History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 79

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 79

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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

Public worship in Vermont in the latter part of the last century was not infrequently conducted in a barn or a log house, and in the towns of Chittenden rarely in a house constructed for the purpose. The question of raising means to hire preaching and build a house of worship was considered by the settlers of Milton, but, as will be inferred from the following extracts from the records, nothing very important to the cause was accomplished for years. The town-

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TOWN OF MILTON.

house mentioned in previous pages was to have been used for purposes of wor- ship as well as for the transaction of town business ; and it seems that the build- ing which was hired of Amos Mansfield was occasionally called into the service of the church-going people. At the March meeting of 1795 the house was re- ferred to as being used " to Meet in to Due Publick Bisness in and to Meet in for publick worship." At the same time Edward Brigham and Luther Mallary were appointed to " higher a minister or a preacher three months." On the 12th of October, 1795, a vote was passed to give a minister twenty-two shil- lings a Sabbath for preaching. It does not appear in the records that anything further than the passing of votes was done for several years. At the March meeting for 1798 Samuel Holgate, Edward Brigham, and John Jackson were appointed to " higher " a minister. On the IIth of the following month a meeting was held, in which it was voted " that the town will not Rais money to pay the minister that has Bin highered." And the committee was dismissed. At the annual meeting of 1799 the town refused to pay the amount exhibited by Samuel Holgate for the services of John Lincoln, preacher. On the 15th of April, 1799, a record appears, by Abner Wood, a Methodist preacher, that John Gerand is a member of the Methodist Church.

The Congregational Church was organized September 21, 1804, by the Rev. Lemuel Haynes and James Davis. The following names are on record as con- stituting the first members, viz .: Leonard Brigham and Lovice his wife, Ed- ward Brigham, Aaron Carpenter and Hannah his wife, Moses Bascom, John Bascom, Linus Bascom, Chloe Smith, Daniel Smith, Eliza Smith, Rhoda Church, Elijah Herrick, Jabez Hyde and Mary his wife. The church was oc- casionally supplied with preaching till September 23, 1807, when Joseph Chee- ney was constituted their pastor by a council composed of Rev. P. V. Bogue, Rev. James Parker, and Rev. Benjamin Wooster and their delegates.

The first house of worship was built chiefly by Judge Noah Smith about 1806 or 1807, at the falls, and was replaced in 1825 by another a few rods farther north. It was burned in 1840, and in 1841 the present edifice was erected on the same site, at a cost of about $16,000. It comfortably seats about four hundred persons, and is valued at a little less than its original cost. The present pastor is Rev. John L. Sewell, who in 1885 succeeded Rev. John H. Woodward, "the fighting chaplain of Vermont," who served the church for seventeen years. The present membership of the church is about ninety. The officers are L. A. Jackson and Lucius Landon, deacons ; Charles Jackson, clerk; Lucius Landon, Curtin Pratt and Guy Phelps, prudential committee ; and L. A. Jackson, Sabbath-school superintendent. The present average at- tendance at Sabbath-school is about 140.

The Methodist Episcopal Church.I -The town of Milton was chartered in 1763, but the new town had no form of church organization until many years

1 By the Rev. J. E. Bowen.

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

after. Methodism appears historically the first form of organized Christianity known to the new settlers, the eccentric and world-renowned Lorenzo Dow appearing as its first preacher in the northwestern portion of the town early in the month of August, 1798. In July, 1799, Dow was sent by the Methodist Conference, held at New York city, to complete the formation of a circuit em- bracing all the western portion of the State north of Winooski River and west of the Green Mountains; embracing also portions of Canada lying between Lake Memphramagog and. Lake Champlain, and called Essex circuit. This circuit embraced Milton, in the northwestern portion of which he had preached not quite one year previously. There he had one of his regular appointments.

There must have been an organized class in that part of the town at that early day, with leader and members, to have insured continuous preaching services ; for that was the rule by which preaching was continued at any place. The " class " is the integer of embryonic Methodism. And according to all analogy that class must have existed in 1798. The place of worship was the school-house, more often the private dwelling, but was in the school district now embracing the borough M. E. Church, sometimes alternating with Georgia Plain, where for forty years or more was a class with regular services, and where subsequently the Baptists removed from Georgia Center and erected their present house of worship.

Methodist religious services were mostly confined for years to private dwellings, barns and school-houses, sometimes occupying the town hall at Checkerberry village, alternating with the Congregationalists, until the church in West Milton, or at the River, was built by the united efforts of Baptists, Methodists and Congregationalists. I think that was the first church structure in which the Methodists owned any share in the town. But they held regular services all the way along from 1798 in various places in the town, at the River, Checkerberry, the "Hollow," Snake Hill school district, east and south- east of the village.

The First Methodist Episcopal Church edifice in Milton was built and ded- icated about 1840. It stood on nearly the same ground on which is now standing the Methodist Episcopal Church in Milton Falls, and directly across the way, and nearly opposite the first church erected in town. This edifice was the place of general worship for the circuit, until it was superseded by a larger and better one in 1870. This later edifice was destroyed by fire July 8, 1878. At the same time the first church structure ever erected in Milton was burned; the latter burning first and causing the destruction of the former. Soon rallying, the society projected and erected the present church edifice, completing and dedicating the basement portion on Thanksgiving Day, 1880. The edifice stood thus incomplete until April, 1885, when work was resumed on the auditorium, which was finished and dedicated July 8, 1885, exactly seven years from the day of the destruction of the former church by fire. In

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TOWN OF MILTON.

the year 1860 another beautiful Methodist Episcopal Church was erected at the borough, the place where Methodism was introduced into the town, where ever since fortnightly preaching upon Sabbath afternoons has been maintained. For many years Milton was a portion of an extensive circuit, growing smaller and smaller by subdivisions as population and Methodism increased over its territory, until, in 1864, Milton circuit consisted of only the town of that name, and continues so to the present time, embracing all that time and now three appointments, viz. : Milton Falls, the River or West Milton, and the Borough. A parsonage was owned many years ago, located upon the main street of the falls village, afterward sold and another purchased about one mile from the church ; but when the church edifice was destroyed by fire they sold that and incorporated its value in the new church edifice, and even then were unable to extricate themselves from indebtedness until the present year. An aged maiden lady, Nancy Mears, recently deceased, has left to the church by will one-half of a beautiful home and adjoining grounds at Milton Falls village, where she resided, subject to a life lease of another sister, who also jointly pos- sessed the same property, and whose will, already made, bequeaths the other half to the same purpose. So the prospect now is that at some day in the future the church will again possess an itinerant's home.

The numerical status of Methodism cannot be ascertained definitely in the early days, never with certainty until 1854. At that date there were sixty- eight members. This number was increased and diminished from time to time, rising in succeeding years to one hundred and fifteen, the highest number at- tained at any time, and only possessing one hundred in numbers seven times in the last thirty-two years. That any of the Protestant Christian denomina- tions have held numerical status is a source of congratulation, yet indicates a failure to measure up to the full standard of possibilities of increase and exten- sion within reach of a gospel Christianity.

The Trinity Episcopal Church was organized by Rev. George T. Chapman, D.D., in the winter of 1831, with about twenty communicants. It has never had an edifice of its own. For nearly twenty years, owing to adverse circum- stances, services were suspended, to be resumed in 1867 by Rev. John A. Hicks, D.D., of Burlington. Since then it has been sustained by different mis- sionaries. The present rector is Rev. Gemont Graves, of Burlington.

For a history of the Catholic Church, see history of Burlington.

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

CHAPTER XXVI.

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF RICHMOND.

T HE town of Richmond, situated in the central part of the county, is bounded north by Jericho, east by Bolton, south by Huntington and Hinesburg, and west by Williston. Except South Burlington, it is the only town in the county the charter of which was not granted by New Hampshire. It has an area of about 20,000 acres, and was chartered by the Legislature of Vermont on the 27th of October, 1794, being formed from portions of the towns of Jericho, Bolton, Huntington and Williston, and on the 25th of October, 1804, receiv- ing an addition from Bolton.

Though the surface is generally uneven and broken, especially in the north- ern and western parts, the town contains an unusual area of level land, which increases the value of the territory for farming purposes. The soil is generally rich and productive. Along Winooski River it is a rich alluvial deposit, while in the uplands and other parts it is composed of clay, gravelly loam and marl. The timber is principally beech, birch, hemlock, pine, spruce, maple and elm, large forests of which originally covered the town. The water course is formed by the Winooski River, which flows in a northeasterly direction through the center of the town and receives additions from numerous tributaries which af- ford good mill sites. There are two ponds in town - Jackson Pond, covering an area of about twenty-five acres in the northeastern part, and Gillett Pond, about a mile in length by eighty rods in width, lying in the southeastern part.

Early Settlers .- The first settlements made within the limits of the town were begun by Amos Brownson and John Chamberlain with their families in 1775, on what is called Richmond Flats, on the south side of Winooski River, in what was then the town of Williston. In the fall of that year they joined the ranks of those whom the fear of the British army was driving south, and did not return until the close of the War of the Revolution. In 1784 they returned to their farms, accompanied by Asa and Joel Brownson, Samuel and Joshua Chamberlain, James Holly, Joseph Wilson and Jesse McFairlain.

The first settlements begun in the south part of the town, then included within the charter limits of Huntington, were made by Ozem Brewster and Daniel Robbins, about the year 1786. The first settlements along the south side of Winooski River, between the mouth of Huntington River at the site of Jonesville and the village of Richmond, were made by Amos Brownson, jr., Matthew Cox, Jesse Green, William Douglas, Parley and Comfort Starr, Clem- ent Hoyt, James and Peter Crane, James Hall, and Nathaniel and Asa Alger. The first in the west part of the town were made by Asa Brownson, Nathan and Henry Fay. Joseph Hall was one of the first to settle on the north side of the river. Among other early settlers was James Whitcomb, who lived for

Billete

A.LITTLE PHILA.

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TOWN OF RICHMOND.

a time on Richmond Hill and finally removed to Bolton, where he died. James Butler, brother of Governor Butler, of Vermont, lived on the farm now owned by Cornelius Rhoads. He went to Ohio in 1816.

Jonathan Clossin came to Richmond from Connecticut at an early day, and settled on the farm now occupied by W. S. Freeman. He soon left town be- cause of the Revolutionary troubles, and remained away two years, finding on his return that his land had been taken up by another. He then located on the farm next south of the place now occupied by Jesse Humphrey, his grandson. William Humphrey came to this town from Brookfield, Vt., in 1800, and set- tled on the farm now owned by his son Jesse. He served in the American army three years during the second war with Great Britain, enlisting as a pri- vate and receiving promotion to a corporalship.

Henry Fay, son of John Fay, who was, killed at the battle of Bennington, was born at Bennington in 1774, and died in Richmond in 1818, leaving a fam- ily of ten children, one of whom, Jonathan, still resides in town. Henry and Nathan Fay were engaged for years as clothiers at Fay's Corners.

Jesse Green came from Gordon, N. H., to Richmond about the year 1800. Many of his descendants now live in town. Dudley Higley located in the southern part of the town about 1800, and reared a family of eleven children, only one of whom, Jerry, remained in town. Ebenezer Flagg came from Or- well, Vt., to Richmond in 1800, and settled in the southern part of the town. Isaac B. Andrews settled in the same neighborhood fourteen years earlier, and remained there until his death in 1849. Of his family of nineteen children, three - Ezra B., Elisha and Samuel - now live here. Solomon Bates, from New Hampshire, settled previous to 1800 on the farm now owned by his grandson, Martin M., in the central part of the town. Benjamin Farnsworth was one of the first tavern-keepers, on the old turnpike road at the upper end of Rich- mond village. James Nichols lived on Huntington River between Jonesville and Huntington, about midway. He died in Bristol, Vt.

Joel Brownson came from Sunderland, Bennington county, very early, as has been stated, and settled on the south side of the river on the place now owned by Mrs. Sarah Mason. Peter Crane lived a little less than a mile east of Richmond village on the south side of the river. General Jacob Spafford and his son Smalley lived on the very edge of Williston, on the old turnpike road. Benajah Hallock lived in the south part of the town on Huntington River. Clement Hoyt lived on the farm now owned by Hildreth Brothers. Charles Stephens lived and died on the first farm west of Hoyt's. Benjamin Bishop first settled on Richmond Hill, and afterwards removed to the place now owned by U. S. Whitcomb; he finally went to Burlington. William Everts settled on Richmond Hill, and thence removed to Bolton, and again to Burlington. Major Ezra Smith lived very early about three-quarters of a mile west of Richmond village, where Thomas Whitcomb afterwards kept tavern.

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

Nathan Fay lived on Richmond Hill with his father. Nathaniel Alger lived in the last house in Richmond, on the south side of the river near Bolton. He there kept a tavern and store. Martin and Elihu Barber, brothers, lived on Richmond Hill, the former between Fay's Corners and Huntington, and the latter on the farm which Benjamin Bishop had left. Ozem Brewster lived near Huntington line, where the Tower brothers now live. Parley Starr lived on the south side of the river on the place now owned by Colonel Rolla Gleason. Leonard Hodges was the first settler on the place now occupied by William S. Freeman. He afterwards removed to the foot of Williston Hill, in that town. Most of the foregoing names appear on the records previous to the year 1797, except those to whom a definite date is assigned. In 1797 first occurs the name of Abel Cooper, who had been one of the judges of the Rutland County Court. After he came to Richmond he lived on Richmond Hill at the junc- tion of the roads towards Huntington. His son, Amos B. Cooper, lived near him and a little west. Abram Hollenbeck, who was first mentioned in 1798, though he was in town earlier than that, bears the distinction of being the father of John B. Hollenbeck, the centenarian of Burlington. Others men- tioned in that year are Asa Lewis, who lived on the south side of the river about one and a half miles east from the village; William Church, who kept the first tavern in town, on the farm now owned by John Mason. John Rus- sell lived in Richmond village on the north side of the river, and kept a tavern back of the present store of Jacobs & Woodworth.

One of the most prominent families in town in early days, and whose de- scendants are still numerous and respectable, was that of Jabez Jones, the first of the name in Richmond. He first resided in Bolton, was its first town clerk, in 1794, and the first representative of that town in the Legislature. In 1797 he purchased two hundred acres of land of Ira Allen, in what is now South Burlington, and soon exchanged it with Jesse McFairlain, or McFarland, for the farm in Richmond now owned and occupied by Albert Town, near Jones- ville. In 1799 he married Hannah, daughter of John Farnsworth, of New Hampshire. He died on the 9th of August, 1811, in the forty-third year of his life, leaving a widow and five children. Mrs. Jones afterwards married John Russell, and died on the 25th of October, 1828, aged fifty-two years. The oldest child and only son of Jabez Jones, Ransom Jones, gave Jonesville its existence as well as its name. Of the four daughters of Jabez but one is living, Charlotte, who married Hiram King, emigrated to the territory of Mich- igan in 1831, and lives there now, aged eighty years.

Edward Jones, brother of Jabez, and one of sixteen children, was born in Claremont, N. H., on the 24th of January, 1775, married Lucy Farnsworth, sister of the future wife of Jabez, when he was twenty-one years of age, and went to live with his brother Jabez in Richmond. His wife performed the journey from Claremont on horseback, carrying in her arms her eldest and

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TOWN OF RICHMOND.

then only child (the mother of Henry Gillett), who was born on the 6th of July, 1797. In 1800 Edward Jones removed to the farm on Richmond Hill now owned by John McGoven, where he remained until 1811. He then went to the farm now owned by the Tower estate, where, on the 19th of September, 1847, he died. He resided in town fifty years lacking four months, and was a prominent man. Among the important positions in which he was placed by the confidence of his townsmen, he was chosen to represent Richmond in the Legislature in 1821, 1822, 1830 and 1831. He had nine children, of whom but one, Milo, now lives, at Fort Atkinson, Wis., whither he went in 1834. Ralph, the eldest son of Edward Jones, was born February 27, 1799, married Polly, daughter of David Caswell, an early settler in Huntington, and died De- cember 20, 1834. Of his five children, only two -Edward R. and Ransom A .- are now residents of Richmond. Edward R. Jones was born October 8, 1822, in Williston, where his father lived for six years, and has passed an un- usually eventful life, having been in Wisconsin as early as 1844, and in Cali- fornia during the historic period of its early gold excitement, and a member of its famous Vigilance Committee in 1856. He came to his present farm in 1881, the same farm on which Abraham Tyler, an early settler, died of small-pox in 1800.

Colonel Rolla Gleason was born on the first Tuesday of June (training day), 1807, in Richmond, about forty rods east of his present residence, and came to live in what is the rear part of his present dwelling house when he was two years old. He is known throughout the State as a sagacious and far-seeing politician and an uncompromising Republican. He was an active member of the old militia, and was promoted through the various degrees from quarter- master-sergeant to colonel. He was sheriff of Chittenden county more than forty years ago ; was a delegate to the national convention in 1856; was pro- vost-marshal from May, 1863, to October, 1865 ; sent more than three thou- sand men into the service of the North during the War of the Rebellion, and among still other offices has been county senator and the representative of

Richmond. .His father, Isaac Gleason, came to this place in 1805 from Shrewsbury, Vt., and kept a store on the site of the cheese factory, succeed- ing Joshua Chamberlain and - Dodge.

Early Records .-- We have given a list of settlers at the beginning of settle- ment, necessarily incomplete, including only such names as appear in the town records and are remembered by the oldest inhabitants now living. All that they did may never be told. They braved perils in coming here, they suffered untold hardships in clearing away the original forests and cultivating the rough soil of one hundred years ago, and died, most of them, without having har- bored a thought of being remembered as heroes - their principal incentive to labor and suffer as they did being to provide for those whom Providence had placed under their care. The best part of man's life, the domestic, is the hard-

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

est to inspect ; but what was done by the early inhabitants as members of the town organization is more or less completely recorded. The town was organ- ized in March, 1795, by the election of the following officers: Joshua Cham- berlain, clerk ; Constant C. Hallock, constable; Felix Augar, Benjamin Farns- worth, and Peter Crane, selectmen ; Joel Brownson, Asa Brownson, jr., and Benjamin Farnsworth, justices. The first representative, elected in 1796, was Jonathan Chamberlain. The records are rather meager for the first few years. The first accessible item of interest appears concerning a meeting held on the 5th of January, 1795, when it was voted to set up a sign-post and stocks oppo- site " Esquire Joel Brownson's." The first deed on record is a quit-claim of one-third of one hundred acres of land by Amos Brownson to Joshua Cham- berlain, in consideration of twelve pounds, dated March 7, 1795. The second entry that appears is a deed of one hundred and twenty acres by Abram Smith to Governor Thomas Chittenden, for thirty pounds, dated April 23, 1795. In these records appears, too, an interesting document, dated November 12, 1777, in which is recited the fact that Heman Allen, of Salisbury, Litchfield county, Conn., in consideration of one thousand pounds, deeded all his interest in lands in the towns of Burlington, Williston, New Huntington, Hinesburg, Shel- burne, Charlotte, Ferrisburgh, Monkton, Colchester, Essex, Jericho, Milton, Georgia, Swanton, and Highgate to Ira Allen, of Bennington. This reveals to some extent the wealth of the Allen brothers in lands in Vermont; and while it is not to be presumed that it explains their vigorous opposition to the claims of New York grantees, it is sufficient to suppose that the desire of pro- tecting their possessions added considerable spice to their determined antag- onism.

War of 1812-15 .- The general events of the war of this period having been written in a former chapter, need no mention in this place. Richmond was not behind her neighboring towns in sending men to the front at this time - about sixty being the number of her volunteers. Prominent among them were Captain Roswell Hunt, Benoni Thompson, who went out as ensign, Captain Manwell, who enlisted as lieutenant, and Elihu Bates, Nathan Fay, Jesse Green, Sawyer Jewell, Abram Smith and William Rhodes. The follow- ing company is credited to the towns of Richmond, Jericho, and Williston dur- ing the War of 1812, and was commanded by Captain Roswell Hunt : Amos B. Cooper, Joshua Whitcomb, Timothy Thompson, John Kimpton, Artemas Flagg, Clark Hillgar, Iddo Green, Joel Brownson, jr., Nathan Fay, Gershom Flagg, Reuben Squire, William Reynolds, Samuel T. Bass, John Mackwell, Anson Boyington, Jeremiah Terry, Enoch Noble, Shubal Barber, Josiah Thompson, Luther Curtis, Barney Spooner, John Pake, Chester H. Nichols, Merrill Fellows, Nathan Arnold, Samuel Douglas, Elijah Hinkson, Joseph Hall, jr., Joseph Douglas, Daniel Roins, jr., Asa Gilbert, jr., Isaac Hullock, Richard Douglas, Jared C. Smith, Ezekiel Squire, John Chamberlain, Truman

TOWN OF RICHMOND.

Averill, John Thornton, Asa Jackson, jr., Daniel Goodrich, Silas Hunt, Will- iam Douglas, jr., Billings Straw, Jesse Green, jr., Harry Brown, Stephen Hul- lock, jr., Anson Hullock, George Sherman, Adonson Deanex.

Business Interests .-- There is at the present writing but one hotel in town, though it is thought there will soon be one opened at Jonesville. The early hotels have nearly all been mentioned in the course of this chapter. Robert Russell erected the old brick hotel in Richmond village at an early day, which stood diagonally opposite the present public house, and Charles Hunt- ington, who was for years the mail carrier between Burlington and Montpelier, was the first one to keep it open for the public. J. H. Ransom afterwards kept it a great many years. The last proprietor before its destruction by fire a number of years ago was R. B. Coffey, who was also the first proprietor in the present hotel. His successor was George W. Orcutt. In 1884 P. M. Mansfield succeeded Mr. Orcutt, and on the Ist of February, 1886, was followed by the present proprietor, G. E. Barnum.

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History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 79

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