USA > Vermont > Rutland County > The history of Rutland county, Vermont; civil, ecclesiastical, biographical and military, pt 1 > Part 77
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In this condition we find Nathaniel Wood and his followers when the hazel-rod was in - troduced, and the money digging commenced ; but the Woods did not commence it; that hon- or belongs to a man of another name; but they were in a condition to adopt this man's rod-notions, which they did with great effect in their work of deluding the people.
A man by the name of Winchell, as he call- ed himself when he came here, was the first man who used the hazel-rod. From what we have learned of him, he was, undoubtedly, an expert villain. He sought to accomplish his purposes by working upon the hopes and fears of individuals, and by a kind of sorcery, which he performed with great skill. The time he came here I cannot give, but it was, undoubtedly, sometime in the year 1799. He was a fugitive from justice from Orange coun- ty, Vermont, where he had been engaged in counterfeiting. He first went to a Mr. Cow- dry's, in Wells, who then lived in that town, near the line between Wells and Middletown, in the house now owned and occupied by Rob- ert Parks, Esq. Cowdry was the father of Oliver Cowdry, the noted Mormon, who claim-
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ed to have been one of the witnesses to Joe Smith's revelations, and to have written the book Mormon, as it was deciphered by Smith from the golden plates. Winchell, I have been told, was a friend and acquaintance of Cowdry's, but of this I cannot be positive ; they were intimate afterwards ; but Winchell staid at Cowdry's some little time, keeping himself concealed, and it is the opinion of some with whom I have conversed that he cemmenced his operations of digging for mon- ey in Wells, but I have been unable to deter- mine as to that. It is well known that there was a good deal of money digging in that part of Wells. Whether it commenced at the time spoken of when Winchell went there, or after- wards, is, to my mind, unsettled.
Winchell next turns up in Middletown, at Ezekiel Perry's in the Fall or fore part of the winter of 1799. Perry lived at the extreme south part of the town, on the road to Paw- let. Here he staid all Winter, keeping him- self from the public eye, practicing his arts of deception as he had opportunity to do so, without attracting too much attention ; and here he began to use the hazel-rod (whether he had before used it at Cowdry's, in Weils, I cannot say). He would tell fortunes, and do other wondrous things with it. In the Spring of 1800, feeling perhaps, a little more secure from those who desired to find him and bring him to justice, he gathered quite a num- ber about him from the immediate neighbor- hood, and told them there was money buried in that region, and with his rod he could find it, and if they would assist in digging it out, and forever keep it a secret, he would give them a part of the money. This they agreed to, and were all eager to commence digging.
Before we proceed further, we should, per- haps, say a word about this rod, which play- ed such a part in Middletown in this event- ful year. The best description we can give . of it is this : It was a stick of what has been known as witch-hazel-a small bush or shrub very common in this vicinity, It was cut with two prongs, in the form of a fork, and the person using it would take the two prongs, one in each hand, and the other end from the body. From the use of this stick Winchell and the Woods pretended to divine all sorts of things to suit their purposes. It is probably true that a hazel-stick, or perhaps any green stick, cut in this form, and held in this manner by some persons, will sometimes
move without any apparent cause. There is some natural cause for it. Whether it is at- tracted by water or mineral substances in the earth, or moved by the imagination of the per- son holding it, is a matter for the philosopher, not for me. This much is quite certain, it was then a very effectual implement with which to practice deception.
After Winchell had made his proposals to those whom he gathered about him, and they had been accepted, he had recourse to his rod to determine whether they were sincere in their promises to keep the money digging a secret. The rod, as he pretended, told him they were, and then he sallied out ; went on to the hill, east of Perry's house, holding his rod before him in the manner indicated, his dupes following after. On the hill, a little south of east of the upper Wait house, on the Tinmouth side of the line, his rod fell or made some motion, which told him, that they had reached the spot where the precious metal was buried. The men, under Winchell, im- mediately prepared themselves with shovels and other implements, and commenced dig- ging. They worked hard for two or three dayı, and becoming weary, their enthusiasm began to cool, and they began to show signs of giving out. Winchell held up his rod, got some motion from it, and told them the mon- ey wa in an iron chest and covered with a large stone, and that they would soon come to it. This had the effect to renew their en- ergies, and soon they did come to a stone or a rock, and were.at once wild with excite- ment. Winchell then again consulted his rod, and told his men they must wait awhile be- fore removing the stone or taking out the chest of money. It was now two or three o'clock in the afternoon, and this evil man, the better to accomplish his purposes, kept his dupes away from the place until nearly sundown, when they were provided with levers, handspikes and bars to remove the stone. Winchell once more astonished them with the motions of his rod, and told them if they obeyed his instructions, they would, in a few moments, be in possession of large sums of money. Ile impressed it upon thein, that the occasion was one of "awful moment," that there was a "divinity " guarding the treasure, and that if there was any lack of faith in any one of the party, or any should utter a word while removing the stone and taking out the chest, that this divinity would
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put the money forever beyond their reach, and besides he could not be answerable for consequences. Believing every word this vile man said to them, you can imagine, bet- ter than I can describe, the appearance and feelings of those men as they were prying and lifting away for two long hours at a stone so large that it was impossible for them to re- move it from its bed. The spell was broken at last. Some one of the party stepped on the foot of another, the latter crying out in pain, " Get off from my toes." Winchell ex- claimed with a loud voice, "The money is gone, flee for your lives!" Every man of the party dropped his bar or lever, and ran as though it was for life. Thus ended the dig- ging for money at this place. Winchell man- aged to get what little change these men had while they were digging, probably under the expectation, on their part, that they all would soon have money enough.
Soon after this affair Winchell made the acquaintance of the Woods, who, according to our theory, were then ripe for just such a scheme. As an old man told me, who lived here at the time, and professed to know all about it, " They (the Woods) swallowed Win- chell, rod and all." I may as well give the old man's name, it was Jabez D. Perry, who died in Middletown in the Fall of 1863. Per. ry gave me this account of Winchell. It being then new to me, I must say that I doubted its truth ; but in my researches since that time, I have found evidence, the most of it from living witnesses, to sustain Mr. Perry in every particular, except Winchell's management in the digging as above given-and I might well say that he is sustained in that, for it was all the same, or of similar character which fol- lowed, and was kept up until the next win- ter; the same romance attended it, the same imposition was practiced, and there was the same claim to a supernatural agency.
The Woods then commenced using the hazel rod and digging for money, which was in the Spring or early in the summer of 1800, and continued in this until late in the Fall, and some have said until into the Winter. Winchell was with thein, but it was not gen- erally known, he being concealed-the Woods were the ostensible managers. They did not handle the pick and shovel very much in the digging ; that part of the work was mostly done by those who were drawn into it by the Woods. A man by the name of Pratt did a |
good deal of the digging; he then lived on what has since been known as the Barber farm, and either at that time or before, owned it. But the Woods superintended the work, and were the men who handled the rod for the most part in those operations. Jacob Wood, known as Capt. Wood, one of the sons of Nathaniel, was the leader in the use of the rod. "Priest Wood." his father, seemed to throw his whole soul into the rol delusion, but his use of the rod was mostly as a medi- um of revelation. It was "St. John's rod" he said, and undoubtedly was very conve- nient for him, as he was much more fruitful in his prophecies than before-but Capt. Jacob was the man to find where the money was buried, and to use the rod at their public meetings. and on other occasions, thoughi all the Woods and their followers, had each a rod, which was used whenever they desired any information. If any one was sick, they sought the rod to know whether they would live or die, and to know what medicine to administer to them. In all their business matters, they followed, as they said, the di- rection of the rod, and with it they could, as they pretended, divine the thoughts and in- tentions of men.
The greatest part of their digging for mon- ey was on the Barber farm, and on the Zenas Frisbie farm, then owned by Ephraim Wood, though they dug in many other places in town. On the Frisbie farm, the farm on which I was born and raised, there are seven or eight places which still bear the marks of their dig- ging. At one place in the " notch," it has been said they dug to the depth of 70 feet, and from the appearances about the place, I should judge they might have gone to that depth. They were led to these places, or pre- tended to be, by the rods. Many of the old people have told me, that almost every day during that season, Capt. Wood, or some other one, could be seen with the two prongs of the rod twisted around his hands, in search for buried treasures. Whether they were dig- ging for and expected to find coin or ore, has often been asked of me. They talked the most about money, which they said had been buried in this region, which would mean coin of course, but my opinion is, that they had become so deluded that they had no distinct idea as to whether they were in pursuit of gold and silver in coin or in its natural state, but let this be understood as an opinion.
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Many not familiar with the facts, have sup- posed, and have said to me, that they were under the impression that the Woods acted upon the theory that those hazel-rods may Le attracted by metalic substances in the earth and hence their motion or working ; but they had no such theory as that; there was no show of reason in the affair from beginning to end, their idea was, that it was revelation, that it was made known to them through the medium of St. John's rod, and would be re- vealed to none others but God's chosen peo- ple. Nathaniel Wood's Jewish theory, (if I may so call it,) ran through the whole thing from first to last.
Many ludicrous stories which might be amusing to some, could be given, as related by the Woods and others, while they were digging. They dug some time in a cellar on the Barber farin ; there they came to a stone, and under it was the chest of money as they said. They run their bars down, and they would strike the chest ; then they would dig awhile-run down their bars again, and it would not be there. This would be repeated- sometimes the chest would be there, and then it would not. Once they raised it up and were on the point of taking it out, when their efforts became powerless, the chest would come no furthur. They then laid a Bible upon it, and went after some one to come and pray over it, but when they returned, the Bible and chest of money were both gone. This result they said was owing to the wick- edness or want of faith of some one or more of the party.
The rods-men, (such they were called,) be- came so infatuated as to give up nearly their whole time to this scheme. All the believers became wild fanatics. Besides those in Mid- dletown in this movement, there were several families in the south-east part of Poultney, now known as the Giddings neighborhood ; also several families in the north-east part of Wells, in the vicinity of the Giddings neigh- borhood. These were also digging for mon- ey, and were known as belonging to the rod- men.
Some facts may be given to show the delu- sion of those persons in this movement.
In Poultney, a young lady by the name of Ann Bishop, mysteriously disappeared ; no one could give any clue to her whereabouts. The Woods were sent for, and came. It be- came known, and large numbers had collect-
ed, it being on the sabbath day, from Poult- ney, Middletown and Wells. The rod was brought into requisition, and pointed to a certain place in Wells pond, which runs up into the south part of Poultney. The conclu- sion was that the lady was drowned in that place, and the next thing done was a prepar- ation to get the body. Ropes, chains and hooks were procured, and logs were drawn up, a horse-blanket and some other matter, but no human body. She was drowned there, the rods-men said, they were sure of that. She afterwards made her appearance.
The Woods at one time had it revealed to them, that they must build a temple. They got out the timber for the frame, got it raised up to the rafters, when they had another rev - elation that that work must be discontinued, and nothing more was done on the temple. From the time the Woods began to use the rod and dig for money, which was in the Spring or early Summer of 1800, they and their followers were every day becoming more heated in their zeal, and by the December fol- lowing, it became evident that a crisis would soon be reached. "Priest Wood " was becom- ing so loud and vehement and so frenzied in his favorite theme of God's judgments upon the wicked Gentiles, that it was not difficult to perceive that a paroxysm and collapse were near at hand. It was revealed to them, that on a certain night there would be au earth- quake-that immediately prior to the earth- quake the "destroyer " would pass through the land and slay a portion of the unbeliev- ers, and the earthquake would complete the destruction of them and their worldly posses- sions. The day on which they predicted that this would occur, was the 14th of January, 1801. This I have determined from a letter which I have received from an old gentleman who was present on the occasion.
When the day arrived for the earthquake, the Woods and their friends all collected at the house of Nathaniel Wood, jr., who then lived on what has been known as the Micah Vail farm, which is now owned and occupied by Crockee Clift, and as they left their own houses, prepared them for the earthquake by putting their crockery on the floors, and wrote on each of their door-posts : " Jesus our pass- over was sacrificed for us." The rods-men, or those who handled the rods, among whom Capt. Wood was chief, were at Nathaniel jr.'s house early in the day. One of their duties
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on this occasion was to determine who were and who were not to be saved from the ap- proaching destruction or "plague," as they called it, and to admit such into the house, and those only, who were to be spared. The occasion was with them the Passover, and how they kept it will pretty fully appear from the letter above alluded to.
Up to the evening of this day, the people of the town had looked unconcerned upon this folly of the Woods, but now they became suddenly aroused, and many were very much alarmed. They feared some evil might befall some of the inhabitants during the night. They (the Gentiles,) had no belief in the Wood's predictions, but feared that they or some of their followers would themselves turn " de- stroying angels " and kill some of the inhab- itants, or get up an artificial earthquake by the use of powder, which would result in in- jury to persons or property. Capt Joel Mi- ner was commander-in-chief of the militia in town, and hastily collected his company. Capt. Miner was a very energetic, as well as a very earnest man, and I should judge from all accounts, was at this time very much alarmed for the safety of the inhabitants. General Jonas Clark was at the time one of his subordinate officers, and was teaching a singing-school which had assembled at the house of Mr. Filmore. Capt Miner came in much excited, reprimanded him for his indif- ference in the matter, and ordered him to duty. He left his singing-school at once, and took his place in the militia. The General was not in the habit of neglecting his duty, but he was a philosopher, and it is probable that he "didn't think there would be much of a shower." Capt. Miner stationed his com- pany as sentinels and patrols in different parts of the town, with directions to allow no per- son to pass them unless a satisfactory account of themselves could be given, and especially to have an eye out for the "destroying an- gels." The town had a quantity of powder, balls and flints, as the law then required ; these were kept in the Congregational meet- ing-house in a sort of cupboard under the pul- pit. From this the militia were supplied with the requisite ammunition, and Jonathan Morgan was left here to guard the military stores. There was no sleep that night among the inhabitants ; fear, consternation, great ex- citement and martial law prevailed through- out the night-but the morning came with-
out any earthquake, or any injury done to any of the inhabitants or their property, ex- cept Jacob Wood's crockery was broken up in his house, where he left it on the floor. A journeyman hatter in the employ of Dyer Leffingwell said he thought " the earthquake hadn't ought to go for nothing," and went into the house, (it was where Lucius Cope- land, Esq., now lives,) in Capt. Wood's ab- sence to attend the Passover, and broke up and destroyed his crockery. That was the extent of the mischief so far as the destruction of property was concerned, and no individu- al received any bodily harm. The militia were dismissed in the morning and went to their homes.
I shall now introduce the letter to which I have alluded. It is from Rev. Laban Clark, D. D., a man over 90 years old, as I am in- formed, who resides in Middletown, Ct., and is still in a good degree in the enjoyment of his faculties. Mr. Clark was with the Woods on the eventful night.
" In the year 1801, I travelled in the north part of Vermont, and in lower Can- ada. I met at that time a man who told wonderful stories of finding St. John's rod, and the strange things it accomplished. Nov. 1, 1801, I went to Brandon circuit, which then included all of Rutland County I heard on arriving there, much talk of the rod men. People were saying that certain persons were directed by rods to certain roots and plants that they used to cute diseases, in many cases which they thought alinost mi- raculous. In December, I went to Poultney for my first appointment there ; and was in- formed that two young women had been fol- lowing the rods in a severe cold and dark night over places where men could scarcely go by day-light. I went thence to Middle- town, where I preached in the house of Mr. Done, the only Methodist family in the place. After the close of the services the people be- gan to inquire of Mr. D. about the " girl's tramp ;" and I learned that his daughter was one of the young women above mentioned. When I could see Mr. D. alone, I conversed with him upon the subject. He told me that many people in America were, unknown to themselves, Jews, and these divining-rods would designate who they were. I asked him to let me see one of the rods. After some hestation, he did so. I asked him to learn by it whether I were a Jew. The rod immediately pointed towards me. I said then, " T? that is true, please tell me to what tribe I Selong ?" He tried several different tribes, but there was no motion of the rod. I they said, " I think I belong to the tribe of Jose .h." At once the rod pointed towards me; th as proving to my satisfaction that it Was moved by the imagination of the person
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who held it. I felt anxious for the result of all this but said little.
" At my next appointment in Poultney, Bro. Done met me there. He looked so very dejected, I feared he had come for me to at tend some funeral service for a friend. I ask- ed for his family, and for the cause of his sor- row. "O," said he, "the judgments of God are abroad." He then said they had de- termined to spend the next day as a day of fasting and prayer, and he desired me to go and be with them. Accordingly, accompa- nied by Mr. Yates and Esquire Wells, I went. When we arrived, old Priest Wood was lec- turing, on the words, " Thy judgments are made manifest," Rev. 15; 4. When he closed I announced my appointment to preach at Mr. Done's that evening. I was asked to change the place to the one we were now in, as seats were there all ready. I consented. I went to Mr D.'s to tea and found a great deal of secret manœuvering going on. To give them all freedom I went to the barn for a time. On my return, I found posted on the door, " Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us." I said nothing, but went to my meeting. After preaching, several persons commenced holding up rods, and running from one end of the room to the other
prepared to leave, when Bro. D. came to me much agitated, and expressed sorrow that I could not stay at his house that night " Where will I go ?" I said. He replied. "O, you will fare as well as the rest of us." So I sat down. We were soon ordered to go to the house fixed up for the occasion-a school room where they had made a large fire. They all came in much agitated, many weep- ing. I found they were expecting there was to be an earthquake. I conversed with sev- eral respecting those that had the rods. They professed to have been converted but all the evidence I could gain of the fact was that the rods would work in their hands. We sat there till morning light. As morn- ing dawned they went out and looking up- ward, kept working the rods. At last the old minister said : " O, I told them I thought it would not be until to-morrow night." Soon after light I went to Bro. Done's and asked to take a nap. On passing through the parlor I found all the crocker; setting in the middle of the floor. After sleeping, I was taking my breakfast, when two men came in and said they had found out the whole mistake. They had thought because the rods had directed them to have all their goods packed up, that there was to be an earthquake. But this was the 14th day of the first month, (it was the 14th of . an.) and on the 14th day of the first month the child- dren of Israel were directed to keep the Pass- over with shoes and hats on. So the / were directed now to keep that day until they were prepared to go into the New Jerusalem. I made no remark, but concluded they had now something to work on to deceive the people.
" After eight weeks I had another appoint- ment to preach in the same place. When I
inquired of Bro. Done respecting the rois. He seemed perfectly honest and sincere. bnc all in earnest and perfectly duped. He to.1 me the rods were able invisibly to remove gold and silver. He said they had found that there was a vast quantity of it in the earth, and the rods could collect it to one place. They were now doing the work and expected to get enough to pave the streets of the New Jerusalem. I asked if the gold came in its native state or in currency. He said in both. I then asked him if ther bal any person who understood refining gold ? He said they hal one who understood it ner. fectly weil. " Where is he," I said. " He keeps himself secreted in the woods," he re- plied. I asked his name, and he told me it was Wingate I remembered at once : it was the name of a man who was detected abou: two years before in Bradford, Vt., in milling counterfeit dollars. My father having been selectman of the town at the time, I had known the case well After some reflection, I said to Bro. Done " I tear there is counter- feiting going on, and if you are not careful, I fear you will be drawn into it and your rep- utation and your family ruined." He was alarmed. I said " I think I can tell you how to escape. If my fears are correct, ther will call on you for sums of money, and will want it in specie." He replied they had a .- ready done so. I advised him then to put away his rod and quit them, or he was 3 ruined man. Four weeks after that, when I returned, he told me he had not seen his rol since I left. I asked him to burn it. He replied his wife knew where it was, and left the room. She brought it and I burned it. " I ascertained afterwards that the eldest son of Priest Wood, called Capt. Wood, was the principal religious mover in sicht while Wingate kept concealed. Wood was Win- gate's outside agent, and got up the religious excitement to aid the scheme.'
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