USA > Vermont > Addison County > History of Addison county Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 58
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Geographical Position .- The geographical position of the town, as de- scribed and bounded by the charter, was such that an entire settlement under one organization would have been almost impracticable. One-third of the town was situated on the east side of the ridge of the Green Mountains, and the remaining two-thirds on the west side. The west line of the town was at that time only about one hundred and sixty rods west of the present site of the town house. The Legislature, in the fall of 1824, annexed the third division, excepting the six lots on the west side of the mountains, to the town of War- ren, in Washington county, leaving the present east line of the town very near the top of the mountains. The same year an addition was made on the west side by the annexation of a tract of land one mile in width, containing 4,400 acres, from Bristol. Avery's Gore, a territory of several thousand acres, was annexed in 1848. A portion of Ripton being so situated that the inhabitants in that part could be better accommodated in their business relations by belonging to Lincoln-therefore, in 1869, a strip one and a half miles wide, containing 4,832 acres, was also annexed.
Settlements .- An account of the first settlement, for want of material will necessarily be very brief and incomplete. Tradition lends a helping hand, but contributes only a very little. And having consulted many of the older resi- dents, some of whom have memories extending back over the past four score years or more, I am thus only enabled to arrive at a few brief facts relative to the first settlers, their privations and hardships. The first permanent and actual settlement was made in the north part of the town on what is now known as
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TOWN OF LINCOLN.
Quaker or Mud street, in March, 1795, by Loren Orvis, Lawrence Delong, Marcus Hedding, and their families. The settlement, however, was virtually made during the summer previous by the above named persons, and Elijah Ferguson, Moses Scott, and Shuable Clark, who took up several rights by clear- ing the land and building log houses ; but do not find any account of their fam- ilies coming until the next spring. The proprietors at their meeting in Sep- tember, 1794, as previously stated, voted to these six individuals the rights they were on at that time, instead of the rights drawn by them, provided they were in actual settlement on and from July 1, 1795.
Loren Orvis settled on the first division lot No. 37, the farm now owned by Hiram Hamner. Marcus Hedding settled on lot No. 34, his log house stand- ing near where the buildings now stand on the Wright place. Afterwards Hedding built a house on the opposite side of the highway, on the farm now owned by Reuben Cowles. Lawrence Delong settled on lot No. 5, which is now owned by William S. Morgan and Gabriel H. Purinton.
Elijah Ferguson, Moses Scott, and Shuable Clark did not permanently settle within the chartered limits of the town, or at least no evidence can be found that they ever did.
Orvis, Hedding, and Delong were the only three families residing here until the spring of 1796, when James Varney settled on the farm now owned by Irvin Colby, and Samuel Eastman on the farm owned by Charles C. Lee. Jed- ediah Durfey settled on the place where Elihu Purinton now lives, the same spring or following winter. Samuel Brooks and Wolcott Burnham settled here in 1797, the former on the place, or very near, where the school-house now stands in District No. I. Burnham settled on the Cowles farm near his west barn. Thomas Lee settled on the farm with Samuel Eastman in 1799. Their houses stood very near the south side of the old orchard above Charles C. Lee's dwelling house. Thomas Goodrich first came into town September 10, 1799, it being his nineteenth birthday, and resided some time with Thomas Lee and Samuel Eastman, and then built a log house and settled on the farm now owned by James Butterfield. Jonathan Gove settled in that part of the town known as Gove Hill, in 1800, at which time there were only ninety-seven persons re- siding in town.
Chase Purinton and family came from Weare, N. H., in March, 1803, and purchased where Jedediah Durfey settled, and is the same place where his grandson, Elihu Purinton, now resides. Asa Meader, Nathan Hoag, and Eben- ezer Durfey located in the east part of the town ; the former in 1804, the lat- ter in 1801. They called their settlement Elder Hill, on account of the abun- dant quantities of sweet elders which grew there. Nathan Hoag settled on the farm now occupied by Hiram T. Atkins, Asa Meader where Nelson Chase now lives, and Ebenezer Durfey on the farm on the opposite side of the road. Hoag and Meader kept bachelors' hall together the first year in a log house on
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Meader's place ; their wives came the following spring. James Dean settled on the farm owned by Zeno Page, and David Hayes where Nathaniel Morrell now lives, in 1795. The places were at the time of the settlement and until 1824 a part of Bristol, since then belonging to Lincoln.
The privations and hardships that the early settlers endured in settling their farms and making for themselves homes in the mountain wilderness can neither be imagined nor described by those who know little or nothing of want and pri- vation. The beautiful and well-cultivated fields and the green pastures of to- day were then a dense forest, the unmolested home of the wild beasts, with only now and then a small clearing, in the center of which stood a log house, the home of the settler. Their houses were not the well-built ones, nor were they equal to the log houses of the present for comfort and convenience. These houses had floors, but not of planed boards ; logs were hewn on three sides and placed closely together on sleepers or otherwise. The floors were mostly spruce, but the better ones were of hard wood. The roofs were covered with bark and boughs. The stove, for cooking purposes and warming the house, consisted of the most rude fire-place with a pole chimney, which was plastered on the inside with mud or mortar. The only boards that were used in the construction of their houses were made into the front door, and gen- erally the only one in the house. They were neither paneled nor adorned with moulding nor stained glass, but a rough cleet door with wooden latch and hinges, rarely as good as the doors of the modern stables. Boards were too expensive to be used for any other purposes, except for the doors and some of the better home-made furniture, as there were no mills in town at that time, the nearest being located at New Haven Mills, nine miles distant. The roads were mere paths, and the only one from Bristol to Lincoln was over what is known as the Briggs Hill. Samuel Eastman brought what boards he used in the construction of his house, on his back from Bristol, up the great hill and over Quaker street to his home on the Lee farm, a distance of some seven miles. Thomas Goodrich also brought boards on his back from Bristol over the same road, then carrying them some three miles further over what is known as Elder Hill to his place. Samuel Eastman purchased a caldron kettle at what is now Starksboro village, and brought it home on his back over the hills. Many more incidents of the same nature might be given, illustrating the excessive burdens and the many inconveniences and deprivations that the settlers endured. It was not all sunshine and fair weather with them during the first fifteen or twenty years of their living in the wilderness and among the mountains. The privations and hardships that they endured would seem, for us, almost insufferable. They were not wealthy people who came here to in- vest their money in wild, uncultivated lands from choice, but were mostly en- ergetic and courageous men and women, with sound minds, strong hands, and determined wills, who were in the prime of life, and unable for the want of
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means to purchase improved land, and were compelled from necessity to pur- chase the unimproved, and by several years of hard labor cleared for them- selves farms. The women were by no means slow in their duties, but were ever ready to lift a helping hand, either in their log cabin, attending to the do- mestic duties, or in the out-door work, assisting their husbands in clearing land, putting in and securing crops. Although deprived of many of the privileges and conveniences that we enjoy, they were by no means discontented or un- happy. Though poor, they were in some respects more independent than many of the present time. The wool from their sheep, and the flax, were carded, woven, and made into garments in their own homes. Nearly every man was a cobbler and made the boots and shoes for the entire family. If an ar- ticle was wanted that they did not possess, the Yankee ingenuity was brought into play and the thing was made, though sometimes inelegantly constructed.
Deprivation and want was their common master for a number of years, and poverty, that at times verged on starvation, constantly stared them in the face ; yet they did not falter at its ghastly countenance, nor yield in despair. Notwithstanding all their trials and sufferings they were social, unselfish, genial, kind, and hospitable. Their social visits were more frequent, though living longer distances apart, than at the present, and were made sources of greater joy and pleasure during the long winter evenings. They were not the owners of fine carriages and sleighs. The rude ox-sled, with its long runners hewn from some natural crook and shod with wooden shoes, was a conveyance suit- able for all occasions. It was the settler's farm wagon in summer, his carriage and sleigh when the family attended meeting at the log church, or made their neighbors an evening visit. The family was snugly seated on the sled, and closely wrapped in such blankets as the household afforded, except the father or one of the older boys, whose duty it was to drive the oxen. Some of them, however, were not fortunate enough to own an ox-team, and resorted to other methods. A large hand-sled was a necessary appendant to every household, and was a substitute for the ox-sled in nearly every place in drawing the fire- wood, and when drawn by the father and older boys, with the mother and smaller children seated upon it, answered very well for making neighborhood visits of some miles from their homes.
A few incidents will not, perhaps, be out of place, if narrated here to por- tray some of the scenes of many years ago.
During the summer of 1813, while Nathan Hoag was from home at work in haying, leaving his wife with the children to superintend the affairs gener- ally, she started out for the cows one afternoon, just before sunset, leaving the three children at the house. She could hear the tinkling of the bells at a dis- tance in the dense woods. With a firm, quick step she hurried forward into the forest, without even a thought but that she would return with the cows in a few minutes. She had not gone far when the cows lay down for the night, and
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the bells ceased to ring; but still, determined to find them, she pushed on, and ere she was aware of it was overtaken by night. After wandering about some time in hopes that she might find her way, she put up for the night and en- gaged lodging in the top of a spruce tree, about fifteen feet from the ground. The children became alarmed because their mother did not return, and started for the neighbors, and met their father coming home. He took the dinner- horn and an old tin lantern, about the size of a gallon jug, punched full of holes, giving about as much light as a score of caged fire-flies, and started in pursuit of his wife. After traveling a long distance, sounding the horn every few minutes, he heard a faint response coming from nearly a mile distant. As he approached, the response became stronger and stronger, until he came to her lodging-place. They arrived safely at home about one o'clock the follow- ing morning.
The year 1816 was a gloomy one, and is well remembered by some now living as the cold year. Every month was visited by a hard frost. On the 6th of June the ground was frozen solid and covered with several inches of snow, which remained only a few days. The crops were quite or nearly a failure. Those who depended on what they raised for a living were somewhat anxious in regard to how they should live through the coming winter, which began before the summer was fairly ended. There was a very little rye raised, and a very small crop of potatoes, but not sufficient to carry them through one-half of the winter. Every effort to avoid suffering was made that could be.
After their scanty crops were secured in the fall, the men and boys, with their axes, toiled from the early dawn to late at night in chopping down the forest trees and burning them into ashes, which were gathered, leached, and the lye was boiled down to alkaline salts. The salts, or potash, were then barreled, ready for market. 'Squire Durfey and his boys were coopers and made the barrels. Then a team or two was fitted out by the settlers and loaded with the potash, and some one or more would go with it to Troy, N. Y., or to Boston, Mass., and exchange it for flour, salt, tea, tobacco, sweetsers or maccaboy for the women, and many other necessaries, which could be attained only by purchasing. Thomas Lee often went to market with venison and partridges and exchanged them for groceries.
The women were by no means indolent during this time. The mother did the weaving for the family, and wove for others whenever an opportunity occurred, and taught the daughters the very useful art of carding and spinning wool and flax. Mrs. Esther Hoag, being very anxious to assist her husband in the support of the family through the winter, wove for a man in Ferrisburgh thirty-two yards of cloth in a hand-loom, putting in and beating up the filling, thread by thread, for one bushel of rye. She went on horseback to Ferris- burgh to deliver the cloth and get the rye, carrying with her an infant only six months old (now Hon. Enos P. Hoag, of this town), and came home by a
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grist-mill in Starksboro to get it ground. The miller, learning how hard she had labored for it, and how very small the pay for the labor, ground it without taking toll.
The woods abounded in game, the deer were plenty, rabbits and partridges were quite numerous. In nearly every house might be found the flint-lock musket, a necessary appendage to the furniture. The men and boys were trained to use it in a practical method. Target shooting was too expensive a luxury for those times. A sight at the deer at a reasonable distance was sure death for him. They easily supplied themselves with the necessary amount of venison, and much smaller game was taken, which was made available dur- ing the winter.
Organization .- The settlers became sufficiently numerous in 1798 to or- ganize the town. Nearly every male citizen was honored by being elected to some office at the first meeting. On the 26th day of February, 1798, a peti- tion was presented by the settlers to Henry Mclaughlin, of Bristol, a justice of the peace, requesting " His Honor " to warn a town meeting. The follow- ing is a literal copy of the petition, warning, and proceedings of the first meet- ing as they were originally recorded :
"Lincoln Feb the 26 day 1798
"We the subscribers Humbly Request your Honour to worn a town meeting for the in Habitance of the town of Lincoln on the Second tuesday of March Next at the Dwelling house of Jedediah Durfey in Said Lincoln. and we yours are in Duty Ever bound to Henry Mclaughlin Justice of Pice in county of Addison.
" Loren Orvis Lawrence Delong
" Jedediah Durfey Woolcott Burnham
" Samuel Eastman " Howland Delong "Notifycation.
Demarcerios Hedding
John Hedding
" these are to worn all the inhabitance of the town of Lincoln, to Meet at the Dwelling house of Jedediah Durfey in said Lincoln on the 2nd Tuesday of March in the year of our Lord 1798 at ten oclock in the forenoon to act on the following buziness, Viz.
" Ist to choose A Moderator to govern said Meeting.
" 2nd to choose a Town Clark.
" 3d to choose Select Men.
" 4th to choose all other officers that the Law of this State Directs.
" 5th to transact any other business that Concerns said town agreeable to Law when Meet.
" Bristol 28th February 1798
" Henry Mclaughlin
" Justice Peace "
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
"Lincoln 13th March 1798
" Ist Chose Henry Mclaughlin Esq moderator.
"2nd Chose Howland Delong town Clark.
"3d Chose Loren Orvis, James Varney, Jedediah Durfey Celect Men.
"4th Chose Samuel Brooks town treasury.
"5th Chose Samuel Eastman first Constable.
"6th Voted that the rest of the town officers should Be chosen by Nomina- tion.
"7th Voted Loren Orvis, Jedediah Durfey, Woolcot Burnham Listers.
"8th Voted Samuel Eastman Collector of town rates.
"9th Voted Loren Orvis Leather Sealor.
" Ioth Voted Samuel Eastman grand Jury.
" I Ith Voted Jedediah Durfey pound keeper.
" 12th Voted Loren Orvis tithing Man.
" 13th Voted James Varney howard.
"14th Voted Loren Orvis Woolcot Burnham fens viewurs.
" 15th Voted Jedediah Durfey Highway soveir.
" 16th Voted Loren Orvis sealer of weights and measures.
" 17th Voted that hogs should run at large With good and sufficient yokes.
" 18th these men are under oath to sarve unto the Several offices whare untwo they ware chosen.
" 19th this meeting Desolved."
Early Industries .- The principal source of revenue from which the earliest settlers received their income was from the manufacture of potash from the red elm, which was quite numerous in some localities; other wood was used for the same purpose, but of less value.
Game was plenty, especially deer, which might be seen almost daily, of which they supplied their own tables with venison and sent large quantities to market during the winter months in exchange for groceries and other neces- saries.
Timber was nearly worthless, except for fuel and the manufature of potash, the demand being very small, and that local. The first saw-mill was built near the Corners just below where the covered bridge now stands, by a company of settlers for the purpose of manufacturing lumber necessary for their own use. The next mill of any importance was built by Amos and Joseph Jones where George A. Thayer's clapboard mill now stands. From 1825 to 1830 the old- fashioned "up and down" saw-mills became quite numerous. The first circular saw was brought into town by Ariel Hawkins in 1837 and used by him in saw- ing shingles in the mill now owned by Seymour J. Davis.
Joseph Blanchard, Isaac Houston, William and Andrew Mitchell, came from Acworth, N. H., and located in the west part of the town in 1827, and put up a saw-mill and forge about forty rods above the Dean bridge, and the next
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year commenced the manufacture of iron. About the same time, or a year earlier, Henry Soper and Philetus Pier built a forge where Hodijah Lincoln's mill now stands, and at the time of the freshet it was owned by Pier and O. W. Burnham. These two forges were destroyed by the freshet, but were rebuilt soon after. O. W. Burnham built a forge some eighty or a hundred rods be- low, where Barnum formerly commenced to build a whetstone factory. This forge was run by Burnham some eight or ten years. About 1840 he became sole owner of the other two, and continued the manufacture of iron until about 1860. The ore from which the iron was made was brought from the Adiron- dacks. The hauling of the ore and iron to and from the forge gave steady em- ployment to a great many owning teams. The coal was furnished mostly by those who owned wood land and were desirous of clearing it. There are many "well-to-do" farmers who settled in the wilderness and cleared this land and at the same time were laying up money in selling the coal.
The wealth of the town previous to 1850 was to a great extent due to the iron works, and it was the nucleus of a business, and about the only one, in which large sums of money were annually paid to employees.
The forges when run to their full capacity were capable of turning out three hundred tons of iron to each fire annually.
The first grist-mill in town, for grinding corn and provender only, was built in 1806 by Chase Purinton, on the privilege where Abel T. Morgan's saw-mill now stands. The stones were taken from the farm now owned by Charles Hey- wood. They are still in use in the mill now known as the "Hanks mill," and after eighty years of almost constant wear are apparently as good as when first used.
The first store in town was kept by Joseph Blanchard, and was situated in the west part of the town on the present site of Joseph Miner's dwelling house. The first stock of goods was put in in 1828, which consisted of groceries and West India goods. This was the only store in town for a number of years, when A. C. Allen opened a store in the building now owned by Ira W. Wake- field, and occupied by him for a shoe-shop and post-office.
A small grocery store run by one Ira Huntly was located for a short time where Hodijah Lincoln's dry sheds are now situated.
O. W. Burnham commenced in the mercantile business about 1840 or '42 on the same site of James L. Lincoln's store. This was the only store, how- ever, that did any great amount of business in that part of the town, and was the only one in town until the store at the Center was started, on the present site of W. N. Gove's, and was run as a union store for a time.
A bark-mill and tannery was built just below where O. S. H. Butterfield's grist-mill now stands, and was owned and run by Manly S. Wilds for a time, and afterwards by Porter Thomas.
A foundry for the manufacturing of plows was built in 1832 by Russell 32
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Taber, on the farm now owned by William Eddy, and was successfully run by him about twenty years, when he removed the works to "Rocky Dale."
Taxes .- The land tax was quite heavy in proportion to the value of the real estate on which it was assessed at that time. An acre of wild and worth- less mountain land was taxed the same as though it had been improved and cultivated. The settlers, however, suffered very little inconvenience from the method of taxation, compared with the non-resident land owners. The most of this tax could be paid either in labor in making roads and building bridges, or in money. The settlers, realizing the inconvenience arising from poor roads, and in some places none at all, were not only willing but anxious to have an opportunity to work out their taxes; for every dollar laid out in the improve- ment in this way increased the value of their homes as much if not more. The non-residents being the owners of most of the mountain lands and the poorer lands below-for the settlers had selected what they considered the best-were compelled to pay equally as much per acre, and pay it in money at or before some specified time, or their lands would be advertised and sold at public auc- tion. The auction sales were of some advantage to the settlers who wished to own more land, for it frequently occurred that a fair kind of a lot was sold un- der the hammer for three or four dollars. The rate of the land tax was fixed by the Legislature, and it specified for what and how it should be appropriated. At its session in October, 1802, at Westminster, a committee was appointed to survey and lay out a post-road from Berkshire to Pittsford, which road was known as and called in this town the "County Road." The committee was allowed fifteen days to complete the survey through the town and six days through Avery's Gore. To defray the expenses of laying and making the road, and building the bridges in its course through this town, the Legislature in 1803 assessed a tax of three cents an acre on all the land in the town, ex- cepting those sequestered for public, pious, and charitable purposes. This tax could be paid in labor on the road under the direction of a committee appoint- ed to superintend it, or in money at a specified time. As it was not so paid, about sixteen thousand acres were sold by Jonathan Gove at public auction. The whole amount received from this sale, including costs of sale, was $538.52. Another tax of four cents per acre was assessed in 1812, one cent of which was to be paid in money to defray the current expenses of the State, and the other three in labor or money for the purpose of making and repairing roads. About one-fourth of the land in town was sold at this time in consequence of the tax not being paid when due. The following notice appeared in Volume I, No. 28, of the Vermont Mirror, a newspaper printed at Middlebury, Vt., April 7, 1813 :
" Whereas the Legislature of the State of Vermont at their session at Mont- pelier in the year 1812, assessed a tax of three cents on each acre of land (pub- lic rights excepted) in the town of Lincoln, in the county of Addison, in said
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