USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Norwich > A history of Norwich, Vermont > Part 15
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his farm in Norwich and borrowed money extensively there, and then removed to Chelsea and there built a house with the borrowed money ; soon he made over his property to his son, D. Azro A. Buck, was discovered by his Norwich creditors to be insolvent, and was im- prisoned in jail; his son became his bondsman, and he was given the freedom of the jail limits, and died in that condition; that he prac- tised his profession but little after removing to Chelsea, and was de- ranged during his last years. The house that he built in Chelsea is still standing, and is one of the old substantial houses of the village.
Mr. Buck was married to Content Ashley, of a respectable family of Norwich, September 22, 1786. Of this union eleven children were born previous to 1809, of whom seven (four sons and three daugh- ters) were then living. The graves of the other four may be found in the old graveyard close by the family home. Mr. Buck himself died at Chelsea August 16, 1816. His remains sleep in the village cemetery there, marked only by a plain slab, giving simply name, age, and date. His age was sixty-two years.
HONORABLE D. A. A. BUCK
Daniel Azro Ashley Buck, the eldest son of Honorable Daniel and Content (Ashley) Buck, was born at Norwich, Vt., April 19, 1789. He received a collegiate education, graduating at Middlebury in 1807, in the same class with William Slade and Stephen Royce, a class which is said to have contained more eminent men in propor- tion to its numbers than can be matched in the record of any Ameri- can college.
The following year he graduated from West Point Military Academy, and was appointed second lieutenant of engineers, to date from January 25, 1808. Oliver G. Burton, a native of Norwich but at that time a resident of Irasburg, was also a graduate from West Point of the same year.
D. A. A. Buck served on the northern frontier during the second war with England. He was commissioned a captain in the Thirty- first Regiment of United States Infantry, an organization composed
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wholly of Vermonters, April 30, 1813, raised for one year's service. Ethan Burnap of Norwich was captain of a company of the Thirty- first and his brother, Calvin Burnap, lieutenant. At other times during the war, Mr. Buck served as an officer of artillery, and in November, 1812, was appointed major in a volunteer corps by the Vermont legislature, though it is doubtful if he ever accepted this appointment.
At the close of the war he left the military profession, studied law with his father at Chelsea, Vt., and for the ensuing twenty years was a prominent figure in public affairs in Vermont. During this period he represented Chelsea fourteen years in the state legislature, five years of which he served as speaker of the house. He twice resigned his position as speaker to accept an election to the national legislature, in which he represented Vermont in the Eighteenth and Twentieth Congresses (1823-25 and 1827-29). He is said to have been one of the best presiding officers that ever sat in the chair of the Vermont assembly. Out of twenty-one consecutive years following 1815 there were but two (1830-31) in which he was not a member of some legislative body. He was also, during this time, state's at- torney of Orange County five years, presidential elector in 1820, a general in the militia, and a high official in the Masonic order in the state. In 1836, he removed with his family to Washington, and ac- cepted an appointment as clerk in the Indian bureau of the War de- partment, in which city he died December 22, 1841.
Daniel A. A. Buck is remembered as a gentleman of the old school, of graceful and easy manners, popular address and a fluent speaker. He probably was less eminent as a lawyer than his father and as a congressman relatively less prominent. He served in the Eighteenth Congress on the committee for public expenditures, and in the Twell- tieth on that of military affairs. He made a speech in the house in favor of abolishing the office of major-general of the army, and against the appointment of a Board of Visitors to West Point, and detailing the history of that institution. It would seem as if his mili- tary training and experience had not impressed him favorably to- wards the academy or its management. On the election of President by the house of representatives, in 1825, he voted with the Vermont delegation in giving the vote of the state to John Quincy Adams.
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Like his father, he was a Federalist in politics, and favored pro- tective duties, voting for the tariff of 1828, although taking no part in the debates over that measure in the house. Like his father, too, he was addicted to strong drink, became dissipated in later life, and finally filled a drunkard's grave. Although hardly come to middle age and the time at which most men reach the maturity of their powers, he had doubtless seen the height of his influence and repu- tation some time before his removal to Washington in 1836. When Mr. Buck first went to Congress in 1824, his college classmate at Middlebury, William Slade, was serving as clerk in the State de- partment at Washington. Soon after the expiration of Mr. Buck's congressional life, Mr. Slade began (in 1831) a period of twelve years' continuous service in the same body. In 1836, therefore, the respective positions of the two men were exactly reversed, Mr. Buck being at that time a government clerk-a position he soon lost because of incorrigible intemperance-while Slade was just be- ginning a course of wide and honorable public service to state and country, continuing thenceforward for a full quarter of a century.
In sketching thus briefly the career of these two men, the elder and the younger Buck, one cannot fail to note the sad commentary furnished in their lives on the strength of the passion for drink to wreck the prospects and blast the happiness of the strongest minds. The father, imprisoned for debt, dies in poverty and disgrace upon the jail limits of Orange County. The son, expelled for drunkenness from a petty government office, is supported by his faithful wife in his last years, by keeping boarders at the capital of the nation, where both himself and father had for many years represented Vermont in the halls of Congress. Vermont, that loved to honor them in their younger and better days, will yet drop a tear of sorrow over their untimely and dishonored graves .*
Of the large family of children born to Daniel Buck in Norwich, nothing further is known. So far as ascertained, none of his descend-
*D. A. A. Buck was buried in the Congressional burying ground at Washington, the Vermont delegation in a body attending his remains to the grave. By the influence of the Vermont delegation in Congress, he was more than once restored to his clerkship, after dismissal on account of his intemperate habits, on his solemn promise to reform. [So wrote Honorable Hiland Hall in February, 1885, almost ninety years old, and member of Congress from Vermont 1833-1843].
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ants have remained in the vicinity as permanent residents. Four chil- dren at least, we are told, of D. A. A. Buck survived him at Washing- ton, two sons and two daughters. One of the sons, of brilliant promise, died while comparatively a young man. The second, Daniel by name, was many years a clerk there, where he was remarkably efficient and useful to congressional committees as he was able to find readily any- thing wanted belonging to the library or archives of Congress. For his valuable services in this direction he was kept in office by the Vermont delegation when he would otherwise have lost his place; for he, too, inherited or possessed the fatal family appetite for spirituous liquors. He lived for many years with a maiden sister in Washington, but both are now deceased. The other sister, married and residing somewhere in the West, is supposed to be still living.
THE BUSH FAMILY
Captain Timothy Bush, the progenitor of this family in town, came to Norwich in the early days of its settlement (from what place is not known). He married Deborah House, and they had ten children (five of whom were born in Norwich), viz., John, Barzilla, Timothy, Fair- banks, Alexander, Bela, Harry, Nathaniel, Mary, who married Na- thaniel Seaver, and Lavina, who married Doctor Hamilton of Lyme, N. H.
Captain Bush appears as a voter in town in 1772, and March 9, 1799, he was chosen one of the board of five selectmen. He was prominent in town affairs till about the time he removed to the State of New York (about 1809), where. it is reported, he died in 1815. It is cur- rent with some persons that he ended his days here in Norwich and that he was buried in the old graveyard near the mouth of Pompanoosuc river, but no gravestone can be found to indicate his burial there.
When Captain Bush located in Norwich it was in the Pompanoosuc section of the town, where he became an extensive landowner.
He was one of the original proprietors of the town of Orange, Vt., chartered by the state in August, 1781. His son, John, with Paul Brigham, Nathaniel Seaver, John Hibbard, Elihu White, and John White, were other Norwich men who were proprietors of that town,
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and his sons, Fairbanks and Timothy, Jr., were among the early set- tlers of the place, the former being elected selectman and also lister on the first organization of the town, March 9, 1796.
What follows will show how Captain Bush served his state in a military capacity. We are allowed to copy from a private letter the following information which the writer obtained from the Adjutant General's office at Montpelier, Vt. :
"From a pay-roll of Captain Timothy Bush's company in Colonel Joseph Marsh's regiment, it appears that Timothy Bush served as a captain one month and twenty days from August 16, 1777, and re- ceived £5-1-8.
"Also, we find that Timothy Bush served as a captain four days in 1777 to assist the Strafford people in their retreat, and received £2-0-0.
"And under the direction of Major Whitcomb, January 21, 1780, it appears that Timothy Bush served as captain one month and twenty- five days, and received £15-6-8.
"Also under the direction of Colonel Peter Olcott at the time the enemy came to Royalton, October 16, 1780, Captain Timothy Bush served three days, and received £1-9-4.
"And from a pay-roll, Captain Timothy Bush's Company of Militia, employed in guarding and scouting at Strafford at the time of the alarm at Newbury, under Colonel Olcott, served seven days, and re- ceived £2-1-4.
"And Timothy Bush served one day in 1781, and received £0-8-8."
FAIRBANKS BUSH
It is probable that this son of Captain Timothy Bush came to Nor- wich with his father when the latter settled in town. His place of birth is not known to us. He first appears as a voter in town in 1807. He married Amy Yeomans.
Previous to 1796 he removed to Orange, Vt., but later returned to Norwich, where he died February 24, 1873, lacking but twelve hours of having rounded out a life period of one hundred years.
Fairbanks Bush was Norwich's minstrel poet. We are told that the spirit of our modern age is unfavorable to poetry. However that may
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be, the poetical temperament and endowment are still found among men-the poet is still born in the world.
Among our own townsmen, Mr. Bush was endowed in some degree with the poetic gift. As being a natural musician also, his poetry for the most part took a lyrical shape, which is everywhere the earliest and simplest artificial form of poetical composition. "Lyric poetry is made to be sung, and is song in its nature and essence." Mr. Bush was accustomed to sing his own verses very often from memory. Many that he composed and sung were never committed to writing, and con- sequently have been lost beyond recall. We give in the latter part of this book a few specimens of the style and scope of his verse.
As has so often been the case with the noble fraternity of the poets, fortune did not always smile upon the lot of Mr. Bush. Perhaps he had not worldly thrift; clearly his affairs were often involved in diffi- culty. The insatiate creditor, with his ally the sheriff, dogged his footsteps; evidences of which the reader will find in his verses. But though poverty may have clouded his life, there is no proof that his temper was soured or ever gave way to misanthropy. His pent up feelings found relief in song. He once wrote a cutting lampoon upon a Hartford lawyer who had sued him out of town. It happened that the attorney fell sick, and soon after died, from which the saying arose that he died of vexation-the effect of Bush's poem.
In his personal conduct he was exemplary. He was among the earliest of his townsmen to denounce the crime of slavery. There is reason to believe that the author of "Norwich Wears the Bell" had thought and felt deeply concerning the falling off in the standing and repute of the town from the standard that prevailed in its early days. The movement of the verse is sprightly, but the undertone is sad. The innovations which he sees creeping into Norwich society are not cre- atures of his imagination, but public scandals, deserving the reproba- tion of all good men.
PROF. GEORGE BUSH
George Bush, one of the most eminent Biblical scholars and Ori- entalists of his time in America, was born in Norwich, Vt., June 12,
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1796, a son of John and Abigal (Marvin) Bush, and grandson of Capt. Timothy Bush.
The boyhood of George Bush was mostly passed in Hanover, N. H., whither his father removed when he was quite young. The son gave early indications of superior intelligence. His eldest sister says "he had a ravishing love of books from her first remembrance of him." He frequented the College library at Hanover and would bring home ponderous volumes-almost as large as he could carry. Old residents remember him riding to mill on horseback with his face hidden in the pages of an open book that he held before him. At the age of nineteen he entered Dartmouth College, graduating in 1818 with the valedictory and the highest honors of his class, which was of more than average ability, containing among others such scholars as Professor William Chamberlain of Dartmouth College, and the late Professor Thomas C. Upham of Bowdoin College. During a part of his college course, Mr. Bush was a private tutor in the family of Honorable Mills Olcott, and there probably was formed an intimate friendship between himself and Rufus Choate of the class of 1819. The two young men chummed together during the college course, and Mr. Choate ever after kept a high regard for and estimate of his college friend. After teaching one year in the Orange County Grammar School at Randolph, Vt., Mr. Bush commenced the study of theology at Princeton Seminary, where he graduated in 1821, in the same class with Albert Barnes. He re- sided one or two years afterwards at Princeton as tutor in the College of New Jersey, preaching occasionally in various places in the vicinity, and in 1824 went west on a missionary trip, which resulted in his set- tlement the following year over a Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, Ind., where he remained three or four years.
In 1823, he married a daughter of Honorable Louis Condict of Morristown, New Jersey, by whom he had one son, who died at the age of twenty-nine years-Mrs. Bush dying in 1828 or 9, and diffi- culties with the Presbytery having arisen as to the soundness of the young preacher's views in regard to the Presbyterian form of church government, the pastoral relations with the church were dissolved and Mr. Bush returned to the East and soon after established himself in New York City, where he remained for more than twenty years de- voting himself to authorship, lecturing, and scholarly pursuits,
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In 1831, Mr. Bush was made Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Lit- erature in the University of New York, and the next year he published "The Life of Mahomet," his first book, it being Volume X of Har- per's Family Library. In 1833, the "Treatise on the Millennium" appeared, and in 1835 his "Hebrew Grammar." His "Commentaries on the Old Testament," which went through many editions, were brought out in 1840. "The Doctrine of the Resurrection" followed in 1845. "Mesnier and Swedenborg" in 1847. His last book, "Priest- hood and Clergy Unknown to Christianity," the most radical and un- popular of all his works, was published in 1857. Several minor pub- lications of transient interest also followed at various times, and he was always a frequent contributor to periodicals and newspapers. The substance of several of his books was first given in the form of lectures in several cities and towns in New York and New England.
For several years prior to 1845, Professor Bush had been slowly drifting away from the orthodox theology in which he had been edu- cated, and eventually embraced the doctrines of Swedenborg. From the time of his adhesion to the Swedenborgian or New Church, his old friends and associates in the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, with few exceptions, immediately gave him the cold shoulder. One of the exceptions was Rev. Asa D. Smith, then pastor of a Presby- terian Church in Brooklyn, N. Y., and for many years after President of Dartmouth College.
It is impossible not to feel great respect for Professor Bush-both for his head and his heart, for his intellect and great learning, and for his character and life.
He died September 19, 1859.
PAUL BRIGHAM
Hon. Paul Brigham, son of Paul and Catharine (Turner) Brigham, born in Coventry, Conn., January 17, 1746; married, October 3, 1767, Lydia Sawyer, of Hebron, Conn .; came to Norwich from Coventry. in the spring of 1782, bringing his family with him, all of his children having been born in Connecticut. In 1788, he built the house on
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"Brigham Hill," for many years occupied by his great-granddaughter, the late Miss Louisa D. Brigham. The farm had been previously owned and occupied by Elihu Baxter.
In what esteem Mr. Brigham was held by the people of his adopted state and town, is shown under appropriate heads in other places in this volume.
CAPTAIN PAUL BRIGHAM IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY, JUNE- AUGUST 1777.
Mr. Brigham served four years as Captain in the Continental Army in a Connecticut regiment commanded, first, by Colonel Chandler and afterwards by Colonel Isaac Sherman. He entered the Army Jan- uary 1, 1777, and was discharged April 22, 1781. A portion of the time he served under the immediate command of Washington, and was engaged in the important battles of Germantown, Monmouth, and Fort Mifflin. He was enlisted by General McDougal from Coventry, Conn., and his regiment seems to have been largely composed of men from that section of the State.
We have been privileged to read a fragment of a diary kept by Cap- tain Brigham during a part of his army service above the "High- lands," which does not cover the time when any of the above named battles were fought (at that time the portion of the army to which he was attached was serving on the Hudson River), and is made up of brief mention of incidents of camp life, regimental and brigade drills, marchings and counter-marchings along the banks of the lower Hudson River near the Highlands where the portion of the American Army to which he was attached was doing guard duty, their immediate object being to prevent Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander in New York, from uniting with General Burgoyne at that time moving south- ward from Ticonderoga. This record shows Captain Brigham to be a good soldier and a true patriot, zealous for his country's cause and ever interested in promoting the health and well-being of the men of his command. Officers who were in the late war will not fail to note some things that will remind them of their own experience of camp life eighty years later. The record opens abruptly :
Paul Brigham, Sr., was married to Catharine Turner July 1, 1741. He died May 3, 1746, aged twenty-eight years, His father died when the son was but a few months old,
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"June 23ª, 1777. Struck tents about 4 o'clock p. m., and began our march back again for Peekskill. Marched back as far as the church and encamped.
"June 24. Colonel Courtland had two men whipped 100 stripes for stealing, each one of which was drummed out of camp.
"June 25. Began our march for the river. I was so much unwell that I got a horse and rode on before the Brigade. Had a sick day, but by night the brigade came to the ferry, where we encamped that night.
"June 26th. Crossed the [ Hudson] river. The Brigade marched to the Grand Parade and stayed that night, but I stayed behind with Captain Mattocks at the landing.
"On the 27th the brigade marched and encamped on a high hill one mile above Captain Drake's battery. I remained so much unwell that I got liberty to go one mile out of Camp to Mr. Graylocks', where I stayed 7 or 8 days. Mr. Sill stayed with me.
"July 4th. I went into camp and found we had orders to be mnus- tered.
"On the 5th I went after the Judge Advocate to come and swear a number of men that had not taken the oath. Lt. Brigham arrived with some men that belonged to my company.
"July 9th. This day heard that the enemy had got possesion of Ti- conderoga. Last night being dark and rainy, 2 prisoners made their escape from the Provost Guard where Captain Mattocks had com- mand.
"12th. To our grief the bad news of our defeat at the Northwest was confirmed. This day Col. Chandler joined the regt.
"Sunday, 13th. News came that our army was retreated to Fort Edward without a tent to cover them.
"14th. I went down as far as Peekskill, and when I returned I learned that Paul Haradon was dead. He was the second man that I have lost out of my Company.
"15th. This day Eng" House came to see me and informed me that my family were well. Had intelligence that Gen. Washington was at Pumpton with a considerable part of his Army.
16th. This day the Regt. exercised, and as Capt. Mansfield's Com- pany was exercising, one of their field pieces accidentally [exploded].
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The fire caught one man's powder box and blew him up and burnt him very much.
"July 17th. I saw at guard mounting a negro whipped 100 stripes for aiding and assisting the enemy-in driving off cattle to them. Like- wise heard that our troops at Fort Stanwix had taken a great number of prisoners. In the p. m., went on the Grand Parade and saw Cols. Wylye's and Demming's Regts. manœuvre.
"18th. On the Grand Parade I saw 3 men whipped each a hundred lashes for desertion. In the p. m., the Regt. was reviewed by Gen. McDougal and I thought made a very good appearance.
"19th. This morning I went down to Gen. Varnum's headquarters, to carry a report to Maj. Hoyt. In the evening I was warned on guard.
"20th. I went on Grand Parade and from thence with my guard to the church near King's Ferry, where I relieved Maj. Johnston. This day Lord Sterling's Division crossed the river and went up to- wards Peekskill.
"21st. After I was relieved I marched home. Rec'd a letter from my family informing me they were all well. Gen. Sullivan's Division crossed the river this evening and encamped on the Grand Parade.
"23₫. Lord Sterling had a man hanged as a spy at Peekskill Land- ing.
"25th. Visited the sick in the hospital and the prisoners in the Provost Guard.
"27th. Last night Sam1 Allen of my Company died.
"28th. News from New York that the enemy had gone from there on some expedition.
"'30th. Had Paul Haradon's clothing appraised and delivered to his brother, David H. Had orders to be ready to cross the river next day. Rec'd some shirts for my Company.
"31st. Sent our baggage across the river. Rec'd some wages.
"Aug. 1st. Capt. Hide and Lt. Adams were discharged the service.
"Aug. 2d. Sent our sick to the hospital and prepared to march. Toward night we marched as far as Verplanks and pitched our tents very late in the evening.
"Aug. 3ª. Got ready as soon as possible and crossed the river, Marched about 4 miles but the rain stopped our further march.
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"On the 4th had counter orders and began our march back-crossed the river again. A flag of truce from New York arrived as our troops were crossing, to obtain a pardon for Edward Palmer, who was to be executed this day. Returned back and encamped on our old ground. I went up to the hospital to visit the sick-had a wet night.
Aug. 5th. I went back to Verplanks to see how Joseph Kingsbury did, as he was left behind. Found he was a little better.
"Aug. 6th. The camp was visited this morning by Gen. McDougal. About 11 o'clock I went with a number of our officers to a fine din- ner at Capt. Hart's. Returned at evening. The officers were re- quested to send their pretensions for rank.
"Aug. 7th. Visited the sick in the hospital.
"Aug. 8th. The whole Army went to Gallows Hill to the execution of Edward Palmer. The militia came in to join the army here.
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