Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-02-07

site Mrs. Bigelow's; in 1772 William Elias
where the seminary is, and Lieut.. Root
where Mr.. Thurber lives; in 1776 Malachi
Church built mills ON the brook, and Capt.
John Houghton came and lived in front of
| where Clark block Is, and in 177S Ruther-
ford Hayes came and settled where Mrs.
Bigelow lives and others came and lived in
| that part of the valley. In 1875 the road,
| now the old road from Marlboro, was built
down through to here. Through West Brat
tleboro it did not come where it now does,
but went straight out to where the semin-
airy buildings are, and then straight down
to the brook. The support of the gospel
then, by law, rested upon the towns, and
the meeting houses for both religious and
town meetings were 10 be provided for by
the towns. This town voted to build
new meeting house, and to set it on this
road east of Capt. Houghtons. 1t was
built there, 60 by As, two stories high, and
the north side was just about in the horse
path of the present travelled track oppo-
site the present Westinghouse. The front
door was on the south side with another
entrance at each end, and a belfry with a
steeple was finally built at the west end.
Pews were sold to raise money to finish it.
Here the town and religious meetings
|
moved to where the present one is. The
town had then been relieved by law from
supporting the gospel, but it still owned
the Westinghouse subject to the rights of
the pew-holders. Town meetings in the
same place with religious meetings were
not agreeable. An agreement was made
between the town, the pew-holders and the
academy, with consent of Mr.. John Noyes,
who gave the land for the academy, that
the pew-holders should have the meeting
house, and town meetings should be held
in the hall of the academy, which stood on
the corner west of the present seminary
buildings. The annual meeting in 1918
was holden in the meeting house and free
mans meeting in academy hall; and here
they were held till 1854.
While these things had been going on
Matthew Martin had come from Towns
bend and rebuilt the mill at Milestone
bridge; Gardner Chandler had come and
| lived at the Brooks House corner; John
| w. Blake had come; Samuel Dickinson
had come and built a trip hammer shop;
John Holbrook had come from Newfane
hill; Francis Goodhue had come; Chester
| Pomeroy had come from Newfane hill,
bringing the Park house with him; Calvin
| Townsley had come from Templeton; ia.
cob Estey from Hinsdale; and many 9th
ers of all classes, ministers, doctors, law
| yers, merchants and artisans.
| In lS49 the railroad came. While this
part of the town had so much increased in
population, the farming part westward had
| fallen off. No trolley cars ran to West
Bra:tleboro as now for voters to ride up
there on and the highway was not as good.
The voters here began to move to have the
meetings here; but this could not be east
ly carried. Finally a special meeting was
called for Feb. 20, 1854, to see, among
other things, what measures the town
would take TO provide a suitable hall for
holding town and fIeemen's meetings.
When the day came the voters here were
rallied and went up; and those of the
west part were on hand. After much OPP
position, including great speech by Judge
Samuel Clark, the meeting voted that the
town erect a suitable building for town
hall and other municipal purposes TO be To-
Gated in the East village, and that a COM
mittee of five be chosen by ballot to de-
wise, plan, and erect such building. Ed
ward Kirkland, Timothy Vint n, Lafay-
cite Clark, George Newman and Francis
Goodhue were chosen such a committee
and authorized to borrow $1,000. This
was taken to mean that all town meetings
were to be held here and no more held at
West Brattleboro. Temporarily they were
held in Revere hall, next to the Revere
House, in stone building that stood where
Mr.. COx's stove store is.
Before much had been done towards a
new hall a meeting was called there to
have the vote rescinded, but the articles