USA > Vermont > Washington County > Gazetteer of Washington County, Vt., 1783-1889 > Part 47
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Capt. George Dewey9, son of Dr. Julius Y. Dewey, was born December 26, 1837. He attended school at Montpelier and Norwich, Vt., and gradu- ated at the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. He served through the war, and most of the time in the Gulf Squadron. October 24, 1867, he married Susan, daughter of ex-Gov. Ichabod Goodwin, of Portsmouth, N. H. They had one child, George, born at Newport, R. I., December 23, 1873, who now resides at Portsmouth, N. H. Mrs. Dewey died at Newport, R. I., December 28, 1873.
Mary9, daughter of Dr. Julius Y. Dewey, was born October 26, 1839. January 10, 1861, she married Dr. George P. Greeley, of Nashua, N. H., who was a surgeon during the war of the Rebellion.
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William Tarbox Dewey10, son of Charles9, born at Montpelier, September 30, 1852, was educated at the Washington County Grammar School. He has been assistant secretary in the office of the Vermont Mutual Fire Insur- ance Co. since August 5, 1870, village bailiff or trustee for 1886-87, and was a member of the state militia six years, and resigned as lieutenant in 1886. He married Alice Elmore French, daughter of James G. French and Orlan- tha Gouldsbury, November 9, 1881. They have two children, viz .: James French11, who was born March 7, 1883 ; and Grace Elizabeth11, who was born March 31, 1887.
David L. Fuller, son of Emery and Hannah (Town) Fuller, was born in Barre, January 28, 1821. His early boyhood was spent with his parents, con- stantly employed at various kinds of labor, and in attendance at the common school of his native village, from which he received his only school education, and which he left at the early age of seventeen years. At that age he had his first experience in business. He spent the season of 1837 on board the steamer Burlington, with Capt. Richard Sherman, as cabin boy. From 1838 to 1841, inclusive, he was a clerk in a hotel at Chelsea. He then spent the ensuing six years as a clerk in a general store in Barre. In 1847 he came to Montpelier and conducted a restaurant about five years. At that time this village had a population of only 800, " all told." The only men re- maining here now that were then in business besides Mr. Fuller are Charles H. Cross and H. S. Loomis. The railroad was not completed until 1851. In 1853 he commenced business at the depot store, where he remained until 1860. He next conducted a commission business in farmers' produce the en- suing five years, and then bought of the patentee the Sanborn churn and butter worker, which employed him very successfully the next nine years, and is still making and selling this valuable and necessary divice for dairymen. July I, 1874, he purchased the interest of George W. Scott, and formed the firm of Fuller & Howe (general merchants), which continued till 1879, when he bought the interest of Mr. Howe and organized the present firm of D. L. Fuller & Son, and commenced a jobbing and retail business in general hard- ware and agricultural implements, with a constant yearly increase of trade up to the present time (1888). October 31, 1847, Mr. Fuller married Mrs. Selina (Stevens) Stickney, widow of Edward Stickney, Esq., of Boston. Their union was blessed with an only son, Charles H., of the firm of D. L. Fuller & Son, and a daughter, Eva J., who died at the early age of eighteen years. Mr. Fuller and his son are not regarded as active politicians, but they have very decided convictions, and are always found in the Republican party. Mr. Fuller is an active member of the Methodist church, a generous contributor to all its in- terests, and a benevolent supporter of all the charitable and reformatory interests for the advancement of the general good of the society in which he resides. Now at three-score and six years he is still active and pushing in business, as he has been through all his long, honorable, and successful career. His son ably " plies the business oar," taking a large part of the jobbing trade:
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upon himself, but spares a little time for military affairs, in which he has a lively interest, and now holds the position of quartermaster of Ist Regt. Vt. state militia.
John A. Page, son of John and Hannah (Merrill) Page, was born in Haverhill, N. H., June 17, 1814. His father, John Page, Jr., was also born in Haverhill, received an academic education, was a practical farmer, held many high official positions, and was the incumbent of the gubernatorial chair of New Hampshire from 1839 to 1842. He was born May 21, 1787, and died, after completing an honorable and useful life, September 8, 1865. John A. Page received a common school education, supplemented by about three years' attendance at Haverhill Academy. In 1831 he was engaged as a clerk in Portland, Me., in a wholesale dry goods establishment, where he soon developed special financial ability and was made confidential clerk, and put in charge of the counting-room. In 1832 he was offered and accepted a partnership in a general country store in his native town, where he remained in the firm of Blaisdell & Page until 1836. In the spring of 1837, after he returned from a tour South and returned through Illinois, he accepted the flattering offer of the position of cashier in the Grafton bank at Haverhill. This place he accepted, and held to the satisfaction of the parties concerned until the expiration of the charter of the bank, in 1844. He was also cashier of Caledonia bank, at Danville, Vt., three or four years, and treasurer while he resided in Danville three years. In September, 1848, he was chosen to represent his town in the legislature of Vermont. While in the discharge of his duties as representative he was induced by Gov. Erastus Fairbanks to take the post of financial agent of the Connecticut & Passumpsic Rivers railroad, and removed to Newbury. In March, 1849, he resigned this position, and very soon accepted the post of cashier of the Vermont bank, and settled in Montpelier, which has since been his home. In 1865, after a successful ex- istence, the Vermont bank was closed, and the First National bank sprung into existence, phenix-like, with nearly all the old officials in the new organ- ization. Mr. Page was elected director and president, and has held both of these offices from that time to the present (March, 1889). In 1853 the state failed to elect a treasurer, and the joint legislature wisely elected Mr. Page to that position. Mr. Page had affiliated with the Democratic party until 1861, but was always opposed to the extension of slavery. When the national flag was fired upon at Fort Sumter Mr. Page, with many other anti-slavery ex- tension Democrats, cast his lot with the Republican party. In 1866 he was elected state treasurer on the Republican ticket, and by consecutive elections was in that office until 1882, when, in consequence of declining years, he de- clined further service. Mr. Page is a deacon of Bethany (Congregational) church, a consistent Christian gentleman, and is ever ready to share in the necessary expence of the Bible, foreign, and domestic missionary causes. For twenty-five years he has been the treasurer of the Vermont Bible society.
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Among financiers Mr. Page takes the first rank ; and as a citizen and a man he is held in admiration and respect.
Maj. Alfred Lathrop Carlton, son of Benjamin F. and Betsey (Lathrop), cousin of Daniel Webster, was born in Morristown, Vt., in 1829. He ob- tained a good education and was several years a teacher. In 1854 he mar- ried Miss Margaret Fisk, settled as a merchant in Montpelier, where he remained a successful merchant until he died, with the single exception of the time he spent in the defense of our country in the late Rebellion. In the summer of 1862 Mr. Carlton enlisted into the Eleventh Regiment, then in camp at Brattleboro, and was very soon commissioned quartermaster of the regiment by Gov. Holbrook. This regiment was some time employed in the- defense of Washington city. He was, while thus engaged, promoted to the responsible post of commissary of subsistance with rank of captain, and soon had the immense work of supplying the whole Army of the Potomac with stores and beef cattle. In a trip into Pennsylvania he took out half a million dollars, and drew on the government for half a million more, which he ex- pended in purchasing cattle. Senator Collamer was instrumental in his pro- motions, and inquired at headquarters after his standing and was answered: " He is a model officer. His capacity, integrity, efficiency, and invariable habit of closing up his affairs every day are worthy of all praise." As an attestation of his honorable record as an officer he was breveted major before he left the service. Mr. Carlton returned to Montpelier at the close of the war, and to the duties of citizenship, and soon united with Bethany church. He had deep convictions and strong prejudices, dispised hypocrisy and duplicity, and was an earnest worker in temperance and moral reforms. He died in Montpelier, May 29, 1874.
Andrew C. Brown, son of Rev. Elisha Brown, was born in Sutton, Vt., July 10, 1828. He was fitted for college at the Methodist Seminary at Newbury, but did not take a college course. During the time he attended the semi- nary, at vacations, he learned the trade of printer. At the age of eighteen years he commenced teaching, and taught the common and select schools for sixteen terms. At the age of twenty-three he settled in Bradford, Vt., and engaged in the printing business, and subsequently became the editor and publisher of the Northern Inquirer, a weekly, issued at Bradford. He disposed of his interest in the paper, in the fall of 1854 removed to Montpe- lier, and took the position of foreman in the office of the Watchman and State Journal. From 1857, for the ensuing five and a half years, while Mr. Walton was in Congress, he was the business manager and editor of that paper. In the fall of 1862, when President Lincoln issued his proclamation for nine months men, Mr. Brown raised a company of volunteers, of which he was elected captain ; and at the organization of the 13th Regt. Vt. Vols. he was elected lieutenant-colonel. He went to the front with his regiment and served with it about eight months, when he resigned to accept the
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office of commissioner of the board of enrollment for the First Congressional district of Vermont. At the expiration of his term of service on that board, in the spring of 1865, he engaged in fire, life, and accident insurance in Mont- pelier, which he has followed with success to the present writing, and has built up a large and lucrative business. In December, 1880, he took the agency of the American Bell Telephone Co. for the counties of Washington and Lamoille, which enterprise he has successfully built up, as will be seen by referring to the sketch of the Telephone Exchange in this work. Mr. Brown began his political life with the " old line Whigs," and at the organization of the Republican party stepped into its ranks, where he has since done good service. He was first appointed by the press reporter of the House of Rep- resentatives, and when the place became official he received the appointment from the Speaker, and held the office fifteen consecutive years. Mr. Brown was reared a Methodist, but is very liberal in his religious opinions, and is an attendant at the Unitarian church. May 1, 1851, he was united in marriage with Lucia A. Green, daughter of Joseph Green, of Waitsfield, Vt. The is- sue of this marriage was five children, of whom three are now living, viz .: Ella L., wife of Dr. C. A. Bailey, of Montpelier ; Rome G., a lawyer prac- ticing his profession in Minneapolis, Minn .; and Joseph G., who is in com- pany with his father in the insurance business in Montpelier.
Storrs L. Howe was born in Royalton, Windsor county, December 7, 1820. His boyhood was spent, like that of other farmers' boys, in attendance at school, and at hard labor on his father's farm. When he was but twenty- one years of age he was selected by his father, who was in poor health and very infirm, to conduct and manage the home farm, which filial duty he per- formed until 1852. In 1854 he came to Montpelier and conducted the freight department, at the railroad station, as an assistant of the present efficient general manager of the Central Vermont railroad, J. W. Hobart. In 1858 Mr. Hobart was called to fill a position in the general office, and left the entire management of both the freight and passenger business of the sta- tion at Montpelier to Mr. Howe. The constantly increasing business at this station has been efficiently and faithfully performed by Mr. Howe all through the thirty consecutive years since, and he is still master of the situation, and enjoys the confidence of the company which he has so long and ably served. January 27, 1845, Mr. Howe married Miss Eliza Durkee, of Fort Edward, N. Y., who was the mother of two daughters who died in early childhood. Mrs. Howe died September 19, 1872. November 29, 1881, Mr. Howe mar- ried, second, Miss Janette, daughter of Hon. Horace Fifield, of Barre. Mr. Howe, although not a politician in the common acceptance of the term, has decided convictions and opinions on that subject, and gives his influence and votes to the Republican party. He is very liberal in his religious views, but is generally in attendance at the Episcopal church. He is commanding in stature, standing over six feet in height, has blue eyes and a fair complex
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ion,-a reliable citizen, courteous and gentlemanly in his intercourse with others, and very fond of his home, where he prefers to spend his few hours of leisure time.
Charles W. Bailey, son of George W. and Rebecca (Warren) Bailey, was born in Elmore, Vt., February 9, 1831. He received an English education in the common schools and academies, taught school for awhile, and in 1855 settled in Montpelier. He and his brother, J. Warren Bailey, entered into a partnership in West India goods and a general produce business, with the firm name of Bailey Bros. Their business from the first was mainly dealing in cattle, horses, sheep, and swine, which so increased that, in 1866, they dis- continued the store and devoted their whole attention to the trade in live stock. In 1861 these brothers had a large contract with the United States, to furnish horses for the army, which they satisfactorily executed. The part- nership was closed in 1872, and the brothers each pursued a distinct and sep- arate business. Charles W. Bailey continued the trade in live stock, and established a regular and systematic business with the dealers in Boston. His trade extended over Vermont and Northeastern New York, and his transac- tions were exceedingly large. His accurate judgment made him an able and bold speculator. His quick decision enabled him to transact an almost in- credible amount of business. Mr. Bailey was not only most emphatically a business man, but he was more. It is true that he was energetic, penetrat- ing, and shrewd, and had a will of his own; and when a position was once taken he did not recede from it, but he arrived at conclusions by a fair course of reasoning. He was impressive in appearance, frank, outspoken, generous to the poor and unfortunate, and a genial and agreeable companion. He was honest, and told the truth ; hence he was trustful of others. Mr. Bailey loved his home, and was a kind and indulgent husband and father. June 4, 1857, he married Olive Eaton, of Elmore. Their children are Burnside, Bernard, Florence, wife of Hon. C. W. Porter, secretary of state of Vermont, and James Edward, all of whom reside in Montpelier. Mr. Bailey was in- stantly killed in the full vigor of manhood, by the cars, at Essex Junction, September 23, 1876. About 1875 J. Warren Bailey engaged with V. W. Bullock in the grain business in Burlington, Iowa. About 1879 his brother, E. W. Bailey, removed to Chicago, and assumed the active management of the new firm of Bailey, Bullock & Co. J. Warren Bailey was bluff in ways and manners, quaint in humor, had a fund of anecdotes, was quick at rep- artee, and was universally liked. In 1855 he married Harriet Guyer, of Wolcott, Vt., who survives him. They were parents of two daughters, Ella and Clara. Mr. Bailey died April 21, 1880.
Dr. C. B. Chandler was born in Chester, Vt., April 24, 1796. During his minority he resided upon his father's farm, and acquired at the common school and Chester Academy sufficient education to become a successful teacher. He read medicine with Dr. Bowen, attended lectures at Wood- stock, and subsequently at Brown University, R. I., where he graduated. He
Dennis Lane
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commenced practice in Tunbridge, Vt., in 1823, and about the same time married Nancy Atherton, of Baltimore, by whom he had two sons, both liv- ing, one of whom succeeded him in business in this town, and is now in full practice. After the death of his first wife, in 1837, he married Amanda Chap- man, of Tunbridge, who died in 1841. His third marriage was with Mrs. F. A. C. Harvey, of Cabot, who survived him. Having practiced his pro- fession successfully thirty-three years in Tunbridge, he came to Montpelier and bought out Dr. Orrin Smith, and soon acquired a good practice, showing himself, in the ten years which he resided here, to be a careful, judicious physician, a good surgeon, a friendly, generous, and strictly honorable man. He died instantly, January 8, 1867, of apoplexy. He performed with scru- pulous fidelity and with untiring labor every prompting of the warmest and kindest heart, and was in all his life the truest type of the upright, benevolent man. Ever humane and self-sacrificing, he as cheerfully bestowed his pro- fessional aid on the poor, when he never asked or expected pay, as on the wealthy and influential ; and it was this noble trait, in addition to his fine social qualities, his entire sincerity and sterling worth as a man, which so widely endeared him to all classes of people. He once told a friend that he wanted no higher fame and no better reward than to have it thought and said at his death that he sincerely endeavored to do all the good he could, and to be a kind and honest man.
Charles M. Chandler, M. D., son of Dr. Charles B. Chandler, was born in Tunbridge, Vt., July 1, 1827. He graduated from the Medical department of Harvard College in 1854, and settled in the practice of his profession in Strafford, Vt., where he remained until May 15, 1860, when he married, and immediately moved to Montpelier, where he is still in practice, the oldest physician in the place and in practice the longest time. Dr. Chandler was surgeon of the 6th Vt. Regt. from 1861 to 1863. In the spring of 1863, by the request of Gov. Smith, he returned to the Wilderness, where he remained two months, then went on board the hospital boat State of Maine, with Dr. Janes, of Waterbury, where they were in service until the fall of 1864. Soon after Sloan hospital was established in Montpelier, Dr. Chandler returned home and occupied the position of executive officer, Dr. Janes being in charge. He was in Sloan hospital a year, till it was closed. Dr. Chandler has held the offices of the Vermont State Medical society, of which he is a member, and was one of the board of pension examiners for his district. All that is said of his father as a physician and citizen may truly be said of the son, and his pity and kindness to the poor was intensified in the latter. He has a son, Dr. Charles E. Chandler, a graduate of the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons of New York, in practice in Montpelier, and his daughter is teaching in the Union Graded School of the same place.
Dennis Lane was born in Barre, Vt., February 10, 1818. Soon after he attained his majority he settled in Plainfield, where he built one or more houses. About 1858 Mr. Lane was the proprietor of a saw-mill in Plainfield.
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The inconvenience, inaccuracy, and imperfections of the machinery for set- ting the log forward. and gaging the thickness of the successive cuts of the saw, led him to closely investigate the matter, and the outcome from his study was the invention of the Lane patent lever-set saw-mill, which is now in gen- eral use throughout the world. In 1863 he removed to Montpelier, and bought the machine shop and foundry upon the site of those now owned by the Lane Manufacturing Co., in order to keep pace with the constantly in- creasing demand for his mills. Two or three years later Gen. P. P. Pitkin and J. W. Brock joined in partnership with Mr. Lane. This company was incorporated as the Lane Manufacturing Co. in 1873, with Mr. Lane its president, who held the position at the time of his decease. This corpora- tion is the leading industry of the town, and is the most successful manu- factory ever established in Montpelier.
Mr. Lane made improvements upon the original mill, and in fact upon about all the machinery he ever used, and constantly brought out new and always useful and practical inventions which will be an enduring monument to his name as an inventor. Mr. Lane was honored by his townsmen in Plainfield with most of the offices of the town. He represented Plainfield in the popular branch of the legislature in 1858-59, and at the time of his deatlı he was serving his fourth term as selectman of Montpelier, and was then chairman of the board. In 1880 he was elected to the directorship of the Montpelier Savings Bank and Trust Co., was a heavy stockholder in the company which bears his name, owned a large interest in timberlands and lumber-mills at Lanesboro, was an extensive owner of real estate in Montpe- lier, and rented many tenements. Mr. Lane was born a mechanic. It is said that his most agreeable passtime in his boyhood was in fashioning wa- ter-wheels with his jack-knife. But he was not simply an inventor. He also had an acknowledged capacity for general business affairs, and had a mind of his own, which guided him in forming conclusions that were evidences of his good judgment. Mr. Lane was a silent, unassuming man, but a close thinker. He was independent in action, but very liberal in his treatment of those who differed with him in sentiment, either political or religious. He disliked ostentation, show, cant, and hypocrisy. His interest in the poor and pity for the unfortunate was proverbial. He not only said " be ye warmed, clothed, and fed," but in a substantial manner proved his sincerity, and was the author of many deeds of charity positively known only to himself. He loved his home, where he was always the kind, considerate, generous, and in- dulgent husband and father. July 28, 1844, Mr. Lane united in marriage with Miss Orleska E. Freeman. The present family consists of her who had been his companion for forty-four years, their daughters, Jennie, wife of Os- car G. Barron, of White Mountains hotel fame, and Hattie E., wife of Thomas S. Brophy, of Montreal, and their sons, Albert D. and George L., of Mont- pelier.
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Hiram Atkins, editor of the Argus and Patriot, was born in Ulster county, N. Y., but was taken by his parents to Poughkeepsie when very young, and resided in that town and city until he attained his majority. After working three years as a dry goods clerk he became an apprentice to the printing busi- ness, in the office of the Poughkeepsie Eagle. He afterwards went to Kings- ton, N. Y., and in 1853 came to Vermont, as junior partner in the publi- cation of the Battle Ground at North Bennington. After remaining there a few weeks he left that paper in the hands of his partner, and went to Bellows Falls, where he embarked in the publication of the Argus, which succeeded the Republican Standard, a paper that had been published for three years at a considerable loss to those engaged in the enterprise. His only capital was good habits, energy, and industry, and by the well judged use of those quali- ties he made a success of the venture. Ten years afterward, in February, 1863, he purchased the name and good will of the Vermont Patriot, at Mont- pelier, the publication of which had been suspended for a time, and moved to the capital, consolidating the Bellows Falls Argus with the Patriot. That he did not misjudge in making this change is proved by the fact that the Argus and Patriot now has much the largest circulation of any journal in the state, and is probably the best paying newspaper property in Vermont. From 1857 to 1861 he was postmaster at Bellows Falls, the only official posi- tion he ever held until appointed superintendent of the new federal building at Montpelier in 1886. He was the second member of the Democratic state committee from 1863 to 1873, and since then has been its chairman, succeed- ing the late H. B. Smith, of Milton, at the time of his sudden decease ; he is also now the Vermont member of the Democratic national committee. His interest in politics is attested by the fact that he has attended every Demo- cratic national convention from 1860 to 1888, inclusive, except that of 1872. His religious affiliations are Episcopal. He has been a vestryman of Christ church for many years ; a delegate to the diocesan convention ; a trustee of the Episcopal fund ; and one of the board of land agents. He is fifty-seven years old.
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