USA > Vermont > History of eastern Vermont, from its earliest settlement to the close of the eighteeth century with a biographical chapter and appendixes > Part 59
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In a country or state where no very definite ideas either of law or of the principles of right are held by the people, customs sometimes prevail, which, though strange and unnatural, are often observed with the most scrupulous care. Of those which obtained among the early settlers of Vermont, springing from a perversion of legal maxims, two examples have been preserved. On the 16th of June, 1785, the General Assembly of Vermont passed an act discharging from imprisonment, on certain condi- tions, Thomas Chandler of Chester, one of the early settlers on the New Hampshire Grants. On the 20th of the same month, before he was enabled to comply with the terms of the act, Chandler died in the jail at Westminster, where, during seve- ral months, he had been confined for debt. According to the ideas of that period, if the friends of a person dying in prison carried his remains beyond the boundaries of the jail-yard they were regarded as accomplices in an " escape," and were sup- posed to be liable to satisfy the judgment by virtue of which he was confined. Another foolish notion led people to ima- gine, that any one who should bury the body of an imprisoned debtor would thereby become executor in his own wrong, and, as an intermeddler with the estate of the debtor, liable to dis- charge the debtor's obligations. How to give Christian burial to the remains of Judge Chandler, and yet avoid the responsi bility of answering for his defaults, was a serious question.
MS. Court Records. Slade's Vt. State Papers, p. 450.
584
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT. [1779.
For several days the corpse remained in the cell of the jail, shunned by those whose common sense, one would suppose, should have taught them the folly of a custom which forbade them to perform an act of humanity as imperative and solemn as is that of inhumation. At length, when the body had be- come so offensive as to endanger the health of the prisoners confined in the jail, Nathan Fisk, the jailer, suggested an expe- dient which was quickly put in practice. On measuring the jail liberties, he found, that by stretching the chain, he could include within them a small portion of the adjoining burying- ground. A grave was then commenced just outside the grave- yard fence, and just within the jail-yard limits. As the exca- vation advanced, it was directed obliquely under the fence, until a sufficient depth and obliquity had been obtained. These preparations having been completed, the jailer in company with a few individuals entered, in the silence of midnight, the cell where the putrescent mass was lying, placed it in a rough, box-like coffin, drew it on the ground to the spot selected for in- terment, and consigned to its last resting-place all that remained of the once noted Chandler. Thus was he buried within the jail limits, and yet, by a very pardonable evasion of law, beneath the consecrated soil of " the old Westminster churchyard."*
By another strange perversion of legal principles, at this
* This story is related, in a different form, by the Hon. Daniel P. Thompson, in that most entertaining American historical novel, entitled "The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter," i. 99.
The author of this work has often heard the circumstances connected with the burial of Judge Chandler detailed by the old people who reside in the vicinity of the place where the event occurred. An account of the incident was pub- lished on the 9th of February, 1855, in the Vermont Republican, a newspaper printed at Brattleborough. The article in which it appeared, entitled " More about Westminster," was first printed in another Vermont newspaper, the Ver- gennes Independent. The writer of the article illustrated the superstitious views of the early settlers of Vermont by a more singular but less credible story, which is here given in his own words :-- " There once obtained a custom, whether warranted by law this deponent saith not of holding even the dead body of a debtor liable to arrest. It is said that a case occurred in the town of Dummerston, within the memory of some now living, where a dead body was arrested on its way to the grave, and detained till some of the friends 'backed the writ,' and thus became surety for the debtor's appearance at court. As the return day of the writ was some time off, the defendant was in no condition to appear, and consequently ' lurched his bail.' I must confess this sounds rather apocryphal. The case of poor Sheridan, who was arrested while in the agonies of death, is familiar to every literary man, but the arrest of a corpse seems too monstrous to be be- lieved. Such an event, if it has occurred, would well deserve to be called an arrest on mean (mesne) process."
585
A CURIOUS WEDDING.
1725-1800.]
early period, certain people were led to believe, that whoever should marry a widow, who was administratrix upon the estate of her deceased husband, and should through her come in pos- session of anything that had been purchased by the deceased husband, would become administrator in his own wrong, and render himself liable to answer for the goods and estate of his predecessor. The method adopted to avoid this difficulty, in the marriage of Asa Averill of Westminster to his second wife, the widow of Major Peter Lovejoy, was very singular. By the side of the chimney in the widow's house was a recess of considerable size. Across this a blanket was stretched in such a manner as to form a small inclosure. Into this Mrs. Lovejoy passed with her attendants, who completely disrobed her, and threw her clothes into the room. She then thrust her hand through a small aperture purposely made in the blanket. The proffered member was clasped by Mr. Averill, and in this position he was married to the nude widow on the other side of the woollen curtain. He then produced a complete assort- ment of wedding attire which was slipped into the recess. The new Mrs. Averill soon after appeared in full dress, ready to receive the congratulations of the company, and join in their hearty rustic festivities. The marriage proved a happy one, their children by their former partners living in great har- mony, not only with each other but with those also who were afterwards born to the new pair .*
Of the aboriginal inhabitants of that part of Vermont which borders the banks of the Connecticut, very little is known. The Iroquois Indians, whose hunting-ground comprehended the whole of the western portion of the state, seldom extended their wanderings across the mountains, and have left but few vestiges of their presence, even in the places which were most frequented by them. The country in the neighborhood of Lu- nenburgh and Newbury, and on the side of the river opposite to the latter place, was called by the Indians, " Coos," which word, in the Abenaqui language, is said to signify "The Pines." At these localities, and at other points on the upper Connecticut, formerly resided a branch of the Abenaqui tribe. On the 8th of May, 1725, occurred a memorable fight at the lower village of Pigwacket, New Hampshire, which resulted
* MS. Letter of the Hon. William C. Bradley, dated March 16th, 1857
1
586
IIISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT. [1725-1800.
in the defeat, by Capt. John Lovewell and thirty-four men, of a large Indian force, commanded by the chiefs Paugus and Wahwa. After this event the "Coossucks," as the Indians ' were called who inhabited the Coos country, deserted their abodes, and removing to Canada became identified there with the tribe at St. Francis. Subsequent to the reduction of Ca- nada by the English, in 1760, several Indian families returned to Coos, and remained there until they became extinct .*
The extent of the Indian settlements at Newbury has never been fully ascertained. The character of the country was such as would naturally suit the taste of those who depended upon hunting and fishing for support, for the woods were filled with bears, moose, deer, and game, while the Connecticut abounded in salmon, and the brooks were alive with trout. Of the evi- dences of savage life which have been found in this vicinity, the following account by a citizent of Newbury may be relied on as correct. "On the high ground, east of the mouth of Cow Meadow brook, and south of the three large projecting rocks, were found many indications of an old and extensive Indian settlement. There were many domestic implements. Among the rest were a stone mortar and pestle. The pestle I have seen. Heads of arrows, large quantities of ashes, and the ground burnt over to a great extent, are some of the marks of a long residence there. The burnt ground and ashes were still visible the last time the place was ploughed. On the meadow, forty or fifty rods below, near the rocks in the river, was evi- dently a burying-ground. The remains of many of the sons of the forest are there deposited. Bones have frequently been turned up by the plough. That they were buried in the sitting posture, peculiar to the Indians, has been ascertained. When the first settlers came here, the remains of a fort were still visi- ble on the Ox Bow, a dozen or twenty rods from the east end of Moses Johnson's lower garden, on the south side of the lane. The size of the fort was plain to be seen. Trees about as large as a man's thigh, were growing in the circumference of the old
* An account of a few of the Indians who inhabited the Coos country, during the latter part of the last and the earlier portion of the present century, is given in the " Historical Sketches of the Coos country" by the Rev. Grant Powers, pp. 178-189. Consult also Thompson's Vermont, Part II .. pp. 205, 206.
+ David Johnson, Esq., a son of the worthy Col. Thomas Johnson, whose name has already appeared in these pages. The extract given in the text is taken from Powers's Coos Country, pp. 39, 40.
587
INDIAN SCULPTURES.
1725-1800.]
fort. A profusion of white flint-stones and heads of arrows may yet be seen scattered over the ground."*
The picture writing of the Indians, which is to be seen in two localities in Eastern Vermont, affords satisfactory evidence of the fact, that certain tribes were accustomed to frequent the Connecticut and the streams connected with it, even though they were not actual residents of the pleasant banks within which those waters are confined. At the foot of Bellows Falls, and on the west side of the channel of the Connecticut, are situated two rocks, on which are inscribed figures, the meaning of which it is difficult to determine. The lar- ger rock presents a group of variously or- namented heads. The surface which these heads occupy is about six feet in height and fifteen feet in breadth. Prominent among the rest is the figure occu- Indian Sculptures. pying nearly a central position in the group. From its head, which is supported by a neck and shoulders, six rays or feathers extend, which may be regarded as emblems of excellence or power. Four of the other heads are adorned each with a pair of similar projections. On a separate rock, situated a short dis- tance from the main group, a single head is sculptured, which is finished with rays or feathers, and was pro- bably intended to de- signate an Indian Indian Sculpture. chief. The length of the head, exclusive of the rays, is fourteen inches, and its breadth across the forehead in its widest part is ten inches. These sculpturings seem to have been intended to commemo- rate some event in which a chief and a number of his
* This account was published in the year 1840.
588
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
[1723-1800.
tribe performed some noted exploit, or met with some sad disaster. The former supposition is undoubtedly the more cor- rect. It is well known that the Indians were usually careful to conceal the traces of their misfortunes, and eager to publish the evidence of their successes.
The rocks are situated about eight rods south of the bridge for common travel, across the Falls. That on which the group is pictured is, during much of the time, under water. The other, which is further from the river, is not so much affected by the wash of the stream. Whenever a freshet occurs, both are covered. An idea of the locali- ty of these sculp- turings may be obtained from the accompanying . engraving. The view presented is from a point be- tween the two not- ed rocks, which are respectively designated by the letters A and B. A train on the Sullivan Railroad is seen passing up Locality of the Sculptures. on the other side of the river. In
the back-ground rise the mountains of New Hampshire .*
On the south bank of the Wantastiquet or West river, in the
* In his "Travels through the Northern Parts of the United States, in the Years 1807 and 1808," Edward Augustus Kendall, Esq., referred to the sculptures at Bellows Falls, and endeavored by them to prove that the characters on the rock at Dighton, Massachusetts (or " the Writing Rock on Taunton River," as he designated it), were inscribed by the Indians. A few extracts from his work will show the pompous style in which he treated the subject. After describing Bel- lows Falls, then often called the Great Falls, he proceeded to his argument, in these words :-
" The entire basin of the cataract is of coarse granite, fractured into large masses. On the smooth and inclined face of one of these masses, situate on the south side of the bridge, and on the west side of the river, are the sculptures. These have a comparative insignificance when placed beside the Writing Rock on Taunton
589
1723-1800.] " INDIAN ROCK."
town of Brattleborough, is situated the "Indian Rock." Its location is about one hundred rods west of the point of junction of the Wantastiquet and Connecticut rivers. It lies low, and
River. They consist in outlines of a variety of heads, some of which are human, and some belonging to animals. Unlike the sculptures of the Writing Rock, they are parts of no connected work, but are scattered over the face of the rock, in the most even and eligible places.
" It is to these sculptures, then, that I appeal, as to conclusive evidence of the Indian origin of the Writing Rock. They are too rude, too insignificant, and too evidently without depth of meaning to be attributed to Phoenicians or Cartha- ginians. No person will carry European vanity so far as to contend that there is anything here above the level of the Indian genius. But, if Indians were the authors of these sculptures, then Indians were the authors of the Writing Rock also. The style of the drawing is the same ; the style of sculpture is the same; and it is for this reason that I add nothing now, to what I have already ad- vanced, in regard to these particulars. All that requires any special notice is this, that the rock at the Great Falls, which is of an exceedingly coarse granite, must have been wrought with still more difficulty than the rock on Taunton River . . ... These sculptures, so obviously the work of idle hours, and for the accomplishment of which the rudest artist, once provided with a tool, must be allowed to be competent, supply us with the fact, that the Indians were able to sculpture rocks, and that when they did sculpture them, the sculpture resembled the sculpture of the Writing Rock.
" In more than one of the heads sculptured at the Great Falls, we see an exact similitude to the heads sculptured on the Writing Rock, and particularly in the circumstances, that a single dot or hollow is made to serve both for nose and mouth ; that no ears are given to the human heads; and that the crowns of the heads are bare ....... Thus, we ascertain that in the sculptures observed upon the Writing Rock, there is the strictest similitude, in workmanship and drawing, to those observed upon the rocks at the Great Falls . . . . Thus, all questions are answered, except those that regard the nature of the tool by the edge of which the rocks have been wrought upon, and the occasions upon which the figures have been wrought.
" With respect to the nature of the tool, every difficulty would be dismissed by supposing that the sculptures were not wrought till after the introduction of iron by the Europeans : but, there appears to be good reason for thinking them more ancient, and we shall, therefore, in all probability, be compelled to believe, that the tool was of no better material than stone.
" One only question remains, upon which I shall venture to hazard any remark, and this respects the occasions upon which rocks have been sculptured by the Indians.
" In the first place, it is matter of notoriety that the Indians have always pur- f sued the practice of representing, by delineation, carving, and, as we are now entitled to add, by sculpture, those objects and those events concerning which they either wished to make some instant communication, or to preserve some durable monument .... . In the second place, there can be little reason to doubt, that they sometimes exercised their skill, in all the arts now mentioned, for the mere purposes of pastime; and, in this view, it appears unnecessary to admit the doctrine, advanced by some persons in the neighborhood of the Great Falls, in regard to the sculptures there displayed, namely, that the heads wrought upon the rocks are the heads of men, women, children, and animals that have
590
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT. [1723-1800.
during a part of the year is covered with water, or with sand and dirt, the deposit of the river. On first examining this rock, the fig- ures on the up- per part of it were alone visi- ble. Just be- low them, the rock was cover- ed with earth to the depth of six inches. The earth was re- moved, until a " Indian Rock." surface measur- ing ten feet in width, and eight feet in height, was exposed. At the point where the workmen ceased digging, the rock was covered with three feet of earth. The whole surface of the rock, was, upon closer scrutiny, found to be covered with inscriptions. Among these the date 1755 was to be distinguished. The two figures in the upper corner of the engraving, and on a line with one another, are each about eight inches in height, and six inches across, measuring from the extremities of the lateral append- ages. Of the ten figures here presented, six are supposed to designate birds, two bear a resemblance to snakes, one is not unlike a dog or a wolf, and one conveys no idea either of bird, beast, or reptile. The chiselling of these sculptures is deeper and more easily traced than that of the sculptures at .Bellows
been drowned in the cataract-the Indians being used to commemorate by sculp- tures particular catastrophes of this kind. We may object to this, first, that there is no reason to believe in the occurrence of so many fatal accidents at this spot, as the number of heads must in such case attest; secondly, that the sculptures on these rocks are disposed with no solemnity or order, but are scattered in the most careless manner ; and, thirdly, that it is highly probable that they were the work of idle hours spent among these rocks, at a place so favourable for fishing as the foot of a cataract, and therefore so much a place of resort.
" In this view, the sculptured rocks at the Great Falls will be a monument only of this, the ancient existence of a neighbouring population, and the ancient fish eries pursued here; while the Writing Rock, also found in a situation favourable for fishing, will be regarded, from the variety which it contains, and the appa- rent combinations and relations of parts which it betrays, as an elaborate monu- ment of some transaction of which no other trace remains to elucidate this imper- fect iconography."-iii. 205, 206, 207, 209-213.
591
1723-1800.] PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE SCULPTURES.
Falls. Iconographic skill may detect the meaning of these configurations. The impression, which one unused to the study of hieroglyphics receives from an examination of them, is that they are the work of the Indians, and that they were carved by them merely for amusement, while watching at this spot for game, or while resting after the toils of the chase .*
Such are the most important memorials of the Indians which * " On West River, a little above its mouth, are a few Indian sculptures, the last that I shall have to introduce to the reader's notice. ' A number of figures or inscriptions are yet to be seen upon the rocks at the mouth of this river, seem- ing to allude to the affairs of war among the Indians; but their rudeness and awkwardness denote that the formers of them were at a great remove from the knowledge of any alphabet.' By this account, written by a native topographer, and derived from a History of Vermont, my curiosity was long raised ; but, upon visiting the rock intended to be referred to, I found only the most insignificant of all the Indian sculptures that I had met with. The historian, Dr. Williams, with whom I had afterwards the pleasure of conversing, and whose book disco- vers a spirit of inquiry, and contains many original views, informed me, that as to the sculptures on West River, he had rashly relied on the observations of other eyes than his own.
" These sculptures comprise only five figures of a diminutive size, and scratched, rather than sculptured, on the surface of a small mass of schistic rock, situate on the side of a cove in a meadow, above the mouth of the river. Of the five figures, four represent birds, and one is either that of a dog or of a wolf. I was informed that on a lower part of the rock adjacent, there was a sculptured snake, so exqui- sitely wrought as to have terrified, by its resemblance to nature, an honest coun- tryman of the neighbourhood. The water, however, was at this time low, and neither myself, nor the gentleman who did me the favour to accompany me, was able to discover any snake; and, on closer inquiry, no sort of foundation could be found even for the story itself.
" The West River rock affords us, therefore, nothing, or next to nothing, in any view save one; and this is, the example of a disposition in the Indians to sculp- ture rocks, and to sculpture them even for amusement. The cove, which, it may be believed, was anciently overrun with wild rice (zizania aquatica), has always been a celebrated resort of wild ducks. It is at this day a favourite place for shooting them ; and we may believe that the Indians were accustomed to spend many hours here watching either for water-fowl or for fish. Hence, the sculp- tures, both at the Great Falls and on West River, are to be attributed to the whim of vacant moments."-Kendall's Travels, iii. 219, 220, 221.
In the work from which the above extracts are taken, Mr. Kendall gives a very particular description of certain figures, said to be cut by the Indians on the trunk of a pine tree in Weathersfield. These carvings, according to Mr. Kendall, were designed to commemorate the birth of a child, whose mother was taken prisoner at the burning of Deerfield in the year 1704. The foundation of this incorrect statement is, doubtless, the stones still standing on the north bank of Knapp's brook, in the town of Reading, which were erected to commemorate the birth of Captive Johnson, which event took place on the 31st of August, 1754. All inquiries concerning this monumental tree have proved fruitless. The oldest inhabitants of Weathersfield have never known of its existence. It is probable, therefore, that Mr. Kendall's accurate description of the appearance and form of
.
592
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT. [1723-1800.
are to be found in Eastern Vermont. Regarded as specimens of the rude and uncultivated attempts of a now decaying race to express their ideas, however unimportant those ideas may have been, they cannot but be viewed with mingled emotions of curiosity and respect.
the carvings with which he has adorned it, was due either to an imposition prac- tised upon him, or to his fondness for mythical conceptions .- Kendall's Travels, iii. 207-210, 212. Also ante, pp. 65, 66.
BIOGRAPHICAL CHAPTER.
STEPHEN ROW BRADLEY.
LOSSING - BARPITT.
Cephen th Bradley
THE brothers Bradley, six or seven in number, came to this country from England about the year 1650, having previously served among Cromwell's Ironsides, in which corps William
594
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
Bradley, the first settler of North Haven, Connecticut, and one of the brothers, was an officer .* Stephen Bradley, another of the brothers, became a resident of New Haven, where he labored at his calling, which was that of a silversmith. On the beha- vior of the Protector's troops when disbanded, Macaulay has passed the highest encomium. "Fifty thousand men, accustomed to the profession of arms, were at once thrown on the world : and experience seemed to warrant the belief that this change would produce much misery and crime, that, the discharged veterans would be seen begging in every street, or that they would be driven by hunger to pillage. But no such result fol- lowed. In a few months there remained not a trace indicating that the most formidable army in the world had just been absorbed into the mass of the community. The Royalists them- selves confessed that, in every department of honest industry, the discarded warriors prospered beyond other men, that none was charged with any theft or robbery, that none was heard to ask an alms, and that, if a baker, a mason, or a waggoner attract- ed notice by his diligence and sobriety, he was in all probability one of Oliver's old soldiers." Wholly consonant with this de- scription of the scarred and war-worn veterans of the Protectorate was the conduct of the Bradleys.
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