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 21
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 21
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 21
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
PETER B. B. NORTHROP.
election to important offices, both in Sheldon and Fairfield. After serving several years as auditor of Fairfield, he was elected chairman of the board of selectmen in 1898, which position he still holds in the same board by successive re- elections. During this period the floating town debt of $24,700 was
building at the Pan-American Ex- position. He introduced and car- ried through the resolution making an appropriation for the erection of a tablet upon the site of the birthplace of the late President Chester A. Arthur, and purchased the site and donated it to the state. Mr. Northrop is a successful
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farmer, and characteristically thor- ough and persistent in his busi- ness engagements.
In 1891 he was married to Kath- erine Smith Fletcher of Jefferson- ville, and to them have been born three daughters: Mary Fletcher, Consuela Bentina and Frederica Brigham.
MCGINN, OWEN, son of Hugh and Katherine McGinn, was born in Fairfield, July 8, 1858. His father was a farmer in this town, but in 1868 moved to Bakersfield.
OWEN MCGINN.
Owen McGinn graduated from Bakersfield Academy in 1883, and taught several terms of school. In 1886 he came to Fairfield Center and bought the gristmill and saw- mill site of the Gilbert estate, and erected the present sawmill and gristmill during the years 1887 and 1888. These mills are an im- portant factor in the industrial economy of the town, being located near the center, and they are in fact the only locally owned mills
in town. Mr. McGinn has stocked his sawmill every winter, taking all grades of hard and soft wood tim- ber, and has manufactured from two hundred to seven hundred and fifty thousand feet per annum, in- cluding custom sawing. In 1890 he installed a steam power of 75 horse-power capacity, and added a steel mill in the gristmill to accom- modate his increasing business. The gristmill is an important fea- ture, and the sale of flour and feed has reached large proportions. From July, 1903, during the ensu- ing year, more than $24,000 in flour and feed was sold here. Mr. McGinn has a storehouse at Fair- field station, and his trade with East Fairfield and Bakersfield is considerable.
Mr. McGinn is a self-made man, a good type of the enterprising in- telligent Irish-American of Ver- mont. He has seldom accepted town office, but is the present rep- resentative of Fairfield in the Gen- eral Assembly.
He married, in 1884, Rhoda, daughter of Patrick and Mary (English) Brennan. They have two children : M. Florence, a grad- uate of St. Mary's High School, now a teacher, and J. Brennan McGinn, now attending St. Mich- ael's College at Winooski.
SHATTUCK, MERTON C., a son of Martin and Meribah E. H. (Wilbur) Shattuck (see page 109), was born in Waterville, April 4, 1868. He was educated in the dis- trict schools of Eden and gradu- ated from the People's Academy at Morrisville, class of 1888. For the next two years he taught school in Eden and then entered a partner- ship with his father under the firm style and name of M. Shattuck & Son. The next four years was de-
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FRANKLIN COUNTY.
voted to the exacting cares of the large general store at Eden Cor- ners. He then decided on a career of railroading and commenced at Morrisville as a telegraph operator, remaining one season, when he was transferred to Cambridge Junc- tion. Here he remained but a
as a careful, painstaking and obliging official.
October 22, 1890, Mr. Shattuck was united in marriage to Myrtie R., daughter of Julius and Emily Green of Cambridge.
Mr. Shattuck became affiliated with the Masonic fraternity by
MERTON C. SHATTUCK.
short time, when he was sent to Fairlee for the summer, and in the fall of 1895 he returned to Cam- bridge Junction and remained two and a half years, when he was given the station at East Fairfield. Here he has remained to the pres- ent time, winning an enviable place
joining Mount Norris Lodge, No. 69, F. & A. M., in 1891, at Eden; in 1903 he joined the Order of the Eastern Star at East Fairfield, being one of the charter members of Harmony Chapter, No. 60. His ambition for Masonic knowledge and its hidden mysteries prompted
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him in 1906 to become united with Tucker Chapter, No. 15, R. A. M., at Morrisville.
While a resident of Eden he was school director four years, super- intendent of schools one year and justice two years.
Mr. Shattuck's spare time is de- voted to the highly successful cul- ture of small fruit, especially strawberries, having about three and a half acres devoted to this delicious berry.
GEORGIA.
Population, Census of 1900, 1,280.
The charter of Georgia was granted by Governor Benning Wentworth, August 17, 1763, to Richard Emery and 64 associates, with the usual conditions and res- ervations of the New Hampshire grants. Ten years after the char- ter was issued, in the autumn of 1773, Levi Allen of Salisbury, Con- necticut, bought the interests of most of the original grantees. Dur- ing the same, or the ensuing year, Heman Allen, Ethan Allen and Remember Baker, each bought a small interest. Ira Allen subse- quently became a principal propri- etor, buying a part of Levi's in- terest . and all of Heman's at pri- vate sale, and the remainder of Levi's at public sale for taxes. Meanwhile Ira Allen and Baker, with several men in their employ, were at the falls of the Winooski River in Colchester, making prep- arations for a grand immigration scheme which they hoped to inaug- urate the next year. A proprie- tors' meeting was called at Salis- bury, Connecticut, March 23,1774, at which Heman Allen was elected moderator and Ira Allen propri- etors' clerk, and it was voted to
lay out the town, each proprietor laying out his own right at his own expense. It is believed that Ira Allen, who was a practical sur- veyor, either made the survey or directed it. Meanwhile events were steadily and surely marshalling the forces which brought forth the American Revolution.
It was nearly twelve years after Allen began to boom the town of Georgia that the first settler, Will- iam Ferrand, erected his little cabin on the "governor's right," near the lake in the northwest cor- ner of the town. Only a few days later, Andrew Gilder came from Egremont, Massachusetts, and fol- lowing Allen's road from the Col- chester Falls across that town and Milton, to the west bank of Lamoille River, near the north bow in Geor- gia, pitched his tent there. Near by, on the opposite side of the La- moille River, Andrew Glidden, Jr., built his cabin. These three fam- ilies remained in town through the winter of 1775-'76, the first fami- lies known to have wintered in town; but neither had yet pur- chased land. Frederick Bliss is believed to have been the first pur- chaser of land for personal occu- pation. He was personally ac- quainted with the Allens, and came up in the autumn of 1784, and after examination, contracted for the purchase of 10 lots of land, one for himself, one for his brother Abner, and eight for his uncle, Captain Stephen Davis.
The town of Georgia was organ- ized on the 31st of March, 1788. John White, assistant judge of Chittenden County, of which this town was then a part, warned the meeting and called it to order. James Evarts was chosen moder- ator ; Reuben Evarts, . clerk;
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Stephen Davis, Stephen Holmes and Richard Sylvester, selectmen; Frederick Bliss, constable. Un- til 1792 all town meetings and public gatherings were held at the house of Colonel Benjamin Holmes. After several annual propositions to build a town house had been voted down, Colo- nel Holmes and Esquire Frederick Bliss, with some help from the neighbors, erected a small log building on the land of Bliss, a few rods south of the present brick schoolhouse. A public building was urgently needed, and from the March meeting in 1791, until the second Monday in December, 1800, the subject of building a meeting house by the town had been annu- ally agitated, only to be defeated. The people who were then inter- ested in the matter then built the house, one of the finest in the state, on land freely donated by Colonel Benjamin Holmes, at an expense of nearly $8,000. Then with praiseworthy magnanimity, they tendered its use to the town for "town and other meetings," on condition that it should be kept in condition for use.
A Congregational Church was organized in Georgia in 1793, and most of the inhabitants who had any religious preference, were adherents of this church. After 10 years of most bitter strife over this vexed question of ministerial settlement, at the town meeting held in April, 1803, Reverend Publius Virgilius Booge was called, with a salary of £75 for his first year, and stipulation that his sal- ary rise yearly as the grand list shall rise, to the sum of £100, one quarter of the sum in cash, the other three quarters in produce, such as corn, beef, pork and other
articles. He was also to receive the 100-acre lot which was reserved in the charter for the first settled minister.
Mr. Booge was duly called and settled, but it soon became evident that the voters did not feel under obligations to tax themselves to pay him. At length, through the mediation of Esquire Frederick Bliss, who had the confidence of all factions, a businesslike paper was drawn up and numerously signed, pledging voluntary subscriptions on the pro rata basis of the grand list.
Sawmills, potasheries, whiskey stills, tanneries, and every kind of mill, machine and shop common to the period, and to the necessities of the people, in a few years had sprung up like magic. The popu- lation during the nine years be- tween the census of 1791 and 1800 had increased more than 200 per cent., and had reached 1,068, against 815, in Burlington, and 901 in St. Albans.
CLARK, REVEREND CHARLES WALLACE, son of David P. and Mary (Baker) Clark, was born in Georgia, October 25, 1831. His grandfather, David Clark, was an early settler of the town. His father, David P., was a native and nearly lifelong resident on the farm where Charles W. was born. John White, a maternal great- grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was appropriately styled "The father of the town of Georgia." Charles W. was the eldest of three sons. George Henry Clark, his brother, next younger, was a Congregational clergyman, settled at St. Johnsbury Centre and died in early manhood. His youngest brother, Edward P. Clark, was a soldier in Company
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E, Twelfth Vermont Regiment, and is now a resident of Quincy, Massa- chusetts.
Reverend Charles W. Clark fitted for college at Georgia and Bakers- field academies, graduated from U. V. M. in the class of 1855, and three years later at Andover Theo-
Georgia, October 23, 1861. Their only son and child, Reverend Will- iam Colton Clark, was born at Isl- and Pond October 15, 1862. He is a graduate of the U. V. M. and of Union Theological Seminary, New York City ; has had pastorates with the church at South Hero and
REV. CHARLES W. CLARK.
logical Seminary. He was or- dained to the gospel ministry, June 13, 1861, at Georgia, and soon after began work at Island Pond. His other pastorates were Hartland, Charlotte, Gaysville and Georgia.
Mr. Clark married Harriet Lu- cretia, daughter of Harvey and Harriet (Fairchild) Colton of
Grand Isle, also at Hardwick and is now settled at Lyndon.
Mrs. Charles W. Clark is also a native of Georgia, a granddaughter of Deacon Walter Colton, a native of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, who came to Georgia in 1798 and reared a family of nine sons and two daughters, all of whom at-
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tained maturity and reared fami- lies of their own. In 1878 Mr. and Mrs. Clark removed to her family home in Georgia and since 1879 he has ministered to the Congrega- tional church in his native town. At the present time he is the oldest minister in active service of his denomination in Vermont.
tion, he has faithfully served as superintendent of schools during nearly each of his several pas- torates.
POST, LORENZO A., son of Curtis M. and Mary B. (Nichols) Post, was born in Georgia, December 7, 1846. William Post, a soldier of the Revolution, came from Rutland
LORENZO A. POST.
He was elected to the Legislature from Stockbridge in 1876. Mr. Clark is still active and well pre- served, now in the 75th year of his age, and is an excellent type of the old school Congregational minister, teacher and friend of his people. Deeply interested in sound educa-
to Georgia Center in 1791, settled on a farm and kept a house of en- tertainment widely known as "William Post's Inn." His son, Major Post, served in the War of 1812-'14.
Curtis M. Post was a small farmer, but was best known as the
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
long-time town clerk and treasurer of Georgia; elected in 1855, served until his death in 1877. His widow then held the office until her death in 1886, since which time Lorenzo A. Post has served.
Abraham Hathaway, the mater- nal great-grandfather of Lorenzo A. Post, was a soldier of the Revo- lution, and was a civil engineer and one of the early surveyors of Georgia. Abner B. Nichols, the father of Mary B. (Nichols) Post, was a soldier of the War of 1812, and one of the early residents of Georgia.
Lorenzo A. Post was educated in the common schools and academy of Georgia. He went to St. Al- bans and became a clerk and book- keeper in several mercantile con- cerns; for some years was assistant postmaster, remaining nearly twen- ty-five years, but still maintaining his home in Georgia. He came home in 1883, shortly before his mother's death, and settled on the home farm one-half mile from Georgia Center.
In the fall of 1890 he formed a mercantile partnership with Abner Bliss, under the firm style of Post & Bliss, and bought the old Center store of C. B. Pino, and they have continued in trade here until the present time, and are now the only storekeepers in Georgia Center. Their stock embraces a full line of general country merchandise, and the firm is the leading factor in the business of Georgia.
Mr. Post was married in 1876, to Frances M. Towne, a great- granddaughter of Edmund Towne, an early town clerk of the town of Fairfield and afterwards a prominent citizen of Georgia. She died in 1887. Mr. Post married, in 1900, Mary G. Howard, widow
of M. J. Macomber of Milton.
Mr. Post was elected to the Leg- islature from Georgia in 1886, and served on the committee on educa- tion. The following March he was elected town clerk and treasurer. He had already acted many years as assistant. At the organization of Banner Grange in February, 1906, the largest charter member Grange in the state, he was elected as master, an emphatic tribute of public confidence. Mr. Post has been for nearly forty years a mem- ber of Franklin Lodge, No. 4, A. F. & A. M., of St. Albans. A man of unassuming but genial manners, of sterling integrity and good prac- tical judgment, he is a worthy rep- resentative of the stanch and pa- triotic pioneers of Georgia.
BLISS, FREDERICK W., son of Cornelius V. and Miriam (New- man) Bliss, was born in Georgia, . April 9, 1855. Cornelius Bliss died in 1872 at the early age of 47. He was a merchant in Georgia Center and erected the Post & Bliss store; was many years a constable and tax collector and a stirring character during the Civil War period. He was a lineal descend- ant of one of the earliest pioneers of the town. Captain Benjamin Newman, the maternal grand- father of Frederick W. Bliss, was commander of one of the Georgia militia companies and served at Plattsburg in 1814. The family of Cornelius V. and Miriam (New- man) Bliss consisted of three sons and one daughter: Betsey A. (de- ceased) ; Chlorus C., a farmer at Burlington; William Y., a phy- sician located at Tully, New York; and Frederick W.
Frederick W. Bliss was educated in the excellent common and select schools of Georgia. Orphaned at
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FRANKLIN COUNTY.
the age of 17 by his father's early death, the care of the home farm of 80 acres devolved upon him. He is an energetic and successful farmer and has added 70 acres by purchase to the original homestead and now has one of the most desir- able and well-located farms in
tillage is under a high state of cul- tivation.
Mr. Bliss has a sugar place of 500 trees, and a productive apple orchard. The farm supports a dairy of twenty or more cows and the young stock sufficient to keep good the dairy. Mr. Bliss has al-
FREDERICK W. BLISS.
Georgia Center. All of the build- ings on the farm have been built or remodeled by him. In 1893 the present excellent farm house was erected and the same year the horse barn, a modern and well-fin- ished building with basement for swine. The barns are roomy and convenient and the mowing and
ways been interested in horse breeding, and is rearing some good colts. During the past half dozen years he has been engaged in the collection of cream for the Frank- lin County Creamery Association. He is a typical, stalwart Vermont farmer, of jovial manners, a good neighbor and esteemed citizen. He
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served the town several years as lister and for 15 years has been a justice of the peace.
Mr. Bliss married, in 1884, Har- riet L., daughter of Ephraim L. and Fanny (Leonard) Ladd of Georgia. Mrs. Bliss died in 1893, leaving two children : Raymond Van Ness, a member of the Georgia
family is brightened by the charms of music and social intercourse.
CURTIS, JAMES K., son of Eli- jah and Caroline (Beals) Curtis, was born in Burlington, February 20, 1845. John Curtis, his grand- father, came from Stanstead, Prov- ince of Quebec, to St. Albans in 1822. Elijah, the youngest of his
-
JAMES K. CURTIS AND SONS.
Cornet Band, and a student at Bellows Free Academy, and Mar- guerite, aged 15.
Mr. Bliss married, in December, 1896, Fannie I., daughter of Ro- dolphus and Lovisa (Warner) Wood of Georgia. They have a son, William Cornelius, born De- cember 31, 1899. The home life of this interesting and hospitable
two sons, was a wheelwright by trade, at St. Albans and Burling- ton, and moved to the home farm in Georgia in 1851. His four children were: Joseph (deceased), James K., Sarah G. (Mrs. J. R. Holyoke), and Atherton (de-
ceased ).
James K. Curtis was educated in the academies of Georgia and Wil-
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liston. Since 1851 this farm has been his home. The farm is lo- cated one mile from Oakland sta- tion and four miles from St. Al- bans. The original farm of 75 acres was increased to 350, but at the death of Elijah Curtis, in 1896, 100 acres were set off to Mrs. Hol- yoke. From 1860 to 1870, a large and excellent flock of high grade merino sheep were profitably kept. Later Mr. Curtis began to breed the Jerseys, and now has a herd of 45 cows, one of the best dairies of Franklin County. He keeps 65 head of cattle and five horses on his 250-acre farm and sells about fifty tons of hay this year. The meadow and tillage comprise about one hundred acres. Much of the meadow is low, natural grass land, which is kept up by liberal top dressing. All of the land is plowed and re-seeded as often as once in five years. The result is an abun- dant crop of clover, red top and timothy hay, which is cut early, and with the ensilage, makes a great butter producer. There is a good sugar place of 800 trees, well set up with tin buckets and evapo- rator, and the maple syrup finds a ready market at $1.00 per gallon. Mr. Curtis has built or rebuilt all of the farm buildings, which are now commodious and convenient. He is widely known as one of the most progressive and prosperous farmers of Vermont, and as a citi- zen of genuine character.
Mr. Curtis married in 1872, Mar- tha E., daughter of Asahel and Lydia (Evarts) Allen. The Evarts family was in the early times one of the most prominent in Georgia, and James Evarts was the first representative.
Atherton T. Curtis, the eldest
son of James K., married Hattie Meigs of St. Albans, and now man- ages the home farm. Helen L., a graduate of Johnson and Oswego Normal schools, is a teacher at New Rochelle, New York. Ed- ward A. is superintendent of the farm of Doctor T. R. Waugh of Georgia. Harry Beals Curtis is on the home farm.
James K. Curtis has held most of the town offices, and was a member of the Legislature in 1880. He was appointed by Governor Grout on the board of agriculture in 1896, served four years, and was secretary of the State Dairymen's Association three years.
Mr. and Mrs. Curtis are es- teemed members of the Methodist Episcopal church at North Fair- fax, and are typical rural Ver- monters.
COBURN, CHARLES, son of Royal and Catherine (Rice) Co- burn, was born in Fairfield, April 16, 1839. His early life was spent upon a farm and in attendance at the district schools of his native town. He went to New York state with his father's family, and in 1861 enlisted in the Twenty-second New York Infantry as a fifer, and served two years, when he re-en- listed in the Sixteenth New York Heavy Artillery and served until the close of the war. His entire service was with the Army of the Potomac.
He returned to Milton at the close of the war, and engaged in farming.
He married, July 15, 1866, Cor- nelia, daughter of Archibald and Rhoda (Wheeler) Perry, and they resided in Milton 14 years. Their only son, Frank C., was born there, June 9, 1867. Mr. Coburn moved
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to Georgia in 1879, to the village home now owned and occupied by the family.
Charles Coburn was an esteemed member of I. B. Richardson Post, G. A. R., of Fairfax. Possessing rare musical gifts, by his long army practice he became one of the best fifers in the state, and was called upon far and near to render that music on memorial and anni- versary occasions. He died, uni- versally lamented by the entire
CHARLES COBURN.
community, June 12, 1905, leaving a widow and an only son.
Frank C. Coburn attended the Georgia schools. He married, in 1890, Anna, daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Webb) Harriott of Oxford, New York. They had three children: Hazel, aged 15; Susan, 13, and Thomas Harriott, 10 years of age.
In 1891 Frank C. Coburn began an engagement as a butter and cheese maker for Gardner Mur- phy, which lasted for 12 years. He has been, and now is, employed
in the same capacity for J. H. White & Son of Boston.
Mr. Coburn has inherited his father's musical tastes, and is a member of the Georgia Cornet Band.
BALLARD, JOSEPH. The name of Ballard in Georgia is a synonym for stanch and long-time citizen- ship, sound character and success- ful attainment in varied fields. Jo- seph, son of Orris and Chloe P. (Jocelyn) Ballard, was born on the ancestral farm, July 8, 1838. His grandfather and namesake, Jo- seph Ballard, removed from Tin- mouth to Georgia and married Polly Loomis in 1793, reared a nu- merous and virile family, and died in 1836. He settled on the farm which his namesake now owns, then almost an unbroken wilderness. His son, Orris succeeded to this es- tate, where he was born, and which has been the family home to the present time. He was a stanch Republican, as are all of his sons. He died in May, 1881.
The children of Orris and Chloe (Jocelyn) Ballard were: Joseph, the subject of this sketch; George A. (deceased), the well-known at- torney of Fairfax; Henry, an ex- tensive farmer in Oxford, Furnace County, Nebraska; Chloe P., wife of Judson Carr; Emily, wife of Stearns Boyden; and Orris, an auctioneer and farmer, all of Georgia.
Joseph Ballard inherits the stal- wart physique and strong mental- ity of a hardy New England an- cestry. A good common school education has been supplemented by extensive reading, especially in agricultural lines. In 1864 Jo- seph Ballard married M. Augusta, daughter of Chellis Kingsley of
FRANKLIN COUNTY.
273
Georgia, and four children have been born to them. Herbert W. is superintendent of streets at St. Al- bans; Jessie L., wife of C. C. Dyer of Sutton; Julian F. and George D., who are associated with their father in farming.
Mr. Ballard succeeded to the pa-
year, his horse barn, 40 x 50, and basement. These barns are models of convenience, handsomely fin- ished and roofed with slate, and are second to none in the county. A roomy and well-lighted basement of the main barn is the home of one of the best and most carefully
JOSEPH BALLARD.
ternal estate, paying off the other heirs, and has become one of the most thorough, successful and well- known farmers of Vermont. His farming is both intensive and ex- tensive. He is an all-round farmer and a specialist in each de- partment. In 1895 he erected his large barn, 48 x 108, and a large shed, 70 x 24, and the following A-19
selected flocks of middle wool sheep in the state. His mature ewes weigh about one hundred and seventy-five pounds each, and av- erage 10-pound clips of wool. The flock is from the celebrated stock of John Campbell of Woodville, Ontario, the noted Shropshire breeder. Mr. Ballard has usually taken first prizes as an exhibitor in
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
the different classes. His dairy is selected with an eye to individual merit, contains about forty cows, his special pride and distinction being a score or more of very fine Holsteins, with the registered bull, De Kol Lilleth Beauty at the head. He has sold some famous members
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