Gazetteer and business directory of Windham county, Vt., 1724-1884, Part 6

Author: Child, Hamilton, b. 1836
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., Printed at the Journal office
Number of Pages: 805

USA > Vermont > Windham County > Gazetteer and business directory of Windham county, Vt., 1724-1884 > Part 6

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Sept., 1852

Oscar E. Butterfield,

Nelson H. Bixby,

Sept., 1867

Albert G. Burke,

Sept., 1855

William C. Holbrook,

Benjamin L Knowlton,

Sept., 1851

- April, 1848

Sept., 1864

WINDHAM COUNTY.

PRESENT MEMBERS OF WINDHAM COUNTY BAR-(CONTINUED.)

Milon Davidson, Newfane | George C. Briggs, Whitingham

Lewis S. Walker, .Grafton

Oscar E. Butterfield, Wilmington

Albert W. Dresser,

Milton A. Goodnow

Stephen T. Davenport,

Eleazer L. Waterman, .. Jamaica Addison E. Cudworth, S. Londonderry

Edgar H. Davenport, ..

Abishai Stoddard, Townshend

Charles F. Boyd,.

James H. Phelps, ... West Townshend

Hosea Mann, Jr.,.

Horatio N. Hix, . . Whitingham

A. Augustine Butterfield, Jackson ville

Charles S. Chase,

THE POOR.

Those who from age, infirmity or otherwise, become unable to support themselves, and are so unfortunate as to be obliged to rely upon public charity for support, are cared for, in conformity with the laws of the State, by the inhabitants of the town wherein they reside.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

From time immemorial Connecticut river was a favorite pathway of Indian travel, and later was used as the great highway of the eastern part of the State by the whites. After the establishment of a trading station at Charles- town, or Number Four, N. H., in 1727, the route which the Indians usually took in going from Canada to Fort Dummer was by Lake Champlain, Otter creek and Black and Connecticut rivers. The government of Massachusetts, in order to ascertain the exact course of this Indian road, obtained from a certain James Cass the following diary of a journey from Fort Dummer to Lake Champlain, performed in the year 1730. From it something may be learned of the manner of traveling in the wilderness in those early times, and of the hardships pertaining thereto. Thus the journal runs :-

" Monday, ye 27th April, 1730, at about twelve of ye clock we left Fort Dummer, and travailed that day three miles, and lay down that night by West River, which is three miles distant from Fort Dummer. Notabene,-I travailed with twelve Canady Mohawks that drank to great excess at ye fort and killed a Skatacook Indian in their drunken condition, that came to smoke with them.

"Tuesday. - We travailed upon the great river [Connecticut] about ten miles.

" Wednesday .- We kept ye same course upon ye great River, travailed about ten miles, and eat a drowned Buck that night.

Thursday .- We travailed upon ye great River within two miles of ye Great Falls [Bellows Falls] in said River, then went upon Land to ye Black River above ye Great Falls, went up in that River and lodged about a mile and a half from the mouth of the Black River, which days' travail we judged about ten miles.

"Fryday .- We cross Black River at ye Falls [Springfield village] after- wards travail through ye woods N. N. W. then cross Black River again about seventeen miles above our first crossing, afterwards travailed ye same course, and pitched our tent on ye homeward side of Black River.

WINDHAM COUNTY.

"Saturday .- We crossed Black River, left a great mountain on ye right hand and another on ye left [in Ludlow]. Keep a N. W. course till we pitch our tent after eleven miles travail by a Brook which we called a branch of Black River.

"Sabbath Day .- Soon after we began our days' work, an old pregnant squaw that travailed with us, stopt alone and was delivered of a child, and by Monday noon overtook us with a living child upon her back. We travail to Black River. At ye three islands, between which and a large pound we past ye River, enter a mountain [in Plymouth], that afforded us a prospect of ye place of Fort Dummer. Soon after we enter a descending country, and travail till we arrive at Arthur Creek [Otter creek] in a descending land. In this days' travail which is twenty-one miles, we came upon seven Brooks which run in a S. W. course at ye north end of said Mountain. From Black River to Arthur Creek we judge is twenty-five miles.

" Monday .- Made Canoes.

"Tuesday .- Hindered travailing by rain.

"Wednesday-We go in our Canoes upon Arthur Creek, till we meet two great falls in said river [in Rutland]. Said River is very Black and deep and surrounded with good land to ye extremity of our prospect. This days' travail thirty-five miles.

" Thursday .- We sail forty miles in Arthur Creek. We ineet with great Falls [Middlebury falls], and a little above them we meet with two other great Falls [at Weybridge], and about ten miles below ye said Falls we meet two other pretty large Falls [at Vergennes]. We carryd our Canoes by these Falls and came to ye Lake."

As the county was settled, it became apparent that some more conven- ient mode of transportation must be devised than the flat boats afforded on the Connecticut, or than was afforded by the several stage lines. Accordingly, October 29, 1829, the legislatures of Vermont and New Hampshire passel an act incorporating the Connecticut River Steamboat Company, the charter being given to "Jonathan H. Hubbard, Frederick Pettes, George D. Dutton, Isaac W. Hubbard, Edward R. Campbell, Albert G. Hatch, David H. Sum- ner, William Hall, James I. Cutler, Alexander Flemming, and their associates." This charter was altered, however, November 5, 1830, to the Connecticut River Valley Steamboat Company, allowing the corporation to "purchase, hold and convey real estate to the value of $20,000.00." Canals and locks were built where rapids or falls occurred, so that the Connecticut navigation became very convenient from Hartford, Conn., to the " Fifteen Mile" fall at Dalton. Three of these canals were located in Vermont, one at Bellows' Falls, one at Sumner's Falls, and another at Olcott's Falls. Between these falls, except between Suniner's and Olcott's were located steamers that were plied until the canal was reached, then the passengers and freight had to be transported to the steamer awaiting at the other end of the canal, though the flatboats, rafts, etc., made through trips, using the locks. One steamer, run by Capt. Nutt, of White River, was built in 1830, so as to be locked through the entire length, but it did not prove a success.

The first attempt at steamboat navigation on the Connecticut was in 1827, when the " Barnet," a strong boat, seventy-five by fourteen and one half feet,

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WINDHAM COUNTY.

was built and succeeded, with some help, in ascending the river as far as Bel- lows Falls. This was her first and last trip, however, for she was taken back to Hartford, laid up, and finally broken to pieces. In 1829 a Mr. Blanchard built a boat called the " Blanchard," of the size of the preceding, and another eighty feet long and fourteen feet wide, drawing only twelve or fifteen inches of water, called the "Vermont." The stroke of the piston was horizontal, and the engine a 120 horse-power. A few experimental trips were made between Bellows Falls and Barnet, but the obstacles were such that the undertaking was relinquished, and the method of plying boats between the locks substi- tuted instead. But the advent of the railroad into the county, in 1849, took away the business of the river, and the old canals and locks have long since come to ruin.

There is also a curious tradition extant relative to the connection of Ver- mont and New Hampshire with the history of steam navigation. The tradi- tion is, and it is well authenticated, that about the beginning of this century there were two brothers Morey, Samuel and Ithamer, the former at Orford, N. H., and the latter at Fairlee, Vt., -Samuel with a remarkable genius for invention, and Ithamer a skillful mechanic. Tne universal applicability of steam had already been demonstrated, and among those who undertook its application to navigation was Samuel Morey. Under his direction Ithamer built a steamboat, which actually navigated the waters of the Connecticut, between Orford and Fairlee. Of this steamboat, which had its machinery in the bow, Samuel took the model to New York and showed it to Fulton, who was experimenting towards the same end. Fulton was pleased with the work, and suggested to Morey to change the machinery to the middle of the boat. This he returned to Fairlee to do, and this he actually did do, and then took his model again to New York, to find that Fulton had made use of his ideas and was ahead of him in getting out a patent. He returned home disap- pointed and with a sense of injury. Mr. J. H. Simonds, of Windsor, Vt., informs us that he himself has seen in Fairlee pond the remains of Morey's boat.

Boston has always been the natural market for Vermont, and in the early days it could only be reached by the tedious, lumbering coach, goods being hauled by horse express. Rough and hilly were the roads, while the people of the western part of the State must climb the Green and Surrey Moun- tains and many other intervening high mountains and hills. Finally, how- ever, when the railroads were building, or completed, from Boston to Concord and Fitchburg, some enterprising spirits in Vermont conceived the idea of constructing a railroad from the western part of the State to intersect with the roads that already led to the sea board at Boston, and Burlington was decided upon as the starting point. The Green Mountains had ever been a dividing line in the State, and, of course, there was much contention and strife as to whether the road should pass south from Burlington, through the valley of Otter creek, cross the mountains through Mount Holly gorge to

WINDHAM COUNTY.

Bellows Falls, to connect with a contemplated road from Fitchburg to Bel- lows Falls, or whether it should pass from Burlington to Montpelier, cross the mountains, proceed southeast to the Connecticut, to connect with a pro- jected road from Concord, N. H.

The friends of each route were sanguine that their's was the most feasible, and as there were some active. earnest men interested on each side, the con- troversy ran quite high and charters were very liberal, the result of it all being, however, that both projected routes were utilized. The advocates of the northern route were a little ahead in the construction of their road, though the charters for both projected routes were issued on the same day. November 1, 1843. The northern faction received a charter for the Vermont Central Railroad Company, which was subsequently changed to the Central Vermont Railroad Company, with the " right to build a railroad froin some point on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, up the valley of Onion river, and extending to a point on the Connecticut river most convenient to meet a railroad either from Concord, N. H., or Fitchburg, Mass." The route decided upon was up the Connecticut from Windsor to the mouth of White river, thence up that stream to the source of its third branch, thence, reaching the summit in Roxbury, and passing down the valley of Dog river, entering the Winooski valley near Montpelier, and thence, continuing in the Winooski valley, its terminus being reached at Burlington, a distance of 117 miles. Charles Paine, of Windsor, was chosen president of the company, and ground was broken at Windsor, December 15, 1845, upon the farm formerly occupied by Judge Elijah Paine, father of Charles Paine, and where the lat - ter was born, the first ground broken for a railroad in Vermont. The road was opened through for business, June 20, 1849.

Those interested in the southern route received a charter for the Cham- plain & Connecticut River Railroad Company, for the purpose of " con- structing a railroad from some point at Burlington, thence southwardly through the counties of Addison, Rutland, Windsor and Windham, to some point on the western bank of the Connecticut river." The route decided upon was from Bellows Falls to Burlington, a distance of 1192 miles, passing through portions of the valleys of Williams and Black rivers, and along Otter creek. The first meeting of the stockholders was held at Rutland, May 6, 1845, with Timothy Follett, of Burlington, chairman, and L. Brown, clerk. It was voted to open subscriptions to stock, June 10th of that year, which was accordingly done. On November 6, 1847, the legislature changed the name of the corporation to the Rutland & Burlington Railroad Company, and subsequently it was changed to the Rutland Railroad Company. It is now known as the Rutland Division of the Central Verinont Raitroad, hav- ing been leased to the Vermont Central Company in January, 1871, for a period of twenty years. The first blow towards its construction was struck during the month of February, 1847, in the town of Rockingham, near Bel- lows Falls, and in two years and nine months it was completed, being opened through December 18, 1849.

WINDHAM COUNTY.

The Vermont Valley railroad, extending from Brattleboro to Bellows Falls, w:s built soon after, a project of Hugh Henry and others, and in Feb- ruary, 1849, the Vermont & Massachusetts railroad was completed, extend- ing from Brattleboro to South Vernon, thus opening the route through from Massachusetts to Burlington, as originally intended by the projectors of the Southern Vermont route.

Several charters were also issued before the Brattleboro & Whitehall Rail- road Company was organized. The legislature of 1851 granted a charter for the Wantastiquet Railroad Company, with the privilege of building a road from Brattleboro up through the West river valley to Londonderry, and thence " through Landgrove, Peru and Mt. Tabor, to connect with the Western Vermont railroad in the towns of Danby and Wallingford, or from London- derry through Weston, to connect with the Rutland & Burlington railroad at Mt. Holly, or from Weston through Andover, to connect with said Rutland & Burlington railroad in Ludlow." The bill for this charter was drawn and introduced by the late Charles K. Field, then a member of the House from Newfane. Under this charter, however, no corporate action was taken.

In 1867 the legislature granted a charter for the west River Railroad Com- pany, the bill for the charter being drawn and introduced by Hon. H. H. Wheeler, who then represented the town of Jamaica in the legislature. This charter contemplated the construction of a standard-gauge road from Brat- tleboro to Jamaica. The legislature of 1867 refused to pass an act enabling towns to bond in aid of this road; but in 1868 an enabling act was passed, and under this act the towns of Jamaica, Townshend and Newfane very soon bonded in aid of the road to the amount of eight times their respective grand lists, and a survey was made by Julius Fenn. February 5, 1870, a formal or- ganization of the West River railroad corporation was effected at Jamaica, but, owing to the estimated high cost of the road and the lack of sufficient funds, the enterprise still remained in embryo, although various attempts were made to put it on its feet. In connection with one of these efforts, in 1873, Robert L. Harris made another survey of the line. In 1869 and again in 1873 enabling acts were passed. But in spite of the efforts here referred to to give it life, the project lay in a practically dormant condition in the years from 1870 to 1876, apparently insurmountable obstacles standing in the way because of the estimated high cost of the road. During these years, how- ever, the narrow-gauge system of railroads had begun to come into promi- nence. An amendment of the charter was secured from the legislature of 1876, changing the name of the West River Railroad Company to the Brattle- boro & Whitehall Railroad Company, extending all acts and provisions relat- ing to the company for a term of six years, and authorizing the company to ex- tend its railroad through the towns of Londonderry, Winhall, Landgrove, Peru, etc., to Whitehall, N. Y. February 1, 1877, at a meeting held in Brattleboro under the auspices of the board of commissioners named in the charter of 1867, a board of directors of the Brattleboro & Whitehall Railroad Company was

WINDHAM COUNTY.

elected, and at a subsequent meeting, held at Fayetteville, this board organ- ized by the choice of C. F. Thompson as president, and J. A. Butler as clerk. C. F. Thompson, F. Goodhue and J. L. Martin were made an executive com- mittee, and the general management of the enterprise was vested in their hands. Whitehall capitalists professed great anxiety to have the road built, and there were abundant promises of help from Vermont towns on the other side of the mountain. East of the mountain, in the West river valley, the towns took energetically hold of the work, and by the early spring of 1877, Brattleboro and Londonderry had voted liberal aid to the enterprise, and Jamaica, Townshend and Newfane had transferred to it a generous portion of the aid originally voted to the West River railroad. Here, however, the project again came to a standstill, for none of the towns on the other side of the mountain, either in Vermont or New York, fulfilled their promises of aid, and during the summer and fall of 1877 the hopes of the friends of the en- terprise seemed as far as ever from fulfillment.

In 1878, however, the matter of building a two-foot guage road to South Londonderry was brought up, and by dint of earnest work this enterprise was started, the provision and understanding being that no vote or subscrip- tion should be binding until the sum of $200,000 of capital stock in cash subscriptions had been obtained. The town aid, as finally voted, was in the following amounts : Brattleboro, $50,000 ; Newfane, $25,000 ; Townshend, $37,000 ; Jamaica, $32,800 ; Londonderry, $23,000-making a total of $167,800. The balance of the required sum of $200,000 was secured by private subscription, the closing subscription having been made at Town- shend in May, 1878. The survey and permanent location of the road was at once begun, and on the 26th day of October, 1878, a contract was closed with Harris Bros. & Co. for the completion and equipment of the road. It was decided to build the road on a three-foot guage instead of a two-foot.

Ground for the road was formally broken at Fayetteville on Monday, No- vember 11, 1878, and on the same day, at a slightly earlier hour, ground was also broken at Jamaica. From this time on the construction work was pushed rapidly forward. Everything went well until July, 1879, when, through the failure of the firm that was to furnish the iron to live up to their contract, and other complications, another halt was made.

It became evident that some new arrangement must be made for the com- pletion and operation of the road. During the winter an arrangement was made between the railroad company and Harris Bros. & Co., by which the former took the further construction and completion of the road into its own hands for the purpose of putting itself in a position to perfect an arrange- ment, the preliminaries of which had already been entered into, for a lease of the road to the New London Northern corporation. At the annual stock- holders' meeting, held in February, the officers of the road were given full authority to negotiate this lease. The New London Northern road being under lease to the Central Vermont, the management of the Brattleboro and

WINDHAM COUNTY.

Whitehall road passed by this arrangement into the hands of that corpora- tion. As soon as the spring of 1880 opened the Central Vermont began the work of fully completing the substructure, laying ties, etc. Early in Septem- ber the iron, which had been bought in England, arrived, and the work of laying it down was rapidly pushed until its final completion. The length of the road, from Brattleboro to South Londonderry, is a fraction over 36 miles.

A railroad from Hoosac Tunnel, Mass., to Readsboro, Vt., is now in pro- cess of construction, its route passing through the southwestern corner of Whitingham.

NEWSPAPERS.

The first printing office in Vermont was established at Westminster, in the summer of 1778, by Judah Paddock Spooner and Timothy Green. At the session of the legislature in October following, Judah P. Spooner and Alden Spooner were appointed State printers. The laws which were passed at the two preceding sessions of the legislature had been promulgated only in man- uscript. In February, 1781, was commenced at Westminster, by J. P. Spooner and Timothy Green, the publication of the first newspaper ever printed in Vermont. It was called The Vermont Gazette or Green Mountain Post Boy, and it had for its motto the following couplet, which is truly char- acteristic of the inhabitants of the Green Mountain State :-

" Pliant as reeds where streams of freedom glide, Firm as the hills lo stem oppression's tide."

This paper was issued weekly, and continued until the beginning of the year 1783.

Just a few words here of the Spooners and of the Green family may be of interest. Judah Paddock Spooner and Alden Spooner were two of the nine children of Thomas Spooner and his wife Rebecca, who was the daughter of Judah Paddock. The last named Judah had for his wife Alice Alden. Five of the nine children of Thomas were sons, and all five served in the Revolu- tion. Judah Paddock Spooner was born in New London, Conn., 1747, and died at Rutland, in February, 1807. He published The Farmer's Library, at Fairhaven, Vt., from July, 1795, to its suspension, in 1798. His sons, Wy- man, who, in 1864, was lieutenant-governor of Wisconsin, and Jeduthan, were both printers; Wyman of the VERMONT JOURNAL, at Windsor, and after- wards of the Advocate, at Royalton and Chelsea, and Jeduthan of the Reper. tory, at Burlington, and at St. Albans, from 1821 to 1836. Jeduthan " went west," as did Wyman, and there became very successful. He died in 1867, and Wy man is also dead. Alden was born in New London in 1757, and both he and his older brother, Judah Paddock, "learned their trade" of Timothy Green, of New London, who married their sister Rebecca. This Timothy Green, who was that one of the proprietors for whom Greensboro, Orleans county, was named, was of the famous Green ;family of printers. Stephen Daye, beginning at Cambridge in 1639, was the man who conducted the first

WINDHAM COUNTY.

press in New England. Samuel Green succeeded him and died in 1702. He had a family of nineteen children, one of whom was named Samuel, a printer, who had a son Timothy, also a printer. This Timothy, in 1709, sent on one Short to be the first printer in Connecticut, and as Short failed to meet the Connecticut requirements, in 1714, Timothy went himself to New London- He was born in 1679 and died May 5, 1757. He had a son Samuel, a prin- ter, who had a son Timothy, being the Timothy who married Rebecca Spooner and with J. P. Spooner published The Vermont Gazette.

The press on which the paper was published is now, for the most part, in the State House at Montpelier, and is thought to be the first press brought to New England. It is supposed that Rev. Jesse Glover was bringing it over from England, in 1638, when he died on the voyage, and that Stephen Daye, previously mentioned, whom Glover had engaged to come and work it, set it up, in 1639, at Cambridge.

The Federal Galaxy was the next paper established in the county, by Ben- jamin Smead, of Brattleboro, January, 1797. The Galaxy was printed on a four-page sheet, measuring about seventeen by twenty-one inches, four col- umns to a page, being sold to subscribers for $1.34 per year, payable on the last day of every quarter. An idea of what was considered news in those early days may be gained from the following description of the contents of No. 71, Vol. 2 dated May 8, 1798: The entire first and second pages, and nearly one column of the third page, are taken up with the "Instructions to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry, Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary to the French Republic," signed by Timothy Pick- ering, Secretary of State, and bearing date July 15, 1797-nearly ten months previous. Following this article, under the general head of " Domestic Events," is given about a column and a half of news from South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New York and Massachusetts. Then follows a half column of editorial matter, the leading article treating upon the then all- absorbing topic of our relations with France. Something more than a column of this page is occupied by advertisements. Two and a half columns of the fourth page are devoted to a report of the proceedings of the American Con- gress and House of Representatives, extending from Wednesday, March 28, to Tuesday, April 3d. The remainder of the page is taken up with adver- tisements, among which are three applications for divorce. There is not a local or State paragraph in the entire paper. The Galaxy was continued until 1802, when Mr. Smead removed to Dansville, N. Y.

The Reporter was established at Brattleboro, in February, 1803, by Wil- liam Fessenden. Mr. Fessenden was a son of Rev. Thomas Fessenden, of Walpole, N. H., and learned his trade at that place. In 1803 Mr. Fessenden arrived in Brattleboro while on his way to New York to .pro- cure employment as a journeyman printer. The fact becoming known to the landlord of the hotel where he stopped, and to Samuel Dickinson, John W. Blake, Esq., and to other leading men of the place, who greatly

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Gazetteer and business directory of Windham county, Vt., 1724-1884, Part 6

Author: Child, Hamilton, b. 1836 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., Printed at the Journal office Number of Pages: 805

Author: Child, Hamilton, b. 1836
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., Printed at the Journal office
Number of Pages: 805