News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1894-08-16

acres of land for each fifty acres of
his share; and be and his heirs should
continue to cultivate and improve
the same, on penalty of forfeiture.
The second condition was that all
pine trees fit for masting the Royal
navy, should be carefully preserved
and none be cut or felled without
special license, subject TO a penalty
of forfeiture and also subject to
penalty for the violation of any Act
of Parliament thereafterwards pass
ed for their preservation.
The third condition was that be-
fore any division among the grant
ees, there should be a portion of the
township, as near the centre as prac-
ticable, set out into town lots, each
grantee having one.
The fourth condition was that each
grantee should, for ten years, pay
an annual rent of one ear of corn.
The fifth condition was that each
grantee or his heirs, should, after
the expiration of ten years, pay an
annual rent of one shilling proclama-
ton money, for each hundred acres
of his grant.
These conditions, so carefully in
serted, were probably not very strict
ly complied with and long since be-
come mere matters of curiosity in
history. AS early as May, 1775,
when our Ethan Allen took Ticonder-
oga and Crown Point, with SO
Green Mountain Boys, they became
practically of no effect and in the
peace of 1888 all claim of title or iu-
risdiction to this or any other terri
tory in the United States, was ex-
pressly abandoned. So there is no
remaining Royal shadow upon our
title.
The first meeting of the proprietors
was held at Salisbury April "a, ITO;
the next at Sharon in September fol
lowing, where they continued to meet
for several years after. Their first
meeting in Stowe was held at the
house of Lowden Case, Feb. 2, 1896.
The town held it's first March meet
ing in 1877, which was called by VIM.
Utley, a Justice of the Peace, when
the town was duly organized.
The first set Element was commenced
by Oliver Luce late in the winter of
1894. He was a native of Martha's
Vineyard. His wife, whose maiden
name was Susannah Mulicon, was
native of Plainfeld, Vt. Mr.. Luce
was a man nearly 80 years of age,
full six feet, of brawny build, and
ford complexion, with a voice like a
bass drum. At the time of his settle
ment he resided at Hartland, VT,
from which place he came, accompa-
MED by his wife, with pair of horses
and sleigh to Waterbury, to the
Joshua Hill place." some six miles
from Stowe. There was only bride
path to this place and the snow was
deep and untrodden. Hewas anxious
to be the first settler and started
with handsled, on which he tied a
little bedding, his wife following;
they wallowed their weary way into
this town to point nearly two miles
from this village, where Cassius Serb
ner now resides. Tradition is silent
as to where or how we'll they slept
that night, but it is presumed that
after the fatigue of that day their
slumber was so sound that it was
not disturbed by the "fying feet of
the frightened DEER or the "hoo,
hoo !" of the drowsy owl. Mr.. Luce
built the firstlog house in town, near
the place already indicated, and was
the first to entertain the travellers
through this region. He cleared up
the fine farm which has long been
known as the "Scribner farm" and
in 1908 or 8 he became discontented,
as tradition has it, and sold out to
Esty Russell for $4,000. This, with
some personal property, made him
not only quite independent, but a
man of rty, for that time.
Seeking his fCr,une, he removed to
Sharon, vt, in which town and Others
in the vicinity he lived some 5 or 16
years, when, becoming poor, and f.
nally convinced that Stowe was the
best place in the world for a poor
man, he returned here and pursued
+" the even tenor of his way till the
close of his life, full of years." at So.
His was not the first or last mistake
made by trying to find a better
land" in which to dwell than Stowe,
though it has proved, in the career of
many, to he great town ito emf
CRATE FROM"
Captain Clement Moody moved in
to Stowe with his family the very
next day after Oliver Luce came.
Some years after he built the first
framed house in town, on the farm
now owned by AFRO c. Slayton.
The first birth in town was Harry
Luce, the son of Oliver and Susannah.
The first hotel in town, built for
that purpose as we'll as dwelling,
was erected by Nathan Robinson,
who settled here in 1898, on the farm
now occupied by the son of DR.. T. B.
Smith of N. Y. 1t was constructed OF
logs, 40 feet by 20, one story. The
floor was made of split logs, split side
up, aided off to a level surface. The
kitchen and bar-room were one apart
ment, in which was one bed. The
square-room had three beds, and
the chamber" reached by climbing
a ladder, also had three beds.
Nathan Robinson first represented
tho town in tho I oriol O tura of thp