USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Woodstock > The valley of the Kedron; the story of the South parish, Woodstock, Vermont > Part 4
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The Valley of the Kedron
farm. David Smith bought Sall Perry's farm. Both Elisha and William Lord let their farms be sold as did the heirs of Wm. Ellis. This direct tax made various changes in the ownership of land not only in the South Village but throughout the town.
A direct State tax was bad enough but worse was to come. Vermont from the time it had adopted its Constitution in 1777, had repeatedly applied for admission to the Union but many forces militated against its admission. The year 1791 found the little independent State one of the sister- hood of States. Up to this date, she had paddled her own canoe. When needing money for defense during the Revo- lution she used the monies from the sale of the confiscated lands. Her position was changed by admission into the Union-that Union needed money for its war debts and for the maintenance of the Federal Government. Congress on July 14, 1798 passed a Direct Federal Tax to be paid by all owners of land, whether residents, non-residents, or pro- prietors. Windsor County was duly notified and there ap- pears in Spooner's Journal this item :- "Notice is hereby given to all owners of land in the townships of Windsor County (the three classes mentioned above) who have not paid the direct tax which was passed by Congress July 14, 1798, must appear at the home of Elijah Burton in Norwich on the second Monday of April next at 9 o'clock in the morn- ing unless prevented by previous payment so that so much of their lands or dwelling houses can be sold at public auc- tion to pay said tax and cost."
This item unfortunately has been cut and sadly muti- lated in this number of the Journal so that some of the Woodstock names are illegible, but enough of them remain
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Creation of Woodstock
to make this warning delightful reading and thrillingly interesting. Our South Woodstock Independents who failed to pay the tax, no doubt asked themselves why should they pay a Federal tax. They were perfectly able to do so, their names are written in the records as owners of large farms, but that Federal Government was some- thing far away and not more than a name to them. The largest tax to be paid was 642 cents, but that thrifty soul lived on the Bridgewater road. Our Kedron Valley and South Woodstock friends had taxes amounting to 562 cents, 427 cents, 347 cents and 333 cents and on down the line to 27 cents. Two women are cited to pay. The names of 53 men appear, 19 of these, which can be read, belong to the South Parish. As these people continued to own their farms, they must have parted with their cents there- by preserving their sense of real values. Since the year 1798 the people of this country of ours have learned much about Federal and State Taxes and there are those in our midst who have not yet learned to love them.
CHAPTER IV
Early Roads and Homes
CHINESE PICTURE PUZZLES and all the puzzles ever invented, are simple things compared with the early road surveys. The very earliest ones in Woodstock were never recorded, though there are references to them in the Town Meeting records. I have had the opportunity of reading the first ones which are recorded and for seventy-five years following. Language is not vivid enough to describe the difficulties involved in such reading. Confusion becomes confounded and compounded. It is well known that the early surveying instruments were deflected by certain minerals in the rocks and often queer things happened. The points of reference in the surveys were trees, stones, stakes, chim- neys, corners of buildings. Stones are blasted, trees die, stakes are pulled up, houses disappear. Some later surveys mentioned the northeast chimney on Billy Brown's house, the southeast corner of the brick school house, Avery Cols- ton's chimney, Betsey Kingsley's chimney and even the belfry of the Chapel.
In the earliest decisions about roads in the town it was decided to have one road crossing the town from north to south and another one crossing from east to west. Of course this was never done. But at an early day a road went
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Early Roads and Homes
up the present Church Hill at the Green, and somewhere near the old Murdock farm, cut across to Townsend's Cor- ners, then to Chase's Corners, down the south side of Long hill into what was once a thickly settled region, where John Sargent had his camp. All of the houses are gone at that point, a graveyard with its stones tells the names of the settlers, on past a lovely brick house now owned by the Pulp Company, then past the Sawyer graveyard and on by the old Sawyer stand where in these years antiques are sold. These places are in Reading. This road is open for a short distance beyond the Sawyer house, in which was born Thomas Jefferson Sawyer who in his lifetime was a distinguished Universalist Minister and under whom the father of Otis Skinner trained for the ministry as did other men. This road now becomes only a faint grassy path. It came out at the south end of the valley through which the Twenty Mile Stream flows and went on to Proctorsville. In our town this road was known as the Great Highway. The road from Windsor in those days came over the hills and entered the Green on the north of the big stone house where the Pearl Clarks live and it followed the bank of the river in what is the North Village. Very early, roads left the Great Highway and went down the hills into the South Village for it was the trading center for the families on the hills.
At a town meeting in 1776, Joseph Cottle of the South Parish was chosen one of the two road commissioners. "In 1778 it was voted that the roads shall be located as laid before the town, at the meeting in 1777 and the Commis- sioners shall be paid Six shillings a day for laying them out." The minutes of the meeting of 1777 were never pre-
-
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The Valley of the Kedron
served, that year is a blank in the town records so all we can do is to guess and guessing is not worth the effort. At a meeting in 1779, two hundred pounds were voted to repair the highways and labor shall be paid twelve shillings a day. In 1778, the town voted that Jonathan Slayton could have the privilege of a bridle path across his improved land. Tradition has it that a sort of road went from the Green over the ridge of hills east of the Country Club and to the settlement named New Boston. A good many fami- lies had settled in that region and of course they must have some outlet. The waters of the brook were harnessed to mills at the foot of Dunham hill, so roads were a neces- sity.
The first survey for a road from the Green to the present South Village, was made in 1787 by Ephraim Brewster and Richard Ransom, both large land owners in this section and they wanted a road to pass by their property. Another survey was made in 1804 to alter a part of the road from the Court house to the South meeting house, beginning at the south west corner of Jason Richardson's south barn, thence going to Mr. Mower's south line, then east to the line of the highway. Beginning on the east side of high- way opposite John Blackwell's house and then opposite the old saw-mill, near Lysander Richardson's place. John Blackwell lived on the west side of the road just beyond the Dunham hill road, and Lysander Richardson lived where Harry Baker lives, by the arched stone bridge. The meeting house mentioned in these early surveys stood about where the South Village school is located. It be- longed to the Congregationalists.
A survey was made in 1805 which involved the Dunham
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Early Roads and Homes
hill road. It began on the north side of the road of the Hatzel Pelton farm and went to Arnold Smith's and then to Simeon Dunham's home. Gates were placed between the Smith farm and the Dunham farm. This road is now impassable, but less than twenty years ago I drove over it many times with horse and buggy, always being compelled to open and close the gates. Arnold Smith settled where Sidney Richardson lived many years. Edith Goode has her charming cabin at the Dunham place and Hatzel Pelton lived on a farm above the Arnold Smith place. Pelton owned much land in that section. In 1851, a petition was presented to the town to make the road from the Carys to the Morgans, a public highway. It was done and that short stretch of road has been a public road ever since. It goes back to Dr. Goodridge's summer home.
In 1856 a survey was made further up this hill road which for many years has curved around the hill near the one time Dearborn park and then over the ridge where it joins the Hartland hill road near the old Darling farm. The survey says :- "Commencing on the north side of the road leading to John Cary's house from the southwest cor- ner of Tracy Bingham's garden wall then to the center of the gateway and then through the gateway to a stake on the Northwest Corner of H. P. Dunham's Wood house, this survey is for the center of the road and two rods wide. $10.00 damages must be paid to Bingham." At this time the Tracy Bingham house was the first one on the left above the Richardson farm. Horace Dunham lived in the house just back of the Bingham place, on the hill side.
In 1810, another survey was made from the Court house to the South Meeting house. This one began "At a line
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The Valley of the Kedron
between John Carleton's and Lyman Mower's, on through Swan's swamp, then to an Elm on the Brewster place to a small brook (we call it Hedgehog Brook these days, a lovely stream deserving a more poetical name), on past the Sterling home. Then into Shurtleff Crosby's farm and to Mr. Hovey's, opposite Bishop's sawmill, then easterly to the line of the highway as formerly laid out, then to a few rods south of John Blackwell's farm, which aforesaid corners are the easterly side of the highway which extends four rods westerly therefrom."
In 1820, a survey was made from the Ralph farm to the present Upwey farm. A road once turned to the right just beyond the home of Robt. White, one part of it, went up the hill and came out by the Randalls; the longer portion branched off to the left and passed to the rear of the Meth- odist graveyard and the Methodist meeting house, past Drew's sawmill and on to the South Meeting house. After the portion of this road near the White place was given up, it joined the present highway by the old Christie farm. This road always had gates and bars. Several surveys were made of it. By a vote of the town in 1827, it was discon- tinued though since we have lived in Woodstock, it was possible to drive this road with horse and buggy from the graveyard to the Christie place and onto the main road. The Christie place is now owned by the Fowlers of Newark, New Jersey.
This remarkable statement appears on the records of 1828, "The road from the school house in district No. 12 to the Reading line be discontinued as a public road and set over the present road through public land owned by John Pratt to the said John Pratt and do lay out a Pent
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Early Roads and Homes
road from the school to the Reading line in the same place where the public road was laid and order John Pratt or person occupying the public lot formerly leased to Atipos Bowker to set up and support a gate or a pair of barrs." This order is signed by Sylvester Edson, one of the Select- men, and a South Woodstock resident. Without doubt these officials understood all about this road but to me it is as clear as mud.
I deem it important that the exact words of one of the surveys be given with its degrees and rods. When this has been read, and it characterizes all the surveys, the conclu- sion must be drawn that it is no easy matter to tell the exact ground over which the roads passed, when all signs of them have disappeared. Having read dozens of surveys and knowing fairly well the location of the lands of some of the early pioneers, the difficulties of locating all the twists and turns of such roads are just about insurmount- able. Now for the survey of 1822, "A survey in Alteration of a part of the highway in Woodstock leading from the Courthouse towards the South Meeting house. Beginning in the line between John Carleton and Lyman Mower on the east Side of the highway, 187 rods from the Court house, thence S 18° West 20 rods thence S 18° 60° into Swamp on Mr. Swan's land then S 4° W 22 rods thence S 7º East 30 rods thence $ 70 East 30 rods then S 7º E 14 rods to Elm on bank of brook thence S 2º E 20 rods thence S 19 rods to a birch tree on a large rock then S 12° W 28 rods then S 23° W 26 rods thence S 31º W 59 rods to a small Elm on the Brewster lot thence S 24° W 33 rods thence S 16° W 9 rods thence S 3º W 10 rods opposite Mr. Brewster's house thence S 19º W 48 rods to
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The Valley of the Kedron
a small brook then S 5° and 61 rods a little beyond Mr. Sterlin's house thence S 21° E 22 rods then S 4° E 25 rods then S 2° W 31 rods thence S 10° opposite Mr. Bishop's sawmill S 5° E 29 rods thence S 50 rods thence S 5° and 16 rods into an easterly line of the highway heretofore laid and a few rods south John Blackwell's Barn which afore- said bounds the easterly side of the highway which extends 4 rods westerly therefrom of the survey of July 11, 1810." This Survey is signed by Oliver Williams, Surveyor, George Williamson, George Lake and Elisha Royce, Se- lectmen. When one has digested thoroughly that descrip- tion of the road from the Court house to less than three miles on the South road, something happens to the cocki- ness of being absolutely sure just where the highway was. This survey gives one the feeling of travelling at least one hundred miles.
There are old roads on Slayton hill which can be walked. Starting by the Ralph graveyard and going west, two cellar holes are passed on a beautiful hill with enchanting views; here lived some of the first Slaytons. Following an indis- tinct path through the woods one emerges at last on the top of Reading hill. Going from the Tom Boyd house, an old road, fit only to be walked, once entered the Reading road beyond the Standish place. Leaving the South Village for the Green, on reaching the house where the Cowdreys now live near the old mill, an early road begins just south of the house and winds around the front of that hill and then over it. It enters the Pisgah road just beyond the Cady house. This is a delightful tramp. The remains of a brick house are passed on this road. This house was built by Amaziah Kendall in 1817. Sullivan Cady lived in it for
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Early Roads and Homes
years. The walls of the living room were stenciled. It was quite a fine story and a half house but like all neglected things, ruin is its fate. Returning to the highway from whence we started up this hill road, going towards the North Village, one crosses almost immediately two bridges over the Kedron, just beyond the second one; on the right side there can be seen the remains of an old road which went up that hill and came out near the former Rood home.
The photostatic copy of a map of Long hill, shows fairly well, roads and homes of that region of an earlier day than ours. The Woodstock map of 1832 shows the roads existing at that time. One of these maps is in the Norman Williams Library. I own one of them. They are a scarce article, but very informative.
Near by the summer home of Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Doubleday, in a region which once had many houses and where now only cellar holes remain to tell us of human habitations, a road went off to the south. Jonathan Crooker lived on it and tradition has it that his twin children are buried near by; also his slave who met an untimely death at the hands of his master. A family of Hoisingtons also lived on this road; a cellar hole, and a superb spring are the reminders of life here. Once a leach stone lay partly hidden in the grass and this meant that they made their lye and soap as all good pioneers did. This road once entered the Mossy Road when that was a real thoroughfare. Noah Crooker settled where the Doubleday summer house is. He came from Pembroke, Massachusetts, in April 1795. Winslow Phelps of Marlborough, Massachusetts settled in this region in 1794. Winslow Stetson owned land in this
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The Valley of the Kedron
section as did Robert Hill and Nathan Russ, Samuel Bar- rows, Vespasian Hoisington, Consider Lucas, Thomas Root, Robert Waterman and Benjamin Wood. Would it not be interesting to meet their ghosts coming back to view their homes?
Just beyond the Doubleday home a road turns off to the right and ambles on until it joins the Woodstock- Bridgewater highway by the present narrow iron bridge. About half way down this road, another one branched from it on the right and entered the Fletcher hill road. At the present time, the whole course of these two roads cannot be used, even with horse and buggy. Near the spot where road goes off to the east is a big rock on which is cut the following inscription, which some of us have called the Lover's Lament. "In Memory of Stephen P. Truesdell
When such sad scenes the bosom pain
What eye from weeping can refrain."
Just below these lines are cut two hearts with a cross between them. Above one heart is the word Venus, above the other one the word Cupid. Who Stephen was and why these lines, no one knows. It is one of the mysteries of our hills.
In 1855, a road from the Green Mountain Institute to the highway directly in front was laid out. This took some land belonging to the school located on the side of the road. Ten dollars were paid for the piece of land over which the road had to pass. In 1857, the road to the two brick houses north of the Institute was made a public road with the stipulation that it must be twenty feet wide.
Our records are weighed down with the opening of
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Early Roads and Homes
Pent roads, with the closing of the same. This process was repeated several times on the same road. The town had small funds for the building and upkeep of its early roads and if a road was not absolutely necessary, the town meet- ing would vote to give it up. Times have changed. Under the present laws, State grants are received in proportion to the mileage of the roads in the towns, so the tendency is decidedly strong to hold on to the back roads and so draw more funds though such roads do not receive all the benefits they should. There are no records of any toll gates in the South Parish.
The many old abandoned roads on Long Hill are a maze of intricate design and to us of the present day, are difficult to trace. Years ago, we drove from Bailey's Mills in Reading along a road which was destroyed by the flood of 1927. Eventually we reached Chase's Corners which are in Reading and there bearing to the right, we finally landed on the main road near the Cady place in South Woodstock. The old school building was still standing just back on the hill road, a short distance from the highway. Again we went to Bailey's Mills and to Chase's Corners, intending to go through Curtis Hollow but were pre- vented by a fallen tree lying across the road, and we finally fetched up in Plymouth Five Corners. With Florence Doubleday, I have walked from Townsend's Corners over a swampy road, then over the so-called Mossy road, and have tramped from the Darling chimney to the old Otis Wood house. Going straight up the hill from this house, one passes the farm owned now by Eugene Rhodes. Near his barn the road divides; the one going straight ahead, finally reaches Chase's Corners; the one to the right after
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The Valley of the Kedron
a time ties up with the Mossy road and going south from that point, Chase's Corners are again reached. There are no houses on any of these roads, only cellar holes, cinna- mon roses, old stone walls and trees. At Chase's Corners lived Mrs. Chase who doctored the ailing people of the region and who was reported to possess some sort of necro- mancy which had curative powers. Doctors were scarce in those early days and a woman who knew medicinal roots and herbs was a welcome person when there was illness.
Having tramped these old roads and driven a few of them with horse and buggy when that was possible, let us visit some of the houses still standing and also endeavor to locate the forgotten homes of pioneers. Charles M. White and Mrs. R. H. Kingsley, two of our Veterans, who have forgotten nothing of South Woodstock history which they ever knew, have given much information concerning the early families of the region. The first very limited edi- tion of Dana's Woodstock history has also been a source of historical value. Using these three as references and each in a valuable way supplementing the others, I shall en- deavor to save as much as possible the interesting facts of bygone days.
Charles White's family moved to Woodstock from Bridgewater in 1860, when he was ten years old. He has made a list of the families then living in the South Parish, down the Kedron to the limits of the Green. Mrs. Kingsley was born in the town and through family inter-marriages is related to most of the South Parish people. Going up the hill road in what was once School District 18, the Whites bought a farm once owned by John W. English. This had been the home of Abiah Rice, also of Andrew
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Early Roads and Homes
Smith and his family of brilliant children. The frame house on this site was built in 1803. Only a beautiful cellar hole and the faithful lilacs remain. Above this place lived Putnam Burnham and the roses still bloom about the forsaken yard. Noah Wood, great grandfather of A. F. Wood, with his wife, Ruth Tilden Wood, had their home on this hillside and their son Otis was born here in 1805. When the child was three years old, the family moved down the hill to what we still call the Otis Wood place. Nathaniel Wood of Middleboro, Massachusetts, bought many acres in the first and second ranges of the Apthorp tract in lots No. 6, 7, and 8. He settled here in 1780. The Sherwins, the Pages, the Hackets, the Fields, the Herricks, the Stephen Smiths, had homes on these now abandoned roads. So did John Anthony who had been a sea Captain. I often wonder how he could endure the walls of hills about him when the sea and its wide expanse had been his home.
We will now go down the hill from the boyhood home of C. M. White. The first house was built by Mitchel Faunce Pope, a son of Mitchel Pope who lived on the Pope road. Noah Wood and his son Alonzo both lived here. The house was burned some years ago. Long ago a house stood near this one but further back. It was the home of Caleb and Joanna Tilden whose daughter Ruth was married to the first Noah Wood. Her great grandson A. F. Wood owns a charming silhouette of her which is reproduced here. The Otis Wood house had the walls of the parlor covered with stencil designs and in each of the doors going into the front entry were small heart shaped openings. The most extraordinary hand painted weeping willow with a
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The Valley of the Kedron
mourning woman standing under it, gives the information "That Caleb Tilden died May 16, 1813, aged 67. Joanna his wife June 1817, aged 71. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Caleb was buried on his farm.
Ruth Tilden Wood
A short distance above the Otis wood house a road branches off to the left, crosses the brook and goes up the hill. This is the Pope road. It is only a wet, rutted rough path and as a road it was abandoned by the town in 1827. On July 4th, 1937, we walked up this rugged path, going through brush and climbing over fallen trees, to visit the cellar holes of the Pope and Hammond families who lived there in the early years of the town. The view which is
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Early Roads and Homes
now shut out by big trees must have been superb. Old roses still grow about the yards. Mrs. Hammond made bonnets for the ladies of the region. Some of the Pope children, who died, are buried near the home. A stone wall is about the little lot and once lilies and roses grew all around these stones. Now life sized trees stand on this land. Only a year ago some of the descendants came back from Wisconsin to visit this hill top.
From the Otis Wood house one can go to the west on the Darling road. For many years a stone chimney marked the site of this home. Going eastward from the Wood place and down the hill, this road comes out on the Woodstock- Reading highway. Where Hattie Cady lives, once lived Oliver Mack. The Mack family with many sons pioneered in the South Parish. There was at least three other houses in this particular section, all of which are gone. Simon Buck and Mr. Cram occupied two of them. Stukely Angel lived in a small house on the south end of the Standish farm. The present Standish house was built in 1842. The Stand- ish family came from old Plymouth. Sanford Wilder, a son- in-law, lived here. The farm is now owned by Dr. Fred'k Kendall of New York and his nephew's family are the present occupants. A cellar hole and lilac bushes across the road point out the home of Dan Niles. Some of the Farns- worths lived here also. The next house towards the Village was built in 1845 by one of the Farnsworth family. Dean Cabot lived here as did Avery Colston. A. F. Wood owns it now and has for quite a number of years. The Blake house was built in 1787 by Jonathan Farnsworth. The foundation stones are white limestone. Mrs. Azubah Burnham, a daughter of Jonathan, lived out her days in this house as
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