USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Baltimore > The history of the town of Baltimore, Vermont > Part 5
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Beginning with the year 1828 the grand list books have been preserved for each year, the books being then printed by Simeon Ide at Windsor and furnished by the state. They were most awk- ward to handle being approximately 17 inches from top to bottom and 29 inches wide. The covers are of heavy bluish paper similar to blotting paper.
Each page is divided into columns, in the first column names of the taxpayers appear. Opposite each name is listed a poll tax set at $10. Next column lists the number of acres each person owns, its appraisal, of which value 6% was figured as a balance. It must be stated in this connection that the number of acres on which taxes were paid was much reduced from one-third to one-half what the deeds called for. The reason for this decrease in actual acreage is not clear unless it meant less taxes to be paid the state. In 1821 at a convention of listers of Windsor County a sworn statement declared Baltimore to contain 1145 acres whereas it had an acreage of over 3000. In 1842 the state made a separate valuation; then it was that the figures regarding acres of land increased immediately.
The houses were appraised separately from the land. This is an advantage to would-be historians as it can be reasonably determined on what years new houses replaced the old. The tax on houses was
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figured at 4% of their valuation, the latter being very low. The column devoted to mills, stores, and distilleries had no entries in this town. Livestock was assessed on a fixed valuation. Oxen were set in the list at $2 each, other cattle 3 yrs. old were listed at $1.25 a head, a horse valued at $75 was $6, a yearling colt was $1.25, sheep were taxed 10 cents apiece. No chance for favoritism here on the part of the listers.
Carriages and clocks were taxed, watches both gold and common were set in the balance at $4 and $1 respectively, money was figured at 6%. In the 1830's instead of figuring a man's taxes on a grand list, they were figured on what was called his balance. Let us compute Wm. Davis' balance for the year 1836. He had property set in the list as follows:
60 acres land appraised $600.00, 6% of that $36.00
1 house $437. 00, 4% of that 17.48
4 oxen $8, 10 cows $12. 50, 4 2-yr .- olds $3 23.50
2 horses $6, 1 2 yr. colt $2, 1 1-yr. colt $1.25 9.25 57 sheep (no carriages, clocks, watches or money) 5.70
One poll
10.00
$101.93
This was Wm. Davis' "balance" for highway taxes, for county, town and other taxes. His balance was $91.93 as he was allowed an exemption of $10.00 because of an "equipped poll." In 1835 they passed over the article to raise any money. Had they voted 2 cts. on the dollar, his town tax would have been $2.03.
The first town treasurer's book kept in 1825 by Benjamin Page shows much painstaking effort on his part, inasmuch as he copied every town order in full that he was asked to pay. The orders were also written in full, no printed slips to be filled in. We will jot down one such order that will show the difficulties Benjamin faced:
Mr. Benjamin Page, Town Treasurer, Sir-Plese to Pay Jesse Spauld- ing thirty-five dollars it being for keeping town Poor the past year
Baltimore March the 7 1825
Amasa Gregory Selectmen
Jona Woodbury
A true coppy Benjamin Page Treasurer.
It appears, however, that nine such entries were all that were re- quired for the year 1825, the school and the highway accounts not being kept by the town treasurer as before stated.
The town clerk's duties were very similar to those of the present- day official. All deeds at first were written by hand, so were not so plain for copying. Book No. 1 had no alphabetical index. Each man's name was written in the front pages as he presented his deed for record and the page on which such paper was recorded. Suc- ceeding records were indexed by placing the numbers of the pages on the same line. One page usually sufficed for recording any of the early deeds. Now it oftentimes takes as many as three pages.
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Baltimore, Vermont
List of Town Clerks of Baltimore from 1794 to present time.
Joseph Atherton 1794-1798
Joshua Martin Jr.
1798-1799
Joseph Atherton
1799-1800
Jonathan Woodbury
1800-1815
Jonathan Boynton
1815-1822
Joshua Leland
1822-1823
Benj. Litch
1823-1825
Jonathan Woodbury
1825-1831
Jonathan Boynton
1831-1838
Levi Harris
1838-1839
Jonathan Woodbury
1839-1840
John Piper
1840-1860(until his death)
Rodney Piper
1860-1868
George Davis
1868-1870
R. C. Sherwin
1870-1877
F. Z. Preston
1877-1885
G. H. Coffin
1885-1886
F. Z. Preston
1886-1889
C. W. Bridges
1889-1896
W. R. Bryant
1896-1903
C. L. Tuttle
1903-1905
F. I. Marble
1905-1908
Mary E. Day
1908-1910
W. E. Pollard
1910-1946
Possibly the duties of some of the town officers of those early days are not very clear in the minds of the modern readers. An in- spector of leather was to examine all leather offered for inspection. If he found it well tanned, dressed, dried and fit for market he stamped a G on each such piece. If not fit for market he stamped a letter B. If any person made boots or shoes out of bad leather and sold the same under misrepresentation, he was fined $2.50 for each pair of boots and one dollar for each pair of shoes, said fines to be paid to the treasury of the town. This measure probably placed a check on the itinerant cobblers who made shoes from in- ferior leather.
The sealer of weights and measures in each town was provided by the selectmen with the following measures: "one half bushel, one peck, one half peck, one ale quart, one wine gallon, one two quart, one quart, one pint, one half pint, one gill, one half gill, wine meas- ure; one English yard, one fifty-six, one twenty-eight and one fourteen-pound weight, etc." These weights were used with scales and steel beam. In January of each year every person was notified and required to bring to the sealer all such weights and measures as he used in buying and selling. The sealer received two cents for each weight or measure proved and sealed by him. Once every ten years the town's beam weights and measures had to be tried and proved by the county standards.
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The requirements for an "equipped poll" were a good musket with an iron or steel rod, a sufficient bayonet or belt, a priming wire and brush, two spare flints and cartridge box and pouch with a box therein sufficient to contain at least twenty-four cartridges suited to the bore of his musket, a canteen and a knapsack. Those men who were listed as having an "equipped poll" were not subject to a poll tax.
The Freemen's Meetings
The first Freeman's Meeting of which there is a record was held Sept. 3, 1799. The record was made as follows: Baltimore September 3, 1799. At a Freemen's Meeting in this town on the first Tuesday of September was Brought in by the freemans Ninteen Votes Isaac Tichenor Governor and Votes for no other. Attest Sam Drury Constable. A true coppy of the original Attest Joseph Atherton Town Clerk.
In 1803 we read-"the following is a list of the Names of the free- men of the Town of Baltimore that brought in their votes for a Represen- tative to Represent the State of Vermont in Congress of the United States.
Joshua Martin 2nd Reuben Bemis
Samuel Lockwood
Seth Houghton
Ephraim Martin John Woodbury
Benjamin Page Levi Davis
Ephraim Martin Jr.
Jonathan Woodbury
John Bigelow
It appears this check list named the men that came to vote rather than all those eligible to do so.
The next check list to be recorded was in 1820, the following is a list of the Freemen's names:
John Piper
Benjamin Litch
Luke Harris Luke Robinson
Joshua Martin Amos Page
Levi Harris
Stephen Robinson
Luke Harris Jr. Jonathan Woodbury Jr.
Joseph Atherton Manasseh Boynton
Ephraim S. Martin William Davis
Jonathan Boynton was also present as town clerk.
It will be remembered that Baltimore sent no representative to the General Assembly until 1824. In that memorable year we find the above list augmented by the names of
Joshua Leland David Chaplin Jr.
Joseph Atherton Jr.
Cyrus Bemis
David Chaplin Lyman Litch
Caleb Leland
Socrates Hastings
Edmund Batchelder
Amos Bemis
Benjamin Page Joshua Maxfield
Amasa Gregory Luther Graves
Parkman Davis Silas Jones
Phinehas C. Robinson Earle Woodbury
Baltimore, Vermont
In 1828 Jonathan Woodbury and Joshua Leland applied to the state for remission of state taxes for $32.03 because of having no representative in General Assembly until 1824. Baltimore's grand list was $1164. 18 or less than the $2000 as required by law. The petition was granted.
The town with others used to vote for councillors instead of county senators; otherwise the Freemen's meetings have not great- ly changed.
List of Representatives from Baltimore
1824-5 Benjamin Page
1869
Albin L. Thompson
1826
Joseph Atherton, Jr.
1870
Rollin C. Sherwin
1827 None
1872
Putnam J. Thompson
1828
Benjamin Page
1874 Sylvester Ellison
1829-30-1-2-3-4-5 None
1876
Orson D. Freeman
1836-7 Jonathan Woodbury, Jr.
1878
Erwin Sherwin
1838
None
1890
Francis Z. Preston
1839
Lyman Litch
1892
Charles W. Bridges
1840
Levi Harris
1894
Fred H. Olney
1841-2 William Davis
1896
Wayland R. Bryant
1843
None
1898
Foster H. Hammond
1844
Jonathan M. Boynton
1900
Henry C. Glynn
1845-6-7 None
1902
William A. Day
1848
William Davis
1904
Frank I. Marble
1849
Jonathan M. Boynton
1906
Walter E. Pollard
1850
Luther M. Graves
1908
Dwight P. Wetmore
1851-2 None
1910
Oel J. Converse
1853
Luther M. Graves
1912
Charles A. Dean
1854
Jonathan M. Boynton
1915
Frank L. Kendall
1855-6 Joshua Leland
1917
James E. Shepard
1857
William Davis
1919
Warren Huntoon
1858-9 Zenas H. Graves
1921
Walter E. Pollard
1860-1 Phinehas C. Robinson
1923
Herbert J. Pollard
1862-3 Rodney L. Piper
1925
Glenn E. Olney
1864
George Davis
1927-9 Volney E. Foster
1865
Joseph Leland
1931
Henry H. Hammond
1866
Charles A. Leland
1933-5-7-9-41-3 Annie Pollard
1867-8 Lewis Bemis
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VI. BALTIMORE DESTINED TO REMAIN SMALL
It is not surprising to learn that Baltimore at an early date sought to enlarge her acreage by annexing contiguous portions of neighbor- ing towns. In 1797 the warning for town meeting contained the article "6ly to see if the town will younite with Chester in Enaxing apart of Chester to the town of Baltimore." At the meeting they "voted to Receve the North East Corner of Chester to be anexed to the Town of Baltimore as Chester with all the priviledges eaquel with the Town of Baltimore." A committee was chosen to confer with the town of Chester. Nothing further is recorded about this action so possibly the "priviledges" extended did not appeal to Chester as a whole.
In September 1826 a special meeting was called with only one article in the warning "to see if the inhabitants of Baltimore wish to enlarge the town by annexing a part of Springfield, Weathersfield, and Chester to said town." At that meeting they voted that Bal- timore receive a part of Springfield, Weathersfield and Chester according to a certain survey by Samuel Hemingway to be annexed to said Baltimore. They also voted to receive Joshua Martin Jr. and the William Nichols farm if they should petition for same. These places were what is now the quarry house and the old house that used to stand below it near Albert Billings'. This movement was headed by Joshua Leland and a petition with 276 signers was sent to the legislature. The reasons given for the desired change were that it would be more convenient to attend town meetings as the distance was much less and roads were less hilly and mountain- ous. The school districts were to remain as they were. Among the signers were the Chandlers, Tobeys, Phinehas Leland, all of Chester, and the Chittendens in Weathersfield. The towns of Springfield and Weathersfield remonstrated, but not Chester, and the petition was not favorably considered.
Not discouraged, in 1835 a third and last desperate attempt was put forth to greatly enlarge Baltimore by annexing 2625 acres from the northeast corner of Chester, 2920 acres from northeast corner of Springfield and 857 acres from the southwest corner of Weathers- field, thereby increasing the acreage of Baltimore 6402 acres. The grand list was to be increased $3063. 40 by part taken from Spring- field, $1267.65 by part taken from Chester and $615.75 by part taken from Weathersfield. Added to $1600.60 which was then Baltimore's grand list the total would be $6547.40.
Abner Field was strongly in favor of the enlargement of Baltimore and he represented Springfield in the legislature that year of 1835. The village of North Springfield would have been in the new town of Baltimore. The proposed boundary was to pass near the Butter- field farm in Weathersfield, across Black River near the old covered bridge then crossing Selden Hill beyond Leon Aldrich's in a straight line east and west and including Spoonerville, then turning and
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Baltimore, Vermont
running straight north until it intersected the southern boundary of Baltimore about two miles from its southeast corner.
Evidently North Springfield people favored this change. The petition with 85 names must have included most of the land owners of that village. Among the names were Sylvester Burke, Richard Bradford, Jotham Bartlett, John Field, Abner Field, the Griswolds including Dan, the wealthiest man in North Springfield, Socrates Hastings, fifteen Lockwoods, Eleazer Olney and John White.
With Abner Field at the helm it seemed probable that this peti- tion would have fair and easy passage.
A favorable report was obtained inasmuch as it was enacted "that a committee of three be appointed by this Legislature to examine as to the propriety of annexing a part of the towns of Chester, Springfield and Weathersfield to the town of Baltimore and to make their report to this legislature at their next session." This was making splendid progress and the dream of an enlarged Baltimore with a village of the same name nestling in the valley stood a chance of coming true.
But woe betided them. A remonstrance came from Spring- field with 266 names on it declaring that Springfield had no notice of the meeting, that the hearing had not been legally held. They further expressed themselves, "Your memorialists would therefore humbly represent that in their opinion it would be greatly prejudicial to the interests of the town of Springfield and would greatly derange the present organization of the town and further more it would es- tablish a precedent by which other portions of the town might claim with equal or more reason to be set off." As usual Springfield had her own way. But there was no reason why she should want to lose her valuable suburb to the north, and no impassable barriers shut it off from the rest of the town. We like to cogitate on what it would have meant to North Springfield and the surrounding hillsides if the proposed change of boundary lines had been made.
No further attempt worthy of record has ever been made to en- large Baltimore.
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VII. THE STORY OF BALTIMORE PEOPLE
Ella Elizabeth Graves
Ella Elizabeth Graves was born in Baltimore, Vt., on what is known as the Davidson place. Her Grandma Graves was Dorcas Martin, one of the family of Martins, who lived in the west part of the town after Baltimore was set off from Cavendish in 1793. She was the only girl in a family of three children, the other two being Nelson and Otis. Nelson died when 14 years old of typhoid fever.
When Ella was ten years old, her parents moved to this farm which has since been known as the Graves place. She always at- tended the Baltimore school, her parents carrying her some during the summer, and winter times her brother drove a horse which they put up in Mr. Thos. Preston's barn. When about seven years old, she had a sickness which was called a "run of low fever" from which she recovered slowly.
In personal appearance she was the slender, precocious type. The writer remembers hearing Ella's father say once, "Give Ella the book and she could teach herself from it, but Otis had to be taught."
When in her teens she attended Kimball Union Academy and roomed with Josephine Mudgett who afterwards married Stephen W. Butterfield and became the mother of the five Butterfield boys. Ella must have been a high-ranking pupil. Her bright, intelligent mind, coupled with a pronounced tendency to do everything thor- oughly and well, must have made her superior in scholarship. Like all other men in Baltimore her father held many town offices, and unlike other men in Baltimore he let his women folks do some of the writing. I often run across Ella's almost perfect Spencerian handwriting as I look through the records. The ex- cellence of the English she used impressed me when quite young.
After her graduation she became a teacher. In those days the small children went to school in the summer, generally to a girl not much older than the oldest of her pupils and with no more "schooling" than what she had obtained in that very school. Let us not entertain any fears that they were not worthy of their hire.
I can find it on record that Ella Graves' mother, whose maiden name was Emily Gregory, taught school for $8 a month and boarded herself. Ella was very highly educated for her times and was gifted with a powerful right arm and a disposition to use it. These three qualifications made her capable of teaching winter terms of school when the boys and girls in their late teens flocked in- the farm work not being so pressing at that season. Ella Graves could not be called a loving or a lovable teacher. My father used to say, "She was a strong rugged woman, nothing tender about her when it came to discipline. But she could work every last
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Baltimore, Vermont
example in the book and explain it so a feller could work another one like it. Anyway, women teachers were not expected to rule by love in those days."
When about twenty-five years old, Ella began to be afflicted with dyspepsia and was in very poor health for some time. In fact, she never fully recovered from a tendency to indigestion. In the Graves' kitchen they had a stove with an elevated oven at the back and on top of the stove, with the pipe running through the center. "Yankee Notion" was the name of it. Ella used to lean over this oven when her attacks were serious. I suppose the shape of the oven and the warmth it afforded her stomach probably did relieve her, but it seemed a strange method of treatment.
Ella and Mrs. Graves went out west, to what was considered the far West in those days-Wisconsin. Mrs. Graves' two brothers, Isaac and Newton, and Sister Harriet, all of whom grew up on the Sundgren place, had moved there, so Ella must have enjoyed meeting her cousins. They stayed about a month and Geo. Piper kept house during their absence. Ella had recovered her health somewhat and was able to resume teaching.
As I first remember Ella she was no longer teaching but went to Foxboro, Mass., winters where she worked in a hat factory sewing straw braid into hats. Once she brought me a navy blue straw hat, a sailor, with a white band and a bow of straw, "straw trimmed with straw," Ella said. It was not quite big enough for my head to suit Ella, but I was never more pleased with one.
She used to spend her summers at home where she was much company to her mother. She did not like house work but she was always doing something. She was an extremely neat person and had a way of locating dirt that was where it should not be, on a girl's bare feet or neck, for example.
In her later years she took up sewing. She used to go to homes and stay while she made dresses for the ladies. Her charges were reasonable and her work was very thoroughly done. In those days dresses were all seams and gores, and every seam was bound or overcast, and whale bone used to be sewed on the waist seams to keep them straight; it was quite a task to finish the inside of a dress when Ella used to sew. She used to receive a dollar a day for her services, including board.
In the winter of 1900 Ella was taken desperately ill at her work in Massachusetts-black diphtheria they called it. Her brother Otis had a serious run of the grippe, and before he recovered, his mother was stricken with pneumonia from which she did not re- cover. Otis stayed on the farm for several years and Ella lived with him most of the time, but finally they sold the place and Otis went west to live with the Gregory cousins. After spending some time with former friends, Ella decided to go where Otis was. She had no near relatives whatsoever in Vermont; so that seemed the natural course to take. She came to see me before leaving and asked if she might leave her melodeon with me. Her folks had
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bought it for her when a young girl; but it seems she had no talent in music. She said if she never called for it, I could consider it my own. The keys were yellow and only one key would sound at all. Miss Graves declared that it was such a sham and a pretense she would not ask anyone with a small house to keep it. With its very beautiful rosewood case and harp-shaped ends, I have no furniture that I exhibit with so much pride as that.
After going to Wisconsin, Miss Graves spent one winter in Los Angeles. After her return she went to Madison Hospital where she suffered greatly from a cancer until the end came.
In her will she requested to be buried in the family lot in North Springfield; and after leaving $1000 to the North Springfield Baptist Church to be known as the Emily Gregory Graves Fund and two minor bequests of $100 each to friends, the residue which amounted to $17,500 was left to Springfield Hospital to be used for the sick people of Baltimore.
These questions are often asked: why did she leave it to Baltimore, and how did she come by so much money?
To answer the first question, which is asked because Ella never seemed to like to live in Baltimore, I might say that she, her mother, and her brother were born and brought up in Baltimore. She was by nature a serious-minded person and inclined to be melancholy. I know she was inclined to be suspicious of anyone who might have designs on her property and certainly no one in Baltimore at that time could be classed in that category. Springfield people solicited funds from her to build the new hospital. It was one of Ella's traits to want people to do something towards earning what they got.
She did many things to enable me to get a higher education, especially by sewing for me. Once, after making me a beautiful pink chambray dress, mother told me to find out what she charged. I approached her in a businesslike manner, and she said I might go berrying with her out in the pine lot. Another time I undressed my feet and waded out into a swamp and gathered an armful of cattails in payment for help on some examples the teachers could not do. Springfield Hospital has received a goodly amount of money from the Baltimore Memorial Fund.
I have asked every one who knew the Graves family intimately how Ella came by so much money. The answer always is the same -she and the family saved it.
In searching the records we found the Graves farm was never mortgaged from 1793 when Baltimore records began until 1907. They all were strictly fair and honest in their dealings. I cannot recall a single instance of anyone doubting their honesty. They set a good table and treated their help so well it was called a good place to work; the same men helped them year after year in haying. But they were extremely saving of what they had and careful of what they bought.
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Once a cousin, his wife and daughter were coming from Phila- delphia. I think he was Luke Graves' son. The Graves seldom had company come to stay and I was all agog. Their best horse was all of twenty years old, a clumsy old farm horse. Ella did persuade Otis to buy a new harness, but it was a very cheap one according to my ideas, no nickel trimming on it at all. The women folks managed to get Otis to go and borrow Mr. Piper's covered carriage. Otis in much disgust told Mr. Piper of their extravagant request and added, "And I expect they'll want a spread eagle on the dashboard next." Ella thought they might use the best silver and told my father that her mother was reluctant to get it out, that the silverware was over forty years old and she had never used it but a few times. I stood around while Mrs. Graves made the company cake and marveled at the number of toothsome in- gredients she used. It was named "Composition Cake". I saw the company and was greatly impressed by their grand clothes and aristocratic manners.
Mr. Piper told me that he brought Mrs. Graves to church the day she was baptized in the stream back of Mr. Patterson's barn. Ella Graves was baptized by Mr. Chipman but never joined the church. I never knew the reason and I heard Mr. Chipman tell my mother he did not know why she was so reluctant to join with God's people.
The Graves family deserves much appreciation from me, from my church, from my town. I think I must have been a nuisance to them with my chatter, questions, and inborn curiosity. I said as much to Ella when older grown, but she assured me that her mother enjoyed my company. I might have been a welcome caller in the dead of winter. I remember Mrs. Graves had a large goiter, a very placid disposition and a great habit of talking to herself, a woman of strong Christian character.
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