History of Barnet, Vermont
History of Barnet, Vermont
From the Outbreak of the French and Indian War to Present Time With Genealogical Records of Many Families By Frederic Palmer Wells, Author of the Histories of Newbury and Rygate In behalf of the Barnet History Association, Burlington, Vermont, Free Press Printing Co 1923
Transcribed for Genealogy Trails by Nancy Piper
Chapter I: Pages 1 - 6
Early Barnet
The Charter
On the sixteenth of September, 1763, in his mansion at Little Harbor, near Portsmouth, in the third year of the reign of George the Third, King of Great Britain, Benning Wentworth*, Governor of the Province of New Hampshire, affixed his signature to the charter of the town of Barnet. Through that act, duly attested by his secretary, Theodore Atkinson, Jr., "a certain parcel of land" some twenty-five thousand acres of wilderness, upon Connecticut River, in the New Hampshire Grants, was constituted a township, which took its place thenceforth among the commonwealth of New England.
Into this town of Barnet came men and women who cleared the forest, made homes therein, and turned the wilderness into fruitful farms. They established churches and schools, built mills and became skilled in all the departments of agriculture. Almost a century and a half has passed since settlement began, and in that time thousands of people have dwelt here, many have passed their entire lives among these hills; others, native to the town, have sought homes elsewhere and have made their early training effective in all parts of our common country. Not a few have given their lives for their native land in time of war.
The men and women of Barnet have never failed to respond to the call of duty. The volume aims to record the events of the town since its settlement and the doing of its people; to give the history of the institutions which they founded and sustained; to portray the changes which time has wrought and gather the annals of its families.
With the signing of the charter, the human history of Barnet begins. But there is a previous record written in its rocks and its hills which, if we could read it, would be more fascinating and would demand a larger share of this volume than can be given to its human annuals of a century and a half.
The changes from a time when "the earth was without form and void," through succeeding ages, till the water subsided and vegetation began to clothe the hills, may well be left to the geologist. Our inquiries can only embrace a period which, compared with the duration of the earth, is but a fraction of time. We must confine ourselves to the appearance of the town in our era, as the fathers of the town knew it and as we know it at this day.
*Benning Wentworth was the second governor of New Hampshire bearing that name, and was in office from 1741 till his death in 1776. His romantic marriage to Martha Hilton is the subject of Longfellow's poem "Lady Wentworth." He was succeeded by his nephew, John Wentworth, who married the widow of Theodore Atkinson. They had a fine summer residence at Wolfborough on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee. In 1775 the troubles incident to the Revolutionary War compelled him to take refuge in England. Governor of Nova Scotia 1792-1800.
Physical Features of Barnet
Barnet lies on Connecticut River, in the county of Caledonia, and is bounded on the south by Ryegate, on the west by Peacham, while Danville, St. Johnsbury and Waterford are its northern neighbors. The river separates it from Monroe in the county of Grafton and State of New Hampshire. To this latter town belong a number of islands of various sizes, lying in the river. The Passumpsic, which rises among the mountains in the north part of the county and receives the waters of many smaller streams, empties into the Connecticut about two miles from the northeast corner of the town, at the foot of a long series of rapids, known as the Fifteen Mile Falls. In the southwest part of the town, Harvey Lake, fed by streams descending from the hills and upland farms, covers more than four hundred acres. Warden Pond, near the center of the town, is a beautiful an solitary sheet of sparkling water.
The surface of Barnet is broken, and great masses of hills rise from the streams which water the town. Along both the Connecticut and the Passumpsic are extensive intervales which are carefully cultivated. There are few terraces, such as are seen along the river in Newbury and Haverhill between the meadows and the hills; the only one of any extent being that on which the village of McIndoes is built. A corresponding terrace on the New Hampshire side is called Monroe Plain, and there are in both towns remains of what are known to geologists as second and third terraces. Only in two places do the uplands rise to any great height. One each side of Harvey Lake, the conical peaks of Roy and Harvey Mountain guard its waters and perpetuate the names of early and prominent settlers. Stevens River, issuing from the lake, flows through the center of the town southeasterly, discharging its waters into the Connecticut about midway between Waterford and Ryegate. About half a mile from its mouth, it falls eighty feet in a short distance, presenting a grand view at high water. Several branches of this stream come from the Peacham hills.
Joe's Brook, which is the outlet of Joe's Pond in Danville and Cabot, flows through the town from the northwest and enters the Passumpsic about a mile from its mouth. This stream and pond perpetuate the name of Indian Joe - sometimes called "Joe Indian" - a notes and faithful scout in the Revolutionary War, who lived at Newbury, and whose grave in the Oxbow cemetery in that place is suitably marked. Molly's Brook in Cabot and Molly's Falls in Marshfield, are named for his wife.
Endrick Brook - sometimes called the Water Endrick - enters the Passumpsic about a mile above the mouth of Joe's Brook, and bears the name of a beautiful river in Scotland.
The scenery of Barnet, in a region less amply endowed by nature, would attract multitudes of tourists. The prospects from its higher eminences embrace a wonderful variety of objects, which on clear days include the entire ranges of the White and Franconia Mountains. Northward, "hill peep o'er hills and Alps on Alps arise" even across North Monadnock, the mountains which surround Lake Memphremagog and beyond Canada line. Several peaks of the Green Mountians in our own state rise above the heights of the intervening ranges. The hills climb abruptly from the various streams and are partly clothed with woods and partly improved as field or pasture.
Villages
The town embraces five villages, in which about one-half of its inhabitants reside. Barnet, formerly called Stevens Village, occupies a picturesque location at the falls in the river, and was once the seat of considerable manufacturing. McIndoe Falls, near the southeast corner of the town, lies along a terrace at the falls in the Connecticut bearing that name. It was formerly a noted seat of the lumber industry, and tis wide and shaded street denotes a typical New England village. In the northeast part of the town lying partly in Waterford in Passumpsic village, formerly called Kendall's Mills. Near the mouth of that river, just before it enters the deep gorge in the wooded bluffs which guard its mouth, is the hamlet now called East Barnet. Another village, that of West Barnet, lies at the outlet of Harvey Lake, on the road from Barnet village to Peacham. Each of these villages has its interesting history. In each, a single church spire rises above the trees. Two other churches, one in the southwest part near the Ryegate line and the other near the geographical center of the town, complete the list. This last occupies a position which, seen from a mile or more to the south, reminds one of churches in Scotland. It stands on a level spot on the side of a long hill and its plain white walls, rising above the graves in the cemetery beside it, with the vast and wooded hills in its background, form a singular picture. In the churchyard, carefully tended, the memorial stones bear names which one finds in the churchyards of Scotland.
Indians and Indian Trails
When Barnet was chartered, it was an unbroken wilderness covered with dense woods, the undisturbed growth of centuries, and the only open places into which the sun shone were the streams and ponds. Through these forests the Indians wandered in pursuit of game or fished in the brooks. There was never, as far as we know, any permanent habitation of Indians in Barnet. Very few Indian relics have been found in the town. But on the great meadows of Newbury and Haverhill, there were large tracts which had been cleared and cultivated from time immemorial in rude fashion, to which the Indians resorted in great numbers, and where the plow still brings to light spearheads, arrowheads and other relics.
This part of the valley was called the Lower Coos and extended from the mouth of the Ammonoosuc to the lower end of the meadows at Orford. A similar tract near Lancaster was called the Upper Coos. From these cultivated tracts, trails lead through the wilderness to the French settlements along the St. Lawrence. One of these trails went up the Passumpsic and over the heights to Lake Memphremagog. Another followed the Nelhegan and Clyde Rivers to the same lake. Still another came up through the center of Ryegate and took a course toward the Mississquoi, which was afterwards generally followed by the celebrated Hazen Road. Most of our information concerning these trails comes through the old men of sixty years ago who had learned their location from Indian Joe.
Much has been written about the Indians in this part of New England, but little is really known about them. It often has been stated that they were part of the St. Francis Indians and most histories assert this. But Nicholas Wessennaer, in his history of New Amsterdam, says that there was a long war between the Mohawk and Hoosac tribes and that in 1628 the latter were driven over the Green Mountains to the Connecticut valley, where they cleared and cultivated the meadows. They formed a league with the Passaconoways, and occupied the Coos country.
But many of the spear and arrowheads which come to light on the Great Oxbow are precisely like those which are found in the Mississippi valley and on the plains of Nebraska.
Neither has any reliable estimate been made of the number of Indians in this part of the country when it was settled. As late as 1780 there were about twenty Indian families in Haverhill and Newbury. Several of the men served on the American side in the Revolutionary War, but they did not long survive and Joe, who died in 1819, was the last of the Coosucks.
Yet within the recollection of many who are still lying, small bands of the Abenaquis Indians came down the river in birch bark canoes in summer during several years. Men, women and children built wigwams in true Indian fashion, covered with bark and the skins of wild animals, bring with them baskets and other trinkets which they had made during the winter. The men spent most of their time in fishing and hunting, while the women sold their wares from house to house. Such a company visited Newbury as late as 1857. The younger ones spoke very good English and some could read and write, but the older people had only a broken language an could hardly make themselves understood.
Rogers' Expedition
And now we come to one of the most noted events in all the history of border wars, one in which a spot in Barnet is made memorable. It is in the narrative of Rogers' Expedition that the locality emerges into the light of history. The record of Indian wars within the settlers of New England shows that captives were carried to Canada at a very early day, and it has been stated that more were conveyed along the St. Francis River than by all other routes combined.
Near the mouth of this stream and not far from Three Rivers, on the banks of the St. Lawrence, was the village of the St. Francis Indians, the most cruel and blood-thirsty of all the Indian tribes and the one from which the English settlers had suffered most. As the French War drew near its close it was determined to destroy the village and break up the tribe.
In the fall of 1759, Major Robert Rogers, a brave and experienced officer from New Hampshire, was ordered by General Amherst to proceed from Crown Point with a force of two hundred men and destroy the Indian village. On Sept. 11th, the very day on which Quebec was taken, he set out and proceeded down Lake Champlain to the mouth of the Missisquoi. On leaving the lake, Rogers finding himself pursued by a large force of French and Indians, formed the bold resolution of out-marching his pursuers, destroying St. Francis, and returning by way of Lake Memphremagog and Connecticut River.
He sent men back to Crown Point to request General Amherst that provisions should be sent up the river from Charlestown to meet him as he came down.
Rogers and his party of one hundred and forty men reached the St. Francis village on the 21st of October and found the Indians engaged in a grand dance. Before daylight, when the dance was over, they fell upon the village and inflicted a blow which struck terror to all the Indian tribes in Canada. Of the three hundred Indians which the village contained, about two hundred were killed. They found several white men who were prisoners and about seven hundred scalps fastened to poles in the open air.
Rogers and his party at once began their return through the wilderness, followed closely by the Indians. Near Lake Memphremagog, their provisions gave out and Rogers divided the men into small parties, the better to sustain life by hunting. Sevearl of the men were captured by the Indians, but most of them reached Connecticut River between the Nullhegan and the Passumpsic. But when the foremost came to Round Island in the mouth of the Passumpsic, where they expected to be met by boats with supplies, they found fires burning, but no one with them. Lieut. Samuel Stevens, later a grantee of Barnet, had been sent up from Charlestown with boats and abundant provisions, but when he came to the island, having remained a day or two, and hearing guns, supposing them to be fired by Indians, hurried down the river, leaving the unfortunate men to their fate.
The truth seems to have been that Stevens and his men, finding no trace of any one upon the island at the mouth of the Ammonoosuc, pushed on to the mouth of the Passumpsic. It would seem that Rogers' men were so overcome with hunger and despair that they did not know where they were and were never afterward able to tell where they came out upon the river. It is certain that some of them found their way to the settlements on the Merrimack.
Many traditions about this affair have been published which are without foundation, as well as the story that one of the party was killed and eaten by the survivors. It has also been claimed that the island in the mouth of the Ammonoosuc was the one in question and is, indeed, the one mentioned by Rogers himself.
But David Johnson, Esq., town clerk of Newbury for many years, who was personally acquainted with several of the survivors of Rogers' Expedition and took down their statements in writing, was assured by them that Round Island was the place meant and that several of the men were so overcome with hunger and fatigue that they were not able to proceed and died there. It is certain however that only a part of the expedition came down the Passumpsic as some came out as far up as Northumberland while other small parties were never heard of. One detachment struck off near the mouth of Joe's Brook and came out upon Wells River near the falls at Boltonville. On their way they killed a bear and escaped starvation.
Mr. Johnson was told by them that the men followed the river and when they came to the mouth of Cow Meadow Brook, just above the Great Oxbow at Newbury, they found the smoldering embers of fires but no one with them and that a number of men died near there, where their remains were found by the first settlers three years later.
Rogers with three men made his way down the river with great peril upon a rude raft and sent boats with provisions to meet the survivors as they would be found along its banks. Of the one hundred and forty-two men who left St. Francis, forty-nine perished in the wilderness or fell into the hands of the Indians. But the great object of the expedition was accomplished, for the French and Indians in Canada thought that the day of vengeance had come and there was peace in the settlements of New England after that.
On the 8th of September, 1760, Montreal was taken and the French Empire in North America passed away. In Canada, the French settled quietly down under English rule and no longer stirred up the Indians against the New England colonies. These had borne a conspicuous part in the great struggle and all that came to them was their own destruction.
At the end of the war, the outposts of civilization had been Salisbury on the Merrimack and Charlestown on the Connecticut. Settlement was now advanced into the wilderness by leaps and bounds.