USA > Vermont > The history of Vermont; with descriptions, physical and topographical > Part 8
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Many also of the first roads have been given up and new ones opened ; running not over the almost inacces- sible heights ; but curving round the hills, and winding along the vallies and on the banks of the streams. Delightful situations are thus presented for dwelling houses, which are being rapidly occupied with neat farmer-like establishments. These routes render the traveling in this state, particularly in the summer sea- son, exhilarating, and, to the valetudinarian, salutary. Not a district of the state, not a county, or even a town without some of these alterations for the better ; and presenting some attracting views, or objects of interest- ing contemplations, if not of curiosity.
These remarks do indeed apply more particularly to the parts first settled. For those portions more recently occupied have been with the advantages of previous experience. The new townships being settled often by families removing from the older settlements, were,
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in most instances, judiciously laid out in the first place ; and thus avoiding the necessity of losing much of their labor, before making their circumstances conform to their wishes.
These facts relative to the early settlement and subse- quent alterations in various portions of the state, show us the limited foresight of man ; and the slow and often painful process in securing the objects of human enter- prise. If this was exemplified more often here, than in some other parts of the union ; it was owing to intrinsic difficulties, and not to any particular deficiency, or dis- cernment and forecast in the men, to whose lot it fell to lay out the ground-work of political society in this moun- tain district.
It is yet one of the instances of melancholy imper- fection in man, that so much of what he does, is to be undone ; that so much of what he has accomplished is to be deserted, and something else to take its place. Vermont indeed shows many proofs of this, in the deserted settlements on many of its hills and eminences, and buildings taken down and removed. Many such situations here, built and modeled with skill and taste ; and where was once heard the busy hum of business ; and all the enjoyments of life were participated, have disappeared and become wastes, as if no human foot- steps had been near them. Many roads built with great effort and expense ; and often traveled over by all classes in the various pursuits of life, have been discon- tinued, deserted ; the turnpike abandoned ; it gates and
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toll-houses broken down, and in ruins ; overgrown with underbrush, places once well known, but soon to lie for- ever forgotten.
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CHAPTER VII.
In Windham county such changes seen .- Black mountain .- Road on West river .- Cascade .- Defile .- Newfane hill .- Its former appearance .- Deserted state .- Contrast .- Judges and Lawyers. -New county seat .- Fayetteville .- Changes .- Their advan- tages .- Evils .- Uplands .- Their use .- Northern positions and exposure .- A family burnt in Newfane .- Hardy occupiers of exposed northern positions .- Hardihood a general trait .- Con- tributing to it, their early troubles .- Their aversion to effemi- nacy .- Illustrated by examples .- The character of the first settlers .- Settled principally from Connecticut .- Reproaches answered .- Testimony of Hillhouse to this trait of character.
THIS course of things is seen, among other places in Windham county. Newfane has long been the shire town. In the early period of the jurisdiction proper of Vermont, and for several years, the courts were held alternately at Westminster and Marlboro. It is about fourteen miles from Brattleboro ; and the road runs along the right bank of West river. Passing by several interval farms near the mouth of that river ; rich by being overflowed ; in a high state of cultivation ; and presenting a fine appearance, you come into the neighborhood of Black mountain, in Dummerston, on the left bank. The river washes the base of this mountain, which rises from the
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water almost perpendicularly several hundred feet, and opens to the south in the form of a 'horse shoe,' and thus the cavity has borne the appellation, time immemo- rial, ' the shoe of the mountain.' Its appearance as you pass along on the opposite bank, is bold and majestic ; granite rocks piled one upon another ; with evergreens and stinted shrubbery but poorly covering its surface, give it a dark and sombre hue. It seems like one of nature's castles ; from which writers of fiction have tried to copy ; and make the strong hold of some fair one to be hunted out and carried off by her lover, some knight errant. But the river is too fleet to admit of escape by water craft, his prize being let down poetically from the lofty eminence ; and success if at all, must come by the way of 'the heel.'
But it serves a more substantial purpose, abounding as it does in durable and everlasting, so to speak, mate- rials for the purposes of building, and fences and canal locks. It stands yet proof against the purpose of the energetic Hillhouse of Connecticut, who, with DeWitt Clinton, making his exploring tour, to extend the New Haven and Northampton canal to Vermont, said " he wanted to prepare the way for the removal of Black mountain to New Orleans." On the other hand also, opposite this, skirting the road, is a corresponding hill of less altitude, somewhat cleared and improved as graz- ing ground, and remarkable for a beautiful cascade ; a small stream of water rushing from its summit, and descending over the rocks and precipices ; and threaten- ing to dash into the traveler's face, glides under his feet
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through an aqueduct into the river. So lightly does it make its way, and so hard its bed, that little, or no channel has it cut, but seems to dart down upon the surface, its waters foaming and glittering in the fall- ing rays of the sun, it becomes a striking and pleasing spectacle.
Passing along to the northwest part of the town, you come to the narrow defile, made by the river on the north ; and an almost inaccessible mound on the south, leaving only a very narrow passway, which by one of the leaders in the early difficulties of this state, was called " the valley of the shadow of death." So steep and high is the hill; and the road so narrow, that for two or three months of the winter, the rays of the sun scarcely fall upon you for a mile, any part of the day. This luminary so bountiful of his beams, and exhaustless, deals them out here so sparingly, and lets you have light by measure of small dimensions.
You now leave the river ; and after going three miles on ascending ground, come to the former seat of the county, a lofty, conical summit, overlooking not a small part of the surrounding country. Here was once the strong hold, the citadel of justice and judgment for Wind- ham county. Here once stood the court-house and jail ; surrounded by hotels, and stores ; and mechanic's shops ; attorney's offices, and neat, hospitable dwellings. Here stood also, the sanctuary on the very pinnacle ; and near it the county academy and parsonage house. But these are now gone ; the court-house, the jail, the mer- chants' establishments, the business shops ; the hotel ;
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the commodious houses and the house of God itself; and you see a mere desolation and waste compared with what it once was. The academic building stands, but deserted, dilapidated ; the old tavern stand is there ; but no longer clustered with the shivering crowds of Decem- ber court. The winds whistle unheeded ; the northern blast finds few dwellings there to rack ; and fewer occu- pants to waken from their midnight slumbers, clinging to their bed posts. The clear ice can glisten in the wintry sun unmolested by calks and ashes ; and without wit- nessing the prostration of many a human frame; and the falling of "justice in the streets."
No longer do crowds repair hither to enjoy the beauties and refreshing breezes of this spot, as they used to do, at the June and August courts. Its surface pressed by the feet of the substantial yeomanry of the country ; and fashionable visitants ; the supreme judges of Vermont, and members of the bar with their wives often; and various other spectators, in the sultry month of August, enjoying the delightful scenery and cooling winds from the neighboring hills, is felt by them no longer. Here as the sun was declining, the business of the day finished, in the shade of their houses, on the green grass, were often tea parties, indulging in social conversation ; in glee and merriment. The stern, inflexible judge, and eloquent lawyer relaxed their brows ; and related many a transaction of past times ; gave and received many a stroke of wit and humor. Here once stood a Robinson, a Tyler and a Harrington, of the supreme court ; and a Knowlton and a Duncan of the county. Here in elo-
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quent strains were as advocates, a Bradley, an Elliot, Blake, Stark, Hall, Hunt, Field and others, whose tongues are silent, and who heed not the changes that have come over this hill of justice. Others live, orna- ments of their profession, who can recall to mind past scenes here witnessed, " like the music of carol, pleasant but mournful to the soul."
But this was a desertion of choice, and not necessity ; not to a condition of less, but more eligibility, if to a lower station ; not to one less protected and safe, but of more easy access. In a northeasterly direction, two miles down the declivity in a beautiful vale, you find the county seat revived Phoenix-like, much improved. Seve- ral of the most valuable buildings were taken down and rebuilt on this ground, and retain almost their former appearance.
The public buildings have indeed been much enlarged and are of more elegant structure. Two neat houses of worship ; and other public buildings, with many elegant private dwelling houses ; stores, offices, and shops of mechanics, cluster round the public edifices, and form a beautiful situation protected by adjacent hills from the piercing winds of winter. In the summer, its fertile, well cultivated fields; and its level even surface, and spacious common on which you can plant your foot with the horizon and stand perpendicularly to it without bracing, you find one of the pleasantest villages in Ver- mont. You thus become not only reconciled, but pleased with the change. In Fayetteville you have a fair speci- men of the villages which now abound in this state in
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the sequestered vallies, and on the margins of rivers, rendered by their relative situations more convenient and pleasant even in winter, than those of states several degrees south of it, but of surface more level.
These facts and statements have been so particularly stated and made, as affording illustrations and specimens both of the scenery with which one is presented in traveling over the state; and also of the alterations, which have taken place since its early settlement. These have been greater in some parts than in others ; the greatest where the ground was first cleared; and is the most uneven. In the northern part of the state, the surface on both sides of the mountain being more level, inconvenient and exposed, beginnings have not been so frequent. The mountain also in the northern section is not so high and precipitous.
Some evils and inconveniences have resulted from these changes, and suspension of original purposes. The centre of business has often fallen on the borders and not in the middle of towns; the local limits of religious parishes have been blended and lost. Members of churches have sometimes been separated from their brethren ; and long habits of association sundered. Houses of worship have been abandoned ; and expense incurred in building others ; in some instances the pasto- ral relation dissolved. You will see too, many houses of divine worship, on lonely and deserted hills, unoccupied, or used for some other purpose.
But the convenience and comfort of the inhabitants and even the value of property have been increased
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and enhanced greatly by them. They have generally been judicious, leading to immediate and permanent advantages. One great benefit by them, is the securing of numerous situations of water privileges. Numerous mill seats both for breadstuffs and the sawing of lumber, and situations for manufacturing establishments, have been discovered and occupied. The hills and moun- tainous parts, though in many instances abandoned as places of residence, are by no means useless, but serve as sheep pastures, for which, they are excellent, and for young cattle. To this use of them the farmers are more or less resorting. Dwelling themselves on the flats and in the vallies and near the streams, they plow the more feasible portions of their farms, and let these useful, nimble animals overrun and clip the steep sides of the hill ; and they return their owners the increase, and profitable clippings to their shearers. Thus the facility of milling is great compared with what it once was ; and the spectacle of a wind-mill, formerly not unfrequent, is now rarely visible ; one such structure in Vermont the writer has seen, but the place that knew it, knows it no more, and only retains the name of wind-mill hill.
It cannot be avoided, however, that many settlements and establishments should have a northern and a west- ern situation and exposure. So innumerable are the hills ; and so diversified their shapes and dimensions ; circular, conical, and angular, from the lowest to the highest form of the term, it cannot be expected that habitations should be found only in the vallies. Clearing the south and east side of the hills ; and forming settle-
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ments there, and erecting houses, is not all that could be expected. It is not all that is actually done. Some excellent land has a northern inclination, and is occupied and cleared into productive farms. The owners must place their dwellings on the sides of the north ; with no intervening object to break off the wind at a distance often of many miles. They have the opportunity indeed of founding them on a rock ; and giving them a broad foundation ; an unambitious elevation ; digging deep and laying it strong, and building compact, they do not very often find them subverted by the descending rains and falling winds. The impression on them is startling at times, so sudden are the changes, and power- ful blasts from the northwest. So penetrating and inquisitive is the wind, that the utmost care and circum- spection cannot prevent its making its way through the crevices into the most retired apartments. Shivering
with the cold, the occupants find the application of more clothing to their persons convenient and comfortable. For sometimes, when the cold is most severe, and the wind highest, the fire on the hearths cannot be safely increas- ed in proportion. It might be driven into their rooms in contact with the facing and woodwork around the fire place. Painful experience has taught them more danger is to be apprehended by fire in such positions, than by the winds overthrowing their buildings. Disasters in this way have taken place.
In the early settlement of Newfane, a log tenement in a northern exposure was consumed by fire, and the whole family, eight in number, perished with it. As the
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family retired to rest, the fire was plentifully supplied with wood, as a defence against the severity of the weather ; and the flame was blown probably into the room kindling the combustible matter within its reach. Thus by the smoke, their slumbers were rendered heavier and heavier, till they slept the sleep of death. The morning came, and the smouldering ruins and the naked bones revealed to the neighbors, the painful calamity. At the funeral for the burial of these bones, the theme of the pioneer pastor's discourse was : "Suppose ye, that they were sinners above all men, because they suffered such things ! "
But even in these western and northern positions, the occupiers can often contrive somewhat to ward off the intruding winds and storms. In the construction of their buildings ; in the high breast works ; and breakers ; and outposts they have exhibited genuine traits of yankee invention, to keep at bay the elements warring around them. Thus they can employ their indoor hours in quiet and calm reading and conversation, secure against the furious onsets without ; and smiling at the snow driving against their window casements.
But when the worst comes, the green mountain boys will not turn their backs, but be found at their posts facing the enemy. They soon become habituated to these vanguard posts, so to speak ; these hyperborean positions. The husbandmen occupying these prominent situations are among the most respectable ; and of in- dependent secular circumstances of any in the state. They are hale and robust ; no dough-faces ; nor Doe-
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faces : but can bear the motion of the air when the mercury in the thermometer is far below zero. Their faces become tough by exposure ; and they can breast the driving snow storm ; and at the call of duty go where man can go amid the strife of the elements. In short they become conformed to their circumstances ; and manifest some of the most praise-worthy traits in the human character.
Having thus alluded to a characteristic of this portion of the Vermonters, it may be said here in addition, that it is somewhat descriptive of the whole population. Several circumstances may have contributed to this.
The circumstances in which the state was originally settled may have had influence. These have been before explained ; the protracted controversies with New York, and New Hampshire ; and with the continental congress. These trials had an influence in strengthening their minds ; their resolutions and even their physical powers. They rendered them watchful ; and circum- spect ; and although sparing of blood, they had some- times to exercise their courage and even bodily powers. Their titles to their farms were sealed by the seal, called " the Beech Seal." In allusion to this emblem, they sometimes had to renew their titles to their farms by applying anew the seal ; that is, the beech rod to the backs of those, who came upon their premises with a writ of ejectment. They used various kinds of missives to keep off whom they could not but view as intruders ; and though they were not fatal in their application, they were often serious, and at any rate, served to nerve the
9
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arm which sent them. In some cases even the house- wives dashed hot water out at the windows upon suspi- cious claimants about the premises. Honorable scars of this kind, by here and there an advocate of the Yorkers, were worn long after the difficulties ceased-a memento to their neighbors of past warfare. Thus then this people were formed originally to an energy of character, which is retained, more or less, to the present time.
Then again they seem to have an aversion, a strong loathing to effeminacy ; a withered, pale, sickly, shady growth, to deprecate ; and shudder at the thought of falling into it. Their soil, they think, is uncongenial to dandyism, and will not sustain such a class of oc- cupants.
The writer knew a sober farmer, who returning from Boston, whither he had been with the surplus produce of his farm, to provide stores for the year, fell as he was walking beside his team, and he knew not how, broke one of his legs. Being detained a week or two, by the way, it was the most mortifying part of his disaster, he said, " to tell his host and attendants, that he belonged to Vermont ; as they must think it strange, that any one should be reared so in the shade and cellar as to have his bones snap like a pipe-stem." One of the first settlers of a 'river town,' he also knew, of whom it was said, that scorning effeminacy, he was ashamed to be seen wearing a new beaver hat, until " it had lain in the barn-yard two or three nights."
The character of the first settlers themselves may have had an influence in forming and continuing this trait.
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The original inhabitants of the state were mostly from the New England states. The south eastern part, was taken possession of by emigrants from Massachusetts ; and many of them were from the county of Worcester. Many families and adventurers came from Connecticut, and took up their residence in various parts of the state ; in Bennington county, particularly in the town of Paw- let ; in Addison county ; and in Windsor and Orange. Indeed the great body of the early settlers came from Connecticut ; among whom was the Allen family, and several of her governors. Thus in the first formation of its government, it was styled New Connecticut, other- wise Vermont. But New Hampshire and Rhode Island furnished some of the original inhabitants. A few fami- lies of Dutch descent, as their names indicate, settled in the western part of the state, particularly in Bennington and its vicinity.
The first explorers and occupiers of this district were themselves hardy. For few, but bold and daring men ; capable of enduring hardships, could at that period, be induced to go to Vermont. It was then thought a more daring undertaking to go to the new state, or Vermont state, as it was named, than a journey now is to Illinois ; or beyond the Mississippi. It is indeed true, that some who wish to speak reproachfully of this state, say, " that it was settled by fugitives from justice, and abettors of Shay's rebellion." But it is not believed that more persons of this description removed to this state, than is common now to new countries, particularly those em- barrassed with debt. Of the adherents to Shay's, not
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more came to this state, than probably went to New Hampshire, or New York. Some, who did come, it is well known, proved good inhabitants. Through inex- perience and misrepresentation, they were perhaps be- guiled into an action which on reflection, their judgment disapproved ; and the fact had, probably a salutary in- fluence on them through life. Surely it is no reproach, but an honor to a man to repudiate his errors and faults, when convinced of them. Those embarrassed with pecuniary liabilities have been so, in many instances, without crime ; as many at that period became so with- out the loss of character for honesty. Surely fewer came branded with crimes, than were found in many other states ; or than now go from the older to new settlements. Adventurers indeed came ; but such as were made of stern and enduring temperament, and not easily discouraged at difficulties. If all that is alleged should be granted, it would still be true, that they were men not given to inglorious ease and supineness ; but of a bold, go-ahead character. It must then even be admit- ted, that the first generation of this flourishing state were men capable of enduring trials and encountering diffi- culties ; that its primitive materials were far less dis- cordant than those of Imperial Rome, mistress of the world.
This original trait of character has been infused more or less into all classes ; and handed down to the present generation. They are still a hardy people. They carry evidence of it in their appearance ; and of this trait in a measure the tender sex partakes.
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Of this, the lamented Hillhouse bore testimony, who, in his tour, to which reference has been made, going to a house in Guilford to borrow an axe to clear away bushes, which obstructed his survey, was told by the woman, " that the axe was so dull he could not use it, and that her husband was gone ; but if he would hold it on, she could turn the grind-stone." " If such are the women of Vermont," said he, " there is no difficulty in extending the canal into it."
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CHAPTER VIII.
Character of its inhabitants continued .- Hardy .- Their position .- Climate and employments unite in making them so .- Bo- dilystructure .- Exercise .- Exceptions .- Dissipation .- Diet .- Wrong management .- Frankness another trait .- Enterprising. -Seen in the improvements .- In new sources of profit .- In their vallies, rivers, lakes ; quarries ; factories ; potatoes .- Starch factories .- Found over the union in responsible trusts .- Intelligent .- Comparative number who cannot read or write .- Jurymen .- A comparison .- Prejudices .- Apology for speaking of them by comparison .- Formerly stigmatized .-- Unfounded as persons .- Griswold and Lyon .- Rencountre between them .- How treated in Connecticut .- Its influence .- Hospitality .- Southern .- In Vermont to strangers.
THE northern position of this people; their climate and employments have also contributed to the formation of this characteristic trait. Familiarity with the bracing winds of their mountains and protracted winters have, given a healthful color to their countenances ; and served to render their bodily structure compact and firm. Going up and down the ridges and uplands of their mountains in the discharge of duty ; or in the pursuit of game, or in rambles for curiosity, and prospective views ; or in making scientific researches in natural history, or geology or mineralogy, serves to give elasticity and vigor
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