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 31
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THE STATE OF VERMONT.
James Mead Boutwell was educated in the public schools of Montpelier, after which he learned the machinist's trade, entering a shop at the age of sixteen years. Shortly after this he became fireman on the Montpelier & Wells River Railroad, a year later being made engineer, a position which he retained until 1888, when he was appointed assistant superintendent of the Barre Railroad. Resigning that office on May 10, 1890, he turned his attention to the granite industry, accepting the position of manager of the Langdon granite quarries, which he purch- ased in 1895, and has since operated, these be- ing among the most valuable quarries in Ver- mont. He is also manager of the Wetmore & Morse Company quarries, and is carrying on an extensive and lucrative business, being one of the leading quarrymen of the state.
Politically Mr. Boutwell is a stanch Republi- can, and has served the municipality as alderman. In the spring of 1902 he received the Republi- can nomination for mayor of the city, and was elected without opposition, having the largest vote ever received by any man for any office in the city, a fact proving his popularity with both parties. Fraternally he is a prominent mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Aurora Lodge No. 22, F. & A. M .; to King Solomon Chapter No. 7, R. A. M .; to Mont- pelier Council No. 4, R. & S. M .; to Mount Zion Commandery No. 9, K. T .; and to the Mystic Shrine. Mr. Boutwell married, April 29, 1880, Jennie E. Rumsey, a daughter of Charles Rumsey, of Wells River, Vermont. No children have been born to them. In 1902 Mayor Boutwell was appointed a member of the rail- road commission by Governor McCollough.
HOMER WALLACE HEATON.
This distinguished lawyer, splendid citizen and general philanthropist, whose beauty of char- acter and useful life work are held in affection- ate remembrance by the people of Montpelier, was a descendant of an ancient and honored English family. His patronymic is borne by several parishes in the counties of Lancaster, York and Northumberland, England. Eaton, the name of another New England family, and also that of parishes in the counties of Leicester,
Chester, Notts and Salop, in England, is another form of the same family designation. It also appears to be the primary form in the ancestry of Homer W. Heaton, which is the form in which the name usually appears in the United States as well as in the mother country.
Nathaniel Heaton, the first American ancestor of whom full and authentic records have been preserved, was born in Chelmsford, Massachu- setts, about 1752. He was a farmer by occupa- tion, and removed from his native place to Swanzey, New Hampshire, and after residing there some years went thence to Hanover, in the same state, where he died. Gershom, his son, was born in Swanzey, May 10, 1772, and re- moved in 1795 to Berlin, Vermont. He was a physician, and he successfully practiced his pro- fession for nearly thirty years. He then re- tired, and devoted himself to agriculture, for which he had always cherished a fondness, and in which he was eminently successful. He mar- ried, June 19, 1803, Polly, a daughter of Mathew Wallace, formerly of Peterboro, New Hamp- shire, whose forefathers were settlers from Scot- land, established in the north of Ireland. The children born of this marriage were: an infant, born May 4, 1804, who lived only eighteen days ; Volney Proctor, born March 25, 1805, and died July 14, 1813: Homer Wallace, born August 25, 18II; a daughter, born February 2, 1813, who died when but a few days old; Rosamond Pen- field, born January 8, 1814; and Volney Thomas, born November 3, 1816.
Homer Wallace Heaton, son of Gershom and Polly (Wallace) Heaton, was born in Berlin, Vermont, where he was reared and received his preliminary education. He subsequently studied for a year in the St. Lawrence Academy, at Potsdam, New York, and for two years in the Washington county grammar school in Mont- pelier, Vermont. Having determined upon the law as his profession, he then entered upon its study with Colonel Jonathan P. Miller and Nicholas Baylies, Jr., of Montpelier, and he was admitted to the bar of Washington county in No- vember, 1835. In the same year occurred the dis- solution of the law firm of Miller & Baylies, and the establishment of that of Miller & Heaton, Mr. Heaton becoming the junior member as successor of his old instructor. This association was con-
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tinned until 1830, when the failing health of Colonel Miller obliged his retirement from active practice, and in September of that year Mr. Heaton formed a partnership with Charles Reed, under the style of Heaton & Reed. The latter named firm existed until the decease of Mr. Reed in 1873, after which time Mr. Heaton con- tinued in practice alone. He was numbered with those of the highest rank of his profession in the state. In commercial and real estate affairs he particularly excelled. Cautious, conservative and comprehensive in the management of his cases, he was successful in their prosecution, and he was in great request as a safe and judicious coun- sellor.
Throughout his life Mr. Heaton was identi- fied with the Democratic party. In early manhood he cast his first presidential vote for the re-elec- tion of Andrew Jackson, and he shared to the full the anti-nullification and anti-secession prin- ciples and utterances of that great leader. When the "irrepressible conflict" broke into actual hos- tilities at Fort Sumter, he promptly accepted the issue raised by the south. An earnest and patriotic war Democrat, he delivered many pow- erful speeches in support of the government and the prosecution of the war for the maintenance of the Union. Communities of pronounced Dem- ocratic sentiments were particularly honored by his presence and addresses. He exerted his every power to promote enlistments in the Union army. "Country first and party second," was the maxim upon which he acted. Many of his former politi- cal associates allied themselves then and thence- forth with the Republicans, but Mr. Heaton, as a staunch partisan of the Jeffersonian school, while equally antagonistic to slavery and seces- sion, yet held allegiance to the Democratic party as the exponent of political principles having nothing in common with the evils which he felt called upon to combat. This manly and high principled course commanded the confidence and respect of his fellow citizens, however they might differ with him in opinion. His sterling hon- esty, stainless probity and political consistency found such recognition that, notwithstanding the fact that the party of which he was so active and conspicuous a member was in perpetual minority in the state, he was frequently called to important public positions. In 1839, 1841, 1860
and in 1861 he was state's attorney for Washing- ton county. He held this position during the first two terms under election by the legislature, and during the last two terms by popular vote. When Joshua Y. Vail, the old county clerk, resigned his office, Judge Isaac F. Redfield and the county judges tendered the vacant place to Mr. Heaton, who declined the proffer. In 1848 Mr. Heaton represented Montpelier in the state legislature, and was candidate of his party for the speaker- ship of the house, but was defeated through a combination of the Whigs and Free-Soilers. At the annual election in 1869 he was candidate of his party for the chief magistracy of the state. In 1870, at the first biennial election, he again occupied the same position. On neither occasion was there the slightest prospect of success, but he preferred the courage of his convictions to that advancement which surely would have come to him had he seen fit, in the party changes, to act with the majority. In both elections he led his ticket by thousands of votes, and this was doubt- less due to his patriotic efforts during the Civil war period. In 1872 and 1874 he was the Dem- ocratic nominee for Congress from the first con- gressional district. In 1872 he was also a candi- date for presidential elector. In the same year he was a delegate in the national Democratic convention at Baltimore which nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency.
During his legislative service Mr. Heaton favored the charter for the National Life Insur- ance Company of Vermont, and he was a mem- ber of the select committee of three to whom the bill was referred, and he made to the house favor- able report upon the same. He was afterward chosen a director of the corporation, and served upon its finance committee for several years. In the same legislative session he introduced a bill for the incorporation of the Vermont Bank, and secured its passage. He was subsequently chosen a director of the institution, and served for two years as its president. When the Montpelier Savings Bank and Trust Company was organized in 1871, he was chosen a trustee, and was at the sarne time elected president. Beginning business with a capital of $50,000, the institution was suc- cessful from the outset, and came to hold deposits amounting to $2,438,851.98 (July 1, 1902). This success was attributable in considerable degree
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to the careful and conservative guidance of Mr. Heaton, aided by an able board of trustees. Mr. Heaton's experience and knowledge of general financial principles and relations, combined with his careful scrutiny of the smallest details of business, were always apparent in the manage- ment of the institution.
A few years previous to his death, Mr. Hea- ton conferred a lasting benefit upon his com- munity and upon suffering humanity by the crea- tion of the Heaton Hospital at Montpelier. His appreciation of the need for such an asylum had come to him out of his own observation and ex- periences. His father, who was a physician, had found it necessary to travel to Hanover, New Hampshire, to submit to a difficult surgical oper- ation. He himself, in 1877, while in the per- formance of a professional duty, had fallen upon a rock and sustained a fracture of the femur which made him a cripple. There were then but two hospitals in Vermont. In 1895 he bought ten acres of land near Seminary Hill, Montpelier, upon which he erected a hospital building, and he procured the incorporation of the Heaton Hos- pital (public and non-sectarian), to which he conveyed the property by deed of gift. In 1898 he contributed four thousand dollars toward the erection of a second building, bringing his dona- tions to the institution up to the munificent sum of thirty thousand dollars. The average num- ber of patients annually cared for is eighty-five, and the annual expenditures are upwards of eigh- teen thousand dollars. The institution is as com- pletely equipped as any metropolitan hospital, and has performed a truly beneficent work, amply fulfilling the hopes of the venerable humanitar- ian, who was its founder, and who, at the open- ing (seated while he spoke, because of his in- firmities), said :
"Now, then, why is it that all these people take so large an interest in this institution? On some other matters there are differences of opin- ion now existing in regard to the things that are interesting the people of this city; differences more or less sharp, not to say acrimonious ; but here they are united. Now, is it from a mere whim? Is it because it is fashionable to do this ? Now, I submit, is it not from a higher motive? It is from a Heaven-inspired incentive, from the Father and Son, our Savior, and the people are
led to believe that it is for the amelioration of the physical suffering of humanity itself, a high and religious motive, and no other could so act upon a community and a people as this has."
In 1896 a Ladies Aid Association was formed to assist in providing furniture, table and kitchen ware, delicacies and comforts for the sick. read- ing matter, etc., and the presiding officer from the beginning has been Mrs. Charles H. Heaton, a daughter-in-law of the founder of the hospital.
July 1, 1841, Mr. Heaton was married to Miss Harriet Stearns, a daughter of John Stearns, of Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Stearns was of an old New England family, and was prominent as a man of affairs : he was the first president of the Montpelier Bank. Four children were born of this marriage, of whom only Charles H. is living. Mrs. Heaton died April 26. 1859. aged forty-two years, and her husband died January 28, 1899. Of their children Homer W. died De- cember 16, 1894, aged thirty-six years ; James S. died November 17, 1901, aged fifty-five years ; John H. died in infancy.
Charles H. Heaton was born in Montpelier, Vermont, November 2, 1844. He received a liberal education, after the fashion of his state, where the people have built school houses and raised men and women of whom. through suc- cessive generations, the American nation has been justly proud. Mr. Heaton has taken a very prom- inent position in fraternal matters and in the Masonic order he has been especially so. He is grand treasurer of the general grand council of R. & S. M. for the United States, elected at Minneapolis in 1891. He is grand junior warden of the Grand Commandery, K. T., of Vermont ; recorder of Mt. Zion Commandery No. 9. K. T., of Montpelier, Vermont ; present recorder and potentate (1889) of Mt. Sinai Temple. A. A. O. N. M. S .: Montpelier Council No. 4. R. & S. M .; has received all the degrees in Scottish rite Masonry, including the thirty-third degree. He is past lieutenant commander of the Vermont Consistory, thirty-second degree: past grand sovereign of the Red Cross of Constantine, and appended orders in the state of Vermont: is a member of Aurora Lodge and King Solomon's Chapter. R. A. M .; and was secretary of both bodies for several years in Montpelier : he was a representative of the Imperial Council of the A.
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O. N. M. S. from Mt. Sinai Temple, Montpelier, for two years and was chairman of the location committee at Chicago in 1880. In 1891 he re- ceived the appointment of second provincial grand marichal of the order of Scotland, H. R. M., for the. United States, August 25, by III. Josiah 11. Drummond, of Maine; he is also an honorary member of Medinah Temple, Chicago, Illinois, and a member of the Masonic Veterans' Association of Vermont, and an honorary mem- ber of Islam Temple of San Francisco. In poli- tics Mr. Heaton has always been a consistent Democrat and is chairman of the town commit- tee of his native city and one of the commis- sioners of Green Mountain cemetery ; was a mem- ber of the board of selectmen of Montpelier for four years. In the Scottish Rite bodies in' his native city Mr. Heaton holds an honorary posi- tion as charter member of them all, and has at- tended every session of the supreme council of the northern jurisdiction since he received the thirty-third degree grade in 1885 at Boston, Mas- sachusetts.
Charles H. married Sarah L. Morse. only daughter of Edward R. Morse, of Montpelier. Two children have been born to them: Clifton M. and Ruby M.
NORMAN FRANKLIN CABOT. 1
The Cabots are of Norman origin. Among the names on "The Ancient Role," given by Stow (Chronicles of England, John Stow, London, 1632, page 107), of "the Chief Noblemen and Gentlemen Which Came into England with Will- iam the Conqueror," is that of Cabot. Men of that name settled in the island of Jersey at a very early period, and were large landowners. Notice of the family in Jersey in 1273 is to be found in the public records office in London, and of houses built and occupied by them in the carly part of the seventeenth century, when they were holding prominent positions in the community. There are still two parishes inhabited exclusively by Cabots, a race which in numbers and social cus- toms is not unlike a Scottish clan.
Some time in the latter half of the seventeenth century Francois Cabot, of St. Trinity, Jersey, a large landowner and wealthy man, married Su- sanne Grouchy, who belonged to the same family
which a century later gave to the world the fam- ous Marshal Grouchy, whose military laurels were won on almost every battlefield of the re- public, the empire and the restoration, but is chiefly known by the distinction which attended him as a commander in the army of Napoleon. The American branch of the family traces its descent through the following generations :
George and Jean Cabot (1), sons of Francois and Susanne (Grouchy) Cabot, emigrated to New England about the year 1670, the former becom- ing the ancestor of "the Connecticut River Cab- ots," as they have been called, and the descend- ants of Jean remaining in or near Boston. George Cabot married very advantageously, uniting him- self with Abigail, daughter of Benjamin and Abigail (Veren) Marston, of Salem, Massachu- setts. A son and a daughter survived him.
Marston Cabot (2), son of George and Abi- gail (Marston) Cabot, was graduated at Harvard College in the class of 1724, entered the ministry and took charge of a parish in Killingly, Con- necticut, in 1729. He there married, in 1731, Mary, daughter of the Rev. Josiah and Mary (Partridge) Dwight, of Dedham, Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Cabot were the parents of thirteen children. That the former attained to some dis- tinction as a preacher seems to be indicated by the fact that some of his sermons were published. He died before reaching his fiftieth year.
Marston Cabot (3), son of Marston and Mary (Dwight) Cabot, migrated with his broth- er Sebastian to Hartland, Vermont, where the two followed the occupation of farmers. Mars- ton Cabot owned a tract of four thousand acres. He married Mary Levina, daughter of Noah Sa- bin, of Pomfret, Connecticut, and was the father of five children, of whom four were named as follows: Marston, mentioned at length herein- after ; Levina, who became the wife of Alba Lull, of Hartland ; Sophia, who married Thomas Boyn- ton, of Windsor; and Calista, who married, first, David Smith, of Windsor, and second, Sam- uel Patrick.
Marston Cabot (4), son of Marston and Mary Levina (Sabin) Cabot, inherited a considerable farm as his share of the paternal estate. From the fact that he held the office of county surveyor, it is presumable that he was a man of some scientific knowledge, and as he is mentioned in
Norman F. Gabon
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the record as Captain Marston Cabot, it is evi- dent that he rendered, at some period of his life, military service. He married Mary, daughter of Jonathan and Polly ( Maes) Rogers, living at Springfield, Vermont, who were of the Scotch- Irish emigration that settled in Londonderry, New Hampshire, between 1718 and 1730. Cap- tain and Mrs. Cabot passed their lives on their farm in Hartland, where nine children were born to them, all of whom removed from New Eng- land in early life, going westward or to the south, except the seventh son, Norman Franklin, who finally returned to his native state.
Norman Franklin Cabot (5), seventh son of Marston and Mary (Rogers) Cabot, was born January 20, 1821, in Hartland, Vermont. He was a very energetic and ambitious boy, both in work and play. At the age of nine he lived for a year with his uncle, Ephraim Rogers, in Spring- field, Vermont, doing a man's work on his farm. Later he was at school in Woodstock, and from there, in 1836, went south-a long journey in those days for a boy of fifteen to take alone- to Mr. Bailey, a native of Woodstock, who was of the firm of Bailey & Hamilton, merchants at El- berton, Georgia. Mr. Bailey made him one of his own household, treating him as a son, and in re- turn young Cabot worked for Bailey & Hamilton in any capacity that tended to the promotion of their interests. The first year he rode on horse- back a thousand miles through the gulf states. Messrs. Bailey & Hamilton said he was the best clerk they ever had in their employ, and when, in 1839, he decided to go to Wetumpka, Ala- bama, on the Coosa river, fourteen miles from Montgomery, in order that he might be at the head of a business of his own, they made every possible effort to keep him in Elberton, recom- mending him to a fine position in the bank of the place. In Wetumpka he led a mercantile life for seventeen years, under five different partnerships. The merchants of those days in the south had an extensive field for operations, being the medium of supply and exchange for the surrounding plantation country. In 1844 Francis W. Brooks, son of Captain William S. Brooks (retired from the sea ; of the Medford, Massachusetts, Brooks family), of Chesterfield, New Hampshire, and Brattleboro, Vermont, went to Alabama to set- tle a business claim, and remained there. He soon
entered into a business relationship with Mr. Cabot, under the name, Cabot, Tullis & Company. This was the beginning of a life-long connection with the Brooks family. The firm dissolved in 1850, when Mr. Cabot decided to try his chances in California, whither he went with George J. Brooks in 1851, the year following the gold ex- citement. On this trip they crossed the Isthmus of Panama on foot. Mr. Cabot entered with his usual zeal into the rough mining and camping life of the California of that period, but returned to Wetumpka the following year, and, on De- cember 13, 1853, married Miss Lucy T. Brooks, who had joined her brother Francis in Alabama after the death of their mother. His business in Wetumpka was checked at one time by fire, and again by flood, but he started afresh with as much courage as if nothing of serious import had oc- curred, displaying on these occasions the remark- able recuperative power and cheerfulness in the face of disasters which distinguished him through the whole course of his life. His last partnership, that of Houghton, Allen & Company, included Mr. Albert F. Houghton, one of the founders of the publishing house of Houghton, Osgood & Company.
Mr. Cabot had a great love for the southern people, with whom his best years had been spent, and where his deepest attachments had been formed, although his political sympathies were altogether with the north. He was never a slave- holder. He at no time concealed his views con- cerning the evil of slavery, or his belief in the Union, but, while consistently and fearlessly holding the attitude of a Union man in the bitter ante-bellum days, he succeeded, where most failed, in keeping secure his friendships with men and women of the south.
Realizing the need of change from continual business activity in a warm climate, Mr. Cabot decided to return to Vermont in 1857, and set- tled in Brattleboro, the home of Mrs. Cabot's family, where he built his present residence at 6 Terrace street, and where he bought the land in the Connecticut river opposite, known as "the island." This land he purchased for a farm. He lost heavily through unpaid debts in the south, consequent upon the opening of the war. In 1861 a flood washed away his farm, and in 1862 he was glad to accept an offer to manage the whole-
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sale paper house of his three brothers-in-law, do- ing business under the firm name of George J. Brooks & Company. This firm, which had its establishment in San Francisco, was the largest house in its line of business on the Pacific coast, and steadily controlled, by methods of sound en- terprise and strict integrity, the trade in paper as far west as the Sandwich islands. The fortunes of the three Brooks brothers had been gained through this business. Mr. Cabot made such a snecess of his undertaking that he retired again, in 1805. to Brattleboro, and led there a life of leisure for seven years. But further losses in in- vestments in insurance companies, following the great fires in Chicago and Boston, brought about his acceptance of the treasurership of the Ver- mont Savings Bank in the autumn of 1872. This position he held until January 1, 1902, when he resigned on account of advancing years, his eighty-first birthday coming at the end of the same month. Under his guidance the bank grew. from one of $1,200,000 to an institution of more than $3.500,000, deposits, eventually becoming the second largest in the state. This growth was maintained through all panics elsewhere, and in spite of the multiplication of cleven other banks in the immediate vicinity of Brattleboro, and was due to Mr. Cabot's judgment, faithfulness and high ideal of his responsibilities to an institution of trust.
Whatever success has been attained by Mr. Cabot as a business man has been largely owing to the unusual concentration of mind which he brought to bear upon it, and also to the amount of time which he devoted to it. During the twenty- nine years he was treasurer of the Vermont Sav- ings Bank he took only one vacation of three days, for the purpose of attending the funeral of his mother. He was always in the bank half an hour before the time of opening, and remained in his office long after its closing hours. His heart was always in his work. His remarkable memory was also a great element in his success.
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