History of Royalton, Vermont, with family genealogies, 1769-1911, Part 58

Author: Lovejoy, Mary Evelyn Wood, 1847-
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Burlington, Vt., Free press printing company
Number of Pages: 1280

USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Royalton > History of Royalton, Vermont, with family genealogies, 1769-1911 > Part 58

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).

In 1835 it was voted to rebuild the pound, the bills for which were paid in 1837. A veteran pound keeper was John Sprague, who began his service in 1830 and continued it until 1866. He was also employed to take charge of the town house in 1841. Mr. Sprague was succeeded by Hazzard Bosworth, who served until 1871, when Frank Bosworth was put in charge, and was retained until his death in 1908, making his term of service one year longer than John Sprague's, and giving him the distinction of having served the town in that capacity longer than any other incumbent.

All the earlier pound keepers were busy men, whose time was quite fully occupied with their own business. Frank Bos- worth was a recluse most of his life, and had ample leisure to use as he liked. The world as he looked at it was not a friendly one, and he sometimes expressed his thoughts in prose or verse, as he sat alone in his little cottage on the common, not far away from the pound. The talents that might have made its owner happy and even honored, were dwarfed and twisted by too much self-introspection. That those who, of late years, knew so well the bent and decrepit figure creeping to his home from the town pump with his small pails of water, may have a clearer insight

526

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

into the inner thoughts of the feeble, unhappy pound keeper, two little effusions of his are given, which were found among his papers after his death. The first is pessimistic, and expresses, probably, the musings of his troubled soul.

"Still a target for the marksman of Zion, Still questing green fields to die on,

Still doomed to stay in a Christian land,

Still a torment to the Christian band, Still waiting like any other pup, Still for a bean on which to sup, Still cheered by kindest friends, Snow and sleet, godsends,

Still to others a poison adder, Still to me something sadder."

In a better mood he wrote:

"Still there comes in joyful glee, Robin redbreast and chick-a-dee,

And with such powers as are given by song,

Cheers the weary heart along. Tender birds and birds of peace,

May their music never cease, But cheer us on to the world above,

The world of peace, the world of love."

The history of the town farm has been given in the chapter on the "Town's Poor." In 1846 John L. Bowman, one of the selectmen, purchased for the town a compass, for which he paid $39. Although such articles are supposed to have the quality of durability, no one seems to have heard that the town ever possessed such an asset. The town owns a road machine, five road rollers and other road tools, amounting in value to over $500. The road commissioner, A. W. Merrill, reports that $1,453.24 was spent in 1910 for permanent roads.

The town is also the owner of a handsome hearse, which is to go to the home of every citizen of the town free of expense, and has twenty sign boards, which are reported to be in good condition.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

TAXES AND THE GRAND LIST.

When the town voted June 28, 1779, to raise £200 to defray the expense of getting the New York charter, it said nothing about a tax rate. If there was a regular rate, it was fixed by the committee appointed to collect the sum. Better success was then obtained in getting voluntary payments, than could be ex- pected at the present time, when the property holders pay their taxes because the law requires them to do so. The early towns were more like co-operative organizations, each seeing in his own advancement the good of the whole. Such a spirit of antagonism had arisen against the unjust taxation of England, that it led in some cases to a question of the right of a town to tax itself, and enforce payment.

A collector was chosen in Royalton before any recorded ac- tion is found levying a stated tax. Lieut. Stevens was the first collector, chosen Mar. 23, 1779. His business was probably to solicit and collect subscriptions. The first regular tax was voted Sep. 4, 1781, when a tax of two pence on a pound was voted for town purposes. The Assembly of 1780, which met at Westmin- ster in March, passed an act empowering each town to lay town taxes to defray public expense, with some limitations, but there were numerous petitions from different towns in the next few years, asking for authority for levying and collecting taxes for specific purposes.

Although Vermont had not been admitted into the Union, and was not compelled to aid in meeting the debts incurred by the United States, yet she had a considerable debt to pay in pro- viding means for the defence of her own territory, for the sup- port of the state government, and, later, for raising the sum which she was to pay New York. Some of this needed revenue was obtained by confiscating the lands of tories, some by fees for new grants, some by issuing bills of credit, but the larger part had to be raised by a land tax. The Assembly received numerous complaints of overtaxation in 1781. The voters of Royalton took action in January of the next year. They chose Major Burton of Norwich to prefer a petition to the Assembly "to have the land tax relinquished." This petition does not

528

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

appear to have been in a spirit of resistance, but because of in- ability to meet the demand. The Assembly granted the petition, and the governor approved it Feb. 26, because "of the ravages of the enemy."

The highways were first built in all probability by each settler clearing a path to his own house, later by vote of the town that each one should work a certain number of days on the highways. At the March meeting, 1783, it was left with the selectmen to raise such a tax as they should judge best. The bridges not built by lottery or subscription, were at first erected by tax on land.

In 1783 the land of delinquent taxpayers was first adver- tised for sale. This tax was voted in 1782 for building bridges. As a result of this open vendue Barnabas Strong, constable from Bethel, sold to Zebulon Lyon for 500 Spanish milled dollars 893 acres, part or all of eleven lots. This sale took place in April, 1784. Mr. Lyon afterward quitclaimed to two lots, saying he had received the full bridge tax.

The proprietors voted taxes independent of the town, and chose their own collector. In June, 1781, they voted one dollar (Spanish milled probably) on each proprietor's right, and chose Lieut. Lyon as collector. In October another like tax was voted, and Elias Stevens was chosen collector, who was also collector for the town. This last tax was turned over to the agent, Elias Stevens, for his expenses in getting the Vermont charter. In January, 1784, a tax of one dollar on each proprietor's right was levied for the purpose of a survey of the land that was cut off by the line run by the Surveyor General, and to pay the expense of sending Elias Stevens to petition the Assembly for a grant of this land. This is the last record of any tax laid by the pro- prietors.

Provision was made by the town during the next few years for paying the minister and building his house, furnishing mili- tary supplies, and for building bridges and roads, part of which tax was to be paid in farm produce. There was no increase in the levy until 1791, when the two pence tax was increased by three farthings. In 1793 a tax of two pence on the pound was laid to procure a standard of weights and measures and to pay other charges. Since 1783 Lieut. Stevens' half bushel and Mr. Rix's steel yards had been constituted a standard of weights and measures. The building of a bridge over the First Branch near the mouth required an increase in the rate of taxation, and a tax of three pence on the pound was voted Sep. 26, 1796, for this purpose. The town incurred some expense in a suit against the town of Ellington, Conn., and a curious mixture of old and new money standards is seen in the levy of that year of "six

529

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

cents on the pound." The rate the following year was one cent on three dollars. Occasionally there was a year in which no tax was levied, again certain sums were voted and no rate named. In 1804 the rate was eight mills on a dollar, the next year one cent on a dollar. In 1809 two cents on a dollar was needed. The first mention of a county tax occurs as late as 1819, but it is probable that a tax of this sort had been paid before. The tax law of 1797 provided for the repair of jails, and it would seem that a tax must have been paid for part, at least, of the expense of providing county buildings.

The rate did not rise above five cents on a dollar until 1829, when eight cents were voted. The increase during the interven- ing years was largely due to expense incurred in repairing and making roads, and in repairing and building bridges. In 1830 the rate of the preceding year was nearly doubled, the sum voted being fifteen cents on the dollar. The tax was not always levied at the March meeting, but frequently a special meeting was called later in the year, usually in the fall.

Only once in the early history of the town did it borrow money. This was in 1783, when a committee was appointed to "higher" $50, apparently for meeting the expense of moving Rev. Mr. Searle from his home to Royalton. In 1835 the town was considerably in debt, and the selectmen were authorized to borrow money to relieve the town from its claims. This was bor- rowing from Peter to pay Paul. A tax of only six cents on a dollar was voted that year, from which it may be inferred that the previous year had not been an especially prosperous one. In 1838 the town was fined for bad roads, and the next year it voted ten cents on a dollar for highways, and in December an additional fifteen cents on a dollar was voted for current ex- penses, making the whole rate for the year twenty-five cents on a dollar. In 1844 the rate had risen to thirty cents, but the largest increase was in 1851, when fifty-eight cents on a dollar was voted. This was made necessary by the building of a bridge at South Royalton, and a new survey for a road to Chelsea.

Why the town should not wish to vote its taxes in the regular March meeting is not clear. Possibly they wished to see what the harvest would be, and to know more accurately what expense was incurred during the year. An article in the warning in 1862 was "to see if the town would raise its taxes in March in- stead of in the fall." This was passed over, and a similar ar- ticle the next year met the same fate. With an eye to saving expense or, perhaps, because there was lively competition for the office, in 1864 it was voted that the collection of taxes be put up at auction. Isaac F. Shepard offered to collect them for one

530

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

per cent., John L. Bowman for $100, Harry Gage for $200, and M. C. Gage for $95. It is not stated who was given the office.

The town was heavily in debt by reason of paying large bounties to soldiers of the Civil War. It must either continue to increase that debt, or take heroic measures to liquidate it by taxation. A special meeting was called for Feb. 13, 1865. No other business was considered. A tax of four hundred cents on a dollar was voted, and the meeting adjourned without date. At the regular March meeting it was voted that, when it became necessary for the town to borrow money, the sum should not exceed $5,000. At another meeting in December of that year a tax of 100 cents on the dollar was voted, and an abatement of fifteen per cent. allowed, if paid at specified dates, and interest collected after Feb. 1, 1866, and the collector to be responsible for the interest.

In 1868 the town was compelled to open a new road from South Royalton to Broad Brook. The rate of sixty cents on a dollar voted at the March meeting the next year was not suffi- cient to meet the expenses of the town, and a special meeting was warned for Sep. 7, 1869. The selectmen on being called upon reported that the town needed $3,000 to meet their bills, whereupon another tax of sixty cents on a dollar was voted, mak- ing the tax for the year higher than it had been since 1865. In spite of the high rate of taxation, between Mar. 1, 1869, and Mar. 1, 1870, the town ran behind $1,721.29. The indebtedness gradually decreased until 1874 only twenty-five cents on a dol- lar was voted, although the town was still in debt $1,219.92. The rate of taxation varied between twenty-five and fifty cents on a dollar up to 1880. In 1893 when the town system of schools and the new road law went into operation a tax of 135 cents on the dollar was voted. After the building of the new iron bridge at South Royalton in 1903 a tax of 100 cents on the dol- lar was necessary for two years. The taxes for 1910 are town, 50 cents; school, 70 cents; highway, 40 cents on a dollar. The town's indebtedness in 1903, Feb. 12, was $11,735.61; in 1910 it was $2,171.25.

None of the town grand lists have been preserved previous to 1791, the year after the first census. The list that year was taken by Thomas Bingham, Jabez Parkhurst, David Fish, Dr. Silas Allen, and Luther Fairbanks. Listers, however, had been chosen, beginning with the year 1780. Usually there were three, but in 1790 and 1791 five were elected.

The grand list for State and County in 1791 was £3321. 15. 0; for town and society, £3542.15.0. The difference was due to deductions for troop and infantry, which were made on the list for the state, but not for the town. Ten were enrolled under

531

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

the head of troop, and twenty-two under the head of infantry. There were 167 polls between twenty-one and sixty years of age. The ten highest taxpayers were, Calvin Parkhurst, who paid on a list of £93.10.0; Daniel Tullar, £89.5.0; Elias Stevens, £68; Zebulon Lyon, £63.5.0; Daniel Rix, £58.15.0; Joseph Parkhurst, £56.5.0; Bradford Kinney, £50.15.0; Abijah Burbank, £48; Za- bad Curtis, £46; Robert Havens, £45.10.0. Seth Sylvester was the only one having any money at interest, and he was assessed on ten pounds. The total number of acres of improved land was 1,774. The ten having the largest number of improved acres were, Calvin Parkhurst, 80 acres; Timothy Durkee, 60 acres; Zebulon Lyon, 55 acres; Medad Benton, 55 acres; David Fish, 50 acres; Elias Stevens, 50 acres; Daniel Rix, 45 acres ; Daniel Gilbert, 41 acres; James Hibbard, 40 acres; Abijah Bur- bank, 40 acres. Fifty-three had no land improved. There were 541 head of neat stock, and 115 horses from one year up. This was the financial condition of the town ten years after it had been almost wiped out. There were ninety-seven different fam- ily names.

There was no rapid growth from year to year, as has been the case in new western towns in recent years. In 1796 the list was given in dollars and cents for the first time, and then was $11,269.21, Zabad Curtis leading all with a list of $492, Jacob Smith a close second with $413, and Daniel Gilbert third, with a list of $366; then came Darius Dewey, $314; Elias Stevens, $276; Zebulon Lyon, $250; Nathan Stone, $218; Othniel Eddy, $195; Daniel Havens, $190. Forty-five others had over $100 set to each list.

In 1797, houses, clocks, and watches were listed. Eighty- three houses were assessed that year. Daniel Gilbert was the only one who had two. There were ten clocks and watches in town, their fortunate possessors being Dr. Silas Allen, Othniel Eddy, Daniel Havens, John Flint, owners of one each; Zabad Curtis and Daniel Gilbert, who each had a watch and a clock, and Jacob Smith, who had two, probably clocks. The next year Ashbel Buckland and Zabad Curtis paid on three houses, Sam- uel Curtis, John Flint, Elisha Kent, Jr., Zebulon Lyon, and Elkanah Stevens each paid on two houses. This throws some light on the time when stores, hotel, and shops were built. Zabad Curtis was assessed $100 on his three buildings, Elisha Barthole- mew, Zebulon Lyon, and Jacob Smith were each assessed $20 on their houses, Abijah Burbank, Jr., Jesse Dunham, Nathaniel Morse, Daniel Rix, Elias Stevens, Elkanah Stevens, Daniel Tul- lar, and David Waller each, ten dollars. The other houses ranged in assessment from fifty cents to $8.00. The number of houses had increased to one hundred and forty.

532

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

At the end of the first decade after 1791 the total list was $25,162. There were 265 polls, and 3,793 acres of improved land. Cows now took the lead in stock. Dr. Silas Allen had left town and taken his watch with him, but Chandler & Mower had moved in, each with a watch. Daniel Gilbert had lost, sold or given away his watch, and Othniel Eddy had left town, so there were yet but ten clocks and watches in town, to regulate the doings of the different neighborhoods. Nearly 100 militia were ex- empted, and nine horses. This year "faculties" were assessed for the first time. Physicians, merchants, manufacturers, law- yers, and perhaps others were assessed under this head. This year five merchants were thus assessed, one lawyer, one doctor, one miller, and one of whom nothing is known, Roswell Towsley, who was here but this one year, and owned no land, though he had a list of seventy-four dollars.

Only two or three had any money at interest for several years. In 1803, Daniel Gilbert was the only one thus listed, and he gave in $3,333.33. His list was much larger than any other, being $546. Carriages were taxed in 1807 for the first time. Joseph Fessenden, Zebulon Lyon, Jacob Smith, and Daniel Tul- lar paid extra taxes for the privilege of riding in carriages. Two years later Jacob Smith was the owner of two carriages, and his list jumped from $205 to $515.

At the end of a second decade, in 1811, the total list was $25,595.53, from which thirty-three militia polls at $20 each were deducted. There were 198 paying poll tax and 70 non-payers, making 268 polls. At that time there were 4,247 acres of im- proved land, a gain of 454 acres of cleared land. This went into the list at $1.75 an acre.

In 1818 there began a deduction for minors equipt for mili- tary duty. In 1821, the end of the third decade, 250 had a poll list of $20 each, eighty-one were exempt, twelve of them through military duty, making the whole number of polls 331. There were 5,168 acres of improved land appraised at $73,872. There were 221 houses and lots appertaining, appraised at $67,779. There were listed 1,314 head of neat stock, and 351 head of horses and mules. A large increase in pleasure carriages is ob- served, there being at this time sixty-six. Jacob Collamer had nine, Samuel Curtis eight, Jesse Dunham nine, John Francis eight, Throop & Orvis six, and S. & D. Williams six. Thirty-six house clocks were assessed at ten dollars each, one doctor at $75, two lawyers at $40 each, seven mechanics in the whole at $160, four merchants and traders in the whole at $185. The whole list as given is $23,285.50.

In September of that year one lister from each town in Windsor county met at Woodstock, and voted a reduction on

533

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

buildings and lots of 19%, and on lands of 20%. By this act Royalton had a reduction on land of $4,720.61, and on houses of $3,660.59. Jacob Fox had the largest list in 1821, amounting to $573, and Dr. Jo A. Denison was second with a list of $366. Only six had a list of over $200, Jabez and Ebenezer Parkhurst, Elisha Kent, Stafford Smith, Calvin Skinner, and Amos Robinson. Jacob Fox had 124 acres of improved land, and Amos Robinson seventy-two. The number for any one was not large, mostly under forty.

After 1822 no town list was incorporated with the town meeting records, and there seems to be no means of ascertaining the data that is lacking until lists were preserved in separate books. The reports, however, show in 1832, that at the end of the fiscal year Mar. 5, 1832, the town had in its treasury a bal- ance of $644.01. The report was even better in 1841, when the balance in favor of the town was $902.39.

The grand list in 1840 was $15,453, and the population, 1.893. In 1851 the list had fallen to $5,159.86. By a law of 1797 a fixed rate of assessment was set for listers, which rate was very sensibly lessened from time to time. In 1820 listers were given more margin for the use of their own judgment in making valuations, although live stock still had a fixed value, regardless of quality. Provision was made for equalizing the assessment of towns. For many years polls had been set in the list at $20 each, and when this was changed it made considerable difference in the size of the grand list. These facts may help to explain something of the drop in the list of the town from 1840 to 1851.

In 1855 the legislature appointed a committee to equalize the real estate grand list among the counties. By the action of this committee the list of Windsor County, and of course Royal- ton, was raised thirteen per cent.

In 1861 the grand list was $5,990.30, and the population, 1,739 ; in 1871 the list was $6,193.51. The quinquennial valua- tion of real estate in 1870 was $445,410, and the total value of real and personal property in 1871 was $537,451. There were then 378 polls. The list in 1881 was $7,648.84; real and personal property, $695,084. The list in 1891 was $7,718.05; real and personal property, $709,905. In 1901 the list was $7,749.75, and in 1910 it was $8,061.74; real and personal estate valuation, $730,974; number of polls, 376. The population according to the last census is 1,452.

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE LEGAL PROFESSION.

A century ago lawyers do not seem to have been drawn to new settlements so soon as physicians. It would be some time, as a rule, before controversies over land ownership and private rights would reach such ample proportions as to furnish a live- lihood to the limbs of the law. It is doubtful if those who did legal business in the earliest days were generally licensed as prac- ticing attorneys.

The records indicate that Comfort Sever, Zebulon Lyon, Daniel Gilbert, and Abel Stevens did more or less work that a regular lawyer does today. If any one of these had read law with a view to its practice, it was probably Abel Stevens, who is sometimes spoken of as Esquire Stevens. In 1797 the town chose Zebulon Lyon to act as agent in attending a suit of Royalton against Ellington, Conn., in the case of Abial Craw, for whom the town had been caring. The suit either was not prosecuted that year or was deferred, for in 1798 Daniel Gilbert was chosen to attend at Tolland, Conn., on the same case.

So far as has been ascertained, no regular lawyer was prac- ticing in town before the coming of Jacob Smith in 1792 or '93. He was listed for the first time in the latter year, but did not pay poll tax. He started with one acre of land improved and a list of £4.10. In 1796 his list had risen to £95.10, and by 1804 he distanced all in the size of his list. His most prosperous time appears to have been in 1810, when the amount set to his name was $577, and he then had ninety acres of improved land.

From his first entry into town he became a close rival of Gen. Stevens, both in land speculation and in popular favor. He was sent to the General Assembly for the first time in 1798, and in all he served eight terms. An examination of assembly records shows that he stood among the foremost on important committees, and in shaping legislation. There seems to have been only one weakness in his character, and that must be at- tributed to the custom of the times. He was not alone in an occasional over-indulgence of the cup. At his death he had on hand ten barrels of cider. It is told of him that one evening, while in Montpelier, he was found hugging a lamp post. "What

Arthur Gilbert Whitham.

Herbert Chancellor Sargent.

Dana E. Dearing, D. M. D. Arthur A. Abbott.

Throw alimen by these presents that & Paber Dyman of froyutain the Country of Honor and State of formand for and mconsideration of the norm

of one hundred and twenty dollarsto me in ham paid before the delis ery here by Gamer This of the same they after the wift w heroff do hereby weknowledge have come hereby do frehy give grant bargain sell conou and confirm into the Fin Former Fue his here and afsigns power all um light the interest or demand in or into a contrain price of from in saw Poration described as follows our. the north east front of for A .. ] in large aftment drawn on the first of the original lightof Hilhom mer. to wit bygning at marka beach the with a stake and stones on the moth fire of sanft thence a somtheatery comer to a himbut the mother and stones Pon it thence ma smut fine to the south line of the fot so as to have the hembach fre lange with the first form?

I have an to od the above pronto am tomain promis withallthe privileges and oppantennes ther mik charging to the on former the Tis his an Afins to them and their own use and behov forwer : An the saw Saber Imman fis hers excenters and administration do hereby ve. mant bargain prant and agree to and with the saw garner The his hair a forma that wohl the delivery herey do in the farted one of the rain promises seiret and ryefico here in his own right in fee simple and have full power and lawn authority to grant an conocy the same in manner aforsin that the soin promises are free and clear of all and every in comfrance Whatwear and that She saw faber Lyman my terms exécution und ain istration shall and will warrant the come to the vin Gomes This his here and afins against the Contul charme on demand of any person or persons whomower. In whey where thave herrn re try hard and read this 30 5 day & Some in the yearof our Ism one thousand sig homard andfourteen signed sealed an delivers

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.

History of Royalton, Vermont, with family genealogies, 1769-1911, Part 58

Author: Lovejoy, Mary Evelyn Wood, 1847- Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Burlington, Vt., Free press printing company Number of Pages: 1280

Author: Lovejoy, Mary Evelyn Wood, 1847-
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Burlington, Vt., Free press printing company
Number of Pages: 1280