Page images
PDF
EPUB

invited compliance on the part of the New York officers and claimants, informing them that unless such compliance took place within a specified time they might expect that force would be used. But the justices still persisted in issuing writs of ejectment against the New Hampshire men, and a second visit to Durham was made. In order to make sure of capturing Spencer, a party of some thirty men, under the lead of Ethan Allen and Remember Baker, went to his house about II o'clock on Saturday night, November 20th, and took him into custody. They marched him two miles through the woods to the house of one Green, where he was kept under guard until Monday morning.

jobbers of New York to prevent the claimants of the New Hampshire rights from holding the lands they claimed and with issuing warrants contrary to their orders. Baker and others made charges and the trial was proceeded with. The judges found Spencer guilty on all the charges and, declaring his house a nuisance, passed sentence that it should be burned to the ground, and that he should promise he would not, for the future, act as a justice of the peace under New York. However, upon Spencer's representation that his wife and children would be great sufferers and his store of dry goods and all his property be destroyed if his house were burned, the sentence was reconsidered and, upon the

[graphic][ocr errors]

A BEAUTIFUL SCENE ON THE RUTLAND RAILROAD ON ITS WAY FROM RUTLAND TO BURLINGTON, VT.

He was then taken to the house of Joseph Smith, the Durham innkeeper, where a trial was ordered. Spencer on being asked where he would prefer to be tried, requested that it take place in front of his own door, and the request being granted they marched back to Spencer's house and erected in front of it a "judgment seat." Upon this Allen, Baker, Seth Warner and Robert Cochran took their seats as judges. Before commencing the trial, Allen made a speech to the assembled multitude, telling them what had led to such vigorous action. Spencer was then ordered to stand before them, take off his hat (rather an undignified position for an assistant judge of the common pleas court), and listen to the accusations against him. Allen then charged him with cudling with the land

suggestion of Warner, it was decided that the house should not be wholly destroyed but only the roof taken off; and that might be put on again, provided Spencer should declare that it was replaced under the New Hampshire title and should purchase a right under the charter of that province. Spencer having promised compliance with these terms, the Green Mountain Boys proceeded to take off the roof, "with great shouting and much noise and tumult." Spencer, on his further promise not to again act as justice of the peace, was discharged from custody.

A company of some twenty or thirty of the Green Mountain party went to the house of Coroner Jenny, and, finding him missing and his house deserted, set it on fire and burnt it to the ground.

A number of the men from the southern part of the district, who had come to take part in the demonstration against Spencer and other New York officers of the law, on their return met the missing Jacob Marsh, Esq., at Arlington, who was on his way from New York to the scene of the recent trial. They took him prisoner and put him on trial for his crimes against the New Hampshire claimants, Samuel Tubbs, Nathan Spencer and Philip Perry sitting as judges. Seth Warner and Remember Baker were his accusers, the latter insisting upon the application of the "twigs of the wilderness" as a punishment, but his advice did not prevail. The sentence finally agreed upon was put in writing and read by Warner by direction of the court.

It

as damages, and promise he would never execute any precept under the province of New York. He was then dismissed and furnished with a certificate as follows: "These are to certify to all the Green Mountain Boys that Charles Button has had his trial at Stephen Mead's, and this is his discharge from us." This document bore the signatures of Peleg Sunderland and Benjamin Cooley.

The New York Assembly, in 1774, requested the Governor to issue a proclamation offering rewards of £100 for Ethan Allen and Remember Baker, and 50 for Seth Warner, Robert Cochran, Peleg Sunderland, Sylvanus Brown, James Breckenridge and John Smith. These rewards were to be paid on their incarceration in

[graphic][merged small]

was to the effect that he should thereafter encourage settlements under the New Hampshire charter and discourage those under the New York, and that he should not act as justice of the peace under a New York commission "upon pain of having his house burnt, and his person punished at their pleasure." He was then given a certificate to protect him against further punishment for past offences and dismissed.

A few days later, Charles Button, a constable, was arrested at Pittsford, and a prisoner he then had in charge for debt was taken from his custody and Button put on trial for acting in the office under New York authority. He was threatened with the "twigs of the wilderness" and compelled to give up six shillings assessed

the Albany jail. The same act authorized hanging without trial. But the defensive tactics of the Green Mountain Boys continued, each remaining free to take a part in the work regardless of the rewards.

Little further trouble happened for the time being, for the New York claimants had evidently concluded it was neither safe, pleasant nor profitable to incur the displeasure of the Green Mountain Boys, who were fearless in defense of the New Hampshire grants and their own rights under them. We have already shown how they disregarded official titles, issued by the New York authorities, and their disregard for the hanging and reward act of the New York Assembly is shown in the punishment on the person who petitioned the assembly to enact the law.

Benjamin Hough, an occupant under one of the odious New York patents, had spent the winter in New York advocating the passage of the law. He came back with a commission as Justice of the Peace and was loud in his denunciation of the rioters. The Green Mountain representation held a convention in April and passed a resolution demanding that until his majesty's pleasure in the premises should be further known, whoever should presume to take a commission of the peace for the New York "be government should deemed an enemy to their country and the common cause."

Hough was formally served with this resolution, warned to desist and was threatened with punishment if he per

should depart the New Hampshire grants and not return again till his majesty's pleasure should be known in the premises, on pain of receiving five hundred lashes." The sentence was put in immediate execution with much severity. They then showed their fearless and defiant contempt for the government officers at New York by giving him the following certificate:

Sunderland, Jan. 30, 1775. This may certify to the inhabitants of the New Hampshire grants that Benjamin Hough hath this day received full punishment for his crimes committed heretofore against this county, and our inhabitants are ordered to give him, said Huff, free and unmolested passage towards the city of New York or to the westward of our grants, he

[graphic]

MEMORIAL HALL, RUTLAND, VT., BUILT OF RUTLAND MARBLE.

sisted; but paying no heed, the Green Mountain Boys concluded to make an example of him and he was consequently seized by a body of his neighbors, placed in a sleigh and carried south about thirty miles to Sunderland, where he was tried January 30, 1775, the leading Green Mountain Boys having assembled for the purpose. Six of the nine judges appointed to sit in judgment were those named in the reward offered. They were Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, Robert Cochran, Peleg Sunderland, James Mead, Gideon Warner and Jesse Sawyer. The trial resulted in his being found guilty and sentenced to be tied to a tree and receive two hundred lashes on the naked back, and then as soon as he should be able

behaving as becometh. Given under our hand this day and date set forth. Signed, Ethan Allen, Seth Warner."

This was at the beginning of the trying period for all the colonies brought about by the stamp act of 1765 and delegates from twelve of them assembled in Philadelphia, in September, 1774, and agreed to suspend intercourse with the mother country until obnoxious acts of Parliament should be repealed.

Feeling ran high, and a term of the county court for Cumberland county was to be held at Westminster on the 14th of March, 1775, and the conduct of this court had long been complained of, feeling ran high between the Tories and Whigs, and the Whigs declared that they "felt it their

duty to God and to themselves and posterity to resist and oppose all authority that would not accede to the resolves of the Continental Congress," and especially to permit the exercise of such authority over themselves by the holding of a term of such obnoxious court. Some eighty or ninety people had assembled at the court house on the 13th to protest against holding the court. They finally secured the promise of one of the judges to delay the opening, but Sheriff Patterson apprehensive of an attempt to stop the court, collected a body of men and armed them. In the meantime the Whigs took possession of the court room and were determined to hold possession until the opening of the court in the morning. Towards night the

William French, killed, and on an inquest being held a verdict of murder was found against the sheriff and several of his assist

ants.

In two days five hundred well-equipped men had assembled, among them forty or fifty Green Mountain Boys under Captain Cochran, when the sheriff, judges and others were taken prisoners, and it was decided that Noah Tobin and Benjamin Butterfield, judges; Samuel Gale, clerk; William Patterson, the high sheriff; Benjamin Groton, deputy sheriff, and four others should be taken to Northampton and held for trial; this was done, but they were removed at the expiration of a few weeks by a writ of habeas corpus issued by Chief Justice Hors

[graphic][merged small]

sheriff with his posse appeared in front of the court house and commanded them to disperse. Not being complied with he caused the king's proclamation to be read and threatened with an oath that if they did not comply in fifteen minutes he would blow a hole through them. The sheriff then retired, one of the judges assuring the occupants that they could occupy the room for the night. But the sheriff in the meantime was giving his posse a liberal ration of liquor and preparing a late attack, and a little before midnight the sheriff with his posse again appeared and demanded entrance, which, being refused, he commanded his men to fire, which was obeyed; many of the Whigs escaped by a side door, but ten were wounded, and one,

mandon to New York for trial, but they were never prosecuted. This was designated the Westminster Massacre; and what the Boston Massacre was to Massachusetts, the Westminster Massacre was to Vermont, and the killing of the young man by an officer of the king and Tory sympathizers roused the people of the Green Mountains as thoroughly as did the battle of Lexington in April of the same year.

This was about the last effort of the colonial government of New York to exercise jurisdiction over the people of the New Hampshire grants, and the general revolt against the king's government made further proceedings impracticable, and left the Green Mountain Boys, and particularly

their leader, in a position to show that their martial spirit was not all engendered by selfish motives, and that they were loyal to principles as broad as the colonial possessions. Ethan Allen, the leader of the Green Mountain Boys in the surprise and capture of Ticonderoga, demanding its surrender in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress, and a long list of those who were classed as rioters and renegades with a price fixed for their arrest and imprisonment or death, took prominent parts in the Revolutionary struggle. But regardless of the loyalty shown to the Continental Congress and the cause of the Revolution, after the declaration of peace with England the controversy over these grants continued for

December 18, 1849. Later, the name was changed to Rutland & Burlington, and again to the Rutland Railroad Co. It had its share of litigation and bankruptcy, was leased to the Vermont Central for twenty years, and then reverted, March, 1867, to the Rutland Railroad. It runs from Rutland north to Burlington and Lake Champlain, and from Rutland southeast, climbing the Green Mountains at an angle, crossing the summit at Mount Holly, nine miles from Rutland, at an elevation of 562 feet, falling 985 feet in the 31 miles to Bellows Falls. The road is 120 miles long and the scenery is delightful, especially from the summit, going in either direction.

The Rutland & Whitehall, from Castleton to Whitehall, 24 miles (about half in New

[graphic][merged small]

ten years, Vermont standing her ground, however, and punishing those who infringed on her rights. The people asked for admission as a state, but through the influence of New York State and individuals interested in the New York grants Congress was prevented from acting in her favor. Finally a commission was appointed, which fixed the amount of $30,000 that Vermont should pay to New York, and the state was admitted into the Union in March, 1791, as the fourteenth state under the Federal Constitution.

Railroad building in Vermont began when a charter was issued, in 1843, to the Champlain & Connecticut River road. It was begun at Rockingham, near Bellows Falls, in February, 1847, and was completed from Bellows Falls to Rutland on

York and half in Vermont), was completed in 1850. The Bennington & Rutland Railroad was chartered by an act of the legislature in November, 1845, and in operation in 1852. It started at Bennington, which had so great a part in the early contentions and was so frequently visited by the Green Mountain Boys. Its course was almost directly north, through many towns nade historic by the record of events with which the Green Mountain Boys were associated, and from Danby follows the Otter Creek valley into Rutland, the Marble City of Vermont.

The Rutland & Washington comes next, chartered in 1847, and was put in operation in 1853. Jay Gould became superintendent of this road January 1, 1864, with headquarters in Rutland. In July, 1876, he

« PreviousContinue »