "happy is the town that has no history" is of no assistance to one attempting utter justice to Waterbury's.
April I-November 1, 1915. T. G. L.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter I
ABORIGINAL TRAILS - PERIOD 1763-1800 - INTRODUCTION - TOWN CHARTER-CONTEMPORANEOUS EVENTS IN STATE AND NATION- SURVEY-GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION-FIRST SETTLER, JAMES MARSH-INCREDIBLE HARDSHIPS-SECOND SETTLER, EZRA BUT- LER-OTHER EARLY SETTLERS AND HOLDINGS-FIRST TOWN OR- GANIZATION-SIDE LIGHTS ON TOWN MEETINGS-FARM LOCA- TIONS-REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS. . . 1-3I
Chapter II
PERIOD 1800-1830-CONTEMPORANEOUS NATIONAL AND STATE EVENTS -LOCAL SENTIMENT-CHITTENDEN COUNTY-CAPITAL LOCATION DISPUTE-ACT ESTABLISHING CAPITAL AT MONTPELIER-PRESI- DENTIAL ELECTORS-CHURCH MATTERS-TAX REDEMPTION IN- CIDENT-HIGHWAYS AND TURNPIKES-AMASA PRIDE-FARMS AND FAMILIES-BUTLER-HOVEY CONTROVERSY-EZRA BUTLER'S POLITICAL ACTIVITIES-CORRESPONDENCE-WAR OF 1812-GEN- ERAL PECK-SANDERS' LETTER-WATERBURY'S 1812 VOLUNTEERS -BUTLER IN CONGRESS-DANIEL WEBSTER'S RESOLUTION-BUT- LER'S SPEECH-WELLS FAMILY-CALKINS FAMILY-KENNAN FAMILY-DAN CARPENTER AND FAMILY-CALKINS' REMINIS- CENSES-"ERA OF GOOD FEELING"-STATE UNDER M. CHITTEN- DEN, GALUSHA, SKINNER AND VAN NESS ADMINISTRATIONS-LA- FAYETTE'S VISIT-GOVERNOR BUTLER'S TERMS-ANTI-MASONIC MOVEMENT 33-62
Chapter III
PERIOD 1830-1850-CONTEMPORANEOUS STATE POLITICAL AFFAIRS- HENRY F. JANES, POSTMASTER-MR. JANES IN CONGRESS- LEGISLATIVE LAMENTATION-LEANDER HUTCHINS-THE "CORNER STORE"-HARRISON & TYLER CAMPAIGN-DEATH OF THE PRESI- DENT-TYLER'S SUCCESSION-ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION-THE DILLINGHAM FAMILY-DEACON PAUL DILLINGHAM-PAUL DIL- LINGHAM, JR .- POLITICAL CAREER-SAXE'S POEM-MR. DILLING- HAM IN CONGRESS-AS LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR AND GOVERNOR- PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS - ANECDOTES - LUCE FAMILY- MEXICAN WAR-MR. LUCIUS PECK IN CONGRESS-"THE FREE MOUNTAINEER"-CENTRAL VERMONT RAILWAY-LICENSE LAWS AND VOTES-MOODY FAMILY-CHAUNCEY LYON-DR. THOMAS B. DOWNER-JOHN D. SMITH FAMILY-DR. WILL F. MINARD- THE HENRY FAMILY-VARIOUS FAMILIES-LONGEVITY. . 63-103
Chapter IV
PERIOD 1850-1875-POPULATION AND GRAND LIST-MERCHANTS AND BUSINESS-TOWN MEETINGS-PIERCE ADMINISTRATION-BIO- GRAPHICAL OF WARREN AND PARKER-POLITICS-ALTERNATION
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viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
OF VOTING PLACES, VILLAGE AND CENTER-ARCH BRIDGE-MER- CHANTS-PREMONITIONS OF DISUNION- RÉSUMÉ OF WATER- BURY'S VOTES-ABOLITION SENTIMENT-LINCOLN'S EARLY AD- MINISTRATION-FIRST CALL FOR TROOPS-WATERBURY'S RE- SPONSE-REPRESENTATION IN VARIOUS REGIMENTS-DIFFERENT BATTLES-LIST OF COMMISSIONED OFFICERS-NON-COMMIS- SIONED OFFICERS-PRIVATES-ACTION AT TOWN MEETINGS- GENERAL WELLS-GENERAL HENRY-MAJOR DILLINGHAM- COLONEL JANES-MARCH OF EVENTS-READJUSTMENT AND RE- CONSTRUCTION-PRESIDENTIAL VOTE IN 1868-BIOGRAPHICAL- POST-BELLUM MEMORIES-BUSINESS IN WATERBURY-RECA- PITULATION OF TOWN VOTE : 105-153
Chapter V
PERIOD 1876-1900-TOWN, GUBERNATORIAL AND PRESIDENTIAL ELEC- TIONS-MOUNT MANSFIELD RAILROAD APPROPRIATION-COLUM- BIAN UNITED ELECTRIC FRANCHISE-INCORPORATION OF THE VIL- LAGE IN 1882-FIRST VILLAGE OFFICERS-TAX RATES-STREET LIGHTS-WATER SUPPLY-BOND ISSUE-TELEPHONE AND TELE- GRAPH FRANCHISES-NEW ADDITIONS TO VILLAGE-LIST OF VIL- LAGE OFFICERS TO DATE-RECAPITULATION OF IMPROVEMENTS- FIRST TELEPHONE-SENATOR WILLIAM P. DILLINGHAM-VER- MONT STATE HOSPITAL-DR. DON D. GROUT-SEABURY FAMILY -MOSES KNIGHT-EDWIN F. PALMER-DR. EMORY G. HOOKER -GEORGE W. RANDALL-OTHER SKETCHES-WATERBURY REC- ORD-SPANISH WAR-CENTURY END EVENTS. 155-194
Chapter VI.
PERIOD 1900-1915-SENATOR DILLINGHAM'S ELECTION-GUBERNA- TORIAL AND PRESIDENTIAL VOTES-LICENSE AND NO-LICENSE VOTES-MISCELLANEOUS-RÉSUMÉ OF INDUSTRIAL LIFE-EARLY MANUFACTURERS-TOWN LITIGATIONS-VARIOUS LEGISLATIVE ACTS-RELIGIOUS HISTORY AND CHURCHES-THE LIBRARY BEGINNINGS AND PRESENT CONDITION-HORACE FALES FUND- BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE FALES FAMILY-MARK CARTER CANERDY'S GIFT-DR. HENRY JANES' GIFT-EARLY EFFORTS AT SECURING PUBLIC SCHOOLS-PRESENT HIGH SCHOOL-WATER- BURY ALUMNI AND STUDENTS FROM THE STATE UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES-GREEN MOUNTAIN SEMINARY-WOMEN'S CLUBS -WATERBURY'S STATE AND FEDERAL OFFICERS-TOWN REP- RESENTATIVES-STATE SENATORS-TOWN CLERKS-SHERIFFS- BANKING HISTORY-PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS FIRMS OF TODAY-LODGES, ORGANIZATIONS, ETC .- FIRE RECORD-SOLDIERS' MONUMENT-CONCLUSION . . 195-272
APPENDIX-MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS 273-286
CHAPTER I
1763-1800
The site of the town of Waterbury lay in the track of the murderous French officer, Hertel de Rouville, who with other French officers led a band of Indians upon an expedition of plunder and massacre against the ill-fated town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, in the early part of 1704. The expedition came down from Canada by the way of Lake Champlain. They branched off at the mouth of the Winooski River and followed the trail of that river through its peaceful valley until they came to the upper waters of the stream, from which they again branched off through a gap in the Green Mountains and followed the White River Valley until they debouched upon the Connecticut River, the frozen surface of which served as a highway directly to their objective point. The march was made by easy stages until at length they reached a bluff above the doomed town and prepared for their unspeakable orgy of blood. The horrible story of massacre, pillage, rapine and burning of that night of February 28 and morning of the 29th is familiar to every New England school boy. What is not often mentioned, however, is the main object of the expedition as tradition gives it. It is related that the chief purpose, to which other plunder and captives were merely incidental, was to recover the church bell from the Deerfield Meeting House. This bell was said to have been taken from a French vessel by a Colonial privateer while it was being transported to its destination, one of the Catholic churches of Canada. On this raid the 340 French and Indians secured the bell and carried it back to Canada by the same route, up the Connecti- cut, across to the Winooski headwaters and thence down the valley repassing the site of Waterbury, to the river's mouth. The bell was hung in the Chapel St Regis and was used to call the Children of the Faith to the Jesuit services (3 Sylvester's Indian Wars of New England, p. 54). No authentic records
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY, VERMONT
are extant of the occupation of this part of the Winooski Valley prior to the date of the coming of a surveying party in 1782. As the river valley afforded a natural trail to Indian war and hunting parties passing over southeasterly from Lake Champlain to the Connecticut, there is little likelihood of the region ever being for long the home of the less nomadic off- shoots of the Iroquois tribe (well known to have had a bent for agriculture and peaceful pursuits), lying as it did directly ·in the pathway of hostile marauders. To be sure, here and there in the Winooski Valley are evidences of aboriginal efforts at agriculture, but nothing has been found that would indicate a prolonged sojourn in the region. The usual earthenware vessels, flint arrow heads, axes, pottery, fire-stones, and even rudely cultivated corn patches and sites of lodges have been encountered just as they are found almost everywhere in the United States. There are Indian earthworks too, now and then, and burial places. We are told with great circumstan- tiality the story of the tapped maple trees on the Moss place, and the theories about a permanent occupation of North Hill by the Indians as evidenced by these tapped trees. It was not, however, until after the Indian mission was established, following the subjection of Canada to British rule, that the Indians in this part of Vermont evinced any pronounced desire for a domestic or sedentary life. In scattered villages were a few on both the Lamoille and Winooski rivers who kept fowls and cattle. It is stated upon no less an authority than Mr. Joshua Merriam of Waterbury Center that the hens kept by these domesticated Indians were marvelous layers, besides being the object of awe-struck admiration for their supernatural gifts as soothsayers. "It was a type of these hens," says Mr. Merriam, "that crowed near Captain Miller's camp during the battle (at Plattsburg) of September 1I, 1814, and Captain Miller being of the same faith had those hens sent back near Montpelier as fatidic fowls." The allusion, of course, is to the crowing of a hen upon the mast as prophetic of victory and the particular type was known as a "buff Coossuck." Upon the whole, it is a safe inference that the Winooski Valley was used chiefly by the Indians as a highway or trail way.
3
PERIOD 1763-1800
At the date of the granting of the royal charter by George III through his "Trusty and Well-beloved Benning Went- worth, Esq." to "Our loving subjects," etc., on the 7th day of June, 1763, the township of Waterbury came into documen- tary existence, though its municipal and civic life did not begin until nearly twenty-seven years later, March 3Ist, 1790. That the phrase, "our loving subjects," as used in the royal grant was merely in conformity with the stilted style and grandiose verbiage of kingly usage is grimly evidenced by the attitude of New Englanders and other colonists at the date of the charter. The almost absolute isolation of this region at that time from the gathering storm between the Colonies and England was sufficient to set apart this geographical portion of what later became the State of Vermont from any participation in the ante-revolutionary doings of historical interest, but the embers of discontent and rebellion were being fanned into flame in New England and to a lesser degree even in New York. It was as if Waterbury town were segregated with others in this part of Vermont from the eddies and whirlpools of insur- rection and her lovely valleys, hills and streams preserved in peace for the important part in the building of a common- wealth she was destined to play.
Patrick Henry at this time was inflaming the people of Virginia in the famous tobacco cases involving the royal right of veto of Colonial acts, wherein "a lowly parson's private right was obscured by the gathering shadow of a public wrong." James Otis in Massachusetts was carrying conviction by sheer force of logic and knowledge of government and law. The "loving subjects" of George III were strangely averse to his enforcement of navigation laws authorizing arbitrary seizures of merchantmen, the imposition of direct and indirect taxes for the raising of revenue and the use of this revenue for the maintenance of standing armies of royal troops in Massachu- setts. Such, then, was the outside situation when the charters of Waterbury, Burlington, Colchester, Essex, Williston, Bolton, Duxbury, Moretown, Jericho, Underhill, Middlesex and Berlin were granted by Governor Benning Wentworth at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the then seat of government of the Grants.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY, VERMONT
Following a general policy of encouraging settlement by Connecticut citizens who sought to transplant pioneer stock in virgin territory, the grant of land for Waterbury township was made to John Stiles and sixty-five other individual pro- prietors, nearly all of Connecticut and New Jersey, in the quaint phraseology following:
WATERBURY | GEORGE THE THIRD, P.S.
By the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, De- fender of the Faith ect.
To all Persons to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting.
Know ye, That We of our special Grace, certain Knowledge, and meer Motion, for the due Encouragement of settling a New Plantation within our said Province, by and with the Advice of our Trusty and Well-beloved Benning Wentworth, Esq; Our Governor and Commander in Chief of our said Province of New Hampshire, in New England, and of our Council of the said Province; Have upon the Conditions and Reservations hereinafter made, given and granted, and by these Presents, for us, our Heirs, and Successors, do give and grant in equal Shares, unto Our loving Subjects, Inhabitants of Our said Province of New Hampshire, and Our other Govern- ments, and to their Heirs and Assigns forever, whose names are entred on This Grant, to be divided to and amongst them into Seventy two equal Shares, all that Tract or Parcel of Land situate, lying and being within our said Province of New Hampshire containing by Admeasurement, 23040 Acres, which Tract is to contain Six Miles square, and no more; out of which an Allowance is to be made for High Ways and unimprovable Lands by Rocks, Ponds, Mountains and Rivers, One Thousand and Forty Acres free, according to a Plan and Survey thereof, made by Our said Governor's Order, and returned into the Secretary's Office, and hereunto annexed, butted and bounded as follows, Viz. Beginning at the South Easterly corner of Bolton on the Northerly side of Onion or French River, from thence Easterly up said River (& bounding on the same so far as to make Six Miles on a streight Perpendicular Line, with the Easterly Line of said Bolton, from thence Northerly on a Parrallel with the East line of Bolton six Miles, from thence Westerly about six Miles to the North East- erly Corner of said Bolton, from thence southerly by said Bolton East line six Miles the place begun at-And that the same be, and hereby is Incor- porated into a Township by the name of Waterbury And the inhabitants that do or shall hereafter Inhabit said Township are hereby declared to be Enfranchised with and Intitled to all and every the Priviledges and Im- munities that other Towns within Our Province by Law Exercise and En- joy: And further, that the said Town as soon as there shall be Fifty Families resident and settled thereon, shall have the Liberty of holding Two Fairs, one of which shall be held on the And the
5
PERIOD 1763-1800
other on the annually which Fairs are not to 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 most advantagious to the Inhabitants. Also, that the first Meeting for the Choice of Town Officers, agreable to the Laws of our said Province, shall be held on the 20th Day of July next, which said Meeting shall be Notified by Cap Isaac Woodruff Jun" who is hereby also appointed the Moderator of the said first Meeting which he is to Notify and Govern agreable to the Laws and Customs of our said Province, and that the annual Meeting for ever hereafter for the Choice of such Officers for the said Town, shall be on the Second Tuesday of March annually, To HAVE and to HOLD the said Tract of Land as above expressed, together with all Privileges and Appurtenances, to them and their respective Heirs and Assigns forever, upon the following Conditions, viz.
I That every Grantee, his Heirs or Assigns shall plant and cultivate five Acres of Land within the Term of five Years for every fifty Acres con- tained in his or their Share or Proportion of Land in said Township, and continue to improve and settle the same by additional Cultivations, on Penalty of the Forfeiture of his Grant or Share in the said Township and of its reverting to Us, our Heirs and Successors, to be by Us or Them Re- granted to such of Our Subjects as shall effectually settle and cultivate the Same.
II That all white and other Pine Trees within the said Township, fit for Masting Our Royal Navy, be carefully preserved for that Use, and none to be cut or felled without Our special Licence 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 any Act or Acts of Parliament that now are, or hereafter shall be Enacted.
III That before any Division of the Land be made to and among the Grantees, a Tract of Land as near the Centre of the said Township as the Land will admit of, shall be reserved and marked out for Town Lots, one of which shall be allotted to each Grantee of the Contents of one Acre.
IV Yielding and paying therefor to Us, our Heirs and Successors for the space of ten Years, to be computed from the Date hereof, the Rent of one Ear of Indian Corn only, on the twenty-fifth Day of December annually, if lawfully demanded, the first Payment to be made on the twenty-fifth Day of December, 1763.
V Every Proprietor, Settler or Inhabitant, shall yield and pay unto Us, our Heirs and Successors yearly, and every Year forever, from and after the Expiration of ten Years from the above said twenty-fifth Day of December, which will be in the Year of Our Lord 1773 One shilling Procla- mation Money for every Hundred Acres he so owns, settles or possesses, and so in Proportion for a greater or lesser Tract of the said Land; which money shall be paid by the respective Persons above said, their Heirs or Assigns, in our Council Council Chamber in Portsmouth, or to such Officer
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY, VERMONT
or Officers as shall be appointed to receive the same; and this to be in Lieu of other Rents and Services whatsoever.
In Testimony Whereof we have caused the Seal of our said Province to be hereunto affixed. Witness Benning Wentworth, Esq; Our Governor and Commander in Chief of Our said Province, the Seventh Day of June In the Year of Lord Christ, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty three And in the Third Year of Our Reign.
B. WENTWORTH.
By His Excellency's Command,
With Advice of Council,
T. ATKINSON Jun™ Secry
Prove of New Hampr June 7th 1763
Recorded According to the Original Charter under the Prov Seal T ATKINSON Jun™ Secry
THE NAMES OF THE GRANTEES OF WATERBURY
John Stiles Esqr
Jonª Crane Esqr
Isaac Woodruff June
Josiah Crane
John Nixson
Isaac Roll
Hezekiah Thompson
Zophar Squire
John Boyle
Jesse Muir
David Potter
David Lacey
Abner Frost
John Dickinson
Jonath- Stiles
Nath1 Potter
Daniel Bedford
James Cory
Kennedy Vance
Joseph Abbets
Willm Connet
David Ball
Thomas Gardner
James Puflosey
Manen Force
Charles Gillam
James Osborn
Jeremiah Mulford
Thomas Miller
Joseph Osborn
Joseph Bagdly
Nath1 Salmon
Stephª Bedford
Sam1 Bedford
Nath1 Wade
James Scudder
Jereah Pangboon
Nath1 Baker
David Meeker Junr
David Baker
Henry Baker
Daniel Baker
Willm Pierson
Willm Pearson June
John Meeker
Jona Dayton 3d
Willm Mills
John Mills
Abram Rool
Thos. Willis
Bernerdus Van Neste
Eben' Price
Jesse Clark
John Marsh
Ichabod Deane
Elias Bedford
Benja Williams
Honble James Nevin
Meshech Wear Esq.
Josh Newmarch
John Page Esqr
Nath! Barrell
Capt Ezekiel Worthen
Sam' Averill
Willm Willcocks
Patridge Thatcher
His Excellency Benning Wentworth Esqr a Tract of Land to Contain Five Hundred Acres as marked B-W in the plan which is to be Accounted two of the within shares, One whole Share for the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, One Share for a Glebe for the Church of England as by Law Establish'd one Share for the first settled Minister of the Gospel, And one Share for the benefit of a school in said Town
Province of New Hampr June 7th 1763
Recorded According to the Back of the Original Charter of Waterbury under the Pro Seal
T ATKINSON Jun Secry
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PERIOD 1763-1800
To the tract described in the charter were added strips from Bolton and Middlesex which became annexed to Water- bury under the Laws of 1850 and 1851. The boundaries of these additions were described in the following Acts:
So much of the town of Middlesex, as is contained in lots numbered fifty, fifty-five, fifty six, fifty-seven, fifty eight, sixty-three and sixty four, in the fourth division, and lying on the westerly side of Hog-back mountain, and so much of the undivided land in said Middlesex as lies westerly of a line commencing at the most south-Easterly corner of the aforesaid lot number sixty-four and running south, thirty six degrees west, and parallel with the present line between Waterbury and Middlesex to the northerly line of the Governor's right, so-called, and thence on the northerly line of the Governor's right to Waterbury line, is hereby annexed to said town of Waterbury, and shall hereafter constitute a part of the town of Water- bury, the same as if it had been included in the original charter thereof. [Approved October 30, 1850, Sess. Laws 1850, p. 46.]
So much of the town of Bolton in the county of Chittenden as is here- inafter described, to wit: beginning on the north-Easterly corner of lot number one hundred and nine in the first division; thence westerly in the northerly line of lots number one hundred and nine, one hundred and ten, one hundred and eleven, and one hundred and twelve to the northwesterly Corner of said lot one hundred and twelve; thence northerly, in the west- erly line of lot number one hundred and five, and the other lots in the fourth tier of lots, to the southerly line of that part of Stowe, which was formerly Mansfield; thence easterly in the southerly line of said Stowe, to the cor- ner of Waterbury; thence southerly in the line between said Bolton and said Waterbury, to the northeasterly corner of lot number one hundred and nine, the place of beginning, is hereby annexed to the town of Water- bury, in the county of Washington, and shall hereafter constitute a part of the town of Waterbury, the same as if it had been included in the origi- nal charter thereof. Said piece, so annexed to said Waterbury, contains forty-four lots of land; Provided, the rents and proceeds of lot number ten (back lot) and lot number one hundred and eight, be and remain pay- able to the town of Bolton, in the same manner as though said lots had not been annexed to the town of Waterbury.
[Approved October 30, 1851, Sess. Laws 1851, p. 64.]
The next date of importance in the history of the town was May 10, 1770, when at a meeting of the proprietors in New Milford, Connecticut, it was voted to lay out the township by survey; this meeting was adjourned to September 25, 1770, and again to October 25, 1770, at Newark, New Jersey, where, at another meeting, November 15, 1770, the various portions or divisions of the original tract granted to the proprietors were
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY, VERMONT
allotted by number. Thereafter there were meetings of the proprietors April 13, 1773, and the second Tuesday in May, I773, at Kent, Province of New York (now Londonderry, Vermont), at which a second division or apportionment of lots was made. Little or nothing affecting Waterbury as a town occurred between 1773 and the close of the Revolution, but mention must be made of the alternate ebbings and flowings of the fortunes of the political division of which the town was soon to become an integral part. Pending the carrying out of the plan of confederation, the Continental Congress was torn with sectional strife and jealousy. New England states, particularly those whose land grants were extensive, were the objects of many bitter attacks of a polemic and forensic kind; these emanated for the most part from southern sources but in all their clashings the respective adversaries could not excel in bitterness those doughty protagonists of New Hampshire and New York, who came almost to sword's points over possession of the Green Mountain Territory. Not quite a year after the Declaration of Independence Vermont petitioned the Continental Congress to be admitted as a state into the Union. Then began a series of backings and fillings; the people of Vermont, almost at the point of fruition of their hopes for admission, saw them dashed to earth repeatedly; meanwhile the struggle for the territory west of the Connecti- cut River and the southwestern part of what is now Vermont waxed furious; New York had been and remained insistent upon her claim to what was then called the New Hampshire grants. An attempt had been made at an amicable test of title to the disputed territory under the Bennington grant by Governor Wentworth in pursuance of an arrangement with the Royalist Governor of New York, by which it was agreed that no further grants should be made until the boundary question then pending should be settled. But Governor Wentworth continued to grant charters, so that by the end of 1763 he had chartered one hundred thirty-eight towns all coming under the political power of New Hampshire, among which was the township grant of Waterbury. The claims of New York Tories and the counter-claims of settlers holding
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