USA > Vermont > Lamoille County > Morristown > History of Morristown, Vermont > Part 3
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June 6. Snow fell to the depth of five or six inches and some sleighs ran.
June 8. Snow fell six inches more.
June 9. Ground froze hard at night.
June 16. Very cold. Began to snow about nine o'clock and snowed all day.
June 29. Killing frost.
Aug. 27. Frost that killed all corn.
This destruction of the corn crop by a frost which greatly injured the potatoes meant that turnips became one of the staple articles of food, while corn and rye were brought in from the southern sections and sold for two dollars and fifty cents per bushel. It is little wonder that the year 1816 was always referred to by the people who experienced its discomforts as "the cold year."
Records of other unusual seasons have been handed down. In 1834 snow fell on May 15 and 16 to the depth of one foot, while seven years later, in 1843, winter began on October 22, with a two days' snowfall which did not entirely disappear until spring. In contrast to these unseasonably long winters, the local paper of January 15, 1885, stated that the heavy rains had taken off nearly all snow and that farmers were ploughing greensward. Mr. S. L. Gates states that "since 1850 there have been several winters when wheels were used more than sleighs." The winter of 1931-1932 was a remarkable one in all the northern part of the United States. The local paper of January 20, 1932, contained the following comment:
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HISTORY OF MORRISTOWN
"Why go South for the winter when you can play golf in northern Vermont in January ? Thursday afternoon of last week an all-time record was established at the Lamoille Country Club with a dozen playing the regular course, and being able to putt on every green." Others recorded the picking of arbutus buds, pussywillows, and lilac buds. The thermometer registered sixty-eight degrees in some places on that date.
As a further illustration of the possibilities of local weather conditions, the following table is given, which was taken from the records of Mr. C. A. Saunders, who was for many years official weather recorder. It covers the period of twenty years, from 1895 to 1915:
Maximum
Date
Minimum
Date
January
53
Jan. 19, 1900
--- 39
Jan. 9, 1901
February
50
Feb. 21, 1899
-33
Feb. 5, 1908
March
63
March 25, 1910
-26
March 6, 1912
April
85
April 30, 1903
-10 April 4, 1911
May
88
May 30, 1895
18
May 2, 1903
June
97
June 28, 1901
30
June 8, 1912
July
99
July 5, 1897
35
July 12, 1898
August
95
Aug. 8, 1909
32
Aug. 26, 1914
September
99
Sept. 4, 1898
20
Sept. 29, 1914
October
92
Oct. 10, 1909
10
Oct. 28, 1903
November
69
Nov. 8, 1895
6
Nov. 29, 1904
December
59
Dec. 12, 1901
-28
Dec. 26, 1914
These figures show the extremes to which the ther- mometer went in twenty consecutive years, but do not indicate the average weather which offers a succession of fruitful harvests and beautiful seasons.
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CHAPTER IV EARLY SETTLERS
W
HEN the first census was taken, there were twenty- three towns in Vermont that had more than 1,000 inhabitants, most of them in the southern part of the state. Guildhall was the banner town, with 2,422 residents, and Bennington, with 2,350, was a close second. Of the six towns settled in what is now Lamoille County, Cam- bridge was the metropolis, with 167 inhabitants; Johnson, second in size, with ninety-three; Hyde Park had forty- three; Wolcott, thirty-two, and Elmore, settled the same year as this town, had twelve. Morristown reported ten; namely, Jacob Walker and wife, William Walker, wife and two children, two hired men from Bennington, and Indian Joe and Molly.
Ten years later, at the second enumeration, the number had swelled to 144, and included the following heads of families : Abner Brigham,. Daniel Sumner, Micaijah Dunham, John Safford, Crispus Shaw, Cyrus Hill, Lydia Boardman, Elisha Boardman, William Boardman, James Little, Aaron Hurd, Samuel Rood, Samuel Gosslin (prob- ably Joslyn), George Kenfield, Joseph Burke, Sylvans Perry, Stephen Childs, Nathaniel Goodale, Cyril Goodale, Alpheus Goodale, Asa Cole, Ebenezer Cole, Joseph Wil- liams, Asa Sumner, Comfort Olds, John Keyser, Samuel Scrivner, David Scrivner.
This list, taken from the official census files, contains some names which do not appear elsewhere in the town records and omits some which tradition has connected with this first decade of the town's history.
Many of these people were so closely identified with certain phases of local life that brief accounts of them are given elsewhere. Of some of the others a few facts are here noted.
Miss Lou Rand, in a paper, "Our Local History," presented before the Morrisville Woman's Club, gave the following account of the coming of her great-grandfather, Jacob Walker, the first settler of Morristown:
"In 1789 Jacob Walker, a young surveyor, who was living in the home of his brother, William, in Bennington, was employed by Joseph Hinsdale in behalf of the pro- prietors of Morristown to run the lines of the second
..
--
25
HISTORY OF MORRISTOWN
division of the allotment of land. Jacob Walker, twenty- four years of age and unusually well educated, was in every way fitted for the task which he performed during the summer months of that year. He received a certain amount of land for his services which he shared with his brother, William, who came to help him .*
"There are many things connected with the history of our town, of which we may well be proud. First and foremost, is the fact that the first settlement was made by a young man whose character was crystal clear, his faith in God steady as the stars, and total abstinence a part of his religion. Steady, true, and brave he came into the wilderness in early June, 1790.
"Each Saturday night found him at the McDaniels home not far from Hyde Park Street, where he remained over the Sabbath, returning each Monday with food sup- plies. Before the cold weather set in, Jacob Walker returned to the home of his brother in Bennington to formulate plans for the following spring. In January, 1791, he journeyed to Fairfax, Vermont, and on the thirteenth day of that month Phillipa Story became his bride.
"Jacob Walker and his wife did not come alone into the wilderness. William Walker, his wife, and two chil- dren, with two hired men, came with them. They brought a few common tools and for live stock had a cow, a dog, and a cat. Thus it was that the log house became a real home in the heart of the forest. Soon potatoes, corn, and a few vegetables were planted and the clearing of the land went forward. That was the summer of 1791. Before severe weather came, they dug a deep hole in the ground and buried the vegetables, then set forth on their journey to Fairfax and Bennington, where they spent the winter. But the winter of 1792 Jacob Walker, with his wife and children, remained in town.
"Mr. Walker built a second cabin in 1801. It was much larger than the first and built a short distance from it in an easterly direction. He built a third house in 1820, where he lived twenty-three years, or until his death in 1843. It is now known as the brick house on the LaPorte Road."
*In the records of Brookfield, Mass., are these statistics : Daniel Walker married Hannah Upbam January 27, 1763. Children : William born on October 19, 1763: Jacob born on October 20, 1765; James born on August 15, 1769; Metilde born on March 7, 1779.
26
HISTORY OF MORRISTOWN
Comfort Olds, the first of the settlers to winter in town, was born in Brookfield, Mass., on July 29, 1760. Caught by the pioneering spirit, he and his wife and two children left there in March, 1791, and came by ox team to settle on a lot previously bought on the LaPorte Road, afterward called the George Poor farm. After
a laborious journey of about 200 miles he arrived to find that there was little prospect of the building of a road near his purchase, so he exchanged it for a lot on the height of land between Hyde Park and Stowe, the farm occupied in 1935 by Mark Kellogg. He shared the log cabin of the Walkers until his own could be- built. At this time his nearest neighbor to the south was Joshua Hill of Water- bury, fourteen miles distant. In 1794, Oliver Luce settled in Stowe about three miles away. To the north was only two miles to neighbors.
The following incidents taken from Heminway's "Gazeteer" give an idea of the daily life of these pioneers: Soon after coming to Morristown, it became necessary for Mr. Olds to go to Cambridge to get his grist ground. He set out with his ox team expecting to return by the middle of the week. A severe snowstorm began and, knowing he had left wood enough to last only a short time, he set out for home on foot. Late Wednesday night he arrived to find that Mrs. Olds had burned all the fuel and, alone with her two little ones, was awaiting the consequences of the storm. After replenishing his woodpile, Mr. Olds returned to Cambridge for his grist.
He also had the misfortune to lose his only cow soon after settling here, so started to go to his brother's in Randolph, Vt., to secure another. He went by marked trees through Stowe and Waterbury and then crossed the Hogback Mountains, keeping on the north side of the river, since there were no bridges in Middlesex and Water- bury. He obtained a cow which wore a bell and on his
way back called on his neighbor, Mr. Hill. On reaching home he put his purchase in a yard made by felling trees, but Bossy evidently did not like such primitive quarters and a few mornings later he awoke to find her gone. He followed her until he reached the home of Mr. Hill, who, having heard a cow bell the night before and remembering Mr. Olds and his purchase, got up and secured her.
When the town was organized, Mr. Olds was elected Town Clerk, which office he held for six years. He also
27
HISTORY OF MORRISTOWN
filled other positions of trust and responsibility. He was a strong church man, serving as class leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church for more than thirty years. He died April 22, 1839.
A distant neighbor of Mr. Olds was George Kenfield, who, in 1793, settled on a farm a short distance west of Morristown Corners occupied in 1935 by Jesse Briggs. Here the following June was born a son, Asaph, the first male child born in town. A son of Asaph was Frank Kenfield, for years one of the leading men of the town who died in 1914.
The first family to settle in Cadys Falls and the fourth to winter in town were the Boardmans, who came here from Canaan, Conn. The head of the family, Ozias, had married Lydia Hinsdale, sister of Joseph Hinsdale, who was one of the most active of the proprietors of the new township. . It was perhaps through him that Mr. Boardman was led to purchase land intending to move here with his family, which consisted of his wife and four sons. Mr. Boardman died before the change was made, but his son, Ozias, came in 1793 at the age of nineteen to examine the land his father had bought. He remained during the summer, working for Aaron Hurd, and the March following he returned with his brother, William, making the trip with an ox team by way of Lake Cham- plain and the Lamoille Valley. They settled on lots sixty-three and sixty-four and the next spring the two other brothers, Elisha and Alfred, came with their mother. From that time on the Boardmans were intimately asso- ciated with the development of the town. When the sons were married, they asked their mother to choose with whom she would live. She replied : "Elisha has too much public business and cannot well attend to his home affairs. William is a good son, but careless and will leave the bars down, exposing the crops, but Ozias always puts up the bars." So it seems probable that she went to dwell with Ozias.
The eldest son, Elisha (1773-1826), built the first tavern in town, which also served as a town house for years, was the second Town Clerk from 1802-1812, was the first Town Representative, being elected four years in succession, from 1804 to 1808, and was Captain of the first Militia. His eldest son, Milton Hervey (1799-1834), married Sophia Haskins and later Alice Gates; and Milton's oldest son, Hervey C. (1824-1898), was a farmer and lum-
-------
28
HISTORY OF MORRISTOWN
berman who for years ran the mill still known as the Boardman mill. He was the father of Maria Boardman Tinker, who died in 1933, and Milton H., who still resides here, although his son, Winfield H., and daughter, L. Alberta Ballard (Mrs. Percy), live elsewhere. The second son of Elisha, Alfred C. (1801-1871), married Mary Holcomb and was Town Clerk from 1842-1871. He was one of the men injured in the raising of the Universalist Church, his leg being so shattered that it had to be amputated.
The first of the family to come here, Ozias (1774- 1843), married Lydia Whitney and all of their children except the eldest son, Almond, went West. Almond (1807-1891) married Jemima Goodell and remained on the home place. Of his five children only two grew to maturity here, Cornelia, who married Leander Small, an attorney at Hyde Park, and Ellen, who married Albert L. Noyes of that town.
The third son of Ozias, Sr., William B., married Anna Town of Stowe and had eight children. His oldest daughter, Lydia, married Hiram Earle, whose father came from England and settled on the farm occupied in 1935 by Joseph E. White. This family is now represented by Hiram Earle's two grand-daughters, Mrs. Alice George and Mrs. W. F. Churchill, and by a great-granddaughter, Mrs. C. B. Spaulding. William's youngest son, Charles Wright, married Huldah Cole and spent most of his life here. His grandchildren, Mrs. George Wells and Mrs. Roger Newton and Leslie Boardman, are residents of the town.
The fourth son of Ozias, Alfred, married Lydia Little and left a son, William A., and a daughter, Diantha.
Of two other pioneers, Nathaniel and Cyril Goodale, or Goodell, as the name was often spelled, their descendant, Miss Lou Rand, wrote as follows:
"Nathaniel and Cyril Goodell came from Amherst, Mass .* Nathaniel built a temporary cabin of logs which
* From the records in Woodstock, Conn. : Nathaniel Goodell and Abagail Chaffee, both of Woodstock, were married May 20, 1766. Their children : Esther, born September 16. 1767; Nathaniel, born August 21, 1769: Abagail and Alpheus, born February 2, 1771; Cyril, born November 4, 1774.
From records in Amherst, Mass .: Nathaniel Goodell died in Amherst, September 13, 1814, aged seventy-nine years. Abagail, wife of Nathaniel Goodell, died June 7, 1811, aged seventy-four years. Nathaniel, his son, died in Amherst, September 18, 1840, buried in the Union Cemetery at Dwight, Mass.
29
HISTORY OF MORRISTOWN
he occupied three years while he was getting out lumber for the large two story dwelling which he erected on the hill which overlooks the 'Sally Joy' place. After its com- pletion he returned to Massachusetts in 1798 for his bride, Miss Warren. Tradition says she was a niece of Gen. Joseph Warren of Revolutionary fame.
"To this home Nathaniel, when he had reached middle life, brought a second mother for his boys and girls. Her name was Mary Thompson, daughter of Col. Loring and Mary (Whitten) Thompson, of Cornish, N. H., and a direct descendant of Lieut. John and Mary (Cook) Thompson. John came in the third ship to America and Mary's father was Francis Cook who came in the Mayflower."
Miss Rand goes on to say that from this home, with only the education gained in the little red schoolhouse, two of Nathaniel Goodell's sons migrated to Massachusetts. The younger one settled in Boston, took up the trade of a cabinet maker and read law evenings and was later admitted to the Bar and became a successful lawyer. The other built the great dam seen as one enters the City of Lawrence, Mass.
Among the most prominent of the early settlers was Samuel Cooke, who was born in Hadley, Mass., in 1755. He served in the Revolution, being with Arnold in his unfortunate expedition against Quebec where he con- tracted smallpox. In 1786 he moved to Worthington, Mass., where, like so many other of his neighbors, he became interested in the new township of Morristown, Vt. He bought a lot just south of the Four Corners and began to clear it in 1794, and the year following built a block house. For some reason he did not move his family to their new home until 1805, but from that time on he filled various positions of trust and responsibility. Before
leaving Worthington he had served six successive years as Selectman and he was Moderator of the first recorded town meeting in Morristown. He was Town Representative from 1809 to 1814, Justice of the Peace and Assistant Judge while the town was still a part of Orleans County. He died in 1834, leaving a family of seven children.
His oldest son, Dennison, married Margaret Matthews and was Town Clerk for a quarter of a century. Another son, Chester, settled on the Plains, married Lucy Shaw. and had six children, one of whom married Salmon Niles, whose son, Albert A., held many public offices and is sur-
30
HISTORY OF MORRISTOWN
vived by two daughters, Mrs. Ila Jackson and Mrs. Lula Spaulding, and an adopted son, Logan A. Niles. Another daughter of Chester Cooke married John S. Chaplin, whose son, Joseph, was a well known figure in the west part of the town for many years. A third son of Samuel, Jonathan, married Sarah Felcher and was one of the lead- ing men on the LaPorte Road. He lived for many years on the Ryder place and his son, Oscar, succeeded him there. No descendants of Jonathan's ten children reside in town, but Oscar, Jr., is a prosperous farmer in Hyde Park. Samuel's daughter, Fanny, married Elisha Brigham and lived to the ripe age of ninety-six, while her sister, Mary, married Jedediah Story of Fairfax, who first came to Morristown with Jacob Walker. That branch of the family is represented by Charles, E. S., and George Story, who live on Morristown Plains.
Another of the substantial men of that early period was Luther Bingham, who was born in Windham, Conn., on April 5, 1778. When a small boy, he moved to Cornish, N. H., and at the age of twenty-two began for himself on a farm in the new settlement of Morristown. He felled the trees on land adjoining the town of Stowe, known for years as the Hale place, which in 1935 is occupied by Max Coan; built a frame house and then returned to Cornish for his bride, Polly Cummings, of that place, and another home was established here. He soon realized the possi- bilities of the water power in the stream running through his property, and in 1806 he built the second saw mill in town, for which he bought a crank at Starksboro, Vt., and brought it here upon a drag.
The town recognized his ability and at four different terms he represented it in the Legislature. For several years he commanded the local militia, three times he was chosen a member of the Committee to consider Amend- ments to the State Constitution. In 1812 he was made Justice of the Peace, an office which he held until his death, in 1846. By hard work and good management, he amassed what was a considerable amount of property for that day and more than that he enjoyed the respect and affection of his townsmen. His daughter, Emma, married Clark Boynton and their son, Luther Bingham, or "Bing" as he was generally called, was for years one of the well known business men of the town, being owner and manager of the Morrisville House and also one of the largest maple sugar dealers in Northern Vermont.
31
HISTORY OF MORRISTOWN
Another of the prominent men of the first decades of the town's life was Micaijah Dunham, a native of Southampton, Mass., who possessed more education and more means than did many of the pioneers. He surveyed one section of the town and settled in the eastern part on the farm occupied in 1935 by Owen Douglass. Their large house built by Mr. Dunham is said to have been the first two story house in town. He married Dorothy Pratt, but died in 1812 at the age of forty-seven. His descendants who have remained here were in the line of his daughter, Maria, who married Amasa Spaulding, and lived on her father's place. Her grandson, Calvin Spiller, is a resident of Morrisville.
Another name frequently found in the history of Morristown is that of Shaw. The first of that line to settle here was Crispus, who was born in Nova Scotia in 1763, but when a boy moved to Shutesbury, Mass., and, although young, served in the Revolution. In 1798 he moved here when there were but twelve families in town and remained until his death, in 1845. He was twice married, first to Anna Burke, and later, in 1840, to Fanny Liscomb. Most of his children spent their lives here. Crispus, Jr., settled in Elmore and with his descendants was a leading citizen there. . Benoni married Betsey Whitney and their children who grew to maturity here were Benoni, Jr., who married Hannah Travis, and was a mill man in what is still known as Shaw Hollow near the Red Bridge. A second son, Boardman, lived near the Sterling line and was the father of Leslie M. Shaw and also of Dutha, the father of Mrs. Walter Isham. A third son of Benoni, Darwin, married Mary Reed and they were the parents of Carlos Shaw, the father of Ned Shaw, still a resident here, and of Almary, now Mrs. Joseph Bannister and the mother of Mrs. Frank Allen. Darwin Shaw was also the father of a daughter, Marion, who married Jackson Chaffee, the father of Mrs. Frank Strong and Mrs. William Welch.
A fourth son of Benoni was Rockwell, who lived in the southwestern part of the town and had one daughter, Della, who married Levi Gile and only recently moved to Stowe. A daughter of Benoni, Betsey, is represented by Mrs. Wayne Durett.
Crispus Shaw had three daughters whose lives were spent in town. Martha married Baruch Darling and
-
1
32
HISTORY OF MORRISTOWN
their sons, Alden and Chester, were for many years pro- prietors of the excellent farm in Mud City, occupied in 1935 by Ernest Inkle. They left no descendants. Another daughter of Crispus was Sally, who first married Jared Spaulding, father of Alonzo Spaulding, and late in life she married Jedediah Bingham. A third daughter, Lucy, married Chester Cooke and her descendants are given in connection with the Cooke family.
Another Shaw influential in local affairs was Ebenezer, who was born in Middlebury, Mass., in 1773, and died in 1866. As a young man he came to Vermont, where, at Woodstock, he learned the tanner's and shoe- maker's trade and was the first tanner in Morristown, coming here about 1800. He is said to have been the first Universalist here and was for years one of the pillars of that church. His first wife was Polly Whitney, daughter of Eliphalet Whitney, who was also the father-in-law of three other early settlers, Benoni Shaw, Seth Haskins and Ozias Boardman. Young Shaw and his bride settled on land given him by his father-in-law and kept in his family until after the death of his grandson, Charles. It is occu- pied in 1935 by W. G. Lepper and Son. His wife, Polly, died in 1835, and the year following he married Abigail Sher- win. His son, Edwin H., born in 1818, married Pelina Gay and their son, Charles, remained on the home place until his death, in 1913. His widow, Helen Bliss Shaw, was a resident of Morristown until her removal to Burling- ton, in 1932, but they left no descendants.
Another family identified with the town since its early days are the Brighams. Lieut. Abner Brigham came to Vermont from Grafton, Mass., where his ancestors settled at an early date. He was a Revolutionary soldier, being one of them who went with Arnold in his attack upon Quebec. He died at Hartland, Vt., in 1791, leaving a widow and several children. About 1800 Mrs. Brigham and several of the children came to Morristown and from that date until the present (1935) the farm just north of the Tenney Bridge has been occupied by a Brigham, the present owner being Melville, the fifth generation to live there.
Seventeen years after their coming here the family was smitten by a disease much more prevalent then than now, typhoid fever. In July a son, Enoch, twenty-eight years of age, who two years previous had married Lucy
33
HISTORY OF MORRISTOWN
Bingham, died from that disease. The following Septem- ber, the oldest son, Abner, who had married Anna Safford, died of the same scourge and within three weeks a grand- son and a granddaughter were laid away, victims of the same plague. Abner Brigham at the time of his death was Captain of the local militia and was buried with military honors in September, 1817.
Another son Lieutenant
of Abner was Elisha (1791-1831), who married Fanny M. Cooke, daughter of Samuel Cooke, and to them were born four children, three daughters and a son, Elisha (1823-1906), who throughout his life was one of the town's leading citizens. He held many town offices and his judgment was respected by everyone. He was deeply interested in local history and many of the facts in this volume were obtained from his research. He married Mary Adela Cole, in 1848, and left two sons, Charles and Albert. The former married Clara Eaton and to them were born two children, Gertrude F., who married Charles Ross, now deceased, and is a Metho- dist minister in Pennsylvania, and Melville, who married Bernice Guyette and has three daughters, Lucy, Eunice, and Emma. Albert Brigham married Rose Messer and lives in Morrisville.
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