USA > Vermont > Addison County > Salisbury > History of Salisbury, Vermont > Part 18
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twenty children, most if not all of whom lived to the age of maturity. He finally left town about the year 1811 or 1812. His descendants are very numerous, but have all moved from town.
Meagre as the foregoing sketches are, the writer yet remembers the names of at least a hundred individuals, all heads of families and most of them early settlers, of whom he can give little or no account ; and many of them perhaps equally as worthy of notice as some of the preceding. Among them was James Bradley, who first held the office of town treasurer, in which he continued as long as he remained in town, and Eliphaz Perkins, a man of great worth, both as a physician and citizen. There were also families of whom no mention has been made, bearing the name of Chipman, Reynolds, Johnson, Huntley, Buel, Suth- erland, Richardson, Sherman, Phelps, Rossiter, Hors- ley, Church, Case, Chamberlain, Wells, Baker, Hil- dreth, Ellsworth, Sterling, Fuller, Merifield, Lyon, Hawes, Stephens, Bailey, Taylor, Alden, Race, Beebe, Golden, Polmatier, Codman, Larkin, Lakin, Skeele, Chafee, Kilburn, Sprague, McDonald, McCombie, Austin, Goodenough, Porter, French, Pattison, Lang- ly, Cheney, Fitch, Linsly, Toby and many others.
Many of these died during their residence here, while others left town. The preceding tables show some of the acts of a few of them, while the history of most must ever remain unwritten.
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CONCLUSION.
Among the suggestions arising from a review of the foregoing pages, not the least are those which relate to the character of the settlers. The institutions which they established, the habits they cherished, and the works they performed, tell what they were and for what they lived. Being in the greater part emigrants from Connecticut, and of Puritan descent, they brought with them that vigilant care for the morals of their people which had characterized their ancestors. And although the conduct of those from whom they derived their religious opinions had been somewhat marked by intolerance, yet when they arrived among the wilds of a new country, where the closer bonds of commun- ity were greatly needed, a liberal feeling of general brotherhood sprang up, leaving the restraints and prejudices of religious differences far in the dis- tance. It mattered not so much who their teacher might be, if he but taught the plain, practical lessons which their circumstances seemed to demand. .
They understood well that the secret by which New England had been made prosperous and free, was in
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an early attention to the instructions, both civil and religious, of the people and youth, and that to perpet- uate these blessings to later days, they must establish churches and schools. Hence the establishment of a church and school was among the first of their works. Weak and imperfect as these were, and strangely as the meagreness of the advantages they afforded, con- trast with the more generous gifts and privileges of later years, there is in them a native intelligence, and order and solidity which all must admire.
Whatever the settlers established, seemed to re- ceive the impress of their own character; all their works suggest the idea of permanence, sobriety, and hard reality. And in giving form and fashion to their works, the women performed no inferior part, by their example and teaching, by their industry, economy, and virtue, they manifested that same seri- ous determination and steadfastness of purpose. They were satisfied with a poor and humble home, and re- joiced in the labor of their own hands, if it but con- tributed to the comfort and prosperity of their fami- lies. They had rational and adequate ideas of the duties devolving upon them, as daughters and wives. They did not look upon marriage as a thing of social speculation, and dependent for its joys upon the ad- ventitious surroundings of the person whom they hap- pened to marry, but believed it their duty to be to
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their husbands, really and truly helpmates, to enter with him into the battle of life, to temper its asperi- ties and " gild its darkness, if dark it must be, by the light of their patience and the constancy of their de- votion." The spirit of such examples may well be imitated in all ages and in all places.
Society then had no cliques or exclusive circles, to engender prejudice and ill will; all met on a com- mon level. In a semi-circle, before the immense fire- place, heaped with glowing logs, sat the old and young, and often the stranger and the friend, the host and the guest. There, with thoughts reaching back to the homes and hearts they had left, "looking each at each," they were strengthened and encour- aged by a mutual sympathy. There, before their glowing hearths, they spent many of their long win- ter evenings, teaching their children the ways of use- fulness and right, or cheerily laying plans for the future.
Always industrious, both by necessity and habit, they imparted to the community a character of stern ability to meet difficulty, which no other circumstan- ces could have produced, and by a studied economy, laid the foundation of general prosperity and wealth. In their labors was the beginning of all our present possessions; they cleared the forests; they opened the path for us; " they fought the battles." By an
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impulse derived from them, we still move on, as an arrow moves, onward and upward, even after the bow which gave it force and direction, is broken and laid in the dust.
Pleasant as it is to contemplate them in their rus- tic simplicity and enjoyment, we can but congratu- late ourselves that our circumstances are not like theirs. To wish ourselves back in the good old times of our fathers, is unenterprising and subversive of that element of progress for which they so earnestly strived. It would be a wild and fanatical choice, to exchange the power of steam and improved machi- nery, and railroads, and the higher intellectual and social culture of our times, for the narrow conveni- ences and limited advantages of early days. But we can study the example of our fathers with profit, and while admiring their perseverance and steady, sober enthusiasm, imitate whatever of good we may find in them, either of character or thought, or high aspira- tion.
With impressions and associations like these, and with feelings of the tenderest regard for the earth con- secrated by the ashes of our parents, we have under- taken, and so far completed a history of Salisbury. To some, without doubt, 'it will seem that we have raised certain topics to a prominence poorly in keep- ing with the brevity observed in other places, on sub-
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jects of equal importance. To these it can only be answered, that every person has his own idea of the important and interesting features of a history, and that, in many instances, brevity has been compelled from a want of facts, which, though diligently sought, could not be found. We have endeavored to give an impartial and correct account of the leading facts of the town, from the time of its first settlement. It is true that the notices of many men, for want of mate- rial, are exceedingly meagre and inadequate, while others of no little usefulness and influence have been passed over in silence. But a great part of the histo- ry of any town or nation, is its unrecorded part; only its leading facts are written; indeed, many a good man's unvaried life, affords less points on which a biographer can touch, than that of another of far less merit, but which has been full of events. And now, so far from having any written history, many a man of unpretending worth sleeps within the bosom of Salisbury, without even a monument to mark his resting place.
To those, if there are any such, who are disposed to cavil at the minuteness of particulars in the foregoing pages, no better answer can be offered, than that of a distinguished annalist :- " If any tax me for wasting paper with recording these small matters, such may consider that small commonwealths bring forth mat-
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ters of small moment; the reading whereof, yet, is not to be despised by the judicious, because small things, in the beginning of natural or politic bodies, are as remarkable as greater, in bodies full grown."
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MEMOIR OF JOHN M. WEEKS.
JOHN M. WEEKS, son of Holland Weeks, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, May 22d, 1788, and camne with the rest of his father's family to Salisbury, when a little more than a year old. Being the youngest of a family of ten children, placed in the wilds of a new country where the most rigid economy and perseve- ring labor were necessary to a livelihood, he was early accustomed to all the privations of the settler's life, and was taught lessons of self-denial which he applied with great profit in later years.
The years of his minority were spent in assisting his father in clearing and cultivating the farm, and in such other labors as belonged to the more rude ag- riculture of that period. During this time he formed a decided proneness for study and literary pursuits, and greatly wished for the advantages of a classical education ; but in this, he was denied, for the want of pecuniary assistance-his father being a man of lim- ited means, and having already sent two of his sons to college. But, notwithstanding the circumstances
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which opposed his wishes, he obtained as good an ed- ucation as the lower schools of his boyhood days wonld afford, and studied some of the classics, under private instruction from his brothers. At this time he commenced the practice of private study, which so much characterized all his subsequent life. De- ploring the scantiness of the time allowed him for his favorite pursuits, he felt the necessity of using to the best advantage what was granted to him, and early adopted the sentiment of Seneca as a motto- " That it is a virtue to be covetous of time ;" and the principle of his motto he carried into all the works of his life, of whatever kind he undertook, and enjoined it upon all over whom he had any influence.
!* At his father's death he bought out the several in- terests of his brothers and sisters in the old home- stead, and entered in his own right and responsibility, upon the pursuits of the agriculturist, in which he continued, as his principal business, until his death. In making so extensive a purchase, he incurred a very heavy debt, which hung like an incubus over him du- ring quite a large portion of his life. In an excess of anxiety to relieve himself of this debt, soon after it was incurred, he seriously undermined his constitu- tion, in too severe and protracted labors, and suffered all his life from the frailties caused by them. He never was able to enter, in person, into the more ar-
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duous labors of the farm; but, by an orderly plan and distribution of his work, and by a careful oversight of his men, he accomplished none the less.
On the 19th of February, 1818, he was married to Harriet Prindle, of Charlotte, Vermont, by whom he had five children-two daughters and three sons-of the latter of whom, the oldest, Charles H., died No- vember 7th, 1854.
Remembering the disappointments in his early en- deavors for his own intellectual culture, he spared no pains in affording his children such means of improve- ment as lay within his reach. He rendered their home attractive to them by an abundance of books of all kinds, serious, scientific and amusing, together with many of the best periodicals of the day. He undertook to render the family circle a pleasant and sacred place, and for this purpose cherished the re- fining influences of music and some of the kindred arts, in a limited way, and added the sanctities of daily Christian worship. Although an advocate of the strictest family discipline, he discarded the obsolescent principle of his ancestors, that children should have almost no sports at all, and that a grave countenance alone was consistent with religion. Fond of good humor and fun at times, himself, he took no offence at it in others.
He always cultivated habits of close observation,
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and took pleasure in philosophizing on what he saw. From a long and critical observation of the nature and habits of the honey-bce he was led to the inven- tion of the " Vermont Bee-hive," which was patented 1836. This was the first improvement on the old- fashioned hive (in which the honey was obtained at the sacrifice of the bees), and was rapidly introduced into most parts of the United States. It was exhibited at the American Institute in New York in 1839, and received the award of a silver medal from that insti- tution. It was successfully and almost exclusively used everywhere, until other inventors sought the same field with other hives, which, though of very similar principle, were sufficiently novel to claim a patent of their own. But even now, after all the changes in bee-hives, and the great number of them in use, the old Vermont hive meets the eye of the traveler as often as any other. The same year this patent was granted, Mr. Weeks published a small treatise on the instincts and habits of the honey-bec. This book he subsequently revised and enlarged in several succeeding editions, until more than twenty thousand copies were sold without satisfying the pub- lic demand. It is believed that this treatise has been of great service to the apiarian ; indeed its utility has been well proved in its rapid sale, and in the fact, that when the author's own last edition was exhausted, 29*
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it was reprinted both in the United States and in England.
Again, in 1841, he secured letters patent on eight different classes of hires, embracing, in addition to the principles of the old patent, many new ones, among which were those of the canal bottom-board, the col- lateral boxes, and the subtended hive. These hives never received so extensive a patronage as the former, but were used with success and profit by their in- ventor as long as he lived. They were in some respects better adapted to the uses of the amateur in the apiary than to the hurried and imperfect care or- dinarily observed among our people in the manage- ment of bees. These patents never resulted in any very great profit to their owner; on the contrary, they were a prolific cause of vexation, as most patent rights are. A person of some eminence has said with much truth, " A patentee in the United States is re- warded with strifes and lawsuits, that is all." But Mr. Weeks in most instances preferred to suffer an in- fringement of his right, and submit to many other sacrifices in his business, rather than undertake the vexations and uncertainties of legal proceedings ; and he always felt that he had received a sufficient reward in the consciousness of his services to the community in this matter, and in the recreation afforded his leis- ure hours in observation and experiment in his apiary.
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Of his religious education and habits much might be said of interest and of profit. Surrounded as he was, during all his early years, by teachers of Puritan descent, he was early imbued with the principles pe- culiar to their order, and, as the foregoing pages of this book show, took an unusual interest in all the early religious movements in town. But, believing that stated rites and services had an influence in per- petuating Christianity, which the teaching of abstract truths alone could not equal, and wishing to hold and commit to his descendants a rule of faith less [liable to change, he was baptized and confirmed in the Episcopal Church at Middlebury, in 1833, and lived in its communion all the remaining years of his life. In addition to the goodly example of his daily walk and conversation, the record of his own private jour- nals shows, that at no time was he unmindful of the high and important duties imposed upon him by his Christian profession; short, ejaculatory prayers, ex- pressions of thankfulness, and renewed resolutions of perseverance in following the example and precepts of his Blessed Master, are beautiful and significant tokens of his Christian character.
But although he repudiated the form and doctrine of the Puritan Church, he was a great admirer of those characteristics of his ancestry, which, in so res- olute and single a manner, led to the establishment
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of those institutions, and to the acquirement of those traits and habits which have given New England so much intelligence and strength. He was fond of an- tiquities, and took great pains to collect the genea- logical facts of his own family. He always took a great interest in the celebrations in commemoration of the first landing of the Pilgrims upon the New England shore, and participated with pleasure in the festivities of the Middlebury Historical Society in honor of that anniversary. In fact, it was at the sug- gestion and request of that society that he undertook the work of the foregoing pages.
Having been a resident of Salisbury from his in- fancy, and thus made personally acquainted with most of the early settlers, and having an unusual in- clination to historical research, both general and local, he was peculiarly fitted to gather together the long- forgotten facts of early years and "write them for a memorial in a book." The history he prepared is by no means perfect, and will be of only local inter- est or use ; but, embracing as it does, all the leading facts of the town, it is not very incomplete, and taken all together, rescues from oblivion a vast number of interesting facts, which, lying only in the memory, would in a short time have been utterly lost. With- out attempting any great literary merit he succeeded in all particulars in accomplishing what he undertook,
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which was simply to preserve to posterity the leading facts and prominent characteristics attending the early settlement of the town.
In his occupation as farmer he acted on the plan of experiment and science. Gladly profiting by the ex- periences of others, he was fond of investigating for himself, and even to the end of his life was experi- menting in new adaptations of soil and seed, in seek- ing new sources of fertilization, and extending his inquiries into all the progressive features of agricul- ture. He entered heartily into the spirit of all move- ments calculated to promote improvement in stock and all the various products of the farm. He took an early and useful part in establishing the Addison County Agricultural Society, and for many years made quite extensive contributions to its annual ex- hibitions. He earnestly strove, so far as he was able, to make agriculture a progressive and intelligent work, and for this purpose took pains to make known to others whatever he had learned by his own observa- tion and experiment. For many years he was a con- tributor to the best agricultural papers in New England. After an experience of many years in the dairy he gave the results of his observations to the press in occasional letters, which were extensively copied in the agricultural papers throughout the United States. His articles on field-crops, bees,
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and other kindred topics have met with general favor.
He was often called to fill important offices of trust, to which he was well adapted by temperament, judg- ment, and honesty. Commencing with the execut- orial office in the settlement of his father's estate, in the course of his life he was officially interested in the settlement of more than sixty different estates, in a large part of which he acted as executor or adminis- trator. He also stood in fiduciary capacities in many other instances, as guardian or trustee, many of which offices he held to his own pecuniary disadvan- tage and sacrifice.
In town matters he always took a lively interest, and yet never was the recipient of the highest offices in its gift. His usefulness in town was felt more in the quiet office of counselor, than in those more com- monly sought by the ambitious. And yet he filled many important offices, for many years in succession. He took more than an ordinary interest in the welfare of the town in which he lived, as may be seen in the faithfulness with which he performed the duties im- posed upon him by it, from time to time, and in the motive which suggested the labor of the foregoing pages. Indeed, the words of his own preface tell well and truly the spirit which dictated the work, " Wishing to the inhabitants of Salisbury that pros-
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perity and happiness which results from a cultivated mind, industrious habits, refined manners, pure mor- als, and religious principles."
In the autumn of 1853, while on a visit to New York, he was suddenly called home by the illness of his wife, who, after a month of severe suffering, died on the 24th day of October, of that year. Suddenly deprived of the society and sympathy of one who had so long faithfully served at the domestic hearth, and given life and joy to the family circle, he sought to beguile the time of its weariness by a more close ap- plication of his thoughts in reading and study. Du- ring the following winter, he became greatly inter- ested in the history of the "Five Indian Nations ;" and after a very extensive and painstaking research among the doings of those savages, he wrote a history of them, together with an examination of the claims against the state of Vermont, by the Seven Nations of Canada calling themselves Iroquois. This history is yet in manuscript ; but for interest of adventure, an- ecdote, and general historical detail, is well worthy of publication, and would undoubtedly elicit a more gen- eral interest than any other production of its author.
Again, in the fall of 1854, he was afflicted in the death of another member of his family, which, in con- nection with the almost constant absence of his other children from home, rendered his situation exceed-
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ingly lonely, and ill adapted to one of his advanced years. This induced him to contemplate a second marriage ; and finally, on the 6th day of January, 1856, he was married to Mrs. Emily Davenport, of Middlebury, Vermont, who did much to give comfort and happiness to his few remaining years. At last, in the latter part of August, 1858, after having passed the previous summer in unusual good health and activ- ity, he was suddenly prostrated by a disease to which he had long been subject, and after a short illness of one week-early in the morning of the first day of September-was gathered to his fathers.
The time and circumstances of his death were beau- tifully in keeping with his character and age.
" Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it."
It was at the close of a pleasant summer; the labors of the yearly harvest were done; the ripened grain was gathered to the garner; and he, after a goodly life of three-score years and ten, before the dawn of the autumnal day, bade adieu to the summer and the the earth, and went to his everlasting rest.
THE END.
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