USA > Vermont > Early history of Vermont, Vol. III > Part 23
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yer. Chief Justice Royce said of him, "In person he was august and impressive, being, at least, six feet in height, with broad shoulders, full chest and stout limbs, every way strong and muscular, and quite corpulent, and had a larger human head than is rarely, if ever, seen. In politics he was a Federalist of the Washington school, and in relig- ious preference and profession an Episcopalian.
CHAPTER XIII.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PIONEERS OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS AND VERMONT .- CONTINUED.
Col. TIMOTHY CHURCH of Brattleboro was quite a prominent adherent to New York in Cum- berland County. He was among the 44 arrested by Ethan Allen and his posse in 1779, and was then tried, convicted and fined in the sum of twen- ty-five pounds. He was commissioned Lieut. Col- onel by Gov. Clinton, for his service and resistance to Vermont authority; he was arrested, indicted, tried and convicted of treason against the State, banished and his property confiscated. On peti- tion, he was pardoned by an Act of the General Assembly in Feb. 1783, the preamble of which Act, set " forth his sincere and hearty penitence and de- termination to behave orderly and submissive in case of pardon.
MAJ. JONATHAN HUNT in Nov. 1775, was rec- ommended to New York as second Colonel of the lower regiment in Cumberland County, but he de- clined it. In 1777, he was Town Clerk of Hinsdale (now Vernon) and was a New York sympathizer. In 1780, he was one of the leading Yorkers who instituted measures for forming a new State com- prising territory lying between the Mason line in
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New Hampshire and the ridge of Green Mountains, and seemed to favor the interest of Vermont, for he accepted the office of sheriff of Windham County June 15, 1781, and represented Vernon in the Gen- eral Assembly in 1783, and was elected Councillor from 1786 to 1794 inclusive; he was elected Lieut. Gor. October 10, 1794, in joint Assembly, and re- elected by the people in 1.795; he was.a member of the Vermont Convention of 1791, which adopted the United States Constitution, and died June 1, 1823, at the age of 85 years. Hon. Jonathan Hunt, M. C., from Vermont in 1827, was his son.
EBENEZER WALBRIDGE was born in Norwich, Conn., Jan. 1, 1738, and came to Bennington about 1765. Previous to 1780, he had served in Canada as Lieut. in Warner's Green Mountain regiment, and Adjutant in the Battle of Bennington and in 1778, was made Lieut. Colonel of Vermont militia in 1780. He was one of those who was intrusted with the secret of Haldimand negotiations. In Dec. 1781, he commanded the forces of Vermont before whom the New York militia retreated, and later was elected Brigadier General ; he represented Bennington in 1778 and 1780, and Councillor ten years from October 1786, to October 1796. He died October 3, 1819. His genealogy has been traced back to the Walbridges of Suffolk County, England. He was an enterprising business man and one of those who erected the first paper mill in Vermont in 1784.
SAMUEL MATTOCKS came from Hartford, Conn., to Tinmouth, Vt., in 1778, and represented that town from 1781 to 1785. In 1785, he was a mem-
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ber of the Council, and in 1783 to 1788, and again in 1794, he was Assistant Judge of Rutland Coun- ty Court, and elected Chief Judge in 17SS; he was State Treasurer from 1786, until 1800, and a member of the Council of Censors in 1792. He was constantly in public office for twenty years.
NATHANIEL NILES was a clergyman of consider- able note. He was born in South Kingston, R. I., April 3, 1741, and was a collegiate. He studied law, medicine, and theology, and settled in Fair- lee (now West Fairlee) in 1779; he was also an in- ventor and succeeded in discovering a process of making wire from bar-iron by water power; he also invented and manufactured wool-cards. He was a poet and published the Ode entitled the American Hero, which was regarded as " one of the finest and most popular productions of the war" of the Revolution. It was set to music and sung in the churches and religious assemblies of New England and became the war song of the sol- diers. From 1784, until 1815, he was constantly in the service of the public as Town Representa- tive, State Councillor, member of the Council of Censors, delegate in Constitutional Conventions, member of Congress, and Judge of the Supreme Court.
THOMAS PORTER came to Tinmouth from Con- necticut in 1779, and held several important offices; Representative of Tinmouth in the General Assembly, a member of the Council, Speaker of the House, Judge of Rutland County Court. His pub- lic service in Vermont embraced 17 years ; he was a man of estimable character and good talents,
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and died at Granville, N.Y., August 1833, at the age of 99 years.
SAMUEL SAFFORD was born at Norwich Conn. April 14, 1737, and was one of the early settlers of Bennington, and actively engaged in the defence of the State through the long and bitter contest with New York. From 1775, to 1807, he was constantly employed in public service both civil and military. He held at different times the posi- tion of Major and Lieut. Colonel in Warner's reg- iment, and was in the battle of Hubbardton and Bennington; he was a delegate in most of the Con- ventions, and represented Bennington in General Assembly in 1781 and 1782; he was Councillor from 1782, to 1805, and 26 years Chief Judge of Bennington County Court. He was one of those who was cognizant of the Haldimand negotiation, but his patriotism was never questioned. He was a member of the Congregational church after 1804, till his death March 3, 1813.
EBENEZER ALLEN was born at Northampton, Mass., October 17, 1743, and was a descendant of Matthew Allen who came to New England in 1632, with Rev. Thomas Hooker of Chelmsford. He was appointed Lieutenant in Warner's regiment 1775. and Captain, Aug. 25, 1777. He was a member of the Board of War in 1779; and Maj. of Rangers and Colonel of Militia in 1780. He distinguished himself in the Battle of Bennington, and particular- ly so by a night attack with a party of men on Mount Defiance, and in its capture in September 1777, and in the capture of fifty of the rear guard of the enemy on their retreat from Ticonderoga at
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that time. He was a brave and successful partis- an leader. He settled in Poultney in 1777, and re- moved to Tinmouth and represented that town in the several Conventions in 1776 and 1777. He re- moved to South Hero in 1783, which town he rep- resented four years in the General Assembly, and moved to Burlington in 1800, where he died March 26, 1806.
ASA BALDWIN was the first Town Clerk of Dor- set. He came from New York and was a strict Churchman and a Royalist. He with his brother Thomas and others were under arrest and dealt with by the Council of Safety, for their disloyal conduct but on the application of Captain Abra- ham Underhill, on their taking the oath of Fidelity to the United States of America and dispensing with the loss they had sustained to atone for their past folly, were accepted as friends and citi- zens.
COL. TIMOTHY BEDEL was Colonel of New Hampshire Rangers in the Canada Campaign of 1775, and had seen considerable military service. When the first union of New Hampshire towns with Vermont had been effected Bedel's regiment fell within the jurisdiction of Vermont, and a part of his regiment by vote of the General Assembly and the advice of the Council, were ordered sent to guard the frontiers on the West side of the moun- tain. He was one of the persons with whom Gen. Haldimand attempted to communicate in the spring 1782. The interview failed because Bedel said "he was watched." He was one of the Ver- mont Board of War in 1781.
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BARNABAS BARNUM Was one of the first settlers in Monkton. He was killed in the fight at the block-house in Shelburne March 12, 177S.
GEN. GIDEON BROWNSON of Sunderland was Captain and served through the Revolutionary war, and promoted to the rank of Major in the Continental service, and afterwards General in the Vermont militia. He was a violent politician in the then late war; and as proof of his valiant con- duct, J. A. Graham said that he, in 1797, carried in his body eighteen pieces of lead which he receiv- ed during that contest.
ZADOCK EVEREST. His special buisness in 1778, was to look after inimical persons. He came from Connecticut into Addison in 1765, and opened the first public house in Addison County, but was forced to leave it at the time of Burgoyne's inva- sion in 1777, going to Pawlet and remaining there until 1784, when he returned to Addison. He rep- resented Pawlet in the first General Assembly, March 1778; Panton in 1785; and Addison in 1788, 1789, and 1795.
JOHN HAZELTINE came to Townshend from Up- ton, Mass., in 1761, and was a prominent man in the town and county, and often called to preside in public meetings. His patriotism was of an ar- dent and energetic sort, and won for him the title of King Hazeltine. The Whigs esteemed him high- ly, and especially in selecting him as the person to whom bonds with security were given by sundry persons who had been arrested for participation in the Westminster Massacre. He was appoint- ed a delegate from Cumberland County to the
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Provincial Congress and the Convention of New York May 23, 1775.
PHINEAS HURD was a wealthy citizen of Ar- lington and was proscribed in the Act of Feb. 26, 1779; It is claimed he was abducted and never heard of afterwards, and burnt in a prison-ship near New York. This family was frequently abused by the Whigs, and his property confiscated by the State and offered for sale, but no one would buy it, and the General Assembly gave the use of the farm confiscated to his widow.
FRANCIS PFISTER was an officer in the Royal American Regiment in 1760. He commanded the Tories, as Colonel in the battle of Bennington, and was mortally wounded.
ABRAHAM UNDERHILL represented Dorset in the Conventions of July and September 1776, and was one of the nine persons appointed July 25, 1776, as a committee of Appeals in matters relative to the cause of American Liberty. He commanded a military company raised for the defence of the State. He was a member of the General Assembly in October 1778, 1780, 1781 and 1782, and died in 1796.
SAMUEL AVERY of Westminster was Deputy Sheriff in Windham County in October 1782, and in that capacity executed the sentence of banish- ment upon sundry violent Yorkers.
COL. NATHANIEL BRUSH came to Bennington about 1775; he commanded the militia of that town in the battle of Bennington, and served as Judge of Probate in 1781, and from 1787 to 1794. and as Clerk of the Courts from 1787 to 1803.
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JAMES ROGERS came from Londonderry, New Hampshire, to Londonderry, Vermont, in the year 1770. He commenced the settlement of the latter town which had been granted to him by New York Feb. 13, 1770, under the name of Kent. He was commissioned by New York as Assistant Justice of the Inferior Court of common pleas and as Justice of the Peace in 1772, and once before that time. In 1775 he was counted a Whig, and at a Convention of twelve towns in Cumberland County, held Feb. 7th of that year, was appointed one of the Com- mittees of correspondence for twenty-one towns. On May 31, 1775, New York tendered to him a commission as Brigadier General of the militia of Cumberland, Gloucester and Charlotte counties, which he refused on political principles. In Septem- ber 1776, he was a delegate in the Dorset Conven- tion, voted in favor of separating from New York, but afterwards he joined the King's troops. On October 3, 1777, the Council of Safety assumed the control of his property which was confiscated in 177S. In 1795 and 1797, James Rogers, Jr., pe- titioned the General Assembly for a restoration of his father's property, and all that had not been sold was restored to him.
THE PETERS FAMILY. The history of the Rev. Hugh Peters was written and published by Sam- uel A. Peters, D. D., of Hebron, Connecticut, Decem- ber 12, 1735. There was also a Rev. Samuel Pe- ters, LL. D., who was born in said Hebron in 1717. Rev. Hugh Peters, the ancestor of Samuel Peters, and Samuel Andrew Peters, was convicted of treason in England, and executed October 16,
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OF VERMONT.
1660. Samuel Peters was once selected for the office of Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church in Vermont, but was never consecrated. Samuel Andrew Peters, in his life of Hugh Peters, showed the relation between Rev. Doctors Samuel and Samuel Andrew Peters, thus: Samuel, L. L. D., son of John and Mary Peters, born in Hebron in 1717, was a Tory and went to England in 1774. Samuel Andrew Peters, A. M., barrister, son of Jonathan, and grandson of John and Mary, had Samuel Andrew Peters who was also a Tory, and also went to England in 1774; and that Rev. Dr. Samuel Peters: was uncle to Rev. Dr. Samuel An- drew Peters; the latter had strong attachment for Vermont, and notwithstanding he was both churchman and Tory, he highly esteemed many of its leading Whigs, whose lineage, like his own, he was proud to trace back to the stanch Whigs and Puritans of England. In the life of Hugh Peters he named several as follows: Gen. Absolom Peters married Mary Rogers, a descendant of Rev. John Rogers, the martyr, and she was mother of Rev. Absolom Peters of Bennington; Samuel Harrison of Pittsford, who served at the capture of Burgoyne and Cornwallis, was a descendant from General Thomas Harrison of Cromwell's time. Of Gov. Thomas Chittenden's lineage, he wrote, that Mo- ses Chittenden, an officer in Cromwell's own reg- iment, a solid Puritan, was a brave soldier and left his spirit to a large number of his children;" Of Moses Robinson he wrote, "Moses Robinson, A. M., of Vermont, has been a Governor of that State, and a Senator in Congress; he is head of
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the family of Robinsons, descendants of Rev. John Robinson, the father of the Puritans in Eng- land in 1629, in whom the Methodists and Puri- tans place confidence." He wrote to Andrew Pe- ters of Bradford, Vermont, who had then recently left the service in the British navy, that "the rea- sons of your residing in Vermont, I doubt not, are the same which will induce all people in the Old World to go there." Samuel A. Peters, also wrote a history of Connecticut in which he made an ar- dent defence of Vermont against New York. The publication of the American edition of said history was in 1829. Some of the representations, in his Life of Hugh Peters and in his History of Connec- ticut have been strongly condemned as being ex- aggerations and work of the imagination. one of which was as to the waters of Connecticut River at Bellows Falls, Vt. He said, "Here water is consolidated without frost, by pressure, by swift- ness between the pinching, sturdy rocks, to such a degree of induration that an iron crow floats smoothly down its current :- here iron, lead, and cork, have a common weight :- here steady as time, and harder than marble, the stream presses irresistable, if not swift as lightning :- the electric fire rends trees in pieces with no greater ease, than does this mighty water."
ABEL CURTIS of Norwich was three times elect- ed a Representative in the General Assembly, served one term as Judge of Windsor County Court, and one term as Agent of Vermont at Congress. He was a kind husband and, an agreeable friend, a charitable, benevolent and honest, man, and in
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every respect a very valuable member of the com- munity. He died October 1, 1783, at the age of thirty years.
COL. THOMAS JOHNSON. He was Lieut. Colonel of militia under New York, a resident of Newbury and a zealous patriot. On March 8, 1781, he was captured by a party of British and Indians and taken to Canada, where he was held as prisoner until October 5, 1781, when he was permitted to return to his home on parole. On May 30, 1782, writing from Newbury, he informed General Wash- ington, there was an infernal plan of treachery with some leading men in Vermont to make Ver- mont a British Province. He professed to British officers in Canada, while there as a prisoner, to be on their side, and it was the exposure of his true character as a Whig that he feared.
NATHANIEL CHIPMAN, LL. D., was born at Sal- isbury, Conn., Nov. 15, 1752, and was graduated at Yale College, and during his senior year he was commissioned Lieutenant in the American army, and was on duty at Valley Forge in the winter 1777-S, and was present at the battle of Mon- mouth. He resigned his commission Oct. 10, 1778, and repaired to Litchfield, Conn., and was admit- ted to the bar in 1779. He removed to Tinmouth; Vermont, and there commenced the practice of the legal profession, and served as State's Attorney four years, and in 1786 was elected Judge of the Supreme Court, and was said to be the first law- yer who had been placed upon the Supreme bench in Vermont; in 1789. he was elected Chief Justice, which position he held for two years, and was
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again elected Chief Justice in 1796. He was ap- pointed one of the commissioners to adjust the differences between Vermont and New York. In 1791, he was a member of the Convention called to decide whether Vermont should join the Union, and appointed as a joint commissioner with Lewis R. Morris to attend Congress and negotiate for the admission of the State into the Union in 1791, and the same year he was appointed by George Washington, President, Judge of the United States Court for the district of Vermont. In 1793, he published a work entitled "Sketches of the Princi- ples of Government," and a small volume of decis- ions of cases while he was Chief Justice, and em- bracing dissertations on the statute, adopting the common law of England, the statute of offsets on negotiable notes, and the statute of conveyances. He resigned his office of Judge of the said district Court in 1793. In 1796, he was appointed one of the committee to revise the code of statute laws for Vermont, and the revised laws of Vermont of 1797 were written by him. He was elected U. S. Senator to Congress in 1797; and in 1813 was chosen one of the Council of Censors, and was elected again Chief Justice of the State, and held the office for two years. He was professor of law inMid dlebury college from 1816 to 1843. In 1833 he published a valuable treatise on "Free Institu- tions and the Principles of Government." He was a brother of Daniel Chipman, a prominent jurist. Daniel Chipman said that his brother, Nathaniel, wrote the expurgated copies of the letters that were presented to the Legislature at the session
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held at Charleston in the East Union in October 1781, in place of the original letters written to Governor Chittenden by General Enos and Colonels Fletcher and Walbridge, containing some private matters, as well as public, in reference to the nego- tiations between certain leading Vermonters and General Haldimand, the contents of which, Gover- nor Chittenden and others who were in the secret of that correspondence, desired to keep from the public. Chipman was influential in securing the passage of the betterment Act of 1785, that the people of the State have regarded just and equit- able. He was a man of large intellectual capacity. He died at Middlebury, Vermont, Feb. 15, 1843.
DANIEL CHIPMAN, LL. D., who was born in Salisbury, Conn., October 22, 1765, was a brother of Nathaniel Chipman, and graduated at Dart- mouth College in 178S, and died at Ripton, Ver- mont, April 23, 1850. He came to Tinmouth, Vt., with his father in 1775, and labored on a farm till 1783. He studied law with Nathaniel Chipman and was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of his profession at Rutland. In 1794, he moved to Middlebury, where he spent the greater part of his professional life and became distin- guished in his profession and in literature. He was admitted to the American Academy in 1812, and law professor in Middlebury College from 1806 to 1816. He was State's Attorney for Addison County in 1797, and until 1817, and a delegate in the Constitutional Convention for Rutland in 1793, Middlebury in 1814, and Ripton in 1836, 1843, and 1850. He was prompt, vigorous,
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and eloquent in debate, and genial and communi- cative in conversation. He was the youngest of seven brothers. Governor Cornelius P. Van Ness, with the advice of the Council, appointed him to be Reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court, No- vember 17, 1824, for the then ensuing year; he was the first official reporter of the decisions and pub- lished a volume of the reports called the "Daniel Chipman Report." In 1822, he published a val- uable "Essay on the Law of Contracts for the Payment of Specific Articles," and in 1846, a biog- raphy of Nathaniel Chipman, and in 1849, the Memoirs of Col. Seth Warner and Gov. Thomas Chittenden. His legislative service commenced in 1798, as Representative of Middlebury in the Gen- eral Assembly, which office he held for eleven years ending in 1822, and was Speaker of the House in 1813 and 1814. He was elected Councillor in 1808, but served but one year. He served the State as Representative in Congress in 1815 to March 1817.
GIDEON OLIN was born in Rhode Island in 1743, and removed to Shaftsbury in 1776, and soon took a prominent part in public affairs. He was a del- egate to the Convention at Windsor June 4, 1777; Commissioner of sequestration February 21, 1778; Major of the second regiment May 28, 1778, in which office he engaged in active service on several occasions during the Revolutionary war. He represented the town in the Assembly in 1778, and from 1780 until 1793, when he took his seat in the Council. He was Speaker of the House from 1778 until 1793; he was a member
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again in 1799; Councillor from 1793 until 1798; Judge of Bennington County Court from 1781 to 1798, and again from 1800 to 1802, and Chief Judge from 1807 to 1811-in all 23 years as Judge. He was delegate in the Constitutional Conventions, 1791 and 1793, and member of Con- gress from 1803 to 1807. He was a firm support- er of the State in its hours of political darkness and peril; he possessed great natural talents and intuitive knowledge of mankind, and was nobly free in his opinions and decided in his conduct. The stand he took in Shays' rebellion showed his firmness and noble bearing. About 100 rebels from Massachusetts who fled from justice met at Captain Galusha's in Shaftsbury April 30, 1787, . in Convention, to agree on measures in opposing the government of that State. The authorities of Shaftsbury became alarmed at the illegal collect- ion and demanded of the insurgents the occasion of their meeting. The insurgents made answer through their leader, Col. Smith, "that they were driven from their Country, and had convened with a view of concerting measures whereby they might return and enjoy their properties." They showed two letters, one from Shays and one from another of their principles, encouraging them to hold out, and be spirited in their opposition, and they might be assured. of relief. Judge Olin, who acted as principal on the part of the authorities, informed them, that if they were met for the pur- pose of petitioning the legal authorities of Mass- achusetts for pardon and leave to return, that their proceedings would be highly commendable
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but if their views were hostile, and their business was to concert plans for committing depredations, and continuing their opposition to that govern- ment, they must disperse immediately, for no such unlawful assembling would be allowed in Ver- mont. The rebels plead for leave to be by them- selves for a few minutes, which was granted, after . which they dispersed and proceeded to White Creek, N. Y. Olin died at Shaftsbury in Jannary 1823. His record is a noble one.
ELIAKIM SPOONER represented Westminster from 1793 until 1795; and Councillor from Octo- ber 17, 1801, until 1808.
BENJAMIN SWAN of Woodstock was elected State Treasurer, October 11, 1800; he was reelect- ed annually by the people until 1833, having re- ceived a greater number of elections to a high of- fice than any other citizen of the State. He was a pure, gentle, and genial man, trusted and belov- ed by all who knew him. And it was said of him, that as the stars have been said to go, "singing as they shine," so went he about his daily duties humming through them all, as one at perfect peace with God and man. On the settlement of his ac- counts with the State in October 1833, it was found that during the entire 33 years of his service, he had received $732.25 in counterfeit and uncur- rent money, being an average of a little over $22 per annum, and by a joint resolution he was al- lowed that sum to balance the books of his office. His loss was not reckoned a large sum, in view of the fact, that for many years a very large propor-
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