The History of Washington County in the Vermont historical gazetteer : including a county chapter and the local histories of the towns of Montpelier., Part 115

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 115

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In 1773, Samuel Gale commenced the survey of one or both of these townships, and this was the first party of white men known to have passed through Plainfield. [For a biography of Gale see Hall's His- tory of Eastern Vermont, p. 643.] In Ira Allen's History of Vermont he says : " In the summer of 1773, Ira Allen, learning that the land jobbers of New York were engaged in surveying near the head of Onion River, started with a party from Colchester in pursuit of them. He passed through Middlesex, Kingsboro and More- town to Haverhill, when learning of the whereabouts of the surveyor, he returned and found his lines, which he followed to near the north-east corner of Montpelier, where he found the surveyor had just de- camped, having been warned, he supposed, by a hunter Allen had met. According to Allen's field book the surveyor's camp was on a meadow near the north-east corner of the old town of Montpelier. Kingsboro was the Yorkist name for Washington. Moretown, or Moortown, is now Bradford, and not the present town of that name.

Allen then passed through Barre and Washington to Bradford, and returning with a knowledge of where the surveyor was to be found, passed through Plainfield on his return. As the line between Truro and Kingsboro passed nearly through the center of Plainfield, a large part of Gale's surveys must have been in this town. John Morin Scott, the grantee of Kings- boro, was a member of the New York

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Legislature in the Revolution, and on ac- count of his ownership of this town, was made a member of the New York council of safety, to represent this section of Ver- mont. He received $49.91 of the $30,000 which was paid by Vermont to New York to indemnify the New York claimants.

In Aug. 1788, James Whitelaw, of Rye- gate, James Savage, of New York, and William Coit, of Burlington, caused the tract of land lying between Barre and Marshfield, Montpelier and Goshen Gore, to be measured and the bounds marked, and at that time or before, it received the name of St. Andrew's Gore.

They also measured a gore near Cam- bridge, of 10,000 acres, one near Calders- burg, now Morgan, of 1,500 acres, some islands in Lake Champlain, containing 1,500 acres, also islands in Otter Creek, containing 30 acres, making 23,030 acres, or about the usual size of a township, St. Andrew's Gore being reckoned at 10,000 acres. These tracts were never incorpo- rated into a town; like Goshen, which was composed of widely separated por- tions. The different parts of Whitelaw's grant, as it was called, had no connection with each other.

The charter of these lands was granted Oct. 23, 1788. In 1788, '90 and '92, Whitelaw, Savage and Coit deeded their claims to Ira Allen, of Colchester, brother of Ethan, and to Gamaliel Painter, of Middlebury, the chief founder of Middle- bury College. Allen and Painter gave a verbal agency to Col. Jacob Davis, of Montpelier, who, upon this authority, in May, 1793, began giving warrantee deeds of these lands in his own name. The following letter is recorded in the Plain- field land records :

MIDDLEBURY, Apr. 5, 1795. Sir :- On my return from your home, I called on General Allen. He seems to think that it would be altogether guess- work to divide the land without seeing of it, but agreed that I might sell adjoining to the land sold sufficient to make up my part reckoning of it in quantity and qual- ity. And I wish you to sell to any person that wants to purchase and make good.pay. You know my want in regard to pay better

than I can write, and for your trouble in the matter, I will make you satisfaction.

I am, sir, Your most obedient,

Humble servant, GAMA. PAINTER.

This letter proves that Allen and Painter then recognized Davis as their agent to sell and to convey ; for no deeds had then been given by Allen or Painter to any one, under their own signature and seal. One of the old settlers claimed that once when Ira Allen was in Plainfield, he asked him to give him a deed of a lot that he had bargained for of Davis, and that Allen said, " Let Davis give the deed, he has the rest."

At last differences arose between Davis and Allen, and in 1799, Davis ceased to act as their agent, and sued Allen before the county court at Danville, and in 1804, recovered $2,500 on this suit, and a part of the town was set off to him on this ex- ecution, and Davis from Burlington jail- yard conveyed it over again to those to whom he had previously given deeds. About the same time the University of Vermont recovered $15,000 of Ira Allen, and the remainder of the town was set off to them. To strengthen their title, Davis and the settlers twice allowed nearly all of the town to be sold for taxes, once on a State tax, and once on a U. S. tax, each man bidding off his own farm.

In 1802, Ira Allen quit-claimed his rights in this town to Heman Allen, of Col- chester. This was some 2 years before the lands were set off to Davis snd the University on executions against Ira Allen. Davis and the settlers held their own against Heman Allen until Aug. 31, 1807, when Allen purchased the claim of the University, and five days after, deeded the whole to James Savage, of Plattsburg, N. Y. Three days after this, Savage gave Allen a power of attorney to dispose of these lands. This gave Allen, in the name of Savage, an opportunity to com- mence suits of ejectment against the set- tlers before the U. S. Courts at Windsor and Rutland. For, by the constitution, citizens of one state may sue citizens of another in the U. S. Courts. Probably

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the transfer to Savage of this claim was a sham, to enable Allen to bring his suits where the court, and especially the jury, would not have so much sympathy for the settlers as they would in the county where they resided. This trick, if trick it was, decided the contest. In 1808, Allen, in the name of Savage, got a decision of the circuit court in his favor. By a law of 1785, a person making improvements on lands to which he supposed he had good title, had a claim for his betterments, and for one-half of the rise in value of the property while in his possession, that there would have been had there been no im- provements. The settlers, therefore, did not have to pay very much more for their lands the second than the first time of purchase ; often not more than one-fourth of its value at that time. The price paid to Davis for land from 1793 to 1799 av- eraged abont $1.25 per acre. The price paid to Allen in 1808, for the second pur- chase, averaged a little less than $3 per acre.

Davis died within the limits of Burling- ton jail-yard in 1814, having been sent there for debt about the year 1802. As this was several years before the Plainfield suits were decided, it could not have been on account of them that he was sent there.

It is the opinion of Hon. C. H. Heath and others who have investigated the matter, that as the laws are now adminis- tered, the settlers would have saved their lands by a suit in chancery ; but at that time very little was done in this court, the powers of which have now grown to be so extensive.

It is a singular coincidence, perhaps an example of retributive justice, that in the same year that Jacob Davis died in the jail-yard at Burlington, Ira Allen died in poverty at Philadelphia, where he had gone to escape being imprisoned for debt in the same jail.

In the autumn of 1791, Seth Freeman, of Weldon, N. H., and Isaac Washburn, of the adjoining town of Croydon, came into town by the way of the East Hill in Montpelier. When they came to what is now the Four Corners near L. Cheney

Batchelder's house, Washburn decided that there should be his pitch. They camped for the night by the side of a hem- lock log in the hollow between the south district school-house and Lewis Durfee's. Freeman chose this location. The next year they returned and made these pitches. When a man made a clearing before the land was surveyed, it was usual when the lines were run to survey him out a farm that would include all of his clearing with- out regard to the regular lot lines, and such a piece of land was called a " pitch."

Before the town was surveyed by Jacob Davis in the spring of 1793, there were five such pitches made. They were Hezekiah Davis' pitch, 304 rods long, 31 wide, which adjoined his farm in Montpelier. Joseph Batchelder's pitch of 650 acres, mostly lying in the S. W. corner of the town, Theodore Perkins' pitch of 100 acres, Isaac Washburn's pitch, 320 acres, Seth Freeman's pitch, 300 acres.

There was also a gore between Free- man's pitch and the 5th range of lots, 34 to 40 rods wide. They all lay in the S. W. corner of the town. The clearings of 1792 were made by men living in shan- ties, who abandoned the town in the fall. In 1793 they returned, and perhaps some of them brought their families; but they all removed in the fall excepting the fam- ily of Theodore Perkins, and Alden Free- man, a widower, who boarded with them.

Theodore Perkins and his wife, Martha Conant, were from Bridgewater, Mass. They removed to Pomfret, Vt., and from there to Plainfield, Mar. 10, 1793, on to a clearing said to have been begun by Ben- jamin Nash. The town being surveyed soon after, this clearing received the name of Perkins' pitch. July 8, Perkins built a log-barn ; but his house seems to have been built before he moved into town. In Dec. 1793, Alfred Perkins was born- the first birth in town. The last that was known of him he was living in the State of New York.

In the spring of 1794, Isaac Washburn's family moved into town, bringing with them Polly Reed, who afterwards married Benjamin Niles, and was grandmother to

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the present Geo. Niles. She went over to Perkins' house, and was the first woman Mrs. Perkins had seen for several months. Whatever scandalous stories may have been told by or of the fair sex of Plain- field since that time, that winter it was certainly free from gossiping and tattling.

Nov. 1794, Perkins sold his claim to Joshua Lawrence, who procured a deed of it from Jacob Davis. Perkins removed to Montpelier, and in 1798 went to Kentucky to look after a tract of several thousand acres of land that had fallen to him. He wrote home that his title was good, and that he was coming after his family. Noth- ing more was ever heard from him. His friends think he was murdered. His widow removed to Lyme, N. H., in 1800.

Theodore Perkins left four sons and one daughter : Thomas, who died at Lyme, N. H., in 1871; Martin P., who lived at Shipton, Canada; Elinas P., lived in Scituate, Mass .- one of his sons, Thomas Henry, is a broker in Boston. The wife of Rev. A. S. Swift, formerly in charge of the Congregational church in Plainfield, was Theodore Perkins' grandaughter.

¿ The Perkins house was on the flat, east of the Joshua Lawrence house, and south of the present road.

Seth Freeman made a pitch of 300 acres, and purchased lot No. I, in the fourth range, which made him a farm of 430 acres. This he divided among his broth- ers, apparently as he thought they needed and deserved. He was one of the two men who purchased their land of Davis, who did not have to buy it again of Allen, having gained it by possession, and was for a time called rich, but became poor and moved away before his death.

He was not the oldest of the family, but like Abraham was the head of it. Unlike that patriarch, however, he cannot be the founder of a nation, for he left no children. His father, Ebenezer, lived with him.

Alden Freeman was the oldest of the family. He married for his second wife, Precilla, daughter of Isaac Washburn, which was the first marriage in town. He lived at first on the Courtland Perry place, (lot 1, range 4,) but removed to the N.

W. corner of Freeman's pitch, where he built the Thompson house, now in ruins and owned by Alonzo Batchelder.

He had a large family ; Sally, widow of Thompson and of Larabee, of Barre, and Lucy, widow of Lawson, of Barre, and mother of George Lawson, were his daughters.

Ebenezer Freeman Jr. lived on the Court- land Perry farm. In his barn was kept one of the first schools in town,-perhaps quite the first. He was the father of the late Mrs. Freeman Landers.

Edmund Freeman lived on the S. W. corner of Freeman's pitch,-the . farm now owned by his son Edmund.

Isaac Freeman built the house now owned by Elias Gladding, in 1806. It is on the N. W. corner of the Freeman lot (No. I, range 4). He taught the first school in town. Mrs. Daniel A. Perry is his daughter. He died in 1813, and his widow married his brother Nathan, who owned the S. E. corner of Freeman's pitch, next to Barre line, and to J. Wesley Batchelder's farm. Isaac Freeman, Mrs. N. W. Keith, and Mrs. Carrol Flood are his children.

The Batchelder brothers, Joseph, Moul- ton and Nathaniel, came from Lyndeboro, N. H. Nathaniel lived and died in Barre, and was the grandfather of the late J. Wesley Batchelder, of Piainfield. Lieut. Joseph Batchelder, then 42 years of age, commenced his clearing in the S. W. cor- ner of the town, in 1792, and moved his family permanently on to it in 1794.

Nathaniel Clark had commenced a clear- ing in Montpelier, on the farm lately owned by his son George. Neither knew of the neighborhood of the other until Clark one day, hearing the sound of chopping, start- ed toward it, and found Batchelder with a company of stalwart boys, who had already made a large slash.

Lieut. Joseph Batchelder had two daugh- ters, of whom Mary or Polly was born in Plainfield, July 26, 1795, and was the first girl and the second child born in town. She married Henry Parker, of Elmore. The other daughter, Nabby or Abigail, married Joseph Glidden, of Barre.

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The Lieutenant's sons were : Nathaniel, Isaac, Joseph, Jr., Alpheus, William and Josiah. Of these Nathaniel lived for a time on Batchelder's pitch, near the Four Corners, next to Montpelier. He after- wards lived on the spruce flats in East Montpelier, but died at Seneca Falls, N. Y., in 1843. The late Mark Batchel- der and Mrs. Sally McClure were his chil- dren.

Alpheus lived near his father. Ambrose Batchelder, now of Barre, is his grandson.

Isaac also lived on Batchelder's pitch for a time, and had a son, Josiah, 2d, who was the father of the late Harvey Batch- elder, of Plainfield.

William forged a note, intending to take it up before it became due, but failed to do so. He was arrested, and when the offi- cers were taking him to Barre, cut his throat at Joseph Glidden's, and only lived a few days after. 1 should not have men- tioned this, had not the family been so numerous that the disgrace if divided among them will not be much for each one to carry.

Josiah is said to have been the first man in Plainfield who paid taxes on interest money. He got thoroughly rid of that in- cumbrance, however. He was the " Siah " Batchelder who lived and died at Daniel Lampson's.

Joseph Batchelder, Jr., lived for a time on that part of Batchelder's pitch after- wards owned by Abram Mann. His chil- dren were: Alice, wife of Stephen, and mother of H. Quincy Perry ; Joseph Batch- elder, the 3d; Nancy, wife of Levi Bart- lett ; Fanny, wife of Jonathan. Blaisdell, of Albany ; Abigail, wife of Asa Foster, of Marshfield ; Judith, wife of Wm. B. Foss, and Elijah A. Joseph, the 3d, was killed by his horse running away on the Lampson Hill, in 1841. He was living at that time on the Ebenezer Freeman place. His children were: Elvira (Mrs. Arouette Gunnison), Charles T., L. Cheney, Eras- tus B., Adeline (Mrs. K. P. Kidder, of Burlington), Sewell, killed by accident in 1856, near the place where his father was, Alpheus, Harriet (Mrs. Ira Nichols), and Wheeler J.

The Lieutenant's brother, Moulton Batch- elder, about the year 1795 settled upon that portion of Batchelder's pitch now owned by the family of Wm. B. Foss. He began work upon it in 1794, his family living in the Wheaton district in Barre. and he, passing to and fro by the guid- ance of marked trees. His children were : Nathaniel, called the Captain : James, born in Barre, but at his death the oldest resi- dent, but not the oldest person in Plain- field ; Jeremiah, called Jerry, of Barre ; Jonathan M., called Jack, who died on the old farm ; Olena, wife of Sewell Sturte- vant, the veteran schoolmaster of Plain- field and Barre.

Capt. Nathaniel had three children. now residents of Plainfield : Alonzo J., Elvira (Mrs. Mack), and Bridgman.

James had 3 children : James Merrill, Daniel, and Mariam, (Mrs. Boyce, of Waitsfield. )

Jonathan's children were : Ira, Harrison, Adeline (Mrs. Levi Martin), Susan (Mrs. Arthur Colburn), Mary (Mrs. Wheeler), and Moulton, now of Lowell, Mass.

Isaac Washburn had one daughter, Pre- cilla, and 4 sons : Isaac, Jr., Miles, Asa and Ephraim.

Isaac, Jr., lived with his father, and opened the first tavern in town. It stood at the Four Corners, near L. C. Batch- elder's present residence, and was a large, two-story house, never entirely finished.

Asa lived north of his father's, at the top of the hill, on the place now owned by Nathan Skinner. It was the northern part of the Washburn pitch. He married Polly, daughter of Esek Howland.

Miles first settled on lands of his own in 1798, when he bought of Esek Howland the southern part of lot 3, range 2, where he built the first blacksmith shop in town. It stood near the angle of the road that now leads from Willard Harris' to the Barre road. In 1803, he sold this farm and built a house and shop in the village, on the north bank of the Great Brook, near the present tannery. This was the first shop in the village. Gamaliel Wash- burn, of Montpelier, was his son. Miles

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died at New Bedford in 1823. He was for many years constable of the town.

Ephraim built a barn west of his father's, towards East Montpelier. He was en- gaged to be married to a daughter of Esek Howland. To get money to build a house, he went to sea, and the ship was never heard from. It was supposed to have been wrecked, and that all on board perished.

The Washburns were not able to pay for their lands twice, perhaps not once, and in 1812, Isaac, Jr., and his father sold their farm and went to Lisle, N. Y., and from thence to Indiana, but never again possessed much property. Asa Washburn followed them soon after. Of the four families who commenced the settlement of the town, Perkins soon moved away ; but some member or members of each of the others came to be a public charge.

Elijah Perry, of Middleboro, Mass., bought 100 acres of Batchelder's pitch next to lot I, range 3. June, 1823, his daugh- ter, Sally, committed suicide by hanging, the only suicide ever committed in town. He was a brother of Elder James Perry. His son Daniel was the father of John Perry, of Rosette, wife of Charles T. Batchelder, and Harriet, wife of Daniel Batchelder.

The five pitches of the town all lie in its south-western corner. The remainder of the town was divided by the survey of 1793 into 9 ranges-the first range lying next to Montpelier. Each range is 160 rods wide excepting the 9th, which is next to Goshen Gore, and is about 90 rods wide. The first four ranges being short- ened by the pitches, contain but 6 lots each, lots No. I in these ranges lying next to the pitches, their south-western lines are irregular. No two lots in town whose number is one, are of the same size. In range 5 they commence to narrow, until in the 9th they come to a point at the corner of the town. All the lots adjoin- ing Marshfield are 110 rods wide.

THE ORIGINAL SETTLERS

upon each lot in town; also the present owner of a part of the same, not with . the same, bounds then as now, for the farm of

Allen Martin was the last one in town, sold before 1800, that preserved its bound- aries unchanged.

Lots in Range 1 .- No. I was first owned by SAMUEL NYE, of Falmouth, who sold the southern portion to HEZEKIAH DAVIS. It is now owned by Nathaniel M. Clark, whose wife is a grand-daughter of Davis.

ELIJAH NYE, of Falmouth, Ms,, settled upon No. 2. He sold to John Chapman in 1808 and moved to Calais. His daugh- ter Nabby, born Sept. 28. 1796, was the 3d child born in town. This lot was di- vided into the Thomas Whittrege or Dennis Vincent farm, and the Holmes or Dix farm.

Lot No. 3 was purchased by JOHN CHAP- MAN, of Montpelier. When St. Andrew's Gore was incorporated into a town, he gave a set of record books to the town to have the name changed to Plainfield. He was originally from a town of that name. The northern part of this lot he sold to Benjamin Niles, Jr., father of Albert, and grandfather of George Niles.

The southern part Chapman sold to Levi Willey, of Deerfield, Mass. This is the lower, or old Ozias Dix farm.

About 1811, Willey, after a visit to Montreal, was taken sick with the small pox, of which he died. His attendants buried him near the top of the hill, close to a large stone near Montpelier line ; then killed his dog, and the alarm in time abated.

The southern part of No. 4, now owned by Ira Grey, was cleared by BENJAMIN WHIPPLE. He was town representative, and held other offices in town, and was much respected. He removed to Middle- sex, Vt.

JOHN MELLEN cleared portions of lots 4, 5 and 6, including the meadow now owned by Prentiss Shepard ; but he lived on the eastern part of these lots, where Willard S. Martin now lives. The late John Mellen was his son.

Benjamin Lyon settled in the corner of the town, on portions of lots 5 and 6, which is now called W. S. Martin's Enoch Cate place.

Range 2-lot I was nearly obliterated by Washburn's pitch, and was never by itself

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a farm. Its form is like a Carpenter's square, each limb being about 30 rods wide and half a mile long.

Lot 2, now owned by Mrs. Bridgman Batchelder, was settled by Thomas Vin- cent, of New Bedford, in 1796. He was a prominent business man, was the Ist town clerk, 4 years representative, and became the richest man in town. He was a very zealous member of the Methodist church. He died in 1848, aged 79.

Lot 3. The southern part was settled by Esek Howland, in 1797, who built a log-house, but was unable to pay for it, and sold the next year to Miles Wash- burn. When Harvey Bancroft was fatally injured, Howland was with him, and car- ried him on his back 100 rods to the house. Mrs. William C. Bartlett is his grand- daughter. The northern part was settled in 1801, by EBENEZER BENNETT. He es- tablished the first tannery in town, be- tween the Ezekiel Skinner house and the little rivulet, now often dry, just north of it.

Lot 4 clearing was begun by ASA Co- BURN, who sold to JOHN and THOMAS VINCENT, and removed to Cabot, but had to pay Allen for it in 1808. John was a less active business man than his brother, but was much respected, and was 3 years representative. His children were : John, Dennis, Stephen, of Chelsea, and Desire (Mrs. Coolidge Taylor.)

Lot 5. The south-western part was first owned by Chester House, then by Benja- min P. Lampson, who built what is now S. B. Gale's farm-house. Charles McCloud settled upon what was recently Allen Martin's farm. His house was in the pasture north of Martin's house. This is the north-western part of lots 5 and 6.

ROBERT MELLEN was a brother of the first John Mellen. He owned the eastern part of lot 6 ; also lot 6 in the 3d range, and in fact nearly all of what is now Plainfield village. In Sept. 1805, as he was riding home from North Montpelier, he fell from his horse, near the present residence of Alvin Cate, badly injuring his ankle. As they were carrying him home on a litter made of a straw bed, he said, "You will have to bring me back in a few days," and

they did so, burying him in the graveyard there. The Mellens were from the old town of Derry, N. H., and they were one of the Scotch Irish families who came from Londonderry, in Ireland. Robert Mellen's house was where the Methodist parsonage now is, and his log-house was the first house built in the village.

Range 3-lot 1 was first owned by Lieut. JOSEPH BATCHELDER, but was first settled upon by JONATHAN WHITE, of Montpelier, who afterwards lived in various parts of the town. It is now owned by Nathan Skinner.

Lot 2 was first settled by CORNELIUS YOUNG, near where Willard Harris now lives. His father, Ebenezer Young, broke into a store at North Montpelier, and was sent to the state prison at Windsor.

At the time of the Plattsburg invasion, Cornelius borrowed a famous fleet horse of Willard Shepard, Esq., and passing every- thing on the road, was present at the battle. When the British retreated, he followed after, and seeing three of them leave their horses, he dashed in among them, pistols in hand, and compelled the whole three to surrender to him alone. At least one of them was an officer, and his sword, brought home by Young, is now in the possession of Dudley Perkins.

His last days were less glorious. He was appointed a custom house officer, and had various encounters with smugglers, in one of which at Cabot, vitriol was thrown upon him, spoiling his clothes, but not injuring his person. His ignorance of the law caused him to commit some illegal acts in the discharge of his duties, and the resulting lawsuits ruined him pecun- iarily and morally. He removed to the State of New York, and for some felony was sent to Clinton prison.

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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 115

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