USA > Vermont > Addison County > Shoreham > History of the town of Shoreham, Vermont, from the date of its charter, October 8th, 1761, to the present time > Part 1
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NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES 3 3433 06813915 7
IQF (Shoreham) Goodhue
IQF Shore hans -
J. Cameron, Lith.
208 Broadway N
J. F. Goodhue
1
HISTORY
OF THE
TOWN OF SHOREHAM,
VERMONT,
FROM THE DATE OF ITS CHARTER, OCTOBER 8TH, 1761, TO THE PRESENT TIME,
BY REV. JOSIAH F. GOODHUE,
TOGETHER WITH A STATISTICAL AND HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF TIIE COUNTY OF ADDISON,
BY SAMUEL SWIFT, LL. D.
PUBLISHED BY THE TOWN.
PRINTED BY MEAD & FULLER,
MIDDLEBURY, VT.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Astor, Lenox and Tilden Found tions. 1898.
11678
PREFACE.
SOON after the death of Gov. Silas H. Jenison, who had before been appointed to that service, the author of the following work was requested by the Committee of the Middlebury Historical So- ciety to write a history of the town of Shoreham. He soon began to make inquiries and to collect materials to form into a history ; but it was not until all those persons who first settled in this town were dead, with the exception of a single individual, that he en- tered upon the duties assigned him. The difficulties attending the prosecution of such an undertaking, under such circumstances, may easily be conceived, but these were aggravated by the absence of all records dating back beyond the year 1783. His only resource, therefore, was to consult the only living man who had been here be- fore the Revolution, and a few of the older inhabitants who came soon after. It was a happy circumstance that Major Noah Callender had not then passed away, whose memory, though he was then more than eighty years old, remained unimpaired. The author held fre- quent conversations with him, and noted down whatever he deemed important for the prosecution of his work, and it is with pleasure he is able to state that on no important point has he found Major Callender's statements to be erroneous, after having been subjected to the severest tests. After his death many points of inquiry came up which were not anticipated previously. If he had lived, it would doubtless have been an easier task to remove obscurities in which the early history of the town is involved, and the labor of
IV.
PREFACE.
writing it would have been lighter. In the year 1853 the' author prepared a discourse on the early history of the town, and deliv- ered it to a large concourse on Thanksgiving Day of that year, with a view to be corrected if he erred in any of his statements. A copy of it was requested for the press. Instead of complying with this request at the time, the author conceived that it would contribute to a higher usefulness to enlarge the discourse and give it more the form of a regular history, such as it now assumes.
Various causes contributed to delay the execution of his design, until the commencement of the year 1857, when his decision was adopted to remove from the State. The numerous papers contain- ing all the materials he had collected for a history, he transmitted, not long after he left the State, to persons most competent in his opinion to prepare the work. These, finding greater difficulties than had been anticipated, declined the task, and the Town, at the last March Meeting, made an appropriation to pay the charge of writing it, and instructed the selectmen to engage some suitable per- son to do the work. At their request, I ventured to undertake it. Had I then understood its intrinsic difficulties as I now do, I should have shrunk from the attempt. The limited time, scarcely three months, which I could possibly devote to it, is one cause, doubtless, of its many imperfections. A year would scarcely suffice to do it jus- tice. Imperfect, however, as it is, the author, who has done what he could, consigns it to the charitable opinions of those who en- gaged him in this difficult work. Consisting so much of details as a work of this kind necessarily must do, he fears that it will be dry and uninteresting to many, who may undertake to read it.
The writer has undertaken only to relate the simple story of the town's history in plain language. He has had neither the taste nor inclination to adorn any thing. He has aimed to write a history, and not a romance. He has sought to give a statement of facts and nothing more. Errors may undoubtedly be discovered, but much pains have been taken to avoid them, and it is believed no important ones will be found.
Some of the Biographical Notices, particularly the briefer ones, when connected with the thread of the history, are inserted in
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PREFACE.
the body of the work, partly to relieve the tedium of bare details but the most of them have been placed together toward the close. Other characters, doubtless as worthy as many noticed, are not men- tioned, either because the author had not the materials with which to delineate them, or that there was not incident enough to render them interesting. In this part of the work, it would have been better perhaps, if the writer had confined himself within narrower limits. His only apology for the space which the biography fills, is that chiefly in this direction are the objects found adapted to ex- cite interest.
The author has attempted carefully to illustrate the settlement of the town, its industrial, moral and social progress, and has done something to commemorate the carly founders and pioneers of socie- ty here. However in these or other respects he may have fallen short of what is desirable, it will be seen that the undertaking was voluntarily begun, from a sense of its importance, and from a deep interest in men and things with which he had long been famil- iar. When his work was adopted by the Town, his responsibility was more clearly defined towards the liberal spirit thus manifested, in the cherishing of which he hopes what is valuable in his work may find a position of future usefulness.
SHOREHAM, August, 1859.
J. F. GOODHUE.
By vote of the Town in the annual meetings, 1859, 1860, ap- propriations were made to procure the completion and publication of this History, and Messrs. Ebenezer Bush, Isaac Chipman, Davis Rich, E. B. Chamberlin and R. Birchard, in the latter year, were appointed a committee on the subject. In obedience to a request, the author returned from his present residence in Whitewater, Wis- consin, and devoted several weeks to the completion of the work. It has been put to press under the direction of the publishing com- mittee. By the author's request, certain deficiencies of statistical matter have been supplied, and the examination of one or two topics has been procured, which the limited time at the author's com- mand prevented him from pursuing.
VI.
PREFACE.
The copy of the Charter, Extracts from the Town and Proprie- tors' Records, Lists of Town Officers, and various statistical items, have been furnished by the Town Clerk. The statistics supplied from the Executive Departments at Washington, were obtained through the attention of our Representative in Congress, and are properly acknowledged where they occur. Chapters XIX., XX., on Burying Grounds and the War of 1812, were supplied, by re- quest, by Rev. Edward B. Chamberlin. The Miscellaneous De- partment in Chapters XXIII., XXIV., was extended by the addi- tion of several particulars and anecdotes, obtained from Joseph Smith, Esq., Isaac Chipman, Esq., and other gentlemen. The gen- eral historical data, in Chapters VII. and XIV., have also been supplied.
The Note on Page 42, was given on the authority of a Manu- script Address of Rev. Joseph Steele, late of Castleton, delivered in that place ; that on page 61, was compiled from Morrell's Amer- ican Shepherd and the American Historical Magazine for 1860-61 ; that on page 152, was obtained from a note of conversations with Mrs. M., one of the parties mentioned.
Portraits of Gov. Jenison and Rev. Mr. Goodhue, are inserted under the direction of the committee, as a part of the expense of publication ; other illustrations are furnished by the liberality of individuals.
Errors of the press, which occur, will lead, it is believed, to no serious misapprehension ; errors in names or their orthography are intended to be corrected in the Index of Names.
CONTENTS.
-
CHAPTER I.
PAGE.
Description and Charter of the Town, . . 1
CHAPTER II.
Settlement of the Town under the Charter-Settlers previous to the Revolution, 6
The capture of Ticonderoga in 1775, ..
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
12 Y
Settlement subsequent to the Revolution-Additional settlers previous to 1786, 18 CHAPTER V.
Town organized -Improved condition-Progress of settlement from 1786 to 1800, 26
CHAPTER VI.
Settlement at the Center and at Richville-Larrabee's Point-Watch Point, ... 35
CHAPTER VII,
Relation of Ticonderoga to the settlement-Escape of Hall and Kellogg-Events of the War, 39
CHAPTER VIII.
Civil History-Proceedings of Proprietors' and Town Meetings,
45
CHAPTER IX.
Town Officers-Population from time to time,.
52
CHAPTER X.
History of Agriculture-First Products-Wheat-Sheep-Horses-Cattle, ...
57
CHAPTER XI.
Merchants-Character and amount of trade, 67
CHAPTER XII.
Lawyers-Practitioners in Shoreham-Change in legal business,
71
CHAPTER XII !.
Physicians and Diseases,
74
CHAPTER XIV.
Political History-Town Representatives-County and State Officers-Party divisions,. 76
CONTENTS. VII
CHAPTER XV.
Progress of Education-Schools-Teachers-Newton Academy, ....... 81
CHAPTER XVI.
Economical History-Soil-Face of the Land-Timber-Crops-Value and quality of Lands-Census of Farm Products .. 86
CHAPTER XVII
Roads-Streams-Mills-Minerals-Manufactures, 91
CHAPTER XVIII.
Mails-Post Offices-Postmasters,
96
CHAPTER XIX.
Burying Grounds,
CHAPTER XX.
98
War of 1812-Enlisted Soldiers-Volunteers-Plattsburgh, 100
CHAPTER XXI.
Religious History-Meetings-Plan proposed-Congregational Church-Minis- ters-Meeting-Houses-Baptist Church-Methodist Church-Universalist Church-Ministers and statistics,. 109
CHAPTER XXII.
The Temperanec Reform,
CHAPTER XXIII.
120
Social and Miscellaneous-Trials-Traits-Localities-Facts-Incidents-
Habits,
131
CHAPTER XXIV.
Miscellaneous-Additional Facts and Anecdotes-Money Digging, 141
CHAPTER XXV.
Statistical-Population-Property-Taxes-Wages-Registration Returns- Graduates, .. 147
CHAPTER XXVI.
Biographical Sketches-Paul Moore-Col. Pond-James Moore,. 151
CHAPTER XXVII.
Biographical Sketches continued-Thomas Rowley, Esq., the Poet,
162
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Biographical Sketches continued-Job Lane Howe-Ebenezer Turrill-Timothy F. Chipman-Elisha Bascom-Stephen Cooper-Nathan Hand, ... .. 180
CHAPTER XXIX.
Biographical Sketches, concluded-Hon. Silas H. Jenison-Hon. Charles Rich -- Conclusion of the Work, 187
Index of Names,. 193
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Portrait of the Author,
Larrabee's Point with United States Hotel, 37
Watch Point and Residence of John Simonds, Esq., 69
Public Buildings in Shoreham Village. 109
Portrait of Hon. Silas H. Jenison, 185
HISTORY OF SHOREHAM.
CHAPTER I.
DESCRIPTION AND CHARTER OF THE TOWN.
THE Town of Shoreham, in the County of Addison, State of Ver- mont, is in Latitude 43º 53', and Longitude 3º 45', and is bounded north by Bridport, cast by Whiting and Cornwall, south by Orwell, and west by Lake Champlain, which separates it from Ticonderoga, N. Y. It lies 40 miles south of Burlington ; 12 south-west from Middlebury ; removed from eight to ten miles from the Green Moun- tain range.
It was chartered by Benning Wentworth, Governor of the Prov- ince of New Hampshire, on the eighth day of October, A. D. 1761. The names of sixty-four persons appear in the charter as the grantees of the township, most of whom, it is believed, had no per- sonal interest in the grant. The charter was obtained through the agency of Colonel Ephraim Doolittle, and bears an earlier date than that of any other town west of the Green Mountains, lying north of Castleton. It in the usual form of charters of townships granted by New Hampshire, and reads as follows :
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2
HISTORY OF SHOREHAM.
PROVINCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
GEORGE THE THIRD,
By the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, S.c.
TO ALL PERSONS TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME :
Greeting :
Know ye, that We of our special grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, for the due encouragement of settling a new Planta- tion within our said Province, by and with the advice of our trusty and well beloved Benning Wentworth, Esq., our Governor and Com- mander-in-Chief of our Province of New Hampshire in New Eng- land, and of our Council of said Province, Have, upon the Condi- tions and Reservations, Hereinafter made, Given and Granted and by thesc Presents for us our Heirs and successors, do Give and Grant in Equall shares unto our Loving Subjects, Inhabitants of our said province of New Hampshire and our other Governments, 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 or Parcel of land, situate Lying and being within our said Province of New Hampshire, containing by a measurement, twenty-five Thousand aeres, which tract is to contain something more than six miles square and no more : out of which an allowance to be made of Highways and unimproved Lands by Rocks, ponds, Mountains and Rivers, one Thousand and forty acres free, accord- ing to a plan and survey thereof, made by our said Governor's or- ders and Returned into the Secretary's office and hereto annexed, Butted and Bounded as follows, viz : Beginning at a tree marked standing by the water side of the wood creek, so called, on an East point from Ticonderoga fort, from thence running east seven miles, then beginning again at the aforesaid tree by the wood creek, thence Running Northerly by the waters of the wood creek or bay, so far as to make up six miles on a straight Line, from thence East seven miles, and from thence Southerly to the end of seven miles from the bounds begun at ; and that the same be and hereby is incorporated into a township by the name of Shoreham, and the inhabitants that do or shall hereafter Inhabit the said township are hereby declared
3
HISTORY OF SHOREHAM.
to be enfranchised with and entitled to all and every the privileges and immunities that other towns within our province by Law exer- cise 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 other on the annually, which fairs are not to continue Longer - and that as soon as the said town shall consist of fifty families, a market may be opened and kept one or more days in Each week as may be thought more ad- vantagieous 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 in January, which said meet- ing shall be notified by Gardner Chandler, Esq., who is hereby al- so appointed moderator of the said first meeting, which he is to No- tify and Govern agreeable to the Laws and customs of our said prov- ince, and that the annual meeting forever hereafter, for the choice of such officers for the same 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 appurtenaces to them and their Respective heirs and assigns for ever, on the follow- ing conditions, viz : 1st, 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 contained in his or their share or pro- portion of Land in said Township, and continue to improve and set- tle the same by additional Cultivations, on penalty of the forfeit- ure of his grant or share in said township, and of its reverting to us our heirs and successors to be by us or them regranted to such of our subjects as shall Effectually Settle and cultivate the same. 2d. That all the white and 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 or 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 an act or acts of Parlia- ment that now are or hereafter shall be enacted. 3d. That before any division of the Land be made to and among the Grantees, &
4
HISTORY OF SHOREHAM,
Tract of land as near the center of the said Township as the Land will admit of, shall be reserved and Laid out for Town Lots, one of which shall be allotted to Each Grantee of the contents of One Acre. 4thly. Yielding and paying therefore 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 pay- ment to be made the twenty-fifth day of December, 1762. 5thly. Every proprietor, settler or inhabitant, shall yield and pay unto us, our heirs and successors yearly, and forever from and after the Ex- piration of ten years from the above said twenty-fifth day ot De- cember, Namely, on the twenty-fifth 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 lesser tract of said Land, which money shall be paid by the respective persons aforesaid, their heirs or as- signs, 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 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 8th day of October, in the year of our Lord Christ One thousand, Seven hundred and Sixty-one, and in the first year of our Reign.
By His Excellency's Command, with advice of Council,
B. WENTWORTH.
THEODORE ATKINSON, Secretary.
Province of New Hampshire, October, 9th, 1762. Recorded in the book of Char- ters, page 233 and 234, Attest, THEODORE ATTKINSON, Secretary.
THE NAMES OF THE GRANTEES OF SHOREHAM.
John Chandler, Esq.,
James Forbes,
Joseph Perry,
John Chandler, senr., Esq.
James Forbes, Jr., Jonathan Perry,
Gardner Chandler, Esq.,
Jonathan Gates, Daniel Waier,
Zerubabel Snow,
Jabez Swan,
John Knap,
Asa Moore, Jabez Sargeant,
Timothy Pain,
Samuel Chandler,
John Marsh, John Waters,
Ephraim Doolittle,
John McRakin,
Samuel Curtis,
Ebenezer Warren,
Thadeus Bigelow, Thomas Brown,
Daniel Boyden,
Philip Roberts,
Absalom Rice,
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HISTORY OF SHOREHAM.
NAMES OF GRANTEES-CONTINNED.
Jacob Hemenway,
Thomas Wheeler,
Joseph Curtis,
Robert Gray, Jr.,
Matthew Gray,
Cornelius Colman,
Silas Hathhorne,
William Kennedy,
Jonathan Stone,
Reuben Rice,
Charles Richardson,
Jonas Newton,
Jonathan Morton, scnr.,
Enos Cook,
Ebenexer Starns, Jr.,
Joshua Dickinson,
Benjamin Flag,
Francis Harrington,
Elijah Morton,
Samuel Brooks,
Ephraim Starns,
Samuel Smith,
Cornelius Stowel,
William Ward, Wm.Tenenson Stearns,
Dauiel Warner, Esq ,
John Godard, Junr.,
William White,
Richard Wibard, Esqr,,
Ephraim Curtis,
Caleb Tilton,
Jonathan Tilton,
Daniel Tilton,
David Morton,
John Goddard,
John White,
Samuel Goddard.
His Excellency, Benning Wentworth, Esq., 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 share for the Incor- poration for the propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts. One share for the Glebe for the Church of England, as by law Es- tablished. 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 HAMPSHIRE, October 9, 1762. Recorded in the book of Charters, page 233 and 234:
THEODORE ATTKINSON, Secretary.
The above is a true copy of the Original Charter, Carefully Ex- amined and Compared by me.
THOS. ROWLEY, Proprietors' Clerk.
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6
HISTORY OF SHOREHAM.
CHAPTER II.
SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN UNDER THE CHARTER-SETTLERS PRE- VIOUS TO THE REVOLUTION.
COL. EPHRAIM DOOLITTLE was the most prominent and active man in procuring the Charter and effecting the first settlement of the town. He was a Captain in the army under General Amherst, in the French war of 1755, and served under him at the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. While the English forces lay at the latter place in 1759, Amherst sent out a detachment to open and complete a road from thence to Charlestown, N. H., then called Number Four. It passed from Chimney Point, in Addison, through Bridport and Shoreham, and Doolittle and many of his men, it is said, were engaged in this enterprise. Col. Doolittle, and many of the men who served under him from Worcester County, Mass., had passed over this road on their way to and from the seat of war on Lake Champlain, and having favorable impressions of the country bordering on the lake in Vermont, on their return after the conquest of Canada in 1760, through their influence a company of gentle- men in Worcester, Shrewsbury and Petersham, Massachusetts, united for the purpose of obtaining a charter from the government of New Hampshire for the towns of Shoreham and Bridport. Having accomplished this object, he became proprietor of six rights of land in each town, with the intention of commencing a settlement with as little delay as possible. But the continuance of the war between England and France till 1763, and the conflicting claims of New Hampshire and New York to the territory, rendered the enterprise unsafe. It was not until the issuing of the order of the King and Council in 1764, prohibiting further grants of land in Vermont by the government of New York, that it was considered safe to com- mence settlements on unoccupied lands in this State. That order of the government in England having been regarded as settling the
7
HISTORY OF SHOREHAM.
chartered rights of lands granted by New Hampshire, the owners thereof began to take measures to secure their settlement, and people in the older and denser settlements of Massachusetts and Connecticut began to look for a future home in the wilderness of Vermont.
Early in the year 1766, Col. Doolittle with twelve or fourteen other persons, among whom were Daniel and Jacob Hemenway, Robert Gray, James Forbush, Paul Moore, John Crigo, Daniel Southgate, Nahum Houghton, Elijah Kellogg, and others, came to- gether in a company from Worcester County, in Massachusetts, and selected a spot on which they built a log house. This was situated a few rods cast of a stream called Prickly Ash Brook, which flows from the northern extremity of what is called the Great Swamp, on land now occupied by B. F. Powers, known as the Doolittle farm. The house stood upon ground which rises gradually from that stream as it leaves the Swamp, on the cast side, near a spring at the base of Mutton Hill, at its northern extremity. In this they all lived the first year in one family, the men taking turns in doing the cook- ing. These men had agreed to make a joint interest in the enter- prise ; to place their labor and expenses in a common stock, with a view at some future time, when the settlement should advance, and lands should increase in value, to share equally in the profits, and not, as it is stated in Tompson's History of Vermont, "On the Moravian plan." They entertained no peculiar religious or politi- cal views respecting the organization of society, or the holding of property. They adopted this plan merely for their own convenience ; to lighten and facilitate the labors of settlement.
During the first summer, this company cleared about twenty-five acres of land, lying at the base of Mutton Hill on the north and east of Prickly Ash Brook. The greater part of that piece of land afterwards belonged to the farm of Noah and John Jones, and is now occupied by Franklin Moore. It was soon stocked down to grass, and for many years furnished fodder for the cattle and teams of the first settlers. During the first season, several persons be- longing to this company suffered from fevers and agues, and regard- ing the country unhealthy, they left it, receiving pay for their la-
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8
HISTORY OF SHOREHAM.
bor of Col. Doolittle, who had promised to purchase their interests in the improvements, if they should not wish to remain. In conse- quence of this, the number of residents in the town was consider- ably diminished. Col. Doolittle did not move his family into town until after the Revolution, but spent much of his time here, with several hired men, who were employed in clearing lands and mak- ing improvements.
Col. Ephraim Doolittle, from Worcester, Mass., was a Captain in the service of the Colonies in the French war. He was with Gen. Amherst at the taking of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, in 1759, and was Colonel of the Massachusetts Militia in the Revolu- tion. He was the largest land holder in town, as one of the orig- inal proprietors and by large purchases from other proprietors, be- fore the settlement commenced. After the settlement commenced in 1766, he spent a large portion of his time here, until the war commenced, and moved his family here in 1783, and owned the mill-place and mills, and built a house where Alonzo Birchard now lives. He died in this town, A. D. 1807.
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