The History of Stratton, Vermont To the End of the Twentieth Century DK YOUNG © Copyright 2001 Town of Stratton, Vermont 9 West Jamaica Rd. Stratton, Vermont 05360 All rights reserved. In Memory This work is dedicated to the memory of Ethel Ann Eddy a past advocate of Stratton’s local history. If not for her, many of the stories, memories and photographs of old Stratton perhaps would have been lost forever. Ethel Eddy 1886 - 1969 Contents Prologue Page 1 Section I Prelude to a Town 3 Chapter I Before the British 3 Chapter II Making the World England 7 Chapter III Stratton – A Town Conceived 13 Chapter IV Putting Stratton in Context 39 Section II Stratton’s Many Facets 53 Chapter V The Propriety (1781-1795) 53 Chapter VI Forging the Mold 71 Chapter VII Infrastructure 79 Chapter VIII Local Government and Politics 113 Chapter IX Stratton’s Schools 183 Chapter X Cemeteries 199 Chapter XI The Businesses of Stratton 205 Chapter XII Military and the Militia 237 Chapter XIII Religion in Stratton 247 Chapter XIV Stratton Mountain Tales, Tragedies, and Titillating Tidbits 271 Chapter XV Back to Nature 289 Section III Land and Property 313 Chapter XVI The Geography of Stratton 313 Chapter XVII Ranges, Lots, Gores and More 319 Chapter XVIII Cemetery Listings 429 Epilogue 441 Appendices Appendix A Old Maps of Stratton 443 Appendix B Stratton’s New Hampshire Grant 461 Appendix C STRATTON – A Confirmatory Patent 465 Appendix D The Censuses of Stratton (1791 - 1920) 473 Bibliography 483 Indexes Index to Personal Names 487 Index to Subjects 509 v Illustrations A Large Gathering at the Stratton Meetinghouse in 1931 Cover Portrait of Ethel Eddy Page iii Stratton Mountain’s North Face 2 Portrait of Benning Wentworth 8 Portrait of William Brattle 13 Portrait of Edmund Fanning 33 Sheep in Pasture 45 Lot / Range Grid Map of Stratton Vermont 60 The Old Road Sign beside the Meetinghouse 78 The Proprietors’ Roads (1782 – 1788) 86 The First Town Roads (1788 – 1800) 90 Town Roads – Phase Two: 1800 to 1830 95 A Stratton Turnpike Shareholder’s Certificate 97 J. W. Kelley and wife 99 The Kelley Stand Hotel 99 Stratton’s Snow Roller 100 Traffic Along the Kelley Stand Rd. 100 Town Roads – Phase Three: 1830 to 1960 103 The Old Pike Hollow Brook Bridge 105 Roads Within the Somerset Annex 106 A Picnic at the old Grout Job 111 Posting the Warning – the 1962 Town Meeting 112 Ruins of the Wyman Hotel 133 The 1898 Town House 133 Town Meeting 1962 134 Construction of Stratton’s Town Hall (various) 135 Stratton’s Town Office 136 Portrait of Daniel Webster 158 Daniel Webster Addressing the Crowd at Stratton 162 The 1901 Log Cabin Celebration Invitation 170 The Log Cabin Replica 1901 171 The original Webster Memorial 172 The Webster Memorial Dedication Ceremony (various) 173 Daniel Webster Day Ceremony – 1940 174 Daniel Webster Day Ceremony – 1960 178 Stratton’s Old Post Office (2) 181 Schoolhouse #5 students – 1898 182 Schoolhouse #2 193 Schoolhouse #5 – original location 195 Schoolhouse #5 being moved in 1972 195 Schoolhouse #6 (2) 196 The Gravestone of Dysa Hill 198 vii viii The Millstones of Batchellor’s Mills (various) 210 Remains of Batchellor’s Mill Dam Foundation 211 The Lyman Mill (2) 213 Millpond of the AH Pike Sawmill 214 The EA Eddy Sawmill 214 Joel F. Grout 216 The Grout Job – Mill Interior 217 The Grout Job (2) 218 The Boardinghouse at the Grout Job 219 A Logging Crew at the Grout Job 219 The Upper Tudor Mill 221 Remains of the Upper Tudor Mill dam 221 Millworkers at the Upper Tudor Mill 222 Lumbermen Employed by the Tudors 222 The Dufresne Job (2) 224 The Martin and Fitts Lime and Cement Co. 228 Sugaring on the Eddy Farm 229 Business Sign of Dr. Ralph Parsons 230 Somerset Dam Construction (various) 232 - 234 The Stratton Mountain Ski Resort 235 Civil War Soldiers of the 6th Vermont Regiment – Orrin and James Johnson 236 Lyman B. Pike and wife 239 Pitman Knapp 239 The Union Church – 1949 246 Rev. OH Palmer and his wife 257 The Free-Will Baptist Parsonage 257 A Probable Likeness of Stratton’s First Meetinghouse 259 The Union Church 261 The Mystery Bell 264 A Gathering at the Stratton Meetinghouse 267 The Stratton Meetinghouse (2) 269 Snow-laden Evergreens along an Old Road 270 Rebecca Blake “The Smiling Child” 274 Harrison Gray Blake 274 Theodocia Grout 275 Lyman Knapp 287 EG Marshall at his camp in Stratton 288 The Stratton Mountain Club’s First Trail-Building Crew 294 Stratton Mountain Club Membership Card 300 Stratton Mountain Club 1916 Old Home Day Invitation 300 The Stratton Fire Tower Dedication Invitation 301 Scenes from the Stratton Fire Tower Dedication Ceremony (various) 301 - 303 Manicknung Cabin – Porcupine Lodge (various) 304 - 305 ix An Old Area Trail Map 306 The 1914 Fire Tower 311 The 1914 and 1934 Fire Towers in 1935 311 The 1928 Fire-Spotter’s Cabin 311 Stratton’s 1934 Fire Tower in more recent years 311 A Distant View of Stratton Mountain from the South 313 Stratton Pond circa 1900 315 Hudson Grout 316 Grout Pond 316 A Crew on its way to Stock Stratton Pond with Trout 316 Ernest Pike in the Pothole 317 A Distant View of Old Farms North of the Stratton Meetinghouse 319 A View of Stratton Mountain from the Southeast 320 The Babcock House on 1L1R 322 The Ralph Pike House – 264 Stratton-Arlington Rd. (2) 323 The Pike Farm circa 1923 324 The Phineas Ward Eddy place – now 399 Stratton-Arlington Rd. 325 The Lawrence Denker House 326 The Roderick Forrester Farm 327 618 Stratton-Arlington Rd. 334 Stratton’s Union Church 340 The Parsonage circa 1948 341 685 Stratton-Arlington Rd. 341 A Far Off View of the Old Wyman Farm 342 761 Stratton-Arlington Rd. – the Old Town House in 1999 343 Grout Pond circa 1950 346 The Caretaker’s Cabin at Grout Pond 347 A Grout Family Reunion at the Joel Grout Farm 358 The Grout Job 368 Mrs. OH Palmer and child at the Leander Allen Farm 374 The Douglas Forrester Family at the Leander Allen Farm 374 The Henry Forrester Farm 378 A 480 Pound Bear 384 George and Lettie Hurd at Home – 167 County Rd. 385 The Brazer’s House on Pikes Falls Rd. 389 The Brazer’s House on Pikes Falls Rd. 390 The Collie Camp – now seen as 8 North Rd. 393 One of the Hurd children herding cattle along Pikes Falls Rd. 394 The Golf School – 414 Pikes Falls Rd. 394 Dwelling of the Harold Field Family circa 1947 396 99 Willis Cemetery Rd. 402 A Distant View of the Farm of William Henry Eddy 403 The Lyman Farmhouse – now 218 Penny Ave. 406 The Barnyard at the Lyman Farm 406 Swimmers in the Lyman Millpond 407 x A View of the West End of Pike Hollow 410 241 Pike Hollow Rd. – the Pike Farm circa 1900 410 Wilma Pike in the backyard of the Pike Farm circa 1903 411 Calves on the Abel Pike Farm 411 Hannah Prentiss beside the first house built by AH Pike 412 An Early Photograph of 182 Pike Hollow Rd. 413 The AH Pike Farm – now 171 Pike Hollow Rd. (2) 414 Ethel Eddy on a bridge over the millrun of the AH Pike Sawmill 415 Ruins of the AH Pike Sawmill Dam 415 A Mowing in Pike Hollow 416 EA Eddy on his Farm 416 EA Eddy on his Farm 417 A Waterfall on the EA Eddy Farm 417 EA Eddy’s Steam-Driven Sawmill (2) 418 The Millworkers’ house built on the site of 192 Pike Hollow Rd. 419 A Distant View of the Goodale and Eddy camps in Pike Hollow 420 AH Pike’s third home – now 122 Pike Hollow Rd. (2) 421 Schoolhouse #6 423 The Estabrook Farm 424 The Johnson Farm (2) 425 Eddy Cemetery 434 Pike Hollow Cemetery 436 Willis Cemetery 438 Appendix A Stratton within James Whitelaw’s Map of Vermont – 1796 443 Sections of McClellan’s Map of 1856 – Stratton 444 - 447 Sections of Beers’ Atlas of 1869 – Stratton 448 - 451 Sections of a Map of Stratton Circa 1900 452 - 453 Prologue On the North American Continent, in the northern reaches of the Appalachians, and along a range known as the Green Mountains, stands a mountain nearly 4000 feet in height. It is the highest point of land in the southern third of the State of Vermont, located midway between the state’s eastern and western borders. The Mahicans, who once dwelled south and west of this area, called this mountain Manicknung - “Place where the Mountain heaps up,” an apt description from their perspective, since the mountains appear as one long ridge from the southwest, with Manicknung gently sloping upward to a height above its neighbors. On July 30, 1761, Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire issued a charter to Isaac Searl of West Hoosac, Massachusetts and sixty-two others for a township of thirty-six square miles, located east of the newly formed township of Sunderland in colonial territory claimed for the British Crown under the jurisdiction of New Hampshire. This charter included, and is dominated by, that same great elevation of land called Manicknung. The Governor christened this new township “Stratton.” Hence, it was upon this date that the town of Stratton was conceived and it was upon this charter that the modern township of Stratton, Vermont was founded. The story of Manicknung before 1761 remains for the most part a mystery.