USA > Vermont > Rutland County > Ira > History of Ira, Vermont > Part 2
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On a hot July day in the year 1847, in the early afternoon, clouds began to show in the southwest, and an occasional rum- bling of distant thunder could be heard, which culminated in a heavy down pour of rain. This was followed by another, and still another thunder shower, and a deluge of water began to sweep across the head of this valley and on eastward toward the Green Mountains. These thunder showers, following each other in rapid succession, soon began to swell Ira brook and its several tributaries until grave fears were expressed by many for the safety of the two principal bridges situated thereon, namely the one lately reconstructed with cement, and its companion, about three-fourths of a mile lower down the stream.
At a little past four o'clock, or soon after the schools were dismissed in the afternoon, the rapid rise of water and flood- wood pressed so heavily against the upper bridge that the timbers yielded, and the whole structure, with all the accumu- lated debris, went tearing downstream, and striking the lower bridge, swept that also clean from its abutments. Piling some of the wreckage out in the highway below the Mehuron place, the flood went sweeping onward toward the lower lands below the mouth of Clarendon river. At some place in the highway between the lower schoolhouse and the Brown place, so called, Elizabeth Brown, a cousin of the writer, a school girl of some seven years, was overtaken by the rush of water and carried downstream to her death. Her body was found next day by searchers, with one hand reaching up from under the sand. The writer remembers attending her funeral, and being raised up by his mother to see her pale and lifeless face as she lay in her casket.
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HISTORY OF IRA, VERMONT
Like other streams of equal size, Ira brook lures the angler to seek the speckled trout, unsurpassed as a table luxury. But my mind reverts to the solemn service it has rendered to the people of this historic Baptist stronghold. For more than 137 years this stream has been visited from time to time by those professing faith in a crucified and risen Redeemer, in obedience to His command to be baptized, thus typifying death to sin, burial in the liquid element, and resurrection to newness of life in all their after-years. Parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren have all alike passed through the cleansing waters of this ever-flowing baptistry.
And so for all the eventful years since 1779 as a town, and since 1783 as a church, has this little stream been ministering to the needs of the inhabitants of the Ira valley, a valley that as yet has never experienced the shame of harboring a capital criminal among its law-abiding citizens ; which pays one hundred cents on the dollar of its honest obligations ; and is sufficiently progressive to build, with some state aid, the first cement and iron bridge in this part of the county, a structure that will answer the purpose for which it was constructed, when our great-grandchildren shall become old and feeble, like the writer of these lines.
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HISTORY OF IRA, VERMONT
IRA'S MILITARY RECORD
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
The pioneer settlers of Ira were frequently exposed to the raids of the Indians, and the depredations of the British soldiers during the Revolutionary War, and at an early day took meas- ures for self-protection. For example, on the 20th of August, 1780, a special town meeting was held in the house of Joseph Wood and among other measures the following vote was carried : "Voted that the town raise for three months, two men to scout on the frontier, except sooner discharged, that the town pay said men for their services two pounds per month, that each man pays according as he stands in the list. Test., Joseph Wood, Town Clerk." Feeling also ran very high here against the Tories, as witness the forcible expulsion from the community of the outspoken John Lee. The Lee brothers, Nathan and John, were among the earliest settlers in Ira, about 1770, though not the very first. John Lee sympathized too much with the mother country in the Revolution and was obliged to leave town on account of his peculiar views. His farm of 324 acres was confiscated and sold to Thomas Collins of Lanesborough, Mass., for one hundred pounds English money. It is now owned by the heirs of the W. L. Cramton Estate.
Attention is directed to some of the incidents of that mem- orable period. On page 469 of the Revolutionary War Rolls of Vermont, 'we read as follows :
A pay roll of Capt. Lemuel Roberts' Company of militia in Col. Thomas Lee's Regiment in the service of this State, commencing the 21st of October :
Captain Lemuel Roberts Ensign Cephas Carpenter
Sergt. Asahel Joiner
Sergt. John Collins
Corp. Isaac Reynolds
Corp. Henry Walton Isaiah Mason
Nathan Lee George Shearman Edward Bailey
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HISTORY OF IRA, VERMONT
Nathan Collins Daniel Adams Benjamin Baily
The occasion for this call was only a few days' service, but the bill for the time spent was duly allowed and paid by the State Treasurer.
All of the above were Ira men.
We find on another occasion commencing the 10th and ending the 11th day of June, a hasty call to arms when danger threatened. Capt. Lemuel Roberts and ever-ready minutemen of Ira responded as follows :
Capt. Lemuel Roberts
Ensign Cephas Carpenter
Sergt. Ashel Joiner
Sergt. John Collins Isaiah Mason
Nathan Lee
George Shearman
Edward Bayley
John Bayley
Nathan Collins
Isaac Runnels
Oliver Walton
Henry Walton Amos Herrick
See page 378 of the Revolutionary War Rolls of Vermont. This small company was also composed of Ira men.
Capt. Lemuel Roberts was at one time a member of Ethan Allen's regiment and a man of more than ordinary courage, ability and skill, as shown in the report of a special committee of the State Legislature, October 26, 1784 :
that Lemuel Roberts has ever been a fast friend to the liberties of mankind, and a faithful servant in the military line to this State in particular, and has repeatedly risked his life in a most hazardous manner, and that he has undergone excessive hardships in his being several times taken by the enemy and escaping from them too tedious to mention ; and that said Roberts is now a captain of the militia Company in the town of Ira.
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HISTORY OF IRA, VERMONT
THE WAR OF 1812
The War of 1812 brought six minutemen, volunteers from Ira : Jason Newton, Jr., Seth Russell, David Johnson, Hosea Goodspeed, Nathaniel Tower, and James Hunter. The follow- ing either went to Plattsburg or started for there when the call was made for men: Matthew Anderson, Edmund Whitemore, Thomas C. Newton, John Mason, Russell Fish, Leonard Fish,
WILSON CARPENTER
Oil painting of an early settler of Ira, on Grand List of 1793, died in 1855.
Leonard Mason, Jacob Butler, Abel Spencer, Noah Peck, Barton Collins, Nathan Collins, Jr., Smith Johnson, Freeman Johnson, Edward Carpenter, Israel Carpenter, John Hall, Isiah Mason, Nathaniel Wilmarth, Wilson Carpenter, and Omri Warner. Preserved Fish received a dispatch one Sunday bidding him start immediately for West Clarendon to notify the people of the call for soldiers at Plattsburg. He found most of the inhab- itants at meeting, but on receiving the news they at once dis- persed and made active preparations so that on Monday morn- ing early they started with stores of provisions for the battle.
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HISTORY OF IRA, VERMONT
THE CIVIL WAR
The martial spirit was not lacking among the citizens of Ira during the days of the Civil War. The scream of the fife and the roll of drums echoed back among the hills of the little town during those trying days of the nation's peril. Warren Curtiss and William Rounds were the fifers; Dr. Persons, a veteran of the War of 1812, his son Collamer, who later enlisted in the Vermont Cavalry, and Elwin White, now of West Rut- land, and past eighty years of age, handled the tenor drum sticks; and Isaac Weaver beat the bass drum. All except Mr. White have long since passed away.
The following is a list of the names of the Ira men who participated in the Civil War, with the several branches of the army to which they were attached :
Volunteers for three years credited previous to the call of October 17th, 1863, for 300,000 volunteers: John L. Bachelder, Co. I, 7th Regiment; William Coagle, Co. B, 2nd Regiment ; Henry T. Davis, Co. G, 5th Regiment ; Henry Flagg, Co. B, 9th Regiment; Silas Giddings, Co. F, 1st S. S .; Edward Haley, John Haley, John Hunter, Co. G, 5th Regiment; Benjamin Mann, Jr., Co. B, 9th Regiment; Joseph W. Parker, Co. G, 5th Regi- ment ; Charles W. Peck, Harrison J. Peck, Co. F, 1st U. S. S. S .; Collamer Persons, Co. H, Cavalry ; Henry H. Peters, Co. D, 7th Regiment; Levi Plumley, Co. I, 7th Regiment ; Rollin Russell, Co. B, 9th Regiment; Sylvanus L. Whitmore, Co. F, 1st S. S .; Mansur W. Young, Co. B, 9th Regiment.
Credits under call of October 17th, 1863, for 300,000 vol- unteers, and subsequent calls : volunteers for three years, Cor- nelius P. Curtiss, Co. C, 11th Regiment ; James H. Fowler, Cav- alry; Thomas Gary, Aaron A. Savery, Co. C, 11th Regiment ; Henry F. Tower, 2d Battery; William H. Walker, Cavalry ; volunteers for one year, James S. Fox, Horace H. Wheeler, Co. F, 9th Regiment ; volunteers re-enlisted, Henry T. Davis, Co. G, 5th Regiment ; Henry H. Peters, Co. D, 7th Regiment; Levi Plumley, Co. I, 7th Regiment ; volunteers for 9 months, Charles P. Bateman, Co. K, 12th Regiment ; Lawson E. Barber, John T. Boor, George Brown, Gilbert Hanley, Aaron Hinkley, Arthur E. Morgan, Cyrus Russell, Emmett M. Tower, Co. H, 14th Regi-
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HISTORY OF IRA, VERMONT
ment; Henry C. Tower, James E. Wetmore, Co. H, 12th Regiment.
Paid commutation : Smith Johnson, J. W. Thornton, George W. Tower, Thomas A. Tower.
The following from the pen of Hon. H. J. Peck, late of Minnesota, describes the system employed in the early days of the Civil War for enlisting men into the Sharpshooters of the United States army service.
HOW TWO VERMONT BOYS SHOT THEMSELVES INTO THE ARMY
During the summer and fall of 1861 the Country was ablaze with excitement from one end to the other, and especially so in the little State of Vermont, the Green Moun- tain State, as it was called, and drums might be heard day and night in all the small towns as under the second call of President Lincoln for volunteers, companies were being en- listed for the war.
In August of that year Col. H. H. Berdan of New York obtained permission from the War Department to raise a regiment of sharpshooters, for special service, to be known as Berdan's Sharpshooters, with one company from each of ten states, making one thousand men. Col. Berdan issued circulars and advertised for enlistments, but made it neces- sary for the right to enlist that the applicant should be able to shoot ten consecutive bullets from a rifle, offhand, with- out a rest, into a ten-inch ring at a distance of forty rods.
Vermont was noted at that time for its number of good rifle shots; but this was a severe test and, taken with the requirements of examination, limited the number who might be able to get into the regiment.
Early in September it was announced that a meeting would be held at the fair grounds, in Rutland, for the pur- pose of giving those who desired to enlist in the Vermont company in this regiment, an opportunity to make the required target and enroll their names for the war. The shooting was to be at a circular target ten inches in diam- eter, at a distance of forty rods, offhand, as it was called, or without a rest.
In the morning of the day set for the test, two boys, brothers, go down from the hills with a horse and buggy, and, after hitching their horse under the Meeting House shed in the Village, with their rifles saunter down to the fair grounds, where they find a large crowd of people who had assembled to witness the shooting, which was under the
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HISTORY OF IRA, VERMONT
control of Wm. Y. W. Ripley, who afterwards became Lieut. Colonel of the Regiment. The rifles were heavy muzzle- loading target rifles, for at that time breech-loaders were comparatively unknown, and entirely unknown in the moun- tains of Vermont.
When the targets were in place and the distance meas- ured, the elder of the boys stepped to the line and, carefully loading his rifle, commenced firing. The first shot was a little wild, but inside the ring; so were all the ten consecu- tive shots, many of them being almost in the center of the target. The younger of the boys then walked to the line, and, altho somewhat nervous at first, he succeeded in placing ten bullets within the ring. As each shot was fired and the target master placed a black patch over the bullet hole, in the white target, a cheer went up from the crowd, which encouraged the boys in their efforts. A great many who desired to get into this Regiment attempted to make the necessary target, the most of whom failed, but a few suc- ceeded. A few days afterwards the order of Col. Berdan was modified so as to allow good riflemen to enlist in this company, and it was soon filled, the test having been found too severe for procuring enlistments.
What became of the boys who hitched their horse under the Meeting House shed? They both enlisted and served in nearly all the big battles of the Army of the Potomac, until honorably discharged. The youngest was wounded at Yorktown, but after the war he returned to Vermont, where he became a physician, and is still in the practice of his profession at Brandon, Vermont. The elder studied law and moved to Minnesota, where he has resided ever since, and practiced his profession.
This little remembrance is of no importance now, but shows that more than fifty years ago the country to some extent was interested in the boys behind the guns.
THE WORLD WAR
In 1917, after President Wilson had wearied of writing pacifist notes to the German government, and America had fully decided to form an alliance with the other European powers to help defend the world against German aggression, this government prepared for the mobilization of a strong military force in order to assist the already depleted armies of the allies in combatting the forces of the Kaiser and driving the invaders of France and Belgium back across the Rhine.
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HISTORY OF IRA, VERMONT
Directions came to the town clerks in the towns of Vermont, as elsewhere throughout the country, to summon the young men between the ages of 21 and 35 years of age to appear at a place designated for each town, for preliminary examination as to fitness for military service. Twenty young men of Ira responded to the call and appeared for examination. But the idea of being drafted into the service was decidedly repugnant to the spirit of their loyalty to the nation's flag, and the cause they were called upon to defend, and and without waiting for further orders seven of the boys who were not "too proud to fight" were enrolled and made ready to follow the flag.
The following are the names of Ira men who enlisted and left home and friends to share the perils and privations of a soldier's life : Dana Jones, Arthur Wm. Cramton, Emery Gokey, Herman Ellsworth Weaver, Arthur Gillman, William and Joseph Taggart. Five of the number faced the IIun on the field of conflict, and one of them, Joseph Taggart, fell soon after arriving at the front, pierced by the bullet of a German sniper. One other, Arthur Gillman, held to the field until a few days before the armistice was signed, when he was taken to the field hospital suffering from pneumonia and died shortly after. His body was sent home to his parents, who live just over the Ira line, and he lies buried in the Tinmouth cemetery. We have called him an Ira boy from his connection with the Ira Valley Grange and his close association with the young people of this town. During his term of service in the army he was associated with two other Ira boys, Herman Ellsworth Weaver and Emery Gokey, as members of the same rapid gun fire squad. Weaver and Gokey were badly gassed but survived to reach home, and home care and competent medical treatment have brought them back to comfortable health.
Dana Jones and Arthur William Cramton were called to service on the water, a service not so full of hardship as the land service, but replete with danger from the German sub-marines.
All of the above were members of Ira Valley Grange, except the two Taggart brothers, who at the time lived in the north part of the town.
It will be recalled that another day was set some time after- wards for the inspection of men, this time between the ages of
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HISTORY OF IRA, VERMONT
18 and 45 years, and not to include those already inspected, but the fortunate event of the armistice made it unnecessary to call on the latter class.
SACRIFICE Address before Killington Pomona Grange of Ira, 1919, by S. L. Peck
This is a word, the meaning of which, in a general way, is doubtless understood by all, and yet a little careful thinking may possibly help us to discover some things in connection with its meaning that may be interesting if not very profitable.
It is an old word, that, or its equivalent in the Hebrew tongue, is nearly as old as the race of man.
Moses, in the book of Genesis, speaks of the occasion when two brothers came forward to sacrifice : the one with the fruits of the earth and the fields; the other with the firstlings of his flock. And we read that the offering of the one was accepted and that of the other rejected by Deity. At a glance we wonder why this was so, but we learn by further search that one was offered with faith, while the other seemed to lack this essen- tial qualification. We note further that the blood of the innocent lamb, which served as a type of the One whose blood was shed on Calvary, formed a constituent part of Abel's offering, while that of his brother wholly lacked this essential element.
As time goes on for the space of about 4000 years we notice that the word "sacrifice" pertained almost, if not wholly, to the religious and ecclesiastical ceremony of the Jews in offering up domestic animals of various kinds, along with doves, and possibly some other varieties of feathered creatures, down to the time of the advent of our Saviour, since which time, the Christian world, and I conjecture the Jewish, to quite an extent, has wholly discarded this material ceremony.
As believers in Him who once for all offered Himself upon the cross of Calvary, we can readily understand why this is so. The innocent have suffered for the guilty, and the atoning sacrifice has been made, and accepted by Him in behalf of all mankind.
However, the word has not fallen into disuse, if the ceremony has. It has taken on a wider meaning, and is no longer con- fined and restricted to a religious ceremony, but reaches out and embraces everyone who submits to suffering and deprivation for the sake of another, or the good of any just and worthy cause.
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HISTORY OF IRA, VERMONT
Parental love makes fathers and mothers deny themselves many of the comforts of life that they may give to their children the advantages of an education, or the luxuries of an enlarged estate. Nations, as such, sometimes, but not often, sacrifice men and money to aid others in contending against aggressive and unjust oppression on the part of other and stronger nations. Witness France aiding America in the days of the Revolution against Great Britain, and again witness the United States of America aiding both England and France in the sanguinary conflict going on in Europe against Germany at the present time.
It is said that words stand as the sign of an idea, and if sacrifice has any value that makes it worth while, it must be voluntary and free, without compulsion in any way. I wonder if we think of it in this light when the government asks us to conserve sugar, flour and other food used in our homes hereto- fore without stint in order to furnish our boys "somewhere in France" with the staying qualities of a generous diet while standing in the mud and water in the trenches facing and fight- ing the brutal Hun; or giving something to starving French and Belgian refugees to help them keep body and soul together; or buying W. S. S., or Liberty Bonds to the limit of our means, to help the government in the prosecution of this World War in behalf of the political redemption of humanity. If we do not submit willingly, nay gladly, we are unworthy auxiliaries of the brave boys, who are not only sacrificing the comforts of life, but, in many cases, life itself, that this world may be a safe and decent place in which to live.
Some weeks ago word came over the wires from Wash- ington that one of the boys from Ira, Joseph Taggart, had fallen in battle somewhere in France while fighting with his comrades. In order to do the little we could to comfort the bereaved and stricken parents, we called upon the family, and as we grasped the hand of the mother of the brave boy who had thus offered his life in defence of his country's flag, with tears streaming down the cheeks of more than one, we learned, as we had never learned before, the meaning of that word Sacrifice.
So it appears that a son of Ira has paid the supreme sacri- fice as he sleeps the last long sleep of devotion to his country's flag, commemorated by the poppies of France, in Flanders field.
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HISTORY OF IRA, VERMONT
THE MEMORIAL TABLET TO IRA VETERANS
In 1922 some of the relatives and friends of the Civil War veterans devised a scheme to erect a memorial tablet in town, in memory of the veterans, both living and dead, of that event- ful period in our nation's history.
A private subscription paper with that end in view was circulated and quite generously supported, but as the required amount necessary to obtain a suitable memorial tablet fell short, on March 7, 1922, at the annual town meeting, the following motion was made and sustained: "That whatever sum may be needed to pay for the soldiers' memorial tablet over and above the individual pledges for that purpose shall be paid by the town."
The tablet, of bronze set in Clarendon Marble, was duly erected and properly dedicated, and bears the following names, to wit:
VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR
Harrison J. Peck
James H. Fowler
Charles W. Peck
Thomas Gary
Silas Giddings
Aaron Savery
Edward Haley
Henry F. Tower
George Lincoln
William H. Walker
Fayette Potter
James S. Fox
Collamer Persons
Horace H. Wheeler
Henry Flagg
Oliver E. Brewster
John Hanley
Charles P. Bateman
Henry Peters
Lawson E. Barber
Benjamin Mann
John T. Boor
John L. Bachelder
George Brown
Joseph W. Parker
Gilbert Hanley
Thomas Hunter
Aaron Hinkley
Henry T. Davis
Arthur E. Morgan
Sylvanus L. Whitmore
Cyrus Russell
Levi Plumley
Emmett M. Tower
Mansur W. Young
Henry C. Tower
Rollin Russell James E. Wetmore
William Cogle
Albert Fish
Cornelius P. Curtiss
James Logan
VETERANS OF THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
Fred E. White
Donald McIntyre Daniel F. Coombs
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HISTORY OF IRA, VERMONT
VETERANS OF THE WORLD WAR
Mark Hawkins
Herman Weaver
Arthur Cramton
Dana E. Jones
1128754
William Taggart Emery Gokey Walter Smith
Joseph Taggart, killed by a German sniper
Arthur A. Gilman, died in service, in Belgium.
The Tablet was erected on the Green nearly in front of the Baptist church, facing the main road, and at a cost of about five hundred dollars. Close behind it stands a flagpole upon which on suitable occasions the stars and stripes are floated. It is a splendid testimonial of the subscribers and the town of Ira to their love for the boys and their loyalty to the cause for which many of them gave their lives.
THE FLAG
In 1864 or thereabouts, the Republican County Committee of Rutland County offered a large United States flag as a premium to the town that should cast the lightest Democratic vote at the coming September election. After the contest at the polls closed and the votes were counted it was found that not a single Democratic vote had been cast in Ira, and accordingly the flag belonged to Ira. The flag was brought to town on a day designated by the committee, and duly presented to the citizens in a ringing patriotic speech delivered by Col. C. II. Joyce of Rutland. The response of acceptance on the part of the town was made by S. L. Peck. After years of service the old flag is worn out and gone, but another has been presented to the town by Judge L. F. Wing, now chairman of the State Republican Committee, whose birthplace is Ira, and the same spirit of loyalty to the cause the old flag represented exists in 1925, as it did in 1861.
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HISTORY OF IRA, VERMONT
ORGANIZATIONS
THE BAND
In 1894 Buel Parker and George W. Curtiss organized what was then called Ira Brass Band. The services of Samuel Seff of West Rutland were secured as teacher, with the following named young men as members :
George W. Curtiss
George Lincoln Burt Lincoln
Daniel F. Coombs
Elmon Coombs
Nathan Seff
John Flanigan
Louis Seff
Henry Gilmore
Arthur L. White
Oscar Gilmore
Fred White
Charles Gilmore
George Fish
Bradley F. Gilmore
Eugene Weaver
Grant Lincoln
Willie Whitmore
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