USA > Vermont > Orleans County > The history of Orleans county, Vermont. Civil, ecclesiastical, biographical and military > Part 53
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of individuals from more regular and indus- trious pursuits, and it is remarkable that the abuse should have been tolerated at all. The mode of operation was this : An individual would, to use the current phrase, "Pitch a lot" that is, he would select a lot and take possession of it by felling a few trees, and then apply to the distant agent for the lot. Even this ceremony of making any sort of communication with the agent was not always observed. By thus making his "Pitch" the individual, by a sort of common law of the valley, or usage which was recognized among the settlers, acquired a pre-emption right to the lot, so that no person who really desired to purchase and settle on it could do so without first buying the "pitcher's" or squatter's claim. By this ridiculous species of speculation a kind of monopoly was crea- ted, the best lots were occupied and prices were enhanced. One of the oldest settlers, Dea. Hovey, asserts, that when he came into the valley, in 1803, he found all the best lots, those he wished to purchase were "pitched," or covered by these sham claims. To en- courage settlers, Mr. Hauxhurst had previ- ously reduced the price of five lots in his gore to 50 cents per acre, these were "pitched" of course and Dea. Hovey says that he select- ed and purchased one of these lots for which he paid $ 200 of which sum $50 only were paid to Mr. Hauxhurst's agent and $ 150 were pocketed by the speculator or man who made the pitch. Another early settler states that the price of the lot he purchased was :advanced one-third by this same ingenious device.
presence and society of these wretches served to contaminate and poison the moral atmos- phere, to introduce immoral habits and prac- tices, and from their influence a feeling was created, among the first settlers, which long remained, and led them to connive at crime and breaches of the law, and to harbor and protect some who had better have been ex- piating their crimes within the walls of the State prisons.
Other sources of discontent and unhappi- ness existed, which, as they did not depend upon physical causes, could not be so easily removed. A venerable lady, one of the first settlers of Westfield, says that, during the first year of her residence in that town, her feelings of homesickness, arising from the loneliness of her situation, and loss of the society of her early friends and relatives, was almost insupportable. Others, doubtless, felt the same bereavement. Some missed the in- stitutions of religion, and many parents felt the need of better and more convenient schools for their children than the rude settlement could then afford. But, although the early settlers had to encounter many hardships. and were surrounded with many difficulties and discouragements, their situation was not without its comforts and enjoyments, and their lot was not all gloom, discontent, and suffering. They had many comforts, and even luxuries which are often denied to those in more affluent circumstances. Their lands were fertile, the seasons for many years were propitious, and their crops abundant. The forests afforded some deer and moose; the river and streams abounded with delicious trout, and a few hours spent in the enjoyment of their favorite pastime of hunting or fish- ing, would oftentimes furnish the settler with a meal which would excite the envy of our city epicures.
Another cause which tended to retard the prosperity and improvement of the valley was its proximity to the province of Canada. The interruption in the trade and business between the several communities bordering on the line, by the duties imposed by the two The sugar maple was a rich blessing to the early settlers of Vermont. Those beautiful groves yielded an abundant supply of sugar, affording to the indigent settler a necessary and luxury of life which the wealthy in older countries could scarce afford, whilst the cheer- ful fires of this wood, which, in our infancy, we saw blazing in the old stone-backed chim- neys, call up recollections of an enjoyment we cannot now find in the dull invisible warmth of an air-tight stove, and the ashes of this generous tree, when manufactured into governments has been an inconvenience which they have felt at all times, and a strong temptation to resort to illicit and con- traband traffic. And the protection which a foreign government affords, tended to allure many fugitives from justice into the border- ing towns in Canada, and many of them frequently lingered on this side of the line. The effect of the residence of these outlaws was pernicious, and particularly so to a new settlement which had hardly acquired the stamina of an organized community. The |potash or pearlash, furnished an article for
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exportation, and almost the only one which would warrant the expense in transporting it to the then distant markets.
One great solace the first settlers of this State enjoyed, which it is doubtful if it ever has been or can be sufficiently appreciated, that is, the harmony, friendliness, and good will which almost universally prevailed. All were exposed to hardships, all felt the need of each other's assistance, and, in the general mediocrity of fortune, feelings of envy, or of proud superiority, were rare. This feeling of friendliness and sociability universally pre- vailed in the valley. Although this social feeling might, in some instances, explode in scenes of boisterous and drunken mirth, yet it often appeared in another form which in- dicated better manners and better morals. It was manifested in kind unbought services at the sick-bed, in relieving destitution and want, in a readiness to assist in a heavy job of work, at the raising and logging-bee, and at the neighborly visit, when the ox-sled was often put in requisition to transport the wife and children to the evening visit, where the whole neighborhood were assembled. One ot the earlier settlers-Judge Stebbins-and his wife, for some years after they moved into Westfield, made it a rule to visit every family in their town, at least, once each year. An- other of the early settlers of the same town, a lady, in' speaking of the old times, men- tioned this feeling of harmony, which pre- vailed among her old neighbors, and said that the first note of discord which was heard in the town originated in the political strifes and contests which preceded the declaration of war in 1812. Previous to that time, all had been peace and concord.
Notwithstanding the difficulties and dis- couragements which surrounded the infant settlement, the prospects of the valley were improving. From the fragment of an old tax bill, dated Feb. 23, 1807, it appears that the town of Troy in that year contained 30 tax payers. By the census of 1810, it ap- pears that Troy then contained 281 inhabit- ants, and Westfield 149. Not only were their numbers increasing, but the prosperity of the valley was otherwise advancing ; clear- ings and improvements were made, houses and other buildings were erected, and many of the worst difficulties attending a new set- tlement were overcome. The deficiency of mills, which seems so inconsistent with the purchased on six months credit.
existence of civilized life, was soon supplied. In 1804, Mr. Josiah Elkins erected a mill in Troy. Deacon Hovey had a grist ground there in October of that year-the first grist that ever was ground in Troy. The next year Capt. Hitchcock built a mill in Westfield. The attention of the public had begun to be more and more directed to the valley, new settlers were arriving and forming new set- tlements, and the value and extent of the farms and improvements were yearly increas- ing, when all these flattering appearances were crushed to the earth by the war of 1812. THE WAR OF EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWELVE . was particularly disastrous in its effects to the Northern part of Vermont and exhibits an instance of the ruinous effects of war on a country, even when it does not suffer from the invasions of the enemy. Few sections of the State suffered more than this valley. Ly- ing on the frontier and separated by moun- tains and forests from other parts of the State, the people supposed they would be the first victims of an attack. The settlers of Troy seem at first to have regarded the ap- proach of war with their usual spirit and daring. Many spirited meetings were held at that time, and many patriotic resolutions were adopted*
* The following extract from the records in the town clerk's office in Troy, gives some idea of the state of feeling in the valley at the commencement of the war in 1812 :-
"The inhabitants of Troy are hereby notified and warned to meet at the dwelling-house of John Bell, in said Troy, on Monday the fourth day of May next, at ten o'clock A. M., to act on the following business, viz.
1. To choose a moderator to govern said meeting.
2. To see what method the town will take in the present important crisis of times to furnish the Militia of this town with arms and ammunition as is required by law.
3. To transact any other business thought proper when met. Given under our hands at Troy; this 23d day of April, A. D. 1812.
JONA. SIMPSON, THOMAS WELLS, JOSIAH LYON,
Selectmen of Troy.
At a town meeting legally warned and holden at the dwelling-house of John Bell in Troy, on the fourth day of May, A. D. 1812-
Voted, Jona. Simpson, Esq., moderator.
Voted, that the town take means to equip the militia.
Voted, that the Selectmen of this town be instructed to borrow twenty muskets and bayonets on the credit of the town for such times as they shall think neo- essary.
Voted, that the town purchase twenty-five pounds of powder and one hundred weight of lead if it can be
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A fort also was, about this time, built in Troy, and another in Westfield. These forts, as they were called, were rude palisades, con- sisting of logs about a foot in diameter, and 12 or 15 feet in height, placed perpendicu- larly, one end being inserted in a deep trench dug into the earth. The ruins of the Troy fort remained for 20 years, a monument of the courage and military skill of the early settlers.
But however resolute our people might have been when danger was only anticipated, yet when it was known that war was actu- ally declared, the courage of many appears to have quailed under the supposed danger. The nursery tales of Indian havoc and war- fare were rehearsed, the people seem to have been seized with a sort of panic, and supposed that hordes of Canadian Indians would be let loose upon them. The consequence was that a great part of the people abandoned their farms and homes, some only for a short time, but many never to return. Mrs. Elkins states that of the families which passed her house on one day, moving out of the settle- ment, she counted 19 females who had been her neighbors. The effects of this removal were disastrous both to those who left and those who remained. Many of those who left made ruinous sacrifices of their property, abandoned farms where they had expended years of hard labor, and where a few more years of like exertion would have rendered them independent and wealthy, to return again to poverty and begin the world anew. Nor were they the only sufferers ; those who remained experienced a loss in being depriv- ed of the society and assistance of their neigh- bors and friends, and in a sparse settlement scarcely numerous enough to maintain the institutions of civilized life, this loss must have been severely felt. Several of the citi- zens enlisted into the army, and the time and attention of those who remained in the set- tlement were very much diverted from the regular business and employments of life. The labors of the husbandman for a season were generally interrupted, few felt much con-
Voted, that there be appointed a committee to inquire if there be any danger of invasion, and give infor- mation.
Voted, that Ezekiel Currier, Cha's Conant, Jona. Simpson, Esq., David Hazeltine, and Pyam Keith be the aforesaid committee.
Voted, that the meeting be dissolved.
DAVID HAZELTINE, Town Clork."
fidence to till the earth when the prospect of remaining to the time of harvest was deemed so uncertain. All improvements in clearing farms and erecting buildings were of course discontinued. Speculation and smuggling soon followed, and diverted the time and at- tention of the people from more profitable and honorable pursuits. In the Winter of 1812-13, a small detachment of troops was stationed at North Troy. It is probable that the desire of quieting the fears of the people, and preventing smuggling and driving cattle into Canada, was the object of the govern- ment in stationing this body of troops in Troy rather than the apprehension of an invasion from that quarter.
HARD TIMES.
But the calamities of the valley did not end with the war. A succession of cold and un- productive seasons followed. The cold sea- son of 1816, with its snow storm in June will long be remembered in Vermont. After the war, a general depression in business was ex- perienced through the country. Almost se- cluded from the rest of the world by bad roads through forests and over mountains, the evils experienced from the failure of crops and the revulsion in trade were felt here in the greatest severity. The settlers were but poorly prepared to meet and overcome the dif- ficulties which surrounded them, arising from the failure of crops, and the change from the lavish expenditures of the war to the contrac- tion and revulsion in business which followed its termination, with numbers reduced by emi- gration, farms neglected, and habits of idle- ness, speculation, and dissipation engendered by the war, the cold seasons of 1815 and 1816 produced a scarcity and dearness of provis- ions, in some instances almost approaching to famine. Provisions were then scarce through- out the State. Bad and almost impassable roads rendered it more difficult to procure here a supply from abroad, and the price of bread-stuffs rose to an unusual hight. Indian corn, in the Summer of 1816, was sold from $3.00 to $3.50 per bushel. One of the early settlers gave six days work in haying in that season for 2 bushels of rye; and in one in- stance in Lowell a family were for several days driven to the necessity of feeding on boiled leeks and clover heads to sustain life,
At that time the inhabitants of the valley produced little or nothing for sale from the ordinary productions of husbandry, and their
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almost only resource to procure money for | doubtless contributed to this beneficial change. their pressing necessities, was by the slow and laborious process of making ashes, from which the laborer could hardly realize more than from 25 to 30 cents for his day's work. There were then but few mechanics and no stores or merchants in the valley. In 1818, Jerry Hodgkins, Esq., commenced trade with a store of goods in Westfield. At that time there was no store nearer than Craftsbury, except one with a small stock of goods in Potton, and the people were compelled to dispense almost entirely with those articles deemed necessary for their dress or tables, or to purchase a few scanty articles at ruinous REFORMATION OF 1818. prices, enhanced by expensive freight and extravagant profits. The decline of the set- tlement is indicated by the census. In 1810 the town of Troy contained 284 inhabitants ; in 1820 their numbers were diminished to 227, and had the census been taken in 1817, or 1818, their numbers would doubtless have been much less.
From the accounts which have been trans- mitted to us of these times, we have reason to believe that the moral and social condition of the people of the valley was but little in advance of their physical condition. Their means of moral and mental improvement were very limited. Almost cut off from the world by mountains and bad roads, they had few books or newspapers, few schools, and those with difficulty supported by the sparse popu- lation, with little intercourse with society calculated to benefit or improve, and a few religious meetings and those irregularly main- tained. It appears that a low state of morals existed, that intemperance and other profli- gate habits prevailed; and had it not been for the renovating influence of Christianity, and the progressive spirit of the age, the set- tlement must have relapsed into barbarism.
But there appears to be a point-both of depression and of prosperity-in the fortunes of communities, as well as of individuals, to which they seem destined to go, and beyond which they cannot pass; and, having reached this point, the current of events begins to flow in an opposite direction. The people of the Missisco valley reached this point of de- pression about the year 1817; and from that period the condition and circumstances of the people, with many interruptions and un- toward events, seem, on the whole, to have been gradually improving. Many causes
It could not be expected that a region pos- sessing so many natural advantages could long remain waste and unimproved in New England. Some valuable settlers came in soon after, and the necessities of life would naturally tend to revive industry and intro- duce some order and improvement into the depressed and discordant state of things which then existed. But, among the many causes of improvement, perhaps none was more effi- cacious, even for the temporal prosperity of ". the people, than the great religious revival which occurred in the valley in 1818.
The history of no community, whether great or small, can be complete without some rela- tion of its morals and religious character .- Some account of the religious and ecclesias- tical history of the valley seems to be required. The moral character of the people has already been referred to. No religious teacher at this time had ever been permanently settled there, nor had any church or ecclesiastical society ever been organized in the valley, and but few of the settlers had ever made any public profession of religious faith. The settlement had been occasionally visited by a few devoted missionaries, particularly by the Rev. James Parker, who had occasionally labored there for a short time. A small society of Method- ists was in Potton, the Rev. Mr. Bowen was located there, and had occasionally preached in Troy. Public worship on the Sabbath had been but irregularly maintained, and, in many districts, for long periods of time, could hardly have been said to exist. The consequences of this deficiency of religious instruction were felt on the moral character, and finally on the temporal prosperity, of the people. A low state of moral feeling prevailed, and many instances of irregular conduct were connived at, which should not have been tolerated by any civilized or well-regulated community.
The reformation which followed can scarce- ly be accounted for, on any cause or principle which the world would call philosophical. Early in the Winter of 1817 and 1818, an unusual solemnity seems to have rested on the minds of many of the people, an indefinite feeling of man's accountability, that all was not well with them, that a state of retribution hereafter was to follow the trials and temp- tations of this probationary scene. But no
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particular cause for this state of feeling can be assigned ; no particular affliction, sickness, or death, or what is called common casualty, had occurred.
It is said that Asher Chamberlin, Esq., who, previous to his removal to Troy, had made a profession of religion and united with the church in Peacham, had attempted, in the Fall of 1817, to maintain some religious meet- ings in his house, by reading a sermon and other exercises on the Sabbath, and by con- ference and prayer meetings at other times. At the close of one of these meetings, he pro- posed to the audience that there should be an expression of their wishes, whether these meetings should be continued or not; and, unexpectedly to all, there was a unanimous expression of the desire of the assembly that the meetings should be continued. They were therefore continued with as much, or increas- ing interest.
About this time an inhabitant of Troy, on a journey to New Hampshire, found at Hardwick the Rev. Levi Parsons, a missionary employed by the Vermont Missionary Society, and who af- terwards finished his labors in Palestine, who was then preaching in that place, and invited him to visit Troy. He accepted the invitation, and arrived at Troy about the beginning of the year 1818. The first discourses of Mr. Parsons ex- cited a deep interest on the already moved minds of the people of the valley. But the story of his labors and of the reformation which fol- lowed.can best be told in his own words which are extracted from his memoirs published soon after his decease ;-
"In Troy and the adjoining towns I spent 11 weeks. The revival commenced upon the first of January and continues still with great power.
Three churches have been organized; two of the Congregational and one of the Baptist de- nomination. Troy contains 35 families. Pre- vious to the revival only one individual was known as a professor of religion, and only one family in which were offered morning and eve- ning sacrifices. From information, I have been led to believe that, in scarce any place did the sins of Sabbath breaking, swearing, and intox- ication prevail to a more alarming excess. Es- pecially for a few months previous to this every thing seemed to be ripening for the judgment of heaven. But He who is rich in mercy looked down in compassion. * * * *
quested the prayers of their Christian friends. On Thursday the fifth of February, assisted the Rev. Mr Leland of Derby, in organizing a church consisting of 12 members all of whom gave evidence of renewing grace. At the close of the exercises the sacrament of the Lord's supper was administered for the first time in Troy.
The season will ever be remembered with peculiar gratitude. * * * *
In vain was the virulence of the moralist, or the sneers of the infidel. Nothing was able to oppose, with success, the influences of the spirit.
No heart was too hard to be melted; no will too stubborn to be bowed ; no sinner too aban- doned to be reclaimed. The Sabbath-breaker, the swearer, the drunkard, were humbled at the footstool of mercy. Every house for a distance of more than 20 miles was opened for instruction.
The church was soon enlarged to 45 mem- bers, and many more were the evident subjects of grace. The neighbouring towns were blessed with the same outpourings of the Holy Ghost.
In Westfield I assisted in the organization of a church of 10 members. Considerable addi- tions have since been made and many are now inquiring 'What shall we do to be saved ?"
There have been a few instances of hopeful conversion in Potton and Sutton in the province of Canada. * *
* * All ages and classes have shared in the work. Among the number who have united with the church is the youth of fourteen, and the aged sinner of three score and ten."
The statements of living witnesses confirm all there is recorded by Mr. Parsons in his journal respecting the state of society in the valley pre- vious to the reformation occasioned by his la- bors there. The impression made by the prea- ching of Mr. Parsons is represented by all to have been profound, and a general spirit of in- quiry upon the subject of religion seems to have been awakened. It does not appear that Mr. Parsons, although a man of respectable abilities and learning, was possessed of any remarkable powers of oratory, but a deep feeling of love, sincerity, and earnestness, seemed to pervade his discourses, which appeared to come from the heart and to reach and melt the hearts of his hearers. It is not pretended that all sin and unbelief were banished from the valley by this reformation. Some were but slightly affected or were wholly unmoved, and some who then appeared to reform, and even covenanted to break off from their sins, returned to their evil habits, and in their after lives offered feeble evi- dence that their repentance was "unto life." Yet it is admitted by all that a favorable change was wrought in the morals and habits of the people, and that with very many individuals there was not only a renunciation of heaven-daring sins but a change in habits and conduct which told
At my first meeting I perceived an unusual at- tention. Every ear was opened to receive in- struction, and many expressed by their counte- nances and actions the keen distress of a woun- ded conscience. The ensuing week convictions and conversions were multiplied. At some of the religious conferences more than twenty re. on the temporal prosperity and peace of families
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and the community. Most of our religious so- cieties date their origin from that period. A Congregational church was organized in Troy and another in Westfield in 1818. A Baptist church was formed in those two towns in the same year. A Christian church was formed in Westfield in 1819.
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