USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Woodstock > The valley of the Kedron; the story of the South parish, Woodstock, Vermont > Part 16
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also Samuel Craigue and his wife Sally Hall. Some of the graves are marked only with field stones, and these are also Woodstock Scotch pioneers.
In all of the graveyards are field stones marking graves and nobody knows who are the people buried near them. In the Morgan yard at least twenty graves are so marked. As this was the neighborhood of many Cottles, possibly some of them are peacefully reposing beneath these stones of the fields. Two years ago I visited this yard and saw a stone to the memory of a Mrs. Estabrook. I have been there again in September 1937. Destruction has walked afield and that stone has disappeared.
There are a few graves back of the barn on the John Blake farm. Jonathan Farnsworth's wife is buried here. Also Ann Farnsworth and one other. Many of the first settlers lie in unknown graves, also their little children. They were buried on their farms and many of the early farms have been abandoned. Only field stones had marked the places and now they have reverted to forest lands. Noah Wood reports coming down the face of Long Hill many years ago and there finding unknown graves. Near the abandoned road which went north over Fletcher Hill is a graveyard where are buried members of the Holt family, also of the Church family.
At the town meeting held at the home of Deacon Phi- nehas Thomas in 1786, March 20th, a committee was then appointed to remark on the revisions of the State Consti- tution and to report to their delegates to the Convention which is to set at an early date. Jabez Cottle, Richard Ran- som, Warren Cottle and Abraham Kendall were the South
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Parish members of the Committee, who were to criticize and suggest, and they knew how to do a good job.
Truman Slayton in his day was the best farmer in the South Parish and he carried off most of the prizes given at the Agricultural gatherings. His farm was called the best managed one in Windsor County.
"Woodstock, Vt., Sept. 18, 1816. Personally appeared before me Ebenezer King and made solemn affirmation that the certificate by him subscribed, contains the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth before Samuel Damon Justice peace. Entered a true copy from the orig- inal handed into this office. Signed Oliver Willard Clerk.
"To all people to whom it may concern, know ye that I Eben' King of Woodstock County of Windsor and State of Vermont, hereby certify that I am conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms or doing military service." Peter Sampson made the same statement in Sept. 20, 1817 and Billy Sampson Sept. 30, 1817. It is rather interesting to know that our town had conscientious objectors to war so long ago.
The next item refers to Seth Sterlin who lived for years in the Kedron Valley. It is copied from the Town Records of 1808. "Know all men by these presents that I Francis Asbury, Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, under the protection of Mighty God and with an eye a single to his Glory by the imposition of My Hands and Prayer, have this day set apart Seth Sterlin for the office of Deacon in the Said Methodist Church, Amen whom I judge well Qualified for that work and do hereby Recommend him to all whom it may con- cern as a Proper person to administer the ordinance of
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Baptism, Marriage and the burial of the dead in the ab- sence of an Elder and to feed the flock of Christ as long as his Spirit and practice are such as becomes the Gospel of Christ, and he continueth to hold fast the forms of "Sacred words according to the Established Doctrine of the Gospel. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 17th day of May in the year of our Lord 1807. Done at Barnard in Vermont. Francis Asbury." This is attested by Oliver Williams, Town Clerk of Wood- stock.
The early 1830's witnessed a good deal of unrest with many conditions. The Workingmen's Party has been men- tioned which had Ransoms and Slaytons as members, but there was also the tremendous uproar about Masonry and the organization of Anti-Masonic Societies all over the country took place. Seventeen towns in Windsor County had representatives among the Antis. Of course the Ran- soms and Slaytons of the South Parish were active. They were helping to raise money to send delegates to a Na- tional Anti-Mason Convention to be held in Baltimore, Md., in September 1831, but only enough money was raised to send one delegate and to have his report of the meeting printed. Samuel C. Loveland of Reading, a prom- inent Universalist Minister, was sent. He is mentioned elsewhere. Sixty dollars were given him for these expenses and his receipts are in one of the books I have used. This same book contains a lot of legal matters, law suits, in- junctions, defaults, judgments. Doctors sue doctors. Stores sue delinquent customers. Neighbors sue neighbors. Deeds are recorded, witnesses paid, estates settled. Life was ac- tive and not at all monotonous.
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Joseph Conant came into possession of a dollar and went to the store and asked which shall I buy, calico or cotton cloth. The storekeeper said which do you need and Joseph replied, neither but I want to spend my dollar. November 16, 1827 D. Hammond is credited with one pair of horse hide boottees, one pair horse hide shoes mens and by four days work. James Anthony is charged for cloth dressed by Smith and also for a pair of thick boots. A. Wood is credited by cash and is debtor for one pen knife and spelling book and dressing "police cloth Smith." Why Police cloth is made in the hills of South Woodstock is another of the mysteries. Wm. Pope buys a sink for $2.00. J. G. Fisher hires out to work for Luther Pope on May 11, 1827. The record reads "lost half day training, lost one day shearing lost one days training, lost one day at home, lost one day fourth of July, on July 10, quit for haying, returned to work Aug. 21." Between haying and training the work goes undone.
In this land of ours where people change their resi- dences with frequency and the earlier families and their names utterly disappear, it is interesting to know that in our South Parish the name Kendall is now borne by the sixth generation, the name Fullerton by the same num- ber, the name Jaquith by five, and the name Wood by eight generations. All of this is remarkable but the Woods carry off the palms for continuous living in the same neigh- borhood and preserving the family name of their Revolu- tionary Ancestor.
A superb flagstone in front of the steps of one South Woodstock house held my attention. I was told that it was a tomb-stone and on the underside was a name and
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date. I persuaded a man to raise it and this is what was revealed :- Lydia, wife of Mazah Kendall, died December 7, 1831. Aged 41 years. From which graveyard did that tomb-stone wander away?
I have mentioned that several of the early settlers came from the coast and some of them had followed the sea and others had been shipbuilders and one at least had made anchors for boats. We still have in our midst a woman who was born on the ocean, Mrs. Norris Marshall. Her father was Capt. Roswell Brown who went out on cruises of three and four years' length to get whale oil. His wife always went with him. Three children were born to them while in this business. He made a far eastern island port for the birth of two of them but the third child, Mrs. Marshall, was born right out on the Pacific on the Barque Belle, and she was seventeen months old when the boat returned to the old Bay State where the children were left with their grandparents. When her father was Captain of the whaler, Benjamin Cummings, he was wrecked on the Massachusetts coast, being driven there by an undertow in a severe storm. Through heroic work all on board were saved. Joseph Lincoln has told of this wreck in one of his stories.
CHAPTER XII
Industries of the South Parish
IT REQUIRES a generous stretch of the imagination to see the many shops and factories, all briskly at work, which once existed in the South Parish. A pond covering twenty acres of land was created by a dam on the brook, built by Jabez Cottle. It extended from the bridge at Mrs. Kingsley's up to the present Upwey Farm, and its waters furnished power for many wheels. Some one made an oil painting of the pond, which is reproduced with this chap- ter. When John Lake bought the Edson farm in 1813, he began to drain the pond. It had become somewhat damaged by filling with silt, and its usefulness was cur- tailed. Several elements led to the destruction of these many industries. The repeated floods did great damage by washing out the dams and injuring the machinery. Then came the gradual growth of centralization of factories in larger centers, with improved machinery, and better meth- ods of transportation to larger markets. The little indi- vidual shops passed away before this great overwhelming force.
About 1782, Jabez Cottle and Joseph Sterling built a gristmill. This mill was later sold to James Slayton, who took it down and built a new one. The Powers family became the owners of it. Finally it ceased its activities. In
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Pond which covered the meadow on the east side of the road and extended
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1785, Nathaniel Killam built a saw-mill near the present arched stone bridge about two miles north of the South Village. Ebud Burke, an energetic citizen, built a tannery near this saw-mill, in 1798. The next year Dea. P. Thomas of the Pelton district, and Jabez Bennett of the present West Woodstock, built a saw-mill near where the road goes up Dunham Hill. This mill was sold to the Calls who lived in the neighborhood. One of these Calls knew Wash- ington when in the Revolutionary service. The mill finally became the property of Ira Dutton. Isaiah Call made brick at this place. Brick yard and saw-mill have passed away.
Abraham Mather built a clothier mill, near the junc- tion of the old road which comes down from Bert Hoad- ley's, and joins the present highway. Later it was made into a carding mill and finally became a wheelwright shop under Asa Thompson. In 1779, Jabez and Warren Cottle had a grist mill. This became a fulling mill. The Cottle sons, Jabez Jr. and brother John Arnold, continued the business. In 1816, the mill became a carding mill. Oliver Bailey bought it and set up a clover mill, again made it into a carding mill. Ira Wood in 1794 was making leather gloves and mittens and doing his own tanning.
It seems strange that in these years of the floods of an- tique dealers and purchasers, the names of the skilled cabi- net makers of the South Village, should be unknown and no one searches for their chairs and the many articles made by them. Two names of such workmen who lived in the North Parish are well-known, the three generations of Fishers, and John White. Dana and Huntington were cabinet makers also in the North Parish. Nobody seems
Old flour mill on the Kedron
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to know them. Ezra Sylvester began his cabinet work in the South Parish, in 1797. An advertisement in Spooner's Journal :- September 1800 reads: "Take Notice. All Per- sons who wish for chairs, are invited to call on the Sub- scriber where they may be supplied on the most liberal terms for Cash, any kind of grain or Flax seed. Elijah Harlow, Woodstock, South Parish." In the same paper on April 18, 1803, Harlow has the following notice: "wanted immediately, a likely, active lad, about 15 or 16 years old, as an apprentice to the cabinet and chair mak- ing business. For particulars apply to the Subscriber, Elijah Harlow." Daniel Mack became partner of Harlow in 1809. Later Harlow sold his interest to Edward Hayes. These men made sleighs as well as furniture. The business was finally wrecked by a disastrous fire and it never recovered. Richard Sterling in 1811, began to make clocks and chairs. Benjamin Cottle and Henry Lake were making saddles and harness before 1813. Cottle retired and Lake contin- ued the business. Artemas Lawrence was making furniture during these years.
In 1811 Caleb Kendall hung out his sign telling the public that he worked in silver, gold and brass. He made jewelry and watches and did repair work. Daniel Lake, a mighty man who farmed, made tenor and bass drums which were famous. At a later date, Carlos Adams made violins. Daniel Lake's father George, was a master builder, and directed the construction of some of the fine houses in the South Village. Otis Wood was another builder of distinction. He built the Academy, the former High School Building at the Green. He also built that wonderful stone bridge in the South Village which until recently has had
Stone bridge, South Village
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no repairs. It was built without cement, the stone cut to fit with the Key Stone. It cost $500 to make this bridge. The Ransom family were the inspiration for it. Two wooden bridges had been washed away at this point, so this noble stone bridge was planned by the Ransoms, and they were so fortunate as to have an Otis Wood to do the work. The town was outraged by the cost of construction. Those folks are all dead, the bridge remains and it should be preserved. John Hayes made saddles. David Bailey had a trip hammer. Gaius Perkins had a tannery just below the stone bridge, where he did a flourishing business many years. He also made shoes. I have had access to one of his daybooks, dating from 1820 to 1829. He made for Nathan Hall, a thick pair of shoes, price $2.00, a pair of boy's shoes, price $1.17, woman's shoes, 75 cents. He tanned calf skin, horse hide, goat skin, cow skin, dog skin, deer skin. Not only did he do the tanning but he dressed the leather so any shoemaker could work it up. Farmers sold their bark to him which helped them. People hired his wagon to go various places; to Royalton, to the Green, to Hartland, to draw wood. Charles Mckenzie hired his horse and sleigh to go to Montreal in 1827. He made boot- legs on order and sold blacking. He made Susan Farns- worth a pair of calf skin pumps, large and good, price $1.50. Sometimes, he footed a pair of bootlegs and he mended harness. Foster Taylor in 1822 hired his wagon to go to the Green, and to Alvin Taylor's and Sumners, to Windsor, to Will Burk's, to Hatches.
One item against Taylor reads "to use of waggon to the Green for yourself, your wife and your daughter, 25 cents." Mrs. Taylor once had it all by herself.
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Along in 1822, pumps became fashionable and he had orders for many pairs, price for them was 84 cents. People bought leather for "Martingells." I like that word and its incorrect spelling. Dr. Buckley Taylor came from some place to do business at the tannery. Dr. Willard Buckman and Dr. Stephen Drew were his patrons. Dr. Drew had an arrangement made to carry vials in. The Captains, the Widows, the Doctors, and all the people round about, did business with Gaius, they paid him with farm produce, meat skins, some cash and notes. All these years, he was a Justice of the Peace, looking after deeds, marrying folks, holding his Courts. An energetic and busy man.
Jason Kendall at his home place, carried on many lines of business. He made huge amounts of cider which he sold, he cut timber and sold it, he sold grass seed and all sorts of products of his fields, also beef and mutton in large quantities. He loaned men the use of his cider mill and they paid in work. He was administrator of many estates, his record book from 1828 to 1841, gives the de- tails of such transactions. He looked after the poor and found boarding places for them. He had clothing made for various persons. Joel Meachem got a pair of woolen mittens, pantaloons and frocks, also trimmings for a Sur- tout, whatever that may be, he had a Spencer made and a cotton shirt. He sold Ruth Spooner crockery, iron ware and two meal bags. He boarded whole families and parts of families. He sold window lights and sinks. He sold bricks, where did he get them? There was a brick yard near the old Ralph house, one on the Standish place, one down the Kedron Valley, one a little west of Taftsville on the hill road, and at least one in Windsor for I have
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found records of brick being hauled from there. He sold soap by the barrel and half barrel, also applesauce by the barrel, that sounds impossible but Jason, I am sure, told the truth. It was boiled cider applesauce without a doubt. He made cotton pants, a cotton frock, Kersey pants, one cotton handkerchief for J. G. Hadley, also made for the Hadley household, sheets at 50 cents a pr.
In 1838 he had 115 sheep sheared, and got 402 pounds of wool. He had graves dug for the indigent when they passed away. He superintended work on the highway. His men prepared the ground for the foundation of the pres- ent Universalist Chapel in 1839. He bought some of the timber of the old meeting house. He directed the final removal of it. He paid Mr. Mason $20 for the mahogany which was used for the chapel pulpit. He travelled to surrounding towns on business for Woodstock. What stal- wart men there were. Surely there were Giants in those days, in this land of ours.
Those pioneering men knew how to do many things in addition to their farming. Jonathan Farnsworth raised hundreds of bushels of apples yearly. Sylvester Edson Sr. was a stone mason and shoemaker. Samuel Wood was a Justice of the Peace, town surveyor, grand juror, select- man, overseer of the poor and school superintendent. Jonathan Kingsley was a surveyor. The first Randall was a shipwright in Pembrooke, Mass., up here he farmed and built houses. Most of the men knew how to make sturdy shoes. The women spun and wove, brewed and baked and bore many children. Birth control was unknown. Black- smith shops were numerous of course, in those days horse- shoeing was only one item among many. In a blacksmith
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shop, wagons and sleds were made, all sorts of farm tools constructed. Open fires and brick bake ovens had to have special appliances, door hinges and latches were required, nails were made. A blacksmith shop was a wonderful insti- tution. Joseph Sterling an early settler was a skilled me- chanic, he invented an apple parer. He was busy all the time making farm tools. His son Seth inherited his skill and worked at his trade till he became a Metho- dist preacher and had to spend his time exhorting. Lydia his mother wove cloth and did tailoring. She was a busy woman who ate not the bread of idleness. A shop stood near the Noah Crooker place. Shoes were made, spinning and weaving were carried on. Silas Thomas over there on Long Hill made rolling pins, mortars and pestles, wooden shoe lasts, spinning wheels.
Ansel Cowdry who is mentioned elsewhere, while occu- pying his log cabin, beyond the present Geo. Fullerton place, cut down a big tree, gouged a hole in the center and with a stake, found that he could grind his grains and need not travel long distances to a mill. When he lived in the South Village, he made baskets from splints which he prepared. A descendant of his at the Green, now owns thirteen of these wonderful baskets. Some times he made them so that they were water tight. The Indians could make such baskets and so could Ansel Cowdry who came to Woodstock from Hartford, Conn. Rachel Pelton wove coverlets and linen sheets. The farmers raised flax and had sheep in those distant days. The Clarks and the Fish- ers made rag carpet and it is to be seen in several houses in the Village at this time. I saw only a few days ago one of Rachel's coverlets, made of wool and linen.
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A day book of Noah Wood Sr., covering ten years begin- ning with March 1813, contains interesting items. He mended shoes for many people "he tapped and heel tapped." He set squares of glass and made window frames, he covered buildings and framed them. He made a little coffin for John Anthony. He made wash tubs, whiffle trees, stone boats, shovel handles. He made meal chests, cheese chests, tables and chairs. He hewed and framed a house for Dea. George Thompson and charged $12.00. He made a "fall leaf table for Noah Crooker for $5.00 to be paid in women's work." He hired many people to work for him. Among them, Silas Thomas, the rolling pin man. He took orders for coats and Sarah Farnsworth made them. He filled orders for jacket patterns. He made a clock reel and a table for Thomas Barker. John Cottle dressed cloth for him which he sold to customers. He had wool carded and mittens knit, also stockings and men's short stockings. And when he passed away, his son Otis carried on many of the phases of the work. Otis plastered houses, made coffins, hubs for wagon wheels, put up buildings, did stone work. This father and son possessed business acumen, and a decided skill for all sorts of crafts and all kinds of con- struction.
Apple trees flourished on the hill sides a century and more ago. Blights and bugs were unknown. Cider mills were numerous and strong drink was made. Coopers were busy making barrels to store the stuff. Those vigorous men worked hard, drank hard and many of them prayed hard, impelled to the latter act by the driving force of their early Calvinism.
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NOAH. WOOD'S STORY
At this point I intend to use an article written by Noah Wood, a grandson of that other Noah. He wrote it for the Social Circle in South Woodstock on "The Old Wood- stock Water Powers." All of these mills are gone now for this sketch was written a good many years ago. "Settlers in Curtis Hollow were mostly an agricultural people. Nearness to Bridgewater and Woodstock mills forbade using power of this stream to any great extent. A fine power near the mouth of this brook was used for a fulling mill, later was used by Benjamin Lear, and is still in use by his successors. A cider mill on the farm of Francis Curtis was kept in commission through nearly three gen- erations; a distillery was near by Bridgewater village. The brook in the Crooker valley was made to turn the wheels very early in the settlement of the country. A saw- mill, below where the Bridgewater road crosses the stream, was its location, owned by a Mr. Phelps, who was quite a business man, who kept a team on the road nearly all the time in freighting produce and his potash and pearl- ash to Boston, returning with supplies for his store and blacksmith shop. Some ways above the mill a Mr. Thomas had a carpenter shop and power for a bench saw and lathe. One day in winter some of his apprentices, not having much to do, joined forces with the blacksmith, took the old sow down and shod her. When Thomas came home she proved to her owner the falsity of the adage of the lack of independence of swine by leisurely walking over the ice on the pond as if nothing unusual was happening. Below the saw mill was another mill that did business for
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a while and later near the mouth of the stream, a Mr. Raymond had a water power-a lazy saw it was called. All of these powers have been abandoned. A cider mill at the Crooker place did quite a business, for fine fruit grew there and a great abundance of it. One of the attractions of the then new country was the way all fruit trees flour- ished. No power was ever used on the Darling brook. A lazy sawmill was erected on the Sherwin or Ralph brook, where it joins the Page stream, by L. Ransom's. After- wards it was moved to the L. Ransom's farm and thence to the Spaulding branch of the Kedron.
A dam was built by the Pope brothers below the An- drew Smith farm and the power was used to turn a grind- stone, that weary labor to which all farmers' boys used to be elected before they were strong enough to swing a scythe effectively. The youngest, Walton, came near losing his life in the pond when it first filled. He slid down on the sloping rock bottom beyond his depth and when he began to flounder about his brothers thought he was at play and made-believe strangling, but the writer saw it differently, swam across and pulled him out ere it was too late. He shunned that side of the pond ever after.
Otis Wood had a sash and door shop where he lived so long; used to make in winter, doors and window sashes for the jobs he did in summer, doing all the work by hand. He made coffins also. When he built the new school house in District 18 he took the old one in part payment and, building a dam on the stream in front of the new school house (the mudsill can be seen there yet) he secured power, built an overshot wheel of 14 feet diameter and had planing, tenoning and sash machines, bench saws and
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lathe. All the pine he used he had to draw from Sumner's Mills in Hartland. In the old shop still standing, he made the window sash for the Gun shop at Windsor, and helping on that job was the first work with tools that I remember of doing. I had the promise of going with him when he delivered a load so I was busy helping what I could when not in school. As I rode with him we passed the Hammond foundry and as they were "pouring" that day I then learned that iron could be made to flow like water.
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