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 18
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"Mistaken souls that dream of heaven!"
Watts and Select, Bk. 1.
ANTI-RUM AGITATION
For forty years the use of ardent spirits was common, not to say universal, in this and other towns of that period. Rum had been reckoned one of the necessaries oflife; it was freely distrib- uted, sold at stores and taverns ; and was regarded as an essen- tial enlivener of social occasions, musters, raisings, huskings, balls and even the more dignified meets of ecclesiastical bodies.
From about the year 1810 serious thought began to be given the matter by those who had the public welfare of the town at heart. The church on the hill had recently been organized, and presently among occasions for discipline we find intoxication was included. In 1818 this was publicly referred to as one of the earlier prevailing evils that was less frequent than formerly : "Magistrates would now refuse to license a house that was known to be a resort for tipplers ;" individuals used strong drink but the drunkard on the streets was becoming rare. The improved conditions however did not progress as rapidly as was anticipated. Old usages were very strongly entrenched and only a minority in the community cared to combat them. But this minority, urgent
216
TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
for sobriety and social order, solicitous for the future of the grow- ing boys, kept perseveringly at work endeavoring to establish a wholesome public sentiment. In 1829 one of them wrote as fol- lows :-
"In this town we keep up a steady, moderate warfare against the old wizard Intemperance. Just now about forty men have signed the Constitution of a total abstinence society. No one has been urged ; nothing done or said to induce any one to sign further than to calmly name the subject, show the Constitution and let them act uninfluenced except by their own cool judg- ment." The little old book in which those forty autographs were written, with twenty-one more presently added, is now preserved at the Athenaeum, a very interesting relic of the men of that period. As this was a turning point in the history of the town on one of its most important public questions, those 61 names repre- senting the unbiased judgment of the signers are entered on this page, not including one which is indistinctly written :-
Luther Clark John Barney Alanson Crossman
Jubal Harrington Ezekiel Vose Joseph Stiles
James Wheaton Geo. C. Barney
Isaac Harrington
Hull Curtis
Ebenezer Severance Jonathan I. Hastings
Robert Swett Mark C. Webster James Harris David D. Hoyt Baruch Snell Nelson Wright Charles Johnson Jonathan Marsh
Sam'l Crossman Thomas Bishop Moses Kittredge Erastus Fairbanks Jos. P. Fairbanks Charles Hosmer Luther Jewett Wmn. C. Arnold
Titus Snell
Chester Guy
Geo. W. Fielding Jacob Sanderson James Johnson Willard Cook Erastus Fielding
Willard Kneeland
Samuel Eaton, Jr. J. S. Johnson
Ephraim Jewett
George Stone Augustus Monroe Lanson L. Rice James Ramsey Luther Jewett, Jr. James C. Fuller Edmund Hallett
Geo. C. Wheeler Wm. T. Porter Benjamin Eaton
Erastus Clifford
Thos. McKnight
Ira Davis
Lewis Snell
John Rowlun
James Melvin Lester Rice
Hezekiah Martin
Valentine Clement
Joseph Clark
Elisha Peck
We note here the names of a large proportion of the influen- tial men of the town; some others equally interested were in this movement tho it happens that their signatures do not appear. The paper is drawn up in the handwriting of Luther Clark, mer- chant and town clerk. The moral influence of such a combination of total abstainers at that period was unquestionably great. Quarterly public meetings were held, and thus began the work of The St. Johnsbury Temperance Society.
217
NOTES OF PROGRESS
It is interesting to know that three months later, announce- ment was made in the Farmer's Herald by Dea. Luther Clark that beginning with the month of June 1829, the sale of ardent spirits would be entirely discontinued at Clarks and Bishop's, the princi- pal store in the town. This circumstance was well calculated to make a sensation. Other events were influencing the public senti- ment. "In the north part of our town two buildings were erected last week without the use of ardent spirit, neither was any used in the framing. Both employers and workmen were better pleased than with their former custom, and they deserve the thanks of every friend of temperance and humanity." In 1830, two of the military companies of the town voted to dispense with the usual beverages at a public parade to be held in Lyndon. On the Fourth of July that year it was noted with great satisfaction that no spirits were served on the tables during the celebration at the East Village and that very few men were seen sipping at the hotel bar.
Seven years later however, 19,000 gallons were reported as sold in this and eight neighboring towns; which amount if divided equally would give 2111 gallons to each town.
THE MORMON INVASION 1835
In 1900 two men called at No. 6 Park street to make inquiry about the early church records of the town. Their errand was to get information about their parents who they thought might have been baptised in the Old First Church. Presently they announced themselves as Mormon Elders from Utah, sons of William Snow who was born here in 1806, and of Erastus Fairbanks Snow born in 1818, both of whom early followed Joseph Smith and ulti- mately became Mormon apostles. St. Johnsbury had long lost sight of her distinguished sons of Mormondom; but after this visit of the younger Snows some threads of Mormon history were gathered up from various sources and are here put on record.
It will be remembered that Joseph Smith, a native of Sharon, Vt., launched his new religion in 1830, and pushed the propaganda with tremendous energy. In a narrative of reminiscences given out many years afterward, Smith himself is named as the man
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
who came here in 1835 with some of his zealots and created a sensation. As to the man who headed the invasion there may be some question, but none whatever as to the stir that was made. Headquarters were in the Chesterfield district, north of East Vil- lage; the Snow farms were in that neighborhood and one of their barns was used for a meeting house. Among other things the leader claimed the power to heal by the laying on of hands, and many sick people came or were brought to him with great ex- pectations ; in the crowd was a woman who had been for years in her bed; one who saw her that day says she got no good.
The popular excitement however continued, many were converted and baptized in the stream that ran near the barn; this performance drew large crowds; at one time a boy who had climbed a tree to get a better view, slipped and fell plump in to the water, receiving what was called an involun- tary baptism. Benoni Chase, a blind man who had considerable property "was persuaded to cast in his lot with the Mormons and was never heard of afterwards." Quite a number of families of the town, including the Snows, sold their farms and went off with Smith to the Promised Land, which at that time was Kirtland, Ohio. They went in large canvas-covered wagons, men, women and children and all their household goods. Seventy years after- wards a woman who witnessed the scene said, "I remember seeing them start off, and one woman stopped as they passed the East Village grave-yard, and went in to visit her child's grave be- fore they left the place forever.".
Erastus Fairbanks Snow was ordained one of the twelve apostles of the Latter Day Saints in 1849, and for nearly forty years magnified his apostolic mission. He had good natural ability and was said to be superior to Brigham Young as a preacher. In the Southern States he made hundreds of converts ; it was chiefly thro his energetic management that the first Mor- mon Temple in Utah was built. William Snow was one of the two first Mormon pioneers to enter the Salt Lake Valley; he too became an Apostle. A younger brother, also born in St. Johns- bury, Zerubbabel Snow, was appointed by President Fillmore one of the first chief justices of Utah. Congressman Landis of
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NOTES OF PROGRESS
Indiana in one of his speeches on the Roberts case called the Snows the leading advisers of Brigham Young, and remarked that "they were the most consistent Mormons in the whole bunch."
THE MORMON BARN
After the migration of the Snows there was not much left to make Chesterfield a popular resort. In after years the memory of the Mormon invasion was vividly recalled by some who were youngsters at the time. A man in his eighty-third year told about the Sunday meetings in the barn. "There was a big crowd that gathered at the Snow barn. The Mormon Elders sat along the high beams. They let the women folks in lower down like, and gave them seats in the bay. The other men and we boys were packed in helter-skelter all around the best we could. It was Sunday but a regular holiday for everybody."
That old barn is still standing, on the Abiel Hovey farm, and is familiarly spoken of as "the meeting house"-a meeting house lamentably out of repair, fit haunt for screech owls and bats. During the Mormon occupation it stood on the meadow by Gage's brook, not far from the highway ; now it is in the edge of the maple grove on the hillside, and is used for a sugar house. While going up to visit this ancient shrine the other day, the shrill note of a whip-poor-will, unusual hereabout, seemed to be vehemently lashing it, as if determined to wake whatever old time memories might be slumbering under its mouldering roof.
THE CALEDONIAN
"Here shall the Press the People's Rights maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain ; Here patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw, Pledged to Religion, Liberty and Law."
These words from Joseph Story stood for eighteen years at the head of the editorial column of The Caledonian. They set forth with exactness the spirit and endeavor of its founder. At the solicitation of prominent citizens, Albert G. Chadwick came here from Concord, N. H., in 1837 and established The Caledo- nian, the first number of which was printed on his hand press in a
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
small building once used for a house of worship near the head of Maple street. It was a felicitous thought that selected for this paper a name so distinctive and so appropriate to its location ; there was dignity alike in the name and in the ideal as outlined in the saluta- tory, viz :-
"We this week present to the public the first number of THE CALE-
DONIAN. * * This paper will advocate and sustain the interests of the Whig party so far as they shall tend to promote the good of the people, the protection of American industry, strict accountability to the people of public servants, the cause of temperance and equal rights. * * Our press shall be free ; free to discuss all subjects that relate to our freedom as a nation from tyranny in every form. To be free as a people we must drink deep of the spirit of Christianity, be clothed in its strength; its high and holy in- fluences must be the spring of all our motives and actions ; we must partic- ipate in its nature and receive its principles in to our hearts. To be free we must be intelligent ; must exercise the high prerogatives of free men, the personal right to inquire, examine, and exercise our own judgment on every subject which has relation to the present and future interests of humanity."
These were more than pleasant words, they were profound convictions ; to carry out their spirit the editor gave himself with untiring energy and ability for eighteen years, and won for the Caledonian a place among the foremost journals of the state. Mr. Chadwick's public spirit and activity in every good cause made him a valued public servant; he held many positions of. trust and honor. He married Capt. Martin's daughter Helen, and built the white cottage now adjoining St. Aloysius on the north. In 1855 he sold the paper to Rand, Stone and Company and two years later C. M. Stone became sole proprietor of The Caledonian, which he edited with signal ability till his death in 1890. Like his predecessor, Mr. Stone was a man of convictions ; he did not hesitate to sound a clear note on all current questions, whether with or against the views of many of his readers. Under his edi- torial conduct for thirty-three years The Caledonian gained repute as an independent journal respected for its outspoken opinions, its clean and wholesome principles. Its high character was main- tained with filial fidelity for nineteen years by Arthur F. Stone, who in 1889 had obtained a half interest with his father in the paper. After being held for fifty-five years in one family the Caledonian was purchased in 1909 by W. J. Bigelow of Burling-
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NOTES OF PROGRESS
ton, whose experience on the staff of the Free Press and as Mayor of the City gave him special fitness for editorial management. The Caledonian goes in to the last quarter-century of its career with a dignified, forceful and fearless voice on all public issues.
THE NEWSPAPER OF 1837
We are interested to see what our people found to read in the first issue of their new paper called The Caledonian. We look in vain for a column of local items. Aside from advertisements and announcement of Dea. John Clark's death by being thrown from his chaise while going down Sand Hill, there is little to indicate that St. Johnsbury was in the world of events seventy-five years ago. If Jones' hen had laid an egg, or Smith's girl was on a visit to her aunt, the public is not informed. State politics, Van Burenism, foreign advices, good family reading cover the field of intelligence. The excerpts that follow are samples.
"The Peoples' Convention ; Anti-Van Buren. The Green Mountain Boys are emphatically awake. A larger Convention was never holden in Vermont ; more than 700 were present at Montpelier, from all parts of the state. We can truly say we never saw a more dignified assembly of men. Coming as they did from various and distant sections, at a most hurrying season of the year, at a time when the best men could hardly get money enough to buy a dinner, to consult together for the public good, we may well conclude that Vermont is awake, emphatically awake.
Death of the King. The ship Harold from Liverpool 14th of June, ar- rived at Boston the 24th of July. Information that specie payments had been suspended by our banks had produced considerable consternation in England. Advices from London the 20th of June announce the death of King William that day. The Princess Victoria becomes by this event, Queen of England.
Notice. The annual meeting of the St. Johnsbury Anti-Slavery Society will be held in the Congregational Meeting House at the Center Village, Wednesday, 6 Sept., 2 o'clock P. M. NATHAN STONE, Sec.
Joe Smith, who made the late emission of Mormon bank notes is a lead- ing Van Buren man.
Emigrants from Great Britain not being able to get employment, are returning by the New York packets. They will go back well cured of Van Burenism which has made such havoc of the prosperity of the country.
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
To Clothiers. Shedd and Jewett have on hand the following Dye Stuffs, -Logwood, Madder, Alum, Nicaragua, Fustic, Cam Wood, Blue Vitriols, Copperas, Nut Galls.
For The Caledonian. Freeman of Vermont : As Martin Van Buren has declared he will veto any law made by Congress for abolishing slavery in that place which ought to be the citadel of Freedom, so let your ballots veto what little influence he now has in this state, and re-assert that part of our Constitution which declares that all men are born equally free and independ- ent.
4
ARNOLD HOUSE 1787 FIRST FRAMED HOUSE.
FIRST MEETING HOUSE 1804
FIRST ACADEMY 1843.
FIRST ST. JOHNSBURY HOUSE 1850
ST. JOHNSBURY HOUSE.
W.H.S.
XVIII
EIGHTEEN-HUNDRED-FORTY
A TURNING POINT-THREE VILLAGES-INVENTORY-APPRAISALS- LIVE STOCK-DOCTORS-AILS AND REMEDIES-OLD TIPPE- CANOE-EXUBERANT WHIGS.
MDCCCXL
It is not probable that anyone living here in 1840 recalled the fact that that was the semi-centennial year of the organization of the town. The period for retrospect was yet a long way off ; local history was of no consequence whatever. Everybody was busy with the day's jobs or happenings in the leisurely fashion of a small country community. About 25 houses were strung along either side of the street on the Plain. Ephraim Jewett sold dry goods, J. C. Bingham distributed drugs, Capt. Martin built sad- dles, Hull Curtis cut coats and pantaloons, George Barney pegged shoes and shouted for Van Buren, William Fuller drove the stage, Moses Kittredge handed out the mail, and John Crossman reeled off creels of stories in the stores or wherever else men did con- gregate. Familiar names at the East Village were Harrington, Lee, Morrill, Severance, Goodall, Chapman, Blinn; at the Cen- ter, Bacon, Hallett, Ide, Butler, Morse, Pierce, Cobb, Ranney, Wright, Ayer, Shorey, Stiles. A few of the early fathers of the town still lingered on the fields they had won from the forest in their stalwart young manhood-David Goss, Simeon Cobb, Oliver Stevens, Martin Wheeler, Asa Lee, Barnabas Barker, Nath'l Bishop, Sullivan Allen, Abel Shorey, Philo Bradley, and Joel Roberts, possibly others.
4
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
St. Johnsbury was still a quiet farming town with some manufacturing interests of considerable promise and an increasing number of intelligent artisans. No one suspected however that a point of turning had been reached and that the wheels of industry were already beginning to shape a new destiny for the town. This view of the situation is expressed in a paragraph written forty years later by a former resident :-
"It is a rare thing for a staid, sleepy old New England town to suddenly arouse itself from a fifty years' sleep, and by one bound pass from the confines of the grave to a living, active, bustling town of some thousand inhabitants-as the town of St. Johnsbury did about 1840, or after the manufacture of scales was fairly under way." The scale business at that time was in its ninth year ; Huxham Paddock's iron works were in full blast ; other small mills and factories were running briskly. The town as at this date was entered in Thompson's Vermont as follows :-
ST. JOHNSBURY
"A post town in the easterly part of Caledonia County. The business of the town centers in three villages. The Center Village, so called, lies upon the Passumpsic River, in the northerly part of the town. In it are three meeting houses, two stores, one tavern, a saw mill, grist mill, clothier's works, tannery and various mechanics. The East Village, situated upon Moose River is the natural centre for the business of parts of St. Johnsbury, Waterford, Concord, Kirby, Victory and Bradleyvale. It contains a meeting house, two stores, one tavern, a grist mill, saw mill, oil mill, tannery and several mechanics.
"The pleasant village called The Plain, containing a meeting house, academy, public house, two stores, a printing office and other mechanics, is in the southerly part of the town ; it is central between Paddock's Furnace and Fairbanks Manufactory, the former on the Passumpsic and the latter on Sleeper's River. The establishment of Mr. Huxham Paddock consists of a blast furnace, and a machine shop for the finishing of every description of mill gear and ordinary machinery. Here also are a grist and saw mill, a . carriage factory, a factory for making sash, doors, blinds, etc., on a respect- able scale. The establishment of E. and T. Fairbanks and Co., is devoted principally to the manufacture of cast iron plows and patent balances. The latter article is manufactured by them extensively, being adapted to all the various operations required to be transacted by weight. It has been patented in the United States and in England and is now in extensive use in both countries, possessing the entire confidence of the people."
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EIGHTEEN-HUNDRED-FORTY
CENSUS OF 1840
Population 1916
Polls 346
Houses 266
Horses 585
Oxen 202
Cows 952
Sheep 8088
Neat Cattle 2960
Swine
Wheat
Barley
Oats
Rye
Corn
1383
24,786 bush.
286
28,382
212
6950
Buckwheat
Potatoes
Hops 24 lbs.
14,599
Sugar 50,520
Wax 56 lbs.
4953 tons
The appraised value of houses and lots was $80,689 ; value of dairy products $16,610; value of household goods $5,405. The total of improved land was 9089 acres, valuation $66,558. Of the population there were 362 farmers, 142 manufacturers, 11 profes- sional men, 11 revolutionary pensioners, 2 were blind and one a town charge. There were 682 school children ; 20 persons over twenty years of age could neither read nor write.
Some fragmentary sample appraisals from the listers' books are here appended :-
Wm. C. Arnold
Ira Armington
100 ac. land
$1000
Tavern stand $1800
183 acres
$2250
2 horses
60
Saddler's shop 250
1 saw mill 250
4 oxen 85
11 sheep
11
1 Chaise 25
12 cows
150
4 Shoats
13.50 2 Watches 70
14 sheep
20
Capt. Sam'l French
Thaddeus Fairbanks
20 ac. & Tavern
1300
9} ac. & house 3000
14 horses
550
1 carriage 100
7 heifers 25
Two watches 50
Furniture 200
E. and T. Fairbanks
Ephraim Paddock
Foundry
$300
Land & bldgs. $2700
Work Shop
550
Live Stock, 76 349
Store House 300
Wool, 800 lbs. 240
Chaise 45, Gig 5
Plow Shop 75
500 yds. Cloth 300
Scale Shop 200
Huxham Paddock
Saw and Grist Mill 1000
Furnace, Foundry
machinery $4000
Luther Jewett
¿ ac. & house $450
Stock medicines 300 Polly Ferguson & ac. & house $100
Abel Butler
365 acres $5450
Live Stock, 209 774
Widow Polly Snell 2 oxen $70 1 bull $15 18 sheep 22, 1 hog 6 7 Cows 115
Counting house 350
Wool
Hay
1050
74,115
3 colts, yrl. 30
David Goss Jr.
7 cows 91
Cow $15, Horse $35 50
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
Lambert Hastings Mrs. Olive Hibbard
Stephen Hawkins
177 Acres
$3064 1 Carding mach. $400
Grist mill $100
Cattle, horses
801
1 Store
400
75 Sheep 85
Hay, grain
125
H. N. Roberts
Joel Roberts
500 lbs. wool
125
1 Threshing Mach. $100
2 Cows $28
CATTLE
Up to this date the so called native breeds of sheep and cat- tle were the only ones on our farms. The old red cow which has been standing now 134 years on the field of our state coat-of-arms (as if complacently chewing her cud amidst the mutations of our human affairs) is a representative of the good native stock first brought to our town. The original of the native red cow was un- doubtedly the English Devon, early imported by the fathers of New England. An introduction of new stock in to this town was made in 1846 by Joseph P. Fairbanks, whose imported Herefords attracted attention by their large bulk and white heads. He also enriched his fine flock of sheep by the addition of some valuable Cotswolds ; these yielded in lambs and wool a profit one spring of $4.75 each in a flock of forty-one. On the spot where they were folded is a residence now known as The Sheepcote.
"The droves of cattle come along; a dust-haze down the road, the . mooing of cows and the baaing of calves and the shouts of the drovers, the sound of many hoofs, and the cattle are here. The farmer saunters out to look them over, children come up to see the yearlings with bits of horns and the stocky two-year-olds soft-eyed or wild-eyed, sleek or touseled."
All beef and mutton for home use was raised on the near-by farms, but a considerable business was growing up in supplying city markets. Lambert Hastings, whose brick house and spa- cious stock yards and barns were a landmark near the foot of Hastings' Hill, was a well known dealer in cattle, who made pe- riodic trips with his droves to the Boston market. The only way of transportation at that time was by tramping the entire distance on foot. One day, this writer, then a boy, was standing near a store in Derry Lower Village, N. H. It happened that a large drove of cattle hove in sight coming down the turnpike from the north ; stalking along behind them was the sturdy, familiar figure
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EIGHTEEN-HUNDRED-FORTY
of Lambert Hastings. These cattle he had driven from St. Johns- bury ; the next day he would have them delivered at the shambles in Brighton. Some years later the Passumpsic Railroad offered new facilities and the old picturesque lines of cattle on the road disappeared from view. The Boston Courier of Sept. 10, 1855, reported the freight bill of Lambert Hastings of St. Johnsbury, Vt., for cattle brought to Cambridge in one week, at $718.15.
MEDICAL MATTERS
How the eleven professional men of 1840 are to be classified is not entirely clear. There were two settled ministers, John H. Worcester at the Plain, Josiah Morse at the Center ; one lawyer, Judge Paddock; four doctors, Calvin Jewett, Morrill Stevens, Geo. C. Wheeler of the East and Jerry Dickerman of the Center Village-all of whom were excellent physicians in their day. Luther Jewett had been doctor, minister, congressman, editor, and was of course one of the professional eleven; the other three do not appear.
DR. CALVIN JEWETT, a spirited and patriotic citizen had been here nearly twenty years and had a large practice. He built the house which is now the Girls' Cottage of the Academy, also the original of the house just north of the South Church, in which he lived and died. Near by it was the small box of an office- popularly denominated pill-shop or snuff-box-painted pink on the outside and scented pungently on the inside with divers sorts of drugs and medicines. One survivor of his ancient uncouth medicine bottles of 1840, now in possession of the writer, still re- tains a fragment of the old label and some fifty doses of the original ipecac that failed of getting into the juvenile stomachs of that period.
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