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 31
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 31
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 31
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For a third of a century he has de voted his attention to his art, keep- ing abreast of the times, and has seen every improvement, from the
FRANK W. WHEELER.
primitive daguerreotype to the am- brotype, the tintype and the ele- gant photograph of today.
He helped build, in 1884, the Powell block, so-called, on Main Street, the location of the studio, and in which he owns a one-third interest.
Since retiring, in 1903, from the active practice of his art, Mr. Wheeler has purchased a very pro- ductive farm, next outside the vil- lage limits, in the management of which he has found both health and pastime. He was originally a Democrat, but since 1888 has been a Prohibitionist. He is a member of the Methodist Church and su- perintendent of the junior work.
Frank W. Wheeler married, in 1872, Mary A. Griggs of Alburg,
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FRANKLIN COUNTY.
Two children have been born to them : Frederick C. and Arvilla C., wife of Doctor E. G. Livingstone of Lowell, Massachusetts.
Frederick C. Wheeler was born January 3, 1875; was graduated at the Richford High School, and was also a student for four years at McGill College, Montreal. He chose the occupation so long and successfully followed by his father, and assumed the business in 1903. Frederick C. Wheeler has a well- deserved reputation as an artist, and many of the photographs of "Successful Vermonters" repre- sents his skill. He married, in 1904, Miss Josie Garvin of Richford. Their beautiful home on Elm Ave- nue, occupied by both families, is
FREDERICK C. WHEELER.
tastefully adorned by choice and rare shrubs and plants on the ex- quisite lawn, and cheered by the presence of a little daughter, Ger- trude Arvilla Wheeler.
LOCKLIN, WALLACE BYRON, son of David and Lydia (Stearns) Locklin, was born at Fairfield, De- cember 21, 1854. He was one of a family of seven sons and four daughters, the members of which are now widely separated. He early learned the lessons of indus- try and self-denial as the means of making his own way in life.
Mr. Locklin was educated in the public schools of Fairfield, at Ba- kersfield Academy, and at Barre Academy under Jacob Spaulding, from which he graduated in the class of 1876. He worked out on farms and taught district school, thereby paying his educational ex- penses. He read law in the office of the late Henry E. Rustedt, and was admitted to the bar of Frank- lin County at the September term, 1880. In the spring of 1881 he located at Tower City, North Da- kota, and soon enjoyed an extensive and successful general practice.
In 1883 he married Nellie, daughter of Harvey D. Farrar, one of the early and prominent settlers of Richford, and returned with his bride to his Western home, where she was stricken with consumption, and in 1886 they returned to Rich- ford, where she died two years later. In 1889 he resumed legal practice and soon formed a law partnership with Henry E. Rus- tedt, then recently elected county supervisor of schools, which contin- ued until Mr. Rustedt's lamented death in March, 1904. Mr. Locklin is a sucessful practical lawyer, a man of affairs. His sound judg- ment and fairness are well recog- nized, and he has often acted as re- ceiver of estates under appoint- ment of the courts in chancery and a trustee in the settlement of es- tates.
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
In Richford he owns and con- ducts a farm, is identified in several of the local manufactories, has served 10 years as a water commis- sioner and 15 years on the school board. He was state's attorney of Franklin County from 1902-'04.
In 1891 Mr. Locklin married Anna, daughter of Joel and Lucy (Grant) Swan, a relative of Dan- iel Webster on the paternal line,
WALLACE B. LOCKLIN.
and of General U. S. Grant on the maternal. They have three sons and one daughter: Harold Grant, Merritt Swan, Anna Pauline and Philip David. Mr. Locklin is a Republican in politics and a mem- ber and steward of the Methodist Church.
BAKER, L., & SONS. There are very few firms that have exercised so lasting and beneficial an influ- ence in the business life of Rich- ford as the Bakers.
Luther Baker was born in New- port, May 7, 1820, and represents the early and sturdy citizenship of that town. Reared upon a farm, with a fair education for the times, in early life he engaged in mercan- tile business at Newport.
He married Melinda Green of Waterford, and three children were born to them: Ella, deceased, and Jasper C. and Homer L., the active members of the firm. In 1874 L. Baker & Sons located in Richford, near the Canadian Pacific Rail- road station and engaged in trade, both wholesale and retail, handling flour, feed, coal and building mate- rials, the first in town to order goods by the carload. They dealt extensively in lumber, and owned and operated a dressing and finish- ing mill. In 1877 their store and stock were destroyed by a disas- trous fire, but they promptly re- built, and continued an extensive business until 1893, when their es- tablishment was again burned. They erected their present large steam lumber mill at East Rich- ford in 1887, an extensive two- story building, lighted by electric- ity, with a board saw of 25,000 feet capacity in 10 hours; clapboard mill with modern equipment for the manufacture of floor boards, box shooks, etc. The output of the mill is three or four million feet per annum, and the company owns a water mill at South Troy, which turns out two million feet.
The company owns several thou- sand acres of wood and timber land and are extensive buyers of timber. The logging is jobbed, a large share of it being run down the river. Some fifty men are employed in and about the mill and the com- pany pay roll is the lifeblood of industry at East Richford, which
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FRANKLIN COUNTY.
has largely grown up since the starting of the business.
Luther Baker, now 86 years of age, with mental faculties still clear, has been one of the most prominent and able men of north- ern Vermont. A stalwart Repub- lican, he represented Newport in the Legislature, and was a senator for Orleans County.
of Jehial Hawley, a prominent cit- izen of Arlington. His son, Abi- jah Hawley, was a strong charac- ter and a pioneer settler in the northern part of Buck Hollow in the town of Fairfax, where he set- tled in 1789, having come from Arlington. He came with his fam- ily on ox-sleds to the town and then transferred his goods to "the Hol-
MILL OF L. BAKER & SONS, AT EAST RICHFORD.
Jasper C. Baker manages the outside business, and is widely known as an able business man. As a Republican, he represented Rich- ford in 1888.
H. L. Baker resides at East Rich- ford, where he is postmaster, and has charge of the store and the mill and lumber interests.
HAWLEY, HON. CYRUS A., was born in Fairfax December 26, 1848. He received his education in the public schools and at the New Hampton Institute.
Cyrus A. Hawley is a grandson
low" on hand-sleds. We find that as early as 1796 Abijah Hawley was elected a school committeeman in the town of Fairfax.
Cyrus A. Hawley selected farm- ing for his life work and in his chosen calling he hewed out a marked degree of success. He has frequently been called to serve his townsmen in public office and has filled the town offices of selectman, school director, superintendent of schools, lister, trustee of the Bel- lows Free Academy, and in 1900 represented Fairfax in the General
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
Assembly, serving on the commit- tee on education. In 1904 Mr. Hawley was chosen to represent Franklin County in the state Sen-
CYRUS A. HAWLEY.
ate and served as chairman of the committee on education, a member of the committee on printing and the committee on federal relations, also as a member of the joint stand- ing committee under fourth joint rule. In all these important places Senator Hawley has discharged the duties of the position with pains- taking care and fidelity.
MANUEL, GEORGE C., was born in North Troy, Orleans County, May 24, 1863, a son of C. C. Man- uel. He received his education in the public schools and at Richford Academy. Mr. Manuel is a mem- ber of the firm of C. C. Manuel & Sons, of whom "Pictorial Rich- ford" says: "The veneer mill is operated by the C. C. Manuel & Sons Company, an old established firm. It employs 175 people and
its mill has a capacity of nearly one half million veneer plates a day and enlargements now in the process of construction will double its capacity." This hustling firm is among the largest and most suc- cessful manufacturers of veneer in New England.
George C. Manuel has always taken a deep interest in all mat- ters that were a benefit to the busi- ness and moral upbuilding in this community. In 1900 he was elected a village trustee and has served sev- eral terms in that capacity. In 1904 he was chosen to represent Richford in the General Assembly,
GEORGE C. MANUEL.
where he served as chairman of the committee on highways, bridges and ferries.
CORLISS, JOHN BLAISDELL, son of Hezekiah and Lydia (Rounds) Corliss, was born at Richford, June 7, 1851. His father, the old- est citizen of Richford, a unique and original personality and an early and devoted Abolitionist,
groß forlise
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
and several brothers and sisters, still reside in Richford.
At the age of 14, Mr. Corliss was sent to the French Academy, in the Province of Quebec, to learn the French language. His education was continued in the Richford High School, Fairfax Academy, and Montpelier Methodist Episco- pal Seminary, from which he grad- uated in 1871. After spending three years in the law office of No- ble & Smith, at St. Albans, he passed the examinations and en- tered the senior class of the Colum- bian Law School of Washington, District of Columbia, graduating in 1875. It was his intention to settle in Vermont, and accord- ingly he located in Burling- ton, but after remaining six weeks, contrary to the advice of most of his friends, he decided to "go West," and at the suggestion of Hon. Levi Underwood of Bur- lington, settled at Detroit. He ar- rived at the "City of the Straits," September 25, 1875, among total strangers, with but $35 of bor- rowed money in his pocket, but with a stout and true heart beat- ing under his vest. He entered the law firm of Hon. E. Y. Swift, a native of Vermont, and found four of the five Detroit judges were native Vermonters. He soon se- cured a growing practice, and in 1876 returned to his native state and married Elizabeth N. Dan- forth, daughter of the late Hon. William C. Danforth of Barnard.
Mr. Corliss soon won an excellent professional standing, and in 1881, after only six years' membership of the Detroit bar, was elected city attorney, and reelected in 1883. In this capacity he prepared a complete revision of the Detroit city charter, which, with only
slight modifications, was passed by the Legislature. In 1886, the firm of Corliss, Andrus & Leete was formed, now Corliss, Leete & Joslyn, and he has been retained in some of the most important cases which have arisen in the state. He is also interested in railroad speculation and street railway construction, and is gen- eral counsel for the Detroit United Railway. He is also a stockholder and director in several other large business enterprises of his state.
In 1894 Mr. Corliss was elected to Congress, as a Republican, in a district that had sent a Democrat during the 16 preceding years. During his first term he was a mem- ber of the important committee of interstate and foreign commerce; and was an earnest advocate of the Nicaragua Canal bill. He was recognized as an able exponent of the measure for restricting immi- gration and for amending the Con- stitution so that a state could elect its United States senators by direct vote of the people.
During the second session of the Fifty-fifth Congress he successfully opposed the exclusive grant of a subsidy to the Pacific Cable Com- pany, a measure reported favorably by the committee, and substituted the plan of a direct appropriation and specific control by the govern- ment, which was warmly endorsed by President Roosevelt. Mr. Cor- liss was the father of the first bill introduced in Congress for railroad rate regulation, and during each of his four terms he was recognized as the vigilant and consistent cham- pion of the rights of the people, and an exponent of the idea of a fair and judicious regulation of corporations. The name of Corliss has become famous through the in-
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FRANKLIN COUNTY.
vention by George H. Corliss of the great engine that bears his name, and has been honored on the field of battle during successive wars of the republic, and at the bar; but it was reserved for the Vermont farm- bred lawyer, John Blaisdell Cor- liss, as the first of the name to win
and superb professional equip- ment.
Hon. J. B. and Mrs. Corliss are the parents of four children.
January, 1886, Mrs. Corliss died, leaving four little children of two weeks, two, four and eight years of age. The deep affection for the
GEORGE E. READ.
distinction in the legislative field as a member of Congress.
Mr. Corliss owes the success which has invariably attended his efforts, to his conscientious thor- oughness and devotion to high ideals and to duty, no less than to a strong and well-balanced intellect
beloved wife and mother may be appreciated by the fact that he remains a widower, devoted to his children.
READ, GEORGE E., son of Ben- jamin C. and Mary E. (Murray) Read, was born at Providence, Rhode Island, July 30, 1847. He
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
came of stanch New England stock. His father was a furniture manu- facturer, and later a car builder for the Providence & Worcester and Boston, Lowell & Nashua railroads.
George E. Read was educated in the public schools of Cambridge, Massachusetts, learned the car building trade with his father, and for nine years was engaged with him. He married, in 1870, Abbie
to a better location, at Boston, where for 20 years he was success- fully engaged in manufacturing, chamber furniture of medium grade being his leading product. In 1894 he removed his machinery and most of his employés to Man- chester, New Hampshire, where he became a member of the Josselyn & Read Company, a corporation with $50,000 capital, and conducted the
RICHFORD MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
Louise, daughter of Francis Bur- rell of Weymouth, Massachusetts.
In 1873 he erected a small fac- tory at Weymouth and engaged successfully in the manufacture of furniture for about three years, when his plant was destroyed by a disastrous fire and, being without insurance, he was penniless. He obtained financial aid and erected a new plant of double the size and capacity of the former one. After some years he removed his business
furniture factory there for five years. In 1899, with H. C. Com- ings of Richford, he bought Mr. Josselyn's interest, closed out that enterprise and settled at Richford, acquiring a large interest in the Richford Manufacturing Company, of which he has since been treas- urer and general manager. Mr. Read's inherited mechanical abil- ity, his more than thirty years' ex- perience, his good judgment and kindness with his men, his orderly
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FRANKLIN COUNTY.
and systematic methods, are fac- tors which have combined in secur- ing the successful operation of the Richford Manufacturing Company. The leading feature is a medium grade of chamber furniture, and the stock has a well-established rep- utation and a ready sale in the eastern central states and in Maine, also in the foreign export trade. The business of the factory
in this thriving town. Mr. Read is highly esteemed in Richford as an able business man and a loyal, pub- lic-spirited citizen. He is well- known in business circles and is a member of the Massachusetts Char- itable Mechanics' Association and other organizations, but has never taken an active part in local politics or public affairs, devoting his at- tention closely and successfully to
RICHFORD MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
has steadily and rapidly increased, and now exceeds $75,000 per an- num. Fifty people are employed in the factory, receiving weekly payment and seven traveling sales- men are on the road. Nearly a million and a half feet of lumber is annually worked up into furni- ture, which furnishes an excellent local market for native ash, elm and basswood. Under the present able management the business has be- come the largest single enterprise
his large business and financial in- terests.
He is a stanch temperance man in theory and practice and his in- fluence on this subject is a potent factor for sobriety and morality.
Mrs. Read died in 1884, leaving three sons: Edward B. and Rob- ert M. are stockholders and em- ployés in the factory, and Arthur C. is engaged in the printing busi- ness at Worcester, Massachusetts. Mr. Read married, in 1886, Miss
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
Alice E. Dunning of Chelsea, Mas- sachusetts. Ernest D., the eldest son by this marriage, is a student at Tufts College; Marion E., George HI., Ellen E. and Benjamin C. are with their parents in their beauti- ful home on High Street.
SCOFIELD, COLUMBUS S., son of Edwin and Canzada Olin Sco- field, was born at Sutton, Prov- ince of Quebec, January 2, 1860.
U
COLUMBUS S. SCOFIELD, M. D.
He was of worthy American lin- eage, a descendant of John Sco- field, the well-known pioneer and founder of Canaan, New Hamp- shire. At four years of age he came to Massachusetts with his father's family, attended the Wes- leyan Academy of Wilbraham and graduated from Harvard Univer- sity Medical College, Boston, in the
class of 1883. He then practiced his profession in Boston for 10 years, during that time connected for several years with the West End Children's Hospital and Low- ell Island Hospital.
Doctor Scofield has taken a post- graduate course at McGill Uni- versity, Montreal, is a life member of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, England, and holds a certificate from Queen Charlotte Maternity Hospital, London, besides having studied in the hospitals of Rome and Paris, especially the Baude- locque of the latter city, where the confinements average seventeen daily the year round-a wide and varied experience and training.
Doctor Scofield located in Rich- ford in 1898 and in 1904 estab- lished his sanatorium, which is pleasantly located on Town House hill, commanding a fine view of the beautiful village of Richford and of the surrounding hills and mountains. The sanatorium is fully equipped with electrical appliances --- galvanic, faradic and static cur- rents-with X-ray machine, electric bath and heater for the treatment of all forms of nervous and chronic diseases. The X-ray treatment seems to promise better results in lupus and all forms of cancer than any other treatment.
The most important part of the sanitarium is that set apart for women during confinement. Many women hail as a boon the oppor- tunity of passing through this try- ing period in a place where they will be free from all care and worry, and where quiet and re- tirement may be had and, if de- sired, good homes provided for the offspring if unable to properly care for them themselves.
Doctor Scofield finds an efficient
1
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FRANKLIN COUNTY.
assistant in Mrs. Althea L. Sco- field, formerly of Newark, New Jer- sey. The consulting physicians are men of ability and experience : Doc- tor J. H. Hamilton was for 14 years secretary of the Vermont State Board of Health : Doctor R. M. Pel- ton is well known as a successful physician and public mnan. Doctor Scofield is president of the Franklin County Medical Society, and is a member of the Vermont State Medical Society, a gentleman of fine social and mental gifts.
navigable from the lake to Swan- ton Falls, a distance of seven miles, this avenue being much used in early times for the shipment of logs and timber, and later of mar- ble, and for the excursions of boats and pleasure yachts. Naturally prolific in fish and game, the vicin- ity was an early and favorite dwell- ing place of the red men and many Indian relics have been found near Swanton Falls.
The town of Swanton was char- tered in 1763 by Governor Benning
DR. SCOFIELD'S SANITARIUM. DINING ROOM. LIBRARY
ELECTRICAL ROOM.
SWANTON.
Population, Census of 1900, 3,745.
Swanton was named in honor of Captain William Swanton, a Brit- ish officer who visited this section during the French and Indian War.
The first sawmill in the state was built here by the French prior to the French and Indian War. The first dam was built here in 1789 by Thomas Butterfield, agent of Ira Allen. The Missisquoi River is
Wentworth to Isaiah Goodrich and 63 associates, with the usual condi- tions and reservations. None of the original grantees ever settled in town and as late as 1786 it appears that 59 of the 64 original shares were owned by Ira Allen, who about this time caused a new sur- vey to be made and took measures to have the town settled and the water-power at Swanton Falls im- proved and used.
It is an established fact that a concession of a large tract of land,
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SUCCESSFUL VERMONTERS.
including what is now the town of Swanton, was made by the French government in 1734, this part of Vermont being then included in the domains of New France. The first white settlements in this sec- tion were made by the French at least as early as 1740 and many indications establish a strong prob- ability that the first European set- tlement in Vermont was made at Swanton Falls.
A French mission was estab- lished by the Jesuits at an early day on the north bank of the Mis- sisquoi River and a stone church erected. Some improvements had been made by Thomas Metcalf and James Robinson prior to the begin- ning of the American Revolution. The first permanent white settler in town was John Hilliker, who came with his family in 1779 and settled on the south bank of the Missisquoi River, about two miles from the Falls, on the Vernon farm. The old stone chapel, sur- rounded by a considerable Indian village, stood just across the river and the chapel bell rang daily for morning and evening worship.
The English trading settlement, conducted by Thomas Metcalf and James Robinson, existed between 1765 and 1775, the principal busi- ness being lumbering, which was conducted by man labor, and trade with the Indians. The French had already taken their departure, but some of their improvements re- mained. Soon after the Revolu- tion the active settlement of the town commenced, the English hav- ing relinquished their claims to lands lying south of 45º north lati- tude. John Wagoner, the second settler, came in in 1787, and was soon followed by Adams Mills, Orange Smith, Michael, Henry and
Stephen Lapman, John Hoyle and Conrad Asseylstine, and others, all of whom came previous to 1790. Contemporaneous settlements were also made in other parts of the town.
The early settlers of Swanton were of two classes, those settling in the best part of the town being of low Dutch descent, coming from New York and tinctured with Toryism, and those who settled about the Falls and the eastern sec- tion, who were mostly of the native Yankee stock, patriots and many of them Revolutionary soldiers.
The first local proprietors' meet- ing was held at Fort Frederick in 1774, and the second at the home of Ethan Allen at Sunderland, in 1775. The first recorded town meeting was held March 23, 1790. Jonathan Butterfield was chosen moderator; Thomas Butterfield, clerk; John Asselstine, constable ; Conrad Asselstine, John Noakes and Jonathan Butterfield, select- men.
Very soon after 1789 a gristmill was built at the Falls, to which set- tlers came from far and near with their grain. In the year 1800 there were 160 names recorded on the guard list and the census taken that year showed a population of 858.
The embargo and non-inter- course act, during the War of 1812, forbidding trade with England and its colonies, was quite unpopular at Swanton, which had long en- joyed a thriving trade with Cana- dian neighbors, and considerable smuggling was done, as the busi- ness was both lucrative and excit- ing, and it was followed to some extent as late as 1820.
During the Civil War it was par-
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FRANKLIN COUNTY.
tially resumed for a time. Swan- ton, on account of its exposed sit- uation, was guarded by a regiment of militia during the years 1812 and 1813.
When Fort Sumter was fired upon the war spirit was fervent and constant, and "The Green Mountain Guards" at once offered its services to the governor and be- came Company A, First Regiment, the first company enrolled for the suppression of the rebellion in Ver- mont. The town subsequently fur- nished several men more than its quota of soldiers.
The Vermont and Canada rail- road was built through the town in 1850-'51, and gave a new impetus to the village. During the later 60's, after a bitter contest, the town bonded for $75,000 in aid of the construction of the Lamoille Valley Railroad, of which enterprise Col- onel A. B. Jewett was the leading advocate and promoter.
The first important business en- terprise in Swanton, besides agri- culture and the saw- and gristmills, was the manufacture of wrought iron from bog-iron ore, which was begun in 1799 by Captain Rufus and Elisha Barney, and continued many years until wood became too costly and ore too scarce to be profitable. Lime was manufac- tured to a considerable extent be- fore 1800 and has continued to be a valuable resource until the pres- ent. Sawing marble at the Falls from the Swanton quarries has been a leading industry since the erection of the first mill in 1812.
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