USA > Vermont > Early history of Vermont, Vol. III > Part 22
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COL. SAMUEL WELLS, of Brattleboro, was an
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avowed Royalist and a member of the Colonial Assembly of New York from January, 1773, to the end of that body April 3, 1775. His family was rewarded by the British government for his ser- vices. It was stated in the New York Gazette of June 23, 1777, that "Wells of Brattleboro had been lately confined to his farm and otherwise ill- treated, and it is known that, for a long time, per- mission was granted to anyone to shoot him should he be found beyond the bounds of his acres."
EBENEZER WOOD was among the first settlers of Bennington, and third Sergeant in the first mili- tary company there in 1764. In February, 1778, he was appointed one of the captains in the in- tended secret expeditions under Stark. To him, as Colonel, and his associates, the township of Wood- bury was granted, and it was named for him.
CAPT. PARMALEE ALLEN was connected . by blood with Ethan and Ira Allen and their rela- tives. Timothy Allen, of Woodbury, Conn., was his father and cousin of Gen. Ethan Allen. Par- malee Allen came to Pawlet with his father in 1768, and was Town Clerk in 1770, and served with credit in Herrick's regiment of Rangers, and was afterwards, about the year 1780, appointed Captain of one of the companies of Rangers.
SAMUEL BENTON was among the first settlers of Cornwall, and represented that town in 1787 to 1790 and in 1791.
JOHN CHANDLER was the oldest son of Thomas Chandler, senior, of Chester, and came to Vermont with his father in 1763, and held several offices
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under New York until February, 1772, when he was removed from the office of Clerk of Cumber- land county for misconduct. His bad habits in business were strongly fixed.
MAJOR HELKIAH GROUT, of Wethersfield, was born in Lunenburgh, Mass., July 23, 1728, and came to Vermont previous to June 27, 1755; on' that date, he, with several others, was captured by the Indians at Bridgman's Fort in Vernon. In 1758 or in 1759, on being released, returned to Cumberland county. He adhered to New York, and was employed in various offices under the au- thorities of that State, and was appointed Cap- tain of the Weathersfield company in 1775 and was the first Major of the regiment in 1776; he was a delegate for Weathersfield in the Committee of Safety, in 1777; assistant Judge in inferior court of common pleas, in 1778; a Justice of the Peace, Commissioner to administer oaths of office, and Justice of the court of oyer and terminer, in 1782. On the 17th of February, 1779, he went to Shrewsbury as a New York magistrate, and took sundry affidavits, for which he was seized and tried by a court-martial consisting of several of- ficers of Warner's regiment on the 18th of Febru- ary. The charge made against him was not sus- tained, but he was afterwards tried by jury, con- victed, and fined by a Vermout civil court. The charge was for acting as a magistrate in taking the affidavits referred to under New York. In 1785 he represented Weathersfield in the Vermont Legislature.
COL. UDNEY HAY was a descendant from an
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eminent family of that name in Scotland and was highly educated and distinguished for his talents. He was a politician and opposed to the Constitu- tion and to the administrations of Washington and John Adams. Soon after the Revolution he settled in Underhill, and there lived and died. He represented that town in the General Assembly from October, 1798, to October, 1804.
NOAH SABIN, JR., represented Putney in the Legislature from 1782 to 1787; was Register of Probate for the district of Westminster from 1791 to 1801, and succeeded his father as Judge from 1801 to 1809 .. He died Dec. 5, 1827.
MAJ. JOHN SHEPARDSON, was born in 1718 and died in 1798, and was in the second company of settlers in Guilford, which in 1772 was styled the "district of Guilford" in the county of Cum- berland and province of New York. He was the first Clerk of the town, and among the earliest ad- herents to Vermont in that town ; he was Judge of Probate under Vermont government in 1778, and Judge of the Superior Court in 1778-9. A party of Yorkers in 1782, attempted to arrest him and Lieut .- Gov. Carpenter, but failed.
DR. BELDAD ANDROSS was one of the delegates from Bradford to the conventions at Windsor, June and July, 1777, to organize the Vermont gov- ernment, and a member of the Vermont Assembly in 1787. He was a justice of the peace under New York from 1766 until, at least, March 14, 1775, as on that day he signed in his official character as a New York magistrate, the "State of Facts" of the Westminster Massacre.
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INCREASE MOSELEY was born at Norwich, Conn., May 18, 1712, and removed to Ancient Woodbury, Conn., about 1740, and to Clarendon, Vt., in 1779. He was a leader of the Revolution- ary patriots of Ancient Woodbury, and was mod- erator of the first meeting, for the relief of Boston, Sept. 20, 1774; that meeting appointed him chair- man of the committee of correspondence to secure peace and union in that and the neighboring Col- onies ; on Nov. 17, 1774, was appointed one of the committee to secure compliance with the "Articles of Association" adopted by Congress October 20, 1774; and appointed Sept. 19, 1775, one of the "Committee of Inspection and Observation" over Tories and other dangerous persons; he served for thirty-six sessions in the Legislature of Con- necticut. He represented Clarendon, Vermont, in the Legislature of 1782, and was speaker of that session ; he was Judge of the Supreme Court of the State in 1780, and President of the Council of Cen- sors in 1785, Chief Judge of Rutland County Court six years, commencing in 1781. He died May 2, 1795. He had eight children and, at least, five sons.
JOHN CHIPMAN was Second Lieutenant in the 3d Co. of the regiment of Green Mountain Boys or- ganized at the house of Cephas Kent, innholder, in Dorset, July 26, 1775. He cleared the first land in Middlebury. He was active in military service most of the time from the spring of 1775 till he was taken prisoner at Fort George in October, 1780. He took part in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga on the morning of May 10, 1775, and was at the
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taking of St. Johns and Montreal, and in the bat- tles at Hubbardton, Bennington and Saratoga.
THOMAS TOLMAN of Arlington was Secretary of the Council from October, 1784 to 1785. His fa- ther romoved from Attleborough, Mass., to . Greensborough, Vt., Oct. 1, 1817, and died July 4th, 1821 in his 94th. year. His son, the subject of this sketch, was born at Cornwall Sept. 5, 1756, and married Lois Clark at said Attleborough, Aug. 17th, 1780, and removed from this town to Arlington, Vt. in June 1781, and from Arlington to Cornwall in Feb. 1788, and from Cornwall to Greensborough in Sept. 1795, where he died Sept. 8, 1842, aged 86 years. He had lived in Vermont, a short time before he removed his family to Ar- lington as he was Secretary to Governor Thomas Chittenden in December 1780. He was Secretary protem of the Board of War in 1781, and repre- sentative of Arlington in 1784, and for Cornwall in 1790. He served on the committee of Pay- Table, and as Pay-Master, and engrossing Clerk, . and at the session of 1784, was appointed as one of the committees to draft a reply to the Gover- nor's speech; he was appointed with Ira Allen, by the Governor and Council in Jan. 1783, to draft the remonstrance to Congress against the belliger- ent resolutions of Dec. 5, 1782. He was held in high estimation as a writer and preacher; he was pastor of the Congregational church in Cornwall from Sept. 26, 1787, until Nov. 11, 1790.
ELISHA ALLIS graduated at Harvard in 1767. In Feb. 1791, he removed with his family from Williamsburgh, Mass., to Brookfield, Vt. In 1789
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and 1790, before he removed his family from Mass., he spent the summers in clearing a small farm and erecting buildings in Brookfield, making a homestead for the remainder of his life. He rep- resented that town in the General Assembly in 1793, and from 1795 to 1799 inclusive, and also in 1813; was Councillor from 1799 to 1803; dele- gate in the Constitutional Convention of 1793; Assistant Judge of Orange County Court from 1797 to 1802; deacon in the Congregational church for more than 35 years, revered by a nu- merous posterity, honored and respected by his neighbors and fellow-citizens. He died April 3, 1835.
JOHN BRIDGEMAN was appointed Justice of the Peace for Cumberland County, by New York gor- ernment April 14, 1772, and from June till Nov. 1776, a member of the Cumberland County Com- mittee of Safety. He was the magistrate who tried Col. Timothy Church in July 1782, and issued the execution that Church resisted. In Jan. 1781, the Convention held at Charleston, N. H., appointed him one of the committees to wait upon the Gener- al Assembly of Vermont, to promote the scheme of uniting all of the New Hampshire Grants, west of the Mason line, under one government; in March 1782, he was elected an Assistant Judge and Justice of the Peace for Windham County, and he was a member of the Vermont Assembly of that year, and in 1784, 1786, 1794 and 1796. He held the office of Assistant Judge of Windham County Court from 1781 until 1796, except the year of 1783, and he was Chief Judge from 1796 until 1801. He was Judge of Probate in 1789 until 1803; Councillor in
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1799; and Elector of President and Vice-President in 1796. This surely was a good record.
SOLOMON MILLER was born in West Springfield, Mass., in 1761. He entered the Revolutionary army, and was in the battle of Bennington and at the taking of Burgoyne. After the conclusion of the Revolutionary War he removed to Wallingford, and from thence in 1786 to Williston, of which town he was Clerk for many years. He was for 15 years Clerk of Chittenden County, and for 14 years Judge of Probate. He represented Williston in the General Assembly in 1797, and was Councill- or from 1799 until 1803, and in 1808, 1813, and 1814. He died in 1847 ..
PAUL BRIGHAM was one of the most trusted and remarkable men of early Vermont. He took his seat as Councillor at the October session of 1792 for the first time, although elected to the office in joint Assembly on October 25, 1791. He received twenty-seven elections from the people of the State at large,-one in 1792 as Elector of President and Vice-President; five elections as Councillor from 1792 to 1796 inclusive; and twenty-one as Lieutenant Governor from 1797 until 1813, and from 1815 until his declination in 1820. During the adjourned session of the Legislature from Feb. 14, to March 1797, he presided in the absence of Governor Chittenden, and on the death of the Gov- ernor, August 24, 1797, he became acting Gover- nor. He was born in Coventry, Connecticut, Jan- uary 17, 1746, and died at Norwich June 15, 1824; in his death the people mourned the loss of one whom, with the blessings of heaven, our national
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Independence was achieved. He had been Captain in the Continental army; previous to his accept- ance of his Commission, he had arisen to that rank through every intermediate step from a Corporal in the militia. When the Commission was tendered to him he had held the office of Captain long enough to be exempted by law from military duty, but he shrank not inthe hours of his Country's danger and need; he entered the field to redeem the pledge of the signers of the Declaration of Independence of "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor." On June 16, 1777, he joined his regiment under com- mand of Col. Chandler, in Gen. McDougall's bri- gade. Hefought under Gen. Washington, in the bat- tles of Germantown and Monmouth and was in the detachment of Mud Island by whom Fort Miflin was a long time bravely defended against the land and naval forces of the enemy. He served in the National army three years. In the year 1781, re- moved with his family to Norwich, Vt. In the military he was promoted through every grade to a Maj. General. He was successively high Sheriff, Judge of Probate, and Judge of the Windsor Coun- ty Court; he represented Norwich in the General Assembly in 1783, 1786 and 1791, and a delegate in the Coustitutional Convention of 1793, 1814 and 1822: He was respected for his republican simplicty of manners and ardent patriotism, and for many useful labors in the different stations to which he was elevated by his fellow-citizens. He retired to the shades of private life, to witness in the evening of his days the happy effects of the laws which he had assisted in framing, and to
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reap the rewards of his faithful services in the es- teem of a free and enlightened people.
NOAH SMITH was born at Suffield, Conn., and was a graduate of Yale College in 1778. On leav- ing college he moved to Bennington, Vt. On the 16th of August, 1778, he delivered an address on the first anniversary of the Battle of Bennington. He was admitted to the bar of Vermont at West- minster, May 26, 1779, with Stephen R. Bradley -- these being the first admissions to the bar of Ver- mont. He held the office of State's attorney for the County of Bennington for the years of 1780, from 1786 to 1789, and in 1791. He was Clerk of Ben- nington County Courts from 1781 until 1784; Judge of the Supreme Court in 1789 and 1790 and again from 1798 until 1801. He served as Coun- cillor but one year, he removed from Bennington to Milton soon after 1800, and died at Milton Dec. 25, 1812, at the age of 57 years.
DOCT. TIMOTHY TODD represented Arlington in 1790, 1793, 1794 and 1795; was Councillor from 179S until 1801; delegate in the Constitutional Convention of 1791;he was an influential member of the first incorporated Medical Society in the State, and a poet ranking well among his con- temporaries.
ABEL SPENCER was among the inhabitants of Clarendon who left their homes on the approach of Burgoyne's army, in 1777, and joined the enemy. For this he was fined one thousand pounds. . In 1779, he petitioned for a remission of a part of this fine, and one-half of it was remitted. He represent- ed Clarendon in 1791 until 1797, exceptin 1794; he
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represented Rutland in 1802, 1803, 1806 and 1807, and was Speaker of the House in 1797 and in 1802; was Councillor from Oct. 13, 1798 until 1801, and State's Attorney in Rutland County from 1796 until 1803. He was the Federal Candi- date for United States Senator in October 1802, and was defeated by Israel Smith by a vote of 111 to 85. He was expelled from the House, Nov. 10, 1807, by a unanimous vote, for theft.
BENJAMIN BURT was a member of the House in 179S and resigned his seat and entered the Coun- cil on Nov. 1, 1798. He was arrested as one of the Court party at the Westminster massacre in 1775, but he soon after joined the Vermont party, and was appointed Judge of the County!Court in 1781. In 1784 he was Quarter-Master in Col. Stephen R. Bradley's Vermont regiment; he was a member of the House from Westminster in 1781, 1786, 1796, 1797,1798 and till Nov. 1st, 1799; was Councillor from Nov. 1798 until October 17, 1799, when he resigned and chose to serve in the House. He was Judge of Windham County Court in 1781, and from 1786 until 1803; and a member of the Coun- cil of Censors in 1792.
RICHARD WHITNEY was an Attorney of Windham County Court in 1795, residing at Guilford. Clerk of the House from 1792 to 1798, when he declined a re-election. On Oct. 15, 1798, he was appointed Secretary of the Governor and Council, and he held that office until 1804. He died in May 1805 at Hinsdale, now Vernon, at the age of 39 years.
GEX. WILLIAM CHAMBERLAIN, born at Hopkin- ton, Mass., April 27, 1753 and removed with his
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father to London, N. H., in 1773. His career was a notable one. He volunteered and entered the army in 1775, and served as orderly sergeant in the invasion of Canada, enduring great sufferings, and being one of the nine officers and privates, out of a company of seventy, who survived to take part in the battle of Trenton, N. J. At the expira- tion of the term of his enlistment, he returned to New Hampshire, but on Burgoyne's invasion in 1777, he again volunteered, and was in the battle of Bennington and brought away some trophies of personal combat with his enemies. In 1780 he re- moved to Peacham and was Clerk of the proprie- tors of the town; he was Town Clerk 12 years; Jus- tice of the Peace for 24 years; Town Representative in 1785, 1787, until 1796, in 1805 and in 1808; Chief Judge of Caledonia County Court from 1787 until 1803, and again in 1814; Councillor from 1796 until 1803; Lieut. Governor in 1813 to 1815; delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1791 and 1814; a Presidental Elector in 1800; and a member of Congress two terms 1803-5, and 1809- 11. He died Sept. 27, 1828. He was upright in private life, a friend of order, learning and relig- ion; he lived to see the wilderness of Vermont be- come a cultivated and a populous region.
STEPHEN JACOB was an attorney. He was born in Sheffield, Mass., and was a graduate of Vale College in the class of 1778, and appeared first in the records of Vermont as poet at the first celebration of the battle of Bennington, 1778. He was representative for the town of Windsor in the General Assembly in 1781, 1788, and 1794. and
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served as Clerk in the House in 1788 and 1789; a member of the first Council of Censors in 1785, and a delegate in the Constitutional Convention in 1793; Chief Judge of Windsor County Court from 1797 until 1801, and Councillor from 1796 until 1802. He distinguished himself for courage and energy in quelling the attempted insurrection in Windsor County in 1786, and in 1789, he was appointed one of the Commissioners to settle the controversy with New York, and served in that delicate and important business. He died in Feb- ruary, 1817, aged sixty-one years.
ELIAS KEYES was born in Ashford, Conn., and was one of the first settlers of Stockbridge in 1784 or 1785, and he represented the town in the Gen- eral Assembly in 1793 until 1803, and 1818, 1820, and from 1823 until 1826; and was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1814 and Coun- cillor from 1803 until 1818 with the exception of 1814; and a member of Congress from 1821 until 1823; assistant Judge of Windsor County Court from 1806 until 1814, and Chief Judge from 1815 until 1817. He once presented a petition to the Assembly for his own relief, in which petition was the expression, "for the relief of Elias Keves, which Elias I am."
DOCT. ASAPH FLETCHER Was born in Westfield, Mass., June 28, 1746, and removed to Cavendish, Vt., in February 1787, and was elected represent- ative of that town in 1790, 1792 and in 1820; he was delegate in the Constitutional Convention of 1791 and 1793; and elector of President and Vice- President in 1816; Assistant Judge of Windsor
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County Court from 1801 until 1805; and Coun- cillor from 1803 until 1808. He had several sons who have filled important and honorable posi- tions: viz, Gen. Asaph Fletcher, Jr., was Sheriff of Windsor County from 1820 until 1830; Hon. Rich- ard Fletcher of Boston, who was member of Con- gress from 1837 to 1839, and Judge of the Su- preme Court of Mass. from 1848 to 1853; Doct. Alpheus Fletcher of Cavendish; Rev. Horace Flet- cher of Townshend; and Ryland Fletcher of Caven- dish, who was Lieut. Governor of Vermont in 1854 to 1856, and Governor from 1856 to 185S.
SAMUEL SHEPARDSON served as a guide to the Vermont troops, who in 1784, under the command of Stephen R. Bradley, suppressed the disorder in Guilford and vicinity; he was Councillor from 1803 until 1808, and Register of Probate in 1806, and Elector of President and Vice-President in 180S.
EBENEZER WHEELOCK was one of the early settlers of Whiting, and he represented that town from 1790 until 1796, and in 1802, and from 1817 until 1821. He was Councillor in 1803 until 180S, and delegate in the Constitutional Conven- tion of 1793.
BERIAH LOOMIS represented Thetford from 1782 until 1790, and in 1817: he was Councillor from 1801 until 1814; Assistant Judge of Orange Coun- ty Court from 1797 until 1818; a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1791.
CORNELIU'S LYNDE was born in Leicester, Mass., August 16. 1751, and served an apprenticeship in the clothier's trade until he was. 21 years of age.
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He entered and continued in Harvard College till the opening of the Revolutionary war, when he joined the army and served through the war and was a Lieutenant when discharged. He was one of the original grantees of Williamstown, Vt., and came to that town about 1785, and was employ- ed by the proprietors to survey and allot the land. He was the first Town Clerk, elected in 1787, and held the office until 1797; was Town Representa- tive from 1791 until 1794, and was elected for 1794, but was transferred to the Council, and held that office until 1799; was Judge of Orange Coun- ty Court from 1793 until 1793; and a delegate in the Constitutional Convention of 1791. He and Elijah Paine labored for the establishment of the State University at Williamstown instead of at Burlington.
JOHN WHITE was born in Esopus, N. Y., and settled in the town of Arlington, Vt., prior to 1783, as in that year he was appointed Assistant Judge of Bennington County Court, he held that office till 1787, when he removed to Burlington with the intention of ultimately settling in the town of Georgia, but on October 22, 1787, he was appointed Assistant Judge of Chittenden County Court, and he held that office until 1796, except the year 1793. In 1796 he was appointed to the same office in Franklin County, and reappointed in 1797. He was elected Representative for Geor- gia to the Assembly in 1790, 1794 and 1800, but in 1794, he was elected a member of the Coun- cil and served in that body until 1798, and from 1801 until 1808, in all 11 years. He was a member
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of the Council of Censors in 1792 and 1799, and of the Constitutional .. Convention in 1791 and 1793, and as Presidential Elector in 1808. He was a man of character and ability, making up for his want ofeducation by habits of close observation and the practice of sound common sense.
COL. ELUJAH ROBINSON represented Weathers- field in the Assembly for 1782, 1783, and from 1792 until October 29, 1794, when he was ap- pointed Councillor, which office he held until 1802: in 1783 he was a member of the Board of War, and in 1786, he served as Lieut. Colonel in sup- pressing the attempted insurrection in Windsor County; he was Judge of Windsor County Court from 1782 until 1787, and from 1788 to 1801, and Chief Judge in 1802, making 19 years of Ju- dicial service; he was also member of the Council of Censors in 1785. In 1793, he was elected Briga- dier General, but refused to accept the office. He died January 1809, at the age of 73 years univer- sally lamented. He was one of the number, who in 1759, traversed the then wilderness from Charlestown, N. H., to Crown Point. At the commencement of the Revolution he repaired again to the tented field and contributed several years of personal services to the freedom and independence of the American States.
TRUMAN SQUIER of Manchester was an Attor- ney. He was appointed on October 25, 1798, Judge of Probate for the District of Manchester to fill a vacancy occasioned by the declination of Lu- ther Stone. He was also State's Attorney for Ben- nington County for the years of 1798 and 1799.
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EBENEZER MARVIN was uncle of Stephen Royce, the late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Vt., and was born in Connecticut in April 1741; in his younger days he was a farmer, but later qualified himself for the medical profession, which he follow- ed until 1794. He was a resident of Sharon, Conn., in 1766, but removed to Stillwater, N. Y., from thence to Lansingburgh, and from thence to Tinmouth, Vt. in 1781, and from Tinmouth to Franklin in 1794, where he died of paralysis in No- vember 1820, in his 80th year. At the commence- ment of the Revolutionary war, he took an active part and contributed liberally of his means to the cause; he served as Captain of a company of vol- unteers who marched to the support of Ethan Al- len and Benedict Arnold at Ticonderoga, but sub- sequently served as surgeon in the Continental service, and in that capacity was present at the battle with and the surrender of Burgoyne, in Oc- tober 1777. He was Judge of Rutland County Court in 1786, and from 1788 to 1794, when he removed to Franklin; he was Judge of Chittenden County Court from 1794, until Franklin County was fully organized in 1796; and Judge of the Franklin County Court from 1796 until 1802, and again from 180S until 1809. He represented Tin- mouth in 1783, and from 1786 until October 1791, when he took his seat in the Council, which office he held until 1802. Though he was not educated for the bar, Chief Justice Royce said, that through his long experience as a Judge, and his powers of discrimination and judgment, he became what may be justly styled a great common sense law-
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