USA > Vermont > Washington County > Waterbury > History of Waterbury, Vermont, 1763-1915 > Part 17
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Mr. Randall relates with some gusto his experiences as a young man hunting employment in Boston and the then new city of Lawrence, Massachusetts. He recounts an inci- dent of having been present in the United States District Court in Boston when one Crafts, a sea-captain, was on
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY, VERMONT
trial for murder. He had as counsel Rufus Choate who, in seeking to impeach the testimony of the vessel's mate, commented characteristically :
Some truth there was But mixed and dashed with lies- To please the fool And dazzle all the wise.
This court experience may or may not have had something to do with Mr. Randall's subsequent determination to study law in the office of Honorable Paul Dillingham.
With the dry humor his old acquaintances know so well, he gives the details of a dog case he undertook in which par- ticipated as counsel Matthew Hale Carpenter, afterwards United States Senator from Wisconsin and one of the fore- most constitutional lawyers of his time. Carpenter at this time, however, was a young lawyer in the office of Rufus Choate in Boston and was revisiting Waterbury and the office of his former preceptor, Paul Dillingham. Young Randall had entered this office as a student of Blackstone, Chitty and Kent the winter before he became twenty-four years of age. A part of his clerical duties was to make out the simpler writs, and copy pleadings and office papers. One day during the ab- sence of his preceptor, Mr. Dillingham, an elderly gentleman named Hawley applied to him for a writ against the owner of a dog which had just bitten him. Nothing daunted, young Randall made out the writ, and when Mr. Dillingham re- turned he said, "Well, George, now that you have made out this writ, you may as well try the case." Upon a jury trial, there was a disagreement. Then it was that the brilliant advocate, Matthew Carpenter, suggested that evidence tend- ing to show that the dog was always a ferocious beast was lacking and the case should be strenghtened in this regard. Instead of going to trial for the second time, however, the young man followed the advice of Mr. Dillingham who said Mr. Hawley had no money to fool away on law and that there should be a discontinuance, each party paying his costs. This was done.
Mr. Randall's early life was much the same as that of all
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New England country boys. Incidents of attending school on Ricker Mountain and Nebraska Brook; his boyish triumphs in penmanship and the spelling class; his all but tragic expe- rience when, at a tender age, he was lost in a snow storm and was forced to burrow his way into a drift to keep from perish- ing until he was found by the searchers; his employment on a farm at sixteen; his blacksmithing apprenticeship; his academic education; his wonderful trip, via the Isthmus, to California, starting September 1, 1849; his experiences en route and in the mines; his successful ventures there and his triumphal return only to make a second venture; his final return to Waterbury; his subsequent activities in business and political life, all contribute to round out an inspiring career of youthful sagacity, shrewdness of young manhood, courage and industry, and finally the far-sighted thrift, judg- ment and prosperity of middle and old age.
Mr. Randall has prospered largely through real estate operations, farming and lumbering. His sawmills were for years the most extensive in the vicinity and have cut 1,000,000 feet of lumber annually, employing a large force of workmen .. Originally a Democrat, Mr. Randall joined the Republican party at its organization and has been auditor, lister, select- man and town representative several times.
Letters from Mr. Randall to friends and relatives written from Chagres and Panama on the Isthmus are interesting commentaries on transportation facilities then in vogue. The fare from Panama, by the ship Senator, was $200 to San Fran- cisco. He describes his stay in Chagres, during which he visited "the old castle,-one mighty mass of ruins, cannon, grape shot and all the munitions of war which remain in the same condition as when left after being scattered by the buc- caneers headed by Morgan, Drake, and others in the year 1500; in the midst of the castle stands a magnificent orange tree. Honorable John T. Van Allen, American Minister to Ecuador, came out on the Crescent City. He had papers for an American consul at Chagres, but no consul could he find. He seemed somewhat chagrined at the mistake of Uncle Sam's boys; Allen being in a great sweat to get along,
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tried to get the natives to show him through, but the darkies are not to be hurried."
Mr. Randall wrote interestingly from the mines in Cali- fornia, and also from San Francisco. He says of the latter in a letter of March 19, 1850: "This city is nothing but a frog pond, although there are many splendid buildings. Men have died in this city like sheep this winter, although where I wintered it was very healthy. As regards the gold in this country the whole earth, for many miles, will produce gold but it is only the banks or beds of rivers and ravines that pay for working. . We had fifteen days fair weather in succession in February. I had a good place or lead meantime and took out between three and four hundred Dolls. the rest of the time through the winter has paid from five to twenty dollars per day but remember I only work when it is pleasant; my health is too precious to barter off for gold."
Mr. Randall in sending a sum of money home preferred to send it by a draft in triplicate to provide against loss. He explained in his letters that if he were coming home himself he would have brought his gold dust with him to get the increase at the mint over what he would be obliged to take in Cali- fornia. Writing from the mines in Dry Creek he says: "One day while prospecting in a ravine we hit on a place where two of us got eight hundred dollars or 25 ounces in eight hours; it is coarse gold; one particle is worth twenty-one Dolls."
Mr. Randall's first wife was Lepha White, who was born August 12, 1830, and died March 19, 1874. Mr. Randall next married Miss Belle Gleason of Waterbury. Two children were born of this marriage, George C. Randall, now engaged in farming and the lumber business near Cotton Brook and the Stowe line, and Pearl (Randall) Wasson, wife of Doctor Wat- son Wasson of the medical staff of the Vermont State Hospital.
A citizen of Waterbury who has literally been one of her most conscientious builders is Mr. William Deal, who was born in Phillipsburgh, Province of Quebec, December 3, 1833, and who, though a resident of Waterbury since 1850, did not become a naturalized American citizen until 1888. Mr.
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Deal married Miss Asenath Marshall of Waterbury in 1857. Two children (each married) were born of the marriage, John, a father of six children, living in Waterbury, and Mrs. Tenie (Deal) Roberts of Montpelier. Mr. Deal, either by himself or associated with others, played an important part in the building operations of Waterbury for forty years. He it was who erected such buildings as the Waterbury Inn in 1864 to replace the old Washington House destroyed by fire October 8, 1858. Mr. Deal was well acquainted with and a hunting companion of John (Ossawatomie) Brown of Harper's Ferry fame, and his two lieutenants, Samuel and Frank Thompson, when the four lived out and hunted near North Elba, Clinton County, New York. Mr. Deal expresses gratification at the movement now afoot to mark the Brown graves properly in the obscure burial place at North Elba after fifty-five years of neglect.
Waterbury's population in 1890 was 2,232, a loss of sixty- five in the ten years from the date of the preceding census in 1880. This loss was so inconsiderable, however, that the town might be said to have held its own. There was then, as now, a certain floating population as was evidenced by the tax returns. The Legislature of 1890 was the better for the pres- ence in it of the late Doctor Henry Janes as town representa- tive from Waterbury. The personnel of Waterbury's repre- sentatives as a whole, however, had preserved its general level of ability, as reference to the list beginning with Daniel Bliss in 1792 will indicate. From contemporary data of the period it appears that the town's business, social, religious and educa- tional life remained practically as it had been for the ten years preceding.
The establishment in April, 1895, of the Waterbury Record, by Fred N. Whitney of Northfield, under the editorship and management of Harry C. Whitehill, was an event fraught with greater importance to the town than the mere surface fact might indicate. It is always true of every town that the advent of the town's own publication, however modest and retiring, is something of grave importance to the community's life. There is no need of dwelling upon the insensible influence
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of the possibilities of publicity; there is still less call for doing more than adverting to the sense of proprietorship each citizen should feel in his town newspaper. It may be said generally, with no ulterior purpose, that the ebb and flow of the fortunes of a town's newspaper is taken, in large measure, as a gauge of the prosperity of that town. Even the most confirmed cynic will agree that the one thing needful to intelligent com- munity effort and civic team-work is the local newspaper. Not to recognize this spells an almost fatal indifference to the community's welfare. At this point the writer takes occasion to remark that the foregoing has been rescued from the rigid censorship of the publisher of this volume only by dint of a stubborn and insistent opposition and that the responsibility for the sentiment expressed and the propriety of its expression rests absolutely with the writer.
Mr. Harry C. Whitehill was born in Groton, Vermont, May 9, 1875, the son of Moses H. and Ella Frances (Ricker) White- hill. He was educated at the Groton public schools and the Montpelier Seminary. He came to Waterbury in April, 1895, coincidently with the establishment of the Waterbury Record. He served as president of the village in 1909 and is a director in the Waterbury Trust and Savings Bank. He was married, January 19, 1898, to Miss Mary Moody, daughter of the late Justin W. and Mrs. Harriet (Brown) Moody. Mr. Whitehill's book store and editorial office goes far to fill the place of the "old corner store" as a village institution. It has become, through naturally selective process, the town forum; the habit of dropping in has become inveterate. One need not be even a demi-god to be eligible to this Olympus; hence the waiting list. The writer once had some slight knowledge of an insti- tution known as the "Saints and Sinners" corner in the great Chicago McClurg publishing house, where were accustomed to gather literary celebrities and bibliophiles; he indulges no violent presumption when he asserts that the influences of our local haven for local saints and sinners, in their way, are working together for just as definite a goal.
It is worthy of note that the Waterbury Record was issued as a daily newspaper during the Vermont Annual Methodist Con-
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ference, beginning April 10, 1895; at this time the Record was printed in the Odd Fellows Block.
The flood or freshet occurring in April, 1895, was the most destructive one next after that of 1869. The lower end of Main Street was under water and the Colbyville dam was carried away. The water overflowed the Winooski banks and covered the meadow land south of the State Hospital's power house, coming up even to the house itself and to the vestry of the Methodist Church.
The much mooted, wearisome and futile controversy was again revived, in 1895, over that "iridescent dream" reform of the legislative representation system. The same old argu- ments were adduced with the same old vehemence and with the same old effect, or lack of it. It would appear from these old arguments that the word "reform" in this connection must have been used in a Pickwickian sense. What was urged by the advocates of the new order was a change. If reform means "to make over" then, perhaps, the word was used advisedly.
May 20, 1895, was the date of a meeting of citizens to con- sider the building of a carriage road leading to the summit of Camel's Hump. It was proposed to build a road from John McNeal's farmhouse on a grade averaging 14 per cent.
It renews youth to read of the old time celebration of the Fourth of July, 1895. There was a huge bonfire in the depot park; the usual fireworks and noise; the usual explosion of a badly loaded cannon, and the usual saddening incident of its effect in injuring a young boy; there was also a parade of "horribles," a ball game with Essex, whose team scored 18 to Waterbury's 9 runs; amateur bicycle races, etc.
That the nation's needs were not overlooked by the vigilant press is attested by the following from the local newspaper under date of December 3, 1895: "Congress will make no mistake during the coming session if it authorizes the con- struction of a whole fleet of torpedo boats." If the editor who penned those lines had the vision of a seer as to conditions twenty years later, he could not have made a wiser recom- mendation. But preparedness was then, as now, talked about and preached to little effect. We read in the Waterbury Record
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.
of March 15, 1898, of the precipitate action of Congress, March 8, in appropriating $50,000,000 for national defense following the destruction of the Maine in Havana harbor. Twelve minutes after the bill was reported to the Senate, the Vice- President announced its unanimous passage; after receiving his signature it was rushed to the White House where President Mckinley made it a law, and yet even that implied recogni- tion of our fatuous complacency did not prevent the cruel blundering that followed in preparation for the Spanish War. The issue of March 22 contains the memorable speech of Sen- ator Redfield Proctor, recounting what he saw in Cuba and concluding with the pregnant observation: "But it is not my purpose at this time nor do I consider it my province to sug- gest any plan. I merely speak of the symptoms as I saw them, but do not undertake to prescribe. Such remedial steps as may be required may safely be left to an American President and to an American people."
No Vermonter need be told of the electrical effect of Senator Proctor's speech. The events that were crowded into the following five months changed the whole course and policy of this government. From being a lethargic, unwieldy body politic, heavily drugged with the soporific anesthetic of com- mercialism, it was suddenly transformed into a world power, fighting and expanding like other nations. Singularly enough the lesson of unpreparedness, serious as it seemed at the time, has borne little fruit. Commercialism has again lulled the people to sleep while the rest of the world, not actually bel- ligerent, is vigilant, wakeful and busy in preparation. At this writing, the outcome of a long, tortuous, difficult, diplo- matic correspondence would seem to have averted from the nation the unthinkable consequences of a rupture of relations with the most formidable of the present belligerents. Shall the avoidance of disaster by this narrow margin again go un- heeded? Are we forever and a day to dwell upon a volcano of unpreparedness?
True to her record, Waterbury is able to say that she was represented even in the Spanish-American War in 1898. Al- though none of the state towns was required to furnish a
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PERIOD 1876-1900
quota, there were certain voluntary enlistments either in the First Vermont Infantry Regiment or in the Regular service by Vermont recruits. Unfortunately there are no state records of enlistments in the Regular service, so that it is not at this time possible to say just how many from Waterbury partici- pated, but this much is known: One Michael McNalley, who gave his residence as Waterbury, enlisted May 13, 1898, in Company H, and was mustered out October 27, 1898, at Montpelier, thus saving Waterbury's record of representation, though in this case not actual fighting experience, in all our wars.
It would seem that the enthusiasm of some of those who saw service in the Philippine Islands the following year was consid- erably dampened, if one may judge from a letter received in Waterbury, bearing date March 5, 1899, in which the writer, a private of volunteers, says: "What the United States wants of these Islands and their inhabitants is more than I can see for they have already cost more lives than the whole group is worth. I suppose all Vermonters are very proud of Admiral Dewey and they may well be. The only fault I find with him is that he favors the retention of these Islands. Bryan has a spark of sense after all for he is not in favor of annexation." This last may indicate how deeply the iron had entered the soul of the writer.
Building in Waterbury during the summer of 1899 took an upward trend. Ten new houses were added to the village including two business blocks. Perhaps the most important of all the improvements was the commodious new school building opened to local pupils in 1899. Main Street grade was permanently improved. Generally, good prices prevailed for farm products; the advance in the price for lumber reacted profitably; and in many ways the town partook of the general flow of prosperity. Rather more fortunate than many other towns in the state, its health officers, aided by local physicians, investigated the so-called Guptil water supply sources with results salutary to public health.
The location of a copper prospect on the farm of G. B. Smal- ley, near Stowe, aroused local interest in August, 1899. There
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were the usual visits by the usual experts and near-experts; there were the usual rainbow-hued reports; the usual acme of excitement and the usual subsidence of interest and oblivion.
The business done in the town during the year warranted raising the local post-office to the second class, which moved someone to remark that "C. C. Warren is to the Waterbury post-office what Wells, Richardson & Company is, to the Bur- lington post-office."
Spicy ingredients were injected into the liquor traffic stew from time to time in the way of journalistic condiments. Waterbury stoutly maintained that good hotels could be profitably run and maintained on the prohibition plan; other towns took issue; then followed argument of more or less relevancy and of vast capabilities for edification.
The wonderful nineteenth century came to an end showing a gain in population of Waterbury in one hundred years of only 2,629 or the difference between 644 in 1800 and 3,273 in 1900. But who shall estimate the influence of this small community upon the state and nation?
BOLTON (WINOOSKI) FALLS AT CONSOLIDATED LIGHTING COMPANY'S PLANT
CHAPTER VI
1900-1915
The town's general prosperity continued with little to remind one of the rude financial shocks that were convulsing the large cities during the first five years of the new century. There was little to fear from the instability incidental to high finance in this secluded corner. The population in 1910 of the town was 3,273 of which the village claimed 1,377. The March meetings were followed in due course by the September and November meetings. There was naturally a feeling of quiet and triumphant satisfaction, though not too boisterously ap- parent, at the choice of Mr. Dillingham for the United States Senate in 1900. The gubernatorial campaign of 1902 is still re- ferred to in Vermont as a history-making date, when private cars, negro songsters, rump conventions, sumptuary issues and bolting candidates were all commingled in a glittering phan- tasmagoria of kaleidoscopic glory. The candidates for governor were John G. Mccullough whose town vote was 291; Felix W. McGettrick whose town vote was 87, and Per- cival W. Clement whose town vote was 159.
In 1904 Governor Charles J. Bell received a town vote of 40I, to Eli H. Porter's 118.
At the November meeting in 1904 the Roosevelt Republican electors received a town vote of 274, to the Parker Democratic electors' 66.
The following March meeting, in 1905, was the first to be held at which a vote on the license question was taken under the new law. The town at this election pretty clearly dem- onstrated its sentiments by a vote of 186 against licensing the sale of intoxicating liquors, to 67 in favor of license; these figures were 188 against and 72 in favor of license in 1906.
Governor Fletcher Proctor received a town vote in 1906 of 302, to Percival W. Clement's 202, the Democratic and Independent candidates receiving 123 and 79 respectively.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY, VERMONT
At the March meeting in 1907, the vote against license was II7, and 107 for license.
Governor George H. Prouty received a town vote of 353, to James E. Burke's 145, and Eugene M. Campbell's 14, in 1908.
At the November meeting the Taft Republican electors received a town vote averaging 290}, to the Democratic electors' 862.
At the following March (1909) meeting the license question was settled by a vote of 207 against, and 131 for license. These figures in 1910 were 233 and 146 respectively. Governor John A. Mead in 1910 received a town vote of 227, to Charles D. Watson's 136.
In 19II the license vote was 221 against and 132 favoring license; these figures in 1912 were 246, to 112 respectively.
Governor Allen M. Fletcher in 1912 received a town vote of 213, to Harlan B. Howe's 178, C. F. Smith's 59, and Frazer Metzger's 93.
At the November meeting in 1912 the Taft Republican electors received a town vote of 202, to the Wilson Democratic electors' 103, and the Roosevelt Progressive electors' 171.
In 1913 at the March meeting the vote on the license ques- tion was 128 against, to 70 favoring license. These figures were somewhat modified in 1914 when there was a vote for license of 206, to 201 against. The fifth-class license received 143 for, to 164 against. At the special town meeting in March, 1914, the vote for license for malt liquors only was 164, and for license for liquors of all kinds was 259.
In 1915 the vote stood against license 310, to 199 for license.
At the first United States Senatorial election by popular vote in November, 1914, Senator William P. Dillingham received a vote in his home town of 436 votes, to Charles Prouty's 82, Non-partisan 4, Prohibitionist 14, and National Progressives 9.
Governor C. W. Gates, in November, 1914, received a town vote of 362, to Harlan B. Howe's 128, and C. F. Smith's 24.
In the spring of 1905 an exhaustive report was made by an investigating committee appointed to inquire into the condi-
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PERIOD 1900-1915
tion and conduct of the Vermont State Hospital. This report, made public June 30, 1905, covered such matters as ventila- tion, fire protection, fire escapes, convalescent patients, exer- cises, care and treatment of patients, food, cost of maintenance, farm, fuel, freight, discount of bills, the superintendent (with recommendations of a change of the incumbent), medical staff, trustees, etc.
William Cooley, an inventor and manufacturer, son of Cassius and Nellie Cooley, died in Waterbury, August 9, 1905. Mr. Cooley had spent forty years of his life in Waterbury as a manufacturer. His inventions included a cream separator, a gasoline engine and other labor-saving devices. Mr. Cooley was survived by a wife, two daughters and five sons. Though born in Burlington in 1834, Mr. Cooley retained the vigor and energy of youth. His death was sudden and entirely unex- pected.
The community was mildly fluttered by the arrival at Lake Mansfield of Rear Admiral Clark of the United States Navy. With taste and discrimination the admiral chose the lake as a fitting place at which to celebrate his sixty-second birthday and the occasion of his retirement from the navy, which fell on the 10th of August, 1905. The famous commander of the Oregon was born in Bradford, Vermont, August 10, 1843. He passed much of his youth in Washington County and was appointed as a cadet to the United States Naval Academy by Senator Morrill in 1860. He saw service under Farragut in the West Gulf squadron; after the war he was ordered to the west coast of South America on the flag ship Vanderbilt of Commodore Rodgers. Successively the young officer served on the Suanee, Vandalia, Seminole, Dictator, Mahopac, as instructor at the academy, on the Hartford, Kearsarge and Monocacy. After service as assistant navigating officer at the Boston yard, he was ordered to the Ranger; afterwards to the patrol fleet in the Bering Sea, then to the receiving ship Independence, next to the monitor Monterey and finally, in March, 1898, to the Oregon as commander.
The issue of the Waterbury Record of March 13, 1906, pos- sesses a novel interest by reason of the following editorial
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