USA > Vermont > Addison County > Statistical and historical account of the county of Addison, Vermont > Part 8
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The following statement was made by PHILIP C. TUCKER, Esq .; of Vergennes, principally from information obtained by him, at our request, from NATHAN GRISWOLD and ASAPH GRISWOLD, sons of NATHAN GRISWOLD, one of the captives :
"In the month of November 1778, the following persons of the north and west portions of Addison County were taken prisoners by the British forces, and transported on board British vessels to Can- ada: NATHAN GRISWOLD, taken in that part of New Haven which is now Vergennes, JOHN GRISWOLD and ADONIJAE GRISWOLD, in that part of New Haven which is now Waltham, and DAVID GRIS- WOLD, of New Haven. These four men were brothers ; ELI ROB- ERTS and DURAND ROBERTS, father and son, were taken at Ver- gennes ; PITER FERRIS and SQUIRE FERRIS, father and son, of Panton, were taken on the west side of Lake Champlain, while hunting ; JOSEPH HOLCOMB. ELIJAH GRANDY and - - SPALDING at Panton, JOHN BISHOP at Monkton and - HOPKINS at New Haven. These were part of the captives taken during the fall of 1778, consisting in all of two hundred and forty-four. They were all taken to Quebec and imprisoned. Tradition says, that but forty- eight were brought back in June 1782, and exchanged as prisoners of war at Whitehall."
" Of the thirteen persons above named, all returned but one. JOHN GRISWOLD Jun. enlisted on board a British vessel at Quebec. upon a promise. that he should be restored to his liberty. on the ar- rival of the vessel in Ireland. He was never heard of afterward.
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All these men are believed to be now dead. The deaths of those known are as follows : NATHAN GRISWOLD, died at Waltham, July 17, 1811, aged 85 years; DAVID GRISWOLD, at New Haven, August 11, 1820, in his 60th year; ADONIJAH GRISWOLD, at Green County, Illinois, in 1847, aged 88 years ; ELI ROBERTS, at Vergennes, in 1806, age unknown; DURAND ROBERTS, at Ferris- burgh, in 1817, aged 57 years ; PETER FERRIS, at Panton, in 1811, aged 92 years ; SQUIRE FERRIS, at Vergennes, March 12, 1849, aged 87 years."
The following information was communicated by MILO STOW, EsQ., of Weybridge, son of CLARK STOW, one of the captives men- tioned below, and published in the Middlebury Register, August 30, 1854. A short memorandum, which we have seen in their family records, of their capture, imprisonment, and the death of DAVID STOW, in the hand-writing of CLARK STOW, authenticates the principal facts.
" November 8, 1778, a marauding party of British, Indians and tories, invaded the quiet homes of four families in this vicinity, being the ouly inhabitants in Weybridge, burned their houses and effects, killed their cattle and hogs, and took THOMAS SANFORD, and his son ROBERT, DAVID STOW and his son CLARK, CLAUDIU'S BRITTEL and his son CLAUDIUS, and JUSTUS STURDEVANT, and car- ried them prisoners to Quebec. The four wives and their young children, for eight or ten days, occupied an out-door cellar of Mr. SANFORD, at this place, till our troops from Pittsford came to their rescue. DAVID STOW died in prison, December 31st, 1778. THOMAS SANFORD, and two others from Vermont, GIFFORD and SMITH, escaped from prison, and after wandering through Maino and New Hampshire, reached their families. The rest of the prisoners, after extreme suffering were discharged in 1782." *
* A handsome marble monument has recently been erected on the site of the out-door cellar, in which the women and children found shelter, in memory of the captivity of these men. The pedestal, base, die and cap, make the height about eight feet. The above is the inscription on one side.
Not far from this monument, is a remarkable slide, on the bank of Otter Creek. It occurred in the fore part of July, 1819. CHARLES WALES, with his family and mother reside l in a house on the ground, and in the course of the day, the house
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
The following, in addition to the above, we have received directly from Mr. STow. The prisoners, on their arrival at Quebec, were for a time kept on board a prison ship; but were afterwards re- moved to a prison on land. While there they dug through the walls of the prison and escaped, but were retaken and recommitted, except THOMAS SANFORD and one or two cthers from Vermont, who, after wandering a long time through the wilderness of New Hamp- shire and. Maine reached their families .* Those who were recom- mitted dug nearly through the wall a second time, and a large pro- portion of them, in the spring of 1780, were sent ninety miles down the St. Lawrence, and were there set to work. But CLARK Stow, being then young, was selected by a French lady, and em- ployed by her as a house servant, until he, with the rest, was ex- changed and released in 1782. After his release in October he went to Great Barrington, Mass., to which the family had removed, and in March, 1783, they returned to Weybridge.
The following account of the capture of some of the inhabitants of Bridport, their imprisonment and escape, we bare abridged from the account of Bridport, given by Mr. THoursON, in the first edi-
seemed to tremble and crack, for which the inmates could not account. But in the evening they became alarmed, and left the house, but Mr. WALES stood still on the ground. Between nine and ten o'clock in the erquing, the land, to the extent of nearly two acres, suddenly sauk about eighteen fort perpendicularly, the man going down with it was not hurt, but estapel to the bank. The house went down and was shattered to pieces, and the cellar and chimney were never found. The bank of the creel: rested ou a body of blue clay, which was crushed out by the incumbent soil and ejected into and aerers the river, formning a solid and imrene- trable dam, which stayed the whole current of the creek, until nine or ten o'clock the next morning. A similar slide of less extent took place since, near by, en the farm of BENJAMIN WALES, and near his house.
We have the following story from undeusted authority. When Mr. SANFORD was capturel he had two herses and a coit which were left behind without any one to take care of them. Hereturned, as related alove, after three years absence, expecting to find lis horses deal. Bat he found them alive, except the colt, which the Indians shot. They had livel on the Beaver Meadows, in the neighborhood, and were found some distance from where SANroad left them. They had become very wild; but SANFORD had given cach of them a name, and when he called them by their names they came to him and were casily taken, they recognizing either their num - or their master's toire.
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IFSTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
tion of his Gazetteer. The facts, it is presumed, were obtained from some of the party, as all but one were then alive.
NATHAN SMITH, MARSHALL SMITH and JOHN WARD, who had just been married, who had ventured to remain on their farms. in Bridport, while most of the inhabitants had removed, being together on the 4th day of November, 1778, were taken by a party of British, under Major CARLETON. He collected in that vicinity thirty-nine prisoners, men and boys. They were put on board a vessel in the lake and carried prisoners to Canada. They reached Quebec December 6, and were kept in prison sixteen months and nineteen days. In the spring of 1780, after two dreary winters, in which several of the party died, the prisoners had liberty to remove thirty leagues down the River St. Lawrence, to work. About forty went, among whom were the two SMITHS and WARD. They landed the fist of May, on the south side, where the river was twenty-seven miles wide. In the night of the 13th, eight of the prisoners took a batteau and crossed the river and landed in a perfect wilderness. They here separated into two parties, JUSTUS STURDEVANT, of Weybridge joining the three Bridport men. They traveled by night, and when in the neighborhood of settlements, secreted themselves in the woods by day. They occasionally met Frenchmen, who appeared friendly ; but on the 20th, when nearly opposite Quebec, they called on two Frenchmen for aid in crossing a swollen river. One of them stated that he was an officer, and dared not let them pass. Ile seized his gun and declared them prisoners. The other took up an axe, and both stood against the door to prevent their escape. NATHAN SMITHI said to his comrades, "we must go," and seized the man with the gun, and the other prisoners laid hold of the other Frenchman, and they thrust them aside, and all escaped except STURDEVANT, who remained a prisoner until the close of the war. Some days after, four Indians, armed with guns and knives, came upon them, but they sprang into the woods and escaped, and traveled all night until noon the next day, when being not far from Three Rivers, they lay down andl slept. But soon each was awakened by an Indian having fast hold of him. They were committed to prison at Three Rivers. Three sides of
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the prison were of stone, the other of wood. After being in prison three weeks, they began to cut into the wooden wall with a jack-knife, and in a week had cut through it sufficiently to escape into an adjoining room. Having drawn a week's provisions, they cut up their bed clothes, and let themselves down, so near the window of the room below, that they saw the officers there assembled, and were not more than a rod from the sentinel in his box. Thence they continued to travel by night, and lay by in the day time. To supply themselves with food, they took a lamb in one place and a turkey and other fowls in others. They kept off from the river to avoid the Indians, who they learned were in pursuit of them, and had been offered a bounty for their apprehension. They at length crossed the St. Lawrence and traveled to the River Sorel, and thence through the wilderness, with incredible hardships and suffering, having killed an ox on the way for their sustenance, and at length arrived at the house of ASA HEMENWAY, in Bridport, which alone had survived the desolations of the war. The next day they reached the picket fort at Pittsford. From the time of their escape, ninety miles below Quebec, including their imprison- ment, they had not changed their clothes, and had few left to bo changed.
The following graphic account of the capture and imprisonment of PETER FERRIS, and his son SQUIRE FERRIS, with some antece- dent and accompanying events, is an extract from an article pub- lished in the " Vergennes Vermonter," February 26, 1845, which was written by PHILIP C. TUCKER, Esq. The facts contained in it were communicated to him by SQUIRE FERRIS in his lifetime.
" In October, 1776, upon the retreat of General ARNOLD up the lake with the American fleet, after the battles fought near Val- cour Island, he run the remaining part of his vessels, four gun boats and the galley, "Congress," which ARNOLD himself com- manded, into a small bay, which still bears the name of " Arnold's Bay," and the shores of which were upon Mr. FERRIS's farm. Some of the remains of those vessels are yet visible, though they were all partly blown to pieces and sunk when ARNOLD abandoned them. An incident of their destruction, not known to history, is
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
related by SQU.RE FERRIS, a son of Mr. FERRIS, then in his four- teenth year. Lieutenant GOLDSMITH of ARNOLD'S galley had been severely wounded in the thigh by a grape shot in the battle near Valcour Island, and lay wholly helpless on the deck, when the or- ders were given to blow up the vessels. ARNOLD had ordered him to be removed on shore, but by some oversight he was neglected. and · was on the the deck of the galley when the gunner set fire to the match. Ile then begged to be thrown overboard, and the gunner, on returning from the galley, told him he would be dead before she blew up. He remained on deck at the explosion, and his body was seen when blown into the air. His remains were taken up and buried on the shore of the lake. To the credit of ARNOLD, he showed the greatest feeling upon the subject, and threatened to run the gun- ner through on the spot. The British fleet arrived at the mouth of the bay before the explosion of ARNOLD's vessels, and fired upon his men on the shore, and upon the house of Mr. FERRIS, which stood near the shore. Some grape shot and several cannon shot struck Mr. FERRIS's house. Mr. FERRIS and his family returned with ARNOLD to Ticonderoga ; from whence they afierwards went, for a short time for safety, to Schaghticooke in the State of New York. All Mr. FERRIS'S moveable property at Panton was either taken or destroyed by the British. His cattle, horses and hors were shot, and his other property carried off. His orchard trees were cut down, his fences burnt, and nothing left undestroyed, but his house and barn."
" After some weeks had elapsed Mr. FERRIS returned to the re-
. mains of his property, and endeavored to repair his injuries, so far as possible. He had restored his fences to preserve a crop of winter grain sowed the previous autumn, and had got in his spring crops, when in the month of June following, the army of General BURGOYNE came up the lake. A considerable portion of the ariny, commanded by General FRASER, landed at Mr. FERRIS's farm, en- camped there for the night, and utterly destroyed them all. Two hundred horses were turned into his meadows and grain fields, and they were wholly ruined. Gen. FRASER had the civility to promise indemnity, but that promise yet waits for its fulfilment.
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ILSTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
" In the autumn of 1776, Mr. Ferris and his son, Squire Ferris, assisted in the escape of Joseph Everest and Phineas Spalding from the British schooner Maria of sixteen guns, then lying at anchor off Arnold's Bay. These two men were Americans, who had been scized in Panton and Addison, and made prisoners for favoring the American cause. Both were taken from the schooner in a dark night and conveyed on shore in a small canoe. Squire Ferris, the son, was also of a small party in the winter of 1776-77, who seized upon two Englishmen, supposed to be spies, near the mouth of Otter Creek, and delivered them into the hands of Gen. St. Clair at Ti- conderoga."
" In the year 1778, the British made a general capture of all the Americans they could reach on the shores of Lake Champlain, who were known to be friendly to the revolutionary cause. In Novem- ber of that year, Mr. Ferris and his sou started upon a deer hunt, on the west side of the lake. When near the mouth of Putnam's Creek, about six miles south of Crown Point, they were seized by a body of British soldiers and tories, commanded by Colonel Carle- ton, and carried on board the schooner Maria, then lying at Crown Point, near the mouth of Balwaggy Bay. They were the first prisoners taken in the great attempt of the British to sweep the shores of the lake of those inhabitants, who were friendly to the re- publican cause. On the same night, detachments from this vessel burnt nearly all the houses along the lake from Bridport to Ferris- burgh, making prisoners of the male inhabitants, and leaving the women and children to suffering and starvation. Mr. Ferris's house and all his other buildings were burnt. Forty persons were brought on board the next day : and within a few days, the number reckoned two hundred and forty-four; part of which were put on board the schooner Carleton of sixteen guns, which then lay at the mouth of Great Otter Creek. The forces, which came out in the Maria and Carleton, were originally destined for an attack upon Rutland, but their object having become known by the escape of an American prisoner, Lieut. Benjamin Everest, that project was abandoned, and they were employed in desolating the country, and stripping it of its inhabitants. The vessels proceeded with their prisoners to St.
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Johns; from thenee they were marched to Sorel, and it was the in- tention of the captors to have continued their march down the St. Lawrence to Quebec. At Sorel they crossed the St. Lawrence, and soon after a heavy snow storm came on, which making it impossible to continue the march, trains were seized in all directions, and on these they were driven to Quebec. Here they were confined in pris- on. Soon after some of them having contrived to escape, they were divided, and about one hundred of them were sent down the river one hundred miles and employed in getting out timber for building barracks. Mr. Ferris and his son were sent among this number in the month of January 1779. In the spring following nine of thep ris- oners, among whom were Mr. Ferris and his son, seized a batteau in the night, in which they crossed to the cast side of the river, where it was fifteen miles wide. On landing they set the batteau adrift, separated into two parties, and made the best of their way up the river. They had brought provisions with them, and avoid- ing the settlements, and traveling only in the night, the party, with which the two Ferrises remained, arrived opposite the Three Rivers on the fourth day. They crossed in the night, but were discovered and retaken. The remainder of the party did not get so far, hav- ing been retaken by a body of Indians in the neighborhood of Que- bec. The party of the Ferrises were put into jail at Three Rivers, where they remained eighteen months. During this time they made one attempt to escape, but were discovered and were then placed in a dungeon for seventy-two days. At this time the father and son were separated.
" Squire Ferris, the son, describes the dungeon where he was confined, as an apartment eight feet by ten, and so low that he could not stand up in it, and that the one occupied by his father adjoined it, and was of the same character. ' The only light was admitted by a small hole about eight by ten inches in size, which was crossed by iron grates. The hole which admitted this light was level with the ground, and the water from the eaves of the jail poured through it into the dungeon, whenever it rained. The straw given them to sleep on was frequently wet in this way, and the confined air, dampness and filth, not to be avoided. made their suffer-
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ings of the severest kind. While they were confined here, another place was prepared for them, to which they were transferred after the dungeon suffering of seventy-two days. This place was oppo- site the guard room. and. upon being removed to it, they were told, ' you damned rebels, you can't get out of this.' Here the father and son were again put together in the same room. The place was not however so impregnable as was supposed, for in about six weeks the prisoners made an excavation under the wall, in the night, and made their escape. There were six prisoners in the room at this time. Upon escaping, the parties separated, Mr. Ferris and his son remaining together. They went up the river nearly opposite Sorel, where, two days afterwards, they crossed the St. Lawrence in a canoe, and took to the woods. Their design was to reach New Hampshire, but having lost their way in the woods they struck Missisque River, down which they went a few miles, and were again retaken by a British guard, who were with a party getting out timber, and by them were carried again prisoners to St. Johns. They were taken twenty-one days after their escape, and had been nineteen days in the woods, during all which time they had only a four pound loaf of wheat bread, one pound of salt beef and some tea for food. They made their tea in a tin quart cup, and produced fire by a flint and the blade of a jack-knife. For four days before they were retaken, they had nothing for food but tea, and were so weak they could hardly walk. The forces at St. Johns were then commanded by Col. St. Leger, a brutal drunk- ard, who ordered the prisoners to be ironed together, and put them in a dungeon for fourteen days. At the end of which time, and ironed hand in hand to each other, they were sent to Chamblee, and from there by the rivers Sorel and St. Lawrence to Quebec. At Quebec they were returned to their old prison, in which they remained until June 1782, when they were brought from thence to Whitehall and there exchanged for British prisoners. From their capture to their exchange was three years and eight months.
After the escape of the Ferrises from below Quebec, the prisoners, which remained in prison at Quebec were divided, and a part placed on board a prison ship in the river. Soon afterward. camp fever. as
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it was then called, broke out among them, and many of them died. Of the two hundred and forty-four prisoners taken in the neighbor- hood of Lake Champlain, in November 1778, and carried to Canada in the schooners Maria and Carleton, only forty-eight were known to have returned. The elder Ferris died in the year 1811, at the age of ninety-two; and of the other forty-seven, Squire Ferris, of Vergennes, his son and fellow prisoner, is supposed to be the only survivor. * Several of these prisoners received pensions from the general Government, but Squire Ferris, their companion in sufferings, though poor and needy, and though an applicant for many years, has never received the bounty of his country." Besides those mentioned above, the following persons, of whose captivity we have no definite information, were taken and carried to Quebec at the same time : Benjamin Kellogg and Joseph Everest, of Addison.
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Major Orin Field, of Cornwall, has furnished us with a detailed and interesting account of the capture and imprisonment of the late Benjamin Stevens, of that town, as he received it from Mr. Stevens, a relative, in whose family he resided. He was captured with three others, in a boat on Lake Champlain, near Split Rock, in Charlotte, in May, 1779. Being pursued by the tories and Indians from the shore, and one of the men, Jonathan Rowley, being killed by a shot from the pursuers, they surrendered. Ste- vens was then seventeen years old and resided in Rutland County. Ife not then residing in this County, and therefore not strictly within our province, we give only an abstract of Major Field's narrative. The prisoners were taken to Chamblee, " thrust into a small prison, ironed two together and fed for nine days on no other food than dry peas uncooked. From thence they were taken to Quebec, where Mr. Stevens spent three New Year's days in one room." Twice they made their escape, and after traveling a long time in a destitute and suffering condition, at one time in the dead of winter, and a part of the time living on roots and the bark of trees. until one of the party died, they were retaken and recommitted, and in June, 1782, were exchanged at Whitehall. Mr. Stevens settled in Cornwall in 1792, and died June 16, 1815, aged 53 years.
. SQUIRE FERRIS died at Vergennes, March 17, 1840, aged &7 years.
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
CHAPTER IX.
AGRICULTURE-WHEAT-TRANSITION FROM GRAIN TO STOCK-SHEEP.
THE tract of land west of the mountains, embracing the valleys of Lake Champlain and Otter Creek, when first cleared up, was as celebrated for the production of wheat as Western New York has since been. It was the principal staple among the productions of the County. The following facts will give some idea of the value
of this crop. At the close of the last war with Great Britain, the people of the County were almost hopelessly in debt. At the June term of the County Court in 1817, the number of civil causes en- tered at that term, amounted to more than five hundred, and nearly all for the collection of debts. This pressure of indebtedness was wholly relieved by the crops of wheat raised in the County. The . very cold, dry and unproductive season of 1816, had rather in- creased than diminished the pressure. Bat the following season of 1817, brought to the relief of the farmers more luxuriant crops, especially of wheat, than any other within our recollection. The excessive drouth of 1816 hal prepared the stiffest soils to be thoroughly pulverizal by tilling. Large fields were sown; the season, with its gentle and frequent showers and genial sunshine, was most favorable, and the crops singularly abundant. The winter following. the price of wheat in Troy, the principal market, was from two dollars to two dollars and twenty-five cents a bushel ; the sleighing was excellent, and was faithfully and industriously improved by the farniers, and the large returns brought great relief to them. The favorable crops which followed bad, three years after, in June. 1520. reduced the whole number of new causes entered, to ninety-eight.
Dut the inrets, rust and frost have, in late years, greatly dimin-
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
ished the crop and discouraged the farmers. But it is thought the farmers might, without much trouble, raise sufficient for the bread of the County, if they did not choose to direct their attention to more profitable husbandry. Good crops of corn and potatoes, and large crops of beets, carrots and other roots for stock are produced, and the latter are becoming common among the farmers. Except on the hills and rising grounds, the soil is generally too stiff to bo advantageously cultivated for these crops. But most farmers have patches of land suitable for raising them in sufficient quantities for their own use. Oats are produced on almost any of the lands, which the farmers have courage to till sufficiently. Rye, barley and buckwheat are also raised to some extent.
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