USA > Vermont > Orleans County > Coventry > A history of Coventry, Orleans County, Vermont > Part 3
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which they saw before them. Flesh, fish, and vegetables of every kind that could possibly be used as food were con- verted to that purpose. To what straits they were reduced may be judged from the fact that hedgehogs " were made great account of" and nettles, boiled as greens, sometimes constituted the entire dinner of a family. Often it occurred that the last morsel of food in a house was consumed, while the householder neither knew where to procure more nor had the means of paying for it. Frequently the father or mother of a family was compelled to start in the morning without breakfast, go on foot to Barton, Brownington, or Derby, procure a little pittance of rye or corn, and return home, before any of the family could have a mouthful of food. One morning, Abijah Knight found that his whole stock of pro- visions, for a family of seven persons, amounted to only half a loaf of bread. His neighbor, Matthias Gorham, with a family of equal number, had no bread at all. He shared the half loaf with his more destitute neighbor, and then both of them started for Lyndon with a load of salts which they hoped to exchange for food. Mr. Knight was fortunate enough to effect his object at Barton, where he procured three pecks of corn, and about twenty pounds of fish, rice, and other groceries, all of which he carried on his back, through Brownington, to his home in the North Neighbor- hood, a distance of about twelve miles. This being done, the two families were able to make- amends for a scanty breakfast and scantier dinner by a hearty supper. This was one of many such cases.
The manufacture of "salts" was then, and, in fact, during the whole early history of the town, an important branch of business. Almost every one engaged in it more or less extensively. "Salts" were made by boiling the ley of hard-
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wood ashes to such a consistency that when cold it might be carried in a basket. In this condition they were sold to the manufacturers of pearlash. Barton was the nearest market for them. To this place they were carried sometimes on sleds, but as sleds were rare, a less expensive vehicle was usually employed. A forked " staddle" was cut down, the body of which was used as a tongue to enter the ring of an ox-yoke, and across the forked part, which was somewhat bent so as to be easily dragged over the ground, a few slats were nailed, and on these was deposited the box or basket of salts. If a horse was to be used, a pair of thills was made of poles, turned up at the hinder end like a sled-runner, and connected by strips of board. One of these vehicles seldom performed more than a single journey, the owner choosing to leave it on the wood pile near the ashery rather than to drag it home. A yet ruder mode of conveyance than either of these was sometimes adopted. A log, longer or shorter according to the quantity to be carried, was hollowed out like a trough, rounded up at the end which was to go forward, and dragged by a chain and horse. To prevent the log from rolling over and spilling its contents, a stick was inserted in the hinder end and held constantly by the driver, as one would hold a plowtail. The market value of salts was very variable, ranging from $3 to $5 1-2 per hundred pounds, but they could always be sold at a fair price and for cash. Leather, salt, flour, and other staple articles which were held for cash were freely given in exchange for salts. Sometimes they would buy what money could not. During this season of famine they were the main reliance of the people of Coventy, and had the demand for salts ceased many a family would have been brought to actual starvation.
There were some circumstances which rendered the scar-
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city of bread stuffs a less intolerable calamity than it would otherwise have been. It was a time of universal good health. Hardly a single case of severe sickness occurred that year. The rivers and brooks afforded a considerable supply of fish. The trouts, weighing three pounds and upwards, which in the early years of the town were so numerous that they might be caught by hundreds, had indeed been almost exterminated, but other species were somewhat abundant, and it was not a time to be dainty in the choice of food. Suckers sometimes constituted the entire living of a family for days in succession, and happy were they who fared as well as that. Winter, however, prevented a resort to the rivers, except in extreme emergencies, when a scanty supply of fish was caught, through holes cut in the ice. During the whole period of distress, the settlers cordially befriended each other, and rendered mutual assistance as their means allowed. Each man was neighbor to every other man. He who had little shared it with him who had none. Some who would not sell their previous years' crop of corn lest them- selves might be straitened for food, freely gave to the poor and destitute the grain which they had refused to exchange for money. By exercising the most pinching economy of food, all were able to meet the crisis; and although there was extreme suffering, and starvation seemed almost inevita- ble, not an individual perished.
In August 1816, occurred the first death by accident. Franklin Bartholomew of Brownington, a lad about twelve years of age, was going home from the pudding mill on horse- back with a grist. He had put the bridle over his head, and when near the present residence of Benjamin Thrasher, the horse took fright and run, throwing him to the ground, where
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he was drawn by the bridle and beaten by the horse's feet till life was extinct.
During the five years including 1812 and 1816, there was almost no increase of property. The grand list of the latter year exceeded that of the former by less than forty dollars. The influx of population seems also to have nearly ceased. There were fifty-one tax payers in 1812, and just the same number in 1816. Contrary to what was expectable, the year of famine was signalized by more than the usual number of marriages. Previously, marriages did not average more than one a year, but in 1816, three couples put their sufferings and sorrows into common stock.
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CHAPTER V.
Shocking death. Post-office established. Origin and progress of the village. First store, and first ashery. Fourth of July. First tavern. Settlement of West Hill. Another merchant. The first shoemaker. Settlement of Coventry Gore. First tannery.
On the 12th day of June 1818, there occurred a singular and horrible casualty, resulting in the death of Mr. George Dorr. He was in the woods alone with his oxen, drawing logs. In passing over a fallen tree the chain caught fast, and as he disengaged it, the oxen started suddenly, jerking the chain-hook into the calf of his leg just below the knee, and throwing him to the ground. He vainly endeavored to stop them by speaking to them. They went at a quick pace, drag- ging him on his back, over logs, stumps, and stones, a dis- tance of about a hundred rods to his own barn yard, where they stopped. In the mean time, the hook had worked its way down his leg, tearing the flesh from the bone, till its farther progress was arrested by the strong tendon of the heel. His whole back was covered with wounds and bruises. Surgery was of no avail, and he lingered four days in great agony, when death came to his relief.
In 1821 a post office was established, and Isaac Parker, who resided where Lebbeus Babcock now lives, was ap- pointed postmaster. Until that time, residents of Coventry had their mail accommodations at Brownington office. The
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route by which the new office was supplied had its termini at Burlington and Derby, between which points the mail was carried once a week each way, by Daniel Davidson of Crafts- bury. This was quite sufficient to meet the necessities of the people at that time, as may be judged from the fact that the whole receipts of the office for the first year did not exceed six dollars.
The town had slowly increased in population and property till, in 1821, there were about three hundred inhabitants, many of whom were in comfortable circumstances. But capital and enterprise were lacking. At that date there were only two saw-mills and those quite dilapidated; there was no grist-mill deserving the name, no store, mechanic's shop, public house, nor house of worship. There was no semblance of a village except at the Center, where there were four or five dwelling-houses, and a schoolhouse, and the roads for forty rods each way were laid one rod wider than through the rest of the town. All the trade went to Barton, Brownington, or Derby, occasioning great inconvenience and labor, and much loss of time. But a new condition of things was about to take place. At a sale of lands for taxes in 1813, Calvin Harmon and Argalus Harmon, of Vergennes, bought for $3 lots No. 41 and 107 and a part of lot No. 111. Lot No. 107 is now the site of the village. When the Harmons purchased it, it was a mere wilderness, and the level part of it was a cedar swamp. They were men of in- telligence, energy, wealth, and business habits, and all these they put in exercise to advance the interests of the town in which they took up their residence. They engaged actively in business themselves, encouraged farmers and mechanics to immigrate, and gave a powerful impetus to the prosperity of the place. Well knowing the value of such a water power
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as is furnished by the falls of Black River, they decided to lay the foundation of a village beside those falls, and to that work they now directed all their energies.
In 1821, the Harmons employed Thomas Baldwin to clear five acres of land near where the Congregational meet- ing house stands. He underlet a part of the job to Ammi Burrington, who felled the first tree in the village, and built the first house, a small log cabin, near the spot now occupied by Mrs. Mary Persons's house. Two other log cabins were built soon after, one of them on the present site of Holland Thrasher's house, the other on the spot now occupied by Loren Soper's house. Eber R. Hamilton occupied the former, and kept a boarding house for those who were employed by the Harmons in clearing and building. Jonas Cutting lived in the other, and carried on the blacksmith's business in a shop immediately adjacent to his house. These houses were built merely to subserve temporary purposes till better ones could be erected. In 1822 Calvin Harmon and his brother Daniel W. moved in and immediately commenced operations on a somewhat extended scale. A store was speedily built and stocked with merchandize. It still occupies its original site and is a part of the store of Messrs. Soper & Bean. The variety of goods was not great, but it was sufficient to supply the wants of the people, and the store was in truth a great benefit to the town, not only by furnishing articles for which the inhabitants must otherwise have gone abroad, but by providing a home market for grain, salts, and whatever else they had to sell. During the same season a saw-mill was built, on the site of the present mill.
In the fall, Calvin Harmon built a two-story dwelling house, the same in which D. P. Walworth resides. Daniel W. Harmon lived for a while in a small framed house close
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by Burrington's cabin, and afterwards built and occupied the house in which Charles Thrasher lives. An ashery for the manufacture of pearlash was built on the river bank East- wardly from the store. It fell down in a few years, and the ground where it stood has been almost entirely washed away by the river.
The anniversary of our national independence was cele- brated in Coventry for the first time in 1822. The celebra- tion took place at the Center, and George B. Ide, then a little more than eighteen years old, was the orator.
In January 1823 the first school-house in the village was built, by the voluntary contributions and labor of the inhabitants. The top of a very large hard-wood stump was leveled and smoothed to supply a solid foundation for one of the corners. In the following winter the first school was taught in this house by Loring Frost. The building, with some alterations, and additions, is now occupied as a dwel- ling by Hartford Hancock .* Eber R. Hamilton built in 1823 the house in which Jacob Hurd lives, and commenced keep- ing tavern there. Calvin Harmon built a blacksmith's shop on the river bank a little below the falls, and furnished it with a trip-hammer. It was occupied successively by Jonas Cutting, Holland Witt, Daniel Bartlett, and Holland Thrasher, and was burned April 16th, 1834.+ Calvin and Daniel Har- mon gave the land for a village common, on condition that the citizens should clear it of stumps and smooth the sur- face. They were slow in complying with the condition, and
* This school-house was used till 1835, when another was built, which is still standing just South of Hartford Hancock's house. The present school-house, one of the best in the county, was built in 1857-8, at an expense of $2500. The bell upon it was a gift from Dea. Loring Frost.
+ Mr. Thrasher then built a shop, standing partly on the ground occupied by John R. Thrasher's store and partly East of that. This was burned April 1st, 1843, and he then built the shop now occupied by him. He has been a blacksmith in the village since April 1832.
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to expedite matters, it was agreed that whoever became " the worse for liquor" should do public penance by digging out one stump. This proved to be much more effectual in clearing the land than in preventing drunkenness.
The first permanent settlement on West Hill was made in 1823 by Aretas Knight from Westmoreland, N. H., who com- menced on the farm now owned by Amos K. Cleveland. Calvin Walker had previously made a clearing and built a cabin on the summit West of Sylvester Cass's house, but he became discouraged and abandoned his improvements. When Mr. Knights first went to his farm the forest was so dense that he spent half a day in going from the village to the spot where he pitched. Calvin Harmon assured him that he would by and by see the stage passing over the same route which he had traversed with so much difficulty, and this pre- diction was fulfilled. Knights built a small house, which was for some time the only dwelling on the hill. It served as a house of entertainment for such as came to examine lands before purchasing, and a boarding house for settlers till they could build for themselves. There was quite a rapid immi- gration into that part of the town, and his house was some- times crowded to the utmost. It was inhabited several months by twenty-three individuals, eight of whom were mar- ried couples with fourteen children under seven years of age. The little building which contained so large a population is now one of Mr. Cleveland's out-houses. Tyler Knight com- menced in 1823 on the farm now owned by Moody Soper ; John M. Fairbanks and John Mills, in 1825, on the farms still owned by them. Sidney White began where John Arming- ton now lives, and Walter Bowman on the farm now owned by Dexter Wood.
In 1824 came Argalus Harmon, who bought the mills at the
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upper falls, and built a store and a two story house on the level East of Joseph Kidder's present residence. Both these buildings were afterwards taken down and converted to other purposes. The site of the house is indicated by a row of shade trees, and the store stood directly opposite. In Feb- ruary 1825, Calvin and Daniel W. Harmon sold their stock of goods to Elijah Cleveland & Co., who commenced business with a larger and more varied assortment than had before been offered for sale in this part of the country. They also sold at much lower prices than any of their competitors, and soon secured an extensive custom. Molasses was sold at a dollar per gallon, bohea tea at fifty-eight cents a pound and young hyson at a dollar and a half, loaf sugar at twenty-eight cents, brown sugar at fourteen cents, allspice at fifty cents, cinnamon at ten cents an ounce, salt at two dollars and a quarter per bushel, nails at fourteen cents a pound, pins at twenty-five cents a paper, shirting at twenty-five cents a yard, calico at prices varying from twenty-five to fifty cents a yard, and all other goods at proportionate prices. Two circum- stances conspired to enhance the value of merchandise in those days. One was the great expense of transportation, which in the case of heavy articles much exceeded the origi- nal cost of the goods. Portland and Boston were the nearest places at which merchants could supply themselves. From Portland goods were drawn by horse teams over a long and difficult road. Transportation from Boston was accomplished generally in the same way; but sometimes merchandise was sent on vessels, by New York, Albany, and Whitehall to Bur-
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lington, and thence conveyed by horse teams. Another cir- cumstance which increased prices was that goods were sold mainly on credit and for barter pay. The almost invariable terms were that payment should be made in wheat in the January following the purchases, which if the customer failed to do he was required to pay cash and interest within the succeeding year. January was always a busy month with the merchant. All the teams in the vicinity were put in requi- sition to carry wheat to market, and when ten, fifteen, or twenty two-horse teams were loaded and started for Port- land, the merchant took stage or private conveyance, and reached the city in season to sell his grain and make his pur chases so that on arrival of the teams they might immedi- ately be loaded for the return trip. If a satisfactory price could not be obtained, the grain was shipped from that place to Boston, but the former city was the place of resort in the first instance, and so continued till the opening of a railroad from Boston Northwestwardly turned the current of trade towards that city, and as the expenses of transportation diminished, the prices of goods decreased in proportion.
In June 1825, Nathaniel Daggett came to the Center and commenced shoemaking in the front room of Daniel Ide's house, (now occupied by Thomas Baldwin.) He was the first shoemaker who pursued the business as a regular trade. Others had done some shoemaking as incidental to their main employment, and one individual, John Hamilton, had " whip- ped the cat" from house to house. Daggett at once entered upon a good business. In the fall of 1826 he built a shop on the spot where the brick meeting-house now stands. In the fall of 1825, John C. Morrill built a shop in the village
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and was the first shoemaker there. His shop was afterwards converted into a dwelling-house, and is now occupied by, J. M. Vezey .* During the same year, William Miner and Amasa Wheelock commenced the business of tanning, on the site of the present tannery. They built a dwelling house and currier's shop, still standing in a dilapidated condition. The apparatus for grinding bark was efficient though simple. A round flat stone, somewhat like a millstone, about eight feet in diameter and as many inches thick, was set on edge. Through the center passed a spindle, one end of which was inserted into an upright shaft, and to the other end a horse was attached. The stone was thus made to describe a circle around the shaft, about fifty feet in circumference, at the same time revolving on its own axis, and crushing the bark between itself and the plank floor beneath.+ In 1825 Mr. Cleveland built an ashery, in which he began to make pearl- ash in December. The ashery stood just South of the " Union" blacksmith's shop. It was burned two or three years after, and another immediately built on the same spot. In the summer of 1856 the building having become ruinous, it was taken down and the materials used to make the em- bankment at the South end of the bridge.
The settlement of Coventry Gore was commenced October 7th 1825, by Archibald W. Higgins, who, with three other
* Mr. Morrill continued in business till the fall of 1827, when he was succeeded by Austin Stevens. Stevens built an addition to the shop and carried on business till the spring of 1844. In the fall of 1843, Eli Revore commenced business in the lower part of the house now occupied by H. H. Frost Esq. and continued till the winter of 1846. In August 1847, Childs Brooks commenced business, on a larger scale than any of his predecessors, and he remains in business at the present time.
+ In the summer of 1828 Messrs. Wheelock and Miner sold to Sylvester and Philander S. Rand, who carried on the business till the spring of 1831, when Syl- vester Rand sold his interest to Joseph N. Savage. In January 1834, Rand and Savage sold to Lewis Nye, and in May 1836, Jacob Hurd bought the premises and carried on the business till the spring of 1838, when Benjamin F. Herbert became proprietor and has continued until now. The tannery, with almost all its contents was destroyed by fire January 7th, 1852, but it was promptly rebuilt.
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persons, went out into the woods nearly three miles from any house, and began a clearing. They had not so much as a path to guide them, but found their way by following marked trees on the lines of lots. A log cabin was built, into which Higgins and his wife moved a few weeks after, and there they long resided without neighbors, and seeing bears much oftener than human beings. Wild beasts infested that part of the town more than any other. In those days its bore the name of " bear ridge." Higgins had many stirring adven- tures with his savage companions, fourteen of which he killed, three in a single day. One night as he was walking home from Troy a bear followed him three miles through the woods. Some of the time Higgins sung, some of the time he scolded, by which means and the help of a stout cudgel he kept his pursuer at bay, though he was not able to kill him or to drive him off. At another time he was confronted by a she bear with cubs. She stood on her hind feet and disputed his passage. Higgins was unarmed, save with such stones and sticks as were near at hand, but he maintained his position till his dog came to help him, and with that assistance he put his adversaries to flight. Bears have not yet been utterly exterminated from the Gore, though they are now quite rare. So lately as the fall of 1858, Higgins had sight of one which he thought to be the largest he ever saw .* The progress of affairs in the Gore has been quite slow. The cleared land does not much exceed two hundred acres. On this there are three dwelling houses, occupied by four families, whose whole number of members is eleven."
* In the body of the town wild beasts have not, since the settlement, been very numerous nor mischievous. Growing crops and flocks of sheep have suffered somewhat, but not extensively, from their depredations. No bear has been killed since 1831. On the 20th of January 1838, three wolves were seen, and a wolf-hunt took place. Another hunt occurred March 30th, 1839, which resulted in the killing of one wolf. Other wild animals of the cat tribe have been seen occasionally and at long intervals.
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The first death of an adult in the West part of the town was that of Mrs. Mary Hamilton, wife of Eber R. Hamilton, which took place October 14th, 1825. She was the first per- son buried in the graveyard near the village.
CHAPTER VI.
Place of town meeting established. Cabinet shop, fulling-mill, and grist-mill built. Suicide. Temperance movements. The first lawyer. Another store. Growth of the village in 1829. Meeting house built. Starch factory. Great sickness in 1843. Health and longevity. Infanticide.
At the March meeting in 1827 the town voted to hold its future meetings alternately at the Center and the village. For some years previous, meetings had been held at the Center school-house, which stood just North of Lebbeus Bab- cock's present residence ; and earlier still, at a school-house on South hill, standing in the North East angle formed by the crossing of the roads ; also at Dr. Redfield's, John Ide's, and various other private houses. They now became more per- manently located at the two principal centers of population and influence, and since September 1837 they have been held exclusively at the village. For some years the village bore the name of Harmonville, which has now gone into disuse. Its boundaries were legally established to be a circle with a radius of half a mile from the center of the common, ex- cept that Southwardly it was limited by Irasburgh line.
In the fall of 1827 John W. Mussey built the shop which is still occupied by him, and in the following spring he com- menced the cabinet business there. He was the first cabinet maker in Coventry. During the same fall, Jesse Cook, from Morristown, built a fulling-mill on the ground now occupied
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by the starch factory, and furnished it with machines for carding wool and dressing cloth .* He also built a dwelling house on the hill Northeastwardly from the fulling-mill. This house, to which a second story has since been added, is the one now occupied by Dr. D. W. Blanchard. The same year, Elijah Cleveland & Co. built a grist-mill on the site of the present mill. Grinding was commenced there in January, 1828. Loring Frost was the miller for some months, and was succeeded by Emore Dailey.+
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