USA > Vermont > Addison County > Gazetteer and business directory of Addison County, Vt., for 1881- 82 > Part 21
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When Mrs. Wilson discovered the channel which had encircled the village, and called to her husband, he with his son immediately went to their assist- ance. Having removed them to the chamber, he stood in the front door of his house and watched the progress of the stream. When it became too ap- parent that the house must go, he ordered his son, after they had divested themselves of their clothes, to follow him if he attempted to make the shore. The house trembled-and rested-trembled again, and left its foundation ! The chimneys rocked from their bases-a dead plunge-and the house is afloat ! Wilson and his son now committed themselves to the waves. Seventy-five or eighty feet would have placed them beyond danger in a straight line from his door, instead of this distance, they were borne by the impetuosity of the current a distance of ten rods, having gained no more than fifteen feet in advance. Here they caught by the roof of a wood-house from which they were drawn by ropes flung from the shore, and left the building just as it arose from its place and went to add one more wreck to the general ruin.
One small spot now only remained above water. Upon this, stood a barn,' in which we had secured the Stewart family, among whom was a sick daugh- ter, aged 21 years. She had been for more than a year unable to walk This daughter, (Minerva) we laid upon her couch on the floor of the barn, and when the water came freely across this, she was removed to a manger. But her cup of grief had been drained to its dregs, and heaven in mercy spared her the anguish of tasting the remainder. Her brother went to the manger, -- moved her,-but she might not awake .- He put his hand upon her brow,- the chill of death was there .- She had gone.
Enviable indeed was her fate. Our lights were now extinguished ; and the barn trembled as a reed. Just at that moment the house of Mr. Wilson drifted by, and with it a jam of lumber from the saw-mill and wrecks of buildings and bridges which resembled a moving mountain. Above the din of the astounding torrent, came the shrill repeated cries of the women and children, as they moved by in the floating tomb ; during which, thrice came distinctly on my ear the cry, "Lord Jesus, save or we perish !" Faint and more faintly the accents fell,-and now were lost amid the roar of the waters. Alas ! that words are so feeble representatives of things ! Fourteen souls yet remained in the barn. Nay ! One had fled. The heavens brooded in blackness above us ; and every instant the surges became more angry, and more loud. A light raft constructed of the doors and loose parts of the barn was flung together ; and five of us, Mr. Farr, Summers the Englishiman, Phinney, my son and myself, with this thin partition between us and a gap- ing death, pushed out from the barn. And all attempts to urge our float to
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TOWN OF NEW HAVEN.
land proving abortive, in the short space of fifteen minutes, we followed the same path after those whose shrieks had frozen our blood.
Leaving ourselves in this situation, we will look again at the barn where we had left Mr. Stewart, the blind man, his wife, two sons, one twenty, and the other sixteen years of age, four daughters, one of whom was already dead, and a son of Mr. Farr. Fifteen or twenty minutes after we had left upon our raft, (as these young men who were preserved judge) the barn was undermined and plunged into the main stream. Yet it fell reluctantly, and tho' one end was shattered, the other still clung to its foundation as if willing to pro- tect from the yawning billows a little longer, those who had fled to it for refuge. This moment was an age ! Young Stewart and Farr drew them- selves upon the scaffold, and the rest clung to different parts of the already half-wrecked building. Mrs. Stewart being caught in the fall of the building by her foot, feeling at the same time the limb above shattered to atoms, cried to her son on the scaffold, to release her by severing the mangled limb so that she might climb to the scaffold with them ! But alas ! This cruel kindness might not be performed. The frame groaned as it yielded to the unnatural violence of the waves, left its hold on the earth, and moved at first slowly and sorrowfully on toward the rapids, where, it will be borne in mind, the swells rolled twenty-seven feet above the ordinary level of the stream.
The reader has now seen us in three parties successively afloat on the re- lentless surges. After the escape of Mr. Wilson and son, nineteen individu- als were left to the enraged elements ; and all now had left the spot where they were at first surrounded, which was now completely overflowed.
I can speak of none now, but those who were on the same float with myself. After leaving the barn and urging our way into the middle of the stream, as above mentioned, but few minutes elapsed before we arrived at the narrows. The first swell we rode in safety. But our -little float was rifted in our at- tempt to rise the second, and in a breath of time, none were above the sur- face of the water. This was a solemn parting. With my son, it was my last. As we neared the monstrous swells, my son in a tone of suppressed emotion observed to me-" in a few minutes we must all be in eternity," a broken reply in confirmation of the assertion was all I could say, we spoke no more !
On our being plunged in the stream, I strove to keep at a distance from the surface, and to this expedient I probably owe my life; and, as my son was an expert swimmer, he most likely strove to keep on the surface, and by consequence, perished among the floating timbers.
Having used all my energy to keep below the surface, and being borne swiftly by the current, I passed through the rapids, a distance of fifty or sixty rods without sustaining any injury or receiving any water in my lungs Heavy lumber, however, as I passed under the last swell, plunging in almost a per- pendicular direction, I received several severe blows upon my head and differ- ent parts of my body, by the force of which I was driven to an enormous depth in an eddy where the water stood at thirty or forty feet. At this moment I was driven in contact with one of those who commenced their journey with me on the raft. As my arm passed about the body I discovered no motion of life ; I perceived by evident marks upon his clothing that it was no other than the corpse of my son. Cold indeed was the embrace ! But no more cold than short. He was immediately swept from me, and I labored for the surface.
I gained it at length, and after receiving air sufficient to prolong life, was again dashed beneath, and again arose. I then secured a plank floating near,
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TOWN OF NEW HAVEN.
and by this means kept myself most of the time above. After floating thus about three-quarters of a mile from the place where I embarked, I caught a hill of corn on the river bank, and remained till day-break in three or four feet of water defended by unremitting exertion from the drift-wood which I distinguished only by the dark spot it occasioned on the white field of foam. By the grey of the morning I discovered but few rods above me, upon a ledge on which I had designed to land, two of the young men who had been wafted thither upon a large timber, which the water, although it overflowed it, had not sufficient force to drive past the ledge. About the same distance below me Mr. Farr, (who could not swim) having been wafted to the place by means of two planks which he seized on falling from the raft, had lodged upon a rolling stump and forced its prongs in the earth. He had but just gained the position, when the elder of the two young Stewarts floated by within speaking distance, not daring to trust an attempt to land, he passed the ridge on which we were secured and immediately again came in deep water. Float- ing a distance of about sixty rods, immediately above the cluster of rocky islands and a rapid in Otter Creek, to have passed which would have been death inevitable, he caught the top of a young tree, and climbing above the reach of the waves, remained until helped ashore next morning by his friends.
Mr. Farr and myself, after having been assisted to the ledge by the younger Stewart brother and young Farr, by means of a series of poles, confined by strings rent from their garments, and thrust to us, were, with the young men, brought ashore upon a raft constructed for the purpose by those assembled on the bank of the stream which still continued swollen and violent.
Five of the nineteen we have seen safe ; the remaining fourteen are now quietly slumbering, alike regardless of the calls of friends, and the tumult of the waters. I have laid before the reader the simple facts in the case, leav- ing him to make his own reflections. I cannot forbear adding, however, that, with regard to my son, I sorrow not as those without hope. Yet the singular- ly awful impressions I received on grasping his corpse will leave me cnly with my existence. It seemed he had come to take his last farewell in the dark silent chambers of the deep, so that our greeting might be uninterrupted.
The following is a catalogue of those who were that night wafted into eter- nity, with their respective ages and the day on which they were found after the night of the freshet, with the distance below the village :
THE STEWART FAMILY.
Age.
Day.
Distance.
Mary Stewart.
13
1
I mile.
Minerva Stewart
21
2
6
Mrs. Stewart.
45
2
5
Julia Ann Stewart
II
4
4
Martha Stewart
r8
I
Erastus Phinney
16
4
4
Mr. Stewart.
48
6
4
THE WILLSON FAMILY.
Jane Willson
7
I
Mrs. Willson.
41
6
6
Cynthia Wheelock
52
6
6
Amy Willson
17
13
Sarah Willson
3
40
9
66
Loyal W. Eldredge.
19
6
63
Peter Summers
37
never found .*
· Months after the freshet, a young man named Benjamin Royce, of Essex, N. Y, while fishing in the lake. opposite the mouth of Otter Creck, with one other individual, discovered some strange-looking object floating near them, which they found, on examining, to be the remnant of a corpse, which some thought to be the body of Summers.
.
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TOWN OF NEW HAVEN.
Mr. F. S. Thompson tells us that his fathers' barn, 50x30 feet in size, filled with hay and tools, was washed away and that on the following day, two pigs and a calf which had been confined therein were found safely lodged on an island two miles below. Incidents of this sad affair might be quoted to an unlimited extent, interesting no doubt, but lack of space forbids.
It is related of Gov. Chittenden that, while on a horse-back journey towards Bennington to attend a session of the Legislature, he overtook a Scotchman trudging along on foot, and entering into conversation with him, asked, among other questions, whither he was bound. The Scotchman replied that, he was from this town and on his way to Bennington, as a representative to the Leg- islature. At this the Governor said : "Well, I suppose as they had no hard wood, they concluded to send a basswood man." Sandy's face began to flush and his red hair to bristle, as he retorted, the Highland accent getting the better of him in his excitement :-
"Hech, nion, an dinna ye ken they wud, when ye've none but a bass'od muntle to drive it wie !" This reply so pleased the Governor that he shared his horse with " Scotty" during the rest of the journey.
Josiah Clark, born in Lebanon, Windsor Co., Vt., in 1757, came to New Haven about 1790, locating on road 37, near the corner of 35, upon the old homestead which has never since been owned outside of the Clark family. The farm was then a swamp, supposed to be a worthless tract of land; but which, by perseverance, has been reclaimed, and is now a productive farm. Mr. Clark married Lucy Ball, had a family of three children, Joel T., Ira, and Laura, and died June 17, 1835. Joel T. married Amy Sprague and located in Waltham, where he became a prominent man, while Ira remained on the old homestead, and had four children who arrived at maturity, one of whom, Norman, graduated from Middlebury College, and subsequently from the New Hampton Theological Institute. One, Almond, afterward came into possession of the old homestead, and was the father of three children, Hul- dah, Ira W., and Edwin A., only one of whom, Ira W., now survives.
Alfred P. Roscoe was for a long time a properous merchant in New Haven village, for many years town clerk, and in 1841,'42, and '48, was a representative in the Legislature. He died Nov. 27, 1873, and his funeral sermon, preached by Rev. C. B. Hulbert, D. D., was published soon after. Alfred M. Roscoe, son of Alfred P., succeeded to his father's mercantile business, and is now town clerk and postmaster, and in 1876, was elected a representative in the Legislature.
Richard Hall, from Mansfield, Conn., came to Middlebury at an early date, locating upon the farm now owned by Almond Farnsworth, remaining there but a few years, when he removed to the farm now owned by Henry R. Bar- rows. Adin Hall came with his father, Richard, studied medicine with Dr. William Bass, of Middlebury, and for a long time had a very successful prac- tice in New Haven, where his son, Dr. E. D. Hall, succeeds him.
Daniel Beeman, from Bennington, located at Brookville prior to 1799. For a long time he carried the mail between Bennington and St. Albans.
180
TOWN OF NEW HAVEN.
Eseck Sprague, from Lanesboro, Mass., located upon the farm now owned by George Hinman, in 1787. Mr. Sprague came in the winter, his wife coming the following March, making her way on horseback with an infant (mother of Dr. E. D. Hall) only six weeks old. Here Mr. Sprague spent his life in clearing the farm, dying of cancer, in 1824. His son, Horace, born October 29, 1793, occupied the farm until his death, December 30, 1871. Mrs. Sprague is still living on the old homestead, aged eighty-nine years.
Elisha H. Landon was born in Salisbury, Conn., in 1800, where he lived until twenty-one years of age, when he removed to this town and commenced work in the store of Rodman Chapman.
John Hinman, from Pittsfield, Mass., located in Benson, Rutland Co., in 1783, where he lived until 1798, when he removed to New Haven, locating upon the farm now owned by James Wilson.
Elias Bottom came to this town from Shaftsbury, Vt., in 1815, locating upon the farm now owned by Mrs. D. Bottum. He was a member of the Legislature in 1822 and 1829, senator from Addison County in 1840 and 1841, and judge of the county court in 1847 and 1848, and died in 1865. He owned at one time a farm of one thousand acres. Elias Simon Bottum, son of Elias Bottum, was, like his father, a man of sterling character, and for many years deacon in the Congregational church, and a member of the Legisla- ture in 1872. He died of heart disease in 1877.
Dr. Benjamin Bullard, from Brookfield, Mass., located near where his son, Cullum, now resides, where he practiced medicine up to the time of his death in 1827. Dr. Cullum, his son, is still practicing where he located fifty-three years ago.
Austin Hickok came to this town from Benson, Vt., in 1798, locating upon the farm now owned by Andrew Mason.
Warner Durfee, at an early day located upon the farm now owned by Daniel Durfee.
John Cowles, from Amherst, Mass., located upon the farm now owned by S. B. M. Cowles, in 1795. Here his son, Martin, was born in 1800, who was one of the first men in the State to engage in breeding Atwood sheep. He bought the first sheep sold by Edwin Hammond, in 1844, continuing an active breeder up to the time of his death in March, 1879. His son, S. B. M., is also an extensive sheep breeder. He was active in establishing the Congregational church of New Haven. Six of his children lived to reach maturity.
Isaac and Barney Matthews were born on Cape Cod, and early commenced a seafaring life, meeting with the many vicissitudes incident thereto. Just before the commencement of the Revolution, they left the sea and com- menced a pioneer's life. Isaac located in Shaftsbury, Vt .. and soon after removed to this town, locating where Cyrus Birge now resides, and died here in 1820, aged seventy-six years. Amos, son of Isaac, remained on the old homestead.
181
TOWN OF NEW HAVEN.
Ira Ward, a veteran of the war of 1812, and an early settler in Waltham, came to the town and located on the farm now owned by Hiram Wheeler, in 1820, where he remained till 1837, when he removed to the farm he now oc- cupies, at the age of eighty-five years.
Israel West, with his son Joseph, came here from Connecticut in 1800, locating upon the farm now owned by Daniel C. West.
Harry Hunt, born in Roxbury, Conn., and now ninety years of age, came to New Haven in 1840. Mr. Hunt is the father of nine children, five of whom are now living, two, Mrs. Dr. Warner, and Edmund Hunt, in this town.
Samuel Chalker, from Saybrook, Conn., located upon the farm now owned by Elizabeth, Catharine, and Charlotte Chalker, in 1790. Daniel E. Chalker, born on this place, died here in 1863, aged sixty-two years.
David Boynton, whose father was an early settler in the town of Cornwall, came to New Haven in 1817, locating upon the farm now owned by his son, Joseph B. He died in 1872, aged seventy-seven years. His wife died Octo- ber 22, 1881, aged eighty-five years.
Stephen Rider, from Duchess Co., N. Y., located upon the farm now owned by Irving Rider, in 1800.
Dea. Oliver Dexter, who now resides in New Haven village at the age of seventy-nine years, came to Addison County forty-five years ago. After a few years' residence in Weybridge and other towns, he located in New Haven, where he has since resided.
James Thompson, came to New Haven from Salisbury, Conn., in 1794, locating upon the farm now owned by Hiram Wheeler. After remaining there a few years, he removed to the one now owned by his son, James, where he died in 1842, aged seventy-one years. James Jr., born in 1779, has a family of nine children, the youngest of whom is thirty-five years old. He has also, thirty-seven grandchildren and fifteen great-grandchildren.
Ezekial Buttolph, from Connecticut, located upon the farm now owned by Ezekial Hanchett, in 1793.
Rufus Harris came here from Lanesboro, Mass., in 1797, and located upon the farm now owned by Theodore Gibson.
Andrew R. Mills located with his father upon the farm now owned by Ralph L. Mills, in 1790.
Thomas Foote located upon the farm now owned by Albert C. Eastman at an early date.
Elijah Birge, from Watertown, Conn., located, in 1800, upon the farm now owned by Charles Blair.
Arial Thompson came here from Mansfield, Conn., in 1814, and located upon the farm now owned by W. Phelps Nash.
James Young, from Warren, Conn., located upon the farm now owned by Hiram Thompson, in 1795.
182
TOWN OF ORWELL.
Religious services were first held in barns, private houses and school-houses. The Baptists early organized a church in the west part of the town, and for many years flourished under Elders Haywood and Hulburt ; but, after the re- tirement of the latter, the church declined. Near the close of the last century, Lorenzo Dow and Samuel Mitchell formed a Methodist society in the east part of the town, which proved to be in no wise permanent. A considerable portion of the people in the west part of the town belong to a Methodist society, located in Weybridge. A society of Adventists, with a church at Brooksville, was organized at a comparatively late day, where they hold meet- ings occasionally.
A Congregational Church was organized at New Haven Mills November 15, 1797, and subsequently, another at New Haven village, both being united into one society, September 29, 1800. The building at New Haven village, which will seat 600 persons, cost $9,500.00. The one at New Haven Mills, which will accommodate 200 people, costing $2,000.00, the whole being now valued at $16,500.00 Silas L. Bingham was the first pastor, and the society, which now has 282 members, is at present under the pastoral care of Rev. C. S. Sargent.
RWELL, located in the southwestern corner of the county, originally included within the limits of Rutland, lies in lat. 43º 58', and long. 3º 47', bounded north by Shoreham, east by Whiting and Sudbury, south by Benson, in Rutland County, and west by Lake Champlain. It was granted to Benjamin Underhill and sixty-three associates, in seventy shares, the charter bearing date August 8, 1763, and signed by Eenning Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire, entitling the grantees to 27,640 acres, includ- ed within an oblong square six miles by seven, bounded as follows :-
" Beginning upon the eastern shore of Wood Creek [Lake Champlain], at a point due east from the flagstaff of Ticonderoga Fort, thence running east seven miles, thence south six miles, thence west to the shore of Wood Creek, thence along the shore of the creek to the place of beginning."
This area was increased, November 9, 1847, by the annexation of a small part of Benson; and four days later, November 13th, the Legislature passed an act annexing the whole township to Addison County, under whose juris- diction it has since remained, sustaining no farther change in its boundaries.
The surface is rolling or undulating, except in the southeastern part, where there is a tract of nearly two thousand acres of hilly or broken land, and in the northwest part where Mount Independence rises to an altitude of about 160 feet above the surrounding country. Most of the territory has a very fertile soil which produces abundant crops of grass and grain with compara- tively little tillage. The eastern portion is considered the best farming land, as in the western part the soil is of a clayey formation, too heavy for produc-
183
TOWN OF ORWELL.
ing good crops of grain, though grass is abundant. The centre of the town forms a watershed, the streams on the west flowing into the Lemon Fair, which here consists of two branches running parallel with each other across the eastern portion, and uniting near the north line of the township, thence flowing north into Shoreham. Those on the west unite with East Creek, which enters from Benson on the south and flows a general northwesterly course into Lake Champlain, near the north line of the town. Numerous mill-sites are afforded, of which, more anon. Several small ponds are found in the hilly tract of the south, of which Smith's and Mud Pond are the largest. The rocks composing the geological formation, are three narrow parallel ledges of red sandrock, Trenton limestone and Utica slate, extending in a north and south direction across the western portion of the town, east of which is an extensive bed of Hudson River slates, cut by a large area of limestone of the same name, extending to the valley of the Lemon Fair, which is composed of Eolian limestone, or marble, comprising the residue of the township. No minerals of any importance have been discovered, though the different varie- ties of rocks afford excellent building materials, and also for the manufacture of lime, while the clay in some places is suitable for manufacture into brick.
The Addison branch of the Central Vermont Railroad passes through a portion of the northern part of the town, affording a convenient mode of transportation of exports.
In 1880, Orwell had a population of 1,353, was divided into ten school districts and contained eleven common schools, employing six male and thirteen female teachers at an aggregate salary of $2, 109.08. There were 263 pupils attending common school, while the entire cost of the schools for the year ending October 31st, was $2,250.50, with George A. Kimball, superintendent.
ORWELL, a post village beautifully located in the central part of the town, contains two churches (Catholic and Congregregational), a bank, two stores, one hotel, one large carriage factory, three blacksmith shops, a harness shop, a fine school building, a town hall, and twenty-five or thirty dwellings.
NORTH ORWELL (p. o.), is a station on the Addison branch of the Central Vermont Railroad, two and a half miles north of Orwell village.
CHIPMAN'S POINT (p. o.), a small hamlet in the western part of the town on the lake shore, contains a store, hotel, and about eight dwellings.
The First National Bank of Orwell, located at the village, was originally organized, as the Farmers' Bank of Orwell, in 1832. In 1863, the old bank went into liquidation and the present institution took its place, with a capi- tal of $50,000.00, which, in 1865, was increased to $100,000.00. Its first board of directors were as follows: J. L. Hammond, G. A. Austin, E. S. Catlin, Marvin North, and M. C. Rice. Cashier, H. C. Holley. Its present directors are, J. L. Hammond, M. C. Rice, Virtulon Rich, William B. Wright, and C. E. Bush. J. L. Hammond, president; C. E. Bush, cashier, and J. S. Wilcox, teller. The president has held his position since the
184
TOWN OF ORWELL.
organization in 1863, and cashier since 1870. The bank has paid in divi- dends, up to May 1, 1881, $114,650.00, and acquired a surplus fund of over $100,000.00. In 1879, the building, a substantial brick banking-house and dwelling combined, was rebuilt and enlarged, and the old safe subsequently replaced by one of Diebold's largest and latest improved burglar proof safes, with Sargent's time lock. The vault is fire-proof, and arranged with special view to safety as well as convenience.
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