USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Baltimore > The history of the town of Baltimore, Vermont > Part 19
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Both buried in Baltimore Cemetery
Their children all born in Baltimore:
1. Barney d. Baltimore May 4, 1805 Age 16.
2. Nancy d. Baltimore Feb. 6, 1795 Age 4 years-First grave to be made in cemetery according to inscription.
3. Hannah b. Aug. 22, 1793 m. 1st. Isaac Ives, Ludlow; 2nd. Bara- bas Beane. She died of cancer July 20, 1871 in Montpelier and buried there. No children.
4. Joseph Jr. b. 1794 m. Olive Ives, Ludlow d. in Baltimore Aug. 23, 1839 Age 45 years. Olive died Sept. 23, 1849 Age 51 years.
Their children:
1. Junius O. d. Oct. 15, 1820 Age 3 mo. buried with his parents in Baltimore cemetery.
2. Nancy d. Jan. 15, 1835 buried in Greenbush.
3. Olive Florella m. Sumner H. Boynton, uncle of Durant J. Boynton.
Lived with her Aunt Hannah Deane in Ascutneyville. Died about 1865. No children so far as known.
4. Hannah Aurelia b. Weathersfield Sept. 23, 1831 m. Feb. 29, 1852 to Osgood MacFarland Baldwin, in California she died. One child-Lillie Anna b. Oct. 9, 1855 in Illinois d. Mar. 7, 1857 in Charlotte, Vt.
5. Nancy b. Nov. 19, 1797 m. Nov. 3, 1824 Dr. Chas. Buckley Chandler of Chester son of Henry d. Nov. 11, 1837 in Tun- bridge, Vt.
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Their children were:
1. Charles Buckley b. Sept. 11, 1825 d. Sept. 4, 1826.
2. Charles Marcellus b. July 1, 1827 m. May 15, 1860 Abigail J. Hazen.
They had two children:
(1) Charles E. Chandler, M. D .- His sons were Chas. P. Chandler, M. D., Hazen A. Chandler, Chicago.
(2) Anna J. Chandler m. Franklin A. Dwinell, June 5, 1894 b. Oct. 17, 1863 d. 1942 in Montpelier, Vt.
3. George Cornelius b. Aug. 16, 1831 m. 1st. Margaret Sears; 2nd Mary Smith.
It will be seen that Hannah, the third child of Joseph and Anna Atherton, outlived the other members of the family. At the time of her death, 1871, there were only five living descendants of Joseph and Anna viz:
1. Charles M. Chandler, M. D.
His two children:
2. Charles E. Chandler, M. D. and 3. Anna J. Chandler
4. Hannah A. Baldwin of Pana, Ill.
5. George C. Chandler, New York
Atherton Villa
Years ago a Baptist girl who had been recently married but was still in her teens accidently overheard the prayers of two ministers who were guests in her home. Breakfast was ready and she had gone to call them to it, when she heard them in prayer. Waiting until the prayer was finished, she involuntarily heard the subject of their pleading. They were very poor; they had given their lives to the service of the Lord; salaries during the years of service were barely sufficient for living expenses; they were at an age where their services were no longer acceptable to the churches; they were facing destitution and distress in their poverty. In the quiet of their room they were laying their need before the Lord.
She was so impressed and saddened by that which was not in- tended for her ears and to which she was an involuntary listener, that she then and there conceived the idea of trying to earn and save enough money to erect some day a building which would be especially set apart as a Home for Aged Ministers and Missionaries and their wives.
She and her young husband were poor, and it was many years before they were blessed with sufficient financial ability to enable her to carry out this idea, but the time finally came when the girl- hood dream was a possibility and Atherton Villa, erected by Mrs. Hannah Atherton Baldwin, is the fulfillment of that dream.
Realizing that such an institution would require generous support and wishing that it should be under the control and direction of the Baptist denomination, she proposed to set aside the necessary land, erect the building and place the entire property in the possession of
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the Southern California Baptist Convention. This proposal was made to the Convention at its annual meeting at San Diego, Janu- ary 1914, and was received with the favor and rejoicing which it deserved.
It would be hard to find a site more beautifully situated than that selected at Burbank, eleven miles from Los Angeles, with the mountains just in the background and the picturesque San Fernando Valley stretching away for miles in the foreground.
Here a building of ample size and specifically designed for the purpose has been erected, building and grounds being valued at $50,000. The Burbank Line of the Pacific Electric R. R. has its terminal directly in front of the building, making it easy of access. The Southern Pacific R. R. station is also near by and the San Fernando Boulevard passes within two blocks.
There are sixty living rooms in the building together with spacious reception room, assembly hall, dining room, kitchen, laundry and baggage room. Bathrooms are on every floor. The living rooms are large, well-lighted and screened, equipped with steam heat, electric light, hot and cold water and electric call bells. There are private toilets and lavatories in every room, and the ventilating system is considered perfect. Thirty rooms are large enough for occupancy by two people and have built-in beds. The other rooms are somewhat smaller, are intended for occupancy by single in- dividuals and will need to be equipped with beds.
The ground is ample for gardens, fruit and poultry raising. The maintenance of the building will require a large endowment and necessitate a very considerable annual expenditure when it is occupied to its fullest capacity.
At the present moment a considerable number of aged Baptist ministers and their wives are simply waiting and hoping for the privilege of spending a few years at the close of life's afternoon in this Home which has been so generously provided. They, like those ministers of long ago, have spent their lives in the Master's service. They have wrought well. The meager salaries they have re- ceived as they have thus labored have been sufficient to supply their immediate necessities only, with nothing to lay aside for the neces- sities of age. Now they can no longer serve the churches acceptably. They are poor because they have turned aside from money-getting pursuits to enrich the lives of others. They are too old to work; they cannot beg. With them old age, poverty and want go hand in hand.
It is a splendid thing which Mrs. Baldwin has done. Brethren and Sisters of the Baptist denomination, the gift of this Home should be an inspiration to us; the need of these aged people spells both opportunity and obligation. Will YOU immediately help to furnish the rooms and provide the money necessary to care for these dear saints? Will you make it possible for your Convention Board to say to these needy men and women, "Come to Atherton Villa and you shall have home and care and comfortable provision for your necessities"?
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The Hastings Farm
Something there is about a cellar hole that holds a charm for the writer, particularly if it is known that a family once lived there. It gives stimulus to the imagination and many a fantastic plot can be woven around a spot that was once the home of parents, and children who knew the joys, the rigors, the sorrows, as they faced life's vicissitudes!
The writer's father used to recount for her satisfaction (and his own as well) the different cellar holes in Baltimore which mark the sites of early habitations. For these many years it has been known that a family by the name of Hastings used to live down in the hollow east of the Sherwin place. But when the time came that the writer earnestly sought information concerning this family only one person living could be found who knew a member of this family in the flesh, that was the late Everett H. Redfield who remembered that one Almena Hastings used to live at his Aunt Jane Carleton's in North Springfield and the town of Baltimore paid her board. Sad, but true.
Weird tales have come down that the father Hastings hanged himself in the barn, that that building stood many years and was said to be haunted. Such a happening would add color to this narrative; so far as known to the writer there is no one to object if such a tradition were treated as a fact. Leaving the possibility of a suicide to the reader's imagination, only hard unyielding facts from the records will form the basis of this sketch.
In 1795 one Samuel Hastings of Charlestown, N. H., purchased from Joshua Martin a parcel of land containing 62 acres. Samuel married a Mary Martin who was sister of Joshua Jr. and Ephraim Martin who came with their families about this time to live in Baltimore. As already stated this land lay in the hollow and ex- tended 130 rods along Joseph Atherton's east line.
In the 1800 census we find Samuel Hastings listed as having a family of eight-2 boys, 4 girls under 16, one man and one woman between 26 and 45, doubtless himself and wife. The only ones of the children we know were Almena, Socrates, and Willard, Socrates being the baby.
Had Samuel been more active in the town's affairs this sketch might have been longer. He held few town offices, but in 1816 school records we read the following, "10thly, Voted to rase ten corde harde wood three feete long split and corded att the north Scthool hous in Baltimore by the first day of Jany next to be Di- vided on the scholler. Bid of the wood to Samuel Hastings for sixty four cents the cord." How was that for a money-making proposition? In this winter of 1944 wood choppers are getting $6 per cord for cutting four-foot wood. Evidently Samuel was not utterly discouraged because of price as in 1820 he bid off the wood at fifty cents per cord.
In 1808 Samuel had sold 22 acres off the northern end of his tract to Joseph Atherton which left his acreage rather small. We con-
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clude there never was a road built to his place as it was voted not to collect a highway tax from Samuel Hastings so long as he did not demand a road. Some signs of a road still exist leading from the hollow up through the Eaton pasture to the "old road," then a leading thoroughfare of the town.
Perhaps Samuel, not having even the end of a road, lacked all incentive to repair or build a better house. In 1828 we find his house was valued at only $17.46, the lowest one in town. He was taxed on 2 oxen, 2 cows and 1 watch.
No changes appear in his grand list for the next two years, same house, same cattle.
Oct. 31, 1830, Samuel died aged 69 years. No more does the house appear in the grand lists for appraisal; it might have burned, more likely it fell down.
Next we find Mother Mary (now called Polly) living on the Glynn place with her son Willard who had bought that farm from Joseph Atherton Jr. in 1830. That Willard was well-educated for his time is evinced by the creditable manner in which he as district clerk kept the school records of the South District as long as he lived in town. Willard Hastings and Joseph Atherton Jr. married sisters, Lorena and Olive Ives. Willard also did some surveying in this locality; the road by the present schoolhouse was surveyed by him.
In 1835 Willard Hastings sold his farm here to Matthew Chaplin and moved to New York State. He had evidently prospered during the years he lived on the Glynn place; in 1831 he had 2 oxen and 2 cows, perhaps they were the very same ones his father had owned. By 1835 he had 2 oxen, 7 cows, 4 2-yr .- olds, 2 horses, 1 colt and 46 sheep.
The financial status of the three known Hastings offspring provides interesting reading because of the contrasts thereby depicted.
When Willard and his mother Polly moved to Whitehall, N. Y., they left behind them several aggrieved creditors, it appears. One was brother Socrates who served a writ of attachment "on eighty sheep and one half or moity of eight other sheep", stating plainly in the writ that four other attachments preceded his. Two other attachments followed, but no further mention was made of the sheep in them. The records fail to state whatever became of them.
April 8, 1836, Polly Hastings and son Willard still of Whitehall sold the 40 acres of the old Hastings farm to Phinehas C. Robinson, and fifteen days later Robinson sold it to Socrates Hastings, so the latter then owned the homestead acres on which he first saw the light of day. But Socrates was not a man of lingering sentiment regarding his birthplace; in Nov. 1840 he sold it back to the Robin- sons.
Sister Almena's story is rather pathetic probably through no fault of her own. Evidently she never married. During her last days she was boarded in North Springfield at the expense of the town. An entry appears where the overseer of the poor received
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sixty cents one time for her labor. She died Jan. 9, 1869, in Balti- more, of consumption, aged 71 yrs. 10 months.
Socrates was the boy who saved his money. In 1829 he had $100 to his credit, in 1831 that amount was increased to $500, in 1833 to $800 and in 1834 to $1000. In 1835-'36 he was living in Weathers- field. In 1837 he had a cow, a 2-year-old and $15 to be taxed, but now owned the old farm. But he was soon back to $800, then to $1000 for taxation again in 1838-39. By 1840 he had left town.
Like his brother, Socrates married into a good family, too, when he married Betsey Chaplin the sister of Matthew and Prudence Chaplin Litch. She must have died young as she was not mentioned in her father David Chaplin's will made in 1840. It may be recalled that David Chaplin sold his son Matthew in 1835 one-half of all his property which included his land, buildings, privileges and appur- tenances. The very next year Matthew sold his half of everything to his brother-in-law Socrates Hastings. Whereupon father David two months later bought back the property from Socrates and made a new deal with Matthew.
Several records are found wherein Socrates was named as mort- gagee, not only in Baltimore, but in adjoining towns. He became in reality a moneylender. He grew up in the poorest house in town that probably knew much deprivation if not actual want. How rich he must have felt over that first $1000! Socrates Hastings sold Reuben Bemis the house in which the latter died-now owned by Duane Allen.
The most ornate headstone in the Baltimore cemetery marks the last resting-place of Socrates Hastings who died Oct. 1, 1856, age 57. He is buried beside his father who also has a good headstone. Be- side them is a well-defined grave marked only by field stones, in which sister Almena probably rests, as peacefully as does her brother. The mother went farther west and died in Paw Paw, Ill., aged 92 yrs. The burial place of Betsey, wife of Socrates, is unknown.
Benjamin Page (Dan Rich Farm) (Settled First Below the Roy Olney Farm)
If the reader will refer to the section of this effort relating to the formation and organization of Baltimore, we will find listed among the nineteen families that comprised the town in 1794 the name of Ebenezer Allen as the head of a family then residing in the eastern side of town. We should be proud and happy to be able to state that the above-mentioned Ebenezer was the identical hero of the Green Mountain Boys or at the least a relative of that famous in- dividual. So far, all efforts to prove some family connections of that sort have been fruitless. Suffice it to know that in 1793 one Ebenezer Allen did own a 100 acre tract, the northern 50 acres of which he sold to Moses Bates on June 28, 1793. Moses after "im- proving" the same sold it to Stephen Robinson of Lunenburg, Mass.,
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April 4, 1796. It was April 7, 1796, that Ebenezer Allen still of Baltimore sold the southern 50 acres to Benjamin Page of Lunen- burg. All this land was bounded on the east by the Weathersfield town line.
It is interesting to note how many of the early settlers of Balti- more came from Lunenburg. Besides Stephen Robinson and his bride Dorothy and Benjamin Page, there was Amos Page brother of Benjamin who came before 1800, the Martins, Joshua Jr. and Ephraim, who came in 1794, the latter bringing ten children, Ben- jamin Litch in 1798. Manasseh Boynton came from Fitchburg in 1799. Luther Graves was originally from Leominster, Mass., the last-named two towns adjoining Lunenburg. It will be recalled that the original proprietors of Cavendish were mostly residents of Lunenburg, Mass., and perhaps the slogan there and then was, "Go north, young man." Perhaps young Benjamin rode along on the same sled with Stephen and Dorothy in true neighborly fashion.
The boundaries specified in the deed from Ebenezer Allen to Benjamin Page were not very definite-"containing fifty acres lying and bounding as follows (viz.) East on the east line of Baltimore aforesaid and North on land deeded to Stephen Robinson by Moses Bates, West on Noah Piper's South on land formerly owned by John Graves." The deed was signed, sealed, delivered and wit- nessed entirely by Baltimore men. Benjamin's farm included what is now the late Emerson Leland and the late Angeline Rumrill pastures.
Thus did Benjamin become the nearest neighbor of the Robinsons on the south, and it is interesting to know that for many years the road passed directly by the dwelling houses of both Benj. Page and Stephen Robinson. The present road, which was built in 1851, severed the original Benj. Page farm in twain, and until that date the road out of town passed by Benj. Page's across the town line into Weathersfield, then up past the Harris place, across the pastures by the Stevens place, then down to the road above Angeline Rum- rill's homestead. Loren Olney in his late seventies, being agile of foot and historically minded, informed the writer that once at least each summer for many years he had followed this old road by its sluiceways, etc., into Baltimore. The cellar hole of the Page house can be seen and plainer still can be seen the cellar hole and door stone of the other house located near and in what is now the same pasture-the Perkins house. According to the late Ernest Butterfield, in the 1810 Weathersfield tax list the Perkins house was better than Rumrill's, judged from its valuation.
Benjamin's tract was a narrow strip extending south 145 rods until it reached the Governor's farm. Filled with high and holy ambition to own more land, in 1803 he bought a strip 100 rods long and 32 rods wide from Levi Davis off the northern end of the Governor's farm and adjoining his land on the south. His first farm was shaped like an L written backwards. Benjamin may have come to Baltimore as a bachelor, but, unlike many of his
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colleagues, he did not return to Massachusetts to seek a wife, as he married Waldo Cheney's oldest daughter Huldah, born in 1779.
We find that in 1801 Benjamin had bought the Jonathan and Rachel Burnam homestead where Dan Rich now lives-511/3 acres "by masure" for $510. The price paid would indicate that the buildings on these premises were not valued highly. The Burnams had a family of ten children in 1800, so must have had some sort of habitation for them.
We are quite positive that Benjamin Page built the fine old brick house that used to stand on the present Dan Rich farm and from bricks made in his own brick yard in the same field as the buildings now are and close to its western boundary. The main part of the house stands out clearly in the writer's memory and was very similar in plan and size to the main part of the house built by William Davis in which the writer now lives. The gable end of the Page house faced the road. A spacious hall ran the width of the house with two big square rooms on either side upstairs as well as down. The front door opened toward the east. The barns were conveniently built below the road, and the house situated on a pleasant elevation above the road commanded then, as now, a marvelous view of the scenery to the south. In the 1828 grand list Benj. Page's house and Earle Woodbury's were appraised for $271. 60, the highest in town.
This house was the probable birthplace of the nine Benjamin Page children whose names were: Huldah-died young, buried in No. Springfield cemetery d. Sept. 2, 1838, age 26 yrs .; Lorinda- married Harvey Bigelow; Caroline-married 1st. Jewett Boynton, 2nd Baxter Burrows; Martha-married Samuel Axtell; Eliza- married Luke Stoughton; Asa; Emery H .; Benjamin P .; Lucius H. The two last named boys lived at home for some time after becoming of age.
In 1811 Benj. sold a piece 93 rods long off the southern end of the backward L to Simeon Rumrill who lived on the Harris place, this tract being 42 acres by "meashure." But not until 1833 did he sell the remainder of his first farm to Jacob and Elisha Perkins.
In 1815 he began to increase his holdings with a purchase of 25 acres off the west end of his father-in-law Cheney's farm. In 1830 he bought nearly three acres further up the mountain bordering this field, also in 1830 he bought 3 acres on the north of this old farm to the mountain, in 1831 5 acres from Samuel Dutton on mountain. It is a matter worthy of note that after the titles on the four parcels of land above mentioned had changed several times in about one hundred years this land was, and still is, owned by a great-granddaughter of Mr. Page, Addie Boynton Leland and her daughter Mrs. Fred Clark, both of North Springfield.
By this time Benj. owned quite a large farm with plenty of pas- turage which he and subsequent owners used for sheep. The mountain sides sloping to the south afforded cheap and early feed for sheep which was a profitable business in Vermont in the 1830's
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Benjamin was one of the town's biggest farmers. In 1828 (the earliest grand list book available) he kept livestock as follows: 4 oxen, 7 cows, 7 2-year-olds, 3 horses, 1 2-yr .- old colt and 1 yearling colt, besides 25 sheep. His livestock numbered about the same from year to year, but his amount of money on hand to be taxed varied, $200 in 1829, $400 in 1830. In 1831 and 1832 he had the highest balance for taxation of any man in town. This continued to be the case nearly every year. In 1835 no poll tax was assessed against Benj. as he was now over 60, but in 1836 his son Benj. P. Page began paying a poll tax, so we infer he was twenty-one. In 1837 Father Benj's. balance reached the highest peak of $118.50, exceeding all others by about $10. The next year he had evidently sold all his livestock except one cow and two horses, but he had $1500 in money on which he was taxed.
In 1838 Benj. purchased of Aaron Houghton of Jay, N. Y., the 6 acres 52 rods which had once belonged to Calvin Houghton. Benjamin had sold his farm but may have preferred to keep some of his money invested in the good earth.
In 1839 none of the Benj. Page family was taxed in Baltimore. Isaac Williams had bought the place in 1837, and Benjamin, probably in very poor health, moved to Weathersfield. We suspect he and his wife were living with their son Lucius when Benjamin died November 17, 1840.
Lucius was appointed administrator of his father's estate and was granted a license on Mar. 8, 1841, to sell his father's real estate. It appears after his father's decease Lucius had caused the mortgage on the farm against Williams to be foreclosed, but the next day after obtaining his license to sell he deeded to him all the real estate in Baltimore, "Being the homestead farm formerly owned and oc- cupied by the said Benj. Page deceased", for $1522. The same day Huldah Page for $100 sold Williams "all the right, title, interest, property, estate or demand" which she had in said premises. This is the last land transaction recorded for the Benj. Page family in Baltimore.
In the North Springfield cemetery Benjamin is buried and has a headstone as does his daughter Huldah, but no headstone is there to mark the final resting place of the Widow Huldah. It is most unlikely that she is buried beside her husband and no headstone provided for her as she left a large family of children, some one of whom undoubtedly would have attended to that matter of respect. We are led to think she may have gone west with some of her chil- dren and died there.
While Benjamin was living on his farm away to the east, his interest in town affairs was not very evident. In 1798 he was elected lister and highway surveyor. No other office of importance did he hold until 1803. March 1st of that year his name is listed with the twelve freemen who brought in their votes for a represen- tative to Congress. This must have been a special meeting. On Mar. 7 of that same year we read this significant item in the records
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of the town meeting held that day, "voted to adjurn sd meeting to Mr. Benjamin Page's Dwelling House." By this we know Benja- min had moved to the Jonathan Burnam place he had purchased in 1801. The town meetings had been held in the North school- house beginning with 1800. That schoolhouse was built next to Joseph Atherton's eastern boundary, "opposite the brick yard" and in plain view of Benjamin Page's house. It does not require too much imagination to surmise that Mar. 7, 1803, was a cold wintry day and that the legal voters were frozen out; so they sought refuge in Benjamin's dwelling house.
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