USA > Vermont > Windham County > Newfane > Centennial proceedings and other historical facts and incidents relating to Newfane, the county seat of Windham County, Vermont > Part 7
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JOHN WHEELER.
John Wheeler, one of the early settlers of Newfane, was a descendant of the fourth generation. from Thomas Wheeler. of Concord, Mass., who was living there in 16440. Capt. Thomas Wheeler and Shadrach Hapgood, with twenty others. went to Brookfield to treat with the Indians in 1675. They were drawn into ambush, where Capt. Thomas Wheeler was wounded and Hapgood was killed.
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Char. R. Field
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A descendant of the one married a descendant of the other in 1717, and were the parents of John Wheeler, born 1735. Ward, in his " Register of Shrewsbury Families," says : " He was at Fort William Henry at the time of the memorable and unparalleled massacre of the English and Provincial troops, by the Indians, in 1757, after its surrender to Montcalm, the French commander."
John Wheeler's wife was Jedidah Bigelow, of Marlboro, Mass., and a descendant of John Bigelow, who came from Suffolk, England, and settled in Watertown, Mass., where he died in 1703, aged 86. She was also supposed to be a descendant of Nathaniel Hathorn of Lynn, Mass., who was living there in 1683, and whose children, or a part of them settled in Marlboro, where Jedidah Hathorn was married to Samuel Bigelow, the father of Mrs. Wheeler, in 1729. John Wheeler and wife were dismissed from the church in Shrewsbury, Mass., to the church in Newfane, in 1774. Their children were,
Darius Wheeler, born in 1761, married Frances Balcom and went to Alleghany county, N. Y., about the year 1815.
Susanna Wheeler, born in 1762, married Jonas Stockwell, of Dummerston Hill.
Thomas Wheeler, born in 1765, married Amy Wood of Dummerston, settled in Newfane, where he died about the year 1813, and his widow afterwards became the second wife of Elijah Elmer, Esq., of Newfane.
Mary Wheeler, born in 1767, married Joel Stockwell, of Dummerston Hill.
Elizabeth Wheeler, born in 1769, married Daniel Taylor, Jr., of Newfane.
Catherine Wheeler, born in 1771, married Gamaliel Arnold, of Dummerston Hill.
The children of Thomas and Amy Wheeler were,
Austin Wheeler, born in 1797, went to Waterloo with Hezekiah Robinson, in 1821. Married first, Charlotte Sophia, daughter of Luke and Charlotte Kenney Knowlton. His second wife was Charlotte, daughter of Samuel and Sylvia Keep Miller, of Dummerston. His third wife was Melona Ann, daughter of George and Orilla Pease Williams,
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of Newfane. He settled in Brome, Quebec, where he died in 1866.
George Wheeler, born in 1799, married Ferona, daughter of George and Orilla Pease Williams. He lives in Newfane.
Thomas Wheeler, born in ISor, married Julia Lucy, daughter of Jason Duncan, of Newfane, now living in Muskegon, Mich.
Franklin Wheeler, born in 1803, died unmarried in New- fane, in 1843.
Julianna Maria Wheeler, born in 1807, married Asa Blunt, of Bolton, Quebec.
Laura Ann Wheeler, born in 1809, married Luke Morgan Knowlton, of Brome, Quebec, died in 1845.
John Elhanan Wheeler, born in 1812, married Mary Ann Roylance, of New York city, died in Kewanee, Ill., in 1867.
REV. OTIS WARREN.
BY REV. HOSEA F. BALLOU.
Died, at his residence, in Fayetteville, (Newfane.) Vt., May 17, 1867, Rev. Otis Warren, in his fifty-ninth year.
The character of Rev. Mr. Warren was such as deserves a biographical sketch.
He was born in Pomfret, Vt., November 23, 1807. His father, Oliver Warren, died when Otis was but seven years old, leaving him and three younger sisters in the care of an affectionate and faithful mother, who is still living in Pomfret. At nine years of age Otis was placed in the care of strangers, to earn his daily bread. His widow says : " He often spoke of this as the bitterest cup of his life." At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to learn the cabinet-makers' trade. in Barnard, which he pursued faithfully six years, enjoying only the advantages of a common school education, but, as it was his natural inclination to do well whatever he did, he became an exact and efficient mechanic. Feeling, as he did, a determined
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purpose to improve in knowledge, doubtless with a view to prepare himself for greater usefulness, and in a field more congenial with his tastes, he purchased the last year of his minority and devoted himself assiduously to labor only as a means to enable him to pursue his favorite study.
Having become intensely interested in the doctrine of a universal Father and an all-efficient Saviour, he procured the works of Ballou, Balfour, Hudson and others. These with a pocket Bible were his constant companions, generally having a well-worn book upon his bench or in his hand, and midnight and often the gray light of morning would find him with unclosed eyes and book.
The sacred Scriptures became as familiar to him as " household words," and a determination to become a teacher in our spiritual Israel was fixed in his mind. He encountered many difficulties. The facilities at that time afforded the student of God's Theology were nothing in comparison with those enjoyed at the present day, as the elder portion of our ministers can but too well remember. But his failing health, never firm, was his greatest trial. Still, nothing daunted, he would say : " Be life longer or shorter, I must devote it to the one object of opening the eyes of the blind."
In October 30, 1832, he married Miss Emily, second daughter of Isaiah Tinkham, Esq., of Pomfret, a lady of many accomplishments, and every virtue, his constant companion and able coadjutor in his public labors and domestic life, known only to be respected as an industrious, faithful and prudent companion, who survives him, with their three children, two sons and one daughter, all married and enjoying an enviable reputation for intelligence, virtue, probity and usefulness.
After studying awhile with the lamented Rev. A. Bugbee, he preached his first sermon in West Brattleboro, in the summer of IS33. In the autumn he returned to his native town and preached there and in the vicinity, until he received an invitation to become pastor of the Union Society, in New- fanc, Vt., to which place he with his family removed in August. 1836, where he was ordained the September following, and where he lived in happiness and peace with the society and acquaintances, in a ministry of more than twenty years.
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In IS58 he journeyed to western Iowa for a change of scenery and the benefit of his waning health. He preached at Onawa through the summer and returned during the winter with little or no improvement in health or strength. After this he preached but occasionally, but continued in answer to numerous calls to attend funerals, often, no doubt, when prudence would have prevented, until about a year before his death, when his friends became somewhat alarmed at an increasing cough, which, however, it was hoped would be better in the milder season. but he grew weaker and his cough increased until autumn, when he sought medical advice. All was done that skill and affection could do, but it could not stay the insidious consumption. Death had no terrors for him. " I shall live my appointed time, I have nothing to fear as long as I believe in a father at the helm. God is good to us in this life, and I think he will be in the next, at any rate I am willing to trust him," was his reply to the solicitude of his friends.
He was wholly confined to his bed only about one week, but was not able to walk or move about the house much for two months. A week previous to his death, his physician kindly told him that there was no prospect of his getting more strength or being any better. " Then." said he, pleasantly. " I will make my preparations as I would to go a journey." He conversed with his family and friends, and gave them advice with as much composure as when in health; gave directions with regard to his funeral, wishing his friends not to mourn, but to manifest the quietude which he felt.
He suffered greatly during the last few days, but when the final summons came his countenance became placid, and with a smile, he passed to the better land. Thus lived and died a righteous man. A man of integrity, an unassuming minister, not a sensation preacher, but a good minister of the New Testament-beloved by all his brethren and friends, and respected by all his acquaintances. His standing may be known from the fact that for four years he represented the town of Newfane in the Legislature of Vermont, and was twenty-nine consecutive years elected Town Clerk, and held the office at the time of his death. A great concourse of
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citizens, of all denominations, attended his funeral. Too much cannot be said of him, nor can we cherish too deeply his memory. He had no enemies.
May God be with the widow and fatherless and enable us to sympathize with them in their affliction.
JOHN ELHANAN WHEELER,
Son of Thomas Wheeler, born in Newfane, in IS12, was from a child, thoughtful, reticent and studious, simple in his manners and modest in his deportment. He entered the office of the " Greenfield (Mass.) Gazette," as an apprentice when he was fifteen years of age. After serving his apprenticeship there, he worked for some time in the office of the " Wind- ham County Democrat," in Brattleboro. Afterwards was many years employed, by Mr. Greeley, as foreman in the office of the " New York Tribune," and still later was one of the editors of the "Chicago Tribune." He died of consumption, in Kewanee, Ill., in 1867. The following lines written by him, are descriptive of the writer, as he seemed to those who knew him well. They are all that remains of his genius and literary taste, although he wrote many New Year Carrier's Addresses for the New York and Chicago Tribunes :
THE TRUE OF SOUL.
The solemn stars in their far shining, quiver
As if unstable on their thrones of blue, But there they shine in fadeless glory ever,
And night to night their sleepless watch renew. The needle trembles as with doubtful motion,
Yet, wav'ring, points to the unchanging pole ;
A guide, unerring, on the trackless ocean,
When storm-clouds gather, and when billows roll.
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Though turned aside by all things in their flowing, Reflecting all things in their liquid pages, Seaward the streams perpetually are going, Throughout the cycles of the endless ages ; Or sealed by frost, or in the spring-time sparkling, Or lashed to foam, or placid as the lake, Or bright in noontide, or at midnight darkling, One course they hold-their channels ne'er forsake.
Like these, the True of Soul may seem to falter, By passion tossed like sere leaves in the wind, Yet bends he ever at the one High Altar, For but one law his will at last can bind ; Motives, a mingled crowd, are round him thronging, Whispered suggestions come from heaven and hell, But upward borne by an immortal longina, Blest angels greet him, and the demons quell.
And ever strives he for the pure and holy, The constant foe of falsehood and of wrong, Sworn champion he of all the poor and lowly, Against the cunning and against the strong ; His heart their home, upon his features glowing, The gentlest thoughts obey the souls behest, And outward sent, or guests from heaven inflowing, Hover like doves around their wonted nest.
Sad on his ear fall sorrow's wailing voices, And quick the hand obeys the generous will ; Diffusing joy, he like a God rejoices, For love, in widening circles, seeks to fill All desert hearts with sun-bright hopes,-reviving The flowers, long withered on their arid waste, And to the latest seeds of goodness giving Reflected growth, with heavenly fruitage graced.
No compromise he makes with evil doing, Though he would gladly bless all evil-doers, And win them from the way they are pursuing, With words persuasive as a maiden's-wooers ;
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With bright example, which is far more winning,
Than the best homilies which men may preach, For who would turn the sinner from his sinning,
As taught the greatest Teacher, he must teach.
In Nature's book, that rare and wondrous volume,
He sees but types of things more true and real ; Its varied aspects, beautiful and solemn,
Suggest a deeply hid, sublime Ideal- A Fount of Beauty whence all beauty floweth-
Exhaustless Love, free, infinitely tender-
Eternal Wisdom, which all knowledge knoweth-
A complex One, whose smile rays forth all splendor !
ERRATA.
On page 35, third line from bottom, substitute "Sarah Holbrook " for " Lucinda Holbrook. "
On page 73, fourteenth line from top substitute, "John McAllister Stevenson, " for John W. Stevenson.
On page 73, sixteenth line from top, substitute June, for January.
ADDENDA.
The following was furnished to us after the preceding pages had been printed. It should have been added to the biographical sketch of the Hon. Luke Knowlton Sr. It is copied in an abstract form from the records of the Supreme Court, which were deposited at an early day in the Clerk's Office for Rutland County. "Freeman vs. Francis Prouty."
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Indictment for burglary ; respondent was tried at West- minster, February Term, 1784.
The Jury returned a verdict literally as follows :
" The Jury in this case find that the prisoner did break and enter the house of Luke Knowlton Esq., in the night season and did take and carry away the said Luke Knowlton, and if that breaking a house and taking and carrying away a person as afoersaid amounts to burglary we say he is guilty, if not, we say he is not guilty." The judgment of the court on the verdict was that he was not guilty.
Luke Knowlton and Col. Samuel Wells were regarded as friends of the American cause and supported zealously the claims of New York to the New Hampshire grants, but in 1782 they were suspected of being in the service and pay of the British Government in Canada. Consequently on the twenty-seventh day of November, 1782, Congress in secret session ordered their arrest. They received notice of the order and escaped to Canada before the officers could arrest them. Luke Knowlton returned home within a year and was residing at his house in Newfane in November, 1783. The Yorkers in Windham County supposed him still negotiating with the British, and resolved to arrest and remove him to some other State. Francis Prouty, Thomas Whipple and Jonathan Dunkley, of Brattleboro, John Wheeler and Darius Wheeler of Newfane, with others, being armed with "clubs, guns, swords, pistols and bayonets," forcibly broke and entered his house at Newfane, on the morning of November 16, 1783, took him prisoner and carried him across the boundary line into Massachusetts and left him. As soon as the seizure and abduction of Luke Knowlton was known, Gen. Fletcher, of Townshend, ordered the military to assemble. A portion of the regiment commanded by Col. Stephen R. Bradley, rallied immediately and reported themselves ready to act, but Knowlton's return and the sudden dispersion of the Yorkers terminated all further action on the part of the Vermonters.
On the eighteenth of November, Edward Smith, a con- stable of Newfane, entered a complaint against the rioters. Thomas Whipple, charged with an assault, plead guilty and gave bonds in £100, for his appearance before the Superior
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Court at its next session at Westminster. Jonathan Dunkley was arrested and gave bonds in the same amount for his appearance before the Supreme Court. Francis Prouty, the ringleader, was afterwards found at his own house in Brat- tleboro by Barzillai Rice, a deputy sheriff; he was in com- pany with his neighbors and friends armed with muskets and pitchforks. Prouty confronted the sheriff and threatened to "let out his guts" if he entered his house or touched his person. Prouty was never arrested until the Sth day of Janu- ary, 1784, his house was surrounded by a party of Vermonters and he was captured and committed to Westminster Jail. On the third of February, 1784, the Superior Court commenced its session at Westminster, Moses Robinson chief justice presiding. Francis Prouty was arraigned and tried upon three several indictments, one for burglary, upon which he was acquitted, as the foregoing record shows. On one for resisting sheriff Barzillai Rice, to which he pleaded not guilty and was ac- quitted ; and one for seizing and carrying away forcibly Luke Knowlton out of the state of Vermont. To the last indict- ment he pleaded guilty and was fined £30 with costs of pros- ecution, and to be imprisoned in close confinement for forty days.
Darius Wheeler of Newfane was arrested and John Wheeler became bail for his appearance before justice Fletcher. No record can be found of the examinations of John and Darius Wheeler ; it is presumed that they were discharged and suf- fered to go at large.
In Walton's " Governor and Council, " Vol. 2, page 116, it is suggested in a foot note that Newfane was sometimes called "New Patmos. "
On page 95, last line, read "Freemen" for "Freeman."
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TOASTS AND RESPONSES.
I. The President of the day. One of the stalwart, solid men of Newfane, though nothing but moss (Morse).
This was happily responded to by Mr. Morse, but the speech was not reported.
2. The Judiciary of this State. Adorned as much by the modesty as by the learning and sound judgment of those who wear the ermine.
To this the Hon. H. H. Wheeler replied as follows, viz. :
It has given me great pleasure to be present on this occasion, to show in some measure the respect and regard that I have for the past and present inhabitants of this town. I have personally known it during the last quarter of its century. During the first ten years of that time it was, mostly, the home of my parents and myself, and since then it has been their home and that of others of my near relatives. And since then, too, I have spent some time in every year, and in some years considerable time in attendance at court here. These things have given me an extensive acquaintance with its people which has created and continued much respect and esteem on my part for them. From the manner in which I have been called upon now, however, I suppose that I am expected to say at least something about the relations of this town to the courts. In 1786-7 Luke Knowlton, a man prominent among the early inhabitants, and some of whose descendants still reside here, was a Judge of the Supreme Court. In an act of the Legislature of the State, passed March S, 1787, which provided for the organization of courts and for their sessions, it was enacted that the time and place for the annual sitting of the Supreme Court should be " At Westminster in the county of Windham on the first
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Tuesday next following the fourth Tuesday of August next, and thereafter at Newfane in said county of Windham on the first Tuesday next following the fourth Tuesday in August, if the inhabitants of said Newfane shall, before that time, build a court house according to the condition of a bond executed by Luke Knowlton, Esq., and others, to the treasurer of Windham county." I suppose that the inhabitants of the town built a court house, according to the condition of the bond, for at the October session of the legislature in the same year an act was passed that provided, " That after the session of Windham County Court in November next all writs and processes to be issued returnable to the said court in June term, 1788, shall be returnable at Newfane in said county." This court house was set in the middle of the common on the hill, which was given by Luke Knowlton for that purpose. The session of the county court at that June term, 17SS, would appear to be the first session of any court of general jurisdiction in the town. In the latter part of August, or the fore part of September following, the Supreme Court of the State must have sat there. At that session Moses Robinson, who was the first chief justice of the State, and who had been a judge of the court every year but one, and chief justice every year but two after the organization of the State, Paul Spooner, who had been a judge of the court every year but two, from the organization of the State, and chief justice one of the years that Robinson was not, and Stephen R. Bradley, the first person ever admitted to practice as an attorney, by the courts of Vermont, were the judges.
I have been thus particular in speaking of the session of that court, for it must have attracted a good deal of attention from the people at the time and have been quite an event in the history of the town. The court house built by the people of the town was consumed by fire, probably in the year 1790 or 1791. An act of the legislature was passed, October 18, 1791, laying " a tax of a half penny on the pound on the list of the polls and rateable estates in the county of Windham as taken the present year for the purpose of rebuilding a court house in Newfane in the county of
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Windham, on the ground where the court house lately stood." The court house was rebuilt on the same ground, and the courts, at times Nathaniel Chipman, Noah Smith, Royal Tyler. Theophilus Harrington, Richard Skinner, Cornelius P. Van Ness and Asa Aiken were members of which, continued to hold their sessions at the old court house on the hill, until the court house was built at Fayetteville, where it now stands. After that at times Chas. K. Williams, Stephen Royce, Samuel S. Phelps and Jacob Collamer, of the judges not now living, attended the courts here, and became known to, and more or less familiar with the people of the town.
But the efficiency and usefulness of the courts do not depend upon the judges alone, but are largely dependent upon the members of the bar. When the courts were first established at Newfane, Luke Knowlton then lately a judge of the Supreme Court, probably practised before them. I have never learned that any other attorney then resided in the town. Perhaps among those who came from other towns was Charles Phelps, of Marlboro, who was the first lawyer that ever resided in the State. Afterwards Gen. Martin Field became an attorney and a prominent inhabitant of the town; and William C. Bradley of Westminster, Jonathan Hunt of Brattleboro, John Phelps of Guilford, and Charles Phelps of Townshend, became. among others. prominent practitioners. After them came Jonathan D. Bradley, Roswell M. Field, a native of Newfane, and one of the brightest and ablest of the lawyers in the State and in the nation ; and later still, Edward Kirkland, John E. Butler, Henry E. Stoughton. Oscar L. Shafter, Stephen P. Flagg and many others, not now living. I cannot mention them all, nor say but a few words about any of them. All of these must have been often in this town, and have been more or less familiar with the people of the town. Some of them wielded an important influence in the nation, some of them in the State, all of them some influence in the county. and upon this town, the shire town of the county.
3. Our Historian. A Field well tilled and rich in the fruits of learned lore.
Response not reported.
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4. The Band. May they ever play Yankee Doodle close to the heels of a retreating foe.
The Band responded by playing Yankee Doodle, with the " Doodle " well put in.
5. Our Public Schools. The pride and glory of the town.
6. Our Ancestors. Embalm their memory and practice their virtues.
7. The Soldiers of Newfane. As in the past, so in the future they will stand by their country in the hour of her peril.
S. The greetings of Newfane's first Centennial to its second in 1974. We will take care that you shall not be ashamed of us.
Posterity will bear the greetings, and make the responses.
9. We often enough extol the deeds and virtues of our fore-fathers, and tell how much we owe to them, but we hear little of what we owe to our fore-mothers.
Our Fore-mothers. But for them we should not be here.
Responded to by M. O. Howe.
10. The people of Newfane hating everything dry but dry wit, are diligently cultivating something which is ever- Green.
This sentiment was happily and humorously responded to by J. J. Green, as follows :
Ladies and Gentlemen :- I acknowledge the corn. Green I am, and Green I always expect to be. But we read in the Good Book that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like a lily of the field, and yet, the lilies are clothed in Green. I look about me, and I behold all nature clothed in her most beautiful garb. There's nothing in it but Green. And as I behold this vast assembly, these professional men and learned judges on the stage, I ask myself for what have they come
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here to-day? and the closing century answers : It is to hear Fane's Field,
Green with historie lore, The crop of an age that's gone before.
II. The ladies of Fane, May they ever sustain Their mothers' good name, And, as of yore, Of children have a score.
Response by C. K. Field.
12. Our Ancestral Mothers.
Responded to by Rev. Lewis Grout, as follows :
Our Ancestral Mothers-Rich in health, good sense, grace and culture, with spinning wheels for pianos, cradles for melodeons, and wide-awake boys and girls for pupils and performers, they made their homes happy, and their memory to be revered.
Mr. President. Ladies and Gentlemen :- There are some occasions when it is not easy to give expression to the thoughts and feelings that go flitting through the mind and heart ; and, to some of us, such is this day. To have been born and reared on these hills or in some of these valleys, and then at the age of fifteen or twenty years to have gone away and have been absent some thirty or forty years. and now return, look around, see the present and recall the past, is to have remembrances and sentiments too many and too deep to be brought to the surface and put in words at the moment. Crossing the Green Mountains, a day or two since, when I had climbed up to the highest ridge, I turned and took a look at the regions left in the rear ; and what a glorious outlook was that -- hills and valleys, forests and farms, gardens and villas, nature and art, the works of God and the works of man, all mingled and lying at my feet in the perfection of beauty and variety. So, climbing up to this day of a hundred years, we turn for a moment and take a look at the past ; and what a grand review is this. Right here, at our feet, and around us, we see the fruitage of three generations of trials
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