Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1898-03-25
AS 1T USED TO BE.
A FORMER RESIDENT DESCRIBES THE
ANTE-BELLUM MlDDLEBURY.

a New Generation in Control-The Burn
ing of the College Main Building-In-
dustries of Long Ago-Our Soldier Boys
Who Went to Battle.
EDITOR REGISTER A copy of your
valuable paper came this way last week,
and happened to see it. 1t seemed like
message from home. | was born in
your village in 1853, and came away with
my parents when | was about ten years
of age. have faint recOllections of the
place and the people who were there al
that time. The list of names In your
locals are nearly all strangers, excepting
Mrs. Myron L. Langworthy, who re-
Gently died. | remember her. The mer-
chants at that time were the Lang
worthys, Sheldons and Slade, who were
then young men. The thought is
forcibly impressed upon ones mind how
quickly generation rises and ripens in
to old age, preparatory to garnering into
the great home of the hereafter, and this
worlds work is continued by new gen.
erations.
| remember the burning of the main
building of the college, | think in the
fall of 1850. 1t was on Sunday night
The building was of stone as now. The
old walls were taken down and rebuilt
My father, Joseph Harris, probably re-
membered by some of your oldest resi-
dents, drew the stone for the new build
ing from the stone quarry west of the
village, then known as the Sampson
quarry. You may Justly feel proud of
your old college for the good work done
there. Graduates from this school can
be found all over the country. In 1900
the institution Will be hundred years
old May it have another hundred years
of prosperity in which to continue its
good work as in the past.
| attended school while in Middlehury
in a two.story brick building that then
stood across the street from the Female
Seminary. 1t was a graded school of
two departments. Ny father then lived
not far from the Cobb crossing, in
house then owned by Miss Julia Norton.
He worked in the sawmill west of the
river. near the wooen factory. The
mill was owned by Russ Nallett at the
time. The most of the logs for this mill
then came down the river from the
swamps in Salisbury and from Whiting.
The logs were mostly old growth pine
and oak, which are not plenty in Yer
mont now Near this sawmll was
gristmill where the farmers sold their
wheat, to be manufactured into flour and
kept for sale. Very little flour was
brought into town from the west for
sale then, for nearly every farmer raised
large fields of wheat which was consumed
at home. Most of the farmers were
prosperous. Mr.. Nallett also owned
sawmil in the town of Weybridge, a
little below the old covered bridge. At
the west end of the bridge was a large
paper mill, operated by Mr.. Ingram.
Near this mill was a linseed oil mill,
owned by Timothy Flanagan. My
father worked in this mill until it burned.
The fax seed used in the mill nearly all
came from Canada. In those days it
was thought that the oil cakes now
ground into oil meal were worthless, and
for many years they were thrown into
the river.
A little north Of these mills, on the
opposite side of the river, was an iron
foundry, where Mr.. Davenport made the
old fashioned stoves with elevated ovens.
They were about the first cooking stoves
made TO supersede the brick fire places.
At the left of the bridge, on the west
side of the river, and near the bridge,
lived Guy Woodruff. The first money
] ever earned was earned in his service,
wedding beets at ten cents per day. lie
was an excellent farmer.
Another scene comes back to my re-
nembrance of the company of young
soldiers who enlisted for nine months of
military service from Middlcbury. They
were uniformed and equipped with guns
and sabers, and for some time drilled
daily on the grounds little south of the
college grounds. They felt heroic and
grand in their home parades, but when
the hour came to depart from their loved
ones it was quite another thing, and
sOrrowful faces were everywhere to be
seen. Many of those brave boys found
an early grave in the southern soil. One
of them, Albert DuttOn, was killed in
the first battle. The men had been
ordered to lie low, but, impelled by
curiosity, he raised his head, only to re-
ceiye a rebel bullet One of the boys in
that company lives in Walpole, n. H.,
and another in Proctorsville, VT, but
the whereabouts of the rest is unknown
to me. j. n. HARRIS.
Ludlow, Vt, Mar. 2l, 1898.
The Late Hon. Walter ID. Crane.
Hon Walter d. Crane whose daath