St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-09-05
Gbe Californian.
CALEDONIA COUNTY HISTORY.
A City in Ryeeafe.

Il CIty IN ffySRaIc
Aud Ayr wham ne'r a town surpasses
For honest men and bonny lasses.''
About a century ago there was a
strong movement in immigration
from Scotland to Ryegate. extending
over quite period, and from which
NAV be traced some of the influences
which have given this town a char
acter and reputation in which her
citizens take a reasonable pride.
The country was new, and travel
by land was both slow and difficult.
The immigrant, after a voyage of a
month or six weeks on the ocean,
had a land journey of half that time
to encounter before he could reach
Ryegate If he came to Hartford by
ship he was but little better off; for
from that point northward fiat boats
could be propelled only by oars or
poles, and slow progress was made,
at best, against the current and rap
ids of the Connecticut river.
These early Scotch settlers had a
very ambitious design for Ryegate
and her commercial future which,
even in our time, would do credit to
the most active of modern towns.
1t was their purpose to found city
in the south part of Ryegate, a part
of it being laid out on the farm be-
longing to the estate of the late Mr..
w. w. Wright, on the brow of the
Town Hill The common was to
years as the "Burying-yard HILL" it
was to be, III truth, city set on
hill" Large warehouses and locks
were to be erected along the shores
of Ryegate pond; but this was only
a small part of their scheme. Rye
gatepOnd was to connect with Wells
river at Boltonville by a canal and
series of locks; there were similar
plans, also, to make the Wells river
navigable to its union with the Con-
necticut at Wells River village, which
was to be the broad highway to
Hartford, the GreenOck of the High
lands of Northern New England, Rye
gate and the Connecticut river being
their Glasgow and Clyde; but
THE best laid plans o mice and men
Gang aft a-gIey;
and thus it was with our city and it's
water way to the sea. They were
never built.
The share of the pond from Charles
Cove to Stub-top Landing has no
trace today of locks or warehouses;
and the keels of canal boats or mer-
chantmen have never frightened the
pouts and pickerel We venture the
opinion that no town in northern
New England ever came quite so
near being "A sea port" and failed.
Why did the scheme fail Certain
ly not from lack of energy or thrift
on the part of the early settlers. The
Scotch Land company was at the
head of this movement, and promi-
nent in this organization were Gen
eral Whitelow and Capt. James Hen
derson, and others whose names
have been honorably handed down
Before the real demand for the city
was apparent enough to warrant
entering upon the plan, the settlers
found that the town was better
adapted for agriculture, and that
particular brand of husbandry which
has given it more than a local repu-
tatiOn-butter making.
How fortunate that these ''level
headed" settlers changed their plans
The fate that has pursued such coast
towns as Salem, Newburyport, and
New Bedford, would have made itself
felt far more keenly in a city under
the shadow of Blue mountain, land
locked, and for half the year at least,
ice bound. No longer do Newbury-
port and Salem control the East In
dia trade; no longer are flat boats
loaded with merchandise and pushed
sluggishly up the Connecticut river
to supply the commercial needs of
northern Vermont and New Hamp-
shire.
The journey from Ryegate to Liv
erpoOl today may be made in fewer
days than it required weeks at the
time the city was thought practi-
cable
Little did those early settlers dream
however, that their town would
some day be on a direct line from
Europe to China, and yet such is the
fact. The Canadian Pacific railway
cars run daily through the town
along the Connecticut river, seeming
to tantalize that ancient and worthy
stream with q sense of lost oppor-
tunities and a glory departed never
to return until the art of building
steamships and railroads shall be
lost, and until pine forests shall again
clothe the hills and valleys as they
did a century ago.
1t seems to have been decreed by
Providence that the commerce of
Ryegate should not be carried on by
those that go down to the sea in
ships" L. H. NJ.
Providence, Aug. %, 1889.
PRESS COMMENTS.