USA > Vermont > Orleans County > The history of Orleans county, Vermont. Civil, ecclesiastical, biographical and military > Part 52
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68
In 1796 or '97, a party of several men from Peacham, of which Capt. Moses Elkins, a broth- er of Josiah Elkins, was one, came up and ex- plored the country. They agreed to come hith- er and settle, but none of them except Captain Elkins had the hardihood to carry this resolution into effect. He started from Peacham June 7, 1797, with his furniture in a cart drawn by a yoke of oxen and a yoke of bulls, and one cow driven by his son Mark, a boy of 9 years old, and two hired men. After three days they arrived at Craftsbury, where they were joined by three men from Richford, making a party of six men and one boy. They proceeded on the old Hazen road until they crossed the river in Lowell, cutting out their road as they went. Mrs. Elkins followed them some days after, riding on horse- back with a child 3 years old, and attended by a hired man. They overtook her husband and his party, June 16th, near the centre of Jay, where they camped for the night, and the next
314
VERMONT HISTORICAL MAGAZINE.
day they arrived at their home in Potton, which consisted of four crotches set in the ground, and , covered with poles aud bark. Captain Elkins made some improvement on his land, but on the approach of winter he went down to Richford and wintered there, and returned to his land the next spring. He was probably the first white man who settled in this valley.
In 1797, a Mr. Morrill moved into Troy, and erected a house about half a mile east of the village of North Troy, and probably was the first white man who ever wintered in the valley.
In the fall of 1798, Josiah Elkins moved his brother Curtis Elkins into Potton, and they erected a house on the place called the Bailey farm, about half a mile north of the line. The house was built of logs of course, but they cut, split, and hewed basswood logs, for their supply of boards and shingles. Cur- tis Elkins remained with his family during the winter in this house.
Josiah Elkins moved from Greensboro into Potton, Feb. 26, 1799, with his wife and three children, and moved into the house with his brother Curtis. His route was by what was called the Lake Road.
The first night in his journey he stopped in Glover; the next in Newport, in what was called the old lake-settlement; and on the third day he arrived at his new home.
The settlement then consisted of Mr. Morrill in Troy, Capt. Moses Elkins, and Abel Skin- ner, Esq., in Potton. Mr. Jacob Garland and his son-in-law, Jonathan Heath were there at that time, and moved in their families a short time after. In the same winter or the follow- ing spring, Mr. James Rines and Mr. Bartlett moved into Troy, and settled about a mile south of North Troy village, on the meadows below the great falls. Mr. Hoyt also moved into Troy, and setled on the meadows about half a inile north of North Troy village. Col. Ruyter also, the same winter or spring, moved into the west part of Potton, some three or four miles further down the river.
A most melancholly event occurred soon af- ter, which cast a deep gloom and sorrow over the little colony, and the sad story still lin- gers in the traditions and recollections of the oldest inhabitants.
On June 10, 1799, a great freshet occurred, and the waters of the river were swollen to an unusual height. The settlers, prompted by a transient adventurer who had visited them,
had provided themselves with several large and elegant pine canoes, to supply the defi- ciency of roads and bridges and to enable them to pursue their favorite pastime of fishing and rowing on the water.
Col. Ruyter had recently established, at his residence down the river, a store of goods, which, according to the custom of those days, consisted principally of groceries. The col- onists, numbering 15 or 20 men, in 5 canoes, proceeded down the river to visit the Colonel and his store, and test the goodness of his groceries.
The hours passed jollily away and the day was far spent before the party was ready to return. Returning in the evening, when within a mile of their homes, the canoe in which were the three sons of Esq. Skinner, and two other men, was upset, and the men were precipitated in an instant into the rapid and swollen current. Three of the five were rescued by their companions, but the two el- dest sons of Esq, Skinner, young men about 18 and 20 years of age, were swept away by the resistless waters and perished. These young men were said to be of great promise, the main hope of their parents; and whatever may have been the condition of some of the party, they were perfectly sober. After vainly attempting to rescue these unfortunate youths, the party were compelled to give up all hopes of recovering them, and had to carry heavy tidings to the bereaved parents. The news caused a paroxysm of despair and insanity to the unhappy father. It required the exertions of several men during the night and follow- ing day, to restrain the raving father from rushing to the river and plunging into the stream to recover his sons, as he vainly thought to bring them back to life from their watery grave.
After watching the waters and searching the the river for a week, the sympathizing neigh- bors recovered the bodies of the young men, One of the settlers who was a professor of re- ligion, and was considered a pious man, offi- ciated at the funeral, a prayer was offered, and the remains of the two brightest hopes of the valley were decently and sorrowfully con- signed to the parent dust. Three or four weeks afterwards, Judge Olds, who had settled in Westfield, and who had formerly been a cler- gyman, was called upon to preach a funeral sermon, which was from the appropriate text, '. Be still and know that I am God."
315
TROY.
Tradition relates two well authenticated | circumstances, connected with this mournful event, which may be worthy the attention of the physiologist. One is that the despairing father. who was then a man of middle age, with scarce a grey hair on his head, became, in a few days, grey and his hair soon turned almost white. The other circumstance is that the mother, who was then laboring un- der an attack of the fever and ague, was re- stored by the shock the news gave her; the periodical chill was broken, and she had no more returns of her complaint that season.
Several families moved into Troy and Potton in 1799, and in the winter of 1799 and 1800, a small party of Indians, of whom the chief man was Capt. Susap, joined the colonists, built their camps on the river, and wintered near them. These Indians were represented as being in a necessitous and almost starving condition, which probably arose from the moose and deer (which formerly abounded here) being destroyed by the settlers. Their principal employment was making baskets, birch-bark cups and pails, and other Indian trinkets. They left in the spring and never returned. They appeared to have been the most numerous party, and resided the longest time of any Indians who have ever visited the valley since the commencement of the settlement.
One of these Indians, a woman called Mol- ly Orcutt, exercised her skill in a more digni- fied profession, and her introduction to the whites was rather curious.
In the Fall or beginning of the Winter in 1799, one of the settlers purchased and brought in a barrel of whiskey and two half barrels of gin and brandy. The necessities of the people for this opportune supply may be inferred from the fact the whole was drunk or sold and carried off within three days from its arrival. The arrival of a barrel of liquor in the settlement was, at that time, hailed with great demonstrations of joy, and there was a general gathering at the opening of the casks. So it was on this occasion, a large party from Troy, Potton, and even from Richford, were assembled for the customary carousal. Their orgies were held in a new house, and were prolonged to a late hour of the night.
A transient rowdy from abroad by the name of Perkins, happened there at that time, and in the course of the night grew insolent and insulting, and a fight ensued between
him and one Norris, of Potton. In the con- test Norris fell, or was knocked into a great fire that was burning in the huge Dutch- back chimney which was in the room. Nor- ris' hair and clothes were severely scorched, but the main injury he sustained was in one hand which was badly burned. The Aosh in- side of the hand was burned, or torn off by the fall, so that the cords were exposed. The injury was so serious that it was feared he would lose the use of his hand. A serious difficulty now arose; there was no doctor in the settlement, no pain extractors or other patent medicines had found their way there, and no one in the valley had skill or confi- dence enough to undertake the management of so difficult a case.
Molly Orcutt was known as an Indian doc- tress, and then resided some miles off, near the Lake. She was sent for, and came and built her camp near by, and undertook the case, and the hand was restored. Her medi- cine was an application of warm milk-punch. Molly's fame as a doctress was now raised. The dysentery broke out with violence that Winter, particularly among children, and Molly's services were again solicited, and she again undertook the work of mercy, and again she succeeded. But in this case Molly main- tained all the reserve and taciturnity of her race, she retained the nature of her prescrip- tion to herself, she prepared her nostrum in her own camp, and brought it in a coffee pot to her patients, and refused to divulge the in- gredients of her prescription to any one ; but chance and gratitude drew it from her.
In the March following, as Mr. Josiah El- kins and his wife were returning from Peach- am, they met Molly at Arnold's mills in Der- by ; she was on her way across the wilderness to the Connecticut river, where she said she had a daughter married to a white man. Mr. Elkins inquired into her means of prosecuting so long a journey through the forest and snows of Winter, and found she was but scan- tily supplied with provisions, having nothing but a little bread. With his wonted generos- ity, Mr. Elkins immediately cut a slice of pork of 5 or 6 pounds out of the barrel he was carrying home, and gave it to her. My informant remarks she never saw a more grateful creature than Molly was on receiving this gift. "Now you have been so good to me," she exclaimed, "I will tell you how I cured the folks this Winter of the dysentery,"
316
VERMONT HISTORICAL MAGAZINE.
and told him her receipt. It was nothing more nor less than a decoction of the inner bark of the spruce .*
The town of Troy, or as it was then called Missisco, was organized in March, 1802. Ac- cording to the town record, the inhabitants were warned to meet on March 25, 1802, at 9 o'clock in the forenoon to organize the town and choose the necessary town officers. The record also shows that they met agreeably to the warning, chose a moderator, and then voted to adjourn until the next day at 10 o'clock in the forenoon.
No reason appears on record for this ad- journment, and we can scarce suppose the af- fairs of the infant settlement were so intricate as to require a night's reflection before they could proceed to act, or that the number of their worthies was so great that they could not make a selection of officers for the town. But it appears that they did adjourn, and tra- dition says they were as drunk as lords, and could not proceed any further in the business of the meeting.
It appears, however, by the records of the town, that the good citizens did meet the next day, agreeable to adjournment, and chose the usual batch of town officers, including a tythingman, and voted £6, of lawful money to be expended on roads, and $10.00 to defray the expenses of the town for the year. From that time the town of Troy has had a regular corporate existence, notwithstanding it came so near, in the first town meeting, being strangled in its birth.
* Among my earliest recollections of events was the arrival of Molly at Guildhall on the Connecticut river, soon after the event before mentioned. She was almost famished, as well she might be, after such a journey; for if her statements are reliable, she was then more than 100 years old. She informed my father that her husband fell in Lovell's war, and that she then had several grandchildren. Lovell's war terminated in 1725. If Molly was then only 40 years of age, she must have been born as early as 1685. If so, she was 115 years old, when she went from Derby to Guildhall in 1800, and might have been 120 or 125. But she lived 17 years after this period. She was at last found dead on Monnt White Cap, in East Andover, Maine, in 1817, where she had resided for some weeks, gathering blueberries. Her body, when found, had been partly eaten by a wild animal. I have no doubt that she was nearly 140 years old, at the time of her death. She was certainly very familiar with the events of "Lovell's fight," and the war next preceding. I saw and con- versed with her frequently, from 1812 to 1816, and have no doubt, that she was born earlier than 1685, and that her statements were generally to be credited.
REV. S. R. HALL.
The first settlers of Troy were from Peach- am and the towns on the Connecticut river, many from New Hampshire, and several were from Lyme.
Although there were many worthy persons among them, many able, substantial men who were pioneers in the settlement, many men who had nerve and hardihood well fitted to encounter and overcome the hardships and difficulties of a new settlement, yet there were many who resorted thither who were of loose character, and but few comparatively of the first settlers or their descendants now remain among us.
They appear to have partaken much of the wild habits of the time, and to have possessed a strong love of excitement and somewhat of a relish for stimulants, mental and physical. They lacked not for enterprise, hardihood, and love of adventure, but were wanting in the staid and regular habits which distin- guished the Puritan settlers in the older States in New England, and they seem to have impressed their enthusiasm, and love of excitement on the character of the inhabit- ants of the town for a long time.
The first settlement in Westfield was made by Mr. Jesse Olds in 1798. Mr. Olds was originally from Massachusetts, and was rather a remarkable character for a pioneer in such a settlement. He had been a minister of the gospel, and on one occasion, as before stated, he officiated as clergyman at the funeral of Esq. Skinner's sons, but it does not appear that he ever acted in that capacity in the valley on any other occasion. He is describ- ed as having been a man of some property and of liberal education, of very genteel ap- pearance and address, but of a lewd and licentious character. Some acts of miscon- duct or indiscretion had probably induced him to flee from society and seek a refuge in the wilderness. He selected and purchased a lot of land lying near the geographical center of the town, on a hill some 2 miles from the present main road. Here he built a log- house and moved his wife and family to his solitary home, and here his wife passed one Winter with him, without having another woman nearer than 20 miles. After remain- ing in Westfield several years and clearing up a considerable portion of his land, Mr. Olds removed to Craftsbury, remained there a few years, and finally removed to the State of New York. The lands which he cleared were
317
TROY.
abandoned, aud they and the orchard which he planted were overgrown by the returning forest, until, within a few years, they have been again reclaimed for a pasture.
The next year after the settlement of Mr. Olds in Westfield, Messrs. Hobbs, Hartley, and Burgess came into that town and settled on the same range of highlands near him ; and in 1802, the town of Westfield was or- ganized and Mr. Olds was chosen the first town clerk. The year before, he had been elected a Judge of Orleans County Court.
In the Spring or Summer of 1803, Mr. David Barber moved into town, and in the Fall of that year, his brother-in-law, Thomas Hitchcock, visited the town with a view to settling there, and selecting lands for himself and his father, Capt. Medad Hitchcock. Mr. Hitchcock explored the flats or intervals in the eastern part of the town, where the vil- lage of Westfield is now situated, and was much charmed with the appearance they then presented. He said he traced the lot lines from the hill north into the midst of the in- tervals. They were then covered with large wide-spreading elms, with scarcely any brush or any other kinds of timber growing among them. As he wandered among these stately elms, the interval, as he said, appeared to be boundless in extent, and to include thousands of acres.
Mr. Rodolphus Reed removed from Mon- tague, Mass., to Westfield, in the Fall of 1803. During his journey he was detained by the sickness of his wife, and arrived at Craftsbury late in November. Being impatient to com- plete his journey before Winter had made any further advances, Mr. Reed started for West- field with his wife who had an infant only 2 weeks old, and his furniture in a sleigh drawn by two horses. A deep snow had lately fallen, and he sent two men in advance to remove obstructions from the road, and to break a path through the snow. It was his expectation, when he left Craftsbury, to arrive at Judge Olds', in Westfield, that night .- Soon after he commenced the day's journey, Mr. Reed was overtaken by Judge Olds, who was on horseback, returning from the session of the legislature which he had attended, as representative of Westfield. Judge Olds ex- pressed to Mr. Reed his fears that they would not be able to get through the woods that night, and passed on, promising to send them assistance when he got home. The difficulty
of traveling was so great, owing to the depth of snow and the bad state of the road, that Mr. Reed and his party had advanced but a few miles when night overtook them. They halted, kindled a fire, and prepared to en- camp in the woods and snow. Their supply of provisions and forage for the horses was rather scanty, but, as the weather was mild, they passed the night without much suffering.
Next morning, at the dawn of day, they resumed their journey, but, with all the exer- tions they could make, they were unable to complete their journey and night again found them in the forest. With much difficulty, they succeeded in reaching a place about half a mile from the present site of Lowell village, where Major Caldwell. the Summer previous, had felled a few acres of trees and erected a camp, and had then retired for the Winter. This camp could hardly aspire to the dignity of a hovel. It consisted of logs laid up on three sides only, and was open at one end for a fire and entrance, and was covered with poles and barks. The camp, humble as it was, afforded a welcome shelter for these weary travelers. The night was cold, and, as Mr. Reed and his party were then several miles from their place of destination, and their supply of provisions and forage was almost exhausted, the prospect was rather gloomy. Early the next morning they were cheered by the arrival of men, teams, and provisions, which Judge Olds had sent to their relief. The journey was resumed, and that day, Nov. 27, 1803, Mr. Reed and his party arrived safely at Judge Olds , the place of their destination.
Before they arrived, the settlement in West- field consisted of the four families of Messrs. Olds, Hobbs, Hartley, and Burgess, and a mulatto man by the name of I'rophet, who lived with Judge Olds ; and these constituted the community which Judge Olds had been to represent in the legislature of Vermont.
In 1804, ('apt. Medad Hitchcock with his three sons moved into Westfield, and three or four sons-in-law, and several other relatives soon followed him. This colony of settlers was from Brimfield and other adjoining towns in Massachusetts. They avoided the error of Judge Olds, in settling on the high mount- ain side, and settled on the flat or low lands in the eastern part of the town, where the village of Westfield is now located. The first settlers of Westfield appear generally to have
318
VERMONT HISTORICAL MAGAZINE.
differed somewhat from their neighbors in Troy, being of a more sober and sedate char- acter, less impulsive, and perhaps less ener- getic and less liberal than the first settlers of the adjoining town.
The first settler in Lowell was Major Wm. Caldwell, who commenced making improve- ments on his land in 1803, but did not move his family into the town until a year or two after. A few families followed him one or two years afterwards, but the town was not organized until the year 1812.
Mr. Caldwell was from Barre, Mass., and belonged to a class of men who constituted a portion of the early settlers of Vermont. He had seen better days, had been a man of property and standing in Massachusetts, and had held the office of sheriff in Worcester County. He is described as having been a man of a liberal and generous disposition, which seems to have caused his ruin. He became involved in debt by being bondsman for his friends, lost all his property and fled to the wilds of Vermont.
In Jay the first settler was Mr. Baxter, who came into town in 1809. A few families joined him previous to the war of 1812, but, upon the declaration of war, they all abandoned the settlement and left him alone. In despite of the war and the cold seasons that followed, he maintained his post like a veteran, and, like a skillful commander, deeming a numer- ous garrison essential to maintain his posi- tion, contrived to rear a family of 20 children on the highlands of Jay. The old gentleman survived to the age of nearly ninety.
cripple for life. To give some instances of what were then considered almost common hardships, a Mr. Reed purchased a common sized plough in Craftsbury, and traveling on snow-shoes, carried it on his back to his home in Westfield, a distance of about 20 miles : another man carried a heavy mill-saw from Danville to Lowell in the same way.
The want of mills was a serious evil to which the early settlers were exposed. They had no mills among them for several years, and to get their grain ground they had to resort to Craftsbury, Derby, Richford, and other places. The mode of journeying to these mills was as various as the places to which they resorted. When they went to Richford they commonly used the canoe and paddled down the river : to go to the other places, they commonly used horses on exces- sively bad roads, and some even carried their grain on their backs to remote towns to be ground, so that they could supply themselves and families with bread ; whilst some hollow- ed out the stump of a tree or a log into a rude mortar, and by the aid of a huge pestla attached to a springing sapling pounded their grain into meal. Besides these difficulties under which the first settlers labored in com- mon with many other of the early settlers of Vermont, therewere other disadvantages which seem to have been in some measure peculiar to themselves. None of our first settlers were possessed of much property. With perhaps one or two exceptions none had any thing more than enough to pay for the first pur- chase of their lands, and supply themselves with provisions for a year, and the necessary team and tools to commence a settlement. A few only possessed property to that extent. A majority had to purchase their lands on credit, and rely upon their own industry to pay for their lands and support themselves and fami- lies. The ax and the firebrand were the only aids which most of the first settlers had in reclaiming the forest and providing for the sustenance of themselves and their families. The difficulties in making purchases, and procuring titles to land embarrassed the oper- ations and impeded the progress of the first settlers. The lands of the valley were owned by non-residents, and the agents who had the care of the lands generally resided abroad. This led to a species of speculation called "making pitches," which enhanced the price
The early settlers of the valley had many and great hardships and disadvantages to encounter ; the roads were few, ill-wrought, and badly located, there were but few me- chanics, and no regular merchants, and the transient traders who sometimes located for a few months among them commonly had, for the main article in their stores, that which is the least valuable of all commodities-spirit- vous liquors. It was an event of frequent occurrence for the traveler to be lost or belated in the woods, and compelled to re- main there through the night. In December, 1807, a Mr. Howard, of Westfield, from such an exposure, and from exhaustion in crossing the mountain from Craftsbury to Lowell, on foot, in a deep snow, lost his life; and a Mr. Eaton, on the same road, and in the same month, was so badly frozen that he became a l of land and diverted the time and attention
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.