A history of Vermont

Preface

The charm of romance surrounds the discovery, exploration, and settlement of Vermont. The early records of the state offer an exceptional field for the study of social groups placed in altogether primitive and almost isolated conditions ; while in political organization this commonwealth illustrates the development of a truly organic unity. The state was for fourteen years an independent republic, prosperous and well administered.

This book is an attempt to portray the conditions of life in this state since its discovery by white men, and to indicate what the essential features of its social, economic, and political development have been. It is an attempt, furthermore, to do this in such a way as to furnish those who are placed under legal requirement to give instruction in the history of the state an opportunity to comply with the spirit as well as with the letter of the law.

Instruction in state history rests on a perfectly sound pedagogical and historical basis. It only demands that the same facilities be afforded in the way of texts, bibliographical aids, and statistical data, as are demanded in any other field of historical work, and that the most approved methods of study and teaching be followed. Indeed, in certain respects state history offers a superior field for instruction in the public schools. It affords the student an opportunity to study at first hand the vi PREFACE

development of those institutions which are to demand the activities and interests of his maturer Hfe. These institutions are state rather than national.

Furthermore, in the interplay of local and federal politics state history illustrates the evolution of the essential relations between local institutions and the central government. It is thus a direct preparation for the study of civics and national history. It certainly is pragmatic to acquaint students with the genesis of the social, economic, and political conditions in which they find themselves placed and forced to act ; but this is quite in touch with the trend of the present educational movement.

The rapidly changing conception of what history really is appHes, of course, to this department of historical study as to any other. These green hills and fertile valleys would have been peopled and tilled by men of essentially the same fiber if Ethan Allen had not succeeded in his audacious attempt on Ticonderoga, if Stark had not won a brilliant victory at Bennington, or if Macdonough had not been successful in a naval battle off Cumberland Head. While the political destiny of the state may have been shaped to some degree by military events, the social and industrial organization within the body politic has developed essentially unchanged thereby. From this point of view military events necessarily play a relatively unimportant part, and industrial activities a relatively important one.

To those who may use this book for instruction a few suggestions are due. Since the subject is taught to different grades in different schools, no attempt has been

PREFACE vii

made to limit the scope of the work to the requirements of any one grade. It has been left to the teacher to determine in each case the possibilities of his own classes. The work indicated in the map exercises on page 280 should always precede the study of the narrative. The source extracts at the beginning of the chapters and in the text illustrate the kind of material from which history is written, and provide means for further analytical study. Constructive ability may best be developed by individual research and reports on topics of local interest. The statistical tables will furnish material for both analytical and constructive work of a still different nature on the plan illustrated on pages 211, 212, 215, and especially 221-223. The pupils should always be required to study the maps and illustrations in connection with the narrative.

I wish to acknowledge a special indebtedness to Professor George H. Perkins for suggestions on the archaeological portions of the history ; to Hon. G. G. Benedict for a similar service on the portions dealing with the military history of the state during the Civil War ; and to Mr. F. D. Nichols for his efforts in securing the illustrations by which the volume is so materially enriched.

Barton Landing, E. D. COLLINS.

Table Of Contents

Chai'Ter Page

I. The Strength of the Hills i

II. The French and Indian Wars .... 13

Part II For Reference And Further Study

Map Exercises 280 ,

List of Maps 281

I. Vermont at the Close of the French and Indian

Wars facing 40

II. Early Map of New Hampshire, soon after the Erection

of Fort Dummer 69

ix

X - CONTENTS

List of Maps — continued Page

III, The First Political Division of Vermont ... 74

IV. Vermont at the Close of the Revolution . facing 122 V. Railroad Map of Vermont . . . . " 220

VI. Geographical Map of Vermont ... " 273

VII. Township Map of Vermont, in colors . . " 301

Topics 282

Bibliographical Note 286

Chronological Table 289

Part III Statistical Tables

Table A. New York Land Grants in Vermont . . . 296

B. Governors of Vermont ...... 297

C. Congressional Districts and Senators in Congress . 298

D. Population of the State by Decades from the First

E. Population of the State by Counties from the First

Census . 300

F. Population of the State by Towns in 1900 . . 301

G. Growth of Manufactures in Vermont since 1850 . 305 H. Farms, Acreage, and Values of Farm Property since

1850 305

I. Agricultural Products in 1850 306

J. Leading Manufactures 307

II. In i860.

IIL In 1870,

IV. In 1 88a

Chapter I The Strength Of The Hills

Continuing our route along the west side of the lake, contemplating the country, I saw on the east side very high mountains, capped with snow\ I asked the Indians if those parts were inhabited. They answered me yes, and that they were Iroquois, and there were in those parts beautiful valleys and fields fertile in corn as good as any I had eaten in the country, with an infinitude of other fruits, and that the lake extended close to the mountains, which were according to my judgment, fifteen leagues from us. — Extract from Champlairi's narrative, ibog.

First Discoveries by White Men

In the year 1534 Jacques Cartier, sailing under commission from the king of France, passed through the Strait of Belle Isle into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, possessed of a belief that he was on the high road to Cathay. The Breton sailor had but little time that summer to make explorations before the coming of the autumn winds bade him seek again the shores of France. With the following spring, however, he returned to his quest and sailed far up the river in eager search for a water way to the East Indies through this continent. That way he never found, but on this trip an incident befell him which has some interest for us.

In October, 1535, he came to a place on the shore of the river where the Indians had a settlement. It was then called Hochelaga ; at the same place, three fourths of a century later, the French laid the foundations of the city of Montreal. The Indians received the white men kindly, and during their brief stay guided them to the top of the mountain which rose behind their town. If that day was clear when Cartier looked eastward over the miles of frost-painted forest, he saw lying sharply against the sky line in the distance the pointed summit of Jay Peak, flanked by its domelike neighbors. Years were to come and go before white men drew near to the land of those dark hills, but when the time came they were countrymen of his who claimed the honor.

It was nearly three quarters of a century later — and nearly three centuries ago — when Samuel de Champlain, servant of France in the New World, founded the city of Quebec. In that year, 1608, Milton was born; John Smith's story of the Jamestown settlement was printed in London; Sir Walter Raleigh lay imprisoned in the Tower of London writing his history of the world. The Pilgrims were then leaving the shores of old England for their brief stay in Holland before coming to the bleak coast of Plymouth; Henry Hudson had not then carried the Dutch flag into the river that bears his name ; the King James version of our Bible had not been finished ; and Shakespeare had not laid aside his pen.

In the following year Vermont was first visited by white men. When the April sun had loosened the grip of ice and snow on lake and river the gallant Frenchman started on a voyage of exploration. He left Quebec,

THE STRENGTH OF THE HILLS 3

accompanied by a few of his own men and a party of Indians in their birch canoes, and set out up the river in a chaloupe. Where the RicheHeu empties into the St. Lawrence he took the smaller stream, and in June came to the Falls of Chambly. Here he left the chaloupe and went on in canoes with two of his own men and the Indians. On the morning of July 4, 1609, Champlain and his companions glided silently into the waters of that beautiful lake which henceforth was to bear his name. He wrote:

There are many pretty islands here, low and containing very fine woods and meadows with abundance of fowl and such animals of the chase as stags, fallow-deer, fawns, roebucks, bears and others, which go from the mainland to these islands. We captured a large number of these animals. There are also many beavers, not only in this river but also in numerous other little ones that flow into it. These regions, although they are pleasant, are not inhabited by any savages on account of their wars; but they withdraw as far as possible from the rivers into the interior in order not to be suddenly surprised.

They paddled on past the islands, and the further scenes which his eyes beheld Champlain recorded in the words which you read at the beginning of the chapter.

The Land and its People

Before Champlain and his followers left the lake they had stained their hands with blood. It was no peaceful, undisputed territory into which they had so boldly come. It was a border land between great Indian nations, the hunting ground and fighting ground of Algonquins and Iroquois.

South of the great lakes and eastward to the Hudson River and Lake Champlain Hved the Iroquois, comprising powerful tribes ; while through New England and the St. Lawrence region, and even to New Brunswick, were scattered the various Algonquin tribes. The Indians who accompanied Champlain well knew the dangers of this trip, and came with him only on the understanding that he would help them fight the Iroquois if they should chance to meet.

They did meet, and Champlain kept his promise. The Iroquois fled from the deadly guns of the Europeans, — weapons which were new and strange to them. But they did not forget, and they were slow to forgive. So the little battle by the lakeside, in which the arquebuses of three white men won the day, was destined to breed trouble for the French in Canada in later years. It turned the friendship of the Iroquois away from the French toward the English ; it counted much in that long contest between the two nations which was to determine the destiny of this continent.

But Champlain and his two countrymen could not foresee that. They sat in the red light of the camp fire that evening and watched their Indians tormenting the captives with tortures which to Christian eyes must have seemed strange and pitiless.

The great basin of the Champlain and its tributaries furnished scenes for many such combats of which history has no record. The shores of the lake and the lands as far eastward as the mountains were not safe for permanent settlement by either of the two great rival tribes. Although the Indians told Champlain that the Iroquois

THE STRENGTH OF THE HILLS 5

dwelt in those parts, it is not likely that they were more than hunting grounds through which parties might rove in search of game without making a fixed abode. At any rate the Iroquois left here no name of mountain, lake, or river. The Indian names which are preserved by us are those of the Abenakis.

The Green Mountains formed a natural barrier through the length of the state which red men rarely crossed until the days of the French and Indian wars. The Coosuck Indians, another branch of Algonquins, dwelt undisturbed on the broad flats which stretch back from the Connecticut River at Newbury and above — known to early rangers and settlers as the Cohasse intervals, or Coos meadows — until the white men came and drove them to Canada. Men now living have seen near Wells River the remains of an old Indian village and fort ; and within the memory of some the St. Francis Indians made periodical visits to Charleston, and pointed out to white settlers the seams and scars in old maples where their ancestors had tapped the trees in spring for their annual sugar making.

Relics of the Past

We must not think because there were no tribes in peaceful possession of the land when white men first came, that such had always been the case. There are traces of more than a transient residence by Indians. Such relics as we possess inform us of the fact of their occupancy, but they give no certain knowledge by which we can tell who those early inhabitants were.

The following description was given in 1873 of an old burial place of these people. It is the only such place within the state of which we have any knowledge.

About two miles north of the village of S wanton in northwestern Vermont is a sandy ridge, which was formerly covered by a dense growth of Norway pines ; the thickly set, straight trees resembling somewhat a huge growth of hemp. The place was at one time called " the old hemp yard," a name which still chngs to it. Rather more than twelve years ago it was discovered that beneath this forest stone implements were buried, and further investigation has shown that the spot which was so covered with large trees and stumps when the white men first came into the region had been, ages before, used as a burial place by some people whose only records are the various objects which the affectionate care of the living placed in the graves of the dead. From directly beneath the largest trees or half-decayed stumps some of these relics were taken, so that we may feel sure that before the great pines which for many years, perhaps centuries, grew, flourished, and decayed, had germinated, these graves were dug, and with unknown ceremonies the bodies of the dead were placed in them, together with those articles that had been used during life, or were supposed to be needed in a future existence. We cannot know how many successive growths of trees may have followed each other since the forest began to usurp the place set apart for sepulture.

We find also very many relics of more recent Indian life and occupancy. Along the borders of the streams which empty into Lake Champlain, along the higher lands beside them, on the shores of the lake itself, and on the islands, the specimens of their handiwork and arts have been frequently found.

In a few instances multiplicity of domestic implements has indicated the site of a village or a frequently visited

Prehistoric Implements found in Vermont Slate knives ; gouges or hollow chisels ; points and scrapers ; pipes.

camping ground. One such place was near Swanton, where the St. Francis Indians had a village near the river which they had occupied from ancient times. Here, too, was an old burial place, four or five miles from the ancient graves mentioned above. The Indians had no knowledge of these earher graves, but knew only those of their own kinsmen.

Across the lake, on a sand ridge north of Piatt sburg, there were kilns where pottery was burned. Here were

scattered about clusters of burned stones, masses of burned clay, and numerous bits of pottery. Remains of old fortifications have been found, with many arrow and spear points near by, while on Grand Isle in the lake the remains of many arrow and spear points and unfinished articles show that once there was a manufactory of them there. Less common than arrow and spear points are the gouges and chisels of various kinds of stone, some hard enough to scrape the charred embers from logs which were burning out for canoes, others so soft as to be of little use except to smooth the seams of deerskin garments or be used in dressing leather.

Stone pestles and mortars for pounding corn were not uncommon ; while other pestles, made of slate, were sometimes used to crush or mash the grain by rolling

Copper Knives and Points t It

Prehistoric Implements found in Vermont

Ornamental jar found at Colchester ; a larger globular jar ; triangular, quadrangular, double and single edged axes or celts ; points ; ceremonial stones, lO HISTORY OF VERMONT

it upon a flat stone or log. The slate if used in sharp contact with another stone would have left too much grit in the grain even for an Indian's taste. Stone axes and hatchets have been found. Fragments of soapstone pots and jars have been found, but only two entire jars are now in existence. In fact only four or five from the whole of New England are now known to exist.

Other pots and jars, made of burned clay, have been found more plentifully. They are of various shapes and sizes, and some are quite remarkable. One exceptionally fine specimen of an ornamental jar of Indian manufacture was found at Colchester, near Burlington, in 1825.

Copper articles seem to have been rare among the Indians of this state. Those which have been found are apparently made of native copper which probably came from Lake Superior, beaten into the desired shape. They must have come here in the course of war or trade. Agricultural implements are also rare. Some flint or hornstone spades have been discovered, and some of these might have been attached to handles and used as hoes.

In Indian ceremonials and tribal proceedings perhaps no single article was so important as the calumet, or pipe. It was indispensable in declaring war or peace, in ratifying treaties, and in the settlement of religious questions. Specimens of pipes have been found in the Champlain Valley, some of them carved and variously ornamented with designs of animals.

In two places within the state the Indians left inscriptions on rocks. One of these, known as ** Indian Rock," is at Brattleboro, near the junction of the West and

THE STRENGTH OF THE HILLS ii

Connecticut rivers. It has pictured on its surface ten or eleven figures of birds, mammals, and snakes. The other inscriptions are on two granite rocks near the Connecticut at Bellows Falls. One of the rocks bears on it the rudely graven figure of a large head, some twenty inches long, surmounted by rays ; the other has twenty heads of varying sizes but all smaller than the one just mentioned. Some of these also have rays, and all are similarly made, being roughly outlined with a broad shallow groove, the eyes and mouth consisting in most cases of mere circular depressions, and the nose being usually omitted altogether. Various guesses have been made as to the meaning of these inscriptions, but we have little reason to suppose that they were designed to convey any special message.

From these scattered relics and others that have been found it will be seen that although the Indians left no written records they did leave many things which tell us of their lives in war and peace. We have the measure of their skill in the weapons and tools which they fashioned ; and these silent witnesses to their arts and crafts enable us to form some idea of their degree of civilization. We can see how far they learned to use the gifts of nature as raw material for their crude workmanship. We have evidences of what their taste and skill in ornamentation were. From their tools we can gather what their highest attempts were in rough carpentry and agriculture.

We know also that here in our state, when it was but an unnamed wilderness, were hunting grounds inhabited by many kinds of game in abundance. Here and there on the broad intervals of the larger rivers were fertile fields where the Indian women could raise maize and their few vegetables ; while the hunters roamed the forest for game, or sought the streams where salmon ran, the mountain brooks where trout were ever abundant, and the lakes where lay great maskinonge.

From the skins of the deer, elk, moose, and beaver they could fashion their rough garments and frame some protection from the winter's cold. The flesh of their slaughtered game furnished the main part of their sustenance ; and thus through the changing seasons they lived, halfway between the hunting stage and the agricultural stage, depending on Nature's bounty, till the white men came.

Chapter II

Voted, That it will be of great service to all the western frontiers, both in this and the neighboring government of Connecticut, to build a Block House above Northfield, in the most convenient place on the lands call'd the Equivalent Lands,i and to post in it forty able men, English and Western Indians, to be employed in scouting at a good distance up the Connecticut River, West River, Otter Creek, and sometimes eastwardly, above great Monadnuck, for the discovery of the enemy coming towards any of the frontier towns. — Massachusetts Court Records, Dec. sj, 1^28.

Colonial Politics

It was not very many years after the French had estabUshed settlements in the St. Lawrence Valley, at Quebec and Montreal, before English settlers sought homes on the rocky New England coast, and the Dutch sat down to trade on the island of Manhattan, in that

1 The " equivalent lands " were tracts lying in the southern part of the present state of Vermont which were given by Massachusetts to Connecticut, to take the place of some Connecticut land which Massachusetts had by mistake been granting. Boundaries were a little uncertain in early days, and when in 171 3 they were determined, it was found that Massachusetts had granted 107,793 acres which did not belong to her. But since she very naturally wished to retain the jurisdiction over the settlers, it was arranged that Connecticut should accept an equal number of acres in ungranted territory. They were called for this reason the " equivalent lands." Connecticut sold them at public auction, at Hartford, in 1716, for ;i^683, New England currency. The money thus obtained was donated to Yale College, then a young institution of learning. The lands were bought by gentlemen from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and London.

wonderful harbor which is the glory of all true New Yorkers. So it came to pass that three great powers of the Old World found themselves neighbors in the New World also. From the time when they opened their eyes to this fact they began a struggle for the possession of this part of our continent. The Dutch did not struggle long, for in the year 1664 an English squadron sailed into the harbor and compelled the crusty old Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, to yield the city. Its name was then changed from New Amsterdam to New York, in honor of the king's brother, the Duke of York.

News like this made the French settlers in Canada and the French government in France more anxious than ever to curb the growing power of the English here in America. And the English, as they heard how the French were finding their way far up the rivers and even beyond the great lakes, grew more and more anxious to curb the growing power of the French. One could say that it became the poHcy of the French to drive the English from America, and the policy of the English to drive out the French. This was the great theme of colonial politics. Instead of taking sides for candidates and talking about the men who wanted to be president or governor, the English in America all took sides against the French, saying to themselves, '< We must drive them out of Canada." This was as accurate an expression of their political creed as modern party platforms are of ours to-day.

When two great nations hold such utterly contradictory notions about the same thing it does not require a prophet to foresee trouble. Of course so long as the French remained quietly in Canada and the English remained quietly in New England, with a great stretch of uninhabited country between them, they could not enter on this great and necessary work of driving each other out. So it came to pass that in their attempts to get rid of each other the colonists of the two nations and their allies crossed and recrossed this intervening territory in a long series of raids and forays which have gone down in history as the French and Indian wars.

This is the real meaning of those wars : the French and English were trying to oust each other from the land. What especially concerns us is the fact that a ver)^ important part of this country through which they made their bloody trails was the land which came in after years to be our state of Vermont.

The French, the English, and the Lndians

It would be well if we could remember how very differently the French and EngHsh colonists went about their work of gaining a foothold in the New World. It would help to explain many things. It would tell us why their interests clashed and why they hated each other so ; why the French pushed so rapidly through leagues of forest and stream, while the English clung close to the coasts ; why the Indians hated the English and clove to the French and so helped them in these savage wars.

While the English cut away the forests to make clearings for their little homes and farms which they could till, the French went here and there through uncut forests, trading with the Indians for furs. In consequence of this, while the English were confined to little settlements along the shores and near the mouths of the larger streams, the French had made their way along the St. Lawrence River, through the great lakes, northward, far, far up the rivers into the heart of the Hudson Bay country, and southward back of the line of English colonies which stretched like a narrow fringe along the Atlantic coast.

As for the Indians, they looked upon the English clearing away the forest and destroying the old hunting grounds, and they knew that although the settlements at first were small and the settlers ready to be friendly, the time would surely come when the settlements would be large and the white men their enemies. The French, on the contrary, destroyed no hunting grounds. Their fur trade depended on the hunting grounds. They came, too, and dwelt like brothers among the Indians and ranged the forests with them, sharing their hardships. In fact, sometimes they were brothers, for they took dusky Indian maidens to wife. They built a fort here or established a trading post there ; but these served the Indians as well as the French, and were primarily headquarters for trade, at which only a white man or two would be found in sole charge for weeks and months at a time.

There was another cause of friendship between the Indians and the French. Jesuit missionaries went in hardship and suffering establishing missions among the different tribes, converting them and winning them to the faith and the friendship of their countrymen. Many records and letters were left by these Jesuits, which are now called the Jesuit Relations. These are to-day the most important and valuable sources of knowledge which we have of these Indian tribes at the time when the white men first came among them.

When we thoroughly understand the French method of occupying Canada, we have discovered something which has a direct bearing on the conduct of the French and Indian wars. For example, we see that in all the long line of their widely scattered trading posts, in all the broad expanse of territory which the French held in name, there were really in Canada but two towns of great importance, Quebec and Montreal. We see that the English colonists, if they wished to harm the French, must prepare expeditions large enough and strong enough to take these two fortresses, the bulwarks of the French occupation of Canada. To do this they must have ships and cannon as well as men. On the other hand it was quite an easy matter for a French commander at Montreal to send out day after day little bands of Indians through that great forest which stretched toward the English settlements, to fall upon the scattered and almost defenseless cabins on the frontier. Those cabins were not mere trading posts ; they were homes in which were women and the precious children, treasures dearer than furs, more precious than life itself.

The Indian Trails

These raids of marauding bands of Indians and French will have more than a passing interest for us when we recall that the main routes which were traversed lay across our state, although it was long before that state was settled or bore a name. There were some four or five of these routes which we ought to remember, and to do so will not be difficult if we trace them on the map.