Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1895-12-05
The New Hampshire Grants in the
Colonial Wars.

Among the topics assigned 10 alter-din-
ner speakers at recent banquet" OF
the Vermont Society of the Sons of the
American Revolution, was Vermont in
the Colonial Wars" In point of fact
there was no Vermont in the colonial war;,
nor until seventeen years after the last of
them had ended. The territory which is
row Vermont then known as the New
hampshire Grants, was an almost Unin-
habted wilderness until Canada had been
coded to England after the close of the
French and Indian war, which ended with
the defeat Of Montcalm and fan of Quebec
in 1850. Hunting and fishing parties of the
Canadian Indians made summer camps on
the lakes and streams but there was no
permanent Indian village this side Of the
Canadian line, and no white population.
All that the Grants had to do with any Of
the colonial wars was to furnish the sites
for one or two outposts ana the paths
through the forests. over which passed
the raidine parties of French and Indians
which from time to time attacked the
outlying settlements to the south ana
east, The first military outpost estab-
lished in the region which is now
Vermont was Fort 81. Anne, on
Isle La Motto, built by the French in
1865 for defence against the Iroquois The
next Wa established in 1880, at Chimney
Point, in The town OF Addison. by the
mayor and officers of the city and county
Of Albany, who sent Capt Jacobus D'Warm
10 occupy the pass in the lake at that
point with a party of seventeen men, who
built small stone fort on the point, after
wards abandoned when the stronger forth
1lcaton OF Fort Friedrich was built on the
opposite shore. 1t is recorded that Col
John Schuyler stopped at this small stone
fort, when he came through the lake. on
his return from his expedition against
La Prairie in August, 1880, This was dur
ing King Williams war. The stone fort
was till there, as it is supposed, in 1880: but
no trace OF it remains, The next outpost
was established in 1924 in the southeastern
part Of the present town OF Brattleburo by
ssachusetts, and was called Fort Dunn
mer, after Lieut., Gov. drummer OF that
province. This fort, surrounded by Il
stockade, and armed with four sWivcls and
one large gun was built for protection
against the hostile Indians, who, though
England and France were then a. peace
were secretly stirred NJ by the French
governor Of Canada to raid the settlements
and check the English from pushing to
The north in tho Connecticut valley. These
outposts were the hrst civilized occupa-
tons OF the soil of what is now Vermont
OF the raids which crossed the New
Hampshire Grants, thar against Deorteld
in 1904 was one of the most famous This
was in February, 170i. during Queen
.Anne's war. Deerleld was hamlet Of
about 900 inhabitants, the most northorly
settlement on the Connecticut river
Against this IN the dead OF a snowy vim
ter Vaudreul, the French governor of
Canada, despatched a party OF about 500
French ana Indians. under Iere! dc Rou-
vile, They came up the lake from
Chambly on snowshoes on the ice to the
mouth of the Onion river, followed It up to
the height Of land" as the old accounts
say, probably In Plainfield, passed thence
10 the valley OF Wells River, down that
10 the Connecticut, and thence on the ice
OF that river TO Decrheld. The settlement
was surprised, before daylight a Of the
inhabitants killed. the village burned, and
IL persons carried off to Canada, not all
wife Of the minister. having been toma-
hawked on the way because too feeble to
travel.
In 1924 Fort Dummer was attacked by 70