News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1908-01-22

The death of Rev. Edwin WheeloCk
the last of my school mates of the long
ago. and the reading of the sketches Of
his life and service, carries me back to
the days when home-spun clothed the
boys and the choppers axe was car rying
civilization into the wilderness. Those
were rugged times, rugged as were the
hills and the homes, but they produced
a sturdiness of manhood and womanhood
that has made Vermont known through
out the land as the "Mother of Men. -
Rev. Mr.. Wheelock and / were school
mates, attending the village school in
Waterville for year or two before his
family removed from town to Winooski
Hill on the farm occupied now by Beth
Paxman. while my father occupied the
farm on West Hill, now owned by A. ID.
Roberts, about mile either way from
the school-house, quite distance for
small boys, five or six years old, to travel
good part of the way through the
woods to school.
|
which / am speaking was the only one
in town with the exception of school
kept part of the time in what is now
known as the Locke district, in the
north part of the town, and numbered
from fifty to sixty scholars. AS ! have
already said, ] am the only one of this
large school left For some years there
have been only two of us, Rev. Mr..
Wheelock and myself, and peculiar
| feeling of sadness comes over me as !
look about for the faces of some of the
friends of my school-days and find that
they are not. Among those in attendance
at the school at tins time, other than
Rev. Mr.. Wheelock, who became more
or less prominent in after life may be
mentioned A. J. Rowell, one of the
brightest men Vermont has produced,
Joseph Poland, for many years editor of
the Watchman, " my brother, Nathan
Nc Farland, and L. P. Poland, former
Chief Justice of Vermont and at one
time member of the Senate of the
United States. 1t was in attending this
school that " Potter Poland, as he was
then called, gave striking" evidence of
that temper, which, controlled in after
life, became apower for great accomplish
ments. There had been a fight among
the boys and some punishment was to be
meeted out. 1t was this: Each boy in
the ARRAY was to walk up to pine
plank partition in the school-house and
strike it certain number of times
Each one took his round without injury
either to the partition or himself until
young Poland's turn came. He respond
ed to the call so unc0ntrollably mad
that he struck the partition SO fercely
| that the marks made by his knuckles
were plainly seen for years afterwards,
and SO many times in excess of the re-
CURED number that he had to be forcibly
restrained
AS | have said those were strenuous
days. | was born in Marietta. Ohio,
June %, 1921 and I well RENE mber the
long journey of the emigration to Yer
mont in the summer of 1924. The trip
was made entirely by team, one one-hOrse
and one two-horse outfit and took six |
weeks. On reaching Waterville my father |
settled on West Hill, the hill lands at |
that time being thought better adapted |
to the miscellaneous farming, then nee
essary to support life, than the 10 " lands.
A little later than the school-days al
ready referred to, a school was organized
and kept on West Hill in a log hoase,
between where are now the farm konses
of Dexter Pierce and I.emuel PiercaSj
The room was warmed by "a great treV
place at one end, fed by wood three or
four feet long, drawn in on a sled
Eunice McFarland-Page, who afterwards
married Nathan Jones, was the first
teacher. as | remember it.
Afterwards school was kept in the
barn floor of a barn on the farm now
occupied by B. G. Thomas. During hay
ing time the school frequently had to
move out that hay might be got in.
or not, this was the beginning
Of the agricultural college, it is certain
that agriculture had the right of way.
And not only was agriculture associated
In more ways than one with our early
but a practical course in
natural history was part of the currc-
culum. In the stable adjacent to the barn
floor was kept bear, which amused the
scholars by sticking his paws through
the cracks into the school-room. Still
later school was kept in block house
on the site of the present school house |
on West Hill. One of the teachers who
taught in this school during my school
days, was Esther Smiley, sister eff Henry
Smiley and mother of VIM. r. Villas, Ex-
U. 5. Senator from Wisconsin.
More than eighty-three years of my
life have been cOnsecutively spent in
excepting nearly four years /
III tue Clfll war. his is longer time, |
think, than any other person, living or
dead has resided in town. During this /
time l have Witnessed many changes. Al
good part of the town has been cleared :
and brought under the pillow. During
his time, by far the greater number of
The buildings now standing in town have !
been erected. Generations have come
md gone. / saw the first burial in the
present cemetery on the hill where now
nigh on to one thousand repose in their
asst sleep, nearly if not quite double the
,ntire present population of the town.
One of the first three buried in this ceme-
cry was my aunt, Ann Bartlett Rowell,
mother of A. J. Rowell. The census of
$50 showed a larger population in the
7illage of Waterville than in any other
yillage in the County. This was a time
If great business and manufacturing c
'ctivity, making Waterville an attractive
,lace to such men as Thomas Gleed and N
ieo. w. Hendee, both of whom began "
he practice of their profession here .
bout this time. But the burning of the
voolen mills in 1850, just before the Civil
Var, marked the end of this seemingly
lnwonted prosperity for our town and