Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1862-01-03
From the Rutland Herald.
THE MEN OF VERMONT.
|. THOMAS cHITTENDEN.


Thomas Chittenden. the first governor
of Vermont, was born in East Guilford,
in the then colony of Connecticut, January
9Th, 1870. He laborcd on the farm of
his father, having only the benefit of a
common school education, nutil his
eighteenth year, when he started on a
voyage to the West Indies. England at
this time being at war with France, the
vessel on which he had embarked
was captured by French man-of-war,
and he was taken prisoner and landed in
destitute condition on one of the West
India Islands, from which he escaped, and
after enduring many hardships, reached
his fathers farm, where he remained till
October 4th, l749.
About this time he married Miss. Eliz-
abeth Meigs, and removed to Salisbury,
Conn. Of this town he soon became
prominent and leading citizen, as is evil
denced from the fact that he represented
the town in the legislature of Connecticut
during the years 1866, &c, CT, 68, SO,
and 70, and was also colonel of a regiment
of militia, and justice of the peace.
In May l744, he removed his family
to Williston, in this state then known as
1.-The New Hampshire Grants" where he
and Jonathan Spafford, his neighbor had
purchased large tract of land. He re-
mained at Williston till the retreat of the
American army from Canada, in the
spring of l776, when on account of the
exposed situation of the frontier and the
neglect of Congress to provide for its de-
fense, he, with his family, women and
children, went on foot, by marked trees,
through Middlebury to Castleton, and
from thence to Dandy, where he procured
a farm in the south part of the town, near
the foot of the mountain. He resided on
this farm until the :. evacuation of IT.
in July IT, when he removed to Pownal
and soon after to Williamstown, Mass.
He also resided for time at Arlington,
and perhaps in other partsof the State,
and at the close of the war returned to
his farm in Williston. ..r..
He represented Williston in the conven-
tion holden at Dorset, December Goth,
l776, for the purpose of deciding upon
the expediency of declaring Vermont "a
free and independent State" and was a
member of the committee who reported
the compact which was unanimously
adopted by the convention. At the next
meeting of the convention which was hold
en- at Westminster January 10Th, l777,
he was on committee who drafted the
" Declaration of Independence" and, also,
of the committee to petition Congress for
recognition. He was also leading
member of the convention at Windsor,
July I'd. l777, which formed our first
constitution; president of the =" court of
constitution" during the greater if not the
entire period of its existence; aud was
president of the council of safety {" which
was vested with all the powers of govern
ment--executive, legislative and judicial
Ito be exercised until the government
should be organized under the constitu-
tion') from its organization to March 18th
l779, when he assumed the Office Of gov
ernor, to which he was, as is recorded in
the Journal of the general assembly,
:. elected by great majority of votes. l"
He was nineteen times elected governor
by the people, and held tha office from
March '78 till his death, with the excep-
.tion of 1889, when there being no choice
by the people, the Hon. Moses Robinson
was elected by the legislature and held
the Office for only one year. Governor
Chittenden died at his residence in Will
iston, on the 25th day Of August. 1897,
in the 69th year of his age. .J.,