St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1899-09-27
THE CIRCUIT CENTENNIAL.
CONTINUED from first page. ]

ed inside and out with wide pine boards,
some Of them two and half feet wide,
from trees which grew below the road
on the meadow This mention here be-
cause OF tragedy enacted within it in
which grandmother Grout, wife of Theo-
phius, was the central figure.
On one Saturday night, as was the
habit Of the mothers in those days, she
stayed up late mending the childrens
clothes for the regular Sunday change,
and long after the rest of the household
were rapt in slumber, hearing a noise in
the back buttery the meaning of which
she well knew, she selected stick of the
right proportions from the pile OF wood
brought in to keep the fire place going,
and taking frock she was mending
FASTENED to the conflict She entered the
buttery, closed the door, threw the frock
over hole in the lower left hand corner,
and instead of screaming for the linen
folks" with one hand gathered her skirts
close about her ankles and with the club
in the other proceeded to make as clean
work OF the burglars as Dewey did of the
Spanish fleet. She killed thirteen rats,
great and small some of them very
large, which made sharp fight as old
rats will when cornered. She piled them
up in pyramid on the stone hearth Tor
a surprise to her connubial lord when he
should start the fire in the morning.
Some thirty.6ve or forty years ago
this buttery was moved by Josiah Grout
down from the old house in the field and
attached to the old part of the present
house, and when it was rearranged in
1888 with the present new front, this old
buttery seemed 10 call for preservation,
and the broad pine boards which looked
down upon the battle with the rats now
constitute the ceiling OF the present
back buttery and are silent witnesses
alike to the big pines that once stood on
the meadow and to the nerve of the
women of hundred years ago.
The old part of the present house
stands exactly across the first highway
opened through the farm. 1t can be dis
.inctly traced through the field and
across the ledge pasture towards Con-
cord, the stone culverts being better now
than some in the present highways. In
the ledge pasture is branch road which
in early times led up into the north part
of Kirby. The road which now comes
into the Concord road at the Ranney
place has evidently taken the place of
this old branch
1t must be conceded that Theophilus
Grout was very lucky in locating where
he did, or else he had an eye and judg-
ment which told him when he had reach
ed tract Of land that would make a
good farm and at the same time good
sized one. The river sites were probably
all taken below st. Johnsbury, aud hav-
ing been born and reared on river farm
in Charlestown, N. H., and naturally
pref rring such location for himself, he
came up the Moose river until he reached
this basin of land. and here drove his
stake and set up his household gods, and
here his descendants are still to be found;
but how it might have been had he es-
tablished himself on some sand plain or
on some hillside among big powders, no
one can tell. AS it u.s. however, no one
will pretend that the situation could
have been bettered in the whole valley of
the Moose river.
Two good, old fashioned families have
been reared on the farm, that Of Theoph-
illus consisting of eleven children, nine of
whom became men and women, and that
of Josiah consisting OF ten children, all of
whom grew to manhood and woman
hood and all but two Of whom are still
living. But the third generation has
mostly fallen into the regulation, Ameri-
can family of the present day, viz: two
or three, and some have none at all.
Notwithstanding this the living de-
scendants of Theophius Grout are more
numerous than at first would be thought.
They number one hundred and twenty
three and extend to the fifth generation,
not counting him. AS we have already
seen, two of his children are still living,
viz: Nancy and Sophia, almost eighty. six
and eighty.four respectively. There are
twenty-five living grandchildren, fifty
three living great grandchildren, forty.
three living great great grandchildren,
and three living great-great-great grand
children.
The child of the late lamented May
Goodall Wescott, born on the 10th, is
one of the three in the sixth generation.
On the 9TH she wrote the following note:
st. Johnsbury, VT, Sept. 7th, 1899.
Gen. w. w. Grout,
Dear SIR
1t is with real regret that have to say
we shall be unable to attend the one
hundredth anniversary to which you so
kindly extended us an invitation.
Hoping it will prove very pleasant
occasion, and feeling sure it will, am,
Very truly yours,
May Goodall Wescott.
On the 10th the child was born and on
the 18th she passed away, sincerely
mourned by all who knew her; but left
behind a child in the sixth generation,
counting the man whose courage and
energy brought him into this wilderness
OF one hundred years ago. but which he
resolutely cleared away, and which to-
day instead yields abundantly of the
fruits OF the earth for the sustenance of
man.
Here paragraph might be turned on
the heroic qualities of the men and
women of a hundred years ago, who sub
dued the forest and fought off the beasts
Of prey and the lurking savages with
which it was filled and established
homes, and schools, and churches, and
withal a government where liberty is
regulated by law and where all men have
an equal chance in the race of life.
GENEALoGY.
The genealogical sketch of the Grout
family may be summarized as follows.
The Grouts trace their ancestry from
away back as long ago as SO B. c. to
tribe which Caesar mentions as the
Grudii of Belgiac, Gaul. So far as
definite record is concerned the family