USA > Vermont > Addison County > History of Addison county Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 77
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The first session of Addison County Court was held in March of this year, in Addison; John Strong, chief judge; Ira Allen, Gamaliel Painter, Wm. Brush, and Amos Fassett, assistant judges. Samuel Chipman, then living near the falls, was appointed county clerk. He was the first lawyer that settled in Addison county, and remained in Vergennes about eighteen years, with fair success as a lawyer ; but his forte seems to have been speculating in real estate. He declined serving as clerk after one year, and Roswell Hopkins (grandfather of our present Dr. Hopkins) was appointed and held the office sixteen years, all of which time he was a citizen of Vergennes and conspicuous in public affairs in town, county, and State. He was clerk of the House of Representatives from 1779 nine years; he was secretary of State fifteen years, and declined further nomination in 1802, when about to remove from the State. He was one of a committee of distinguished men to revise the laws in 1797. He was a man of fine talent, well educated, and possessed of most agreeable social qual- ities ; he became one of the most popular men in the State.
The following lines, written by him, are found on a blank leaf of a book in the county clerk's office :
My friends, some deference is due, To every man, both me and you ; But this respect in due proportion Pay to every man as is his station.
I, of Vergennes, am alderman ; Yea, more, a common councilman. In the office of county clerk I am put And clerk of the County Court to boot ;
Of State I'm also secretary, A justice, too, which none will query. Isn't more respect to me due, then Than almost any other man.
In titles numerous and great, Heaped on me here and through the State. Be careful, then, due deference show, Both here and where'er else I go.
-Ros. HOPKINS, Clerk.
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He was called " doctor " sometimes. He explains it as " doctor of convivi- ality." In 1787 he was granted by the State a tract of land, 11,264 acres, in Hopkins's Gore. In 1803 he thought Vergennes was becoming too crowded, and he moved to St. Lawrence county. The town of Hopkinton was named in his honor. In 1789 he bought for a trifle two hundred acres of land (what was lately the American House stands almost in the center of the south line of the lot), and later owned the Botsford farm and occupied a house near the site of Botsford's house.
1787 .- In this year several business men came into Vergennes and busi- ness was prosperous. The Legislature took some measures to secure reciproci- ty with Canada, and Ira and Levi Allen were instrumental in procuring the admission of timber, lumber, pot and pearl ashes, and other products free of duty from Lake Champlain, and thus opened the way for a business which assumed large proportions, and was a great boon to all dwellers in this region. Great rafts of spars, square timber hewed in the woods, were taken to Quebec, and much of it there loaded into ships and taken to England. The ships in that trade were constructed with port-holes in the stern, and long timbers were slid from the rafts into the holds of the vessels. The raftsmen lived in houses built on the rafts. Potash was also carried on the rafts.
In January of this year at a town meeting in Panton they voted that " they are not willing to have no part of the town taken off for a city at the northeast corner of the town." In February of this year Wm. Brush resigned his office of assistant judge. Roswell Hopkins was appointed county clerk and Seth Storrs State's attorney.
At the session of the Governor and Council at Bennington, Ethan Allen presents his letters from the French consul relative to the name " Vergennes," and other matters. The plan of forming a city about the falls had become publicly known at this time.
1788 .- This year was an important era in the history of Vergennes. It is perhaps impossible to give a faithful picture of her situation and business at that time. Several saw-mills and one grist-mill were in operation, a small forge on the east side of the creek and some small potash establishments, a brewery, and blacksmith shops. There were a few framed houses, mostly gambrel-roofed, the frames covered with upright planks, nailed with hand- made wrought nails and clapboarded, but seldom painted. Most of the dwell- ings were of logs surrounded by the stumps and small clearings, with the for- est in close proximity. One hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy- five inhabitants were on the territory.
In June of this year Jabez Fitch, a man then fifty-one years old, with two sons, went from Connecticut to Hyde Park, Vt., and passed through Ver- gennes. In a journal kept by him he writes, under date of June 5, 1788: “A little after sunset we arrived at one Smith's, a little north of Snake Mountain,
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where we put up for the night and found comfortable entertainment. We are now within about six or seven miles of New Haven falls. I lodged with one Samson, a Tory, but hope I have not caught the infection. Friday, June 6, we took breakfast before we started and our landlord went with us as far as the falls. We soon came into the town of Panton and traveled about five miles through the woods before we came to a house. At about nine o'clock we arrived at the falls and crossed the creek in a canoe, but our horse and dog were obliged to swim. We made some stop at this city. I was in at Colonel Brush's to leave some letters and at about ten set off on our way again. We soon came into the town of Ferrisburgh and found the road extremely muddy. We called at one Tim Rogers', about noon in hopes to obtain horse-baiting, but were disappointed and were obliged to travel about five or six miles fur- ther, most of the way without a house. About two o'clock we arrived at one Cogswell's in Charlotte."
It is not clear why he had to swim his horse and dog; perhaps the bridge built in 1786 was out of repair. There was no post-office in Vergennes at that time and none nearer than Rutland. Before the Congress of the old thirteen States would admit Vermont into the Union, Vermont had in her splendid career as an independent State sovereignty, in March, 1784, appointed a post- master-general (Anthony Haswell, of Bennington) and established five post- offices- one in Bennington, one in Rutland, one in Brattleboro, one in Wind- sor, and one in Newbury, and established the rate of postage to be the same as it was in the United States, and provided for post-riders to make weekly trips; and the people congratulated themselves on their liberal mail facilities. The next year after the admission of Vermont into the Union Congress established a post-office in Vergennes on June 1, 1792. On the records of the Governor and Council at Manchester, October 23, 1788, the following entry appears : " A constitution of the city De Vergennes having passed the general assembly was read and concurred with two amendments, which was agreed to," and, Oc- tober 24, "an act granting the city of De Vergennes town privileges having passed the General Assembly, was read and concurred." This was an act per- mitting Vergennes to organize as the towns about her did, with selectmen, etc., for four years (afterward extended to six years) before electing city officers.
The misnomer in the record quoted above was the error of the scribe. The Legislature was sitting at the time at Manchester and consisted of Governor Thomas Chittenden, twelve councilors, and eighty-four members. Gideon Spencer was a member from Panton, Alexander Brush from New Haven, and Abel Thompson from Ferrisburgh. The act of incorporation received Gover- nor Chittenden's approval the day it was passed, in which the corporate name is, " the Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council and Freemen of the City of Ver- gennes." Thus Vergennes, with and because of her splendid water power and commanding situation, regardless of her small population, became a city-the
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third in New England in point of time, Hartford and New Haven having been chartered in 1784.
The origin of the name given to the city is explained in a correspondence between Ethan Allen and the French consul, Hector St. John De Crevecour, a French nobleman who had been educated in England and came to America in 1754 and settled on a farm near New York city. In 1780 he went to Eu- rope, and in 1783 returned to New York as consul for France. He then be- came acquainted with Ethan Allen, to whom he writes from New York, under date of May 31, 1785, a long letter in which he suggests the idea of Vermont showing her gratitude to the French patriots of the Revolutionary War by nam- ing some new towns after distinguished Frenchmen, and says: " I would pro- pose that the town to be laid out on the first fall of Otter Creek be called the town of Vergennes or Vergennesburgh; " this in honor of the Count De Ver- gennes, French minister for foreign affairs. In a letter from France a few months later he alludes to the name of Vergennes again. On the 2d of March, 1786, Allen wrote to St. John from Bennington that the Governor and part of the Council met at Bennington to consult about the various propositions of St. John and were well pleased with them. The council concluded to recommend to the Legislature that " on the land contiguous to the first falls on Otter Creek they would incorporate a city with certain privileges and infranchisements and have already named it De Vergennes, to perpetuate the memory of your prime minister in America to all eternity."
In September, 1788, the following bond was executed in Vergennes, but no record appears of its enforcement:
"Land owners in Vergennes .- Bond for a twentieth part of their lands in the city.
" Know all men by these presents .- That we, the persons hereunto sub- scribing land owners in the district prayed to be corporated as the mayor, al- dermen and corporation of the city of Vergennes, to be set off from part of the towns of Ferrisburgh, New Haven and Panton, do each of us separately bind ourselves in the penal sum of one hundred pounds lawful money of the State of Vermont, to the treasurer of said State, and his successor in said office, to be paid within two years after the district above prayed for shall be corporated by the Legislature of the State of Vermont, for the true payment of which sum we, the persons subscribing and ensealing these presents, do each of us sepa- rately bind ourselves, our and each of our heirs, executors and administrators, firmly by these presents. Sealed with our seals and dated this twenty-ninth day of September, A. D. 1788.
" The condition of the above obligation is such that if the persons above obligated shall well and truly make and execute good and sufficient deeds of conveyance of one-twentieth part of the lands they each separately own in the district above prayed to be established, as above, to the corporation of said city
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
of Vergennes within two years after the same shall be legally appointed and established by the Legislature aforesaid for the sole use and benefit of said cor- poration so long as they may or shall legally exist as a corporation aforesaid, to be put to such use or uses as said corporation may from time to time direct, then this obligation to be void and of no effect. But if any person or persons obligating as above shall refuse or neglect to make out such deed of convey- ance, then this obligation to be and remain in full force and virtue on such ob- ligator or obligators respectively and separately; which sums when collected by the treasurer of the State of Vermont aforesaid, after deducting all needful expenses which may accrue, shall by said treasurer be transmitted to the cor- poration aforesaid to be for the sole use and benefit of the corporation forever. And it is hereby provided that the lands given shall be at the option of the giver to say where and the value shall be appraised by the corporation.
" William Brush, L. S .; Eli Roburds, L. S .; Alexander Brush, L. S .; Tim- othy Rogers, L. S .; Charles Spencer, L. S .; Ebenezer Mann, L. S .; Jacob Klum, L. S .; William Haight, L. S .; Solomon Beecher, L. S .; Jared Payne, L. S .; Abel Thompson, L. S .; Gideon Spencer, L. S .; Sam'l Wood, L. S .; Ros- well Hopkins, L. S .; Jabez G. Fitch, L. S .; Richard Burling, L. S .; Sam'l Chipman, L. S .; Israel West, L. S .; David Brydia, L. S .; William Goodrich, L. S .; Jon'thn Sexton, L. S .; Donald McIntosh, L. S .; Wm. Utley, jr., L. S .; Asa Strong, L. S .; Ebenezer Ransom, L. S."
The limits of Vergennes by the first act of incorporation were fixed as fol- lows : Beginning on the line of Ferrisburgh and New Haven at the southeast corner of the town plot in said Ferrisburgh ; from thence running north 320 rods to a stake and stones; thence west 400 rods to stake and stones; from thence south across Otter Creek 480 rods to stake and stones in Panton ; from thence east across Otter Creek 400 rods to stake and stones; from thence north 160 rods to bounds first mentioned, comprising 1,200 acres of land and water; about 655 acres from Ferrisburgh, 300 acres from Panton, and 245 acres from New Haven.
November 1, 1791, a large tract was taken from the remainder of New Ha- ven and annexed to Vergennes ; but in October, 1796, this last act of annexa- tion was repealed and the tract annexed in 1791 was now formed into a dis- tinct town by the name of Waltham. The freemen of Waltham, however, at that time were not allowed a representation in the Legislature, and were di- rected to meet with the freemen of Vergennes in said city for election of State officers and representatives. They were first allowed a representative in 1824.
In 1788 David Brydia, who lived at the mouth of Otter Creek (Fort Cas- sin), sold to Nathaniel Stevenson for $10 lot No. 45 (A. T. Smith's house lot), and Stevenson soon built a large gambrel-roofed house on the lot.
Alexander Brush deeds to Stephen R. Bradley, of Westminster, for $20 the lot where Amos. Wetherbee now lives.
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CITY OF VERGENNES.
1789. - George Bowne, a merchant of New York city, buys the falls on the east side, with ten acres, at a tax sale, for ten shillings and two pence. In Oc- tober, 1789, Rogers deeds one-half of the same to Jabez G. Fitch, with all the mills, buildings, iron works, and privileges of falls for £800-$2,666. Jabez Fitch also bought of Rogers lots 13 and 14 (Methodist Church lot and part of the Franklin house lot).
Jabez G. Fitch, who came to Vergennes in 1788 or '89, was one of a large and enterprising family in the vicinity of Norwich, Conn. He quickly engaged in active business in Vergennes and bought real estate largely; was engaged in the Quebec trade in lumber and potash. He was a live Yankee, capable of doing any kind of business; could build a saw-mill or make an elegant clock- case, as he did for Thomas Robinson, and which now stands in the town clerk's office in Ferrisburgh. He was not, however, a cautious man; his busi- ness was extended and he became embarrassed. In his latter days he was poor, and somewhere about 1820 his body was found in the creek at the foot of the falls. It was supposed that he fell from the bridge, the only railing of which was a square timber on the sides.
In 1790 the following return was made by James Atlee, deputy sheriff, on a writ against Jabez G. Fitch, in favor of John, Frederick, and Samuel De Mont- mellin, merchants in Quebec: "I attached the following property : one dwell- ing house, the residence of said Jabez, with the lots numbers 13 and 14 (Meth- odist Church and Franklin House lots), one storehouse on lot number 8 (where the probate office now is), with two other lots adjoining; one dwelling house, the residence of Spinks, bloomer; one frame barn, two sorrel horses, one eight the other nine years old, with one gray horse seven years old, with two yoke of oxen, three brown and one black, two potash kettles with the house thereto belonging with 1,000 bushels of ashes; one forge with every implement nec- essary for carrying on the same in said forge and apparatus thereto belonging, one coal-house, one blacksmith shop, one dwelling house, the residence of Woodbridge, one grist-mill with all the mill work therein complete, five saw- mills with the buildings belonging to the same, one fulling-mill, with the falls, dams, flumes and conveyances thereto belonging; likewise all the lots said buildings stand on, the whole situated in Vergennes, the property of the within named Jabez G. Fitch."
Election of Officers. - In the charter of Vergennes the time of the first meeting for the election of city officers was fixed to be in July, 1792 (afterwards extended two years), and an act passed empowering the people to adopt a town organization and elect town officers, as towns in the State did, until the time arrived for electing city officers.
Under this act on the 2d of March, 1789, William Brush, justice of the peace, signs a warning for all the inhabitants that live within the limits of the city of Vergennes to meet at the dwelling house of William Brush, to elect
42
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
officers, etc. At this meeting, on the 12th of March, it being the first town meeting ever held in Vergennes, William Brush was chosen moderator; Sam- uel Chipman, town clerk; Dr. Ebenezer Mann, Richard Burlin, Colonel Alex- ander Brush, selectmen ; William Brush, treasurer; Captain Durand Roburds, constable; Timothy Rogers, Samuel Chipman, jr., Jabez G. Fitch, listers; Eli Roburds, leather sealer and grand juror ; William Goodrich, Ebenezer Ransom, surveyors of highways ; Asa Strong, pound-keeper; Jacob Klum and William Haight, with some of the above named, petit jurors.
The grand list of 1789 contained thirty-three names, three of them non- residents, showing thirty resident citizens. The names not previously men- tioned as elected to office were Gideon Spencer, Ambrose Evarts, David Ad- ams, Donald McIntosh, William Utley, Benjamin Ganson, Charles Spoor, Eben- ezer Huntington, John' Hackstaff, Israel West, Job Spinks, Solomon Beecher, Aaron Bristol, Josiah Higgins, Jacob Smith, Roswell Hopkins, Nathaniel Ste- venson.
1790. - This year thirteen new names are added to the grand list; those most prominent are Azariah Painter, James Atlee, Robert Lewis, Albon Mann, Jonathan Spencer, David Brydia.
In 1791 are added Samuel Davis, Abram Baldwin, Thomas Tousey, Enoch Woodbridge, John W. Green, Roger Higby, Timothy Goodrich, and others. The list now contains fifty-seven names. The list of 1792 is not found, but in the list of 1793 the names of Thomas Byrd, Justus Bellamy, Stevenson Palmer, Thomas Robinson, Jacob Redington, Josias Smith, and Azariah Tousey are found ; and in the list of 1794 the names of Jesse Hollister, Benjamin G. Rog- ers, and Samuel Strong appear, and Job Hoisington, who bought the late Philo Bristol place of Josias Smith for £25. Until 1797 the residents in what is now Waltham are included. In 1797, after Waltham had been separated from Ver- gennes, seventy-three names appear. After Vermont was admitted to the Union in 1791 a census was taken by the government, and the result gives 201 inhabitants. Taking the lists as a basis of calculation, in 1797 there were 360 inhabitants. By the census of 1800 the population was 516.
The First Church .- In June, 1794, the Rev. Daniel C. Saunders was set- tled in the city as a minister of the gospel. He lived in a large framed house just west of Judge Roberts's homestead, until August, 1799, when he was dis- missed to become the first president of the University of Vermont. He writes in May, 1795, in speaking of Vergennes: "Where so lately was the foot of the savage, there is now the church and the altar. Divine goodness has caused the wilderness to blossom as the rose. Future successive ages may have a laudable curiosity to know the history of the beginning of this particular church of Christ first established in the infant city of Vergennes. To gratify them the following remarks are submitted to the eye of the candid and the inquisitive :
" The population of the place was rapid beyond the most sanguine calcula-
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tions. In a very few years they had members to make a respectable congre- gation. Circumstances obvious in a new, uncultivated country prevented them from having any regular preaching of the Word for some time. In the year 1790 they procured a regular candidate for a short period. They had little regular preaching till the year 1792, in the month of May, when a candidate, Mr. Daniel Clark Saunders, A.M., educated in the University of Cambridge, New England, came among them and continued several months. In the fall of 1793 he again received an invitation to settle in the gospel ministry, with which he at length complied." A regular church was organized September 17, 1793, by Rev. Cotton Mather Smith, of Sharon, Conn., who had been sent as a missionary to the infant settlements of Vermont.
The learned doctor's idea of rapid settlement would hardly satisfy a modern man in the present age, and possibly the doctor's successors might not like the way preaching was paid for in his day, if we may judge from the following vote passed in town meeting March 28, 1792: "Voted to raise the sum of thirty pounds on the list of the year 1792, one-fifth part in cash, the remainder in cattle or grain at the market price, to be expended in hiring preaching the ensu- ing Summer."
In June of the same year Enoch Woodbridge, Roswell Hopkins, and Sam- uel Chipman, jr., were chosen a committee "to wait on the committee appoint- ed to come into Addison County to set a stake for county buildings," and voted, " that if established in Vergennes the buildings shall be erected free from expense to the County."
But very few of the men who were active business men before the election of city officers in July, 1794, have descendants or relatives in Vergennes at present. They planned and toiled in clearing and improving Vergennes and increasing her resources ; but most of them have passed out of the memory of all survivors, and tradition retains but faint images of them. That they were bold and energetic men is certain ; shrewd and sagacious in business, free and generous in their hospitality, and of kindly sympathies; plain and unpreten- tious men, but men of force. Those of the name of Brush, who have been mentioned in this sketch, are strangers by hearsay even to our oldest citizens. William was appointed by Governor and Council in 1785 to be assistant judge, and elected by the people in 1786 to the same office, which he resigned in 1787. Alexander, a colonel in the militia before coming to Vergennes at an early day, was a respected citizen. He lived at one time in a house which stood where the National Bank now is, and kept a tavern. Elkanah Brush lived many years on the lot now owned by Mrs. Phair, at the corner of Panton road and Main street; he married the widow of Luke Strong about 1808, and afterward lived in the Thompson house.
Jacob Klum conducted a tannery on the bank of the creek back of Francis McDonough's house, and later on the west side, living in the shop which Ahvia
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Scovil first occupied. Eli Roburds died in 1805, and was succeeded on his farm by Durand Roburds, then major, who held many offices in Vergennes. He afterwards sold his farm and moved to Ferrisburgh, to the house ever since occupied by his children.
Richard Burling after a few years is mentioned as a resident of New York city. While here he was active in various kinds of business, principally mills and iron works, and making potash, and the commerce growing out of such business. The Burling family at White Plains, twenty miles from New York, were owners of large tracts of wild lands in Vermont, and probably gave the name to Burlington.
Dr. Ebenezer Mann died at Vergennes February 12, 1796, in his sixty- second year. Dr. Ebenezer Huntington was a practicing physician for Ver- gennes and vicinity, and acquired great popularity. He was a genial man, a good story teller, and enjoyed a joke. He lived on Comfort Hill, next south of Thomas Fish's present residence. He was the father of Fordyce Hunting- ton, long a prominent citizen, and remembered by many.
Donald McIntosh, the Scotchman who came with Colonel Reid in 1766, went to Canada during the Revolutionary War, and returned at its close to the place on Comfort Hill, where he lived for many years and on which he was buried. He died July 14, 1803.
Nathaniel Stevenson, also one of the earliest settlers, was engaged in build- ing mills and a forge on the west side of the creek, above the bridge, but did not remain here many years.
Timothy Rogers was a large landholder and interested in the city, but did not long remain a resident here.
Thomas Byrd, an Englishman and a Quaker, was a character of note here for many years; a man of sound judgment, of fine personal presence, and of extensive reading. He was early elected mayor, and became the leading trial justice for Vergennes and vicinity. Many a culprit received his sentence from him-"ten stripes at the publick whipping post," then the common mode of punishment. The post stood for many years near the present public watering trough. 'Squire Byrd, as he was generally called, lived in a house where O. C. Dalrymple's store now is. Although a good Quaker, he was not quite a non-resistant. It is told of him that a citizen of Ferrisburgh, in an altercation with some one in a store in Vergennes, told the man he lied, and was imme- diately struck and felled to the floor. He went to Esquire Byrd to enter com- plaint, and told his story. Byrd asked him, "Did you tell the man he lied?" "Yes." "And he knocked you down?" "Yes." "Well, he served you right. You may go; you can't get a writ here."
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