USA > Vermont > Bennington County > History of Bennington County, Vt. : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 27
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In August, 1885 the officers chosen for the previous year were re-elected for that ensuing.
1886 .- President, Rev. Isaac Jennings; vice presidents, Thomas White, Alonzo B. Valentine, and George A. Wood ; recording secretary, Edward L. Bates; corresponding secretary, Charles M. Bliss; treasurer, Charles Thatcher ; executive committee, Olin Scott, Lyman F. Abbott, Alfred Robinson, Henry D. Hall, Arthur J. Dewey.
1887 .- President, George W. Robinson ; vice-presidents, Thomas White, Alonzo B. Valentine, George A. Wood; recording secretary, Edward L. Bates; corresponding secretary, Charles M. Bliss, treasurer ; Charles Thatcher; exec-
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utive committee, Olin Scott, Lyman F. Abbott, Alfred Robinson, Henry D. Hall, Arthur J. Dewey.
Officers elected November 5, 1888 .- President, Thomas White; vice-presi- dents, Alfred Robinson, Alonzo B. Valentine, John T. Shurtleff; recording sec- retary, Edward L. Bates; corresponding secretary, Henry C. Day; treasurer, Charles Thatcher ; executive committee, Olin Scott, Lyman F. Abbott, C. II. Darling, Henry D. Hall, Arthur J. Dewey,
The following are the names of the persons who have been annually elected to membership in the Bennington Battle Monument Association from the his- torical society.
1877 .- John T. Shurtleff, Alonzo B. Valentine, Charles M. Bliss, Olin Scott, Charles E. Dewey, Henry G. Root, and George W. Robinson.
1878 .- John T. Shurtleff, Alonzo B. Valentine, Charles M. Bliss, Olin Scott, Charles E. Dewey, Henry G. Root, and George W. Robinson.
1879 .- John T. Shurtleff, Alonzo B. Valentine, Charles M. Bliss, Olin Scott, Charles E. Dewey, Henry G. Root, and George W. Robinson.
1880 .- John T. Shurtleff, Alonzo B. Valentine, Charles M. Bliss, Olin Scott, Charles E. Dewey, Henry G. Root, and George W. Robinson.
1881 .- Charles E. Dewey, Charles M. Bliss, John T. Shurtleff, George W. Robinson, Luman P. Norton, Lyman F. Abbott, and Henry A. Harman.
1882 .- Charles E. Dewey, Charles M. Bliss, John T. Shurtleff, George W. Robinson, Luman P. Norton, Lyman F. Abbott, and Henry A. Harman.
1883 .- Charles E. Dewey, Edward L. Bates, John T. Shurtleff, Lyman F. Abbott, Luman P. Norton, George W. Robinson, and Charles M. Bliss.
1884 .- Charles E. Dewey, George W. Robinson, Charles M. Bliss, Edward L. Bates, John T. Shurtleff, Lyman F. Abbott, and Luman P. Norton.
1885 .- Charles E. Dewey, George W. Robinson, Charles M. Bliss, John T. Shurtleff, Lyman F. Abbott, Luman P. Norton, and Charles A. Pierce. 1886 .- Truman H. Bartlett, John V. Hall, John T. Shurtleff, Charles E. Dewey, Lyman F. Abbott, Luman P. Norton, and Charles A. Pierce.
1887 .- John V. Hall, Lyman F. Abbott, Luman P. Norton, Charles A. Pierce, William R. Morgan, E. D. Bennett, and James K. Batchelder.
1888 .- Lyman F. Abbott, Charles A. Pierce, L. P. Norton, William R. Morgan, E. D. Bennett, and James K. Batchelder.
The following shows the several " historic spots" which have been marked by the "committee on sites " on behalf of the society: The site of the old Con- tinental storehouse, the site of the old Vermont Gasette office, the site of the first court-house west of the Green Mountains, the site of the whipping-post, the site of the pillory, the site of the first log cabin of the first settler in town, the site of the sign- post of the Catamount Tavern, the site of the hospital used after the battle of Bennington, the geographical center of the town, the site of the house in which Colonel Seth Warner lived, the place of burial of those
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Hessians who died in the hospital after the battle, the site of the old " First Church," the site of "Clio Hall," a flourishing seat of learning in carly times, the site of William Lloyd Garrison's printing-house, the site of the first school- house in town, the site where the first town-meeting was held, the place where David Redding, a traitor and spy, was hanged in 1778, the redoubt of Colonel Baum on the hill where were his headquarters, the Tory breastworks, cach side of the road at Barnet Bridge, the place of Stark's encampment on the 14th of August, 1777, the site of the Catamount Tavern.
CHAPTER XX.1
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BENNINGTON WITHI THE VILLAGES OF BEN- NINGTON CENTER, BENNINGTON, AND NORTH BENNINGTON.'
PERHAPS the inhabitants of no town in the State of Vermont have wielded so great an influence in molding its fair character, religiously and politi- cally, as that of Bennington. Certainly its occupancy by a band of settlers, firm in their convictions, and loyal to their ideas of establishing "a faith's pure shrine," as well as the love of home and country exhibited in their early strug- gles for their political rights, went far to give tone and quality to its institutions; and the peculiar and interesting development and consummation of their carly trials and efforts has worthily drawn out the admiration and respect of all. The territory of which this town was a part belonged to the crown of Eng- land, and it was the first township chartered by Benning Wentworth, then his Majesty's governor of New Hampshire, and bears date January 3, 1749, and was called Bennington from his own baptismal name.
The unsettled state of things attending the prosecution of the French War begun about 1752, and which terminated in the ceding of the Province of Can- ada to the British Crown in September, 1760, had acted as an embargo on the peopleing of this New England frontier, and although two other townships now
1 This chapter, exclusive of that portion that relates to the village of Bennington, was pre- pared for this volume by Henry D. Hall, esq., of North Bennington.
2 The story of the early times of Bennington is familiar to many, yet to the masses it will be mostly new. The writer, though aware it has been so often and so well told, has concluded the best way to meet the present demand is to condense as much of it as possible within the prescribed limits of this article, leaving space for other things which should receive attention, In its compilation and arrangement frequent reference has been made to and extracts taken from " Hall's Early History of Vermont," " Jenning's Memoirs of a Century," " Vermont His- torical Magazine," " Williams's History of Vermont," and " Butler's and Houghton's Ad- dresses before the Vermont Legislature."
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HISTORY OF BENNINGTON COUNTY.
included in Bennington county had been chartered, emigration had not com- menced, and only began soon after the close of the war. At this time the township and the county contiguous was an unbroken wilderness, and had been traversed only by the Indians belonging to tribes inhabiting the State of New York on the west, in their hunting excursions and warlike expeditions to the settlements in the adjourning provinces of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The courses taken by the Indians were generally along the rivers and smaller streams, and one of the routes at an early day was up the Hoosick River into Massachusetts and across the mountain to Deerfield and hamlets below there, and it may not be improbable that this country of which we are speaking was many times hunted and fished over by the " red men of the forest."
For the better protection of the frontier towns of Massachusetts, Fort Dum- mer had been built and located where now is Brattleboro, which fort was found on the settlement of the boundary between Massachusetts and New Hamp- shire, to be located within the limits of the latter State; and there had also been two forts built called East and West Hoosick; the one situated near the village of North Adams and the other near that of Williamstown, about half a mile west of the present college buildings.
Bennington is situated near the southwest corner of the State, about thirty miles from the city of Troy, with which it is connected by the Fitch- burg, and Bennington and Rutland Railroads, formerly the Troy and Boston, and Vermont Western. It is rich in its agricultural, mineral, manufacturing and mechanical productions, and was for many years the largest and most wealthy town in the State. Its taxable property in 1781 was more than double that of any other town, excepting Pownal and Shaftsbury, and it con- tinued to exceed that of any other until after the year 1820, when Rutland, Windsor and Burlington began to compete with it. The charter though dated January 3, 1749, was not issued till March, 1750. It was of a township six miles square, lying six miles north of the Massachusetts province line, and twenty miles east of Hudson's River, divided into sixty four equal shares. In conformity to the governor's order it was surveyed in November, 1749, by Mathew Clesson, surveyor, and as the grant had been previously made, the charter when issued bore the date of the grant, with the following careful de- scription from actual survey, viz .: "Beginning at a crotched hemlock tree marked W. W., six miles due north, or at a right angle from said province line, said angle commencing at a white oak tree in said province line marked M. į. į. O. J. T., which tree is twenty-four miles east from Hudson's River, allowing one chain in thirty for swag, (which allowance is made through the whole follow- ing survey) and from said hemlock tree west ten degrees north, four miles to a stake and stones, and from said stake and stones north ten degrees east six miles to a stake and stones; and from thence east ten degrees south six miles to a stake and stones, and from thence south ten degrees west six miles to a
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stake and stones, and from thence west ten degrees north two miles to the hemlock before mentioned."
The statement, made under the direction of the New York authorities giv- ing an account of the proceedings of the settlers under New Hampshire, pub- lished in 1773, and since copied into a newpaper in this State, was erroneous and without foundation, in which it is stated that the charter was of a town- ship twenty-four miles east of Hudson River and that the inhabitants, finding it upon a mountain, "by no better authority than a vote of their town meet- ing presumed to extend it westward within seventeen instead of twenty-four miles from that river."
Of the sixty-four shares into which the town was divided, only two were set apart for public purposes, viz .: one for schools and one for the first settled minister. Governor Wentworth was named as the grantee of two shares and the remaining sixty were to such a number of different persons, most or all of whom resided in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and who probably obtained the grant as a matter of speculation, as none of them are believed to have located here.1
George II. was now king of England, and the charter was issued in the name of the sovereign, he being the party purporting to make the grant, and there was reserved to him " all the white and other pine trees fit for masting our royal navy ;" and also a yearly rent for the first ten years of one ear of corn, if demanded, and after the expiration of that time a rent of one shilling proclamation money for every one hundred acres, payable at the council chamber at Portsmouth on the 23d of December annually.
The charter also conferred on the future inhabitants of the township the powers and authority belonging to New Hampshire corporation towns, and designated the last Wednesday of March in each year as the day for forever holding their meetings for the choice of town officers. This demand of the charter was faithfully and regularly carried out for nearly a century, but it being found more convenient to hold their meetings at an earlier day in the month, and as there is no power but the State government to complain of the violation of the charter, it does not appear probable that the town is in any danger of being deprived of its corporate privilege by such change. As be- fore intimated, emigration into this town began after the close of the French war, and the settlement was commenced in the spring of 1761. The men of the New England provinces who had participated largely in that war had fre- quently passed over it in their expeditions against the French and Indians, and becoming well acquainted with its soil, and being impressed by the at- tractiveness of the country, had imbibed a strong desire to settle upon it.
1In accordance with the provisions of the charter, the purchasers divided off acre home- steads near the center of the town, to the number of sixty-four for a village plot, and then divided the remainder into sixty-four equal parts, casting lots for the same. Under this di- vision and distribution the different rights were conveyed and have since been held.
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HISTORY OF BENNINGTON COUNTY.
The territory being now opened for safe occupation the tide of emigration set strongly towards it from the New England provinces.
It has been handed down, as worthy of credence, that the selection of Ben- nington for the first settlement on the west side of the mountain was as fol- lows: Captain Samuel Robinson of Hardwick, Mass., had served during several campaigns in his official capacity, in the army in the French war. His re- turning route from Lake George was up the Hoosick River to Williamstown, thence across the mountain to the Connecticut. But on one occasion mis- taking one of the branches of the Hoosick for the main stream, he and a few companions found they were approaching the mountain without passing the Hoosick Forts. They had in fact ascended the Walloomsac instead of the Hoosick, and were within the limits of Bennington, where they encamped over night, and the next morning pursued their way southerly to Williamstown. Captain Robinson being much pleased with the land he had accidentally passed over, returned home with a determination to begin a settlement upon it. He repaired to New Hampshire and made purchases of a considerable portion of the township rights, and arranged among his friends and acquaint- ances for associate emigrants to accompany him to the new country.
The first emigration to the town consisted of the families of Peter Har- wood, Eleazer Harwood, Samuel Pratt and Timothy Pratt, from Amherst, Mass .; Leonard Robinson and Samuel Robinson, jr., from Hardwick, Mass. The party, including women and children, numbered twenty-two. They came on horseback across the mountain by the Hoosic Forts and through Pownal, bringing their household goods on their horses, and arrived in town June 18, 1761. During the year other families, to the number of twenty or thirty, came into town, among whom were those of Samuel Robinson, sen., and John Fassett, from Hardwick, Mass .; Joseph Safford, John Smith, John Burnham, and Benjah Rood, from Newint, Conn .; Elisha Field, and Samuel Montague, from Sunderland, Mass .; James Breckenridge, Ebenezer Wood, Samuel and Oliver Scott, Joseph Wickwire, and Samuel Atwood. During the winter (January 12) occurred the birth of the first child born in town, Benjamin, son of Peter Harwood, who died January 22, 1851, at an advanced age, and is remembered as a worthy and intelligent citizen.
This, the first year of the settlement, was one of great privation and hard- ship, as shelter must be provided from the weather in a country where boards for building could not be obtained, and nothing used but what could be fash- ioned with the ax from the trees of the forest. Huts, with logs for walls, poles and brush or bark for roof, with the earth for floors, were speedily constructed. The clearing of land was immediately commenced, and as much as could be prepared was sown to fall grain, the seed for which was brought upon horses for many miles, as also provisions for sustenance until crops could be raised. As early as April 9, 1761, there appears, in a tavern bill of Samuel Robinson,
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esq., at a tavern in Charlemont, Mass., which is about half-way on the route from Hardwick, a charge for wheat, from which it seems not improbable he was on his way to this place in advance of his associates, to make arrange- ments, so far as he might, for their comfort and convenience. During the fall and winter preparations were going on for more extensive planting and sow- ing the coming spring, and their efforts seumed providentially aided, as the season was unusually mild, and winter's cold held off to an uncommonly late period.
Those who had purchased the rights of the original grantees were termed proprietors, and they held meetings before the township was organized, and for years afterwards they located and built roads, taxing themselves heavily for this purpose. Some of the proprietors who were not suited with their original selection settled boundary lines between one proprietor and another, as well as lines outside of the whole and bounding the town grant. Some who found their land situated on the east side of the township desired to be located on the west side, and such changes were made at the proprietors' meetings. Sam- uel Robinson, esq. was moderator of the first proprietors' meeting of which there is a record, and John Fassett was clerk of the propriety which was held on February 11, 1762. At this meeting the minutes read : " Chose Deacon Jo- seph Safford, esq., Samuel Robinson, John Fassett, Ebenezer Wood, Elisha Field, John Burnham, and Abraham Newton a committee to look out a place to set the meeting-house," and at an adjourned meeting, the 26th of the same month, the location of the meeting house was agreed upon and determined by the following vote, viz .: "The northeast corner of the right of land, number 27, as near the corner as may be thought convenient." The proprietors at this meeting also "voted to give Esquire Samuel Robinson and Deacon Joseph Safford five acres of land, with the privilege within the said five acres to build a corn-mill on, and forty dollars in case it be built by the first day of August next," and further "voted to give forty dollars to any on the east side of the town that should build a saw-mill by the first day of September next." Thus we see inducements were being offered early, and preparations made for the grinding of grain they hoped to raise from a more extensive sowing and planting during the coming season, and to secure the means of working up their logs into lumber, so much needed for their comfort and convenience in the con- struction of habitable tenements. The same records inform us that these two enterprising men had completed the saw-mill by the 16th of June following, and on that day the proprietors voted forty dollars to Esquire Samuel Robin- son and Deacon Joseph Safford "to build a grist-mill where they have built a saw-mill and they are to have it done by the first of September next," thus ex- tending the time for building the grist mill one month from that limited in the first vote. The grist-mill was completed in the required time, and was located where the south knitting-mill of the Cooper Mfg. Co. now stands, the saw-mill
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HISTORY OF BENNINGTON COUNTY.
having been built on the west side of the stream. This grist- mill had the ex- traordinary privilege of taking as toll three quarts to the bushel, being one pint more than was allowed to other mills. Though built by the two men named, they became known as the Samuel Safford Mills by the settlers, in referring to them as the eastern terminus of the road from Bennington Center, and for a century was thus termed, and until the mills were abandoned for such purposes. This portion of the town remained, with few additions, for years, the several incoming families selecting homesteads somewhat remote from each other, while other parts were being settled and comparatively much greater improvements were being made. A vote was also taken at the same time, to give the like sum of forty dollars to anyone who would build a saw-mill on the west side of the town by the first day of next Sep- tember. It is understood that. James Breckenridge and Thomas Henderson erected a saw-mill, within the time named, on the stream west of the Island, at the place now called Bennington Falls, formerly Paper Mill village, it being a portion of the Walloomsac River which divides a little above for the west part of the town. Interesting minutes, in a meager way, were kept of these meetings, some of which have been preserved. A small collection of eight-inch square leaves in the form of a home-made writing book, now nearly a century and a half old, can be seen and read, as it is bound in the first part of the first volume of the town records.
The first town meeting was held March 31, 1762, at the house of John Fassett, at which the following officers were chosen, viz .: Samuel Montague, moderator ; Moses Robinson, town clerk; Samuel Montague, Samuel Scott, James Breckenridge, Benajah Rood, and Joseph Wickwire, selectmen; Dea- con Joseph Safford, town treasurer ; Samuel Robinson, jr., and John Smith, jr., constables; Deacon Safford, and Elisha Field, tithingmen ; Peter Harwood, and John Smith, jr., haywards; Samuel Atwood, and Samuel Pratt, fence viewers ; TimothyPratt, and Oliver Scott, deer-rifts. These officers were then required to be appointed by the laws of New Hampshire. The duty of tith- ing men was to preserve good order in the church during divine service; of haywards to impound cattle and swine found running at large contrary to law; and of deer-rifts to look to the preservation of deer during the season in which the killing of them was prohibited. Thus the settlement was organized into a little republic, acknowledging fealty to New Hampshire, by which its ex- istence as a portion of the province had been recognized, not merely by grant- ing its land, but in officially permitting it to exercise political and municipal rights, by the appointment of Captain Samuel Robinson as a justice of the peace, his commission bearing date February 8, 1762. Among the acts of municipal legislation executed at this first meeting of the town was that of offering a bounty for the destruction of venomous serpents, recorded in the following words, viz .: "Voted that any rattlesnake that is killed in Bennington shall be
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paid two coppers, the persons bringing in the tail. " From the language of this vote it would seem that the rattlesnake was to have the coppers, though it may, perhaps, be reasonably presumed that they were intended for the per- son who should kill it. This is rather a rare specimen of inaccuracy of language in the town records, they having in general, from the beginning, been kept not only in a fair hand, but in plain intelligible style, and without very frequent vio- lations of grammatical propriety.
The affairs of the town were now managed with much skill and wisdom, and though both branches of its government, the one under the control of the proprietors, and the other under the management of officers clected at town meetings, were maintained in their different spheres, there was little or no con- flict of interest. The clearing of land, the preparing of the soil and raising of crops, and the providing of better accommodations for shelter and living went rapidly forward, and the succeeding years of 1762, '63 and '64 were those of success and prosperity with the settlers.
As has been said " a place to set the meeting-house," had been already selected in accordance with a vote at a proprietors' meeting, and at another, May 9, 1863, it was " voted to raise six dollars on each right of land in Ben- nington for building a meeting-house and school-house." This would raise a tax of three hundred and eighty-four dollars on the sixty- four rights of land in the township; and the same year the town voted to raise twelve pounds to- wards supporting a school " to be kept in three parts of the town. It is not known just when the first meeting house was built, but it was occupied during or before the year 1766, and stood a little south of midway between the site of the present one and the Walloomsac House in Bennington Center, the east and west and north and south roads running each side of it. As late as Octo- ber 22, 1768, this minute is upon the town records: "This may notify all per- sons who have signed a subscription for building a meeting-house in this place to meet at said meeting-house, to see if they will do anything further toward the finishing of the said meeting-house. To see if they will lay out the pew ground, and dispose of the same by public vendue." A subscription list, still later, in 1774, for the further finishing of the meeting-house was circulated, with the agreement that any extra amount necessary for the repairing should be paid proportionally by the subscribers, and if more was raised than was re- quired it should be deducted from the subscription. The size was fifty by forty feet, with no steeple, standing lengthwise north and south, with an addi- tion on the east side of a porch twenty feet square. On three sides were gal- leries, the pews being the old style square ones, and over the pulpit was sus- pended a sounding-board, then considered a necessary appendage in a meet- ing-house. This, the first church in the State, had been organized December 3, 1762, from members of churches who had previously to emigrating here been connected with churches at their former homes. From the minutes of
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