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Ml^SISiU) VALLEY.

HISTORY

OF THL

MISSISCO VALLEY.

37 /

BY SAMUEL SUMNER, M. A. '^^7

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTICE OF ORLEANS COUNTY,

BY REV. S. R. HALL.

PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE ORLEANS COUNTY
HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

IRASBURGH:

A. A. EARLE, BOOK PRINTER.
1860.

9U
'^7

PEEFACE.

The objects of the Orleans County Natural and Civil
JIiSTORiCAL Society, formed in 1853, are expressed in the
first Article of the Constitution — to be, " to promote the
study of Natural History, primarily of Orleans Coimty and
Northern Vermont ; — rand also, to collect and preserve, while
the early settlers in the county are able to furnish them, the
items of interest in the civil history of the county, which would
otherwise be soon lost to the future historian."

While the object, first mentioned, has not been neglected,
and a valuable cabinet of minerals has been contributed, and
many interesting articles collected, — there have been strong
reasons for maTcing the second object a leading one, during the
first years of the Tabors of the Society. The natural history
of the county is, from year to year, becoming more and more
developed ; but the means of gathering up the incidents of
pioneer life, hardships, sufferings, &c., are 'yearly diminishing.

It is, therefore, proper that the early publications of the
Society should have reference, rather to the civil, than the
natural history of the County. That portion, now committed
to the press, has precedence, because first prepared, by the
p7-aiseivorthy energy of the Author,

It will be preceded by a very brief general notice of the
County, omitting details, till after a notice of Black River
valley, and Barton and Clyde River valleys shall have been
prepared and published.

ORLEANS COUNTY.

This County is situated in the central part of Northern
Vermont ; being bounded on the North by Canada East, on
the South by Caledonia, on the East by Essex, and on the
West by Franklin and Lamoille counties. It was an unbroken
wilderness till after the Revolutionary war, and inhabited only
by Indians. Hunters had visited it, and soldiers had passed
through some portions of it, in military excursions. A portion
of Rogers' men, returning, after the destruction of St. Francis
indian village in 1759, passed through, from Memphremagog
lake, by Lake Beautiful, in Barton, on their way to the foot of
the jfifteen mile falls, on Connecticut river, or what was then
called lower Coos! Marks made on the trees by these sol-
diers, it is believed have been discovered in several towns,
and also a ^^ shirt of mail" and the remnants of an "iron
spider " have been found, that were probably left by them.
A son of one of these soldiers is now a resident in tlie county,
after the lapse of more than a century !

Many years later, a military road was made through the
South-West portion of the county, to Hazens' notch in the
present town of Westfield. The traces of that road, though
made during the early part of the Revolution, are still distinct
in Greensboro, Craftsbury, Albany, and Lowell.

The county was incorporated November 5, 1792, and em-
braced twenty-two townships and some gores. Craftsbury

and Brownington, were constituted half-shire towns. When
the new county Lamoille was constituted, three towns
were embraced in the limits of that county, and the area of
Orleans was diminished by more than one hundred square
miles. Irasburgh was constituted the shire town in 1816.
The number of towns remaining in the county is nineteen.

The physical geography, and geology of Orleans county
are diverse from any other portion of the State. It is situated
almost wholly within the Y of the Green mountians. The
streams mostly flow northerly and north westerly, toward Mem-
phremagog lake. The Missisco river flows northerly, till
it enters Canada, and then turning westward finds a pas-
sage into Champlain. But the upper valley of this stream is
appropriately classed with others, the waters from which flow
into Memprhemagog. The latter lake, at no very distant
geological period, no doubt, covered the low lands of the
Missisco valley, as well as those bordering on Black, Barton
and Clyde rivers. The highest land between the lake and
Missisco valley is, in some places, probably not more than one
hundred to one hundred and fifty feet.

The county is more abundantly supplied with lakes, ponds
and streams, than any other portion of Vermont, if not New
England, of equal area. Black, Barton and Clyde river, are
almost entirely limited to the county, also the head waters of
the Missisco, and Wild branch. Several streams which flow
north into Conada, and empty into Magog and St. Francis
rivers, rise in ponds within the county.

A considerable portion of Memphremagog lake, Caspian
lake, Willoughby lake, Morgan lake, Chrystal lake, or Lake
Beautiful, are with a very large number of ponds, within the
county.

These ponds and lakes furnished abundance of the finest

fish, to the Indians, hunters and early settlers*. They also
were the home of numerous beaver and otter; while the
meadows on the numerous rivers, furnished rich pasture to
moose and deer, thousands of which were killed principally
for their skins.

The face of the country differs considerably from other
parts of the state. The general slope is northward ; and
though there is considerable difference in the height of arable
land, the highest points are reached by a general rise, and the
summits or ridges are capable of convenient cultivation.
Precipitous cliffs and ledges are very uncommon, except on
the western boundary. From Hazens notch to Jay peak, is a
continuous mountain range, varying from 2500 to 4000 feet
above the ocean. The summit of Jay peak, in the north-west
corner of Westfield, is 4018 feet above tide water. The
summit of Westmore mountain, in the extreme east part, is
nearly 3000 feet.

EUigo Pond, Craftsburj', is

863 feet above the ocean.

Hosmore Pond, "

1001 " "

Lake Beautiful, Barton,

933 "

Island Pond, Salem,

967 "

Pensioners Pond, Charleston,

1140 "

Island Pond, Brighton,

1182 " "

Morgan Lake, Morgan,

1160 "

Willoughby Lake, Westmore,

1161 "

Memphremagog Lake,

695 "

South Troy village.

740 " "

Irasburgh, (Court House),

875 " "

Barton village,

953 "

Derby, (Centre).

975 " "

Derby, (Line),

1050 "

Craftsbury Common,

1158 " '"

BrowningtOD, (village),

1113 "

* About the year 1800, Mr. Erastus Spencer, ■5\'ith Mr. Elijah Spencer, and two
others residing in the east part of Brownington, went to a pond near the foot of
Bald mountain in Westmore, and in a single day caught more than 500 pounds of
trout, weighed after being dressed. They were obliged to procure oxen to carrj-
home the avails of their days work ! ' ■

Cultivated lands in Holland, Greensboro', Westmore and
a portion of Glover, vary from 1100 to 1500 feet above the
ocean. Most of the lands lying on the rivers, vary from 700
to 1000. Much of the table land, lying between the streams,
is of the best quality for cultivation and grazing. The mead-
ows and intervals are unsurpassed by any in the state.

The soil differs materially in different parts of the county,
by the character of the rock in place. The prevailing rock
in Missisco valley is talcose slate. This variety of rock con~
tains very little carbonate of lime, and decomposes very
slowly. The soil will, therefore, be deficient in lime, except
on the intervals, or drift soil. The rock in the extreme
eastern part of the county is mostly granite or gneiss. The
decomposition of these rocks, is not rapid, but suJBficiently so,
to furnish new materials of value to the soil. The remaining
portion of the county is embraced in the calcareous mica slate
region. These varieties of rock, lime stone, clay and horn-
blend slate, are found interstratified, and all are inclined to
very rapid decomposition, so that the soil will be constantly
enriched by the addition of lime, and the other materials
embraced in the rocks. Decomposed lime and hornblend
slates form the very best varieties of soil for wheat, grass^
barley, &c.

In the northern part of the county the soil is a deep loam,
resulting from di'ift agency, and in many instances, covering
the rock in place to a great depth. This soil, originating
in a region of purer limestone at the north, is rich in salts of
lime and very highly productive. Troy, Newport, Coventry,
Derby and Holland, contain many thousand acres of this
variety of soil, of great excellence.

A prominent fact, in the entire calcareous mica slate re-
gion, is the immense growth of sphagnous peat or muck. This

substance has already filled the basins of many original ponds,
and those formed by beavers ; and is rapidly accumulating
on the borders of many others. Beneath many of these beds
of peat, or muck, shell marl is found in large quantities, fur-
nishing abundant material for manufacturing the best quality
quality of caustic lime. When peat or muck is combined with
■wood ashes, or lime, in the proportions of two bushels of the
latter to a cord of the former, it is more valuable as manure
than any made at the barn. Nothing exceeds it in value, as
a topdressing for grass lands. The abundance and distribu-
tion of this substance is very remarkable. In one town the
writer surveyed the deposites of muck, and found more than
640 cords for each acre of land in the township. Many other
towns have an equal supply. These beds of muck constitute
the future iveallk of the agriculturist. Most of the arable
land in the county may be easily enriched, to any degree
desired. The natural soil is not inferior to that in any por-
tion of New England, but these resources of indefinitely
increasing its fertility, add immensely to its value.

Another part should be noticed. The numerous rivers and
streams in the county furnish an immense amount of most
valuable water 'power. Excellent sites for mills, factories, &c.,
abound; — only a small part of which have as yet been
improved. This should excite no surprise, when it is remem-
bered that but little more than half a century has elapsed,
since the Indian wigwam occupied the site of our smiling
villages, and the "wild fox dug his hole unscared," in what
are now our best cultivated fields, and where rural dwellings
are scattered over hill, plain and valley.

The climate does not vary materially from other portions
of the state of similar latitude and altitude. The altitude
is greater than that of the Champlain valley, but less than

the upper valley of Conuecticui river. The Memphremagog'
lake and other large bodies of water moditj the temperature^
and the average range of the thermometer at Craftsbury,
Brownington and Derby, is only a few degrees lower than at
Burlington, The winters are long, and the cold somewhat
severe. But the greater uniformity of temperature, from
November to April, than what is usual, either in Champlain
valley, or on the Atlantic slope, in the same latitude, is an
important compensation- Men and animals suffer less from
a continuous low temperature, than by frequent changes from
a higher to a lower. The thermometer does not fall so low,
as at places considerably further south. Early frosts are less
frequent than in many parts of Massacliusetts.

There are really but tivo seasons, summer and winter.
The transition from one to the other is commonly sudden.
The only real inconvenience to the agriculturalist is the
shortness of seedtime. The summers are generally suffi-
ciently long and warm to mature corn — the exceptions being
rare, in favorable locations. Domestic animals not only
thrive and mature well, but have a decided preference in the
market over those reared in many other sections of country.
Better horses, oxen, or cows, than the average of those reared
in the county, are not easy to find. The quantity of butter
made from a cow, is not exceeded, if equaled, iu any pari of
New England.*

The forest trees are similar to those generally in northern
New England and Canada East. The arbor vita, (white
cedar,) is however more abundant, and of larger size than in
any other portion of the northern states. The sugar maple
is the glory of the forests, furnishing as it does in every town,

♦More than two hundred pounds per cow, has been sold frequently from dairies
of considerable size, beside the supplies of a family.

an important revenue of saccharine secretions, conducive
alike to health, pleasure and profit.

The noble pine, formerly abundant, has, alas, suflfered so
much from Vajidal extirpators, as hardly to have a represen-
tative now of its once toiverino- height and srisantlc hidk.
Ruthless hands have laid this forest king in an untimely
grave ! True, here and there a scattered few remain, that
feebly represent the glory of the fallen, as the Indian of this
age does the Phillips and Tecumsehs of the former. Would
that the insane cupidity of early settlers had spared a few
of these magnificient specimens of the former forests. But
all that our children can know of them, is learned from the
large stumps that yet adhere to the earth which reared
them.*

A few of the immense elms remain, and it is hoped may
long be preserved, to exhibit a trace of the magnificence of
the early forests.

The first settlements in the county were made simultane-
ously at Greensboro and Craftsbury, in 1788. Most of the
other towns were settled prior to the commencement of the
present century. An account of the early settlers, their
hardships and sufferings will be more appropriately given in
the history of the several towns, the publication of which it
is hoped will not be long delayed. The history of Black
River Valley, embracing Greensboro' and Newport, is in an
advanced state of preparation. The history of Barton and
Clyde River Valley's, together with the towns of Holland and
Morgan, it is hoped will be completed at no distant period,
and also a full account of the natural history of this portion
of Vermont. S. R. H.

»A pine recently felled in Coventry, yielded 4131 feet of inch boards !

MISSISCO VALLEY.

I. — GEOGRAPHY.

The upper valley of the Missisco, comprising the towns of
Troy, Westfield, Jay, Lowell, and a small portion of the
Province of Canada, lies between the Western range of the
Green Momitains, and the range of highlands dividing the
waters of the Missisco from those of Black River and Lake
Memphreraagog.

The "Western lines of Jay, Westfield, and Lowell, com-
monly extend a short distance over the summits of the Green
Mountain range, which divides Orleans from Franklin County ;
but the East lines of Troy and Lowell generally do not
extend to the height of land towards Black River and Lake
Memphremagog. The length of the valley in a direct line
from Canada line to the South line of Lowell and the source
of the Missisco river, is about eighteen miles. The width of
the whole valley from the summit of the mountains West, to
the height of laud on the East, is from six to ten miles. The
towns of Jay and Westfield are each, according to their char-
ters, six miles square.

The town of Troy lies on the East of these towns, almost
the entire length of them, and is oblong and irregular in its
form, being eleven and one half miles in length from North to
South, whilst the North line is about five miles, and its South

line about two miles in length. The town of Lowell lies
South of both Troy and Westfield, and is still more irregular
in its form, being almost in the shape of a triangle, and con-
tains thirty-seven thousand acres. These four towns, accord-
ing to their charters and original surveys, contain one hundred
and six thousand and eighty acres. The general face of the
country is that of two great slopes or inclined plains, extend-
ing from the summits of the two chains of mountains to their
common centre — ^the Missisco river. The height of the
Western or Green Mountain chain is from fifteen hundred to
four thousand feet, and of the Eastern range from three
hundred to fifteen hundred feet, above the river.

II. PONDS AND STREAMS.

There are no natural ponds of any size in this valley ; the
regular slope and steep ascent of hills preventing the accu-
mulation and retention of water to make them. Neither are
there many streams or brooks of much size. Near the con-
fluence of the Missisco with the North or Potton Branch, a
stream of considerable size, called Mud Creek, unites with
the Missisco river from the East.

This stream rises in Newport, and after running some dis-
tance almost parallel with Troy line, passes into Troy, and
after crossing the Northeastern part of that town, runs into
Potton and pays the tribute of its waters to the Missisco, a
short distance above its junction with the North Branch.
Around the confluence of these three streams is a large basin
of interval or meadow land, extending both into Troy and
Potton, which for fertility may well compare with any in the
State. Above this creek there is no stream of any size run-
ning into the Missisco from the East for several miles. The

first which occurs is the Beadle Brook, named from an early
settler, who erected his cabin in the wilderness on its banks.
This stream also rises in Newport, and running West, unites
with the Missisco. On the West side of the river the first
stream of any consequence is Jay Branch, which is the largest
of Jill the Branches. It rises in Jay,, and after receiving
almost all the rivulets of that town, runs into the Missisco
in Troy, about four miles South of the State line.

Farther South is the Coburn Brook, so called. This
stream rises in Westfield and unites with the Missisco a short
distance from Troy village, almost opposite the mouth of the
Beadle Brook. About two miles farther South the Missisco
receives a large accession to its waters from the Taft Branch,
which runs through Westfield village, and receives in its
course almost all the smaller rivulets of Westfield. Another
stream rises in Lowell, near Hazen's Notch, and running
through the Northwestern part of that town, joins the Mis-
sisco near Westfield line.

These are all the principal branches of tlie Missisco in the
valley ; but the river receives large accessions from number-
less springs and smaller rivulets j though the streams men-
tioned are the only ones large enough for mill sites. The
valley is abundantly supplied with water power, the Missisco
and its tributaries afi'ordihg power enough to move all the
cotton factories of New England.

The Missisco river, which, with the mountains, is the most
prominent feature of the valley, rises in the chain of hills or
highlands Southwest of the county, separating the waters of
the Lamoille from the streams running into the Missisco and
Lake Memphremagog.

Two streams or branches rising in this chain of hills near
the line between Lowell and Eden, and on the opposite sides

of Mount Norris, unite near Lowell village and form the
Missisco river. The Eastern branch, just before its junction
with the other, runs over a series of rapids or ledges, afford-
ing many excellent mill sites. After the union of the two
streams the river runs in a Northeasterly course two or three
miles, in the town of Lowell, crosses the town line into W^st-
field, and runs thence four miles through the Southeastern
part of that town and passes into Troy, and flows almost the
entire length of that town.

For several miles below Lowell vilTage, the river flows with
a gentle current through a valuable body of interval, but has
no falls or rapids suitable for mill sites. The first water fall
suitable for mills is about a mile below Troy village, at
Phe'ps's Falls. Below these falls the meadows are not so
continuous ; high rocky bluffs occasionally appear, intermin-
gled with frequent tracts of fertile intervals. In passing
these ledges the course of the river is commonly rapid, and
the fall sufficient for mills. Four of these falls occur between
the falls just mentioned and North Troy, two only of which
have been improved, one where the furnace is erected, and
the other at the Great Falls.

The most remarkable of these falls is about one and a half

miles south of North Troy, called the Great Falls, described

in Thompson's Vermont. The fall in this river is probably

not so great as described by Mr. Thompson, but the over-
hanging cliff presents a scene truly grand — almost terrific.
The river here runs over a steep, rocky bottom, through a
zig-zag channel, worn through a ledge of rocks. • The banks
rise precipitously, and on one side absolutely overhang the
river to the height of from eighty to one hundred feet, and
the dizzy visitor in viewing the cataract in the time of high

water, from the overhanging cliff, is filled with awe at the
wild sublimity and grandeur of the scene.

The river then runs to the village of North Troy, where
there is an excellent fall for mills, and three-fourths of a mile
below North Troy crosses the State line into Canada. After
running about three miles in Potton it unites with another
stream called the North Branch, which is about one-third less
than the Southern or Troy branch of the Missisco. This
north branch rises some sixteen or eighteen miles farther
North in the town of Bolton, and passing through that town-
ship and Potton, runs through a valley very much resembling
our own.

These two vallies may be compared to two vast amphithe-
atres, enclosed on one side by the Green Mountains, and on
the other by the range of hills dividing the Missisco valley
from the valley of the Memphremagog. The two rivers run
in almost opposite directions, the one North and the other
South, from their sources to their point of confluence ; and
the whole valley on these two rivers extends almost in a
straight line from the defile which we pass between Lowell
and Eden, about forty or fifty miles to a similar defile at the
head of the North branch in Bolton ; affording a direct and
level route which will at some future day be a great thorough-
fare from the central part of this State to the heart of the
French settlements in the valley of the St. Lawrence.

The Geography of Vermont presents one remarkable fea-
ture. Our highest chain, the Western range of the Green
Mountains, is intersected by our largest rivers, the Winooski,
Lamoille and Missisco. But the course of the Missisco
through these highlands is the most singular, and is perhaps
an exception to all others.

In passing this range of mountains, we might naturally

expect a succession of liigh, precipitoui? cliffs for river banks/
and a channel abounding with precipices and water falls ; but
instead of this, the river from Troy to Richford, passing the
mountains, flows through fertile and level meadows, with a
sluggish current, without a rapid or water fall, until it re-
enters the State at Richford.

III. — SOIL.

Through the valley the course of the river is generally
lined with a succession of rich alluvial intervals. Much of
this is overflowed by the spring freshets and produces luxu-
riant crops of grass and most kinds of grain — particularly
Indian corn. Ascending from these intervals at no great
height are commonly found either large plains or gently ele-
vated hills composed of sand, clay, and gravel or loam, in
which sand generally predominates ; the whole often being
well mixed. These plains and hills are easily tilled and well
adapted to most kinds of produce.

Rising still farther and receding from the river, is found a
great slope or inclined plane, of easy ascent. These gener-
ally have a rich soil resting on a substratum of rock or hard-
pan, and are well adapted to the culture of grass, English
grain, potatoes and fruit. Ascending still farther the soil
becomes thinner, and rocks and ledges more frequent.

This land when cleared produces a good crop of grain and
then affords a rich pasture. The summits of the mountains
on the "West are generally steep, and are composed of rock
covered with a thin soil, and a growth of stunted Evergreens.

This glade of land does not generally occupy a space of
more than from half a mile to a mile in width and is almost
the only land in the valley which can be called worthless.

The valley is of easy access from abroad, notwithstanding
the chains of mountains which appear to surround and hem
it in. The most uneven and difficult roads leading into it,
are from the East. On the South a defile at the head of the
Missisco affords a level and easy entrance from the valley of
the Lamoille, and on the North a like defile at the head of
the North branch affords like facilities for a road, so that
without encountering a hill, we may pass from the valley of
the Lamoille through this valley to that of the St. Lawrence ;
whilst on the West the broad vale, through which the river
passes, affords every advantage for a smooth and level road
to the great valley of Lake Champlain. The general appear-
ance of the valley is naturally picturesque and interesting^
presenting many prospects of surpassing beauty and sublim-
ity, and were it improved by cultivation and adorned by
wealth and taste, it might well compare with the celebrated
vales of Italy and Greece.

IV. — ROCKS AND MINERALS.

The two great chains of mountains which enclose the
valley, on the East and West, are composed of rock similar
to other parts of the Green Mountain range. Talcose slate
is the prominent rock of the Western range. Argillaceous
slate, interstratified with the former, and with Alterated slate,
and Novaculite, constitutes the Eastern hills. Granite ap-
pears in the valley of Lake Memphremagog, but none is
found in the Missisco valley, or farther West, except occa-
sional boulders, among loose stone. Near the highest parts
of the mountains West, is a variety of Talcose slate, much
harder than usually abounds, which has sometimes been called
Green Mountain Gneiss. Veins of quartz abound in it.

iThis is a gold bearing rock, and gold has been found in it.

The most striking features of the valley are the immense

ranges of serpentine and soapstone. There are two ranges

of the former, and two of the latter ; extending from Potton

on the North, to Lowell in the South end of the valley. The

quantity of serpentine in Lowell and Westfield, is greater

than in any other part of the county. The Eastern range

contains the veins of Magnetic Iron Ore, which supplied the

furnace at Troy. The quantity is inexhaustible ; but the ore

contains Titanium, and is hard to smelt. The iron when

manufactured) is of the best quality, having great strength

and hardness. It is finely adapted to make wire, screws, &c.

It would make the best kind of rails for railroads. Should

a railroad be constructed in the Missisco valley, this ore will

be of immense value to the county and state. It might, even

now, be wrought with profit to the owners. It makes the

most valuable hollow ware and stoves.

In the serpentine range on the West side ot the river, is

found Chromate of Iron, a mineral of great value in the arts.

The largest beds of it are in the Eastern part of Jay, within

one and a half miles of Missisco river.
Small beds of Chromate of Iron have been found in the

serpentine range, on the East side of the river, South of the
Magnetic Iron ore, in both Troy and Westfield. Most beau-
tiful specimens of Asbestos, common and Ligniform, are found
in the serpentine at Lowell and Westfield. This serpentine
might be wrought, and would be found of equal value to any
in the state. It contains the most beautiful veins of Amian-
thus and Bitter Spar. Some varieties resemble Verde An-
tique.

The soapstone which accompanies the serpentine, is gener-
ally hard, but no doubt might, in many places, be wrought to
great advantage-

Several mineral springs have been discovered, and they
appear to be impregnated more or less with sulphur and iron,
some with magnesia. Most of them are of little or no value.
There is, however, one of these springs near the line be-
tween Troy and Lowell, which merits an examination, and
a more perfect description than can here be given. The
waters have never been analyzed, but have been much
resorted to and used. They have a strong sulphurous taste
and smell, and very much resemble the taste of the Highgate
and Alburgh springs. The water operates as a powerful
diuretic, and is considered very efficacious for sores and
humors, and has been much used in the vicinity for those and
other complaints. If the waters of the spring were analyzed,
and their properties made known, they would doubtless draw
to them many visitors and invalids.

But the most distinguished feature in the Geology of our
valley, is its vast deposits of iron ore before mentioned.
The principal mine of iron ore was discovered in 1833;
it lies in the central part of the town of Troy, in a high
hill, about three-fourths of a mile East of the river.

V. CHARTERS AND GRANTS OP LAND.

The town of Troy was originally granted in two gores of
nearly equal extent ; the North to Samuel Avery, and the
South to John Kelley, in 1792. Westfield was granted to
Daniel Owen and his associates in 1780. All or nearly all
the grantees of this town resided in Rhode Island. Lowell
was granted in 1791 to John Kelley, from whom the town
received its original name of Kelley Vale. Jay was granted
two-thirds to the celebrated John Jay of New York, and
John Cozyne, and the other third in the South part of the

town, to Thomas Chittenden, the first governor of this State.

It would probably be a curious piece of history, if we could
know the motives which were urged, and the intrigues used
to obtain these grants, and the management and speculations
of the grantees if the grants were obtained. The policy of
the State in making these and other grants at that time, may
well be questioned.

The State, probably, never realized any pecuniary advan-
vantage from them. The reason commonly urged for these
lavish grants, was to advance the settlement of wild lands in
the State. The effect was usually different from what was
intended. These towns at the time they were chartered
were remote from any settlement, and some of them had
been granted twenty years before any settlement was made
in them.

The lands in the mean time fell into the hands of specu-
lators ; and by sales, levies of Executions, and vendues for
taxes, titles often became confused and doubtful. Prices
were enhanced by such speculators endeavoring to realize a
fortune from their adventure, and whilst some speculators
realized large sums from their lands, most of them, from
expenses of surveys, agencies, and land taxes, and interest of
money on these advances, sustained heavy losses.

In many instances, when early settlements were attempted,
the consequences were disastrous to the settlers. A few
families were prematurely pushed into a remote wilderness
without roads, mills or any of the conveniences and institu-
tions of civilized life, and were left to encounter innumerable
hardships and privations, and run the hazard of themselves
and their families relapsing into barbarism.

Had the State retained these lands a few years longer, and
granted them only as they were needed for actual settlers, it

might have realized a handsome profit from the lands ; titles
would have been better, a fruitful source of speculation and
knavery prevented, a vast amount of suffering and privation
avoided, and the condition of the settlers and their families
improved.

The North gore of Troy was sold by Mr. Avery to a Mr.
Atkinson, an English merchant residing in Boston. It is said
that Avery received one dollar per acre for his lands ; if so,
he doubtless realized a handsome profit, tut how Atkinson
fared in the trade may be inferred from the fact that these
lands have commonly been sold for two dollars per acre, and
that after sustaining the expenses of agencies, and innumer-
able land taxes for more than half a century. A few of these
lots remain unsold, and are still owned by his heirs and
descendants.

Kelley sold his grant to Franklin & Robinson, a firm in.
New York. They failed, and the grant passed into the hands
of a Mr. Hawxhurst of New York.

His land speculations were about as successful as Atkin-
son's. A few of his lots of land still remain unsold, in the
hands of his son;

As for the town of Lowell, from some old conveyances, we
may infer that Kelley's interest passed as soon as obtained
into the hands of his creditors, among whom were some of
the first names in New York, as Alexander Hamilton, the
Livingstons and others, who condescended to speculate in the
wild lands of Vermont, and sold the town to one William
Duer, for $4,680. The titles of most of the lands of this
town have been bandied about from one speculator to another,
through a maze of conveyances, levies of execution, and
vendue sales for taxes, and a large portion of the town is to
this day held by non-resident owners.

In Jay a portion of the town granted to Governor Chit«
tenden, is still owned by his descendants ; a part of their
grant has been sold mostly within a few years. Of the part
granted to Judge Jay a portion of it was sold by his son
twenty years since, but the greater portion of this grant
passed into the hands of Judge Williams of Concord, about
half a century. ago, and about fifteen years since he gave his
unsold lands, being about fifty or sixty lots, to the University
of Vermont. Bilt a small portion of the lands of this town
were purchased and paid for by actual settlers previous to
the last twenty years.

VI. — SETTLEMENT OF TROY AND OTHER TOWNS.

The military road made by Colonel Uazen during the rev-
olutionary war, from Peacham to Hazen's Notch in Lowell,
had a tendency to extend the knowledge of the Missisco
valley, and create an interest in it. The fertile meadows in
Troy and Potton, attracted attention.

Mr. Josiah Elkins, of Peacham,* a noted hunter and Indian
trader, in company with Lieutenant Lyford, early explored
the Northern part of Orleans County. Their route was to
follow Hazen's road to the head of Black River, and thence
to Lake Memphremagog, where they hunted for furs and
traded with the St. Francis Indians, who then frequented the
shores of that Lake.

Elkins and Lyford sometimes extended their hunting
excursions into the Missisco valley.

The reports they and other hunters and traders made,
probably induced an exploration of the valley with a view to
forming a settlemeat.

In 1796 or '97, a paity of several men from' Peacham, of

!23

which Captain Moses Elkins, a brother of Josiah Elkins, was
one, came up and explored the county. They agreed to
come hither and settle, but none of them except Captain
Elkins had the hardihood to carry this resolution into effect.
He started from Peacham June 7th, 1797, with his furniture
in a cart drawn by a yoke of oxen and a yoke of bulls, and
one cow driven by his son Mark, a boy of nine years old, and
two hired men. After three days they arrived at Craftsbury,
where they were joined by three men from Richford, making
a party of six men and one boy. They proceeded on the old
Hazen road until they crossed the river in Lowell, cutting
out their road as they went. Mrs. Elkins followed them some
days after, riding on horseback with a child three years old,
and attended by a hired man. They overtook her husband
and his party, June 16th, near the centre of Jay, where they
camped for the night, and the next day they arrived at their
home in Potton, which consisted of four crotches set in the
ground, and covered with poles and bark. Captain Elkins
made some improvement on his land, but on the approach of
winter he went down to Richford and wintered there, and
returned to his land the next spring. He was probably the
first white man who settled in this valley.

In 1797, a Mr. Morrill moved into Troy, and erected tt
house about half a mile East of the village of North Troy,
and probably was the first white man who ever wintered in
the valley.

In the fall of 1798, Josiah Elkins moved his brother Curtis
Elkins into Potton, and they erected a house on the place
called the Bailey farm, about half a mile North of the line.
The house was built of logs of course, but they cut, split, and
hewed basswood logs, for their supply of boards and shingles.

Curtis Elkius remained with his family during the winter in
this house.

Josiah Elkins moved from Greensboro' into Potton, Feb,
26, 1799, with his wife and three children, and moved into
the house with his brother Curtis. His route was by what
was called the Lake Road.

The first night in his journey he stopped in Glover ; the
next in Newport, in what was called the old lake settlement ;
and on the third day he arrived at his new home.

The settlement then consisted of Mr. Morrill in Troy,
Capt. Moses Elkins, Curtis Elkins, and Abel Skinner, Esq.,
in Potton. Mr. Jacob Garland and his son-in-law, Jonathan
Heath were there at that time, and moved in their families a
short time after. In the same winter or the following springs
Mr. James Rines and Mr. Bartlett moved into Troy, and set-
tled about a mile South af North Troy village, on the meadows
below the great falls. Mr. Hoyt also moved into Troy, and
settled on the meadows about half a mile North of North
Troy village. Col. Ruyter also, the same winter or spring,
moved into the the West part of Potton, some three or four
miles farther down the river.

A most melancholy event occurred soon after, which cast a
deep gloom and sorrow over the little colony, and the sad
story still lingers in the traditions and rccollectians of the
oldest inhabitants.

On June 10th, 1799, a great freshet occurred, and the
waters of th« river were swollen to an unusual height. The
settlers prompted by a transient adventurer who had visited
them, had provided themselves with several large and elegant
pine canoes, to supply the deficiency of roads and bridges,
and to enable them to pursue their favorite pastime of fishing
and rowing on the water.

Col. Ruyter had recently established, at his residence down
the river, a store of goods, which, according to the custom of
those days, consisted principally of groceries. The colonists,
numbering fifteen or twenty men, in five canoes, proceeded
down the river to visit the Colonel and his store, and test
the goodness of his groceries.

The hours passed jollily away and the day was far spent
before the party was ready to return. Returning in the
evening, when within a mile of their homes the canoe in
which were the three sons of Esq. Skinner, and two other
men, was upset, and the men were precipitated in an instant
into the rapid and swollen current. Three of the five were
rescued by their companions, but the two eldest sons of Esq.
Skinner, young men about eighteen and twenty years of age,
were swept away by the resistless waters and perished.
These young men were said to be of great promise, the
main hope of their parents ; and whatever may have been
the condition of some of the party, they were perfectly sober.
After vainly attempting to rescue these unfortunate youths,
the party were compelled to give up all hopes of recovering
them, and had to carry heavy tidings to the bereaved parents.
The news caused a paroxysm of despair and insanity to the
unhappy father. It required the exertions of several men
during the night and following day, to restrain the raving
father from rushing to the river, and plunging into the stream
to recover his sons, as he vainly thought to bring them back
to life from their watery grave.

After watching the waters and searching the river for a
week, the sympathizing neighbors recovered the bodies of the
young men. One of the settlers who was a professor of
religion, and was considered a pious man, officiated at the
funeral, a prayer was offered, and the remains of the two

brightest hopes of the valley were decently and sorrowfully
consigned to the parent dust. Three or four weeks after-
wards, Judge Olds who had settled in Westfield, and who
had formerly been a clergyman, was called upon to preach a
funeral sermon, which was from the appropriate text, " Be
still and know that I am God."

Tradition relates two well authenticated circumstances,
connected with this mournful event, which may be worthy the
attention of the physiologist. One is that the despairing
father, who was then a man of middle age, with scarce a grey
hair on his head, became in a few days grey, and his hair soon
turned almost white.

The other circumstance is that the mother, who was then
laboring under an attack of the fever and ague, was restored
by the shock the news gave her ; the periodical chill was
broken, and she had no more returns of her complaint that
season.

Several families moved into Troy and Potton in 1799, and
in the winter of 1799 and 1800, a small party of Indians,
of whom the chief man was Capt. Susap, joined the colo-
nists, built their camps on the river, and wintered near them.
These Indians were represented as being in a necessitous
and almost starving condition, which probably arose from the
moose and deer (which formerly abounded here) being
destroyed by the settlers. Their principal employment
was making baskets, birch bark cups and pails, and
other Indian trinkets. They left in the spring and never
returned. They appeared to have been the most numerous
party, and resided the longest time of any Indians who
have ever visited the valley since the commencement of the
settlement.

One of these Indians, a woman called Molly Oi»cntt, excr-

cised her skill in a more dignified profession, and her intro-
duction to the whites was rather curious.

In the fall or beginning of the winter in 1799, one of the
settlers purchased and brought in a barrel of whiskey and
two half barrels of gin and brandy. The necessities of the
people for this opportune supply may be inferred from the
fact that the whole was drunk or sold and carried off within
three days from its arrival. The arrival of a barrel of
liquor in the settlement was, at that time, hailed with great
demonstrations of joy, and there was a i eneral gathering at
the opening of the casks. So it was on this occasion, a
large party from Troy, Potton, and even from Richford,
were assembled for the customary carousal. Their orgies
were held in a new house, and were prolonged to a late
hour of the night.

A transient rowdy from abroad by the name of Perkins,
happened there at that time, and in the course of the night
grew insolent and insulting, and a fight ensued between him
and one Norris, of Potton. In the contest Norris fell, or
was knocked into a great fire that was burning in the huge
Dutch back chimney which was in the room. Norris' hair
and clothes were severely scorched, but the main injury he
sustained was in one hand which was badly burned. The
flesh inside of the hand was burned, or torn ofi" by the fall,
so that the cords were exposed. The injury was so serious
that it was feared he would lose the use of his hand.
A serious diflSculty now arose ; there was no doctor in the
settlement, no Pain Extractors or other patent medicines had
found their way there, and no one in the valley had skill
or confidence enough to undertake the management of so
difficult a case.

Molly Orcutt was known as an Indian doctress, and then

resided some miles off, near the Lake. She was sent for, and
came and built her camp near by, and undertook the case,
and the hand was restored. Her medicine was an applica-
tion of warm milk punch. Molly's fame as a doctress was
now raised. The dysentery broke out with violence that
winter, particularly among children, and Molly's services
were again solicited, and she again undertook the work of
mercy, and again she succeeded. But in this case Molly
maintained all the reserve and taciturnity of her race, she
retained the nature of her prescription to herself, she pre-
pared her nostrum in her own camp, and brought it in a coffee
pot to her patients, and refused to divulge the ingredients of
her prescription to a^iy one ; but chance and gratitude drew
it from her.

In the March following, as Mr. Josiah Elkins and his wife
were returning from Peacham, they met Molly at Arnold's
mills in Derby ; she was on her way across the wilderness to
the Connecticut river, where she said she had a daughter
married to a white man. Mr. Elkins inquired into her means
of prosecuting so long a journey through the forest and snows
of winter, and found she was but scantily supplied with pro-
visions, having nothing but a little bread. With his wonted
generosity, Mr. Elkins immediately cut a slice of pork of
five or six pounds out of the barrel he was carrying home,
and gave it to her. My informant remarks she never saw a
more grateful creature than Molly was on receiving this gift.
" Now you have been so good to me," she exclaimed, " I will
tell you how I cured the folks this winter of the dysentery,"
and told him her receipt. It was nothing more or less than
a decoction of the inner bark of the spruce.*

* Among my earliest recollections of events was the arrival of Molly at Guild-
hall on the Connecticut river, soon after the event before mentioned. She was
almost famished, as well she might be, after such a journey ; for if her statements

The town of Troy, or as it was then called Missisco, was
organized in March, 1802. According to the town record,
the inhabitants were warned to meet on March 25, 1302, at
nine o'clock in the forenoon to organize the town and choose
the necessary town officers. The record also shows that
they met agreeably to the warning, chose a moderator, and
then voted to adjourn until the next day at ten o'clock in the
forenoon.

No reason appears on record for this adjournment, and we
can scarce suppose the affairs of the infant settlement were
so intricate as to require a night's reflection before they could
proceed to act, or that the number of their worthies was so
great that they could not make a selection of officers for the
town. But it appears that they did adjourn, and tradition
says they were as drunk as lords, and could not proceed
any further in the business of the meeting.

It appears, however, by the records of the town, that the
good citizens did meet the next day agreeable to adjourn-
ment, and chose the usual batch of town officers, including a
tythingman, and voted £6,00 of lawful money to be expended
on roads, and $10,00 to defray the expenses of the town for
the year. From that time the town of Troy has had a re-
gular corporate existence, notwithstanding it came so near,
in the first town meeting, being strangled in its birth.

The first settlers of Troy were from Peacham and the

are reliable, she was then more than one hundred years old. She informed my
father that her husband fell, in Lovell's war, and that she then had several grand-
childi-en. Lovell's war terminated in 1725. If Molly was then only 40 years of
age, she must have been bom as early as 1685. If so, she was 115 years old,
when she went from Derby to Guildhall in 1800, and might have been 120 or 125.
But she lived 17 years after this period. She was at last foand dead, on Mount
White Cap, in East Andover, Maine, in 1817, where she had resided for some
weeks, gathering blueberries, Her body when found had been partly eaten by
a wild animal. I have no doubt that she was nearly 140 years old, at the time of
her death. She was certainly very familiar with the events of " Lovell's fight,"
and the war next preceding. I saw and conversed with her frequently, from
1812 to 1816, and have no doubt, that she was bom earlier than 1685, and that her
statements were generally to be credited. S. R. H.

towns on the Connecticut river, many from New Hampshire,,
and several were from Lyme.

Although there were many worthy persons among them,
many able, substantial men who were pioneers in the settle-
ment, many men who had nerve and hardihood well fitted to
encounter and overcome the hardships and difficulties of a
new settlement, yet there were many who resorted thither
who were of loose character, and but few comparatively of
the first settlers or their descendants now remain among us.

They appear to have partaken much of the wild habits of
the time, and to have possessed a strong love of excitement
and somewhat of a relish for stimulants mental and physical.
They lacked not for enterprise, hardihood, and love of adven
ture, but were wanting in the staid and regular habits which
distinguished the Puritan settlers in the older States in New
England, and they seem to have impressed their enthusiasm,
and love of excitement on the character of the inhabitants
of the town for a long time.

The first settlement in Westfield was made by Mr. Jesse
Olds in 1798. Mr. Olds was originally from Massachusetts,
and was rather a remarkable character for a pioneer in such
a settlement. He had been a minister of the gospel, and on
one occasion, as before stated, he officiated as a clergyman at
the funeral of Esq. Skinner's sons, but it does not appear
that he ever acted in that capacity in the valley on any other
occasion. He is described as having been a man of some
property and of liberal education, of very genteel appear-
ance and address, but of a ' lewd and licentious character.
Some acts of misconduct or indiscretion had probably induced
him to flee from society and seek a refuge in the wilderness.
He selected and purchased a lot of land lying near the geo-
graphical centre of the town, on a hill some two miles from

the present main road. Here he built a log house and moved
his wife and family to his solitary home, and here his wife
passed one winter with him, without having another woman
nearer than twenty miles. After remaining in Westfield
several years and clearing up a considerable portion of his
land, Mr. Olds removed to Craftsbury, remained there a few
years, and finally removed to the State of New York. The
lands which he cleared were abandoned, and they and the
orchard which he planted were overgrown by the returning
forest, until within a few years they have been again reclaimed
for a pasture.

The next year after the settlement of Mr. Olds in "West-
field, Messrs. Hobbs, Hartley and Burgess came into that
town and settled on the same range of highlands near him ;
and in 1802 the town of Westfield was organized and Mr.
Olds was chosen the first town clerk. The year before, he
had been elected a Judge of Orleans County Court.

In the spring or summer of 1803, Mr. David Barber moved
into the town, and in the fall of that year his brother-in-law,
Thomas Hitchcock, visited the town with a view to settlino-
there and selecting lands for himself and his father, Capt.
Medad Hitchcock. Mr. Hitchcock explored thd flats or inter-
vals in the Eastern part of the town, where the village of
Westfield is now situated, and was much charmed with the
appearance they then presented. He said he traced the lot
lines from the hill North into the midst of the intervals.
They were then covered with large, wide-spreading elms,
with scarcely any brush, or any other kinds of timber growing
among them. As he wandered among these stately elms, the
interval, as he said, appeared to be boundless in extent and
to include thousands of acres.

Mr. Rodolphus Reed removed from Montague, Massachu-

setts, to Westfield, in the fall of 1803. During his journey
he was detained by the sickness of his wife, and arrived at
Craftsbury late in November. Being impatient to complete
his journey before winter had made any further advances,
Mr. Reed started for Westfield with his wife who had an
infant only two weeks old, and his furniture in a sleigh drawn
by two horses. A deep snow had lately fallen, and he sent
two men in advance to remove obstructions from the road,
and to break a path through the snow. It was his expecta-
tion when he left Craftsbury to arrive at Judge Olds's in
Westfield that night. Soon after he commenced the day's
journey Mr. Reed was overtaken by Judge Olds, who was on
horseback, returning from the session of the Legislature
which he had attended as representative of Westfield. Judge
Olds expressed to Mr. Reed his fears that they would not be
able to get through the woods that night, and passed on,
promising to send them assistance when he got home. The
difficulty of traveling was so great, owing to the depth of
the snow and the bad state of the road, that Mr. Reed and
his party had advanced but a few miles when night overtook
them. They halted, kindled a fire, and prepared to encamp
in the woods* and snow. Their supply of provisions and
forage for the horses was rather scanty, but as the weather
was mild they passed the night without much suflFering.

Next morning at the dawn of day they resumed their jour-
ney, but with all the exertions they could make they were
unable to complete their journey and night again found
them in the forest. With much difficulty they succeeded
in reaching a place about half a mile from the present
site of Lowell village, where Major Caldwell, the summer
previous, had felled a few acres of trees and erected
a camp, and had then retired for the winter. This camp

could hardly aspire to the dignity of a hovel. It consisted
of logs laid up on three sides only, and was open at one end
for a fire and entrance, and was covered with poles and
barks. The camp, humble as it was, afforded a welcome
shelter for these weary travellers. The night was cold and as
Mr. Reed and his party were then several miles from their
place of destination, and their supply of provisions and forage
was almost exhausted, the prospect was rather gloomy. Early
the next morning they were cheered by the arrival of men,
teams, and provisions, which Judge Olds had sent to their re-
lief. The journey was resumed and that day, November 27th,
1 803, Mr. Reed and his party arrived safely at Judge Olds's the
place of their destination.

Before they arrived, the settlement in WestlBeld consisted of
the four families of Messrs. Olds, Hobbs, Hartley, and Burgess,
and a mulatto man by the name of Prophet, who lived with
Judge Olds ; and these constituted the community which Judge
Olds had been to represent in the Legislature of Vermont.

In 1 804 Capt. Medad Hitchcock with his three sons moved
into Westfield, and three or four sons-in-law, and several other
relatives soon followed him. This colony of settlers was from
Brimfield and other adjoining towns in Massachusetts. They
avoided the error of Judge Olds in settling on the high moun-
tain side, and settled on the flat or low lands in the Eastern
part of the town where the village of Westfield is now located.
The first settlers of Westfield appear generally to have dif-
fered somewhat from their neighbors in Troy, being of a more
sober and sedate character, less impulsive, and perhaps less
energetic and less liberal than the first settlers of the adjoining
town.

The first settler in Lowell was Major William Caldwell who
commenced making improvements on his land in 1803, but did

not move his family into the town until a year or two after. A
few families followed him one or two years afterwards, but the
town was not organized until the year 1812.

Major Caldwell was from Barre, Massachusetts, and be-
longed to a class of men who constituted a portion of the
early settlers of Vermont. He had seen better days, had been
a man of property and standing in Massachusetts, and had
held the office of Sheriff in Worcester County. He is des-
cribed as having been a man of a liberal and generous dispo-
sition, which seems to have caused his ruin. He became in-
volved in debt by being bondsman for his friends, lost all his
property and fled to the wilds of Vermont.*

* There are a few anecdotes connected with the Caldwell family which illustrate
the manners of the past and may be worth preserving. The ancestor of Major
Caldwell who first settled in this country w.ts Esq. Caldwell a native of Ireland.
He was very poor when he came to America, and was one of the early settlers of
Barre, Massachusetts. By his industry, perseverance, and good management,
Esq. Caldwell amassed a large property in Barre, rose to a very respectable station
in society, and was a Justice of the Peace at a period when that office was not so
lavishly conferred as it is in this democratic age. In the after part of his life he
used to say that the purchase of any farm which he then owned never gave him so
much real satisfaction as the purchase of a table when he had saved tlie means to
procure that necessary article for his family's use. After he became wealthy Esq.,
Caldwell had an obsei-vance in his family which is somewhat remarkable for its
singularity as well as its propriety. For certain days in each year he and his
family returned to the same coarse and scanty fare which he was compelled to use
when he first settled in Barre. This he said was designed for a sort of passover, to
remind him and his family of the poverty and indigence from which they had
arisen.

The circumstances of Major Caldwell's removal to "Vermont are also somewhat
illustrative of the straits some of our early settlers were reduced to and of the
stratagems of that day. After he lost his property, he made arrangements to re-
move to Vermont. Some of his creditors got wind of his intention and prepared to
arrest him. With some difficulty he escaped his pursuers, took refuge in a tavern,
and secreted himself there. The house was quickly beset with deputy sheriffs
who suspected the place of his concealment and were watching to arrest him. In
this dilemma he sent for a friend, by the name of Brighara to come and see him at
the house where he was concealed. Mr. Brigham came in the evening and found
the bar-room filled with sheriff's watching for Caldwell. With some difficulty he
got an interview with Caldwell and made his arrangements for the escape. He
told Caldwell he must wait until late in the night and when he heard a tremendous
uproar in the bar-room, come down and escape to the place where there was a
horse and sleigh waiting; for him, saying that when he attempted to do anything
slyly he made a great noise about it. Brigham then went into the bar-room, called
for a mug of flip, and commenced conversation with the sheriffs and others pres-
ent. One mug prepared the way for another, and the third and fourth soon fol-
lowed. The officers, to relieve themselves of the tedium of watching, willingly
joined In carousing and drinking with him, until they got into a somewhat
merry mood.

In the course of the evening Brigham went out and removed his horse from the
place where he had hitched him, and secreted him. He then joined his friends in the
bar-room and the carousal was continued. The company supposed Brigham was
for a spree and drank freely to carry out the joke of the day of getting him intoxica-
ted which was no easy matter. He was a large, athletic man, had been an officer

In Jay the first settler was Mr. Barter who came into town
in 1809. A few families joined him previous to the war of
1812, but upon the declaration of war they all abandoned the
settlement and left him alone. In despite of the war and the
cold seasons that followed, he maintained his post like a vete-
ran, and, like a skilllul commander, deeming a numerous gar-
rison essential to maintain his position, contrived to rear a
family of twenty children on the highlands of Jay. The old
gentleman survived to the age of nearly ninety.

The early settlers of the valley had many and great hard-
ships and disadvantages to encounter ; the roads were few,
ill-wrought, and badly located, there were but few mechanics,
and no regular merchants, and the transient traders who
sometimes located for a few months among them commonly
had for the main article in their stores, that which is the
least valuable of all commodities, spirituous liquors. It was
an event of frequent occurrence for the traveler to be lost
or belated in the woods, and compelled to remain there through
the night. In December, 1807, a Mr. Howard of Westfield,
from such an exposure, and from exhaustion in crossing the
mountain from Craftsbury to Lowell on foot in a deep snow,
lost his life ; and a Mr. Eaton, on the same road and in the

in the Revolutionary army, knew the strength of liquor, and would probably bear
more liquor than any of them ; besides he knew what he was about and had no in-
tention of taking more than he could manage, which he rarely or never did on any
occasion, being considered in that day a sober and temperate man. At rather a
late hour in the evening Mr. Brigham called on the landlord for his bill, paid it and
started apparently for home. He soon returned in a terrible passion saying his
horse was gone and accused the company of turning him loose, this was of course
denied, the horse was searched for, and it was found he was gone sure enough.
This appeared to aggrevate Brigham, more and moi-e flip was called for, but Brig-
ham's passion seemed to increase, and he threatened to flog the whole company
for the insult he said they had put upon him. The uproar from drinking, laugh-
ing, threatening, and swearing, was now complete. Caldwell was forgotten for the
moment by the sheriffs, but the noise of the tumult reached his anxious ear, the
signal was understood, and he slipped out of the house and was off. Before Brig-
ham and his company could be quieted and the uproar hushed, Caldwell was well
on his way for Vermont. When all was accomplished at a pretty late hour in the
night Mr. Brigham went out, took his horse from his hiding place, and went home,
leaving the disappointed sheriflFs to get sober and make a Non est retnrn on their
writs.

same month, was so badly frozen that he became a cripple
for life. To give some instances of what were then con-
sidered almost common hardships, a Mr. Reed purchased a
common sized plow in Craftsbury, and traveling on snow shoes,
cai'ried it on his back to his home in Westfield, a distance of
about twenty miles; another man carried a heavy mill-saw
from Danville to Lowell in the same way.

The want of mills was a serious evil to which the early set-
tlers were exposed. They had no mills among them for several
years, and to get their grain ground they had to resort to
Craftsbury, Derby, Richford, and other places. The mode of
journeying to these mills was as various as the places to which
they resorted. When they went to Richford they commonly
used the canoe and paddled down the river, to go to the other
places, they commonly used horses on excessively bad roads,
and some even carried their grain on their backs to remote
towns to be ground, so that they could supply themselves and
families with breads ; whilst some hollowed out the stump of a
tree or a log into a rude mortar, and by the aid of a huge
pestle attached to a springing sapling pounded their gi-ain into
meal. Besides these difficulties under which the first settlers
labored in common with many other of the early settlers of
Vermont, there were other disadvanges which seem to have
been in some measure peculiar to themselves. None of our
first settlers were possessed of much property. With perhaps
one or two exceptions none had any thing more than enough to
pay for the first purchase of their lands, and supply themselves
with provisions for a year, and the necessary team and tools
to commence a settlement. A few only possessed property to
that extent, a majority had to purchase their lands on credit,
and rely upon their own industry to pay for their lands and
support themselves and families. The axe and the iirebrand

were the only aids wliich most of the first settlers had in
reclaiming the forest and providing for the sustenance of them-
selves and their families. The difficulties in making purchases,
and procuring titles to land embarrassed the operations and
impeded the progress of the first settlers. The lands of the
valley were owned by non-residents, and the agents who had
the care of the lands generally resided abroad. This led to
a species of speculation called "making pitches," which
enhanced the price of land and diverted the time and atten-
tion of individuals from more regular and industrious pui"-
suits, and It is remarkable that the abuse should have been
tolerated at all. The mode of operation was this : An in-
dividual would, to use the current plu-ase, " Pitch a lot" that
is, he would select a lot and take possession of it by felling a
few trees, and then apply to the distant agent for the lot.
Even this ceremony of making any sort of communication
with the ag-ent was not always observed. By thus making
■his " Pitch" the individual, by a sort of common law of the
valley, or usage which was recognized among the settlers,
acquired a pre-en^tion right to the lot, so that no person who
really desired to purchase and settle on it could do so without
first buying the "pitcher's" or squatter's claim. By this ridi-
culous species of speculation a kind of monopoly was created,
the best lots were occupied and prices were enhanced. One
of the oldest settlers, Dea. Hovey, asserts that when he came
into the valley, in 18®3, he found all the best lots, those he
wished to purchase were ^' pitched," or covered by these sham
claims. To encourage settlers, Mr. Hauxhurst had previously
reduced the price of five lots in his gore to fifty cents per
acre, these were "pitched" of course and Dea. Hovey says
that he selected and purchased one of these lots for which he
paid two hundred dollars of which sum fifty dollars only were

paid to Mr. Hauxhurst's agent and one hundred and fifty dol-
lars were pocketed by the speculator or man who made the
pitch. Another early settler states that the price of the lot
he purchased was advanced one-third by this same ingenious
devise.

Another cause which tended to retard the prosperity and
improvement of the valley was its proximity to the province of
Canada. The interruption in the trade and business between
the several communities bordering on the line, by the duties
imposed by the two governments has been an inconvenience
which they have felt at all times, and a strong temptation to
resort to illicit and contraband traffic. And the protection
which a foreign government affords tended to allure many
fugitives from justice into the bordering towns in Canada, and
many of them frequently lingered on this side of the line.
The effect of the residence of these outlaws was pernicious,
and particularly so to a new settlement which had hardly
acquired the stamina of an organized community. The pres-
ence and society of these wretches served to contaminate and
poison the moral atmosphere, to introduce immoral habits and
practices, and from their influence a feeling was created
among the first settlers which long remained and led them to
connive at crime and breaches of the law, and to harbor
and protect some who had better have been expiating their
crimes within the walls of the state prisons.

Other sources of discontent and unhappiness existed, which,
as they did not depend upon physical causes, could not be so
easily removed. A venerable lady, one of the fii'st settlers of
Westfield, says that dm-ing the fii'st year of her residence in
that town her feelings of discontent and homesickness arising
from the loneliness of her situation, and loss of the society of
her early friends and relatives, was almost insupportable.

Others doubtless felt the same bereavement. Some missed the
institutions of religion, and many parents felt the need of better
and more convenient schools for their children than the rude
settlement could then afford. But although the early settlers
had to encounter many hardships, and were surrounded with
many difficulties and discouragements, their situation was not
without its comforts and enjoyments, and their lot was not all
gloom, discontent, and suffering. They had many comforts,
and even luxuries which are often denied to those in more
affluent circumstances. Their lands were fertile, the seasons
for many years were propitious, and theii' crops abundant.
The forests afforded some deer and moose; the river and
streams abounded with delicious trout, and a few hours spent
in the enjoyment of their favorite pastime of hunting or fishing,
would oftentimes furnish the settler with a meal which would
excite the envy of our city epicures.

The sugar maple was a rich blessing to the early settlers of
Vermont. Those beautiful groves yielded an abundant supply
of sugar, affording to the indigent settler a necessary and luxury
of life which the wealthy in older countries could scarce afford,
whilst the cheerful fii-es of this wood which in our infancy we
saw blazing in the old stone-backed chimneys, call up recollec-
tions of an enjoyment we cannot now find in the dull, invisible
warmth of an air tight stove, and the ashes of this generous
tree when manufactured into potash or pearlash, furnished an
article for exportation, and almost the only one which would
warrant the expense in transporting it to the then distant
markets.

One great solace the fiii'st settlers of this State enjoyed which
it is doubtful if it ever has been or can be sufficiently appreci-
ated, that is, the harmony, friendliness, and good will which
almost universally prevailed. All were exposed to hardships,

all felt the need of each others assistance, and in the general
mediocrity of fortune, feelings of envy or of proud superiority
were rare. This feeling of friendliness and sociability univer-
sally prevailed in the valley. Although this social feeling might
in some instances explode in scenes of boisterous and drunken
mirth, yet it often appeared in another form which indicated
better manners and better morals. It was manifested in kind,
unbought services at the sick bed, in relieving destitution and
want, in a readiness to assist in a heavy job of work, at the
raising and logging bee, and at the neighborly visit, when the
ox sled was often put in requisition to transport the wife and
children to the evening visit where the whole neighborhood
were assembled. One of the earlier settlers — Judge Stebbins —
and his wife, for some years after they moved into Westfield^
made it a rule to visit every family in their town at least once
each year. Another of the early settlers of the same town, a
lady, in speaking of the old times mentioned this feeling of
harmony which prevailed among her old neighbors, and said
that the first note of discord which was heard in the town
originated in the political strifes and contests which preceded
the declaration of war in 1812. Previous to that time all had
been peace and concord.

Notwithstanding the difficulties and discouragements which
surrounded the infant settlement, the prospects of the valley
were improving. From the fragment of an old tax bill dated
February 28, 1807, it appears that the town of Troy in that
year contained thirty tax payers. By the census of 1810, it
appears that Troy then contained two hundred and eighty-one
inhabitants, and Westfield one hundred and forty-nine. Not
only were their numbers increasing, but the prosperity of the
valley was otherwise advancing ; clearings and improvements
were made, houses and other buildings were erected, and many

of the worst difficulties attending a new settlement were over-
come. The deficiency of mills which seems so inconsistent
with the existence of civilized life, was soon supplied. In 1 804
Mr. Josiah Elkins erected a mill in Troy. Deacon Hovey had
a grist ground there in October of that year, the first grist that
ever was ground in Troy. The next year Capt. Hitchcock
built a mill in Westfield. The attention of the public had
begun to be more and more directed to the valley, new settlers
were arriving and forming new settlements, and the value and
* extent of the farms and improvements were yearly increasing,
when all these flattering appearances were crushed to the earth
by the war of 1812.

THE WAR OP EIGHTEEN HUNDRED TWELVE.

The war of 1812 was peculiarly disastrous in its effects to
the Northern part of Vermont and exhibits an instance of the
ruinous effects of war on a country, even when it does not
Buffer from the invasions of the enemy. Few sections of the
state suffered more than this valley. Lying on the frontier
and separated by mountains and forests from other parts of
the state, the people supposed they would be the first victims
of an attack. The settlers of Troy seem at first to have
regarded the approach of war with their usual spirit and
daring. Many spirited meetings were held at that time, and
many patriotic resolutions were adopted.

A fort also was, about this time, built in Troy, and another
in Westfield. These forts, as they were called, were rude
palisades, consisting of logs about a foot in diameter, and
twelve or fifteen feet in height, placed perpendicularly, one end
being inserted in a deep trench dug into the earth. The ruins
of the Troy fort remained for twenty years, a monument of
the courage and military j?kill of the early settlers.

But however resolute our people might have been when
danger was only anticipated, yet when it was known that war
was actually declared, the courage of many appears to have
quailed under the supposed danger. The nursery tales of
Indian havoc and warfare were rehearsed, the people seem to
have been seized with a sort of panic, and supposed that hordes
of Canadian Indians would be let loose upon them. The
consequence was that a great part of the people abandoned
their farms and homes, some only for a short time, but many
never to return. Mrs. Elkins states that of the families which
passed her house on one day, moving out of the settlement,
she counted nineteen females who had been her neighbors.
The eflfects of this removal were disastrous both to those who
left and those who remained. Many of those who left made
ruinous sacrifices of their property, abandoned farms where
had expended years of hard labor, and where a few more
years of like exertion would have rendered them independent
and wealthy, to return again to poverty and begin the world
anew. Nor were they the only sufferers ; those who remained
experienced a loss in being deprived of the society and
assistance of their neighbors and friends, and in a sparse
settlement scarcely numerous enough to maintain the institu-
tions of civilized life, this loss must have been severely felt.
Several of the citizens enlisted into the army, and the time
and attention of those who remained in the settlement were
very much diverted from the regular business and employ-
ments of life. The labors of the husbandman for a season
were generally interrupted, few felt much confidence to till
the earth when the prospect of remaining to the time of
harvest was deemed so uncertain. All improvements in clear-
ing farms and erecting buildings were of course discontinued.
Speculation and smuggling soon followed, and diverted the

time and attention of the people from more profitable and
honorable pursuits. In the winter of 1812-13, a small
detachment of troops was stationed at North Troy. It is
probable that the desire of quieting the fears of the people,
and preventing smuggling and driving cattle into Canada, was
the object of the government in stationing this body of troops
in Troy rather than the apprehension of an invasion from
that quarter.

HARD TIMES.

But the calamities of the valley did not end with the
war. A succession of cold and unproductive seasons
followed. The cold season of 1816 with its snow storm in
June will long be remembered in Vermont. After the war,
a general depression in business was experienced throughout
the country. Almost secluded from the rest of the world by
bad roads through forests and over mountains the evils ex-
perienced from the failure of crops and the revulsion in trade
were felt here in the greatest severity. The settlers were
but poorly prepared to meet and overcome the diflBculties
which surrounded them, arising from the failure of crops, and
the change from the lavish expenditures of the war to the
contraction and revulsion in business which followed its ter-
mination, with numbers reduced by emigration, farms neg-
lected, and habits of idleness, speculation, and dissipation
engendered by the war, the cold seasons of 1815 and 1816
produced a scarcity and dearness of provisions, in some in-
stances almost approaching to famine. Provisions were then
scarce throughout the state, bad and almost impassable roads
rendered it more difficult to procure here a supply from
abroad, and the price of bread-stuffs rose to an unusual

height. Indian corn in the summer cf 1716 was sold from
$3,00 to $3,50 per bushel. One of the early settlers gave
six days work in haying in that season for two bushels of
rye ; and in one instance in Lowell a family were for several
days driven to the necessity of feeding on boiled leeks and
clover heads to sustain life.

At that time the inhabitants of the valley produced little or
nothing for sale from the ordinary productions of husbandry, and
their almost only resource to procure money for their pressing
necessities, was by the slow and laborious process of making
ashes, from which the laborer could hardly realize more than
from twenty-five to thirty cents for his day's work. There
were then but few mechanics and no stores or merchants in the
valley. In 1 8 1 8, Jerre Hodgkins, Esq., commenced trade with a
store of goods in Westfield. At that time there was no store
nearer than Craftsbury, except one with a small stock of goods
in Potton, and the people were compelled to dispense almost
entirely with those articles deemed necessary for their dress or
tables, or to purchase a few scanty articles at ruinous prices
enhanced by expensive freight and extravagant profits. The
decline of the settlement is indicated by the census. In 1810
the town of Troy contained two hundred and eighty-four inhab-
itants ; in 1820 their numbers were diminished to two hundred
and twenty-seven, and had the census been taken in 1817 or
1818, their numbers would doubtless have been much less.

From the accounts which have been transmitted to us of
these times, we have reason to believe that the moral and social
condition of the people of the valley was but little in advance
of their physical condition. Their means of moral and mental
improvement were very limited. Almost cut ofif from the world
by mountains and bad roads, they had few books or newspa-
pers, few schools, and those with difficulty supported by the

sparse population, with little intercourse with society calculated
to benefit or improve, and few religious meetings and those
irregularly maintained, it appears that a low state of morals
existed, that intemperance and other profligate habits prevailedj
and were it not for the renovating influence of Christianity,
and the progressive spirit of the age, the settlement must have
relapsed into barbarism.

But there appears to be a point both of depression and of
prosperity in the fortunes of communities as well as of indi-
viduals, to which they seem destined to go, and beyond which
they cannot pass ^ and having reached this point the current of
events begins to flow in an opposite direction. The people of
the Missisco valley reached this point of depression about the
year 1817, and from that period the condition and circumstan-
ces of the people, with many interruptions and untoward
events, seem on the whole to have been gradually improving.
Many causes doubtless contributed to this beneficial change.
It could not be expected that a region possessing so many nat-
ural advantages could long remain waste and unimproved in
New England, Some valuable settlers came in soon after, and
the necessities of life would naturally tend to revive industry
and introduce some order and improvement into the depressed
and discordant state of things which then existed. But among
the many causes of improvement perhaps none was more effica-
cious even for the temporal prosperity of the people, than the
great religious revival which occurred in the valley in 1818.

REFORMATION OP EIGHTEEN HUNDRED EIGHTEEN.

The history of no community, whether great or small, can
be complete without some relation of its moral and religious
character. Some account of the religious and ecclesiastical

history of the valley seems to be requii-ed. The moral char-
acter of the people has already been referred to. No religious
teacher at this time had ever been permanently settled there^
nor had any church or ecclesiastical society ever been organ-
ized in the valley, and but few of the settlers had ever made
any public profession of religious faith. The settlement had
been occasionally visited by a few devoted missionaries, partic-
ularly by the Rev. James Parker, who had occasionally labored
there for a short time. A small society of Methodists was in
Potton, the Rev. Mr. Bowen was located there, and had occa-
sionally preached in Troy. Public worship on the sabbath
had been but irregularly maintained, and in many districts, for
long periods of time, could hardly have been said to exist.
The consequences of this deficiency of religious instruction
were felt on the moral character, and finally on the temporal
prosperity of the people. A low state of moral feeling pre-
vailed, and many instances of irregular conduct were connived
at which should not have been tolerated by any civilized or
well regulated community.

The reformation which followed can scarcely be accounted
for on any cause or principle which the world would call philo-
sophical. Early in the winter of 1817 and 1818, an unusual
solemnity seems to have rested on the minds of many of the
people, an indefinite feeling of man's accountability, that all
was not well with them, that a state of retribution hereafter
was to follow the trials and temptations of this probationary
scene. But no particular cause for this state of feeling can be
assigned ; no particular affliction, sickness, or death, or what is
called common casualty, had occurred.

It is said that Asher Chamberlin, Esq., who previous to his
removal to Troy, had made a profession of religion and
united with the church in Peacham, had attempted, in the

fall of 1817, to maintain some religious meetings in his house,
by reading a sermon and other exercises on the Sabbath,
and by conference and prayer meetings at other times. At
the close of one of these meetings he proposed to the audience
that there should be an expression of their wishes whether
these meetings should be continued or not, and unexpectedly
to all there was an unanimous expression of the desire of the
assembly that the meetings should be continued. They were
therefore continued with as much or increasing interest.

About this time an inhabitant of Troy, on a journey to
New Hampshire, found at Hardwick the Rev. Levi Parsons,
(a missionary employed by the Vermont Missionary Society,
and who afterwards finished his labors in Palestine,) who
was then preaching in that place, and invited him to visit
Troy. He accepted the invitation, and arrived at Troy about
the beginning of the year 1818. The first discourses of Mr.
Parsons excited a deep interest on the already moved minds
of the people of the valley. But the story of his labors and
of the reformation which followed, can best be told in his
own words which are extracted from his sermons published
soon after his decease : —

" In Troy and the adjoining towns I spent eleven weeks.
The revival commenced upon the first of January and con-
tinues still with great power. Three churches have been
organized ; two of the Congregational and one of the Baptist
denomination. Troy contains thirty-five families. Previous
to the revival only one individual was known as a professor
of religion, and only one family in which were offered morn-
ing and evening sacrifices. From information, I have been
led to believe that, in scarce any place did the sins of Sab-
bath breaking, swearing and Intoxication prevail to a more
alarming excess. Especially for a few months previous to

this every thing seemed to be repining for the judgment of
Heaven. But He who is rich in mercy looked down in com-
passion. * * * * At my first meeting I
perceived an unusual attention. Every ear was opened to
receive instruction, and many expressed by their countenances
and actions the keen distress of a wounded conscience. The
ensuing week convictions and conversions were multiplied.
At some of the religious conferences more than twenty re-
quested the prayers of their Christian friends.

On Thursday the fifth of February, assisted the Rev. Mr.
Leland of Derby, in organizing a church consisting of twelve
members, all of whom gave evidence of renewing grace. At
the close of the exercises the sacrament of the Lord's supper
was administered for the first time in Troy. The season will
ever be remembered with peculiar gratitude. * » ^ *
In vain was the virulence of the moralist, or the sneers of the
infidel. Nothing was able to oppose, with success, the in-
fluences of the spirit. No heart was too hard to be melted }
no will too stubborn to be bowed ; no sinner too abandoned
to be reclaimed. The Sabbath breaker, the swearer, the
drunkard, were humbled at the footstool of mercy. Every
house for a distance of more than twenty miles was open for
instruction. The church was soon enlarged to forty-five
members, and many more were the evident subjects of grace.
The neighboring towns were blessed with the same outpour-
ings of the Holy Ghost. In Westfield I assisted in the
organization of a church of ten members. Considerable ad-
ditions have since been made and many are now inquiring
' What shall we do to be saved ?' There have been a few
instances of hopeful conversion in Potton and Sutton in the
province of Canada. * * * * All ages and
classes have shared in the work. Among the number who

have united with the church is the youth of fourteen, and the
aged sinner of three score and ten."

The statements of living witnesses confirm all there is re-
corded by Mr. Parsons in his journal, respecting the state of
society in the valley previous to the reformation occasioned
by his labors there. The impression made by the preaching
of Mr. Parsons is repi esented by all to have been profound,
and a general spirit of inquiry upon the subject of religion
seems to have been awakened. It does not appear that Mr.
Parsons, although a man of respectab e abilities and learning,
was possessed of any remarkable powers of oratory, but a
deep feeling of love, sincerity, and earnestness, seemed to
pervade his discourses, which appeared to come from the
heart and to reach and melt the hearts of his hearers. It is
not pretended that all sin and unbelief were banished from
the valley by this reformation. Some were but slightly
affected or were wholly unmoved, and some who then ap-
peared to reform, and even covenanted to break off from
their sins, returned to their evil habits, and in their after
lives offered feeble evidence that their repentance was " unto
life." Yet it is adrritted by all that a favorable change was
wrought in the morals and habits of the people, and that with
very many individuals there was not only a renunciation of
Hi aven-daring sins, but a change in habits and conduct which
told on the temporal prosperity and peace of families, and
the community. Most of our religious societies date their
origin from that period. A Congregational church was or-
ganized in Troy and another in Westfield in 1818. A Bap-
tist church was formed in those two towns in the same year.
A Christian church was formed in Westfield in 1819.

A little event occurred at Troy in August of 1819, which
well illuBtratee the incidents of a settler's life, and shows the

resolution and presence of mind of the wife of one of the
early settlers. At this time Mr. Jonah Titus resided on the
farm now owned by Capt. Kennedy, about a mile east of
Troy village. This farm which is now on one of the main
roads through ^he county, and is surrounded by a large and
flourishing settlement, at that time presented a very different
appearance. A few acres only were partially cleared, the
only buildings were a small log house, and a hovel used as a
substitute for a barn. These were surrounded by a dense
forest. No road led directly to Troy village ; the only
means of communication with the other settlements was by a
path or sled road to the bridge at Phelps' Falls. No neigh-
bor lived on that side of the river, except one, and he lived
at the distance of more than half a mile.

At this time Mr. Titus was laboring for Mr. Oliver Cham-
berlain on the farm which is now the present site of Troy
village, at the distance of two miles, as the road then was,
leaving his wife with three small children in this secluded
home. Early one morning Mrs. Titus was aroused by a loud
squeal of the hog which was roaming in a raspberry patch
near the house. Going to the door she saw the hog wounded
and bleeding, running towards the house, pursued by a large
she bear attended by two cubs. Mrs. Titus promptly inter-
fered, and with the help of a small dog arrested the pursuit
of the bear. The hog fled to the hovel, and the two cubs
alarmed by the barking of the dog ran up a tree near the
house. Mrs. Titus then took a tin horn and began sounding
it in the hope ot arresting the attention of her distant neigh-
bors. By her resolute bearing, the noise of the horn, and the
barking of the dog, she kept the cubs up the tree and pre-
vented the old bear from making an attack on herself Deter-
mined if possible to bring these unwelcome invaders to their

deserts she resolutely maintained her post. The uncommon
noise of the horn at length attracted the attention of her hus-
band and distant neighbors, who suspecting trouble hastened
to her relief with guns and other means of defence. A shot
from one of the guns brought down the old bear, the cubs also
were soon slaughtered, and Mrs. Titus had the pleasure of
seeing these unwelcome assailants atone with their lives for
their invasion of her premises, and their skins were the tro-
phies of her courage and presence of mind.

PROGRESS OP THE VALLEY.

During the ten years following, the fortunes of the Missisco
valley were advancing, and society seems to have been impro-
ving. Farms were improved, new lots were purchased and
settled, and the census taken in 1830 shows that the popula-
tion of Troy had almost trebled in ten years, increasing from
two hundred and twenty-seven in 1820, to six hundred and
eight in 1830. In the same period Westfield had advanced
jfrom two hundred and twenty-five to three hundred and fifty-
three ; Jay from fifty-two to one hundred and ninety-six.

Some new branches of mechanical business had been com-
menced, and the people had made a considerable advance in
the comforts and conveniences of life. Yet they were far
from being a wealthy community, or their situation a desirable
one for an intelligent and prosperous people. Few of the
farmers produced more than was needed for the use of their
own families, and for the supply of the mechanics and laborers
in the immediate vicinity. None of the great staple articles
were then extensively cultivated ; and only one farmer in the
valley had any surplus produce to send to a distant market.
Money was loaned at a rate of interest from twelve to twenty-

five per cent. The laborious process of making ashes and
selling them to the merchants, or to some owner of an estab-
lishment for manufacturing pearlashes, was almost the sole
resource of many to obtain small sums of money, or to pur-
chase those necessaries of life which were procured from
abroad.

Two merchants traded at that time in the valley. The lar-
gest establishment was kept at the place now known as Troy
village. The stock of goods commonly consisted of a hogs-
head of whiskey and another of molasses, and a barrel or two
of rum or other spirits. The assortment of cloths a stout
man might carry on his shoulders, and the crockery and hard-
ware might be packed in a handcart or wheelbarrow. At
North Troy another store was kept on a rather smaller scale.

The roads into the valley were ill wrought and in the worst
locations, and over almost impassable mountains. The most
traveled route was the old Hazen road crossing the two chains
of Lowell mountains from Craftsbury to Montgomery, a route
which has of later years been pretty much deserted by man
and surrendered to the beasts of the forest. A mail from
Craftsbury to St. Albans passed and returned on this road
once a week, and a branch or local mail jfrom Troy connected
with this route in Lowell.

No house for public worship had been erected in the valley
until the year 1829, when by the liberality of Dea. Page and
a few individuals in Westfield, a meeting house was erected in
that town. No clergyman had settled and ofl&ciated in that
capacity in the valley for any number of years, and in the year
1828 one solitary physician was the only professional man
who had permanently settled in these towns.

About this time several changes for the better occurred.
In 1828 the Burlington and Derby road, as it was called, wae

surveyed and partially made, entering the valley on the South,
through a natural ravine, from Eden, and passing through the
towns of Lowell and Westfield to Troy village, thence turning
East through Troy and Newport to the " narrows" of the
Lake. By this route a remarka,bly easy and level road was
made into the valley from the South, and a much more feasible
and level route to the East than had ever before been enjoyed.
The valley no longer remained in the inaccessible and isolated
state it had previously been in. A large share of the travel
and business from Burlington and Lake Champlain to this
county passed over this road. Intersecting the principal roads,
and crossing the valley at Troy village, business and travel
was concentrated there. Another merchant established him-
self there in 1829, several mechanics settled there, and Troy,
<jr South Troy village, became an important location in the
oounty. Lowell also was greatly benefitted by this road. A
large tract of land in the South part of that town, which had
previously appeared to be destined to remain for a long time
a wilderness, was now made accessible to settlers and was
soon occupied, and the population and wealth of that town
was very much advanced.

The Temperance reformation which was much needed here,
as well as in other parts of the State, was about this time ex-
tended into the valley, with very salutary effect to many indi-
viduals and families. This reformation, however, was strenu-
lously opposed by a large portion of the people, who insisted
on maintaining their free agency without pledge or control.

In 1831, the subject of religion again engrossed the attention of
the people of the valley. This revival spread through the four
towns in. this County and extensively prevailed in the adjoining
town of Potton. This reformation was not as general nor its
fruits as valuable as the former one in 1 818. It was carried on

with much of the zeal and enthusiasm which commonly charact-
erizes the acts of the people of the valley, both good and bad.
Large additions were made to the churches, particularly to the
Baptist and Methodist societies. Many of the converts of that
time have adorned the profession which they then made by a
life corresponding to their sacred vows, and though some have
proved to be like the seed sown on stony ground, yet the moral
atmosphere was purified for a time, and the cause of religion
and temperance was much advanced.

IRON MINE IN TROY.

The year 1833 was distinguished by an event from which
much was at the time anticipated, and from which important con-
sequences will sometime be realized, the discovery of the iron
mine in Troy. Some years previous, specimens of the ore had
been found in detached rocks or boulders which had attracted
attention, and had been pronounced by some scientific men to be
iron, and the existence of it in large veins or quantities in the
vicinity had been conjectured. But the discovery of the mine
was made in 1833 by Mr. John Gale. Mr. Gale was a black-
smith, and had resided in Troy for a few years previous to the
war of 1812. Whilst he resided in Troy, he discovered a rock
which from its color and weight attracted his attention and led
him to suspect it might be iron. After he left Troy, he resided
some years in the iron region west of Lake Champlain, and
from the knowledge he there acquired of ore was confirmed in
the belief that the ledge he saw in Troy contained iron. Re-
turning to this vicinity on a visit he with Harvey Scott, Esq.,
of Craftsbury, commenced search for this ore, in which he was
joined by Thomas Stoughton, Esq., of Westfield. After search-
ing some days, Mr. Gale discovered the vein of ore lying as he

thought at or near the spot where he had discovered it more
than twenty years before. He broke off some specimens of the
rock and tested their value by melting them down in a black-
smith's forge and hammering them into horse nails.

The discovery of this ore occasioned a great excitement
in the vicinity, and extravagant expectations were formed of
the value of the mine. The ore was first discovered on lot
number ninety in the South Gore in Troy. The owner of
that lot, Mr. Fletcher Putnam, gave a deed of one half of
the ore to the discoverers according to the promise he had
made them when they commenced their researches. These
fractional interests were magnified by the eager hopes and
imaginations of the owners into immense fortunes which they
had partially realized.

Mr. Putnam had a short time before bought this lot of land
for $500. Soon after the discovery of the ore he sold the
land and his half of the ore for $3,000. Mr. Stoughton after
keeping his interest in the ore for several years sold for
$2,000. Mr. Gale realized but little from his ore, and Mr.
Scott nothing at all. This ore has been discovered in large
quantities on lot eighty-nine, South of the one on which it was
first discovered, and it has also been traced on the lot North,
number ninety-one. A forge was erected at Phelps' Falls in
1834, by several individuals in Troy, and the manufacturing
of the ore commenced. The owners of this forge were soon
discouraged, and in the winter following they sold their forge,
ores, and machinery, to Messrs. Binney Lewis & Co., of Bos-
ton. These gentlemen obtained an act af incorporation- from
the Legislature of the State, and commenced making wrought
iron, but with little success, and they soon discontinued the
business. The forge has been abandoned and has fallen into
a heap of ruins. In 1835 another company was formed and

incorporated by the Legislature, and in the name of the Bos-
ton and Troy Iron Company. This company purchased thi'ee-
fourths of the ores, and twenty acres of land where the ores
were situated on lot number ninety, for which they gave $8,0007
also about twelve hundred acres of other land, commenced ope-
rations, and built a furnace, a large boarding house, and other
buildings in 1837. After expending large sums of money
without realizing much profit, this company failed in 1841, and
the lands, ores, and buildings, passed by mortgage into the
hands of Mr. Francis Fisher of Boston. In 1844 Mr. Fisher
put the furnace again in blast and commenced the manufacture
of iron, with the prospect of making it a permanent and prof-
itable business, but these expectations were destroyed by the
alteration of the Tariff in 1846, and like many other iron
establishments in the United States, the operations of this
furnace were then suspended and have not since been resumed.
Thus far the iron mines of Troy have not answered the ex-
pectations which were formed from them, or justified the out-
lay which has been made in the manufacture. As yet it has
proved an injury rather than a benefit to the people in the
vicinity, and a heavy loss to all who have engaged in the manu-
facture. But the richness of the ore is undoubted* and from the
abundant supply of charcoal and excellence of the water power

* The following analysis of the Troy ore was made by Dr. Charles T. Jackson :
" The ore is a gi-anular tnagnetis variety, the fractured grains having a bright
shining appearance. This granular appearance is owing to imperfect chrystali-
zation of the ore. There may be observed a silicions matter between some of the
chrystals or grains. The specific gravity of this ore, tried on two specimens, was
from 4.69 to 4.70. The ore yields on analysis : —

Per-Oxide of Iron, .......90 per cent.

Titanate of Iron, 8"**

Silica, - . 2 " "

100
90 grains of Per Oxide of Iron contain 62.4 pure Iron, 8 grains Titanate of Iron
contain 5 grains Titanic Acid and 8 grains of Protoxide of Iron. I have no doubt
that 60 per cent, of excellent cast Iron may be obtained by smelting this ore. It i»
a very rich and valuable ore and will make the very best kinds of Iron and Steel.
It may be reduced directly to Mailable Iron in the blooming forge by the ataa?
process."

the facilities for maufacturing are great, and the iron produced
from this ore, for durability, toughness, and strength, is not ex-
ceeded by any in America. The causes of the past failures are
to be attributed to the difificulty of melting and fluxing the ore,
the want of experience in the workmen, the fluctuations in the
Tariff, the remoteness of the location from water or railroad
communication, and the difficulty of finding access to markets.
Let us hope that these difficulties will eventually be surmounted
by science and the progress of improvement, and that the time
is not far distant when the Troy iron will prove a rich mine to
the owners, and be manufactured not only to supply the county
but a large portion of the state with that most valuable of all
metals.

The season in 1833 was uncommonly bad and unproductive,
the summer was wet and cold, crops were light, and Indian
corn was almost a total failure. The scarcity of bread stuffs
which followed, and the improvement which had been made in
the roads, occasioned in the next year the introduction of a
new branch of trade in the valley, the importation of western
flour in barrels. Previous to that time flour had never been
brought into the valley, but since the year 1834 western flour
has constituted a large portion of the breadstuffs used in the
Missisco valley, and has caused a considerable change in the
system of agriculture. Since that time the farmers have real-
ized less on the raising of grain, and have applied their labor
and capital more to their flocks and dairies.

THE PATRIOT WAR.

The discussion between the Liberal and the Government
parties in Canada, which for several years agitated that Prov-
ince, resulted, in the year 1 837, in an open rebellion against

the British govemment. The inducing causes and the princi-
pal events of this insurrection, belong to the history of the
Province, rather than to this narrative, but its effects were felt
even here, and constitute quite an era in the annals of the
Missisco valley. This attempt to establish the independence
of the Province occasioned a great excitement in the valley,
as well as in other places on the frontier of this State. The
sympathy of the people was very strongly in favor of those
who were considered as asserting the cause of liberty and
independence in the Province. This feeling was increased by
the reports, (some of them no doubt much exaggerated,) of
the atrocities committed by the troops and adherents of the
government in the Province, after the first outbreak at St.
Charles had been suppressed. Many who were connected
with the Radical or revolutionary party fled from the adjoin-
ing towns in Canada and took refuge in Troy. The presence
of these exiles and the story of their wrongs increased the
feeling of a people naturally excitable and enthusiastic.
Meetings were called, and sometimes attended by three or
four hundred people ; contributions were raised for the relief
of the exiles, and measures were taken for their protection.
The sympathy of the people of this State for the Canadian
revolutionists would have been sufficiently strong without any
prompting ; but this feeling which was perfectly natural, and
would have been commendable, had it been restrained within
the bounds of prudence and the duty of American citizens,
was soon tainted by demagogueism, the bane and curse of pop-
ular excitements and American politics. The opportunity to
gain a cheap popularity by a boisterous zeal for liberty, was
too tempting to be lost by some who aspired to notoriety and
popular favor. Violent addresses were made to the excited
people, intemperate resolutions, sympailiyzing with the Radi-

cals, condemning the tyranny of the British, and the cold neu-
trality of our government, were introduced into the popular
meetings and passed by acclamation. Such was the excite-
ment of the time that many were (or professed to be,) ready
to arm and march to the assistance of the Canadian Patriots,
and aid them in subverting the rule of a foreign government.

In the month of February, 1838, the leaders of the Radical
party, many of whom had taken refuge in Franklin and Chit-
tenden Counties in this State, concocted a plan for a general
insurrection in Canada. A provisional government was organ-
ized, and Robert Nelson was appointed President. A consid-
erable force was collected on the borders of Franklin County.
A proclamation was issued by provisional President Nelson,
abolishing many of the grievances complained of, declaring the
independence of Canada, and calling upon the people of Can-
ada to arm and join his forces to establish an independent gov-
ernment. The design of the revolutionary leaders was to
concentrate their forces at Napierville, and then march upon
and take St. Johns and Montreal. To facilitate this enterprise
dispatches were sent by Nelson to his partisans in this vicinity,
calling upon them to take up arms and make an inroad into
Pottcn, and another into Stanstead, to distract the attention
of the Provincial authorities and aid him in his attempt on St.
Johns and Montreal. At this time a military force consisting
of militia and volunteers was organized and armed in Potton
by the British government. This company was frequently
called together for inspection and drill, and when needed, to
do duty as a guard, and to resist any attempt at invasion or
insurrection, and when not on duty were dispersed at their
several houses through the town. This company was of rather
an irregular character, had but little of the order and disci-
pline of veterans, and some of them exhibited but little conr-

tesey towards the radicals in the Province, or towards the
citizens of this State who were supposed to favor the cause
of Canadian independence. A plan was formed to disarm
these troops, at the same time the invasion was made by Nel-
son from Franklin County. For this purpose, on the evening
of February 27, 1838, a party collected at North Troy,
consisting of about thirty men, of whom ten or twelve were
citizens of Troy and Jay, and the remainder were exiles from
Canada or inhabitants of Potton. Their plan was to proceed
to the houses of the members of this corps enrolled by the
government, called "The Potton Guard," demand and take
their guns and equipments, and proceed from house to house,
until the whole company were disarmed, and secure or over-
awe the most influential and zealous of the Tory or govern-
ment party, but it was not the intention to take life or destroy
property.

Before they started on their expedition these invaders chose
a citizen of Troy for their commander, and provided them-
selves amply with arms and ammunition, and from the char-
acter of the men, their personal courage and enthusiasm, had
they been engaged in a lawful and well considered enterprise,
it would not have been very safe to oppose them. This com-
pany, about 10 o'clock P. M., crossed the line of the State^
called at two houses and demanded their arms. Not finding
any in those two places they proceeded to the house of Mr.
Salmon Elkins who resided about two miles from North Troy.
They arrived there about eleven o'clock. Mr. Elkins was a
zealous adherent of the government or Tory party, and two
of his sons and one grandson had enlisted into this govern-
ment corps called the " Potton Guard." This family had a
short time previous been notified of this attempt, and had
made preparations to resist if the attack should be made.

The three Elkiiis who belonged to the " Guard," had loaded
their guns and retired to their chamber. The invading com-
pany halted near the house, four of their number were selected
to go into the house and demand their guns. They entered
the house. Mr. Salmon Elkius and his wife had not retired
for the night, and appeared to be the only persons in the lower
part of the house. The guns were demanded, and they were
told they should not be harmed, but the guns must be deliv-
ered. Mr. Elkins told them they had no guns there, the com-
pany insisted that they had. Hazen Hadlock, one of their
number, took a candle and with one or two others attempted
to go up stairs to search for arms. The instant Hadlock
appeared on the stairs two of the Elkins fired from above ;
one shot took effect on Hadlock, a ball pierced his heart, he
staggered back exclaiming " I am a dead man," and fell dead
in the midst of his comrades. The band were infuriated at
the horrid sight. Two or three guns were instantly raised
and leveled at Mr. Salmon Elkins, and had it not been for the
prompt intervention of Capt. Ira A. Bailey of Troy, he would
have been shot in an instant by his own fireside. Some of the
party proposed to fire volleys into the chamber windows, and
some proposed to set fire to the house and burn it and its
inmates to ashes. Bailey interfered again ; he commanded
the Elkins in the chamber above to surrender their arms
immediately and their lives should be spared. The guns
were immediately given up. Finding that their purpose of a
surprise was frustrated, that the intelligence of their design
had been communicated to the government party, and the
houses in the vicinity were lighted up, the invading company
placed the dead body of their companion in one of their
sleighs, and sorrowfully returned to North Troy. The
wretched result of this ill-judged invasion was that six stand

of arms were taken from the "Potton Guard," and one
unhappy man was untimely hurried into eternity.

The intelligence of this invasion spread "with much exag-
geration throughout the adjacent parts of the Province and
the State. Several companies of troops were sent into Pot-
ton by the provincial authorities, from the towns of Shefford
and Broome and other parts of the Province. Seventy or
eighty stand of arms were also collected from different towns
in Orleans county and secretly delivered to the Potton rad-
icals. Threats of vengeance and reprisal were made by indi-
viduals on both sides of the line, and everything seemed to
threaten a destructive border war.

These disturbances which had occurred on the Canadian
frontier, and the remonstrances of the British government,
drew the attention of the government at Washington to the
subject. Proclamations for maintaining the laws of a neutral
government were issued, government agents and officials were
dispatched to inquire into the difficulties, and United States
troops were stationed at different places on the frontier to
enforce our laws of neutrality. Troy received a share of the
attention of the general government and a company of United
States troops under the command of Capt. Van Ness (a
nephew of a former Governor of this State) was sent there
in the fall of 1838, and Troy again had the distinction of
being a garrisoned town. This company remained in Troy
until the spring following. The prudent and judicious conduct
of Capt. Van Ness tended to repress and allay the excitement
on the frontier. His courteous and gentlemanly deportment
towards the citizens won their confidence and regard, whilst
his kind attentions to his soldiers, and the strict discipline he
maintained over his company composed of almost all nations
proved him and officer of merit.

But the decline of the Revolutionary cause in Canada, and
the good sense of the people began to react and to restore
peace and tranquility on our frontier. The opinion was now
generally adopted by the citizens, that the cause of liberty
could not be advanced by irregular forays and incendiarism,
that the Canadians for the present, at least, had better be left
to themselves, that unless they could exhibit more unity of
conduct than they had done they could never hope to estab-
lish or maintain an independent republic, and that it was vain
for a few individuals in this State to conquer it for them.

" Hereditary bondmen, know ye not

Who would be free themselves must strike the blow,

By their right arms the conquest must be wrought."

The exasperation and difficulties arising from this Canada
war did not wholly terminate in the Missisco valley. A few
remained especially among the exiled radicals who were still
disposed to keep up a useless excitement and perpetrate acts
of mischief and violence. The last outbreak which occurred
in the vicinity happened on the night following the first
Tuesday of June 1840. On that night the house, barn, and
out-buildings, belonging to Mrs. Susannah El kins of Potton,
were set on fire and burnt. This barbarous deed was done,
as with good reason was supposed, by four or five fugitive
radicals from Canada who had resided in Troy, though there
was some reason to fear that their design was known if not
approved by others. This fire was seen at a late hour in the
night by a neighbor, who ran and gave the alarm. Mrs.
Elkins and her tv/o sons, Leander Oilman and John T. Gilman,
were the only occupants of the house. They were aroused
from their sleep by the alarm given, and had barely time to
escape with their lives from the devouring flames. Had the
intelligence been delayed a few minutes, they must all have

inevitably perished. The house and other buildings and all
the property in them, including a horse and cow confined in
the barn, were consumed to ashes. Mrs. Elkins (formerly
Mrs. Oilman) was an elderly lady and much esteemed by a
large circle of acquaintances but was strongly attached to the
government cause, her sons and other relatives had been
active in that party, and the houses she owned had been used
for the quarters of the government troops when they were
stationed in Potton. These were the probable reasons why
she was made the victim of such singular and barbarous ven-
geance. This atrocious act closed the events of the Canada
rebellion in the Missisco valley. Sympathy for suffering and
exiled patriots could not justify an act like this. Public sen-
timent was aroused and the universal condemnation of the
act prevented the repetition, though the actors escaped the
hands of justice.

EDUCATION.

The inhabitants of the Missisco valley have never been
distinguished by any very great attainments in Science and
Literature. Though many instances may be cited of more
than ordinary natural talents, and the general intelligence of
of the people is admitted, yet it must be confessed that the
intellectual powers have not been cultivated and improved to
that point which elevates society and humanity to its highest
state of refinement and improvement. The causes of this
state of things it is perhaps useless to investigate, and the
consequences which have followed this neglect of mental cul-
ture it may be offensive to point out. No schools or semina-
ries of learning above the common district school have been
maintained in the valley until within a few years past.

In 1 855 an Academy was incorporated at North Troy, and
in 1857 another was incorporated in Westfield. These insti-
tutions are but the commencement as is to be hoped, of gi'eater
good. Schools have as yet been maintained in them only for
portions of the year.

No young man born and reared in the valley has ever
received a Collegiate education, except Rev. W. W. Living-
ston, son of Dea. Livingston of Potton, and but few of the
young men have studied the learned professions or entered
into the higher ranks of literary or scientific life, though
several young men who have gone abroad have by their char-
acter and industry attained to a respectable rank in society.

CRIMES.

No case of murder is known to have occurred or been sus-
pected in the valley. There have been two or three instances
of suicide, and several melancholy instances of accidental
death, mostly by drowning. There has scarce been -an
instance of a conviction for a felony of any resident in the
valley. Some instances of prosecutions for minor oflfences
have of course happened, and there may have been some
other cases which have escaped, which deserved the notice
and animadversions of the law.

GROWTH OF BUSINESS AND POPULATION.

The introduction of the manufacture of iron into Troy
occasioned a very considerable increase in the business and
population of the town. The decline and final suspension of
the business in 1846, caused a temporary decrease in the
business of the place, and most of those attracted there by

this manufacture left soon after its suspension. But the course
of improvement, though flattering, was still progressive.
Farms were extended and improved, some new settlements
were commenced and other improvements made. The intro-
duction of the manufacture of starch in the year 1846
brought much new land into cultivation, relieved many from
embarrassments, and raised some to easy or independent cir-
cumstances, and on the whole there was a very perceptible
accumulation of capital and an amelioration of the circum-
stances of the people. The populations of the four towns of
the valley advanced from 1965 in 1840, to 2518 in 1850.

The general improvement throughout the State, particularly
in the extension of railroads, begun also to affect the Missisco
valley. The rapid advance made in the agricultui-al interest
in the adjoining County of Franklin, arising in a great mea-
sure from the improvement in dairying husbandry, and the
great increase in the production of butter and cheese in that
County, very much affected the adjoining sections of Orleans
County. Many of the more enterprising and successful dairy
farmers in Franklin County were both able and disposed to
buy the farms of their less wealthy neighbors, and these, after
selling their farms, instead of going to the far west were
inclined to settle in a nearer region. Some enterprising
farmers also in Franklin County, wishing to enlarge their
farming and daiiying operations, sold out there, and made
very advantageous purchases of large tracts here, with equal if
not superior advantages. The combination of these cii'cum-
stances caused quite a migration from Franklin to this part of
Orleans County, and of course an advance in the price of
lands here. From these and other causes the price of real
estate in the Missisco valley has probably doubled since 1 850,
and seems to be still <m the increase.

If the valley could have received this accession to its pop-
ulation and business without any corresponding loss, it would
have attained to a higher state of improvement than it now
enjoys. Among the causes which have tended to retard the
advance of the Missisco valley for the last ten years, the
great emigration, and the withdrawal of capital to the West,
may be noticed as the first. Within the last ten years it
would be safe to calculate that from seventy-five to one hun-
dred thousand dollars had been carried from a small circle
around Troy village, and invested in the West. In addition
to this amount of money, the Missisco valley has paid a further
contribution to the West in several worthy and enterprising
men, who have gone there with it.

The season of 1854 was remarkably dry and unproductive;
scarcely any rain fell during the three summer months. In
consequence of this drought, the hay crop, the main reliance
of the farmer, was lighter than was ever known before.
Hardly half the usual crop of hay was secured that year, and
English grain and potatoes suflFered much. The efiects of this
drought were peculiarly disastrous to the farmers of the Mis-
sisco valley. Tempted by the great profits of dairying and
stock growing, they had engaged largely in that business. By
this disastrous season they were deprived of the usual means
of wintering thie large stocks of cattle they had about them,
and were compelled to dispose of them at the lowest prices.
Taking it altogether it was perhaps one of the most unfavor-
able seasons ever known in Vermont. It blighted the pros-
pects of many a flourishing farmer, and it required the labors
of several years to recover from its effects. If any other
cause is sought why the Missisco valley has not attained that
high state of prosperity which an indulgent Providence seems
to have designed, it may too probably be found in the lack of

those sterner virtues — industry, economy, and temperance, and
in a disregard of the maxim, that " righteousness exalteth a
nation."

But this sketch of the history of the Missisco Valley has
been made as minute and brought down as far as is proper.
Few events of general interest have happened or could have
happened in so small a community. If it were allowable to
enter largely into details of individual or family affairs, many
events might be narrated that would provoke a smile or cause
a tear, — topics worthy the pen of a Crabbe or a Wordsworth.
But this can be permitted in only a few instances, and with
the narration of these, the history of the valley will close.

BIOGRAPHY.

DEACON SAMUEL H. HOVEY.

A brief notice of several persons who once resided in the
Alissisco valley seems to be required by respect for their
memories, and the influence they exercised upon society.

Dea. Samuel H. Hovey, one of the early settlers of Troy,
was born of poor parents in Lyme, N. H. When he had ar-
rived at an age when his labor was of some value, his father
bound him out to a wealthy farmer in that vicinity, and re-
ceived a yoke of cattle as a compensation for his son's ser-
vices. In consequence Mr. Hovey begun his career in life
penniless, and with but the limited education which the dis-
trict schools of that day afforded. He had, however, the
advantages of a hale constitution, a stout, muscular frame,
and was well trained in habits of industry and thrift.

Mr. Hovey married Miss Anna Grant of Lyme, moved to Troy,
purchased a lot of one hundred acres of land, on what is called
the East Hill, and commenced clearing it. He made after-
wards additions to his farm, and was for a long time the largest
and most successful farmer in the valley. He united with the
Congregational Church in 1818, was elected a deacon, and
retained that office until his death. Dea. Hovey was for many
years agent for almost all the non-resident owners of lands
in Troy and Jay, took an active part in the affairs of the town,
and was generally and favorably known throughout the county.
His house was long the resort, and his hospitality was freely

bestowed on the ministers of the Gospel and other strangers
who visited that, then remote and secluded valley. Becoming
somewhat involved by endorsing for a friend, he took for his
security an assignment of a large part of the mine of iron ore,
soon after it was first discovered in 1833, He afterwards
sold his interest in the ore and the farm where he had resided
to the Boston and Troy Iron Company for $13,000; and in
1837 he removed to another farm which he owned about half
a mile from Troy village where he resided lor the remainder
of his life. To effect this sale, and to advance this manufac-
turing interest in his town, he subscribed largely for the stock
of this Ii'on Company, all of which he lost by its failure in
1841, and also lost much by endorsing for, and endeavoring
to sustain this Company. He also sustained many other losses
by his generous but mistaken confidence in others. For many
years in the early history of Troy, Dea. Hovey's name was
an almost indispensable requisite on any note sent from the
vicinity to any Bank for discount, and almost the only man
that a sheriff from abroad would receive to back a writ, or
receipt property on an attachment. This of course ruined his
fortunes. He died in December 1856, at the age of eighty-
one, childless, and in reduced circumstances. His wife sur-
vived him about one year. Mrs. Hovey was a most efi&cient
help meet for her husband, a very active, intelligent, and
worthy lady, and was much esteemed by a large circle of
friends and acquaintances.

EZRA JOHNSON.

Ezra Johnson, Esq., was bom in Phillipston, (then Gerry,)
Massachusetts. His father removed to Westminster in this
State, and then to Bath, New Hampshire. Mr. Johnson mar-

ried early in life, settled iu Waterford, Vermont, remained
there one season only, sold out very advantageously the land
he had purchased, and returned to Bath. He then engaged
one year in lumbering and rafting on the river St. Lawrence,
purchased a farm in Westfield, and removed to that town in
December 1811, lived there several years, and returned to
Bath. He resided in that town three years, and again re-
turned to the Missisco valley, and purchased an excellent
tract of land lying on the river about a mile South of North
Troy village.

In 1837, he rented his farm and purchased a tavern stand
in Troy village, moved there and kept a public house for
several years, very much to the satisfaction of the public and
with profit to himself. At this time he was in very easy and
independent circumstances, which resulted quite as much from
his judgment and sagacity in the several purchases and sales
he had made, as from his personal industry.

In 1846, he had a son-in-law who had taken a large job in
constructing the Vermont Central Railroad but had not means
to perform his contract. The job was supposed to be an ad-
vantageous one if it could be completed, and Esq. Johnson in
the hope of rescuing his son-in-law ventured into the perilous
undertaking, and with two others assumed the contract and
undertook to complete the job. The consequence was that
he and his associates were irretrievably ruined. To raise
funds for this undertaking Esq. Johnson had mortgaged his
farm and his tavern stand and contracted other debts. His
property was swept away, and in 1 848 he was a poor man,
with large debts still impending over him. He obtained in
1849 an appointment in the custom house department as col-
lector at Troy, which afforded him an ample salary with but
few official duties to discharge, giving him an abundant leisure,

which was productive of no advantage to him. In June 1850,
after a violent sickness of a few days only he died at the age
of sixty-two years.

Esq. Johnson was perhaps by nature the most liberally
endowed of any man that has ever resided in the Missisco
valley. Though he made some mistakes and committed many
errors, yet his judgment was sound and sagacious. His in-
formation derived both from books and observation was
extensive. His wit was keen and sarcastic. He long held
the office of justice of peace, and his decisions were remark-
able not only for a sound discrimination of law and facts, but
for independence and impartiality of judgment. Had he been
properly trained and directed in early life he might have
avoided some errors, and risen to a more prominent and use-
ful station in society. But after all, his life was not produc-
tive of the benefits which might have been expected from his
abilities, and the many good qualities which he really pos-
sessed.

When he resided in Westfield he made a profession of
religion, and united with the Christian society in that town.
This doubtless exercised a salutary influence on him and
repressed for a time the germs of evil. But in after life his
faith seemed to fade away, and to be succeeded by a general
doubt and skepticism. As a cause, or as a consequence of
this declension, his morals ceased to be as examplary as might
be expected. By temperament he was naturally indolent.
With an active mental organization and an aversion to labor,
he was predisposed to love of excitement and especial games
of chance as a relief from the irksomeness of indolence.
This introduced him_ to company and practices which his
friends regretted, and his example and influence in his latter
years were not favorable to the best interests of society.

DR. DAVID H. BEARD.

Dr. David H. Beard, another noted and scme-what eccentric
citizen of Troy, was born in Shelbnrne, Vermont, in 1803.
In childhood he lost both parents, and "without any means
of support was left to the charities of the world, and passed
through the usual vicissitudes of the life of an orphan boy.
He early manifested a love of knowledge and a capacity to
acquire it, and when quite young commenced the study of
medicine. By dint of his exertions he acquired such a knowl-
edge of his profession that he commenced practice in Fair-
field, Vermont, before he had attained to the age of twenty-
one, and married soon after he commenced business. He
resided in Fairfield four or five years and united with the
Congregational Church in that place. In 1828 he removed to
North Troy, and in 1833 removed to Troy village.

Dr. Beard ever had many difficulties and discouragements
to encounter, and his life was a life of toil. Commencing
without the aid of friends or fortune, he had to rely on his
earnings or his credit to support himself and acquire his edu-
cation, and as he was of a free and generous disposition and
never was distinguished for money-saving, he long remained
in embarrassed circumstances. His constitution was feeble
and inclined to pulmonary diseases, and his practice, espe-
cially in the winter subjected him to much bodily suffering.
His restless and aspiring disposition was ever leading him to
attempt things difficult to obtain, or entirely beyond his reach.
Yet he accomplished much. His talents were respectable,
and he was animated by an aspiring ambition, aided by an un-
conquerable will, and application to study, and was sustained
by a most undoubting confidence in himself. He possessed
many elements of a good physician, he was fond of his pro-

fession, of a sympathising disposition, and was assiduous in
his care and attention to his patients. Although he devoted
more time to his professional studies than most physicians in
the vicinity, yet his busy mind could not be limited to one
object of pursuit. He engaged in all the topics of the day.
Theology, Politics, Temperance, the Canadian rebellion. Phre-
nology, and Homoeopathy, all in their turn, with many other
subjects, shared in his attention. In regard to all these dis-
puted points he ever had the most perfect confidence in the
correctness of his own opinions, and sometimes had but little
charity for those obtuse mortals who could not take the same
view of a subject he did himself. His reputation and success
in his profession was respectable. In the commencement of
his professional career he had been somewhat noted as an
advocate of an active treatment of diseases, and the free use
of the lancet and patent remedies, but in the later years of
his life he very much changed his views, and became an advo-
cate of the Homoeopathic system, almost embracing the opin-
ion that in most cases the less the physician interferes with
the recuperative powers of nature the better it is for the
patient.

In the last years of his life afflictions seemed to gather
thick around him. He sustained a severe bereavement in the
loss of two children, one of them a beloved and only son.
His health continued to decline, and he became convinced it
was impossible for him to live and remain exposed to the
severe winters of Vermont. In the fall of 184:7 his only
surviving child, a promising daughter, had an offer of a place
as a teacher in a seminery in Georgia. Supposing this to be
h favorable opportunity for him to prepare for a removal to
the South, the father and the daughter consented to separate
fiw a time, aad she went to the South with the expectation

that her father would follow her there the next year. In th©
following summer Dr. Beard left a sick bed to go to Georgia,
in the almost hopeless prospect of recovering his health in a
milder climate. He proceeded to a town in the vicinity of
New York, and whilst visiting with some relatives, and waiting
for a packet, his disease increased, and he expired October
18, 1848, His daughter whilst in daily expectation of again
meeting with her father, was shocked by the intelligence of
the death of her fond parent. She rather indiscreetly left
the South at the commencement of the winter and returned
home to her afflicted mother in Troy. But the constitution
of the daughter, which was naturally slender, seemed to
sustain too violent a shock from her afflictions and sudden
removals, and changes of climate. Her health was impaired,
and late in the fall she had a violent attack of a fever which
she had not strength to withstand, and died in December,
1849, leaving her mother a childless and disconsolate widow,
the sole survivor of the family.

NOTE

The following extract from the records in the town clerk's office in Troy, givee
some idea of the state of feeling in the valley at the commencement of the war in
1812 :—

" The inhabitants of Troy are hereby notified and warned to meet at the dwell-
ing house of John Bell, in said Troy, on Monday the fourth day of May next, at
ten o'clock A. M., to act on the following business, viz :

1. To choose a moderator to govern said meeting.

2. To see what method the town will take in the present important crisis of times
to famish the Militia of this town with arms and ammunition as is required by
law.

3. To transact any other business thought proper when met. Given under our
hands at Troy, this 23d day of April, A. D. 1812.

JON'A SIMPSON,

DN, ]
LLS, >
J. J

THOMAS WELLS, > Selectmen of Troy.
JOSIAH LYON,

At a town meeting legally warned and holden at the dwelling-house of John
Bell in Troy, on the fourth day of May, A. D. 1812—

Voted, Jon'a Simpson, Esq., moderator.

Voted, that the town take means to equip the militia.

Voted, that the Selectmen of this town be instructed to borrow twenty musket*
and bayonets on the credit of the town for such times as they shall think nec-
essary.

Voted, that the town purchase twenty-five pounds of powder and one hundred
weight of lead if it can be purchased on six months credit.

Voted, that there be appointed a conunittee to enquire if there be any danger
of invasion, and give information.

Voted, that Ezekiel Currier, Cha's Conant, Jon'a Simpson, Esq., David Hazel-
tine, and Fyam Keith be the aforesaid committee.

Voted, that the meeting be dissolved.

DAVm HAZELTINE, Town Clerk."

LBAg14

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