History of the Town of Shoreham, Vermont

NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES 3 3433 06813915 7 \^ v^t ^^ HISTORY OF THE VERMONT ™M the date of its CHARTEK, OCTOBER 8. ,. ^^^^' '^^ PKESENT TIME ' ™ ^Y REV. JOSIAH K GOODHUE, ^OG.THKK WITH . STATISTIC. A.. hiSTOKICA. ''''''' ^^' ™ co..Tr or ABB™"' BY SAMUEL SWIFT, ll. B. .;•"•,•. publish"eb'~^7^^^^,j^.. PRINTED BY MEAD & FULLER, MlDDLEBtJBT, Vt. 11678 PREFACE. Soon after the death of Gov. Silas H. Jenison, who had before been appointed to that service, the author of the followinof work was requested by the Committee of the Middlebury Historical So- ciety to write a history of the town of Shoreham. He soon becan to make mquiries and to collect materials to form into a history • but it was not until all those persons who first settled in this town were dead, with the exception of a single individual, that he en- tered upon the duties assigned him. The difficulties attending the prosecution of such an undertaking, under such circumstances, may easily be conceived, but these were aggravated by the absence of all records dating back beyond the year 1783. His only resource therefore, was to consult the only living man who had been here before the Revolution, and a few of the older inhabitants who came soon after. It was a happy circumstance that Major Noah Callender had not then passed away, whose memory, though he was then more than eighty years old. remained unimpaired. The author held fre- quent conversations with him, and noted down whatever he deemed important for the prosecution of his work, and it is with pleasure he is able to state that on no important point has he found Major Callender's statements to be erroneous, after having been subjected to the severest tests. After his death many points of inquiry came up which were not anticipated previously. If he had lived, it would doubtless have been an easier task to remove obscurities in which the early history of the town is involved, and the labor of I^'- PREFACE. writing it Avould have been lighter. In the year 1853 the' author prepared a discourse on the earlj history of the town, and deiiv- ered it to a large concourse on Thanksgiving Day of that year with a view to be corrected if he erred in any of his statements.' A copy of it was requested for the press. Instead of complying with this request at the time, the author conceived that it would contribute to a higher usefulness to enlarge the discourse and give it more the form of a regular history, such as it now assumes. Various causes contributed to delay the execution of his desicm, until the commencement of the year 1857, when his decision was adopted to remove from the State. The numerous papers contain- ing all the materials he had collected for a history, he transmitted, not long after he left the State, to persons most competent in his opmion to prepare the work. These, finding greater difficulties than had been anticipated, declined the task, and the Town, at the last March Meeting, made an appropriation to pay the ch'ar-e of writmg It, and instructed the selectmen to engage some suitable%r- son to do the work. At their request, I ventured to undertake it Had I then understood its intrinsic difficulties as I now do I should have shrunk from the attempt. The limited time, scarcely three months, which I could possibly devote to it, is one cause, doubtless of Its many imperfections. A year would scarcely suffice to do it jus- tice. Imperfect, however, as it is, the author, who has done what he could, consigns it to the charitable opinions of those who en gaged him in this difficult work. Consisting so much of details as a work of this kind necessarily must do, he fears that it will be dry and uninteresting to many, who may undertake to read it The writer has undertaken only to relate the simple story of the town s history in plain language. He has had neither the taste nor inclination to adorn any thing. He has aimed to write a history and not a romance. He has sought to give a statement of facts and nothing more. Errors may undoubtedly be discovered, but much pains have been taken to avoid them, and it is believed no" important ones will be found. Some of the Biographical Notices, particularly the briefer ones lYhen connected with the thread of the history^ are inserted in PREFACE. V the body of the work, partly to relieve the tedium of bare details but the most of them have been placed together toward the close. Other characters,doubtless as worthy as many noticed, are not mentioned, either because the author had not the materials with which to delineate them, or that there was not incident enough to render them interesting. In this part of the work, it would have been better perhaps, if the writer had confined himself within narrower limits. His only apology for the space which the biography fills, is that chiefly in this direction are the objects found adapted to ex- cite interest. The author has attempted carefully to illustrate the settlement of the town, its industrial, moral and social progress, and has done something to commemorate the early founders and pioneers of socie- ty here. However in these or other respects he may have fallen short of what is desirable, it will be seen that the undertaking was voluntarily begun, from a sense of its importance, and from a deep interest in men and things with which he had long been famil- iar. When his work was adopted by the Town, his responsibility was more clearly defined towards the liberal spirit thus manifested, in the cherishing of which he hopes what is valuable in his work may find a position of future usefulness. J. F. GOODHUE. Shoreham, August, 1859. By vote of the Town in the annual meetings, 1859, 1860, ap- propriations were made to procure the completion and publication of this History, and Messrs. Ebenczcr Bush, Isaac Chipman, Davis Rich, E. B. Chamberlin and R. Bircliard, in the latter year, were appointed a committee on the subject. In obedience to a request, the author returned from his present residence in Whitewater, Wis- consin, and devoted several weeks to the completion of the work. It has been put to press under the direction of the publishing committee. By the author's request, certain deficiencies of statistical matter have been supplied, and the examination of one or two topics has been procured, which the limited time at the author's com- mand prevented him from pursuing. VI. PREFACE. Tlte copy ©f the Charier, Extracts from the To^vn and Proprie- tors' Records, Lists of Town Officers, and various statistical items, have been furnished by the Town Clerk. The statistics supplied from the Executive Departments at Washington, were obtained through the attention of our Representative in Congress, and are properly acknowledged where they occur. Chapters XIX., XX., on Burying Grounds and the War of 1812, were supplied, by request, by Rev. Edward B. Chamberlin. The Miscellaneous De- partment in Chapters XXIII., XXIV., was extended by the addi- tioJi of several particulars and anecdotes, obtained from Joseph Smith, Esq., Isaac Chipman, Esq., and other gentlemen. The gen- eral historical data, in Chapters VII. and XIV., have also been supplied. The Note on Page 42, was given on the authority of a Manu- script Address of Rev. Joseph Steele, late of Castleton, delivered place that on page was compiled from Morr ell's Amer- in that ; 61, ican Shepherd and the American Historical Magazine for 1860-61 ; that on page 152, was obtained from'^a note of conversations with Mrs. M., one of the parties mentioned. Portraits of Gov. Jenison and Rev. Mr. Goodhue, are inserted under the direction of the committee, as a part of the expense of publication ; other illustrations are furnished by the liberality of individuals. Errors of the press, which occur, will lead, it is believed, to no serious misapprehension ; errors in names'or their orthography are intended to be corrected in the Index of Names. CONTENTS, CHAPTER I. Pagb Description and Charter of the Town, 1 CHAPTER II. Settlement of the Town under the Charter— Settlers previous to the Revolution, 6 CHAPTER III. The capture of Ticonderoga in 1775, 12 y CHAPTER IV. Settlement subsequent to the Revolution—Additional settlers previous to 1786, 18 CHAPTER V. Town organized—Improved condition—Progress of settlement from 1786 to 1800, 26 CHAPTER VI. Settlement at the Center and at Richville—Larrabee's Point—Watch Point, ... 35 CHAPTER Vir, Relation of Ticonderoga to the settlement—Escape of Hall and Kellogg—Events of the War, 39 CHAPTER VIII. Civil History—Proceedings of Proprietors' and Town Meetings, 45 CHAPTER IX. Town Officers—Population from time to time, 52 CHAPTER X. History of Agriculture—First Products—Wheat—Sheep—Horses— Cattle 57 CHAPTER XI. Merchants—Character and amount of trade, 67 CHAPTER Xn. Lawyers—Practitioners in Shoreham—Change in legal business, 71 CHAPTER XIII. Physicians and Diseases, 74 CHAPTER XIV. Political History—Town Representatives— County and State Officers—Party diviiiong, 76 —— CO^'TENTS. VII CHAPTER XV. I'rogress of Education—Schools—Teachers—Newton Academy, 81 CHAPTER XVI. Economical History—Soil—Face of the Land—Timber—Crops—Value asd quality of Lands— Census of Farm Products .... 8G CHAPTER XVII Roads—Streams—Mills—Minerals—Manufactures, 91 CHAPTER XVUI. Mails—Post Offices —Postmasters, 96 CHAPTER XIX. Burying Grounds, 08 CHAPTER XX. War of 1812—Enlisted Soldiers—Volunteers— Plattsburgh, 100 CHAPTER XXI.

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