USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > St Johnsbury > The town of St. Johnsbury, Vt. ; a review of one hundred twenty-five years to the anniversary pageant 1912 > Part 15
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"The Hawkins Horse was black, about 15 hands high ; shoulders, back and loins excellent. He carried his head high ; had a bold, resolute, vigor- ous style of action (in this like his master), a smart trotter and a good run- ner. His eye was a little fierce in expression, he was inclined to be cross, not so tractable as the rest. He was one of the best acting and finest looking horses under the saddle ever in the state.
"The Hawkins horse was led out before the Company at June Training in 1829 ; they called him 20 years old then. He was a beauty. I don't know as I have seen a handsomer horse since. He was a perfect horse in every spot and place. He wasn't much over 900, about 14 hands without shoes, had a perfect form and carried himself just as pretty as ever you saw a horse ; dark brown and a bright handsome coat.
"My father had a mare got by the Hawkins horse from St. Johnsbury, Vt. She raised colts up to and when 27 years old that were better horses than I can raise now from Wilkes and Morgan combined.
"I remember the Hawkins Horse well. He was not over medium size, fine looking, very dark brown, not black, as I think. I remember some very good colts of his. One of his colts was called Black Hawkins. I saw Black Hawkins run with three other horses and he came out a great distance ahead. It was at some public doings in our village. I have heard older people than myself speak of his splendid action."
The Morgan Horse and Register, Vol. I. pp. 127-130, 156-159.
"The Spirit of the Hub," Boston, 1895, remarked-"There are some extra fine horses up in St. Johnsbury, Vt. - among them a three year old by Quartermaster ; Cobden 2nd a bull dog of a race horse; and another by Cobden Jr. of a Morgan mare which has all the speed and beauty of her
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race. There are others in that town which a horseman can spend a whole day in looking over-good ones."
TRANSPORTATION TEAMS
Until 1850 all farm produce and manufactured products were hauled in ox teams or two or four or six horse teams to Portland or Boston, the two principal markets. The minimum time to Portland when the roads were good was five days, the round trip to Boston would be three or even four weeks. Teams bound for Portland used to put up at Hibbard's or Gage's tavern in the East Village. The teamsters carried along their own dinners of bread and doughnuts, meat, pork and beans cooked before leaving home; supper, lodging and breakfast they got at the taverns, where the women had to be up two hours before daylight to have breakfast served and the teams off promptly at daybreak. The great wagons were canvas roofed; sometimes there would be one or two going together ; then again a train of them half a mile long from different towns, loaded with pork, potatoes, poultry, butter, cheese, eggs, lard, maple sugar, grain, flax, pelts, potash, from the farms, or articles of domestic manufacture. Returning the teams would bring whatever the people wanted for household use, salt, codfish, mackerel, molasses, rum, etc., or after stores were running, whatever would sell well in the town.
"When the teams arrived from the city there was great curiosity, men and boys were on hand to help unload, women and girls to get a first glimpse at the pretty calicos and dress goods, and happy was the one who could afford to buy something from these imported fabrics."
Very heavy teams were required for transporting the products of the Paddock iron works and the Fairbanks stove, plow, and scale works. It was a tedious process. George Green used to start out at three o'clock in the morning and drive to Franconia ; in order to save time he would pile a quantity of snow on his sled and load on the pigs of iron hot from the furnace. Thou- sands of tons of iron ore or pig were hauled in to the town from the Franconia or other mines, then hauled out again after being wrought in to the finished product. This problem of double trans-
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portation of so much iron by horse teams over bad roads and long distances, grew to be so acute that for many years the transport- ing of the scale works to some point nearer the cities was seriously considered. It was this more than anything else that finally demanded and secured the construction of the Passumpsic Railroad, and seventeen years later, of the Lake road as a com- peting line.
THE TEA GOES OVERBOARD
One day in 1837 an eight horse team from the North arrived at the upper bridge of the Center Village, being on the way from Montreal to Boston. That bridge was built in 1810, in the man- ner narrated on page 52. It was set on mud sills and trestle work with a string of logs along the outside edges "to protect the travel." When the eight horse team was part way across, something happened and the wagon load was dumped into the river.
Part of the cargo consisted of chests of tea. At that time Morse and Ide were running a starch factory near the river bank. The drying racks of this establishment were quickly cleaned off, the chests were fished out from the water and the tea was spread upon the racks ; after which the fires were started and the tea went thro a new-method drying process. The chests were refilled and the eight horses made a delivery of St. Johnsbury-cured Young Hyson tea in Boston. This tea transportation was interesting, but not so stimulating to oratory as the project, years after, of a cross-country railroad ; over which we were told to see in imagi- nation trunk line trains loaded with tea for Queen Victoria, en route from Vancouver to London via St. Johnsbury, Vt.
Near the place where the tea was steeped in 1837 the eggs were scrambled at a later date, when a car load of eggs on a de- railed train caught fire and the Center Village youngsters picked out eggs that were done to suit the most exacting taste.
ST. JOHNSBURY GAZETTED 1824
How this town stood on the first Gazetteer of Vermont, pub- lished by Zadok Thompson at Montpelier in 1824, is seen in the following extracts :-
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"ST. JOHNSBURY, a post township in Caledonia County. It lies 31 miles northeast from Montpelier, and 26 north from Newbury. The surface of the township is uneven, but it contains no mountains. There is a decent meet- ing house near the center of the township, erected in 1803. £ The denomina- tions are principally Congregationalists, Restorationers and Christians.
"St. Johnsbury Plain is situated about two and a half miles south of the Center. Here is a pleasant village containing several stores, a tavern, post- office and several handsome dwellings. The physicians are Abner Mills, Z. K. Pangborn, Morrill Stevens, Jerry Dickerman. Attorneys, Ephraim Pad- dock and James Stuart.
"There are in the town 15 school districts, 12 school houses, one oil mill, one furnace, one fulling mill, four grist and seven saw mills, three carding machines, two tanneries, two potteries and three distilleries."
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DOCTOR JUPITER - WHIG JOURNALISM - HERALD GLEANINGS - MILLS AFLOAT-GENERAL JACKSON-AN ILL-SHAPED PATCH- POOSOOMSUCK-ENTERTAINMENT-THE ARNOLD PRIVILEGE- PASSUMPSIC CANAL-FOR YOUNG LADIES.
DOCTOR JUPITER
LUTHER JEWETT, M. D., REV. and HON., as an octogenarian who had variously and faithfully served his generation, was en- titled to some suitable appellative, but what suggested the one above given is not now known. "It may have been his trenchant pen, not always dipped in honey." He was born in Canterbury, Conn., 1772, graduated with the Dartmouth College class of 1792, studied medicine and began practice in St. Johnsbury in 1800. In 1817 he represented the north-east district of Vermont in Con- gress, and took his seat by the side of Daniel Webster, then in his second term. Urged by the people of the old First Church to qualify as a preacher, he received ordination in 1818, and his Thanksgiving sermon of that year is the first historical document relating to this town ever printed. He was pastor in Newbury 1821-28; editor of the Farmer's Herald St. Johnsbury 1828-32 ; member of the Vermont Constitutional Convention 1836; died in 1860 aged 87 years. His sons Ephraim and Samuel were well known merchants in the town.
One of his associates in Congress wrote-"To us the name of Luther Jewett will always recall some of the most pleasant memories of life. He was eminently good and scrupulously just
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in all his ways. In a delightful village unsurpassed for its picturesque beauty by any in New England, his bright example has contributed largely for half a century to the development of its character for enterprise as well as for moral and intellectual elevation. On revisiting St. Johnsbury a few years since, we sought out the venerable old man at his retired house. His snowy locks and patriarchal mein lent impressiveness to his words as he conversed of current events with the zest of one who was never content to be a mere spectator of the world's progress. It was our last meeting. We left him
* * * in a green old age, And looking like the oak, worn, but still steady Amidst the elements, while younger trees Fell fast around him."
"Daniel Webster came to St. Johnsbury in 1830, and called to pay his respects to Dr. Jewett, his former companion in public life. Here for the first time we saw the great defender of the constitution, then in his prime. The greeting of the distinguished Statesman and the Doctor was marked by the cordiality of old friendships still cherished by each."
C. L. K. in the Lowell Citizen
THE FARMER'S HERALD
"The most wonderful thing of the age-the introduction of Caliban to Cadmus; Caliban the farm hand, the clod-hopper, the horny-handed la- borer, has met the keen old Cadmus inventor of letters and is beginning to read. Formerly the newspaper was not for him, now he is reading it and beginning to think for himself." Swinton
On the ground now occupied by the Academy stood a small building in which was an old-fashioned hand printing press. Here was issued on the 8th day of July 1828, the first number of THE FARMER'S HERALD, a weekly Whig journal, edited by Dr. Luther Jewett, and continued till the summer of 1832. A few words from the editor's announcement will indicate his thought and pur- pose.
"The subscriber proposes publishing on St. Johnsbury Plain a news- paper to be called THE FARMER'S HERALD .Our free republican institutions can be maintained no longer than intelligence and virtue generally prevail. * It will be a prominent object of this paper to furnish such facts as to
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the character of men and measures that its readers can understandingly judge for themselves. * * Besides current news, Religion, Morality, Poli- ticks, American Biography, Agriculture and Mechanical Arts will be consid- ered. Nothing of a religious kind will be admitted which favors one denomination at the expense of another. The editor will support no measure of any man in public life further than its own intrinsic merits will justify."
Luther Jewett
In a later issue he says : "lottery advertisements are rigidly excluded ; as to this we have a squeamish conscience, much as we need the fee and would like to oblige our friends. Also we shall reject every expression savor- ing in the least of profaneness, or that is not in good English."
Being an educated man, a former member of Congress, and always solicitous for the public welfare, Dr. Jewett was well fitted for the duties of a journalist. Under his able and vigorous management The Farmer's Herald became influential in shaping public opinion on current issues. Slavery, intemperance, anti- masonry were fearlessly but fairly discussed ; and to moderate the fiery zeal of the latter which just then was at fever heat, a weekly sheet entitled The Friend was issued during the year 1829. Full files of these papers are in the Athenaeum.
In July 1832, the Doctor, under pressure of exacting duties re- linquished the publication of the Herald to Samuel Eaton Jr., who changed the name to The Weekly Messenger and Connecticut and Passumpsic Valley Advertiser. Its former dignity and character also underwent a serious change; it began to decline and in fifteen months expired. The press, which must have been a good one in its day, was sold to the Montpelier Journal for $75, "less than a tenth of its original cost." After this St. Johnsbury had no paper of its own till Mr. Chadwick established The Cale- donian in 1837.
Newspapers of old time were singularly barren of local items, excepting advertisements. The village store was then the universal news-hopper; from which, after suitable grinding of small talk the several events of the day would be promptly and properly distributed. We turn eagerly to the columns of an 1830 paper, but search in vain for local history. Out of four years of newspaper printed in this town, 1828-1832, about the only para-
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graphs which throw any light on contemporary life are included in the following
GLEANINGS FROM FARMER'S HERALD
"Let historians give details of charters and foundations of our Townes. I content myself with skipping from bush to bush for less significant matters." A Farmer's Letters, 1768
July 28, 1828. The Columbian Guards are notified to appear at Capt. Saml. French's Tavern in the Center Village, Aug. 2, at 1 o'clock precisely armed with Guns and Bayonets for military duty under command of Capt. Freeman Loring.
July, 1828. Capt. Hezekiah Martin will supply Military Goods-Cadet Caps, white Plumes with red tops, Sockets, Tassels, Scales, Eagles and Braid, Gilt Spurs, Stirrup Irons, Bits, Buckles and Ornaments necessary to accommodate officers of every grade agreeably to the order of General Hawkins.
Aug. 9, 1828. St. Johnsbury Female Academy. The next term com- mences 28th inst. and will close at the end of 15 weeks.
Aug. 28, 1828. Bad and broken Banks posted : forty six in all.
Sept. 9, 1828. On Friday, 5th inst. the heavy rains ceased and the work of desolation began. On Sleeper's River the west branch of the Passumpsic, five bridges, one saw mill, one grist mill, one carding machine were swept away. A building occupied by E. and T. Fairbanks was carried off and washed in pieces. Very heavy damage was done to various other works of this ingenious, enterprising and unfortunate company of mechanics, who last winter suffered heavy loss from two fires. Their loss from this flood will be $1000.
Harvard College. Instruction, books, board and room, wood and other expenses at this College amount to $200 a year.
1828. National Ticket. For President-John Quincy Adams of Mass. State Ticket. For Governor-Saml. C. Crafts of Craftsbury.
Oct. 7, 1828. In the north part of the town two buildings were erected last week without the use of ardent spirit. Both the employers and workmen were well pleased, and they deserve the thanks of all friends of temperance and humanity.
Nov. 18, 1828. The subscribers intend to relinquish the making of wagons and they offer for sale their stock of SEASONED TIMBER, consisting of WHITE OAK SPOKES for Carts, Wagons and Gigs ; WHITE ASH PLANK ; Cart,
1
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Gig and Wagon HOBS; slit work, etc .; also, the shop and apparatus for Turning, Boring, Sawing, etc., and a separate Water Privilege.
E. and T. Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury Iron Works
Dec. 2, 1828. For sale at the Medical Store, St. Johnsbury Plain-New Testaments and a new series of Questions for S. S. Lessons ; also Hooper's Pills, Steer's Opodeldoc, Snow's Itch Ointment, Cephalic Snuff, etc.
Dec. 2, 1828. Mr. Printer :- There is a subject that troubles me. I am no hand to write for the papers, and I don't suppose you will love to print what I write ; but I wish you would once and I guess that will be all I shall want. *
* I think General Jackson is a bad man and a murderer. But in this church that I belong to, there are two or three brothers that will stick by General Jackson. They insist that he is the best man in America for Presi- dent. * * Now Mr. Printer, if you are willing, I want you should ask all the ministers to meet in some place and tell our church to turn out all mem- bers that won't say that they ought to hate General Jackson, and that they will never have anything more to do with him as long as they live.
Yours to serve,
A Friend to the Church
Dec. 9, 1828. Mr. Printer :- I see that a friend to the church in the Her- ald of Dec. 2, wishes everyone turned out of the Church who will not say that he ought to hate General Jackson, etc. Now I am a Jacksonian and I have as good a right to vote for him as my friend has to vote for J. Q. Adams, and as good a right to my place in the church, though my friend may think otherwise. I think he is possessed of a little prejudice and a large portion of bigotry.
Minimus
Note. Having given both men opportunity to free their minds the Edi- tor closed the discussion with some sensible remarks.
Feb. 7, 1829. One Cent Reward ! RAN AWAY ! From the subscriber on the 7th inst. ER C. DRAKE! This is to forbid all persons harboring or trusting him.
Jonathan Baldwin, St. Johnsbury Plain.
Feb. 12, 1829. Joseph Stiles will carry on the Hatting business on the most improved plan ; latest fashions and fair prices. Wanted, a journeyman Hatter. 2 doors south of the Printing Office.
Spanish Pistareen Coins are in circulation ; Head Pistareens at 20 cents. Cross ones at 18 cents ; they are thick as Grasshoppers.
Caution. Those persons who are in the habit of taking popular reme- dies such as Screw Auger Poke, Welmigzerrel, Hot Drops and Tom Cat should be informed that the Essence of Gridiron being a vegeto-mineral compound is incompatible with the above remedies.
April 8, 1829. James Ramsey has now on sale a few genuine Flax Spin- ning Wheels, commonly called the Custom Wheels, with improved oil-stained
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red Rims 22 inches ; Cranks and Spindles best hard Swede stock, price $4 cash or $4.50 barter.
June 10, 1829. A few days ago, the frame of a heavily timbered dwelling house 28 by 38 feet with shed was raised in this village without ardent spirits, in less than three hours. Mr. Henry Little was the master workman. All went pleasantly and the frame bears ample testimony to the excellence of the work.
May 6, 1829. ST. JOHNSBURY. As to our own town it is an ill-shaped patch of the world, neither exactly like a hatchet, nor a heater. If squared its sides would be a little short of six miles long. It lies in the Coos country about half way between the Connecticut and the highlands that send their waters into the Onion and LaMoille. We have a river of our own with beau- tiful intervales and excellent water privileges, and on its two branches there are fine falls. But we have filled more space than our little importance will justify. Another time we may resume our description. (Posterity regrets that it was not resumed.)
June 3, 1829. A most gratifying announcement. Ardent spirit is to be wholly banished from the store of Messrs. Clarks and Bishop on St. Johns- bury Plain. Those who are acquainted with them need not be told that no store in the County is occupied by gentlemen of higher respectability.
April 15, 1829. Died at Putney, aged 85, Capt. Daniel Jewett, father of the editor of this paper. It belongs to others to speak of his virtues-to his son to imitate them.
August 19, 1829. Married, Mr. Cotton R. Simson to Miss Sarah R. Marble.
An old calculation of gain and of loss
Proves a stone that is rolling will gather no moss ;
A happy expedient has lately been thot on, By which Marble may gather and cultivate Cotton.
Subscriptions taken at our office for The Bower of Taste, The Souvenir, The Casket, The New York Mirror, the Ladies' Literary Gazette.
Dec. 9, 1829. POOUSOOMSUCK. A great orthographical change has taken place in the name of the pleasant little river on which we have the happiness to be located. It formerly abounded in vowels according to the idiom of the red men's language. Those who first committed it to writing spelled it Poousoomsuck, from the Indian pronounciation. Such is the spelling in William's History of Vt. 1794. The first settlers here on the river wrote it Passumpsic ; thus sacrificing euphony for saving the pen labor of two letters-a poor compensation.
Dec. 23, 1829. An infant school was commenced in this village a few days since under superintendence of Miss Dascomb. As yet it bids fair to equal the most sanguine expectations.
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Jan. 20, 1830. Passumpsic Hotel. Darius Harvey would inform his friends and the public that he has opened a HOUSE OF ENTERTAINMENT in the new buildings recently erected for the purpose. His STABLES shall be continually supplied with the first rate Hay and Provender; his TABLE ever furnished in good style with Fat Living ; and his BAR will be filled with the choicest cordials, wholesome and refreshing beverages, and in case of neces- sity a Drop of the Ardent.
Feb. 2, 1830. Wrought nails are now made in Rhode Island by machin- ery moved by steam, and are said to be fully equal to those made by hand.
March 20, 1830. The proprietors of the celebrated Waterfall of the Pas- sumpsic River in St. Johnsbury, known by the name of The Arnold Privilege, being desirous to encourage manufactures and mechanics of correct, regular and steady habits to establish themselves at said Falls, do hereby give notice that they will sell or lease privileges of water and house lots.
James Ramsey, Huxham Paddock, Hiram Jones.
June 30, 1830. Wooden Legs! exact imitations, manufactured by Stephen Badger in the Post Office, St. Johnsbury Plain-two fantastic legs displayed.
July 1, 1830. Nine letters advertised in St. Johnsbury Plain Post Office ; one for Mr. Huxham Paddock, one for the widow Polly Ripley, one for Messrs. E. and T. Fairbanks.
Fourth of July. In the flourishing East Village of this town a large as- sembly was addressed by Rev. J. Johnson; good things were plenty ; best of all no liquid fire on the tables, and very few sipped from the tavern bar.
Nov. 30, 1830. Married, at the house of Ephraim Paddock Esq. Miss Ann C. Giles, Principal of the St. Johnsbury Female Academy to Emory Washburn Esq. Counseller at Law, Worcester, Mass .- afterward Gov. Washburn of Massachusetts.
Nov. 3, 1830. At a meeting of the Citizens of this and neighboring towns at A. M. Rice's Hotel, Oct. 29, it was resolved that the route from Connecticut River up the Passumpsic would offer greater facilities than any other for constructing a Canal to connect with Lake Memphremagog; and the increasing prosperity of the country through which said Canal would pass, will at no distant time justify the investment of stock in such an enter- prise.
Feb. 2, 1831. Look out Passumpsic! Our neighbors east on the Con- necticut are wide awake ! If those of us who live on the Passumpsic do not keep equal pace, the manufacturing and traveling now so rapidly increasing, will leave our pleasant valley, to our great mortification.
Sept. 29, 1830. 19 days later news from Europe. The Revolution is ac- complished and the Duke of Orleans is declared King of France!
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June 22, 1831. The Steamboat John Ledyard from Hartford has arrived at Wells River.
Aug. 24, 1831. The Circus saw fit to come parading into our quiet little -
village on the last Sabbath. Legislative enactments are needed to guard the community against these baleful influences.
Oct. 6, 1831. Orsamus Fyler having been by his misfortune and the caprice of his creditors driven from his business to the jail limits, announces that he is there engaged in the pursuit of wooden clock making. He can now furnish small mantle piece eight day clocks superior in all respects to any others made in New England.
Feb. 22, 1832. Important. From sources on which implicit reliance may be placed it is learned that bonnets with narrow brims will next season be all the ton.
May 12, 1832. Married. Mr. Hull Curtis and Miss Lucy Barney. This notice was accompanied by as delicious and bountiful a loaf as was ever ex- perimented upon by tooth and eye.
St. Johnsbury Female Academy. This Institution will be open for the reception of Young Ladies on Monday 7th of May next, under the care and direction of Miss Almira Taylor. The subscribers are happy to have it in their power to assure the public that the reputation which the school has heretofore acquired will in no wise suffer in the hands of Miss Taylor. She has been employed by the Board of Trust at the Ipswich Seminary, Mass., assisting Miss Grant, associate of Miss Mary Lyon, for the last two years, and her recommendations are of the first character. Two terms, 13 weeks each, with vacation of 2 weeks. Tuition $4.25 a term. Music $6, music and instru- ments found. All necessary books and stationery may be purchased here at Boston prices. EPHRAIM PADDOCK, LUTHER CLARK, Com.
There is reason to believe that the expectations of the Trustees were fully realized. From contemporary letters it ap- pears that "Miss T. is very pleasing. She knows how to appre- ciate the privilege of teaching such girls as we are." It is sur- mised that the personality of the teacher had something to do with the fine secret of making them such girls as they were. Three years later Miss Almira Taylor resigned her position as Principal, and thereafter with her husband Joseph P. Fairbanks, created a home of parental warmth, of refinement, and hearty hospitality-the remembrance of which is cherished with filial gratitude by her son, the author of this book.
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