Gazetteer of Washington County, Vt., 1783-1889, Part 39

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836-, comp; Adams, William, fl. 1893, ed
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., The Syracuse journal company, printers
Number of Pages: 898

USA > Vermont > Washington County > Gazetteer of Washington County, Vt., 1783-1889 > Part 39

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).

317

TOWN OF MIDDLESEX.

in public affairs. He represented Middlesex in the legislature of 1860, and n 1861 was appointed postmaster and held the office until 1885. From 1872 to 1876 he was associate judge of Washington County Court, was county commissioner two years, selectman in 1862, '63, '64, and has also served as. lister.

Elisha Scott, born at Crown Point, N. Y., in 1800, came to Middlesex about 1825. He married Lucinda Holden, and reared three children to maturity. Two are now living, William L. and Mrs. Delia H. Rice. George W. died in Andersonville prison. Elisha Scott enlisted in the Union army in 1861, and served three years. He died on the farm where his son William. L. now lives.

Jesse Flint settled in Worcester about 1812. About 1827 he came from Canaan, N. H., to Middlesex, and died here June 1, 1845, aged fifty-five years. He was a farmer. Two of his sons and a daughter now reside in Middlesex, viz .: Jesse, John D., and Mrs. Fannie Davis. Jesse has been justice of the peace, and his son John P. was selectman in 1881.

Sithus F. Wells, a native of Hill, N. H., came to East Montpelier about 1836. He afterwards resided for a time in Worcester, then in Middlesex, where he died in 1883. His sonn Levi R. resides on road 22, and his daughter, Mrs. Levi Swift, resides on road 37 in Middlesex.

Peter Nelson came to Montpelier from Deerfield, Mass., with his father when he was but eight years old. His father settled near the center of East Montpelier. Peter Nelson reared a numerous family, and died about 1875. His sons Lewis and James reside in Calais, A. S. in Middlesex ; his daughters, Mrs. Catharine A. Smith and Mrs. Mary J. Struthers, reside in Milford.

Rufus Wiggins, son of Nathaniel, was born in Montpelier in 1806. He resided there and in East Montpelier until about 1833, when he settled in Middlesex, on road 17. He married, first, Orosella Lewis, and second, Celia Smith. Mr. Wiggins died in 1881. His first wife bore him eight children, of whom six are now living, viz .: C. C., Orville K., Lewis W., and Mrs. Susan Cummings, who reside in Middlesex, Mrs. Sophia Willey, of Worcester, and Mrs. Phebe R. Davis, of Goffstown, N. H.

John Kirkland was born in Manchester, England, in 1811, emigrated to America in 1846, and located in Montpelier, where he followed the trade of house joiner. In 1851 he settled in Middlesex on the farm where he now resides. He has five sons and two daughters, viz .: John, Jr., and James re- side with their father ; David and Jennie in Barre ; Charles owns a farm in company with Martin Chandler in Middlesex ; William is an employee on a. railroad in Nebraska ; and Fannie resides in Montpelier.

Issachar R. Densmore was born in Charlestown, N. H., in 1832, and set- tled on the farm where he now lives, in Middlesex, in 1857. He enjoys the confidence of his townsmen, who have elected him to the offices of justice of the peace and grand juror.

318

TOWN OF MIDDLESEX.

Marcus Maxham, a native of Woodstock, and a carpenter and farmer, set- tled in Worcester in 1840. He reared nine children, five of whom are now living. George and Benjamin F. reside in Middlesex. Benjamin F. was born in Worcester in 1815. He married Lucy Andrews, of Berlin, and in early life resided awhile in several different locations. In 1854 he settled in Mid- dlesex. His children are William H. H., John W., Luther, and Mrs. Emily Blodgett, of Worcester.

Ichabod Cummings came to Middlesex from Washington, Vt., in 1830, and settled on the farm where his son William O. now lives, on road 8. He married a daughter of Jacob Putnam, an early settler of Middlesex. He cleared his farm, and reared a son and two daughters. William O., before mentioned, who resides on the homestead, and Mrs. J. W. Maxham are now living.

Simon Chase came to Woodbury from Barre in 1811 or 1812. He died in Woodbury in 1839, aged ninety-six years. He was a soldier in the Revolu- tionary war. His son Silas was born in 1778, and also settled in Woodbury about 1812, and was a miller. He was employed to run a mill in Calais, and in East Montpelier. He died in 1865, aged eighty-seven years. His daughter, Mrs. Bethany Hackett, resides in Calais, his son Chester in Woodbury, and Almon in Middlesex. Almon has two sons in Middlesex and two in North- field.

Ira Ellis, son of Benjamin, who settled in East Montpelier in 1806, was six months old at the time his parents came to East Montpelier. He was reared on the farm in the northern part of the town where his parents settled. He settled on wild land in Calais when he was twenty-three years old, and three years later married Sally Allar, and resided on the farm where he first settled until 1887, when he removed to Middlesex. His son Warren resides in Worcester, Ira in Calais, and his daughter, Mrs. Evalin Hall, in Elmore, Lamoille county. His wife died in 1871. He married, second, Mrs. Polly Keyes, of Middlesex.

Those known to have been soldiers in the Revolutionary war, who resided in Middlesex, were Seth Putnam, cousin of Gen. Israel Putnam, Joseph Chapin, Sr., Col. Joseph Hutchins, Lyman Tolman, David Phelps, Micah Hatch, Estes Hatch, Mr. Sloan, James Hobart, and Cyrus Hill.

At the time the British invaded Plattsburgh, N. Y., Captain Holden Put- nam led his command, composed of soldiers from Middlesex and vicinity, to the scene of battle. Those who went with him from Middlesex were Xerxes Holden, Horace Holden, Lewis Putnam, Zebina Warren, Nathaniel Carpen- ter, Alanson Carpenter, Samuel Barrett, David Harrington, Ephraim Keyes, Benjamin Chatterton, Nathan Huntley, Abram Gale, Rufus Chamberlin, Rufus Leland, Samuel Mead, Jesse Johnson, Hubbard Wiley, and " Priest" Cole. The Sunday before the battle "Priest " Cole preached a fiery and patriotic sermon, and urged every man that was able to bear arms to go and aid in driving the British from our country. Before the week closed he

319

TOWN OF MIDDLESEX.

enlisted and was on his way with the company to Plattsburgh. When they had reached the lake Captain Putnam drew his company into line, and gave the order for " all who had cannon fever, and did not want to cross the lake, to fall back to the rear." Every man maintained his place in line except " Priest" Cole, who stepped a few paces to the rear and there remained. A few days after the battle Esquire Nathaniel Carpenter met him in the village of Middlesex, gave him a familiar slap, and said, ""' Priest ' Cole, I never was more surprised in my life than I was to see you step back and not want to meet the British." "Esquire Carpenter," Mr. Cole coolly replied, " it is a great deal easier to preach than to practice."

In the late civil war there was credited to Middlesex twenty-one soldiers who enlisted for one year, twenty-eight who enlisted for nine months, eighty- two who enlisted for three years, and three who were drafted and entered the sevice. Eight paid commutation and one furnished a substitute.

The Union society, composed of the Congregational church, organized by Rev. Elisha Baxter and Rev. Chester Wright, March 25, 1831, with nine members, and the Methodist Episcopal church, organized by Rev. E. J. Scott, P. E., and Rev. E. Copeland, April 10, 1839, has a brick church edifice located at Middlesex village. This house was built for the Congregational society by John Hobart and Solomon Wells, in 1837. In 1838 a portion of it was sold to the Methodist society, and the "Union Society " was then formed. Rev. Elisha Baxter was the first pastor of the Congregational church and Samuel Dutton its first deacon. Rev. E. Copeland was the first resident pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church. The Congregational church has had no pastor for several years. The Methodist, long before 1839 and some time later, was a station on the circuit which embraced Montpelier, Montpelier Center, Moretown hill, Jones's brook, Middlesex, Middlesex Center, and East Middlesex. Middlesex and Middlesex Center are now in one charge, and have had a continuous ministry since 1839. The meeting-house at Middlesex will comfortably seat 250 persons, and is valued at $1,000.

The Freewill Baptist church, located at Shady Rill, in Middlesex, was organized January 6, 1850, by Rev. E. B. Fuller, with twenty-five members. Rev. E. B. Fuller was the first pastor. Their present meeting-house was built in 1849, by the Martin Brook Meeting-House society, and dedicated September 22, 1849. It has seats for an audience of 200, and with grounds and other church property is valued at $1,000. The church now has a mem- bership of thirty-four, and at present is without a pastor. The Sunday-school has fifty members.

320

TOWN OF MONTPELIER.

M ONTPELIER, the capital of Vermont and the county seat of Wash- ington county, lies about ten miles northeast from the geographical center of the state, and near the center of the county, in latitude 44° 17' and longitude 4° 23', and is bounded northerly by Middlesex and East Montpelier, easterly by Berlin, from which it is separated by the Wi- nooski river, southerly by Berlin, and westerly by Berlin and Middlesex. The township was granted October 21, 1780, and was chartered August 14, 1781, to Timothy Bigelow and fifty-nine associates, to contain 23,040 acres, and given the name of Montpelier. This name was bestowed by Colonel Jacob Davis, the first permanent settler and a leading proprietor, and probably is a namesake of the ancient city of Montpelier in France. By an act of the leg- islature of 1848 the town was divided, and the town of East Montpelier was organized January 1, 1849, from the territory set off, and contains 18,670 acres, which leaves Montpelier an area of only 4,370 acres, lying in the west- erly corner of the original township.

The town presents an uneven and hilly surface, which is drained by the Winooski river that washes its southern boundary, and "The Little " North Branch, which flows down from Worcester across the northeast corner of Middlesex, and entering the town at the little hamlet of Wrightsville flows south and through the village of Montpelier, where it discharges its waters into the Winooski.

The rock formations that enter into the geology of this town are clay slate, with beds of limestone in the southern part, and talcose schist in the northern and western parts.

In 1741 Benning Wentworth was commissioned governor of the province of New Hampshire. When Fort Dummer was built in the present limits of the state of Vermont, in 1724, (in the southeast corner of Brattleboro,) the fort was supposed to be within the territory of Massachusetts ; but when the line was established between New Hampshire and Massachusetts Fort Dummer was found to be north of the last named province, and as the King of Great Britain repeatedly recommended the government of New Hampshire to provide for its support, it was generally supposed, as it was situated on the west side of the Connecticut, that New Hampshire extended as far west as Massachusetts. Upon this supposition Gov. Wentworth, January 3, 1749, granted a township six miles square, twenty miles east of the Hudson river, and six miles north of Massachusetts line, and in honor of his name called it Bennington, located as he supposed on the western boundary of New Hamp- shire. He continued to make grants of townships until, in 1764, he had in this manner disposed of 138. All this time the province of New York had claimed the territory from the west bank of the Connecticut, including the whole of the state of Vermont. His Majesty the King decided, by a decree July 20, 1764, that the territory in dispute did belong to New York, but in 1767 made restrictions on granting lands by New York, which restrictions

321

TOWN OF MONTPELIER.

were not observed. This gave rise to the " Land Title Controversy," and re- sulted in the rising of the "Green Mountain Boys" in their "might and majesty," the formation of the state of Vermont in 1777, and its admission into the sisterhood of states in 1791. As a means for revenue for the infant state, and to encourage the settlement of her unoccupied territory, the Gen- eral Assembly, in October, 1780, appointed a committee of nine prominent members, selected from the most important towns of the state, to take into. consideration the situation of the ungranted lands, and how to best dispose of them by grants for the best interest of the state and its treasury. "In Gen- eral Assembly" this committee reported, "Saturday, October 21, 1780." " That, in our opinion the following tract, viz .: Lying east of and adjoining Middlesex, on Onion River, and partly north of Berlin, containing 23,040, acres, be granted by the Assembly, unto Col. Timothy Bigelow and Company,, by the name of Montpelier. Signed, Paul Spooner, Chairman."

The same date as above the Assembly concurred with the recommenda- tion of the report, and requested the governor and council to fix the price of compensation and issue a charter. This they at once complied with, and " stated the fees at four hundred and eighty pounds for the s'd land," to be paid by Col. Bigelow or his attorney, in hard money, or its equivalent in Con- tinental currency, on the execution of the charter of incorporation on before the 20th day of January next. Probably because the fees were not paid the first charter was not issued until August 14, 1781. This was the first grant recommended by the committee, and the first authorized by the Gen- eral Assembly of Vermont.

The charter was imperfect and faulty. No boundaries of the town were given. All pine trees suitable for a navy were reserved for the use of the state, and each proprietor was bound to plant and cultivate five acres of land, and build a house at least eighteen feet square on the floor, within the term of three years next after the circumstances of the war will admit, on penalty of the forfeiture of each respective right. Under this imperfect charter the town was surveyed, allotted, and organized.

The incongruities discovered in the first charter influenced those interested to apply to the legislature for a new charter, which was readily granted. This charter was executed at Windsor, Vt., February 6, 1804, and signed " Isaac Tichnor. By His Excellency's command, David Wing, Jr., Secretary of State." It clearly defines the boundaries of Montpelier, imposes no condi- tions, and reserves five rights for public purposes, as follows : One right for the use of a seminary or college, one for the use of a county grammar school, one for the settled minister, one for the support of social worship of God, and one for the support of an English school or schools in the township.

The proprietors held their first meeting at the house of Eliakim Stoddard, innholder in Arlington, Vt., August 17, 1784 and transacted business as follows :-

21*

322

TOWN OF MONTPELIER.

" ARLINGTON, Tuesday, August 17th, 1784.

"Agreeable to foregoing warning, the Proprietors met, and the meeting was opened at the house of Eliakim Stoddard, Esq., and the Proprietors pro- ceeded to the business of the meeting, agreeably to warning, as follows, viz :-

"I. Voted, Major Gideon Ormsby, Moderator of this meeting.

" 2. Voted, That Thomas Tolman, Esq., be, and is hereby appointed Clerk of this Propriety.

"3. Voted, That Jonas Galusha, Esq., be, and is hereby chosen and ap- pointed Treasurer of this Propriety.

" 4. Voted, That we will lay out a First Division of lands in said Town- ship.

" 5. Voted, That 150 acres be the quantity of the First Division in said Township, to be laid out as soon as circumstances will admit.

" 6. Voted, That we will appoint a committee of six, four of whom shall transact the business, to lay out said Division.

"7. Voted, That Thomas Tolman, Esq., Mr. Samuel Horsford, Major Gideon Ormsby, Jonas Galusha, Esq., Mr. Joseph Dagget, and Lieut. Samuel Beach be, and are hereby appointed our said committee.

" 8. Voted, That this meeting stand adjourned to the first Monday in April next, which will be in the year 1785, then to meet at the house of Thomas Tolman, Esq., in this town, at two of the clock, in the afternoon ; and the meeting was accordingly adjourned.

" Attest, THOMAS TOLMAN, Propr's Clerk."

No meeting convened the first Monday in April, 1785, pursuant to adjourn- ment, but a new warning summoned a meeting of the proprietors to again assemble at the house of Eliakim Stoddard, Esq., in Arlington, January 1I, 1786. Timothy Brownson, moderator, and Thomas Tolman, clerk, were con- firmed. This meeting ratified the proceedings of the first meeting, voted an addition of five acres to each lot in the first division to be made, accepted the proposition of Col. Jacob Davis to survey the first division of seventy lots, at £1 3s. Iod. per right, and appointed a new committee, consisting of Col. Jacob Davis, Ebenezer Waters (or Caleb Ammedon on his failure), Samuel Horsford, Col. Samuel Robinson, and Capt. Abiather Waldo, to lay out the work. The next meeting was held at the house of Thomas Tolman, according to adjournment, January 9, 1787. Mr. Brownson was absent, and Col. Jacob Davis was elected moderator. The survey of the first division of the township, completed in the summer of 1786, was accepted. Col. Davis's bill for surveying was allowed ; and other bills, in total £83 45. 2d., and a tax ordered, and Joseph Dagget appointed to collect it, in time for a vendue sale of the rights of delinquent proprietors, on the second Tuesday of June ensuing.

It was found that Joel Frizzel, as owner of the right of James Gamble, had made his " pitch " and became an actual settler of the township. His pitch was confirmed to him, to contain 100 acres, and three acres as an allowance for highways. This parcel or lot of land is located in the southwest corner of Montpelier, on the Winooski river, and adjoining the town of Middlesex.

For purposes of ordering surveys, constructing roads, and levying taxes, meetings of proprietors were held from time to time, as late as May 14, 1795,

323

TOWN OF MONTPELIER.

when "no business appearing before the meeting, Voted, that this meeting be dissolved." Then the township had been surveyed into four divisions, all of it allotted to the several proprietors, and the town legally organized and harmoniously marching onward with systematic and efficient town govern- ment. And all this was accomplished under their imperfect first charter.

The first settlement was made in the spring of 1786, by Joel Frizzel, in the extreme southwest corner of the town. Frizzel was a hunter and trapper, had acquired the right of James Gamble, an original proprietor, made his pitch as before described, built a log cabin, moved into it with his wife, de- scribed as a " little red-headed French woman," and cleared a piece of ground and planted it with corn. He was appointed one of a committee to lay out the third division of the town, in January, 1787, and, as near as can be ascer- tained, resided in Montpelier about five years. The second, and first perma- nent, settler of Montpelier was Col. Jacob Davis, who started from Brookfield with his nephew, Parley Davis, a hired man, and one horse, all heavily laden with provisions, tools, and necessary equipage for cooking and camping, on the morning of May 3, 1787, and arrived in the evening of the same day at the house of Seth Putnam, in the southeast corner of Middlesex, and adjoin- ing the lot where Frizzel then lived. The next day Col. Davis constructed a road from Mr. Putnam's, along the bank of the Winooski to a hunter's " lodge " standing on the site of the present jail of Washington county. This hunter's cabin was pretty well built, with walls of logs on three sides, and thatched with bark. The party made this their quarters about eight or ten days, when they had erected a log house thirty-two by sixteen feet, into which they moved their effects. About this time, or before, the party had been increased by the arrival of the sons of Col. Davis, Jacob, Jr., aged nineteen years, and Thomas, aged fifteen, who came with another horse. This group of hardy men, domiciled in their rude cabin of rough logs without floor, doors, or win- dows, in the immense and dense forest, was the nucleus of the beautiful and thrifty village of Montpelier, and the location of the capital of the Green Mountain state. The intervale where the village is located was covered with a magnificent forest of maples. That part bounded north by Court street, east by the North Branch, south by the Winooski, and west by the State House and depot grounds, was cleared in time to plant it with corn, and very fortunately a good crop was harvested in the fall. The work of clearing land was pushed vigorously the remainder of the summer and fall, and about fifty acres were ready for crops in the ensuing spring. The log house was finished, with the building of a chimney, cellar, doors, windows, and a floor made of bass-wood plank, split from trees, and in the fall Col. Davis and his sons returned to Brookfield with the intention of returning to the new home as soon as there was sufficient snow to make sleighing. Near the close of the year 1787 the sons, before [mentioned, with their sisters, Rebecca and Polly, and all besides that could be carried at one load, came on to Mont- pelier. Jacob returned to Brookfield for the remainder of the family, but

324

TOWN OF MONTPELIER.

heavy snow storms so blockaded the untraveled roads that the journey was then considered impracticable, and the son Thomas and his sisters were left sole masters of the situation until March, when they were gladdened by the arrival of the remainder of the family.

In the spring clearing was again prosecuted, crops raised on the ground cleared, and Col. Davis erected the first saw-mill in Montpelier, on the North Branch, the site of the Lane Manufacturing Co's works. The next season, 1789, he built the first grist-mill. September 22, of this year, occurred the birth of his youngest daughter, Clarissa, the first child born in town.

The first wagon was brought into town by Thomas Davis, from Vergen- nes, who had to cut his way from Williston to Montpelier. The first male child born in town was James, son of Solomon Dodge, April 5, 1790. The first school was taught by Jacob Davis, Jr., in a log house on the river near Middlesex line, in 1789, and continued till about 1791, when David Wing, Jr., later secretary of state, taught a school in Col. Davis's house. The first marriage recorded in town is that of Jacob Davis, Jr., of Montpelier, and Caty Taplin, of Berlin, October 3. 1791. The bride's father, John Taplin, Esq., performed the ceremony. Col. Davis completed the first frame house in the summer of 1790. This house contained two stories and an attic, and served as a dwelling and hotel for all comers and goers. James Hawkins, the first blacksmith, raised the first frame for a house a few days before Col. Davis's, but did not complete it as soon.

Prince Edward of England, Duke of Kent, son of George III., and father of Queen Victoria, was the first notable stranger who visited Montpelier. He came in the winter of 1790-91, with an armed escort of twenty men to defend his person and taste his food, and save him from poison. He was the guest of Col. Davis for one night.

Spaulding Pierce was the first physician, in 1790. Charles Buckley, the first lawyer, settled here in 1797. Rev. Ziba Woodworth, a Freewill Baptist, was the first minister and the first town clerk. The first mechanics were Col. Larned Lamb, carpenter and millwright ; James Hawkins, blacksmith ; and Paul Knapp, brickmaker. David Tolman was the first clothier.

December 1, 1791, was the first Thanksgiving day observed in town. The first social ball occurred at the house of Col. Davis, on the evening of Decem- ber 2, 1791. The first death on the town records is that of " Theophilus Wilson Brooks, drowned December 3, 1791."

John Taplin, a justice of the peace, on the application of Jacob Davis, Clark Stevens, and Jonathan Cutler, (to make the matter legal there should have been four petitioners,) issued a warrant to Clark Stevens, directing him to warn the inhabitants of Montpelier to meet at the dwelling house of Jacob. Davis, in Montpelier, Tuesday, March 29, 1791, at 9 o'clock A. M., for the purpose of forming a town government. Mr. Stevens duly warned the people, who assembled at the time and place appointed, and proceeded to accomplish this organization, as follows :-

325

TOWN OF MONTPELIER.

" At a town meeting of the inhabitants of Montpelier, legally warned and met at the dwelling-house of Col. Jacob Davis, in said Montpelier, on the 29th day of March, 1791,-Proceeded to choose a Moderator, &c., &c.

" Ist. Voted, and chose Col. Jacob Davis, Moderator, to govern said meet- ing.

" 2nd. Voted, and chose Ziba Woodworth, Town Clerk.

" 3d. Voted, and chose James Hawkins, Ist Select Man.

" 4th. Voted, and chose James Taggart, 2nd Select Man.

" 5th. Voted, and chose Hiram Peck, 3d Select Man.

"6th. Voted, and chose Jonathan Cutler, Town Treasurer.

" 7th. Voted, and chose Parley Davis, Constable and Collector.

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.

Gazetteer of Washington County, Vt., 1783-1889, Part 39

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836-, comp; Adams, William, fl. 1893, ed Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., The Syracuse journal company, printers Number of Pages: 898

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836-, comp; Adams, William, fl. 1893, ed
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., The Syracuse journal company, printers
Number of Pages: 898