GENEALOGY
974.3
V59EP
1905-1906
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^EYNOLD^ H'-TORIC^L
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01092 4485
GENEALOGY
974.3
V59SP
1905-1906
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2010 with funding from
Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/proceedingsofverOOinverm
- '
*
George Gkenville Benedict.
PROCEEDINGS
:)
OF THE
Vermont historical
society^
1905-1906
WITH LISTS OF OFFICERS AND MEMBERS
REMARKS
By the President.
ADDRESS
On Thaddeus Stevens, by Hon. Wendell Phillips Stafford, Judge
of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.
PAPER
On Prehistoric Vermont and evidences of occupation by Indian
tribes, by George Henry Perkins, Professor of Natural History,
Geology and Zoology in the University of Vermont.
APPENDIX
Containing additional lists of Revolutionary Soldiers buried in
Vermont.
JOURNAL
Of Surveyor-General James Whitelaw
^904*
r ^
«->n-!Q2
16?01I:
■ i
^ c^ TABLE OF CONTENTS.
V Page
*■ -j Joint Resolution of Legislature 4
,3 An act to provide for cataloguing the Library of the Vermont
• ~ Historical Society 5
43 List of Officers, 1906-7 9
*^ Standing Committees 10
. \j List of Active Members 10
£ Corresponding and Honorary Members 16, 17
2 Constitution and By-Laws 18
V^v Proceedings, 1905 .24
. Proceedings, 1906 29
* Necrology 35
— J — Address, Thaddeus Stevens 49
<*? -Prehistoric Vermont 87
Life of General James "Whitelaw 103
Journal of General James Whitelaw 119
George Grenville Benedict 161
Report of Managers, 1906 178
Appendix 178
General Assembly of the State of Vermont.
Joint Resolution.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives:
That the Clerk of the House of Representatives be di-
rected to procure the printing of fifteen hundred (1500)
copies of the Proceedings of the annual meetings of the
Vermont Historical Society, October 17, 1905, October 16,
1906, and of the adjourned annual meeting November 9,
1906, including the address in the Hall of the House of Rep-
resentatives by the Hon. Wendell P. Stafford, Justice of
the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, on "The
Life and Services of Thaddeus Stevens, Statesman and Re-
former," the paper by Prof. George H. Perkins, on "Pre-
historic Vermont and Relics and Evidences of Early Occu-
pation by Indian Tribes," the Journal of General James
Whitelaw and Sketch of his Life, and a reprint of the life
of Ira Allen by D. P. Thompson, said copies to be dis-
tributed as follows :
To each member of the Senate and House of Rep-
resentatives, one copy ; to each town and city clerk, one copy ;
to each college, normal school, academy and public library,
one copy; to the Governor, each of the heads of depart-
ments, each Judge of the Supreme Court, and each Su-
perior Judge, one copy; to the Vermont Historical Society,
five hundred copies ; and the remainder to the State Library,
subject to the control of the trustees thereof.
State of Vermont, Office of the Secretary of State.
I hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of
the Joint Resolution providing for "The Printing of the Pro-
ceedings of the Vermont Historical Society," as passed by
the General Assembly of the State of Vermont at its nine-
teenth biennial session.
Approved December 19, 1906.
as appears by the files and records of this office.
Witness my signature and the seal
of this office at Montpelier, this twen-
(SEAL) ty-second day of December, one thousand
nine hundred and six.
Frederick G. Fleetwood,
Secretary of State.
AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR CATALOGUING THE
LIBRARY OF THE VERMONT HISTORICAL
SOCIETY.
// is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the
State of Vermont:
Section i. The sum of twelve hundred dollars, or so
much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated
as hereinafter provided for the work of fully and properly
cataloguing the books, manuscripts, maps, medals and col-
lections of the Vermont Historical Society, to be done un-
der the direction of the state librarian, on bills and vouchers
approved by him and by the librarian of the Vermont His-
torical Society, and audited by the auditor of accounts, who
shall draw his orders therefor. Such appropriation is con-
ditioned upon the assumption by said society of the entire
work as above specified, and of any additional expense neces-
sary to complete the same, without further cost to the state.
SEC 2. This act shall take effect from its passage.
Approved December 18, 1906.
OFFICERS 1906-7
OF THE
Vermont Historical Society
President.
GEORGE GRENVILLE BENEDICT, Burlington.
Viee-Presidents.
WILLIAM W. STICKNEY, Ludlow.
FRED A. HOWLAND, Montpelier.
H. CHARLES ROYCE, St. Albans.
Recording Secretary.
JOSEPH A. DE BOER, Montpelier.
Corresponding Secretaries.
THEODORE S. PECK, Burlington.
CHARLES S. FORBES, St. Albans.
Treasnrer.
HENRY F. FIELD, Rutland.
Librarian.
EDWARD M. GODDARD, Montpelier.
Curators.
EZRA BRAINERD, Addison County.
SAMUEL B. HALL, Bennington County.
REV. HENRY FAIRBANKS, Caledonia County.
REV. JOHN E. GOODRICH, Cbittenden County.
PORTER H. DALE, Essex County.
10 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
WALTER H. CROCKETT, Franklin County.
NELSON WILBUR FISK, Grand Isle County.
CARROLL S. PAGE, Lamoille County.
DR. GEORGE DAVENPORT, Orange County.
F. W. BALDWIN, Orleans County.
PHILIP R. LEAVENWORTH, Rutland County.
HIRAM CARLETON, Washington County.
BERT EMERY MERRIAM, Windham County.
GILBERT A. DAVIS, Windsor County.
FREDERICK G. FLEETWOOD, Secretary of State,
HORACE F. GRAHAM, Auditor of Accounts. }
GEORGE W. WING, State Librarian.
}
STANDING COMMITTEES.
On Library. — Joseph A. De Boer, E. M. Goddard, John E.
Goodrich.
On Printing. — Theodore S. Peck, Fred A. Howland, Walter
H. Crockett.
On Finance. — Henry F. Field, Joseph A. De Boer, Fred A.
Howland.
LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE VERMONT HISTORICAL
SOCIETY.
Alger, John L Johnson, Vt.
Allen, Charles E Burlington, Vt.
Allen, Heman W Burlington, Vt.
Allen, Martin Fletcher Ferrisburg, Vt.
Anderson, George P Boston, Mass.
Andrews, Wallace G Montpelier, Vt.
Bacon, John L White River Junction, Vt.
Bailey, Horace Ward Newbury, Vt
Baldwin, Frederick W Barton, Vt.
Barnum, Elmer Shoreham, Jft.
Barstow, John L Shelburne, Vt.
Bascom, Robert O Fort Edward, N. Y.
Beckett, George . . Williamstown, Vt.
ACTIVE MEMBERS. U
Beebe, William A Morrisville, Vt
Bell, Charles J Walden, Vt.
Benedict, George Grenville » Burlington, Vt
Benedict, Robert Dewey 363 Adelphi Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Benton, Josiab Henry, Jr Ames Bldg., Boston, Mass.
Bisbee, Arthur Brown Montpelier, Vt.
Blanchard, Fred Montpelier, Vt.
Blanchard, George Lawrence Montpelier, Vt.
Blanchard, Herbert H Springfield, Vt.
Bradley, Charles H P. O. Box 1486, Boston, Mass.
Brainerd, Ezra Middlebury, Vt.
Brainerd, John B 18 Huntington Ave., Boston, Mass.
Briggs, George Montpelier, Vt.
Briggs, William A Montpelier, Vt
Brock, James W Montpelier, Vt.
Brooks, John Vail Montpelier, Vt
Brown, George B Burlington, Vt
Buckham, Matthew Henry Burlington, Vt.
Burditt, Dan Deming Pittsford, Vt.
Butterfield, Franklin George Derby, Vt.
Carleton, Hiram Montpelier, Vt
Carpenter, Henry Otis Rutland, Vt.
Chandler, Albert B Randolph, Vt.
Cheney, Thomas Charles Morrisville, Vt
Clark, Osman Dewey Montpelier, Vt.
Clark, Henry O Orange, N. J.
Clark, Isaiah R 54 Devonshire St, Boston, Mass
Colburn, Robert M Springfield, Vt.
Coleman, Edward Park Montpelier, Vt
Collins, Edward D Barton Landing, Vt
Comstock, John M Chelsea, Vt.
Converse, John Heman 500 North Broad St., Philadelphia, Pa.
Craig, William 93 Faneuil Hall Market, Boston, Mass.
Crockett, Walter H St. Albans, Vt
Crosby, Francis Marion Hastings, Minn.
Cross, Lewis Bartlett Montpelier, Vt.
Cudworth, Addison Edward South Londonderry, Vt
Cushman, Henry T North Bennington, Vt
12 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Cutler, Harry M Montpelier, Vt
Dale, Porter H Brighton, Vt
Darling, Charles Kimball 294 Washington St., Boston, Mass.
Darling, Hale Knight Chelsea, Vt
Davenport, George East Randolph, Vt
Davis, Gilbert A Windsor, Vt
Davis, Edward Aaron Bethel, Vt
Day, Henry C, M. D Bennington, Vt
Deavitt, Thomas Jefferson Montpelier, Vt
Deavitt, Edward Harrington Montpelier, Vt
De Boer, Joseph Arend t Montpelier, Vt
Dewey, Davis Rich Mass. Inst, of Technology, Boston, Mass.
Dewey, William Tarbox Montpelier, Vt
Dillingham, William Paul Waterbury, Vt
Downer, Charles Sharon, Vt
Dutton, Walter A Hardwick, Vt
Ellis, William Arba Northfield, Vt
Estee, James Borden Montpelier, Vt
Estey, Jacob Gray Brattleboro, Vt
Fairbanks, Rev. Edward T St Johnsbury, Vt
Fairbanks, Rev. Henry St. Johnsbury, Vt
Farwell, Arthur Daggett Montpelier, Vt
Field, Henry Francis Rutland, Vt
Field, Edward Davenport Montpelier, Vt
Fifield, Benjamin Franklin Montpelier, Vt
Fiske, Rev. E. S. Montpelier, Vt
Fisk, Nelson Wilbur Isle La Motte, Vt
Fleetwood, Frederick G Morrisville, Vt
Fitts, Clarke C Brattleboro, Vt
Fletcher, Allen M Cavendish, Vt
Forbes, Charles Spooner St. Albans, Vt
Foss, Eugene N 34 Oliver St., Boston, Mass.
Foster, David J Burlington, Vt
Gates, Walter Benton .' Burlington, Vt
Gifford, James Meacham 319 West 102d St, New York City.
Gilmore, William H Fairlee, Vt.
Goddard, Edward M Montpelier, Vt
ACTIVE MEMBERS. 13
Goodenough, Jonas Eli Montpelier, Vt.
Goodrich, John Ellsworth Burlington, Vt.
Goss, Frank Keeler Montpelier, Vt.
Gordon, John Warren Barre, Vt.
Graham, Horace French Craf tsbury, Vt.
Greene, Frank Lester , St. Albans, Vt.
Hall, Samuel B North Bennington, Vt.
Hapgood, Marshall Jay Peru, Vt.
Harvey, Erwin M Montpelier, Vt.
Harvey, John Nelson Montpelier, Vt.
Haselton, Seneca .Burlington, Vt.
Hatch, William Moore Strafford, Vt.
Hawkins, Gen. Rush C 21 West 20th St., New York City.
Hawley, Donly C Burlington, Vt.
Hayes, Lyman S Bellows Falls, Vt.
Hazen, Rev. William Skinner 29 Abbott St., Beverly, Mass.
Hines, G. A Brattleboro, Vt.
Hogan, George Maynard St. Albans, Vt.
Holton, Henry Dwight, M. D Brattleboro, Vt.
Howard, Charles Willard, M. D Shoreham, Vt.
Howe, Willard Bean Burlington, Vt.
Howland, Fred A Montpelier, Vt.
Husband, William Walter Montpelier, Vt.
Hulburd, Roger W Hyde Park, Vt.
Hutchins, Robert H 52 William St, New York City.
Jackson, John Henry Barre, Vt.
Jackson, S. Hollister Barre, Vt.
Jeffrey, William H Burke, Vt.
Jennings, Frederick B New York City.
Jones, Matt Bushnell Ill Parker St., Newton Center, Mass.
Jones, Walter Edwin Waitsfield, Vt.
Kemp, Harlan Wesley Montpelier, Vt.
Keyes, Wade 1040% Tremont Bldg., Boston, Mass.
Laird, Fred Leslie Montpelier, Vt.
Leavenworth, Philip R Castleton, Vt.
Lewis, Rev. Alonzo N New Haven, Conn.
Lord, Charles Sumner Winooski, Vt.
14 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Mansur, Zophar M Newport, Vt
Mather, Charles Duane Montpelier, Vt.
Mathewson, O. D Barre, Vt
Martin, James L Brattleboro, Vt
McCulIough, Hall Park Bennington, Vt.
McCullough, John G Bennington, Vt
Mclntyre, Hamden W Randolph, Vt
Mead, John Abner Rutland, Vt.
Merriam, Bert Emery Rockingham, Vt.
•Merrifield, John H Newfane, Vt
Merrill, Olin Enosburgh, Vt.
Michaud, Rt Rev. John Stephen Burlington, Vt
Mimms, John H St. Albans, Vt
Morrill, Charles H Randolph, Vt
Moulton, Clarence E Montpelier, Vt
Munson, Loveland Manchester, Vt
Noble, Robert Burlington, Vt
North, Clayton Nelson Shoreham, Vt
Osgood, Arthur G Randolph, Vt
Page, Carroll S Hyde Park, Vt.
Partridge, Frank C Proctor, Vt
Parker, Myron Melvin Washington, D. C.
Pease, Frederick Salmon Burlington, Vt
Pease, Mary Everett Burlington, Vt.
Peck, Theodore Safford Burlington, Vt
Peck, Cassius Burlington, Vt
Peck, Hamilton Sullivan Burlington, Vt.
Pennoyer, Rev. Charles Huntington Springfield, Vt
Perkins, George Henry Burlington, Vt.
Piatt, Frederick S Poultney, Vt.
Plumley, Frank Northfield, Vt
Powers, Horace Henry Morrisville, Vt
Proctor, Redfield Proctor, Vt
Proctor, Fletcher D Proctor, Vt
Prouty, Charles A Newport, Vt.
•Deceased 1907.
ACTIVE MEMBERS. 15
Prouty, George H Newport, Vt
Putnam, George K Montpelier, Vt.
Putnam, Ralph Wright Putnamsville, Vt.
Quimby, William Lorenzo Ames Bldg., Boston, Mass.
Ranger, Walter E Providence, R. I.
Richards, Frederick Barnard Fair Haven, Vt.
Roberts, Robert Burlington, Vt.
Robinson, Daniel W Burlington, Vt.
Robinson, Arthur L Maiden, Mass.
Roscoe, Edward Mortimer Springfield, Vt.
Rowell, John W Randolph, Vt.
Royce, Homer Charles St. Albans, Vt.
Sargent, John G Ludlow, Vt.
Scott, Olin Bennington, Vt.
Senter, John H Montpelier, Vt.
Shaw, William A Northfield, Vt.
Sheldon, Henry L Middlebury, Vt.
Sheldon, Nelson Lewis 108-111 Niles Bldg., Boston, Mass.
Silver, Elmer E Boston, Mass.
Slack, Leighton P St. Johnsbury, Vt.
Smalley, Bradley B Burlington, Vt.
Smilie, Melville Earle Montpelier, Vt.
Smith, Charles Albert Barre, Vt.
Smith, Clarence L Burlington, Vt.
Smith, Edward Curtis St. Albans, Vt
*Smith, Fred Elijah Montpelier, Vt.
Southwick, John L Burlington, Vt.
Spalding, Rev. George Burley Syracuse, N. Y.
Stafford, Wendell Phillips St. Johnsbury, Vt.
Stanton Zed S Roxbury, Vt.
Stewart, W. D Bakersfield, Vt.
Stickney, William B. C Bethel, Vt.
Stickney, William Wallace Ludlow, Vt.
Stone, Arthur F St. Johnsbury, Vt.
Stone, Mason Sereno Montpelier, Vt.
♦Deceased 1907.
16 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Stratton, George Oren Montpeller, Vt
Swift, Benjamin Orwell, Vt
Taylor, W. H Hardwick, Vt.
Theriault, William Napoleon Montpelier, Vt.
Thomas, Isaac Burlington, Vt.
Thompson, Charles Miner, care Youth's Companion, Boston, Mass.
Tinkham, Henry Crain Burlington, Vt
Towne, Harriet Belle 100 No. Willard St., Burlington, Vt
Tracy, Mary Louise Johnson, Vt
Tuttle, Albert Fair Haven, Vt.
Van Patten, William J Burlington, Vt
Walt, Horatio Loomis 110 La Salle St., Chicago, 111.
Waite, Herschel N Johnson, Vt
Walbridge, J. L Concord, Vt
Walker, Roberts 71 Broadway, New York City.
Watson, Alfred Edwin Hartford, Vt.
Watson, Charles Douglas St. Albans, Vt
Webb, William Seward Shelburne, Vt
•Wells, Edward Burlington, Vt.
Wells, Frank Richardson Burlington, Vt.
Wells, Henry Burlington, Vt
Wheeler, James R 433 W. 117th St., New York City.
Whitcomb, Charles Warren Cavendish, Vt.
Wilbur, Lafayette Jericho, Vt
Wing, George Washington Montpelier, Vt
Woodbury, Urban A Burlington, Vt
Wright, George M 280 Broadway, New York City.
Wright, James Edward, D. D Montpelier, Vt
COBBESPOXDDfG MEMBERS.
Benton, Everett C Boston, Mass.
Bixby, George F Plattsburg, N. Y.
Canfield, James H Librarian Columbia Univ., New York City.
Clarke, Albert 77 Bedford St., Boston, Mass.
Denio, Herbert W Westfield, Mass.
Houghton, Edward R Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass.
♦Deceased 1907.
ACTIVE MEMBERS. 17
Kellogg, David Sherwood, M. D Plattsburg, N. Y.
Lord, George Dana Hanover, N. H.
Phelps, James T 159 Devonshire St. , Boston, Mass.
Walker, Rev. Edwin Sawyer Springfield, 111.
Winslow, Rev. Wm. Copley, D. D...525 Beacon St., Boston, Mass.
HONORARY MEMBERS.
Burgess, John W New York City.
Clark, Charles Edgar, Rear Adm'l U. S. N Philadelphia, Pa.
Darling, Charles Hiram Burlington, Vt.
Dewey, George, Admiral, U. S. N Washington, D. C.
Simpson, John W 25 Broad St., New York City.
CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS.
As revised by Special Committee, submitted to the
members, and adopted October 18, 1904.
CONSTITUTION.
ARTICLE I.
This association shall be called "The Vermont Histori-
cal Society," and shall consist of Active, Corresponding,
and Honorary Members.
ARTICLE 11.
The object of the Society shall be to discover, collect,
and preserve whatever relates to the material, agricultural,
industrial, civil, political, literary, ecclesiastical and military
history of the State of Vermont.
ARTICLE in.
The officers of the Society, who shall constitute its
Board of Managers, to be elected annually and by ballot,
shall be a President, three Vice-Presidents, a Recording
Secretary, two Corresponding Secretaries of foreign and
domestic correspondence, a Librarian and a Cabinet-Keeper,
a Treasurer, and a Curator from each county in this State.
ARTICLE iv.
There shall be one annual, and occasional meetings of
the Society. The annual meeting for the election of officers
shall be at Montpelier on Tuesday preceding the third Wed-
CONSTITUTION. 19
nesday of October; the special meetings shall be at such
time and place as the Board of Managers shall determine.
ARTICLE v.
All members, (Honorary and Corresponding members
excepted,) shall pay, on admission, the sum of two dollars,
and an additional sum of one dollar annually.
ARTICLE VI.
Members shall be elected upon the recommendation of
any member of the Society.
ARTICLE VII.
This Constitution and the By-Laws may be altered or
amended at the annual meeting by a vote of two-thirds of
the members present, provided notice of the proposed
change shall have been given at the next preceding annual
meeting.
BY-LAWS.
CHAPTER I.
RELATING TO MEMBERS.
1. Members only shall be entitled to vote or to be
eligible to any office.
2. No member who shall be in arrears for two years,
shall be entitled to vote, or be eligible to any office, and any
failure to pay annual dues for two consecutive years, after
due notice from the Treasurer, shall be considered a for-
feiture of membership; and no person thus expunged from
the roll of the Society can be eligible to re-admission with-
out the payment of his arrears.
20 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
3. No person shall be elected an Active Member until
he shall have previously signified his desire to become such
in writing.
4. The yearly assessment is payable at the time of the
annual meeting in October.
CHAPTER II.
OF OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE.
1. The President, or in his absence the highest officer
present, shall preside at all meetings of the Society, and
regulate the order thereof, and be ex-oiUcio chairman of the
Board of Managers, and when required give the casting
vote.
2. The Recording Secretary shall keep the minutes
of all meetings of the Society in a suitable book, and at the
opening of each one shall read those of the preceding one.
He shall have the custody of the Constitution, By-Laws,
Records and all papers of the Society, and shall give notice
of the time and place of all meetings of the Society and shall
notify all officers and members of their election and com-
municate all special votes of the Society to parties interested
therein. In the absence of the Recording Secretary his
duty shall be performed by one of the Corresponding Sec-
retaries.
3. The Corresponding Secretaries shall conduct all the
correspondence of the Society committed to their charge.
They shall preserve on file the original of all communica-
tions addressed to the Society and keep a fair copy of all
their letters in books furnished for that purpose. They
shall read, at each meeting, the correspondence or such ab-
stracts from it as the President may direct.
CONSTITUTION.
4. The Treasurer shall collect, receive and disburse
all moneys due and payable, and all donations and bequests
of money or other property to the Society. He shall pay,
under proper vouchers, all the ordinary expenses of the So-
ciety, and shall deposit all its funds in one of the Vermont
Banks, to the credit of the Society, subject to his checks as
Treasurer ; and at the annual meeting shall make a true re-
port of all the moneys received and paid out by him, to be
audited by the Committee on Finance provided for here-
after.
5. It shall be the duty of the Librarian and Cabinet-
Keeper, to preserve, arrange, and keep in good order, all
books, manuscripts, documents, pamphlets, articles, and pa-
pers of every kind, belonging to the Society. He shall keep
a catalogue of the same, and take especial care that no book,
manuscript, document, paper, or any property of the Society,
confided to his keeping, be removed from the room. He
shall also be furnished with a book, in which to record all
donations and bequests of whatsoever kind, relating to his
department, with the name of the donor, and the time when
bestowed.
6. The Curators, with the President, Vice-Presidents,
Corresponding and Recording Secretaries, Librarian, and
Treasurer, shall constitute a Board of Managers, whose duty
it shall be to superintend the general concerns of the Society.
The President shall, from this Board, appoint the following
Standing Committees, viz. : On the Library and Cabinet,
on Printing and Publishing, and on Finance.
7. The Committee on the Library and Cabinet shall
have the supervisory care of all printed publications, manu-
scripts and curiosities. They shall, with the Librarian, pro-
22 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
vide suitable shelves, cases and fixtures, in which to ar-
range and display them. The printed volumes and manu-
scripts shall be regularly numbered and marked with the
name of "The Vermont Historical Society." They shall
propose at the regular meeting, such books or manuscripts,
pertaining to the objects of the Society, as they shall deem
expedient, which, when approved, shall be by them pur-
chased and disposed of as above directed. They shall be re-
quired to visit the library at least once a year, officially, and
shall provide a book or books, in which the Librarian and
Cabinet-Keeper shall keep a record of their proceedings —
and be entrusted in general, with the custody, care and in-
crease of whatever comes within the province of their ap-
pointed duty.
8. The Committee on Printing and Publishing shall
prepare for publication whatever documents or collections
shall be ordered by the Society; shall contract for and su-
pervise the printing of the same, and shall furnish the Re-
cording Secretary and Librarian and Cabinet-Keeper, with
such blank notices, summonses, labels, etc., as may be
deemed requisite.
9. The Committee on Finance shall consist of at least
one member of each of the former committees, and shall
have the general oversight and direction of the funds of the
Society. They shall examine the books of the Treasurer,
vouch all accounts of moneys expended, and audit his an-
nual report.
CONSTITUTION. 23
CHAPTER III.
OF THE CABINET, LIBRARY, ETC.
1. All donations to the Cabinet or Library, when prac-
ticable, shall have the donor's name, legibly written or
printed, affixed thereto.
2. All donations shall be promptly acknowledged by
the Librarian and Cabinet-Keeper on behalf of the Society,
and shall be specified by that officer in his report to the
Society to be made at the annual meeting.
3. The Librarian and Cabinet-Keeper shall make a
written report of the condition of the Library and Cabinet
at the annual meeting.
4. All reports of Committees must be in writing, and
addressed to the President, and shall be recorded by the
Recording Secretary, unless otherwise ordered by a vote of
the Society.
5. It shall be deemed the duty of all members, if con-
venient, to contribute to the Library and Cabinet such pa-
pers, pamphlets and books (rare or out of print), as possess
historical interest.
6. There shall be a public meeting of the Society in
the year in which the Legislature sits. Such meeting shall
be under the charge and supervision of the President, who
shall make, on such occasion, the President's address and
shall also invite (with such counsel as he may require from
the Board of Managers) to address the Society at such
meeting, one or more speakers, on subjects relating to the
history of this State.
7. Notices of the deaths of such members of this His-
torical Society, and eminent Vermonters, as may decease
24 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
during the year preceding the annual meeting of the Society,
shall be prepared under the direction of the Board of Man-
agers and be read at the annual meeting, and be deposited
in the archives of the Society for future use and reference.
VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PROCEEDINGS.
Proceedings oe Annual Meeting, October 17, 1905.
Pursuant to printed notice, the Vermont Historical So-
ciety held its sixty-seventh annual meeting at its rooms in
the State Capitol, on Tuesday, October 17, 1905. The fol-
lowing members were in attendance : G. G. Benedict, J. L.
Barstow, J. W. Brock, F. A. Howland, C. S. Forbes, E. M.
Goddard, W. W. Husband, W. N. Theriault, R. W. Put-
nam, G. K. Putnam, E. D. Field and J. A. DeBoer.
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 P. M. by
President Benedict.
The minutes of the meetings of October 18, October
27 and November 15, 1904, were read by the Secretary and
on motion approved.
The report of Treasurer H. F. Field was presented
and, on motion of Mr. Forbes, accepted and ordered placed
on file. It showed a balance on hand October 24, 1904, of
$433.70; receipts during the year of $167.00; disburse-
ments, during the same period, $165.46; cash on hand,
balance, $435-24-
The Librarian, E. M. Goddard, read his report and on
motion of Mr. Howland it was accepted and ordered placed
on file. Mr. Goddard reported an increase in the Society's
library during the year of 42 bound volumes and 61
pamphlets. He discussed the needs of the library and re-
newed the suggestions of his preceding reports relative to
2
26 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL, SOCIETY.
securing a larger annual appropriation from the State and
the need of more room.
The report of the Board of Managers was presented
verbally by President Benedict. He said that the Society
had lost by death during the past year the following mem-
bers: George F. Bixby, of Plattsburgh, N. Y. ; Arthur
Ropes, of Montpelier, Vt. ; William N. Piatt, of Shoreham,
Vt. ; Wilder L. Burnap, of Burlington, Vt. ; Charles Dewey,
of Montpelier, Vt., and Martin L. Hamblet, of Lowell,
Mass. An invitation was received June 29, 1905, from the
Committee on Arrangements for the 300th anniversary of
"Weymouth's Voyage of Discovery" at Thomaston, Maine,
July 6, 1905, and Prof. Davis R. Dewey of the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology was appointed a delegate for
the occasion. The President reported that Mr. W. H.
Crockett had found many names of Revolutionary soldiers
in addition to those printed in the last published proceedings.
President Benedict presented an invitation from the
Geographical Society of Mexico to join, May 20, 1906, in
a celebration of the fourth Centenary of the death of Chris-
topher Columbus. The Society voted to accept the invita-
tion and referred the same to a committee of three, to be ap-
pointed by the chair. F. A. Howland, W. W. Stickney and
Hiram Carleton were named as such committee.
President Benedict presented a copy of the original
"Declaration of Independence" by Vermont Citizens March
5, 1776, which was received from Hon. C. S. Palmer. The
original of this document is now held at Bennington.
Applications for membership were received as follows:
George Pomeroy Anderson, Boston, Mass. Proposed
by Charles S. Forbes.
PROCEEDINGS OF ANNUAL MEETING. 27
Jacob Gray Estey, Brattleboro, Vt. Proposed by George
A. Hines.
Walter E. Jones, Waitsfield, Vt. Proposed by Fred
A. Howland.
Henry C. Day, M. D., Bennington, Vt. Proposed by
Charles M. Bliss.
All were elected by a viva voce vote of the Society.
On motion of Mr. Goddard, the President was in-
structed to appoint a nominating committee of three to pre-
sent a list of officers for the year next ensuing. The Presi-
dent appointed Messrs. Goddard, Field and Barstow.
On motion by Mr. Howland, it was voted to make the
salary of the Librarian $100 per year, payable quarterly,
until further ordered by the Society.
On motion of Mr. DeBoer, it was voted to instruct the
Board of Managers to secure, if possible, from the Legisla-
ture of 1906 an increase in the annual State appropriation
from $100 to $500, as recommended by the Librarian, the
same committee to make provision for any necessary change
in the law for its distribution.
Mr. Field presented the report of the nominating com-
mittee, which, on motion by Mr. Forbes, was adopted and
the following were elected, without dissent, to serve as offi-
cers for the year ensuing:
President — George G. Benedict, Burlington, Vt.
Vice-Presidents — William W. Stickney, Ludlow, Vt. ;
Walter H. Crockett, St. Albans, Vt.; Fred A. Howland,
Montpelier, Vt.
Recording Secretary — Joseph A. DeBoer, Montpelier,
Vt.
28 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL, SOCIETY.
Corresponding Secretaries — Theodore S. Peck, Bur-
lington, Vt. ; Charles S. Forbes, St. Albans, Vt.
Treasurer— Henry F. Field, Rutland, Vt.
Librarian — Edward M. Goddard, Montpelier, Vt.
Curators — Ezra Brainerd (Addison) ; Henry D. Hall
(Bennington) ; Henry Fairbanks (Caledonia) ; John E.
Goodrich (Chittenden) ; Porter H. Dale (Essex) ; Frank
L. Greene (Franklin) ; Nelson W. Fisk (Grand Isle) ; Car-
roll S. Page (Lamoille) ; Dr. George Davenport (Orange) ;
F. W. Baldwin (Orleans) ; Frank C. Partridge (Rutland) ;
Hiram Carleton (Washington) ; Bert E. Merriam (Wind-
ham) ; Gilbert A. Davis (Windsor) ; and ex-ofhcio, Fred-
erick G. Fleetwood, Secretary of State ; Horace F. Graham,
State Auditor; and George W. Wing, State Librarian.
The President appointed the following standing com-
mittees :
On Library — J. A. DeBoer, J. E. Goodrich, E. M.
poddard.
On Printing— T. S. Peck, F. A. Howland, D. W. Rob-
inson.
On Finance — Hiram Carleton, H. F. Field, F. C.
Partridge.
On motion of Mr. Goddard, the meeting adjourned.
Attest to record :
Jos. A. DeBoer,
Secretary.
proceedings, adjourned annual meeting. 29
Proceedings of Annual Meeting, October 16, 1906.
The Vermont Historical Society met in accordance with
printed call, at the rooms of the Society in the State House,
on Tuesday afternoon, October 16, 1906, at 2 :oo o'clock.
Members present: George W. Wing, Edward M.
Goddard and J. A. DeBoer.
On motion of Mr. Goddard the meeting adjourned to
the 9th of November, 1906, at two o'clock in the afternoon.
A true copy.
Attest :
Joseph A. DeBoer,
Recording Secretary.
Adjourned Annual Meeting, November 9, 1906.
In pursuance to adjournment, the Vermont Historical
Society held its sixty-eighth annual meeting at its rooms in
the State Capitol on Friday, November 9, 1906, at 2 o'clock
in the afternoon.
The following members were in attendance: G. G.
Benedict, George Davenport, F. L. Greene, M. F. Allen,
George Blanchard, W. A. Shaw, F. A. Howland, C. S.
Forbes, T. S. Peck, F. E. Smith, G. W. Wing, H. D. Hol-
ton, W. W. Stickney, J. A. DeBoer, E. D. Field, Lafayette
Wilbur, G. H. Perkins, E. H. Deavitt, J. L> Southwick, M.
S. Stone, W. N. Theriault, W. W. Husband, W. J. Van
Patten.
The records of the meetings of October 17, 1905, and
October 16, 1906, were read by the Secretary and approved.
The report of the Board of Managers was read by Sec-
retary DeBoer and, on motion of Dr. George Davenport,
adopted and ordered recorded. (See "Appendix A").
30 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The Treasurer's report was read by Mr. C. S. Forbes,
in the absence of Treasurer Field, and on motion of Dr.
Davenport it was adopted and ordered recorded. (See
"Appendix B").
Librarian E. M. Goddard presented his report. It was
accepted and ordered placed on file. He reported the num-
ber of bound volumes and pamphlets added to the library
during the year as 312 and called attention to the following
historical articles and relics which have been presented to
the Society but of which no previous mention has been
made:
(1) Model of a steam engine built by Capt. Samuel
Morey of Fairlee. This is a model of the engine
built by Capt. Morey for which he was granted
a patent March 25, 1795. This model was
presented to the Society by Mrs. Amelia S.
Kibbey of Fairlee.
(2) Two swords and six military and society badges and
about twenty-five commissions and diplomas of
the late General Merritt Barber. Presented by
Mrs. Delilah W. Barber.
(3) Two swords, epaulettes and sash of Col. Oscar S.
Tuttle, 6th regiment, Vt. Volunteers. Presented
by Mrs. Ellen M. Tuttle.
(4) Wooden case containing a gavel and block and other
articles made from material secured from vari-
ous historical places. Presented by the Bunker
Hill Massachusetts Historical Society.
(5) Case containing a collection of hair flowers made by
Mrs. John Floyd of Randolph in 1856-7, and
presented by her daughters.
PROCEEDINGS, ADJOURNED ANNUAL MEETING. 31
Applications for membership were received from 22
gentlemen and 3 ladies. They were all elected by a viva
voce vote of the Society. For names, residences and en-
dorsements see "Appendix C."
On motion of General Peck the president was instructed
to appoint a committee of three to nominate officers for the
ensuing year. He appointed Messrs. Peck, Smith and Al-
len.
The Society voted to accept the deed of trust from the
Dewey Monument Committee amounting to $2,524.18,
mentioned in the report of the Board; of Managers, and, on
motion of Mr. DeBoer, it was voted to transfer the fund to
Treasurer Field and authorize him to invest the same in ac-
cordance with the terms of the deed of trust.
On motion of Mr. Goddard, the Managers were in-
structed to procure whatever cases were needed for the care
of articles or books belonging to the Society.
On motion of Mr. Goddard, a committee was appointed,
consisting of Messrs. Goddard, Wing and DeBoer, to se-
cure, if possible, from the Legislature of 1906, an appro-
priation for the purpose of fittingly cataloguing the li-
brary and historical relics of the Society.
General Peck presented the report of the nominating
committee, which was accepted and adopted, and the entire
list so placed in nomination were duly elected. For list of
officers elected see "Appendix D."
Mr. M. J. Hapgood brought to the attention of the So-
ciety a suggestion for the erection of suitable memorials
to Seth Warner and Remember Baker. The Society was
informed that a bill for this purpose had been introduced
in the present legislature and, on motion Messrs. Benedict
32 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
and Forbes were elected a committee on the part of the So-
ciety to confer with the committee of the legislature which
has this matter under consideration.
The resignation of R. N. Preble of Shoreham was re-
ceived and accepted.
On motion, E. D. Field was appointed temporary treas-
urer to receive dues and remit them to Treasurer Field of
Rutland, who could not be present.
The matter of securing the usual authority from the
legislature for the printing and distribution of the Proceed-
ings of the Society was referred to a committee composed
of Messrs. DeBoer and Goddard.
A memorial concerning the preservation of the Ameri-
can frigate "The Constitution" was presented by President
Benedict. Mr. Goddard moved that, in view of the action
which had been taken by Congress since the issuance of the
memorial, it be referred to the Managers for proper ac-
knowledgment, and it was so voted.
The suggestion of Librarian Goddard that a transcript
of General Whitelaw's Diary be included in the proceed-
ings for 1 905- 1 906 was referred to the Committee on Print-
ing with power to act.
The Secretary reported that biographical sketches had
been prepared of the members of the Society who have de-
ceased since the last report and it was voted to include them
in the Proceedings.
The President appointed the following standing com-
mittees for the year ensuing.
On Library— J. A. DeBoer, E. M. Goddard, J. E. Good-
rich.
PROCEEDINGS, ADJOURNED ANNUAL MEETING. 33
On Printing— T. S. Peck, F. A. Howland, W. H.
Crockett.
On Finance— H. F. Field, J. A. DeBoer, F. A. How-
land.
The meeting adjourned to meet in the Hall of the House
of Representatives at 7:30 o'clock in the evening for the
biennial public exercises.
A true record.
Attest :
Joseph Arend DeBoer,
Recording Secretary.
NECROLOGY.
Hon. Henry Ballard.
Henry Ballard was born in Tinmouth, Vermont,
April 20, 1836, son of Jeffrey B. and Amelia (Thompson)
Ballard. Obtaining his early education at Castleton Sem-
inary, he entered the University of Vermont, from which he
was graduated with high honors in 1861, and was selected
to deliver the master's oration at the college commence-
ment three years later. He was graduated from the Al-
bany Law School in May, 1863. Returning to Burlington,
which became his home, he entered the law office of Daniel
Roberts and remained there until his admission to the bar
in September, 1863, when he opened an office of his own in
his adopted city. A year later he was admitted to practice
in the United States district and circuit courts. Mr. Ballard
obtained the reputation of being one of the best criminal
lawyers Vermont ever had. He was emphatically a trial
lawyer and as a jury advocate stood among the best.
Soon after the commencement of the Civil War and
immediately after his graduation from college, Mr. Ballard
enlisted as a private and was mustered into service as 2nd
Lieutenant of Co. I, 5th Vt. Vols. He served throughout
the peninsular campaign and was present at the battles of
Lee's Mills, Williamsburg, and the seven days' fight before
Richmond. He was obliged to resign from the army in
July, 1862, because of ill health. Mr. Ballard was an ardent
Republican and an effective political speaker. From 1868
NECROLOGY. 35
until recent years his services on the stump were always in
demand during political campaigns, not only in Vermont, but
in New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Among the civil and political honors which came to
Mr. Ballard were the following : State Senator from Chit-
tenden county, 1878; City Attorney of Burlington for two
years; delegate to Republican National Convention, 1884,
where he served as chairman of committee on credentials;
delegate to National G. A. R. Encampment in San Fran-
cisco, 1886; one of the reading clerks at the National Re-
publican Convention in 1888; and Representative from the
City of Burlington, 1888.
He was a member of Stannard Post, G. A. R. ; Web-
ster Historical Society of Boston; Home Market Club of
Boston; American Institute of Civics of New York City;
charter member Vermont Commandery, Military Order of
the Loyal Legion, and of the Vermont Fish and Game
League. In religious circles, Mr. Ballard was an Epis-
copalian. He also took an active interest in the Young
Men's Christian Association.
December 15, 1863, Mr. Ballard was united in marriage
to Annie J., daughter of Robert and Huldah (Bailey) Scott
of Burlington. Five children were born to them. He is
survived by Mrs. Ballard and three of their children, Harry,
Kate (Mrs. James B. Henderson) and Maude.
He died at the home of his son, Dr. Harry E. Ballard,
in Hartford, Conn., on Sunday, September 23, 1906, at the
age of 70 years.
16??0192
36 the vermont historical society.
Charles Miller Bliss.
Charles Miller Bliss, M. A., was born in Hartford,
Conn., January I, 1827, and fitted for college at the Hart-
ford High School. He entered Yale in 1848 and was grad-
uated in 1852. After graduation he spent a few months
at Hartford in miscellaneous study and reading and went
to Europe in May, 1853, remaining abroad till June, 1854.
In September following he removed to Woodford, Vermont,
where he engaged in farming and lumbering. After 1870
his home was at Bennington, Vermont. At the beginning
of the Civil War he entered the service of his country as
Sergeant of the 2nd Vermont Infantry, and a few months
later was promoted 2nd Lieutenant. He participated in the
first battle of Bull Run and in several of the skirmishes and
most of the battles of McClellan's Peninsular Campaign. He
afterwards engaged in the work of the U. S. Sanitary Com-
mission. He was a frequent contributor to newspapers in his
vicinity, discussing educational, political and agricultural
topics, and from August, 1870, till November, 1871, he was
editor and proprietor of the Bennington Free Press. In the
autumn of 1875 he commenced a movement for a monument
to commemorate the Battle of Bennington. In the two
years following he spent much time and money in pushing
forward this movement and also the celebration of the one
hundredth year of Vermont's existence as a state, and the
Centennial of the Battle of Bennington, during the week of
the 16th of August, 1877. The success of those celebrations
was due largely to his efforts.
He married, February 15, 1870, Miss Sarah Adell God-
frey, daughter of Samuel L. and Ruth B. Godfrey, of Ben-
nington. They had no children.
NECROLOGY. 37
He died suddenly, December 21, 1905, aged 78 years,
II months and 20 days.
He was a writer of much ability and well informed on
many historical and public subjects. Though not a church
member or a church-goer, he was a Puritan in his life and
conduct.
Wilder Luke Burnap.
Wilder Luke Burnap was born September 3, 1839,
in Canojoharie, N. Y., where his parents, Luke and Abigail
(Robbins) Burnap then resided. They removed later to Gro-
ton, Vt., and in that town Mr. Burnap spent his boyhood
and youth. He fitted for college at Leland Seminary and
entered Dartmouth College in 1859. In his junior year he
enlisted, in June, 1862, in the company composed of students
of Dartmouth College and Norwich University, which be-
came a part of the first Regiment of Rhode Island Cavalry
and has been described as the only company composed
wholly of college students in the Union Army. The com-
pany did gallant service in the Shenandoah Valley and in
Maryland. After the Battle of Antietam, the company was
mustered out and young Burnap returned to college and was
graduated with credit in 1863. He removed to Burlington,
Vermont, studied law in the office of Wales & Taft; was
admitted to the Bar of Chittenden County in 1866 ; and soon
after opened an office in Burlington as an Attorney and So-
licitor in Bankruptcy. He soon gained an enviable stand-
ing by his ability, care in the conduct of his cases and gift
as a speaker. He was State's Attorney of Chittenden Coun-
ty 1871-1875. In 1882 he was elected to the State Senate
38 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
and was a prominent and influential legislator in that body.
In 1895 he succeeded Hon. E. J. Phelps as Professor of
Medical Jurisprudence in the Medical Department of the
University of Vermont, and held the office for ten years
and until his death. He was City Attorney of the city of
Burlington, 1885-1887, was School Commissioner of Bur-
lington, 1 898- 1 904, and held several other local offices. He
was a loyal son of his Alma Mater and was President of the
Alumni Association of Dartmouth College for a number of
years. He possessed a fine literary and artistic taste. As
a lawyer, no member of the Bar of Vermont stood higher
than he for legal learning, integrity and ability, and as a
citizen he commanded respect by his sturdy independence of
thought and action and devotion to high ideals of life and
conduct. He was a staunch Republican in politics.
He died July 15, 1905, from internal hemorrhage, fol-
lowing, after several weeks, an operation for appendicitis.
He married May 11, 1870, Miss Fannie Castle of Bur-
lington, who survives him with three sons, Robert L., James
W. and Clement F. Burnap.
Charles Dewey.
Charles Dewey, who died at his home in Montpelier,
Vermont, August 31, 1905, was born in Montpelier, March
27, 1826, eldest son of Dr. Julius Y. Dewey, in direct descent
from Thomas Dewey, of Sandwich, County of Kent, Eng-
land, who settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1633.
He was educated in the local schools, fitted for college
in the Washington County Grammar School, and was grad-
uated from the University of Vermont in 1845. ^n *he
NECROLOGY. 39
same year he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Ver-
mont Mutual Fire Insurance Company. In 1850 he was
elected Secretary of the company and so continued for twen-
ty-one years, and as a director for thirty years. In 1871 he
left the Vermont Mutual to become Vice-President of the
National Life Insurance Company, and succeeded to the
presidency on the death of his distinguished father in 1877,
remaining in that position until his retirement from active
business in 1900. Among the other positions of trust and
responsibility with which he was honored were: Director,
Vice-President and President of the First National Bank, of
Montpelier; Director, Vice-President and President of the
Lane Manufacturing Company, the chief industry of Mont-
pelier; 1864, Trustee of the Washington County Grammar
School, and from 1877 President of the Board; 1867-1869,
State Senator from Washington County; 1882, State In-
spector of Finance by appointment of Governor Barstow;
for over half a century a vestryman and for a third of a cen-
tury a warden of Christ Church, Montpelier.
He was married May 3, 1848, to Betsey Tarbox, of
Randolph, Vermont. To them were born three sons and
six daughters.
Mr. Dewey was an intense lover of his state, his city,
his church, his home and the business with which he was
identified, devoting an active and full life to their interests
and discharging his trust with fidelity.
Dwight H. Kexton.
Major Dwight H. Kelton, U. S. A., was born in
Montpelier (now East Montpelier), Vermont, October 4,
1843. Son of Stillman S. and Ursula (Sprague) Kelton.
40 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
He came of pioneer New England stock, two of his ancestors
being Mayflower passengers and his great grandfather, Dr.
Philip Vincent, being the first resident physician in Mont-
pelier, where he located in 1793.
His education was obtained in the common schools and
at Barre Academy, from which he ran away to enlist in the
13th Vermont Volunteers, but was rejected, being under
age. He then spent two years at Norwich Military College.
He enlisted in the 98th New York Infantry January 29,
1864; was commissioned Captain of the 115th United States
Colored Infantry October 15, 1864; and was honorably
mustered out February 10, 1866. He re-entered the serv-
ice July 20, 1866, as 2nd Lieutenant, U. S. A., was commis-
sioned 1st Lieutenant March 26, 1868, and Captain Feb-
ruary 16, 1885. He was retired with the rank of Captain
March 6, 1888, for disabilities received while in the line of
duty, and by special act of Congress April 23, 1904, was
brevetted Major. The only extended leave had by him
during the almost a quarter of a century of service in the
Army, was in 1873, when he spent nearly a year in European
travel and in study at Leipsic.
Although he saw much active service on the frontier;
being stationed in Kentucky, Dakota, Texas, Michigan, New
Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, he found time to publish a
history of the Sault Ste. Marie Canal and the Annals of
Fort Mackinac, besides a volume entitled "Indian Names,"
which has a peculiar value because in it are collected and
arranged in permanent form some hitherto unpublished
facts and legendary tales of a disappearing race.
On July 19, 1889, Major Kelton married Miss Anna
L. Donnelly of Mackinac Island, Mich.,, who alone survives
him.
NECROLOGY. 41
He died at his home in Montpelier, August 9, 1906, and
was buried in the National Cemetery at Arlington.
Arthur Ropes.
Arthur Ropes, editor and publisher of the "Vermont
Watchman," and the "Montpelier Daily Journal," died at
Montpelier, Vermont, April 1, 1905.
He was born at Newbury, May 5, 1837, the son of
George and Miriam (Johnson) Ropes. Was educated in
the common schools of his native town, at St. Johnsbury
Academy and one year at Dartmouth College in the class
of 1864. Taught school in Newbury and Waterford, be-
came an instructor in St. Johnsbury Academy and for a time
principal of the public schools in that town. He began his
business career as bookkeeper for a St. Johnsbury lumber
firm ; was teller of the old Passumpsic Bank ; cashier of the
Northfield National Bank; a surveyor in the Lake Superior
region for a year because of ill health ; twelve years in manu-
facturing business in Waterbury and Montpelier; in 1880
entered the "Vermont Watchman" office and from that time
until his death was actively engaged in newspaper work.
He was assigned to editorial work practically from the start
and became editor and publisher of the "Vermont Watch-
man" in 1888. In 1899 he established the "Montpelier
Daily Journal."
Mr. Ropes was an editorial writer of great force. His
pen was a power in Vermont and was especially forceful
and earnest when he was writing about forestry, mineralogy,
42 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
roadmaking, public schools and kindred topics directly af-
fecting her interests. An ardent Republican, he was one
of the most earnest and able advocates of party principles,
both state and national, that the Republican party in Ver-
mont has every had. Devotion to his family, state and
country were marked characteristics of the man.
He was married June 28, 1864, to Mary J. Hutchins
of Waterbury, who survives him with two daughters, Mrs.
William E. Harlow and Mrs. John P. Adams.
PUBLIC MEETING.
Public Meeting, November 9, 1906.
The society met at 7 130 o'clock in the Hall of the House
of Representatives and was called to order by President
Benedict. Prayer was offered by Dr. J. Edward Wright.
Introductory remarks were made by the President as fol-
lows:
Remarks of the President.
Members of the Vermont Historical Society, and Ladies
and Gentlemen.
We may congratulate ourselves this evening upon the
facts that our State Historical Society has reached its sixty-
eighth annual meeting with a larger membership and com-
prising more leading citizens than it has ever had, since
its organization in 1838; and that it enjoys distinct marks
of confidence and approval on the part of the people of
Vermont. We must have noted with gratification, the in-
creased interest in the career of our Commonwealth, as
evidenced by the recent multiplication of monuments and
memorials erected to commemorate historic events within
our borders, or in honor of history-making Vermonters.
Since the last previous meeting of our Society in this hall
an imposing memorial tower of stone, has been erected by
the Vermont Society Sons of the American Revolution, upon
an eminence commanding wide stretches of land and water,
upon the farm in Burlington, which was once the home of
43
44 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
General Ethan Allen, and upon which he died. The tower
was dedicated with impressive ceremonies and an imposing
military parade on the 16th of August, 1905. The oc-
casion was graced by the presence of the Vice-President
of the United States, of the Secretary of the Interior, Hon.
Ethan Allen Hitchcock, direct descendant from the Hero of
Ticonderoga, who was present as the personal representa-
tive of President Roosevelt, and by Governors, ex-Governors,
U. S. Senators and ex-Senators, Representatives and ex-Rep-
resentatives, and many other persons of marked distinction
in this and other States. The addresses and exercises were
of high interest and dignity, and have been published in a
volume for permanent preservation.
In July of last year the Vermont Society of Colonial
Dames unveiled with appropriate ceremonies a monument
to Ann Story, the heroic pioneer woman, celebrated in his-
tory and in fiction, upon or near the site of her cottage in
Salisbury. The massive marble block for this was the
gift of Hon. Fletcher D. Proctor, and an admirable address
was delivered by Judge Stafford of the Supreme Court of
the District of Columbia, who is to address us this evening.
A great granite boulder was placed in the cemetery
in Waitsfield through the interest and efforts of two broth-
ers, Walter E. Jones of Waitsfield and Matt Bushnell Jones,
of Newton, Mass. A tablet upon the face of the stone
bears the names of thirty-one soldiers of the American
Revolution, buried in that town. The tablet was unveiled
September 15, 1906, when a valuable historical address was
delivered by Mr. Matt B. Jones, in which he gave an inter-
esting sketch of the life of General Benjamin Wait, from
whom the town took its name.
PUBLIC MEETING. 45
A tall and fine soldiers' monument has been recently
erected in Middlebury as the gift of Col. Ilsley, a generous
citizen of that town.
A massive stone now stands to mark the ground in
Brattleboro, upon which so many regiments of Vermont
volunteers were mustered into the army, during the War for
the Union. And steps are in progress to procure the erec-
tion of similar monuments in other towns at an early day.
In arousing the historical interest which has led to the
erection of these monuments, this Society may claim some
share. It is to be hoped that the number of such memorials
for the instruction of posterity and promotion of patriotic
feeling, may steadily increase; that we may see monuments
erected, better late than never, in memory of Col. Seth War-
ner and Captain Remember Baker; that the ladies who are
planning to mark the site of the first settlement by white
men on the soil of Vermont, at Fort St. Anne on Isle
La Motte, may accomplish their worthy purpose; that the
old Constitution House in Windsor may be replaced on its
ancient site and be suitably preserved; and that other
similar projects may materialize in the coming years.
I may barely allude to the standing which this Society
has gained among similar societies, as evidenced by the
fact that it was one of the seven Historical Societies in-
vited to be represented — :as it was represented by its presi-
dent— at the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth
of Benjamin Franklin at Philadelphia on the 17th to the 20th
of last April.
On the day the celebration began the great earthquake
and fire which destroyed San Francisco occurred, and the
dust and smoke of that terrible catastrophe, almost blotted
46 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
out the Franklin Bicentenary from the sight of the public at
large. But it was one of the most imposing functions of its
kind on record in our land. One hundred twenty-four uni-
versities and Scientific and Historical Societies of England,
Scotland, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Italy, Holland,
Mexico and other countries, as well as of the United States
and Canada, were represented by some 300 delegates, in-
cluding many men of world-wide fame. The State of Penn-
sylvania appropriated $20,000 towards the expenses of the
celebration, and there were other large contributions. The
arrangements were planned and carried out. in a most
sumptuous and distinguished manner under the auspices of
the American Philosophic Society, of Philadelphia. Among
the striking features of the celebration was the presentation
of the great gold medal, voted by Congress, to the Republic
of France, in recognition of the sympathy and assistance re-
ceived by Franklin at the hands of that Republic. The
presentation of the medal was made by Secretary of State
Elihu Root, and the medal was received in a graceful speech
by M. Jusserand, the French ambassador to this country.
Other features of the occasion were of the highest interest ;
but I must detain you no longer from the addresses which
are the chief attractions of this meeting.
President Benedict then introduced Judge Wendell
Phillips Stafford, as a jurist who had gained distinction
on the bench of the Supreme Court of Vermont, and was
winning national fame as an orator and judge of the Su-
preme Court of the District of Columbia, who spoke upon
the "Life and Services of Thaddeus Stevens, Statesman and
Reformer."
PUBLIC MEETING. 47
i
It was followed by a paper by Prof. George Henry Per-
kins on "Prehistoric Vermont and Relics and Evidences of
Early Occupation by Indian Tribes."
The meeting attracted a distinguished audience which
filled the hall. The judges of the Supreme Court occupied
seats near the speaker's desk and the members of Marquis
de LaFayette Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolu-
tion, attended in a body.
The following resolutions were proposed and unani-
mously adopted by a viva voce vote of the Society :
By Mr. W. W. Stickney:
Resolved, That the Vermont Historical Society hereby tenders
to the Honorable Wendell Phillips Stafford, Justice of the Su-
preme Court of the District of Columbia, its sincere thanks for
his able and scholarly address on "The Life and Services of
Thaddeus Stevens, Statesman and Reformer," and requests him
to supply a copy of the same for publication in the Proceedings
of the Society.
By Mr. Frank L. Greene:
Resolved, That the Vermont Historical Society express to
Prof. George Henry Perkins its sincere thanks for his most in-
teresting historical address on "Prehistoric Vermont and Relics
and • Evidences of Early Occupation by Indian Tribes," and re-
quest him to furnish a copy of said address for publication in the
Proceedings of the Society.
Mr. Matt Bushnell Jones, of Newton, Mass., was pro-
posed for membership by Mr. Fred A. Howland and he was
elected by a viva voce vote.
On motion, the meeting adjourned.
THADDEUS STEVENS
AN ADDRESS BY
WENDELL PHILLIPS STAFFORD
Judge of the Supreme Court of the
District of Columbia
Delivered at the annual meeting of the Vermont
Historical Society held on the ninth day of November,
1906, in the hall of the House of Representatives, at
Montpelier, Vermont.
4 i -^o
THADDEUS STEVENS.
When I was a boy there was a picture tacked up on the
dingy wall of my father's factory office, which I used to
gaze upon with wonder and awe. It was the picture of an
old man seated in a chair. I remember he had a club foot
and seemed to be distorted with age and pain ; yet the face
was one of commanding power. There was scorn in the
firm-shut lips ; there was a defiant glance in the eagle eyes ;
and yet it was a face that even as a child I felt that I could
trust. "Who is that old man, father?" I asked. And, as
nearly as I can remember, he replied: "That is Thaddeus
Stevens of Pennsylvania. He was born over here in Dan-
ville or Peacham. He was leader of the House of Rep-
resentatives at Washington during the war and afterwards
until he died. They called him the great commoner, be-
cause he believed in the common people and fought like a
tiger for the rights of all men rich and poor, black and
white. He hated slavery with a hatred that knew no
bounds and he poured out on rebels and traitors all the vials
of his wrath. When you are older you can read and judge
Note. — The address here printed brings to light no new
facts concerning the career of Thaddeus Stevens. The material
presented is all to be found in existing sketches and histories,
and most of it in the admirable biography of Stevens by Samuel
W. McCall, in the American Statesmen series. My effort is anal-
ogous to that of a painter who attempts the portrait of one who
has been faithfully photographed already. It may present some-
thing of the artist's personality, but can hardly be expected to
add anything of historical value. For these reasons I should
have been glad to have been excused from furnishing a copy for
the proceedings. — W. P. S.
57
52 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
for yourself; but I tell you, he was a great man, that old
Thad Stevens !" And so when I found I was to make this
address my mind went back to that early impression, and
I said to myself: "I will try to draw the portrait of that
strong old man, — that true son of Vermont, who fought as
bravely and as mightily for the Union in the halls of Con-
gress as any of her sons fought upon the field, and who
finally breathed her own implacable hatred of oppression into
the three great amendments to the constitution." That is
how it happens that I am speaking to you to-night of
Thaddeus Stevens, War Leader of the House of Representa-
tives and Father of the Constitutional Amendments.
Thaddeus Stevens was the spirit of Vermont incar-
nate. Even in his faults and his failings he was ours. He
came as honestly by his defects as he did by his virtues.
Imperious, irascible, he carried in his breast a heart as tender
as a child's. When he was a child himself his mother had
gone about among the neighbors nursing the sick through
a terrible epidemic. Thad saw her sacrifice, and never for-
got the lesson. Human suffering never failed to touch him
to tears. His own infirmity made him especially solicitous
for the halt and lame. He gave to his physician this order :
"Doctor, whenever you come across a poor boy who has
any trouble with his legs, do the best you can for him and
send the bill to me." Even to the careless and improvident
he was kind and generous — that is, if he had any thing him-
self. Sometimes his own pockets were empty. If that was
the case he would never disclose the fact but would put his
refusal to give on the ground that they were unworthy
to receive, and give them a sharp lecture on their shiftless
ways. There was never a particle of sham piety about him.
THADDEUS STEVENS. 53
He hated cant with all the intensity of his nature. He had
a near relative who was very punctilious to ask a blessing
at every meal. Thad said to him : "Morrill, why don't you
take some rainy day in the fall and bless all your garden
sauce at once, and save this everlasting repetition?" Yet
no one loved genuine righteousness in man or nation more
than he and no one gave himself more resolutely to secure it.
Nobody seems to remember much about his father.
Some say he was a worthless sort of fellow and ran away.
Some say he was killed in the war of 1812. We know he
was a shoemaker and taught Thad to cobble. And tradition
says he was a great wrestler and could throw any man in
the county. But there is no need to inquire about his father.
His greatness is all accounted for by his mother; and that
is where greatness usually begins. She had four sons. The
others were well and able-bodied — Thad was sickly and
lame. You can guess which was the favorite. A poet once
wrote :
These mothers are like God — they love
Ugly and fair alike.
He made a great mistake; they love the ugly and mis-
shapen far the best ; on them they lavish their tenderest care ;
for them they are ready to labor and go without. "It is
plain Thad can never make his way by physical labor. He
must go to the academy and college and if I have to work
my fingers off he shall." And he did. Do you wonder
that Stevens' heart always melted at mention of his mother ?
The greatest pleasure his prosperity brought him was the
ability to give her the fine farm she wanted and the bright
gold pieces she loved to drop in the contribution box.
"Every thing I have done, every thing I am, I owe to my
54 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
mother." So he said. And when he died his will provided
that her grave in Peacham should be carefully tended and
its corners planted with roses "or other cheerful flowers"
to the end of time. Oh, harsh and forbidding old man, we
have found your secret out. Your sternness was only a
mask to hide the over-tender nature. How many of the
softest hearts that beat put on this appearance of hardness
for their own protection! When Jesus was on earth he
saw through such disguises, just as he saw through the
mask of hypocrisy and pretence the Pharisee put on. He
drew about him such men as this — men on whom the re-
ligious world of his day looked askance but whom the Son
of Man saw to be kind and true of heart. Thad Stevens
never belonged to any church but when the "ordained
hypocrites" of his time turned their backs upon the slave,
"the least of these my brethren," Stevens went to him and
gave him all he had. Whether he was a Christian or not,
judge ye ! Once, later in life, he was betrayed into a theo-
logical discussion. He showed such a profound familiarity
with the subject that the listeners asked him, if he had
not at some period of his life studied for the ministry.
Stevens parried the query with his customary snort:
"Humph ! I have read their books."
No doubt he had read them and read them well. That
was a habit he had. He bent himself to his task with an
iron will, and studied relentlessly. He never meant that
anything he set out for should get away from him — least
of all an idea. He went through the academy at Peacham ;
he spent a term or two in the university at Burlington ; but
he finally graduated from Dartmouth. That was in 1814.
Then he went to Pennsylvania to teach school and study
THADDEUS STEVENS. 55
law. When he was ready to take his examination he found
that the lawyers had passed a rule to keep him out. The
rule required that the applicant should not have been en-
gaged in any occupation except the study of law during
the years of his preparation.
Stevens had been teaching school daytime and studying
law nights. So he crossed into Maryland and took the
examination there. Then he came back and settled down in
Gettysburg where the great battle was afterwards fought.
He had a right to practice in Pennsylvania then, being a
member of the bar in Maryland. But it is one thing to
have the right and it is another thing to get the chance. It
was a long time before Stevens got a chance, and in the
meantime he nearly starved. Again and again he was al-
most ready to give up. One day he said to an acquaintance :
"I can't stand it any longer. I have got to go away."
The next day opportunity knocked at his door. It was a
murder case. The old story. He was offered the chance
to defend because the case was too poor for any body else
to touch. Stevens seized the chance. He could not win
his case but he tried it with such astonishing ability that
his reputation in that community was made, and from that
hour he never lacked for business. The plea was insanity.
In those days it was a new fashioned plea and very un-
popular ; but Stevens believed thoroughly in the truth of the
defence. Long afterwards he said he had defended fifty
murder cases, and succeeded in every one but this; and
yet that this was the only man in the whole lot that ought
to have been acquitted.
But Stevens found better business than defending mur-
derers. They were * close by Maryland. Fugitive slave
56 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
cases were common and these enlisted every faculty of
body, mind and heart that he possessed. If he couldn't
save the poor wretch in court he would buy him rather
than let him be taken back. He saw the wicked, cruel
system close at hand. He knew it in its most hideous as-
pect. His soul flamed whenever slavery showed itself.
He brought to the borders of the slave states the spirit of
the free hills and mountains of the north, and he never lost
it as so many others did.
I must tell you a story to illustrate his method in court.
A Quaker miller in that part of Pennsylvania had been very
active in assisting runaway slaves to make their escape. He
was put on trial for doing so in one instance, and the charge
was that he had levied war against the United States. The
case was tried before Justice Grier, afterwards of the Fed-
eral Supreme Court. When the evidence was all in, the
district attorney made an extended argument upon the ques-
tion of law, reading from volume after volume to show
what conduct might constitute the crime in question. Ste-
vens listened in immovable contempt, silent to the end.
When the attorney had taken his seat he rose, hobbled over
to the clerk's desk, leaned upon it, and looked Grier in the
eye. "I have listened to this long and labored argument
with the gravest anxiety — not for my client, but for you.
Because it is now for you to tell this jury whether a Quaker
miller, white with the dust of his occupation, and riding on
a bob-tailed sorrel nag, can be found to have been levying
war, under any construction to be given to the constitution."
And he sat down. He always knew when to sit down. I
sometimes think that is the hardest lesson a lawyer ever
has to learn.
THADDEUS STEVENS. 57
The constitution declared that persons held to service
in one state, if they escaped into another, should not be
discharged therefrom but should be surrendered on claim
of the owner. "Very well," said Stevens, "then we will
do it. But it doesn't say the rest of us shall turn out and
join the hunt. It doesn't say that a man shall not have
a trial by jury to decide whether he is a freeman or a slave.
We will stand by the constitution but we won't stretch it a
hair's breath in the interest of slavery." Case after case
he defended for nothing ; but he was no Hessian. He never
let out his sword to the oppressor. Those were the days
that molded the great advocate of freedom. These were
the experiences that burned into his soul the lesson the
whole country was finally to learn.
• Stevens didn't make the mistake so many young law-
yers make — of going at once into politics. I think it would
trouble you to name a really great lawyer who did not give
the first years of his professional life entirely to the law.
Those are the days that determine what he is to be. With
the sure instinct of genius Stevens devoted himself for
fifteen years to the mastery of his calling. In those years
he laid broad and deep the foundations of his massive
learning and acquired the accomplishment of his consummate
skill. When he died Jeremiah Black declared that he had
not left his equal at the American bar ; and Jeremiah Black
was a rival, a political opponent — himself accounted by many
the greatest lawyer of his time.
Stevens always went to the heart of his subject. He
always laid his finger on the sore spot of his adversary's
case. He never wasted words. He had pondered well
58 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
the Greek saying, "The half may be more than the whole."
He never took a note during a trial. He trusted his memory
and his memory never betrayed the trust. He flew at the
decisive point with all the ferocity of his nature and fastened
upon it with a grip that nothing could relax. Airs and
graces he despised, but his words quivered with the intensity
of his conviction, and his wit illumined the obscurity of his
subject as the lightning lays the landscape bare beneath a
midnight sky. His sarcasms stung like hornets and his
drollery was indescribable and unique. Senator Morrill said
he wasted wit enough every day to make the reputation of
an ordinary humorist. The most mirth provoking things
he ever said were spoken with a face of unmoved, funeral
solemnity. When he was leader of the House at Washing-
ton he could at any time put the chamber in a roar without
an effort. If you read the record you will find, "laughter,"
"great merriment," following remarks of his which, having
lost the manner in which he made them, have lost their whole
significance and charm. After all the great secret is per-
sonality, and no analysis can penetrate to that.
Stevens was forty-one when he first went to the legis-
lature. Instantly he took his place in the front rank. The
next year he was returned and took a hand in the great fight
for free schools. I must linger a moment upon that. Penn-
sylvania furnished education for the rich at established rates
and if a father was too poor to pay, he was obliged to make
application for assistance on the ground of poverty. Class
distinction sprang up and sensitive parents kept their chil-
dren at home rather than send them to be looked upon as
paupers. This year the legislature passed an act provid-
ing for public education for rich and poor alike at the
THADDEUS STEVENS. 59
public charge. But this meant more taxes for the comfort-
able people who had no children of their own. A mighty re-
action set in. The Pennsylvania pocket book was as sen-
sitive as any other pocket book, and a legislature was elected
pledged to repeal the law. The Senate did its part at once.
Then the repeal bill came before the house. A test vote was
taken on a preliminary question and showed a majority
of thirty in favor of repeal. Then Stevens appeared upon
the scene. He had been absent until now. The friends
of free education gathered round him and told him it was
useless to oppose the tide. The mercenary wave had swept
every thing before it. Now one man stood up against it.
Stevens immediately moved to strike out the whole bill
after the enacting clause and to substitute for it a bill of
his own strengthening the free school law. Upon this mo-
tion he made a speech which for immediate practical effect
upon its hearers has never been equaled in a legislative as-
sembly in this country. The house was packed. The Sen-
ate which had just passed the bill crowded in to hear this
audacious argument against their action. His biographer
says : "Stevens then in the prime of life was erect and ma-
jestic. His form had outgrown the slenderness of youth.
It was not yet bent with the heavy weight of years." A
witness declares "he looked like a descended God." He
was inspired by his great subject. He spoke with the fire of
a Hebrew prophet. The house was electrified. It voted
as soon as Stevens took his seat and carried his motion
almost two to one — and the Senate hurried back to its cham-
ber, revoked its former action and concurred. To under-
stand the magnitude of his triumphs we must remember that
the men whom Stevens convinced and persuaded were not
60 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
merely opposed to his motion when he began. They had
been elected on that very issue. They had been commanded
by their constituents to vote for the repeal. Yet such was
the force of reason, such was the power of righteousness in
Stevens' speech, that everything was forgotten save the
mighty elemental truths he brought to bear ; and before many
days Pennsylvania herself, clothed and in her right mind,
was ready to praise and bless him for the service. So it is
always. No matter what the hue and cry of the moment
may be, no matter how the multitude may be hurried away
to do evil, the leader who dares to utter the deepest, noblest,
truest word, he it is who is certain to be acknowledged in
the end as the true voice and tribune of the people. Is it
strange that Stevens always looked back upon this victory
as the crowning achievement of his life? Often he said
that he would be paid and overpaid for all his labors if a
single child of destitution who had found the blessing of
education through his help should come to drop a tear of
gratitude upon his grave.
The speech made his name a household word through-
out the state and Pennsylvania was proud to call him her
son. But after all he was only an adopted son. He really
belonged to us. I suppose you have all heard the witticism
that was sprung on a banquet of Pennsylvanians. They
had been praising their state ad nauseam as is apt to be the
case at all state meetings. Finally a guest arose and said:
"I give you a toast — The three greatest Pennsylvanians,
Benjamin Franklin, of Massachusetts, Albert Gallatin, of
Switzerland and Thaddeus Stevens of Vermont!"
A year or two after the free school victory a conven-
tion was called to amend the state constitution. Stevens
THADDEUS STEVENS. 61
was a member. It was a stormy time and Stevens was in
his element. Every attempt to carry class or race distinc-
tions into the organic law found in him a constant and de-
termined foe. You can see how early and consistent a
friend he was of equal suffrage. The constitution as the
convention left it limited the right to white citizens.
Stevens having fought in vain against the odious dis-
crimination, utterly refused to affix his name to the docu-
ment that contained it. And that was away back in 1837.
About the same time he attended another convention.
It had been called by the supporters of slavery. They
thought the only way to save the Union was to put a stop
to the anti-slavery agitation. How Stevens ever managed to
get a seat in such a body no one seems to understand, but
he did, and he succeeded in making it so ridiculous that
there was nothing left for it to do but to adjourn. Of course
he was the champion of the very views the convention was
called to denounce. Yet he made himself the central figure
of the scene and by his mastery of parliamentary tactics, by
resolutions, points of order, by wit, eloquence, sarcasm, he
turned the whole movement into a rout. His own self-
command was complete. His countenance was imperturb-
able. His sallies kept the convention in alternate bursts of
laughter and applause. Nothing was too personal or ad
captandum for his use. A minister rose and bitterly de-
nounced him for bringing a firebrand into the convention.
Stevens solemnly rebuked the reverend gentleman for in-
dulging in personalities, gravely pretending to believe that by
"firebrand" he was referring to a member with flaming red
hair who had come in with Stevens and sat at his side.
Whereupon the convention nearly exploded. I cannot re-
62
THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
call another instance where a single unsupported member,
hostile to the sentiment of the assembly and gaining ad-
mittance for the sole purpose of defeating its objects, has
been able by sheer force of personal address and manage-
ment to turn a serious gathering into a farce and utterly
frustrate its whole design. Surely it was only the rarest
combination of humor, eloquence and forensic skill that
could make such a performance possible.
After this he devoted himself a great deal to politics and
of course he was an intense partisan. In the last years of
his life, when he was leader of the House, he came in one
day just in time to vote on a contested election case, and
asked a member of his own party how the matter stood.
"Not much choice," he replied. "They are both damned
rascals." "Very well," said Stevens, "which is our damned
rascal?" Yet this was only dealing with things as he found
them. Partisan as he was, he was wise and just enough to
see the folly of determining such questions by a party
vote and advocated another method. He proposed that
they should be referred to a committee who should hear
and decide the question judicially as is done in England.
Well, he devoted so much time to politics that when he
was fifty years old he woke up one morning and found him-
.self poorer than he was when he landed in Pennsylvania.
He had been engaged in a large iron business and his part-
ner had run him in debt $200,000. Stevens went to work
and paid it up to the last cent. In the course of his life he
made and lost three fortunes and yet left a comfortable
estate at the last. He went to Lancaster and fought his
way to the front in a new field. He drew young men about
him as a magnet draws the steel filings. He had nine stu-
THADDEUS STEVENS. 63
dents in his office at one time. In politics the machine was
against him but the people were for him and by a great
majority they elected him to Congress. That was in 1849
and Stevens was fifty-eight years old.
He had now reached that chamber where with the pos-
sible exception of John Quincy Adams he was one day to
become the greatest figure that ever dominated its debates.
But that supreme period of his life was even then some
fifteen years away. On his first appearance the little com-
pany of Free Soilers and Conscience Whigs rallied around
him and adopted him as their leader. He was their candi-
date for speaker. It was 1850 — the year of the second
great compromise on the subject of slavery. The war with
Mexico was ended. A vast region had been gained. New
territories were to be organized, new states were to come in.
California stood knocking for admission — "California," as
Seward described her, "the youthful queen of the Pacific in
her robes of freedom gorgeously inlaid with gold." Con-
gress, controlled by the slaveholders, hesitated to admit her.
The Mexican war had been kindled and carried on to make
more slave states and behold, the first state in the new
territory ready for admission had spurned slavery from her
threshold and adopted a free constitution. New Mexico and
Utah were to be given territorial governments. How about
slavery in these? Should it be provided for or prohibited?
These and other great issues arose and at the bottom of each
was the burning question of slavery. Thirty years before,
Missouri had asked for admission as a slave state. She was
finally admitted but upon the express condition that through
the rest of that vast region purchased from France and
known as Louisiana a line should be drawn at 36 ° 30' — and
64 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
north of that line slavery should be forever prohibited. That
was the famous Missouri compromise of 1820. Now a new
compromise was proposed by Henry Clay and in the end it
was adopted. Among other things it provided for a
stronger fugitive-slave law. It took away trial by jury and
required the citizens of free states to actively assist in the
capture and return of slaves. On this proposition Stevens
made his first speech in Congress. It was a topic where he
was at home and which roused him as no other subject
could. For almost the first time Congress heard the voice
of the unterrified north speaking the bitter, blasting truth
on the subject of slavery where it had so long listened to
the soft phrases of conciliation and persuasion. It was a
new experience and I am still Yankee enough to think that
it was wholes6me. "Keep slavery where it is," he declared,
"and it will die of its own poison. Let it spread and the
whole body will become diseased. Surround it with a cor-
don of freemen and in twenty years not a single slave state,
but will have on its statute books a law for the gradual ex-
tinction of the system." With merciless sarcasm he handled
the pretension that the negro was better off as a slave ; that
when he had tried freedom he had been known to return
and voluntarily receive the yoke. That delusion held its
ground even after the beginning of the war. One day a
Union officer happened to meet a slave running away to-
wards the north. He had known him in the days of his
servitude. "Why Sambo," he said, "why should you run
away? You had a good home, plenty to eat and drink and
the most considerate of masters!" "Well, sah," Sambo re-
plied as he continued his flight, "yo' can put in yo' applica-
tion— de situation am vacant."
THADDEUS STEVENS. 65
But Stevens was speaking in 1850, and he was a decade
ahead of his time. The fugitive slave law was enacted.
The compromise was adopted, and once more the slave
question was put to sleep. Stevens was not a man to com-
promise on a question of principle. He lost interest in the
politics of such a period and went back to the law. When
he appeared in that chamber again it was on the eve of civil
war. The years that had come and gone had been big
with events. The nation had moved steadily towards free-
dom. , If the south had kept the compromise of 1850 it
might have held the scepter for another generation. But
it was not in the slave party to rest on any ground it had
gained. It struck out at every point. It repealed the
Missouri compromise, held sacred by the north for thirty-
four years. It disputed the power of Congress to keep
slavery out of the territories. It flaunted the Dred Scott
decision from the highest seat of judgment. It strove with
bullet and bowie-knife to force slavery upon Kansas; and
with culminating impudence it proposed a revival of the
slave trade. Meanwhile a great political party had been
born pledged to resist the further extension of slavery. The
election of i860 was almost at the door, at the close of which
it was to be truly said that "for the first time in the history
of the republic the slave had elected a president of the Uni-
ted States."
It was December, 1859, and Stevens was on the verge
of three score years and ten. He had not expected to come
to Washington again. When he had retired a few years
before he had delivered his valedictory; and now as he
reappeared he sadly confessed the consciousness of failing
powers. "More graceful would it be to retire — for us who
66 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
find by repeated trials that we can no longer bend the bow
of Ulysses. Fitting would it be to lay down the discus
we have not the strength to hurl." It was the new hope
for liberty that moved him to put on the armor — that
marvellous political awakening — that "marshalling of the
conscience of a nation to mould its laws." It was his op-
portunity— at last his hour had come. It had come to him
in his age. If he had died before he would have been for-
gotten. "I have no history" was his melancholy exclama-
tion a few months before. "It is my life long regret that
I have lived so long and so uselessly." It is as a gaunt,
infirm and aging man but with the undying fire of lib-
erty and genius in his spirit that he will be painted for the
times to come. He did not stand now as he stood in the days
of his youthful vigor fighting his way to the head of a
hostile bar. He looked no longer as he looked on that day
in the statehouse at Harrisburg when he swept house and
senate by his impassioned speech and compelled them to do
right by the children of the poor in Pennsylvania. He was
nearing the end of a long and lonely life that had been child-
less and wifeless. Age had bent his frame. Infirmity had
crippled his gait. Suffering had blanched his cheek.
Thought and care had plowed deep into his forehead. Strife
and passion had left the mark of bitterness and scorn upon
his sunk and withered lip. But with the clear vision of a
prophet he saw that one of the crises of the world's his-
tory was at hand, and denying to himself the comfort and
quiet of age, he gathered up all the remnants of his ancient
strength to strike his last and mightiest blow for freedom.
The house was eight weeks in choosing a speaker. The
question was whether the new Republican party could
THADDEUS STEVENS. 67
muster strength enough to organize and control the body.
One day a Democratic member got up and invited all who
were opposed to the Republican program to meet in one
caucus and act together. That only meant that the rest
should give up and vote for the Democratic candidate. Ste-
vens punctured the proposal with one of his favorite
weapons — ridicule. He said it made him think of the happy
family described in "The Prairie," where the owl, the prairie
dog and the rattlesnake all lived in one hole. Stevens
helped to keep the contest lively. Now and then he relieved
the strain by his humor. For instance he rose with a seri-
ous countenance to a quesion of privilege — saying that one
of his votes had been criticized in the public press and he
desired to make an explanation. He sent the newspaper
to the clerk's desk and asked that it be read. The clerk
looked at it blankly and replied that the paper was printed
in German and he could not read it. "Very well then,"
said Stevens with unaffected gravity, "I will postpone my
explanation till the clerk can read it." Finally the various
forces hostile to slavery came together and the Republican
candidate was seated in the chair.
Let us come at once to December, i860. Lincoln has
been elected, but the party that elected him is terrified by the
consequence of its victory. Secession conventions have been
called, and Congress goes down on its knees begging the
south to come back and take everything it ever claimed. Both
houses pass a constitutional amendment to make slavery per-
petual in this government. Yes, two-thirds of house and
senate voted for this horrible measure. I rejoice to-night
that Stevens opposed every syllable of the weak-kneed,
cowardly proposition. "The time for compromises has gone
68 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
by," he cried, "what we need now is courage, calm, un-
wavering courage that no danger can . appall. We will
faithfully execute the present compact, but if it be torn in
pieces by rebels our next United States will have no foot of
ground a slave can tread — no breath of air a slave can ever
breathe."
Senator Dawes, then a member of the House from
Massachusetts, has left us a striking picture of the scene.
"No one who saw it," he declares, "can ever forget it. All
I can say of it or of him is tame without the inspiration of
the time and of his presence. It was the last of Buchanan's
administration. Lincoln had been elected. The House
resembled a powder magazine more than a deliberative as-
sembly. His denunciation of traitors to their face was
terrible, his exposure of the barbarism of their pretended
civilization was awful. Nearly fifty southern members rose
to their feet and rushed towards him with curses and threats
of violence. As many of his friends gathered round him
and moving him in a hollow square in the space in front of
the speaker's desk opened before his assailants and stood
guard over him while he arraigned the slavocracy in an
indictment that surpassed even the great arraignment of
Sumner. He was nearly seventy. On his form and voice
time had made sad inroads, but he stood at that moment
erect as at thirty-five. Calm and self-possessed as a judge
he lashed them into fury, and then bade them compose
themselves at their leisure. The excitement beggars all
description and can live only in the memory of those who
witnessed it." The long subserviency of the north was near
its end. In that uncompromising tribune of the people the
old domineering south had at last found its master.
THADDEUS STEVENS. 69
But the time had not yet come for the great radical to
lead. A little longer the counsels of fear were destined to
prevail. Bear in mind, state after state had already seceded.
The president of the confederate congress had declared the
separation perfect and perpetual. A president of the new
republic had been elected and his cabinet appointed, yet even
then Congress hugged the old delusion to its heart that by
surrendering all it might bring the rebels back — and it voted
to surrender all. It was only when that full offer was
spurned that the north sadly and reluctanly took up the
gage of battle, which was not to be laid down until the prin-
ciples for which the old commoner contended had been em-
blazoned in the constitution of the Union and in the con-
stitution of every single state that had rebelled.
You remember how cautiously Lincoln began; how
tenderly he pleaded with the South in his inaugural; how
slowly he moved until Sumter was fired upon and he knew
he had a solid North behind him. On the 4th of July
Congress met in answer to his call. Union men were in
the saddle now. In the House of Representatives there
was no looking about for a leader. All eyes were turned
on Stevens. James G. Blaine, by no means a partial ad-
mirer, declares: "He was the natural leader and took his
place by common consent." It was Blaine, also, who said,
"He had the courage to meet any opponent, and was never
overmatched in intellectual conflict." He stood at the head
of the committee charged with the duty of raising money to
support the government and carry on the war as well as
the duty of advising how it should be spent. It was ex-
actly the duty Milton described in his noble sonnet to Sir
Henry Vane — /
70 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Then to advise how war may, best upheld,
More by her two main nerves, iron and gold,
In all her equipage.
In three days he brought in a bill to raise $250,000,000.
He followed it with another appropriating $160,000,000 for
the army, and for the navy $30,000,000 more. They passed
at once. Then he bent himself to the task of raising a
revenue to answer these enormous calls. With courage,
with tact, with patience, he brought Congress and the coun-
try to his plans. Yet, burdened as hardly ever man was
burdened, his eye swept the horizon, and his capacious mind
was already busy with the outcome of it all. He seemed
to see the end from the beginning.
You remember the Crittendon resolution? It declared
that war was not waged for conquest nor to interfere with
slavery, but only to restore the old order of things, and
that when that end was accomplished the war should cease.
Senate and House hurried to adopt it. Stevens stood out
almost alone against it. He did not believe in apologizing
for the war or going about to explain it. "Ask those who
made the war what is its object. The laws of war must
govern our conduct now." He saw that the struggle was
to be long and bloody. He had a vision of the tremendous
price that must be paid — the awful sacrifice that was to be
exacted. He did not believe in the nation tying its hands
by resolutions. If it should become necessary to free the
slave or arm him against his master, if new conditions must
be imposed to secure the peace hereafter, he would not pass
a resolution now to stare us in the face. The resolution
did pass, but a few months saw it broken. When the next
THADDEUS STEVENS. 71
session had to deal with the same matter Stevens moved to
lay it on the table and his motion was sustained.
Southern citizens were devoting their property to the
rebellion. Stevens said "confiscate it." Masters were
setting their slaves to build forts and dig trenches. "Set
them free," said Stevens, "every man that is employed
against us. If the war goes on the time will come when
we shall arm every rebel's slave to fight upon our side." The
bill failed, but the day came when the House was glad to
pass it.
At the outset the south had one enormous advantage.
Her vast crops could be raised by slaves exactly as in time
of peace. She could keep her fighting strength untouched
and send the products of her plantations to buy the sup-
plies of war in European markets. Stevens would have
snatched this advantage from her. Even before Lincoln
was inaugurated he brought in a bill to do it. A year later
he brought it up again. "Repeal," said he, "the laws
creating southern ports of entry. Then foreign nations
cannot enter them. It would be an act of war against this
country. A nation has a right to close its own ports. It
can do so by a law. That law is better than a fleet. But
blockade them and you must keep everybody out by force.
They have a right to enter if they can. Worse than all, if
you blockade them you acknowledge them as belligerents,
and foreign nations will do the same." What would have
happened if his advice had been heeded we shall never
know. We proclaimed the blockade and Europe acknowl-
edged the belligerency of the south.
From the very beginning Stevens' mind was occupied
with the great question of reconstruction. Never doubting
72 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
the ultimate triumph of our arms he was sounding the
depths of the profound problem which, a few years later,
was to engross the attention of the people and their leaders.
He came to his conclusion early, announced it boldly, ad-
vocated it without ceasing and adhered to it until he died.
Distrusted, doubted, opposed in the beginning, the logic of
events confirmed it and it had to be accepted and adopted
in the end. No dreamer, no speculator, no spinner of fine
theories, but a practical man of affairs and the hardest-
headed lawyer of his day, he wasted no time seeking to dis-
cover in the constitution itself provision for the steps that
must be taken toward the seceding states. The constitu-
tion did not contemplate an effort on the part of its mem-
bers to dissolve the union. The power to preserve its own
existence against a parcel of rebellious states was not to
be looked for in its phrases but in the powers of war which
pertain to every nation fighting for its life. The southern
states had repudiated, spurned and spit upon the con-
stitution; could they at the same time claim the protection
of its terms? Stevens said, "You cannot, indeed, destroy
the constitution but you can place yourself outside of its
protection while you are waging public war against it."
Already he was grappling with the question that would
face us when the war was closed. When the rebel states
should be subdued would they have a right to be treated as
back again in the old Union, under the old terms, bringing
the same old sources of controversy with them, or would
Congress have a right to prescribe the terms on which they
should be received? Should they come back slavery and
all? Should they continue to hold seats in Congress for
themselves and for the black race too? Should they have
THADDEUS STEVENS. 73
power to repudiate the debt that had been made in putting
their rebellion down? Should the loyal men of the south
be liable to pay the debts of disloyalty and treason? With
a mind that pierced like a sword even to the dividing of
the joints and marrow, he drove the question home. He
saw that the whole case turned upon one point. If the
trouble was only a domestic insurrection it was to be sup-
pressed by criminal prosecutions in the courts, and the in-
surgents were entitled to the protection of the constitution
and the ordinary laws. But if it was a public war, then
they were subject to the laws of war alone. He proved by
all the oracles of the law of nations that when a republic
is broken into two armed camps it is civil war and while
the war continues the two factions stand towards each
other as separate and independent powers. Was this a pub-
lic war? Europe had acknowledged the belligerency of the
South. We had acknowledged it ourselves. We had blockaded
their ports, exchanged prisoners of war and sent flags of
truce. It was not a mob, nor a riot nor an insurrection, but
war, public war, and the greatest civil war in history. While
it lasted, no paper obligations could be relied upon by the
south against the north, and when the rebellious faction
should be vanquished it would be for the victor to lay down
the terms of peace. So was he preparing the minds of men
for the time when, conquered in the field, the rebel states
should demand to be restored as of right to every priv-
ilege under the old constitution which they had renounced
and defied.
The shilly-shallying military movements that marked
the early stages of the war — you can guess what sort of a
5
74 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
critic Stevens was of these. Here is the way he described
McClellan's march to Antietam: "The President ordered
him to pursue the enemy. He started after them with an
army of 120,000 men before him and marched that army
at the rapid rate of six miles a day until they stopped and he
caught up with them!"
Throughout the whole struggle Stevens was bending
his best energies to remove the cause. No man knew bet-
ter where it lay. "Now is the time to get rid of slavery.
There can be no solid peace, no permanent union so long
as it remains. Let our generals liberate the slaves that flee
to them and arm them against the enemy. We shall never
conquer until we adopt a new method. Southern soldiers
are as brave as ours, their leaders as intelligent. The
swamps and mountains will be their allies. The climate will
kill our armies off. We keep a vast army at home to till the
field and run the factory ; but every white man in the south
can fight and not a single hand be missed from the planta-
tions. The slave does not carry a gun but he is the main-
stay of the war. Call him to your side and let him fight
for his freedom. He will not prove inhuman. I do not
look to see the day when in a Christian land merit shall
counterbalance the crime of color; but give him an equal
chance to meet death in battle. Let him find equality in
the grave — the only place where all the children of God are
equal." For more than a week, against every form of
obstruction and opposition, Stevens stood on the floor of
the house and battled for negro enlistment. Finally the
measure passed, and the humane valor of hundreds of thou-
sands of black soldiers vindicated its justice and its wisdom.
THADDEUS STEVENS. 75
Slowly but steadily Congress and the country moved to-
wards the great goal — emancipation. First the House and
Senate resolved that Federal aid be extended to any state
that would voluntarily adopt a measure for gradual
emancipation. Stevens said it was "the most diluted milk
and water gruel proposition ever offered to the American
people ;" but he voted for it. Then he moved to abolish slavery
in the District of Columbia, and it was done. Then he sup-
ported Lovejoy's bill prohibiting slavery in the territories,
and it passed. Then Lincoln warned the rebel states that
unless they laid down their arms by January first he would
set their slaves free. January first came and he kept his
word. From that hour the God of Battles smiled upon
our cause. The crest of the rebellion broke on the field
of Gettysburg and the long refluent wave of confederate
disaster and defeat began its ebbing course. The next day
Vicksburg fell and the morning of deliverance began to
break. But Lincoln's proclamation did not affect the slave
states that were not in the rebellion. There slavery still re-
mained. His right to issue the proclamation at all was cer-
tain to be questioned in days to come. There was only one
way to set the matter at rest and that was by constitutional
amendment. The North was ready for emancipation now.
The thirteenth amendment which makes slavery forever im-
possible under the Stars and Stripes stands to-day almost in
the very words in which Stevens cast his motion.
Reconstruction! Never since the constitution was
adopted had the statesmen of this country been called upon
to face so grave a question. It had shown itself in Con-
gress as early as the second year of the war. We gained
a foothold in Louisiana and the attempt was made to erect
76 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL. SOCIETY.
a loyal government there. Congress and the President were
not agreed. The war was yet to be fought out and so the
question was put aside for the time being. When it came
up again Lincoln was in his grave and a president of another
sort was in his seat. Congress and Lincoln might have
come together. Congress and Johnson never could. He
began by threatening to hang all the rebels. Ben Wade,
you remember, advised him to content himself with a baker's
dozen and kindly offered to name the right ones. In six
weeks Johnson had turned completely round and from that
time on was the champion of the south. He tried to go
on without Congress. He said "The war is over. The
southern states stand just where they did to start with. They
have all and the same rights with the rest. There is noth-
ing to do but repair their state machines a little and set them
going." He called on the south to do it. The same men
who had headed the rebellion were the ones that were to do
the work. It was soon done. New governments were
quickly running in all the rebellious states and senators and
representatives were chosen. Now up to this time there
was little sentiment in the north in favor of negro suffrage.
But emancipation was another matter. The north could not
forget that slavery had been the root and cause of the re-
bellion and it did watch with anxiety to see whether
emancipation was to be a theory only or a fact. It did not
have long to wait. As soon as Johnson's legislatures could
put pen to paper they had the negro back in his chains.
Under the thin disguise of vagrant and apprentice laws they
resumed over the black race a dominion as absolute and in
some respects more cruel than the old. They did not even
pretend to treat the races as equal before the law. They
THADDEUS STEVENS. 77
made one law for the white man and another for the black.
Let me remind you of a single instance. If a white man
broke his contract with a negro it was only ground for a
civil suit. If a negro broke his contract with a white man
he could be whipped with thirty lashes or put to labor for
a year. Such was the first fruit of the presidential plan.
It did not taste well on the lips of those who had given their
own blood, or blood that was dearer than their own, to
make every foot of the republic free.
Congress came together. It was December, 1865.
Would the new members be seated ? Would Johnson's new
governments be recognized? Stevens sat with a great ma-
jority behind him, the undisputed leader of the House. He
wished to gain time. He wanted the president's policy to
have a chance to bring its bitter fruit to ripeness before the
contest with the White House should be on. Before the
President's message could be received he put through his
resolution for a joint committee. It was to look into the
condition of the southern states and report whether they
were entitled to representation in either house. Till then no
member from an ex-confederate state should be received.
He was at the head of the committee on the part of the
House. Before the session was two days' old he had
brought forward a series of amendments to the constitution.
They would have changed the basis of representation in
Congress so that the south would have no seats there on
the basis of her black population unless she gave them the
ballot. They forbade the payment of the rebel debt. They
declared all citizens of whatever race or color equal be-
fore the law. These he said were the conditions on which
the rebel states should be received. Even then, you must
78 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
notice, he did not propose to compel the south to adopt negro
suffrage. He would leave it for her to say whether she
would enfranchise the negro and have eighty-three seats or
refuse to do it and content herself with forty-six. If his
form of amendment had been adhered to this would have
been the result. Unfortunately it was changed and under
its provisions time has defeated the old commoner's purpose.
To-day nobody in the south pretends the negro is allowed to
vote and yet the south holds nearly half her seats in Con-
gress and wields half her political power by virtue of the
very race that she excludes.
On the 30th of April, 1866, Stevens reported to the
House the famous fourteenth amendment substantially as we
have it now, — that sublime guarantee of freedom and
equality worthy to be inscribed in letters of gold and sure
to be revered by after ages with the Petition of Right and
Magna Charta. How was it treated by these states that
were demanding recognition? Every one rejected it. In
some of the legislatures there was not a solitary vote in its
support. If such was the temper of the white people of
the south, what hope was left that free governments could
be established there at all? Think for a moment what it
meant. Consider the attitude taken by the southern states.
What they said, in effect, was this: We will not consent
that the war debt of the Union shall be paid. We reserve
the right to make the country pay our own debt when we
get the power. We will not give a single black man the
ballot ; yet we claim the right to send representatives to Con-
gress for the black as well as for the white. We have passed
these laws annulling emancipation and we propose to en-
force them. What are you going to do about it?
THADDEUS STEVENS. 79
Stevens said, "There is only one thing to do. Give
every black man the ballot. Not otherwise can we protect
him in the freedom we have given him. Without him the
Union has not friends enough in the south to organize loyal
government. With his aid free constitutions may be
adopted." It is easy now to say that suffrage ought not
to have been conferred upon the black man all at once. But
what should we have done? That was the condition that
confronted them, statesmen as wise and brave as ever sat in
council. It was not a question between allowing free gov-
ernment to be set up and carried on by the white race on
the one hand or the black race on the other ; it was a question
whether there should be free government at all; it was a
question whether the war had been won or lost. It was a
question whether we were still in the clutches of the merci-
less power that had held free institutions by the throat for
seventy years, — whether the dead had really died in vain,
and whether government of the people by the people and
for the people had not perished from the earth.
Then it was that Stevens made his great plea for uni-
versal suffrage — the same ground he had taken in the con-
stitutional convention for Pennsylvania thirty years before.
It was the speech that to all appearances would be his. last.
He was white and haggard, worn and broken by his vast
labors in the cause of freedom. There was little hope that
another session would find him in his place. The house was
hushed to hear his farewell message and his words came
with unparalleled solemnity and power. "I desire to make
one more, perhaps an expiring, effort to do something use-
ful for my fellow men. It is easy to protect the rich and
the powerful; it is labor to guard the down-trodden and
80 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL, SOCIETY.
the poor, — the eternal labor of Sisyphus, forever to be re-
newed. I believe we must all account hereafter for the
deeds done in the body. I desire to take to the bar of
final settlement the record I shall make here to-day on this
great question of human rights. It cannot atone for half
my errors, but some palliation it may be. Who is there that
will venture to take this list with his negative seal upon it
and unroll it before that stern judge who is the father of
the immortal beings they have trampled under foot, — whose
souls they have been crushing out ?"
Congress was not ready for the measure then and it
went over to the next session. Meantime a political cam-
paign almost without a parallel in the history of the country
had brought the north to the position occupied by Stevens.
Johnson himself had opposed the fourteenth amendment.
Three of his cabinet had broken with him on the question
and resigned. He had made his appeal to the country
against what he called the tyranny of Congress. The chief
humorist of the day said the question was whether political
power should be concentrated in the Senate and House of
Representatives or whether it should be diffused through
the person of the President. The country thought such
concentration safer than such diffusion — especially as Con-
gress was for saving the fruits of the war, and the Presi-
dent was for throwing them away. Stevens himself had
been too feeble to take any part in the campaign. As it
proved, he had little more than a year to live. But he
husbanded his failing strength and took his seat once more.
He looked more like a spirit than a man, but he was the
spirit of a united north now — a north that had come at
last to espousal of the very principles for which during more
THADDEUS STEVENS. 81
than forty years he had been as the voice of one crying in
the wilderness. His theory of reconstruction was adopted.
The southern states were recognized as conquered provinces.
They were divided into military districts under generals of
the army charged with the maintenance of law and order.
They were not to be recognized as states until they should
ratify the fourteenth amendment and adopt constitutions in
harmony with it. In framing their new constitutions the
blacks must be allowed to vote as well as the whites, and
their constitutions, when adopted, must wipe out all dis-
tinctions of race and color and guarantee equal rights to
all. This was that momentous reconstruction bill, which,
passing house and senate over Johnson's veto, became the
law of the land, the full, ripe harvest of the seed that had
been sown in the proud ordinances of secession.
The old commoner's work was done. And yet we are
to have a final glimpse of him in another role, perhaps the
most dramatic and impressive of all, — as he stood at the
bar of the senate to impeach Andrew Johnson, President
of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors in
office. It was February, 1868, and Stevens died in August.
Already the hand of death was on him. Day after day dur-
ing the trial that succeeded he was carried to and from the
senate in a chair. Such was the tenacity of life in his
wasted frame that he turned to the stalwart negroes who
bore him and asked, "Who will carry me, boys, when you
are dead and gone ?" The representatives of the people had
been roused to fury by Johnson's long, bitter, obstinate
resistance to the people's will. Finally they had voted to
impeach him. It was Stevens who had checkmated him
at every play. For three years, almost, at the head of
82 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
a loyal and determined house he had thwarted him in every
attempt to nullify the results of war. Again and again he
had met and over-ridden his veto with the constitution at
two-thirds majority. It was fitting that it should be re-
served for him to rise from his deathbed to bring to the bar
of the senate that unique and tremendous accusation. He
did it like the great lawyer that he was. "Who can forget,"
said Charles Sumner, "his steady, solemn utterances of that
great arraignment? I doubt if words were ever delivered
with more effect. They were few but they will resound
through the ages."
When Congress took its recess near the end of July,
Stevens was too weak to be taken to Pennsylvania. The
others scattered to their homes. He staid behind in Wash-
ington, and there in a few days he died. Undaunted to the
last he said: "I am going to die in harness. I mean to
die hurrahing." A few of his kin were by him. Two sis-
ters of charity watched at his side. Two colored clergy-
men came and asked leave to say a prayer for him, and he
gave them his hand. One of the sisters took a glass of wa-
ter and tenderly baptized him, and like a little child falling
asleep in his mother's arms that indomitable spirit passed
away.
It was a sweet and fitting act to touch his rugged brow
with the sign of our redemption; but I cannot think they
would have missed it in the world to which he went. For
the motive that inspired Thaddeus Stevens's life was, in
the profoundest sense, a religious one. He was not im-
pressed by the signs and symbols of religion; he was not
convinced by the creeds in which the subtlest intellects of two
thousand years have expressed their belief in a spiritual
THADDEUS STEVENS. 83
world; he was not a mystic, lost in solitary contemplation
of the divine presence ; he was not a poet captivated by the
beautiful mythology that gathers about any faith that finds a
home in the heart of man. But religion speaks with a thou-
sand voices; it has its own appropriate appeal for every
human soul. To Thaddeus Stevens the Son of Man came
in the likeness of the poor and enslaved of his own genera-
tion. In their unhappy faces, with their beseeching, black
and bruised hands, he made to Thaddeus Stevens his ap-
peal, and he did not appeal in vain. The consecration of
a divine, unselfish purpose kindled his brain and touched his
lips with the fire of prophecy. It is a false and shallow
view that looks upon this man merely as a fierce and bitter
partisan, or as a keen, determined lawyer, or even as a sound,
farseeing statesmen. He was something more than these;
he was a witness to the truth. He was caught up by a
breath of that great spirit that is forever moving over the
face of the human deep lifting now one and now another to
be leader and a light to the wandering and shipwrecked race.
He felt himself upborne on the wings of eternal truth. The
words he spoke were not his own but the words of justice,
that cannot fail. Heaven and earth might pass away, but
its words would not pass away . Apostle or martyr was never
persuaded of the necessity or the sanctity of his witness.
That is what electrified his hearers. That is what gave him,
on his great day at Harrisburg, the appearance of a
descended God. That is what forced Senator Dawes to
say of him : "There were moments when he did not look
like any other man I ever saw and scarcely like a
man at all." God gave him to see with unobstructed
vision the absolute equality in which all men stand before
84 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
their Maker and in which they shall one day stand before
the law. For that ideal he battled. And when he was near
his end he pledged his friends to bury him, not with the pros-
perous and powerful, not in any burial place that would
exclude the race for which he had labored, but in a certain
small and obscure graveyard where the dead of every class
and color were received. And so they did. His very grave
stands as a witness to the principles he fought for in his life.
To that humble far off resting-place our thoughts go
out from this assembly with peculiar tenderness and pride.
We think of his boyhood of poverty and promise, of genius
and deformity. We think of the mother whose unquestion-
ing sacrifice made all his triumphs possible. We see him far
from home, struggling for a foothold among strangers,
forging his way over every opposition to the first place at
the bar. We see him defending the forlorn and helpless fugi-
tive in the court of justice, freely devoting to the defence of
liberty the skill and learning and eloquence which all the
money of oppression could not buy; and when the law
claims its victim we see him paying the ransom out of his
own slender store. We see him standing up alone against
an unjust movement of the people and by the single might
of moral earnestness defeating it and putting it to shame.
We see him refusing to put his name to a state constitution
that presumes to draw a line between the sons of men ac-
cording to the color of their skin. We see him at last in
the halls of Congress facing the fiery and despotic south with
a spirit as intense and uncompromising as its own. We see
him returning to those halls again after years of silence,
the infirmity of age upon his body but the fire of an exalted
purpose in his soul, determined to die in harness now that the
THADDEUS STEVENS. 85
battle is really on. We think of the marvellous foresight
that took in every element of the problem and had it solved
before his fellow statesmen understood its terms. We hear
him day by day and month after month expounding his prin-
ciples, preparing the way for the measures that he knew
must come, waiting with patience till the country was ready
to adopt his view, and then pouring the hot lava of free-
dom into the mold of unassailable and enduring law. We
think of his wit, his eloquence, his logic, his skill, the cour-
age that never wavered, the resources that never failed,
all dedicated to a lofty and unselfish plan — the iron will that
nothing could bend or shatter and underneath the stern
forbidding countenance the heart as tender as a child's !
Then, indeed, we are eager to stretch out our hands and
claim him. Sleep sweetly in your unfrequented grave
among the poorest of God's creatures. If no sculptor has
given your rugged figure to the eyes of men, if no poet has
sung your praises, if the dark despairing multitudes for
whom you strove never knew of their benefactor, you
would not care for that. Your work still stands in the very
framework of free government where you imbedded it.
Your spirit still lives in millions who accept without a ques-
tion the principles you vindicated against the greatest odds.
And here among the hills where you were born, where in
your youth you girded up your loins and went forth to battle,
men still love liberty and hate oppression, — still cherish the
grand ideal of absolute justice and equal rights for all that
made your life heroic. You were worthy of Vermont and
Vermont is proud of her son.
PREHISTORIC VERMONT
Evidences of Early Occupation by
Indian Tribes
BY
GEORGE HENRY PERKINS, Ph. D.
*<»
-frS
PREHISTORIC VERMONT.
That the area now covered by the state of Vermont
was more or less fully occupied by Indian tribes long be-
fore it was seen by white men is conclusively proved by
remains of village sites, camp grounds and thousands of
objects fashioned from shell, copper, bone, earthenware and
most of all, of stone. These, now found buried in the earth,
were in common use when the first Europeans wandered
hither. Village sites are few and it seems probable that for
many years previous to the coming of Europeans the per-
manent villages were few and small.
The savage allies who journeyed with Champlain when
he made that well known first visit to the lake which bears
his name explained this. They told him, that because of
long continued feuds between themselves, Algonquins, and
the Iroquois who lived on the west side of the lake, the re-
gion about it was not inhabitable. This does not account
however for the apparently similar absence of villages from
the eastern part of Vermont. Still there may have been a
similar condition of things in the Connecticut River Valley.
At any rate, whatever was the cause, the fact remains that
few evidences of long continued settlement have been found
anywhere in the State.
Camping grounds, some of which were undoubtedly
occupied season after season and for months continuously,
are numerous. The early inhabitants of Vermont appear to
have been accustomed to spend the coldest part of the win-
6
90 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
ters in the dense forests and in the spring or early summer
to have moved from their shelter to some pond or lake
where fishing was good and near which there could be
found fertile soil. Here they brought their skin tents and
what few possessions they had and settled down for
the season. The squaws made such rude clearings as they
could with the stone implements which the men had
fashioned and scratching over the surface of the rough
ground, they planted corn, melons, squashes, tobacco and
possibly a few other vegetables and waited for the growing
and maturing of the crops. The squaws did the farm
work, all of it, the men went hunting, fishing or on the war
path or in default of these occupations, lounged about the
camp. In the fall, the fruits of both agriculture and hunt-
ing were packed in bundles and with the other property,
carried into winter quarters, that is into the thick spruce
forests. Here the winter was passed in idleness for the
most part, story telling, working on stone implements or
sleeping. All the early writers tell us that these people
were surprisingly improvident and that while during the
early part of the winter, when food was plenty, they gorged
thmselves by continual feasting, during the latter weeks,
the food supply having usually given out, they almost
starved. Although only a very small part of what is now
Vermont was occupied for any long time by the Indians a
considerable part of its area was crossed and recrossed by
trails leading from friendly villages to others of like mind
or, and perhaps more often, the paths were the thorough-
fares of war parties seeking plunder, blood and revenge.
As it was less laborious and much safer to travel in canoes
than on foot the longer journeys were always made, so
PREHISTORIC VERMONT. 91
far as possible, by lakes and streams. There can be no
doubt that by far the most commonly traversed route was
that which led through Lake Champlain, for here they could
paddle their canoes at leisure, while far enough from either
shore to be out of danger of ambush or sudden attack from
the enemies. Most of these lines of travel led from the
villages or camps about the St. Lawrence to those in eastern
New York or southern New England. Hence the main
object of the wandering tribes was to get from North to
South or the reverse. When the Algonquins of the north
set forth on a raid upon the Iroquois they went through
the St. Lawrence west as far as what they called the River
of the Iroquois and paddling their canoes up this into
Lake Champlain they proceeded as far south as they chose
and then landed and marched into the Adirondack forests
toward the villages west of the lake. Or if they had other
matters in view they paddled south through the lake till
they reached the mouth of the Winooski. Then they turned
eastward and followed the windings of that stream as far
as they could and if they wished to go farther, they made
a not long carry over to the White River and down this into
the Connecticut and on to the Sound if they chose to sail
so far. Another not uncommon route appears to have been
by the lake as far as Otter Creek, then up to its head waters,
thence by carry to the Black River, thence to the Connecticut
and southward as they chose. More easterly courses were
from the St. Lawrence via the St. Francis into Memphre-
magog and south through that lake to the Clyde or Barton
Rivers and so on by carries and streams to the Connecticut
or beyond. Other shorter routes were numerous.
92 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
As would be expected, by far the larger number of
the specimens that are in our collections were found along
the river valleys or in the vicinity of lakes. In number
and quality these specimens surprise one not familiar with
Vermont relics. No other New England state has given
to the collector such variety of form and character, or such
elegance of finish as may be found in any large collection
of Vermont Indian relics. Most of the objects were I make
little doubt made and used by the Iroquois and Algonquins,
but there are some which appear to have been obtained either
by trade with other and distant tribes or to have been taken
in war. Archaeologically I think that Vermont, the Cham-
plain Valley at any rate, is more closely allied with New
York and the west than with the rest of New England. I
do not intend when speaking of the elegance of some of
our archaeological specimens to intimate that all are of this
sort. Quite the contrary is true. By far the larger part
of our specimens are rude, some of them very rude, but those
that are made with most care and of finest material equal
the best found anywhere in the country. I have mentioned
evidence of some sort of trade with other and distant tribes.
This is found in objects made from materials not occurring
near Vermont. Pieces of white coral more or less worked
have been found near Burlington. Native copper is not
found in place anywhere this side of Lake Superior but
chisels, gouges, awls, beads, etc., of this copper are found
in several parts of the State. So, too, occasionally, a spear
point or a knife has been found quite unlike most of those
so commonly discovered here, not only finely formed, but
made from some of the brightly colored stones of the Ohio
Valley. Copper objects are nowhere common, but we have
PREHISTORIC VERMONT. 93
a dozen or two of knives, spear heads, bars, chisels, etc., and
a larger number of beads. For many years no objects of
bone were found, but we have now a very respectable col-
lection of awls, pottery, stamps and other objects made
from bone. Most of these have been found by one of my
collectors, Mr. Griffin, near Malletts Bay at an old camp-
ing ground which he discovered there. The big leg bones
of deer appear to have furnished material for most of these,
though the tines of the horns were also much used.
Many pages might easily be written upon the pottery
of our former inhabitants, but only brief mention of the
many varieties of patterns, seen on the hundreds of fragments
which have been picked up can be made here. No painted
pottery or that ornamented with raised figures or made in
the forms of animals such as has so often been found in
the west, ever occurs here. Our ware is always decorated
by indented or stamped figures or lines in more or less
geometrical patterns. Thus we find lines, circles, dots, tri-
angles, crescents, zig-zags, serrations, etc., arranged in end-
lessly varying designs. Without illustrations it is impos-
sible to give any adequate conception of the variety and
character of these ancient attempts at artistic work. Our
jars are of all sizes from little ones that would hold less than
a pint to those that hold 12-15 quarts.
Our earthenware is nearly always in pieces, only three
entire specimens found in Vermont being at present in ex-
istence, but many of the fragments are so large that the
form and ornamentation can be easily understood. More-
over sometimes, several bits are found that may be put to-
gether and thus a large part of the original jar be restored.
The form in this region was always globular, at least the
94 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
lower part is, the upper may be square or even pentagonal
and those that are more elaborately shaped are always more
carefully ornamented than others. The paste from which
these jars were made was always the same or nearly so.
It consisted of finer or coarser bits of quartz, feldspar, mica
and sometimes other materials, all obviously obtained by
pounding up pieces of granite or some similar stone and
mixing this with more or less clay. Naturally the fine or
coarse character of the jar depends upon the make-up of
the paste. Finally the whole was coated outside and in-
side with fine clay in order that a smooth surface may be
produced. After the jar was formed from a mass of this
mixture and coated it must have been allowed to dry par-
tially and then upon the soft surface the pattern was im-
pressed. Then the dish was burned. In some of the jars
there is little decoration except around the always thick
rim. In others the figures may cover nearly the entire sur-
face and some are decorated inside the rim. The rim itself
may be dentellated, scalloped or otherwise worked into
ornamental shape. Every now and then some new find of
pottery fragments discloses new designs. I am sure that no
one can examine a collection of Vermont pottery of the olden
time without realizing the skill and real artistic feeling of
the makers and also the endlessly varied designs wrought
upon the surfaces of the jars. Not only globular jars were
fashioned by the potters, who were usually, if not always
squaws, but pipes of earthenware are not very uncommon.
These are usually of the finest material and often are ex-
ceedingly well made. When such vases and jars as those
the Indians made could be so easily fashioned from the clay
paste it would seem a waste of labor to work stone into
PREHISTORIC VERMONT. 95
dishes and yet we do find a few of this harder material.
These are of quite different shape from the deep jars of
earthenware, being more like the modern wooden chopping
dishes, shallow and thick. All are made from soapstone.
As has already been suggested, most of the implements and
also weapons and ornaments were fashioned from some of
the harder sorts of stone. Flint, quartzite, white and
crystaline quartz and even agate and jasper were used more
than any other rocks for the smaller objects, while granite,
greenstone, trap or other hard, fine grained stones were
used for the axes, celts and other large objects. Softer ma-
terials were also occasionally taken, usually when the ob-
ject to be made was designed more for ornament than use.
Slate, talcose rock, soapstone and the like were all more or
less in use. Some of the pipes, amulets, gouges and even
what appear to have been used as knives were made from
these softer materials and many of them are well nigh per-
fect in regularity or form and elegance of finish. No
modern sculptor could carve from the rough mass any
more perfect specimens of his handiwork than is seen in
the best of these slate or soapstone objects. But the above
commendation of the work of the aboriginal artist need not
be limited to articles made of soft stone, for some of the
very finest examples of their work are wrought from the
hardest material they could find. It is difficult to estimate
the amount of time and careful, patient labor which must
have been given to the fashioning of many a gouge, pipe
or amulet which has been thrown up by the plow of the
Vermont farmer. We can only marvel at the untiring skill
and artistic sense which we find exhibited. Perhaps no
other class of objects so well shows this as do the pipes.
96 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
While we cannot by any means bring forward such an array
of elaborately carved and superbly finished pipes as has been
taken from the mounds of the Ohio Valley, we are never-
theless able to show no mean assortment of exceedingly
well formed and finished specimens of this class. Steatite,
slate, gypsum, these and similar soft rocks were chosen
when a pipe was to be made and most generally, the work
was well done. The form was sometimes that familiar to
us, but more frequently it was quite different. Some of
them would scarcely be recognized even by our most per-
sistent smokers. Besides platform, bell shaped, trumpet
shaped and other strange forms we find certain straight
tubes some of which are twelve or even fifteen inches long
which we should scarcely recognize as pipes at all did not
some of the California tribes to this day use similar tubes
as pipes. The small size of most of the pipes would quite
disgust a modern devotee of the weed. It must, however,
be remembered that among the American Indians, through-
out the continent, smoking was very largely a ceremony,
not a pastime. A single whiff or at most a few, and the
pipe was passed on. Smokmg for the mere enjoyment of
it was not by any means unknown, but it was not the rule,
apparently. Far more often smoking was a religious and
solemn ceremony. A sort of burnt offering to the spirits
above. The tubular pipes just mentioned are noticeably ex-
ceptional in size and may have been used differently from
the much more numerous small pipes.
Nowhere common, but always attracting attention when
found, are what, for want of a better name, are called Orna-
mental Stones. Even the object for which these were de-
signed is conjectural. It is supposed that some of them at
PREHISTORIC VERMONT. 97
least, were intended to be worn as ornaments, others were
very likely amulets or charms, medicine, as an Indian would
call them. They are generally of handsome material, reg-
ular form and ground to smooth or even' polished surfaces.
The common stone chisel or celt is found everywhere
made of a great variety of material sometimes finished in
the best manner, sometimes rudely flaked with no sign of
rubbing to an even surface. Many of these celts were un-
doubtedly used as chisels and therefore held in the hand,
but many were attached in one way or another to a wooden
handle and thus they became axes. One of the old writers
tells us that a common method of fastening the handle to
the axe was as follows. After the stone had been laborious-
ly worked down to the desired form and this might have
been the work of months, or even years, the owner took it
to the forest where he selected a suitably sized and shaped
branch growing on some tree. This he trimmed somewhat,
but did not otherwise injure it, except that he made a cleft
in the branch at some distance from the tree to which it was
growing. Into this cleft the stone axe was fastened and
left for months until the wood had grown about it and be-
come firmly fastened. The branch was then cut from the
tree and worked into a handle. The owner's mark set upon
the stone effectually secured it against removal. Probably
few implements were so generally used or for so great a
variety of purposes as was the celt. It was of every size
from those only three or four inches long to large and heavy
specimens twelve inches or more in length and sometimes
very heavy. Some were ground to an edge at each end
and a few were celt at one end and gouge at the other.
Gouges are almost wholly New England implements, being
98 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
found only very seldom outside of our territory. And in
New England, they are far more varied and more carefully
made in Vermont than elsewhere. The names well in-
dicate the general form of these implements. Their
use is quite uncertain. Some of the larger gouges
are as carefully wrought as the most perfect orna-
mental stone objects and these finer specimens often do not
show the least sign of having been used. Many are ruder
and of harder stone and these were without doubt ordinary
tools, but what can we say of those elegant, highly polished
specimens which have been now and then the fortunate
find of some collector? They do not seem likely objects
for ceremonial use and yet it is difficult to think of any other
service which they could have rendered.
' As the celt on the one hand passes into the gouge, so
on the other it develops into the grooved axe. In the west
and south these grooved axes, often of large size, are far
more common than in Vermont. Apparently our forerunners
here did not make or use many of them. The grooved axe
is evidently merely a celt made short and wide, bearing
about its upper part a shallow groove by which it could be
more readily attached to a handle. Some of these are tiny,
but most are large and heavy.
The mortar and pestle, articles of essential importance
in all Indian tribes were not absent from the ancient Ver-
mont household. The mortars were generally rude, little
more labor, usually, having been put into their making than
was necessary for the excavation of a shallow depression in
a large boulder or similar piece of stone which was other-
wise in its original condition.
PREHISTORIC VERMONT. 99
The pestle, however, always shows more careful work.
This was hammered into a more or less cylindrical form and
sometimes its surface was polished. More rarely, the upper
end was rudely carved so that it bore some resemblance
to the head of a bird or other animal. Some of our finest
pestles are over two feet long, the longest that I have seen
is twenty-nine inches. It may be that these long pestles
were rather clubs. If we may credit some of the older
writers the squaws were shrewd enough to aid themselves
when pounding corn or whatever they wished to break up,
by placing the mortar under the elastic branch of some con-
venient tree and fastening the upper end of the pestle to this
by a strip of buckskin, secure its help in lifting the imple-
ment as they pounded.
Occasionally a flaked or chipped celt or axe has been
found, but nearly all of the classes of objects thus far con-
sidered, though very probably at first roughed out by flak-
ing or chipping, were finished by grinding, or rubbing on a
stone with sand. This process was necessarily tediously
slow if the stone from which the implement was to
be made was very hard as it usually was. Not only
months or even years were occupied, at intervals un-
doubtedly, in the making of the best celts or axes or
amulets, but we are told by the old writers that some of the
more elaborate objects were passed on from one maker to
his son and were only brought to their final perfection af-
ter several generations had expended much labor upon them.
Of course when people have little to occupy them, neither
time nor labor count for much.
There are other sorts of ground and polished objects
which appear in our collections, but they must be left with-
100 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
out further comment. Many times more abundant than the
ground and polished objects are those that were shaped by
chipping or flaking. Except for a few finely finished slate
points, all the spear heads, arrow points and most of the
knives were made in this way. Some of the many forms
of quartz were used in the manufacture of these objects
and many of them are prettily colored and exceedingly well
made. The Vermont points, while of many sorts of quartz,
are by far most commonly made of a grayish or bluish
quartzite which occurs in many localities in the State. This
is the most common material and the triangular outline is
most frequent. These of course, were without haft or barbs,
but hafted and sharply barbed specimens, though less com-
mon than forms without these are yet numerous and
some of them will not suffer by comparison with. similar
specimens from any part of the country or indeed
the world. Still these delicately pointed and sym-
metrically shaped points are exceptional here. For the most
part our Vermont points, spear and arrow, are less finely
formed and regular than those from the region of the
mounds. We have some specimens as fine as the finest,
but they are few, and our average is composed of specimens
of good workmanship, indeed, but yet inferior to those found
in the west.
Not only were the smaller points made by flaking and
chipping, but spear heads a foot long have been found and
still larger oval or ovate objects which are supposed to
have been used as spades or hoes. Other chipped imple-
ments are drills, long, narrow pointed, scrapers, with blunt
rounded edges, knives of all shapes and sizes, and various
PREHISTORIC VERMONT. 101
nondescript articles, the use of which is wholly prob-
lematical.
I have by no means mentioned all of the many varieties
of Indian implements or ornaments which have rewarded
the search of diligent and patient collectors. The different
classes mentioned are those which are most numerous and
therefore most commonly found. At the advent of the
white man all the tribes of North America were living in
the stone age but they had most of them advanced far be-
yond what in European archaeology is called the rude stone
age, and while they were savages, they were nevertheless
savages who had in many respects risen far above the lower
stages of savagery. This is shown not only by those ob-
jects which we have been considering but also by their
political, social and religious organization.
LIFE OF
GENERAL JAMES WHITELAW
Read before the
Vermont Historical Society
AtlSt. Johnsbury, 1864, by Thomas Goodville, of
Barnet, Vt.
From manuscript in possession oi the Vermont Historical Society
JAMES WHITELAW.
James Whitelaw, Esq., of Ryegate, in the County of
Caledonia, and State of Vermont, was the son of William
Whitelaw, and was born February n, 1748, at New Mills,
in the parish of Oldmonkland, Lanarkshire, Scotland. In
his youth he was well educated, especially in the art ol land
surveying, and its kindred subjects. His large manuscript
books, written while he was studying surveying, are still
preserved in his collection of papers, and show that he was
a careful and diligent student. The large number of
diagrams, correctly and beautifully delineated, and the long
descriptions and demonstrations these large manuscript
volumes contain, prove conclusively that he acquired a thor-
ough knowledge of the art of surveying. February 17,
1773, 140 persons, most of whom were farmers, residing
in Renfrewshire, Scotland, formed themselves into a com-
pany called "The Scots-American Company of Farmers" to
purchase a large tract of land in America for settlement.
By the members who settled on their land in Ryegate, it
was commonly called the "Inchinan Company," because
most of the members belonged to the parish of Lrachinan,
and also to distinguish it from another Scots-American
Company formed in Stirtingshire, Scotland, whose agent
was Col. Alexander Harvey, who purchased and settled a
large tract of land for that company in the adjoining town
7
j oS~
106 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
of Barnet. In the books of the Inchinan Company, General
Wnitelaw is called a ''Land Surveyor of Whiteinch in the
Parish of Geran." Having become a member of the com-
pany, he and David Allen, another member, were appointed
by the company commissioners to go to America and search
out and purchase a suitable tract of land for the Company
to settle. They sailed from Greenoch March 25, 1773, and
after a voyage of 60 days landed in Philadelphia, Pa., on
the 24th day of May following. From the time Gen.
Whitelaw left his native country till 1794, when his agency
for the company ceased, he kept a well written journal,
which is still preserved, and which shows that he was a
man of extensive and accurate observation and deep prac-
tical judgment. He recorded in the town books of Ryegate
the rules and regulations of the company which are numer-
ous and lengthy. The day he landed he accidentally be-
came acquainted with Rev. John Witherspoon, D. D., one
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and then
president of the College of New Jersey, who informed him
that he had a large tract of land in Ryegate, on the Con-
necticut River, and in the Province of New York, consisting
of 23,000 acres, which he desired to sell, but advised the
commissioners to make thorough search in the country be-
fore they bought lands anywhere. The commissioners be-
ing directed in their commission to begin their search for
lands in the Province of New York, went to New York City
by Princeton, N. J., where they visited Dr. Witherspoon
and received information about the lands in Ryegate from
John Hindman, who had just returned from viewing the
— • JAMES WHITELAW. 107
lands in that township. Having obtained a description of
lands in different places to be sold, they sailed up ttye Hud-
son River to Albany, and went and viewed the lands of
Sir William Johnston, on the Mohawk River west of
Schenectady. Here they purchased horses, and afterwards
travelled on horseback in search of lands to purchase. They
came by Saratoga and Stillwater to Salem, N. Y., where
dwelt Dr. Thomas Clark, who with other Scotchmen pro-
cured from the Governor of New York, December 21, 1774,
a large tract of land on the head branches of the Passumpsic
River, in Caledonia County, Vt. From Salem, they came
to Manchester, Vt., crossed the Green Mountains by a
spotted line in woods, and on the 26th day of June they ar-
rived at Charleston, N. H., where dwelt John Church, a
joint owner with Dr. Wither spoon of the township of Rye-
gate, and who accompanied them to show them the lands
in that town. They arrived in Ryegate June 30th, at the
house of Mr. Hosmer, who with his family were the only
persons living in town. Gen. Whitelaw writes in his
journal, "On our way to Ryegate we lodged at Hanover,
N. H., where Mr. Wheelock has his Indian Academy or
college. We called on him and told him what we heard before
leaving Scotland concerning his lands. He said he had about
as much land left as would serve about thirty families, which
he would give to settle if they would but come and live on
it. He said he would prefer Scotch people before any
other, as he thought much of their religion and mode of
church government. He told us that he had at his college
108 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL. SOCIETY.
about 80 students, above 30 of whom were upon charity
and 17 of them Indians."
The commissioners having examined the lands in Rye-
gate returned by Hartford and New York to Princeton,
N. J., where they were kindly received by Dr. Wither-
spoon on the 15th of July. He proposed to them that "if
they would buy the whole township of Ryegate, excepting
2,000 acres, they should have it at 2 shillings sterling per
acre; if they took three- fourths of the town, excepting 1,500
acres, they should have it for three shillings and 3 pence,
York currency, per acre, and if they took one-half the town,
they should have it at 3 shillings, York money, per acre."
But he advised the commissioners to take all due pains to
find out a better place for their purpose, as he was very
anxious that the company should succeed. Gen. Whitelaw
in his journal writes "Princeton is a handsome little town
and stands in a pleasant situation. The college building is
said to be the largest and best in America. At present the
•college contains more than 100 students, besides about 80
Latin scholars."
On the 19th of July, 1773, after dining with the presi-
dent of the college, they went to Philadelphia, where they
obtained information of lands for sale in Pennsylvania, and
provinces further south. Leaving that city July 26th, they
passed through Carlisle, Shippensburg and Chamberstown,
Pa., Hagerstown, Md., and crossed the Potomac at
Shepardston, and went through Alexandria and Fredericks-
burg, Va., and arrived at Edinton, N. C, on the 13th day
of August. In his journal the general gives a particular
JAMES WHITELAW. 109
description of the places they_ visited and the lands they
viewed, giving the price, climate, soil, growth of timber, ad-
vantages and disadvantages of location, distance from the
market, #and other circumstances. Having returned to
Princeton, N. J., the commissioners bargained with Dr.
Witherspoon on the second of October for one-half the
township of Ryegate, which was a New Hampshire grant
chartered September 8, 1763, but at the time of the purchase
it was claimed by New York as belonging to the county of
Gloucester in that province, and is so described in the deeds
given at that time. The commissioners came by New York
and Hartford to Newbury, Vt., where they arrived the first
day of November, 1773. On the 10th day of the month,
John Church, as agent for Dr. Witherspoon, came, and on
the 19th of the same, they divided the township of Ryegate
into two parts, by a line running westerly from Dodge's
Falls, on the Connecticut River to the west line of the town.
The commissioners chose the southern half of the town,
judging it for several good reasons superior to the northern
half.
Mr. Hosmer, the first person who lived in town, seems
to have acquired some rights in town, as the places he had
improved were excepted in the sale. He had pitched his
camp nearly opposite the narrows on Connecticut River,
about a mile and a half from the southeast corner of the
town, which is near the mouth of Wells River. When the
commissioners returned to Ryegate, John Hindman with
his family had just moved into town and was building his
house on a lot of land presented to him by Dr. Witherspoon
110 • THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
for moving the first family into town as permanent settlers.
The commissioners lodged with him the winter of 1773-4,
and after assisting him to finish his house, they built one
for themselves which stood a few rods southeast from the
present residence of William T. Whitelaw, the general's
grandson. They finished their house about the first of
January, 1774, and then they cut down the woods and made
a large clearing. Gen. Whitelaw then went to Portsmouth,
N. H., and Newburyport, Mass., and bought and brought
a sleighload of such necessaries as they required. In April
the commissioners made about 60 pounds of maple sugar,
after which they commenced the surveying of the land they
had purchased for the company. This is the first surveying
performed by Gen. Whitelaw in America. On the 13th of
May ten of the colonists, one of whom was accompanied
with his family, arrived in Ryegate from Scotland. Having
finished the survey, Gen. Whitelaw drew a chart of the south
half of Ryegate and recorded in his journal the number of
lots, (400) and marked the quantity of land in each. This
was the first chart he made in America. David Allen, the
other commissioner, left Ryegate August 1st, 1774, to re-
turn to Scotland to report to the company, and lay before
them a plan of the land the commissioners had purchased
for them in America. All the colonists conveyed him to
Gen. Bailey's in Newbury, and one of them went with him
to Newburyport, Mass. In the meantime Gen. Whitelaw
had some log houses and one frame house, 17 by 38 feet,
built to accommodate the colonists as they arrived, till they
improved the lots of land they had chosen and built houses
JAMES WHITELAW. fc 111
on them. They were generally well pleased with their sit-
uation. About the beginning of January, 1775, Gen. White-
law purchased a part of a lot of land lying between Rye-
gate and Wells River and containing the half of that river
with the great falls on it, for the purpose of erecting grist
and saw mills for the use of the colonists. About the middle
of August the same year he raised a house for himself on
the lots he had taken. This was the first frame dwelling-
house erected in Ryegate, a part of which is now standing,
(1864). It was in this house that the first school in Rye-
gate was kept. About the same time the frame of the grist
mill was raised. In the beginning of October, 1775, the
saw mill was raised, and on the 28th day of the same month
the grist mill was set going, and the saw mill in the end of
July the next year. Having received an alarming report
that St. Johns had been taken by the British regulars, and
that Indians would be sent through the country to lay it
waste, all the inhabitants of Ryegate July 1, 1776, fled to
Newbury for safety. After waiting ten days and no In-
dians appearing, they all returned to their own houses in
Ryegate. When Gen. Whitelaw came to Ryegate to settle,
he had travelled 2700 miles on horseback in this country in
the service of the "Scots-American Company of Farmers."
The colony he had planted in Ryegate was checked in its
prosperity by the Revolutionary war, after which trying
period it increased and flourished. In 1794, being Surveyor-
General of Vermont and otherwise engaged, he resigned
his office of agent for the company which he had held for
nearly 20 years. About this time he opened a land office
112 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY. *
in which he continued to do business till his death in 1829.
He was early chosen to different offices by the town of Rye-
gate, and was town clerk and town treasurer for about 46
years. It appears by his accounts against the state that he
Tiad surveyed some town lines as early as 1780. In 1783
after Great Britain had acknowledged the Independence of
the United States, he was appointed a Deputy Surveyor to
the Surveyor-General. Messrs. Whitelaw, Savage and Coit
petition the legislature October 18, 1787 and state that they
had been engaged the most of their time for four years past
as deputies of the Surveyor-General in surveying towns in
the northern part of Vermont, and that they had received no
remuneration for their services, or pay for their expenses,
-amounting to one hundred pounds, and expressing their
-willingness to take grants of salable lands for their pay-
ment. Accordingly, the legislature, October 26, 1788,
granted them three tracts of land situated in different parts
of the state, and equal in the whole to one township of land.
In October, 1787, Gen. Whitelaw was elected by the legis-
lature Surveyor-General of the State of Vermont. To this
■office he was annually reelected till November, 1804, a
period of more than seventeen years. He surveyed the town
lines or chartered limits of a considerable number of towns
in the middle and northern part of the state, some of which
"he allotted. It appears from his accounts as Surveyor-Gen-
eral against the State, that in October, 1788, he was en-
gaged several days in making a plan of the state. In 1796
he drew a small map of the state, finely delineated. From
this beautiful manuscript map which is still preserved, he
JAMES WHITELAW. 4 113
published the same year a map of the state of Vermont
which he improved and republished in 1810. These maps
are of a large size, 30 by 44 inches. He secured the copy-
right, which is dated November 1, 1796. In 181 3 he pub-
lished a map of the northern part of the United States, and
the southern part of Canada, 22 by 15 inches, designed to
show the seat of the war between the United States and
Great Britain in 18 12-15. It appears by a letter written
to him by his father, October 23, 1783, that he had sent
an order to Scotland to John Gardner to make him a sur-
veying compass, and that Gardner was then making it, and
that they expected to have an opportunity to send it to him
as soon as the next spring. This surveying compass and
chain, with his magnet, and some of his mathematical in-
struments, are in the possession of Mrs. Susan White, his
granddaughter, in Griggsville, Illinois.* If the compass
she has in her possession is the one made by John Gardner,
it is probable, if not certain, that it is the compass Gen.
Whitelaw used for many years while he was both a Deputy-
Surveyor and Surveyor-General. If these surveying in-
struments should be obtained by the Historical Society of
Vermont, they would be a valuable addition to their his-
torical collection.
By the legislature he was empowered to settle disputes
about town lines, and appointed one of the trustees of the
Caledonia County Academy, and named in the charter
granted October 27, 1795. This office he continued to hold
till September 4th, 181 1. When he resigned the Board of
•Now in the possession of the Vt. Historical Society.
114 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Trustees "voted that the thanks of this board be presented
to him for his eminent services to this Institution." By
John Adams, President of the United States, he was ap-
pointed July 17, 1798, a commissioner for the third district
of Vermont under an Act of Congress passed July 9, 1798,
"to provide for the valuation of lands and dwelling-houses
and enumeration of slaves within the United States." In
the General's collection of papers was found a slip of paper
on which he had written the following, viz. :
"The whole valuation of the State of Vermont, as re-
turned by the assessors and equalized by the commissioners
Dwelling-houses above $100 $ i,557»339-86
Land and small houses i5»I57»o83-I3^
$16,714,422.99^
It is the glory of Vermont that it required no "enumera-
tion of slaves." In 1800 he was appointed postmaster of
Ryegate. Most probably it was by his exertions that the
mail was first extended from Newburyport, Caledonia Coun-
ty, through Ryegate and Peacham to Danville, and after-
ward to Barnet and St. Johnsbury. He continued post-
master of Ryegate till his death.
Dr. Witherspoon at Newbury, Vt., June 17, 1783, gave
a power of attorney to Gen. Whitelaw and Col. Harvey to
sell the land he owned in Ryegate and Newbury. These
two men were fellow pioneers in the settlement of Cale-
donia County. The legislature of Vermont out of regard
for these two Scotchmen, and the two large and flourish-
ing colonies of their countrymen, they had planted and
JAMES WHITELAW. 115
nurtured in Barnet and Ryegate, called the county "Cale-
donia" the ancient Roman name of their native country.
Gen. Whitelaw must be placed at the head of the list
of great men of this county, for he was most probably the
first man in the county who held office under the state of
Vermont and the United States, and long he held office un-
der both governments. At his death he had 614 volumes
of newspapers, 254 of which were bound. Most of these
volumes were destroyed when the capitol of this state was
burnt. Most of his papers belonging to his office of Sur-
veyor-Deputy and Surveyor-General, are in possession of
Henry Stevens, Esq., of Burlington.* The remaining part
of his large collection of papers is in possession of William
T. Whitelaw, Esq., of Ryegate, the General's grandson.
They consist chiefly of manuscript books and papers in his
own handwriting, together with more than 5000 letters from
correspondents, relating chiefly to business in his land of-
fice. Four small folio volumes contain more than 8000
answers to letters received. Some of these answers are
transcribed in full, but only the substance of the majority
is recorded. He kept copies of his letters to his relatives,
and the Company in Scotland. These contain some valuable
and interesting information with respect to the early his-
tory of Caledonia County. In his collection of papers are
some rare and valuable documents. One of these is a deed*
beautifully written on a very large sheet of parchment
which is signed and sealed by Dr. Witherspoon.*
•Now in the possession of the Vt. Historical Society.
116 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL, SOCIETY.
In stature General Whitelaw was about six feet and ten
inches high, with a large and robust frame. He seemed
to have sprung from a strong and healthy Scotch family.
His uncle, James Whitelaw, lived one hundred and six
years, and walked ten miles to a funeral the week before
his death. He was generally very healthy, but three years
before his death he had a severe fever which lasted three
months. His last illness was palsy, which continued two
weeks, but did not deprive him of speech. He was a very
diligent man and in his lifetime performed a great amount
of labor, manual and mental. After his labors for more
than ten years in settling Ryegate, he was actively engaged
in surveying for 12 or 14 years. He performed an immense
amount of writing in his land office and surveyorship. He
had a very remarkable power of resisting cold. He often
surveyed land at a great distance from home in the winter
using snow shoes, and remained in the woods night and
day for weeks in the coldest weather. He very seldom used
gloves or mittens in working or traveling in the coldest
weather in winter. He possessed a great talent for trans-
acting business, which was well done and gave great satis-
faction to those who employed him. His fees as land agent
and surveyor were moderate. At one time he lost $2600
by suretyship for a friend. Though he was never rich, he
always had a competence and lived comfortably and respect-
ably. He was hospitable and charitable, and generously
gave away much of his property. His disposition was
pleasant and kind, and he acted often and successfully the
part of a blessed peacemaker. He was naturally very
JAMES WHITELAW. 117
modest and unassuming, so that he appeared to strangers
reserved, but with his friends he was social and facetious.
He was uniformly very exact and prompt in performing his
work, and cheerful and faithful in performing the duties
of a husband, father and friend. His moral character was
pure and good. All who were acquainted with him
esteemed him highly, and had the utmost confidence in his
ability and integrity. He sprang out of a pious family and
was a member of the Church of Scotland. He observed
the worship of God in his family, and gave his children a
literary and religious education. He liberally supported the
public ordinances of the Gospel, and attended the religious
services of the Associate Presbyterian Church of Ryegate.
The writer visited him on his death bed when the dying
man requested him to pray for him that he might have
the Grace of Christ.
He died calmly April 29, 1829, aged eighty-one years.
He was interred in the graveyard at the center of Ryegate,
and a monument has been erected to his memory.
Gen. Whitelaw was married March 5, 1778, to Abigail
Johnston, of Newbury, Vt., by whom he had four children,
two sons and two daughters, who survived him but are all
now dead.
He was married the second time November 23, 1790,
to Susannah Rogers of Bradford, Vt., who was a descendant
of the ninth or tenth generation from John Rogers, the
famous English Martyr, who was burnt at the stake, Feb-
ruary 4, 1555.
,118 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
He was married the third time August 29, 1815, to
Mrs. Janet Harvey, of Barnet, Vt, who was the widow of
his friend, Col. Alexander Harvey, of Barnet.
Barnet, Vt., A. D., 1864.
Thomas Goodwiuje.
JOURNAL
OF
GENERAL JAMES WHITELAW
SURVEYOR-GENERAL OF VERMONT
FROM A MANUSCRIPT
PRESENTED TO
THE
Vermont Historical Society
BY
Oscar L. Whitelaw and Robert H. Whitelavv
1898
This journal is copied from the original manuscript
now in the possession of the Vermont Historical Society
which was presented to the society in April, 1898, by Mr.
Oscar L. Whitelaw and Mr. Robert H. Whitelaw of St.
Louis, Mo., great-grandsons of General James Whitelaw.
It is to be noted that a portion of the journal is missing.
Pages one and two at least are lacking. The entries begin
on the top of page three under date of April 8th (1773).
The journal covers pages 3 to 76 inclusive of the manu-
script, the rest of the space being taken up with entries re-
lating to taxes in the various towns in Vermont made
some years later than the others. There are also some en-
tries in the back of the volume dated from 1790 to 1794
of no general interest being merely memoranda regarding
the state of the weather and items relating to the care of
the farm. It has not been thought worth while to print
these items.
Montpelier, Vt., January, 1907.
JOURNAL.
Thursday, Aprile 8th, on the morning the weather
turned calm, by which time we were in Lat. 40 ° and Lon.
about 1 8° during which time nothing passed worth remark-
ing, excepting that we saw the main mast of a ship go along
our side one morning.
It remained calm till Saturday, the 10th, on the morn-
ing of which the wind shifted N. E., from which point we
had a good breeze, and continued a S. W. course till Sun-
day, the 25th, when we were in Lat. 300 and Lon. 460 30'.
Sunday, the 9th of May, we spoke a sloop from Vir-
ginia bound for Nevis, John Robertson, Master, fifteen days
out, and in Lon. 62 ° 30' by his account, though by ours
we were only in 61 ° 48'. We had not seen any other ves-
sel since Saturday, Aprile 10th.
We kept sailing between the Lat. of 300 and 330 from
the 25th of April till Friday, the 14th of May, at which
time we were in Lon. 68°. We stood then to the N. W., and
on Wednesday, the 19th, we spoke the brigantine Carpenter,
from Philadelphia, bound for Lisbon, Samuel Williams,
Master, 35 leagues, E. S. E. of Cape Henlopen.
Thursday, the 20th, about 3 o'clock afternoon, we
had the first sight of America, and about 9 o'clock at night
we came to an anchor in Delaware bay in order to wait
for a pilot.
8
122 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Friday, the 21st, about 7 o'clock in the morning, we
got our pilot aboard, when we loosed, and at night we came
again to an anchor at the head of the bay.
Saturday, the 22nd, we loosed again about 7 o'clock
in the morning, and about 3 o'clock we came to an
anchor about a mile below Newcastle ; about 6 o'clock same
night the wind springing up fair we again loosed and got
as far as the high lands of Crastine, where we again
anchored.
Sunday, the 23d, we had the wind all down the river,
and was obliged to turn up with the tide, and about 12
o'clock at night, came to an anchor below Philadelphia,
where we were obliged to stay till the health officer came
on board to visit the passengers, each of which had to pay
to him one shilling sterling.
Munday, the 24, at 12 o'clock, we came to one of
the wharfs, the whole distance we sailed being about 5000
miles by the log.
When we arrived here Alexander Semple was stand-
ing on the wharf ready to receive us in order to conduct us
to his brother's house, where accidentally we met with
Dr. Witherspoon, who informed us that he had a township
of land called Ryegate, in the Province of New York, upon
Connecticut River, containing about 23,000 acres, which he
was ready to dispose of, in order to serve us, in case we
thought it would sute our purpose, but in the meantime
desired us to make every other trial, and not be too hasty
in making a bargain, and instantly desired us to call for
him at Princetown, on our way to New York.
JAMES WHITELAW. 123
We stayed in Philadelphia three days, where we were
very kindly entertained by our friends and acquaintances,
part of which time we spent in viewing this city, which
perhaps is the best laid out in the world, the streets are all
broad and straight, and all cross each other at right angles,
extending itself upon the banks of the Delaware between
two or three miles, and about one mile back here is an
excellent market for every article that farmers or others
have to sell and commonly ready money. We had several
offers of lands in this province, but deferred the viewing
of them at this time as by our commission we were first
to begin at New York, for which place we set out with the
stage on Thursday, the 27, at six o'clock in the morning, and
arrived at Princetown at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, where
we again met with Dr. Witherspoon, Robert and John
Hyndman and James Findlay we stayed here till the next
stage day, which time we spent in viewing Doctor Wither-
spoon's plantations, as also receiving particular intelligence
about the township of Ryegate from James Findlay and
John Hyndman, who had both been lately on the ground.
We set off again with the stage and arrived at New
York on Tuesday the first of June in the afternoon. On
the road from Philadelphia to New York we came through
several handsome little towns and crossed several navigable
rivers.
The country here is generally well cleared & makes
a very pleasant appearance especially in the province of
Pensilvania.
124 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
On our arrival at New York we were conducted to one
Mr. Winter's house for lodging, by Mr. Robert Hyslap,
one of our fellow passengers, who had been eight years in
this place before.
Wednesday, June 2d, we were directed to Mr. Mason
by the same person, where we had the pleasure to meet with
Mr. Marshal from Philadelphia, and having delivered our
letters of recommendation to them, they promised to do
everything in their power to serve us, being exceedingly
well pleased with our plan, and went immediately along with
us to several gentlemen in this city who they knew had
lands to dispose of and desired them to make out their pro-
posals to us as soon as possible, on account that we wanted
soon to leave the town.
We stayed here eight days, which time we employed
in informing ourselves where lands was to be got from
surveyors and others that was acquaint in the country, and
several gentlemen in this place have given us letters to their
correspondents in the country to show us their lands.
Saturday, the 5th, the Matty arrived here from Phila-
delphia, & on the 8th we wrote home.
Wednesday, the 9th, having got our business over in
this place, we set off in a sloop for Albany, commanded by
one Captain Cuyler, and on Thursday, the 10th, about 4
o'clock in the morning, the wind being contrary, we came
to an anchor at a place called the butterhill about 66 miles
above New York, and on Friday night we came to Pokeep-
sie wharf, which is 33 miles from York from whence we
loosed on Saturday morning, and at night we arrived at
JAMES WHITELAW. 125
Albany, and was conducted to the house of Mr. Cartwright
for lodging by our Captain.
The banks of Hudsons River from a little above New
York to within twelve miles of Albany appears to be very
barren, being mostly rocky on both sides, and in some
places exceeding high and all covered with small wood.
Albany is much about the size of Port Gasgon, the
houses built of brick and wood, and the streets very broad,
and pretty regular, and the country on the river side is
very pleasant.
On Monday, the 14th, we delivered the letters we had
from our friends in N. York to several men in this place,
especially one to Mr. Campbell, who informed us that he
knew a good many lands in several parts of the Province,
but the best he knew of was on the Mohawk river belong-
ing to Sir William Johnston Bart, and was so good as
to give us a letter of recommendation to him.
On Tuesday, the 15th, we set out for Johnstown, and
arrived there on Wednesday, the 16th, about 5 o'clock
afternoon, and lodged with one Mr. Tice. From Albany
to Scenectady, which is 16 miles, the country is barren
sand covered with pine. Scenectady is a handsome little
town, and stands on the south bank of the Mohawk river,
at which place we ferried over the river. The flats upon this
river from this to Johnstown are all very fine land, but
as you ascend the country it is very stoney, tho the soil is
good and covered with oak, beech, walnut, and hickory and
divers other kinds of wood. About an hour after we came
to Johnstown we met with Sir William Johnston at our
lodging, who told us that he had plenty of lands either to
126 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
set or sell, and appointed to-morrow at 9 o'clock to meet with
him at his house which appointment we kept, but he being
taken ill of a cholic we could have no access to him till Fri-
day afternoon, at which time he ordered a surveyor to go
along with us to show us the lands of which Mr. Camp-
bell spoke, which is one of the places which he had a mind
to sell.
On Saturday morning we set off along with the sur-
veyor to view the above mentioned lands, and having passed
over a large patent of very fine land, which he only leases
on the following terms, viz. : The first five years free, and
ever after at six pounds the hundred acres, York currency,
reserving to himself all coals or other minerals which may
be found in the ground. We next came upon the lands he
proposed selling to us, which also is tolerable good land tho
not so good as the last mentioned tract. The situation
seemed to us not very agreeable, being about 12 or 14 miles
from the Mohawk river and over a high hill, and some
large swamps, also the price we thought high, being a dol-
lar an acre. While we stayed here we bought two horses,
viz. : one from Dr. Adams at eight pounds, and the other
from Billy Luckey at nine York currency.
On Munday, the 21st, we set off from Johnstown by
the same road we went up, till we came to Scenectady from
whence we went along the south bank of the Mohawk river
through an old Dutch settlement of excellent low land
abounding with wheat and all other kinds of grain, and at
night lodged at Loudons ferry.
(Two things very remarkable happened since we left
York, viz. : on the 12th of June the frost was so strong that
JAMES WHITELAW. 127
the ice in many places was as thick as a dollar and did a deal
of harm to Indian Corn, potatoes and other tender plants,
and on the 17th Colonel Johnston's house was burnt by
lightning, both things are very uncommon in this place).
On the 22nd we set out from Loudons ferry, and after
crossing the Mohawk river we came through a large tract
of barren land, after which we came into a fine, large, well
inhabited flat of good land on the banks of Hudsons river,,
and going up the river we went through Stillwater and
Saratoga, a little above which we crossed the Hudsons
river, and went along through a large flat covered with
pines for three or four miles, then crossed battenkill, which
is a pretty large river and good land in many places on
its banks, and at night we came to the house of Mr. Reid
at Whitecreek, where John White stays, where we lodged
till the 23d, on which we set out for Dr. Clark's where we
were kindly entertained, and he gave us many friendly ad-
vices how to behave concerning our affairs, and several
letters of recommendation to his acquaintances in several
parts of America, and he told us he had some good lots
Of land to dispose of but not so much as to serve our pur-
pose.
On the 24th we set out from Dr. Clarks and came along
the banks of Battenkill a great way, which is all high
ground, and the settlers here apply themselves mostly to
raising stock. By night we got as far as Manchester, where
we lodged with one Mr. Allan.
The 25th in the morning we set out from Mr. Allans
and for ten miles we had no road but only the trees marked
and some places it was almost impossible to go through by
128 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
reason of rocks, boggs, high mountains and other difficultys.
We saw no house till twelve o'clock when we came to one
Mr. Uttlies where we dined, then set out again on a road
which was cut but as there was little repair on it, it was all
choaked up in many places by old trees falling across it
which made it little better than the former. Here we
traviled 16 miles without seeing any house (except two
or three which were forsaken by their inhabitants on ac-
count of some dispute which has subsided for some years
between the Governments of New York and New Hamp-
shire concerning their boundary line, so that the people
which settled under one Government were so harrassed by
the other that they have left their plantations and got new
ones in places where there is no dispute). At night we
lodged at Chesters and on the 26th we crossed Con-
necticut river and came to Charlestown in New Hampshire,
where Mr. Church lives who is partner with Dr. Wither-
spoon in Rygate, and Munday, the 28th, we set out along
with him to view it and arrived at it on Wednesday, the 30th
in the morning, when we set out from the house of Mr.
Hosmar, who lives on the town about a mile from the south-
east corner. On our first outset we went along the River
side through barren, hilly land, the wood mostly hemlock,
and we crossed two pretty large brooks, both fit for mills,
after which we went westward over a tract of pretty good
land, the wood, beech, mapple and some Hemlock and birch,
till we came to the place pitched on by John Hyndman,
then continuing west we went over a small piece of rocky
land, then over a large tract of good land, the wood mostly
beech and maple, with some ash and birch, and well watered
JAMES WHITELAW. 129
with plenty of small brooks, then over about four chains of a
rockey hill, then good land as before for a considerable way,
then we came to a large pond, the banks of which are steep,
barren land and mostly covered with hemlock and pine. We
continued westward along the side of a large hill, in many
places pretty steep and stoney, tho good ground and may be
excellent pasture, the wood, beech, mapple, basswood and
some ash, after which we traviled southward over a very
large tract of exceeding good land, all lying towards the
south and pretty level and may be very easy cleared, as the
trees are at a distance from one another, and scarce any
undergrowth, the wood, beech, maple and basswood, after
which we went east ward over an excellent meadow, then
over a small piece of barren, sandy ground covered with
pines, then over good land till we came near the river side
which is barren as before, and so ended our course.
On Friday, July 2nd, we returned and arrived at
Charlestown on Saturday night. All this way which is
about 72 miles is filled with new settlers, and the country
in many places good land, but the most inconveniency is
its distance from navigation. Ryegate lies more than 200
miles above Hartford, which is the farest that sloops come
up Connecticut river, above which it is only navigable for
canoes, and theire are four falls which makes about ten miles
of land carriage, the nearest seaport to Ryegate is Ports-
mouth, which is about 100 miles and the road not good,
however, they can sell the produce of their farms pretty
high in the meantime to new settlers, they sell wheat
commonly about four shell: ster. a bushel, Rye about the
same, and Indian corn about three shillings. Beef about
130 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
two pence and mutton the same, and pork about five pence,
butter about 6 pence and Cheese about four pence half
penny per pound, all ster:
On our way to Ryegate we lodged at hanover, where
Mr. Wheelock has his Indian Academy or College. When
we went and called for him and told him what we had heard
concerning his land before we left Scotland and he said he
had about as much land now as would serve about 30 fam-
ilies, which he would give to settlers if they would but come
and live upon it, and he said he would prefer Scotch people
before any other, as he thought much of their religion and
manner of Church government, but as the country settle9
so fast he expects it will all be settled in a short time, he
told us he had at his College about 80 Students, above 30 of
which were upon Charity and 17 of them Indians.
On Munday, the 5, we left Charlestown and got on
our way to York, and as the nearest and best road is down
the east side of Connecticut River, we came through three
of the New England Governments, viz.: Newhampshire,
Massachusets Bay and Connecticut, we had the river al-
ways in our view, every now and then till we came to Hart-
ford, in the Massachusets Bay Government, and it has
many shallows and rifts in it all that way, but is so deep
below that, that small sloops come that length, we saw
nothing remarkable all this way, the part of Newhamshire
government which we came through for many miles
below Charlestown is poor, barren ground, but toward the
lower end of it the ground is good and all well settled and
has several pretty large towns, of which the most remark-
able are Northfield, Sunderland, old Hadly and South Had-
JAMES WHITELAW. 131
ly, then we came into the Massachusets Bay government,.
which has been all settled for a long time, and is a well in-
habited and pleasant Country, abounding in all kinds of grain
and has abundance of large orchards, and has many towns
of Considerable bigness, such as Springfield, Suffield, Wind-
sor, Hartford, Weathersfield, &c, next we came through
Connecticut government, which is likewise an old, settled
place, and pretty good land in many places, tho in most
places very stoney, but the whole road is almost shaded with
fruit trees, so that you may pull as many cherries and apples
in their season as you please without going out of your road,
and it is not uncommon for one farmer to make one hun-
dred Barrels of Cyder in one year, each barrel containing
eight Scotch Gallons. There are many large towns likewise
in this government, such as New Haven, Milford, Strat-
ford, Fairfield, Norwalk, Stamford and Horseneck. These
are all along the Sea Coast. Next we came again into York
Government, which in this place is exceeding stoney, though
the soil is in many places pretty good, and they have likewise
abundance of large orchards. And after coming through
several small towns on the coast, such as Rye, New Rochel,.
East Chester, and Kingsbridge, we arrived again at New
York on Munday the 12 of July, after a seven days' ride
from Charlestown.
The people here are affable and discreet and of a fair
Complexion. The women in particular are very handsom
and beautiful. The Indians, of which we saw plenty at
Johnston, are of a tawny Complexion, and of an ordinary
size, and goes almost naked excepting a kind of blanket which
they wrap about their shoulders, and two pieces of skin, one
132 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
of which hangs down before and another behind to cover
their nakedness. They seem to be very fond of jewels, a
great many of them wearing ear rings, braclets and nose
jewels, which is an ear ring which they hang between their
mouth and nose, the gristle of their nose being pierced for
that use. They have their faces for the most part painted
with red and black Stroaks. They have straight black hair,
which their squas or women always wear long. We seed
one man of them in particular, which besides all the fore-
mentioned jewels, had a round piece of leather hung before
his breast, which was all drove full of white headed nails,
and had a great number of buttons and other trinkets hung
round it. He had a cap made of some beasts skin, with the
hair on it, and a long tail hanging down to the small of his
back and about 20 or 30 womens Thimbles hung to the end
of it, and as he went along made a mighty noise by the
tinkling of his Thimbles, buttons and other jewels.
They have here an excellent breed of horses, black
cattle, sheep, and vast numbers of hoggs, and their land
produces Indian Corn, Rye, Wheat, peas, barly, oats and
flax. Their Indian Corn will produce 50 bushels per acre,
Rye and wheat from 20 to 30 bushels per acre, barly,
peas and oats about the same quantity, the common
prices through this province are much the same as those
which you find before in the description of Ryegate. They
sow their flax very thin, as their only intention is to raise
seed and they do not pull it till it be quite ripe.
The weather since we came to this country has been
mostly dry and for the most part clear. The heat tho
they tell us, has been for some weeks rather more than
JAMES WHITELAW. 133
common is noways intolerable, tho a good deal warmer than
at home. We stayed at New York three days, which time
we spent informing ourselves about the Southern Provinces,
and also to refresh our horses, which were very much
fatigued.
On the 15th, at noon, we set off for Philadelphia and
come to Princetown on the 16th at night, here we staid
till the 19th. Dr. Witherspoon being so good as to find us
pasture for our horses, which was very rare to be got on
account of the great drought, the like of which has not been
known these many years.
Doctor Witherspoon has now made us his proposals
concerning Rygate, and his terms are these, if we take the
whole, reserving to them 2000 acres, two shillings ster: P
acre, if three-fourths reserving them 1500 acres, 3-3 York
Currency, and if we take only one half, three shillings York
money. But he advised us to be at all due pains, and if
we should find a better place for our purpose, to take it, as he
is very fond that our scheme should succeed.
Princetown is a handsom little town and stands on a
pleasant situation, and the College is said to be the best
and the largest building in America, and at present contains
upwards of 100 students, besides about 80 Latin scholars.
On the 19th, after dining with the President, we left
this place and arrived at Philadelphia on the 20th, in the
afternoon. Here we stayed till the 26th, which time we
spent informing ourselves about this and the Southern
Provinces, in which we was much assisted by Mssrs.
Semple, Sproat, Milliken, Stewart and Marshal, who gave
us letters themselves, and also caused others of their ac-
134 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
quaintances to give us letters to their several correspondents,
to give us any assistance or advice that they could.
On the 26th in the afternoon we left this place and pro-
ceeded on our way to Shamokin or Fort Augusta, and ar-
rived there on the 30th. The lands on this road are pretty
flat and also good for the most part for about 50 miles from
Philadelphia, and the houses mostly built of stone and
mostly possessed by Dutch and Germans, but as you ad-
vance the country it is mountainous and exceeding rockey
so that it is scarce fit for settling, tho the lands are all taken
up and surveyed till you come within 8 miles of the fort,
where the land becomes more flat and very good. We had
a good deal of difficulty to find provisions on this road,
as at one place we had 17 miles without a house and the
next stage we had 23 miles, and little to be got when we
came to these houses at fort Augusta. We lodged with
one Mr. Hunter till the 2d of August, which time we em-
ployed in informing ourselves about the lands here and on
the other parts of the Susquhanna, which had been much
recommended to us by some people in Philadelphia but we
found that there was no one place large enough for our pur-
pose but plenty too large for our money, as wood lands sells
here from 20 to 50 shillings pr. acre. Here they have laid
out a new town much after the plan of Philadelphia which
is building very fast. Here we met with some more of our
old friends, the Indians, who spoke English very well, and
were likewise very courteous, particularly one John Hen-
drick, son to King Hendrick, one of the Mohawk Sachems,
who was much renowned for a great warrior.
JAMES WHITELAW. 135
On the 2d of August we left this place and set out
for Carlile. We rode the Susquehanna a little below the
new town (which is called Sanbury) where it was upwards
of half a mile broad, as it took us 22 minutes to cross it,
and it is about 2 feet deep upon an average from side to
side, and the stream pretty rapid, and at this time it is at its
lowest pitch.
The ground along the banks of this river is very flat
and good for about 8 miles, and watered by two small rivers,
called Penns Creek and Middle Creek, then it is rocky for
several miles, then tolerable flat and good till you come to
the Blue Mountain, and well watered by Juniatta river,
after Crossing the blue Mountain we came into the County
of Carlile, which is pretty level and good land about the
town and all well settled. This, like all other American
towns, is laid out in squares, with straight streets, and con-
tains a good deal of inhabitants.
On Thursday, the 5th, we set out on our way to Alex-
ander Thomson's, and on our way lodged with Allan Scrogg,
a farmer from Scotland, to whom we had been rec-
ommended. Here we met with an uncommon large spring,
which in the dryest season of the year affords sufficient wa-
ter for two breast milns. From this we went to Alexn.
Scrogg's, who is brother to the former, they have both got
large plantations, and Alexander in particular told us that
about 36 years ago they came over young men and he had
only twenty pounds of stock and went along viewing the
country till he spent a great part of it, then went to labour
for some time after, after which he bought a large plan-
tation, and when his old son married, he gave him one half
138 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
of it, and bought another to his second son for 700 pounds,
and what he has yet in his own hand free of debt he says
he will not part with for a thousand pounds.
From this we came to Shippensburgh which is a small
town containing 50 or 60 houses, — here we got directions
for finding Alexander Thomson's which is about seven miles
from this place, and we arrived at his house in the after-
noon, where we was kindly entertained, as he had been look-
ing for us a long time. Here we stayed ten days to refresh
our horses, which was in very much need of it by this time.
He has got an excellent plantation of 400 acres of land for
which he paid 50o£ currency, which is nigh 30o£ ster: It
lies about 150 miles from Philadelphia, but their nighest
landing is Baltimore in Maryland, which is only 90 miles
from him, though they have to cross the blue ridge in go-
ing to it. This is a fertile soil and all lying upon limestone
and this valley continues through all the Provinces of Penn-
sylvania, Maryland and Virginia, and lies between the Blue
ridge and North Mountain, and as it goes southward grows
wider till it is so broad that one can scarce see over it. The
south side of it is all limestone and exceeding good land,
and the north part of it is what they call slate land and
is not very good.
Alexander Thomson had 50 acres Clear when he bought
his plantation, and has cleared other 50 himself, he has
plenty of all kinds of grain, and he seems to be exceedingly
well pleased with his situation, and they have never one of
his family been sick since he came to this place, and he says
he thinks people are in general more healthy there than in
JAMES WHITELAW. 137
Scotland. He told us that all the lands in or nigh that
place was taken up but he could buy plenty of single planta-
tions with improvements on them for about three pounds
sterling an acre, as He told us that many people in that
neighborhood was selling their plantations and going back
to the Ohio, and he thought that would be the best place
for us. But after we made all the enquirey about it that we
could, we did not think it a fit place for us. For though it
is allowed by all to be the best land in America, yet it lies
entirely out of the way of all trade, being 300 miles of land
carriage from the nearest navigation, and the river itself
is fit for no other vessels but canoes or battoes of two or
three tons burden, and the lowest settlements on the Ohio
are above 2000 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi,
and tho two men can go down with one of those battoes in
twenty days, yet twelve men will have much adoe to bring
it up again in five months, so that there is little probability
of ever having much trade there, and though the people
can have some sale for their produce in the meantime to
new settlers, yet in a few years that market will naturally
cease, and though they can raise all the necesarys of life,
they can never have any money for their grain, as the price
of two bushels will have adoe to bring one to market,
and salt sells there just now at 20 shillings a bushel. Rum,
and all other things which are brought from the sea coast
sells at the like extravagant price.
The province of Pennsylvania seems the most desirable
to live in of any place we have yet seen, but it is mostly
settled where it is good, and what is to settle is very dear as
9
138 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
you cannot have an acre of good land within 150 miles of
any landing for less than twenty or thirty shill.
Here the people are kind and discreet, except the Dutch
or Germans who inhabit the best lands in this province, who
are a set of people that mind nothing of gayety, but live
niggardly and gather together money as fast as they can
without having any intercourse with anybody but among
themselves. Most of the people in this Province look fresh
and healthy, except the women who have for the most part
lost their teeth, with eating too many fruits which they have
here in great plenty.
Here they have plenty of good horses and all other
kinds of cattle, and the ground produces wheat, barley, Rye,
Indian Corn, oats, buckwheat, flax, peas and beans of various
kinds. They have likewise Melons, Cucumbers, squashes,
gourds and pumpkins growing in the open fields, and their
gardens are well supplied with all kinds of roots and other
garden stuffs that are to be found in Europe.
The air is commonly clear, and the country is as healthy
as any place in Europe, excepting only where there are
large Marshes or ponds of stagnated water, which is
dangerous for agues but we have not yet seen one have the
ague since we came to the Country. The summer is pretty
hot, but not to such a degree as people at home are taught
to believe. They tell us the winters are mostly frosty, but
clear, sun shine weather, which prevents it from being so
cold as it would otherways be.
On Tuesday, August 17, we left Alexander Thomsons
and set out towards the south, and after passing a very
small town called Chamberstown, we came into the Province
JAMES WHITELAW. 139
of Maryland, and lodged at night in a handsom little town
of about 150 houses, called Heagerstown. We left this in
the morning, and came next to Sharpsburg, which is about
the same bigness, and about mid-day came to Potomack
river, and crossed over to Sheepherclstown in Virginia.
This small part of Maryland which we came through
is part of the forementioned valley and is very good land
and all settled.
Sheepherdstown is upon the banks of the Potomack
(but about 70 miles above the falls) and contains about 70
or 80 houses. Here we met with Thomas White, and he
and us spent the evening in viewing the town and the coun-
try about it, and in the morning went along with us to his
acquaintances through the country to make what inquiry
we could about lands, but could hear of none in this gov-
ernment without going 2 or 300 miles from navigation.
The country here is very good and the people healthy.
We next set out for Carolina and after Crossing Shan-
adore river we came over the blue ridge and down to the
heart of Virginia, and we went down the south side of
Potomack river and came through several towns such as
Alexandria, Colchester, Dumfriee and Aquaia, and then
across the Country and crossed Rappahanock River between
falmouth and fredericksburgh and next we crossed the head
of York River at Herrs bridge, then over James river and
so through the country and over Roanoak at Taylor's Ferry,
after which we came into North Carolina.
The people in the lower parts of Virginia complain much
of sickness at this season of the year, but higher up they
are pretty healthy. Here they have excellent Indian Corn
140 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
in some places, but the ground is mostly sandy and poor,
and the places that are good are all planted with Tobacco,
and here is but little wheat or other grain. The planters
here live well and are all quite idle, as none but negroes work
here, of which some planters will have several hundreds,
which at an average are worth 60 or 70 pounds ster : apiece,
and in these all their riches consists, for there are few of
them but are in debt to the storekeepers, and it commonly
takes all their Crops to Cloath themselves and their negroes.
But those that are industrious and labour themselves, and
particularly they who make grain, can make a good deal of
money, as the grain sells pretty well and does not require
one half of the labour that tobacco does.
About four miles from Roanoak we came into North
Carolina, and went right to Mr. Allason's house. The land
from the line of the province to this place is for the greatest
part very sandy and much of it covered with pines, and in
some places a kind of red clay mixed with sand, and the
wood mostly oak here. Mr. Allason has got a good planta-
tion lying along the side of a creek, and he tells us he has
bought two other good plantations, and could buy plenty
more very reasonably, but he does not think that our scheme
will suit this place well, as there are no tracts of good land to
be had in one place, as the good lands lie mostly in narrow
strips along the water sides, and the people settle on these
places and keep the high grounds for range to their Cattle,
for which they are excellent, as these pine grounds are all
covered with excellent grass. (We arrived here on Tues-
day, August the 31 in the afternoon). The lands here
sells from ten to twenty shillings P. acre, and we can hear
JAMES WHITELAW. HI
of no person that has any large tract in one place to dis-
pose of.
On Wednesday, the 8th of September, we left Mr. Al-
lasons and at night arrived at Bute, where we were kindly
entertained by Mr. William Park, from Renfrew and after
telling him our plan, he advised us to Call upon one Mr.
Montfort, in Halifax, who he told us had the best tract of
land to dispose of that he knew of in that country.. Mr.
Park was so kind as to give us a letter of recommendation
to him, we had likewise a letter of recommendation
to him from Mr. David Sproat in Philadelphia.
On Thursday, the 9th, we left Bute and arrived at Halli-
fax on Friday forenoon when we went and Called for the
above mentioned Mr. Montfort who used us very civilly and
told us of several tracts of land that he had to dispose of,
one of which lay in Bute County and was the one rec-
ommended to us by Mr. Park. He told us that it contained
nearly 6000 acres, the whole as well watered as any tract
of the same quantity in America, having many very constant
and fresh running streams through it. There is not 200
acres in the whole but what he told us is fit for tillage and
much of it excellent for wheat and tobacco. He told us
there were 4 plantations Cleared and tended thereon, per-
haps the 4 Containing in all about 400 acres of cleared
land, all the rest wood land. He told us likewise that there
was a good grist miln on a fine constant stream, which has
never too much nor too little water, and that there are sev-
eral barns & small houses on the different plantations and
his price is 9000^ Virginia Currency or 700o£ sterling. He
likewise told us that he had a tract of land in Halifax County
H2 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
of about 2400 acres, one part of which is within 4 miles
of Halifax town, and the farthest part of it is about 7 or
8 miles from said town. There is in this tract a great
variety of kinds of soil, it is all level and pretty well watered,
is mostly wood land, some a light sandy soil, some a very
strong Marley soil, and very stiff, other parts a mixture be-
tween the two, finely timbered with Pine, oak and Hickory,
a great deal of it proper for making the finest meadows.
This land he will sell for 1000 pounds ster. if taken soon,
and he says is worth a great deal more.
He told us also of another tract of land that he had
on the head of Broad River, in Tryon County, Containing
nearly 7000 acres, and all of it as rich, fine land as any
yet discovered in America, being all of it Cane land or high
low grounds, which never overflows and grows full of Cane
reeds, well timberd and watered and most excellent for
raising cattle and Horses. It is all naturally enclosed by the
steep, high mountains from the west side round by the
north by the east, and is only open to the southeast where
a waggon road may go easy and level along the river side
into the land. This place was formerly known by the name of
the great cove and is of late years known by the name of
Montfort's Cove. This land pays to the Crown four
shillings Proclamation money of North Carolina P. hun-
dred quit rent P. annum.
He will take one thousand five hundred pounds ster. for
this tract of land if a purchaser offers soon and pays down
at the time of agreement and receiving title, but unless
that happens within six or seven months of this time, he
says he will not take under two thousand that money. He
JAMES WHITELAW. 143
says if the whole is not as good land as to be found in the
upper, he will not desire any person to be bound by the bar-
gain they make for it.
About 80 miles from this land there are one or two
places of trade on rivers Navigable for large Boats — it lies
200 miles to Charlestown on a fine waggon road.
After having dined with Mr. Montfort we set out on
our way for Edinton, where we arrived on Monday, the 13th.
The country a good way down from Halifax is nothing but
barren sand, and when you go lower down the ground is
low, flat and marshy and along the banks of the Roanoak
the lands are very rich, but so low and flate that in great
freshets the river overflows it for several miles and sweeps
all before it. The land about Edinton is all either barren
sand or watery swamps. When we came to Edinton we
called for Mr. Smith, to whom we had been recommended
by Mr. Sproat in Philadelphia. He told us of large tracts
of good land upon pretty good navigation, but the price
high and the Climate sickly. As to the soil of Carolina we
have told in the beginning of our description of it that there
are strips of good ground along the sides of rivers and
creeks, and the rest sandy and mostly Covered with pines
and fit for nothing but raising of cattle which is the only
thing the people in this country depend upon. The grass in
the woods is rank and good, and the winter being short they
can rear cattle without much cost or care. The soil will
produce Indian Corn pretty well, which is the only grain the
people live upon. Some of their ground will produce wheat,
but in small quantitys and it must be thrashed out imme-
diately when cut, or else they lose it by being eat by a
144 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
small insect called a wevle. They have cotton, tobacco and
some small quantitys of indigo and rice in some places, but
the Culture of indigo is so unhealthy that they reason if
a negro lives ten years and works among it they have a
good bargain of him.
As to the climate, it is exceedingly hot in June, July
ai-d August, and very Cold in January and february, and
the rest of the year temperate, and in the back parts the
people are healthy, but after we came below Hallifax we
did not enter one single house but we found sick persons,
and in some we could not find one whole person to feed
our horses. As to religion, we scare saw any appearance
of it in this Country, but the establishment is Episcopal.
Finding that we could do nothing there, we left Edin-
ton on Monday afternoon, and returned on our way to the
North Country again, and in our way passed through
Suffolk, which is a handsom little town in the lower parts
of Virginia, and on Wednesday, the 15th, we got to Nor-
folk, which is the largest town in Virginia, and stands on
a river deep enough to bring large ships up to the town.
This town seems to be about the bigness of Greenock, and
seems to have a good deal of trade. Here we was obliged
to stay till Saturday before we could get a fair wind to
Carry us over the Bay. This passage is about 60 miles,
viz. : from Norfolk down to the Bay 25 miles across the
"bay to the eastern shore 35 miles. We crossed this bay (viz.
Cheesapeak) within sight of the Capes of Virginia, and by
going this road we brought 14 ferry s all into one which
we would have had to cross if we had gone by the post
road, and we likewise shortened our road above 20 miles.
JAMES WHITELAW. 145
After crossing at this place we went through several hand-
som little towns, such as Snowhill, Crossroads, Dover, Wil-
mington, Chester and Derby, and arrived at Philadelphia on
the 26th of September, all the way from Edinton till you
come within about 60 miles of Philadelphia the ground is
light and sandy and for the most part does not produce above
10 or 12 bushels of wheat P. acre, but when you come with-
in 60 miles of Philadelphia, the ground Changes from sand
to good brown earth and will produce large crops of wheat
or any other grain, here it is exceeding pleasant traveling
at this season of the year, as the fields are all quite green
with young wheat which makes a much better appearance
than it does in Scotland at this time of the year.
We traveled about 500 miles (viz. from Hallifax in
Carolina to Dover which is within 80 miles of Philadelphia)
without seeing a stone of any kind, or any sort of eminence,
the ground being for the most part sandy and perfectly
level, and in all that 500 miles we was not in five houses
but some of the people was sick of the fever and ague or
somes other desease, but we have reason to bless God that
though we have traveled through such a sickly country, we
are now arrived in perfect health at a place where such sick-
nesses seldom or never appear.
After having refreshed ourselves and horses and dis-
cussed what business we had to do, we left Philadelphia on
the first of October and came to Princetown that night, and
next day we bargained with Dr. Witherspoon for one-half
of the township of Ryegate.
146 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
We left Princetown on the 5th and arrived at New-
York on the 6th, and James Henderson arrived here from
Philadelphia, with his chest and tools on the 9th and having
found a sloop to carry James Henderson with his and our
Chests and what Tools and other utensils we had purchased,
to Hartford, on the Connecticut river, and having discussed
what other business we had to do, we left New York on
19th of Oct., and arrived at Newbury or Kohass on the 1st
day of November, and put up with Jacob Bayly, Esq., to
whom we was recommended by John Church, Esq., one of
the proprietors of Ryegate, and James Henderson arrived
about a week after us in a canoe with our chests and tools
and some provisions we had bought down the Country, such
as Rum, Salt, Molasses, etc. On the 30th of the month Mr.
Church came up and we divided the town, the south part
whereof has fain to us, which in our opinion, and in the opin-
ion of all that knows it, has the advantage of the north in
many respects. 1st, it is the best land in general. 2d,
nearest to provisions which we have in plenty within 3
or 4 miles and likewise within 6 of a grist and two
miles of a saw miln, all which are great advantages to a new
settlement. 3d, we have several brooks with good seats
for milns, and likewise Welds River runs through part of
our purchase and has water enough for 2 breast milns at
the driest season of the year, of which the north part is
almost entirely destitute. 4th, there is a fall in Connecticut
river just below our uppermost line which causeth a car-
rying place for goods going up or down the river. 5th, we
are within six miles of a good Presbyterian meeting and
there is no other minister above that place.
JAMES WHITELAW. 147
When we came here John Hyndman was building his
house, so we helped him up with it both for the conveniency
of lodging with him till we built one of our own, and also
that he might assist us in building ours. Having finished
his house, we began to build our own, and had it finished
about the beginning of January, 1774. Nothing worth
noticing happened till the spring, only we cut down as much
wood as we could and James Henderson made what wooden
utensils we had occasion for, and James Whitelaw went
down to Portsmouth and Newburyport and brought a slea
load of such necessarys as we wanted. In the month of
April we made about 60 lbs. of sugar, after which we be-
gan the surveying of the town, and first ran lines from
north to south (& vice versa) at every forty rods distance,
which lines are above three miles long and upwards of 40 in
number, one half of which we marked for the ends of the
lots and the other half we did not mark, but only run them
to know the quality of the ground.
On Monday, the 23rd of May, arrived here from Scot-
land David Ferry, Alexander Sim and family, Andrew and
Robert Brocks, John and Robert Orrs, John Wilson, John
Gray, John Shaw and Hugh Semple, and as we had not
finished the surveying, Alexander Sim went to work with
Colonel Bayley and all the rest with the managers for the
company where they continued till the first of July, when
we got their lots laid off for them, and David Ferry took
possession of No. 1st, Hugh Semple of No. 2nd, 3rd, 4th
& 5th, John Orr and his brother of No. 6th & 7th for them-
selves, & No. 8th and 9th for William Blackwood, John
148 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Gray of No. ioth for himself and No. nth. for John Barr,
John Wilson of No. 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th & 17th,
Andrew and Robert Brocks of Nos. 21st, 22nd, 23d, 24th,
25th, 26th, 27th, & 28th, Alexander Sim of Nos. 29th & 30th,
and John Shaw of Nos. 31st and 32nd for himself, and
of 33d, 34th, 35th & 36th for William Warden, and of No.
37th, 38th, 39th & 40th for James Laird.
July the 5th we agreed with Archibald Harvie and
Robert Orr for one year's work for the company and on
the nth we agreed with John Shaw and on July 30 with
David Ferry, all for one years work.
On Monday, the 1st of August, after having determined
the quantitys of the several lotts and drawn a plan of them,
and likewise a plan of the town spot, David Allen set out
from this place on his way home to Scotland, when the
whole of the Ryegate Colonists attended him to Colonel Bay-
ley's and James Henderson went along with him to New-
buryport where he took his leave of him.
After finishing the plan of our half of Ryegate we found
the Contents to be as follows:
Here are inserted the tables covering pages 51 to 57 in-
clusive of the original manuscript.
On the first of October John Waddels, James Neilson
and Thomas McKeach arrived here, and Patrick Long and
family, William Neilson and family and David Reid and
his wife arrived the 7th. They were all hearty and had a
good passage and good usage from their captain.
JAMES WHITELAW. 149
James Neilson took possession of lots 41 & 42, and
William Neilson of Nos. 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49 & 50,
and Patrick Long of Nos. 51, 52, 53, and 54 for himself, and
of Nos. 55, 56, 57 & 58 for his brother-in-law, and David
Reid took possession of Nos. 59 & 60.
On the 8th of Oct. arrived here Robert Gemmil and his
son, Robert Tweedale and his wife an4 Andrew and James
Smiths. About this time we began to build a frame house
of 17 feet wide and 38 long, which will accommodate 4
familys on occasion. On the 13th we built a small logg
house, as these we formerly built could not contain all the
people that arrived at that time.
On the 22nd of Oct. Andrew Smith departed this life.
He was the first Scotsman that died in this place. He was
in good health on the morning of the 21st, but about 11
o'clock forenoon he was seized with a cholic (to which he
had formerly been subject) of which he died at 3 o'clock
next morning. James Whitelaw with the rest of the new
Colonists made choice of a spot near the east side of the
common for a burying place where he was decently interred
same evening.
James Smith took possession of lots No. 61, 62 & 63
for himself, and of No. 64 for John Gray ; Robert Tweedale
of No. 65, 66, 67 & 68 and Robert Gemmil of Nos. 69 & 70.
Before the beginning of December all the people had houses
built on their lots, and they were generally well pleased
with their situations.
About the 8th of December James Whitelaw received
a letter from Archibald Taylor who was at Salem waiting
for an opportunity to come up.
150 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL. SOCIETY.
About the beginning of January, 1775, James Whitelaw
purchased the part of lot No. 120 of Newbury that lies on
the North side of Wells River (which contains the great
falls) with one-half the privilege of the river for the pur-
pose of building milns for the company. About which time
James Henderson begun to block out wood for building
them.
On the first of February, Archibald Taylor and his fam-
ily arrived here and took possession of Lot No. 113.
About the 16th of April John Scot came here and took
possession of Lots No. 18, 19 & 20.
About the middle of August we raised the frames of
the grist miln and first frame house in the town, and about
the beginning of October we raised the saw miln, and on the
28th of Oct. we set the grist miln agoing.
On the 14th of May, 1776, we met in order to choose
military officers for the town, when we chose James Hender-
son Capt. Robert Brock, Lt. Capt., and Bartholomew Sum-
mers, Ensign.
The third Tuesday of May being appointed for the
yearly town meeting for choosing the necessary officers for
the town, John Gray and James Whitelaw were chosen for
assessors ; Andrew Brock treasurer ; Robert Tweedale and
John Orr overseers of the highway ; Patrick Long and John
Shaw overseers of the poor; John Scot, Collector, and
Archibald Taylor, James Smith, William Neilson and David
Reid, constables.
About this time James Whitelaw took possession of lots
No. 114th, 115, 116 and 117, and James Henderson
JAMES WHITELAW. 151
of Lots No. 118, 119, 120, and John Waddle of lot 121, and
Thomas McKeach of lot 122.
On the first of July upon the alarm coming of St. Johns
being retaken by the Regulars, and that Indians would
be sent through to lay waste the Country, all the people of
Ryegate moved down to Newbury, where they had more
company and foolishly thought there was less danger, but
after staying there about ten days, and seeing no appearance
of danger, they all returned to their respective houses.
A few days after this we set the saw miln agoing, which
answers her end very well.
Nothing more happened worthy of notice till the 9th of
Jan., 1777, when James Henderson was married to Agnes \^
Sym and on the 17th of the same month Robert Brock was
also married to Elizabeth Stewart, which were the two first
marriages which ever was in Ryegate.
Tuesday, May the 20th, being the day appointed for
the annual town meeting for choosing officers, &c, the
same persons who were chosen last year, both for civil and
military officers were all unanimously rechosen for another
year.
Thursday, June 12th, the inhabitants all met in order
to choose their house lots in the town spot when Walter
Brock made choice of lot No. 357, John Orr of No. 356, Rob-
ert Orr of No. 355 for himself, and Nos. 353 and 354 for
William Blackwood, John Gray of 319 for himself, and No.
320 for John Barr, John Wilson of Nos. 2, 3, 4, 321, 322,
323, John Scott of Nos. 276, 277, 278, Andrew Brock of
Nos. 349, 350, 351, 352, Robert Brock of Nos. 75, 76, 77,
152 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
78, Alexander Sym of Nos. 347, 348, John Shaw of Nos.
196, 197 for himself, and Nos. 198, 199, 200, 201 for William
Warden, and Nos. 202, 203, 204, 205 for James Laird,
James Neilson of Nos. 273 and 274, William Neilson of Nos.
265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, Patrick Lang of Nos.
260, 261, 262, 263, and for Wm. Craig 264, 291, 292, 293,
David Reid of Nos. 289, 290, James Smith of Nos. 286, 287,
288, for himself, and No. 285 for John Gray, Robert Tv/eed-
ale of Nos. 281, 282, 283 & 284, Hugh Gemmil of Nos. 279
and 280, for his father, Archibald Taylor, of No. 206, James
Whitelaw of Nos. 207, 208, 209, 210, James Henderson of
Nos. 211, 212, 213, and John Waddle of No. 214.
\yS Friday, the 13th of June, this day John Gray is to be
married to Jean McFarlan.
On Thursday, the 2nd of Aprile, 1778, the inhabitants
met in order to choose selectmen, and other officers, when
James Whitelaw was chosen town dark, John Shaw, Patrick
Lang and Alex. Sym, Selectmen, John Wilson and
Robert Orr, Constables, John Gray and James Henderson,
assessors, Walter Brock and John Hyndman, surveyors of
highways, William Neilson and Robert Summers, fence
viewers, and Bartholomew Summers, Lieutenant.
On Tuesday, May 18th, 1779, the inhabitants met and
chose James Whitelaw, town dark, James Henderson, Rob-
ert Brock and William Neilson, Selectmen, John Hyndman
and John Gray, surveyors of highways, Bartholomew Sum-
mers and John Orr, constables.
On the 17th of May the inhabitants of Ryegate met in
order to Choose their Town officers, when they appointed
JAMES WHITELAW. 153
Robert Brock Town Cleark, John Gray, John Scot and John
Hyndman selectmen, James Henderson and Andrew Brock,
surveyors of highways.
The inhabitants of Ryegate having met in order to
consult of some method of finishing the house and barn,
and for Clearing up what is cut down, and not finished in
the Common, and putting the same under improvement,
and having Considered of the same, Concluded that the best
way was to let some person finish the same and have the
use of the whole Common for such a number of years as
he and they could agree upon for his pay, when John
Scot offered to finish the clearing of what was cut down and
put the same under improvement, and likewise to board
the sides and cover the roof of the barn and lay a good
floor in it and also to finish the house in a good and sufficient
manner and make a Cellar under the whole of it, and to keep
the fences in repair at his own cost for ten years' use of the
Common, viz. : from the first of May, 1780 to the first of
May, 1790, and in Case the Company in Scotland wanted
the use of it sooner, they were to have it on paying him
what cost he had been at, and if any of the Company here
that had their house lots in the Clear land, wanted to take
them up before the expiration of the foresaid ten years,
they are to Clear as much land in any other place of the
Common where the said John Scot shall choose or satisfy
him any other way that they can agree.
1 June 1783, Thomas Clark took possession of lots No.
81, 82, 83 and 84, and John Young of No. 85.
10
154
THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Ryegate, March 26, 1793.
The members of the Scotch American Company residing
in this town, being legally warned, met and made choice
of William Neilson, James Henderson and Hugh Gardner
for managers, then Voted that James Whitelaw, who now
holds the Deeds of the Company's land shall deed it to
the managers and their sucessors in office.
(Here follows, on pages 68 to 72 of the original manu-
script the "Rate Bill for the halfpenny tax for the Township
of Ryegate to be paid into the State treasury by the first
of April, 1794," and it has been thought best to print only
the names of the land-owners and to omit the numbers of
their lots, the acres and the amount of the tax. The names
of the land-owners are as follows) :
SOUTH DIVISION.
David Reid.
Joshua Hunt.
Hugh Gemmil.
Joseph Smith.
George Ronald.
Wm. Neilson.
Jas. Neilson.
Esq. S. Heaths.
Nich. Chamberlin.
Jesse Heath.
Daniel Heath.
John S. Bay ley.
Wm. Johnson.
E. Johnson &c.
Widow & J. Taylor.
James Whitelaw.
Robt. Brock.
Jas. Henderson.
Benj. Wright.
John Wallace.
Josiah Page.
John Goodwin.
Campbell Sym.
Thos. Johnson.
Andrew Brock.
Hugh Gardner.
Jas. McKinley.
John Gray.
John Orr.
John Remick.
Alexr. Millar.
John Ritchie.
William Craig.
Allen Stewart.
William Harvey.
Alexr. Ewen.
Scotch American Coy,
John Cameron.
John C. Jones.
JAMES WHITELAW. 155
NORTH DIVISION.
John Witherspoon. John Tomas.
John Pagan. Josiah Page.
John Church. Nathan B. Page.
John Gray. John Buchanan.
Caml. Sym. Alexr. Simpson.
(To the rate bill above mentioned is attached the fol-
lowing certificate), viz:
The preceding is the rate bill for the halfpenny tax
agreeable to the Act granting said tax passed by the Legis-
lature of the State of Vermont at their session at Wind-
sor in Oct., 1791.
JOSIAH PAGE, )
JAMES WHITELAW, [ *electmen-
The preceding is a true copy.
Attest: JAMES WHITELAW, T. C.
(On pages 73, 74, 75 and 76 of the diary are the fol-
lowing entries), viz:
LAND UNDER MY CARE.
The land belonging to Franklin and Robinson N.
York.
The land belonging to Mr. Alexr. Ewen of Portsmouth.
The lands belonging to Jeremiah Harris Junr., Nor-
wich, Connecticut.
The right of Benjn. Libbee in Ryegate belonging to
David Todd of Suffield, Connecticut.
156 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The right of Lyman Potter in Groton.
The lands in Victory that Jesse Gilbert has put under
my care.
The lands belonging to Capt. James Rogers in Con-
cord, East Haven, Averill, Burke, Caldersburgh, Calais,
Woodbury, Montpelier and Walden.
The lands belonging to Jonathan W. Edwards of Hart-
ford, Connecticut, in the towns of East Haven and Mont-
gomery.
The lands of John Titus of Greenwich in the County of
Fairfield, Connecticut.
The lands of Daniel Marsh in Caldersburgh being the
rights of Samuel Burr and half the right of Henry White.
The lands of William Douglass in the State of New
York being the rights of Nathaniel Bartlett and Gordon
Merchant in Averill — the rights of Asa Douglass, Jr., &
Nathl. Douglass, Jr., in Groton — and the right of Wheeler
Douglass in Easthaven.
The lands in Newark belonging to John Moriarty of
Salem, Massachusetts being his own rights and the rights
of David Ferguson.
The lands in St. Johnsbury belonging to Thomas Denny
put under my care by Col. John Hurd.
JAMES WHITELAW. 157
The right of Israel Noble in Minehead belonging to
Isaac Beers in Newhaven.
The lands belonging to John W. Blake of Brattleboro
in the towns of Mansfield, Brunswick and Minehead and in
Averys gore now Huntington.
The lands belonging to James A. Wells of Hartford in
the towns of Caldersburgh and Warren.
The lands belonging to Chauncey Goodrich of Hart-
ford, in the township of Caldersburgh.
The lands in Ryegate belonging to Nathaniel Adams
of Portsmouth being lots No. 7, 8 & 16 in the 1st Range,
No. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12 & 17 in the 2nd Range, No. 7, 9, 17 in
the 3d Range, No. 8, 13, 16 in the 4th Range and No. 15
in the 5th Range North Division.
George Grenville Benedict.
GEORGE GRENVILLE BENEDICT.
George Grenville Benedict, for 54 years connected with
the Burlington Free Press and for 40 years its editor-in-
chief, died in Camden, S. C, at 12:45 o'clock Monday
morning, April 8, 1907.
On February 4 Mr. and Mrs. Benedict left Burlington,
with the intention of passing the balance of the winter and
the early spring in the South, Miami, Fla., being their ob-
jective point. In St. Augustine, where they stopped with
the intention of remaining a few days, Mr. Benedict suffered
on February 11 a serious attack of heart failure, being un-
conscious for an hour. He rallied from the attack and
seemed to gain in strength, although slowly. The trip to
Miami was abandoned and Mr. and Mrs. Benedict remained
in St. Augustine until April 1, when they started North
stopping first in Savannah, Ga., and reaching Camden Thurs-
day, April 4. A letter written by Mr. Benedict the follow-
ing day was received in Burlington Monday morning, a
few hours before the telegram came announcing his death.
In the letter Mr. Benedict said that he stood the journey
well, but the final summons came very suddenly from an-
other attack of heart failure.
Mr. Benedict was born in Burlington December 10,
1826, a direct descendant of Lieut. Thomas Benedict, who
came from Nottinghamshire, England, to America in 1638.
He prepared for college in the Burlington Academy, grad-
162 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
uated from the University of Vermont in 1847 and three
years later received from the same institution the degree
of master of arts. After leaving college he was a teacher
in the Washington Institute in New York City for about a
year, and for the three years following was occupied in
building and superintending the lines of the Vermont &
Boston Telegraph Company, of which company he was
president from i860 to 1865.
In August, 1862, Mr. Benedict enlisted as a private in
Company C, 12th regiment of Vermont volunteers. In
January following he was promoted to a lieutenancy and
was subsequently detailed as aide-de-camp on the staff of
Gen. George J. Stannard, commanding the second Vermont
brigade. He received a medal of honor, awarded by Con-
gress for distinguished conduct in the battle of Gettysburg,
July 3, 1863. He was mustered out of service July 14,
1863. He later served as assistant inspector-general of the
State militia, with the rank of major, and in 1866 was aide-
de-camp on the staff of Governor Paul Dillingham, with the
rank of colonel. A close student of army matters and a
graceful writer, Mr. Benedict was in 1878 appointed State
military historian, in which capacity he prepared the history
of "Vermont in the Civil War," in two volumes. He also
published "Vermont at Gettysburg" and a volume of army
letters entitled "Army Life in Virginia."
Mr. Benedict's interest in the University of Vermont
was active and unceasing from the years when he was a
student there. His father was for 23 years a professor,
while three of his brothers, a son and several nephews were
GEORGE GRENVILLE BENEDICT. 163
students at different times. For 40 years Mr. Benedict has
been a trustee and secretary of the institution and for a
long time one of the executive committee.
In politics Mr. Benedict was always a staunch repub-
lican. He served at different times as secretary and chair-
man of the State committee of his party and was a dele-
gate to various State and national conventions. He was
postmaster of Burlington 1861-65. In 1869 he was elected
State senator from Chittenden County and was re-elected
the following year. For the next four years he was for the
second time postmaster of Burlington and from 1889 to
1893 was collector of customs for the district of Vermont.
In non-political offices he at different times was President
of the Vermont Press Association, president of the Vermont
Historical Society, president of the Vermont Society of the
Sons of the American Revolution, governor of the Vermont
Society of Colonial Wars and was a member of. the Grand
Army of the Republic and of the Military Order of the
Loyal Legion. He was a devoted member and for a long
term of years clerk of the College Street Congregational
Church, a corporator of the Burlington Savings Bank and
a director of the National Life Insurance Company of Mont-
pelier.
Mr. Benedict became associated with his father in the
management of the Free Press in 1853 and 13 years later,
in 1866, took up the duties of editor-in-chief, a position
which he held at the time of his death, being the dean of
Vermont journalism.
164 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Mr. Benedict was twice married, his first wife being
Mary A. Kellogg of Canaan, N. Y. She died in 1857,
leaving a daughter, Mary. In 1864 Mr. Benedict married
Katharine A. Pease. She survives him, together with a
son, Prof. George Wyllis Benedict of Providence, R. I.
Two brothers, Robert D. and B. Lincoln, reside in Brook-
lyn, N. Y.
PRESIDENT BUCKHAM'S TRIBUTE.
The funeral of the late George Grenville Benedict was
held at the College Street Congregational Church at 2:30
o'clock Thursday afternoon, being preceded by a brief
service at his long-time home on South Prospect Street.
The church was filled with friends from all walks of life and
at no funeral ever held in Burlington have there been more
societies and organizations from all parts of the State rep-
resented. Many places of business were closed and Chit-
tenden County Court took a recess from two to four o'clock.
The honorary bearers were ex-Gov. U. A. Woodbury,
J. A. DeBoer of Montpelier, Charles E. Allen, C. W. Wood-
house, Prof. J. E. Goodrich, United States Senator W. P.
Dillingham, C. P. Smith, D. W. Robinson, H. W. Allen and
ex-Gov. J. L. Barstow, all long-time friends and many rep-
resenting some of the organizations to which Mr. Benedict
belonged. The body bearers were members of the Free
Press editorial staff and heads of departments who have
been connected with the establishment for many years, as
follows : Business Manager W. B. Howe, J. L. Southwick,
GEORGE GRENVILLE BENEDICT. 165
W. J. Bigelow and W. B. Gates from the editorial rooms ;
Cashier W. H. Murdock; A. H. Duhamel, foreman of the
news room; J. B. Turcot, foreman of the press room; and
C. R. Kent, foreman of the job department.
As a part of the funeral service the following tribute
to Mr. Benedict was paid by President M. H. Buckham of
the University of Vermont :
One of the most expressive emblems of the havoc
wrought by mortality in our human experience is the pros-
trate pillar — not the broken column — if the words will bear
the distinction — not individual eminence fallen and in ruins
— but the social pillar, removed from its firm footing on
the foundations, and bereaving the mass above of its sup-
porting strength. When the tidings come to us of the pass-
ing of such a man as Mr. Benedict, the first thought is one
of personal loss — of friendship sundered — of a great gap
in our family and neighborhood intimacies and affections.
The wrench thus made, the pain it brings, the soreness it
leaves, is in a good degree a measure of the worth of a
man to those who loved him and whom he has loved. And
the sorrow and sense of loss when such a man goes out from
among us, is by no means mitigated — it may even be en-
hanced— by the consideration that he has lived out a long
and full life, has brought his powers to their ripest maturity,
has finished his work, and earned his right to be released
into the higher sphere where the rewards of a good life
are awaiting him. But this heavy price we pay for our
priceless human affections is not the ultimate tribute we
give to the worth of such a life as that of the man we mourn
166 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
to-day. The sense of social deprivation, the withdrawal of
powers and resources on which the community relied for its
highest well-being, this most truly expresses our valuation
of a good man's services to our common life. That is a
grossly unjust figure, the product surely of a dull imagina-
tion, and an ungrateful heart, which likens the life of a
single individual, however great and good, to a something
floating on the sea for a brief minute, then to be swallowed
up and forgotten as though it had never been. Rather is
a good life like the once firm pillar, which, shaken out of
its place, leaves the heavy load to be carried by the rest of
the cluster, the whole fabric weakened and imperilled, un-
til another pillar equally strong, if that may be, is slowly
built into its place. The tribute we pay to Mr. Benedict
to-day is not so much that in the past we have admired and
loved him, as that in the future we shall miss him, and long
and sorely miss him. We shall miss the editor; the his-
torian; the clear-headed and farsighted citizen of the city,
the State and the nation; the devoted Christian; the ex-
emplary and honorable man in all the walks of life.
As a public man Mr. Benedict was more than anything
else, the publisher of a newspaper. In our times the news-
paper has come to be one of the elemental and all pervasive
forces of our civilization. For good or for evil, it has come
to be a power second to none in our social, political and
moral life. When on the right side of public questions it
is a force more than competent to deal with all opposing
forces, when on the wrong side, it is a menace to every
good cause and every sound institution. What can you ex-
GEORGE GRENVILLE BENEDICT. 167
pect of a certain city, it is shrewdly said, when its morn-
ing papers make vice attractive and its evening papers
make virtue odious? Happy the city, happy the
State, whose newspaper press does its utmost to make
vice odious and virtue attractive! I count among the chief
influences that have made Burlington the city it is, a city
in which the prevailing influences favor morality and every-
thing that is good between man and man, that for more
than 50 years past, the leading newspaper has invariably
and persistently and bravely stood against what its editorial
conscience thought to be evil and in favor of what it thought
to be right, "uncaring consequences." Father and son were
equally resolute on this point. Woe to the evil that dared
to lift its head in this community while George W. Benedict
was in the editorial chair. With swift and crushing stroke
he smote it to its hurt and often to its death. With gentler
and defter and not less effective work, the son has made
the paper such that he was proud to see it rank among the
best 100 papers in the United States. And may I add as a per-
sonal tribute, that I have sometimes trembled at the thought
of the evil that might have been done in a university town,
with its schools, public and private, if the newspaper that
everybody reads, old and young, had sympathized with the
baser side of life, had sneered at religion, had frowned upon
temperance, had sold its columns to advertisers of im-
morality; whereas we have had occasion for rejoicing and
giving thanksr that whether or not we all agreed with its
politics we were always sure that its moral influence was
safeguarded by a man of the finest spiritual temper and the
168 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
highest ideals of public and private virtue. We were sure
too that its endeavors were correct, not only in good morals,
but in good literature, good history, good English, good
taste. Mr. Benedict's supreme faculty as editor was in
his ability to take a subject on which other men had written
"about it and about it," and had so confused and muddled
it that the right of it was hopelessly obscured, and in the
course of a column and a half so to clear it up and settle it,
that there was no more to be said and no more
was said. And the secret of this was that along
with intellectual keenness and good logical sense there
was in Mr. Benedict that passion for lucidity, that
impatience with everything tortuous and evasive, that
marks the man of sound moral discernment. The pure in
heart not only see God because they are pure in heart, they
see all truth with clearer vision.
Of Mr. Benedict's military career others will doubtless
speak as only comrades can speak, and as ampler time will
permit. Some of us can remember when the days were
darkest, and the strain grew to be more tense than young
hearts could bear, how Mr. Benedict enlisted as a private,
spent his evenings drilling with Captain Page's company,
left home and office for the front with no hope or thought
of promotion, received a commission as lieutenant and aide-
de-camp on the staff of the Second Vermont Brigade,
served with distinction on General Stannard's staff, at the
Battle of Gettysburg, survived the perils of field and camp,
and returned to serve and honor still further his State and
country by writing the "History of Vermont in the Civil
GEORGE GRENVILLE BENEDICT. 169
War," one of the best — it has been called the very best —
of the State histories of the war, a work through which
posterity will know how glorious a part Vermont acted in
that great drama for freedom and right.
Of the other relations in which Mr. Benedict stood to
the community, I shall speak of only two — and of those
two because they are those of which, if of any, he would
have wished me to speak. First, as to his connection with
the university. It was to be a professor in the university
that his father came to Burlington, and of that father four
sons and four grandsons have been among its graduates —
a university family of three generations. President Eliot
has said that a large part of the success of Harvard Univer-
sity is due to the fact that a sufficient number of capable
men can be always found, residing within easy distance from
the university, who are willing to give without pay their
time and their best of service in the capacity of trustees, to
the work of carrying on the institution. To this class of
men belonged Mr. Benedict. For 42 years he has been a
trustee of the university and the secretary of the board of
trustees. He has been the intimate and confidential adviser
of two presidents, both of whom, I may confidently say,
would testify that the university owes to him a large part
of any successes which have come to the institution during
their administrations, and for which both they, and the uni-
versity, and all its friends and well-wishers owe him ever-
lasting gratitude. But it was to him all a labor of love and
nothing for reward. All the mo"re for that reason will we
11
f70 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL, SOCIETY.
enshrine his memory in our hearts and teach our successors
and our children to remember him among those whom the
university will always delight to honor.
And lastly I would speak a brief word of his member-
ship in the church which meets for public worship in the
house where we are assembled. I have never known a man
— I believe few men exist anywhere — to whom their church
means more, is more dear and precious than this church has
been to Mr. Benedict. Outside of his own family, I think
it may be said that here was where he garnered up his heart.
I mean, of course, not only this particular body of com-
municants and worshippers, though he did with a special
Christian affection love these very men and women, but
what this church stands for and represents and tries to live
out, of Christian truth and piety. He was one of the
original members of the church, was for many years its
clerk, and undoubtedly knew personally more of its mem-
bers, living and dead, than any pastor or officer the church
has had. He was constant in his attendance upon both the
Lord's day and weekly services and often contributed in his
delightful way to the uplifting and edification of his fellow-
members. He did not profoundly study the new questions
which modern research has spread out before the Christian
Church, but he had an open mind and welcomed every new
truth which brought with it reasons for faith or help to ex-
perience. But he clung mainly to the essential and un-
changeable truths, to the things that remain because they
cannot be shaken. Not to overdo the figure of the pillar
removed from its place, this audience room will never be
GEORGE GRENVILLE BENEDICT. 171
quite what it has been now that we see no more his erect
and military figure on which his 80 years had imposed no
stoop — and church meetings will not be the same now that
we must miss his strong support of every good thing ma-
terial and spiritual for which this church and every church
stands.
Fellow citizens of Burlington, of Vermont; friends of
Mr. Benedict, neighbors, comrades, life-long readers, you
who have been associated with him in politics, in business,
in the care of the university; you, brethren of his college
fraternity, have I said too much in his praise ? Have I said
half enough ? By gifts and opportunities Divine Providence
laid upon him great obligations. He gave him good an-
cestry, health, education, religious nurture, family friends,
a versatile and well-balanced mind, openings into almost any
career he might choose. Variously endowed, he was a man
of many accomplishments and of manifold virtues. The fruit-
age of all these gifts, all these attainments, he has bestowed
upon the community, upon us. He was not a self-seeking
man. He turned to his own personal account only a very
small share of all that he was capable of being and doing.
Take him for all in all, he was a man in respect of whom
our long remembrance and our lasting thought will be that
God has crowned all His many other gifts to our community
by giving to us such a man as George Grenville Benedict.
172 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
MR. SOUTHWICK'S TRIBUTE.
The following appeared as an editorial in the Free
Press of April 9th, and was written by J. L. Southwick of
the editorial staff:
While the death of the Hon. George Grenville Benedict
comes as a distinct shock to this whole community, his
loss will be so felt nowhere outside of the immediate fam-
ily circle as on the staff of the journal with which his name
had been inseparably associated for over half a century. The
recent announcement of serious inroads on his health, com-
bined with his advanced age, had prepared his associates
in newspaper work for his practical retirement from active
service, but they had hoped that with the return of milder
weather they might still enjoy the benign influence of
his presence as sage, counsellor, friend. Recent letters
written by him, one of which came to this office on the
morning of his death, had spoken of his constantly im-
proving condition, and his staff, as the members of one
family, were looking forward to the time when they could
welcome him back to the city he so dearly loved. He
passed away, however, as he had hoped, suddenly and with-
out a long period of helplessness, and he closed his event-
ful life rich in years and honors.
A comprehensive sketch of the life and public service
of Mr. Benedict is printed elsewhere, but it is fitting that
we should speak of those charming qualities of person which
s he possessed to an abundant degree, and which are made so
manifest nowhere outside of the home life perhaps as among
associates in the conduct of a daily journal. The newspa-
GEORGE GRENVILLE BENEDICT. 173
per is constantly coming into contact with all phases and
conditions of life, and the manifold problems and trials
presenting themselves are well calculated to bring out every
side of a man's character. Amid conditions like these Mr.
Benedict ever remained the same kindly and genial gentle-
man of the old school, inflexible in his insistence on the
carrying out of the high standards he set for his newspaper.
He was sturdy in his advocacy of what he believed to be
right, fearless in his championship of any cause he espoused,
utterly unmindful of consequences, in his battle for truth,
good government, right living, morality, and religion.
It is only a few months since in commemorating the
observance of Mr. Benedict's eightieth anniversary the
members of his newspaper staff in common with other
fellow townsmen paid him a marked tribute of their respect
and esteem. Few know better than the editor the prone-
ness of human nature to err, and while Mr. Benedict was
quick to detect infractions of the rules he sought to enforce,
he was invariably the patient monitor, constantly endearing
himself to subordinates and thus increasing their desire to
please him and at the same time attain to the lofty standards
he ever held before them. Wherever he might be, in sick-
ness or in health, at home or abroad, his thoughts were
daily with his paper, and this interest in the progress and
welfare of the Free Press was kept up to the very day of
his death.
Mr. Benedict was a versatile and many-sided man. He
loved art. He was an excellent musical and dramatic critic.
He was a thorough student of affairs. His letters of travel
174 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
were the delight of all who read them. He possessed what
may be termed the historical instinct to a degree that falls
to the lot of few men ; and the entire State of Vermont is
the gainer thereby. Not only in the press but also through
his books, historical papers, pamphlets and other writings
he helped to preserve the records of many events in the
Green Mountain State's history which would otherwise have
been lost or left in form or condition unavailable for library
reference or student research. His history of "Vermont in
the Civil War" is regarded by good authorities as one of
the most careful, comprehensive and well written military
works of the kind possessed by any State. His long con-
tinued and efficient work in connection with the Vermont
Historical Society, of which he was long president, is known
wherever lives a Vermonter. His love of the historical led
him to bring down to date and prepare for publication Gil-
man's Bibliography of Vermont, which is invaluable for the
newspaper office, the historical student and others who need
to consult a complete list of books, newspapers, magazines
and pamphlets printed in Vermont since the founding of
the State.
Mr. Benedict pursued some elusive historical fact or
missing point with all the ardor of the huntsman and the
patience of the angler combined, sparing neither time nor
effort to clear up the matter ; and if his wearisome research
was rewarded and the record in hand thus made complete,
his satisfaction was a joy to behold. It was this inability
to take any important fact for granted that accounts for
the wonderful accuracy of Mr. Benedict's historical writings.
GEORGE GRENVILLE BENEDICT. 175
It was his love of accuracy which led him to rewrite whole
chapters of his military history, when those to whom he
had written for facts about certain points neglected to
reply until he had the first volume of the work practically
completed. It was this accuracy which made him the ex-
emplar of reliable newspaper writers and the terror of
the shiftless reporter, and rendered it so difficult to meet
his ideal of what the daily chronicle should be — a faithful
record of all important events and a reliable reflex of all
momentous currents of the day.
Mr. Benedict not only wrote history ; he also helped
to make history. For half a century he was a participant
in some of Vermont's most important councils, and his
voice and pen helped to shape some of the State's most
far reaching policies and measures. Whether as legislator,
or as delegate to national or State convention, or as member
of civic or military organization, or as a private citizen work-
ing for public welfare, he was ever thorough, ever alert,
ever watchful for the right and when he had once satisfied
himself on this point there was no shadow of turning, but
constant struggle to promote the right.
Mr. Benedict loved Vermont. It would be difficult to
find a more zealous or loyal Vermonter than was he, at all
times. He was proud of the Green Mountain Boys' strug-
gle for liberty, and of the existence of Vermont for a brief
period as a veritable republic, with its own government and
public service complete. He gave his country the same de-
voted support, and when secession threatened the existence
of the nation, he was prompt to respond to the call of
176 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
the Union, doing loyal as well as efficient service for the
cause of freedom. His interest in all military matters kept
pace with his patriotism and his love for his fellow soldiers
continued unabated to the end.
Mr. Benedict loved Burlington. He was never tired
of singing the praises of the city he did so much to help
develop, and he was fond of quoting praises of our proud
position on Lake Champlain. He gloried in our educational
progress, in which he was so conspicuous a figure, and in
our institutions. His interest in the University of Ver-
mont was absorbing, and his love for his alma mater was
only second to that for his newspaper. He liked to watch
the city's growth and expansion. But above all he loved the
people of Burlington. He was interested in their welfare
and health and prosperity and if any resident was afflicted
in any of these respects, none was more solicitous than he.
All Burlington was his home.
But while Mr. Benedict stood conspicuous as citizen,
soldier, legislator, educator, historian, Christian gentleman,
he was best known in his capacity as a gifted and versatile
editor. Much of his public service was performed during
a generation now passed away, but he continued his work
as editor-in-chief up to the very last. His are the traditions
which the Free Press is trying to exemplify to-day.
His are the policies that still live though he has passed out
from among us. No one better knew than he the ethics
of journalism. No one could stand for more lofty ideals;
none strive more zealously to attain the ideal. Though he
has left us, his ideals and lofty standards remain and so long
GEORGE GRENVILLE BENEDICT. 177
as the Free Press is true to the traditions he so firmly
established, it will be true to its own best interests and those
of the community he loved.
APPENDIX A.
report of the board of managers.
Montpelier, Vermont, Oct. 16, 1906.
Hon. G. G. Benedict, President:
The Board of Managers, consisting of the officers of
the Society, respectfully submit the following report :
The Society has lost by death since our last report the
following members : Henry Ballard, of Burlington, dis-
tinguished member of the Chittenden County Bar; Charles
M. Bliss, of Bennington, identified with the origin of the
Bennington Battle Monument; Wilder L. Burnap, of Bur-
lington, lawyer, scholar and gentleman; Charles Dewey, of
Montpelier, financier; Dwight H. Kelton, of Montpelier, a
loyal citizen of the state; Dr. William N. Piatt, of Shore-
ham, trustee of the State Asylum ; and Arthur Ropes, of
Montpelier, learned writer and editor. Brief biographical
sketches of these men have been prepared and will form
part of the Proceedings of the present meeting.
The Librarian of the Society, Edward M. Goddard,
has made numerous effective changes in the public presenta-
tion of its collections, to which your special attention is di-
rected, but it is very evident that lack of room and a marked
want of working facilities continue to greatly hamper the
progress of the Society, as has been pointed out over
and over again. The fact that the State of Vermont,
by law and by the agreement of this Society, holds
an irrevocable reversionary interest in all of its prop-
erty should be sufficient reason for a more decided
support and provision for its well-being and extension
APPENDIX. 179
by the State, apart from the much more cogent reason
that the Society, which now includes the leading citizens of
the State among its membership, is devoted to the conserva-
tion of its material, agricultural, industrial, civic, political,
literary, ecclesiastical and military history.
The program for the public exercises on the evening
of November 9th, in the Hall of the House of Representa-
tives, will include a brief introductory address by the Presi-
dent and an address by Judge Wendell Phillips Stafford of
the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, Washing-
ton, D. C, formerly of St. Johnsbury, on "The Life and
Services of Thaddeus Stevens, Statesman and Reformer,"
and a paper by Professor George Henry Perkins of Bur-
lington on "Prehistoric Vermont and Relics and Evidences
of Early Occupation by Indian Tribes."
There will be presented to the Society at this meeting
a considerable list of applications for membership, all of
which applicants have had due consideration and are rec-
ommended for election.
It is pleasant to record, also, the fact that the Vermont
Association of Boston has seen fit this year to include in its
itinerary to the home State participation in the public exer-
cises of the Vermont Historical Society.
It is a matter of the utmost satisfaction to report that
interest in the objects of our Society continues to increase.
We earnestly urge upon our members that they lend their
influence to the utmost extent in furtherance of its purpose
and especially to the securement in their respective cities and
towns, if not already existing, of adequate, up-to-date local
histories, in order that a true record of events and of men
may not be lost through local neglect. The present time is
180 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
especially auspicious and opportune for the preservation of
much, — in some cases, of practically everything — relating to
the origin and history of Vermont towns. It is entirely
reasonable to urge that such records deserve the attention of
the localities to which they appertain, and that individuals,
public-spirited and otherwise interested in general affairs,
apart from themselves merely, should make it their specific
duty to obtain a positive action in this regard.
We also respectfully suggest that any member of the
Society who has the time and inclination would perform a
distinct service by preparing an index to the Hemenway
Gazetteer, which work, while full of useful information,
loses much of its value because it lacks suck accessible and
ready index of its contents.
The charter of the Society, dating back to 1838, was
amended December 9, 1904, by the General Assembly of
this State, authorizing it, among its other rights, to accept
"property loaned or committed to it on trust or on con-
dition." Acting under this grant of powerr your officers
have undertaken the deed of trust described in the following
correspondence :
"deed oe trust."
"Whereas in 1899 the Dewey Monument Committee
composed of Everett C. Benton, of Waverley, Mass. ; James
T. Phelps, of Boston, Mass. ; Levi P. Morton, of Xew York
City; John M. Thurston, of Nebraska; Wallace F. Robin-
son, of Boston, Mass. ; Joseph W. Babcock, of Wisconsin ;
John B. Corliss, of Michigan ; Rome G. Brown, of Minne-
apolis, Minn. ; L. L. Coburn, of Chicago ; and Stephen A.
Foster, of Chicago, was organized with the object of se-
curing and presenting to the State of Vermont a monument
to commemorate Admiral Dewey's victory at Manila, such
APPENDIX. 181
purpose being set forth more fully in the circular letter
used by said Committee in collecting funds, as follows :
" 'At the porch leading to the State House at Mont-
pelier there is now a very appropriate and striking statue
of Ethan Allen, commemorating his heroic deeds. It is now
proposed that the natives of Vermont who have by the for-
tunes of time chosen other sections of the country in which
to reside erect a statue recognizing the brave and worthy
acts of one of their number who has brought great honor,
not only to the State and Nation, but to humanity in gen-
eral. As a slight token of such appreciation they wish to
present to the dear old State a fitting memorial of Admiral
George Dewey. When this is done future generations will
observe that on the left Ethan Allen, denoting strength, and
the one on the right George Dewey, to establish. To-
gether they will always be a reminder of God's promise that
in strength would be establish his Kingdom.
" 'It is desirable that this be done by a general con-
tribution from all Vermonters now resident outside of the
State, and the Committee solicits from you a cash sub-
scription, as your means may permit, of from $1.00 to
$io.oo.'
"And Whereas said Committee has collected and
now has in its possession the sum of $2,524.18, which
amount is considered insufficient for carrying out the ob-
ject in view, and the contributors of the small amounts
making up said sum desire so far as can be learned that the
money collected be in some manner devoted to the purpose
originally contemplated,
"Now Therefore the members of said Committee here-
by give, assign and transfer to the VERMONT HIS-
TORICAL SOCIETY, a corporation organized and exist-
ing by special charter under the laws of Vermont, and an
organization devoted among other things to preserving
whatever relates to the military history of the State of Ver-
mont, the moneys collected by said Committee for the pur-
pose aforesaid, amounting to $2,524.18, in trust and upon
condition that the said Vermont Historical Society retain
said fund and invest the same in such securities as it is
permissible under the laws of Vermont for savings banks
182 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
to invest their funds until such time as such fund with its
accretions and any additions thereto by gift or otherwise
may in the judgment of the Board of Managers of said So-
ciety be sufficient to erect a statue of George Dewey, the
Admiral of the Navy, in the portico of the State Capitol at
Montpelier, or if that be not possible or advisable at such
place in Montpelier as said committee may determine.
"This Deed of Trust is to become effectual and the
moneys herein described to be paid over upon the endorse-
ment on this Deed of Trust by the President of said Ver-
mont Historical Society of the acceptance of said trust un-
der authority of action of the Board of Managers of said
Society ; and Everett C. Benton, of Waverley, Mass., and
James T. Phelps, of Swampscott, Mass., members of said
Committee, are hereby authorized to turn over said fund
to the said Vermont Historical Society, and are also directed
to deliver to said Society for preservation in its archives
the original list of subscriptions received by said Commit-
tee.
"In Witness Whereof the members of said Dewey
Monument Committee hereunto set their hands this third
day of May, A. D. 1906.
"Everett C. Benton
James T. Phelps
Levi P. Morton
John M. Thurston
Wallace F. Robinson
Jno. B. Corliss
Rome G. Brown
L. L. Coburn
Stephen A. Foster
Joseph W. Babcock
"20 Kilby St., Boston, Mass., May 10, 1906.
"To the President and Secretary of the Vermont Historical
Society, care of Joseph A. DeBoer, Montpelier, Vt.
"Gentlemen : — Acting under authority of the Dewey
Monument Committee, and in conformity with recent corre-
spondence with Mr. DeBoer. it gives me pleasure to hand
you a certified cheque on the United States Trust Company
Dezcey
Monument
Committee.'
APPENDIX. 183
of Boston, transferring to your Society the sum of twenty-
five hundred twenty- four dollars and eighteen cents — ($2,-
524.18), with the accompanying deed of trust signed by all
the members of the Committee, namely, Everett C. Benton,
James T. Phelps, Levi P. Morton, John M. Thurston, Wal-
lace F. Robinson, Jno. B. Corliss, Rome G. Brown, L. L. Co-
burn, S. A. Foster and Joseph W. Babcock, — the said deed
showing the history of the fund and the conditions of its
transfer to your Society. I also hand you a statement,
showing, so far as it is possible for the Committee to ob-
tain, the names and addresses of subscribers. These sub-
scribers were obtained in answer to a printed call, and were
all voluntary, without special solicitation.
"The total amount of money
received from subscribers
was $2326.35
As moneys were received,
they were by the Treas-
urer deposited in the
United States Trust Co.
of Boston, total sum of de-
posits amounting to.... 2326.35
The interest allowances by
the Bank amounted to... $303. 53
The expense charge, which
was limited to actual out-
lay for printing and post-
age, amounted to 105.70
Leaving a gain on the Fund of. * 97-83
Making total of $2524.18
"If it is the pleasure of your Society, I should be glad
to receive acknowledgment of this amount, covering the
points mentioned in this letter, which I can hold as a dis-
charge for the Committee of its disposal of the Fund.
"Yours very truly,
"Everett C. Benton, Chairman."
184 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
We record, accordingly, not merely the acceptance of
the aforesaid trust but further that the sum named, $2524.18,
was deposited May 12, 1906, in the Montpelier Savings Bank
& Trust Company under the title of the "Dewey Monument
Fund, Vermont Historical Society," subject to the prevail-
ing rate of interest from said date.
We advise that said fund be now transferred by vote
of the Society into the hands of its Treasurer and that the
Deed of Trust and the List of Subscribers to said fund be
passed to the Librarian for permanent care. We further
advise that said fund be safely invested in accordance with
the discretion of the Society's Treasurer and that the earliest
opportune time be taken for the consummation of the pur-
pose and intent which originally inspired the creation of this
fund and for the effective discharge of this trust.
Respectfully submitted,
Jos. A. De Boer,
Recording Secretary, for the Board of Managers.
APPENDIX B.
TREASURER'S REPORT, 1905-1906.
Henry F. Field, Treasurer, in account with the Vermont
Historical Society, ipoj-ipo6.
Dr.
Oct. 16, '05, To balance last reported. . . .
To annual dues for 1904
$435-24
paid during the year ....
To annual dues for 1905
2.00
paid during the year ....
To annual dues for 1906
84.00
90.00
APPENDIX. 185
To annual dues for 1907
paid in advance 6.00
To annual dues for 1908
paid in advance 1.00
To membership dues Geo.
P. Anderson for 1905. . . . 2.00
To membership dues Francis
M. Crosby, candidate for
1906 2.00
To membership dues Chas.
W. Howard, candidate for
1906 2.00
To membership dues Chas.
D. Watson, candidate for
1906 2.00
To membership dues Geo.
M. Hogan, candidate for
1906 2.00
To interest on deposit
with Montpelier Savings
Bank and Trust Co. to
July, 1905 9.14
To interest on deposit
with Montpelier Savings
Bank and Trust Co., to
July, 1906 942
Cr.
Oct. 20, '05, by paid J. A. DeBoer,
Sec'y. bill for postage $ 4.61
Nov. 21, '05, by paid Free Press
Ass'n. bill for letter heads... 2.25
Jan. 6, '06, by paid E. M. Goddard,
Librarian, 3 months' salary . . 25.00
Jan. 6, '06, by paid Argus & Patriot,
bill, notices annual meeting,
etc 2.75
12
$646.80
186 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
April 21, by paid E. M. Goddard,
Librarian, 3 months' salary. . 25.00
April 21, by paid E. M. Goddard,
Librarian, disbursements .... 6.59
April 21, by paid Mather & Temple,
bill material for library 10.00
April 21, by paid Union Card Co.,
bill material for library 1.26
April 21, by paid Pneumatic Hand
Stamp Co., bill 1.13
April 11, by paid E. M. Goddard,
Librarian, 3 months' salary . . 25.00
April 11, by paid E. M. Goddard,
Librarian, disbursements .... 5.55
Oct. 11, by paid E. M. Goddard,
Librarian, 3 months' salary . . 25.00
Oct. 18, by paid Tuttle & Co., bill
receipt books for Treasurer. . 2.75
Nov. 8, by paid Henry F. Field,
Treasurer, disbursements for
postage, 1903-1906 5.36
$142.25
Balance in Treasurer's hands. .504.55
$646.80
Rutland, Vermont, November 8, 1906.
APPENDIX.
187
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188 THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
APPENDIX D.
OFFICERS 1906-7
President.
GEORGE GRENVILLE BENEDICT, Burlington.
Vice-Presidents.
WILLIAM W. STICKNEY, Ludlow.
FRED A. HOWLAND, Montpelier.
H. CHARLES ROYCE, St. Albans.
Becording Secretary.
JOSEPH A. DE BOER, Montpelier.
Corresponding Secretaries.
THEODORE S. PECK, Burlington.
CHARLES S. FORBES, St. Albans.
Treasurer.
HENRY F. FIELD, Rutland.
Librarian.
EDWARD M. GODDARD, Montpelier.
Curators.
EZRA BRAINERD, Addison County.
SAMUEL B. HALL, Bennington County.
REV. HENRY FAIRBANKS, Caledonia County.
REV. JOHN E. GOODRICH, Chittenden County.
PORTER H. DALE, Essex County.
WALTER H. CROCKETT, Franklin County.
NELSON WILBUR FISK, Grand Isle County.
CARROLL S. PAGE, Lamoille County.
DR. GEORGE DAVENPORT, Orange County.
F. W. BALDWIN, Orleans County.
PHILIP R. LEAVENWORTH, Rutland County.
HIRAM CARLETON, Washington County.
APPENDIX.
189
BERT EMERY MERRIAM, Windham County.
GILBERT A. DAVIS, Windsor County.
FREDERICK G. FLEETWOOD, Secretary of State,
HORACE F. GRAHAM, Auditor of Accounts.
GEORGE W. WING, State Librarian.
}
ex-offcio.
STASDOG COMMITTEES.
On Library. — Joseph A. De Boer, E. M. Goddard, John E.
Goodrich.
On Printing. — Theodore S. Peck, Fred A. Howland, Walter
H. Crockett.
On Finance. — Henry F. Field, Joseph A. De Boer, Fred A.
Howland.
APPENDIX E.
NAMES OF REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS BURIED
IN VERMONT.
Compiled by Walter H. Crockett, of St. Albans, Secretary of the
Vermont Society, Sons of the American Revolution, additional to the
list printed in the Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society for
1903-04.
Addison.
Lorain Evarts,
Samuel Pond,
Jacob Post,
John Strong.
Albany.
Marshall Pillsbury,
Samuel Russell,
Ebenezer Watson.
Alburgh.
Ichabod Babcock,
John Babcock.
Andover.
Joseph Abbott,
Jonas Adams,
Luther Adams,
Peter Adams,
Hart Balch,
John Barton,
David Burton,
Jonathan Crane,
Joseph Dodge,
Ebenezer Farnsworth,
David Hazleton,
Solomon Howard,
Daniel Knight,
Samuel Manning,
Jesse Parkhurst,
Peter Putnam,
Joseph Stickney,
Samson Walker,
Moses Warner.
Arlington.
Constant Barney.
Ephraim Blowers,
Israel Burritt.
John Calkins.
Capt. Martin Deming,
John Gray,
Benoni Hawkins,
Simeon Littleneld.
190
THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Athens.
Ezra Chaffee,
Charles Colton,
George Porter.
Bakersfield.
Aaron Barlow,
' Joshua Barnes,
Jonathan Farnsworth,
Foster Paige,
Maj. Elisha Parker.
Baltimore.
Seth Houghton.
Barnard.
Samuel Bennett,
William Bennett,
Hollan Blackmer,
Jacob Boyden,
William Buckman,
William Chamberlin,
Moses Davis,
Robert Dean,
John Foster,
Peter Foster,
Elisha Freeman,
William Freeman,
Sergt. Charles French,
William Harlow,
Ezra Spaulding,
Samuel Stewart.
Barnet.
Levi Hall,
Stephen Rider,
John Waddell.
Benson.
Bristol Bennett,
Rufus Ewen,
Eli King,
Timothy Prince.
Berkshire.
Arthur Danow,
Levi Darling,
John Perley,
Ezekiel Pond,
Elisba Shaw,
Edward Whitmore.
Berlin.
Allen Andrews,
Elijah Andrews,
Daniel Hayden,
Job Reed,
Lemuel Stickney.
Bethel.
Jason Bannister,
Moses Bragg,
Reuben Brooks,
Stephen Cleveland,
Bibye Cotton,
Amos Crain,
Stephen Fisk,
Joel Marsh,
Nehemiah Noble,
Ezra Putnam,
Benajah Strong.
Bloomfield.
Adin Bartlett.
Braintree.
Edward Bass,
Simeon Curtis,
Elijah Huntington,
Thomas Kenney,
Matthew Pratt.
Barre.
Daniel Averill,
William Farwell,
Elisha Gale,
Ebenezer Putnam,
Col. Enos Walker.
Barton.
John Adams,
Benoni Burnham,
Joseph Hyde,
John Monsam,
Jonathan Robinson,
Lemuel Sturtevant.
Belvidere.
Moses Brown,
Eliphalet Carpenter,
John Rosier.
Bennington.
David Avery,
Caleb Austin,
Ephraim Bowen,
Cornelius Bracy,
Solomon Clark,
Charles Cushman,
Aaron Deming,
Jeremiah Field,
Job Greene,
Peter Hardwood,
Simeon Harvey,
David Hinman,
Benjamin Hoadley,
Jesse Loomis,
Abner Noble,
Lieut. John Noble,
Martin Norton,
Jonathan Robinson,
Samuel Rockwood,
Samuel Safford,
Simeon Thayer,
Isaac Tichenor,
Col. Ebenezer Walbridge.
Bradford.
John Putnam,
Arad Stebbins.
Brandon.
Simeon Bigelow,
William Dodge,
Stephen Durkee,
Zeeb Green,
Nathaniel Harris,
Solomon Hinds,
Jonathan Merriam,
Ebenezer Squires,
Roger Smith.
Brattleboro.
Elnathan Allen,
John Carpenter,
Stephen Greenleaf,
APPENDIX.
191
Ruthford Hayes,
Reuben King,
George Loveland,
Ephraim Nash,
Asa Putnam,
Daniel Stearns,
Reuben Stearns.
Bridgewater.
Isaac Bisbee,
George Boyce,
Joseph Boyce,
James Crooker,
George Denison,
Sergt. Sam'l Denison,'
Daniel Dike,
James Fletcher,
Seth Fletcher,
'Joseph French,
Josiah Gibbs,
Elisha Gilbert,
Asa Green,
Capt. John Hawkins,
Asa Jones,
Stephen Knowlton,
Rowland Leonard,
Amos Murdell,
Thomas Palmer,
Benjamin Perkins,
Nathan Pratt,
Eleazer Robinson,
Phineas Sanderson,
Beriah Smith,
Thomas Southgate,
Noah Thompson,
James Topliff.
Bridport.
David Cory,
Asa Hemenway,
Jacob Hemenway,
Samuel Hemenway,
Phineas Kitchell,
Sergt. Abel Rice,
Dr. William Vaughn.
Bristol.
Rufus Barnard,
Joseph Bird,
Walcott Burnham,
Jeriah Chamberlin,
John Corry,
Ebenezer Cushman,
Robert Dunshee,
Cyprian Eastman,
Asahel Hall,
Samuel Hall,
Jeremiah Hatch,
John D. Holly,
Paul P. Holly,
William Howden,
Jeremiah Mead,
Asaph Parmelee,
Benjamin Plumley,
Amos Scott,
Abraham Vreedenburgh
David Whitney.
Brookline.
Samuel Bennett,
Eleazer Cushman,
Luther Newcomb.
Brookfield.
Reuben Adams,
Barna Bigelow,
Experians Fisk, Jr.,
Nathan Fisk,
Timothy Kendall,
John Paine,
Noah Paine.
Brownington.
Humphrey Nichols,
Joel Priest,
Isaac Smith,
Samuel Smith.
Brunswick.
Simeon Wait.
Burke.
Seth Clark,
Abner Coe,
Sergt. Benj. Farner,
Daniel Hall,
Sergt. Isaac Martin.
Burlington.
Alanson Adams,
John Adams,
Reuben Bostwick,
Capt. Amos Burnham,
Daniel Castle,
Samuel Hitchcock,
William Kilbourne,
John Pierce,
Nathan Seymour.
Cabot.
Moses Ainsworth,
Benjamin Andrews,
Eliphalet Bill,
Joseph Hoyt.
Calais.
Solomon Janes.
Cambridge.
James Campbell,
Amos Fassett,
John Fassett, Jr.,
Elihu Grant,
Benjamin Griswold,
Parker Page,
Joel F. Perham,
Sergt. Truman Powell.
Canaan.
Gilman Clough,
Oliver Goss,
John Hughs,
John Weeks.
Castleton.
Joseph Babcock,
William Bromley,
William Cushman,
Sgt. Jonathan Deming,
Daniel Eaton,
Preserved Kellogg,
Daniel Lowden.
Cavendish.
Benjamin Adams,
Timothy Adams,
192
THE VERMONT HISTORICAL. SOCIETY.
Isaac Baldwin,
Samuel Burbank,
Capt. John Coffeen,
Joel Davis,
Nathaniel Fair,
Asaph Fletcher,
Nehemiah Green,
John McLane,
Elnathan Reed,
William Spalding,
Samuel Stearns,
Oliver Whitney.
Charleston.
John Palmer,
William Sawyer.
Charlotte.
Isaac Cogswell,
Ephraim Page,
Stephen Turrill.
Chelsea.
Sherman Allen,
Ananiah Bohonon,
Abraham Brigham,
Daniel Buck,
Benjamin Burgess,
Frederick Calkins,
Asa Dearborn,
Hiram Huntington,
William Killown,
John Martin,
Thomas Parker,
David Perry.
Chester.
Benjamin Blaney,
Nathan Boyden,
Thomas Caryl,
Joshua Church,
Ephraim Clark,
Jeremiah Dean,
Stephen Dyer,
David Earl,
Timothy Eastman,
Ebenezer Farrington,
Daniel Fletcher,
Paul Fletcher,
Surg. Laban Gates,
Moses Gile,
Joshua Jordan,
Simeon Keith,
John Kibling,
Arohelous Putnam,
John Putnam,
Stephen Randall,
Waitstill Ranney,
Reuben Ray,
Jason Rice,
Stephen Riggs,
Ezra Sargent,
Jabez Sargent,
WilJiam Stoodley,
John Thurstoh,
Amasa Turner,
Richard Ward,
Amos Weatheifcy,
Benjamin Whitmore,
Solomon Wilson.
Chittenden.
Asa Durkee.
Clarendon.
Sergt. Abel Horton,
Dr. David Palmer,
Ephraim Parker,
Sergt. Samuel Parker,
Isaac Southworth,
Jesse Sprague,
Lewis Walker.
Colchester.
Alexander Alford,
Jeremiah Fisher,
Peter Gale,
John Law,
Amos Mansfield, Jr.,
Claud Monty,
Amos Preston,
Lemuel Tubbs,
David Webster.
Concord.
Joseph Ball,
Elias Cheney,
Jonathan Corser,
Josiah Goodale,
David Hibbard,
Hinds Reed,
Noah Vilas,
Capt. Samuel Wetherbe,
Capt. Samuel Witherell.
Corinth.
Jeremiah Dewey,
Eleazer Porter,
Eleazer P. Putnam.
Comioall.
Jared Abernethy,
John Alvord,
John Boynton,
Joseph Cogswell,
Isaiah Gilbert,
■ Reuben Hall,
Israel C. Jones,
Gideon Miller,
Reuben Peck,
William Pratt,
John Rockwell,
William Samson,
Daniel Scovel,
William Ward.
Coventry.
Frederick W. Herman,
David Lathe,
Joseph Priest,
Edward Welch.
Crafts oury.
Capt. Ebenezer Crafts,
Daniel Davison,
John Hadley,
Joseph Scott,
Sergt. Rob't Trumbull.
Danoy.
Bradford Barnes,
Minor Hilyard,
Elijah Lilly.
APPENDIX.
193
Danville.
Uri Babbit,
Jethro Batchelder,
Jesse Cheney,
Thomas Colby,
Jonathan Danforth, _
Salma Davis,
Benjamin Deming,
Stephen Dexter,
Samuel Hawley,
Thomas Hoyt,
John Rollins,
Ebenezer Sawyer,
Caleb Stiles,
Joseph Tilton.
Derby.
Abram Alexander,
Simon Davis,
John Healey,
Isaac Hinman,
Timothy Hinman,
Simeon Pope.
Dorset.
Peletiah Dewey,
Benedict Eggleston,
Asa Farwell,
Isaac Farwell,
Asahel L. Fenton,
Noah Fuller,
John Sargent,
Benjamin Tenney,
James Wrin.
Dover.
Benjamin -Baldwin,
Balah Kendall,
Capt. Elijah Stearns.
Dummerston.
Daniel Bemis,
John Bemis,
Nathaniel Bixby,
Thomas Boyden,
William Boyden,
Ellis Griffith,
John Reed,
William Robertson,
Daniel Tenney.
Duxbury.
John Colt.
East JHontpelier.
Eseck Howland.
Eden.
Jonas Harrington,
Eli Hinds, Jr.,
Isaac Lackey,
Samuel Plumley,
Peter Wylie.
Elmore.
Ebenezer Copin.
Enosburg.
Job Libbey,
James Miller.
Essex.
France Faxon.
Fairfax.
James Bellows,
Archibald Cook,
Joseph Cross,
E. Faxon,
George Majors,
Israel Richard&on,
Bradstreet Sparford.-
F airfield.
Whitmore Beardsley.
Jabez Burr,
Oliver Cleveland,
Abel Fairbanks,
Jabez Hawkins,
Josiah Osgood,
Philip Priest,
Silas Safford,
• Dyer Sherwood.
Fair Haven.
Samuel Stannard.
Fayston.
William Newcomb.
Ferrisburg.
Daniel Champion,
Josiah Johnson,
William Kellogg,
Abel Thompson,
Nathan Walker.
Fletcher.
Daniel Bailey,
Henry Campbell,
Samuel Danforth,_
Rufus Montague.
Franklin.
Paul Gates.
Georgia.
Capt. Jonat'n Danforth, -
Loammi Pattee,
John Wood,
Reuben Wood.
Glover.
Paul Cook,
Paul Hardy.
Jesse Thomas,
Goshen.
Enoch Reynolds.
Grand Isle.
Capt. John Stark.
Granville.
Abiathar Austin,
Eli Lewis,
Abraham Parker,
James Shaw,
Jeremiah Snow,
194
THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Grafton.
David Blood,
Simeon Conant,
Nathaniel Cutler,
Henry Davis,
David French,
Abraham Gibson,
David Gibson,
Jonathan Gibson,
Solomon Gibson,
Enoch Hale,
John Kidder,
Samuel Spaulding,
William Stickney, .
Joseph Thatcher,
Jonathan Warner,
Samuel Whitney,
Asa M. Wyman.
Greensboro.
Samuel Badger,
John Cross,
Amos Smith,
Lieut. Thos. Tolman.
Groton.
John Clark,
Ebenezer Fisk.
Guildhall.
John Cook,
Capt. Benoni Cutler,
David Denison,-^
Moses Hale,
David Hopkinson,
Samuel Howe.
Guilford.
Nehemiah Andrews,
Daniel Boyden,
James Boyden,
Ebenezer Chamberlain,
Jeremiah Graves,
Thomas Harris,
Samuel Larabee,
William Marsh,
Cyrus Martin,
Jasper Patridge,
Adonijah Putnam,
Micah Rice,
Seth Rice,
Eliel Washburn,
Aaron Wilder.
Halifax.
Thomas Adams,
James Babcock,
Abner Bemis,
Joel Cutler,
John Farnham,
David Goodall,
Jesse Guild,
John Harris,
Israel Jones,
Moses Larned,
Francis Phelps,
Elijah Pike,
Newton Ransom,
Hezekiah Smith,
Eleazer Whitney,
Artemas Woodard.
Hancock.
Charles Church,
Capt. Nath'l Cushman.
Hardwick.
Charles Bailey,
Abel Carpenter,
Abel Conant,
Jonathan Curtis,
John Fox,
Sergt. Thomas Fuller,
Sergt. David Norris,
Eleazer Nutting,
Samuel Stevens,
Joseph Weeks,
Reuben Wheatley.
Hartford.
Joshua Dewey,
Shadrack Dodge,
Lieut. Israel Gillet,
John Gillet,
Sergt. Jacob Hall.
Willis Hall,
Samuel Harrington,
Daniel Hazen,
Elijah Hazen,
Hezekiah Hazen.
Capt. Joshua Hazen,
Solomon Hazen,
Thomas Hazen,
Benjamin Hoyt,
Capt. Abel Marsh,
Daniel Marsh,
Eliphalet Marsh,
Elisha Marsh,
John Marsh,
Col. Joseph Marsh,
David Newton,
John Paddock,
Samuel Pease,
Daniel Pineo,
Eliot Porter,
Rowland Powell,
Amos Richardson,
Thomas Richardson,
Amos Robinson,
Francis W. Savage,
Seth Savage.
Thomas Savage,
Darius Sessions,
Philip Sprague,
Solomon Strong,
William Strong.
Sergt. Andrew Tacy,
Reuben Tenney,
Josiah Tilden,
Oliver Udall.
Hartland.
Noah Aldrich,
Eldad Alexander,
Sgt. Luth. Bartholomew,Quartus Alexander.
Daniel Beard, Simeon Alford,
Capt. William Bramble, Wm. Symmes Ashley,
James Call, Thomas Bagley,
Simeon Chapman, Moses Barron,
David Coburn (or Col- John Billings,
burn), Nathan Billings,
Eliazer Bishop,
Chap. Daniel Breck,
Solomon Brown,
Isaiah Burk,
Jonathan Burk,
Marston Cabot,
Nathan Call,
Samuel Capron,
Lieut. Ephraim Carey,
Capt. Nathaniel Cole,
Melvin Cotton,
Thomas Cotton,
Holmes Cushman,
Ichabod Cushman,
\Col. George Denison,
John Dunsmore,
Asahel Doubleday,
John Dunbar,
Robert Dunbar,
Elisha Flower,
William Flower,
Elisha Gallup,
William Gallup,
Zelates Gates,
Peter Gibson,
Peter Gilson,
Joseph Grow,
Samuel Hearley,
Thomas Hoadley,
Jonathan Hodgman,
Maj. Lot Hodgman,
Phineas Killam,
Thomas Lawton,
Darius Liscomb,
Nehemiah Liscomb,
John Lull,
Timothy Lull,
Isaac Maine,
Gardner Marcy,
Joseph Marcy,
Isaac Morgan,
Robert Morrison,
John Robbins,
Eliphalet Rogers,
Isaac Sargent,
Lemuel Scott,
Thomas Shaw,
Jesse Smeod,
Leonard Spaulding,
Lieut. Daniel Spooner,
Eliakim Spooner,
APPENDIX.
Paul Spooner,
John Sumner,
Asa Taylor,
Nathaniel Waldron,
Jonathan Whitney,
Capt. Aaron Willard,
Oliver Willard,
Abel Wright,
Zadock Wright.
Highgate.
Philip Shelters.
Hinesburgh.
Moses Dow,
Asa Forbes,
John Green,
Dan Howard,
Jonathan Stearns,
Eliphaz Steel.
Holland.
John Bishop,
Isaac Clement,
Qm. Eber Robinson,
Isaac Sargent.
Huntington.
Ebenezer Cutler,
Zebediah Joslin,
John Moses,
Jonas Shattuck.
Hyde Park.
John Collins,
John McCloud.
Ira.
Joseph Tower,
Irasburgh.
Benjamin Barton,
Amos Conant,
Benjamin Hardy.
Jamaica.
John Bradley,
Nathaniel Cheney,
195
Timothy Fisher,
Ichabod Higgins,
Joel Hill,
Bailey Rawson,
Gideon Stoddard.
Jericho.
Peter L. Allen,
Isaac Benham,
Ichabod Burnham,
Benoni Chapin,
Ichabod Chapin,
Noah Chittenden,
Simeon Davis,
Azariah Rood,
Roger Stevens,
J. I. Warner.
Johnson.
William Boyes,
Solomon Briggs,
Jonathan Burnham,
Chase,
Elisha Dodge,
Ralph Ellingwood,
David Erwin,
William Heath,
Jonathan McConnell,
Jeremiah McDaniel,
Samuel Miller,
Daniel Perkins,
Arunah Waterman.
Kirby.
Zebulon Burroughs,
Jonathan Lewis,
Asa Parker,
Stephen Watkins.
Landgrove.
David Carpenter,
Hezekiah Ward Clark,
Ephraim Hildreth,
Reuben Holt.
Leicester.
Isaac Atwood,
Benjamin Whitman.
196
THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Lincoln.
Joshua Rugg.
Londonderry.
Abraham Abbott,
David Cochran,
Bithiah Howard,
Edmund Ingalls,
Lincoln Stiles,
Jeremiah Wheeler,
Nathan Whiting.
Lowell.
Jonathan Powers.
Ludlow.
Sergt. Levi Adams,
Ephraim Dutton,
Jesse Fletcher,
Josiah Fletcher,
Josiah F. Richardson,
John Spafford,
Jesse Spaulding,
Thomas Weatherby,
Jonathan Whitcomb.
Lunenburgh.
Louis Cook,
Zuriah Marshall,
Samuel Martin,
Samuel Nash,
Timothy Nash,
Azariah Webb.
Lyndon.
John Bly,
Ozias Caswell,
Stephen Eastman,
Moses Evans,
Erastus Harvey,
Oliver Hartwell,
Sergt. Henry Hoffman,
Jacob Houghton,
Ebenezer Howland,
Jona. Locklin,
John McGaffey,
William Miles,
Rufus Moore,
Ephraim Niles,
Job Olney,
Sergt. Gaias Peck,
Nathaniel Phillips,
Elijah Ross,
Moses Root,
James Sherman,
Jonas Sprague,
Jonathan Swan.
Maidstone.
Sergt. Jacob Schoff.
Manchester.
Samuel Mitchell,
Gideon Moody,
Sergt. Eli Pettibone,
Samuel Walker.
Marlboro.
James Cutler,
Boomer Jenks,
Erastus Mather,
Phineas Mather,
John Philips,
Amos Prouty,
Jonas Whitney.
Marshfield.
Joshua Cheney,
Ebenezer Dodge,
Joseph T. Eaton,
Stephen Rich.
Mendon.
Hilkiah Grout,
Isaac Sanderson.
Middlebury.
Sergt. Ethan Andrews,
Jonathan Blin,
Alpheus Brooks,
Justus Cobb,
Samuel Cook,
James Crane,
George Griswold,
Calvin Goodno,
Robert Huxton,
Bela Manzer,
Ely Nichols,
Elijah Olmstead,
Benoni Shurtleff,
Jesse Spencer,
Seth Storrs,
Israel Wadsworth.
Middlesex.
Jeremiah Clark,
Jeremiah Leland,
Ebenezer Putnam.
Middletown Springs.
Jedediah Edgerton,
Richard Hoskins,
David Parker,
Gamaliel Waldo.
Milton.
Benjamin Adams,
John Blake,
Thomas Dewey,
Elihu Herrick,
William Hewes,
Oliver Howard,
Elisha Owen.
Monkton.
William Niles,
Lieut. Daniel Spooner,
William Spooner,
John Stearns,
Lemuel Tracy.
Montgomery.
Lieut. John Clapp,
Bliss Hoisington,
John A. Ripley,
Joshua Wade.
Montpelier.
Elias Metcalf,
John Putnam,
Edward West.
APPENDIX.
197
Morgan.
Joshua Bailey,
Nathaniel S. Clark,
James Taylor,
Nathan Wilcox.
Moretoicn.
John Burdick,-
Joshua Freeman,
Joseph Haseltine,
Amos Spalding.
Morristown.
Elisha Bugbee,
John Cole,
Michajah Dunham,
James Little,
Joshua Merrill,
Comfort Olds,
William Small,
Adam Sumner,
Sergt. Jos. E. Westgate
Thomas Youngman.
Newfane.
Jacob Allen,
Ephraim Hall,
William Hills,
William King,
Nathan Knowlton,
Zebediah Marsh,
Marshall Newton.
Neio Haven.
John Conant,
John Coon,
Elisha Fuller,
Ephraim Munson,
Joseph Prime,
Caleb Rich,
Simon Stickney,
Benjamin Taintor.
Newport.
Stephen Barnard,
John Jenness,
Archippus Wheeler.
Northfield.
Roswell Adams,
William Ashcroft,
Thomas Averill,
John Brown,
Aquila Jones,
Samuel Richardson,
Sergt. Joseph Daggett, Stanton Richardson,
Gideon Tabor. Eliphus Shipman.
Mount Holly.
Joel Earle.
Mount Tabor.
Newbury.
Peter Bagley,
Thomas Eastman,
David Haseltine,
Daniel Heath,
Joseph Herriman,-
Samuel Johnson,
John Mellen,
Tarrant Putnam,
John Smith,
Asa Tenney,
David Tenney,
William Tice,
Charles P. Walker.
North Hero.
Samuel Doty,
Abram Woodard.
Norwich.
Daniel Baldwin,
Nath'l Boardman, Jr.
Capt. Elijah Burton,
Henry Burton,
Jacob Burton,
Solomon Cushman,
Hezekiah Goodrich,
John Goodrich,
John Gould,
Joseph Howes,
Jerome Hutchinson,
Samuel Hutchinson,
Calvin Johnson,
Surg. Joseph Lewis,
David Lyman,
Timothy Nichols,
Daniel Nye,
Samuel Patridge,
Ebenezer Percival,
Jeremiah Percival,
Calvin Seaver,
Jonathan Spear,
Joel Stinson,
Mendwell Strong,
Joseph Tucker,
Solomon White.
Orange.
Nathaniel Bacheller,
Sgt. Jonathan Conant,
Samuel Judkins,
Samuel Richardson.
Omcell.
Jonathan Belden,
Thomas Eggleston,
Ira Kilbourn,
Billy Monger,
Capt. James Noble,
Sampson Spaulding.
Pawlet.
David Comstock,
Eldad Curtis,
Phineas Meigs,
Moses Porter,
Jacob Sacks,
Nathan Spalding. -w_
Panton.
Rupee Bacheller,
Dan Smith,
William Shepherd.
Peacham.
Abijah Bailey,
James Bailey,
Hastings Blanchard,
198
THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Henry Blake,
Wells Burbank,
Abiel Chamberlain,
Col. John Chandler,
Edward Clark,
Samuel Davis,
Jonathan Elkins,
Judson Farrar,
Capt. Nathan Hurd,
Joab Kimball,
Ashbel Martin,
David Martin,
James Miner,
Lemuel Northrop,
John Skeele,
Ebenezer Spencer,
Simeon Walker.
Peru.
Benjamin Barnard,
Luther Barnard,
Aaron Dewey,
Peter Gould.
Pittsfield.
Josiah Babcock,
Sergt. Pennel Child,
Joseph Durkee,
Elijah Segar.
Pittsford.
Robert Andrews,
Davi Hall,
Thomas Hammond,
Amos Harwood,
Amos Lawrence,
Ezekiel Longley,
Dennis Miller,
Zebulon Pond,
Peter Powers,
Jeremiah Rann,
James Walker,
Rufus Wheeden,
Phineas Whitney,
Joel Willis,
Oliver Wolcott.
Plainfield.
Isaac Vincent.
Plymouth.
Samuel G. Allen,
Robert Bishop,
Sergt. Daniel Clark,
John Coolidge,
Henry Fletcher,
Benjamin Green,
John Mudge,
Caleb Snow.
Pomfret.
Elnathan Allen,
James Burnham,
Josiah Chandler,
John Cheadle,
William Child,
John W. Dana,
Eliphalet Fales,
Oliver Goff,
Timothy Harding,
Elijah Hoar,
Seth Hodges,
Elijah Mason,
Reuben D. Massey,
Matthew Miller,
Thomas Nocnan,
Lieut. Ephraim Peake,
Abidah Smith,
John O. Thacher,
Isaiah Tinkham,
William Whitman,
Ebenezer Winslow.
Pownal.
John Downer,
Louis Dunham,
Obadiah Dunham,
Benjamin Grover,
Moses Hastings,
Zaccheus Hovey,
David Jepson,
John Magoon,
Benjamin Morgan,
Capt. Eli Noble,
John Noble,
Josiah Noble,
William Ray,
John Sherman,
Joseph Thorp.
Poultney.
Samuel Adams,
Azariah Dewey,
John Herrick,
Henry Hyde.
Abraham Kilboume.
James Powers,
William Ward.
Putney.
Lieut. John Gates,
Benjamin Read,
Timothy UnderwoccL
Joseph Winslow.
Randolph.
Simeon Belknap,
Moses Bragg,
David Carpenter,
Jonathan Carpenter.
Jesse Cogswell,
John Cogswell,
Alvin Edson,
Sergt. Josiah Edson.
Isaac Grow,
John Hobart,
Joseph Morton.
Capt. Samuel Paine,
Moses Pearsons,
Samuel Steele,
Chancy L. Temple,
Nathaniel Throop,
Abner Weston,
Horace Wheeler,
Jonathan Wills.
Reading.
David Burnham,
Timothy Fullam,
Jonathan Jones,
William Morison,
Stephen Rice,
Thomas Townsend.
Readsooro.
Archilous Dean,
Ezra Keyes,
Ebenezer Stearns.
APPENDIX.
199
Richford.
Daniel Jones,
Gideon Wood.
Richmond.
Oliver Cutler,
Sergt. John Devereaux,
William Humphrey,
Daniel Robbins,
Bigford Spooner.
Rochester.
Thomas Bailey,
Josiah Chandler,
Timothy Clark,
David Clough,
Sergt. Enoch Emerson,
John McAllister,
Seth Tinkham,
Sergt. Retire Trask,
John Young.
Rockingham.
Philip Adams,
Benjamin Burt,
Charles Church,
Ebenezer Clark,
Nathaniel Clark,
Timothy Clark,
John Dudley,
John Fish,
Benjamin Gould,
Jacob Gould,
Ebenezer McAlvin,
Jonathan Morison,
Joseph Muzzy,
John Stearns,
Jonathan Stearns,
Sergt. William Stearns
William Stearns, Jr.,
Abraham Tuttle,
Joshua Webb,
John White,
Nathan Wooley.
Roxbury.
Dr. David McClure,
Darius Spaulding,
Silas Spaulding.
Royalton.
David Ames,
Matthew Atherton,
Lyman Bache,
Stephen Backus,
John Billings,
Richard Bloss,
Lieut. Benj. Bosworth,
Samuel Cleveland,
Squier Cleveland,
Benjamin Cole,
Darius Dewey,
Ebenezer Dewey,
John Hutchinson,
Daniel Lovejoy,
Samuel Metcalf,
Benjamin Parkhurst,
Willard Pierce,
Isaac Pinney,
Daniel Rix,
Jeremiah Rust,
Isaac Skinner,
Elias Stevens,
Samuel Stewart,
Daniel Sumner,
Zachariah Waldrow,
Abraham Waterman,
Sergt. Wm. Waterman,
Silas Williams.
Rupert.
John Blanchard,
Isaac Clapp,
Levi Doane,
Enoch Eastman,
Israel Hayes,
John Parker,
Moses Sheldon,
Enoch Sherman,
Ashbel Sykes,
Harry Sykes,
Joel Taylor,
Daniel Warner.
Rutland.
Sgt. Tim'y Boardman,
Agel Cone,
Thaddeus Dunklee,
Moses Head,
John Johnson,
Nathan M.Loundsberry,
Nathan Osgood,
Sergt. Simeon Post,
Maj. Israel Smith,
Roswell Staples,
Artemas Tatt,
Daniel Williams.
Ryegate.
Wells Goodwin,
Samuel Johnson,
Sylvanus Learned,
Allen Stewart.
Salisbury.
Stephen Rice.
Sandgate.
Abel Buck,
Asa Cogswell,
John Cogswell,
Adam Hurd,
John Wyman.
Shaftsoury.
Hezekiah Carey,
Aaron Denio,
Capt. Cyprian Downer,
John Fuller,
Giles Olin,
John Olin,
James Sweet,
Abiathar Waldo,
Prosper Wheeler.
Sharon.
Joel Barrett,
James Carpenter,
Ebenezer Currier,
Seth Hart,
Nathan Hitchcock,
Asahel Holt,
Benjamin Metcalf,
Oliver Sexton.
Reuben Spaulding,
Nicholas C. Wells.
200
THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Shelburne.
Phineas Hill,
Samuel Mills.
Sheldon.
Ebenezer Chamberlain,
Capt. Barth. Durkee,
Elim Gilbert,
Uriah Higgins,
Ruel Keith,
Joseph Lamb,
Josiah Peckham,
Ebonezer Stebbins.
Sherbtirne.
Joseph Adams,
Sergt. Amasa Fuller.
Shoreham.
Eliakim Culver,
Joel Doolittle,
Elisha Kellogg,
Stephen King,
Jonas Newton,
Lieut. John Smith,
Samuel Sunderland,
William Watson,
Jonathan Wilson.
Shrewsbury.
Jeffrey A. Barney,
Abram Eaton.
Somerset.
Elijah Morse.
South Hero.
Ephraim Holland.
Springfield.
Col. John Barrett,
Josiah Belknap,
Capt. Abner Bisbee,
John Bisbee,
William Bragg,
Elisha Brown,
Nathaniel Burgess,
Moses Chase,
Samuel Damon,
Stephen Dyer,
Samuel Dyke,
Joseph Ellis,
Oliver Fairbanks,
William Griffith,
Daniel Griswold,
John Griswold,
Levi Harlow,
Joseph Hulett,
Ephraim Lewis,
Jonathan Luke,
Lieut. Isaac Parker,
Silas Parker,
Jonas Pierce,
Sergt. Asahel Powers,
Jacob Sartwell,
Oliver Sartwell,
Samuel Shattuck,
Simeon Spencer,
Taylor Spencer,
Simon Stevens,
Moses Stickney,
David Stinson,
Isaac Tower,
Jed Ward,
Lemuel Whitney.
St. Albans.
Azariah Brooks,
Eleazer Brooks,
John Delaway,
Jehiel Holdridge,
John Mitchell,
David Powers,
Qm. Silas Robinson,
Jeremiah Virginia,
Solomon Walbridge.
Stamford.
Ira Hill,
Elisha Raymond.
Starksboro.
Abraham Hall,
Hebard Morrill,
Elisha Norton,
Ezekiel Pease.
St. George.
Joseph Doane.
St. Johnsbury.
Samuel Clark,
Jed'ediah Coe,
Comfort Healey,
Oliver Phelps,
Reuben Spaulding,
Isaac Stowell.
Stockbridge.
Stukely Angell,
John Durkee,
Sergt. Elias Keyes.,
Jonathan Norris,
Walter Pollard,
Daniel Ranney.
Stowe.
Adam Alden.
Joseph Bennett,
Joseph Churchill,
Aaron Clough,
Nehemiah Doane,
Daniel Fuller,
Asa Kimball,
Abraham Moses,
William Pettengill,
Lieut. Martin Pitkin,
Asa Poland,
Noah Robinson,
Paul Sanborn,
Lieut. David Thomas,
Moses Thompson,
Elisha Town,
James Town.
Strafford.
Jethro Batchelder,
Nathan Cobb,
Edward Filch,
Nathaniel Morrill,
Aaron Pennock,
Benjamin Preston,
John Reynolds.
Stratton.
Jonathan M. Bissell,
Amos Parsons.
APPENDIX.
201
Sudbury.
Jesse Tenney.
Sunderland.
Capt. Lemuel Bradley,
John Rowen.
Swanton.
Peter Barsha,
John Pratt.
Thetford.
Bethuel Bryant,
Asa Corser,
Reuben Dickinson,
Jeremiah Dodge,
Azriah Faxon,
James Lock,
Beriah Loomis,
Bethuel Newcomb,
Leonard Robinson.
Tinmouth.
Isaac Libby,
Edmund Luens,
Col. Isaac Putnam,
Thomas Rogers,
David Spafford,
Orange Train.
Townshend.
George Austin,
Eleazer Cobleigh,
Bagalee Frost,
Sergt. Amos Gray,
Capt. John Livingston,
Thomas Lowe,
Jonathan Shattuck.
Troy.
Cyrus Allen.
Tunbridge.
Benjamin Adams,
William Ballou,
Jonathan Foster,
13
Daniel Hackett,
Enoch Hoyt,
Joseph Hoyt,
Ichabod King,
Nathan Noyes,
John Selly,
William White,
William Wright.
Underhill.
Samuel Calhoun,
Asa Rider,
Josiah Sheldon.
Vergennes.
Noah James,
David Tyler.
Vernon.
Jabez Clark,
Benjamin Lee,
Jesse Lee,
Elijah Stebbins.
Vershire.
Moses Bartholomew,
Samuel Comstock,
Enos Flanders,
Lemuel Southwick.
Waitsfield.
Samuel Barnard,
Abijah Brown,
Moses Chase,
Caleb Colton,
Thomas Green,
Joseph Hamilton,
Ezekiel Hawley,
Lieut. John Heaton,
Jesse Mix,
William Newcomb,
Joseph Osgood,
Jonathan Palmer,
Bissell Phelps,
Samuel Pike,
Lemuel Richardson,
Phineas Rider,
Salma Rider,
Amasa Skinner,
Jared Skinner,
Salah Smith,
Daniel Taylor,
Elias Taylor,
Ezra Wait,
Jeduthun Wait,
William Wait.
Walden.
Nathan Barker,
Elisha Cate,
Benjamin Dow,
Nathaniel Dow,
Nathaniel Perkins,
Timothy Shurtleff.
WaUingford.
Asa Anderson,
Philbrook Barrows,
Eli Calkin,
Sgt. Nathan Dennison;
Cyrenius Dewey,
Jerathunel Doty,
Andrew Hewitt,
Nathaniel Keyes,
Philip White.
Waltham.
John Preston.
Wardsboro.
Elisha Allen,
Pearley Fairbanks,
Sergt. Silas Gates,
Daniel Harris,
Sergt. Rufus Harvey,
Abner Lewis,
Ebenezer Pierce,
Aaron Rawson,
Thomas Simpson,
Warren.
William Chase.
Water ford.
John Chaplin,
Samuel Hill,
Moses Huntley,
202
THE VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
John Melendy,
Thaddeus Potter.
Waterville.
Daniel Morse.
Weathersfield.
Jewett Boynton,
Col. John Boynton,
Isaac Brown,
Oliver Chamberlin,
John Chase,
Asa Grout,
John Haskill,
Samuel Holmes,
Abner Jackman,
Caleb Litchfield,
John Mallord,
William Nichols,
Moses Peabody,
Thomas Prentiss,
Stephen Reed,
Col. Elijah Robinson,
Clark Toles,
Benjamin Worcester.
Wells.
Ebenezer Butts,
Andrew Clerk,
Roswell Clark,
Stephen Clark,
John Davis,
Jonathan Francis,
Nathan Francis,
Rufus Glass,
Daniel Goodsell,
Samuel Goss,
Joshua Howe,
Samuel S. Merriam,
Hallowell Merrills,
James Paul,
Gould Stiles,
Jason Tyler.
West Fairlee.
Cephas Child,
Samuel Morison,
William Morris,
Maj. John Simpson.
Westfield.
Medad Hitchcock,
Benjamin Stebbins,
Bethuel Stebbins,
Westford.
Thomas Atwood,
Sylvester Crandal,
Isaac Gale,
Jesse Ide,
David Sawyer.
West Haven.
Sergt. Isaac Cutler,
Augustus Pease.
Westminster.
Hezekiah Abby,
Samuel Adams,
Silas Burk,
Simeon Burk,
Barnabas Clark,
Scatto Clark,
Joshua Cone,
Samuel Cone,
Josiah Eaton,
Maverick Eaton,
Elisha Johnson,
Reuben Lippenwill,
Jabez Paine,
John Priest,
Elijah Eanney,
Thomas Ranney,
William Ranney,
Amaziah Richmond.
Weston.
Jeremiah Blanchard,
Henry Hall,
Nicholas Lawrence,
William Lee,
Gideon Pease,
Thomas Piper,
Samuel Proctor,
Ezra Ritter.
West Windsor.
Abel Adams,
Isaac Adams,
Lieut. Sam'l Myrick,
Jerome Sawin,
Joseph Wakefield,
Asa Worcester.
i
Weyoridge.
Samuel Clark,
Thomas Dickinson,
Benjamin Hagar,
John Halsey,
Pliny Stannard.
Wheelock.
Abner Hoyt,
Edward Magoon,
Nehemiah Phillips.
Whiting.
Gershom Justin,
Whitingham.
Nathan Green,
David Jillson,
Samuel Parker,
Stephen Putnam.
Williamstown.
Samuel Adams,
Asa Hatch,
Elijah Whitney.
Williston.
Joseph Blish,
Ebenezer Bradley,
Martin Chittenden,
Zachariah Hart,
Lenard Hodges,
Daniel Isham,
Stephen Randall,
Parce Stearns.
Wilmington.
Calvin Bill,
Henry Chandler,
Barnabas Cushman,
Ezra Mudge,
Calvin P. Perry,
Daniel Rice,
Col. Wm. Williams, t
APPENDIX.
203
Windham.
Edward Aiken,
Nathaniel Aiken,
Peter Aiken,
William Ellis,
John Gould,
David Howard,
Samuel Howard,
Neil Noyes,
Benjamin Pierce,
James Smith,
James White,
Abiel Whitman.
Windsor.
Israel Aiken,
John Blood,
Briant Brown,
Solomon Burk,
Nathaniel Cobb,
Nathan Coolidge,
Sergt. Thomas Cray,
Oliver Diggins,
Abel Fling,
William Gilkey,
Isaac Green,
Jonathan Hall,
Houghton,
William Hunter,
Stephen Jacob,
Reuben McAlister,
David Morison,
Oliver Osgood,
Simeon Pomeroy,
Rufus Root,
Andrew Spalding,
Alden Spooner,
Dr. Thomas Stearns,
Henry Stevens,
Samuel Stickney,
Nahum Trask,
Joseph Willis.
Winhall.
Daniel Benson.
Wolcott.
Jabez Newland.
Woodford.
Elkanah Danforth,
Ebenezer Temple.
Woodstock.
Jabez Bennett,
William Bennett,
Sergt. Jacob Bevins,
Moses Bradley,
Ephraim Brewster,
Lieut. Col. Ebenezer
Bridge,
Joel Burbank,
John M. Call,
Barnabas Caswell,
Binney Cobb,
Sergt. William Cone,
Nathan Cook,
Timothy Cox,
Noah Crocker,
Standish Day,
Asahel Doubleday,
Josiah Dunham,
Simeon Dunham,
Samuel Dutton,
Sergt. Ephraim Eddy,
James Emerson,
Jonathan Farnsworth,
Arunah Fullerton,
Benjamin Green,
Zebedee Hackett,
Edmund Harvey,
James Howland,
Abraham Kendall,
Isaac Kendall,
Jacob Kendall,
Timothy Knox,
William Labaree,
George Lake,
Jonathan Lake,
Elisha Lord,
Frederick Mather,
William McCloy,
Joshua Nye,
Gershom Palmer,
Oliver Palmer,
Capt. Wm. Perkins,
William Perry,
Phineas Powers,
Stephen Powers,
William Powers,
John Ransom,
Lt. Richard Ransom,
William Raymond,
Jason Richardson,
Lysander Richardson,
Henry Roby,
Elijah Royce,
Joseph Safford,
Philemon Samson,
George Sampson,
Sylvanus Shaw,
Samuel Slayton,
Stephen Smith,
Abram Snow,
Gardner Spooner,
Andrew Thomas,
Seth Washman,
Benuel Williams,
Jesse Williams,
Phineas Williams,
Roger Williams,
Eleazer Wood,
Joseph Wood.
INDEX.
Active Members, 1906-7 10-16
Address, Hon. Wendell Phillips Stafford 49-85
Annual Meeting, 1905 25
Annual Meeting, 1906 29
Adjourned Meeting, Nov., 1906 29
An act to provide for cataloguing the Library of the Vermont
Historical Society 5
B.
Ballard, Hon. Henry, sketch of 34
Benedict, G. G., President's Address 43
Benedict, George Grenville, sketch of 159
Burnap, Wilder Luke, sketch of 37
By-Laws 19-24
C.
Constitution 18-19
Corresponding Members 16
D.
Dewey, Charles, sketch of 38
• E.
Election of Officers, 1905 27
Election of Officers, 1906 33
H.
Honorary Members 17
J.
Joint Resolution of General Assembly 4
K.
Kelton, Dwight H., sketch of 39
N.
New Members, 1906 187
0.
Officers, 1905-6 27
Officers, 1906-7 9-10, 188
P.
Perkins, George Henry, Ph. D., paper by 87
Prehistoric Vermont, paper on 87
R.
Report of Managers, 1905 26
Report of Managers, 1906 178
Reports of Treasurer 24, 184
Revolutionary Soldiers Buried in Vermont 189
Ropes, Arthur, sketch of 41
S.
Standing Committees 28,32
Stevens, Thaddeus, address on ,49
W.
Whltelaw, Gen'l James, Life of 103
Whitelaw, Gen'l James, Journal of 119
3014