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 30
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had been stricken with yellow fever at Havana, Wright was the only survivor.
ZIBA GETS THE POWDER CASK
The story of Zibe Tute's acrobatics at the raising of the Old Town House has often been told. Another achievement of his should not be overlooked. In later years he was living at Wind- sor. The tontine building of that place, occupied by merchants and other tenants was on fire. When all hope of saving it was abandoned someone in the crowd cried out that in one of the upper rooms was a powder cask that ought to be gotten out; if not it would soon explode imperiling life and spreading the fire. Mr. Tute had no personal interest in the matter, but no other man being disposed to risk himself, he caught up a ladder, braced it to the building, bounded to the top, smashed the window and plunged into the suffocating chamber. The fire was already lap- ping its way to the powder cask when he grabbed it in his arms and brought it safely down the ladder.
Ziba Tute deserves to be remembered in this town for his real heroism in rescuing the powder cask rather than for his ath- letic feats on the ridge pole of the Old Meeting House on the hill, upon which his local fame has heretofore principally rested.
A NIGHT WITH A CATAMOUNT
"We all know a kitten, but come to a catamount The beast is a stranger when grown up to that amount."
Judge Poland did not himself encounter the catamount, but he witnessed the fight, and told the story of it one morning on the piazza of the St. Johnsbury House.
"When I was a boy the woods were thick on my father's farm and full of catamounts who did great damage carrying off sheep and killing the cattle. We had our stock securely kept in a strong shed which none of the prowling beasts had succeeded in breaking into. One night the family were all in bed except Jonas Shepherd, a farm hand of prodigious strength and courage. He
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was sitting by the big pine fire shelling corn on a jack-knife stuck into a log. Suddenly there was a crash and a big noise out in the cattle shed. He dashed out in his shirt sleeves and found an enormous loup-cervier, catamount, had broken through the roof and was in among the sheep. As Shepherd approached, the beast leaped to the roof, crouched a moment, then sprang for him. Shepherd jumped aside and the big cat landed on the ground, but in an instant was up again and a furious battle began between the two. Shepherd had a knife which he used; the brute screamed and bit and tore his claws into the man's flesh.
The noise awoke the family, my father grabbed a pine torch and we all rushed out. There was Shepherd covered with blood from head to foot, holding the screaming catamount by the throat and heels high above his head, running for the brook in the woods. There he plunged him under water and held him during a tremendous struggle till all was still, while the brook ran red with blood. Old hunters said that if he hadn't have drowned the brute he would have been killed sure. More than 200 distinct wounds were counted on his body from which he never entirely recovered." This story by our distinguished townsman helps to fill the gap in our local traditions, which are sufficiently pictur- esque with bears, but not once out on the trail of a catamount.
PLUNDERED BY THE KOORDS
Fayette Jewett, M. D., son of Dr. Calvin Jewett, grew up on what are now the Academy grounds ; in 1853 he and Mary Ann Brackett were married on a Sunday evening in the Meeting House; they went directly to Tokat, Asia Minor, in the medical service of the American Board. In the following paragraph from a private letter Dr. Jewett tells something about travel among the mountains in 1855 :-
"On a narrow pass overlooking the Toorkal plain while riding single file, two armed ruffians leaped out from the bushes and the next moment I was dragged from my horse, lying on my back, a robber with his long knife standing over me, and each of the others in our party in the same situation. There were five of the robbers ; they dragged us along to a more secluded spot and
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began plundering us. From Ahmet, our guard, they took all his belongings; from Carabet Agha they took 99 English gold sov- ereigns and 60 Turkish sovereigns, about $720 gold. Then they began on me. They supposed I would have gold, but I had only about four dollars in metallic currency, and a case of lancets which they took. After plundering my baggage the leader of the gang said, 'this Frank must have gold somewhere, if we don't find it we will murder him.'
Carabet said to him, 'you are mistaken, this man is a Doctor, he carries no gold, only surgeon's instruments and medicine.' They then examined my medicine chest and small trunk; finding nothing they cared for they set down and conferred together in Koordish; to us they spoke in Turkish. I could only commit my case to God. After a time they concluded to let us go. We were conducted by a circuitous path back to the road, where they left us saying, 'Your coming was very agreeable to us.' We threaded our way under the dim light of the stars through the rocky path to a guard house, where with hearts full of gratitude to our Preserver, we laid down by the open fire place, and despite busy thoughts and equally busy fleas, we got some sleep. I have communicated with the United States Minister at the Sublime Porte, asking him to seek satisfaction from the government for this outrage on my person and property."
The time came when Dr. Jewett's two sons, Henry M. Jewett and Milo P. Jewett, held important posts in Turkey, as United States consuls at Sivas and Trebizond. The latter was appointed by President Cleveland to represent this government in investi- gating the massacres of the Armenians in 1896. The Sultan would not allow him to serve ; he had been brought up in Turkey, and his knowledge of Turkish subtleties was too intimate and dangerous to suit the imperial Assassin.
AT THE MARLBORO
The following is from the Boston Transcript fifty years after. "About this time (it was July 4, 1837) this old Tavern met with a radical change. The music of the toddy stick ceased, the bar was abolished. A new and original method of keeping hotel was
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inaugurated, making it a sort of religious home for patrons, with singing and devotional exercises before breakfast and at nine o'clock, each evening. This attracted much public attention and drew within its portals many patrons of note from all over New England : such men for example as Gov. Briggs, Henry Wilson, Geo. S. Boutwell, William Claflin, Erastus Fairbanks and Judge Paddock of Vermont.
It happened on one occasion that Judge Paddock and Hon. Myron Lawrence, President of the Massachusetts Senate, were there together. Lawrence was a man of some 400 1bs. weight, who wore an immense hat, Paddock was tall and slight, his hat, of the old narrow brim variety, was about number six in size. These hats as they hung together on the rack made a striking contrast. One evening while devotions were being held in the parlor, two boys mounted these hats; one, a tall thin fellow seemed to stagger under the Senator's head gear ; the other, short and stout, had Judge Paddock's small tile perched on the top of his big head. Their parading through the hall caused great merri- ment, till cut short by the unexpected appearance of the ponder- ous Senator and the Judge from Vermont, who found their hats rolling on the floor and two boys retreating down the staircase."
JOTHAM NOTIFIES ABRAM
Jotham B. Pierce, known in his boyhood as the little white- haired lad of Fairbanks Village, was born in 1841. His father at a later period built what is now the Sunset Home. Jotham was a playmate of Arthur M. Knapp, well known in after years in the Boston Public Library, and to him he wrote the following incident in June, 1860.
"I was at Galena eight weeks, and then posted off for Spring- field. While there as telegraph operator, I had the honor of being the first one to announce to Abram Lincoln his nomination. During the week of the Chicago Convention he was in our office nearly all the time, and I got intimately acquainted with him. He was one of the freest, most plain spoken men I ever knew, I won't have a vote for two long years and am sorry I cannot help to elect Old Abe ; but the first vote I do cast will be for free labor
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and free speech-for the annihilation of slavery and the inhuman traffic of slave trade. I believe the negro has a better right to himself than anyone else has to him."
Tho Jotham was debarred from voting for Abram, he was not debarred from accepting at President Lincoln's hands an im- portant position as telegrapher at the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac, a responsibility which he discharged with honor during the entire period of the war. The town of St. Johnsbury cast 514 votes in 1860 for Abram Lincoln, not knowing that his first notification had been given by one of her own loyal sons.
A BUNCH OF BANK BILLS
Among the many accomplished singers of St. Johnsbury in former years, few were more highly esteemed and happily re- membered than Mr. and Mrs. Homer E. Sawyer, who removed to Boston in 1861. In the New York Herald of January 24, 1869, appeared the following story.
"Five years ago, on the 8th of January, 1864, Mr. Homer E. Sawyer came to this city from Boston and stopped at the Belmont Hotel, J. P. Richards proprietor. He carried $1650 in bank bills in his pantaloons watch pocket which for safety he kept pinned. Starting for New Orleans, he bought a ticket, returning the balance of the bills to his pocket, carefully pinned as before. Soon after he missed the bills, the pocket still being pinned. He concluded the bills had slipped inside the pantaloons instead of into the pocket, and so were lost. He advertised the fact of the loss in the New York Herald, referring the finder to Mr. Richards of the Belmont, went on to New Orleans and died there of yellow fever in 1867.
The money had been found by a man who saw the advertise- ment and who remembered the name of Mr. Richards, proprietor of the Belmont. The remembrance haunted him five years. He determined to restore the money. He wrote Mr. Richards anon- ymously, asking him to specify in the Herald particulars of the loss of that money. In the Herald of December 4, 1868, came the following reply: 'Money lost; on Broadway ; five years ago;
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about $1500 in greenbacks ; snowy day; owner now dead; any communication for his widow gratefully received by J. P. R.'
This did not convey all the information desired by the finder of the money, and he wrote a second time asking full name and present address of Mrs. Sawyer, which was duly given in the next issue of the Herald. The man then wrote again asking for the date of Mr. Sawyer's death, date and certification of his marriage, and place of interment. These facts were in due time obtained and published as requested. Still another letter was sent to Mr. Richards relating to the identification of Mrs. Sawyer, her finan- cial circumstances, and the expense incurred by advertising in the New York Herald. To this fourth letter this reply was given in the same paper-'Mrs. H. E. S. is the right person. I can give bonds to that effect. Her only means of support is singing in a church ; expense of advertising fifteen dollars.'
No more letters were sent to the Belmont Hotel, but on the 19th January, 1869, a lady closely veiled, restored to Mrs. Saw- yer in Boston, 171 Warren avenue, the entire sum that had been lost, plus interest to the day of restoration, plus the cost of ad- vertisements, the sum total being $2160. Many friends of Mrs. Sawyer in St. Johnsbury as well as in Boston rejoiced with her that the bills which had been lost were found and therewith an interesting story to tell."
THE CALEDONIAN RUNS AWAY
"On the 16th of September, 1897, I ascended in THE CALE- DONIAN, from the Caledonia Fair Grounds, St. Johnsbury, Vt., at a quarter past three o'clock p. m. After rising a mile and hearing thunder, I descended and left my daughter, saying that after cruising around awhile I would be back for supper. Ascending again I struck a current of air that drove me along with thunder and lightning like a race horse. The balloon began to toss like a boat on an angry sea. Suddenly thro a rift in the clouds I saw mountains ahead; I let out gas enough to bring THE CALEDONIAN down near ground, skimmed over Fabyan's, cleared the peak of Jefferson and Adams, then was whirled back by the wind and landed at the base of Mount Washington. I anchored to a tree
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top and began to prepare some coffee, smiling to find myself among the White Mountains instead of at St. Johnsbury.
Suddenly, while eating leisurely, my cable parted, and I was again up in the air, swept thro space before a fierce blast, not knowing whither, till a gleam of light appeared, and farther out the lights of a city, which I thought must be Auburn, Maine. A man at a farm house heard my cry and came out with a lantern, but he couldn't understand what was going on, and I drifted away from him, till coming to another village my lusty cries were heard and two men managed to seize the drag-rope and pull me to earth again. Columbus could not have embraced the earth with more fervor when landing in the New World than I felt in my heart as my feet touched solid ground.
As I think of that voyage thro the terrible winds and rain storm, it seems more thrilling than I can put into words. The sweeping of THE CALEDONIAN thro space, carrying me a prisoner to such an unknown fate, tho it has not frightened me, has given me serious thoughts. I shall of course continue the work of ballooning, but shall remember my night ride from St. Johnsbury thro the White Mountains for some while, I can tell you."
Letter of J. K. Allen.
CAUGHT IN A TYPHOON
Capt. E. R. Underwood from St. Johnsbury became the mas- ter of a merchant vessel owned by the Pacific Coast Lumber Company, named THE FRESNO. He had taken her to Japan in 1896, and was on the return voyage from Kobe to Puget Sound. On the twelfth of December a typhoon swept down upon the ship, carried away the foreyard, top-sail yard and port rail. The sails were blown from the belt ropes, the rudder gudgeon was torn off and the ship became unmanageable. She was thrown on her beam ends, the water began running into the hold and the ship settled in the water. Capt. Underwood warned the crew that in all probability they had not fifteen minutes to live, and all hope was given up. Not long after the wind shifted, the gale struck the ship from the opposite quarter, putting her on an even keel. After a while the men rigged up a jury rudder,
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and THE FRESNO floated. By skillful management and under many difficulties they succeeded in getting her across the Pacific and into San Francisco bay. "I have been thirty years on the sea," said Capt. Underwood, "and never yet ran into anything in the shape of a gale that could equal that typhoon." But in Oc- tober, 1907, he encountered a storm which cost him his life ; a heavy sea swept him overboard from the deck of his ship bound for Honolulu.
CANNIBALS OF THE SOUTH SEAS
During the eighties Captain Underwood was first mate on the MORNING STAR and while cruising among the Micronesian Is- lands had some acquaintance with cannibals ; as appears in letters of 1880-82 to his sister and his brother Timothy H. Underwood :-
"I wish you could see the savages that are on board ship today. They are bedaubed with war-paint bright red and yellow from head to foot, and what with the paint and the filth that is on them one can generally smell them before seeing them. There is a crowd around me now puzzled to know what I am doing while writing, and I shall not be surprised if you complain of the perfume of this letter when it reaches you. Their long hair is done up in all sorts of shapes on the back or top of the head and the pug is run through with a stick that has a large white shell on the end of it, and others like a six-tined fork ornamented with feathers.
"All the men carry a spear ten to fifteen feet long made of hard cocoanut wood pointed sharp at both ends, and on it are also a lot of sharp poisoned bones. They heave these savage weapons with such force that often they go clear through a man's body. The women are most abject slaves, they do all the work, and while the men decorated with paint and feathers lie around under the trees, the women and girls are busy keeping flies and mos- quitos off them. They have no marriage ceremony; the men simply take a girl and keep her as long as they want her, then sell her or give her away or get rid of her if nobody cares for her. The king just now has 23 wives and the old ones are made slaves forthe younger ones.
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"At Papiteauea we made startling discoveries. Two days before we arrived there was a battle in which great numbers were slain. We went ashore and visited the place. I cannot give you the least idea of the scene. The ground was strewn with bones left after the natives and the dogs had eaten what they wanted of the victims.
"Last Friday we sent our boat to land on Tarawa ; they came back bringing reports of a lively time on Tarawa where last week was a battle among the natives in which twenty-four were killed and many wounded. The next day, Sunday, there was a great feast in which the captives had an important part, for the victors built a great fire, then roasted and ate them, while the dogs and rats were feasting on those that were killed the day before.
"I expect these natives would like to get hold of some of us, for they do not have white meat very often ; they seem to have a hungry Thanksgiving-day look when we are around where they are."
These barbaric conditions did not long continue. In the same letters that picture the cannibal scenes we read also of the mis- sionary families whose work among the islanders brought in a new and brighter day. This Morning Star of 1880, third of the name, was the mission ship of the American Board, built by the Sunday School children. True to her name she was a herald of the dawn, cruising to and fro among the islands with the light of a gospel that in process of time transformed the old savagery into peaceful and happy communities.
THE BELL AT MOSCOW
"There's a Bell in Moscow While on tower and Kiosk O"
It was a scale manufactured in St. Johnsbury that was set up in Moscow in 1877, for weighing the great . bell. The contract called for a bell of 1800 poods weight ; that is 34,845 pounds. The scale indicated 1654 poods, a shortage of 5283 pounds.
M. Finlandski, the contractor, questioned the reliability of the scale. In consequence of which the scale was tested eighteen
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times on the 7th and 8th of October. This was done in presence of two experts invited by M. Finlandski, and a crowd of interested spectators. Each test convinced the people that the scale was un- mistakably correct, and that 145 poods, 4383 lbs. were missing in the bell. The value of the metal involved was $2,500.
This bell was for the Church of St. Saviour, built as a memo- rial and thank-offering for deliverance from the French invasion of Napoleon. It was begun in 1833. There were 2000 tons of metal on the roofs ; 925 1bs. of gold were in the construction. The columns of jasper in the interior cost $13,000 each. There are sixteen windows in the dome standing 26 feet high in bronze frames. More than fifteen million dollars was expended on this church.
The Moscow Bell story recalls another that didn't have the benefit of a St. Johnsbury weighing machine. King Edward III set up in St. Stephen's, Westminster, a bell that said
"King Edward made me thirtie thousand weiht and three,
Take mee downe and wey mee and more you shall fynd me."
In the reign of Henry VIII it was taken down and underwrit- ten thus
"But Henry the Eight will bait me of my weight."
XXIX
OCCASIONS AND OCCURRENCES
ATLANTIC CABLE-THE CENTENNIAL - MEMORIAL OCCASIONS- PRESIDENTIAL VISITS-OLD HOME WEEK-THE P. AND O. RAILROAD-THE ST. JOHNSBURY-THE JAPANESE EMBASSY- BEDOUIN ARABS-NISHAN EL IFTIKAR.
THE ATLANTIC CABLE DEMONSTRATION
On the announcement, August 16, 1858, that the Queen of England and the President of the United States had exchanged congratulations by way of the Atlantic Cable, flags were unfurled, cannon answered each other from the east and west hills, and church bells sounded salutes for sixty minutes. In the evening, bonfires were blazing on the hills ; houses and streets were illu- minated in the village; Torrent Engine Company paraded with band and eighty torch lights; Deluge Company followed till called off for aid in a fire at McIndoes.
From the St. Johnsbury House balcony, Hon. Thomas Bart- lett gave an address, in the course of which he contrasted this new method of conveying intelligence with that of some years . ago when mail was conveyed from Lyndon to Wells River inside of one day ! Moses Chase who had lived eighty-six years hoping he might live to see this triumphal event, sent up six sentiments, including these three-"Franklin, he caught and tamed the light- ning ; Morse, he harnessed and set the lightning to work on land ; Field, he navigates the ocean by lightning." Some days later a dispatch that left London in the forenoon was received at the St.
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Johnsbury telegraph office at four o'clock the same day; it created a sensation.
NATIONAL CENTENNIAL OBSERVANCE
July 4, 1876, was ushered in with bells and cannon. At ten o'clock a procession, unique and striking, presented people and vehicles of a hundred years preceding. A heavy storm swept across the village at noon. At two o'clock began the marching of various orders, fire companies, lads in continental costume, military companies representing all nations, Bunker Hill Monu- ment, the surrender of Ticonderoga, thirty-eight misses repre- senting the States of the Union. All proceeded to the mammoth
tent at the head of the Plain. Whittier's Centennial Hymn was sung by a full chorus led by Prof. T. P. Ryder of Boston. After invocation the Declaration of Independence was read by Judge Poland. The oration was given by Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain of Maine. Plans for the evening, including fireworks and a great chorus concert in the tent were abandoned on account of the heavy down pour of rain. The next evening however the fire- works were discharged from Arnold Park, and upper Main street decorated with banners, mottoes and bunting was ablaze with colored lights made more effective by the heavy foliage and darkened sky.
A preliminary observance of the occasion was had on Sunday evening, July the second. Two thousand people assembled in the tent for a religious service led by laymen. Eight different churches participated ; one of the addresses, given by Rev. J. A. Boissonnault, was in French, many who were present not under- standing English. The service was one of Thanksgiving for a hundred years of national prosperity. Patriotic hymns were sung by the multitude of voices mingled with strains of the cornet band. This was designed to be a fitting commemoration of the providence of God in our nation's history.
PORTLAND AND OGDENSBURG RAILROAD
The conception of a cross-country road connecting Portland with Lake Champlain was fully shaped in the mind of Horace
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Fairbanks, its chief promoter, years before the first ground was broken for it. It met with skepticism at the outset and with stiff opposition all along. Popular opinion asserted that a railroad thro the White Mountain Notch was impossible, and up the hills of Danville and Walden and Greensboro, impracticable. Legisla- tive opposition, the antagonism of other railroad interests, the financial stringency were combined against it. But the project would not die; its promoters believed in it and worked day and night for it. Capitalists in Portland were won to it; Mr. Fair- banks at Concord convinced the New Hampshire Legislature of its importance to that state; towns along the line began to bond themselves for it; at last the work was begun at various points. THE PORTLAND AND OGDENSBURG RAILROAD was becoming a reality.
On the eighteenth of December, 1869, a citizens' meeting was held at the Town Hall to arrange for the first shoveling in this town on the new road. At two o'clock, December 22, a pro- cession of citizens and various orders was formed at Court Square, in the midst of which was a cart and a wheelbarrow bear- ing the inscription P. and O. R. R. The tramp was then made down Main street toward Sleepers River, to a spot near where the dry bridge now is. Remarks were made by Rev. Mr. Bras- tow, after which the first shovel full of gravel was thrown into the wheelbarrow by Mr. Thaddeus Fairbanks; Capt. Walter ยท Wright, the oldest man in town, 92, then took the shovel and threw the second; others followed, the last of the shovelers be- ing a small boy. When the barrow load was dumped on the line, cheers went up for the PORTLAND AND OGDENSBURG RAILROAD, salutes were fired, and the band played a triumphal air. In the evening 224 ladies and gentlemen had supper together at the Avenue House, speeches and music following. Bliss N. Davis, . Esq., of Danville, reiterated his prediction that ladies there pres- ent would yet live to sniff the loads of tea fresh from China on their way to Queen Victoria via Danville and St. Johnsbury.
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