USA > Vermont > Windham County > Newfane > Centennial proceedings and other historical facts and incidents relating to Newfane, the county seat of Windham County, Vermont > Part 2
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RIVERS.
The Wantastiquet, commonly called West River, rises in Weston, Windsor County, and, passing through Newfane, empties into the Connecticut at Brattleboro. The South Branch, so-called, rises in Dover, and, after receiving a number of tributary streams, passes through the southerly part of the town and empties into the West River near the eastern boundary line of said town. Baker's Brook, a tributary of the South Branch, rises in Wardsboro, and empties into the South Branch at Williamsville. Smith's Brook rises in Wardsboro, and, running through the entire northerly part of the town, empties into West River, two miles below Fayetteville. These streams afford many eligible mill sites and water privileges.
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FOREST TREES.
The original growth of forest trees is principally rock maple, beech. birch. spruce and hemlock ; but the recent growth on the eastern and southern hillsides is oak and hick- ory, and in the south part of the town. on the intervals and hill sides near Williamsville, the chestnut grows abundantly. In no other town in Windham County, outside of the valley of the Connecticut. is the chestnut found growing.
SOIL.
The intervals afford excellent tillage land, and the uplands are inferior to none in the state for grazing. The town is diversified with high hills and deep valleys ; but there are no elevations that deserve the name of mountains; there is little or no broken or waste land that is unsuitable for culti- vation.
GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY.
The geological character of the town is uniformly primi- tive; few continuous ranges can be traced with certainty. The rocks in place are principally mica slate and hornblende. Granite is by no means an uncommon rock ; boulders and rolled masses of granite are scattered in profusion over every part of the town, and sometimes they are found on the summits of the highest hills which are composed entirely of mica slate. These boulders. by skillful splitting. are wrought into fence-posts and building-stone. Hornblende is a very common rock : it forms a range which extends through the
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entire town. It is the variety called hornblende slate, and is often curiously curved and twisted, and occasionally passes into primitive greenstone and greenstone porphyry. Mica slate is the most common rock in town, yet no connected range can be traced. It forms the summits and frequently the sides of the hills, and in the valleys it is a common rock ; but hornblende is constantly thrusting itself from underneath the mica slate, and interrupting the continuity of its ranges. In the north part of the town are extensive strata of mica slate, which are occasionally quarried and wrought into flagging stones. Talcose slate better deserves the name of a range than any other in town. It traverses the whole county, passing through Whitingham, Wilming- ton, Marlboro, Newfane, Townshend, Windham, Athens and Grafton. In Grafton, Athens and Townshend it is extensively quarried, and wrought into fire-jambs, etc. There is an extensive bed of this rock in the west part of New- fane, bordering on Wardsboro and Dover, which, at some future day, will be successfully wrought, whenever the rail- road facilities shall be such as to furnish a cheap mode of conveyance to market. Serpentine associated with talcose slate forms a range extending four or five miles on the western border of the town, presenting perpendicular preci- pices in some places forty or fifty feet in height. The crystalline appearance of this rock demonstrates it to be of the most primitive kind. Its texture is close, and it is extremely tough and hard, though in some cases it is easily broken on account of the fissures that pass through it. Chloride slate occurs in this town, in which is embedded splendid specimens of garnet. A nugget of native gold, weighing eight and one-half ounces, was found in this town in 1827, about one hundred rods east of the village of Williamsville. It was of a conical shape, and there were adhering to it a number of small crystals of quartz. It was found in alluvion consisting of thin strata of sand, clay and water-worn stones. The rocks in situ are all of a primitive class, consisting of hornblende, hornblende slate and green- stone porphyry, which are often found alternating with mica slate. At the time this mass of gold was found, it was supposed to have been a piece that was accidentally lost by
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a band of counterfeiters, who formerly resided in the in, me- diate neighborhood, although their operations were confined exclusively to the counterfeiting of silver coin. Gold at that time had not been discovered elsewhere in New England : but since then its discovery at Somerset. Plymouth. Bridge- water. and other places in Vermont. seemed to favor the theory that it existed originally in the bed of serpentine and talcose slate in the west part of the town. near the head waters of the South Branch. and was swept out of place by some freshet and deposited in the alluvion some six miles below. All the gold which has thus far been found in Vermont has been associated with the serpentine and talcose slate range. which extends from Massachusetts north line to Canada. This town probably furnishes the richest and most extensive variety of minerals of any town in the State.
THE BURNING OF THE SAWTELL FAMILY.
A melancholy catastrophe occurred in this town on the night of the 2d of February, 1782. in the burning of the log house of Henry Sawtell, which created great sorrow. bor- dering upon terror, in the minds of the inhabitants of the vicinity, for the house was not only burned, but Mr. and Mrs. Sawtell and five children were consumed therein. The morning after the fire the neighbors saw a cloud of smoke gathered over the Sawtell place, and smelt an unusual odor in the air like burning flesh and clothing. The site of the house was hidden from the view of all the neighboring inhabitants. being situated in a deep valley : but as they approached the ruins they discovered, to their great horror and astonishment. the Sawtell house in ashes. Some of the larger logs were still burning, and the charred bodies of
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Mr. and Mrs. Sawtell and five of their children were smouldering in the ruins. They gathered up, with pious care, the charred remains of the family, placed them in a coffin, and a public funeral was holden at the center of the town on the fourth, when a great crowd of people from the town and vicinity were assembled, and an appropriate ser- mon was preached by Rev. Hezekiah Taylor, the pastor of the church. From an old copy of his sermon, in the possession of the writer of this sketch, it appears that he exhorted his hearers not to construe this painful and violent death of a whole family as a judgment of God by reason of any great or unusual wickedness, for the manner of a person's death was no evidence of his righteousness or sin- fulness before God. He appealed in pathetic and eloquent terms to the neighbors and townsmen of the deceased family. to take warning by this terrible and appalling calamity to be "always ready," for they know not at what hour the Lord would come, " whether at the second or third watch, whether at nightfall or at midnight." Mr. Henry Sawtell and his wife came to Newfane about 1774, and began the clearing of a new farm at a point midway between Newfane Hill and Williamsville. He was highly esteemed for his integrity. His wife was regarded as a pious, amiable woman, an exemplary, affectionate mother. After having undergone the hardships and vicissitudes attending the commencement of a new settlement, though not wealthy, Mr. Sawtell was in comfortable circumstances, and contemplated the erection of a more convenient and suitable dwelling for his family. But fate had decreed " that but for a little time" and they would need no earthly dwelling.
THE OLD SHIRE VILLAGE.
In the early settlement of the town. a village grew up on the summit of a hill, which rose like a cone in the center of the town, and in 1787 Newfane was constituted the shire
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town of Windham County, and the courts were removed from Westminster to Newfane Hill, so called. From 1790 to 1820, the village consisted of a court house, jail. meeting house. academy, three stores, two hotels, a variety of shops. such as were found in all New England villages at an early day. and about twenty private residences. The village stood upon the simmit of the hill, and afordel a prospect as extensive and pictures que as any in New England. From the summit, near the meeting house. might be seen not less than fifty townships, lying in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. On the west. Haystack in Wilmington, and Manicknung in Stratton, towered above the ridge of the Green Mountains. which formed the western boundary of the county. On the north, Ascutney was plainly visible to the naked eye, and on a clear summer day, the White Hills in New Hampshire could be distinctly seen by the aid of a telescope. The Highlands of New Hampshire and Massa- chusetts, extending for a distance of more than eighty miles from Sunnapee to Holyoke, were distinctly visible on the cast, while Monadnock and Wachusett, with their cloud- capped summits, seemed to mingle with the heavens ; and along the margin of the horizon to the southeast, little was to be seen but a broad sea of mountain tops. displaying. in wild disorder, ridge above ridge, and peak above peak, until the distant view was lost among the clouds.
VIEW FROM PUTNEY WEST IHILL.
We cannot, in this connection, omit a description of the view from Putney West Hill. near the northeast corner of Newfane. and near the old road that passes from Dummer- ston and Putney to Newfane. From an eminence near the highway, the view in mid-summer is unsurpassed by any in New England. Looking south. you have on the right. the
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narrow and deep valley of the Wantastiquet, and on the left, the broader valley of the Connecticut. The whole compass of the horizon opens to the view. You can trace the line of the Green Mountains from Florida, in Massachu- setts, to Mount Holly on the north. Saddleback, Haystack, Manicknung and Shatterack tower far above the Green Mountain ridge. From the Connecticut valley your eye stretches over the entire space from Ascutney to Holyoke, and you see hill and valley, clearing and forest, villages, hamlets and cottages, until you reach the summit of the majestic Monadnock ; and from thence you look north along the line of the Blue Highlands toward the White Hills. The surface of the Connecticut, for ten or fifteen miles below Brattleboro, and the cemetery on Prospect Hill, in the east village of Brattleboro, and the village of West Brattleboro are distinctly visible. The serrated, irregular and broken surface of the country, extending from the Wantastiquet to the summit of the Green Mountains on the west, is highly interesting, and reminds one of the Sierras of Spain and California.
SITE OF THE NEW SHIRE.
In 1825, the site of the public buildings were changed from Newfane Hill to what is now called Fayetteville, a village two miles east of the old center in the valley of the Wantastiquet or West River. The present site of the shire is three miles east of the geographical center of the county, and one mile south of the center of population. It is easy of access from all parts of the county. A new court house and jail were erected at an expense of $10,000. In IS53, by an Act of the General Assembly, commissioners were appointed, who altered and improved the public buildings at a cost of $13,000. After the removal of the shire from
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the hill to the valley below, the owners of the real estate on the hill commenced removing their buildings to Fayette- ville and Williamsville, the two villages that have sprung up since the removal of the public buildings, and as late as 1860 not a building remained to mark the pleasant site of the old shire of Windham County. Fayetteville, the present site of the shire, has entirely grown up since 1825. It contains a court house, jail, two churches, two hotels, two stores, one grist and saw mill, two blacksmith shops, two carriage factories and fifty dwelling houses. It is pleasantly situated in the northeast part of the town on Smith's Brook, near its junction with the Wantastiquet or West River.
Williamsville, in the southeast part of the town, is situated on the South Branch, near the mouth of Baker's Brook, and contains about thirty dwelling houses, one hotel, one ineeting house, two stores, two saw mills, one flouring mill, one tannery, two blacksmith shops, one bobbin factory, one carriage factory, one carding machine, one fulling and cloth dressing mill, and one planing mill and pail factory. This village was named after William H. Williams, an enter- prising citizen, who resided many years in Newfane, and died in 1866 at a very advanced age.
Pondville, in the extreme south part of the town, contains a meeting house, one store, two saw mills, one flouring mill, one carding machine, and twenty dwelling houses.
POPULATION.
The population of this town in 1771, was 52; in 1791. 660; in ISoo, 1,000; in ISIO, 1,276; in 1820, 1.506; in IS30, 1,441 ; in 1840. 1,403; in 1850, 1.304; in 1860, 1,192, and in IS70, 1,113.
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TOWN CLERKS.
The following is a list of the Town Clerks from the first organization of the town, in 1774, to the present time :
Luke Knowlton, from 1774 to 1783: Hezekiah Boyden, from 1783 to 1784; Luke Knowlton, 1784 to 1789; Calvin Knowlton, from 1789 to 1792; Nathan Stone, from 1792 to 1834; Joseph Ellis, from 1834 to 1836; William H. Hodges, from 1836 to 1839; Otis Warren, from 1839 to IS67; Marshall Newton, from 1867 to 1868; Dennis A. Dickenson, from 1868 to 1874.
REPRESENTATIVES TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
Ebenezer Myrick, 1779; William Ward, 1780; Ebenezer Myrick, 1781 ; Daniel Taylor, 1782 ; William Ward, 1783 ; Luke Knowlton, 1784-5; William Ward, 1786-7; Luke Knowlton, 1788-9; Calvin Knowlton, 1790-1 ; Luke Knowl- ton, 1792 ; Moses Kenny, 1793; Ebenezer Allen, 1794 to ISO4; Luke Knowlton, 1805-6; Elijah Elmer, 1807 : Joseph Ellis, ISO8-9 ; Martin Field, ISI0; Sylvanus Sher- win, ISII; Luke Knowlton, 1812-13; John Brooks, 1814 ; Luke Knowlton, IS15; Sylvanus Sherwin, IS16; Horace Dunham, IS17 ; Luke Knowlton, 18IS ; Martin Field, IS19; Sylvanus Sherwin, IS20; Martin Field, 1821 ; Sylvanus Sherwin, 1822; Jason Duncan, 1823-4 ; Sylvanus Sherwin, 1825 ; William H. Williams, IS26; D. W. Sanborn, IS27 : Sylvanus Sherwin, 1828; Joseph Ellis, 1829-30; Henry
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Wheelock. 1831-2: George Williams, 1833-4: Roswell M. Field, 1835-6: James Elliott. 1837-S; Walter Eager. 1839 : Nahum Eager, 1840-1; Walter Eager. 1842; Otis Warren, 1843-4: Oliver P. Morse. 1845 ; no representative in 1846 ; Marshall Newton, 1847: George Arnold, 1848; Sir Isaac Newton. 1849-50: F. O. Burditt. 1851-2: Chas. K. Field. 1853-4-5 : Marshall Newton, 1856: Otis Warren. 1857 : Emory Wheelock, 1858: Otis Warren. 1859; Charles K. Field. 1860: O. L. Sherman, 1861-2: A. J. Morse, 1863-4; H. T. Robinson, 1865-6: John Rice. 1867; Holland Plimpton. 1868 : E. P. Wheeler, 1869 : Dana D. Dickinson, 1870-72.
PERVERSION OF LEGAL MAXIMS.
By a strange perversion of legal principles, which pre- vailed among the carly settlers of Windham County. it was supposed that whoever married a widow who was admin- istratrix upon the estate of her deceased husband represented insolvent. and should thereby possess himself of any property or thing which had been purchased by the deceased husband, would become an executor de son tort. and would thereby make himself liable to answer for the goods and estate of his predecessor. To avoid this difficulty. Major Moses Joy. of Putney, who became enamored of Mrs. Hannah Ward. of Newfane. the widow of William Ward, who died about 1788 leaving an insolvent estate, of which Mrs. Ward was administratriv. and married her within three months after taking out letters of administration. The marriage took place in the old Field Mansion on Newfane Hill, February 22d, .A. D., 1789, and was solemnized by Rev. Hezekiah Taylor. Mrs. Ward placed herself in a closet, with a tire- woman, who stripped her of all her clothing. and while in
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a perfectly nude state, she thrust her fair, round arm through a diamond hole in the door of the closet, and the gallant major clasped the hand of the nude and buxom widow, and was married in due form by the jolliest parson in Vermont. At the close of the ceremony, the tire-woman dressed the bride in a complete wardrobe which the major had pro- vided and caused to be deposited in the closet' at the com- mencement of the ceremony. She came out elegantly dressed in silk, satin and lace, and there was kissing all round. A similar marriage took place in Westminster, in this county. See Hall's History of Eastern Vermont, page 585.
An instance, illustrating the strange perversion of legal maxims which prevailed among our ancestors at an early day, fell under the observation of the writer of this sketch. The Hon. Luke Knowlton, Sen., died December 12, 1810, and, at the time of his decease, there were many unsatisfied judgments existing against him. The morning after his decease, a creditor who had obtained a judgment of about forty dollars, applied to the late General Field, his attorney, for an execution with which he could seize the body and commit it to prison, hoping thereby to wring the amount thereof from the relatives and friends of the debtor. But the attorney refused to have an execution issued, insisting that it would be regarded as an outrage to take the dead body of a debtor and commit the same to prison. The prevail- ing notion at that time was that masmuch as the execution run against the body, that the officer might take the body of the debtor, whether dead or alive, and commit the same to the common jail. The same notion prevailed in England as late as 1816. The creditors of the eloquent Richard Brinsley Sheridan, just before his decease, in July, 1816, became so clamorous that they caused a Sheriff's officer to arrest the dying man in his bed and was about to carry him off in his blankets to a sponging house, when the attending physician interfered, and by representing to the officer the responsi- bility he must incur, if, as was too probable, his prisoner should expire on the way, succeeded in averting the outrage.
In the Vermont Republican, printed at Brattleboro, in July, 1855, a story is told of a custom which prevailed in this County at an early day, of holding even the dead
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body of a debtor liable to arrest, and that a case occurred in the town of Dummerston, when a dead body was arrested on its way to the grave and detained until some of the friends " backed the writ." and thus became bail for the debtor's appearance at court. As the return day of the writ was put far ahead the defendant was in no condition to appear and consequently "lurched his bail." In 1820 Dr. John Campbell, of Putney, had obtained a judgement against Anthony Jones and Joel Lee, upon a jail bond executed by Jones and Lee. By virtue of an execution issued upon said judgment, Lee was arrested and confined in the common jail, on Newfane Hill, and under the law which prevailed in this State at that time he was not entitled to the privilege of the jail yard, but was subjected to close confinement. He died within the prison, in the summer of 1820, and his son requested the privilege of taking his body away for the purpose of burying it in the cemetery at Brookline, with his relatives and friends, but the jailer refused to permit the body to be taken away, insisting if he permitted the body to be removed it would be regarded as an escape. and he and his bail would be made liable to satisfy the original judgment, and not until the creditors had consented, would the jailor permit the body to be removed.
THE WHIPPING POST.
At an early day corporal punishments were inflicted at every term of the Court on Newfane Hill. The writer of this sketch, when a mere boy, well remembers witnessing the whipping of old Mother White, of Wardsboro, in August, 1807. She was convicted of passing counterfeit money, and sentenced to recive thirty-nine lashes upon her bare back. A great crowd of men and women collected
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to witness the whipping. The Post was in the form of a cross, with a transverse strip near the top, to which her bare arms were bound, and her body was stripped to the waist. The High Sheriff applied a certain number of stripes, and the balance were allotted to his Deputies, some seven in number, and some of whom applied the blows with great vigor. Near the close of the whipping her back became raw, and she suffered excessive pain and she shrieked and screamed terribly in her agony. The writer of this sketch. although very young, remembers the scene distinctly. The Meeting House and Academy stood a few rods above the site of the Whipping Post, and their windows were filled with women, gazing intently upon the revolting scene. This was probably the last woman publicly whipped in Vermont, for the Legislature abolished the Whipping Post that fall and provided for the building of a States Prison at Windsor.
NUMBER OF SOLDIERS IN THE REBELLION.
The town of Newfane readily and promptly furnished her quota of soldiers, on the call of the President. for the sup- pression of the Slave-holder's Rebellion. She stands cred- ited by the War Department with having furnished the following number of soldiers for the several Vermont regi- ments and other army organizations :
Second Reg't, 7 ; Third Reg't, 1 : Fourth Reg't, 6; Sixth Reg't, 1 ; Seventh Reg't. I : Eighth Reg't, 38 ; Ninth Reg't. 3 ; Eleventh Reg't, 10; Twelfth Reg't, I ; Sixteenth Reg't. 17; Seventeenth Reg't, 6: Vermont Cavalry, 5 ; Sharp- shooters, 3 ; United States Navy, 6; soldiers not credited by name, 6 ; substitutes furnished, 6; commutation money paid by 7 men. Grand total of men furnished. 124: of whom 17 were killed or died in the service.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
HON. LUKE KNOWLTON.
Born in Shrewsbury, Mass .. November 4, 1738. He served as a soldier in the old French War, and in 1759 was stationed at Crown Point awhile, and suffered great hard- ships during his march from Crown Point to Charlestown, No. 4. From a journal he kept during his service as a soldier. we learn that his company, in marching through the wilderness, exhausted their stock of provisions and were obliged to kill a pack-horse to save themselves from starva- tion. He married Sarah. daughter of Ephraim Holland. of Shrewsbury, Mass .. January 5. 1760, and with his family moved to Newfane in February, 1773, which was the four- teenth family that settled in town. He continued to reside in this town until his death. which occurred December 12. ISio, at the age of 73 years. His wife died September 1. 1797. He was chosen first Town Clerk, at the organization of the town in 1774, and continued to hold that position for fourteen years. He was Town Representative in the General Assembly of the State of Vermont during the years ITS4. 1785, 1788. 1789. 1792. 1803. and 1866. and a member of the old Council from 1790. to iSoo ; Judge of the Supreme Court in 1786 and a Judge of the Windham County Court from 1787 to 1793. John A. Graham, in a series of rambling letters descriptive of Vermont scenery, written and published about the close of the last century, thus speaks of Judge Knowlton. "Newfane owes its consequence in, a great measure to Mr. Luke Knowlton, a leading character and a
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Luke Knoutton
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man of great ambition and enterprise, of few words. but possessed of great quickness of perception and an almost intuitive knowledge of human nature, of which he is a perfect judge."
He was a Loyalist, and in consequence of the great sacrifices he .made in behalf of the British Government, in the early part of the Revolutionary War, he received a large and valuable grant of land in Lower Canada, upon a part of which the present town of Sherbrooke is built.
Previous to the year 1784 Judge Knowlton gave in his adherance to the government of Vermont, and voluntarily became a citizen of the State. In the division of the $30,000 which New York received from Vermont, on the accession of the latter State to the Union he received $249.53, on account of the losses he had sustained by being obliged to give up lands which he held under a New York title. He was liberal and generous to the poor, entered heartily and zealously into all the public enterprises of the day, gave to the County of Windham the land for a common on Newfane hill, at the time of the removal of the shire from Westminster to Newfane, and contributed largely towards the erection of the first Court House and Jail in Newfane. He was remarkable for his great suavity of manner, and exceedingly decorous in his deportment. By reason of his great gravity and exceeding humility he acquired the appella- tion of " Saint Luke." His family consisted of seven children. three sons and four daughters, five of whom survived him. Six were born in Massachusetts and one in Vermont. as follows :
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