USA > Vermont > Washington County > Waitsfield > History of the town of Waitsfield, Vermont, 1782-1908, with family genealogies > Part 1
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Gc 974.302 W13j 1625447
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
GC
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01092 5623
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofw1782jone
HISTORY OF WAITSFIELD
WAITSFIELD VILLAGE LOOKING WEST TO LINCOLN MOUNTAIN.
HISTORY. C.
-- THE
TOWN OF
WAITSFIELD, VERMONT ៛
1782 - 1908
WITH FAMILY GENEALOGIES
BY
MATT BUSHNELL JONES
BOSTON, MASS .: GEORGE E. LITTLEFIELD, 67 CORNHILL, 1900.
1625417
Copyright, 1909, BY MATT BUSHNELL. JONES.
PRESS OF COURIER-CITIZEN COMPANY, Lowell, Mass., U. S. A.
PREFACE.
This history of the Town of Waitsfield and its families found its inspiration in the deep interest of the author's father, Dr. Walter A. Jones, in the early history of the town and in the work done by him in preparing his historical address, delivered at the celebration of the centennial of the first settlement of the town in 1889. Its preparation has been an avocation of several years' duration. Had it been undertaken twenty years earlier the same effort would have resulted in the preservation of much material concerning the early life of the town that is now lost. This is perhaps sufficient reason for the present attempt to preserve the data now available.
Considerable effort has been made to obtain accuracy of statement, but it is beyond the bounds of possibility that errors, both of omission and of commission, shall not be discovered, considering the thousands of names and dates that have been copied and re-copied, the fact that different sources of information frequently disagree concerning the same birth, death or marriage, and that many records are with difficulty deciphered, while some information cannot be based upon any record.
Tribute has been freely levied upon the work of others- notably the memorial record of the town in the Civil War, prepared by Rev. Alfred B. Dascomb, the valuable historical
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address of the Rev. Perrin B. Fisk at the centennial of the establish- ment of the Congregational Church in Waitsfield, and the large amount of historical material relating to the Methodist-Episcopal Church gathered by Mrs. Alice Poland Kelsey. Thanks are due to many who have responded to requests for assistance in preparing the genealogical records of numerous Waitsfield families, but especially the author desires to acknowledge the ever present and invaluable help of his brother, Walter E. Jones, without which this book would not have been at this time, if ever, completed.
If the book succeeds in arousing a more active interest in the town among her citizens and among her many children who have gone out from the sheltering hills, it will justify the labor expended upon it.
M. B. J.
NEWTON, MASS.,
December 31, 190S.
Vil
CONTENTS.
Page
CHAPTER I
Situation, Natural Features, Charter and First Settlement,
with a Sketch of General Benjamin Wait . 1
CHAPTER II
Early Settlers . I5
CHAPTER III
Surveys, Divisions, Roads and Bridges 27
CHAPTER IV
Ancient Landmarks 38
CHAPTER V Ancient Landmarks-(Continued) 51
CHAPTER VI
Ancient Landmarks-(Continued) 62
CHAPTER VII
Military History-Revolution, War of 1812, Militia Com- panies 69
CHAPTER VIII
Military History-Civil War; Ainsworth Post No. 36, G. A. R. 83
CHAPTER IX
Ecclesiastical-Congregational Church and Congregational Society in Waitsfield, 1796-1830 . 98
CHAPTER X
Ecclesiastical-Congregational Church and Society, 1830-1908 115
CHAPTER XI
Ecclesiastical-Methodist Episcopal Church and Society. 124
CHAPTER XII
Ecclesiastical-The First Universalist Society in Waitsfield; The Union Meeting-house Society in Waitsfield; Baptist Society; Episcopal Church; Wesleyan Methodist Society; Waitsfield Unity Society I 34
viii
Page
CHAPTER XIII Education
143
CHAPTER XIV
Communication and Transportation :
. 163
CHAPTER XV
Agriculture, Commerce and Manufactures . 167
CHAPTER XVI
Native and Resident Professional Men and Prominent Citizens 175
CHAPTER XVII
Lodges, Societies and Other Organizations 190
CHAPTER XVIII
Burial Grounds
195
APPENDICES
199
GENEALOGIES
2II
INDEX
*
516
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CHAPTER I.
SITUATION, NATURAL FEATURES, CHARTER AND FIRST SETTLE- MENT, WITH A SKETCH OF GENERAL BENJAMIN WAIT.
"Waitsfield Lieth in the County of Adison Near the Center of the State of Vermont upon Mad River, Latitude 43º-55™ North. The Sun rises 4 hours & & nearly Later than at E. Greenwich & 7 minutes than at Boston."
With these words William Strong, "Surveyor of Soil," opened his "Field Book of the Survey of the Town of Waitsfield" in the year 1788.
The town actually lay, however, within the limits of Chitten- den County, which had been set off from Addison County about a year previous to this survey (October 22, 1787), and so remained until it became a part of the new county erected in 1810 and called Jefferson until, in 1814, it received its present name of Washington.
William Strong was, without doubt, the earliest chronicler of the natural features of the town, and we will let him continue the narrative in his own words:
"Mad River rises in Kingston (Granville) & falls into Waitsfield I mile II chains on the southerly line East from the S. W. Corner runs throug a Small Gore then into Lot No. 94 & out at the West line into Lot 143 & Goes on Through 141, 139, 137, 138. 136, 135, 133, 131, 129, 127, LIO, 112, then into 125 then into the line between the two last mentioned & continues there about 60 rods then into 125, 123, 121, 119 & then out about 62 chains & fifty links from the N. W. Corner.
"The Brooks of Note are first. Warren (now called Fay) that falls in from the East into 94.
"Second Camp Brook (Mill Brook) from the West into 138.
"third Pine from the East into 125.
"fourth North (Shepherd's Brook) from the West falls into 119.
"Either of these Streams are large Enough & very Con- venient for all Kinds of Mills.
"the Town in General is Well Watered Some Pine timber & plenty of ash & Hard Timber.
"The Intervels on the river are Large & of an Excellent Quality."
2
HISTORY OF WAITSFIELD.
To this description need be added only that the westerly line of the town lies along the foot hills of the main range of the Green Mountains, and that the secondary range traverses the original tract in such manner as to leave rather more than one- third of its acreage to the east of the mountains while the remainder occupies a natural basin between the ranges. This valley lies at an elevation of some 800 feet above sea level, and the highest land within the town is Bald Mountain, which rises on the east to an elevation of about 2500 feet.
Prior to the close of active hostilities in the last French War, Vermont presented few attractions to the peaceful pioncer. From earliest times the beautiful valley of Lake Champlain was the chosen battle ground of Algonquin warriors and their fierce rivals from the Long House of the Iroquois, and when their supremacy had faded, the territory lay exposed between the outposts of the other and mightier rivals who for more than half a century battled for the mastery of the northern continent. Prior to 1761 less than a score of townships had been granted within the present territory of the state, and those actually settled lay wholly along the Connecticut River and could be counted upon the fingers of one's hand.
The very causes of its retarded development led, however, to a widespread knowledge of the advantages of the district, and within the next three years one hundred twenty-nine townships had been granted by the Colonial Governor of New Hampshire; but in 1764 the slumbering controversy between New Hampshire and New York broke into flame, and before the close of that year the Crown had ordered that the Connecticut River should be considered as the boundary between these colonies. The con- struction placed by the New York authorities upon this decree immediately unsettled land titles in Vermont and precipitated the conflict actively waged by the "Green Mountain Boys," until the outbreak of the Revolution, when the establishing of the independent State of Vermont with a duly constituted government of its own, put an end to active hostilities. The immediate effect of the controversy was, naturally, to retard actual settlement, and this is emphasized no more strongly than by the fact that in the fifteen years succeeding 1763 only five new townships were granted within the territory of the New Hampshire Grants, although several townships granted by Wentworth were re-granted by New York during that period.
3
SITUATION, NATURAL FEATURES, ETC.
But with the close of the Revolution, or, rather, upon the cessation of fighting in the North, activity was renewed, and from 1779 to 1782 some seventy-five townships received their charters from the government of the new republic. Among this number was our little town of Waitsfield, chartered February 25, 1782, as follows:
"The Governor, Council and General Assembly of the State of Vermont.
"To all people to whom these presents shall come Greeting: Know ye that Whereas it has been represented to us by our worthy friends the Honorable Roger Enos, Col. Benjamin Wait and company to the number of seventy, that there is a tract of vacant land within this state, which has not been heretofore granted, which they pray may be granted to them. We have therefore thought fit for the due encouragement of settling a plantation, and other valuable considerations us hereunto moving: Do by these presents in the name and by the authority of the Freemen of the State of Vermont, give and grant unto the said Roger Enos, Benjamin Wait, and the several persons hereafter named, their associates, viz .:
"Joel Matthews, Daniel Matthews, James Matthews, Ephaim Edey, Nathan Edey, Barnabas Strong, Aaron Whipple, Ezekiel Rooks, Charles Nelson, Daniel Brown, Amasa Brown, William Lothrop, Luther Richards, Sanford Kingsbury, Charles Kings- bury, Reuben Spencer, Barnabas Spencer, John W. Dana, Ebenezer Brown, Samuel Harriss, Samuel Treat, Edward Whitman, Ezra Jones, Joseph York, Gideon Lewis, Moses Levet, Christopher York, Enoch Emerson, John Benjamin, John Strong, Theophilus Clark, Andrew Spaulding, Ammi Currier, Solomon Burk, Benjamin Burch, Benajah Strong, William Strong, Stephen Jacobs, Joseph Farnsworth, Ephriam Smith, Beriah Green, Stephen Tilden, John Marsh, Solomon Strong, Isaac Dana, Charles Killam, Jr., John Hodges, Gilbert Hodges, Amos Bignal, Roger Enos, Jr., Isaac Maine, Stephen Maine, George Denison, Zebulun Lee, Paschal P. Enos, Noadiah Bissell, John Barrett, Daniel King, Stephen Keyes, Gilbert Wait, Joseph Fay, Ezra Wait, James Hawley, John Bean, Dearing Spears, Josiah Averill, John Fay, Eli Willard. Together with five equal shares to be appropriated to public uses as follows: (viz.) One share for the use of a seminary or College within this state, one share for the use of Grammar Schools, throughout this state-one share for the first settled minister of the gospel within said town to be disposed of as the inhabitants within said town shall direct-one share for the support of the ministry, to be disposed of in like manner for that purpose, and one share for the use of a school or schools within said Town, to be disposed of for that purpose as aforesaid, the follow- ing Tract or Parcel of Land, viz:
1
HISTORY OF WAITSFIELD.
"Beginning at a stake and stone in the south-westerly corner of Moretown; thence running south 46D° 30 minutes east in the line of Moretown the southeasterly corner thereof ---- thence south 44 D° west in the westerly line of Northfield Five miles and twenty-seven chains to a spruce staddle standing in the northerly line of Roxbury or Warren, thence in the northerly line of Warren North 61 D° west about six miles to a beach tree marked 'June 17th 1787': Thence north 41 D° east six miles 67 chains and 40 links to the first mentioned bounds, containing twenty-three thousand and thirty acres, and that the same be and is hereby incorporated into a Township by the name of WAITSFIELD, and that the inhabitants that do or shall here- after inhabit the said Township are declared to be infranchised and entitled to all the privileges and immunities that other towns within this State do by law exercise and enjoy. To have and to hold, the said granted premises as above expressed with all the privileges and appurtenances to them and their respective heirs and assigns forever upon the following conditions and observations (viz.) That each proprietor of the Township of Waitsfield aforesaid, his heirs or assigns, shall plant and cultivate five acres of Land and build a house at least eighteen feet square on the floor or have one family settled on each respective right or share of land in said township agreeable to the time prefixed by the Legislature of this state on penalty of the forfeiture of his right or share of land in said Township, and the same to revert to the freemen of this state and be by their representatives regranted to such persons as shall appear to settle and cultivate the same.
"In Testimony Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of this state to be affixed this Twenty-fifth day of February 1782 and in the sixth year of the independence of this State.
By his Excellencys Command
Joseph Fay, Secy. Thomas Chittenden."
The eastern range of the Green Mountains cleft the town from northeast to southwest, and for miles on every side the wilderness of forest lay unbroken. To the east of this mountain range, the land presented few attractions but to the west a big basin lay between the hills, fertile, well-watered and easily accessible through passes cut by the little river that followed its winding course to the northward.
Benjamin Wait, whose name was given to the town, had early marked this valley for his own, but other duties claimed him for the time and not until the spring of 1789 did he come hither, with his children and his sons' children, to establish a
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SITUATION, NATURAL FEATURES, ETC.
home in the meadows north of the present village. He was a veteran of two wars, almost, it might be said, a soldier by profession, for the French War, the conflict of the Green Mountain Boys against New York, the Revolution, and, after its close, the active command of forces engaged in the internal conflict that culminated in Shay's Rebellion, had taken more than twenty of the best years of his life. He was a well-to-do and highly respected citizen of the then populous and important town of Windsor. He had for seven years been High Sheriff of Cumberland and Windsor Counties, and had but just resigned the highest military office in the gift of the State that he might free himself for his fresh struggle with the wilderness. He had sat in the convention that adopted the constitution of the new state and had taken high rank among the founders of the little republic that was still knocking ineffectually at the doors of the Union.
He was of the type of pioneer who builded well, and, the impress of his strong character may still be traced in the town of which he became in every sense the first citizen. It is there- fore appropriate that at the threshold of this little work, we pause a moment to trace the story of his earlier years.
Benjamin Wait, third son of John and Annah Wait, was born in Sudbury, Mass., February 13, 1736. His mother died when he was but a child, and his father, marrying again, removed to Brookfield, Mass., about 1745. Here he kept a tavern on Foster Hill. His house stood on the old Boston-Albany highway, and as its proprietor was himself a veteran, this hostelry was for years famous among the soldiers of the French Wars, who were wont to linger there upon their journeys. We can picture Benjamin and his brothers lying of a winter evening before the great fireplace in the living room, while in the dim light of the open fire the father and his guests related over the steaming punch bowl, tales of warfare, suffering and Indian barbarity that sent the youngsters shivering to their attic beds.
Environment seldom shows its influence more strongly than upon this family of six boys. John, the eldest son, saw service in the campaign of 1757, and with the Massachusetts troops during the Revolution. Joseph, enlisting in 1754, became the captain of a company of Rogers' Rangers, and was continuously active until 1761. Removing to Claremont, N. H., he became, upon the outbreak of the Revolution, Lieutenant-Colonel in
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6
HISTORY OF WAITSFIELD.
Bedel's Regiment of New Hampshire troops, and received a mortal wound during the fighting around the foot of Lake Cham- plain, just previous to the naval battle at Valcour. Richard, next younger than Benjamin, enlisted at the age of seventeen in the French War, and was a captain in Herrick's Rangers at Bennington; while two half-brothers, enlisting in the Massa- chusetts troops on April 29, 1775, saw practically continuous service in the army under Washington until the close of the war.
The military experiences of Benjamin Wait began with the campaign of 1755, for which he had enlisted at the age of 18. The plan of that campaign involved attacks upon the French at four points simultaneously. Braddock was to advance upon Fort Duquesne. Provincial troops from New England, New York and New Jersey were to seize Crown Point, and another body drawn wholly from New England was to subjugate Acadia, while Shirley was to reduce Niagara with two regiments raised wholly in the provinces but taken into the King's pay and designated as Shirley's and Pepperell's respectively.
These forces with one New Jersey regiment, pushed forward through the wilderness to Oswego; but checkmated by want of provisions and the presence of a strong French force at Fronte- nac, the little army waited until the approach of winter made further action impossible.
Here, shivering in the chill winds of winter and suffering the pangs of hunger, young Wait saw more than half his regiment die of the attacks of these twin enemies. Reinforcements were started in the spring, but ere they reached the Great Carrying Place between the headwaters of the Hudson and Ontario, the French, under Montcalm, had descended on Oswego and had taken it with its garrison of some fourteen hundred men.
A scene of drunkenness and plunder followed, and several prisoners were butchered by the Indian allies. More would have fallen but for the efforts of Montcalm. Here, or in some prelimi- nary skirmish (on this point only there seems to be some doubt) young Wait was taken prisoner and by his Indian captors com- pelled to run the gauntlet. Other prisoners had received hard usage, so when his turn came, believing, as stated by a grandson who heard him tell the story, that "spunk would be a good antidote for savage barbarity," he (still in the words of his grand- son,) "ran through with clenched fists as vicious as a wild bull, knocking them from one side to the other, and when they see him
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7
SITUATION, NATURAL FEATURES, ETC.
approaching they had little time enough to take care of them- selves." Rescued from the Indians by a Frenchwoman who hid him under a cask in her cellar, he was turned over to the French, and held some months a prisoner of war. Later, he was sent with other prisoners to France, only to be rescued by a British man-of-war and brought back to his native shores.
Immediately he enlisted under his brother Joseph, then captain of a company of Rogers' Rangers, of whom Parkman has said in one of his matchless descriptive passages:
"The best of them were commonly employed on Lake George; and nothing can surpass the adventurous hardihood of their lives. Summer and winter, day and night, were alike to them. Embarked in whale-boats or birch canoes they glided under the silent moon, or in the languid glare of a breathless August, when islands floated in dreamy haze, and the hot air was thick with odors of the pine, or in the bright October, when the jay screamed from the woods, squirrels gathered their hoard. and congregated blackbirds chattered farewell to their summer haunts; when gay mountains basked in light, maples dropped leaves of rustling gold, sumacs glowed like rubies under the dark green of the unchanging spruce, and mossed rocks with all their painted plumage lay double in the watery mirror; that festal evening of the year when jocund nature disrobes herself, to wake again refreshed in the joy of her undying spring; or in the tomb-like silence of the winter forest, with breath frozen on his beard, the ranger strode on snowshoes over the spotless drifts, and like Durer's Knight, a ghastly death stalked ever at his side."
In the spring of 1758 a powerful force was gathered for the reduction of the French fortress at Louisburg, and placed under the command of the newly created general, Jeffrey Amherst. To this army were assigned several companies of rangers, the only provincial troops in the command.
On June 2 the fleet of Admiral Boscawen sailed into Gabarus Bay, and at daybreak on the 8th the troops attempted a landing. In the division under General Wolf, the future hero of Quebec, which was to make the real attack, were the New England rangers. We cannot enter into details of that conflict; suffice it to say that under heavy fire the boats were driven to the shore, a landing made, and the French batteries captured. Young Wait was, if his own relation of the story is to be credited. in command of one of these boats, and when his men faltered and lay down to screen themselves from the French fire, told them
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HISTORY OF WAITSFIELD.
to stand up to their work or take to the water. After the fall of Louisburg, he returned with those troops which Amherst led immediately to the reinforcement of Abercrombie at Lake George, where he arrived early in October, 1758. Here until the close of the war he was engaged directly under Rogers in the capacity of ensign in his brother's company.
July, 1759, saw a slow advance, with Ticonderoga, Crown Point and Montreal as its objectives. The French successively abandoned Ticonderoga and Crown Point and fell back to the foot of the lake, while Amherst dawdled away the summer. In August he attempted to communicate with Wolfe at Quebec, but the St. Francis Indians, who throughout the war had been the scourge of the New England frontiers, seized the messengers and carried them to Montreal. Rogers was straightway ordered to destroy their village, which lay on the St. Francis River near its junction with the St. Lawrence, a journey of more than two hundred miles through an unbroken wilderness. Taking about 200 of his best men (among them Joseph and Benjamin Wait) he set out in boats on September 13 and on the tenth day reached Missisquoi Bay, his force reduced by accident to 142. Hiding the boats these men struck boldly into the forest, but on the second day two friendly Indians brought the news that a party of French, superior in numbers, were on their track. Rogers, nothing daunted, kept on, out-marched his pursuers for nine days through swamp and forest, fell upon the village, killed 200 Indians, took 20 prisoners, and released 5 English captives with loss of I killed and 7 wounded. Then, as his return was blocked. and waiting but an hour for rest, he plunged southward up the St. Francis, intending to return by way of Lake Memphremagog and the Connecticut River. The scanty provisions failed as they reached the lake, and, closely pursued, the men separated into small parties, the better to obtain game. Several were killed or captured, and others perished from starvation. So reduced were they that powder horns and leathern accoutrements were boiled to furnish sustenance. The loss was more than one-third of the total number. It was anticipated that succor would reach them at the mouth of the Ammonoosuck River, to which place Rogers had requested provisions to be sent, but when that point was reached the famished soldiers found only the still warm ashes of the camp fires deserted by their rescuers, who, waiting but two days, had retreated in a panic, taking the provisions with them.
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