USA > Vermont > Rutland County > The history of Rutland county, Vermont; civil, ecclesiastical, biographical and military, pt 2 > Part 24
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REV. ELISHA RICH
Was the son of Elisha, who was born in Oxford, Mass.,-married Mary Davis, and located in Sutton, where he had the following children :
Elisha, the second son, was born April 7, 1740, and at the age of 14 years, apprenticed to a gunsmith, a trade which he learned and practised some years. He was pious from his youth, and at a very early age commenced preaching the Baptist doctrines. He married Phebe, "daughter of Nathaniel Bachelder and Experience his wife," of Brimfield, Mass., and located in Royalston, of which town he was one of the early settlers, and the proprietors thereof gave him, in 1771, the title to " set- tler's lot," containing 200 acres. " he having settled two families thereon, and in all respects done and performed the duty of two settlers on said lot."*
From Royalston he removed to Framingham, where he preached a short time, and from thence to Chelmsford, where he preached about two years, and was there ordained October 4, 1774. About the year 1777 he removed to Saltashı (now Plymouth) Vt., where he remain- ed about one year, and then moved to Claren- don, where he resided 5 years. He located in Pittsford in the spring of 1783, and on the forma- tion of the Baptist church the following year, was employed as their preacher ; though he was not installed till March 17, '85. He continued his pastoral labors with the church till April 23, 1803, when the church "voted to dismiss Elder Elisha Rich from the pastoral charge of this church, by agreement with the Elder and the church." Soon after the termination of his pastorate here, he removed to Pennsylvania, and located near Sugar River, a branch of the Susquehanah, where he and his wife soon af- ter died.
GEN. CALEB HENDEE.
As already stated General Hendee was born in Connecticut, and came to Pittsford in the early settlement of the town. His early school advantages were very limited; but he possess- ed a strong mind, and, by close application to study, soon become proficient in almost every branch pertaining to a thorough English educa- tion. But his principal forte was mathematics, to which he devoted a large share of his atten- tion, and in this department of learning became quite celebrated as a teacher, and young men from different sections of the country frequent- ly resorted to him for instruction.
* Royalston Recorda.
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His talents, promptness and energy soon be- gan to command the respect of his fellow-cit- izens. He was appointed land-surveyor when 19 years of age, being sworn into that office May 30, 1788, and appointed county surveyor for Rutland county in March, 1798, and survey- or-general in October, 1817. He was chosen one of the listers of the town in 1790, when but 21 years of age, which office he held more than 30 years; twice or three times he served as assessor under the General Government.
In 1821 and '24 he was chosen a delegate to the county conventions for those years, for equalizing the appraisals in the county. In March, 1793, he was appointed first constable and collector of taxes, and in October, '97, by the Legislature a justice of the peace-to which office he was re-elected from year to year till 1826, when he resigned. He was appointed first side or assistant judge of the county court in October, 1806, and judge of probate in '09 and '10. He was elected town clerk and town treasurer in March, 1800, and re-elected every year, with one exception, till '26, when he declined a re-election. He was appointed ensign in the 3d company of the 3d regiment of the 2d brigade, and 2d division of the mili- tia of the State, in 1794, and captain of the same company, Oct. 29, '95; major of the said regiment, Feb. 25, 1801; brigade major and inspector soon after; colonel, August 28, '07, and brigadier general, October 21, 1807, which office he held till October, 1810, when he re- signed, and was honorably discharged.
He was elected a representative from this town to the General Assembly of the State in 1803, and was re elected in the years '04, '06, '07, '09 '13, '15, '17, '20, '21 and '22.
In 1814 he commanded a company of volun- teers on an expedition to Plattsburgh, and joined General MeComb in the defence of that place; but did not arrive there till the day af- ter the battle was fouglit.
He was frequently appointed on committees by the Legislature, superior and county courts, to lay out roads, &c. It will thus be seen that he was one of the foremost men of the town, and his public services. extending from 1788, up to the time when the infirmities of age and failing health compelled him to retire to pri- vate life, are interwoven with a large propor- tion of the town's history. He died Dec. 4, 1854 aged 86 years.
HON. THOMAS HAMMOND
Was born in Newton, Mass., Feb. 20, 1762, and
at the age of four years was carried to Leices- ter, where he was bound to a farmer by the name of Denny, in whose service he remained 16 years. In 1778 he enlisted in the Contin- ental army, and was stationed several months at West Point, where he served as 5th corpor- al-a position of which, as he used to say, he felt prouder than of any other he ever after- wards held. He served but 9 months in the army, and then returned to Leicester. In 1782 he came to Shaftsbury, Bennington county, Vt., where he married Hannah, daughter of Icha- bod Cross, March 25, 1784. The following year his father-in-law gave him 110 acres of land in Pittsford, upon which he built a log-house, and commenced to reside here the same year.
His indomitable energy, sound judgment and strict integrity soon placed him in the front rank of his fellow townsmen, and he was entit- led to and received their confidence and es- teem. The long pending land-title controversy between the Yorkers and Green Mountain Bors having been finally adjusted by an agreement on the part of the State to pay to New York the sum of $ 30,000, in full satisfaction of their claim to the title of lands, or the right of juris- diction in this State, Colonel Hammond was charged with the duty of transporting the hard money to Albany, on which occasion he was accompanied by the then treasurer of the State, Hon. Samuel Mattocks, on horseback, armed with a sword, and attended by his son, after- wards Governor Mattocks, to guard the precions metals.
Colonel Hammond held, at different times, almost every office in the gift of his fellow- townsmen. He represented the town in the General Assembly of the State ten years; was repeatedly chosen by the freemen of the State as one of the executive Council, and for seven years was one of the judges of the county court. In all the public stations which he was called to fill, he was distinguished for unwavering in- tegrity and profound sagacity. He was a man of piety, and did much to support the religious institutions of the town-was a warm friend of the Bible, missionary, tract and other kindred causes, to five of which, including the Coloniz- ation Society, he left legacies by his last will. He died April 4, 1847.
CATHOLIC CHURCH IN PITTSFORD.
FROM THE BISHOP OF BURLINGTON.
The Catholic congregation of Pittsford is made up chiefly of Irish farmers. They num- ber about 100 families and are regularly at-
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tended from Brandon. The Catholic church of Pittsford, which is a substantial brick building, was erected through the care of Rev. Ch. Boylan of Rutland in the year 1859. 'The congregation has also a grave-yard which has not yet been consecrated. The title of the church is St. Alphonsus Maria, in mem- ory of St. Alphonsus Liguori lately pro- claimed Doctor of the Church.
MICAIAH FAIRFIELD
was born in 1786, and went to college from Pittsford. He was the valedictorian of his class. He was graduated at Andover Theological Seminary in 1S11, in that little immortal class which orginated the mission- ary enterprise. Judson, Newell and Rice were among his classmates, and Mills was his room-mate. He was of the same spirit with them, and was only prevented by protracted disease of the eyes from entering on the same work. He spent several years in the service of the American Bible Society, and afterward was agent of the Baptist Missionary Society. For more than fifty years, he labored in the ministry, evading neither toil nor sacrifice. He became a resident of Virginia, and a slaveholder by marriage, but as early as 1825, he repudiated the system of slavery, liberated his own slaves, and took such de- cided anti slavery action that he was driven from the State. He then went to Ohio, and cast the first anti-slavery vote in Miami County. He died 19th of February, 1858.
He had two daughters and two sons, one of whom is Rev. Edmund B. Fairfield, D. D., LL.D, President of Hinsdale College, Michigan.
P. H. W.
ASHLEY SAMPSON
was born in Cornwall in 1789 or '90. He was preceptor of an academy in Saratoga County, N. Y., and at the same time studied law with Samuel Young, Esq., of Ballston, 1812-17. In 1817, he commenced practice in Pittsford, and in 1819, removed to Rochester, where he resided till his death. He was first judge of Munroe County Court, 1823-25 and 1838-13. In 1844, he was a member of the legislature of New York. He died 12th November, 1857.
In person, he bore a marked resemblance to Jackson and Calhoun, being tall, slender, and having his head surmounted with short iron-grey hair. He also resembled them in
character, and was of the same political faith. He was a learned and acute lawyer, a man of rare wit and of severe critical judgment. He was a bold and uncomprom- ising friend of religion and good morals, and for many years an elder in the Presbyterian church. He was an ardent advocate of tem- perance in the early movements of 1327-29, and formed the first county temperance soci- ety in Western New York. He was twice mar- ried; first to a Miss Gregory ; and secondly, about a fortnight before his death, to a Mrs. Bryan. He had no children.
P. H. W.
AUTOBIOGRAPHIE PAPER OF THOMAS H.
PALMER.
A friend of yours called on me a few months ago, while I lay on a bed of sickness from which there were but slight hopes of my ever rising, with a request from you that I would furnish some incidents of my life for your Magazine, which I promised to send you in case of my recovery. This promise I now proceed to performn, though I think it extreme- ly doubtful whether the simple events I have to record will possess sufficient interest to au- thorize the publication of this ; however, you are the proper judge; and you are at perfect liberty, either to omit the whole article or to prune or abridge it as you may see fit.
I was born in Scotland in 1732, in the town of Kelso, in the classic region of the Tweed and the Twist. Till the age of eighteen, I resided within a stone's throw of the fine re- mains of one of the largest of the Scottish abbeys built by David 1 in 1128, and in full view of the Eildon Hills, the castle of Rox- burgh, the palace of Fleurs, and many other residences, all of which from the Eil- don Hills downward, stand on the immediate banks of the Tweed. The Cheviot range, which divided England from Scotland, was also a conspicuous object in the landscape. A taste for the beauties of Nature was thus early formed, which had its influence in de- termining my choice of Vermont over States more highly favored by climate, eighteen of which I had previously visited.
My father was a bookseller, and published a newspaper, of large circulation for those times. But, as he took a decided stand with the republicans in the stirring days of the French revolution, the gentry used all their powerful influence to reduce its patronage,
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and otherwise injure his business. As it was difficult, not to say impossible to overcome such a combination without a sacrifice of principle, my father began arrangements to abandon the strife, and resort to free Amer- ica, but was prevented by a sudden illness, which cut him off at the age of fifty-one, in the year 1799; leaving me to conduct the business when only sixteen, with two older sisters and two younger brothers dependent on me for a livelihood. At first it was sup- posed that sympathy for the bereaved young family would lead to a cessation of persecu- tion, but, disappointed in that, I deter- mined to carry out my father's plan of emi- gration, and the whole family removed to Philadelphia in 1801. Here my elder brother and I established a book-printing office, which in a few years became quite extensive, being noted for the more difficult kinds of work, such as the mathematics, foreign lan- guages, &c. which no other printers at that time were sufficiently acquainted with. This business suited my taste and I should prob- ably have continued it for life, but for one circumstance. At the close of the war of 1812, the mercantile body was seized with a spirit of speculation, in which the booksellers (our chief employers) were by no means be- hind hand. The panic of 1817, followed, with heavy failures, causing the loss of our whole property and somewhat more. For- tunately our credit stood well, and our friends urged commencing anew, offering us every necessary facility. Accordingly I com- menced successfully, but I determined, as soon as I could realize a competency, to retire to a farm in the country, and aban- don a business in which safety depended, not on my own prudence, but on that of others.
Accordingly, in 1826, I sold out my establishment, removed to Vermont, my brother having died in 1817-resided for 2 years in Rutland, and in 1828, bought a farm in Pittsford, where I have ever since remained.
Having been chosen one of the three town superintendents of schools, I was mortified to find how inefficient these institutions were in laying a sound foundation for self- culture, the chief aim appearing to be the mere enunciation of "dead vocables as Car- lyle styles words, without ideas, mechanically taught, the whole little better than a mere
gabble of sounds, both teacher and parents, seemingly, being satisfied if the words were pronounced right, with a slight attention to the stops. Here is employment for me thought I, for many years to come! But how to set to work ? The first step, evidently. was to bring the community to see affairs in their true light. With this view, I proposed the establishment of town and county lyceums, which should combine discussions of scientific subjects with that of education.
In the autumn of 1829, therefore, with the assistance of Mr. Joseph Hitchcock, and of two or three other gentlemen, I canvassed the town, and procured upwards of 200 sub- scribers of half a dollar each, to procure sci- entific apparatus, I to pay for lights, and my two colleagues in the superintendency, Rev. W. (now Dr. ) Child * and Dr. A. G. Dana, t engaged to assist in the lectures, which were delivered once a week. In the introductory lecture, to which the people of the county generally were invited, the advantages of a lyceum on education were strongly urged, and shortly after similar institutions to ours were formed in Rutland, Castleton, and other places.
Soon after the opening of our lyceum, a meeting was held at Montpelier to inquire into the best means of establishing such in- stitutions throughout the State, at which committees were appointed for each county to endeavour to carry this matter into effect. The committee for Rutland County were Sol- omon Foot,# then principal of Castleton Sem- inary, now Senator of the United States, Amos Bliss|| of Poultney, and myself; and a meeting was soon after held at Pittsford, where a county lyceum was organized, of which Judge Williams of Rutland, was elect- ed president, and myself the year following- public business preventing the Judge from at- tending the meetings. The chief good effect- ed by this institution lay in encouraging discussions as to the state of the schools, by which much attention was elicited in the community to this important object.
In the summer of 1838, while on a visit to Philadelphia, I visited the Hall of the Socie- ty for the cultivation of the Natural Sciences, when I was shown a number of valuable books and specimens, which I learned were
* Of Castleton theu-t Ot Brandon.
# | Since doceased.
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the gift of Wm. Maclure, fromerly a mer- chant of Philadelphia, but now retired with an ample fortune, and living in the city of Mexico. From what I then heard of him. I supposed that W. Maclure would probably be well inclined to assist our efforts for the improvement of education in Vermont. I accordingly wrote him an account of our doings for the preceding 9 years, and after saying that the youth, on leaving school, were beginning to enquire after books, which their less educated parents saw no necessity of providing for them, I asked whether he felt willing to assist us in the formation of a town library which should be open alike to all classes and ages, and suggested the sum of $400, on his part, on condition that we should add to it a like sum. In reply to this not very modest request, I received word that he had sent orders to his Philadelphia ban- ker to honor my draft for $ 400 on receiving proof, authenticated by the town authorities, that a like sum had been raised for the library by the inhabitants. A subscription was ac- cordingly raised by Mr. B. F. Winslow and myself, and upwards of $600, raised, amount- ing with my draft for $400, to $1000, a hand- some sum, for the foundation of a library for an exclusively agricultural town. The li- brary has since been largely increased by the annual payments, by frequent payments from individuals, and by valuable works from Congress, procured by the kind attention of W. Henry, of Bellows Falls, and Senator Foote, of Rutland. This library is not owned in shares, but is open to every inhab- itant of the town on equal terms, whether subscribers or not, namely, on payment of fifty cents a year, or one cent a week. The books may be changed as often as the readers desire, the library being open the whole of every working day.
As soon as the Philadelphia draft was paid, and the subscriptions collected in town, a meeting of the subscribers was held, a con- stitution adopted, securing the right of every inhabitant of the town to the use of the li- brary, and the Rev. W. Child and myself appointed a committee to proceed to Boston, purchase the books, and have a catalogue printed, all of which was successfully accom- plished ; the superintendence of the printing being kindly undertaken by the Rev. Mr. Jenks of that city. Meanwhile a vote of thanks was forwarded to Mr. Maclure, at
Mexico, with a copy of the constitution, to which he replied in answer, that so well was he pleased with the result of his gift, that he authorized me to make a somewhat similar offer to a few of the adjoining towns, viz. that he would advance $200, one hundred in cash, and the other in such books as he should select in New York, specifying as the books of his choice, the publications of the London " Society for the Diffusion of useful Knowledge," republished in New York, to each town that should raise $200 for a li- brary on a similar plan to ours. I should in- stantly have made public this very liberal offer but for the fact, that, on the receipt of his letter my whole mind was engaged with a scheme for a free Normal School, which I had long been convinced was the great de- sideratum in our system of education, and without which no improvement of much im- portance would be effected. For how can there be better schools without better teach- ers ? and how find better teachers till they themselves were better taught ? Without de- lay ; therefore, I forwarded to Mr. Maclure a full outline of my plan of the School for Teachers, combining moral with intellectual training, the development of the conscience with the culture of the judgment and of the reasoning powers. As I had successfully designated a sum in the case of the library affair, I concluded to do the same in that of the school ; and, $50,000 would be wanted in all. I asked Maclure whether he would be disposed to advance $ 25,000 in case the remainder could be raised in the State. But, alas ! for the uncertainty of even the best and most promising of human expectations. Be- fore there was time for me to receive an answer, I saw an announcement of Mr. Mac- lure's death in the papers, while he was pre- paring to return to the United States. A few weeks afterward, I learned, through a gen- tleman of Philadelphia, then just returned from Mexico, that for weeks previous to Mr. Maclure's death, he would talk about noth- ing but a great Educational Scheme in New England, which he intended to visit as soon as he reached the United States. So near did we arrive at what doubtless would have pro- duced a most happy revolution in our schools. For, from Mr. M's ability which was un- doubted, and his patriotic generosity, which was fully equal, it would seem pretty cer- tain I think, that his share in the work
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would have been performed. Nor can there remain a doubt respecting the funds to be provided by the people of Vermont. I have seen too much of their liberality towards sound educational projects to doubt their coming readily up to the occasion, especially when such a golden nest egg was in view.
In the autumn of 1814, Wm. Slade, one of the sons of Vermont who never lost an op- portunity of forwarding the cause of freedom and of education, was chosen Governor of the State, and I, soon after, entered into a correspondence with him respecting the state of the schools. He invited me to Middlebury to consult and to make known my views to the heads of the college, the ministers of the town, and such other literary gentlemen as he should invite. Here it was determined that a great effort should be made to have the school-law remodeled, and I offered my services to canvass the State, make known the deficiences of the schools and place me- morials to the legislature in the hands of ef- ficient men in every county. A public ineet- ing was accordingly called at Middlebury, to pave the way for this extensive operation, at which a committee was appointed to corres- pond with influential men in every town, I was to visit, who were requested to call meetings at the time I should specify, and take measures to have them well attended. This tour occupied me from June to September. Everywhere I met with a warm reception ; and had no difficulty in procuring volunteers to act for me in those towns I could not my- self visit. The result of this canvass was auspicious. On the meeting of the legisla- ture, the tables of both houses were literally loaded with memorials for a more efficient school-law, and a statute was passed in 1845, that provided both suitable examination for the teachers and superintendence for the schools.
This law has since been altered. It now resembles that of Massachusetts. A Board of Education is established, with a secretary who devotes his whole time to the care and superintendence of the schools, holding insti - tutes, &c.
In 1845, I was invited to Baltimore, where a new university was about to be organized, with a Normal School attached, which it was proposed that I should superintend. The object was to supercede the old university which was in the hands of the Catholics,
which enjoyed a sufficient endowment under the control of the legislature, but was said to have become wholly inefficient and behind the times. The regents of the new university were chiefly if not wholly composed of the Protestint ministers of the city. After ex- plaining my views to the board, I was placed at the head of the Normal School, but the whole plan failed, owing to the refusal of the legislature to change the destination of the funds.
In the year 1852. my mind was much en- gaged on the subject of peace, and I deter. mined to make an effort to procure a unani- mous expression of the voters of the town of Pittsford in its favor, by a memorial to the President, requesting him "to propose to all nations with whom we have intercourse, a provision in our treaties with them for refer- ring to the decision of umpires all misunder- standings that cannot be satisfactorily adjust- ed by amicable negotiation." This effort was eminently successful, not only in receiv- ing the signatures of all I saw, but frequent- ly in producing a change of sentiment in the minds of the signers, many of whom expressed surprise that so simple an expedient for the preservation of peace had never before oc- curred to them. " Why, this is what has to be done at last," was the general remark. " War does not, cannot settle any thing, ex- cept that one nation is stronger than the other." Much encouraged by such senti- ments, I determined to extend the circulation of the memorial to the whole congressional district, and two of my friends proffering their aid, a very large number of signers was procured, and the roll forwarded to President Fillmore, who replied, in a very polite, though rather indefinite letter.
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