The History of Washington County in the Vermont historical gazetteer : including a county chapter and the local histories of the towns of Montpelier., Part 44

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 44

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ORGANIZATION OF THE TOWN.

March 4, 1791, Jacob Davis, Clark Stevens and Jonathan Cutler presented a petition to John Taplin, of Berlin, a justice of the peace for the County of Orange, praying that a warrant might be issued for calling a meeting of the inhabitants to or- ganize the town. Though this petition was not legal, (having the signatures of only three freeholders, while the statute required four,) Justice Taplin took no no- tice of the defect, but issued a warrant " to Clark Stevens, one of the principal inhab- itants of Montpelier," requiring him to

warn a meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of the town, to meet at the house of Jacob Davis on Tuesday, the 29th day of March, 1791, at 9 o'clock in the morning, to choose a moderator, clerk, selectmen, treasurer, and all other town officers, and to see if said town will choose some proper person to remove the pro- prietors' records into the town. This warrant was dated March 8, 1791, and on the same day Mr. Stevens posted his warn- ing in accordance with the warrant and the statute. Pursuant to the warning a meeting was holden, of which the follow- ing is the record :

FIRST TOWN MEETING.

At a town meeting of the inhabitants of Montpelier, legally warned and met at the dwelling-house of Col. Jacob Davis, in said Montpelier, on the 29th day of March, 1791,-

Proceeded to choose a Moderator, &c. &c.

Ist, Voted, and chose Col. Jacob Davis Moderator to govern said meeting.

2nd, Voted, and chose Ziba Woodworth Town Clerk.

3d, Voted, and chose James Hawkins Ist Select Man.

4th, Voted, and chose James Taggart 2d Select Man.

5th, Voted, and chose Hiram Peck 3d Select Man.

6th, Voted, and chose Jonathan Cutler Town Treasurer.

7th, Voted, and chose Parley Davis Con- stable and Collector.

8th, Voted, and chose Josiah Hurlburt Highway Surveyor.

9th, Voted, and chose Benj. I. Wheeler Highway Surveyor.

Ioth, Voted, and chose Solomon Dodge Highway Surveyor.

IIth Voted, and chose Col. Jacob Davis Lister.

Sale of lands for the tax of 25s 8d, June 12, 1787,

196

203

Taxed £1 9s 4d by the proprietors, June 12, 1787,

207

212

Lands to be sold for said tax, Oct. 16, 1787,

215

222

Lands to be sold for town tax, Jan 3, 1788,

226

234

Taxed 19s 6d per riglit by the pro- prietors [June, '88,]

258 Vol. 6, No. 5

269 " 6, 16

276 “ 6. 24

284 [no sales.]

290 Vol.6, 40

289 6, 34

403

Proprietors to meet Aug 28, 1792,

Gazette.

No. 55

114

117

122

190

193 203

12th, Voted, and chose Benj. I. Wheel- er Lister.

13th, Voted, and chose Clark Stevens Lister.

14th, Voted, and chose Col. Jacob Davis Fence Viewer.

15th, Voted to adjourn said meeting till the Ist Tuesday of September.

Lands to be sold for said tax last Wednesday of Oct, 1788,

Taxed £27 14s 5d for the general survey,

Lands to be sold for do. Feb 16,'89, Two penny tax to be paid in la- bor, May, June and July, '89, Lands to be sold for the general survey tax. March 16, 1789, Lands to be sold for the 2 penny tax, June 23. 1791,

465

The aforementioned officers were duly sworn and affirmed to the faithful discharge of their respective offices, before John Taplin, Justice of the Peace for said Coun- ty.

ZIBA WOODWORTH, Town Clerk.

* It will be observed that these legal notices cover a much larger amount of taxes than that given in the preceding text. Compilations like the above, for many towns, may be found in the State Library, at the end of an old volume of the Windsor Journal.

Journal.

Proprietors to meet Aug 17, 1784, No. 48 Ditto, Sept 12, 1785, [not holden,] Ditto, Sept 26, 1785, [not holden,] 108 Ditto, 2d Wednesday of Jan 1786, 118 Taxed 25s 8d per right, Jan 9, '87, 184 Proprietors fo meet 2d Tuesday of June, 1787,

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On the record is the following list of vo- ters who took part in the organization of the town, to which we have added, when- ever possible, the region from which these original freemen of the town came.

Benjamin I. Wheeler, Rehoboth, Mass. ; David Parsons, Oxford, now Charlton, Mass. ; Parley Davis, Oxford, now Charl- ton, Mass .; Ebenezer Dodge, Peterbor- ough, N. H .; Solomon Dodge, Peterbor- ough, N, H .; Nathaniel Peck, Royalston, Mass .; David Wing, Rochester, Mass .; Lemuel Brooks, Ashford, Ct .; Clark Ste- vens, Rochester, Mass .; Jonathan Snow, Rochester, Mass .; Hiram Peck, Royals- ston, Mass. ; James Hawkins, James Tag- gart, John Templeton ; Elisha Cummins, born in Sutton, Mass. ; Jonathan Cutler, Charles McCloud ; Col. Jacob Davis, Ox- ford, now Charlton, Mass. ; Isaac Putnam ; Nathaniel Davis, Oxford, now Charlton, Mass .; Ziba Woodworth, Bozrah, Conn .; Jerathmel [B.] Wheeler, Rehoboth, Mass. ; Smith Stevens, Rochester, Mass. ; Charles Stevens, Rochester, Mass. ; Edmund Doty ; Duncan Young, a Scotchman, from Bur- goyne's army ; Freeman West. New Bed- ford, Mass.

The name of Josiah Hurlburt appears in the list of town officers elected, and it is presumed he was a citizen of lawful age. Jacob Davis, Jr., was also of age and a citizen at that time. Thompson states that David Wing Jr. and Larned Lamb were then Freemen of the town, and suggests that they may have been absent on the day of the meeting. This would make the whole number known to be freemen of the town at the organization, 30. The total population, by the census taken that year, was 113, which was small for the number of voters ; but doubtless several who acted in town meeting had not then brought their families into town.

These names indicate, as the fact was, that on the organization of the town, set- tlements had been made in every quarter of it, on the hills and in the river valleys. Even now the farms of these men are easily recognized, and many are owned by the descendants of the original settlers. The early occupancy of the town so gen- erally was doubtless due to the provision in the original charter, which required " that each proprietor, his heirs or assigns,

shall plant or cultivate 5 acres of land, and build an house at least 18 feet square on the floor, or have one family settled on each respective right, within the term of 3 years after the circumstances of the war will ad- mit of a settlement with safety, on penalty of the forfeiture of each respective right, or share of land, in said township, not so improved or settled."

HABITS AND CHARACTER OF THE FIRST SETTLERS.

FROM D. P. THOMPSON.

Among the whole list of the 27 freemen who joined in its organization we find but one or two who did not become, not only the permanent residents of the town, but the permanent owners of the farms they first purchased and improved for their homes. And in looking, now, over that ever to be honored roll of men, then all farmers, consisting of the Wheelers, the Davises, the Templetons, the Putnams, the Stevenses, the Cumminses, etc., and then glancing over the town, we can scarcely find one of the original homesteads of all those thus settling which is not still in the possession of some one of their de- scendants. This fact alone speaks vol- umes in praise of the original inhabitants of the town. It speaks in such praise, be- cause it presupposes and proves the ex- istence, in them, of that invaluable combi- nation of traits of character which can alone ensure full success in building up an abidingly thrifty town, and a well-ordered and respectable community-the resolu- tion and physical endurance necessary for subduing the forests, the frugality and economy in living required for retaining and increasing the amount of their hard earnings, and the foresight and general capacity for business indispensable for the successful management of their acquisi- tions.

That the first inhabitants of Montpelier were generally men of great physical powers, resolution and stability of pur- pose, and that they applied their energies of body and mind to the best effect, in clearing up and improving their township, may be well enough seen in the pictures we have already drawn of the first years of the settlement, but more certainly so in the noble results of their exertions, which, after 20 years, stood developed in their individual thrift, in their aggregate wealth and pecuniary independence.

But those results were not broughtabout by hard labor alone. Strict frugality in living lent its scarcely less important aid in the work. Nature has but few wants ;

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and these settlers and their families seem to have been well content to put up with her real requirements. The ambition for display in dress, equippage and costly buildings was a forbidden, and an almost unknown, passion among them. And all expectations of making property without work, or of living on credit, were ideas which were still more scouted. They dressed comfortably but very plainly, wear- ing, for the 12 or 15 years of the settle- ment at least, scarcely anything but what was the product of their own looms and spinning-wheels. With these implements, so necessary for the times, nearly every household was supplied. The girls spun, and the mothers wove, from their own wool, the flannels to be. dressed or pressed for their best winter wear, and from their own flax the neat linen checks for their gowns and aprons for summer. Then the females of that day made their health, their husbands' or fathers' wealth, and es- tablished enduring habits of industry for themselves, as they were passing along in their daily routine of household employ- ments. And who does not see how much better it would in reality be for the health, constitutions and habits of the females of the present day, if they were compelled to resort to the same way of clothing them- selves and their families. Foreign man- ufactured goods were scarcely used at all for clothing during the first dozen years of the settlement. The wives who came into town with their husbands might have brought with them, perhaps, their calico gowns ; and it was known that "Marm Davis," as that pattern of housewives, the help-meet of Col. Davis, was called, had brought with her a silk gown-the one, it is believed, in which she was married ; but it is not known that there were any others. The first silk dress that was ever pur- chased and brought into Montpelier for one of its lady residents was one obtained for the wife of Judge David Wing, and was first worn by her at a meeting late in 1803.

" I well remember when that first silk gown made its appearance," recently said an aged lady cotemporary of the favored possessor of the rare garment, to us while making enquires about such matters. “It was a meeting held in one of Col. Davis' new barns. Hannah, that is Mrs. Wing, came in with it on, and made quite a sen- sation among us, but being so good a woman, and putting on no airs about it, ve did not go to envying her. We thought t extravagant, to be sure ; but as her hus- and had just been elected Secretary of State, and might wish to take her abroad vith him, we concluded at length that the

purchase might be perhaps, after all, quite a pardonable act."

Ribbons and laces were not worn nor possessed by the women ; and the wearing of bonnets, which are thought to require trimmings made of such materials, was scarcely more frequent. Instead of bon- nets, they generally wore for head-dress when going abroad, the more substantial, but no less neat and tasteful, small fur hats, which were then already being man- ufactured in several of the older towns in the State. And it was not till a merchant had established himself in town that any innovation was made in these simple kinds of female attire. Then, for the first time, calico gowns became common-the best qualities of which cost 75 cents per yard, but of so strong and substantial a fabric that one of them would outwear two, or even three of most of those of the present day.

The men dressed as plain, or plainer. Tow cloth for summer, and striped un- dressed woolens for winter, were the stand- ing materials of their ordinary apparel. For public occasions, however, most of them managed to obtain one dress each, made of homespun woolen, colored and dressed cloth. which, as they used them, were generally good for their lifetimes. The first "go-to-meeting" dresses of the boys were also, of course, domestic man- ufacture, and generally of fustian. A new fustian coat was a great thing in the eyes of a boy of fourteen in those days.

But as their days of gallantry approached, their ambition sometimes soared to a new India cotton shirt, which then cost 62 cents per yard, though now not a fourth of that amount. The men wore fur caps or felt hats for every-day use, but some of them, fur hats on public occasions ; and a few of the wealthier class, especially if they became what was called public char- acters, bought themselves beaver hats, which stood in about the same relation among the outfits of the men as did silk gowns among those of the women, such hats at that time costing $30 each. But this was not so very bad economy as might be supposed, after all, since one of the clear beaver hats of that day would not only wear through the lifetime of the owner, but the lifetime of such of his sons as had the luck to inherit it.

The ordinary articles of family food were corn and wheat bread, potatoes, peas, beans and garden vegetables, pork, fish and wild game. Sweet-cake, as it was called, was rarely made, and pastry was almost wholly unknown. Indeed, we have been unable to learn that a pie of any kind was ever seen on a table in town till nearly

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a dozen years after it was first settled. About that time, however, one of the elder daughters of Col. Davis, on noticing some fine pumpkins that were brought to the house during the harvesting, conceived the ambitious idea of making a mess of pumpkin pies, and obtaining at last the reluctant consent of her mother to let her make the experiment, she made a batch which took to a charm with the whole fam- ily and the several visitors invited to par- take of the novel repast. After this, pumpkin pies became a staple of the tea- table on all extra occasions.

Laboring men who, in felling the forest. logging, or boiling salts, as the first state of making potashes and pearls was called, often went considerable distances from their homes to work, generally took their dinners along with them into the woods, leaving the women to take care of the cattle and everything requiring atten- tion about home. These dinners gener- ally consisted of baked or stewed pork and beans, and not unfrequently of only bread and raw salt pork. Colonel Davis always used to recommend to his laborers to eat their pork raw or without any kind of cooking, contending that it was more healthy when eaten in that way than in any other. Some of the new hands that had been hired in by the Colonel at last, how- ever, rebelled against the practice. Among the latter was Lemuel Brooks, the after- wards well-known Captain Brooks, who assured his fellow-laborers one day, after they had been making their dinners on raw pork, that he was determined to set his wits to work and see if he could not, by the next noon, get up a more christianlike dinner. Accordingly he came on the next morning with gun and ammu- nition, and just before noon stepped off into the neighboring thickets, and shot two or three brace of partridges, which, in their chosen localities, were as plenty as hens about a farm-house. And having speedily plucked and dressed the birds, he suspended them by the legs over a fire struck and built for the purpose, with a thick slice of pork made to hang directly above each, so that the salt gravy should drip upon or into them, and moisten and season them while cooking. As soon as he had thus prepared his meal, he hallooed to the men, and in his usual jovial and humorous manner, bid them come in and partake of his "new invented dinner of parched partridges." And parched part- ridges thenceforward became a favorite meal among the woodmen of the settle- ment.

The out-door work, at the period of which we have been speaking, was by no

means all performed by the male inhab- itants. Wives and daughters considered it no disparagement to go out to work in the fields, or even into the forest. when- ever the occasion required it at their hands. They boiled salts and made maple sugar at times in the woods, and often in busy seasons, worked with their husbands, fath- ers or brothers, in making hay, harvesting grain, husking corn and digging potatoes in the field. The wives and daughters of the rich and poor alike cheerfully engaged in all these out-door employments, when the work, for want of the necessary male help or other circumstances, seemed to in- vite their assistance. Even Colonel Davis, whose family was regarded as standing in the first position in society, could be seen leading his bevy of beautiful daughters into his fields to pull flax.

But frugality in modes of dress, the supplies of the table, and other domestic arrangements for saving expenses and liv- ing within their means, did not constitute the whole of their system of economy. Their provident forecast taught them the evils of debt. For they felt that under the depressing influence of that sort of slavery, they could never enjoy that feel- ing of proud iudependence which they carefully cherished, and which constituted the best part of their happiness. They rightly appreciated, also, the bad moral tendencies of that evil, than which scarcely nothing more silently and surely tends, with its numberless temptations, to do what we otherwise would not do, to de- base our best feelings and convictions as men, and undermine our best civic virtues as freemen. Our first settlers, therefore, carefully avoided it, making their calcula- tions far ahead so to live, so to purchase, and so to enlarge their plans of improve- ment, as to keep out of debt, and often foregoing the most tempting of bargains rather than increase it.

To enable the reader to estimate the cost of living and the profits of farming, as well as to appreciate the frugality of set- tlers, it will be well to note a few of the prevailing prices of labor, stock and other products of the day, as well as those of the few necessary articles which the set- tlers were compelled to import for their use and consumption in living, or in pur- suing their ordinary avocations.

PRICES OF LABOR, STOCK, EXPORTED) AND IMPORTED ARTICLES.

The wages of the best class of laborers were $9.00 per month, and 42 to 50 cents for casual day's work.

The common price of wheat was 67 cts per bushel; Indian corn, 50; oats, 25

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potatoes, 25 ; best yoke of oxen, $40.00 ; best horses, $50 ; best cows, $25 ; salts of lye, $4 to $5 per cwt. ; pork, in dressed hogs, $4 to $6; beef, averaging $4.

Of articles imported, the prices were : For rock salt, $3 per bushel; common, $2.50 ; loaf sugar, 42 cts. per lb. ; brown, 17 to 20 cts .; common W. I. molasses, $1.17 per gallon ; green tea, $2 per lb. ; poorest Bohea, 50 cts. per lb. ; nutmegs, 12 cts. each ; ginger, 34 cts. per lb. ; pepper, 75 ; iron shovels, $1.50 each ; broad-cloth, $8 to $10 per yd .; E. I. cotton cloth, 62 cts .; calico, 50 to 75 cts .; W. I. rum, $2 per gallon ; dry salt fish, II cts. per lb.

And yet, with these extremely low pri- ces for their products, and enormously high ones for their imported necessaries, the settlers, such was their industry and frugality, steadily progressed along the way to independence and wealth. But though the openings in the forest, rapidly increasing in extent and number, the more and more highly cultivated fields, the bet- ter and better filled barns, and the con- stantly multiplying stock of the barn- yards, made their yearly progress in thrift clearly obvious to all, yet the ratio of that progress can be accurately estimated only from the financial statistics of the town. And for this purpose we subjoin the sev- eral grand lists of the town from its or- ganization for the next succeeding fifteen years, or to and including 1807, all taken yearly and on the same plan.

GRAND LISTS OF MONTPELIER FROM 1792 TO 1806, INCLUSIVE.

1792, $2,141.67 ; 1793, $3,075.00 ; 1794, $4,531.67 ; 1795, $5,705.83 ; 1796, $7,660 ; 1797, $9,794.18. ; 1798, $10,963.93 ; 1799, $14,538.75 ; 1800, $15,390.93; 1801, $16,- 979.77 ; 1802, $17,437.13; 1803, $18,126 .- 99; 1804, $19,310.91 ; 1805, $22,920.55; 1806, $25,883.80.

The increase of the population of the town, in the meanwhile, will be seen by the different enumerations of the U. S. Census, the whole of which, as we may not find a more convenient place for them, ve will also here insert.

CENSUS OF THE TOWN .- By the first numeration, 1791, 113; in 1800, 890; 810, 1,877 ; 1820, 2,308; 1830, 2,985; 840, 3,725 ; 1850, Montpelier, 2,310, East Montpelier, 1,448, united, 3,758; 1860, Iontpelier, 2,411, East Montpelier, 1, 328, nited, 3,739; 1870, Montpelier, 3,023, ast Montpelier, 1,130, united, 4,153; 380, Montpelier, 3,219, East Montpelier, 72, united, 4, 191.

This statement shows a steady increase ‹cept in 1860, '70 and '80, when East ontpelier lost materially. From 1840 to

1860 the old town as a whole was nearly stationary, while the present town, or the old village, has constantly increased.

PART II. HISTORY SUBSEQUENT TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE TOWN.

The strictly civil history of the town from its organization is that of every town in'Vermont-a record of town meetings, of roads laid, school districts established, taxes voted, cemeteries provided, and lists made of persons warned out of town that they might not become chargeable to it as paupers ;* of elections, national, state and town, and of annual reports and returns required ; of intentions of marriage, mar- riages, births and deaths-very incom- plete. These fill volumes, and are of no use but for occasional reference, and in- stead of these it is deemed best to give con- densed statements, under different heads, of what has served to make the town, and most to mark its history, mainly outside of its official records.

POLITICAL HISTORY.

Votes for President from 1828 to 1880.t

1828, John Quincy Adams, (National Republican,) 185 ; Andrew Jackson, (Dem- ocratic, ) 171.

1832, Andrew Jackson, (Democratic,) 284; Henry Clay, (Nat. Repub.) 163; Wm. Wirt, (anti-Masonic,) 70.

1836, Martin Van Buren, (Democratic,) 3II ; Wm. Henry Harrison, (Whig,) 246. 1840, Martin Van Buren, (Democratic,) 348; Wm. Henry Harrison, Whig,) 340; scattering 5.

1844. James K. Polk, (Democratic,) 348 ; Henry Clay, (Whig,) 250 ; James G. Birney, (Abolition,) 55 ..

1848,§ Zachary Taylor, (Whig,) 403;

* These lists contain the names of the wealthiest as well as of the poorest citizens, with their families, ir- respective of character, color or condition, and were intended to embrace every person who at the time had not become legally chargeable to the town in case aid or support should be needed.

t The first recorded vote is that of 1828, tlie presiden- tial electors having been previously elected by the General Assembly.

# There is no record of presidential vote, and the votes given above were for State officers that year, being the nearest approximation to the presidential vote.

§ At all of the elections thus marked [§], members and officers of the Legislature voted in Montpelier.

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Lewis Cass, (Democratic,) 333 ; Martin Van Buren, (Free-Soil,) 249.

After the Division of the Town.

1852, Winfield Scott, (Whig,) 388; Franklin Pierce, (Democratic,) 222 ; John P. Hale, (Abolition,) 171.

1856,§ John C. Freemont, (Republi- can,) 726 ; James Buchanan, (Democratic,) 198 ; scattering, I.

1860,§ Abraham Lincoln, (Republican,) 541 ; Stephen A. Douglass, (Democrat- ic,) 180 ; Edward Everett, (Conservative,) 3; John C. Breckenridge, (pro-slavery Dem.) 2.

1864, § Abraham Lincoln, (Republican,) 664; Geo. B. McClellan, (Democratic,) 157.

1868, Ulysses S. Grant, (Republican,) 416 ; Horatio Seymour, (Democratic,) 148.

1872, Ulysses S. Grant, (Republican,) 496; Horace Greeley, (Liberal,) 223; Charles O'Connor, (Democrat,) 3.

1876,§ Rutherford B. Hayes, (Republi- can,) 577 ; Samuel J. Tilden, (Democrat,) 423.

1880, James A. Garfield, (Republican,) 651 ; W. S. Hancock, (Democrat,) 382 ; scattering, 2.

In ten of the above elections the ma- jority of votes cast in Montpelier was for the candidate elected ; in one instance the plurality was for the candidate elected ; in one instance the plurality and in two in- stances the majority was for candidates who were not elected. In 10 elections out of 14, therefore, the preference of Montpelier has coincided with that of the nation ; four times on the Democratic side, and six times on the Republican side.

Votes for Governor from 1792 to 1880. 1792, Thomas Chittenden 24.

1793, Thomas Chittenden 23, Samuel Hitchcock 2, Parley Davis I.

1794, Thomas Chittenden 26, Elijah Paine 25, Nathaniel Niles I.

1795, Thomas Chittenden 27, Isaac Tichenor 19.

1796, Isaac Tichenor 24, Thos. Chitten- den 17, Paul Brigham I.

1797, Elijah Paine 22, Samuel Hitch- cock 6, David Wing, Jr., 3, Lewis R. Morris I.

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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 44

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