USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Norwich > A history of Norwich, Vermont > Part 6
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The town of Norwich does not appear to have been at all suited with the project of building a toll bridge. At its annual town meeting, March 8, 1796, it was voted unanimously, "that we wish there might be a free bridge built over the river Connecticut at the ferry at Doctor Lewis'; and in case we cannot have a free Bridge built there, we rather have a ferry kept there than to have a toll bridge built." A committee,
*The Lyman Bridge between Hartford and Lebanon was commenced in 1797 and completed in 1802; that between Fairlee and Orford the same year; between Newbury and Haverhill in 1806; Cheshire Bridge, 1805 ; betweeu Westminster and Walpole, 1807; Brattleboro and Hindsdale, 1804; Lyme Bridge, 1822; Gilbert's Bridge, 1839 .- The Con- necticut River was bridged at Hartford, Conn., as early as 1777. Charles River was first bridged between Boston and Charlestown in 1786. Cambridge Bridge was completed in 1794, and Craigie's Bridge a few years later.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH
consisting of Captain Joseph Hatch, Doctor Joseph Lewis and Colonel David Curtis, was at the same time chosen "to open subscriptions for the purpose of receiving any sum or sums of money or obligations for the express purpose of building a free Bridge over the river Connecti- cut near Doctor Joseph Lewis'." This committee was also directed "forthwith to apply to the selectmen of the town of Hanover, to lay out a sufficient Highway from the College Plain to the river, with sufficient land adjoining the river at the most proper and convenient place for erecting an abutment on that side of the river for a free bridge." The people of Norwich did finally get the free bridge they longed for, and very much in the manner they then sought it, but it was still a long dis- tance in the future. Three successive toll bridges rose and disappeared and more than half a century of time intervened, before that con- summation was reached .*
To the towns of Norwich and Hanover belongs the credit of opening the first free bridge over the Connecticut River between Vermont and New Hampshire. After much discussion and agitation of the subject in town meetings and elsewhere, the Bridge Company, in November, 1858, offered to surrender its charter provided the sum of $800 was subscribed by the citizens. This was promptly done, and early in the season of 1859, the present free bridge was built by the joint action and contributions of the two towns. Its cost was about $6,500. It was opened for travel in June, and on the first of July it was formally dedicated by public observances under the name of the "Ledyard Free
*The architect of the first bridge was Richard Graves, a graduate of Dartmouth College in 1791. It was built with a single span, without any supporting pier, the floor of the bridge forming an inclined plane upwards from each abutment to the middle of the structure. It was constructed of green pine timber and did not prove a success, but fell into the river from its own weight after a few years. A second toll bridge soon succeeded, which stood over thirty years, till worn out by age and use. The third toll bridge, built in 1839, was burned in the fall of 1853. Neither of the toll bridges was a coverel bridge. After the destruction of the third bridge a ferry was maintained by the Bridge Company till the completion of the present covered bridge in 1859 by Deacon Brown of Claremont, N. H. Two ferries were supported in early times between Norwich and Hanover, north of the site of Hanover Bridge. One, called the " Rope Ferry," was located just below the island in the river near Mr. Samuel Hutchinson's, connecting there with a public highway which entered the main street of the village of Hanover through what is now known as " Faculty Avenue." Another, which was in use till about 1840, was about a mile south of the mouth of Pompanoosuc River. A third, in operation as early as 1796, and near the north line of the town, was called Rogers' Ferry, probably from Ensign John Rogers, who settled very early in that part of the town.
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DEDICATION OF LEDYARD FREE BRIDGE
Bridge." A public meeting was held on that day at the College Church in Hanover, at which speeches were made in commemoration of the event by Professors E. D. Sanborn and J. W. Patterson, and W. H. Duncan, Esq., of Hanover, and by President Edward Bourns of Norwich. The occasion was one of much interest, and general re- joicing was manifested. The bridge has now stood for nearly half a century, without accident or costly repairs, for the free use of the traveling public. It is 400 feet in length, and about forty feet above the river at low water. The larger part of the cost of building and maintenance was assumed by the town of Hanover.
CHAPTER VII
CHURCH HISTORY
The great achievement of the first generation of Norwich settlers was the building of a meeting house. More than any other event of the time, with the possible exception of the accomplishment of the national independence, this was an undertaking that enlisted the energies and taxed the resources of our forefathers.
The building of a meeting house in a New England frontier settle- ment a century ago was regarded a matter of public concern, to be supported by the whole community without regard to sect or party, like the opening of roads or any other public charge. In less than ten years from the time the first clearing was made in Norwich, the pre- liminary steps were taken to provide a meeting house to be used for the accommodation of the whole people in the public worship of God. The question of the location of this building was sharply agitated, re- resulting in a keen competition between different sections of the town for the coveted distinction, inasmuch as the location of the house was supposed to fix the site of a possible future village where much of the business of the town would be transacted. When it became apparent that no agreement could be reached, a locating committee of three men from out of town was chosen and summoned upon the ground to decide where the meeting house should stand. The formal report of this Committee as made at the time has recently been found among the papers of the late W. H. Duncan, Esq., of Hanover, N. H., and by the kindness of Honorable Frederick Chase has been furnished to the writer. It is printed below in full as a curiosity of the times to which it relates :
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THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE
"REPORT OF A COMMITTEE, LOCATING THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE IN NORWICH, A. D. 1773.
"We, the subscribers, being by the inhabitants of the township of Norwich, County of Gloucester in the province of New York, on the twelfth day of October inst. appointed a Committee to examine and find out the best and most convenient spot to build a meeting house on for the public worship of God in sd town and on their appointment and call we met in said town on the 28th day of Oct. inst., and according to the instructions given us by sd inhabitants we care- fully viewed sd township and the inhabitants thereof, and heard all parties concerned touching the premises and considered the same, and are of opinion that the best and most suitable place to build sd house on is upon the 9th Lot in the second Range of 100 acre divisions, about 20 rods a little North of West from Capt. [Peter] Olcott's dwelling house, on the north side of the highway-sd house to include a stake set up by us marked "M. H."-All which is agreed upon by your most obedient, humble servants.
[Dated] Oct. 30, 1773,
"Signed "SAMUEL GILBERT, * "CHARLES HILL,
"SETH WRIGHT.
Com- mittee. "
The situation for a site as made by the Committee, was the occasion of considerable dissatisfaction, it is said, especially among the inhabi- tants of an elevated tract of land lying west of the present village of Norwich, which had been settled and improved by a company of families from Preston, Conn., as early as the summer of 1766, who had made a resolute effort to secure the meeting house in their own imme- diate neighborhood nearer to the geographical center of the town. The temporary disaffection gave to the tract above described the name of "Judgment Hill," an appellation conferred upon it by Lieutenant Governor Olcott, and which it retained for many years. Possibly the Preston people (among whom were Aaron and John Wright, John
*Colonel Samuel Gilbert was one of the original proprietors and first settlers of Lyme, N. H. He came from Hebron, Conn. Charles Hill was an early settler in Lebanon, N. H, Mr. Wright was probably from Hanover.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH
Hatch, Samuel Partridge, Samuel Partridge, Jr., and Israel Brown and Jonas Richards) thought the hand of Captain Olcott, a new- comer who had then resided in town only about a year, rather too prominent in settling this matter. But he gave liberally of his large means for the promotion of the enterprise, and soon after conveyed to the town as a free gift the land for a meeting house lot and for the public burial ground adjoining.
The point where the committee set their stake, and where the meet- ing house was subsequently built, was a short distance southeast of the site of the second meeting house built in 1817, the outlines of which are still distinctly visible. The first house stood directly in front of the old cemetery and nearly in line with the old brick schoolhouse still standing near. The surface of the ground where it stood seems to have been disturbed in later years and made more uneven. The war of the Revolution, with its anxieties and alarms, soon interposed to delay the consummation of cherished hopes in regard to the meet- ing house. The foundations of the new edifice were finally laid-with appropriate observances, no doubt-July 9, 1778. Meanwhile a young minister, Reverend Lyman Potter, had been settled over the church and the town, the installation ceremonies being performed in the open air, upon the spot chosen for the future temple, but then a primitive forest, on the 31st of August, 1775 .*
The building of the meeting house advanced with slow and halting steps for several years. The people were poor and their burdens and sacrifices many and severe. Within a year, however, from the laying of the foundations, the frame was up, covered with rough boards and the roof put on. In this condition the building was used for a town meeting, July 15, 1779, for the first time, and thenceforth was habitually so used except in the coldest winter months when town meetings were held at some dwelling house near by, usually at Colonel Olcott's, where they had previously convened since 1773. During 1779 roads were also laid out from different points in town centering at the meeting house. Among the most important of these was one from the ferry where Hanover Bridge now is to the meeting house,
*Reverend Isaiah Potter, brother of Lyman Potter and the first minister of Lebanon, N. H., was settled there in 1773, the installation services taking place (August 25) under a large elm tree on the bank of the Connecticut.
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THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE
and thence through the town to Thetford line. These roads, which were not completed for some time after, were laid by a special com- mittee, chosen for the purpose, consisting of John Hatch, surveyor, assisted by Abel Curtis, Philip Smith, Nathaniel Brown and Gersham Bartlett.
Nothing further seems to have been done on the meeting house until the spring of 1780, when at a town meeting held April 20th, a Com- mittee was chosen consisting of Elisha Burton, Nath1 Brown and John Hopson, "to lay out the subscriptions raised towards furnishing the meeting house"; and the committee were directed "to finish the out- side of the building, glaze the lower part if possible, lay the lower floor, build the pulpit, and proceed to make the pews, etc., if there be money sufficient raised." Lack of funds doubtless prevented the full execution of these directions, as a year and a half later the pews at least had not been built, and a proposition was accordingly brought forward and adopted in town meeting Oct. 4, 1781, to sell the pews, or the "pew ground," at auction, in advance of their construction. The floor of the house was then divided into thirty pew spaces, and twenty-six of these were sold on the spot at prices ranging from £8 to £31 each, the whole amount realized from the sale being £472, 10 shillings. Only a small part of this gross sum, however, was available for future work, since purchasers of pews were to be credited on their payments for whatever money or materials or labor each one had pre- viously contributed towards the building of the meeting house. Enough was obtained for the immediate purpose, and accordingly the pews were put in early in the following year. At the sale of the pews it had been agreed that three families should occupy each pew, but this arrangement soon proved unsatisfactory, and a town meeting was called by the meeting house committee Sept. 3, 1782, at which the following action was taken :
"Whereas, it is found that to have only three Families in a pew, as was formerly proposed, will not accommodate the whole of the families in town with seats; therefore
"Voted that five Families be desired to sit in each of the Pews in the meeting house, which have been or are to be sold, except the five smallest pews, in which four families are to be accommodated."
The pews in this meeting house were undoubtedly built in the large,
1
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HISTORY OF NORWICH
square form prevalent in those times, but to think of five families of the size then common stowed away in a single pew, and to recall the then almost universal habit of church attendance, suggests a density of population quite unknown to our day. In the summer of 1784 the seating capacity of the meeting house was considerably enlarged by the finishing of the gallery and the building of fourteen pews therein. Glass windows were then put into the gallery for the first time. Meas- ures were also taken the same season for the substantial completion of the whole interior of the building. At a town meeting held in con- nection with Freeman's Meeting, Sept. 7, 1784, it was voted "that the Meeting house be finished off by lathing and plastering and whitewash- ing the walls and overhead." Major Burton, the chairman of the
building committee, was at the same time directed "to contract with Lieut. John Hopson, to finish the meeting house completely, and to engage him the sum of £100 for the same." This expenditure had been provided for by the sale of the gallery pews by vendue the April preceding, which realized the sum of £191-8s .- 6d. On that occasion purchasers of pews were required "to give their notes payable next December in wheat at five shillings per bushel, for such sums as they may be sold for."
Probably the finishing touches were not given to the meeting house before the spring of 1785. Seven years had it been in building-seven dark and trying years, a period equal to that required for building Solomon's temple. Now that it was at last finished and stood complete before their eyes, our fathers may be pardoned if they looked upon the work of their hands with some degree of pride and affection. It was reputed at that time to be the best meeting house in the State. Doubtless there followed a formal dedication of the structure to pub- lic and pious uses, although no record or tradition of such an event has come to our notice; still one might say it was already dedicated in a higher sense through the self-denying spirit and the consecration of purpose that had wrought so long and so valiantly for it. The whole cost of the house was computed to be £694, or about $2,300 of our money. Very little money, however, was used in its construction, which was carried on almost entirely by means of direct contributions of labor and materials furnished by the townspeople.
A notable event in the history of the town soon occurred to signalize
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STATE LEGISLATURE MEETS AT NORWICH
the completion of the new meeting house-the meeting of the Vermont Legislature at Norwich for an adjourned session, in June, 1785. This body then consisted of a Council of twelve members, and a House of Representatives of about 100. Only about sixty members of the lower house appear to have been in attendance at this session, which lasted sixteen days (June 2-18). The representatives assembled in the meet- ing house for their daily sittings, while the Council were accommo- dated at the house of Daniel Buck close at hand. Peter Olcott and Thomas Murdock of Norwich were members of the Council at this time, and Elisha Burton and Elijah Gates represented the town in the assembly, the state constitution then allowing two representatives to such towns as contained over eighty taxable inhabitants. Daniel Buck, a young lawyer just settled in town, was chosen Secretary pro tem of the Council. Other members of the Council present were Ira Allen, then also treasurer of the state (this was not Colonel Allen's first visit to Norwich on a political mission) ; and Moses Robinson of Bennington, who succeeded Thomas Chittenden as governor four years later, who had already served five years as chief judge of the Supreme Court of the State, and who was elected in 1791 one of the first Ver- mont senators in the Congress of the United States. Hon. Paul Spooner of Hartland, as Lieutenant Governor, was the presiding officer of the Council. John Throop of Pomfret, three years a Supreme Court judge, and Benjamin Emmons of Woodstock were also mem- bers. The Speaker of the assembly was Nathaniel Niles of Fairlee. Speaker Niles was then serving his second term as judge of the Su- preme Court and was soon to be chosen the first representative in Congress from the Eastern District of the State. On the floor of that house were many of the strong men whose names illuminate the early history of Vermont. Among them was Stephen R. Bradley of West- minster, thrice chosen U. S. Senator from Vermont, and that staunch Federalist, Isaac Tichenor, twice chosen to the same office and eleven years governor. There also were Nathaniel Chipman, afterwards six years a senator in Congress, and six years judge in the Supreme Court of the State, three of which he was chief judge; and Samuel Knight of Brattleboro, four years judge in the same court and three years chief judge. Joshua Hazen and Wm. Tilden were representatives
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HISTORY OF NORWICH
from Hartford at this session, Beriah Loomis from Thetford, and Roger Enos and William Gallup from Hartland.
It needs a lively imagination for one who stands to-day on that naked and desolate hilltop, to carry back the mind and picture to oneself the scene presented at the gathering of the Vermont legislature more than one hundred years ago, on that now lonely spot. History records that the ceremonies usual to such occasions were not omitted- that the governor, lieutenant governor, and other prominent officials came to town attended by a cavalry escort, and were received by a body of the local militia under the command of Colonel Paul Brigham. The whole number of members and officers belonging to the legislature probably did not exceed 100. One almost wonders where even these found comfortable lodgings, as nowhere in town was there a regular hotel, or any collection of dwellings that would even suggest the idea of a village. "Burton's Plain," as the site of Norwich village was then called, possessed only three or four houses. But the reputation of the town for hospitality was good, and the distinguished strangers who did not find entertainment at the homes of the resident legis- lators, were probably quartered at the nearest farmhouses. Members of the legislature did not journey to the capital in Pullman cars in those days, but on horseback with such baggage only as could be carried in a pair of saddlebags. It is doubtful if the first four-wheeled carriage had then rolled into Norwich. It is possible that Colonel Olcott and one or two others might have owned a chaise. Such roads as then existed were mere cart tracks through the woods, emerging here and there into a narrow clearing full of blackened tree stumps.
A number of important measures were enacted into law during the brief session of the legislature at Norwich. Questions of greater mag- nitude or wider interest have seldom come before our legislative bodies in later years. Vermont was at that time to all intents and purposes an independent sovereignty. Congress had rudely repelled her over- tures for admission into the Confederacy of States. Her legislators had to attend not only to local affairs but to the international rela- tions of the state as well. On June 7, Colonel Ira Allen submitted to the legislature a report of his mission to Canada the previous winter for the purpose of negotiating with the government of the Province of Quebec a treaty for the establishment of a free trade to and through
THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE
that province to the countries of Europe, and in furtherance of this end to secure the cutting of a ship-canal to connect the waters of Lake Champlain with those of the St. Lawrence. An act was passed grant- ing to Reuben Harmon, Jr., the right to coin hard money. The same legislature passed a naturalization act, laws for the establishment of post offices and mail routes, and other acts of sovereignty. A township of land was granted to Dartmouth College and Moor's Charity School, the rents and profits of which were devoted to "the use of said college and school forever." A law called the "Betterment Act," which had been debated for several sessions, and upon which public opinion was much divided, received its final shape at this session. This measure secured to actual settlers the value of their improvements in cases where the titles to their lands proved defective. It is interesting to note that the Norwich representatives took opposite views of its merits, Mr. Burton voting for the bill on its passage and Mr. Gates against it. Among acts of local interest passed at this session was the incorpor- ation of the Windsor County Grammar School and its location at Norwich, where it remained until its removal to Royalton in 1807. A tax of three pence per acre upon all private lands in Thetford was voted for the purpose of building a meeting house in said town.
"The Ministerial Act," as it was called, for the building of meet- ing houses and the support of preaching by a tax upon the property and polls of the inhabitants of towns, was passed by the legislature of Vermont at its session at Westminster, in October, 1783. The Nor- wich meeting house had been built, as we have seen, wholly by the voluntary contributions of the people. It was decided, however, in the fall of 1785, that the cost of the building should be assumed by the town, under the provisions of this law, and so become the town's property. At a special town meeting held for that purpose, on the first Tuesday of October, it was accordingly voted: "That the sum of £694, Lawful Money, be raised by a Tax on the Polls and Rateable Estates of the inhabitants of the town of Norwich, upon the List of 1784 (excepting those who are of a Different Sentiment from those who meet at this House for Public Worship) ; which Tax as aforesaid shall be paid in hard money, wheat at five shillings per bushel or other grain equivalent, pork or beef at the market price, or certificates from the Committee who have had the care of building the Meeting house,
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HISTORY OF NORWICH
that they have paid such sums as are specified in sd certificates, for pews and seats in said House-which certificates shall be taken by the collectors for his, her or their rates." In the impoverished condition of the country at that time, such a tax must have been a serious matter to those persons who had not contributed to the building of the meet- ing house, and especially as a subsequent vote required its payment into the treasury within one month. The avails of the tax were of course very largely in the form of outstanding certificates, but it re- sulted in an equalization of the expense of building the meeting house upon the whole town. Such as had paid by voluntary contributions more than an equal share, according to their several lists, had such excess repaid to them, unless they chose to retain the pews which they had bought, in which case nothing was repaid.
The meeting house having thus become the property of the town, a general redistribution of seats was made necessary. This was effected by a committee of seven men chosen for that purpose, consisting of Samuel Hutchinson, Hezekiah Johnson, Thomas Murdock, Jacob Bur- ton, John Burnap, Paul Brigham and Elisha Burton. It was voted that the rule to be observed in seating the congregation should be age and interest-an arrangement that probably brought the older people into the front seats, and gave some degree of choice to the larger tax- payers.
The "Ministerial Act," so called, was maintained in full force in Vermont until 1801, when it was essentially modified. During this period, which covered the whole of Rev. Mr. Potter's ministry in Nor- wich, the inhabitants of the town were practically united in the ob- servances of religion, and were constantly and statedly assembled under one roof for worship and religious instruction. For twenty years, beginning in 1781, the salary of Mr. Potter (usually fixed at £75) was annually voted in town meeting, a special tax therefor made on the grand list of the taxpayers of the town, and its collection rigidly enforced against all who failed to show that they were com- municants of another and different church. Proof of this was re- quired by the production of an authentic certificate from the clerk or other officer of such church, setting forth the fact of such member- ship, and was available as a matter of fact only to a few Baptists living mostly in the western part of tlfe town. Church and State were
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