USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > Ryegate > History of Ryegate, Vermont, from its settlement by the Scotch-American company of farmers to present time; > Part 11
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Had these original orders been carried out, and had Baume been properly supported, the entire Connecticut valley, from the Coös Country southward, might have been over-run. But when the troops, under Col. Baume, reached Battenkill, on the 12th of August, Gen. Burgoyne, by new orders, instructed him to proceed directly to Bennington, and capture the magazine of military stores at that place.
These later orders led to his complete overthrow, and, in the sequel, to that of Burgoyne himself.
In August a company under the command of Capt. Thomas Johnson left Newbury for Lake Champlain and distinguished itself in the siege of Mount Independence, later being sent to guard the prisoners taken there, across the state to Charlestown, N. H. Their muster roll is also lost, but it is not unlikely that one or two Ryegate men were in it.
On the 6th of October, a company of forty-one men under command of Capt. Frye Bayley, left Newbury for the seat of war. In this com- pany Bartholemew Somers of Ryegate was a corporal, David Reid, John and James Orr, also of Ryegate were privates, as were John Mc- Laren and Duncan McLain of Barnet. Andrew Brock had been drafted, but for some reason could not go, and David Reid volunteered to go in his place. This company arrived at Saratoga too late to participate in battle, but was able to render very effective service by means of an exploit which has not received the notice which it deserved. The par- ticulars of this affair are as narrated by Capt. (afterwards Colonel) Frye Bayley in his old age.
The company which was five days on the march, had nearly reached Hudson river late in the afternoon of the last day and were making preparations to camp for the night, when a messenger on horse back came to inform Bayley that a number of boats loaded with provisions for the enemy were coming down the river, and that there was no force at hand to stop them, urging him to come with his company and attempt their capture. They were supplies of food which had been collected at very high prices and were intended to relieve the desperate situation in which Burgoyne had found himself.
Captain Bayley and his small force had barely reached the bank of the Hudson when they saw the boats approaching at some distance,
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HISTORY OF RYEGATE, VERMONT.
fifteen in number, each heavily loaded, and with no more men than were needed to navigate them. They went down on the further side of the river, out of musket range, and all passed out of sight, Bayley having neither bridge or boats to reach the opposite shore. While the men were debating what to do, a scout who had been sent down the river, returned with the intelligence that the boats had been moored to the further bank, under overhanging trees, about a mile below. It was now dark and Bayley called his men together, and in low tones laid before them the importance of securing the boats and their contents, and acquainted them with his plan for their capture. He called for two men to volun- teer to swim the river, reconnoiter the situation, and if possible, secure one of the boats. Bartholemew Somers of Ryegate and a man from New Hampshire volunteered for the dangerous service, and the whole company proceeded down the river bank till they came opposite the place where the boats were concealed. The captain directed the two men to tie their clothes to the back of their necks, and make their way as well as they could in the darkness to the other shore. The water was very cold, but the men reached the spot in safety and found that all the boats were tied to trees along the bank and that the men in charge of them, suspecting no danger, had gone to a sheltered place at a little distance, where they had kindled a fire, and were cooking their suppers, leaving only a few men to look after the boats. Somers and his companion cut one of the · boats loose, and noiselessly re-crossed the river to the place where Bayley and his men waited under the trees. The boat was unloaded, and as many men as could get into it were rowed stealthily across the river. Bayley having given directions in whispers part of the men formed a guard, and the rest secured the boats, the men who were left in charge having fled, and was successful in bringing them safely to the other shore. The men who had been in charge of them were taken by surprise, and ignorant in the darkness, of the number and position of their assail- ants, made no attempt at resistance.
The success of this daring adventure was a heavy misfortune to Gen- eral Burgoyne, and hastened his inevitable capitulation. The circum- stance of the capture of the boats is mentioned by several historians as one of many brave deeds of that campaign.
Mr. Mason says that some years after the war an attempt was made to find and reward the men who had thus hazarded their lives, but they were not to be found. Somers had removed to Barnet, and either did not learn of the search which was being made for him, or did not value his service as he might have done. The name of his companion is not preserved.
The delay occasioned by this adventure prevented the company from reaching the army in time to be of service, as preparations for the capitu-
BLUE MOUNTAIN AND RESIDENCE OF GEORGE COCHRAN.
BLUE MOUNTAIN AND RESIDENCE OF A. E. HALL.
POUR IT LIRNAX
小海老 1
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RYEGATE IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
lation were being made. After the surrender most of the men, believing that their services were no longer needed, without waiting for a formal discharge, started for home, all the Ryegate and Barnet men were among them. This company was attached to Col. Peter Olcott's regiment, was in service one month and four days, traveling 270 miles.
The adventure herein related, while of great service, was not so hazardous as that of Ephraim Webster of Newbury, and Richard Wallace of Thetford, who swam across Lake Champlain about a month earlier, with dispatches for General Lincoln.
Ryegate thus adds the narrative of the brave deed of one of its residents to the innumerable number of anecdotes relating to the march and surrender of General John Burgoyne in the great battle year, 1777.
The exigencies of the time required the building of a blockhouse in Ryegate for the protection of its inhabitants, which stood, according to the best information we have, on the farm now called "Fairview," between W. T. McLam's and the corner of the road west of it. It does not appear to have been used often for defense, but was occupied by a family, and the settlers could resort to it in case of alarm. It is not certain whether it was built by the inhabitants for their own protection, or by the troops, or as one of a chain of block houses along the Hazen Road. It remained several years after the war, and families lived in it.
The blockhouse of those days was a rude structure of logs, squared and pinned at the corners, and, perhaps, pinned along their length, in one or two places. It had one strong door, and a small window. One log all around, about breast or shoulder high from the floor, would be cut in pieces and pinned to those above and under it. These cuts were the port- holes, and on the outside mere narrow upright slits across one log, just wide enough to admit the muzzle of a rifle, but inside the log would be cut away so as to leave the rifleman space to swing his rifle or musket a foot or two to the right or left. There were several such loop-holes on each side of the building, and its upper story projected over the lower one a foot or two to enable the inmates to fire down upon any persons who should try to set the house on fire.
NOTE. Captain (afterwards Colonel), Frye Bayley was a nephew of Gen. Jacob Bayley, and a grantee of Newbury, where he settled in 1763. This farm was the north end of Cow Meadow, and his house, in which Mr. Learned lives, is one of the oldest in that town. He was with the army in Canada, and a valuable fragment of his journal during the retreat, is owned by the Tenney Memorial Library. In December, 1777, he was sent to Canada to negotiate for the release of prisoners, where he was thrown into prison, and remained a year. He was also in other important services. He was very prominent in Newbury, but being appointed sheriff of the county, he removed to Chelsea, where he died in 1827, and is buried at Newbury. His family is extinct in this vicinity. Two of his sons were educated at Dartmouth college, and settled in Maryland, where one became an Episcopal clergyman, and has descendants.
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HISTORY OF RYEGATE, VERMONT.
A blockhouse at Newbury, which stood on the ridge north of the cemetery at the Oxbow, and large enough to shelter one or two compan- ies of troops, was a much more formidable structure and was surrounded by a ditch, which may be still traced. Several frame houses still standing in this region were surrounded by a stockade, which was made by stand- ing posts ten or twelve feet high close together around the house at some distance, thus enclosing the house and yard. Entrance was had by a strong gate, firmly secured. The house at North Haverhill, where W. F. Eastman lives, the older part of the one at Haverhill Corner called the "old Jolinston house," in which the late Mr. Tarleton long lived, and that of Col. Robert Johnston, now a barn at the south end of Newbury village were protected in this way.
But most of the settlers went through the war with no other protec- tion than their own stout hearts and trusty muskets. They came of a race bred to war and its alarms, and were not going to leave what had cost them so much toil and privation. In those days every man kept a loaded gun within reach at night and carried it to the field with him, and in times of special danger, no man ventured far from home alone, while the women and children were equally brave. Except by some slight depredations by Indians and tories, no harm came to Ryegate people during the whole war.
In 1780 and 1781, requisitions were made upon all the towns for supplies of flour and beef for the army, and in 1782 the town voted "that the flour paid toward last years provision be proportioned to the list."
At a special town meeting held at the home of William Johnson, Nov. 7, 1783, it was voted "That Josiah Page, William Neilson, Andrew Brock and James Whitelaw be a committee to draw up a petition to send to the General Assembly to see if they will forgive them their arrearages of provision and soldiers hire." Their petition set forth their situation and poverty, and the fact that they were remote from the scene of actual war, and new to the country. Their petition was granted.
An incident related to the editor of this volume by Miss Sally Bayley of Newbury many years ago is worthy of mention. Near the end of the war, some men were hunting among the hills in the north part of the latter town, returned in haste, and reported that heavy smokes were rising from Ryegate, and they had heard the firing of guns and loud shouting. All the men who could be got together on the moment started for the relief of their Scotch neighbors, supposing that the place had been attacked by the Indians, as Royalton had lately been. They were at once relieved and amused to find that the alarm was caused by men who were clearing land, piling and burning the trees, and urging on their oxen.
CHAPTER XI.
THE EARLY DAYS.
CONTEMPORARY EVENTS .- FIRST TOWN MEETINGS .- FIRST MARRIAGES .- FIRST ROADS .- EARLY TAX LISTS .- SHEEP RAISING .- LOG HOUSES .- CORRESPONDENCE. -SCARCITY OF MONEY .- STANDARD OF VALUE .- VARIATION IN VALUE OF BANK NOTES .- THE' TOWN POUND .- ANECDOTES.
A GREAT deal of history has been made since 1773, the year when the Scotch American Company entered upon their possession of Ryegate, and we have only to glance at contemporary events to realize how far the world has moved since that day. It seems an ancient date, that far away year, yet, as this chapter goes to press there are several living who can remember Gen. James Whitelaw, William Neilson, and others of the first settlers of the town very well. Mr. Neilson was born in 1742, and in the years which have passed since that date, much of what we call modern history has been made. Yet the space of two lives comprehends it all.
In 1773, George the Third was King of Great Britain; a dull, stub- born man, who would never have been heard of outside his native parish, had he been born a peasant At that time, upon an estate over which James Whitelaw and David Allan must have crossed on their journey along the south bank of the Potomac, lived a retired colonel of Virginia militia, destined a few years later, to give King George a great deal of trouble. The Boston Tea Party took place during the month in which the commissioners received their bond of sale from John Church, and the battle of Lexington was only fourteen months in the future.
At that date, in the American colonies, there was a public conveyance only between a few of the largest towns, and, twenty years later, there were but seventy-five post offices in the United States. In 1773, there was not a bank in North America, and a ship which crossed the ocean in six weeks was said to have had a quick passage. In that year Ben- jamin Franklin was pleading the cause of the American colonies before the House of Commons; Louis XV was nearing the close of his wicked reign ; and in the island of Corsica a boy named Napoleon Bonaparte was learning to read. In Scotland, Adam Smith was preparing "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," and at London Edward Gibbon was writing the " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." Somehow we seem to think of Robert Burns as for centuries
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HISTORY OF RYEGATE, VERMONT.
the poet of Scotland, yet Ryegate had been settled thirteen years when he published his first volume of poems. At Edinburgh, in 1773, lived a little lame boy named Walter Scott, who was one day to eclipse all Scot- tish fame except that of Burns himself. The steam engine was hardly more than an experiment, and only a few years before Franklin had demonstrated that lightning and electricity are the same. It is well to consider what has been accomplished in the world since people from Scotland began to clear land, and build log cabins in Ryegate.
Had Mr. Miller been spared to complete his work, the memorials of the earlier days would have been enriched by the reminiscences of the people who were old when he was young. But he committed only a few of them to writing, and we are compelled to use the scanty details of the early days, which have come down to us, as best we can. The town and company records supply us with an outline which we may complete in a measure. The first town meeting is thus mentioned by Mr. Whitelaw :
On the third Tuesday in May [1776] being appointed for the yearly town meeting for choosing the necessary officers for the town, John Gray and James Whitelaw were chosen assessors; Andrew Brock, treasurer ; Robert Tweedale and John Orr, overseers of the highway; John Scot, collector, and Archibald Taylor, James Smith, William Neilson and David Reid, constables.
The fathers of the infant colony seem to have discharged their duties satisfactorily, as, when a year later, the "inhabitants of the town of Ryegate in the County of Gloucester and Province of New York," met in annual meeting, "the same persons who were chosen last year, both for civil and military officers, were unanimously re-chosen for another year." Such approval of public service has not often been given.
A few weeks later we catch a glimpse (one of the last), of the "city" which the Company in Scotland had planned as the center and crowning feature of this new colony in North America.
Thursday, June 12, [1777], all the inhabitants met in order to choose their house lots in the town spot, when Walter Brock made choice of lot No. 357; James Orr of No. 356; Robert Orr of No 355 for himself and Nos. 353 and 354 for William Blackwood; John Gray of No. 319 for himself, and No. 320 tor John Barr; John Wilson of Nos. 2, 3, 4, 321, 322, 323; John Scot of Nos. 276, 277, 278; Andrew Brock of Nos. 349- 352; Robert Brock of Nos. 75-78; Alexander Sym of Nos. 347, 348; John Shaw of Nos. 196, 197, for himself, and Nos. 198-201 for William Warden; and Nos. 202-205 for James Laird; James Neilson of No. 273, 274; William Neilson of Nos. 265, 272; Patrick Lang of Nos. 260-263; and for William Craig, 264, 291-293; David Reid of Nos. 289, 290; James Smith of Nos. 286-288 for himself and 285 for John Gray ; Robert Tweedale of Nos. 281-284; Hugh Gammel of Nos, 279, 280 for his father; Archibald Taylor of No. 206; James Whitclaw of Nos. 207-210; James Henderson of Nos. 211-213, and John Waddel of 214 .- [White- law's Journal.
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THE EARLY DAYS.
Wars and rumors of wars, hard work, and the rigors of winter in a new country, did not prevent the festivities of a wedding, as Mr. White- law says:
"On the 9th of January, 1777, James Henderson was married to Agnes Sym, and on the 17th of the same month Robert Brock was married to Elizabeth Stewart, which were the first two marriages which ever was in Ryegate."
Mr. Mason says that at the former wedding, all the colonists attend- ed the young couple to their new home, "with great joyfulness." The name of the officiating clergman or magistrate is not preserved, but as the oldest child of the Hendersons was baptized by Rev. Peter Powers, he probably performed the ceremony, and, perhaps, the other also.
Agnes Sym, [Symes] must have been a very capable young woman, if we may judge from certain entries in the Company's book, wherein she is credited with the sum of £13, 17, 3, for reaping, washing, ironing, mending, making, and the exercise of other accomplishments proper to a fashionable young lady of hier times. In the same book she is charged with "sundrie goods brought from Newburyport," £5,1,6; to "ribbons, pins, and gauze" 1%. "Towards a wheel (not a bicycle)" 10s, "tea dishes" 68; plates, mugs, candlesticks, snuffers, and other accessories for housekeeping.
In 1783 the town voted :
That John Dodge and associates should be prosecuted for cutting timber on the public lands, and that Andrew Brock and William Neilson should grant a Power of Attorney to Moses Dow, Esq., of Haverhill, for that purpose.
Then first the town got into law, but not for the last time. In 1787, the legislature, sitting at Newbury, passed a law requiring the record by the town clerk of all transfers of real estate, and the town voted to pur- chase a book containing eight quires of paper, for that purpose. In that year 29 persons paid poll tax.
In 1794 the town voted :
That there shall be a sign post and a pair of stocks erected in this town, at the town's expense, as soon as possible, to be set in the most convenient place near the crossing of the road at Andrew Brock's house, and appointed Andrew Brock and Alexander Miller a committee to set them up.
Previous to 1784, the only public road in Ryegate was the one from Wells River village to Barnet line-the Hazen road; and all the earlier roads branched from it. The first to be laid out by the town, and thus made a public highway, was the one running east from the Corner, "from Andrew Brock's to Mr. Sym's," and the town "voted 5 Pounds for the benefit of the roads, to be levied on the polls and ratable estate." In 1787, a committee was appointed to lay out and survey a road from
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HISTORY OF RYEGATE, VERMONT.
Elihu Johnson's to the division line, north of William Neilson's land." In 1794, a road was surveyed from Robert Brock's mills to Groton line. Mr. Miller believes this to have been laid entirely on the north side of the river, some sections of which are now disused.
In 1797, the "Old West Road," from the Corner to Groton line, was laid out and accepted. Much of this, also, has been altered. The date of the acceptance of a road by the town gives no clue to the time when it began to be travelled, but fixes the date when the town began to be responsible for its maintenance.
As we have already stated, the Hazen road, a work of great value to the settler, was passable for carts. But the earliest roads were very much like our winter logging roads, and only passable with teams in winter. People rode on horseback, two on a horse, a man and wife, the latter riding behind. Rev. Clark Perry states that the first wheeled carriage was brought into Newbury, about 1783, by a minister who came to preach. The first chaise was not owned in that town till after 1790.
Rev. David Sutherland says that there were no carriages of any kind in Bath till several years after his settlement there in 1804. Miss Mehet- able Barron of Bradford, who afterward became Mrs. Robert Whitelaw, told Rev. Dr. McKeen that she was the first woman who ever rode from Newbury street to Ryegate in a chaise. She was in company with Mr., afterwards Judge Noble, of Tinmouth, and their carriage attracted as much attention as would an elephant passing along. This must have been before her marriage to Mr. Whitelaw, in 1804. The first four- wheeled wagon was brought to Bath in 1811.
When we talk about the conditions of those early days, we are obliged to remember that most of our labor-saving conveniences were wholly unknown. The tools with which the people worked their land were clumsy and heavy. Even so common a thing as the traverse sled did not come into use till after 1825. Scores of useful articles of metal, which can be bought for a few pennies, were then costly, or not to be had at any price. Our modern means of instant communication were wholly unknown.
It must be remembered, however, that in those days there were large families, and many hands to do the work. Every child, however small, had its task. When a man had a heavy job to do in a short time, his neighbors turned out to help him, and in sickness or trouble, no man asked help in vain. There was a mutual spirit of helpfulness, which sprang from the common needs of all, a kindly interest and solicitude, which in our more artificial state of society, only partly exists.
The "list of polls and ratable estate," is first given in 1784, and the amount is £604. 05, which two years later, had increased to £708. In
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THE EARLY DAYS.
1787, we have the first list where the name of each tax payer, and the items of taxable property were given. There were 26 individual lists. William Neilson was the largest taxpayer, with an appraisement of £91, and next him came Andrew Brock with £57, and Josiah Page with £50. Two years later the items are expanded to give the number of acres of cleared and uncleared land held by each, the number of horses, cows, oxen, and other cattle; the amount of wool raised, and the number of yards of tow or linen cloth manufactured on the premises. William Neilson had 46 acres of cleared land, and next him came James Whitelaw with 30 acres, while of wild land the former owned 654 and Andrew Brock 512 acres. Twenty horses were owned, and 24 pairs of oxen. The number of sheep is not given, but 707 lbs. of wool were returned, and 2325 yards of tow or linen cloth. The domestic manufacture of this latter staple, and consequently the raising of flax was a prominent industry in Ryegate from an early day, although the lists do not give the amount produced in any other year. This industry has been discon- tinued so long that few are living who remember how it was con- ducted, and the "flax-brake," the "hetchel," the "swingle," the "buck- ing-tub," the "clock-reel," and the "little wheel," where preserved, are objects of curious interest, of whose manner of operation the present generation has only a vague idea. But, a century ago, they were in constant use on every farm, and the Scotch colonists of Ryegate brought over with them a few ideas in the linen industry, which caused the linen cloth made by them to be considered a superior article, always in demand at a good price.
The raising of sheep was exposed to the rapacity of wolves and bears. These wild animals prowled around the clearings and cattle and sheep had to be kept in at night. Rev. J. M. Beattie, in an historical sketch of the town for Miss Hemenway's Gazetteer, states that in the summer of 1778, Mrs. John Gray saw a bear carrying off a sheep. She followed the trail, and came suddenly upon the bear, when she screamed with terror. at which sound the bear, terrified in his turn, dropped his prey, and betook himself to flight, and Mrs. Gray, taking the sheep on her shoul- ders, returned home in triumph. A curious fact preserved in the Johnson papers at Newbury, is that in the spring of 1778, Col. Johnson let John Gray of Ryegate have four likely sheep, and was to share their wool and increase.
It will be borne in mind that most of the colonists were young men with only their own hands to depend upon ; that money was very scarce, and they were obliged to resort to almost any means to start a flock. In an old account book of Col. Frye Bayley's, preserved in the library at Newbury, is the following, which we insert to show how people began their flocks.
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