USA > Vermont > Essex County > Gazetteer of Caledonia and Essex Counties, Vt. 1764-1887 > Part 13
USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > Gazetteer of Caledonia and Essex Counties, Vt. 1764-1887 > Part 13
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"The officer shot was General Gordon, and he died in half an hour. At the time Whitcomb shot him, all his provision consisted of about half a pint of parched corn, and that was all the food he had for four days. On the fifth day he crossed the line into Vermont, nearly starved, and his shoes entirely worn out. In all this time he had not kindled a fire or dared to shoot game, lest the smoke and report of his gun should indicate his whereabouts to the pursuing Indians ; but necessity, which knows no law, compelled him to act. He did not dare to go to any house, fearing Tories ; but finding a yoke of oxen feeding in a pasture, he shot one through the head and quickly cut out as much steak as he needed, and skin enough for a pair of mocasins, and run into a deep swamp, kindled a fire, half roasted some steak and eat it upon the run, again fearing the smoke would betray him. The next morning he had gone about a mile only, when he came upon an Indian camp, where several had stopped over night, the fire not being out. He turned and
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traveled east half a day, and then turned south, and hurried on until he ar- rived at Royalton, Vt., where he went into a house and asked for food and rest.
" The British had offered a thousand crowns for his head, and two thousand crowns for him delivered at any British post alive, and the Indians pursued and hunted for him along the lake to the very walls of Ticonderoga. After some little time had elapsed, Whitcomb joined a small frontier guard sta- tioned at Lancaster, N. H., in a block-house ; feeling secure, he occasionally went out hunting. One day, when out alone, he was suddenly seized from behind, disarmed and bound by five Indians, and hurried off into Canada, and down the St. Francis river. Night came on dark ; when within twenty miles of a British post, at the mouth of the river, where the Indians were to give him up and take the reward, they camped upon an island. Whitcomb's hands and feet were securely tied to a stake and otherwise securely bound, and in addition he was bound to two Indians, one sleeping each side close to him ; escape seemed impossible. Whitcomb recognized in one of his cap- tors the Indian whom he had years before found alone nearly famished and fed and supplied with food, and had by look and gesture tried to make the Indian know him, but entirely failed to gain any sign of recognition. Death seemed inevitable and hope departed, but yet he slept. About 2 o'clock A. M., Whitcomb was awakened by gentle taps on the mouth to indicate silence, and then the fingers passed to his eyes and found them open. His bonds were all carefully cut. He was directed by a motion of the hand to rise and follow, which he cautiously did to the river. The Indian whom he had form- erly aided when starving, turned to him and handed him his gun, powder-horn, ball-pouch, knife, and a bag of parched corn, reminding Whitcomb of his former kindness to him, said, "I now pay you-go, go." Whitcomb slipped into a canoe and cast it off, and pushed out into the river. The Indian gave him the farewell salute, by motion, and turned back to camp. Whitcomb quickly pushed back to the shore and cut a hole in the bottom of each re- maining canoe, and pushed them off into the stream, resumed his own canoe, and crossed immediately to the shore, then cut a hole in his canoe and pushed it off and ran for life. About 4 o'clock he heard the Indians' distant whoop of alarm, and soon after the whoop of disappointment and anger when they found all their canoes gone. Whitcomb pushed on with all his energy, day and night, until safe, not stopping until he had reached Massachusetts, the home of early childhood, where he remained during the war. In due time he received his major's commission and pay, and in his old age received a ma- jor's pension. His good friend, the Indian, he never saw or heard of after their night-parting on the island."
The Indians in this part of the country were of the St. Francis tribe of Canada. They had a trail from the territory of that tribe in Canada, to the Penobscot river in Maine. After crossing the Memphremagog, they would take the Clyde river, which would lead them to Island Pond, then cross to the
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Nulhegan river, and down that to the Connecticut, thence to the upper Am- monoosuc, and up this river to some point in the present town of Milan, N. H., where they crossed to the Androscoggin, thence down the last named river. On this trail they passed through the settled portion of Maidstone, and were a source of great annoyance to the inhabitants. During the Rev- olutionary war the Indians received $5 bounty for each captive alive, or scalp. that was taken by them.
The Tories were leagued with the Indians in opposition to the Revolution- ists, and as the latter could get no assistance from the government, they were obliged to rely entirely upon their own resources for self-defense against this internal enemy.
The inhabitants of both sides of the Connecticut river, in this vicinity, united together for the purpose of self-protection, and chose a committee of safety and built forts for the protection of the women and children. There were three forts built-two in Northumberland, one at the mouth of the Ammonoosuc river, one in Maidstone, and one in Stratford, nearly opposite Mr. Joseph Merrill's, in the north part of the town. Whenever the alarm was given that the " Indians or Tories were coming," the women and children would flee to the forts.
One incident, worthy of remembrance, as showing somewhat of the trials and hardships to which young mothers were subject in those days of unre- mitting fear and anxiety, is as follows : The young wife of Caleb Marshall, on whose farm one of those forts was built, after seeing the most valuable of her household goods buried in the earth, mounted her horse with a child of about two years and an infant of three weeks old, and went on, unattended, through the wilderness and sparsely settled towns a portion of the way, to her own and her husband's parents in Hampstead, N. H., a distance of 160 miles, where she arrived in safety.
Ward Bailey was chosen captain to take command of these forts and the forces raised to guard them. The young and able-bodied men were sent as scouts to the woods to prevent surprise from the enemy, and those who were not able to go to the woods on this duty were left in the immediate charge of the forts. Capt. Bailey was living in Maidstone at this time. His house was a few rods north from Col. Joseph Rich's residence. He was very act- ive in opposition to the Tories and Indians, which rendered him particularly obnoxious to them. A party of these savages and Tories came from Canada for the purpose of capturing Capt. Bailey, Mr. Hugh and other of the inhab- itants of Maidstone. They went first to the house of Thomas Wooster, in the north part of the town, and took Wooster, his hired man, John Smith, and James Luther, who was at the house of Mr. Wooster, visiting the girl who subsequently became his wife, little thinking of the grievous calamity about to befall him. With a view of securing John Hugh and some of his sons, the party encamped just back of Mr. Beattie's orchard, in the woods at that time, intending to make the attack the next morning at break of day.
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As it happened, by accident, that morning Mr. Hugh and his eldest son, John, got up very early, intending to go over a line of sable traps which they had set running directly west from the river some five miles. Thinking that their guns might want cleaning, they washed them out, and, in order to dry them, put in a charge of powder and fired them off. At this the Indians took alarm, supposing they were discovered, and that a large force had collected to give them battle. They took what prisoners they had secured to Canada, were pursued by some of the settlers, who hoped to rescue the captives, but were unsuccessful, and returned home. On their long, tedious march through the wilderness their sufferings were intense, particularly from hunger. When the Indians stopped to eat their scanty meal, Luther would sit down before them and watch with a desiring eye; they would now and then throw him a bit, saying, "you are one dog, take that."
Mr. Luther was afterward redeemed from his captivity, and married the girl from whom he was thus unexpectedly taken, and lived with her in the town of Canaan, to a good old age. Mr. Wooster made the Tories believe he was also a Tory, and was released. The hired man succeeded in effecting his escape from them by running away.
In connection with the Indian history is also the following interesting account published in Hemenway's History of Vermont :-
" We had a visit yesterday from an aged lady who told me of a Mrs. Chap- man, whose husband was at work in the field and was attacked by a party of Indians, and his head split open, falling down half on one side and half the other, in sight of his wife in the house, who took her three children and fled to the woods, in hearing of the house. One of the children was a very cry- ing babe, which she put to the breast, every moment expecting it would cry and discover her place of concealment.
While thus hid under the trees and thick foliage, she could hear the In- dians come to the house and imitate, as well as they could, her husband's voice-saying, "Come, Molly, the Indians gone ; come back, Molly, come." As she did not come, they went away, and she with her children were saved. No tongue could tell her sufferings as they passed near her several times in the search, and she expecting to see her children murdered every moment. She had to cross the river to a neighbor's, to make known her sorrow, which she did by wading through, carrying one child, then returning for another, until all were over safely.
Mr. Chapman lived in Maidstone at the time. She had the narrative from Mrs. Chapman's own lips, years ago, and many years after the tragedy hap- pened, which the poor woman even then told with streaming eyes and chok- ing grief. It shows what people suffered here in those perilous days.
This lady also told me that John French, father of Major Hains French, was kept for a long time secreted under a hay stack, his wife carrying him food after dark, as the savages were determined to take him, dead or alive.
They went in the night to the house of Hezekiah Fuller, who, hearing
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them coming, slipped down behind the bed. They asked his wife where her sannup was, she said he was gone. They then took her large linen apron and filled it with sugar, and left the house, much to the relief of the frightened inmates."
During the excitement on account of the Tories and their allies, a young man by the name of Ozias Caswell, drawing a heavy load of hay from a meadow, his oxen refused to draw the load up the steep bank, and Caswell was exceedingly vexed at his ill luck ; finally he took the oxen from the load and set it on fire, giving the alarm that the "Indians burned his hay," which caused all the inhabitants to flee to the forts with much confusion. No In- dians being found, Caswell was charged with having raised a false alarm, and after a long time, acknowledged his guilt and was severely punished for the offense.
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.
As early as 1763 Gov. Wentworth had granted as many as 138 town- ships of six miles square, lying west of the Connecticut, and the population in the territory, which had now come to be knows as the New Hamp- shire Grants, had become quite large. This prosperity and growing power New York could not quitely 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 1664, 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
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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 10th 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- scribed 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. It was found, however, that it was easier to obtain judgments. than it was to inforce them. The officers who attempted to serve the writs. of possession were forcibly resisted, and sometimes roughly handled.
Among the Vermont towns for which petitions to the government of New Vork had been made for confirmations of charters under the seal of New York, and which, on the 15th day of June, 1772, were advised to be granted " whenever His Majesty's instructions will permit grants to be made of said township," were Barnet, Ryegate, Peacham, Lemington, Averill, Maidstone. and Lunenburgh. The people of that territory now comprising Caledonia. and Essex counties did not suffer much, if any, by the controversy.
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,
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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 allegiance, 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 be allowed to become a part of the former state, and subject to its jurisdiction. The application having been enter- 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), Landaff, 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 in 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."
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REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
With Vermont, the Revolutionary contest possessed a double interest, and while she lent her aid to redress national grievances, she also maintained a spirited contest on her own account, resolving to secure her independence from New York. The territory treated of in this work, however, has none of the romantic stories and traditions of this period that grace the annals of localities earlier settled. The people of the New Hampshire Grants, as may well be supposed, entered with an especially hearty zeal into this contest. Their schooling had been such as to render them an exceedingly undesirable foe to meet, as a large portion of the settlers had served in the French and Indian war, and during the twelve or fifteen years that had intervened, had been almost continuously at strife with New York, and entertained a feeling of deadly hatred against King George and the British parliament. It is not strange, then, that the "Green Mountain Boys " were soon both feared and respected by their adversaries. 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 enjoying the privileges of peace.
WAR OF 1812.
The yoke of the mother country having been thrown off, the American col- onies rapidly advanced in progress. Vermont expanded into a free and in- dependent state, and was finally annexed to the Union, March 4, 1791. In the mean time, the French nation, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, had arrived at the zenith of military glory, and was giving England great cause for fear and trembling. England, in turn, seeming to forget that her American off- spring had arrived at maturity, and was able to protect its own institutions, continued her acts of tyranny. Looking upon herself as mistress of the ocean, during her wars with Napoleon, she utterly disregarded the rights of the United States as a neutral nation. Her cruisers would stop and search American vessels, and seize such able-bodied seamen as were needed, on the pretext that they were British subjects. An American frigate, not in a con- dition to resist, having been subjected to this indignity, almost within sight of an American port, after receiving several broadsides for denying the right of such search, the President issued a proclamation ordering all British ships- of-war to quit the waters of the United States. Congress also laid an em- bargo on American vessels, detaining them at home, but afterwards substi- tuted a non-intercourse act, prohibiting trade with Great Britain. All inter- .course between this State and the people of Canada was prohibited, without a permit from the governor, under a penalty of $1,000.00 fine and imprison- ment at hard labor in the State penitentiary for a term of seven years.
Notwithstanding all this, England persisted in her offensive course. All ยท hopes of obtaining concessions on the impressment question from her were at
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WAR OF 1812.
length abandoned. George III., who was still on the throne, had become insane, and the men who had managed affairs were as short-sighted as his advisers had been forty years before, whose folly had provoked the revolution. Longer submission to their arrogant claims were deemed unworthy of a free nation, and war was therefore formally declared by the United States, June 18, 1812. The majority of the people of Vermont considered the declara- tion of war rash and imprudent, believing that the required issue could have been brought about by legislation ; but notwithstanding this feeling, the gen- eral assembly of the state passed the following resolution :-
" The constituted authorities of our country having declared war between the United States and Great Britain and dependencies, it is our duty as citizens to support the measure, otherwise we should identify ourselves with the enemy, with no other difference than that of locality. We therefore pledge ourselves to each other and to our government, that with our individual exertions, our example 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."
Both Caledonia and Essex counties were well represented in this contest, and sustained with honor the reputation of their State. During the autumn of 1813, a large drove of fat oxen, containing one hundred head, was pur- chased, principally in New Hampshire and upon the borders of the Connecti- cut river, under pretense of furnishing the troops at Burlington and Platts- burgh, but, arriving at Walden, or Hardwick, turned their course towards Canada. Information was soon given to the officers of the government, and the cattle were pursued, and overtaken at or near the Canada line, seized and returned. Arriving at Johnson, in Lamoille county, near night, they were yarded for refreshment. About two o'clock the following morning an express arrived from Craftsbury, that a collection, or mob, some seventy in number, were on their way to retake the drove. An immediate call was made for militia to arm, to protect them, which was organized under the command of a Cap- tain Thompson of the army, then on recruiting service here, and sentinels stationed around the yard, with strict orders that no one should pass the lines, on peril of death. About day-light the mob drew near the village, when, dis- covering the position of the guard, they made a halt, rather that an attack, and learning that warrants were being made for their arrests, dropped their weapons, which were principally clubs and pitchforks, and hastily made their retreat. The oxen were driven to Burlington and disposed of as they were assumed to have been purchased.
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