Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 24

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 842

USA > Vermont > Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont > Part 24

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But his neglect of his extensive business while in jail and so immersed in politics, with the bitter antagonisms engendered by the prosecution, had ruined him financially and he determined to quit Vermont and start anew in life. So putting his affairs into liquida- tion, and settling his debts as best he could, on the expiration of his term in Congress he moved to Kentucky, established the first printing office in the state at what is now Eddyville, and again engaged in extensive business operations and was again elected to Congress in 1804, serving until 1810. He again fell into business disaster, owing to his failure during the war of 1812, to deliver to the government in season some ships he had contracted to construct, and he again struck out to new fields, going to Arkansas, whence he was, in 1820, chosen the first delegate to Congress, but died at Little Rock, August 1, before taking his seat. One of his sons, Chittenden Lyon, was also afterward a mem- ber of Congress. Another, Matthew, was a man of considerable business prominence in Kentucky, and a Jackson elector. General H. B. Lyon of Kentucky was also the latter's son.

That this "ardent, combative, rough and ready Irishman" as Pliney H. White charac- terizes him, this "rough and wilful man" as A. N. Adams, the historian of Fair Haven, styles him, was a man of extraordinary qualities as his career sufficiently attests. Among the men with whom he came into friendly contact he was wonderfully popular. He was a forceful writer, an independent thinker, full of moral courage, and physical also, notwithstanding the episode of 1776. He dispensed a generous hospitality always. He was a business genius, and unsuccessful mainly because instead of looking out for himself alone he was always ambitious to

build up prosperity around him. Perhaps the personal ugliness that so often appeared in him was due to the fact that like Ethan Allen he was often a deep drinker. One of the traditions still preserved at Arlington, where perhaps much of the old Tory feeling is handed down, is that of often seeing Allen, Lyon and most of the old Vermont heroes staggering drunk through the streets in squads after their meetings of state.

In 1840, Congress refunded to Colonel Lyon's heirs the fine that he paid under the sedition law.

MORRIS, LEWIS R .- Six years congress- man, prominent in the last days of Ver- mont's independence, and in the negotia- tions which resulted in her admission to the U'nion ; was a native of New York, where he was born, Nov. 2, 1760, of one of the most illustrious families of the colonial period. The family influence secured a grant of land for him in Springfield, which was settled under a charter from New York, and he came to the new state about 1786, and at once became prominent in business and political affairs of both the town and county. Though his land titles originated in New York authority, he came to the state after the controversy had practically ceased, and no distinction was made against him on this account. He was a member of the Benning- ton convention that voted to ratify the Federal constitution ; was influential in carry- ing the vote, and was one of the com- missioners to Congress that completed the negotiation for admission to the Union in I791.

He represented Springfield in the General Assembly in 1795-'96, 1803-'05-'06-'08. He was secretary of the Constitutional Conven- tion held in Windsor in 1793. From 1797 to 1803 he was a member of the National House of Representatives, and though an ardent Federalist in politics, he assisted in ending the long contest over the presi- dential election of 1800, and to defeat the Federalist intrigue to supplant Jefferson with Burr, by absenting himself on the thirty- sixth ballot and allowing Lyon to cast the vote of the state for Jefferson. He was subjected to much bitter criticism at the time, for this action ; but history has amply justified it with the revelations of after years about Burr's character.

Many are the anecdotes told of General Morris, all going to show that he was kind and considerate to those in humble circum- stances with whom he had to deal. He was a complete gentleman ; the ease and grace of his manner under all circumstances made him a general favorite. Soon after settling in Springfield he married the daughter of Rev. Buckley Olcott of Charleston, N. H. A

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CHAMBERLAIN.

few years later his wife died, and he later married Ellen, daughter of Gen. Arad Hunt of Vernon. He had children by both wives, but the descendants of the family have all left the state.

The last years of General Morris's life were devoted to rural pursuits on his farm on the banks of the Conncticut, where he died, Dec. 29, 1825, surrounded by mem- bers of his family.

CHAMBERLAIN, WILLIAM .- A Revo- lutionary soldier, general of militia, councilor, judge, congressman and Lieutenant-Gov- ernor, was born at Hopkinton, Mass., in 1753, and, when twenty years old, moved with his father to London, N. H. He en- listed promptly when the war for independ- ence opened, was in the Canada expedition as an orderly sergeant, and one of nine officers and privates out of a company of seventy that survived to take part in the battle of Trenton, N. J. He soon after re- turned to his New Hampshire home, but volunteered again upon Burgoyne's invasion, and was in the battle of Bennington where he distinguished himself by his bravery, and brought away some trophies of personal com- bat with the enemy. He settled in Peacham about 1780, being clerk of the proprietors of the town, and was town clerk for twelve years ; justice of the peace twenty-four years ; town representative twelve years, 1785 and '87 to 1796, and in 1805 and IS08 ; chief judge of the Caledonia county court seven- teen years, 1787 to 1803, and in 1814, and councilor seven years, from 1796 to 1803.

He was twice elected to Congress, first in 1802 and again in 1808, serving only one term in each case. The Federalist victory of 1813 elected him Lieutenant-Governor with Martin Chittenden, and they were re- elected in 1814. He was an Adams presi- dential elector in 1800. He was for nearly two decades one of the party leaders-facile and resourceful in tactics, and very strong before the people. But he came to the front in the period of his party's decline, which . was particularly rapid in Vermont after the war of 1812, and this fact prevented his at- taining further distinction. The close and hard-fought election of 1815 retired him to private life finally, though he ran a little bet- ter than Chittenden. He was for fifteen years president of the Caledonia County Bible Society, and of the board of trustees of Peacham Academy. He died Sept. 27, 1828.

Personally he was a man of clean and up- right life, sincere in all his relations, both public and private, interested in the forward movements of humanity, and of a simple and earnest religious faith. He had two sons of some distinction : Mellin, a Maine law-

yer, who was drowned in Europe in 1840, and William A., professor of languages at Dartmouth, who died in 1830. Judge Mel- lin Chamberlain of Boston was a grandson.

ELLIOT, JAMES .- In Congress three terms, 1803-9, a man who had to shift for himself from the time he was seven years old, and yet, without educational or professional advantages, was in Congress before he was thirty, and was for some years the foremost Democrat of his part of the state. He was born at Gloucester, Mass., August 18, 1775. His father was a seafaring man and lost his life while the boy was yet an infant. The widow moved to New Salem five years later, and ill- health rendering it difficult for her to sup- port the family, young James was placed in the family of Colonel Sanderson of Peters- ham, as the youngest and most menial farm servant. He was, however, taught the rudiments of grammar by his employer. His mother had before taught him to read, and the few books within his reach, the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, Josephus' Wars of the Jews, Rollins' Ancient History, Dilworth's spelling book, and the catechism, were pe- rused and reperused until he was the thorough master of their contents. This he was able to supplement in later years with other books of travel and history, and it may be said to have constituted his education.

He came to Guilford at the age of about fifteen, and got a position as clerk in a retail store, where he had the advantage of an acquanitance and conversations with a remarkable circle of literary people, includ- ing Royall Tyler, John Phelps, J. H. Palmer, John Shepardson, Henry Denison, and Miss Elizabeth Peck. According to his own ac- count, young Elliot had come to be pretty lawless about this time and spent a good share of his leisure in gambling. It was only a brief aberration, however ; he had too much mind to find lasting enjoyment in such things. His youthful readings had filled him with military ardor, and at the age of eighteen he enlisted at Springfield, Mass., as the first non-commissioned officer in the Second U. S. Sub-legion, commanded by Capt. Cornelius Lyman, and was in the ser- vice for three years against the insurgents in Pennsylvania, and the Indians in Ohio. Re- turning to Guilford, he published in 1798 a volume of two hundred and seventy pages, called "The Poetical and Miscellaneous Works of James Elliot," including a diary of his military service, twenty-five short essays called "The Rural Moralists," a number of fugitive political pieces, and some twenty poetical effusions, chiefly versifications of the Odes of Horace, but including several original pieces, lines of glorification on the adoption of the Federal constitution, an Ode to

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WITHIREI.I ..

Equality, another to General Lafayette, ete. The diary part of the work is notable for the views it expresses on the Indian question, uncommon for the time, and such as would make him a leader in these times in the Indian Rights Association. The es- says, poems and fugitive pieces had been published in the Greenfield Gazette, and the New England Galaxy.

Mr. Elliot had from his youth enthusiastic- ally taken the Democratic or Republican side in the political division, though he was of too candid a cast of mind to ever be so bigoted a partisan as was usual in those days. He was also a warm admirer and follower of Nathaniel Niles and took the lead in politi- cal discussions in this part of the state, and in 1803, having in his leisure moments read law, was admitted to the bar and settled in practice at Brattleboro. He was elected to Congress to succeed Lewis R. Morris. On his retirement from congressional service, in 1809, he published a paper for a while in Philadelphia, then entered the army in the war of 1812 as a captain, but after a brief service returned to Vermont and resumed the practice of law at Brattleboro, being sent to the Legislature by that town in 1818- '19 ; afterwards removed to Newfane, repre- sented that town in 1837-'38; became county clerk, register of probate, and in the last two years before his death state's attor- ney.

He died at Newfane, Nov. 10, 1839, aged sixty-four. His wife, a daughter of General Dow, survived him for thirty years, and both are buried in the Prospect Hill cemetery at Brattleboro. One daugh- ter, Mrs. D. Pomroy, of New York, was at a recent date the only survivor of that family.

Mr. Elliot was a man of fine intellectual equipment, thoroughly honest and sincere, and with the force of character to make his mark. The mistake of his life was that his energies were so scattered. Samuel Elliot, so long a distinguished citizen of Brattle- boro, was his brother.

OLIN, GIDEON .- Congressman, and one of the founders of the state, was born in Rhode Island, in 1743, and came to Vermont and settled in Shaftsbury in 1776. His ability and force of character were such as to at once bring him to the front in Vermont af- fairs, and he was a delegate to the Windsor convention of June 4, 1777, and a represen- tative in the first Legislature under the new state government in 1778. He was also ap- pointed a commissioner of sequestration that year. He was major of the second regiment under Colonel Herrick, in 1778, and after- wards under Lieutenant-Colonel Walbridge, and was often in service on the frontier dur- ing the Revolutionary war. During the

state's independence he was one of its most trusted leaders ; being in the General Assem- bly fourteen years, from 1780 to 1793, and speaker six years, from 1788 10 1793; judge of the Bennington county court from 1781 10 1798. After the admission to the Union he was equally prominent, serving in the coun- cil from 1793 to 1798, being again judge of the county court from 1800 to 1802, and chief judge from 1807 to 1811- a total judi- cial service of twenty-three years. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1791 and 1793, and was in Congress two terms, from 1803 to 1807.

He died in January, 1823. Martin Matti- son says in his sketch of Shaftsbury. "Gideon Olin was one of the firmest supporters of the state, and in the hours of political darkness not a star of lesser magnitude ; possessed great natural talents, an intuitive knowledge of mankind, was nobly free in his opinions, and decided in his conduct."

Congressman Abraham B. Olin of New York was his son, Congressman Henry Olin, of this state his nephew, and the descend- ants of distinction from him and his brother, of Shaftsbury, have been numerous.

WITHERELL, JAMES .- Patriot of the Revolution and the war of 1812, doctor, councilor, congressman and United States territorial judge, had a stirring career. Born at Mansfield, Mass., June 16, 1759, of an old English family, he enlisted at the age of sixteen in the Revolutionary service, and continued in it from early in the siege of Boston, and being severely wounded at White Plains, until peace was won and the army disbanded at Newburgh in 1783, when he came out an officer in the Continental line, with just $70 in continental currency as pay for his eight years of fighting, bleed- ing and suffering for his country. With this, it is said, he "treated a brother officer to a bowl of punch, and set out penniless to fight the battle of life." He studied medicine with Dr. Billings of Mansfield, and in 1789 settled in practice at Fair Haven, where the next year he wedded Amy, daughter of Charles Hawkins, a lineal descendant of Roger Williams. He was the hearty associate and coadjutor of Matthew Lyon in politics, a red-hot uncompromising Democrat. He represented Fair Haven from 1798 to 1802; was assistant judge of the Rutland county court 1801-3, and chief justice 1803-6; councilor 1802 till 1807, when he was elected to Congress, where he had the pleasure of voting for the act abolishing the slave trade, which was passed in 1808.

But before his term was completed Presi- dent Jefferson appointed him one of the judges of the territory of Michigan, with executive and legislative duties to perform

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SHAW.

as well as judicial, and with a jurisdiction extending over a vast wilderness from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean and con- taining a population of only about three thousand in all. Here he helped to lay out the new city of Detroit. Here also he had an opportunity to again serve his country bravely in the war of 1812, and he embraced it. He commanded a corps at Detroit and when the post fell before the British, he refused to surrender his command but allowed his men to disperse and escape while" he and his son and son-in-law re- mained to be taken prisoners. He again lived in Fair Haven a few years while paroled, but when exchanged returned to Detroit to resume his mixed judicial and political duties which he continued with increasing use- fulness and honor until, in 1826, President John Quincy Adams appointed him secretary of the territory. He died at Detroit Jan. 9, 1838, aged seventy-nine. One of his sons, Benjamin F. H. Witherell of Detroit, was a judge of the circuit court of Michigan and a man of much influence.

SHAW, SAMUEL .- Physician, councilor, congressman, and Democrat of the Matthew Lyon school, was born at Dighton, Mass., in December, 1768; came to Putney with his parents in 1778, and nine years later, when he was only nineteen years old, though he had had but a limited education, settled him- self at Castleton and began, after two years of study, the practice of medicine. He soon became a leading politician of that locality, and Lanman says in his "Dictionary of Con- gress" that he was "one of the victims of the sedition law. For his deunciation of the administration of John Adams he was im- prisoned, and liberated by the people with- out the forms of the law." Walton says he is unable to verify this statement, but there was probably a demonstration of some kind to furnish a foundation for it. Dr. Shaw was Castleton's representative from 1800 to 1807, when he was elected to both Houses, but accepted the office of councilor. He was, however, defeated for re-election the next year, when the Federalists elected ten of the twelve councilors. But he was immediately elected a representative to Congress, serving from 1808 to 1813, being high in the confi- dence of Jefferson and Madison, and vigor- ously supporting the war measures of the latter.

He had, while in private practice, won quite an extended reputation as a surgeon, and on his retirement from Congress was ap- pointed a surgeon in the United States army, being stationed at different times at New York, Greenbush, St. Louis, and Norfolk, and attaining an eminence that was remark- able, considering his early disadvantages. He

was indisputably a man of decided native ability and with physical powers to corre- spond. He once rode on horseback from St. Louis to Albany, N. Y., in twenty-nine days. He continued in his duties as sur- geon throughout the war and until 1816. He died at Clarendon, Oct. 22, 1827.

HUBBARD, JONATHAN HATCH .- Jurist, born in Windsor, in 1768; died there Sept. 20, 1849. After receiving a lib- eral education he studied law and was ad- mitted in 1790, and practiced his profession with success until his election to Congress in 1808. He served until 1811, and in 1813 became judge of the Supreme Court of Ver- mont, continuing in office until 1845.

STRONG, WILLIAM .- At two different times in Congress, was born at Lebanon, Conn., in 1763, the son of Benajah and Polly ( Bacon) Strong, descended in the sixth gen- eration from Elder John Strong of North- ampton, the American ancestor. Benajah Strong was also one of the first settlers of Hartford in this state, coming there in 1764 when William was a baby. The latter was necessarily self-educated, denied even the advantages of a common school in youth, and gaining from contact with men and life, and from the reading of such books as he could borrow, the knowledge that made him a man of power and usefulness in his later years. He was in early manhood, for several years extensively engaged in making land surveys in Grand Isle county, a professional work for which he had fitted himself by his own exertions. Returning to Hartford and engaging in farming he quickly became a man of influence in the town and county ; represented Hartford in the Legislature in 1798-'99, 1801, '02, '15, '16, '17, and '18, and taking a leading position among that re- markable coterie of Democrats or Republi- cans, including Galusha, Leland, Butler, Skinner, Richards, and Meech, who so long ruled the state. He was also sheriff of Wind- sor county for eight years, from 1802 to 1810, judge of the Supreme Court of Wind- sor county in 1817, and a member of the council of censors in 1834. He was first elected to Congress in 1811, and served two terms with James Fisk, Samuel Shaw, Will- iam C. Bradley, Butler, Skinner, and Charles Rich for his colleagues a part or all of the time. In 1819 he was again returned, serv- ing one term.

He died Jan. 28, 1840, at the age of seventy-seven. He was a man of sterling integrity, hearty and cordial in manner. thoroughly democratic in his instincts and bearing, broadly generous in views and ac- tion, and of ample mental capacity. He was throughout his public career connected

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Mul Bradley

with events of large importance, and always acquitted himself creditably in them.

He married, June 17, 1793, Abigail Hutchinson of Norwich, who bore him nine children. Of these, Jasper, a man of superior abilities, was an extensive govern- ment contractor before the war, and two others, John P. and Charles, were woolen manufacturers at Quechee, and the latter, the inventor of valuable improvements in vertical and horizontal motion. One daugh- ter, Emily, was the wife of Hon. A. G. Dewey.

BRADLEY, WILLIAM C .- Twice a con- gressman, long the leader of the Jacksonian Democracy of the state, and its perennial candidate for Governor, in the opinion of Pliney White, " all things considered the greatest man Vermont has produced," and whom Webster declared to have one of the greatest minds in the country, was born at Westminster, March 23, 1782, the son of

Senator Stephen R. and Merab (Atwater) Bradley.

His youth contained abundant promise of his brilliant future. He began to write poetry when only six years old and at twelve his first prose work was published under the title of : "The Rights of Youth, composed revised and submitted to the candid reader by William C. Bradley, Esq., author of the poem on Allen's and Tichenor's Duel." At nine he had read the Bible through seven times and thoroughly saturated his young mind with the noble imagery, the right thought and sublime eloquence better im- bibed from the Scriptures than any other source on earth. At eleven he was fitted for college ; at twelve he was studying Hebrew and at thirteen he entered Yale, but was ex- pelled before his freshman year was ended. At seventeen he delivered the Fourth of July oration at the Westminster celebration, followed by an ode which he had composed. Both exhibited a remarkable maturity of

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BRADLEY.

thought. At eighteen he was secretary of the Commissioners of Bankruptcy, serving for three years, and before he was of age he was state's attorney for Windham county, being specially appointed by the Legislature, though he had been refused permission to practice before the Supreme Court because of his youth. He held this position for seven years. At twenty-four he represented his town in the Legislature. At thirty he was a member of the Governor's Council and at thirty-two was sent to Congress.

His expulsion from college (for some prank, of which he always claimed that he was not guilty, though he admitted that he deserved it on general principles) greatly enraged and mortified his father, who for discipline gave him a dung fork and set him to work on a manure heap and finally expelled him from home. He went to Amherst, Mass., and entered upon the study of law with Judge Simeon Strong, and soon showed the manly, sturdy stuff in him, sufficiently to win back the stern parent's forgiveness, so that on Mr. Strong's appointment to the Supreme Court young Bradley returned to his home at Westminster and continued the study of the law, being admitted to the bar in 1802. He was for a number of years town clerk of Westminster, and it was in 1806-'07 that he represented the town, and in 1812 that he was in the council. Besides all his other accomplishments he had, through his father's intimacy with the great men and events of the time and by constant and instructive corres- pondence with that great statesman while at Washington, acquired an understanding of politics on their practical and personal, as well as their philosophic side, that was an education of itself. Few men ever entered public life so thoroughly and admirably equipped or so certain of winning the largest fame ; but he soon developed a strong dis- taste for office holding, while his love of home life was unceasing. Besides, after the formation anew of party lines after the ad- ministration of John Quincy Adams, he was in the minority party, and pleased to be so, though he enjoyed leading the Democracy in its up-hill fight, and did so with very great skill at times and with a relish that was in inverse proportion to his chance of being elected. He was the Democratic nominee for Governor in 1830, 1834-'35-'36, twice in 1837-'38 driving the choice to the Legisla- ture, holding the organization together against the Anti-Masonic wave, playing warily but unsuccessfully against Seymour to get the remnants of that movement when it should collapse, and still heading the ticket after the Whigs had gained a secure ascendency in the state. But when the extension of slavery became the issue of our politics he was prompt to join the Free Soil party of 1848,

and afterward the young Republican party, in company with many others of his old associates, and he headed the Fremont elec- toral ticket in 1856.

He was first elected to Congress as a Jef- fersonian Democrat in 1812, and was an ardent supporter of the war policy of the Madison administration. He was the friend and intimate associate of Clay, Adams, Web- ster, Calhoun, Graudy, Forsyth, Pickering and men of that stamp, who were all won and charmed by his wonderful versatility. It may be that he shone too much in the drawing room and social circle for the best achievements in committee and on the floor. At the ex- piration of his term he was appointed agent of the United States, under the treaty of Ghent, for fixing the northeastern boundary, a work that required five years, and which he regarded as the greatest service of his public life. He went in person to the wild region in dispute and laid down the line which, rejected by Great Britain and dis- puted over almost to the point of war, he had the satisfaction of finally seeing adopted by the Ashburton treaty. He was again elected to Congress in 1822, and re-elected in 1824, and this substantially closed his office-holding, though he again represented Westminster in the Legislature of 1850 and was a member of the constitutional conven- tion of 1857. During his last term in Con- gress he had a rupture with President Adams over what he considered a breach of faith on the latter's part. This was the immediate occasion of his retirement, and naturally also of his allegiance to the Jacksonians, as party lines were reformed, though his sym- pathies and antecedents were such as would have made him a Democrat anyway. He had some part in the tariff debates of that time, though always moderate in his views, which he well summarized in after years in his eulogy of Webster, when he said, "Tariffs are, of necessity, alway matters of expedi- ency, and an unchanging one would in time defeat itself."

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Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 24

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896 Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 842

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 842