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 64

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 64

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him in effigy, and threatened to burn his house. But he was the kind of man to thrive on persecu- tion, and he lived to see his principles adopted both in anti-slavery and temperance.

In his home the strictest Puritan ideals pre- vailed. His wife and he denied themselves of everything but necessities in order to save money for missionaries and the poor. The Sabbath was kept with a strictness which scrupled at even the picking of a flower, and the head of the house had all a Puritan's dislike for games. Yet strict and plain as was their way of life, a noble and un- selfish generosity was at its heart. The children were trained both by precept and example to be God-fearing, obedient to authority, and public- spirited. Sylvester Morris was full of tenderness for his little ones, and his liberality toward his sons, when they came to maturity, was one of their most precious inheritances. He had a long old age. At sixty he gave up active business, and at seventy he lost his wife, whom he mourned with a passionate and lasting grief. In his last years the more genial side of his nature had time for development. He was fond of reading, spent his winters in the city, and took much pleasure in his grandchildren and one great-grandchild. His personal needs were attended to by a faith- ful daughter, to whom in the end he rendered a most loving and touching obedience. He died in September, 1886, ten days before his eighty- ninth birthday.

The children of Sylvester and Susanna (Wes- ton) Morris were: Huldah Weston, born April 20, 1823, at Randolph, Vermont, died October II, 1849, at Norwich, Vermont ; Susan Jackson, born July 23, 1825, at Randolph, Vermont, mar- ried E. B. Kellogg, and died November 4, 1900, at Hanover, New Hampshire ; Joseph, born May 24, 1827, at Barnard, Vermont, died March 4, 1833, at Strafford, Vermont; Edward Weston, born December 5, 1829, at Strafford, Vermont, married M. L. Fry, of Troy, New York; Ephraim, born May II, 1832, at Strafford, mar- ried A. M. Nickerson, of South Dennis, Massa- chusetts, died August 29, 1901 ; Lucy Pamela, born February 5, 1835, at Strafford, died May 27, 1870, at Norwich, Vermont ; Joseph Sylves- ter, born April 23, 1838, at Norwich, Vermont, died October 17, 1839, at Norwich ; George Syl- vester, born November 15. 1840, at Norwich. Ver-

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mont, married Victoria Celle, died March 23, 188, Those of these children who reached ma. tunity followed a blue eyed, nervous, energetic type, some of them scholars, others of marked es- ecutive ability, and all touched with their moth - er's sensibility of temperament.

Of Ephraim, the fifth of the group, it is fitting to speak here. From childhood he showed marked talents for business, even in his boyhood being a great worker, careful of money, deserving of trust, and altogether a boy after his father's heart. He was educated at Thetford Academy and Norwich University, where he was a student for perhaps two years. At eighteen he went to Boston with the' determination of becoming a Boston leather merchant. As a clerk in the house of B. P. Spaulding & Company, Pearl street, wholesale dealers in leather, he saved money and earned advancement. He was a mem- ber of Park Street church and of the Young Men's Mercantile Library, and had only to keep on as he had begun in order to reach the goal he had set before himself. His plan of life was altered by the dissolution of the firm under which he had a situation, and by his father's ill health and excessive business anxieties. These led him back to Vermont in the winter of 1854, when he was in his twenty-second year, and to the occu- pation in which he was to spend most of his life, namely, the development of the water priv- ilege owned by his father at Hartford, Vermont. Sylvester Morris had bought in 1849 the grist mill and its accompanying water power on the north side of White river, and in 1853 had added thereto the burned-out Lyman cotton mill with its water right on the south side of the river. On the arrival of his son he threw all his cares upon him, and a year later, when an elder son, Edward Weston Morris, became associated in the business, he withdrew entirely from active business life.

The firm of E. W. and E. Morris at first ground plaster, which was brought from Nova Scotia via Salem, and sold for fertilizing pur- poses. They soon added machinery, by which they got out their stock and presently manufac- tured chairs, which were sold mostly to the South American trade. This they continued with profit until 1874, when, owing to the increasing diffi- culty of getting suitable lumber, the business

ceased to be lucrative. Ephraim Morris then became a stockholder and the business manager of the Oftaquechee Woolen Company at North Hartland, Vermont, to the building up of which enterprise he gave the best energies of his life. He added to it in 1886 an interest in and the genral oversight of a woolen mill at Hartford, Vermont, built on the site of the chair factory and old Lyman cotton mill. His position was that of the man or men in any manufacturing town on whom the use of the chief natural re- source of the locality depends, a position whose difficulties are rarely comprehended, and whose price is always somebody's best energy and vital force. To his business status in Hartford he added an interest in the moral and religious uplifting of the town which bespoke his descent. He had no taste for politics, and with one ex- ception held no public office which did not di- rectly concern the interests of law and order. As grand juror he for many years kept his imme- diate vicinity clear of liquor-sellers, poolrooms, and places of low resort. In church affairs he was long prominent, and always gave liberally for church purposes. The thing he cared most for in the community was a public library, which he built and endowed, and for the success and right use of which he gave also much per- sonal labor and attention. His high ideal for community life was but the reflex of the zeal he manifested for his own self-improvement. By nature he was fond of flowers, of children, and of music. He bought many books, liked pic- tures, and took much pleasure in adorning his home. His business took him regularly to Bos- ton and New York, and with his earliest pros- perity he traveled periodically for pleasure. He went to California almost as soon as the Union Pacific could take him, and he crossed the ocean three times, his last trip being to Egypt and Palestine. Of his travels and the people he met in traveling he always enjoyed talking, and in the course of his journeys he made many of the most valued friendships of his life. On his oriental journey he made the acquaintance of Andrew Carnegie, whom he greatly liked and always admired. In 1896 he represented the town in the legislature. He was a director and for some years vice president of the National Bank at White River Junction, a member of the Ver-

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mont Historical Society, and in 1897 received the honorary degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from Norwich University.

In his young manhood, six months after he was settled in business at Hartford, he married Almira Miller Nickerson, of South Dennis, Mass- achusetts, who by both her father and mother (her mother was a Chase) was descended from first settlers of Barnstable county. Their chil- dren were two daughters, to whom it was his great pleasure to give the advantages of educa- tion and travel. Through them he was interested in Smith College, at Northampton, Massachu- setts, where one of the college houses bears his name. He was happy in his home, and by the marriages of his daughters was assured of the continuance of the business enterprises which he had built up. In temperament he was nervous, and all his life had a delicate throat and suffered from dyspepsia. At sixty began the nervous de- cline which ended his life. He died August 29, 190I, at the age of sixty-nine. The children of Ephraim and Almira (Nickerson) Morris were Kate Eugenia, born September 19, 1857, married Charles Morris Cone, February 16, 1884; Annie Louise, born March I, 1871, married Roland E. Stevens, November 7, 1900. The children of Charles Morris and Kate (Morris) Cone were: Margaret Morris, born December 16, 1889, died January 3, 1900; Morris Huntington, born De- cember 1, 1900; and Alice Weston, born Decem- ber 12, 1902.

THE CONE FAMILY IN VERMONT.

The first Cone in Vermont was SAMUEL, born in 1730, in Haddam, Connecticut, died April 22, 1802, at Westminster, Vermont. He was a son of Caleb, whose father Caleb was the youngest son of Daniel, of Haddam, Connecticut, the first of the name in this country. SAMUEL settled in Westminster, Vermont, before 1770. His wife, Mehitable, born in 1737, died in 1799. They had eleven children, nine of whom lived to be married. The sons were :

Lemuel, born in 1755, married, first, Susanna Norton, and, second, Dolly Parker. He had sev- eral children, one of whom, Andrew Gaylord, born in 1785, had a son Andrew, who was a con- sul in Brazil under Grant and Hayes. From 1796

to 1800 Lemuel appears as a merchant and land- owner in Hartford, Vermont. In 1800 he re- moved to Kingston, now Granville, Vermont, where he held the offices of selectman and lister continuously until his removal in 1806-1808 to Marcellus, Onondaga county, New York. As late as March, 1816, he was living in Caledonia, Gen- esee county, New York. He died in Batavia, New York, in 1824. The names of Lucretia Cone (of Fort Ann, Washington county, New York) and Oliver Cone, at one time a resident of Kingston, appear upon the Kingston records in 1816.

Joshua, born in 1764, married Mary Wright. Their children were Joshua, Jeremiah Whipple, Jason, Mary, Adelaide, Samuel and Lucius.

Samuel, born in 1765, married a Burgess, and died October 12, 1798, at Hartford, Vermont. One child, Patience, was born to them. He was a merchant at "the Point" at Hartford and owned a sawmill at Centerville in the same town. He is buried in the White River Junction cemetery.

John, born April 2, 1770, married Rebecca Sage, a sister of Rev. Sylvester Sage, of West- minster. He appears in Hartford, Vermont, in 1799, as surety for the firms of Lemuel Cone & Company or Samuel Cone & Company of that place. He lived in Woodstock, Vermont, in 1808, removed to New York state in 1812, and died at Clarendon, Orleans county, New York, in 1831. He had one son, Erastus, born March 23, 1798, who married Nancy Thomas, of Wood- stock, born December II, 1801. They lived in Michigan.

Esra T., born in 1773, married Rhoda Lin- coln, and died February 22, 1852. They had three daughters and a son, Tyler L., who died May 14, 1835, aged twenty-six years.

Of the descendants of SAMUEL and Mehitable - Cone none of the name seem to be now living in Vermont. In 1786 a cousin of SAMUEL .. THOMAS, son of Daniel, son of Caleb, son of Daniel, first, came to Westminster from North- ampton, Massachusetts, and in 1796 WILLIAM, brother of THOMAS, came to Westminster from Wheatley, Massachusetts.

WILLIAM was a Revolutionary soldier. He removed to Woodstock, Vermont, in 18II. re- ceived a pension in 1818, was a private in the Woodstock Artillery in 1831 and died in 1834. He had a son, William Meigs, born in 1778, at

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Middletown, Connecticut ; a son Apps who lived married, first, Cyrus Jones, second, James Swin- at Saxton's River, Dumanerston and Putney, Ver- mont ; and a son Robert, born in 1786, died in 1871, with whom he lived in Woodstock. In Dana's "History of Woodstock" WHIJAM CONE is spoken of as "a Revolutionary pensioner, too fond of ancient spirits for his own good." In Woodstock Robert Cone lived at English Mills, where he was a shoemaker and farmer. Dana describes him as a man of singular evenness of temper, who showed careful judgment in all things and made it a matter of conscience never to stay away from freemen's meeting. He lost five children in the years 1841-1843, and left no sons to perpetuate the name. It is from THOMAS Cone of Westminster that the Cones now living in Vermont are descended.

THOMAS CONE (son of Daniel, son of Caleb, of East Haddam, Conecticut) was born in Had- dam, Connecticut, February 2, 1763, and baptized in Middletown, Conecticut, February 8, 1763. He was a tailor by trade. At the age of twenty-one he went to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he found work, stayed two years, and married Mehitable Lyman, March 13, 1786. She was a daughter of John and Abigail Lyman of North- ampton, and was born in 1764. They made their wedding journey on horseback up Connecticut river, stopping at Westminster, where they set- tled permanently. A grandaughter, still living, describes THOMAS CONE as follows: "His com- plexion was florid; he was lively and talkative and quite agile for a man of seventy-one years." Another granddaughter remembered this story of him: On one occasion when the minister preached on infant damnation, Thomas Cone lis- tened quietly until the preacher said, "Hell is lined with infants' skulls," when he marched out of the church stamping with his cane at each step. He lived to the great age of ninety-one years, dying in Westminster, April 12, 1854; his wife, Mehitable Lyman, died October II, 1827. The children of THOMAS and Mehitable Lyman Cone were: Thomas, born May 5, 1787, married Olive Lane, died January 22, 1858, in New Hampshire; Robert, born November 27, 1788, married Fanny Royce, died December 30, 1814, at Westminster ; Morris, born October 6, 1790, married Lydia Farrington, died May 29, 1846, at Hartford, Vermont ; Laura, born March 13, 1793,

ton, died February 13, 1879; Theodore, born October 11, 1795, married Eliza Wooley, died August 25, 1852, in Illinois; John, born October 7, 1797, married Luncinda Rand, died June 2, 1879, in Illinois: James, also born October 7, 1797, married Catherine Cuyler, died October 24, 1861, in Westminster; Stephen, born Feb- ruary 2, 1800, married Sally Pratt, died Novem- ber 1, 1885, in Illinois ; Charles, born March 4, 1802, married Martha Dean, died November 7, 1876, in Illinois ; Eliza, born December 13, 1805, married Lyman Haywood, died in 1848. Of this family two, Thomas and Morris, have de- scendants of the name of Cone still living in Ver- mont. The children of Thomas Cone and Olive Lane were twelve in number, ten of whom were living in 1899. Of the sons, H. S. Cone, eighty- five years of age, is now (1903) living in As- cutneyville, Vermont. He has one grandson liv- ing, Volney E. H. Cone, whose home is in As- cutneyville. Another son of Thomas Cone, Ly- man H. Cone, aged seventy-four, lives in Wind- sor, Vermont, and has a son, Frank L., and a grandson, Raymond H., who live in Windsor.

Morris Cone, third son of THOMAS and Me- hitable (Lyman) Cone, was born October 6, 1790, and married, October 12, 1812, Lydia Far- rington, born April 5, 1786, a daughter of Elijah and Elizabeth Farrington, of Athens, the town next west of Westminster. He was a tailor, and at the solicitation of George E. Wales, of West- minster, settled in Hartford, Vermont, where Mr. Wales established himself as a lawyer in 1813. Morris Cone is remembered as of middle size, thick-set and of light complexion. He was a man of wit, and was the life-long friend of Judge Wales. He was a Mason, but had no church connections. He died March 31, 1846, eight years before his father and nineteen years before his wife. She lived to be seventy-nine years of age, was of a nervous temperament, had black eyes and hair, and was tall and thin. Their children were: Lucy, born December 17, 1813, died December 26, 1813; Warren L., born April 7, 1815, married Emily Clement, died October 5, 1867, at North Randolph; Harriet, born Jan- uary 23, 1817, married Luther Pease, died March I, 1888, in Hartford; Mark R., born March 31, 1819, married Harriet Davis, died July 18, 1885,

M. & Leach

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in Hartford ; Luke, born May 23, 1821, died De- cember 26, 1821 ; Achsah, born October 31, 1822, married Jasper Hazen, died March II, 1888, at Woodstock; John, born January 26, 1826, died October 8, 1891, at Woodstock; George E., born May 22, 1829, married Lucinda Hadlock, died March 18, 1895, at Hartford. With the excep- tion of Warren, all the members of the family had the black eyes and hair of their mother, but in temperament for the most part resembled their father. Achsah was a member of the Congrega- tional church. The sons had no church connec- tions and held no public offices. Mark, John and George were Masons. All were honest and hard- working, temperate and prudent, and with a de- cided vein of humor. Mark and John accumu- lated considerable fortunes. Warren had three sons, Frank C., Albert M. and Warren J., who followed his business, that of tanner, at North Randolph, but who are without sons to perpetuate the name.

Mark Richards Cone married Harriet Davis, of North Randolph, Vermont, July 29, 1850. She was a daughter of Jacob Davis and Sarah Hunt- ington, whose brother, Arunah Huntington, of Roxbury, Vermont, and Brantford, Canada, en- dowed the Vermont schools with his fortune. They had one son, Charles Morris, born August 30, 1854, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1875, studied at Johns Hopkins University, 1879- 80, and in Heidelberg, in 1881. He is treasurer and general manager of the Hartford Woolen Company at Hartford, Vermont, and a director in the Ottaquechee Woolen Company at North Hartland, Vermont. He married, February 16, 1884, Kate E. Morris of Hartford. Their chil- dren are: Margaret Morris, born December 16, 1889, died January 13, 1900; Morris Huntington, born December 1, 1890; and Alice Weston, born December 12, 1892.

CAPTAIN MOSES J. LEACH.

Captain Moses J. Leach, an old and influen- tial citizen of Wolcott, Vermont, and a veteran of the Civil war, is a representative of an old and honored family which traces its lineage to one famous in English history, and to another who was of that Puritan stock which is the glory of New England. An ancient ancestor, John

Leach, was a surgeon of Edward III. Upon one occasion, when the kings of France and Scotland were held as prisoners of King Edward, that mon- arch and his two illustrious captives dined at the house of Surgeon Leach. As a token of the incident, King Edward gave to the host three crowns (the largest gold coin of the day), and he afterwards made him a grant of a large tract of land and gave him authority to bear three crowns upon the coat-of-arms of his family.

The American branch of the family was planted at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1689, by Lawrence Leach. His great-grandson, Josiah, was the father of twin sons, Josiah and Jacob. The children of Josiah were Josiah, who settled at Elmore, Vermont; Isaac, Zephaniah, Shubiah and Azariah. The two named Josiah, father and son, served in the French and Indian wars.

A son of Jacob, Sylvanus, was orphaned when a child, in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. He came to Craftsbury, Vermont, where he died, April 12, 1812. He was a carpenter and joiner, and lived for some years in Johnson, Vermont. Jan- uary 13, 1795, he married Jemima Johnson, who died January 4, 1828. Their children were: Lucinda, born February 13, 1798, died Decem- ber 23, 1804. Harriet, born April 12, 1800, died January 14, 1825, married, April 10, 1823, Charles L. Child, born December 5, 1800, a far- mer, and they made their home in Craftsbury ; Malinda, born January 30, 1802, died August 7, 1879, married the widower of her sister Harriet ; Mehala, born April 29, 1804, became the wife of William Gerald; Elbridge Gerry, born January 25, 1806; Ervin, born March 5, 1808; Anna Lu- cinda, born June 19, 181I.

Ervin Leach, of the family last named, was born in Craftsbury, where he received a common school education. He was a farmer, and lived a successful and useful life, residing at Wol- cott from 1847 until his death. He served in a rifle company of the state militia ; he was a Re- publican in politics. He married Mary Ann, daughter of Elijah and Mary Ann Scott. Elijah Scott was a descendant of Benjamin Scott, who was born in 1724, and lived in Sturbridge, Massa- chusetts, until 1777, when he removed to Fitz- william, New Hampshire. His name appears on the tax roll until 1806. He died October 27, 1809, and is probably buried in Sturbridge. He

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was twice married, first to Lydia Thompson, and next to Azuba Cheeny ; the first named bore him four children, and the second seven. Barakiah, his eldest child by his first marriage, was born December 30, 1751. He married Alice Shumway, of Sturbridge, where he lived until 1777, when he removed to Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, and there died, December 8, 1810; his grave is un- marked, but is next to that of Amasa Scott. His widow removed to Craftsbury, where she died in 1816. They were the parents of three children, all born in Fitzwilliam. Their eldest son, Elijah, was born April 21, 1781. In 1810 he removed to Craftsbury, Vermont, where he died October 11, 1840. He married, July 25, 1805, Mindwell Brigham, born April II, 1785, and died May 17, 1863. They were the parents of ten children, of whom Mary Ann, the fourth child and eldest daughter, was the mother of Captain Moses J. Leach.

The children born to Ervin and Mary Ann (Scott) Leach were: (1) Harriet, born August 16, 1835, died April 22, 1892 ; she married James L. Bullock, a prosperous farmer at Wolcott; their daughter, Ann R., married Joel R. Parker, of Morrisville. (2) Moses J., further written of below. (3) Mindwell, born September 22, 1839, died February II, 1858, unmarried. (4) Caro- line, born October 20, 1842; she married Major S. Rollins, of Craftsbury, a farmer, now retired ; he served during the Civil war in the Third Regi- ment, Vermont Volunteers, and yet carries in his body a rifle ball received in the battle of the Wilderness, May 5, 1864. (5) Almon, born September 18, 1844.

Moses J. Leach, of the family last named, was born in Craftsbury, December 22, 1837, and was educated in the common schools of that town and Wolcott, and in the People's Academy at Morrisville. He remained with his father for a year after coming of age, in order to reim- burse the latter for the money expended in his academical training. He then went to Massa- chusetts and obtained employment in a sawmill. He was thus occupied when the Civil war broke out, when he returned to Wolcott, where, on August 16, 1862, he enlisted as a private in Com- pany E, Thirteenth Regiment, Vermont Volun- teers, Colonel Francis V. Randall, and was made corporal when the regiment was mustered into

the service of the United States at Bennington. Ilis regiment was sent to the defense of the na- tional capital, and was put into the works on Capitol Hill, but soon afterwards crossed the Potomac, and participated in the first action at Fairfax Court House, repulsing a raid by the rebel General Stuart. In the terrible battle of Gettysburg, lasting three days, his regiment, a portion of General Stannard's brigade, occupied a position on the left center of the Union line and were General Hancock's front, and bore a brilliant share in the repulse of General Pickett's celebrat- ed charge, although their term of enlistment had previously expired and they could not have been compelled to engage. In this battle, every man from Wolcott in this company, excepting himself, was killed, and the regiment lost one- fifth of its number, killed and wounded. The term of service of his regiment was nine months, but the exigencies of the campaign required that it be held longer, and he was not mustered out until July 23, 1863, and it is to the credit of the command that its splendid behavior at Gettys- burg, the turning point of the Rebellion, was performed after its term of enlistment had ex- pired, and when its service could not be expected except under the promptings of pure patriotism.

On returning home, Captain Leach at once established himself upon a farm and afterwards took up his residence in the village, where he built the first drug store in the place. His prop- erty now includes the farm, which he has de- voted to stock-breeding purposes. ITis specialty is Holstein cattle, and his product commands the highest prices in the best markets. His present herd numbers thirty-seven, headed by the cele- brated thorough-bred Holstein bull, King Sol- dene Clothilde II. His exhibits at the various fairs attract marked attention, and in 1892 re- ceived eleven premiums at the Lamoille County Agricultural Fair. Captain Leach has, during all the years since his return to civil pursuits, borne a useful and prominent part in the conduct of public affairs. He has occupied various local offices, and has served as town clerk continuously from 1872. He was appointed postmaster by President Harrison, and has since served in the same position under the administrations of Presi- dents McKinley and Roosevelt. His first presi- dential vote was cast for Abraham Lincoln, and

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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 64

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