Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1920-09-22

The earliest record of the passing
nGhgnsn white men through this
psauey was the narrative of Robert
rogers, a noted ranger of the Francb
and Indian wars. Rogers condncted
many short expeditions in the neioh-
0orhood of Crown Point on Lake
Onampiain, but his browning venture
was the obstruction of the ST. Francis
rnolan village in Canada. He set ont
from crown Point In the fall of 1859.
ana aitnough his party was pursued
from the time it left the north end of
Lake Champlain, he persisted in his
intention, and in three weeks and q
DAY came to the Indian village. He
was more successful in his mission
than IN his retreat. The presence of
the large party of French and Indians
In pursuit made it necessary for him
to abandon his original plan to re-
return to his boats on Lake Cham
PLAIN, and instead, to fetch his party
back from Canada as best he could
He chose the direct Indian route. to
Memphremagog, but being hard
pressed and destitute of provisions,
he there divided the party on the east
side OF the lake, sending some by way
OF the Clyde, while Rogers himself,
and the remnant of the expedition
came south, followed the Barton riv-
ers, passed the spot where we are now
assembled, and ON to Crystal lake,
where to their great joy they found
the stream below the falls full of fish
on their spawning beds. Thence they
pushed on over the Summit into the
Passumpsic valley. One member of
Rogers party who came this way
was Joel Priest, who lived to be a
soldier of the Revolution, and later
came back to the wilderness through
which he had passed so many years
before, settled in Bloomington, and
lived to be nearly 100 years old.
Rogers left a journal of this as well
as of his other scouting parties, which
was published later in London. 1t
should be reprinted and made a part
OF the reading of every Vermont
schoolboy.
The county remained an unbroken
wilderness till after the Revolution,
although the cessation of the Indian
raids, due to the prowess of scouts
like Rogers and Stark, made the
northern section comparatively safe
for settlement. We may well believe
that a few of those deserters from
Washington's army, mentioned in his
| letter of 1888, on conditions in Yer
mont, found their way into the north
ern and less populated fringe of the
wilderness, as well as some of those
whose active British sympathies made
them more DESTROYS of room than of
company.
The cabin of such a man was found
in the year 1900 by two men on a
fishing trip up Black river. This
cabin belonged to Levi Sylvester,
who had excellent reasons for loving
the solitude. He had been a Tory
and British spy during the war, had
taken part in the sack of Royalton,
had guided Capt. Pritchard in his
raid on Newbury, and had personally
taken several captives in Peacham.
He married an Indian woman. At
ter few settlers had come to Iras-
burg he found the population too
dense and moved with his family to
| Canada.
The chartering of the town of Bar
ton in 1881 was an event that is
probably rarely thought of now by
any of its citizens. But it links to-
gether in our early history three
names of more than passing interest.
Among the grantees We're Ira Allen,
| brother of Ethan, and a well-known
| figure in Vermont history; second
was the most brilliant naval COM
mander of the Revolution, John Paul
| Jones; the third was a man of the
same stamp, but less well known, Col.
William Barton. Barton and several
others of the first actual settlers were
Rhode Island men, and the original
intention was to call the new town
Providence. But it is said that Col
Barton, anxious to immortaliZe his
own name, scratched out the word
Providence in the petition, and in
serted his own name. However TINS
may be, Barton the town was char
tered and Barton it has always been
William Barton had been a young
colonel in the Rhode Island militia
in the Revolution, and the following
incident portrays the character of the
man. In December, 1776, seventy
British war ships came sailing into
tween nine and ten thousand rec
coats. who were forthwith quartereC
in the homes of the Rhode Islanders
The command of these troops was
presently given over to General Rich
ard Prescott, whose arbitrary ways
soon made him the best-hated man or
the island. On the shore of the mair
land opposite lay encamped regi
ment of Rhode Island militia, whose
intrepid young commander presently
conceived the idea of kidnapping the
. | general. OHQGT CONSI VI Vic liS ~
: Barton took thirty picked men II
whaleboats across from the island te
the mainland, under the noses of the
British men of war. Bleaching his
boats in a sheltered cove, Barton's
party quickly made its way to the
home of a Quaker, where Genera
Prescott was staying. AS uncere
moniously as Ethan Allen summoned
de la Place from his snug bed at III
; conderoga, our valiant colonel tool
; his prisoner. Scantily clad, the ole
! fellow was hustled between tive
strong guards through a blackberry
patch whose briars sorely tried botf
the prisoners legs and his temper
down to where the whaleboats lay
and across to the mainland. He wa:
sent by coach to Providence, and lat
: er to General Washington's headquar
! tiers on the Hudson.
For this exploit Barton was pro
NOTED and presented with a swor'
: and the thanks of Congress. We ma.
I congratulate ourselves that the tow
was named after him. He was worth.
of the untamed forest. Interested Il
: settling the new town and vlgorou
q in its promotion, Col. Barton in 179
I cleared some four or five acres, Gu
I the timber on ten or flfteen acre
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