USA > Vermont > Orleans County > The history of Orleans county, Vermont. Civil, ecclesiastical, biographical and military > Part 20
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It was by Fitch's agency that the settlement of the town was effected. He offered land at moderate prices to actual settlers, promising gifts of land to some, (which promises, how- ever, were fulfilled in few, if any, instances,) and encouraged emigration as much as possi- ble. Two dollars an acre was the current price of land, with a liberal credit, and cash was seldom required. Most of the early pur- chasers made their payments in "good clean wheat" or "merchantable neat cattle, (bulls and stags excepted,) not exceeding eight years old." In many of the conveyances he re- served to himself "two thirds of the iron ore being and growing on the land," a reservation which never proved of any value. Notwith- standing the pains he took to purchase all out- standing claims, the titles to some of the lands afterwards proved defective, and subjected his grantees to serious loss.
SETTLEMENT.
In September, 1799, Samuel Cobb and his son Tisdale visited the township with a view to settlement, decided to settle there, put up a log-house, and returned for their families .-. In March, 1800, the first settlement of Cov-' ! entry took place. The pioneer settlers were Samuel Cobb and Tisdale Cobb, father and son : Samuel accompanied by his children, Samuel, Jr., Nathaniel and Silence ; and Tis- dale by his wife. They came from Westmore- land, N. H., March 15th, traveling on horse-
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back as far as Brownington, which being the end of the road, they left their horses there and made their way on foot through the dense woods, marking the trees as they went, till they reached the east part of Coventry, March 27th. Samuel Cobb pitched on lot No. 11, now occupied by Stillman Church, and built a log-cabin directly opposite the present site of Mr. Church's house. Tisdale Cobb pitched on lot No. 12, now occupied by Jesse Miller, and built a cabin just east of the present grave-yard. Samuel Cobb, Jr., made an open- ing on lot 6, now owned by James K. Blake, but, being disappointed in some of Fitch's promises, he did not locate permanently. The cabins of these first settlers were exceedingly rude in appearance ; built of spruce logs hewn only on the inside, and pointed with mud and moss, roofed with bark, having one door and one or two small windows, and inclosing only a single room, which was made to answer all the purposes of kitchen, dining-room, bed- room and parlor. Boards were not to be pro- cured nearer than Barton, where Gen. Wm. Barton, the founder of that town, had, in 1796, built a saw-mill. From that mill, boards sufficient to floor the cabins were drawn a distance of 10 miles through the pathless woods. In the following June, Sam- uel Cobb's wife (Silence Barney, born Feb. 21, 1756,) and his younger children, who had re- mained in Westmoreland while preparations were making for their reception, joined the husband and father in the wilderness, and the first settlement of Coventry was made com- plete. Tisdale Cobb's family consisted only of himself and wife, (Sarah Pierce,) and Sam- uel's of himself, his wife, 3 sons and 4 daugh ters .* Until the arrival of Mrs. Cobb, the first comers had no baking apparatus what- ever, and were obliged to go to Mr. Newhall's in Brownington, about a mile, to do all their baking. Silence Cobb was usually the mes- senger on these errands, and had as her con- stant companion through the lonely woods, a large black dog, which, being a very docile animal, she taught to do pack-horse duty, in carrying to and fro on his back the bags of meal or of bread.
* The sous were Samuel, Jr., Hanover and Nathaniel ; the daughters were Silence, Lattice C., Arabella and Sabrina. After the lapse of 69 years, four of the eleven persons constituting these two pioneer families still survive; only one of whom, however, Mrs. Isaac Par- ker, (Arabella Cobb,) lives in Coventry.
All the first settlers, male and female, were of more than usual physical ability; and, be- ing of athletic frames and rugged constitutions, were admirably qualified to endure the liard- ships of a settlement in the wilderness. Hard- ships they had to endure, and those neither few nor small. It was no light task to conquer the primeval forest, nor was it easy even to pro- cure needful food for themselves and their animals while the work of clearing was going on.
There were no roads, no neighbors within 2 miles, no grist-mill nearer than West Derby, and facilities for procuring the most ordinary necessities, not to say comforts of life, were seanty indeed. The young men used to carry grain on their shoulders to Arnold's mills in West Derby, there beiug no road that could be traveled by horses. In the winter they had an easier conveyance, by hand-sled on Mem- phremagog. By most diligent toil, in which all the members of the families bore their parts, each man made a small clearing in the season of 1800, and raised grain and potatoes enough to secure them from fear of actual want. Each family had a cow which gained its living as best it could in the forest. It was the work of the younger girls to find the cows at night, and drive them home-oftentimes a laborious task requiring them to search the woods for miles around. To provide for the cows during the Winter was a problem of no easy solution. No hay was raised, but a scanty supply was brought from Barton, and with the help of browse, which was abundant and close at hand, they were comfortably wintered. So ended the first year of the infant settlement.
In 1801, Samuel Smith of Brownington built a saw-mill on the Day Brook. This was a great convenience to the settlers, as it obviated the necessity of going to Barton for boards and planks, or of using planks roughly split from logs, which was a not unusual kind of flooring in the early days. A grist-mill was lacking for some years longer, and, in the mean time most of the grain was sent to Arnold's mill at West Derby, it being floated down Barton river and through South Bay, in canoes. At length Da- vid Kendall built a small grist-mill on the Day Brook. The wheel was an overshot wheel, as the brook was small, and the supply of water sometimes insufficient, the miller was occasion- ally compelled to supply the lack of water by treading the buckets of the wheel after the fashion of a tread-mill. The stones for this mill were made of the nearest granite ; and as
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there was no bolt in the mill, the meal which | it made was of the very coarsest kind. Pud- ding-and-milk was the principal food of the set- tlers, and this mill, which furnished the more solid part of their fare, was called the " pud- ding-mill"-a name by which its site is known to this day. The ruins of this ancient mill are still traceable a little westerly of where the road running north from William B. Flanders crosses the Day Brook.
As soon as the Cobbs had fairly established themselves, they built a log-shop, in which they carried on the business of blacksmithing. They were the only men of that trade in the north- ern part of Orleans county, and they had cus- tomers from all that region round about.
The first birth in Coventry took place July 28, 1801, when a daughter was born to Tisdale Cobb. Her original name was Harriet Fitch, bestowed on account of a promise of Jabez G. Fitch to give a lot of land to the first-born child -but he failed to fulfil his promise, and the name was changed to Betsey.
Many of the former towusmen of the Cobbs soon came to visit them and their new settle- ment, and several families were added to the little colony in 1801 and 1802. Among those who immigrated from Westmoreland were Jotham Pierce, Asa Pierce, WmEsty, Simon B. Heustis, John Farnsworth and John Mitchell. All the settlers prior to 1803, in the strictest sense of the phrase, "Sqatter Sovereigns," hav- ing no deeds of any land, but taking possession where they pleased, and procuring deeds when they could. Deeds were executed to them ear- ly in 1803. Jotham Pierce pitched on lot No. 15, on which William B. Flanders now lives .- He was a man of great energy, and became an influential citizen of the town. He was the first captain of militia, and magnified his office not a little, as was suitable he should in those days, when a captain was of more consequence than a brigadier general now is. William Esty pitched on lot No. 13, now owned by the Day estate; Simeon B. Heustis on lot No. 50, where Lewis Nye lives : John Mitchell on lot No. 51, and John Farnsworth on lot No. 52, where J. W. Mitchell lives. Farnsworth brought with him the first ox-cart ever seen in town. Pre- vious to this time all teaming had been done on sleds or drags. Daniel B. Smith came in the Fall of 1802, and made an opening on lot No. 53, which was the first clearing west of Barton river. He took an active part in town affairs, but remained only till 1805, when he sold to
Samuel Boynton and removed. The first fram- ed house in Coventry was built by him, a little south-east of the present residence of Ira Boyn- ton, and on the opposite side of the road.
This house, as well as all that had previously been built, was on the high land. Surprise is often expressed at the present day, that the set- tlers in this town, and in other towns, should have selected the hills rather than the valleys as the sites of their farms, and that the roads should have been made directly over the hills rather than around them. These things, how- ever, were a matter of inevitable necessity .-
The high lands were covered mainly with hard timber, and the decay of the leaves had made the land fertile and mellow. It was nec- essary only to clear the land and sow it to be sure of a crop the firstyear. The stumps de- cayed with comparative rapidity, and a few years sufficed to transform the forest into a farm. But the low lands were too wet to be tilled, and were generally covered with soft timber, the stumps of which decayed slowly. The rich lands on Black and Barton rivers, which now constitute some of the best farms in Coventry, could not have been made to yield the early settlers food enough to keep them from starvation. The soft, wet soil of the valleys made them as unsuitable for roads as they were for farms; to say nothing of the uselessness of roads where there were no people, and the need of roads where the people were.
A peculiar feature of the early houses was their fireplaces and chimneys. Stoves and fur- naces were then unknown. Fireplaces and chimneys were built of prodigious size, and with small "ogard to beauty or even to shapeli- ness. Seven thousand brick were none too many to put into a chimney in which there was a fireplace 8 or 10 feet wide, and of proportion- ate depth. The fireplace was a mavellous store- house of light and heat. The back-log was part of the solid butt of a tree, which, with a fore-stick and top-stick of nearly or quite the same size, constituted the main structure for a fire. To this were added as many smaller sticks as the state of the weather required, and a few pine knots and other kindlings being thrust under and between the several logs, the whole mass was easily set on fire, and the flame went roar- ing up the chimney, filling the house with cheerful light and warmth. One such fire last- ed 24 hours, and sometimes several hours long- er, according to the size, kind and condition of the wood.
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To us, of the present generation, this seems wastefulness in the use of fuel, and to those of the next generation it will seem wicked extrav- agance ; but to the early settlers wood was re- ally of no value at all, but rather an incum- brance, to be got rid of by any and all possible means. The more of it they saw reduced to ashes, the more they rejoiced, and with good reason, too.
About 1802 Joseph Marsh and Timothy Goodrich, both from Addison County, made the first opening in the west part of the town. A log-cabin was built by Jabez G. Fitch, a few rods south of the present residence of George Heerman near the Upper Falls, and in this cab- in Goodrich resided, having as boarders Marsh and his family, and some other persons, who like himself, were employed by Fitch in clear- ing and building. Fitch also made Goodrich's house his home during his occasional visits .--- Marsh was a lawyer, and a man of more intel- lectual ability than any other of the early set- tlers. He was Fitch's agent for the sale of lands and had a general supervision of his affairs at Coventry. He had respectable literary attain- ments, but was no financier, and though he be- came owner of some lands, he was obliged to transfer them in payment of old debts, and at length he rcmoved to Brownington. Timothy Woodbridge, from Waltham, Vt., came in the Fall of 1802, and purchased lots No. 23, 24 and 47. Ile was the gentleman of the little colony. He was a son of the Hon. Enoch Woodbridge, of Vergennes, Judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont, and married Lydia Chipman, daugh- ter of Darius Chipman, and niece of the Hon. Nathaniel Chipman. He held himself in good esteem, as became one so respectably connected, and was always ready to occupy any place of which the position was honorable and the duties light, but he and his wife had been too daintily rearcd to be fit for frontier life, and were regard- ed by the townsmen as lazy and shiftless to the last degrec. After a few years he sold his first purchase, and bought a part of lot No. 156, on which he made a clearing and built a cabin ; but in 1807 sold out and left town. His last clear_ ing is included within the grave-yard near the village. Amherst Stewart pitched on lot No. 3, now owned by Albert Day, and resided there a few years, after which he moved to Browning- ton. John Wells, Jr., began on what is known as the Peabody farm. Hc was the first justice of the peace appointed in town. Perez Gard- ner, from St. Johnsbury, came in 1802, and
pitched on parts of lots No. 9 and 10, now own- ed by Zebulon Burroughs. In 1802, the first hay made in Coventry was cut on lot No. 7, where Quincy Wellington, a son-in-law of Sam- uel Cobb, had begun a clearing. He abandoned it the next year and it returned to wilderness, and so remained till 1817, when Zebulon Bur- roughs reclaimed it, enlarged the clearing and crected buildings. The same year a man by the name of Symomes began a clearing on the farm now owned by Charles Owen, and a man by the name of Hawes on the farm now owned by William R. Alger. Neither of them put up any buildings, and they did not become permanent inhabitants. One of them brought in his knap- sack four English white potatoes, the first of that kind that were brought to Coventry. They were cut into as many pieces as there were eyes, and were planted near Tisdale Cobb's. The whole produce was sowed and planted the next year, and from those four potatoes the town was stocked with that variety of the vegetable.
In June, 1802, John Ide, Jr., began a clear- ing, either on lot No. 55, or 56, both of which he had bought for $ 500. He started from Brownington in the morning and came to Bar. ton river, where he felled a tree and attemped to cross, but as the river was high the tree was not long enough, and he plunged in with his axe and swam the remaining distance, when he felled another tree and completed his bridge. He then bent his course towards his new purchase, but after traveling awhile in the woods, found him- self again at the river, which he followed till he reached his crossing place, and then took an- other start. This process he continued all day, and returned to Brownington without sceing his land. He moved his family into Coventry March 9, 1803, and was the first white settler west of the river. By this time two log-bridges had been built across the river, and a road cut from the upper falls of Black river half way to the Center. His first log-house was built about half way between the present sites of the brick church and Mrs. Sarah A. Kendall's house and so far west that the road now passes over its site. He afterwards built a log-house about 40 rods north-westerly of Mrs. A. Plastridge's present residence. For many years he was a leading man in town, and did as much as any one else to give it form and character.
The settlers whose names have now been mentioned constituted the adult male population of the town in March, 1803. Until that time there was no municipal organization, as indeed
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there was little need of any. Whatever of a public nature was done, not much at the most, was accomplished by voluntary private effort. But it was now thought desirable that the town should be organized, and accordingly application was made to Luke Chapin, Esq., of Duncans- boro, (now Newport,) who issued his warrant for a town meeting to be held at Samuel Cobb's house on Thursday, March 31, 1803. At that time and place the town was organized by the choice of officers, as follows: John Wells, Jr., moderator; Joseph Marsh, clerk; Timothy Woodbridge, constable; Samuel Cobb, treasur- er; Samuel Cobb, Daniel B. Smith and John Ide, Jr., selectmen ; Perez Gardner, John Wells, Jr., and Joseph Marsh, listers; Joseph Marsh, Samuel Cobb, John Wells, Jr., and Daniel B. Smith, highway surveyors; Perez Gardner, grand juror.
It was voted that each inhabitant should work on the roads four days in June and two days in September. A tax of $ 12 was raised to defray current expenses of the town. The grand list of 1803, the first taken in town, and on which this tax was assessed, amounted to $ 608. The highest tax payer was John Wells, Jr., who paid a town tax of $ 1.39, and a State tax of 96 cents.
Most of the early settlers were uneducated men, but they were not insensible to the value of education, nor deficient in desire that their children should know more than themselves .- They had no school-house, however, were too poor to build one, and there was no spare room in their cabins where a school might be held .- At length Samuel Cobb's corn-barn was tempo- rarily converted to the purpose of a school-house, and here, in the Summer of 1803, Temperance Vincent taught the first school in Coventry, for the moderate compensation of $ 1 per week. A ruder building was perhaps never devoted to educational purposes. It was small, not clap- boarded, and lighted only by the open doorway and the cracks between the boards. The seats were rough boards laid upon blocks of wood, and the desks were constructed in the same way. In this unsightly building the rudiments of education were imparted to some, who are now among the most valuable citizens of the town.
In the Summer of 1803 a saw-mill, the second in the town and much better than the first, was built on the Upper Falls of Black river, by Ja- bez G. Fitch. This and the adjacent cabin of Goodrich and Marsh constituted a center of civ-
ilization in the west part of the. town, as the Cobb settlement did in the east.
The first freemen's meeting was held Sept. 6, 1803, when 16 votes, the unanimous vote of the town, were given for Isaac Tichenor for Gov- ernor. Jos. Marsh had the honor of being the first representative ; receiving 9 votes against 2 for John Wells, Jr., and one each for Samuel Cobb and D. B. Smith.
The year 1804 was signalized by the first birth of a male child, the first marriage, and the first death. The birth took place February 17th, when a son, George B., was born to John Ide, Jr. That son is now the Rev. George B. Ide, D. D., of Springfield, Mass., one of the most em- inent Baptist divines in this country. The mar- riage was that of Silence Cobb to Col. David Knox, of Tunbridge, which was solemnized March 11th, by Elijah Strong, Esq., of Brown- ington. The death was that of Mrs. John Farns- worth, which took place December 4th. There being no public grave-yard, she was buried on her husband's farm, and her grave-stone may still be seen at the four corners on South Hill. [Near her grave were buried three infant child- ren of John Mitchell; three children of Daniel Heustis, triplets, who lived but a few hours; and James Heustis. son of Simon Heustis, who died Oct. 30, 1808. The graves of all the child- ren are unmarked by any stone. In 1866, the town surrounded these graves of its early dead by a neat fence. ]
Among the new settlers in 1804 were George Dorr, Benjamin Walker, Charles Bryant, Thom- as Baldwin, Daniel Ide, John Gardner and Aris- tides Heustis. Dorr bought of J. G. Fitch lot No. 75, where Azro Gray now lives, began a clearing, May 5, 1804, and built a log-house near a spring, almost opposite the present resi- dence of Hubbard Gray. His title proved de- fective, and Fitch having in the mean time be- come bankrupt, he was compelled to repurchase the lot of the legal owner. Bryant pitched on lot No. 42 ; Walker on lot No. 49; Heustis on lot No. 76; and Baldwin on lot No. 57. Ide pitched on lot No. 89, and made the first open- ing in the North neighborhood. Gardner was the first house-carpenter.
The clearing of land was a much more la- borious work in the early days than it now is. Almost all of it was done by hand, oxen and horses being very scarce. In 1804 there were only 3 yoke of oxen in Coventry, owned by Samuel Cobb, Jabez G. Fitch and Timothy Woodbridge. Ordinary logs were not drawn into heaps to be burned, but if a tree were
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large, sticks and small logs were piled along the whole length of it, and so it was burned. A horse with a chain was used to draw the small logs, and to draw together the partially burned brands.
The political harmony which had hitherto prevailed, as witnessed by the unanimous vote for Tichenor in 1803, was slightly dis- turbed in 1804, when Jonathan Robinson was the opposing candidate. One vote was giveu for the Robinson ticket; and at an election for member of Congress, the same independ- ent voter cast his solitary suffrage for James Fisk, in opposition to William Chamberlin, who was the choice of all his townsmen. It is quite probable that Charles Bryant was this voter. One vote was also given for Robinson in 1805, but in 1806, after Bryant had sold out and left town, the vote was again unani- mous for Tichenor.
At the town meeting of 1805, a tax of $12 worth of wheat was raised for the purpose of defraying town charges. Wheat, then and for a long time after, was the principal currency in Orleans County. Town and school district taxes were assessed in wheat much more frequently than in cash. A cash tax, however small, was considered quite a calam- ity, and, in fact, was such. A person was once obliged to go more than 50 miles, to procure less than a dollar for the purpose of paying a tax. On account of the scarcity of money it often happened that no tax whatever was as- sessed, the officers choosing to render their services gratuitously, and the people in gen- eral to do with their own hands whatever needed to be done, rather than to pay their proportion of a tax. On one occasion, when two bridges were to be built, the town voted " that the inhabitants turn out voluntarily to build the bridge at Burrough's mill, and that $ 45 be raised to build the bridge across Black river, payable in labor at 67 cents per day, the person finding himself, or in grain the first of January next.
SOLOMON PIERCE
immigrated in 1805, and pitched on lot No. 82, being the farm on which the Rev. A. G. Gray now livos. In June of the same year came Dr. Peleg Redfield, and purchased lot No. 44, on the eastern border of which he made a clearing and built a house. The farm still remains in the ownership of his family. Dr. Redfield was the first settled physician in Coventry, and the fourth in Orleans County ; ; of more than 4 miles an hour.
his only predecessors being Dr. Samuel Hunt- ington, of Greensboro, Dr. Luther Newcomb, of Derby, and Dr. James Paddock, of Crafts- bury. His practice immediately became ex- tensive and arduous. His journeys to the scattered cabins in which his patients lived were performed mainly on horseback, but not unfrequently he was obliged to thread his way through the forests on foot. He was a man of vigorous mind and great force of char- acter, and was held in high esteem not only for professional skill but for business qualities. He is entitled to be remembered for his own abilities, and as the father of sons who, in other professions, have won eminent distinc- tion for themselves, and have reflected honor upon the town from which they went forth. -
ROADS, &C.
In October and November, 1805, the first public roads were laid out. Until that time the roads were mere paths cut through the woods, with reference mainly to private con- venience, and no wider than was absolutely necessary for a single team, not always so wide as that. When John Farnsworth came into town with his ox-cart, the whole popula- tion had to perform extra work on the road from Brownington, to allow the passage of so wide a vehicle. The public roads now laid out were 3 rods wide. Their general direction was north and south, but alterations and dis- continuances have so changed the state of things that it is difficult now to identify more than one of them, which was, in the main, the road from Irasburgh line over South Hill to the Center. Little more was done to roads then, and for many years after, than to clear them of trees, leaving stumps, and stones, and mud-holes, for the traveler to avoid as best he could. Sometimes a by-path was cut around an unusually formidable slough, or logs were laid in it ; but, at the best, the going was very uncomfortable, not to say dangerous. Trav- eling was performed principally on horseback, both men and women taking long journeys in that way. Frequently a man and a woman rode on the same horse, and sometimes a woman took two or three children on the horse with herself. A sled drawn by oxen was almost the only other mode of conveyance known in the early days. Oxen were trained to travel, as well as to draw loads, and some- times would perform a pleasure-trip at a speed
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