USA > Vermont > Washington County > Gazetteer of Washington County, Vt., 1783-1889 > Part 50
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Thomas Slade's grist and flouring-mill is located at the South village, on the east branch of Dog river, which affords the power. This is the only flour- ing-mill in town. The mill has three runs of stones, and grinds over 5,000 bushels of wheat and about the same amount of custom provender per an-
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num. Mr. Slade sells about 5,000 bushels of corn and meal and three car loads of shorts yearly.
Harvey M. Cutler's saw-mill, on road 9, was purchased by him about 1869, and has been mostly rebuilt. He manufactures about 200,000 feet of rough and dressed lumber and 250,000 shingles per year. He also does general millwright work and repairing.
J. B. Shortridge manufactures doors, sash, blinds, and builders' furnishings. He commenced business in Northfield, in 1856, and removed to his present quarters in Paine factory, from Union street, in 1870.
F. J. Houston's grist and planing-mills and spring bed factory are located on Union street. Mr. Houston has owned this property about seven years. He has a provender-mill, grinds and sells about a car load of corn meal and feed per month, and also does custom grinding and planing. He manufact- ures, as a specialty, the Monitor spring bed. He sells about 500 of these and 200 mattresses per year.
George H. Fisher's carriage shop, on road 3, was built about 1848, by Alpheus Kathen. Mr. Fisher has been its proprietor the past fifteen years. He manufactures carriages, farm wagons, and sleds, and does repairing. He also manufactures from 100,000 to 200,000 shingles per annum.
C. W. Nelson's butter tub shop, on road 29, was built in 1887, and is run by water-power. He manufactures spruce butter tubs.
The firm of F. L. Howe & Co. was formed in 1881. They have shops on Main street, where they are manufacturing monumental marble mork, and dealing in granite monuments, curbing, etc.
Alfred F. Spaulding established a machine shop on Main street about 1877, where he does general jobbing in machine work and repairing. He also manufactures his powerful force pump and angular and upright drills. Of these he is the inventor and sole proprietor.
Charles D. Sawyer, a marble worker, has been engaged in the business the last eight years in Northfield, where he still does all kinds of monumental marble work.
L. P. Harris's grist, saw, and planing-mills, located at Paine factory, have been conducted by him since 1885. He cuts from 100,000 to 300,000 feet of lumber annually, and does custom planing. He grinds about 20,000 bushels of grain and handles about 12,000 bushels of Western corn per year.
Martin Cobleigh has shops located at South Northfield, where he manu- factures doors, sash, blinds, and cabinet work. He has been at this location since 1866. His buildings were burned January 14, 1887, but he has since rebuilt and put in new machinery.
Charles H. Newell's wood turning shop is located at Paine factory. Mr. Newell manufactures fork, hoe, and broom handles, and chair stock. He consumes from 50,000 to 75,000 feet of rough lumber annually.
Frank I. Harris's jobbing machine shop has been conducted by him since 1884.
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TOWN OF NORTHFIELD.
Alfred O. Chase has conducted a carriage and repair shop on Main street since 1878. He does custom work in building and repairing carriages, wagons, and sleighs.
Northfield National bank was organized in 1866, at the closing up of the old Northfield bank, which was organized in 1854 under state laws, and was the first bank chartered in the town. The Northfield National bank com- menced business with a capital of $75,000, which was increased to $100,000 in 1869. Since its organization the bank has paid regular semi-annual divi- dends. Dr. George Nichols is president and C. A. Edgerton, cashier.
Northfield Savings bank was organized in 1869, and received its first deposit May 29, 1869. The aggregate deposits, February 1, 1888, were $348,993.02. George H. Crane is president, and J. C. B. Thayer, treasurer, who has held the position since the organization of the institution.
Northfield Graded and High School .- The following has been compiled from a description by James N. Johnson, Esq .:-
The Northfield Graded and High School, the most important public school in Dog River valley, was established in nearly its present form in 1870. The High School is the successor of the Northfield Institution, formerly Northfield Academy, chartered by the legislature in 1846. Gov. Paine donated the site in 1850. Through his exertions, aided by Heman Carpenter, John L. Buck, James Palmer, George R. Cobleigh, Benjamin Porter, Leander Foster, and the subscriptions of nearly a hundred other public spirited men, $2,400 was raised for erecting a school building, which was accomplished in 1851, at a cost of $2,600. The house was dedicated and opened, in September of the year last named, as Northfield Academy. In 1854, by the act of the legis- lature, the name was changed to Northfield Institution. The school had a successful existence until during the war of the Rebellion, when, not having any endowments, it began to decline. In 1870 a permanent arrangement was made with the village school district to take the building, repair it, and institute in its stead a graded and High school, free for all pupils in the dis- trict. This was accomplished through the friends of popular education, notably Heman Carpenter, James N. Johnson, Rev. William S. Hazen, T. L. Salisbury, A. S. Braman, and J. S. Richardson. The school opened in September, 1870, with 331 pupils. This building was burned in 1876, and the season ensuing the present fine building was erected in its place, at a cost of about $11,000. It requires a yearly outlay of from $2,500 to $3,000 to sustain this school. But it makes it possible for every boy and girl in the district to obtain a good academic education and prepare for college. The number of different scholars in all grades the past school year was 271, fifty- six of whom attended the High school, four studied Greek, sixteen studied Latin, eight French or German ; four graduated, and two are going to col- lege. The school library contains 463 volumes.
Norwich University .- This institution was founded by Capt. Alden Par- tridge, in 1819, and was known as the American Literary, Scientific, and Mil-
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1
itary Academy. It retained the name until November 6, 1834, when a charter of incorporation was granted it by the state of Vermont under the name of Norwich University. Thus was founded the first scientific, classical, and military college in the Union. This new departure met with universal favor, and its halls were soon crowded with young men from every state in the Union. In March, 1866, the university buildings at Norwich were destroyed by fire and the university was removed to Northfield, Vt., where the citizens offered fine grounds and commodious barracks. Here the same system of instruction and military discipline is maintained, and many young men have been enabled to go forth to fill high positions in various professions. This was the first institution in the country to lay down a purely scientific course of study, and up to the time of the Rebellion the only one which embraced in its curriculum thorough military, classical, and scientific courses. By her work for half a century Norwich University merits the general confidence of the public. Special attention having been given to military science and engineer- ing, her graduates have become particularly distinguished as army offi- cers and civil engineers, some having risen to the foremost ranks of military commanders. The Roster of Alumni and Past Cadets contains more than fifteen hundred names, and the institution is to-day in a most prosperous con- dition. When, in 1861, the nation called for defenders, the graduates of Norwich University were sought for throughout the loyal states as officers, and the long list of names on her army-roll shows how nobly they responded. So generously did the under-graduates respond to the call upon the institu- tion, that for two years there was no commencement, all of the senior class and many from other classes having gone into the army. The Norwich Uni- versity roll of honor contains the names of twelve general officers, forty col- onels, and a host of officers of lower grades, brave men and true, a large number of whom laid down their lives that their country might live. It has ever been the design of this university, while disciplining the minds of young men, to give them, at the same time, that practical instruction that best fits men for business life. How well this work has been done let the story of the lives of those who have gone out from her halls bear record.
In the late civil war Northfield nobly responded to the President's call for help. May 2, 1861, the " New England Guards of Northfield " were mustered into the service of the United States, and were soon on the way to the seat of war. The company was composed as follows : William H. Boynton, cap- tain ; Charles A. Webb, first lieutenant ; Francis B. Gove, second lieutenant ; Charles C. Stearns, Joseph C. Bates, John Randall, Silas B. Tucker, ser- geants ; Wesley C. Howes, John H. Hurley, John L. Moseley, Adin D. Smith, corporals; and thirty-two privates. According to the Adjutant- General's Report, Northfield furnished during the war seventy-four nine months' men, 188 for three years, three for one year ; thirty-nine reenlisted, twenty-one were drafted ; seven of these procured substitutes, two of them entered service, and seven enlisted into the United States navy.
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Elijah Paine* was born in Brooklyn, Conn., January 21, 1757, and died in Williamstown, Vt., April 28, 1842. He graduated at Harvard College in 1781, and removed to Vermont in 1784. Mr. Paine was a scholar, a well read lawyer, and also a farmer, a road maker, and a pioneer in the manufacture of American cloths, for which purpose he constructed an establishment in North- field. He was a member and secretary of the convention to revise the con- stitution in 1786 ; member of the legislature in 1787-91 ; a judge of the Supreme Court in 1791-95 ; United States Senator in 1 795-1801 ; and United States judge, "appointed by President John Adams," in 1801. In 1789 he was one of the commissioners to settle the controversy between New York and Vermont ; president of the Vermont Colonization society, of which, as well as to Dartmouth College and the " University of Vermont," he was a liberal benefactor ; and Fellow of the American and Northern Academies of Arts and Sciences. In 1782 he pronounced the first oration before the Phi Beta Kappa society of H. U., and was elected its president in 1789 " Mr. Paine built a factory in Northfield to make broadcloth, when it was a wilderness, at a cost of $40,000. This factory was 180 feet long, forty-two feet wide, and contained six sets of woolen machinery, employed from 175 to 200 workmen, and indirectly several hundred more."
Ithamar Allen, from Gill, Mass., settled in the eastern part of Northfield with his family at a very early date. His son Ithamar, Jr., married Nancy, daughter of Aquillo Jones, and about 1803 located upon and cleared the farm west of the river, at the falls village, and it is still occupied by his descend- ants. The whole valley of Dog river from the depot village to the Berlin line was then covered with forest. The children of Ithamar, Jr., and Nancy Allen were Elijah, born in 1803; William, born in 1805; Charles, born in 1808 ; Sally, born in 1811; Chloe, born in 1812 ; Amanda, born in 1814; Edna, born in 1816; Warren, born in 1819; and Adaline, born in 1825. William Allen is now the oldest survivor, and lives upon the farm where he was born. William married Esther E. Libby, of Strafford, and had two sons, Harrison P., who served three years in the late war, and John W., and three daughters, viz .: Emma (Mrs. C. W. Chandler), Edna (Mrs. Locklin), and Miss Marietta C. Nancy, the eldest daughter of William Allen, married James Smith, and had one daughter, Hattie E. (Mrs. F. U. Smalley).
Capt. Abel Keyes was born in Putney, Vt., September 11, 1773. He was a carpenter and builder, and in 1790 settled in Northfield, with the impres- sion that its fine water-power would make of it a great manufacturing town. In the spring of 1791 he bought of Judge Paine 100 acres of land on East hill, including the mills. Here he remained about five years, improved the mills, and sold his land to his brother William, and the mills to Judge Paine. In 1807 Capt. Keyes bought a saw-mill and a few acres of land of David Denny, in South Northfield. He enlarged and improved the saw-mill, built
* From the American Encyclopedia.
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a grist-mill, potashery, and several dwellings. In three years (18to) he sold his property to C. W. Houghton, of Montpelier. Through his energy he had made an active and flourishing little village of the place in three years' time, known as " Slab City." In 1839, after moving from one location to another, this pushing, restless, industrious, enterprising man emigrated to Illinois, and in one year more moved to Lake Mills, Wisconsin, where he died in 1848, aged seventy-five years. Capt. Keyes was for nearly forty years one of the most thoroughly active men in Northfield. About forty buildings that he erected in Northfield are his testimonials as an active builder. The old yel- low meeting-house was one of them. While in Northfield he was captain of militia, justice of the peace, selectman, and representative.
David Denny was born in Windsor, Vt., January 7, 1764, and was one of the earliest settlers in Northfield. He was a collector of taxes, and held a number of town offices. He located on the hill, near the South village, where his grandson David now resides. The numerous family of Dennys in North- field are his descendants. He married Betsey Spooner, and they had nine children, viz .: Paul S., born in 1792; Asenath, born in 1794; Adolphus, born in 1796; Amasa, born in 1798; Sally, born in 1800 ; Samuel, born in 1803 ; Harriet, born in 1805 ; Eliza, born in 1807 ; and Joseph, born in 1810. Mr. Denny died in 1821.
Aaron Martin, of Scotch descent, was born in Windham, Conn., in 1742. He married Eunice Flint. Mr. Martin died in Williamstown, Vt., March 12, 1819. Mr. and Mrs. Martin had born to them eight sons and seven daugh- ters, fourteen of whom reared families. The sons all settled in Williamstown about 1793, and their descendants are the most numerous of any family in that town, and are also numerous in the adjacent towns. Aaron Martin, Jr., came to Randolph as early as 1791, remained one season, and returned to his home in Connecticut on foot, in three days, a journey of sixty miles per day. He located his home on West hill, where he resided until the close of his life, April 13, 1865, aged eighty-nine years. He was prominent in town affairs, and held several of the offices. He was thrice married. His first wife, Harriet Martyn, was the mother of two sons and a daughter. His second wife was Hannah Wise. His third wife, Polly Burnham, was the mother of two sons and four daughters. Allen Martin, second son of Aaron, Jr., was born June 21, 1798. He married Betsey Nelson, of Orange, and settled on a farm in Barre, in 1822, where he resided until his death, fifty- five years after. Mr. and Mrs. Martin were parents of eight sons and two daughters. Their son Newton, of Gouldsville, now owns the old homestead in Barre. He was selectman in Northfield in 1885 and '86. Mr. Martin married Martha A. Hackett.
William Cochrane came to that part of Northfield which was annexed from Waitsfield about 1799. His son Stephen, born in September, 1801, was the first child born in that part of this town, and is the oldest living man born on Northfield soil. Stephen Cochrane is the only survivor of the eight children
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of William, and the only one that ever married. He was a merchant tailor, commenced business in 1827, (the first in Northfield,) and continued over forty years.
Elieda and Justus Brown were among the first settlers in Dog River valley in Berlin. They located upon the farms now owned by William and Charles Dewey, about 1790. They were from Windham, Conn. Elieda was twice married, and raised a large family. He had served through the Revolutionary war before he was married, and late in life drew a pension. He died in Wisconsin, aged ninety-four years. His son, Anson D. Brown, was a harness- maker, and was in business in Northfield six or eight years. He died in Gouldsville. His son, Albert H. Brown, has been engaged in harnessmaking; in Gouldsville since 1855.
Edward Ryan was born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1826, came to America' in 1851, and soon settled in Northfield. In 1858 he married Ellen Leahy, and has five sons and two daughters.
Gov. Charles Paine was born in Williamstown, Vt., April 10, 1799. At the age of seventeen years he entered Harvard College, where his father had gradu- ated in his early manhood and became one of the most noted men of his time in Vermont. After a four years' course he graduated with honor, and was: regarded with respect and esteem by each and every one of his fellow stu- dents. " On his return from college," said Hon. John Wheeler, of Bur- lington, and a former president of the university, " he showed no inclination for professional study, but asked to enter upon the employment of practical life, both to lessen the labors of his father and to advance his own interests. This was allowed without much thought, but it was thought he would soon grow weary of it and call for a different mode of employment. ' I was greatly surprised,' said his father, ' at the readiness with which he took hold of labor, the energy with which he followed it, and the capacity and completness with which he finished it. I found he could do as much and as well as I could in my best days.' Those of us who live in Vermont know that such a parent could scarcely give higher praise." Charles Paine was elected governor of Vermont in 1841 and '42.
Hon. E. P. Walton said of him at his funeral : " The youngest man, I think, in the gubernatorial office in the state, I am sure there never was any man who more highly esteemed the claims of age and wisdom and ex- perience, or was more ready to distinguish and encourage whoever among the young gave hopeful promise of an honorable and successful public career." He gave his great influence in the community of Northfield to build up its schools and churches, and contributed generously from his abundant means. He built a church near his mills from his own funds, for the benefit of his op- eratives and their families, which was open for the entire public. He gave the site for the first academy, and $500 towards erecting a suitable building. The great event of his life and his crowning glory was the building of the Vermont Central railroad, and to him more than any other man should be ascribed the
27*
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honor of the achievement, although he was ably assisted by James R. Lang- don, E. P. Walton, E. P. Jewett, and the late Daniel Baldwin. The road was built, but in a financial view (and in that view only) it was disastrous to those who were stock owners. We again quote from Mr. Walton's address :-
"His ambition in that great undertaking was of a character which the world justly esteems to be noble; he aimed to win for himself an honorable public name, by rendering a great public service. However much of direct personal advantage he naturally and properly may have expected from it, I am sure his chief purpose was to win an honorable name. In the brightest days he looked joyfully to this reward, and in the darkest, when every other hope seemed to fail, this remained to solace him. It was on one of these darkest days, and at a time when courage, hope, and health were all failing, that he said to me, in his familiar mode of conversation, 'Well, Walton, whatever may become of the corporation, they cannot rob us of the road ! It is done; it will be run ; and the people will, at any rate, reap the blessings which we designed. Oh ! if it were not for that, I really believe I should die.' "
The Hon. Heman Carpenter truthfully and appropriately said in his eulogy of him, in referring to the building of this stupendous work, " There is his monument !" He loved his fellow men, and he avowed the significant poem, " Abou Ben Adhem," was his religious creed.
Joel Hildreth came from New Hampshire to Roxbury in 1802, and settled in the northwestern part of the town. His was the fifteenth family in Rox- bury. His son Jared, who married Arthusa Rice, was then but twelve years old. They were parents of one son, Samuel M. Hildreth. Jared Hildreth was a soldier six months in the War of 1812, and his father was a volunteer and went to Plattsburgh when it was invaded by the British.
Josiah W. Williams, born in Strafford, Vt., in 1818, came with his father, John Williams, to Northfield in 1832. John Williams made the first clearing on the farm where his son Josiah W. now lives. He was a volunteer from Strafford to defend Plattsburgh in the War of 1812, and died in Roxbury at the age of seventy-two years. He was the father of seven sons and three daughters. Josiah W., before mentioned, married Delight Smith, of Roxbury. He bought the farm where he now lives, in 1846. Mr. and Mrs. Williams have had ten children born to them, and reared three to mature age, viz .: Van Ness F. (deceased), Etta M. (Mrs. Willie Dunsmoor, deceased), and Ella M. (Mrs. Herbert W. Kibbe), of Utica.
Sampson Bates was an early settler in the east part of Roxbury. He mar- ried Keziah Warden, and reared three sons and three daughters, viz .: Orin, Jacob W., Joseph, Emily, Lucinda, and Olive M. Orin married, first, Lucre- tia Webster, who was mother of three children. His second wife was Louisa M. Hedges. Their children are G. C., Jacob, Frank, and one daughter. Jacob, a farmer, is deceased. Joseph is a farmer in Roxbury. Emily (Mrs. Loyal C. Rich) has two sons, Alonzo L. and Elmer W., and one daughter, Rose P. Lucinda married George Bliss, and is a widow. Olive M. died unmarried.
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David Hadley was born in Sandwich, N. H., in 1778. In 1803 he married, and the next year he and his wife, Hannah Hadley, settled in Northfield on the farm now owned by his son Judge David W. Mr. Hadley died in 1811, at the early age of thirty-three years. In 1816 Mrs. Hadley united in mar- riage with John Brown, and lived to the advanced age of nearly ninety-two years.
Judge David W. Hadley, before mentioned, was born in 1808. He mar- ried Louisa Brown, of Williston, Vt., and settled on the homestead. Their children are Helen M., Louisa J., Jane E., Lucina A., Caroline A., Mary E., George W., and Flora L. Judge Hadley, now at the age of four-score years, has the satisfaction that in his long life he sustains a well earned and enviable reputation, and has been honored by his townsmen with many positions of trust. He represented his town in the legislature of 1843, '45, '56, and '70 ; was assistant judge of Washington County Court in 1850 and 1851 ; and has served his town as selectman nineteen years.
Joseph Williams, a pioneer of Northfield, married Pamelia Robinson, and settled on the farm where his grandson, A. L. Williams, now lives. His children were Phebe, born in 1806; George, born in 1807, settled in Rox- bury ; Sally, born in 1809, married George Harlow; Ira, born in 1812; Oliver, born in 1814, and died in Middlesex ; and Alta, who died in Roxbury. Ira married Emeline Thresher, and passed his life upon the paternal home- stead. He died in 1851, aged thirty-nine years.
Eleazer Loomis was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and a company officer under Capt. Paul Brigham, afterwards lieutenant-governor of Vermont. Mr. Loomis was granted a tract of land for his service in the army, located in Norwich, Vt. This land he exchanged with Gov. Brigham for land in Northfield, which he transferred to his sons Eleazer and Dyer. When these sons were respectively aged nineteen and seventeen years, they left their home in Hinsdale, Mass., and came to Northfield and settled on their land on the mountain. They experienced the hardships and privations incidental to pioneer life. The mountains and forests were then infested with bears, wolves, and catamounts. Their howlings made night hideous, and, as they said, made their hair stand on end. Eleazer went to his corn-crib one morn- ing when a huge bear, more bold than welcome, jumped down from the crib. This alarmed the young man, and to avoid bruin he ran round on the other side, and the bear and he met face to face. They at once con- ceived a mutual dislike for each other's company, and turned and ran round the crib again. From their elevation they could look down into the beauti- ful valley of Dog river, which was then a primeval forest. After a few years these brothers moved to the "North Corner," where William H. Loomis, son of Eleazer, now resides, and where he was born in 1818. Eleazer, born in 1785, married Polly Buck, who was born in 1787, in Connecticut. Their children were Roxana, Eleazer, Louisa, Cynthia, William H., Mariette, and Adaline. Mr. Loomis died in 1866, and Mrs. Loomis in 1835. Dyer
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