Cavendish, Vermont Historic Timeline 1754-2018 Updated: January 3, 2019 elevation in southeastern Cavendish, now There is archeological evidence of human called Hawks Mountain. Soldiers traveling occupation at Jackson Gore in Ludlow that along this section of the road soon dates back 11,000 years, shortly after the ice complained of its roughness. Another route age ended. Judging from the tools bypassing Hawks Mountain was laid out uncovered, these hunter/gatherers were during the next spring. An encampment highly skilled craftsmen whose travels were twenty miles from Charlestown on the road far and included trading with other groups, gave the tributary of the Black River its as a high percentage of the stone used for present name Twenty Mile Stream. The the tools came from Maine. Cavendish Crown Point Rd had originally been an would have had Indians traveling through Indian trail. the area via the Black River and/or what became known as the Crown Point Rd. The 1761: Cavendish Charter signed by King Paleo-Indians would have stopped to fish George III of England on Oct. 12. The area and hunt game depending on the time of of land includes what is today, Cavendish year, and may have spent days or weeks and Proctorsville villages and Baltimore, here depending on whether food was VT. plentiful. They traveled hundreds of miles each year. 1769: John and Susanna Coffeen and their children are the first European settlers in Tools used about 5,000-7,000 years ago, Cavendish. Their home was located on the called the Archaic period, have been found Cavendish Reading Road, close to Brook in Cavendish fields, indicating there might Road. Not long after Coffeen settled in have been an “upland” Indian settlement Cavendish, he and his wife set out for away from the river. Charlestown, NH for supplies and grinding their grist. Due to a snow storm, the parents 1754: Just after the outbreak of the French did not return for six weeks. During this and Indian War, an Abenaki Indian raid on time, one of the Coffeen children became ill Charlestown, NH, Susannah Willard and died. The other children kept the body Johnson is captured with her family and in the house until the parents return, at marched to Saint-Francois-du-Lac, Quebec. which time, due to heavy snow, the body Being nine months pregnant, she gave birth was buried across the road from the house. to Elizabeth Captive Johnson in what is Coffeen decided that this would be the today Cavendish. The marker of this event family’s cemetery. Coffeens, Baldwins and appears in Reading, VT. at least four Revolutionary soldiers are buried there. 1759: Crown Point Road is built by the British, linking Fort Number 4 in 1775-1783: American Revolutionary War. Charlestown, NH to Fort Crown Point on In a new settlement like Cavendish, one of Lake Champlain. Major John Hawks and the first order of business would be to 250 rangers cleared a roughhewn road establish a militia for self-defense. Every through the forest. A path was cut across the able-bodied man would be a member, with one elected as Captain. These groups were • Coffeen was chosen to represent Vermont also called “training bands.” John Coffeen at the Windsor Convention to form a was captain of the first Cavendish Militia Constitution for the new State of Vermont in and during the Revolution was at the head of June of that year. a troop of Rangers. 1778: The earliest burial in town was that of When the Revolution came, these military Henry Proctor in the Old Revolutionary companies were called into action. Oliver Cemetery, located off of Brook Rd in Tarbell was captain of one of the “train Cavendish. The 1760 Crown Point Road bands” and the company met at the Tarbell passes to the right (north) of this cemetery. farm. In addition there were “alarm-lists,” which enumerated all the men between 14 1781: Salmon Dutton moved to Cavendish and 65 years of age, who were liable to be from Massachusetts. Dutton worked as a called upon in an emergency. Up until 1847, road surveyor, a justice of the peace, and the all able-bodied men between 18 and 45 treasurer of the town of Cavendish. His years of age, by law, were enrolled in the home was located on the Cavendish Green, militia and were required to do military and is now located at the Shelburne duty. Every man was required to keep arms Museum. He is buried in the Cavendish and equipment as needed for actual service, Village Cemetery on High Street. and for so doing, his poll was exempt from taxation. 1782: Capt. Leonard Proctor, a Revolutionary War veteran, moved his Susanna Coffeen was the only woman to family to Vermont. With his two sons (Jabez remain in Cavendish through the entire and John) he built a “shunpike” to the Revolutionary War period. village of Gassetts in nearby Chester to avoid paying the tolls of the Green 1777: Capt. Coffeen’s grain and grass fields, Mountain Turnpike. Salmon Dutton, helped as well as fledgling young orchard, were to build the Green Mountain Turnpike, destroyed when 300 New England troops which ran from Bellows Falls to Rutland, were stationed on his farm, while working bringing Boston coaches north up the on the Crown Point Road. Later in the year, Duttonsville Gulf to the village and then after the surrender of Crown Point and west along the present RT 131 (Main Street) Ticonderoga, militia, whose terms had through Proctorsville. The “shunpike” being expired or where discharged for misconduct, toll free resulted in North bound traffic from again encamped at Coffeen’s as they made Boston coming directly to Proctorsville and their way home. The tavern house, which bypassing Duttonsville. Coffeen had established, was immediately filled to overflowing. Those who could not Because of the road, the Dutton and Proctor get lodging inside, built fires with the boards families, as well as the villages of that Capt. Coffeen had procured for building Duttonsville and Proctorsville, feuded for 75 a large barn and house. They stripped his years. Proctor is buried in the Proctor home of nearly everything it contained and Cemetery off of Main Street in Proctorsville. the turned their horses into his grain. They • There were 35 “freeman” and their justified their actions by declaring that the families living in Cavendish enemy would do it themselves within 48 hours. Capt. Coffeen sent his family to 1784: The first saw and grist mill were relatives in Rindge, NH. For the remainder established in Cavendish on what is now of the summer, his house became a camp for known as Atherton Mill (Carlton Road). the vagrant soldiery, several of whom died under his roof. 1787: First physician in Cavendish, Asaph School (closed 1955); and Fittonsville Fletcher, settled near Proctorsville. School (Spring Mill). The town now has one school Cavendish Town Elementary School, 1790: Cavendish population 491 for grades K-6, located in Proctorsville on First burial in the Cavendish Village what was once the Proctorsville School site. cemetery on High Street. The land originally Middle school and high school students belonged to Salmon Dutton, but the town attend Green Mountain Union High School bought the land from several local people. in Chester. 1791: Vermont becomes the 14th state on 1800: Cavendish population 920 March 4. 1810: Cavendish population 1,295 1792: The Cavendish Academy (corner of High Street and Main Street Cavendish) 1811-1815: Spotted fever epidemic. Many was incorporated as the first Academy to be of the early settlers died, particularly the chartered in the State of Vermont. The first young and the old. The Pesthouse Cemetery, Academy school was kept in Salmon Dutton located on the upper end of Town-Farm Jr’s tavern building until 1812, when a two- Road was a place to bury those who died storied building was erected. In 1833, there from contagious disease such as small pox. were 70 students enrolled. The Academy The only marker in this cemetery is for was given up in 1853 and the building was Jotham Wheelock b 8-26-1763 d 4-27-1831. converted to a store. Today it houses RDB Marketing. 1805: The Mount Union, Center Road Cemetery, had its first burial. The land was 1793: Samuel Hutchinson Sr, who gave the obtained from several local citizens. land for The Twenty Mile Stream Cemetery in Proctorsville, buried the first person there, 1816: First burial in the Proctor Cemetery, his wife Abigail. which is located off of Main Street, in Proctorsville. The land was donated by the 1793: The Southeastern corner of Proctors and contains the graves of this Cavendish, containing about 3,000 acres of family. land, was incorporated separately into a new township , Baltimore. 1820: Cavendish population 1,551 people 1795: Cavendish. Center Road School on 1824 There were in the town a meeting- the corner of Town Farm Road and Center house, an academy, eleven school districts, Road adjacent to the Center Road Cemetery. nine school-houses, eight saw-mills, three From 1795 to present day, there have been grist-mills, four fulling-mills, three carding 13 public schools in Cavendish. Students machines, two woolen factories, one nail were assigned to the school closest to where factory, three tanneries, two distilleries, one they lived. In addition to Center Rd school, tinware and stove factory, one hat factory, which was closed in 1955, schools included: three stores and three taverns. (History of Proctorsville Village School (closed 1959); Windsor County, Vermont by Lewis C. Aldrich Duttonsville (closed 1972); Coffeen and Frank R Holmes, 1891) (Densmore) School (burned in 1922); Hudson School (burned down in 1901); 1828: Hillcrest Cemetery, located on Bailey Stockin School (half in Weathersfield); Hill Rd in Proctorsville, had its first burial.