Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1872-08-14
Northwestern Vermont.

ST. JoHNsBURY, Saturday, August ).
Among the thousands who visit this re-
markable village which is to northeastern
Vermont what st. Adams is to the north
western corner Of the state, very few.
probably, have troubled themselves to
trace out its origin and history, which in
wolves the story Of one Of those simple
Yankee inventions that have changed the
habits Of labor all over the world-the
platform scales of the great Fairbanks
family. The Japanese officials who came
up here this week no doubt inquired into
the matter, with the customary inquisitive-
ness and intelligence of that nation, and
as | have done the same and have examin-
ed more thoroughly than they did the
Fairbanks public library, which is, on the
whole, the most extraordinary thing in St
Johnsbury, and the least known, it may
please your readers to hear something
about the founders Of St. Johnsbury and
its peculiar institutions. The town is now
the county seat Of Caledonia county, has
a population of five or six thousand
there are 100 voters on the check list
and is the only place in the world where
the universal Fairbanks scales are manu-
factured, that work being the principal
industry, and the Fairbankses its wealth.
est and most public-spirited citizens. 1t
was granted for settlement in 1886 to Dr.
Arnold Of Rhode Island, Ethan Allen and
his brother Ira, and other famous Yer
monters of that period, and took its name
from a French gentleman, St. John de
Creevecmur, who was French consul in
New Y Yerk during the Revolution, and a
warm friend of American independence.
In letter to Ethen Allen, written in 1885,
NJ St John had offered to render the in
fant settlement of Vermont, not then ad-
mitted to the Union, certain services if he
could have a town named for him, and his
children made citizens of Vermont-which
was readily done, and the former name of
Dunmore, given by Lord Dunmore to this
region, was changed into St. Johnsbury.
From taat time forward, for more than
forty years, it was thinly settled farming
town, with little trade and less manufac-
tures.-but soon after 1880 it began the
period of growth which has made it what
the traveller now sees it-one of the most
interesting industrial centers in the world,
because its manufactures are unique.
lQere were III 1COV tuISO DIOGuOIS Vi
Vermont birth but of Massachus stts origin,
-Erastus, Thaddeus and Joseph p Fair
banks-all in humble circumstances, and
pnshing themselves forward by their own
industry. One of them was making wa
gon wheels or at some such small mechani-
cal employment in St. Johnsbury, another
was " keeping store . in Barnet, and the
third perhaps was in New Hampshire.
Suddenly there broke out one of those peri
odical farming delusions which have over.
rnn New England from time to time, and
all the Vermonters took to growing Russian
hemp, by which they were to make their
fortunes, and one of the Fairbankses be-
came manager of a shop or mill near here,
whittier the farmers brought their hemp to
be prepared for the market 1t was to be
weighed in large quantities, and no suitable
scales were to be had /; whereupon another
of the brothers undertook to rig up plat
form connected with steel yard arrange