USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Manchester > Manchester, Vermont : a pleasant land among the mountains, 1761-1961 > Part 2
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A Proprietors' meeting in Amenia February 4, 1766 voted to hold the annual meeting for the election of town officers in Manchester. The town of Manchester was organized the second Tuesday of March 1766, when Stephen Mead was chosen clerk; Benjamin Johns, moderator; and Benjamin Purdy, treasurer. For the next five years the record is so mutilated that there is some uncertainty as to town officers. At one meeting Jeremiah French was elected clerk and again in 1771 and 1772. From that date the record is clear.
The first meeting of the Proprietors held in Manchester was in April 1773, all previous ones having been held in Amenia. After- ward, both the Proprietors' meetings and town meetings were held in Manchester, the former concerned with lot drawings and surveys and the latter with governmental public business.
Town meetings were held at various dwelling houses until the meeting house was built on the meeting house lot. Many were held at "Martin Powel's house," a tavern he kept for William Marsh on a site near the present south wing of the Equinox House. Powel was town clerk for twenty-one years beginning in 1773.
Due to circumstance, Manchester citizens had other weighty matters to ponder in addition to problems of local government. New Hampshire's authority in colonial land claims was strongly doubted as Governor Wentworth was selling township grants to acquire funds for his accustomed style of expensive living. It is en- tirely possible that New York had some legal claim to the same ter- ritory. Thus the early settlers, having acquired their land under New Hampshire title, found themselves caught in a dispute be- tween two colonial claims of jurisdiction.
A meeting April 18, 1771 appointed a committee to see about securing land under the New Hampshire Grants, and then the an- nual meeting of 1773 voted "not to pursue the getting of jurisdic- tion back to New Hampshire at present." A meeting November 15, 1774 voted to petition New York for confirmation of privileges of
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the Grants. At a town meeting held at Powel's it was voted that Powel, Joseph Lockwood, Gideon Ormsby, and Daniel Beardsley be a committee to act with others upon the New Hampshire Grants with respect to the "title of our land."
Thus the dispute raged, the settlers seeking security from first one side and then the other. The argument grew in intensity until New York authorities attempted to evict settlers who held land un- der the New Hampshire title. The intruding New Yorkers had to be discouraged by threats of violence.
On top of these troubles came the Revolutionary War between the Colonies and Great Britain. Manchester, by virtue of its geo- graphical location, could hardly help becoming actively involved in the hostilities. This further complicated the orderly development of local government. The town had Committees of Safety to act with similar committees from other towns. In 1777 Martin Powel, Gideon Ormsby, Thomas Bull, Stephen Washburn, and Elisha Tracy constituted the group for the year with different members elected the following year.
Upon the heels of the Revolution came the War of 1812, an up- heaval that did not affect Manchester quite so much. However, a town meeting July 6, 1812 voted to supply a magazine of the town with ammunition and to equip militia for the defense of the country by a tax of one and a half cents on the dollar. A town meeting on March 9, 1813 voted to sell military equipment bought the previous year "except such as the law requires be furnished poor persons." Apparently supplies other than weapons and ammunition had been purchased for the magazine.
Transactions at town meetings were largely concerned with the election of citizens to town offices or committees, a number of which no longer exist. Either the need for them has passed or they have been absorbed into other offices.
The posts of selectmen, moderator, clerk, treasurer, and con- stable have a familiar sound, while fence viewers and poundkeepers were more important in early times than today. The latter are pres- ently appointed by the Selectmen.
The Legislature of 1779 required that each town have a brand for horses. The inhabitants were required to choose a suitable per- son to be a brander of horses and record the brandings. Manchester
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was assigned the letter "M" and Martin Powel was elected brander for a number of years.
We do not have a sealer of leather or of weights and measures to- day, but Powel was elected to the former office several years and he and Gideon Ormsby were among several to hold the latter office. Another post unnecessary now is that of town surveyor to which Samuel French was elected six years.
Other officers unfamiliar today were tythingmen and haywards. Three tythingmen were elected in 1787 and as many as four in some years until 1840, the last year they were elected. Eight haywards were elected in 1797 and eleven in 1801 and 1802.
Cornelius Whalen of East Dorset is authority for the following information regarding the duties of tythingmen and haywards. One of the features of local commerce at least until the 1840s was the marketing of cattle in droves on the highways. Animals were likely to stray into adjacent fields causing damage to growing hay crops. It was the duty of haywards to round up such strays and deliver them to the public pound, where the owners might secure them up- on payment of damages.
Proper observance of the Sabbath in early days reached beyond the bounds of the church. Tythingmen were elected by the town meeting as public officers whose duty it was to see that citizens ab- stained from labor on the Sabbath and attended church services. They could be called into church to keep a watchful eye on the congregation and arouse any who drowsed.
One official whose status goes back to English government is the constable, who has usually been the law officer in smaller towns and frequently the tax collector. Regularly elected constables have wider jurisdiction than police officers whose authority is limited to the town. The first constable may serve writs and has charge of primary and general elections.
Samuel Soper seems to have been Manchester's earliest con- stable, elected at the town meeting of 1776. In succeeding years, sometimes one constable was elected and sometimes two. Various town meetings from 1841 to 1849 voted to extend the jurisdiction of the first constable throughout the county as provided by state law. In 1875 it was voted that both first and second constables should have their jurisdiction extended throughout the state. This definition of authority no longer has to be voted at town meeting.
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TOWN GOVERNMENT
In October 1875 the Selectmen found it necessary to appoint one or more special constables "for the preservation of peace, good or - der, and to provide security of life and property." They appointed Lewis Lugene. Varying numbers of special constables were ap- pointed in succeeding years until 1922 when one was elected and seventeen specials were appointed.
A police officer was appointed for the town October 16, 1924 and three the following year. The authority of these officers is limited to the town and their work is mainly concerned with traffic problems. In connection with the Civil Defense program as many as fifty-five special police have been appointed, who would serve only in times of emergency.
It early became the custom to elect a committee to settle with the Selectmen concerning the accounts of town officers. This was a forerunner of the auditors who were first mentioned in 1842.
Listers were first mentioned April 9, 1787, when Martin Powel and Gideon Ormsby were elected. Their duties were much the same as now, but state law permitted them to assess concealed prop- erty fourfold as a means of discouraging those who tried to avoid taxes. One half of this amount was retained by the listers and the other half by the town. The town meeting of 1813 finally succeeded in voting to pay listers from the treasury and the listers' twofold was paid into the treasury.
A committee was chosen to fix prices of agricultural produce, a function no longer within the jurisdiction of town meetings. One such report was made December 11, 1787. A town meeting also held that year voted that the twopenny tax previously voted be paid in grain at various valuations. Apparently cash was too sparsely distributed to be available for tax payments. Government price fixing for commodities, therefore, is nothing new.
Town meetings also elected petit and grand jurors "for the box" until 1919, when the Legislature provided for their being drawn by the assistant judges. The Legislature of 1921 voted that town clerks provide the county clerk with lists of persons to be drawn.
Most of the time the office of the town clerk has been in Man- chester Village at various locations. It was, however, at Manchester Center a short time when John Roberts was clerk. Much of the data concerning the history of the town lies in the Land Records and minutes of town meetings. Some clerks have been fine penmen,
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while the script of others is not easy reading. Since 1952 the rec- ords of the town have been typed and preserved in loose-leaf record books.
One of the briefest records concerns a meeting held June 1, 1844, when William Sperry was town clerk:
John Pettibone chosen moderator.
James Hicox chosen second constable.
Voted that James Hicox be excused from serving as second constable.
Voted not to have any second constable.
After a great deal of talk and doing nothing voted that this meeting be dissolved.
Town clerks following Jeremiah French in 1772 have been :
Martin Powel 1773-1796
Joseph Burr 1796-1798
Joshua French 1798-1800
Joel Pratt 1800-1825
Chester Clark 1825-1828
M. S. Shepherd 1828-1832
Lyman Harrington 1832-1835
R. H. Blackmer 1835-1836
William Black
1836-1842
William Sperry 1842-1845
Samuel Millet 1845-1846 John Cooke 1846-1850
Charles Harris 1850-1853
John Roberts 1853-1866
Loveland Munson 1866-1873 D. K. Simonds 1873-1908
C. A. Shattuck 1908-1918
Hiram Eggleston finished 1918
Alice E. Bennett 1919-1952
Helen B. Bigelow 1952-1960
Clara M. Hemenway 1960-
A somewhat drastic change was made in Manchester's govern- ment when the 1941 town meeting voted to hire a town manager as specified in the statutes. To date the town has had five managers :
W. Robinson Martin 1941-1945 William A. Griffith 1945-1947
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George A. Randall 1947-1954
Walter J. Leland 1954-1956
Oakley K. Porter 1956-
The degree of centralization and control of town affairs centered in one office under this system would no doubt shock the citizens of forty years ago, who were used to keeping a tight rein on expendi- tures and the actions of town officers. However, the change is partly a product of the times. A proposed charter passed by the Legisla- ture of 1957 for adoption by the town within a period of ten years would carry the centralization principle still further, leaving very little direct control of town affairs by the voting citizens.
In addition to the town government, Manchester has two other municipal units, Manchester Village and Fire District No. 1. Fire District No. 1 was laid out in 1877 by the Selectmen in response to a petition from twenty or more residents. It was surveyed by Rich- ard Dean and included school district No. 9, roughly the present Center and Depot areas. Its boundaries are not marked but are re- corded in Volume 19 of the Land Records, page 427.
The powers, officers, etc. of fire districts are defined in Sections 2601-2603 of Title 20 of the Annotated Statutes. Since the fire de- partment has been taken over by the town, the chief business of this fire district is confined to sidewalk care and the provision of street lights. Its tax base is a grand list of $10,131.86 in 1960 and a tax rate of sixty cents on a dollar of the grand list.
Fire District No. 2 was laid out by the Selectmen July 5, 1878 and legalized by Act No. 175 of the 1880 session of the Legislature. Its boundaries are defined in Volume 19, pages 505 and 506 of the Land Records. This district was incorporated as Manchester Vil- lage by Act No. 182 of the 1900 Legislature and amended by Act 224 of the 1902 Legislature. These acts define the corporation's powers of government. Its voters are those residents who are legal voters in the town meeting. Its officers are a president, clerk, treas- urer, and collector, with four trustees. The annual meeting is the second Monday in July. The grand list in 1960 was $11,083.55 and the tax rate $2 on a dollar of the grand list.
Women, finally receiving permission to vote in Vermont, had to first file a request with the Selectmen and pay a poll tax. In 1920
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only seventeen women locally availed themselves of the privilege. Among them were Mary Malone and Margaret S. Hard. By fall of that year, women could vote without tax qualifications in the state primary. Mrs. Hard was a pioneer for woman suffrage not only in Vermont, but also in the nation. She marched in the first large suf- fragette parade in New York City.
In 1944 Manchester, realizing the importance of its valuable written records, voted not more than $1,000 for the microfilming of town documents for preservation.
In the county judicial system, Manchester is a half-shire town. This is a unique position, as Bennington County is the only Ver- mont county having two seats of justice.
Shaftsbury was first considered as being the most central and suitable location for county buildings, but serious agitation resulted in Bennington as the choice. This so dissatisfied the people of the northern townships that when Bennington County was officially organized in March 1781, Beninngton and Manchester were selected as half-shire towns. Provision was made for the erection of county buildings and the holding of court alternately in each place. The June term is held in Manchester while the December term meets in Bennington.
The commissioners who sought a suitable location in Manchester for the court house desired land at Factory Point in the vicinity of the present Baptist church. This was the property of Timothy Mead, who refused to sell. Finally a site was chosen in the Village. Prior to the erection of the building, court was held at the Marsh tavern or at the meeting house. The first court house, complete with a jail, was built some time between 1787 and 1795 with publicly subscribed funds. A small, plain, frame structure, one story high, it has never been removed. Many times remodeled and enlarged, it is now part of the building called the "Equinox Junior."
Larger and more pretentious quarters were soon needed for the Manchester county seat. In 1822 a new brick court house was built, also by public subscription, just north of the old. In 1849 it was re- paired and enlarged at county expense.
CHAPTER III
Manchester and the Revolution
PEN warfare between the Colonies and England began with the Battle of Lexington April 19, 1775. On May 19, as the Second Continental Congress met at Philadelphia, Ethan Allen with a group of Vermonters known as the Green Moun- tain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain about seventy-five miles from Manchester. In his speech, The Early His- tory of Manchester, Judge Munson stated that Christopher Roberts of Manchester was among the first to enter the fort. Two days later nearby Crown Point was captured.
As the conflict deepened, British strategy in 1777 called for an advance by General Burgoyne up Lake Champlain from Canada to the Hudson where he would meet General Howe coming from Al- bany. He was also to receive aid from Colonel St. Leger moving along the Mohawk Valley. Fort Ticonderoga was recaptured and the retreating Colonials under Seth Warner suffered a severe de- feat in rear guard action at Hubbardton July 6 only some forty miles northwest of Manchester. Warner brought what remained of his command to Manchester, geographical hub of travel routes to the north, south, east, and western areas of the Champlain Valley.
The Council of Safety met at Manchester July 15, 1777, and from it Ira Allen sent an appeal for aid to New Hampshire, Massa- chusetts, and Connecticut. In response, New Hampshire sent Gen- eral John Stark with some 1,250 men while Massachusetts sent Berkshire militia and Stockbridge Indians to Bennington.
When the problem of raising money for outfitting troops was
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raised at the Council session, Ira Allen proposed a plan for confis- cating and selling the property of Tories as a means of acquiring funds. The plan was adopted and Martin Powel was appointed Commissioner of Sequestration to proceed with the plan in the Manchester area. Within thirty days of this decree, two full com- panies known as "Rangers" were organized and equipped. These, together with troops from other sections of the state, totaled 500 men quartered at Manchester.
Revolutionary payrolls indicate that much of the wartime activity of Manchester men involved sorties to "suppress insurrections"; to search for Tories; and to investigate "alarms to the north." While the list may not be complete, 123 names are recorded on the Soldiers' Monument at Manchester Village as having served in the Revolutionary War. Most of them probably saw service in the Ti- conderoga-Bennington area.
Major General Benjamin Lincoln of the Continental Army was sent to Manchester to co-operate with General Schuyler in the op- erations against Burgoyne. John Stark, the New Hampshire gen- eral, marched his troops over the Peru pass to Manchester. Due to a grievance in a delegation of rank, Stark is reported to have made it plain to Lincoln that he and his men would not serve under him or recognize his authority in any way.
Burgoyne, in the meantime advancing from Ticonderoga to Fort Edward, New York, had learned that there were military stores he badly needed at Bennington, Vermont. There was also a possibility that he might secure horses with which to remount some of his German dragoons who were afoot. He had also been told that the inhabitants of the area between him and Bennington were sympa- thetic to the British cause, which might mean Tory aid.
He first planned to send his troops who were located at Castleton after the Hubbardton action to Manchester, where Warner was lo- cated with what remained of his command. After seizing the moun- tain pass to the east which offered access to eastern New England, the British were to proceed south to Bennington.
Then Burgoyne changed his mind. On August 15, 1777 he instead sent 200 dragoons, 100 Brunswick infantry, 2 cannon, 50 British sharpshooters, with about 300 Canadians, Indians, and Tories to make a direct assault upon Bennington via Cambridge
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and the Walloomsac Valley. A heavy rainstorm slowed the march and made organized military operations almost impossible, but eventually the British, after driving back American skirmishers, took a position on a hill some six miles northwest of Bennington in New York state.
Stark was on hand with his New Hampshire men and the Massa- chusetts militia and Indians had arrived, but Warner's regiment had been left in Manchester to await the arrival of companies out on scout duty. Warner himself was with Stark.
On the morning of August 16 Stark began to deploy his troops so as to be able to attack the British under Colonel Baum from the rear. The actual fighting did not get under way, however, until about 3:00 p.m., when Stark and Warner started the main frontal attack upon the hill.
Each side, having become aware of the need for reinforcement, sent for help. Colonel Baum appealed to Burgoyne, who sent an- other column of Brunswickers under Colonel Breyman. A courier was sent to Manchester with orders for Warner's regiment to march. The latter arrived too late to take part in the main battle for the hill but did play an important part in the fighting that stopped Breyman's relief column and sent it into retreat. Stark was obliged to stop the fighting because of darkness.
As battles go, Bennington was not much more than a major skirmish. Its importance in the over-all campaign strategy, how- ever, was much greater. Burgoyne could not afford to lose the 800 men who were killed, wounded, or prisoners of the Americans and he badly needed the supplies he failed to get. The days around the middle of August 1777 must have been exciting in Manchester. It is unfortunate that diaries and letters of the time which might give a clearer picture seem to be lacking.
Armed conflict with the British was not the only disturbing factor in Manchester during the war years. There was also a jurisdictional dispute involving New Hampshire, the settlers, and New York as to authority over land titles. Manchester men, Gideon Ormsby and Martin Powel, are recorded as attending the last of the Dorset Con- ventions held at Cephas Kent's tavern. These meetings laid the groundwork for declarations which made Vermont an independent state at Westminster, January 15, 1777. There were probably Man-
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chester representatives present at the other meetings. Powel was among the nine delegates from the west side of the state who attended the January 15 convention at Westminster when it was declared that the New Hampshire Grants were a separate and independent jurisdiction or state by the name of New Connecticut. A later con- vention held at Windsor changed the name to Vermont.
Though Vermont became an independent state, it had no fixed capital until Montpelier was chosen in 1808. The Legislature met at such places as Rutland, Windsor, Bennington, and Manchester. The first Manchester session was October 14-27, 1779 with Martin Powel and Gideon Ormsby again representing Manchester. The second meeting at Manchester was October 10-24, 1782 with Ormsby and Thomas Bull, town representatives. The last meeting in Man- chester was October 9-25, 1788. The Manchester representatives are not known.
Manchester in subsequent wars provided its quota of men and supplies, but never again was it such a prominent center of activity as from 1775 until 1791, when Vermont became the fourteenth state of the Union.
CHAPTER IV
Roads, Bridges, and Highways
A PROPRIETORS' meeting held at the house of Lieuten- ant Samuel Smith in Amenia, New York, December 11, 1764 voted to lay out one or more highways northerly and southerly in the township of Manchester. Gideon Ormsby and Jere- miah French were appointed to locate them and beginning April 6, 1768 a series of roads were made.
At a town meeting, March 2, 1772, pathmasters were appointed for the main road through town and for the east road. On March 12, 1776 at a meeting held at Martin Powel's house, pathmasters for six roads were appointed and it was voted that "pathmasters meet together to see if it is proper to clear out the road from Benjamin Purdy's farm to Joseph Baker's where laid out or not."
Eighteen roads were laid out by March 2, 1781 and on November 6 a committee of thirty-three was appointed to meet at Powel's to consider and report on the reservation of lands in the Charter for Public Roads. This committee decided that the town had "a legal right to land referred in the Charter for the purpose of Public Roads or highways." Their opinion must have been based on a sentence in the Charter which, after naming the town, read:
All that tract or parcel of land situate, lying and being within our said Province of New Hampshire containing by Admeasurement twenty three thousand and forty acres which tract is to contain six miles square and more; out of which an Allowance is to be made for Highways and unimprovable lands by Rocks, Mountains, and Rivers One Thousand and Forty Acres free.
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It is difficult to work out any definite history of Manchester's road system from its early days. An attempt to correlate present roads with those earliest ones would entail a tremendous amount of research and perhaps even prove impossible. Some of the roads then important have been abandoned and while roads were well surveyed, the markers by which they took their course are difficult to locate. For instance, a description dated 1776 reads :
A road beginning at the northwest corner of the glebe running east upon the line till it comes to the school house, thence south 36 degrees until it comes near Josiah Burton's thence bearing a little more eastward till it comes to Peletiah Soper grist mill. ...
One dated 1782 reads, "Beginning at the center road near widow Rose's house at a heap of stones, thence running north 27 degrees to a heap of stones." Another dated the same year began "at a heap of stones at the south line of Jared Munson's farm between the house and barn."
The first north-south route through town was not far out of line with the present course of U.S. Rte. 7 through Manchester Village. It continued north along the way of the present West Road to con- nect with the present Dorset West Road and on to Wells. A parallel road was laid out, but the swamp along the east side of the glebe (Munson Flats) was insurmountable with construction methods available in that day. Thus, a road came down from the present West Road a little north and higher on the hill than the present Way's Lane to connect with what is now U.S. Rte. 7 near Gladys Richardson's house to reach Factory Point. The road across the glebe swamp was built in 1812, and the town paid David Brooks $193.25 for building it.
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