Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1868-05-14
The Franklin lsouse.
ny HENRY HAII, EsQ.

their very existence implies law, unoi-
vilired people. harbaric tribes, greet tray
elers with kindly hospitality, or with rob
berry, slavery and death; hut never with
licensed houses Of entertainment, their
organic disorganization forbids IL.
Railways are fast aholishing inns and
taverns, but only TO intensity the neces-
sity for hotels hotels, those mammoth
caravanseras, which threaten TO gobble NJ
all the money the traveller has left, after
paying the eyer-inoreasing fare Of rail
roads.
Ever since the ten famine.sufering He
brews returning from successful visit d
their brother, Egypt's vioc-gerent, fed
provender to their donkies at the inn,
thirty-six centuries ago; the world has
recognized inns as an inevitable necessity,
fraught with varied good and i'll, an ae-
commodation and a nuisance, solacc and
home to the weary traveller, business
convenience to the village, the former and
revivifer Of friendships, the arena for
political discussion, local news, stories,
jokes, gossip and witticisms, the promoter
Of social jollity, the trysting place Of boon
companions. the favorite resort Of idlers,
the seductive tcmpter Of restless hus-
bands, the corrupter Of ungoverned youth,
the constant dread Of anxious wives and
parents, the fertile nursery Of idfeness,
profanity, tippling, impurity and gaming,
"where most do congregate the profane,
the scoifcr, the Snowman. the imposter,
the gambler and the courtezan.
The old English laws describe certain
vagabonds as "such as wake on the night
and sleep on the day, and haunt custom
able taverns and ale-housss, and routs
aboat; and no man wot from whence
they come, nor whittier they 60"
In Vermont, before the existence Of
any duly organized constitutional govern
ment, to wit, on the "a January, IT'S,
the Council Of Safety promising, "Where-
as, II has been represented to this Council,
that divers persons, to the great disadvan-
tage Of this State, have bought and sold
TO the inhabitants, in small quantities and
at exorbitant prices, and continue so to
do certain spirituous liquors, whereby
drunkenness, idleness, quarrels. &c, Se.,
is promoted among us: which evil to
proven: in future" &c, did empower GER
tain town officials to license "suitable
persons to keep houses Of public entertain
ment for taneiers for the year ensuing"
license fee, 81 00--penalty for selling
spirituous liquors without license, SO, DC
One of the earliest preserved laws of the
State, Feb. 1779, regulates the licensing
Of taverns, and requires certain town Off
cials, when they "shall understand that
any person in such t0wn is a tavern
haunter, or spends his time idly at any
such house of entertainment" to post or
advertise him by their official certificate
at every tavern in unreformed tay-
ern haunters, liable to bonds, stocks and
fine: taprn keepers 10 collect no liquor dc-
counts three days old, dc,
The number Of houses in Rutland that
have been used as taverns is laughably
large. In this village, besides those gem
orally known, to wit the Huntoon House,
the Franklin House, the Reed House and
the American House, three others at least
have been SO used, viz the present dwell
ing Of DR. Ross, the Cove House, and the
building on the N. w corner of Main and
West streets.
Charles X. Williams came TO Rutland
in 1900 child eight years old he recol-
lected that Nathaniel Chapman then lived
in the dwelling-house, which was the
original Of the late Franklin House, and
occupied the same site.
The town records show deed dated the
IA Aug, 1893, from Darius Chapman of
Rutland to Joseph Mum of Walpole, n.
H., for $500, of the Franklin House prem
Uses, described as follows, to wit Be
ginning at stake and stones standing in
the East line Of the highway nineteen
rods South, t,nenty-one degrees East of the
SOUTHEAST corner of Capt. Nathaniel
Cores hte d,eeliing-hou&, nor occupied bg
Isaachar Reed, thence running Easterly in
the course Of the original lot or pitch of
which it is part, originally lad ont
l0s North forty rods, thence Southerly
parallel with the said highway n rods,
thence Westerly parallel to the first de,
scribed line 40 rods to the said highway
line, thence on the said line to the bound
begun, &c.
Mum improved this Chapman house,
and converted it into tavern the amount
OF the improvements is indicated by his
selling it, in three years, for more than
twice its original cost. Mum and Sam
uel Williams bought claims to lands in
the Carver purchase Of - Horton, of
Brandon; they resisted payment therefor
as fictitious. A legislative act in l19S
names Mum as of Sunderland
The present survey of our village for a
new County map makes Main street slope
90 East of North. The compass is said
to vary now about II > West The sig
ni6cance of the 81 East in the Chapman
deed TO Mum is not obvious.
In 1898, Royal Crafts bought the place
Of Mum for 600, and sold it the next
year, David Page, Jr., a trader of Con-
cord, Msss., being the owner from 1897 to
1909, when describing himself as Of Mid
dlebury, VT, he decided it to Henry Gould
Of Rutland for 1890. receiving back
mortgage for the same amount
In 1901, Nathaniel Chapman deciding
the present DR.. Ross premises, describes
them a. bounded North by the real estate