USA > Vermont > Washington County > Waterbury > History of Waterbury, Vermont, 1763-1915 > Part 16
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As a Senator from Vermont, and having New England's interests especially at heart, he stoutly opposed President Taft's scheme for reciprocity with Canada, and in the face of much criticism he was equally strong in his support of the protective principle in tariff legislation.
The people of Vermont will not soon forget the judicial stand taken by Senator Dillingham as chairman of the Com- mittee on Privileges and Elections in its consideration of the Lorimer case, nor his able, forceful and lawyer-like résumé of the case in the Senate, July 6, 8 and 9, 1912. Because Mr. Dillingham disregarded popular clamor and confined himself to a consideration of all the facts, as brought out in the evidence taken by the committee, he was subjected to some criticism, which, however, was only ephemeral. The result of the re- hearing, however disappointing to the courageous few who resisted popular clamor, in so sense changed the material facts.
William P. Dillingham much prefers the peaceful village life of Waterbury to the hurly-burly of cities; his love for his native town amounts to almost an obsession. He takes de- light in participating in town affairs and is known and re- garded by his townsmen as one whose interest in the minutest matters affecting the town is always keen and suggestive. He might well be pardoned for the pride he feels in having been instrumental in the establishment and up-building of the
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State Hospital, the magnificent high school, and in the long- worked-for adoption and building of the village water system together with C. D. Robinson and G. E. Moody. He it was who advocated the first concrete sidewalks for the village, and it was largely through his efforts, assisted by those of Justin W. Moody and Reverend W. R. Davenport, fellow commit- teemen, that the fine new Methodist Church was planned and built. It will long be remembered of him that no public preferment or distinction could ever displace Water- bury from his solicitous affection and care. This is his home and here is where he loves to be.
In accordance with the recommendations of Governor William P. Dillingham and pursuant to the action of the Legislature a site for the Vermont State Hospital for the Insane was purchased in 1889 from Mr. C. C. Warren. The first board of trustees were W. H. Giddings, M. D., Bakersfield, Vermont; Don D. Grout, M. D., Stowe, Vermont; H. D. Hob- son, Brighton, Vermont. The superintendents in order were W. E. Sylvester, M. D., appointed in 1891 and served a little less than one year; W. H. Giddings, M. D., served four years and four months; Frank Page, M. D., followed Doctor Gid- dings and served two and one-half years. Doctor Marcello Hutchinson followed Doctor Page and served six years and four months, retiring in August, 1905. Don D. Grout, M. D., the present superintendent, followed Doctor Hutchinson and was appointed September 6, 1905. A disastrous fire at the hospital occurred December 24, 1909, in which the roof of Hall No. 3 was destroyed, and Halls Nos. 1, 2 and 3 were rendered temporarily unfit for use. The present medical staff consists of Don D. Grout, M. D., superintendent; W. L. Was- son, M. D., assistant physician and pathologist; E. A. Stanley, M. D., second assistant physician; T. J. Allen, M. D., third assistant physician. The number of employes is 147; the number of patients at present is 768; of these 434 are males and 334 females. The hospital farm of seven hundred acres is in charge of Farmer H. C. Douglass.
Doctor Don De Forest Grout, superintendent of the Ver- mont State Hospital for the Insane, at Waterbury, is from old
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New England stock, the English founder of the family, Captain John Grout coming to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1640. He was allowed upon petition of the citizens of Sudbury to "practice the mistery of chirudgery." Of the fifth generation in the direct line was Don Grout, who settled in Elmore, Ver- mont, and died in 1841. Major Luman M. Grout, the father of the subject of this sketch, was the son of Don Grout of El- more. Major Grout was born at Elmore March 8, 1823, and died in Waterbury December 9, 1913. In 1847 he enlisted in Company D, a Vermont company of the Ninth Regiment, United States Infantry, for service in the Mexican War. He received his appointment as corporal at Fort Adams and was in the battles of Contreras and Cheresbusco, where he was severely wounded and carried from the field to a hospital. After his honorable discharge from the army he represented the town of Elmore in the Legislature in 1857-1858. At the breaking out of the Rebellion, he first did recruiting and drill- ing duty. His volunteers formed Company A of the Eighth Vermont Regiment of Volunteer Infantry. He was elected captain of the company and duly commissioned. He took part in the taking of New Orleans and was promoted to his majority to succeed Colonel Charles Dillingham December 24, 1862. After the war he lived in Elmore, Montpelier, Stoneham, Massachusetts, and finally returned to the home of his son, Doctor Grout, in Waterbury, where he spent his last years. He was the last survivor of the Mexican War who went from Vermont and who also served in the War of the Rebellion.
Doctor Don D. Grout was born in Morrisville, Vermont, April 24, 1849. He was educated at the People's Academy, Morris- ville, and Dartmouth College. He received his professional training at the Medical School of the University of Vermont, and was graduated there with the degree of M. D. in 1872. He was successively an interne at Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn, New York, a general practitioner in Stowe, Vermont, and Waterbury. He has been surgeon of the Central Vermont Railroad, health officer of the town, United States Pension examiner and consulting surgeon of the Fanny Allen Hospital
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of Burlington. A Republican in politics, he has served as superintendent of schools at Walcott and town representative from Stowe in the Legislature in 1888. A member of the legislative committee on the insane, he had charge of the bill providing for the present State Hospital for the In- sane. Subsequently he was placed in charge of the con- struction of the hospital buildings and the removal of patients from Brattleboro Hospital. He served four years as one of the three original trustees of the State Hospital, from the year 1889. He also served as trustee and chairman of the school board of the Village of Waterbury from 1900 to 1903. He was chairman of the Republican Town Com- mittee for twenty years. He was chairman of the State Tuberculosis Commission from 1902 to 1905; delegate to the Pan-American Tuberculosis Congress in Baltimore in 1903. He was appointed superintendent and treasurer of the Ver- mont State Hospital for the Insane September 6, 1905, and has held the post since that time. Doctor Grout is a member of the Burlington Medical Society, Chittenden County Medical Society, Vermont State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He is past master of Winooski Lodge, No. 49, Free and Accepted Masons; member of Waterbury Chapter, No. 24, Royal Arch Masons.
Doctor Grout married (first in 1873) Nettie A. Jones of Barre, who died in 1880. He married (second in 1881) Angie Wilkins of Stowe and (third in 1892) Ida E. Morse, daughter of Daniel J. and Jane (McKee) Morse of Waterbury. Chil- dren of his first marriage are Inez (Grout) Lease, born August 27, 1874; Luman M., born January 4, 1877 (married). Chil- dren by second wife are Annie (Grout) Gilbert; Josephine (Grout) Magee, born June II, 1885; Benjamin Harrison, civil engineer with Southern New England railroad, born September 20, 1888; Angie (Grout) Gale, born July 18, 1892. Children by third wife are Don Jackson, born July 31, 1899, and Frank Morse, October 29, 1901.
Widely as Doctor Grout is known throughout Vermont it is doubtful if those not living in Waterbury and acquainted with his work as head of the State Hospital can form an ade-
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quate conception of the vast good he has accomplished. His broad and tolerant sympathies are never vainly appealed to. A host of rehabilitated men can testify to the salutary effects of his intelligent and helpful influence. Practical humanity's cause has no more forceful exponent in the state.
The Seabury family of Waterbury, whose sketch is given here, dates back to John Seabury of Somersetshire, England. He came to Boston in 1639. Samuel Seabury, his son, lived in Duxbury, Massachusetts, and his son, John, born in Dux- bury in 1680, is believed to be he who married Elizabeth Alden, granddaughter of John Alden, December 9, 1697, and was known later at Groton, Connecticut, as "Deacon John Seabury of Groton." His son, Samuel, born July 8, 1706, was graduated at Harvard and was ordained in England, in 1731, as an Episcopalian rector. He married Abigail Mum- ford, a daughter of a vestryman. Their son, Samuel, born November 30, 1729, also was graduated at Harvard and entered the church; he received consecration in Scotland November 17, 1784, and was made Bishop, the first of his church in America. Caleb, elder brother of Bishop Samuel Seabury, was born in February, 1728. John, the son of Caleb, born in 1748, was the great-grandfather of Mr. O. A. Seabury of Waterbury, and was a sea-captain.
On his return to the port of New London, from a voyage to the West Indies in 1781, the British, boarding the vessel, surprised his ship's company and all on board were destroyed except his seven-year-old son, John, who eluded the attention of the boarders by hiding. This boy, John, married Mary Harris and came alone to Stowe in 1794 where he assisted in the organization of the town; later, in 1797, he brought his family from Colchester, New London County, Connecticut, to his new home; making the journey on horseback, the family party passed through Waterbury, then a straggling village or hamlet consisting of less than ten houses.
The children of John and Mary Harris Seabury were John, father of O. A. Seabury, Caleb, Nathaniel, Mary (Thomas), Elizabeth (Handy) and Emily (Thompson). Hester (Scribner), Harriet (Lothian), Salome (Towne) and Joel were children of
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his wife, Dorothy (Harris). John Seabury, father of O. A. Seabury, was born in Colchester, New London County, Con- necticut, August 22, 1793. His early youth was spent at his father's home in Stowe, where he attended the common schools and worked on the farm, varying this with teaching school in winter. He, with several brothers and his father, a colonel of militia, served in the War of 1812; starting for Plattsburg in September, 1813, they arrived at Burlington only to find that communication with and transportation to the other side of the lake had been cut off. Here the Seaburys stayed until the British withdrew, their service lacking just one day of entitling them to pensions.
Soon after attaining his majority, John Seabury went to work in a brick-yard in Montreal, Province of Quebec. After a few years in Canada, he returned to Stowe as appears by certain deeds dated in 1823. That same year, he came to Waterbury and began work for Ariel Thomas in the business of cloth dressing and wool carding.
In 1822 Ariel Thomas of Bridgewater, Vermont, bought his mill site of William Eddy and moved from Bridgewater, bringing with him his wife, Mary (Seabury), daughter of Colonel John Seabury, and Alvinza Thompson, who afterwards married Emily (Seabury), second daughter of Colonel John. Thompson entered Thomas' employ as cloth dresser. In 1823 John Seabury bought another and better equipped site further down the stream and went into business with his brother-in- law, Ariel Thomas. The firm conducted both establishments until the upper mill burned in the early 30's. The business was thereafter conducted at the lower mill under the firm name of Thomas, Seabury & Thompson until the retirement of the senior member. Following this change, the firm was" known as Seabury & Thompson. The partners enlarged the plant and installed new and improved machinery and soon acquired the most extensive manufacturing business in this part of the state, which continued for over twenty-five years.
The business was bought by George D. Joslyn in 1858 or 1859, as appears later in this book. By producing an honest, durable product the firm grew in strength and in the
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confidence of the farmers who exchanged their wool for cloth at a fixed price per yard for manufacture. Up to this time, the early settlers of Waterbury and vicinity were obliged to produce their home-made or home-spun cloths as best they could by recourse to household hand cards, spinning wheels and hand looms. After the advent of the cloth dressing and carding machinery came the machinery for finishing off the product of the hand loom, which product had heretofore been worn in its rough state just as it came from the loom. This improved product was called full-cloth; so, by degrees, power looms and spinning jacks came into vogue, calling for factories in which every step of cloth making could be carried out.
To Jonathan Robbins belongs the credit of building the first carding and cloth dressing establishment in this vicinity. He built his plant on the site of the first grist mill of Carpenter & Eddy about 1815.
In 1828 John Seabury married Calista Thompson, the sister of his partner, who came here from Bridgewater as a school teacher. The newly married pair occupied the house pur- chased by John Seabury of Jonathan Robbins in 1824. This property included the mill site of Thompson & Seabury. The residence, an old-fashioned, three-story, hip-roofed build- ing, burned in 1846. The present Seabury home replaced it the same year. This was John Seabury's home until his death.
The firm of Seabury & Thompson took into partnership Henry Blanchard, in the early 40's, and the firm was there- after Thompson, Seabury & Blanchard. Not long after the first half of the century had passed, the firm began to realize that their honest product was called upon to compete with cheap, shoddy material used in the trade for ready made clothing. Wool declined in price and farmers found it un- profitable to raise sheep-an important industry in itself. There was a slight reaction at the outbreak of the Civil War when cotton became dear, but this was only temporary. The business passed out of the hands of Thompson, Seabury & Blanchard into those of George D. Joslyn, Selleck & Joslyn, and A. H. Selleck, successively.
How great a boon the machine for cloth manufacture was
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to the overburdened housewives of the period may be realized when it is pointed out that the price in exchange was at the rate of thirty-five cents a yard and for twenty-two ounces of wool the factory would return eleven ounces of finished cloth. For the first time, the busy mother could procure factory made flannels for household uses, underwear, etc., also cloth for sheets and dresses. The decline in wool and the competi- tion with shoddy products reacted, of course, upon the families of the community to their loss.
John and Calista (Thompson) Seabury continued to live in the old Robbins residence and the present homestead that replaced it until their respective deaths in 1881 and 1880. Children born of the marriage were Helen (1830-1903), who married William Richardson, a lawyer of Waterbury (died in 1849); Edward Thomas (1832-1899), who married Mary A. Stevens (died in 1883); children of this marriage are William H., Mae F. and Alice L., who, with a second wife, Julia (Bliss) Seabury, survive; and Sylindia, who married Francis Joslyn (now dead) and who still lives with her daughter, Mrs. Minnie Farrell at Colbyville; John Q., who went to Redlands, Cali- fornia; after his death, in 1908, the city of Redlands caused a bronze tablet to be placed upon his monument with this inscription.
JUDGE J. Q. SEABURY
SON OF JOHN SEABURY, WAS BORN IN WATERBURY, VERMONT. CAME TO REDLANDS IN 1887 AND WAS PROMINENTLY IDENTIFIED WITH THE EARLY HISTORY AND GROWTH OF THE COMMUNITY, HONORED AND ES- TEEMED BY ALL.
Ovid Arioch (unmarried), who is now living in the old Seabury homestead with the family of E. T. Seabury; Mr. O. A. Seabury, besides being a patron of the arts, is a well known raconteur with a wide acquaintance and hosts of friends within and without the state; Weltha F. (died in Waitsfield in 1871), who was the wife of E. E. Joslyn; their two children now living, are Jesse E. of Montpelier and L. B. Joslyn of Waitsfield; Martha J. married N. P. Wheeler, and died in 1874 leaving a daughter Jessie, who married F. J. Greene and now lives in Petaluma, California.
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John Seabury, the head of this large family of Waterbury, was a man of strong religious predilections and became a member of the prudential committee of the local Congrega- tional Church. Being an ardent Free Soiler, Mr. Seabury favored the use of the church at a meeting to be addressed by the first Free Soil speaker to come into the state. This was refused by other members of the committee, whereupon the committeeman withdrew and declined to have anything more to do with the church, although his name was continued on the rolls. Subsequently he became interested in the Adventist faith and assisted in maintaining and building the first Advent Church in Waterbury, while the rest of the family worshiped at the Congregational Church.
Mr. Seabury was wont to do his own thinking,-sometimes arriving at conclusions that were not popular, but frequently, as they developed, ahead of his time. He was accustomed to express himself in quaint but forceful phraseology though he was a faultless grammarian, if he so chose to be. He was ever ready to lend a helping hand to the poor and needy; his home and table were always open to friends or strangers, sometimes to the discomfort of the other members of the family. He belonged to that wing of the Whig party that afterwards became Republican and voted for Harrison and Tyler in 1840. He was a bitter opponent of slavery and derived his anti- slavery gospel largely from the New York Tribune, showing his practical devotion to the cause by helping along all "under- ground railway" enterprises in Vermont.
In personal appearance Mr. Seabury was tall, but not erect,-about six feet two inches in height and weighing one hundred and forty-five pounds. He had a long, swinging stride and, when walking, moved his arms from side to side, presenting an ungainly appearance which he sometimes pur- posely affected. He was a kind, indulgent parent and husband, fond of his children and their pastimes, never seeming to feel annoyed or irritated at their pranks and noise. His kindness and forbearance to debtors were also well known. It never occurred to Mr. Seabury that because a customer never paid his bills and was never expected to, he should, therefore,
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PERIOD 1876-1900
be denied further credit. With such a disposition, it is not surprising to learn that he never worried. He left the example to his townsmen of one who was perfectly honest in all his dealings and whose word was unquestioned.
Mr. and Mrs. John Seabury celebrated their golden wedding in 1878. Mrs. Seabury died in 1880 and Mr. Seabury one year later. They passed their married lives on the home site selected in 1824. Seven of their eight children reached maturity, one dying in infancy. All are married save one. There are now living seven grandchildren, nine great-grand- children and five great-great-grandchildren. Of the grand- children, William Henry Seabury is the business manager of his father's estate (E. T. Seabury estate), engaged in the wholesale and retail business of flour, feed and general milling. He lives at the old Seabury home with his stepmother and sisters.
Moses M. Knight came to Waterbury in 1848 and married Sarah (Blush) Knight in 1854. Mr. Knight was for many years one of the successful merchants of the town. The only child was F. L. Knight, born April 5, 1863, who is now con- nected with the mercantile establishment of F. C. Luce.
Mr. F. L. Knight married Miss Daisy Clark, daughter of Orrin L. and Janet (Loomis) Clark, of Georgia, Vermont. Children of Mr. and Mrs. F. L. Knight are Albert Clark, Edward Morse, J. Bradford and Sarah Janet.
Edwin Franklin Palmer was born in Waitsfield, January 22, 1836, the son of Aaron and Sarah (Thayer) Palmer. His father and grandfather before him were early settlers and residents of Waitsfield, occupying one of the large farms in Waitsfield Common. Palmer Hill, in the neighborhood, takes its name from the family. Of the family of eleven, four of the sons were educated at Dartmouth College. Mr. Palmer's preparation for college was obtained at Northfield. He entered Dartmouth in the fall of 1858 and was graduated in the class of 1862. Soon after graduation he entered the Union army with Company B, Thirteenth Vermont Regiment, as lieutenant ..
Mr. Palmer was one of those whose good fortune it was to
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have received his legal education and preparation for admis- sion to the bar in the office of Governor Paul Dillingham. Mr. Palmer practiced his profession in Waterbury; he was town representative three times, reporter of the Supreme Court and editor of eight volumes of Supreme Court Reports. He served as State Superintendent of Education and was instrumental in securing to the state many new and long needed improvements in her educational system.
He married Addie D. Hartshorn, at Guildhall, June 15, 1865. There were seven children, four of whom are liv- ing: Edwin F., Jr., of Duxbury; John H. of Dorchester, Massachusetts; Robert W. of Cambridge, Massachusetts; Charles C. of Warren, New Hampshire; and two grand- children, Annie Dorothy Palmer and Eber Huntley Palmer.
Mr. Palmer enlisted in Company B, Thirteenth Vermont Regiment, August 25, 1862, from Waitsfield. He was made sergeant and afterwards commissioned second lieutenant, No- vember 4, 1862. He was mustered out July 21, 1863. Mr. Palmer was a careful student of political and educational prob- lems and a ready and interesting speaker. He was the author of an entertaining volume, "Camp Life by a Volunteer."
Mr. Palmer died October 8, 1914, and his funeral was held at the Palmer residence the following Sunday, October 11, 1914. Reverend W. L. Boicourt officiated, assisted by Reverend W. E. Douglass. John H. Senter, Esq., spoke of Mr. Palmer as "a friend, lawyer and professional man."
Doctor Emory G. Hooker, an esteemed physician of Waterbury, was born in Cabot, February 19, 1839, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Liberty Hooker. After a short period spent in Massachusetts he went to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he entered the University of Michigan, in the Medical School, and was graduated as one of his class leaders in 1864. He completed his medical education at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City where he was graduated with high honors. He practiced successively in Montpelier and Waitsfield and came to Waterbury in 1880. His skill as a physician and surgeon was widely recognized within and with- out the state. Doctor Hooker was a prominent Mason and
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past grand master of Winooski Lodge. He married Miss Katharine Kneeland December 28, 1865. Mrs. B. F. Atherton is a daughter of the marriage. Doctor Hooker died in Water- bury August 13, 1902, and the funeral services were held at the Methodist Church. An eloquent tribute was paid Doctor Hooker by Doctor Don D. Grout, a fellow lodge member. This appeared in the issue of the Waterbury Record of August 19, 1902.
The town builders of Waterbury who had the distinct advantage of being born here profited by the impetus given the town by their forbears and carried on the work from the point where their fathers left off. Such a man is George W. Randall, now a nonagenarian living in his old home on Main Street, with Mrs. Randall, and having near at hand, Doctor Watson Wasson and Mrs. Pearl (Randall) Wasson, his son- in-law and daughter, respectively. Mr. Randall was born on Ricker Mountain, September 18, 1825, the son of Oliver Cromwell and Electa (Coffin) Randall, who was the great- granddaughter of Hannah Dustin, the heroine of Haverhill, Massachusetts. Both his father and grandfather had been the earliest settlers on the mountain, not then named.
After his father's death in 1830, his mother, the daughter of Moses Coffin, removed to Stowe and married George Akeley. Mr. Randall spent some years of his boyhood with an aunt, Mrs. Davis, but at the age of sixteen became apprenticed to a blacksmith in Waterbury to learn that trade, boarding during the succeeding three years at the home of R. C. Smith. He soon saw the necessity for schooling and accordingly availed himself of what could be furnished at the common schools and the academy at Bakersfield until he was twenty years of age. He taught school for three successive winters on Ricker Mountain and "boarded round" as was then the cus- tom for teachers.
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