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 19
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DR. MORRILL STEVENS lived in a small house on the site of the present Post Office, near the village pump. When his brother Hon. Thaddeus Stevens came up from Pennsylvania, and riding across the Plain with his coach and span driven by a negro in livery, drew up at the Doctor's door, that small house assumed importance in the popular eye. The Doctor like his brother was a pronounced abolitionist and kept anti-slavery literature in his
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house for distribution. He was a good physician and much re- spected as a man. Jonathan Arnold was grandfather of Mrs. Stevens. The two sons, Thaddeus and Alanson, left orphans in 1847, were taken to Pennsylvania by their uncle Thaddeus; they became officers in the Union Army ; Alanson, while leading a dash to recover his guns at Chickamauga, was shot, and his body left on the field was never found.
MEDICAL PRACTICE IN 1840
Dr. Morrill Stevens submitted the following statement, which illustrates methods then in use :-
"Horace Goss suffered fracture of the leg from a falling tree. The frac- ture was readily reduced ; the patient was comfortable and in good spirits for twelve hours. Then stupor set in and twelve hours later coma. Dr. Wheeler was called in as counsel. Leg appeared well, but pulse was 90 and breath labored. Practice instituted was to bleed from arm with irritants at back of neck. No improvement. Dr. Alexander was called in. Disease was pronounced inflammation of the brain. Patient was bled from jugu- lar vein and snow was applied to head in bladders. Eight hours later no perceptible effect. Pulse 130. Narcotics and stimulants now substituted, but patient sank and on the fourth day expired. May not this be the effect of what is technically called the nervous shock? The life of this young man needs no eulogy. His excellent qualities will long be remembered"
"Small pox. After escaping the ravages of this loathsome disease it be- hooves every one to be innoculated, and all who will call soon I will innocu- late gratis. Should another such case occur as did in Waterford lately, yourselves, your wives, your little ones, your cattle and your pigs might fall a prey to it."
DR. STEVENS.
A valuable register of maladies prevalent in 1840 is preserved in the following local announcement :-
"Brandreth's Pills, of which 80,000 boxes have been sold in two years, have cured thousands of people of consumption, influenza, asthma, dis- pepsia, headache, sense of fulness, apoplexy, jaundice, fever and ague, gout, bilious, typhus, scarlet and yellow fever, rheumatism, liver complaint, pleurisy, depression, rupture, inflammation, sore eyes, fits, palsy, dropsy, small pox, measles, croup, whooping cough, quinsy, cholic, gravel, worms, dysentery, cholera morbus, deafness, ringing noises, scrofula, ery- sipelas, white swelling, ulcer, cancer, tumors, swelled feet, St. Anthony's Fire, salt rheum, frightful dreams, etc. etc." ? ?
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EIGHTEEN-HUNDRED-FORTY
REMEDIES IN VOGUE 1840
Some few other resources our fathers had for repelling the incursions of the enemy as may be seen in the list of remedies put forth Aug. 8, 1837, and statedly thereafter from Dr. Jewett's Medicine Shop, St. J. Plain.
Alcohol
Sassafras
Antimony
Origamum
Lunar Caustic Quinine Sulph. Carb. Ammonia
Russell's Itch Remedy Remedy for Piles
Alb. Corn Plaster
Pennyroyal
Peruvian Bark
Cure for Gravel
Anise Seed
Hemlock
White Vitriol
Diachylon Plaster Hydr. of Potash
Aqua Ammon.
Wormwood
Carb. of Iron
Corrosive Sublimate
Arsenic
Rosemary
Toothache Pills
Niffile Shells
Arrow Root
Spike
Asthmatic Pills
Nux Vomica Paregoric Pulmonary Balsam
Balsam Peru
Turpentine
Morrison's Pills
Sugar of Lead
Benzoic Acid
Rhubarb
Thayer's Pills
Unguentum
Blistering Plaster
Magnesia
Brandeth Pills
Nitric Acid
Burgundy Pitch
Soda
Family Blue Pills
Sperma Ceti
Barbadoes Tar
Liquorice
Reeplu Bon Drops
Henbane Creosote Sulphate Potash
Camphor
Uva Ursi
Juniper Berry
Sias' Ointment
Castor Oil
Spirits Nitre
Prussic Acid
Lavendar Spirits
Chloride Lime
Jallop
Jebb's Liniment
Brimstone
Castile Soap
Iodine
Newton's Panacea
Stramonium Cicuta
Cream Tartar
Seneka
Hydrate Potash
Carbonate Ammonia
Valerian
D. Itch Ointment
Salts and Senna
Cautharides
Squills
Garget Root
Black Mustard
Copaina Balsam
Tartar Emetic
Gold Thread
Eleeanıpane
Cowhage
Sugar Lead
Mandrake
Blood-root
Cochineal
Rotten Stone
Motherwort
Sassafras
Colocyuth
Quick Silver
Caraway
Hemlock
Cubebs
Essence of Life
Skunk Cabbage
Golden Seal
Oil of Clove
Indian Plaster
Ipecac
Prickly Ash Bark
British Antiseptic
Glamber Salts
Headache Snuff
Calomel
Ipecac
Vegetable Pills
Asafoetida
Juniper
Jewett's Pills
Bismuth Oxide
Gentian
Hooper's Pills
Aethiops Min.
Tansy
Sal Ammonia
Pectoral Elixir
Alı's Cough Drops
Peppermint
This makes a modest assortment of one hundred and twenty four specifics in circulation among our people at that time. Rye- gate may have been better supplied than St. Johnsbury, for Dr. White's account books record one hundred and forty remedies used, of which physick was most in demand having been admin- istered fifteen hundred times.
PETTY ACCOUNTS
"Read till your eyes go out, can you gather from what is called History + any dimmest shadow as to how men lived, what wages they got, what they bought and sold ?" Carlyle
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
It is to answer the above inquiry in part that a few extracts are here introduced from some old account books, of periods ranging from 1821 to 1845. These small items do not cover all that the sage of Craigenputtock calls for, but they present for our enlightenment a few names, a few articles purchased, a few types of spelling, a few prices paid. Details of dates from day- books are not necessary :-
ACCOUNT BOOK OF ASA LEE 1821
Elisher Griswold 3 lbs. Shugar .37 1 1b. talow .17
Huxum Padok To 7 lbs. butter 1.25
J. Harrington Jly 3, took 1 cow to keep . Oct. 3, cow ret'd Benj. Hadlock } bush. onians .45 lode wood .25
Elisha Griswal To leather for your wife's shoes .75
Amos Piper 1 pk ry meal .25 24 punkins .24
1 pig 6 wks oald $1 1 qurt wiskey .25
ACCOUNT BOOK DR. CALVIN JEWETT 1836
Jos. P. Fairbanks To med. vis. babe (E. T. F.) $1.00
Hezekiah Martin 3 doz Dewees tinct. op. .50
Eph. Chamberlin Call, consult. presc. wife 1.00
Ezek. Manchester 4 doz. pills box by stage 1.00
Hiram Knapp To vis med wife .50
John Houghton 3 doz. pills act. lead op. Mother .50
David Drown vis med 4 doz pills Nancy .50
Erastus Fairbanks vis med to bleed wife .50
ACCOUNT BOOK CHAUNCEY SPAULDING 1838
Fred Bugbee To fixing loom .25 2 lites glass .12 Making tung & rowl churn dash .25 J Ripley Fixing bunet .75 nessarys for Padoc $4.41 Pat McMenus Making a raddle .34 fix winders & puty .40 Blake Powers Military book .63 1 training fether .75 James Works To pig $1 Paint sch. house $1 . D. Lee Making wood box .50 Cart Ex. . 13
J. Spaulding 1 ton hay $5 Keeping 5 2 yr. olds 10 wks $10 Joel Owen Boarding school mistress 2.64 Keeping Joel's horse 5 shil. a week
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EIGHTEEN-HUNDRED-FORTY
ACCOUNT BOOK J. C. BINGHAM 1840
Erastus Fairbanks 2 oz paregoric .30 Ess. pept. . 12
Solomon Andrews pr. George 1 pint gin bloodroot .25
Owen Donegan 1 box worm lozenges .25
Moses Kittredge Qt. Alcohol, nearly .29
A. G. Chadwick Town St. Johnsbury, pills .13 ink .13 Paddock's man } pint gin .11
Thaddeus Fairbanks 1 cork screw .30
ACCOUNT BOOK CALVIN STONE 1842
Ephraim Jewett To raisins and walnuts .04
Rev. Hollis Sampson 10 lbs. butter 1.25
Ira Armington } pint rum .08
Titus Hutchinson 2 pipe tobacco
.04
Leonard Wright Laying 23 rods pump logs 5.00
Dunbar Wheeler Fixing whippltree .06
Jonas Flint } qr. paper .13 quills .03 .16
School District 12 Chalk .06 2 shts paper .02
.08
DIARY OF THE 1840 BOY
Jan. 2 Old cat sick this morning Evening cat better
Jan. 7 Played games and got hooked on the jaw bone of an ass
Jan. 10 Boiled down some maple syrup to sugar off, but it all boiled over and made a big smudge
Jan. 17 After school went out to slide with a whole slew of boys. Got an old bucket fixed on for a seat but it tipped us all over going down Jan. 20 Bought 10 cents worth of pictures of foxes, dogs and rabbits
Feb. 4 Skated ten miles. Got home and made some skooters
Feb. 5 Stayed home sick. Got an old clock to tinker on but couldn't make it go
Feb. 20 We boys borrowed Mr. Bingham's old pung and hitched the old mare to it and went off for a ride. The old thing broke down in the middle, but we got it back after a good while and didn't ride any more
Mch. 14 An agent preached at the meeting house today and I've forgot his name
Apr. 13 Went up to devil's den with the boys. got some ice but didn't sugar off
Apr. 14 Fast day and the minister preached on ?
May 10 Went over to Pumpkin Hill to help buy a cow
May 20 Went and bought a lantern for 30 cents and lighted myself home
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
May 22 Boys came and we went and had big games of I spy in the hay mows
June 2 Studied some and cut my hair and did some other things
Sept. 5 Election day, everybody gone up to Center Village to vote
Sept. 11 Climbed up the night-hawk tree and got a peck of butternuts
Sept. 13 Caught a woodchuck and went to put a collar on to him, but he acted ugly
Sept. 21 Saw about 50 ants carry off a caterpillar. They punched him down in to their hole with a stick in their paws, the way Ben punches dirt around a fence post to make it stay firm. I guess that cater- pillar felt firm
THE WHIGS OF 1840
"I look with pride on what the Whigs have done for the cause of human progress and happiness ; to them is due the establishment of the House of Commons, the abolition of the slave trade, the extension of popular education and liberty."
Macaulay.
Political enthusiasm ran high during the William Henry Har- rison presidential campaign. St. Johnsbury was intensely Whig in sentiment. As early as Feb. 18, 1840, a list of two hundred and twelve names of Harrison men were announced in the local paper. The same paper called down the North Star for support- ing Van Buren's corrupt administration by the publication of twenty-two democratic lies in a recent issue. Whereupon the Star let it be known that the Whigs were a very naughty set. "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" was the Whig slogan. Tippecanoe meetings were held in the school houses of the town. Proces- sions marched thro the streets with log cabins; which the Whigs had taken up as party insignia; (the Loco-focos having sneered at Harrison as better fitted to inhabit an Ohio log cabin with a barrel of hard cider, than the White House.) Women waving handkerchiefs cheered these street parades, boys shouted, every- body seemed of the opinion that
"A change of the Administration Will be for the good of the nation, For it is now in a bad condition. So we'll put in Old Tippecanoe ! The best thing we can do Is to put in Old Tippecanoe ;
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EIGHTEEN-HUNDRED-FORTY
"And send the whole posse a packing, Van Buren and all of his backing,
For we've tried 'em and found 'em all lacking. An' we'll put in Old Tippecanoe ; For 'tis time that this reign should be ended,
We never shall see the times mended
Till we put in old Tippecanoe."
When November came around they put in old Tippecanoe ; the vote in this town was for Harrison 220, for Van Buren 113. "And little Van, Van, was a used up man."
On the day of Harrison's inauguration, March 4, 1841, "the Dawn of a New Political Era was celebrated at Hutchinson's Hotel, St. Johnsbury Plain, by a very respectable collection of Ladies and Gentlemen from this and neighboring towns. The occasion was not one of bonfires and illumination; but of joyful festivity and heartfelt gratitude for the termination of past politi- cal usurpation and the prospect of the reign of true republican principles."
Some strains of the political talk current among our towns- men of that date survive in the thirty-six toasts that followed the banquet, a few of which are here given.
By Erastus Fairbanks. The Ballot Box-the true Palladium of the Rights of Freemen ; a sure corrective of the abuses of government, never to be neglected by any who deserve the name of American Citizens.
By Ephraim Paddock. The Late Administration-it will be remem- bered as long as the Dark Day, and for the same reason.
By Dr. Calvin Jewett. Martin Van Buren-by showing contempt for the opinions of the people in opposing the Sub-Treasury scheme he planted the first upright of his own gallows ; endorsing the standing army project he erected a second ; his declaration that he would take care of the government and let the people take care of themselves formed the top beam ; the false- hoods and slanders retailed and endorsed by him against Wm. Henry Harrison, the Peoples' Friend, formed the cord and fixed the rope around his own neck ; this day public opinion expressed thro the ballot box has let fall the drop, and his political body is now hanged on his own gallows.
+ By. Charles S. Dana. Harrison's Election-the genuine Voice of the People above the clamor of a faction by which it has so long been counter- feited.
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
By Asa L. French. William Henry Harrison-weighed in the balance of Public Opinion and never found wanting.
By A. G. Chadwick. Mrs. Harrison-in her domestic habits and in the spotless purity of her life a worthy example for imitation by the younger daughters of our Republic.
By Dr. Morrill Stevens. The American Females-rightly educated they are the embellishment of our Republic. May Venus and Minerva walk side by side ; then shall the Goddess of Freedom ever spread her wings.
By Moses Kittredge. Henry Clay-may the Whig Reformation go on, till Principles take the place of Policy, Virtue gain victory over Vice ; and Clay be President of these United States.
Nov. 10, 1840. Who, half-a-century ago, would have ventured to predict that in the year eighteen-hundred-forty a passage would be made from Hali- fax to Liverpool in nine and a half days? Yet so it is, performed by the steam ship Britannia which left Boston Oct. 1, and on the evening of the 14th docked at Liverpool!
XIX
DEBATES AND BOOKS
"I guess we all like to hear some one who presents those sides of a thought different from our own." Walt Whitman
DEBATING CLUBS-FOP OR FOOL-ANTI-SLAVERY TALK-JEWETT MOBBED-LYCEUMS AND LECTURES-A BOOK STORE-GALIG- NANI BIDS-OLD TIME BOOKS-CIRCULATING LIBRARIES.
LITERARY CLUBS AND LYCEUMS
For more than forty years literary or debating clubs and lyceums were popular in the town and provided mental drill and entertainment of very substantial quality. Manuscripts read at these societies are still extant, belonging, as the coarse quality of the paper indicates, to the period of 1820 or thereafter. Brief mention is here made of some of those clubs and their doings, which included unreported speeches, essays, debates, oratorical and forensic achievements of the young men of the period.
The St. Johnsbury Juvenile Literary Society was organized Jan. 31, 1821, under a constitution of 14 articles and 18 by-laws, with an oath of loyalty and secrecy. The members were under thirty years of age, meetings were held weekly, with debates, papers and essays. The Constitution, like the scribes on Moses' seat, laid heavy burdens, too grievous to be borne; so many members had to be disciplined for failing to meet its rigid requirements, that the Society may be said to have expelled itself to death. It
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
had however, a vigorous spirit and did debating on questions like the following : Is it necessary that the mind be exerted for its existence, as it is that perspiration and action of the heart should go on for the existence of the body? Which was the greater dis- covery navigation or printing? Is the endowment of native genius greater in the male or the female? Who is best fitted to represent us in the Legislature, the farmer or the lawyer? Which is the greatest object of pity, the fop or the fool? Decided for the fop.
The Bachelor's Club : 1824. "I remember, as a member of this society that we met one time at Abel Rice's Hotel. Dr. Morrill Stevens presided. We marched that evening in Indian file to the little building used for a meeting house ; each entered with his cloak thrown over his shoulder, took off his hat with the right hand and brushed back his hair with the left hand, then filed into our seats. George B. Mansur, then a student in Dartmouth College, gave the address, after which we marched back to the hotel-for further entertainment?" H. K.
The St. Johnsbury Anti-Slavery Society was formed in Sep- tember 1836. This was two years after the birth of the Whig party, and within a year of the first agitation against slavery in Congress ; some of the earliest petitions for its abolition in the Dis- trict of Columbia were sent in from Vermont. At the first anni- versary of this society held in the old Meeting House the follow- ing resolution introduced by Ephraim Jewett was passed-"Re- solved, that the existence of slavery in the District of Columbia is a reproach not only to the nation but to individuals ; therefore, President Van Buren's threat to the contrary notwithstanding, we will continue to petition Congress for its abolition, till the petition is granted, or all hope of success is lost." Considering the differ- 'ence in opinion as to the best method of dealing with the slavery question, this meeting deprecated as ungenerous and unchristian the "branding of those who do not agree with us with the epithet pro-slavery men."
Dr. Hibbard Jewett, brother of Ephraim, may have been one of the originators of this Society. He removed to Dayton, Ohio, where he took strong ground against slavery. A member of
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DEBATES AND BOOKS
Congress came to Dayton Jan. 23, 1841, to speak on the subject. Being refused admittance to any public hall, a meeting was called in Dr. Jewett's house. The Mayor and other city officials were present. As soon as the meeting had dissolved and the police were away, the rabble swept down upon the house, smashed the windows and gave out that the importation of St. Johnsbury ad- vanced ideas was contrary to Dayton mob-law.
The St. Johnsbury Lyceum was in operation in 1837 and for several years thereafter. Debates were had on the slavery ques- tion, on migration to the West, on the wrongs of the Indian, on the wearing of mourning apparel, on the doubtful question of a liberal education for young women. The Lyceum meetings were held in the school house on the Plain.
The St. Johnsbury Academy Union Club, 1844, included in its membership young men and women of the village as well as stu- dents. The Club met in the Academy; there were declamations, dialogues, debates, essays and a literary paper entitled The Oracle. This Club accumulated a library of perhaps a hundred volumes, many of the books being contributed by citizens ; some of them are still preserved at the Athenæum.
The St. Johnsbury Literary Institute, 1850, was composed of citizens with a principal design of providing courses of lectures for public entertainment. In this the Institute was very success- ful, and for several years courses of a high order of merit were maintained. There were lectures on history, literature, travel, invention, applied science and kindred topics, that filled the meet- ing house with interested listeners. In 1851 the course was fourteen lectures ; in 1854 there was a course of eleven lectures ; total expense $312.36. Some years later the work of this Insti- tute was taken up by the Y. M. C. A. whose annual Lecture Course, maintained for forty years, became justly famous.
The Youths' Institute of St. Johnsbury was organized March 9, 1852, under supervision of Erastus Fairbanks. It started with a membership of ninety lads of an average age of fifteen years. The object as indicated in the constitution was improvement in mind, in character, and in knowledge of common things, such as
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
nature, useful arts, invention, current history. Some topics dis- cussed were air, rain, sugar, coal mining, Benj. Franklin, Congress. This Institute did much for its members during the brief period of its existence. The record of roll call shows that nearly all the ninety members were generally present.
The Firemen's Debating Club, Jan. 1857, used to meet weekly, at the engine rooms of Torrent No. 1. Public questions were warmly discussed, and with such debaters as Charles Ramsey, L. O. Stevens, Jonathan Lawrence and others, a lively interest was maintained.
The St. Johnsbury Debating Club was holding its sessions during the year 1857, but no details of its doings are found.
The Young Men's Debating Club of the Center Village was started in 1858. In February 1860 this Club decided that the subject of slavery had been too long mixed up with politics, therefore it is now the duty of citizens to discountenance any party based on the slavery question.
The Excelsior Club. One of the brightest of literary Socie- ties was The Excelsior, which met in the parlors of the members during the fifties. It was devoted to careful studies in English literature, and drew out papers of exceptional merit and scope from its gifted writers ; among whom were Alex G. Hawes, Con- stans L. Goodell, George D. Rand, Misses Calista Downing, Lucy Mills, Sarah Fairbanks, Martha J. Crossman and others.
BOOKS AND LIBRARIES
"And I thought-how natural it was in Charles Lamb to give a kiss to an old book, as I once saw him do to a copy of Chapman's Homer." Leigh Hunt
The first general collection of books in the town that might be called a library was that of Judge Paddock. It included, be- sides the standard law books, works on literature and history. A voluminous reader, with an intelligent passion for books was Joseph P. Fairbanks, who as a young man began acquiring the best that could be had, and at the time of his death in 1855 had
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BOOKS AND LIBRARIES
the most valuable library in the town. While postmaster, 1829- 1832, he opened the first bookstore on the Plain. To show what books were offered at that date the following titles are taken from his announcement.
Robertson's History of America
Chastelleux's Travels
Captain Cook's Voyages
Essays on Peace and War
Heren's Politics of Greece
Tales of the Emerald Isle
Journal around Hawaii
The American Chesterfield
Chalmers' Discourses Opie on Lying
Subaltern's Log Book
Charlotte's Daughter
The Pioneers, Cooper
Waverly, Scott
The Prairie, Cooper
Rob Roy, Scott
Dryden's Virgil
Red Gauntlet
The Odyssey of Homer
Montgomery's Poems
Symzonia Hemans Poems Junius' Letters
Bunyan's Works
Life of William Penn
Memoir Henry Martyn
Beckwith's Sermons
Paley's Philosophy
Mysteries of Udolpho
Don Quixote
Friend of Health
Scottish Chiefs
Life in India
Traits of the Aborigines
Lalla Rookh
This list probably indicates in part a desire to put good read- ing before the public rather than a response to popular demand. There are no data indicating the appetite of the people for these books, but quaint little copies of Paley's Philosophy and Junius' Letters, now in the possession of the writer, look as if they might be unsold survivors of the book store of 1829.
A letter from Galignani of Paris, Jan. 16, 1832, addressed to "J. P. Fairbanks Bookseller, St. Johnsbury Plain" indicates some range of correspondence by the local bookseller. The Paris pub- lishers say "we have no doubt that any trial you may make of our publications will be productive of great profit; our books being of authors of the first merit, and gotten up in a style which we flatter ourselves even surpasses in beauty those of London. Our workmen are English and our correctors persons of learning and talent. We make you allowance of 25 and 33 per cent on list prices, bills payable in France or England."
Coming forward seventeen years we find books of a different type on the shelves of the principal store in the Village, Ephraim
Thaddeus of Warsaw
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
Jewett's. Of twenty-eight books advertised one-half were of the mild sentimental sort indicated by such titles as
The Remember Me Poetry of Love
Young Wife's Book
Floral Biography
Token of Affection
Simple Flower
Domestic Life
Autumn Flowers
The Royal Sisters
The Cypress Wreath
Keepsake Stories
Sentiment of Flowers
For nearly twenty years annuals of compiled poetry or prose under titles similar to the above would be found in most families who wanted what was called good reading. Then they disappeared altogether.
Some books of a hundred years ago that were in our town have come to the Athenæum, where they are kept as old survivors that served their generation well and are now entitled to a com- fortable berth.
Select Sermons, 1799-"presented to the First Church of St. Johnsbury in 1814, by the Missionary Society of Hampshire County, Mass." From this book sermons were read by laymen in the old Meeting House during the years when there was no minister.
Isaac Watts, Psalms of David, 1799. This was the book that our forefathers sang from before the day of church singing books. With this is also a copy of the earlier version of Tate and Brady.
Wilbur's Biblical Catechism, 1812. Some years before the arrival of Sunday Schools this little primer was a text book for Bible study ; this copy belonged to Phebe Jones, and she knew it from cover to cover Bible questions, 1828, bears the signature of Cora Bishop; this was the first regular Sunday School lesson book.
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