Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-10-06

scalp1ng knives, muskets, swords, British
and French uniforms, in them days
CLEANED through the foliage all along our
borders; from the roaring Winooski to
the swift-rushing arrowy Wantastiqnet,
Indian raider and English scout passed
and repassed the mountain gorges. Many
a poor captive passed through our town to
suffer for years in Canada. How absorb
ing is our interest in the trials and hard
ships endured by the captives, Mrs. John
son and Mrs. Howe. The grandfather OF
President Labaree. late of Middlebury
College, was fellow captive with Mrs
johnson. This party dined in Rutland,
at the junction of East and Otter creeks
their principal diet being sausages made
of bears meat.
Passing over some history of Vermont
important perhaps in its allusion to Rut-
land, we come to that part of Mr.. Halls
address which mcst interests the people
of Rutland. The place was first char
tered in 1861, when it had two charters
one naming as first grantee John Murray
an Irishman, the principal citizen OF Rut'
land, Mass, and the man probably that
named this town, and another to Col
John Henry Lydius of Albany n. Y, un'
der the name of Fairfield. Between the
charter and settlement of Rutland st
years elapsed, during which many i'm
portant events transpired. But we must
come to the settlement of Rutland:
James Mead was the first white man
that ever settled in Rutland. In 1864 he
and several other men, with their families
emigrated from Nine Partners, adjoining
Salisbury, Conn, to Manchester, VT
Mead, acting as agent for others, soon be
came acquainted with this town. 1t was
on the first day of September, 1863, that
Mead made his first purchase in Rutland.
and that same day he sold half his pur-
chase He bought 20 rights of the 70 in
the town. A right contained about 300
acres, 20 that he retained about $500 acres
located in the southwest part of the
town. That same fall Mead built him 8
log house, located half a mile west of Cen
ter Rutland, near the banks Of West
Creek. In this immediate vicinity there
was al ancient clearing, made by com
munity Of decidedly democratic proclivi
ties-neither Mohawks nor Algonquins,
neither Workers nor Green Mountain
Boys-they had no churches, no court
houses no ballot boxes, no rum, no tobic-
CO. They were models of industry and
thrift vet they had not secured their title
to the property by any proper legal deeds
and Mad did not hesitate to appropriate
TO himself both their meadow and Their
dam.
The first settlement of Rutland was
mad IN March. 1910. Mead was now AZ
years old, and had a wife and ten
childr,n His oldest daughter Sarah, at
the age Of II, was the wife of Wright
Roberts. These thirteen persons were
three days moving from Manchester &c
Well Meadows, they coming over The
hizh4E2s west of Otter Creek, stopping
the fr~t night in Dorset, the second ia
D3ubv, passing through Tinmouth, We7'
Clarendon and Shutdown. Com;n4
through Chippenbook, Sarah and Mercy
riding on one horse and Roberts on foot
driving the cows, far in rear of the other7
they lost their way. Before wandering
far they found the house of Simon Jenny
q noted Yorker and Tory, who showed
them where 70 20. The third evening
they clmped on the present farm Of Rob.
crt Chapman, got warm supper and
started on to finish their journey before
steering. Late in the evening, on foot
on horseback and in the sleigh, they
reached their log house. But their build.
ing had 10 roof and was too near the
creek snow, water, ice and cold made it
unavoidable. Near by, on a more elevated
lite, il n wigwam, with 8 or 10 Caughna-
wag4 Indians around a coy fire. Mead
applies to share the wigwam. The lndi-
ans shake their heads, talk Indian,
then rising and throwing their hands
ap r, they cry, welcome welcome )"
gather up their traps, abandon their hut
to the pale faces, and quickly build an
OF her tor themselves. In that wigwam
the Mead family lived till late in the fall,
when they built a substantial log house,
in which they wintered. AS early rs 1910
Thomas Row!ey, famed as poet and sur
veyor, was in Rutland surveying lots.
In the year ITO three children were
born in Rutland. The first was VIM
Powers, son of Simeon Powers. a cooper
from Sprinfeld, VT. this was Sept. 23cd
ITO. The second was Capt. VIM. Mead
one day later than Powers, who died d
few years since in Granville, Ohio. He
was the son of James Mead. The third
was Chloe Johnson, daughter of Asa
Johnson, from Williamstown, Mass She
was born Oct. 3rd, 1910. Thus the first
three births in Rutland occurred within
10 days Of each other.
Simeon Powers, his wife Lydia and
their first born child settled in Rutland
in the spring of ITO, west of Otter Greek
on he present Kelley farm. Ia the fall
VIM. Dwinell and wife came and lived
with Powers, their relative. These four
families, the Meads, Powers's, Johnsons
and Dwinells were the only white persons
known to have lived in Rutland in ITO
although the surveyor Rowley's record
shows Il clearing by one Brockway. Thus
the population of the town in the Fall was
about two dozen.
In 1870 Rutland has 1000 families and
10000 inhabitants, the cash value of the
town il several millions of dollars. La
1910 the best land sold for few cents an
acre, there was not wagon or bridge In
the town. Mead kept boat each side OF
Otter Greek at Centre Rutland, there was
scarcely any land fitted for blowing, trout
and vensiou were plenty, grain scarce, no
Y iASb lItAI hCaICt tudH SHCnGSDDIOuZu
and Bennington, Mead had an iron hand
mill that ground corn coarse. Wild leeks,
butternuts, wild berries, shad plums,
maple sugar and fowl abounded.
Thus far we have condensed or omitted
history. Now we can only index our
materials
Ia 1771, New York granted a charter
Of Scarborough, in direct violation OF
the Kings order. Again Cockburp, the
Scotch surveyor is here. He surveys the
road, now Main street, Mead and John
son stop him, men dressed as Indians
threaten him and he leaves. In 1872 Rut
land sends delegate to the Manchester
convention, and the convention sends del
egate to Eogland. In 1918 Rutland had
80 families, a clergyman comes, log
meeting house is built, a church is formed
IA members, 4 out of town, 2 from the
west side of the town and from the east
In 1774 the will of Daniel Harris is
made, will that creating an estate-tail,
reused Vermont with law doctrines that
have so often shaken Westminster Hall.
In that year New York condemned two
Ratlanders to death without trial, and
nod I'll,