USA > Vermont > Rutland County > History of Rutland County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 73
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TOWN OF FAIRHAVEN.
He studied medicine with Dr. O. C. Dyer, of Brandon, and Dr. T. E. Wake- field, of Fairhaven, and in 1877 was graduated from the medical department of the University of Vermont. He came at once to Fairhaven. Dr. R. Lape was born November 1, 1854, at Sand Lake, Rensselaer county, N. Y. He studied medicine with Dr. William H. Nichols, of West Sand Lake, and was graduated from Albany Medical College in 1877. After a few months' prac- tice with Dr. Nichols he came to Fairhaven in 1877.
Dr. A. S. Murray was born in Orwell, Vt., July 5, 1849. After taking a practical course of study with Dr. Spark, of Burlington, he attended the Hahnemann Medical College in Chicago, from which he graduated in the spring of 1882. Previous to that, however, he attended lectures for two years at the university in Burlington. He began to practice in Fairhaven in the spring of 1882. He is of the homeopathic school.
Dr. E. G. Roberts was born in Carnarvon, North Wales, on the 25th of August, 1850. He studied medicine in Belfast College of the Royal Univer- sity of Ireland and then practiced for eight years in Wales. In the spring of 1884 he was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and came im- mediately to Fairhaven to practice.
Dentists .- Dr. Clark Smith, who has been mentioned as a druggist of long standing, has practiced dentistry in Fairhaven since 1857.
O. H. Morehouse was born on the 9th of June, 1844, in Brandon, Vt., studied dentistry with Dr. F. Pierce, of Brandon ; practiced a year in Rutland and removed to Fairhaven in 1873.
G. L. Gutterson was born on the 12th of November, 1851, in Andover, Vt. He was graduated from the Boston Dental College in the spring of 1883, and came at that time to Fairhaven.
Hotels .- Although Fairhaven boasts now of but one prominent hotel, it has in earlier days been well supplied with these conveniences. Some men- tion has already been made of the earliest taverns, but the Vermont Hotel de- serves in this place a brief sketch. It stood on the site of the Knight block and was in part constructed from the old dwelling-house of Colonel Matthew Lyon, which was the first building erected on this site, and which constituted the rear extension of the Vermont Hotel. S. Fish bought the lot and the old building which stood thereon, of Israel Davey on the Ist of April, 1858, and erected the three-story brick building, which he denominated the Vermont Hotel. In March, 1866, David Offensend succeeded Mr. Fish, and from 1868 to 1870, David McBride kept it. In April, 1870, Charles C. Knight, who had already purchased it, entered into possession, and he continued the owner un- til the disastrous fire on the night of November 8, 1878. This fire originated in a boot and shoe store kept by B. Merriam, and caused a loss of about $30,000, though the property was well insured. Mr. Knight thereupon erected the present commodious block which bears his name.
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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
The Park View House was erected in the summer of 1882 at a cost of about $22,000, by the Fairhaven Hotel Company, a stock company composed at that time of the following gentlemen : Ira C. Allen, A. N. Adams, Charles R. Allen, C. C. Knight, Simeon Allen, I. W. Parkhurst, E. L. Goodrich, N. R. Reed, R. E. Lloyd, M. H. Vail, James Coulman, M. Maynard, W. F. Par- ker, O. A. Peck, John D. Wood, Pitkin & Brother, W. H. Streeter, W. H. Reynolds, H. S. Humphrey, Mrs. Hugh G. Hughes, E. L. Allen, E. D. Jones, all but the last two of whom still retain their interest in the concern. The first landlord, for not quite a year, was Vincent C. Meyerhoffer, now proprietor of the Killington House on the summit of Killington Peak. Russell W. Hyde followed him one year. The present landlords, Rutledge Brothers (John E. and David J.) came March 17, 1884, from Brandon, where they had been keep- ing the Douglas House. The house is well built of brick, heated by steam, and is calculated for the pleasure and convenience of guests. There are sixty sleeping apartments.
A hotel called the Adams House stood on the site now covered by the Park View House, before the latter was built, but had not been opened to the public for a number of years.
The Fairmount Trotting Park, situated a little to the south of the village, on Prospect street, was constructed in 1874, and is now the property of Ed- ward Leonard. The Western Vermont Agricultural Society have held two fairs on this ground, with remarkable success, and have erected suitable build- ings thereon. The capital stock of the society is $2,000.
Graded School .- This building, which has served the purpose at once of a graded school and a town hall, was erected by the town in the latter part of 1861, and dedicated in March, 1861. The town meetings are no longer held in it. The present principal of the school is Professor George B. Wakeman, who came in the spring of 1885. There are seven departments well graded in the school, and an attendance at times of more than five hundred pupils.
CHAPTER XXVII.
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF HUBBARDTON.
H UBBARDTON lies northwest from the center of the county, and is bounded on the north by Sudbury, east by Pittsford, south by Castleton, and west by Benson. It was chartered by Governor Benning Wentworth on the 15th of June, 1764, to Thomas Hubbard, from whom the town received its name, Samuel Hubbard, Isaac Searls, William and Giles Alexander, Isaac
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TOWN OF HUBBARDTON.
Wandel, John Miller, jr., John, Daniel and Samuel Hall, Andrew Wiggins, Zimri and Ira Allen, and others. Although chartered as a full township, Hub- bardton suffered considerable contraction by reason of the prior establishment of surrounding towns, reducing its area to about 18,000 acres. Had every town been bounded strictly by its charter limits, Hubbardton would be about where Castleton now is, and a town called Dunbar where Hubbardton is. Zimri and Ira Allen made the first surveys, beginning near the southeast cor- ner of the town. The surface towards the east is broken by steep, and in places precipitous mountains, and is everywhere diversified by hills which seem to have been thrown in by a lavish and tastefully disorderly hand. The farms which lie in the valleys and the flocks which feed in the uplands, form the prin- cipal wealth of the people. The drainage is formed by numerous small and limpid streams. Lake Bomoseen, described in a former chapter, extends north from Castleton to near the center of this town. There are about a dozen ponds distributed throughout the town, of which Horton Pond, lying partly in Sudbury, is the largest, and Bebee, Half-Moon, Keeler, Marsh, Austin and Black Ponds are the minor bodies. The principal rocks are quartz and slate, considerable quantities of the latter having been in times past quarried for roofing purposes and for pencils. Black lead and lead have been discovered in small quantities, and whetstones have been made here. There are indica- tions that the ponds and primeval forests hereabout were the favorite haunt of the Indian, relics of an old encampment being found near the northwest corner of the town, and an artificial mound about six rods in diameter, testifying, per- haps, to the presence of " Mound Builders."
The first survey of lots in Hubbardton having been unsatisfactory, attempts were frequently made to procure a re-survey, and once a proprietor's meeting was held in town for the purpose of obtaining the consent of the original land- owners to it, but the meeting was adjourned upon motion immediately after the organization, and nothing therefore came of it.
No sooner had the dangers of the Revolutionary War been passed than the early settlers, some of whom had sold valuable possessions in the older New England States to purchase land in Hubbardton, were harassed by an indis- criminate service of ejectment papers upon them by unknown and evil-minded claimants. These embarrassments, it seems, were occasioned by the careless manner in which the original proprietors disposed of their claims, on the pre- sumption that the town was six miles square. It is said that the grantees of the Allens were never molested in this way. This uncertainty retarded the settlement of the town, so that though Uriah Hickok and William Trowbridge began clearing in town as early as 1774, there were but nine families here in 1777. These all occupied log houses in the southeastern part of the town. They were Benjamin and Uriah Hickock, William Trowbridge, Samuel and Jesse Churchill, John Selleck, Abdiel Webster, Benajah Boardman and William
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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
Spaulding, with their families. After the evacuation of Fort Ticonderoga, July 6, 1777, a party of Indians and painted Tories came to Hubbardton, under a Captain Sherwood, and made prisoners of Benjamin and Uriah Hickok, and two young men named Henry Keeler and Elijah Kellogg.
On the following day was fought the famous battle of Hubbardton, de- scribed in a previous chapter. In the mean time the inhabitants hastily col- lected their personal effects and fled. John Selleck, on whose land, a little north from the Baptist house of worship, Colonels Warner, Francis and Hale, rear guard for General St. Clair, had encamped, had taken his family from town the day before. Mrs. Boardman and two children were left in his house, but after the battle succeeded in reaching Castleton. Benjamin Hickok es- caped from his captors, returned to his family and conducted them with the members of his brother Uriah's family to the deserted house of J. Hickok in Castleton, whence they proceeded southward. On the morning of July 9th Colonel Warner notified Samuel Churchill of his danger, and he started with his family when the firing began. They all then, with the exception of John and Silas, who took part in the battle, returned to the house. Silas was taken prisoner. Sherwood and his party surprised and captured them at the house, and Samuel Churchill was tied to a tree and apparently consigned to death by the flames because he protested that he had no flour in his house, when Sher- wood relented. Thus Samuel Churchill and his sons John and Silas, Uriah Hickok, Henry Keeler and Elijah Kellogg were taken to Ti. and subjected to the hardships incident to their position. Churchill and Hickok escaped after a short time, and finding their houses deserted, went on to their families, that of the latter in Castleton, and of the former at their old home in Sheffield, Mass., whither they had traveled- a party of four women, two boys, and two mere infants, a distance of about three hundred and fifty miles without a guide. The other prisoners were retaken by Colonel Brown in October following. Af- ter the capture of Burgoyne, Churchill brought his family to Castleton and left them for a time, while he and his sons rebuilt their old home in Hubbard- ton; William Spaulding and Uriah Hickok returned the next spring; no others came back until 1780 and few until 1783. Early in 1784 the inhabitants found the whitened bones of the killed on the site of the battle of Hubbardton and gave them burial.
After the close of the Revolutionary War new families began to arrive, and by the summer of 1784 there were about twenty families in town, among the new arrivals being Lemuel Wood, Joseph Churchill, Ithamer Gregory, Janna Churchill, Josiah Churchill, Nathan, Joseph, Daniel, Isaac, Ilezekiah and John Rumsey, and perhaps several others. For a number of years they were obliged to go over a bad road to a mill in the west part of Castleton, which had but one run of stones, for their flour and feed. " In winter they would go with an ox team and be gone two or three days."
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TOWN OF HUBBARDTON.
The first road in town was the old Ti. road, which was too rough and crooked to be of much use to the settlers. The next was more useful, being a north and south road through the east part part of town. Says Amos Church- ill in his history published more than thirty years ago : " The first tax that was assessed on the town was for making a road through north and south, west of the center, but did not succeed. The next move for the same road was the grant of a lottery; the plan was laid, the tickets sold, the money collected, the lottery drawn, and the chief manager absconded with the money, so that the old east road was still the thoroughfare. The third public move was for a turnpike ; this succeeded, and a good road was made, greatly to the injury of the east part of the town. The first settlement commenced in the south- easterly part of the town ; here the main business transactions were carried on for many years, and it got the appellation of village. There were in the length of two miles about thirty dwelling-houses, with a good supply of stores, me- chanic shops, etc. But on the turnpike road coming into use, travel and busi- ness being withdrawn from that street, it ran down, and now it is not much but a neighborhood of decent farmers. The railroads on every side have de- stroyed the turnpike road."
The first frame building erected in town was a barn built by Samuel Church- ill in 1785. The nails used in its construction were picked up on the site of Fort Ti. after it was burned.
The town was organized on the first Tuesday of March, 1785. The earliest records have been lost or destroyed, and the proceedings of the earlier meet- ings cannot be given. The earliest record attainable is on March 4, 1793, when Captain Benjamin Hickok was chosen moderator of the meeting; David Hickok, town clerk and treasurer ; Israel Dewey, Timothy St. John, and Bige- low Lawrence, selectmen ; Thaddeus Gilbert and Bigelow Lawrence, consta- bles ; Dyer Watrous, Asahel Wright, Nathan Rumsey, Elisha Walker and Itha- mer Gregory, listers; Thaddeus Gilbert, collector, and William Pope, leather sealer.
Of some of these early families all, or nearly all, are gone. There were once fourteen families by the name of Churchill in town ; thirteen by the name of Rumsey, and seven by the name of Hickok, the three names being borne by a majority in the town. Now there are none resident here with either name. Amos Churchill, before quoted, mentions as native and formerly resident in Hubbardton, even at that early date, men who afterwards became useful, as fol- lows: Two members of Congress, one lieutenant-governor, four judges of courts, two land commissioners, one surveyor-general, two brigadier-generals, one major-general, four colonels, one minister to a foreign court, one high sheriff, a number of ministers of the gospel, one missionary to Burmah and ·one to Diabekir, in Turkey.
Among the early settlers Nathan Rumsey was very prominent. He was
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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
active in inducing settlers to immigrate to Hubbardton, kept the first store, and erected the first grist-mill. He represented the town and served many years as justice of the peace and captain of the militia. After the death of his wife he went west and accompanied Lewis and Clark in their journeys through the extreme west, and after his return wrote a journal of his travels. He was a Revolutionary soldier, participated in the War of 1812, was taken prisoner in September, 1814, and died in his captivity at Halifax in March, 1815.
The first settlement of the town, however, as before stated, commenced in 1774, by Uriah Hickok and William Trowbridge, from Norfolk, Conn. Eliz- abeth, daughter of Uriah Hickok, was born on the Ist of August, 1774, and died in September, 1776, thus furnishing the first birth and death in town.
James Whelpley, a soldier of the Revolution and a great hunter, settled in Hubbardton in 1787. He was frequently a member of constitutional con- ventions, represented the town a number of years, and served for a long time as justice of the peace. He outlived all his children, dying January 6th, 1838, at the age of ninety years. Dr. Theophilus Flagg, the first physician in town, came in 1791. He was for a number of years deacon in the church and rep- resentative of the town.
. Joseph Churchill came to town in the winter of 1783, and raised a family of seven sons and five daughters, all of whom reached maturity. He was many years justice of the peace and selectman, and was noted for his remarkable strength.
David H. Barber, son of David and Sarah (Lawrence) Barber, came from Castleton, in 1784 to live with his uncle, Bigelow Lawrence. He afterwards married Clarissa Whelpley, by whom he had a large family of children. Some of his descendants still live in town.
Rufus Root, grandfather of Seneca Root, though not an early settler here, was interested in the town from having come three days after the battle of Hubbardton to pick up the stragglers and wounded. Seneca Root, who estab- lished a residence here in 1837, was the postmaster at East Hubbardton for fifteen years after the establishment of an office there.
Christopher Bresee, born near Stockbridge, Mass., March 13, 1788, came to Pittsford, Vt., with his father when he was eight years of age, and resided on the farm now occupied by Wallace E. Bresee. About the year 1813 he came to Hubbardton and resided on the farm now occupied by Alexander Walsh. In March, 1837, he removed to the farm now owned and occupied by his son, Albert Bresee, a sketch of whose life will be found in subsequent pages.
The St. John families came from Connecticut. Nehemiah St. John, with Ruth, his wife, came from Redding, Conn., about 1786. Their son, Seth, was then sixteen years of age. Nehemiah was a descendant of Matthias St. John, who came to Boston from England in 1630, and was made a freeman of Dor-
ALBERT BRESEE.
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TOWN OF HUBBARDTON.
chester, Mass., on the 3d of September, 1634. Seth married Rebecca Foster in 1793, and became the father of the following children: Samuel W., born in 1795; Ruth, 1797; Levi, 1799; Seth, 1801, and Nehemiah, 1805. They all resided for some time in Hubbardton, and finally removed, Seth and Ruth to St. Lawrence county, N. Y., and the rest to Wisconsin. The elder Seth died August 8, 1846.
Timothy St. John, of a numerous family, was born in Norwalk, Conn., May 3, 1757. He came to Hubbardton before 1789 with his brother-in-law, Joseph Rumsey. In 1789 he built the first framed building west of the old saw-mill near the turnpike. In 1794 he married Rachel Curtis, and died on Christmas day, 1831. His wife died June 6, 1837. Two sons, Ezekiel and Reuben, and three daughters survived them. The first named son was killed by a falling tree in St. Lawrence county, N. Y., in December, 1840. Reuben remained on the homestead (where his son Reuben now lives) until his death August, 19, 1882. Another son, Ezekiel H. St. John, resides now at the head of Horton Pond in Sudbury, and contributes to this chapter nearly all that re- lates to the history of Hortonville. He was born on the 20th day of June, 1831.
Samuel Parsons, born in Redding, Conn., on the 15th of December, 1765, came to Hubbardton in 1787, and soon after married Esther Selleck, and set- tled on the farm still known as the Parsons Hamlet. He died May 27, 1846, and his wife February 21, 1848, leaving a daughter, Betsey, who removed to western New York, and a son, Aaron, who was born August 7, 1800, and died March 16, 1862. He was a shrewd man, caustic in speech, and though of intemperate habits, kept and enlarged the possessions which he inherited.
David Barber was born in West Salisbury, Conn., March 15, 1770; came with his parents to Castleton in 1783, and in 1784 went to live with an uncle on the Christy place, in Hubbardton. In 1792 he married Clarissa, daughter of James Whelpley, He died June 11, 1860. He was the father of six chil- dren, descendants from some of whom still reside in town. Mr. Barber was married twice, the second wife being the widow of Judge Rich, of Shoreham. He was in the Legislature from 1813 to 1815 inclusive, in 1825, '26, '35 and '36. Two of his sons, James W. and Milton G., were also in the Legislature two years each.
Asahel Wright came from his native place, Lennox, Mass., as early as 1774, but afterwards served six years in the Revolution, part of the time as a minute man in Massachusetts. He returned to his claim in 1787, and remained here until his death, a period of more than sixty years. He left several children, of whom but one, Justus, stayed on the homestead, the others finding homes in western New York.
James Ressegne eame from Connecticut about 1789, and married Sarah Rumsey. Of their children Abram and Isaac alone reached maturity. They
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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
established homes on adjoining farms near the center of the town and became prosperous farmers. Abram went to Wisconsin in 1834; Isaac remained in town until his death, March 11, 1864. He was for many years deacon of the Congregational Church. His wife, Mary Dewey, survived him two years, and the property passed from the family.
David Davis married Martha, daughter of William Spaulding, and came to Hubbardton about 1785, when their son David was less than a year old. After his death his widow married William Hill and became the mother of Harriet, wife of Justin Jennings. The child, David Davis, better known as " Major," remained here and in Westhaven until his death on the 17th of January, 1860. His home in Hubbardton was in a " wild glen " on the old turnpike road. He was a wheelwright, and was noted for his ready wit and overflowing good humor.
Joseph Selleck, before mentioned, died here December 7, 1836, aged sev- enty-one years. He left three children, Luman, who went to Illinois in 1842 ; Huldah, afterwards the wife of Matthew Whitlock, and Wealthy, who married Amasa Jordan.
Rufus Griswold, a native of Connecticut, came early with his brother Sam- uel to Orwell, and afterward to Benson. He removed to Hubbardton about 1818, carrying on for a time the business of tanning, but finally settled on a small farm where he died. He died in August, 1882, aged eighty-nine years.
Frederic Dikeman, grandfather of George W. and M. M. Dikeman, a sketch of whose lives appears in subsequent pages, was born in Redding, Conn., Au- gust 26, 1760. He served in the Revolutionary War, and came from Ballston, N. Y., to Hubbardton in 1796, settling on the farm now owned and occupied by Myron M. Dikeman. He was a shoemaker and farmer. He was four times married. Perry, the third child by his first wife, was born in Ballston March 18, 1788. Frederic Dikeman died here May 17, 1848.
William Rumsey, a native of Connecticut, settled very early on the farm now owned by Albert Bresee, where he died on the 22d of February, 1836, aged eighty-five years. He had five sons, Walker, Henry, William, Joel and Chauncey S., and two daughters, Betsey and Nancy. Chauncey S. Rumsey still lives in Castleton. Joseph Jennings, from Lanesborough, Mass., settled before 1789 on the well known Jennings place, which remained in the family for more than ninety years. His first wife, Faith, died August 8, 1789, aged thirty- five years. He afterwards married a member of the Selleck family. He died in March, 1813, of the epidemic, leaving two sons, Ira and Justin Jen- nings. There were also children by the first wife. Ira Jennings married Bet- sey, daughter of William Rumsey, and about 1835 went to Michigan. Justin Jennings, born January 18, 1793, when he reached his majority found employ- ment with Samuel Walker, a farmer, merchant and manufacturer of potash. He afterwards boated on the canal, and peddled, finally developing into a
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TOWN OF HUBBARDTON.
drover, and becoming noted as "Captain Tobe," from St. Lawrence to Boston. He thus amassed a princely fortune. Though a Democrat in a Re- publican town he was elected to the Legislature in 1849 and 1850. On the 16th of June. 1830, he married Harriet Hill (born October 12, 1802), who bore him five sons, as follows : Noble, born April 22, 1831, died July 18, 1869 ; Andrew J., born July 5, 1834, died November 30, 1846; Joseph, born Febru- ary 28, 1836; Cyrus, born February 23, 1838, and Sumner, born December 20, 1840, died November 27, 1869. Justin Jennings died March 1, 1873, his wife having preceded him January 6, 1866. Of his two surviving sons, Cyrus has become the proprietor of the mill at Hortonville, and evinces the same sterling qualities that brought his father such well-earned success. His wife, Alice A. Eddy, whom he married at Brandon, November 13, 1861, was born in Hubbardton, February 21, 1842. They have four children, as follows: Will- iam A., born December 10, 1862 ; Eddy J., born August 18, 1865 ; Elmer E., born August 8, 1867, and Joseph S., born July 22, 1875.
The part that Hubbardton took in the early wars has been as fully as pos- sible set forth in this and a previous chapter of this work. The warlike spirit of former days cannot have degenerated greatly, if the following list of enlist- ments may be accepted as evidence :---
Volunteers for three years credited previous to the call for 300,000 volun- teer of October 17, 1863 .- Charles J. Blackmer, co. H, 5th regt .; Hiram W. Blackmer, 2d bat .; Marcus Eaton, co. B, 2d bat .; Charles A. Fay, James W. Gibbs, co. H, 5th bat .; Edward Z. Good, co. C, 9th regt .; Jacob P. Hall, co. C, 11th regt .; John M. Hall, Silas L. Hart, co. B, 2d regt .; Allen Holman, co. C, 11th regt .; Joseph N. Howard, 2d bat .; Isaac Newton Perry, co. H, 5th regt .; Ezekiel H. St. John, co. B, 2d regt .; Warren B. Varney, 7th regt.
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