The history of Washington county, in the Vermont historical gazetteer:, Part 72

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 72

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tary officers that ever paraded a company in the streets of Montpelier ; and when the news of the invasion of Plattsburgh, in September, 1814, reached Montpelier, he sallied, cane in hand, into the streets, summoned a drummer and fifer to his side, and with them marched the streets all day, beating up volunteers, to start for the scene of action, and before night, he had enlisted three-fourths of his fellow citizens, who chose him Captain by acclamation. Being now at the head of perhaps the largest and best company of all the Ver- mont Plattsburgh volunteers, with the staunch Joseph Howes for his second in command, he gave his orders for the next day ; and at an early hour, the next morn- ing, they were all seen pouring along, in hot haste, for the seat of war, by night were in Burlington, the next day embark- ing on sloops, crowding all sail for Platts- burgh, but did not arrive in season to take their place in the line of battle.

Captain Hubbard was often chosen to fill town offices, especially if there happened to be pending any financial difficulty, growing out of conflicting interests, which others were unwilling to touch, which he always straightened without fear or favor to clique or party ; often at the expense of another election, though when another such diffi- culty occurred they were all for calling him back again ; when in his singularly frank, independent way, he would give them to understand, it was all the same with him, whether they elected him or not, but if they did, they might depend on it, he should not fear to do his duty. And there can be little doubt, had he kept down this marked trait of character, or played even a little of the demagogue, we should have seen him in higher civil offices.

Captain Hubbard was sometimes harsh in rebuking the faults of others, or in de- fending himself, when he unexpectedly met opposition in the path of what he con- sidered his right and duty ; but he seemed to give no lasting offense ; for the offended knew as soon as he found himself in the wrong, he would be the first to rectify it. He was liberal to the poor and all educa- tional, religious and benevolent objects.

When, in what had been called the Barre street school district, was built a new school house, some twenty years ago, [now some forty,] the Captain bought and caused to be hung in the cupola of this school building, a valuable new bell. And the district thereupon, at a regular meeting, unani- mously voted that their school house should thereafter be called " Hubbard Street School House," and the street on which it stood be changed from Barre Street to Hubbard Street. And this is still the only name that can be legitimately applied to it.

Captain Hubbard's business and finan- cial talents, and trustworthiness for all, not excepting even the most important posts, were widely admitted in his day, and can hereafter always be made to ap- pear on public records, the records of the numerous estates, of which he was the effi- cient administrator, and the records of the Bank of Montpelier which, for years, he skilfully managed in the capacity of its president.

About the age of fifty he reached a point which few wealthy men ever reach, the point when he thought he had property enough, and that he had better be bestow- ing it where it would do the most good. Accordingly he began giving it to the most needy of the numerous circle of his rela- tives, and continued the good work, till a full third of his estate had been bestowed on them. His first wife dying in 1839, he married Anner May, who survived him. He died Oct. 28, 1850. He has no de- scendants.

GENERAL EZEKIEL P. WALTON.

In the incipient stages of the growth of every country village there are nearly always two different personages who occupy the largest space in the thoughts of the people -the Minister and the Editor. And in proportion as these are faithful, intelligent and able, so, to an almost unappreciable extent, will be its moral, social and intel- lectual advancement. It was the good for- tune of Montpelier, for the first twenty years after the place could fairly lay claim to the dignity of a village, to have the right kind of a man for her Minister, and

8. P Halten

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the right kind of a man for an Editor, in the persons of Chester Wright and Ezekiel P. Walton.

EZEKIEL PARKER WALTON was born in the year 1789, in Canterbury, N. H., in which town his father, George Walton, formerly resided, but from which he at length removed to Peacham, Vt. There was a good academy at Peacham, and young Walton, previous to reaching the age of fifteen, attended it a few terms, studying the ordinary English branches, and completing all the school education he ever received.

There was, at this time, a small newspa- per, of Federal politics, published at Peach- am by Mr. Samuel Goss, a practical print- er and Editor of his own paper, which was called the Green Mountain Patriot. Into this establishment the boy Walton often found his way, and at length began to feel so much interest in the business he saw going on that he offered himself as an apprentice to the trade ; and Mr. Goss, as he has re- cently told us, so liked the looks of the bright little fellow that he concluded to take him in that capacity, and in despite of the opinions of others, who believed that little could ever be made of him. As Mr. Goss had predicted, however, the boy turned out a well behaved, faithful appren- tice, and made good proficiency in his trade. After serving three years at his trade in Peacham, he came, in 1807, to Montpelier, with Mr. Goss, who bought out the Vermont Precursor, a paper estab- lished here the year previous by Rev. Clark Brown, and changed the name to that of the Vermont Watchman. Here he served out the remainder of his apprenticeship, which expired in 1810; when, being of le- gal age, he, in company with Mark Goss, a fellow apprentice in the office, bought out Mr. Samuel Goss ; and the paper was then, for the next half dozen years, con- ducted by the firm of Walton & Goss, Mr. Walton discharging the chief duties of ed- itor. In 1816, Mr. Mark Goss went out of the establishment, and Mr. Walton be- came its sole proprietor and editor, and so continued nearly twenty years ; when, as his sons became of age, he took them into

partnership, and the business, to which book-selling and paper-making were at length added, was conducted in the name of E. P. Walton & Sons until 1853, during which he wholly gave up the proprietor- ship of the newspaper to his oldest son, the present Hon. Eliakim Persons Walton. Though the editorship had been entrusted to this son for many years previous to 1853, General Walton continued to assist in editing and writing for certain depart- ments of the paper, even into the last year of his life.

At an early period he passed rapidly along the line of military promotion till he reached the rank of Major General, when he threw these kinds of honors aside and thought no more of them. Mr. Walton was never an office seeker, nor was office, as much as was due to him as a man and a politician, nor half as much as was due to him from his party, ever bestowed on him. He was, however, several times the candidate of his party for town Repre- sentative, but never when that party hap- pened to be in the majority. In 1827, he was elected one of the Council of Censors, and served with credit to himself and elec- tors, among a board of the most distin- guished men in the State, Judges B. Turner, D. Kellogg and S. S. Phelps be- ing included among the number. In the Presidential election of 1852, he was elect- ed one of the Electoral College for Ver- mont, when the vote of the State was thrown for General Scott. In 1854, he was nominated as candidate for the office of Governor of Vermont by a large mass State Convention, and could the people have had their way, would have been tri- umphantly elected.

But out of an ardent desire to consoli- date the political sentiments of the people in one controlling organization, as well as out of high personal regard for the ven- erable Chief Justice, Stephen Royce, who had been previously named for the execu- tive chair by a Convention of the Whig party, General Walton cheerfully yielded his place on the ticket. The name of Judge Royce was substituted by the State Com- mittee, and he was heartily supported by

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the people ; and thus was organized the present Republican party of the State. For that organization a large measure of credit is due to Gen. Walton.

We have named the circumstances con- nected with Mr. Walton's nomination to the office of governor, for the double pur- pose of showing the remarkable lack of even well-warranted assumptions in the man, and his patriotic readiness to submit to any personal sacrifice which he was led to suppose public good required him to make, as well as of showing how his party, while so generally admitting his qualifica- tions for office, and the merit of his ser- vices in their behalf, so strangely over- looked him, when they so often had the power to reward and honor him. That he was ever honorable and just in his treat- ment towards his political opponents, the writer of this sketch, who was for many years one of them, can, and here does, most cheerfully attest ; and the late Araunah Waterman, who was ever a staunch political opponent, was often heard frankly to admit that "General Walton was both an honor- able man and an honest politician." That he, in his long, persistent, judicious and able editorial labors, was eminently instru- mental in establishing the ascendency of his party and keeping it in power, is a fact too well known to be questioned. Prob- ably, indeed, that man has never lived in Vermont who did so much toward build- ing up the old Whig party of the State, and its successor, the Republican party, which he lived to see become, from the minority in which he found it, one of the most overwhelming majorities ever re- corded in the history of party warfare. But while it was his lot to do so, and see all this, it was his lot also to be often com- pelled, like many another political editor, "to make brick without straw," or, in other words, manufacture great men out of small patterns, who, when made, carried their heads so high as generally to entirely overlook their political creator.

his readers. During the first years of his residence in Montpelier, he, in company with other young aspirants of the village, got up an association for mutual improve- ment in knowledge and literature, Called the " Franklin Society." In this society, in which theme writing was a leading ex- ercise, he probably made much progress in forming his style, which was evidently modelled on that of Dr. Franklin, so gen- erally the great oracle of the printer boy. The bon homme of " Poor Richard," how- ever, can never be successfully imitated by a man without a good heart. But Mr. Walton had that heart, and, through the force of finely-blended, emotional and in- tellectual qualities of his heart, he grad- ually formed a style of his own, which, with the vein of good common sense that pervaded it, gave him rank with the most pleasing and instructive of our editorial writers. As before intimated, he continued to write for his old paper to the last, and in so doing, besides his instructive articles on farming and domestic economy, he wrote and published in the Watchman, the year before his death, sixteen numbers on the events of the Olden Times in the Valley of the Winooski, over the signature of Oliver Old-School, which deserve to be re- published in pamphlet, for public reading and preservation.

In the political world, Gen. Walton was ever a person to be consulted ; among men he was always a man; in the church an influential officer; in the social circle a dignified, but a very courteous and kindly companion, and in his family an exemplary husband and father. His integrity, whether in business or politics, appears never to have been doubted, by either friend or foe ; his general intellectual capacity was al- ways conceded, and his frank and generous disposition known to the utmost limits of his extensive personal acquaintance.

Apr. 28, 1811, Mr. Walton married Miss Prussia, daughter of Eliakim D. Persons, of Montpelier, by whom he had 8 children Mr. Walton's style of writing was, for his advantages, unusually correct, and un- usually well calculated for enforcing his -Eliakim P., 6 years in Congress ; Harriet Newell, wife of Hon. H. R. Wing, a lawyer of standing at Glen's Falls, N. Y. ; sentiments and enlisting the sympathy of | George Parker, a very promising young

Walton.

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man, who died at the age of about 24 years, at New Orleans ; Nathaniel Porter, for some years the accountant of the firm of E. P. Walton & Sons ; Chauncey, now deceased ; Samuel M., the book-binder in Montpelier ; Ezekiel Dodge, who died at the age of about 25 years, at Philadelphia ; and Mary, wife of George Dewey, a mer- chant of New York city.

In his religious character, Mr. Walton was an earnest, frank, sincere Christian, always warm and generous in the utter- ance and support of his principles. He combined the wisdom of the serpent, the boldness of the lion and the harmlessness of the dove, in his whole Christian course ; was a devoted member and an honorable office bearer in the Congregational church for many years. His piety irradiated his household, his secular cares and his place of business. Everywhere, at all times, he was the admirable type of a Christian gen- tleman. In the Conference, in the Sabbath- school, in the support of charitable and religious institutions, none surpassed and few equalled him. The young men in his office felt his influence very strongly. Of the many who graduated from his office, and came to fill afterwards, with honor, public stations in the councils of the State and in the halls of Congress, and in the courts of justice, twelve have been mem- bers of churches, and two have become useful and respected ministers of the Gospel. And none could bear higher testimony to the invariable and elevated religious char- acter of Mr. Walton than they.

Gen. Walton died Nov. 27, 1855, leav- ing, as might be expected from one of his liberal views, not much property, indeed, but that " good name " which is better than riches.

MRS. PRUSSIA PERSONS WALTON,

widow of the late Gen. Ezekiel P. Walton, daughter of Eliakim D. Persons, died at her home Saturday, June 22, 1878, aged 86 ; the oldest resident at her death in the town of Montpelier. The Watchman says :

The long life of this " elect lady," though filled with unusual cares and responsibili- ties, was nevertheless rendered beautiful by her naturally exuberant spirits, her

tender regard for all her fellow-beings, and her unfaltering trust in Him in whom she believed. Her kindly heart and her dili- gent hands were busy to the last in works of charity and mercy, and few are the dwellings among us but contain some dainty token of affection wrought by her deft fingers. The blessing of the whole community rested upon her as she ex- changed the imperfect joys of earth for the perfect bliss of Heaven.

DR. JAMES SPALDING,

who for 40 years was a successful prac- ticing physician of Montpelier village and vicinity, died at his residence, October, 1866. The following accurate sketch and deserved tribute to his memory appeared in the Boston Medical and Surgical Jour- nal: [somewhat condensed.]

" Dr. Spalding was born in Sharon, Vt., Mar. 20, 1792. His father, Dea. Reuben Spalding, was one of the earliest settlers in the State, whose life was not more re- markable for his toils, privations and energy, as a pioneer in a new country, than for his unbending integrity, and for the best qualities of the Old New England Puritanism. James was the third son of 12 children, all of whom reached maturity and were settled in life with families. At the age of seven he received a small wound in the knee joint, which confined him for more than 6 months, attended with ex- treme suffering. By the skill of Dr. Nathan Smith, of Hanover, the limb was at length healed, leaving the knee par- tially anchylosed, however, to recover from which required years. While thus con- fined, probably from estimation of Dr. Smith, which estimation was retained through life, he decided to be a physician and surgeon. He never attended a high school or academy, but he acquired a good common school education, besides storing his mind with much general knowledge and that mental discipline which so highly distinguished him in after life. He com- menced study at the age of 17 with Dr. Eber Carpenter, of Alstead, N. H., stip- ulating the expenses of his education should be defrayed by his practicing one year with the Doctor after he had graduated. He applied himself with uncommon assiduity

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to his medical studies, taking, at the same time, private lessons in Greek and Latin. At 20 years he graduated at the Dartmouth Medical Institution, having heard the lec- tures from Smith and Perkins.

While a student, his opportunities for practice were very extensive ; the spotted fever prevailed generally throughout New England. This epidemic was truly appal- ling in Alstead and the neighboring towns. Dr. Spalding brought his discriminating mind to the subject with all the close ob- servation of a veteran in the science, and arrived at the same conclusions as to its pathology and treatment as others who stood the most eminent in the profession. His position was very embarrassing, being ' called the " boy physician," having to meet veterans in the profession for whom he entertained an exalted opinion. Modesty would hardly permit him to differ from them, yet he had so studied this epidemic, in most cases his views and treatment were. adopted.

After practicing 2 years in Alstead with Dr. Carpenter, he commenced business in Claremont, but having friends in Mont- pelier, was induced to remove to this place. Though but a boy, he had seen much practice, and performed many surgical op- erations, and it required but a short time for him to gain general confidence as a physician, and more especially as a sur- geon, which he retained without abatement through life. His fixed purpose was im- provement in his profession ; he never en- gaged in any other business or sought any political preferment. Others may have done more under other circumstances, yet by his example, integrity, industry, com- munications for the medical journals, and dissertations before the County and State Medical Societies, from time to time, it may be said, he added something to the gen- eral stock of knowledge in his profession, and that as a surgeon he was successful above most others. His particular trait of mind was a sound judgment, based upon a careful, discriminating examination of all the evidence which gave in each individual case its peculiar characteristic. Well in- formed in books and the general principles

of his profession, having an extensive in- tercourse with his medical brethren, he was well prepared to impart to others the results of his extensive experience. He was an original thinker, not only in his medical and surgical practice, but in other departments. It was a maxim with him that there should be no guess-work in his

profession, more especially in surgery. In consultations, due respect was paid to the opinions of his professional brethren, but still he would suffer his judgment to be in- fluenced only as the evidence in the case affected his own mind, never evading re- sponsibility, and always governed by his own independent conclusions, and for this reason he was much sought for in con- sultations. He retained through life the confidence and respect of his professional brethren, and while differing from others in his diagnosis and treatment of disease, he succeeded in leaving the confidence of patient and friends in the attending physi- cian unabated, discharging his duty to his patients without injury to the feelings or reputation of any one. It being the settled maxim of his life, that strict integrity is the true and only policy which should govern every man who desires his own interest or that of others, he never sought to appro- priate to himself what justly belonged to them.

For more than 40 years he was an active member of the Vermont State Medical Society, and, through it, labored to ad- vance the best interests of the profession he so much loved, and became acquainted with most of the distinguished physicians of the State, among whom he had many personal friends. In 1819, he was elected secretary, which office he held for over 20 years. In 1842, he was chairman of a committee to draft a petition for a geolog- ical survey of the State. He was vice president of the Medical Society in 1843, treasurer in 1844, chairman of the com- mittee on the History of the Society in 1845. He read a thesis in 1846, "On Na- ture as manifested in Disease and Health," which was highly commended. He was elected president in 1846, '7, '8, and de- livered a dissertation on "Typhus Fever"

I am very respectfully. Your thedient de.

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in 1848, which was published by a vote of the society. He was elected a correspond- ing secretary in 1850, and librarian in 1854, which office he held until his death. He was also a member of the Board of Fellows of the Vermont Academy of Med- icine, besides holding many offices con- nected with science, literature, temper- ance, etc. But few men in the country have seen such an amount of disease and so carefully observed the peculiarities of the various epidemics occurring for nearly half a century ; and it is to be regretted that so little is left on record of his exten- sive observations and experience both as a physician and surgeon. In private life he was a man of much amenity of manners, of great worth and purity of character, en- larged benevolence and of high-minded purposes in all that goes to make the en- lightened Christian and good citizen.

In 1820, he married Miss Eliza Reed, of Montpelier. They raised 6 children- James R., an editor in the city of New York; William C., a distinguished physi- cian of Watertown, Wis. ; Martha E., died at 18; Jane, who married Dr. Warner of Weathersfield, Conn .; George B., a cler- gyman and Doctor of Divinity, of Dover, N. H., and editor of the New Hampshire Journal; and Isabella, wife of Mr. Louns- bury, of Hartford, Ct.

Mrs. Spalding, a woman of many vir- tues, died in 1854, and about 2 years after, Dr. Spalding married Mrs. Dodd, a daugh- ter of the late Wyllys Lyman, of Hartford, Vt., who died in 1857.

HON. SAMUEL PRENTISS

was born in Stonington, Ct., Mar. 31, 1782 ; his family, of a pure English and Puritan stock, are traceable as far back as 1318, through official records which show the reputable positions occupied by branches of the family, till they came to New England, where the lineage at once took stock among the best in the colonies. In direct descent he was the 6th from his first American, but English-born, ancestor, Capt. Thomas Prentiss, born in England about 1620, became a resident of Newton, Mass., 1752, was a noted cavalry officer in the King Philip war, and died 1710, leav-

ing Thomas Prentiss, Jr., father of Samuel Prentiss, Ist, father of Samuel, 2d, who was a colonel in the Revolutionary Army, and father of Samuel, 3d, a physician and surgeon in the army, and the father of Judge Samuel Prentiss, of Montpelier. The whole stock of the Prentiss family was good, but this branch was particularly so, both physically and intellectually. Col. Prentiss, of Revolutionary memory, 6 feet high, weighing over 200 pounds, with- out corpulency, was one of the best built, most muscular men of the times ; and the different members of the family descend- ing from him, for the last two or three gen- erations, of which those now living have been cognizant, will be remembered to have been, with a rare uniformity, well- formed, shapely and good-looking, possess- ing an unusual intellectual capacity and power.

When Samuel was about a year old, he removed with his family from Stonington, Ct., to Worcester, Mass., and from thence in about 3 years to Northfield, Mass., where his father, Dr. Prentiss, continued the successful practice of his profession in 1818, the son being kept in his earlier boyhood at the common schools, and while yet young, put into classical studies with the Rev. Samuel C. Allen, minister of the town, and at about 19, entered as a law student in the office of Samuel Vose, Esq., of the same town. He did not complete the course of legal studies there, but with that object, passed over into the neighboring village of Brattleboro, and entered the office of John W. Blake, Esq., from whence, Dec. 1802, he was admitted to the bar several months before his majority.

In view of what Mr. Prentiss afterward became, all will understand he studied the elementary principles of the law before his admission to the Bar; but few, perhaps, are aware how close and extensive in the meantime had been his study of the great masters of English literature, how careful the cultivation of his taste, and how much his proficiency in the formation of that style, which subsequently so peculiarly stamped all his mental efforts, whether of writing or speaking, with unvarying strength

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The history of Washington county, in the Vermont historical gazetteer:, Part 72

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