USA > Vermont > Orleans County > The history of Orleans county, Vermont. Civil, ecclesiastical, biographical and military > Part 9
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Ellis Cobb built a fulling-mill for dressing cloth in 1803.
Joseph Owen set up a still for manufactur- ing whiskey in 1804.
Lemuel Sturtevant opened a store of goods in 1801, but continued the same only a short time.
In 1800, Mrs. L. Sturtevant made a quilt- ing and invited all the women in four towns, Barton, Brownington, Irasburgh and Glover. They all attended but one; two from each town except Barton.
TOWN CLERKS.
Abner Allyn, Jr., was town clerk from 1798 to 1803; John Kimball from 1803 to 1808; Ellis Cobb from 1808 to 1809; John Kimball 1 year ; Aberha Goodel, 1810,-'11, '12; Robert Rogers, 1812 to 1815; John Kimball, 1815 to 1831; T. C. Cobb, 1 year ; John Kimball, 1832 to 1838 ; A. C. Robinson, 1 year ; John Kimball, 1839 to 1842; Hor- ace Pierce, 1842 to 1848 ; Wm. Graves, 1848 to the present, 1868.
The first barn was built by Daniel Pils- bury. The raisers came from Lyndon, fin- ished the raising in the morning, and went back to Lyndon for breakfast.
Oct. 6, 1806, at the raising of a building in this town, they had the body of the frame up, but the beams not entered, when a gust of wind struck the frame and blew it down, killing one young man instantly, while not so much as breaking the skin. He had been drawing up a beam, and stood in a brace when the gale came. He jumped, but the plate struck across his shoulders. His face was jammed into the ground. He gasped but once after he was taken from under the timber.
HARDSHIPS.
The first settlers had to go to Lyndon and St. Johnsbury for all their milling and gro- ceries, 20 to 30 miles, no road but spotted trees, and bring them mostly on their backs.
Joseph Eddy, who wintered in Barton in 1795 and '96, used to be employed to trans- port their supplies. He brought for J. Rob- inson one time a five-pail kettle and half a bushel of meal, on his head. When most through he stopped at a spring and set his kettle down to drink and to rest awhile, and thought to leave the kettle by the spring and return for it. But, he stated, after start- ing a little way he could not keep his balance without the kettle, and returned for it and brought it through.
In October, 1796, Daniel Owens, a young man about 25 years of age, started on horse- back one afternoon to go to Lyndon. Night overtaking him, he tied his horse to a tree, took his saddle for a pillow, and camped out.
Two girls, Sally Haines about 16 years of age, and Almira, about 7 years, set out, near sunset, to go from Mr. F. Matthews' across the woods to Mr. B. Starkey's, about three fourths of a mile distant. When about half way through the woods they lost their path,
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and wandered until dark, when Sally sat down and held the little girl in her lap till morning. They had a large dog that kept with them, and they were found in the fore- noon of the next day.
The first coach came into this town in 1806. Hon. Daniel Owen and wife came to visit their children in a coach, and it was more of a curiosity to see than the locomotive of the present day.
In the Spring of 1809, the wolves were very troublesome among the sheep. There have been three wolves and quite a number of bears killed in this town. One year there were foúr bears killed in James May's corn- field and the woods near by. And there used to be moose in the woods east toward the Connecticut River. Joseph Abbot says he went out one time to bring in some moose meat. It was so far he could not get back the same day. In chopping a tree to build a fire to camp by, he broke his ax and had to camp without a fire, with only the moose-hide for a covering; and it was so cold he was afraid of freezing.
In the early settlement of this County, Daniel Young lived near the south corner of Barton, in the edge of Sheffield. He had one son, a dwarf, not so bright as some children. He went into the woods at one time to cut a whistle. His mother-upon missing him- started in search ; but, her voice echoing be- yond him, he only strayed deeper into the woods, and it was four or five days before he was found. All the men in Barton, Sheffield and adjoining towns, turned out to search the woods for him. When found, he had built him a house of small sticks, and was dancing round it. How he had subsisted is quite unknown ; but he was certainly in fine spirits, and when asked, to frighten him, if he was not afraid of the bears, he said, "Georgie Miller has catched all the bears."
SELECTMEN.
The following have officiated as selectmen : viz., Richard Newton, jr., James Salisbury, Philemon Kimball, Jonathan Robinson, S. S. Hemenway, Samuel Works, Lyndon Robin- son, Orin Cutler, John Colby, F. S. French, Thomas Baker, John G. Hall, I. K. Drew, Samuel Drew, Harris Smith, Abram Smith, Joseph Owen, jr., Wm. P. May, Daniel Smith, J. F. Brown, George Ireland, Cyrus Eaton, W. C. Parker, and Benjamin Mossman.
EARLY MERCHANTS.
Col. Bangs and Capt. Bigelow opened a store in 1805 ; Samuel Works in 1806; Abisha Goodel in 1809; R. Rogers went into trade with S. Works in 1809 and traded until 1812.
PHYSICIANS.
Elihu Lee commenced practice in 1802; Abner Phelps in 1809; F. W. Adams in 1813; Dr. Gregory in 1817; Silas C. McClary in 1819; Dr. Hoyt in 1823; Daniel Bates in 1836; F. W. Adams, who had some years before removed, returned here in 1821 and practiced until 1836; Anson Pierce practiced here in 1840; Hiram P. Hoyt came to the Landing to practice in 1841; George Fair- brother, Dr. Fisk, and Dr. Ranney have all practiced at the Landing. J. F. and R. B. Skinner have practiced in Barton since 1853. Rugles (homeopathy) has been in practice here 2 years.
GRADUATES.
John H. and John Kimball graduated at Dartmouth; Thomas Scott Pierson at Mid- dlebury College; Cephas Smith entered the University of Vermont, but died before he finished his studies ; Woodbury Lang entered the University of Vermont, but left before he finished his studies.
LAWYERS.
The first lawyer that came to reside in town was Asa King, in 1811, who only staid about 6 months ; Charles Davis, the second, came in 1816, and staid about 2 years ; J. H. Kimball opened his office in 1824; George Mason practiced in 1830; Thomas Abbot in 1846; John P. Sartle in 1850; George Tucker in 1857; W. W. Grout in 1858 ; Jonah Grout, jr., in 1865; John B. Robinson in 1865; Samuel S. Willard in 1870.
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS.
There were quite a number of the first soldiers of the Revolution. Jonathan Robin- son, David Pilsbury, Wm. Gould, Ebenezer Cross, Joseph Graves, Paul Seekins, John Brown, Joel Benton, Lemuel Sturtevant, John Merriam, Abraham Whitaker, Elias Bingham, David Abbott, Samuel Thacher, John Parlin, Joseph Hyde, David Hamlet, Capt. Samuel Wells ; and George Keyzer and John Adams, who lived in this town and died in Glover.
SOLDIERS OF THE WAR OF 1812. Royal Cross, Daniel Horham, Elisha Par- lin, Peter Cross, Nathan Gould, and James Gould were called out as militia for 3 month:
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Abraham Whitaker, Alexander Benton, and Seymour Benton were one year's men. An- drew Folsom lives in town, who served in the Florida war. John Folsom went into the Mexican war; has not been heard from since. There were a number of soldiers of the war of 1812, that enlisted from other towns, that have lived in this town, and died here : viz., Richard Newton, Moses Spaulding, Philip Colby, Laban Cass, Otis Peck, and Moses C. Varney. There are but two soldiers of the war of 1812 now (1868) living in town-Al- exander Benton and Enoch Fisk.
SMUGGLING.
In the month of March, 1814, the U. S. custom officers received information that a company of smugglers had crossed the line, intending to pass through this town. Accord- ingly, calling to their assistance some of the inhabitants of this town and Irasburgh, they went out to meet them ; which they did near the north line of the town, on the " Willough- by Hill." There they had quite a hard battle. Several were severely wounded, on both sides. But the smugglers proved too strong a force for the custom officers and their party, and they drove through ; having taken the precaution to send two ahead to see if there were likely to be any more obstructions in their way. After getting almost to Shef- field, they met their scout returning with the infomation that there was, at Sheffield, a force ready to meet them; and they turned round and came back to the village, called at that time " Barton Mills."
Their load consisted of cloths, steel, wire, and various other things. They managed to secrete some of it. The custom officers seized a part, and took two prisoners. The prison- ers were placed under keepers and taken to the inn of Jonathan Robinson ; whence they managed to escape the next day. A man drove into the yard, and going into the house left his team without hitching. The prisoners rushed out, and, jumping into the sleigh, drove off, not stopping until they had crossed the boundary.
In August, 1814, a drove of cattle was seized by the officers of the customs, and put into a back pasture, on Jonathan Robinson's farm. A party of men came from Canada to rescue them. In the darkness of the night, while hunting for them, one John Weare was accidentally shot in the leg. He was taken on horseback and carried to the first house in ) ed a public-house and kept tavern as long as
Brownington, where his limb was amputated by Dr. F. W. Adams; using a beech withe for his tourniquet, and a razor and sash-saw. The rest of the company made their escape to Canada.
In April, 1814, there were two pairs of saddle-bags, filled with steel, secreted by Da- vid Pilsbury. While the soldiers were sta- tioned in town he informed the commanding officer when it was going to leave, and where to set a guard to take it. A corporal and one private were directed to go south into the woods, in Sheffield, and waylay them.
When the men arrived, the soldiers stepped from behind a tree, and ordered them to dis- mount. The men begged the soldiers to let them go; but were told they must go back to camp. The soldiers drove the men, forward of them, back so far as Dexter's tavern; when the men asked the soldiers if they would take a drink; and stepped into the tavern and brought out each a tumbler of sling, handing it to them. While they were drinking, the men snatched their guns and knocked them from off their horses, breaking one's jaw and arm, threw the saddle-bags off and mounted their horses, and cleared for Barnet. The soldiers pressed every horse in the neighbor- hood that was fit to travel, and pursued them. When they came in sight of the house where the men were, the men leaped through a window in the back side of the house, and made their escape.
During the embargo there was a herd of cattle seized by the officers of the customs, and tied in E. Chamberlain's barn. Two men were placed in the barn to guard them. The smugglers, who were on the alert, waited till they heard the guard snoring, when one of their party slipped in and turned out the cattle, and drove them off.
ASA KIMBALL
built the first grist-mill in 1797. It had but one run of stone. The bolt was in the lower room with a spout carrying the meal from the curb into the head of the bolt. He built a new grist-mill in 1809, with two run of stone, on the spot where the mill now stands. This mill had an elevator to carry the meal up into the bolt. He built a saw-mill in 1798, just above where the grist-mill stands. He sold his mill to Col. Ellis Cobb in 1816 or 1817. He was a resolute and persevering man, and soon after he came into town open-
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he lived in Barton. He removed in 1816, to Candor, N. Y. where he stopped a few years and removed to Burlington, Ohio, where, in a few years, he died.
COL. ELLIS COBB.
Who bought out the mills of Kimball, was a native of Hardwick, Ct. He came to Bar- ton in June, 1803; purchased at first just land sufficient to set a fulling-mill upon, and the next year half an acre more for his dwell- ing house, barn and a place to set his tenter- bars. In 1807, he purchased the land and privilege to set up a carding-machine. A man by the name of Barret furnished the ma- chine, and Col. Cobb put up the building 15 by 15 feet, and carried on the carding upon shares. The first season Barret came round in the fall and Cobb bought the machine in 1813. He built the building now occupied for the carding-machine in 1814. He bought the mills and what real estate, Kimball had about the Falls in 1815. He also built a mill for hulling oats, but never did much at the business, Afterward Mr. Cobb went into company in the mercantile business with a Mr. Boardman. The first article they offered for sale was Turk's Island salt at $5.00 a bushel. They traded one year when Cobb bought out Boardman and traded one year alone and then took in Mr. S. Chamberlain as a partner and traded awhile with him and sold out to him. He was one of the first members of the Congregational organization in 1807, and its first clerk. He built the first meeting-house in 1820, and sold the pews. He represented the town a number of years and was justice of the peace a number of years; was town clerk one year; sheriff one year; and post master at the time of his death. Ellis Cobb and Abigail Chamberlain were married in Danville, Oct. 27, 1805: Tim- othy C. Cobb was born Oct 27, 1806; has heen town treasurer for the last 25 years.
JAMES MAY, ESQ. BY HON. I. F. REDFIELD.
James May was one of the earliest settlers in Barton, he came with his wife and one child to settle in this town on the first day of April 1796. He came in company with Mr. Asa Kimball, whose wife was a sister of Mrs. May. There were but two families in town before they came, Another family came the same month, making five in all. It is not important to enter much into the details of the hardships and privations endured by
them ; they were similar to those experienced in most undertakings of the kind by the first settlers of this country.
Mr. May came from Lyndon upon snow- shoes a portion of the way, certainly,-his family and stores being drawn upon sleds through a continuous forest of more than 20 miles. The entire County and some of the adjoining ones were then an unbroken forest without roads or dwellings except in a few places ; with no supplies for man or beast, and no means of obtaining any except from the earth itself. This spare and discouraging manner of subsistence continued through a long period. Many towns that had been con- siderably settled before the war of 1812 and the cold season that followed, were so com- pletely exhausted and discouraged thereby that they fled for shelter and support to more genial regions and never returned. The snows at that time fell very deep and contin- ued to cover the ground much longer than at the present day.
But friend May continued to meet all vicis- itudes with the same unruffled calmness and composure. His wife was the daughter of Hon. Daniel Owen of Rhode Island, a man of character and distinction in his day, who held the offices of Lieut. governor and judge of the supreme court of that State, at different peri- ods, and whose family had been tenderly reared and elegantly educated. Mrs. May had become devoted to the doctrines and usages of, and had united with the Society of Friends, the followers of George Fox. With this sect who are more commonly known as Quakers, her husband was connected after 1816. She was a lady of great energy and force of character and of very uncommon ability and a high degree of culture, and did very much, unquestionably, to form the charac- ter and ensure the success of her husband whom she survived a few years, and deceased at the advanced age of nearly 93 years on Aug. 28, 1865. Friend May lived to see great changes from an unbroken wilderness through- out almost half the northern section of the State. He lived to see it one of the most fer- tile and highly cultivated regions in New England, and from having no communication with the outer world whatever, he lived to see a railway train passing his own door al- most hourly, whereby distance was almost annihilated and the most of commerce brought to him instead of being wholly inaccessible,
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scientiously attempt it, and especially those who fairly maintain such a course, worthy of all praise.
Worthy of more than passing notice among the strong, clear-headed, and capable early settlers of Barton, is the subject of this sketch.
His life is one of the many illustrations af- forded by the records of pioneer settlements, to show the usefulness and influence of self- made men, to whom their very deprivations and hardships were made the means of disci- pline and culture. He was born Oct. 3, 1769, in Concord, N. H. His father, Dea. John Kimball, came originally from Bradford, Mass .- His mother's maiden name was An- nie Ayres, of Haverhill, Mass. Of the boy- hood and youth of Judge Kimball, we have little record beyond the fact that he enjoyed the limited common-school advantages which the then village of Concord afforded her chil- dren. His father was a deacon in the orig- inal Congregational church of Concord, and his own boyhood was passed under the min- istry of Rev. Timothy Walker, who has well been, styled-The father of the town. When he was 21 years of age, he settled on a wild lot of land in Vershire, Vt. After keeping " bachelor's hall" a few months, he secured a companion in his wilderness life, in the per- son of a school-mistress from Strafford, Miss Eunice White, to whom he was married Dec. 6, 1792. With her he enjoyed nearly 50 years of married life, and by her he had 12 chil- dren. Judge Kimball spent 4 or 5 years in Vershire subsequent to his marriage, and then moved back to Concord, where he re- mained till 1801, when he removed to Bar- ton. His family then consisted of 4 children, Annie, born in Vershire, March 2, 1794; John Hazen also born in Vershire, Aug. 30, 1795; Lucretia, born in Concord, May 19, 1797, and Mary, now the widow of Rev. Ora Pearson, and still living in Peacham, Vt., born in Concord, May 16, 1799. Soon after coming to Barton, he buried successively, a pair of twins and another child in infancy. Jan. 7, 1804, Frederick White Kimball, now living in Glover, Vt., was born ; Feb. 19, 1806, Eliza was born; Nov. 5, 1808 Sylvester Dana ; and Nov. 11, 1810, Clarissa, who as the wife of Milton Barnard, Esq., still lives in Barton. Of these children besides the three
as for many years of his residence in this town. He had been a magistrate for nearly half a century,-probably trusted and confided in by all-and was almost always selected as a JUDGE JOHN KIMBALL. talesman upon jury in the higher courts, if BY REV. WM. A. ROBINSON. present when such was required. He very often served on the petit and grand jurors in court and tried probably as many causes as court and juror, as almost any man in his county and was never suspected of any pred- judice or passion in his decision. He went to his rest at the age of 88 years, just 67 years, to a day, from the day he came to reside in Bar- ton. They had a numerous family, nine of whom came to maturity, but more than half of whom deceased before their parents. The writer feels that his intimate and confidential relations with the family, may in some de- gree have disqualified him from forming an entirely dispassionate estimate of the charac- ter of the parents or their family. They were surrounded by influences and subjected to a kind of training that was calculated to keep them quite aloof from the ordinary strifes and ambitions of social life, but they were on that account more free from extraneous and perverting appliances and might naturally therefore be expected to exhibit the fair re -. sults of innate faculties and domestic training. They were a family especially formed upon original models, and least of all subject to the slavish effects of conventional laws. But the writer believes that no family in northern Vermont was more exemplary in conduct, or more unexceptionable in character; but is aware that their isolation and pertinacious adherence to parental training did not always commend them to the admiration of those who regard themselves as subjected to a kind of serfdom as long as they are compelled to walk in any prescribed routine, although de- fined by the spirit of inspiration itself. The nature of our institutions and the arbitrary dictation of conventionalities in every depart- ment of social life has a tendency to render those who disregard its dictation less agreea- ble and less sought after by the mass of socie- ty, who are industriously pursuing the oppo- site course, and it is this very trait of follow- ing conscience rather than convenience, which Bo endeared friend May and his family to the writer. It is so rare now to find such a family, and it is so difficult for any one to maintain such a course with quietness and consistency, that we deem the few who con- I still living, Annie died in Barton, May 15,
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1815. John H. who was a prominent lawyer and citizen of Barton for many years, died Feb. 23, 1858. Lucretia, married in 1817, Jesse Kimball of Bradford, Mass. where she died Dec. 6, 1823. Eliza, died Oct. 1, 1820. Sylvester Dana, also a prominent and honor- ed citizen of Barton, died Oct. 9, 1856.
Judge Kimball was a man highly respected by his fellow citizens and selected by them to fill many positions of trust almost from the first of his residence in town. He was chosen town clerk in 1803, which office he occupied till 1842, excepting 9 years during which at different times the office was in the hands of others for brief periods. He was also chosen justice of the peace the same year, and his name appeared in the list of justices from that time to the time of his death. He also held the office of selectman at various times and for many years in the aggregate. He represented the town in the State legislature in 1807-'08-'09, and in various subsequent years, in all more than any other one man since the organization of the town. Between 1820-'30, he was for several years judge of probate for Orleans Co., and between 1830- '40 for 3 or 4 years assistant judge in the county court. While he was thus honored with the esteem and confidence of his fellow citizens, he was not inattentive to the honor that cometh from God. He was one of the original 18, who united in forming the pres- ent Congregational church, Sept. 24, 1817. He acted as moderator of the infant church at many of its meetings before any deacon or pastor had been chosen, and was a strong and influential member as long as he lived. He died May 9, 1844, at the age of 74.
Such is a brief and somewhat imperfect sketch of one of the early settlers of Barton, to whose lot it fell to endure many hardships and perform many labors, whose influence may not now be rightly estimated, but to whom the present generation in this town owe a debt they cannot expect to pay, save as they avoid his errors and imitate his vir- tues.
GLOVER POND IN BARTON.
When Glover Pond was let out, June 6, 1810, the water rushed with such force upon us as to take the trees up by the roots on the meadow the whole length of the township; and in some places the water spread 100 rods wide, and in other places rose 25 feet,-heap- ing the timber in large piles, some 30 feet
high. It swept every bridge from the stream, and one saw-mill. There was a log-house on the meadow 100 rods below where Roaring brook empties into the river. The family, consisting of a man and his wife, had started to go over the river to the mills. They had to cross the river on a log, and had got upon the log over the river, when they heard the roar of the water, and turned and made their escape. The water came nearly to the eaves of the house. There was a pan of milk upon the table. After the water had passed off, they found the pan of milk safe on the table, though the water moved the house about two feet. A large elm stump, below the house, prevented it from going off.
PONDS, RIVERS, ORES, ETC.
Lake Crystal-first named by the French Belle Lac, is a beautiful sheet of water in the south part of the township, 2} miles in length and ¿ mile in width.
Fuller Pond, in the west part of the town- ship, covers a surface of about 100 acres, and there is another small pond upon the east, that lies partly in Barton and partly in Shef- field and Sutton.
The principal rivers are Barton River and Willoughby. Barton River, the chief, runs through the town north and south.
This town is not surpassed in New England for water power for mills and factories .--- There are five dams within 100 rods below Crystal Lake. There are good falls on the stream that runs from Parker Pond in Glover; good falls on Willoughby River, that runs from Willoughby Lake in Westmore; two sets of falls on Barton River between Bar- ton Village and the lower corner of the town, besides the falls at Barton Landing. The brook that runs from the east corner of the town has good falls all the way to the lake. This stream is called May Brook, from its emptying into the lake on the May farm. There are two saw-mills on this brook. The . greatest curiosity in this town is the stone flume in this brook. About half a mile from the lake there is a channel in the granite rock, 150 foet or more in length by 8 feet wide and 20 deep. There is a saw-mill built over it.
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