USA > Vermont > Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont > Part 12
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ENOS, GEN. ROGER .- One of the few men in the secret of the Haldimand corres- pondence, and Vermont's military com- mander through that trying period, was born at Simsbury, Conn., in 1729. He was in the colonial service, and in the French and Indian war, being promoted to be an en- sign in 1760, an adjutant in 1761, and a captain in Col. Israel Putnam's regiment in 1764. He also took part in the Havana campaign of 1762. He was afterwards a member of the commission to survey lands in the Mississippi valley. He promptly took the side of the patriots at the outbreak of the Revolution and had command of the rear guard of Arnold's expedition against Quebec. He left it, however, with a siz- able detachment, in order to avoid starva- tion, as he claimed. He was afterwards courtmartialed under a charge of cowardice in this action but was honorably acquitted. He was lieutenant-colonel of the 16th Con- necticut regiment in 1776, and colonel of another regiment in 1777-'79. In 1781 he came to Vermont, settling at Enosburg, which was named after him, and his inti- macy with the Vermont leaders, so many of whom had come from Connecticut, at once gave him a prominent position. He was
A GROUP OF TORIES.
that year appointed brigadier-general in com- mand of all the Vermont troops and was at the head of the army that was pretending to resist the invasion from Canada. In 1787 he was appointed major-general of the First Division of the militia but resigned in 1791, after thirty-two years of nearly continuous military service. He was a member of the Vermont board of war from 1781 to 1792, served several terms in the General As- sembly, was a trustee of the Vermont Uni- versity, a member of the commission to adjust the trouble with New Hampshire, and of the committee to consider to resolutions of Congress for the admission of the state to the Union. His daughter married Ira Allen and his son, Pascal Paoli, was one of the four proprietors of the original site of Springfield, Ill.
A GROUP OF TORIES .- As before stated, notwithstanding the peculiar situation of the state, outside of the Union, or recog- nition with the other colonies, an independ- ent republic, having to maintain herself by her own efforts, Vermont contained fewer Tories and British sympathizers than any other part of America.
Perhaps the most distinguished of these was the one who played only a brief part either in Vermont or on earth after the Rev- olution began.
Crean Brush came to this country about 1762, from Ireland, where he had evidently had quite a career, being educated as a lawyer and having held a commission in the military service. He first settled in New York City, was for several years assistant under the deputy secretary of the province and having by his connection obtained large grants of land in this section, came to West- minster in 1771, was appointed clerk of Cumberland county, obtained a large law practice, and cut a big figure among the high-toned and arrogant loyalists. He and Col. Samuel Wells were elected, in 1773, as representatives from the county to the Gen- eral Assembly of New York, where Brush became a leader in the advocacy of all min- isterial measures, fighting against the meas- ures of Schuyler, Woodhall, and the leading patriots, and made the report offering a re- ward for the head of Ethan Allen-whom his step-daughter afterwards wedded-and the other Vermont patriots.
When hostilities broke out Brush offered his services to General Gage at Boston, and was employed in removing goods from the buildings where Gage wished to take winter quarters. He improved the opportunity for pillage and plunder of the merchants and people by the wholesale, packed a ship with goods he had seized under his commission, and calculated to make himself wealthy.
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But the ship fell into the hands of an Ameri- can cruiser, and Brush and some of his fellow plunderers were thrown into jail at Boston, but he finally escaped by the time-honored device of donning his wife's apparel, when she came to visit him. He made his way to the British quarters at New York, but met little but contempt from Lord Howe, and living in poverty and neglect for several months, finally blew his brains out in an apartment house. His large estate in Ver- mont was confiscated to the use of the state, his name being included in the 128 specified by a legislative act as Tories.
Samuel Adams formed a company of Tories from Arlington, Sandgate and Man- chester, to co-operate with Burgoyne.
Capt. Jehial Hawley, the founder of Arl- ington, connected by marriage with the Warners, a leader among the settlers against New York, though peaceful and a non-com- batant, was strongly royalist in sympathy, and took refuge with Burgoyne, and died on Lake Champlain while'on his way to Canada. He had several sons who took the same side, and one of them, Eli, helped con- vey the correspondence between Canada and the Vermont authorities, and believed to the day of his death that the Vermont leaders really wanted to form a British colony. He often pointed out the "Raven Rock," where he had a midnight interview with Governor Chittenden on one of these trips.
Camp James Hard from Arlington, held a commission in the British army. Zodack, his brother, was a loyalist in principle but took no active part in the war, though he is said to have secreted and fed the loyalists who came to him for shelter, and he was
A GROUP OF TORIES.
always generous and hospitable. He was several times arrested and heavily fined by the patriot authorities.
Noah Sabin, of Putney, a native of Reho- both, Mass., was the judge whose insistence on holding the court when Chief Justice Chand- ler was inclined to temporize, led to the West- minister massacre. His thorough-going con- scientiousness, his conception of his duty to the Crown, from which he held his commis- sion, led him to this course. He was impris- oned for some time after the affair. Ile was, in the first years of the Revolution, strongly attached to the Crown, and so strong was the whig feeling against him that he was confined to his farm in 1776 by order of the committee of safety, with permission given to anybody to shoot him if seen beyond its limits, and he was refused communion at church. Finally, after a period of indecision, he took the side of the colonies and de- veloped into quite an earnest patriot. He was elected judge of probate for Windham county, 1781, and though suspended for a few months because of the suspicions of his loyalty, was soon reinstated and continued to serve until 1801. He died March 10, 1811, aged ninety-six. He was a man of large mental power, superior education for his times, and of indisputable integrity.
Col. James Rogers of Kent (now London- derry), who had been a prominent man of that section, was offered the office of briga- dier-general of militia by New York, but refused it " upon political principles." He afterwards became an avowed Tory and left the country, and his property was confis- cated, though the Legislature in 1797 restored to his son, James Rogers, Jr., all the lands that had not been sold.
THE GOVERNORS.
The following is a complete list of the Governors of Vermont, with the dates of service. Biographical sketches of the entire list are given on the following pages, with exceptions noted.
*Thomas Chittenden,
1778-87
Silas H. Jennison (3),
1835-36
Paul Dillingham,
I865-67
Moses Robinson,
1789-90
Silas H. Jennison,
1836-41
John B. Page,
1867-69
*Thomas Chittenden,
1790-97
Charles Paine,
I841-43
Peter T. Washburn,
1869-70
Paul Brigham (2),
John Mattocks,
1843-44
tGeorge W. Hendee (5),
1870
Aug. 25 to Oct. 16, 1797
William Slade,
1844-46
tJohn W. Stewart,
1870-72
Isaac Tichenor,
1797-1807
Horace Eaton,
1846-48
Julius Converse,
1872-74
Israel Smith,
I807-08
Carlos Coolidge,
1848-50
Asahel Peck.
1874-76
Isaac Tichenor,
1808-09
Charles K. Williams,
1850-52
Horace Fairbanks,
1876-78
Jonas Galusha,
1809-13
Erastus Fairbanks,
I852-53
t Redfield Proctor,
¥878-80
Martin Chittenden,
1813-15
*John S. Robinson,
1853-54
t Roswell Farnham,
1880 82
Jonas Galusha,
1815-20
Stephen Royce,
1854-56
tJohn L. Barstow,
I882-84
Richard Skinner,
1820-23
Ryland Fletcher,
1856-58
tSamuel E. Pingree,
1884-86
Cornelius P. Van Ness,
1823-26
Hiland Hall,
I858-60
Ebenezer J. Ormsbee,
I886-88
Ezra Butler,
I826-28
Erastus Fairbanks,
I860-61
t William P. Dillingham,
1888-90
Samuel C. Crafts,
1828-31
+Frederick Holbrook,
1861-63
tCarrol S. Page,
1890-92
William A. Palmer,
1831-35
J. Gregory Smith,
I863-65
+Levi K. Fuller,
1892-94
* Biographical sketch will be found among " The Fathers."
t Biographical sketch will be found in Part II.
(2) Lieutenant Governor, acting Governor on the death of Governor Chittenden.
(3) Lieutenant-Governor, Governor by reason of no election of Governor by the people.
(5) Lieutenant-Governor, Governor by reason of the death of Governor Washburn.
BRIGHAM, PAUL .- For twenty-one
1
years Lieuten- ant-Governor of the state and a few months, in 1797, the acting Governor, a Revolutionary soldier, state councilor for five years, and ma- jor-general of the state militia, was born at Cov- entry, Conn., Jan. 17, 1746. He early devel- oped military capacity, and rose in the militia of his native state, through every intermediate position, from the ranks to a captaincy, at the age of twenty-eight. When the Revolution broke out he had been captain long enough to be exempt from military duty, but he went promptly into active service with his com- pany, in Colonel Chandler's regiment of McDougall's brigade in the Continental ser- vice, fought at Germantown, Monmouth and Mud Island, and was in the service three years.
In 1781 he joined the tide of adventurous spirits from Connecticut to Vermont, and settled with his family at Norwich. Here again he became active in militia services, passing through every grade until he became a major-general. He and Samuel Fletcher, Isaac Tichenor and Ira Allen commanded
the four divisions of the state in 1794, at the time President Washington ordered detach- ments of minute men to be formed, accord- ing to the act of Congress of that year. He rapidly rose to prominence in Windsor county, being successively elected high sher- iff, judge of probate, assistant judge and chief judge of Windsor county court. He represented Norwich in the· General Assem- bly in 1783, 1786 and 1791, and was a dele- gate to the Constitutional Conventions of 1793, 1814 and 1822. In 1792 he was elected councilor and five times re-elected, until in 1796 he was elevated to the lieuten- ant-governorship. During his service on the council he was prominent in the state bank and state prison controversies, and with John White and Nathaniel Niles was a mem- ber of the committee that reported the com- promise bill for the banks in 1806. In 1792 he was a Washington presidential elector.
The quality of his service as Lieutenant- Governor is illustrated by the remarkable way he held on through all the ups and downs of party politics in the state. He was re-elected regularly with Governor Tichenor years after the Jeffersonians had got a major- ity in the state, and when in 1807 Tichenor was defeated by the Democratic Israel Smith for Governor, Brigham was still elected Lieutenant - Governor. So it was when Tichenor was returned in ISoS, and still again when Tichenor was overthrown by Galusha in 1809. Brigham started out a Federalist, but gradually drifted in his sym- pathies towards the Jeffersonians, and when the Federalists got atop again for a short
72
110111 NOR,
time in 1813 ' they defeated Brigham as well as Galusha for re-election, But the fight was a close as well as a hot one, and in neither year was there a choice by the people, and the election went to the Legis lature and the Federalists only won, in 1813, by tactics that bore more than a suspicion of dishonesty. But with the return of the Jeffersonians in 1815, Brigham was again elected Lieutenant Governor, and success- ively re-elected until 1820, when at the age of seventy-four, together with his great party chieftain, Governor Galusha, he declined re- election.
He died, June 15, 18244, after a few years of happy and caseful retirement, deepened in its enjoyment by the consciousness of duty long and well done, and by the consola- tion of a religious faith which had gaited and ennobled his whole career.
TICHENOR, ISAAC .- The third Gover- nor of the state ; for six years a judge of the Su- preme Court, twice a United States senator and the Federal- ist leader for a number of years, was a resident of the state all through her ex- istence as an in- dependent re- public, but came on the stage of political activity only towards the close of that inter- esting period. He was born at Newark, N. J., Feb. 8, 1754, and graduated from Prince- ton College in 1775 under the presidency of Dr. Witherspoon and for whom he always had the utmost consideration. He studied law at Schenectady, N. Y., where he was in 1777 appointed an assistant to Commissary Gen- eral Cuyler in buying supplies for the north- ern department. It was on this duty that he came to Bennington in the summer of that year and remained there and in that vicinity collecting the supplies whose accumulation tempted the fatal expedition of Burgoyne. Tichenor had just left, August 13, with a drove of cattle for Albany when the tidings of that expedition were received. He re- turned by way of Williamstown, reaching the field at dusk on the evening of the 17th after the fighting had ceased.
He then decided to settle in Bennington, and this was his home when not in actual service in the commissary department. In the line of his duty he incurred heavy pecuni- ary responsibilities, which embarrassed him
'11011 NOR.
through a large part of his life. About the close of the war he began the practice of law there. He was town representative in 1781-'82-'83-'844, speaker of the House in 1783, and an agent to Congress in 1782. In that year he was also sent by the Legis- lature to Windham county to urge the claims of the new state on the people, and quell the disturbances there, and the mission had con- siderable effect, though severer measures had to be taken later. Ile was a commissioner under the act of 1789 to determine the terms of settlement with New York.
Ile had been steadily growing in reputa- tion among the Vermont leaders, and the peculiar value of his services with his plausi- ble, persuasive ways added much to his prominence. He was a judge of the Supreme Court from 1791 to 1796, and chief justice the last two years, when, on the resignation of Senator Moses Robinson, he was chosen to fill out the latter's term. He was re- clected the next year for a full term of six years, but he was also elected Governor that fall, and resigned the senatorship to accept. He had then become the recog- nized Federalist leader of the state, and the canvass for the governorship was a sharp one. The retirement of Governor Chittenden had loosed the restraint partisan- ship had felt. The result was no choice by the people for Governor, but Tichenor was elected by the Legislature by a large ma- jority. He served eleven years in all as Governor, being steadily re-elected every year until 1809, except 1807, when he was defeated by the Democrats under the leader- ship of Israel Smith ; so strong had he be- come that he was re-elected several years after his party had got into a minority.
He was in 1814 again elected Senator to Congress, serving six years, until March 3, 1821, when with the complete obliteration of his party from American politics he retired to private life, after a public service filling thirty-eight out of the forty-four years be- tween 1777 and 1821. He died Dec. 1I, 1838, at the age of eighty-four and leaving no descendants.
Governor Hall measures him compactly as a man of "good private character, of highly respectable talents and acquirements, of remarkably fine personal appearance, of accomplished manners and insinuating ad- dress." So marked was his make-up in the latter particular as to earn for him the sobriquet of " Jersey Slick," which stuck to him all through his career. But though he had these qualities, perhaps to the point of fault, it would be a great mistake to suppose that he had not solid merit beneath his smooth exterior, even beyond what Governor Hall credits as "respectable talents." It was a clear head and a strong will that he
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TICHENOR.
carried on his shoulders. With all his poli- tician arts he was a real statesman. It was on the state's prison issue largely, that he defeated Governor Smith for re-election in 1808, but he had strongly recommended such an institution in 1803, got a bill through the Legislature for it, and had the prepara- tory steps taken under his administration, and in his message after his return to power did not hesitate to commend it as a "hu- mane and benevolent " idea, and urge measures to carry it into " complete effect." His messages were often strongly tinctured with Federalist doctrine, but so skillfully phrased that the able young Republicans in the Legislature found it hard to find any effective point on which to join issue. A strong proof of his popularity was afforded in 1799, when the Legislature by a unani- mous vote adopted a resolution of thanks, whose author, Udney Hay, was the leader of the opposition in the House, for the " happy and speedy " settlement he had effected with Canada of the difficulty over the arrest by American officers on British soil, and the subsequent accidental death, but alleged murder, of John Griggs. The event has "increased, if possible," so the resolution read, " the very high esteem we have ever entertained of your patriotism, your candour, your abilities, your integrity." His high courtesy and genuine kindliness of character were shown by the letter of con- gratulation he wrote after his defeat in 1809, to his successful competitor, Governor Galusha, tendering "in great sincerity, my best services in any matter that shall relate to the duties of your office or shall have a tendency to promote the interests of our country."
Governor Hall tells a couple of anecdotes that are illuminating. He had an art, some- times too obvious, of ingratiating himself into favor. While traveling in a distant part of the state he contrived to pass the resi- dence of a farmer of great influence in his town, who had formerly supported him for Governor, but who was now supposed to be wavering. On his approach to the place he discovered the farmer at some distance building stone wall by the road side. Leav- ing his carriage the Governor began to examine the wall with great care and earnest- ness, looking over and along both sides of it and exhibiting signs of excessive admiration. On coming within speaking distance the Governor exclaimed, with much apparent emotion : " Bless me, friend, what a beauti- ful and noble wall you are building-I don't believe there is another equal to it in the state." "Yes, Governor," was the reply of the farmer, " it's a very good wall to be sure, but I can't vote for you this year."
SMITH.
He was quite a sportsman and delighted to range the mountains hunting and fishing until the feebleness of age prevented. Once he laid a wager with a companion with whom he was out fishing, as to which would catch the most trout. On weighing the fish at Landlord Dewey's the Governor was found to have lost the bet, which he readily paid, though considerably disappointed. " I don't see," said he to his friend M., " how your trout should weigh the most, mine cer- tainly looks the largest, and besides I filled it full of gravel stones." "Ah, Governor," said his friend, " I was too much for you this time, I stuffed mine with shot."
SMITH, ISRAEL, the fourth Governor, judge, congressman and senator, the first popular favorite of the young Democrats of the state, and a fine specimen of the politi- cian of the early days, was also a native of Connecticut, born at Sheffield, April 4, 1759. He graduated from Yale in 1781, and two years later settled at Rupert, where he was admitted to the bar. He represented that town in the General Assembly in 1785, '88, '89 and '90, and became prominent in the affairs of the state during the latter part of its period of independence. He was one of the com- mission in '89 to close the controversy with New York, and a member of the convention in '91 that ratified the federal constitution preparatory to the admission of the state into the Union. In this year he moved to Rutland. He was immediately elected one of the first representatives in Congress from the western district of the state, and was re- elected several times, when in 1797 he was at last defeated by Matthew Lyon, who had twice before contested the election with him. He and Lyon were both identified with the Jeffersonian party, though Lyon was far the more rabid, and the Federalist element of the district supported a third candidate. But he was that fall elected to the Legislature from Rutland, and the Republicans being in a majority he was elected chief justice of the Supreme Court. But he held the position only one term ; for the next year came a re- turn of Federalist control, and the "Ver- gennes slaughter-house," when every position in the state within reach was made party spoils. In 1801, he was again elected to the chief justiceship but declined it. He was that fall the Republican candidate for Governor against Tichenor but was defeated. He was, however, again elected representative to Congress and at the end of the term elected Senator over Chipman.
In 1807 the Democrats or Republicans were finally able to overcome for a short time the great popularity of Governor Tichenor and elected Mr. Smith Governor. He resigned his seat in the Senate to accept the place.
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SMIJ 11.
His inaugural address, though most courteons to his defeated opponent, for his "urbanity and unassuming administration," was breezy with healthful new ideas. He laid down the good Democratic truth, that "the end of all government is to teach each individual of the community the necessity of self-govern- ment." He urged a measure whose import- ance is only just beginning to be realized to- day, for state supervision of highways, like that of schools. He argued that the two subjects were equally of "very general concern," and that the state was entitled to be "officially informed how far and in what manner" laws about them were carried into effect. He ably discussed punitive problems, urged the abolition of all corporal punishment and the substitution of confinement at hard labor, "to initiate the culprit into a habit of useful industry, and as a method peculiarly suited to an advanced state of society where the arts abound." His discussion would be a good text for prison reformers today. His influence was exerted strongly to secure the construction of the state's prison. But these good ideas were the cause of his political undoing. The farmers of the state were too accustomed to government of the utmost fru- gality to welcome such plans, and though the Democrats had now secured an easy ascend- ing in the state and cast its electoral vote for Madison that fall, Smith was defeated for re- election by Tichenor, after a hard fought campaign, by a plurality of 859 and majority of 432.
Soon after his health began to fail, and he died at Rutland, Dec. 2, 1810, aged fifty-one. His son, William Donaglas Smith, a graduate of Middlebury, and a lawyer, was clerk of the House of Representatives from 1809 until his death, Feb. 22, 1822, at the age of thirty-six. Governor Smith was a brother of Noah Smith, who also came to Vermont soon after his graduation, became state's attorney for Cumberland, then for Bennington county, judge of county and Supreme Courts, U. S. collector of internal revenue, and coun- cilor.
Little that Governor Smith wrote besides his one inaugural address has come down to present times. But he was conceded to be a man of fine talents and high ideas, of "amiable candor," one cotemporary says, and of "inflexible integrity" as another de- scribes him. "He was a noble-looking man, and got the name of the handsome judge." He was a great admirer of the principles on which the French Revolution was based in its earlier and nobler days, and was at that time one of the Republicans who gloried in the charge of being French sympathizers.
CALUSHIA.
GALUSHA, JONAS, Revolutionary sol- dier, sheriff, judge, Governor, for forty years in continuous pub- lic service, the Democratic leader who led his party into as- cendeney that lasted for nearly a generation, and one of the most interesting per- sonalities of our whole history, was born at Nor- wich, Conn., Feb. 11, 1753, and came to Shaftsbury in 1775. He was captain of one of the town's two militia companies, commanded them both in the battle of Bennington, and saw much ac- tive service from 1777 to '80. He was by occupation a farmer and inn-keeper, and his first political office was that of sheriff of Bennington county from 178r to '87, and as such he did prompt and efficient work in preventing Shay's men during their rebellion in Massachusetts from making Vermont soil a base of operations. He was elected state councilor in 1793, '94, '95, '96, '97, '98, and again in 1801, '02, '03, '04 and '05, and judge of the county court in 1795, '96, and '97, and again in 1800, '01, '02, '03, '04, '05 and '06. He had, as soon as the national parties developed in politics, become an ardent Democrat, and the recognized leader of the party in state politics. After the de- feat of Governor Smith by Tichenor in 1808, Galusha was made the next Republican can- didate and elected, by a vote of 14,583 to 13,467 for Tichenor, and 498 scattering, and re-elected in 1810, '11 and '12, and again in 1815, '16, '17, '18 and '19, a service of nine years.
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