History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 98

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 98

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

just completed. He continued his interest in the meat market, however, to the present time without interruption except about a year following 1858, when he sold out and re- mained out that length of time. The home farm which Mr. Weston occupies contains about 160 acres of good farming land, but it is only a small part of his vast possessions. He is the owner of not less than 7,000 acres of land in all, 3,000 of which are in Vermont and the remaining 4,000 in the State of New York. That in New York is mostly timbered land lying in the towns of Peru, Keene and Wilmington. The timber he cuts for sale and for his own use in the manufacture of lime, in which he is extensively en- gaged at the High Bridge over Winooski River. He has been interested in this business since 1864, and now owns two kilns, one in South Burlington and one on the Colches- ter side of the river. He first bought a one-half interest in the Burlington Lime Com- pany, of which John McGregor and Mr. Jackson were principal owners. Soon after- ward Mr. Weston purchased a one-half interest in the Winooski Lime Works, origin- ated by Penniman & Catlin and afterward carried on by Penniman & Noyes, and within a few years became sole owner of both properties.

In connection with his farming Mr. Weston engages largely in the raising of fine cattle, sheep and horses-Holstein, Guernsey and short-horn cattle and Spanish Merino sheep being with hint a specialty. He usually winters about one hundred and thirty-five head of cattle, one hundred sheep and twenty-five horses and colts. Other property in Winooski to which he has title is the northwest corner of Main and Allen streets and the entire block below his store, which he rents for tenant houses, stores, etc.

It requires more than ordinary energy and sagacity, industry and economy, to acquire possessions as large and valuable as those just related; but Mr. Weston has added one industry to another, and with a spirit like that of Alexander of old, seeking for new worlds to conquer, has never rested from his labors. About 1868 he purchased $15,000 worth of stock in the Winooski Lumber Company. Since then he has added $3,000 more in stock, and is now the president of the company. The company owns about 1,800 acres in timbered land. Mr. Weston also owns a sixth interest in the enter- prising clapboard company of W. R. Elliott & Co., of North Duxbury, Vt., which turns out about 1,000,000 feet of clapboards and a large quantity of dimension lumber every year, taking its timber from a tract of 2,000 acres. In company with his son, Warren F. Weston, he has extensive iron works, a forge and coal-kilns, and a store in Wilmington, N. Y., and at Keene, N. Y., owns another store, ore mines, a separator, a six-fired forge and eighteen coal-kilns. They also own a large hotel at Keene village, and another summer hotel at Cascade Lake, about six miles from Keene on the way to Saranac Lake, the house being situated between two lakes, one of which, by a freak of nature known as a mountain slide, has been elevated nine feet higher than the other. In this slide, moreover, is an extensive iron mine, said to be about the first ever worked in the State of New York, which is included in the possessions of Sidney H. Weston and son.

Besides his home farm in Winooski Mr. Weston owns a tract of about a thousand acres just across the river, and extending about three miles east to the Lamoille bridge, which is really a consolidation of five farms, partly timbered and partly prepared for cultivation. He is a large stockholder in the Vermont and Rio Grande Cattle Company, which owns a ranch controlling 100,000 acres about twenty miles from San Marcial, New Mexico, and covering six miles of river front on the Rio Grand. This company is under the management of G. G. F. Tobey, superintendent of the cattle ranch and

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SIDNEY H. WESTON. - WILLIAM AUGUSTUS CROMBIE.

manager. Thus it will be seen without further statement that the range of Mr. Weston's abilities cannot be confined to one enterprise, or to undertakings of a similar character. It is impossible for him to rest idle upon one farm or in one business ; but with all the various industries with which he is connected he is thoroughly conversant, and with a prudence and sagacity seldom equaled keeps a familiar understanding with all depart- ments. He is now, and for about six years has been, president of the Winooski Savings Bank.

Mr. Weston's political principles are Republican. Although he represented Colches- ter in the Legislature in 1865 and 1866, he has usually kept aloof from office seeking, his time and interests being absorbed in the management of his private affairs. He always keeps abreast of the times, however, in his knowledge of current events.

He is a life-long member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is now one of the stewards and trustees of the church at Winooski, and is the superintendent of the Sabbath-school. In these days of blatant infidelity, when men of property are too apt to drift from the pious teachings of childhood, and when opposition to Christianity is necessarily an encouragement to anarchism and all iconoclastic organizations, it is refreshing to feel that the church is still powerful in her possession of men of brain and energy, who are not made stiff-necked and rebellious by success.

On the 14th day of December, 1847, Sidney H. Weston married Philinda, daughter of Warren Ford, of Essex, Vt. Mrs. Weston was born on the 5th of September, 1824, in Essex. The union has been blessed by the birth of six children, one of whom died young. Their names in the order of birth are as follows :

Warren F., the eldest living, born February 14, 1849, at Essex, who is living in Keene, N. Y., and who has represented his district two successive years in the New York Assembly ; Matilda M., born April 15, 1851, wite of G. G. F. Tobey, of Winooski ; Herevy S., born March 12, 1857, at Winooski, where he now resides ; a daughter, born July 31, 1859, who died in infancy; Ina M., born November 5, 1860, wife of George B. Catlin, of Winooski ; Clarence G., born October 26, 1863, and now living with his parents.

CROMBIE, WILLIAM AUGUSTUS, the second of four children of Samuel C. and Susan A. (Choate) Crombie, was born in New Boston, N. H., on the 20th day of April, 1844. He is of Scotch descent. His father was a carpenter and builder of New Boston, where he was born on the 20th of April, 1814. He died on the 16th of April, 1879, at Concord, N. H. His mother was nearly related to the celebrated Rufus Choate, probably the most distinguished lawyer and forensic orator known in the history of this country. She was born at Derry, N. H., in 1818, and died on the 19th of March, 1857, at Nashua in that State. Mr. Crombie, the subject of this sketch, re- mained in his native town until he was six years of age, when he removed with his par- ents to Nashua, N. H. There he passed his early boyhood in attendance at the com- mon schools until the death of his mother when he was thirteen years old. The next two years were spent at the Pinkerton Academy at Derry, N. H., after which he entered the high school at Nashua. At the age of sixteen years he began to provide for him- self, and entered the employment of the Boston, Lowell and Nashua Railroad Com- pany, and was placed in their freight office at Lowell, Mass. During his three years' engagement with this company he passed through the various positions until the begin- ning of the third year, when he was made cashier. He then became acquainted with Law-

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

rence Barnes, a sketch of whose life appears in these pages, and was induced by him to come to Burlington to act with him in a general clerical capacity, and with a view to obtaining a thorough knowledge of the lumber business. He was then eighteen years of age. His connection with Mr. Barnes continued for seven or eight years, during which time he grew into an intimate acquaintance with all the departments of the trade and manufacture of lumber, and with the different lumbering concerns in this country and Canada. In the year 1869 Mr. Barnes sold out a portion of his business to a num- ber of the present members of the Shepard and Morse Lumber Company, as narrated in the history of the lumber interests of the city of Burlington, and Mr. Crombie went in with the new company. It is unnecessary to say that by virtue of his diligent and intelligent application he inspired his partners with a well-earned confidence, and upon the. incorporation and organization of the present stock company, the Shepard and Morse Lumber Company, he was made manager, with Mr. George H. Morse, of the Burlington department of this extensive business. He is also a director in the com- pany. His interests are not, however, confined to the one company with which he is so prominently identified. From time to time he has purchased stock in other and kin- dred companies, which manifested their appreciation of his abilities and integrity by an election to office. He is now a director in the Vermont Life Insurance Company, the Porter Manufacturing Company, the American Milk Sugar Company, the Baldwin Manufacturing Company, and the Brush Electric Light and Power Company, and presi- dent of the Burlington Shade Roller Company, besides being a stockholder in various other prominent concerns.

On the 2d day of June, 1868, Mr. Crombie was united in marriage with Lizzie Murray, daughter of Hon. Orlando D. Murray, of Nashua, N. H. Mrs. Crombie, like her husband, is of Scotch extraction, her earliest American ancestor being Isaac Murray, who came from Scotland to Londonderry, now Derry, N. H., previous to the War of the Revolution, and was there married in 1774. Her father is now one of the oldest and most prominent residents of Nashua, N. H. Mr. and Mrs. Crombie have three children, William Murray, born November 6, 1871, Arthur Choate, born May 8, 1873, and Maud Elizabeth, born January 5, 1881.

W' TELLS, WILLIAM, was born at Waterbury, Vt., on the 14th day of December, 1837. He is descended from one of the oldest and most honorable families of Normandy, which shared a conspicuous part in the government of that province previous to the conquest of England. As early as 794 a branch of the Vaux family (from which the name Wells is derived) inhabited Provence, Normandy, and were allied by marriage to most of the sovereign princes of Europe. In 1140 they disputed the sovereignty of Provence with the house of Barcelona, and in 1173 acquired the principality of Orange by marriage with Tiburge, heiress of Orange. In 1214 William, Prince of Baux and Orange, assumed the title of King of Arles and Vienne, which dignity was confirmed to him by Frederick II. A branch of the family was founded in England after the con- quest by Harold De Vaux, a near connection of William the Conqueror. At this time was adopted the surname De Vallibus. An unbroken descent is traced from Hugh Welles, who was born about 1590 in the county of Essex, England, married in 1619, and emigrated to this country in 1635, staying for a time either in Salem or Boston, and afterward assisting in the founding of a new colony, Hartford, Conn. He died in Wethersfield, Conn., about 1645. General Wells is seven generations direct from

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WILLIAM WELLS.

him. Roswell Wells, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was an early settler in Waterbury, Vt., to which he immigrated from Greenfield, Mass. He returned for a time to Greenfield, but moved back to Waterbury in 1805, where he died in 1826, aged fifty-seven years. His wife was Pamelia White, a descendant from Peregrine White, the first child of civilized parentage ever born on the North American continent. They had two children, William W. and Roswell W., the former of whom was the father of our subject. He was born in Waterbury on the 28th of October, 1805, and died at the same place on the 9th of April, 1869. He was a leading merchant and manufacturer of Wa- terbury, a graduate of the University of Vermont, class of 1824, and at one time studied law with the intention of practicing, but was obliged to relinquish this hope by the affairs of the family at Waterbury. He married Eliza Carpenter, daughter of Judge Dan Car- penter, of Waterbury, who survived him four years, dying August 5, 1873.

Of their ten children, nine of whom were sons, William Wells was the third. He was educated in the common schools of his native town, and in the Barre Academy and the Kimball Union Academy at Meriden, N. H. While at the Barre Academy he per- formed his first labors in surveying Caledonia county, with an odometer for a county map, a service which he completed in about two months. He was then about seven- teen years of age. At the age of nineteen years he entered the dry goods store of his father in Waterbury Center as clerk. After a year or two in this capacity he assumed the management of his father's flouring mill and wholesale flour and grain store. In 1861 he went to Cleveland, O., but the outbreak of the war affecting the object of this visit, he returned at once to his home in Vermont.

In August, 1861, he enlisted in the First Regiment of Vermont Cavalry, and assisted in raising Company C, of which he was a member. The companies were mustered into the service of the United States in October, 1861, and on the 19th of the next month the regiment as a whole was mustered in as a regiment in United States service. The regi- ment, however, had been raised by order of the secretary of war of the United States. On the 14th of October, 1861, William Wells was chosen first lieutenant of Company C, of which he became captain on the 18th of November immediately following. The regiment left the State for Washington, D. C., the 14th of December. From this time forward he rose by regular gradation to the rank of major, which he attained on the 30th of October, 1862. On the 4th of June, 1864, through the recommendations of all the officers present with the regiment, he received the commission of colonel. On the 22d of February, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general, on the 30th of March next he was brevetted major-general, and on the roth of May, 1865, received a commission as brigadier-general.

The details of the part taken by General Wells in the war involve an almost com- plete history of the regiment with which he was connected. It was stationed on the extreme left of the army at Gettysburg, and delivered an effective charge on the enemy. General Wells then commanded a battalion of four companies, at the head of which he penetrated the enemy's lines about three-quarters of a mile. The regiment was actively engaged at Hagarstown, Md., July 6, 1863 ; at Boonesboro, in the same State, July 8, 1863, where General Wells was wounded by a sabre thrust ; and at Culpepper Court- House, Va., September 13, 1863, where he was wounded a second time bythe bursting of a shell, the regiment at that time, while under his command, capturing a piece of the enemy's artillery. He served with the Army of the Potomac under Generals Kilpatrick, Sheridan and Custer, and accompanied Sheridan in his raid on Richmond and in the famous

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

cavalry fight at Yellow Tavern, where his regiment rendered gallant service in a charge upon the enemy in which rebel General Stewart was killed. He also accompanied Sher- idan in his campaigns through Shenandoah Valley, down James River to the Army of the Potomac. His regiment formed a part of Wilson's command in the raid on the rear of Richmond, during the ten days of which (June 22 to June 30 inclusive), the command unsaddled only twice. At Cedar Creek he acted as colonel commanding a brigade of which the Vermont Cavalry formed a part, his regiment, in connection with the Fifth New York Cavalry, capturing no less than forty-five pieces of artillery, of which the Vermont regiment was credited with twenty-three pieces. On the departure of Sheridan and Custer for Texas, General Wells was ranking officer of the Cavalry Corps. After the surrender of General Lee and the mustering out of this corps he was for some time in command of the first separate brigade at Fairfax Court-House, Va. Though his regiment returned to the North in the summer of 1865, he, having been promoted to brigadier-general, for gallantry at Cedar Creek, etc., was not mustered out until January 15, 1866, (general order 168, War Department, Washington, D. C., dated December 28, 1865.) This is the brief outline of an army experience which embraced much that was not glory, days and weeks of hardships and privations, which only those can appreciate who have passed nights on the " tented field " and days amid the conflict and clash of battle.

Soon after his return to Waterbury he became a partner in the firm of Henry & Co., wholesale druggists of Waterbury, who transferred their business to Burlington in 1868. In 1872 changes in the membership of this firm led to the assumption of the title of Wells, Richardson & Co., and General Wells withdrew from the concern in order to ac- cept the position of collector of customs for the district of Vermont, proffered to him by President Grant. This is one of the most arduous and responsible offices within the gift of the national government; but General Wells exhibited ample capacity to grapple with its complicated details, and honesty to make prompt and accurate returns, so that after thirteen years he had accounted for every cent of the money that had passed through his hands. He retained the position until the Ist of September, 1885.

In all other political positions in which General Wells has been placed he has proved himself worthy of the confidence bestowed upon him. He represented the town of Wa- terbury in the Legislature in 1865 and 1866, and served in the House on the committee on military affairs. Elected to the same office in the following year, he served as chair- man of the committee on public buildings and also on the committee on military affairs. In 1866 he was elected by the Legislature to the office of adjutant and inspector-gen- eral, and by virtue of consecutive annual elections held that office until 1872, when he resigned it to enter upon his duties as collector of customs. In the summer of 1886 he was nominated county senator from Chittenden county, by the Republican county con- vention, on which occasion he was described by one of his own fellow citizens in terms which cannot be improved upon. Hon. Henry Ballard, who nominated him, said that he was a man of great executive ability, considerable legislative experience, and one who would perform the duties of senator with faithfulness and ability. In their scramble for office the Democrats had searched in vain for a flaw in the official record of General Wells, and had been compelled to fall back upon the charge of " offensive partisanship." He then spoke in handsome terms of General Wells's brilliant record as a soldier. As General Stannard would be recorded in history as Vermont's best infantry soldier, so would General Wells be known to fame as Vermont's first and best cavalry soldier. He

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WILLIAM WELLS. - REV. JOHN HENRY HOPKINS.

was the right arm of Sheridan at Five Forks and Cedar Creek, and was the Custer of Vermont. The old soldiers were fast passing away ; in a few years nothing could be done but erect monuments in their honor. General Wells was the only soldier presented for a place on the county ticket ; and as a man eminently fitted for the position of sen- ator, as an official of proved honesty - who had accounted for every cent of $13,000,- ooo which passed through his hands as collector - and most of all at this time as an earn- est and recognized Edmund's man, he deserves the cordial support of the convention. The next Legislature would have the opportunity to name the leader of the United States Senate for the next six years, and General Wells could do more to accomplish that object than any other man from Burlington. It is needless to add that he was elected.

General Wells has long been prominently identified with many of the most important business enterprises of the city of Burlington. He is president and director of the Bur- lington Trust Company, director in the Rutland Railroad Company and also in the Burlington Gaslight Company, and is president and one of the trustees of the Soldiers' Home of Vermont. He is a friend of order in all things, in religious as well as in civil and military life. He is a member of St. Paul's (Episcopal) Church of Burlington.

William Wells was united in marriage, on the 18th of January, 1866, with Arahanna, daughter of Edwin Richardson, of Fitchburg, Mass. They have two children, Frank R. and Bertha R. Wells.

H TOPKINS, THE RIGHT REV. JOHN HENRY, D.D., LL.D., Oxon., was the first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the diocese of Vermont. He was consecrated in St. Paul's Chapel, New York city, on October 31, 1832, along with Bishops Smith, McIlvaine, and Deane. He moved to Burlington in November follow- ing, and resided there until his death on January 9, 1868, thirty-six years after his consecration.

John Henry Hopkins was born in Dublin, Ireland (of English parentage), on January 30, 1792. He was brought by his parents to Philadelphia at the age of eight, and there educated. At twenty-two he became an iron-master, near Pittsburgh, and during his engagement in this calling he married, in May, 1816, Miss Melusina Müller, who had come from Hamburg, Germany, with her parents some years before. Music, art, and culture were the attractions that first brought them into an acquaintance, which ripened into engagement and marriage, and the bonds of wedded love continued for fifty-two years. During this most happy union thirteen children were born to give zest and interest to their lives. The names of these in order of birth were Charlotte Emily (Mrs. Rev. Dr. Charles Fay), Matilda Theresa (Mrs. Rev. Dr. Norman W. Camp), John Henry, Edward Augustus, Melusina Elizabeth, Casper Thomas, Theodore Austin, Alfred Dreneas, Clement Eusebius, William Cyprian, Charles Jerome, Caroline Amelia (Mrs. Thomas H. Canfield), and Frederick Vincent. Of these, eleven reached maturity and nine are now living (1866).

THE LAWYER.

Closing up the iron business in 1817, Mr. John Henry Hopkins studied law, and was admitted to the Pittsburgh bar in an unusually short time. He practiced his pro- fession with ardor and increasing success for five years, when in 1823 he was led to con- sider the claims of the sacred ministry, chiefly by the singular fact that the members of Trinity parish extended an unanimous call to him to take charge of their church at a

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

time when he was away from home at court. He had already been very active in aid of that church as organist, and had co-operated in all the work of the parish, which was a very feeble one. But when he was surprised by so unusual and urgent a call he felt constrained to change his profession to that of

THE MINISTRY.

Mr. Hopkins had studied theology for the love of it, for some years, so he passed his examination for the diaconate in less than two months, and was ordained deacon by Bishop White in Trinity Church, Philadelphia, December 14, 1823. But such was his zeal for the work that in making this change he gave up a lawyer's annual income of $5,000 for $800.

And now began a career of success most phenomenal. The vestry at once took measures to build a new church. In five months more Mr. Hopkins was ordained to the priesthood and took full charge of the parish. He studied Gothic architecture suf- ficiently to design a superb church building which was built in 1824, and he made the plans for it and superintended its erection. Next he established a boarding-school for girls and boys in his own house, in which he fitted up a pretty little chapel and called it an " oratory." He found time to establish new parishes in six towns, Meadville, Butler, Mercer, Erie, Blairsville, and Kittaning, and to educate seven young men for the min- istry, and all this in the seven years of his rectorship of Trinity Church, Pittsburgh. The above parishes have every one of them been permanent, and have been doing the work of Christ for sixty-one years, while Trinity parish has become the head of the diocese of Pittsburgh, and has recently substituted for the elegant Gothic building of wood, built in 1824, a magnificent Gothic edifice of stone, of more than twice the size of the old one. As Mr. Hopkins's ardor grew he began to crave additional facilities for educating young men for the ministry, and he wished to establish a theological school. The new Bishop (H. U. Onderdonk) opposed the idea of such a school in Pittsburgh, and desired that it should be built at Philadelphia. And now Boston gave an earnest call to Mr. Hopkins to become the assistant minister of Trinity Church in that city. He required pledges that $10,000 should be raised for a theological school there. The pledges were given, and in faith on these (which, alas, were afterward repudiated !) Mr. Hopkins actually abandoned all his splendid work in Pittsburgh and went to take the charge in Boston. There his popularity at once filled the church, but the people were so afraid to lose him as a preacher, if they should build the theological seminary - in which he was to be a professor without salary-that he found it impossible to raise the means to carry out the darling idea of his life. The diocese of Vermont elected him its first bishop in May, 1832, and so after a visit to the State he accepted the office.

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History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 98

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