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 7

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

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THE STATE OF VERMONT.

this country having come over with the Puri- tans.

Dr. Henry A. Crandall attended the common schools of Hartford, and later pursued a Latin and English course in the Kimball Union Acad- emy at Meriden. New Hampshire, from which institution he was graduated. He was engaged as a teacher in his native town one term in 1853, and also during three terms each successive win- ter in Middleboro, Massachusetts. Choosing the medical profession as his life vocation, in Au- gust, 1856, he began the study of medicine with his uncle, Dr. Hiram Crandall, in Gaysville, Ver- mont, and in March, 1857, he matriculated in the Castleton Medical College, where he was under the competent preceptorship of Dr. Adrian T. Woodward. He graduated from that institution in June, 1859, with the degree of Doctor of Med- icine, and the following month he formed a co- partnership with Dr. George B. Armington, of Pittsford, Vermont. After having dissolved this connection, Dr. Crandall, in March, 1861, began practicing in Shelburne and remained there for one year, after which, at the earnest solicitation of Professor Joseph Perkins, of Castleton, Ver- mont, professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the medical department of the University of Ver- mont, he formed a partnership with him for the practice of medicine and surgery in Castleton, Vermont. In 1864 he was appointed assistant surgeon at the Sloane General Hospital in Mont- pelier, Vermont, where until the close of the war his duty was to care for the wounded soldiers of the Union army. In 1865 he established an office in Burlington, Vermont, and devoted considerable attention to diseases of women and children, in the treatment and cure of which he was very suc- cessful. Dr. Crandall has served as a member of the medical staff of the Home for Destitute Chil- dren in Burlington, being for fifteen years the only medical attendant ; in January, 1881, he was appointed on the medical staff of Mary Fletcher Hospital, in which capacity he served for seven years. Dr. Crandall also fills the office of medical examiner for various insurance companies, includ- ing the Connecticut Mutual, Equitable, Vermont Life and others, and for three years he was med- ical referee of the Equitable for the district in- cluding Vermont and northern New York. In 1891 he was appointed health officer of the city

of Burlington by the city council, and during his tenure of the office he instituted many sanitary improvements, such as the extension of the intake into the deep lake three miles from the outlet of the sewer, the removal of dumping grounds and the improvement of sewerage, and in this manner he placed Burlington in excellent sanitary condi- tion.

Dr. Crandall was one of the original members of the Burlington Medical and Surgical Club, which was organized in 1872, and for which he acted as secretary for several years; he is also a member of the Burlington Clinical Society and the State Medical Society. About the year 1878 Dr. Crandall became a member of Green Moun- tain Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, but in February, 1882, he with seventeen others became charter members of a new organization called Hamilton Lodge; he still retains his mem- bership in this lodge, having held all the high offices in the body, including that of noble grand. In his political affiliations Dr. Crandall is a be- liever in the principles of the Republican party, but has not the time or inclination to take any active part in politics.

On January 23, 1861, Dr. Crandall married Miss Esther Frances Storrs, a daughter of Dea- con John S. and Fanny (Crandall) Storrs, of Royalton, Vermont, descendants of an old and honored Scotch ancestry. Mrs. Crandall is a very accomplished lady, having acquired her educa- tion at the seminary conducted by Mrs. J. H. Worcester in Burlington. One child has been born of this union: Fanny Mary Crandall, who is unusually gifted and talented. The family are earnest and active members of the First Bap- tist church of Burlington, Vermont, Dr. Crandall having officiated for twelve years in the capacity of deacon.

HENRY M. McFARLAND.

The descent of the Clan MacFarlane, from which Mr. Henry M. McFarland, of Hyde Park, Vermont, traces his genealogical line, is clearly established to be from the ancient earls of the district in which their possessions were situated by a charter still extant. The ancestor of the MacFarlanes was Gilchrist, brother of Malduin, third Ear! of Lennox, proof of which is found

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THE STATE OF VERMONT.

in the above named charter, by which he gives to his brother Gilchrist a grant of "Arrochar," which estate continued in the possession of the Clan for six hundred years, until its sale, in 1784.

A great-grandson of Gilchrist, brother of Maldium, an heir in the line, was named Partho- lan (Gaelic for Bartholomew), which soon came to be written Pharlan and Pharlane (Mac, i. e. the son of), MacPharlan and MacPharlane, which was aspirated or softened into MacFarlan or MacFarlane and was adopted as the patrony- mical surname of the Clan, notwithstanding the fact that for three descents before this they had been known as MacGilchrists.

In 1608, when the Clan MacFarlane was de- creed rebels by law, many of them fled to the north of Ireland, settling in the County London- derry, and thenceforth, with others who fled from Scotland to Ireland about this time, were called Scotch-Irish. From a peculiarity of Irish pro- nunciation the final "e" was changed to "d," giv- ing us MacFarland. Of what stuff these Scotch- Irish were made, their after history bears ample evidence.

Among the Scotch-Irish emigrants who land- ed in Boston in the year 1718, coming from Ire- land, was Nathen McFarland. His son, Moses McFarland, was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire, February 19, 1738. In 1759, when he was twenty-one years of age, he was fighting with the British at Quebec on the memorable day when General Wolfe was slain in the hour of victory. September 3, 1765, he married Eunice Clark, who was born September 23, 1748, and was a descendant of James Clark, one of the original settlers of Londonderry, New Hamp- shire. He enlisted in the Revolutionary army, April 23, 1775, and was captain of a company of Colonel John Nixon's regiment, which partici- pated in the battle of Bunker Hill. He was pro- moted to major, and when General Washington visited New England, in the year 1789, he was appointed by the citizens of Haverhill to wait on the general at Salem and invite him to visit Hav- erhill. To this the General agreed on condition that he, Major McFarland, would first accom- pany him to Newburyport, Portsmouth and Ex- eter. They visited those places together, and after the visit in Haverhill the General requested the Major to accompany him to Worcester, where

they parted. During the winter following this visit General Washington sent to Major McFar- land thirteen cartridges, charged with forty quar- ter-dollars each, accompanied with the following note :

"Dear Sir:

"When this you see, remember an old Soldier. "GEORGE WASHINGTON."

Osgood McFarland, son of Moses McFar- land, was born August 8, 1781, and died July 21, 1865. He married Mary Bartlett, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, September 14, 1806. She died at Waterville, Vermont, where her husband had removed in early life, June 5, 1861.

Moses McFarland, son of Osgood McFarland, was born June 25, 1821, and, in his eighty-third year, is still very active. October 22, 1849, he married Livonia A. Leach, who was born in Waterville, Vermont, May 29, 1820, and died May 22, 1889. For his second wife he mar- ried Julia Howard, with whom he now resides in Waterville, Vermont.

Moses McFarland enlisted in the war of the Rebellion in September, 1861, serving as a line officer in the Eighth Vermont Regiment until the close of the war, being mustered out of the ser- vice in June, 1865. His regiment was assigned to the Gulf Department under General B. F. But- ler. He was at the taking of New Orleans, and participated in the forty-three-days-siege of Port Hudson. On the 8th of January, 1863, Captain McFarland, with thirty-five men, drove a force of Confederates, consisting of eighty-five men and two pieces of artillery, from their rifle-pits, taking twenty-eight prisoners, including their commander, who surrendered to Captain Mc- Farland his sword and pistols. After the en- gagements he gave the weapons to his superior officer, who looked them over with curiosity and returned them to Captain McFarland, saying : "I think your conduct to-day has shown that you are quite as capable of taking care of them as anyone." This action and the strategy made use of that night, in lighting long lines of fires, indi- cating the encampment of a large army, caused the Confederates to desert their fortifications and burn the gun-boat "Cotton," the last of their fleet in these waters, giving the Union forces a victory of no small significance.

In July, 1864, after the return of the regi-

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THE STATE OF VERMONT.

ment to New Orleans from furlough granted on Company in 1886, and its first vice-president, re-enlistment, it was ordered to report for service under General P. H. Sheridan in the Sheman death Valley, in Virginia, and participated in every battle in the following campaign in the valley. At the battle of Winchester Captain Me Farland was carried onto the field in an ambu- lance, and, against the orders of General Thomas, fought all day and marched twenty miles after the battle, pursuing the enemy fleeing up the valley. On October 19, 1864, was fought the battle of Cedar Creek, twenty miles from Win- chester, Virginia, one of the most noted of the war, during a part of which battle, after the wounding of Major Mead, Captain McFarland commanded the regiment. The experience of the Eighth Vermont in this battle was one of the most sanguinary of the war. Out of a total of 164 men engaged, in less than an hour of the early morning of that terrible day, the regiment lost IIO men killed, wounded or prisoners, and thir- teen out of sixteen commissioned officers. This percentage of loss was but once equalled by any Vermont regiment during the war.

The five children of Moses and Livonia Mc- Farland were: Lewis, born March 21, 1851, died August 7, 1851; Henry Moses, born August 5. 1852; Fred Harley, born March 9, 1854 : Burton, born June 23, 1856, died July 14, 1856; Cora Livonia, born May 25, 1858, died October 9, 1862.

Henry M. McFarland, second child in the family above named, graduated from the Peo- ples Academy and Morrisville graded school in 1875, and from the University of Vermont as valedictorian in 1878; was principal of the La- moille Central Academy, at Hyde Park, Ver- mont, for the three succeeding years, and is, as he has been for many years, one of its trustees ; studied law with Brigham & Waterman and was admitted to the bar of Lamoille county in 1881 ; was elected state's attorney for Lamoille county in 1884, holding the office for two years, and was a delegate from Vermont to the National Republican Anti-Saloon Convention which met in Chicago in 1886. In 1888 he was made a director of the Lamoille County National Bank, and later its vice-president, in which position he still serves. He was one of the incorporators of the Lamoille County Savings Bank & Trust

which office he now holds. He was secretary of civil and military affairs under Governor Carroll S. Page from 1890 to 1892. In 1891 he was elected a director of the Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and has served in that ca- pacity since that time. About twenty years ago, as an incident of his law business, he started the Lamoille County Insurance Agency, which un- der his management has developed into one of the leading agencies in this part of the state, rep- resenting a capital of over $300,000,000. Since his coming to Hyde Park, in 1878, he has been actively interested in various industrial enter- prises, and is now secretary and director of the Hyde Park Lumber Company, and of the Morse Manufacturing Company. He is now filling out the fourth year of service as chairman of the board of trustees of the village of Hyde Park. During his service in this capacity the municipal light and power plant, costing nearly $20,000, was installed, and the village sewer system put in. He has served his town as superintendent of schools, as well as in various other capacities, and has always been keenly alive to all matters of public interest. He is a member of the Second Congregational church of Hyde Park, and is active in its support, serving as chairman of the building committee, under whose supervision a new chrurch costing upwards of $8,000 was erect- ed in 1899. He is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity, having taken the Knight Templar de- grees. He is also an Odd Fellow, serving the order as Grand Master of the state in 1897, and as Grand Representative in 1898 and 1899. He is a member of the Vermont Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, tracing his connec- tion to the struggles of independence through his great-grandfather, Major Moses McFar- land.

Mr. McFarland married Julia, eldest daugh- ter of Hon. Waldo Brigham, a graduate of the University of Vermont, class of 1854, eight years president of the St. Johnsbury & Lake Cham- plain Railroad, and in his lifetime a leading at- torney of Northern Vermont, December 22, 1881. They have three children,-Helen Marion, born November 27, 1885; Grace Brigham, born Sep- tember 24, 1888; and Brigham Wheeler, born April 5, 1891.

THE STATE OF VERMONT.

HON. WALDO BRIGHAM.

The Hon. Waldo Brigham, for many years an honored and influential citizen of Hyde Park, Vermont, and recognized throughout the state as a prominent member of the bar and a political leader, was descended from Revolutionary stock, His grandfather, Jonas Brigham, served in the continental army with the rank of captain, his commission, which is still in the possession of his descendants, bearing the same bold, handsome signature which was affixed by John Hancock, as president of the continental congress, to the Declaration of Independence. In 1790 Captain Brigham settled in Bakersfield, where he was one of the earliest pioneers. He was one of those who assisted most prominently in promoting the business growth and the political advancement of the town and county, was called upon to fill near- ly all the local offices and represented the town seventeen consecutive years.

Waldo Brigham, son of Asa and grandson of Captain Jonas Brigham, was born June 10, 1829, and passed his boyhood on the paternal farm. He was fitted for college at the two academies which Bakersfield then contained, completing his preparatory course under the tuition of the dis- tinguished educator, Jacob Spaulding, and in 1854 graduated in the classical course from the University of Vermont. While a student he largely defrayed his own expenses by teaching district schools, and the first year after his gradu- ation he taught in the St. Lawrence Academy, Potsdam, New York. Having decided to devote himself to the legal profession, he read law in the office of Child & Ferrin, at Hyde Park, and in May, 1857, was admitted to the Lamoille coun- ty bar, He then went to East Berkshire, and for five years practiced his profession in the of- fice of the Hon. Homer E. Royce, while the latter was a member of Congress. In 1862 he came to Hyde Park, where he practiced for twenty years, in association with George L. Waterman, under the firm name of Brigham & Waterman. The court records of the period testify to the extensive business which was carried on by this firm throughout central and northern Vermont.

Meanwhile, though paying strict attention to his professional duties, Mr. Brigham's time and energies were largely occupied with public af-

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fairs. He was an earnest and active Democrat, and in 1866-67-68 represented Hyde Park in the legislature. He was a leader in securing the charter for building the Vermont division of the Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad, and for ten years was president of this division, known as the St. Johnsbury & Lake Champlain Railroad, extending from Lunenburg to Swanton. He was also one of the directors of the Burlington & Lamoille Railroad. In 1868 he was one of the delegates to the national convention which nomi- nated Governor Seymour for the presidency. He received repeated proofs of the regard in which he was held by the members of his party, serving as candidate for state's attorney, county senator and lieutenant governor. He was the nominee for congress in 'the Third district, again in the First district, and in 1872 was paid the high compliment of being made the candidate of his party in the general assembly for the office of United States senator. Mr. Brigham was ever a warm friend to the cause of education, and while a member of the legislature was an earnest advocate of the appropriation of public money by the state in aid of the normal schools. For twenty-five years he served as president of the board of trustees of the Lamoille Central Acad- emy. He held the office of vice-president of the. Bar Association of Vermont, and as a lawyer enjoyed a high reputation, not only for profes- sional ability, but for strict integrity of char- acter. The younger members of the profession always found in him an encouraging and friendly counselor. He was elected by the legislature a trustee of the University of Vermont, a posi- tion which he held for six years.

Mr. Brigham married Lucia Ellen Noyes, daughter of Lucius H. and Diadamia Jones Smalley Noyes, November 4, 1858. Two of his daughters were educated at the University of Vermont. Julia, the eldest, married H. M. Mc- Farland, of Hyde Park; Mary, a graduate of the class of '93, became the wife of James, eldest son of President H. M. Buckham; and Blanche, a graduate of the class of '97, was recently pre- ceptress of the Lamoille Central Academy.

In the latter years of his life Mr. Brigham retired from the active practice of his profession, happy, as his health declined, in the affectonate ministrations of his family, and in the company

THE STATE OF VERMONT.

of his friends. He was a type of the genial and cultivated gentleman of the old school. His death, which took place April 2, 1900, was la. mented, not only by his family and near friends, but by the whole community, which revered him as a disinterested, public-spirited citizen and a benevolent, kind-hearted man.

JOHN GREGORY BAKER.

John Gregory Baker, an enterprising business man of Brattleboro, Vermont, was born at Ver- non, Windham county, Vermont, November 17, 1862, a son of Michael Baker, who was born in

JOHN GREGORY BAKER.

county Kerry, Ireland, in February, 1824, whence he emigrated to this country when he had attainedi the age of twenty-five years. Michael Baker lo- cated at Vernon, Vermont, where he was a farm hand and farm foreman for twenty-eight years. He saved his earnings and purchased the old

Wilder Farman farm, and by his industry, per- severance and good management, soon succeeded in making it one of the finest and best cultivated farms in that section of the state. He was prin- cipally engaged in producing a general line of garden truck, for which there is always a de- mand. Mr. Baker was a self-educated man, and spent much of his spare time in reading good literature; he possessed an upright, honorable character, and his genial, hearty and unaffected manner made him a favorite among all with whom he came in contact. He married Miss Joanna Griffin, and the following named children were born to them: Kate, deceased ; John Greg- ory; William, deceased; Michael; Mary, de- ceased ; Joanna ; and Patrick, deceased. Mr. Ba- ker resides in Brattleboro in what is known as Bakerville; his wife is deceased.

John Gregory Baker, eldest son of Michael and Joanna Baker, attended the public schools of Vernon, Vermont, where he acquired an excel- lent education. After completing his studies he entered the employ of Mr. George C. Hall, where he first served as a stable boy, subsequently be- coming coachman, and also acting as attendant for Miss Maggie Hall, who is now the wife of Mr. R. M. Burnett, of Massachusetts; he then attended Miss Edna Hall in her rides and took charge of her horses until her marriage with Count De Jotemps. Mr. Baker retained his posi- tion in Mr. Hall's family for twenty-five years, which clearly demonstrates the fact that he was an honest, faithful and conscientious employe, and he continued to have charge of the Hall residence and real estate at Brattleboro, Vermont, until its sale to the Thompson Fund, and is now retained in its charge by the Fund committee. He was for a time head coachman for Frederick C. Dickin- son, a brother-in-law of Jay Gould, with whom he remained for six years, and he would probably be with them at the present time had it not been for the sickness and deaths which occurred in the Baker family. He also for a time engaged in the buying and selling of high class horses, which he trained for driving ; he has led a life of honest toil. and his business interests have been so man- aged as to win the confidence of the public and the prosperity which should always attend honorable effort. Mr. Baker is a prominent member of the Coachmen's Union.

THE STATE OF VERMONT.

SIMEON MORSE SIBLEY.

Simeon Morse Sibley, deceased, a former prominent and successful business man of Ben- nington, was born in Whitingham, Windham county, Vermont, April 21, 1814, son of Lot and Mary (Morse) 'Sibley. Lot Sibley was a son of Tarrant Sibley, a minute-man in Colonel Ebe- nezer Learned's regiment in the war of the Rev- olution, and a participant in the fight at Concord, and was a grandson of Jonathan Sibley, a com- missioned officer in the colonial war service. He was also a direct descendant of John Sibley, who landed at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1629, and of John Putnam, who landed in the same town in 1634, and whose descendants included Generals Israel and Rufus Putnam. Mary Morse was a daughter of Simeon Morse, a soldier in the con- tinental army, a participant in the battle of Sar- atoga, and a direct descendant of Samuel Morse, who came to this country in 1635 on the ship In- crease. Samuel Morse was one of the members of the company to whom was granted a tract of land south of the Charles river, and including the present towns of Dedham, Needham, Dover, Natick and other Massachusetts towns. Mary Morse was also a direct descendant of Henry Adams, of Braintree.

Simeon M. Sibley attended the common school in his native town, and afterward entered the academy in Brattleboro, Vermont. At the age of eighteen years he entered the employ of J. H. Bartlett & Company, of Boston, wholesale gro- cers, where he remained several years, when he returned to Vermont and settled in Bennington. A New York company were operating extensive iron works at that time a few miles east of Ben- nington, and Mr. Sibley opened at that point a general supply store, which he conducted for four years with marked success. In 1844 he be- gan a large grocery business in the rapidly grow- ing village of Bennington, which he continued to carry on until his retirement from active life in 1881.

Mr. Sibley had from the beginning of his ca- reer shown marked business ability, with a special aptitude for questions of finance, and he naturally became early identified with banking. He was a director in the Stark Bank, the second oldest in- stitution of the kind in Bennington, as long as it

was in existence; and when the Bennington County National Bank was established he was one of the first subscribers for stock. At the organ- ization of the institution he was chosen vice pres- ident, and at the death of Charles W. Thatcher in 1890 he was elected president of the bank, a position which he held until his death, August 15, 1898. In politics Mr. Sibley was a staunch Republican, and he was vitally interested in the live issues of the day, although he never cared to enter public life.

He was united in marriage with Miss Di- antha Williams in 1837, and their children were Mary Louisa, Persis Hannah, Simeon Waldo, Frances Diantha and Harriet Jane Sibley. Mrs. Sibley died in 1852, and the son died in 1884, but all of the other children survive. In 1857 Mr. Sibley married Miss Maria L. A. Varian, who died in 1896. Mr. Sibley was true to his in- heritance in a marked degree. His courtly bear- ing stamped him as a worthy descendant of wor- thy ancestors, while his strict integrity, keen in- tellect and self command suggested the rugged simplicity of his early New England home, an in- stitution that has cradled thousands of fine men and noble women.

JOHN W. GORDON.

John W. Gordon, of Barre, is one of the lead- ing lawyers of this city, and a citizen of prom- inence and influence. He was born in Vershire, Orange county, Vermont, September 16, 1857, a son of John W. Gordon. Further parental and ancestral history may be found on another page of this biographical work, in connection with the sketch of Mr. Gordon's brother. T. R. Gordon, of Montpelier.

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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 7

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