The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1895-11-01

"a Cream Brush. who came TO Westmir stei
in I'll. was one of the remarkable men of those
troubles, his part in them and in the revolution
and his fate finally were all remarkable, as were
his family and their previous and subsequent
careers, all of which will be treated fully in q
note at later part of the story.
~ Now Londonderry, Col. James Rogers
the man alluded to. was one of the leaders / Il
his section for several years but appears TO
have been of strangely wagering principles. and
finally became TORY and fied the country. He
was a member of the Westminster convention OF
Feb. Z, rs, to look out for the cause of the set
tiers and express sympathy with the friends OF
liberty in other colonies in the growing resist
ance TO Great Britain. He was in 1866 an assist
ant Justice of Common Pleas for Cumberland
county (Which included what is practically now
Windham and Windsor cOuntes.) and before
that was one of the 81 justices of the peace com.
missioned by New York for the whole of the
Grants. New York when attempting to form a
military organization on the Grants, offered him
May 3lst, l575 the position OF brigadier. general
form hut he declined the offer upon
political principles" and the patriot commit
tee of safety for Cumberland county In the
fall following named him Brigadier General for
the brigade of Cumberland, Gloucester and
Charlotte counties. After he went over to the
British his property in Londonderry was in the
wear IT'S conifsicated, but in the years 1875 and
'g7 the legislature of Vermont granted back TO
his som James Rogers, Jr, all the lands In the
town owned by the father which had not been
sold under the confiscation act
f6) David Redding,-of whom more later
was n real character about whom cehtered
some most interesting eyents-but probably he
was not present at the Westminster affair, as
the story represents
IN This was the fact and IL was a chief
case of the trouble. The settlers were al
most entirely destitute Of money, there was no
naper money and the British trade regulations
were such that very little coin could get into the
conntry. Almost all that was circulating waswhat
,Sas ia The hands of the Workers and officials,
ike Brush. gathered up mainly in the way OF
taxes with which, when judgement was oh
tsined against debtor, they would buy up the
nropertv for a song and SO speculate on the
rrcrv misfortnnes which Baitish mis-rule had
created.
ISL The people on the east side of the mount.
az. nrettv generally took the New York side OF
,he land controversy In the early part of the
.,ruggle- In Brattlebo-o at one poll there
s,as only one vote the other way. Yet while
Yorkisni and Toryism were very nearly synono-
mons on The west side of tie mountain, and nat
nrally as the struggle of the colonies developed,
the .ynrk" officials became majority OF them
Tories the mass of the people on both the east
and west sides we're heartily ON the side of the
Revolution ana the percentage OF Torres among
,bem Notwithstanding the wrongs ana fetnlt:-
,Ions 10 which they were subjected, was less IN
vermont than anywhere else in the country.
,rhe different conventions of Cumberland county
and the meetings of the committees o. towns
ssd Tor several months before the date with
,xl,seb the story opens pronounced emniiatlcAiiy
sar The measures of the congress OF lss4-