USA > Vermont > Rutland County > Middletown > The history of Middletown, Vermont, in three discourses, delivered before the citizens of that town, February 7 and 21, and March 30, 1867 > Part 5
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east of Perry's house, holding his rod before him in the manner indicated, his dupes following after. On the hill, a little south of east of the upper Wait house, on the Tinmouth side of the line, his rod fell or made some motion, which told him, as he said, that they had reached the spot where the precious metal was buried. The men, with Winchell, immediately prepared themselves with shovels and other implements, and under the direction of Win- chell commenced digging. They worked hard for two or three days, and becoming weary, their enthusiasm began to cool, and they began to show signs of giving out. Winchell held up his rod, got some motion from it, and told them the money was in an iron chest and covered with a large stone, and that they would soon come to it. This had the effeet to renew their energies, and soon they did come to a stone or a rock, and were at once wild with excitement. Winchell then again consulted his rod, and told his men they must wait awhile before removing the stone cr taking out the chest of money. It was now two or three o'clock in the afternoon, and this evil man, the better to accomplish his purposes, kept his dupes away from the place until nearly sun- down, when they were then provided with levers, handspikes, and bars to remove the stone. Winchell once more astonished them with the motions of his rod, and told them if they obeyed his instructions, they would, in a few moments, be in possession of large sums of money. Ile impressed it upon them, that the occa- sion was one of "awful moment," that there was a " divinity " guarding the treasure, and that if there was any lack of faith in any one of the party, or any should utter a word while removing the stone and taking out the chest, that this divinity would put the money forever beyond their reach, and besides he could not be answerable for consequences. Believing every word this vile man said to them, you can imagine. better than I can describe, the appearance and feelings of those men as they were prying and lifting away for two long houts at a stone so large that it was impossible for them to remove from its bed. The spell was broken at last. Some one of the party stepped ou the foot of another, the latter crying out in pain, " Get off' from my toes." Winchell then exclaimed with a loud voice, " The money is gone, flee for
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your lives!" Every man of the party dropped his bar or lever, and ran as though it was for life. Thus ended the digging for money at this place. Winchell managed to get what little change these men had while they were digging, probably under the expec- tation, on their part, that they all would soon have money enough.
Soon after this affair Winchell made the acquaintance of the Woods, who, according to our theory, were then ripe for just such a scheme. As an old man told me, who lived here at the time, and professed to know all about it, "They (the Woods) swallowed Winchell, rod and all." I may as well give that old man's name, it was Jabez D. Perry, who died in Middletown in the fall of 1863. Perry gave me this account of Winchell, which I have written out and now read to you, in 1862; also, more of him which I shall read as I come to it. It being then new to me, I must say that I doubted its truth; but in my researches since that time, I have found evidence, the most of it from living witnesses, to sustain Mr. Perry in every particular, except Winchell's man- agement in the digging as above given -- and I might well say that he is sustained in that, for it was all the same, or of similar char- acter in the money digging which followed, and was kept up until the next winter ; the same romance attended it, the same imposi- tion was practiced, and there was the same claim to a supernatural agency. The older portion of my audience will agree with me in this, as we heard it from our fathers and mothers, until it became familiar with us.
As I have said, Winchell made the acquaintance of the Woods ; and they then commenced using the hazel rod and digging for money, which was in the spring or early in the summer of 1800, and continued in this until late in the fall, and some have said until into the winter. Winchell was with them, but it was not generally known, he being concealed-the Woods were the osten- sible managers. They did not handle the pick and shovel very much in the digging ; that part of the work was mostly done by those who were drawn into it by the Woods. A man by the name of Pratt did a good deal of the digging; he then lived on what has since been known as the Barber farm, and either at that time or before, owned it. But the Woods superintended the work, and
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were the men who handled the rod for the most part in those operations. Jacob Wood, known as Capt. Wood, one of the sons of Nathaniel, was the leader in the use of the rod. " Priest Wood," his father, seemed to throw his whole soul into the rod delusion, but his use of the rod was mostly as a medium of revelation. It was "St. John's rod " he said, and undoubtedly was very conve- nient for him, as he was much more fruitful in his prophecies than before-but Capt. Jacob was the man to find where the money was buried, and to use the rod at their public meetings, and on other occasions, though all the Woods and their followers, had each a rod, which was used whenever they desired any information. If any one was sick, they sought the rod to know whether.they would live or die, and to know what medicine to administer to them. In all their business matters, they followed, as they said, the direction of the rod, and with it they could, as they pretended, divine the thoughts and intentions of men,
The greatest part of their digging for money was on the Barber farm, and on the Zenas Frisbie farm, then owned by Ephraim Wood, though they dug in many other places in town. On the Frisbie farm, the farm on which I was born and raised, there are seven or eight places which still bear the marks of their digging. At one place in the " notch," it has been said they dug to the depth of seventy foet, and from the appearances about the place, I should judge they might have gone to that depth. They were led to these places, or pretended to be, by the rods. Many of the old people have told me, that almost every day during that season, Capt. Wood, or some other one, could be seen with the two prongs of the rod twisted around his hands, in search for buried treasures. Whether they were digging for and expected to find coin or ore, has often been asked of me. They talked the most about money, which they said had been buried in this region, which would mean coin of course, but my opinion is, that they had become so deluded that they had no distinct idea as to whether they were in pursuit of gold and silver in coin or in its natural state, but let this be understood as an opinion. Many not familiar with the facts, have supposed, and have said to me, that they were under the impres- sion that the Woods acted upon the theory that those hazel rods
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may be attracted by metalic substances in the earth, and hence their motion or working ; but they had no such theory as that ; there was no show of reason in the affair from beginning to end, their idea was, that it was revelation, that it was made known to them through the medium of St. John's rod, and would be revealed to none others but God's chosen people. Nathaniel Wood's Jewish theory, (if I may so call it,) ran through the whole thing from first to last.
Many ludicrous stories which might be amusing to some, could be given, as related by the Woods and others, while they were digging. They dug some time in a cellar on the Barber farm ; there they came to a stone, and under it was the chest of money as they said. They run their bars down, and they would strike the chest ; then they would dig awhile-run down their bars again, and it would not be there. This would be repeated-some- times the chest would be there, and then it would not. Once they raised it up and were on the point of taking it out, when their eforts became powerless, the chest would come no further. They then laid a Bible upon it, and went after some one to come and pray over it, but when they returned, the Bible and chest of money were both gone. This result they said was owing to the wickedness or want of faith of some one or more of the party. But this is enough of that kind in connection with Winchell's performances at the first digging for my purpose or yours. There is a good deal more of the same, but it is needless to spend any more time with it.
The rods-men, (such they were called,) became so infatuated as to give up nearly their whole time to this scheme. All the believers became wild fanatics. Besides those in Middletown in this movement, there were several families in the south-east part of Poultney, now known as the Giddings neighborhood ; also several families in the north-east part of Wells, in the vicinity of the Giddings neighborhood. These were also digging for money, and were known as belonging to the rod-men.
Some facts may be given to show the delusion of those persons in this movoment. Two young ladies in Middletown, whose fami- lies belonged to the rods-men, ladies who had hitherto sustained a
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good moral character, had it revealed to them by the rods (as they thought,) that the devil was in their clothing, and by direc- tion of the rod, their clothing was taken off, and they, in a winter night, went across the mountain into that part of Poultney above named.
In this same neighborhood in Poultney, a young lady by the name of Ann Bishop, mysteriously disappeared ; no one could give any clue to her whereabouts. The Woods were sent for, and came. It became known, and large numbers had collected, it being on the sabbath day, from Poultney, Middletown and Wells, The roll was brought into requisition, and pointed to a certain place in Wells pond, which runs up into the south part of Poultney. The conclusion was that the lady was drowned in that place, and the next thing done was a preparation to get the body. Ropes, chains and hooks were procured, and logs were drawn up, a horse- blanket and some other matter, but no human body. She was drowned there, the rods-men said, they were sure of that. She afterwards made her appearance.
The Woods at one time had it revealed to them, that they must build a temple. They got out the timber for the frame, got it raised up to the rafters, when they had another revelation that that work must be discontinued, and nothing more was done on the temple. From the time the Woods began to use the rod and dig for money, which we have seen was in the spring or early summer of 1800, they and their followers were every day becom- ing more heated in their zeal, and by the December following, it became evident that a crisis would soon be reached. " Priest Wood " was becoming so loud and vehement and so frenzied in his favorite theme of God's judgments upon the wicked Gentiles, that it was not difficult to perceive that a paroxysm and collapse were near at hand. It was revealed to them, as they said, that on a certain night there would be an earthquake-that immediately prior to the earthquake the " destroyer " would pass through the land and slay a portion of the unbelievers, and the earthquake would complete the destruction of them and their worldly posses- sony. The day on which they predicted that this would occur, was the 11th day of January, A. D. 1801. This I have deter-
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mined from a letter which I have received from an old gentleman who was present on the occasion, and which will be read to you.
When the day arrived for the earthquake, the Woods and their friends all collected at the house of Nathaniel Wood, Jr., who then lived on what has been known as the Micah Vail farm, which is now owned and occupied by Crockee Clift, and as they left their own houses, prepared them for the earthquake by putting their crockery on the floors, and wrote on each of their door-posts : "Jesus our passover was sacrificed for us." The rods-men, or those who handled the rods, among whom Capt. Wood was chief, were at Nathaniel Jr.'s house early in the day. One of their duties on this occasion was to determine who were and who were not to be saved from the approaching destruction or " plague," as they called it, and to admit such into the house, and those only, who were to be spared. The occasion was with them the Passover, and how they kept it will pretty fully appear from the letter above alluded to.
Up to the evening of this day, the people of the town had looked unconcerned upon this folly of the Woods, but now they became suddenly aroused, and many were very much alarmed. They feared some evil might befall some of the inhabitants during the night. They (the Gentiles,) had no belief in the Wood's predic- tions, but feared that they or some of their followers would them- selves turn " destroying angels " and kill some of the inhabitants, or get up an artificial earthquake by the use of powder, which would result in injury to persons or property. Capt. Joel Miner was commander-in-chief of the militia in town, and hastily collected his company. Capt. Miner was a very energetic, as well as a very earnest man, and I should judge from all accounts, was at this time very much alarmed for the safety of the inhabitants. General Jonas Clark was at the time one of his subordinate officers, and was teaching a singing school which had assembled at the house of Mr. Filmore. Capt. Miner came in much excited, reprimanded him for his indifference in the matter, and ordered him to duty. He left his singing school at once, and took his place in the militia. The General was not in the habit of neglecting his duty, but he was a philosopher, and it is probable that he " didn't think there
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would be much of a shower." Capt. Miner stationed his company as sentinels and patrols in different parts of the town, with direc- tions to allow no person to pass them unless a satisfactory account of themselves could be given, and especially to have an eye out for the " destroying angels." The town had a quantity of powder, balls and flints, as the law then required ; these were kept in the Congregational meeting house in a sort of cupboard under the pulpit. From this the militia were supplied with the requisite ammunition, and Jonathan Morgan was left here to guard the military stores. There was no sleep that night among the inhab- itants ; fear, consternation, great excitement and martial law pre- vaile throughout the night --- but the morning came without any earthquake, or any injury done to any of the inhabitants or their property, except Jacob Wood's crockery was broken up in his house, where he left it on the floor. A journeyman hatter in the employ of Dyar Leffingwell said he thought " the earthquake hadn't ought to go for nothing," and went into the house, (it was where Lucius Copeland, Esq., now lives,) in Capt. Wood's absence to attend the Passover, and broke up and destroyed his crockery. That was the extent of the mischief so far as the destruction of property was concerned, and no individual received any bodily harm. The militia were dismissed in the morning and went to their homes.
I shall now introduce the letter to which I have alluded. It is from Rev. Laban Clark, D. D., a man over ninety years old, as I am informed, who resides in Middletown, Connecticut, and is still in a good degree in the enjoyment of his faculties. Mr. Clark was with the Woods on the eventful night.
" In the year 1801, I traveled in the north part of Vermont, and in Lower Canada. I met at that time a man who told won- derful stories of finding St. John's rod, and the strange things it accomplished. November 1st, 1801, I went to Brandon circuit, which then included all of Rutland County. I heard on arriving there, much talk of the rod-men. People were saying that certain persons were directed by rods to certain plants and roots that they used to cure discases, in many cases which they thought almost miraculous. In December I went to Poultney for my first
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appointment there ; and was informed that two young women had been following the rods in a severe cold and dark night over places where men could scarcely go by day-light. I went thence to Middletown, where I preached in the house of Mr. Donc, the only Methodist family in the place. After the close of the services the people began to inquire of Mr. D. about the " girls tramp ;" and I learned that his daughter was one of the young women above mentioned. When I could see Mr. D. alone, I conversed with him upon the subject. He told me that many people in America were, unknown to themselves, Jews, and these divining rods would designate who they were. I asked him to let me see one of the rods. After some hesitation. he did so. I asked him to learn by it whether I were a Jew. The rod immediately pointed towards me. I said then, "If that is truc, please tell me to what tribe I belong ?" He tried several different tribes, but there was no motion of the rod. I then said, " I think I belong to the tribe of Joseph." At once the rod pointed towards me ; thus proving to my satisfaction that it was moved by the imagina- tion of the person who held it. I felt anxious for the result of all this, but said little.
" At my next appointment in Poultney, Bro. Done met me there. He looked so very dejected I feared he had come for me - to attend some funeral service for a friend. I asked for his family, and for the cause of his sorrow. "O," said he, " the judgments of God are abroad." Ile then said they had determined to spend the next day as a day of fasting and prayer, and he desired me to go an'l be with them. Accordingly, accompanied by Mr. Yates
and Esquire Wells, I went. When we arrived old Priest Wood was lecturing, on the words, " Thy judgments are made manifest,"' Rev. 15:4. When he closed I announced my appointment to preach at Mr. Done's that evening. I was asked to change the place to the one we were now in, as seats were there all ready. I consented. I went to Mr. D.'s to tea and found a great deal of secret mando wering going on. To give them all free lom I went to the barn for a time. On my return, I found posted on the door, " Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us." 1 said nothing, but went to my meeting. After preaching, several persons com-
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menced holding up rods, and running from one end of the room to the other. I prepared to leave, when Bro. D. came to me much agitated, and expressed sorrow that I could not stay at his house that night. " Where will I go ?" I said. He replied, " O, you will fare as well as the rest of us." So I sat down. We were soon ordered to go to the house fixed up for the occasion-a school room where they had made a large fire. They all came in much agitated, many weeping. I found they were expecting there was to be an earthquake. I conversed with several respecting those that had the rods. They professed to have been converted, but all the evidence I could gain of the fact was that the rods would work in their hands. We sat there till morning light. As morn- ing dawned they went out and looking upward, kept working the rods. At last the old minister said : "O, I told them I thought it would not be until to-morrow night." Soon after light I went to Bro. Done's and asked to take a nap. On passing through the parlor I found all the crockery setting in the middle of the floor. After sleeping, I was taking my breakfast, when two men came in and said they had found out the whole mistake. They had thought because the rods had directed them to have all their goods packed up, that there was to be an earthquake. But this was the 14th day of the first month, (it was the 14th of Jan.,) and on the 14th day of the first month the children of Israel were directed to keep the Passover with shoes and hats on. So they were directed now to keep that day until they were prepared to go into the New Jerusalem. I made no remark, but concluded they had now something to work on to deceive the people.
" After eight weeks I had another appointment to preach in the same plaec. When I inquired of Bro. Done respecting the rods. He seemed perfectly honest and sincere, but all in earnest and perfectly duped. He told me the rods were able invisibly to remove gold and silver. He said they had found that there was a vast quantity of it in the earth, and the rods could collect it to one place. They were now doing the work and expected to get enough to pave the streets of the New Jerusalem. I asked if the gold came in its native state or in currency. He said in both. I then asked him if they had any person who understood refining
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gold ? He said they had one who understood it perfectly well. " Where is he," I said. "He keeps himself secreted in the woods," he replied. I asked his name, and he told me it was Wingate. I remembered at once; it was the name of a man who was detected about two years before in Bradford, Vt., in milling counterfeit dollars. My father having been selectman of the town at the time, I had known the case well. After some reflection, I said to Bro. Done " I fear there is counterfeiting going on, and if you are not careful I fear you will be drawn into it and your reputation and your family ruined." He was alarmed. I said " I think I can tell you how to escape. If my fears are correct, they will call on yon for sums of money, and will want it in specie." He replied they had already done so. I advised him then to put away his rod and quit them, or he was a ruined man. Four weeks after that, when I returned, he told me he had not seen his rod since I left. I asked him to burn it. He replied his wife knew where it was, and left the room. She brought it and I burned it.
" I ascertained afterwards that the eldest son of Priest Wood, called Capt. Wood, was the principal religious mover in sight while Wingate kept concealed. Wood was Wingate's outside agent, and got up the religious excitement to aid the scheme. "
The foregoing was penned by a friend for Mr. Clark, as will appear from the following, which accompanied the same in Mr. Clark's own hand.
" MIDDLETOWN, Conn., Jan'y 30, 1807.
" DEAR SIR :- My hand is so paralized that it is difficult for me to write. I do not find the manuscript of the notice published, but have related some of the facts by the hand of a friend. I never resided in the town of Middletown in Vermont, but traveling on a circuit preached there once a month for about six months. I had no acquaintance with the Woods other than holding the Pass- over with them the 14th of January, 1801. By what I learned of them, I have no doubt that their movement gave origin to the Mormons, the vilest schme of villainy and corruption that has ever cursed the country.
Yours, respectfully, LABAN CLARK."
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Mr. Clark says, "I ascertained afterwards that the eldest son of Priest Wood, called Capt. Wood, was the princial religions mover in sight, while Wingate kept concealed. Wood was Win- gate's outside agent, and got up the religious excitement to aid the scheme." This Wingate and Winchell the name given me by Perry and others, are beyond question, one and the same person. What we get from Mr. Clark's letter, so far as it goes, of Wingate is the same I obtained from Perry of Winchell in 1862 -- that is, that he was detected in counterfeiting, in Bradford, Vt., came here and was with the Woods in their movement, and kept himself con- cealed in the time. Perry told me that he changed his name after he came, to avoid discovery by the officers of justice. Whether he did or not, I cannot be positive, but it is established beyond controversy, that a man came, first to Wells, then to Middletown, introduced the hazel rod, and afterwards acted a part with the Woods which we have indicated; and that Winchell, as given me by Perry, and Wingate the name in Mr Clark's letter, both mean that man.
Now was this wild and mysterious affair a movement to cover up a counterfeiting scheme ? Such has been the opinion of nearly all with whom I have conversed on that subject. The old folks who were here 'at the time, were very decidedly of that opinion. I never got the name of Winchell (so I shall continue to call him,) from any one until I got it from Perry, but many of them have said to me that the Woods had a man with them who understood counterfeiting, and they had no doubt about his being engaged with them in that business. I never have got hold of any evi- dence of counterfeiting in that affair, other than the facts I am giving you, except this : a large oven was afterwards discovered in an out of the way place, on the premises of one of the Wdo:ls, which bore marks of use for other purposes than baking bread. But it is quite probable, in my opinion, that counterfeiting was going on -- that was Winchell's trade ; he was an old hand at the business --- it was money that he was after, that was his end and aim in this affair. Was that the purpose of the Woods ? Upon this question I find myself to differ from almost all others, includ- ing those who were here at the time, and doubtless more compe-
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