Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 75

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 75

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Judge Miller married, April 5, 1835, in Pomfret, Orpha, daughter of Joseph Denni- son and Rebecca ( Miller) Hewitt. Their five children were : Melvin, Ellen Matilda ( Mrs. A. B. Chandler ), Isabella (deceased), Crosby Park, and Emma Icy ( Mrs. H. H. Mcintyre).

MILLER, JOSEPH, of East Dummerston, son of Joseph and Elizabeth ( Wilson ) Miller, was born in Dummerston March 3, 1817. His great-grandfather, Capt. Isaac Miller, who surveyed the township of Dummerston in 1767, gave in 1775 the land, which was lot No. 37, containing one hundred acres, to his eldest son, Capt. Vespasian Miller. Ves- pasian had been a soldier in the old French war in 1759, afterward followed the sea until 1 775 when he came to Dummerston and in 1778 moved his family to this town.

Mr. Joseph Miller received a somewhat limited education in the public schools, but availed himself of his opportunities so profit- ably that for five winters he was an instructor in the village schools and was made town superintendent in 1857. The business of his

JOSEPH MILLER.

life has been the tillage of the soil, and his intelligent and industrious efforts have been rewarded with merited success. His farm is pleasantly situated in the eastern part of the town and produces excellent crops. He has a large orchard from which he manufactures the best quality of maple sugar. Some friends of Grover Cleveland during his first

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term as President bought a box of this pro- duct and sent it to him, and to be strictly impartial a similar purchase was made and sent to President Benjamin Harrison. His sugar was especially noticed by the French commissioners at the Centennial in Philadel- phia in 1876, and received an award at the Columbian Exposition in 1893.

Mr. Miller's political life began at the age of thirty-two, when he was chosen town clerk, and having held the office for forty- four years, he was re-elected at the last March meeting. From 1850 until 1884 he dis- charged the responsible duties of a justice of the peace, and has represented his town in the state Legislature for two successive terms (in 1862 and 1863). Soon after the war he was chosen town treasurer, holding that office at the present time, and was made census enumerator of the United States for the township of Dummerston in 1880. His long experience in public business makes him a valuable officer and reliable legal counsellor in matters pertaining to town af- fairs. His assistance and advice are often sought in making wills and the settlement of estates. He is an excellent penman, and the town records kept by him can be as easily read as typewriting.

Mr. Miller was first united in marriage, March 3, 1841, to Eliza A., daughter of Isaac and Abigail (McWayne) Reed, who died Nov. 26, 1843. His second wife was Sophia, daughter of William and Polly ( Frost) Arms, whom he espoused Dec. 25, 1844. She de- ceased July 26, 1883. Of this marriage there are three children now living : J. Arms, Adin F., and Ansel Irwin.

MILLER, JOSEPH ARMS, of East Dum- merston, son of Joseph and Sophia (Arms) Miller, was born in Dummerston, August 22, 1847.

Mr. Miller was born and bred upon a farm, and in the intervals of hard and unre- mitting labor availed himself of such educa- tional advantages as were afforded by the district schools of Dummerston. He has always followed the occupation in which he was brought up, and the instruction of his youth, 'added to the experience of riper years, has brought him a well-earned com- petency, derived from commendable care, industry and punctuality.

For four successive years he was chosen to perform the duties of first selectman, and refused at the beginning of the fourth year to longer hold the office. He was consid- ered a fitting individual to represent Dum- merston in the Legislature of 1890, and several times has been selected to minor offices in that town.

Mr. Miller was married, Jan. 10, 1871, to Sarah M., daughter of Thomas L. and Maria

(Ramsdell) Read. Ten children have been issue of this union : Willie A., Addie S., J.

JOSEPH ARMS MILLER.

Warren, Arthur L., Avery E., Earnest G., Florence E., Dwight R., R. Irving, and Floyd S.

MILLER, HARRIS M., of West Fairlee, son of Madison M. and Sarah E. (Vesper) Miller, was born in West Fairlee, May 24, 1852.

He was brought up on the farm of his father, who, in addition to cultivating his property, bred and extensively dealt in horses. The son received his educational training in the common schools of the town and at Thetford Academy. When he arrived at his majority, Mr. Miller resolved to see a little of the outside world and consequently made a tour of observation through the Northwest, visiting Iowa, Minnesota and Dakota. This trip occupied two years, and on his return he determined to engage in business as a butcher and on account of the growth of population from the working of the Ely copper mines he soon enjoyed a trade of $20,000 per annum. At this time he purchased the property where he now resides and he has erected thereon a com- modious and elegant mansion.

Mr. Miller was united, Nov. 16, 1878, to Katie A., daughter of A. J. and Mary (Piper) Abbott of Medford, Minn. They have one son : Llewellyn M.

He is a member of Jackson Lodge, No. 60, F. & A. M., in which he took his degrees

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when he was twenty-one years of age, has filled all the chairs and is its present Wor- shipful Master.

Mr. Miller is an active and influential Democrat and has repeatedly served his party as chairman of the county convention and upon the county committee. After serving as lister, selectman and constable he was elected the representative from West Fairlee in 1890 and complimented by

HARRIS M. MILLER.

a re-election in 1892. For six years he actively and vigorously discharged the duties of deputy sheriff, proving himself to be a most able and efficient executive officer. For a man of his age he is widely known and deservedly popular in his town and county.

MILLER, NORRIS ROBINSON, of Shel- burne, son of Caleb and Polly (Naramore) Miller, was born in Charlotte, Jan. 23, 1822. He is of mixed lineage, for his grandfather, an old Revolutionary veteran, was a Scotch- man, while his mother was of Dutch descent.

The former was an early settler of Char- lotte, where Norris enjoyed the limited edu- cational resources of the common schools, and was a tiller of the soil until he was of age, when he relinquished agriculture in part for the calling of a carpenter. He continued working at his trade in Lawrence, N. Y., till 1868, when he purchased a fruit farm in Shelburne and commenced to raise fruit for the Boston market. He is a marked proof

of what energy and industry can effect on a Green Mountain farm, for he has paid off an encumbrance of $7,000, improved his prop- erty, and retired to enjoy his latter days in peace and dignity in Shelburne village, sell- ing at a profitable advance his estate, which at times has produced thirteen hundred bar- rels of apples annually.

Mr. Miller was maried, Feb. 8, 1844, to Ann Maria, daughter of Asahel and Frelove ( Irish ) Ballard, of Lawrence, N. Y.

He was brought up a Democrat of the Jackson school, but, when the Kansas agita- tion occurred, became a Free Soiler, and finally a Republican, to which party he has steadfastly adhered and given a hearty sup- port. He has been entrusted with many town offices, is now town clerk and justice of the peace, and was sent to the lower branch of the Legislature in 1890, where he served with credit on the committee on elections.

NORRIS ROBINSON MILLER.

Mr. Miller became a member of the Meth- odist Episcopal church in 1839, and has been honored with many of the official positions which a layman can hold in that church. He has also been a member of the Patrons of Husbandry.

MILLER, ADIN FRANKLIN, of East Dummerston, son of Joseph and Sophia (Arms) Miller, was born in Dummerston, July 16, 1850.

Born and bred on a farm, he commenced his education by attendance in the common

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schools and then pursued a course of in- struction at Power's Institute of Bernards- ton, Mass.

He has been all his life a farmer, devoting his entire effort to this honorable calling, reaping where he has sown and winning a comfortable and well earned subsistence from the soil.

ADIN FRANKLIN MILLER.

Mr. Miller has been called upon to serve in many offices in his native town. For nearly ten years he has been constable and collector and represented Dummerston in the General Assembly of the state of Ver- mont in 1888.

He was united in marriage, Dec. 31, 1874, to Hattie Alice, daughter of Deacon Adin A. and Fannie ( Kathan) Dutton.

MORRILL, JUSTIN SMITH, of Strafford, son of Nathaniel and Mary (Hunt) Morrill, was born at Strafford, April 14, 1810, and now resides there.

He received his early education in the public schools of his native town and at Thetford and Randolph academies, begin- ning business life at the age of fifteen, enter- ing a local store as a clerk, afterward going, in 1828, to Portland, Maine, where he also was employed as a clerk with a merchant en- gaged in the West India shipping trade and then with a wholesale and retail dry goods establishment. In 1831 he returned to Straf- ford, and became the partner of the late Judge Jedediah Harris, the leading merchant in Strafford, but this business connection was

terminated by the death of Judge Harris, in 1855. For many years he was one of the directors of the Orange County Bank, of Chelsea. Mr. Morrill ceased to give his per- sonalattention to mercantile business in 1848, and devoted himself chiefly to agricultural and horticultural pursuits.

From his boyhood Mr. Morrill had given his unoccupied working hours to careful and diligent perusal of standard and classical authors and while a clerk had read such works as "Blackstone's Commentaries." He was thus storing a retentive memory with facts and fitting himself consciously or uncon- sciously for public life and national usefulness. Until he was forty-four years old, however, he had neither sought nor held any office higher than that of a justice of the peace, although in the circle of his numerous acquaintances he had become known as a man of much more than ordinary intellectual ability, of remarkable balance of judgment, of marked business capacity, of uniform courtesy, and of pleasing personal address. Suddenly he stepped to the front. In 1854, the late Andrew Tracy, of Woodstock, representative of the second congressional district in Con- gress, after a single term declined to be a candidate for re-election. Mr. Morrill was suggested by some discerning friends as a fit man to succeed him. The suggestion found favor, and he received the nomination of the whig party convention of the district. It was a notable compliment to be paid to a quiet and studious man, who had never even represented his town in the Leg- islature. Mr. Morrill was elected by a small majority, as there were then three political parties in the state, and took his seat in the Thirty-fourth Congress, on the 3d of Decem- ber, 1855. He had been elected as an anti- slavery whig, but the whig party was then in the throes of dissolution, and when he ap- peared in Washington it was as a representa- tive of the new Republican party, in the organization of which in Vermont he had taken part, and of whose principles he be- came the earnest advocate. He soon made his mark as an intelligent legislator. He opposed the tariff of 1857 in a speech which attracted wide attention. He carried through the House the first bill against Mormon polygamy. Conscious that a college educa- tion would have been of great value to him- self in public life, he resolved to do what he could through national legislation to promote liberal and scientific education for the youth of the land. He introduced the first bill to grant public lands for agricultural, scientific and industrial colleges, and advocated it in an able speech. It was vetoed by President Buchanan, but was again introduced by Mr. Morrill in 1862, and through his able man- agement became a law. Under this act forty-

Justin I Morrill

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seven or more land-grant colleges have been successfully established in various states, with five hundred professors and over five thous- and students. The national bounty has called out state aid in large amounts and the act supplemented by the recent act (also carried through by Mr. Morrill) increasing the fund at the disposal of these institutions, has given an immense impulse to liberal, scientific and industrial education, and will confer incalculable benefits upon the rising generations of our land. Mr. Morrill was five times re-elected to the House by majorities ranging from seven thousand to nine thous- and, and grew steadily in standing and influ- ence in the lower branch of Congress till, in the Thirty-ninth Congress he held the leading position of chairman of the committee of ways and means ; and it was said of him, with truth, that his influence in the House was greater than that of any other member with the exception of Thaddeus Stevens. Among the important speeches made by him during the critical period before the civil war was one in support of a report, also made by him, in opposition to the admission of Kansas with a pro-slavery constitution. During the war he had charge of all tariff and tax bills in the House of Representatives-a herculean task-and made arguments thereon, and the "Morrill tariff" of 1861, a monument of indus- try and practical wisdom, and the internal revenue tax system of 1862 connect his name indissolubly with the financial history of the time.

In 1866, after twelve years of honorable service in the House, Mr. Morrill was trans- ferred by the Legislature to the U. S. Senate. He took his seat with an established national reputation as a statesman. Subsequently as chairman of the committee on finance in the Senate, he held a most important position of power and influence, and his service as chairman of the committee of public build- ings and grounds, and as a member of the committee on education and labor, has been of the most laborious and useful char- acter. He is authority in Washington on questions relating to finance and taxation, and his opinion on any subject carries much weight in Congress. Mr. Morrill's period of service in the national Legislature is as re- inarkable for its duration as it is distin- guished for its usefulness. His fifth election to the Senate, at the age of four score, was an event without a precedent, and will prob- ably remain without a parallel. If he sur- vives to the end of his present term it will com- plete forty-two years of service. The longest previous continuous term of service in Con- gress was that of Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina, which was thirty-seven years, or twenty-four in the House and thirteen in the Senate. Mr. Morrill already looks back upon

nearly thirty-nine years of congressional life, and he is now younger in mind and body than most men of three score.

It is the crowning glory of such a career that it is absolutely spotless. No act of dis- honor or word of discourtesy was ever charged to him. He has uniformly held the highest respect and esteem of his brother legislators of all parties, as well as the citi- zens of Vermont.

Mr. Morrill has been too busy in affairs of the state to give much time to literary labor, though making some contributions to the Forum, and to the North American Review, but a volume entitled "Self-Consciousness of Noted Persons," being a collection of ex- pressions of self-appreciation on the part of many famous men and women, gathered by him in the course of his wide reading, was published in 1882, and a second edition in 1886.

Mr. Morrill was married in 1851, to Ruth, daughter of Dr. Caleb and Ruth (Barrill) Swan of Easton, Mass. Of this union there is one son living : James S.

Mr. Morrill has been for twenty-six years a member of the board of trustees of the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, and for many years one of the regents of the Smithsonian Institution. The degree of M. A. has been conferred upon him by Dartmouth College, and that of LL. D. by the Pennsylvania University, and also by the Vermont University, and the State Agricultural College. Of Senator Morrill's speech on the tariff, made in the Senate Dec. 13, 1893, George Alfred Townshend, the veteran and up-to-date correspondent, says : "I fell to wondering whether Daniel Webster ever made a speech in better literary form or with more sense of proportion." Charac- terizing the senator himself- the Nestor of the Senate-Townshend uses not unfitly the words, "our Gladstonian friend."

MORSE, GEORGE A., of East Elmore, son of Ira and Huldah S. (Ainsworth) Morse, was born in Plainfield, Oct. 22, 1848. Descended from a grandsire who was a sol- dier in the Revolutionary war, his boyhood was spent upon his father's farm, and in the intervals of labor he attended the common schools and then continued his studies at Hardwick Academy, teaching school win- ters.

For two years after attaining manhood he worked upon different farms but in 1871 re- moved to East Elmore and bought a saw- mill, engaging in the manufacture of lumber. At first his capital was very limited, but by his industry and strict attention to business, his resources soon increased, and he is now in possession of two thousand acres of timber land and turns out a million and a half feet of

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boards per annum, while the product of his plant is still increasing He lets the logging principally to the neighboring farmers. By diligence, energy and good management he has accumulated a handsome property, sold his mill and has removed to Morrisville. Mr. Morse is president of the Morse Mann- facturing Co. of Wolcott, and is owner of a large portion of the stock : he also is a di- rector of the Hardwick Savings Bank and Trust Co.

GEORGE A. MORSE.

He has been appointed to many of the town offices, has been constable, selectman, justice, and commissioner, and chairman of the school board. He received the position of postmaster under the administration of President Grant, and is still the incumbent of the same, having had the care of the office for about twenty years. He was elected by the Republicans to the Legisla- ture in 1882, and was chosen senator for Lamoille county in 1890, in which he was a member of the finance committee and chair- man of that on the grand list.

Mr. Morse has taken the three degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry, and is a member of Mineral Lodge, No. 93, of Wolcott.

He espoused, Jan. 1, 1874, Alice M., daughter of William and Pheoba (Olmstead) Silleway of Elmore. Two children have blessed their union : George G., and Ethel Glee.

MOULTON.

MOULTON, CLARENCE F., of West Randolph, son of Horace and Lncy (Smith) Moulton, was born in Randolph, March 11, 1837.

He spent the early years of his life on the farm, and in the intervals of agricultural toil he attended the common schools of Ran- dolph and later the New London Literary and Scientific Institute, where he received his preparatory instruction for Dartmonth College, from which he graduated in the class of 1863. Soon after his graduation he went to New York and entered the office of Austin Corbin & Co., bankers. After this he became a partner in the mercantile house of Clapp, Braden & Co., importers of millinery, having also the charge of Mr. Clapp's private estate and acting as guardian for his minor nephews and nieces, after his death. In 1877 he became a member of the firm of A. F. Roberts & Co., commission merchants in flour and grain. He now became the pro- prietor of a seat in the Produce Exchange, and was made a director of the Hanover Fire Insurance Co., of New York. He is also a member of the New York Consolidated Exchange, but his early fondness for the soil of Vermont brought Mr. Moulton back to the scenes of his boyhood and youth. In 1882 he bought the place where he now resides.

CLARENCE F. MOULTON.

Mr. Moulton was united in marriage in 1875, to Annie J., daughter of Addison F. and Mary (Sherman) Roberts. Three chil-

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dren have been born to them : Sherman Rob- erts, Horace Freeman, and Desier Clapp.

In his political affiliations Mr. Moulton is a Republican, but he has never been an act- ive partisan in public affairs, since he has devoted his active energies to business and his leisure to reading and social enjoyment.

Mr. Moulton is one of the proprietors and the secretary of the Green Mountain Stock Farm Co., an establishment which must be seen to be fully appreciated. Here a plant has been erected, with every detail and appointment perfected, regardless of ex- pense, and a magnificent herd of nearly three hundred registered Jerseys are kept under ideally perfect conditions with respect to feed and care. The result is butter of great perfection, which was found worthy to take the gold medal at the Paris Exposition, 1889, also the gold medal at the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893.

MUNSON, LOVELAND, of Manchester, son of Cyrus and Lucy (Loveland) Munson, was born in Manchester, July 21, 1843.

The first ancestor of Mr. Munson to be- come a resident of Vermont was Jared Mun- son, who emigrated from Lanesboro, Mass., in 1778 and settled on a portion of the land on which Manchester village now stands. His son Rufus was born in 1762 and accom- panied his father to Manchester, where he died at the early age of thirty-five in 1797. Cyrus Munson, son of Rufus, was born in Manchester, Jan. 22, 1790, and was twice married. His first wife, to whom he was married on the 10th of August, ISII, was Catherine Walker, who died in 18 On the 16th of November, 1841, he married Lucy, daughter of Deacon Asa Loveland. Mr. Munson led the life of a quiet, industrious farmer, was honored by election to different town offices, and died on the Ist of October, 1857.

Loveland Munson received a good acad- emical education. Choosing the legal pro- fession, he began the study of law in 1862 in the office of Elias B. Burton. Admitted to the bar of Bennington county in June, 1866, he at once entered into copartnership with his former preceptor. The firm of Bur- ton & Munson, while it continued, had a good practice, as did afterward its junior member when alone.

Mr. Munson occupied for many years a prominent place in the political affairs of the state. About 1866 he was elected member and afterward chairman of the Republican county committee and served as such for several years. After his selection for this position he was made chairman of the Re- publican district committee, and was con- tinued in this for several years. From 1863 to 1866 Mr. Munson edited the Manchester

MUNSON.

Journal and his interest in literature he has always kept alive. In 1882 he delivered an excellent address on "The Early History of Manchester" which was afterward published. From 1866 to 1873 he was town clerk of Manchester, and in the latter year declined further election because of the pressure of professional pursuits. From December, 1866, to December, 1876, he was register of pro- bate for the district of Manchester. He was a member of the famous Constitutional Con- vention of 1870.

In 1872 Mr. Munson entered the Vermont Legislature as the representative of the town of Manchester. During the session of that year he served on the committees on the judiciary and on railroads, and also on a special joint committee appointed to inves- tigate the affairs of the Central Vermont R. R. The latter assembled after the ad- journment of the Legislature and made its report to the Governor. Again elected to the House in 1874, he served in the session following as chairman of the judiciary com- mittee. He received a large vote for the speaker's chair in competition with Judge H. H. Powers. In 1878 he represented Bennington county in the Senate, and re- ceiving the honor of an election to the presi- dency pro tem, was for that reason excused from all committee service, except that on rules, of which committee he was chairman. Mr. Munson was again returned to the House in 1882, and by the action of his friends was made a candidate for the speak- ership against Hon. J. L. Martin, but the lat- ter was elected. At this session he was chair- man of the general committee and was also a member of the judiciary committee. His sound sense and absolute sincerity gave him the leadership on the floor of the two Houses in which others carried off the honors of the speakership. Strong in debate, his speeches uniformly commanded the close and respect- ful attention of his colleagues, and almost always their hearty support of measures ad- vocated by him.

In May, 1883, he received the appoint- ment of judge of probate for the district of Manchester, succeeding Judge Ranney How- ard, deceased.

He was appointed by Governor Ormsbee in 1887 chairman of a committee authorized by the Legislature of 1886 to revise and re- draft the school laws and incorporate with their revision new features to improve the schools and present the same in the form of a bill. The bill so drafted with some few changes, became the school law enacted in TSSS.

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Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 75

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