USA > Vermont > Windham County > Marlboro > The history of the town of Marlborough, Windham County, Vermont > Part 5
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That house, with occasional repairs, battled the storms of more than forty winters, without a stove or any convenience for warming. In the severity of a winter day the congregation shivered in the cold during the exercise of religious worship and at intermission, went to the fires of the neighboring houses to warm themselves.
The building of this house was not the work of a few months but of a succession of years, as the means of the inhabitants
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increased and their ability strengthened. During this time the house was occupied, the audience being seated upon rough board seats and their minister preaching from a rude structure for a pulpit.
The house remained in good condition, excepting its natural wear, until the 25th of March, 1819. After midnight there was experienced a gale of wind from the west or northwest of great power, which blew off quite a piece of the roof of the north- west corner of the house. In this condition it continued to be occupied, but led the congregation to feel that a new house of worship was indispensable. The last time it was used by the congregation for religious worship was an extreme cold day, the second Sabbath in December, 1820. The last sermon preached in it was from 1 Pet. 1. 24, "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass," a funeral sermon occasioned by the death of Mrs. Lucina Pratt, wife of Dolphus, and daugh- ter of Asa Winchester.
2. On the north border of the town near the south line of Newfane, on the Branch, so called, the Baptist Congregation, in 1815, built and finished a neat and commodious house of worship, and painted it white. This was also without a spire. It was later taken down and removed to Pondville in Newfane.
3. The second Congregational meeting house was erected in 1820. After the injury to their former house by the wind, March 25, 1819, Deacon Sylvester Bishop and others held free conversation on the subject of providing a better place of worship and found great harmony prevailing in the congregation to the same effect. An informal meeting of the citizens concerned was held at the Public house of Gen. Smith, on the 5th of April, 1819, at which time their minister was sent for and the meeting was opened with prayer invoking the direction and blessing of God upon their deliberations. Deacon Bishop was called to the chair. After due deliberation it was agreed to call a legal meeting of the society on the 12th inst., and a committee of sixteen was appointed to report a plan of procedure. The committee reported and it was decided to build a new meeting house. In so doing it was proposed to divide the expense of building into shares of $25.00 each, obligating each shareholder to take the amount of his or her stock subscribed, in pews, when the house should be completed. The pews would then be ex-
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posed to sale at auction to the highest bidder. The amount of such subscription was payable in three equal parts, the first to be advanced on or before commencing the work, the second on the house being finished, and the last in one year from the sale of the pews. The plan and size of the house being settled, the shares being taken up, and the building committee appointed, consisting of Gen. Jonathan Smith, Capt. Simeon Adams, Elisha Winslow, Deacon Sylvester Bishop, and Capt. Rufus Mather, the building of the house was let out by the job to Capt. Stephen Gregory of Guilford, and Pomeroy Knowlton of Brattleboro, at the close of the year 1819, or the commencement of 1820. The builders came May 1, 1820, to begin their work, and found the society together in a public meeting in the old meeting house, much divided in regard to the spot on which to locate their new house.
The builders being professors of godliness and hopefully good men, went to the moderator and stated to the meeting that they had come to commence their engagement according to their contract; that they were dependent beings and could not prosper without divine assistance, and wished, if agreeable, their minister should be sent for, and the blessing of God sought in the execution of their undertaking. A committee was im- mediately dispatched to their minister, who cordially responded to their call, and cheerfully repaired to the house of prayer, and there met his brethren of the church and society with the builders. He opened the Scriptures and read the 127th Psalm, "Except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it," etc., and in prayer commended them to the mercy, protection, and blessing of Almighty God. At the close of these exercises, scarcely a word being said, the moderator and the society left the house and went back of the old sheds in the rear of the old house. Deacon Bishop took a stake and set it for the southeast corner of the new house; another measured the ground and placed a stake for the southwest corner, and others designated the other corners. In this simple manner the location was fixed without an objection.
The next morning, by a voluntary turn out, men and teams were on hand from different sections of the town. The ground was broken and levelled, and in like manner the work continued from day to day, until the preparations for laying the founda-
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tion were completed. Large stones had been selected for the corners. In placing the first stone, Capt. Nathaniel Whitney, with locks whitened by age, was active and laborious in laying it in its proper position, and when he had succeeded according to his mind, took off his hat and made a short speech to those around him and closed by saying "he thanked God that he had been enabled to assist in laying the corner stone of the second temple." The foundation being completed, the house was raised on the 10th day of June, 1820, in the presence of a numerous concourse of people, without an essential injury to a single individual. The summer was delightful; the workmen, six in number, pursued their business with undeviating diligence and perseverance; were temperate in their habits, and success- ful in fulfilling their contract, to the universal satisfaction of all concerned, by the first of December. The house was 56 feet long and 44 feet wide, with a steeple 103 feet in height. It was completely finished inside and out in the most modern style of the day and painted white. The entrance at the south end led into a lobby of good size, with stairs on the right and left to ascend into the gallery, and doors opening into the body of the house. The lower floor was finished in slips, with a broad aisle in front of the pulpit and two narrow ones separating the slips on the wall from those in the body of the house. In the gallery the seats in front were occupied by the choir. On the sides were slips and free seats. The house was accepted on the 12th of December and the slips were sold on the 13th.
The enterprise happily united the society and individuals in town to a greater degree than had been witnessed for many years. The people engaged in the undertaking with a commend- able spirit, making it a subject of prayer in their families, in social meetings, and on the Sabbath, imploring the blessing of God upon the work; and verily it seemed as if their prayers were heard and answered.
The house cost about $4000, and the slips were sold to the proprietors at a public sale to the highest bidders for more than the cost of the house. It was paid for without a law suit or any compulsory measure, and it was believed, without impoverishing a single individual. It was occupied on the Sabbath following the 13th Dec., 1820, for public worship for the first time, and the first sermon preached in it was from Gen. 13. 8. On the 10th
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of January, 1821, the house was solemnly dedicated to the service of Almighty God, in the presence of a crowded and attentive assembly. All families who chose were accommodated with slips or seats, and as they were a church-going people, the house was filled on the Sabbath with intelligent, devout wor- shippers, dwellers together in peace.
4. TOWN HOUSE. This is a commodious building of good size, erected near the meeting house in 1822, at the expense of the town, for the transaction of public business. It was built principally of the timbers and boards of the old meeting house which was sold and taken down for that purpose; and has well answered the design for which it was erected. It now contains the large iron safe recently purchased by the town for the safe keeping of the town records and public papers.
5. COUNTY JAIL. According to the testimony of those living at the time, and notes in manuscript taken from their statements, Marlborough and Westminster were half shires of the County of Windham, Vermont, and courts were alter- nately held in the two places. This made a necessity for a jail in each town. The one in Marlborough was commenced in 1785 or 1786, and when completed, one Broad, a prisoner, was lodged therein. It was built of hewn logs, and according to the statement which we received from Capt. Abel Dimmick, it was first built on the knoll about 10 rods north of the present dwelling house of Dr. Ebenezer Tucker, and thence removed to a spot a few rods south of Col. Granger's house, on the Granger lot before described. Several years after the courts had been re- moved to Newfane, the Granger farm came into the possession of the two brothers, Phinehas and Timothy Mather, and the jail being of no further use as a prison, was taken down, removed, set up on the south side of the road in front of Maj. Timothy's house, and converted into a currier and shoemaker's shop. It was so used for many years; but has finally gone to decay and has been demolished, not leaving a vestige behind.
CASUALTIES
In 1777, there were about 40 families in town which were visited with a sweeping sickness. In a few weeks, upwards of 20 were carried to their graves and buried in the woods, as
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MARLBOROUGH
THE SECOND CONGREGATIONAL MEETING HOUSE, AND THE TAVERN. ON THE LEFT IS THE TOWN HOUSE.
described under the head of grave yard No. 2. The same year, Mr. Moses Rising moved from Suffield, Conn., into a log house in the southeasterly part of the town. In performing his first day's labor, he was killed by the fall of a tree; yet not instantly, for he survived a few hours and in his dying distress remarked "that he was in such a hurry to go to his work that he could not stop to attend prayers." Aug. 17, 1781, Elijah, Jr., son of Elijah Higley, aged 4 years, was killed by the fall of a tree. He went into the woods where his father was chopping and was not discovered until too late to save him. In 1789, two year old Joseph, son of Ichabod King, was killed instantly by a sled. Ansie Phillips fell into the fire in a fit, and was burned to death. A child of Eben Snow was burned with his house. A child of Guilford Whitney was burned by its clothes taking fire, and lived but a few hours. A child of Jonas Moore was scalded, and lived about a week. A child of David Barrett fell into a kettle of boiling water and was so badly scalded that the flesh peeled from the bones of its fingers, and it died in a short time. Marietta, daughter of Capt. Dan Mather, was scalded, and died Dec. 4, 1824, aged 14 months. Orin Willis's body was found in the North Pond, May 15, 1831. It was supposed that he was drowned on the 13th of December, 1830. Zebina, Jr., aged 10, son of Zebina Wallace, Esq., was drowned in the mill pond near Dwight M. Mather's mill, May 28, 1856, while in the act of bathing. Mary Louisa Holt, aged 31, wife of Lovell A. Barney, committed suicide by hanging herself to the bed post in a fit of derangement, Feb. 13, 1856. Alonzo L., son of Almeron Ames, was scalded by inhaling steam from the spout of a tea- kettle containing boiling water, and died in 28 hours, Jan. 22, 1857. Nelson Hawkins from Halifax moved into the Tavern House in the middle of the town; and in the spring of 1840, by a violent gust of wind the barn which he was in was blown down with such force as to crush his head against a cross bar which laid him senseless. He survived about 12 hours. Daniel Stewart, son of Asaph Knapp, in the act of falling, pulled over a kettle of boiling water upon himself, which terminated his life in three hours, Aug. 26, 1833, aged 3 years. Amos May received an injury from the fall of a tree by which the bone of his lower jaw was broken into three pieces; he did not recover but lan- guished a few weeks and died Aug. 26, 1828.
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CONFLAGRATIONS
A log cabin of Maj. Timothy Mather burned in 1778, in his absence, in which he lost his clothing and effects. Eben Snow's house was burned and a child burned in it, in his absence from home. The house and wood house of Amos May were burned on the morning of the 29th of Feb., 1820. He arose early, took up some ashes and set them away in a back room, built a fire, and went to work in his barn. Soon after this the fire was dis- covered near where the ashes has been placed and spread with such rapidity as to consume the house and much of its contents. A dwelling house of Chester Pomeroy, and afterwards a barn and barn shed on the same premises, were purposely set on fire by Lucas Hill, and wholly consumed. A house north of Capt. Ira Adams, known by the name of the snake house, was burned. Capt. Lyman Brown had two barns and a shed consumed by fire, supposed to be the work of an incendiary. The tannery of Capt. Dan Mather was burned, with some valuable stock in it. A barn of Almeron Ames was struck by lightning when well filled with hay and grain, and consumed with its contents. The dwelling house, barn, sheds, and outbuildings, belonging to the widow Benjamin Knight, were burned in open day, July 28, 1842, in the absence of herself and family. Before leaving the house she went in some haste to a drawer in a bureau in which were some friction matches. It was supposed that they ignited unobserved, and were the occasion of calamity, as the fire was first discovered in that part of the house. Very little was saved from the devouring element, and the loss fell heavily upon her, in her bereavement. Horace Winchester suffered the loss of his wheelwright shop and blacksmith shop by fire. A barn, on the premises since owned by Miller Mather, was struck by lightning and consumed. Capt. Dan Mather, in 1859, lost a sawmill by fire, used and not properly secured in the mill. In 1860, a large store built and owned by Gen. P. Mather, Samuel Brown and T. Mather Adams, and rented to William W. Lynde, was burned with a portion of his goods. Cause unknown.
WAR ACHIEVEMENTS
The last day of October, 1780, was pleasant. That morning the sun arose in the glory of his brightness and pursued his
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course through a cloudless sky until approaching the close of day. Then the clouds began to gather, with the threatening aspect of an approaching storm, and in the evening it commenced snowing.
Previous to this, the principal men in the respective towns in the vicinity had convened to consult upon measures to be pursued for the promotion of the common safety and general good not only of the settlers but of the whole country. As the result of their deliberations they resolved that, in their opinion, the public safety required every able bodied man to hold himself in readiness for particular and general defence at a minute's warning. In the evening of the day above mentioned, as it began to snow, Mr. Stockwell, living near the east line of the town, received a letter from Col. Sargeant of Brattleboro, to call out the militia to defend themselves from the Tories and Indians. Col. Sargeant had received a letter from Capt. Myrick of Dummerstown by express, informing him that the enemy had already reached Newfane. In this stormy night the alarm was heightened by seeing a number of fires in that direction.
Reports were immediately circulated that Newfane was burned. Orders were received next morning, Nov. 1, for the meeting of the militia and for families to take care of themselves. The storm of snow continued through the day and was quite two feet deep at night. Notwithstanding the severity of the storm, the panic was so great that women and children left their houses precipitately, just as they happened to be. Mrs. William Mather, then living on the Capt. Simeon Adams place, left her bread baking in the oven. All assembled near the center of the town, some on foot, some on ox sleds, and commenced their march, fleeing for their lives, headed by Col. Zadock Granger and their young pastor, the late Rev. Dr. Lyman. Their flight was slow and necessity compelled them to strike their encamp- ment and take shelter for the night.
While this expedition was in progress, Mr. Jonathan Under- wood, an aged citizen and an early settler from Suffield, Conn., who had brought with him two iron kettles to be used in boiling sap and making maple sugar, and who had built him a log house with but one outer door, a cellar, and a stone chimney with a large fireplace, according to the fashion of the times, was un- willing to leave his premises. He built a large fire, hung his
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kettles over it filled with water, the temperature of which he raised to a boiling heat, took up the floor by the door, and calmly sat down, ladle in hand waiting for the time when the Indians, rushing in, would fall down into the cellar and give him a chance to dash on them the hot water and scald them to death.
In the meantime the armed militia proceeded northward to meet the advancing enemy, and either destroy them, or drive them back before they reached the settlement. They continued their march, bearing in a northerly direction nearly three miles towards Newfane. They found the snow very deep and the trees so heavily laden as to bend in every direction, forming a natural barrier against their advance. At length they became convinced that the combined ferocity of Tories and Savages could not surmount the obstructions by the hand of nature. Accordingly they gave up their march, returned to the settle- ment, found Mrs. Mather's bread in the oven, and left not a whit behind. Here they met their companions in arms.
During the pleasant day referred to, the industrious citizens of Newfane were engaged in piling brush, rolling logs, and clear- ing their new farms. As they saw the storm approaching near the close of the day, they set fire to their brush and log heaps which they had so laboriously piled. Soon brilliant flames sprang up, which shone upon the horizon and reflected their crimson light afar through the falling snow, and being seen at a distance, confirmed the whole region in the opinion that on that dismal night the Indians and Tories had fired every log house in the pleasant vales and upon the lofty heights of New- fane. They were happy however to find it a mere delusion.
When the facts of the case reached Marlborough, the brave soldiery, with dauntless courage, pursued their wives and child- ren and brought them back in triumph as the daring achieve- ments and noble trophies of their valor; took possession of their deserted dwellings, and exchanged their martial glory for the sweet enjoyment of domestic tranquility. Thus ended their campaign of 1780.
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CHAPTER IV Natural Advantages-Minerals Streams-Manufactories
The town of Marlborough in its native state was clothed with a heavy growth of timber. We know not of a single right of land on which the rock maple did not abound in sufficient numbers to furnish sap for making a full supply of maple sugar for domestic use. The trees were "boxed" with an axe; beneath the box an incision was made with a tapping iron into the body of the tree, into which was driven a spout to carry the sap to a trough. The troughs were principally made of ash and basswood logs from twelve to eighteen inches in diameter, and about three feet long, halved in the center and hollowed out with an axe. The sap was poured from these troughs into sap buckets, and carried by the aid of a sap yoke upon the shoulders, to the place of boiling. This was prepared by making a fire against a large log, or rather between two large logs, over which were suspended from a long pole supported by a couple of crochets the iron kettles in which the sap was boiled down to a thick syrup. The syrup was taken home, clarified, and "sugared off." Often times the snow was so deep and soft, that men would gather sap upon snow shoes. How rude were the implements and how fatiguing the toil, when compared with modern improvements!
The forests have furnished and are furnishing an untold quantity of mill logs and building timber which has been sawn and manufactured into varieties of lumber for home consump- tion, with a surplus for exportation. Large quantities of wood are also cut, corded and hauled to neighboring villages, where it finds a ready sale at paying prices. Formerly ashes were gathered, where logheaps had been consumed in clearing new lands, and from domestic hearths, and manufactured into salts by boiling down the lye to a consistency much resembling a coarse variety of maple sugar. This was carried to merchants and exchanged for goods, and by them manufactured into pot and pearl ashes for foreign markets. In some instances the ashes were sold to owners of asheries, who, on a large scale, made a
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business of manufacturing potash for the Boston market. These were sources of income much valued, and have had their in- fluence in the growth of the town.
SOIL. The soil is a deep rich mould, made up of animal and vegetable decay with an intermixture of loam resting upon a subsoil of hard pan, or drift, capable of a high state of cultivation. It produces good pasturage, hay, rye, wheat, oats, Indian corn, barley and the usual varieties of garden and field vegetables congenial to the climate. The principal product is grass, which furnishes the material for raising the best of stock, and pro- ducing the best of dairies. It has proved in no small degree to enrich the farmers and increase the wealth of the town. "Blooded" animals have been introduced as breeders, to the improved appearance of the herds, exhibiting a commendable effort of the farmers to raise the best variety of stock for work, the dairy, and the shambles. In the summer the cattle have a wide range of pasture; in the winter they are furnished with stalls in stables convenient for their feeding and rest. Their sale amply rewards the owner for the nursing care which they have experienced.
FRUIT. Wild fruits, such as cherries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, have a rich spontaneous growth, and produce a luscious harvest. Cultivated fruit, such as apples, pears, plums, and cherries, have been grown as a luxury for domestic use. The orchards planted by the fathers of the settlement show the marks of age and decay, and, we are sorry to say, in some instances of unjustifiable neglect. Young orchards have a thrifty growth, and promise a good return for judicious cul- tivation.
MINERALS. In the early settlement of the township, near Mather's Mills, was found a hornblende rock in mica slate, ir which was discovered upon the surface, somewhat embedded, precious and massive garnets with chlorite and sulphuret of iron. The garnets in perfect crystals were fascinating to the eye. A Mr. Samuel Mather, a man of rare genius and of a peculiar visionary temperament, having an occasional residence in the place, became charmed with the appearance of this rock. He pretended to possess a glass into which he could look and see the mineral treasures in the bowels of the earth. He induced individuals to believe that in the heart of this rock he saw caverns lined with ingots of gold. This excited a gold fever. With a
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burning zeal the rock was opened by the gold seekers and a deep pit excavated, by drilling and blasting, at an expenditure of much hard work and about all the riches they possessed, with- out reaching the golden caverns.
Some forty years ago in conversation with a gentlemen advanced to middle life, we were told by him that when he was a boy, he spent one summer with the men working in the mine, of whom the inquiry was particularly made if they found any gold. He replied that they found something that looked like gold and sent it away to be refined, but the refiner sent word back "that there was so much plaguey brimstone about it that he could not get out any gold."
This is recorded not only as an item of historical interest, but as one of the wild delusions of mineral hunters deceived by pyrites, a mineral of little worth, of yellowish cast, which has received the name of "fool's gold."
STEATITE. In this town there are three beds if not more of this mineral, one a short distance westerly from Mrs. Tirza Bishop's, one three-fourths of a mile north of Ira Adams, Esq., and one on the farm of the late Elisha Worden. This mineral receives the common name of chalk stone from the circumstance of its making a white mark resembling chalk. It is also called soapstone in consequence of its soapy or greasy feeling. It is valuable for furnaces, for the lining of furnaces, and to resist and retain the action of heat. The softer or more talcose variety is used with oil, for oiling or lubricating heavy machinery, such as the axles of large wheels. These quarries have been opened and wrought to some extent, and have furnished large quantities of stone for the Boston and New York markets. For some years past these quarries have been almost abandoned, but we trust the time is not far distant when their valuable qualities will again be brought into notice.
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