Biographies of Chittenden County

Page 5

ROOT, ELIJAH. Elijah Root was born in the town of Georgia, Vt., on the 2d of May, 1807. His father, Elijah, senior, who was born on the 29th of August, 1775, was an early settler in Georgia, where he came from the home of his father in Benson, Vt. The family were descended from the Root family of Farmington, Conn., and came to Benson from Pittsfield, Mass. Elijah Root, senior, died in Georgia on the 19th of February, 1809. He was a very skillful mechanic, and inherited his taste for mechanical pursuits from a long line of ancestry. The subject of this sketch attended the common schools of his native town, but owing to the death of his father before he had reached his second birthday, he was obliged to think and act for himself at an early age. In pursuance of a time-honored custom in the family, he learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner. In February, 1827, he aided in the construction of the steamer Franklin in St. Albans Bay, as a journeyman. Upon applying for this position he was asked to give a recommendation of his skill and fidelity from a previous employer. He had just been in the employment of a carpenter by the name of Seymour Eggleston, of Georgia, on a church in Keeseville, N. Y., who gave the following letter:

This may certify that the bearer, Elijah Root, has been employed by me the past summer as a journeyman carpenter and joiner; that I have had a fair opportunity to test his faithfulness and skill both in my presence and absence, and that notwithstanding I have employed many excellent journeymen, yet I can cheerfully say that I never employed one with whom I have been more perfectly satisfied than with him. In short, I consider his honesty, integrity, industry and ability unimpeachable, and I can cheerfully recommend him as a first-rate hand to any gentleman who may wish to employ one of his occupation.

"Georgia, February 24, 1827. Seymour Eggleston."

With this flattering introduction, well-deserved, the young man started out to make a place for himself among strangers, with a determination which would falter at no obstacles, and would be only stimulated by difficulties. In the following fall he came to Shelburne Harbor in the employment of the old Steamboat Company, as a carpenter.  The Phoenix was at that time undergoing extensive repairs. Mr. Root, with seventy-five other carpenters and joiners, was at work upon her. At this time occurred a circumstance which was undoubtedly the cause of a favorable turn in his business life.  The overseers observed that when the bell rang for dinner and at close of day, all the other workmen dropped their tools and left as soon as possible, while he went carefully to the stoves, pushed away the shavings, and left the boat free from the dangers of fire.  As a consequence of this he was placed in charge of the stoves on the boat. This was his first office of trust. When the Phoenix was completed he alone of the seventy-five workmen was retained for permanent service in the company.  In the spring and summer of 1828 he went out with the steamer Phoenix, Captain Harrington, as carpenter and joiner, and in the season following was employed in the same capacity and by the same company on board the Congress, commanded by Captain Lathrop. His employers, observing his remarkable ingenuity and facility in engineering, requested him to " make friends with the engineer," which he accordingly did, and with such success, that in three months he was deemed competent to take the place of an unsatisfactory engineer upon the same steamer. From that time until the fall of 1832 he had charge of the engines on board the Congress and Phoenix successively. On the 1st of September, 1832, in consequence of overwork and exposure he was stricken with an aggravated attack of typhus fever, from which he did not recover until the opening of the next season, and was given light work, such as superintending the work of the engineers in the company's line. In this department his duties gradually multiplied, and from that time until his resignation, a period extending over more than half a century, he was practically chief engineer of the steamboat company and its successor, the Champlain Transportation Company. During all this time his fidelity and ability were never called in question, hut on the contrary repeatedly received the compliments of his employers. Every boat in the service of the company was inspected each week by Mr. Root, and its engineer charged with the necessary instructions.

From 1838 to 1871 Mr. Root held the government office of inspector "of boilers and machinery of all vessels propelled in whole or in part by steam, under an act of Congress approved on the 7th day of July, A. D. 1838." He was reappointed by George S. Boutwell, secretary of the treasury, under an act approved February 21, 1871, and held the office until 1882, when he resigned on account of failing health.  He was in all the relations of his life a man of marked characteristics, such as accuracy, thoroughness, completeness, strict economy, and conscientiousness.   In his work, about his house, and in his moral and political opinions, everything was manifestly genuine and devoid of sham. In January, 1882, owing to failing health he tendered the company his resignation, which was met by the following gratifying expression of esteem;

Burlington, Vt., January 5,1882.

"Whereas, Mr. Elijah Root, for more than half, a century chief engineer of this company, resigned his office in consequence of somewhat impaired health, and " Whereas, It is eminently fitting and proper that some official recognition of this event should be made by this company, therefore, " Resolved, That to Mr. Root's long and varied experience and great ability, both as engineer and naval constructor, his thoroughness in detail, his economy in expenditure and his general fidelity and integrity in all matters confided to his care, this company is largely due for its long-continued prosperity;

" Resolved, That the thanks of this board be voted to Mr. Root with the assurance that in retiring from the active duties of his life he carries with him the entire confidence, great respect, and earnest friendship of the members of this board;

"Resolved That a copy of these resolutions be engrossed, signed by the president and clerk, with the company's seal attached, and transmitted to Mr. Root.  " P. W. Barney, Clerk. (L.S.) Le G. B. Cannon, President." With so hearty an expression of friendship and good will from those who, outside of his own family, were best able to speak correctly of his character, Mr. Root might well feel happy in the retirement of his beautiful home on the shore of Lake Champlain.  When he first removed to Shelburne Mr. Root lived on the end of Shelburne Point.  He came to the farm now occupied by his widow, in 1848. Here, in less than two years after the time of his retirement from active business, on the 3d day of August, 1883, Mr. Root passed away.

He was not a politician in any sense of the word, though as a citizen he always had a lively interest in current political affairs, upon which he entertained enlightened and decided opinions. From his position as a member of the old Whig party he naturally stepped into the ranks of its successor, the Republican party, with which he was afterwards identified. He never held public office, excepting that of representative in the Legislature from Shelburne for three years from about 1850. He early took an active interest in the affairs of the Methodist Episcopal Church of his town, and was ever ready and willing to give it the benefit of his counsel and substantial assistance.  On the nth of December, 1831, he married Elizabeth P., daughter of Hon. Robert White, of Shelburne. They have had one child, Maria, now the wife of Charles L.  Hart, of Burlington, who, with her son, Fred Root Hart, now resides with her mother on the home farm in Shelburne. Mrs. Root's father, Robert White, was one of the earliest associate judges of the County Court of Chittenden county, and a descendant of Peregrine White, of Pilgrim fame. His father, Nathan White, was an early settler on Shelburne Point, after having borne an honorable part in the War of the Revolution, and aiding in the capture of Major Andre. A more detailed sketch of this family and of his lifelong associate, Lavater White, appears in the chapter devoted to the history of Shelburne.   Biographies Index

ROBERTS, DANIEL.   Daniel Roberts is the son of Daniel and Almira Roberts, who were natives of Litchfield county, Conn., and came to Wallingford, Rutland county, Vt., early in the century.   Daniel, sr., was the son of a Revolutionary soldier and was early left an orphan. After serving a seven years' apprenticeship to the clothier's or cloth dresser's trade he became a wandering schoolmaster for five or six years, when, with his young wife, he came to Wallingford and took up his trade, which he followed for thirty years or more, and then removed to Manchester, in Bennington county, where he purchased and cultivated a farm. He died at the age of seventy-nine years and his wife at the age of eighty-four. They lie buried at Manchester. They were both fond of good reading, more than commonly intelligent, and friends of all good and right things in society. Both were musical; the mother was a most charming singer. A relic of the father's taste in this direction is a book of familiar airs, arranged for the flute, written in his hand with a quill pen and India ink, after the fashion of those days, in a beautiful schoolmaster's script and style now obsolete. The son naturally inherited the musical temperament of his parents.

The subject of this sketch was the fifth of ten children born at Wallingford, Vt., May 25, 1811. He entered Middlebury College at fourteen years of age, graduating in the class of 1829; studied law with Hon. Harvey Button, of Wallingford, still surviving at the venerable age of eighty-six years, and was admitted to the bar of the Rutland County Court at the September term, 1832. In November he started out " to seek his fortune," with ninety dollars in his pocket. He went by stage to Schenectady, took a canal boat for Buffalo, got frozen in near Rochester, went by stage to Ashtabula, and across the State of Ohio to Beaver, Pa., on the Ohio River, took deck passage among a throng of German emigrants down the Ohio and Mississippi.   He stopped awhile at Grand Gulf and at Natchez, where he was admitted to the bar on public examination in court. Robert  J. Walker was then a prominent lawyer at that bar. After spending the month of February, 1833, in New Orleans, the young traveler went up the Mississippi on the steamer Yellow Stone, one of the boats of the St. Louis Fur Company, which passed its winters in the lower Mississippi trade and made its annual trip to the Yellow Stone in the Indian fur trade. He endeavored to secure a chance in the spring voyage, but could not. His disappointment was his good fortune, as was probably his departure from New Orleans, for the cholera prevailed severely there during the .season of 1833 and made sad havoc on the steamer on her mountain trip. Stopping at  St.  Louis and straying into the court-house there, he was charmed by the eloquence of Edward Bates (afterwards United States attorney-general and member of President Lincoln's cabinet) in the defense of a half-breed Indian girl who had stabbed and killed her lover. The jury wept and, having under Missouri law the right of determining the punishment, they gave her, " poor Indian Margaret!" three months in the county jail.  Landed at Naples, on the Illinois River, then in Scott county, Ill., he sought out his kinsfolk at Winchester. He spent that season in the woods mostly, hunting squirrels and wild turkeys, and getting the ague as compensation. He then went to Jacksonville, Ill., where he encountered his class-mate, now Rev. Dr. Truman M. Post, of St.  Louis, then a tutor in Illinois College. He formed a business connection with Murray McConnell (long afterwards murdered in his office). Stephen A. Douglas taught the winter school in Winchester in 1833-34, came in the spring to Jacksonville, and was admitted to the bar before he was of age, and started at once for the presidency of the United States. He took to politics as a duck to water, bought him a suit of Kentucky jeans, hob-nobbed with the border Democracy like one " to the manner born." Elected district attorney, Mr. Roberts remembers him as he started out on his circuit, astride of a three-year-old colt, his short legs reaching hardly below the saddle skirts, and in his saddle-bags his whole library, consisting of a book on criminal law, which young Roberts had loaned him.

In the summer of 1835 Mr. Roberts came home on a visit, which he has never finished. In the spring of 1836 he took the office and business of Milo L. Bennett, of Manchester (afterwards a judge of the Supreme Court), and remained in practice at Manchester until the spring of 1856 (twenty years), when he removed to Burlington, where he formed a law partnership with Lucius E. Chittenden, afterwards register of the treasury and now a practicing lawyer in New York city. He has been in practice in Burlington for thirty years and over, it being now nearly fifty four years since his admission to the bar, and making more than fifty years of active law practice in this State. His name first appears in the State reports in the case of Kimpton vs. Walker, Ninth Vermont Reports, 191 (February term, 1837), and appears in every volume since, up to and including the fifty-seventh.

He has not had much to do with public office. His earliest politics were strongly anti-slavery, as a Liberty party man, Free Soiler, etc., for which reason, if for no other, offices did not seek him. However, he was bank commissioner during the years 1853 and 1854, and from the spring of 1865 to the spring of 1866 was a special agent of the United States treasury department, and for one year, 1868-69, was State's attorney for Chittenden county. In 1869, during the first term of President Grant's administration, he was offered the position of solicitor of the United States treasury department, but declined the offer; from 1870 to 1872 he was city attorney, and again in 1880.  Although never in the Legislature, Mr. Roberts has been of marked influence in shaping the laws of the State. His hand is clearly seen throughout the general statutes by those familiar with their history and development. In particular, he has been instrumental in securing by statute simplification of the ancient rules of criminal pleading and in enlarging the property rights of married women.  His views upon law reform he developed at length in an address before the Vermont Bar Association, as president there of, in 1880. In 1878, under a contract made with the judges of the Supreme Court, by authority of the Legislature, he completed a digest of the decisions of the Supreme Court down to and including Volume 48 of the Vermont Reports, entitled Roberts's Vermont Digest, This work is accepted among the profession in Vermont as a model digest for its terseness and accuracy of statement and for bringing out the very point of the decision. It is not uncommon for the judges of the Supreme Court to cite it per se, instead of the cases, as authority.  At the Vermont centennial celebration at Bennington, August 16, 1877, he was appointed orator of the occasion. The oration is inserted among the published proceedings of the day. It is a valuable historical document and a good specimen of Mr.  Roberts's impressive and scholarly style.

In 1879, at the semi-centennial gathering of his college class at Middlebury College commencement, he received the degree of LL.D.  In July, 1837, he was married to Caroline, daughter of Rev. Stephen Martindale, of Wallingford, who died on the 14th of June, 1886. There are four children - Mary, Caroline M., Stephen M. and Robert. Of the sons, Stephen is a physician in New York city and a professor of diseases of children in the University of Vermont, and Robert is a lawyer, associated with his father in practice, under the firm name of Roberts & Roberts.

Besides his engagements in the United States Circuit Court Mr. Roberts's practice has been mainly in the counties of Chittenden, Rutland, Addison and Bennington.  Although his cases have been of the infinite variety that fall to the docket of most attorneys outside of the large cities, they have been chiefly such as seek the aid of counsel who have a reputation for legal scholarship and eloquent advocacy. Among the criminal cases in which Mr. Roberts appeared, and which have some dramatic interest or involve some interesting legal principle may be named the following: State vs Archibald Bates, Bennington county. Mr. Roberts and Harmon Canfield, then both fresh at the bar, were assigned by Chief Justice Williams to defend Bates for murder by shooting his brother's wife through the window at night while she was sitting nursing her child. They achieved all the success possible in the case by a verdict of guilty.  Bates was hung on Bennington Hill, in the presence of a great multitude on the 8th of February, 1839. This was the last public execution in Vermont. Since that time, by a change in the law, all executions have been within the walls of the State prison. Mr. Roberts has said of this trial, that although he defended the prisoner with all the earnestness possible, he never spoke to him before or during or after the trial, nor even went to see him hung.

Purcell and another were indicted jointly for the murder of a brother Irishman by stabbing him at night on the way down from the Dorset Mountain quarries. They were all drunk. Purcell demanded and was allowed a separate trial, and was defended by Mr. Roberts. It was absolutely certain that one of the two committed the murder, but it was uncertain which, and there was no evidence of a combination to kill. Purcell was acquitted because of this uncertainty, and because on that trial it appeared most probable that the other respondent did the stabbing.   The other defendant was tried at a subsequent term and acquitted for like reasons, by making it appear as most probable that Purcell was the guilty party. Each verdict was clearly right, and yet the result of the two was the acquittal of a murderer;  State vs. McDonald, 32 Vermont Report, 491, is a leading case involving the law of homicide. Mr. Roberts's brief in the case is particularly pointed, and the opinion of Chief Justice Redfield is worth study. On a second trial of McDonald he was very properly convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to State prison for life, where he died of consumption.

Any extended citation of civil causes, in which Mr. Roberts has been engaged, would have but little interest to the unprofessional reader. Such as went to the Supreme Court and were reported are scattered through nearly fifty volumes of State reports, and the record is to be found there.   Biographies Index

SPARHAWK, GEORGE E. E., M.D.. was born at Rochester, Vt.. on the 20th day of February, 1829. His father, Rev. Samuel Sparhawk, was a Congregational clergyman, of Scotch descent, and was born in Templeton, Mass., on the 1st day of January, 1801, and died at Pittsfield, Vt., in November, 1869. The subject of this sketch attended the Orange County Grammar School at Randolph, Vt., and the West Randolph Academy, from which latter institution he was graduated in 1850. He was the better enabled to take this excellent course from the fact that his father removed to West Randolph in 1842. In the mean time, and up to 1850, he taught school a portion of each year for six successive years, in this manner displaying that diligence and independence of character which were afterward the chief factors of his success. In 1849 he began to study medicine under Dr. Gibson, of Sharon, Vt., continuing his teaching until 1852. In March, 1852, he entered the Vermont Medical College at Woodstock, Vt, and after the close of that spring term entered the office of Dr. William F. Guernsey, of Philadelphia, Pa. In the fall of that year he began his studies in the Homoeopathic Medical College of Philadelphia, then the only homeopathic college in the world, from which he was graduated in March, 1853. In June following he began practicing at Rochester, Vt., in company with Dr. H. W. Hamilton, with whom he remained until January, 1854, when he assumed exclusive control of the business. He was the pioneer of his school of medicine in that section of the State, where he continued with a growing practice until 1856, when he associated himself with Dr. C. B. Currier, to whom he afterward sold his business, and on account of the failing health of his wife removed to West Randolph, Vt., that she could be near her friends and relatives while she lived.  In the spring of 1857 he opened an office in Gaysville, Vt, where he made weekly visits, which he continued until the death of his wife in December, 1858. He then made that place his home, and immediately began a practice of most unusual extent of territory and of profit. From the time of his arrival in Gaysville until he left there in 1878, his ride covered a circuit having a radius of about forty miles. In June, 1878, he came to Burlington for a few days, and continued his visits until the 25th of the following November, when he made his permanent removal here, having already established an extensive and lucrative practice. Although he has won a remarkable record of success as a general practitioner, he has been drawn by his natural and acquired skill into a considerable specialty in gynecology, and all diseases pertaining there to. His reputation in this department of medical practice is not confined to Burlington, nor even to the State.   He is frequently called upon from distant points as counsel in complicated cases - more frequently, indeed, than the many and pressing demands of his Burlington and Chittenden county patients permit him to respond to. He has attained an enviable prominence in his own profession and school, and since the beginning of his professional career he has taken a most active part in the promotion of its principles and the establishment of institutions looking to that end. He is the oldest homeopathic physician in the State. He aided in founding the Vermont Homoeopathic Medical Society in 1854, and did much valuable work in obtaining a charter for the State Society, which was granted by the Legislature in 1858. He has been honored by elections to nearly every office within its gift. He has been its president, secretary and treasurer, and is now its corresponding secretary. In 1859 he joined the American Institute of Homoeopathy which is, as its name indicates, a society of national extent and jurisdiction, and in 1884 became a senior member thereof. He is also a member of the American Obstetrical Society, since its recent organization, in 1883, under the laws of the Slate of New York# He has been a regular contributor to the Homeopathic Journal of Obstetrics since that magazine was established in 1879, and an occasional contributor to many other medical journals and magazines.

Dr. Sparhawk has been prominently identified with the Masonic order for more than twenty years, and has taken the various degrees both of the Master Masons and the Royal Arch Masons, and is a charter member of the White River Lodge No. 90, at Bethel, Vt., of which body he was treasurer while he remained in that vicinity. In 1875 he took the first fourteen degrees of the order called the Scottish Rite, and in 1882 the remaining degrees up to the thirty-third.

Dr. Sparhawk's political preferences are decidedly Republican, though he has little to do with politics except to keep well informed upon political movements in his county State and the nation, and to vote intelligently. At Rochester, however, his interest in the cause of education induced him to accept for years repeated elections to the quasi-political office of superintendent of common schools. In pursuance of the time-honored traditions of the family, and of his own belief, he is a regular attendant at the Congregational Church.

He has been twice married; first, on the 4th of March, 1854, to Miss Lucy Ann Griswold, of Randolph, Vt., who died of consumption in December, 1858, and the second time, on the 18th of June, 1867, to Miss Mary A. Hendee, of Pittsford, Vt.  He has had two sons, of whom the younger, Fred, who was born on the 5th of December, 1870, died on the 26th of October, 1879; and the elder, Sam, who was born on the 6th of September, 1869, still lives with his parents.   Biographies Index

STEVENS, ALONZO JACKSON, was born in Essex, Chittenden county, Vt, on the 1st day of April, 1828. The first of his ancestors in Vermont was his grand-father. Abram Stevens, who came from Salisbury, Conn., to Essex during the early settlement of that town, and was elected constable at its first town meeting. He became a large landowner there, and was widely and favorably known throughout the county. A good notice concerning his services appears in the history of Essex, written for this book by Dr. L. C. Butler. He died about 1830. His son Alonzo, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Essex about 1790, became a successful farmer there, and died in 1860. His wife, Susan, was a daughter of Samuel Sinclair, also an early settler of Essex from Connecticut, whose death occurred about 1835. Mrs. Stevens died in August. 1840 aged forty-nine years.

A. J. Stevens attended the common schools of Essex, and received as good an education as can be obtained without attendance at institutions of a higher grade. For several years after reaching his majority he labored at the occupation of a carpenter and joiner, and in 1855 came to Winooski to work as millwright for the firm of Edwards & White. Oscar White, the junior member of the firm, soon after this died, and his death was followed in a short time by the destruction of the shops by fire. The land on which the shops bad stood was soon after purchased by A. B. Edwards and A. J. Stevens, who formed a partnership under the name of Edwards & Stevens. The date of this purchase is 1858. The present business really owes its existence to that firm and that date. The firm remained unchanged until 1868, when the present junior partner, Frank Jubell, was admitted to an interest in the business. The main building now extends 180 x 50 feet with an 140 x 50 feet, and has attached a wood and pattern shop 110 x 50 feet and a foundry 60 x 45 feet, besides large lumber sheds, storehouses, etc., for the accommodation of their extensive business. In these buildings Messrs. Edwards, Stevens & Co. employ a large number of men in the manufacture of mill gearing and shafting, iron and brass castings, and wood working machinery. The business has grown from a small beginning to its present gratifying proportions by reason of the diligence and skill and fair dealing of the proprietors.

Mr. Stevens is decidedly Republican in politics. He has been elected one of the selectmen of Colchester for several terms, and represented the town in the Legislature of the State in 1869 and 1870, his last term being of two years duration, under the system of biennial elections then introduced. He was also elected one of the senators from Chittenden county in the summer of 1886, and has received various other evidences of the esteem and confidence of his fellow townsmen.   His religious preference is Congregational, although he is not a member of any church. He is a regular attendant upon public worship, and contributes liberally to its support.  He has always given his time and means with unstinted public spirit to aid the industries of the village of Winooski, and accorded to them his influence for the support of right and justice. He was a charter member of the Winooski Savings Bank, and has been a director in that institution ever since.

In September, 1858, Mr. Stevens married Mary J. Rood, of Colchester. They now have three children, Mary Ellen, Charles H. and Hattie, all living with their parents.   Biographies Index

SMITH, JOHN ELDREDGE, was born in New Haven, Addison county, Vermont, on the 20th of July, 1829. He traces his ancestry on his father's side to his great-grand father, Nathan Smith, who was born in Ridgefield, Conn., December 12, 1728, and whose wife, Mary Stoddard, of North Salem, Westchester county, N. Y., was born on the 21st of the same month in the same year. After his marriage he lived in North Salem, N. Y., where he became the father of ten children, viz.: Abner, Nathan, Annis, Nathan, 2d (born March 22, 1763, after the death of Nathan 1st), Annis, 2d (Annis 1st having died), Mary, Benjamin, Caleb, Peter B., and Fannie. Of these Peter B.  and Nathan 2d were the only ones who came to Chittenden county to reside, the former, a tailor by trade, settling in Burlington, where he died.  Nathan Smith, 2d, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was in December, 1788, united in marriage with Abigail, daughter of John Eldredge, who formerly kept a tavern on the corner of Fourth street and Winooski turnpike, Burlington, now South Burlington, by whom he had eight children, as follows: Cornelia, John Eldredge, Sally Blagden, Betsy Eldredge, Pierpont Edward, Charles Lee, Lydia Lucia, and John Lucius. He came to Burlington in 1786, and first pitched on the site of the present city of Burlington, but through a defective title lost the place and removed to the lot now known as the Fish farm, on Fourth street in South Burlington, and made the first clearing thereon in the fall of 1788. Here he kept a tavern of considerable notoriety, being a frequent host of large numbers of passengers traveling by stage in days when that was the fastest mode of travel and traffic. In 1822 he went to New Haven, Vt, where on the 1st of May, 1835, he died. He was a minuteman in the Revolution, and was for a time in active service under Washington.   During the War of 1812-15 the American troops were often quartered at his tavern. Although outwardly of a stern, uncompromising demeanor, he possessed the most desirable traits of character for a pioneer in a virgin land like early Vermont. He became acquainted with the country while on a surveying tour in this part of the State with Ira Allen, during which he assisted in running the lines of Moretown, Middlesex, and several other towns, before settling in Burlington. His first approach to Northern Vermont was by means of a canoe on Lake Champlain.

Pierpont E. Smith was born in the tavern above mentioned on the 7th of October, 1800, married Sylphina Hanchett, of New Haven, on the nth of December, 1823,and had four children, Nathan Hanchett, who was drowned at six years of age, John Eldredge, Charles Palmer, born August 22, 1832, and died February 21, 1862; and Lucy Cornelia, born July 18,1837, now the wife of Charles M. Fillmore, of Minnesota. He died on the 19th of July, 1884, at the house of his son, the subject of this sketch. His wife died on the 16th of February, 1875.

John E. Smith received his education in the schools of his native town, and at-tended several terms at the Shelburne Academy, under the tuition of Professor Joel H.  Bingham. He passed his early life upon a farm. When he was about five years of age his father removed to a farm on Dorset street, Burlington, and remained three years, when he sold out and removed to Enosburgh, Franklin county. Six years later he again removed to a farm in Shelburne. About this time John E. Smith sustained an injury to his health from overwork, and deeming it prudent to relinquish agricultural pursuits for a period, procured a situation as station agent at Gassett's Station, in Chester, Vt., for the Rutland Railroad, and remained in that position until 1852. He then re-turned to the farm in Shelburne. His ambition was to fit himself for the calling of a teacher, but circumstances forced him to relinquish that object. The Shelburne farm was sold in 1859, the family expecting to try their fortunes in the West, but by reason of what was an exceptional opportunity, purchased the farm still owned and occupied by the subject of this sketch, and immediately removed upon it.  On the 12th of September, 1853, Mr. Smith married Sarah Eliza Cutting, of St.  Johns, Canada, and has one child, Alice Cornelia, who was born on the 27th of March, 1856, and, on the 9th of September, 1878, was married to Heman H. Wheeler, of South Burlington.

Upon the organization of the town of South Burlington in 1865 Mr. Smith was chosen town clerk and treasurer, to which positions he has been repeatedly elected without intermission down to the present time. He has also served several years as superintendent of schools, and some time as lister and justice of the peace. In 1884 he was elected associate judge of the County Court, and holds the office now. He is a consistent and active member of the Republican party.   His religious preference is Congregational, and he is a member of the First Congregational Church in Burlington.   Biographies Index

SMITH, JOHN. John Smith was born in Jericho on the 24th of June, 1797, not more than three rods from the spot where he died. His father, William, was a sturdy patriot, though not a soldier, of Revolutionary times, and a native of Lanesboro, Mass. He was thoroughly independent, and is described as decidedly " spry-tempered." Two of his sons, William and Nathan, were soldiers in the War of 1812-15. Before the Revolution his brother Samuel had come to Essex, Vt., pitched on the land now owned by the heirs of Erastus Whitcomb, and girdled the trees preparatory to felling them. After the war he returned accompanied by William Smith, who had a short time previous married Ruth Wood, of Lanesboro. After a residence of about a year in Essex, William Smith purchased two lots of land in Jericho, comprising the present farm of his grandson, Gordon Smith, and moved upon it, bringing his household effects on a sled drawn by a pair of steers, and followed by one cow. After arriving at the place of their future residence, his wife and child sat on a log and waited while he constructed a rude shelter for the night. The hardships incident to this pioneer life are even yet too well known to need description in this place, but in addition to the sufferings produced by cold and overwork and exposure, the family were soon deprived of the sustenance afforded by their cow, which was killed by a falling tree. William Smith was the father of seven children, named Chloe, Ruama, Emily, Nathan, William, John, and Isaac. He died September 29, 1837, his wife surviving until September 11, 1846, aged eighty-seven years.

John Smith passed his life upon the farm upon which he was born. Although educational advantages were meager in those days of ceaseless toil, he supplied the want of what the schools can give with an abundance of what they cannot give-viz., common sense and diligence. About the year 1821 he married Philena Knowles, a native of Essex, who, however, was at the time of the marriage living in Jericho, and by her had two children, Cornelius, born August 30, 1824, and deceased March 23, 1848, unmarried ; and Gordon, born September 25, 1828. John Smith was originally a Democrat of the old school, but developed into a member of the Anti-Slavery or third party, and died a Republican. He did not care to be placed in office, but his abilities were so well fitted to the performance of public duties that he was frequently elected, almost vi et armis. He represented the town of Jericho in the Legislature in 1853 and 1854, and was one of the thirteen who opposed the election by that body of Governor Robinson, by a coalition between the Democratic and Free Soil parties. He was occasion-ally selected a delegate to political conventions, and served in other positions. His religious belief rested on the basis that all Christian churches should unite in one denomination against evil, and was what is termed liberal.  He was a successful farmer, and procured his wealth chiefly from sheep-raising, when that was a more profitable industry than it is now. He owned at different times from 300 to 520 head of sheep. During the latter years of his life he relinquished his labors, which, with the property, devolved upon his son Gordon. He died on the 16th of September, 1885.

Gordon Smith received a good common school education and remained upon his father's farm during the entire period of his minority. Even then he did not depart from the homestead, but, in pursuance of the wishes of his father, stayed on the farm.  On the 13th of June, 1850, he married Lydia E., daughter of Azariah Lee, of Jericho.  Mr. Smith does not prescribe any limitations to his farming, but is engaged in all departments.   He has about fifty sheep and thirty head of cattle.  Mr. Smith has been true to the traditions of the family and acted with the Republican party. He was at first a member of the Free Soil party. He has been placed in various offices of trust in his town, and his ability and faithfulness have never been questioned. He has been selectman eight years in all, and lister, assessor and town treasurer each one year.   He also represented the town in 1874-75. 

He has three children, Emma E., born June 13, 1852, and residing with her parents;  John A., born January 18, 1854, and married Elizabeth Armour, who died September 6, 1883, leaving one child that died in infancy. John A. Smith now lives with his father. The youngest child of Gordon Smith is Ernest H., who was born on the 2d of March, 1871, and is at the home of his parents.   Biographies Index

STONE, ALNEY. Alney Stone was born in Westford, Vt., on the 11th of April, 1820. He is the sixth in direct descent from Hugh Stone, who came from England, his native country, about the year 1650, and became an early settler near Greenwich, Rhode Island. When Allen Stone, father of the subject of this sketch, came from Rhode Island in company with his father, Jeremiah, and his grandfather, Thomas Stone (the last an old man who died in 1808), and first settled on a tract of 300 acres in the southwestern part of the town of Westford, which is now owned by his son Alney. Allen Stone afterwards lived on the farm in the northwestern part of Westford, lying next west to the present residence of Alney. Jeremiah Stone was a prominent man in his day, was the first representative of Westford in the Legislature, and held other town offices, besides being proprietor of the first store opened in town. He died in Evans, N. Y., in 1828. Allen Stone, who was born in Rhode Island in 1784, was in his prime when the second war with Great Britain was declared, and in those troublous times exhibited the qualities which are most needed in such emergencies. He was quartermaster during this war, and was for a time stationed at Burlington. He held other offices, of a civil nature, and after passing worthily his latter days in Westford, died on the 26th day of March, 1858. His second wife, Rachel, was the daughter of David Wilcox, an early settler in Westford. She had five children, of whom Allen Stone, now of Winooski, Vt., was the eldest and Alney Stone was second.  Alney Stone attended the district schools of his native town, and received such education as he could from them at that time. The life of a farmer is usually uneventful, though it contributes by its fruits to the genuine prosperity of the country. Alney Stone attended diligently to the affairs incident to his chosen occupation, and in 1849 moved to the farm that he now owns and occupies, which was originally settled by Joel Farnsworth, on one part, and Levi Farnsworth on the other. He has labored on this tract ever since, with such success that he has gained a competence from the place, and now owns about six hundred acres of land in town.   Dairying occupies most of his attention.  In politics he is a Republican. He has been placed in a great many positions of trust by his townsmen, and has attended so industriously to their interests that he has commonly been re-elected to office several times. He has been justice of the peace for about thirty-six years consecutively ; has been selectman three years at several times; and town agent several years. He is now and for three years has been one of the listers, and in 1862, 1863 and 1865 represented Westford in the State Legislature. During the War of the Rebellion he took so earnest an interest in the success of the Union cause that he raised two thousand dollars by note to pay promptly the town bounties, and waited for the town to reimburse him. He was associate judge of the County Court for two years. His religious belief is substantially in the universal redemption of the human race; but as there is in his town no church of that denomination he is a regular attendant at the churches which are established there, and contributes to their support. 

On the 13th of March, 1851, he married Marcia, daughter of Medad Parsons (an early settler in Fletcher, Vt.), and a niece of W. H. H. Bingham, of Stowe, Vt. They have three children, all living. The eldest, Don Alney, was born on the 8th of December, 1853, was graduated from the University of Vermont in the class of 1878, read law about six months with L. L. Lawrence, of Burlington, passed about eighteen months in Chicago, was admitted to the bar of Orleans county, Vt., at the February term of 1883, after pursuing a course of study with Judge L. A. Thompson, of Irasburgh, for two years; remained at the home of his father about a year, and on the 29th of April took the civil service examination at Burlington for the position of deputy collector and inspector of customs for the district of Vermont, which position he now holds. In the spring of 1884 he was elected a delegate from Westford to the district convention, when John W. Stewart was re-nominated for Congress, and electors of president and vice-president were chosen. On the 14th of September, 1884, he married Bessie F., daughter of James H. Macomber, of Westford.

The second child of Alney Stone is Betsey Laura, born May 29, 1856, now the wife of John A. Stewart, of Westford, and the mother of three children. The third child is Julian Bingham, born November 12. 1861, and married on the 31st of October, 1885, to Elizabeth S., daughter of George Stevens, of Westford.   He lives with his parents.   Biographies Index

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