USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > St Johnsbury > The town of St. Johnsbury, Vt. ; a review of one hundred twenty-five years to the anniversary pageant 1912 > Part 1
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ATTENTION: BAR CODE IS LOCATED INSIDE OF BOOK
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01085 9764
Gc 974.302 Sa23f Fairbanks, Edward T. The town of St Johnsbury Vt.
THE TOWN OF ST JOHNSBURY VT
A REVIEW OF
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE YEARS
to the Anniversary Pageant 1912
BY
EDWARD T. FAIRBANKS
"I writ it also out of great good-will Unto my countrymen * * * * and for the sake of those that may Not yet be born; but in some after day May make good use of it"
T. Mace
ST. JOHNSBURY THE COWLES PRESS MCMXIV
A VERY ACCOMMODATING "OLD BEAR"
This was Henry Stevens, a native of Barnet; an eccentric genius, an accomplished antiquary, founder and president of the Vermont Historical Society ; into whose capacious hopper old traditions, stories, facts, records, letters, documents seemed to flow like brooks into the Passumpsic. More than 20,000 original letters and manuscripts were said to be in his possession, includ- ing the secret correspondence of the Continental Congress, letters of Ira and Ethan Allen, of Dr. Arnold, of St. John de Crevecœur, and others. Many of these were secured by the State of Vermont, but the British Museum bid high and got more of them, to the great regret of all true Vermonters.
Now I had been assured that Stevens was a cross old bear, suspicious of any body interested in old documents ; it would be impossible for me to get sight of his treasures, still less inside his den. But those papers of his were simply invaluable for the work in hand, and I ventured to write in a jocose vein, inquiring if it might be possible to consult them a little. I think it due to his memory that the first pages of these memoranda of St. Johns- bury should include his reply to that letter, which shows that in this case he was a very friendly and accommodating old bear.
BURLINGTON, Oct. 10, 1860.
"Dear Sir : Your letter of Oct. 2 received. In answer to a portion of it as to making a visit here in order to copy MSS. I have to say-Mrs. Stevens and myself occupy a comfortable house. I have to say further that all who are disposed to make us a call are welcome. We will set the table in the front room 3 days. After that time we dine in the kitchen. Three days we call a visit. According to established usage, if our friends stay more than 3 days it is expected they will do chores night and morning. We find the frock or apron as required. Come when you please. Now as to historical matters," etc.
I accepted the conditions, was very cordially received ; ordered my frock and milking-stool at the date specified; stayed more than three days ; made lasting friendship with the antiquary. He showed me all I asked for and ever so much more, allowed me to copy anything I wished, but on no condition would he part with the least bit of manuscript. To this man's hospitality and friendliness we are indebted for facts and incidents not obtainable
elsewhere relating to the early times and settlers. And so ends as good a bear story as any that will hereinafter be related.
The scope of this book includes more than a mere record of events. Some things are in it for the sake of variety. Some pages are descriptive only, some relatively unimportant items are set in as side lights on the times. It was Macaulay who said that
"No anecdote or peculiarity of manner or familiar saying would be too insignificant to reproduce the character and spirit of an age, and give to truth the attractions that have long been usurped by fiction."
On this principle our town story may perhaps be made inter- esting to the boys and girls, and even to the stranger that is not within our gates.
Particular attention has been given to beginnings and early developments of whatever has come under review. Fuller details can in most cases be obtained at the Athenæum from the collec- tions of town memorabilia which I have deposited there, also from the files of the Caledonian to which the later pages herein have been much indebted. In respect of any errors or inadvertent omissions that may hereafter be discovered, there will be more regrets on the part of the writer than can be anywhere else.
To the memory of the men and women who in former time adorned and dignified the town with high integrity, refinement and serious living, with business thrift and public spirited citizenship -and to all who today are adding to its fair fame and prosperity, this contribution to the annals of the town of St. Johnsbury is cordially inscribed.
EDWARD TAYLOR FAIRBANKS
THE SHEEPCOTE
MDCCCCXIV
-
"The researches of Herodotus of Harlicarnassus, which he puts forth in the hope of thereby preserving from oblivion the remembrance of what things men have done in the past."
CONTENTS
I
EARLIEST TIMES
11
II CONTRIVING A NAME 21
III PIONEERING 1686-1790 29
IV
MAKING A TOWN
47
V
A BUNCH OF STORIES
59
VI THE PASSING OF THE ARNOLDS 69
VII LOCALITIES AND EVENTS 82
VIII
AMONGST THE RECORD BOOKS
94
IX THE OLD DISTRICT SCHOOL 109
X
RELATING TO RELIGION
121
XI EARLY INDUSTRIES 138
XII DIVERSIONS AND DOINGS
159
XIII ON THE ROAD
173
XIV A NEWSPAPER
183
XV
TAVERN
STORE
FARM
191
XVI UP AT THE BRICK HOUSE
203
XVII NOTES OF PROGRESS
211
XVIII EIGHTEEN-HUNDRED-FORTY
223
XIX DEBATES AND BOOKS
235
+ XX EDUCATIONAL
244
XXI EXPANSION
257
XXII WAR
273
XXIII
FOR PROTECTION
291
XXIV RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS 305
XXV PRO BONO PUBLICO
321
XXVI MUSICAL
332
XXVII DESCRIPTIVE AND REMINISCENT
345
XXVIII BEYOND THE BORDER
364
XXIX OCCASIONS AND OCCURRENCES
376
XXX MISCELLANEOUS
393
XXXI THE PLATFORM SCALE
411
XXXII IN THE PUALIC SERVICE
426
XXXIII UTILITIES
448
XXXIV BUSINESS NOTES
473
. XXXV CLUBS AND ORDERS 492
XXXVI VILLAGE OF ST. JOHNSBURY 500
XXXVII PARKS AND TREES
506
XXXVIII
COSMIC EVENTS
513
XXXIX
A CHRONICLE 526
XL FRAGMENTS
534
XLI THE PAGEANT OF ST. JOHNSBURY
552
APPENDIX
TOWN OFFICERS TABLE OF BALLOTS
VITAL RECORDS FLORA AND FAUNA
ERRATA
Page 249 for one-third read two-thirds 142 for vicious read viscous
145
disk
plate
348
shrine
shine
444
Harvard " Boston Univ.
306
1847
1827
440
1876
1856
69
IV
VI
ADDENDA
Page 443 after session of 1908 insert Lieut. Gov. 1910
" 330 number per day " in the hospital
CORRIGENDA
Typographical lapses are left subject to the reader's revision
"Methinks it shows a kind of gratitude and good nature to review the memories and memorials of those long since dead and gone." Aubrey
EARLIEST TIMES 1492-1786
"The curious and imaginative Greek, whenever he does not find a recorded past ready to his hand, is uneasy until he has created one." Grote, History of Greece
LEGENDARY-MOOSE RIVER-ASISOWA WATER-ABORIGINES FEW -COLONIAL SCOUTS-NOTES OF NASH-BESSBOROUGH-DUN-
MORE-A NEW PLANTATION-GRANTEES AND CONDITIONS
WAWHSUK AND IMQUK
A moose came down the east slope to drink at the mineral spring. Wawhsuk saw his rival Imquk aiming at the moose. Crouching behind a boulder he let fly an arrow that split Imquk's bow string. Having no other weapon Imquk ran. Wawhsuk overtook him on the high land west of the river Posoompsook and buried a stone hatchet in his skull.
The next day Wawhsuk waited near the spring till sunset, when the moose came down to drink. That evening as the moon rose he took the antlers of the moose, decorated with Imquk's scalp, and a gourd full of medicine water, over to the wigwam of Poosuk. This was for Poosuk's daughter Asisqwa, who was sick and who had no liking for Imquk. So she got well and three moons after was living in Wawhsuk's wigwam close by the medicine spring ; and they always called the river MONSULUK, Moose River, and the spring was called ASISQWA WATER. Date, 1492, as nearly as can be determined.
While this incident will account for the name of the Spring Asisqwa and Asisqwa Avenue at the upper end of Portland street it also indicates the paucity of Indian tradition within our borders :
12
TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
being in fact all there is. Moreover its authenticity will un- doubtedly be subjected to suitable scrutiny by the critic in his sifting of prehistoric material.
Meantime the tomahawk of Wawhsuk which came to the surface just below my garden August 26, 1860, is shelved in the Athenæum, where it was deposited for safe keeping-being, as was then supposed, the only one ever found in the town. A few others have been reported; indications of an Indian camp have been discovered on the Hooker bluff at mouth of Moose River, also on the Passumpsic meadows this side the Lyndon town line.
But the scarcity of these finds shows how little trace there is in this region of the red men. With them, as with the white men who came later, this was contested ground; border land between the powerful Iroquois of the west and the Algonquin or Abenaki who ranged the upper Connecticut valleys. A few arrow points and a stone axe or two are all that remain to indicate that any of them ever chased the moose or scalped each other within the bounds of this township.
COLONIAL SCOUTS
Amongst the records of Massachusetts Colony is found the statement that "on April 12, 1755, one Stephen Nash and one John Stark have been commissioned to go on an expedition via the Merrimack and Mooselauk Trails to Cowas, N. H. ; and thence up into the wilderness as far as they deem prudent, to search out the Indians if they are coming down upon us. If so the men are to return in all haste and warn the settlers on the borders and then make their reports."
These scouts, carrying out their instructions, found them- selves on the 7th of May at the mouth of the Passumpsic River, from which point Stark proceded one day's march up the Connec- ticut, while Nash came the same distance up the Passumpsic. This brought him to the mouth of the Moose River, where, on what is now Hooker's Hill, "a high piece of land opposite of the East Branch mouth," he found traces of an Indian camp of the preceeding year. His journal, recorded on yellow parchment paper furnished by the Colonies, has been preserved in the Stark
13
EARLIEST TIMES
family. In 1912, a copy of the entries that relate to this locality was obtained by Royal A. Moore, the great-grandson of Nash, and the same is here inserted, as the record of the first white man who set foot in what is now the township of St. Johnsbury. This incident, which antedated the charter of the town by 31 years, was made the basis of the first episode in the Pageant of 1912, entitled "The Indians and the Rangers." Stark was the man who two years later won distinction at the Battle of Bennington ; Nash was a hunter and scout to the British army during the French and Indian wars.
JOURNAL OF STEPHEN NASH
A. D. 1755 4th day of the week
May 6th. Camped last night on an island at the mouth of Pasumsuk river This morning I am to start up Pasumsuk River one days march to the east and west Branch of River if I meet the enemy I am to cross over the highlands and head off Stark the signal to be fereing of gun once and the hunters yell Stark is to go up the connecticut one days March to the head of great falls we are both to return to this place the next night after the sun sets God providing S. N.
A. D. 1755 5th day of the week
May 7th. Camped last night at the East and West Branch of Pasumsuk River saw no signes of the enimy on march up saw one Moose he ran north up River sign there was no enimy at next camping place whitch is on a high piece of land opposite of the East Branch mouth here I found birch Bark and splints and all signs of the enimy building canoes here but I have knowledge that the labor was done last season by the signes I find and by marks on the trees.
I have knowledge that they were indians from the large lake near the canidies on their march to their cowas on the connecticut I start this morning on my march to the island at the mouth of the Pasumsuk River whitch I am to reach after the sun sets god providing. S. N.
A. D. 1755 6th day of the week
May 8th. Camped last night on the island at mouth of Pasumsuk River found Stark suffering with hunters lameness used hot stones near his legs and hips in the night and he is able to march this morning the uplands of the Pasumsuk are stony and hard and not good for settlements but I saw small pieces of meadow land by the river and a goodly number of falls and rapids
it is my knowledge that this wilderness march was made too early by several Sabbaths we search this day to the mouth of amnosuk River whitch we will reach befor the sun sits God Providing S. N.
14
TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
Stark may have had a turn of hunter's lameness three years before, when out after game one day; the Indians caught him and carried him off to Canada. Capt. Phineas Stevens, ancestor of antiquary Henry Stevens, on a mission from Massachusetts Bay to redeem captives, found him and paid the Indians a Shetland Pony for him. The return trip may have been by way of Pas- sumpsic valley. If so, Stark and Stevens were the original stalkers across the tract, afterward named Bessborough -- Dun- more-St. Johnsbury.
BESSBOROUGH
"Ye Collony of New Yorke is in several 'stripes of wch a greate Parte of ye Settlemt is made by Adventures in ye Wilderness" "& ye kyng Cadwaladre had alle."
Sixteen years before the township of St. Johnsbury was located, adventurers were spying out the land, and grants were issued to them under authority of the crown by Cadwallader Colden, Gov. General of the Province of New York.
The first of these, dated March 29, 1770, was a grant of 39,000 acres to Lawrence Kortright and 35 others, to be known as the town of BESSBOROUGH. This included "all that tract of land on the west side of Connecticut River and on both sides of a brook called the Passumpsick, lately in the County of Albany but now in the County of Gloucester"-covered today by St. Johns- bury and a slice from the adjacent towns of Waterford, Kirby, Lyndon, Danville and Barnet. The south line ran just above Passumpsic Village, thence north eight miles through Danville, thence east including Lyndon Corner to East Lyndon, thence south through Kirby to a point below Stiles' Pond. This made a parallelogram, six by nine miles or more, holding a future St. Johnsbury in its lap, divided into 36 equal parts; each grantee entitled to 1000 acres; the cost of the grant estimated at $4000. Bessborough like St. Johnsbury has no duplicate among geo- graphical names; maybe it was intended as complimentary to Elizabeth Van Shaack, one of the grantees. No trace remains of Kortright nor of any of his associates, and thus ends the history of Bessborough.
15
EARLIEST TIMES
DUNMORE
""This is a fine country, capable of great cultivation, but the discon- tented settlers therein have no established tranquility."
Dunmore (Gov. Gen'l. N. Y.)
On the 8th of August, 1770, another grant under the seal of the Province of New York, was issued to John Woods, William Swan and 37 others, covering "a certain tract of land situate on the West Branch of the Connecticut River (i. e. Passumpsic) in the County of Gloucester; of 39,000 acres, said lands not included in any grant heretofore made by the Governor of New Hampshire -forever hereafter by the name of DUNMORE to be called and known." This grant however would seem to have encroached on Bessborough so far as to include nearly half of St. Johnsbury ; viz. all East of Passumpsic River. Possibly Bessborough had gone out before this time ? On a map of His Majesty's Province of New York, 1779, Dunmore is laid down as above indicated. All the mines of Gold and Silver in Dunmore, and all Pine Trees suitable for Masts for the Royal Navy were reserved for the Crown; also "a yearly Rent of 2 shillings and six pence for each 100 Acres was payable on the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, commonly called Lady Day ; and within 3 years one family for every 1000 acres of land must be settled on the tract, and three acres for every 50 of the land must be under cultivation."
Meantime stirring events were going on. The Green Moun- tain Boys had discovered themselves. They had no further use for New York or any other royal province. In 1776 they set up the independent sovereignty of Vermont. This nullified all for- eign grants like those of Bessborough and Dunmore. Under a Commission of adjustment, however, the grantees of these towns had the choice of retaining their land by the payment of ten cents an acre, or relinquishing their titles and taking new lands else- where, which last was the choice of most of them.
One only survivor of Dunmore, Moses Little by name, comes . to view in a petition to the General Assembly held at Newbury, October, 1787. Therein he stated that "the Proprietors of said
16
TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
Dunmore had Compleated lotting out the township at great ex- pense ; * * * that your petitioner not in the least doubting that the Said Grant was legally made by the said GOVERNOR of New York, had purchased of Sam'l Stevens Esquire at a very high price 10,000 acres of Land in the said Dunmore × * that since the State of Vermont had Exercised jurisdiction the whole of said tract of land had been granted by the said State of Vt. to the Proprietors of Littleton (Waterford was then known as West Littleton) Concord and St. Johnsborough; already your Peti- tioner hath suffered greatly by the loss of his property and hath no redress besides applying to your Honors." Exit Moses Little. As to the town, which was intended to perpetuate the name of the British Earl, no other records appear, and so ends the history of Dunmore.
Mr. Little of Dunmore was better known in his day as "Cap- tain Moses Little, Merchant," of Newburyport, Mass., a wealthy proprietor of lands in this vicinity, from whom the town of Little- ton received its name.
TOWNSHIP OF ST. JOHNSBURY
"ffyrst shall be shewyd who was the ffunder of owre Towne"
"In order for settling a new Plantation" under seal of the State of Vermont, Gov. Thomas Chittenden, then in the tenth year of his administration, granted to Jonathan Arnold and associates a tract of land in old Orange County, to be called and known as the TOWNSHIP OF ST. JOHNSBURY. This grant was signed November 1, 1786 ; it comprised 71 equally divided rights, each including 310 acres, 1 rood, 22 poles, estimated altogether at 21,167 acres. Gov. Chittenden, according to usage held one 71st part, his right being located on the East bank of the Passumpsic above the Center Village. Ira Allen of Irasburg and Joseph Fay of Bennington, influential men, were non-resident proprietors to the extent of four 71st parts. Samuel Stevens had 18 rights, most of which he transferred later to Dr. Arnold. Arnold at the date of the charter held 3900 acres, 13 rights ; equal in amount to a tenth of the old township of Dunmore. He had a contract for supplying the State medical chest kept at Bennington which covered the expense of his charter fees.
17
EARLIEST TIMES
The value of the charter fees is stated in a resolution passed in Council, Oct. 27, 1786: "that in the grant of lands made to Jonathan Arnold and associates each proprietor shall pay for each right nine pounds in hard money before the following June, to be appropriated to the exigencies of the State." Ten of the grantees however had of proprietorship by virtue of settlement on the land prior to the issue of the charter: these men held respectively one 210th part, equivalent to about 100 acres.
GRANTEES AND RESERVATIONS
Jonathan Arnold Esq.
Sam'l Stevens Esq. John I. Clarke
Jos. Nightingale
Joseph Lord Esq. Ebenezer Scott
David Howell Esq.
Wm. Page Esq.
Thos. Chittenden Esq.
John Bridgeman Esq.
John C. Arnold Joseph Fay Esq.
Ira Allen Esq. Simeon Cole
Benj. Doolittle
Josiah Nichols
James Adams
Martin Adams
Jona. Adams
J. Callender Adams
Thomas Todd
William Trescott Jonathan Trescott
To the above 23 grantees were distributed by the charter sixty-three 71st parts and nine 210th parts. Each proprietor was required to "plant and cul- tivate five acres of land and build an house at least eighteen feet square on the floor-or have one family settled on each respective right in said township within the time limited by the law of the State : & all Pine timber suitable for a Navy to be reserved to the use and benefit of the Freemen of this State, agreeable to an Act of the Legislature passed in Oct. 1781."
Special reservations were made as follows :- "One 71st part for the use of a Seminary or Colledge : one 71st part for the use of County Grammar Schools within said State-which two seventy first parts for the use of a Sem- inary or Colledge and for the use of County Grammar Schools as aforesaid, and the Improvement of Rents, Profits and Interests arising therefrom, shall be under the control, order, direction and disposal of the General Assembly of said State forever. Also Lands to the amount of one 71st part for the purpose of the settlement of a minister and ministers of the Gospel in said Township : Lands to the amount of one 71st part for the support of the social worship of GOD in said Township : Land to the amount of one 71st part for the support of an English School and Schools in said Township : the improvements, rents, rights, profits, dues, and interests of these aforesaid three 71st parts to be unalienably appropriated as assigned, and under charge, direction and disposal of the Selectmen of said Township in trust, to and for the use of said Town forever."
At the first proprietor's meeting it was determined that the College and Grammar School reservations should include two full
18
TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
Rights-310 acres each in the extreme northeastern corner of the Township, later known as The Chesterfield neighborhood, District number 10. The rents of these lands amounting to about $100 a year, are still paid to the State Treasurer. The lands appro- priated for our town schools were located in three 100-acre lots at different points : there are 12 lessees : the annual rentals are not far from $50, divided according to statute law between July 4 and 6, dodging Sundays.
The ministerial, glebe or church lands were also distributed in four 100-acre lots, the aggregate rents of which are $76.50. This money flows into the treasuries of 15 religious societies in 15 streams of $5.10 each. There are 15 lessees on these lands : they pay rents from $15 a year on 100 acres above the Stark District and East of Center Village, to 25 cents on a quarter-acre in Pad- dock Village. On the William Higgins farm are 67 acres of the glebe lands. The original appraisals remain unchanged on the town books.
Reservations of nine acres on each 71st part were made to provide for the construction of roads and highways, and pro- prietors were empowered to sell any unappropriated lands to en- courage the erection of the first grist and saw mills.
The original Charter, with Gov. Chittenden's signature, Nov. 1, 1786, hangs framed in the office of the town clerk ; also a map . plan of the first surveys and lotting of the Township Rights, with the proprietor's names thereon.
REPUBLIC OF VERMONT
At the date of this Charter Vermont had been for nearly four years a wholly independent sovereignty, a little republic apart among the green hills : not till March 4, 1791 did it become one' of the United States. As yet there was no capital nor state house but there were men, capable of self-government : the Gen- eral Assembly met somewhere each October and legislated on all matters of public concern. "They established a coinage, fixed weights and measures, set up a post office department, and pony express, organized a militia that included nearly every man in the state capable of bearing arms."
19
EARLIEST TIMES
Nowhere in the country could be found more energetic, reliant and patriotic citizens than these Green Mountain Boys. The stern stuff that was in them had been toughened by their desperate three-cornered fight for independence, and when they finally set up a government of their own, they had won respect not only for courage but for expertness in handling public affairs. This consideration, and with it the cheapness of new lands which could not now be taxed for the heavy war debt, induced a large immigration of young and enterprising men into this northern wilderness. Up the river came Adams, Todd, Trescott, and other adventurers who were on the ground before the lots were sur- veyed or the Charter drawn : music to their ears was the ring of the axes amongst our giant pines and hemlocks , for thro them they were hewing their way to independence and comfort in log cabin homes and stumpy clearings.
DRAFTING FOR LAND RIGHTS
The lots reserved for public uses were located and designated at some time within seven months from the issue of the Charter, when, where or how, is not known. Then a proprietor's meeting was called "for the purpose of choosing committees to complete the division of lands then undivided in the township-to hear re- port of committee appointed to settle with new residents in the township-to make provision for erecting mills in the course of the ensuing summer-to take measures for the furtherance of the settlement-and transact other business deemed necessary-" of which the following is the record.
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