USA > Vermont > Windham County > Guilford > Official history of Guilford, Vermont, 1678-1961. With genealogies and biographical sketches > Part 17
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Grand List-1812: A summary of the General List of Guilford for the year 1812 is as follows:
$2780.
139 polls at $20 each, 2722 acres of improved land at $1.75, Houses, assessed in the whole at
8263.50 581.
289 oxen, at $10 each,
2890.
1271 cows and other cattle of 3 years old, at $6.50,
8261.50
600 cattle of 2 years old, at $5,
3000.
289 horses of 3 years old & upwards, at $13.50,
3901.50
38 horses & mules of 2 years old, at $6.50,
247.
30 horses & mules of 1 year old, at $3.50,
105.
2 stallions, at $150,
300.
10 clocks, at $10,
100.
1 gold watch,
10.
27 common watches, at $5,
135.
Money on hand and debts due, $10,900. at 6%,
654.
Pleasure carriages, assessed in the whole at
240.
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Mills and machines,
Merchants, Attorneys, Practitioners of Physic and
135.
Surgery, Mechanics, etc., assessed at
385.
$31,988.50
Deduct for 38 minors, subject to military duty, equipped by parents & guardians, $20 each, 760.
Deduct property owned by ministers, 166.25 926.25
List for town & county taxes, $31,062.25
Deduct 25 horses of cavalry, exempt from state taxes, at $13.50, 337.50
$30,724.75
Balance, being true list for state taxes,
Willard Martin, Ezra Fitch, Roger Aldrich, Listers.
Masons-Columbian Lodge: In 1812, a petition of nineteen Master Masons, residents of Guilford and Brattleboro, was presented to Grand Master John Chipman, requesting a dispensation authorizing the constitution of a Masonic lodge, meetings to be held in Guilford and Brattleboro, under the name of Columbian Lodge. The dispensation was granted May 5, 1812. The organization was perfected, and meet- ings held in Guilford until December 20, 1814; then for five years, un- til November 30, 1819, they were held in Brattleboro, after which time, the new tavern, or Broad Brook House having been recently erected, in Guilford, the meetings were held there for the next five years, up to Nov. 24, 1824, after which the meetings were held in Brattleboro. The early meetings were probably held at the residence of some Guil- ford member, among whom were Abiram Kingsbury, Almerin Tinker, Elisha Chase, Elihu Field, Jr., John W. Blake, Nahum Cutler, Rodney Burt, Quartus Smead, Aaron Barney and Joseph Boyden.
Kingsbury was the first senior warden, and Tinker first junior warden, and twenty six members were present at the first meeting, with a few visiting members. The number of the Old Lodge was 34 and during its seventeen years as No. 34 Columbian Lodge had nine worshipful masters, Lemuel Whitney, Samuel Clark, Elihu Field, Artemas Robbins, Aaron Barney, Emerson Burnham, Dana Hyde, Jr., Ariel Root, John Hodson. After the meeting in December, 1829, the lodge became inactive, and was declared extinct, Jan. 10, 1849. In January, 1856 the grand lodge authorized the establishment of Co- lumbian Lodge, No. 36, which has since had a large and enthusiastic
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membership, largely Brattleboro residents, but including a goodly number of the citizens of neighboring towns.
Vermont Poets: A Vermont poet who can get his works published in Great Britain would be considered prominent in these days. Yet several of our earliest singers, whom we of today look down upon as "dead ones", achieved that distinction, and at least two of them have local connection. Thomas Green Fessenden was one of these, and Henry Denison, a mere boy, was another.
Denison had a romantic and interesting career, though pathetic. There was romance in the family. George Denison, his ancestor, born at Stratford, England, in 1620, went to New England in 1631 with his parents and married about 1640. His wife was Bridget Thompson, who died in 1643 leaving two daughters, Sarah and Hannah. Among Bridget Thompson's descendants was Admiral George Dewey of re- cent fame. George Denison went back, after his wife's death, to Eng- land where he served as a soldier in the Civil War for about a year. He was in the battle Marston Moor, being wounded and taken pris- oner, July 2, 1644. At his release he betook himself to Ireland, to the home of John Borrodell of Cork, and here he was nursed back to health by Borrodell's charming daughter, Lady Anne. After his con- valescence he married the fair nurse receiving with her a dowry of as many pounds of gold as her weight, which was exactly ninety pounds. She was a woman of gentle charm, beauty and exalted character, and, as the little Irish maid, she has come down to posterity in a halo of glamor. She and Denison moved to America, settling finally at Mystic, Conn., where the old family homestead, known as Pequotsepos, is still held by her descendants. This thrifty maid brought over from Ireland the seeds of the Denison redding apple, a most delicious fruit, small and deep red, which is still raised in the neighborhood of Stonington. She was three years older than George Denison, and her portrait (which has come down to posterity) shows sweet brown eyes and an abundance of brown hair caught up with combs as was the fashion of the day. In the Guilford and Leyden families of Denison was in- herited a little ring of Lady Anne's passed down over 280 years, usu- ally to a daughter of the same name and this heirloom is yet held by a lineal scion of the Lady Anne.
George Denison was Deputy to the general assembly of Connecti- cut for 15 sessions and he died in 1694, the Lady Anne surviving till September 26, 1712, aged 97. Their oldest son was John Denison, born in Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1646. Henry Denison, the poet, was born in Guilford, Vermont, May 31, 1795, the son of Gilbert (fifth in de- scent from George Denison above). His mother was Huldah Palmer. The Denisons were neighbors and friends of Royal Tyler and his fam-
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ily and in 1811 young Henry and Royal Tyler, Jr. entered the Uni- versity of Vermont as students. Young Tyler was a year older than Henry and unfortunately died in 1814, a year before the boys were to graduate. The War of 1812, too, seriously interfered with instruction at the college, as troops were stationed in the administration build- ings; recitations being suspended on this account, there was no graduating class in 1815. Young Denison wrote an ode to the memory of his classmate on the latter's untimely death. He spent one season at Williams College, but, obeying the then prevalent mania for spec- ulation in Georgia land, which Royal Tyler so wittily hit off in his comedy, The Georgia Spec, or Land in the Moon, he embarked in the winter of 1816-17 for Savannah. Here he stayed about a year, in what occupation no one knows, but late in the summer of 1819 he went to Milledgeville, Ga. where he established a weekly newspaper, The Georgia Republican, the first issue of which appeared in September of that year. No copy of this newspaper is known to be extant, but he was in partnership with Walter Jones, the firm name being Jones and Denison. Denison died October 31, 1819, before the periodical had been fairly established and the publishing plant was taken over by other hands.
Meanwhile Israel K. Tefft, of Smithfield, R. I., who had gone to Georgia the same year as Denison, became in 1821 the editor of the Savannah Georgian. Being interested in Denison's literary produc- tions, he issued proposals in 1822 for the publication of "the miscel- laneous productions of the late Henry Denison." For some reason, however, his plans came to nothing, and eventually the manuscripts were sent to the editor of the "Coronal," a literary sheet then issued at Greenock, Scotland. This editor "promised their publication early in the year of 1824." It was not until 1829 . . seven years after for- warding the originals ... that Tefft received "a large number of copies" of a little book of 300 pages, "The Columbian Lyre: or Speci- ments of Transatlantic Poetry, embracing selections from the Writings of Percival, Brooks, and other poets of the United States of America" (Glasgow, 1828). Fifty-six pages were devoted to Denison's poetry, and to a sketch of his life that had been furnished by Tefft. The latter inserted an advertisement to the American subscribers, in which he complained that "not one half of the manuscripts forwarded had been printed" and that among the omissions were some of Denison's finest pieces.
This little book is now very rare. A copy is owned by Billings Li- brary at U.V.M. and another by the library of Brown University. It contains much juvenile matter, but also some few promising composi- tions, such as the short poems, Care and Life, an ode To Melancholy, a poem on The Miseries of Authors and, last and perhaps best, his
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Official History of Guilford
lyric To Ianthe. The value of Denison's literary achievements to pos- terity is indeed negligible; but the human interest value of his short and aborted career is still interesting, as showing the eternal uncer- tainty of even the most promising young life.
Writers who have been Guilford residents include the following:
Jonathan Carver was a descendant of Robert Carver who settled at Marshfield, Mass. prior to 1636. He married Abigail, daughter of Nathaniel and Phebe (Sevine) Robbins. He saw much service in the French and Indian War, and traveled about the headwaters of the Mississippi. He spent several years examining the country about Lake Superior and was granted 14000 sq. miles by the Nandowisse tribe. He went to London where his book "Carver's Travels" was published in 1778 in about twenty editions. A copy of his rare book of travels is in the possession of his descendants, the Gale family.
Hon. James Elliot, born in Glouster, Mass., was employed in a Guilford store in 1790. After serving during campaigns in Pennsyl- vania and Ohio, he returned to Guilford Aug. 23, 1796. He was a member of Congress, states' attorney for Windham county and clerk of County Court. In 1798 James published a volume called "The Poetical and Miscellaneous Works of James Elliot, Citizen of Guilford, Vermont, and late a Non-Commissioned Officer in the Legion of the United States." The book contained twenty-five short essays called "The Rural Moralist" most of which had previously been published in the "New England Galaxy." The following poem of James Elliot was written in 1798.
LINES TO ROYALL TYLER. (Author of the first American Play)
O THOU! My early and my constant friend! In thee the fruits of early knowledge shine; In thee the graces and the virtues blend- A soul sincere and feeling heart are thine.
In thee has nature various powers displayed; Art, eloquence and taste, alike to grace The bar, the senate, or the studious shade, To wield the sword, or tread the walks of peace.
On thee long may the rays of science fall, And in thy life and writings greatly glow. Long be thy useful life-and thine be all The bliss that conscious virtue can bestow!
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Official History of Guilford
Be thine, throughout life's variegated year The meed of genious and the poet's bays; And in thy autumn may bright suns appear, To gild the happy winter of thy days!
William Marsh came to Guilford from Killingly, Conn., about 1768. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He was the author of a small book of poems, the title page of which reads:
A FEW SELECT POEMS, COMPOSED ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS ESPECIALLY ON THE DOCTRINE OF FREE GRACE BY WILLIAM MARSH
to which is added an ELEGY
on the death of his two sons Printed for the Author By Thomas Dickman, Greenfield MDCCXCIV
The following is representative of Marsh's work.
POEM I. An Acrostical Poem. Almighty God, grant us thy love, Forgive thy sinful race; Eternal spirit, holy dove, We need thy quickening grace.
Pity the nations, O our God; Of this degenerate day, Enlarge their hearts to seek the Lord, My soul doth humbly pray.
Send forth the blessed holy dove, With all his quickening power; Rain mightily refreshening love, On barren souls a shower.
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Official History of Guilford The spirit now does truly call, Eternal be his praise; Bow to his love, ye sinners all, Ye objects of his grace.
Worship the lamb with holy fear, In him are love and light; Let holy reverence now appear, Let Jesus have his right.
In Jesus Christ is all our hope, And there our safety lies; My fainting spirit now looks up My drooping soul revives.
Almighty Savior, Prince of Peace, Redeemer from the curse, Save us from sin, that monstrous beast; Have mercy, Lord on us.
Lead and direct our minds in truth. Immortal holy dove; Visit the wild and simple youth Internally, with love.
Now let us taste of saving grace, Grant us thy quickening rays; Adored spirit, give increase, Then we shall love thy ways.
Grant us a pardon, gracious God, Unite our hearts in love; Inspire our minds to seek the Lord Lest we forever rove.
For we have sinned by consent, Offended too, our king; Redeemer, help us to repent, Deliver us from sin.
One of the poems written by Virgil Blanchard has been described as one of the finest things ever written in or about Guilford. Blanchard was not only a poet-he was also a physician and an inventive genius. It was stated in the notices of him after his death that he had taken out more patents for inventions than any other man in the country except Edison. However he lacked the business ability necessary for
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making his inventions of practical use, and but few proved remunera- tive. Blanchard was the son of Warren and Alvine (Burdick) Blanch- ard and lived near the bridge leading to Weatherhead Hollow during his boyhood.
BROAD BROOK
All hail! The daintiest fairy of the vale; She comes,
Tripping o'er the mossy stones.
Was ever such a queenly grace?
Was ever such a sunny face?
Was ever such a voice to swell,
Like distance peal of silver bell? All hail! She comes, The daintiest fairy of the vale, Tripping o'er the mossy stones.
The flowers
Within a thousand wayside bowers, All seek
To gaze upon her dimpling cheek,
And catch from the entrancing view
The secret of its sunny hue.
And when the magic art is known
To wear its glory in their own. The flowers, Within a thousand wayside bowers All seek To gaze upon her dimpling cheek.
The birds
Their sweetest, tenderest mystic words, In song Are chanting by her path along;
To mingle with her silvery tone
The warbled sweetness of their own,
And catch and trill, o'er hill and plain The silvery cadence of her strain. The birds, In song, Their sweetest, tenderest mystic words Are chanting by her path along.
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Official History of Guilford
It lay, My home in childhood, by her way; And bright I seem to see her form to-night;
Tripping with a dainty air, Down the rocky, mossy stair, Or with stately, queenly mien,
Walking through the meadow green. It lay, And bright, My home in childhood, by her way. I seem to see her form to-night.
Virgil W. Blanchard, M.D. (New York City-1885)
Willard Martin was Town Clerk in 1815-17. This seems to have been the first time that the Town Clerk's office was located in Guilford Center. He lived at the Hunt place, later called the Falby place. His wife was Lucretia Houghton, granddaughter of Widow Lucretia Houghton, the Tavern keeper. It was during his term of office that the town "voted to purchase a Hearse and Harness for same." A hearse was in common use until about 1922. The driver furnished a good pair of horses, usually black, and was for years paid $2.00 for each funeral he attended. By special request the antique hearse was brought out and used at the funeral of Fred Taft in 1926 and again for his sister Aurelia Taft in 1934.
Hon. Richard Whitney was born in Petersham, Mass., in 1776. In 1795, when he was nineteen years of age, he was residing in Guilford, and was then an attorney of the Windham County Court. He was clerk of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1792 until 1798, when he declined a re-election to that office, and was appointed Secretary of the Governor and Council on October 15, 1798, holding that office until 1804. In 1795 he was appointed as a member of a committee to revise the laws, which revision was adopted by the legislature of 1797, and was published in 1798. He was secretary of state in 1806, about which time he removed to Brattleboro, where he practiced law for a time, but finally became mentally deranged and was committed to the care of Mr. Hooker, of Hinsdale, N. H., where he was confined in a house built by the Rev. Bunker Gay, who was the father-in-law of Mr. Hooker.
Insanity, at that period, was very little understood, and the treat- ment to which this unfortunate man was subjected was most extra- ordinary, to use mild language.
A council of physicians was held, and it was decided that if the
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patient could be rendered wholly unconscious for a time, the derange- men would be eliminated, and that he would awaken to a new life, with his normal mental faculties restored. It was therefore arranged to put the patient completely under water for three or four minutes or until fully insensible, then to restore him to consciousness. The plan was carried out, but was unsuccessful. The physicians, believing that they had the correct idea, but had pursued the wrong method, sought to attain their purpose by the use of opium, but Mr. Whitney died under the treatment, upon September 9, 1815, at the age of 39 years and was buried at Hinsdale.
This deplorable incident was not without its fruits, as the widow of Dr. Marsh, impressed, no doubt, by the unfortunate affair, and realizing the need of skilled treatment in such cases, by her last will bequeathed the sum of ten thousand dollars which founded the original Vermont Asylum for the Insane, at Brattleboro.
Hearse House: At the annual town meeting of March 4, 1816 it was voted to raise one hundred dollars for the purchase of a hearse and a harness for the same, and to erect a building to house the same in, and chose Capt. Joshua Lynde and Gen'l Aaron Barney to purchase the same, and to locate and erect the building. On April 16 of that year an order was drawn to Deacon David Stowell for three dollars for a plot of land North of the White Meeting House, adjoining the southeast corner of the burying ground, for the purpose of erecting a hearse house. On May 9th, following, the hearse house being com- pleted, Mr. William Chase received an order for $35 for building the same, it being "east and nigh to the White Meeting House." On June 10th an order was drawn to Eliakim Foster for $18 for a harness for the hearse, and on the same day Artemas and John Gale were paid $40 for a hearse. This was made at East Guilford village, and was the first town hearse in Guilford. It was not covered, being merely a platform on wheels, the coffin being strapped on and covered with a black woolen cloth, or pall. On June 27, following the erection of the hearse house, Lieut. Elisha Chase was paid two dollars for making a chest in the hearse house and finding a lock for the same, "to deposit said town's stock of ammunition."
Land for a hearse house was deeded to the town adjoining N. E. corner of the town house.
A larger hearse house was built later at the present site.
The Guilford Enoch Arden Story: The following is taken from a letter written by the late Mrs. Gertrude S. R. Thayer.
Sally Wilder, daughter of the Revolutionary soldier Aaron Wilder of Guilford, and great grandmother of Mrs. Nancy (Packer) Baker of Attleboro, Mass., first married John Packer, son of Rev. Jeremy
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Official History of Guilford
Packer, who preached in Weatherhead Hollow about 1800. They had three children.
John Packer went to join the Indian Wars in the west, leaving Sally and the children. Not hearing from him for some time he was supposed dead, and his widow married Lovell Bullock 2nd. They lived on the Mineral Springs Farm and had three Bullock children.
After six years John Packer returned. Like Enoch Arden, he looked in the window, saw another group of children, and quietly departed for Ohio. Being legally dead, his widow's remarriage sanctioned by church and state, he did the only thing possible under the circum- stances. It is understood that the resurrected Packer married again in Ohio and raised another family there.
Sally Wilder Packer Bullock died at the age of 102 and is buried at Guilford Center.
The Rock-Rolling on East Mountain: In the summer of 1817 an event took place which was recorded with customary tongue-in-cheek humor by Mr. Gale.
On the ridge of East Mountain, at its highest point, nearly east from the John Lamb farm in Weatherhead Hollow, there once reposed a large granite boulder some five or six feet in diameter. It had been there for untold centuries, a deposit of glacial drift, no doubt. From its lofty bed could be seen old Monadnock, thirty miles to the east, and Sugar Loaf to the south, while closer by was Wildcat Mountain around whose base the Indians passed in 1704 with their captives from the historic Deerfield massacre.
In the spring of 1817 some of the active spirits among the young men of Guilford, conceived the idea of a Fourth of July celebration, the chief feature of which was to be the prying loose of this ancient boulder, which was expected to roll down the westerly side of the mountain with a volume of sound and rate of speed which would discount the average exhibition of thunder and lightning by several points. If a few dozen trees were smashed or rail fences damaged, why timber was cheap and the fun would be worth all it cost, and if the rock did happen to land in Uncle John Lamb's mow lot he probably would not say much, and if he did a couple of dollars would fix things all right. The promoters of the plan organized by appointing David Baker, then some 18 years of age, as captain, and proceeded to give out notice to all who would be likely to come. The day was likely to be hot and the work hard, so it was decided to have a gallon jug of cider brandy, some lemons and muscovado sugar from Willard Martin's store at Guilford Center. These elements being properly mixed with cool water from a spring, well up on the mountainside, would make a most refreshing punch well calculated to lend enthusiasm to the joyous and patriotic occasion.
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Official History of Guilford
The fateful day arrived clear and hot. The invitations had been well extended and the response was most eminently satisfactory. Every family in that part of Guilford was represented, and some unanimously so. The Ashcrafts, the Aldriches, the Wilders, the Bakers, the Burdicks, the Goulds who owned the land where the boulder reposed, the Colgroves and Andrews boys from over east, the Shattucks and Fosters from Beaver Meadows, the Boydens and Jacobs's were not missing, even Josh and Joe Burrows were there, the Billings's from Packers' Corners the Weatherheads, Joe, Jerry and John; John and Art Gale from Algiers. Cal Weld couldn't miss it and Peter Briggs Jr. the only one with a real watch, stood by as official time-keeper.
It was arranged that no work should be done about the bed of the rock until ten o'clock, and that after that hour no person should go up the mountain within fifty rods of the probable path of the descending meteor, and that before beginning the ejectment operations three loud blasts should be sounded upon a monster conch shell, or fog horn which had been brought by one of the settlers from the original Guil- ford on Long Island Sound, and could be heard three miles, at least, when well-blown by a broad-chested Guilfordite.
All was in readiness, the brandy jug was in the cold spring, the lemons and sugar in two great handmade sap buckets nearby. Strong hardwood levers had been cut, skids arranged, the looser dirt and small stones removed from about the boulder, and all the assembled com- pany posted safely on adjacent ledges. The booming horn was sounded with a skill never equalled in King Arthur's day when the safety of the kingdom depended upon the warning of an approaching invader. The solid mass of rock trembled, started slightly, and settled back, loath to leave its long established eyrie, but levers, muscle and de- termination were finally too much for it, its equilibrium was overcome and it toppled over the brink. Such a yell arose!
The rock started slowly, rolled to the left, struck a tree, swerved to the right, turned straight west gaining speed with every revolution, bounded off a ledge, struck the side of huge rock maple with such force that it was thrown wholly off its proper course, and before anyone could realize what its next tangent would be, had achieved a thirty foot leap into the small ravine and completely obliterated the spring, lemons, sugar buckets and jug. The punch was made. It is there yet, at least the boulder is there, although few now living know its history. It is said to have been upon this occasion that the philosophical saying originated, "Well boys, there are just two things you can do, you can either grin and bear it, or bear it and not grin."
Guilford Social Library: Was established in 1790 at East Guilford, and accumulated about 300 volumes. It was well patronized by its founders for twenty-five years, but the interest finally flagged to such an extent that its effects were sold at public auction in 1818. This
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