USA > Vermont > The Lake Champlain and Lake George valleys, Vol. I > Part 33
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At the time of Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts, when the farm- ers attempted by force to prevent the seizure of their lands for debt, Shaftsbury was the unwilling host of a hundred of the rebels who had been chased out of their native State. If they intended making their peace with the legal masters of Massachusetts, the Vermonters had no objection to them; but if they were planning acts of violence, there was the danger of unpleasant relations with the neighboring State. The rebels pleaded their case but Shaftsbury's authorities were not to be moved. Eventually the fugitives dispersed and crossed the State line into New York. In 1930 the town reported a population of 1,631. South Shaftsbury is the home of the poet, Robert Frost.
Stamford is located on the Massachusetts border between Pownal and Readsboro. Until after the Revolution it was known as New Stamford. Its first charter was dated as early as 1753, but this was surrendered and a new one was issued in 1764. It is said that an extremely dense growth of timber originally covered the entire town- ship. While this circumstance was ideal from the lumberman's view- point, farms had to be cleared from timber before crops would grow. By 1830 it had a population of 563, whereas a century later it has 370.
The town of Sunderland is south of Manchester and east of Arlington. Situated almost wholly within the Green Mountains, it
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is almost as rough and wild as Glastenbury. Although it is not well suited to the raising of crops it possesses large water-power facilities. The township was chartered in 1761, and the first settlement was begun in 1766. Among the exciting episodes during the time of the land disputes was the punishment and banishment of a New York justice of the peace named Benjamin Hough. He lived in Clarendon, Rutland County, but after repeated threats had failed to silence his tongue he was taken to Sunderland for trial. Here, in the winter of 1775, he was sentenced to be tied to a tree and receive two hundred lashes on his naked back. As soon as he recovered from the effects of this punishment he was to leave Vermont and not return under penalty of receiving five hundred lashes. After the execution of his sentence, he was given a pass which read as follows: "This may cer- tify to the inhabitants of the New Hampshire Grants that Benjamin Hough hath this day received a full punishment for his crimes com- mitted heretofore against this country, and our inhabitants are ordered to give the said Hough free and unmolested passport toward the city of New York, or to the westward of our grants, he behaving as becometh." Needless to say the unfortunate justice did behave "as becometh." According to Lewis Cass Aldrich, the historian of Bennington County, "this punishment inflicted on Hough had a most salutary influence upon those in this region who were disposed to share his sentiments, and subsequent cases of a similar character were few indeed." Although they were not permanent residents of Sunder- land, both Ethan and Ira Allen lived in this township for a time. The town's growth was slow but steady up to 1810. In 1930 its pop- ulation was 375.
Winhall is a mountain town in the northeastern section of Ben- nington County south of Peru and east of Manchester. It was char- tered by Wentworth in 1761, but was not settled until 1780. The name Winhall was derived from two of the original proprietors, Mr. Winn and Mr. Hall. Although some of the soil was suitable for grazing and agriculture, the emphasis seems to have been placed on the lumber industry. In 1930 its population was 229.
Woodford is another extremely mountainous town, and is located in the Green Mountains east of Bennington. In fact, it enjoys the distinction of being the highest village in the entire State. The only township in the county that is older than Woodford, if we base our
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computation on dates of charters, is Bennington. 1753 was the year in which Wentworth issued the charter for this town. The first settle- ment was not actually made, however, for about twenty-five years, and the town was not organized until 1789. Woodford, of course, has seen the manufacture of much lumber. The production of charcoal and yellow ochre were also prominent industries, but the leading industry was the manufacture of iron. At first the ore deposits found in the town were used to make bar iron, but later, during Jefferson's admin- istration, anchors were made for American ships, as well. This may be the reason why, in the poll on the War of 1812, conducted in 1813, Woodford voted twenty-seven to eleven for peace with Eng- land. At least it is reasonable to assume that the interruption of American commerce had a depressive influence upon the anchor- making industry. In 1930 Woodford's population was only 139.
CHAPTER II
Rutland County
Rutland County, as well as the rest of Vermont, was originally a part of huge Albany County, New York, as created in 1683. When that unwieldy and inefficient political unit was subdivided in 1772, Rutland constituted a part of that county called Charlotte, but later known as Washington. When the people of Vermont organized their State government in 1778, all the territory west of the Green Moun- tains was known first as Bennington County, but in 1780 the section north of the Bennington County of today was called Washington. In the following year of 1781, however, this territory extending to the Canadian border was named Rutland County. Finally, in 1785, this unit was brought to its present limits (except for the town of Orwell, which was annexed to its northern neighbor in 1847) by the creation of the County of Addison. Tinmouth was the county seat until 1784, when it was displaced by Rutland.
Rutland County is the center of Vermont's slate and marble indus- tries, while its soil is in general fertile. On its western side it descends to the southern arm of Lake Champlain, but in general it is elevated, while in the east it is quite mountainous. Within its borders are many beautiful bodies of water, the largest of which are Lake Bomoseen and Lake St. Catharine. Across its entire length from south to north extends the valley of the Otter. Other rivers include the Mettawee, the Poultney, the Castleton, and the Clarendon. Beautiful terraces and comparatively precipitous mountain peaks are an important part of the county's interesting scenery.
In the dispute between New Hampshire and New York over the lands included in the present State of Vermont, Rutland County played a prominent part. Governor Wentworth, of New Hampshire,
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was the first official to issue grants within the county. In spite of the fact that these lands were actually settled by New Englanders, Lieutenant-Governor Colden, of New York, several years afterwards issued new charters to the same territory. The New York grants were called military patents and were supposed to be given as a reward for military service, but they were really made for the benefit of State officials and greedy land speculators. Without becoming involved in the merits of the land dispute again, we can understand the feelings of the settlers when New York surveyors began to appear on their farms, and when attempts were made to eject them from their property. The New Hampshire claimants accused the New York partisans of "cuddling with the land-jobbers of New York to prevent claimants of the New Hampshire rights from holding the lands which they claimed, and with .. . endeavoring to seduce and inveigle the people to be subject to the laws and government of the colony of New York." On the other hand the point of view of the New Yorkers can be understood by a partisan narrative that the Vermonters "con- ducted themselves in a course, boisterous, and blustering manner, using very violent as well as profane language, threatening destruction and death to those who should fail to acknowledge the New Hamp- shire title and become its advocates." During the Revolution, by vir- tue of its geographical position, Rutland County played an important part, and within its borders was fought the only battle occurring within the entire State of Vermont-the fierce engagement at Hub- bardton. As in the other counties, Burgoyne's invasion created havoc with patriot families and their possessions. At the time of the War of 1812, the residents of Rutland County were extremely bitter, with families and friendships rent asunder as the war and peace factions threateningly faced each other. This division existed among the leaders and among the masses. For a time it looked like civil war in these Vermont communities as residents refused social intercourse and the hospitality of their homes to neighbors and relatives of the opposite persuasion. Finally, however, when invasion loomed out of the north, the people of Rutland County were quite united in expelling the British from American soil.
Proceeding with our custom of presenting townships in alpha- betical order, we first turn to Benson in the northwestern corner of Rutland County, bordering on Lake Champlain. Its charter was
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issued by the Vermont government in 1779, but it was dated 1780. It was named in honor of Egbert Benson, a New York lawyer, who encouraged settlers to locate under a Vermont charter, and who inti- mated his desire to have a township bear his name. The early pro- prietors were from Williamstown, Massachusetts, and they held their first meeting in 1779. The first actual settlement was made by Wal- ter Durfee, a native of Massachusetts, who moved into the township from Poultney during the Revolution. The first town meeting was held in 1786. Before the building of mills, the settlers were forced to carry their grain through the wilderness to Poultney to get it
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ground. Rufus W. Griswold, the great editor and critic, was born in this town in 1815. Its population in 1930 was 636.
The town of Brandon is located in the extreme northern section of Rutland County, next to the Addison line. It was chartered by Wentworth in 1761, the Governor of New Hampshire not forget- ting to make a reservation of five hundred acres for himself. The first settlement did not take place until 1772, while the first organiza- tion of the town did not occur until 1784. For the first twenty-three years of its existence the township was known as Neshobe in honor of a section of Littleton, Massachusetts, which was inhabited by the Neshobe Indians. Why it was later changed to Brandon is not defi-
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35I
RUTLAND COUNTY
nitely known. According to some authorities, it is a corruption of "Burnet town"; according to others, it is a corruption of "Burnt Town," from the fact that it was burned by Indians during the Revo- lution; in the third place it may have been named for the Earl of Brandon. The records of the early town meetings held in Brandon are unusually interesting. On one occasion it was "voted that hoggs shall run at large the present fall provided that they have a good ring in their noses," while immediately following this is a resolution which named a committee to pick the most suitable place for the erection of a church. On another occasion it was solemnly voted that the select- men should oppose the action of a certain male resident in getting a divorce from his wife. In 1800, a resolution provided that a speci- fied pauper should be sold at public auction to the lowest bidder for his support for one year, the money to be paid by the town. The sale was apparently made in quarterly installments because it is recorded that the low bid for the first quarter of the year was eight dollars, as compared with seven dollars and sixty-six cents for the fourth quarter. Inoculation for smallpox was another subject deemed worthy of legislative action. At one meeting it was decided that "no person in Brandon shall after this time enoculate for the small pox during the present spring," while at a later meeting it was voted that "all who would choose to have the small pox in Brandon by enoculation the present fall are permitted the same, provided they will submit to such restrictions as are [prescribed] by the selectmen." At a third meeting it was voted that the selectmen should be added to a certain committee which had been appointed to regulate small- pox by inoculation, that only one physician should be allowed to per- form the inoculation, and finally that no one was to be inoculated after April first. Why April Fool's Day was selected as the closing date we do not know.
The most important industry which was carried on within the boundaries of Brandon was the making of iron. Foundries and forges began operation soon after the town was organized. In 1820, John Conant built the first blast furnace in town and began the manufac- ture of the famous Conant stoves, the first to be made in Vermont. By that date the population was 1,495, and by 1840 it had increased to 2, 194, which was seventy-five per cent. of its population (2,891) of today. It was primarily with Troy and Boston that the early settlers traded, as many as thirteen days being consumed with carrying produce
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to the latter place and returning. To send a stove to Maine, the route was by way of Lake Champlain, the canal, the Hudson River, an ocean voyage, a trip up a Maine river, and finally to its destination. Once again we find a great American who was born in Vermont and achieved fame elsewhere. This time it is Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Demo- cratic candidate for the presidency against Abraham Lincoln in 1860. He was born in Brandon in 1813, the son of a town physician.
Historic Castleton is located northwest of the center of Rutland County, bordered by Ira, Hubbardton, Fair Haven and Poultney. Within the township are rocky hills, fertile ridges, sandy plains, slate deposits, Castleton River, and beautiful Lake Bomoseen, or at least most of it. This body of water is eight miles long, and is the largest to be found entirely within the limits of Vermont. Castleton was chartered by Wentworth in 1761, its name probably being derived from an English locality. The township was organized in 1777. The first settler was a Colonel Amos Bird, in whose honor Bird Mountain was named. He built a sawmill in 1772, but its first boards were sawed to build his coffin.
Castleton was the rallying point of the Green Mountain Boys before their capture of Ticonderoga in 1775. The mission of sum- moning the men from their farms was left to a blacksmith named Major Gershom Beach, who performed his task well. Traveling on foot, he made a circuit of sixty miles in twenty-four hours, passing through Rutland, Pittsford, Brandon, Middlebury, Whiting and Shoreham. The ride of Paul Revere was a holiday excursion com- pared with his journey and he never received the praise that was his due. Mrs. Julia C. R. Dorr has written :
He threaded the valleys, he climbed the hills, He forded the rivers, he leaped the rills.
While still to his call, like minute-men Booted and spurred, from mount and glen, The settlers rallied. But on he went Like an arrow shot from a bow, unspent, Down the long vale of the Otter to where The might of the waterfall thundered in air ; Then across to the lake, six leagues and more, Where Hand's Cove lay in the bending shore, The goal was reached. He dropped to the ground In a deep ravine, without word or sound And sleep the restorer, bade him rest Like a weary child, on the earth's brown breast.
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Zadock Remington's tavern in Castleton constituted the head- quarters of the Vermont leaders. From here Herrick was sent to capture Skenesborough and obtain the necessary boats. It was in this town also that Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen, the two leaders in the capture of Ticonderoga, staged their bitter midnight quarrel over their respective rights to the command. At the time of the Burgoyne campaign in 1777, Castleton found itself very much involved in the war. When St. Clair evacuated Ticonderoga his army fled in this direction, and at the end of that hot day of July sixth the bulk of the Americans had reached Castleton, thirty miles away. On the next day the mutinous soldiers continued their retreat. Soon the town became the headquarters of Riedesel and his German troops. These were sent here by Burgoyne to puzzle the Americans as to his next move by creating the impression that he might invade New England instead of marching down the Hudson. In 1779, Fort Warren was built here by the American settlers for the purpose of protecting the northern frontier. It was the westernmost of four such forts, all of them being garrisoned by Vermont militia, and it received its name from Colonel Gideon Warren, of Tinmouth.
The early growth of Castleton was rapid. Within six years thirty log houses and six or eight frame houses were built. As early as 1786 plans were made for the establishment of a grammar school which had the distinction of being the third of its grade to be started in the State. After it began its operations in 1787 it gradually devel- oped into the State Normal School of the present day. Castleton was also the site of the first medical college in Vermont, which was formed in 1818. At one time the town was the headquarters of nearly all the stage business in the southwestern part of Vermont, being the junction of lines from New York to Montreal and from Boston to Saratoga and Buffalo. The slate interests will be discussed in detail elsewhere. It reported a population of 1,794 in 1930.
Chittenden is an extremely mountainous township in the north- eastern section of Rutland County, east of Brandon and bordered on the north by Addison County. It was named in honor of Vermont's great Governor, Thomas Chittenden, who made the grant in 1780. Among the grantees was our old friend, Gershom Beach. Although town government was not organized until 1789, Chittenden had a populaiton of 159 in 1790 and 327 in 1800. A furnace was erected as
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early as 1792, while by 1839 there was a forge that was capable of producing five hundred pounds of bar iron in a day. In 1880 a company with $2,500,000 capital was organized to manufacture iron from the ore found in Chittenden. Its population was 341 in 1930.
In the south central part of the county, bounded on the north by Rutland, is the township of Clarendon. Although there are many mountains, hills and valleys, it is almost purely an agricultural dis- trict. Its early development was extremely rapid and in 1810 it had a population of 1,797. In the period prior to 1820 it played a very important part in the development of Rutland County and the State as well, one of its citizens being president of the Council of Censors, three being Speakers of the House of Representatives, two being judges of the Supreme Court, one being a sheriff of the county, two being judges of probate, while three were county judges eighteen years. This was the golden age of Clarendon history. Since that time, there has been a more or less steady decline and today the town is less than one-half (883) its former population. Before the Civil War, Claren- don Springs was a famous and fashionable watering place, patronized primarily by wealthy Southerners. When the men of Clarendon marched away at Lincoln's call they little realized that they were help- ing to seal the doom of this resort community; but the death of the Southern cause largely led to the decline of the watering place. A still more outworn community is nearby Chippenhook.
The township of Clarendon was originally called Durham by the New York settlers whose claims were based on the famous Lydius grant of 1732. Lydius issued a tract of land, part of it being in Clarendon, in 1761, which was the exact year in which Wentworth chartered the township to some New Englanders. Naturally there was bound to be considerable confusion under these circumstances. One of the New York justices wrote that "the people go armed and say they will not be brought to justice by this province. . . One Ethan Allen hath brought twelve or fifteen of the most blackguard fellows he can get double armed to protect him." This justice, whose name was Benjamin Spencer, was later to feel the full wrath of the Green Mountain Boys. In the fall of 1773 he was seized by the Ver- monters and placed on trial. Ethan Allen, Remember Baker, Seth Warner and their men, who now numbered one hundred and thirty, were in complete charge of the proceedings conducted in the open air
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on the banks of the Otter. Needless to say, Spencer was found guilty. At first it was decided to burn his house, but when the prisoner pro- tested that all his property would be destroyed by such action and that his wife and children would be the main sufferers, they reconsidered and decided to merely take off the roof instead. Furthermore, if he should recognize the title of New Hampshire and purchase a right under that charter, he might put the roof back on again. Spencer agreed with these easier terms and the Green Mountain Boys pro- ceeded to take off the roof "with great shouting and much noise and tumult." This is but one example of many such incidents occurring within the confines of Clarendon Township.
In an 1805 election, two candidates repeatedly received an equal number of votes. At length one of them named Dyer said to the other named Harrington: "Squire, it don't look well for you and I to be voting for ourselves; suppose you vote for me and I vote for you at the next ballot ?" Harrington agreed to the proposition and voted for Dyer, but when the votes were counted it was found that Dyer had two majority and was elected. When Harrington's friends accused Dyer of voting for himself again, he replied: "Damn a man who won't try to help himself when his friends are all trying to help him." The next year Harrington was elected.
In the town of Clarendon was the home of an early judge, The- ophilus Herrington. On one occasion application was made to him for a warrant for the extradition of a Negro who was claimed as a slave. Regardless of the facts presented by the claimant, the judge refused to recognize the validity of the claim. This astonished the claimant, who felt that the matter had been settled beyond any pos- sible doubt. He finally asked the judge what was lacking to make the title perfect and the astonishing answer was: "A bill of sale, sir, from God Almighty." Although it is difficult to understand the legal basis for such an opinion, Herrington won widespread fame for his refusal to surrender the fugitive.
Danby is in the southern part of Rutland County next to the Bennington line and between Pawlet and Mount Tabor. It is a town of mountains and lovely valleys. In the day when lumbering was the chief industry, Danby was of particular importance, and it was from the forests that covered the township that Silas Griffith, the State's first millionaire, made his fortune. This town is also in Vermont's
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famed marble district. Its charter was granted in 1761 by Went- worth to residents of Crum Elbow section of Dutchess County, New York. The first settlement was made in 1765. By 1790 the popula- tion reached 1,206, many of whom were Quakers; while in 1810 the town attained its maximum strength of 1,730 residents as compared with 1,070 in 1930. The attitude of Danby toward the War of 1812 is indicated by the fact that of the twenty-two who took an active part, thirteen were drafted, whereas during the Revolution forty-seven citi- zens offered their services. In the early days, Danby had no difficulty solving the problem of dealing with those in its population who consti- tuted a drain on the taxpayers' money. These were simply warned to leave town within a specified time. Nor were these warnings mere threats, because we find that in the eight years following 1778 twenty- one families were warned out of Danby. Although there was not much in common between this practice and the Golden Rule, neverthe- less it was effective in ridding the township of its unfortunates. It should be remembered that the era of early settlement was a harsh age for all, and the primary consideration was survival of the indi- vidual in spite of a deep social consciousness. One episode from the early history of Danby vividly illustrates the hardships of pioneer days. There was at first no gristmill in town and the settlers were forced either to pound the corn themselves in bowls or hollowed tree stumps, or travel to Manchester fourteen miles away to get their grain ground. On one occasion, a settler named Joseph Soper went to one of the mills, and on his return to Danby stopped at the house of his brother in Dorset. It was dark and fearfully cold, while a fierce wind raged and heavy snow whirled against the frontier home. In spite of the wrath of the elements, Soper persisted in continuing his way across the menacing mountains to Danby without delay. On the following morning, his brother's family decided it was best to follow him in case he might need help. They eventually found him, less than a mile from his home, reclining rigidly against a tree and frozen to death. He had succeeded in bringing food to his hun- gry family, but for himself there was left only a rude burial in a hollow log.
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