A Kid in Vermont - 1800

Simeon Ide was a prominent printer in Windsor. He printed the “New England Farmer's Almanac” and also printed the newspaper “The Vermont Republican” from 1809 – 1818. There is plenty of information on Simeon Ide online. He wrote a book called “The Franklinsonian”, an autobiography. Simeon firmly believed that children were brought up better when he was a kid than his grandchildren were being brought up, and wrote the book to tell his grandkids what it was like when he was their age. He also kept a diary for his whole life. One of his descendants, Louis Flanders, used the diaries and book to write a biography called “Simeon Ide, Freeman, Yeoman and Pioneer Printer.”

Simeon's parents were Lemuel and Sarah Ide of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Simeon was their first child, born in 1794. When they were first married, they started life with a “modest patrimony”. Lemuel was a carpenter by trade. If he had stuck to carpentry, he would have been fine, but he lost all of his money investing in real estate.

Things weren't going too well for Lemuel in Massachusetts, so he moved to Vermont with his wife and two young sons. The family moved around Vermont quite a bit for several years. Lemuel started a small house in Clarendon, but moved to Reading before it was finished. As his family grew to include twin daughters, he had a harder time making ends meet than ever. He decided that maybe he could earn back his losses by becoming a sailor, so he left his family and went to sea.

While Lemuel was at sea, he left his family in the care of his brother-in-law, Zenas Stone. Simeon's mother earned money teaching school, sewing, and doing housework for neighbors, but she just couldn't earn enough money to support her children. When Simeon was 5, his uncle took him to live with his grandparents in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. This trip was a two day ride in an open lumber sleigh in the dead of winter. Ide says, in “The Franklinsonian”, “It was a tedious, cold ride, especially since his clothing wasn't very abundant.” You have to wonder how bad things were, that Uncle Zenas thought it was necessary to make that long, cold trip.

Simeon's grandparents thought the world of him. There were two cousins in Shrewsbury, but not old enough for Simeon to really play with, or to go to school with. He went to church with his grandparents, and went to school there for two months in the summer and two months in the winter. At seven years old, he drove the horse plow and drove his grandmother and great-grandmother in the family carriage to do their shopping in a nearby village of Worcester.

Lemuel returned from his stint at sea none the richer. In his book, Simeon says that his father “most likely decided to find his fortune was on dry land, where he had lost it.” Lemuel returned to carpentry, built up a business, and the family's fortunes improved. When Simeon was seven, his uncle returned to Shrewsbury and brought him home to Vermont.

The family settled down in Reading. Simeon adored his mother. He says, “She was one of the best of women. She was the mother of eight children. She labored early and late for their welfare. She had a winning way of enforcing her precepts and encouraging her children in the practice of industry and economy. She lived to the great age of ninety-one years.” He tells about her spinning flax and carding wool by the light of the fireplace, while telling the children stories about Washington, Lafayette and Franklin. When Simeon became a printer as an adult, he printed a memoir of a Revolutionary War Hero for free. I bet he was thinking of his mother's stories by the fire when he was a young boy.

When you read “The Franklinsonian”, you get the impression that Simeon didn't think as much of his father, which is understandable, in light of the fact that his father's inability to earn a living made it necessary for his son to leave his mother and siblings for two years. Flanders, in his book “Simeon Ide”, describes a passage in one of Simeon's diaries when Simeon does mention his father, when he describes how his father built a fire in the fireplace. “ He first cleared away a bushel or so of ashes, reserving in a two pail iron kettle the live embers, then he rolled in a “backlog” about three and a half feet long by two feet in diameter, then on top of it he placed a sub- backlog, same length and about half the size, then placed the large kitchen andirons in due order, and on them another log, called the “forestick”, about the same size as the sub. Thus the foundation of the Christmas fire was laid.” His father then used the embers, some small kindling and some split wood to build the Christmas fire.

If you can get past the moralizing, “The Young Franklinsonian” is a pretty interesting, readable account of life for a young boy in Vermont in the early 1800's.It is pretty rare that you find a firsthand account of a kid's life from that era.  It's obvious that Simeon is using this book as a way to let people know how much better he was raised, how hard he worked, and so on, but there is plenty of story there to enjoy. You can read the whole book online at

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7124021M/Grandfather's_story

Windsor County Court October 23

Jesse Perley DOB 11/14/76 pled not guilty to one count of sexual assault of a child under the age of 13 in 2012 in Hartford

Moses Allen, DOB 9/10/79 Pled not guilty to a charge of sexual assault of a victim of less than 10 years old on May 1, 2011 in Springfield

Kevin Upham, DOB 3/20/84, pled not guilty to domestic assault in Bethel on September 11

Jacob Vanryswyk DOB 11/5/88, pled not guilty to his second DUI charge, in Woodstock on October 9

Ethan Gallo DOB 8/11/89, pled not guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct/fight that allegedly occurred on August 24. Gallo was rear-ended in front of the Pizza Chef restaurant in Quechee. Gallo was exceptionally irate at being hit because he had his newborn baby in the car. The person who hit him backed up, and Gallo thought he was leaving the scene, so he jumps out of his car and pulls the other driver out of the car while it is still in gear. The other person's car continued to move, and the other driver ended up being run over by his own car.

Calvin Therrien, DOB 11/19/80 pled not guilty to a charge of Burglary that allegedly occurred at the United Church of Bethel on June 8.

Marisa Thomas, DOB 7/24/90 pled guilty to a charge of larceny of under $900 on April 4^th in Windsor. She stole her grandmother's debit card.

Ashley Newland, DOB 3/26/85, pled not guilty to a charge of burglary in Bethel on June 8^th. She was also involved in the burgary of the United Church.

Craig Batchelder, DOB 6/20/85, pled not guilty to a charge of simple assault in Springfield on July 30.

Tyler Wheatley, DOB 4/7/92, pled not guilty to his first charge of DUI, in Bethel on October 5

Gary Rice, DOB 9/4/44 pled not guilty to a charge of violating a prevention of abuse order, in White River Junction on August 24.

Brandon Wood, DOB 6/18/95, pled not guilty to a charge of simple assault, and operating a vehicle without owner consent, in Cavendish on September 6.

Jacqueline Martini, DOB 2/4/87 was charged with two incidents of selling depressants, stimulants or narcotics on June 19 in Windsor

Tracey Thurston DOB 3/6/70 pled not guilty to a charge of embezzlement in Hartford in December, 2011.

Kevin Schaner, DOB 2/22/59 pled not guilty to a charge of simple assault with fluids on an officer, firefighter, EMB or health care worker, and his first DUI in Hartford on September 19

David Young, DOB 10/25/93, pled not guilty to a charge of unlawful mischief in Windsor on September 9^th

Thomas Segerson, DOB 5/18/62, pled not guilty to a charge of operating with a suspended license in Hartford on September 5.

Joshua Aiken, DOB 5/23/81, pled guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct/obstruct in Springfield on August 10.

A Bestseller in the Upper Valley in the 19th century

When I googled the year of Oliver Farnsworth's death, 1785, and Upper Valley, I found a book called“Reading Becomes a Necessity of Life”, by William Gilmore. This book was all about the reading habits of the residents of the Upper Valley in the late 18^th and early 19^th century. The author makes it clear that he is not writing about intellectuals, who mostly read the work of European philosophers, scientists and religious thinkers. He was writing about the average person who lived in Upper Valley at the time.

In the early 19^th century, almanacs, broadsides, pamphlets and newspapers were the most popular forms of printed media. The most popular of all of these was the almanac. Almanacs were printed on very cheap paper, and were meant to be kept for a year and then thrown away. Gilmore says that ¾ of all households in the Upper Valley probably had an almanac. They cost 6 cents in 1816. Farm families depended on the almanacs for advice on when to plant their crops. The almanacs showed when the phases of the moon would be, forecast the weather, showed what time sunrise and sunset would be. This was a huge help in keeping track of the time of day, since many families didn't own clocks.

The most popular almanac used in the Upper Valley was the New England Farmer's Diary and Almanac, by Truman Abell. (Dr) Truman Abell lived in Lempster, New Hampshire. He wrote the New England Farmer's Almanac for 39 years. His wife's name was Sarah. They had eleven children but only four lived to be adults : Sophia, Erasmus, who also became a doctor and moved to Minnesota, Mary Jane, and Truman, Jr,. Dr Abell's obituary in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal states that “Dr A was an eminent and industrious practitioner, and his industrious and well-spent life secured for him the respect of a large circle of friends. Besides fulfilling all the duties of an active country physician, he cultivated the highest departments of science, especially astronomy.”Dr Abell died at age 74. He must have been rich, being a popular doctor and the author of a popular almanac for 39 years.

The Almanac was first printed in Weathersfield in 1815 by printers Eddy and Patrick. The 1816, 1817, and 1818 editions were printed by Jesse Cochran. For the next sixteen years, it was printed by Simeon Ide of Windsor. There was no New England Farmers' Almanac for 1836. In 1837, 1838, and its last year of 1839, it was printed by N.C. Goddard.

Simeon Ide was a prominent printer in Windsor. He printed the “Vermont Republican”, a newspaper centered in Windsor, from 1809 to 1818. His brother was the president of the short-lived Republic of California, and Simeon wrote, printed and published a biography about him. He also printed “The Recollections of an Old Soldier”, the memoir of David Perry. Perry was a hero of the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War who lived in the Upper Valley. He printed Perry's story without pay, because of his respect for war heroes.

October, 1816

This is how you read this page of the almanac. Today is October 21. The far left column is for the day of the month. The next column is the day of the week. October 21 is the second day of the week, so it is Monday. The next column tells us that the sun rose at 6:42 and the next column tells us the sun set at 5:18. The next column says that there were 11 hours and 38 minutes of daylight. This is a mistake. On October 13th, it says that there was an even 11 hours of daylight. On October 14th, it says that daylight lasted 10 hours and 58 minutes. On the 17th, it goes back to 11 hours and 48 minutes. It is a mistake that is repeated for the rest of that column. On the next page, which I will probably print next month, it says that November 1 had 10 hours and 6 minutes of daylight. The last two columns relate to the sun's position in the sky.

Northern Boundary of Mascoma's (Mascommah's) Deeds

This past weekend, the Old Redneck and I went back on the Connecticut River to find the southern boundary of the deed to Southern Vermont and New Hampshire.  We still didn't find it because we got rained out two days in a row.  We did talk to a man in Brattleboro who runs a canoe shop who said that if there was a ledge of white rocks along the Connecticut River in 1735, it was blasted away by the railroad.  I didn't even think of that, but I know the railroad did a lot of blasting when they were laying the rail beds - just ask Phineas Gage.  (But that's another story - we'll get there eventually).
     We put the canoe in the water at the Westminster canoe launch.  I believe that Dunshee Island, just a little bit downriver from the Westminster canoe launch, is the northern boundary mentioned in the deed.  The deed says, " bounded north at the mouth of a brook on the west side of said river emptying itself into said river between two and three miles above the great meadow aforesaid, against the second island in said river north of said great meadow ."  We know the Great Meadow was in what is now Putney.  This island is huge and probably permanent.  At the very middle of the island there is a brook on the west side of the island emptying right into the side of the island. You can see all this on a map of the Connecticut River, with all the canoe and boat landings, and the islands, at
http://www.crjc.org/boating/boating12.htm.

From the vantage point of the river, the island and the brook coming into the river look like this.

This is the island as you are heading toward it.

This is the very tip of the island as we were right up close to it.  It was hard to get a picture from the canoe,  I was afraid I would tip it over!

This is a picture of the brook coming into the side of the island, from the west, or Vermont, side.





Mascoma's (Mascommah's) Land Deeds

Mascommah signed three deeds.  There are copies of these deeds in the Hampden County Courthouse in Springfield, Massachusetts.  The originals are in a hermetically sealed vault somewhere, in Boston, I think.  I went down to Springfield to get copies of the deeds.  I was worried about driving and parking in the city but it was really easy.  The courhouse was huge and intimidating.  The old deeds were in the basement.  When I got down there, a really nice man named Tony helped me find what I was looking for.  Lo and behold, there was Mascommah's name and mark right in front of me.  So here are the deeds.

This is my favorite one because you can see Mascommah's name and mark really clearly, four names down from the top.  This is the deed to the Deerfield River parcel of land,

 The above deed is the deed to the land in Sunderland, Massachusetts and points west.  There are some who believe that this piece of property extended west as far as Newfane, Vermont.  Again, Mascommah's mark is the fourth down.


The above deed is my least favorite because you can hardly see Mascoma's name and I don't believe there really is a mark.  Unfortunately, it is the deed that we spent so much time on the river looking for the boundaries of.  It is the southern Vermont and New Hampshire deed and the one that most applies to the Upper Valley.  I guess it figures. Mascommah's name is the seventh down from the top.

After spending most of the summer finding the Indian Mascommah, I guess I have to leave him now and go on to other topics.  If I could go back in time and meet him, I would tell him that there is a river, a lake, a school, and a bank named after him.  I would tell him that the English people, who became Americans, really messed up the Connecticut River that he traveled on and loved, but then they got their act together, and now it is beautiful and clean.  Maybe in the spring, I will go to Schagticoke New York and do some research there and find out more about the village he lived in when he came down the river and signed those deeds.  And if we ever get nice weather, the Old Redneck and I will try to find the southern boundary of that deed one more time.  Rest in Peace, Mascommah.

Mascoma (Mascommah) Part 2

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful, beautiful weather!  The weekend starts tomorrow and we couldn't wish for a better weather forecast for the next three days.  There's a "The Conniption Fits" is going to play.  A lot of people should be there.  "The Conniption Fits" are organizing the whole thing on Facebook.   I think tickets are going to cost $25.00.

To pick up where I left off a week ago on Mascommah

I think it's interesting that women signed the main deeds. Then seventeen males signed a separate document attesting to the fact that these women were the true and rightful owners of this land. This seems to indicate that land ownership descended from the woman. This is confusing in that I have always thought that Native Americans didn't understand the concept of land ownership. However, these deeds clearly stated that they are wives of male members of the tribe, and the land descended to them from their mothers. The only thing I can think of to explain this is that these deeds were signed in 1735. By this time, the Indians would have learned about land ownership, and maybe would have adopted the concept from the English. Interestingly enough, though, important male owners had to sign a document verifying that the women had the right to sell this land. I also wondered if the men didn't want to go on record as having given up their tribal land, so they made one of the more important women sign the actual deed giving up the land. This is all speculation, I absolutely admit.

How important was Mascommah? He signed three deeds. Many of the Indian signers only signed one or two deeds. There were several Indians who signed up to nine. If you want to make inferences on importance based on how many deeds he signed, Mascommah was probably moderately important, but was not a main chief by any means.

Who were Mascoma's contemporaries? Who were the English men who signed those deeds? Taking each deed individually, we will start with the first deed, a deed for land on the Deerfield River, somewhere around Ashfield and Colrain, Massachusetts. The English men who signed this deed were Ebenezer Hinsdell, Elijah Williams, Joseph Wells and John Hastings. Joseph Kellogg, Esquire was the interpreter for the Indians. This deed was signed on August 6, 1735, and it appears that it was signed in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Ebenezer Hinsdell was the founder of Hinsdale, New Hampshire. In colonial times, spelling was not an important consideration and you would find people's names spelled all different ways. This was doubly true of Indian names, which were hard to pronounce and spell, but the Hinsdell/Hinsdale spelling just goes to show that it happened with English names too. Hinsdale was ordained as a minister, and planned to become a missionary to the Indians of the Connecticut River Valley. Instead, he became the chaplain at Fort Dummer, a Fort on the Connecticut River right near where Brattleboro is. He ended up being in charge of trade with the Indians, as well as converting them to Christianity. He must not have been a very good preacher, because the “Annals of Brattleboro tell us “the Indians engaged at first but before long went back to their old ways.”

Although the Indians from Western Massachusetts had relocated to Schaghticoke, they often traveled back to their homeland to trade. In 1734, Hinsell presided over a treaty with the Schaghticoke

Indians, receiving and welcoming three Indians as “commissioners” One of them was described as a lieutenant named “Massamah” - which could have easily been Mascommah. This was a time of peace, with the Schaghticokes entering trade agreements and signing treaties, but twelve years later, they would be back to “wage bitter war on the invaders of their ancestral lands.”(Colin Calloway The Western Abenakis of Vermont 1994) Ebenezer Hinsdale was born in 1702 and died in 1763.

Elijah Williams was a storekeeper in Deerfield, Massachusetts, and a member of the local militia. In 1756, he was the commander of the Crown Point Expedition. This was an offensive against a French held position on Lake Champlain during the French and Indian War. Elijah was born in Deerfield in 1712 and died there in 1771.

Joseph Kellogg was born in Hadley in 1691. When he was 12, he was captured by Indians during the Deerfield Massacre. For the next ten years, he switched back and forth between the Indians and the French, becoming proficient in English, French, and several Indian languages. He travelled with the Indians and the French on trade expeditions. He went all the way to the mouth of the Ohio River. In fact, he was probably the first English person to get that far. Finally, in 1715 his brother went to Canada and dragged him home, promising him that he would have plenty of opportunities back in New England. Upon arrival home, he was made “Interpreter to the Indians and Sargeant of the Guard” at Northfield. Kellogg married, and stayed at Northfield for most of the rest of his life, although he was constantly called to serve as interpreter at Fort Dummer and Fort Number 4. He was Justice of the Peace in Northfield. He died on an ill fated mission to Oswego, New York, in 1756. ( Bedini, Silvio, “Joseph Kellogg of Deerfield “ The American Surveyor, Spring 2004 http://www.amerisurv.com/PDF/TheAmericanSurveyor-CompassAndChain-March-April2004.pdf)

I think Mascommah could have been friends with Joseph Kellogg but I do not think he was friends with Ebenezer Hinsdell.

John Hastings was a doctor who was born in Hadley, Massachusetts in 1689. He served at Fort Dummer and later at Fort Number 4, near present day Charlestown, New Hampshire.

I couldn't find anything out about Joseph Wells.

The second deed concerned land on the Connecticut River near Northfield, Massachusetts. Williams, Hinsdell, and Hastings all signed this deed, too, and again, Joseph Kellogg was the interpreter. In addition, Thomas West was a signer of this deed, instead of Joseph Wells. I couldn't find any information on him.

The third deed concerned land near Sunderland, Massachusetts. This deed was signed by just two English men, Joseph Kellogg and William Brattle. We already know about Joseph Kellogg and William Brattle was the founder of Brattleboro, Vermont.

Enjoying the Summer and Still Searching for Mascoma (Mascommah)

It's been hot, It's been hot but beautiful this week.  The crackerjack thunderstorms on Tuesday night served to clear the air and today was just gorgeous.  It seemed like it thundered all night.  We lost power early on and I was afraid we wouldn't get up on time but we did.  There were news posts on Facebook that said that our area wouldn't get power until Thursday morning, but thanks to all the hard working tree and power companies, we got home Wednesday afternoon to the power back on and the promise of a hot shower. 
     I was planning on wrapping up the Mascommah articles this week but I ran into a few snags.  I really don't want to post the whole land deed here, but the part of the deed that describes the boundaries of the land fascinate me.  The deed describes the land by stating,

"to the north of Fort Dummer bounded as follows – viz – south of the mouth of a brook emptying itself into the Connecticut River on the East side of said river about three quarters of a mile below the Great Meadow so called near against which near the west side of said river is a large ledge of rocks called the white rocks extending up said river and bounded north at the mouth of a brook on the west side of said river emptying itself into said river between two and three miles above the great meadow aforesaid, against the second island in said river north of said great meadow extending east twenty miles from said river and west also twenty miles, into the wilderness." The easiest way to read the whole deed is to google "Mascommah" and click on "Indian Deeds of Hampden County by Harry Andrew Wright.  The deed that I am quoting is the deed entitled "Southern Vermont and New Hampshire".

     After studying the deed for days, and following the Connecticut River from Brattleboro to Bellows Falls on Google Earth, and studying a map of the Connecticut River, my husband, The Old Redneck, and I decided that we would take a canoe from Walpole, New Hampshire to Brattleboro, and look for these sites.  Now, the Old Redneck is pretty much game for anything, but he is getting sick of hearing about Mascommah.  But he was pretty much into the idea of looking for these boundaries.  Except that.....on the appointed day, when we got to the put in site at Walpole, and we unloaded the canoe and were going to go to Brattleboro to drop the truck off and return to Walpole in the car, he said, "Weeeeelllllll, the truck has a tire that is worn all the way down to the threads and I'm not sure it will make it to Brattleboro. Why don't we just paddle down river, see if we can find the island boundary, then paddle back and go to Brattleboro after we replace the tire?"

        "So we're going to paddle back against the current?"

        "Sure, it won't be that hard."

         So we set out down the river in the canoe to look for the second island, the one with the brook on the west side emptying itself against the river.  And we're positive we found it, and took pictures.  The ride down the river was amazing.  It really does seem like you are on a highway, not unlike Rte 91 in that the sides are the same on both sides.  The river is surrounded by a thick, unbroken green underbrush and tall trees.  We were on the river alone that day and it was easy to imagine how it was in Mascommah's day.  It's completely understandable why they would use the places the brooks come in as markers for boundaries, because these are clear breaks in the wall of green coming up from the river, much like our highway exits.  I bet the Indians used these brook inlets as exits, too,  It makes perfect sense.  Mascommah and the other Schaghticoke Indians travelled up and down the Connecticut River to trade with the English at Fort Dummer, and they knew these brook outlets as well as we know the exits on the interstates. 

     Although we didn't get all the way down the river, we were excited to find the island and the brook inlet from the deed, and we had a great time.  At one point my husband was explaining how to steer the canoe  "feathering" with the paddle.  He said, "You know how I know that?"

       "How?"

        "Mascommah showed me how to do that.  In a vision."

        Another time, he reached into the cooler and pulled out a Michelob Ultra (due to carb issues) and said, "Cheers, Chief Mascommah.  Here's to firewater.

        "Hey, no way.  Mascommah was alcohol free."

        " Ah, maybe he partook of the hemp."

        "Are you kidding me?  No way.  He was substance free."

        Truly, I guess we'll never know.  That's the great thing about history.  He can imagine a partying Mascommah and I can imagine a virtuous fearless leader.

     Since then, I have done some more research and we now know that the "Great Meadow" refers to what is now Putney, so the south boundary must be south of Putney.  Next weekend, we are going to take another canoe trip putting in at Putney and getting out in Hinsdale to see if we can find the other boundary. In the meantime, we have to replace that one dead tire on the truck.

  

Windsor County Court, October 16th

The following people were arraigned at Windsor County Court in White River Junction on October 16th-

Scott Amsden, DOB 6/27/79 pled not guilty to his third DUI charge, and a charge of reckless or negligent driving in Springfield on October 3.

Michelle Lacomb, DOB 6/3/78, pled not guilty to 3 charges of the sale of less than 100 doses of depressant, stimulant or narcotic in Springfield on January 17.

Cody Barton, DOB 12/5/89 was charged with unlawful mischief of $250 or less, and a charge of giving false information to an officer in order to implicate another, in Springfield on August 15^th.

Cody Greenslit, DOB 5/24/88 pled not guilty to a charge of unlawful trespass, on August 22,2012.

Theresa Kilday, DOB 11/2/58, pled not guilty to a charge of her first DUI, in Bridgewater on September 27,2012.

Zachary Allen, DOB 6/12/89, pled guilty to a charge of driving with his license suspended in Chester.

Michael Biffel, DOB 11/18/85, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI in Rochester on September 29.

Andrew Stearns, DOB 6/28/70, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Cavendish on September 29^th.

Carl Stariknock, DOB 2/6/51, pled not guilty to a charge of aggravated assault in Windsor on September 15^th.

Dennis King DOB 3/10/46 pled not guilty to a charge of operating w/ license suspended

John Congdon DOB 6/27/85 pled not guilty

Kalvin Greenslet DOB 6/23/58 pled not guilty to a charge of unlawful trespass

Jennelyn Banaag DOB 6/10/83 pled not guilty to a charge of selling less than 2.5 grams of cocaine in Springfield on July 3

John Harper, DOB 12/30/71 pled not guilty to a charge of petit larceny of $900 or less on September 4 in Ludlow

Brian Alexander, DOB 10/31/89, pled not guilty to 9 counts of petit larceny and 2 counts of buying, receiving, possessing or concealing stolen property. These charges stem from a bunch of car break-ins that allegedly took place in Hartford in June. Alexander also pled not guilty to another charge, of buying, receiving, possessing, or concealing stolen property. This charge involved a handgun.

Kelly Plummer, DOB 8/16/81, pled not guilty to 3 charges of forgery in Reading on June 5.

Christian Rogers, DOB 9/14/69 pled not guilty to a charge of his second DUI in Stockbridge on September 28

James Howe, DOB 6/22/89, pled not guilty to charges of aiding in committing a felony and buying, selling, receiving, possessing and concealing stolen property. Allegedly Howe was a lookout for other individuals who were robbing a house in Barnard on June 4.

Windsor County Court - October 9th

Robert Duprey, DOB 3/10/87 pled not guilty on one charge of grand larceny over $900 and 5 counts of petit larceny. These charges stemmed from a rash of car break-ins allegedly occurring in Hartford around May 7^th.

Steven Perry, DOB 12/22/76 pled guilty to a charge of a first DUI, occurring in Hartland on September 20^th

Thelma Dezaine , DOB 5/24/71 pled not guilty to 5 counts of forgery, petit larceny, a charge of interference in access to emergency services, and a charge of giving false information to an officer to implicate another. These charges stemmed from some alleged check forgeries that happened on August 1 in Chester.

Daniel Martin, DOB 11/22/74, pled not guilty to a charge of a first DUI, occurring on September 1 in Andover.

Padriac Scanlon, DOB 11/4/85, pled guilty to a charge of retail theft that occurred in Windsor on July 22.

Jonathan Ploski, DOB 12/4/67, pled not guilty to a charge of operating a vehicle with a suspended license, in Quechee on September 2.

Nathan Baer, DOB 11/24/68, pled guilty to a charge of operating a vehicle with a suspended license in Hartford on August 31.

David Theetge, DOB 1/6/89, pled guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct/noise on August 27^th in Windsor.

Going to School in 18th Century Woodstock

Oliver and Elizabeth (Wheeler) Farnsworth had six children. The oldest, Havilah, was born in 1769 in Charlestown, ten months after his parents were married. The next two children, Abijah (1771) and Biel, whose given name was Abial (1772) were also born in Charlestown. The last three children, Oliver Jr (1775), Elizabeth (1776) and Phebe (1778) were born in Woodstock. Oliver and Elizabeth moved to Woodstock with three toddlers. The five oldest children lived to be adults. It's pretty likely that Phebe died early, since I can't find any record of her marrying, or a date for her death.

The Farnsworths lived in the Number 9 School district in Woodstock. The kids would have gone to school at the District 9 School. Henry Swan Dana, author of “The History of Woodstock , tells us in the book that although the first District 9 schoolhouse might have been a log building, the only schoolhouse on record for District 9 was of frame construction. There was a good spring fifteen rods west of the building, where students went to get a drink of water. A container of water was not kept in the building for students to drink out of, which was probably healthier in the longrun, anyway.

Inside the schoolhouse, benches were built along three sides of the room, with desks attached to the front of them. There were openings at either end of the benches, and in the middle, but if you were blocked in by other students, you just jumped over the desk to get out. There was an ordinary sized table in one corner for the teacher, but he shared it with four of the older students.

The schoolhouse was heated by a fireplace. The students who were old enough took turns building the fire. Boys bowed and girls curtseyed when they entered the school, and they were also taught that when they were walking along the road in a group, and an adult passed in a wagon or carriage, they had to line up single file and take their hats off to show respect.

Students wrote with quill pens and ink. Ink wells were made with lead and pewter, and students who were too poor to buy these metals used a cow's horn, cut off at both ends and fitted with a bottom and a top. Ink was made from boiled white maple bark. The quills were goose quills, feathers that were specially prepared by the teacher before the day began. Dana says, “The teacher was accustomed to be at his post half an hour before it was time to begin the morning session, to provide beforehand a batch of pens for the day's use, and yet during school hours always some one would be calling out, "Please mend my pen." Catherine Reef, in Education and Learning in America, says that sometimes a skill at mending pens was the most important qualification for a teacher. The phrase “pen knife”, now used for any small knife, was originally used to indicate a knife used for cutting and repairing quill pens. As people wrote with the quills, the quills would break down and lose their point, and either the writer, in the case of an adult, or the teacher, in the case of a student, would use the pen knife to cut a new point into the end of the quill.

The notebook of the day was called a copybook. Copybooks didn't come with lines in them. Students drew the lines themselves, using a ruler and a plummet. Plummets were the ancestor of the pencil. They were made at home by melting waste lead and pouring it into cracks cut into a piece of wood especially for this purpose. Sometimes people used the cracks in the floor. After these thin pieces of lead cooled, a hole might be made in one end, and a string or thread put through the hole so that the students could carry them to school around their neck and not lose them. Of course, at that time no one knew about lead poisoning!

There were very few textbooks. Beginning readers in New England often used the “New England Primer”, which featured verses based on the alphabet, a strict moral code, and biblical principles. In some schools, advanced math students studied from “Root's Arithmetic”, the first math textbook, written by Erastus Root, a Dartmouth graduate. It is impossible to know if Woodstock schools had these books.

Oliver died in 1785 at age 44. Havilah would have been 16 years old. Elizabeth remarried, to Reverend Elijah Norton. I can't find out much about him, although Elizabeth died before him. Abijah's will mentions “my honored mother, Elizabeth Norton”, and we know that Elizabeth lived in Woodstock at the time of her death. It is impossible to know whether or not the children lived with Elizabeth and her new husband.

Havilah and Oliver, Jr became printers, spending part of their lives in Newport, Rhode Island and part of their lives in Ohio. Havilah became a doctor and stayed in Ohio. Oliver, Jr left Ohio to return to Newport, where he died. Abijah died in his early 40's and his wife died a year later. Three of their children became wards of Bezer Simmons, a sea captain. Abial accompanied his Aunt Relief and Uncle Warren Cottle to Cottleville, Missouri. Elizabeth did marry, but there is no other information about her.

Eunice Farnsworth lived with her son Stephen, Jr, until her death at age 89, in 1811. Her obituary, in the Vermont Republican, says,

“She left a numerous offspring, namely, six children, forty-six grandchildren, and seventy-five
great-grandchildren, making in all one hundred and twenty-seven. She never experienced a fit of
sickness in the course of her life, except a slight attack of fever. She never made use of many
of the luxuries of life; was much averse to spirituous liquor of any kind. Her principal diet milk and vegetables. She was confined in her last sickness about nine weeks, during which distressing scene
she manifested the greatest calmness, composure of mind, and Christian fortitude, and left the

world in the full assurance of a blessed immortality beyond the grave.” We know that she outlived at least one of her sons, Oliver. It must be hard to live longer than your kids.

Windsor County Court October 2

Gursharan Kaur, DOB 7/23/73 pled not guilty to a charge of retail theft, which allegedly took place at Foggs in Norwich on February 14, 2012

Emily Cook, DOB 8/22/84 pled not guilty to charges of careless or negligent operation of a vehicle, leaving the scene of an accident, and giving false information to an officer to implicate another on December 9, 2011 in Norwich

Dale Ballou pled guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct/fight in Hartford on February 23, 2012.

Benjamin Watkins,DOB 10/17/88, pled guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct/obstruct on August 11 in Springfield.

Nelson Hernandez DOB 4/21/53 pled guilty to his first DUI on September 12 in Ascutney. WNTK's website says that the Vermont State police received a call from a family from Neward, saying that their father was kidnapped and in Weathersfield, Vermont. They knew his location from information received from his cell phone. When the State Police found him, he was in the family van on Cemetary Road in Weathersfield.  He told police he hadn't been kidnapped.  Upon further investigation, Vermont State Police ascertained that he was intoxicated and arrested him for DUI.
 
Scott Sylvia DOB 3/16/70 pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Norwich on September 14.

Troy Blaisdell, DOB 4/6/64, pled not guilty to a charge of operating with license suspended in Royalton on August 30.

Michael Jangel 10/4/71 pled not guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor in Windsor during the 2011-2012 school year. This is the same person who was the cafeteria manager at the Cornish Elementary School and was arrested for giving marijuana to a graduating eighth grader at a graduation party.  Further police investigation revealed that Jangel had allegedly been using marijuana with teens in Windsor as well.

Kyle Brown, DOB 1/19/84, pled not guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct/fight that stemmed from a disturbance in the parking lot of Shenanigans in White River Junction.

Jon Honkala, DOB 6/18/78, pled not guilty to his second charge of DUI in Royalton on September 11,2012

Joshua Golub, DOB 7/25/86, pled not guilty to a charge of possession of marijuana and cocaine on August 10 in Hartford
 
Dennis Renaud, DOB 10/17/51, pled not guilty to charges of reckless operation of a vehicle, leaving the scene of an accident, and giving false information to an officer to implicate another in Hartford on August 2.  


 

Woodstock's First Town Meetings at Oliver Farnsworth's House

Oliver, Eunice and Stephen’s oldest son, married Elizabeth Wheeler in July of 1768. Five years later, Oliver bought 420 acres in Woodstock, Vermont. Both of his brothers, and sisters Mary and Relief also moved to Woodstock.

Oliver held many offices in town government. His house was located near the village green and because of the central location of the house, and Oliver’s prominence in town affairs, town meeting was held there for many years. The citizens of Woodstock had a lot to deal with while they were meeting at Oliver’s house. Woodstock had been chosen to be the county seat of a new county, and a courthouse and jail had to be built.

All of Eastern Vermont was one county, Cumberland County, until 1781, when the General Assembly, in Windsor, divided Cumberland County into three counties: Windham, Windsor, and Orange. Woodstock was to be the county seat of Windsor County, but this was the cause of considerable controversy. A fair portion of western New Hampshire wanted to be a part of Windsor County in Vermont. In April of 1781, representatives of 35 former New Hampshire towns took their seats in the General Assembly of Vermont, which was not part of the United States at the time, but an independent republic. These 35 towns made Windsor County about half again as large. Not only that, but Hanover was one of the towns on the East side of the river that joined Vermont, bringing Dartmouth College with it. Most Vermont towns approved of this merger, but not Woodstock. At a town meeting held at Oliver Farnsworth’s house, the citizens of Woodstock voted to” petition the General Assembly to alter the lines of this county and not have them extend across the Connecticut River.” (Vermont Roots “History of Woodstock, Chapter 25” http://www.vt-roots.org/index.php/book-archive/23-history-of-woodstock-vermont/37-chapter-25). The citizens of Woodstock didn't want the towns on the other side of the Connecticut to join Vermont because they were afraid that this would cause Woodstock to lose its place as the county seat.

The people at Woodstock town meeting got their wish. The 35 New Hampshire towns that wanted to join Vermont were forced to rejoin New Hampshire. New Hampshire was getting ready to send troops to the Connecticut River Valley, when General George Washington himself sent a letter to Governor Thomas Chittenden addressing the issue. Written in 1781, the letter said, in effect, that the United States would be happy to have Vermont as the 14^th state, but in order to join the union, Vermont would have to give up claims to territory that had belonged to New Hampshire. Vermont would be the first state to be admitted into the union after the first 13, and Washington didn’t want to set a precedent of allowing new states to steal territory from states that had already been established. Governor Chittenden sent a letter back to General Washington, stating that, “as the dispute of boundary is the only one that hath prevented our union with the Confederacy, I am very happy in being able to acquaint your Excellency that that is now removed on our part, by our withdrawing our claims upon New Hampshire and New York”. Family Tales 2012 http://www.familytales.org/dbDisplay.php?id=ltr_toc3702 accessed 9/23/12)

I have often thought that many things would be so much easier to deal with if the whole Upper Valley was one state instead of being divided in half. The Upper Valley has two school districts that are in both states - Rivendell and Dresden. Even having school vacations the same for everyone across the Upper Valley would make planning family vacations much easier. Police departments would have an easier job coordinating their efforts at law enforcement. Obviously that’s never going to happen, but it is interesting to think about the fact that at one time the whole Upper Valley was part of Vermont.