History of Royalton, Vermont, with family genealogies, 1769-1911, Part 9

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 9

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HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

the Indian was a-making to go back, and he soon set out, and all were loaded with traps and furs. He could not carry his deer skins, and what truck they could not they gave to Mr. Marsh, and they parted in friendship.

Soon after this those who went home made their appearance with a cow and yoke of oxen and a good stock of provisions and many necessaries, and they went to work in earnest. Each one planted a patch of corn and sowed a piece of oats, and each one had a garden, and they went to logging through the summer and burning the log heaps, but saved the ashes .- After harvest two of them went down to Charlestown and bought their seed wheat and rye, and some hay seed. The oxen had as much as they could do, but each one got in a good crop of grain and some hay seed. Their corn and turnips did well, and it got to be in the fall, and it was Mr. Marsh's turn to go home, and two concluded to stay. Mr. Marsh and the other one started and went on to Old Hadley and put up at the old stand, Mr. Kellogg's. After they had got their supper and got rested, the landlord wanted to hear all about the New World. Marsh and his mate told about the country; he told him all about the Indian staying with him through the winter. The landlady took her knitting work and seated herself in the bar-room, for she wanted to hear about the New World as well as others. After Mr. Marsh had got through telling about the New World he said, 'There was one thing is a great mystery to me.' 'What is that?' said the landlord. Then Mr. Marsh said, one Sabbath after meeting, it being very warm, we said we would walk down to the river bank where it was cooler, and we did; some went to reading, and some sat talking, and as Mr. Marsh sat talking he had a stick in his hand and now and then he picked in the dirt and leaves. At last he picked up a ring. He was amazed to think how the ring came there. But come to rub up the ring, he found it to be a gold ring, and the wonder is how it came there. The landlady colored up and said, 'If I can describe the ring will you give it up ?' 'With all my heart,' said he. She said, 'If it is my ring, it is a plain gold ring and the inside is carved in small letters, "Remember the giver," and I always shall,' and the tears rolled down her with- ered cheeks. The company all sat amazed. Mr. Marsh said, The ring is yours,' and gave it up, and the tears rolled again, and after she got some composed Mr. M. asked her to tell how the ring came there, and this is the narrative. All were silent to hear. She said: 'This ring was given to me as a token of love and marriage, and the day was appointed, and the wed- dingers invited. This was when Hadley was destroyed the last time. About the break of day we heard the guns. We looked out and there was screaming and the buildings on fire. In a

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

very short time they were in the part of the town where I was. All was murder and confusion. The young man took his arms and fought bravely; at last he was shot down. I was near him. I raised him up and he said, "I am dying," and took my hand. "Farewell forever,"-and he soon breathed his last. I was taken prisoner. The ring was on my finger. I took it off and wrapped it in my bosom, and by sunrise the town was destroyed. Some made their escape, but most were killed or taken prisoners. About sunrise we went off east. Come night they divided their prisoners, and I was set off to an Indian. The next morning I was loaded with the spoils. What horses they got were loaded, and we were on the march as soon as it was light, and by slow marches we got up against the mouth of White River, and then we crossed the Great River-the women and children on a raft. We encamped at the river that night. We went up White River the next day. Come night we encamped on the river bank. At night I had the ring in my bosom. There was an island in White River against where we encamped. Come morning I missed the ring. I hunted for the ring until I was ordered to march. They went up the lake. They then put their loading on board of their canoes and went on to Canada. There I was sold to a Frenchman. Then I was put into the kitchen to do all kinds of drudgery. They styled me a Yankee slave, and I continued in this sort until I was redeemed. Then I was sent round by Hali- fax to Boston. Then I got home as I could.'

This ended the evening discourse. The next morning Mr. Marsh asked what he had to pay. 'Nothing at all,' said the old lady, 'your returning the ring more than pays me.' The next morning he went home and found all to be well. The next spring he started, and some others with him, and the town began to settle fast. The first settlers began to raise bread-stuff to sell, the other towns settling fast. This season there came some men to view Royalton, a town above Sharon. But they thought they never could get a road by the Point of Rocks. Willard Shep- ard's pick was above the Rock and he had given it up as lost. There was a Scotchman in the company. He said he could blow the rocks high and dry in a short time. He said he was a miner by trade. He went to work and soon made a passable cart road at the Point of Rocks. Since that there has been a turnpike up and down the river. But now there is a railroad where it was once said there never could be any roads got there; and the country never could be settled, and it was not worth settling. But now see the difference. See the different factories of all kinds, villages, the streets of houses and all the comforts of life, the produce they raise such as neat stock, butter and cheese, sheep and wool, pork and store hogs, hay seed and the like. And

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

it is said that there is no state in the Union that sends more to market than Vermont does-according to the value of the state- and we may set it down as the Lord said in Genesis, first chapter, last verse : 'When the Lord had made all the world, and com- pleted the whole, He looked at it and behold it was all very good.' But we weak-minded people cannot see the goodness of the land and the privileges at the first glance. We are apt to think our judgment to be good and the Lord's not."

Dr. Cyrus B. Drake visited, many years ago, Mrs. Lorenza (Havens) Lovejoy, daughter of Robert Havens, and questioned her regarding the early settlement of Sharon and Royalton. When she died in 1853 he wrote her obituary, in which he stated that Robert Havens came to Sharon in 1765, that the family spent the first winter in Sharon alone, and toward spring men came from Lebanon, N. H., to find them, fearing they had per- ished. He states that at the end of a year Mr. Spalding and Mr. Marsh came to the town. The names of Mr. Havens and Isaac Marsh do not appear in the list of original grantees of Sharon. Robert Havens owned over 200 acres of land there, as deeds of sale show, and he lived there between five and six years before removing to Royalton. The Havens' descendants have always understood that Robert was the first settler in Sharon. The first settlers of Sharon must have come in 1764 or 1765, presumably the latter year, but without specific dates, it cannot be stated who was the first pioneer of that town.

Robert Havens, the first settler of Royalton, is said to have come from Killingly, Conn., to Sharon in the summer of 1765. He made a pitch on the East Hill two miles from the present vil- lage. He removed to Royalton some time in 1771, and settled on the place later known as the George Cowdery farm, where Mr. Cowdery's son-in-law now resides, Mr. Irving Barrows. Here Mr. Havens remained five years. No deed of sale is found re- corded, and no record showing how he got possession of this land. He seems to have met some of the New York proprietors, Mr. Kelly in particular, and may have been offered inducements to begin settlement in the new town of Royalton, chartered two years before. He, like many other pioneers, was not able to write, but was a good business man, possessed of uncommon energy, courage, and good sense. When he came to Sharon he was forty-seven years old, and at the time of the Indian raid he was sixty-two, not an "old man," as Steele styles him, at least, he would not be so called today. Just how long he re- mained on his farm near South Tunbridge is not known, but he sold out and removed to South Tunbridge in his old age. He died at the ripe age of eighty-seven, having survived all the hard- ships of pioneer life for a long period of years. He was elected

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

to different town offices in Sharon, from that of fence viewer to selectman, and was employed as surveyor in laying out roads. In 1768 he was one of a committee to locate the grist mill and to lay out the third division of 100-acre lots. He seems to have taken no very active part in the affairs of Royalton, if one may judge from the rare occurrence of his name in the town records. He was once on a committee for building a bridge, and once was elected as highway surveyor. His eldest daughter, Hannah, married Daniel Baldwin of Norwich, and two of her sons, Daniel and Sylvester, have left honorable records as citizens of Mont- pelier. A daughter, Eleanor, married William Lovejoy of Sha- ron, and another daughter, Lorenza, married Daniel, son of Wil- liam Lovejoy. Joseph Havens, a son, was taken prisoner at the burning of Royalton, returned, married, and settled in town, but after a few years removed to York state. Another son, Daniel, lived and died in town, leaving descendants, some of whom are still residents of Royalton, Mrs. John F. Shepard and son Fred. Other descendants of the first settler who are now living in town are Mrs. Betsey Davis, Mrs. Hannah Benson and her family, and the family of the late Charles D. Lovejoy, who descended through Lorenza Havens.

Who the second settler was in Royalton cannot be positively stated. Tradition says it was Elisha Kent. Mr. Kent was the son of a clergyman. He settled near the present village of South Royalton, and the South Royalton cemetery was once a part of the Kent farm. His first log hut was on the meadow, east of the road. He was probably about forty when he migrated to Roy- alton, and had two or three sons. Joseph Moss was born in 1774, and may have been born in Royalton. Mr. Kent was a man of influence in the town, and amassed considerable property for those days. He had a family of eight children. The oldest, John, removed to New York. None of his descendants are living in town. A grandson, Archibald, son of Elisha, Jr., was the last of the Kent name to own the old farm.

Benjamin Parkhurst was another early settler, generally thought to be the third one. Some account of him is given in the chapter on the "Burning of Royalton." In his obituary it is said that he came to Royalton in his 19th year, when no one was living here. His father was Joseph Parkhurst, one of the earliest settlers of Sharon. If his father was the Parkhurst mentioned by Joel Shepard in his narrative, and Benjamin came with him, it would establish the date of the four settlers named by Mr. Shepard, as the summer of 1764, as Benjamin was born in 1745, Dec. 10, and would not be 19 until Dec. 10, 1764. According to Mr. Shepard's account the others except Mr. Marsh returned before Thanksgiving. When Benjamin came from Plainfield,

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

Conn., to settle in Sharon, he passed through Pomfret, where he hired men to cut a road. He settled on the Dana-West farm in Sharon and Royalton, where he lived five years before he removed to his "pitch" above Royalton village in 4 Town Plot. When he transferred his goods to that place, he had no road, but followed the beach of the river on either side, as best he could. Quoting again from his obituary: "He helped raise the first mills in Norwich, Sharon, Pomfret, Royalton, Bethel, and Randolph. - - Mr. Parkhurst assisted in preparing the timber which was used in the first framed building at Hanover Plain. His hands aided in the first erection for the College, which has been so useful and become so distinguished. The honorable men of its alumni, whose eloquent voices are heard in the pulpit and in the halls of Con- gress, may reflect with veneration and affection, that the hands of this aged man, just cold in death, originally had part in rear- ing the seat of learning where they were fitted for public life. He contributed liberally to the College, for one in his circum- stances. Some of the Professors were frequently at his house, and occasionally spent a vacation there. The same was also true of the students who were from Connecticut." Further facts relating to Mr. Parkhurst and his family will be found in the genealogical part of this book.

Isaac Morgan was here in 1775, and perhaps before that time. This year he bought of Whitehead Hicks 211 acres in 5 L. A. and 100 acres in 1 L. A. A few years later he is found running Curtis' Mills, and they are now called Morgan's Mills. He was living at the Mills in 1780. Later he bought the place now called the "Buck Place." He had married a second time when he came to town, and had seven children. Five more were born in Royalton presumably. Isaac, Jr., was born Feb. 3, 1776, and if born in Royalton, may have been the first white male child born in town, unless Joseph Moss Kent had that honor. Mr. Morgan took a foremost part in the affairs of Royalton. At the first recorded March meeting in 1779, he was elected to the offices of selectman, surveyor, lister, sealer of weights and measures, and a member of the ministerial committee. He is the only one of all the officers to be styled "Esquire," which title the clerk was very careful to prefix to his name each time it was mentioned. He lived until 1815, an honored citizen of the town. He was eighty-four years old at the time of his death. His son Isaac resided in Royalton, and like his father had a large family of children, some of whom also lived here for a while, but no de- scendant is known to be here at the present time.

Elias Curtis was probably in Royalton in 1775 or before. It is somewhat difficult to determine his residence at any certain date, as he seems to have alternated between Royalton and Tun- 5

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

bridge. He was an original grantee of Tunbridge in 1761, and was chosen clerk. He was one of a committee to lay out that town into 100-acre lots. He built a saw and a grist mill there. The first meeting was held at the house of John Hutchinson. In . 1783 a meeting was held at the house of Mr. Curtis in Royalton, though why they came to Royalton is not clear. He was one of the leading settlers of Tunbridge, and represented that town in the General Assembly, and was active in promoting its interests, political and religious. He has the honor of erecting the first saw mill and grist mill in Royalton. Isaac Morgan was associ- ated with him in building these mills, and soon ran them. Mr. Curtis lived, probably, on the lot which he got from the proprie- tors for erecting these mills, namely, 35 Dutch Allotment. He held also 39 Dutch. He was a blacksmith in 1780, or at least, had a shop near his house, where he was taken prisoner by the Indians. When he returned from captivity he built a fine resi- dence in Tunbridge, though he seems to have lived some of the time in Royalton. He was a resident of Royalton in 1779, and chosen moderator at the March meeting. He was elected grand juryman in 1782. The next year he was on the Society commit- tee. In 1771 when he deeded land he was a resident of Norwich. In Hartford town records he is found April 21, 1777, selling land in Hartford, at which time he gave Royalton as his residence. In 1785 he was elected selectman in Royalton, and was then styled Colonel Curtis. The next year he was placed on a com- mittee to see about the new surveys. In 1791 he was sent by Tunbridge as a member of the Convention which met at Benning- ton to adopt the Constitution of the United States. In 1800 he was one of three to petition for the right to lay out White River Turnpike. Mr. Curtis spent his last days in Tunbridge, and after a life of great usefulness, he died there in 1827, at the age of seventy-nine.

From the town meeting records it appears that, besides those already named, there were in town March, 1779, Comfort Sever, Lieut. Timothy Durkee, Lieut. Elias Stevens, Nathan Morgan, Lieut. Joseph Parkhurst, Mr. Wallow, (Israel Waller), Mr. Hebard, (John Hibbard), Mr. Day, (Benjamin), Lieut. Benton, (Medad), Rufus Rude, and Tille Parkhurst. This did not in- clude all male voters of the town, of course, but probably did rep- resent most of the families. At a May meeting of the same year, Calvin Parkhurst is named, and at a December meeting, Daniel Gilbert and Lieut. Moors (Nathaniel Morse). John Parkhurst's name is added at a January meeting, 1780, as is also Daniel Rix's. At the March meeting following David Brewster was elected brander of horses. These are all the men noted in the town meet- ing records prior to 1781. Of these there is space only to give

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

some account of the ones most closely identified with the early history of the town, and the records of the others, so far as has been ascertained, will be found in the genealogical half of the History. From land and Revolutionary records, and Steele's narrative it is known that Robert Handy, Jeremiah Trescott, John Billings, Joseph Kneeland, John Evans, and families by the name of Fish and Downer lived here on or before 1780.

A petition of Comfort Sever to the General Assembly shows that he came to Royalton in March, 1778, and settled on 11 Town Plot, and expected a deed also of No. 12, Town Plot. This land included the site of the present schoolhouse at North Royalton. Mr. Sever was a man whose light could not be hid, and he had scarcely set foot in town before he was called upon for advice and service. Perhaps he was too much interested in projects emanating from Hanover, N. H., as witness his agency in secur- ing to Bethel a portion of Royalton. However, he was ever after a loyal citizen of the town, and had weight in its counsels. In the Hanover records we are told that, in the plans for a larger college building between 1771 and 1773, the authorities were in consultation with Comfort Sever of Stillwater, N. Y. He was a carpenter, and settled near the College in 1773, under the patron- age of President Wheelock. He served as a military man before coming to Royalton, and was commissioned as Captain, and was one of the few called true soldiers when, in 1777, Major Wheelock found so many had deserted at Fishkill, N. Y. He was Lieu- tenant at this time, and served 112 days. He was chosen town clerk of Royalton in 1779, which position he held until 1788. That same year, 1779, he was employed by the "inhabitants and owners of land in Royalton" to petition the Assembly to defer the granting of Royalton, as had been decided upon a short time before, by which grant many of the land owners would lose their rights. This action does not appear in the town or proprietors' records. The legislature appointed a committee to go to Royal- ton, investigate, and report. The petition was dated Nov. 6, 1779. At each town meeting that year, with one exception, and there were six meetings, Capt. Sever was called upon to attend to some important business. He was chosen justice of the peace on Dec. 30, and the next January he began service as moderator, and was appointed an agent to treat for the town with the As- sembly respecting the property of non-residents. That year he was chosen clerk, selectman, and treasurer, and was one of the ministerial committee. He was early identified with the First Congregational church, and his name is on the list of members who solemnly renewed covenant in 1782. He continued in pub- lic service until 1788. In 1789 he deeded Bradford Kinney part of 11 and 12, Town Plot, and contracted for the support of him-

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

self and wife. This action may have been due to ill health. In 1793 Mr. Kinney gave Mr. Sever a mortgage on this land to secure payment yearly of £24 during Mr. Sever's life, which mortgage was discharged two years later. Asa Perrin in his diary speaks of the funeral of Mrs. Sever at the red schoolhouse on Sep. 5, 1792, and of the funeral of Sally Fish at Mr. Sever's house June 3, 1804. Mr. Sever married the widow of David Fish in 1794. His name does not appear in the first town list, 1791, though it is found in the census of 1790. From 1799 to 1804 he is listed, but paid no poll tax after 1799, from which it may be inferred that he was sixty in 1800. His family at the time of the census consisted of only himself and wife. He removed to New York state, probably about 1805, where all trace of him is lost, except in 1809, as guardian of Elijah and John Fish, sons of David, he disposed of land belonging to David's estate. He was then in Jefferson, N. Y. Reading between the lines, one can say that Capt. Sever was a man of good judgment, reliable, one whose opinions were respected, and whose advice greatly aided Royalton in her early struggles for existence.

Jeremiah Trescott was another Hanover man. His lineage has not been traced, but it is probable that his father was Jere- miah, a citizen of Hanover, and he may have had an uncle Ex- perience there. The family seems to have been a military one. Jeremiah is credited to Royalton in Capt. Samuel Payne's Com- pany in 1777, and he shares with Capt. Sever in the commenda- tory remarks alluded to in the sketch of Mr. Sever, as being true to his colors, when other soldiers deserted at Fishkill. He was set down as twenty-six years old in Capt. Payne's muster roll in 1777, but his headstone gives his death as occurring Nov. 6, 1824, and his age then as seventy-five. He lived where John F. Shep- ard now lives, and is supposed to have built the old saw mill still running on Mill brook. He seems to have had some pecu- liarities of character, but was a substantial and worthy citizen of the town. His son Thomas succeeded him on the farm, but all trace of the family is lost now. Experience Trescott, a brother of Jeremiah, came to Royalton some years later, and settled on land bought of Jeremiah, the place known as the Franklin Joiner farm.

Elias Stevens shared with Comfort Sever the honor of being the most influential citizen of Royalton during the first decade of its existence. While Mr. Sever's advice was sought, Lieut. Stevens was recognized as a man who "does things." As col- lector, constable, and lister in 1779, he aided in keeping up the business end of the town's affairs. Gen. Stevens had lived in Sharon before coming to Royalton. In 1777 he was on a Com- mittee of Safety there. He took the freeman's oath in Sharon

HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT

March 3, 1778, on April 24th he gave in a deed his residence as Sharon, and on June 5th in another deed his residence is given as Royalton, which would show that he came to Royalton between the last two dates. The inscription on his tombstone states that he came to Royalton at the age of sixteen. He was born in 1754 in Plainfield, Conn. He would have been sixteen in 1770, be- fore Royalton was settled, so there seems to have been a mistake in the inscription. This inscription also states that as a Revo- lutionary soldier he was at Bunker Hill and Saratoga. Gen. Stevens first settled on the Buck place, his home being on the west side of the road. It was on the meadow near his home that the Indians gathered in their plunder before returning after the raid. He removed from this farm after 1780, and lived for many years on the farm below South Royalton, now called the Howard place, on the south side of the river. A few years be- fore his death he moved to a house below his large two-story house, and sold a part of his farm to William Harvey. He first represented the town in the General Assembly in 1783, and at different dates between that time and 1816 he held the office for eleven years. He was placed on important committees, and hon- ored by an election to the Council in 1815. As a member of the militia he received the title of General, and his record will be found in the account of the "General Militia." His promotions were well merited, and his Revolutionary service fitted him for command. He resigned the office of Major General in 1799. He was active in promoting the establishment of a new county to be called Cumberland. He was an enterprising man. He was one of the owners of the White River Turnpike Company, which furnished a good river road through Royalton at a time when it would have been a heavy tax upon the town to build such a road and keep it in repair. He was engaged extensively in land deals. Chase in his History of Dartmouth calls him and others land speculators. They had petitioned the Assembly for land set apart for the use of Moore's Charity School. The petitioners asserted that such a school never had an existence. No other Royalton man approached him in the number of land transac- tions for a quarter of a century from 1780. Although his name is not found as a communicant of the church, he was associated with others in conducting its affairs, and several of his family were members. Mr. George H. Harvey, now a resident of Wood- stock, when a young boy lived in the house with Gen. Stevens a year. This is his description of him:

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History of Royalton, Vermont, with family genealogies, 1769-1911, Part 9

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