USA > Vermont > Addison County > History of Addison county Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 2
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From many peaks among either of the mountain ranges we have described grand and extensive views of the surrounding country may be obtained. It is
1 Vert monts-Green Mountains.
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NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS.
from some one of the points of observation thus presented, also, that the scenic beauty of Addison county is best impressed upon the senses. Its mountains, clothed in their native forests of green; its gentle swells and steep declivities ; its hills, with their browsing herds and flocks, or highly cultivated sides; its level intervales and fertile valleys; its network of brooks and streams and the blue waters of the Champlain beyond, with over all the generous life of cottage, church and hall, unite in forming a picture of which the eye never tires.
Lakes and Streams .- Lake Champlain is the first, and, in fact, the only body of water of importance to be mentioned under this head, if we except Lake Dunmore, lying in Salisbury and Leicester. Still only a small portion of Champlain belongs to the county, viz : "All that part lying east of the center of its deepest channel, and between the northern line of Ferrisburgh and the southern line of Orwell." But its waters and their environs that lie opposite the county have been the scene of many stirring historic events. From the southern line of the county to the celebrated site of old Fort Ticonderoga, the lake averages about a mile in width, its greatest width being two miles, and its narrowest point, about a mile south of Mount Independence, which lies in the northern part of Orwell, is but about forty rods; while between Mount Inde- pendence and Ticonderoga, which are separated by a distance of two miles, the lake is only eighty rods wide. From Ticonderoga to Crown Point, a distance of from twelve to fourteen miles, the width continues from one to two miles; but at that point it abruptly widens, and from there to the northern line of the county averages about three and a half miles. The fortress of Ticonderoga, on the New York side, is now a heap of ruins. It was built by the French in 1756, on a point of land formed by the junction of Lake George Creek with Lake Champlain, and opposite the northwest corner of Orwell. It is a place of great strength, both by nature and by art. On three sides it was surrounded by water, and about half the other was occupied by a deep swamp, while the line was completed by the erection of a breastwork nine feet high on the only assail- able ground. In 1758 General Abercrombie, with a British army, was de- feated in an attempt upon this fortress with a loss of 1,941 men; but it was the next year surrendered to General Amherst. It was surprised by Colonel Ethan Allen, May 10, 1775, at the commencement of the Revolution, and was retained by the American army until 1777, when it was evacuated on the ap- proach of Burgoyne.
The interesting ruins of the Crown Point fortress lie opposite the southern part of the town of Addison. The original fortress was built by the French, in 1731, upon a point of land between West Bay and the lake, and was called Fort St. Frederic. In 1759 it was surrendered to the British troops under Gen- eral Amherst, and England built another fortress, the predecessor of the present ruins, near its site at a cost of $10,000,000. This was held by the British until May 10, 1775, though sadly dismantled by an accidental fire two years previ-
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
ous, when it was taken by Colonel Seth Warner, on the same day that Ticon- deroga surrendered to Allen. It again fell into the hands of the British in 1776, who kept possession of it till after the capture of Burgoyne in 1777. It was nearly a regular pentagon, the longest curtain being ninety, and the shortest about seventy-five yards in length. The ramparts, about twenty-five feet in thickness, were revetted with masonry throughout. The ditch was blasted out of the solid rock. There were two demilunes and some small detached outworks. An arched passage led to the lake, and a well about ninety feet in depth was sunk in one of the bastions. The whole peninsula being of solid rock, covered with a thin layer of earth, the works could not be assailed by regular approaches, and both in construction and position the fortress was among the strongest in North America. It is now quite dilapidated, but its form and dimensions are still easily traced and measured.
A small fortress or outpost was built on Chimney Point, in the town of Ad- dison, by Jacobus d'Narm, with a party from Albany, N. Y., as early as 1690. It was short-lived, however, though it was taken up by the French and a small fort and windmill built by them in 1730, the year previous to their building the fortress on Crown Point, just opposite.
Mount Independence rises about 160 feet from the lake shore in the north- western part of Orwell. It is often visited on account of its historic associa- tions. Its commanding position early led the commander of Ticonderoga to plant a battery upon its summit. Subsequently a garrison was established here, a stockade fort built, with fortifications and a stone fort, connecting by a floating bridge with the fortifications opposite at Ticonderoga. After the cap- ture of Ticonderoga by Allen in 1775, it became the headquarters of the Army of the North. At two o'clock on the morning of July 6, 1777, at the evacua- tion of Ticonderoga, the mountain sides were illuminated by the blaze of a French officer's house, to which he had imprudently set fire, disclosing to Bur- goyne the retreat of the Americans and causing an immediate pursuit and the subsequent battle of Hubbardton, in Rutland county. The mount was again the scene of active operations on the 17th of the following October, when the old fort was again captured by the Americans. A terrible scourge of camp fever visited the garrison in 1776, and traces of the graves of many of its vic- tims are still to be seen. The floating bridge built across the lake was twelve feet wide and more than a thousand feet long. It had twenty-two sunken piers to give it strength and durability, remains of which are still occasionally found at low water.
Lake Dunmore lies in the southern part of the county, in the towns of Salis- bury and Leicester. It covers an area of about 1,400 acres, its extreme length being about five miles, its greatest width a little more than a mile, and its aver- age depth about sixty feet. It is noted for its romantic loveliness. Its waters, limpid and pure as crystal, lie at the base of towering hills, which present a
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NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS.
rough contour, peculiar to hills composed of the unyielding quartz rock. Moosalamo is the highest of the surrounding peaks, though Rattlesnake Point, which more immediately overlooks the lake, is not less interesting and affords some commanding views. The former has a height of 1,959 feet, and the lat- ter of 1,319 feet. On the slope of the former is " Warner's Cave," a place ren- dered celebrated by the imagination of Thompson, in his Green Mountain Boys. The name of the lake is derived from John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, who was made governor of the colony of New York in 1770. He was a needy Scottish peer, passionate and unscrupulous in rapacity, who had come to this country to amass a fortune. During his administration he adopted dishonest measures to grant to himself large areas of land, among which was a tract of some twelve or thirteen miles in length from north to south, by six or seven in width, lying principally on the east side of Otter Creek, in the townships of Leicester, Salis- bury and Middlebury, and including the lake which bears his name. The earl fell into disrepute for his unlawful practices, however, and he ended his achieve- ments by the burning of Norfolk, Va., under cover of zeal for the British cause, whence he retired with his plunder to St. Augustine, Fla. He is said to have died in England in 1809. Large hotels have been built upon the shores of the lake, and many people from a distance spend their summers here.
Silver Lake is the name given to a little lakelet just east of Lake Dunmore. Its name is suggested by the silver-white sand which covers its bottom and the clearness of its waters, which cover an area about a mile in diameter. It lies at an altitude of 1,400 feet above tide water and 1,000 feet above Lake Dunmore.
Little Pond, another handsome sheet of water of about the same area as Silver Lake, lies just south of Lake Dunmore.
Mud Pond is a small and unimportant body of water lying west of Lake Dunmore.
Dutton Pond is a small body of water located in school district No. 4, in the town of Goshen.
Mount Vernon Pond, about half a mile in diameter, is located in the west- ern part of Hancock. It is somewhat noted as a curiosity from the fact of its lying at the top of a mountain and accessible only by steps.
Smith's Pond and Mud Pond are two small bodies of water in the southern part of Orwell. Sunset Pond, a larger body, extends just over the line into this town from Rutland county.
Bristol Pond, about a mile and a half in length by three-quarters of a mile in width, lies at the foot of Hogback Mountain, in the northern part of Bristol. It has a muddy bottom and is surrounded by extensive marshes. Its waters were well stocked with pickerel in 1824.
Gilmore Pond, in the southern part of Bristol, covers an area of ten or twelve acres. It has a muddy bottom and is quite shallow.
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
Monkton Pond, in the northern part of Monkton, is about a mile in length by a half mile in width. There are also several other small ponds scattered over the surface of the county, which are described in connection with the his- tory of the towns wherein they are respectively located.
Otter Creek forms the river system and receives nearly the entire drainage of the county. It is the longest stream in the State, extending ninety-one miles and watering nine hundred square miles of territory. It originates in Mount Tabor, Peru and Dorset, within a few rods of the head of the Batten- kill, and it is a curious fact that these two rivers which rise within a few rods of each other are of about equal length-the Battenkill flowing south to the Hudson River and the Otter Creek north into Lake Champlain. The latter was named by the French La Rivière aux Loutres, the River of Otters, long before any English settlements were made in the State. It was, from the ear- liest time of which we have any knowledge, used as a pathway of travel by the Indians. Several years after the establishment of a trading post at Charles- town, N. H., in 1727, the government of Massachusetts, in order to obtain the exact road pursued by the northern Indians in traveling thereto, secured from. a certain James Coss the diary he kept of a journey from Fort Dummer to Lake Champlain, performed in the year 1730, which gives the first authentic knowledge we have of the stream.
This journal reads as follows :
Monday, ye 27th April, 1730, at about twelve of ye clock we left Fort Dummer, and travailed that day three miles, and lay down that night by West River, which is three miles distant from Fort Dummer. Notabene,-I travailed with twelve Canady Mohawks that drank to great excess at ye fort and killed a Skatacook Indian in their drunken condition, that came to smoke with them.
Tuesday .-- We travailed upon the great river [Connecticut] about ten miles. .
Wednesday .- We kept ye same course upon ye great river, travailed about ten miles, and eat a drowned buck that night.
Thursday .- We travailed upon ye great river within two miles of ye great falls [Bellows. Falls] in said river, then went upon land to ye Black River above ye great falls, went up that river and lodged about a mile and a half from the mouth of Black River, which days's travail we judged about ten miles.
Fryday .- We cross the Black River at ye falls [Springfield village] afterwards travail through ye woods N. N. W. Then cross Black River again about seventeen miles above our first crossing, afterwards travailed ye same course, and pitched our tent on ye homeward side of Black River.
Saturday .- We crossed Black River, left a great mountain on ye right hand and another on ye left [in Ludlow]. Keep a N. W. course till we pitch our tent after eleven miles travail by a brook which we called a branch of Black River.
Sabbath Day .- Soon after we began our day's work an old pregnant squaw that travailed with us, stopt alone and was delivered of a child, and by Monday noon overtook us with a liv- ing child upon her back. We travailed to Black River. At ye three islands, between which and a large pond we past ye river, enter a mountain [in Plymouth], that afforded us a prospect of ye place of Fort Dummer, soon after we entered. a descending country, and travail till we arrive at Arthur Creek [Otter Creek] in a descending land. In this day's travail, which is twenty-one miles, we came upon seven brooks which run in S. W. course at ye north end of said mountain. From Black River to Arthur Creek we judge is twenty-five miles.
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NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS.
Monday .- Made canoes.
Tuesday .- Hindered travailing by rain.
Wednesday .- We go by canoes upon Arthur Creek, till we meet two great falls in said river [in Rutland]. Said river is very black and deep and surrounded with good land to the extremity of our prospect. This day's travail thirty-five miles.
Thursday .- We sail forty miles in Arthur Creek. We meet with great falls [Middlebury Falls], and a little above them we meet with two other great falls [at Weybridge], and about ten miles below ye said falls we meet two other pretty large falls [at Vergennes]. We carried our canoes by these falls and came to ye lake.
The stream enters at about the center of the county's southern boundary line, in the town of Leicester, and flows in a serpentine course to its northwestern corner, where it drops into the lake in the town of Ferrisburgh. From the county line to Middlebury it flows through a beautiful level valley about two miles in width ; but here the meadow begins to narrow, and this condition con- tinues to Vergennes, where it is interrupted by a bed of rocks, after which it continues uninterruptedly to the lake. At Middlebury the stream forms a fine water-fall, affording one of the best mill privileges in the State. Two miles north of the village are Belden's Falls, where the creek has worn deep gorges through the limestone, and makes fearful plunges over the rocky barrier which impedes its course. This, with the picturesque surroundings, makes the local- ity well worth the trouble of a visit to him who admires wild and beautiful scenery. At Weybridge and Vergennes occur other falls in the stream, afford- ing excellent and extensive water power. From Vergennes to the lake, a dis- tance of about eight miles, the creek is navigable. From the west it receives Lemon Fair River and Dead Creek; and from the east, Leicester, Middlebury and New Haven Rivers.
Lemon Fair River has its source from small streams in Whiting and Orwell. It flows thence through the eastern part of Shoreham, southeastern part of Brid- port, and northwestern part of Cornwall into Weybridge, where it drops into Otter Creek. Tradition asserts that its name was derived from the following circumstance : As some of the early settlers were coming into this part of the county they arrived at this stream, when an old woman among them exclaimed, because of the difficulty in crossing, "It is a lamentable affair ;" which excla- mation, contracted into Lemon Fair, became ever afterwards the name of the stream. There are some mill privileges afforded near the head of this river, though it is in general a very muddy, sluggish stream. It receives from the west Little Fair and Birchard Creeks, and from the east Beaver Brook in Corn- wall and Beaver Brook in Shoreham.
Dead Creek is formed from streams known as East and West Branches, having their sources in Bridport, and Middle Branch, which rises in Addison. These branches unite near the center of Addison, whence their united waters flow north through Panton into Ferrisburgh, where they join Otter Creek. It is, as its name suggests, a sluggish stream, and is lined throughout nearly its entire course with extensive marshes. It has no mill sites.
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
Leicester River is the outlet of Lake Dunmore, in Salisbury. It flows a southwesterly course through Salisbury village into Leicester, where it unites with Otter Creek. It is a low stream, lined with marshes, and is only about six miles in length.
Middlebury River has its source from a number of small streams in Han- cock and Ripton, whence it flows east through the southern part of Middlebury, except for a sharp detour into Salisbury, dropping into Otter Creek in the southeastern part of the township. It is a bright, sparkling stream, about four- teen miles in length, and affords some excellent mill privileges.
New Haven River has its source in a network of streams and brooks in Lincoln and Starksboro. It flows across Bristol into New Haven, uniting with Otter Creek in the southern part of that town. It is a dashing stream and affords a number of valuable mill sites, though the number of mountain streams which unite to form it render it subject to sudden and severe freshets. The most severe it ever experienced occurred in 1830, when a number of lives and many thousand dollars' worth of property were lost, an account of which is given in the chapter devoted to the history of New Haven.
Little Otter Creek has its source in Monkton and New Haven and flows a northwesterly course into Lake Champlain, its mouth being about three miles north of that of Otter Creek. In the latter part of its course the stream is wide and sluggish and flows through a tract of low, marshy ground. It affords few mill privileges.
Lewis Creek has its source in the northern part of Bristol, flows north through the western part of Starksboro and eastern part of Monkton, where it enters Chittenden county, to reappear in the northeastern part of Ferrisburgh, across which town it flows to the lake, which it enters a short distance north of Little Otter Creek. The mill privileges of this stream are numerous, and many of them excellent.
There are several short streams in the western part of the county which empty into the lake, and in other parts there are minor streams which do not require detailed notice, and which will be described in the histories of the sev- eral towns. The streams we have mentioned are the only important ones in the county.
Geology.1- Few localities are as rich in specimens illustrative of the theo- ries advanced by the science of geology as Addison county. Here the " foot- prints of the Creator " are clearly defined, and the "testimony of the rocks " reveals a wonderful story. Like all other counties of the State, its rocks are
1 The greater portion of these pages devoted to the geology of the county are made up of a con- densation from the Vermont State Geological Reports, published a number of years ago. It is now known that some of the theories and conclusions in those reports are erroneous. To a limited extent these errors are here corrected, or the erroneous portions omitted. The fact is, the geology of Addison county is now being ardently studied by competent persons, particularly Prof. Henry M. Seely, and Prof. Ezra Brainerd, of Middlebury, and ere many years a comprehensive and correct treatise will, doubtless, be published, embodying the results of their unselfish labors.
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NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS.
disposed in parellel ranges, north and south, of varying width and extent ; but here these ranges, no less than fifteen in number, are clearly defined, closely cut, and afford valuable subjects of study to the student, or to him interested in inquiries into the formation of the earth's great frame-work. In speculative geology, also, the student has here an ample field. But no doubt there are many into whose hands these pages may come, who have, through want of inclination or opportunity, failed to acquire a knowledge of the science of geol- ogy. For the benefit of such, we supplement our remarks on the geology of the county with a brief résumé of the fundamental principles of the science in general.
Among men of science it has become the common, if not the prevailing, opinion, that in the beginning all the elements with which we meet were in an ethereal or gaseous state - that they slowly condensed, existing for ages as a heated fluid, by degrees becoming more consistent - that thus the whole earth was once an immence ball of fiery matter; that, in the course of time, it was rendered very compact and at last became crusted over, as the process of cool- ing gradually advanced, and that its interior is still in a molten condition. Thus, if the view suggested be correct, the entire planet in its earlier phases was, as well as the larger part now beneath and within its solid crust, a mass of molten fire. At the time of the early crusting over there must have been in what was then the atmosphere many substances which were volatile from the high temperature. As the globe cooled these would fall upon the now stiffened crust. Among these would have been chloride of sodium, or common salt. When the crust had cooled below the boiling point of water, the con- densed water would form a salt sea, entirely covering the fire-made rocks. This would certainly be the case unless, as it was probable, this crust in cooling had been thrown into great folds. The highest of these folds appearing here and there above the waters of the primitive ocean would form the original moun- tains of the globe.
The warm waters with their dissolved contents must have had great chem- ical action upon these first crystalline rocks, dissolving out portions and in many ways eroding them. Great as may have been this chemical action, there was early in existence another force, that of the mechanical action of the water operating upon and changing the first-made rocks. Ever since there have been waters upon the globe these waters have been wearing away the cliffs and banks that border them. The early rocks have been ground down, worked over, and then deposited at lower levels. These earthy materials have only to be con- solidated by such forces as heat, pressure, chemical action, and the like to become solid rock again. Most of these water-made rocks are deposited in parallel beds, or strata, and are known as stratified rock. These stratified rocks are nearly the only ones accessible to study, and geologists are especially in- terested in their condition, composition, arrangement and relative age.
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
These matters cannot be discussed here at length ; still a few facts ought to be introduced which will help to make the views of geologists plain in regard to the age of rocks. Now, no one attempts to tell the exact age of rocks in years or centuries, but certain considerations will serve to show how their rela- tive age may be determined with a good degree of probability.
Most animals have some solid parts, and at the death of such as live in the water these parts would become imbedded in the forming strata and actually become a part of the newly-made rock. Also, animals living on the land may have their remains carried by streams to the sea, and so contribute to the rocks. The old rocks have been destroyed and their materials, with the addition of animal remains, have formed the new. The material of limestone rocks is nearly all of animal origin.
These rocks, containing the remains of once living beings, have been lifted out of the water and up into hills and mountains. The soil itself is chiefly a portion of these rocks which, by various agencies, have been broken into fragments.
There is a vast difference as to the older and newer forms of life as found in the rocks, and geologists believe that by studying these entombed forms they may determine the relative age of the rocks themselves. The stratified rocks- thought to lie upon the original crust, which may be crystalline in structure- have been divided into great ages, which are characterized by the chief types of life which were prevalent at the time they were forming. These ages have been further subdivided, according to the peculiarities of the rocks themselves. These great ages in the ascending order are here named :
I. Archæan Age .- The old age, the rocks of which lie directly upon the crystalline below, and in them the evidences of life are but faint. They are mostly crystalline in structure, and often contain excellent iron ore. Split Rock Mountain and the Adirondacks are examples.
2. Age of Invertebrates, or Silurian Age .- The waters of the ocean as it then existed contained plant and animal life of low forms. Chief among the latter were sponges, corals, and animals covered with shells.
3. Age of Fishes, or Devonian Age .- In addition to the life of the preceding age fishes, some of strange forms, abounded.
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