USA > Vermont > Early history of Vermont, Vol. II > Part 13
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OF VERMONT. 199
country is level, and the soil marly. The waters of Lake Champlain are higher than the river St. Lawrence, which demonstrates the probability of the measure. It is impossible to calculate the ad- vantages of this undertaking in a commercial point of view ; such an undertaking would pro- mote agriculture, population, arts, manufactures, handicrafts, and all the business of a civilized state, regulated by wise laws, sound policy, a deep sense of religious duty and morality."
Of course all negotiations between the State and foreign powers ceased when she became one of the States of the American Union.
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CHAPTER XI.
BOARD OF WAR.
The first record of the appointment of a Board of War was the record of the doing of the ad- journed session of the Convention held at Dorset in western Vermont on September 27, 1776. It was then voted that Mr. Simeon Hathaway, Dr. Jonas Fay, Nathan Clark, Esquire, Lieut. Joseph Bradley, Lieut. Martin Powell, Mr. Cephas Kent, Capt. Joseph Bowker, Capt. Joseph Woodward and Nehemiah Howe be a committee of war for northern Vermont. And by a vote of the Conven- tion taken at the same time the Board was em- powered to issue their warrant, to the field offic- ers of the militia on the district of the New Hamp- shire Grants on sufficient notice from the Com- mander-in-Chief of the armies of the United States of America, or Congress, or on any sudden emer- gency that shall be adjudged by said committee of war to be for the immediate safety of the Grants, commanding them to march immediately to the relief of such part of the continent as required to, and if any person refused to obey without suffi- cient excuse they were subject to fine. And the committee of war had full power to hear any com- plaint against any field officer for neglect of their duty and to proceed against them and collect by warrant or execution fines imposed.
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On January 15, 1777, the General Convention voted that Major Thomas Chandler, Mr. Stephen Tilden, Mr. Ebenezer Hoisington, Mr. Joshua Webb, Lieut. Dennis Lockland, Mr. Jonathan Big- elow, Col. Thomas Johnson, Mr. Elijah Gates and Nichols White be a committee of war to act in conjunction with the committee of war already chosen. This committee was for the east side of the mountain. At the same time the Convention recommended to each town in Cumberland and Gloucester Counties to choose new committees of safety where the towns were disaffected with the existing committees. The design of this move evi- dently was to supersede the committees of Tory proclivities.
Members of the Board of War were appointed from time to time whenever changes or additions were necessary, and to a large extent were taken from the Committee of Safety and Councilors. For a short time the Governor and Council were the Board of War, and on March 11, 1779, com- menced their action as such under the resolution of the General Assembly of February 25, 1779. The Board of War as thus constituted were His Excellency, Thomas Chittenden, Joseph Bowker, Timothy Brownson, Joseph Fay, Moses Robinson and Ira Allen and they made choice of Mathew Lyon as their secretary, and their first meeting was at the house of His Excellency. Their work was various; ordering the calling forth the militia for the defense of the inhabitants; establishing the line of defense: ordering the building of forts ; giv- ing timely warning to the settlers of approaching
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danger; recommending families to move within the line of defense, and that the men remain on their farms but work in collective bodies with their arms.
The General Assembly on June 2, 1779, by reso- lution approved of the method that had been taken by the Board of War for the defense of the frontier, and recommended that they attend to the defence of the frontier, and also passed a resolve "that his Excellency, the Governor, and any four members of the Council, be and they are hereby in- vested with all the powers that have been hitherto given to be made use of by the Court of Confisca- tion." It appears when the Board of War met at Manchester on October 27, 1779, Samuel Robin- son, Esquire, and Maj. Benjamin Wait, Ebenezer Allen and Samuel Fletcher, Esquire, had been ad- ded to the Board and met with the Board on that occasion. On April 6, 1780, the Board of War ac- cepted of a report of their committee recommend- ing the building of forts at Pittsford and Hubbard- ton, and the Board voted that there be built near the north line of Pittsford a piquit fort with proper flankers, with barracks sufficient for 150 men in- closed, and another at Hubbardton sufficient for 75 men.
At Arlington May 11, 1780, the Board of War, on learning that troops on the frontier had not been furnished provisions by the Continental au- thorities, and the troops were nearly out of meat, and would be obliged to quit their posts if provis- ions were not furnished them, the selectmen of the respective towns were directed to collect thirty
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pounds of pork, for each man, in the town in which the men were raised; and the same be for- warded to the house of Col. Mead at Rutland im- mediately; and if it could not be collected with- out, they were to take the pork from the inhabi- tants, "in proportion to what they have and their families." The selectmen were to keep an account of the pork taken and the expense of transporta- tion which was to be paid for by the State. There was a quick response to this order. The following is the report made by Sandgate, viz :
"SANDGATE, March 6th, A. D. 1781.
We raised our Cate of Pork according to orders and sent it to headquarters, being sixty weight of Pork.
This we attest.
TIMOTHY HURD, ) Select-
REUBEN THOMAS. J men."
Bennington's proportion was 720 pounds as there were 24 men raised in that town. The Board met again on June 12, 1780, and Jonathan Fassett was then one of their number. At that session the Board voted to raise one company of men to join Maj. Ebenezer Allen's command for the defense of the frontiers of the State, their pay to commence six days before they marched. It was also voted that "the members of the Board do hereby engage to use their influence that said company have one township of land granted them (in equal shares) towards their bounty and wages at the session of Assembly in October next as cheap as any of such quantity shall be then granted." Soldiers were raised from time to time
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as the exigency of the defence of the frontier demanded.
At a meeting of the Board of War August 21, 1780, the Board resolved that the Commissary of Issues, at every post where cattle are killed for the use of the army, take charge of the hides and tallow, to see that the former are properly dried and that the latter is properly rendered and that they are disposed of as his Excellency the Governor shall direct from time to time. On November 29, 1780, Stephen Pearl, Esq., had be- come a member of the Board of War. On Jan- uary 20, 1781 the Board "resolved that the equip- ment of non-commissioned officers and soldiers (exclusive of his blankets and clothing) shall be as follows, viz: 1 good musket, 1 good bayonet or tamahawk, 1 good knapsack, 1 powder horn, 1 bullet pouch and a sufficient trump line or sling for packs."
The Board of War were watchful and ever on their guard against the enemy. On February 19, 1781, it "resolved that Lieut. Beriah Green be and he is hereby directed to take a scout of fifteen men with ten days provisions and proceed in the most likely place to make discovery of the enemy, to the lake, by the way of Onion River, unless the enemy prevent his proceding so far, and make return of his discovery to Major Wait." They prepared for winter campaigns as well as in the more favorable parts of the year. They resolved on February 22, 1781, that the Commissary of Purchases be re- quested to furnish fifty pairs of snow shoes for Ma- jor Wait's detachment without loss of time, and
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that each man furnish himself with a good pair of snow shoes and be paid for the same on their re- turning them into the State store. The Board of War required very prompt action. Captain Jesse Sawyer was notified of his appointment as Captain in the Regiment of Rangers ordered to be raised, and he was required to give notice of his accept- ance of the office "in half an hour or it will be tak- en in the negative." On April 13, 1781, Timothy Bedel and Capt. Ebenezer Brewster were chosen as members the Board of War, and it appears that John Fassett, Jr., Joseph Tyler, Thomas Murdock and Benjamin Emmons had been added as mem- bers. On October 15, 1781, the Board of War ap- peared to have been revised as at that time the Gov- ernor and Council in conjunction with the House proceeded to elect the Board of War and Timothy Brownson, Benjamin Emmons, Ira Allen, Roger Enos, Joseph Caldwill, Israel Wyman, Thomas Murdock, John Fassett and Joseph Bowker, Es- quires, were chosen. The General Assembly on February 18, 1783, elected the following seven per- sons as a Board of War, viz: Brigadier General Roger Enos, Colonel John Strong, Brigadier Gen- eral Samuel Spofford, Colonel Elijah Robinson, Col- onel Timothy Brownson, Colonel Benjamin Wait and Colonel Moses Robinson were elected. Pro- bably there is no record of the major part of the doings of the Board. It is quite probable there were other persons not named above who were members of the Board of War during the time it had an existence. It is evident that the Board was an important arm of the government of Ver-
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mont during the stirring events in Vermont's con- troversy with New York, and during the Revolu- tionary War-times that tried men's sonls.
CHAPTER XII.
THE EARLY SETTLERS OF VERMONT AND THEIR HOMES.
.. It has been the endeavor of the writer in what has been written to give a pretty full political his- tory of the early days of Vermont, and of strug- gles and trials of the brave Green Mountain Boys and the privations of the pioneers of the State that they had to endure in order to protect the people and to establish a State government. While public duties were important and pressing there was the dangerous work of establishing homes in a dense wilderness. A greater part of the pioneers in Vermont came from the four other New England jurisdictions which at first were colonies of Great Britain. They gathered to- gether what few things they possessed and loaded them into the wagon or cart and journed into a newly granted township, and perhaps made a small payment towards a lot of land selected for their home in the wilds of Vermont. It is not easy to imagine the true state of affairs that the husband and his wife and a family of small chil- dren were compelled to face. On their arrival at their new home, with no house or barn, or if one, it was small and of the most primitive kind, with but a small amount of provisions, no neighbors and no school or church privileges, and sur- rounded by both wild beasts and savages.
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They commenced life by building a small log house and barn covered with poles, bark and boughs, (for there were no saw mills with which to manufacture lumber to make houses of mod- ern style) and clear a small piece of ground on which to raise, for the first year, a few potatoes and vegetables, and perhaps a small patch of Indian corn. Before the first year is at an end the small stock of provisions that they have brought with them or was enabled to raise, would be exhausted. For the few first years the family would have a hard struggle to live, even if they escaped sickness and eked out the year's living by the use of wild meat and berries. If the family persevered a few years their prospects would be- gin to brighten. In a few years by dint of hard labor and many privations their lot of land would become a farm on which they could keep a stock of cattle, sheep, horses, hogs and poultry. In a few years after the State began to be settled, saw mills and grist mills, of quite limited capacity, were built in several parts of the State. But for many years lumber had to be hauled a long dis- tance and people were compelled to carry their grain to be ground for family use twenty miles or more. Emigrants from other States came in from time to time, and the townships began to be set- tled, and settlers began to be neighbors and saw the necessity of schools to educate their children, and then the community would build a little log school house and obtain a teacher to teach their children to read, write and cipher.
The common school was always a favorite
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with the people of Vermont. They did not imbibe the sentiments of Governor Berkeley of Virginia. He hated the common school and wrote in 1665: "I thank God there are no free schools nor print- ing in Virginia, and I hope we shall not have them these hundred years." At an early day, every town, as it became settled, was divided into school districts, the people of which elected their committee, treasurer and collector, and the school, in whole or in part, was supported on the grand list. The teacher was required to board round in the families that had children to send to school. And each family was required to board the teacher in proportion to the number of children they sent to school would bear to the whole num- ber of scholars attending the school. This some- times would come hard on a poor family that numbered ten or twelve children as was quite common in those days. But there was one recom- pense, the children would have the assistance of the teacher during the evenings at home. Every school district had a school house, and often times built of logs, with a row of pine desks on three sides of it, behind which the adult scholars sat, with low benches in front for the children.
The school master was about the house, ferule in hand, a despot as well as instructer; feruleing and whipping were common for disobedience of orders, and if a scholar received a whipping at school, he was quite likely to receive another at home if the disobedience and punishment at the school came to the knowledge of the parents. This was the rigid New England way of bringing
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up children and enforcing obedience to orders. Children and stalwart young men and fair maid- ens merging toward womanhood, all attended the common district school, for it was not regarded commendable not to be able to read, spell and ci- pher. The older part of the inhabitants of the present time well remember the manner of con- ducting the schools in Vermont. The classes in both reading and spelling took their places on the floor in a straight line, and at the word "atten- tion" given by the master the boys would bow and the girls would make their courtesy. In the spelling class, if one should "miss" a word the one that spelled the word correctly standing below took his place above the one who mis-spelled the word. It was an honor to stand at the head of the class, and a disgrace to remain at the foot. The rich and poor stood on a level; merit won. In those early days of Vermont the committee and the parents of the scholars visited the schools fre- quently to see for themselves the advancement their children were making in their studies and in deportment.
The spelling school was an interesting feature of the district school where a healthy competition. between the scholars attending the school and scholars of neighboring districts, was created. They Were usually held in the evening, where the scholars of different districts in a town or vicinity would meet to contend for the victory. The mas- ter would select a boy and a girl to take their seats and "choose sides." They would alter- nately select from those present to take their seat
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upon the side they were chosen for. The aim of the chosers would be to get as many of the best spellers as possible. The master would "put out the words" and the exercise in spelling would go on for a while, when all would be required to stand and the master would pronounce the words to each side alternately. The person who mis- spelled a word was to set down and this proceed- ing would continue until all were "spelled down." The last standing one was the victor. Entertain- ments consisting of dialogues, declamations and essays were of frequent occurrence at the school house. During the session of the school in the long winter evenings at home the scholars would sit in front of the mammoth fireplace studying and working out the problems in arithmetic by the light of the fire, for the lamps were then not in use, and even tallow candles were a scarce article. Sometimes a light would be procured by putting a rag or wick into a dish of melted fresh lard or tal- low and lighting and burning one end of it that protruded above the grease in which it lay.
Many a young man appreciated even these meager opportunities for acquiring an education and made good use of their time, and became some of the first men of the State and Nation. As population increased in different parts of the State, and the times began to be more prosperous and business began to expand, and wider oppor- tunities opened for the young men and women, higher and more advanced studies were brought into the schools and taught. It was soon pro- vided by law that spelling, reading, writing, geog-
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raphy, arithmetic and English grammar. should be taught in the common schools; and this opened the door for still greater demands. Soon schools of a higher grade called the "Academy" were es- tablished in different parts of the State, where the young men and women could obtain a higher edu- cation and fit themselves to enter college. The Academies throughout the State were prosperous, useful and very popular for many years where young men fitted themselves for teachers, minis- ters, lawyers, legislators, governors and states- men, and thereby not only honored their native State, but obtained a worthy name and great honor in other States of their adoption. Vermont has looked well for the educational interest of her children. Two prosperous colleges have been es- tablished within her borders-one at Burlington in 1791, and one at Middlebury later. Many of her sons, however, have been educated at Han- over, situated in New Hampshire but few miles from the eastern border of Vermont.
During the first forty years of the early settle- ments in Vermont money was hard to be got with which to buy the necessaries of life for the family-in fact the settler had but little to sell ; potash was the principal article of exportation ; he was trained in the school of adversity and was forced to be frugal and manufactured at home er- ery thing that the family must have for their com- fort. He raised his own flax, from which to ob- tain his necessary linen clothes; he raised his own sheep from which he obtained the wool from which to manufacture the necessary bed clothes
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and wearing apparel for himself and family. The flax wheel, the spinning wheel, the quill wheel, swifts, and both the hand and wheel-reel and the loom were the necessary articles for the household and in constant use by the mother and her daugh- ters. The flax was pulled and laid upon the ground, and dried, when the seed was removed by threshing, and spread in thin rows again upon the ground where it remained several weeks through rain and sunshine to make the outer fiber brittle and fit it for breaking and swingling-a process of separating the woody part of the stock from the finer part. Then again the coarser part of the flax was separated from the finer by drawing the flax through a hatchel. The coarser part of the flax was called tow, and was made into rolls by hand cards, to be spun and wove into coarse cloth from which towels, pantaloons and other useful articles were made.
It was an interesting sight to go into a house- hold where the mother and her four or five daugh- ters were industriously at work, one making the cheese or butter, one doing up the house work, one spinning the rolls that had been made from the wool, another using the hand cards making rolls from tow, while another would be weaving. It was not infrequently that the daughters were assisting in milking the cows, feeding the poultry and weeding in the garden while the father and sons were doing the heavier work upon the farm.
It took considerable skill to handle the spin- ning wheel and to work the loom to advantage.
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This kind of work was hard and made the days seem long and wearisome. It required the turn- ing the wheel with one hand and holding the thread and drawing it out with the other, and then running it back upon the spindle; then the yarn was reeled into skeins, dyed and washed and put upon the warping bars and into the looms; then each thread of the warp must be drawn through the "harness" and through the reed; the weaver would sit in front of the loom with her feet upon the treddles and her hands upon the lathe; the working of the treddles would open the warp so that the shuttle, containing the thread or yarn wound upon a quill, would be thrown back- ward and forward, beating the threads together by the lathe, making a firm cloth-making all wool cloth for gowns and men's garments ; weav- ing linen for sheets, pillow-cases, towels, napkins, stand cloths, table cloths and underwear of tow and wool. Carpets were woven, the filling of which were made from long strips of rags sewed together. Some women would "take in weaving" as it was called-and weare many hundred yards for their neighbors and made considerable money by so doing.
Knitting for the use of the family and knitting articles for sale or that might beexchanged for gro- ceries for the house was always in order; and this work was resorted to while visiting. There were no idle hours. Straw and palm-leaf hats and bonnets were manufactured, by hand by the mother and daughters, for sale at the country stores. The read- er must not think that this was all drudgery. It
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was work the family had been trained to do and in which they delighted. The joyful song, the lively chat and the merry laugh would accompany the work. They knew the possession of a new calico dress, apron or shawl depended upon their industry. At the commencement of early winter a shoemaker was hired to come into the family with his bench and shoemaking tools to make the necessary shoes and boots for the family. The sons of the family would regard themselves well dressed and well provided for with their panta- loons, vest and frock, made from the wool, raised from the sheep kept on the farm, spun, wove, cut and made up by the mother and daughters and a cap or hat made by their hand, with boots, fitted and made by their shoemaker, all at home. The average man in those days had no money with which to purchase broad-cloth, silk hats and finery. Luxuries were few. Work was a duty; life was a tremendous reality and there was but little time for play.
As time went on and population increased, the lands began to be cleared, roads improved and neighbors were nearer each other, the practices of civilized and social life were multiplied, and framed houses substituted for log houses. The rooms in the new house would be the spare or "square room," a large living kitchen, a bed room and the back room below and an open chamber above used for the children for a sleeping apart- ment. One large chimney in the center of the house built from the ground with a mammoth fire places in the square room and kitchen, with a
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large brick oven at the side of the chimney and connected with it, the mouth of which opened into the kitchen, and in which all the bread, pies, pud- dings and beans were baked. Once a week this oven would be heated by burning wood in it un- til the brick of which it was made were hot; then it would be cleared and filled with the articles to be baked, where they would remain till ready for the table.
The kitchen was a great institution. In the fire-place was fastened a long iron crane that could be swung out, and on which pots and ket- tles were hung that were used for cooking. The fire place was large enough so that a large "back log" would be placed on a pair of andirons with a fore stick, with smaller wood piled thereon. When this fuel got well afire the whole room would be well lighted. Potatoes were baked in the hot ashes and embers and the children would parch their corn therein. By such fires the family would sit during the long winter evenings, peel and eat the beech nuts they had gathered during the fall, eat apples and drink cider, of which they would have an abundance; before these fires the children would do their reading and study their school lessons for the coming day. In this large room was seen the long family table, a cupboard for the dishes, the large wooden clock fastened up in the corner, spinning wheel and loom, with chairs and benches sufficient to accommodate the family.
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