The history of Washington county, in the Vermont historical gazetteer:, Part 114

Author: Hemenway, Abby Maria, 1828-1890, [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Montpelier, Vt., Vermont watchman and state journal press
Number of Pages: 1066

USA > Vermont > Washington County > The history of Washington county, in the Vermont historical gazetteer: > Part 114

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THE OLD FIFER.

BY DR. N. W. GILBERT.

Did ever yon hear the old fifer play The martial music he loved so much- The shrill notes which, for many a day, Have answered oft to the magic touch Of bis wrinkled fingers, long and lean, Yet iosing none of their old-time skill

In conjuring up from the realms nuseen The fairy forms of the master's will ?

I say that his fingers were lean and long, But the finger of time had made them so, As they were supple, and full and strong In the halcyon days of the long ago; For now it is three score years and ten- The time allotted to human Ilfe-

Since Uncle Perry-a stripling then- Began to play the inspiring fife,

Or rather, since he, at about sixteen- Already well tutored and drilled therefor-

His knapsack on, with his tin canteen, Marched off to play in impending war. Hls tin canteen, but he never would sip From the poisonous fluid the government then Unwisely held to the thirsting lip,

And the hungry palate, of brave young men.

Where strife was raging and hearts beat high, With dauntless courage that would not yield, He helped to win, on the fourth of July, The bloody encounter on Chippewa's field; Then chasing the foe to Niagara's shore. He there still mingled his patriot strain

With the booming of guns and the cataract's roar, At the subsequent battle of Lundy's Lane.

When war was over, the fifer returned From scenes of carnage and scenes of strife, But still in his bosom there glowed and burned A quenchless love for his martial fife. In age or in youth it was ever the same- He awaited the cars in his rustic seat,

To carol his welcome to all who came,

And repeated his alrs In the nelghboring street.

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On an empty box by the grocery store He sat in the sun and fifed away, As if he imagined himself once more Encouraging men to the deadly fray ; Or as if, perchance, in a milder mood, He wondered if ever grim war would cease; And whether his art would still be wooed Iu the tranquil reign of the Prince of Peace.

When age and feebleness held him fast, Three days before the grim visitor came To bring him the summons which comes at last, He called for his fife, as the flickering flame Flashed up once more, and his heart grew strong, His fingers resumed their cunning and skill, The notes were clear, which he couldn't prolong, And now they are silent; his pulse is still.

The railroad vehicles come and go,

The old sledge hammer still sounds the wheels, But Uncle Perry sleeps under the snow;

And the heart instinctively, pensively feels The force of the truth that 'tis all men's doon That mortals approach to the " farther shore:" The spring shall come and the flowers shall bloom, But the merry old fifer may come no more.

MAJOR CHARLES A. WEBB, U. S. A., son of Edward A. Webb, now of Chicago, Ill., born in Montpelier, Dec. 29, 1838, was removed to Northfield at 10 years of age. He assisted his father in his store and tin-ware business, and later in the management of the "Northfield House," of which his father was proprietor. He joined the old New England Guards, com- manded by Capt. S. G. Patterson, at its organization, and in April, 1861, entered the service as Ist Lieut. Co. F, Ist Vt. Reg., 3 months ; was commissioned, Aug. '61, Capt. 13th Reg. Inf .- Gen. Sherman's old regiment-and for gallant conduct at Vicks- burgh, breveted Major, Sept. 21, '66; transferred to 22d Reg. Inf., and com- missioned Major of the 16th Inf. Mar. 4, '79.

Following close the termination of the rebellion, he was for a time engaged in the campaigns against the Indians. Recalled to garrison life, was stationed at several East- ern forts, Fort Mackinaw, on Lake Superior, Fort Wayne, etc. Upon the breaking out of disturbances in the Ute reservation, re- sulting in the " Meeker massacre," he was ordered from Fort Riley, Kansas, to the scene of hostilities, and from there trans- ferred to Texas. His long experience in Indian warfare peculiarly fitted him for border service. As a military officer he exhibited marked ability.

In 1879, while stationed at Fort Mack- inaw, he married Mrs. Rose Disbrow, a

lady of culture and social accomplish- ments, who, with an infant daughter of four months, survives him. He died from congestion of the lungs, at Fort McKavett, Texas, at midnight, Jan. 31, 1882, in his 44th year.

Many in Northfield and vicinity will re- member Charley Webb, and regret his very unexpected death. Under a south- ern sky, away from friends and all the loved places of his youth, he finds his last resting-place .- Northfield News.

DR. BRADFORD'S CABINET.

This is one of the most unique private cabinets in the State. First, here is the ballot-box used at the first town meeting in Northfield, and the communion table of "the Old Yellow Meeting-house " (See page 648, 654), oval, one-leaf, of cherry ; and two turn-up tables-a chair and table combined-in vogue some 60 to 70 years ago, a convenient and pretty piece of fur- niture ; as a chair, the oval-board of your centre-table, when you have finished your tea and want the room it occupies, turned back, forms a stout warm back to a com- fortable chair, that under the board of the table has been doing the office of support- ing your supper table till you were ready for your rest by the evening hearth. We rather coveted one of the Doctor's turn-up tables. It is the first thing we should pick from his " antiquettes," unless it were some of the old painted deft and china with which one of the " turn-ups " is loaded down-odd pitchers, quaint little cups, cunning creamers, teapots, and sugar- bowls ; plates-pewter, wood and earthen. We pass the good show of pewter-platter, porringer and tankard for white earthen- once was-a greenish-yellow white now, very old plate with perforated rim, various- shaped little holes four or five deep in the rim, running around it in a wreath ; or for one of the pretty pitchers, with raised groups of figures on either side. Many a little bric-a-brac lies on these and the tables around the room-a mouse-trap, half the size of a woman's hand, averred "200 years old, and caught the first mouse that ever lived in Connecticut," antique wed- ding slippers-the Doctor's mother's, 80

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years old and more ; knee-buckles, button- moulds, spoon-moulds, the great horn- spoon ; Mrs. John Averill's wrinkled, old 3-quart wooden pail-crackly paint -- faded, crinkled, wood beginning to crumble, " 200 years old : the old earthen pepper-box, with cork in the bottom and top that does not fall off : a small reed for weaving hair- sieves ; a minute hair-sieve. Ah, me ! the little necessaries once, a few years ago the "nothings of the garret," the pet of the cabinet now. "That old flint gun went through 1812 ;" that drum was " captured from the British in the battle of Bunker Hill, went through the Revolutionary war, the war of 1812, and the last war, and good for another fight."

There are three cases of minerals ; one large case of lovely specimens in coral from the West Indies ; one or more tables with West India curiosities ; carved sailor- work in wood, done at sea, etc. ; foreign curiosities, loaned or placed in the cabinet by Mrs. H. H. Walling, the Doctor's step- daughter ; sea-feathers or ferns-of coral- sea - spiders clinging to, on the walls ; centre-table of the cabinet laid with old blue and parti-colored crockery, Chinese umbrella over-on, old tin candelabra, with eleven candles; opposite wall with hanging cupboard ; bottled curiosities- horrible lizards! a tape-worm 110 feet-It is a Doctor's cabinet-a hideous young alligator under the table ; yonder, far more agreeable drawers, with about 700 Indian relics, arrow-heads, spear-heads, gouges, battle-axe, etc., from Orange Co. mostly, and from Michigan ; belt of wampum in the window; not to mention spinning- wheels, cards, and the necessary imple- ments for home manufacture of wool and flax.

I also noticed a piece of old English plate and-glass, a table-castor, its base decorated with pretty raised flowers in the silver, that belonged to the late Rev. Dr. Edward Bourns - was his mother's; a West India sword of intermingled shark- teeth and fibre of wood ; wooden trenchers, tin dinner-horn, large ball-head andirons, the pleasantly-remembered, old, perforated tin lantern swinging overhead, like one

my father carried when I was a child. We have no more time to rummage, but I wish every town in the State had some cabinet for both its natural and its old-time curi- osities.

MOSES LANE-SUPPLEMENT TO P. 633.

From 1878 to 1881, he was Engineer in charge of constructing the new system of water supply for New Orleans, the sewerage system of Buffalo, of Pittsfield, Mass. ; was a member of the commission appointed by the city of Memphis after the yellow fever scourge, to perfect the drainage. The whole city sewerage plan was changed, and Memphis, in the opinion of eminent engineers, made one of the healthiest cities of the Union. He was consulting engineer for St. Louis and Boston ; in Boston the originator of the great plan of sewerage being perfected there, which has attracted the attention of eminent engi- neers throughout the world. Mr. Davis, assistant to Mr. Lane, made out the plans, but for the grand idea was indebted to Mr. Lane. He suffered an apoplectic stroke, and died two weeks after, Jan. 25, 1882. He leaves a widow, three daugh- ters and one son. He was a natural gen- tleman, always courteous and agreeable, and one of the oldest, best known and es- teemed members of the American Society of Civil Engineers .- Milwaukee and Re- publican News.

AUTHORSHIP .- History of Northfield, by Hon. John Gregory, 8 vo. pp. 319; Re- view of Bp. Hopkins againt Universalism, pp. 314 ; Handbook of Design, by Gurdon P. Randall, architect and lecturer ; In- struction to Town Clerks, by Hon. George Nichols ; Sermon by Rev. A. Smith, 1862 ; A rhyming geographical thick pamphlet, by Rev. Chas. O. Kimball ; The Star of Vermont and Ch. Messenger from 1853, published by W. Woodworth; R. M. Manly published the Vt. Ch. Messenger. Gilman gives The Hatchet, Jan. 1874; The Thunderbolt, Apr. 1875; The North Star, I copy, Apr. 1878; The Amateur Herald, May, '78, 2 Nos. Rev. Guy C. Sampson, temperance, anti-slavery lec- turer and editor, who lived here some years, we reserve notice of for Woodstock.

713

PLAINFIELD.

BY DUDLEY B. SMITHI, M. D.

Plainfield is a small township, which contained, before the annexation of Goshen Gore, about 9,600 acres. Its surface was uneven, but no more so than the average of Eastern Vermont. It contained but little waste land, and was upon the whole a productive township.

Goshen Gore, by Plainfield, was about 32 miles long by 13 wide, lying east of Plainfield, and containing 3,000 acres. But very little of it is suitable for tillage. At one time it contained several families, but now has none. It formed a part of the town of Goshen until 1854.

It was annexed to Plainfield in 1874. It was embraced in the Yorkist town of Truro, and its highest mountain, which is called from that circumstance Mt. Truro, was measured by the writer, and found to be 2,229 feet above Plainfield station, or about 2,984 feet above the sea.

Winooski river flows about 1} mile through the north-western corner of the town. Soon after it passes the line into Plainfield, it runs through and over a ledge of rocks, making an excellent mill priv- ilege, around which has grown up the vil- lage of Plainfield.

By the canal survey of 1826, this stream at the west line of Plainfield was 152 feet above Montpelier, 546 above Lake Cham- plain, and 636 feet above the ocean. By the railroad survey, the station at Plain- field is 264 feet above the meadow near the mill-pond at Montpelier, or about 755 feet above the ocean.

The Great Brook rises in the eastern part of the town, and in Harris Gore, passes into Orange and returns, flowing northerly through the town, and enters the Winooski in Plainfield village. Gun- ner's Brook is a small stream, that rises in the southern part of the town, and empties into Stevens' Branch in Barre village.

In the southern part of the town on the banks of the Great Brook, is a medicinal spring, which is very efficacious in the cure of cutaneous and other diseases. Its vir-

tues are largely owing to the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen gas.

The town of Truro, which was chartered by New York, contained 22,000 acres. Its form resembled a carpenter's square, each limb being a little over 3 miles wide, and on its outer or longest side, nearly 6 miles long. The northern part of what is now Barre formed the southern limb. The eastern part of Plainfield, with a corner of Orange, the eastern or northern limb. The western part of Plainfield, with Montpelier and East Montpelier, was embraced in the town of Kingsboro, and contained 30,000 acres, and was chartered to John Morin Scott.

In 1773, Samuel Gale commenced the survey of one or both of these townships, and this was the first party of white men known to have passed through Plainfield. [For a biography of Gale see Hall's His- tory of Eastern Vermont, p. 643.] In Ira Allen's History of Vermont he says : "In the summer of 1773, Ira Allen, learning that the land jobbers of New York were engaged in surveying near the head of Onion River, started with a party from Colchester in pursuit of them. He passed through Middlesex, Kingsboro and More- town to Haverhill, when learning of the whereabouts of the surveyor, he returned and found his lines, which he followed to near the north-east corner of Montpelier, where he found the surveyor had just de- camped, having been warned, he supposed, by a hunter Allen had met. According to Allen's field book the surveyor's camp was on a meadow near the north-east corner of the old town of Montpelier. Kingsboro was the Yorkist name for Washington. Moretown, or Moortown, is now Bradford, and not the present town of that name.

Allen then passed through Barre and Washington to Bradford, and returning with a knowledge of where the surveyor was to be found, passed through Plainfield on his return. As the line between Truro and Kingsboro passed nearly through the center of Plainfield, a large part of Gale's surveys must have been in this town. John Morin Scott, the grantee of Kings- boro, was a member of the New York

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Legislature in the Revolution, and on ac- count of his ownership of this town, was made a member of the New York council of safety, to represent this section of Ver- mont. He received $49.91 of the $30,000 which was paid by Vermont to New York to indemnify the New York claimants.

In Aug. 1788, James Whitelaw, of Rye- gate, James Savage, of New York, and William Coit, of Burlington, caused the tract of land lying between Barre and Marshfield, Montpelier and Goshen Gore, to be measured and the bounds marked, and at that time or before, it received the name of St. Andrew's Gore.

They also measured a gore near Cam- bridge, of 10,000 acres, one near Calders- burg, now Morgan, of 1,500 acres, some islands in Lake Champlain, containing 1,500 acres, also islands in Otter Creek, containing 30 acres, making 23,030 acres, or about the usual size of a township, St. Andrew's Gore being reckoned at 10,000 acres. These tracts were never incorpo- rated into a town; like Goshen, which was composed of widely separated por- tions. The different parts of Whitelaw's grant, as it was called, had no connection with each other.

The charter of these lands was granted Oct. 23, 1788. In 1788, '90 and '92, Whitelaw, Savage and Coit deeded their claims to Ira Allen, of Colchester, brother of Ethan, and to Gamaliel Painter, of Middlebury, the chief founder of Middle- bury College. Allen and Painter gave a verbal agency to Col. Jacob Davis, of Montpelier, who, upon this authority, in May, 1793, began giving warrantee deeds of these lands in his own name. The following letter is recorded in the Plain- field land records :

MIDDLEBURY, Apr. 5, 1795. Sir :- On my return from your home, I called on General Allen. He seems to think that it would be altogether guess- work to divide the land without seeing of it, but agreed that I might sell adjoining to the land sold sufficient to make up my part reckoning of it in quantity and qual- ity. And I wish you to sell to any person that wants to purchase and make good pay. You know my want in regard to pay better

than I can write, and for your trouble in the matter, I will make you satisfaction.

I am, sir, Your most obedient,

Humble servant, GAMA. PAINTER.

This letter proves that Allen and Painter then recognized Davis as their agent to sell and to convey ; for no deeds had then been given by Allen or Painter to any one, under their own signature and seal. One of the old settlers claimed that once when Ira Allen was in Plainfield, he asked him to give him a deed of a lot that he had bargained for of Davis, and that Allen said, " Let Davis give the deed, he has the rest."

At last differences arose between Davis and Allen, and in 1799, Davis ceased to act as their agent, and sued Allen before the county court at Danville, and in 1804, recovered $2,500 on this suit, and a part of the town was set off to him on this ex- ecution, and Davis from Burlington jail- yard conveyed it over again to those to whom he had previously given deeds. About the same time the University of Vermont recovered $15,000 of Ira Allen, and the remainder of the town was set off to them. To strengthen their title, Davis and the settlers twice allowed nearly all of the town to be sold for taxes, once on a State tax, and once on a U. S. tax, each man bidding off his own farm.

In 1802, Ira Allen quit-claimed his rights in this town to Heman Allen, of Col- chester. This was some 2 years before the lands were set off to Davis snd the University on executions against Ira Allen. Davis and the settlers held their own against Heman Allen until Aug. 31, 1807, when Allen purchased the claim of the University, and five days after, deeded the whole to James Savage, of Plattsburg, N. Y. Three days after this, Savage gave Allen a power of attorney to dispose of these lands. This gave Allen, in the name of Savage, an opportunity to com- mence suits of ejectment against the set- tlers before the U. S. Courts at Windsor and Rutland. For, by the constitution, citizens of one state may sue citizens of another in the U. S. Courts. Probably

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the transfer to Savage of this claim was a sham, to enable Allen to bring his suits where the court, and especially the jury, would not have so much sympathy for the settlers as they would in the county where they resided. This trick, if trick it was, decided the contest. In 1808, Allen, in the name of Savage, got a decision of the circuit court in his favor. By a law of 1785, a person making improvements on lands to which he supposed he had good title, had a claim for his betterments, and for one-half of the rise in value of the property while in his possession, that there would have been had there been no im- provements. The settlers, therefore, did not have to pay very much more for their lands the second than the first time of purchase ; often not more than one-fourth of its value at that time. The price paid to Davis for land from 1793 to 1799 av- eraged abont $1.25 per acre. The price paid to Allen in 1808, for the second pur- chase, averaged a little less than $3 per acre.

Davis died within the limits of Burling- ton jail-yard in 1814, having been sent there for debt about the year 1802. As this was several years before the Plainfield suits were decided, it could not have been on account of them that he was sent there.

It is the opinion of Hon. C. H. Heath and others who have investigated the matter, that as the laws are now adminis- tered, the settlers would have saved their lands by a suit in chancery ; but at that time very little was done in this court, the powers of which have now grown to be so extensive.

It is a singular coincidence, perhaps an example of retributive justice, that in the same year that Jacob Davis died in the jail-yard at Burlington, Ira Allen died in poverty at Philadelphia, where he had gone to escape being imprisoned for debt in the same jail.

In the autumn of 1791, Seth Freeman, of Weldon, N. H., and Isaac Washburn, of the adjoining town of Croydon, came into town by the way of the East Hill in Montpelier. When they came to what is now the Four Corners near L. Cheney

Batchelder's house, Washburn decided that there should be his pitch. They camped for the night by the side of a hem- lock log in the hollow between the south district school-house and Lewis Durfee's. Freeman chose this location. The next year they returned and made these pitches. When a man made a clearing before the land was surveyed, it was usual when the lines were run to survey him out a farm that would include all of his clearing with- out regard to the regular lot lines, and such a piece of land was called a " pitch."

Before the town was surveyed by Jacob Davis in the spring of 1793, there were five such pitches made. They were Hezekiah Davis' pitch, 304 rods long, 31 wide, which adjoined his farm in Montpelier. Joseph Batchelder's pitch of 650 acres. mostly lying in the S. W. corner of the town, Theodore Perkins' pitch of 100 acres, Isaac Washburn's pitch. 320 acres. Seth Freeman's pitch, 300 acres.

There was also a gore between Free- man's pitch and the 5th range of lots, 34 to 40 rods wide. They all lay in the S. W. corner of the town. The clearings of 1792 were made by men living in shan- ties, who abandoned the town in the fall. In 1793 they returned, and perhaps some of them brought their families ; but they all removed in the fall excepting the fam- ily of Theodore Perkins, and Alden Free- man, a widower, who boarded with them.

Theodore Perkins and his wife, Martha Conant, were from Bridgewater, Mass. They removed to Pomfret, Vt., and from there to Plainfield, Mar. 10, 1793, on to a clearing said to have been begun by Ben- jamin Nash. The town being surveyed soon after, this clearing received the name of Perkins' pitch. July 8, Perkins built a log-barn ; but his house seems to have been built before he moved into town. In Dec. 1793, Alfred Perkins was born- the first birth in town. The last that was known of him he was living in the State of New York.

In the spring of 1794, Isaac Washburn's family moved into town, bringing with them Polly Reed, who afterwards married Benjamin Niles, and was grandmother to

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the present Geo. Niles She went over to Perkins' house, and was the first woman Mrs. Perkins had seen for several months. Whatever scandalous stories may have been told by or of the fair sex of Plain- field since that time, that winter it was certainly free from gossiping and tattling.

Nov. 1794, Perkins sold his claim to Joshua Lawrence, who procured a deed of it from Jacob Davis. Perkins removed to Montpelier, and in 1798 went to Kentucky to look after a tract of several thousand acres of land that had fallen to him. He wrote home that his title was good, and that he was coming after his family. Noth- ing more was ever heard from him. His friends think he was murdered. His widow removed to Lyme, N. H., in 1800.

Theodore Perkins left four sons and one daughter : Thomas, who died at Lyme, N. H., in 1871 ; Martin P., who lived at Shipton, Canada; Elinas P., lived in Scituate, Mass .- one of his sons, Thomas Henry, is a broker in Boston. The wife of Rev. A. S. Swift, formerly in charge of the Congregational church in Plainfield, was Theodore Perkins' grandaughter.

The Perkins house was on the flat, east of the Joshua Lawrence house, and south of the present road.

Seth Freeman made a pitch of 300 acres, and purchased lot No. 1, in the fourth range, which made him a farm of 430 acres. This he divided among his broth- ers, apparently as he thought they needed and deserved. He was one of the two men who purchased their land of Davis, who did not have to buy it again of Allen, having gained it by possession, and was for a time called rich, but became poor and moved away before his death. .

He was not the oldest of the family, but like Abraham was the head of it. Unlike that patriarch, however, he cannot be the founder of a nation, for he left no children. His father, Ebenezer, lived with him.

Alden Freeman was the oldest of the family. He married for his second wife, Precilla, daughter of Isaac Washburn, which was the first marriage in town. He lived at first on the Courtland Perry place, (lot 1, range 4,) but removed to the N.

W. corner of Freeman's pitch, where he built the Thompson house, now in ruins and owned by Alonzo Batchelder.

He had a large family ; Sally, widow of Thompson and of Larabee, of Barre, and Lucy, widow of Lawson, of Barre, and mother of George Lawson, were his daughters.

Ebenezer Freeman Jr. lived on the Court- land Perry farm. In his barn was kept one of the first schools in town,-perhaps quite the first. He was the father of the late Mrs. Freeman Landers.

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The history of Washington county, in the Vermont historical gazetteer:, Part 114

Author: Hemenway, Abby Maria, 1828-1890, [from old catalog] ed Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Montpelier, Vt., Vermont watchman and state journal press Number of Pages: 1066

Author: Hemenway, Abby Maria, 1828-1890, [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Montpelier, Vt., Vermont watchman and state journal press
Number of Pages: 1066