USA > Vermont > Lamoille County > Gazetteer and business directory of Lamoille and Orleans counties, Vt., for 1883-84, pt 1 > Part 3
USA > Vermont > Orleans County > Gazetteer and business directory of Lamoille and Orleans counties, Vt., for 1883-84, pt 1 > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
In 1534, Francis I., king of France, listening to the urgent advice of Philip Chabot, admiral of France, who portrayed to him in glowing colors the riches and growing power of Spain, derived from her Trans-Atlantic colonies, des- patched Jacques Cartier, an able navigator of St. Malo, who sailed April 20, 1534, with two ships of only sixty tons each, and a hundred and twenty men, reaching Newfoundland in May. After coasting along for some time, with- out knowing that it was an island, he at length passed the straits of Belleisle,
----------
-
20
LAMOILLE COUNTY.
and traversed the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Having spent part of the summer on these coasts, he sailed on the 25th of July, highly pleased with the hos- pitable reception he had received from the natives, with whom he traded for furs and provisions. His report induced the French king to attempt a colony in the newly discovered regions ; and in May, 1535, Cartier again sailed with three small ships, with a numerous company of adventurers, and arrived on the coasts of Newfoundland much scattered and weakened by a disastrous storm of July 26th. Here they took in wood and water, and proceeded to explore the gulf, but were overtaken, August Ist, by a storm which obliged them to seek a port, difficult of access, but with a safe anchorage, near the mouth of the " Great river." They left this harbor on the 7th, and on the Ioth came to a gulf filled with numerous islands. Cartier gave to this gulf the name of St. Lawrence, having discovered it on that saint's festival day. Proceeding on his voyage, he explored both shores of the St. Lawrence. Pleased with the friendly disposition of the natives and the comfortable pros- pects for a winter's sojourn, Cartier moored his vessels where a little river flowed into a "goodly and pleasant sound," which stream he named the St. Croix, near the Indian village of Stadacona, the site of the present city of Quebec. Subsequently, October 2d, he ascended the river to a populous Indian vil- lage called Hochelaga, upon the site of which the city of Montreal now stands. Here Donnacona, an Algonquin chief, conducted Cartier to the summit of a mountain situated about two miles from the village, and to which he gave the name of Mount Royal, or Montreal, and showed him, " in that bright October sun," the country for many miles south and east, and told him of great rivers and inland seas, and of smaller rivers and lakes penetrating a beautiful territory belonging to the warlike Iroquois. This beautiful country, which the chief called Iroquoisia, included the present State of Vermont. Thus, to Jacques Cartier, a French navigator and explorer, is due the honor of having been the first European to gaze upon the Green Mountains of Vermont.
In May, Cartier returned to France, taking with him the Indian chief, Donnacona, and two other prominent natives of the village, as prisoners ;. and they, who had treated him with such uniform kindness, died in a strange land, exiles from their homes and friends.
During each succeeding year, for some time after, expeditions were sent out to the newly discovered river, but misfortune attended them all, and no efficient attempt at colonizing the country was made until 1608, when DeMonts, a Calvinist, who had obtained from the King the freedom of religious faith for himself and followers in America, but under the engagement that the Catholic worship should be established among the natives, after several peril- ous voyages, and much opposition, despatched Champlain and Pontgrave, two experienced adventurers, to establish the fur trade and begin a settlement. Samuel Champlain reached Quebec, where Cartier had spent the winter nearly three-quarters of a century before, on the 3d of July. On the 18th of
2I
LAMOILLE COUNTY.
the following April, 1609, in company with two other Frenchmen, and a number of the natives, he started up the St. Lawrence, and, after a time, turned southward up a tributary, and soon entered the lake which perpetuates his name.
Thus entered the first European upon the territory now included within the limits of Vermont, unless, perhaps, we accept the testimony of the curi -. ous document found a few years since, on the banks of the Missisquoi river in Swanton, as follows: In December, 1853, as Messrs. Orlando Green and P. R. Ripley were engaged in excavating sand on the left bank of the Missis- quoi, near the village of Swanton, they discovered a lead tube about five inches long, and an inch and a half in diameter, embedded in the earth. Enclosed within this tube was found a manuscript, of which the following is an exact copy :-
" Nov. 29 A D 1564.
" This is the solme day I must now die this is the goth day since we lef the Ship all have Parished and on the Banks of this River I die to farewelle may future Posteritye know our end.
JOHNE GRAYE."
This document had every appearance of being genuine, and nothing has occurred since to point in an opposite direction. It certainly does not seem improbable that a party of sailors should wander away from their ship, or for some cause be left behind, and that they should then become lost and finally die in the forest; and it is also very natural that a sailor should leave some record to tell of his fate. But be that as it may, there is, of course, no posi- tive evidence that the manuscript is genuine.
The early explorations and discoveries we have mentioned, led to much litigation and controversy on the part of the several European countries un- der whose auspices they had been conducted. The English, on the ground of the discoveries by the Cabots, claimed the territory from Labrador to Florida, to which they gave the name Virginia ; but their explorations were confined principally to the coast between Maine and Abermarle Sound. The French confined their explorations principally to the country bordering on the St. Lawrence and its tributaries, which they named New France, while the Dutch, by virtue of the discoveries of Henry Hudson, afterwards laid claim to the country between Cape Cod and the Delaware river, which they called New Netherlands.
Attempts at colonization were made by England during the reign of Eliza- beth, but they proved abortive, and it was not until the Tudor dynasty had passed away, and several years of the reign of James I., the first of the Stuarts, had elapsed, before the Anglo-Saxon gained any permanent foothold. Stimulated by the spirit of rivalry with France, England pushed her explora- tions and discoveries, while France, from her first colony on the St. Law- rence, had explored the vast region from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and established among the savages missions and trading posts, first in Canada, then in the West, and finally in New York and Vermont.
22
LAMOILLE COUNTY.
But the rivalries and jealousies that had made France and England so long enemies in the Old World, were transplanted to the New Continent. The French made allies of the savages and waged war against the English, and years of bloodshed followed. The first of these hostilities, which are now known as the Old French Wars, began with William's accession to the throne of England, in 1690, and was terminated in the peace of Ryswic, in 1697. Queen Anne's war, so called, came next, commencing in 1702, and, ter- minating in the peace of Utrecht, in 1713. The third controversy was declared by George II., in 1744, and continued until the preliminaries of peace were signed at Aux-la-Chapelle, in 1748. The last conflict was form- ally declared by Great Britain, in 1756, and terminated by the capture of Montreal, in September, 1760, when the whole of New France was surren- dered to Great Britain.
During the progress of these wars, the territory of Vermont was often crossed by portions of both armies, and a few settlements sprang up. - The first of these was in 1665, on Isle LaMotte, where a fort was erected by Captain De LaMotte, under command of M. De Tracy, governor of New France. In 1690, Captain De Narm, with a party from Albany, N. Y., es- tablished an outpost in the present town of Addison, at Chimney Point, where he erected a small stone fort. The first permanent settlement, how- ever, was made at Brattleboro, in 1724, when Fort Dummer was built. For six or seven years the garrison of this fort were the only white inhabitants. In 1730, the French built a fort at Chimney Point, and a considerable popu- lation settled in the vicinity. In 1739, a few persons settled in Westminster, and about the same time a small French settlement was begun at Alburgh, on what is now called Windmill Point, but was soon abandoned. The colony at Westminster increased but slowly, and in 1754, the whole population, alarmed by the Indian attack upon Charleston, N. H., deserted their homes. Forts were erected, and small settlements were commenced in several other places, but fear of the Indians prevented any large emigration till after the last French war, when, the Province of Canada being then ceded to Great Britain, the fear of hostile incursions subsided, and the population rapidly in- creased.
During this period of rapine, the early settlers of Vermont, few though they were, were constantly exposed to the depredations of the savages, for the frontiers of both New England and Canada were one continued scene of massacre and devastation. The most memorable of these massacres was the sacking of Deerfield, Mass., in 1704. A party of about 300 of the enemy under De Rauville, set out from Canada, against this ill-fated place, in the dead of winter. They proceeded up lake Champlain, to the mouth of the Winooski river, and following up that stream, they passed over to the Con- necticut river. Proceeding down the river on the ice, they arrived in the vicinity of Deerfield on the 29th of February. Here they concealed them- selves till the latter part of the night, when, perceiving that the watch had
1
7
23
LAMOILLE COUNTY.
left the streets, and that all was quiet, they rushed forward to the attack. The snow was so high as to enable them to leap over the fortifications without difficulty, and they immediately separated into several parties so as to make their attack upon every house at the same time. The place was completely surprised, the inhabitants having no suspicion of the approach of the enemy till they entered their houses. Yet surprised and unprepared as they were, the people of Deerfield made a vigorous defense ; but were at length over come by the enemy. Forty-seven of the inhabitants were slain, the rest captured, and the village plundered and set on fire.
The old bell captured at this time and carried by the savages to the vicin- ity of Burlington, there buried in the sand, and at last carried into Canada, is an historical fact known to almost all school children. To show something of the character of the savages at that time, and partly on account of its wierd fascination, we print the following interesting legend, found some years since in an old English publication :---
"Father Nicolas having assembled a considerable number of Indians who had been converted to the Catholic faith, had established them in the village which now bears the name of the Saut St. Louis, upon the river St. Law- rence. The situation of this village is one of the most magnificent which the banks of that noble river presents, and is among the most picturesque the country affords. The church stands upon a point of land which juts into the river, and its bell sends its echoes over the waters with a clearness which forms a striking contrast with the iron bells which were formerly so common in Canada, while the tin-covered spire of the church, glittering in the sun- light, with the dense and gloomy forest which surrounds it, gives a character of romance to this little church, and the legend of its celebrated bell.
"Father Nicolas having, with the aid of the Indians, erected a church and a belfry, in one of his sermons explained to his humble auditors, that a bell was necessary to a belfry, as a priest to a church, and exhorted them to lay aside a portion of the furs that they had collected in hunting, until enough was accumulated to purchase a bell, which could only be procured by send- ing to France. The Indians exhibited an inconceivable ardor in performing this religious duty, and the packet of furs was promptly made out, and for- warded to Havre where an ecclesiastical personage was delegated to make the purchase. The bell was accordingly ordered, and in due time forwarded on board the Grande Monarque, which was on the point of sailing for Quebec. But after her departure, it so happened that one of the wars which the French and English then so often waged sprung up, and in consequence the Grande Monarque never attained her destined port, but was taken by a New England privateer, brought into the port of Salem, where she was condemned as a lawful prize, and sold for the benefit of her captors. The bell was purchased by the village of Deerfield, upon the Connecticut river, for a church then about being erected by the congregation of the celebrated Rev. John Williams.
T
24
LAMOILLE COUNTY.
" When Father Nicolas received news of the misfortune, he assembled his Indians, related to them the miserable condition of the bell, retained in pur- gatory in the hands of heretics, and concluded by saying that it would be a most praiseworthy enterprise to go and recover it. This appeal had, as it were, a kind of inspiration, and fell upon its hearers with all the force of the eloquence of Peter the Hermit, in preaching the crusades. The Indians de- plored together the misfortune of their bell, which had not hitherto received the rite of baptism ; they had not the slightest idea of a bell, but it was enough for them that Father Nicolas, who preached and said mass for them, in their church, said that it had some indispensable use in the services of the church. Their eagerness for the chase was in a moment sus- pended, and they assembled together in groups, and seated on the banks of the river, conversed on the unhappy captivity of their bell, and each brought forward his plan which he deemed most likely to succeed in effecting its re- covery. Some of their number, who had heard a bell, said that it could be heard beyond the murmur of the rapid, and that its voice was more har- monious than that of the sweetest songster of the grove, heard in the quiet stillness of evening, when all nature was hushed in repose. All were melan- choly and inspired with a holy enthusiasm ; many fasted, and others per- formed severe penances to obtain the deliverance of the bell, or the palli- ation of its sufferings.
"At length the day of its deliverance upproached. The Marquis de Vau- dreuel, governor of Canada, resolved to send an expedition against the British colonies of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The command of this expedition was given to Major Hertel de Rouville, and one of the priests of the Jesuit college, at Quebec, was sent to procure the services of Father Nicolas to accompany the expedition. The Indians were immediately assembled in the church ; the messenger was presented to the congregation, and Father Nicolas, in a solemn discourse, pointed to him as worthy of their veneration, from his being the bearer of glad tidings, who was about depart- ing for his return to Qubec, to join the war. At the end of the discourse,' the whole audience raised with one voice the cry of war, and demanded to be led to the place where their bell was detained by the heretics. The sav- ages immediately began to paint themselves in the most hideous colors, and were animated with a wild enthusiasm to join the expedition.
" It was in the dead of winter when the Indians departed to join the army of M. de Rouville, at Fort Chambly. Father Nicolas marched at their head, with a large banner surmounted by a cross, and as they departed from their village, their wives and little ones, in imitation of women of the crusades, who animated the warriors of Godfrey of Bauillon, they sang a sacred hymn which their venerated priest had selected for the occasion. They arrived at Fort Chambly after a march of great hardship, at the moment that the French soldiers were preparing to start on their march up Lake Champlain. The Indians' followed in their rear, with that perseverance peculiar to their char-
1
اعسارا
العلية
25
LAMOILLE COUNTY.
acter. In this order the Indians remained, following in silence, until they reached Lake Champlain, where all the army had been ordered to rendezvous. The lake was then frozen, and less covered by snow than the shores, and was taken as a more convenient route for the army. With their thoughts wrapped in the single contemplation of the unhappy captivity of their bell, the Indians remained taciturn during this pensive march, exhibiting no symptoms of fatigue or of fear ; no regret for their families or homes, and they regarded with equal indifference on the one hand the interminable line of forest, sometimes black from dense evergreen, and in others white from loads of snow ; and on the other, the black lines of rocks and deserts of snow and ice, which bordered their path. The French soldiers, who suffered dreadfully from fatigue and cold, regarded with admiration the agility and cheerfulness with which the Indians seemed to glide over the yielding surface of the snow on their snow shoes. The quiet endurance of the proselytes of Father Nicolas, thus forming a striking contrast with the irritability and im- patience of the French soldiers.
" When they arrived at the point where now stands the city of Burlington, the order was given for a general halt, to make more efficient arrangements for penetrating through the forests to Massachusetts. In leaving this point M. de Rouville gave to Father Nicolas the command of his Indian warriors, and took the lead of his own himself, with compass in hand, to make the most direct course for Deerfield. Nothing which the troops had thus far suffered, could compare with what they now endured on this march through a wild country, in the midst of deep snow, and with no supplies beyond what they could carry. The French soldiers became impatient, and wasted their breath in curses and complaints at the hardships they suffered, but the In- dians, animated by a zeal which sustained them above the senses of hard- ships, remained steadfast in the midst of fatigue, which increased with the severity of their sufferings. Their custom of traveling in the forest had qualified them for these hardships, which elicited the curses and execrations of their not less brave, but more irritable companions. Some time before the expedition arrived at its destination, the priest Nicolas fell sick from over exertion. His feet were worn by the labor of traveling, and his face torn by the branches which he neglected to watch in his eagerness to follow the troops. He felt that he was engaged in a holy expedition, and recalling to mind the martyrdom of the saints, and the persecutions which they endured, he looked forward to the glory reserved for his reward for the sufferings which he might encounter in recovering the bell.
"On the evening of February 29, 1704, the expedition arrived within two miles of Deerfield, without being discovered. De Rouville here ordered his men to rest and refresh themselves a short time, and he here issued his orders for attacking the town. The surface of the snow was frozen, and crushed under their feet, but De Rowville, with a remarkable sagacity, adopted a stratagem to deceive the inhabitants and the garrison. He gave orders that
.
..--------
26
LAMOILLE COUNTY.
in advancing to the assault, his troops should make frequent pauses, and then rush forward with rapidity ; thus imitating the noise made in the forest by the irregular blowing of the wind among branches laden with ice. The alarm was at length given, however, and a severe combat ensued, which resulted in the capture of the town, and the slaughter or dispersion of the inhabitants of the garrison.
" This attack occurred in the night, and at daybreak the Indians who had been exhausted by the labors of the night, presented themselves before Father Nicolas in a body, and begged to be led to the bell, that they might by their homage prove their veneration for it. Their priest was greatly affected by this earnest request, and De Rouville and others of the French laughed im- moderately at it, but the priest wished not to discourage them in their wishes, and he obtained of the French chief permission to send one of his soldiers to ring it in the hearing of the Indians. The sound of the bell in the stillness of a cold morning, and in the midst of the calmness of the forest, echoed clear and far, and fell upon the ears of the simple Indians, like the voice of an oracle. They trembled, and were filled with fear and wonder. The bell was taken from the belfrey, and attached to a pole in such a manner that four men could carry it, and in this way it was borne off with their plunder in triumph, the Indians glorying in the deliverance of this miraculous wonder. But they shortly perceived it was too heavy a burden for the rugged route they pur- sued, and the yielding nature of the snows over which they traveled. Accord- ingly, upon arriving at the point on the lake where they had left it, they buried their treasure, with many benedictions of Father Nicolas, until the period should arrive when they could transport it with more convenience.
"As soon as the ice had disappeared, and the bland air of spring had re- turned, giving foliage to the trees, and the fragrance and beauty of flowers to the forests, father Nicolas again assembled at the church his Indian converts, to select a certain number of the tribe, who, with the assistance of a yoke of oxen, should go and bring in the dearly prized bell. During this interval, all the women and children of the Indian villages, having been informed of the wonderful qualities of the bell, awaited its arrival with eagerness and im- patience, and regarded its advent as one of those events which but rarely mark the progress of ages. As the time approached when the curious object should arrive, they were assembled on the bank of the river, and discoursing upon the subject, when far off in the stillness of the twilight, there was heard from the depths of the forest a sound which, from being feeble and scarcely audi- ble, became every moment louder. Every one listened, when presently the cry arose, 'it is the bell ! it is the bell! ! ' and in a moment after, the oxen were seen emerging from the wood, surrounded by a group of Indians, and bear- ing the precious burden on a pole between them. They had hung upon the beam and around the bell, clusters of wild flowers and leaves, and the oxen were adorned with garlands of flowers. Thus marching in triumph, Father Nicolas entered his village, more proud of his success, and received with more
27
LAMOILLE COUNTY.
heartfelt joy, than a Roman general returning in triumph from the conquest of nations. From this triumphal march in the midst of the quiet of the even- ing, which was broken only by the murmur of the rapid, softened by the dis- tance arose the shouts of rejoicing, as the cortege entered the village, and the idol bell was deposited in the church. Every one gratified his eager curiosity by examining the strange and musical metal, and the crusade had been crowned with unqualified success.
"In due time the bell was raised to its place in the belfrey, and has ever since, at the accustomed hours, sent its clear tones over the broad bosom of the St. Lawrence, to announce the hour of prayer and lapse of time, and although its tones are shrill and feeble beside its modern companions, they possess a music, and call up an association which will long give an interest to the church of the Saut St. Louis, at the Indian village of Caughnawaga."
During these wars, also, grants of land lying within the present limits of the State had been made by the Dutch, at Albany, by the French, and by the colonies of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York, and each claimed jurisdiction over them. All of these claims, except that of New York, however, were relinquished without much controversy, of which more will be spoken on another page. But at the sessation of hostilities the lands were sought so eagerly by adventurers, speculators, and settlers, that in a single year subsequent to 1760, Gov. Wentworth, of New Hampshire, granted in the name of King George III., not less than sixty townships of six miles square, and two years later the number of such grants amounted to 138. The territory now began to be known by the name of the " New Hampshire Grants," and the number of actual settlers soon became quite large. The affairs of these settlers were managed by committees in the several towns, who met in general convention, when occasion required, to provide for their com- mon defense and welfare. The decrees of these conventions were regarded as law, and violations of them were punished with extreme severity. While the Revolutionary war was in progress, the land title controversy was sus- pended, and all efforts were directed toward the common enemy. But soon after the war broke out it became apparent that the settlers of the Grants needed some better organization than was possible by means of committees and conventions. Accordingly, in 1776, a convention was held at Dorset, and an address was prepared, declaring the unwillingness of settlers to be re- garded as subjects of New York. This was not favorably received by Con- gress, whereupon the more resolute of the people determined to assume the powers of an independent State, and risk the consequences. Another con- vention was held at Dorset, in June, and met again by adjournment in Sep- tember, when such measures were taken, that at a convention held in West- minster it was decided, on the 16th of January, 1777, that the following decla- ration should be adopted :-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.