USA > Vermont > The history of Vermont, from its discovery to its admission into the Union in 1791. By Hiland Hall > Part 47
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Allen like other men was not free from defects of character, but his merits greatly predominated. Rev. Zadock Thompson in a well considered lecture justly sums up his character as follows : "The conspicuous- and commendable traits on which his fame rests, were his unwavering patriot- ism, his love of freedom, his wisdom, boldness, courage, energy, persever- ance, his aptitude to command, his ability to inspire those under him with respect and confidence; his high sense of honor, probity and justice, his generosity and kindness, and sympathy in the afflictions and sufferings of others. Opposed to these good qualities were his self-sufficiency, his per- sonal vanity, liis occasional rashness, and his sometimes harsh and vulgar language. All of these characteristic traits might be abundantly proved by well known facts and authentic anecdotes."1 Jared Sparks towards the conclusion of liis interesting life of Allen published in the first volume of his American Biography says of him; " His character was strongly marked, both by its excellencies and defects ; but it may be safely said, that the latter were attributable more to circumstances beyond liis control than to any original obliquity of his mind or heart. The want of early education, and the habits acquired by his pursuits in a rude and unculti- vated state of society, were obstacles to his attainment of some of the higher and better qualities, which were not to be overcome. A roughness of manners and a coarseness of language, a presumptuous way of reason- ing upon all subjects, and his religious skepticism, may be traced to these sources. *
* * Yet there is much to admire in the character of Ethan Allen. He was brave, generous and frank, true to his friends, true to his country, consistent and unyielding in his purposes, seeking at all times to promote the best interests of mankind, a lover of social harmony, and a determined foe to artifices of injustice, and the encroachments of power. Few have suffered more in the cause of freedom, and few have borne their sufferings with a firmer constancy or loftier spirit."
Gen. Allen died at Burlington, in a fit of apoplexy, Feb. 12, 1789, and was interred with military honors, his former military associates from
1 Vermont Quarterly Gazetteer, No. 6, page 560, 569.
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other parts of the state, some of them from Bennington one hundred and twenty miles distant, attending his funeral. In obedience to an act of the legislature passed in 1855, a monument has been erected over his remains at Burlington, near Winooski Falls. It consists of a Tuscan column of granite, forty-two feet in height and four and a half feet diameter at its base, with a pedestal six feet square, in which are inserted four plates of white marble, having the following inscriptions to wit - on the west side " Vermont to Ethan Allen, born in Litchfield, Ct., 10th Jan. 1737, O. S., dicd in Burlington Vt., 12th Feb., 1789, and buried near the site of this monument." On the south side, " The leader of the Green Mountain Boys in the surprise and capture of Ticonderoga, which he demanded in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." By act of the legislature a commanding statue of Allen representing him in the atti- tude of demanding the surrender of Ticonderoga, has since been placed in the portico of the capitol at Montpelier. It is of Vermont marble designed and executed by our native artist L. G. Mcad, and is equally creditable to its subject and the artist.
Gen. Allen was twice married. First to Mary Brownson, of Woodbury, Ct. By her he had one son and four daughters. The son died at the age of 11 years, while his father was in captivity. Two of the daughters died unmarried. One of them, Parmelia, married Eleazer W. Keyes, Esq., she and her husband both residing and dying in Burlington. The other daughter Lucy married the Hon. Samuel Hitchcock, of Burlington, and was the mother of Gen. Ethan A. Hitchcock now living and of eminent distinction in the military history of the country. She died in 1842. His second wife was Mrs. Fanny Buchannan, by whom he left a daughter and two sons. After his death the daughter entered a nunnery in Canada and died tlicre. The sons, Hannibal and Ethan .A. Allen, both held offices in the United States army, and both died many years ago at Norfolk, Va. The latter left a son bearing his own name still living in New York city.
Heman Allen .- Heman Allen, brother of Ethan, was born at Corn- wall, Conn., Oct. 15, 1740, was an intelligent and respectable merchant at Salisbury, at the commencement of the revolution, served in Canada as captain in the regiment of Green Mountain Boys in the campaign of 1775, was agent of the Dorset convention of January 1776, and presented their petition to congress to be allowed to serve in the common cause of America under other officers than those named by the Provincial congress of New York, lest they should be prejudiced in their land titles, by ac- knowledging that jurisdiction. Hc made a report of his mission to Phila- delphia to the convention held at Dorset, July 24th, 1776, was a delegate from Rutland to the convention of January 15, 1777, which declared the independence of the state, and from Colchester to that which formed the state constitution in July of that year. Ira Allen in his history, page one hundred and one, thus speaks of his decease. "Heman Allen, Esq., a member of the council of safety of Vermont, went to the field of battle, [of Bennington] the weather being hot, and his fatigue great, he caught a violent cold, and died of a decline on the 18th of May following " (1778).
Ira Allen, who bore a distinguished part in the carly affairs of Ver- mont, as has been shown in the body of this work, was the youngest of
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the family of brothers of which Ethan Allen was the oldest, and was born in Cornwall, Conn., May 1, 1751. He must have received in his youth a good English education, as he was early a practical surveyor; and in later life a clear and forcible writer in politics and history. He was scarcely twenty-one years of age when he became the proprietor of lands under the New Hampshire charters of Burlington and Colchester; and from the year 1772, he was active and earnest in his opposition to the claims of the New York patentees.
He was a lieutenant in Warner's regiment of Green Mountain Boys, and served in Canada in the campaign of 1775; was a member from Colchester in all the conventions of the New Hampshire Grants in 1776 and 1777, and took a prominent part in the framing of its constitution. He was a leading member of the council of safety which carried the state triumph- antly through the trying campaign of 1777; was a member of the council and treasurer of the state for nine years after the first organization of its government in 1778, and was surveyor general for about the same number of years. On almost all occasions during the revolutionary period he acted, either alone or with others as agent of the state in their transactions with the Continental congress and with the governments of New Hamp- shire and New York, and those of other states. He was the principal manager of the negotiations with Gen. Haldimand to ward off invasions from Canada, in which he was entirely successful. He was a man of decided talent, and having an imposing presence and a pleasing address, his qualifications as a diplomatist were of a high order, and they were frequently exerted to the advantage of the state.
He was the author of numerous publications in defence of the state dur- ing the controversies with New York and New Hampshire, some of which were printed in newspapers and hand bills, and others in pamphlets. Among the latter class of publications was a pamphlet of some forty or fifty pages in answer to one published by the convention of New York of Octo- ber 4, 1776. It was entitled Miscellaneous Remarks, etc. He was also the author of another pamphlet with a similar title, published in October, 1777, against later proceedings of the New York convention, and especially against the constitution of that state, which had then been recently pub- lished. In 1779, he published a pamphlet of forty-eight pages, entitled " A Vindication of the conduct of the general assembly of the state of Ver- mont," in dissolving their union with the sixteen New Hampshire towns. He was also the author of many of the official state papers from 1778 to 1786. He was active in the foundation of the Vermont University at Bur- lington, to which he made liberal donations in lands.
In 1796, he went to France and purchased of the French republic twenty-four brass cannon and twenty thousand muskets, ostensibly for the supply of the militia of Vermont. The vessel named the Olive Branch, a neutral bottom in which they were shipped from Ostend for this country, was captured by a British man of war and carried to England, where the cargo was libelled for forfeiture. After a contest of seven or eight years in the English courts, he succeeded in obtaining a restoration of his pro- perty, but the delay and the enormous expense of the proceedings rendered its release of little value to him. He published a volume of over four hundred pages, in London in 1798, and another still larger in Phila-
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delphia, in 1805, giving an account of his purchase and the proceedings against him in England.
There seems to be some mystery about the real object of his purchase. While in England he wrote and published in London his History of tu state of Vermont, one of the United States of America, etc. In his preface he speaks of the capture of the Olive Branch and of the libel for the for- feiture of the cargo, and says: " In the course of this cause the character of the people of Vermont and that of the claimants, were frequently called in question, which operated as a stimulus to this publication." He makes an apology for inaccuracy of dates and other imperfections, arising from the absence of original documents.
He is not uniformly accurate, but his work contains much valuable and reliable matter which is not found elsewhere. To some extent lie follows Dr. Williams, whose history had been previously published.
Mr. Allen resided in Philadelphia during some of the latter years of his life, where he died January 7, 1814.
Remember Baker .- Remember Baker, whose active and earnest opposition to the New York claimants, in connexion with Allen, Warner and others, has already been quite fully related, was born at Woodbury, Ct., in 1737. He was cousin to Ethan Allen, his father being a brother of Allen's mother. He had served as a soldier at Lakes George and Champlain in the French war, and had thus acquired a knowledge of the lands on his route there and in their vicinity. Ile settled in Arlington in 1764, and built in the cast part of the town the first grist mill on the New Hampshire Grants north of Bennington. After the attempt of Justice Munro to take him to Albany jail, when he was treated with great harshness, and of which an account has been given in the text, he appears to have been generally desirous of inflicting severer punishment on the Yorkers than most of his companions. He was with Allen, having the rank of captain, at the taking of Ticonderoga May 10, 1775; and afterwards when Gen. Schuyler took command in the northern department, he was employed by him to obtain information of the military situation of the enemy on the Canada border, and was unfortunately killed in a skirmish with some Indians in the neighborhood of St. Johns in August following.
Goldsbrow Banyar - Whose claims to Vermont lands exceeded the quantity of six townships, was clerk of the New York colonial council during the whole period in which land grants were made by that province in the district of the New Hampshire Grants, giving him great facilities as a land speculator. He appears to have been a man of much shrewdness and to have occupied a sort of neutral position during the revolution. He died at Albany in 1815, at the great age of 91, leaving a large estate to his descendants.
Joseph Bowker was an early settler in Rutland under the New Hampshire title, and participated in the opposition to the New York patent of Socialborough, which covered the land of the township, though he was not named in the outlawry act of that province. He was one of the trusted men of the town and state in their carly days, was president of
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the several conventions for the formation of a new state held in 1776, and of those that declared the state independent and framed the state consti- tution in 1777. He was afterwards a member of the governor's council and held other honorable and responsible positions. He died at Rutland in 1784.
Stephen R. Bradley was born in Wallingford, Ct., Feb. 20, 1754; graduated at Yale College in 1775, studied law, and came to Vermont about 1778 and settled at Westminster. He drew up " Vermont's appeal" published by the state council December, 1779, and from that time was actively engaged in various capacities in the affairs of the state. He acted for a long time as prosecuting attorney of the county, was colonel and afterwards general of the militia, and often a representative in the general assembly. He was one of the commissioners named in the act of the Ver- mont assembly of 1789, and as such participated in the final adjustment of the controversy with New York. After the admission of Vermont into the union, he was three times elected United States senator, serving in that capacity over fourteen years. His death occurred Dec. 9, 1830. For a more extended biography of him see Hall's Eastern Vermont, page 593.
James Breakenridge was of Scotch-Irish descent, and came early to Bennington from Massachusetts. He was one of the defendants in the Albany ejectment suits, and his farm being adjoining the twenty mile line, was the scene of many disturbances between the New York and New Hampshire claimants, as related in the text. Mr. Breakenridge was a very quiet man and was never personally engaged in any riotous proceed- ings, though he was often denounced by the Yorkers as a rioter, and was one of the proscribed persons in the famous New York riot act of 1774. He was sent to England with Jehiel Hawley of Arlington as agent of the set- tlers in 1771, and was otherwise favorably noticed by them. He had been chosen lieutenant of the militia company formed in Bennington in 1764, and in accordance with the custom of the times, was usually designated by his military title. Mr. Breakenridge was a man of exemplary moral and religious character, and died April 16th, 1783, aged 62, leaving numer- ous descendants, one of whom, a grandson, John Breakenridge, still occu- pies the old homestead.
Silvanus Brown, who had the honor of being named and proscribed in the New York riot act of 1774, was a farmer and an early resident of Rutland. He is described in the act as "Silvanus Brown late of Social- borough, yeoman." His offence was, resisting the survey of his farm by the New York claimants, he having a title under New Hampshire, ten years earlier than that under the patent of Socialborough.
Gideon Brownson, from Salisbury, Ct., was one of the first settlers in Sunderland, early in 1765 - was a captain in Warner's regiment of Green Mountain Boys, and served in Canada, in the years 1775 and 1776. In 1777 he was commissioned a captain in Warner's continental regiment, and served through the war, having been promoted to the rank of major. 58
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He was the first town clerk and represented the town several years in the legislature.
Timothy Brownson, also of Sunderland, was a prominent man in the early civil affairs of the state. He was a member of the governor's council from the first organization of the state government in 1778 until 1795, and was one of the most trusted and confidential advisers of Gov. Chittenden during the whole period of his perilous and successful adminis- tration. He was one of the first who was concerned in the famous Canada negotiation, and his long tried and well known integrity and love of coun- try was such, that no one who knew him would doubt that the motives which actuated him were pure and patriotic.
Nathaniel Chipman, one of the commissioners on the part of Ver- mont for the adjustment of the controversy with New York, and agent of the state to congress for obtaining its admission into the union, was one of the most eminent jurists and able statesmen of his time. Some notice has already been taken of him in the body of this work in connection with the dispatches from Gen. Enos to Gov. Chittenden on the occasion of the death of Sergeant Tupper in 1781. In addition, it is proper to state that he was born at Salisbury, Conn., November 15, 1752, was a graduate of Yale college in 1777, served as a lieutenant in the army at Valley Forge and other places for more than a year, studied law, and took up his resi- dence at Tinmouth, Vt., in 1779, whither his father had previously removed. He was a judge of the supreme court of the state for several years, was afterwards in 1791, appointed by Gen. Washington, judge of the district court of Vermont, but resigned in 1796. He was senator in congress for six years from the 4th of March, 1797, and chief justice of the supreme court in 1813 and 1814. His judicial opinions and other writings are evidence that he possessed a high order of talent, and statesmanlike views. He died the 13th of February, 1843, in the ninety-first year of his age. See his life by Daniel Chipman, and Allen's Biographical Dic- tionary.
Thomas Chittenden .- The formation of the territory of Vermont into a separate state, the successful progress of its government, and its final establishment against the powerful opposition of other governments, were owing in a great degree to the almost unerring foresight, unhesi- tating firmness and sound judgment of Thomas Chittenden. He was chosen one of the council of safety by the convention that formed the state constitution in July, 1777, and became at once the president of that body ; was chosen the first governor of the state in March, 1778, and from that date until 1797, he was annually reelected to that office, with the single exception of the year 1789, when there being no choice, Moses Robinson was elected by the legislature. The next year Gov. Chittenden was rechosen by a large majority. During the whole period of his administra- tion, he exerted a powerful and healthy influence over the affairs of the state, and had the pleasure of witnessing the triumphant success of his earnest efforts, in the prosperity and happiness of a grateful people, whose
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political affairs he had for years been greatly instrumental in guiding. He resigned the office in the year 1797, on account of failing health.
Gov. Chittenden was born in Guilford, Conn., January 6, 1730, removed in early life to Salisbury, and became a leading inhabitant of the town, representing it in the assembly of the colony for several years, and hold- ing the office of colonel of the militia. He became a land holder in Wil- liston on the New Hampshire Grants, and settled in that town in 1774. He was, however, obliged to abandon his habitation on the approach of the enemy in the fall of 1776, and from that time he took up his residence in Arlington until after the close of the war, when he returned to Williston, where he died the 25th of August, 1797. His descendants are numerous, several of whom have occupied high political positions in the state and country .- See his life by Daniel Chipman ; and also ante p. 276.
Nathan Clark was active and prominent in the early period of the land controversy with New York, was frequently chairman of the general committee and conventions of the settlers, and was a member from Benning- ton and speaker of the first general assembly of the state in 1778. In 1776 he was chairman of the Bennington committee of safety and received the thanks of Gen. Gates for his promptness in supplying the army at Ticon- deroga with flour. He came to Bennington from Connecticut as carly as 1762, and died in that town the 8th of April, 1792, at the age of 74. One of his sons, Nathan Clark, Jr., lost his life in the battle of Bennington. Another son Isaac Clark, familiarly known as " Old Rifle," was a colonel in the war of 1812, and distinguished as a partisan leader.
George Clinton, governor of New York in 1777, and during the whole subsequent period of the controversy of Vermont with that state, was born in the county of Ulster, New York, the 26th of July, 1739. He was admitted to the bar in that colony in 1764, and was a member of the colonial assembly from 1768 till its final dissolution in 1775. He was chairman of the committee of that body which reported the resolutions of the 5th of Feb., 1774, offering large rewards for the apprehension of Ethan Allen and seven others, and which were made the foundation for the famous outlawry act against them of the 9th of the ensuing month. From this time forward, during the whole period of the controversy, he exhibited on all occasions, as has already been seen, the most bitter animosity towards the people of Vermont, always advocating the most violent measures against them, and opposing with all his might, all efforts of others for an adjustment of the controversy. It would seem from an original letter to him found in the Clinton Papers, from Cavendish, Vt., informing him that his lands in that town were about to be sold for taxes, that he was a land claimant under the New York title, but to what extent is not known. He was distinguished for the tenacity, not to say obstinacy, with which he adhered to any view once taken of a subject; but whether his uniform hos- tility towards the Vermonters was owing wholly to his early commitment against them, while a member ofthe colonial assembly, or in part to his being interested in the controversy as a land claimant, is not known. Gov. Clin- ton continued to be the chiefmagistrate of New York until 1795, when he declined a reelection. During his administration he undoubtedly rendered
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very important services to his state and country. In 1801, he was again elected governor and held the office for three years. In 1805 he was elected vice president of the United States, and again in 1809, and while in that office he died April 20th, 1812. Journals of the Colonial Assembly, Slade's State Papers, page 37, Street's Council of Revision, page 85 to 112, Doc. Hist. N. Y. vol. 4, p. 869. There was another George Clinton who was governor of New York under the crown for the years from 1743 to 1753, and who returned to England at the end of his term with an immense fortune de- rived principally from fees received for land grants. He made the first announcement that New York extended cast to Connecticut river, in a correspondence with Gov. Wentworth in 1750.
Robert Cochran, was one of the eight persons named in the New York act of assembly of 1774, who without trial were condemned "to suffer death without benefit of clergy." He came to Bennington on the New Hampshire Grants from Coleraine, Mass., about the year 1768, but soon afterwards removed to Rupert, where he held lands under the New Hampshire charter of that town. In the fall of 1771, some persons under- took to occupy his land under the New York title, but they were promptly driven off. From that time he was an active associate with Allen and others in opposing the New York land claimants, for which he incurred the hot displeasure of the government of that province. He held the rank of captain in the corps of Green Mountain Boys organized previous to the revolution, and on being informed of the massacre by the tories at West- minister, in March, 1775, he appeared at that place within forty-eight hours, at the head of over forty men from the west side of the mountain, and with twenty-five of them assisted in conveying the tory prisoners to Northampton jail. He held the rank of captain in the expedition to Ticonderoga in May following, and was with Warner at the capture of Crown Point. He soon afterwards entered the service in Col. Elmore's regiment, in which he held the rank of captain until July 29th, 1776, when by resolution of congress he was promoted to a majority in the same regi- ment; John Brown, Esq., of Pittsfield, who had been active in the Ti- conderoga expedition, being its lieutenant colonel. In October following, the regiment, four hundred and forty strong, was on the frontier in Tryon county, New York, Maj. Cochran being in command of Fort Dayton. In November of that year, a new arrangement of the New York regiments took place under the direction of the convention of that state. The field officers of the third regiment commissioned the 21st of that month, being Peter Gansevoort colonel, Marinus Willett lieutenant colonel, and Robert Cochran major. Among the recommendations of Maj. Cochran, was one from Jellis Fonda, Esq., who says he was "an active good soldier, true to the cause" and that he would " choose to be in the rangers, as he is well used to the business and understands the woods as well as any man." IIc served with reputation in the campaign of 1777, and was probably on the staff of Gen. Gates, for a portion of the time, as he appears to have been the bearer from him to the Vermont council of safety, in September, of important despatches, some of which were to be forwarded to the adjoin- ing states. In 1778 he was sent by the commanding officer in the north- ern department, into Canada, to obtain information of the military condi-
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