USA > Vermont > Chittenden County > Jericho > The history of Jericho, Vermont > Part 6
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Riverside, and that part of Jericho known as Underhill Flats deserves notice. Arthur Bostwick, as early as 1825, built the hotel that was widely known as the Bostwick House, and was kept by him and later by his son-in-law Rufus Brown. It was a popular place for travelers and teamsters transporting freight from Burlington towards the northeastern part of the state be- fore the days of railroads. Guests were there welcomed and hospitably entertained. Later it was kept by L. M. Dixon and greatly enlarged by him and known as Dixon's Hotel. It was beautifully located. It was kept for many years for the accom- modation of summer guests. Soon after Dixon's death in 1886,
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it was destroyed by fire in 1890 and not rebuilt. A steam saw mill for the manufacture of lumber, was built at Riverside about the year 1876, by Gilbert and Robinson, but it and another that took its place were destroyed by fire. The last was burned in 1912, but has been rebuilt by H. H. Howard. The rebuilding of the mills shows the commendable enterprise and purpose to keep the business running.
In 1906, the Methodist Church, which was built in 1850, Dr. W. S. Nay's drug store and a nearby dwelling house were burned, but they have been rebuilt. These calamities,-dis- astrous fires,-show, that misfortunes do not all fall in one lo- cality or on any one person. In the year 1887 there was built at that village in Jericho, by Homer Thompson, a mill for grinding grain and it is still run for that purpose, but it has changed owners several times. There are two church buildings at that village in Jericho,-a Methodist and an Episcopal Church. At the Center there have been two church buildings, the Congrega- tional and Universalist. The Congregational Church has had a prosperous life from the start. The Universalist Society for many years maintained preaching and had a prosperous society, but they have not held meetings in their church building for sev- eral years and their building, erected in 1848, has been sold and used for other purposes. On the 21st day of April, 1817, a branch of the Baptist Church in Essex was set off and organized as a church in Jericho. Meetings were held one-half of the time at the Corners and the other half at the Center, or at the south part of the town. After the Academy building was built at the Center in 1825, the Baptists held meetings in the lower story of that building for some time. In 1843, thirty-nine persons were set off and organized into a church called the Second Baptist Church of Jericho, later known as West Bolton Church. The Baptist Church of Jericho that was organized in 1817 had no church edi- fice till 1825 or 1826. The Free Will Baptists had an organiza- tion in town the fore part of the nineteenth century, but they had no church edifice, but the spiritual interests of the people were looked after for many years by Rev. Edward Fay.
The brick church building standing on the church common at Jericho village has a prominent place in the history of the town. It was built in the years 1825 and 1826 by the Congregational and
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Baptist Societies on land given for that purpose by Dr. George Howe, and from that time it was occupied by each of those so- cieties on alternate Sabbaths till 1858, and no other permanent place for public worship existed in that part of the town till 1858, when the Baptist and Methodist Societies each erected a building for themselves. Soon after this the brick church build- ing became very much out of repair, and the Congregational So- ciety in 1876 and 1877 made extensive repairs on it at the ex- pense of over $3,000, and have held and sustained religious services therein ever since that time, and the church is in a pros- perous condition.
There are two well cared for cemeteries in town, one at the Center and the other at Jericho Village and they have been the place for the people to bury their dead for nearly seventy-five years. The people in both sections of the town have taken com- mendable interest in keeping the cemeteries in a suitable con- dition, and in providing funds to keep them so in future.
In 1874 the town bonded in the sum of $23,000 to aid in building the Burlington and Lamoille railroad extending from Burlington to Cambridge Junction, which was paid, and the town is free from debt.
Several of the residents of the town have been honored by the voters of the county. John Lyman, in 1852, David Fish in 1858, Andrew Warner in 1862, and E. H. Lane in 1878, were elected and served as assistant judges of county court. And Jamin Hamilton in 1848, E. H. Lane in 1867, C. M. Spaulding in 1876, Buel H. Day in 1884, E. C. Fay in 1894, and John E. Smith in 1910 were elected and served as county state senators. Mathew Cole was not only the fourth Representative of the town in the Vermont Legislature, but he was Probate Judge for Chittenden County for the years 1795 and 1796. Martin Chit- tenden was not only the first representative of the town in the legislature after the state was admitted into the Union in 1791, but on Dec. 7, 1790, he was chosen a member for the state con- vention to be held at Bennington on the first Thursday of January, 1791, to take into consideration and adopt the Federal Constitu- tion of the United States. He also was Governor of the state from 1813 to 1815, and Judge of the Probate Court for the County of Chittenden from 1821 to 1823. During the war with
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Great Britain from 1812 to 1815 he was severely criticized for not giving his permission, as governor, for the Vermont militia, as a body, to leave the state to join the land forces at Plattsburg in op- posing the British army there. The criticism was unjust as Ver- mont was exposed to British invasion as well as New York. Noah Chittenden not only represented the town in the Assembly, but was Judge of Probate for the county in the years of 1811 and 1812. Noah Chittenden was also a member of the Vermont Council from 1801 to 1812 and Sheriff of Addison County in 1785 when that county extended to Canada line, and Sheriff of Chittenden County after that county was created from 1787 to 1790, also side judge of Chittenden County from 1804 to 1811- the next oldest son of Gov. Thos. Chittenden. Asahel Peck was one of Vermont's noblest men. I have been delighted to sit at his feet and hear him discourse upon the law like as Paul was at the feet of Gamaliel. He was judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont from 1861 to August 31, 1874. He came to reside on his farm in the south part of the town about the year 1870 and while residing in Jericho he was elected governor of the state September 1, 1874, and served two years in that office. He was a wise and conservative governor.
The following named lawyers located and practiced their pro- fession in Jericho : Martin Post was the first lawyer who prac- ticed in Jericho; then Jacob Maeck, a man small in stature, but an able lawyer and, exceedingly quick at repartee. It is said of him that while trying a case his manner of handling it was annoying to the attorney opposing him. He finally said to Maeck that if he did not quit the annoyance he would pick him up and put him in his pocket. Maeck quickly replied that, "if you do, you will have more law in your pocket than in your head." Maeck after a few years of practice here removed to Burlington. David A. Smalley located and practiced his profession at Jericho for several years, and went from there to Lowell, Vt., and resided there for a few months, and then moved to Burlington. He was a leading light in the Democratic party, both in the state and nation. He not only was an able lawyer, but was appointed judge of the United States District Court for Vermont by President James Buchanan, Jan., 1857, and held that position for many years and until his death. Frederick G. Hill practiced law at Jericho village for sev-
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eral years and then moved to Burlington. He had a thorough knowledge of the law, but was rough in his language and de- meanor. While he was practicing law in this town he spent one night at Williston and came home in the gray of the morning. On his way home he thought he saw a deer in the bushes near the highway. He made use of his rifle that he carried in his car- riage and killed the animal, which turned out to be a calf that be- longed to a man near by. Hill made his peace with the owner by paying for the calf. E. R. Hard followed Mr. Hill in the practice of the law here. Mr. Hard was not only an able lawyer, but a successful practitioner ; he also moved to Burlington and afterwards became state's attorney and state Senator for the county. (I commenced the practice of the law in Jericho in 1857, and have continued the practice there ever since that time, to the present, except twelve years from 1882 to 1894, when I prac- ticed in Burlington. Six students studied and fitted for the prac- tice of law in my office. I also wrote and published a four vol- ume history of Vermont during the years of 1899, 1900 and 1902). C. S. Palmer commenced the practice of law in Jericho in 1872 and continued it to 1882, when he was appointed by President Arthur as assistant United States District Attorney for the territory of South Dakota, and afterwards was appointed United States Judge for that territory. M. H. Alexander prac- ticed here for a few years, and P. M. Page is still here, (There have been two other lawyers who have practiced in town). .
There have been many able and worthy physicians who have resided and practiced their profession in Jericho. The first the writer has any information of were Dr. Matthew Cole and Dr. Eleazer Hutchins; Dr. Hutchins settled here in 1791, and was surgeon of the regiment that was engaged in the Battle of Platts- burgh in 1814. Dr. George Howe who settled here in 1810 and practiced here 46 years; Dr. Rawson commenced his practice here in 1816; Dr. Jamin Hamilton, Dr. F. F. Hovey, W. W. B. Kidder ; Doctors B. Y. Warner, Denison Bliss, A. F. Burdick, W. S. Nay, A. B. Sommers, F. H. Cilley, E. P. Howe, George B. Hulburd, A. S. C. Hill, Lewis D. Rood, H. D. Hopkins, Jesse Thompson, I. M. Bishop, D. L. Burnett, M. O. Eddy, J. E. Thompson, George W. Belden and Horace N. Curtis practiced their profession here.
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Of those who have greatly contributed to the business pros- perity of the town as merchants, there should be named as hav- ing carried on mercantile business at Jericho Village, Frederick and Thaddeus Fletcher, John Bliss, George B. Oakes, L. B. Howe, Ferdinand Beach, O. H. Shaw, Vespasian Leach, Azariah B. Remington, George Hill, L. P. Carleton, H. A. Percival, Henry M. Field, John Percival, W. N. Pierce, Charles Suiter and E. B. Wil- liams. And at the Center the mercantile business was estab- lished about 100 years ago by Pliny Blackman and he was fol- lowed by Frederick Fletcher, Erastus Field, Henry C. Black- man, E. H. Lane, said Lane and Pierce, E. H. Lane and his son E. Frank Lane, E. B. Jordan and Henry Jordan under the firm name of Jordan Brothers, all on the west side of the Common, and James Morse, W. T. Lee, Cyrus C. Lane, John Stimson and Osman and Orin Stimson on the south side of the Common. Horace C. Nash carried on that business in a small way at Nash- ville for several years, just previous to his enlisting in the army in the War of the Rebellion. The tannery business was success- fully run at the Center village by Silas Ransom for a long term of years from about 1830 to 1870, and by David Fish at Jericho Village.
There has never been but one hotel kept at the Center Village, and it stood on the ground where George Cunningham now resides near the northwest corner of the Green, and was probably built not later than 1802, though I have been unable to ascertain the exact date. It was first kept by Moses Billings and afterwards by Edwin Hard and Charles Hilton and was destroyed by fire, and none since that time has been built in this village. For a good many years business in the grocery line, as well as many other kinds of business that go to make up flourishing vil- lages, have been carried on by many different persons at Jericho Village, Riverside and at Jericho Center.
The first newspaper published in Jericho was printed at Jericho Village in 1882, and for 16 years thereafter, by Arthur D. Bradford. It was first called the "Chittenden Reporter" and after- wards the name was changed to the "Jericho Reporter." It was started as a four page paper but enlarged to an eight page, six column paper. In 1888 L. H. Roscoe established and printed a rival paper called The Green Mountain Press. This paper also
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was published at Jericho Village for 16 years. Both of those papers after each being published here for 16 years, have been published at Essex Junction and are now published by the Essex Publishing Company.
The political elections in Jericho have been conducted from the commencement, with the usual party spirit, but without leav- ing any lasting bitter feeling. The first Representative was Jedediah Lane, chosen in 1786. From first to last there have been 56 different men chosen to represent this town in the Ver- mont Legislature. Thomas D. Rood received five elections, James A. Potter received six elections, and Martin Chittenden eight elections for that office. Here follow the names of all the Representatives to the present time with the years that each served as Representative respectively, (viz .: Jedediah Lane, 1786; James Farnsworth, 1787; Lewis Chapin, 1788; Matthew Cole, 1789; Martin Chittenden, (8) 1790 and 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1797 and 1802; Noah Chittenden, (4) 1796, 1812, 1813 and 1814; Thomas D. Rood, (5) 1798, 1799, 1805, 1816 and 1821; James A. Potter, (6) 1800, 1801, 1803, 1804, 1806 and 1808; Solomon Fay, 1807; Arthur Bostwick, 1809; Eleazer Hutchins, (2) 1810 and 1811; Herman Lowrey, 1815; William P. Richard- son, (3) 1817, 1818, 1823; Thomas Chittenden, (son of Noah), (3) 1819, 1820, 1833; Oliver Lowrey, 1822; Gideon O. Dixon, (3) 1824, 1825, and 1826; Truman Galusha, (4) 1827, 1828, 1830 and 1832; William A. Prentiss, 1829; Erastus Field, (2) 1835, and 1836; Lyman Field, 1837 and 1838; Andrew Warner, (2) 1839 and 1840; Labina Bliss, (2) 1841 and 1842; Albert Lee, (2) 1843 and 1844; David Fish, 1845 and 1846; Hiram Day, 1848 and 1849; Lucius S. Barney, 1850 and 1851; John Smith, 1853 and 1854 ; Leet A. Bishop, 1855 and 1856; Elijah B. Reed, 1857 and 1858; H. O. Gibbs, 1859; U. S. Whitcomb, 1860; E. H. Lane, 1862; L. L. Lane, 1864; L. B. Howe, 1868; Adrian S. Lee, 1870; Buel H. Day, 1872; Gordon Smith, 1874; Orlin Rood, 1876; Jesse Gloyd, 1878; C. S. Palmer, 1880; M. V. Willard, 1882; Isaac C. Stone, 1884; D. E. Rood, 1886; H. W. Packard, 1888; E. C. Fay, 1890; Lucian H. Chapin, 1892 ; Martin H. Packard, 1894 ; Frank B. Howe, 1896; E. B. Jordan, 1898; W. S. Nay, 1900; John A. Smith, 1902; George M. Willard, 1904; Chauncey
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HISTORY OF JERICHO, VERMONT.
H. Hayden, 1906; Jed T. Varney, 1908; Thomas F. Leary, 1910; Frank S. Ransom, 1912).
From the year 1860 to the present time the elections were biennial. There have been seven years, (1831, 1832, 1834, 1847, 1852, 1866 and 1869,) when no representative was chosen for the reason that no one could get a majority of the votes cast.
One of the important offices of the town is that of town clerk. This office has been filled by eleven different men. (The number of years that each held the office, though not continuous, were as follows : Lewis Chapin, the first town clerk, held the office eighteen years ; Jonathan Castle, one year ; Thomas D. Rood, five years ; Pliny Blackman, twelve years; Elias Bartlett, three years ; John Lyman, twenty-three years ; E. H. Lane, eighteen years ; W. Trumbull Lee, four years ; E. Frank Lane, four years ; and E. B. Jordan, twenty-nine years to the present time). These covered a term of 127 years.
There was much dignity shown in the social intercourse of the early settlers of Jericho, as was seen with the settlers in all Vermont. There was cordial visiting between townsmen ; every- body went to church and spent the day at it. It was Puritan and Pilgrim over again. The towns in those days were much like little republics; and the town March meeting took on the character of a sovereign body. The early settlers of Jericho took on the united traits and character of soldier, statesman and farmer. Some of them had passed through the trials and hard- ships that were brought on by the Revolutionary War; and when Great Britain sought to invade our country from the north by her army, in the War of 1812, forty-three Jericho men entered the military service or volunteered to meet the enemy at the Battle of Plattsburg. They served under Generals Macomb and Strong in the land forces. The victory won on land, and under Com- modore Macdonough on Lake Champlain was instrumental in a large degree in humbling the pride of the haughty Britains and causing them to agree to the terms of peace. General Macomb, in his report of the battle, said, "The Vermont volunteers have behaved with the coolness of regulars and their conduct has ful- filled the expectations, which the promptness and spirit with which they turned out, had raised."
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The War of the Rebellion of 1861 has tested the courage, the heroic bravery of the Jericho volunteers, as well as those in other localities, and of their willingness to endure great hard- ships and make untold sacrifices, and give life itself to put down the greatest rebellion the world has ever known. Both men and women who did not go to the front were willing to furnish the means to carry on the holy war, and furnish aid and comfort for those in the field. The town also paid large bounties beside the seven dollars per month, state pay, to induce enlistments and to support the families that the men left at home as they went to the front. But it is of those who actually participated in the conflict that I wish to speak. The town furnished 138 men for the war under the different calls of President Lincoln, 16 of whom re-enlisted, 23 died of disease or of wounds, 11 were killed in action and 12 deserted, but 3 of these 12 deserted before they were assigned to any organization. Ninety-two were mustered out or discharged for disability. One was discharged by court martial. Under the call of the President for 300,000 men in 1863 a draft was ordered and 13 men were drafted from this town, 7 of whom paid the commutation of 300 dollars each, and 6 of them furnished substitutes. Six residents of the town, who were not drafted furnished substitutes who were paid $400 each. The bounties paid for men who entered the service under the different calls of the President ran from $50 to $550. The amount expended by the town for bounties and attending ex- penses was over $30,000. There was but one of the substitutes that was killed in battle and he was Thomas Gorman, my sub- stitute, and he was wounded twice in 1864, and was killed in ac- tion at Petersburgh, Va., April 2, 1865. One man deserted and joined the Confederate Army, Dec. 13, 1864. With the few ex- ceptions mentioned the men that went into the service to quell this gigantic rebellion and to brave the dangers and suffer the hardship incident to such service, all made an honorable and enduring record. We can but faintly realize the awful scenes at a fierce battle between contending hostile forces whether it re- sulted in a battle lost or victory won; a faint glimmer may be seen by letting your mind fly away to the surgeon's operating table near the battle ground where the wounded begin to come in, one nursing a shattered arm, ambulances filled with the help-
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less, and other comrades brought in on stretchers, faster and faster they come and are laid down to await their turn at the operating table; feet and arms that never turned from a foe, without an owner, strew the ground. Some of the disabled recover to re- turn to their respective regiments, but many did not return to their regiment or their home. Those who lived to see the end of that war and were fortunate enough to return home to family and friends are entitled to our gratitude and generous treatment. While today we may look back with pride for the deeds of our townsmen, it is, also, a day for memory and tears. Those who went down to their death in that struggle, some of whom lay in unmarked graves in southern soil, we would pay them the tribute of love; their deeds and lives were material factors in preserving our nation intact and making it great and free.
"They went where duty seemed to call, They scarcely asked the reason why ; They only knew they could but die, And death was not the worst of all.
-Whittier.
The following former residents responded briefly, Joel Bart- lett of Shelburne; Rev. Carlton Hazen, of Kensington, Conn .; Mr. Arthur D. Bradford, of St. Albans. President Guy Potter Benton of the University of Vermont gave a masterly address in his especially pleasing manner which is given in full.
THE NEW LOYALTY, AN ADDRESS BY GUY POTTER BENTON.
In these troublous times it is well to have an occasional "Old Home" day. Such occasions are destructive of present day con- ceit: We are so wont to boast of modern achievements that we easily forget the days of ancient accomplishment. We are so absorbed in our campaigns for reform that we ignore the splen- did heritage that is ours from the fathers. Our debt to the pioneer can never be discharged. It is a perennial-yea, an eternal obliga- tion.
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It will be a sad day for a neighborhood, a state or a nation when the work of the forefathers ceases to be an inspiration to lofty endeavor. "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee" is as much a command and consequent promise for the com- munity as for the individual. To depend altogether upon past glory for present glory is thoroughly reprehensible. To attempt to live upon past achievements is to prove unworthy of a toil- honored ancestry. The past is secure, the fathers have made it so. Our responsibility is to the mighty present and the mightier future. We shall prove unworthy of our splendid patrimony un- less we rear a noble superstructure on the noble foundation laid by the pioneers.
The lesson then is clearly to find the golden mean between the two extremes. Let the spirit of reverential gratitude for 'our progenitors be fostered while we address ourselves with all ear- nestness to the performance of present duty. Here and now on this occasion for a few brief hours the sons and daughters of the town of Jericho are girding up the loins of their minds for re- newed strength by acknowledging the debt of gratitude they owe to the godly, patriotic fathers and mothers of Jericho.
"All thoughts that mould the Age, begin "Deep down within the primitive soul; "And from the many slowly upward win "To One who grasps the whole.
"All thought begins in Feeling-wide, "In the great mass its base is hid, "And, narrowing up to thought, stands glorified "A moveless pyramid.
"Nor is he far astray who deems "That every hope which rises and grows broad "In the world's heart, by ordered impulse streams "From the great heart of God."
-J. R. Lowell.
Unconsciously it may be, though certainly, posterity is in- fluenced in its ideals by the ideals transmitted from forebears.
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Heredity is a force to be reckoned with. You men and women of the Jericho today are what you are in conviction and purpose largely by reason of the convictions and purposes that controlled the men and women of the Jericho of yesterday and the day be- fore. A town that traces the origin of its existence back to days before the Declaration of Independence must have honorable traditions to its credit. Vermont was not in the forefront of the Revolutionary struggle as were the other colonies, but it was in the close proximity that gave it the effect of contact and enabled it to develop a heroism of a peculiar type. Though not in the thick of the battle, it did its full duty on the outskirts. Ticon- deroga and Saratoga were nearby and it provided the famous field of Bennington within its own borders. For the most part, though, Vermont was recruiting ground for the later and better civiliza- tion which was nurtured under the inspiration of the Revolu- tionary spirit caught from the distance. In times of war the people living just beyond the theatre of warfare are subjected to difficulties and hardships often more severe than those endured by the actual participants in battle. They literally endure as those who see the invisible. They know of the conflict from afar and suffer all the privations of a war-infested country with- out the privilege of sharing in defeat or helping on to victory. Theirs is the anxiety of patriots toiling in kitchen and field to provide subsistence for fighting armies while themselves waiting in expectation of possible invasion and necessary defense.
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