USA > Vermont > Franklin County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Lamoille, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 1
USA > Vermont > Grand Isle County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Lamoille, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 1
USA > Vermont > Lamoille County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Lamoille, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 1
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS
WILLIAM . H . JEFFREY
ức 974.301 L19j 1311707
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01085 9657
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/successfulvermon00jeff_0
SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS
A MODERN GAZETTEER
OF
LAMOILLE, FRANKLIN AND COUNTIES
GRAND ISLE
CONTAINING
AN HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE SEVERAL TOWNS
AND
A SERIES OF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE MEN OF MARK WHO HAVE WON DISTINCTION IN THEIR SEVERAL CALLINGS, AND WHO HAVE BECOME CONSPICUOUS IN THE PROFESSIONAL, BUSINESS AND POLITICAL WORLD
ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS STEEL AND HALF-TONE ENGRAVINGS
BY WILLIAM H. JEFFREY OF THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
AUTHOR OF
Vermont, Its Government 1902-1903; Vermont, Its Government 1904-1905; Vermont, Its Government 1906-1907; The City of Granite. Barre, Vermont; The Town of Slate, Northfield, Vermont; Successful Vermonters, A Modern Gazetteer of Caledonia, Essex and Orleans Counties; Richmond Prisons 1861-1862; and Various Other Historical Publications
EAST BURKE, VERMONT THE HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
1907
ENGRAVED, PRINTED, AND BOUND BY THE RUMFORD PRINTING CO. CONCORD, N. H.
1311707
VERMONT
FREEDOM
AND UNITY
TO ALL THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF VERMONT
BY BIRTH OR ADOPTION
WHO LOVE HER INSTITUTIONS, HER HISTORY AND HER TRADITIONS, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
J
BISMARCK'S TRIBUTE TO VERMONT
1
N the year 1878 three American gentlemen were visiting Prince Bismarck at his resi- dence of Friedrichsruhe. In the course of conversation, Bismarck said to them : " I would like to give you my idea of a republic. I think you will grant that I am somewhat of a student of political history. My idea of a republic is a little state in the north of your great country-one of the smallest of the New England states-VERMONT." One of the Americans said, "Not Massachusetts? " "Ah, no," he answered, " Vermont is small in area, of slow growth, has a larger percentage of school attend- ance than any other state, is not devoted to manufac- tures nor so much to farming as to make its interests political, owes nothing to the general government, but on the contrary is a creditor of the general government for Civil War expenses, and aims primarily and purely at the educational and religious evolution of each indi- vidual." "Is it not true," he added, "that this little state keeps its senators and representatives in office term after term until they die? " And he pro- ceeded to speak of Collamer and Morrill and Edmunds. One of the Americans rose and said, "Your excel- lency, two of us are graduates of the University of Vermont, and one of us claims that state as his birthplace."
Bismarck rose and said : "Gentlemen, you should be most proud of your inheritance. To be a son of Vermont is glory enough for the greatest citizen."
VERMONT
By JOHN H. FLAGG
Thy name doth symbolize Thy verdant peaks that proudly rise, As if to buttress with their might The unpropped dome of heavenly light.
The beauty of thy matchless hills The ravished eye with rapture fills, While thy fair fields and fertile plains Bear flocks and herds and bounteous grains.
Thy hillside homes and hamlets all Proclaim content and thrift withal ;- No servile lines yet mark the face Of thy courageous, sturdy race.
No trembling slave yet breathed thy air Who felt his shackles bind him there, For by thy ancient Bill of Rights * All men stood equal on thy heights.
Such land is thine, sons of thy birth, Whose sires, with blood, paid freedom's worth ; Who Vanquished each invading foe And swept him back or laid him low.
O happy land, by Heaven caressed, Where all are free and none oppressed, Thank well those sires whose master hand Built from thy rock and not thy sand.
* Vermont in July, 1777-fourteen years anterior to admission into the Union-was first on this continent to prohibit slavery by constitutional provision.
LAMOILLE COUNTY
Population, Census of 1900, 12,289
AMOILLE County was in- corporated October 26, 1835, and as organized contained 12 towns: Eden, Hyde Park, Morris- town and Wolcott, from Orleans County ; Belvidere, Cambridge, Johnson, Stirling and Waterville, from Franklin County; Elmore and Stowe, from Washington County. and Mansfield, from Chit- tenden County.
1828 .- Two square miles of the town of Stirling was annexed to the town of Cambridge; this was a mountainous part of the town, and included "Smugglers' Notch."
1839 .- One third of the town of Mansfield was set off and an- nexed to Underhill and Chittenden County.
1841 .- All that part of the town of Fletcher that lay on the south side of the Lamoille River, being 9,184 acres, was annexed to Cam- bridge.
1848 .- The Legislature passed an act annexing the town of Mans- field to Stowe; the constitutionality of this act was bitterly fought, but the act was sustained by the courts.
1855 .- The inhabitants of the town of Stirling grew tired of sep- arate town organization and was divided and annexed to the towns of Johnson, Stowe and Morristown, all its records being left in the archives of Morristown.
1898 .- A small part of Morris- town was annexed to Hyde Park.
It was in 1834 that Nathan Smilie, and others, petitioned the General Assembly for a new county. A bill was introduced, and passed the House, during the session of that year, but was laid over in the council. The next year it passed both houses. The act pro- vided that when some town should erect a suitable courthouse and jail, then the county should be deemed organized; then came the struggle. The lower end of the county wanted the shire at John- son, while the upper end wanted Morristown. Finally it was left to a committee to settle, and Joshua Sawyer, a member of the bar who had great sway in public matters, secured the county seat for Hyde Park, and the buildings were erected there by the town and the first term of the county court held there in 1837.
The first county officers were : Judges, Jonathan Bridges, Morris- town; Joseph Waterman, Johnson ; state's attorney, O. W. Butler, Stowe; judge of probate, Daniel Dodge, Johnson; sheriff, Almerin Tinker, Morristown ; bailiff, Luther H. Brown, Eden; clerk, Philo G. Camp, Hyde Park.
The Lamoille County grammar school was incorporated by legis- lative act November 15, 1836. This school had been established for some six years before its incorpo- ration, and was located at John- son. For a time the school flour-
A-2
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
ished, but finally became run down and after several years of a strug- gling existence, surrendered its charter, and, in February, 1866, became the State Normal School, an extended sketch of which will be found in Johnson.
Lamoille County has the finest scenery in the state; Mount Mans- field, that towering old giant of ages, is within its limits. Mans-
listless beauty, with its fair isles kissing the bright waves, and drinking in the sunbeams, is old Champlain; and beyond, as if wedged between its waters and the deep sky, and drowned in misty beauty, peers the Essex mountains of New York.
It may be said that the early bar of Lamoille County sprang into ex- istence like Athene from the head
LAMOILLE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
field, so called from its contour re- semblance to the face of human- ity, is the highest land in Vermont. To the northeast woody hills, banked upon hills, loom far away to the hidden sources of the Con- necticut. To the southeast beau- tiful clearings are visible, gardens in the wilderness, the largest con- taining the beautiful village of Stowe. To the west, sleeping in
of Zeus, fully armed and equipped. The county having been carved out of several old counties, the busi- ness which was pending from the towns in the old counties of which Lamoille was composed, being transferred to this county for com- pletion, necessarily brought the counsel engaged with it. Hence, the early bar was a remarkably able and picturesque one. From
3
LAMOILLE COUNTY.
Washington County came Paul
Dillingham, O. W. Butler, A. C. Burk, W. H. H. Bingham, Oramel Smith, William Upham, T. P. Red- field and Jackson Vail; from Franklin, W. C. Wilson, W. W. White, Harmon and Jackson Beardsley, Homer E. Royce, Ho- mer Hubbell and others; from Chittenden, Jacob Meack, William P. Briggs, L. E. Chittenden, David A. Smalley, E. R. Herd and May- nard & Edmonds; from the east came James Bell, John Mattocks and John R. Skinner; within the limits of the county were Joshua Sawyer, Henry Stowell, Solomon Wires, Samuel A. Willard, Luke P. Poland, Stillman Churchill and S. S. Pike. They were all trial lawyers. Clients in those days, when they got into court, expected to fight. The issues were promptly joined and the combatants ready for the fray, and a right jolly one it usually proved to be. They were nearly all men of large, ro- bust physique, fine, old-school man- ners and thoroughly equipped in the profession.
Out of court they were mostly a convivial lot and passed much of their leisure time when attending court here, and awaiting their turn in court, in rather rougher sports than are now in vogue. The open bars were liberally patronized, and the toast and song went round. The utmost good fellowship and fraternal feeling marked all their social intercourse, but when pitted in the forum the sparks flew. In the court room there was a more stately air than now.
The old sheriffs and assistant judges were men of great dignity and were always on "dress pa- rade" in court. The sheriffs es- corted the judges to and from the
courthouse with a pompous state that would now be looked upon as almost ridiculous.
Gradually these men from out the county dropped out of prac- tice here, and their places were filled by a set native to the soil, Wilkins, Small, Hendee, H. P. Smith, W. H. Miller, Waldo Brig- ham, G. L. Waterman, the Gleeds, John A. Child, H. H. Powers, R. C. Benton, M. O. Heath, Thorp & Page, E. B. Sawyer, Charles Rob- inson, Ira Blaisdell, R. F. Parker, Charles Lewis, H. C. Fisk and V. P. Macutchan. Only a few of the second generation now remain in practice. The third generation is in evidence. George M. Powers, Hulburd, Moody, Fleetwood, Hunt, Thompson, Parker, McFarland, Bicknell, Tracy, Cheney and Mon- tieth form a vigorous and well- equipped school of young practi- tioners and, with the old stock still remaining, constitute a bar of which the county may well be proud. It would be an exhibition worth beholding if one could look in at the opening of our court and see it as it was in the 40s, witlı Stephen Royce presiding, sup- ported by such associates as Isaac Pennock, David P. Noyes, Joseph Waterman and Gardner Gates, with Riverius Camp, George W. Bailey, Joseph Doane or Horace Powers in the sheriff's box, and the rotund, highly-polished Philo G. Camp at the clerk's desk and Joshua Sawyer, Paul Dillingham, O. W. Butler, W. H. H. Bingham, the Beardsleys, David A. Smalley, Luke P. Poland, Samuel A. Wil- lard, Henry Stowell, John R. Skin- ner, James Bell and a dozen otli- ers of the like, grouped around the bar and standing with bowed heads as blessing was invoked.
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
Then to hear the clerk adminis- ter the oath to the jurors and offi- cers in a manner of gravity that seemed to impress the recipients with a sense of its obligation.
HYDE PARK.
Population, Census of 1900, 1,472.
The town of Hyde Park was granted November 6, 1780, and chartered to Jedediah Hyde and 64 others, August 27, 1781. The original grantees were mostly resi- dents of Norwich, Connecticut, and not a few had won distinction in the land and naval service of the Revolutionary War.' First came John McDaniel, July 4, 1787, his nearest neighbor being then at Johnson on the west and Cabot on the east. He was joined that same season by William Norton, and, to- gether with their families, they passed that winter in their new home. Next year came Captain Jed- ediah Hyde, Peter Martin, Jabez Fitch and sons, and Ephraim Gar- vin. Within the next few years these were joined by Aaron Keeler and his family, Trueman Sawyer and Hon. N. P. Sawyer. Prior to 1800 came Oliver Noyes, who kept the first store, and whose son, Breed Noyes, was for many years the only merchant of any conse- quence, in town.
Among the incidents of particu- lar note we find the first birth in town was Diadana Hyde, born June 17, 1789, to Captain Hyde. The first death was that of David Parker, who was killed by a log rolling on him, in 1806. The first preaching in town was by Lorenzo Dow, a noted missionary of that day. Finding on the fresh leaves of our early history the tracks of this eccentric Dow, everywhere, it
has been thought well to give the reader a brief account of his life and character. He was born of Puritan parents in Connecticut, October 18, 1777; he early began to preach the gospel, and was a Methodist, not a conference preacher, exactly, but one whose circuit extended all over Vermont, the Canadas, the South, Ireland, Scotland, and wherever he chose to go; who came and went as the "wind that bloweth wherever it listeth. "
A man who must be his own leader, who could never restrain himself to circuit rules, he had joined the Methodist conference in his youth, had been appointed to a circuit ; it could not hold him; re- monstrated with, reappointed, shot off on a fervent tangent. Confer- ence dropped him, could not keep a man it could neither rule nor guide. Every minister seemed against him-Calvinistic divine, regular Methodist circuit preacher as well,-decried by all, he pre- vailed. He thickened his appoint- ments, the multitude hung on the words from his lips, his oddities attracted, his eccentricities were his great charm. He was called "Crazy Dow," which name seemed to please him very well. From his home in Connecticut, he had his yearly line of preaching places all up through into Canada. On his annual visit to Vermont, he al- ways visited Washington County. We hear of him before he enters at Danville; when entered, in Cabot, Calais, Plainfield, Barre and Mont- pelier. He never took a collection for his preaching. He preached with great power and zeal, never remaining long in a place, but con- stantly going from place to place. A single incident will serve to show
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LAMOILLE COUNTY.
the unique means sometimes taken by this remarkable man to accom- plish his purpose.
In passing through a dense woods to fill one of his Vermont ap- pointments, he saw a man in great distress looking for something. Dow inquired what the matter was The man replied that he was poor, and that someone had stolen his axe, and that he felt the loss very
Lorenzo Dow.
much. Dow told him that if he would go to the meeting he would find his axe. Dow picked up a stone and put it in his pocket, and after the delivery of a powerful sermon, he said : "There is a man here who has had his axe stolen, and the thief is here in this audi- ence, and I am going to throw this stone right to his head"-drawing back his hand as though in the act
of throwing the stone. One man ducked his head. Lorenzo went to him and said: "You have got this man's axe !" And so he had, and went and got it and brought it to him.
He died in the city of Washing- ton, February 2, 1834.
The first school in Hyde Park kept by a woman was by Elizabeth Hyde in Judge N. P. Sawyer's barn about the year 1800.
The organization of the town was coeval with the admission of the state in 1791, and its growth during the next thirty years was very rapid.
During the first score of years of its early history, Captain Hyde, John McDaniel, Lieutenant Aaron Keeler and Captain Jabez Fitch seem to have figured as the "big four" of the town, but the Saw- yers soon became an important factor in shaping the destinies of the growing community.
The first town house was erected near the center of the town, and it does not appear to have been an- ticipated that the principal busi- ness of the town would ever be located at the present site, in the southwest corner of the town. In 1807 Nathaniel P. Sawyer erected the first frame house in the vil- lage, an imposing structure for the times, and commanding a superb view of the Lamoille Valley and the mountain panorama. It is the oldest dwelling house now in the village. The next house was the Aaron Keeler house, long occu- pied by his descendants. A hotel was kept at this time at the farm of John McDaniel, and another on the road to Cady's Falls in Morristown.
The erection of the courthouse and jail, in 1836, was a great
6
SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
event, and permanently changed the business center of the town.
For a few years after the organ- ization of the town the election of officers comprised all of the busi- ness transacted at the town meet- ings, and this list was short, con- sisting of moderator, clerk, three selectmen and a constable. The meetings were held in private dwellings, the houses of Jabez Fitch, Darius Fitch, John Searle and Oliver Noyes serving as town halls, the latter being the usual resort from 1804 until 1818, when school houses were used for the purpose.
In 1798 the selectmen were di- rected "to erect a sign post in some public place near the present dwelling house of Captain Jede- diah Hyde, in said town, and that for the future all warnings for town meetings for said town shall be set on said sign post."
In 1827, at a special meeting September 4, "Voted unanimously to unite with the several towns in the vicinity to petition the General Assembly for a new county."
The town house was first occu- pied at a special meeting held De- cember 7, 1835, at which it was voted "To see what action the town will take to raise funds by tax or otherwise to build and erect buildings for the new County of Lamoille, located at Hyde Park, to wit: A court house, jail and the appendages appertaining thereto."
March 3, 1857: "Resolved- That the inhabitants do remove the holding of town and freemen's meetings hereafter to Hyde Park street; that the town vote to build a suitable building as town hall for the same."
Probably the coming of the railroad marked the most impor-
tant period in the history of the town, as it made possible and profitable an immense development of the lumber business and the calf skin trade.
A history of Hyde Park would be incomplete without some refer- ence to the calfskin business of Carroll S. Page.
Curtis Guild, the father of the present governor of Massachu- setts, after a trip to Europe, re- ferring to Mr. Page's business in his paper, the Boston Commercial Bulletin, said :
"Governor Carroll S. Page is as well known in Europe as in the United States as one of the greatest hide and skin factors of the world."
For many years the trade in this country has been inclined to grant to his business the position of supremacy, and there is not a trade paper in the United States in the hide and leather line that has not so stated.
Hide and Leather, the leading hide journal of this country, says : "He is the largest dealer in raw calfskins in the world."
Just how or why the little out- of-the-way village of Hyde Park should be the seat and center of such an extensive business is the surprise of business men every- where, but there is no continent on the face of the globe where the lit- tle hamlet of Hyde Park is not known by reason of Mr. Page's bus- iness in calfskins.
THE SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH was organized March 5, 1863, with six members. Reverend E. Wheelock was the moderator at that meeting, and Reverend J. T. Ford preached the sermon. February 11, 1864, a call was ex- tended to Reverend J. G. Bailey,
1
VIEWS OF
CARROLL S. PAGE PLANT AND OFFICES HYDE PARK, VT. U.S.A.
-
-
MỸTION ạt wĐại PHƯƠNG NGỘ
SECTION OF ANOTHER CALFSKIN PACKINO ROOM
HIDE HOUSE PLANT
E.S.G.
ESTABLISHED 1355
TYDE PARK YT. J.SAL HIDES, TALLOW, GAUF SKINS
NOTHENG
PART OF CALFORIN
ONE OF THE GRADINO ROOMS
PACKING AOOM
---
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
who had acted as pastor for several months, to become the first pastor of the church. The call was ac- cepted and on February 23 he was installed. Gilman M. Sherwin was elected deacon at the time of or- ganization of the church and filled that position some thirty years, or until his death in 1893.
Services were held jointly with the Methodists in Union Church until 1869, when the Congregation- alists went to the Court House, where they held services until 1872, at which time the pastor,
tinued until his resignation, June 1, 1902. His long pastorate of nearly eleven years was exceed- ingly fruitful. Under his wise guidance and the inspiration of his character, the resident membership of the church was more than trebled, self support assumed, a parsonage secured, a new church building erected and paid for, and the moral tone of the community raised.
Charles S. Hager was called to be the fourth pastor of the church, June 5, 1902, and was ordained to
HYDEPARK
VERMONT
S.
CONGL. CHURCH.
Reverend Mr. Bailey, resigned. From that time until 1885, the so- ciety was in a dormant state, the entire field being given to the Methodists. In 1885 the Metho- dists notified the Congregational- ists that they would not ask Con- ference to send a minister and the field was again taken up by the Congregationalists.
Reverend Earl J. Ward was called to the pastorate and filled that position until his resignation March 22, 1891. September 18, of that year, Reverend Frederick C. Taylor received a call and was in- stalled as pastor, December 10, 1891. Mr. Taylor's pastorate con-
the ministry and installed July 31, 1902. After a short, though very successful, pastorate, he resigned, May 1, 1905, to accept a call ex- tended him by the First Congre- gational Church of Albany, New York.
William R. Hamlin accepted a call given him by the church, Sep- tember 25, 1905, and was ordained and installed as pastor, October 26, following.
The church was incorporated January 28, 1893, as provided by an act of the General Assembly of Vermont in 1898.
In 1871, by the will of Mrs. Mar- garet Cobleigh, the church received
9
LAMOILLE COUNTY.
$500. Three hundred of this amount was invested in a lot on the corner of Main Street and Prospect Avenue, on which a very beautiful and commodious church edifice was erected, in 1899, cost- ing, including furnishings, up- . wards of eight thousand dollars.
The society is in a very prosper- ous condition. It has no indebt- edness. There is a good member- ship and pastor and people are in entire accord, working harmo- niously for the benefit of the church and community.
LAMOILLE COUNTY NATIONAL BANK. It may, perhaps, be said with propriety that the two insti- tutions which have contributed as much to the growth of Hyde Park as any other, are the Lamoille County Bank and the hide and skin business of Carroll S. Page, both of which were started in 1855.
Mr. Page commenced handling calfskins on the twenty-first day of April and just one month later the Lamoille County Bank was organ- ized, and for 50 years they have been important factors in the growth of Hyde Park; indeed, the bank has been a most important factor in the development of al- most every enterprise in Lamoille. County, as until 1889, it was the only bank in the county.
The founders of the Lamoille County Bank have all passed to their final account, the Hon. George Wilkins, who died in 1902, being the last of the original board of directors to join the silent majority. Hon. Lucius H. Noyes was the first president, and continued to occupy that po- sition until his death in 1877. Car- los S. Noyes was the first cashier, and also a member of the board of
directors until 1892 during which time he was for several years its president. Hon. George Wilkins, Hon. Samuel Merriam, Hon. Whit- man G. Ferrin-afterwards treas- urer of the Montpelier Savings Bank and Trust Company-Hon. Amasa Paine of Lowell, Hon. Rus- sell S. Page and Hon. Horace Powers-the venerable father of former Congressman Powers, and grandfather of Hon. George M. Powers, now one of the judges of the Supreme Court, were with Lucius H. and Carlos S. Noyes, the first board of directors.
Judge Lucius H. Noyes was suc- ceeded by his brother, Carlos S. Noyes, as president, while Carlos S. Noyes, the first cashier, was suc- ceeded by Albert L. Noyes, son of the president, Lucius H., who in turn was succeeded by Edward L. Noyes, his brother. Thus it has been that for 51 years the cashier- ship has been filled by one of Hyde Park's strong families, the Noyes, and today the son of one of its founders, Hon. Carroll S. Page, is the president of the bank, while the grandson of the first president, Harry A. Noyes, is today one of the board of directors.
No industry in Lamoille County has for a generation applied in vain for financial assistance to this stanch old institution. It has been the pride of its management that the Lamoille County National Bank existed to care for the finan- cial interests of Lamoille County, and no panic or monetary strin- gency has been sufficiently severe to cripple its strength or deprive it of the ability to care for the le- gitimate financial interests of the county.
After 50 years' experience in catering to the financial wants of
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