USA > Vermont > Orange County > Newbury > History of Newbury, Vermont, from the discovery of the Coos country to present time > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96
MRS. L. J. PEASLEE.
Before 1808, when Montpelier was fixed upon as the capital, the General Assembly met in the more considerable towns in different parts of the state. Between the first session, in March, 1778, and that of October, 1808, a period of thirty years, there were forty-seven sessions of the legislature, fifteen being held at Windsor and eight at Bennington.
The October session of 1787 was held at Newbury, from October 11th to the 27th. It convened in the court-house, opposite the
I38
HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
cemetery on the Ox-bow. Thomas Chittenden was Governor; Joseph Marsh of Hartford, Lieutenant Governor; Joseph Fay of Bennington, Secretary; Gen. Jacob Bayley was one of the council; Capt. John G. Bayley was sheriff; Rev. Lyman Potter of Norwich, preached the election sermon, and Gideon Olin was speaker of the House of Representatives. There was a review of all the militia, in the field behind Col. Robert Johnston's house, and a troop of cavalry escorted the Governor to the place where the election sermon was delivered. Most of the prominent men in the state were in attendance, but nothing very important was transacted. Chittenden county was organized at that session, and a proclamation was issued by the governor, announcing the completion and publication of the statute laws.
It is said that after the Assembly adjourned, Gov. Chittenden started for his home in Colchester, on foot and alone, but, some- where, between here and the Winooski valley, got lost in the woods, and was compelled to pass the night under a fallen tree.
The second session held here, was the most important event which had taken place in the history of the town, and was brought about, mainly, through the efforts of Col. Thomas Johnson. For this, great preparations were made, land was bought by what we should now call a syndicate, and a building was erected for the purpose of convening the assembly and council. This land was the narrow strip on part of which the Ox-bow schoolhouse now stands; it was bought of Rev. Mr. Lambert by William B. Bannister, and by him conveyed to Col. Thomas Johnson and others. A building, known by tradition to the present generation, as the "Old Court-House," was erected on that spot, the previous court-house, opposite the cemetery being taken down, and the material used in its construction. It contained one large room, fitted up with desks for the House of Representatives, which had a small gallery at one end, over the entrance, and at the other end of the building was a "council chamber" for the governor and council. There were several smaller rooms.
The building was erected by subscription, Col. Johnson's share of the expense being about $400. Jeremiah Harris of Rumney was the master-workman, and it was, if tradition be correct, the first building in this part of the country to be erected by the "square rule."
The assembly met on the 8th of October, Isaac Tichenor of Bennington being Governor, and Paul Brigham of Norwich, Lieutenant Governor, and Amos Marsh, Speaker.
"Election day," was the great event of the session in those days. On that day the governor was officially notified of his election, and took the oath of office, which was afterward administered to the council. Then His Excellency, escorted by all the militia in the vicinity rode in state to the meeting-house, where the "Election Scrmon" was delivered.
I39
THE OLD MEETING-HOUSE.
One curious feature of the day must not be forgotten. Some months before the time, notice was given in the public prints that an original ode would be sung on that occasion, and the poets of the day were urged to prepare their strains in competition for the honor of producing the song, to which music would be composed by Mr. Ingalls. Col. Thomas Johnson, William B. Bannister, and James Whitelaw were the committee to pass upon the merits of such productions as should be offered. When the time came for the decision, the committee found themselves unable to decide which of the effusions submitted by two gentlemen from Peacham, Mr. Ezra Carter and Mr. Barnes Buckminster, was the superior, and it was finally agreed that Mr. Ingalls should compose music for both ; that one, to be sung before sermon should be called the Election Ode, and the other, to follow the discourse, should bear the title of the Election Hymn. Both were accordingly sung, and Mr. Ingalls drilled a large choir, consisting of all the best singers in the vicinity during several weeks before the great day. Both productions are preserved in Mr. Ingalls' singing-book, the "Christian Harmony."
Reuben Abbott, who died about twenty-five years ago in Maine believed himself to be the last survivor of that large band of singers. The election sermon was preached by Mr. Lambert to as many of the people as could crowd into the meeting-house. After the services, the governor and council, with all the clergymen who were in attendance, repaired to a tavern, and dined at the expense of the state.
In those days, and for many years after, it was customary for members of the legislature, from distant parts of the state, to come on horseback to the place where the assembly met, hire pasturage, and turn their horses out to grass till the end of the session.
Gov. Tichenor boarded at the house of Col. William Wallace, the building, which, afterward enlarged, became the Spring Hotel, using the south front parlor as a reception room. There are still preserved in town articles of furniture which are associated with the session of the legislature in 1801.
Thomas Tolman of Greensboro, one of the most prominent men of the state in his time, was clerk of the House, and the following letter from him preserves for us some of the usages of the period :
"GREENSBORO, July 16, 1801.
COLO. THOS. JOHNSON, Dear Sir :
I desire you to procure from Boston a Ream of the best paper, fine, thin and soft for the pen, and also one dozen skins of vellum, or good parchment for the handsome and fine writings of the legislature. Your account shall be paid, and also your trouble. If I may depend I will not make any other application. Add 1/4 hundred the very best Holland quills. One thing more. I depend on you, if you please, to make a provision for a convenient place for my office and quarters. It must be near the legislature, contain a fireplace or stove, and if convenient a bed, as for a considerable part of the time I shall write at unseasonable hours, it would be agreeable if I could sleep in the same room. Excuse this trouble. My regards to Mrs. Johnson and to your sons. I am, with consideration,
Your friend and humble servant,
THOS. TOLMAN.
140
HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
No important legislation was accomplished at this session, which adjourned on the 6th of November.
In 1806, a strong effort was made to secure another session for Newbury, but without avail, and whatever hopes had been indulged of securing the permanent location of the state capital at Newbury came to no result. The building itself proved a most unfortunate investment for those who built it. It was erected by subscription, and the legislature was hardly out of it before a suit began between Col. Johnson and Asa Tenney, and before it was tried, Mr. Harris, the contractor, brought suit against Johnson, Tenney and Col. Wallace for his pay. In the end, between 1801 and 1853, it has been said that ten law suits grew out of that unlucky building. The last of these was decided by the Supreme Court in 1852, and was occasioned by the erection of the schoolhouse now standing there. Joseph Atkinson and others were the respondents, and it was held that by the terms of Mr. Bannister's deed, the land could not be used for any other purpose than as a common, which must remain unfenced, and is the property of the town. This decision was doubtless in accordance with the law, but something should be done to improve this property, which lies in a beautiful part of the village, and might be made a very attractive spot.
The building is well remembered by the older people. It stood nearly forty years, before it was finally taken down. It was uncertain whether the town or anyone really owned it, and occasioned a good deal of ridicule from the people of other places.
In 1806 the town voted: "That the selectmen provide and fix proper bars and locks to all the rooms in the State or Town house which lead to the Assembly Room or Gallery, at the town's expense." Later, the town voted the use of the building for a high school. It was used for all sorts of purposes, and the last years of its existence were melancholy enough. It stood, gloomy and dark; windows and doors gone; the roof fallen in; the stairs hanging from the gallery; the floors covered with broken plaster; children were forbidden to go inside of it; and the nervous dreaded to pass the ruinous old building after nightfall. Strange and uncanny sounds came from it on windy nights, and superstitious folks persuaded themselves that the place was haunted. At last, about 1839, the old building was taken down. Sundry doors and windows from it, which may have served their turn in its predecessor, are still in use in town.
Mr. Perry hints that the absence of public spirit which prevailed in Newbury during the first two or three decades, at least, of the century, originated in the troubles which grew out of the old court-house. There may be those who will think that the amount of ardent spirits consumed in the construction of the building had something to do with its misfortunes. Col. Thomas Johnson's bill for liquors furnished the workmen was about fifty dollars.
rrc FFE
Photo. by Corliss.
TENNEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY.
CHAPTER XXIII.
A CHAPTER OF OLD THINGS AND NEW.
TRAVELING FACILITIES .- CLOTHING .- "BINDING OUT."- SAW-MILLS .- HOW CON- STRUCTED .- MILLS ON HALL'S BROOK .- ON HARRIMAN'S BROOK .- STOVES AND FIRE-PLACES .- CANDLES .- CLOCKS AND WATCHES .- VOCATIONS OF WOMEN .- FARM TOOLS .- THRESHING AND CLEANING GRAIN .- SUGAR-MAKING .- DAIRYING.
T HE year 1800, may be considered as a time when a great change came over the town. The old men, the first settlers, who had made their homes here in the wilderness, and had carried the Coos country safely through the struggle for independence, were passing off the stage of active life. New men, new measures, came to the front. Before that time the town- meeting settled the affairs of the town. It hired and dismissed the minister; regulated the schools and the highways; and was the source of authority for the little commonwealth. Life was simpler then than now, and bore little resemblance to the complexity of modern existence.
Before considering, in detail, the institutions of the town, we will glance at some of the changes in domestic life, which took place during the earlier half of the century.
Mr. Perry says that the first wheeled carriage was brought into Newbury by Rev. Mr. Goddard, who came to preach after Mr. Powers went away. This was in 1783. Ox carts only, were used before that time. The first chaise was not owned in town until after 1790. There was rapid improvement in the public roads about the end of the century, and by 1800, several of the well-to-do farmers had bought some kind of vehicle for driving. Mr. Sutherland states, however, that there were no wheeled vehicles in Bath, until several years after his settlement there, in 1804. Men and women rode on horseback, wives riding behind their husbands on "pillions." The first chaise was brought into Bath in 1807, and the first wagon in 1811.
142
HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
One of the Chamberlins was a wheelwright, and probably began to make and repair carts and sleds very early. Sleds were all made with two runners, which were, sometimes, very long and awkward to turn. Traverse sleds were not invented till after 1825. Swings for shoeing oxen came into use about 1810. Before that time, oxen were usually thrown down upon the ground and their legs secured, when they were shod. Oxen were sometimes trained to stand still and be shod, as horses are. They were used entirely for farm work, and road work; horses were used for driving and riding, and every man who owned a horse, owned also a saddle, an article seldom seen in use now. The raising and breaking of steers, and the sale of fat oxen, formed a large portion of the work of the farm. There were many men in this town forty years ago, who contrived to turn off a yoke of fat oxen every fall, replacing them with the next younger pair from the farm stock, thus keeping several pairs of oxen and steers on hand at a time.
There are few oxen now in use in this town, but before the introduction of farm machinery, they were more profitable than horses. They worked better among the rocks and stumps with which the farms were covered, and were thus well adapted to pioneer life, and the uses of the farm, down to a late day. There were men, and quite extensive farmers too, in this town, who did not keep horses, but did all their work with oxen, relying upon exchange with some neighbor for the rare events when a horse was indispensible. At a cattle fair held in Orford, in 1850, there were exhibited four hundred yoke of oxen in one team; one hundred and fifty pairs of them were owned in that town.
Sheep were kept on every farm, sometimes two or three hundred, but the introduction of imported breeds did not begin till a little before the civil war, and the fleeces were lighter than afterward.
Cloth of all kinds, was homemade; the wool carded, dyed, spun, woven, and made up at home. When wanted for pantaloons, coats and the like of a more durable kind, and more stylish appearance, the web was taken from the loom, and sent to a "fulling-mill," where it was subjected to a process which compacted the cloth, and made a smooth surface. This was called "fulled" cloth, and was one of the chief products of the farms, and one which never failed of a ready sale, when taken to the market towns. There were tailoresses in those days, who visited, in regular succession, certain farms, and fabricated the garments for the men and boys. The clothing thus patiently constructed, had an enduring quality wholly unknown to the present generation. A young man received a "freedom suit" on arriving at his majority, and it was an even chance which would last the longest, the man, or the clothing which he wore. Instances are on record where a man wore his wedding suit on the fiftieth anniversary of his marriage, the garments little the worse for the Sunday wcar of fifty years. A man's outer garment was a frock
I43
A CHAPTER OF OLD THINGS AND NEW.
of homespun, colored blue, and nothing was warmer, or more convenient. Such, in the earlier decades of the nineteenth century, were worn to meeting. Dr. Lyman Beecher, father of Henry Ward Beecher, used to be fond of exchanging with Rev. Leonard Worcester of Peacham about once a year, and one Sunday on returning to his Boston church after one of these visits, told his congregation, that on the Sunday before when he stood up to offer prayer in the Peacham meeting-house, "half an acre of blue frocks rose up before me, with an honest heart under every one of them !"
Flax has not been raised in this town to any extent, these forty years, yet, formerly its cultivation was general. On some of the farms which have been in the same hands for several generations, the "flax-brake," the "swingle", the "hetchel," instruments by whose means the rough fibre was prepared for spinning, may still be seen. The "flax-wheel," or "little wheel," with its accompanying distaff, is one of the things most highly prized by collectors, and there are few left in Newbury. Linen, however, of fine quality and beautiful texture, was formerly made in this town, and it was once considered the proper thing for a young woman about to be married, to be able to show her entire wedding outfit, spun and woven with her own hands. The invention of the power loom has supplied the country with an inferior quality at a cheaper price. A "freedom suit" was one given to a young man upon attaining his majority, and was usually stipulated for in indentures, when a boy was "bound out."
One of the earliest accounts preserved in town is one of Col. Frye Bayley's, which reads as follows :-
"1768, Col. Jacob Bayley, Dr. to one Coat and Waistcoat, and Breeches, with Buttons and Trimmings for John Beard's Freedom Suit. £6.8.0."
The custom of giving a "freedom-suit" survived to a late day. The process of "binding out" boys and girls was very common, down to within about fifty years, and there have, possibly, been a few instances since that time. In earlier days, when families were very much larger than now, it often happened that a man died, leaving a large family of helpless children. It was then the duty of the poor masters, or selectmen, to find homes for such children, and apprentice them to learn the "art, mystery, trade, and calling," as the indenture read, of a husbandman, cordwainer, or blacksmith, as the case might be. A "bound out boy," as such an one was, is often alluded to, in the literature of the present day, as hardly more than a slave. In reality, scarcely anything better could happen to a homeless child, than to be placed in a good family where he would be well fed and clothed, taught industrious habits, given the rudiments of an education, and sent regularly to meeting. Some of the best men and women ever reared in Newbury were brought up in that way.
Minors and indentured children were often allowed to "buy
144
HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
their time," i. e., by the payment of a certain sum, one, two, or three years before attaining their majority, the obligations between them and their parents or guardians, was dissolved.
Cochran's History of Antrim, N. H., states that the "square rule" in framing timber, came into use in that town about 1812. There is a tradition that it was used in this town first, in the building of the "old court-house," so called, in 1801. If any of the timbers in that building are extant, it would be possible to find if it was so framed. Before that time the "scribe rule," was the only one in use. By that rule instead of cutting all the posts, all the braces, and all the beams of a barn to an exact length, each piece was fitted to the place where it was to go. In some place, near, if not in, Newbury, it is said that the framing of the first barn by the new method was ridiculed by all the carpenters in the region, who declared that a building so framed in defiance of the prescribed rule could never be raised. When the time came, however, the new frame went together with marvelous ease, and the new way of framing timber soon superseded the old.
The first sawmills were of the vertical, or "up and down" kind. and no farther back than 1855, there were no fewer than twelve in operation in this town. Their construction was very simple, and the whole outfit of the mill, with the exception of the saw and the crank, could be made by the local carpenter and blacksmith. The crank, which was of iron, and weighed about 175 pounds was firmly imbedded in the end of the water-wheel axle, and an arm from this crank reached to the frame directly above it, which held the saw, and propelled it up and down between two straight posts. The carriage on which the log lay, passed between these upright posts and was so contrived by means of a ratchet- wheel-commonly called a "rag-wheel"-that as the saw came down, the carriage moved forward about three-eighths of an inch, remaining stationary while the saw went up. A "spring-pole," fastened above was so arranged, as, partially, tocounter-balance the the weight of the saw and frame. When well built, with a good head of water, these mills did excellent work, and would sometimes make 150 strokes to the minute. The manner of securing the log to the carriage was clumsy, and it often took longer to set the log for each board, than to saw it. A smaller water-wheel was employed to reverse the carriage. Even after the introduction of circular saws, both kinds would sometimes be seen in the same mill, the circular saw used for the smaller logs, while the larger were sawed in the old way. It was a vast log indeed, which could not be mastered by the up-and-down saw. But in a few years they all disappeared, and the young people of the present generation have little idea how they were built.
There has been a grist-mill at Boltonville, continuously, for a century and a quarter, longer than upon any other site in town.
I45
A CHAPTER OF OLD THINGS AND NEW.
Grist-mills at Wells River are mentioned elsewhere by Mr. Leslie. At South Newbury, there has, at various times, been a run of stone in the successive mills which have stood at the two water privileges owned by Mr. Knight. A grist-mill was built very early at the same falls where Mr. Runnels' mill now stands, but on the other side of the brook. The same mill, or a later one, was owned by Benjamin Atwood. The present brick grist-mill was built in 1834, and was burned to the walls in 1863. It formerly contained two sets of bolting machinery. The present proprietor would have no use for them, as there is not a bushel of wheat raised in this town now, for home consumption. There have been several mills at South Newbury, near the present grist-mill, and various manufactures were carried on there.
On June 12, 1851, a fire broke out which consumed five dwelllings, and some of the mills. Ransom R. Aldrich, who had carried on quite an extensive business there in the manufacture of articles of wood, and had there introduced the first board planing machine in Orange county, was burned out, and removed his business to Bradford. Mackerel kits, and other wooden wares, were long made in a two-story building, which stood very near the site of Mr. Davis's beehive factory.
Just above Mr. Runnels' mill, but on the other side of the brook, in the sharp angle at the bend of the stream, stood a wooden building in which Eber J. Chapin carried on the carding and cloth- dressing business. This building was burned about 1856, and there is no trace of it remaining. In front of the house in which his son, A. A. Olmsted now lives, Isaac H. Olmsted had a large building in which he made chairs. This was one story high, beside the road, but in the rear had several stories. This was carried away by the great freshet of 1869. There was long a sawmill, owned at first by Mr. Atwood and later by the Tuttles, at the falls near where the old road from West Newbury comes down.
The brook road formerly crossed the stream below the present grist-mill, and, passing through Mr. Abbott's field, crossed the present road in front of his house, and following the brook, came out to the West Newbury road on the east side of the brook, at the falls near Joseph Johnston's house. At these latter falls, Capt. James Johnston erected two sawmills, and two grist-mills. The first mills were burned. The sawmill was near the bridge, the grist-mill at the falls, lower down. The latter went out of business in 1837, or 1838, but stood until it fell to pieces. The sawmill was in operation till the dam was carried away by the freshet of 1869, but the mill stood for a few years afterward. He also built a carding mill on the east side of the brook, below the sawmill, which he operated from 1814, to 1822. Near the bridge was a blacksmith shop, in which was a trip-hammer.
Before the Chalmers brothers erected their first mill on the
10
I46
HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
present site, there was a building which had been used as a bobbin mill. A short distance above it, at a deep cleft in the rock, was a shop in which Thomas Abbott, a wheelwright, made wagons and sleighs of a very substantial kind, some of which are still in use.
Not far from 1820, Dea. William Burroughs built a sawmill at the falls near his house, where a ledge of rocks made a natural dam. This sawmill, owned by himself, later by his sons George and William, and afterward by the former and Nathan Bartlett, who succeeded William Burroughs in the ownership of what is now the town farm, did a good business until the circular mills came into use, when it went into decay, and was carried away by the freshet of 1869.
Near the town house, at the foot of "Meader hill," a Mr. Cook erected, about 1835, a blacksmith shop, which was fitted up with a trip-hammer, and other machinery, in which he made edge tools of a superior quality, during some years. All trace of these works has long disappeared. The buildings are standing on another site. About half a mile above the town house, close by the road, in a deep ravine, stood a mill which was fitted up with machinery for several operations. This mill did not stand long or do much business. The machinery was made by local carpenters and blacksmiths. The water-wheel was a huge, upright one, with "buckets" along its rim, the weight of the buckets when full of water, causing the wheel to revolve. Its motion was not very regular. This mill had several owners, and went to decay about 1858.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.