USA > Vermont > Rutland County > History of Rutland County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 96
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Formerly, too, there was something like a settlement around the old Fin- ney tavern, called Finneyville. The post- office was established there as early as 1825, and remained until about 1848.
Cuttingsville. - This village owes its importance largely to the influence of the railroad, which makes it the principal market for the town and surround- ing country. It could not be said to have had an existence as a village before 1835 or 1840. It derived its name from Charles Cutting who lived here before 1825, and became proprietor of the mills. He has since given the same name to a village in Indiana, and another in Iowa. J. B. Story, still a resident of this village, came here in about 1831. According to his remembrance, which is very clear, there was but one dwelling-house on the site of the present village. It was a small single storied house, which stood where the hotel now is, and was occu- pied by Mr. Billings, a hatter. The first house built here after that stood in the northwest part of the village on the lot now owned by James Royce. It is not now in existence. In 1831 Charles Cutting was running the saw and grist-mill which occupied the site of the mill now owned and operated by Dana G. Jones. Ithel Smead was running the tannery now in the hands of James Huntoon. In 1833 the house now occupied by William L. Bucklin was built by William Marsh, who kept store in it. It was thus used as a store and dwell- ing-house combined until about 1862, when Mr. Bucklin bought it. The first house on the east side of Main street was the one now occupied by A. S. Adams.
Among the historical anecdotes concerning the early residents of this neighborhood, Mr. Story tells one which ought to be placed on record. A Mr. Bartholomew owned hereabouts in the early part of the century a pocket or potato distillery, which he found it difficult to manage profitably under an ex- cessive whisky tax. He accordingly applied to Benjamin Needham, who was an army officer, and lived then in a house now occupied by E. O. Aldrich, about a mile east of the middle of the town, to have him induce Judge Robert Pierpoint, of Rutland, then assessor, to remove the tax. Needham, who was a powerful man with an imposing physique and a florid complexion, called on Judge Pierpoint in Rutland, and took his hand, but having once obtained a grip on those judicial fingers, Needham positively refused to release them or diminish his painful pressure upon them until the "tax was taken off from Bar- tholomew's distillery." He carried the day.
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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
The village had only a gradual growth after 1830 until the railroad was opened thirty-five years ago. Then as might be expected the impetus created in business was very marked. Business centers were transferred, neighbor- hoods that had promised to be villages of importance became merely subjects of history. In Shrewsbury, Cuttingsville sprang at once into the relative prom- inence it could not help attaining, and has retained its superiority without dispute.
Mercantile Interests .- The building now used as a store by C. E. Adams was built about 1835 by John Buckmaster and D. B. Jones, who sold general merchandise there for several years, and were followed by Jones & Dow, the members being D. B. Jones and Lucius Dow. They remained in the store a number of years and sold out to P. H. Robbins and C. C. Holden, who traded there until the union store was opened about 1854 or 1855. In 1860 A. S. Adams began his occupancy of the building, and remained until April, 1870, when he rented the store to George P. Phalen, and removed to Arlington. In April, 1881, Mr. Adams returned from Arlington and in company with his son, C. E. Adams, succeeded Phalen. C. E. Adams became sole proprietor of the business in April, 1883.
The general mercantile trade carried on by George Foster may be said to have originated soon after 1830, in the present dwelling house of William L. Bucklin. That building was erected by William Marsh, who sold goods there for a time and sold out to A. B. Bullard. In 1863 William L. Bucklin, who had been dealing in general merchandise near the depot since about 1853, purchased the stock and good will of Mr. Bullard and moved into the brick store now occupied by Mr. Foster. Here he remained until June 22, 1865, when George Foster bought him out. Henry Eitapence opened his tin-shop here in 1869. He is successor to Henry Barlow, who had been dealing in tin- ware for years before.
Manufacturing Interests .- The tannery of James Huntoon, one of the old- est manufacturing establishments in this section, was built in the early part of the century. Ithel Smead ran it as late as 1830; Elnathan Mattox, his suc- cessor, ran it for about fifteen years. Hiram W. Lincoln and John Mattox then operated it for a time. The present proprietor has had control of it for more than twenty years.
The saw and grist-mill of Dana G. Jones stands on the site of mills which were originally erected in about 1821 by Mr. Blanchard. In 1830 Charles Cutting had taken possession of them and ran them a few years. His successor was William Marsh. Then followed William Barnes, and William Royce, and John Webb, and B. B. Aldrich, and H. J. Waterman. These mills were de- stroyed by fire in September, 1844, and rebuilt by the owners. B. B. Aldrich and Dana G. Jones came into possession in 1867, and in May, 1876, Mr. Jones became sole proprietor. The saw-mill will turn out about 5,000 feet of lumber
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per day, and the grist-mill about ten to fifteen bushels of feed per hour. The carriage shop of J. B. Story was preceded by a shop built by Mr. Baldwin in 1838 or 1839. It was destroyed by fire in September, 1844, and the present building erected the following spring by J. B. Story and T. G. Foster. Mr. Foster died in 1873, since which time the surviving partner has carried on the business.
Attorney and Counselor at Law. - Judge E. Fisher is the only lawyer in town. He was born in Clarendon, N. H., on the 20th of July, 1814. He be- gan to study law with C. H. Crosby, then of Cuttingsville, in 1848, and in the September term of the Rutland County Court was admitted to practice. He has long enjoyed an excellent reputation for ability and integrity, and has been State's attorney and side judge.
Hotel .- The hotel, of which D. K. Butterfield is the present proprietor, was built about 1833 by Charles Cutting, the founder of the village. Mr. Cutting kept the house five or six years, and sold out to Mr. Barnes. After the lapse of another period of about five years Captain Jeremiah Dow purchased the property and conducted the business. He rented it a part of the time. In 1865 he sold out to H. Todd. D. K. Butterfield bought him out in the spring of 1877, fitted up the house in many ways and has already won a good name among the traveling public. He has succeeded also in attracting a number of summer boarders, who find Cuttingsville a delightful retreat, and this hotel a pleasant summer home. Mr. L. Dawley, who kindly furnished the facts above stated, ran the house from 1860 to 1865, while Captain Dow owned it.
Post-office .- The post-office was transferred from Finney's tavern to Cut- tingsville not far from 1830. The first postmaster here was Erastus Guernsey. David B. Jones succeeded him in about five years, and was in turn succeeded by H. C. Pleason. C. C. Holden next received the appointment and remained postmaster for some years. Henry Barlow followed him; A. S. Adams fol- lowed Barlow, and in 1861 William L. Bucklin was appointed. He retained the office until August 1, 1885, when the present incumbent, C. E. Adams succeeded him.
Laurel Glen Mausoleum .- This splendid tribute to the memory of the de- parted was begun in July, 1880, by order of John P. Bowman, of Creek Center, N. Y., to perpetuate the memory of his deceased wife and two daughters. For more than a year 125 men, sculptors, marble-cutters and granite-cutters, masons and laborers were employed in its construction. Its dimensions externally at the base are seventeen feet, six inches, by twenty-four feet, and twenty feet high from grade line to the apex of the roof. Seven hundred and fifty tons of granite, fifty tons of marble and 20,000 bricks have been used in its construc- tion. The total cost of the structure, together with improvements in the sur- roundings, cost about $75,000.
Miscellaneous .- The first postmaster appointed at the middle of the town,
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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
Shrewsbury post-office, was Stephen Gleason, who was appointed about 1811, and retained the office until as late as 1846. Dr. L. W. Guernsey, Dana Buck- master and G. J. Crowley were respectively his successors. The present post- master, William F. Morse was appointed in the fall of 1870.
The post-office at North Shrewsbury was established in 1871 by the ap- pointment of N. J. Aldrich. William Guild succeeded him in 1876, and still remains in the position. Mr. Guild opened his general store at the same time that he began the performance of his duties as postmaster. Mr. Aldrich ran the store before him.
Willard Guild is the only descendant now living in town of the early settler, Jacob Guild, his grandfather, already mentioned; a brother and sister of Will- ard Guild, Prudence M. (wife of Henry Lord) and Charles F. Guild, are resi- dents of Mount Holly.
Dr. George Rustedt, the only physician in town, was born in Thorne, Eng- land, in September, 1851. He was admitted to the practice of medicine by the medical department of the University of Vermont, at Burlington, in 1876. He first practiced nearly a year in Ludlow, Vt., and then removed to Shrews- bury.
Saw-mills .- The saw-mill of Lyman Russell, in the south part of the town, was built before 1815 by Joel Low, who used the building for a foundry and plow factory, the product being the old wooden plow of those days. The iron for the foundry came from Troy. Paris Russell, father to the present pro- prietor, bought the property of Mr. Trull about 1832. Lyman Russell has operated the mill since 1860. The capacity of the mill is about 300,000 feet annually. The steam saw-mill of N. J. Aldrich & Co., with its predecessor, the old " up and down " mill, is of equal antiquity with the foregoing. It was built about seventy-five years ago by Elisha Johnson and Moses Colburn. Fifteen years ago it was supplied with steam and the circular saw replaced the old machinery. N. J. Aldrich and D. G. Jones bought the mill of Roswell Wright.
D. M. White & Co.'s steam mill, in the north part of the town, engaged in the manufacture of nail-keg staves, is under the management of Pomeroy & Sipple.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF SUDBURY.
SUDBURY lies in the northeastern corner of the county, and is bounded on the north by Whiting in Addison county ; on the east by Brandon; on the south by Hubbardton, and on the west by Orwell in Addison county, and a part of Benson.
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TOWN OF SUDBURY.
It was chartered by Benning Wentworth, governor of New Hampshire, on the 6th of August, 1761, and contained 13,426 acres. The surface is mountainous and broken and is made a watershed by a range of hills which extend north and south through the town, sending the waters on the eastern slope into Otter Creek, and on the western side into Lake Champlain. The soil is generally a rich loam, well adapted to the production of wheat, oats, rye, buckwheat, Indian corn, potatoes and hay. The numerous valleys of the streams abound in excellent farming lands, and the more hilly regions afford the best of pasturage for sheep and cattle. Many smaller streams, and a por- tion of Otter Creek which enters the northeastern corner of the town and flows for some distance along the eastern boundary, constitute the drainage. The scenery is diversified by the hills and forests not only, but by numerous hand- some ponds, notably High, Burr and Huff Ponds, and Lake Hortonia. The last named sheet of water is in the southwest part of the town, extending into Hubbardton, and is about two miles in length by half a mile in width.
Immediately after the granting of the town in 1761, the host of land spec- ulators commenced the purchase and sale of land in Sudbury in the hope of creating an interest that would increase the price of real property in town. As early as 1763, land situated within the present limits of the town was trans- ferred by deed from Benjamin Fox, of Nottingham, in the province of New Hampshire, "Yoeman," to Thomas Tosh, of New Market, in the same prov- ince. The name Benoni Farrand appears at this early date in many of the land records as " town clerk," and continues at various intervals to appear thus until 1791 - over a period of twenty-eight years. No complete explanation of this seems to be obtainable, though it is naturally conjectured that in his signatures he persisted in stating his official title as clerk of some town which was his ante-revolutionary residence. He was certainly one of the earliest set- tlers in town, and a man of considerable prominence.
Among the other names of persons appearing to have settled in town by 1789 are those of Platt Ketcham, Aaron Jackson, Simon Goodward, Joshua Tracy, Jeremiah Gates and John Hall. The earliest record extant of a regular meeting for the conduct of town business is dated January 15, 1789. The earlier leaves of this book of records are missing, and thus we are unable to state even the date of the organization of the town.
Sudbury was represented in the Dorset convention of July 24, 1776, by John Gage. At this meeting, however, John Hall was chosen moderator. The other officers are not mentioned. Some of the earliest officers of the town were as follows : Shaler Towner, John Gage, Zebina Sanders, fence viewers ; John Ricke, William Buck, Jeremiah Stone, Joseph Warner, William Palmer, Timothy Miller, surveyors of highways ; John Hale, esq., sealer of weights and measures ; at a meeting held on the 2d of May, 1793, Benoni Farrand, Timothy Miller and Joseph Warner were chosen a committee to hire preaching. Far- rand at this time was town clerk.
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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
One of the earliest settlers in Sudbury was Noah Merritt. He came to Brandon immediately after the close of the War of the Revolution. He was in the battle of Bunker Hill, and was one of the nine last men to leave the fort. He there received a ball in the instep which knocked off the buckle from his shoe. He was in many of the principal battles of the Revolution, and was one of the guards over Major Andre on the night before the execution. He married Eunice Metcalf, of Templeton, Mass., and, as soon as the war was over, he and his wife and child (Noah D.) made the journey from Templeton to Brandon, Vt., in winter. A single ox drew them and their effects all the way in six weeks. They lived in Brandon for four years and then moved to Sudbury. He died in 1842, and his wife survived him until 1845, when she died at the age of ninety-four years. The farm which he occupied was in the east part of the town, called "Spunkhole."
Thomas Ketcham, born February 8, 1748, immigrated from Duchess county, N. Y., to Sudbury at a very early date. Major Barnard Ketcham, one of his sons, married a daughter of Aaron Jackson, another early settler. Thomas Ketcham died on the 19th of May, 1834.
Benoni Griffin, from Simsbury, Conn., came to Castleton, whence in 1799 he removed to Sudbury and settled on the farm now owned by his son, Benoni, jr. The house still stands which he built more than eighty years ago. There was a house on the place when Mr. Griffin came, built some time before by Andrew Gates, who owned several hundred acres of land in this vicinity.
The old military road, elsewhere described, traverses this town in a north- westerly direction, from the southeast to the northwest corners. Near this road on the farm of Mr. Griffin is a famous spring of clear cold water, called "Cold Spring." It is related that one occasion a party of Indians passed through the town with two prisoners, one of whom was very large and the other very small. The larger one was afflicted with a sore foot, upon which his red captives, out of pure malice, would jump and stamp. This so exasperated his small com- panion that he warned them in no very choice language that it would not be well for them to attempt the same experiment with him ; at this one of them, stung by his taunts, attempted it, and was immediately knocked down by the plucky little fellow. This act was loudly applauded by the discomfited Indian's companions, and the prisoner was molested no more. They soon after arrived at Cold Spring, and while several of them were stooped down to drink, the small man suddenly picked up a dog belonging to the Indians, and from an eminence of several feet, hurled it upon their heads. For these acts of bravery he was much petted by the Indians and finally allowed his liberty. A little south of the spring there was once an Indian camp, where many Indian relics have since been found - arrow heads, finished and unfinished, stone pestles for pounding corn, many of them decorated with antique designs, stone images, etc. Cold Spring is also the site of an encampment of the Continental army,
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TOWN OF SUDBURY.
many relics having been plowed up, consisting of bayonets, ramrods, knives, and upon one occasion a large copper camp kettle. It is also related that many years ago, an old Revolutionary soldier named Enos, journeyed hither from a distant part of the State just for the purpose of once more drinking from the old spring.
Peter Reynolds also came here in early times, by the way of Otter Creek, traveling on the ice. He erected a tent on the line between Sudbury and Brandon, subsequently settling in the latter place. The high water in Brandon drove him out the next spring, and he crossed the creek on a raft and made Sudbury his home. He was justice of the peace here for a number of years.
David Layton came here before 1800 and settled on the farm originally cleared by David Smith, in the north part of the town. He operated a tan- nery, manufactured potash and carried on the trade of hatter for a number of years. In 1804 he adopted John C. Sawyer, who was born in Brandon in 1800, and on his death, no issue surviving, the property came into Mr. Saw- yer's hands. Layton's business was carried on a little south of the famous "Sawyer Stand," in the early part of the century a place of wide and pleasing notoriety. It was the " half-way house " between Brandon and Orwell, and a station on the old stage road from Vergennes to Whitehall, and from Rutland to Lake Champlain. All the products of the iron works of Brandon and Pitts- ford passed through here on their way to the lake.
Aaron Jackson's name appears in the records of 1789 and he certainly resided in town at that time. Evidence seems to establish as a fact the claim that he built the first framed house in town, rafting the lumber from Suther- land Falls to Miller's Bridge, and thence conveying it through the wilderness by " blazed " trees. He is also accredited with having been the owner of the first oven in town, wherein was baked bread from the first wheat grown in Sudbury, and of having made the first cheese made in town. He entered the Continental army at the age of sixteen years in company with his father and a still younger brother. They took part in the battle of Bunker Hill.
Captain Pearse settled in early days on the farm now owned by M. H. Landon. His old log-house stood just back of the present site of the barn.
Charles Young immigrated to Sudbury about the year 1805, from Athol, Mass., and settled on the farm now owned by his son. Timothy Miller was from Massachusetts and settled, in 1771, on the farm now owned by Andrew Steele. He afterwards located at the west end of what is now known as Mil- ler's Bridge, where he built a log house, in which he resided three years. During the Revolution the Indians became so troublesome that he, in common with the then few inhabitants of the town, retreated to some more thickly- set- tled part of the country and did not return until after the Revolution. He was justice of the peace for many years; he died in 1825 at the age of seventy- five years.
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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
Isaac Huff came to Sudbury from Nine Partners, N. Y., in 1790, being then in his forty-sixth year. The first year he resided on land covered in later days by Steele's cider-mill; meanwhile he cleared land or premises now occu- pied by his grandsons, and erected a log house there in which he dwelt until 1812, when he built a framed house near the old one. He died in 1821.
Gideon Morton was born in Orwell, Addison county, in 1789, and died. on the 2d of April, 1870, in Sudbury. He came here in the early part of the present century and settled on the farm now occupied by Solon Bresee. Here he resided until 1843, when he removed to the farm now occupied by his son, Benjamin L. Morton. Gideon Morton was probably the first physician in Sudbury.
Reuben Allen came to Sudbury also at an early date, and started for Platts- burg during the war of 1812, although he was much too old for military service.
Deacon Eli Roys cleared the farm now occupied by C. C. Selleck in 1790. He was a famous trapper and hunter, and it is related he once caught a wolf on the site of the present meeting-house.
Joseph Warner came here as early as 1789, and attained at once a promi- nence which he never afterwards relinquished. He and his sons, John L., Jason, Fordyce, Joseph, Hiram, Warren and Almon, manufactured potash in the middle of the town and ran a store near the ashery. Judge Warner also kept a tavern in the northeast part of the town, on Sudbury Hill; he was one of the most prominent men in the town. He represented Sudbury in the Con- stitutional Convention of 1791 and 1792, and in the General Assembly from 1805 until 1822. He was assistant county judge of the Rutland County Court in 1821-24, and councilor in 1821 and 1822. Joseph Warner, jr., was a mer- chant in town after his father until 1832, when he became cashier of the bank in Middlebury, which position he retained until his death.
Roger Burr was born November 1, 1755, in Athol, Mass., whence he came to Sudbury about the year 1773, and settled on the farm now occupied by his grandson, Mason Burr. He built a log house on the ground now used on the old homestead as a garden. His wife, Jennie Rich, was born July 20, 1762. They came from Athol on horseback. They had seven children, of whom Asahel, father to Mason, was the third. Asahel Burr was born on the. 8th of July, 1793, and died here at the age of ninety years and ten months.
Roger Burr built the first mill in town in 1784. Its work was done, of course, with the old-fashioned " up-and-down " saw. The building is still standing on the farm, although it has been once rebuilt. There was then no grist-mill in town and the family flour consisted of pounded corn. Before 1810 Mr. Burr erected a cider-mill, and from the accounts taken from an old journal which he kept, and which contains, among others, the names of John Hurlbert, Asa Smith, Elisha Smith, Noah Merritt, Thomas White, John Ran- som, Nahum Clark, Alvin Griswold and Walker Rumsey, it can be seen that
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TOWN OF SUDBURY.
it was customary to buy apples at six cents per bushel and make cider for ten cents per barrel.
Mason Burr was born on the 23d of October, 1822, in the house he now occupies. He has a curious relic in his possession, in the shape of two human skeletons found buried on the Burr farm, which, from the mode of burial and structural evidences, have been pronounced the remains of an Indian and squaw. In view of the fact that there have been no Indians in Sudbury since the Revolutionary War, it is easy to conjecture them the victims either of a white man's wrath or of disease of more than a hundred years ago. When first exhumed the skeletons were in a perfect state of preservation, every bone and joint being still in its proper place, and every tooth complete and perfect. Exposure to the air, however, has softened and displaced them so that they are no longer anything but a mass of almost indistinguishable bones.
The first tavern in town was kept by a Mr. Mills in the latter part of the last century, and sold in 1801 to Pitt W. Hyde. He was born in Norwich, Conn., December 29, 1776, and was the fifth son of Captain Jedediah Hyde by his first wife, Mary Waterman. The family originally came from England. Before 1801 Pitt William Hyde was an inn-keeper in Hyde Park, Vt., and gave that place its name. On the 19th of October, 1796, he married Mary Kilbourne, of Litchfield, Conn. He died May 29, 1823. James Kilbourne Hyde, father of the present proprietor of Hyde Manor, was born on the 19th of November, 1801, at Morristown, Conn., and was brought to Sudbury in the same year. On the 15th of February, 1824, he married Lavinia Gage, and continued the hotel until he died, September 21, 1870. This house, both under Pitt W. Hyde and the Hon. James K. Hyde, was one of the most celebrated hostelries in New England, situated as it was at a convenient resting-place on the old stage route between Canada and Northern Vermont, and Whitehall and Rutland. Hyde's hotel became widely known, not only for the excellence of the fare and the comfort which the very rafters of the house seemed to shed upon all guests, but also for the genial welcome extended to all alike, the rich and the well dressed, and the poor and humble. James K. Hyde was also town clerk for thirty years, and justice of the peace thirty-four years. He represented the town in the General Assembly in 1833, 1834, 1835 and 1840, and was senator from Rutland county in 1850 and 1851. He was elected assistant judge of the Rutland County Court in 1869.
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