The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-11-10

The principal speaker at the meet
ing of the Vermont Historical Society
in the Hall of the House of Represen-
tatives last night was Matt B. Jones,
Esq, of Boston, and his subject was
THE Making of a Hill Town" Mr..
Jones address follows:
Mr.. Jones' Address.
Graded against the heart of the
Green Mountains, in a beautiful ba-
sin shut in by lofty peaks, except
where the narrow thread of a little
river winds it's way in and out again,
lies the town whose making has been
chosen as the subject of this paper.
There is little, if anything, in it's hum
Bile history to distinguish it from a
hundred other towns in our New Eng
land States. 1t is not old, even in
that comparative sense in which Am
erica speaks of age, for Washington
was gathering up the reins of gov
eminent of the new republic when,
in the summer of 1888, a man of SO
years, with his children and his sons
children, sought out this fertile spot
and made his pitch in the midst of a
wilderness unbroken for many miles
by any human habitation. But its
making is so far typical of the founda-
ton upon which our nation rests
that it's consideration may not be out
of place upon an occasion like this
Until the year named, no white per-
son had lived within its borders, nor
had it been the home of aboriginal
tribes. Its solitudes were broken on
ly by the fleeting presence of men bent
on war.
Has Seen Much Strife.
Probably no portion of the American
Continent has seen more of strife or
played more important part in the
strategy of war than the valleys OF
Lake Champlain and Lake George
Here, from the earliest days, was the
chosen battle ground of Algonquin
warriors and their hated rivals from
the Long House of the Iroquois. Here
passed the latter bent upon destruc-
ton of the feeble French settlements
along the ST. Lawrence, and here the
Jesuit fathers suffered torture. Here
during 60 years of conflict between
France and England for supremacy on
the northern continent, war parties
came upon their cruel errands to New
England hamlets, returning hithel
with their wretched captives; and
here were fought the fiercest conflicts
of the final struggle between those
mighty rivals. Here the flower OF
European soldiery marched to de-
feat against the blue-frocked farmers
of New England; and crumbling bat
Elements, like the single on the
shore. mark the high tide of England's
pawer over the western world. Fol
more than two centuries from the time
when Champlain's arquebus frs
awoke the echoes near the future site
of Ticonderoga, the valley which now
bears his name was debated ground
and between it and the New England
frontier on the Connecticut, war par
ties of both sides passed to and fro
Not Attractive to Indians.
Thus it came about that the terri
tory of Vermont, fertile and beauti
full though it was, presented no at
tractive abiding place for Indian en-
campments or for the English pio
neer, and not until the close of thu
French War was it fairly opened III
for settlement. Beginning in 176'
there came an influx of settlers, bu
it was not until the assertion of in
dependence and the establishment o
an Independent government had il
some measure quoted land titles tina
the tide of emigration from Massachu
sets, New Hampshire and Connect
cut turned toward Vermont.
And what manner of man was thi
first settler? Let us pause momen
to consider for he typifies the best o
those sturdy characters who founded
this fair commonwealth.
He was a native of Massachusetts