USA > Vermont > Rutland County > Poultney > A history of the town of Poultney, Vermont, from its settlement to the year 1875, with family and biographical sketches and incidents > Part 7
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each other around until noon, or until the grass on the piece was cut down, not forgetting at each round to stop and take a drink. Rum was then in every hay field. If we had visited that same meadow in the summer of 1873, instead of six or eight men coming in at seven o'clock, we might have seen one man, with a span of horses drawing a mowing machine, very coolly enter the meadow about nine o'clock. He, too, would go round a piece, and cut it by noon, only once or twice leaving his seat on the mower in the time to get a drink of water-no rum. The other help, during the forenoon, would have been found in the dairy-room, in the garden, salting the cattle, or doing some necessary work about the premises; or, perhaps, about town on errands ..
Improvement in breeds of live stock did not commence until about 1824, and in cattle until some years after that time. The first improvement was in sheep. The tariff of 1824, of which our late townsman and fellow citizen, the Hon. Rollin C. Mal- lary, was the able advocate in Congress, produced quite a change in farming operations-not only in this town, but throughout New England. Under the effect of this tariff, sheep raising and wool growing, in a very short time, came to be regarded as the most profitable branch of farm husbandry. Then it was that the first specialty in farming was adopted. Hitherto the object seemed to have been to grow a little of everything that was needed for home consumption; the principle in the farmers' economy was "to do everything within themselves." Blooded sheep were imported, introduced among the farmers, and soon there was a mania in this business. Then it was that the farmers began to enlarge their farms, that they might make more money in wool growing. As fast as one farmer "caught the Western fever," his neighbor would buy him out, and the purchaser would add to his stock of sheep .. Thus we were de- populated, and the West settled.
As might have been expected, sheep husbandry in the course of a few years became less profitable, and the farmers began to turn their attention to the dairy, and in less than ten years after the sheep mania commenced, dairying had come to be regarded
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as the more profitable of the two. Up to the year 1835, or about that time, no improvement had been made in the breeds of cattle. Improvements had been made during the ten pre- . vious years in the breeds of sheep and horses; but no other cattle but the native breed had been raised or kept within the town. These were described as having "gimlet-handle-shaped- bodies, with ewe-necks, and heads like a hammer."
The pioneers in Poultney and vicinity, in the way of improv- ing breeds of cattle, were the late William L. Farnam and Joseph Joslin. They brought into this section the short-horn Durham breed. In the year 1837, they spent a week in the ex- amination of various herds in Bennington County, Vt., and Washington, Rensellaer and Albany Counties, N. Y., and finally purchased a two year old Durham bull of Francis Bloodgood, of Albany, for which they paid the sum of $400. The ordinary price of animals of that age, at that time, was from eight to ten dollars. But few at first had any faith in this enterprise of Messrs. Farnam and Joslin, and many were the sarcastic re- marks gratuitously offered in regard to it; but in a few years the native cattle had shared the fate of the wooden plows- they were gone.
Improvement in the tillage of land has not kept pace with other improvements; but in this respect the town will not suffer in comparison with other towns in the State. For many years after the settlement, there was little use made of fertilizers. Manures accumulated about the barns and premises, and tradi- tion has it that the barns were often removed after the manures had so accumulated as to be in the way, as the barns could be removed at less expense than the manures. The first time that plaster was used as a fertilizer in the town, was in 1826. A farmer had been reading an agricultural paper, published at Albany, which was then the only agricultural paper published in this section of the country, and in that he found the use of plaster recommended. He determined to try it, and with his oxen and cart went to Whitehall in the spring of 1826, pur- chased and brought home a load of plaster. After spreading it on that portion of his land which he desired to, he had a pail-
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full left. That he might test it to a certainty, for the benefit of himself and neighbors, with the pail-full he wrote his name in large letters upon a conspicuous piece of grass ground. Very soon his name distinctly appeared. The increased growth and color of the grass showed the name plainly as far as the ground could be seen, until the grass was mowed. This settled the question in favor of plaster as a fertilizer in Poultney.
The dairy husbandry has been on the increase in the last few years. Associated dairying was introduced in Vermont about the year 1864. The subject was first agitated in Poultney in the year 1866. A stock company was formed that year, and a cheese factory built at East Poultney in the fall of that year. The main building, in size, is 114 by 30 feet, and two stories high, with an ell of 24 by 20 feet, and supplied with an engine, vats, and the usual apparatus in such factories. In the spring of 1867, cheese making was commenced, under the superintend- ence of C. A. Rann, and has been so continued since, having the milk, on the average, of 450 cows.
Mark Lewis established a cheese factory at his residence, about three miles north of East Poultney, in May, 1874. The building he erected is 30 by 40 feet in size, and was furnished with the usual apparatus for making cheese; and he commenced making the 6th day of June, 1874. He has now the milk of about 140 cows. His factory is not a large one; it was intended for himself and his nearest neighbors, and is working well. We are inclined to regard it as a favorable indication that the dairy business has been increasing in the town for several years, and that it is now the leading business among the farmers, for at this date, all things considered, it seems to be considered as the best business for the farm. There is a cheese factory in Hamp- ton, near the west line of Poultney, which takes the milk of a good many cows within our town. In all, there are now probably more than one thousand cows kept in the town.
The prices of labor and of farm products have advanced in latter years. Middle-aged men can now remember when fifty cents was the price of a day's work, except in the haying sea- son, when it was seventy-five cents to one dollar. Farmers
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hired men by the month for from nine to twelve dollars. Corn and rye was sold from forty to fifty cents per bushel; oats for about twenty-five cents,and wheat for one dollar. Within the last thirty or thirty-five years, those prices have doubled, and on labor have more than doubled; but it may be seriously questioned whether the condition of the laboring classes has in that time improved. The cost of living has increased fully as much as the prices of labor. Much that is now regarded as a necessity, would, forty years ago, have been treated as useless, or, at best, a luxury which men with ordinary means could not afford. We cannot deny that a progress, which is unparalleled in the history of the world, has been made in the last forty years in much that per- tains to the welfare of civilized life; yet we claim that for rational examples of economy and frugality, we must go back to former generations-they are not found in this. When we speak of generations, we would be understood in a general sense, not doubting that isolated cases may now be found of judicious economy; but the prevailing economy of this age is injudicious-ruinous. It is gratifying to know, however, that the wise men of the nation have opened their eyes on this sub- ject, and have deliberately come to the conclusion that the people must be checked in their headlong extravagance, or dis- astrous consequences will surely result.
To Elisha Ashley we are indebted to what knowledge we have of the beginning of fruit growing in Poultney. He informs us that Isaac Ashley brought seeds with him when he settled here, planted a nursery, and the young trees therefrom " were planted on the Raun farm." This farm is the one now owned and oc- enpied by Luther Thrall and son, located about a mile south of East Poultney, on the road from thence to Wells. Isaac Ashley settled on this farm, and it seems to have been understood that he was the pioneer in fruit growing. But Mr. Ashley says, " the inhabitants made early efforts to procure orchards." This was doubtless so generally, as quite early, orchards were on almost every farm, producing apples in abundance. The soil was then such that the trees grew rapidly, and were loaded with fruit as soon as sufficiently advanced in growth.
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Soon after the beginning of the present century, distillerics were built one after the other, until ten of those institutions were actually in operation within the limits of the town. We will give the locations of these distilleries and the names of the owners, so far as we have been able to ascertain the same. Joseph Morse, senior, had one in Morse Hollow; John Lewis one on the Lewis farm, near where Hiram Lewis now lives; Royal Pease one near Pond Hill; Dr. David Dewey one south of the river and opposite his house (the house now occupied by Benoni Murson) ; Thomas Todd one a little up the Fenel Hollow road, where the tobacco-box factory was afterwards built; Har- low Hosford one near the red school house, a mile east of the east village; Jesse Harris one on the Scott place, now owned by Dennis Smith, and a little south of East Poultney; Alonzo Howe one where the East Poultney cheese factory now stands; Col. Ransom one on his farm, two miles north of the west village; Horace Mallary one near where Emmet Sherman now resides, and about a mile north of Ransom's; and there was another near the Hampton bridge. There might have been different owners, or part owners, to these distilleries at different times; our information will not allow us to be specific in this regard, or as to dates.
No stigma is intended upon the names of those parties con- nected with the distilleries. At that time the business was regarded as legitimate and proper by all, or nearly all; and the people so far participated in it, that every man who raised more grain than he wanted, found a market for the overplus at the distilleries. There was a cider mill in almost every school dis- trict, and it was not an uncommon thing for a farmer to make fifty, or even a hundred barrels of cider. He would put into his own cellar, for his own use, from ten to twenty barrels, and the remainder would go to the distillery, for which he would get from fifty cents to one dollar per barrel.
We have now to acknowledge that raising grain, growing apples, and making cider for the distilleries, the manufacture of corn and rye whiskey and cider brandy were among the leading pursuits of our people fifty years ago. Every distiller kept
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hogs, which were fed and fattened on the slops of the distillery, and the hogs were more frequently marketed at Montreal, and were driven on foot to Whitehall, and thence boated down the lake to their destination. For some years the product of the distillery business made up the leading articles of commerce.
As early as 1830, this business began to decline. The tem- perance reformation had begun, and those favoring that move- ment, used all their influence against the distilleries. The in- fluence that sustained them, urged that their destruction would be a destruction of the grain and cider market. But soon after 1830, the distilleries, one after another, went down, and the business of liquor distillation in the town of Poultney was soon ended. We are sorry to record, about this time, the interest in fruit growing declined. The apple trees were becoming old; the soil had began to loose its earlier fertility; the making of cider and cider brandy had become unpopular, and had been re- linguished, except the making a limited quantity of cider. The people, then, could not see any use for the apple tree, except to make cider from, and for this reason many orchards and parts of orchards were cut down, and all were neglected, and rapidly run to decay. But, fortunately, for the last dozen years or more, the people have been learning that there are legitimate and proper uses for fruit, other than making cider or cider brandy, and are giving attention (though not as much as we could wish) to growing fruit trees. Elijah Ross, Esq., now has a nursery of about four acres, located on the south side of Poultney village, and near the Rutland & Washington Rail- road. He commenced raising nursery stock about four years since. This spring (1875) it required about three thousand trees to fill his orders for the spring trade. His nursery grounds are of excellent soils, and he has now over 30,000 young trees well cared for, and growing well; and we can but see in this nursery a hopeful indication that the business of fruit growing will revive among us, and will soon receive that attention which its importance demands.
The heading of this chapter would, perhaps, indicate that the history of the industries of the town, including the manufac-
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turing, mechanical and all former industrial pursuits of our people, would be given in this and immediately succeeding chapters. But much of this industrial history must necessarily appear in biographies, and more or less incidentally in almost every chapter, so we shall not follow the subject farther at this time. We shall endeavor to collect and embody in the entire work all we can gather that is material and of interest in the history of the town.
The social character of the people of Poultney, in the earlier years of our history, is worthy of a few moments special atten- tion. Horace Greeley, in his work on " The American Conflict," has a passage which very clearly and forcibly illustrates this character. It reads: "The luxuriant and omnipresent forests were likewise the sources of cheap and ample supplies of fuel, whereby the severity of our northern winters was mitigated, and the warm, bright fireside of even the humblest family, in the long winter evenings of our latitude, rendered centers of cheer and enjoyment. Social intercourse was more general, less formal, more hearty, more valued, than at present. Friendships were warmer and deeper. Relationship, by blood or marriage, was more proudly regarded. Men were not ashamed to own that they loved their cousins better than their other neighbors, and their neighbors better than the rest of mankind. To spend a month in the dead of winter, in a visit to the dear old home- stead, and in interchanges of affectionate greetings with brothers and sisters, married and settled at distances of twenty to fifty miles apart, was not deemed an absolute waste of time, nor even an experiment on fraternal civility and hospitality."
The foregoing, from Mr. Greeley's work, though intended to present the social and friendly character of the people of this country in its early history, as a whole applies equally well to Poultney, and perhaps we need not add more on that subject. But allow us to say that we have in mind many facts and inci- dents remembered by ourselves, and given to us by the old people, all which go to show that " social intercourse was more general, less formal, more hearty, and more valued" in olden time "than at present;" and that "friendships were warmer
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and deeper." Many now living have not forgotten the "old- fashioned fire-place." This was the " fire-side " indeed, with all that term implies in prose, poetry or song. At the bottom of the large flue which led up through the chimney to the open air, was this fire-place. The bottom was a level with the kitchen floor, deep and spacious enough to take in a " back log" of three or four feet in length, and two feet in diameter, with another stick top of that, half or two-thirds its size, and in front of these a "fore stick " from eight inches to a foot in diameter, resting on andirons, with space enough between the fore-stick and back-log for the kindling and small wood. At the bottom, and in front of the fire-place, reaching out from two to four feet into the room, was a hearth made of flat stones, as smooth and regular in form as could be obtained. With all the wood, large sticks and small, well on fire, so lighting the room that the tallow candle could be dispensed with; a mug of cider on the hearth at one corner of the fire-place, and a large dish well filled with choice apples at the other corner, and the family, with perhaps a few neighbors or visitors, all animated and cheerful, sitting and forming a semicircle in front of, and facing the bright and glowing fire-and we have a view of the farmer's kitchen in the winter evenings of fifty years ago. We very well understand that the days of childhood and youth are sweeter,and happier to all than those of after life, and there- fore the old men and women of every age naturally sigh for the "good old times." But the comparison drawn by Mr. Greeley between the past and the present, of the social and friendly characteristics of each, is, nevertheless, a true one.
It may now be proper to inquire for the cause of this change. We know very well that the lives of our fathers were passed in a narrower round than ours. Their thoughts and affections were turned in more upon the " dear old home." Now, the means of communication are such, and the business of modern life so changed, that our thoughts, affections and aspirations take a wider field. But, be this so, we should not forget that the social and friendly virtues lie at the bottom of our pros- ยก erity and happiness as a people.
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CHAPER X.
THE EAST AND WEST VILLAGES-THEIR GROWTH -- THE POULTNEY GAZETTE AND NORTHERN SPECTATOR-THE POULTNEY BAND.
H E East Village in Poultney, which is now the smaller of our two villages, was, until within a few years, the larger of the two. So long as geography made a busi- ness center, so long the east village was ahead in business im- portance; but after the railroad, which runs through the west part of the town, was built, the west village gradually gained on the east, and the slate business springing up in the west part . of the town, the latter has come to be much the larger village. The east village is a remarkably pleasant locality, and must re- main a desirable place in which to reside. By 1820, this village had become a place of considerable business, and was, in fact, among the leading villages of this section of the State, and con- tinued to be such for some years thereafter. What we may call the second generation after the settlement of the town had now come into active life, and were building up a beautiful village in this, then, center. Such men as Elisha Ashley, Amos Thomp- son, Harvey D. Smith, Stephen W. Dana, William P. Noyes, Joseph Morse, Amos Bliss, Henry G. Neal, Russel Hickok, Simeon Mears, P. M. Ross, William Wheeler, and some others who might be named, were located in this village at or about this time, and were an array of active men, and actively en- gaged in business. In the year 1822, a newspaper was started in Poultney (east village) by Sanford Smith and John R. Shute, called the Poultney Gazette. The exact date of the first issue of this paper we are unable to give, though we can come near to it. The name of the paper was afterwards changed to that of Northern Spectator, the first number of which was issued the first week in January, 1825. One hundred and fourteen numbers of the Gazette had been previously issued, and if
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issued weekly and continuously, without interruption, the pub- lication of the Gazette was commenced in November, 1822. Not having been able to procure any files of the Gazette, this is the nearest that we can come to accuracy as to the time when the publication was commenced-the recollection of the old people puts it in the Fall of 1822. In the Gazette was a de- partment called the "Missionary Herald," occupying one page, and devoted to the cause of missions. Ethan Smith was the editor of this department. Messrs. Smith and Shute were young men, and both practical printers. Mr. Smith was a son of the Rev. Ethan Smith, at the time pastor of the Congrega- tional Church in Poultney. The young man had first learned the printer's trade-then had studied Theology-and then with his partner (Shute) started the Gazette. Of the antecedents of Mr. Shute, we have been able to learn but little. In the fifty- second number of the Northern Spectator, dated December 28, 1825, this firm gives its valedictory, from which we take an ex- tract :
"It is now something more than three years since we first introduced ourselves to the public as the editors and publishers of a weekly journal. We commenced with high hopes of suc- cess; with prospects bright and flattering. These hopes have been partially realized. They would have been fully realized, had our subscribers, generally, been as willing to reward us for our toil, as we were anxious to render ourselves worthy of such reward."
In the same issue, a "notice " appears, in which they say that they " cannot tarry in town six months, in order to settle ac- counts, and are determined to settle with all-debtors and creditors-before we leave the place." This indicates that they intended to leave; and they did soon leave. Mr. Smith entered the ministry soon after, and Mr. Shute went to Massachusetts, and afterwards died there. The Northern Spectator was pur- chased of Smith and Shute by a company, consisting of several of the citizens, and the issue of January 4th, 1826, bears the names of "D. Dewey and A. Bliss, agents for the proprietors." Those gentlemen remained agents for some months, when E. G.
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Stone became the agent. It had other agents and managers, and its publication was continued until June, 1830, when it was discontinued. The publication of the Gazette was commenced in a part of the building now owned by Stephen Scott; but the office was removed in the Spring of 1823, into a new building erected by Stephen W. Dana, for the purpose of a printing office, other offices and work shops. It was a two-story build- ing; the upper story was occupied by the printing office, the lower story, about the same time, was occupied by Moscs G. Noyes, as a law office, and by Paul M. Ross and Olcott Sher- man, as a harness shop. The printing office remained in this building as long as the paper was published. The building was afterwards put into a dwelling-house, and is now occupied by Zebediah Dewey; it stands next south of what is known as the " Bailey Block," on the street running from the Eagle Tavern to the covered bridge.
Both the Gazette and Spectator were good papers, and com- pared well with other country papers at the time. The Specta- tor was a sheet of four pages fifteen inches by twenty-two inches in size, as large, and we think a little larger, than the Rutland Herald was at that time. In the character of its read- ing matter, it was a better model than the average country paper of this time, though the public could not be made to be- lieve it. The editorials were well written, and the selections evidently made with judgment, care and good taste. There was an absence of any attempt at witticism, or the sensational, and the editors did not deem it important to gather such items as the whitewashing of kitchens and fences, or the nailing down a loose shingle.
Horace Greeley learned the printer's trade in the office of the Northern Spectator. Horace was born in New Hampshire, and in 1811, when about ten years old, his father moved to West Haven, in this county. As Horace grew older, he became anxious to learn the printer's trade, and in the spring of 1826, having seen an advertisement in the Spectator, signifying that an apprentice was wanted at that office, he went to Poultney on foot and alone. He sought Mr. Bliss, one of the managers at
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that time, whom he found planting potatoes in his garden. The following conversation, as reported by Mr. Bliss, occurred be- tween him and the boy Horace:
"Are you the man that carries on the printing office ? "
Mr. Bliss has said that as he looked up at the boy, he could hardly refrain from laughing, his appearance was such; but he did, and replied: " Yes; I am the man."
" Don't you want a boy to learn the trade ?" he next inquired.
" Well," said Mr. Bliss, "we have been thinking of it. Do you want to learn to print ? "
" I have had some notion of it," said Horace.
Mr. Bliss, since deceased, gave to Mr. Greeley's biographer the following, in addition to the above: "I was surprised that such a fellow as the boy looked to be, should think of learning to print; but on entering into conversation with him, and a partial examination of the qualifications of my new applicant, it required but little time to discover that he possessed a mind of no common order, and an acquired intelligence beyond his years. There was a simple mindedness, a truthfulness and com- mon sense in what he said, that at once commanded my regard."
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