The History of Washington County in the Vermont historical gazetteer : including a county chapter and the local histories of the towns of Montpelier., Part 109

Author: Hemenway, Abby Maria, 1828-1890
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Montpelier, Vt. : Vermont Watchman and State Journal Press
Number of Pages: 1064

USA > Vermont > Washington County > Montpelier > The History of Washington County in the Vermont historical gazetteer : including a county chapter and the local histories of the towns of Montpelier. > Part 109

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Jonathan Pitkin, Churchill,

76 Joel Parker,

89 Rebecca W. Coburn,

Noyes Tower, Jemima Thompson,

83 Hannah Gilson Parker,

99 Mary Wales,

73 Louisa Jones Rice,

84 Ezekiel Stanton,

83 N. A. Whittaker,

84 Elmira C. Nye,

72 Elijah Ellis,

80 Stephen Burbank,

George Rice,

75 Roswell Carpenter,

Esther Rice,

75 Roswell Carpenter, Jr.,

Tyler Ladd,

71 Lovisa Carpenter,

William Mowcroft,

71 Azuba Simons,

71 73 79

Ozias Silsbury, 76

79 Jesse Averill,

Moses Robinson,

Mrs. McCarty,

86 Oliver Averill,

James Johnson,

74 John Greene,

85 85 90 80 84 80 76 84

Nathan Ring, 84

81 Simon Eggleston,

82 James Latham,

Nancy L. Field, Elijah Hedges,

Polly T. Hedges,

Samuel Buzzell,

93 96

name to This w the ofer

95 Edward Eastman,

NORTHFIELD.

673

LEWIS COLLEGE.

NORWICH UNIVERSITY.

BY REV. F. W. BARTLETT.

The early history since its foundation in 1834, may be found in the history of Norwich, where it was located until after the burning of the " South Barracks" in the spring of 1866. The next fall it re- moved to Northfield, the citizens thereof having raised $16,500 for the purpose. Rev. Edward Bourns, LL. D., had been president for 15 years.

On removal, the institution first occupied the upper part of Paine's building, i. e., from Sept. 13, 1866, to the Commencement in July, 1868. Capt. S. W. Shattuck became president pro tempore in 1866, Dr. Bourns remaining as professor of languages until his death, in July, 1871. Maj. Thomas W. Walker, U. S. A., became president in 1867, Rev. R. S. Howard, D. D., in 1869, Rev. Malcolm Douglass, D. D., in 1872, Rev. Josiah Swett, D. D., in 1875, Capt. Chas. A. Curtis, U. S. A., in 1877, Hon. Geo. Nichols, M. D., in 1880. Dec. 31, 1880, the trustees, having been em- powered by the Legislature, changed the name to LEWIS COLLEGE.

This was done chiefly in recognition of the offer of Col. Chas. H. Lewis, LL. D.,

of Boston, an alumnus, to render it the needed financial support, on certain con- ditions, which were accepted by the trus- tees. With no endowment, there had been of late years a long-continued strug- gle for existence. Col. Lewis was at the same time elected president, and Dr. Clarence L. Hathaway, M. S., vice presi- dent.

The college has conferred the following degrees since its foundation : Bachelor of Arts, III ; Bachelor of Science, 140 ; Bach- elor of Philosophy, 2; Civil Engineer, 3 ; Master of Arts, 80; Master of Civil En- gineering, 13; Doctor of Medicine, 3; Doctor of Divinity, 16; Doctor of Laws, 14; Doctor of Philosophy, 2.

The faculty of professors and instructors have numbered 60, of which there grad- uated from Bowdoin College, I ; Brown University, 1 ; Cambridge, Eng., I ; Co- lumbia, 2; Dartmouth, 2; Harvard, I ; Michigan, I ; Middlebury, I; N. Y. City College, I ; Norwich University, 29; Trin- ity, Dublin, 2; Union, I ; University of Vermont, I ; Upsala, Sweden, I ; U. S. Military Academy, 2 ; Williams, I.

Under the presidency of Col. Lewis there have been the following professors

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besides the lecturers : Clarence L. Hath- away, M. S., M. D., Prof. of Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene ; Charles Dole, A. M., English, History and Political Science ; William M. Rumbaugh, C. E., Drawing, Architecture, Civil and Topo- graphical Engineering ; Franklin W. Bart- lett, A. M., Latin and Greek; John B. Johnson, A. B., Mathematics, Mining and Mechanical Engineering ; Frederick W. Grube, A. M., Modern Languages ; Asa Howe, C. E., M. D., Engineering, Field Work.

Military science has been taught and military discipline enforced from the out- set ; and accordingly many graduates and past cadets have entered the army in time of war, and not a few have risen to dis- tinction as officers or engineers. The roll of honor includes the names of 12 general officers, 40 colonels and a great number of other officers, among whom some shed their blood for their country.

Recently efforts have been made to bring the college more prominently before the public as a school of practical science. The publication of the old college paper, The Reveille, has lately been revived by the cadets. The number of students is in- creasing.

REV. EDWARD BOURNS, LL. D.

BY REV. MALCOLM DOUGLASS, D. D.

Edward Bourns was born in Dublin, Ire- land, Oct. 29, 1801. His father's ancestor was a Scotchman, whose name was thought to have been originally Burns, who went to Ireland about the time of James I., and settled in Derry. His mother bore the name of King. His two grandmothers were sisters, Medlicott, by name; and his great grandmother was a Kirkpatrick from Scotland. He was educated by Dr. Mil- ler, of Armagh, entered Trinity College, Dublin, and won his degree of B. A. July 9, 1833. He passed the theological exam- inations, June, 1834. Both before and after this date he was engaged as a writer and reviewer by the well known publishers, Thomas Tegg & Son, Cheapside, London. He did not at once take orders, but en- gaged as tutor in a private family in Eng-

land. In August, 1837, he landed in this country. He soon after opened an English and Classical School in Philadelphia, where he became acquainted with the Rev. Dr. William H. DeLancey, Provost of the Pennsylvania University. After the con- secration of Dr. DeLancey as Bishop of Western New York, and his removal to Geneva, in 1838, Edward Bourns was at- tracted to Geneva. In 1839, he received the degree of M. A. from Geneva College, then presided over by the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Hale. In the same year, he was made ad- junct professor of the Latin and Greek languages. In 1841. he received the de- gree of LL. D. from the same college. In the same year on the 7th of March, in Trinity Church, Geneva, he was ordain- ed Deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church ; and in the year following, March 12, at Zion Church, Palmyra, N. Y., he was ordained Priest. In 1845, he re- signed the Professorship and went to Brooklyn, L. I., where he continued to give instruction in the languages, until he was called, in Sept. 1850, to the Presidency of Norwich University, Vt. He held this office ' until 1865 ; and from 1850, discharged also the duties of Professor of Latin and Greek until shortly before his death, which was caused by paralysis and occurred July 14, 1871.

Dr. Edward Bourns was no ordinary man. In the midst of pressing cares, fre- quent infirmities, and peculiar embarrass- ments, the intrinsic force, native shrewd- ness and genial kindness of his nature, notwithstanding a vein of constitutional caution and reserve, made him felt and re- spected and greatly endeared to many. The trials of Norwich University in his time were peculiar, and arose chiefly from the lack of an early and wise plan of foun- dation by generous endowments. Yet perseveringly and staunchly he stood by, through evil report and good report. He braved with wonderful elasticity and spirit the frosts and freshets and droughts o neglect and almost literary banishment and pecuniary hardship. In the most loyal unselfish spirit, he resigned his Presidenc of N. U., after 15 years of service, an

tr W the wel teri prim bef was upon from and al traditi good the lan knowled which fe making

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still faithfully continued in her service, en- dured her transplanting from Norwich to Northfield, and became rooted in the new place, winning the esteem and confidence of all the people on every hand. Against increasing infirmities his well-proved spirit bore up to the last, scorning the thought of surrender ; bearing him up by the long training of habit to give instruction, and to sacrifice himself, and to rally his powers, when it was marvelous that he could even prolong existence. He died in harness.

Let us draw an illustration of his char- acter from the trees of a forest. There, in the admirable variety of nature, there are certain types and characteristics which distinguish one tree from another, and in which their respective excellences and good qualities lie. So it is also with men, and it was eminently so with this man. His character, like that of certain grand families of trees, was conspicuous amongst the many men of ability, education and practical sense with whom he constantly mingled. It was moulded and grew up under a combination of influences which helped to make the man. On his father's and his mother's mother's side he might be said to have inherited the characteris- tics of the Scottish Larch, which now clothes the heathery Scottish highlands and rugged hills. In hardihood under adverse storms, in patient endurance against the wintry sleet and driving hail, in the qualities which fit that tree to bear transplanting, to redeem the sterile, rocky wastes, and give them a new value; in these respects, this representative tree may well illustrate some of the marked charac- teristics of this man. He came in the prime of his young manhood to a country before unknown to him and strange, and was transplanted into its soil. As he stood upon the deck of the vessel which bore him from his native shores, he resolved at once and always to lay aside in obscurity the traditions of his native land, and accept in good faith and generously the traditions of the land of which he intended to be an ac- knowledged citizen. And under difficulties which few can understand, he succeeded in making himself useful and a blessing, and

in moulding for good the character of many American youth, who now live to remem- ber him with pleasure and gratitude.

But, again, on his mother's father's side he inherited also something of the capacity, strength and robustness of the Irish oak. This is a tree distinguished for its genuine toughness of grain, and practical power : and its ability to furnish sound timber for traffic, constructions, and the welfare of men and communities. And this tree may also represent in some sort the character- istics of this man. If you regard him as to his physical mould, it is easy to see that if he had been brought up to cultivate chiefly his bodily powers, he would have been gigantic even amongst our most pow- erful men. He was somewhat bent from long sedentary life, but when standing fully erect his height was but little short of six feet and three inches, with a frame- work-a breadth of shoulder, a develop- ment of muscle, and massive loins-in equal proportion. His physical courage was perfect. For although diffident to an extreme, and reluctant to a fault to dis- play himself, no truer, braver heart could anywhere be found when the time for ac- tion came ; no sympathy more ready than his with the oppressed, no freer outspeak- ing of views than his, no contempt of hum- bug and pretension-of mere glitter and show-more thorough than his. Take him all in all as he was, even as developed by purely literary and professional pur- suits, by the life and service of the parish minister, by the trials of the academic professor and president, by the confine- ment of books and writings, and the inter- course of educated men ; notwithstanding, mentally and physically, the Scottish larch and the Irish oak will not badly represent him.

Dr. Bourns was a man of learning and acumen. His Alma Mater, Trinity Col- lege, Dublin, was second to none in the United Kingdom in scholarly training and classical learning. Here he won honora- ble prizes, and in his library were books marked with the printed seal of the col- lege recording the occasions upon which he won them in scholastic competitions.

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He earned by long practice a right to speak and to teach as it were ex cathedra. He was also a voluminous, careful and ex- haustive reader. Yet never at any time in his sermons or addresses, in conversation or in discussions, did he ever betray the con- sequence of the pedant, or assume to be other than a sincere enquirer after truth. He was fond of accuracy ; willing to be restrained by well-grounded principles and laws; ready to surrender cheerfully his opinions and theories, if found to be un- tenable, but not otherwise. No man could discern better than he the weak points of a coxcomb or hypocrite; and no man could with keener humor and presence of mind foil the advances of intrusive persons and turn the tables upon them. Yet, with a facility of extempore speech, and a native readiness that but for his diffidence and physical hindrances would have placed him amongst our foremost public speakers, and with a keen and humorous moth- er-wit sufficient for three ordinary men, he guarded the portals of his lips with the extremest care from hasty, unbecoming, or careless words. He never passed the bounds of perfect propriety, modesty and good sense, in public or in private. He sometimes felt himself obliged to show a presuming, pertinacious or priggish person that he had the advantage of him and would keep it. But he never told tales out of school, or treated the character and actions of any scholar or any person but with the most delicate reserve. He stood in all these respects upon his sacred honor. His reticence under the most trying cir- cumstances and in regard to those who had caused him great anxiety, was mar- vellous and instructive.

Would that our limits permitted us to illustrate that readiness and keenness of humor which those who knew him will easily remember. We heard him once make the following characteristic speech, on a certain commencement evening at Norwich ; when the cadets were assembled with a serenading band of music, and the Doctor was importuned for a speech. He opened the window and was heard to say : " Young gentlemen, I thank you for this

admirable music. I have heard you praised greatly this day by our accomplished visi- tors, and I think myself that you have done very well indeed. I cannot help thinking that if you are such fine birds now when you are half-fledged, what will you be when you are in full feather !" When the clergy of the diocese of Vermont, after the death of Bishop Hopkins, held a preliminary meeting to review the names of candidates to fill the vacancy, the Doc- tor while praising highly the timber of Ver- mont, ingeniously argued that a Vermont sapling, which had been transplanted, de- veloped and finished under other and most favorable skies, was ceteris paribus better furnished than one could otherwise be for this responsible service.

Dr. Bourns worked faithfully in his cler- ical life. He was an excellent sermonizer, and extemporized passages and paragraphs with the greatest facility as he was preach- ing. It may be remembered that at a cer- tain Convocation of the clergy in Rutland years ago, the question under discussion was, How may sermons be made more effective in drawing the laity? The Doctor, when asked his opinion, answered that the clergy " should prepare better sermons." " They should use more art," he said ; " not art in the sense of artifice, but high, sacred art in building up, constructing, the sermon, and preaching lt."

As a theologian, he was no mere theo- rist, but sound, practical, consistent, and conservative. He was not by nature en- thusiastic; and he sometimes distrusted those who were, if he failed to discern the stability of the foundation upon which they built. He deeply felt the value of energy and practical common sense in carrying out the great work of the Church, and showed his sincere missionary spirit by doing under great disadvantages what he could in the paths of clerical work. Before he went to Norwich many clergyman re- ceived his assistance in the pulpit. In Norwich he held service in the chapel, afterwards in a parish church. For 16 years he crossed the Connecticut River weekly to minister to the little parish in Hanover, without other compensation than

mak of a your Man look

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In N.

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NORTHFIELD.

the small means of the Diocesan Board of Missions could furnish him. At North- field, he served for several years as rector of St. Mary's Parish. In the beautiful cemetery of that village will be found his monument and his grave.

When one, a professor in the Universi- ty, and one of its first two graduates ; one who had become endeared to Dr. Bourns by the mutual trials and sympathies of many years of academic life together ; when this good and true man, this Chris- tian brother, Gen. Alonzo Jackman, ap- proached him a few days before his death, and asked the question, "Is the sky all clear between you and your God ?" "Yes," was the emphatic response ; and after a pause, " yes, it is clear."

GEN. ALONZO JACKMAN, LL. D.

BY REV. FRANKLIN W. BARTLETT.

The name of Alonzo Jackman occupies an illustrious place in the annals of Ver- mont, and on account of his distinguished services, as an educator and a soldier, as well as his virtues as a man, he deserves a longer biographical notice than our limits permit. He was born in Thetford, Mar. 20, 1809, the second son of Joseph and Sarah (Warner) Jackman, who were in- dustrious and worthy people. When near- ly 3 years old, his father, a farmer, died of an injury, and his mother was left in straightened circumstances, with three children, Enoch, Alonzo and Joseph. Shortly after that, they removed to Straf- ford, and the next year, 1813. to New Bos- ton, in the town of Norwich; and that summer, the young lad commenced attend- ing school. One day, he had a narrow es- cape from drowning in the swollen brook near by. The same year, he was very low of a fever, and not expected to live. He had early religious impressions ; for when he was only 5 years old, he believed he saw a vision of the Lord walking on the sky. In 1814, while his mother was at Enfield, N. H., a few weeks, to learn the art of making oil-cloth, he was placed in the care of a Mrs. Sawyer, who instilled into his young mind a knowledge of the Bible. Many years afterwards, the mature man looked back to that period as having had

an important influence on his subseqent life. In 1815, he lived in the same house with a Smith family; and their boy, Jo- seph, who afterwards became the Mormon Prophet, was his play-fellow. In 1816, Mrs. Jackman was married to Eli Clark, who took a farm to carry on by the halves, and the two older boys worked as steadily on it as if hired men. Alonzo cut wood for the family bare-footed, with a warmed board between his feet and the snow. One day when Enoch and he were cutting from the same log, the latter sat down to rest, when Enoch's axe glanced and cut his brother slightly, nearly from hip to knee.

In 1820, these two boys left home, never to return again, except on a visit, their mother having given them the parting ad- monition, " Go for yourselves and remem- ber there is a God." Alonzo went to work with a farmer, James Powell, for board, clothing and schooling. He re- mained one year. While there he heard much religious discussion, and commenced reading the Bible through by course, in order to know the truth more perfectly. In 1821, he commenced work for another farmer, about half a mile from his birth- place. Here he was to have board, cloth- ing and 3 months at school. He did his part faithfully, but was unjustly treated, and some of the winters was allowed but little time at school, a disadvantage in early years, which he always afterwards felt. Having worked here 6 years, he left with $4, and two days provisions. His brother Enoch accompanied him, and the two, with $12.47 between them, went on foot down the Connecticut river until they reached Middletown, Mar. 16, with 25 cents left. They crossed over to Chatham, now Portland, where they secured work in the sandstone quarries, near which his brother still resides. He attended school in the winter.

In 1828, young Jackman went to New York and engaged as seaman before the mast, on a new ship, the St. John, bound for Mobile, and from there, as he sup- posed, to Liverpool. This expectation was not realized, and he returned by another ship to New York and thence to

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Portland, where he worked in the quar- ry during the season, and then went to Ver- mont, where he visited and helped his mother, spending the winter at school. In the spring of 1830, he was again at work in the quarry, and the next winter attended the high school at Portland. About this time he decided to be a Chris- tian. One wakeful night he revolved the subject in his mind and firmly resolved to give himself wholly to the service of God. He joined the Methodist class in March, 1831, and the following summer was bap- tized by immersion. The year 1831 was employed like the year before, partly in the quarry and partly at school.

In 1832, the two brothers left Portland for Ohio; but Enoch, when they had reached Troy, N. Y., could be persuaded to go no further. After a few weeks in the stone cutter's business, they left for New York, where they got employment on a steamboat for a short time, and then re- turned to the quarries. Alonzo, however, did not abandon the idea of going west to settle. In October, he left for Ohio. He traveled in various parts of the state, look- ing for a farm ; but he finally shipped on a steamboat, engaged in the iron trade, be- tween Cincinnati and Wyandotte, Va. He was next employed on a New Orleans and Mobile boat. In May, 1833, he again went to work in the Portland quarry.

The scanty opportunities which he had snatched for reading, and his short seasons of school life had given him a desire to pursue a regular course of study. He con- sidered whether to accept an agency for a line of steamers, go to farming in Ohio, or to get an education. He decided, left Portland, and about Dec. 1, 1833, entered Franklin Seminary at Norwich, Vt. The next year, the principal, Mr. Buck, re- moved his school to New Market, N. H., and young Jackman went with him, and, while prosecuting his studies, rendered as- sistance in teaching mathematics, his fa- vorite branch. In the summer of 1835, he taught the same branch while pursuing his studies in an academy at Kingston, N. H., and also on its removal in the autumn to Rochester, N. H. Norwich University

had, in the meantime, been chartered and opened. He decided to enter it, and did so in December of that year, having passed his examination for admission to the Sen- ior class. He graduated at the first com- mencement, Aug., 1836, with the degree of B. A. Being the only graduate that year he stands at the head of the alumni. Soon afterwards he was elected to the chair of mathematics. In the next sum- mer vacation, he visited in New England, New York and Canada. In 1838, on ac- count of the uneasiness caused by the pro- jected Canada rebellion, he was employed to drill troops at Enosburgh, Berkshire and Sheldon. On returning to open the spring term of 1839, Zerah Colburn, Pro- fessor of Languages, had died, and the charge of the whole institution rested upon Captain Partridge and himself. In Feb., 1840, Josiah Swett, who had been Jack- man's room-mate and graduated a year after him, became professor of ancient lan- guages, and that summer these two profes- sors established a paper at Norwich, devo- ted to military science, national defence, and the interests of the militia. It did not prove a financial success ; and one reason may have been that it stood aloof from politics during the great excitement of the presidential campaign of that year. Pro- fessor Jackman contributed a series of ar- ticles on tactics valuable for their clear- ness and precision. Some time during the publication of this paper, both editors re- signed their professorships and removed to Windsor, where they opened a school, which they called the New England Semi- nary. They were both Methodists, but after much reading and discussion conclud- ed to enter the communion of the Episco- pal church, and received confirmation from Bp. Hopkins, in 1843.

While at Windsor, Jackman had as mathematical treatise printed on the sub- ject of " Series," in which his investiga- tions were carried beyond the ability of the ordinary student. Having conducted the school for 3 years, he and his friend Swett returned by invitation, in 1844, to the University, and resumed their profes- sorships under the new president, Gen. T.

in for Un Fra cred cessi

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B. Ransom. After the commencement of 1845, the two friends left for Claremont, N. H., proposing to set up a school : but finding the project unpromising, they abandoned it. Jackman, at the solicitation of the president and the trustees of N. U., again went on duty in the fall term.

In 1846, he wrote and published an arti- cle on the subject of an oceanic magnetic telegraph. He gave in detail plans for the construction, materials and manner of lay- ing a telegraphic cable across the Atlantic. In lecturing to his school on magnetism, he had expressed the belief that if the nec- essary expense could be met, a telegraph might be thus extended across the ocean. In 1846, the Hon. Amos Kendall, then president of a Telegraph Co., at Washing- ton, I). C., communicated to a Philadel- phia paper the difficulties of crossing, with the telegraph, large bodies of water. Prof. Jackman, happening to see this article, wrote Mr. Kendall, and explained how the difficulties could be surmounted. Receiv- ing no reply, he was induced to write out for publication the article to which we have referred, that no other person might have the credit of solving the problem which he had worked out in this field of science. Accordingly, he wrote a paper, answering all objections, providing against all the difficulties, and including all the necessary particulars of construction and the method of laying an oceanic telegraphic cable. This was about 12 years before the first Atlantic cable was successfully laid. He sent the article to periodicals in Washing- ton, New York, Philadelphia and Boston ; but editors refused it, considering the plan visionary. He then sent it to the Vermont Mercury of Woodstock, where it appeared in the number dated Aug. 14, 1846. He forwarded copies to prominent men in the United States, England, Canada and France. It seems, therefore, that the credit is due him of having matured a suc- cessful plan for this gigantic enterprise. The cable as it was laid was of the same gen- eral description with that which he had pro- posed, differing in some minor details, among which was the use of gutta-percha

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The History of Washington County in the Vermont historical gazetteer : including a county chapter and the local histories of the towns of Montpelier., Part 109

Author: Hemenway, Abby Maria, 1828-1890 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Montpelier, Vt. : Vermont Watchman and State Journal Press Number of Pages: 1064

Author: Hemenway, Abby Maria, 1828-1890
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Montpelier, Vt. : Vermont Watchman and State Journal Press
Number of Pages: 1064