USA > Vermont > Washington County > Waterbury > History of Waterbury, Vermont, 1763-1915 > Part 7
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[SEAL]
In testimony whereof I have, as Governor of the State aforesaid, caused the Seal of the State to be hereunto affixed and subscribed my name at Danville, this 25th day of November Anno Domini, one thousand eight hundred and thirty four.
H. A. PALMER
By His Excellency's command
GEO. B. MANSER.
Secretary.
Honorable Henry F. Janes took his seat in the National House of Representatives December 2, 1834. He voted in favor of the resolution calling upon President Andrew Jackson for all communications between this country and Great Britain since the rejection of the advisory opinion of the King of the Netherlands relating to the disputed northeastern boundary between New Brunswick and Maine. He favored tabling a resolution inimical to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and was active in the matter of securing pensions for soldiers in the War of the Revolution. He presented a resolution, March 21, 1836, that the secretary of war be directed to lay before the House a report of the United States engineer relative to the survey of a canal from Wells River to Burlington, Vermont. He voted for a suspension of the rules to take up the bill repealing the fourteenth section of the Act incorporating the subscribers to the Bank of the United States. Mr. Janes made appropriate remarks upon the passing away of Honorable Benjamin F. Deming of Vermont, who died July II, 1834. Among his colleagues were such men as Hiland Hall, Horace Everett and Heman Allen of Vermont, Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, and Rufus Choate, John Q. Adams and Edward Everett of Massachusetts.
After Mr. Pride's term as town representative in 1836, above referred to, a poem attributed to William C. Bradley of West- minster, was given wide publication. The poem bemoaned the departure of the various members of the Legislature from Montpelier after the adjournment of the session of 1836 and is entitled "A Lamentation." It contains eight stanzas and
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cleverly plays upon the names of the members. Four stanzas are given:
Montpelier mourns-her streets are still, Save when the street-yarn ladies spin, And scarce a stranger's seen at Mann's Or Campbell's, or at Cottrill's inn.
The guardians of the people's rights Have done their work, gone home to prove it; And let the State House stand, because Barnum and Bailey could not move it.
*
Their Forest and their Woods are filled, The Major who their forces led, Has broken up his glittering Camp, And friendly Scott and French are fled.
Yes, all is lost-and those who've gone Have long e'er now perchance forgot 'em- They've lost their Solace, lost their Child, And lost their Pride, and Hyde, and Bottum.
Mr. Russell Butler, in his supplemental papers to the Water- bury sketches in Hemenway's History of Washington County, gives some interesting facts about the place filled by Leander Hutchins in the town. He was born in Montpelier June 27, 1798, and there grew to manhood. At an early age he entered commercial life in the West and South. In 1822 he came to Waterbury; shortly thereafter he associated with him, in a mercantile copartnership, Amasa Pride and Roswell Wells, under the firm name and style of L. Hutchins & Company. The store was in a small wooden building on the site of the old "corner store" building on the southeast corner of Main and Stowe Streets. This latter was erected by Mr. Hutchins in 1833, also a dwelling adjoining Knight's block on the east. In 1826 the firm name was changed to Hutchins & Pride; subsequently to Hutchins, Wells & Company; then L. & Geo. W. Hutchins in 1835. In 1845 Mr. Leander Hutchins erected and equipped a starch factory near the Center; this was destroyed by fire and not rebuilt.
Mr. Hutchins became interested with Esquire Janes in the
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purchase of a tract of Vermont wild lands owned by the Board- man Brothers of New York and, in addition to his other enter- prises, undertook the personal management of his farm on the hill road to Stowe, about one and one-half miles from Water- bury Village. He married Miss Martha Pride January 30, 1826, who died in December, 1834, leaving two daughters, Mrs. C. W. Arms and Mrs. Doctor Woodward. Mr. Hutchins remarried, in 1837, Miss Martha Atkins becoming his second wife. Mr. Hutchins died February 17, 1879, aged eighty years. He was the type of conservative, substantial business man whose sound judgment, careful counsel, and strong coopera- tion were always sought in matters affecting public interest. His sturdy support to any cause to which he loaned his name was a reliable prop. A member of the Congregational Church, Mr. Hutchins contributed largely to its support. He is described as being reserved in manner, opposed to ostentation, and modest and retiring in tastes and habits. He preserved a consistent aloofness from political office, notwithstanding the preferment that was his at his slightest sign. As a busi- ness man of ready familiarity with fiscal affairs, he served the town as treasurer for twelve years and, when the bank of Waterbury was organized, became its president and ceased to hold that office only when he requested to be relieved from its responsibility. A sketch of Mr. Hutchins may be fittingly rounded out by giving at this point some reminiscences of Mr. O. A. Seabury relating to the old corner store.
The "old corner store," a venerated landmark to generations of Waterburyites, was built in 1833 by Leander Hutchins and occupied by him as a general merchandise store until it passed under lease to C. N. Arms who, with J. G. Stimson under the firm name of Stimson & Arms, had conducted a general mer- chandise business at another stand on the opposite side of the street known as the Stimson block, now a fruit store. After this firm dissolved, Curtis N. Arms went into business in the Leander Hutchins store. Mr. Arms was a very popular man and had the rare gift of drawing trade. He rarely refused credit and never was obliged to resort to law for his collections. In time the old store became a general rendezvous or exchange
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resorted to by the fun-loving element as well as the disputa- tious and serious minded of the community. The group of daily habitues included lawyers, physicians, merchants and men of various occupations, of varied habits of thought and trends of mind.
The fact that marks the old store as worthy of serious regard in the community is the part it played as an early training school for a remarkably large number of successful men. Among those who early came under the notice of Mr. Seabury was John F. Henry who afterwards was prominent and success- ful in the patent medicine business in this village, Burlington and New York, where he bought out Demas Barnes, then at the head of the largest patent medicine house in the world. He formed the firm of Henry, Curran & Company, with B. H. Dewey as cashier and bookkeeper.
John R. Foster was another whose early training was received in the old store. Mr. Foster became the head of the Foster Combination Clothing Stores scattered through New England and lived and died in Clinton, Massachusetts, where he was known as the wealthiest man of the place, having laid the foundation for the Foster Besse Company which does a large and profitable business throughout New England. F. Chickering Stone is another graduate of the old store business school. Mr. Stone, familiarly known as Chick, went to Saginaw, Michigan, and acquired a fortune in the business of lumbermen's supplies associated with ex-Secretary of War Alger. The name of Horatio Hutchins naturally suggests itself as one of the successful men whose early experiences were gained in the old store. Mr. Hutchins became a member of the great shoe manufacturing concern, known as the Rice Hutchins Company, and left an estate valued at $1,000,000. Mr. Hutchins was a brother of Myron Hutchins, now of Waterbury Center.
Henry Smith, another successful merchant and associate of J. R. Foster above-named, met a sudden death on the street in North Adams, Massachusetts.
Charles Dillingham, afterwards colonel, was a clerk in the old store when the Civil War broke out. Subsequently he
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removed to Houston, Texas, where today he is president of one of the prominent banks of that city. Edwin Parker, now the proprietor of a large department store in Minneapolis; George Adams, who became the head of Adams & Company, dealers in patent medicines in Prescott, Canada; David Warden, formerly connected with a department store as buyer in Minneapolis and now retired, and Homer Remington of the Foster Besse Company in Willimantic, Connecticut, were all, in their turn, disciples of business in the old store.
Among the early frequenters of the place were Elisha Moody and Esquire Joseph Smith. Honorable Paul Dillingham's law office was in the rear of the store building and accessible by a walk between this building and the drug store adjacent.
This walk was rarely used, however, as visitors much pre- ferred walking through the store for the interest its frequenters might possess for them; in this way the roster of the elect was augmented. Another of this group was Fred E. Smith, now living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and known as one of the most successful salesmen and department heads with the Wyman Partridge Company, a large and prosperous business concern in that city. Mr. Smith is a brother of Frank N. Smith and Mrs. Minard.
There were also Jesse Perry, Philo Arms, Alpha Atherton, Newton Atherton, A. D. Hawley, Major Carpenter, Luther Henry, Heman Sherman, Cornelius Sherman, the village blacksmith, George H. Lease and others, members of the coterie that was wont to assemble in the old store for the exchange of views on matters mundane and celestial. Every American village worthy the name has its "old store" to which innumerable memories grave and gay attach. There questions of local, state and federal interest were wont to be threshed out, public opinion crystallized, charitable movements initiated, and the rights and the wrongs of the community canvassed. Who can fix a boundary to the influences that have emanated from the "old corner stores" of the villages of the nation? While nearly every corner store boasts a similar record, differing only in degree of influence from its fellows,
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PERIOD 1830-1850
it is doubtful whether any other village in the country can boast one with such a roster of graduates.
The anti-slavery movement did not lack for propagandists in Waterbury, even before the Harrison and Tyler campaign. Its chief opponents naturally were aligned with the regular political organizations, until such time as the movement itself became strong enough to draw to it political strength from all parties. The preachments of William Lloyd Garrison found ready converts in Waterbury. The State Anti-Slavery Society found itself in need of funds and, in response to a call made in 1839, one delegate, according to Mr. Russell Butler's papers, pledged $100 from Waterbury and Duxbury, the same to be raised within a year. This comparatively small sum, as such a subscription would now be regarded, was the largest from any one town in the state and was one-twentieth part of the whole amount required from the state. It is related by Mr. Butler that two individuals in Waterbury each sub- scribed $100, and other subscriptions increased the total to nearly $500. In the light of other praiseworthy instances of support to good causes afforded by those individuals, it is not surprising to read that they were Amasa Pride and Erastus Parker, who later became the chairman of the Anti-Slavery Convention.
In the campaign of Harrison and Tyler, Waterbury, in common with other towns in Vermont, was the scene of great political activity. There were the "log cabin" rallies, the campaign songs, the speech-making and other concomitants of the liveliest presidential campaign experienced up to that time. Martin Van Buren and Richard M. Johnson were candidates for reelection. Then, as. now, hard times and monetary derangement were the ostensible issues. The triumphant election of "Old Tippecanoe and Tyler, too" followed. In 1841, the Anti-Slavery party ticket caused another failure of a popular election of governor, and the Legislature chose Charles Paine by a majority of forty-two votes. The candidates were Nathan Smilie on the Democratic ticket, Judge Titus Hutchinson on the Anti-Slavery ticket and Charles Paine on the Whig ticket. The Legislature of 1841
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was responsible for the offset feature of the listing laws of the state.
Not for long was the newly elected President Harrison destined to occupy the presidential chair. His untimely death and the succession of John Tyler were in solemn contrast with the exuberant demonstrations of the preceding year. Through · the courtesy of Mrs. Myrtle (Caldwell) Redmond of Enos- burgh Falls, granddaughter of Amasa Pride, extracts from the Watchman and State Journal of Montpelier are given:
THE FUNERAL
WASHINGTON CITY, April 4, 1841.
The circumstances in which we are placed, by the death of the President, render it indispensable for us, in the recess of Congress, and in the absence of the Vice-President, to make arrangements for the Funeral Solemnities. Having consulted with the family and personal friends of the deceased, we have concluded that the funeral be solemnized on Wednesday, the 7th inst. at 12 o'clock. The religious services to be performed according to the usage of the Episcopal Church, in which church the deceased most usually worshipped. The body to be taken from the President's House to the Congress burying ground, accompanied by a military and civic procession, and deposited in the Receiving Tomb.
The military arrangements to be under the direction of Major-General Macomb, the General Commanding in Chief of the Army of the United States; and Major-General Walter Jones, of the militia of the District of Columbia.
Commodore Morris, the senior Captain in the Navy now in the City, to have the direction of the naval arrangements.
The Marshal of the District to have the direction of the civic procession, assisted by the Mayors of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria, the Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States, and such other citizens as they may see fit to call to their aid.
John Quincy Adams, ex-President of the United States, members of Congress now in this city or neighborhood, all the members of the Diplo- matic body resident in Washington, and all officers of the Government, and Citizens generally, are invited to attend.
And it is respectfully recommended to the officers that they wear the usual badge of mourning.
DANIEL WEBSTER, Secretary of State.
THOS. EWING, Secretary of Treasury. JOHN BELL, Secretary of War. J. J. CRITTENDEN, Attorney General. FRANCIS GRANGER, Postmaster General.
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THE NEW PRESIDENT
John Tyler, the constitutional successor of the late President, arrived in Washington on Tuesday the 6th inst. and took lodgings at one of the hotels. He expressed in a becoming manner his sympathy with the bereaved family of Gen. Harrison, and desired them to occupy the President's house so long as they might choose to remain at the seat of government. It is also stated, that at a meeting of the Cabinet, he signified his wish that they should retain their respective offices. He subsequently received the oath of office, as President, and assumes that title in his official acts. The National Intelligencer of the 18th contains his introductory address to the People of the United States, which is given in our columns. It will be found to con- tain a general outline of the principles which are to guide the Executive during the residue of the Presidential term. The new President does not allude, in direct terms, to the question of slavery, but the import of the last two paragraphs, coming from one who is himself an extensive slave- holder and whose views are so well understood, is sufficiently apparent .- The official influence of the Executive Department, as heretofore, will with- out doubt be thrown into the scale in favor of the Slave Power.
If anything, the succession of President Tyler stimulated the Anti-Slavery party to renewed activity, for we find that Waterbury was chosen as a desirable place and July I and 2 as a suitable time for an Anti-Slavery Convention. The fol- lowing advertisement appeared and was widely circulated throughout central Vermont:
A CARD
The friends of Abolition, in Waterbury and vicinity, apprise their friends through the State, that entertainment will be provided for those who come from abroad to attend the Anti-Slavery Convention, notified to be holden at said Waterbury the Ist and 2nd days of July, 1841. Should any come into town on Wednesday evening to attend said convention, those coming from the North will call on Rev. Mr. Hall at Waterbury Center, who will direct them to places of entertainment; and those coming from other direc- tions will find some friend at the public house in Waterbury Street, who will give them like directions.
By order of the Executive Committee of the Waterbury and Duxbury Anti-Slavery Society.
ERASTUS PARKER Chairman.
It has been truly said that the New England way of propa- gating social or political innovations was not at once through political parties; that there was necessary just so long a period 6
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during which the propaganda was committed to societies. The Anti-Slavery Society was a fair example. Still, after the Tyler and Polk administrations, Vermonters favoring the abolition of slavery grew impatient and cast about for swifter and more certain results. The Wilmot Proviso was not working out in accordance with expectations; the question of whether the recently acquired southwestern territory should be the home of involuntary servitude arose again. The new doctrine of "Squatter Sovereignty" recognizing the power of a state to determine its own status as between freedom and slavery after admission to the Union, was gaining adherents in spite of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. But slavery was abhorrent to Vermonters-Democrats and Whigs alike; while not approving the arbitrary counsels of the Abolitionists, many northern Democrats were ready to resist the sweeping away of the Missouri Compromise as affecting the territory west of the Mississippi. Vermont was not behind-hand in her protest. A State Democratic Convention was held in Montpelier in April, 1848, and it was apparent at the outset that differences were likely to arise over the relative claims of the Wilmot Proviso and "Squatter Sovereignty." Six sturdy Democrats held a conference the evening before the convention was called; among these, and the spokesman for the six on the floor of the convention, was the eloquent Lucius Eugene Chittenden. This devoted band sought to stem the tide, protesting against the abandonment by the party of its principles. Finding protest useless, they withdrew to the Pavilion Hotel and organized the Free Soil Party, committed to an uncompromising resistance to the extension of slavery. This was the first Free Soil Party started as such and antedated the Free Soil Party of the Buffalo Convention in August by six weeks. According to Mr. Chittenden, it was from the loins of the embryonic Free Soil Party, organized by six dis- gruntled Democrats at the Pavilion Hotel in Montpelier in April, 1848, that the great Republican party sprang. Who shall say that it did not originate from the influences at work in Waterbury and Washington County ten years earlier and
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PERIOD 1830-1850
from that time on including the date of the Anti-Slavery Con- vention in Waterbury July I and 2, 1841?
(See Personal Reminiscences of L. E. Chittenden, pp. 8-10.)
The Dillingham family, in Waterbury, begins with Deacon Paul Dillingham of the sixth generation in direct line of the family that began with Edward who came to Lynn, Massachu- setts, in 1630. Deacon Paul came to Waterbury from Shutes- bury, Massachusetts, in 1804 and settled at the Center. He had served in the militia in the Continental army between 1777 and 1780. He was married to Hannah Smith in 1784. Of this union were born twelve children of whom Governor Paul (3) Dillingham was the third son; Deacon Paul (2) died in Waterbury, July 14, 1848.
Governor Paul (3) Dillingham was born in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, August 10, 1799, coming to Waterbury when he was about five years of age. After attending the public schools and the Washington County Grammar School in Montpelier, he began the study of law in the office of Honor- able Dan Carpenter of Waterbury. He was admitted to the bar in 1823 and became a law partner of his preceptor one year later, remaining as member of the firm until the senior member was elevated to the bench. He continued in practice for- fifty-two years, retiring in 1875. Mr. Dillingham had essen- tially a legal mind; his powers of analysis were singularly acute and his ability as an advocate brought him to the head of his profession in the state. The town records of Waterbury bear witness to the almost incalculable work done by him in various official capacities during many years of arduous pro- fessional endeavor. He was town clerk from 1829 to 1844, town representative in the Legislature in 1833-34, 37-38-39, and was state's attorney for Washington County from 1835- 1837. His services in the Constitutional Convention of 1836 were so signally valuable that he was selected as member of the Constitutional Conventions of 1857 and 1870. He was state senator from Washington County in 1841-1842 and 1861. In 1840 he was the Democratic candidate for governor but was defeated by Silas Jenison. His congressional career, though not wholly congenial, was one of intelligent and patriotic labor.
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In 1842 Congress passed a law entitled "an act for the ap- portionment of representatives among the several States ac- cording to the sixth census." A controversy arose in Congress over the construction of the act which, in a later section, seemed to be ambiguous. The debate on the floor of the House was naturally exhaustive and technical. Paul Dilling- · ham made an unusually masterly and able presentation of the arguments favoring the constitutionality of the act. Indeed, the speech in its entirety was a lucid exposition of the inten- tion of the framers of the Constitution and, despite its tech- nical character, makes excellent reading not only for students of constitutional law but also for those interested in the devel- opment of our system of representation and apportionment.
Probably the most important position taken by Mr. Dil- lingham in Congress was upon the admission of Texas. Mr. Dillingham was of the famous coterie of Vermont Democrats in the early 40's that included such men as United States Judge David B. Smalley, Chief Justice Isaac Redfield, Tim- othy P. Redfield, Charles G. Eastman and the poet, John G. Saxe.
Mr. Dillingham's duty as a representative required that he should present the petitions forwarded by his constituents against the admission of Texas. Abhorring slavery as utterly as any of the protestors in his congressional district, he still could see no way consistently with the Constitution whereby Texas could be admitted as an anti-slavery state. The joint resolution, presented December 16, 1845, calling for the ad- mission of Texas, was the subject uppermost in the minds of men of all parties. The vote upon the main resolution was taken after the usual obstructive tactics had been resorted to by various members of the House, Mr. Dillingham voting in the affirmative. This position on such a question at that time was far from being a popular one in Vermont, but it was firmly rooted in conscience and logic.
Believing, as he did, in the doctrine of manifest destiny, he foresaw territorial expansion as a logical sequence. These considerations moved his support of the admission to state- hood of Texas and of President Polk's policy, which brought
·
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PERIOD 1830-1850
on the Mexican War. Mr. Dillingham's close analysis of the Federal Constitution confirmed him in his opinion as to the retention in the Union in harmonious relations with the South- ern States. But, like Stephen A. Douglas, when Fort Sumter was fired upon, he uncompromisingly espoused the Union party's cause and advocated the preservation of the Union by other than merely temporising measures. In the state Senate in 1861 he was foremost in planning and upholding ways and means for the support of the government and the organiza- tion, arming and equipment of Vermont regiments were due largely to his energy and sound judgment.
At the outbreak of the Civil War the Vermont Legislature was called in special session to meet on the 25th of April. The House consisted of 211 Republicans and 25 Democrats, the leader of whom was Stephen Thomas of West Fairlee. The following account of their action is given by Mr. Benedict in "Vermont in the Civil War":
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