History of Rutland County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 74

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 74

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Credits under call of October 17, 1863, for 300,000 volunteers, and subse- quent calls. Volunteers for three years .- B .. rton Blackmer, Charles J. Black- mer, Franklin Blackmer, Harrison Conger, 2d bat .; Patrick Downey, co. H, 7th regt .; John Howard, 2d bat .; Albert Lee, Charles K. Root, co. I, 17th regt .; Fenimore H. Shepard, Harvey Shepard, co. A, 7th regt .; John M. Thomas, co. A, 5th regt.

Volunteers for one year .- Edward Bird, 5th regt .; Henry E. Varney, War- ren B. Varney, 2d bat.

Volunteer re-enlisted .- Joseph H. Howard, 2d bat.

Enrolled men who furnished substitutes .- David Barber, Henry G. Bar- ber, Francis C. Gault.

Volunteers for nine months .- John P. Barber, co. F, 14th regt .; Lewis N. Crane, co. D, 14th regt .; Albert B. Hall, Daniel Holmes, Nathaniel A. Kil- born, Charles H. Manley, James Morgan, James D. Perkins, Stillman D. Per- kins, William A. Perry, Charles K. Root, Duane Smith, co. F, 14th regt .; Charles C. Westcott, co. G, 12th regt.

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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.

Furnished under draft .- Paid commutation, William Balis, Chandler Gibbs, Sumner Jennings, Charles R. Jones, Samuel W. St. John. Procured substitute, Zimri H. Howard.

The following figures, taken from the United States census reports, indi- cate the growth and decline in population of the town : 1791, 404; 1800, 641 ; 1810, 724 ; 1820, 810 ; 1830, 865 ; 1840, 719 ; 1850, 701 ; 1860, 606; 1870, 606; 1880, 533.

Following are the present officers of the town : Clerk and treasurer, S. M. Dikeman ; school directors (town system), R. C. Allison, A. L. Hill, Allen St. John ; selectmen, H. W. Phillips, D. P. Naramore, Timothy Parsons ; overseer poor, Seneca Root ; constable and collector, E. C. Roach ; listers, E. C. Roach, T. E. Walsh, S. W. St. John; auditors, Albert Bresee, William Walsh, F. C. Gault; trustee surplus revenue, Cyrus Jennings; fence viewers, Chester Roach, John B. Barber, H. H. Petty ; grand juror, J. P. Giddings; inspector of leather, William Bansier ; agent to prosecute and defend, E. J. Ganson ; superintendent of schools, R. C. Allison.

Ecclesiastical .- Until December, 1787, religious services were held in the old school-house. At that time the people built a log meeting-house at what is now East Hubbardton, which was of rude and primitive construction. This was the first church in town. In 1800 another building, known as the Hub- bardton Baptist Church, was erected, and Elder Nathan Dana was chosen by the society as pastor. At its organization the church had twelve members ; now it has twenty-five or thirty. The pastor is Rev. Chauncey Baker.

The Congregational Church of Hubbardton was organized by Rev. Eleazer Harwood in November, 1784. There were then but eleven members, and Rev. Ithamer Hibbard, who is mentioned in the history of Poultney, was the first settled pastor. The first house of worship was erected in 1818, followed in 1838 by the present edifice, which will seat 200 persous. The present pastor, Rev. R. C. Allison, has officiated here about three years.

Hortonville. 1- Hortonville is a small business center, and the only pretense of a village in the town. Its mills are a great convenience to the surrounding country ; the water privilege is of the best, and was once more utilized than now. Of its first inhabitants it is almost impossible to find any trace The first mills were built some time toward the close of the last century by Ithamer Gregory. He came to Hubbardton in 1784, and on the first organization of the militia, in 1785, was chosen captain. Besides his property in the village, he bought a considerable tract of land beyond the pond, once known by his name. Of this last there is a deed on record from him to Gideon Horton dated 1805. His title to the rest being involved in law, it partly, by direct purchase and some adroit management, passed into the hands of said Horton, the result of which was a suit at law instituted by Gregory against him. We now lose sight

1 Contributed by E. H. St. John, of Sudbury.

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TOWN OF HUBBARDTON.

of Gregory altogether. He was a resolute, quiet, peaceful man. Upon one occasion the people around the pond, aggrieved at the height of water raised by his dam, came as a mob to destroy it. Placing himself between them and the object of their wrath, he said, " Let us leave the matter in dispute to arbi- trators," to which they assented, and the matter was settled to the relief of both parties by lowering it a little. The level of the pond was once much higher than now, as a man now living is said to have speared fish off a bridge in the road leading from Hortonville to Brandon.

Major Gideon Horton, who now owned the entire water privilege as well as the land around, came with his father and grandfather from Colebrook, Conn., to Brandon in 1783. Gideon Horton, sen., and his son Hiram, were prominent in the early history of the town, where Gideon, jr., remained until 1808, when he came to Hubbardton, to which place, it would seem, he had been some time preparing the way. His house was east of the present residence of Henry Arnold, which, being burned, he fitted up the last named, which he had used as a store and dwelling, he carrying on the business of a merchant in addition to his other occupations. What is remembered as the old red store was built by himself or son. He is said to have built the present grist-mill and saw-mill, soon after his coming to the place. He was a man of much public spirit, of whom some odd stories are told; the head of a numerous family of sons and daughters. As a whole they were aristocratic in their tastes and habits, of dignified and courteous demeanor and gentlemanly bearing, and from them the place received much of its religious and social character. He died October 2, 1842, aged seventy-three. His wife was Thyrza Farrington, of Brandon. His mother was of the Douglas family, a member of which, a brother, settled in that town and became the grandfather of Stephen A. Douglas, United States Senator from Illinois.

Of his four sons, Jewett, the second, was for some time engaged in trade, and a short time before his going to Sudbury was in partnership with his brother-in-law, Jefferson Goodrich. They both removed to Sudbury and bought farms about the year 1835, where he remained until a little before the year 1860, when, his wife dying, he spent the remainder of his life with his sons, and died in Orwell in 1871, aged seventy-nine.

Daniel, the first, in his earlier life settled in the place and carried on the business of a clothier and wool-carder, and is supposed to have erected the building which stood above the old tannery, used for the business; or it may have been built by his father. He built and occupied the house now the resi- dence of Horace Knapp. He also was a respectable farmer, and during his stay in the place enjoyed the esteem and respect of his townsmen, and was very liberal in his contributions to the church. His family of four daughters were married and settled before the death of his wife in 1848, and one was dead. After that event, in the spring of 1840, he removed to Sheldon and

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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.

spent the remainder of his days with Harriet, his youngest child. He died June 18, 1863, aged seventy-seven.

Charles W., the third son, studied medicine and settled in Sudbury, where he practiced successfully many years. He removed to Brattleboro about 1855 (having previously buried a son and daughter, his only children), where he lived a lonely and desolate man. He was much esteemed by his fellow citizens, and died at Brattleboro in 1875, aged seventy-five.

Rollin Van Ransom, the fourth son, upon the death of his father was in the possession of the mill property, the homestead and considerable other real estate, and was entitled by his position and character to stand among the fore- most citizens of the county. He gave much of his time and attention to sheep husbandry and was looked upon as a prosperous man. He had been married for some years to Mary Hyde, of Sudbury, an estimable woman, and sons and daughters were born to them, youths and maidens; when suddenly all was changed. He had for some years felt well after being a little dry, just a little, while at last his appetite overcame the powers of resistance, and the spirit of his father, which had for ten years slept quietly beneath its tombstone, seemed to rise from its grave.

It was in the winter of 1852-53; one Sartwell, who had been for many years employed in the grist-mill, proposed to leave. He was a plain, honest, simple man, had accumulated a few hundred dollars, and, I believe, he was Horton's creditor. The mill had fallen somewhat out of repair. There was a long un- settled account, loosely kept, and some other causes of difficulty raked up ; part of which were left out to three referees, who, strangely enough, adjudged to Horton a considerable sum for damages done by the miller to his business. By submitting to this decision the miller supposed the matter to be settled, when other claims were presented, which, if allowed, would have sent him penniless away. Until now Horton had had things pretty much his own way, when the affair came to the ears of the neighbors, who began to bestir them- selves, and meeting together waited upon the parties to inquire into the mat- ter. They found the miller dazed and dumbfounded ; his wife, who was never seen beyond her gate, on her bed with distraction. They then waited upon Horton and denounced his conduct and the action of the referees in no meas- ured terms. The miller found friends, and writs were issued on both sides. An expensive law suit followed, which lasted for some years, but terminated in the miller's favor. Sartwell removed to Hydeville, where he died soon after the close of the war. Horton, finding the matter becoming serious, mortgaged his homestead for $2,000 and sold the grist-mill to Samuel Russell, of Crown Point, and the remainder of his property, in detached portions, long afterwards, upon which he is supposed to have realized but a moiety of its value, and never much at any one time. He returned from Illinois after some years and went to Sudbury, a poor man. There his wife died in 1862, aged fifty-two years.

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TOWN OF HUBBARDTON.

The two younger of his four children remained with him, and they supported themselves by " taking farms " for a time, when, his younger daughter marry- ing, he was left alone. Hyde, a youth of eighteen years when the family re- moved, never returned, and was murdered by Indians while herding cattle in the far West. The father, who had long since given up his intemperate habits, was now a stricken and desolate man. The tongue of censure was silenced by the recollection of his past condition in the presence of his ineffable calamity. He spent a few years among his relatives in the vicinity, and during the last nine years of his life found an asylum with a respectable widow, in the man- agement of whose estate he showed considerable care and judgment. He died near the place of his former abode February 10, 1883, aged seventy-two years. His children were far away, and of the crowd of mourners who fol- lowed his parents to their graves, but two were present. Such was the end of Rollin Van Ransom.

In addition to Major Horton, among those who, beside taking a prominent part in the general affairs of the place in their day and generation, further served their country and perpetuated their names by raising large families, were Jason Kingsley, and last but not least, Captain Reuben Webb. The birth- place of the first is not known. In the twenty- fourth year of his age he mar- ried Parnel Abel, of Bennington, August 2, 1879. I think I have been told that he came first to Hubbardton and then removed to Orwell. He came from Sudbury to Hortonville. He is said to have been a man of rare ability, and was always spoken of as old Squire Kingsley, whose business as justice of the peace was large if not lucrative. Said one of his neighbors, " Had he pointed his feet that way, he would have been made judge of the court." Before com- ing to Hubbardton he had evidently seen better days. Said Mrs. W. P. Hyde, " The friends and relatives who came to visit him appeared to be people of high standing." But she knew not whence they came. He injured his prospects in life by indulging in the social habits of those days. On coming to Horton- ville, he, with his son Asahel, carried on the business of wagon-making for some years. His house was the old brown one that stood between the dwell- ing of Cyrus Jennings and Horace Knapp. His shop was where the black- smith shop now is. The last glimpse we have of him is in an old diary, June 16, 1835. " Poor old Squire Kingsley and wife go West to visit their children. His wife had a bad cough." They never returned. She died in 1837, of small- pox. He lived a few years longer and died near Rochester, N. Y. Of his children there must have been half a score, most of whom settled in western New York before my recollection. The youngest daughter was Mrs. Thomas Cutts, of Orwell. Another daughter married Timothy Lampher and died in Westhaven. Two of his sons, Orrin and Asahel, remained in the place for some years. Orrin lived in a house standing on the site of Cyrus Jennings's resi- dence. He was a shoemaker, a busy, fussy little man, much given to traffic.

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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.

He finally left the place in 1847, lived in different places in the vicinity until 1853, when he removed to a farm in Kingsbury, N. Y., where he died in 1863, aged sixty-two. Asahel remained until 1839, when he bought part of the Ethan P. Eddy farm of R. St. John, lived there twelve years, removed to Salis- bury in 1852, where he died in 1881 aged eighty-two years. His name was usually mixed up in church matters.

Captain Reuben Webb, the village blacksmith, was born in Norwich, Conn., in 1780, from which place, at the age of fourteen, he, with a young man known as Dr. Burke, came to Vermont. The pair traveled alone in winter, their pos- sessions on an ox sled, and first stopped in Orwell at a place called Abel's Cor- ners. Burke often taught school and, many years after, the writer's father was one of his pupils. He settled in Benson where he lived to an old age. Webb remained in the vicinity for some years and married before settling in the vil- lage. He was a powerful and muscular man, very self-contained, shrewd and wily. He was the husband of four wives and survived them all. The first, Taphner Peters, he married in 1800. At what time he came to the village I do not know. On coming there he first lived in a log house that stood south of the store, and afterwards built the dwelling now occupied by Hiram Linsley, where for a time he kept a tavern. He built the stone blacksmith and trip- hammer shop in 1824; there he labored at his forge and anvil with little inter- mission until past his three-score and ten, when age and infirmity compelled him to desist. In 1847 he built the dwelling-house now the residence of Cyrus Jennings, which he sold or gave to his son Adin, as well as the business of the shop. He then set up a small grocery, and in an evil hour accepted a license from the selectmen to sell distilled liquors according to the law of that time, 1851, which he used with little discretion. Soon after, the present prohibitory law went into force, viewed by the minority as an act of bigotry to be enforced by a spirit of inquisitorial tyranny. Captain Webb, two or three years after, having some business misunderstanding with one Orskins, the latter, to make himself even, entered a complaint against him in the winter of 1855-56. The grand juror was a new man, burning to distinguish himself, who received it with delight, and the weak and infirm old man was hauled before a justice court, with a crowd of witnesses more or less respectable, who claimed to know nothing about the matter, save one. He plead guilty to several offenses and was fined with costs, which he was ill able to pay. How far he was technically guilty we do not know, but by the more respectable part of the community the affair was looked upon as an outrage. The old man, who had probably yielded a few times to the importunities of those whom he had previously looked upon as friends and neighbors, felt himself struck below the belt and insulted. The associations of the place seemed unpleasant, and in the course of a year he re- moved to Benson, where he spent seven years of his second childhood. In 1863 he was removed to Stockholm, N. Y., where he died three years later,

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TOWN OF HUBBARDTON.

aged eighty-six years and six months. He for many years kept a diary of the events transpiring in his own town and vicinity in a most neat and accu- rate manner, a complete history of the community. Of several children, but one settled in Vermont. Roswell, one of the eldest, studied medicine and practiced successfully in northern New York. He returned to Hortonville with his family and died soon after (June 2, 1846) aged forty-three. The de- parture of Captain Webb may be said to have completed the history of what was once known as the " old kingdom," for what reason I know not, perhaps from the varied spiritual influences that may have permeated the heights and depths of its religious and social state.

It was sometimes remarked in my boyhood by some of the knowing ones that if the Hortons would leave, capital and enterprise would pour in and de- velop the latent resources of the place, but the reverse happened, and a sort of depression settled down on the little community until the past, compared with the present, seemed a golden age. New men, however, came, some with the intention of staying for a while, getting what they could and going away, in which last, fortunately, for themselves, they were successful. But I anticipate some years. In 1838 Norman Eddy came into the place, married, and after- wards permanently settled there. In company with a Mr. Hoffman he engaged in the manufacture of leather and shoe-making, which he soon after carried on alone. His wife dying in 1851, the following year he removed to Brandon, sold his house and shop to R. W. Brown, and his tannery to a Mr. Crone. By them the two branches of his business until recently were carried on, but are not likely to be resumed. In 1855 the Daniel Horton farm was bought by Archibald Gibbs of Benson for $4,000. It was next sold to Horace Knapp in 1883.

In 1856 a lumber lot belonging to R. V. R. Horton was sold to Amos Douglas for $4,000, who also, I believe, bought the saw-mill. The property returned into Horton's possession after having been denuded of much valuable timber.

In 1871 the saw-mill was sold to Edward Hall, who immediately erected the present mill. After his death in 1873 it was purchased by Henry Wilson The grist-mill was bought by Henry Wilson in 1866, who improved it to a considerable extent. He died in 1875, and in 1880 the two mills were bought by Cyrus Jennings for $6,000. By him the property has been greatly im- proved.

Of merchants there have been a score beside the Hortons. Before my recollection there was a store kept under the sign of Benson & Ray, which I have seen. After J. Horton removed to Sudbury a store was kept open by three men in the order named, Baker, Case and Abbott. The store was closed in 1841, and re-opened in the fall of 1844 by two young men, Horace Spencer and Mason Burr. In 1848, Burr having gone out, a partnership was formed

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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.

between Horace Spencer and Gilbert Gregory. Some real estate was pur- chased, and in 1849 the present store was built and well stocked. In 1850 they seemed to be doing a good business, when in the summer, to the confu- sion of their creditors, an assignment was made of their goods, which were sold at public auction. A store or shop was kept open by different parties, when in 1856 Noble Jennings commenced trading here, and established a post- office. On his going away he was followed by his two brothers successively, when in 1867 Sumner Jennings sold the store building to Wilber Kellogg, of Benson, who invested a considerable part of his patrimony in trade, but in 1870 he closed out his business at public auction. His successor was closed out five years later. The present merchant, D. P. Naramore,1 who has remained some nine years, seems to hold and add to his own.

In 1845 a partnership was entered into between James P. Morgan and Har- vey Hurlbut, for the purpose of sawing marble quarried in Sudbury, and a mill was erected, but the expense of transportation rendering the business un- profitable, it was abandoned.

Religious meetings were kept up at an early day by a small and respecta- ble body of Methodists, supplied by ministers from the Troy Conference. The last of these was .Rev. William Bedell, who closed his labors in 1849. The Baptists then undertook to support meetings for a few years, but they were not congenial to the spirit of the place and were in turn supplanted by the Univer- salists, and for the last twenty years or more it has been left as an abandoned field.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF IRA.

[RA is a triangular tract of land about three miles broad at its widest part, 1 and eight miles long, and is situated nearly in the central part of the county. It is bounded on the east by Pittsford, Rutland and Clarendon, on the south by Tinmouth and Middletown, and west by Middletown, Poultney and Castle- ton. The original boundaries of the town have twice been changed, a part of the town being taken from Ira to form the town of Middletown, October 28, 1784, and in 1854 a portion of the territory of Clarendon being annexed to it.

From all that can be ascertained concerning the origin of the town, it is thought to have been chartered by Benning Wentworth about the year 1761. The original charter was lost when the capitol at Montpelier burned.

1 The present postmaster.

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TOWN OF IRA.

The greater part of the surface is so broken by the Taconic range of mountains as to be incapable of cultivation. In some of the principal valleys, and notably in the interval formed by Ira Brook, are found a few farms which afford excellent grazing facilities, and give the town its principal wealth. The highest peak is Herrick Mountain, in the center of the town, which is 2,661 feet above tide water, and the most noted peak is Bird Mountain, peculiar by virtue of its composition, which is quartz conglomerate.

The lumber business, and the various industries collateral to it, have never prospered here, because the streams, though numerous enough to drain the soil, are not large enough to offer good mill privileges. The largest stream is Ira Brook, which rises in the south part of the town, flows in a northeasterly direction, and adds to the volume of Tinmouth River in Clarendon. Castle- ton River flows westerly through the north part of the town.

The following, being the persons who took the freeman's oath on the 3Ist of May, 1779, are undoubtedly the earliest settlers in town: Isaac Clark, George Sherman, jr., Nathan Lee, Nathaniel Mallory, Cyrus Clark, Solomon Wilds, Amos Herrick, Nathan Walton, Benjamin Richardson, David Adams, Benjamin Bagley, jr., Cephas Carpenter, John Collins, Thomas Collins, Benja- min Bagley, Leonard Robberts, Joseph Wood, Ebenezer Wood, Asahel Joiner, Thomas McLuer, James McLuer, Philemon Wood, Gamaliel Waldo, Silas Reed, David Haskins, Isaac Runnels, Isaiah Marin, David Wood, George Sherman, Reuben Baker, James Cole, John Baker, Abraham White, Joseph Wood, jr., James Martin, Thomas Martin, Hezekiah Carr, Thomas Obrient, John Walton, Henry Walton, Cornelius Roberts, Purchas Roberts, Samuel Newton, Joseph Baker, John Burlingame, John Baly, Isaac Baker, Nathaniel Mason, Jason Newton, Elijah Mann, Oliver Eddy, Nathan Collins; fifty-two in number.

The first birth of which there is a record was that of Olive, daughter of George and Olive Sherman, September 5, 1773. The first marriage was Isaac Clark and Hannah Chittenden, daughter of Governor Thomas Chittenden, who performed the ceremony on the 5th of September, 1779. The first death on record is that of Hannah Baker, daughter of John Baker, February 24, 1785.

About the earliest families that came into town were the Lees, who settled not far from 1770 in Ira Hollow, and owned three hundred and twenty-four acres of the best land in town. John Lee sympathized too fervently and openly with England in the Revolutionary difficulty with the mother country, and was consequently obliged to leave town under penalty of the "beech seal," while his farm was confiscated February 28, 1779, by James Claghorn, commissioner of probate of Rutland and Bennington counties, and sold to Thomas Collins, of Lanesborough, Berkshire county, Mass.

Isaiah Mason came to Ira from Berkshire county, Mass., in 1780. Jason Newton came in 1782, from the same county. Preserved Fish was born on

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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.

the 5th day of November, 1770, at Massachusetts Bay, and immigrated to this town in 1790. He began to work at masonry. He served as justice of the peace for more than forty years and represented the town thirteen years. It is also related that he was foreman of the grand jury a great many times, even the boys being so familiar with the fact, that they circulated the by-word " A true-bill, P. Fish, foreman." He married Abigail Carpenter in August, 1791, and by her had twelve children, eleven boys and one girl, all but one of whom became of age and married. Numerous descendants still reside in town. Na- thaniel Wilmarth settled here as early as 1793. David Parker came soon af- ter. Peter Parker came some years later. These two men were great story tellers and rhyme makers. Peter Parker especially manifested great pride in his physical powers. Some of the boys in Ira thought to frighten him by making an effigy of a man by stuffing some old clothes with straw and hanging it from a tree over the road just east of Bird Mountain, where Parker would have to pass in the evening. But Peter did not scare. On the contrary, he stalked up to the specter of straw, and with the emphatic interrogatory, "Who are you, God, man or the devil ?" laid it at his feet with a blow from his fist. He then threw away the straw, appropriated the clothing, which was better than his own, and continued his way with serenity.

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History of Rutland County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 74

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