USA > Vermont > Rutland County > Rutland > Centennial celebration of the settlement of Rutland, Vt., October 2d, 3d, 4th and 5th, 1870, including the addresses, historical papers, poems, responses at the dinner table, etc. > Part 3
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Nearly a century and a half ago, Rutland was the focus of Indian travel. Otter Creek to the north, Otter Creek to the south, Castle- ton River to the west, Cold River to the cast, indicate the most convenient routes for travel or freight from Lake Champlain to Fort
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Dummer. Massachusetts sold her goods at Fort Dummer cheaper than the French sold in Canada; hence a brisk trade across our State. In 1730, James Coss and twelve Caughnawaga Indians arrived here in seven days from Fort Dummer, coming by way of Black River, Plymouth Ponds and Cold River. They reach Otter Creek, Sunday evening, May 3, 1730. Monday they made canoes. They were thus employed when a squaw, left behind the day before, rejoined them with a newly born papoose on her back. Tuesday it rained. Wednesday they rowed thirty-five miles down Otter Creek. Coss' journal mentions the two falls in this town, without comment .. He calls Otter Creek black and deep, and praises the soil. Probably this was not the first visit of a white man to Rutland, for in King Williams' wars soldiers passed from Massachusetts to the Lake ; but it is the first where we are able to identify the man and the time.
The French and Indian wars sweep the Indian trade of Massa- chusetts out of existence. And now, instead of canoes laden with furs, tallow and goods, the war paint, tomahawks, scalping knives, muskets, swords, British and French uniforms gleam through the foliage, all along our borders, from the roaring Winooski to the swift rushing, arrowy Wantastiquet. Indian raid and English scout pass and repass the mountain gorges.
In 1748, sixty scouts came over from Black River; forty go down Otter Creek on the east side, and soon repass the mountains; twenty go north on the west side of Otter Creek, imprudently expose themselves to the enemy at Crown Point, are swiftly pursued up Otter Creek and down West River, and when thrown off their guard by being near home, they are terribly defeated in Windham county.
Many a poor captive passes through our town, to suffer for years in Canada. How absorbing is our interest in the trials and hard- ships endured by the captives Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Howe! The grandfather of President Labaree was a fellow captive with Mrs. Johnson. This party dined in Rutland, at the junction of East and Otter Creeks, the principal diet being sausages made of bear's meat.
In the year 1759 Rutland saw brave sights: eight hundred New Hampshire troops, with ax, shovel and hoe, cutting down trees and
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leveling hummocks, making a road from Charleston, N. H., along Black River and Otter Creek, to Crown Point, N. Y., crossing Otter Creek at Center Rutland; soon after, four hundred fat cattle, in five droves, going over this new road to diminish the scurvy at Crown Point. Toward the last of November came Major Rogers and his surviving heroes, nearly one hundred in number. They had been absent from Crown Point two months; they had destroyed that great pest to New England, the Indian village of St. Francis, on the St. Lawrence, near Three Rivers; they had been pursued by supe- rior numbers, shot at and starved; they had recruited at Charleston, and now were returning, along the new military road, to Crown Point, the headquarters of Gen. Amherst.
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The ancestors of Charles Burt, Joel Beaman, and Rev. Drs. Charles and Aldace Walker and others, went over this road, or its predecessor, the old Indian path, during the Colonial wars.
When at length the English flag floats in triumph from Florida to the St. Lawrence, the New England soldiers remember the fer- tile soil, the valuable trees and the convenient water privileges that so abounded in the Green Mountain territory. And although New York had, in 1750, put forward a claim to this State, yet, in 1761, New Hampshire issued sixty charters for towns in Vermont.
The charter of Rutland was dated the 7th day of September, 1761 ; it is now extant in fifteen pieces; it cost about $100; it was procured by Col. Josiah Willard of Winchester, N. H. The first named grantee is John Murray, an Irishman, the principal citizen of Rutland, Mass., and the man, probably, that named this town. The grantees are chiefly of New Hampshire,-none of them ever lived here; among them were the captives, Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Howe, and the familiar names of Bardwell, Hawks, Willard, Stone, Arms and Field. The grantees claimed that the charter was granted to them "as a reward for their great losses and services on the frontier during the late war."
Rutland was also granted in 1761, by the name of Fairfield. The grantor was Col. John Henry Lydius of Albany; he claimed by deed of the Mohawk chiefs and confirmation by Gov. Shirley of Massachusetts, as royal agent. But the act of Lydius which most interests us now, was his employment of a surveyor to survey Otter Creek. The surveyor came from Connecticut; his name was Asa
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Peabody. Peabody is now so distinguished a name that we are interested to learn tradition says it signifies "The Mountain Man," and is derived from a relative of Queen Bcadicea, who retired on the suicide of his monarch to the Welsh mountains. I have seen the original record of this survey, on one half sheet of foolscap,- . over one hundred surveys, with points of compass, distances, cur- rents, rapids, falls, affluents and islands. His survey, or measure- . ment, made Center Rutland Fall 26 feet, and the Sutherland Fall 150 feet (the latter now estimated at 118 feet).
Between the charter and the settlement of Rutland eight and one- half years intervene; George II. had taken Vermont from Massa- chusettts and given it to New Hampshire; George III. takes Ver- mont from New Hampshire and gives it to New York, but forbids New York granting the lands; New York speculators petition the New York government for the charter of a new town, to be called Socialborough, to include Rutland, Pittsford and part of Brandon; the New Hampshire grantees file a caveat, and the grant is post- poned several years, although the York .petitioners had sent up the Scotch surveyor, William Cockburn, to survey the premises.
Meanwhile, John Murray sells his right in Rutland, about three hundred and fifty acres, for 2s., or over ten acres for 1c. During this interval, also, John Chipman and fifteen other young men from Salisbury, Conn., pass through town with cart and oxen, along the banks of Otter Creek, on their way to Addison county. When they had passed Sutherland Falls, they convert the trunk of a large tree into a boat, load the boat with their provisions and farming utensils, attach their cart to the rear of the boat, and then row the boat and drive the oxen northward.
The ever-active Skene is at Whitehall; the idle British officers leave their garrisons on the Lake, prospecting for land speculation ; Yorkers, New Hampshire men and Lydius are busy with survey and deed; the southern part of the county rings with the ax of the wood chopper and the merry prattle of children; Clarendon is set- tled two years before Rutland.
James Mead was the first white man that ever settled in Rutland. In 1764. he and several other men, with their families, emigrated from Nine Partners to Manchester, Vt. Nine Partners was joined on the east by Salisbury, the northwest corner town of Connecti-
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cut. Mead, acting as agent for others, soon became acquainted with this town. It was on the 30th day of September, 1769, that Mead made his first purchase in Rutland, and that same day he sold half his purchase. He bought twenty nights; he sold ten rights; there were seventy rights in the whole town; one night contained about 350 acres; so that Mead retained about 3500 acres. The price alleged in the deeds for the purchase was £100, or $333.33; price of sale £40, or $133.33. If the deeds say true, Mead lost £10 in the trade, and paid $200, or less than six cents per acre for the land he retained. Mead's daughter, Mrs. Smith, thought he paid for the land in horses. He bought of Nathan Stone of Wind- sor ; he sold to Charles Button of Clarendon. Both Stone and Mead in their deeds describe Mead as of Manchester, in the county of Albany and, Province of New York. These twenty rights of Mead and Button, each owning one-seventh part of the town, were located in the southwest part of the town, undivided.
That same fall Mead built him a log house, half a mile west of Center Rutland, near the banks of West Creek. In this imme- diate vicinity there was an ancient clearing, made by a community of decidedly democratic proclivities, neither Mohawks nor Algonquins, neither Yorkers nor Green Mountain Boys. They had no churches, no court-houses, no ballot boxes, no rum, no tobacco; they were models of industry and thrift, yet, unversed in law, they had not secured their title to the property by any proper legal deeds, and Mead did not hesitate to appropriate to his own use both their meadow and their dam.
The first settlement of Rutland occurred in March, 1770. Mead was now forty years old; he had a wife and ten children; his old- est child, Sarah, at the age of seventeen, was the wife of Wright Roberts. These thirteen persons were three days moving from Manchester to the present Wells meadows. They came not along the valley of Otter Creek, but over the uplands west, stopping the first night in Dorset, the second in Danby,-passing through Tin- mouth, West Clarendon and Smithtown. Coming through Chip- penhook, Sarah and Mercy riding on one horse and Roberts on foot, driving the cows, far in rear of the others, lost their way. Before wandering far they found the house of Simeon Jenny, a noted Yorker and Tory. He showed them where to go.
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The third evening they camped on the present farm of Robert Chapman, in Clarendon; but a warm supper, the browsing of the horses, the moonlight glittering on frosty foliage and snow draped earth, cheer them on to finish their journey before sleeping. Late in the evening, on foot, on horseback and in the sleigh, they reach their log house. But this building has no roof, and it is too near the Creek: snow, water, ice and cold make it unavailable.
Near by, on a more elevated site, is a wigwam, with perhaps nine or ten Caughnawaga Indians around a cosy fire. Mead applies to share the wigwam. The Indians shake their heads, talk Indian, then rising and throwing their hands apart, they cry, "Welcome! Welcome!" gather up their traps, abandon their hut to the pale faces, and quickly build another for themselves. So on the 16th of March, 1621, Samoset enters the village of Plymouth and cries, "Welcome, Englishmen! Welcome, Englishmen!" In that wig- wam the Mead family lived until late in the Fall, when they built a substantial log house, in which they wintered.
As early as May, 1770, Thomas Rowley was in Rutland survey- ing lots. In the year 1770, three children were born in Rutland. The first of the Anglo-Saxon race, whose manifest destiny it was, to be born in Rutland was William Powers, son of Simeon Powers, a cooper from Springfield, Vt. This birth occurred the 23d of Sep- tember, 1770. The second child born in town was Capt. William Mead, who died a few years since in Granville, Ohio. He was the son of James Mead, and was born one day later than Powers. The third child was Chloe Johnson, daughter of Asa Johnson, from Williamstown, Mass. She was born October 3, 1770, these first three births occurring within ten days of each other.
Simeon Powers, his wife Lydia and their first born child had settled, in the spring of 1770, west of Otter Creek, on the present Kelley farm. In the Fall, William Dwinell and wife came and lived with his relative, Powers. These four families, Meads, Powers, Dwinells and Johnsons, are the only white persons positively known to have lived in Rutland in 1770, although the surveyor Rowley's record shows a clearing "by one Brockway." Thus the population of the town, in the Fall, was about two dozen.
It is said that, a few days before the birth of William Powers, his mother and others were upset in a boat on Otter Creek, a short
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distance above Center Rutland Falls. She floated down near the brink of the Falls, where she caught hold of a slippery log, and held on till rescued.
In 1870, Rutland has 2000 families and 10,000 inhabitants. The cash value of the town is several millions of dollars.
In 1770, the best land sold for a few cents an acre; there was not a wagon or bridge in the town; Mead kept a boat each side of Otter Creek at Center Rutland; there was scarcely any land fitted for plowing; trout and venison were plenty, grain scarce; no grist mill nearer than Skenesborough and Bennington; Mead had an iron hand mill that ground corn coarse. Wild leeks, butternuts, wild berries, shad plums, maple sugar and fowl abounded. Nor may we disdain to mention two social companions, parting presents to the Meads from their Manchester friends, viz: a cat, and a lap- dog rejoicing in the name of "Fancy."
Thus far we have condensed or omitted history. Now we can only index our materials. In 1771, New York granted a charter of Socialborough, in direct violation of the King's order. Again Cockburn, the Scotch surveyer, is here; he surveys the road, now Main street; Mead and Johnson stop him; men dressed as Indians threaten him, and he leaves. In 1772, Rutland sends a delegate to the Manchester Convention, and the Convention sends delegates to England. In 1773, Rutland had thirty-five families, a clergyman comes, a log meeting-house is built, a church is formed with fourteen members, four out of town, two from the west side of the town an:1 eight from the east. In 1774, the will of Daniel Harris is made, a will that, creating an estate-tail, roused Vermont with law doctrines that have so often skaken Westminster Hall. In that year New York condemned two Rutlanders to death without trial, and Rhode Island sent two men to encourage emigration from Rutland to Sherburne. In 1775, Rutland sent soldiers to the capture of Ticon- deroga and the seige of Quebec. During the Revolutionary War, Rutland furnished Bowker, the President of the State Conventions, had two forts and two militia companies, over eighty taxable inhabit- ants and two representatives to each session of the Legislature, the land of three Tories was confiscated, and the town was honored by a visit from the illustrious Kosciusko, the Washington of Poland.
In 1786, an anti-court mob, a miniature Shay's Rebellion, reeled
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through our streets, and the courts of justice were paralyzed. In October, 1804, the seventh and last Legislature met in Rutland, in the midst of a violent snow storm.
And now abruptly we close our theme. To some, all study of the past is useless antiquarianism. To the servant of the great Hebrew prophet, it seemed that he and his master stood alone, begirt with a vast host of beleaguering foes. The Lord opened his eyes, and now the mountain sides are flashing and burning with horses of fire and chariots of fire round about Elisha. So the patriot, musing o'er his country's history, hears the rustling wings and sees angelic forms hovering and stooping to bless the people who remember and honor the noble dead.
At the conclusion of the address the Band played a popular air.
Gen. William Y. W. Ripley then introduced to the audience Chauncy K. Williams, Esq., who delivered the following address on
THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF RUTLAND.
There are certain times, seasons, periods and events which always, to a thinking mind, present peculiar claims to our thoughtful atten- tion. Such, for instance is the termination of the old year, and the commencement of the new. If so with years, much more so with centuries and half centuries. The Mosaic law required that they should "hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you." (Lev. xxv: 10.) In compliance with this command during that dispensation, and ever since down to the present time, centuries have formed divisions for man, and the lapse of their principal and ordinary divisions or parts have been marked with peculiar emphasis. From this naturally comes our Centennial and semi-Centennial celebrations. It is not, as many profess to think, an idle and unmeaning custom and ceremony. It has its seat and birthplace in the heart of each and all of us, and is a part of our very human nature. We and our children delight to celebrate with appropriate ceremonies our birthdays-as we now propose to cele- brate the birthday of our town and community. Such customs and celebrations form landmarks to connect those of us who, by the blessing of God, are permitted to be now here present, both with
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those who reduced the wilderness to fertile plains and flourishing villages, but to those who will succeed us in the responsibilities which devolve upon every citizen, who is worthy of the name of citizen, to sustain those municipal and religious institutions, with- out which all would be confusion and anarchy.
It would be appropriate, pleasant and instructive, if upon this occasion, standing in a room dedicated to music, and occupied as a place of religious worship by one, if not the youngest, of the churches and religious societies in the town, I could spend the few moments allotted me in speaking of the difference and changes from and between 1770 and 1870, and of the lessons taught and duties devolved upon us by the changed situation of affairs. When we contrast these two distant periods of time, and remember that what was then, to use a threadbare expression, a "howling wilderness," are now cultivated fields, then a barren waste, now large and thriv- ing villages, then a pathless forest, now cut up and gridironed by railways, then the hut and wigwam of the Indian, now magnificentt public and private buildings, then the only religious worship was that of the simple Indian, and his only church or temple was the vast and uncovered forest; now in costly churches, built with the best architectural skill, with spire pointing heavenward-and in the interior, furnished with seats splendidly upholstered, chandeliers and all that wealth, art and skill can contribute to render it rich and attractive to the eye, luxurious to the mind, and pleasing in every respect. But I must forbear, and leave these pleasing and instruct- ive topics to other, abler and worthier hands. The few minutes allotted to me this evening will not more than suffice to give in the briefest possible manner the historical and biographical data and facts connected with some fourteen different churches or religious societies and organizations, and of their numerous pastors, so far as it may be proper and my limited time and the material at hand may present. It may be proper here to remark that in the minds of the first settlers of this country, and more particularly those of New England, although they abhored the idea of any connection between Church and State, yet, after all, in some respects, the matters of civil and religious polity were intimately connected. . They emi- grated mainly from religious motives, or, as they themselves expressed it, to "carry forward the reformation." It was manitest
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to them that religious freedom could not exist without civil liberty, and it was equally manifest to them that civil liberty, or any gov- ernment short of anarchy, could not exist unless it was founded and formed upon the corner-stone of religion and religious worship. Hence the first thing done was to lay the foundation and establish a form of civil government. This done, then they commenced to make provision for the support of public worship and for the enjoy- ment of Christian institutions and ordinances. This was also true of Vermont. In Bennington, which is the oldest of our chartered towns, in the records of their first proprietors' meeting the first act after the election of officers was the appointment of a "committee to look out a place to set the meeting-house." The same is true of the early settlers of Rutland. All through the early records of the town will be found votes in reference to the employment of preach- ers, providing places of public worship, and kindred subjects. To show the nature of these votes, we give the record of the town meeting of January 4th, 1781:
"Voted, That Mr. Gideon Miner, John Johnson and Joseph Bowker, Esq., act as a committee to endeavor to provide a preacher of the Gospel for this town.
. "Voted, That the above committee apply to Mr. Mitchell of Woodbury as preacher aforesaid.
"A motion being put to know whether it was the minds of the town to settle a minister as soon as they can finu one that they can be agreed on, it was voted in the affirmative."
It is to be regretted that the records of the transactions of our fathers for the first years of the settlement of the town are not extant, so that we could, on this occasion, give the first votes and action in relation to this subject, for we doubt not that we should find here, as elsewhere, that this was among the earliest things acted upon.
The proper ecclesiastical history of Rutland may be said to have begun in 1773, when, on the 20th day of October, the first Congre- gational church and society was formed in Rutland, with fourteen members, namely: Joseph Bowker, Sarah Bowker, William Rob- erts, Eben Hopkins, Samuel Crippen, Daniel Hawley, Charles Brewster, Abraham Jackson, John Moses, Enos Ives, Jchiel Andrews, Sarah Andrews, Annah Ives andI Mehitable Andrews.
Over this church was settled the Rev. Benajah Roots. This was
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the tenth church in the State, the second west of the Green Moun- tains and the first in the county of Rutland.
Rev. Benajah Roots was born in Woodbury, Conn., in 1726. Of his early life nothing, as far as I know has, as yet, been ascertained. After, for those days, the usual preparatory course, he entered Princeton College, then more generally known as the College of New Jersey, where he graduated in 1754, the seventh class, under the Presidency of Aaron Burr, who was the father of the Vice President of the United States of the same name. There were nineteen (19) in his class, of which number, twelve (12) are known to have afterwards preached the Gospel. Immediately after gradu- ation he commenced the study of theology under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Bellamy, of Bethlehem, Conn., who was at that day one of the most prominent and leading nien among the clergy of New England. Two years after leaving college he commenced preaching at Simsbury, Conn., and soon after received and accepted a call to become pastor of the church at Simsbury, Conn., and he was ordained over the church and society there on the 10th day of August, 1757. During the last years of his connection with that people there seems to have been some difficulty between himself and a certain portion of his people on doctrinal points. In 1770, by a concurrence of sentiment between him and his congregation, a council of ministers was called to decide between Mr. Roots and his church, and to hear and give their sentiments upon sundry exceptions said members had to make to some of Mr. Roots' doc- trines, and also to some instances of his conduct relative to church discipline. It seems that no formal charges were made, but it seems that there were some matters upon which the pastor, church and congregation differed, and it was thought best to take the advice of the council. "The Result of that Council," and also "A few brief remarks" in reply to that result, written by Mr. Roots, were pub- lished the same year. The result of the council, however, did not provide for a dissolution of the pastoral relation, but, on the con- trary, resolved that "they hoped that one and all will study the things that make for peace and mutual edification." This did not settle the controversy. In less than two years the "consociation" was convened at Simsbury to hear and determine upon a complaint charging Mr. Roots with "holding and publishing sundry unsound,
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dangerous and heretical doctrines, and of some instances of conduct contrary to the Scriptures."
The consociation did not sustain the charges which relate to his character and conduct as a pastor, but they think that in some instances he hath delivered unsound doctrine, but not of that import- ance necessary to occasion a separation between minister and peo- ple-and they think if both pastor and people will exercise candor, character and becoming prudence, they may yet live comfortably together .. From all the evidence we have been able to obtain, we believe that the clergy generally sympathized with Mr. Roots, and we have further reason to believe that this trouble was but the fore- runner of the protracted and bitter controversy between the Ortho- dox Congregational and the Unitarian churches which broke out a few years later, and which, in the opinion of some, has not yet been settled.
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