Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol I, Part 2

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1032

USA > Vermont > Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol I > Part 2

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Puffer, Norman M., 330 Putnam, Lewis, 94 Putnam, Warren E., 404

Racette, Joseph W., 205 Randall, George W., 220 Randall, Walter B., 16I Ranny, Alfred P., 681 Ray, Leonard C., 564 Read, I.avant M., 643 Read, Myron A., 41I Read, Ruth, 4II

Redfield, Timothy P., 484 Reeves, Thomas, 638 Richardson, Orville H., 524

Roberts, Daniel, 397

Roberts, George F., 703

Roberts, Robert, 40I

Robinson, Frank P., 706 Robinson, George W., 280 Robinson, John, 519 Robinson, Mrs. Alfred, 277

Roby, Rodney, 261 Rogers, Henry, 422 Rogers, Phebc H., 422 Root, Henry C., 345 Root, Henry G., 235

Roscoe, Alfred P., 427 Ross, James, 686 Ross, Jonathan, 574 Russell, George S., 407

Russell, Ira, 367 Russell, Sidney E., 415

Sawyer, Clarence P., 594

Sawyer, Harry W., 375

Sawyer, John W., 374

Sawyer, Lincoln H., 375 Seaver, Harley T., 6II

Seaver, The Family, 61I

Shackett, Frank L., 480 Shepard, Almond C., 625

Sheridan, William J., 559 Sibley, Moses D., 59 Slocum, Charles H., 669 Small, 179

Smitlı, Charles P., 467

Smith, David C., 239

Smith, Donald, 517

Smith, Dudley B., 586

Smith, Elisha, 43I

Smith, John E., 516 Smith, Seward P., 437 Sneden, George W., 530 Sparhawk, George E. E., 276

Spaulding, Albert C., 184 Spaulding, Cyrus M., 185 Sprague, Farnham M., 278

Sprague, Nathan T., 640 Squire, Frederick N., 318 Stannard, George J., 24 Starr, Parley, 456 Start, Henry R., 343

Stevens, Alonzo J., 267

Stevens, Charles H., 268

Stewart, Charles C., 566 Stewart, John W., 40

Stone, Charles H., 497

Stone, George E., 23

St. Peters, Joseph L., 451 Stranahan, Farrand S., 306

Taggart, John R., 692 Talcott, Frank, 43 Taylor, Archibald, 567 Taylor, Frank T., 595

Thayer, Nelson, 432 Thomas, Charles A., 15 Thompson, Charles F., 57I Thompson, Charles H., 572 Thompson, The Family, 570 Tiffany, Eli, 435 Tinker, Charles A., 613 Tinkham, Henry C., 284 Torrey, Henry A. P., 236 Trull, Edgar V., 338 Twitchell, Fred F., 712 Tyler, Royall, 629

Van Patten, William J., 148

Varney, Mervin P., 521 Varney, William H. H., 440 Vilas, Martin S., 416 Viles, Jesse S., Jr., 152

Walbridge, Edward, 228

Walbridge, Henry S., 325 Walbridge, James E., 180 Walbridge, James H., 217 Wales, Torrey E., 106

Walker, James O., 429 Wallace, William S., 594 Warren, Charles C., 202 Warren, Charles D., 672 Watson, Oliver L., 315 Webster, Dan P., 355 Weeks, Jolin E., 5.37 Welling, Charles E., 360 Wells, Burt H., 296

Wells, Edward, 90 Wells, William, 332 .

Weston, Engene S., 423

Weston, Sidney H .. 324

Whitcomb, Friend N., 502

Whitcomb, Will A., 520 Whitcomb, William E., 520 Wicker, Cassius M., 73 Wicker Cyrus W., 72 Wilbur, LaFayette, 30 Wilcox, Henry F., 668 Willard, Guy N., 470

Willard, Hymon G., 47I Williams, Frank S., 310

Wilson, David S., 335 Wilson, James M., 503. Winch, John H., 328

Wing, George W., 106 Wing, Joseph A., 105 Wood, Lyman P., 361 Woodbury, Urban A., 151 Woolson, William D., 653 Worthington, William R., 426 Wright, Clayton J., 135 Wright. Daniel C., 687

Wright, Ethan M., 717

Wright. Homer E., 135 Wright, Smith, 134 Wyman, Cyrus W., 156

Yale, Caroline, 587 Yale, Martha, 587

THOMAS CHITTENDEN. FIRST GOVERNOR OF VERMONT.

STATE OF VERMONT.

THOMAS CHITTENDEN.

Thomas Chittenden, first governor of Ver- mont, and a potent factor in the creation of the commonwealth, was one of the most unique fig- ures of his time. His splendid public services were of enduring value, and his purity of char- acter and strong personality marked him as in every way a leader of men in the formative days of the state and the community.

He was of Welsh origin, and his family name is derived from the two words Chy-tane-den (or din), meaning a castle or place of defence in a valley between the mountains. Another form of the name in Crittenden, and Senator John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, was related to the Chit- tenden family of Connecticut and Vermont. The Vermont family of Chittenden is descended from William Chittenden, of Cranbrook, Kent, Eng- land, who came to Guilford, Connecticut, in 1639. He was the father of three sons, of whom Thomas, the eldest, was the father of William, who was the father of Ebenezer. Ebenezer, son of him last named, was the father of four sons, Ebenezer, Thomas, Timothy and Bethuel. Of these, Thomas became the first governor of Ver- mont, and Bethuel the first Protestant Episcopal minister in the same state. Their mother was named Johnson, and she was a cousin of Presi- dent Johnson. of Columbia College.

Thomas Chittenden was born January 6, 1730, in East Guilford, Connecticut. His father was a farmer, whose humble circumstances forbade his affording to his son other educational advantages than those of the common schools of the day.

The lad labored upon the paternal farm until he was eighteen years old, when he went to sea as a common sailor. England and France were then at war, and his vessel was captured by a French cruiser. When he regained his liberty he: found himself friendless and without means in: a West Indian port. He made his way home in great discomfort, determined upon a rural life,. from which he was destined to be called by the exigencies of the stirring times which soon-fol- lowed. A year before attaining his majority he married Elizabeth Meigs, a New England wo- man of much strength of character and amiabil- ity of disposition, who proved a most efficient helpmeet to her young husband, affording him a healthy encouragement and sympathy at every step of his active career. Industrious and frugal. the young couple soon acquired a home, and after- wards added considerable land property to their possessions. Mr. Chittenden steadily grew in favor with his fellows, and was advanced from one to another position of honor and usefulness. For six years he represented the town in the Colonial Assembly, and he was also colonel of mi- litia. In 1774 he became one of the first settlers in the Winooski valley, on the south side of the- river of the same name, and about twelve miles above its union with Lake Champlain. In this beautiful region he felled the trees out of which he builded his log cabin, his wife and children making their bed upon boughs of evergreen until their humble home was completed. This was not to be long an abode of peace. In 1775 the valley was threatened by British and Indians, and in the following year the settlers in the Winosski val-

THE STATE OF VERMONT.

ley, now about forty families, found it necessary to seek safety elsewhere. Burying his preservable household effects in the sand, Chittenden aban doned his home, and made his way across the mountains and through dense forests, he and his wife journeying afoot, ntilizing their animals for the conveyance of their children, ten in number. Purchasing a farm at Arlington, Chittenden there made his home for the next ten years, and when peace was restored he returned to his former home in the Winooski valley, in the town of Wil- liston, where he passed the remainder of his life.

From the first, he bore an active and prom- inent part in the struggles of the settlers against the aggressions of New York and of the mother country. He was chosen one of the thirteen mem- bers of the famous Bennington "Council of Safe- ty," and was made president of that remarkable body which exercised all the powers of govern- ment-legislative, executive and judicial-until the adoption of the constitution and the election of state officers. This Council reflected at all times the spirit of two men of extraordinary abil- ity-Ira Allen, the secretary, through whose en- terprise and ambition the most important meas- ures were broached, and Thomas Chittenden, the president, whose great sagacity, excellent judg- ment and commanding personality enabled him to consummate purposes which otherwise had failed. Allen proposed recruiting a regiment for the defence of the province, the means to be de- rived from the confiscation and sale of property belonging to the Tories, and Chittenden procured the adoption of the measure. To the enthusiasm aroused by this action was due similar effort in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and which made possible the victory at Bennington, and, ul- timately, the capture of Burgoyne's army. Dur- ing the same period Mr. Chittenden aided the rey- olutionary cause most efficiently. With Allen he went to Philadelphia at the opening of the struggle, in order to ascertain the disposition and intentions of the congress, with whose purposes he was fully in sympathy and whose measures he earnestly advocated until the independence of the colonies was acknowledged.

Governor Chittenden was a prime leader in the more arduous work of effecting the organiza- tion of the state of Vermont and the formulation and adoption of its organic law. In the conven-

tion at Dorset, in July, 1776, as chairman of a committee having charge of the matter, he pre- sented a compact binding the members to the creation of a state, and this was adopted, receiv- ing the signatures of every member of the con- vention save one. At a later session in Westmin- ster, in January, 1777, a committee of which Ar. Chittenden was a member reported the "Vermont Declaration of Independence," embodying his ideas presented by a similar committee, at a prior session, and outlining a constitution for the proposed "State of New Connecticut, alias Ver- mont," and this was subsequently adopted, on July 2d of the same year. Mr. Chittenden was elected the first governor of the new state in March, 1778, and by annual re-elections he was continued in that office during the remainder of the revolutionary period. He directed the affairs of the infant commonwealth with remarkable sagacity and in a spirit of unalloyed patriotism, and amid difficulties of the utmost magnitude. In 1780-81 the Vermont frontier was left de- fenceless, every available man having been sent to Washington's little army. In this strait, British emissaries sought to stimulate in Ver- mont a feeling of hostility to congress for its apparent neglect, and to lead her people to an abandonment of the patriot cause and to union with Great Britain. The narrative of these events is too lengthy for place here. It is only necessary to recite the fact that in order to save the state from a threatened invasion by the Brit- ish from Canada, Governor Chittenden engaged in certain diplomatic relations with the British agents which afforded excuse for his enemies to charge him with disloyalty to the cause of in- dependence. These charges, however, were aft- erwards disproved when it was discovered that Governor Chittenden's alleged negotiations were known to Washington, and that their only pur- pose was to defeat the British plans by holding their troops in Canada in a state of inactivity.

Governor Chittenden was continued in the gubernatorial office by successive re-elections, with the exception of a single year, until 1797, the year of his death, when he resigned. His defeat in 1789 was due to his loyalty to Ira Al- len and to his desire to reimburse him for his large personal expenditures for state purposes and for his rare diplomatic skill in the creation

OLD COURT HOUSE, WESTMINSTER.

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PIN.WARE MANUFACTORY

OLD CONSTITUTION HOUSE, WINDSOR.

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THE STATE OF VERMONT.

of the infant government. To effect his object, Governor Chittenden made a grant of public lands to Allen, an act for which he had no legal au- thority, and which brought upon him much criti- cism and brought about his defeat for re-election. His bearing in this crisis was that of simple dig- nity. The election having been thrown into the legislature, it became his duty to announce the choice of Moses Robinson as his successor. Said he : "Since I find that the election has not gone in my favor by the freemen, and that you, gentle- men, would prefer some other person to fill the chair, I can cheerfully resign to him the honors of the office I have long since sustained, and sin- cerely wish him a happy administration, for the advancement of which my utmost influence shall be exerted." In reply, the legislature said that the people "felt a grateful sense of the many and good services he had rendered them and wished for him on his retirement from his arduous la- bors all the blessings of domestic ease." A year later those who had antagonized Governor Chit- tenden with such severity withdrew their charges against him and abandoned their opposition to the Allen land grant, and he was again elected to the chair which he had so long occupied with conspicuous ability. Among his public services. no act was more generally salutary in its effects than his procuring of the legislation known as the "betterment" and " quieting" acts of 1781 and 1786, and under which were effectually settled many disputed questions of title growing out of the controversies with reference to the New Hampshire and New York land grants. This legislation was the product of his own brain, and was proposed and enacted in face of the determ- ined opposition of nearly all the lawyers in the state, who questioned its legality or utility for want of precedent. In the discharge of his public duties he bore himself with unaffected dignity. One curious fact is related of him. Ordinarily careless as to his dress, he preserved a broadcloth coat capable of being turned inside out-the one side blue, which he displayed when he occupied his seat as governor, and the other side scarlet, which was shown when he acted as commander- in-chief of the militia. His traits of character were thus summarized by Ethan Allen : "He was the only man I ever knew who was sure to be right in all, even the most difficult and complex

cases, and yet he could not tell or seem to know why it was so." Thompson said "He had a rare combination of moral and intellectual qualities -- good sense, great discretion, honesty of pur- pose and an unvarying equanimity of temper. united with a modest and pleasing address," and E. P. Walton said: "He did not tower like an ornate and graceful Corinthian column, but was rather like the solid Roman arch that no convul- sion could overturn and no weight could crush."

Governor Chittenden ever endeared himself to the people about him by his cheery good nature and largeheartedness. With every opportunity to amass an ample fortune, when he died he left to his family little more than the homestead farm. How his means were disposed of is told in the annals and traditions of the state which he aided in making. In two seasons of great distress. once wlien the people left their crops ungathered on account of the troublous times, and again, when the crops on the east of the mountains in the present Orange and Washington county re- gion had been ruined by frost and many were facing starvation, Governor Chittenden provided corn to scores of families, refusing all compensa- tion with the remark that he had no corn to sell to people who were in danger of starving.

By his marriage with Elizabeth Meigs, Gov- ernor Chittenden became the father of ten chil- dren. Noah, who passed his life in Jericho, was a farmer and a man of importance in the com- munity. He became sheriff of the county (Chit- tenden) which was named for his sire, judge of probate and of the county court, representative in the legislature for three years and state count- cillor for eight years. Martin was educated at Dartmouth College: he lived a conspicuously useful public life, serving as representative in the legislature, clerk and judge of the county court. as member of congress for ten years and as gov- ernor of Vermont for two years. Giles was a farmer and occupied many public offices. Tru- man, the youngest of the sons of Governor Chit- tenden, inherited the homestead and lived to old age. He was state councillor for twelve years, judge of probate for eleven years, and he held numerous other offices. He was a man of great benevolence and kindness, and was the steadfast friend and defender of the widow and orphan and all in distress. Of the daughters, Mabel mar-

THE STATE OF VERMONT.

ried Thomas Barney, of Jericho; Betsy became the wife of James Hill, of Charlotte; Hannah married Colonel Isaac Clark, who was an officer in the war of 1812, wherein he won the sobriquet of "Old Rifle ;" Beulah married, first, Elijah Ga- lusha, of Arlington, and (second ) Matthew Lyon, of Kentucky; Mary married Jonas Galusha, of Shaftsbury, who was for two years governor of Vermont : and Electa married Jacob Spafford, of Richmond, Vermont. From all these came a munterous progeny whose descendants are now found in almost every state of the Union, and many of whom have lived honorable and useful lives in nearly every reputable calling.

FREDERICK HOLBROOK.

Frederick Holbrook, of Brattleboro, Vermont, "war governor" of that state, to the best interests of which his useful and honorable life of almost ninety years has been assiduously devoted, is a descendant of one of the oldest families of New England, which traces its origin, as do most of the inhabitants of that region, to the older Eng- land across the sea. The first ancestor settled near Boston, where at the present day many of the name may be found.

John Holbrook, grandfather of ex-Governor Holbrook, settled at Weymouth, Massachusetts, and, beyond this fact, only one detail of his life has come down to us, but that one is extremely significant. The record states that he married Sibyl Lynn, granddaughter of Governor Brad- ford, and further adds that the lady was a woman of great force of character. The simple fact that John Holbrook was the choice of a woman who came of the oldest and best blood in New Eng- land, and who was herself possessed of a remark- able personality, speaks volumes both for his social standing and his moral worth. Is it not possible that some of the forceful and high- minded traits which were so conspicuous in the character of ex-Governor Holbrook may have been, in part, at least, transmitted to him by this granddaughter of Governor Bradford?

John Holbrook, father of ex-Governor Hol- brook, was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, July 10, 1761. At the beginning of the Revolu- tionary war his father removed with his family to Dorchester, Massachusetts, and there, through

the kindly instruction of some British officers who were stationed at the place, John acquired the art of surveying and became proficient in mathematics. It is difficult to say whether this incident testifies more forcibly to the kindness and largemindedness of the British officers, or to the personality of the lad who elicited such proofs of friendship. This knowledge, together with the ability to draw and sketch, which had also been imparted to him by the good-natured Brit- ish officers, was of the greatest use to him in after life. On attaining the age of twenty-one years, he went to Newfane, Vermont, and re- ported to the Hon, Luke Knowlton for employ- ment as a land surveyor. In this art Judge Knowlton obtained work for him, in the course of which he ran town and division lines in the vicinity of Newfane, or, as it is now called, New- fane Hill. It was extremely interesting to hear Mr. Holbrook, in the latter part of his life, relate his experience as a land surveyor in those carly days, when the county of Windham was so largely in a primeval state, being covered with almost unbroken forests; how he made journeys in the winter on snowshoes, camping out at night, and sleeping on a bed extemporized from hemlock boughs, with a tent or covering of the same ma- terial. His food at these times consisted of thin slices of pork, spread over brown Indian bread.

Not long after coming to Newfane Mr. Hol- brook opened a small country store in the ell of what is now almost the only one of the primitive houses left standing in the place. It was his custom to take produce and articles of barter on pack horses to Greenfield, Massachusetts. The- road was simply a bridlepath, laid out or defined through the dense forest by marked trees, and leading along the valley of the west river through the then unsettled region of East Brattleboro. The various articles which he carried he would exchange for dry-goods and groceries, loading the horses for the return journey with these com- modities. In this connection, it is interesting to note, as showing the changes wrought in the course of a generation, that Mr. Holbrook's eld- est daughter, Mrs. William Fessenden, was the first lady who rode in a wheeled carriage from Newfane to Greenfield. After accumulating his first one thousand dollars, Mr. Holbrook removed to Brattleboro, Vermont, buying the old mills-

THE STATE OF VERMONT.

which stood where Hines and Newman afterward ·built their machine shop, and also buying a house, which in later years was converted into an inn, and is now known as the American House. In one part of the house he opened a country store, his family occupying the remainder. At that period, and in those sparsely settled regions, nearly all trade was necessarily by barter, little or no money being in circulation. It speedily becom- ing evident to Mr. Holbrook that he must seek an outlet for the produce and other articles taken in his trade, he formed a connection with David Por- ter, a leading merchant of Hartford, Connecticut, under the firm name of Porter & Holbrook, at Hartford, Connecticut, and of Holbrook & Por- ter, at Brattleboro, Vermont. The farmers' pro- duce and articles of domestic industry and handi- work, taken at the store in Brattleboro in ex- change for goods, were sent to Porter & Holbrook at Hartford, and dry-goods and groceries were sent thence to Holbrook & Porter at Brattleboro. Mr. Holbrook was one of the original directors of the old Phoenix Bank of Hartford, holding that office many years, and it is remembered that, among other benefits which he conferred on the city, he brought the first bank bills to Brattleboro that ever circulated there.

Nor was Mr. Holbrook's business enterprise limited to the undertakings already mentioned, but he established the first line of flat-bottomed boats which ever ran on the Connecticut river from Brattleboro to Hartford, forming for many years the principal means of exchanging heavy freight with the seaboard. In those early days, when so large a portion of the surface of the country was primeval forest, protracted summer drouths seldom or never occurred; the soft, spongy soil of the forests, protected from the sun by the dense shade of the trees, yielding, very gradually, the moisture from the melting snows and the heavy rains, kept the Connecticut river and its tributaries fuller streams through the summer and autumn, than is the case now. Hence these flat-bottomed boats could make reg- ular trips about once a fortnight through the en- tire seasons of spring, summer and autumn. Mr. Holbrook's enterprise in conducting this line of boats is humorously illustrated by the following anecdote : Deacon Townshend, one of his com- petitors in trade at Brattleboro, once inserted in

the Brattleboro Reporter an advertisement headed, "money makes the mare go." Mr. Hol- brook, the next week, placed an advertisement in the same paper, with the following heading : "Money makes my boats go as well as Deacon Townshend's old grey mare."

Mr. Holbrook's energy was such that his undertakings were not limited to domestic trade, but he opened a slaughter-house on the neigh- boring island in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, where large quantities of beef, pork, hams, ton- gues, etc., were packed and cured for market, and sent, by the Hartford firm, mainly to the West Indies, in exchange for West India goods. About the year 1809-10 Mr. Holbrook sold his house, store, mills and other property to Francis Goodhue, who came to Brattleboro from Weth- ersfield, where he had owned an extensive and valuable farm in "Wethersfield Boro," which he had recently sold to "Consul" William Jarvis. Mr. Goodhue at once began business in Brattle- boro, where he was a leading and conspicuous citizen during the remainder of his life.

After thus disposing of his property Mr. Hol- brook removed to Warehouse Point, Connecti- cut, where he lived for two or three years, until the death of his son-in-law, William Fessenden, who had married his eldest daughter, Patty Hol- brook. William Fessenden, one of the most en- terprising of the early business men of Brattle- boro, was extensively engaged in paper-making, printing, book-binding and the sale of books, and was the publisher of the first newspaper printed in Brattleboro, The Reporter. By reason of the fact that his son-in-law died very sudden- ly, at the early age of thirty-six, leaving a young family and an extensive business, Mr. Holbrook, deeming it his duty to do so, returned to Brattle- boro, assumed the business of his son-in-law, and after settling his estate carried on the busi- ness in all its branches and also added thereto. He took into partnership Joseph Fessenden, brother of William, and also a son-in-law, having married Mr. Holbrook's second daughter, and under the firm name of Holbrook & Fessenden conducted for many years an extensive business in paper-making and the printing, manufacture and sale of books. The post and letter papers made at the mill belonging to this firm had a large sale, owing to their pure whiteness and clearness.

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Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol I, Part 2

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed Publication date: 1903 Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1032

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1032