History of the town of Waitsfield, Vermont, 1782-1908, with family genealogies, Part 6

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 6


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).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47


Next to the Doctor's home stood the house and blacksmith shop built about 1804 by Philip Gustin, and still standing. Suel Willis owned it in 1813, and later on Thomas Tinkham was the proprietor. Gustin seems to have done a small mer- cantile business as well, for in 1806, when he went to pieces financially, we find the constable attaching the following prop- erty: "The dwelling-house, Blacksmith's Shop, one Anvil, one Vice, one Pair of Bellows, one Sledge, one hand hammer and one Buck horn, one Iron Bound hogshead (supposed to contain) thirty gallons of new rum, one Barrel of Cider, and the barrel, a quantity of Junk, Tobacco, supposed to be twenty pounds, one chest of Bohea Tea, supposed to be Eight pounds."


The Samuel Stow Savage house was located at a little distance south of the Common, and in later years Mr. Savage built the brick house that you may see over there beneath the trees. Of him the tale is told that confiding in a thrice repeated dream of his daughter, he dug many days for a pot of buried gold, which of course vanished when his son spoke, although Mr. S. had his crowbar clinking among the yellow coins at the moment. Near the easterly corner of the Common stood the house of Constant Freeman, occupied later by Moses Chase, and in our time by Almon Joslin. There were, it would appear, several other buildings, dwellings, and perhaps another black- smith shop, standing around the Common, but they have disappeared.


One wonders if it was on the Common, or perchance in the meeting-house itself, that the town established its magazine in 1812 in accordance with a vote to raise a tax "for the purpose of filling the town magazine," an institution that existed until 1828, when the selectmen were instructed to dispose of it.


Here for more than forty years the political and religious life of the town centered. Does not your imagination picture


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HISTORY OF WAITSFIELD.


it to you as we sit here in the shade? In yonder store Federal- ists and Jeffersonian Democrats wage wordy warfare over the Constitution or our growing difficulties with England. On Sunday gather, on foot or horseback, from the four corners of the town, a congregation that fills the meeting-house to its doors to listen to the strong Calvanistic doctrine of a century ago. After the morning sermon the people seek each other out and break their week of isolated toil with neighborly communion, or wander to the churchyard to while away the time until their stern old Puritan pastor shall for the second time that day convict them of their sins.


And now it is June Training Day, and the whole town is here to see the soldier boys and have a drink. Those men in scarlet are the "Floodwood" company of infantry. The riflemen are clad in blue, while the cavalry in lesser numbers but with brave array of trappings, strikes awe and terror to the souls of all the younger fry. The audience is large and friendly and the soldiers march and countermarch, amid applause until the climax comes and the great day ends with the noise and smoke and clash of arms of the sham battle and the still more deadly onslaught of New England rum.


Here the people gathered on that Sunday in September, 1814, while the roar of cannon thundered across the quiet bosom of Champlain. A whole company of their sons and neighbors had marched to join the American forces at Plattsburgh, and news of them was eagerly awaited. Those grey-haired men who stand together and talk in earnest tones are veterans of the Revolution recounting their own experiences in war with England. At last, impatient at delay, old General Wait, nearing his eightieth year, throws himself upon his horse and rides off to the North to intercept the courier and get first news of battle.


We might spend hours around this ancient and time- honored square recounting men and things, but a steep road lies before us and we must not tarry longer.


The first house as we leave the Common was the old Rider homestead where Salma Rider settled in 1793. It is now deserted and rapidly falling to decay, as are several other houses in the vicinity.


Half a mile or more beyond, a road leads northerly across Pine Brook gulf to the old Bushnell place where we were yester- day. A few rods down upon the right one may find the rotting


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timbers of the home of Rev. Amariah Chandler for which he exchanged his river farm with Joel Skinner in 1821, while just beyond under that monster pine is the house built by Eli Skinner about 1820, although he first settled on the lot in 1797 .-


Holding our course straight up the hill, we next pass the farm upon which Nathaniel Joslin settled. It was later occupied by Henry Jones, and still later by "Uncle" Timothy Reed, dear to the hearts of many of a younger generation.


A few rods to the east, in the junction of the roads, stands the East School-house. The first school-house of the Northeast District stood below us near the foot of the hill, and just west of Pine Brook. It was used for more than thirty years, but in 1831 the district began to agitate the question of a new building, and indulged in as bitter a controversy over the location as one could find in many a day. The east-siders wanted the old site retained, and the west-siders wanted a new one at the junction of the roads where the present building stands. No less than eighteen district meetings were held to consider the matter, and action was repeatedly taken, only to be reversed a few days later. Finally, on October 9, 1832, Jennison Jones and Joseph Wallis were chosen to ascertain that point in the district which should yield the smallest sum of distances by road, measuring from each house, and allowing one pupil from each house. On October 17 the committee reported that by measuring from a stake on the side of the road 38 rods west of the site of the old house, and making due allowance for vacant houses, the sum of west-side distances was 2354 rods, and the sum of east-side distances was 2250 rods, and that by moving the point 2} rod's farther west a centre might be obtained. No agreement could be reached, and more than a year later the district besought the selectmen to choose a site, but they refused, and on May 16, 1834, a committee from outside the district, consisting of Jason Carpenter, Rufus Barnard and Levi Wilder, was chosen to settle the controversy. This committee immediately recommended the "crotch of the roads," and on May 20 the district voted to accept this site, and chose Asahel Rider, Jedediah Bushnell and Jennison Jones to build a schoolhouse 28 by 22 feet in size, with 10-foot posts.


But the west-siders did not dare to push their victory to a. conclusion, and under date of June 6, 1834, we find the follow- ing on the records:


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HISTORY OF WAITSFIELD.


"We, the undersigned inhabitants and legal voters of the 2nd School District in Waitsfield, for the purpose of settling all controversy in relation to a spot for erecting a schoolhouse, do mutally agree that the building committee build said house at the foot of the hill, west of the spot where the old house stood, on the north side of the road, and west of the water-course, instead of building on the spot where voted at a late adjourned meeting of said district."


This agreement was signed by practically every voter in the district, and land for a site was secured June 18, 1834, very near the "center" as computed by the committee in 1832.


This school-house stood until 1867, but on March 4 of that year it was voted to build the present structure at the junction of the roads, and David Martin Phelps, Ezra Osgood Joslin and Albert Frederick Richardson were chosen to serve as building committee.


Leaving this well fought battlefield we cross Pine Brook, and, turning sharply to the left, clamber to the level of the plateau above us.


We are now on the old Jennison Jones farm, lot 76, while just beyond lies the farm cleared by Moses Chase and occupied by various owners until about 1828 Thomas Prentis came from Weathersfield, Vt., and settled on it.


Still further over under the mountain we can see the Amasa Skinner place, better known for forty years past as the home of Dennis Shea. Running along the north line of lot 76 is a grass-grown road that brings us to the old Doud Bushnell farm on the Northfield Road. The house is the last on the west side of Northfield mountain, and just back of it, is the little stream that Mr. Bushnell harnessed to turn the spinning wheels of his good wife and her neighbors-so far as we know, the only power-driven spindles ever operated in the town.


From this point, had we time, we should find a fairly easy pathway to the top of Bald Mountain, but our hunt for land- marks draws us away to the south, by the first home of James Joslin (1797), later known as the Wallis farm and still later as the home of Benjamin Reed, to the Joseph Joslin, jr., place, where the road bends sharply to the west down to the brook. Joseph was succeeded by his son, Alfred, and the farm was held by the family for over a century.


Our direct way now takes us through the fields to the houses on the easterly side of Pine Brook in lot 77. The first


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one was for many years the home of Franklin Reed and then of Ezra Osgood Joslin, but it is now abandoned to decay. The house of Thomas Piper, hatter, which stood over there across the brook has already disappeared. On the hill to the - west of us in lot 80 is the farm where Bissell Phelps and his sons settled in 1797. It was occupied in later years by Ira Bates and by his son-in-law, John Gunnison Lewis, and is now the home of Bertrand L. Joslin.


Next we turn our faces toward Palmer Hill and follow the dim outline of the pent road that leads us through the fields to the southwest corner of lot 58 where "Squire" Matthias Stone Jones made his pitch in 1798. Just above us towers the summit of Old Scrag and the whole scene is wild and moun- tainous. The "Squire" soon sought more fertile fields and this farm has passed through many hands. The last resident of the now deserted house was Orange Gale.


The next house, also deserted, as indeed are nearly all upon this hill, marks the home of Joseph Hamilton, a very early settler, while the south half of the lot, reached by crossing the brook and taking a fork of the road, was the home of Jonathan Palmer.


On the bank of the brook below the house, is an ideal place to rest and eat our lunch. If yesterday it took skill to catch your trout, here you will need little to place your fill of speckled beauties on the coals, and, after our tramp of six or seven miles, I venture they'll taste good.


Our nooning over, we follow westward toward the main road, past the former homes of Palmers, Quimbys, Grandys, Wheelers, Bartletts and all the rest who once dwelt upon this hill and made it a hundred years ago one of the most densely settled portions of the town. Just upon the brow, we pause, for there to the north rises in all his grandeur the triple peak of Mansfield. In all the country around, there is no fairer vantage point from which to view him.


Down the hill through the woods, we soon find ourselves at the North Road once more. Here in the fork, with that massive boulder at its door, is the Center School-house. In the early days, it stood upon the west side of the highway in the corner of lot 103. It is doubtful if anywhere we could find a trace of that location now.


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HISTORY OF WAITSFIELD.


Across from the school-house in the northwest corner of lot 84 is the Dr. William Joslin place occupied for many years by the Skinner family. Next beyond, to the south, lived Joseph Joslin, sr., in fact this whole neighborhood was thickly settled by that family. Then comes the farm that "Squire Matt" Jones purchased after he left the mountain. It lies in lots 84 and 86 and has been occupied for many years by James H. Baird.


To the west, in lot 101, was the home of Benjamin Butter- field, but only the cellar hole can now be found on the knoll southwest of the present buildings. On lot 88 we find the Colonel Elias Taylor farm now occupied by Oramel Smith Joslin and Orrin Hubbard Joslin. Here is to be had the finest view in all the town, especially if we climb the hill a little to the east. To the west lies Lincoln Range, and to the south the lesser ranges, lined with the tracks of mighty slides. Then as we turn northward, we see Burnt Hill, Camel's Hump, Mansfield, Elmore, Sterling and Mount Hunger, while far in the north, almost upon the Canada line, Jay Peak shows its dim blue outline. Seventy miles of hills and mountain ranges stand up before us, while at our feet lies the peaceful valley with the white cottages and church spires of the village nestling there in foliage. Up over the western range come great silvery white cloud masses such as only the hill country knows. For miles and miles we watch their shadows play across the land- scape, until they rush over, almost grazing the mountains behind us as they pass. We hear the farmer shout as he drives the towering load of new mown hay to cover in his spacious barns, and watch the standing herdgrass billow in the wind, while the faint tinkle of the cow bell comes from sleek herds grazing on every hand. God may have made a grander sight, but never one more beautiful.


About halfway across lot 88, a grass-grown way leads down to the Roxbury Road at the Cyrus Joslin farm on lot 99. Just where it leaves the North Road there stood in early days the store of Elias Taylor, jr., and the blacksmith shop of Capt. Richard Gale. Indeed this spot was quite the business section of the Southeast District at that time. The Joslin place just spoken of is the farm first settled by Eliphalet Bates after whom came John English, jr., and after him the Joslins, who still own it.


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WAITSFIELD VILLAGE LOOKING SOUTH FROM SITE OF GEN. WAIT'S RESIDENCE. MAD RIVER VALLEY LOOKING SOUTHWEST FROM PINE HILL ..


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To the north a little distance, an old road, long since aban- doned but still traceable, leads over the hill to the northwest and down to the river road near the old fair ground. We will follow it to the top of the rise and then strike northerly through the pastures and the woods to the top of Pine Hill for from its ledges that drop sheer for several hundred feet toward the river, one can get a fine view of the south end of the valley with Irasville and Mill Brook valley to the west.


A short rest here and we will work through the scrub, a little to the north, where we can find a passage down the ledge to the river at the "suspension bridge" near the mouth of Mill Brook. This is a flimsy structure that becomes attractive as a footpath only after long acquaintance.


Down the bank of the river we soon come to the king pin swimming-hole, "Fairbanks." It takes its name from Luther Fairbanks who met his death there in 1836.


A few rods more and we are in the meadow back of the Cove, scene of our early spring fishing for horned pout, our summer search for mud turtles and our winter skating, when we were boys. Here was shot the moose that Mrs. General Wait dreamed of "three nights running" and then sent the hired man to capture. In this meadow, over to the right near the bank, was the brickyard, where Joseph Green made the bricks used in constructing the brick buildings in the village. Now out along the bank of the canal by "Uncle" Pardon Bushnell's cooper shop to the road and we are home again ready to rest against our labors on the morrow.


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CHAPTER VI.


ANCIENT LANDMARKS-(concluded) .


The street leading southwesterly from the village square is not an old one. Originally the road ran from Ezra Wait's house directly over the hill and through the sugar orchard back of Newcomb's shop; it then turned southerly into its present course near Jeduthan Wait's house-the turn being still clearly visible near the south end of James Seymour Newcomb's resi- dence. Indeed, it was not until September 20, 1807, that the road from Jeduthan Wait's was laid out directly down the hill with a "trustle" bridge across the brook near where New- comb's shop now stands, to a point in the village near the houses of Hiram F. Stoddard and Charles H. Clay, and thence northerly over the terrace to a junction with the Roxbury Road just northwest of the square, where the Billings and Thompson houses now stand; and it was not until April 16, 1833, that the present street was laid out from Stoddard's down to the square.


Most of the buildings are, of course, of recent construction. The present post-office block was built by Jonathan Hammond Hastings, and Eaton's Block just beyond was once an out- building on Roderick Richardson's farm, while the Eaton resi- dence on the left, where the road bends around the ledge, was occupied by Royal I. Fuller as a carriage and paint shop.


A little further along on the right is the house, now occupied by Hiram F. Stoddard where Col. John Stafford Campbell spent his declining years, while just across the street is the Henry N. Bushnell place for many years the home of Joshua N. Dartt.


Around the next bend we come upon Newcomb's carriage shop, built some 50 years ago, and looking older. The little brook that once turned the water wheel now babbles unre- strained through the stone dam, for its place has been taken by a more effective but less picturesque power producer.


Over there to the west, in the sugar orchard and within the limits of the old highway, is "Jed Wait's Cold Spring." For more than a century the crystal stream that here bursts


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from the restraining rocks has been thus known, and treasured for its qualities, and now with undiminished flow supplies many village homes.


On up the hill we find at the left the old Jeduthan Wait home, now occupied by James A. Irwin. It is in lot 136, origi- nally drawn by Gilbert Wait. This is one of the oldest farms in town, as the General's half-brother settled on it in 1790, although he seems not to have acquired title until 1807.


We are now upon a pronounced terrace extending from the river westerly to the face of the hill. In early times the road skirted its edge until it swung around to Dugway Hill, where we go down to the valley of Mill Brook, but now it runs directly across the level.


About 1835 James Joslin, jr., and Daniel Thayer, became the owners of the first trotting horses ever seen in town, and on this flat they used to try conclusions-one driver seated in a wagon, the other riding on his trotter's back. One cannot but wonder if they were not occasionally admonished for their worldly ways by Elder Rufus Barrett, the founder of the Meth- odist Church in Waitsfield, who lived in the "Peachblow House" at the head of the Dugway, just where the road branched off to Fayston Hill, the home of his'stanch supporters, the Brig- hams, the Grigges and the Bixbys. He it was who gave the land for the Methodist Cemetery that you see just ahead upon the left, and largely through his efforts the meeting-house was built in 1835. It stands a few rods beyond the cemetery -- a plain, barnlike structure that gave place in 1870 to a more pretentious edifice erected in the village. Just north of it stood the first parsonage, built in 1829, and now occupied by the family of the late Meriden L. Richardson.


This hamlet has long been known as Irasville, taking its name from the Honorable Ira Richardson, whose commodious homestead, now occupied by his grandson, stands just across the street; a few rods farther on is the store of which other grandsons are now proprietors.


At the head of the Dugway, and opposite the Peachblow House is the school-house of the old Southwest District. This building is not old (1852). In fact the earlier buildings stood near the foot of the hill, and in the valley of Mill Brook. where most of the primitive buildings in this section were erected. This old school-house was moved to the south and became a


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dwelling for many years occupied by William Tell Stoddard and his son, Harlan Page. Once down the Dugway we will turn aside from our direct road to visit Green's Mills. In October, 1790, the Proprietors of the town voted a tax of "2 pence an acre," one-half to be expended for roads and one-half to encourage mills. Stimulated doubtless by a subsidy from this tax, John Heaton, jr., erected in 1793 a gristmill and a sawmill which stood in the southwest corner of lot 138 and very near the Fayston line. They were, it is believed, the first mills constructed in the town. John's cousin, James Heaton, jr., was also interested in them for a time, but soon after 1800 Thomas Green and his sons Joseph and Seth became the pro- prietors, and their names are still associated with the business by our older inhabitants, although the present generation speaks of "Richardson's Mill," the gristmill having been long since abandoned.


Just across the bridge below the mill the road forks. On the right it leads directly into Fayston along the valley of the brook. On the left it rises sharply, up Dana Hill, through lots 140, 142, and 144, to a dead end in 146. Let us climb for half a mile to the old Irwin place where Eli Abbott settled in 1797, and lie down for a few minutes under the trees below the house. No finer place from which to view our valley can be found in all the town. At our feet is the brook, winding its way to a confluence with the little river, whence we follow the larger stream by its blue ribbon or the occasional sparkle of its crystal waters, as it winds its way down the valley, to be lost behind the Moretown hills. Beyond we see the plateau which we explored yesterday-the Common, and the eastern mountains, while on the left the Fayston hills confront us.


From the old mill the lazy hum of saw and planer greets the ear, and we can hear the voices of the men stacking the fresh dressed lumber in the yard, while from the distant mea- dows come the mellowed calls of farmers busy with the rush of haying.


Comfortable homes, monster barns and waving fields of corn and grass proclaim the wisdom of the men who pitched their homes along this valley and cleared the wilderness.


Farther up the hill, in lot 142, lies the old Henry Dana farm, later occupied by Russell Steele and colloquially known at the present time as the McKenney place. Here one may


Bald Mt.


Mt. Hunger.


MAD RIVER VALLEY LOOKING NORTHEAST FROM DANA HILL. Irasville in the foreground.


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get the same view from a higher elevation, but there is little to be gained, and as our way lies in another direction we will retrace our steps and continue on the river road toward Warren.


First on the left as we pass the foot of the Dugway is the old house where Joel Foster lived, and some rods beyond this is the comfortable dwelling of Garinter Hastings, while nearby is the white cottage built by his son, Jonathan H. Hastings, occupied in recent days by John J. Kelty, for many years driver of the local stage to Middlesex.


Nearly opposite, on the bank of the brook, is an old mill built, probably, by Guy C. Nichols about 1815. It was then used as a fulling-mill and dyehouse, where the rough homespun was made ready for shears and pattern. In 1828 the place was run by John Kimball, and from 1834 to 1850 William Mc- Allister was the proprietor, but soon after the latter date, it was converted into a tannery, and so operated for many years by Stephen C. Parker, whose son later utilized the structure for a grist and shingle mill.


At the bridge across the brook stands the tannery erected by "Uncle Tell" Stoddard, used in later years as a starch factory, and now abandoned. Some of us can remember "Uncle Tell" after he had retired from active work, as a maker par excellence of whip lashes, and an unrivaled fifer and story-teller. Do you not remember that straightening of the bent form as the once-powerful muscles swelled at the memory of how, during a tremendous freshet he plunged into this very stream and swam the river for the mere pleasure of battling with the current?


Crossing the bridge we find on the right an old brickyard, the last one operated in the town, but now unused, and hardly traceable. Just in the corner of lot 139 is the home of Capt. Robert Orton Stoddard (now occupied by John Maxwell) and next beyond is the farm of Dr. Simeon Stoddard, his father, who settled on this lot in 1794. Near at hand is the bridge across the river that the worthy doctor tried for many years to get the town to build, and on the summit of the knoll at the right, under the spreading branches of the apple trees, may be found the little family cemetery where he lies buried.


On the opposite side of the stream one may see the finest example of terrace formation in the town. The highway runs along the second terrace, and above us on the third is seen the


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outline of the race track and the grounds where the Agricultural Association held its first fair in 1872. The road here passes through the old Job House farm, lying in lots 96 and 141, and still owned by members of the family. As we cross lot 96 a road leads to the right down to the level of the river. Over there, just in the northeast corner of lot 143, and directly on the river bank, stood the so-called forge and trip hammer, to- gether with the foundry where iron kettles were manufactured from ore brought from Orange County. This was operated at various times by Edward Fales, Theophilus Bixby, James Selleck and others, but in the great freshet of 1830 it was swept away, together with the dam that furnished power, and neither was rebuilt, although at a later period Thomas D. Poland con- structed a small sawmill which he operated until it suffered the fate of its predecessor. John S. Poland settled on this farm in 1820, and it is in the hands of his descendants to this day.




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