History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 62

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 62

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

proprietors of the town of Burlington, with other tracts of corresponding size, but was never divided into lots, nor in severalty, nor set to any particular pro- prietor's right, under the charter of 1763. As early as 1794 this square seems to have been practically devoted to public use, and was occupied as a public common. In 1795 a court-house was built upon it for the use of the county, by direction of the selectmen of the town, and in 1796 a county jail was built by like direction. This court-house was placed near the center of the square, near it standing the traditional pine tree-the whipping-post of that virtuous age. The jail was near the northeast corner of the square, on the ground afterward occupied by part of Thomas's Hotel, now Strong's building. On the 25th of June, 1798, the proprietors, in proprietors' meeting, formally dedicated this square to public use by a vote, as follows:

" Voted, That the block containing two acres and one-half of land whereon the court-house and gaol are built, in said Burlington, shall be and is hereby set off for the use of the public for the erecting of all necessary county and town buildings for public use."

About this time Lyman King, at the request of the selectmen of the town, and for the purpose of officiating as jailer, and also of keeping a tavern, erected a tavern-house adjoining the jail. This tavern-house constituted the present north part of Strong's building. It has since been added to on the south and east. The proceedings connected with the construction of the jail upon the site of the present "lock-up" are set forth in a previous chapter. Lyman King, after considerable difficulty, and under the protection of an act of the Legislature passed November 7, 1808, obtained from the selectmen of Burlington a lease to himself, his heirs and assigns, "during time," of a parcel ninety-five feet by eighty-nine feet, including the site of Strong's building. This title of King passed by deed to Henry Thomas June 24th, 1823, and from Thomas to Tim- othy F. and William L. Strong January 23, 1839. In 1848 Strong conveyed to Huntington & Randall thirty-seven feet of the same on College street, be- ing the part now occupied by S. Huntington's store.

In 1820 the selectmen began to lease parcels on the east side of the square, which were extended in territory by private encroachment, as it is claimed, un- til proceedings in ejectment were brought by Dr. John Pomeroy, owner of a proprietor's right thereon, which resulted, in January, 1831, in a decision of the Supreme Court establishing the points that the Court-House Square was con- clusively dedicated by the original proprietors to public use ; that the town had no authority to lease any part of it; that for a private encroachment upon it, ejectment would lie in behalf of an original proprietor, who might re- cover to hold subject to the public use; that an action on the case would lie, as for nuisance, in behalf of a contiguous owner who might be injured by such encroachment ; and that an indictment for nuisance would also lie. This decision has already engendered considerable litigation.

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TOWN AND CITY OF BURLINGTON.

Thus the limits of City Hall Park have been somewhat encroached upon, but there is room enough left for fine elms to grow, a fountain to play, and for considerable congregations of people to disport themselves during band concerts, military and firemen's parades, and all public ceremonies.

The College Park, of many acres, beautifully crowns the hill. Not very much is done for it artificially, but the trees are of good growth and are pret- tily grouped. A fountain plays and the bronze statue of Lafayette, a gem of art, gives distinction to the college frontage.

The existence of Battery Park is chiefly due to Frederick W. Smith, of Burlington. The land was owned by Smith & Wilkins and Allen & Haswell. They agreed to convey the land, about nine acres, in consideration of Water (now Battery) street being cut through and extended, and of North avenue being stopped up, or rather made to conform to the corner of the park. There were, of course, the usual petitions and remonstrances ; but finally, by deed dated April 17, 1840, the park was created. Mr. Smith has set out all the shade trees, having raised sixty dollars only, by subscription, for the purpose. The fence was paid for with the proceeds of fairs and bazaars organized by the ladies, under the lead of Mrs. Smith. The promenade on the lake front is the original embankment thrown up by our troops during the War of 1812, to de- fend against bombardment by the enemy's fleet on the lake.

CEMETERIES.

The date of the first interments in the town cannot now be ascertained, though it is known that Green Mount Cemetery, located on Colchester avenue, was first used soon after the settlement of the town, and consisted of two acres until 1869, when it was extended to ten. In addition to this the city now has four others, aggregating fifty-six acres, devoted to this purpose. Lake View is the largest, covering thirty acres ; Green Mount comes next with ten ; Mount St. Joseph's (Roman Catholic) has eight ; Elmwood Avenue five, and Calvary (French Roman Catholic) three, completing the fifty-six acres. Elmwood Avenue Cemetery was the next established, occupying school lot number 113, and first used at the beginning of the present century. At the March meeting, in 1812, a committee, consisting of John Johnson, Charles Adams and John Eldridge, was appointed " to lay out and ascertain the grave- yards in the town." At a meeting held April 19, 1813, this committee re- ported a plan for laying out what is now called the Eldridge and Elmwood Avenue Cemeteries, but stated that the interments in the burying-ground at the falls, now known as Green Mount Cemetery, were too irregular and crowded to allow it to be divided into lots and avenues. At an adjourned meeting held on the 24th of the same month, the committee, on request, re- ported a series of rules " for the regulation of the burying-ground north of the village," now known as Elmwood Avenue Cemetery. These were formally

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

adopted, and George Robinson, Charles Adams and John Johnson were ap- pointed a special committee to have the entire control, under the rules, of the ground. For a long series of years no continuous record of interments was kept, and it is therefore impossible to ascertain the aggregate number ; and for a like reason the figures for Mount St. Joseph's cannot begin. In the period extending from 1860 to September 1, 1881, there were 1,598 inter- ments in the cemetery last named; in Calvary Cemetery, from 1878 to the same date, 173 ; and in Lake View, from 1868 to the same date, 847.

Green Mount Cemetery, however, retains the respect and honor due to age, and attracts hundreds of visitors each year, not particularly on account of its beauty, though a beautiful spot it is, and not to obtain a glance at the magnif- icent view it affords, but to gaze upon a magnificent monument, which marks the spot where rest the remains of one of Vermont's greatest patriots and heroes, Ethan Allen. The monument to Ethan Allen was erected by the State of Vermont, by authority of an act of the Legislature, passed in 1855, which appropriated $2,000 for that purpose, which by contributions, etc., was in- creased to $2,700, the total cost of the monument, though it was not completed until 1873, the exercises attending its unveiling occurring July 4 of that year. It is of Barre granite, the base of the pedestal being eight feet square on the ground, and consists of two steps of granite, on which rests a die of solid granite six feet square, in the four faces of which are set panels of white marble bearing the inscriptions. Above the pedestal rises a Tuscan shaft of granite, four and a half feet in diameter and forty-two feet high. Upon its capital, on a base bearing the word " Ticonderoga," stands a heroic statue of Allen, eight feet four inches high, modeled by Peter Stephenson, sculptor, of Boston, now deceased, and cut in Italy, intending to represent Allen as he appeared on that eventful moment when he demanded the surrender of the fort " in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." The monument is pro- tected by a fence of original design, the corner posts of which are iron cannon, and the pales are muskets, with bayonets, resting on a base of cut granite. The inscriptions are as follows :-

(On the West face.) " VERMONT TO ETHAN ALLEN BORN IN LITCHFIELD CT IOTH JAN A D 1737 DIED IN BURLINGTON VT 12TH FEB A D 1789 AND BURIED NEAR THE SITE OF THIS MONUMENT."

(On the North face.) " THE

LEADER OF THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS IN THE SURPRISE AND CAPTURE OF TICONDEROGA WHICH HE DEMANDED IN THE NAME OF THE GREAT JEHOVAH AND THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. "

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TOWN AND CITY OF BURLINGTON.

(On the East face. ) "TAKEN PRISONER IN A DARING ATTACK ON MONTREAL AND TRANSPORTED TO ENGLAND HE DISARMED THE PURPOSE OF HIS ENEMY BY THE RESPECT WHICH HE INSPIRED FOR THE REBELLION AND THE REBEL."

(On the South face.) " WIELDING THE PEN AS WELL AS THE SWORD, HE WAS THE SAGACIOUS AND INTREPID DEFENDER OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS, AND MASTER SPIRIT IN THE ARDUOUS STRUGGLE WHICH RESULTED IN THE SOVEREIGNTY AND INDEPENDENCE OF THIS STATE."

EDUCATIONAL.

The matter appearing under this head was prepared by Professor John E. Goodrich, of the University of Vermont, for the chapter on educational insti- tutions, which was written by him, but unfortunately came to the editor too late to be printed with it, and is therefore inserted in this place.

September 15, 1872, Louis Pollens opened a day and boarding-school for young ladies in the northernmost of the buildings erected by Bishop Hopkins. The training here furnished was of a high order, and embraced a wide range of topics. The school continued but a few years, Mr. Pollens being invited to a professorship in Dartmouth College.

Since 1883 Miss Lillie H. Cram, a graduate of the University of Vermont, has conducted at 262 Pearl street an excellent school for girls and young ladies, at which candidates for the college course can pursue their preparatory studies. From 1879 to 1883 the same school, on a somewhat smaller scale, held its sessions in the old Foote place at the head of Pearl street.

In April, 1882, Mrs. J. H. Baird, who had previously gained a high repu- tation as a teacher in the city schools, established a private school for boys and girls, which has been well sustained by the patronage of such as prefer not to send their children to the public schools. This school gathers in the Opera House building.

A commercial school, or " college," has been maintained for many years for special instruction in penmanship, book-keeping, telegraphy, etc. It was founded by Gilbert Smith. Mr. J. S. Chamberlain was at its head for several years. The school has sometimes had assistant instructors from the univer- sity, and at times has had a good degree of prosperity.

Summer College of Languages .- Since 1884 a Summer College of Lan- guages has been maintained in Burlington during six weeks of the ordinary summer vacation. Dr. Lambert Sauveur had conducted a similar school in Amherst, Mass., for several years; but the school having outgrown its accom-

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

modations there, was transferred to Burlington and the buildings of the uni- versity. Instruction is given by what is known as the "natural " method in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Greek and Latin. In 1885 Anglo-Saxon, Sanskrit, Hebrew, modern Greek and comparative grammar were added.

The school affords a very happy means of combining work and play, study and recreation. Two or three hours are usually given by the pupils to the lectures and conversation classes, and the rest of the day to the usual employ- ments of the summer visitor. Instructors in the modern languages find the summer school a very pleasant means of training both ear and tongue, and of gaining stimulus and suggestions for another ten months of class-room labor. The students here have been of all ages, from six to sixty, and the numbers have been four to five hundred. The excellent opportunities here offered for agreeable recreation on land and water, and for excursions by boat and rail- as to the Ausable Chasm, Mount Mansfield, Mallet's Bay, Ticonderoga, and the islands-give to Burlington a special adaptation to the requirements of the summer school. The college buildings are occupied by instructors and pupils, and the Episcopal Institute at Rock Point is treated principally as a sort of " annex " for the time being, a large omnibus conveying pupils to and fro. As a retreat which would combine a little study with relaxation, the wild- ness of nature and a good measure of isolation, with the advantages of a near neighborhood to the appliances of modern civilization, Rock Point cannot easily be excelled It is no wonder that the jaded denizen of the town should resort to it as a welcome refuge from the heats of the dog-days. It should be added that the rooms of St. Joseph's (Catholic) College, on the College Park, are also offered for the accommodation of the patrons.

In 1886 Dr. Sauveur removed again, this time to Oswego, N. Y., and Pro- fessor Leo A. Stäger, of St. Louis, Mo., took charge of the school, with an excellent faculty of seven instructors. The languages taught this year are the five which are most in request : German, French, Italian, Greek, and Latin.

The Chittenden County Teachers' Association should have a brief memorial here, even if it be somewhat of the nature of a tombstone. It was organized in October, 1847, at Jericho Center, at the suggestion of Mr. Zalmar Richards, who had just closed a two weeks' institute at that place. This institute was held by the request of the teachers of the county, who, one year before, had attended a similiar series of lectures and recitations, conducted by the same gentleman at Essex Center. These institutes were attended by over sixty teachers, and were among the means devised by Governor Eaton, then ex- officio State superintendent of schools, to stimulate an interest in public educa- tion and raise the standard of instruction. The Rev. Francis B. Wheeler, the county superintendent of schools, was chosen president of the association. Its first meeting was held in the bar-room of the hotel at Williston, in January, 1847. They had advertised the meeting, but no preparation whatever had

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TOWN AND CITY OF BURLINGTON.

been made for them. As a further indication of the general apathy then ex- isting in regard to the "people's college," it should be added, that they were required, in some cases, to pay for the insertion in the county papers of a brief report of their doings! They met twice a year in the different towns of the county. June 12, 1851, they convened at Winooski, President Worthington Smith, and Tutor John A. Jameson, of the university, sharing in the discus- sions. Their affairs were managed by an executive committee of five, and some valuable work was done in the way of visitation and reports upon the condition of the schools. With the next meeting in Burlington, however, the secretary, Mr. A. E. Leavenworth, removing from the county, the association entered upon a period of suspended animation, which continued for five years. In 1857 Principal Leavenworth, then of Hinesburg, took means to revive the slumbering association, being assisted in his laudable endeavors by Revs. J. H. Worcester and C. E. Ferrin, and Professor M. H. Buckham. A conven- tion of teachers was called to meet at Shelburne, and the association was re- organized with the Rev. Mr. Worcester for president. From that time semi- annual meetings were held in the different villages in the county for fifteen years and more. The Rev. Mr. Worcester was at the head of the association for two years ; Professor Calvin Pease, two years; Rev. E. C. Ferrin, two years; Principal J. S. Cilley, four years ; and Principal A. E. Leavenworth, two years. Principal Louis Pollens was president in 1870, but the succession from that year cannot be given, in the absence of the records. Principal J. D. Bartley presided at the last meeting (held in Underhill about 1879), and Principal S. W. Landon, then of St. Albans, was chosen to succeed him. For some twenty years the association continued to be a vigorous and active body, with an in- fluence which reached beyond the county boundaries. Its meetings were characterized by enthusiasm on the part of the teachers who conducted them, and by a large measure of interest awakened in the communities in which the gatherings were held. And they were both profitable and enjoy- able, not to the participants only, but to the towns which entertained them. The causes of the decline of the association are to be sought in the adoption by Burlington of the town system, with the teachers' class and training-school and frequent teachers meetings, which were a part of the new scheme ; in the teachers' institutes, held once or twice a year within the county by the State superintendent ; and especially in the union by-and-by effected with the asso- ciation of Franklin and Grand Isle counties at the suggestion of that body. Since the formation of Northwestern Vermont Teachers' Association fewer meetings have been held than before, and less zeal shown. The enthusiasm which sufficed for one county was perceptibly cooled when it came to be spread over three counties, and the sense of responsibility for its maintenance and management was too much divided and distributed. In fact it came to be more like a feeble sub-section of the State Association than an indepen-

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

dent local organization. The last meeting was held in Underhill, at Dixon's, some seven years ago. Whether the present dormancy of the association is to result in a perpetual sleep is now quite uncertain. Possibly there is now no occasion for its resuscitation. But possibly, too, there is a slackening of zeal and public spirit on the part of the little army of school ma'ams and school masters in these three northwestern counties. The amount and quality of work done by the association may be indicated by a rapid sketch of two or three of the meetings. These meetings lasted two days, usually Friday and Saturday. In May, 1859, about seventy-five teachers gathered at Essex, where addresses were given by the Rev. H. P. Cutting, of Castleton, and the Rev. W. A. Miller, of Burlington, and essays were presented by Principal Ed- ward Conant, of Royalton, and Principal S. L. Bates, of Underhill. In the following December they had a profitable session at Underhill, as may be in- ferred from the names of some of the participants : Principals Conant (then of Burlington), C. A. Castle, J. S. Cilley, A. E. Leavenworth, the Rev. J. H. Worcester, the Rev. Dr. Simeon Parmelee, and State Superintendent J. S. Adams, the last of whom was especially effective as an awakener of enthusiasm, not less than as a revealer and denouncer of defects and abuses. The next May they met in Charlotte, with the Rev. C. E. Ferren, of Hinesburg, a staunch and intelligent friend and promoter of popular education, in the chair. Pro- fessor S. W. Boardman, of Middlebury College, gave the opening address. Fifty-one " practical " teachers were present. January 4, 1861, the association convened in Richmond with an attendance of actual teachers of eighty ; ad- dresses by J. S. Adams, Principal Leavenworth, of West Brattleboro, and Professor N. G. Clark, of the University of Vermont; discussions animated and generally participated in. June 7th they met in Winooski, and so the record continues for many years.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

The First Congregational Church ( Unitarian) .- Religious privileges in Bur- lington at the beginning of the present century were seldom enjoyed; now and then of a Sunday a printed sermon was read to the people, who were al- ways present in good numbers. About this time it was understood that the Rev. Daniel C. Sanders had closed his labors at Vergennes, and immediately David Russell and Dr. John Pomeroy rode to that city and engaged him to come to Burlington and preach, holding themselves responsible for his salary. Mr. Sanders came and officiated regularly in the court-house, there being no church ; but, being soon elected first president of the University of Vermont, he was obliged to abandon his pastoral work. His first sermon in the town was on the death of General Washington, from the text " His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated."-Deut. 34:7.

From the town records it appears that on the 5th of June, 1805, more than

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TOWN AND CITY OF BURLINGTON.

seven freeholders of Burlington sent in a petition to George Robinson, town clerk, to warn a meeting for the purpose of forming a society for social and public worship, agreeably to the statute passed on the 26th of October, 1797, entitled, " an act for the support of the gospel." This petition was signed by William C. Harrington, Lyman King, Ozias Buell, Arza Crane, Elnathan Keyes, Moses Catlin, David Russell, James Sawyer, Samuel Hickok, John Pomeroy and Horace Loomis. In pursuance of this warning the people of all religious opinions met and voted unanimously to form themselves into a soci- ety by the name of " The First Society for Social and Public Worship in the Town of Burlington." In 1807 Dr. Samuel Williams, of Rutland, a graduate of Harvard College, came to Burlington to superintend the publication of his History of Vermont, and while in town preached in the court-house and stopped with Dr. Pomeroy's family. On the 20th of March, 1809, at the an- nual town meeting, it was voted that a committee of five be chosen to decide upon a site for a church building, and Daniel Farrand, Stephen Pearl, Moses Robinson and Davis Russell were constituted that committee. They met and reported " that they had taken the subject into consideration, and agreed to recommend to the town a piece of ground lying on the south side of the new road, called College street, leading from the front of the college to the court house square, and east of the road called Middle street [now Willard street] leading south from Pearl street to the turnpike road [now Main street] for said purposes."

The report was accepted and a building committee appointed ; when doc- trinal dissensions arose, bringing about a separation which resulted, in January, 1810, in the forming of a large majority of the male inhabitants of the town into a society by the name of "The First Congregational Society in the Town of Burlington." A call was given to Samuel Clark, of Massachusetts, to be- conie their minister.

On the 19th of April, 1810, the Liberal Christians met in the old wooden court-house for the ordination of Mr. Clark. The sermon upon this occasion was delivered by the Rev. William Emerson, father of Ralph Waldo Emer- son ; his subject was " Posthumous beneficence." Mr. Clark's salary was $550 a year. He served the society twelve years, resigning in 1822. He died May 2, 1827. During his pastorate in 1816, the present commodious house of worship, situated at the head of Church street, on Pearl street, was erected. It cost $53,000, and remains but little changed to-day. The dedicatory ser- mon was preached on the 9th of January, 1817, by the Rev. John Pierce, D. D., of Brookline, Mass.

George Goldthwaite Ingersoll, a graduate of Harvard College, had for two years before Mr. Clark's death occupied the desk ; and on the 30th of May, 1822, he was ordained the second minister of the society. The sermon was preached by the Rev. President Kirkland of the University of Cambridge,

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

Mass. Dr. Ingersoll remained for twenty-two years with the society, beloved by all, and was succeeded by the Rev. O. W. B. Peabody, who was ordained August 4, 1845. The sermon was preached by the Rev. W. B. O. Peabody, of Springfield, Mass. Mr. Peabody was taken from his people by death on the 5th of July, 1848. His successor was the Rev. Solon Wanton Bush, a gradu- ate of Brown University, who was ordained on the 16th of May, 1849; the Rev. E. B. Hall, D. D., of Providence. R. I., preaching the ordination sermon. On the 16th of December, 1862, the Rev. Joshua Young, a graduate of Bow- doin College, was ordained minister, the ordination sermon being preached by the Rev. E. S. Gannett, D. D., of Boston, Mass. The Rev. L. G. Ware, the present minister, was installed on the 4th of November, 1863, the sermon being preached by the Rev. C. A. Bartol, D. D., of Boston, Mass. The society is to-day large and prosperous, containing, as it always has contained, numbers of the most respected and substantial citizens of Burlington. The Sabbath- school was instituted by Dr. Ingersoll in 1828. The officers of the society are the Rev. L. G. Ware, minister ; H. G. Davis, clerk; Edward Barlow, treasurer ; Elihu B. Taft, superintendent of the Sabbath-school; E. C. Mower, J. M. Clarke and F. H. Parker, prudential committee.

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History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 62

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