History of Rutland County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 114

Author: Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925. 1n; Rann, William S
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 1170

USA > Vermont > Rutland County > History of Rutland County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 114

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John B. Page, son of William and Cynthia A. Page, was educated in the common schools of Rutland, and for a time student at Burr Seminary in Manchester. He was taken from

923

JOHN BOARDMAN PAGE.

school at the age of seventeen to assist his father in the bank, and acted as clerk or teller until 1849, when he was made cashier at the age of twenty-three, and just before his father's death. He continued to be its cashier until 1866, when the bank became part of the national banking system. At that time he became its president and acted in that capacity until 1884. In 1852 he obtained the charter of the Rutland Savings Bank and effected its organization, acting as its treasurer for many years. He was always efficient in business, and was active in whatever tended to progress and development. These traits gave him an early interest in public mat- ters, in which he has all his life been prominent. He was one of the promoters of the Rutland school system, a projector of the old Rutland Academy, one of the subscribers to and the most active solicitor of its funds. Largely through his efforts a building was constructed and an excellent school established, which was afterwards merged into the Rutland graded school district. Of this latter organization he was long an efficient trustee, and in fact popular edu- cation has had no firmer friend in Rutland than John B. Page. He had always been ready to aid every effort to advance its interests - more than that, he had been always ready to lead in such efforts - and when he once put his hand to an enterprise he knew no looking back. He was also one of the trustees of Middlebury College, and of Burr and Burton Seminary. He held all manner of local offices, and if at certain times he sought to hold them it was because he firmly believed that he could be of genuine service to the State in their administration. It was a source of great pleasure to him that he was almost unanimously elected as president of the village in 1882, and he entered into the details of the office to the best of his ability as he had in his youth.

He had a leading part in the creation of our fire department, and is remembered as fore- man of the " Nickwacketts," standing on the machine at a tournament and urging his men to victory. He was chairman of the committee which provided the present excellent water sup- ply of the village. He inaugurated many other public improvements. In 1852, '53 and'54 he represented Rutland in the State Legislature, and again in 1880. In 1860 he was elected treasurer of the State and filled that office until 1866. During these years the office of State treasurer was no sinecure. The war expenditures of the State were large and varied and were especially complicated by the extra pay of seven dollars per month given every Vermont sol- dier by the State. The duties of treasurer embraced not only the providing of funds to meet these extraordinary calls, in which large financial ability was required and was afforded, but also the most careful and accurate expenditure of all these moneys distributed among 30,000 men, assigned by them largely to their families at home, and all under novel circumstances where no light could be gained by the experience of the past. The whole system of the office had to be organized and checks and balances provided as in a new machine, the result being most eminently satisfactory to every citizen. The administration of the State treasury by John B. Page during the war is one of those epochs in our State history that our citizens are proud of. His treasurer's office at Rutland as organized and carried on is well remembered by our citizens, and many of our prominent business men of to-day obtained their business education there. The results of his administration of this office were computed in his last official report, showing the cost to the State of the suppression of the great Rebellion, and also showing in gross the moneys raised and expended through his agency. The balance was as follows : -

Paid on governor's warrants,

$1, 179.938 08

Extra pay of $7 per month

3,275,804 92

Direct tax paid the United States.

179.407 80

4.635,150 80

Reimbursed to the State by the U. S.

607,303 II

4.027.847 69

Ordinary expenses, etc.

878,245 57

State bonds paid.

150,000 00

5,056.093 26

Taxes assessed.

3.406,093 26

State bonds outstanding.

1,650,000 00

$5.056,093 26

These figures tell a story that any man might be proud of, and that the State of Vermont will never forget. In recognition of his services as State treasurer, the Republicans of Ver- mont in 1867 elected him governor of the State, and he was re-elected to the same office in 1868. His administration of this office was a recognized success. With his intimate knowl- ·edge of State affairs and finances it could not be otherwise. His messages were practical

924

HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.

and plain, directed chiefly to matters of internal improvement, development of business, agri- culture and trade, and to educational topics, in which he kept up the highest interest.

While carrying on these public services Governor Page was also engaged in the conduct of large private enterprises of a public nature. In 1860 he was made one of the trustees of the second mortgage bondholders of the Rutland and Burlington Railroad. These trustees. were then in possession of the road. They were without credit and almost without income. The rolling stock was almost worn out, and the road bed, not thorughly built at first, had been allowed to run down until it approached the condition of the famous western bankrupt railroad - only a streak of rust and a right of way. This was especially true of the eastern half of the road, which was thoroughly unsafe and quite unfit for business. Governor Page took up the matter with his usual energy, and ten years later saw a well built, well equipped railroad, its volume of business nearly quadrupled, its connections to the north, south and west assured, and itself a recognized power in the land. The result in the organization of the Rut- land Railroad Company and the lease to the Central Vermont, of which Governor Page was for a time vice-president, are well known. Besides his long presidency of the Rutland Rail- road Company, he was also intimately connected with the reorganization of the Vermont Val- ley road, with the Montreal and Plattsburgh, the Plattsburgh and Whitehall, the Addison, the Sullivan County, the Vermont and Massachusetts, the steamer Oakes Ames, etc. He also- operated the Bennington and Rutland rond for a time, in connection with Governor Smith, and did a great deal of work connected with the proposed Caughnawaga canal, which, however, never became an accomplished fact. He was one of the promoters of the now famous New York, West Shore and Buffalo line, its president for a time, and deeply interested in its con- struction. He became a director of the Howe Scale Company at Brandon, in 1874 and after a time secured the removal of the works and business to Rutland, where it has become one of the prominent industries of the nation, furnishing employment to a large number of skilled workmen, and benefiting the town in ways without number. In fact, no step has ever been taken of so much and so obvious value to the town of Rutland as was the establishment of this enterprise in our village. And the natural prosperity of the town has always been a mat- ter of extreme solicitude to John B. Page. The interest he has always exhibited in this sub- ject was well exemplified in his securing, when the railroad was leased, a provision that the shops at Rutland should not be abandoned.

We have not space to enumerate the numberless other activities of this busy life - his four journeys to Europe, where his first wife died, his relations to the marble industries of the town and vicinity, his constant labors in all directions to keep in motion the wheels of manu- facture and of trade. Something of all this is known to our readers, and time will not permit its recapitulation in detail. How many of our young men he has assisted by kind words, by loans of money and of credit, by his influence, by employment furnished, no one now can tell.

But in conclusion we cannot forbear to add a fragment of testimony in respect to another phase of his life-work, which his relatives and friends esteem more highly than all his political and business career. We refer to his efforts in the cause of Christianity. He was a worker in this field as in every other. He became a member of the Congregational Church in 1858, was elected superintendent of the Sabbath-school in 1868, and chosen deacon in 1871. As a leading member of the church he urged forward to completion the construction of the house of worship which the society now enjoys, being chairman of the building committee and tak- ing the closest oversight of every detail. He occupied the same position in relation to the chapel extension, so that the entire edifice, without question the most complete and satisfac- tory of its kind in Vermont, is chiefly due to his labors, efforts and oversight. As superintend- ent of the Sabbath-school, also, he expended his warmest love, doing his best without stint, and limited in his labors only by his capacity for work. His most prominent relation to the church, however, has been in connection with the American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions, a subject in which he always took a deep and unfeigned interest. He became a corporate member in 1867 and attended its annual meetings with great regularity. In 1876 at the meeting in Providence, against the advice of the leaders who were burdened with the weight of a debt which they could not reduce and dared not undertake to carry over, Gover- nor Page stepped to the front alone and led an effort for its immediate extinguishment. He so stirred the vast audience by his words, appeals and efforts, that in a single evening the whole amount required was raised, and this most noble society restored to a position of vant- age which has never since been lost. His characteristics can be inferred from his deeds. In three things he excelled many : in tireless labor, in courage and in benevolence.

Ex-Governor Page died at his home in Rutland, October 24, 1885. He was twice married, first to Mary Reynolds, of Boston, by whom he had three children : William R., Edward D., and Helen L., wife of Henry S. Downe, of Fitchburg, Mass .; and afterwards to Harriet E. Smith, of Winchester, N. H., leaving four children by her : Catharine R., John H., Henrietta R. and Margaret E.

925

GENERAL LEVI G. KINGSLEY.

K INGSLEY, GENERAL LEVI G. The subject of this sketch is a gentleman of quiet and unostentatious business life, and yet has been called to many positions of responsi- bility and honor in the State and in public institutions and societies, His direct ancestors came to this country in the last century and settled at Hartford, Conn. Salmon Kingsley came to Rutland county between 1775 and 1780 locating in the town of Ira. He had seven sons, one of whom, Chester, was for a time a resident of Burlington, but settled in Shrewsbury in 1812, where he engaged in the business of carding wool and dressing cloth, near the town line of Clarendon, now known as East Clarendon. He had a family of nine sons, two of whom, Hor- ace and Harrison, still reside in Clarendon ; Henry in Middlebury, Chester in Salisbury, Amos at Long Lake, Wis., and Harvey, father of Levi G., in Rutland, still vigorous at the advanced age of seventy-eight years. Three of the sons are deceased. There were seven daughters, two of whom are still living at Brandon.

Levi Gleason, son of Harvey and Elvira Gleason Kingsley, was born in Shrewsbury, May 21, 1832. His maternal grandfather, Stephen Gleason, was a prominent citizen of Shrews- bury, and with him Levi G. passed a portion of his youth, receiving the education of the com- mon schools of that day and afterward attending for two terms the Brandon Seminary ; in 1854 he was at Norwich University (a military school at Norwich, Vt.), which in 1882 very deservedly conferred upon him the honorary degree of Bachelor of Sciences. He has been a trustee of his alma mater for the past fifteen years and has done much to promote its interests. During the intervals of his periods of study he assisted his father in the woolen mill, into whose possession it had passed ; in teaching school a short time, and for a time acting as station agent on the railroad at East Clarendon. From 1857 to 1859 he was employed at Rutland in the frieght department of the Rutland and Burlington Railroad. In the latter year with Benjamin French, he purchased the hardware store of J. & A. Landon, where the wholesale grocery store of E. D. Keyes & Co. now is. The business was removed in 1863 to the present location and the partnership ceased with the death of Mr. French in 1865, since which Mr. Kingsley has conducted the business alone, and has added largely to it as the growth of the town de- manded ; it is now one of the most complete establishments in the State.

General Kingsley, having a natural taste in the direction of military science and having ac- quired a military education at Norwich University, became a member of the Rutland Light Guard, a popular company organized in 1858, then under command of General H. Henry Bax- ter, and afterward of General William Y. W. Ripley. He was elected lieutenant of the company November 10, 1859, and when that company patriotically responded to the call for troops in 1861, and unanimously joined the First Regiment of Vermont Volunteers, he (like hundreds of others) left his business and went to the front as second lieutenant of the company and served during the three months for which the company was mustered. On his return he again gave his attention to his business interests. On the organization of the nine months' men, a large part of his old company returned to the field and he was elected its captain, but before the regiment left the State he was promoted to major, a position he creditably filled until the end of the term of service. He was elected and commissioned captain of Company A, of the Ninth Regiment of the National Guard in December, 1864, and elected colonel January 17, 1865 ; he occupied that post until the regiment was mustered out in the fall of 1865. In October, 1874, he was elected by the Legislature quartermaster-general of the State, holding the office by four re-elections until 1882. He was untiring in his labors for the State in this department, thoroughly re-organizing many features of it and saving the State much expense by his econ- omy and foresight. It was during his administration that the National Guard of Vermont was put upon a firm basis and fully equipped. He was elected brigade commander of the National Guard of Vermont in 1882, a position and rank he holds at the present time. In so large a measure have his military services been appreciated, and through his universal popularity, the present military company of Rutland, one of the foremost organizations in the State, bears the name of Kingsley Guard, in his honor. The military career of General Kingsley has been one of great usefulness, one of work and earnest effort. In 1880 the Legislature made an appro- priation to send two companies of the National Guard to the Yorktown, Va., centennial cele- bration. The whole arrangements were made by General Kingsley and accomplished with credit and at less cost than the amount appropriated by the State. A prominent gentleman and soldier of Vermont said of General Kingsley, in speaking of his military record, " He was a popular and efficient officer, esteemed by his fellow officers and men. He was always ready to do his duty, and was well informed in all that pertains to military life. As a State officer it may safely be said, Vermont never had a better or more efficient servant in the positions he has occupied."

General Kingsley is in the prime of life. The records of the high positions he has held, which have met the approval of his comrades and fellow citizens, for his efficient and honor- able service, indicate the estimation in which he is held in the community and State. In pri- vate life his courteous and affable manner and his broad and liberal views have won him many friends in all circles.

926

HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.

In the town of his residence General Kingsley occupies a prominent place in its business and takes a leading position in public affairs and the promotion of its industries and prosperity. He has been from his first residence an active member of the fire department and is one whose labors did much to place it in its present efficient standing ; he has been foreman of the Kil- lington Steamer Company for seventeen years. He occupies a conspicuous position in the Grand Army of the Republic and is the present commander of Roberts Post, which is the largest in the State. He is also actively identified with the Masonic fraternity and has held many official relations with the institution in all its branches. He was grand captain general and grand generalissimo of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of Vermont.

General Kingsley has been twice married : First to Luceba J. Ross, in 1857; she died in March, 1862. On the 14th of June, 1865, he married Cornelia S. Roberts, a sister of Colonel George T. Roberts and of Mrs. H. Henry Baxter. Their children are Henry Baxter Kingsley, born November 21, 1867, and Harvey Roberts Kingsley, born January 8, 1871.

CALARK, HON. MERRITT, eldest son of General Jonas Clark, was born in Middletown, February 11, 1803. He received the education of the common schools, and having a de- sire for liberal education, fitted for college at the Rutland County Grammar School at Castleton. He graduated at Middlebury College in 1823, in a class of eighteen, of whom six are now liv- ing : Rev. Thomas J. Conant, D.D., of Rochester University ; Francis Markoe, who has been forty years in the State department at Washington ; Hon. Harvey Button, of Wallingford, Vt .; Rev. Lucius L. Tilden, of Nashua, N. H., and Rev. Louis McDonald.

He studied for a year in the office of his father, who was a leading lawyer of his time. His health failing he was obliged to enter upon other and more active pursuits. After a short service as a clerk in New York city he opened a store in Middletown in 1825. A partnership was formed with his younger brother, Horace Clark, which continued until his death in 1852. During this period, in 1841, he was elected cashier of the Bank of Poultney, a position he oc- cupied more than forty years. They were further connected in business. In 1848 a railroad was projected from Rutland to Eagle Bridge, N. Y., connecting with the Troy and Boston railroad, of which the brothers were the moving spirits, and entered into the enterprise with characteristic energy and perseverance. The Rutland and Washington Railroad Company was organized February 23, 1848. Merritt Clark was elected its president, a position he held until its completion and several years afterward, and was one of the directors until it passed into the possession of Jay Gould. He was also actively identified with the construction of the Albany Northern railway, leading from Eagle Bridge to Albany. The exhausting labors performed in these years would have broken down a man of less vigorous constitution, and his brother, Horace Clark, who was associated with him, did fall at his post before the completion of the work, which placed additional burdens on Mr. Clark, all of which he performed with energy and calmness that has ever been characteristic of him.

A public recognition of the services of Mr. Clark and his brother in building a connecting line of railway from Rutland to the valley of the Hudson was made in August, 1852, on which occasion were assembled leading business men from Albany, Troy and other towns upon the line of the road. A presentation of plate and expression of public sentiment was then given to Mr. Clark for his services. A work thirty or forty years ago regarded as Herculean pales before the concentrated capital and enterprise of the present day and seems almost forgotten. A former history of Poultney contains an account of the presentation as published in Albany and other papers at that period.

He has been much in public life - called to positions by the unsolicited favor of his fellow citizens. He has served his town in varied relations for a succession of years, especially for more than forty years as a justice of the peace. He represented Middletown in the Legislature in 1832, '33 and '39, and Poultney in 1865, and '66, and was a senator from Rutland county in 1863, '64, '68, '69, and a member of the State Constitutional Convention in 1870. He was United States pension agent for Vermont from 1845 to 1848.

He was identified with the Democratic party until 1861, and was twice a member of Na- tional Democratic Conventions, and was the Democratic candidate for Congress in 1850, and in 1854 and '55 for governor.

He has taken great interest in the higher institutions of learning and has been a liberal patron of Middlebury College and Troy Conference Academy at Poultney, and many years a trustee, and has been for fifty-one years a trustee of Castleton Seminary. A gentleman of fine literary taste and scholarship, he has been a terse and vigorous writer, especially upon business, finance and legislative affairs. Several of his reports to the Legislature, both in the Senate and House, were published and attracted wide attention. He was for four years a lead- ing member of the Vermont State Board of Education. In a vigorous old age, retired from active business, yet he accomplishes and has given his attention somewhat to historical matters, and occasionally prepares an interesting sketch for publication.

927

MARSHALL TARBELL.

He married Laura L. Langdon, of Castleton, who died November 20, 1869. He has two sons, Henry Clark, of Rutland, the editor of this work, and Edward Clark, residing in Poultney.

PARBELL, MARSHALL, was born March 14. 1829, on the homestead settled by his grandfather, Edmund Tarbell, in the town of Mount Holly, Rutland county, Vt. His life has been passed within sixty rods of the place of his birth. His father's name was Luther Tarbell, and his mother was Fidelia Tucker, daughter of Stephen Tucker, of Mount Holly. Marshall Tarbell is the eldest of five children (three boys and one girl beside himself ) all of whom are deceased except one brother and himself. His early life was passed in attendance at the district school and assisting his father and mother about the home, which comprised a small farm and one of the old-fashioned saw-mills. When he had reached the age of fifteen years his time was constantly employed in arduous toil about the mill and in driving team to haul logs and lumber, and flour from Whitehall, N. Y. This period of labor called out in his early years those qualities which in later life enabled him to conquer the obstacles he encountered, and developed within him a spirit of energy and habits of industry and activity which have since given him prominence in the town.

On the 14th of March, 1852, he was married to Finett E. Chapman, of Mount Holly. At this time he bought of his uncle, Calvin Tarbell, a homestead interest in the saw-mill, and in September, 1852, he and his father purchased the old potato starch factory across the river from the saw-mill. Lacking capital, this last purchase was made on credit. A portion of the factory was taken down and the remainder rebuilt as a factory for the manufacture of hand and drag rakes and tool handles. He associated with himself a blind man named Addison Warner, who was familiar with the use of the lathe, and the making of fork handles, etc., and they met with deserved success. But after a profit of about $5,000 was made, it was all swept away by fire on the night of February 4, 1858. The loss was a severe one, as beside the total loss of the property, it being uninsured, the burning of the factory caused a break in the business and disappointment to many customers. Mr. Tarbell's house was burned at the same time. Willing friends offered to contribute to aid in rebuilding the factory ; the offers were respect- fully declined, and he showed the energy and tenacity of purpose for which he is noted, by erecting a new factory 30x40 feet and two stories high, with an ell 16x20, sheds, etc., with a new house for himself and a barn. These buildings were all erected in the spring and summer of 1858. Daniel P. Tarbell and S. H. Chaffee were taken into the old firm of L. & M. Tarbell, under the new style of L. Tarbell & Co. Lester Tarbell died in August, 1860, and the re- maining members of the firm purchased the interest of the deceased, and the firm name be- came M. Tarbell & Co. In the spring of 1866 M. & D. P. Tarbell (the firm name) purchased Mr. Chaffee's interest. D. P. Tarbell died in December, 1876, since which time Marshall Tar- bell has carried on the business alone.

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History of Rutland County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 114

Author: Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925. 1n; Rann, William S Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co. Number of Pages: 1170

Author: Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925. 1n; Rann, William S
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 1170