The History of Washington County in the Vermont historical gazetteer : including a county chapter and the local histories of the towns of Montpelier., Part 88

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 88

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Hymn-By Charles G. Eastman.

This fairest spot of hill and glade,

Where blooms the flower and waves the tree And silver streams delight the sliade, We consecrate, O Death, to thee. -

Here all the months the year may know Shall watch this "Eden of the Dead," To wreathe with flowers or crown with snow The dreamless sleeper's narrow bed.

And when above its graves we kneel, Resigning to the mouldering urn The friends whose silent hearts shall feel No balmy summer's glad return ;

Each marble shaft our hands may rear, To mark where dust to dust is given, Shall lift its chiselled column, here, To point our tearful eyes to Heaven.

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Benediction-By Rev. F. D. Hemmenway. Thus was this most beautiful inclosure edicated to Montpelier's dead, just 27 ears ago this fall. The number of inter- ments to date, Dec. 24, 1881, is 999, Sim- on Lyman, a merchant, buried Oct. 3, 855, aged 45 years, being the first.

A thousand times the turf has already een broken in Green Mount to receive the ousehold props of this people, the treas- res of its happy homes. We see on this pot how death takes toll. How many leep around the monument of the benefi- ent Keith, upon every side, who assisted the beautiful consecration just portray- d : Constant W. Storrs, among the first, nd all the commissioners, but one, who elected and prepared the grounds are here. The Pastor who offered the first prayer on his spot-by the side of his little Bessie. The Poet who wrote its hymn of beauty, he Poet of this cemetery still. Shelton of the lovely address, every paragraph like cluster of precious stones, sleeps, also- n the bosom of the neighboring State pon the West.

Here are the graves of Thompson, East- nan, Lord, Samuel Goss, Daniel Baldwin, Charles Reed, Samuel Wells and a few thers whose names are identified with our arly acquaintance at Montpelier. Most of those whose biographies are written in his book rest here; even some buried in ld Elm Street Cemetery with their old exton, have been brought up and re- nterred here; whose histories have been o studied, though otherwise unknown, the lames on the headstones look like old riends. It is but our second visit, and et we cannot feel quite like a stranger iere. What Vermonter could by Thomp- on's grave ? by his grave as yet without monument or stone! the author of the Green Mountain Boys has built himself his wn monument more enduring than of narble-" Pete Jones " is his monument nore resonant than brass ;" May Martin," fairer headstone than another could raise. t is not doubted this grave will yet have he due commemorative stone. Only, we niss it here now-" D. P. Thompson " vas so well known and endeared to the

people of the State ; in Montpelier so long- time and honorable a resident-her pleas- ant historian. An early friend to our Gazetteer ; he was first engaged to write for it the chapters of Montpelier History ; a few months before his death finding he would not be able, wrote " take therefore, anything I have ever written for Montpe- ler, or for Washington County, or for the State, whether printed or in manuscript, the whole or in part, as you would if it were your own, for I shall not be able to do as I had intended ; and I would name to you the Hon. E. P. Walton, as the man the best qualified to aid you and to write the history of Montpelier." Having been so successful in the history of Montpelier, nearing its close, pleasant to-day is the re- membrance of his intention-the thought- ful kindness of his last letter ; and we shall be very happy if we may see, as we may if contributed by his friends, his portrait stand with his biography in this County volume, for which he would, no doubt, have written so much and so well, had he lived to this day ; and where it may stand in the one town which has a prior claim, his own beloved Berlin, adjoining Montpelier on the pleasant south, where was his father's old farm, where he was born, just over the river.

A handsome monumental pile !- worthy the Sleeper below. A name in the mar- ble, by author, man or woman, never for- gotten-the first literary benefactor-the handsome and the gracious patron, who pruned till they gleamed almost like fresh poems, and sent his beautiful contribu- tions with words of confidence to your first book in press, and when it came gave it notice through his newspaper at the capital, and sold many copies in his old book-store on State Street, and ad- vised and contributed to its successor. The sight of this beautiful tomb swells our heart full ;- glad for as proud of his fame, -talented, bland, witty, generous East- man ; the vigor, point, beauty and mazy grace of his poetry all seem concentrated and perpetuated here.

A granite stone; the tenant here that bluff, iorn-framed, but golden-hearted old

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landlord at the Pavilion, the first time that we were at Montpelier, who declared promptly that he had no bill for a young woman who had given Vermont the hand- somest book ever printed in the State. Poor book-makers might hope to live out their days were all landlords Col. Bout- wells. Peace to the ashes, severely silent, of the every-inch-alive, stirring old host. His monument is just what it should be- granite-large. We would like his stout figure in bronze in the grounds of the Pa- vilion. We are very glad of his portrait in our book. Joint vote of praise from the State House, Levi Boutwell did better ; bread is better than fame.

Here ;- SAMUEL GOSS! FARLEY, WAL- TON, his confreres. Father Goss had one of tbose countenances it stirs the heart agreeably to look into, pleasant as intelli- gent, sensible as gracious. Gen. E. P. Walton we almost seem to know in his son, Hon. E. P.

The grave of the first lady with whom we became acquainted at Montpelier-the first wife of Dr. G. N. Brigham, who re- sided some 30 years in Montpelier vil- lage. Mrs. Brigham was a cheerful, active little woman, storing her home with the honey of comfort; but when we saw her last the rose of consumption was painted on her cheek. Never was her cordiality so touching. I could not pass her resting-place without pausing. I would plant one historical flower on her grave. It shall be the poetic hyacinth, that sweetest poem, to our thought, from the pen of her talented husband, and which was inspired by a scene connected with her death-bed.

SONG OF THE HYACINTH.

One lay with bright eyes looking for the Christ, And so near to heaven it seemed that she could hear The song of flowers. A purple hyacinth, Which from a vase drank dew and shed it round In fragance, played an interlude that called . Her half-flown spirit back. For when her eye Was fixed on it, till all her face did smile, She handed forth her pale white hand and asked That it be given her. We never shall forget That smile, the dainty way her fingers toyed Among thie petals ; . music cadences

Began, " How sweet !"-'t was even as a child Sweet toys and grows aflame with joy. And as We gazed and saw the dappled halo glow

And ripple over all her face, we said It is the breaking light of heaven. That night She died, the fragrance of the hyacinth Upon her fingers, sweetest sınile that e'er Warmed human face yet lingering; and her Low lullaby a song of that sweet flower.

SONG. There is no death, no death, my dearest. No deatlı but death of pain; The sleeping ones, my child, are nearest To Aiden's rapturing strain.

O, fold thy lids and drop thy sorrow, And sleep thee free of pain ; And when thou wakest on the morrow Thou wilt be born again.

O sleep the sleep past earth's sad waking, This death is nature's rest ; And in the new morn that is breaking Drift thee unto the blest.

The grave of Dr. Lord again ; who words were poetry and whose sermo poems, though we knew him first histo cally. We had not been at Montpelier i several years; standing at the clos doors of the Historical Society, "a prival session," as there told,-that is a busine meeting, the annual meeting having clos a half day earlier than we had expecte Dr. Lord, hearing the name of the wom at the door, came down as she was turni to leave, and taking both hands-prince a man as he was in manners and court -would not suffer, saying as he led ! within, there was not any closed sess to her, or there should not be, and th within, were only all her brothers in same work, as she who had done me than them all, and having led her ta seat, so easily and pleasantly introdu l her, a woman alone with the assembl historical gentlemen of the State, felt awkwardness. He inquired if she waa member,and, informed "itwas contrar0 a by-law," by his motion, seconded by H Hiland Hall of Bennington, presiding, e bar was immediately removed againsla lady's admission to membership in the - ciety ; pronounced and made obsolete y an unanimous vote of welcome to the st woman admitted to the State Historal Society, in the old State House, and wich coming at the capital, and thus natury, never having been before asked, or exp t- ed by the receiver, but which came, ven introduced by Rev. Dr. Lord-who as

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ade President of the Society the same ay-so whole and genially, it wiped away i one moment, gracefully, all the exclu- veness of the past. For its being an hon- r received in Montpelier, pardon, the per- onal relation ; as Montpelier is one of the :w towns of the State which have given us ore roses than thorns, let us toy with one. The resting-place of one of the patri- rchs of the village. On one of the altriest days of a sultry summer-the op- ressive noon-winding out from the street f the Capital, down by the river-a vein f delicious coolness by the roadside-a entle south breath from over the river, rushing softly aside the heated atmos- here that beat down from above-the ineral of the man who had lived the most ears in Montpelier came to Green Mount, radually ascending the hill-side to the hade of trees into which the carriages vound and stood while the venerable old nan was laid in the evergreen-lined grave. The coffin resting deep down on the mosses t the bottom, the breath of the mourners nd of all the crowd stilled to listen to the ervice ; all hearts touched to sympathy vith the cool, sweet pulse of nature here, ve thought, and it seemed the whole crowd hought with us, more beautiful is the gar- len of the dead than the home of the liv- ng ; and a place not to lose its attractions, how many will follow, drawn on, attracted while they know not how. Where the old nan and the young man lie down together, beautiful encampment-ground !-- to-day, ind what may it be a hundred years from o-day ? The descendants of the people of Montpelier no doubt may in a hun- dred years make this place more beauti- ul than now. He who may then come ip to these grounds may find the en- rance, upon the south by the river, the same as now, but an inclosure extended northward and eastward and westward -- a city of the departed instead of a gar- len ; walls in inscriptions, ornamentations, nossings. The ponderous gate lettered on the iron . in bronze " WHERE THE WEARY ARE AT REST." Within, near the zate where the mourners go by a colossal cross from the granite of our mountains,

in raised letters upon the body-" JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR ALL." All the streets longer-more streets, more graves in all the streets, and over every walk and grave, the beauty of age in nature. Nature never loses in beauty ;- more leaves, more flow- ers, more tints, more mosses, richer paint- ed rocks. How beautiful the rocks grow old ; softened, garnitured with moss, vine and flower, more and more every lapsing year. Man lives for a hundred years, na- ture for a hundred hundred. How beauti- ful in marble, too, its visitor may find this city, one hundred years more past.

And on the boldest cliff

Of these expanded grounds, swelling mountainward- If we may look through the hazc of future years- What statue, grander than living man, Stands, counting the multitude, slumbering So long at his feet-trumpet In hand,

Waiting to summon up these long sleepers ?

I note the change, as the years ran on And art with the people grew, how the crevices In this hillside showed, until this Eden Of the dear departed was so falr and famed. The traveiler from over the scas called It 'The Art Garden of the Departed ' Of this land ; In every rural recess, Scripture history was so put in marble : So falr upon the hills and mounds and plains, Within the dales and rocks and caves and woods And lawns, beside the river and the rills- Beseeming the cemeteries of the dead In the capital of a State where the rocks Are marble-the statues of the native sculptors :

Falr as the white rose growing by the grave, The Ruler's daughter, standing by her couch, Just risen-the dear Master of Life, Holding the little damsel by the hand, Over whose face new breath and beauty breaking.

Eastward-" in the rocky battlements," that cave By tall trees, half-embowered, Lazarus statue, Or figure, grave-swathed, coming forth-there !

Where the sun touches first the grave,

All shrubs and flowers of fragrancy crowding To depict that garden of the resurrection- . Jesus Christ and Magdalene standing within.

The marble shaft, the massive monument, The simple stone, shrubbery so surrounding,-tree And flower and vine adorning,-each did seem, As the eye gathered it in, more beautiful : The chiseled column-the planted flower, Rivaled by the pure lilies on the stone,- The rose in the foliated marble :

The oldest stone, most mossed, most beautiful; As the ancient rocky rampart, the brown moss Clinging to, the golden moss, th' gray wand-moss In every crumbling fissure, scarlet tipped.

Most fair country : for all the people thought Affectlon could not make too fair the Eden Of their Dead-deposited in hope.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LIVING PERSONS.

TIMOTHY PARKER REDFIELD,

(BY B. F. FIFIELD, ESQ.)

the son of Dr. Peleg and Hannah (Parker) Redfield, was born at Coventry, Nov. 3, 1812. The father was born of sturdy English stock at Killingworth, Conn., the grandson of Capt. Peleg Redfield, who bravely fought through the revolutionary war. The mother was the daughter of Isaac and Bridget (Fletcher) Parker, born at Westford, Mass., in Nov., 1785, and married at Weathersfield, Vt., in March, 1803. They removed to Coventry, Vt., with two children, in the fall of 1807, and raised a family of 6 sons and 6 daughters, amid the perils and hardships of frontier life. [See Coventry, Vol. II, this work.] The subject of this sketch had the usual experience of Vermont boys born and brought up on a farm, but here were laid the rudiments of that industry, self-reli- ance, and independence, which have so much distinguished him and which is pecu- liar to the stock. At Dartmouth College he ranked among the first of his class, was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and graduated with high honors in the class of 1836. He imme- diately commenced the study of the law in the office of his brother, the Hon. Isaac F. Redfield, was admitted to the bar in Orleans county in 1838, began the practice of his profession at Irasburgh, and con- tinued it there until his removal to Mont- pelier in 1848. He was senator from Or- leans county in 1848. He practiced his profession at Montpelier from 1848 to 1870, when he was elected Judge of the Supreme . Court, and has received successive elec- tions from that time to the present, 1881. He was married to Helen W. Grannis of Stanstead, Province of Quebec, Feb. 6, 1840, by which marriage he had 4 children, three of whom sleep in Green Mount Cem- etery at Montpelier, and the only surviving child, Alice, the wife of Andrew J. Phil- lips, now resides at St. Louis, Mo.

While in the practice of his profession at Montpelier, he became widely known

through the State as one of the most reli able, painstaking and thoroughly well-rea lawyers in the profession. From 1856, t the time of his elevation to the bench h was a constant attendant upon the court in Orleans, Caledonia and Washingto counties, and it is no disparagement 1 others to say that he had no superior either in the 'knowledge of the law, or i practical adaptation to the complicate affairs of life. His sturdy independenc elevated character and fine legal attail ments, commanded respect and admir tion from all who knew him, and a ma who was once his client was always b client.

In 1870, a vacancy occurred on the s preme court bench. Mr. Redfield h always been a democrat in politics, but fitness for the position was so generally a knowledged that he was elected to t place by a legislature overwhelmingly 1 publican, and against numerous compe tors. His dignified judicial bearing a acknowledged impartiality made him once a general favorite with the publ the bar and his associates. His fame m and will justly rest upon his judicial life

.His brother, Isaac F. Redfield, occup a seat upon the bench of Vermont for years, and he left it in 1860 only to extel his fame and establish it as one of the fol- most jurists of the age, whether English American.

In each of the brothers is found in Je degree that quality of all others the mt rare, the judicial temperament, and in e:1 is also found the intellectual grasp on the e hand and fine sense of justice on the otr hand which is so essential to the just - ministration of the law.

Judge Redfield is an excellent scho, and while his bearing is reserved and (,- nified, such as becomes his position, t in social life he is one of the most charn g of companions. His reminiscences of e old bar and his fund of anecdotes are le delight of those who enjoy his friends, and will be long remembered by those io come after him. He is a member of ie Episcopal church and a devoted christn, not only in profession but also in prace.

FORBES CO BOSTON.

Jim. P' Pendula

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In short, Judge Redfield is a model in all that constitutes a conscientious, christian gentleman, and an able, upright, impartial judge.

To speak thus of his record is but the "just meed of praise to acknowledged worth," and "to keep the memory of such men green is but to strengthen and stimu- late public virtue."

HON. ELIAKIM PERSONS WALTON.

[From M. D. Gilman's Bibliography of Vermont, now in course of preparation.]

Eliakim Persons Walton was born in Montpelier, Feb. 17, 1812, and was the first-born son of the late Gen. Ezekiel Parker Walton and Prussia Persons. On the Walton side the genealogy goes back with almost absolute certainty, through Ezekiel P.'s father, who was the late Geo. Walton, of Peacham, born at New Market, N. H., in 1762, and married Mary Parker, of New Hampshire, to George Walton, a Quaker born in England, in whose house at Newcastle, N. H., in June, 1682, oc- curred the best authenticated case of witch- craft which has ever been recorded in New England. See Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana, edition of 1820, vol. 2, p. 393, and Brewster's Rambles about Portsmouth, second series, pp. 343-354. On the Persons side, all that can be asserted is that Eliakim Davis Persons was a native of Long Island, and his wife, Rebecca Dodge, was of Mas- sachusetts, probably Northfield, who had numerous relatives, (one of them inter- married with a Houghton, uncle of the late Mrs. Samuel Prentiss, of Montpelier,) residing near the south-eastern line of Vermont. Her father and two of her brothers, Asa and John, settled in Barre, Vt., and a third, Daniel, in Northern Ver- mont. They have numerous descendants at this day in Eastern and Western Ver- mont, and in the Western States. It was and is a race of sterling virtues. The par- ticular subject of this notice was educated first by his mother in letters and reading the notes of music ; second, by an occa- sional attendance at the district school, in which he was specially noted for his habit of running away on every possible occasion ; third, by many terms in Washington

County Grammar School, in which he was fitted for college by one of the best prin- cipals that school ever had, the late Jona- than C. Southmayd. But the young E. P. was not permitted to go to college, and thereupon entered the law office of Samuel and Samuel B. Prentiss, when Judge Pren- tiss was in the United States Senate. Here he obtained the elements of the law, and moreover an insight into national pol- itics, through the books and documents received by Judge Prentiss as senator. But largely he was educated in his father's printing office, and an excellent school every printing office is to any boy or girl who has obtained the elements of an English education, and will improve the opportunities of the office. From the time the lad was "knee-high to a toad," and had to stand in a chair to get up to the " case," this boy was put into the office, and kept there in vacations from schools. Another very useful school was the old Montpelier Lyceum, with its written essays and extemporaneous debates. In 1826-7 he spent a year in Essex, N. Y., and there edited and printed his first newspaper, a single issue of the Essex County Republican. The editors and publishers were away, and had suspended publication for a week ; but the young and ardent politician could not have it so. Without any authority from his masters, he got up a paper full of edi- torial matter-part of it written and part of it composed at the case-and took proof-sheets. The question, Shall it be printed? was a doubtful one. The proof- sheets were thereupon submitted to the late Gen. Henry H. Ross, of Essex, then a member of Congress, and a zealous Adams man. Bringing back the proof- sheets, the General came with his face beaming with smiles, put both hands on the boy's shoulders, and said, "Print it, boy! print it !" From that moment, though preferring the law, the business of printer and editor seemed to have been ordained for him. On becoming of age, in 1833, he became a partner with his father in the publication of the Vermont Watchman and State Gazette. Gen. Walton wrote occa- sionally for that paper, but other branches

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of a very extensive business demanded his attention, and the newspaper and printing department were in the charge of E. P. Walton, Jr., as his signature commonly was during the life of his father, although not correct except when the initials of it were given. In 1853, the paper, then the Vermont Watchman and State Fournal, came into his possession exclusively, and so continued until the sale to the Messrs. Poland, in 1868.

During all this period the editorship of Walton's Vermont Register was in his charge, as it still is in all except the Bus- iness Directory. The Vermont Capitol, 1857, consisted mainly of his reports ; vol- ume two of the collections of the Vermont Historical Society was edited by him ; and- also the eight volumes of the Records of the Governor and Council, together with documents touching the early history of the State. Although an active and zealous politician from his youth, and helping many men to high offices, he never sought offices for himself. Nevertheless in 1853 he was elected representative of Montpelier ; and in 1856, greatly to his surprise, he was called upon by the late Senator Foot, and another member of the Vermont delegation still living, to become a candidate for Congress in the first congressional dis- trict, on the grounds that a change was absolutely necessary, and that the member then to be elected, according to the usual courtesy in such cases, should come from Washington County. Under the very del- icate circumstances of the case, Mr. Walton was unwilling to be a candidate, and urged the late Ferrand F. Merrill to stand in his stead. Mr. Merrill refused, and ultimately Mr. Walton was nominated and received three elections, after which he declined further service. In 1870 he was the del- egate of Montpelier in the Constitutional Convention ; and he was also senator for Washington County, 1874 until 1878. The honorary degree of Master of Arts has been conferred upon Mr. Walton by the University of Vermont, and also by Mid- dlebury College. He has been president of the Publishers' and Editors' Association of Vermont from its organization until

1881, and also of the Vermont Historica Society since the Rev. Dr. Lord retired Mr. Walton married, June 6, 1836, Sarał Sophia, second daughter of the late Hon Joseph Howes, of Montpelier, who died Sept. 3, 1880.

For a list of Mr. Walton's publications see ante, BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MONTPELIER

In addition to those referred to ther are the following printed papers by Mr Walton :

Oration delivered at Northfield, July 4 1837, and printed in the Watchman an Journal of July 24, by request of Charle Paine, chairman of the committee of a rangements.

Remarks on the death of Charles Paine delivered at Northfield, July 29, 185. Printed in the Watchman and Fournal Aug. 4, and also in pamphlet form.

Speech delivered on the battle-field : Hubbardton, July 7, 1859, on the inaugi ration of the battle monument. Printe in the Watchman and Fournal as an ed torial, and reprinted in pamphlet form Rutland.

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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 88

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