USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Woodstock > The valley of the Kedron; the story of the South parish, Woodstock, Vermont > Part 6
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Ansel Cowdrey came from Hartford, Conn., early to Woodstock and built his log cabin beyond where George Fullerton now lives. When he harvested his first wheat, he carried it on his back to Springfield, Vt., to be ground, going down one day and returning the next day. He moved later to the Village and lived where Mr. G. E. Thomas lives. The house burned and his baby boy's life was saved
Kedron Tavern: Home of Dr. Buckman at right and then the Ransom home
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KEDRON TAVERN
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by tying sheets together and lowering him from an upper window. The Cowdrey shop stood east of the house. After the fire it was moved onto the site of the house and made into a dwelling house. In 1860, a Mr. French, a house painter, lived here. In 1874 Elliot Thomas bought the place and since that date it has belonged to the Thomas family. Going east on this old road, the invisible site of the first Ransom store is passed. It was twelve feet square, and stood near the Drew Mill. The log cabin of the Ransom tribe was built upon the hillside out of sight of the brook. The house where Ernest Towne lives was the property many years of Ed. Perry. He lived there and then rented it to Charles Town and then returned to occupy it again. Daniel Ransom built the stone house in 1855. Wm. Bailey lived here. It is now the home of Bert Hoadley. Going down to the main road, the house by the brook was built in 1830 by Asa Whitaker. Ara Thompson lived in it and his widow stayed there a long time after his death. The Fallons and Melvin Holt were both owners of it. Taking the hill road nearby, the first house was built by Henry C. Hoadley; the stone house was built by H. H. H. Rood in 1856. The next house is not an old one. It was built by George Rood. In 1832 a house stood on the south side of the road, owned by Abner Beckwith. The house at the junction of the roads was built in 1826 by Abel Slayton. Isaac Parker lived here till he moved to the Village. Mon- roe Perkins and his family have owned this farm for a good many years. Eleazer Parker of Mansfield, Conn., set- tled in this region in 1782.
Returning to the main road and going towards the South Village the first house is on the site of the home of Joseph
J. Foster Rhoades, once owner of Maplewood Melvin Holt, owner of Tavern on Porch. Dr Logan of Woodstock with cap, and
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KEDRON TAVERN
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Built by Richard Ransom. Owned by the Paul Kendall Family
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Sterling. Probably the frame of this house was put up in 1782. The outside until recent years was covered with plaster. Mrs. Elias Logan, a granddaughter of Sterling lived in this house. South of the house, once stood another one and between them a road climbed the hill and passed the brick house built by Amaziah Kendall. The brick house opposite the old mill was built for the occupancy of Dr. Lee, when he was Principal of the Academy in the 1850's. The old Powers house near the mill was built in 1817 but it burned and the one there now is of recent construction. The old house was built by Levi Washburn.
Near the ancient tomb north of the hotel a road goes off to the west. The first house has been much changed. It has a wonderful stone walled cellar, such as the Paul Kendall house has. Wm. Minor Lord sold this land to Charles and Monroe Mackenzie. The deed is recorded in 1828 but the stone gate posts have the year 1827 cut on them. Cut into the stone is A. D. 1827 C. M. M. and again A. D. Deeds were not always recorded the moment the land was sold. Often a year passed before they got onto the books, but Monroe Mackenzie lived here and friendly relationships were maintained with the Perkins family on Scott hill for Mrs. Cyrus Perkins was his half sister. The Weedens lived here later and then the Marshalls bought the house and tore out the brick kiln in which Monroe Mackenzie fired the pottery he made. One of these jars is pictured in this book. The house once had a beautiful Colonial doorway. This now is the summer home of Mrs. E. W. Belcher. The house on the left was built by Wm. Minor Lord in 1806. Marshall Jaquith and Richard Hayes both owned it. In recent years it has been much done over. A comfortable
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SOUTH WOODSTOCK
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One of the few jars from the South Woodstock Pottery
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house stood on the right just where the road goes up the hill. The Lovejoys lived in it. Mrs. Lovejoy distinguished herself by being one of the very few women who belonged to the list of "Individuals" at the Chapel. From this fact, we know that she was a woman of convictions. Emanuel Morgan lived here, so did Albert Stearns and family. The house has burned.
Following the road up the hill to the right, one reaches the home of Anne Bosworth Greene. The map of 1832 has the road to this house, going over from the lower part of Fletcher Hill on the west and ending on the hill road above the Slayton farm to the east. It was a Pent road. Oliver Holt lived here at that time. In 1773 Amasa Delano settled on Lot No. 2 Grout tract. His deed is dated March 30, 1785. Richard Hayes and Jabez Delano were witnesses. Delano lived here a few years and then moved to Lot No. 6 in the third range of the Apthorp tract west. In 1792 he gave this farm to his son Jabez and he moved to Windsor. Thomas Jefferson Slayton bought this farm in 1837 and repaired the house. He sold the barn to Benjamin Hathorn who lived here many years, as did his son-in-law, Mr. Hopkins.
When one reaches the Fletcher School region, entry has then been made into the Cottle neighborhood. There were so many of them that it was called Cottle Town. Joseph and Sylvanus led the van. They came from Martha's Vine- yard. Then came John and Edward. Jabez and Warren settled nearer the present village as already mentioned. While they lasted, they owned much land and were de- cidedly influential. The name has disappeared and no de- scendants are left in our midst. The large brick house where
Brick House built in the 1850S
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the Bagleys lived was built in 1817 by Salmon Hoisington. His ancestor, Asahel Hoisington was one of the very first settlers in this region, he bought this land in 1771 from his brother Joab who built his cabin where the Savings Bank stands at the Green. Asahel sold out in 1802 to Salmon and left for York State. B. T. Hopkins lived in this house as did a family named Carlton. Carlos Adams bought it and it was his home many years and then it once was occupied by one of his daughters and her family. All this region was settled early and I propose to give the names of a few of the Pioneers and the date when they became Vermonters, without attempting that most complicated job of giving their exact location which involves the reading of the early deeds, and the study of all land transactions. My own life is too short to do it and the general location is sufficient for the casual reader. Ephraim Allen bought land and a house in 1786, John Mack, 1791, John Ham- mond of Rochester, Mass., 1779, Nathan Avery, 1789, James Perry of Middleboro, Mass., 1787, Nehemiah Mack, 1782, James Cobb of Middleboro, Mass., 1777. Over on the north side of Meeting House Hill, Ichabod Perry located in 1777, on that same road, which finally comes out at Lincoln Bridge. Benjamin Mack of East Haddam, Conn., settled, 1786. Next was Stephen Paddock, 1794, then Wm. Paddock, south of him, 1780. In this neighbor- hood were the Brewers and Hunts. The Hunt deed is dated 1776. Wm. McClay's farm was near the foot of Fletcher Hill. The Greens and Edward Church were nearby. McClay bought his farm in 1779 of Elisha Hunt. Stephen McClay, a son, lived on the road with the Perrys and Macks and Howlands.
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Going back to the Fletcher School was the James Fletcher house built in 1820 by Foster Taylor. Passing over the road to Townsend's Corners, the Bushrod Fletcher house was built by Daniel Perkins in 1806. Two houses stood further on in 1832. One of which was occupied by the Myricks, and right at the Corners lived E. Royce, later the Townsends. South of these Corners lived the Adams family in a brick house which stood on the right side of the road. Across the road lived one of the families of Fields and later the Blossoms. Going from the present Erwin Ful- lerton house, is a short road where lived in 1832, the Stows and Oliver Kendall. His father Jacob Kendall had lived here. It is now the home of part of Isaiah Fullerton's fam- ily. A Cummings family lived on this road also. Across the hill from this house to the south on a back road which is entered a short distance above the Standish farm lived the Barneses. Anthonys and Blossoms were successive owners of the same property.
Passing through the village to the south and going up the hill one comes to the Upwey Farm. The first house on this site was built by Sylvester Edson Sr. in 1806. The place was sold to John Lake and the house burned in February 1815. It was rebuilt the following summer. Ira Kendall moved into this house in 1840 and he was succeeded by his son Larned whose home it was till his death when Mrs. Ken- dall sold the farm. The Edsons settled in 1782 just over the Hartland line but in 1798 he built a frame house on the hill east of the Upwey Farm. Isaac Kendall the direct ancestor of Larned, came to Woodstock in 1780. He built a frame house in 1790. Here he and his wife lived and died. This frame house was occupied by his son Ira. Larned
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Kendall sold this farm in 1868 to Thaddeus L. Fletcher who lived there many years. It is now a part of Upwey and the house with various repairs still stands. Abraham Ken- dall settled on the next farm in 1779. His descendants from Jason Kendall to Kendall Hoadley lived on it. After Mr. Hoadley's death, the place was sold to Mrs. Seymour Ballard. The road forks just beyond this house, going up the steep hill, two roads branch from the Main road, one to the left, the other to the right. On the one to the left is a stone house which was the home of Putnam Burk who was the father of only twelve children. All of whom at- tended the Ralph School. The house was probably built by his father Ebed Burk for Putnam's name does not ap- pear among the record of deeds. Avery Colston lived here. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Parker now own it. Taking the right turn, the road goes through the woods, swings around a partial circle and joins the Main road by the Ballard place. Old timers in Vermont called that driving around the "gool." I spell it as the word is pronounced, which without doubt is incorrect, but it conveys the manner of speech. The first house is a brick one. Here lived Benjamins and Holts. The next house is frame and in it have lived Bridges and Pages. These two farms are owned by Mrs. Katharine M. Snell. Mr. Snell gave me the following items about them which are worth preserving. King George II in 1767 made a grant to Levi Willard and Associates, lands embracing these tracts. Then Willard sold much of this section to Charles Apthorp. There were four ranges of lots each consisting of one hundred acres and each num- bered from east to west. In 1782 Daniel Davis of Harvard, Mass., sold some of this land to Jacob Holt. Joshua Holt
The Tom Boyd House
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sold to Uriah Holt and then Uriah and his wife Sarah sold to Jacob and Jacob sold to Nathan and he to Jacob Jr. It was the year 1809. All of these Holts lived in Ash- burnham, Mass., and they certainly had a grand time sell- ing to each other. Some of them are now living on this confiscated land. In 1817 Nathan and Oliver Holt sell the farm "our father formerly owned" to Jacob Jr. The next year Jacob Jr. and Nathan sell to William Bridge who had married their sister Susan. This sale covers the present Snell home. Financial difficulties ensued and the property passed to L. G. Bigelow. Edmund Page lived here from 1853 to 1869. There were more money troubles and a good deal of shifting ownership until 1901 when Mrs. Snell be- came the owner.
The next house is a large brick one built by George Lake. Just when he built it I do not know-but he died in it in 1816. His son Daniel succeeded him. Later Edward Atwood owned the farm and then the Nevins. It is now the property of Mrs. Thomas Boyd. Now we are back to the Jason Kendall farm, and must go up the hill road to the neighborhood settled by the Slayton and the Ralphs which was School District 17. Daniel Ralph was the first settler, coming in 1775. He lived where Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Jaquith have their home. By the Ralph graveyard, a road once passed to the west which entered the Reading hill road near the top, on this road Samuel Slayton settled in 1780. Joshua Slayton settled nearby Samuel in 1782. Cellar holes and a fine spring tell where these houses stood. David Slayton erected his cabin on this hill, having made his first purchase in 1773.
Near the top of Slayton Hill a road once turned to the
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left and came out near where the Robert Parkers lived. There is a cellar hole on this short road where lived James Murdock who came to Woodstock in 1780 and was the father of only twenty-three children. Pink roses still bloom about this ancient cellar hole. Holts and Morgans also lived on this hill which is sometimes called Morgan Hill.
Now we shall travel down the Kedron Valley. In all of the old records and on all of the old maps, this brook which we call the Kedron bears only the name, South Branch. The students of the Academy thought that it should have a dignified name and some of them proposed that it should be called the Jordan which seemed fitting as Mt. Pisgah was nearby, but a handsome boy, the son of a minister, knowing something of Bible lands and having an ear for euphonious sounds, proposed that it should be called the Kedron. Mrs. Mary Ann Kendall and her sisters placed their approval on this name and they, being influential, the name Kedron stayed and we all call this lovely wind- ing brook by that name. The lad who named it was Almon Gunnison who is mentioned in the chapter which tells about the students at the Academy.
Chance and change are busy ever. Man decays or moves away and his foot-steps like the sands are shifting every day. This thought is deeply impressed by the happenings in the Valley of the Kedron. The Woodstock map of 1832 gives the following names of residents from the limits of the Green up to and including the Christie Farm. Begin- ning at the north, the family names are as follows: Swan, French, Brewster, Taft, Blackwell, Richardson, Royce Christie. These are all on the west side of the road. On the east side three roads climb the hills. At the upper end
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of the first one, lived Mr. Taft, on the main road, the Sterlings. Up the second hill road, Smith, Pelton, Bing- ham, Sanderson, Houghton. At the end of the Pent road beyond the Smiths lived Simeon Dunham. Up the third road were the Shaws and Ladds and Lords. C. M. White gave me the names of the people living in the Valley in 1860. As far as possible I shall give the dates of the build- ing of these houses, the names of the people who lived in them in 1860, and some of the later owners. The stone house was built by Wm. Bailey Jr. in 1857. Harvey Dutton lived there many years. It is now owned by the Aycriggs. The next house was built by Wm. Bailey, Sr., 1850. Lathrop Vaughan lived in it in 1860.
H. H. Daniels and Otis Waite both have owned this property. It belongs now to Mr. Francis Fay and is occu- pied by his farmer. The small one story house was built in 1830. It was the home of A. M. French and then Edward Kenyon with his brilliant and handsome wife Nellie. She was one of the high lights of Spiritualism and went about the countryside preaching her beliefs. I own the photo- graph of her from which the picture was made, which appears in this chapter. She is dressed in the gay and volum- inous style of the 60's. Going up the hill road a short distance, the house of Charles Carlisle was reached. He was a famous grower of strawberries. All the land in this imme- diate section was the Ephraim Brewster Farm which re- mained in the family until recent years. The house on the road was built in 1789 but has been much changed by repairs. Ephraim's wife Marjory outlived him many years. She was almost one hundred when she died. Her obituary notice said "She had seen the wilderness blossom as the
Gaius Perkins
Otis Wood
Nellie Kenyon
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rose. She was a pious excellent woman. Our life contains a thousand strings and dies if one is gone; Strange that a harp of a thousand strings should keep in tune so long." F. A. Trudo now lives on this farm.
The house on the east side of the road was probably built by Seth Sterling who moved there in 1793. His son William succeeded to the ownership and later two grand- sons, Frank and John. Frank stayed in the old house and John lived in the later built one, just south of the original home. Henry Morgan's father and mother lived in the older house, which is now the home of Mrs. Chapin and Melvin Houghton owns the other house. The little house by the tumbling brook on the west side of the road was built by Jonathan Styles in 1804. Reuben Douglas was there in 1860. G. E. Thomas' mother was born in this house. Sev- eral families have lived in it. It is now the home of Floyd Holt. We approach the Dunham Hill road, the house on the east side was the home in 1860 of John Bryant; the one on the south was originally a shop, the Ira Dutton house was not built till 1862. There may have been some sort of house there earlier. We will not go up the Dunham Hill road till later. John Blackwell still lived on the west side of the road a short distance beyond the hill road. His name appears frequently on the day books of the old stores. He bought things for his daughters repeatedly. His hillside home has disappeared, also the memory of his fam- ily. Where Harry Baker lives, the first man to settle was Capt. Killam, he sold to Joseph Perry who built the large two story house in 1798, intending to have a tavern but his dream faded and he sold very soon to Ezekiel Fitz and he sold to Dr. Lysander Richardson, who moved from the
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Green and began to live here in 1800. His well known son Chauncey kept the place till his death in December 1888. Chauncey Richardson was greatly interested in the town history. The old files of papers in the Norman Williams Library contain many articles by him of historical value. All educational projects appealed to him. He liked every- thing that gave intellectual stimulus and he was a par- ticipant in all such endeavors. The house across the brook was moved there from another site. Mr. and Mrs. Richard Kingsley lived here and many other people. Going up this hill we come to the home place of Capt. Elisha Lord who came from Lyme, Conn., and settled here in 1788. His son succeeded him and lived on the same site till his death in 1873. I remember the wreck of an old house further up the hill which had been the home of John Douglas, a brother of Reuben on the brook road. George Washington Colston took over the Douglas Farm in 1872. Now all signs of the house are gone and these farms belong to Nor- man Williams. The Christie house which was made of brick and stood well back from the road on the road to the west was erected in 1828. The Christies had two sons, both of whom died in the 60's. One of them was a senior at Tufts College when he passed away. His classmates came to South Woodstock to attend his funeral which was held in the Universalist Chapel. They reached White River Junction by train from Boston and rode in sleighs to the South Village. The snow was deep and the weather very cold. One of the classmates was Dr. Carvell of Somerville whom we came to know as physician and friend. Several times he told us about that difficult journey. Dean Cabot lived in this house. When we came to Woodstock it had been
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burned and its shattered walls were picturesque against the background of hills. A little white house was built there after many years. Now a handsome house has been erected by Mr. and Mrs. Fowler.
Passing up Dunham Hill the first farm was a part of the land owned by Ebenezer Dike, often spelt Dyche in the old records, and he sold it to Arnold Smith in 1805. His son Oliver succeeded him, and he sold it to Ward Rich- ardson in 1858. Oliver during his occupancy built the present house. The farm is still owned by the Richardson family. Hatzel Pelton in 1802 came from Connecticut and bought land from Dike up beyond the Richardson place. At the end of the old Pent road to the right above the Smiths, the Dunhams settled in 1780. Various generations of them lived there. The old house disappeared long ago. The present owner is mentioned elsewhere. Tracy Bing- ham lived where the Henrys live on the road up the hill. He built the house back of it for his son Elwin. Dunhams and Houghtons have lived in it. On up the hill we reach the old home of James Sanderson, who was succeeded by his interesting and most picturesque son Benjamin, about whom a book could be written, and he was succeeded by his two sons-in-law, Morgan and Cary. The Morgans lived in the old house which was built probably before 1794. A wing of it was moved back to the end of the road and the Carys lived there. The old house was painted red, the good old red made from Brandon clay and whale oil. It is only white now. George Seldes has owned it and Mrs. Goodridge owns the Cary house. Israel Taylor Houghton who settled on Biscuit Hill in 1793 eventually through various movings got unto this ridge. His sons were Plu-
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tarch and Cyrenus, the latter married into the Dunham family. Plutarch settled over the ridge and Cyrenus stayed on the west side.
James Harwood who came to Woodstock in 1769 lived in his cabin where Mrs. Fred T. Kidder owns a hill house, Harwood's son-in-law John Call with his brother Isaiah lived on this hillside. John knew Washington while in the Revolutionary service. I found a newspaper item of Jan- uary 9, 1873 written by Isaac Parker, a South Parish man who had gone to Illinois to live which reported to the home folks that Osman Call, a son of Isaiah Call, who had settled in Knox Co., Illinois, had just died. Other early settlers on these hills were Clothier Pryor, Benjamin How- ard, Jonathan Wait, John Hayes, Francis Hendrick, Na- than Avery.
For a good many years a Lyceum was maintained in School District No. 14. The meetings were in the school house. They had debates, discussions, sings, spelling bees. Mrs. Eva Dunham Chandler had many memories of it, and Sidney Richardson knew about these gatherings. Some of the families actively connected with the undertaking were the Darlings, Dunhams, Morgans, Houghtons, Binghams, Kenyons, Sterlings, Christies, Thomases, Chauncy Rich- ardson, Mrs. Betsey Soule and her mother Mrs. Pelton. They were people with active minds and did their own thinking and created their own entertainments. They knew neither movies nor radios.
I own two letters and a dissertation on the causes of the Civil War, written in August 1866, at Milwaukee, Wis- consin. They belong to a romance connected with this special neighborhood. A correspondence was begun
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through some Spiritualistic paper, between this man in Milwaukee and a woman of the Kedron Valley. Letters must have passed with great frequency. There were dis- cussions on the subjects then arresting people's minds. Photographs were exchanged and commented on. The woman is addressed as "My Green Mountain Friend." Out of this correspondence, a marriage resulted, though he confessed that he had been attracted by at least two other women. The man was an inventor. I own three official documents which he received from the U. S. Patent Of- fice, they are all signed and sealed in the most legal man- ner. One of these is dated July 10, 1855, the inventor then lived in Oswego, N. Y. This patent was given for an exca- vating machine. One is dated October 2, 1860 and the place of residence was Cincinnati, Ohio and a patent was received for a device for printing names on newspapers. The third one is dated 1867 and is for a numbering ma- chine. The drawings for these machines are carefully exe- cuted. Later on this man in conjunction with two others invented the Remington typewriter. I have received a letter from the Remington people, giving the history of this invention.
Two children were born to this couple neither of whom were well balanced, but were bright in streaks. The man died early and the widow and her children returned to her old home in Woodstock. A very inadequate settlement was made by the firm which manufactured the typewriters and with the passing years, the poverty of the family was extreme and there was real suffering. Kindly friends made me their messenger of relief and we did what we could to ease the situation. She was an excellent botanist and
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