Vermont State Information
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Basic Facts
The History of Vermont
Taken From the Wilmingtonian And Delaware Advertiser (Wilmington,
Delaware)
April 6, 1826
Transcribed by Nancy Piper for Genealogy Trails
The first discovery of Vermont was made in 1609 by Samuel Champlain, who after establishing a colony in Quebec, proceeded up the rivers St. Lawrence and Sorrel, explored and gave his own name to the lake which washes the western part of the state.
This early discovery of the interior of North America was attended with no European settlement until 1725, when the government of Massachusetts erected Fort Dummer, in the town of Brattleboro, on Connecticut river. The first settlement in the western part of the Sate was commenced by the French in the town of Addison, and at the same time they erected a fort at Crowapoint. The Government of New Hampshire began to make grants of townships within the present limits of Vermont in 1749, at which time the settlement of Bennington was commenced, and at the same time a violent controversy ensued between the New Hampshire grants and the province of New York, which continued until 1764, when the jurisdiction of the former was declared by the king and council to extend to the western boundaries of North Hampton.
Owing to the war between Great Britain and France and their Indian allies, the progress of the State to a settlement and population was extremely slow, but by the surrender of Canada to the power of Great Britain in 1760, the settlement of the State progressed rapidly. One hundred and thirty-eight towns, which had been granted by the Governor of New Hampshire, for thirteen years ending with 1764, were declared void by the government of New York, and the settlers were called upon to surrender their charters and purchase new titles. Upon this instigation, the controversy between the New Hampshire grants and New York, was renewed for twenty six years.
In 1778, several of the towns belonging to the state of New Hampshire were desirous of uniting with Vermont, which occasioned a severe controversy and threatened a severance of these grants between New Hampshire and New York. This difficulty continued until 1781. Massachusetts at this period had a claim also to the southern part of these grants, but without any success. The internal affairs of Vermont were still very fluctuating, without any regularly organized government, she was controlled by the arbitrary measures of the Council of Safety, and that from the commencement of the revolutionary war until she declared herself a free and independent State. This was done by a general convention of Delegates from both sides of the mountain, held at Westminster in 1777.
The first convention of the State met at Dorset in 1776m and the first constitution was adopted by a convention assembled at Windsor in July 1777, but the organization of the government didn't take place until March 1778.
The inhabitants of Vermont have always manifested an unshaken attachment for the cause of freedom and rights of man. Their first warlike enterprise took place under the command of Col. Ethan Allen who surprised and captured a Fort at Ticonderoga without the loss of a man. On the same day Crownpoint was captured by the troops under the command of Col. Seth Warner. An attack was made upon Montreal, in which Col. Allen was taken prisoner and sent to England. During the same year, 1775, Col. Warner, with three hundred Vermont soldiers attacked and defeated General Carlton with 800 regulars and Canadians. On the 13th of August 1777, the New-Hampshire and Vermont militia, under the command of Gen. Stark, defeated the British troops under the command of Col. Brown.
The difficulties between Vermont and New York were amicably settled in 1790, and the next year she was admitted into the confederacy of the States.
Famous People From Vermont
Death Records
Death Records From the Chicago City Directory - Transcribed and Donated by Kim Torp
All of these individuals were living in Chicago in 1843 and were listed in the 1843 City Directory (which was updated in 1896 with their death dates) The format is name, occupation and perhaps whose employment they were in or the address they worked at, the residential address or who they boarded with
Fullerton, Alexander Nathaniel, attorney at law, res 90 Dearborn [died, Chester, Vt, September 23, 1880, aged 76].
Loomis, Henry, lumber merchant, cor West Water and Randolph [died, Burlington, Vt., December 18, 1886, aged 68.]
Balestier, Joseph Neree, lawyer, died, Brattleboro, Vt., September 15, 1888, aged 74½
Dyer, Clarence H., coal, died, Woodstock, Vt., Aug. 10, 1894, a. 54.
Gilman, Marcus D., grocer, died, Montpelier, Vt., Jan. 5, 1889
Richmond, Thomas, d., Woodstock, Vt, Apr. 20, 1892. a. 94-4-12.
North American Review - July 1815
Deaths...
In Vermont - In Plattsburgh, Andrew Toy, a soldier, killed accidentally while playing with bayonets with one of his comrades.
In Waltham, near Middlebury, Isaac Hobbs, aged 73, was murdered by his son-in-law, Selab Hickox. It is said that a family quarrel had long existed; on the day of his death, Mr. Hobbs was at the house of Hickox, a contest arose, he was ordered out of the house, was followed by Hickox, and beaten by him with a club, so that he died. A jury of inquest pronounced a verdict of wilful murder. Hickox has been arrested. -- Contributed by Kim Torp
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North American Review - May 1815
General Jacob Bailey, a revolutionary officer, aged 89.
General John Nixon, aged 90. He commanded the first brigade of the Massachusetts line, in the war of Independence and was wounded at the battle of Bunker Hill. -- Contributed by Kim Torp
Lot Sanford.
Statement of A. W. Perry, his son-in-law, and of R. W. Perry, a grandson.
Shoreham, Vt. November 21, 1859.
We have consulted with Lot Sanford, who was not in the surveying party of 1796, but in that of 1797.
He was born September 5th, 1773, and was one of the party who went out to survey the Western Reserve. Amos Spafford was the chief surveyor of this party. No particular incident happened on the outward journey, except the accidental death of David Eldridge. He undertook to swim his horse across Grand river, although strongly advised to the contrary, and the animal proving unequal to the task, Eldridge was drowned and his body carried on to Cleveland, and buried on the banks of the Cuyahoga. Sanford assisted in digging his grave, thus performing the office of sexton to the first white man who was buried in Cleveland.
The company arrived and established their head quarters building a log house, and enclosing a garden for the purpose of raising their vegetables. Sanford laid a fence around this garden, being the first fence ever built in the town.
There had been a log hut built at this place the year previous, by the same party.
Seth Hart, the agent of the company, was left in charge of the head quarters. No incidents are mentioned while the party was out surveying, except the death of Minor Bicknell, who was taken sick with fever, and was carried through the woods fifty miles before he died. He was buried near the Cuyahoga, probably about thirty miles from the present site of Cleveland.
Soon after arriving at the head quarters, two more of the party - Andrews and Washburn - died, and were buried by the side of Eldridge. Several members of the company are mentioned, among whom are Samuel Spafford, (son of Amos), and Oliver Culver, who were chainmen; Andrews was a flagman, and Sanford - the subject of this sketch - went as axman. He, with eleven others, left Cleveland the 12th of September, 1797, and returned to Orwell, Vermont, where he then lived, arriving the 3d of December. In April, 1804, he removed to a farm which he had purchased in Shoreham, Vermont, where he has since lived, being now in his eighty-sixth year.
The two Barkers, Alpheus Choat, David Clark, Oliver Culver, the two Nyes and Amos and Samuel Spafford were from Vermont; the two Giddings were from Connecticut. Sanford and Samuel Spafford chopped four acres of timber in Euclid, the first ever chopped for settlement duties.
About eight or ten years ago Job Stiles died in the town of Leicester, Addison county, Vermont. My brother has heard Stiles boast of putting up the first house in Cleveland. Sanford retains his mental faculties in a good degree, but is infirm from a paralytic stroke he had about two years since, and therefore he cannot write you, but I send you his autograph, written before. He feels a lively interest in the historical articles published in Cleveland, which are read to him. You cannot better compensate him and his wife, who still lives, than by sending him such articles."
Mr. Sanford died at Shoreham, April 20, 1860, on the farm he had cultivated sine 1804, being eighty-six years and seven months of age. Here there acquired a competence, living for more than fifty years in communion with the Congregational church, of which he was a liberal supporter. His wife died in June, 1865, at the age of eighty-two.
(Transribed by Sharon Wick - being taken from Early History of Cleveland, Ohio. Publ. 1867)
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