The 1st Regiment, New Hampshire Cavalry was originally organized at Concord, NH as a Battalion of four Companies.  After fighting in numerous battles, culminating with Sheridan’s Raid into Virginia February 27-March 3, the Regiment was detached from 2d Brigade, 3d Division of Cavalry to guard prisoners back to Winchester, VA. Norman would have joined the Regiment during this period which concluded with duty at and in the vicinity of Winchester and in the Cavalry Dept. of Shenandoah, also at Poolesville, MD., until July 1865 at which time they were mustered out, at Cloud’s Mill, VA.

       On 25 Dec 1847 Norman married Charlotte Cornelia Palmer b. 12 May 1831, a daughter of Martin and Anna Palmer of Pownal, Bennington, VT.  The marriage took place at the home of Clarissa Orcutt in Victory Mills, Saratoga, NY.  According to affidavits filed with Charlotte’s petition for widow’s back pension, witnesses were Lucy A. Sibley nee Orcutt, Clarissa Orcutt, Amos H. Slade, and Mary Kelley.  Although we have not been able to identify the relationship of all these people to Norman or Charlotte we have found Amos H. in several censuses (1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880) for the Schuylerville, Saratoga, NY area.  It seems he went by his middle name, Horton, and appears as such in some censuses.    In the 1850 census he appeared with his wife Louisa and no children.  In the records for the Schuylerville North Broad St. cemetery we found Loisa (sic) Slade wife of Amos d. 24 Aug 1854 32y, and Sara A. dau Amos and Loisa d. 20 Aug 1854 1m 18d. He must have married again because in subsequent censuses he appeared with wife Nancy and one child Oscar D.  In all these censuses, except 1880, the enumerators listed him as born in VT.  In the 1880 census he and Nancy were living with son Oscar, 29, dau-in-law Mary, 28, g-son Horton Slade, 7, g-son Frank W. Slade, 5, g-dau Louisa Slade, 3 and g-dau Ella Slade, 1.  In this census the enumerator listed him as born in MA.  Based on the earlier censuses and his age we have concluded that Amos H. was Norman’s older brother.  We also think Norman’s middle name was Horton and that it was a family name, perhaps their mother’s maiden name.  This was common practice at that time.

       It’s possible that Clarissa Orcutt and Lucy were mother and daughter and related to Norman, perhaps through his mother.  Although I could not locate either of them in 1850 or 1860 censuses I did find both of them in 1870, living near each other in Newcomb, Essex, NY.  Clarissa was 60 and keeping house for Charly (sic) Orcutt 26, a farmer.  Living with them was a 4 year old boy, Willard Sutton.  All were shown as born in NY.  Six addresses away was Benjamin Sibley 41, a farmer, his wife Lucy 42 and their 5 children.  Lucy was shown as born in VT.  In the 1860 census for Shaftsbury there was a Stephen Orcutt 50, wife Sarah 45, five children and James Horton 18.  This is further evidence of a Horton-Orcutt relationship.

       Three years after their marriage, in 1850, Norman and Charlotte were living in Schaghticoke, Rensselaer, NY.  His occupation was listed as muleskinner.  For the benefit of our younger readers a muleskinner was a person who drove mule teams, not one who skinned mules.  According to Civil War papers Norman and Charlotte had three children:  Norman H., Jr. b 20 Aug 1857, Charlotte Cornelia b 8 Nov 1859 and Burnside B. G. b 2 Jun 1866.  Daughter Charlotte Cornelia died 7 Nov 1873 at age 14.  Norman must have been very proud of his Civil War service because in the 1870 census we find that the full name of his second son, Burnside, was Burnside Butler Grant Palmer Martin Slade.  Burnside, Butler and Grant were Union Generals in the war; Palmer was Charlotte’s maiden name and Martin her father’s first name.  In the 1880 census his name was listed as B. G. U. P. Slade.  He may have dropped Butler in favor of Grant’s first name Ulysses.  At that time both Norman, Jr., 21 and Burnside, 13 were living in Bennington with their mother Charlotte, 50.  Norman, Jr. was listed as a laborer and Burnside was working in a woolen mill.  The 1890 census was destroyed in a fire so we don’t have any record for that year.  However, the Bennington Directory for 1893 had an ad for Burnside Slade’s Optical Shop.  He had apparently gone into business for himself.

       Burnside Slade was apparently very industrious.  In the 1880 census at age 13 he was working in a woolen mill.  In 1893 he had his own optical shop.  In the 1896-97 Bennington Directory he was listed as a foreman at Bennington Machine Works. In the 1900 census his occupation was listed as machinist.  We don’t know what happened to the Optical Shop.  On the other hand we found that in 1903, according to a history of the paper mills of Papermill Village by Joseph Parks, Burnside went into partnership with Henry D. Fillmore to buy a former cotton thread mill in the hamlet of Hinsdillsville, also known as Paper Mill Village.  Until a disastrous fire in 1907, according to Parks, the plant operated day and night making tissue paper.  Here is Parks’ account of the fire as published in his column in the Bennington Banner, February 11, 2005:  “…on March 9, 1907, Fillmore’s partner Burnside Slade was awakened in his nearby home by a fire in the mill…The former Campbell’s mill was a total loss except for the dam…By borrowing money, Fillmore and Slade hired Italian workers from Boston to build the simple building of concrete blocks we see today…Products in those days were two types, toilet tissue and a coarse paper used mainly for stuffing hats and purses prior to sale.  The mill struggled for years, sometimes closed by the Great Depression.  Burnside Slade died in 1929, Henry Fillmore in 1935.  After that, the company was owned and operated by Fillmore’s widow Mary, daughter Fannie and Fannie’s husband John McKeon.”

       Burnside married Jennie E. Hathaway on 23 Sep 1892.  Jennie was a daughter of  Edward Payson Hathaway and Helen Rockwood.  In the 1880 census Edward P. Hathaway, 38 was shown living in Bennington with wife Helen, 36 and children Nellie S., 15, Jennie E., 12, George E., 9, Lena M., 5 and Bertha F., 2.  Attending Burnside’s funeral in 1929, among others, were Mrs. George Hathaway, Miss Marion Hathaway and Charles Hathaway of Waterford, N.Y., Mrs. A.S. Hathaway of North Bennington.  We know from the 1910 census that Marion is a niece of Col. Hathaway, and in that census, was listed as being born in NY but living with E. Payson (first use of this name) and his apparently spinster daughter Nellie.  In 1880, Edward P. was listed as a laborer and as born in VT.  His father and mother’s birthplaces are blank.  In 1900 Edward appears twice in the census, once living at 608 Gage St. in the 7th Ward of Bennington with wife Helen; and then, living with his in-laws, Charles and Mary Rockwood, outside the Village.  In one census he is listed as a farmer and in the other, a farm laborer.  In the 1910 census Edward was back living in the 7th Ward of the Village and his occupation was listed as “Own Income.”  Although we have not found him in the 1920 census he was still alive in 1927 when he appeared at a celebration, August 13-16, of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Bennington.  He and two other gentlemen placed a wreath on a marker dedicated that weekend.  They were listed as representatives of the Bennington Post of the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic).  E. Payson Hathaway would have been 85 years old. We found Corporal Edward Payson Hathaway on the “Vermont in the Civil War” website.  He served in the 14th Vermont Infantry, Co. A.  It is interesting to note that one of his other daughters, Bertha married Amos Aldrich, Katherine Whitman Foucher’s 1st cousin two times removed.

       There were other people at Burnside’s funeral who should be mentioned as they give us some clue as to Norman Sr.’s relatives.  In the Bennington Banner's write-up on Burnside Slade's funeral, dated June 8, 1929:  “Pallbearers were: Major H. D. Fillmore, senior member of the firm of Fillmore and Slade; Charles Slade, a cousin from Stamford; Charles Shantley, formerly superintendent of the mill; Harold Hilliard, Walter Main and Ralph Winn, personal friends who have long been in the employ of the company.  Relatives from out of town were:  Mrs. George Slade of North Adams; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Slade and Clayton Slade of Stamford; Mr. and Mrs. William Slade of North Adams, L.C. Holton of Grafton, N.Y…”  Censuses we consulted show Charles Slade to be the son of George Slade of Berkshire Co.  We have reached the conclusion that George is another brother of Norman Sr.  There would be 13 years between their ages but that is not unreasonable.  In the various censuses George gave his birthplace and that of his father as different states at different times.  We have tabulated the results:

          Place of Birth Tabulation:

Year	1860	1870	1880	1900	1910	1920
George		VT	MA	VT	VT	VT
George's Father			MA	VT	RI	VT

       Further confirmation comes from the death record of George H. Slade which states that his father was Elijah Slade and that George was born in Bennington.  We found Elijah in White Creek, Washington, NY in 1830, in Bennington in 1840 and in Hoosick, Rensselaer, NY in 1850.  1850 was the first census with more information than the age distribution of the inhabitants and we learn there that Mrs. Slade’s first name was Ammarilda.   However, in George Slade's Full Pension Papers he lists his mother as Amanda as well as the name of one of his daughters.  Based on all this data we’ve concluded Elijah Slade and Amanda Horton were the parents of at least three Slade sons, Norman, George and Amos.  Clarissa Orcutt may have been a sister or an aunt.

       Now on to Norman, Jr.: as mentioned above Norman, Jr. was born on 20 Aug, 1857.  Presumably this was in Coleville, like his brother.  The first evidence of Norman Jr. that we find is the 1860 census for Bennington, where Norman Sr. and wife Charlotte are living with her parents, Martin and Ann Palmer.  With them are their two children, Norman, 3 and Charlotte, 1.  After that it gets hard to find Norman Jr. because he is never living at home when the census man comes.  In 1870 we found him at the home of  Lyman Hurley.  He was 14 and listed as attending school.  Although no street addresses were given the Hurley home was 28 domiciles away from Norman’s family.  In the 1880 census he was apparently counted twice; once with his mother Charlotte and his brother Burnside and again at the home of John Lawrence, farmer, where he was listed as a laborer.  The Lawrence domicile was 12 houses away from Charlotte’s.  In both records he listed his father (Norman Sr.) as born in New Hampshire.  Unfortunately Charlotte Foucher’s manuscript confused Norman Jr. with Norman Sr. making it difficult to separate the two stories.  She talks of Norman living on a farm and nursing a mother with severe allergies who died of a stroke “less than two years after Norman married Hattie Perry.”  She says that, while his mother was ill, Norman was courting Hattie, who lived on a neighboring farm, and that she helped him care for his mother.  She has them being married the spring following his mother’s allergies being cured (by removing the family’s chickens to the Perry farm).  The records show that Norman married Hattie on 07 Jan 1890, which would make the date of his mother’s death 1891 or ‘92. This could not be Charlotte, Norman Jr.’s mother; because we know she lived until 1912.  There is no record of the death of a Mrs. Slade at the Town Clerk in Bennington around that 1890 time frame.  Charlotte Foucher’s manuscript says that, a short time after Norman’s mother’s death Hattie and Norman “sold the farm and moved down into the Village of Bennington.”  The lack of an 1890 census foils us again. In the 1896/97 Bennington Directory both Charlotte (alive and well, we presume) and Norman are listed at 181 Beech St., next door to Burnside at 176.  Norman’s occupation was listed as mechanic.  In the 1900 census, Norman and Hattie were living with Charlotte next door to Burnside and Jennie on Beech St. with their three daughters, Ada C., 9, Lura C., 7 and Nora C., 4. 

       Charlotte Foucher’s manuscript does not mention Norman Jr.’s first wife, Anna Crawford, whom, supposedly, Norman married 27 Oct 1878. It seems strange that in the 1880 census he was apparently counted twice; once with his mother Charlotte and his brother Burnside and again at the home of John Lawrence, farmer where he was listed as a laborer.  In neither domicile is there an Anna listed although Norman’s marital status is noted as M in both places.  However, we did find Anna Slade, 19 in the 1880 census, noted as married, living with her father, Samuel Crawford, along with her 1 year old son Frank Slade.  Backtracking, in the 1870 Bennington census there was a Crawford family living next door to Anna Palmer and Charlotte Slade.  They had a daughter, Anna, 9.  These censuses would calculate to a y.o.b. of 1861 and she would have been 17 in 1878.  This is most likely our Anna but what happened to her and son Frank?  We have not found them in any subsequent census.  Neither she nor Frank appear in the 1893 Bennington Directory and there is no death record at the Town Clerk’s office for Anna Slade between 1880 and 1900.  Paul Foucher postulates that she and Norman divorced and she remarried.

       Regardless, Norman Jr. did marry Hattie Perry on 07 Jan 1890.  We found Hattie in the 1870 census for Castleton, Rutland, VT which showed Edgar S. Perry, age 37, Farm Laborer, born in VT; Amelia, 38, born in VT; Hattie, 4 born in VT; Benjamin, 1, born in VT.  Edgar’s wife, Amelia was a daughter of Joel Rice and Rebecca Benjamin of the Castleton area, who were married in Pownal, VT .  The 1880 census showed Edgar, 46 and Amelia, 47 living in Benson, Rutland, VT with two sons, Benjamin, 10 and Edgar, 9.  Hattie, 14 was living at the home of Amasa Briggs as a servant.  Benson is a few miles north of Castleton in western VT.  Hattie’s brother, Benjamin Perry appeared in the 1910 census for Ira Township, Rutland County as a farm laborer.  Her brother Edgar in 1900 was living with his mother Amelia, a widow in Castleton.  He was working in a marble quarry.   In 1920 he was age 48 living in Pittsford, Rutland, VT with wife Lillian M., 36, one daughter Mabel, 17 and three sons: Charles B., 13, Clayton L., 5 and Arnold E., 10/12.  He was a dairy farmer “working on own account;” more on this later. Hattie’s father Edgar served as a bugler with Company A, 7th New York Cavalry during the Civil War.  Organized at Troy, NY and mustered in on Nov. 6, 1861, they served in Washington, DC until March 31, 1862 when they were mustered out.  We have traced the Perry’s back to William Perry, born abt 1581 in Farway, Devon, England.  The immigrant was his son, John Perry I, b 05 Jul, 1612 in Sawbridgetooth, Herts, England who died 21 Sep 1642 in Roxbury, MA. John sailed from England in 1631 on the ship Lyon.  He died at an early age (30) of consumption. The Perry’s could be the subject of a whole narrative so I will not digress further with them.

       Amelia Perry’s maiden name was Rice and she was born 20 Mar 1831.  Her gravestone is in the Bennington Village cemetery not far from those of her daughter Hattie and granddaughter Ada Slade.  She died on 25 Mar 1905.  I have been unable to find any indication that the Perry’s ever moved to Bennington.  According to Charlotte Foucher’s manuscript they lived on a farm next to the Slade’s.  As noted above it appears that Anna Crawford lived near the Palmer domicile in the 1870 census.  This may be where this story came from; a case of the two wives being mixed up down through the years.  Amelia was a daughter of Joel Rice and Rebecca Benjamin, who were born and died in VT.  We have not traced Joel’s line back any further but Rebecca’s line is available back to colonial days.  Amelia must have come to Bennington to live some time after 1900 based on the location of her gravestone.  Her funeral announcement states that she was living with her son on Webb St. in Bennington.  As stated above, in the 1900 census Amelia and son Edgar S were living in Castleton, Rutland, VT.  She was a widow.  Paul Foucher claims to have evidence that the son in Bennington was Benjamin Perry.  In a conversation on July 2, 2005 Lura Oldham Prouty told of Uncle Ben Perry who used to bring her and her siblings candy when they were children.  He was always welcome at Nora and LeRoy Oldham’s house.  On the other hand Lura Foucher would not let him come there.  In the 1910 census we found Benjamin in Ira Township working as a laborer.  Couldn’t find him in the 1920 census but scanning the 1930 census, we found Edgar 57, Lillian 46, Clayton 15 and Arnold 11 living in Pawlet.  On the farm next door (Charles Cooper) was Benjamin Perry 51 working as a laborer.  Lura also told of visiting the Edgar Perry farm in Pawlet.  Her husband, Ray Prouty, was a friend of Edgar’s son, Calvin Perry and they enlisted in WWII together.  Calvin was killed in the South Pacific.

       After Hattie’s appearance in the 1880 census as a servant in the Briggs’ home in Benson she next appeared in the 1900 census as mentioned above, living on Beech St. with Norman and their three daughters.  In the 1910 census we found Hattie, age 43, living on South St. with her son-in-law Clarence Potter, age 20 and wife Nora, age 15.  They were recently married.  This was Nora’s first marriage which ended in divorce.  Norman was living with his mother, Charlotte in the Beech St. conclave.  It may be that Hattie had moved in with the newlyweds to help them get started.  She was listed as Head of Household. In 1920 we found Hattie, age 54, living with son-in-law LeRoy S. Oldham Sr. age 28, head of household, and Nora, age 25, his wife.  Children were Earl F., age 8, stepson; LeRoy S., Jr., age 3yrs-3mos, and Kenneth G. age 1 month. 

       Norman, Jr. and Hattie (Perry) had three children, all daughters.  The first-born was Ada, on 05 Dec 1890; the second was Lura on 05 Feb 1893 and the last was Nora on 21 Aug 1895.  Charlotte Foucher’s manuscript states that “Norman found work in his brother’s mills and …he turned the small area around his home into a miniature farm, raising enough fruits and vegetables to satisfy the needs of his little family.  To supplement her husband’s income, and to provide a few items beyond the barest necessities, Hattie took in washings and ironings.”  This latter observation is confirmed by the 1910 census which listed Hattie’s occupation as ‘Washerwoman.’  Although Charlotte Foucher’s manuscript is not without flaws it does give us a good overview of the life of the Slade’s, especially of her mother, Lura.  For that we are indebted to her.  She recounts how Lura left school at an early age, perhaps as young as 14 from what we can reckon.  In the 1910 census she was in Northfield, Washington, VT, working in a hosiery mill as a Looper and, according to Charlotte had been working in Bennington for three years before moving to Northfield.  She supposedly stayed in Northfield for two years, returning to Bennington in 1911.  Prior to this, she had met George Foucher, an orphan from Boston, MA who had moved to Bennington in 1901 and had been fostered by Patrick Hogan and his wife Ellen at the age of 12.  George had become a barber, apprenticing under Edward Cummings.  He was known around town as Georgie Hogan.  This carried down to his nephew, Walter Boomhower, Jr., whom he eventually adopted.  Walter was called Dutch Hogan while growing up.  Upon returning to Bennington Lura accepted George’s proposal of marriage but there was one catch.  In order to be married he had to travel to Boston to get copies of his birth certificate and baptismal record.  According to Charlotte, while in Boston he visited his maternal aunt and uncle, Frank and Marie Nicod in Arlington Heights.  We found them in the 1920 and 1930 censuses living in Arlington confirming that story.  They must have been reasonably well off at the time and owned a large tract of land.  Today that land is covered by homes but there is a Nicod St. immortalizing Frank and Marie.  George must have obtained the necessary documents because on the 14th of April, 1912 (the day the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank) they were married at St. Francis de Sales church in Bennington.  In those days that was the ‘Irish’ church and George considered himself Irish.  In the 1920 census we found George and Laura (sic) Hogan living at 217 Gage St. and listing his parents’ ”mother tongue” as Irish.

       George was a wheeler-dealer and must have felt there was some advantage to being known as Hogan rather than Foucher.  It may have had something to do with his sideline as a bootlegger and gambling entrepreneur during prohibition.  The Volstead Act made prohibition (of alcohol) the law of the land starting Jan 16, 1920 lasting until 1933.  My father, Walter Foucher, adopted son of George and Lura, told me that George had a false bottom in his town car which he utilized going to Canada to pick up liquor that he sold in a speakeasy and gambling room that he ran.  When I was a lad in grammar school I was allowed into a locked room behind George’s barber shop on North St. in Bennington to get my father a pack of cards.  Although not in operation it was obviously a gambling room with slot machines, poker tables etc.  Regardless, in the 1930 census George gave his real name, although the enumerator noted it as Fouchar.

       Lura’s sister Ada married Walter David Boomhower in Bennington on 10 Jun 1910. Walter and Ada Slade apparently met at the State School in Vergennes, Vermont. He was an officer and she was a sewing mistress.  The 1910 census for Vergennes, Addison, VT showed them both living at the school.  Walter was 18.  Ada died in the flu epidemic of 1918, in Vergennes, VT.  Ada was returned to Bennington for burial in Hattie Perry's plot in the Village Cemetery.  Walter and his two children, Walter, Jr. and Blanche stayed for a time with his sister-in-law, Lura and her husband George Foucher who had been with him at the time of her death. From Charlotte Foucher's manuscript we have the following description:  "And so it was settled, to everyone's satisfaction, I believe.  Shortly after the beginning of the New Year, 1919, Walter returned alone to Vergennes, and Blanche and Walter, Jr. remained with their aunt and uncle."  Katherine Foucher says that when Walter returned for his children he learned that Lura and George had adopted them and he had no legal right to them. Walter then married Grace Gilman and they had two children, one died as an infant and the other was named Edwin.  On 7 Apr 1927 Walter, while at work walking on the railroad track near Waterbury, VT, was struck by the north bound milk train.  Both legs were severed and he subsequently died in Heaton Hospital in Montpelier, VT. 

       According to Charlotte Foucher's manuscript, shortly before Christmas, 1911, Nora married Clarence Potter.  Clarence had been a boarder, arriving in 1909, according to Charlotte.  The 1910 Federal Census for Bennington shows Nora, age 15 and her husband, Clarence Potter, age 20 living on South St. with her mother Hattie Slade, age 43.  They were newlyweds (0 months married).  Her father, Norman, was living with his mother, Charlotte, next to Burnside and Jennie on Beech St.  At first we might conclude that Hattie had moved in with the newlyweds to help them get on their feet, but Hattie is listed as Head of Household.  Are we to infer from this that Hattie had left Norman and set up housekeeping with Nora, taking in Clarence as a boarder who subsequently married his landlady’s daughter?  Regardless, Nora’s marriage appears not to have lasted past about 1915.  Nora and Clarence had one son, Earl, b 21 Sep 1911.  According to Lura Oldham Prouty, Nora’s daughter, Clarence and Nora divorced around 1914.  She then married LeRoy Oldham.  Their first son, LeRoy, Jr. was born 24 Sep 1916.  The 1920 census showed Nora married to LeRoy Oldham, Sr. age 28, living on Colgate Rd. with three children: Earl F. age 8, stepson to LeRoy; LeRoy Jr. age 3yrs 3mos and Kenneth G., age 1 month.  Hattie was 54 and living with them and her name was still Slade.  She was listed as Married, not as a Widow, telling us Norman was still alive at the time of the census.  Bennington Banner records show that Norman died on 10 Aug 1920.  We have been unable to find his or his mother’s grave. Charlotte's manuscript states that, at the time Hattie left Nora's home and moved in with Lura, George and Charlotte she was known as Mrs. Haskell.  She states "Hattie had married again but it didn't last.  They separated and she moved in with Nora."  This was about 1933.  Hattie died in 1934.

       As mentioned above, Ada was the first of the Slade sisters to die, succumbing to the flu in the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918.  Ada was only 27.  We don’t have any record of when Nora died.  Lura succumbed to pneumonia just before Christmas of 1971.  She was 78.  With the death of the Slade girls, the descendants of Norman Slade continue on, with surnames Foucher, Pepper, Oldham, Prouty, Leary, McCarthy, Alvarez and Amissah-Aidoo. There may still be descendants carrying Norman’s surname if Frank Slade, Norman Jr.’s son with Anna Crawford lived to have progeny. 
 

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               20 May 2007