History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 48

Author: Rann, W. S. (William S.)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1054

USA > Vermont > Chittenden County > History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 48

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394

HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

was chartered on the same day with Burlington, which was granted to Samuel Willis and others, there being four of that name among the grantees."

The grantees were: Samuel Willis, Tunis Wortman, Thomas Dickson, John Willis ye 3ª, Stephen Willis, Daniel Bowne, Thomas Cheshire, Jr., John Birdsall, Benjamin Townsend, Thomas Youngs, Samuel Jackson, Gilbert Weeks, Zeb™ Seaman, Jur, John Whitson, William Kirbee, Joseph Udell, John Wright, Jur, Abraham Van Wick, Minne Suydam, Jacobus Suydam, Edmund Weeks, Nicholas Townsend, Samuel Van Wick, John Willis, Jr., Thomas Alsop, Thomas Pearsall, Jr., William Frost, Sent, Thomas Frost, William Frost, Jr., Penn Frost, Zebulon Frost, William Cock, Thomas Van Wick, Har- mon Lefford, Thomas Jackson, Thomas Udell, John Wright March, Daniel Voorhees, Joseph Denton, George Pearsall, John Wortman, Ju™, Benjamin Birdsall, John Birdsall, Jr., Jacob Kirbee, Benja Fish, Lawrence Fish, John Whitson the 3ª, Nathan1 Fish, Richard Seaman, Morris Seaman, Jona Pratt, Nathan1 Seaman, Jr., Richª Jackson, Jr., Solomon Seaman, Israel Seaman, Jacob Seaman, Sen", Jacob Seaman, Richard Ellison, JuT, Richard Ellison, Third, Samuel Averhill, The Honble Jnº Temple, Theodore Atkinson, M. Hunt- ing Wentworth, Henry Sherburn, Eleazer Russell, Esq., and Andrew Clark- son, sixty-six rights.

The charter was granted on the 7th of June, 1763, by the province of New Hampshire, the admeasurement being 23,040 acres, or six miles square, of which 1,040 acres was allowed for " highways, ways, and unimprovable lands by rocks, ponds, mountains and rivers."

The charter granted the inhabitants, as soon as they numbered fifty fami- lies, the privilege of holding two fairs annually, and also of keeping a market on one or more days in each week, as they might deem most advantageous. The usual requirements and reservations were inserted in the charter. The grantees were required to improve five acres of land for each fifty acres owned by them, within the next five years after the date of the grant; to reserve for the government all white and other pine trees fit for masting the royal navy ; to reserve near the center of the town a tract of land for town lots of one acre for each grantee; and to pay one ear of corn annually, if lawfully demanded, for the space of ten years, and after the said ten years the sum of one shilling, proclamation money, for every 100 acres owned, settled or possessed.

Besides the shares allotted to the grantees above named the charter con- tained the following grants of shares for the purposes mentioned : To his excel- lency, Benning Wentworth, Esquire, a tract of land to contain 500 acres as marked B. W. in the plan, which is to be accounted two of the within shares ; one whole share for the incorporated society for the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts; one share for the Glebe for the church of England, as by law established ; one share for the first settled minister of the gospel; and one share for the benefit of a school in said town ; making in all seventy-two shares or rights of land of 320 acres each.

395

TOWN AND CITY OF BURLINGTON.

The earliest record of a proprietors' meeting is dated at Salisbury, Conn., not until the 23d of March, 1774. Burlington was there referred to as "a Township lately granted under the great seal of the province of Newhampshir now in the province of New York," thus constructively admitting the claim to jurisdiction which New York had set up. Colonel Thomas Chittenden was chosen moderator of this first meeting, Ira Allen was the first proprietors' clerk.

At an adjourned meeting held at the same place on the next day it was,

" Ily Voted, That Whereas, Ethan Allen, Remember Baker, Heman Allen, Zimri Allen, and Ira Allen known by the name of the Onion River Company, who are Proprietors in this Township of Burlington on said River (a Township lately granted by the Governor and Counsel of Newhampshirend is now in the Province of New York) have expended large sums of money in cutting a road through the woods from Castleton to said River seventy miles, and clear- ing off encamberments from the said lands in them parts, clearing and cultivat- ing and settling some of these lands and keeping possession which by us is viewed as a great advantage towards the settlement of these lands in general, espe- cially the township of Burlington.

" Whereas, The said Ethan Allen, Remember Baker, Heman Allen, Zimri Allen and Ira Allen have laid out fifteen, hundred acre lots in said Township bounding on said river. Therefore in consideration of these services done by them, in consideration of their settlement of five families on said lots with those that are already on, and girdling five acres on each one hundred acre lot in two years from the first day of June next, improving same.

" It is voted ; if proper Survey bills be exhibited to the Proprietors' Clerk of said Town and recorded in this Book by the first day of June next the said lots are confirmed to them as so many acres of their rights and shares in said Township said fifteen lots are to be laid seventy rods wide on the river."

It was further voted that each proprietor should have liberty at his own cost to pitch " and lay out to himself " one hundred acres on one whole right or share, the lots to be not less than seventy rods wide, exclusive of what had al- ready been granted to be laid in the town. Another vote was passed "that there shall be for each one hundred acres to be laid out in the town of Burling- ton one hundred and three acres laid, which three acres shall be improved for the use of said town for public highways if needed, in the most convenient place of said lot." All records of deeds of sale and survey bills of land in the new town were to be recorded with the proprietors' clerk, and were to have prior- ity, not according to the dates of the deeds or bills, but according to the dates of their recording. Ira Allen was appointed surveyor to lay out said town. The meeting was then adjourned to "Fortfradreck in Colchester on Onion River," on the first Monday in the following June. The last meeting recorded at this place was held on the Ist of May, 1775, and was probably the last

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

meeting before the general exodus from this part of the country, because of the approach of the British army.

The Allen brothers and Remember Baker, by purchase from the original grantees, became extensive land owners along Onion River. It is said that at different times Ira Allen owned five-sevenths of the town of Burlington, situ- ated principally in the eastern and southern parts. Allen made the first sur- veys ever made within the limits of the town in the year 1772, and was engaged the greater part of the next two years in exploring and surveying this portion of the State.

Early Settlements .- The first settler in Burlington was Felix Powell, who came here in 1773. He used to go to mill at New Haven, at the lower falls in Otter Creek, within the present limits of Vergennes. On the 22d of Octo- ber, 1774, he purchased of Samuel Averill of Litchfield, Conn., for thirty pounds, a tract of land which consisted, in addition to the village lots, of 103 acre-lots occupying the whole of Appletree Point, and extending northerly nearly to Onion River. He afterward cleared a part of the land on the Point, and erected a log house, but soon removed to Manchester, Vt., and sold his land on the 19th of August, 1778, to James Murdock, of Saybrook, Conn. This deed is the first one recorded that recognized the authority of Vermont.

Stephen Lawrence was the next settler, who, in November, 1774, bought of Remember Baker lot No. 10 on Onion River. The same year John Chamberlin, Ephraim Wheeler, Stephen Clap, Ichabod Nelan and Benjamin Wate made con- tracts for the purchase of lands in Burlington from different members of the Allen family, but they did little towards establishing a settlement before they were forced by the war to relinquish their labors here. Lemuel Bradley and several others came next, and in 1774 and 1775 made clearings in the northern part of the town on the intervale, and near the falls opposite the Allen settlement in Colchester. In the fall of 1775 some of the new comers went to the southern part of the State, while a few passed the winter in the Block Fort in Colches- ter. After Sullivan's retreat from Canada in the summer of 1776, the final abandonment of the town was completed. Lemuel Bradley represented the town in the first general convention of delegates from the several towns of Vermont, held at the inn of Cephas Kent, at Dorset, Vt., on the 25th of Sep- tember, 1776. The town was apparently not represented in the subsequent session of January, 1777, when the Declaration of Independence of Vermont was proclaimed.

Previous to the Revolution, and for years after, the usual route by which the settlers came to Burlington, when they came by land, was the road cut by Baker and the Allens in 1772, from Castleton to Colchester, which crossed Ot- ter Creek near the lower falls, where Vergennes now stands, passed Shelburne Falls in Shelburne, and thence directly to the falls at Winooski. This road, with the block forts at Vergennes and Winooski, was a great protection to the early settlers on the " Hampshire Grants."

397

TOWN AND CITY OF BURLINGTON.

On the 29th of January, 1781, the proprietors of Burlington were again as- sembled at the house of Noah Chittenden, in Arlington, Vt., but accomplished nothing beyond a ratification of the proceedings of former meetings.

After the close of the Revolutionary War the town was rapidly settled. Stephen Lawrence, before mentioned, moved here with his family in 1783. John Doxey, John Collins and Frederick Saxton came the same year. Doxey settled on the intervale, in the north part of the town, but was driven out by a freshet, and removed to the road now leading from the High Bridge to Hines- burg. Stephen Lawrence, Samuel Lane and John Knickerbacor settled near the High Bridge. John Collins, Job Boynton, Gideon King and Stephen Keys settled at the lake on lots 11-15, while Frederick Saxton and Phineas Loomis formed a settlement at the head of Pearl street. Isaac Webb was one of the first settlers in the south part of the town. John Van Sicklen settled in the southeast part of the town. The early surveyors were Thomas Butterfield, William Coit, Caleb Henderson, Ira Allen, Nahum Baker, Nathaniel Allen, Abel Waters and Edward Allen.

The first marriage record reads as follows :

"Samuel Hitchcock and Lucy Caroline (daughter of Gen. Ethan Allen), married May 26th, 1789."

The first births recorded are as follows :

" Loraine Allen Hitchcock, daughter of Samuel and Lucy C. Hitchcock born June 5th, 1790."

" John Van Sicklin Jr son to John Van Sicklin and Elizabeth Van Sicklin was born June 11th, 1790."

John C., son of John Doxey, was born February 22, 1788, though his birth is not on record.

Town Organization .- The town was organized, by proper election of town officers, March 19, 1797, at which meeting Samuel Lane was chosen town clerk ; Job Boynton, constable ; and Stephen Lawrence, Frederick Saxton and Sam- uel Allen, selectmen. The first justices of the peace were Samuel Lane and John Knickerbacor, elected in 1789. Samuel Lane was also the first represent- ative in the Legislature, chosen in 1786. The first meeting for the election of State officers and councilors was held at the house of Benjamin Adams, on the first Tuesday of September, 1,94. when the vote for governor stood as follows : Isaac Tichenor, twenty-three ; Thomas Chitenden, seventeen ; Ira Allen, three ; and Nathaniel Niles, one. The first election for representative to Congress (on record) was held at the same place on the last Tuesday in December of the same year, when the ballot stood as follows: Israel Smith, seven ; Isaac Tiche- nor, seven; Matthew Lyon, four; William C. Harrington, two; Nathaniel Chipman, one; and Noah Smith, one.

When Vermont was declared to be a free and independent jurisdiction, in 1791, the site of Burlington was a forest. The village then consisted of three

398

HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

dwelling houses at the lake or "bay," at the foot of Water (now Battery) street. Captain Job Boynton lived in a broad, low, framed house ; Captain Gideon King kept an inn at the northeast corner of King and Water streets, in a two- story building with the kitchen in the rear.1

Captain John Collins lived in a framed house near the present corner of Battery and King streets. A Scotchman or Englishman named Grant kept there a small single-room store, built of logs. The wharf consisted of a few logs fastened to the shore of the lake. In the vicinity of the square, which was then covered with bushes and shrubbery and an occasional pine tree, were several temporary huts of lumbermen. A few small houses had been erected here and there at the head of Pearl street and along the road to the falls, where the two-story " mansion " of Ira Allen stood. Three years later John Fay and Elnathan Keyes were the only attorneys practicing in the County Court ; Samuel Lane and William Coit were justices of the peace, and John Fay was postmaster. Concerning the appearance of Burlington at this early day, the best description which can be found or given is contained in the article before quoted from, by Russell S. Taft, esq. It is written in the language of Horace Loomis, who had been a continuous resident of the place since 1790. He came here with his father's family on the 17th of Feb- ruary of that year, and took up his residence with them in a log house that stood east of the old store of Luther Loomis on Pearl street, in the vicinity of and nearly opposite the present residence of Edward C. Loomis. On the 8th day of July, 1790, the house now occupied by Edward Loomis was raised by quite a concourse of people from Shelburne, Essex, Colchester, and Burlington. In the latter part of November of that year the family moved into the new house, which has ever since been the home of some member of the Loomis race.

Soon after this time there were but four buildings on what are now Battery and King streets. Boynton, Collins, and King lived in houses before men- tioned, and there was a blacksmith shop a little north of the Collins place on the opposite side of the street. Colonel Frederick Saxton had made a begin- ning of the old Pearl street house the year before, and sold to Phineas Loomis the twenty acres of land that embraced his new house. Daniel Hurlbut lived in a log house near the site of the building now occupied by A. C. Spear, at the head of College street on College Green. " Benjamin Boardman lived in a log house a little north of the brick house on the intervale farm of J. N. Pom- eroy, occupied by J. Storrs. Mr. Spear, either Dearing or his father, lived in a log house on the intervale near the river, on land recently owned by Philo Doolittle. There was a house on the Ethan Allen farm occupied by Mr. Ward. There was also a log house on the Bradley farm occupied by Moses

1 The correctness of this belief has been questioned, but all doubts must be dispelled by the fact shown by the town records, that the annual town meeting for 1795 was held at ten o'clock in the morn- ing, at the house of Gideon King, "inn-holder."

399

TOWN AND CITY OF BURLINGTON.

Blanchard. There were a number of little plank and log houses at the falls, and among the occupants were Judson ; and Mr. Spafford was lumbering there, and William Munson was tending the saw-mill, and James Hawley tended the grist-mill, such as it was. Alexander Davidson lived on the shore opposite the Theodore Catlin place. A man by the name of Lockwood lived above the falls, near what since is called the Rolling Place, near the foot of the hill, after- wards occupied by Dr. Fletcher. Daniel Castle lived about half a mile east of Davidson's. There was a shanty on the site of J. N. Pomeroy's red farm house, built by a Frenchman by the name of Monte, which he had occupied while he was getting out masts and rolling them into the river at the Rolling Place on the hill above, where the brick house of J. N. Pomeroy stands. Un- der the hill where Eliab Fobes lived, near the High Bridge, Stephen Lawrence and his mother lived. John Knickerbocker boarded with Joel Harvey, who with his family lived near the present site of George B. De Forest's house on Tuttle street. Elisha Lane lived on a part of what was afterwards my father's farm, above the High Bridge on the intervale ; he bought out Elisha, Samuel, and Samuel Lane, jr., who lived on the land when we came. Jock Winchell and Barty Willard lived over the river on the Stanton and Weeks farm. Barty Willard moved here the second year afterward. Peter Benedict lived on the old Eldredge place. Samuel Allen lived on the hill this side of Muddy Brook. John Doxey lived where Alexander Ferguson now lives, about half a mile south of the Eldredge place. There was quite a little settlement of the Frenches and others in that part of the town which was set off to Williston. Nathan Smith lived on the Fish farm, and John Van Sicklin lived on the farm which his son now owns. A man by the name of Marvin lived under the hill just this side of John Van Sicklin. Avery, that framed my father's house, lived at the falls. Nahum Baker lived with him, and helped to frame the house. William Coit lived in Colchester, at Ira Allen's, and the next year built a house on the corner of Water and South streets, on which was built Court- House Square, facing to the south, and was afterwards, about 1802, sold to Amos Bronson, and by him moved to the north side of the square, and was long occupied by Bronson, Arza Crane, John Howard, Newton Hayes, succes- sively, and afterwards by John Howard as a hotel."

Stephen Pearl, who had formerly been a merchant of Pawlet, Vt., came to Burlington from Grand Isle about 1794, and occupied the house erected by Frederick Saxton several years before, at the head of Pearl street. Saxton, Stackhouse, Burt, Dubartis Willard, Jock Winchell, and Stephen Lawrence came here in June, 1783. Three of them built a shanty near the spring above Sidney Barlow's in Maria Loomis's lot, and Saxton erected a log house above the site of Luther Loomis's store, where Phineas Loomis first lived with his family, and in 1791 Isaac Webb and afterwards Dr. John Pomeroy, who lived there from the spring to the fall of 1792. Colonel Pearl is described

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

as a large, portly man, generous and genial to a fault, successful as a farmer, but too free with his goods for a merchant of those days. He died on the 21st of November, 1816, at the age of sixty-nine years. His brother Timothy was a shrewd business man, and for some time judge of probate of Alburgh District.

Colonel James Sawyer, a native of Massachusetts, and the son of a sturdy soldier of the Revolution, himself rendered important service for the American cause in the Revolution, and became father to a number of martial sons. He came to Burlington from Brandon in 1796, where he passed two years as a merchant, and succeeded Stephen Pearl as sheriff. He died in Burlington in 1827, aged sixty-five years.

It was in the year 1793 that Prince Edward of England, afterwards Duke of Kent, passed through Burlington on his way from Canada to Boston. He came by the way of Chazy and Grand Isle in sleighs, in the month of Febru- ary, and stayed over night at the house of Phineas Loomis, now occupied by Edward C. Loomis. Colonel Stephen Keys, " a gentleman of the old school, who wore a cocked hat, kept a hotel on Water street, and was collector for the district of Vermont," paid his respects to the prince in the evening, with Elna- than Keyes, Joshua Stanton, Levi Henre and Zaccheus Peaslee. It is related that although the prince respectfully acknowledged an introduction, he excited the anger of the colonel by abrubtly leaving his guests and retiring to his room. Frederick Saxton, Abram Stevens, Jira Isham, and Jason Comstock took the prince and party on to Boston. ,

The old town of Burlington made a considerable stride in settlement from 1790 to 1800. At the time that Vermont was admitted into the Union, Samuel Samuel Lane was town clerk and first selectman ; Captain Daniel Hurlbut, a rough, powerful man, one of the men fitted to build up a new country, who aided in the construction of bridges, of the college, and of turnpikes, who fre- quenty rafted lumber to Quebec, was selectman, and John Knickerbacor select- man and town treasurer. Elisha Lane, a shoemaker, who lived on the site now covered by the rear of Bacon's block on Church street, was constable; Daniel Castle, Peter Benedict, John Knickerbacor, Lemuel Bottom, and Stephen Law- rence, were listers ; Samuel Lane was leather sealer; Frederick Saxton and Nathan Smith were grand jurors; Phineas Loomis, pound-keeper, with his barn for a pound ; John Doxey, Richard Holcomb, and Gideon King were " tidingmen "; Daniel Castle, David Stanton, and Barnabas Spear were fence viewers ; Frederick Saxton, Daniel Castle, Stephen Lawrence, Lemuel Bottom, Nathan Smith, and Moses Blanchard, surveyors of highways ; Daniel Hurlbut was sealer of weights and measures; and Phineas Loomis, committee to hire preaching. At the meeting during which these officers were chosen it was "Voted to raise a tax of two pence on the list of 1790 to hire preaching the year ensuing." At this period the principal streets leading out of town were

40I

TOWN AND CITY OF BURLINGTON.

the old road running eastward from the south end of College Green, and the Shelburne road, which was a continuation of St. Paul street south. The prin- cipal business of the inhabitants, after attending to their domestic affairs, was the building of roads and bridges. The surface of Burlington was much more irregular than now. The ravine that is still distinctly traceable from Pearl street south and west across College, Main and Church streets, was then in many places impassable. The site of Court-House Square was reached from the present corner of College and South Union streets by the way of Pearl and Church streets. This ravine was very early bridged on Pearl and Main streets, at the latter place by a bridge nearly two hundred feet long and very high. The early records betray the scarcity of money at the period under consideration by a vote passed in the following language (September 3, 1763) : "That the town will pay the expence of repairing sd bridge [over Onion River,] in good pork at 25 [shillings] pr hundred, beef at 20 [shillings] wheat at 4 & corn at 3 pr bushel."

At a town meeting held at the house of Gideon King, inn-holder, at 10 o'clock A. M., on the 26th of March, 1795, Peter Benedict, Colonel William C. Harrington, and Benjamin Adams were chosen a committee " to hand round subscriptions for the court-house." At an adjourned meeting at the same place on the 16th of the next month, it was "Voted, that a committee of five be appointed to appropriate the subscriptions for building a court-house in Bur- lington agreeable to law." The committee were Captain Daniel Hurlbut, Colonel Stephen Pearl, William Coit, esq., Elnathan Keyes, and Ira Allen. The next March meeting was held in the court-house. This building stood near the center of the square. The famous pine tree whipping-post was a little to the north and east of the present fountain. The jail was on the site of the Strong block.

At this time and for years afterwards the Legislature required every town to be as plentifully supplied with ammunition as possible. On the 16th of April, 1795, the town voted, "That the selectmen be hereby directed to procure half a hundred of powder, one hundred and fifty weight of lead, and a due propor- tion of flints for the town stock."

In the following year there was great alarm and excitement throughout the State caused by the ravages of small-pox, which was as yet but little un- derstood and therefore the more superstitiously feared. On the 24th of March, 1796, at the meeting held in the court-house, a vote was passed, "That the Town recommend to the select Men that provided any Physician that will erect a Building in such place as they the select men shall approve of as retired, They grant full liberty for a permanent place for having the Small pox, under cer- tain restrictions as they shall consider safe and it is further recommended that they would Grant no Indulgence of Innoculation unless such person go into the pest house prior thereto-and Continue there until he is perfectly Clensed."

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

No other records appear until the year 1804. Among the items of the meeting held in the spring of that year is an account of five dollars allowed to Ebenezer T. Englesby for sundries delived to James B. Harrington in sickness, under direction of the selectmen, and the same amount allowed to Dr. Matthew Cole for medical attention to " Peter the Frenchman." In 1805 the town pe- titioned the Legislature to grant a turnpike road from the line between Ver- mont and Canada to meet some turnpike road in the State of New York lead- ing to Troy, and another turnpike road from Burlington to Montpelier. As will be seen by reference to the chapter on internal improvements, this peti- tion resulted in the establishment of these turnpikes according to the wishes of the petitioners.

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History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 48

Author: Rann, W. S. (William S.) Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 1054

Author: Rann, W. S. (William S.)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1054