The history of Washington county, in the Vermont historical gazetteer:, Part 80

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 80

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which nature addresses to him who, in love of her, "holds communion with her visible forms."

The writer of this notice cannot forbear adding to this imperfect sketch an expres- sion of his own high esteem for Mr. Thurston, and his sense of personal sorrow at his death. An acquaintance for more than a score of years, much of the time familiar and friendly, had revealed many of his excellent qualities of mind and heart, but three months spent last winter with him in a far-away, sunny valley of the Ozark mountains, and the daily de- lights of a cordial, frank, confiding com- panionship, ripened this friendship of so many years into a warm personal attach- ment that will ever be a treasured memory to him who survives.

From the Resolutions passed by the Vt. Mutual Fire Ins. Co. after his death, we give :

Be it resolved, we deeply feel and mourn the loss of James T. Thurston, our true friend and associate, whose upright de- portment, integrity of character, good judgment and usefulness as a citizen en- deared him to all, especially to us who knew him so well. May his many virtues be ever cherished by us, and be an exam- ple for those that follow him. May we re- member in the words so often quoted by him, " 'Tis not all of life to live, nor all ot death to die."

And from the resolutions passed by the National Life Insurance Co :

Resolved, that we sincerely mourn and profoundly regret the death of our friend and associate, James T. Thurston, whose quick perception, great caution, sound judgment, unblemished character, and per- fect integrity, together with other credit- able qualities of his head and heart, have endeared him to us for many years. His many virtues will be long remembered by us the survivors. " May he rest in peace."

JOSEPH W. WHEELOCK.

[From an article by Hon. CHARLES W. WILLARD in the Green Mountain Freeman of March 1, 1876.] Joseph Wilson Wheelock, who died at his home in Berlin, Feb. 23, 1376, was born in Eden. His father, Martin Whee- lock, had 5 sons and 2 daughters. Joseph had a common school education, and when

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about 18 entered the office of the St. Al- bans Messenger, learned the printer's trade; remained till Aug., 1847; then worked at his trade in the office of the Green Mountain Gazette, at Bradford about 5 years, and came, Feb., 1852, to Montpe- lier, as foreman into the office of the Green Mountain Freeman, of which the late Hon. D. P. Thompson was proprietor and editor, and remained in charge of that office, as foreman, during the proprietor- ship of Judge Thompson, and that of S. S. Boyce, and from April, 1861, to Jan., 1869, while Mr. Willard owned the paper. Mr. Boyce, during his ownership of the Free- man, purchased the subscription list, and became the publisher of the Vermont Christian Messenger, and the Messenger has been published at the Freeman office since that time. Jan., 1869, Mr. Whee- lock became a half owner of the Freeman and Messenger subscription list and print- ing establishment, and from that time had the entire management of the business of the office, and the practical management of the papers until Jan., 1873. when he purchased Mr. Willard's remaining inter- est in the business, and became and re- mained managing editor and proprietor until his decease.

Mr. Wheelock's active life was in the printing office, and was identified with his craft. Few men have had a busier life, or one into which more work has been crowd- ed. For many years subject to an infirmi- ty which made office work often painful, he never shirked any of the responsibili- ties of his position, but often insisted, against the remonstrance of his employers on undertaking work that could only be done by giving his own labor at unusual hours. In that respect, he always held his personal comfort subordinate to his devo- tion to the business in hand. He seemed more solicitous to make his service for others profitable, than to spare himself, and when he became owner of the print- ing establishment, almost for the first time began to take an occasional rest from the exacting duties of the office ; yet never, until compelled to keep away by his final

illness, quite surrendered an immediate supervision, as in the former days when, as foreman, no detail of the work escaped his notice, and his hand was ready at the case, at the make-up, or at the press, as the exigency might require.

He seemed to have no ambitions out- side of his profession ; yet he had, un- doubtedly, the aspiration of the true men of his profession to become the owner and manager of an influential newspaper, and he deservedly reached that position. But, unfortunately, his strength was then too much broken by the gathering forces of the disease that he had fought against so stoutly for years, to admit of his doing for the papers he managed, what he would otherwise have done. He appeared to an- ticipate this, and hesitated as to the pur- chase of Mr. Willard's half of the paper, because he feared his health was gradually but surely failing him, and finally made the venture rather to establish his sons in business than on his own account. With the valuable acquaintance with public men and public affairs which his long connec- tion with a newspaper at the Capital of the State gave him, and with the higher education as an editor, which an intelligent man gets in a printing office better than anywhere else, Mr. Wheelock was as well fitted to be the manager of a leading Ver- mont newspaper as any person in the State ; but the printing department drew him quite too much away from the edito- rial room for his own reputation as a writer and editor. While Mr. Willard was editor of the Freeman, Mr. Wheelock wrote many articles for which others got undeserved credit, some of them having been copied as widely and with as much appreciation as anything ever written for the Freeman. His style as a writer was clear, graceful in turn of expression, and forcible and pointed enough to leave no doubt of his meaning, a compliment that cannot always be paid to editorials in either country or city newspapers. He had, moreover, what his readers will call to mind, a vein of wit and humor in idea and expression, which made some of his

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descriptive articles highly enjoyable, and established for him a reputation among his contemporaries as one who had few equals and no superiors in that really difficult, yet very popular kind of newspaper writ- ing. If he had devoted himself, as he was often advised, more to editing his paper and less to printing it, he would have achieved a reputation second to that of no editor in the State, and would very likely have prolonged a life in a large de- gree useful to his friends and to the public.

Mr. Wheelock's residence, for most of the time he was connected with the Free- man, was just on the south side of the Winooski river in Berlin. He was for a long time clerk and treasurer of that town, and represented it two years in the legis- lature. He was one of the most trusted advisers of the authorities of the town, was ever solicitous for its interests, and, ap- parently without effort to become so, was influential in all town matters. In the politics of the town and of the county his judgment and advice were always prudent and wise, and were listened to and followed as often and as far as those of any other man. A robust common sense, a quick understanding of men, a plain and direct method of dealing with men and meas- ures, a faithfulness and integrity in his associations which made others believe in him and trust him, were the elements of character which gave him strength with his fellows, and won for him the good name which he enjoyed and merited, but he was almost bashful in his modesty, and was best known for the really strong man he was by his intimates and those who sought his advice. * *

The strug- gle and the pain, as well as the joy and hope, of life for him are over, while yet he was scarcely past the prime of his years ; but he performed each day the duty the day brought with it ; and what better epitaph can the longest life win for its close ?

Mr. Wheelock married Laura E. Phil- lips, who survives him, and he leaves two sons and a daughter trained to his own calling. * *

HON. CHARLES W. WILLARD.

BY H. A. HUSE.

[From the Green Mountain Freeman of Wednesday, June 9, 1880.]

Mr. Willard died Monday night, at twen- ty-five minutes after twelve. Sunday he was about his room, as he has never failed of being for years, though his hold on life has been so slender, but began failing, and from that time sank rapidly. His mind had all its native clearness till within three or four hours before his death, when he became unconscious.

Charles Wesley Willard was the son of Josiah Willard and Abigail (Carpenter) Willard, and was born in Lyndon, June 18, 1827. He graduated at Dartmouth college in 1851, and soon after leaving college, came to Montpelier, where he studied law in the office of Peck & Colby, and was ad- mitted to the Washington County Bar in 1853. He became a partner of Ferrand F. Merrill for a time after his admission.

In 1855, '56, he was secretary of state, and after that declined a re-election. In 1860, '61, he was a member of the senate for this county. In the latter year, he became editor and proprietor of the Free- man, and so remained until 1873. About 1865, he for a time was in Milwaukee, Wis., in the editorial chair of the Sentinel. And during his later years his pen has not been idle, as some of the leading journals of the country could say. The columns of this paper have also been favored now and then by good doctrine and wise words over his well-known initials.

In 1868, Mr. Willard was elected to congress, and represented this district from Mar. 4, 1869, to Mar. 4, 1875. He was laborious in legislation, as in all things, and his congressional work told on his constitution, and since his retirement he has been in very delicate health. Visits to Colorado and elsewhere failed to re- establish his health. But he was not a man to give up or rust out, and last year he accepted an appointment as one of the commissioners to revise the statutes. Col. Veazey, the other commissioner, having gone upon the bench, the burden of the work fell upon Mr. Willard. He took it,

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and the work was done and well done- the copy all prepared, and about three- fourths of it put to press under his super- vision -- before he was taken away. He liked to work ; like any good workman he knew he could do good work, and we re- joice to know that the activities of the past year cheered his last days with the thought and knowledge that he was yet doing a man's work among men.

Of Mr. Willard's home life here in Montpelier, among his neighbors and friends, we need not speak. He was known of his townsmen, and many more had per- sonal knowledge of his straightforward kind- ness than the casual observer of his re- served ways would ever suspect. He was a member of the Bethany Congregational church. In 1855, he married Miss Emily Doane, daughter of Hezekiah H. Reed. Mrs. Willard has left with her four chil- dren : Miss Mary, Ashton R. (who grad- uated at Dartmouth last year), Eliza May, and Charles Wesley. Mr. Willard leaves a brother, A. J. Willard, of St. Johns- bury, and a sister, Mrs. Hannah Flint, of Concord, N. H., surviving him.

To say the things that should be said of Mr. Willard, we are not able. To say the truth, and not to say that which to those who did not know him might seem to come from affection instead of judgment, from the heart and not from the head, is a hard task. But the people of Vermont, and especially those who for so many years knew through the columns of this paper Mr. Willard's every day thoughts, will make no mistake in this matter. They will know that when it is said he was the " first citizen of the State," the words are words of truth and soberness, and not those of over-zealous friendship. 1

He had their well-deserved esteem, con- fidence, and indeed affection. The quali- ties that gave these to him were not those of the " magnetic " order. He captivated by no studied arts, by no assumed effu- siveness of manner, but rather in spite of the total lack of those too common attri- butes. He was refined, scholarly; in manner as in mind, he was the gentleman.

Mr. Willard had this good judgment of

his fellow-citizens, and with it their affec- tion, as any one may find who will go among the people of the State in the vil- lages and on the farms, because of the honesty of his purpose and of his act, be- cause of his fearlessness in maintaining what he thought was right and because of the strength which was in his fearless blow. A private citizen in after years, and hold- ing to life by the lightest thread, he was looked to for counsel by those in the full strength of manhood, and honored by a following of his thought which fails to come to most of those in high places. His later life taught well the lesson that "the post of honor is the private station."

To give even the briefest history of Mr. Willard's work would require much time and labor. To give even what he did while in congress the merest mention would require time and space and study that are not at command. He was a care- ful legislator, and one whose counsel bore fruit in the halls of legislation when given.

When he spoke, he spoke for effect on legislation, and that, at times, he was overborne was because he stood up against friend and foe when he thought what they wanted was wrong. Had he always thought with his party, had he always consented to costly schemes which fellow-members urged, instead of always standing for what he believed was right, and trying to head off unnecessary appropriations, he might have been more popular in con- gress-he could not have been more useful. But he did as he did, and he did well. For it is better to have lived as he lived, to leave as he left a good name, that will for many a year be held as the synonym of that which is pure, right and devoid of fear or shadow of turning-a name that represents an ideal manhood-than to have had continuance in or accession of public station. His life was an honor to his State and a good to those who knew him.

MAHLON COTTRILL,

in every sense of the word a Vermonter, was born in Bridport in 1797, his life thus dating back almost to the birth of the State. He came to Montpelier in 1826,

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and went into the employ of Watson Jones, who was then running a line of stages be- tween Montpelier and Burlington. Atthat time the line between Montpelier and Royalton was opened by Ira Day, of Barre, and Samuel Blodgett, of Royalton. Day and Cottrill soon bought out Jones, and together established what became the great central stage route through the State, and the main thoroughfare for travel between Montreal and Boston, and con- tinued such until the advent of railroads in this part of the State. He was an ex- tensive mail contractor, favorably known at the Post-office Department at Washing- ton. While engaged in the stage busi- ness, he purchased the Pavilion hotel at Montpelier, which he kept until 1856, when he sold it to Col. Boutwell. Mr. Cottrill then purchased the residence next east of the Pavilion, which he owned at the time of his decease, and where he re- sided until 1861, when he, in company with other gentlemen, contracted to carry the United States mail from Kansas City to Santa Fe. He was at Kansas City, Mo., in the active superintendence of this line of stages, when he was attacked by a remittant fever, which terminated fatally, Oct. 1864.

He married in 1822, Catherine Couch of Bath, N. H., a lady possessing in a remark- able degree the administrative ability which made her celebrated as a hostess, to which she added a frankness and heartiness of manner, which seemed to have no dis- guises, to despise pretence, and to be open as the day. She died at Montpelier in 1861.

Mr. Cottrill was a successful man, and a person of superior common sense. What- ever he did, he did well, and had not much patience with one whose work was not done thoroughly and on time, and yet, never hurrying, never appearing anxious or ex- cited-a reticent, self-reliant man.

not even cold in aspect, of unruffled tem- per and wonderful self-possession. He made for the Pavilion a most excellent character, and he got for himself, by his connection with it, a respect wider than the State, and eminently deserved.

In Montpelier he was much esteemed. Almost the whole of his active life was passed here, and he was identified with all the interests which have aided to make the town what it is. His means, which his business sagacity and ability enabled him to accumulate, were spent liberally. He gave generously, but without ostentation, to every deserving charity, and to all ben- evolent and religious institutions ; and he was a ready helper of all public improve- ments.

- Watchman Obituary.

JED. P. C. COTTRILL, son of Mahlon Cottrill, born in Montpelier, graduated at Burlington College in 1857. He now lives in Milwaukee; his profession, the law. Of him the Milwaukee News says, "he confessedly stands among the fore- most at the bar of Milwaukee County." And he was "at the 13th annual communi- cation of the Grand Lodge of Free Masons of Wisconsin, June 9, 1874, elected Grand Master." The productions from his pen, in the reports of the committee on foreign correspondence of the Grand Chapter of Wisconsin, are among the ablest and best in American Masonic literature.

The other children of Mr. Cottrill are William, a famous hotel-keeper in the west ; George, a lawyer in New York city ; Lyman and Charles.

COL. LEVI BOUTWELL

was born in Barre, Feb. 5, 1802. He was early in life thrown upon his own resources, and thus acquired self-reliance, energy and perseverance. Having learned the spinner's trade, he followed it in Hartland and afterwards in Strafford. Then going to Thetford, he bought an interest in a carding and cloth-dressing establishment, the buildings of which were swept away by a great freshet in 1828, leaving him penni- less. - From 1830 to 1837, he was engaged in mercantile pursuits in West Fairlee.

As host of the Pavilion he was best known, both in and out of the State, far and wide, as the prince of landlords, and whose hotel was the traveler's as well as the sojourner's home. He seemed like a gentleman of the olden time, stately, yet | Meeting with poor success he tried hotel

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keeping, first in Lebanon, N. H., later in Chelsea, where he remained 5 years. He came to Montpelier in 1846, and leased the Union House, which stood on ground now occupied by the Church of the Mes- siah. Ten years later he became proprie- tor of the Pavilion, and for about 12 years served as its landlord. Then he rented it to others ; but it remained in his posses- sion till his death, March 27, 1874.

His first wife was Miss Jerusha Peabody of Reading, by whom he had three children, two of whom are now living,-Harry Syl- vester, and Elizabeth Jane, the wife of Hon. T. R. Merrill. His second wife, married a short time before he came to Montpelier, was Miss Eliza Burbank, a sister of the late Silas Burbank of this place. She is yet living.

For nearly a generation Col. Boutwell was actively and prominently identified with the interests of Montpelier. His po- sition as landlord of the leading hotel brought him into contact with large num- bers of influential men ; and his physical and mental characteristics were so striking that those who met him once were not likely to forget him. For almost half a century he was connected with the Mason- ic Order, and he held many positions of honor in that fraternity. From his youth he was an outspoken Universalist, although not trained in that faith ; and after having for many years assisted in the maintenance of churches not of his choice, he rejoiced in the opportunity of joining with others in organizing the Church of the Messiah, in Montpelier, of which he continued to be, during the rest of his life, one of its most enthusiastic and generous supporters. Goddard Seminary, in Barre, was largely

tion to the colonelcy of a regiment of mili- tia. In him we saw that paradox in hu- manity, a young old man, whose three score and twelve years strove in vain to quench the fire of his youth ; for, though for a year he had been somewhat enfee- bled, still he kept about his business till within some two weeks of his death, and did not take his bed till his last day.

He was a man in whom there was no lukewarmness ; he was always either cold or hot,-a hearty hater and an ardent lov- er, a man of impulse, intensity, impetuos- ity, a man of head-long self-forgetting generosity, a quick-responding friend of the poor and needy, always vulnerable in his sympathies, a hater of cant, and shams, knaveries and deceptions, quick-witted and keen; often coarse of speech, but kind of heart ; as one said of him, "made up rough side out ;"-a man whose deed was frequentiy better than his word. In truth his word sometimes repelled men. He was often more forcible than polite, and no doubtfulness of mind, or fear of man ever led him to stop the current of his vehement speech till he could substi- tute a smooth phrase for the rough one that was on his tongue's tip. But those who knew him well discerned the man through the manner, and honored the rug- ged honesty, the bluff benevolence, the thorough-going truthfulness, the unawed independence, and the deep tenderness, too, which characterized him.

GOV. ASAHEL PECK, A. M., LL. D.

He was descended from Joseph Peck, who was in the twenty-first generation from John Peck of Bolton, Yorkshire county, England. Thus the genealogy as, and probably farther than, that of any other Vermont family. Joseph Peck, the American ancestor of the subject of our notice, came from Hingham, England, to Hingham, Mass., in 1638. Asahel, third son of Squire Peck and Elizabeth Goddard, was born at Royalston, Mass., in Sept., 1803, and brought by his parents about 1 806 to Montpelier, who settled in what is

indebted to his munificence. The Ver- of the Pecks has been traced as far back

mont Conference Seminary in Montpelier came in for a share of his benefactions. His hopefulness and energy, and resolu- tion, did much to make the Wells River Railroad an assured fact. He was a man of remarkable force, both mental and phys- ical ; he belonged to the class of inspiring men, men who communicate their own strength to others ; he was a man “born to command," a fact recognized in his elec- | known as East Montpelier. Receiving

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the discipline of a farm until he was of age, the benefit of the common school, and fitting for college at Washington County Grammar School, he entered the University of Vermont, but in his senior term left college for a course of study in the French language in Canada. The incipient eminent judge and governor en- tered then upon the study of the law with his oldest brother, Nahum Peck, of Hines- burgh. Asahel Peck's name as attorney, at Hinesburgh, appears in Walton's Reg- ister for 1833, when he was thirty years of age. In that year he removed to Burling- ton, where all his professional life was spent. Doubtless his progress at the bar was slow, as he was not a man to push his way, but to honestly win it by merit. In- deed, a characteristic of him is that he was slow in everything, but in the end he was almost always sure to be right, and that he regarded as the only point worth gaining. He was a thorough and patient student, and a conscientious lawyer and judge. Possessing a tenacious memory, he held all that he had secured in years of study, and could instantly bring his great store of learning to bear upon any legal question presented to him. Touching his abilities as a lawyer, we cite an incident that oc- curred several years ago : The late Rufus Choate, who will be remembered as one of the most eloquent and eminent lawyers of Massachusetts, met Mr. Peck as an an- tagonist at the trial of an important case, and at its conclusion Mr. Choate was so astonished to find such a lawyer in Ver- mont, that he went to Mr. Peck and urged him vehemently to remove to Boston, as- suring him that he would win fame and fortune. No inducement, however, could move Mr. Peck ; having once made up his mind, nothing could change it. Burling- ton he had selected as the place to practice his profession, and Burlington it must and should be, and was. Of his reputation as a lawyer and judge, an eminent member of the bar declares that no man in New England since Judge Story has equalled Judge Peck in his knowledge of the com- mon law of England and the law of equity. As Governor, we can bear testimony that

he was one of the very best that Vermont has ever had-thoroughly independent, prudent in every act, and carefully in- specting the minutest detail of everything presented for his official approval. Mr. Peck was a judge of the Circuit Court from 1851 until it ceased in Dec., 1857, and of the Supreme Court from 1860 until 1874, when, it being understood that he had retired from the bench to a farm in Jericho, to renew the employments of his youth, he was elected Governor for the term 1874-1876. He was never married. Since leaving the executive chair, he has been often employed as counsel in impor- tant cases ; and doubtless, had his life been spared, would for some years more have shown himself as a grand master of the law. In speaking of the probable ac- tion of the Republican state convention of 1874, at which Judge Peck was nominated for Governor, the WATCHMAN spoke of him in the following terms, which his course while in the gubernatorial chair fully vindicates : "The State would be honored by his selection for it. So long as Vermont designates such men as he is for its highest offices, it is not liable to the old Tory reproach against Republican government, which condemned republics ' not because the people elected their offi- cers, but because they elected unworthy and ignoble men to office.' He would be a worthy successor in the executive chair of Moses Robinson, Galusha, Palmer, Tichenor, Skinner, Williams, Van Ness, Royce and Hall, who were his predecss- eors on the bench. His name will evi- dently harmonize the diverse interests of the Republican party, and will reconcile all differences. It is not merely unobjec- tionable. It is in every respect honorable and fit to be made. His nomination would be followed by a triumphant elec- tion."

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The history of Washington county, in the Vermont historical gazetteer:, Part 80

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