USA > Vermont > Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont > Part 9
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He moved to South Hero, about 1783, where he engaged in farming, blacksmithing, tavern-keeping, and finally shipping oak lum- ber to Quebec. In 1792 he made a tour of the then unsettled territories of Ohio and
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Michigan, in company with a party of friendly Indians, and was absent nearly a year on the trip. He represented the town from 1788 to '92, was a justice of peace, and its leading citizen. He was a member of the convention in 1791 that voted for admission to the Union. He moved to Burlington in 1800, where he opened a tavern near the south wharf, which he conducted until his death, March 26, 1806, at the age of sixty- three.
Ile is described in personal appearance by D. W. Dixon, his best biographer, as : " Of medium height, with a large head, in which the perceptive faculties were very prominent ; black-eyed, dark-featured, deep-chested, and endowed with more than ordinary physical strength and activity." In religion he was a Calvinist, in politics a Hamilton Federalist. He was in many respects a remarkable man. Nature had infused into him a vigor and vi- vacity of mind which in a measure supplied the deficiencies of his education. Courage, enterprise, and perseverance were the first characteristics of his mind. His disposition was frank and generous, though he possessed a combative temperament.
THE ROBINSON FAMILY.
ROBINSON, SAMUEL .- The acknowl- edged leader of the band of pioneers who settled Bennington, and almost a controlling authority among them, was the progenitor of the most remarkable among a number of Vermont families prolific of public useful- ness-a family that has in the past century furnished two Governors, two United States. senators, six judges of one degree and an- other, the acknowledged leaders of the Demo- cratic party in the state in three different generations, and United States marshals, generals, colonels, state's attorneys, town clerks, etc., almost without computation.
The family had a heritage of brains and power, tracing its descent from Rev. John Robinson, the father of the Puritans in Eng- land in 1620, and pastor of the Pilgrims be- fore they sailed from Holland in the May- flower, and being allied by marriage with the ancestry of Governor Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut.
Samuel Robinson, born at Cambridge, Mass., in 1705, came to Vermont from Hard- wick, Mass.
He had been a captain of Massachusetts troops through several campaigns in the vicinity of Lake George and Champlain in the French and Indian war.
He was the first justice of the peace com- missioned by Governor Wentworth in the Grants and the first clash between New York and New Hampshire authority was be-
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fore him. It arose over the case of two claimants in Pownal. He took the New Hampshire side and he and Samuel Ashley, a New Hampshire deputy sheriff, were arrested and taken to Albany jail in consequence and occasioning acrimonious correspondence between the two Governors; but the affair ended in a compromise and though Robin- son and Ashley were indicted for resisting New York officers, they were never brought to trial. He was deputed by the settlers in
1765 to go to New York and try to save their lands from the city speculators to whom Lieutenant-Governor Colden was making Grants with lavish hand, but his efforts were unavailing. He was, in 1766, sent as an agent for the settlers to England to present their case to the ministry, and the mission was making very favorable progress towards success when he was taken with smallpox and suddenly died in London, Oct. 27, 1767. His eldest son, Col. Samuel Robinson, born at Hardwick, August 15, 1738, was active in the controversy over the grants, was elected one of the town committee to succeed his father, commanded one of the Benning- ton companies in the battle of Bennington, and during the war rose to the rank of colonel. He was, in 1777 and 1778, "overseer of the Tory prisoners" and in 1779 and 1780 rep- resented the town in the General Assembly and was a member of the board of war. He was the first justice appointed in town under Vermont authority, in 1778, and was one of the judges of the special court for the south shire of the county, and, as such, presided at the trial of Redding. He was a generous and large-minded man, upright, enterprising, kindly in manner and of decided natural ability and ready courage. Another son, Gen. David Robinson, born at Hardwick, Nov. 22, 1754, was a major-general of the state militia, an active and energetic man of his time and United States marshal for eight years up to 1818. He fought as a private in the battle of Bennington, rising by regular promotion to the place of major-general, which he resigned in 1817. He was sheriff of the county for twenty-two years ending with 18II. He died Dec. 12, 1843, at the age of eighty-nine. His wife was Sarah, daughter of Stephen Fay, who bore him three sons. One of these, Stephen, was a member of the General Assembly several years, a judge of the county court, and a member of the council of censors in 1834. He died in 1852, at the age of seventy-one.
ROBINSON, GOV. MOSES .- The first chief justice of the state, Governor and one of her first senators, the close friend of Jefferson and Madison, and one of the leaders of the Democracy of that day, was the second son of Samuel Robinson, Sr., born at
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Hardwick, Mass., March 20, 1741. Lanmann says he was educated at Dartmouth. He was elected Bennington's clerk at the first meeting of the town in March, 1762, and kept its records for nineteen years. In the early part of 1777 he was a colonel of militia, and was at the head of his regiment on Mount Independence when Ticonderoga was evacuated by St. Clair. Then he be- came a member of the council of safety which held continuous sessions for several months. He was also on the Governor's council for eight years, to October, 1785. He was in the secret of the Haldimand negotiation from the beginning, was one of the signers of the certificate which was drawn up to protect the fame of Chittenden, and Allen and Fay, in 1781, and all through the infant troubles of the new state, had the confidence of the leaders and fathers, and was one of the shrewd advisers of this criti- cal period, though his position was such that he could not take an active part. For, on the first organization of the state, he was ap- pointed chief justice, a position which he held, except one year, until 1789, when in a temporary breeze of dissatisfaction he was elected Governor for a single term. But as the issues were purely local and personal, and bore no relation to national politics, with which, of course, Vermont had no in- terest while outside the Union, he cannot be said to have been the first Democratic Governor-an honor which belongs to Israel Smith as a matter of fact, though in point of power of leadership Jonas Galusha must be called the first of his time. The causes of the overturn of this year are explained in the sketch of Governor Chittenden. The vote of the freemen stood 1,263 for Chittenden, 746 for Robinson, 478 for Samuel Safford, and 378 for all others. The choice, in the failure of any one to get a majority, therefore went to the Legislature, and the opposition to Chittenden concentrated on Robinson, and elected him.
In 1782 Judge Robinson was sent to the Continental Congress as one of the agents of the state, and he was one of the commissioners that finally adjusted the controversy with New York. In 1791 he was chosen by the Legis- lature with Stephen Bradley Senator to Con- gress. He was very active with the then young Republicans in opposition to the rati- fication of the Jay treaty, not only in Con- gress but in procuring public meetings in his town and county to condemn it, as a part of the campaign of popular agitation organized all over the country against the measures of the Federalists that finally drove that party from power. The Senator had the vigorous support of his town and county for his politi- cal views, but when satisfied that he was in a fixed and definite minority in the state, in
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obedience to his democratic views of duty, he resigned his position as Senator in Octo- ber, 1796, a few months before the expiration of his term, and was succeeded by Isaac Tichenor, who had then become the Fed vralist leader.
This closed his public career, with the ex- ception of one term in the General Assembly in 1802. He died May 26, 1813, at the age of seventy-two.
Senator Robinson was a man of profound piety and Democracy, and he had no diffi- culty in making these convictions mix, though it was the general belief of New En- gland that they were antipodal. He was an ardent sympathizer with the French Revolu- tion, because he believed in the rights of man, and even if French republicans were infidels and went to the most extravagant length in blasphemy, it was, to his view, no argument for the rights of kings. Many news- paper squibs were fired at him in after years because of an occurence in 1791, when Jeffer- son and Madison, making a horseback trip through New England, stopped with him at Bennington over one Sunday. The senator who never failed to attend divine worship when possible, took them to church, and proud, as country people were apt to be in those days of the church choir, insisted on getting their opinion of it, and how it com- pared with church music in other churches and places, whereupon, it was said, both had to admit that they were no judges, as neither of them had attended any church for several years. The yarn of course was designed to injure him politically with the intolerant people with whom he mixed and to discredit him as deacon of the church, as he was from 1789 to the time of his death. But though Moses Robinson might and doubtless did regret Jefferson's tendency to free religious views, it did not abate one jot his admira- tion of that man's great work for humanity's progress, or friendly association with him in working towards high ideals of government.
This union of piety and Democracy is finely expressed in his address on retiring from the Governor's chair in 1790, so free from the slightest accent of jealousy, so cor- dial towards his successful rival, so unaffect- edly obedient to the popular wish, that it de- serves to be preserved as a gem in our political literature. After alluding to his own election the year previous, and his conscious- ness that he had faithfully discharged his duty and executed his trust, he added : " It appears from the present election that the freemen have given their suffrages in favor of His Excellency Governor Chittenden. I heartily acquiesce in the choice, and shall, with the greatest satisfaction, retire to private life, where I expect to enjoy that peace
which naturally results from a consciousness of having done my duty.
"The freemen have an undoubted right when they see it for the benefit of the com- munity to call forth their citizens from be- hind the curtain of private life and make them their mlers, and for the same reason to dismiss them at pleasure and elect others in their place. This privilege is essential to all free and to republican governments. As a citizen I trust I shall ever feel for the in- terest of the state ; the confidence the free- men have repeatedlly placed in me ever since the first formation of government, lays me under additional obligations to promote their true interest.
" Fellow-citizens of the Legislature, I wish you the benediction of Heaven in the prose- cution of the important business of the pres- ent session ; that all your consultations may terminate for the glory of God and the inter- est of the citizens of this state, and that both those in public and private life may so con- duct in the several spheres in which God in his providence shall call them to act, so that, when death shall close the scene of life, we may each of us have the satisfaction of a good conscience and the approbation of our Judge."
Governor Robinson became very wealthy with the progress of the state and was cor- respondingly generous in his gifts for the cause of religion.
He was really the father of the Congrega- tional church at Bennington, and it is related of him that when people came to Benning- tan to purchase land, he would invite them to his house over night, contrive to learn their religious views and if they were not good Congregationalists persuade them to settle in Shaftsbury or Pownal, in both of which he was also a proprietor. So strong a bent did he and his associates give to the religious opinion of the community that up to 1830 there was only one house of public worship in the town.
His sunset days were of almost ecstatic hope and beauty. One of those present at his death, the wife of Gen. David Robinson, said of the scene: "If I could feel as he did, it would be worth ten thousand worlds."
Governor Robinson married for his first wife Mary, daughter of Stephen Fay, and after her death, Susannah Howe. He left six sons by his first wife, to show the effects of blending the patriotic blood of Robinson and Fay. Moses, the eldest, was a member of the council in 1814, and was repeatedly, in 1819-'20-'23 representative in the General Assembly. He was, in opposition to nearly all the rest of the family, a Federalist in poli- tics, and repeatedly that party's candidate for councilor, being defeated once only by the omission of " Jr." from his name. Aaron, the
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second, was town clerk seven years, justice of the peace twenty-three years, representative in the Legislature in 1816-'17, and judge of probate in 1835-'36. Samuel, the third, was clerk of the Supreme Court for the county from 1794 to 1815, and Nathan, another son, a lawyer, who died at the age of forty, repre- sented the town in 1803.
ROBINSON, JONATHAN,-The young- est son of Samuel, Sr., brother of the pre- ceding, and, like him, chief justice of the Supreme Court and United States Senator, was born at Hardwick, August 11, 1756, came to Bennington with his father in 1761, and was admitted to the bar in 1796. He was town clerk for six years beginning with 1795, town representative thirteen times be- fore 1802, and chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1801 to 1807. In the latter year the triumph of the Jeffersonians in at last defeating Tichenor and electing Israel Smith Governor, seven years after they had got control of the rest of the government, neces- sitated the latter's resignation of his seat in the Senate, and Judge Robinson was chosen to succeed him, and in 1809 he was also elected for another term closing in 1815. He was in Federal relations the political master of the state during this time, had a controll- ing influence in the distribution of the army and other patronage of the administration, which was very great during the war of 1812, and he handled it with much shrewdness as well as care for the public interest. He had not the remarkable power of his great com- peer, Jonas Galusha, to make a permanent impress on the thought of his time, but he was an astute and far-seeing leader. He more closely resembled his great competitor in county politics, and his successor in the Senate, Isaac Tichenor, in his popular man- ners and facility of leadership ; and, as with Tichenor, there was a strong leaven of faith- fulness to duty and an underlying strength of character and solidity of ability, that made the ultimate basis of success. He had the ear and confidence of President Madison to an extent that few men had.
After his retirement from the Senate, like many other great Vermonters, he found it not beneath his dignity to serve the people in other stations to which they called him. He was elected judge of probate in October, 1815, and held the position for four years, and again represented the town in 1818, be- ing prominent in the discussion over the proposed constitutional amendment for the real democratic plan for the choice of presi- dential electors by districts. He died Nov. 3, 1819, at the age of sixty-three.
He married into another noted Vermont family, his wife being Mary, daughter of John Fassett. One of their sons, Jonathan
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E., a lawyer, was town clerk nine years and judge of county court in 1828 and died in 1831. Another, Henry, was paymaster in the army, clerk in the pension office, briga- dier-general of militia, and for ten years clerk of the county and supreme court. He died in 1856.
ROBINSON, JOHN S .- Son of Nathan, and grandson of Gov. Moses Robinson, a Democratic leader in the last generation and the only Democratic Governor of the state for more than half a century, was born at Bennington Nov. 10, 1804. He graduated at Williams in 1824, and was admitted to the bar in 1827. A man of brilliant parts, he rapidly rose to the front rank of his profes- sion and was well adapted for a political career like that of the other great men of the name but for the fact that the movement of the times had left his party in a hopeless minority in the state. He twice represented the town in the lower House of the Legisla- ture and was twice a state senator. He was repeatedly the Democratic candidate for Congress in his district. There was a serious split in the organization growing out of the Free Soil movement of 1848, and continuing for several years until it merged into the Liberty or later the Republican party. In 185 1 he was the candidate of the minority element, receiving 6,686 votes to 14,950 for Timothy P. Redfield, the regular Demo- cratic candidate, and 22,676 for Charles K. Williams, Whig. The next year the Demo- crats made him their regular candidate, and with a temporary increase of strength for the Liberty party which cast 9,446 votes for Law- rence Brainerd, there was a failure to elect by the people, Robinson having 14,938 votes and Erastus Fairbanks, Whig, 23,795, and the choice was by the Legislature, which elected Fairbanks.
The next year the enactment of prohibi- tion had stirred things up a good deal, and given the Democrats renewed hope, they made Robinson their candidate again, and the result of the election was 20,849 for Fair- banks, 18,142 for Robinson, and 8,291 for Brainerd, again throwing the choice to the Legislature where Robinson was elected. But it was only a year's triumph. It was the period of political breakup over the slavery issue, and of the foundation of the new Repub- lican party. In July of the next summer, Brainerd presided over the first Republican state convention, and that fall was sent to the United States Senate. The polls in Sep- tember showed the dropping out of the Liberty party, and except some 1,600 scat- tering votes among various candidates, the issue was between the two leading parties, and Stephen Royce was elected Governor by
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DEWEY.
a vote of 27,926 to 15,081 for the Demo crats.
Governor Robinson, however, remained an active Democrat, and in 1860 was chairman of the Vermont delegation to the National Democratic convention at Charleston, S. C., but was stricken with apoplexy while in that city, and died there the 24th of that month.
Governor Hall, so long his rival, profes- sionally and politically, pays tribute to his "legal attainments and high order of talent," and adds: "Generous of heart, amiable in disposition, and with integrity undoubted, he, by his uniform courtesy and kindness, endeared himself to all with whom he had business or intercourse."
Governor Robinson wedded, in October, 1847, Juliette Staniford, widow of William Robinson. He left no children.
ROWLEY, THOMAS .- The first poet of the Green Mountains, a public favorite, trusty patriot, and something of a statesman, a soldier, legislator and judge, was born in Hebron, Conn., and came to Danby in 1769, was its first town clerk serving for nine years until in 1778, and then, on the organi- zation of the state government was its first representative in the General Assembly and also for the next two years. Through the troublous times of the Green Mountain Boys' resistance to New York and the Revolution he was generally chairman of Danby's com- mittee of safety and while in the Legislature he served on the most important commit- tees, and was the draftsman of their bills. He was in the convention of 1777 that de- clared independence and framed the con- stitution.
But it was as a poet that he rendered his memorable service to Vermont. His verses were everywhere sung through the state as an inspiration to the settlers and the Green Mountain Boys. And they were just fitted, with their homely vigor of phrase, their sympathy with the wild romance of nature about them, their heat of intense conviction of right and their scoring of the speculators after their homes, to stir the people on the Grants deeply. They were indeed the fit complement of Ethan Allen's vehement elo- quence in prose. They were mostly given out impromptu, many of them never com- mitted to paper at all, and only a few and imperfect fragments have been brought down to the present; but with all their roughnesses of meter and expression, even after the struggle that made the soul of them had passed, it is easy to see that there was wit and genius in them. He was always versifying, and some specimens on religious, moral and family topics have been preserved, but though they contain some diamonds of
poetic thought, they lack the fire that even now can be felt in his effusions,
He lived at Rutland for a while and was first judge of the special court for that county. After the Revolutionary war he moved to Shoreham, where he had before lived for a year, and was also the first town clerk and first justice of the peace of that town. About the year 1800 he went to Ben- son to live with his son Nathan and died there in 1803.
He was regarded as a man of sound judg- ment and ability, as well as a wit and poet. He was intensely religions, a Wesleyan in his views. In appearance he is described as "of medium height, rather thick set, rapid in his movements, with light eyes, sprightly and piercing, indicating rapidity of percep- tion, and sometimes the facetions poetic faculty ; yet he was generally a sedate and thoughtful man."
DEWEY, REV. JEDEDIAH,-Son of Jede- diah and Rebecca Dewey, was born in West- field, Mass., April 11, 1714, married Mindwell Hayden of Windsor, Conn., August 4, 1736, and removed to Bennington from Westfield, Mass. Died December 21, 1778.
"The Records and Memorials of a Cen- tury," edited by Rev. Isaac Jennings, show that Mr. Dewey was the first minister and also the first school teacher in the state. He was a patriot with a profound interest in the future prosperity of the infant settlement where he had cast his lot, and took a promi- nent part in the controversy originating from the disputes concerning the land titles of the New Hampshire Grants. His correspondence with Governor Tryon, of New York, demon- strated that his influence was weighty in put- ting an end to the struggle by peaceful negotiation. Rev. Mr. Dewey preached the war sermon previous to the battle of Ben- nington, charging his congregation to go forth and fight for their native land. On the following Saturday the battle of Bennington was fought and won. His son, Capt. Elijah Dewey, was on the field in command of the infantry company from Bennington, and every history of Vermont relates how well he discharged his duty on that occasion.
It is related in "Jennings' History of Ver- mont," that at the public divine service of thanksgiving for the capture of Ticonderoga, many officers being present, among whom was Ethan Allen, Mr. Dewey preached and made the prayer, in which he gave to God all the glory and praise of the capture of that strong- hold. Ethan Allen, in the midst of the prayer called out, "Parson Dewey," "Parson Dewey," "Parson Dewey." At the third pronunciation of his name Mr. Dewey paused and opened his eyes, when Allen raised both hands and exclaimed, "Please mention to
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the Lord about my being there," to which the parson replied, "Sit down thou bold blasphemer, and listen to the word of God," and it is a matter of record in the Walloomsac Valley that the hero of Ticonderoga quietly resumed his seat.
FASSETT, CAPTAIN JOHN. - One of the most useful and constantly employed of the public men of the state's formative period, was born in Hardwick, Mass., June 3, 1743 ; the son of Captain Fassett, who came to Bennington in 1761, became an innholder and captain of the first military company formed in town, and was the town's repre- rentative in the first Vermont Legislature. John Fassett came to Bennington with his father. He was lieutenant in Warner's first regiment in 1775, and captain in Warner's second in 1776. In 1777 he was one of the commissioners of sequestration, and with Governor Chittenden and Matthew Lyon successful in subduing the Tories of Arling- ton. He was elected Representative of Arlington in the General Assembly for 1778 and 1779, and for Cambridge in 1787 and 1788, 1790 and 1791 ; though in 1779, 1787 and 1788 and 1790 and 1791 he was also elected councilor. He served in each office portions of the time. He was a member of the Council in 1779 and until 1795, with the exception of 1786, fifteen years. He was judge of the Superior Court from its organ- ization in 1778 until 1786, eight years ; and chief judge of Chittenden county court from 1787 until 1794, seven years.
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