TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

Introductory Matter .................................... vii

Name Index ................................................... 1

Subject Index ............................................ 983

 

INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT

 

This volume is an Index to the contents of Hemenway's Vermont Historical Gazetteer as published. Practically no corrections have been made for the inaccuracies which occur in the text, either in fact, in name, in time or in place, excepting that a few obvious errors in the spelling of names are noted, but in the main, even these are entered as found in the text. To edit the text has been considered to be no part of the duty of the Indexer, as it would be impossible to know where to draw the line in making such corrections.

The Gazetteer is a great source of local history of Vermont towns, but among the multitudinous authors, discrepancies and differences easily crept in, It has not been considered the duty of the Indexer to endeavor to reconcile these discrepancies.

The Gazetteer covers all the towns of the state excepting Windsor County towns, and certain others mentioned below; at the time the Gazetteer began to be published the only city in the state was Vergennes, and this is indexed as such, there being no town of that name. Matter relating to the other cities will be found under the names of the towns from which they were taken. The histories of several towns as far as recorded in the Gazetteer will be found under the towns to which they were annexed, as: Deweysburgh, Mansfield, Philadelphia, Smithfield, Sterling, and others; the histories of towns whose names have been changed will be found under the names they bore between 1860 and 1891, as: Bamf, Bessborough, Billymead, Bromley, Cumberland, Draper, Durham, Flamstead, and others. For a complete list of the towns of these two classes see the New Hampshire State Papers, Volume XXVI, Appendix. Proctor, as such, has no place in the Gazetteer; it was in­corporated out of parts of Rutland and Pittsford in A. D. 1886; Stan­nard, formerly Goshen Gore, received its new name in A. D. 1867. The histories of the unorganized towns of Averill, Ferdinand, Lewis and Norton, and in general, the Gores are not found in the Gazetteer.

Miss Hemenway died in 1890, before the work was completed. At that date Volume V was nearly completed and it was published in 1891. Volume VI was nearly prepared for the press at the time of her death; a few copies of the History of Andover, Windsor county, had been published in 1886 as a separate pamphlet; this town is not in­cluded in the index because it is most rarely found with the five vol­umes, and it was never included in the work by the publishers, although it might have been in Volume V.

Volume I was issued in parts. Probably it was the purpose of Miss Hemenway to issue the work as a quarterly magazine, as Volume I, No.

 

 

VIII       HEMENWAY'S HISTORICAL GAZETTEER

 

1, was issued in July 1860 with the title: Vermont Quarterly Magazine. The Civil war coming on the following year, Number 2 did not appear until October 1861; Number 3 in April 1862; Number 4 in October 1862; Number 5 in January 1863; Number 6 in August 1863: Numbers 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 together in 1867. Meanwhile it had been found that it was not possible to correctly retain the original name, and the title page of the volume reads: "The Vermont Historical Gazetteer, a Magazine Embracing a History of Each Town, * * *"; it was expected that the whole state would be covered in three volumes. Volume I contained the History of Addison, Bennington, Caledonia, Chittenden and Essex county towns.

Volume II was issued complete in 1871. On the paper cover we read: "Franklin and Grand Isle. 1871. Lamoille and Orange. Vol. II, or Nos. 12-24." The volume also contained the remarkable paper entitled "The Natural History of Chittenden, Franklin, Grand Isle and Lamoille Counties," by Rev. J. B. Perry, the manuscript of which had been lost some years but recovered after his death.

Volume III was issued in 1877 and contained the towns of Orleans and Rutland counties. Long before this it had been found that the work would run over three volumes; only eleven counties had been covered although several of the towns had been scantily treated. The Preface of Volume III states, "We draw near a completion, we hope. Vol. IV is already in manuscript and compiled, or nearly : Washington, Windham and Windsor Counties, which concludes our work as pro­jected; and so far as ever promised in preface or circular. Many patrons of the work, leading men in quite a number of the towns, already published in Vols. I and II, have suggested one at least, or if needed two supplementary volumes, in which any towns not satis­fied with their history already given can have a final opportunity to bring up the record. * * * "

Volume IV was published in 1882; it contained Washington county towns with those of Swanton, Groton, and Hubbardton.

Volume V was published as above stated in 1891; it contained Windham county towns with those of Sutton and Bennington; it was intended to publish another volume, as indicated in the copyright notice in Volume V, but it will never appear as a part of the Hemenway work. Through several unfortunate events the manuscripts of the Windsor county towns have been lost, and most or all, excepting that of Andover, were burned.

The only portions of the Gazetteer having more than one edition, or issue, are those of Volume I, No. 2, and portions of Volume IV. The first edition of Volume I, No. 2, has 46 lines in the first column, page 121, the last line of the column reading: ` * * * October next," the', while in the second edition the same column has 49 lines, the last line

 

 

 

INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT     IX

reading: "* * * Bennington on the." There are 120 pages of the text in each of these editions; some matter of the first edition is omitted in the second and additional matter is inserted, scattered through its pages. Both editions are indexed in the present volume; there appears to have been three different editions of the paper cover of this number and two editions of the paper cover of number three.

Printing was comparatively cheap when the Gazetteer was started. Judging from the statement found on the verso of the title of Volume IV, six thousand copies may have been printed of some of the numbers of Volume I, but numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6 were stereotyped. Volumes II and III were stereotyped; one thousand copies were printed of Volume IV and it was not stereotyped; a part of this volume was issued in num­bers as separate pamphlets, each of about one hundred pages. Number 1 contained the history of Washington county, Barre, Berlin and a part of Cabot; Number 2 contained the remainder of Cabot and that of Calais, Fayston and a part of Marshfield; another number made up the history of Cabot and Calais, and another number contained North­field complete, "with new lithograph portrait, the three State Houses, and fifteen other portraits and engravings." The engravings of the three State Houses have not been found in any complete Volume IV. Still another number contained Plainfield, Roxbury and Fayston; and lastly the final number contained Waitsfield, the County Chapter, Barre and Berlin.

No two copies of the Gazetteer have been found by the Indexer with the same number of illustrations, nor are they bound in alike. This Index includes all the portraits and plates mentioned in the lists of illustrations scattered through the Gazetteer and places them where it seems probable they were originally inserted by the printer. When they are not found by the reader in position as indexed, it is by no means certain that they are not somewhere else in the same volume; in three or four cases they may never have been included in the volume when issued, and in many cases they probably have been removed by some one after the volume was issued.

Each volume is paged separately. The pagination of Volume V is complex; it is printed in three parts; the second and third parts have half titles which frequently are lacking. Each part has separate pagination ; part 1 contains pp. 1 to 191 inclusive, and consists of the history of Cumberland county, pp. 1-17; and the history of Brattleboro, pp. 17 (repeated) to 191. This part is indexed as v. pt. 1, 1-191. Part 2 has pp. 1-736, and consists of the following histories :‑

Dummerston, pp. 1-216; Putney, pp. 217-270; Vernon, pp. 273-336; Dover, pp. 337-356; Athens, pp. 357-376; Brookline, pp. 377-405; Halifax, pp. 407-422; Jamaica, pp. 423-439 ; Marlboro, pp. 441-453; Newfane, pp. 455491; Rockingham, pp. 493-509; Bellows Falls Village, pp.

 

 

X   HEMENWAY'S HISTORICAL GAZETTEER

 

510-518; Stratton, pp. 519-527; Somerset, pp. 522-531; Townshend, pp. 532-551; Grafton, pp. 502-560; Westminster, pp. 561-630, on inner margin, also separately paged 1-76 on outer margin;

Westminster West, pp. 637-670, on inner margin, also separately paged 77-110 on outer margin;

Wardsboro, pp. 669-683, on outer margin, as are the following articles:

Whitingham, pp. 684-724; Fayetteville (in Newfane), 725-726; Williamsville (in Newfane), pp. 727-728; Pondville (in Newfane), pp-729 ; Hiram A. Cutting (biog. sketch), pp. 730-736.

This part is indexed as v. pt. 2, 1-736.

Part 3 contains the following towns, which are separately paged and indexed as follows;

 

Guilford, v. pt. 3, 3-80;

Londonderry, v. pt. 3¹, 15-29;

Windham, v. pt. 3², 5-26;

Wilmington, v. pt. 3³, 5-26;

Sutton, v. pt. 34, 5-56;

Bennington, v. pt. 35, 5-108.

 

The index of Volume V does not contain any reference to H, A. Cutting nor to the Sutton History, but the title page of the volume calls for the latter, and most copies of Volume V, examined by the In­dexer, contain both articles.'

While the Gazetteer contains much valuable local historical mat­ter, interesting for the most part only to the people of their own towns, it is generally regarded that the genealogical material in the volumes has the widest interest to the general reader. On this account the Index emphasizes more particularly the genealogical material of the Gazetteer. The residences of the men have been very largely noted. Of course it has been impossible to mention all the places of residence of many. Quite a few lived in three or more towns. In such cases it has usually been considered sufficient to indicate the place of birth or where a man spent his early years and where he later led an active life. Such information is indicated by such an entry as the following: "Smith, John, from Northfield (Mass.), of Rutland, i. 153." This does not mean that he lived in only the two towns mentioned, for it may be possible that he figured in a very important way in a town not mentioned at all. Again, references to persons of the same name are grouped together ; no indication is given how many persons are included under the same Christian and surname. Under Smith, John, there may be only two persons referred to or there may be a dozen, regardless of the number of references given. The names of a man's wives are not mentioned in the references but they will be found in the text.

 

 

INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT            XI

 

 

On the other hand, frequently a woman's residence is not given, but the names of her husbands are under her different names: thus there will be found references like these: (1) "Jones, Mary, m. Ezekiel Smith, i. 43"; (2) "Smith, Mary (Jones), wife of Ezekiel Smith, i. 43"; (3) "Smith, Mary (Jones), m. John Adams, ii. 45"; (4) "Adams, Mary (Jones) (Smith), wife of John Adams, ii. 45"; (5) "Adams, Mary (Jones), (Smith), m. Abel Anderson, ii. 65"; and finally, (6) "Ander­son, Mary (Jones) (Smith) (Adams), wife of Abel Anderson, ii. 65."

In general for matter relating to the villages in the state see the names of the towns in which they are situated, excepting Bellows Falls, Wells River, and rarely others. A full list of the villages may be found in recent issues of "Walton's Vermont Register," which publication, an annual one, is at this writing and has been for many years issued by The Tuttle Company, Rutland, Vt., the publishers of this volume, for the state.

Histories of East Montpelier, East Haven, North Hero, South Hero and West Fairlee will be found indexed for they were towns when the Gazetteer was published, but other East, North, South and West towns or villages must be sought for under the earlier name. All places not otherwise designated are in Vermont, excepting Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and a few others about which there can be no confusion.

The history of Westminster is unique in Vermont, although similar eases are found in Massachusetts. The western part of Westminster at an early day was set off by the people of the town and named West Parish, and became known as Westminster West. Ecclesiastical, mili­tary and school affairs were governed separately from those of the East Parish, or Westminster proper. Evidently the people generally ex­pected that eventually the West Parish would become a separate town, as had other Parishes in other New England states, but this has never occurred in this case. The two Parishes still continue, and their his­tories were written more or less independently and are separately indexed.

Names of the soldiers of the Civil war are not included in this Index unless some material fact is mentioned in the text not included in the "Revised Roster of Vermont Volunteers, 1861-66," published by the state in 1892.

The spelling of the place names is in the present recognized form. No apology is offered for the numerous variations in the spelling of either Christian or surnames. The text has been followed except in rare cases where there were obvious errors in the text. In innumerable cases the Christian name and not seldom the surname have been spelled differently by different authors, or a title, as Capt., Col., Rev., or Dr. has been added by one of the authors, rendering it uncertain whether the same person is meant. Usually all the variations in personal names

 

 

XII        INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT

 

have been entered in the Index. The ordinary abbreviations have been used in the Index, such as, Capt., Rev., Dr., and m. (for married).

The indexing has been under the immediate charge of Herbert W. Denio, Librarian of the Vermont Historical Society, assisted by Miss Helen Merrill, Miss Fanny Martin, Miss Josephine Kent, Miss Mildred Lander, Mrs. Margaret Foster and Mrs. Caroline Royce. The work was new to the entire force, and this must be in part the excuse for the long time in accomplishing the work.