St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-11-04
St. Johnsbury at Par.
A Modest Celebration.
Interesting Address by Rev. Edward
II. Fairbanks.

y
shortly after midnight, the village
bells were rung at noon, but the cele-
bratiOn proper came in the evening
when the South church was filed with
an audience that evinced its interest
by giving close attention to IN address
on the early history of st. JOhnsbury
by Rev. Mr.. Fairbanks. The whole
thing had been hastily arranged as ev-
rybody knew, but it is doubtful if a
more interesting address could have
been given under any circumstances.
The text of the discourse was the
official grant made by Gov. Thomas
Chittenden in 1856 to Jonathan Arnold
and associates, of tract of land in
old Orange county, to be known as
the "Township of st. Johnsbury." In
this brief report the events will be
considered in their chronological order
as presented by Mr.. Fairbanks in an
article written for the Gazetteer some
years ago and from which copious ex-
tracts were read.
Exhibiting an Indian stone Ratchet
of particularly fine workmanship,
found south of the Plain in 1860 and
since preserved in the Athen8um, the
speaker referred to the original pro-
prietOrs of these lands.
Prior to the independence of New
Hampshire grants, and Is years before
the settlement of st. JOhnsbury, a
tract of land on the Passumpsic river
was granted by King George III. to
his glowing subjects of the province
of New York" This tract contained
39, 900 acres, including nearly all of St.
Johnsbury and a portion of Concord
and Waterford, and was granted to
80 petitioners under the leadership of
John Woods and VIM. Swan. In
honor of the Earl of DunmOre, who
was afterward appointed governor of
the province, the new township was
named "DunmOre." But King George
and his representatives were soon
crowded aside and seven years after
the grant of DunmOre, Vermont de-
clared herself an Independent sOver-
eighty. Probably most of the gran
tees of Dunmore sold or relinquished
their claims in Vermont, and settled
/ in other quarters. 1t is not known
that any permanent settlements were
made within it's limits until the year
Immediately preceding Gov. Chitten
denis charter.
Now comes the charter, drawn up
Oct. 81, 1876, granted Nov. l, by Gov.
Chittenden) with its quaint "Whereas,
Jonathan Arnold Esquire, and his as
sociates, our worthy friends, have, by
petition, requested a grant of tract
of unappropriated lands" etc. One
of the first acts of the mOuntaineers
was to repudiate the English name of
DunmOre. Among the French people
they had found a man who had chal-
lenged their respect, and won their
gratitude and after him was the new
township named the town of st. John
uo CToNcCbuT, Ino It EcHCH ConSui tC
New York. This was done at the sug
gestion of Gen. Ethan Allen, a warm
friend of st. John. Mr.. Fairbank s
read extracts from a letter to Allen
written by st. John gratefully accept
ing the honor of naming the new town
in which he says: 81 would observe
that the name of st. John being al
ready given to many places in this
country, it might be cOntrived by the
appellation of st. JOhnsbury." Be-
sides ST. Johnsbury the names of Dan
vile and Vergennes were adopted at
the request of st. John.
The township comprised about 2l,-
l67 acres, ID of the II parts into which
it was divided belonging to Jonathan
Arnold. One 7lst part was reserved
for the use of seminary, one 7Ist
part for the purpose of settlement of a
minister, etc. Provision was also
made for the erection of grist and saw
mills, etc.
In the latter part of 1856, before its
charter issued, James, Martin, j. c..
and Jonathan Adams came up the val
ley to the meadow south of Railroad
street, and there began the first clear
ing in the town. About the same time
Simeon Cole established himself on
the meadows south of Centre village.
Later Benz. Doolittle, Josiah NichOl,
Thomas Todd, Jonathan and William
Prescott had all obtained the right of
proprietOrship.
The winter of 1867 was uneventful.
A great settlement had not as yet
sprung up on the ruins of DunmOre.
The distant stores and grist mills of
Barnet furnished rum, sugar, and flour
for the settlers. Amusing bits of ex-
perience of the men in bringing stores
from Barnet to st. JOhnsbury were re-
lated. One of these was about the old
pioneer, first elected representative to
the state assembly, who used to make
periodic journeys on foot to Barnet,
and return with two bushel bag of
grain on his back, and gallon of rum
in his hand. Another story was told
of a certain eccentric individual, who
bought bag of potatoes "dOwn be-
low" and having with the assistance
of two or three able bodied men, Sc
cured the same on his back, set out for
st. Johnsbury. Unfortunately a small
rent in the corner of the bag became
so enlarged in the course of the trip as
to permit the escape of one of the po-