Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-12-08
Old-Time Wardsboro Once More.

Correction in egard to the Birchard
Fnmily---Where Some of the People
Came from and where They Lived---
the Store, the Westinghouse and the
Common.
The statement in the sketch of the old
village of Wardsboro, in The Phoenix of
November 10, that Roger Orchard, brother
of Austin, and afterwards a merchant of
Newfane and Dummerston, lived i'm Wards
boro, is an error which got in through fail
ure to compare dates. Probably neither
Roger Birchard nor any of his ancestors
ever lived in what is now Wardsboro; al
though Roger Birchard, an ancestor, was
chosen one of the listers when the town
was organized in 1856, and was one of the
treemen OF the town in 1896 This was
probably a grandfather of Austin and
Roger, and of Sophia, who became Mrs.
rutherford Hayes of Brattleboro, and of
Cynthia, who became Mrs. DR.. Simon Tay-
Tor of Newfane. Their father, whose name
was Roger, and who died in August, 1905,
at the age of about 40 would have been
scarcely old enough for lister in 1886;
and besides this he lived in Wilmington
when Austin was born in 1893 and Roger
in 1897, and when his daughters were
born, and would not be likely to be free
man in Wardsboro in 1896.
The elder Roger came from Mansfield,
Conn, and settled in what is now Dover be-
fore it belonged to any town ever organized,
and was there when Warsdboro was or
gained, which then included Dover; and
when Dover was organized as the south
district of Wardsboro in 1889. Dover was
not organized as a town with tul privi-
leges till 1910, and all the freemen were
freemen of Wardsboro till then. The CEN
tire of business in Wardsboro was first be-
! gun in the neighbOrhood where the school
house in district No. 3 now is. The town
was organized at meeting held near there
at the house of John Jones, of which
! Judge Luke Knowlton of Ne gfane was the
moderator. Asa Wheelock from Shrews-
bury, Mass, settled just south of there in
| 1882, and married Lucy Maynard of Shrews-
bury June rs, 17SS Judge Henry Wheel
ock and Emery Wheeock, and Mrs DR..
Warren were their children. Capt. John
Rice of Shrewsbury married Elizabeth
Wheelock, sister of Asa. John and Henry
Rice, afterwards of Newfane, were their
children. Joseph knowton of Shrewsbury
married Mary, daughter of Dra. Ezekiel
KnowltOn of that place, and sister of Luke
knowlton, afterwards Judge Knowlton of
Newfane, Sept. u, 1749. They afterwards
settled in this neghbOrhood, and were dis
missed from the church in Shrewsbury to
the church in WardsborO in 1890. Nathan
/ knoWltOn, son of Joseph, married Abigail
Maynard, sister of Lucy, and settled in the
west part of Newfane near by. Benjamin
Knowlton, father of Benjamin l.. Knowl-
ton, Esquire, of Jamaica, was their son.
The road from Newfane hill, and that
from the northeast part of Warlsboro,
where Colonel, afterwards General Read,
Oliver Willard and others lived led to this
neighborhood; and John Holbrook had
his store here as before mentioned. No
town was settled by better people than
these and other early settlers of this vi
cinity.
The hill was nearer than this to the cen
tire of Wardsboro as a town by ITSELF and
the Westinghouse was set up there with a
common about it, as the meeting-houses in
Chesterfield, Dummerston and Newfane
were set on hills. The first schoohoust
was built on the north side of the road
leading west from the old common; and
Esquire Cheney had a potashery on the
south side. Capt Sprague lived on the
west side of the common, where Esquir,
Nathaniel Ward afterwards lived. Capt
Wales Bridges married his daughter Hui
dab and lived on the north side of tn,
common. Jonathan Robinson of Newfan,
had a store there several years, and dice
there July %, 1929; and his brother, Hol
lis T. Robinson, afterwards of Williams
Vile, was clerk for him, and marie,
Eliza, daughter of Rev. James Tufts. o
the public institutions of this old place
however as said before, nothing but tn
common remains.