USA > Vermont > Orange County > Bradford > A history of Bradford, Vermont : containing some account of the place of its first settlement in 1765, and the principal improvements made, and events which have occurred down to 1874--a period of one hundred and nine years. With various genealogical records, and biographical sketches of families and individuals, some deceased, and others still living > Part 13
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Mr. B. Andross and wife had a family of five sons and three daughters, all natives of Bradford, namely :
1. Stebbins Andross, born October 1, 1813 ; married Keziah Libbey, of Maine. They had three 'sons, Leonard, Charles and William; and two daughters. Adaline, a very estimable and capable young lady, perished in the flames at the burning of Charlestown depot, near Boston, being unable to escape from an upper room where she had an office as book-keeper. Her sister Ellen married Rev. Mr. LeBarron, a Methodist minister, and went with him into the State of New York. Mr. S. Andross for several years had charge of the Railroad depot at Brad- ford, but finally removed to New York.
2. Harriet K. Andross, born September 24, 1816; married John K. Horner, of Fairlee, and had two daugh- ters, one of whom, Mary Helen, married Edgar Rowell, of Bradford. Her sister Harriet has long been a member of the family of Esq. Preston, of Bradford. The parents have both deceased.
3. Charles L. Andross, born August 4, 1818, married Harriet Clark, daughter of Samuel Clark, formerly of this town. He lost an arm by the accidental discharge of a cannon, while celebrating the 4th of July.
4. Mary S., born September 14, 1820 ; died at the age of twenty-two.
5. Dudley K. Andross, born September 12, 1823, gen- erally styled Colonel Andross, having passed through many perils, is still at this writing a well-known resident
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of Bradford. With permission, the following incidents of his life are given : He was the first man from this town to visit California, where he labored for two years, in the gold mines, " with pretty good success."
When, in April, 1861, our company of Bradford Guards volunteered for three months into the service of our Gov- ernment, for the suppression of the Rebellion, D. K. An- dross was their chosen Captain. They were stationed for a short while at Newport News, Va., and took part in the battle of Big Bethel, June the 10th, in which the Union force was repulsed. At the expiration of their term of service this company were honorably discharged. Captain Andross enlisted again, this time into the 9th Vermont Regiment, under command of Colonel Stannard, in which he was raised to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. This regiment was stationed for a time at Washington ; then sent to Winchester, Va., and were occupied in build- ing fortifications in the Shenandoah Valley, till ordered to fall back on Harper's Ferry, where they were engaged in the unfortunate battle of September 15, 1862, in which the Union forces were overpowered, and 11,500 men were taken prisoners. These prisoners were sent first to An- napolis, Md., but finally, on parole, to Chicago, where, by Federal authority, they were set to guard 3,500 Rebel prisoners waiting there, like themselves, for an amicable exchange. While thus occupied at Chicago, our friend Andross was for his soldierly conduct honored with the commission of Colonel, and so continued during his ser- vice in the war. In April, 1863, he and his fellow prison- ers were duly exchanged, and permitted to engage anew . in active warfare; when he was ordered again into Vir- ginia, to exchange the Rebel prisoners then under his charge, which was, after considerable delay, effected, at - City Point, below Richmond.
At Suffolk, Va., Colonel Andross and his soldiers were besieged for twenty-three days, but were able to make
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good their defence. After a patriotic and honorable ser- vice, this time of about two years, he resigned and re- turned home ; since which he has taken interest in town affairs, and served as one of the selectmen during the years 1867-8-9.
6. E. Porter Andross, a brother of the Colonel, born December 25, 1825, married Sarah Whitcomb. They re- side in Piermont, N. H. Have several sons and daugh- ters. Two of the sons have gone to California. Mr. E. P. Andross served in the 15th New Hampshire. Regiment, for nine months of the late war, and was in the battle of Port Hudson.
7. Helen L. died in her infancy.
8. Moses C. Andross, the youngest member of this family, born January 26, 1836, went to California, and was for some time engaged there in the business of min- ing. Being a man of ability, moral integrity, and in- fluence, he has been much occupied in public affairs, hav- ing served as United States Assistant Assessor in that State for six years, and as Senator in the State Legisla- ture for four years. He married there a worthy Scotch lady, and has two sons.
Mr. Bradstreet Andross died at Bradford, Nov. 27, 1838, in his fifty-fourth year.
Mr. Bildad Andross, a brother of Bradstreet, and son of Levi S., married Lettice Glover, of Topsham, and set- tled in Bradford. While turning over a large flat-bot- tomed boat which he, with others, was building, it fell on him and killed him. He and his wife had a family of six . sons and five daughters, of whom only five at this date (1874) are known to be living.
William Glover Andross, the eldest son, by occupation a farmer, still remains in Bradford, with his good wife, whose maiden name was Salome Baker, in their nice brick cottage, pleasantly situated. Fond of reading, as well as of work, he has long been occupied in seeking from his
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books and from his fields the appropriate fruits of both intellectual and manuel diligence-a commendable course for any farmer or other laboring man to pursue, provided the one thing needful be not neglected.
The eldest sister, Martha, a pious maiden lady, has her home with this brother and his wife.
Elbridge F. Andross, unmarried, also resides in Brad- ford.
Prudence married Jason Horner, and is settled in Fair- lee.
George married Nancy Kennedy, and lives in Wiscon- sin.
Two sons died in childhood.
Oramel died a young man.
Susan died unmarried.
Mary married a Mr. Scofield, of Rhode Island, and died there. She died leaving three sons.
Caroline married Thomas Ladd, of Corinth, and there died, in 1873.
Captain John Andross, the second son of Dr. Bildad Andross, first married Mary Russell, of Piermont. They had one son, John. After the early decease of his first wife, Captain Andross married Rebecca, daughter of Col. John Barron, he being thirty and she fifteen years of age at the time of their marriage. Their home was on the Lower Plain. They had six sons and two daughters, namely :
John Barron and DeForrest, who died young.
3. Thomas Russell, of whom more presently.
4. William, who married Susan Child, of Derby, sister of Daniel Child, Esq., the husband of Lydia Maria Child, the well-known authoress.
5. Mills married Eliza Peabody, a cousin of George Peabody, so distinguished for financial success and great liberality. He went to New Orleans, got involved in the troubles of Mexico, under the dominion of Santa Anna,
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was taken prisoner, and with twenty-nine others was massacred there, far from home and friends. His widow married Noah Newell, of this town. They removed to Janesville, Wisconsin, where they reside, in pleasant cir- cumstances, blessed with a highly respectable family.
6. Noble Andross, having done good service for his country in the late war, returned again to this his native place.
7. Mehitable, a worthy young woman, died unmar- ried.
8. Mary R. married Mills O. Barber, then of Lowell, Mass., October 16, 1832, by occupation a harness maker, who has for more than forty years been a much respected citizen of Bradford, and has for several years officiated as a Justice of the Peace. Mr. and Mrs. Barber have been for more than thirty years highly esteemed members of the Methodist Episcopal church in this place. They have had a family of two sons and four daughters, of whom Mary B. and Charles Henry died in childhood, and Mills DeForrest at the age of nineteen years. Ellen Rebecca married Daniel W. Watson, of Boston; Mary S. has re- mained with her parents; and Martha Jane married M. Schuyler Smith, of Hartford, Vt.
3. Captain Russell Andross, above named, married Martha Case, of Piermont, N. H. He had a good farm and pleasant home in Bradford, in the neighborhood where his parents had lived before him. Captain R. Andross and wife were worthy members of the Methodist Episco- pal church, and citizens of good influence. Their family of three daughters and two sons having grown up and gone away to new homes, the parents disposed of their place in Bradford, and removed to Lawrence, Mass., where (in 1874) they are pleasantly settled. Of their children let the following brief notices suffice :
The eldest daughter, Martha Jane, married D. W. C. Farrington. They have one son, Willis, now a young
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man ; and a very eligible home in Lowell, Mass. Mr. F. was for some time with General Butler at New Orleans, during the late war, in the capacity of auctioneer. Since his return he has become the first successful manufactur- er of Bunting in this country, and has invented a pro- cess by which the stars and stripes of the American flag .. are produced in a single piece, without seams, being in- wrought. He has now the pleasure of seeing his flags made in Lowell waving over our National Capitol, instead of those made in England, as was the case until recently.
Sarah M. Andross married John H. Richards, a son of Rev. John Richards. He having been successful in busi- ness, built a nice brick house directly opposite to the residence of her parents, in Bradford, where he for some time lived, but finally sold it to John B. Peckett, Esq., and removed to Lawrence, Mass. They have one son, Wm. R. Richards.
Mary Andross married F. H. Marshall. They have three children. .
George R. Andross married Emeline Taplin, of Corinth Vt. He has a nice residence in this village; is engaged in the mercantile business, and Mrs. Andross keeps a mil- liner's establishment.
John Barron, the youngest member of this family, has his residence in Boston, and his business in connection with a mercantile house there.
Captain John Andross, the grandfather of these child- ren of Captain T. R. Andross, died, as has already been said, in March, 1813. His widow, Rebecca (Barron) An- dross, united with the Congregational church here in 1817, and lived thenceforth in accordance with her pro- fession. In 1820 she was married with Amos Fisk, a worthy man, of Middlesex, Vt., who came and made his home with her, here. On the 22d of March, 1847, at the age of seventy, she came to the close of her useful course on earth, and peacefully passed away, by Divine grace
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beautifully sustained and comforted. May her children emulate her virtues, and in due time meet her, as she hoped they would, where all are holy and happy.
COLONEL JOHN BARRON AND FAMILY.
Colonel John Barron, a native of Grafton, Mass., emi- grated to Lyme, N. H., in the early settlement of that town. His first wife was Abigail Derby, of Orford, who died at Lyme, leaving an infant daughter. He married for his second wife Mehitable Rogers, of Haverhill, a sis- ter of the wife of General Absalom Peters; by whom he had a son and daughter who died in infancy, and five daughters who lived to have families of their own. Hav- ing purchased at a very cheap rate a valuable tract of land in this town, he came and settled on the same, but at what time I have not ascertained. His purchase was in the South-east corner of the township, embracing the beautiful meadow in the bow of the Connecticut River, at that place ; also the adjacent island, and land West, extending far back among the hills. He was living on the meadow at the time our National Independence was declared.
He subsequently came up to the main road, if road it could then be called, and lived in a log house on the East side of the same, near the high bank of the river, on what is now called the Waterman place. Prospering in busi- ness, in the course of a few years he built a house to be occupied as a tavern, on the opposite or West side of the road, where he lived and prosecuted the business of an inn-keeper for a long while. The house was two stories in front, one story back, and painted yellow. It has since been removed, and still stands (1868) in the near neighborhood, a little South of its old location, on the other side of the highway.
For some years the Barron family, in common with their few neighbors, were much annoyed by fear of the Indi-
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ans and Tories. At times they had to hide, as well as they could, not only their valuables, but themselves. Mrs. Barron, for safety, used to conceal her pewter dishes in some sly place in the sand bank of the river close by. Col. John, as he was afterward called, was then Captain of a scout, under command of General Bailey, of Newbury. An alarm on a certain occasion being given that the Indians and Tories were coming, he rallied his men, only six in number, and went forth, with others from the vicinity, as far as Wil- dersburg, now Barre, to meet the enemy ; and lay there in ambuscade, waiting for them for three days ; but they did not come. It was said Jacob Fowler, a hunter, gave them warning, so that instead of pursuing their object to burn Newbury, they turned further North, and burned Lancas- ter, N. H.
On this or a similar occasion, a Mr. Young, of Pier- mont, came and informed Mrs. Barron that the Indians were lurking around and she had better be on her guard. She advised him to go directly home, get his gun, and join the scout. This he seemed quite reluctant to do, when the heroic woman said, with decision, " Well, Mr. Young, bring your gun to me, and stay and take care of my children, and I will join the scout."
Mrs. Whitelaw, a daughter of Colonel Barron, in addi- tion to the above, related to me the following anecdotes. She said the first school she ever attended was in her father's barn, and taught by Mary Rogers, who subse- quently married General Absalom Peters; and that dur- ยท ing school hours one day an unruly heifer broke into the barn floor, among the scholars; when their mistress, with great energy, seized the little ones and threw them over into the bay, so that no great harm was done.
Her father, Mrs. Whitelaw said, had the first chaise ever owned in this place, and when she was seventeen years of age, which was in 1798, she used to ride in it to a little school which she was teaching in a corner of a
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house which Deacon Hardy subsequently long occupied, at the North end of Bradford village. That house, with a large addition to it, is still standing. She further said that she was the first female who rode in a chaise from Newbury Street to Ryegate ; that she was then in com- pany with Mr. afterwards Judge Noble, of Tinmouth, and that their carriage attracted as much attention as would an elephant passing along.
Mrs. Whitelaw informed me that her father influenced the Vermont Legislature to pass an act that the " Squat- ters," as the first settlers on the Hazen land, a tract ex- tending through the West part of this town, were called, should be quieted in their possession, by paying to the proprietors two shillings on each acre that they claimed. But the proprietor, disliking the low price, refused to re- ceive anything short of hard money in payment ; which he knew the poor people had not, and supposed they could not obtain: They applied in their trouble to Colonel Bar- ron, offering him one half of their land if he would save for them the remainder. Certain men who were expected to share with Barron in this speculation, in almost the last extremity failed him ; designing, as he suspected, to get the entire profit to themselves. This roused him to make a strenuous effort. He went to Colonel Freeman, of Hanover, N. H., and obtained from him letters of rec- ommendation to men of means in Portsmouth ; and by riding day and night, he succeeded in getting back with his specie in season to accomplish his object. She said she remembered well that her father's saddle bags were so heavy with hard money that, though a grown girl, she could not lift them from the floor ; and that her father , gave Colonel Freeman a lot of land for his kindness in the affair. This lot is understood to be the one on which Deacon Colby afterwards long lived.
Another incident worthy of remembrance, is that while Colonel Barron was, on a certain occasion, returning, in
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company with other soldiers across this State, during the Revolutionary war, one of the men, an Esquire Dutton, of Chelmsford, Mass., fell dangerously sick. There was no prospect that he would ever be able to go any further. Barron, moved with compassion, remained with him; act- ing the part of a faithful friend, while the rest of their company went on. When the invalid had so far recover- ed that he could with safety be left in the family of a well disposed farmer, his friend came away. The gentle- man recovered : and through life felt and expressed the deepest sensation of gratitude and friendship towards the benefactor who had been so kind to him in a time of peculiar distress. He remembered even the place, which was Cavendish, with so deep an interest that he pur- chased there a farm, and made it his residence during the remnant of his days.
When this town was first settled, there was a heavy growth of pine trees in the eastern part of it, and espe- cially on what is now called the Lower Plain. Many of them grew on the tract of land owned by Col. Barron ; and I have been informed by some of the aged people that, after the close of the Revolutionary war, he and Gen. Morey entered into a contract with three French- men, to deliver to them in the Connecticut river, oppo- site to Barron's house, one hundred masts, with, no doubt, a due proportion of smaller timber for yards and booms, for the royal navy of France, to be floated down the river to Middletown, where they were to be put on board of ships, and transported to that country. Pine trees were then plenty and money scarce. Sticks of timber sixty feet long were estimated by their average diameter at the rate of twenty-five cents an inch. According to this rule a mast sixty feet long and thirty inches in diameter would come to but seven dollars and a half. One giant mast, one hundred and sixteen feet long and forty inches in diameter, was thus delivered. This huge pine trunk
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at the above rate would be estimated at not quite twenty dollars. Surely the price of lumber has greatly changed since that day.
These great trunks of trees were brought by numer- ous men and strong teams to the high bank of the river near Barron's residence, and on set occasions, of which due notice was given, there would be a great gathering, not only of men, but of women and children, to witness the log rolling. To see these heavy logs roll rapidly down the steep declivity and dash into the river, throw- ing it into a violent agitation, was not a little exciting. But as times of high glee are apt to end in some disaster, so was it in this case with one of the lively French con- tractors, who on returning home is said to have been hanged on the yard arm of his vessel, for some attempt to defraud the government, of which he had been found guilty.
Col. John Barron took a very active part in procuring a charter of the town of Bradford, and for four years rep- resented it in the State Legislature. He was also a dele- gate with Esquire Chamberlin to the Convention held at Bennington in December, 1790, to deliberate on the adoption of the proposed Constitution of the United States. He took a lively interest in promoting the pros- perity of this town, and was generally regarded as a man of energy and influence. The Council, gathered from churches near and remote, for the ordination of the Rev. Gardner Kellogg, was convened and accommodated Sept. Ist and 2d, 1795, at his house.
Col. Barron died at Bradford on the 14th of March, 1813, in the 69th year of his age. "Spotted Fever" was fearfully prevailing, and on the occasion of his funeral three other corpses were carried into the meeting-house. with his. One was that of Capt. John Andross, who was a son-in-law of Barron, another the corpse of Mrs. Ford, a sister of Capt. Andross, the third a child of a Mr. Hoyt.
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The sermon on this peculiarly sad occasion was preach- ed by the Rev. David Sutherland, of Bath, N. H.
With regard to the family of Col. Barron, I would fur- ther say that his wife, Mehitable Rogers, died Oct. 30, 1803, aged 49 years ; and his daughters married respect- able men, as follows: Abigail married Elias Cheeney. She died March 9, 1813, and he the next day, and both were buried at the same time in one grave. Rebecca married Capt. John Andross, and after his decease Amos Fisk; Mehitable married Robert Whitelaw, Esq., of Rye- gate ; Mary, Timothy Farrar, of Lebanon, N. H .; Relief, William Niles, Esq., of West Fairlee ; and Hannah, Dr. Jacob Goodwin, of Colebrook, N. H.
GENERAL MICAH BARRON AND FAMILY.
Micah Barron was born in Tyngsborough, Mass., March 26, 1763. He was a nephew of Colonel John Barron, who was an early and distinguished inhabitant of this town, and was probably induced to come this way on his uncle's account. His wife's maiden name was Elizabeth Pearson, a discreet, good, and very estimable woman. They came here with a view to permanent settlement February 2, 1788. He had, for two years before, been engaged in lumbering on the Connecticut River, a business which he followed for some time after. Pine trees, all along on the banks of this river, in the Coos country and northward, were then large and abundant, and it was with the early settlers a great business to get their trunks into the river, to be floated down and sold for ship timber, or to be con- verted into boards and shingles for building houses. The business of building flat-bottomed boats for the convey- ance of prepared lumber to market, and to bring up salt, rum, molasses, iron, and other heavy articles of merchan- dise in return, was early undertaken and continued for many years. To descend the river was comparatively
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easy, but to return, forcing the boat along against the current with oars and pike-poles, was hard work. To go in this way from Bradford to Hartford, Conn., a distance, by the river, of some two hundred miles, was a labor of some four or five weeks. But " Colonel Mike," as he was afterwards familiarly called, was a man of too much spirit and ambition to wear out his life in such dull and labori- ous navigation.
Writing the above paragraph vividly recalls to mind an anecdote once related to me by Mr. Moody Clark, which I think deserving of a place in this connection. He said as he and a Mr. Kennedy were once going down the river on a boat or raft, I forget which, they fell into a discus- sion of the difficult subject of predestination and free agency. The latter maintained that since the Almighty had pre-determined all things, no effort of man to secure any good, either in this life or that to come, can be of any real advantage; that those who are to be saved will be, and those who are to be lost will be lost, let them do what they may. Admitting the fact of predestination, Clark was not willing to allow the necessity or justice of the above conclusion, but insisted that in the divine plan means and ends were as closely united as if all depended on man's free will and efforts. While thus arguing, as thousands have done before and since, they were driven to a very logical and just conclusion, as follows :
K. " Well, we are coming near the falls."
Clark pays no attention.
K. "I say we are coming near the falls, and must pull hard to get into the canal."
Clark, still apparently indifferent, replies, "If we are to be saved we shall be, and it is of no use to make any effort."
K. "Why do you talk so like a, fool? Take up your oars, instantly, and pull hard, or we shall go over the falls as sure as fate ! "
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They both exerted themselves, brought their craft into the canal, and were let safely through the locks into the smooth water below.
" That," said Clark, " is the way. We were predestin- ated to be saved, but you see we had to work hard to secure it, after all."
We return from this digression. Micah Barron, leav- ing the river, entered into mercantile business, and from an humble beginning carried it to a commanding extent. His first store was in Bradford village, a little North of the corner where you turn to the right to go up " Goshen road," on the eastern border of what is now Mr. Low's garden. The side of the building next to the street was two stories high ; the West side was but one. The base- ment and room directly above were for the store, and the remainder of the building for the accommodation of the family. He afterwards built the large and commodious house, a little further North, which has long been the res- idence of Asa Low and family ; and so extended his busi- ness that at one time he had not only a store in this vil- lage, but one on the line between Bradford and Newbury, near the present site of Goshen meeting house, one in East Topsham, and one in East Corinth. The result seems not to have been very favorable, and in the decline of life his circumstances were rather straitened.
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