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The December 1913 edition of The Vermonter magazine, Chapter Two of Nancy Darling's “History and Anniversary of Hartland”. The following is a transcribed version of that article. For simplicity, the pages that follow are numbered beginning with 1, but the page numbering from the original are included for reference. We have made some minor formatting changes but have maintained the piece as much like the original as possible.
Chapter 2 is incomplete; we are still working on transcribing it from the original.
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Chapter Two
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State of VT. To Hiel Paul Secy.
Greeting.
You are hereby ordered in the name and by the authority of the State of Vt. immediately to warn those persons whose names are hereunto annexed to meet on the company parade at Hartland meeting House on thursday the 2nd day of February next at 12 O'clock for the purpose of raising our proportion of one hundred thousand men according to an act of Congress and there wait for further orders, thereof fail not but a due return make of your doing thereon according to Law. Dated at Hartland this 23rd day of January 1809.Consider Alexander, Captain.
Serj. Benjamin Campbell
Do Hiel Paul
Capt. Seth Tin(k?)um
Oren Liscomb
Amos Ashley
Dan Marsh
John Stevens
Zenas Webster
Seth Wood Jr.
Benjamin Barron Jr.
Gideon G. Goodspeare
Theron Rust
Wm. Nutting
Jesse Billings
Moses Billings
Jonas Benjamin
Orea Rawson
David Badger
Abjah Benjamin
Elijah Green
Samuel Healey Jr.
Elida Sabin
William Sabin
Roswell Hill
James H. Durrer
Thomas Perkins
George Marsh
Timothy Moore
James Nutting
John Billings
Jesse Benjamin
Otes Marsh
From the above it is apparent that definite preparations for a second war with Britain were being made in Hartland three years before the breaking out of hostilities. However, only a very few items on these preparations are recorded in the town books; but, of them, the following entered in the report of the town meeting of March 5, 1812 is of sime interest: the Freemen were asked to “act on ... the article.
5th To build a Magazine for storing the towns stock of powder & lead and also to build a house for storing the Cannon and apparatus belonging to Capt. Dodge's company.
In reviewing the accessible military returns of officers and men prepared by Hartland for the War of 1812, the author finds more than two hundred reported in the town records as equipped for service, apart from certain of those listed in Capt. John Webster papers. The Webster lists show about two hundred trained by Capt. Webster alone; but only a small part of these were fully equipped. If those partly equipped in other companies could be known, the list for the town would be very long; and, as it is, the names given represent nearly every Hartland family of early times.
The equipment required in Capt. Webster's company was guns, cartridge boxes, bayonets, bayonet belts, priming wires, brushes, and flints.
The captains thuse far determined were: Capts. Consider Alenander, Andrew Dodge, Abel Farwell, Caleb Hendrick, Seth Limum (Lyman?), Levi Lull, Humphrey Rood Jr., David Sumner, and John Webster. Judge Luce once said of his neighbor, “If all men were like Caleb Hendrick (the Capt. of Artillery), there would be no use for poor-houses, jails, court houses, or prisons.” [A quotation from B. P. Ruggles' “Hartland Sayings.”]
The liutenants were: Infantry-- 1st Liuts. William Barrett, Charles Livermore, John Webster; 2d Liut. Simon P. Hoffman. Cavalry-- 1st Liuts. Samuel Perkins, jr., Humphrey Rood, Daniel Smith; 2d Liut. Andrew Dodge. Artilery-- Liuts. Andres Dodge, Simon P. Hoffman; Ishmael Tewksbury.
The sergeants were: Sergs. Daniel Ashley, Marston Cabot, Jr., Benj. Campbell, Ezra Child, Cyrus Cushman, John R. Densmore, Sam'l A. Fielding, Sam'l Healey, Jr., Simon P. Hoffman, George Latimer, Levi Lull, Dan'l Marsh, Hial Paul, Sullivan Rust, Frederick Sillsbury, Adin Spaulding, Alvan Taylor, Ishmael
Tewksbury, John O. Willard, John V. Williams.
The corporals were: Corps. John Barrel, William Benton, Joseph Bryant, Jonathan Burk, George Cabot, Hugh Campbell, Lot C. Hodgman, Alexander Holton, George Latimer, Sullivan Marcy, Dan'l Marsh, George Miller, Amasa Richardson, Ruggles Spooner, Edward Swan, Alvan Taylor, Thomas Weeden.
The musicians were: Drummers — Joseph Amsden, Jacob Gillman, Adin Spaulding, Alvan Taylor, Spensor Tracey, John O. Willard,; Fifers — Elad Alexander, Elijah Alexander, William Dean, Elisha Rust; Cornetists — Humphrey Rood, Moses Tewksbury; Undefined — Josiah Glading, Noah Shepard.
Two minors are recorded as training in the Hartland militia — Joseph Dunbar and Frederick S. Gallup. Otis Fish, who was enlisted from Capt. Webster's company, was one of the members of the “1st Company of Matross (?)” recorded June 23, 1813.
The companies trained in every section of Hartland, and they trained so often that the men and boys became thoroughly acquainted with each other and with the topography of their town &ndash. an attainment which would in itself justify universal military drill today. Among the places mentioned as parade grounds, in the military orders of Capt. Consider Alexander and Capt. John Webster, were those at Capt. Oliver Stevens', Simon P. Hoffman's, Samuel Taylor's, Laban Webster's and “Hartland Meeting House.”
Mrs. H. H. Miller has a scarlet coat and cap which were owned by the Weed family, used in the drills of the Hartland militia, and which are probably typical in style. Capt. Andrew Dodge's scarlet coat is another of Hartland's valued relics.
In the Albert Powers pasture, near the Woodstock line, is a large quartz rock by which a Hartland militia company is said to have camped while on its way to Plattsburgh during the War of 1812. This was the men's first camp on their way out and was called, “The White Rock Camp.”
On Sept. 19, 1809, there was a Regimental Review of arms and exercise at Simon P. Hoffman's.
Included in the First or “Hartland Regiment” were companies representing Hartland, Windsor, Hartford, and Norwich; and, in the autumn of 1814, these mustered at Woodstock for the famous review of the “1st Brigade, 4th Division of the Militia of Vermont.” Col. Consider Alexander was the commander of the First Regiment. A Hartland company of artillery and a Hartland squadron of cavalry, Humphrey Rood commander, were attached, with others, to the brigade.
Besides the men already named as serving in the War of 1812 from Hartland were: Daniel Bagley, Parker Bagley, Alfred Barrell, Phineas Barrell, Rufus Marcy, and Willard Marcy, Jr.
Mr. Leeuel Spooner, though not a Hartland soldier, was the last survivor of America's last war with Britain whom the author remembers. He spoke at Woodstock one Fourth of July, and being very aged, he seemed like a battered oak of the forest as he rose in the audience; but he was sound at heart and he voiced a patriot's soul, while everybody present applauded him roundly.
Mr. Perkins Bagley was Hartland's last survivor of the War of American Seamen, and Isaac Morgan, Jr., who enlisted at the age of fourteen, was the next to the last. Mr. Mogan used to tell many anecdotes of battles in which local men engaged; but the author remembers only the orders at the battle of Niagara which were “Rush! Rush!” One of his neighbors remembers how, when he became excited in an argument, he would exclaim, “You know nothing about fighting! You know nothing about fighting! The Falls of Nigary and the Battle of Chippewa!” Sometimes he would say, “You know nothing about fighting! Ground arms!”
In looking through the Hartland records of events that occurred immediately before and soon after the War of 1812, one is surprised to find many “Warnings to Depart” issued against perfectly respectable heads of families who came to settle in town, to prevent their gaining a residence. The injustice of the law requiring such warnings was perceived by Vermonters after a time and the statute was repealed.
Some curious entries are those on the marks which were used by stock-raisers in distinguishing their cattle and sheep as:
David H. Sumner's mark for cattle and sheep is a smooth Crop off the left Ear & a half penny under the right ear.
– Recorded June 6, 1814, by E. Spooner, Town Clerk.
John W. Cary's Mark for Sheep is a swallow-tail in left ear & a half crop the under side of the right ear.
– Recorded January 18, 1823 by D. Ashley, Town Clerk.
Agricultural development followed the war, and Hartland became celebrated for its farming — for its live-stock, wool, and maple sugar.
For example, we read from an old letter: “Esq. Denison, as everybody called him, represented his town in the legislature — he was generally school committee in my early days and held various offices in town — his farm was one of the best cultivated in Windsor, Co. He kept a large dairy of the finest grades and hundreds of merino sheep roamed over his fertile pastures.”
Col. Denison, a soldier of the Revolution, settled very early on the place now owned by the descendants of Mr. Truman Slayton. He built first a log house, and its hearthstone and chimney still remain; then he built, in 1794, the present large farmhouse with its beautiful verandas. Here is a picture of Squire Denison and his wife: “He was very careful to give all his children a good education; Geo. W. was a prominent lawyer in St. Louis, Missouri. He was always very kind to the sick, would visit those in the neighborhood who were ill and see that they had proper care, would furnish watchers, and when they were convalescing would carry them dainties to tempt their appetites — would often dress a spring lamb or chicken or anything he thought would be strenghening to the patient. His good wife had the same kindly nature; not only would she carry the sick and poor dainties from her own table but would do sewing for them gratis. She was a very fine singer, would always sing in church and at funerals.”
In another letter occurs this description: “Ward Cotton was a well-to-do farmer, owning several good farms at the 'middle of town.' He always kept a fine herd of cows, but his money-making industry was raising for wool — keeping several hundred sheep — having a shepherd to watch and care for them as they roamed the green pastures. During the Civil War he sold his wool for a dollar a pound. He raised flax and to a certain extent manufactured his own cloth for family use. Mr. Cotton made a large amount of maple sugar, some years two thousand pounds or more. He used the old fashion wooden buckets for holding sap, and boiled it down in iron pans, in a large sugar house.”
In the early part of the nineteenth century Hartland led the county in the quality
of its agricultural products, and often in modern times it has taken first prizes on “town teams” of oxen. The raising of sheep and cattle for market was an important industry here during the last century, and Squire Asa Weed was one of the prosperous farmers who sent “a drove” to Boston once or twice a year at least. His son Nathaniel continued the business and his grandson Nathaniel did the same.
“Blind French” was a successful drover who was generally known and liked.
On Jan. 11, 1845, Mr. Leonard H. Hamilton of New York City wrote to Luther Damon, Esq.: “I was very glad to hear so good account of my stock. I do not care how much they eat so they do not waste. Money is now worth in the street 9 to 12 per cent per annum. The Banks charge 6 per cent fo 60 day paper and over that time 7 pr. ct.”
[The remainder of this article is in the process of being transcribed.