Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1911-05-19

5. army; his brother, Ezra Joseph War
ner QS41-1910, the Chicago merchant
and donor of the Warner Science hall;
Amasa ). Tracy (died 1909, colonel of
the Second Vermont, who commanded
the old Vermont brigade at Cedar Creek
and was the other party to the famous
colloquy with Sheridan, when Sheridan
asked what troops are these?" and on
being assured it was the "Sixth Corps,
Vermont Brigade, remarked That's
all right, Wen have our tents by night"
an assurance that was but a faint
prophecy of the glorious change in the
fortunes of war that followed, and
Samuel Sheldon (1S62), expert in and
professor of electrical engineering at
Brooklyn. The foremost ssof Middle
bury names of course is hat of Ed
ward John Phelps QS22-1900), minister
plenipotentiary TO Her Majesty's Court
of st. James under President Cleveland,
senior counsel of the United States in
the Behring sea arbitration and las
Senator Stewart, himself worthy of
mention in this list of names, will tell
YOU President Cleveland's choice for
chief justice of the u. S. Supreme
Court when Melville w. Fuller was APP
pointed.
And what shall l more say? For the
time will fail me if l tell of the boys
that Brandon farms have produced.
OF Thomas Jefferson Conant Q802-
1871 translator and revisor of many
books of the authorized version of the
Bible, and after 1873, member of the
American committee of revision; of
Jonathan Avery Shepherd Q%816-189S),
who acted as chaplain to open the first
session of the confederate congress and
was rector of st. Andrews college,
Mississippi; of Thomas Davenport, the
blacksmith, who invented the electric
motor and originated electric transport
tation and electric communication; of
Captain George Daniel Davenport 1892
1864 his son, a graduate of Middlebury
college, and the Brandon captain of
the Middlebury company, who fell
mortally wounded at the Battle of the
Wilderness; of Frank Hall Knowlton,
who forsook a rocky hillside farm to
become a distinguished paleontologist
in the service of the U. S. geological
survey and of the national museum and
professor of botany in the Columbian
university at Washington.
AS we are nearing the centenary of
Stephen Arnold Douglas QS13-1S6D,
the most famous of the boys that Bran
AiOll al lis lldNC DlONlCtu, anu WllOSe
career links Brandon to Addison County,
it is fitting to dwell for a moment upon
his life story. Born in Brandon village,
he was brought up on his maternal
grandfather's farm in the Arnold dis
trict just over the border from Addison
county, until at the age of fifteen
he came to Middlebury and learned the
cabinet makers trade. There are few
boys here today that know the cabinet
makers or any other trade. | believe
the great need of this country is for less
highly educated boys and for more
trained artisans. Returning to Bran
don, he attended the academy there and
later obtained a little further schooling
at Ca%nandaigua, N. Y. This schooling
vas slim but sufficient to render him
the teacher and the maker of Lincoln.
Moving to Illinois, he became at the age
of p a Judge of the Supreme Court, at
so a congressman, at SO U. S. senator,
and at 80 a candidate for president. He
remained in the Senate and a presi-
dental candidate until his death at the
age of only As. Throughout the decade
before the war he vas acknowledged to
be the foremost American. No mar of
our time save Roosevelt has yielded the
power that Douglas Then possessed. Il
seems necessary to emphasize this fer
Vermont does not realize the greatness
of Douglas. He was a Democrat and
considered it necessary to win the
friendship Of the South, then far more
powerful in the counsels of the nation
than the North, in order to win the
presidency. At heart his sympathies
were with the North. The South saw
this and r~epudiated him. The debates
with Lincoln in 1858 focused the atten-
ton of the nation upon the awkward
country lawyer that had dared to break
a lance with so peerless al orator as
Douglass. The linking together of their
names rendered Lincoln a national fig
ure, enabling him two years later to be
nominated and elected to the presidency,
defeating Douglas. Douglas and Lin
coin had previously been suitors for the
hand of the same girl, in which contest
Lincoln likewise won. Douglas held
Lincoln's hat at the latter's Inaugural
ton. Three months later Douglas sud
denly died. His monument is the Uni
versity of Chicago that he founded.
Other boys who remained in Addison
county are no less worthy of honor for
collectively they put her animal hus-
bandry OF a high plane. Many were
engaged in the introduction of Merino
sheep which began in 1916. The pur-
chase of Black Hawk by Mr.. Hill of
Bridport gave an impetus to Morgan
horse breeding. Others connected with
the introduction of registered Holstein
cattle and with the increase in apple
raising and bee keeping have been and
are public ~benefactors. If Vermont is
retrogressive, the sending away of
such men as we have mentioned largely
explains the reason. 1t is not only
true that Vermont can no longer spare
her better boys to other states, but it is
also true that they can no longer afford
to leave her. The West is no longer a
barren waste. No part of the country
now offers more alluring advantages to
the thoughtful young Vermonter than
does Vermont.
In the past Vermont farms have in
stilled success into Vermont boys. 1t
is time for Vermont boys to instill a
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