The history of Washington county, in the Vermont historical gazetteer:, Part 88

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

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in raised letters upon the body-" JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR ALL." All the streets longer-more streets, more graves in all the streets, and over every walk and grave, the beauty of age in nature. Nature never loses in beauty ;- more leaves, more flow- ers, more tints, more mosses, richer paint- ed rocks. How beautiful the rocks grow old ; softened, garnitured with moss, vine and flower, more and more every lapsing year. Man lives for a hundred years, na- ture for a hundred hundred. How beauti- ful in marble, too, its visitor may find this city, one hundred years more past.

And on the boldest cliff

Ot these expanded grounds, swelling mountainward- If we may look through the haze of future years- What statue, grander than living man, Stands, counting the multitude, slumbering So long at his feet-trumpet in hand, Waiting to summon up these long sleepers ?

I note the change, as the years ran on And art with the people grew, how the crevices In this hillside showed, until this Eden Of the dear departed was so falr and famed. The travciler from over the seas called It 'The Art Garden of the Departed ' Of this land ; in every rural recess, Scripture history was so put in marble : So fair upon the hills and mounds and plains, Within the dales and rocks and caves and woods And lawns, beside the river and the rills- Beseeming the cemeterles of the dead In the capital of a State where the rocks Are marble-the statues of the native sculptors :

Fair as the white rose growing by the grave, The Ruler's daughter, standing by her conch, Just risen-the dear Master of Life, Hokling the little damsel by the hand, Over whose face new breath and beauty breaking.

Eastward-" In the rocky battlements," that cave By tall trees, half-embowered. Lazarus slatne, Or figure, grave-swathed, coming forth-there !

Where the sun touches first the grave, All shrubs and flowers of fragrancy crowding To depict that garden of the resurrection- Jesus Christ and Magdalene standing within.

The marble shaft, the massive monument, The simple stone, shrubbery so surrounding,-tree And flower and vine adorning,-eachı did seem, As the eye gathered it in, more beautiful : The chiseled column-the planted flower, Rivaled by the pure lilies on the stone,- The rose In the foliated marble : The oldest stone, most mossed. most beautiful ; As the ancient rocky rampart, the brown moss Clinging to, the golden moss, th' gray wand-moss In every crumbling fissure, scarlet tipped.

Most fair country : for all the people thought Affection could not make too fair the Eden Of their Dead-deposited in hope.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF LIVING PERSONS.

TIMOTHY PARKER REDFIELD,

(BY B. F. FIFIELD, ESQ.)

the son of Dr. Peleg and Hannah (Parker) Redfield, was born at Coventry, Nov. 3, 1812. The father was born of sturdy English stock at Killingworth, Conn., the grandson of Capt. Peleg Redfield, who bravely fought through the revolutionary war. The mother was the daughter of Isaac and Bridget (Fletcher) Parker, born at Westford, Mass., in Nov., 1785, and married at Weathersfield, Vt., in March, 1803. They removed to Coventry, Vt., with two children, in the fall of 1807, and raised a family of 6 sons and 6 daughters, amid the perils and hardships of frontier life. [See Coventry, Vol. II, this work.] The subject of this sketch had the usual experience of Vermont boys born and brought up on a farm, but here were laid the rudiments of that industry, self-reli- ance, and independence, which have so much distinguished him and which is pecu- liar to the stock. At Dartmouth College he ranked among the first of his class, was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and graduated with high honors in the class of 1836. He imme- diately commenced the study of the law in the office of his brother, the Hon. Isaac F. Redfield, was admitted to the bar in Orleans county in 1838, began the practice of his profession at Irasburgh, and con- tinued it there until his removal to Mont- pelier in 1848. He was senator from Or- leans county in 1848. He practiced his profession at Montpelier from 1848 to 1870, when he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court, and has received successive elec- tions from that time to the present, 1881. He was married to Helen W. Grannis of Stanstead, Province of Quebec, Feb. 6, 1840, by which marriage he had 4 children, three of whom sleep in Green Mount Cem- etery at Montpelier, and the only surviving child, Alice, the wife of Andrew J. Phil- lips, now resides at St. Louis, Mo.

While in the practice of his profession at Montpelier, he became widely known

through the State as one of the most reli- able, painstaking and thoroughly well-read lawyers in the profession. From 1856, to the time of his elevation to the bench he was a constant attendant upon the courts in Orleans, Caledonia and Washington counties, and it is no disparagement to others to say that he had no superiors either in the 'knowledge of the law, or its practical adaptation to the complicated affairs of life. His sturdy independence, elevated character and fine legal attain- ments, commanded respect and admira- tion from all who knew him, and a man who was once his client was always his client.

In 1870, a vacancy occurred on the su- preme court bench. Mr. Redfield had always been a democrat in politics, but his fitness for the position was so generally ac- knowledged that he was elected to the place by a legislature overwhelmingly re- publican, and against numerous competi- tors. His dignified judicial bearing and acknowledged impartiality made him at once a general favorite with the public, the bar and his associates. His fame may and will justly rest upon his judicial life.

His brother, Isaac F. Redfield, occupied a seat upon the bench of Vermont for 25 years, and he left it in 1860 only to extend his fame and establish it as one of the fore- most jurists of the age, whether English or American.

In each of the brothers is found in like degree that quality of all others the most rare, the judicial temperament, and in each is also found the intellectual grasp on the one hand and fine sense of justice on the other hand which is so essential to the just ad- ministration of the law.

Judge Redfield is an excellent scholar, and while his bearing is reserved and dig- nified, such as becomes his position, yet in social life he is one of the most charming of companions. His reminiscences of the old bar and his fund of anecdotes are the delight of those who enjoy his friendship, and will be long remembered by those who come after him. He is a member of the Episcopal church and a devoted christian, not only in profession but also in practice.

FORBES CO BOSTON

Jim Painful

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In short, Judge Redfield is a model in all that constitutes a conscientious, christian gentleman, and an able, upright, impartial judge.

To speak thus of his record is but the "just meed of praise to acknowledged worth," and "to keep the memory of such men green is but to strengthen and stimu- late public virtue."

HON. ELIAKIM PERSONS WALTON.

[From M. D. Gilman's Bibliography of Vermont, now in course of preparation.]

Eliakim Persons Walton was born in Montpelier, Feb. 17, 1812, and was the first-born son of the late Gen. Ezekiel Parker Walton and Prussia Persons. On the Walton side the genealogy goes back with almost absolute certainty, through Ezekiel P.'s father, who was the late Geo. Walton, of Peacham, born at New Market, N. H., in 1762, and married Mary Parker, of New Hampshire, to George Walton, a Quaker born in England, in whose house at Newcastle, N. H., in June, 1682, oc- curred the best authenticated case of witch- craft which has ever been recorded in New England. See Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana, edition of 1820, vol. 2, p. 393, and Brewster's Rambles about Portsmouth, second series, pp. 343-354. On the Persons side, all that can be asserted is that Eliakim Davis Persons was a native of Long Island, and his wife, Rebecca Dodge, was of Mas- sachusetts, probably Northfield, who had numerous relatives, (one of them inter- married with a Houghton, uncle of the late Mrs. Samuel Prentiss, of Montpelier,) residing near the south-eastern line of Vermont. Her father and two of her brothers, Asa and John, settled in Barre, Vt., and a third, Daniel, in Northern Ver- mont. They have numerous descendants at this day in Eastern and Western Ver- mont, and in the Western States. It was and is a race of sterling virtues. The par- ticular subject of this notice was educated first by his mother in letters and reading the notes of music; second, by an occa- sional attendance at the district school, in which he was specially noted for his habit of running away on every possible occasion ; third, by many terms in Washington

County Grammar School, in which he was fitted for college by one of the best prin- cipals that school ever had, the late Jona- than C. Southmayd. But the young E. P. was not permitted to go to college, and thereupon entered the law office of Samuel and Samuel B. Prentiss, when Judge Pren- tiss was in the United States Senate. Here he obtained the elements of the law, and moreover an insight into national pol- itics, through the books and documents received by Judge Prentiss as senator. But largely he was educated in his father's printing office, and an excellent school every printing office is to any boy or girl who has obtained the elements of an English education, and will improve the opportunities of the office. From the time the lad was "knee-high to a toad," and had to stand in a chair to get up to the " case," this boy was put into the office, and kept there in vacations from schools. Another very useful school was the old Montpelier Lyceum, with its written essays and extemporaneous debates. In 1826- 7 he spent a year in Essex, N. Y., and there edited and printed his first newspaper, a single issue of the Essex County Republican. The editors and publishers wereaway, and had suspended publication for a week ; but the young and ardent politician could not have it so. Without any authority from his masters, he got up a paper full of edi- torial matter-part of it written and part of it composed at the case-and took proof-sheets. The question, Shall it be printed? was a doubtful one. The proof- sheets were thereupon submitted to the late Gen. Henry H. Ross, of Essex, then a member of Congress, and a zealous Adams man. Bringing back the proof- sheets, the General came with his face beaming with smiles, put both hands on the boy's shoulders, and said, "Print it, boy! print it !" From that moment, though preferring the law, the business of printer and editor seemed to have been ordained for him. On becoming of age, in 1833, he became a partner with his father in the publication of the Vermont Watchman and State Gazette. Gen. Walton wrote occa- sionally for that paper, but other branches

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of a very extensive business demanded his attention, and the newspaper and printing department were in the charge of E. P. Walton, Jr., as his signature commonly was during the life of his father, although not correct except when the initials of it were given. In 1853, the paper, then the Vermont Watchman and State Journal, came into his possession exclusively, and so continued until the sale to the Messrs. Poland, in 1868.

During all this period the editorship of Walton's Vermont Register was in his charge, as it still is in all except the Bus- iness Directory. The Vermont Capitol, 1857, consisted mainly of his reports ; vol- ume two of the collections of the Vermont Historical Society was edited by him ; and also the eight volumes of the Records of the Governor and Council, together with documents touching the early history of the State. Although an active and zealous politician from his youth, and helping many men to high offices, he never sought offices for himself. Nevertheless in 1853 he was elected representative of Montpelier ; and in 1856, greatly to his surprise, he was called upon by the late Senator Foot, and another member of the Vermont delegation . still living, to become a candidate for Congress in the first congressional dis- trict, on the grounds that a change was absolutely necessary, and that the member then to be elected, according to the usual courtesy in such cases, should come from Washington County. Under the very del- icate circumstances of the case, Mr. Walton was unwilling to be a candidate, and urged the late Ferrand F. Merrill to stand in his stead. Mr. Merrill refused, and ultimately Mr. Walton was nominated and received three elections, after which he declined further service. In 1870 he was the del- egate of Montpelier in the Constitutional Convention ; and he was also senator for Washington County, 1874 until 1878. The honorary degree of Master of Arts has been conferred upon Mr. Walton by the University of Vermont, and also by Mid- dlebury College. He has been president of the Publishers' and Editors' Association of Vermont from its organization until

18SI, and also of the Vermont Historical Society since the Rev. Dr. Lord retired. Mr. Walton married, June 6, 1836, Sarah Sophia, second daughter of the late Hon. Joseph Howes, of Montpelier, who died Sept. 3, 1880.

For a list of Mr. Walton's publications, see ante, BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MONTPELIER.

In addition to those referred to there are the following printed papers by Mr. Walton :

Oration delivered at Northfield, July 4, 1837, and printed in the Watchman and Journal of July 24, by request of Charles Paine, chairman of the committee of ar- rangements.

Remarks on the death of Charles Paine, delivered at Northfield, July 29, 1853. Printed in the Watchman and Journal of Aug. 4, and also in pamphlet form.

Speech delivered on the battle-field at Hubbardton, July 7, 1859, on the inaugu- ration of the battle monument. Printed in the Watchman and Fournal as an edi- torial, and reprinted in pamphlet form at Rutland.

Address on Hon. Nathaniel Chipman, delivered on the unveiling of his monu- ment at Tinmouth, Oct. 2, 1873. Printed in some of the Rutland, Burlington and Montpelier newspapers.

·Letter to Hon. Geo. F. Edmunds, Jan. 1872, with elaborate and carefully prepared tables on the apportionment of members of Congress on the census of 1870. Print- ed by order of the United States Senate.

The apportionment by the old rule under the census of 1860 gave Vermont two members of the House instead of three. Mr. Walton had no personal interest in the matter, as his last term in Congress was covered by the old apportionment ; but he had a deep interest for his native State, which he dearly loved and had long tried to serve. Both houses had passed a bill reducing Vermont to two members, when Mr. Walton carefully examined the sub- ject, and demonstrated that the bill did not fairly observe the national constitu- tion and was unjust to eight states. He then explained the matter to Senator Col- lamer, and under his lead the Senate

@ Mallow per

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passed a supplementary bill, and the re- sult was that Vermont and the other seven states got the additional member. Under the census of 1870, precisely the same process was repeated. Mr. Walton again interfered, and Senators Edmunds of Ver- mont and Thurman of Ohio carried an amendment to the House bill, which saved the suffering states. It is but justice to say that Vermont is very largely indebted to Mr. Walton for saving her third mem- ber of Congress for twenty years.

HOMER WALLACE HEATON,

a member of the Washington County Bar, and now, and since 1832, a resident of Montpelier, was born in the adjoining town of Berlin, Aug. 25, 1811. His par- ents were Dr. Gershom Heaton and Polly Wallace, daughter of Matthew Wallace, one of the early settlers of Berlin.

Mr. Heaton's educational advantages were the common school, one year at the St. Lawrence Academy of Potsdam. N. Y., and two years at the Washington County Grammar School at Montpelier, of which J. C. Southmayd was the excellent principal.

In Aug. 1832, Mr. Heaton commenced the study of the law with Col. Jonathan P. Miller and Nicholas Baylies, Jr., of Montpelier, and was admitted to the bar of the Washington County Court, at the Nov. Term, 1835, when he commenced practice in company with Colonel Miller, and so continued until 1839, when from failing health Colonel Miller retired. In Sept. 1839, Mr. Heaton and Charles Reed entered into partnership for the practice of the law, as Heaton & Reed, which was continued until the death of Mr. Reed, Mar. 7, 1873. (See plate, p. 356.)

Mr. Heaton was the treasurer of the Vt. Mutual Fire Insurance Company for 2 years-1837 and 1838 ; and was state's attorney for Washington County 4 years- was elected by the Legislature at the Octo- ber sessions, 1839 and 1841, and the an- nual Sept. elections in 1860 and 1861. Upon the retirement of Joshua Y. Vail, a long time county clerk, the office was ten- dered Mr. Heaton by Judge Isaac F. Red-

field and the county Judges, which was declined.

July 1, 1841, Mr. Heaton married Miss Harriet Stearns, daughter of John Stearns, of Boston, Mass. She died April 26, 1859, at the age of 42 years. Of this marriage three sons are now living, Charles H., James S., and Homer W.

Mr. Heaton was the representative of the ori ginal town of Montpelier in the Legislature, at the October session, 1848, when the town was divided, and the towns of Montpelier and East Montpelier crea- ted. At that session Mr. Heaton was the candidate of the Democratic party for Speaker ; there being three parties-the Whig, Democratic and Free Soil-and neither in a majority : there resulted a dead lock, which continued through four days' session, when the Whig candidate was elected on the 46th ballot.

At this session the National Life Ins. Co. was chartered. The bill for that pur- pose being referred to a select committee of three members-Mr. Heaton being one -was reported favorably and passed. Mr. Heaton was one of the directors of this company and a member of its finance com- mittee for several years. He, at the same session, introduced a bill for the incorpo- ration of the Vermont Bank, which was passed, and Mr. Heaton was one of its di- rectors during its existence as a State Bank, and for 2 years its president.

Since the organization of the Montpelier Savings Bank & Trust Company in 1871, Mr. Heaton has been one of its trustees and the president.

In politics, he has always been a Demo- crat, having cast his first presidential vote for Andrew Jackson at his second election.

Mr. Heaton was the Democratic candid- ate for governor at the annual election in 1869, and the first biennial election in 1870. He was the Democratic candidate for member of Congress from the first Dis- trict at the elections in 1872 and 1874. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore in 1872, when Horace Greeley was nominated for Pres- ident. He has also been a candidate of his party for Presidential Elector.

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JAMES ROBBINS LANGDON,

third son of Col. James H. and Nabby Robbins Langdon, born Oct. 3, 1813, was educated in Washington County Grammar School, and then from choice entered his father's grist-mill, and applied himself to learn the miller's trade and the way to manage the business of a flouring-mill. This was in fact the turning point in his business life, but his father did not ap- prove, and tempted him to leave the mill by offering to furnish capital and share the profits with his son in a promising specula- tion. At 15, then, the lad started out to scour New England and New York, and purchase Spanish coin, and sell it in Canada at a moderate profit. Persisting in this business until Spanish coin be- came scarce, he retired with a net profit of $3,400, which was divided between father and son. Spending a short time at Derby Line as a clerk, he, at 17, busied himself in settling his father's estate, and, after receiving his patrimony, invested part of it in a store at Greensboro ; but the store and goods were soon burned, and then he entered upon his long and very successful career as flour merchant and manufacturer, in which, by doing an immense business at a small profit, he ac- cumulated a very large fortune for a coun- try merchant. Indeed, it is certain that no merchant of Montpelier has ever handled property to so great an amount as he has done, or with such uniform success. His rule has been to keep accurate ac- counts of every branch of his business, and to understand it all thoroughly, even to the smallest detail. Hence, by his sa- gacity and this perfect knowledge, success was unavoidable. But the profits of this large and successful business figure only as a part of his present fortune. Mr. Langdon has ever been a sagacious, pru- dent and fortunate financier. The profits of mercantile business have been invested in the stock of sound banks, not one of which ever failed or proved unfortunate, and in United States bonds. At 20 he was elected a director in the old Bank of Montpelier, and for 48 years he has been

director, and for many years president, in three successive banks in Montpelier.

In another field, however, Mr. Langdon has rendered, and is still rendering, very important services : in the Vermont Central Railroad, and the succeeding Central Ver- mont Railroad. In preceding pages, 304-'5, Mr. Langdon's work for the Central road has been noted, but it is to be added that he was a director for the first 2 years. In 1873, he entered the Central Vermont road, and has been made vice president and chairman of the finance committee. In the last position he assumed a responsi- bility which few private citizens are ever called to ; but nobody doubts his ability and his will to discharge it wisely and well.

Although Mr. Langdon has opinions of his own on the current political questions of the day, he has never put himself forward as a politician, or a candidate for office. There was, however, an unwise and long- continued division among the Republicans of the town in 1868, which was, by common consent, settled by the election of Mr. Langdon as representative, and he was re- elected in 1869, doing good service, es- pecially in financial matters.

In early life Mr. Langdon was by an ac- cident disabled sufficiently to discourage most men from personal labors; but he has been content to do, patiently and per- sistently, greater work than most thor- oughly endowed men, physically, are able to accomplish.

Mr. Langdon has two children : Lucy, formerly Mrs. Mansfield, of Nyack, N. Y., and now the wife of Mr. Schroeder, of Brooklyn, N. Y., first superintendent of the Astor Library ; and Elizabeth W. The latter received a shock some years ago, which has ever since made her an object of the tenderest solicitude and care, and nobly is her father doing his part. E. P. W.

For a notice of Mrs. James R. Langdon, see page --.

HON. NICHOLAS BAYLIES resided here 25 years, 1810-1835, see, also, page 314, when he removed from Montpelier. We regret that we have no further notice of the Judge for these pages.

James R. Langdon.

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JOSEPH ADDISON WING,

son of Josiah and Polly (Gray) Wing, was born in the part of this town now known as East Montpelier, Dec. 26, 1810. He opened a law office one year before his ad- mission to the bar, May 13, 1835, in Plain- field, this County, where he remained until June, 1838, when he removed to Mont- pelier village, where he has lived ever since. He married, Jan. 1, 1840, Samantha E. Webster, of Cabot, daughter of Jesse Webster, of that town. Mr. Wing has two sons, Geo. W., the eldest, a practicing at- torney in the same office with himself on State street, and John G., his youngest son, also a lawyer in his office, and four daugh- ters, Florence A., Annette M., Alice M. and Elizabeth B. Mr. Wing has for many years handled the pen, writing for the newspapers, paying to incidents and oc- casions of public interest the tribute of his verse, and in 1878, brought out a small 12 mo. vol. of 252 pp., printed in this vil- lage, of no little interest to the many friends to whom it was thus presented.

A few extracts from Mr. Wing's book, which is the second volume of poems pub- lished by a native of the town :

·· Go forth my little book, devoid of pride ;

Go like the brooks that through the valleys glide, And greener make the verdure by their side; Go like the dew that silently dotlı fall When o'er the earth night spreads her sable pall ; Go you, and zealously mankind entice To seek for virtue and to flee from vice."

EXTRACTS FROM "PLUCK."

( Without pluck.)

"See yonder man with downcast look pass by, Mark you his face-no fire is in his eye; Hls coat is seedy, and his hat is old, His pockets empty of both bills and gold, Silent he passes through the busy throng; No friend doth cheer him as he goes along, No one is there that old man's hand to clasp And warm his heart with friendship's kindly grasp Onward, unnoticed, to his cot he goes, Where from the world he buries all his woes; There will he dwell unnoted and unknown Till death's cold hand shall claim him as his own."

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The history of Washington county, in the Vermont historical gazetteer:, Part 88

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