History of Addison county Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 56

Author: Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925. 1n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 988

USA > Vermont > Addison County > History of Addison county Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 56

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At the second meeting held at the same place on the first Tuesday of Sep- tember, 1792, it was, among other things, voted to maintain a school in town by a tax, and " to raise the sum of Four Pounds, L. M., to be paid in Wheat at the rate of four shillings per Bushel for the Benefit of the school," Noah Cady, Nathan Carpenter and Daniel Claflin being chosen a committee to lay out said money.

On the 4th of June, 1793, it was voted to accept the road from Rochester line to Kingston (Granville), and then from the Branch bridge (now in the vil- lage) to " Chaping's Crotch."

At the same meeting a vote was passed to raise four shillings tax on the "pools " (poll) to be paid in work in the western district, on or before the last day of September next.

Voted also to work a day by the "pool " on the burying-yard under the direction of the selectmen.

On the 4th of March, 1794, voted to raise eight shillings on the "pole," to be paid in work, for building a school-house in said town.

Such was the nature of the public action of the town. There was no occa- sion for the passage of many votes or the expenditure of much money. Pri- vate business always precedes the organized effort of communities, and bears

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TOWN OF HANCOCK.

to it nearly the relation of cause and effect. Private enterprise in Hancock at the opening of the present century had attained the proportions of to-day. The first saw-mill in town was built by Zenas Robbins about three-quarters of a mile west of the village, near the site of Simon Harlow's present mill, but a little above it. He also had a grist-mill there. Stephenson & Hawley built and for some time operated a tannery near the Branch bridge in the village, on the south side of the bridge and on the east side of the road. It was finally burned. Moses Ingalls had a small one near the Church mill, and John Lord kept a tavern where Mr. Rhodes now lives.

Other early taverns were kept, one by Reuben Lamb on the place now oc- cupied by Solomon Dunham ; one by Dr. Darius Smith where George V. Wil- son now lives. One of the Claflins also kept a tavern, on the mountain west of the village, in the same house now occupied by Mr. Manning.

The hotel now kept open for the accommodation of guests was built about the year 1808 by Esias Butts, who was followed about 1814 by Charles Church, grandfather of Mrs. E. C. Wright, the present proprietress. He was followed in the proprietorship by John Rhodes, Colonel Hackett, Frank Hackett, Royal Flint and Harvey, his son, Loren Baker, now of Ripton, Mr. Chamberlin, and John E. Wright from about 1865 until his death in May, 1881, since when his widow, Mrs. E. C. Wright, has kept it. The house will comfortably accommo- date twenty-five guests.

The extreme rural location of this town and the absence of any large vil- lage confine its history to brief statistics. The inhabitants have always been industrious, frugal and patriotic. They performed their part well in the late war, sending to the front the following list of volunteers in Vermont organiza- tions :

Volunteers for three years credited previous to call for 300,000 volunteers of October 17, 1863 :

J. T. Austin, O. L. Beckwith, E. M. Bull, J. G. Burk, O. Byron, F. S. Chatterton, M. R. Claflin, W. M. Cleveland, D. B. Field, L. Gilson, E. E. Hop- kins, J. Hunt, H. Kemp, O. Kemp, G. Kendall, H. C. Kidder, J. Kirkpatrick, A. McCollom, J. A. Page, R. E. Page, H. S. Quimby, O. Robinson, J. E. Sar- gent, T. P. Sargent, B. F. Ward, J. Watson.

Credits under call of October 17, 1863, for 300,000 volunteers, and subse- quent calls :

Volunteers for three years .- J. H. Church, M. R. Claflin, N. L. Claflin, C. V. Flint, J. H. Fuller, O. T. Tucker.

Vounteer for one year .- W. S. King.

Volunteer re-enlisted .- R. E. Page.

Volunteer for nine months .- H. R. Perry.

Furnished under draft .- Paid commutation, T. B. Martin, jr., A. Page. Entered service, H. Alexander.

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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.

The fluctuations in the population of the town are shown in the following table :

1791, 56; 1800, 149; 1810, 311 ; 1820, 442 ; 1830, 472; 1840, 455 ; 1850, 430 ; 1860, 448 ; 1870, 430; 1880, 382.

CHAPTER XXIV.

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEICESTER.

L EICESTER is situated in the southern part of the county, and is bounded on the north by Salisbury ; on the east by Goshen; on the south by Brandon, in Rutland county, and on the west by Whiting. The surface of the town, except in the eastern part, is moderately level, declining into low, marshy land along the Leicester River and a part of Otter Creek. The most elevated points are the summits of Bald Mountain and Mount Pleasant, the former tak- ing up nearly the entire surface of the eastern part of the town, and the latter occupying a considerable portion to the north. It follows that the scenery is varied, and in many respects beautiful. Lake Dunmore, extending south from Salisbury to nearly the center of the eastern part of the town, is known far and wide for the sparkling beauty of its waters and the grandeur of the grim and stately evergreens which stand like sentinels upon its shores. East of this is another lakelet no less beautiful, called Silver Lake, from the silvery whiteness of the sand which glistens in its depths, and the limpid clearness of its waters. It rests among the mountains fourteen hundred feet above sea level, and one thousand feet higher than the surface of Lake Dunmore. Its diameter measures about a mile. Little Pond, south of Dunmore, and Mud Pond, west of the same, are small bodies, which do not detract from the beauty of the place. The principal streams are Otter Creek, which forms a part of the western boundary of the town, and Leicester River, which flows south- westerly from the center of the northern boundary into Otter Creek. The soil is a rich, sandy loam, interspersed with some flats of clay, and along the streams valuable tracts of intervale, though towards the east, on approaching the mountains, it becomes harder and less productive, and more adapted to grazing than cultivation.

The town was chartered by the royal governor of New Hampshire, Ben- ning Wentworth, on the 20th of October, 1761, to Aaron Brown and sixty-six associates, in seventy-two shares, to contain the regular township area of 23,- 040 acres. In common with the experience of the original grantees of nearly all the towns in Vermont, the proprietors of Leicester failed to find the required number of acres within the limits of their town. The first surveys were nat-

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TOWN OF LEICESTER.

urally often grossly inaccurate. The same right was too frequently granted more than once and to different persons. A controversy was in this manner engendered with Salisbury concerning land titles, productive for years of a bit- ter and litigious animosity. The gist of the difficulty, after the elimination of all individual grievances, was briefly as follows: Previous to the issuing of the grants of Salisbury and Leicester, Middlebury on the north had been granted and its limits located, and Brandon, in Rutland county, on the south, by the name of Neshobe, leaving a distance of about eight miles between the two. This tract, probably from an imperfect knowledge of the geography of the county, was granted to both Leicester and Salisbury, allowing each an area of six miles square. Priority of charter would, as a matter of course, have at once determined which should have the precedence ; but when it came to this it was claimed by Salisbury, whose charter bore date nearly a month later, that the date of the Leicester charter had been surreptitiously changed. Litigation followed litigation for about twelve years, during which time one party would raise a crop and another claimant clandestinely reap it, all tending to have a bad moral effect, and greatly retarding the settlement of the town. But finally, on April 18, 1796, a committee from this town, consisting of John Smith, Ben- jamin Garfield and Joseph Woodward, met a committee from Salisbury, and the affair was amicably adjusted, the dividing line being settled upon as it now exists. Here ended the controversy, restoring harmony and giving to each town about 16,000 acres.

Settlements. - For about thirteen years after the granting of its charter the town remained an unbroken wilderness, uninhabited save by untamed beasts. As early as 1774 Jeremiah Parker and his son, Jeremiah, jr., and Samuel Daniels, from Massachusetts, after having inspected the territory, moved their families here. Parker settled on a large tract of land, embracing the farm now owned and occupied by Peter Wilson. They had for several summers previous worked on the land and returned to their families in the fall. Jeremiah Parker, jr., it is said, remained alone on his land one winter, for the purpose of caring for his cattle, with no neighbor nearer than Middlebury or Pittsford. Jeremiah Parker and his son were captured by the Indians during the Revolutionary War, and his son taken to Crown Point. The father was released because of deafness. The family returned to Massachusetts until after the war. Samuel Daniels was killed during this period in a skirmish with Indians. It is related by Leonard D. Jenny that during the progress of the first town meeting Jere- miah Parker, then an old man of seventy-five winters, wagered a gallon of brandy with the young men, who happened to be engaged in a leaping contest, that he could out-jump them all. The wager was accepted ; whereupon the old athlete leaped lightly over a string extended the height of his head - and won the brandy.

Leonard D. and Ebenezer B. Jenny, both life-long and honored residents

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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.

of Leicester, are grandsons of Jeremiah Parker. He was three times married, and had six children by his first wife; after the lapse of eighteen years follow- ing her death he married again, and had seven children by his second wife, among them being Chloe, mother of L. D. and E. B. Jenny; then there was an interim of ten years between the death of his second and the marriage of his third wife. Chloe Parker was but eleven years of age when her mother died, and had never been to school, but the early and assiduous teaching which she had received at home prepared her so well that she was capable of teaching almost immediately after her mother died. The first school-house stood south of the site of the present school-house in Jerusalem.

Captain John Smith came before the organization of the town from Whit- ing, and became the first representative in the State Legislature from his adopted town. He lived on the Middle Road where the widow of William Alden now lives, and was for a great many years a justice of the peace, and was noted for his remarkably correct judgment on questions of law. He was twice married. He ran a cider-mill on his farm.

Captain Thomas Sawyer, or " Colonel," as he was also called, although prominently mentioned in the early records of this town, was more properly a resident of Salisbury village, and used to raft his sawn lumber down Leicester River to Otter Creek, and thence to Middlebury. To suit his convenience he altered the course of Leicester River at its mouth. He entertained the pecul- iar religious belief that the souls of men were re-embodied and placed on earth again in a thousand years, and therefore refused to deed away his property, merely giving a lease for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, with how little consistency need not be observed. He was a soldier of both the French and English and Revolutionary Wars. He lived almost on the southern boundary of Salisbury.

Samuel Daniels, mentioned before as being a contemporaneous settler with Jeremiah Parker, located on the farm now owned by his grandson, Augustus Daniels, in "Jerusalem." He had a large family. Mrs. Miles Storer, of this town, and Harry Daniels, of Salisbury, are also grandchildren of Samuel.

Joseph Woodward took up the farm which Colonel Sawyer had owned, now owned by L. D. Jenny and Moses B. Ferson, and occupied by the latter. He built the old barn still standing on the place, and part of the house. He after- ward kept tavern in the old red house on the east road now owned by Frank Chandler, which in those days was a famous stage-house, but he did not meet with success. John Bullock afterward kept a "still" and sold whisky at that place.

John Fife, a Scotchman, came to Leicester "when the country was new," and married a daughter of Judge Strong. He lived in "Jerusalem," on the farm now occupied by Mrs. Grosvenor. The town line between Salisbury and Leicester ran between his house and barn, bringing the former within the town of Salisbury. He was taken away by the fatal epidemic of 1813.

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TOWN OF LEICESTER.

Daniel Fish ran a cider-mill, and had an immense orchard on the farm now owned and occasionally occupied by the widow of Stephen Alden. He was a short, thick-set man, and lived to be nearly ninety years of age. He died not far from 1830.

Benjamin Garfield settled, lived, and died on the place now owned and oc- cupied by Leonard D. Jenny, his first house standing a few feet in front of the site of the present house. He had a family of six boys, Benjamin, Joshua, Samuel, Salmon, Daniel, and one other. Samuel was six feet and seven or eight inches in height. Benjamin, jr., built the house in which Mr. Jenny now lives, in about 1815.

Peter White was an early settler near the Salisbury line, on the road lead- ing to Lake Dunmore.

Aaron Esty located on the site of the house now occupied by Luther Bar- ker, near the Leicester River bridge, and ran a ferry there. The old highway was on the west side of Otter Creek to this point. Esty wrought two pine logs into a boat which would transport horses across the stream, and another for the accommodation of foot passengers. About the year 1814 or 1815 he sold out and made a visit to a son in Western New York, remaining until he had passed his ninetieth year. He then came back and lived with another son, John Esty. He died July 31, 1844, aged ninety-eight years and six months. Among his descendants still living in town are Mrs. Luther Barker and Will- iam Esty, grandchildren.

Nathaniel Cook, of the family of Dr. Elkanah Cook, hereafter mentioned, was a man of a military turn of mind. He lived on the farm now occupied by George Field.

Joseph Capron settled very early on a tract of land since "pieced up," but comprising the south end of the old Fish farm, part of the William Alden place, and the farm of Edward Paine. He was twice married and had a large family of children.

Benjamin Whitman was an early settler on the farm now owned by Charles Fish, about one mile south of Salisbury village.

John Barker came to Leicester toward the latter part of the last century, and located on the farm including the site of the present school-house in " Je- rusalem." Julius Barker, his great-grandson, now lives on a part of the old homestead. He died in 1818. He served in the Revolution and War of 1812. His widow, Prudence, died on the 5th of December, 1846, aged ninety-nine years and nine months, having attained the greatest age of any person ever resident in the town.

Judge Henry Olin lived in a house which. stood just across the road from the present residence of Mrs. Addie Armstrong, south of the corner of the road from the junction, and the north and south road in which it ends.

Henry Olin was born in Shaftsbury, May 7, 1768. He was a son of Jus-

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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.

tice Olin. His mother's maiden name was Sarah Dwinnell. His father, as. well as his grandfather, Henry, was a native of Rhode Island, in which State, at East Greenwich, his great-grandfather, John Olin, the first ancestor of the name in America, settled in 1678. Hon. Gideon Olin, of Shaftsbury, was an uncle of the subject of this sketch.

Judge Olin settled in Leicester about the year 1788. His parents followed some years later and ended their days in Leicester. His early literary advan- tages were but moderate. On account of his unwieldy size and awkward manner the people of his adopted town were not at first much prepossessed in his favor. But his native wit, shrewdness and sound sense soon rendered him a general favorite .. He was chosen a member of the Legislature of 1799, and was twenty-one times re-elected. He was first chosen an assistant judge of the County Court in 1801, which office he held eight, and that of chief judge fifteen years, making twenty-three years of uninterrupted service upon the bench. He was chosen a State councilor in 1820 and '21, a member of Con- gress in 1824, to complete the unexpired term of Hon. Charles Rich, deceased, and three consecutive years, from 1827, lieutenant-governor of the State. His popularity at home rose so high that at one election he had nearly the unani- mous vote of his fellow townsmen for governor. In politics he was a Jeffer- sonian Democrat and a modern Whig, and in religion a zealous Methodist.

He removed to Salisbury in the spring of 1837, and died there on the 18th of August following. His ashes repose in the graveyard in the town in which he spent most of his life, and in whose affairs he bore a far more conspicuous part than any other man has ever done. His father, mother and first wife are all interred near him.

Judge Olin was twice married, first in 1788, to Lois Richardson, one of a family of twelve children, who all lived to mature age, and were all members of a Baptist Church in the east part of Cheshire, Mass. By her he had nine children -two sons and seven daughters - who reached mature age, and two sons who died in infancy. Among the former were the celebrated Dr. Stephen Olin, and Mrs. Moses Wright, mother of Rev. Moses Emory Wright, who was. born and reared in Leicester, and graduated at Wesleyan University, Middle- town, Conn., in 1853. Judge Olin's second wife was a Widow Barnum, whose maiden name was Polly Sanford.

In physical proportions the judge was almost gigantic. He was the oracle of the community, and his conversation the charm of any company in which he happened to be.1

Joseph Swinington, from Massachusetts, came to Leicester at an early day, and settled on the place now owned by his grandson, George O. Swinington. The dwelling house still standing on the place was built in 1801.

Leonard D. Jenny was born on the 23d of February, 1800, in the house

1 Taken substantially from Miss Hemenway's Vermont Historical Magazine.

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TOWN OF LEICESTER.

built by Jeremiah Parker. His father, Ebenezer Jenny, bought the farm next north of Samuel Daniels, and after abiding there for a year or two sold out and went to live with his father-in-law, Jeremiah Parker, in " Jerusalem." He had a family of eight boys and two girls, of whom only four boys are living. Leonard D. Jenny married Helena M., daughter of David Merriam, an early settler of Brandon, on the first day of June, 1836. They have no children. He bought his present farm of L. C. Remelee, in 1833.

Ebenezer B. Jenny, brother to Leonard D., was born June 15, 1804. On the 15th of December, 1834, he married Sarah Ann Kelsey, of Brandon. They have two children living, a daughter in Malone, N. Y., and a son, Burt, in Bennington. On the 15th of December, 1885, they had a golden wedding, which was as pleasant an affair as it is unusual.

Stephen Sparks, from Connecticut, one of the earliest settlers in Leicester, located on the farm now owned and occupied by his grandson, George Sparks, the title having never departed from the family. George Sparks, son of Stephen Sparks, jr., was born on this place May 7, 1824.

Samuel Ranno, one of the substantial men of the town, came to Leicester from Salisbury in 1852. He bought his present place in 1865. He was born in Tunbridge, Vt., in 1809.

Early Physicians .- Though there are at the present day no physicians in town, there have been practitioners here in the past who are still remembered for their services. The first physician in town, Dr. Elkanah Cook, lived on the farm now owned by George Field, a few rods north of Leonard Jenny's. He was a self-taught, botanic physician of considerable skill ; an upright and esti- mable man. "He was a stout, resolute man, with but little education, but possessed of sound judgment, and exercised considerable skill in bone-setting and other surgical operations. There being no roads, he would take a pine torch and travel through the woods to visit the sick at all hours in the night, often the distance of six or eight miles, and no stormy weather ever hindered him. Such hardships, however, destroyed his health. He died August 27, 1815, aged seventy-seven years, but appeared much older."

Dr. - Burr practiced some time here after Dr. Cook. He lived on the east road. He was a very eccentric man and drank a good deal, but had the good sense to suspend his practice while drunk.

Timothy Alden, though not a licensed physician, used to have quite an extended ride in town.

Dr. William Gile, who served the town many years as clerk, had a large practice here for many years. He lived on the same place occupied before him by Dr. Cook.

Town Organization .- The town of Leicester was organized on the 29th of March, 1786, at a meeting held at the house of Captain Thomas Sawyer. The warning was signed by Dr. Elkanah Cook, John Smith, Thomas Sawyer,

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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.

Asa Bacon, Elisha White and Solomon Bigelow. The following officers were then and there chosen :

Captain Thomas Sawyer, moderator; Ebenezer Child, town clerk; Captain Thomas Sawyer, Captain John Smith, and Ebenezer Child, selectmen; Eli Brown, constable; Joseph Woodward, Elias Chamberlain, John Kepner, list- ers; Captain John Smith, Isaac Scott, Samuel Kendall, Asa Bacon, James Lafler, Solomon Storer, and Abel Johnson, surveyors of highways.

Owing to some technical defect in the method adopted in warning this first town meeting, the General Assembly passed an act, October 22, 1804, at Rut- land, to the following effect, that "Whereas, it has been represented that the first town meeting of Leicester had not been warned comformably to law, and the record of votes and proceedings had been so mutilated as to render them almost useless," and that the record of the March meeting for 1791 was lost, " which may greatly confuse the public concerns and private interests in said town,

" Resolved, that such first meeting be declared valid, that the selectmen, clerk, and officers be declared then invested with due power and authority, and that Salathiel Bump and Reuben Sexton, of Salisbury, be appointed a com- mittee to examine after oath the transcribed records of such meetings and certify to their correctness."

At this same first town meeting the following questions were passed upon :

" Voted to raise one shilling on ye pound for the purpose of mending the highway. Voted to allow 3 shillings and 6 pence per day for [labor] on the highways and 2 shillings for I yoke of oxen per day. Voted to desolve the meeting.

Recorded March 30th, A. D., 1786, "EBENEZER CHILD, T. Clerk."

At a meeting held on the fourth Monday of March, 1787, the following was a part of the proceedings recorded :

" Voted to accept the Two roads lade through the town lade out by Capt. Smith, Capt. Sawyer, Eben'r Child, selectmen; one of the roads leads from Brandon line by Capt. Sawyer's1 to the north end of the town. The other road is from the north end of the town over Leicester River, by the Island, as may appear by the surveys."

The March meeting for 1788 was held at the house of "Ensign " Joseph Woodward, John Daggett subscribing the records as town clerk. It was voted, among other things, that the "town be divided into four districts for the pur- pose of building pounds ; " one pound to be situated " near Esquire Smith's ;" one near the cross-roads entering the road by James Nichol's ; one near Sam- uel Kendall's, and one near Calvin Chamberlin's.

These brief and unique extracts depict almost without explanation the

1 This reference indicates that Captain Sawyer lived at this early date within the defined limits of Leicester.

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TOWN OF LEICESTER.

state of the community toward the close of the last century. All internal improvements were incipient; everything was new; the roads, some of them, were not completed, and were difficult to travel. The industry of the people was devoted chiefly to the clearing of land, the improvement of farms and of the houses of the inhabitants. . The town, having no mill privileges to speak of, has never been remarkable for the number of its factories or mills. Stores abounded, however, in former days, even more than at present, when com- munication with the larger villages is so easy. A Mr. Langley kept a store in "Jerusalem" in the early years of this century-"a pocket concern," as Leon- ard D. Jenny, our informant, describes it. He used to buy the greater portion of his goods in Rutland. His system of book-keeping was peculiar, consisting of a brief memorandum written with chalk on the wall of the salesroom of all sales on credit, etc. One day when the wall was well filled with these charges, and while Mr. Langley was at Rutland replenishing his stock, his wife, who had conceived the idea of house-cleaning, in a moment of forgetfulness, washed off the marks. Of course there was something of a scene when her "lord and master" returned and told her that she had undone him. She made the best of the matter, and suggested the feasibility of replacing the items from mem- ory, which he accordingly attempted to do. When he had finished he gazed a moment with extreme satisfaction upon his work, and observed to his wife that, "although he had not been able to remember all the debtors, he had remembered all the debts, and had charged them to better men."

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History of Addison county Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 56

Author: Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925. 1n Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co. Number of Pages: 988

Author: Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925. 1n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 988