History of the town of Waitsfield, Vermont, 1782-1908, with family genealogies, Part 13

Author: Jones, Matt Bushnell, 1871-1940
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Boston, Mass., G. E. Littlefield
Number of Pages: 1102


USA > Vermont > Washington County > Waitsfield > History of the town of Waitsfield, Vermont, 1782-1908, with family genealogies > Part 13


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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Baptist Church.


There seems to have been occasional Baptist preaching in town after 1798, but not until May, 1835, was a Baptist Society organized, with eleven members. The Rev. John Ide of Water- bury was instrumental in this work, and preached once in four weeks, the Methodist meeting-house being thrown open to the


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new church, although its members at once joined with the Universalist Society in constructing the Union Meeting-house, and, after its completion, occupied that building a portion of the time. Their first service there was held January 29, 1837, by Rev. William M. Guilford, who thereafter preached irregularly ; but not until 1838, when Rev. Friend Blood became pastor, did the church have a settled leader. After Mr. Blood, came Rev. P. Amsden, and in 1847 Rev. H. P. Warren, but after a few years the church, which was never strong in members, ceased to exist. The records of the Society were unfortunately burned in the dwelling of its last clerk, Roswell Richardson, but a few old returns filed with the town clerk for the purpose of securing a portion of the public money show that William M. Pingry was clerk in 1841 and Roswell Richardson in 1843 and later. The following names appear at various times in the lists of members:


Thomas Prentis


Nathan Robinson


William Morrill Pingry


Albert Lockwood


Roswell Richardson


Augustus L. Rice


Russell Lockwood


Daniel Kimball


Andrew Roulston


Benjamin H. Adams


Daniel Skinner


George D. Rice


Luther G. Boynton


Elisha Benton Richardson


Oliver Field


Lorenzo Hitchcock


Charles Newcomb


George W. White


F. L. Upham


Samuel B. Ellis


Episcopal Church.


In 1853 Episcopal worship was established in Waitsfield, in large measure through the efforts of Hon. Roderick Richard- son, jr. Rev. John E. Johnston was installed as rector, and services were held with regularity in the Union Meeting-house which was repaired for the purpose. A society of 52 members was gathered, but in 1855 Mr. Richardson removed to Montpelier, and with the loss of its leading spirit the society rapidly lost strength. Mr. Johnston ceased his labors in 1855, and from that time preaching was only occasional, although Rev. J. H. Hopkins labored here for a time, Rev. H. Hazard served as pastor in 1867, and others conducted infrequent services until a comparatively recent date. Returns of the Society can be found only for the years 1854 to 1856, and they contain the following names:


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Roderick Richardson


James McKinney


James M. Richardson


Eugene McCarty


Moses H. Sessions


Edmund Dumas


Harry Jones (Clerk)


Daniel Russ


Thomas J. Grosvenor


John Paterson


Florence McCarty


Moses E. Hadley


William McAllister


A. B. Smith


Ebenezer Ainsworth


George R. Tewksbury


Royal I. Fuller


Hugh Mckinney


George B. Carroll


Nathaniel A. Stockwell


Daniel Mckinney


Stephen C. Parker


James Blair


Asahel Rider


Amos W. Lockwood


Wilder Drew


Pliny F. Carroll


Cyrus Joslin


Almus Stevens


A. S. Adams


Samuel P. Ellis


Julian Dumas, 2nd


Moses Dow


Maurice Dumas


Richardson James Gleason


William Kew


Josiah S. Colby


Loren G. Cutler


Albert G. Murry


W. H. Mead


John Walton


Peter Duphaney


Francis Donohue


John H. Carpenter


Hastings Stafford Campbell


A. B. Smith


Geo. C. Wainwright


J. E. Johnston


Luther Leland Durant


Wesleyan Methodist Society.


A Wesleyan Methodist Society came into existence in 1853. There were two contributing causes: (1) The desire on the part of some members of other churches to take a more radical position relative to slavery, temperance and other re- forms of the day, and (2) dissatisfaction on the part of some members of the Methodist Episcopal Society with the failure of that society to remove its meeting-house to a more central location when the question was agitated in 1851-2.


The old meeting-house on the Common, abandoned by the Congregationalists in 1846, was made use of. Regular services, including a Sunday School, were maintained until 1864, and the organization of the society was preserved for some years longer.


Orvis Jones served as clerk of the society, and the following pastors occupied its pulpit:


Rev. Lyman Prindle-1853-1860.


Rev. L. C. Partridge-1860-1861.


Rev. John Dolph-1861-1863 and 1865.


Rev. Lyman Prindle-1863-1864.


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HISTORY OF WAITSFIELD.


Returns of the society show the following names upon its roll:


Timothy Reed


Daniel Shepherd


Thomas Prentis


Almon Joslin


Orvis Jones


Cornelius Emerson Joslin


Joseph Comstock Prentis


Henry Orlando Skinner


Lloyd Wells


Elisha Benton Richardson


Samuel Long


Ithamar Smith


John Sloan


Cyren Joslin


Joseph Palmer


John Waterman


David Skinner


Julian Dumas


Hiram C. Skinner


Gorham Matthews


F. M. Taylor


Wm. H. Pike


G. N. Griffin


Jennison Joslin


James C. Dow


Chandler Taylor


Samuel P. Ellis


Patrick Moriarty


Harry Hawley


Ezra Osgood Joslin


Otis Wallis


William J. Skinner


Aaron Palmer


Andrew Long


Dewitt C. Strow


Joseph Wallis


Moses Dow


Lyman Prindle


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D. Jackson Gale


Waitsfield Unity Society.


On July 28, 1888, a religious association was formed under the name of "The Waitsfield Unity Society," the formal agree- ment therefor being recorded four days later. This society was organized through the efforts of Miss Helen G. Putnam for the purpose of "maintaining a religion of Liberty, Holiness and Love," and the motto "Not in the Creed but in the Deed" was adopted. Milo Albert Bushnell was clerk, and several who had been previously interested in the Universalist Society were found upon its rolls. Preaching was maintained through the summer of 1888, Miss Putnam occupying the pulpit most of the time; but after the annual meeting on December 27, 1888, no further activity was manifested.


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EDUCATION.


Samuel Williams, in his History of Vermont (1794) says "one of the first things the new settlers attend to is to procure a school-master to instruct their children in the arts of reading, writing and arithmetic, and where they are not able to procure or hire an instructor the parents attend to it themselves."


The first constitution of the state, adopted in 1777, provided that a school should be established in every town, and in the charter of Waitsfield a share of land was reserved for such schools. Indeed the town has never parted with the title to this land, but has leased it "so long as grass grows and water runs," and to this day the annual rental is applied for the sup- port of schools.


Prior to 1797 the education of the children seems to have been wholly in the hands of their parents, for it was not until September 5 of that year that Jared Skinner, Salma Rider, Benjamin Wait, Francis Dana and Aaron. Minor were chosen a committee to make a division of the town into school districts. At the meeting held on the second Tuesday in October, 1797, this committee reported:


"That they have divided the town into districts up to the mountain, the first district beginning at Moretown line on the river.


1. All the land the west side and one range of lots the east side of the river up to Mr. Marsh's, (lot 129) taking in Abel Spaulding's (lot 113).


2nd. Thence the same range of lots up the river to the Warren line.


3rd. Thence taking one range of lots to the road from the River District south of the road that leads by Mr. Joiner's (lot 103) up to Mr. Hamilton's, (lot 56) and north up to the mountain and Moretown line.


4thly. Thence the same range of lots last mentioned south to the Warren line."


The report was accepted, and at the same meeting the town voted to erect a building 36 feet by 18 feet in size on or


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HISTORY OF WAITSFIELD.


near the Common in conjunction with the Northeast District, which should be used for a meeting-house and a school-house, the town to bear two-thirds of the expense. The frame of this building was erected, but owing, probably, to dissension as to the proper location for the meeting-house it was never completed, and the frame was finally removed, as we have already seen.


The people of the Northwest District, long known as the "Old North District," have always been peculiarly alive to the necessity of maintaining schools of high standard, and it is not surprising that this district was the first to organize, under the following call of the selectmen:


Notification. -


"This is to warn the Inhabitants of the Northwest School District in Waitsfield to meet at the Dwelling House of Phinehas Rider in sd District at 2 O'Clock in the Afternoon of the Second Day of November next, to act on the following Articles, viz:


Ist. To Choose a Moderator to Govern sd Meeting.


2nd. To Choose a District Clark.


3rd. To Choose a District Collector.


4th. To Choose a Committee to take Care of the Prudential Affairs of sd District.


Given under our hands at Waitsfield, this 20th day of October, 1797.


Jared Skinner, Stephen Pierce, Selectmen."


Benjamin Wait, jr.,


At this meeting Stephen Pierce was chosen moderator and district clerk; James Heaton, collector; and Phineas Rider, John Barnard and Abram Marsh, prudential committee. Two weeks later the district voted to build a school-house 24 ft. x 18 ft. in size, with 9-foot posts, to defray the expense of which it appropriated the sum of $16.66 in cash and $30 in lumber. A committee was also chosen to select a site, and provision was made for a school during the ensuing winter, the expense of which was to be defrayed by an assessment on the district list, but "Those who send to school this ensuing Winter shall provide the Wood according to their Number of Schollars."


On December 22, 1797, a meeting was held to make definite provision for this school, and it was "put to vote to see if the district would hire Mr. S. (Salah) Smith to keep School and engage him 10 Bushels of Wheat, and passed in the Negative."


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Mr. Smith had evidently presumed too far. Other good men and true stood ready to fill the breach, and it was there- fore "voted to hire Mr. S. Smith to keep school if he can be obtained without engaging him Grain, otherwise to hire Stephen Pierce." So far as can be ascertained Mr. Smith "kept" the school, and this was without doubt the first regularly constituted school in the town.


For several years the winter school was held in private houses, and probably had no permanent headquarters. We know that Dea. Moses Fisk's best bedroom did duty as the district schoolroom, and others doubtless served in the same way. As was universal in those days, the location of the school- house was fixed by the geographical centre of the district, unless as the meeting voted "said Centre should fall where the Land may be unsuitable for building upon; in such Case the prudential Committee to put it in the place nearest to such Centre as in their Judgment is most Suitable." As a matter of fact the building was constructed on the ledges near the top of the hill south of the location of the present school-house. Apparently some work was done during the summer and fall of 1798, but it was not until May, 1799, that the building was in condition to permit holding the district meetings in it. It would appear that there was no way of warming the building as the chimney was not completed until 1803, and not until December of that year do we find the district making any provision for fuel. This is corroborated, by the fact that Ithamar Smith, who taught the school in the winter of 1803, used an unfinished room in Dea. Moses Fisk's house, so it is probable that the summer school of 1801 was the first session conducted in the school- house. Indeed it was not until 1809 or 1810 that the interior walls of the building received their final finish.


The flimsy structure erected at a total cost of $73.56 soon fell into a state of disrepair, and in September, 1815, we find the district voting "to repair the school-house previous to the commencement of next winter's school, to plaister the room overhead, lay the chamber floor and nail the same, supply the deficiency of glass, provide outside door-handles, latch, etc., and repair the hearth," the job being let out to the lowest bidder at a total expense of $11.75. It is doubtful whether this work was actually done, for in December, 1817, the build- ing was no longer tenantable, and the district chose Asaph


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HISTORY OF WAITSFIELD.


Burdick, Levi Wilder and Ithamar Smith to report a plan for a new building. Capt. Phineas Rider gave the ground where the school building now stands, and the district voted to build a school-house of brick 36 ft. x 22 ft. in size, with a chimney at each end of the room. This vote was reconsidered a year later, and it was not until the summer of 1821 that a wooden building was erected by Ithamar Smith and the old school-house sold at auction to Dr. Frederick T. Minor, for the sum of $10.75.


In the new building was installed the first stove ever erected in a Waitsfield school-house, and this was done only after lengthy discussion and appointment of numerous committees to procure that article. A tax of $390 was voted by the district to defray the expense of this school-house, and procure stove-pipe there- for.


The Southwest School District was organized at a meeting held at the dwelling-house of Isaac Trask, March 20, 1798, at which Benjamin Wait, Henry Dana, and Elijah Sperry were elected as prudential committee. This was soon followed by the Northeast District, which was organized September 16, 1798, at the home of Salma Rider-Moses Chase, William Wheeler and Nathaniel Bartlett being chosen committee.


In the same year, also, the Southeast District was organized, and the return of pupils for the year 1799 showed 60 between the ages of four and eighteen years in the Northwest District; 41 in the Southwest District, and 24 in the Southeast District. The return for the Northeast District cannot be found, but from the division of the public money it would seem that there were about 40 school children within its limits.


In 1802 we find the first general action of the town relative to its schools; Samuel Barnard, Benjamin Wait, Aaron Minor and Ezra Jones were elected trustees of schools, and Rev. William Salisbury, Stephen Pierce and Amasa Skinner were chosen a committee to inspect the several schools in town. In this year the return of pupils for the various districts shows the following:


Southeast District-29. Southwest District-52.


Northwest District-63. Northeast District-57.


It appears that the committee of inspection was not a lasting institution as there is no further mention of it. In I823 we find the town electing "visitors of schools." This board was elected annually until 1833 and Rev. Amariah Chandler served continuously as its chairman until 1829.


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The location of the school-house of the Northeast District which was placed well to the east side in the northerly part of lot 78, proved rather inconvenient for pupils living near the Common, and at a meeting held on June 3, 1806, the inhabitants presented a petition requesting a division of the district. In the following September a committee consisting of Aaron Minor, Moses Fisk and Jared Skinner reported that a new district, to be known as the Centre District, should be created, and it was voted that the Northeast District should consist of the follow- ing territory: "Beginning at the northwest corner of Lot 108, running east to the northeast corner of Lot 107, thence south on the same lot to the northeast corner, thence east on the line of the lots to the mountain; the Centre District to consist of the remainder of the former Northeast District, together with Lot No. 108, the lot Ezra Jones lives on (106) and the lot Nathaniel Bartlett lives on (104) with William Chase, the Southwest Dis- trict to consist of the remaining territory formerly belonging to it."


The new Centre District was organized at the house of Samuel Stow Savage on November 26, 1806, and in the following month the farm occupied by Matthias Stone Jones was set off from the Southeast District and made a part of the Centre District.


The school population continued to grow to such an extent that in 1812 the returns for the five districts showed the following number of children between four and eighteen years of age:


Northeast District-40. Northwest District-58.


Southwest District-63. Southeast District-44. .


Centre District -- 64.


The school-house in the Southwest District had been located not far from the foot of the Dugway in the valley of Mill Brook, and while near the geographical centre of the district, it was quite inconvenient for the growing population in the northerly portion of this district. In 1813 the question of dividing the district came up, and John Burdick, Bissell Phelps and Jennison Jones, who served as a committee on the matter, reported that a division should be made, and that the southerly line of the land of Jeduthan Wait and Lewis Holden, and the south line of the public lands, that is, the south line of lots 136, 135 and 102, should become the southerly line of the new district, to be known as District No. 6, the other districts to remain as they then were.


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HISTORY OF WAITSFIELD.


The new district was later known as the Village District, and was organized at General Wait's house on April 26, 1813, Benjamin Wait, jr., Ralph Turner and Edmund Rice being elected as prudential committee. In 1815 it was enlarged by setting off to it from the Northwest District the farms of Gaius Hitchcock and Amasa Russ, in lots 129 and 130.


The first school-house in this district also was long in build- ing. An attempt was made to raise funds by subscription sufficient for the purpose, but, this failing, the district voted that a tax should be levied on the grand list, and that a school- house should be located "on the road between General Wait's barn and Stephen Durkee's house." The building was, in fact, so built, and stood directly at the northeasterly end of the big ledge that has been elsewhere referred to. So far as can be ascertained, the building was not completed until 1816, and was apparently burned early in the year 1817, as in February of that year a meeting was held at the home of James Baldwin, and a committee, consisting of Aaron Phelps, Edmund Rice and Joseph Wait, chosen to report a plan for a new school-house, which committee reported in the following words: "the house to be built of wood, and set on the old foundation, to be 20 X 24 ft. square, to be well lathed and plaistered, with a ceiling to the bottom of the windows, to be constructed in the same manner of the old house, with the same number of windows, to be built of good materials, and done in a good, workmanlike manner, the chimney to be built with stone to the mantle-tree, the remainder of brick of the same size at the bottom to the chamber floor, the whole to be laid in lime, to be finished by the first day of November next, the person who builds to have all the materials of the old house, and to give bond for the faithful performance of his contract." The job was bid in by Wells Hitchcock for the sum of $189.


The district voted also at this meeting to procure a sheet- iron to place before the fireplace to secure the house against fire.


About 1820 (the exact date does not appear from the records) the school district known as No. 7 was erected on the east side of the mountain. This district seems to have been large geographically, but small in population, the return for 1820 showing only 24 pupils within its limits.


The nomenclature which had been adopted for the districts proved somewhat clumsy, and on December 20, 1820, we


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find the town voting "to alter the names of the districts as follows:


"The district formerly called Northwest to be No. 1, and that called Northeast No. 2, and that called Centre to be No. 3, and that called Southeast to be No. 4, and that called Southwest to be No. 5, and that formerly called No. 6 to remain the same, and the south part of District No. 7 running with the north line of Sewell Davis' lot that he lives on and with that to the Northfield line east and to the top of the mountain west to remain No. 7, and all that part of the town on the east side of the mountain north of District No. 7 to be a school district by . the name of No. 8."


The last return of school children previous to setting off the easterly portion of the town to Northfield is found under date of March 18, 1822, and shows the following:


District No. 1-46. No. 2-43. No. 3-53. 16 No. 4-64. District No. 5-39. No. 6-43. No. 7-28.


The annexation to Northfield just referred to of course eliminated Districts No. 7 and 8, but the general tendency of the time to seek mere geographical convenience without refer- ence to efficiency or economy in the management of schools persisted, and in 1825 still another district was created in the extreme southwesterly portion of the town-the vote to modify the school districts being as follows: "To set off from District No. 4 30 acres of John Leach's land on which Henry Dana now lives, and off from No. 5 the following lands, viz: John Poland's, a small lot of land on which the furnace now stands owned by Edmund Rice, Esq., Jesse Mix's, Ashbell Stoddard's, Hezekiah Stoddard's, Samuel Dana's, Francis Dana's, Foster Dana's, and David Wheeler's, and a second division lot belong- ing to John Wait and sisters, and to call said District No. 7."


The return of the next year shows that there were only 12 pupils in this new district, but still another was created in 1827 from a portion of the old No. 5 District, the new district being known as No. 8, and taking in a part of Dana Hill.


About 1830 the number of scholars in District No. 7 had become so small that it was clearly inexpedient to continue the territory as a separate district, and it was annexed to and be- came a part of District No. 5, District No. 8 being re-christened as No. 7.


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HISTORY OF WAITSFIELD.


. On May 3, 1838, District No. 6 was divided, that portion lying east of Mad River and south of the northerly line of Daniel Thayer's land being designated as School District No. 8, and a few months later the farms of Josiah Campbell and James Joslin, jr., in District No. 4 and the farm of James Joslin, sr., in District No. 3, were transferred to the new district.


It is also interesting to note that until 1848 a portion of the town of Fayston lying near Green's Mills had been incorpo- rated as a part of District No. 5 in Waitsfield, as many as 25 pupils from Fayston attending in that district in some years.


No further change in school districts appears until March, 1851, when Districts No. 5 and 7 were consolidated, and about the same time a new district, No. 9, which seems to have been a re-creation of the older District No. 7 in the southwest corner of the town, was set up, but with the dropping out of No. 7, Districts No. 8 and No. 9 became Nos. 7 and 8. This was the final division until, some years later, Districts 6 and 7 con- solidated to form the village school and District No. 8 was again consolidated with District No. 5.


The number of separate school districts was thus reduced to six, and so continued until the "town system" of schools, so-called, was adopted, March 7, 1871, under the provisions of Chapter 22 of the Statutes as amended November 22, 1870.


The early school-houses were of the type then common in New England, small, low-posted, ill-ventilated, standing, as we have noted, as near to the geographical centre of the district as possible, without other reference to the suitability of the land.


At one end of the single room was built the huge fireplace, supplied usually with green wood just hauled from the nearby forest. In fact this question of wood for school-houses was a vexed one in nearly every district. From the beginning other expenses of the district were assessed upon its tax list, but wood and board for the teacher were supplied by the various families in proportion to the number of pupils that each sent to the school. Of course many were dilatory, and oftentimes the school-house went unwarmed, and occasionally upon the records one finds a vote to the effect that "no schollar shall be admitted into school until his parents or master has delivered at the school-house one-third of a cord of wood, and in case the wood is not delivered before the schollar enters the house his parents or master shall pay unto the committee of the


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district at the rate of one dollar per cord, to be recovered of him or them by an action of debt." In general the allowance of wood seems to have varied from one-third to one-half a cord for each pupil. This method of doing business was extremely unsatisfactory, and soon after 1815 nearly all the districts raised a tax for providing fuel, the price of which for a number of years varied from 30 cents to 50 cents per cord for two-foot wood.


It was also everybody's job to see that the school-house was kept clean and fires properly builded. The girls attended to the sweeping, and dusting, the boys looked after the fires. Indeed it was not until January, 1821, that we find the first record of a district hiring some one person to care for the school- house. At that time the Northwest District put up the job at auction, and Phineas Rider bid it off for $1.50.




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