USA > Vermont > Grand Isle County > History of Franklin and Grand Isle counties, Vermont : With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers. > Part 37
USA > Vermont > Franklin County > History of Franklin and Grand Isle counties, Vermont : With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers. > Part 37
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The northwestern part of the town, along the lake shore and on either side of Missisquoi River, is quite level, and in places low and marshy. In that part of the town now called " West Swanton " (vulgarly called "Hog Island ") are located the great huckleberry and cranberry marshes, containing hundreds of acres. In these marshes the inhab- itants for miles around go to gather the luscious fruit, unmolested save by the water snakes and mosquitoes, which are annoying, but not dangerous. It is said that the depression where these marshes are was caused by an earthquake in an early day. More likely the marshes, long before the ad- vent of the redman, were a part of Lake Champlain, from which, by the overflow of Missisquoi River and rank vegetable growth, the present condition has come. This marshy land is very attractive to the sports-
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TOWN OF SWANTON.
man, for it is the home of a great variety of game birds and ducks that find their way here in summer to hatch and raise their young.
In this part of the town, too, are many small inlets or coves, setting back from the lake into the land, up which a variety of fish run to feed and spawn. It is claimed that the great abundance of fish and game in this region densely populated the banks of the Missisquoi with the redmen long before the Iroquois, the Algonquins, or the St. Francis tribes made this section their dwelling-place and hunting-grounds. The many Indian burial-grounds and numerous Indian relics, found in the immediate vicinity of Swanton Falls of the Missisquoi, warrant the belief of early settlement and continuous habitation down to about the time of the visit to this locality by Champlain, in the summer of 1609.
The natural scenery, as viewed from the traveled highway as it runs along and over the rocky ridge crossing the town, is unsurpassed in beauty and grandeur-commanding as it does, a plain view of Mount Marcy and Wall Face of the Adirondacks in the south, Montreal Mountain and St. Lawrence Valley in the north, Lake Champlain, dotted with islands and fringed with numerous inlets and bays, in the west, and a mighty stretch of the great Champlain Valley that lies between the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks-a magnificent and charming sight, a wonderful panorama of nature.
The principal stream flowing through the town is Missisquoi River : entering the town from the east, running westerly for two miles and more, and then bending around gradually and moving northerly for some eight miles through the west part of the town, and finally discharg- ing its waters through three branches, or mouths, into Missisquoi Bay. Of the many valuable water-powers on this stream none are better or more extensively used than the one at Swanton Falls. The first saw- mill in the state was built on the Missisquoi River, at Swanton Falls, in an early day, by the French, years before the French and Indian war.
At Swanton Falls the first dam built was in the year 1789, by Thomas Butterfield, agent of Ira Allen. The Missisquoi is navigable from the lake to Swanton Falls, seven miles, and was used by the early white set- tlers to float their rafts of lumber down to the lake on the way to Que- bec, then their only market. In later years pine and other lumber and the finished marble from the mills at the Falls were shipped to New York
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND GRAND ISLE COUNTIES.
by way of the Missisquoi, Lake Champlain, Champlain Canal, and Hudson River. Now many small steam yachts, owned by the well to do dwellers of Swanton village, ply up and down the river from the Falls to the lake on pleasure excursions, and to hunt and fish. Occasionally one of the large boats of the lake, during the season of high water, comes sailing up the river, loaded with blocks of black marble from Isle La Motte, to the marble-mill. There are two small creeks, or inlets, called Maquam and Charcoal Creeks. The former, in high water, empties into Maquam Bay and the latter into Missisquoi Bay.
Swanton took its name from Captain William Swanton, an officer in the British army, who visited this section during the French and Indian war. The town of Swanton was chartered in 1763, by Benning Went- worth, governor of New Hampshire, to Isaiah Goodrich and sixty-three associates, with the customary royal reservations and conditions, in seventy shares, comprising in the whole, according to the charter, 26,- 040 acres. The town is very irregular in shape, though no doubt orig- inally intended to be nearly square. It is nearly twenty miles from the Fairfield line on "Swanton Hill " to Lake Champlain on the northwest. A few hundred acres were added to the area by change of town lines with Highgate and Fairfield.
Settlements .- None of the original grantees mentioned in the Went- worth charter ever settled in the town, or even visited the lands so generously bestowed, but transferred their claims; and as late as 1786 it appears that fifty-nine of the sixty-four original shares were owned by Ira Allen, who about this time caused a new survey to be made and took measures to have the town settled, and the water-power of the Missisquoi, at what is now Swanton Falls, improved and used.
The first white settlements in this section were on the banks of the Missisquoi River, near and at Swanton Falls, and were made by the French, coming in by the way of Quebec and Montreal by water, about the year 1740. It is quite certain from all that can be ascertained that the first white settlement effected by Europeans within the present limits of Vermont was on the Missisquoi at Swanton Falls. It is a fact that a concession of a large tract of land, including what is now the town of Swanton, was made by the French government in 1734. This part of Vermont, at the time of the French concession, was included in the do- mains of New France.
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TOWN OF SWANTON.
At the time of the French and Indian war there were two white set- tlements near the present village of Swanton, on the Missisquoi banks, with every indication of many years of habitation. A French mission was established just below the Falls in an early day, by the Jesuits, on the north bank, and a stone church or building erected, and considerable done by these missionaries in an endeavor to elevate and convert the St. Francis Indians, who dwelt here, to the faith of the Cross. The plague depopulated the missions and Indian villages, the survivors re- turning to St. Francis, and there remained until about 1741, about which time they turned their faces southward again, and soon re-occupied their old hunting-grounds and deserted fields, and raised and repaired their dilapidated or fallen wigwams. The St. Francis Indians continued in considerable numbers on the lands in this vicinity until long after the coming of the first English settlers, and even some persons now living here remember the occasional visits by the remnants of this tribe to the lands of their fathers to hunt and fish and to lay claim to right of soil.
Though white men had settled on the Missisquoi at and near what is now Swanton Falls, and some improvements had been made by Thomas Metcalf and James Robertson, prior to the commencement of the Ameri- can Revolution, yet no permanent settlement was made here until after the beginning of hostilities between the colonies and Great Britain.
The first permanent white settler in this town was John Hillicker. He came with his family in 1779, and settled on the south bank of the Missisquoi River, about two miles below the Falls, on what has for many years been known as the Vernon farm, now owned by E. H. Rood. Mr. Hillicker was of Dutch descent, born at White Plains, N. Y., in 1745. He lived on the land taken up by him, and died September II, 1828, aged eighty-three. There are quite a number of his descendants who still reside in the west part of the town. For a number of years Mr. Hillicker's nearest white neighbor, except the Jesuit missionary, lived on Colchester Point, on the lake shore, some thirty miles to the south. An old stone chapel, surrounded by a considerable Indian village, stood just across the river from his home in 1779, and the bell that hung in the chapel rang daily for morning and evening worship. The Jesuit missionary was still an active factor among the fast depleting Indians of
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND GRAND ISLE COUNTIES.
the St. Francis tribe. The chapel and village were on the A. A. Brooks farm, now owned by William Janes. In after years the old stone chapel was taken down, and the stone moved as they came, in canoes by the Indians, to British soil, and used in building a chapel at Moscow, Canada.
The first English settlement was effected on the Missisquoi River not far from 1765, and considerable business was done by way of trade with the Indians and in the manufacture of lumber. There was a time be- tween 1765 and 1776, when Thomas Metcalf and James Robertson were engaged here, that the village at the falls must have numbered a hun- dred or more, mostly engaged in manufacturing lumber and traffic with the Indians. The French took their departure just before, about 1760, but some of their improvements remained. The lumbering was done entirely by man labor. No horses or oxen were used in this section until after 1776. The second saw-mill was built by Matcalf and Robert- son at the Falls between 1765 and 1768. The first proprietors' meeting was held June 20, 1763, in the colony of Connecticut, and after in Con- necticut and Vermont. One was held at Fort Frederick, on Onion River, Vermont, in 1774, and one a little later, 1775, at a place called Sunderland, at the house of Brigadier-General Ethan Allen (the hero of Ticonderoga).
Immediately following the close of the American Revolution the settlement of Swanton commenced under the New Hampshire Grants, the English, by the treaty, having relinquished their claims to lands lying south of 45° north latitude. The first to locate in this vicinity after John Hillicker was John Wagoner, who came in 1787. He was very soon followed by Adams Mills, Orange Smith, and they by Michael Lampman, Henry Lampman, John Hoyle, Stephen Lampman, Conrad Asselstyne, and some others, all of whom came previous to 1790.
Settlements were made in other parts of the town as early as 1787-88. One of the first, if not the first, to settle in the southern part of the town, between the Falls and St. Albans, was Asa Abell, who located on the place more recently known as the Gadcomb farm, where for many years past limekilns have been successfully operated. Lemuel Laselle arrived from Lanesboro, Mass., sometime in the year 1788, and located north of Mr. Abell about two miles, and between Mr. Abell and the
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TOWN OF SWANTON.
Falls, on land now known as the C. H. Mead farm, owned by Charles L. Bullard. It is asserted with good reason that Messrs. Abell and La- selle were the first settlers on what is now the direct road from Swanton Falls to St. Albans village.
John Nokes settled on Hog Island, now called West Swanton, as early as 1787, coming with his wife and five children in a canoe from White- hall down the lake, took up land, and built and lived thereon for many years. The place is now known as the Richard Moore farm, and is owned by E. S. Tabor. Mr. Nokes was very soon joined by a man called Thomas Clark, who, it is claimed by Major L. D. Clark, a grand- son now living here, was descended on his mother's side from the great Mohawk nation. He took up land about one mile west of Nokes, on the west shore of the island. To this part of Swanton a little later came Asa Lewis, Daniel Beagle, Hugh Donaldson, James Donaldson, and others, who took up lands, built log houses, cleared up farms, and established good and comfortable homes. Many descendants of these early and hardy settlers still live in West Swanton, prosperous farmers, contented and happy. There is nothing to show any permanent settle- ment in the east part of the town prior to 1790.
About the year 1790 Israel Robinson, who was the pioneer of this section of Swanton, settled in the east part of the town, just west of " Swanton Hill," and he was very soon followed, the same year it is said, by Asa and William Green, Thomas Armes, John Adams, Isaac Lackey, George Hall, Stephen Robinson, Noah Brown, and James Tracy, who settled in East Swanton about 1794. Major George W. Foster and Mr. Schoolcraft located here, too, in 1797, and very soon others followed.
The middle part of the town, directly north from what is now St. Al- bans village, was settled some later, and first by John Baker, who settled near St. Albans line, on the place now called the Bronson Warner farm, and he was soon followed by Ezekiel Goodrich, Ephraim Smith, Daniel Geer, Silas Robinson, Benjamin Bowers, Joshua Calkins, and Captain Wheeler Branch, all settling near each other and previous to 1798, locating their farms on either side of what is now called the middle road. Nehemiah Ordway, Asa Wilson, and John Crawford, with their families, settled on "Swanton Hill " in the year 1798, and there cleared up farms.
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND GRAND ISLE COUNTIES.
The early settlers of Swanton were of two classes: those settling in the west part of the town being of low Dutch descent, coming in from near the headwaters of Lake Champlain, tinctured with Toryism, intend- ing to settle (no doubt) on British soil; those who settled about the Falls and south and east were mostly of the Yankee type, and firm believers in popular government, and many of them were in the Ameri- can army during the Revolution.
The first regular town meeting of which we find any record was held here on March 23, 1790. Jonathan Butterfield was chosen moderator ; Thomas Butterfield, town clerk; John Asselstyne, constable; Conrad Asselstyne, John Nokes, and Jonathan Butterfield, selectmen. Town meetings have been regularly held ever since.
While an article has been prepared for this chapter on the Indians of this section, by Mr. L. B. Truax, it may not be out of place to say that as late as 1793 there were living on the banks of the Missisquoi, near Swan - ton Falls, seventy or eighty Indians who claimed all the land in this part of the Missisquoi Valley, who threatened the settlers as they came, and were a great source of disquietude among the English settlers and hinder- ance to progress. They all, however, disappeared before 1799, only occasionally visiting in small parties the lands of their once powerful tribe, to hunt and fish and renew the claim to the soil. These Indians were principally the remnants of the St. Francis tribe, who joined their asso- ciates, and under General Burgoyne, in his invasion during the Ameri- can Revolution, moved southward, taking a conspicuous part in murder- ing and plundering, making prisoners of the men, and leaving the women and children and aged to survive without food and shelter.
When John Hillicker (before referred to) took up his home here this section, as far as eye could sce, was a dense wilderness, then inhabited `only by the redmen and the wild denizens of the forests; the lake, river, and creeks the only highways of travel ; wild meat and fish the only food, and these not always obtainable in frozen winter, and then birch bark tea was resorted to in order to keep soul and body together.
Very soon a little land was cleared and corn raised, and the lonely, courageous settler took hope, and with an iron will and strong arm soon established a home. Neighbors were far away, to whose houses occa- sional visits were made, guided by blazed trees; no mills to grind their
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TOWN OF SWANTON.
corn except far away generally, and hence each family had a mill of their own, called a plumping-mill, in which to grind corn. These were made by rounding out a hole in the top of a hardwood stump, like a large mortar, in which the corn was pounded with a large pestle, with pegs in the sides for handles, attached to a spring-pole, and then moved up and down till the corn was cracked and ground fine enough for use. Very soon after 1789 a mill was built at the Falls, to which the settlers came from far and near with grain to be made into meal and flour.
The first marriage of which there is record was that of William Crocker and Percis Hardley, January 12, 1796. It is said others oc- curred before this, and it may be true, for marriages were not always in that early day recorded (nowadays they are often a matter of record before actually married) ; but times and customs have changed. After the settlement here under the New Hampshire Grants the first children born were Laban Lasell, George W. Greene, and Allen Pratt in 1791. The first girl born of Yankee parentage was the daughter of Thomas Butterfield (town clerk). She became the wife of William Keyes, and mother of William Keyes, jr., a noted family in this town for many years. William Keyes, jr., is now living here, having recently returned from Virginia, where he has lived for a number of years past. He is eighty-two years of age, and is still a smart man. Some of his family also reside in town.
In the year 1800 the number of names or polls set in the grand list were 160. The only watches owned in town in the years 1801 and 1 804 were the property of Silas and Shadrack Hathaway, and these were set in the grand lists of 1801 and 1804. A watch or even a clock was a rare article among the pioneers. The first census was taken in 1800, and showed a population of 858. The town has gradually increased in population and wealth to the present (1890), and now, according to the census report of 1890, we number 3,231.
The embargo act and non-intercourse with England made quite a disturbance in some of the towns lying near the Canada line, especially Swanton, which was very favorably situated, on account of water com- munication to carry on the business of smuggling English merchandise into the states and articles of home manufacture into Canada. The business was lucrative and exciting, and a goodly number of the other-
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND GRAND ISLE COUNTIES.
wise loyal Swantonians now and then took part in the traffic, and some impelled by gain followed it as a regular occupation. Government offi- cials were numerous and vigilant, and on the alert night and day. Yet the many cunning devices resorted to by the smugglers often proved successful. Many are the thrilling stories now told by the old residents of exciting scenes in early days connected with smuggling. The incen- tive for great gain and rapid accumulation of wealth was too much for the cupidity of many an honest Yankee in this region. They were in great need of gold and silver, and so could not see the harm. In the summer of 1808 quite a large boat called the Blake Snake was fitted up for smug- gling purposes by parties living in St. Albans, Swanton, Highgate, Al- burgh, and other towns along the lake, and under command of Captain Mudgett commenced business.
The Blake Snake had no abiding headquarters ; its forays were in the night. By day she was hidden away in some cove or slough in the back marsh north and west of the Falls; now here, now there, as pru- dence might suggest. About this time many came ostensibly to settle, but in fact were attracted on account of the favorable location of the town for traffic with Canada. Swanton Falls was headquarters at this time and many years after for all main movements connected with the customs department of Vermont. Smuggling was carried on so exten- sively that the government stationed troops here to aid in enforcement of the law. Barney says in his book on Swanton "that the women were never known to engage in smuggling." If he had lived a few years longer before writing he could not have thus praised our women. I will revise his book by saying that, in these later times of female suf- frage, woman's rights, etc., the smuggler's occupation is not confined to the sterner sex ; women now and then engage in the disgraceful and unlawful business, doubtless an inherited idiosyncrasy. The profit nowa- days to be sure is small, and the risk great, still the desire to smuggle lingers, and occasionally the hand of law is gently laid on the gentler sex.
The Black Snake made many successful trips, but finally the United States revenue cutter Fly pursued and run her up the Onion River, and then captured her after a desperate fight; three men of the govern- ment were killed, the smugglers arrested and tried, and one by the name of Dean, from Swanton, sentenced to be hung, others to be whipped at
Armason
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TOWN OF SWANTON.
the public whipping-post and sent to state prison, and others acquitted. A full account of this unfortunate affair may be found in Volume 2d of Miss Hemenway's " Gazetteer," commencing on page 342.
Smuggling continued to be quite brisk and pretty thoroughly followed, not only by those who lived in this region, but by many who came to this town and section from the cities of Boston and New York, down to 1820. Later it died out to some extent, but during the war of the Re- bellion, 1861-65, the business revived, and some of the stirring scenes of the early days were again enacted. No smuggling is now done by Swantonians, or but little in this vicinity ; the people are better or the temptation much less.
Swanton, on account of its proximity to the Canada line and the lake, became very early in her history a military post, and soldiers were stationed here and barracks and store-houses erected as early as 1812. A regiment of Vermont militia, under Colonel Williams, was stationed at the Falls in July, 1812, and remained until the following December. Then Colonel Fifield, with his regiment of militia from the east side of the state, came and remained until the summer of 1813, and sometime in June was ordered away, leaving a few sick as guard.
A British force of 1,400 strong invaded the northern part of Cham- plain Valley, coming by water up the St. Johns River into Lake Cham- plain, landing first at Plattsburgh, N. Y., July 30, 1813, and after burn- ing the barracks, and destroying all the government property, sailed across the lake to Burlington, Vt .; and when on their return down the lake they sent a detachment of 600 soldiers to Swanton for the purpose of destroying the government property. They landed at Maquam Bay, August 6, 1813, pressed old Mr. Manzer into service as guide, and came direct from the lake through the woods and swamp to Swanton Falls ; crossed the river in a scow just above the dam, set fire to the barracks, and burned and destroyed all the United States property they could find ; and after the soldiers had committed numerous acts of wantonness and pillage on the inhabitants they hastily returned to their boats and back to Canada, whence they had come.
Another regiment, under command of Colonel Dixon, was sent to Swanton, September 13, 1813, one company of which was recruited at Swanton, and among them were Ezekiel Goodrich, first sergeant ;
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN AND GRAND ISLE COUNTIES.
Amasa I. Brown, Stephen S. Brown, Ira Church, Rufus L. Barney, Samuel Emery, Abraham Manzer, John Pratt, and others. They re- mained in town awhile, and then went to Burlington, and were then sent into the state of New York and stationed at Cumberland Head until November 10th of the same year, when they were discharged.
Swanton was much interested and greatly excited at the time of Plattsburgh's battle, in September, 1814 ; many of the citizens volun- teered to take part in the conflict, and men organized for the pur- pose. The years 1815 and 1816 were the scarce years (so called), but the inhabitants of Swanton had resort to their fine fishing-grounds, and fish were never more plenty than in those years. The fishing seines were operated night and day during the fishing season. Many came from surrounding towns, bringing maple sugar and other barter to exchange for fish.
Swanton Falls was a sort of headquarters for the Patriots, as they were called in the Radical war, or the Canadian rebellion, in 1837-39. The Vermont and Canada Railroad was built through the town, pass- ing through the village, in 1850-51. This event gave new impetus to the village, but did not do for the village what was anticipated ; still it was, and always has been, a great benefit.
The great event of the war of the Rebellion, commencing April, 1861, and ending in the spring of 1865, stirred the people of this town into a great fever of excitement. The military feeling was at once aroused, war meetings held, and the absorbing question was war, and all agreed that the Rebellion ought to be put down and must be at all hazard. Nearly all, men, women, and children, seemed fired with the same kind of patriotism that characterized the followers of Ethan Allen and General Stark. Occasionally a copperhead could be found, but such were given to understand that no rebellious sentiments would be tolerated in our midst -silence or Canada was the ultimatum.
The " Green Mountain Guards," an independent military company organized a few years previous, were well drilled and equipped, and were anxious to go and take part in the conflict. This company offered its services at once to the governor of our state, and they were accepted and became the first company enrolled for the suppression of the Rebel- lion from Vermont. They were mustered in Company A, First Regi-
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