St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1913-12-03
HISTORY OF RYEGATE
A Notable Addition to. Vermont
BibIiOgraDhy.


Editor of the Caledonian:
have been greatly interested in
reading lately the History of Rye
gate, an attractively printed volume
of over 500 pages, of which half is a
most readable story of the town
from it's settlement in 1774 to the
present time, and the last half
records the Ryegate families.
Though the matter was compiled
from several sources it was edited
and really written by that distin-
guished historian, Frederic P. Wells
of Newbury, author of the History
of Newbury, which was published
about a dozen years ago. Others
could have written history of this
town, but no one could do it better
because of the authors familiarity
with the sources of the old manu-
scripts and letters, and his remark
able adaptability for saving the es-
sentials and Vomiting the tedious
details in the old documents.
The charter of Ryegate was
granted in 1868 by Benning
Wentworth to Richard Jenness and
SO of his associates, but none of
these became actual settlers of the
town. Some ten years later the
Scotch American Company was form
ed at the parish of Inchinnan and
two commissioners appointed to pur-
chase. a tract of land in America
James Whitelaw of Whiteinch was
one of these commissioners and the
book contain his journal, of which
the original copy is owned by the
Vermont Historical Society. When
the commissioners reached Prince
town, "a handsome little town with
college said to be the best and
largest building in America with
100 students and 80 Latin scholars"
President Witherspoon made his pro-
posals concerning the sale of land
in Ryegate and after a long journey
down the Atlantic coast states they
returned to Princetown and bargain
ed for one-half of the town of Rye
gate The three succeeding chap
ters give a most interesting account
of the settlement of the town and
the correspondence between the
settlers and the home company. The
story of the construction of the
Hazen road occupies an entire chap
ter, and while it was constructed as
military route, to be used in case
of war with Great Britain, it was for
years a part of the stage road from
Boston to Montreal and the only road
in what is now Lamoilie and Orleans
counties. Perhaps the most valuable
historical contribution to the entire
work appears in one of the chap
tiers on the revolutionary war giving
the instructions from Gen. Burgoyne
to Lt.-Col. Baume to sweep up
through the Connecticut valley plum
dering everything in sight. This
document is owned by the
Tenney library at Newbury and is
now published for the first time.
These orders, however, were later
countermanded and the troops or
dered to Bennington. The rest is
history. Three chapters are devoted
to the religious history of the colony,
the four Presbyterian churches of
Ryegate being natural off-shoots of
the Presbyterian church in Scot
lapd. Education. manufactures, home
life and politics are given due prom
inence, with many incidents of the
anti-Masonry feeling in the early
decades of the last century. Mr..
Wells cites one instance in Danville
where the relatives who were Ma
sons occupied one room and the anti
Masons the other; at the burial one
party stood on one side of the
grave, and the others ranged them
selves on the other side, brothers
and sisters on one side not speaking
to their brothers and sisters on
the other.