USA > Vermont > Chittenden County > History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 90
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Mr. Canfield has now been engaged in active business forty-six years, during which time he has never taken a day specially for recreation or pleasure, so called, but has
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THOMAS HAWLEY CANFIELD.
found his pleasure in the work in which he was engaged, believing thereby he was doing some good to his fellow men.
Although of a slender frame and fragile constitution, he is yet apparently as well and active and moves with the same elastic step as twenty years ago, which he attributes in a great degree to his constant busy life and temperate habits in all things except work. He is a good judge of human nature, enabling him to be an excellent organizer and manager of men, quick in observation, clear in judgment and rapid in execution. While being naturally self-reliant, to which his varied experience has contributed, yet he is ready at all times to listen to others, and adopt their views even if they differ from his own, if they have merit in them. Modest in his pretensions, he is ever ready to give to others the credit of any good act, although he may have been mainly instrumental in bringing it about. Having been engaged in work of a public character and connected with many great enterprises, he has an extended knowledge of the country and broad and comprehensive ideas as to its capacity and resources, and entertains the most san- guine views as to its future greatness and power. When once enlisted in any scheme which commands his approbation he is very persistent and persevering until it is accom- plished, no matter how difficult it may be or how serious the obstacles to be encoun- tered. The idea of defeat never enters into his calculations. He is very retiring, talks but little, is a good listener, but clear in his ideas of right and wrong and firm in main- taining them. He is generous almost to a fault, and in anything in which he believes he is ready to back his acts with his money so far as he is able ; a true and firm friend to those who gain his confidence - and many are the men in good circumstances and prominent positions who are indebted for them to his early aid and assistance.
At different times he has been actively engaged in political matters, but always refus- ing to accept any office of any kind, preferring to aid those whom he deemed capable of filling public stations. Arriving at his majority when the old Whig party was prominent, his first vote was cast for its nominees, and he continued identified with it until it was succeeded by the Republican party, to which he has since belonged.
He is an active member of the Episcopal Church, having been brought up in it from childhood, the house in which he was born in Arlington being the one in which the convention of the diocese of Vermont first met to organize in 1790, the occupant of it, his grandfather, being the first lay delegate. He was baptized in infancy in the old church at Arlington by "Priest Bronson," one of the first clergymen in Vermont, and confirmed by Bishop Hopkins in St. Paul's Church, Burlington, Good Friday, 1848. He was for many years a vestryman and warden of St. Paul's Church, had charge of the enlargement of the church in 1852, raising the money for it, and again in 1868 in building the transept, devoting much time as well as money. He has attended every convention of the diocese of Vermont for thirty-two years, twenty-three of which he has been the secretary of it. For several years he was a member of the standing com- mittee of the diocese, and also represented it as deputy in the four general conventions of the church in the United States, held in Philadelphia in 1856, in Richmond, Va., in 1859, in New York in 1874, in Boston in 1877, and in Chicago October 8, 1886.
He was one of the original incorporators and trustees of the Vermont Episcopal In- stitute thirty-one years ago, and has been the resident trustee ever since, having charge of its affairs, its treasurer for twenty years, and now actively engaged in raising $40,000 with which to erect suitable buildings for the female department. He furnished the plans for Trinity Chapel, Winooski, and was mainly instrumental in raising the money to
742
HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.
build it. He founded the Episcopal Church at Brainerd, Minnesota, furnishing the block on which it stands and half the money for the building. He also furnished the sites for the churches at Moorhead, Minn., Bismarck, Dak., and Kalama, Washington Territory, and assisted in building the churches. However much he may be absorbed in business, he always finds time to attend to the church and its interests.
Few men have ever had a more busy life, which from present indications is likely to continue in the same way to the end; and he probably will, as he says he expects to do, " die in the harness."
CHESSMORE, ALWYN HARDING, M. D. Alwyn Harding Chessmore, son of ) Alvah and Harriet (Thorn) Chessmore, was born in Warren, Washington county, Vermont, on the 17th of October, 1837. His father died when he was eight years of age, and four years later his mother removed to Chelsea, Vt. In 1851 he went to live with an uncle in Johnson, Vt., where he fitted for college in the academy. He conclud- ed to begin the study of his chosen profession, medicine, without any further delay than was necessary while obtaining the means. In 1856 he attended his first course of lectures at the Castleton Medical College, whence he repaired for a year to the office of a cousin, Dr. Goodwin, of Rockford, Illinois, and continued his studies. He next went to Royalton, Vt., and studied a few months in the office of Dr. H. H. Whitcomb, after which, in the winter of 1859-60, he taught school in Sharon, Vt., and in March, 1860, entered the medical department of the University of Vermont. So thorough had been his previous application that in the following June he received from that institution the degree of M. D. The first year of his practice was in company with Dr. George W. Bromley, then of Huntington, now of Richmond, whom he soon bought out.
In the fall of 1862, at the beginning of that war which deluged the country with fraternal blood, Dr. Chessmore entered the service of the Union army as assistant sur- geon in the Fifth Regiment of Vermont Volunteers. In the spring of 1863 he was promoted to the position of surgeon of the Fifth Regiment, and by virtue of this rank soon became brigade surgeon. He shared from this time on in all the vicissitudes of the Army of the Potomac until the 25th of September, 1864, when he was mustered out in the Shenandoah Valley, and returned to Huntington. The war was not yet over, how- ever, and he could not remain away from the field of activity. After only a month or two of peace he went to City Point, Virginia, where he served as contract surgeon until the spring of 1865. During that season he returned to the town of his adoption. From that time to the present he has been continuously in practice in Huntington and the neigh- boring towns, and has achieved a reputation for skill and efficiency which frequently calls him many miles from home. Indeed, but a few months ago he was obliged for the sake of his failing health, brought on by overwork, to relinquish a large portion of his practice and confine himself to the care of only the most urgent and important cases. His success, which it is not too much to say is phenomenal, may be attributed to the thoroughness of his preparation for practice, to his experience in the army, to the ana- lytical character of his mind, and to the fact that his methods are hygienic, that is, that he depends on hygiene rather more than on medicine to effectuate his cures, excepting in cases beyond the reach of mere hygienic principles.
Being thus forced to the enjoyment of a certain amount of leisure, he determined to divert his energies to some other congenial and profitable employment, and in the fall of 1878 he purchased the milling property situated on the river in the north village of
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ALWYN HARDING CHESSMORE, M. D. - ISAIAH DOW.
Huntington, consisting of a circular saw-mill, clapboard-mill, shingle-mill, planing-ma- chine, cheese-box factory and custom grist-mill. He immediately set about the im- provement of this property, and has largely increased the capacity and business of the mills. He now manufactures about 200,000 feet of coarse lumber, 300,000 shingles, and 100,000 clapboards annually. Considering the fact that this volume of business has been added to his professional duties, it is a remarkable and highly commendatory commentary on Dr. Chessmore's abilities and energy of character. He has not attained this degree of success from the fact of large possessions as a basis ; on the contrary, when he began practicing in Huntington he was in debt for the team that carried him, and by dint of industry and economy has accumulated a handsome property.
Dr. Chessmore is an unwavering Republican. He has always taken great interest in the potitical questions of the day, and has fearlessly advocated his opinions, regard- less of opposition. The only political offices, however, which he has consented to hold was that of senator from Chittenden county in 1874-75, and that of town representa- tive, to which latter office he was elected September 7, 1886.
In February, 1868, he married Minnie, daughter of Hon. Henry Gillett, of Rich- mond, a sketch of whose life appears in these pages. Mrs. Chessmore died in the month of August, 1874, leaving one son, born January 1, 1872, who has passed the most of his time, since the death of his mother, with her parents in Richmond.
D OW, ISAIAH. The paternal ancestors of the subject of this sketch came from Scotland in the early history of this country. Isaiah Dow, grandfather of his namesake now living, was a native of Bow, New Hampshire, where he was born in 1772 and died in 1826. His wife, Abigail Messer, was born in Piermont, N. H., and died at eighty-three years of age in 1864. Andrew, the oldest son and one of ten chil- dren of Isaiah Dow, was born in Londonderry, N. H., on the 17th of November, 1803. From that time on the family suffered untold hardships, such as are always incident to a life of poverty in a new country, until the death of the father in 1826, leaving the mother and ten children with no means of support and a debt of $600, contracted for a cloth-dressing works by the father two years previous in South Duxbury, Vt. The struggle for a family home and a meager subsistence was from that time chiefly borne by the wonderfully resolute mother and Andrew, the eldest son. The ever to be re- membered freshet of 1830 entirely destroyed their dwelling house and cloth-dressing works, leaving the widowed mother enveloped in the terrible gloom of sorrow and poverty. Then it was that Andrew first manifested that character for integrity and pluck which characterized him through life by working out by the day to pay the $600 contracted by his father, and aiding the mother in the struggle against poverty. In the spring of 1829, having accomplished the payment of their debts, he bought the cloth- ing works of Simon Lyman, in Johnson, Vt., which stood where the woolen-mill now stands.
In the spring of 1830 he married Mary, daughter of Jesse Gloyd, who manufact- ured the first nails ever made in this part of the State, and who was a blacksmith, harness-maker, shoemaker, and general mechancial genius. About two years after their marriage they had one child, a son, the only child of theirs which attained maturity, viz. : Isaiah Dow, the subject of this sketch, born February 7, 1832. From the time when he became old enough to share the burdens of business with his father, they largely shared the same vicissitudes until the death of Andrew Dow, October 25, 1882, aged
744
HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.
seventy-nine years. Andrew Dow held the office of judge of probate for several years in Lamoille county. At Johnson, Andrew and his brother Stephen started the manu- facturing of woolen goods in 1845, and continued together until 1855, when the latter purchased the entire interest. At this time Andrew Dow admitted his son Isaiah and Nelson M. Nay, of Milton, into a partnership with himself, and with them purchased the property still owned by the subject of this sketch and his son, of the assignees of J. and J. H. Peck & Co., and began here the manufacture of woolen fabric for the farmers of the neighborhood. In four years Andrew Dow withdrew from the concern, which was operated two years longer by the remaining partners. Isaiah Dow then became sole owner of the property, and his father, who had removed to Jericho, returned and again took an interest in the business, which he again relinquished in two years. Meantime the business having increased to such proportions that Andrew Dow deemed himself of too great an age to do his share, permanently retired, and his interest was taken by Philo Percival. In one year Noble L. Boynton succeeded Mr. Percival, and Dow & Boynton operated the mills about two years, when they were totally destroyed by fire. This occurred in March, 1868. The loss to customers because of the fire, which had consumed wool left by them to be manufactured, was about $15,000, and to the com- pany, not considering insurance, about $14,000.
Mr. Dow was not made of material that submitted tamely to disaster, and he went at once to Middlebury and leased the woolen-mill at that place, which he operated for six months, trying to continue the supply of their goods until he could rebuild. In the spring of 1869 the present buildings at Mechanicsville were erected upon the ruins. The work of rebuilding was completed within six weeks after it was begun, and the machinery was in operation within two months. Mr. Dow then took into partnership William A. Martin, the firm continuing business under the name of Dow & Martin until the spring of 1874, when the senior partner assumed control of the entire business and devoted his sole attention to increasing this industry until June, 1883, when his son, Justin Gloyd Dow, became a junior partner. The firm name is now I. & J. G. Dow.
Previous to the fire the business, which was confined in scope to the immediate com- munity about Hinesburg, were manufacturing about 90,000 pounds of wool per annum. The summer of 1867 was an unfortunate one by reason of the drought, and in the fall of that year the firm of Dow & Boynton united with three other concerns interested in having good water privileges, and built what is now called the lower reservoir, which overflows about eighty acres, impeded by a dam of stone seven feet thick at the bot- tom, five feet at the top, and fourteen rods long. The cost of this structure was about $3,000, the dam alone constituting an expense of $1,000. The community has never since the construction of this valuable feeder known the want of water.
Until the fall of 1884 the woolen business of I. & J. G. Dow and their predecessors had been limited, as before suggested, to custom work for the farming population about the town and county ; but at that time they began the manufacture of white flannels for the market. So successful was the experiment that in the summer of 1886 the ma- chinery was doubled in capacity, and the mill, which formerly lay still two or three months every winter, is now in operation the year round. They now manufacture about 5,000 yards of flannel a week. During the year 1885 they ran not far from 125,000 yards of goods.
Such is the bare outline of the life-work of one of the men who benefit the commu- nity in which they live, by being industrious and economical, and by the use of foresight
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ISAIAH DOW. - MARY M. FLETCHER.
and the exercise of a sleepless energy in the conduct of their affairs. They do better service than the blatant politicians and the green-house members of labor unions, who pass their time rather in grumbling over their lot than mending it. Mr. Dow deserves credit for the fact that he began with limited means and has constantly and against dis- couraging odds at times enlarged his facilities and increased the proportions of his bus- iness until it is more than a success; it is a monument to his abilities and persistency.
Mr. Dow has been twice married. He was first united in marriage with Sarah A. Newland, of Hyde Park, Vt., in February, 1855, who died in 1864, leaving two chil- dren, Justin G., now in partnership with his father, and Anna Sarah, who married John R. Rollins, of Bridgeport, Conn., in the fall of 1884, and died in September, 1885. On the 30th of November, 1865, Mr. Dow married Dulcena Benedict, daughter of Levi Franklin Benedict and Olla V. Manwell, of Hinesburg, who is the mother of two sons - Andrew and Frank B. Dow, and one daughter, Mary Olla.
Mr. Dow is a consistent member of the Republican party, and a stated attendant of the Congregational Church, of which his wife is a member.
FLETCHER, MARY M.1 A life of simple and quiet benevolence, such as Miss Fletcher's, furnishes but few events for biography. She was born to Thaddeus and Mary L. (Peaslee) Fletcher on September 19, 1830, in Jericho, Vt., where her father was a merchant, and from whence he removed to Essex, where he was engaged in simi- lar business for several years. In 1850 Mr. Fletcher came with his family to Burlington. Mary Fletcher and her younger sister Ellen, the only children, received their education in the Burlington Female Seminary, conducted by Rev. J. K. Converse. Both girls were extremely delicate in health, and are remembered by their associates as being un- usually shy and reserved. Ellen, though apparently the more vigorous of the two, died of consumption after a short illness in 1855.
Mr. Fletcher having by prudence in mercantile business and fortunate investments at the West amassed a large property, and foreseeing that his family would be short- lived, turned his thoughts to the question of a charitable endowment for the public ben- efit. Among the plans which he considered, were projects for a public library and a hospital. Death, however, came to him in 1873, before he had fully matured any of the plans which lay before him. The only considerable gifts made by Mr. Fletcher himself were an endowment fund of $10,000 given to the Essex Classical Institute and a be- quest of $10,000 to the Home for Destitute Children, Burlington. Shortly after his death Mrs. Mary L. and Miss Mary M. Fletcher, his wife and daughter, to whom he had bequeathed all his property, founded and endowed the "Fletcher Free Library " of Bur- lington, with gifts aggregating $24,000. Of this sum, by the deed of gift, $10,000 was devoted to the immediate purchase of books; $10,000 was to be invested as a fund, the proceeds of which should be expended in purchasing books, and $4,000 was afterwards added for the publishing of the catalogue and for procuring books for the reference de- partment. The cost of maintenance, including building, furnishing, salaries of librarians, and current expenses, is borne by the city. This has proved a most wise and beneficent gift. It appears by the last annual report of the trustees that the library has now on its shelves 18,600 volumes, that the yearly additions are about 1,000 volumes, and the number of volumes annually drawn out for reading 30,000. Multiply these figures by
1 Written by President M. H. Buckham.
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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.
the future decades of years which will inherit the ever-accumulating proceeds of this gift, and the gain to the intelligence of the community is seen to be beyond calculation.
The sudden death of Mrs. Fletcher in the summer of 1875 frustrated for the time a plan for the endowment of a hospital in which both Mrs. and Miss Fletcher had taken a warm interest and which seemed to be approaching maturity. But as soon as Miss Fletcher recovered from the shock caused by her mother's death, she set herself reso- lutely, and under a profound sense of the responsibility placed upon her, to accomplish the project twice arrested by death, the founding of a hospital. In this act, or series of acts, by which, on her part, this plan was carried into execution, Miss Fletcher mani- fested a remarkable business and executive ability. It has almost become a proverb that nowhere do persons of wealth show so much weakness as in their projects for be- stowing their wealth upon the public. But this quiet, resolute lady, having sought advice where she thought she could get the best, matured her plans thoughtfully, and then, waiving aside opposition, announced and proceeded to carry out her design with a wis- dom and firmness which, almost equally with her generosity, entitle her to admiration.
The sum total of Miss Fletcher's gifts to the hospital is something over $400,000. Of this amount nearly $30,000 went to the purchase of the charming estate which con- stitutes the hospital grounds, $50,000 was expended in building and furniture, and the remainder is a permanent fund for the maintenance of the hospital. This total of gifts made in her lifetime, and of the avails of her legacy, constitutes by far the largest bene- faction made to the public in our State throughout its entire history.
Miss Fletcher's minor benefactions were in number countless and were always be- stowed with a thoughtful kindness which more than doubled their value to the recipients. She was, of course, beset by numberless solicitations which she was obliged to refuse, but the necessity of refusal always cost her gentle heart a pang. Among her latest gifts were an addition of $2,000 to the endowment fund of the Essex Classical Institute and a pay- ment of $5,000 to the hospital for the establishment of a free bed in favor of the Wi- nooski Avenue Congregational Church, with which she had her church home. This latter gift, one of the last acts of her life, seemed to give her unusual enjoyment.
Miss Fletcher, though outliving all her family, was a life-long invalid, death from consumption seeming to be a near probability at any time for thirty years before it actu- ally came. This prolonged feebleness and perpetual struggle for existence will explain at once her secluded mode of life and the special form of benevolence to which she gave her best thoughts and the largest part of her means. The Mary Fletcher Hospital is an expression of her deep sympathy with human suffering and an embodiment of her earnest wish to do something for its alleviation.
The closing scene in Miss Fletcher's life was especially touching. As soon as she became aware that her end was near she desired to be taken to the hospital. Though informed by her physician, Dr. Carpenter, that the removal would be attended with ex- treme danger, she would not be refused. Taken up from her bed in the arms of her faithful attendant, Michael Kelly, she was conveyed, in a sleigh, to the hospital and laid upon the bed in her own room, where nobody but herself had ever rested, and there, murmuring thanks that she was permitted to be where she was, in a very brief space she breathed her life gently away, attended by the president, the superintendent, members of the staff, and the nurses of the hospital she had founded. It was all exactly as she might have wished, and doubtless did wish, during those many days of weakness and
TRUMAN GALUSHA.
4 LIT TL C. PHILA
747
MARY M. FLETCHER. - TRUMAN GALUSHA.
pain, through and beyond which she has now forever passed. She died February 24, 1885, in the fifty-fifth year of her age.
Miss Fletcher's life, as we now look back upon it, was one of great interest and beauty. In spite of sickness and pain, in spite of manifold limitations, a certain seren- ity rests upon it, a certain degree even of sunshine and charm. Our community is the richer for having such a life treasured up in its memory. When more noted names and more splendid careers shall be forgotten, this gentle lady and that which she has done will long be held in loving remembrance.
G ALUSHA, TRUMAN. Truman Galusha was born in Shaftsbury, Vt., on the 30th I of September, 1786. He was the son of Hon. Jonas Galusha and his first wife, Mary, daughter of Governor Thomas Chittenden. Jonas Galusha was born in Nor- wich, Conn., February 11, 1753. He was the third in direct descent from Jacob Galu- sha, who, when a boy eight years old, early in the seventeenth century, was brought from Wales, at length settled near Plymouth, Mass., and became the ancestor of a nu- merous family. In 1769 Jacob Galusha, the son of Daniel and father of Jonas Galu- sha, with his family moved from Norwich to Salisbury, Conn., and thence in the spring of 1775 to Shaftsbury, Vt., where at length Jonas Galusha became a farmer and pur- sued that employment through life, except as he was withdrawn from it by official en- gagements. When the Revolutionary struggle commenced he took an active part in favor of the independence of the colonies. He was a member of a company com- manded by his brother David, in Colonel Seth Warner's regiment of " Green Mountain Boys." Previous to the battle of Bennington, August 16, 1777, he became captain of a company of militia, which consisted of two companies previously organized in Shafts- bury. When he received orders from Colonel Moses Robinson to march his company to Bennington he promptly called out his men and led them to the scene of action. As stated in the general chapter relating to the events of this war, the Vermont and New Hampshire militia were compelled to fight and win the battle a second time.
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