Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-11-15
SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVo-
LUTON.
Vermont Meeting at Burlington
Yesterday.

Inc sixth annual banquet of the Yer
mont Society of the Sons of the American
Revolution, was held at the Van Ness
House in Burlington, Thursday after
noon, being by far the largest in the
history of this organization. A banquet
was served in the evening.
President Mansur in his brief address
stated that p certificates of membership
had been granted during the year, the
register now showing a membership of
227.
During the year two members have
died, S. II. Kellogg of Rutland, October
18th, 1894, and Edward L. Norton of Ben
ningtOn, December 18th, 1894.
Fourteen are members of this society
who are not members of the national or
ganizatiOn. for the reason that they have
failed to file evidence to prove that they
are entitled to membership. These will
be given six months in which TO furnish
evidence; failing to do which they will
be dropped from the roll
These new members were elected c..
Fl. Thompson, g. f. X. Jenne, f. H.
Field of BrattlebOro, e. l.. Ripley, Mer-
ton E. Grandy, F. +. Kimball of Burling-
ton, A. B. Sibley OF Bennington, A. c..
Bliss of Calais, [. II. Francisco of Rut-
land, G. w. DOty ot Morrisvile and A.
n. Adams of Fair Haven.
The officers elected for the ensuing
year we're: President. d. w. Robinson of
Burlington; vice president, Olin Scott of
Bennington; secretary, Chas. S. Forbes
of st. Albans; treasur II, NJ. X. Paine of
Windsor; registrar, II. l.. StilIsOn of Ben
nington; historian, G. G. Benedict OF
Burlington; chaplain, Rev. Chas. r..
S ymOur of Bennington; board of mana
gers, Chas. Dewey of Montpelier, A B
Valentine of Bennington, Henry Wells of
Burlington, w p. Dillingham; of Water.
bury, Cassius Peck of BrOokfield, F. f..
Alfred of Newport and NJ. j. Horton of
Poultney; delegates to National congress
at large, d. w. Robinson of Burlington.
Oin Scott. eX-officiO, Col. Z. A. Chitten-
den of st. AlbanS; delegate, DR.. II. D..
HOltOn of Bratteboro.
COL. oLIN SCOTS ADDRESS.
The following is the address on the
Battle of Bennington" delivered by
Col Olin Scott:
Mr. President, and gentlemen of the
Society of the Sons of the American Rev.
olution. Ladies and Gentlemen: The
gentlemen of your committee
have invited Inc To tell you to day
the old story of the Battle at Benning
ton, story which has been so often and
ably told, in prose and poetry, speech
and song, for more than hundred years
That story is part of the history of
v nd 1 ,,iy yinr, o,,l
will preface the story of the fight by re-
citing some of the well known fac S in
history OF our State.
The territory of our State living as it
does between the Connecticut river and
Lake ChamDlain, possesses certain mill
tary adyal tages as well as disa lvantages
and before It's settlement by white men
was hunting and fighting ground for
the Indians who made their homes else
where and made incursions into the ter
ritory by means of the river and lake and
when the white man came he used the
same Il a ;kless highways. When Canada
was held by the French the English as
well as the COlOniSts recognized the stTa-
tegic Importance of the position at the
| south end of Lake Champlain, a point
| conveniently reached by water from any
point on the St. Lawrence river and ad-
vantageously situated for aggressive or
defensive operations.
When the first settlers came to this
region about 1861 they had Canada on the
north, New York on the west and Massa-
chusetts on the south with none of the
boundaries defined
New Hampshire claimed and exercised
jurisdiction westward to line 20 miles
east of the Hudson river, which is about
where the west lines of Massachusetts
and Vermont now are, and in the eXer-
else of her authority granted charters to
large number OF settlers, mostly in
township tracts which were by them
| cleared of the heavy growth of timber
and converted into good farming lands.
| They also built roads and bridges,
churches and school houses for public
use as well as houses and other buildings
for their own comfort and convenience.
and more important than all the rest
they called town meetings and organized
local governments. The oldest charter
of a township by the province of New
Hampshire is believed to be that nf Ben
nlngton, which bears date of Jan. Sd, 1740
and is signed by Gov. Benning Went
worth for whom the town was named,
but the town was not settled until 1861
"iVOA "hlCh oCGtlOiuCllJo ululJlplleu Idplu-
ly.
In 1854 the colony of New York made
a claim of the territory of Vermont east
ward to the Connecticut river and by ex
parte representation made to the British
King and council, induced the King to
declare the Connecticut river to be the
eastern boundary of New York. Both
New Hampshire and New York being
British provinces the King could change
their boundaries at will but such change
of boundary did not affect the title of the
owners or grantees of the lands, but the
New Hampshire authorities claimed that
the definition of the boundary by the
King had invalidated all the titles of
lands granted by New Hampshire which
titles had been unquestioned for many
years, and then the governors of New
York proceeded to grant the same lands
which the pioneer settlers had labOred
so hard to clear up and improve, to vari-
Gus favorites and land spectators and
indirectly to themselves in large tracts
OF an area from 900 10 144,OOO acres, and
these spectators then attempted to evict
the settlers aud disposess them of all
their properly without any compensation
by means of ejectment suits brought in
the courts of Albany county and sending
the Albany sheriff with a posse to serve
the writs of ejectment and put the New
York claimants in possession.