USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Springfield > History of the town of Springfield, Vermont : with a genealogical record > Part 3
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There is a tradition with the descendants of Capt. Abner Bis-
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OF SPRINGFIELD, VT.
bee that he piloted a small company of Massachusetts soldiers through the forest on snow-shoes in February, 1759, and marked out the Crown Point Road, and that he was with the company under Col. Goffe that built it the following year, and picked out the spot where he afterwards built his cabin on this road. In 1759 Gen. Amherst, who had succeeded to the command of the British forces in North America, projected a plan for a mili- tary road for the transportation of troops and supplies from the Connecticut River to Lake Champlain, and as Charlestown, N. H., or Number Four, was then the most northern frontier post on the river, he early decided to build a road through from there to Crown Point.
The men appointed to this service were Gen. John Stark, Major John Hawks, and Col. John Goffe. The Crown Point Road was begun on the west side of the mountains, in the summer of 1759, by Gen. Stark and Major Hawks, but that part from Number Four to the mountains was not built till the next year. In the early part of the season of 1760 Gen. Amherst ordered Col. Goffe, with a regiment of eight hundred men, raised in New Hampshire, to make a road from Number Four across the present State of Ver- mont to meet the road that had been cut through on the west side of the mountains the summer previous by Gen. Stark and Major Hawks. The road begun at Wentworth's Ferry, two miles above the fort at Charlestown, N. H. They first built a Blockhouse on the west bank of Connecticut River, near where the ferry was at that time, and on the farm now owned by the family of the late J. M. Butterfield, formerly known as the Blockhouse farm. This Blockhouse, surrounded with pickets, was built to serve as a protection in case of disaster. It was made of heavy pine tim- ber, squared and laid up after the manner of the log-houses of those times. Some of the timber of this house can now be seen in the frame of a barn on the farm of Orrin Rice. The place where the Crown Point Road crossed the present river road is marked by a suitable monument erected by the late Daniel A. Gill, who was familiar with the location of this famous military road, and R. M. Colburn. From the monument it passed around Skitche- waug Mountain, then up to where Levi R. White now lives,
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN
thence along the present travelled road, and crossed the main high- way near the house of H. M. Arms. It passed a little west of the buildings on the Dr. Hubbard place, and then through the farm now owned by Lucius Streeter, where its location is plainly seen at the present time. On the level ground, partly on the town farm, and partly on the land of Mr. Streeter, was a camp- ing ground of Col. Goffe's men. Here were the first apple-trees in town. The hill or ridge of land east of this camp, and extend- ing into Weathersfield, has from the earliest memory of the inhab- itants been called " Camp Hill." From the camping place the road passed near the town farm buildings, and over the hill to the Colman Haskins place, crossing the present highway leading from Springfield to Weathersfield near the barn, and thence on by the buildings on the Luther Boynton farm through Weathersfield, Cavendish, and Ludlow, to the mountains.
The first settlers of the town lived on or near this road. By a census of Cumberland County taken in 1771, there were twenty- seven families and one hundred and forty-one persons in Spring- field, and the larger part of these families lived along the Crown Point Road.
Col. John Barrett lived on the Blockhouse farm, lately owned by the late J. M. Butterfield. John Nott, who at first lived on the meadow near the mouth of the Black River, now lived near the Blockhouse and was the ferryman, the ferry being known as Nott's Ferry. Nathaniel Weston's house was below where Asahel Fairbanks lately lived, and between Mr. Weston's and the house where H. M. Arms lives were the houses of Simeon and Taylor Spencer. A Mr. Wheeler lived at the Arms place, and Joseph Little on the Christopher Ellis farm. Hezekiah Holmes lived on the Dr. Calvin Hubbard farm, and Simeon Bradford on the farm now owned by Lucius Streeter. Where the town farm buildings now are was the house of Simon Stevens, and between there and the Colman Haskins place was the house of Samuel Scott. Abner Bisbee's house stood just north of the south line of the Luther Boynton farm and a few rods west of the present highway. George Hall located where the Boynton buildings now stand, just over the line in Weathersfield, but supposed he lived in Springfield, and for several years served in various offices of the town.
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OF SPRINGFIELD, VT.
In this connection the following sketch, furnished by C. S. Chase of Detroit, and a native of Springfield, for the Springfield Reporter, will be of interest : -
THE OLD CROWN POINT ROAD, AND SOME OF THE MEN WHO BUILT IT.
When a few weeks ago the attention of your readers was called to the old military road once leading through the town of Spring- field, my interest led me to investigate it and the period during which it was constructed, more fully than I had previously done.
I had the good fortune to find in a somewhat large library to which I have access some old books relating to this period and the men concerned in this work, which invested the old road with new iterest.
Springfield, though never, that I am aware of, a battle ground, was at one time the thoroughfare for important and successful military operations.
To go back a little, the old French and Indian war had been dragging wearily along for almost seven years. The French had been pushing their outposts farther and farther south and west. The English had met with severe reverses. Abercrombie, with an army of sixteen thousand men, had been defeated before Ticonder- oga and the gallant Lord Howe slain, and the Indians let loose upon the inhabitants of New Hampshire and Massachusetts were a constant source of terror, killing and carrying into captivity hundreds of people living near the frontier.
In consequence of this state of things, settlements were very slowly made in the State of Vermont, then known as the New Hampshire grants. The incursions of the Indians from Canada were made mostly down Connecticut River or by way of Lake Champlain, Otter Creek, and crossing the mountain by the Black or West River valleys. At length a change in the British admin- istration placed Gen. Amherst at the head of the North Amer- ican army. A careful and experienced general, he cautiously pushed his forces from Lake George until he had taken Ticonder-
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN
oga and Crown Point without venturing a general battle or hardly losing a man.
The provincial rangers were constantly pressing upon their enemies, attacking small parties and cutting off their supplies. The failure of the French to re-enforce their forts rendered them unable to hold their ground longer against them. And here it must be remarked that too little credit has been given to the provincial troops in the grand result that followed; and it is quite uncertain whether the English could have made the con- quest of Canada unaided by colonial troops, which were better fitted by all their habits of life to cope with the French and their Indian allies than the disciplined English soldier.
Montreal was the objective point, but the year 1759 was passing and the cautious Amherst had progressed so slowly that, as win- ter was approaching, it was decided to defer the campaign against Canada until the next year and go into winter quarters at Crown Point. During the summer of this year, however, Amherst had projected two roads, to transport troops and supplies and make a more direct communication with New England, one to Massachu- setts and one to New Hampshire. Charlestown, or Number Four, was the most northern frontier post of New England, and Gen. Amherst early decided to build a road through to that point. He appointed men for this service who were fully competent. There have been few men in our colonial or Revolutionary history who have shown more enegy, bravery, or general ability than the three men concerned in this enterprise. They were Gen. John Stark, Major John Hawks, and Col. John Goffe. They each demand more than a passing notice, although the hero of the battle of Bennington has a world-wide fame. Taken captive by the Indians at an early period, and naturally drifting into a military life, he, was unconsciously fitting himself for the great struggle of the Revolution which followed.
The Crown Point Road was begun in the spring of 1759. In his memoirs we learn that " Capt. Stark, with two hundred rangers, was employed in cutting a road from Crown Point round through the wilderness to Number Four." The road was completed, it would seem, only a portion of the way by this detachment ; for
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OF SPRINGFIELD, VT.
we find in Commissary Wilson's orderly book, a curious old record of daily events and plans for the garrison, this entry, which I give in the original form and spelling : -
" CROWN POINT, 25th Oct., 1759.
" The following party to receive this afternoon, belonging to the Provincial Troops, twelve days Bisquitt and 5 days Pork, and to parade at the Right of the Royal at one o'clock; they are to bring with them all the falling axes belonging to their Regiments as they can now spare them and they are to leave with their Regiments what arms and accouterments they have in their possession belonging to the King as they will not have any use for them in the service they are to be employed in which arms are to be returned to Maj. Ord of the Artillery. After they have performed the service they are sent upon they will receive from Lieut. Small Pasports and Provisions or monye to carry them to their respective Abodes, and the General expects that every man will do his utmost towards carrying on this service, and if any man should offer to go Home before his Passport is given to him, a Partic shall be sent to apprehend him ; he shall be tryed by a Court Martial and no mercy shall be shown him.
"Major Hawks to command the partie and will receive further orders from the General; it is to be composed of Captains Burk and Page, Lieuts. Carver and Shore with 54 men of Ruggles Regiment, Lieut. Bean of Willards Regi- ment with 49 men, Lieut. Pearsons and Collins with 39 men of Whittney's Regiment, Capt. Ferris and Lieut. Pringle and Smith with 36 men of Worces- ters, Ens. Hall of Fitches with 36 men of Babcocks, Licut. Small with a Ser- geant and 10 Rangers to parade at the same time with arms, amunition, kettles and the same quantity of Provisions ; he will receive his orders from the Generall. The Royal and Montgomerys will send ten Batteaux each with 2 men in each at one o'clock to the front of the Royal to carry Major Hawks over the Lake with his Partie. This Provisions compleats them to the 31st inclusively and with Bread to 7th."
The next day's entry in the orderly book is the following : - " CROWN POINT, 26th Oct., 1759.
" The Detachment under the command of Major Hawke will compleat the Tools they want to 250 and a Grindstone, by applying to Sergeant Morrow and giving Receipts for them, which will be delivered to Lieut. Small when they arrive at No. 4, and put up in the store there that they may be sent for."
There is a curious interest attached to these old records, a quaintness and military brevity that are quite charming. From this we learn that Gen. Amherst ordered Major Hawks, in October of the same year in which Stark performed his service, to go to Num- ber Four with a body of provincial or New England troops num- bering about three hundred, with implements for felling trees and making roads, and that after arriving there they were to be paid
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN
off, their term of enlistment having expired, and then go to their homes. A portion of the road begun by Stark, and the path over the mountain were then completed by Hawks and his party. Either on this expedition or a previous one (for he had been over this route before) he encamped on the side of the mountain which now bears his name, and the place of encampment is now pointed out as " Hawks Camp."
To me there is a kind of attraction about this man ; perhaps partly because we know so little about him, and what we do know presents him to us in an adventurous, if not heroic light. Of his early life little or nothing is known, except that be was born at Deerfield, Mass., and several of his name are mentioned in the early Indian wars. He comes to our notice first in 1746 as a sergeant in command of Fort Massachusetts at Hoosac, now the town of Adams. A body of French and Indians, under Gen. De Vau- dreuil, eight or nine hundred in number, appeared before the fort. Holland, in his " History of Western Massachusetts," gives the following account of this attack :-
" A more unfortunate time for the garrison could not have been chosen, as its ammunition was exhausted and there were but 22 men in the fort. The French general made propositions to Sergt. John Hawks, then in command of the fort, to surrender, but he declined, thinking perhaps that succor might reach him during the time which he might be able to delay his surrender. The attack was accord- ingly commenced and the brave little garrison defended the fort against forty times their number, for twenty-eight hours. During all this time the enemy were kept at a respectful distance, and some of them were shot at the long distance of sixty rods, where they supposed themselves entirely beyond the arm of danger. At the end of this long and most gallant defence the ammunition of the garrison became exhausted and no choice but surrender was left, and even then the commander of the garrison made his terms. One of these conditions was that none of the prisoners, numbering thirty-three men, women and children, should be delivered to the Indians. Vaudreuil made the pledge, and the very next day, under the pretence that the Indians were mutinous in consequence of withholding prisoners from them, one half
....
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OF SPRINGFIELD, VT,
the number were delivered over to them, and one of the num- ber was immediately killed, in consequence of being too sick to travel. The garrison lost but one man in the attack, while the enemy lost in killed and mortally wounded forty-six. They were taken to Canada, twelve were taken sick and died there, and the remainder with other prisoners arrived in Boston the 16th of August, 1747, nearly a year after their capture, under a flag of truce and were redeemed. This affair, one of the most gallant in the whole history of the frontier wars, has invested the locality of old Fort Massachusetts with patriotic associations such as attach to few points in Western Massachusetts. That Sergt. Hawks would never have surrendered if his ammunition had not failed him is very certain, and as it was, the victory won by Vaudreuil was no subject of boasting."
We next hear of Major Hawks as leader of a small party in the winter of 1747, to conduct home to Canada a young French lieu- tenant by the name of Rambont, who was taken prisoner at Deer- field, to exchange him for English prisoners. The young man was the son of wealthy parents living near Quebec, and was reported as killed by the Indians who accompanied him, and his return seemed like a restoration from the dead, and Major Hawks was entertained and loaded with hospitalities by the happy parents. The story reads like romance, and can be found at length in the New Hampshire Historical Collection (Vol. III.). The party went up the Connecticut to Charlestown, thence up Black River through the present town of Ludlow, and over the mountain to Lake Champlain, thence on the ice to Canada. So that at this early period Major Hawks passed through Springfield, and the fact that he was acquainted with the route was quite likely the reason that Gen. Amherst gave him the command of the expedition to cut the road through to Number Four. He was in the army at the capitu- lation of Montreal, after which I cannot find his name mentioned either in the colonial or Revolutionary service. It seems probable that his death occurred soon after, otherwise he would have been prominent in the great struggle that succeeded. He was certainly a man of no common enterprise and bravery, and it is a satisfaction that the eminence of land over which he passed in Weathersfield should bear his name.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN
Among the officers in this expedition to Number Four will be noticed the name of Lieut. Carver. This was the afterward noted traveller, Jonathan Carver, who extended his travels to Mackinac and the Lake Superior country and upper Mississippi, and after- wards published his book of travels in London, where he died in want in 1780 at the age of forty-eight years. This was one of the first published books of travel of a part of the country then almost unknown. It was afterward reprinted in this country, and may occasionally be found in old libraries.
The portion of the Crown Point Road east of the mountain was not built until the next year. In the early part of the season of 1760, Gen. Amherst ordered Col. Goffe with a regiment of eight hundred men, raised in New Hampshire, to make a road through from Number Four to Crown Point, or more properly to the Green Mountains. " They crossed the Connecticut," says Potter in his Military History, " at Charlestown at Wentworth Ferry. On the west bank of the Connecticut and near the mouth of Black River they built a blockhouse and enclosed the same with pickets, as a protection in case of disaster. They were forty-four days in cutting the road to the foot of the Green Mountains. Mile-posts were set up to mark the distance, there being twenty-six before reaching the mountains." Williams, in his " History of Vermont," says: --
"They made such despatch as to join the army at Crown Point on the 31st of July, where they embarked with Col. Haviland in bat- teaux and whaleboats and sailed up Lake Champlain for Canada. The three divisions of the English forces under Gen. Amherst, Gen. Murray from Quebec, and Col. Haviland met near Montreal, which city surrendered without a struggle, and the French power passed away forever from Canada."
Respecting the Crown Point Road it would be interesting to know further particulars during the progress of the work, but I do not know that any such exist, the felling of trees and bridging of streams and ravines offer little to the imagination but hard work. The occasional trails of Indians were observed in the woods, but no attacks were made, no Indians seen. The day of the Indian in Vermont was passing away, and his favorite hunting grounds were soon to be cleared and settled by the pioneer.
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OF SPRINGFIELD, VT.
The personal history of Lieut .- Col. John Goffe, who commanded this expedition, is interesting as exhibiting the rare energy and ability of the man. He was of Scotch-Irish extraction, the same race which has furnished so many distinguished men to this coun- try. Born in 1701 in Londonderry, Ireland, we next find him in Londonderry, N. H., then in 1737 in Bedford, N. H., clearing up land and building mills. In 1746 he was captain of a company of militia doing duty on the frontier. He continued in military service for many years through the French War, and when the Revolution broke out sided warmly with his country. He died Oct. 20, 1781, and has left his name to Goffstown, N. H. His son, Major John Goffe, was also distinguished in the Revolutionary War. It is notable that the first marriage in the town of Bedford was that of Thomas Chandler and Hannah Goffe, the daughter of Col. John Goffe, who were the direct ancestors of the late Senator Zachariah Chandler of Michigan.
There are others more or less remotely connected with the Crown Point Road, some account of whom would be interesting, did time permit, but enough has been said to show that it was intrusted to men of no ordinary capacity.
The early settlement of Springfield was directly connected with the road. As Mr. Dartt has remarked in his able address at the Eureka Centennial, of the twenty-six families settled in Spring- field in 1772 most of them were settled along the Crown Point Road. Besides the conveyance of troops and supplies, the roads for the first time opened up the State to settlers. New and fertile land tempted the soldier to return and bring others to make a set- tlement along the road. It may be doubted whether the Crown Point Road was used very much in its entire extent during the Revolution, for other roads had then been made, and Stark, when he went to Bennington with his New Hampshire troops from Charles- town, must have taken a more southern route, and we know he encamped at Manchester.
Among some original papers of Major Simon Stevens of Spring- field, in the possession of the late Judge Pingrey, there is a quaintly worded notification for town meeting, dated July 13, 1764. It is directed to Jehial Simmons, and the business to be attended
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN
to is, "1st to choose a moderator to govern said meeting. 2nd, to see whether the town will accept of the roade, which leads through said town. 3rd, to see whether the town will repair said roade."
From this it would seem that at that early period the town was not decided to accept the road for use, and make the necessary repairs ; at any rate, it was under discussion. The facts were that as the town became settled in other parts, other roads were built and this one fell into disuse, except a portion here and there. It is to be hoped that a survey of this road may be made and suitable memorials placed of a period and events which, although now passed away, were the school of our Revolutionary struggle, the success of which made us a nation.
DETROIT, MICH.
C. S. C.
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OF SPRINGFIELD, VT.
EUREKA.
THE fertility of the soil and accessibility by the Crown Point Road attracted settlers to Eureka at an early day. Lieut. Heze- kiah Holmes, who settled on the Curtis place, afterwards for more than a century the Hubbard farm, was one of the pioneers, locating there about 1772. Capt. Simon Stevens, who settled at the town farm, Capt. George Hubbard on the Curtis farm, and Nathaniel Weston on the Asahel P. Fairbanks farm, a little farther south, were prominent and influential in town affairs, and much respected for their good judgment and integrity. The military road from Crown Point became the usual route to Boston, and many of the farmers kept taverns.
Roger Bates on the Christopher Ellis place, now owned by H. M. Arms, kept a store and tavern. Town meetings and religious meetings were held here. It is pretty well settled that the first schoolhouse in town was near his house, in H. M. Armis's pasture. Built about 1772, it long since disappeared. The sec- ond, - the Eureka Schoolhouse, - now in good state of preserva- tion, has been in use a hundred years or more. Here was a famous school, sometimes one hundred and twenty-five scholars, and usually as many as eighty ; packed like sardines in a box, they must have been.
There were three stores on the Hubbard farm. The famous Wells & Newell store on the corner, built in 1790 or earlier, was the centre of trade in the town. Here the payments for the building of the meeting-house on the Common were made, often in farm produce.
This whole section was thickly settled. The first settled min- ister, two first doctors, and first lawyer lived in Eureka. The first manufacturing in town was nail making by a machine which was
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN
operated in a shop on the Nichols place, where the shed now stands. A saddler's shop was located in the loft of the same building. Old settlers assert that the first store in the town was on the east side of the road, nearly opposite where Wells & Newell's store was afterwards built. Many interments were made in the cemetery here at the corner, a few marked with rough pieces of ledge stone and many without any mark at all. The graves of James Martin and his son and of Margaret Gaylord are marked with handsome slate stones. The timber for the meeting-house was brought here, but wiser counsels prevailed, and through the influence of Capt. George Hubbard the residents waived their claim to the meeting-house so as not to cause a division of the town.
In 1803 Jennison Barnard and Nicholas Bragg built a sawmill on the brook at the entrance to Spencer Hollow. This mill did a good business in spring and fall, when there was plenty of water.
Jennison Barnard had a blacksmith shop on the site of what is now called Open Ridge place. This shop was burned, and another was built where the present paint shop stands. Mr. Barnard also had a brickyard where the sugar house now stands about 1793. Levi Harlow and his sons, Barnum and William, made brick here. Jacob Tollman, who came from Thomaston, Me., also worked at brickmaking for Mr. Barnard. It is said that he discovered the limestone at Amsden.
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