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 29
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THE PHILADELPHIAN
From a manuscript discovered after Chapter XIX was off the press is taken the following reminiscent paragraph read before the Philadelphians, January, 1830.
"About four years ago, 1826, the youth of this village formed themselves into a society under the name of the St. Johnsbury
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Philadelphian Society. Our object was literary and mental im- provement, and the methods adopted were extemporary and written compositions, debates and declamations. One of the first things done was to secure a library and establish a fund by which it might be augmented. This was accomplished by contributions of books from the members, by membership fees, and fines for neglect of duties, until a hundred volumes and more of useful and deservedly popular books were accumulated. I would at this time suggest that we consider the expediency of having our so- ciety merged with the Lyceum which it is expected will shortly be organized in this place, and that some terms be arranged by which our library can be opened for the use of that institution.
"The number belonging to our society has been small, but happily we have always been united in the bonds of strictest amity ; no dissensions or party feelings have arisen, but a warm desire to promote the true objects of the society has prevailed. To this however there has been one exception : a melancholy in- stance of expulsion. While deeply regretting the cause which made necessary this removal of a member, we are now cheered with the assurance of his thorough reform, and whether he shall be restored to the privileges of our society or not, it is my ardent desire that none of us should ever forget that he once was a . brother with us and that we still treat him as such." J. P. F.
BOYHOOD DAYS
How often during those first years in the wilds of Michigan did I long for companionship of the boys and girls that I left be- hind me at St. Johnsbury in 1831. To play once more along the sunny Passumpsic ; to dig artichokes in Capt. Rice's meadows ; to pick red raspberries in Dr. Jewett's cow pasture ; to wear the medal home from school; to go up and visit and be kindly allow- ed to read some new juvenile books at Mr. J. P. Fairbanks' Book Store. F. L. 1885.
We roamed in the meadows, picked strawberries and gather- ed butternuts in their season ; fished and swam in the rivers. It was a never ending day for us boys. Now all is changed-
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DESCRIPTIVE AND REMINISCENT
"Grass grows on the Master's grave and the running brook is dry, And of all the boys that were schoolmates then, there are left only you and I." H. P.
"The coming of snow in Kalamazoo carries me back in mem- ory to the happy days of boyhood when we were sliding down the Plain Hill into Paddock Village, at the risk of our necks and of the legs of all others on that winding road. It was facilis descensus Paddoci; regressus-hic labor, hoc opus est." 1857
"I seem to see the dear old hills The clover patch, the pickerel pond And I can hear the mountain rills.
An' there's the hillside rough and gray O'er which we little fellows strayed, "A checkerberrin' every day."
"How well I remember our tramps up to the checkerberry knoll in the Howard pasture. On the way through the deep woods we went over the banks of ancient moss, and in those days no boy ever went by without throwing himself down to rest on that soft mossy bed and eating wild sorrel. Then on to the checker- berry knoll ; how pungent those checkerberry leaves were; how keen and biting their flavor ; then off to the open field for straw- berries." C. V. B.
HOME REVISITED
June 13, 1832. Returned for one night to St. Johnsbury, the spot which above all others I value most, hallowed by recollec- tions most deeply engraved on my heart. At the head of the Plain I stopped my horse before the little law office, (Judge Pad- dock's) where I had spent so many happy hours in professional and literary studies. All was dark and silent, only a few lights were twinkling at the windows down the street. I rode up to the Judge's door, but could not catch a glimpse of anyone, called at Ephraim's store and knocked, but received no answer; paused before the house of God where I had spent so many happy hours. The silence of death prevailed and the scene awakened feelings almost too powerful to control. As I passed on every object
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around me seemed to claim acquaintance ; the shade trees, the houses, the fields, the hills which rose darkly against the horizon, seemed to greet their old admirer with joy. The rude house oc- cupied by my father's family for some years would hardly be regarded at the present day as a comfortable shelter for cattle, but here was my boyhood home; every house, tree and shrub, every hill and valley here awakens recollections of other days, and I cannot easily transfer to any other place the attachment I have for these St. Johnsbury scenes." J. P. F.
MEN REMEMBERED
"Passing recently down the Passumpsic valley, I spent a few hours in St. Johnsbury, where in the political days of Henry Clay and Frelinghyson, 44 years ago, I attended school under good Master Colby now gone to rest, and with him a long roll of citizens -amongst whom I recalled, as I walked the streets, Ephraim Paddock of the Supreme Court, Huxham Paddock, the iron founder, Dr. Luther Jewett, member of Congress in years gone by, Democrat George Barney, afterward postmaster, Dr. Calvin Jewett, the three Fairbanks Brothers. St. Johnsbury has far out- grown her former self, and as a place of residence has many ad- vantages and attractions."
G. B. R. 1887.
MOTHER TO THE BOYS OF 1820
In a house on lower Main street nearly opposite the old burial ground lived the family of Deacon Hubbard Lawrence. Meta Lander says it was one of the old-fashioned hospitable coun- try houses with ample chimney corners from which a pile of blazing logs used to send out genial warmth and glow. The mother who presided here-one whom everybody loved to call mother-made the home always cheerful and attractive, espec- ially to the boys. One of these boys, Milo P. Jewett, in after years President of Vassar College, has this reminiscence :-
"The boys of the neighborhood liked to go there, whether for play or on errands. Even now I can hear my Father calling, 'Milo ! Milo !' as he would return from visiting some patient-
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when we were over there playing together in the old yard, or at work digging potatoes in the garden, or eating flapjacks prepared as nowhere else; famous flapjacks those were, a stack of them eighteen inches high and of the size of the largest dinner plates, swimming in butter and maple sugar ! And the delicious indian- pudding brought on to the table in place of the soup of modern days.
"My childhood recollection of Mrs. Lawrence brings her before me as a model woman, a type of all that is strong and noble and sweet in womanhood, and in full sympathy with childhood. How- ever noisy or rude our sports, she was always patient, carrying an air of authority tempered with gentleness. I remember how she rebuked my childish vanity once, when I was declaiming on the superiority of our hens and chickens, by saying, 'Yes, Milo, your geese are always swans.'"
Note-This remark had a much wider reach than she expected. Milo P. Jewett, LL. D., born here in 1808 was graduated from Dartmouth in 1828 and became a distinguished educator. He had an important share in moulding the educational system of the Southern States where he spent sixteen years. In 1855 he came to Poughkeepsie and while there became intimately ac- quainted with Matthew Vassar, who submitted to him his plans for a large hospital which he intended to erect in that place. Dr. Jewett pointed out that his two or three millions might be more wisely expended in providing for the higher education of young women, "to do for them what Yale and Harvard are doing for young men"-carrying out the idea that Tennyson had expressed in the prologue of The Princess :-
"* * * I would build
Far off from men a college like a man's, And would teach them all that men are taught."
Then and there Vassar College was born and Dr. Milo P. Jewett was appointed President. He spent eight months in Europe studying educational methods, elaborated a scheme for the new enterprise voluminous enough to fill 42 pages, and during the years following incorporated the same into the standards and curriculum of the first woman's college in America. He died in 1867.
AUNTIE TO THE BOYS OF 1840
"And Aunt Polly Ferguson, the dear old maiden auntie, who lived alone with her cat, and made trousers and roundabouts for
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us boys ; so hard worked and so good. I remember how discol- ored by the thread and how picked was her bony forefinger by her needle, plied so faithfully and patiently through the long, long years. She filled her humble sphere with rare fidelity, and such as she still live as saints in memory." S. G. 1893.
"My boyish affection for my foster mother so to speak, who repaired the many rents in my garments, soothed my perturbed spirits, and allowed me to fondle her cat-dear Aunt Polly Foggyson, as we used to call her." F. L. 1885.
"While in our early teens we used to wear spencers with brass buttons down the front. These were made by Aunt Polly Ferguson who lived in a little box of a house during the forties, which stood nearly opposite the Court House. Her vivacity and kindness won my heart when a child, in so much that, years after, coming home on college vacations I made sure of going in to visit her and her cat in the little room where she used to pat our shoulders and fit our brass buttoned spencers."
E. T. F. 1879.
AS OTHERS HAVE REMARKED
"The stranger within thy gates may not see things with entire accuracy but whatever he has to say will be read with interest."
1812
"We left our vehicles and having obtained "a convenient wagon and a discreet young man to drive it, made an excursion up into the interior of Vermont through the townships of Ryegate, Barnet, St. Johnsbury. On the Posoompsuk as well as on the Connecticut are many rich and handsome in- tervales. In St. Johnsbury is a Plain about half a mile in diameter, remark- able for being the only spot of that nature throughout the region."
President Dwight, Yale College.
1814
"It was in the winter of 1814 that I taught school by day and a singing class also in the evening at St. Johnsbury, Vt. Here I found myself among some of the very best of people ; whenever I see or hear the word St. Johns- bury, I always think of the place of which God said-'this is my rest forever, here will I dwell' * * When I told Dr. Hamlin, who was himself a great mechanic, that the inventor of the platform scale had once been a pupil of
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AS OTHERS HAVE REMARKED
mine, he shut up one eye and squinting at me with the other naively remark- ed-'you must have taught away to him all your own mechanical knowledge' -- a bit of pleasantry to be sure, but if I taught it all away it was to one who knew how to use it to good purpose."
Dr. William Goodell, Constantinople.
1842
"For a glorious Fourth of July you should have made your way up among the vallies and hills of Vermont to St. Johnsbury; a lovely invig- orating spot with romantic scenery clothed in the dark green peculiar to Vermont, its broad street and neat habitations peeping through the luxuriant foliage ; you should have listened to the murmuring waterfall, the carol of birds and the bell of the village meeting house calling young and old brim- full of glee to the celebration of the day." Boston Traveler.
1860
"Here I am in American Alp-land. Since I left my own home on the borders of limpid Lake Lucerne, I have seen nothing comparable to the picturesque scenery around St. Johnsbury, combining mountains, wooded hills, sweet valleys and gorgeous cloudland. There is an air of complete long established comfort all over the village. I have seen nothing more beautiful than the residences and grounds where ample wealth has been ex- quisitely aided by perfect taste. And things are so different here from what they are on the other side of the water ; the strata of society lie in opposite directions quite new to one who has been accustomed from childhood to stiff unbending social distinctions. My old prejudices faded away when at a pleasant party in this pretty village I saw that the cordiality and respect that were shown to the Governor of the State were equally displayed to all his subjects present." Swiss Lady in Vermont, H. M. F.
1869
"Drawing near some oriental city one is charmed with its appearance but a closer acquaintance dispels the illusion. How different at St. Johns- bury. As I approached from Montreal I was struck with its beauty, but during my week's residence therein I was delighted with the cleanliness of the streets, the neatness of the homes, the English appearance of the coun- try lanes, the fresh glimpses of sylvan beauty met with at every turn, whether walking or driving." W. H. Newlet of England.
1873
"And so Bierstadts' magnificent Domes is doomed to the obscurity of a little town in Northern Vermont." San Francisco Call.
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
"But it was no commonplace community for which The Domes of The Yosemite had been captured. It was a town which had long possessed many claims to more than passing interest ; a bright example of the results of conservative energy ; a town pulsing with strong and virile life ; growing always yet growing best while clinging to the traditions of the older New England. Such is St. Johnsbury where the Domes of the Yosemite have found a permanent resting place." New England Magazine.
"Bierstadts' canvas has no reason to blush for its company in this ob- scurity of a Vermont town, nor does that grand mass of colors caught from the sky, the sunlight and the laughing waters of the Yosemite lack apprecia- tive visitors-whether among the cultivated people of the town or others, citizens of the world, many of whom come here every year." A. C. K.
1874
"This fair village is of the sort nowhere found outside New England- where what God has made so beautiful is enhanced by the skill and taste of man-where morality, intelligence and public order spring out of thrift and industry, and where men are themselves the best products-you will go far before you find better.
Henry Ward Beecher.
1875
"We mount a slope and are in the leaf-strewn avenue called St. Johns- bury, the proper crown and citadel of the river beds. Uplands start from the farther banks and shut us in with green and purple heights on which the sunrise and sunset play with wondrous harmonies of light and shade. This is a village of working men ; beggars are not seen, nor drunkards; the men are at work, the boys and girls are at school where they are educated free of cost. It is such a village, where the craftsmen own their cottages, as we in England are striving for in our Shaftsbury Parks and other experiments. What are the secrets of this working man's paradise? Why is the place so clean, the people so well housed and fed? All voices answer me-a prohibi- tory law carried out with the rigor of an arctic frost."
Hepworth Dixon of England.
1876
"This is a manufacturing town although there is an air of quietude about it that does not comport with one's idea of industrial activity. If such friendliness between labor and capital existed everywhere we should not know what was meant by a strike. There are no saloons here and burglary and street fights are of infrequent occurrence. I have visited many towns and cities, but I never saw a place just like St. Johnsbury, Vt., is."
West Virginia.
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AS OTHERS HAVE REMARKED
1877
"To the traveler from afar too much cannot be said of St. Johnsbury and the beautiful country surrounding it-with balmy breezes, springs of pure water, orchards and trees and back pastures. Here too are fresh veg- etables, pure milk and old fashioned flowers." E. P.
1878
"St. Johnsbury is a rare place and in it are rare folks. Panics strike there like balls on impregnable forts. Radicalisms are neutralized there, large thoughts and purposes grow there, with public institutions and benifi- cences home and foreign." W. W.
1879
"This flower is the Queen of the Bogs. Among orchids it is peerless. England has only one representative of the genus, and that is almost extinct. Among her rarest exotics she prizes this American Cypripedium Spectabile, Ladies Slipper, which I have found so abundant in a St. Johnsbury bog." Prof. Gunning
1880
"On the Main street, a broad elm-lined avenue, are residences where cleanliness, refinement and peace prevail ; tall ranks of trees that look as if the century crow had slept in them ; at intervals a galaxy of churches and public buildings-among these the public library, the picture gallery, court house, academy, granite churches, soldiers' monument-a group of natural and artistic beauty, a companionship of wealth and art that would have done credit to the environs of a great city dedicated to education and science. And as I looked upon the scene it was hard to remember that half a century ago this very spot was the home of a poor, simple, industrious, frugal peo- ple, who in summer gathered their little crops into unpainted barns and in winter had no other amusements but bear hunts and sleigh rides, and little more education than what they could extract from the old primer and the older Bible; where a railroad was as unknown as an earthquake and a li- brary as much a curiosity as a Turk !" Col. J. W. Forney
1882
"I know a village, a city set upon a hill, which might be truly called a light of the world. Inventive thought and busy labor have built up there an industry of vast proportions. Length of days is in the right hand of this in- dustry and in her left riches and honor, and the gathered wealth has flowed in streams which have made the wilderness to rejoice. The village is con-
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spicuous for its schools, its churches, its library and art museums, but most conspicuous of all are the virtue, the peace, the contentment, the social order which prevail, in the midst of which the laborers occupy their pleasant homes with peaceful hearts." Pres. Seeley, Amherst College.
1887
"We find that for some years back the majority of St. Johnsbury people have been resting even from good works, and living on the good name their sinful town once had-from which it is backsliding very fast." War Cry.
1887
"This little Vermont town is wonderfully pretty. Nature smiled when she made the spot and her face has remained a nest of dimples ever since. Such ups and downs, such long slopes and short slopes, such hills and hol- lows never were seen before outside a puzzle box." M. E. B.
1887
"We could not but notice the well-to-do, contented, healthful appear- ance of the workmen of the Scale Works. With dinner pails in their hands they went whistling or pleasantly chatting along, and in no place on their route did they have to pass a saloon. With saloons kept out the village prospers." Lex.
1889
"St. Johnsbury is a beautiful village but there are double the number of trees that should be in it either for beauty or health." Visitor.
1889
"St. Johnsbury is a good place to read about, but it is too slow to live in." C. A. N.
1889
"Just think of it ! Only eight and a half hours from Hartford, and not . one chestnut or walnut tree, only one dwarfed horse-chestnut, and only one colored person in St. Johnsbury, and yet the people appear happy." Courant.
1892
"St. Johnsbury is a charming little town perched on the top of a moun- tain. Here are a dozen churches, a public library, reading room, museum,
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AS OTHERS HAVE REMARKED
schools, and a lecture hall that will seat over a thousand people. Who, after this, would consider himself an exile if he had to live in St. Johnsbury? The town has only six thousand inhabitants, eleven hundred of whom came to hear me lecture tonight-where is the European town of six thousand that would supply an audience of eleven hundred people to a literary causerie?" Max O' Rell.
1894
S. Kanake to his brother Kumoso, Yokohama. "I am now in the city S. Jonsburg, March the 9. I have this evening been to a great banqueting in honor of the ripe aged women of the city who live in a Sunset House. Extremely of interest was it to witness the way of doing among these peoples. They go to a high up hall called a Pythian. This was said to be dedicated to Python the Dragon. I doubt it. But not the less it might have been so once. Curious indeed is the way of getting to the place of food delivery. A company of the hungry get themselves by the door. Then when it opens,
that is like the bursting of the dam on the river Yedogawa.
Individuals
called ushers are set at points to assign seats. But so great ability have these Americans of waiting on themselves that these officials become chiefly ornaments. Among youthful natives of the masculine sort one may see vast appetite for sugared cakes and a sort of frozen mush which they partake of with multitudinousness. In this singular country I think it may be well for one to be capable of looking out for himself."
1897
"And now and then in the quiet sunset hour when the selectmen daily call the voters together on the village green for evening prayer, and even the customary tinkle of the cow bells in the streets is hushed in serions ex- pectancy-some patriarch stricken with deep emotion rises to voice the one confession that hurts the soul of St. Johnsbury-a man in this town once took a drink of liquor ; it was at the raising of the first meeting house in 1804." St. A. M.
The pen of our genial contemporary has here portrayed a scene without which picturesque St. Johnsbury might have escap- ed observation ; appended to the preceding paragraphs it com- pletes the composite portraiture of the place seen as others see it.
4
XXVIII
BEYOND THE BORDER
"No history of New England is complete without some account of events in which her sons have had part beyond her borders."
ON A BRITISH FRIGATE-SAVING A PIRATE-THE POWDER CASK- A CATAMOUNT-KOORDISH ROBBERS-HATS-JOTHAM AND ABRAM-BANK BILLS-A RUNAWAY-IN A TYPHOON-SOUTH SEA CANNIBALS-BELL AT MOSCOW.
PRISONER ON A BRITISH FRIGATE
After his exploits at the Battle of Bennington, Simeon Cobb enlisted as a privateer bound for France for war supplies. The vessel was captured by the British and carried to the West Indies, where her crew was distributed, Cobb being put upon a frigate for what they could get out of him. He was a blacksmith by trade, and when questioned called himself an armorer ; which re- sulted in his being assigned to armorer's duty on the frigate. In after years he dryly remarked that he made a good many gun springs for the British, but he was afraid they were peculiarly tempered and wouldn't last. The bill of fare on the frigate was not very tempting ; it was principally burgoo, a wormy oatmeal made up into porridge in a big cauldron. After two years at sea a ship was hailed and the trumpeter called for the news. Peace with the Colonies was announced. But there was no release of American prisoners. One day a Portugese sailor, friendly to Cobb, but who could not write, asked him to write for him to the
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Admiral. Cobb did the writing and with it put in a plea for him- self ; the letter was delivered to Mother Mary, the friendly wash- woman who got it to the Admiral. Some days later the Captain of the frigate went ashore to confer with the Admiral. On his re- turn he put up strong inducements to Cobb to enlist under the British flag. The proposition was firmly rejected, and some while after Cobb was allowed his liberty ; after his escape he found in his bag a generous gold piece which he credited to his swarthy friend the Portuguese. Mother Mary sheltered him the first night ; the next day he fell in with a skipper who took him aboard his ship loaded with salt from Turk's Island and landed him at Charleston, South Carolina. From that port Cobb worked his passage to Newburyport, thence tramped on foot to Taunton, and finally in 1798 tramped to St. Johnsbury, where he cleared the Cobb farm near the Lyndon line, on which he lived till his death forty-five years later.
SIGNING FOR A PIRATE
William J. Wright of this town in 1831 sailed for New Or- leans in the ship MINERVA. On the twentieth day out she struck shoals off western Little Isaac ; the cargo was discharged and all hands were set to work the pumps. A sail hove in sight and was hailed for assistance; it was the Spanish brig LEON, Captain de Soto. He agreed to lay by over night. Meantime the MINERVA took fire and soon was all ablaze. The long and jolly boats had taken off their quota. Wright continued working at the pumps and barely escaped to the LEON on a raft. Captain de Soto gave all kind treatment and after landing at Havana he shipped as an officer on the MEXICAN. She turned out to be a slaver. They ran down and captured a ship, put the crew in the hold and set her on fire. Some while after the slaver was caught and brought to Bos- ton where the officers were tried and sentenced to be hung for piracy. Captain de Soto's wife came on from Spain to intercede with President Jackson for his life. The men whom he had rescued from the MINERVA then came forward and signed a peti- tion to the President which secured his pardon. Of several who
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