Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-08-09
Written for the HERALD.

ships and ceaseless toll of the early
settlers of Vermont. His opportunities
forschooling were exceedingly limited
still he succeeded in acquiring a good
common education. Blessed with a
very retentive memory, when be had
once learned a thing it always re.
manned with him, and he had ready
tact of calling it up and making use
of it.
His early life of toll built him up a
constitution that carried him through
his ninety years almost without an
ailment. lie was a very strong man,
Eli q. Smith says that when little
boy he had seen Mr.. Cargill commence
to cut the butt of Il large log when
another man began the second cut,
and before the latter had finished, Mr..
Cargill would have the third cut COM
| pleted.
In January 1920, when 81 years old,
John Cargill married Orpha Schoff,
daughter of jacob Schoff of Maidstone.
By her he had two daughters, Laura
Ann, who married Ladoit Farmer, and
Elmina Jane, who married Arba Joy.
Neither of them are now living, and
Mrs. CargiIl died October %, 1873.
Nowadays, when Il young man
seeks to make start in life he looks
around for a clerkship, or some soft
job in which he can keep his clothes
nice and his hands soft, Ia Mr.. Car
gill's time it was different. Then ii
seemed to be the proper thing for a
young man in starting for himself to
strike out into the wilderness, select
his location, and there literally HEw
out home for himself and family.
Hard work did not terrify them.
In September 1929, John Cargill
in company with his brother Ithel
started out to find n place on which
to settle. After looking through Nor
gan and Charleston they decided to
locate in what was then Caldersburg,
now part of Brighton, on the farm
where John Cargill spent the rest of
his life. With two other men they set
out to make clearing and putup the
inevitable log house. One day while
chopping, tree just cut was noticed
as likely to fall on Ithel. The others
shouted to him but he seemed para
lyzed with fear, and instead of moving
stood looking at the tree. 1t struck
him in the back and knocked him
down. He was holding his axe in such
O manner that the whole bit of the
axe was driven into his breast making
such a cash that his lungs were plainly
exposed to view. Just as they brought
lthel to the camp, Mr.. Oliver Pinney
of Holland, father of the late Levi
Pinney of this town, reached the camp
with horse he had borrowed the day
before of Ithel, also one of his own. A
man was sent with one of the horses to
the Connecticut river, 16 miles, to nos
tify Ithel's father and bring a doctor.
The doctor reached the camp ut day
light next morning, sewed up the
wound, and then they started to carry
him home. They placed him upon a
litter swung between the two horses,
but this Jared him So badly that the
men had to carry the litter themselves.
They camped one night in the woods
and reached old Mr. Cargill's the next
day. Ithel, however, died when he
was within about three>fourths OF q
mile of home. An examination showed
that O splinter driven into his back,
and unnoticed in their hurry at the
time OF the accident, had caused his
death.
His brothers death so discouraged
John that he determined to abandon
his clearing and settle elsewhere. Ills
wife, however, desired to come back,
and was so persistent that John gave
way to her, and they returned, finally
settling here in April 1928. They lived
in Il log house just below where the
barn is on his old place. The roof of
the log house was made of bark, the
floor and doors of split logs. For
some time their nearest neighbors
were eight miles away, in Morgan, or
Is miles, on the Connecticut river.
When John was so fortunate as to
raise some grain he had to carry it to
Derby to be ground.
lie built the first framed barn in
town having to haul the lumber some
or miles, from little saw mill
north of Morgan Corner.
The matron of the present day would
naturally suppose that Mrs. Cargill,
deprived as she was of all opportnni-
ties for making calls, shopping, tea
fights, and that greatest OF all pleas
ures, the semizannual house cleaning,
must have been unhappy and discon.
tented but the contrary was the fact.
That she was blessed with the usual
amount of happiness and contentment
is evidenced by the fact that when at
the end of their first season in town,
the frost had destroyed all their crops
and John declared he would leave
Mrs. Cargill said she had come there
to live and make her home, and she
would never leave there till she went
to her last home. And she did as she
said.
When Mr. Cargill came into town