The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1895-11-22
ROYAL q. WOOD.
One Of the Interesting Veterans OF Brat :
tlebOro-SOme Interesting Stories Of
Early Days.


Early Days.
From the Springfield Sunday Republican,
Royal G. Woods ancestry was good
old Puritan stock, his grandfather
being Baptist minister over one Of
the oldest churches in Massachusetts,
Royal Wood was born March II, 1907.
being the youngest of family of IL
children OF Philip and Eunicc Pierce
Wood. He is now the only survivor of
the family. His mother was daugh-
ter of Dea. Jonathan Pierce, who is
said to have been the first deacon in
town and at whose home on the Wood
farm the Baptists frequently held their
meetings more than 100 years ago.
Dea Pierces daughter Esther, was,
according to the records, the first per-
son TO be baptized here in the Baptist
faith. Philip Wood was Revolution
airy soldier and one Of the very earliest
settlers in Brattleboro, buying and
clearing up farm in the west part of
the town. which he occupied until
about 1874 when he bought and moved
on to what is now known as the Wood
farm. An uncle of Royal Wood served
in the Canadian parliament, having
emigrated to Canada about the time OF
the removal of the family frem the old
homestead.
When the Woods came down from
the west village the Pierce farm house
stood on what is now Cemetery hill. or
South Main street, and great part of
the land on either side of the road was
then part ofEthe Wood farm. This
was the stage road to Greenfield, pass
ing through Guilford. the Vernon road
coming up past the cascade as now.
When Mr.. Wood came here, there was
no church in the village, meetings
being occasionally held in the little red
school house on the common. Young
Wood, with his older brothers, were
sent cup in town. as the west village
was then called, to meeting. But when
church was built on the common, the
Wood family went to hear Rev. Mr..
Wells. who was the pastor. In those
days it was customary for the preacher
to deliver long discourses and there
was no fire in the meeting house save
what was supplied by the old foot
stoves which were indeed luxuries.
The Woods had one OF these little sheet
iron boxes, which we're covered with
wood and were run with hard wood
Goals from some one of the neighboring
homes, and with this little stove the
large family was able to sit through
the long sermon.
Mr.. Wood recalls many pleasant hours
spent in the district school-hou on
what is now the Hunt farm and which
stood near the old gravestones which
still mark. in the open field, the burial
place of some of the pioneers Of the
town. Beside this school house there
was one on the common and another in
Guilford. though the institution of
learning of which the town boosted
was the academy at West Brattleboro.
The school building on the Hunt farm
was formerly cooper's shop and was
not particularly warm in winter, but
when the weather was very severe the
pupils, about 40 in number, were per
mitted to take their books and study
around the big fireplace in which were
burned four-foot green logs.
Opposite the schoolhouse near the
site of the Brooks farm house once
stood Fort Dummer, but all traces
of the fort had disappeared when the
Wood family took up their residence
there. About two miles below Fort
Drummer were two smaller forts or
block houses, Bridgman and Sartain's.
These were burned by the Indians,
but rebuilt in the second war. 1t
was 10 or more years ago, says Mr..
Wood. that last saw one of these
forts. 1t was then propped up to
keep it from falling over. Some years
afterward there was slide on the
river bank opposite the Newton farm
house in Vernon which unearthed
number of skeletons, supposed to be
those of Indians. l have plowed up
many Indian arrow heads on my farm
of various sizes, some quite large, all
being made of flint. They were deft-
" made. with little necks to which
the Indiugs attached the sinews of the
deer" Mr.. Wood remembers the
home of old DIR. John Wilson, which
stood near the present site of the
freight depot, and he recollects the
circumstances of the doctors death
and the discovery of the fact that he
was the notorious Thunderbolt. the
accomplice of Capt. Lightfoot, both
daring highwaymen, whose exploits
were afterwards recited in pam
phlet published here in Brattleboro and
which had a large sale. Lightfoot, 1t
will be remembered, was hanged in
Boston for the robbery of Maj. Bray
in New Hampshire, and it was dur
ing his confinement in prison that an
attempt was made, supposedly by
Thunderbolt, to rescue him. Thunder
bolt was buried in the village
cemetery, and his gravestone can still
be seen by the curious
Mr.. Woods stories of the unsuccess-
r. e.. 70 fba (spDnpctl-