USA > Vermont > The Lake Champlain and Lake George valleys, Vol. I > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
C & G-12
178
LAKE CHAMPLAIN AND LAKE GEORGE VALLEYS
appointed time most of the available man-power of the community would arrive to remove trees and stumps from the coveted soil. Mutual helpfulness pervaded the atmosphere, and did much to soften the struggle against the forests. The people in the community consti- tuted one big family, sharing each other's sorrows and celebrating each other's joys. Social ostracism, as exemplified by cliques, classes, creeds or races, was comparatively unknown. Equality of opportunity existed everywhere in these new settlements, the only measure of a man being his ability to master the wilderness, the wild beasts, and the Indians. Here democratic America was born. Here people of European birth or ancestry became more and more opposed to the inequalities, class distinctions and paternalism existing in Europe and in the older settlements along the seacoast. Thus it was out of the privations and sufferings of the early frontier that we have the evolu- tion of our free American institutions.
In spite of the presence of lakes and rivers, transportation was a serious problem. In 1768, Samuel Deall of Ticonderoga was carry- ing freight on his little vessel and five years later he tried unsuc- cessfully to obtain an exclusive right to establish a ferry. In addi- tion Major Skene owned a sloop on Lake Champlain, which he used to keep in communication with Canada, but water transporta- tion was clearly insufficient. Roads were needed in addition to the old military highways over which the armies had moved. This neces- sity was particularly evident to the settlers of Skenesborough, which in 1773 had a population of three hundred and seventy-nine. In this year, Major Skene built a road between that settlement and Salem. This was later extended by others as far as Bennington. Outside the limits of the settled communities, however, the only means of con- tact between the pioneer farms was often by way of tortuous forest paths marked only by blazed trees.
The making of potash was often the first industry, while grist- mills and sawmills were soon built. It was the habit of the proprie- tors to offer bounties for the erection of mills, because they were vital to the life of these early communities and never failed to attract additional settlers. It was not unusual for pioneer farmers to travel twenty miles on foot to reach the nearest gristmill, while the long journeys in search of lumber were fully as tedious. The manu- facture of iron was also a necessity if the heavy metal was not to be hauled for long distances through the wilderness; and since fine ore
179
LIFE OF THE EARLY PIONEER
was found in the Champlain Valley it is not surprising to note that a stone forge was built at Skenesborough by its proprietor. This was, in fact, the first forge to be erected anywhere on the shores of Lake Champlain. Money was extremely scarce, the pioneers generally resorting to barter. They were almost economically self-sufficient, but had to obtain salt, ammunition, and hardware from traders or from distant towns. For these products they bartered peltries.
The lakes abounded with fish and the forests with game, providing recreation as well as food for the pioneers when they were not occupied with their other work. Deer and bear meat in particular relieved the monotony of eating Johnny-cakes and dried vegetables. In addition to deer and bears, moose, elk, wolves, lynx, wild cats and rattlesnakes abounded everywhere. Overhead, majestic eagles soared, as they watched the infant settlements creeping slowly over their domain. The hunters stalked the wild animals, and these beasts, in their turn, stalked the pioneers. Sometimes a trapper, forced to spend a night far from home, selected a comfortable looking cave only to find that it was already occupied. Sometimes a wife, arriving at her favorite berry patch. found competition from mother bear. Sometimes a weary traveler, wending his way homeward in the darkness, was forced to spend the endless night in a large tree while panthers prowled underneath. The early settlers were apt to see wolves at their doors, in reality as well as figuratively. Rattlesnakes were destroyed as casually as the modern farmer shoots a hawk, and bear-hunts consti- tuted a favorite frontier pastime. Practically all of the fish that now are found in our lakes were present in great abundance when the first pioneers approached. It is recorded that two of the important fish inhabiting Lake Champlain around 1770 were the salmon and the muskellunge.
Cattle, sheep and hogs were brought to the settlements in limited numbers. it not only being difficult to protect them from the wild ani- mals, but also hard to procure the necessary food supply for them. The problems attached to keeping domestic animals on the frontier have been amply illustrated. One settler brought with him a flock of sheep which he placed in a log pen near his house for protection from wolves. During the night, however, the hungry beasts thrust their noses between the logs and killed all but two of the sheep. The next day. the owner himself was forced to kill these to save them from the wolves. The supply of hay on the frontier was scarce, and it was
180
LAKE CHAMPLAIN AND LAKE GEORGE VALLEYS
often necessary to drive the cattle to the woods to browse in the winter time to prevent starvation. Of course this practice met with the unanimous approval of the wild animals who also were hungry. One winter was so severe that it was even impossible to turn the cattle out, and it is reported that the settlers in one locality were forced to feed their cows salted fish, trout and suckers, which had been caught in the fall, in order to keep the animals alive until spring. Hogs cus- tomarily roamed the neighboring hills, fattening on acorns and beech- nuts until butchering time. In the settled communities, when a pound was to be erected, it was the duty of all settlers to help, and often there was a cash penalty provided for any inhabitants who were tempted to stay away.
The first settler of English birth to erect a dwelling in western Vermont is supposed to have been John Strong, in the township of Addison. On one occasion the head of the family, accompanied by some neighbors, set out for Albany to obtain supplies. During his absence, as Mrs. Strong was preparing supper one evening, she sud- denly found that she had uninvited guests. Looking up from her labors, she was startled to see a bear's head brush aside the sus- pended blanket which constituted the only door of the house. With- out undue loss of time, she snatched the baby from its crib and hur- ried up the ladder to the loft with her children. She unceremoniously pulled the ladder up after her and left her visitor in full possession of the supper table. Soon the mother bear waddled into the hut and two little cubs followed closely. After upsetting milk which had been placed on the table, madame bear spied a kettle of hot corn porridge. Not being accustomed to hot food, she made the serious mistake of thrusting her head into the pot and started to gobble down the food before she realized that it was boiling hot. With an angry roar, she struck the kettle with her paw and broke it. She then sat back on her haunches, and tried to claw the hot pudding from her mouth to the accompaniment of forlorn whines and irate growls. The cubs sat on their hind legs, one on each side, gazing in wonder at their mother. This ludicrous pantomime caused the Strong children to laugh, but the bear's sense of humor was evidently lacking, and the laughter only seemed to further infuriate her. She turned her undivided attention to the human beings in the loft, trying repeatedly to reach them, but was finally compelled to leave without success. It is needless to say that when Mr. Strong returned from Albany he immediately replaced
18I
LIFE OF THE EARLY PIONEER
the blanket with a stout basswood door, to discourage further visits from unwelcome neighbors.
We are indebted to Dr. Holden for an interesting story concerning an early settler named Peck, who purchased a large farm on the east side of Big Cedar Swamp in the town of Queensbury. One night he was returning home, accompanied by a six-year-old son, from a trip to Halfway Brook, on horseback.
The dense forest soon shut out the last faint light of day, and he was obliged to stumble forward in the dark as best he might, trusting mainly to the sagacity of his horse for keeping in the road. At length, in endeavoring to guide his horse around the upturned roots of a fallen tree, he found to his consternation that he had lost the path. After spending considerable time in a fruitless effort to regain the trail, groping his way from tree to tree in the thick darkness, the thought occurred to him that a loud outcry might arouse the family that he had just left and that some one would come to his assistance with lanterns and torches. He accordingly commenced shouting at the top of his voice, and presently fancied that he heard the call returned. He shouted again and the answer was repeated more dis- tinctly. The calls and answers were repeated in rapid succession, until he discovered to his horror that it was no human voice which responded to his voice, but that of the dreaded panther. With an alacrity inspired of terror, Peck dismounted, and feeling his way rapidly along, at last came to a large tree with low branching boughs, to one of which he fastened his horse. Climbing the tree, he found a refuge for himself and the boy on a large projecting limb. Through the entire length of that dreary night, the panther prowled around this retreat, at one moment threatening an attack on the frightened horse, and at another stealthily rustling through leaves of the adjacent tree tops, awaiting an unguarded moment to make his fearful spring. A few raps with a stout cudgel on the trunk of the tree, from time to time, served to deter the brute from making his attack, until the morning light made its most welcome appearance, when the ferocious monster with low growls slunk away toward the recesses of Big Cedar Swamp. As soon as the light became distinct enough to enable the benighted traveler to find his way, he descended from his perch, and to his great satisfaction discovered the road at no great distance. Remounting the horse with his boy, he soon after reached his home in safety .*
*Holden, A. W .: "History of Queensbury."
182
LAKE CHAMPLAIN AND LAKE GEORGE VALLEYS
Medicine, as practiced in the colonies, was not much of a science. On the frontier there was often little or none of it. Life was cheap and the women in particular died young, crushed by the responsibilities of the frontier home and by constant childbirth. Epi- demics raged practically unchecked, and settlers frequently died alone and unaided somewhere in the wilderness. The early inhabitants of this territory, however, were able to stand the lack of medical atten- tion better than we could do today. During the Revolution, Brandon was burned by an Indian raiding party and some of the settlers were taken prisoners. Among the captives was a Mr. Barker. His wife, being left alone with a child fourteen months old, started for the home of a neighbor who lived three miles away. Night overtook her, how- ever, and she was forced to remain in a deserted cabin where two years previously some friends had been killed by Indians. In this gloomy, gruesome place, not knowing whether her husband was dead or alive, and with her baby as her sole companion, she waited for the dawn. In the meantime, to add to her other difficulties, there began the familiar pains associated with childbirth, and before the arrival of another day she had successfully delivered herself of a second baby. The next day she was found by a searching party composed of her neighbors and was carried to a place of safety, but this experience illustrates the hardships undergone by our ancestors who lived on the outskirts of civilization.
Occupied primarily with earning a bare living, the early settlers had little time left for education, culture, or recreation. Dwellings were often far apart and necessarily the wisdom of the ages had to be handed down primarily from parents to children. Few books were found in any home. The most common were the Bible, psalm- book and almanac. Religious experience was primarily personal, not being strictly confined to any theological pattern. Just as the fron- tiersman was politically free, so was he free in conscience. The first buildings erected, that served as gathering places for the public, were religious meeting places, schools and taverns, but even before they were built itinerant preachers delivered their long sermons in barns and homes. Worshippers met later in the crudely-built schools. Such elementary forms of recreation as hunting and fishing were, of course, common. The long wintry nights were often spent while the family listened to selections being read, particularly from the Bible, by those who were able to read. As we have seen, considerable
183
LIFE OF THE EARLY PIONEER
recreation was connected with the various "bees" held for the pur- pose of building houses, harvesting crops, cutting down trees, and other worth while projects. The community effort was accompanied usually with drinking and practical joking, while some form of amuse- ment was generally planned to follow the hearty supper that rewarded the famished workers. Perhaps some rustic dance lasted until long into the night. Reference has been made to the corporal punishment inflicted on New Yorkers by Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys. This, however, was not considered harsh or unusual in that day. In fact, punishment by whipping was in use in New York and other States for years after the Revolution. Life in general on the frontier was extremely harsh and cruel except when mellowed by the spirit of fraternity, social unity, and neighborliness that pervaded the early communities.
These early settlers were just about firmly established in their new homes when news came of the battles of Lexington and Concord, swiftly followed by the capture of Ticonderoga. Severe were the hardships to be undergone, and needless to say further colonization on this bloody ground ceased until peace should come once more. In fact, many of the settlements and farms, already made, had to be abandoned.
CHAPTER XI
The Green Mountain Boys in Action
In the war for American independence it was inevitable that the valleys of Lake Champlain and Lake George should once again wit- ness stirring and momentous events. They constituted the most natural avenue for American expeditions against Canada, while at the same time, using Montreal as a base for operations, this region constituted the easiest and most attractive line of conquest for the British. Its possession and defense by the Colonials was a life and death matter to them. With New England split off from the rest of the Colonies by British control of the waterways of New York, the results might easily have been tragic. In fact, major English policy was con- cerned primarily with that idea, and it was the failure of the British to permanently win control of this area that made American independ- ence possible. It was the American victory at Saratoga that ended Burgoyne's invasion which led to our alliance with the King of France and the expulsion of old world tyranny from our shores.
In the approaching conflict, the main theatre of war was to be shifted northward. In the French and Indian wars, Lake George had been the chief bone of contention, with French troops at Crown Point and Ticonderoga attempting to outmaneuver the English forces at Fort William Henry. The primary French campaigns had been directed toward the possession of the southern end of Lake George, whereas the main British expeditions were intended to drive the enemy from the northern section of that lake and the southern end of Lake Champlain. In the American Revolution all of this was to be changed. Military activities on Lake George were to be conducted only on a small scale and were destined to be overshadowed and eclipsed by the momentous events happening in the Champlain Valley. The main pol-
185
GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS IN ACTION
icy of both sides was to be concerned with the possession of Lake Champlain and famous old Fort Ticonderoga.
Revolution did not come suddenly. The causes were deepseated and fundamental. The storm, so inevitably approaching, had been long in gathering. British attempts to collect taxes from her colonists had increased, and provincial protests had become an old story. English efforts to limit the pioneers to the Atlantic seaboard had also offended many. Jealousy and dislike between colonials and regular soldiers in the English armies of the French wars had been the rule and not the exception. Furthermore it was only natural that the numerous examples of English imbecility, when it came to wilderness fighting, should have made a poor impression on the colonial mind, while provincial successes had tended to increase colonial cockiness and self-confidence. Wise men scanning the horizon could not fail to read the future, especially with the dawn of 1775.
In spite of the fact that trouble was in the air, little was done by the British to strengthen their forts in the Champlain area. General Frederick Haldimand foresaw the importance of Crown Point and Ticonderoga and recommended in particular the rebuilding of the fortifications at the former place which had been destroyed by fire in 1773, but his suggestion apparently made little impression on Gen- eral Gage, the commander-in-chief. Gage was so busy concentrating his attention on the difficult situation at Boston that he failed to strength- en the posts on Lake Champlain until too late. It was March 16, 1775, before he wrote to Carleton, commanding in Canada, telling him of a plan to rebuild the fort at Crown Point, and even then he failed to mention Ticonderoga and neglected to send Montresor's plans for the projected fortifications. From the British point of view the delay was disastrous. If Haldimand's suggestion had been promptly carried out, the new fort would have been a very sharp and irritating thorn in the flesh of the revolting colonies. However, we would be busy indeed if we concerned ourselves with all the "ifs" in history. The defenses at Crown Point continued to be conspicuous by their absence, while at Ticonderoga the wooden bastions had rotted and the build- ings were in such a weakened condition that Montresor decided it would require more effort to repair the damage than it would to build an entirely new fort at Crown Point. Gage finally ordered Carleton to send a regiment to the two posts, but again he was too late. Before his letter arrived in Canada, the British lost possession of them.
I86
LAKE CHAMPLAIN AND LAKE GEORGE VALLEYS
Several Americans had the bright idea of seizing the two forts at about the same time, and this was only natural. Because of personal experiences in the French and Indian War, military conflict and Ticon- deroga were practically synonymous in the minds of the people living in New England. This fort, although weak, represented British might
(Courtesy of the Champlain Valley Council) ETHAN ALLEN TOWER On the site of the farm of Ethan Allen (now Ethan Allen Park) in Vermont
in the same way as does Gibraltar today. In the second place, the colonials would have been extremely lacking in brain power if they had not realized their precarious position provided that England retained possession of that fortress. All of the New England States
187
GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS IN ACTION
as well as New York were wide open to expeditions from Ticon- deroga. The possession of Ticonderoga and Crown Point was especially essential to the people inhabiting the New Hampshire Grants if they were to continue to dwell in the shadows of the Green Mountains that they loved so well. The settlers knew all about the poor condition of the fortresses and the small garrisons. Ethan Allen's rough Green Mountain Boys, watching from the Vermont shore of Lake Champlain, unquestionably were sorely tempted to act, especially as they peered northward in daily expectation of British reënforcements which would transform the posts into mighty enemy strongholds.
One of the colonial leaders who first became interested in the pos- session of the fortresses was the celebrated John Brown, of Pittsfield. As early as February, 1775, the Massachusetts Legislature made plans to correspond with the inhabitants of Canada and the northern Indi- ans, attempting to keep them at least neutral when the gathering storm should break. Brown was sent to carry on these negotiations. He made his way down the Champlain Valley with great difficulty, because the ice had barely broken up and the country was somewhat flooded by the swollen streams. Although he was frozen in on an island for two days, he finally arrived in Canada safely and found that the Canadians and Indians felt friendly. On his journey he became impressed with the need for Ticonderoga, and on March twenty-fourth wrote to Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren urging the capture of the fort as soon as hostilities should begin. He also reported that the people living on the New Hampshire Grants were interested in the idea, and recommended the Green Mountain Boys for the "Jobb."
On April nineteenth was fired the shot heard around the world, and the people of Vermont were by no means deaf. Hostilities had been begun at Lexington and Concord and the time was now ripe for action against Ticonderoga. The settlers of the New Hampshire Grants met to discuss the situation and make plans at Bennington. There was now a certain amount of hesitancy, however. It will be recalled that the land controversy with New York was still raging. Suppose the Green Mountain Boys became aggressive and seized England's forts only to find that the thirteen colonies eventu- ally decided to make their peace with the mother country! In that case, Vermont would be caught far out on a limb, and there would be
188
LAKE CHAMPLAIN AND LAKE GEORGE VALLEYS
no question concerning how England would then dispose of the dis- puted lands. On the other hand, Allen and the other leaders felt that if they fought bravely at the side of their colonial brethren, and if the war was won by the patriots, they would be rewarded by having their
(Courtesy of Chamber of Commerce at Keeseville) OLD ARCH BRIDGE, KEESEVILLE, SAID TO BE OLDEST OF KIND IN THE UNITED STATES
claims recognized. It was eventually decided to attempt to sur- prise Crown Point and Ticonderoga. Before the assembly ended, however, word came that the Colony of Connecticut was very much interested in the idea, thanks to Benedict Arnold's suggestion to
189
GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS IN ACTION
some Hartford gentlemen that, if Ticonderoga were captured, the guns could be transported overland to the siege of Boston. A few days later two Connecticut men arrived as messengers of that Colony's Committee of Correspondence, bringing three hundred pounds of money for the undertaking. These gentlemen were Noah Phelps and Bernard Romans, and they were followed by a force of forty or fifty recruits from the Berkshires, with Colonel James Easton. A larger body of men could easily have been raised there, but would have aroused the suspicions .of the enemy and, in addition, it was the gen- erally accepted opinion that the main body of the expedition should not be raised until the Grants were reached, on the theory that the Green Mountain Boys were the best ones to do the job.
Benedict Arnold had not only aroused the interest of Connecti- cut in the cannon at Ticonderoga, but had also appeared before the Massachusetts Committee of Safety on April twenty-ninth. Bos- ton lay besieged and the American camp lacked guns, so it was only natural that the leaders of that Colony should have been deeply inter- ested in Arnold's information and plans. At first, Massachusetts seemed afraid to antagonize New York by attacking a fort within the borders of the neighboring State, but so great was the need for guns that the committeemen decided to act first and argue afterward. On May second they appointed Arnold a colonel with powers to raise a force of four hundred men to accomplish the capture of Ticonderoga. They also gave him a hundred pounds in cash, together with gun- powder, balls, flints and horses. Whatever guns and stores he should capture were ordered to be brought back to the army at Cambridge. Arnold was a man of action. Appointing his captains and sending them out to recruit the necessary men, he did not wait, but furiously set out in advance, with only one servant, in the general direction of Ticonderoga. Perhaps he had heard rumors of the Connecticut and Ver- mont plans and desired to make certain either that the attack did not take place without him or that his plans for taking the important fort were not thwarted by an abortive attack, but there is no direct evi- dence to support such theories. He may have intended only to spy out the land in the vicinity of the fort so that when his men should arrive he would be prepared to attack at once. In any case, Arnold possessed an extremely restless spirit and was impetuous by nature. It was just like him to rush headlong to the field of action. When he arrived at Castleton and heard the plans already made he demanded
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.