USA > Vermont > Early history of Vermont, Vol. II > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25
369
OF VERMONT.
them who fired into it, so alarming him that he fled for safety to New York. He there gathered a posse of about a dozen men, repaired to the house of Remember Baker of Arlington to arrest him un- der Governor Tryon's proclamation. They broke into Baker's house about day light March 22, 1772, wounded Baker and his wife, maltreated his children and retired into New York with Baker as prisoner.
An alarm was spread among the Green Moun- tain Boys, and they pursued Munro and his posse, rescued Baker and restored him to his family. Munro remained quiet till 1777, when he fled to Burgoyne's camp and the Vermonters confiscated his property ; he was proscribed by the Vermont act of February 26, 1779. The Council of Safety gave permission for Munro's wife, January 30, 1778, to remain in possession of his farm till further order, and on August 17, 1777, gave her liberty to take and use one of her riding horses by sending to Bennington for it, till the Council should send for it.
GENERAL JOHN MCNEIL of Charlotte was a Loyalist but took the oath of fidelity and was permitted to remain in the State and was reck- oned as an honorable citizen. He was one of the first settlers of Tinmouth where his residence was in 1777, when his property was confiscated. He resided for a while in Bennington with James Breakenridge, a Loyalist. He removed to Char- lotte from Bennington. McNeil was the first Town Clerk of Charlotte, elected March 13, 1787, and its first representative; he was elected and
370
EARLY HISTORY
served as representative in 1788, 1789, 1790, 1792, 1793, and 1796; Judge of Probate in Chit- tenden County for three years from 1787 to 1789, inclusive, and Judge of the County Court five years from 1789 to 1793, inclusive; he was a dele- gate in the Convention of 1791, which adopted the Constitution of the United States; and of 1793, which re-arranged the Constitution of Ver- mont. McNeil's ferry from Charlotte to Essex, N. Y., perpetuates his name.
JESSE WELDEN was the first settler in St. Al- bans but was driven off during the Revolutionary War, and, it is said, he was taken prisoner by the British, and escaped and returned to St. Albans in 1785.
COLONEL JAMES MEAD of Rutland was a mem- ber of the Dorset Convention of September 25, 1776, and one of the committee appointed by the Windsor Convention in June 1777, to arrange with the commander at Ticonderoga for the de- fense of the frontier; and was Colonel of the third regiment of militia.
BRIGADIER MOSES HAZEN was at the opening of the Revolutionary War a resident of Canada drawing half pay of a Captain from Great Britain for previous military service. His property was used by General Montgomery for military pur- poses in his Canada campaign. On application the Continental Congress made compensation for his loss of half pay, and he entered the Conti- nental service and raised a regiment in Canada, but in the retreat of 1776, he left Canada; he served through the war in the different fields of
371
OF VERMONT.
service and was made Brigadier-General by brevet, June 2, 1781.
His name was prominently connected with the building of the "Hazen road," that was com- menced by General Bayley in 1776, and continued by Hazen in 1779, from Peacham through Cabot, Walden, Hardwick, Greensboro, Craftsbury, Al- bany and Lowell to "Hazen's Notch," in Mont- gomery-a road about fifty miles in length.
COLONEL JOSEPH MARSH, the subject of this sketch, was a descendant from Joh nMarsh who came from England to Massachusetts in 1633, and to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1635; Joseph Marsh who settled in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1697, was the grandson of said John. The grand- son of said Joseph was the first Lieutenant-Gov- ernor of Vermont, Colonel Joseph Marsh of Hart- ford, Vermont, the subject of this sketch. He was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, January 12, 1726 ; he went to school but a single month and his ad- vantages from books were limited, but he mas- tered what he read and held it with a tenacious memory ; he had a close, logical mind and exceed- ingly interesting in conversation and free from bigotry.
In person he was of large stature, well propor- tioned, broad shouldered, large boned, lean and of great muscular power and weighed over 200 pounds. His dress was of the Washington pat- tern, and a bold and graceful horseman. He mar- ried Dorothy Mason January 10, 1750, the sister of Colonel Jeremiah Mason of Lebanon. Connecti- cut. Colonel Marsh settled in Hartford, Vermont,
:
372
EARLY HISTORY
in 1772; that town was then embraced in Cum- berland County under the jurisdiction of New York.
He was a member of the Provincial Congress of New York in 1776, but was absent much of the time. In July of 1777, his regiment of which he was Colonel came under the jurisdiction of Ver- mont, and on August 13, 1777, he was ordered by the Council of Safety to march one half of his regi- ment to Bennington. He was at Hartford at the time and probably was not in the Battle of Ben- nington on the 16th of August, as there was not time to get his men there after he received his order.
He was a member of the Windsor County Con- vention of June 4, July 2, and December 24, 1777, and was Vice-President thereof. In March 1778, he was elected Lieutenant-Governor and re-elected in 1779, and annually from 1787, to 1790. For a time was chairman of the Court of Confiscation for Eastern Vermont. He was chairman of a Committee of Safety for a section of Vermont; he represented Hartford in the General Assembly in 1781-2; one of the first Council of Censors in 1785, and nine years Chief Judge of Windsor County Court from 1787, to 1795, inclusive-it be- ing his last public office. He died February 9, 1811.
COLONEL TIMOTHY BROWNSON came from New Framingham, Connecticut, and the first perma- nent settler in Sunderland in 1776. He was prominent in the civil affairs of the State and one of the most trusted advisers of Governor Chitten-
373
OF VERMONT.
den, a delegate in the Conventions of January 16 and September 25, 1776, and member of the Con- vention which adopted the Constitution, and Councillor for many years. He was one of the eight persons named by Governor Chittenden as having been cognizant of the Haldimand negotia- tions, and a member of the Convention of 1791, which adopted the Constitution of the United States.
BENJAMIN EMMONS left Chesterfield, New Hamp- shire, his former home, and settled with his family in Woodstock, Vermont, in April 1772, and took an active part in organizing the new settlement, and at the first town meeting held in May 1773, he was chosen Supervisor; he became familiar with the civil affairs of Cumberland County and with all the political movements of the day. At the annual town meeting in Woodstock, May 1775, he was a member of the Committee of Safety, and in June 1776, he became a member of the County Committee of Safety. His political sentiments were clear and pronounced ; he was for the independence of the Colonies as against the mother country, and for the independence of the Grants as against New York.
He was on a committee to canvass Cumber- land and Gloucester Counties for the purpose of stirring up the minds of the people to favor the separation from New York, and a member of the several Conventions as delegate from Woodstock, including the Convention that framed a Constitu- tion for the new State of Vermont. He was elected one of the first twelve Councillors under
374
EARLY HISTORY
the Constitution and one of the members of the Court of Confiscation; in 1.781, he was Assistant Judge of Windsor County Court, and was a mem- ber of the Council from 1779 to 1786. He repre- sented Woodstock in the General Assembly eleven years; his last election was in 1803. He was in- strumental in making Woodstock the shire town of Windsor County.
He was chosen in 1791, a member of the Con- vention which adopted the Constitution of the United States and one of the Council of Censors for 1799. As a Justice of the Peace, his judgement and equity made his work abundant and his name famous. As money was scarce in those days and neat stock was used largely in payment of debts, he was the man to whom many went, for years, to fix the price at which stock should be received. In 1806, his children who had settled in the West persuaded him, soon after, to follow them, but he died six weeks after reaching the promised land in 1811, at about the age of S6 years.
THOMAS MURDOCK of Norwich was a member of the Westminster Convention of January 15, 1777, and of the Windsor Convention of June +, 1777; Councillor and member of the Court of · Confiscation in 1778, and until October 1779, Judge of the Windsor County Court 1782, to 1787, and represented Norwich in 1780 and 1782. and then retired to the pleasures of private life ; and died at Norwich in 1803.
GENERAL PETER OLCOTT was an eminent man of Norwich and active in both civil and military affairs of the State, and in May 1777, he was ap-
Er
375
OF VERMONT.
pointed by New York Commissioner to receive the property of those who had joined the enemy, the British, and in 1778, he performed similar service for Vermont as one of the Court of Confiscation for Eastern Vermont.
He was a member of the Windsor County Con- ventions of June, July, and December of 1777, which adopted the Constitution. In 1777, he commanded a, regiment in Gloucester County. He was Councillor from the first session till October 1779, again in 17S1 to 1790; Lieutenant-Gov- ernor in 1790 to 1793, and Judge of the Supreme Court from 1782 to 1784, and died at Norwich in September 1808.
THOMAS CHANDLER, JR., was born at Wood- stock, Connecticut, September 23, 1740, and came to New Flamstead (now Chester) with his father in 1763, and elected Secretary of State by the Gen- eral Assembly March 13, 1778, and took the oath of office and commenced service as Secretary of the Council at that time. He was appointed Town Clerk in March 1763, at a meeting of the proprie- tors held at Worcester, Massachusetts, and held the office until March 1780; on July 16, 1766, he was appointed by New York Assistant Justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for Cumber- land County, and he held the office till after the Westminster massacre; he was delegate in the Westminster Convention in October 1776, and January 1777.
He was elected to the first General Assembly in March 1778, and from 1778 to 1781, and in 1787, and was Clerk of that body in March 1778, but
376
EARLY HISTORY
resigned both positions to be Secretary of State. He was Speaker of the House from October 1778, to 1780, resigning in the middle of the session of 1780, on account of charges affecting his charac- ter, for which he brought a libel suit and recov- ered damages. He was Judge of the first Supreme Court, elected in October 1778, and of the Wind- sor County Court in 1786. He was reduced to poverty by sickness in his family and an act of in- solvency was granted him October 15, 1792. He was the son of Thomas Chandler, Senior, who was Chief Judge of the royal Court at Westmin- ster that was overthrown after the massacre.
CAPTAIN REMEMBER BAKER was born in Wood- bury, Connecticut, in June 1737, and married De- sire Hurlbut April 3, 1760. His father's name was also Remember, and his grandfather was John Baker of Ancient Woodbury, Connecticut. The father of Captain Baker was brother to Mary Baker, the wife of Joseph Allen, the father of General Ethan Allen. At the age of eighteen Cap- tain Remember Baker served in an expedition against Canada and thus acquired knowledge of western Vermont, which, doubtless, was one of the means of attracting the Allen family to the New Hampshire Grants.
The Captain settled in Arlington in 1764, and in 1771, he was appointed one of the Captains in the military force under the command of Ethan Allen to resist New York; he was at the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point in May 1775; he went in July 1775, on a reconnoitering expedi- tion to Canada, by direction of General Schuyler,
377
OF VERMONT.
and while in that service, in August, he was killed in a skirmish with the Indians near St. Johns; he fell at the age of thirty-five. Ira Allen, as his ad- ministrator, settled his estate. As a neighbor he was distinguished for his kindness, and his mem- ory was held dear by many families whose dis- tresses he had generously relieved.
He took a prominent part in the controversy with New York and in favor of the independence of the American Colonies. He was one of those whom Governor Tryon of New York in 1771, is- sued a proclamation offering a reward of 20 pounds each for their apprehension for their riot- ous opposition to the New York government. On February 5, 1772, Ethan Allen, Remember Baker and Robert Cochran issued a retaliatory procla- mation as follows, viz: "Whereas James Duane and John Kempe of New York have by their men- aces and threats greatly disturbed the public peace and repose of the honest peasants of Ben- nington, and the settlements to the northward, which peasants are now and ever have been in the peace of God and the King, and are patriotic and liege subjects of George III. Any persons that will apprehend those common disturbers, viz: James Duane and John Kempe, and bring them to Land- lord Fay's at Bennington shall have 15 pounds reward for James Duane and 10 pounds for John Kempe."
The reward was to be paid by those who is- sued the proclamation. Captain Baker as an offi- cer and soldier was cool and temperate in council, but resolute and determined in the execution of his
378
EARLY HISTORY
plans. Baker was captured in 1772, by a New York party led by John Munro, but was rescued by the Green Mountain Boys. The part that Baker took in the struggle against New York has been frequently referred to in this and the previous volume, to which the reader is referred for further particulars of his public services and pioneer life. .
CHAPTER XX.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PIONEERS OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS AND VERMONT. CONTINUED.
WILLIAM GALLUP of Hartland was a delegate in the Convention of Windsor, June 4, 1777, and was one of the 71 delegates of the Conventions that met at Dorset and Westminster and Windsor in 1776 and 1777, the members of which declared Vermont a free and independent State; he was for many years a member of the General Assembly and died August 1803, aged 69 years.
JOHN PETERS was born in 1740, and came from Hebron, Connecticut. He was a most devoted Loyalist, and doubly distasteful to Vermonters as a Yorker and a Tory. He resided in Mooretown, (now Bradford) and was moderator of the first town meeting. He held the office of Justice of the Peace under appointment from New York in 1770 and 1774, and appointed commissioner to admin- ister oaths March 17, 1770, and again April 10, 1772, and Assistant Judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, and County Clerk March 17, 1770; and in February 1771, he set out with Judge John Taplin and the Sheriff to hold Glouces- ter County Court in Kingsland (now Washing- ton).
+379)
380
EARLY HISTORY
He gave the following account of his search for a Court or the place to hold one, viz: "On Febru- ary 25, 1771, we set out from Mooretown for Kingsland traveling until night, there being no roads and the snow very deep we traveled on snow shoes or rackets. On the 26th, we traveled some ways and held a council, when it was con- cluded it was best to open Court. As we saw no line it was not known whether in Kingsland or not, but we concluded we were far in the woods, and did not expect to see any house unless we marched three miles within Kingsland, and no one lived there, when the Court was ordered to be opened on the spot."
He built the first saw mill in Bradford in 1772, on the south side of Waits River. He went to Canada finally and raised a corps called the Queen's Loyal Rangers, of which he became Lieu- tenant-Colonel. When peace was declared he re- tired to England and died at Paddington of gout in the head and stomach in 1788. His property was confiscated. A notice of him read as follows, viz : "Rebellion and loyalty are alike fatal to some families, and alike prosperous to others."
COLONEL ELISHA PAYNE of Cardigan, New Hampshire, took an active part in Vermont af- fairs. His great influence was exerted in forming the unions of the towns in western New Hamp- shire west of the "Mason Patent" with Vermont, and put forth his best endeavors to prevent the dissolution of those unions with Vermont after they were formed. He appeared as a representa- tive from Cardigan in the General Assembly ot
1
381
OF VERMONT.
1778, and chairman of committee raised to can- vass the votes for State officers and Councillors. The canvass showed he was elected Councillor by the people, but he refused to accept as he thought he could be more useful in the House in opposing the dissolution of the union with the New Hamp- shire towns; he served as Lieutenant-Governor in 1781, at a critical period of the history of the State.
There was a Convention of 43 towns of New Hampshire held at Charleston January 16, 1781, and another at Cornish, soon after, in New Hamp- shire in the interest of those towns in uniting with Vermont, and he was one of the committee ap- pointed at those Conventions to wait on the Gen- eral Assembly of Vermont. And on February 10, 1781, he addressed the Assembly asking for the union with Vermont and continued his efforts till it was consummated April 5, 1781; he took his seat in the Assembly as representative from Leba- non, in which town he resided till he died ; he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court in October 1781; and on January 10, 1782, he was ap- pointed delegate to Congress.
On December 14, 1781, Governor Chittenden ordered Lieutenant-Governor Payne, as Major- General, to call out all the militia in eastern Ver- mont, if need be, to resist any forcible attempt of New Hampshire to regain jurisdiction over the an- nexed towns. He was ordered to repel force by force ; he wrote a conciliatory letter, though firm in tone, to President Weare who had got much aroused by the action that Vermont had taken,
382
EARLY HISTORY
which letter served to delay any military move- ment of New Hampshire, and peace was preserved. As soon as the unions were dissolved he adhered to his State. Two of Colonel Payne's daughters spent their lives in Vermont: Mary, wife of Abel Wilder of Norwich and Ruth, wife of Captain Na- than Jewett of Montpelier.
WILLIAM PATTERSON came to Westminster about 1772, under the patronage of Crean Brush, another notorious Yorker and Tory. Patterson was of Scotch-Irish descent and born in Ireland, made Sheriff of Cumberland County by New York in 1773. His first offense was the arrest and im- prisonment of Leonard Spaulding, the hero of Dummerston, October 1774, because he said that. the Quebec Bill "made the British tyrant, Pope of that government." Spaulding was released by the interposition of the Whigs. Patterson's next act in the interest of New York was heading the Tory crew at the massacre at Westminster.
MICAH TOWNSHEND was born on Long Island, May 13, 1749, highly educated at Princeton, New Jersey. He was admitted to the bar of New York in April 1770, and settled at White Plains, West- chester County ; Clerk of the Committee of Safety for that County; appointed Captain of a militia company raised to combat Tories. He removed to Bennington August 15, 1778, and married Mary, the daughter of Colonel Samuel Wells. For a short time he served the adherents of New York, but soon was convinced that that course was unwise and took the oath of allegiance to and became a citizen of Vermont.
383
OF VERMONT.
In 1781, he was made Judge and Register of Probate for the County of Bennington and held these offices until 1787; also in the year 1781, he was made Secretary of State and held that office till he resigned October 21, 17SS, when the Gen- eral Assembly commended him "for the fidelity and skill with which he had discharged the duties · of that office." He disposed of his property to Hon. Royal Tyler in 1801, and removed to Guil- ford, and after one years residence there removed to Farnham, P. Q., where he died April 23, 1832. His reputation as a lawyer was high and he was greatly esteemed as a man.
JOHN FASSETT, JR., after he came to Vermont was much of the time in the public service of the State. He was born in Hardwick, Massachusetts, June 3, 1743, and came to Bennington with his father, Deacon and Captain John Fassett in 1761, and removed to Arlington in 1777, and from there to Cambridge in the summer of 1784; he was Lieutenant in Warner's first and Captain in War- ner's second regiment in 1776.
In 1777, he was one of the commissioners of sequestration; he was elected representative of Arlington in the General Assembly for 1778 and 1779, and for Cambridge in 1787, 1788, 1790 and 1791, and elected Councillor in 1779, and was Councillor for 15 years and until 1795. He was Judge of the Supreme Court eight years, from 177S to 1786, and seven years Chief Judge of Chittenden County Court. He was one of the leading men who approved of the Haldimand Cor- respondence entered into to save Vermont from in- vasion by the British forces from Canada.
We
idem Nity
384
EARLY HISTORY
JOHN THROOP of Pomfret was commissioned a Justice of the Peace when that town was organ- ized in 1773, a delegate in the Convention at Windsor of June 4, 1777, and of the Convention of July and December following, and was also Councillor; a member of the House in 1787 and 1788; Judge of Probate in 1783 to 1792; Judge of the Court of Confiscation in October 1779, and of the Supreme Court from 1778 to 1780, inclu- sive, and in 1782.
SAMUEL FLETCHER was born in Grafton, Mass- achusetts, in 1745, and was a soldier in the old French War, afterwards learned the trade of blacksmith and removed to Townshend about 1772; married the daughter of Colonel John Haz- eltine formerly of Upton, Massachusetts, a lady of fortune. Mr. Fletcher joined the army and was at the battle of Bunker Hill. In 1776, he was elected Captain of militia, and in 1777, his entire company volunteered to reinforce the army at Ti- conderoga. On that expedition, he with thirteen men attacked a British party of forty men, killed one and took seven prisoners without sustaining any loss.
In 1778, he joined his fortunes with the new State of Vermont, and became Colonel of a Cum- berland County regiment, and was afterwards raised to the rank of Major-General. He was in the Battle of Bennington and served in the cam- paign against Burgoyne until he surrendered ; he was a delegate to the Vermont Convention of July 1776, and was one of the committee to treat with the inhabitants on the east side of the mountains
385
OF VERMONT.
as to associating with the delegates of said Con- vention ; he was an active member of the Conven- ventions of October 1776, and of January 1777, that declared the independence of Vermont; a mem- ber of the three first General Assemblies, and also again in 1807; he was Councillor from 1779 until 1790, and also in 1808 and 1813.
From 1788 to 1806, he was the Sheriff of Wind- ham County, and Judge of the County Court in 1778, 1783, 1784 and 1786, and a member of the Board of War in 1781. He died September 15, 1814. General Fletcher was a man of enterprise, industry and skill and a valuable public officer ; he was a fine writer, elegant in manners, bland and refined in deportment, hospitable and a perfect gentleman.
LUKE KNOWLTON (who received the appella- tion of "Saint Luke") was born in Srewsbury, Massachusetts, in 1737; he was a resident of Newfane in 1772, and received $249.53 of the $30,000 paid to New York by Vermont to settle the controversy between those States. On the or- ganization of the town, he was chosen Town Clerk and held the office sixteen years, and in April 14, 1772, was appointed by New York one of the justices of the peace for Cumberland County, and one year from June 1776, a member of the Cumberland County Committee of Safety; he next appeared as agent for that County against Vermont in Congress, and he was recom- mended for that service by Governor Clinton and described as a gentleman of "penetration and
20
386
EARLY HISTORY
probity," but Knowlton soon changed his opin- ion on the Vermont question.
Ira Allen was in attendance on Congress in the interest of Vermont at the same time that Knowl- ton was there, and it is supposed Allen's influence and the information that Knowlton got there convinced him that his duty lay in another direc- · tion. It was there that a plan was laid between two persons to unite all parties in Vermont, and call a Convention of delegates of all parties inter- ested to meet at Walpole, New Hampshire, No- vember 15, 1780, and Knowlton was one of the men named who initiated measures to bring about this proposed Convention and another one to meet at Charleston, January 16, 1781.
This Convention resulted in consummating the east and west unions with Vermont. In 17S2, Knowlton and Samuel Wells of Brattleboro as- sisted in exchanging views between General Haldi- mand and the British agent in New York City, which was undoubtedly with the assent of the Vermont authorities, as it is now known that Vermont was then carrying on a correspondence with General Haldimand who had to consult with the British commander and his agents in New York City.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.