USA > Vermont > Windham County > Gazetteer and business directory of Windham county, Vt., 1724-1884 > Part 8
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Meadow, about three miles southward of the West river. And from the mouth of said brook it extends west-northwest by the needle of the surveying instrument six miles and a half, and from thence it extends nearest north and east by the needle of the surveying instrument twelve miles, which is the westerly boundary of said lands, and from thence it extends east-southeast by the needle of the surveying instrument six miles and a half to the mouth of the brook at the upper end of the Great Meadow."
Within the bounds of the tract thus described was commenced the first permanent settlement in Vermont.
The colony of Connecticut having received all the land to which she was entitled, caused it all to be sold in Hartford at public auction, on the 24th and 25th of April, 1716. It was divided into sixteen shares, and was bought by gentlemen from Connecticut, Massachusetts and London, who paid for it six hundred and eighty-three pounds, New England currency, which amounted to "a little more than a farthing per acre," the money thus obtained being applied to the use of Yale College. The purchasers of the land, being ten- ants in common, made partition of the whole amount, and the tract above described fell to William Dummer, afterwards lieutenant-governor of Mass- achusetts, Anthony Stoddard, William Brattle and John White.
Northfield and Deerfield, Mass., were still the frontiers of Massachusetts on the Connecticut, and these, with other exposed towns, were rendered defensible against Indian attacks ; but in order to more effectually secure the safety of the inhabitants, the General Court of the Province of the Massa- chusetts Bay voted, on the 27th of December, 1723, " that it will be of great service to all the western frontiers, both in this and the neighboring govern- ment of Connecticut, to build a block-house above Northfield, in the most convenient place on the lands called the Equivalent Lands, and to post in it forty able men, English, and Western Indians, to be employed in scouting at a good distance up Connecticut river, West river, Otter creek, and sometimes eastwardly, above Great Monadnuck, for the discovery of the enemy coming towards any of the frontier towns, and that so much of the said Equivalent Lands as shall be necessary for a block-house be taken up with the consent of the owners of the said land, together with five or six acres of their interval land, to be broken up or plowed for the present use of the Western Indians, in case any of them shall think fit to bring their families hither."
To fulfill the conditions of this vote a site was chosen in the southeastern part of the present town of Brattleboro, just south of the village, upon what is now known as the Brooks farm. Col. John Stoddard, of Northampton, was ordered by Gov. Dummer to superintend the building of the block- house, the immediate oversight of the work being committed to Lieut. Timothy Dwight, who, with a competent force, consisting of "four carpen- ters, twelve soldiers with narrow axes, and two teams," commenced opera- tions on the 3d of February, 1724. Before summer had begun the fort was so far completed as to be habitable, and was named Fort Dummer, in honor of Sir William Dummer, then lieut .- governor of Massachusetts. This was
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the embryo of the first permanent civilized settlement in the territory now included with the limits of Vermont.
The fort was built of yellow pine timber, which grew in great abundance on the meadow lands. In form it was nearly square, the sides measuring each about too feet in length. It was laid up in the manner of a log-house, the timbers being locked together at the angles. The houses within were so constructed that the walls of the fort formed the back wall of each building. The roof was a single one, slanting upward to the top of the fort walls. All the houses fronted on a hollow square, and were arranged in such a man- ner, that in case the enemy should burst the large gate which closed the entrance to the fort, and gain access to the parade, they could be instantly rendered defensible by barricading the doors and windows. Besides the small arms with which the soldiers were furnished, the garrison was also defended by four patereroes. Timothy Dwight remained in command of the fort until the close of the year 1726. From the time it was commenced until the first of June following, Captain Dwight's force numbered in all fifty-five effective men, of whom forty-three were English soldiers, and the remainder Indians. The latter belonged to the " Maquas " tribe, and were under the command of their sachems, Hendrick Maqua, of Connauchiwhory. and Umpaumnet, who dwelt on the banks of Hudson river.
Among the first settlers, other than the garrison, were John and Thomas Sargent, John Alexander, John Arms and Fairbank Moore and son, all with the exception of John and Thomas Sargent, who were born at Fort Dummer, being from Massachusetts. The father and brother of John Sargent, Jr., were ambushed by the Indians ; the father was killed and scalped and the brother, Daniel, carried into captivity, where he adopted the Indian habits and manners, but afterwards returned to his friends. Fairbank Moore and son were killed by Indians at the West river meadows, now the property of the Ver- mont Insane Asylum, two miles north of Fort Dummer, and the wife and daughter of the younger Moore were captured.
In 1739 quite a little settlement was begun at Westminster, and other small settlements had sprung up. As these extended it became necessary for the inhabitants to increase and strengthen their defences. Accordingly, in 1840. Josiah Sartwell built a block-house in Vernon, which was called by his name. "Sartwell's Fort." It stood about one hundred rods from the Connecticut river, about four miles south of Brattleboro, upon the farm now owned by descendants of the same name. In 1838 it was taken down, after having stood ninety-eight years, and upon its site was erected the dwelling of Hon. Ebenezer Howe, Jr., a great great-grandson of Josiah Sartwell, and a great- grandson of Caleb Howe, who was killed by the Indians.
Bridgman's Fort, of similar construction, built with large square timbers laid horizontally one above the other, in the shape of an oblong or square, and locked together at the angles, the structure being roofed, and furnished with loop-holes on every side, through which to observe and attack
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the enemy, the upper story projecting over the lower, and underneath this projection other loop-holes cut, to enable those within to fire down on the as- sailants, in case of a close approach, was built the same year by Orlando Bridgman. It was situated half a mile south of Sartwell's, on the east side of the road, and with the exception of Fort Dummer was the only place picketed and secure in that vicinity. About the same time a settlement was made on the "Great Meadow," in what is now the town of Putney, and a garrison called Fort Hill was built in the center of the "Meadow" but by whom it was erected or occupied is not known.
Notwithstanding all these preparations for defense, however, constant in- vasion precluded all possibility of any attempt at an extensive settlement, or even a moderate immigration to the new territory. And it was not until after the close of the last French war, in 1760, that immigration became rapid. Fears of hostilities having then subsided, settlers came in so rapidly that at the taking of the census of Cumberland county, in 1771, the population of what is now Windham county was as follows : Brattleboro, 403; Dummers- ton, 189 ; Guilford, 436; Halifax, 329; Londonderry, 28; Vernon, 107; Marlboro, 50; Newfane, 52; Putney, 301 ; Rockingham, 225; Townshend, 136; Westminster, 478; Whitingham, 14; and Wilmington, 71; making a total population of 2,819 souls. But as the record of the date of these set. tlements and the incidents connected therewith belong to the sketches of the towns wherein they were made, we refer the reader to such sketches, further on in this volume, for detailed notices of the same.
LAND TITLE CONTROVERSY.
For a period of sixteen years there was a controversy between the authori- ties of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, relative to the boundary line between the Provinces, and a contest kept up in regard to the control of the territory in the vicinity of Fort Dummer and that on the opposite side of the river in Hinsdale. Finally, on the 5th of March, 1740, George II. decreed that the line between New Hampshire and Massachusetts should be surveyed in accordance with certain special instructions, and in 1741 the line was run by Richard Hazen, and found to leave Hinsdale and Fort Dum- mer to the north ; whereupon the King recommended the assembly of New Hampshire to care for and protect the settlers about Fort Dummer. From this royal recommend, Gov. Wentworth, of New Hampshire, naturally sup- posed that the King recognized the jurisdiction of New Hampshire as ex- tending to the same point west as Massachusetts; namely, a point twenty miles east of the Hudson river ; and accordingly, on the application of William Williams and sixty-one others, January 3, 1749, he chartered a township six miles square, in what he conceived to be the southwestern corner of New Hampshire. This town was named Bennington, after Gov. Benning Wentworth, the first town in Vermont to receive a royal charter.
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As early as 1763, Gov. Wentworth had granted, as mentioned on page 21, as many as 138 townships of six miles square, lying west of the Connecticut, and the population in the territory, which had now come to be known as the New Hampshire Grants, had become quite large. This prosperity and growing power New York could not quietly brook. So, during that year. Lieut .- Gov. Tryon, of that Province, laid claim to the territory, by virtue of a grant made by Charles II. to the Duke of York, in :664, which included " all the land from the west side of Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware Bay." Finally, on application of the government of New York, it was decided by George III. in council of July 10, 1764, that the " western bank of the Connecticut river should thereafter be regarded as the boundary line between the Province of New York and Province of New Hampshire."
The colonists were surprised and displeased at this decision, but peaceably submitted to it, supposing that it merely effected a change of the jurisdiction to which they were subject ; and the government of New Hampshire, which at first remonstrated, soon acquiesced in the decision. But on the roth of April, 1765, Gov. Colden issued a proclamation, giving a copy of the order of the king, changing the boundary of the territory, and notifying " His Maj- esty's subjects to govern themselves accordingly." He also at once pro- ceeded to grant the lands to others than the New Hampshire claimants, and when the latter applied to the New York government for a confirmation of the grants they already held, such enormous patent fees were demanded as to make it impossible for them to comply.
It was well known in New York that these lands had long been granted by New Hampshire, that they were actually occupied under such grants, and that the new patents were procured in utter disregard of the rights and claims of the settlers. It was also well known by them that the king, in commissioning Benning Wentworth governor of New Hampshire, had de- scrib. d his province as reaching westward "until it met his other governments," thus bounding it westerly by New York; and that the eastern boundary of New York was a line twenty miles easterly from the Hudson river, extending from Lake Champlain south to the western line of Massachusetts, was proven by statements in the charter of the Duke of York, upon his accession to the throne of England, in 1685. But notwithstanding all this, New York insisted that not only was the jurisdiction changed thenceforward, but also that the grants made were vacated, and that the titles acquired under them were made void. The settlers were required to re-purchase their lands, which some of them did. though the majority of them peremptorily refused. The lands of such were granted to others, who brought actions of ejectment in the New York courts, where they invariably obtained judgments against the original proprietors.
Gov. Tryon set all the machinery of law and courts to work and backed the whole by the militia of New York, to carry out his demands and make the settlers pay for their lands under his charters. Against such proceedings,
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in most towns, they openly rebelled, and many were the scenes of personal violence, and the kidnapping and carrying to Albany jail of many a farmer, there to lie in durance vile a year or more, and have their property confis- cated-all for defending the farms they had bought and paid for.
Such was Tryon's determination to force the settlers to acknowledge his authority and pay for their lands a second time, that the only course left for them was open defiance or base servility-and the latter was not in the blood of the Green Mountain Boys. The strife brought out peculiar talents on the part of these Nature's noblemen, bringing to the surface such champions as Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, Remember Baker and others, whose names are now as familiar as household words. Brattleboro, Guilford and Westminster were the theatres of warfare in what is now Windham county, the records of the proceedings of which will be found in connection with the sketches of these towns. For a time, however, a great many of the later settlers here sided with New York in the controversy, believing her to be in the right ; such, particularly, was the case in Brattleboro and Guilford. But Ethan Allen, the man who said, " Rather than submit to the authority of Great Britain, or even the State of New York, I will retire with the Green Moun- tain Boys into the mountains and caves of the earth, and wage war with human nature at large," also said, "Unless the inhabitants of Brattleboro and Guilford peaceably submit to the authority of Vermont, their territory shall be made as desolate as Sodom and Gomorrah." This proclamation, backed by the presence of Allen and his followers, cured the New York pro- clivities in Windham county.
In 1769, the King prohibited the governor of New York from issuing any more grants "until His Majesty's further pleasure should be made known." Meanwhile civil disturbances and open defiance to the New York authorities continued to such an extent that, in 1774, a law was passed by that Province, ordering the surrender of all offenders, under the penalty of death. In reply, the people of the grants returned a public letter, threatening death to any who should aid in arresting any of her citizens. About this time a plan was made for the formation of a royal province, but the Revolutionary war soon joined the two provinces in a common cause, so that their personal quarrel gradually raged less furiously. In 1789 New York acknowledged the inde- pendence of Vermont and endeavored to adjust all matters of dispute, hav- ing previously made grants to those who had suffered by adhering to her al- legiance, while Vermont, in turn, paid into the treasury of New York thirty thousand dollars.
One complication arising from the land title question, which particularly affected Cumberland county, was the annexation of several New Hampshire towns to Vermont, as follows : On the 12th of March, 1778, a petition was presented to the Vermont legislature by a number of the towns in New Hampshire, praying that they might he allowed to become a part of the former State, and subject to its jurisdiction. The application having been enter-
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tained in the assembly for several days, was finally submitted to the people. When the discussion of the subject was renewed, on the 11th of June, at the summer session of the legislature, thirty-five of the representatives, express- ing the views of the towns to which they belonged, declared in favor of the union, and twelve against it. Sixteen towns were accordingly added to the territory of Vermont, viz .: Cornish, Lebanon, Dresden (a name given to the district belonging to Dartmouth College, but used only a short time), Lyme, Orford, Piermont, Haverhill, Bath, Lyman, Athrop (now divided into Little- ton and Dalton), Enfield, Canaan, Cardigan (now Orange), Landoff, Gunth- waite (now Lisbon), and Morristown (now Franconia). Although no act was passed to that effect, they were regarded as a part of Cumberland county, and were so referred to whenever it became necessary to legislate concerning them. Great dissatisfaction, however, prevailed on both sides of the Con- necticut relative to this annexation. In vain were all the efforts of the legis- lature to restore peace. The experiment of annexation, hazardous in the beginning, soon began to assume an aspect threatening the very foundation of the new State. In this crisis, the general assembly, on the 23d of October, 1778, resolved to lay the subject before their constituents and request them to instruct their representatives how to proceed in relation to this unfortunate connection at the next session of the legislature. The impolicy, as well as the injustice " of aiding in the dismemberment of New Hampshire," was too apparent to the friends and supporters of Vermont, to admit of a doubt ir the course proper to be pursued. On the 12th of February, 1779, the instruc- tions of the representatives on this point were canvassed, at the winter session of the legislature, and, in conformity with these instructions, the union was declared "totally void, null and extinct."
REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
With Vermont the Revolutionary contest possessed a double interest, for while she lent her aid to redress national grievances, she also maintained a contest on her own account, resolving to secure her independence from New York. The part taken by the famous Green Mountain Boys is almost too well known to need special mention. Yet, while it is always conceded that they were brave and resolute, it is added that they were untrained, and sur- prise is often manifested that they showed such remarkable fighting qualities ; a little reflection, however, will show that they were not without training in arms and particularly in the art of Indian fighting. The fertility of the Ver- mont soil, of which the most extravagant stories used to be told, was first made known in the older States by the soldiers who crossed the territory in the French and Indian wars. Upon the conquest of Canada, these men, largely young and unmarried, would naturally be the first to go to the new country, as it was called, and such in fact was the case, to a degree, so that the settlements had at the outset a considerable sprinkling of trained soldiers.
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And further, it should be remembered that nearly all the settlers were inured to hardship and danger, and expert in woodcraft and in the use of firearms, so that a militia company, such as was formed in Cumberland and Gloucester counties in 1775, was a fighting force which could hardly be excelled for a rough country, and was even able to appear to advantage in an open field of battle.
The strong current of emigration which after the conquest of Canada, in 1760. ran to the north from the older New England States, had at the open- ing of the Revolution effected the settlement of a great part of southern Ver- mont, progress of course being made most rapidly along the natural highways of the country, the rivers and lakes, so that in 1776 there is estimated to have been 900 men capable of bearing arms in the eastern part of the State. In 1775 the Green Mountain Boys captured the military posts on Lake Cham- plain, and the advance of the American army into Canada which followed, afforded a protection to Vermont settlements which many persons, particu- larly in the western part of the State, were not slow in taking advantage of ; but as the emeny in turn regained possession of the lake the year following, the settlers were left entirely without protection, and in that condition mainly, they remained until the close of the war. The more exposed points in the region of the lake were abandoned in 1776, until there were very few settle- ments north of the present line of Bennington county ; but there were no demonstrations then made upon Vermont soil, and this vicinity, as did also most other parts of the State, remained undisturbed. In 1777 came the stirring and important events of the war about Bennington, but still the settlers at this distant location continued their work about their new forest homes with- out interference.
In 1779 Gen. Hazen, with a part of a regiment of men, was employed in cutting a road from Peacham northerly, professedly to facilitate the moving of an army into Canada, but really, it is supposed, as a feint to prevent the enemy froin proceeding in force up Lake Champlain ; but there was no im- portant move made on either side, and the year 1780 found the little State entirely unprotected from the common enemy at the north, and engaged in a bitter contest with New York. It was during this year that occurred the memorable raid upon and burning of Royalton, in Windsor county, and the year was full of apprehensions and alarms throughout the settlements. In October previous, the general assembly had elected a Board of War of nine persons, which, April 8, 1780, issued an order looking to the better protection of Cumberland county, wherein, it was recited that, " Whereas, the present war with Great Britain is likely to be continued, at least this campaign, and that the Continental troops will be continued to the south of this, by means which there will be no movement to divert the enemy in Canada, it there- fore becomes the indispensible duty of this State to make the best prepara- tions in their power for the defense of the frontiers." And we find the board busy throughout the year in its legitimate work, chiefly that of prepar- ing defenses along the frontier line above indicated.
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No important events, however, transpired in Windham county from this time until the close of the war. The names of the Revolutionary soldiers, and the part each town took in the common cause, we have mentioned so far as known to us, in their respective town sketches. Suffice it to say at this point, then, that the people of the Grants entertained a feeling of deadly hatred against King George and the British parliament, rendering the Green Mountain Boys excellent foes. The surrender of Cornwallis, at Yorktown, October 17, 1781, virtually put an end to all these troubles, and the Green Mountain Boys were soon again, except for their family trouble with New York, enjoying the privileges of peace.
WAR OF 1812.
For nearly thirty years this intervale of peace was enjoyed, during which time the troubles between New York and Vermont were amicably adjusted, and one more star added to the proud flag of the Union. But still England, notwithstanding the lesson she had received and all the years that had inter_ vened, seemed not to appreciate the fact that her American colony had grown to an independent nation ; and though in March, 1782, Burke and Fox had raised their voices in the British parliament and the House of Commons had formally declared that it "would consider as public enemies all those who should advise a further prosecution of the war with America," England still persisted in acts of tyranny until they became unindurable. Accordingly on the 18th of June, 1812, an act was passed in our House of Representatives by a vote of seventy-nine to forty-nine, and in the Senate by a majority of nineteen to thirteen, declaring war against Great Britain. The message of the president contained these as the principal reasons: "The impressment of American seaman by the British, the blockade of her enemies' ports, in con- sequence of which American commerce had been plundered in every sea, etc."
Vermont, thinking that the difficulties of the times required its sentiments to be known among the other States, adopted the following resolutions : "We therefore pledge ourselves to each other and to our government, that with our individual exertions, our examples and influence, we will support our government and country in the present contest and rely on the Great Arbiter of events for a favorable result." This resolution Windham county sustained to the letter ; many of her old Revolutionary hero's again went to. the front in support of the common cause. The preparation for the battle of Plattsburgh, N. Y., etc., and, indeed, all the events of the war are to well known to require repeating here. The record of some of the heroes who participated in the battles will be found recorded in connection with the his- tory of the towns wherein they resided. So, suffice it to say, two years the storm raged, being quelled in 1815, when the victorious soldiers again re- turned to their quiet avocations.
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