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 9
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Thus ends the sad narration. We turn away from the death bed of this interesting young man with a feeling of gratitude to a merciful God, that he was not instantly killed ; that he was preserved in the exercise of his reas- on long enough to be awakened to a deep conviction of his guilt and peril ; long enough to warn those about him to shun the fatal snare in which he had been taken; and that he spent his dying breath in imploring the Divine forgiveness. Whether the hope which mitigated his dy- ing agony was well founded and sure, or otherwise, it is not our province to decide. In the final day it will be seen.
Unfortunate young man ! But a few weeks before his
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decease his well proportioned frame was full of life and vigor, his eyes beaming with intelligence ; mildness and beauty illumined his countenance ; and his mind was filled with high resolves and fond hopes in regard to his future course in the service of his country, and sharing with other military men in the emoluments and honors which she delights to bestow on her heroic and meritorious sons. His excellent mother and other relatives, as often as he visited them, received him with delight, and in his absence spoke of him with pride. But now those limbs are mo- tionless and cold; that countenance pale and ghostly, the lustre of those eyes has disappeared, and all those pleas- ing anticipations of patriotic services, and subsequent hon- ors, have been suddenly extinguished by the stroke of death-of death, not in the ordinary course of Divine Providence, but by the wanton and hateful practice of dueling ! No wonder that he, anticipating the distress which the intelligence of his melancholy death must give to the heart of her who had given him existence, who had ever cared for him so tenderly, who had early dedicated him to God, and taught him to pray-I say no wonder that he, in his dying agony, should groan out, " My moth- er! my mother !" No wonder that this. cry of distress should pierce her heart like a sharp sword, open every fountain of grief, and extort from her lips the piteous re- sponse, " O my son Charles ! my son, my son Charles ! would to God I had died for thee, oh, Charles, my son, my son !"
. May this first instance of any Bradford man being en- gaged in a duel be also the last. The remembrance of this tragical affair may, and should, make a salutary im- pression on the minds of our people generally, and es- pecially on the minds of our young men.
It is to be lamented that this young man was ever sent to learn the art of war. I believe he had at first no par- ticular taste for it, and would very willingly have been
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excused. The martial spirit, the false notions of honor, the pride in military tactics and trappings, which he there imbibed, and the general influence to which he was ex- posed, were all of dangerous tendency. May the day be hastened when all nations and individuals shall own the Prince of Peace as their supreme commander, and learn the art of war no more. The writer of this remembers that, in the days of his youth, when some young man in this Congressional District was to be recommended for . this preferment, he, not knowing of any other available way to obtain a liberal education, thought seriously of offering himself as a candidate, but was deterred by his venerable instructor in the Latin and Greek languages, the Rev. Wm. Peckles, saying to me, most impressively, " Silas, I charge you, if you do not mean to go straight to destruction, not to do any such thing."
Again we have, in the disastrous tragedy which we are reviewing, a loud warning to abstain wholly from the or- dinary use of intoxicating liquors. Hamilton, though young, was intemperate. Had he remained sober, it is not to be supposed that he would have intruded on May's retirement at that late hour and treated him so rudely. This was the immediate cause of the entire trouble which followed. O, that our young men would, one and all, take a decided stand against this most pernicious habit. If the aged and infirm might be supposed to need some such unnatural stimulus, it would still be a shame that young men, glorying in their strength, cannot feel sufficiently animated to enjoy life without resort to the same ·misera- ble expedient. The habit is not only degrading and con- temptible, but leads to manifold evils, both natural and moral, temporal and eternal. It debases the intellectual faculties, stirs up the worst appetites and passions of hu- man nature, and incites men to commit the most foolish actions, the most shameful and cruel deeds conceivable, and often plunges them suddenly into remediless perdi- 9
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tion. "Who hath woe? who hath sorrows? who hath contentions ? who hath wounds without cause ?" The lover of strong drink. Had it not been for this, the quar- rel which brought May to an untimely grave, and made Hamilton a fugitive and blood-stained vagabond in the earth, would not have occurred. Well might Solomon say, " At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." How astonishing to see men, especially young men, so fascinated by this serpent as to suffer it to glide down their throats and eat out their manhood, leaving them but miserable vestiges of what they once were, and might otherwise have continued to be. Thank God, it is- not so with all, but that among our young men are many of the excellent of the earth.
In the next place, we see here what a sad misfortune it is for a young man to be intimately associated with un- wise and wicked companions.
The challenge which May received could have done him no essential injury, had he manfully acted according to his own convictions of propriety and duty. He was naturally of a mild disposition, had been religiously edu- cated, and was not at all inclined to meet his challenger in deadly conflict. But the young officers, and other pro- fessed friends around him, urged him on. They repre- sented to him that if he refused to fight he would be stig- matized as a coward, his company be avoided by honora- ble men, and his future life be made wretched; that it was better to meet death as a hero, to fall, if that should be his lot, covered with glory, than seek to live by refus- ing to fight. They urged him to do what he said, but an hour before he went to the field, he shuddered to think of; what he knew was not only exposing him to death, but to the divine displeasure. Alas! that such incon- siderate and reckless associates should be honored with the name of friends. The most inveterate enemies could not have acted a more treacherous and cruel part. It
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was you, ve pretended patriots, who deprived his country forever of his services; it was you, ve hypocritical friends, who led him to the slaughter, and sent him reeking with blood by his own consent criminally shed to the tribunal of God. It was you, ye men of boasted honor, who have wantonly destroyed the quietude and happiness of a lov- ing family, and pierced a sister's and a mother's heart with anguish inexpressible ! Is this the nature, are these the appropriate fruits, of your style of friendship, honor and patriotism ? How true the proverb, " He that walk- eth with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed." Multitudes of young men, and of young women, too, are yearly misled and ruined through the influence of fawning and corrupt associ- ates. Of such, my young friends, beware ! beware ! Say of them, " O, my soul, come not thou unto their se- cret : and unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united." " If sinners entice thee to sin, consent thou not.".
The tragical fate of our young townsman should inspire us with due detestation of the barbarous practice of duel- ing, and lead us to consider well the means divinely ap- pointed for its utter termination.
After all that can be said in justification of dueling, as an ancient and honorable custom, abundantly sanctioned by the example of men of high distinction, many of whom, having come off safe and victorious, have been promoted by their admiring countrymen to still higher honors; or of its innocence on account of the mutual consent of the combatants to thus expose their lives ; or on the ground, in many cases, of their apparent freedom from any invete- rate malice towards each other; yet, when stripped of all disguise, it must be seen to be a truly murderous trans- action. It is always the result of a design, and always involves efforts to destroy, and that unlawfully, human life. The weapons employed in it are always the appro-
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priate instruments of death, and they are used with the utmost skill which the parties possess, for the direct pur- pose of producing this fatal catastrophe. Duelists aim with deliberate predetermination, and take the utmost pains to prepare themselves to kill each other. Their implied agreement to do so is wholly unjustifiable. The plea that they have no anger or malice towards each other, is no better than the highwayman or pirate may urge in his own defence. What anger or malice have they towards entire strangers who have never done them the least harm ? Their only object is plunder, and its subsequent enjoyment, regardless of the rights and lives of their victims. And the laws by which their nefarious business is conducted are esteemed among their respect- ive cliques quite as justifiable as the so-called laws of honor so highly respected by duelists and their advocates. The duelist unlawfully and wickedly sheds the blood of his fellow man. Why, then, should not his own, by judi- cial authority, be shed? In this case, surely, " the land cannot be cleansed from the blood shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it."
The State of Vermont has expressly declared "Every person who shall, within this state, fight a duel, and there- by kill any person, shall suffer the punishment of death." In several other states the legal penalty is the same. Now let those just enactments be universally, invariably, and inflexibly executed, and this barbarous and abominable practice must and will cease. But while such murderers and their accessories are not only suffered to go unpun- ished, but are raised to still higher stations of honorable distinction, the baleful influence of their evil examples will be extensively felt, and the earth continue to be de- filed with the blood of many, we know not how many, of our promising young men, immolated, like our Charles May, on this accursed altar of barbarism, nor how many loving families will, year after year, be filled in con-
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sequence, with anguish inexpressible. A sickly senti- mentalism in regard to the impartial execution of justice on murderers, whether in cases of dueling or of secret assassination, has so pervaded this nation that mur- ders of every sort have become fearfully common. My country, I tremble for thee ! For thus saith the Lord God: " Since thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee. I will make thee perpetual desolations. And ye shall know that I am the Lord." Many other great and mighty nations have sunk under the weight of their guilt, and of the Divine displeasure, to rise no more. May timely repentance, through reformation, and the uni- versal prevalence of that righteousness which exalteth a nation, avert our merited doom ! and secure, not only for ourselves, but for all who may succeed us, the approv- al of Him whose favor is life, and whose loving kindness is better than life.
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CHAPTER VI.
Andrew B. Peters, Esq., and Family; with Biographical Sketch of his Father, Colonel John Peters, and Others of Historic Distinction.
From a long personal acquaintance with this gentle- man, and from the history of his ancestry, by Rev. Dr. Samuel Peters, and moreover a package of interesting manuscript, put into my hand by Mrs. A. B. Peters, sev- eral years after her husband's decease, I have gathered the following facts respecting him and the Peters family.
William, Thomas, and Hugh Peters, who were brothers, emigrated from England to Boston, Mass., about the year 1634.
One of these brothers, the Rev. Thomas Peters, soon after their coming to this country was settled in the min- istry at Saybrook, Conn., where he patronized an academy, which, as Yale College, was, in 1716, removed to New Haven, an institution which has been increasing in use- fulness and honor from its origin to the present day.
Rev. Hugh Peters, a brother of the last named, was settled for about five years at Salem, Mass., then returned to England in 1640, or 1641, where he warmly espoused the cause of Cromwell and the Parliament, in opposition to Charles I, became a man of distinction and influence, and was forward among those who approved of the exe- cution of that ill-fated king. On this account, after the elevation of Charles II, son of Charles I, to the throne, the Rev. Hugh Peters, being still in England, was, by royal authority, arrested, tried on charge of high treason, and beheaded, October 16, 1660. Through his trial, and at his execution, he demeaned himself with distinguished composure and dignity, and laid down his life without ap- parent regret that he had so zealously advocated a cause which he still esteemed just, though unsuccessful. His
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widow and daughter returned to their friends in this country.
William Peters, Esq., of Boston, brother of the two cler- gymen above named, had six sons and four daughters. He lived to a great age, and died at Andover, Mass, much beloved and respected for his charities, piety, and bear-x ing. From him the race bearing the name of Peters, in New England, have mainly descended. His sons were John, Andrew, Thomas, William, Samuel, and Joseph.
William, last named, the fourth son of the emigrant, had six sons, Bernslee, Samuel, John, William, Andrew, Joseph, and two daughters.
This William, the third of the name, and a grandson of the emigrant, was killed in a battle with the Indians in Andover, leaving his widow, Mary Russell, with an infant son, named John, then but eleven days of age. This was in October, 1696.
This John Peters, when of age, removed, in 1717, from Boston to Hebron, in Connecticut, at that time quite a new settlement, and by his wife Mary, a grand daughter of the martyr, General Thomas Harrison, had a large family of sons and daughters. Distinguished among these was the Rev. Samuel Andrew Peters, LL. D., an Episcopal clergyman. He sometimes wrote his name with the middle A, and perhaps more commonly without it. He was a graduate of Yale, in the class of 1757, a classmate with Rev. Dr. Burroughs, afterwards minister of Hanover, N. H. He was a man of ability, quite an interesting letter writer, as his manuscripts show, and during the war of the Revolution a decided loyalist. On this last account he awakened against himself so much displeasure that he found it expedient to leave his native State somewhat in haste, and take a voyage to England, where he remained for several years, and occasionally in- dulged his feelings and amused the public by writing for the papers ridiculous caricatures of the laws and customs
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of the Puritans, especially those of Connecticut. He wrote also, while there or afterwards, a biographical account of his relative, Rev. Hugh Peters, who, as we have seen, was executed in England on account of his advocacy of the cause of Cromwell and his Parliament. After the war of the American Revolution was over, Rev. Dr. Peters returned to this country, and claimed to be, not only in title but in fact, "Bishop of Verdmont," as this new State was by him not inappropriately denominated. From some of his manuscript letters it would seem that, notwithstanding the course he had taken, he re- mained on friendly terms with such distinguished men as Judge Niles and General Morey, of Fairlee, the Rev. Dr. Burroughs, of Hanover, and others in this vicinity.
Margaret Peters, a sister of the Rev. Dr. Samuel, mar- ried John Mann, a farmer in Hebron, whose eldest son, John Mann, Esq., married Lydia Porter, of Hebron. The marriage ceremony was performed in the Episcopal church there, by his uncle, Rev. Dr. Peters, then its Rector, Feb- ruary 17, 1765. On the 16th of the following October the enterprising young couple set out on their journey through the wilderness, to Orford, N. H., and arrived on the 24th of the same month. They were persons of hon- orable distinction among the early settlers of that town, and raised up a highly respectable family of sons and daughters, among whom were Major John Mann, long time a merchant there, and Cyrus and Joel Mann, gradu- ates of Dartmouth, and able ministers of the Gospel of the Congregational denomination.
John Peters, Jr., who was born at Hebron in 1718, was the eldest brother of Samuel and Margaret, above men- tioned. His wife, Lydia Phelps, was a direct descendant from John Phelps, Secretary to Oliver Cromwell. They had a family of seven daughters and six sons.
Lydia, one of these daughters, married Benjamin Bald- win, Esq., subsequently one of the influential settlers of
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Mooretown, now Bradford, Vt. They here raised up a large and respectable family, of whom, more hereafter. Mary Peters, a sister of Mrs Baldwin, married. Joseph Hosford, Esq., of Thetford. Another sister, Susanna, mar- ried Colonel John House, of Norwich.
General Absalom Peters, a brother of the ladies just mentioned, was born at Hebron, Conn., in 1754. He was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1780. He married Mary Rogers, a sister of Mrs. Col. John Barron, of Brad- ford, and had a family of children of decided ability and moral worth. Among the sons was Rev. Dr. Absalom Peters, of New York, long time Secretary of the Ameri- can Home Missionary Society, a graduate of Dartmouth in 1816. General Peters and family. for many years, re- sided on a farm in Wentworth, N. H., where he took an active part in public affairs, remaining as he was during the war of the Revolution, decidedly patriotic. After the decease of his first wife, Mary Rogers, he, at the age of sixty-six, married another highly respectable lady, with whom he had been pleasantly acquainted in youth, the widow of Rev. John Gurley, of Lebanon, Conn., with whom he lived happily nearly twenty years. He died in the city of New York, April, 1840, aged eighty-six years. He was buried at Hebron, Conn., his native place, being borne to his grave by aged men, companions of his child- hood and youth.
We come now to Col. John Peters, a brother of Gen. Absalom, and the eldest son of John Peters, Jr., of He- bron. He was born there in 1740. He married Ann Bar- net, and by her had one daughter and eight sons. He emigrated from Connecticut, in the year 1765, to Thet- ford, Vermont, and from that place to Mooretown, now Bradford, in or about the year 1771. The first grist-mill in this town was built by him, in 1772. In the troubles . which soon after occurred between this country and Eng- land, and during the war of the Revolution, his sympa-
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thies were, like those of his uncle, Dr. Samuel Peters, de- cidedly with the British Government. His brother Ab- salom and some or all of the sisters were decidedly in . favor of the independence of the Colonies. This set the two brothers in strong opposition to each other, and caused an unpleasant division in the family. In conse- quence of this state of feeling, near the commencement of the war Mr. John Peters, with his family, emigrated to Nova Scotia ; and, on account of his zeal and energy as a loyalist, he received a commission as Colonel of a regi- ment styled the Queen's Rangers, whence his military title ; but how much service he rendered as an officer in the British army does not appear. After the war was over, leaving his family at Cape Breton, he went to Eng- land, to prosecute his claims on the government, and died there, at Paddington, near London, January 11, 1788, in the 48th year of his age. His uncle, Rev. Dr. Peters, was there to assist him, but the result of their appeal does not seem to have been very satisfactory. A letter from this eccentric old clergyman to Mrs. Col. John Peters, in- forming her of his death, is so interesting that I cannot forbear to insert it here.
" GROVENER PLACE, London, ) February 16, 1788.
" MY DEAR ANNA :- I now commence a correspondence with you, as heretofore I have had with your husband. Col. Peters has often written to you of the bad state of his health, and of the delays of administration, and that he was impatient of these delays and fair promises, as he was anxious of returning to you and his dear, young and tender family. His great concern was about you, and his daily prayers and last wish were for you and your children. This attention to you and your family has, no doubt, secured your love and esteem, and his happiness will, of course, be your greatest worldly comfort.
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" I am now the informer of his glorious situation ; and you, that have known that death is and will be swallowed up of life, will not complain that the great Eternal has seen fit to bestow one Beatitude on your husband which he has as vet withheld from you; and if you are just to yourself, and children, and friends, and submissive to the good pleasure of God, you will not complain that the pref- erence is given to your husband, for what he first enjoys you shall enjoy, in God's good time. News from a far country is pleasant and truly entertaining ; and to comfort you and your children with such news I write this letter. " St. Paul told his friends and hearers, You shall see my face no more. This grieved them; but they were consoled when they remembered that here we have no continuing city, but are seeking one to come, where the blessed dead shall meet and separate no more-shall see God and one another, face to face, and live forever hap- py, where time, tears, sorrow and want are never known.
" To that bright world set off Col. John Peters, your fond and tender husband, on January 11, 1788, at seven o'clock in the morning, prepared for his journey, and ar- rived before the throne of God in the twinkling of an eye ! You may wish to go to him, but he cannot wish to return to you. Consider this, my dear and lovely woman, and you will keep silence before the Judge of all, who gave, and has taken away, him whom thy soul loved. During your husband's last illness, which was the gout and rheu- matism in his breast and head, and so continued for a month, everything was done for him which physicians of knowledge could find out, but all proved in vain. His body has been decently interred in the new burying ground belonging to St. George, Hanover Square, and I have paid the expense, and all his debts in this country that I have heard of.
" I have sent every article belonging to him, in two trunks, by ship, to the care of Joseph Peters, postmaster
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at Halifax. I wish it was in my power to take care of you and your children. I will do all for you that I can. I am sorry for your distressed situation, and that of your family ; but who in this world is free from troubles ? The King, Nobles, Bishops, and Merchants, have less happi- ness than I, and the beggars of a half a crown a week. I suppose the Rebels will rejoice at the death of Colonel Peters, because they will never see him again; but I re- joice that he is dead in the Lord, and because I shall see him again. His picture, a good likeness of him in life, and in his coffin, was taken before his illness. I cut off a lock of his hair, which I intend to have put into a ring, or locket, for you and your daughter, as you shall direct. I have written to Governor Fanning to take your son Fan- ning, and bring him up as his God-son, and advise you to consent, if the Governor will do it."
Mrs. Peters, the widow, to whom the above letter was addressed, lived a good many years after her husband's decease, and died at the advanced age of eighty-seven.
Col. John Peters and wife had eight sons and one daugh- ter. ·
John, born at Hebron, Conn., lived and-died in Canada West.
Andrew B. was the next.
William, born at Thetford, Vt., December 21, 1766, was killed by a falling tree, in Mooretown, March 19, 1773. The following simple epitaph on his little gravestone is quite touching :
" Death took me hence, just as I did begin ; Thanks be to God ! before I grew in sin."
Samuel was born and died in Thetford.
Henry Moore was born at Piermont, N. H.
Edmund Fanning, born at Mooretown, was named for the Governor of Nova Scotia.
William Barnet, the seventh son, born at Mooretown, June 10, 1775, became a physician, practiced in Portland,
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Maine, and died there in the sixty-seventh year of his age.
Ann, their sister, was born in Quebec, January 18, 1782 ; married a Watson, and lived for many years in Nova Scotia. Probably died there.
Joseph Peters was born at Montreal, November 11, 1779. He subsequently resided for some years with the rest of his mother's family at Cape Breton. When of age he enlisted into the British army; was sent with the forces under Wellington into Spain ; was engaged in va- rious battles, and shared with others in the honor of the expulsion of King Joseph Bonaparte and the French from that country. He married in England, and after a long absence returned, with his family, to America. He came to Bradford and lived for a few years near his brother, Andrew B., engaged in agricultural pursuits, hav- ing willingly exchanged the weapons of war for the im- plements of husbandry. But his English wife longed for her native land; and so, taking their children and mova- bles with them, in or near the year 1843 they went back to London, where the old warrior is understood to have died, not long after.
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