USA > Vermont > Encyclopedia, Vermont biography; a series of authentic biographical sketches of the representative men of Vermont and sons of Vermont in other states. 1912 > Part 3
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vate property. A fourth statue of heroic size, designed by Peter Stevenson, was unveiled at Burlington, July 4, 1873, and surmounts the Allen monument.
Much that Allen wrote has been pre- served to the present day. Among his works, besides those mentioned on pre- vious pages, was his "Vindication of Ver- mont and Her Right to Form an Inde- pendent State," a forceful argument of 172 pages, written in 1779 and published under authority of the Governor and Council. In 1779 also appeared his "Narrative of My Captivity," from which his biographers have got much of their material. In 1778 appeared his "An- imadversary Address" in answer to Gov- ernor Clinton; in 1780, "Concise Refuta- tion of the Claims of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York to the Ter- ritory of Vermont," which he and Jonas Fay had prepared with much care; and in 1782 a "Defense of the Eastern and Western Unions." In 1774 his most am- bitious pamphlet on the New York con- troversy appeared, a document of over 200 pages and an exhaustive discussion of the historical aspect of the case, showing that prior to the royal order of 1764 New York had no claim to extend easterly to the Connecticut river. In 1784 he brought out the work on which he expected his fame to rest, his "Oracles of Reason," printed at Bennington, which he called a "compendious system of natural religion," and consisting as he described it of "the untutored logic and sallies of a mind nursed principally in the mountain wilds of America." It was a volume of 477 pages, an infidel work, denying the in- spiration of the scriptures, but energetic in its expressions of veneration for the being and perfection of the Deity and its firm belief in the immortality of the soul. It was laid a good deal on the same lines as Paine's "Age of Reason," withont Paine's caustic style of debate, but with a larger and healthier view of things eternal. There was a presumptuous tone to it that greatly marred it, and yet much of high ideals, of humanitarian sentiment, and of insight beyond things material into things spiritual.
ALLEN, IRA. Born Cornwall. Conn., April 21, 1751 ; sixth and youngest son of Joseph and Mary (Baker) Allen; died
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Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 15, 1814. Mar- ried Jerusha, daughter of Gen. Roger Enos. He received a good English educa- tion, and became a practical surveyor while still very young. He came to Ver- mont before he was twenty. He entered with zeal into various land speculations, and was a member of the "Onion River Land Company," which consisted, besides himself, of his brothers, Ethan, Heman, and Zirmi, with Remember Baker, and which became the most extensive pro- prietor of land in the state.
He served as a member of the "Green Mountain Boys." was a lieutenant in Warner's regiment in the Canada cam- paign in the fall of 1775, and was se- lected by Montgomery as one of the two officers for the confidential trust of at- tacking Cape Diamond and throwing rockets as a signal for three other de- tachments to attack Quebec on the night of Montgomery's attempt on the city. He was appointed secretary of the commit- tee of safety as soon as it was formed and served until its labors closed. He it was, who after the retaking of Ticonderoga by the British, when the settlements seemed helpless before the on-coming army of Burgoyne, conceived the scheme of con- fiscating the estates of the Tories to raise money to equip and support troops, and as a result within a week a regiment of men was in the field. He sent expresses at his own expense in every direction with news of the disaster, and appeals for prompt forwarding of troops. In the ter- ror of the time no one else, even among the military commanders, attended to this, and it may not be too much to say that the victory at Bennington was due to the energy and the wise provision of Ira Al- len. He organized seouting parties that gathered full information of the enemy's inovements and forwarded it by express in all directions, with such encourage- ments as it warranted that the enemy could be met and repulsed. He sent time- ly warnings of the expedition to Ben- nington, so that it was by no aceident that Stark and the New Hampshire troops and the Berkshire militia arrived in scason to repulse and crush it. He helped to con- cert the measures for the recapture of Ti- conderoga, Crown Point and the strong posts in his rear that helped so much to- wards the ruin of Burgoyne. He did all
this when the new state was without funds or credit, as well as without organization, when near three-fourths of the people of the west side of the mountain had fled from their homes, and a large part of those of the east side were disposed to favor New York's claims, when weak nerved and weak principled men were floeking to Burgoyne and taking the oath of alle- giance to the Crown, and when, besides the danger of invasion from the British and the savages, the late proceedings of Con- gress had shown partiality towards New York, and the embryonic state had every reason to expect hostile action. He staked not only large amounts of his money, but his life, on the chance of win- ning victory out of this seemingly des- perate situation. His actual military serv- ice in the Revolution, ended with the retreat from Canada in 1776, but he soon became captain, then colonel and finally major-general of the state militia. He was also a member of the board of war during nearly the whole of the Revolu- tion. He was nearly always the agent of the state, either alone or with others, in dealing with Congress and with New Hampshire and New York.
On the organization of the new state government, in 1778, he was chosen a member of the couneil, and was its secre- tary. He was also elected state treasurer. at the beginning and held that office for nine years, and was surveyor-general about the same time, until the jealousies and antagonisms that accumulated against him, the complaints that he was holding "so many offices," resulted in his defeat in 1786, with widely-believed charges of corruption soon following, and though they were afterwards cleared away and it was shown that he had been constantly aiding the state with his money instead of making money out of it, enough of the cloud clung to the old suspicion about the Haldimand negotiation to somewhat shadow his subsequent career. In the elec- tions of 1784 and 1785 he failed as can- didate for state treasurer before the peo- ple, and was only eleeted by the joint as- sembly. He was dropped from the gover- nor's council after a year of service in 1785, and the Assembly on the last day of the session of the latter year, aimed a bill at him to annul his surveys and dis- continue his work as surveyor general,
.
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which the council succeeded in postponing to the next session. Hc became in 1791 the first treasurer of the town of Colches- ter, and represented that town eight times in the General Assembly.
The Haldimand negotiations must form a chief feature of Allen's biography. The fact was that, beginning with a cartel for the exchange of prisoners which was con- cluded with the Vermont authorities when it was refused to Washington, these ne- gotiations brought about a truce between Vermont and the British forces, which was extended through the last three cam- paigns of the war, while emissaries and spies passed back and forth in great pro- fusion, and the hope was kept dangling before the British that the state would desert the cause of the Revolution and return to allegiance to the Crown. Several times the negotiations went so far as to discuss the terms of settlement and to fix dates for it; but Ira Allen as the prin- cipal negotiator was sure to turn up with some plausible reason for postponing de- cisive action. It is notable that in all the correspondence and negotiations, includ- ing the conversations as reported by the English representatives, there was never once a single profession of loyalty to the king on the part of the Vermont leaders. The participants on the Vermont side took particular pains to protect them- selves in history. Early in the negotia- tions they put on paper a record of their purpose in the form of a certificate for Allen prepared in June, 1781, and signed by all the eight men in the secret, Jonas and Joseph Fay, Samuel Safford, Sam- uel and Moses Robinson, Governor Chit- tenden, Timothy Brownson, and John Fassett. This certificate stated ex- plicitly that the scheme was adopted "to make them (the Britishi authorities) believe Vermont had a desire to negotiate a treaty of peace," and because it was beyond the power of the state to defend itself by arms, and that "we think it to be a necessary political manoeuvre to save the frontier of this state." Whether in the ethics of war such deception as was practiced on the British was justifiable, is another question. But at least it can be said that it was a necessity, the only thing the Vermonters could do. The only al- ternatives were to absolutely desert to the British side. suffer ruinous invasion,
or commit political suicide by surrender- ing to New York, and then without any certainty of protection against the British. And it was the most useful thing for the American cause that could possibly have been done; for it kept an army of ten thousand men idle on the border in Can- ada. It really made possible the Yorktown movement, which would have been well- nigh impracticable with such an army be- sides Clinton's left in Washington's rear. Washington knew of the negotiations at least a month before the surrender of Cornwallis and he understood its purpose.
Allen played with consummate address during these negotiations not only a double, but a triple, and even a quadruple game. While he was fanning the British hopes to their highest, he was an agent before Congress to urge the admission of the state and resist the claims to jurisdic- tion of New York and New Hampshire; was negotiating with the Legislature and authorities of New Hampshire and the commander of the New York troops to avert bloodshed pending a decision by Congress over the conflicting claims in re- gard to the East and West Unions; and in the meanwhile converted to the sup- port of the new state Luke Knowlton, who had been sent to Philadelphia by the ad- herents of New York in Cumberland County, which then comprised practically the territory of the present Windsor and Windham Counties. The nerve, the re- sourcefulness, and the comprehension of human motives by which he kept all these schemes afloat, and the people of his own state passably well satisfied at the same time, were little short of marvelous. They had a good illustration in the hearing be- fore the Vermont Legislature in June. 1781, on a resolution for an inquiry into the rumor of a secret treaty with Canada. Allen knew that there were several spies from Canada among the spectators. How could he answer the inquiry so as to satisfy the suspicious Vermont patriots without undeceiving the British authorities as soon as his words were reported to them? But he did it with a frankness that was praised by both sides. Governor Chitten- den led off, stating how he had, at the request of several persons who had friends prisoners in Canada, appointed Colonel Allen to meet a British commis- sioner to arrange for an exchange, and
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how the latter had succeeded after con- siderable difficulty in accomplishing it, though no such exchanges had taken place with the United States or any in- dividual state in the northern department. For further particulars he would refer them to Colonel Allen.
The latter told how, having made his report to the governor and council, not expecting to be called on, he had left his commission and papers at home; but he was ready to make a verbal statement, or if desired he would go home and produce the writings for the inspection of the Legislature. They called for the papers and the next day he appeared with them, read them seemingly without skip or hesi- tation, made a short verbal explanation which seemed to show that the British had exhibited great generosity in the busi- ness, and narrated sundry occurrences that indicated that there was a fervent wish for peace among the British officers, and that the English government was as tired of the war as the United States; and he concluded by inviting any member of the Legislature or any auditor in the gallery who wished to ask any further questions to do so and he was ready to answer them. But "all seemed," to use his words, "satis- fied that nothing had been done incon- sistent to the interests of the states," and many of those who had before been most suspicious complimented him for his "open and candid conduct." That even- ing he had a conference with the spies from Canada, and they also had nothing but praise for the devotion he had shown to the cause of union with Britain!
Meanwhile, in 1779, Allen visited the Legislatures of New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to enlist their support in favor of Vermont's claims to recognition as a separate state apart from any pretensions to jurisdiction which might be asserted by New York, New Hampshire, or Massachusetts. In 1780, with Stephen R. Bradley, and in the following year, in connection with a number of others, he appeared as an agent before the Continental Congress in furtherance of the same end; and it was largely through his unfailing tact, his adroitness, and his skill in clever polit- ical manipulation that the question of Vermont's partition between the ad- joining states was postponed until the
close of the war and that Vermont re- mains to-day a sovereign commonwealth. His official services to the state closed in 1790, when he was member of the com- mission on the part of Vermont that final- ly settled the protracted controversy with New York and cleared the way for the admission of the state into the Union.
He was the father of the University of Vermont. On Oct. 14, 1789, he presented a memorial to the Legislature for the establishment of the college with subscrip- tions amounting to £5643, of which he contributed £4000, and the charter was granted Nov. 3, 1791. The financial ruin which afterward overtook him caused the abandonment of his schemes for the advancement of the institution; but the services which he rendered it can scarcely be overestimated, and annually "Founder's Day" is celebrated by the university in his honor. He became interested also in projects for a commercial treaty with Canada, and for canals connecting Lake Champlain with both the St. Lawrence and the Hudson.
In 1795 Allen went to Europe for his canal enterprise and on a commission from Governor Chittenden to purchase arms for the state. He got nothing but fair words from the British cabinet in return for his exertions for the canal, but he se- cured twenty-four cannon and twenty thou- sand muskets in France, and with them took ship for home. But the ship was captured by an English cruiser, and seized with the whole cargo on a charge that it was designed to aid the rebellion in Ireland. Allen showed conclusively by evidence secured from Vermont that the charge was untrue and the arms pur- chased for the purpose he represented. But it took eight years of litigation to do it, and the enormous expense of it, with the neglect of his affairs at home, ruined him. He at one time estimated his real cstate in Vermont to be worth on proper appraisal from $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. He may have included in this estimate the shares of his four brothers and of Re- member Baker, of whose estate he was administrator, but there is no doubt that he was enormously wealthy, or that while he was in Europe he was robbed right and left with claims of fraudulent title, executions, and tax sales. He had ac- cumulated considerable unpopularity at
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home, having had a long controversy over his accounts as state treasurer as well as surveyor-general, and had once gone so far, in 1792, as to begin a suit against the state in the United States circuit court, and these things were of material assistance to the people who were plundering him. Finally, wearied with lawsuits, broken in health and fortune, and even jailed at Burlington by exact- ing creditors, he made his escape and fled from the state for which he had done so much. He lived in Philadelphia the last few years of his life, where he died in poverty, and was buried in a stranger's grave in the Free Quaker Burial Ground, with no stone to mark the spot.
It is only in comparatively recent years that his immense services to Vermont, far outweighing the more theatric services of his brother Ethan, have come to be right- ly estimated. In tardy acknowledgment of the state's debt to him, it was pro- posed early in the present century to dis- inter his remains at Philadelphia and bury them honorably in Vermont soil; but a thorough search failed to disclose the location of his grave, and his ashes lie unidentified far from the state which was so late in giving him his just credit.
BAKER, REMEMBER. Born Woodbury, Conn., and baptized June 9, 1737; son of Remember and Desire (Warner) Baker; killed during the American invasion of Canada in the fall of 1775. A cousin of the Allens, and, by marriage, of Seth Warner; one of the men for whose head New York offered a reward; was among the most influential and useful of the early leaders and was fast growing towards a larger fame when his life was cut off at the age of thirty-eight. In early youth he lost his father, who was shot by a neighbor while out hunting, and he was apprenticed to a joiner, where he learned to read and write and acquired the habits of prudence, energy and self-reliance that served him so well in after years. At the age of eighteen he served in the expe- dition against Canada in the French war and saw much service about Lakes George and Champlain, and in this way acquired much knowledge of Vermont lands and their attractiveness. He was present at Ticonderoga when Abercrombie fell. He rose to be an officer before the war closed,
and gained much distinction by his bravery and discretion. He came to Ver- mont with the first wave of immigration to the west side, in 1763, at the age of twenty-six, and spent much time exploring lands and hunting, and a year later he settled in Arlington, where he built the first grist mill on the grants north of Bennington, which attracted many set- tlers to that vicinity, and identified him- self unreservedly with the cause of the settlers when the trouble with New York arose. He is described as cool and tem- perate in council, but resolute and deter- mined in action. He usually wished to in- flict severer penalties on the Yorkers than his companions. Perhaps his own tough experience afforded some reason, for, stimulated by the reward offered, an at- tempt was made in March, 1772, to cap- ture him, by a dozen partisans of New York under the lead of one John Monroe. They broke into his house in the dawn of a Monday morning, pounded and mal- treated his children, attempted to slash his wife with a sword, and even to fire the building after plundering it. Baker at first attempted to defend himself in his cham- ber, but to draw the attention of his assail- ants from his family burst a board from the end of the house, escaped and ran. Then, according to the story written by Ethan Allen for the Hartford Courant. they set a large dog upon him, overtook him, pinioned him, refused to allow him to dress-for he was just as he arose from the bed-threw him into a carriage where they clubbed and cut and slashed him unmercifully until blood streamed from various parts of the body, and then drove rapidly towards Albany. Three men who pursued were fired upon by Monroe's party, and robbed of all their effects to the amount of $40. But another rescuing party was formed at Arlington as soon as the news of the kidnapping spread, and pursued with such vigor that it came up with Monroe's gang at Hudson's Ferry, just opposite Albany, drove the captors off, and took Baker back in triumph to Arlington. Baker was with Allen as a cap- tain at Ticonderoga, and also with the regiment of Green Mountan Boys when the invasion of Canada was begun in the fall following. When Schuyler took com- mand of the northern department he sent Baker ahead to reconnoiter the enemy's
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position and obtain information of the military situation in Canada, and it was while out on this duty that he was shot by the Indians in the vicinity of St. Johns. He was not only a brave and capable officer and a progressive business man, but he was a kind neighbor and he relieved the distress of many a family. He left five children, one of whom, also named Remember, became a lawyer of some note in New York state.
HERRICK, COL. SAMUEL. One of the romantic figures of the Revolution and the few years before, and that is all we know of him. He came to Bennington about 1768, and soon after the Revolution moved to Springfield, N. Y., but prior to and after that time his career is a blank to written history. He was a captain in the Ticonderoga expedition, and was de- tailed by Allen with a party of thirty men to capture Skeenesboro (now White- hall and take into custody Major Skeene and his party. He succeeded com- pletely, secured the young man and a schooner and several bateaux with which they hastened to Ticonderoga. In the summer of 1777 he was made colonel of a regiment of rangers which the council of safety ordered raised to help meet Bur- goyne's invasion. He and his rangers annoyed Burgoyne, obstructed his advance by felling trees over the roads and rolling stones in his path, so that Burgoyne was compelled to cross Fort Ann Mountain with his heavy train of artillery by a road that was almost impassable. They harassed his rear, cut off his supplies, and in a thousand ways did the work of genuine "rangers" to increase the dif- fieulties of the British descent. It was a work which contributed materially to the final ruin of the invasion, and for it the eredit is due the council of safety which ordered him to keep it up, while Schuyler was continually ordering him to abandon it and join the defensive army in the front of Burgoyne. He was at the battle of Bennington with such of this regiment as had then been enlisted and a body of local militia as a separate de- tahment, making a body of 300 men with which he led the attack on the rear of Baum's right simultaneously with the as- saults of Colonels Nichols, Hubbard and Stickney on other parts of the line, and
he did his part of that glorious day's work skillfully and gallantly. In September of the same year he and the Rangers with Colonel Brown's regiment gained the com- mand of Lake George, drove the British from Mounts Independence, Defiance, and Hope, and forced their evacuation of Ti- conderoga. He was afterwards in com- mand of the southwestern regiment of the state militia and did active service on sev- eral occasions. The council in February, 1778, ordered a battalion of six companies to be raised under command of Herrick to aid a proposed attack of Lafayette on St. Johns, but the enterprise was given up. Herriek received a special letter of thanks from Gates and one from the Ver- mont council for his part in the Lake George expedition.
WARNER, SETH. Born Roxbury, Conn., May 17, 1743; son of Dr. Ebenezer War- ner; died in his native town Dec. 26, 1784. The ablest soldier of Vermont's formative period. He early joined in the movement to the New Hampshire Grants, which were beginning to be settled since the close of the French and Indian war. He came to Bennington in 1765. He had only a common school education, but possessed some knowledge of botany, and was an ardent huntsman; and, judging from his circumstances, it has been sug- gested that he gave perhaps more atten- tion to the chase and to his botanical studies than to the more prosaic duties of the farm. He was onee or twice a mem- ber of conventions of the settlers, but had little ambition to play a part in the polities of the time. He took his share, however, in resisting the aggressions of the New York authorities. Though his farm was situated outside the village of Bennington and less than a mile from the New York border, and despite the fact that large rewards were offered for his ar- rest, the Yorkers never succeeded in cap- turing him. Once a New York officer, armed to the teeth, found and attempted to arrest him. Warner wounded and dis- armed the man, but with the spirit of a soldier spared his life.
Warner was, in 1771, elected by a con- vention a captain of one of the companies in the regiment of Green Mountain Boys organized to resist New York. Four years later, in May, 1775, he joined Ethan
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Allen in the expedition against Ticon- deroga; but, owing to the neglect to pro- vide enough boats to transport the whole party to the New York side, he was left with the bulk of the expedition on the east shore of the lake, and so was not present at the actual capture of the for- tress. The next day, however, he was sent with a detachment of men to take Crown Point, which he accomplished suc- cessfully, the fortress surrendering at the first summons. He earnestly sec- onded Allen's efforts for an invasion of Canada, going with him to Philadelphia and Albany to urge it on the Continental and Provincial Congresses. It looked for a time as if the controversy between New York and the people on the Grants was to disappear in the enthusiasm over the capture of Ticonderoga, for not only were Allen and Warner cordially received when they appeared before the Provincial Congress, but they were both willing and eager to lead troops raised under New York authority; and the Congress passed a resolution authorizing the raising of a regiment among the Vermonters to be commanded by officers chosen by them- selves.
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