USA > Vermont > Rutland County > History of Rutland County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 105
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Mr. and Mrs. Cook came to America in August, 1879, and returned to England again in March, 1881 ; living in London the following summer. In 1882 Mr. Cook erected an elegant residence in Mount Holly, where he has since resided. He has a young family of three chil- dren : George Chauncey, born April 14, 1880; Emma May, born September 21, 1881, and Rosana Alma, born April 13, 1884.
YURRIER, JOHN McNAB, M.D., of Castleton, Vermont, was born in Bath, New Hamp- C shire, August 4. 1832. He was the third son, and the youngest of four children, of Captain Samuel Currier and Rachel Annis, who were among the early settlers of his native town, and were farmers. He received a classical education at Newbury (Vt.) Seminary and Mclndoe's Falls (Vt.) Academy.
He studied medicine with Drs. W. A. Weaks and Enoch Blanchard, of McIndoe's Falls, Vt., Prof. Dixi Crosby, and his son. Prof. Alpheus B. Crosby, of Hanover. N. H .; and gradu- ated in medicine at the medical department of Dartmouth College in 1858. In the.same year he settled at Newport, Vt .. where he practiced medicine until 1871, when he moved to McIndoe's Falls, Vt., where he practiced nearly two years. In 1873 he went to Burlington, \'t., to edit and publish The Vermont Medical Journal, but that proving to be an unprofit- able enterprise, its publication was discontinued, and after remaining in the city of Burlington a little more than one year he went to Bristol, Vt., to resume practice. At Bristol he remained nearly two years, and in 1876 went to Castleton, V't., his present location.
He took an active part in the reorganization of the Orleans County Medical Society, in 1865, and was secretary of it several years. In 1873-74 he was a member of the Chittenden County Medical Society ; also of the Burlington Medical and Surgical Club. He was foremost in the formation of the Rutland County Medical and Surgical Society in 1877, and for several years was its secretary. Through his exertions the Castleton Medical and Surgical Clinic was tormed in 1879, for the purpose of rendering medical and surgical advice and treatment to indigent patients free. He was elected a member of the Vermont Medical Society in 1880.
879
JOHN MCNAB CURRIER, M. D. - JOHN CAIN.
He was me li al . xaminer of volunteers at Newport, Vt., in the War of the Rebellion m 1861- 65, and wa- sorgcon-general of the volunteer militia of Vermont in 1872-73-74 with the rank of brigadier-general, on the staff of Governor Julius Converse. He was examining surgeon for pensions at Bristol in 1875-76. Besides editing the Vermont Medical Journal he con- tributed many articles for other medical periodicals and for medical societies.
Dr. Currier became early interested in all branches of science. Through his zeal and instrumentality the Orleans County Natural and Civil Historical Society was reorganized in 1869 under the name of the Orleans County Society of Natural Sciences. In connection with this society he was editor-in-chief and publisher of i quarterly scientific journal in 1870-71-72- 73-74, bearing the title of Archives of Science and Transactions of the Orleans County Society of Natural Sciences. Through his liberality the publications of this society were sent to nearly three hundred foreign and domestic scientific, literary and historical societies, receiv- ing in return publications in more than twenty different languages.
In 1872 he helped to organize the McIndoe's Falls Scientific Club. At Bristol he was one of several to organize the Bristol Scientific Club in 1874; and after moving to Castleton, aided in the formation of the Castleton Normal School Scientific Club ; of all three of these societies he was secretary, and sought to popularize science by holding frequent meetings and publish- ing the proceedings of them in the various newspapers in the immediate vicinity. He made a large collection of specimens in mineralogy and palæontology, a large portion of which was purchased for the benefit of the public school in the village of Fairhaven, Vt. He also made a large collection in archæology, mostly Vermont specimens; one portion of which was donated to the Vermont Historical Society ; and subsequently the balance was purchased for the cabinet of the University of Vermont.
Dr. Currier was elected a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1879; of the Appalachian Mountain Club in 1883; and of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1884. To the first mentioned society he has contributed several articles on the archæology of Vermont.
In Rutland county Dr. Currier has devoted much of his attention to the study and writing of the local history of the county. He was one of the founders of the Rutland County His- torical Society in 1880, and has been re-elected its secretary from year to year since its organi- zation. He was elected a member of the Vermont Historical Society in ISSo, and in the same year was elected a life member of the New Hampshire Antiquarian Society. He was elected a resident member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society in 1881. Through his zeal and liberality the second volume of the Rutlind County Historical Society was published, and several other important and valuable documents have been published since the organiza- tion of the society. He was a contributor to Hemmenway's Vermont Historical Gazetteer both in Orleans and Rutland counties. He has in ule a large collection of old, rare books, many articles of antiquarian and historic value, and has preserved many historic and genealog- ical manuscripts.
Dr. Currier married, August 8, 1860, Susan Havens Powers, the oldest of two daughters of John D. Powers and Jane B. Carleton, of Woodstock, Vt .; by her he had two children : Linn, born June 8, 1861, and Suza, born June 7, 1867.
( YAIN,1 JOHN, the subject of this sketch, although not " to the manner born," passed a life of usefulness and enterprise in the varied relations of Rutland. He was the son of Thomas and Jane Cannel Cain, and born January 28, 1809, at Castle Town, near Peel, on the Isle of Man, on the estate Lhergydhoo, which has been in possession of his ancestors for many generations. He received the education of the time, such as was afforded the masses of the people. Possessed of a bold. adventurous and independent spirit, at the age of twenty- three he emigrated to this country and settled in Rutland in 1832. He was an architect and builder, a vocation which he pursued diligently for forty years, planning and erecting many buildings, among them being the United States court-house and post-office, the town hall and the Bennington and Rutland Railroad freight depot, He was the pioneer in demonstrating the feasibility of building a railroad over the Green Mountains from Rutland to Bellows Falls. He advocated the theory with great persistence, but his townsmen were faithless and even de- risive in their comments. Possessed of indomitable will and untiring energy, he determined to make a preliminary survey, and on the 26th of December, 1842, drew a subscription addressed to the people, stating its object and signing his own name. After much time he secured the sum of $100 in small amounts. That subscription is still in existence, and the descendants of the signers who have been enjoying the benefits of the enterprise in the town of nearly 20,- ooo inhabitants, as its results, would be surprised at the want of faith of their fathers as indi- cated by the amount each contributed. He was greatly interested in the project of the Port-
I Prepared by Henry Clark, of Rutland.
880
HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
land and Rutland road und was president of the organized corporation. He was closely iden- tified with Rutland interests and for more than thirty years was active in all that tended to promote its prosperity and progress. He held many positions of responsibility in the town government, having been for several years chairman of the board of selectmen. He was post- master of Rutland from 1853 to 1860 and advanced the grade of the office and made many improvements in postal affairs, securing the erection of the United States court-house and post- office. He was an ardent politician of the Democratic school and a prominent man in his party in town, county and State, and frequently a candidate for representative and senator ; was twice a candidate for Congress, and a delegate to four national conventions. In 1857 he estab- lished the Rutland Courier and was its editor until 1873, when it was discontinued. As an editor he was independent and a fearless and bold champion of every cause he espoused. He was a min of varied reading and intelligence, and a poetical writer of considerable skill ; a few of his fugitive pieces attracted wide attention. His last public effort was a poem read be- fore the Vermont Editors' Association a few years before his death. Mr. Cain was a warm friend and a sharp antagonist ; a man of much more than ordinary ability ; possessed of indom- itable will, untiring energy and large individuality, he impressed himself upon the community.
May 24, 18:4, John Cam and Mary, daughter of Avery Billings, a prominent citizen of Rut- land, were married, and his widow still survives. Five children were born to them : William J., John A., Avery B., Mary (wife of Henry C. Harrison), and Jewett P. Three children o survive. William J. and Avery B. died in the regular army, both in 1879. They were brave and efficient soldiers, as their commissions and the following sketches of their lives attest : -
Will im J. Cain was born in Pittsford March 26, 1835. He received an academic education and at the breaking out of the Rebellion was reading law. He went out as quartermaster- sergeant in the Second Vermont Regiment and was in the battle of Bull Run. He resigned his position and enlisted as a private in the U. S. Light Artillery in 1862 ; was with General Pleasanton's advance on Antietam, and was at the battle of Fredericksburgh. He received a commission as second lieutenant in the Third Regular Cavalry in February, 1862 ; was pro- moted to first lieutenant October 9, 1865; served on the staffs of Generals Sherman, Logan and Harrison ; participated in the battles of Chattanooga, Kenesaw Mountain, Missionary Ridge and Atlanta ; was at the side of General McPherson when he was shot by rebel sharpshooters ; promoted for gallant services March 10, 1865. After the close of the war he was stationed at Memphis, Little Rock. Fort Smith, Albuquerque and Santa Fe. In 1867 he commanded a cavalry escort to General Wright's surveying party through Colorado, New Mexico and Ari- zona to the Pacific Coast ; after leaving the army he was a surveyor on the Northern Pacific Railway, and later was at the head of the freight department of the Missouri and Texas Rail- road, at Sedaha. Two years previous to his death he was stricken with paralysis, the result of exposure in his army experience, which ended his life. He was twice married ; first to Patrea Chaives, a Spanish lady, by whom he left one son, who now resides with his grand- mother. He afterwards married Elizabeth, daughter of ex-Lieutenant-Governor William C. Kittredge.
Avery Billings Cain was born in Rutland February 18, 1840. He received the education of the Rutland schools. A vacancy occurring in the army, the Hon. Solomon Foot telegraphed lus personal friend, Mr. Cain's father, tendering young Cain the place, and he was at once commissioned second heutenant in the Fourth United States Infantry, August 5, 1861. He Served in the Army of the Potomac during the entire war and proved himself an officer of most distinguished personal gallantry. He commanded his company at Yorktown, Fair Oaks, Gaines's Mill, Malvern Hill, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam and Chancellors- ville. At the latter battle he won his brevet of captain for exceptional gallantry and was com- missioned October 9, 1863. He commanded his regiment at Spottsylvania, North Anna River, Pottsville Creek, Cold Harbor, Weldon Railroad and Petersburgh. At the terrible passage of the North Anna River, his heroic conduct won him the brevet of major. The Fourth and Second regulars were so much reduced by the carnage of this awful campaign that only a mere remnant of two hundred men remained ; they were detailed under command of Major Cain for guard duty at General Grant's headquarters, in which capacity they served until the surrender of Lee. Major Cain's regiment lost over 1,400 men during the Rebellion. Atter the war he was stationed in command of various military posts on the Canadian frontier, New York harbor and in the Western Territories. He accompanied General Crook in his expedi- tion against the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the summer of 1876, and in the battle fought on the 17th of June, of that year, performed valiant service. In that engagement he led two companies of infantry into the thickest of the fight, and held the bluffs for over half an hour under a fearful fire from a body of Indians who outnumbered his troops twenty to one. These were a part of the sanie band of Indians who seven days later massacred the gallant Custer and his men. He was stationed at Chicago during the riots of 1877 and remained until order was restored.
88 1
JOHN CAIN. - COLONEL ALONSON ALLEN.
He was married to Anna Cooper, daughter of United States Senator Cooper, of Pennsyl- vania, October 31, 1867. He left no children, and died at Fort Laranne March 16, 1879. Major Cain was a brave and cool officer : a personal favorite, because of his excelent military record, with both Generals Grant and Sherman, who showed him unusual marks of personal regard. A sketch of this brave soldier merits a place in the history of his native county.
LLEN, COLONEL ALONSON. Few men, if any, have so indelibly left their impress Y upon the history of any town in the county as did Colonel Allen upon the town of Fair- haven and indeed the western portion of Rutland county. His more than forty-two years of residence were years of incess int and herculean labor.
Young men of to-day, looking abroad upon the two great mining industries of this county. only dimly discern the rugged way over which the pioneers struggled and toiled. Men scarcely beyond middle life call to mind the hills of Rutland, Fairhaven, Poultney, before the blows of quarrymen or the crash of explosion awakened the echoes. Resources upon all sides, now apparently inexhaustible, were slumbering possibilities awaiting the summon of huraan wills.
To write the story of one who was a pioneer in developing either of these great industries, marble or slate, would be to tell of years of labor unremitting. beset by discouragements, em- barrassment and misfortunes, sometimes disaster, with little money, without knowledge or ex- perience, with no central market but with a scattered and precarious trade, compelled to give long and doubtful credits-his was no bed of roses. There is a peculiar and added emphasis if. after having withstood the strain incident to the attainment of fortune from one untried indus- try, with courage he boldly sets himself at work to unearth still other possible sources of wealth, becoming the pioneer and only early promoter of a kindred, the slate industry. To command from the worthless rocks two industries which should be the means of making pos- sible thousands of happy homes in this valley of the Champlain, was at once the ambition as it was the mission of Colonel Allen.
His grandfather, Deacon Timothy Allen, removed from Woodbury, Conn., to Pawlet in this county, in 1768. He was first cousin of General Ethan Allen. His father, also Deacon Timothy Allen, passed his early years in the latter town, and as a member of Colonel Herrick's regiment, participated in the battle of Bennington. The subject of this sketch was born in Bristol, Vt., where his father had settled some years previous, on August 22, 1800. He was the youngest but one of nine children, all of whom he survived.
In 1814 his father removed to Hartford, Washington county, N. Y., to which place Alonson soon followed. The twenty succeeding years were passed there. Wanting the physical strength to pursue the carpenter's trade. to which he was early apprenticed, he turned to mer- cantile pursuits, and was soon offered a clerkship in the store of Joseph Harris, then the lead- ing merchant in town and perhaps in the county. His rare business qualifications soon be- came apparent to his employer, and after two years' service he offered to start him in business in a neighboring village. The new firm was A. Allen & Co., Mr. Harris being the Co. After about two years together, Mr. Allen purchased his partner s interest, and with the exception of about two years conducted the business alone, until the spring of 1835. when, disposing of his store, he went for a short time to Conesus, Livingston county, N. Y., where he also engaged in trade; returning in March, 1836, he removed to Fairhaven, where he remained to the close of his life, and where he died September 5. 1878. Here he found that broader field for the exercise of his restless activity, which his inclination and capacity sought. Purchasing a bank- rupt stock of goods, he at once entered ardently into the mercantile business. deternuned to compel success in a town where nearly all enterprises had failed.
Finding himself well established in town, in 1838, two years after his arrival, he leased from Jacob Davey the iron works then lying idle. These works had been operated since 1795, and consisted of forge, rolling and slitting-mill and nail-mill, the rolling-mill having been the first one erected between New York city and Canada. In this enterprise there were associated with him Israel McConnell, of Hebron, and Harvey Brown, of Hartford, N. Y., though they gave no time to the business. During the four following years we find the products of these mills-nails and iron-scattered from New Hampshire to Wisconsin, the latter State being reached by the then new Erie Canal and the lakes, and the New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Ver- mont and New York trade being supplied by teams which were sent out with the goods, jetuin- ing with old scrap iron from which the new was largely though not altogether produced. Iron ore was brought from Peru and Moriah, N. Y., via Lake Champlain to Whitehall, thence mine miles by teams. The coal for smelting was made from the surrounding forests.
As illustrating the energy and enterprise now brought to this business it may be stated that in 1840 depots for the distribution of these nails were established at Detroit and Milwaukee. Having about this time an opportunity to exchange nails for cook stoves, one thousand were purchased and forwarded to the Milwaukee house.
56
882
HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
The business seems to have been in a prosperous state when in March. 1842, the Works were consumed by fire, and, suffering as well from the workings of a law then in force in the State of New York, known as the "one-third act," which permitted a person to enter bank- ruptcy upon obtaining the consent of one-third of his creditors, and from the effect of the panic of 1836, as from the loss by the conflagration, and again from what seems to have been a heavier blow to his ambition and spirit than either, the loss of his wife, he abandoned the lease of the iron mills, and for a short time devoted himself exclusively to trade. About 1839 his atten- tion had been directed to sheets of slate obtained two miles north of the village. The character- istics of this slate-color, texture, strength-bore marked resemblance to the Welsh slate then in common use for school slates. No doubt, because of preoccupation, he did not at once begin the work of quarrying : the undertaking was permitted to rest and not abandoned. The plans had so far taken shape in 1842 that he leased from Captain Caleb B. Ranney a plot of land upon which work was begun. This is a portion of what now belongs to the Scotch Hill Slate Company. Here he was in an entirely new field. He wished to manufacture school slates, but no one knew the methods by which the slate should be raised from its bed, and much less with what appliances cheaply transformed into the nicely finished article. At length, finding a man who knew something of quarrying this stone, he went to work, erecting a building adjoming the iron mills, situated upon the upper falls in Fairhaven village, and filled it with machinery of his own invention, which, at the time, proved to be the most efficient and eco- nomical then in use in this country or in Europe. The change in the tariff in 1845 opened the American market to the German slates, and the competition became so oppressive as to expel him from the market, and agam turning away from his mill and idle machinery, he set himself at work to develop another and less known branch of this industry, namely: the making of slate shingles for roofs of buildings. During the next four years progress was unavoidably slow, owing to mimerou- causes, among which was the impossibility of securing men of expe- mente in the worlding of the quarries, and the difficulty and expense experienced from the ah ence of radro ids in distributing the slate . Loc illy and in nearly all directions shingles were will abundant and cheap. Importations from Wales, it is true, had been going on in the sea- For oties in a limited way possibly during one hundred years, but few indeed penetrated Grdi mlund, and as a result scarcely anything was known of their use or value in all this coun- 0\ mitsplea bit dozen towns.
His resources of will and skill could produce the states, but now began the struggle of sell- jag and obstribati them. The importers of Welsh and other European slates were un- lindh medan bak refused to purchase them, but by methods perhaps not less familiar at that time than in thus, discountenanted and denounced them. Those engaged in the laying of the shoes the slaters-for the most part old countrymen, listening not more to the importers Han to their own ,dejudi es, were backward indeed to take them, and so only by unusual and for the time unprost it - mouvements were the slaters brought to favor them. An attempt to set forth the bus nach's modent to the work of creating markets and educating the people to the value of testes trong unequaled roofing, and of organizing a class of men adequately mtormai if bu-me methods to prepare them for contractors competent and responsible, is hot ou put tet. Suthed it that dong these years, none ventured into the new field of indus- 1. because The new und was only labor without recompense. With the building of the railroad 1 1849. of which enterprise he was an active promoter, and of which he was vice-president at his death, he w is enabled alnost mmediately to establish the business upon such a basis as to render it one of the foremost industries in the State. In 1852 he purchased from Jonathan Ca- pen his farm of one himfred and sixty actes one mile east of the village. It proved, as he an- ticipated it would, to be one of the largest and most excellent deposits upon the entire slate range. The quarry first developed, consisting of twenty-two acres, he sold to the Fairhaven Marble and Marbleved Stare Company, upon the organization of that company in 1869. The remainder of this estatei- in tia hands of his family, and a number of excellent quarries are being worked. For a member of years previous to his death he could ride from north to south through nearly forty males, along the borders of two States, and count scores of derricks and watch the profitable labor of thousands and number a thousand homes which were the fruits and to him the bountiful frompense of his early forethought. discernment and enterprise. He lived to see the products of his quarries wrought for a hundred purposes, from the tiny ear-drop in its setting of gold, to the massive stone work in the facade of a building, and to see the quarries of Vermont, in addition to a domestic trade spanning the continent, sending annually to England, Germany and other countries, thousands of car loads. Is it strange that sometimes with this in view, and as he recalled the stubbornness of the conflict with English slates, in his quiet way he would say, "Carrying coals to Newcastle "? Col. Allen's reputa- tion for energy and sagacity was now so conspicuous, that his co-operation was in request when new enterprises were projected. Consequently, when, in 1845, Mr. Joseph Adams, a former citizen of Fairhaven, returning from a residence of a few years in Wisconsin, sought business, Mr. Allen was readily enlisted in the project of erecting a mill for sawing Rutland marble.
S83
COLONEL ALONSON ALLEN.
Alınangh his means was already considerably absorbed in other pursuits, aol nowwith- standing los contribution was generous, the money and credit at con brand bengalought im- sufficient to the demands of the new business, Hon. W. C. Kittredge, a laver of mine and a gentienigof high character and worth, became associated, and the venture was bian hed under the separtnership of Kittredge. Allen & Adams, Judge Kittredge, however, .minh- uted neuno money nor time, his name alone doing service. Two years later the other part- ners porch bed Mr. Kittredge's interest, and the firm became Allen & Adams. Notwithstand- ing the watchful care demanded by the slate branch of his now extensive business, he gave to . the development of the marble industry that untemitting labor and care which so many others so well know is essential to success. They leased from Francis Slason, of West Rutland, with right of purchase, about nine acres of quarry, the same subsequently and successively owned by Adams & Allen. Parker, Gilson & Clement and at this time by Gilson & Woodfin. Materials for erecting an eight gang mill were accumulated, two unles west of Fairhaven village upon the Poultney River. This site was abandoned before the work of erection began, and a pur- chase of ten acres made in the village, a new dam thrown across the stream, that now, known as the third or lower dam. This opportune change in locations, Colonel Allen often said de- termined the fortunes of the enterprise. During ten years, in the fullness of a robust intelli- gence and staunch manhood, he wrought laboriously and wisely in pushing forwird two kin- dred industries. Since coming into town twenty years before he had been the leading, most of the time the only merchant, alone in the business until 1846, when his nephew, Ira C. Allen, became his partner. Beginning now to feel the draft upon his physique, and also the import- ance of concentrating his means upon one or the other of the two important enterprises in hand, he determined to sell his interest in the marble, and accordingly he transferred to his nephew just named one-fourth interest in 1851 and the remaining one-fourth in 1854, and in the latter year his connection with the marble trade ceased. Thenceforth he devoted his energy and means to the slate, expanding it as the wants of the people directed, and so filled his years until his seventy-seventh when he retired from active labor. At the time of his death he had been for nine years the president of the Fairhaven Marble and Marbleized Slate Company.
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