USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Caledonia, Essex, and Orleans counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 50
USA > Vermont > Essex County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Caledonia, Essex, and Orleans counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 50
USA > Vermont > Orleans County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Caledonia, Essex, and Orleans counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 50
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FREEMONT D. BADGER, M. D.
Derby, a man who attained consid- erable distinction, and traces his genealogy directly back to John Quincy Adams, prominent in the annals of Massachusetts and the nation. The mother was a sister of Dr. C. G. Adams, well known in Island Pond and Portland, Maine.
The subject of this sketch, Dr. Freemont D. Badger, was one of seven children, all of whom are now living. He obtained his education
in the public schools and Derby academy, of his native town, teach- ing school to pay his way. He en- tered the University of Vermont in the year 1881, receiving the degree of doctor of medicine in 1883. Af- ter graduating, he practised medi- cine in East Charleston two years, then moving to Coventry, where he has had a constant and increas- ing practice since. In 1894 Dr. Badger, desiring to keep pace with the marvelous changes taking place in medicine, matriculated in the Post-graduate Medical school and hospital, New York city, from which he graduated. Wishing to be cer- tain of his proficiency in his chosen profession he went to Massachusetts and successfully took the rigorous examination before the state board of registration in medicine in 1898.
Dr. Badger is not an office seeker, but has accepted the superintend- eney of the town schools for nearly ten years. He is a member of Cen- tral lodge, F. & A. M., No. 76, of Irasburg.
December 12. 1883. Dr. Badger married Mary Isabella Harvey of Canada. There have been born to them two children. Morris Leone and Freda ME .. aged eighteen and thirteen years, respectively Dr. and Mrs. Badger are active members of the Congregational church.
NEWPORT.
Population, Census of 1900, 3,113.
The early history of Newport contains few features of excep- tional interest to the general reader. Its pioneers, though not sharing in the stirring incidents of Indian or Revolutionary warfare, met enough of the trials and privations of fron-
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tier life to test their courage and fortitude. The town was remote from the earlier centers of business and education, and possessed only the natural advantages of soil and situation, consequently the settle- ment of the town was comparatively slow, and its influence unimportant until the advent of the Passumpsic railroad in 1863 made available the enormous timber resources of this section.
Lake Memphremagog, the most prominent natural feature of the town, has from the earliest times been utilized by savage as well as by civilized man. It furnished the most direct route to the St. Francis and other Canadian tribes in their hunting and predatory excursions to southern New England.
From the St. Lawrence they came up the St. Francis and Magog riv- ers in their canoes, through the lake and up Clyde river to Island Pond, thence down the Nulhegan to the point where it joins the Connecti- cut at North Stratford, a distance of thirty-seven miles.
The earliest settlements in town were made on or near the shores of the lake, which was the highway of communication with the southern settlements, as well as a source of food when other supplies were ex- hansted.
The first settler of Newport was Deacon Martin Adams, also one of the first settlers of St. Johnsbury. He came from that town in 1293, and built the first house on the western shore of the lake. He was soon joined by others, so that in 1800 there were eleven families in town.
The first town officers were: James C. Adams, moderator; Amos
Sawyer, town clerk; Enos Bartlett, James C. Adams, Amos Sawyer, selectmen: Luther Chapin, consta- ble and collector.
At the same meeting it was voted to raise $5.00 "for the use of school- ing." In 1801 and 1802 $10 was raised for the support of a school, facts which afford presumptive evi- dence that there was a school of some sort kept before the school- house was built. In the year 1800 there were but sixty acres of cleared land in town.
School district No. 1 was organ- ized November 17, 1807. The first schoolhouse was built of "hewed timber, six inches thick, thirty-two feet long, eighteen feet wide," and the sum appropriated for it was $40, to be paid in labor, boards, shingles, nails, glass, etc. These few simple facts show the first ear- nest efforts of these self-denying pioneers to secure the rudiments of education for their children.
Although the first settlement was made in 1793, the formal charter was not granted until September, 1803, by Governor Isaac Tichenor.
The town was called Duncans- boro until the fall of 1816, when the name was changed to Newport. At about the same time a part of Coventry called Coventry Leg, ex- tending from Coventry proper to the lake, was annexed, also that part of Salem which lay on the west side of the lake, on which is now situated Newport village. Febru- ary 17, 1820, Micah and Lewis Ly- man of Troy, New York, sold to John Sias of West Derby all of the land on which the village of New- port now stands, for $250. The land was then heavily timbered. There was then no road or bridge
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at this point of land. Mr. Sias owned a sawmill on the north bank of Clyde river.
The first child born here was John S. Smith.
The first lake bridge was built in 1832, jointly by the towns of New- port and Derby, and a second and better one was built in 1838.
In 1858 there were only eighteen
street, now Coventry street, was laid out. There were at this time two general stores and the manu- facture of lime was a local industry.
Captain Fogg launched a little steamer called the "Mountain Maid," making regular trips up the lake, and tourists began to appre- ciate and enjoy the superb scenery. Later the "Lady of the Lake," and
C
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GENERAL VIEW OF NEWPORT, VERMONT.
tenements and 127 inhabitants in the village, then called Lake Bridge, and two of the buildings were log houses. There were no churches nor schoolhouses.
There was then but one street, now called Main street, and in the fall of 1858 this street was changed to straighten and improve it and the same year a road was opened along the shore of South bay, at the foot of Prospect hill. Then First
quite a fleet of small craft, were launched. and for nearly forty years Captain Fogg was rear admiral of the Memphremagog fleet.
Forty-two years ago the frogs sang their dismal summer evening requiem in a swamp, where the pas- senger depot now receives its fifteen daily trains.
The extension of the Passumpsic railroad to this point in 1863 gave a tremendous impetus to the
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growth of the village, by making available the magnificent timber re- sources of the region round about the lake and its tributaries. The advent of the Southeastern rail- road, now the Canadian Pacific, in 1875, gave a good competing line to Boston, and a direct through route to the distributing centers of the great Northwest.
The location here of the hand- some and sightly court house twenty years ago was an epoch in the history of Newport.
The system of electric lights was supplied in 1891 by C. A. Prouty, and the water supply and hydrant system was installed in 1895.
A splendid new custom house, federal building and post-office has just been completed.
Newport is the nucleus of half a dozen great manufacturing enter- prises. It is the terminal of a great transcontinental railroad, and the rendezvous of extensive sum- mer travel. Excepting only the city of Barre, Newport has made the largest proportionate gain of any town in the state during the past quarter of a century. Lake Memphremagog. with its emerald isles, its winding and wooded shores, its silver bosom furrowed by the keels of passing steamers and white-winged sail-boats, forms the foreground of a wonderful scenic picture; its banks are flanked by fine homesteads and maple groves along the lake road, while off to the north the gently undulating outline of hill and mountain, the purple domes of Owl's Head, Elephantus, and Orford give a perfect setting and perspective to this landscape of rarest beauty.
GOODRICH FREE LIBRARY. There is no institution in this town which stands higher in the esteem of the people than the Goodrich Memorial library. In 1884 a sub- scription library was started, which was merged in a town library in 1896. Mr. Converse G. Goodrich, a long time citizen of the town, cher- ished the purpose for a good while of devoting his fortune to the es- tablishment of a library. Mature consideration determined him, how- ever, to begin it while still living, that it might be the embodiment of his own idea. To this end he pur- chased the sightly and central lot on Main street now occupied by the library building and provided the material for the construction of it, a large amount of which was depos- ited upon the lot in the fall of 1896. In the spring of 1897 he died, but had left his affairs in such a shape that the trustees of his appoint- ment, Mr. Elisha Lane, C. N. Brady, and (. A. Prouty, were able to carry forward the plans as he had outlined them. The result is the handsome building. The interior is a model of convenience, light and airy. In addition to the room con- taining the book stacks, where there are accommodations for 30,000 vol- umes, there is a fine reading room, furnished with current literature and reference books; a conversation room, frequented by local literary organizations; an art room, and a fair-sized lecture room. These, with the directors' and librarian's room, are all heated by steam and lighted with electricity.
The present equipment of the li- brary consists of 2,130 volumes, se- lected from all departments of lit-
ZOPHAR M. MANSUR.
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erature, making it a most helpful adjunct to the Newport academy. The circulation for 1903 was 22,954, showing that it has a generous patronage and is steadily on the in- crease. It has a well invested en- dowment fund of over $32,000, and receives an annual appropriation from the town in addition to its en- dowment income. Miss Lizzie Sar-
ert Mansur, a citizen of Charles- town, Massachusetts, as early as 1678. William Mansur, his great- grandfather, was a pioneer settler on the Souhegan river in New Hampshire in 1762, a minute man of the Revolution, who fought gal- lantly at Lexington, Ticonderoga, and Bennington. Zophar M. was the ninth of a family of twelve children.
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GOODRICH MEMORIAL LIBRARY, NEWPORT, VERMONT.
gent has been librarian since the building was opened in the fall of 1898, and her experience has been an invaluable aid to the library patrons.
MANSUR, ZOPHAR M., son of Warren and Jane A. (Morse) Man- sur, was born at Morgan, November 23, 1843. Colonel Mansur is of staunch New England stock. His earliest American ancestor was Rob-
He was reared amid simple, clean. and rural conditions, of which he ever made the best possible use as stepping stones to higher planes of effort.
He was educated in the common schools and at the Derby academy. taught school in 1861 at the age of eighteen, enlisted in company K, Tenth Vermont, in 1862, partici- pated in the battles of the campaign
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of 1864, from the Wilderness to Opequon creek, September 19, where he lost his right arm, and was discharged in 1865.
He attended Derby academy dur- ing the fall of 1865, taught school in Derby the winter of 1866, set- tled in Island Pond the following spring and was appointed postmas- ter of that village in February, 1867, and held the office several years; meanwhile he studied law with Hon. George N. Dale and was admitted to practice in March term, 1875, of the Essex county court.
He was elected to the legislature in 1886, served on important com- mittees and was state's attorney of Essex county from 1886 to 1888.
Elected senator from Essex county in 1888, he was a member of the judiciary committee and chair- man of the committee on military affairs.
He was elected president of Ver- mont Officers' Reunion society in 1889 and also in 1898; elected pres- ident Sons of American Revolution in 1894 and was lieutenant-gov- ernor from 1894 to 1896: he was deputy collector of enstoms at Is- land Pond for four years under Collector Benedict. He is one of the trustees of the Methodist semi- nary at Montpelier, and trustee of Vermont Soldiers' home at Ben- nington. He is now president of the National bank of Derby Line and since October, 1892, has been collector of customs for the dis- triet of Memphremagog.
One who was most capable of judging and who knew him best, makes the following estimate of Colonel Mansur: "Alertness and
persistency are his leading traits. As a lawyer he was enterprising, bold, inquisitive and effective. In church, society, business, politics, education, and in every conceivable way, he has been actively engaged, and always with positive partisan confidence, followed by success. A man before whom neither chance or accident have thrust any fortunate condition, who has wooed success with all of the ardor and zest of a life burning with energy and enthu- siasm, and won it by devoted and watchful achievement."
Colonel Mansur was married August 16, 1868, to Ellen L. New- hall of Norway, Maine, and they are parents of two children. Mabel S. Mansur is the wife of Carl R. Storrs, deputy collector of customs at Newport. Arthur G. Mansur is a jeweler residing and doing busi- ness at Burlington, Vermont.
YOUNG, JOHN,* an accom- plished lawyer and the recognized leader of the Orleans county bar, was born at Stanstead, Province Quebec, March 31, 1839. He is of American descent. His pro- genitors were for many and suc- cessive generations residents of Whitehall, New York. They were patriotic and zealous de- fenders of their country, and were richly endowed with the manliness and womanliness of the hardy, self- sacrificing, pioneer type. In 1801 his grandfather moved to the "Ma- gog Country," then the El Dorado of promise to the hardy and deter- mined who sought in a new country ownership and independence, lo- cated in the township of Stanstead, became prominently identified with
* Sketch by B. F. D. Carpenter.
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the memorable twenty-five who laid the foundations of, and became honorably identified with, the ris- ing fortunes of that incipient com- monwealth and municipality, and was an important and influential factor in that work. His parents, Alexander and Mary (Drew)
acter that enkindled ambition and awakened within him a spirit of emulation. All the circumstances were in his favor and he had the wisdom to seize upon all and appro- priate all to his advancement. The boy and youth was hard at work in those plastic years storing his mind
JOHN YOUNG.
Young, were born in Stanstead and resided there during the course of their lives. That home was one of culture and refinement. The boy was studious and a great reader of books, and one can well suppose that his reading was of that char-
and memory with the learning of the common schools, the academy, the college, and with literature and historie lore. He had great capa- city for work, and his life thus far has shown no idle hours. His preparation at the academy was so
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full that he entered college one year in advance of the usual course of study, and he graduated at Wes- leyan university with high honors in 1860, at the age of twenty-one. His life-work had been chosen and at the conclusion of his preparatory work Mr. Young entered upon the study of law in the office of John L. Edwards, Esquire, at Derby, Ver- mont, the only interruption to which was the efficient performance of the duties incident to the posi- tion of principal of Derby academy for two years. He was admitted to practice at the June term, 1862, of the Orleans county court. In the language of his preceptor, "His great powers of endurance and ripe scholarship enabled him to make rapid progress in his chosen profession * * * and he came to the bar admirably fitted for the discharge of its arduous duties." He commeneed practice at South Troy in July, 1862. His means were scanty, but his work went manfully on, and, though clients were at first few, he vigor- ously pursued his studies and be- eame solidly entrenched in a mas- tery of the great principles of the common law and soon became known as a dangerous antagonist. In 1867 he removed to Derby Line. His elientage increased and with that his reputation and his success beeame an accomplished fact. In 1881 he beeame a member of the firm of Edwards, Dickerman & Young at Newport. Upon the re- tirement of Mr. Edwards from praetiee, he became associated with J. E. Dickerman under the firm name of Dickerman & Young. The eo-partnerships of Edwards, Dickerman & Young and Dieker-
man & Young commanded an ex- tensive and luerative practice in the counties of Orleans, Caledonia, Essex and Franklin and in the United States courts, and repre- sented an aggregation of legal abil- ity unequaled in the history of the Orleans county bar. Upon the dis- solution of the firm of Diekerman & Young, which occurred Novem- ber 15, 1895, he continued in pra :- tiee alone until February, 1899, when his son, George B. Young, be- came associated with him under the firm name of Young & Young. He is now one, and not the least, among the stalwart leaders of the state bar. What Mr. Young is at this time is the direet and logical result of great natural endowments coupled with a life of great study and intense loyalty to the dreams of boyhood and youth, and the claims of his ehosen profession. All through the successive and manifold activities of a busy and strenuous life the predominant sense of duty and responsibility has animated and solemnized the whole. The faculty of reason was broad and strong; it seized and firmly held the sensible and practical relations of all subjects submitted to it. His persisteney and force of will was equal to his capacity for intense labor and his loyalty to every eause in which he enlisted was and is un- questioned.
Mr. Young's sueeess as a lawyer, however well assured and satisfy- ing, is not in any sense phenomenal in character, but rather the sure produet of inherited qualities, a capacious mind and memory, an ac- quired scholarship of brillianey, an indomitable will and pertinaeity of purpose, faithful performance of
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duty and an exhaustive examina- tion and preparation of fact and law appertaining to the cause in hand; all the fruit of persevering industry and assiduous toil.
Endowed with a mind compre- hensive and aente, he is well quali- fied to grapple with and analyze all questions arising upon the trial of a contested cause, and his argu- ments upon all questions of law are logical and profound, or exquisitely refined and subtle, as the exigencies of the occcasion may seem to re- quire.
His life has been essentially that of a lawyer and his best remem- brance is that of the atmosphere and encounters of the courts, yet he has been called upon to act in other and important matters. He has held various offices and to the performance of the duties of each and all he has brought the same untiring zeal, industry, and fertili- ty of resources as have distin- guished his forensic career. In 1894 he was a member of the Vermont house of representa- tives and occupied a position of commanding influence and was ap- pointed one of the editors in the revision of the statutes and, in 1898, was further honored as a member of the Vermont senate. He has performed the duties per- taining to the position of United States commissioner since the spring of 1898.
As a citizen he is alert. active, and influential in all that promotes and secures the best interests of his town, county, and state.
He was married to Augusta 1. Young in 1866, by which marriage there was one son, George B., who
is associated with his father in the practice of the law.
PARKER, SAMUEL W., the old- est resident of Newport village, was born in Westminster, Vermont, De- cember 27, 1820. In 1834 he came with his father to this county, which has since been his home.
At twenty-five years of age he went to South Port, Wisconsin, and worked three years learning the trade of making pipe and reed or-
SAMUEL W. PARKER.
gans. For many years after 1848 he tuned and sold p'anos and or- gans in this section. After he was eighty years old he made a pipe organ, a matter of comment in mu- sical circles.
Commencing life poor, he has be- come one of Newport's most sub- stantial and wealthy citizens. In 1896 he placed in the belfry of the court house a thousand dollar clock
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as a Christmas gift, known as the Parker clock.
In 1848 Mr. Parker married Har- riett E. Field of Bakersfield, Ver- mont. Two of their four children are living: Eliza (Mrs. E. H. Bo- den), and Florence (Mrs. Dr. George H. Newland).
PROUTY, CHARLES A., was born at Newport, Vermont, October 9, 1853. One of his ancestors was the first settler of that town, his grand- father, Arnold Prouty, lived most of his life there, and his father, commonly known as Colonel John A. Prouty, was one of its most active and influential citizens. Mr. Prouty began his education in the "old red schoolhouse" near the farm where he was born, continued it at the high school at Newport village, at the high school in Upton, Massa- chusetts, at the St. Johnsbury acad- emy, and completed it at Dart- mouth college, his class being that of 1815. After graduating he spent one year in the Allegheny observa- tory at Allegheny City, Pennsyl- vania, as the assistant of Professor S. P. Langley, the present secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In the summer of 1876 his health broke down and he returned to Newport where, having nothing else to do, he began the study of law in the fall of that year in the office of Theophilus Grout. The next Feb- ruary he was admitted to the bar of Orleans county, and practised a year as the partner of Mr. Grout, and for another year on his own account. Having married in the meantime, and not being able to make a living at the law, he gave it up and taught school in Newport for two years. In the summer of 1882 he again opened a law office at Newport, was
elected state's attorney for the county of Orleans in November, 1882, and reëlected to that office in 1884. In 1886 he became general counsel for the Rutland Railroad company, and soon afterwards at- torney for the Central Vermont Railroad company. From that time on his practice was an extensive and lucrative one.
In 1888 he was elected a member of the house of representatives, and that same year was appointed re- porter of decisions of the supreme court of Vermont. This last posi- tion he held until appointed a mem- ber of the interstate commerce com- mission in December, 1896. When this nomination was made the Washington correspondent of the Boston Daily Herald had the follow- ing to say of him:
"The name of Charles A. Prouty of Vermont, nominated for inter- state commerce commissioner, in place of Veazy, resigned, was sug- gested to the president by Senator Proctor of Vermont, a personal friend of the nominee. Mr. Prouty is about forty-two years of age and said by his acquaintances to be sec- ond to no man in the state as a law- ver. Mr. Prouty is a graduate of Dartmouth and led his class, taking all the prizes. Governor-elect Black of New York, who was a classmate of the nominee, when he heard that Mr. Prouty's name was being con- sidered, called on the president and warmly endorsed what Senator Proctor had said. In telling of Mr. Prouty's college days Governor Black said to the president: 'He was so brilliant a young man that he easily took every prize he went after, and the rest of us were not in it at any time.'"
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Since then Mr. Prouty has con- tinued in that position, in which he has developed an aptitude for the work. During his incumbency he has prepared many of the most im- portant opinions formulated by the commission. He has also earnestly advocated in public addresses and various magazine articles, the enact- ment of laws for the proper regula- tion of railways. His work as a commissioner has brought him into prominence in all parts of the coun- try.
He married Abbie, daughter of Leander Davis, by whom he has two sons, Ward and John A. While he has seen many places and enjoys the activities of his work, he assures his friends that no state has for him the attractions of Vermont, and that no part of life is so pleasant as that spent at his home overlooking the waters of Lake Memphremagog.
RANNEY, CHARLES F., son of Freeman and Emily (Flanders) Ran- ney, was born at Newbury, Ver- mont, December 8, 1851. His father came from Westminster, Vermont. Charles F. Ranney was educated in the public schools of Boston and New York. In 1814 he married Caroline D. Pratt of New- port, daughter of Deacon T. B. and Emily (Carpenter) Pratt, who were among the early settlers of the town. Three of their four children died in childhood. The eldest son, William Bradford Ranney, is asso- ciated with his father as a printer. Mr. Ranney was connected with the Express and Standard from 1875 to 1890, for the last eight years asso- ciate editor with D. M. Camp. He bought the job printing and station- ery business of Mr. Camp in 1890, which he has since successfully con-
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