Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1856-10-22
JOHN KILBURN.

The account Of the naming Of Mt
Kilburn was doubtless read with inter-
est by all to whose notice it come. There
are some factsbelonging to the history
Of the mountain and others pertaining to
the man, which do not appear in the
narrative, and they, together with those
already recorded, may possibly be in
corporated into single communication
of moderate length. This is not the
first mountain that has borne the name
Of Kilburn. In the county of Herford,
ireland, is Kilburn Mountain, Of
which mention is made in Harross's His-
tory of the Irish Rebellion. 1t was the
scene Of a skirmisl4 May 3lst l78s. has
tween g troJP Of the Tsghmsn cavalry
and body of the rebels. s
Mt Kilburn was for many years call.
ed "the Governors calf pasture" The
origin Of this name was as follows. It
was the custom of Gov. Benning Went
worth in granting townships to reserve
for himself five hundred acres in each
township. When he was about select
ing his land in Walpole, he consulted
Col. Benjamin Bellows, who was the
chief man in the town, as to what was
the most desirable part of the town to
lay claim to, at the same time express
ing his decided preference for location
near the great falls, as the probable site
of the future village. Col. Bellows very
honestly told him that the lad there
would make very good calf pasture,
but nothing more. The Governor i'm
sgining that the Colonel wished to ap-
propriate those lands to himself and SO
discouraged his own selection Of them,
resolved to locate his claim there and
actually did so. Whether Governor
Wentworth ever learned that he was
the owner of the PERCEPTIONS and rocky
hill in question tradition does not inform
us, but 1the Governors calf pasture"
for many years after was the occasion
of many merry joke and hearty laugh
among the actual settlers Of Walpole.
John Kilburn, the first civilized in
habitant of Walpole, was descendant
in the fifth generation from Thomas
kilburn, the common ancestor of all the
Kilburns in America, who embarked
from London to this country in the ship
Increase, April Is, 1885, and settled
in wethersfieid, CT. The family was 4
very Ancient one, its pedigree being
traceable nearly or quite back to the
time of William the Conqueror. The
proudest Briton of the thirteenth CEN
tury was William de Kilbourne. lord Of
the manor of Kilbourne in Yorkshire,
and in the long list of names which in
tervene between him and Thomas Kill
burn, are to be found lords, viscounts,
Wears, priests and abbots, as well as
mere burgesses, gentlemen and yeoman.
John Kilburn was born at Glasten-
burg, CT, in 1904. He married Me-
hitable Bacon, of Middletown, CT, Oct.
26, 1882. In 1897, about which time
his wife died, he sold his land in Con-
necticut, and removed TO Northfeld,
Mass, from which place he removed to
Walpole in the Spring of l749. In the
mean time he had married again, and
his family consisted of himself, his wife,
his son John thirteen years old, and his
daughter Mehitable fifteen years old.
He built himself log hut near the
mouth of Cold River, and in this he
lived two years without seeing single
human being save bis own family. The
exact spot where his cabin stood, is
where ten apple trees on the east side
of the road now stand. 1t was notable
that the stream was named
z SEE FOURTH PAGE.