USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Hartland > History and anniversary of Hartland, Vermont > Part 4
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Mr. W. H. Giles now comes into the village as the Hartland "Rural Free Deliv- ery Carrier." Mrs. Giles is a descendant of Noah Aldrich, who settled on the Al- mond Davis farm. Noah Aldrich, who died in 1818, aged 81, was a patriot of the Rev- olution and his grave is in the cemetery on the plain.
Mr. Albert A. Sturtevant has told his family of the games that the village boys used to play: "Two-Old Cat," "H'I Spy," "Touch-the-goal," and "Wicket Ball." The last was a game played on the south side of the common before the Rich- ardson house. In wicket ball, the boys laid a plank across the common supported by a brick at each end; then they used bats with which to strike a ball back and forth. The bat was round, long, and flat- tened out at the end. Some of the boys used to go up on the Labaree Cliffs to sing and roast corn in the fall, and there used to be occasional wrestling matches on the "Green" in front of W. R. Sturtevant's store.
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Mr. Sturtevant says that Lovejoy and Taylor built a store about 1804 near the site of his present one and that he has two old signs, one, "Sumner and Sturtevant," the other, "Phelps and Barker, 1830"; also that Mr. Leonard Hamilton built the "Sturte- vant Store" about 1840, and that, in 1851, Mr. Paul D. Richardson built the store leased by Mr. L. I. Walker now. In the latter Mr. Benjamin F. Labaree served the public as a highly respected merchant many years. Mr. Sturtevant says further that the only store ever built in Hartland by the Hon. David H. Sumner was burned soon after the opening of the Civil War, or about fifty years ago. It stood below the site of the present freight depot.
The Alden or "Old Reuben Weld" house at Hartland Village was moved up from "The Plain" about 1814. Capt. James Campbell was the master workman and Eliakim Spooner, Esq., the lawyer, was the proprietor of the house then. Reuben Weld lived there around 1820. Beyond this Alden house, stood the one recently moved west of the Edgerton or Barbour place and now occupied by Mr. William Lamphear. It was built by Lawyer Merrill, Mr. W. R. Sturtevant says, and, after a few years, was used as a private school for young people of both sexes. About the middle of the last century, Miss Krams, later Mrs. Wm. H. Sabin, of Windsor, taught a school for girls at the Three Corners; and, in the sixties, Miss Mary Hyde had a pri- vate fitting-school for young men and young women, and Miss Leonora Robin- son, now Mrs. W. R. Sturtevant, was her assistant. A fitting-school for college was kept earlier by Isaac N. Cushman, who became a lawyer of marked ability and who lived in the brick house on the hill approached by many steps. The school was on the site of the Pound, and Mr. John Webster had an uncle who fitted for col- lege there.
Hartland Village is so attractively loca- ted and so rich in historical associations that it draws many city visitors every summer.
The story of North Hartland as a thriv- ing modern village is almost exclusively that of the woolen mill built by Mr. Oliver Brothers. The place has grown constantly in attractiveness during recent years. It has many pleasant homes, a good gene- ral store conducted by Mr. W. D.
Spaulding, a flourishing wooler mill, the historic church, a Grange hall, the best school building in Hartland, a beautiful park, shaded streets, and the two rivers with their rich meadows and picturesque falls.
The history of Sumner's Falls as a set- tlement is entirely of the past, scarcely a vestige remaining of its once busy life. This history has been given in the Wind- sor County Gazetteer, however; so, only less accessible items will be mentioned here. A son of one of the early settlers above the plain writes thus of old times:
"After Timothy Lull settled on Lull Brook, Gideon Woodward came up the Connecticut River with such tools as he could draw on a hand sled. He concluded to settle on the east side of the river. Peter Gilson soon moved up and settled on the plain. Joseph Livermore lived on the plain and raised a family of twelve children. Harry Emerson settled north of the plain near Sumner's Falls. . Jo Call moved up on the plain. He was one of the great wrestlers of his day. A man walked up from Massachusetts to wrestle with him, but Jo was not at home, and 'his sister told the man he would not be at home for three or four days. He said he was sorry, for he was in a hurry to get back. She told him to step out into the yard and if he could throw her he could stay and wrestle with Jo; but he didn't have to stay long. She laid him on his back short meter.
"Ezra Sleeper settled north of Sumner's Falls. 'Johnny' Warner lived on the place with him and kept school in his house. After school hours, he and the scholars set out maples on the east side of the road. They stand there today and are about 115 years old. Perez Gallup was next. He owned about 640 acres. He built the Gal- lup burying ground on the west side of the road about one mile south of North Hart- land-a very peculiar man. He hewed out a stone to lay over his coffin which took four oxen to haul to the burying ground.
"The church was built by the inhabi- tants of North Hartland. Thomas Shaw hewed most of the timbers. Samuel Tay- lor worked, Merrill Kilburn, the Russes.
The oldest house in North Hartland is what is called the Rawson place, now owned by Daniel Willard. . The Law-
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FEATURES OF THE PARADE AT HARTLAND'S 150TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION.
The Sun Bonnet Babies, each with pail and flag. An Indian Encampment.
Power loom and operator from Ottaquechee Woolen Mill, Early agricultural implements.
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tons and Spooners settled here at an early date back on the Hill. They were afraid of the frosts. The Willards and Millers lived at North Hartland later. George Miller owned the ferry at North Hartland. In 1848 they were at work on the Vermont Central Railroad which was very exciting to all the farmers along the line." (The author has changed the forms in this letter somewhat. )
October 22, 1794, Perez Gallup received from the Legislature a grant of "the ex- clusive privilege of locking and continuing locks on Water Quechee falls on Connecti- cut River through his own land in Hart- land," as W. H. Tucker, the historian, expressed it. The toll for loaded boats was authorized to be 18c per ton, the same for each 1000 feet of boards and timber, and for each 6000 feet of shingles.
The property of "The Company for Rendering Connecticut River Navigable by Water Quechee Falls" passed into the hands of David H. Sumner, Esq., Oct. 9, 1809, including the saw mill and the use of the falls. Then, following the charter given Nov. 5, 1830, to "The Connecticut River Valley Steamboat Company" sprang up the canal and locks at Sumner's Falls and the roads to that place. In 1834, the "Aterquechey Canal" was one of the three canals in Vermont-the "Aterquechey," "Bellows Falls," and "White River" canals.
A bridge had been built in 1821. Mr. Sumner, who owned the whole town of Dalton, N. H., passed immense quantities of lumber from that place and from others in northern Vermont and New Hampshire down the river to Hartford, receiving in return West India goods, salt, iron, etc., loaded upon flat boats until the steamboats came into use.
The steamers, however, were not suc- cessful, and finally only boats were plied be- tween locks. Dalton and Sumner's Falls were the manufacturing centres for the lumber of the Connecticut River trade.
The articles other than lumber that com- posed the outgoing cargoes were similar to those taken to Boston by team. After 1836, the roads to Boston were so good that river traffic began to lessen. Fresh- ets swept away the two bridges built across the river; finally, in 1848, the railroad with its substantial iron bridge over Lull Brook was built and the old ways of traffic passed
out of existence. Yet every spring, even now, one sees "drives" of logs, guided by red-frocked lumbermen from the north, plunging over the rocks at Sumner's Falls on their way to Massachusetts or Connec- ticut towns as in former days.
Mrs. Fanny (Richardson) Sturtevant, of Hartland Village, has her mother's mahog- any and hair-cloth furniture-chairs, sofa, and card tables-which were bought in New York City prior to 1800. They were brought by boat to the mouth of the Con- necticut River, then by raft up the river to "Short's Landing," Hartland.
To take up the thread of history follow- ing the War of 1812, it may be recalled that, in 1820, there was great excitement, national and local, over the question of African slavery which resulted in the Mis- souri Compromise. Hartland appears to have been almost solidly against the sys- tem of slavery; though possibly half a dozen "Copperheads" developed before the opening of the Civil War. One of these last is said to have appeared at a town meeting, where he began to express some pro-slavery sentiments; but he never finished his remarks, as in the midst of them he was flying out of a window for his life. No slaves were ever held in Hart- land, so far as the author knows; but Caesar Brackey and his wife Flora -"a capable Guinea negress," brought to Provi- dence by Capt. Snell, were given land here by a minister of Woodstock, Ct., named Bugbee, and their graves and those of their children may be found on "Hendrick Hill."
In 1825 Layfayette's triumphal passage through Hartland renewed the spirit of independence and augmented the senti- ment for liberty. General Lafayette came into town, on his way from Windsor to Woodstock, in a victoria drawn by six white horses, and he and his young son were attended by an escort under the com- mand of. Col. Stimson of Norwich (assisted by Adjt. George Wetherby of Hartland, ) which was composed, among others, of the "Hartland Rifle Company," and of sev- eral of the Revolutionary soldiers of Hart- land. All Hartland children love Lafay- ette, for they and their fathers have always read of him in the old school books. In one of the popular readers by Salem Town, L. L. D., now owned by a grand-daughter
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of Capt. Wells Hadley, are these moving lines, often conned by Hartland lads and lassies :
Again in his old age, Lafayette determined to look on the young republic that had escaped the disaster which had overwhelmed France.
Such gratitude and affection were never.
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before received by a man from a foreign nation.
As he passed from Staten Island to New York, the bay was covered with barges, deco- rated with streamers; and when the beautiful fleet shoved away. the bands struck up, "Where can one better be than in the bosom of his fam- ily?" . As he touched the shore, the thunder of cannon shook the city; old soldiers rushed weeping into his arms; and "Welcome Lafay- ette !" waved from every banner, rung from every trumpet, and was caught up by every voice, till "Welcome, welcome" rose and fell in deafening shouts from the assembled thou- sands. . Flowers were strewn along his path- way; his carriage detached from the horses and dragged by the enthusiastic crowd, along ranks of grateful freemen, who rent the heavens with their acclamations Melted to tears by these demonstrations of love he . moved like a father among his children, scattering bless- ings wherever he went.
When the great controversy led by Webster and Hayne came up in 1830 on the question of Union or State Sovereignty, there was much excitement in this vicinity, and there was a great deal of speechmaking by anti-slavery orators, but there never seems to have been so much rancor as in some sections.
Mrs. Helen (Dunbar) Bagley told the author that Mr. Laban Webster was an ardent Harrison man. He owned the tav- ern in the western part of the town on the farm known as "The Calvin Greene Place," and being a pleasant man full of stories, he often sat where people could greet him as they passed by. "Hurrah for Harrison !" they would say, waving their hands; but occasionally a man would pass who shouted, "Hurrah for Van Buren!" Then "Grand- father Webster" shook his cane.
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The declaration of war with Mexico found the people here anything but enthu- siastic; however, they were prepared, as one company under Capt. Pemberton Hodgman, and perhaps others, had drilled faithfully. When the call came, "There were a good many Hartland men that went to the war who never enlisted. They started off, right over the hills, for Mex- ico," to use the vernacular. Mr. J. F. Colston says that William Douglas went from Hartland, also a man named Spear; while Edward Baker, the Asst. Adjt. Gen-
eral of Vermont reports that Stephen M. Hatch, of Hartland, "died in hospital at Vera Cruz, July 16th, 1847" and James Roden was "taken prisoner at battle of Huamantla and exchanged about March 1, 1848." These two men served in.Capt. E. A. Kimball's Company, Ninth Regi- ment, U. S. Infantry.
At the close of the Mexican War, the "gold fever" drew many west, among whom were six "forty-niners:" Messrs. Charles Bagley, A. J. Dunbar, Ralph Lab- aree, John Lamb, Lucius Lamb, and Eben Stocker. Beside these are remembered Messrs. Arnold Bagley, Fred Bagley, and Denison Harlow. Mr. Orson Gill started for California, but died on The Isthmus.
As soon as the foreboding clouds of the "Great Conflict" began to gather, Hart- land commenced serious preparations for another war, and little else than politics was talked of on the farms, in the stores, in the highways and byways.
Capt. E. H. Bagley commanded the militia company represented in the Novem- ber Vermonter as training on the Harry Shedd pasture. A member of the militia -William Griffin, a skillful musician, was killed in the late fifties while marching with comrades over the Sugar River bridge near Claremont, N. H., that went down one Fourth of July. In 1861, by the town clerk's report, there were 293 voters in Hartland; and, according to the report of the Asst. Adjt. General sent to the author this year, 212 different men went from Hartland to save their Country from dis- union. Twenty-one of these entered the Navy. Fifteen men were drafted, of whom eight paid substitutes and seven paid $300, receiving the money back from the town. The drafting was done at the office of Albert Burk (the town clerk), which was in the Wood house, at the Four Corners. "Old Doctor" Emmons used to read the war news in the store of Wesley and Frank Labaree almost every evening during war times.
Lieut. Col. John W. Bennett, of the First Vt. Cavalry, was a Hartland boy; while Capt. Oliver T. Cushman and Capt. Thomas F. Leonard both went from Hart- land.
The war was too terrible for glorying; but the Vermont men were faithful to the last, and there is only a very "thin line"
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of veterans remaining in Hartland: Messrs. Wm. I. Allen, W. W. Bagley, Sidney W. Brown, J. F. Colston, Ferdinand Fallon, ' Moses George, W. W. Kelley, Peter La- pine, L. J. M. Marcy, A. A. Martin, A. R. Peirce, S. M. Whitney, J. O. Wright. Messrs. W. W. Bagley and S. M. Whit- ney were Corporals. Messrs. Enos Ging- ham, E. B. Maxham, and C. D. Myrick went from other towns but are now living in Hartland.
When the present generation is tempted to think lightly of the flag and of its duty to the town and state and' nation, would that it might remember what many saw
ston-J. Flaviel and Theodore. Walter Bagley went from Lincoln, Vermont; the rest from Hartland. Cyrus R. Bagley, a boy about sixteen, wrote this letter from the field ( The punctuation is changed somewhat):
Washington, Oct. 21, 1862.
FRIEND . JOSEPH:
I now take my pen in hand to let you (k)now that I am well now though rather weak yet as I have been in the hospital for a fortnight sick with the bilious fever. We are encamped neer Washington and the talk is wee are agoing to stay all winter but I do not care mutch if we do. It is cold nights down here as it is up in Vermont. I wishd I might go into the old
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Listening to the Exercises of the 150th Anniversary Celebration at Hartland.
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here: the poor, worn-out soldiers, on their way home from the war, stopping at the Four Corners, emaciated and sick, for the medical aid which Dr. Harding and Dr. Emmons were waiting to give; or, that son of John Willard who weighed one hundred and ninety pounds when he went to war and ninety pounds when he returned from Andersonville prison.
Holmes Cushman, a Hartland soldier of the Revolution, had four grandsons and one great grandson in the Civil War, and Thomas Bagley, another Revolutionary soldier, had the following seven grandsons in that war: Messrs. Bagley-Cyrus, Par- ker, Roderick, Walter and William; Col-
butery now and then but as I cant I do not com- plain. We are having good times out here. The boys are all in good spirites sining and dancing all of the time. Ben, Dan and Will are well. William says he should like to be there one day to go over onto the east hill ahunting and Ben would to(o) to the same and so should I. Do write and tell me about hunt- ing as soon as you get this. Tell all about the cropes and all about the folks. Give my love to all of the folks. Charley and Wallace are sick in the hospital and Ben says that Charley will never get any better but he may for all that you (k)now. Write often will you. Yours in heart-
C(Y)RUS R. BAGLEY.
Direct your letter in this way
Mr. Cyrus R. Bagley, Washington, D. C. Co. B. 12 Reg. Vt. Vol. in the care of Capt. Ora Paul.
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J. O. Wright, a veteran and a Hartland man, visited the Battlefield of Gettysburg during the Peace Jubilee or Reunion of the Blue and the Gray from June 29 to July 6, 1913; and, in an address written for the Anniversary Celebration, he said, to close: "A few of the Confederates who were in Pickett's charge and numbering about fifty formed in line and with canes instead of guns charged across what is now called the 'High Water Mark.' There they were met by a similar squad of Federals where a general gabfest was soon in full swing. A Yank said, 'I stood about here, and the Johnnies were coming and I fired and I didn't have time to load, for one of 'em was all ready on the wall and I fetched him one on the head with my gun and back he went.' 'Yes,' said one of the Johnnies, 'and my head aches yet where you hit me.' This and many other similar incidents occurred during our stay at Gettysburg and served to cement among the Blue and the Gray a feeling of more intimate comrade- ship and whether (the feelings) were all founded on fact or not we cannot say, but this I can say, and that row of Comrades down there in front will sustain me, that those yarns recall many desperate, though sad realities of camp and campaign life which remain to us a glorious memory."
The recent history of Hartland must be omitted from this paper; but a few names of noteworthy citizens of the past and pres- ent not already mentioned are added.
For an account of the literary people, see Mr. H. G. Rugg's "Hartland in Let- ters," published in the Vermont Journal at Windsor, Aug. 8, 1913.
Teachers. Squire Stephen Maine, of the Barron Hill section, taught district schools until he was on old man. His daughter married George Holbrook of Hartland, also a teacher. When Mr. Hol- brook started for Blackearth, Wis., in 1849, he went from home in an emigrant wagon, and Capt. Grow helped him and his family as far as Lake Champlain.
George Latimer, the Minute Man, had a
. daughter that married Mr. Henry (?) Ayers,
the schoolmaster. Mr. Ayers was a severe disciplinarian and he used enough spiced liquor sometimes to make him sleepy. After Charles E. Darling became old enough to give up attending district school, he went one day to visit Mr. Ayers' school at the request of some of the boys. These
boys to please Charles, set quills filled with wet gunpowder under the inner doors at recess, put a lighted match to them and had the fun of seeing them back out of sight and of hearing them sputter and spit fire across the school room floor, to the rage of the Master. To close the after- noon exercises, there was a spelling down, each pupil standing in his place at his desk. In the course of the spelling, some of the boys skipped their turns, until Mr. Ayers said, "I'm not feeling in very good mood today, you'd better look wild.' Then one of the boys skipped his turn, and the Master promptly slapped him a heavy blow on the cheek. This secured a quiet and peaceful closing of the spelling down.
Marcus Peake, although not a man of learning, was one of the best teachers of the early times. He was most painstaking and conscientious in training pupils to understand principles; but he, too, was severe, so much so that he was often called "Old Peake" by those who had been to school to him. . Squire Stephen Paine . and his wife were both teachers, giving years to their profession. They married late and lived on the Squire Paine or Charles Colby farm. Squire Asa Weed taught in his young days; and so did Lewis Darling, who became Dr. Lewis, Sr., of the Civil War.
Squire Cotton taught likewise, and thus an old friend wrote of him: "Ward Cot- ton was one of the leading men of the town-justice of the peace and represented his town, chairman of the board of select- men, 'moderator' at all the town meetings, school committee, etc. He was also very much engaged in church work being a member of the Universalist Society. He had a fine voice for singing, and often led the choir. He never graduated from col- lege, or even attended a 'high school' but in his younger days taught in the different districts in Hartland, 'boarding around.' He would arise in winter time before light, and often with the mercury 20° below zero and find his way out of doors by the light of a tallow candle or tin lantern, go to the well-curb over which hung the big sweep. its lower end loaded with stone. On the platform stood a wooden bench icy with the drippings of the water-soaked pail; this bench held an iron skillet and a jar of soft soap-here he would make his ablutions. He was always very temperate, drinking
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nothing but cold water, so on these occa- sions he would take a good draught from the 'old oaken bucket.' The menu for breakfast consisted of bean porridge and brown bread, sometimes pork and potatoes would be added. He carried his own por- ringer with him where ever he went to board. One time he was stopping with the minister's family; hominy and milk was served for supper. . Mr. Cotton married Charity Rates. They had eight children. Esq. Cotton was habitually diligent-a fine scholar, familiar with many of our best poets, politics, and all of the leading litera- ture of his day, a good orator and writer for the press."
An endless number of young women have taught in the schools, and some of them have been superintendents.
Supt. Daniel Spalding, father of Mr. C. C. Spalding, was connected with Hartland schools many years-as a teacher of dis- trict schools forty terms-as a superin- tendent, for a long time. He was a genial, kindly man and was educated at Norwich, Vt. . A "term" was usually sixteen weeks about the middle of last century and later. . Other superintendents deserving special mention were Hon. E. M. Good- win and Dr. David F. Rugg, both of whom served long and well. Mr. Goodwin was a progressive farmer and scientist. He
TIMOTHY LULL
MAY 1763
Governor Allen M. Fletcher speaking at Hartland's 150th Anniversary Celebration.
Josiah Brown, the poet, was a teacher. Several pastors taught in early days with a power and efficiency that lasted in effect until the present, and some of them served as superintendents after 1852, when the town began to appoint men to that office. Austin Smith was a teacher at the "Centre of the Town" in the forties. Albert Burk, so long town clerk, taught in his youth. So did Leonard Hamilton, John Gill, Charles .E. Darling, Jabez C. Crooker, who became a lawyer afterwards, and numerous others not known to the author. Mr. George W. Ralph, who was educated at Tufts College, was a true teacher, but rather too lenient in discipline. He grounded in principles as few can.
represented Hartland in the State Senate; while Dr. Rugg was a conscientious and beloved physician.
Prof. Joseph H. Dunbar, was a finely educated man who was born and bred in Hartland. He taught in various academic schools of Vermont and New Hampshire, and he was the author of valuable works on inductive methods of teaching, espec- ially the subjects, arithmetic and Latin. During the last years of his life, he lived on the Col. Oliver Gallup or Norman Dun- bar place, and he taught at Hartland Vil- lage and at North Hartland-fitting several of the young people for college. He was a graduate of Dartmouth.
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Physicians. The first. physicians, Dr. Samuel E. Stevens says, were itinerant "Indian Doctors," who made "rattlesnake oil" their cure-all; but reputable physicians settled in Hartland with the pioneers. Among these latter were: Drs. David Hall, born in 1733; Friend Sturtevant, a surgeon in the War of 1812; Daniel Jeni- son, whose epitaph is
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