USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Manchester > Manchester, Vermont : a pleasant land among the mountains, 1761-1961 > Part 4
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Several years after the disappearance, Boorn's uncle, Amos, a 6. Winslow Watson, The Life and Character of the Hon. Richard Skinner (Albany, N. Y., 1863), p. 5.
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man of impeccable character, reported dreaming three nights in succession that Colvin had come to his bedside to tell Amos that he had been murdered and that he would lead him to the spot where the corpse was hid. On circumstantial evidence alone, Stephen Boorn and his brother, Jesse, were brought to trial for the crime.
This unprecedented legal case, one of the most remarkable on record, has been used as the basis of several books. It has been often quoted by the opponents of capital punishment to show the insuf- ficiency of circumstantial evidence alone to warrant conviction.
The interest of the townsfolk was so overwhelming that the trial was held in the Congregational meeting house for lack of court- room space. (The Court House was not built until 1822.) It was an instance of one of those strange manias which sometimes sweep through the most intelligent communities destroying truth, reason, and justice. Richard Skinner, who with Leonard Sargeant com- posed the Counsel for Defense, said, "It would have been as easy to resist the cataract of Niagara as to arrest this torrent of passion and prejudice."7 The finger of accusation pointed even to the innocent mother of the Boorns, who was unanimously excommunicated from the Baptist church.
Jesse Boorn was sentenced to life imprisonment. Stephen, per- haps despairing to ever turn the tide of feeling against him, con- fessed August 27, 1819. The "confession," however, proved to be false in late November when word arrived in Manchester that Rus- sell Colvin was not only alive and well, but had been residing in New Jersey since April 1813 !
Colvin's return produced the wildest excitement:
After some delay (from Bennington) the coach proceeded on its way, a messenger having been sent ahead to announce its approach. All along the road wondering crowds gazed upon him, and toward evening, as they drew near Manchester, the coachman whipped up his jaded horses, a signal was made and the conveyance . .. dashed through the principal street and drew up, in the midst of an excited throng, in front of Cap- tain Black's tavern. The cry "Colvin has come" rang throughout the village. Everyone came running to obtain a sight of him and gathered around in a dense crowd. Guns were fired and people ran through the
7. Watson, Richard Skinner, p. 19.
Lieutenant-Governor of Vermont, Leonard Sargeant (1793-1888), who with Richard Skinner, later Governor, composed the Counsel for Defense in the famous Boorn murder trial.
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DORSET 6
POULTNEY 30
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Baptist church, Manchester Center, built in 1833.
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"A LOOSE TOWN ... "
streets shouting the news. .. . The prison door was opened and Stephen was brought forth. The fetters upon his wrists were removed but those upon his ankles were left possibly through the caution of the jailer, who might, even then, have suspected the possibility of a hoax and an escape. Colvin was brought before him, and inquired why he was in chains. "Because," answered Stephen, "they say I murdered you." "You never hurt me," was the reply. ... A cannon was produced and a salute of fifty guns was given, the first of which was discharged by Stephen.8
Jesse Boorn was released from Windsor prison and Mrs. Boorn immediately reinstated in the church. The Boorn brothers and Russell Colvin all moved out of Vermont to begin new lives.
Life in early nineteenth-century Manchester was a struggle for all. There was no place for drones. The unpainted houses were without blinds. Sometimes there was a straggling fence. Always there were animals, everywhere. Hogs, their ears notched to indicate owner- ship, ran loose on the Village green.
Inside the homes, the kitchen was usually the largest and most comfortable room, warmed by a fireplace filled with blazing logs. About 1828 cooking stoves came into use, but housewives preferred the old reliable brick oven, heated once weekly, and the bake-kettle used in the fireplace. Until stoves were common, very few tin uten- sils were used. All, including every size kettle down to the little two- quart "Peters," were iron. These had iron bails and three legs and could be hung on a crane or set on coals. Earthen milk pans were also used.
Early winter was killing time when pork and beef were prepared for the whole year. Hams were cured, sausage made, lard tried out, and tallow made into the annual candle supply. Every family kept a supply of herbs on hand in case of illness-strings of red pepper made "pepper tea" for colds; wormwood was applied to sprains or bruises. Pennyroyal, thoroughwort or boneset, catnip, tansy, mint, sage, or rue were all gathered before "dog days" and dried in a dark room. Every family knew how to use these remedies and doc- tors were called only in the most serious cases.
The loom was set up in the kitchen while weaving was in prog-
8. Sherman R. Moulton, The Boorn Mystery, An Episode from the Judicial Annals of Vermont (Montpelier, 1937), pp. 50, 51.
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ress, about half the year. Wool was sent to the mill to be carded and made into rolls. It was then spun and woven at home. After the tedious spinning, spooling, warping, and weaving, the web of cloth was used for household purposes or sent to be dyed, fulled, and dressed for men's wear at the factory. The cloth for women's wear was not fulled, but was often dyed a bright color. Maroon was a favorite.
After the winter's weaving was done, the little wheels were brought out and the spinning of flax and tow was begun. Some were fine for bed linen, tablecloths, personal apparel, trousers, and dresses. Both summer and winter clothing was made mostly at home, a tailoress coming to the house to make the men's and boys' clothes and a dressmaker and milliner, the women's and girls'. A shoemaker also came, bringing his bench and kit of tools to make the year's supply of shoes and to mend the old ones. When O. G. Felt began learning the trade in Manchester in December 1866, girls and women wore calfskin shoes attached to the soles with wooden pegs. Since the shoes were made on straight lasts and could be worn on either foot, careful women alternated their shoes to make them last. Men and boys wore kipskin boots and, occasionally, calfskin boots for Sunday.
A bolt of cloth or perhaps a dozen pair of knit socks could be ex- changed at the store for flour, sugar, tea, or coffee. Since little ready money was in circulation, merchants took anything brought to them-dried apples, pork, beef, butter, cheese, eggs-and sent them to Troy, New York, the nearest market. In return, the mer- chants received groceries and small stocks of dried goods. Nothing was of good quality. Cotton goods did not become plentiful until after 1831. Rum and molasses were always on hand.
In the 1820s postage for a single letter cost twenty-five cents though stamps were not used until about 1848 and envelopes much later. The first stamps were on plain paper and had to be cut with scissors. A Mr. Steele, who invented the machine to perforate stamps, lived in Manchester for many years. Pens were made of goose quills and everyone carried a sharp penknife.9
9. Most of foregoing paragraphs on early Manchester life were the recollections of Susan S. Miner in a column by Mary Utley Robbins, Manchester Journal, August- December 1923.
CHAPTER VI
Finances
T HE changing tax pattern of 200 years is a reliable indicator of changing times, especially in economics-the lifeblood of a community.
As long as the Proprietors remained in control of Manchester, necessary funds to meet survey and highway expenses were se- cured by direct levy upon each right or lot held by the Proprietors without thought of valuation. After the inhabitants took over town government, property was listed and the owners were taxed ac- cording to the value of property statements given to the listers. An act of the Legislature of 1778, modeled after Connecticut tax law, provided for the listing of property for taxation purposes and es- tablished the principle of the grand list, various property items being set in the list at definite rates of value.
Though early tax rates were extremely low, economic conditions were such that many landowners could not meet their tax obliga- tions. Evidence of this is found in the pages of constables' tax sales recorded in Land Records, volumes 8 and 9.
At a town meeting September 7, 1790 it was voted that the two- penny tax voted at the previous meeting be paid in grain at certain established prices. Apparently cash was somewhat scarce at this time, nearly thirty years after the first settlements were made.
A law of 1819 established different percentages of valuation for different types of real estate and in 1820 valuations were put on a dollars and cents basis instead of pounds and shillings, the English coinage previously used. An act in 1841 established the listing of
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property at one per cent of its valuation. That principle, reaffirmed again in 1880, is in use today.
Acceptance of the principle that property is a just indication of tax-paying ability was based on the fact that New England people of old stock were a saving people. Whatever was earned beyond the necessaries of life was turned into property, usually of a remunera- tive type. Property thus became an index of ability to pay.
Some citizens, of course, were suspected of not handing a com- plete list of their property to the listers. To combat such a tend- ency, an act of 1778 gave the listers power to add to the list, prop- erty items not expressly declared. Such items were fourfolded and added to the list. It was further provided that one half of these four- folded amounts should go to the listers as an incentive to greater diligence on their part. Apparently this method did not meet with universal approval. The town meeting of March 15, 1808 voted to pay listers from the treasury and monies arising from the twofold to be paid into the treasury. The town meeting of March 14, 1815 voted "that listers release their right to the town of their share of twofold, the town are to pay them 75c a day."
It was voted to raise a tax of one cent on the grand list of 1809, one half to be paid April 1 and one half November 1, 1810. This was repeated in 1811, 1814, and 1823. Voted in addition to this property tax were: one-half cent on the dollar for support of the poor in 1812; one cent to build a road through the glebe April 6, 1812; one and one-half cents to equip the militia for the country's defense in 1812; and one cent for support of the poor in 1822.
Taxes began an upward climb in 1824 when a two-cent poll tax was voted in addition to one and one-half cents on the dollar of the grand list. The town meeting of March 14, 1825 voted two cents on the grand list plus a dog tax of fifty cents. If not paid, any dog could be killed. The March 4, 1828 meeting voted a tax of two cents on the grand list of 1827 and apparently this was not enough. Another meeting, June 10, voted three cents.
A rise to four per cent March 1, 1842 was not out of line, but then the rate really began to climb with fifteen cents voted in 1843; twen- ty cents in 1844; a drop to fifteen again in 1845. The rise in taxes over the years has been paced by a rise in town services as well as by the declining value of the dollar in recent years. This has been coupled with a general rise in wages and prices.
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FINANCES
The tax rate for 1892 reached $1, composed of seventy-five cents for schools and twenty-five cents for highways. Subsequent tax rates were:
1166932
1914-$1.40
1929-$2.80
1950-$ 6.25
1918- 1.75
1930- 3.00
1953- 7.05
1925- 2.30
1937- 3.15 1957- 8.13
1926- 2.50
1947- 4.45 1959- 9.99
1927- 2.60
1949- 5.50
1960- 10.69
These figures are for the total tax, but from 1890 to 1915 there was a state school tax and a state highway tax of ten cents included in the total. Some portion of these taxes came back to the town according to a formula indicating a need for aid.
A tax rate in itself does not tell the whole story of a community's economic picture. Other factors are the grand list which represents total property wealth in the town and the rate of valuation at which property is put on the grand list. The lower the valuation or as- sessment, the higher the tax rate and vice versa.
During the seventy years from 1887 to 1957, Manchester's grand list rose from $12,908 to a top of $30,737.25, but the rise has not been steady. From 1893 to 1900 it was in the ten thousands, after which it made rather steady gains to reach $20,765.75 in 1914, when the total tax rate reached a new high of $1.40. Then appar- ently Manchester entered a period of growing prosperity as the grand list index reached its top of $30,737.25 with a new high in the tax rate of $8.13.
The rise in the tax rate has largely been due to a need to meet increased expenses. Perhaps the strongest influence back of the steady rise in expenses has been a similar steady increase in services demanded of and provided by the local government, such as the following :
1. The 1928 town meeting voted $500 to the Manchester Nursing Asso- ciation. This grant gradually increased to $2,100 voted in 1960.
2. The 1922 meeting voted $600 for installation of a fire alarm signal and in 1923, $300 for fire protection. The 1960 budget for the fire department was $9,950.
3. The 1907 town meeting voted $100 to the Union Band, which in later years became $300 for band concerts. Similar sums have been voted
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for Memorial Day, Loyalty Day, skating rink, dental clinics, adver- tising, planning, zoning, etc.
4. A special town meeting in 1918 voted $1,000 for highway improve- ment, which finally grew to an appropriation of $5,000 for a black top- ping program.
5. In 1923 a town meeting authorized the Selectmen to buy an auto truck; in 1930 snow removal equipment was not to exceed $6,500. By 1959 public works equipment alone reached an inventory value of $79,400, while total inventory equipment in all departments had reached $127,415.
In 1925 the grand total of town expenses was $38,550.55. In 1959 it was $186,209.68. The current operating expenses of the schools, exclusive of bonded debt service, increased from $29,882.25 in 1925 to $181,734.77 in 1959. The reader should remember that these gross figures are quoted to illustrate an economic trend which also applies to state aid in its various fields. The local tax rate, therefore, has not supplied all the funds for all the gross expenses quoted. Expenses have increased, as indicated, regardless of the source of the money to meet them.
The grand list for 1925 was $24,781.72 while that for 1960 was $30,002.21, a gain of twenty-one plus per cent. But the tax rate for the same period rose from $2.30 to $10.69, an increase of about 365 per cent. This is worthy of reflection, as such a wide discrepancy may be of considerable significance. Fortunately, perhaps, the grand list is not such an accurate index of income, wealth, and tax- paying ability as in the early years of the town when income was less dependent upon more intangible sources.
Another matter of historical interest is the decline in voter con- trol of expenditures. As late as 1930, town officials were authorized to buy equipment, but the proportion of the present $127,415 in- ventory of equipment that voting citizens have had opportunity to authorize (except indirectly through budget approval) seems quite small. The 1948 town meeting voted to use the Australian ballot for all questions calling for an appropriation of $500 or more to be voted at any future, regular or special, town meetings or school dis- trict meetings. This provision has not been applied to either the general town or the school district budgets.
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The town's record in indebtedness has been good as far as its current business is concerned. When small deficits have occurred, they have been promptly taken care of and not allowed to accumulate.
The first excursion into bonded indebtedness was that of $400,- 000 by the school district in 1949 for a new elementary school. That debt, regularly amortized at a rate of $20,000 a year, has been re- duced by half in 1960. In view of its financial condition and record, the school district secured the bonds at a low rate of one and three- fourths per cent interest besides a bonus of $800. The rating was based on an analysis of town reports for a period of years and its general outlook for prosperity.
A special town meeting, June 21, 1960, reaffirmed a previous vote for a new bonded indebtedness of $230,000 for a sewage sys- tem and disposal plant. Now the combined school district and town will have a total bonded debt of $430,000 which falls upon the same taxpayers, residents of both municipalities.
CHAPTER VII
Churches in Manchester
§ The Baptist Church
T HE first denomination to be set up in Manchester was Bap- tist. The Rev. Joseph Cornell, the earliest pastor, became entitled to special land set aside by the town charter for the first settled minister. Before his fourteen-year pastorate was over, he agreed to give up this land for one acre near the Baptist meeting house. Ardently evangelistic, Cornell was a great missionary spirit and Manchester became a center from which his influence spread.
The Baptist Society was organized June 22, 1781 in Elder Cor- nell's barn with the advice and aid of Elder Nathan Mason who, with other delegates, represented the Baptist Church of Lanesboro, Massachusetts. Many of the early Manchester settlers had belonged to the Baptist "colony" which had come into southern Vermont a few years previously from Rhode Island and southeastern Massa- chusetts.
A strong Baptist element it was, for there were 110 members in the new church from Manchester and 82 from Dorset. The organ- ization was called "Church of Jesus Christ in Manchester" or the "Anabaptist Society in Manchester."
Uniting of Baptist churches in clusters for purposes of mutual improvement and more efficient action brought about organization of the "Vermont Association" in Manchester in 1785. The local group fell out with the Vermont Association in 1791 and remained independent until Covenant Day, January 31, 1818, when it was
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"voted to appoint Elder Chamberlain, Deacon George Galusha, and Brother Benjamin Sunderland to meet in Convention with dele- gates from a number of churches in this vicinity, in order to form an association in this part of the land."] The "Manchester Associa- tion," like the Vermont Association, was formed in Elder Cornell's barn.
The Vermont Association continued to exist but membership fell off rapidly. In fact, Elder Cornell is said to have become so disheartened that he moved from Manchester.
The first meeting of the Baptist Society was September 16, 1784 at the home of Nathan Beeman. The earliest clerk was David Vaughn, who fought at the Battle of Bennington. Among those at one of the earliest meetings were Timothy Mead, Nathaniel Boorn, Robert Logan, Eliakim Deming, Captain George Sexton, Captain Thomas Bull, Isaac Whelpley, Benjamin Straight, Benjamin Vaughn, Cap- tain Jacob Odel, Daniel Bowen, Major Nathan Smith, Jeremiah Wait, and Dana Lee.
Services were often held in the upper part of a building near Munson's Falls on Glebe Brook, a place now quite remote from any road or dwelling. This place may have been Soper's tavern.
After the Revolution, many Manchester residents, who for rea- sons of safety had temporarily settled here, returned to their former homes. The Anabaptist church lost so many members that in 1794 a council was held to consider continuance of the church. By a two to one vote, it decided a church could exist "with five male mem- bers and a number of sisters." On September 16, 1802 delegates were appointed to "council with members in the east part of Dorset to constitute a church." During this period, references to the re- ception of members from the First, Fourth, and East Baptist churches, all of Shaftsbury, have also been found.
Timothy Mead, who in those early years owned most of Factory Point land and buildings, held up the development of that area greatly. By asking him to be on their building committee with Nathaniel Boorn and Eliakim Deming, the Baptists, in September 1785, got him to make the first and only exception to his tight- fisted rule. With his permission and assistance, the Baptist meeting
1. All quotations in this section, excepting the second, from The Rev. J. S. Brown, Historical Sketch of the First Baptist Church in Manchester, Vermont, 1916.
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house, forty-four by thirty-two feet, was erected on his property at Factory Point close to his east line.
Though the church was supposedly built in 1785, it was not until 1791 that Mead conveyed to the Baptist Society the land on which it stood. This location was then on a main road on what came to be known as "Meeting House Hill" on the westerly side of what is now the Factory Point Cemetery. The remains of the north wall were unearthed at one time when digging and improvements were in progress on cemetery property.
In 1812 the meeting house was described as a very plain edifice of moderate size. The pulpit was surmounted by a large sounding board. The pews were square with a bench on three sides and a door on the fourth with rows of spindles around the top. There were two aisles, the box pews arranged between the aisles and out- side each aisle along the walls. A gallery for the singers extended around three sides of the church, an arrangement similar to but smaller than that of the old Congregational meeting house. There was no chimney or means of heating the building, but everyone who could brought a footstove. Susan S. Miner, who was born in 1821, remembered seeing, after the old church was demolished, "door- yard fences made from the old spindle-topped pews. There was no paint either within or on the outside of the church, but the interior woodwork seemed very handsome to me. . . 2יי.
The second pastor, the Rev. Calvin Chamberlain, a Revolution- ary pensioner and a man of great influence, came from Brandon in 1801 and added more than forty members in his first year in Man- chester. The tall dignified Elder Chamberlain "formed the habit of praying with his eyes open, in order that he might guard the choice apple trees standing on the ground then occupied by him as a resi- dence from . . . naughty boys who sought ... to purloin the for- bidden fruit during the hour of prayer, and who were much mysti- fied at being discovered. .. . " He died in November 1824.
The meeting house was repaired in 1821 and a porch added to the north end. In 1825 the first Sunday School at Factory Point was organized. In those days the minister's salary was subscribed by his congregation, though he found it necessary to collect it himself.
2. Recollections of Susan S. Miner in columns by Mary Utley Robbins, Manchester Journal, August-December 1923.
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His woodpile, too, was furnished by the church if the "committee on the minister's woodpile" was conscientious. Three consecutive absences on the part of a parishioner meant a visit from the "church committee" and, if unrepentant, sterner measures of discipline.
At a meeting in the schoolhouse January 1, 1833 it was voted to build a new church "between Ames Corner and Christopher Roberts'" or on the old site. Twenty shares were subscribed at $100 each. On the building committee were John Harris, William Jameson, Ebenezer Colby, John S. Pettibone, Martin Slocum, Lor- ing Dean, and James Wheaton. Harris, Dean, and Pettibone were also on the committee to dispose of the old meeting house, which is said to have been burned.
The new church was built in 1833 after many long discussions and exhibitions of temper. Made of bricks drawn from Bennington, it cost $2,400 and is described in church records as being "forty by fifty feet, with a steeple, and conveniently furnished within, having a porch, and a singing gallery over it, and capable of seating about 500 people."
An original paper listing subscribers who paid for "whitewashing and cleaning Baptist Meeting house on Factory Point. February 4, 1842" is in the Whipple Collection along with a pew receipt signed by the committee, Loring Dean and John W. Harris, and made out to Martin Slocum:
No. 2 Une place dans le Sanctuaire . .. a wall slip in the north end of . . . the Brick Baptist Meeting House at Factory Point, Aug. 23, 1834
In 1843 a marble platform was built and in 1873 many alterations and improvements were made. The additions of a vestry, class- rooms, and offices have changed the edifice considerably and in 1960 the front section of the church was painted white rather than the original red that blended with the brick.
The average number of communicants to the Baptist church prior to 1858 was 100. By 1863 it had risen to 226. This was the period sometimes called the "Peacock Revival" after the elder who assisted the Rev. A. M. Swain in an evangelistic summer campaign.
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