USA > Vermont > Rutland County > Wallingford > People of Wallingford, a compilation > Part 17
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With her constant joking, Mrs. Hull frequently had the tables turned on her. Usually this pleased her. It had been the custom for the pupils attending school in what is now the Rotary Build- ing to come to the Hull watering-trough and fill a pail from the spout. It was probably in the last year that school was held there that Mrs. Hull saw two boys, one considerably older than the other, coming for a pail of water. She stepped out onto the plat- form and told them she had decided to take toll for the water. Every one who carried any away, would have to kiss her on her cheek. The older boy, Charley Hill (later to become the father of Mrs. Eugene Smith), stepped up and placed his toll on the exact spot on her cheek that she had indicated with the tip of her fore- finger, but when she turned to the other boy, John Miller (later to become the father of Mrs. Harry Townsend) , she found him very red in the face and he blurted out, "I won't do it. You can ask my father." Mrs. Hull never did collect that second toll.
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It was a number of years after this that there came to call a farmer whom Mr. and Mrs. Hull had known a long time. Mr. E- had become quite deaf. He and Mr. Hull talked about life on the farm. When there came a lull in their conversation, Mrs. Hull looked up from her sewing and inquired, "How is your wife, Mr. E -? " and he thinking doubtless that she had asked about a cow, replied, "She was the best one I ever had, such a good milker, but she got unruly and I've had to kill her." Mrs. Hull enjoyed telling that story to her out of town guests for a long time.
After Mr. Hull's death she became very deaf and nothing would have induced her to use one of those long, shiny, black ear trumpets that were the only aids to hearing at that time, so in order to guard herself against ever making a ridiculous answer she changed her manner of living, going about very little and whenever she did go out of town to shop or make a few days' visit, she was always accompanied by a younger person to act as interpreter, and all house guests and callers were invited to sit by her on one of the haircloth sofas that stood in both parlors and in the sitting-room.
She had long since ceased to sew in the evening, but by daylight she was still setting microscopic stitches with perfect regularity in pieces of household linen that have been preserved until this day. This was true up to her 87th year. When visitors commented upon her remarkable eyesight-of course she wore spectacles for sewing, reading and writing-she would recall that her Mother took the best care of her eyes when she was a girl, and relate that when she and her sister Tamasin sewed in the evening they always did so by the light of two candles. In most other homes sisters sewed by the light of one candle.
Mrs. Hull's memory held out as remarkably as her eyesight. She could recite many poems learned in her girlhood, also many riddles. Here is a riddle of the first decade of the 19th Century:
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"My father was a slippery man but he is dead and gone. My Mother was 300 years old the moment I was born. I always lived by sucking, I never ate any bread I was never good for anything until after I was dead.
Then they beat and banged me about, left me nothing but my skin
And then they heckled me until I was ready to spin. Then I grew old and crazy and my constitution thin, They tore me all to pieces and made me over again,
As I went up and down the world some thought I was preaching And everyone that saw me wanted I should teach them."
Mr. and Mrs. Hull were always hospitable people, they lived together nearly fifty years and she lived a score of years more. It seemed that every guest wished to come again. They remained from a week to a year. What a procession they would make if they could pass now in front of the "Hull" house! It is not pos- sible to make any estimate of the number, but we will start the procession with an ex-brother-in-law of Mr. Hull, a professional man, very well to do, who married a widow so well to do that she spent $1000.00 on her trousseau, a large sum for those days. She died as the other wives had, and the ex-brother-in-law lived to come there with a fourth wife, who survived him; and came to visit Mrs. Hull after they were both widows. And so they pass, the rich and the poor, the high and the low, the learned and the ignorant, until at the end of the line we see a poor soul whose only claim to hospitality in the Hull home was that she had been a hired girl there for a short time years before. Now she found herself on the town farm east of the village. She watched for a chance to slip away and catch a ride to the village and appeared at the door, making it apparent she had not come for a call by saying, "Mrs. Hull, if I had as good a home as you have and you hadn't any, I should let you stay." She stayed for a time, although she was not a pleasant guest, and quite a care. Then Mrs. Hull sent word to the poor-master, who came with horse and buggy
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and took the poor soul back to the town farm, where she lived long enough to come again.
Alfred Hull died in the month of March in 1875, after a brief illness. He always thought it was a disgrace to any man to die poor. He left an estate of about $33,000.00.
He had made a will and after the estate was settled, his widow found herself at 79 years the owner of the home farm and a con- siderable amount of invested funds.
She engaged Alphonzo P. Stafford to be her agent and business manager at an annual salary. He was a distant relative, being a son of a first cousin of hers. Mr. and Mrs. Hull had known him from boyhood. He had been very prosperous in his own business-tin shop and hardware-but his health was not good and he had sold out his stock and rented his store several years before. Mrs. Hull made her will as soon as her husband's estate was settled, leaving the largest legacy in trust to her son-in-law, N. T. Sprague, for the one real heir, the granddaughter; small legacies to many rela- tives and friends, then she made Mr. Stafford her residuary legatee and the executor of her will.
Then as now, Vermont people had invested money in the West, and repented later on. Mr. Stafford went the following summer to Iowa and to Missouri to look after these investments, with good results.
He had the oversight of the farm, kept always a good farmer in the house on the side street, attended to the hiring of extra help by the day whenever needed in planting and harvesting time. He went with Mrs. Hull wherever she wished to go, or sent another member of his family. He continued to spend an occasional win- ter in Florida for his health, but never remained away over three months at a time while she lived.
Considerable money was spent in clearing the corner. The cow barn and other small buildings and watering trough for live stock were moved to the rear of the other buildings at the east of
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the house. The corner lot was sown to rye the first summer after. It grew to a great height and when rippled by a breeze was a beautiful and unusual sight on a village street. Another year the small house on the side road was much enlarged. Another small house opposite was purchased and the two-story front part built (Kelley house). The side road was named Hull Avenue, as a re- sult of these improvements.
On a well-managed farm there was always a surplus of food, and through the years Mrs. Hull gave away a great deal. She gave quietly, considerately, wisely. Was there a family who had not been long in town where there were several children and the man was taken sick ? That was a place to take a basket to after nightfall and speak of sickness as an excuse for bringing a large supply of cooked food. Sometimes her offering was received not only with thanks, but an assurance that it had come as an answer to prayer.
Was there an old gentleman living alone in two rooms in what had once been his own home? He was invited to drop in for a meal whenever he felt inclined, and there was always a package of cooked food for him to take home.
Were there two gentlewomen, now in reduced circumstances, keeping house in two rooms furnished with a few pieces of beauti- ful furniture saved when the big house was sold ? That was a place either to go to or send supplies at regular intervals.
Did she hear that a former hired girl who was married and had two children, had fallen and broken a limb? That was a place to be visited at once, taking along supplies, and if she noticed that the children were none too warmly clad, it made pleasant occupa- tion to provide cloth and make garments for them.
Never in this world or the next could it have been said of Rebecca Hull that she had failed to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.
She died in 1885 in her 89th year.
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A few of the anecdotes in this article were related to the writer by "Sarah," when she came to nurse some member of the family the year following Mrs. Hull's death.
The greater part of them were told by Mrs. Hull during the ten years of her widowhood to the girl who sat by her on one of the haircloth sofas in the winter, or in the open doorway in the sum- mer twilight, and listened with unflagging interest to the tales of a far-away time.
Mrs. Hull died in the month of August. By the end of the year the livestock had been sold, the house dismantled. In that house had lived and died eight persons who bore the name of Hull, there eight had been born, there three married. None had achieved fame, none disgraced the name.
Due largely to certain qualities of mind and heart of the last one to pass, it had been for many years a shelter for the homeless, a haven for the unfortunate.
Now the home of the Hulls, maintained on North Main Street for nearly a century, had come to an end.
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X. LYMAN BATCHELLER AND THE PITCHFORK INDUSTRY
LYMAN BATCHELLER was born in Stratton, Vermont, March 20, 1795. He was the youngest son of Jacob Batcheller and Lois Rice of Brookfield, Massachusetts. Jacob moved from Brook- field to Stratton and later to Arlington. He was a farmer and served in the Revolutionary War. Jacob's great-grandfather was one of the jurors in the celebrated Salem Witchcraft trial, and his great-great-grandfather, Honorable Joseph Batcheller, came from Canterbury, England, settling in Salem in 1636. There are numerous transfers of property to Jacob Batcheller on the town records of Arlington which lead to the belief that he was a man of some means and standing in the community.
Lyman grew up in Stratton, which was then, as now, a thinly populated, rural community, offering few advantages. The popu- lation of the township in 1830 was only 312; and it is to be in- ferred that Lyman's opportunities for an education were those offered by the district schools of Stratton, necessarily limited to the simple rudiments. He became a blacksmith and undoubtedly learned his trade from his father, the scales of whose anvil can still be found at the site of his forge on the Stratton farm. On April 11, 1816, at the age of twenty-one, he married Anna Gale in Stratton. Their first son, Isaac Gale, was born February 14th
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of the following year, and soon afterward the family moved to Arlington, a distance of fourteen miles. Arlington is the second town directly west of Stratton, Sunderland lying between. Ar- lington was a more populous town than Stratton and offered bet- ter opportunities for the young blacksmith. The population of Arlington in 1830 was 1,207.
The town records of Arlington show that three years after Ly- man moved there, or to be exact, February 2, 1820, he purchased a parcel of land containing sixty rods and the buildings thereon. When he sold this same parcel of land fourteen years later the buildings standing on it were a dwelling house, blacksmith shop and coal house. Whether all three buildings were there when he purchased it, or whether he erected one of them during his ownership, cannot be stated positively. Presumably the house and blacksmith shop were there when he bought the land. The house is still standing but probably the piazzas are of a late date. It is situated in the center of the village, on the west side of the high- way, at the north corner of a lane leading westward, opposite the road that branches from the highway leading to the railway sta- tion and East Arlington. It is a small house set well back from the street. An old resident, John Conroy, pointed out the location of the blacksmith shop at the northeast corner of the lot, close to the street. Since he remembered the shop, it must have been standing as late as 1865 or 1870.
Lyman probably conducted a general blacksmithing business and occasionally forged pitchforks for the farmers in the vicinity. A fork has been preserved that he made about 1830 and sold to H. Wickham of Pawlet, Vermont, shown facing page 228. It was presented to Batcheller & Sons Company, April 24, 1885, by Mr. Wickham. It would seem from this that he made a special business of forging forks at this time, a business that grew out of his gen- eral blacksmithing. The work must have all been done by hand, for he had no power. This fork that has come down to us is a small
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two-tine, with diamond shaped tines-a beautiful specimen of hand forging-somewhat heavier than forks of the present day.
Lyman had six children: Gale, born in Stratton, Susan C., John C., Laura A., Lyman, Jr. and Justin.
The Arlington records show that Lyman sold his homestead and shop March 11, 1834, to William D. Canfield for $900, giv- ing him a mortgage on the property for $450. It is interesting to note that when he made this sale he reserved the two northwest rooms, occupied by his mother-in-law, Susannah Coes. She later lived in a small house near the Stone Shop in Wallingford.
In the year following the sale of his property in Arlington Ly- man purchased property in Wallingford where the Stone Shop now stands. The deed is dated February 20, 1835. This he pur- chased of Alfred Hull for the sum of $1,300. The deed describes the property as "one acre and 97 rods (according to the survey of Harvey Shaw) including a blacksmith shop and all the land within the survey except the land on which the Wheelwright shop now stands, as set off to the widow Ballou; and with the said premises all the water privileges as heretofore owned and oc- cupied by John Ballou."
It appears that this property had been owned by John Ballou of Shrewsbury for twenty years, and after his death the year before his administrator sold the property at public auction. It was bid in by Alfred Hull, a prominent farmer in Wallingford, whose house, somewhat altered, is now occupied by Mrs. Cary. The deed of the property to Hull reads in part as follows: "On July 31, 1834, David H. Sabin, Administrator of the Estate of John Ballou, sold at public auction for the sum of $1,045 to Alfred Hull, real estate as follows: 'the dwelling house of said deceased with about . three fourths acre of land, the blacksmith and trip hammer shop with nearly an acre of land, and the reversion of the widow's dowry in the piece of land set off to her on which the wheelwright shop now stands, being about ten square rods of ground, and the
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LYMAN BATCHELLER, 1795-1858
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ANNA GALE, 1791-1868, WIFE OF LYMAN BATCHELLER
LYMAN BATCHELLER AND THE PITCHFORK INDUSTRY
wheelwright shop standing thereon, in their separate parcels, but all are one piece, being all the real estate of the said deceased that is adjoining the main road and south of the east part of the wid- ow's dowry. And the said pieces of land are bounded, west by the north and south road, south by an old road or lane that runs up to the old still lot, east by the widow's house to the Sugar Hill Road, north by said Sugar Hill Road and Alexander Miller's to the main road.' "
This record sheds a flood of light on the situation. It mentions not only a blacksmith shop and wheelwright shop but a "black- smith and trip hammer shop." It appears from the wording that the blacksmith shop included a trip hammer-not that there was a trip hammer shop separate from the blacksmith shop. To manu- facture forks Lyman needed a trip hammer and power to operate it, and those were precisely the things he got by the purchase of this property. Evidently he did not intend to pursue a general blacksmithing business, as he had done in Arlington, since he did not buy the wheelwright shop at this time. The blacksmith shop stood facing the highway within four feet of the north boundary. The wheelwright shop stood just south of it and the dwelling house a little distance farther south. Beyond the residence was a road or lane leading from the highway up to the old still lot.
Going back a little farther the records show that John Ballou purchased the property from Alexander Miller who at one time owned most of the land in this vicinity from the highway up over the hills to White Rocks, and from which several farms have been carved. Miller was a well-to-do man for those times and this locality. Wheaton Kent was his son-in-law. Mrs. Mahaffy now occupies his home,-the large white house opposite the Con- gregational Church. The deed from Miller to Ballou, dated October 1, 1814, conveys one and 32/100 acres of land, together with the blacksmith's shop and trip hammer standing thereon and the privilege of the water for the said shop, for the consideration
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of $1,229.48. The consideration was only $70.52 less than the price paid by Lyman twenty years later. Real estate was not in- creasing rapidly in value in Wallingford a century ago. The blacksmith shop was built by Miller for the purpose of manu- facturing hoes, axes, nails, etc., a business that he carried on to some extent.
It is interesting to note that on March 23, 1802, Nathaniel Ives granted to Alexander Miller during the period from October 1st to May 15th annually the privilege of turning water of Roaring Brook for the benefit of Miller's works on the east side of the main road. This indicates that originally no part of Roaring Brook flowed past the site of the Stone Shop; that part of the present channel is artificial. There must have been a brook from the springs on the hill near Church street road, but Miller prob- ably found this brook gave insufficient power for his purposes, so he purchased from Ives, who owned land along Roaring Brook, the right to turn Roaring Brook into his small stream part of each year. Just when the right to turn Roaring Brook the rest of the year was acquired has not been ascertained. Hull was a farmer and somewhat of a capitalist. No doubt he purchased the Ballou property as a speculation, having no use for it in his own business. The price was reasonable, if not low, for he was able to sell it to Lyman at an advance of about twenty-five per cent. He paid less than John Ballou paid for the same property twenty years before.
Of the purchase price, namely $1,300, Lyman apparently paid little cash, for he mortgaged the property for $900 and gave an- other mortgage on property in Arlington for $400. Here is a clue to the state of his finances. Of course he needed money to pay the expenses of moving and setting up machinery. No doubt there was new machinery to be made or purchased, and many incidental expenses, and he needed some capital to carry on. He bought only as much as he needed-the blacksmith shop and waterpower. He did not buy the wheelwright shop at this time but fifteen years
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later, July 31, 1850, he purchased from the widow Ballou for the sum of $40 the land on which the wheelwright shop stood. This was after the Stone Shop was built. There may have been another motive that influenced Lyman to move to Wallingford. It was a larger town in population-perhaps a better market for his forks-and more labor available. The population of Wallingford in 1830 was 1741, while that of Arlington was 1207. The popula- tion of Wallingford in 1835 was even more than it is today but the village was much smaller. During the century that has elapsed since that day people have left the farms to some extent and made their homes in the villages; preferring indoor labor to work on the land. When Lyman opened his shop he was unconsciously contributing to this shift of population. The appearance of the village has greatly changed since that day. In 1835 it consisted principally of one street with a few houses on each side, mostly unpainted. There were but four branching roads, running east and west, now known as Church Street, School Street, Elm Street and Hull Avenue.
When Lyman moved to Wallingford in 1835 and purchased the shop his son Gale was eighteen years of age; John fourteen; Lyman, Jr. eleven and Justin seven. From that time until 1846 Lyman carried on the business successfully with the help of the older boys. Gale married in 1839, at the age of twenty-two, John in 1844, at twenty-three; and Lyman, Jr. in 1847 at twenty-three.
On March 13, 1846, Lyman deeded the fork shop and land to his three sons, Gale, John and Lyman, Jr., taking a mortgage for $800 on the property. This was probably the time when a partner- ship was formed which for years after was known by the name of Batcheller & Sons. Before this time the father had carried on the business and the boys had worked for him. Now they were mar- ried and he formed a partnership with them, placing them on an equality with himself. For the balance of his life he worked with them.
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There is further evidence of progress in the business at this time. Russell Sherman, an old resident of Wallingford, has stated that when he was thirteen years old he worked for a farmer named Perry Wells. As Mr. Sherman was born February 5, 1833, the year must have been 1846, the same year that Lyman deeded the fork works to his sons. Mr. Sherman said that while working for Wells he used one of the new pitchforks with oval instead of square tines. Mr. Wells thought so much of this fork that he kept it in the house when it was not in use.
Formerly the forks had been made with square, or diamond shaped tines. The invention or adoption of tines with an oval cross-section indicates an improvement, and new ideas of any sort are an evidence of progress. No doubt the newly formed partnership saw its business increasing, which stimulated the members to improve their product.
The hand-made forks that have come down to us are heavy and rather crude in shape, the blacksmith's individual conception of the farmer's requirement. When forks were first manufactured in quantity, longer, lighter tines with a diamond section were adopted and given a spring temper that added strength and elas- ticity. Finally the section of the tines was changed to the oval, in- creasing their strength, improving the appearance and offering less resistance when pushed into a bundle of hay.
Under the new business organization and with new homes es- tablished, no doubt the future looked bright to the boys, with never a dream of impending disaster. But only two years elapsed when the factory was entirely destroyed by fire. It occurred August 3, 1848. This must have been a severe blow to Lyman, in his fifty- third year, for undoubtedly his business represented the major part of his possessions. He had brought up a family of six chil- dren and his small manufacturing business had been established in Wallingford only thirteen years. Progress of any enterprise is usually slow at first. One of the brothers has remarked of their
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JOHN C. BATCHELLER, 1821-1904
LYMAN BATCHELLER, JR., 1824-1906
LYMAN BATCHELLER AND THE PITCHFORK INDUSTRY
early struggles that he had seen the time "when the pie had to be cut to go around." There were no luxuries in the home. Lyman and his sons might have found it difficult to reestablish the busi- ness had not the people of Wallingford come to their assistance by contributions to the rebuilding of the factory. Some one has mentioned $800 having been subscribed, and it has been stated that Mr. Dyer Townsend gave $100. Mr. Russell Sherman, to whom reference has been made before, stated that some contrib- uted work, such as hauling stone for the new factory. These con- tributions testify to the confidence the people had in the enter- prise and its promoters. The Stone Shop arose out of the ashes of 1848 and business was reestablished, the firm then consisting of Lyman, John and Lyman, Jr., Gale having withdrawn and turned to other employment.
While the fork business at that time gave a living to Lyman and his two sons, it could not have been of large proportions, for time was required to build up trade with the primitive facilities for getting materials and distributing the product. A few rail- roads had been built but none had reached Wallingford. Steel was probably hauled from Troy and forks delivered to local mer- chants by horse and wagon. Foreign shipments, if they had begun at this date, probably went by way of Troy and by boat to New York.
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