Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 1

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 842

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GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01188 3169

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MEN OF VERMONT:

AN ILLUSTRATED

BIOGRAPHICAL

History of Vermonters

AND

SONS OF VERMONT.

COMPILED BY

JACOB G. ULLERY,

Under the Editorial Supervision of HIRAM A. HUSE.

BRATTLEBORO, VT .: TRANSCRIPT PUBLISHING COMPANY.

1894.

Printed by the TRANSCRIPT PUBLISHING COMPANY, HOLYOKE, MASS.

Engravings by the PROCESS ETCHING AND ENGRAVING COMPANY, NEW YORK.

- 7.00

Good SPE

1180296

ALL BORN UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE GREEN MOUNTAINS, THIS BOOK

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

My first idea as to this work was that it should be made up of biographical sketches and portraits of living Vermonters and Sons of Vermont who had attained prominence in the political, professional and industrial affairs of their communities ; and thus, through her most striking personalities, bring out the record of that sturdy and aggressive Vermont character (for, be it remembered, the Green Hills of Vermont have developed a distinct character ) which has made the state famous as the birthplace and home of a nation's great men. No native of any other state has reason to be prouder of his state than a Vermonter.

Such a work had never been attempted ; the only previous effort in these lines con- fined itself to a few only of the leaders, thus leaving, practically, an unexplored field, and one rich in material and valuable historically.

As the work progressed and possibilities unfolded, the suggestion was adopted that it should not be limited to men now living, but that it might be made of historic value and interest, in certain lines, by including those who were leaders in the founding of the state, and those who had been its Governors, its Senators and its Representatives in Congress, and its Judges, since its first struggles for admission to the Union, when it was a " little independent republic." In the preparation of this portion of the work I have endeavored to secure the assistance of the men best adapted to treat the subjects under consideration, and how well this judgment was founded my readers shall decide.

That it could not have been made to include all who have, in past generations, made a record honorable to themselves and the state, is to me a matter of regret, but also of necessity, as to cover the whole field would require a life's work.

As illustration is a demand of the times and contributes so much to the understanding of biography, it has been made a prominent feature in all departments of this work, and wherever possible I have embellished each sketch with an engraving of the subject.

In Parts II and III of the work I have carried out the original intention, except that there have been added to the Sons of Vermont sketches of all Vermonters who have repre- sented other states in the National Congress.

I have labored faithfully and earnestly to have the work include all who properly come within its scope. That the work contains mistakes of commission and omission within the lines of its intended performance, goes without saying ; but I trust that as it stands it will be of interest to the readers of this day, and that it will preserve something of historic value for the future.

J. G. U.

BRATTLEBORO, April 10, 1894.

CONTENTS.

PART I.

PAGE

INTRODUCTION, by Redfield Proctor, TI

INTRODUCTION TO HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHIES, by C. H. Davenport, I 7

The Fathers, 20

The Governors, 71

Senators in Congress, 104

Representatives in Congress, I27

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES OF THE SUPREME COURT, by Hiram A. Huse, 160

Biographies of Judges of the Supreme Court, 169

VERMONT INVENTORS, by Levi K. Fuller, 191

QUEER CHARACTERS, by Hiram A. Huse, 198

PART II.

BIOGRAPHIES OF VERMONTERS, A. D. 1892-'94, . I-442

PART III.

BIOGRAPHIES OF SONS OF VERMONT, I-175

Introductions

" You a character and you reap a dusting"

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In general it may Cer d and that Vermont mar sotted by Study home of that anglo Saxon Stock which nothing two hundred years has down more than all other continued to dribdie and diastop the tried regions profeter of the earth; Which carries Wissen it you the love of liberty a lover or

INTRODUCTION.

maintain for constitution,

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Has to rudy from England what the Erat.

XIII

INTRODUCTION.

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INTRODUCTION.

thousands who have Made the Havre of Front honored and Depicted alwargraves, whose. clarida a presalias + persone thera the ordinary however of attachment forthe old home. And with wolves fondren down Who Stor, Inthein the Givits of the State nuTel This Error of trane native loom Low of Mount who live lergond. Im borders . Integrier in their encuestake friche interhome then, reflect upon our common morten

PART I.

HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHIES.

BY CHARLES H. DAVENPORT.

INTRODUCTION.

Vermont has always been a nursery of remarkable men. Henry Cabot Lodge had an article in the Century Magazine of September, 1891, giving analytic tables of the birth- places and race descent of men whose names appear in the biographical dictionaries, that might at first view seem to discredit this statement, for it shows no more-hardly as many -from Vermont, than her proportion according to population. But this calculation neces- sarily credited to other states, chiefly Connecticut, where they were born, the fathers of Vermont ; the men who made one of the most romantic and inspiring chapters of modern history, and whose pioneer achievements, along some most important lines in humanity's upward progress, were made as Vermonters and in connection with Vermont-a natural evolution out of Vermont conditions. It is also to be remembered that Vermont is one of the young states. It is but little over a century since her career began. As we measure generations, there have been only three, native born to her soil, from which men of distinc- tion could come in season to be counted in Mr. Lodge's computation. Making due allowance for these facts, and for the smallness of her population, the Vermont crop of big men, doing their work at home or contributed to other states, other countries and fields, is proportionately larger than that of any other state in the Union.

The physiologist and the psychologist alike have in this field an interesting line of thought. There are, in the rich soil and verdure, that wrung the words "Verd Mont' from Champlain, as he first viewed it, in the pure water and bracing air, elements and influences that have given a superiority to Vermont products as recognized in all the markets, and have made her an exceptional breeding ground for fine horses and cattle and sheep, of qualities of genuine and stable usefulness rather than fancy value. These elements and influences have had a like effect in the rearing of the human animal. On the moral and intellectual side, the effect of environment, especially of a mountainous scenery, is seen even greater than with the people of Switzerland, because of a more variegated picturesqueness ; produc- ing a race of sturdy, robust, original, clear-thinking and right-reasoning about man's relation to man, all along up the rugged heights that reach towards the eternal problems.

THE FATHERS.

It was said by Dr. Dwight, during the early contests, that the Vermont settlers were made up of Universalists and infidels. This was an extreme and intolerant way of stating the fact that it was men of independent mould and bold thought, that were attracted to Vermont, and that the surroundings here were such as developed these characteristics. But it also included a statement that is full of meaning and that could hardly be made of any other pioneer settlements or of any immigration not purely religious in its motives, that the

HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHIES.

men who came to Vermont were men interested in the subjects that engage the highest thought of man. We find their philosophy compressed into a sentence in the instructions of the committee of twenty towns at Westminster in June, 1775: "All civil power under God is in the people." While their ideas stood to a certain extent for emancipation from the narrowness and dogmatismo of that time, no people ever made a more generous and cheerful provision for religion than they, as the events of the next few years showed. There was in the good doctor's bigoted exaggeration, after all, the key to much of the Vermont character and development.

Human motives, of course, played their part in the story of Vermont, as they do every- where. There was land speculation mixed with patriotism. There was lawlessness growing out of some of the reasoning about a "state of nature," in which Ethan Allen and his com- peers were fond of finding the roots of our institutions. There was overreaching in some of the contests with "Yorkers." There was some manipulation of men on their baser side to strengthen the cause of the new state. There was perhaps a little too much of the Napoleonic ideal of statesmanship in the Haldimand negotiations .* But in the aggregate, in the large survey that gives the little hillocks of imperfection only their right proportion, the early history of Vermont is one the student can leave only with admiration that approaches reverence, for the courage that braved the most tremendous odds, the shrewd- ness that mastered the most complicated difficulties, the large comprehension of basic prin- ciples that made the work of the fathers of the state broadest and most enduring, as well as of the most progressive character.

Consider the situation. With a population of only about three hundred families in the beginning, and not over one-tenth of that of New York at the end, the Vermonters were defying the whole power of that state, fighting for their very homes, on what their greatest jurist, Nathaniel Chipman, always feared would never stand the legal test as titles, but which were indisputable morally. Then as the Revolution approached, they took the lead in braving the powers of the Crown. They shed the first blood for America at Westminster, for the issues back of that massacre were substantially those of the Revolution They won the first decisive victory and achieved the first lowering of the British flag at Ticonderoga. They entered enthusiastically and probably with a greater unanimity than any other people in the country, into the cause of the colonies, and they wrung from Burgoyne the tribute that described them as the "most active and rebellious race on the continent, that hangs like a gathering storm upon my left." They, or their leaders, did some important and never fully appreciated work in negotiation with Indians and in securing alliances, or at least neutrality, from tribes at the north and the west. They took the lead of all the states in strengthening the resources of the Revolution-Ira Allen's bold conception-by confiscating the estates of the Tories. They organized and largely fought the turning point battle of the war at Bennington. While Burgoyne's army was marching down upon their borders they adopted at Windsor the constitution of the state, the purest conception of democracy, the best formulation of man's rights, that the world had seen up to that time. The Pennsylvania constitution was the model to a considerable extent ; but this document, the work of an assemblage of unlettered farmers, with probably not a lawyer nor a college graduate among them, of men who had thought out the principles of government while at work in their fields or in felling forests, went far beyond the Pennsylvania constitution in its reach for great truth, engrafted upon the model a large number of what seemed to be the most radical ideas at that time, caught from across the waters the light of the mighty philosophic thought that was beginning to stir Europe, and produced a constitution that for its practical sagacity as well as its enlightened scope must command the admiration of the ages-a constitution that was the first in modern times to put the ban on slavery-a constitution that advanced beyond the thought of Penn and of the great Franklin in securing compensation for private property taken for public uses, in guarding the right of hunting and fishing against

*Bonaparte said about one of his ablest antagonists: "Metternich approaches being a statesman. He lies very well." Though a caustic reference, there was a Napoleonic conception back of it.

HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHIES.

exclusive privilege, in placing the right of governing internal police as inherent in the peo- ple, and in provision against hasty enactment of laws-a constitution under which the little state grew and prospered as an independent little republic for fourteen years.

And it was all done under constantly multiplying difficulties. Not only were the Ver- monters at war with New York and the mother country, but they soon found New Hamp- shire and Massachusetts laying claim to their territory, and not only that, but plans forming while Congress refused to recognize them as a state, to divide them up on the line of the mountains between New York and New Hampshire, and secession schemes fomenting for the formation of a new state out of parts of Vermont and New Hampshire, while at the same time a large section of the people of the southeastern part of the state were in revolt against their authority. All the conditions of disintegration into anarchy seemed to be present, and it was while these were at their height that Congress, very likely with the idea of forcing the plucky mountaineers to submission-even while they had a regiment fighting for the common cause in the Continental army and were advancing the money to pay the troops because Congress could not, vide resolve of June 9, 1780-withdrew all protection, even to the last piece of ordnance and the last camp kettle from the Vermont borders, and left the state defenceless before the invasion organizing in Canada. The shrewd and mas- terful tactics of the Allens, Chittenden and the rest were equal to the emergency on every side. They paralyzed the schemes of New York and New Hampshire by coolly incorporating into Vermont portions of those states, under the names of the East and West unions. They kept an army of 10,000 men idle and useless in Canada through three campaigns by pre- tending to negotiate for a return to allegiance to England-about the most skillfully prolonged deception that history records, and they used the fact of this negotiation as a club to deter Congress from taking action to crush them. They steadily fortified them- selves against such an attempt by judicious land grants to officers of the Continental army, until, when an invasion of the state under authority of Congress was discussed, Washington had to confess that he couldn't depend on his army for such work. From a beginning with the famous "beech seal " discipline of intruders on their land under color of New York titles, they organized well and permanently the machinery of justice ; even in their outlawry, while defying all outside authority, they respected and observed the principles of law and of the jury system, as in the Redding case. They gave an administration whose taxes were so low as to make the people of adjoining territories anxious to join them ; this was the secret of the East and West unions. They developed from their healthful sense of right, many ideas in legislation that are well worth the attention of history. The "quieting act" to finally settle land titles, which Governor Chittenden finally pushed to enactment over the opposition of nearly all the lawyers, led the state by the path of equity out of diffi- culties and confusion that were simply inextricable and insoluble through the precedents and procedure of law, and did it all by applying the simple rule of justice. Much attention is being given by publicists of late years to the Swiss system of "Referendum," as a guard against some of the worst evils and dangers of representative government. Early Vermont history contains some striking examples of the benefits of it. The most notable was that which disposed of the paper money question. The delusion was having a great run ; people everywhere were harassed with debt ; executions were thick and multiplying ; cheap money seemed to be an easy way out of the trouble ; legislators, taking it for granted, as they always do, that what appealed to the selfish interests of their constituents would be popular, were eager to pass a paper money bill. Nathaniel Chipman, simply because he saw it could not be defeated in the Legislature, proposed a submission to popular vote. The result was that the cheap money scheme, supposed to be so popular because people were about all debtors, was overwhelmingly defeated. Vermont escaped the evil which wrought such disaster in nearly all the other states, and in this action largely lay the secret of her marvelous develop- ment of prosperity in the next two or three decades. It was a fine demonstration of the great principle that the truth lies more safely with majorities than anywhere else in human affairs.

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A1.1.J.N.

ALLEN.

ALLEN, ETHAN. Typical of the times, the people, and the conditions, were the character and career of the man whose statue, by common consent, stands with that of Collamer in Statuary Hall at Washington as the representative Vermonter -Ethan Allen, " The Robin Hood of Vermont," Mr. Henry Hall calls him, and the figure, because of its own proportions and of its historic settings, is necessarily a romantic one -- Ethan Allen, a born leader of men, with power to inspire and enthuse, to sway and guide, such as the great leaders of history have had. Where- ever he was placed he impressed with his potent personality. Washington wrote of him, after their first interview : "There is an orig- inal something in him that commands admi- ration." It was a something whose presence that great commander felt, besides the "for- titude and firmness and patriotic zeal" and the other qualities that he could see and an- alyze-a something that left deep and indeli- ble lines on our institutions, though Ethan Allen had so little part in the formal framing of them. Gov. Hiland Hall truly said : "It is impossible to tell what the result of the dispute with New York would have been with- out Allen's aid." Bold, enterprising, ready and resourceful, fertile in daring exploits, full of confidence in his own powers of mind and body, ready of wit, with a singular faculty of forceful epigrammatic expression, chivalric in bearing and impulse, handsome of face and form, remarkable for his physical strength and endurance, a good judge of men, a natural orator who could address a court or a multitude with equal skill and effect, pa- triotic always in purpose and thoroughly grounded in democratic faith, Ethan Allen was remarkably well fitted for the part he played in life.

Ethan Allen was born in Litchfield, Conn., Jan. 10, 1737, though three other towns, Woodbury, Cornwall and Salisbury, have been claimed as his birthplace. The blood was Anglo-Saxon, blending with a strain of the Norse, and Samuel Allen, one of two brothers who came to Chelmsford in 1632, was the American progenitor. Ethan Allen's father was Joseph Allen, a farmer in moder- ate circumstances but of good character, and his mother, Mary Baker, and his three brothers, Heman, Hebar and Ira, filled leading parts in the formation of Vermont, as did also another for a time, Levi, who finally turned Tory. Remember Baker was their cousin, and also a cousin by marriage . in the "quieting act" to settle titles under of Seth Warner.

Ethan married for his first wife, Mary Brownson, so that there was quite an exten- sive relationship among the leaders of our

early settlement. It is said that Ethan started to fit for college under the tutorship of Rev. Mr. Lee, of Salisbury, but the death of his father left the family so poor that he had to give it up. It is evident from his carlier writings in the Vermont controversy that his education had been very defective, but his productions show the effects of con- stant effort at self-improvement all through his maturer years. But these very lacks probably contributed to his peculiar great- ness ; for they compelled a concentration of reading and thought, so that his naturally vigorous mind thoroughly assimilated what it got hold of; especially his knowledge of the scripture embellished and strengthened his rude eloquence. His career could never have been a commonplace one.

He was early a man of enterprise in Con- necticut. In 1762, when he was only twen- ty-five, he entered with three others into the iron business at Salisbury. He afterwards lived at Sheffield, the southwest corner town of Massachusetts. In 1764 he bought a part of a tract of land on Mine Hill, in Roxbury, which contained a remarkable deposit of spathic iron ore, and large sums were spent in trying to develop it as a silver mine. Ex- cept for these glimpses of his business under- takings, in farming, mining and casting iron- ware, little is known of him until he came to the New Hampshire grants about 1769. He had, in the three or four years previous, spent much time in exploring the grants for the purpose of locating lands. He first set- tled at Bennington, but afterwards lived at four other places, Arlington, Sunderland, and Tinmouth until he settled at Burlington, where he died. He immediately became a leader among the settlers in their land controversy with New York. The grounds of that contro- versy in their historical and legal bearings need not here be discussed. Suffice it to say that the practical moralities were with the settlers under the New Hampshire grants. They had taken the lands and improved them under what they had a fair right to re- gard as good titles and grants, under the au- thority of the Crown. When the jurisdiction was decided to belong to New York it ought not to have carried with it any change in the titles of bona fide settlers and purchasers, and if it had not, as was at first supposed would be the case, there would have been no trouble. Such a sense of equity as that of Chittenden and Chipman a few years later, Vermont authority, would have ended the controversy in a twinkling. But the fact of their settlement and improvement of these lands had increased values to tempt cupidity

ALLEN

and the heavy fees which each grant yielded to the colonial officials of New York, made it an object to feed this cupidity. The New York grants were chiefly in large tracts, and it was in fact, as the Vermonters claimed, mainly a struggle between land jobbers and genuine husbandmen. Allen reached the marrow of the controversey when he wrote in one of his pamphlets : "The transferring and alienation of property is a sacred prerogative of the owner-Kings and Governors can- not inter-meddle therewith ; common sense teaches common law." He studied the sub- ject exhaustively, knew it in all its relations, collected a great mass of historical and docu- mentary evidence and before the end was reached he had written a series of pamphlets whose vigorous sledge hammer arguments had convinced the world of the justice of the Vermont cause, and in this way gave it the vitality that enabled it to prevail through difficulties almost unexampled. He was not alone in defending the claim of the settlers with the pen, but there will be no disagree- ment in according to him the chief distinc- tion among them all. Most of his articles were published in the Hartford Courant, then the official organ of the state, as Vermont at that time had no printing press ; but some appeared in the New Hampshire Gazette, and a few in handbills.

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Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 1

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896 Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 842

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 842