USA > Vermont > Franklin County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Lamoille, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 13
USA > Vermont > Grand Isle County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Lamoille, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 13
USA > Vermont > Lamoille County > Successful Vermonters; a modern gazetteer of Lamoille, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, containing an historical review of the several towns and a series of biographical sketches > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
LINUS LEAVENS.
remained to the present time, and by following the old and safe policy of a square deal to everyone, has built up a splendid trade and won a large circle of warm friends.
Mr. Leavens has always taken a lively interest in public matters and has given freely of his aid in both time and means to any project
mized and he was given the chair- manship of the committee on claims, one of the most important committees of the General Assem- bly ; he also served on the commit- tee on temperance that formulated the new license bill. When the bill reorganizing the court of claims was passed, Chairman Lea-
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vens' able and painstaking labors on his important committee made his selection as a judge of that court both wise and certain. He also served with marked ability as chairman of the sub-committee on claims, which investigated the state auditor's department.
fraternity and has ascended seven rungs of that mystic ladder.
WHEELOCK, REVEREND ED- WIN, was born in Cambridge, No- vember 17, 1822, a son of Samuel and Patty (Adams) Wheelock. IIe is a descendant of good old New England stock, as his grandfather
REV. EDWIN WHEELOCK, D. D.
December 25, 1883, Judge Lea- vens was married to Carrie I., daughter of Joel G. Gaines of Berkshire. Five children have been born to them : Linus C., John Burton, Harlow G., Donald and Dorothy C.
He is affiliated with the Masonic
Adams was a near relative of John Adams, second president of the United States.
His early life was passed on the farm. When 18 he entered the old Burlington Academy and prepared for college. He graduated with honor from the University of Ver-
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LAMOILLE COUNTY.
mont in 1849 and was principal of the Mountain Academy in Tipton County, Tennessee, during the next four years.
Returning to Vermont in 1853, he studied theology with Reverend James Dougherty, D. D., of John- son, with whom he afterwards united in organizing the Lamoille County Association of Congrega- tional ministers. In 1855 he was called to the pastorate of the church at Cambridge, and the happy relations then assumed re- mained unbroken for more than half a century, until advancing age compelled the laying down of the cares of the active ministry.
He has always taken a deep in- terest in educational matters. IIe was town superintendent of schools from 1856 to 1870 and represented Cambridge in the General Assem- bly in 1866 and 1867; Lamoille County in the state Senate in 1876, and was chaplain of the Senate in 1880.
He became a Mason February 2, 1860; was first appointed assistant grand chaplain of the grand lodge in 1866 and was reappointed the next year; in 1868 he was ap- pointed grand chaplain and has served continuously to the present time. He is rarely absent from the annual communications and his fidelity to this trust is a beautiful memorial to his attachment for that great fraternity with which his name has been so long interwoven by his brethren in golden threads of love and friendship.
June 19, 1902, the University of Vermont conferred the degree of doctor of divinity upon Mr. Whee- lock.
July 30, 1851, Mr. Wheelock was united in marriage to Laura, daughter of Daniel and Lucy
Pierce of Eden. Six children were born to them, four of whom are still living. Mrs. Wheelock de- parted this life September 23, 1886, and, October 20, 1887, he married for his second wife Mrs. Lucy Payne Eaton of Fairfield.
REYNOLDS, ORANGE WIRES, a son of Harry and Mary (Wires) Reynolds, was born in Bakers- field in 1831. He received his education in the public schools of his native town and at Bakersfield Academy. When 20 years of age he entered his father's store at Cambridge Center; five years later, at the death of his father, he and his uncle, Hon. Martin Wires, settled the estate and continued the business until 1860, when he sold out the business and located at the "Boro," where he gave tender and devoted care and attention to his two invalid sisters, until their de- cease, in 1864 and 1865, when he began business in the Ellenwood store; later he bought the Homer Weatherbee store on the opposite side of the street and continued in trade until his death, being in the mercantile business in Cambridge for half a century.
He early became a large owner of farms, which he let on shares, and this interest grew on his hands and occupied his utmost attention in his later years.
In 1867 he was united in mar- riage to May Louise Morgan, a lady of rare worth and unusual ability, whose loving character and devo- tion to her husband and family, contributed much to the splendid success of Mr. Reynolds.
Orange Wires Reynolds was a conspicuously successful merchant and gentleman of the old school; he toiled early and late, had a place for everything and had everything
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in its place; he knew no rule of conduet save that of absolute honor. He persistently declined public office, seeking rather to be a useful citizen and a successful business man than to gain the tem- porary applause of the public in publie place.
financial support. No appeal to his intelligent sympathy and char- ity was ever denied. Thus he la- bored on, doing with force, energy and care all his duties as he saw them. Dying as he had lived, a conscientious Christian gentleman, his last consciously uttered words
ORANGE W. REYNOLDS.
He early joined the Congrega- tional Church and to this he gave deep interest and unstinted aid during all the years of his vigorous manhood. For many years he managed its finances, sang in its choir, taught in its Sunday school and contributed generously to its
were, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." On Sunday morn- ing, April 24, when the new spring was bringing its warmer life, he opened his eyes, saw the familiar faces about him, then closed them and passed on into the springtime of the unseen life, and was at rest.
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LAMOILLE COUNTY.
His life was gentle, and The elements so mixed in him That nature might stand Up and say to all the world, "This is a man."
To Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds five children were born : Halsey, born January 6, 1872, deceased; Frank
(Downer) Macoy. Daniel Macoy was a long time resident of the town, and when a boy of 12 years paddled the Vermont Volunteers bound for the seat of war at Platts- burg across the Lamoille River at Jeffersonville in a log canoe.
Byron G. Macoy received his ed
BYRON G. MACOY.
M., born July 2, 1873, married July 27, 1905, to Blanch B. Bar- rows of Littleton, New Hampshire; Harry H., born March 18, 1877; Mary W., born April 24, 1880, and Rollo G., born March 31, 1886.
MACOY, BYRON GRAFTON, was born in Cambridge, January 8, 1844, a son of Daniel and Laura
ucation in the public schools of his native town and when a lad of 14 years went to live with his brother, H. N. Macoy, then a lumber opera- tor in Cambridge, but later a noted architect.
Mr. Macoy developed great nat- ural skill and taste for matters mechanical and at 20 years of age
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rented a sawmill of his brother, who in the meantime had gone to Iowa. After conducting the mill for a year, he had the Western fever and joined his brother at Ottumwa, Iowa; but in 1866 re- turned to Cambridge, when, in company with his brother, W. D. Macoy, he built a large steam sawmill.
Poor health soon caused him to relinquish this undertaking, and since that time he has devoted his time to the furniture and under- taking business, turning his nat- ural skill to manufacturing some very tasty furniture, for which he finds a ready market.
May 16, 1871, Mr. Macoy was married to Emma Riley, a lady of refinement. She died in July, 1900.
He has always taken a lively in- terest in public matters and in Sep- tember, 1890, was chosen to repre- sent Cambridge in the General Assembly of Vermont, serving on the important committee of manu- factures. He introduced a bill to regulate the fares on railways so that no road could charge more than two cents per mile, the fare having been from three to four and a half cents per mile. On the in- troduction of the bill the railway companies immediately reduced the fare to three cents and placed on sale 1,000 mile tickets at $20.
Mr. Macoy is a devoted Mason. He is a member of Warner Lodge, No. 50, F. & A. M., of Cambridge, and has been honored with all the offices of his lodge, which he has filled with fraternal fidelity.
For 33 years Mr. Macoy has oc- cupied his present place of busi- ness, and by close attention to the wants of his trade and an un- questioned integrity he has won a
high place in the regard of his townspeople.
CHAPMAN, DON H., son of Horace and Anna Lovica (Boyn- ton) Chapman, was born in Fletcher, September 19, 1852. He
DON H. CHAPMAN.
comes of stanchiest New England stock. Daniel Chapman, his great- grandfather, was a soldier of the Revolution, a member of the bodyguard of General Washing- ton, and a pensioner. He came to Fletcher with his son, Lemuel, as an early settler. The latter mar- ried Permelia Hubbard, and lived on a farm near the Cambridge line. Of their family of five chil- dren who lived to maturity, only one survives, Mrs. Ellsworth of Cambridge.
Horace, the eldest of this family, born in 1821, came to Fletcher as an infant with his father's family, where he lived a highly respected farmer until his decease, December
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6, 1891. His home farm was his- toric, the first town center where was held the first town meeting and the first school. Anna Boynton Chapman is a lady of rare gifts. The genealogy of the Boyntons can be traced to a Norman knight, who came over to England with Will- iam the Conqueror, in 1060. John and William, the first American progenitors, came to Rowley, Mas- sachusetts, in 1638.
Abial Boynton, grandfather of Anna Boynton Chapman, and seven of his brothers, fought in the Revolution in rank ranging from colonel to high private. The Boynton family, two sons and six
Blodah of Chico, California, and Delia, Mrs. Leslie Church of Cam- bridge.
Don H. completed his education at New Hampton Institute. He taught school during the 10 suc- ceeding winters. At the age of 23 he was elected constable and col- lector, and several times re-elected. He served as deputy sheriff nearly a score of years. He was conspic- uous in school matters for many years, as director or superintend- ent, and in fact held nearly every town office in the town of Fletcher. The family moved from the Scott farm in Fletcher to their present homestead, one mile from Cam-
RESIDENCE OF DON H. CHAPMAN.
daughters, came to Fletcher about 1820, and took a prominent part in the early history. The four chil- dren of Horace and Anna Boyn- ton Chapman are: Don H., Agnes L., wife of H. O. Wilkins of Fair- fax, Indiana, wife of L. A.
bridgeboro, January 2, 1901. They still own and rent the Scott farm. The Cambridge farm contains 240 acres, with a fine meadow and in- cludes a sugar place of 700 trees.
Mr. Chapman has built or re- built all of the buildings, which are
A-12
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modern and spacious. Don H. Chapman married Effie I., daugh- ter of H. Osgood Merrill, January 2, 1905. Mr. Chapman is a char- ter member of Lamoille Lodge, No. 12, Knights of Pythias, and a mem- ber of the Grand Lodge. He has been chairman of board of man-
Smith, was born in Chateaugay, New York, June 14, 1856; was edu- cated in the public schools of Burke, New York, and Cambridge, coming to Cambridge when 14 years of age. After completing his education he went to Essex Junction and learned the granite
WILFORD M. SMITH.
agers and treasurer for several years of the Vermont State Spirit- ualist Society, and Mrs. Chapman is first vice-president. He is also vice-president, treasurer and col- lector of Queen City Park Associa- tion, South Burlington. He has lived the "strenuous life."
SMITH, WILFORD M., a son of James and Ophelia (Furman)
and marble trade, remaining three years. He then returned to Cam- bridge and opened a shop and has been engaged in monumental work of all kinds ever since. Mr. Smith is a hustling and highly esteemed man of his town; for the past 13 years he has served as a deputy sheriff and for three years as a constable.
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LAMOILLE COUNTY.
He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and has served his lodge in all its chairs, passing the chan- cellor commander's station in 1905. In August, 1880, Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Effie Story of Cambridge. To them
of a whip and cigar team, and con- tinued for seven years. He mar- ried Rebecca C. Parker of Elmore, in March, 1842, and the same day came to Wolcott and engaged in farming, and later for 13 years was in trade in company with Jacob
WILLIAM S. NOYES.
have been born four children; two died in infancy ; the other two are Nellie O., born September, 1882, and Karl B., born October, 1883.
NOYES, WILLIAM S., son of William and Mary (Sargent) Noyes, was born in Barre, January 17, 1819. His boyhood and school days were spent in Barre, but at the age of 17 he became the driver
Robbins, who married Isabel, Mr. Noyes' only daughter.
The family continued to reside in Wolcott for nearly half a cen- tury, until the removal to Cam- bridge in 1891. Meanwhile Mr. Noyes was engaged for many years in the manufacture of fork, hoe and rake handles, first at Wolcott, then at Waterville, Underhill, and
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for the past 15 years, at Cam- bridge. During the past 10 years Mr. Noyes has been using a large amount of maple timber for bicy- cle rims, and beech, birch and ma- ple for chair stock. His factory is the only manufactory in Cam- bridgeboro, and employs some fif- teen hands about the factory, with a considerable force of men and teams in transporting the logs. His pay roll is a great factor in the lit- tle village. He has a 10-year con- tract for the manufacture of bicy- cle rims, aggregating $111,000.00. At the age of 87 he is vigorous and well preserved in mind and body, and is actively interested in his business and in public affairs. He has always been a teetotaler. He is probably the eldest active busi- ness man in the state.
Carlton P. Robbins, his grand- son, an energetic and progressive young man, is the foreman in the factory. Ned W. Robbins, brother of Carlton P., is the engineer.
Mr. Noyes is an excellent type of the old-school Vermonter, and is a connecting link between the past and the present generation. Both himself and wife are highly esteemed, and their wedded life of 63 years has been a happy one.
WALKER, DANIEL C., son of Lyman and Adeline (Chase) Walker, was born in Cambridge, December 11, 1841. Mr. Walker enlisted as a private in Company D, First Vermont Cavalry, was constantly on duty, except six weeks when confined to the hos- pital by sickness, was thrice wounded, was promoted sergeant, and honorably discharged in June, 1865. He is a successful farmer and prominent citizen of North Cambridge, resident on the ances-
tral farm, which has been the fam- ily home since 1805.
Mr. Walker married, in 1867, Kate M., daughter of Josiah Con- verse of Bakersfield. He pos- sesses a fine library and is a man of sterling character and unusual ability. He has held many town offices and represented Cambridge in the Legislature in 1892.
RAYMORE, WILLIS W., was born in Eden, August 12, 1849, a son of Truman A. and Lorenza (Perry) Raymore. He received his education in the public schools of Eden and Cambridge, coming to the latter place with his parents in 1863, when a boy of 14 years.
Mr. Raymore early determined on a farm life and by energy and thrift has acquired a comfortable property and built a reputation as a careful, painstaking and reliable citizen. Mr. Raymore has never been an office seeker, but his towns- men, recognizing his worth as a man and having confidence in his splendid judgment, elected him to represent Cambridge in the Gen- eral Assembly of Vermont at the September election in 1900.
February 27, 1877, Mr. Raymore was married to Louise M., a daugh- ter of Hiram and Betsey J. (Wheelock) Wood of Cambridge. Her paternal great-grandfather, John Wood, was one of the first settlers of the town and is num- bered among the sturdy and hardy pioneers who gave us this splendid country as an inheritance.
To Mr. and Mrs. Raymore four children have been born : Leslie T., born September 14, 1877, died Feb- ruary 14, 1882; Charles H., born June 26, 1881 ; Bessie L., born July 23, 1885, died April 13, 1886; John B., born November 16, 1888.
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LAMOILLE COUNTY.
Among the early settlers of what is now Lamoille County we find Abel Raymore, who came from Massachusetts and settled in Eden. Here he became one of the substan- tial citizens of his town. Truman A. Raymore, his son, was born in
MORSE, LEROY S., a son of Ira and Hulda (Ainsworth) Morse, see pages 68 and 173, was born in Woodbury, November 16, 1858. He received his early education in the public schools of Woodbury and Elmore. He early decided on a
WILLIS W. RAYMORE.
Eden, May 30, 1823, and gained an education in the log schoolhouse of that day. He always was a tiller of the soil and in 1863 re -. moved to Cambridge, where he died in 1899, at the ripe old age of 76 years.
career as a lumber operator and the marked success of Mr. Morse along these lines amply demon- strates the soundness of his early judgment. For a time he was en- gaged in jobbing lumber, and in 1886 he organized the Morse Man-
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ufacturing Company, with three mills, one at Wolcott, one at East Hardwick, and a third at Wood- bury. These he successfully con- ducted from 1886 to 1891.
In 1896 Mr. Morse bought the business and mills of the Cam-
and at present owns 7,000 acres of timber land on Sterling Mountain, located in the towns of Stowe, Mor- ristown, Johnson and Cambridge.
Mr. Morse averages to furnish employment the year round for 50 men, 25 horses and a dozen oxen.
LEROY S. MORSE.
bridge Lumber Company at Jeffer- sonville and operates mills at that place and at the "Notch." In 1902 he sold out his interests in the Morse Manufacturing Company and purchased the entire stock of the Cambridge Lumber Company,
Something over three million feet of lumber is the annual product of this splendid enterprise. In con- nection with this vast business Mr. Morse conducts a farm cutting 100 tons of hay and raising 800 bushels of potatoes, all of which is con-
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LAMOILLE COUNTY.
sumed in his various lumber camps.
January 9, 1880, Mr. Morse was united in marriage to Miss Alice LeBarron of Montpelier. To them two children have been born, Pearl (Mrs. Melvill A. Shaver) and Ira L.
Leroy S. Morse is a splendid type of the energetic native Vermonter, possessed of a splendid physique, tremendous energy and unques- tioned integrity. He has come to be one of the substantial men, not only of Lamoille County but of the Green Mountain state. His grand- father, Joseph Morse, was a soldier in the War of 1812.
In 1898 Mr. Morse built his pres- ent charming residence at Jeffer- sonville. Here, surrounded by an ideal family and large business cares, he is enjoying in a large de- gree the fruits of his splendid early training, in industry, econ- omy and perseverance.
He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and has always taken a lively and substantial interest in anything of a progressive or public nature that would benefit his town or people.
WOLCOTT.
Population, Census of 1900, 1,066.
In 1780, to be exact, November 7, the state granted to Joshua Stan- ton, Major-General Oliver Wolcott and 60 others, the town of Wol- cott, and August 22, 1781, the town was chartered. Its name was honor given in of General Wolcott.
The first settlement of the town was made by Seth Hubbell and Thomas . Taylor in 1789. Both of these families suffered great hard-
ship. About 1820 Mr. Hubbell wrote what he termed "A Narra- tive," in which he detailed the hardships which he endured in founding the town. We have thought a brief extract from this "Narrative" would prove of in- terest, not only to show what the early conditions were in Wolcott, but in many of our northern towns :
"In the latter part of Febru- ary, 1789, I set out from the town of Norwalk, in Connecticut, on my journey for Wolcott, to commence a settlement and make that my res- idence; family consisting of my wife and five children, they all be- ing girls, the eldest nine or ten years old. My team was a yoke of oxen and a horse. After I had proceeded on my journey to within about one hundred miles of Wol- cott, one of my oxen failed; but I however kept him yoked with the other till about noon each day, then turned him before, and took his end of the yoke myself, and proceeded on in that manner with my load to about fourteen miles of my journey's end, when I could get the sick ox no further and was forced to leave him with Thomas McConnell, in Johnson ; but he had neither hay nor grain for him. I then proceeded on with some help to Esquire McDaniel's in Hyde- park: this brought me to about eight miles of Wolcott, and to the end of the road. It was now about the 20th of March; the snow was not far from four feet deep; no hay to be had for my team, and no way for them to subsist but by browse. As my sick ox at McCon- nell's could not be kept on browse, I interceded with a man in Cam- bridge for a little hay to keep him
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alive, which I backed, a bundle at a time, five miles, for about ten days, when the ox. died. On the 9th of April I set out from Es- quire MeDaniel's, his being the last house, for my intended resi- dence in Wolcott, with my wife and two eldest children. We had eight miles to travel on snow shoes, by marked trees-no road being cut : my wife had to try this new mode of traveling, and she per- formed the journey remarkably well. The path had been so trod- den by snowshoes as to bear up the children. Esquire Taylor, with his wife and two small children, who moved on with me, had gone on the day before. We were the first families in Wolcott: in Hyde- park there had two families win- tered the year before. To the east of us it was 18 miles to inhabitants, and no road but marked trees: to the south about twenty, where there were infant settlements, but no communication with us; and to the north, it was almost indefinite, or to the regions of Canada.
"I had now reached the end of my journey, and I may say almost to the end of my property, for I had not a mouthful of meat or ker- nel of grain for my family, nor had I a cent of money to buy with, or property that I could apply to that purpose. I however had the good luck to catch a sable. The skin I carried 50 miles, and ex- changed it for half a bushel of wheat, and backed it home. We had now lived three weeks without bread; though in the time I had bought a moose of an Indian, which I paid for by selling the shirt off my back, and backed the meat five miles, which answered to subsist upon. I would here re- mark that it was my fate to move
on my family at that memorable time called the 'scare season,' which was generally felt through the state, especially in the northern parts in the infant settlements. No grain or provisions of any kind, of consequence, was to be had on the river Lamoille. I had to go into New Hampshire, 60 miles, for the little I had for my family, till harvest, and this was so scanty a pittance that we were under the painful necessity of allowancing the children till we had a supply. The three remaining children that :left in Hydepark, I brought one at a time on my back
on snowshoes, as also the whole of my goods. When I came into Wolcott my farming tools con- sisted of one axe and an old hoe. The first year I cleared about two acres, wholly without any team, and being short of provisions, was obliged to work the chief of the time till harvest, with scarce a suffi- ciency to support nature. My work was chiefly by the river. When too faint to labor for want of food, I used to take a fish from the river, broil it on the coals, and eat it without bread or salt, and then to my work again. This was my common practice the first year till harvest. I could not get a single potato to plant the first season, so scarce was this article. I then thought if I could but get enough of this valuable production to eat, I would never complain. I rarely see this article cooked, but the thought strikes my mind; in fact, to this day I have a great venera- tion for this precious root. I planted that which I cleared in sea- son, with corn; and an early frost ruined the crop, so that I raised nothing the first year ; had again to buy my provisions."
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LAMOILLE COUNTY.
The story of Mr. Hubbell is quite long and certified to by four jus- tices of the peace, who personally were knowing to the truth of much of his story. Many of the descend- ants of Mr. Hubbell still reside in the town.
The earliest town meeting of which there is a record, was held in the house of Thomas Taylor, March 31, 1791. At this meeting Robert W. Taylor was elected clerk, and Hezekiah Whitney, Thomas Taylor and Seth Hubbell were chosen selectmen. It is recorded that every inhabitant of the town held an office at this time. We find no record of another town meeting for three years. Doubt- less they felt there was no neces- sity for one. In 1794 there were but four voters in town, and Thomas Taylor was elected town clerk, first selectman and constable, and for 20 years represented the town in the state Legislature.
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