Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1907-01-12
THE SHARON REBELLION.
Incident of Early Railroad Construc-
ton as Told by n. w. Vail.

hlstOlJ VI wv 'S'H " 'S" w. 80
thus told by H. w. Vail of this
place, says the Randolph Herald:
About sixty years ago the Cen
trail Vermont railroad was built
from Windsor to st. Adams and
most of the labor was performed by
Irishmen. A man by the name of
Belknap had contract to build a
certain number of miles of road,
part of which was in the town OF
Sharon. He had large gang OF
laborers in his employ, but unior-
tunately he failed and was unable
to pay his men for the labor which
they had faithfully performed. The
Irishmen naturally did not like
this and thinking that the town
in which they had worked was
somehow to blame for their
failure to secure the wages due,
they threatend to destroy the little
village of Sharon near which they
were.
The peaceful inhabitants were
throughly alarmed and collected the
militia Of the neighboring towns to
help defend them. They also sent
for Capt. Alden Partridge and his
Norwich cadets to come to their aid.
Capt. Partridge had been snperin-
tendent OF West Point academy and
was the founder of Norwich univer-
sity, the military college of Vermont.
He marched the cadets to Sharon,
about ten miles as the crow flies,
and the boys brought with them a
cannon belonging to the institution.
The railroad men were on one side
Of the river armed with pickaxes,
iron bars, shovels and anything else
they could find which could be used
as a weapon. The military, sup
ported by citizens, were on the other
side of the river. There was
bridge across and Capt. Partridge.
planted his cannon at one end of this
so as to prevent the crossing of the
enemy. 1t was not the bridge lot
Lodi and the Irshmen had no Napo-
leon to lead them, but with the gall
lantry of their race they moved up
to their end of the bridge and pre-
pared to rush across.
Capt. Partridge had loaded his
cannon with blank cartridge and, as
the Irishmen stepped onto the bridge
encouraging each other with cries Of
"Come on, b'ys! down wild the
spalpeens!" the match, at word of
command, was applied and a thumb
erous report was heard which start
led the enemy and checked the as
sault. They saw the flame leap
from the lannon's mouth and a
cloud of smoke roll upward and
supposed a cannon ball had been
fired at them.
They perceived that the gun was
being rapidly reloaded and they
were thrown into confusion. At
this auspicius moment the Captain
shouted in stentorian tones, "charge."
With a cheer the cadets and mill
tia, armed with muskets and bayon-
cts, dashed on to the bridge. 1t was
no cause for shame to the undisci-
plined and unarmed Irishmen that,
seeing the rapid advance of glisten-
ing steel in the hands OF uniformed
soldiers, they recoiled from the at
tack. They Immediately dispersed
and stood not on the order Of their
going. The bloodless battle OF
Sharon Bridge was over and the
rose of Sharon bloomed in peace
once more.
Mr.. Vail was small boy at the
time of the battle but distinctly re-
members it. Thirty years later he
was business man and for time
engaged in transporting blooded
stock from Vermont to the West.
On one of these rips with some
carloads Of Jersey cattle, his train
was sidetracked in the suburbs Of
Chicago and he had to wait there
some hours. Looking across the
numerous tracks he saw little house,
not far away, in the open door of
which stood an elderly stalwart man
in his shirtsleeves evidently regard
ing the cattleman with some GU rios-
ity. Finally the man in the house
descended the steps and walked over
the tracks to the place where the
other man stood beside car.
"What have we in there?" was
the first interrogatory.
"Jersey CATTLE" was the response.
"Kin l see 'em'"
Certainly" and the younger
man helped his visitor into the car
where he examined the sleek cattle
with pleasure.
"Where they from1" was the next
inquiry.
"Vermont."
81 know that same. l was there
wanst."
"What town were you in'"
"Twas Sharon-a name town too.
| hate it."
"WhaPs the matter with Sharon3
l come from Sharonp
"Ye do! I'll tell we. was
working on the railroad and niver
got clint for it. An the sojers druv
us away wild cannon, or we would
have smashed things"
"That was a good while ago when
I was boy. How did you get
here2"