The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-08-09
from the Vermont Centennial.l
Where My Great Grandfather Missed
BY REV. GEO. LEON WALKER, D. D.

BY REV. GEO. LEON WALKER, D. D.
That is, II he missed 1t at all. About
that matter there may be two opinions
Anybody is at liberty to judge after hear
ing the story.
MY great-grandfather was no new SOL
der at the time of the revolution. He had
already done service in the old French war
Az one of the Connecticut quota he had
borne his weapon on the long tramp
across sparce-settled Massachusetts and
through Vermont woods to Ticonderoga
and Lake Champlain. So that when,
years afterwards, the war of independence
began and Crown Point and Ticonderoga
were again the scene of his brief presence,
neither the place nor the business was I'M
familiar. My respected G. G. was an under
officer, but tradition and come other evil
dence go to show that q certain dextrous-
ness of mechanical skill he had, we're &C.
| counted on some OF those expeditions of
more worth than any capacity to handle a
sword. He could do almost anything that
blacksmith's tools can help man to do,
and some things beside. SO that on one
muster-roll at least, he figures as 'armor-
er to his regiment.
But my G. G. was at the revolutionary
period no longer young. He already had
in Boston harbor. SO after taking part in
the Crown Point and Ticonderoga STRAIT
egic movements early in the war, be left to
| less encountered men the business OF carry
| ing it on.
He was, however, possessed of some
money and determined to buy land with it
| In Vermont. Accompanied by his wife,
| Susannah, sometime before 1878, he rode
| on horseback from Woodstock up through
Eastern Vermont, looking out for chance
to purchase. He carried with him in his
saddle bags Cor very likely his wife helped
him in carrying ore thousand dollars in
silver. These weighed, of course, about
| ffty-lve pounds. The ''good old silver
dollars of our fathers" that we hear so
much about to-day most of it doubtless oil
Spanish coinage. And tradition af1irms
that my honored G. G., though accustomed
to have his household in due subsection,
received from his faithful and fruitful
spouse on this journey a good many lee
lures about his "drefful keerleesness' con.
corning that money.
Arrived north in Vermont, he was offer.
ed by the proprietors of the township the
whole town of Peacham for his $1,000. He
| DELAY cd, nowovoI, about olooins tho bar
gain; and at last, from patriotic motives
and in view of the exigencies of the coun
try in carrying on the war, he returned
home with his saddle bags still loaded, and
lent the money to the government
Now here is where my respected q. G
missed 1t if he missed 1t anywhere. Fol
instead Of getting good, square town
ship for his hard earned dollars, ht
got In course OF time certain DEPRECATED
small, squarish bits of paper which enabled
him to buy lot of land in the town Of
Stafford with about fifty dollars.
Now IS to ''missing it" have different
moods at different times. Any rejecting
man can easily see that my beloved G. G.,
had he possessed any adequate sense of The
fitness of things, would have left thai
Peacham property (supposing he hat
bought ~ to me. And as | consider
the value of the town of Peach
am to-day, its farms, its mills, its
be regarded as prospectively "thrown in
to the bargain proposed to my G. CD
am sometimes inclined to think he die
"miss it," at least as far as / am con
cerned.
But on this centennial year of Vernon
l am disposed to take a patriotic view O
the matter. i think the old gentleman wal
right, the loss of Peacham Notwithstanding
And am, on the whole, inclined to thinl
that he made a good investment OF thos,
"dollars of our fathers" in lending them t
our struggling government. The govern
msnt made a rather shabby return for it a
the time, but it has been paying something
in other ways, ever since.
OF course, had my G. g. bought tn
town, should have laid clam to it exclu
sively but since he didn't buy 1t, an
willing to share with several hundred othe
of his descendants the honor OF his loan o
silver thousand and his payment of tift.
in continental truck.