USA > Vermont > Chittenden County > Shelburne > The history of Shelburne > Part 2
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These first settlers worked harder than most of us would be willing to work today, but their lives were far from grim. For one thing, they were improving their own lands and that was a source of satisfaction. And for another, the wild life and fish that abounded in the area were a source of splendid meals. The following tale from John Lambert's "Travels in Lower Canada and North America in the Years 1806, 1807, and 1808" proves that the O'Gradys, who lived on the farm now owned by Lester Thompson, were able to provide a meal for a chance visitor, and at the crack of dawn, that would put modern hospitality to shame:
"The master of the house, with two of his sons, were soon up, and, having put the kettle on the fire, made preparations for breakfast. About six o'clock, his wife and daughters, two pretty little girls, came into the kitchen, where we were assembled, and in the course of half an hour we had the pleasure of sitting down to a substantial American breakfast, consisting of eggs, fried pork, beefsteaks, apple-tarts, pickles, cheese, cider, tea, and toast dipped in melted butter and milk."
Lambert goes on to describe a bit of the life on the O'Grady farm, telling of the great number of cheeses made right there on the farm, and the device the ingenious farmer had made:
". . . for churning butter, he had made a kind of half barrel, with a place for one of his young boys to sit astride as on horseback. This machine moving up and down answered the double purpose of a churn for making butter, and a rocking horse for his children."
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Lambert's account continues:
"Having made an excellent breakfast, we inquired of our worthy host what we had to pay. He said he should be satisfied with a York shilling (about 7d sterling); this however, we con- sidered too small a sum for the trouble we had given him and his family, and the handsome manner in which he had enter- tained us; we therefore gave him a quarter of a dollar each, that being the tavern price for breakfast."
Lambert probably considered the cider for breakfast not at all extraordinary, though nowadays it seems a little odd. The custom in those early days was to have cider with every meal, and visitors at any hour of the day or night were invariably offered a mug or bowl of it. The farmers made their own as a rule, but if they bought it, it cost about a dollar a barrel. And might I mention that this is HARD cider being consumed in such copious quantities!
Life in Shelburne to the Civil War
AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRY
From the terms of the Charter, it might be assumed that Shelburne would become a farming community. Indeed, the first settlers were to have forfeited their rights to their lands unless they started to clear and cultivate them within five years.
So it is not surprising that the first efforts of the settlers were di- rected toward clearing the land and establishing farms. But at that time the demand for a certain by-product of land clearing was in great de- mand, and these people were quick to take advantage of it. Thus it happened that, as the land was cleared, the great trees were burned, water filtered through the ashes, and the water evaporated, the end product being potash, a material required in the finishing of woolen cloth and the making of glass.
The production of potash being a lengthy and demanding process, the farmers soon sought a central place where they could deliver their ashes for the final stages of production. So Benjamin Harrington es- tablished a potash works behind the Public House. This product was shipped, via Canada, to England, where it brought a price considered most generous by the currency-poor settlers.
This business was such a thriving one that the people engaged in it were loath to let the sloops used to transport the product be ap- propriated when the War of 1812 threatened. The settlers hoped that the disagreement leading to that conflict could be settled amicably.
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The winter of 1812-13 brought Commodore Thomas Macdonough, recently appointed commander of the American Fleet on Lake Cham- plain, and the imminence of war. Commercial boats were seized and outfitted with armament in the lee of Quaker Smith Point. Macdonough's men were quartered in various homes in Shelburne, working on the boats every day, and enjoying their ration of rum every night. Mac- donough himself spent part of that winter at Levi Comstock's home near Quaker Smith Point. In the spring the boats, now as ready for battle as time and available equipment allowed, were launched. The naval encounters resumed, culminating with the Battle of Plattsburg the following September. Macdonough scored such a decisive victory in that encounter that hostilities were virtually ended on the lake.
With the restoration of peace, the commerce on the lake revived. Before the War, news of Fulton and his steamboat had reached Ver- mont, and two Burlington men had constructed the second steamboat in operation in this country, and this steamboat had been used for the carrying of troops and supplies during the War. Now the period of steamboating began in earnest, and the packets, powered by sail, were soon displaced by the new boats.
At first these steamboats were built at Vergennes, the spot Mac- donough chose because of the privacy it offered. This was not an ideal location, however, because of the early winters on the Otter Creek.
The search for a more suitable location led to the establishment of the Shelburne Shipyard. The first parcel of land for this purpose was acquired from Cornelius Van Ness about 1820. The first steamboat launched at the Shelburne Shipyard was the General Green in 1825. This was followed by the Winooski in 1832, the Burlington in 1837, the Saranac in 1842, the United States and the Ethan Allen in 1847, and the Boston in 1851. After the Civil War the Adirondack was launched in 1867, the Vermont II in 1871, the Chateaugay in 1888, Vermont III in 1903, and the last of the sidewheelers, the Ticonderoga in 1905.
In addition to the building of boats, the Shelburne Shipyard was the winter depot and repair headquarters for the Champlain Trans- portation Company.
Before the War of 1812 a Frenchman named Leblanc perfected a process by which sodium would replace potash, and this led, after the French Revolution, to the end of the potash boom. These figures give dramatic proof: in 1807 the value of potash exports from Vermont was $1,490,000; in 1810 $1,579,000; but in 1813 the value had dropped to $204,000 and finally dwindled to nothing.
Some potash continued to be made in Shelburne for use here. The Carding and Fulling Mill at Shelburne Falls required potash for finish-
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ing (fulling) the wool. Some potash was used in soapmaking, which was done in the homes in that day. It was not until 1845 that potash was found to be an essential fertilizer ingredient.
Even before the end of the potash boom, another boom was in the making. Sheep were already numerous in Shelburne. Then, in 1811 a few Merino sheep from Spain arrived in Vermont, and this superior breed with its heavy, oily fleece, caused a tremendous spurt in sheep- farming.
By 1840 Shelburne, with a population of 1,089, had 17,636 sheep and produced 36,677 pounds of wool. For the county that year, the popu- lation was 22,978 with 110,774 sheep and an output of 215,019 pounds of wool. The farmers drove their sheep to a spot at the south end of Shelburne Pond to be scrubbed before shearing, and a pile of rocks there were called "the sheep-rocks."
Besides selling wool, the farmers sold sheep. In time this led to the end of the prosperity based on sheep in Vermont. The open lands in the West were well-suited to large-scale raising of sheep, and except for a brief upsurge during the Civil War, the sheep-boom in Vermont was dying out by the middle of the nineteenth century.
Then the orchards were established and fruit growing was a major source of income for the farmers. By 1880, there were 17,740 fruit trees in Shelburne.
Dairy farming was always present, but the large-scale operations which Shelburne has today are fairly recent in origin. From the first settlers, Shelburne's economy was based on the farmers.
Around the middle of the eighteenth century marble quarries were opened in the east part of town. They operated only briefly, however, coming to a sudden end when too large a charge of dynamite was set off. Whether this was accidental or deliberate has been the subject of a good deal of speculation. Whichever it was, it crumbled the rock and ended the quarrying operations. Interestingly enough, within the past few years, the marble is again being taken out.
CHAPTER III Town Official Business: Meetings, Officers, Taxes and Such
The first Town Meeting was held by the proprietors on March 29, 1787. In addition to many of the officials we elect today, the voters named a leather sealer, a sealer of weights and measures, and four surveyors of highways. The only matter other than the elections was a
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vote which established the first Tuesday of March as the day of the annual Town Meeting.
In the following years the list of town officers grew to include haw- yards, gravediggers, and coffin-builders. The last two of these offices continued until 1861.
Hawyards were in charge of rounding up any livestock roaming around, and the inference from the records of the town meetings of the first several years is that these stray animals were a constant problem. In 1795 it was deemed unlawful for sheep to run at large. The following year it was voted that sheep would be forfeited if found running at large, the proceeds of the sale to go into the town treasury. Two years later this was changed so that half the proceeds went to the man captur- ing the animals, and half to the treasury.
The next year, 1799, it was deemed unlawful for swine to run at large. It was further voted that horses might run free, but that their owners were liable for damage caused by any such horses. Apparently the sheep, particularly the rams, still refused to observe the legal re- straints placed upon them, since the proprietors voted dire penalties year after year.
The listers were elected at the first town meeting, and they must have set right to work, because in 1788 it was voted to raise £16-8-0) to defend the town in lawsuits brought against it, and £15-0-0 for the purchase of town books. The tithingmen, or tax collectors, were elected. Perhaps these men had difficulty in collecting the tax, as currency was scarce and much business conducted by barter; at any rate, the tax voted two years later was to be paid in wheat at 4/6 per bushel and 1 cent on the pound in hard money. By 1798 the tax rate had quadrupled, being 4 cents on the pound. This was to be paid half in money and half in good clean wheat, raising the possibility that, previously, some of the wheat turned in for payment of taxes was not worth much.
The revenue derived from taxes was spent on lawsuits, which were numerous because of conflicting land surveys and thus conflicting claims of owners as to the bound of their land, and also on roads and bridges. The constable submitted an expense account to collect the costs of serving ejection notices, as he was frequently required by the selectmen to do. The people were ejected, presumably, for non-payment of taxes.
Other matters voted on at those first town meetings were the es- tablishment of "one or more places to bury the dead" and the acquisi- tion of the services of a minister. By the early 1800's the question of building a church was under discussion. The voters urged the select- men to keep better records. But of all their discussions, perhaps the
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most curious took place on October 4, 1800 at a meeting held at the home of Capt. Benjamin Harrington. This resolution was passed:
"Voted that the small-pox shall be admitted in the town anocculation for the term of six months, or to the first of April next, under the inspection and direction of the selectmen"
By this resolution the voters committed the townspeople to a mild epidemic of small-pox, scheduled for the winter months so as not to interfere with the vital business of farming! There are no records, un- fortunately, to tell of the outcome of this decision, or whether, if carried out, the disease was willing to submit to the selectmen's orders to de- part from the town as of the first of April.
The early records include much more than the minutes of the town meetings. For example, they show that the State also levied taxes, the first of which was for the establishment of a State Prison. A common crime in those days was counterfeiting because currency was so scarce.
Even before the first town meeting, the following registry was begun:
RECORD OF EARMARKS
Thomas Hall
Cross of left ear
Caleb Smith, Esq.
Cross of right ear
Moses Pierson
Slit in the end of left ear
Uzal Pierson
Two slits in the end of left ear
Rufus Cole
One-half penny the hinderside of right ear A hole through the left ear
Aaron Rowley
The next year fourteen more farmers registered earmarks, and they necessarily had to select more complicated markings, and combinations of markings. Also evident are family preferences; for example, when the second Pierson son had to decide on a distinguishing earmark for his cattle he chose a slit in the end of each ear.
The town records also include births, marriages, and deaths. The family head would often record his birthdate and that of his wife and children. The first marriage was that of Levi Comstock and Hannah Bacon on October 28, 1790.
The first deaths in Shelburne, according to the tombstones, in the old cemeteries at least, were those of Hannah and James Pierson, ages 1 and 5, children of Ziba and Hannah Pierson. It is ironical that Moses Pierson's son Ziba, as a youth of 15 had survived the battle of the Blockhouse and a harrowing escape from a Canadian prison, yet lost five youngsters in three years during the comparatively tranquil period after the Revolution.
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It was 1820 before the town fathers took any action to have a bridge built at the mouth of the LaPlot. Until this time the many farmers in the west part of town crossed on a sandspit. As they did so, they must have been reminded of the Indians who were known to have camped near there before the coming of the white men and who must have crossed the river in this same primitive manner.
Phineas Hall was appointed to look into the best means of spanning the river, and he reported as follows:
"The best way to build will be to place mud sills 20' apart with posts about 9' long with caps on said posts and 4 strings with a 3' railing on the top boarded tight. The probable ex- penses: $75.08."
This plan was approved, and a 4% tax levied to meet the costs. The tax was to be paid one-fourth in cash, and three-fourths in cattle, wheat, corn, or oats.
The bridge was built, and perhaps it was grand enough to stir dis- satisfaction with the other two bridges in town. At any rate, in 1824 a new bridge was built across the river on the Stage Road, that is, Route Seven of today, and in 1827 a new bridge was built at the Falls.
By this time Shelburne was a well-established town with over a thousand inhabitants. But it still adhered to some of the habits of its rougher days. For example, great quantities of liquor were consumed, and as early as 1815 the first voices of temperance were raised. There were 30 distilleries in the county and five Public Houses in Shelburne.
In 1830 the advocates of temperance joined to form a society to remedy this evil; the initial membership was 156 under the leader- ship of Rev. Louis McDonald, the Episcopal minister. Eventually the group changed its aim from temperance to prohibition. By 1852 they had apparently convinced their fellow townsmen of the rightness of their cause, for in that year Shelburne voted for prohibition in the statewide referendum.
Surprisingly enough in 1848 there was a bowling alley in town and this gave rise to another attempt to "legislate moral behavior." Two of the selectmen gave notice to the owner that he must close his business for the public good. The third selectman, however, presented a minority report, stating his belief that the owner has the right to operate the bowling alley as long as it is not a place "for riotous and loose assem- blages" which indeed it was not.
It is interesting that this rash of "legislating moral behavior" coincided with the coming of the railroad. The tracks were laid through
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Shelburne in 1848, and the line was completed in Burlington the fol- lowing year. Many of the men who built the railroad were Irish, and when they stayed on after the job was done, they were not looked upon kindly by the old settlers. Their language, their culture, and their re- ligion set them apart, and perhaps it was this that led to such legal ac- tions as are mentioned above.
CHURCH HISTORIES
As the Nineteenth Century opened, there was no church in Shel- burne, and no services as we know them today. The Episcopalians, settled mostly in the east part of town, worshipped with Bethuel Chit- tenden, at his home, and a small number of Congregationalists likewise met occasionally for services in private homes. In 1800 a group of Methodists were visited by the Rev. Henry Ryan, a circuit rider from Vergennes who preached at the home of Joshua Read. But in general organized worship was pretty much a sometime thing.
Finally, after years of discussion, the selectmen gave Captain Benjamin Harrington a contract to build a church for the sum of $5,000. This he did, building what was known as the White Church on land he donated (where Shelburne School stands today). Upon completion in 1808, his costs were bet by an auction of the pews, Each purchaser be- came a stockholder and could assign his interest to the denomination of his choice. In the beginning the Congregationalists held the major in- terest and they obtained the services of Daniel Clark Sanders, first President of the University of Vermont. The Methodists and Universal- ists each held small interests in the Church, and occasional services, but for the first decade of its existence the Congregationalists attracted the most interest and support.
One lot in town was reserved for the first settled minister, and in 1819 the Congregationalists made a move to obtain the services of a permanent minister and so claim this property. Many of the towns- people unalterably opposed to this scheme, felt that instead the rent from the land should be divided among all the denominations. So they set about finding a minister who would settle here, and who would agree not to claim the lot exclusively for his denomination.
It so happened that a merchant in town, by the name of Peckham, had a brother-in-law up in Sheldon who had just completed his studies for the ministry and who was looking for a church. He was summoned to Shelburne and agreed to come, and not to claim the church lot. Thus it came about that Reverend Joel Clapp, an Episcopalian, became the first minister settled in Shelburne, and the revenue from the church lot forever divided among all the denominations.
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This is brought about a decline in the fortunes of the Congrega- tionalists, and a surge of interest in the Episcopal Church. This was partly because of convenience, and partly out of gratitude for the saving of the church lot, but also because of the remarkable ability of the minister.
Joel Clapp resigned in order to go to St. James in Woodstock in 1827 and Louis McDonald replaced him. Within a few years the in- fluence of the Episcopal Church in the community began to wane.
The Methodists were a part of the Charlotte Circuit in those days. Sometime around 1825 they began to discuss building a church of their own, and in 1831 a brick church was built and dedicated on the present site of the Roman Catholic Church. Shortly thereafter the Methodists acquired a parsonage, the building which is now the Pierson Library, and instead of being served by circuit riders, the church had its first permanent minister, Reverend Zebulon Phillips.
However, the Methodists were not without their disagreements, and in 1840 Nathaniel Gage and some but not all of his neighbors from the northeast part of town, seceded and formed a church of their own. This group called themselves Protestant-Methodist and in 1849 built a church on Dorset Street near Barstow Road. The home now occupied by the William Lanes was the parsonage and the church was always called the "Gage Meeting House."
Cyrus Prindle had served the Shelburne Methodists in the days of the circuit riders and in 1843 he returned to Shelburne as resident minister. He was much opposed to slavery, and caused a group of per- haps twenty Methodists to separate from the main body and form a Wesleyan Methodist Society. They erected a church on what is now the Lull property, the Episcopalians still occupying the White Church.
A group of Congregationalists organized in 1851, but were unable to support separate services. Therefore, they, along with a few Free Will Baptists, joined with the Wesleyans, and the two groups together oc- cupied the White Church. They used the Wesleyan Church as a par- sonage and shared a minister with the Protestant-Methodists. The Methodist Church survived the loss of both new groups, and continued to hold services.
EDUCATION
In 1792 the town was divided into eight school districts in ac- cordance with a State law requiring this division. It was 1812 before trustees were elected for these districts, and when the first school opened, is not recorded. Nearly every town meeting mentions a vote on
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school district boundaries or the creation of new districts. There were as many as fourteen districts at one time. In those days each district was free to manage its own affairs, and the records of these district schools were lost, in most cases, when the schools were consolidated.
However, the records for District 5, in the northeast part of town, and the records of District 13, in the village, have survived, and they give details of the running of these schools.
The records of the village district begin in 1829, and indicate that there was no school in the village at that time. The voters met at Levi Comstock's Public House (now the Shelburne Hotel) to elect their officials. There must have been a disagreement as to how the tax col- lector would be paid, because the meeting was adjourned after the elec- tion of all the required officers except tax collector. When it reconvened, the office of tax collector was auctioned off to the low bidder, L. Hagar, who agreed to do the job for 7% of the receipts.
In 1830 the voters of District 13 asked the selectmen to set a price on an abandoned shop in the village. The selectmen set the price at $45.00. Perhaps the voters thought that the price was too high, perhaps on second thought they considered the building unsuitable; at any rate they voted to build a brick building, 20' x 26', and paid Levi Comstock $5.00 for the land.
In April 1831 the school was ready and classes began soon after- wards. The record from that time on is concerned mostly with who would provide the wood to heat the building. Occasionally repairs were ordered. It must have been the practise for the teacher to "board around" for in 1849 it was voted that the teacher be paid $1.50 a week (presumably a raise in pay) and that she board herself.
The existing record of the Fifth District is much the same except that it begins in 1842 after the school was in operation for some time. The voters sometimes specified whether the teacher would be male or female, and also required that if a woman were hired, the semester would be longer. The school held two sessions, summer and winter. In this way the youngsters were free to help on the farm during the busy spring and fall seasons. The costs of the school were met partly by taxes and partly by tuition.
These district schools were small and the curriculum did not in- clude high school subjects. To provide further education, an academy, or private high school, was established in the village. Apparently it did not flourish, as contemporary accounts scarcely mention it. The town did not support a public high school until long after the Civil War, so education for most of the youngsters was limited to the one-room school house.
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CHAPTER IV The Halfway Point
THE CIVIL WAR AND THE YEARS FOLLOWING
The Civil War marks the halfway point in the history of Shelburne from its founding to the present. Strong feelings were aroused on the subject of slavery. Generally speaking, the people of Vermont were opposed to slavery, and helped many runaway slaves escape to Canada by means of the Underground Railway. In Shelburne, the house now owned by the Strongs is said to have been a stop on the Railway.
When hostilities began, Vermonters rallied to President Abraham Lincoln's call for troops. A total of ninety-one men from Shelburne are credited with having served during the course of the war.
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