St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1913-03-13

needed information, some manu-
scripts owned by the VT. Historical
Society, and the Johnson papers at
Newbury add to our knowledge of
early days.
Apparently no one knew or even
suspected that all this material ex-
listed Few towns have such
mine of information waiting to be
explored as Ryegate had. The edi-
tors task has been one of selection,
rejection and condensation. 1t
was at first supposed that the his
toric part of the work would be
covered in a hundred pages. But
all this additional matter rendered
double space necessary, and more
than doubled the labor of preparing
it.
The call for data to complete the
volume brought forth an immense
amount of new material, and hun
dreds of persons, both in Ryegate
and wherever Ryegate people have
gone have most gladly lent their
aid to the work which should pre-
serve the memory of the sons and
daughters of the town. 1t has been
no small task to condense the prof
fored data within the limits of a
single volume.
The glory of Ryegate is in the
men and women whom it has pro-
duced or who have descended from
its early families. A sturdy race
were those Scotchmen in Yankee
land who subdued the wilderness,
covered the hills with fruitful farmG
and planted there the church and
the school. Many of their children
have scattered to distant states. But
they have carried with them the
principles which they were taught in
the family and the Sabbath minis
tratiOns. The group of Scotch Pres
byterian churches in this part of
New England has spread far and
wide the truths handed down from
the days of the reformation in
Scotland. In Barnet Rev. David
Goodwillie and his son and success
sor filled the pulpit of the Associate |
church for the long period of sew
enty-four years, and their influence
will be felt for a century to come.
Our neighboring town of Top |
sham has sent into the world a |
number of men who became very |
eminent, and with one or two ex-
ceptions they all came from fami- |
lies which sat under the ministry |
OIL. heNS. James NlllllSdHs w IlllduI
Sloane, or N. r. Johnston. This |
volume tries to show what Ryegate |
and its people have been or are, and |
to preserve in accessible form tho |
records of it's families. That there |
has been evil mingled with the
good; that there have been those
whose lives cast discredit upon the
town it were idle to deny. But the
good has far surpassed the evil, and |
these pages will preserve the mem
DRY of many noble men and women +
whose names would otherwise pas: !
into oblivion.
1t has been an honorable task to
prepare this history, and complete,
however imperfectly, the work
Mr. Miller so nobly began. In its
the editor has made
many friendships which he hopes to
retain, and expresses the wish that
he has given some degree of salts
faction.
The editor returns his thanks to
the committee and to all those Of
Ryegate or Ryegate ancestry who
have contributed to this work.
The thanks of the town are due to.
the librarian and assistants of the
Boston Public library; the New
England Historic-Genealogic So
ciety; the New Hampshire State
the New Hampshire Histo
rical Society; to the librarian and
the trustees of the Tenney Memorial
Library of Newbury for the use of
it's valuable manuscripts.
Attention is called to the appen-
dix for corrections and for much
valuable matter which came too late
for insertion in it's proper place.
FREDERICK P. WELLS.