Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-01-17
Some Experiences of an Early
Vermont Family.

The recent death of Mrs. Nancy Bates
Atkinson in Portland, Oregon, recalls some
points in the history of one of the early
Vermont families. More than a hundred
years ago, in 1889, two brothers, young
men of Cohasset, Mass, decided to change
their seafaring life for one of farming, in
the then new colony of Vermont. So, with
packs on their backs, they walked the hun.
dred miles TO Springfield, where few set
tiers had already established themselves.
Finding section with a temporary house
OF two rooms and small patch OF cleared
land they bought 1t and were to take pos
session the following spring. Then winter
came; the brothers made an eleven days
journey on an ox-sled from Cohasset to
Springfield, bringing their families and
their household goods. Theophius Bates,
the elder, had wife and two children, his
brother wife and one child, company of
seven. One of the two rooms in their
house was occupied by the former owner
and his family. The one available room
was better than an ox-sled, so into it the
two families moved. At meal times the
spinning wheels were put on the beds and
The children were held in the parents laps.
the chimney was built on the outside of
the house.
The new farms had good soil, and were
situated only mile from Black river falls,
where the thriving village of Springfield
soon sprang up. A large brook ran near
the house, but 1t had no fish, as it made
fall of nearly thirty feet near its entrance
into the Black river. So the brothers with
pals and sleeves went down to the river and
caught hsh, with which they stocked their
brook. Before many years it was well
supplied with fine trout, which were con-
sldered private property, and many fish
erman was made TO feel that he was on for
hidden ground when he came to that brook.
Phineas Bates, the father of Mrs Atkin-
son, had twelve children, all of whom lived
to grow up and two of whom still survive
Mrs. Sybil Whpple of Weathersfield,
now in her Oath year, and Mrs. Lewis Grout
of West Brattleboro. Anna, the Oldest
child, was born in the "Old Colony of
Massachusetts, spent her early life in the
new state of Vermont, in middle life went
with her husband and children and other
early settlers to the then new state of Mich
igan, and in her old age had home in the
family of daughter with whom she went
TO Kansas in its early days, where she had
her third experience of frontier life.
In October, 1916, the two youngest child
rem were married on the same day in the
Congregational church in Springfield, VT,
Nancy TO Rev. Geo. II. Atkinson and
Lydia to Rev. Lewis Grout. In due time
all set sail for their respective fields of labor.
Dor. The Grouts, on foreign mission voy-
age to South Africa, doubled Cape of Good
Hope and reached their field in four months,
while the Atkinsons, on a home mission
voyage to Oregon, doubling Cape Horn,
were eight months in reaching their field.
MI. and Mrs. Grout took passage from
Boston in the bark VIM. II. Smaller, for
Cape Town. The captain was a skillful
navigator and Christian. The vessel was
generously provisioned and well managed.
She was named for a Baptist elder, and
the captain said she was a good Baptist.
She liked the water and did not mind if
the waves sometimes swept over her. Ar
rived at the Cape, the Grouts found that
the Rosebud, the only vessel plying be-
tween the Cape and Natal, was laid up for
repairs and they waited a month for her.
Cape Town was then called 1.-THE Hotel of
the World" Its inhabitants were from
various European and Asiatic nations and
African tribes. English gentlemen wore
wells on their hats and Malay women went
bareheaded in the streets. The elegant
carriages of the wealthy, with servants in
livery, shared the streets with ox-wagons
and uncivilized women carrying their
wares on their heads.
When the Rosebud was ready TO sail it
to k as passengers two American and three
Dutch missionaries and an English officer.
The vessel was old and the captain igno-
rant. Knowing but little of navigation, he
70
near the shore, constantly hindered in con-
sequence by adverse currents so that some
mornings, when the ships bearings had
been made up, she was found to be farther
from the haven she sought than she was
the previous morning. The vessel was
poorly provisioned for even the two weeks
which was the usual time spent in making
the thousand miles from Cape Town to
Port Natal. In this case the voyage COW
cred more than a month. During the last
two weeks the passengers were put on the
shortest allowance of water and had only
hard tack and salt meat for food. There
was an abundance OF liquor, and while the
sailors said they had poor voyage by rea-
son of the missionaries they had on board,
the latter thought the liquor was at least a
partial cause.
In the autumn of 1S47 the Atkinsons
sailed from Boston in a merchant ship
bound for China. They were left at the
Sandwich islands, where they waited three
months before there was an opportunity
to cross to Oregon. Mrs. Atkinson gave
the captain of the first vessel a letter for
Mrs. Grout which he carried to China, and
on his return voyage, touching at Cape
Town, he left it there, whence it was for
warded to its destination, thus completing
the circuit of the world partly made by the
sisters.
OF the ten children who have passed on
some rest in the cemetery of their early
home, one lies in Kansas, another in far
off California, and now still another on the
shores of the Pacific in Oregon.
They grew In beauty, side by side,
They filed one home wi h glee--
Their graves are severed far and wide