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 26
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1. Timothy Ormsby, born November 14, 1799.
2. Mary, born August 18, 1802, married a Mr. Cate.
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Years after his decease she went with her son into the Western country, and at this date is still living.
3. Eliza, born October 6, 1804, married Lewis Jenk- ins, of Fairlee, and there resides, having a pleasant family and situation. She and her sister Mary when young be- came members of the Congregational church in Bradford.
4. Nancy, born February 28, 1807, married Daniel Rowe, and died at Manchester in 1870.
5. Emily, born March 20, 1809, married Sanborn Cor- liss, and lives in Missouri.
6 and 7. Charlotte and Annah died in childhood.
9. Charlotte, born July 27, 1818, married John Row- land, and settled in Topsham, Vt.
10. Joseph, born September 7, 1820, married Orissa Dickey, who died in 1850. He subsequently married a . Miss Daniels.
8. Rufus F: Ormsby, Jr., born October 7, 1815, mar. ried December 14, 1848, Mary H. Colby, daughter of Cur- tis Colby, of Bradford, where they at this date continue to reside, blessed with four daughters.
Sarah E., born December 8, 1849, married April 7, 1873, Gregory B. Durgin, of this town, where they continue to reside.
Jennie N., born January 21, 1852, married Horace P. Emerson, January 2, 1871. They have one son.
Emma M., born November 2, 1854.
Etta C., born May 8, 1857.
Mr. Rufus F. Ormsby, Jr., and family, lived for several years on the farm which his father had occupied before him, west of Wright's Mountain; but in 1860 moved to the meadow farm, which he at this date still occupies, called the Albee place, in the south-east corner of Brad- ford, and bordering on Connecticut River. In that some- what retired but pleasant location, Mr. Ormsby enjoys the esteem and confidence of his fellow townsmen, and is at this date one of the Selectmen of Bradford.
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Another son of Joseph, and brother of Rufus, the first of that name above mentioned, was Thomas Ormsby, born Jan. 13, 1784. He married Susan Leslie, of Bradford, December 4, 1806. They had four children, namely, Charity, born October 2, 1807, died September 11, 1854. Christiana, born February 2, 1810; Joseph W., born February 2, 1812, and died September 3, 1857, and Susan M., born December 11, 1815. She married Lor- enzo Tabor, Esq., of Bradford, and removed with him to Adrian, Michigan, where they at this writing are still living. See account of the Tabor family. Mr. Thom- as Ormsby was by occupation a farmer, a man of decidedly christian character, and withal quite a poet. A specimen . of his versification, styled " The Bower of Prayer;" may be seen in the last chapter of this book. He died at Bradford, May 21, 1824, in the forty-first year of his age. His widow died at Adrian, February 13, 1863.
Joseph Ormsby, M. D., a skillful physician and man of ability, who practiced for several years in Corinth, and died there, was a brother of Thomas, last named.
ORMSBY.
Robert McKinsley Ormsby, attorney-at-law in the city of New York, was a native of Corinth, Vermont. His father, Dr. Joseph Ormsby, for several years a prac- ticing physician in that town, was a son of Joseph Orms- by, of Fairlee, who was a son of Ichabod Ormsby, of Woodstock, Conn. Dr. Joseph Ormsby married Miss Mar -. tha Soule, of Piermont, N. H., October 29, 1809, and at Corinth continued to reside during the remainder of their days. They were a couple of decided talent, vivacity, and energy of character. The doctor was esteemed well read and skillful in his profession. They had a fam- ily of six sons, all natives of Corinth. Of these two died in their childhood. Thomas, the eldest son, died unmar-
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ried, in his twenty-ninth year. Rufus, the fourth son, , died some five or six years later, at about the same age.
Robert McKinsley, of whom we now propose to speak somewhat more particularly, was born June 29, 1814. On the death of his father, which occurred September 6, 1822; in the forty-sixth year of the doctor's age, this son, then in his ninth year, went to live with Mr. Ezra Childs, of Bath, N. H., where he remained, receiving the advan- tages of common school instruction, till fifteen years of age. In 1831 he attended Bradford, Vt., Academy three terms. In 1833 he went to Massilon, Ohio, where he re- mained till 1836, when he went to Louisville, Kentucky, and resided there till 1842. At Louisville he studied law with the late Hon. I. I. Marshall, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. In 1842 the death of his mother occasioned his return to Vermont. She died on the 14th of July, 1842, in the fifty-ninth year of her age, having remained in widowhood nearly twenty years.
Esq. R. McK. Ormsby opened a law office at Bradford, Vt., in 1844, and there continued in successful business for more than twenty years, when in 1866 he removed to the city of New York. The year in which he commenced business in Bradford, at the request of Mr. Asa Low, a large dealer in school books, Mr. Ormsby prepared a spell- ing book which has been used to some extent, especially in Vermont. Desirous that Mr. Webster should be nomi- nated for the Presidency in 1852, Mr. Ormsby for a short time previous to that date published in Bradford a news- paper called the Northern Enquirer, and in 1859 he pub- lished in Boston a volume of some 370 12mo. pages, enti- tled "A History of the Whig Party," a work prepared with painstaking and ability, but, like the party itself, now almost forgotten amid the tumultuous strife of later organizations. Since the publication of the work last named, the author has devoted his attention more exclu- sively to the appropriate business of his legal profession.
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On the 14th of September, 1857, Robert McK. Ormsby and Miss Lucy Jane Murphy, of Bradford, were by Rev. S. McKeen united in marriage. There have been born to them two sons and two daughters.
Edward Everett was born November 11, 1858.
Laura Arabella and Lucy Malvina, twin sisters, were born July 22, 1860. The last named died February 14, 1861.
Charles Arthur, born January 9, 1863, died April 25, 1864.
Edward E. Ormsby, when in his fifth year, was by scar- let fever rendered totally deaf. His health has since been delicate. He is a bright and pleasant boy, in whose due education his parents feel deeply interested. He'is a pu- pil in the Institute for the deaf and dumb in New York city, and his parents have established themselves so near that they can have him with them two days in a week. He is understood to be making fine improvement, and to be quite a favorite with his Principal and Teachers. Such institutions are surely among the richest blessings of the age in which we live.
John Bliss Ormsby, M. D., the youngest son of Dr. Jo- seph and Martha S. Ormsby, of Corinth, was born there January 2, 1821. Before he reached the age of two years his father died, and he remained with his mother till ten years of age, when he was taken to a friendly family in Bath, N. H., where he resided till sixteen. In 1838 he commenced work at the carding and cloth dressing busi- ness, at which he labored till 1846, when, at the age of twenty-five, he commenced the study of medicine. He entered the private class of Prof. Benj. R. Palmer, of Woodstock, Vt., and graduated at the Vermont Medical College in June, 1849. In October of that year Dr. Orms- by began practice in his native town of Corinth, and in February, 1850, he married Miss Malina L. M. Baker, daughter of Enoch Baker, Esq., of Shipton, Canada East.
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The consumptive condition of his wife rendering a change of climate necessary, he removed in 1854 to Wisconsin. In 1865 occurred the death of his wife. In 1867 his own health, under the malarial influence of that climate, hav- ing failed, he returned East, and in 1868 came to Brad- ford, where he has continued to reside, in the practice of his profession, esteemed a skillful physician, but in feeble health. He has at this writing three children, namely : Clara Martha, born March 31, 1852 ; Thomas Edwin, born April 13, 1855 ; and Robert Silas, born November 26, 1865. Dr. Ormsby is at this date (1874) President of the Bradford Scientific Society,
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CHAPTER XVII.
Deacon George L. Butler-James D. Clark-Captain Charles Rog- ers-John Flanders-David Manson-and Families.
DEACON GEORGE L. BUTLER AND FAMILY.
George Little Butler was a son of John P. and Aphia B. Butler, his wife, of Plymouth, N. H. The family of these worthy parents consisted of eleven sons and daugh- ters, among whom George L., the first, was born August 22, 1817. During his minority he remained at home with his parents, but in April, 1839, came to Bradford, Vt., and lived for some time in the friendly family of Mr. John B. Woodward, of this place. His main object in coming was to attend the Academy here, as much of the time for two or three years as he could, consistently with paying his expenses in the meanwhile by manual labor and teaching, for some part of each year. But a long and expensive sickness, in the course of the first year, with its consequent pecuniary embarrassments, compelled him to abandon that worthy object, which he has ever .. since deeply regretted. On recovering his health in a good degree, he engaged in the business of carriage mak- ing and painting, which he followed with fair success for fifteen years, when, finding the occupation too laborious for his not very firm state of health, he gave it up for that of a furniture dealer and undertaker, in which at this writing he still continues, his establishment being the next immediately south of the Trotter Hotel.
Mr. Butler was from early youth extremely fond of music, and being possessed of a good voice, and using to the best advantage his limited means and opportunities for acquiring a knowledge of that interesting science and art, he became in early manhood a competent choir lead- er and successful vocal music teacher, and was thus oc-
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cupied in his native town for two years. In Bradford and adjacent towns he taught with good success, general- ly in the winters, for twenty-five consecutive years, and led the choir of the Congregational church in this place for thirty years, without a quarrel !
Mr. Butler, enjoying in a high degree the respect and confidence of his townsmen, was elected Town Clerk in 1851, and Representative to the State Legislature in 1860-61, serving not only in the regular sessions of those years, but also in the extra session of April, 1861, in view of the impending war of the rebellion.
In youth Mr. Butler was divinely led, as he then and has subsequently believed, to consecrate himself to the blessed Saviour, and at the age of eighteen united with the Congregational church in his native town, and so continued until in 1844, July the 5th, his membership was duly transferred to the church of the same denomination in Bradford. In July, 1866, he was elected a deacon in this church, and also its treasurer, in which offices he has given good satisfaction.
In his domestic relations, Deacon Butler has been for- tunate and happy. His first wife was Miss Jane Clark, a daughter of Mr. Charles and Mrs. Harriet Daton Clark, formerly of this town. They were united in marriage October 30, 1844. Mrs. Butler had united with the Con- gregational church here the year before her marriage, and continued a beloved member during the remainder of her days. She was a kind and affectionate friend, a cheerful, loving wife, a devoted and withal truly Chris- tian mother, and in declining health and the near pros- pect of death was divinely sustained and comforted. . She died of consumption, June 7, 1855, in the thirty-ninth year of her age, leaving two children, George C. and Alice Jane, both of whom became hopefully pious in their youth, and united with the same church to which their mother had belonged.
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George Clark Butler, born December 3, 1849, was unit- ed in marriage with Miss Addie B. Taplin, of Corinth, December 3, 1872, and has subsequently been employed as clerk, or book-keeper, in a railroad office at St. Albans, Vt., where he and his wife reside. They have one daugh- ter.
Miss Alice Jane Butler, born July 1, 1851, married, December 4, 1871, Mr. John T. Cutter, Jr., a grain and flour dealer of Plymouth, N. H., and there has her home.
In the course of two or three years after the death of his first wife, Deacon Butler married, April 6, 1858, Mrs. Laura A. Eastman, an estimable widow lady of Newbury, Vt., who proved to be a great blessing, not only to him, personally, but to his children also, whom she cordially received as her own, and by them was at once and per- manently highly esteemed in filial love and confidence. Mrs. Butler is a beloved member of the same church with her husband. They at this date are happily living, as for years they have been, in their pleasant " Suburban Cottage," a little north of Bradford village, built in 1859, from a draft entirely his own.
JAMES DATON CLARK AND FAMILY.
With regard to the parentage and relatives of Mr. J. D. Clark, it may be remarked that Mrs. Lois Clark, his fa- ther's mother, became a resident of Bradford early in the present century. Her husband was a wool dealer in Bos- ton, where he died in 1802. She was left with an in- teresting family of four sons and three daughters, wor- thy of individual notice in this connection.
1. Calvin Clark, became a merchant in Boston, of the firm of May & Clark. Retired from business, he is at this time residing at Boston Highlands.
2. William Clark, removed to Alabama, and died there. His daughter, Sybil, remained in Bradford, and became 24
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the wife of Mr. J. A. Hardy. See account of the Hardy family ..
3. Thomas Clark, Esq., settled in Paris, Maine, and was for some time Clerk of Oxford County Court.
4. Abigail Clark, married William Stratton, a farmer in Winslow, Me. They have an interesting family of five sons and five daughters. She at this writing is still liv- ing.
5. Lois Clark, married David Hartwell, a respectable merchant and hotel keeper in Bradford, removed to Ala- bama, and died there. She was a member of the Congre- gational church in Bradford, and a very estimable lady.
6. Miss Elizabeth Clark, married Jesse Merrill, Esq., for many years a practicing attorney-at-law in Bradford, and for seven years, not consecutive, a Representative of this town in the State Legislature. Mrs. Merrill, after the decease of her husband, and in view of her own de- parture, bequeathed in trust to the trustees of Bradford Academy two thousand dollars, and something over, to be safely invested, and the interest annually applied to the purchase of books and apparatus for the benefit of that institution. Hence the " Merrill Library," which, already valuable, is yearly increasing. May it long continue, an honor to its worthy founder, and a blessing to successive generations of the young people who may be favored with its advantages. She died January 5, 1859, aged sixty- four.
6. Charles Clark, a brother of the above named, was for some years a merchant in Bradford, of the firm of Clark & Moore. He married Harriet Dayton, daughter of James Daton, Esq., of Orford, N. H. They had one son, James D. Clark, and one daughter, Jane, who became the first wife of Mr. George L. Butler, of Bradford. Mr. Clark, being unsuccessful in mercantile business here, went to Alabama, and after a short residence there, in de- clining health set out on a journey to his home in the
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North ; but died at Petersburg, Virginia, in or near the year 1819. His widow subsequently married Mr. Elisha Corliss, of Orford, N. H., both now deceased. They had four children. Harriet Dayton; Elisha M., who is now married and living in California; Charles, who died at the age of seven, and John, now living in Fairlee, Vt. His very estimable and pious sister, Miss Harriet Cor- liss, died at his house some years since.
Mr. James Daton Clark, son of Charles, the merchant, was born at Bradford, May 22, 1817. After his father's decease, he lived with his mother and her relatives for several years, when he went to an apprenticeship at the book binder's occupation in Concord, N. H. Thence he returned to Bradford, and successfully prosecuted that business here for a long time. During the great anti-slav- ery conflict Mr. Clark was firm and zealous for the right, and so continued until, by means unexpected, the great object was secured, and liberty proclaimed through all the land to all the inhabitants thereof. In 1861 Mr. Clark re- moved to St. Albans, Vt., and from there, in 1864, to Montpelier, where for the ten years past he has continued to reside, engaged still in his accustomed occupation.
Mr. J. D. Clark married Miss Mary Sexton, of Bradford. Her father, Major Sexton, was an officer in the troops called out for the defense of our Northern Frontier in the war of 1812. He came to Bradford in 1830, and built an iron foundry in this village, which in the course of a few years passed into the hands of Horace Strickland, Esq., and has since been successfully occupied under his man- agement. Mr. Sexton died in Bradford in 1836, leaving five children : Emeline, Philo, John, Mary, and Hiram.
Mr. and Mrs. Clark were both members of the Congre- gational church in Bradford. They had four sons, all na- tives of this town.
1. Dwight Sexton Clark, born April 10, 1841, a print- er in Boston, Mass.
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2. Charles Edgar Clark, born August 10, 1843, through the influence of Hon. Justin S. Morrill, Member of Con- gress from this district, was appointed a Cadet Midship- man to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland in 1860, and in 1863 was ordered into active service. From that time until the close of the war he was attached to the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron, under Admiral Farragut, participating in the battle of Mo- bile Bay, August 5, 1863, in the attack upon and capture of Fort Morgan, on the 23d of the same month, and in several minor affairs on the Mississippi River and the coast of Texas.
Since the war Lieutenant Commander Clark has been employed mainly on the Pacific and West India stations, and has made several short cruises on the coasts, not only of our own country, but of Europe. He has also been on duty at the Navy Yards of Brooklyn, N. Y. and Ports- mouth, N. H., and during the years 1870-1-2 and 3, was Instructor in the Naval Academy, and assistant to the Commandant of Midshipmen. He was attached to the flagship of Admiral Thatcher when Queen Emma was car- ried home to the Sandwich Islands, and to the flagship of Commodore Rodgers when that officer urged in vain the English Admiral to unite with him and prevent the bom- bardment of Valparaiso. He witnessed also the severe engagement between the Spanish fleet and Peruvian bat- teries at Callao. He was on board the United States ship Suwanee when that vessel was lost near the coast of British Columbia, July 7, 1868, and when the larger por- tion of the officers and crew were taken by Her British Magesty's ship Sparrow-Hawk from Hope Island, on which they had landed, he remained in command of the party which was left to protect from the Indians what had been saved from the wreck, until relieved by a steamer sent for that purpose by Admiral Thatcher.
Mr. Clark was promoted, October, 1863, to the grade of `
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Ensign ; May, 1866, to that of Master; February, 1867, to that of Lieutenant ; and March, 1868, to that of Lieu- tenant Commander; which position, after the lapse of six years, he still holds. He seems to have acquitted himself with honor in the various positions which he has been called to occupy, and is believed to be the only young man from Bradford who has been duly educated for office in the United States Navy. He was married April 8, 1869, to Miss Maria Louisa Davis, daughter of W. T. Davis, Esq., of Greenfield, Mass. They have two . daughters, Mary Louisa, born March 10, 1870, and Carrie Russell, born January 7, 1872.
3. The third son of J. D. Clark and wife, named George Butler, died in his infancy.
4. Grenville Loyd Clark, born October 20, 1850, has remained with his parents, and at this date is actively en- gaged, in company with his father, in the useful business of book binding, paper ruling, and blank book manufactur- ing, at Montpelier, Vt.
CAPTAIN CHARLES ROGERS AND FAMILY.
Captain Charles Rogers was a native of Orford, N. H., born October 7, 1795. His father, Nathaniel Rogers, was a descendant of John Rogers, the martyr, and his mother, wife of Nathaniel, was Eunice Allen, a near relative of Colonel Ethan Allen, of Vermont. Captain Charles Rog- ers married Permelia H. Ramsey, a descendant of the fifth generation from Mrs. Hannah Dustin, the heroic In- dian captive of New England fame. Captain Rogers re- moved with his family from Haverhill, N. H., to this town, in the spring of 1846. These parents had eight sons and three daughters, of whom all, with the exception of two, lived to the age of maturity. Five sons and two daugh- ters at this date, August, 1874, are still living.
Nearly all these children received instruction in Brad-
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ford Academy, and in the business of life have had a fair degree of success. Four of the sons, Charles, James, George and William, are lawyers. The two first named are located at Burlingame, Kansas ; George, at Eureka, in that state ; and William at Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. James was a graduate of Dartmouth College, in the class of 1851. In his adopted State he has several times been a member of the State Legislature, both of the House and the Senate, and for some years a member of the State Board of Education. The other son, Barton, is a clergy- man, now located at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Jefferson Liberal Institute, a flourishing seminary of learning, lo- cated at Jefferson, Wisconsin, owes its origin to him. In 1862, Lambard University, of Illinois, conferred on him the honorary degree of A. M.
On the breaking out of the Rebellion, Captain Rogers had six sons living, all patriotic young men, who devoted themselves to their country's service, and were all in the war at the same time. George, who enlisted as a private, was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. He was in several hotly contested battles, and several times slightly wounded. Barton served as Chaplain of the Fifteenth Illinois Infantry for nearly three years. All, with the exception of Thomas, survived the hardships and perils of the war, and lived to see the independence and integrity of our country preserved and firmly estab- lished ; he, brave fellow, lost his life in Arkansas.
As it regards the marriages and domestic relations of the sons and daughters of Captain Rogers, we are able to give only the following brief account :
Charles married Miss Fannie Clark, of Patterson, N. J. They have four sons and one daughter.
James married Mary Harper, of Sandwich, Mass. They had one son and one daughter. After the decease of this, his first wife, he married a lady from Kinderhook, N. Y.
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Barton married Miss Elizabeth C. Vedder, of Berlin, Wisconsin. They have two sons and two daughters.
George married Miss Josie Carey, of Chicago, Illinois. They have one son.
William married Miss Nettie Horton, of Bradford, Vt. They have two sons.
Thomas, who died in the army, never married.
Elizabeth, a sister of the above-named sons, married John L. Fitch, of Manchester, N. H. They had three daughters. The remains of this entire family repose side by side in the cemetery of Manchester.
Mira married Eleazer. M. Hall, of St. Johnsbury, Vt., and is settled there.
And Miss Emma is at this date still with her father in Bradford.
Mrs. Rogers, mother of this family, died December 15, 1870, at the age of sixty-nine years.
Captain Charles Rogers, at the age of seventy-nine - years, still in very comfortable health, has through life been an honest, hard working man; from the beginning of the anti-slavery movement, one of its earnest promot- ers ; and in him the temperance cause has invariably had a warm and steadfast friend. He, is still living in the nice stone cottage, the only one in this village, which he built several years ago, enjoying the kind regards of all · around him.
THE FLANDERS FAMILY.
The first settler of this family name in Bradford, was John Flanders, a son of Ezra Flanders, of Hawke, now Danville, N. H., born there January 24, 1769. He mar- ried Rebecca Pettingill, February 24, 1794. She was a native of Salisbury in that State ; born March 11, 1772. They removed to this town in 1798, and settled on the farm now owned by Thaddeus Simpson, where they lived
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for several years and most of their children were born. At the time of their settlement here on their mountain farm, flour, and all kinds of meal, were so difficult to be obtained, that for the first six weeks they lived on pota- toes and meat, without bread, when their father, Ezra Flanders, then a resident in Salisbury, N. H., sent his youngest son through the woods and new settlements, the distance of some seventy miles, on horseback, with two bushels of corn, for their relief. Let us not in these days complain of hard times. Mr. John Flanders and wife had a family of four sons and three daughters, namely :
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