The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-10-08

Col. Robert Jackson Kimball was Of
| distinguished ancestry which had borne
its part in redeeming New England
from the forest and the savage, and
later in securing the independence of
the colonies. Captain John Kimball, a
soldier of the Revolution, settled in
Randolph in 1876, and was one of
the pioneers of the town. Hiram,
a son of Captain Kimball, and his
wife, Jerusha Bradish of Wood
bury, Vt. were the parents of
Robert j. Kimball, who was born
February l6, 1886. Robert had such
an education as could be obtained
from the common schools and at West
Randolph academy. Inability to take
a college course prompted him, in the
days of bis prosperity, to establish
scholarship in the University of Ver-
mont and another in Amherst college,
for the benefit of needy and worthy
young men.
He began his business life as a news
boy on the old Vermont Central Rail-
road He learned telegraphy and was
one of the early operators on the Yer
mont e. Boston line-six years after
the first telegraphic message was sent.
Service in the express department
was the next rung in the ladder up.
ward. In 1862 he was a banker in
Toronto, Canada. In 1868 he married,
at Toronto, Miss Martha L. Morse.
In 1864, he was appointed United
States consul at Toronto, serving at
the time when that city was Confed-
crate headquarters for sympathizing
plotters against the Union, and was
instrumental in causing the arrest of
Kennedy, the chief of the gang which
was conspiring to burn the city of
New York, who was afterwards con-
victed as spy and hanged.
In 1866, Col. Kimball began the
business of banking in New York,
under the firm name Of r. j. Kimball
& Co. Going down in the financial
creditors at twenty-five cents on the
dollar. Nine years later he summoned
them to a banquet, and each creditor
found under his plate check for the
remainder of his debt, with six per
cent interest for the full time it had
remained unpaid. Thus he had even
held the highest rank in business cir
Giles for both business ability and up
rightness, and had been member of
the various organizations connected
with the business of banking.
Col. Kimball, though immersed in
business in the commercial metropo-
lis of the nation, was jealous of his
identity as Vermonter. In 1887, he
built in the town of his birth the
country home known as Montague
Place, became later legal citizen of
Vermont, here had since paid his
taxes, enlisted in political canvasses,
and here had oustomarily exercised the
franchise.
His State and town had recognized
his good citizenship and devotion to.
their interests by according him off,
oial station. He was a member of
Gov. W. P. Dillingham; staff and
represented Randolph in the General
Assembly in 1S90-'91 He was made
the representative of the State, by
executive appointment, on notable &C.
casions and the Republicans had sent
him as their delegate to the national
conventions of the party.
During the war with Spain he con-
tributed generously to the relief of
Vermont soldiers in camp at Fort
Ethan Allen and at Ohickamauga, and
made a formal offer to the Governor
to equip, at his own expense, COM
pany at Randolph, but the States