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 II, Part 31

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1044

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 II > Part 31

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1,0

THE STATE OF VERMONT.

Colonel the great great warson of Calendar J. Adamıs.

St. Johnsbury, Vermont, November 7, 1846. At the early age of friteen years he became a soldier in the Civil war, enlisting first for nine months. in the Fifteenth Vermont Volunteer Infantry. He subsequently enlisted in the Fifteenth Massa chusetts Volunteer Infantry, in Company K, and saw hard service in the Gettysburg and Wilder- ness campaigns. At the battle of the Wilder. ness he was wounded and reported dead, and in that engagement was taken prisoner by Colonel Mosby, but soon exchanged. As a result of his army experiences he has been broken in health for many years. He is now in the life insurance business at Lyndonville, Vermont. He married Sylvia C., daughter of Merrill M. Kendall, who was a son of Cephas and Clotilda ( Young ) Ken- dall, and grandson of William. Kendall, who was an officer in the Revolutionary war, serving in a Massachusetts regiment. William Kendall married a Miss Isham, who belonged to a family of considerable distinction in colonial and Revo- lutionary days. Merrill M. Kendall married Emily B. Haynes, a daughter of Stephen C. and Betsey (Gilman) Haynes, of Sheffield, Vermont, and a descendant of a family noteworthy for the many physicians it produced. Of the union of Franklin E. and Sylvia C. ( Kendall) Cob- leigh, two sons were born. Merrill K., a resi- dent of Lyndonville, Vermont, and Rolfe, the subject of this sketch.

Rolfe Cobleigh (5) spent his boyhood days on a farm in Concord, Vermont, completing his early education in St. Johnsbury Academy. Dur- ing his academic course he taught school and did newspaper work for the St. Johnsbury Republi- can and Caledonian, later becoming assistant edi- tor of the former paper. Subsequently, for three years and a half, he occupied the position of deputy county clerk of the Caledonia county court, occupying the clerk's desk when court was in session. In the meantime he studied law. On October 27, 1899, Mr. Cobleigh was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of Vermont, and was in successful legal practice until October, 1902, when he moved to Springfield, Massa- chusetts, and is now a member of the editorial staff of the Springfield Republican. Politically

he is a Republican and fraternally is a member of Passumpsie Lodge No. 27, P. & A. M .: 01 Apollo Lodge No. 2, Is, of P .; of the Vermont Bar Association of Scotia Club; of St. Johns bury Academy Alumni Association, serving as it's president in 1991 and 1902. He helped to organize the Good Order League of St. Johns bury, of which he was president in 1901 and 1902. While in St. Johnsbury he was a mem- ber of the Young Men's Christian Association, and for several years was one of its directorate. He is a member of the South Congregational church of St. Johnsbury.

Mr. Cobleigh married, December 25, 1901, Edna Miner, of St. Johnsbury, who was edu- cated in St. Johnsbury Academy and Mount Holyoke College. Her father, Loren F. Miner, a native of Peacham, Vermont, was a veteran of the Civil war, and is now a scalemaker at St. Johnsbury. He is a son of Ethan and Hulda (Huckins) Miner and comes of English ancestry, the immigrant ancestor, Thomas Miner, coming to America with John Winthrop in 1630, some of his descendants being among the original settlers of Vermont. Loren F. Miner married Lydia A. Smith, a daughter of Thomas F. and Lydia A. (Knight) Smith, and granddaughter of George Smith, who was born and reared in Paisley, Scotland, but after his marriage with Margaret Renfrew, of Renfrewshire, Scotland, emigrated to New England, and settled in Ryegate, Vermont, in 1815.

FRED EARL DUBOIS.

Fred Earl DuBois, assistant cashier of the Randolph National Bank at Randolph, Vermont, was born in this town, June 14, 1857, a son of Royal Turner DuBois, and grandson of Dr. Joseph DuBois. Dr. Joseph DuBois, the first ancestor of this branch of the DuBois family, of whom there is any authetic record, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, August 1, 1775. and died in Randolph, Vermont, June 14, 1840. After studing medicine he began the practice of his profession in Vermont, locating in the town of Braintree about the close of the eighteenth cent- ury. He was very sucessful, becoming one of the most noted physicians in that part of the state, gaining a large patronage as a "country doctor."

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Finally removing to Randolph, he spent his de- clining years here. He married Polly Spear, who was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, Aug- ust 7, 1781, and died October 10, 1853.

Royal Turner DuBois was born July 24, 1825, in Randolph, Vermont. Establishing him- self as a merchant in early manhood, he was en- gaged in mercantile pursuits the greater part of his life, either in Massachusetts or Vermont. Soon after the burning of the Tarbell block in Randolph, which occurred on February 21, 1862, he formed a partnership with Willard Gay, be- coming senior member of the firm of DuBois & Gay, and on the site of the ruins erected a large frame building, in which the firm carried on a successful business until that, too, was destroyed by fire, in 1867. Nothing daunted, however, DuBois & Gay built a large brick block, which is still standing, and for a number of years they were among the leading hardware dealers in this section of the state. Disposing of that business in 1871 to Mr. Jasper H. Lamson, the firm of DuBois & Gay established a private banking business, which they managed with marked success until May, 1875. In that month the Randolph National Bank was established, Mr. DuBois being made cashier, a position that he filled with ability until he resigned in 1895, and continued to be a director until his death, January 10, 1001. He married, March 20, 1854, Luceba D. Jones, who was born in Stockbridge, Vermont, and died June 30, 1894. in Randolph. Two children were born of their union, Fred Earl, the subject of this sketch: and George Edson, born in Northfield, Vermont, August 28, 1861, died in Randolph, Vermont, October 16, 1879.

Fred Earl. DuBois obtained his elementary education in the public schools of Randolph, after which he pursued his studies at Norwich Uni- versity, in Northfield, Vermont, for three years. Returning to Randolph in 1877. he became con- nected with the National Bank, working in subordinate positions and after a few years was made assistant cashier. an office which he filled most acceptably to all concerned until ill health compelled him to resign in 1895. · He is a di- rector and is now assistant cashier. He has likewise been actively interested in the insurance business since 1883. being agent for various fire,

life and accident insurance companies. Politic- ally he is an independent Democrat. For two years, in 1894 and 1895, he held the responsible office of town treasurer, and has been foreman, secretary and treasurer of the volunteer fire de- partment, an organization of which he was also chief engineer for four consecutive years. On March 10, 1887, Mr. DuBois married Miss Belle A. Dudley, a native of Barton, Vermont.

LAFORREST H. THOMPSON.

Laforrest H. Thompson, late of Irasburg, and one of its most exemplary citizens, was taken away in the prime of his manhood after serving nine years on the supreme bench of the state. He was a son of Levi S. Thompson, and on the ma- ternal side was of Scotch-lrish descent, family tradition declaring that his ancestry sustained a collateral relationship with Mary, Queen of Scots, and that in old baronial times the family coat of arms bore the motto "Dum spiro, spero," which in English translation means "While I breathe, I hope." However this fact may be, Mr. Thompson ignored all pride of such ancestry, although his bright and cheerful views of life may have had their foundation in the spirit of the family motto.

Levi S. Thompson was a stonemason by trade, but was engaged to some extent in farm- ing, and for many years was a preacher in the Christian, or Disciples church. Although he had but meager educational advantages as a youth, he early developed a taste for good literature, and. by careful persual of such books as he could bor- row, acquired an education and discipline in style and reasoning that proved of great benefit to him in after years. A man of great intellectual strength especially gifted in the power of invective, he worked against the moral and conventional sins of the day with marked skill. He married Irene Hodgkins, daughter of an early settler of Belvi- dere, Vermont, and a soldier in the war of 1812.

Laforrest H. Thompson was born in Bakers- field, Vermont, January 6, 1848. His father. deeming a college education of but little practical value, he received from him but scant encourage- ment in his pursuit of the higher branches of learning. In 1865, however, he determined to fit himself for the legal profession, beginning

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by taking a course at the Lamoille county gram- mar school, in Johnson. He subsequently taught school several terms, at the same time reading law, and afterward attended the Kimball Union Academy at Meriden, New Hampshire. He was then given an opportunity by a friend to obtain a college education, but on account of frail health, and by the advice of his physician, he abandoned the idea, taking instead a course of study in Eng- lish belles-letters. In March, 1871, he was ad- mitted to the bar in Orleans county, having at that time heard but two cases argued in court, and having no knowledge of court procedure. Opening an office at Irasburg, Vermont, he was successful from the first, and soon had a fine practice, which increased each year, no attorney having a more extensive clientage, and for more than twenty years he was employed in all of the more important cases in the civil and crimi- nal courts of Orleans and adjoining counties. He was state's attorney in 1874 and 1875; from 1876 until 1881 he served as judge of probate ; in 1880 and 1882 he was a member of the state legislature, serving on the most important com- mittees of the house; in 1884 he was elected senator from Orleans county, and served as president pro tem of the senate; in 1891 he was again representative to the legislature. He was also elected judge of the Vermont supreme court in 1891, and served on the bench with great credit until his death, in June, 1900. Judge L. H. Thompson was one of the strong men of the state, and one of the most influential in enforc- ing the prohibitory liquor law.

He married, August 24, 1869, Mary Eliza, daughter of Hon. A. P. Dutton, of Craftsbury, Vermont, and they became the parents of four children, namely: Margaret E., Mary I., Helen N. and Frank Dutton. Margaret became the wife of George A. Sylvester, of Nashua, New Hampshire. Mary died at the age of fifteen years, and Helen married Harry J. House, of Lyndon- ville Vermont. The mother died March 29, 1880, and Judge Thompson married, August 27, 1881, Miss Helen C. Kinney, of Craftsbury, daughter of Hammond and Amanda (Edson) Kinney. Three children were born of this marriage, of whom two are now living, a daughter, Grace A., dying at the age of one year. The sons, Philip

L. and Sidney H., are students, preparing for college.

Frank Dutton Thompson, son of Laforrest H., was born April 9, 1876, at Irasburg, Ver- mont. He was educated in St. Johnsbury Academy and at the University of Vermont, after which he began the study of law with Judge W. P. Stafford. In June, 1899, he was gradu- ated from the Boston University Law School, and after his admission to the bar, in October, 1899, he began the practice of his profession at St. Johnsbury, where he is winning a good repu- tation for legal skill and ability, and a fair share of patronage.

WALTER PERRIN SMITH.

Walter Perrin Smith, for the past twenty years the popular and efficient probate judge of Caledonia district, has been for more than thirty- four years identified with the bar of Vermont at St. Johnsbury. His parents, John S. and Soph- ronia (Perrin) Smith, were natives of this state. John S. Smith was by trade a blacksmith, but his later years were passed in farming in the town of Hardwick, Caledonia county, where he passed away May 5, 1886, and his wife October 15, 1887. For many years he was active in town af- fairs, especially during the Civil war.

Walter P. Smith was born November 4, 1841, on his father's farm in Hardwick, and received his fundamental education in the district schools there. During his minority, except when attend- ing or teaching school, his life was spent upon the farm. He attended academies at Hardwick and Morrisville and graduated at the University of Vermont in 1867. Of studious mind, he had entered upon a college course purely to obtain knowledge and fit himself for good citizenship. He led his class in college and graduated with honors.

After his graduation, Mr. Smith was for a short time principal of Hardwick Academy, and then took up the study of law, spending one year in the University of Michigan, and subse- quently with Powers & Gleed, attorneys of Mor- risville, and was admitted to the Lamoille county bar in May, 1869. In the autumn of the same year he took up his residence at St. Johnsbury,

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and was for a year a partner of Hon. Jonathan Ross, whose election to the supreme bench in 1870 ended this business relation. Since that time he has practiced alone except for a brief partner- ship, and has won recognition as a lawyer. His ability and popularity are attested by his continu- ous election as probate judge, covering the time continuously since 1882. Judge Smith has also filled several other positions of responsibility, serving as state's attorney for Caledonia county from 1874 to 1876, and represented St. Johnsbury in the state legislature in 1880. He also acted as superintendent of schools under the town sys- tem formerly in vogue. He occupies a prominent position in the financial affairs of his town, having been for some years a director of the Merchants' National Bank, and is now a director tor of the First National Bank, and director, vice-president and member of the board of in- vestors of the Passumpsic Savings Bank.

August 15, 1876, Walter P. Smith was mar- ried to Miss Susan A., daughter of Dr. Perley R. and Louise M. (Lawrence) Holbrook, of St. Johnsbury. Judge Smith has one son, Robert H. Smith, born August 8, 1879. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1902, and is now em- ployed in a confidential capacity by E. & T. Fairbanks & Co., the world-known scale manu- facturers of St. Johnsbury. Judge Smith is a member of the North Congregational church of St. Johnsbury, in which he holds official position. He is a life-long Republican, and ever ready to foster its principles in any honorable way. He has been valuable in political campaigns, being a ready and forceful speaker, and making many addresses to voters on current topics of con- tention and interest.

ALONZO SYLVESTER LIBBEY.

The American ancestor of this branch of the Libbey family was John Libbey, who was born in England about the year 1602, and settled in the state of Maine. Anthony Libbey, son of John Libbey, was born in Scarboro, Maine, in 1649. He married Sarah Drake, born August 20, 1656. He was a carpenter by trade and a prominent man in those days. Isaac Libbey, son of Anthony and Sarah (Drake) Libbey, was born about 1690 in Hampton, New Hampshire. He was a

farmer in the town of Rye, New Hampshire, and was a man of ability.

Isaac Libbey, son of Isaac Libbey by his mar- riage with Mary, was born in the town of Rye, New Hampshire, February 28, 1725. He mar- ried Ann Symmes, February 5, 1748. He was a farmer and owned a grist mill, and served as selectman and held other offices. He died August 28, 1810.

Bennett Libbey, son of Isaac and Ann (Symmes) Libbey was probably born in Rye, New Hampshire, in January, 1754. He married Eleanor Haynes, of Epsom, who was born May II, 1750. He was a soldier of the Revolution,. and was engaged in the battle of Bunker Hill. He died in September, 1837, and his wife on November 12, 1808. Isaac Libbey, their son,. was born November 14, 1779, in Epsom, New Hampshire. He married Sally Bayles, of Tun- bridge Vermont. He was a carpenter and mill- wright, and lived in Strafford, Vermont, until the date of the death of his wife, May 17, 1830, when the family was broken up, and he lived with his children and died in May, 1847, in Richmond, Vermont. He was a soldier in the war of 1812.

Alonzo Libbey, son of Isaac and Sally (Bayles) Libbey, was born in the town of Straf- ford, Vermont, February 22, 1818. He re- ceived his education at the district schools. He was employed in the mills at Northfield and Gouldsville for a time, and then followed farm- ing in the town of Berlin, Vermont, the remain -- der of his life. In politics he was a Republican. He married, April 22, 1849, Louisa W. Ayres, of Berlin, Vermont. She was born November 17, 1823. He died November 6, 1898.

Alonzo Sylvester Libbey, son of Alonzo and Louisa W. (Ayres) Libbey, was born in the town of Northfield, Washington county, Vermont, Sep- tember 9, 1854. His education was received in the public schools and the seminary at Montpe- lier, Vermont. At the age of fourteen years he- located on the farm where he now resides, in the town of Berlin, with his father's family, and has always followed farming and dairying. In poli- tics he is a Republican, and has served on the board of selectmen for the town of Berlin. He was a charter member of the Dog River Valley Grange, organized in 1874. He married, April

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THE STATE OF VERMONT.

2. 1885 Louise Chamberlain, daughter of Na thamniet and Msta An cshermano Chamberlain, of West Meath, Ontario, Canada. She was born May 20. 1850. They have one daughter, Myra Sherman, both in Berlin, Vermont. August 19. 1803. Mr. Libbey is one of the worthy and re spected citizens of his town, and has ever borne & bull share in aiding those causes and institu - bons which mark the well ordered Christian com munity.

HENRY BIGELOW SHAW.

Henry Bigelow Shaw, of Burlington, Ver- mont, is a representative of an old and honored New England family, and is the third in lincal descent to embrace the legal profession. His . Bigelow Shaw, and Fanny Laura Shaw, who be- grandfather, George Bradford Shaw, was born came the wife of Willard Pope, of Detroit, Mich- igan. February 14. 1800, in Dummerston, Vermont. He came to Burlington and entered the Uni- Henry Bigelow Shaw was born in Burling- ton, Vermont, November 30, 1873. He began his education in the public schools, and subse- quently entered the University of Vermont, from which he graduated in 1896. He afterwards went to Denver, Colorado, where he read law for a year and then went to the Pacific coast, where he traveled for several months. Returning home in 1897 he entered the Harvard law school, from which he graduated in 1900 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. For two years thereafter he practiced his profession in Detroit, Michigan, re- turning to Burlington in September, 1902, when he entered upon practice in that city. In De- cember, 1902, he was appointed lecturer on com- mercial law in the University of Vermont. versity of Vermont, from which he graduated at the age of nineteen years. He then became a tutor in the university, and meantime prose- cuted his law studies. On attaining his major- ity he entered upon practice in Danville, Ver- mont, and was so engaged for ten years, when he removed to Lowell, Massachusetts, and thence to Buckingham, Canada. At the latter named place he conducted a store owned by his father- in-law, Levi Bigelow, who was extensively en- gaged in a lumber business. In 1836 he returned to Burlington, Vermont, where he was actively engaged in his profession until the time of his death. He was court reporter for several years, and edited, 1839-40, two volumes of the Ver- mont supreme court reports. He was also trus- Mr. Shaw married, June 20, 1901, Fanny D. Grinnell, a daughter of Dr. A. P. Grinnell, a prominent physician of Burlington. Of this marriage has been born a daughter, Elizabeth Grinnell. tee of the University of Vermont, 1849-53. His first wife was Susan Maria Griswold, who died in 1823. In 1830 he married Nancy Howard Bigelow, born in Derby Line, Vermont. His death occurred December 1, 1853.

William Goodhue Shaw, eldest of six chil- dren born to the parents last named, was born in Danville, Vermont, August 9, 1831, and died at Burlington August 9, 1892. He graduated from the University of Vermont in 1849, and then studied law, becoming a most successful prac- titioner, and succeeded his father in two im- portant positions-that of court reporter, in which capacity he edited volumes 30-35, Ver-

mont supreme court reports, and that of trus- tee of the University of Vermont, 1881-1892. Previously, in 1865, he had been elected city at- torney, and city judge from 1800 to 1872. He was also director of the Burlington Savings Bank, treasurer of the Protestant Episcopal dio- cose of Vermont, and was prominent in Masonic circles. He married Mary Alice Bissell, born in Troy, New York, a daughter of William H. A. and Martha C. (Moulton) Bissell. Her father was the reverend Protestant Episcopal bishop of Vermont, a sketch of whose life appears in this work, and her mother was a descendant of the well known Chase family of New Hampshire. Of her marriage to Mr. Shaw were born three children : William, who died in infancy ; Henry

WILLIAM HENRY AUGUSTUS BISSELL. D. D.

The Right Rev. Dr. William Henry Augustus Bissell, bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church of Vermont, was born in Randolph, Ver- mont. November 10, 1814. The ancestry of Bishop Bissell is of the best British blood, and is characterized by the best traits of ster- ling Puritan piety and morality. John Bissell,

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THE STATE OF VERMONT.

first immigrant of the name and founder of the New England family, was a citizen of East Wind- sor, Connecticut, prior to the year 1648, in which he received the grant of a ferry across the Con- necticut river. John Bissell, his son, of whom little is known, married a daughter of Israel Mason. His son, John Bissell, third of that name, maried Sarah Loomis, by whom he became the father of a large family. Daniel Bissell, son of John Bissell, third, was born in 1698, and mar- ried Jerusha Fitch. His son, Daniel Bissell, sec- ond, was married twice, and by his second wife was the father of Ezekiel Bissell, who was a physician by profession, and who, on the 3Ist of May, 1796, married Elizabeth Washburn, by whom he became the father of three sons and three daughters. He died May 13, 1824.

William H. A. Bissel!, son of Ezekiel and Elizabeth ( Washburn) Bissell, was nurtured in the faith and practice of Congregationalism. At the age of twelve years he entered the Orange county grammar school in Vermont, and in 1832 matriculated at the State University, from which he graduated in 1836. Obedient to clear and deep convictions of duty, he offered himself as a candidate for the sacred ministry in the Prot- estant Episcopal church in the diocese of Ver- mont. Becoming a classical teacher, and also a theological student in the Vermont Episcopal Institute, under Bishop Hopkins, he taught and studied therein until the spring of 1837, when he fell sick and resigned his position. In October of the same year he had sufficiently recovered to be able to assume the duties of teacher of classics in Detroit, Michigan. These duties he dis- charged until August, 1838. In the following September he began to teach in the Troy Epis- copal Institute, New York, and continued his labors therein until the early part of 1841.

---

While thus occupied Mr. Bissell received or- dination to the deaconate in Calvary church, New York, on the 29th of September, 1839, from the hands of Bishop Benjamin T. Onderdonk. He was also ordained priest by the same prelate in Christ church, Troy, in July, 1840. Ministerial functions had been exercised by him as assistant in Christ church from the time of his ordination as deacon. On the Ist of January, 1841, he took charge of Trinity church, in West Troy; closed his connection with the school in the spring of

1842, and discharged the parochial duties of rec- tor until July, 1845. In November of the latter year he removed to western New York, and of- ficiated as rector of Grace church, Lyons, for three months. Next he was called to the pastoral charge of Trinity church, Geneva, and retained that office until after his election to the Episco- pal diocese of Vermont, on the IIth of March. 1868. In addition to the manifold duties grow- ing out of his parocial relations, he conducted a very successful mission to the colored people in Geneva, from 1853 to 1868.

Neither splendid erudition nor brilliant ora- tory had any connection with his election to the episcopate. Those in whom the power of election was vested sought rather for one who was fa- miliar with the characteristics of the people, who thoroughly understood and appreciated their spiritual needs, and who would not fail to feed judiciously "the flock of Christ, which He hath purchased with His own blood." Dr. Bissell's laboriously acquired reputation drew attention and confidence to him, and upon him the choice of the majority rested. He was consecrated by the bishops of Michigan, Connecticut, New York, Maine and western New York, in Christ church. Montpelier, in presence of the diocesan conven- tion, on the 3rd of June, 1868. Since his assump- tion of the pastoral oversight of his diocese he has confined himself as closely as health would allow to his official duties, and has published lit- tle besides his Annual Addresses to his conven- tion, till May 14, 1893.

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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 II, Part 31

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed Publication date: 1903 Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1044

Author: Carleton, Hiram, 1838- ed
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1044