Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1903-07-24
WESTMI Err.
The Old Court House, and the
Massacre of March Is, ITS.
The Circumstances and Events winch
Led Up to the Massacre-lts Par
ticipants and Its Results.

Elephants and Its Results.
1The essential historical portion of an
address delivered by Hon. Alfred ,.
Hall at the unwilling of the marker on
the site of the old court house at West
minister Sept L. 1872. Reproduced be-
cause of the clear and compact form IN
which it summarizes and presents the
facts about one of the most stirring
events in our Vermont historyl
Cumberland county, extending from
Massachusetts line 81 miles north to
Thetford and Randolph. and from the
Connecticut river to the Green noun
tains. comprising the present Wind
ham and Windsor counties, was estab-
lished first by the Assembly of New
York in 1866. and reestablished by
King George III. in 176S. Chester was
the first shire town. Col Thomas
Chandler. a prominent citizen of that
township and the chief judge OF the
courts of the county, influenced the
selection of the county seat, and prom.
ised to build for the county jail and
court house. But his Jail was too
small and mean for the confinement
therein of human beings. and too inse-
cure to hold any person disposed to
break out of it. His court house was
a yet greater sham and more dis
creditable structure. and Chester be-
ing less accessible to most of the IN
habitants of the county than were
several of the river towns the county
seat was removed to Westminster in
1772. and the court house, whose site
is permanently marked today. was
erected that year.
It was a substantial and BETTING
edifce In shape it was almost square,
the sides being about 40 feet in length
and set true with the four cardinal
points of the compass. 1t was built of
hewn timber and clapboarded. The
roof was gambrel, surmounted by
cupola or tower, open at the four sides.
An aisle, 10 or II feet in width, ran
east and west through the middle of
the lower story. There was a double
door at each end of the aisle, or in
other words two doors opening either
way from a centre fastening. In &C
cordance with a custom of the times,
the building was intended to afford
some of the conveniences of a tavern.
In the southeast corner was kitchen,
or cook room. occupied by the jailer,
and in the southwest corner a bar
room. in which the jailer served in the
capacity of bar tender. The chimney
rose between these rooms and opened
into each in shape of large, old-fash-
toned fireplace. Another door was cut
in the south side of the building, lead
: ing into an entry, on either side OF
which were doors to the kitchen and
bar room.
In the north part was jail, which
comprised within its limits two prison
rooms, divided the one from the other
by a narrow aisle running north and
south. This aisle communicated with
the broad aisle by a door. Doors also
opened from the prison rooms into the
narrow aisle. A flight of stairs led
from the last entrance to the court
room in the second story,-which in its
arrangements resembled the court
rooms of recent days, but was unfin-
ished, nevertheless; and its walls,
gray and cobwebbed, and its beams
and braces, rough and bare, are said
to have been in perfect keeping with
the earnest and sometimes too violent
spirits who met within its precincts
in legal conflicts, or assembled there
to engage in more important scenes.
Here all the courts were held until
1881, when Marlborough was made a
half shire town, with Westminster.
Thereafter the courts sat alternately
here and at Marlborough until 1877,
when Newfane became the county
seat, and a court house and Jail were
constructed there-not, however, in
Fayetteville village, where the present
county buildings are, but two miles
up the hill. on a summit from which
many eminences of the county can be
discerned.
But we must approach the massacre
which rendered the court house sa-
cred. What led to such a tragedy?
Until the practical termination of the
French and Indian war, so called,
about 1860, the Vermont territory was
an unprotected and dangerous from
tier; it's settlement had progressed
but slowly, while Massachusetts, New
Hampshire and New York had been
rapidly filling up and improved. But
after the capture of Montreal by the
English in September, 1860 population
moved to the borders, and Massachu
sets having relinquished all claims
to area north of her present boundary,
as established in 1740, Benning Went
worth, the royal governor of New
Hampshire acting under the authority
of the charter of his colony, issued
patents to 1873 townships between the
Connecticut and Hudson rivers in the
lew years Oh MS OlUCldl term prior 10
1854
These townships were soon organ
lied and resorted to by many settlers,
and were known as the New Hamp-
shire grants. Under these grants or
patents as the foundation, the people
bought and cleared their lands, and
built their homes, relying upon their
titles without a question. They had
contended with the wilderness to sub
due it, encountered the dangers of In
dians and beasts, suffered every de-
privation, worked with unfiagging zeal,
and were just becoming established
and beginning to enjoy some fruits of
their labors, when a new hardship con-
fronted them.-a conflict to hold and
maintain what they had acquired. In
1854 shocking order, procured by
New York influence, emanated from
the King, declaring that the Connect
cut river, and not the Hudson, was
the eastern boundary of New York,
and forbidding the issue of any more
patents in the New Hampshire grants
by the New Hampshire governor.
New York thereupon assumed to
treat all the grants made by New
Hampshire as void, and this interpre-
tation, if carried into effect, would
work a confiscation of all the lands
and homes of the new settlers in Yer
mont The titles vested in the inhabi-
tants under grants made by the gov
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