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Gc 974.302 W15b 1330335
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
2
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01092 5656
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PEOPLE of WALLINGFORD
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WALLINGFORD FROM THE AIR
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PEOPLE C
o f
WALLINGFORD
A COMPILATION
by Birney C. Batcheller
( >
STEPHEN DAYE PRESS
Brattleboro, Vermont
Copyrighted 1937 by Birney C. Batcheller Wallingford, Vermont
PRINTED BY THE VERMONT PRINTING COMPANY BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT
OD-NT-19-81-11
PREFACE
1330335
THE purpose of this book is to preserve for future generations some knowledge of the people who have lived in Wallingford and made the com- munity what it has been and to a large extent what it is today. There are individuals and families who have played an important role in the life of Wall- ingford not mentioned at length in these pages because of the difficulty of securing information and the limits of space in a book of convenient size. Extensive quotations have been made from other publications when they contributed to the sub- ject in hand. Several persons possessed of special knowledge and unusual interest in the subject have written entire chapters. Their names appear under the titles. To them I am deeply indebted.
BIRNEY C. BATCHELLER
$8.50
new England Bles
CONTENTS
Page
Chapter I THE GROWTH OF WALLINGFORD 13
VILLAGE
II
PIONEERS 47
FROM AN ADDRESS OF
REV. H. H. SANDERSON
III SOLOMON AND ALEXANDER 59
MILLER
IV
THE BUTTONS, THE JACKSONS AND THE MILLERS
93
BY NELLE BUTTON
V THE BALLOUS AND THE ANDREWS 132 BY REV. WILLIAM JOHN BALLOU
VI THE FOX FAMILY 137
Chapter
VII
Page
THE MUNSON FAMILY 157
VIII DYER TOWNSEND 180
BY LULY WESTCOTT MERRIAM
IX THE HOME OF THE HULLS 189
BY MINNIE STAFFORD KLOCK
X
LYMAN BATCHELLER AND THE
218
PITCHFORK INDUSTRY
XI THE HILLS AND THE MARSHES 238 BY MARY GILBERT (HILL ) SMITH
XII
WALLINGFORD IN THE 1870's
266
CHRONOLOGY 318
INDEX 322
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
Wallingford from the Air, Frontispiece
Original Town Lots, Plate I
12
Wallingford Village and Original Town Lots, Plate II
14
The Wallingford House
16
The Old Town House
17
Gen. Robinson Hall, 1797-1861
20
"The Local Spy"
21
The Creek Bridges of 1859 and of 1907
28
An Elm in Main Street
29
"The New Wallingford"
32
The Gilbert Hart Library
33
The Town Hall
36
The Plant of The American Fork & Hoe Company
37
The School House and Gymnasium
44
True Temper Inn
45
Mrs. Millinda Ives Chatterton, 1772-1867
48
Map of Solomon Miller's Property, Plate III
60
Diagram of Dam Site and Mill Property, Plate IV
61
The Sawmill about 1880
64
Masonic Apron of Alexander Miller
65
Residence of Alexander Miller
72
Graves of Solomon and Alexander Miller
73
Elias Wheaton Kent, 1814-1883
80
Sarah Maria Hughes, 1814-1875, wife of Elias W. Kent
81
Judge Harvey Button, 1800-1885
96
Residence and Office of Judge Button
97
Lincoln Andrews (Andrus), 1796-1887
132
Dr. John Fox, 1781-1853
140
Saddlebags of Dr. John Fox
141
Residence of Dr. John Fox, somewhat altered
148
Dr. William C. Fox, 1811-1880
149
Residence of Dr. William C. Fox
156
Dr. George Fox, 1830-1911
157
Israel Munson of Boston, 1767-1844
160
Farm Residence of Isaac Munson
161
Lois Munson, 1784-1851, wife of Joel Hill
162
Formerly the Tavern of Deacon Mosley Hall
163
Sarah Munson, 1795-1851, wife of General Robinson Hall
164
Residence of Gen. Robinson Hall
165
FACING PAGE
Elizur Munson, 1797-1854
166
Isaac Bradley Munson, 1806-1876 Farm Residence of Isaac Bradley Munson
167
Village Residence of Isaac Bradley Munson Israel Munson, 1808-1887
170
Farm Residence of Israel Munson
171
Louisa Munson, 1812-1866, wife of P. Goodyear Clark
172
P. Goodyear Clark, 1805-1890
173
Farm Residence of P. Goodyear Clark
176
Farm Residence of Joel Hill
177
Dyer Townsend, 1789-1886
184
Farm Residence of Dyer Townsend
185
Alfred Hull, 1794-1875
200
Residence of Alfred Hull, somewhat altered
201
Lyman Batcheller, 1795-1858
220
Anna Gale, 1791-1868, wife of Lyman Batcheller
221
John C. Batcheller, 1821-1904
224
Lyman Batcheller, Jr., 1824-1906
225
Justin Batcheller, 1828-1903
226
John Scribner, 1822-1900
227
A Pitchfork hand-forged by Lyman Batcheller
228
The Stone Shop
229
Office of Batcheller & Sons
230
New Office Building, American Fork & Hoe Company
230
Trip Hammer Shop
234
Interior of the Trip Hammer Shop
235
The Last Trip Hammer
236
Employees of Batcheller & Sons
237
Gilbert Hill, 1844-1864
240
First Residence of Justin Batcheller
272
Railway Train at Wallingford Depot
273
Map of Wallingford Village, 1869, Plate V
280
Tinmouth Bridge
288
Wallingford Graded School
289
Rev. Aldace Walker, 1812-1878
304
Johnson's Gristmill
305
Residence of Justin Batcheller
312
Batcheller Block
313
Tailpiece
Fox Pond (Elfin Lake) from the Air
168
169
318
Finishing Shop and Store House, burned March 17, 1924
231
PEOPLE OF WALLINGFORD
ACLOE D
8
WALLINGFORD
EAST 10' SOUTH 6 MILES .
80
39
32
33
35
29
40
39
3 %
7
36
Billent Create
27
41
42
43
4.5
26
25
50
49
48
47
46
68
69
65
64
67
70
66
22
19
2
23
60
59
58
63
66
47
46
2.3
18
3
221
2
2
2
61
62
63
64
48
4.5
24
4
201
66
19
75 g
Sarac Hall.
17
2
14
· 19
62
42
4
7
16
3
19
5
52
13
8
12
/3
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27
59
54
89
30
Survey
10
10
3.9
28
58
3 %
8/
33
36
67
56
37
32
34
37
Mi
57
59
6
31
43
52
55
58
3
67
18
68
50
46
47
69
PROPAGATION LOT
GLEBE LOT
SATINY PH.LHON OF ISIM
of 100 Rody be car Shar
&
ORIGINAL TOWN LOTS, PLATE I
SOUTH 10 WEST 6 MILES
ST & MILES
94
4
53
29
12/
9
9
8
S
60
NORTH 10.
28
Hill Online
2/
24
$2
$3
54.
62
64
16
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arves
2
21
20
34
MITAW
1
I. THE GROWTH OF WALLINGFORD VILLAGE
NINE INE years after Governor Wentworth granted the charter of the town of Wallingford, Remember Baker surveyed its boundaries. Starting June 2, 1770, at the northeast corner of the town of Danby, he ran a line northward, ten degrees toward the east, for a distance of six miles; then turning a right angle, he ran another line six miles eastward; again turning a right angle, six miles southward; and finally turning the fourth right angle, six miles westward to the point from which he started. In other words, he laid out a square, six miles on each side, the boundaries making an angle of ten degrees with the meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude. The question may be asked, did he cor- rect the readings of his compass for its declination from the true meridian? This question is suggested by the fact that the present town boundaries shown on our maps make a smaller angle than ten degrees with the meridians and parallels. The question is perhaps somewhat academic at this late day but interesting never the less. The new township adjoined on the south the town of Harwich, a name later changed to Mount Tabor, and on the west the town of Tinmouth.
This survey is interesting for, as the surveyor dragged his chain along through the wilderness, he noted the character of the coun-
[13]
PEOPLE OF WALLINGFORD
try. From the corners of Harwich and Danby, indicated by a bass- wood tree bearing the mark "W H," the record reads as follows: ". . . . running north ten degrees east through a very thick swamp, at two tallies came to very good land, then hemlock ridges, and at seven tallies crossed a rough running brook, called Pero Brook, within about three chains of Otter Creek, then crossed Otter Creek to the west side, then on to the first mile end and marked with ¡M on a yellow birch tree, then on with the said line and at the second mile end marked an elm tree with {M, then on fifty-six chains to a small ridge of land and about thirty rods west of Otter Creek, and heard chopping and went to the Creek and is one Ephraim Seally settled there, and supposed it to be Tinmouth, then on with the said line to the third mile end and marked on a beach pole with $M, then on to the fourth mile end and marked with 4M and E H on a hemlock tree, then on through a dead marsh and pond and over the pond very good land, then on to a hard maple pole near a run of water and the five mile end and marked on the above said maple pole 5, then on to the six mile end to a beach tree and marked with EH W for the northwest corner of the said township."
The survey of the remaining three sides of the square is similar. We can appreciate from this record something of the difficulties of surveying in a mountainous wilderness.
The charter, which includes the terms of the grant of land, together with the names of the original proprietors, is recorded in the archives of the town, and may also be found in Thorpe's "History of Wallingford." Only a few of the proprietors came and settled in Vermont. Ownership of the land appears to have been a sort of speculation with most of them. A plan of the town- ship was divided into rectangular lots of one hundred acres, more or less, and each lot given a number. This plan was drawn on deer skin and is preserved in the town vault. Plate I, fac-
[ 14 ]
PLATE II
20015' 30 BOOK - THEN Ta3S brotphillow to spolliv
7
el
leo Loga
60
PEOPLE OF WALLINGFORD
try. From the corners of Harwich and Danby, indicated by a bass- wood tree bearing the mark "W H," the record reads as follows: . running north ten degrees east through a very thick swamp, at two tallies came to very good land, then hemlock ridges, and at seven tallies crossed a rough running brook, called Pero Brook, within about three chains of Otter Creek, then crossed Otter Creek to the west side, then on to the first mile end and marked with ¡M on a yellow birch tree, then on with the said line and at the second mile end marked an elm tree with {M, then on fifty-six chains to a small ridge of land and about thirty rods west of Otter Creek, and heard chopping and went to the Creek and is one Ephraim Seally settled there, and supposed it to be Tinmouth, then on with the said line to the third mile end and marked on a beach pole with $M, then on to the fourth mile end and marked with 4M and E H on a hemlock tree, then on through a dead marsh and pond and over the pond very good land, then on to a hard maple pole near a run of water and the five mile end and marked on the above said maple pole 5, then on to the six mile end to a beach tree and marked with EH
W for the northwest corner of the said township."
The survey of the remaining three sides of the square is similar. We can appreciate from this record something of the difficulties of surveying in a mountainous wilderness.
The charter, which includes the terms of the grant of land, together with the names of the original proprietors, is recorded in the archives of the town, and may also be found in Thorpe's "History of Wallingford." Only a few of the proprietors came and settled in Vermont. Ownership of the land appears to have been a sort of speculation with most of them. A plan of the town- ship was divided into rectangular lots of one hundred acres, more or less, and each lot given a number. This plan was drawn on deer skin and is preserved in the town vault. Plate I, fac-
[ 14 ]
PLATE II
St.
Mable St.
ETkin St
Road St.
51
67 Rods
24
Elm St
246 Rods
Main St.
Depot St
School St.
Roaring Brook
Fox Pond
22
Creek
Otte
Rutland R.R.
€ 75.79R.
/60 Rods
100 Rods
61
21
- Original Location
Village of Wallingford Scale, 30 Rods = 1 Inch
25
Circular
Kiver St.
Hull A.s.
Prospect St.
23
Tor
60
Tinmouth Road
High Sc
Church St.
WALLINGFORD VILLAGE AND ORIGINAL TOWN LOTS, PLATE II
1937
200818
ES
55
THE GROWTH OF WALLINGFORD VILLAGE
ing page 12, is a photographic copy. We are chiefly interested in that part of the plan in which Wallingford village came to be located; let us say lots numbered 18 to 28, inclusive, in the first tier on the left side. It appears that the proprietors were assigned lots by draft. The record reads: "The draft of the 1st Division lots in the township of Wallingford in the state of Vermont was holden at a legal meeting of the Proprietors at Wallingford in the state of Connecticut Feb. 7, 1773." The persons who drew lots numbered 18 to 28, respectively, were as follows:
NOS.
PROPRIETORS
18
Brinton Hall
19
David Austin
20
Thomas Rice
21
Elisha Hall
22
Samuel Dorman
23
Captain Eliakim Hall
24
Samuel Willis
25
Enos Page
26
Daniel Bassett
27
John Whiting, Esq.
28
Stephen Hall
So far as can be ascertained from early deeds of the eleven pro- prietors here mentioned only two, Thomas Rice and Elisha Hall, appear to have gained a residence in Vermont. In a deed dated August 9, 1793, Thomas Rice of Clarendon, Rutland County, State of Vermont, sold ninety acres of land in Wallingford ad- joining Clarendon. In a deed dated 1787 Elisha Hall of Vermont State, County of Bennington, bought Lot 44 in Jackson's Gore. None of the others are mentioned.
Thus far these lots existed only on a plan and in the minds of the proprietors. Plate II, facing page 14, is a map of the village as it is today, on which these original lots have been laid down so that their position relative to the streets, roads and water courses may be seen.
[ 15]
PEOPLE OF WALLINGFORD
The next step was to survey the lots, setting up markers to designate the boundaries, and this was done by Abraham Ives, Surveyor, in October 1773, six months after the meeting of the proprietors. The survey included the thirty lots in the first left hand tier, eight at the top of the second tier and a few in the third tier. The area of the lots was nominally one hundred acres each with certain allowances for roads. In the first tier they were 67 rods north and south and 246 rods east and west, which is 16,482 square rods. One hundred acres is 16,000 square rods; the differ- ence of 482 square rods is supposedly an allowance for roads. This is according to the record of the survey but is not quite con- sistent. If six miles, the width of the township, is divided by 30 the result is 64 rods, not 67. We need not be much concerned for our present purpose, however, about the inconsistency. If the lots had been 64 rods by 250 rods then their area would have been just one hundred acres.
The lots in the second tier, of which only eight were surveyed at this time, contained one hundred acres each but were broader and not so long as those in the first tier. They were 100 rods north and south and 160 rods east and west, with apparently no allow- ance for roads.
The lots having been surveyed and the boundaries marked, they were afterwards referred to in deeds of property; in fact they were in many instances the boundaries of property trans- ferred from one owner to another. The boundaries of some of these lots can be identified today by old fences. The position of the lines on Plate II were carefully compared with photographs taken from the air by the United States Government in its Ac- quisition Forestry Survey, leaving no doubt as to the correctness of their location. This little map is helpful in reading old deeds.
Having secured definite locations of their holdings the pro- prietors then proceeded to sell their claims to pioneers who
[ 16 ]
THE WALLINGFORD HOUSE
THE OLD TOWN HOUSE
THE GROWTH OF WALLINGFORD VILLAGE
would go to Vermont, settle, and cultivate the land, which was necessary to make the title good under the charter.
When the first settlers came to Wallingford the Otter Creek valley was forested. Tall pines, hemlocks and other trees were growing on what are now fertile intervals. Evidence of this was the stump fence that within the writer's recollection bordered the south side of the old Tinmouth road between the highway and the Cascade. The Creek was a sluggish stream, except in flood, that meandered through the forest, shaded by tall trees. Before Asahel and Jedediah Jackson dammed the stream in 1788 to turn a gristmill, sawmill, fulling mill, and forge, and set the waters back to full banks, it was about as we see it today toward South Wallingford, in a dry season reduced almost to a brook easily forded at almost any convenient place. Just south of the village, along the west bank of the stream lay a swamp that was crossed by a corduroy road when the first bridge spanned the Creek: a bridge made with logs for stringers, covered with planks and supported on rough stone abutments, a type common in Vermont before the days of motor cars. As late as fifty years ago some of the logs of which the corduroy road was made were forced up above the surface of the ground by the frost in the springtime. Since then the road has been raised and the remaining logs buried to a depth from which they can never rise again.
Work on the highway was begun and the first bridge was au- thorized by a vote of the people in 1783. Five years later, by an- other vote, the width of the highway was established to be four rods. It is interesting to note here that Vermonters have never given up the old land measure of links, chains, rods, etc. How familiar it sounds to hear a native say, for instance, that a given distance is about forty rods.
Roads are like people; they grow. The highway was begun by clearing the trees and doing what little grading the settlers could spare time for. It became the custom to "work out their taxes on
[ 17]
PEOPLE OF WALLINGFORD
the roads." For the first thirty years this high road was scarcely fit for the passage of carriages, travel being mainly on horseback.
When the dam was built and mills were set up on the bank of the Creek a road must have been required to reach the mills from the main road. With no definite recorded date of its building, little error will be made in dating the cross-road, which is now designated as Elm Street, at 1788.
Another cross road was required early in the settlement to reach Sugar Hill and Mount Holly, then a part of Wallingford. Dr. John Crowley tells us that "The first settlement on this tract [Mount Holly] was begun by Abram Jackson, Stephen, Ichabod G. and Chauncy Clark of Connecticut, in the year 1782." It was probably not long after that the road from Wallingford to Mount Holly, by way of what we now know as Sugar Hill and East Wallingford, was begun. This road branched from the high- way, and, for a short distance, is now known as Hull Avenue. It led up to the present road called East Street but has been aban- doned long since, although it can still be traced. Turning south East Street now terminates at the Clemens place but without doubt it formerly continued southeasterly down to what was the Bump (or Bumpus) place, where there was a school house. Then it continued by the present Sugar Hill Road. The road has been largely effaced between the Clemens and Bump places. We are quite certain that this was the route, for the survey of the Church Street Road terminates at the "old road" near the Bump place. This was an important artery, probably much traveled in early days, since it led over the hills where some of the first farms were located and was a part of the route across the main range of the Green Mountains.
In Chapter III an account is given of the gristmill, sawmill, etc. all using water-power developed by the construction of the Jack- son dam across the Creek. The gristmill was the property of Stephen Clark who was one of the settlers on the hill that after-
[18 ]
:
THE GROWTH OF WALLINGFORD VILLAGE
ward became Mount Holly. It was in 1789 that Clark came into possession of the gristmill and in the years following it changed ownership several times, until, in 1805, it was known as Douglass' mill. That year a road was surveyed from Douglass' mill to the Clarendon line. Evidently the present River Street is a part of that road which we now know as the Creek Road to Rutland. The con- tinuation from the Clarendon line to the Four Corners was not constructed until 1869.
The next important road to be surveyed and constructed was Church Street Road from the highway eastward to the "old road" at the Bump place. This was surveyed in 1807 and doubtless was constructed soon thereafter. It opened up new farming land and offered a shorter route to Sugar Hill and Mount Holly. In the village this was a new street for home sites.
At this time there were probably not more than a dozen houses on Main Street. Solomon Miller's was standing near the corner of Church Street, the first frame house in the village, built about twenty years before. His son, Alexander, had just completed his house on the opposite side of the street. In 1786 Lent Ives pur- chased fifty one acres lying on the east side of Main Street, extend- ing from Roaring Brook north to the school house [chapel] lot. This with his house on Main Street constituted his farm. Mr. Meacham had just erected a fine house on the corner of Main and Elm Streets, afterwards the residence of Hosea Eddy and later of Alphonso Stafford. On the present site of the Old Stone Shop Alexander Miller had a forge and was manufacturing hoes and scythes. He also operated a tannery located south of his house on the west side of Main Street. The Union Church had been erected about a mile south of the village.
With these salient features before us we can picture the nucleus of a village in Wallingford during the first decade of the nine- teenth century. Houses of logs that sheltered the early settlers were still standing but houses of a better, more comfortable type
[19]
1
PEOPLE OF WALLINGFORD
were being built. Gristmills supplied food, sawmills supplied lumber, tanneries leather and forges articles of metal. The farms produced food, also material for clothing which was fabricated within the homes. Housewives made candles that dispelled the darkness in the evenings. Thus the people had the necessities of life, and, while leading strenuous lives, had come to have many comforts and much enjoyment.
At a town meeting held at the house of Solomon Miller May 5, 1788, it was voted to divide the town into districts, and a committee consisting of William Crary, Solomon Miller, Jr., Joseph Benson, Ezekiel Mighell and Salathiel Bumpus was ap- pointed for the purpose. "At first there were two districts, mainly for school purposes, and by 1794 the number of districts had increased to six with a trustee for each district. Within the next twenty years we find the number augmented to ten with a total of five hundred ninety one certified scholars for the year 1815, all over four and under eighteen years of age."*
Over the door of the brick school house is to be seen the in- scription "Erected 1818." We are told that the building was con- structed by Lent Ives and James Rustin. There was a school house on the site much earlier, for in a deed of land by Lent Ives to Zephaniah Hull there is a clause "reserving the land which the school house now stands upon with sufficient room to pass around the said school house." The deed is dated April 4, 1798. Probably this was a frame building replaced in 1818 by the present brick building. More and more thought was being given to education. A brick school house in the village indicates that it was looked upon as an important and permanent institution. The Walling- ford Academy was chartered in 1814 but it never came into being, probably from lack of funds. The name indicates that high ex- pectations might have been awakened. There were from time to time "select schools," held for short periods in spring or fall,
* Thorpe's History, p. 34.
[ 20]
1
GEN. ROBINSON HALL, 1797-1861
THE LOCAL SPY.
Vol. L WALLINGFORD, VT., DECEMBER, 18, 1857.
THE LOCAL SPY. Published every Saturday by, EMERSON & BISHOP. EDITORS & PROPRIETORS. CENTRAL BLOCK, UP STAIRS.
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GOOD NEWS FROM HOME.
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From: frieda that I haar left in testom Frens friends that I've not wen for years. And since *: purtet, long ***. My life has been s secar bf for + DLI AUF, a joyful beur has come, Fot I have heard good www. frimm home.
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That daughter who is uuwilling to accom they form as it were a part of our being, with which a piece of work because it in laborious, · magin that never looses is cuchanting spell. or porque one subject because of its sameness, If'in infancy then, we are susceptible of teachings se laxfing, we may ractairo "wjus is sntheient for thvar things? "
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