USA > Vermont > Orleans County > The history of Orleans county, Vermont. Civil, ecclesiastical, biographical and military > Part 63
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into Canada, taking into my retrospect Stan- stead Plain and Memphremagog Lake. Af- ter enjoying the prospect for a while both with my naked eye and through a glass, I went to the top of the frightful precipice which overhangs the "Garden of Eden," from which a view of the lake is obtained which far exceeds description. Standing there, 2000 feet above its surface, gazing into its glassy
waters, what description will suffice for it? I will only say, admirer of the grand and beautiful, here is the place where your eye can drink its fill. Long will a view from the top of Mt. Pisgah furnish reflections for a lonely hour, and while away a pleasant eve in narrating it to friends. The sun had already begun to wane in the heavens and warned me not to stay, so I made haste again for the Lake House, which is elegantly construct- ed for the place, and, to render it still more pleasant, there is a large fountain in front in which the numerous fish sport, -taken from the lake and placed there for the con- venience of catching when wanted. Having another hour to spend, I took a carriage and rode up the side of the lake. It would have seemed to the common observer to have been a thing impossible, to construct a road between Mt. Pisgah and the lake, so abrupt does the mountain rise from the water, yet it has been accomplished, and the stage connecting Island Pond with St. Johnsbury, runs daily through this wonderful pass. As I looked at the rug- ged mountain and the smooth, calm lake, the road seemed nothing in comparison, yet it shows the energy and perseverance of man. As we see the mighty rocks cleared away by him, the fearful chasms crossed, ground at an angle of 45 degrees rendered level, and in fine a road made where it was almost impossible for the footmen to pass, we can but ask what will not man yet accomplish. As the declining sun was about passing behind the mountain upon the west of the lake, I lin- gered a few minutes to witness a sunset scene.
I have read of beautiful sunsets at Palestine and other places, have seen them represented on canvas with the imagery of life, yet I can say that a sunset scene at Willoughby Lake surpasses any thing I have witnessed, and if described by a graphic writer, or por- trayed by a master of the pencil, it would be as far-famed as the sunsets of Italy or any other land of genius and fine arts. I had now seen all I could see that day, and drove away
from those pleasant scenes richly paid for my trouble. Foreign scenes and descriptions gen- erally engross our ideas, yet I think that home scenes ought to claim a part, especially when they can only be equaled by foreign sights.
ALBANY.
DOCTOR DYER BILL,
the present M. D. of Albany, came from Cab- ot into town in 1819, when the country was new ; since which time he has been the only permanent physician in town. Several have tried their skill for a short time in this place, and left. The Doctor has raised a large fam- ily, and laid up some money. The Doctor was very poor, as to money, when he came here. He bought a small farm at the center of the town, cleared it up, and built a fine set of buildings there, and lived there until about 4 or 5 years ago, he sold out his farm and bought a residence in Albanyville. He rides more or less every day, and is hale and hearty now. The Doctor's family consist- ed of five daughters and one son by the first wife, and 5 sons by the second. Two of the daughters married and lived in town. One is dead, and the others and their husbands are all in other parts. Of the 5 younger boys, all are in the mercantile business, except Curtis and Dwight. The latter is in Pennsylvania, while Curtis chose the profes- sion of his father ; and many hoped he would stop in town and take his father's place. In- stead, he is in Tennessee.
[To the Doctor the writer acknowledges his indebtedness for assistance and encouragement in getting up the history of this town.]
" ALBANY-35 Catholic families ; a neat frame church has been erected this Summer, (1869) by Rev. Mr. McCauley of Stanstead Plain, from which place the church is attended once every month, on a Sunday.
LOUIS, Bp. of Burlington."
BARTON.
The promised biography of General or Col- onel Wm. Barton not having been, to this date, received, and yet expectant of an inter- esting paper on this old heroic captor of Pres- cott, we shall defer the partial sketch, we only now have, till we can give hereafter the complete one .- Ed.
THE ORLEANS COUNTY JUBILEE CELEBRATION was held at Barton, Sept. 7, 1870. The mem- bers of the several churches, to the number
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of 120, gathered at 10 o'clock, A. M., upon the Fair Ground, and, after the election of officers of the day, music by the Derby Band and a choir, and prayer by Rev. Dr. S. R. Hall, a number of brief addresses were made by the following gentlemen : L. H. Thomp- son, Craftsbury ; Dea. Benj. Comings, Greens- boro; Rev. Wm. A. Robinson, Barton ; Hon. E. A. Stewart, Derby ; S. K. B. Perkins, Glover ; Rev. A. C. Childs, Charleston ; Capt. O. H. Austin, Barton Landing ; Geo. A. Hin- man, M. D., West Charleston ; Rev. S. Ranney, Holland ; Rev. John Rogers, Derby ; Dea. West, Charleston ; Rev. E. P. Wild, Crafts- bury; Rev. Geo. H. Bailey, Newport; Rev. A. W. Wild, Greensboro : then prayer by Rev. J. P. Demeritt, Albany. Dinner followed, upon the ground-each town liad a table. Rev. J. P. Otis opened the afternoon session by prayer, after which President Angell, of the Vermont University, delivered the memorial address. Altogether, the occasion was de- clared, by those present. highly interesting.
JAMES MAY, PAGE 1229.
Thomas May, son of James, says that his father, on his way to settle in Barton, stopped at Lyndon, and staid till after sugaring-prob- ably about the last of April-while his mother went on April 1, (1796) with the family of Asa Kimball, to Barton. There were only two fam- ilies in the town earlier than Mr. Kimball and Mr. May, viz. David Pillsbury and Jolın Ames, who commenced the first of March, or about 3 weeks before the arrival of Kimball's family and my mother.
The settlement was commenced in Glover in 1795, for my father in that year had been to Westfield, and came out through Craftsbury, by the Hazen road, and passing through Glo- ver, came out into Vance's felled trees in that town.
The first marriage in Barton was that of John Brown, jr. and Polly Foss, June 2, 1803, by Jona. Allyn, justice. The first natives of the town married were Eben'r S. Allen and Anna Boynton, October, 1823, by justice.
The wife of Dr. Lee taught the first school in town.
Barton has an inhabitant, a Canadian, who bears the simple name of Joe. By no other cognomen is he called, and his wife is mention- ed only as " Mary." They live happily togetli- er in a little house on farmer Saulsbury's estate, and claim to be 100 and 90 years old, respect- ively .- Free Press and Times, (1860.)
PENSIONERS FOR REVOLUTIONARY AND MILI- TARY SERVICES IN 1840.
Merrill Pillsbury, aged 44 ; Samuel Russell, aged 43;
Joshua Johnson, aged 76 ; Ebenezer Watson, aged 42.
U. S. Census.
Hon. Samuel A. Willard died suddenly at his residence in Barton the 14th ult. Judge Wil- lard was many years a practicing lawyer in La- moille county, and was generally and favorably known throughout the State. For the last ten years or more he resided at Barton. He has held many offices of honor and trust-always enjoyed the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. At a ripe old age, in the confidence of a Christian faith, he has gone to his rest .- Freeman, (186 -. )
" At the recent muster of the 5th Reg't of mi- litia at Barton, there were present doing duty as private soldiers, three clergymen in regular standing as such, and at the present time preach- ing the gospel, the three selectmen of the town of Greensboro, the editor of the Newport Ex- press, and a corporal reputed to be worth $150 000, all volunteers, and all displaying a sol- dierly pride in the performance of their duty .- Newspaper since the war.
" BARTON-One of the priests of Stanstead comes every month to visit the Catholics living about this village. There are abont 40 families, chiefly from Canada. As yet they have no church of their own.
LOUIS, Bp. of Burlington."
BROWNINGTON.
Brownington, Nov. 23, 1870. MISS HEMENWAY :-
I have returned from a tour, to lecture in several towns, Johnson, Troy and West- field. I have hardly time to look up the history and titles of the various books I have published at different times and places. Such a history has been given in a history of Croy- don, N. H., my native town.
The first of much consequence was the Outlines of the Geography and History of Vermont, in 1827, published at Montpelier ; and the next, my Lectures to Teachers on School-Keeping, published in Boston, 1829, of which 10,000 copies were purchased by the State of New York, and a copy sent to each school district in the State.
Lectures on Parental Responsibility and the Religious Education of Children, publish-
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ed in 1834, at Boston, and republished in England same year.
Lectures to Female Teachers, History of the United States, Things Which Every Boy Can Do, English Grammar, Arithmetic, Child's Geography, were published at Boston or An- dover, between 1836 and 1840.
Several small books have been published at different times, of which I do not retain a copy.
The School History and Geography of Ver- mont, you doubtless have.
Had I time, before this letter must go to the office, I would write a fuller account. - My age was 75 years, Oct. 27, 1870.
I was glad to learn that you are so near through with Orleans County.
In haste,
Yours, &c. S. R. HALL.
DR. CURRIER'S LETTER ON THE ORIGIN OF THE BLACK-BOARD.
Newport, Vt., Nov. 15, 1870.
MISS HEMENWAY-
A few days since, Rev. S. R. Hall, LL.D., of Brownington, stopped at my house, and, during the visit, which was a very welcome one, as all his acquaintances testify, he gave me an outline of the history of the origin of the black-board now so commonly used in this county. He first used it in Rumford, Me., in 1816, to illustrate arithmetic; the first one was a large sheet of dark paper which could be marked upon and erased easily.
At first the inhabitants of the district ridi- culed this novel method of demonstration, but he persisted in its use and to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. His object was to enable the scholar to have confidence enough in himself to demonstrate examples to others and thus become better qualified for teaching. He afterwards used this method of illustration in several other towns of Maine which made him successful and popular as a teacher.
In 1822, at Concord, he had the plastering painted black and used in the same manner as black-boards are now used. About this time this method was adopted in a large num- ber of the schools of this County, using boards as well as painting the plastering .- Here you have the history of the black-board.
He also invented the eraser, made of a small piece of board of convenient size and tacking on a piece of sheepskin tanned with
the wool on. This, I believe, is now equally as good as any invention of more recent date. Here let me state that Dr. Hall was the orig- inator of normal schools, but beyond this statement, I can give you no facts.
Dr. Hall has spent much of his time in geology and mineralogy, although by no means neglecting his theological duties, for I think he deserves the D. D. quite as much as he merits the LL. D.
He will now ramble over our ragged hills in quest of some rare specimen of rock, even to tiring out of some of the youngest of us who de- light in the same sciences, but probably shall never arrive to his ripe age and enjoy it to ecstacies as he now does. He says it is great satisfaction to him to sit down and look over his cabinet, and fully believes he is 15 years younger than he would have been had he not these pleasures.
Yours very truly,
J. M. CURRIER.
TIIE PLEASURES OF MEMORY. AN EXTRACT. By Clara P. Joslyn.
See that aged, hoary-headed pilgrim, Just now waiting at the river's side ; Ile has passed life's busy, rushing whirlpool, And is resting at its eventide.
Scarcely can lie recognize the faces That but yesterday by him were seen ; While his childhood's early scenes and places, In his mind are ever fresh and green.
So may we upon youth's verdant meadows Plant a seed that shall in time find root, And, when round us fall life's evening shadows, It will yield abundant wealth of fruit.
All the richest stores of earthly grandeur, Guard them with the fondest care we may, Are exposed to loss, decay, and danger, And on unseen wings will fly away.
But, within this wondrous, mystic store-house, Rest onr treasures, free from earthly soil; If with care we always guard the doorway, Never foes may enter to despoil.
Doubly sad, indeed, would be the parting, When to loving friends we say farewell, Could we not, on memory's pinions starting, Backward fly, in thought, with them to dwell.
Then the heart o'er visions bright rejoices, Viewing faces known in days of yore, Almost can we catch their loving voices, As we stand within the mystic door.
This will make the misty sunbeams brighten, Make hem linger round our onward way ; And, when gathering shadows darkly threaten, Memory's golden lamp will light the day.
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CATHOLIC.
" Brownington, Charleston, Coventry, Crafts- bury, Derby, Glover, Irasburgh, Holland, Jay- the few Catholics who live in these towns at- tend Divine service at Albany, Stanstead, Low- ell or Salem.
LOUIS, Bp. of Burlington."
" The first grog shop in Orleans county is said to have been kept in Brownington, near where Wm. Baxter built his large house-upon the same farm upon which Major Smith set out the great orchard .- A. ALLYN.
Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Rysly, of this town, cel- ebrated their golden wedding Nov. 14, 1870.
·
Judge ELIJAH STRONG kept tavern, but did not kcep liquor to sell. He and his wife were worthy members of the Congregational church. The father of the Judge was a wealthy Con- necticut merchant-and it is said, gave the Judge $60,000. He purchased Brownington and Brownington Gore, and lived and died here in his old age. He had 4 roads cut out. One was called the main road-the one from New- bury to Derby. The part he built was from the main road to Westmore, which caused quite an. early settlement on the road to Westmore line. He also made a road to Irasburgh, and one to Coventry, and mended the poor muddy road to Navy, which was over wet land. He started a fine settlement, kept a nice tavern, and he and his wife helped the poor and needy, and kept the minister. In 1814, the settlement in the east part of the town was left for some years. Hc finally let the State of Connecticut have his wild lands.
ALPIIA ALLYN."
BROWNINGTON GORE
was bounded by Charleston, Salem, Derby, Holland and Caldersburgh. To the soutli- east in old Caldersburgh is Scymore Lake. one of the finest sheets of water in Vermont.
From the beginning of the settlement the Gore people, and the people from the east cor- ner of Salem, met together at Brownington to do their trading, and later at West Charles- ton, which accounts for the greater number of stores at West than at East Charleston. The first inhabitants of the Gore came in to make salts of lye. They also made birch brooms and trays, fishcd and dug wells, &c., for a living ; and they carried their salts, brooms and trays 9 to 12 miles to Brownington, till after the embargo -and later to Stanstead, Canada, which they usually exchanged for whisky and provisions.
into two parts. The Island Pond depot now stands on the part put into Essex Co. This part was put on to the town of Wenlock Oct. 10, 1801, and remained in Wenlock till put on to a part of the town of Brighton and a part of the town of Wenlock being put on to the town of Ferdinand. The town of Ferdinand is situated upon the great railroad. The remaining part of Caldersburgh and Whitelaw's Gore, and Brownington Gore, were made into the town of Morgan, October 19, 1801.
Brownington Gore was granted to the same proprietors as the township of Brownington ; 40 acres to each right-and this Gore was said to be the best land in the County. The settlement was caused by Judge Strong. The settlers, by paying an annual interest, had as many years as they wished in which to make their payments- but in the paying of their interest had as many hardships as any town in the county.
Among the first settlers of Brownington Gore were David Hamblet, David Hamblet, jr., Sam'l Kellam, Enos Bishop, Enos Harvey, Flint R.Fos- ter, James Ingerson. Wm. and Ruel Cobb, Jo- seph Mansur, - Wellar, - Stiles, Samuel Elliot, - Hedge, James, and G. L. Varnum.
ENOS BISHOP, the first settler of Random, now Brighton, was also one of the first settlers of the Gore. A daughter of his married Em- mons Stockwell, of Lancaster, N. H. Stockwell, one winter, had two holes cut in the ice of the Connecticut river for his cattle to drink from. Driving down liis cattle to this place one day, accompanied by Jerry Bishop, the young son of Enos Bishop, the first settler at the Gorc, he saw the boy. to his great alarm, go down through one of the holes-but to his equal joy the next moment come up through the other.
This same Jerry, and his son Jerome, served in the late war for the suppression of the re- bellion, and they are both alive at this date, (February, 1870.)
The writer had knowledge of the Gore peo- ple, as they used to put up with Abner Allyn,
The first reformation in the Gore was about 1810. It was Methodist and Christian. Elder Jolın E Palmer, from Danville, preached. One [ of the converts was Lotty Stiles, a fine young woman who was engaged to a Mr. Cobb, a wor- thy young man who lived on the Gore, and was well to do, but had no part in the reformation. Another young man, one of these new-turned converts, came to her and said that lie had a message from God to marry her. The too credu-
When the line was made between Essex and Orleans County, old Caldersburgh was cut lous but guileless Lotty, in the fervor of ber new
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zeal, could not doubt the word of a convert, and, considering it would be more compatible for a convert to have a convert husband, con- sented, on condition that the young man to whom she was promised would release her. Mr. Cobb, on learning her wish, agreed-which no sooner done, this Judas convert refused to re- deem his promise, and poor Lotty went crazy .- Her sister Polly married David Hamblet, and her father moved back to Danville, from whence he came, and for years Lotty traveled back and forth between her sister's at the Gore, and her father's at Danville, where she died.
David and Hannah Hamblet had 5 daughters. Their husbands were J. Richards, Seth Blodg- ett, Enos Harvey, James Ingerson and Flint R. Foster. Pliny, son of Flint R. Foster, married Mary, sister of Joseph Kellam, one of the con- verts of the reformation, and one of the most powerful preachers of the Methodist circuit .- He was son of Samuel Kellam, a well digger, and one of the first settlers of the Gore.
In the time of the embargo, Benjamin Var- num, a Revolutionary soldier, stopped, in Old Caldersburgh, two men who were smuggling a drove of cattle into Canada, and made them turn back and take another road which led by Eber Roberson, and they were taken, as Roberson was a democrat.
ALPHA ALLYN.
CHARLESTON.
ADDITIONAL PAPERS FROM ALPHA ALLYN.
The 2nd div. draft of this township was made Aug. 28, 1809; the 3d. June 9, 1828. The 2d division was made on paper with prop- er corners, but the corners were made in some places on ponds, or bog-meadows where one could not stand without sinking out of sight. Time, however, which is hardening these flats, will enable the corners yet to be made, except in ponds. It was the design of the original proprietors that each should have at least one good 1st div. lot. Only good land was to be first lotted and the rest left for after di- vision. General Whitelaw selected and marked 69 of what he called such lots, which were drawn by box and draft. Some how- ever got poor 1st. div. lots and No. 88 was left out of the draft. In the 2d division were part of the meadows above the pond on Clyde river, too low for cultivation ; but if the mills above the Great Falls were taken away and the bar of rocks cut down, these meadows might become cornfields which would
add many thousands to the value of the town, and these tracts can now be purchased at rates that offer a rare opportunity to capitalists.
ORRIN PERCIVAL,
wife and son Erastus, in 1805, moved on to 50 acres of No. 12, gift land, and built a log- house and framed barn-His son Olney was the third child born in town. Mr. P. after- wards sold out and purchased half of lot No. 11 where he built another log-house and log- barn. . The barn was used for a school-house. In the summer of 1809, the school consisted of Mr Percival's three children and three chil- dren of Robert Hunkins. One day, this sea- son, Mr. Percival went to work for Mr. Hunk- ins and Mrs. P. accompanied him to pay a visit to Mrs. H. The children were sent to school. The house of Mr. Percival was a mile from Mr. Hunkins and the same distance from the school-barn. The house of Mr. P. took fire in their absence, and was consumed. This was the first house burned in town. The writer remembers when he arose the next morning before daylight finding Abner Allyn and his wife, dividing bed-clothes with Mr. and Mrs. Percival who went to living again in the empty house on No. 12. Abner Allyn went to Judge Strong's and other places, also in Brownington, for help for Mr. P., and wrote to the proprietors in Rhode Island, who sent money and other things. Mr. Percival, however, went to work for Judge Strong in Brownington and before Spring moved his family to that town; and thus this town lost & fim friend of schools and roads.
JONATHAN RICHARDS,
one of the first selectmen, son of Bradley Richards, married Dolly Hamblet,-children, Ira, Jacob. Joseph, Lucinda, and Anna, who married John Swasey, a Methodist preacher here with Royal Gage in 1835. Mr. R. made a good farm out of lot No. 7. He is remem- bered for never having given any thing to rich or poor, never having voted for a school- house to be built, or for any thing that would not do him any good.
PHILIP DAVIS,
son of Jonathan Davis, married Susan Colby of Sutton, N. H., and moved on to lot No. 8 in 1807, near Salem, 1} miles southerly from Abner Allyn, the nearest neighbor. The houses of Mr. Allyn and Mr. Strong were the nearest for 11 years. Mr. Davis was also 11 miles from any mill and 9 miles from
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a store or post-office. But his progenitors were good fariners, and said Davis and his wife were hard-working and prudent. He had to encounter with the love of whisky but was a good provider for his family and probably no man in the township had more hardships to procure their corn and oat-meal. When Brownington had got a store, Davis had only 2 miles to go to make his pur- chases. It was however through the worst road for mud in the county. For 15 years he traveled this road, made a good farm and erected good buildings, and lived here 40 years. His children never had any ben- efit from schools in this town. The first school-house built on No. 14 in 1822, was 3} miles distant, but Mr. Davis had to pay his tax on the school-house with the rest. In 1832, he, with several others in.district No. 14, got set off into a new district, and the new Philip Davis school-district built their own school-house without aid from any other dis- trict. Mr. Davis had also the honor of helping kill the first bear in town. The wife of Mr. Davis was baptised in 1820. They had chil- dren who grew up, Roswell who had two wives and raised a large family ; Sophia who mar- ried Ebenezer Scribner Jr., and has 3 children ; Cynthia who married Enoch Colby and has two sons. They are all good Seventh-Day people.
SAMUEL HUTCHINSON
came from Concord, this State, in 1813, and settled, the eleventh family in town. He had one son and 7 daughters. Mrs. Hutchinson was a member of the Congregational church in Concord. Mr. Hutchinson was baptized in 1818. These old settlers saw the hardest times of the new settlers. Some of the East Charleston settlers, however, had the hardship of the ten-miles wood to be traversed between them and Newark and 14 miles to go to the post- office or store, and would have had the hardest time, but for the undivided right No. 88, which the East Charleston settlers had a right to cut wood in, by paying $5, for the undivided share-which wood and timber being sold at Lyndon, the drawing of it kept the ten-miles road through Newark good through the win - ter and the men well employed.
IN 1819
grandfather David Senter started from West Charleston mill to go across the woods to his son Darius Senter's and was lost. The town rallied to search for him and he was found,
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