Biographie Index

 

Rutland County Biographies

History of Rutland County Vermont
Written by H. P. Smith and W. S. Rann
Published by D. Mason & Co. in 1886


 

KELLOGG, NEWTON, son of Eusebia (Messer) and Samuel Harwood Kellogg, was born in Pittsford, Vt., on the 28th of December, 1819, and lived with his parents and worked on the home farm until his eighteenth year, receiving in the mean time the benefit of a common school education. In the summer of 1838 he worked a short time with Mr. Flagg, a carpenter and joiner of Middlebury, but was forced to relinquish the business because of ill-health. In the fall he engaged as clerk in the store of William F. Manley, at Pittsford Mills, where he remained through the winter. In the spring of 1839 he became clerk for Henry Simonds, in the village of Pittsford, and lived with him about three years.

In the year 1843 he went west, staying a few weeks in Geneva, N. Y.. with his uncle, Asa Messer. There he accepted an offer to act as clerk for a Mr. Olmsted, of Lafayette, Ind.. and left Geneva in the month of August, passing a few weeks before beginning his engagement in Layfayette with relatives in Ohio. He went from Toledo down the Maumee canal to Lafayette ; but the malarial atmosphere and unwholesome water of the voyage had injured his system, and he was taken sick with fever and ague and dysentery, and was obliged to leave Lafayette in a few days and return to Vermont. Immediately upon his arrival in Vermont he was prostrated with bilious fever, from which he did not recover for several weeks. For nearly a year after the fall of 1843 he worked in the store of John Simonds, of Shoreham, Vt. He came to Rutland in 1845 and first worked in the store of Luther Daniels, until 1849 (most of the time), when he accepted a position as teller in the Bank of Rutland, of which John B. Page was then cashier. This position Mr. Kellogg resigned in 1854 and entered the Bank of Royalton as cashier, William Skinner being its president. Fearing, however, that he would be dissatisfied with the position, he did not remain long, but accepted the position of assistant cashier in the Bank of Rutland which he had left. The Rutland Savings Bank, which was chartered in 1850, and organized in the year following, transacted its business in the same room with the Bank of Rutland, and Mr. Kellogg, by reason of his position, was practically the book-keeper of the bank until the resignation of John. B. Page as treasurer, and the appointment of Luther Daniels, treasurer, in the year 1858. After the decease of George T. Hodges, president of the Bank of Rutland, and the promotion of John B. Page to that office, Mr. Kellogg was appointed cashier, but failing health would not permit him to continue in the business, and he retired from the bank in 1861. He was subsequently appointed agent for the payment of United States pensions and performed the duties of that position about three years, meanwhile was also book-keeper in the office of the State Treasurer. He then went the way of all office-holders and gave place to General Barstow, of Burlington, his successor under the new administration. On the 30th of May, 1855, Mr. Kellogg was united in marriage to Julia, daughter of William and Cynthia (Hickok) Page, of Rutland, who is still living, and has now two children, Samuel Hickok, born August 4, 1856; and John Newton, born July 27, i860. Louise Chipman Kellogg, born on September 27, 1864, died on the 25th of October, 1865.

In 1855, after his marriage, he purchased the old homestead of his wife's mother, then a widow. He sold it in 1861, when he left the bank, to his brother-in-law, J. B. Page, and removed to Pittsford, where he purchased a small place of T. F. Bogue, near the Methodist Church. Here he passed several years very pleasantly, driving to Rutland every day and discharging his duties as pension agent and book-keeper for the State Treasurer. The wholesome exercise of caring for his horse and cow, and the fourteen miles' drive every day, soon restored his health, which has remained comparatively good since that time.

In 1865 he returned to Rutland and occupied the brick house which stands on the cornel of Court and Center streets, and which was erected by John B. Page. His mother-in-law and her daughter, Fannie C. Page, resided with him until the decease of the former and the marriage of the latter. The house is now owned by the Congregational society and occupied as a parsonage. Mr. Kellogg afterward purchased the house next south of the parsonage of J. N. Howard, in which he now lives.

Mr. Kellogg has been employed more or less every year in the Savings Bank since its organization, and in 1874, being one of the trustees of the bank. he was elected assistant treasurer. Luther Daniels, president and treasurer of the bank, having reached the advanced age of eighty years, felt that he could no longer bear the responsibility and labor of the offices, and left the bank. William M. Field was then elected president, and Mr. Kellogg was promoted to the office of treasurer, which he still holds. The position, however, is an arduous one, the bank deposits having increased from $600,000 in 1876 to $1,600,000 in 1886. Mr. Kellogg, with the assistance of the president, has been able to perform most of the clerical labor of the bank until the present time.

General Amos Kellogg, a Revolutionary soldier and a lineal descendant of Lieutenant Joseph Kellogg, of Brookfield, Mass.. and grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Lebanon, Conn., on the 7th of July, 1770, and died on the 6th of March, 1826 in Pittsford, Vt. He was a very prominent man in Pittsford, and held the office of town clerk at the time of his death. His son and the father of Newton Kellogg, viz., Samuel Harwood Kellogg, was born in Pittsford on the 12th of July, 1798, and died there on the 24th of March, 1877. He immediately succeeded his father in the office of town clerk, which position, in conjunction with that of town treasurer, he retained for fifty-one consecutive years. He was also a prominent member of the Congregational Church of Pittsford, and one of its deacons at the time of his decease. He united with this church at the early age of fourteen years. He was twice married ; first on the 17th of February, 1819, to Eusebia, daughter of Moses and Abigail (Stevens) Messer, of Orwell, by whom he had four children : Newton, born December 28, 1819; James, born December 6, 1822; Abigail, who died in infancy; Mary Elizabeth, born May 15, 1835 ; James died July 2d, 1850 ; Mary E. became the wife of Charles M. Farrar. and now lives in Denver, Col.

Eusebia Messer was born in Claremont, N. H., and was granddaughter of Rev. Josiah Stevens, a Congregational minister who was a missionary on the Isle of Shoals, and died there. She died in Pittsford on the 26th of June, 1852, aged fifty-nine years and eight months.

Samuel H. Kellogg married Caroline M. Cheney, widow of James Cheney, for his second wife. She is now living.

The following preamble and resolutions were adopted at the town meeting held in Pittsford, Vt., on April 9, 1877, for the purpose of choosing a successor to Hon. Samuel H. Kellogg, who died on the 24th of the previous month, and who for more than fifty years had filled the office of town clerk and treasurer: -

Whereas, God in his providence has seen fit to remove from our midst the Hon. Samuel Harwood Kellogg, a descendant from a line of honored Christian ancestors, some of whom by their labors and influence were largely instrumental in laying the foundations of our civil and religious institutions ; and

Whereas, In his public life, covering more than half a century, he exhibited at all times and under all circumstances the sterling qualities of honesty and faithfulness, and was devoted to the welfare of the people whom he served, thus showing himself to be a worthy son of honored sires and fully impressed with the importance of carrying forward the work which had been by them so auspiciously commenced, the work of improving, elevating and Christianizing the people, and

Whereas, In his private life he was the model gentleman, the devoted Christian and faithful friend of all, therefore.

Resolved, By the citizens of Pittsford in town meeting assembled, that in the death of Mr., Kellogg we deeply lament not only the loss of a faithful public servant, but of a man who in all his social relations was a model of excellence and purity.

Resolved. That while we would most gladly have retained for a longer period his presence, his wise counsels, example and influence, we bow in humble submission to the divine will, feeling confident that what is our loss is his gain.

Resolved, That we tender to his surviving family our heartfelt sympathy in their affliction, and trust that they, with ourselves, will profit by his example and strive to imitate his virtues.


 

KINGSLEY, HARRISON, of Clarendon, was born on the 29th of August, 1813, in the town of Shrewsbury, near the Clarendon line. His lather was Chester Kingsley, a descendant of one of four brothers who came to this country from England at an early day. He removed from New York State to Shrewsbury, locating about a mile east of the hamlet of East Clarendon, and there built a carding and cloth-dressing mill. The carrying on of this line of business constituted his life-work. He remained there until 1825, when he placed his establishment in charge of his son Harvey (now living in Rutland), and removed with his family to East Clarendon, where there is a fine water-power, with a carding and cloth-dressing , mill, a saw-mill and grist-mill. This property he purchased and carried on the business more than ten years, when he removed to the village of Brandon (where he had a son living), and leased a similar establishment of John Conant, leaving the Clarendon works in charge of his son Horace. In the year 1840 his two sons. Harrison and Harvey, purchased the Clarendon mill property. Chester Kingsley married Rhoda Weeks, daughter of John Weeks, who was the father of William and Newman Weeks; she died in 1852 and her husband in March, 1855.

Harrison Kingsley was the sixth child of Chester and Rhoda Kingsley. His younger days were passed in attending the district schools and helping about his father's factory. Arriving at twenty-one years of age, he worked two years in a similar factory in Ludlow and three years in another at Manchester. In 1840 he purchased the East Clarendon property, with his brother Harvey, as stated, and they conducted the business together for fourteen years, when Harrison purchased his brother's interest. In the year 1855 he put in an overshot water-wheel, added another run of stone in the grist-mill and otherwise improved the property. In the flood of October, 1869, the saw-mill was carried away, and the greater part of the timber of that section having disappeared, the mill was not rebuilt. Since his purchase of the property but little cloth-dressing has been done, but the carding-mill has been in use more or less every year.

Mr. Kingsley has here led a quiet and retired life, declining to mingle in politics or to accept office ; but such lives, though little known to the world at large, are not therefore without an influence for good on any community. Now, in his later years, surrounded with the fruits of his labor, he may look back upon a well-spent life.

Mr. Kingsley was married on the 12th of July, 1838, to Caroline R. Taylor, of Andover. They have three children-Samuel Taylor Kingsley, born July 27, 1841, married Amelia Todd, of Boston, in 1867, and is now living in Rutland; Aliathea, born October 30, 1845, married L. Squier, a farmer in Clarendon ; John H., born June 25, 1852, married Lizzie Wyman, of Rutland, and lives at the homestead, where he now runs the grist-mill.


KINGSLEY, GENERAL LEVI G. The subject of this sketch is a gentleman of quiet and unostentatious business life, and yet has been called to many positions of responsibility and honor in the State and in public institutions and societies. His direct ancestors came to this country in the last century and settled at Hartford, Conn. Salmon Kingsley came to Rutland county between 1775 and 1780 locating in the town of Ira. He had seven sons, one of whom, Chester, was for a time a resident of Burlington, but settled in Shrewsbury in 1812, where he engaged in the business of carding wool and dressing cloth, near the town line of Clarendon, now known as East Clarendon. He had a family of nine sons, two of whom, Horace and Harrison, still reside in Clarendon ; Henry in Middlebury, Chester in Salisbury, Amos at Long Lake, Wis., and Harvey, father of Levi G., in Rutland, still vigorous at the advanced age of seventy-eight years. Three of the sons are deceased. There were seven daughters, two of whom are still living at Brandon.

Levi Gleason, son of Harvey and Elvira Gleason Kingsley, was born in Shrewsbury, May 21, 1832. His maternal grandfather, Stephen Gleason, was a prominent citizen of Shrewsbury, and with him Levi G. passed a portion of his youth, receiving the education of the common schools of that day and afterward attending for two terms the Brandon Seminary ; in 1854 he was at Norwich University (a military school at Norwich, Vt.), which in 1882 very deservedly conferred upon him the honorary degree of Bachelor of Sciences. He has been a trustee of his alma mater for the past fifteen years and has done much to promote its interests. During the intervals of his periods of study he assisted his father in the woolen mill, into whose possession it had passed ; in teaching school a short time, and for a time acting as station agent on the railroad at East Clarendon. From 1857 to 1859 he was employed at Rutland in the freight department of the Rutland and Burlington Railroad. In the latter year with Benjamin French, he purchased the hardware store of J. & A. Landon, where the wholesale grocery store of E. D. Keyes & Co. now is. The business was removed in 1863 to the present location and the partnership ceased with the death of Mr. French in 1865, since which Mr. Kingsley has conducted the business alone, and has added largely to it as the growth of the town demanded ; it is now one of the most complete establishments in the State.

General Kingsley, having a natural taste in the direction of military science and having acquired a military education at Norwich University, became a member of the Rutland Light Guard, a popular company organized in 1858, then under command of General H. Henry Baxter, and afterward of General William Y. W. Ripley. He was elected lieutenant of the company November 10, 1859, and when that company patriotically responded to the call for troops in 1861, and unanimously joined the First Regiment of Vermont Volunteers, he (like hundreds of others) left his business and went to the front as second lieutenant of the company and served during the three months for which the company was mustered. On his return he again gave his attention to his business interests. On the organization of the nine months' men, a large part of his old company returned to the field and he was elected its captain, but before the regiment left the State he was promoted to major, a position he creditably filled until the end of the term of service. He was elected and commissioned captain of Company A, of the Ninth Regiment of the National Guard in December, 1864, and elected colonel January 17, 1865 ; he occupied that post until the regiment was mustered out in the fall of 1865. In October, 1874, he was elected by the Legislature quartermaster-general of the State, holding the office by four re-elections until 1882. He was untiring in his labors for the State in this department, thoroughly re-organizing many features of it and saving the .State much expense by his economy and foresight. It was during his administration that the National Guard of Vermont was put upon a firm basis and fully equipped. He was elected brigade commander of the National Guard of Vermont in 1882, a position and rank he holds at the present time. In so large a measure have his military services been appreciated, and through his universal popularity, the present military company of Rutland, one of the foremost organizations in the State, bears the name of Kingsley Guard, in his honor. The military career of General Kingsley has been one of great usefulness, one of work and earnest effort. In 1S80 the Legislature made an appropriation to send two companies of the National Guard to the Yorktown, Va., centennial celebration. The whole arrangements were made by General Kingsley and accomplished with credit and at less cost than the amount appropriated by the State, A prominent gentleman and soldier of Vermont said of General Kingsley, in speaking of his military record, " He was a popular and efficient officer, esteemed by his fellow officers and men. He was always ready to do his duty, and was well informed in all that pertains to military life. As a State officer it may safely be said, Vermont never had a better or more efficient servant in the positions he has occupied."

General Kingsley is in the prime of life. The records of the high positions he has held, which have met the approval of his comrades and fellow citizens, for his efficient and honorable service, indicate the estimation in which he is held in the community and State. In private life his courteous and affable manner and his broad and liberal views have won him many friends in all circles.

In the town of his residence General Kingsley occupies a prominent place in its business and takes a leading position in public affairs and the promotion of its industries and prosperity. He has been from his first residence an active member of the fire department and is one whose labors did much to place it in its present efficient standing; he has been foreman of the Killington Steamer Company for seventeen years. He occupies a conspicuous position in the Grand Army of the Republic and is the present commander of Roberts Post, which is the largest in the State. He is also actively identified with the Masonic fraternity and has held many official relations with the institution in all its branches. He was grand captain general and grand generalissimo of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of Vermont.

General Kingsley has been twice married: First to Luceba J. Ross, in 1857; she died in March, 1862. On the 14th of June, 1865, he married Cornelia S. Roberts, a sister of Colonel George T. Roberts and of Mrs. H. Henry Baxter. Their children are Henry Baxter Kingsley, born November 21, 1867, and Harvey Roberts Kingsley, born January 8, 1871.


 

LANDON, WALTER C. Although it is well known that the Landon family are of Welsh extraction, no definite line of ancestry can be traced beyond the grandfather of our subject, viz.: Elisha Landon. who was born on the 3d of June, 1766, in Salisbury, Conn., and lived there until early in the present century. He then came to Sunderland, Vt., where he died on the I2th of April, 1817. Noah Landon. father of Walter C, and the eldest of ten children, was born in Salisbury, Conn., May 10, 1790. On the 30th of April, 1820, he married Pamelia Wilcox, a native of Manchester. She died on the 26th of December, 1879, in her eighty-sixth year, and he followed her January 24, 1881, leaving a family of two sons and a daughter. Warren E., the eldest, was born on the 5th of May, 1824, and now lives in Chaplin, Conn. The daughter,. Fannie P.. was born on the 22d of August, 1838, and is now the wife of Samuel B. Nichols, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Walter C. Landon, the second child, was born on the 17th of August, 1831, in Sunderland. He received such education as the excellent New England common schools afford, attending winters only, and in summer time working out. At the early age of fourteen years he left home and worked for two years on a farm in Arlington, Vt. Thence he went to Bennington, where he passed four years as clerk in the general store of P. L. Robinson. In the spring of 1852 he came to Rutland, and became clerk in the hardware and grocery store of Landon & Graves, which was known as the " old red store," and stood on the site of Sawyer's block. The firm soon after became J. & A. Landon, but because of his experience and abilities, and being a cousin of the proprietors, the subject of our sketch retained his position, in all about five years. Then, with Chester Kingsley as junior partner, he opened a grocery store in the same building, which J. & A. Landon had vacated for a new building. After the lapse of three years Mr. Landon sold out to Kingsley, and with J. W. Cramton bought in the Central House, which stood on the present site of Clement's bank building. Mr. Landon assumed the management of this house, and remained there until March, 1863. In the mean time, however, he enlisted for three months in the First Vermont Regiment (infantry) and was detailed as color sergeant, and after went out as captain of Co. K. in the Twelfth Regiment. After he sold his interest in the hotel to Mr. Cramton, he entered into partnership with J. N. Baxter in September, 1863, and opened a grocery store in the building now occupied for a like purpose by E. D. Keyes. In the following May Mr. Landon obtained control of the entire business and carried on the store until November, 1865. He then removed his business to the Perkins Block, on the corner of West street and Merchants Row, which he had purchased. In January, 1868, with C. F. Huntoon as junior partner, he originated his present business in the same building which he now occupies. Mr. Huntoon's health failed in October, 1875, and he sold his interest to Mr. Landon, who has continued alone ever since. From a small beginning he has increased his business until he may safely say, with pardonable pride, that he is proprietor of one of the most extensive hardware houses in the State. Not only, however, has he attained prominence in the private walks of life, but he has been repeatedly and against his inclination, called upon .to serve in various public capacities. From 1864 to 1875 he was town, village and school treasurer; was one of the listers in 1874, 1881, 1882, 1883 and 1884; has held the office of water commissioner for nine years, and holds it now ; is also one of the board of selectmen ; was for twenty years an active member of the Rutland fire department, and for ten years preceding 1882 was chief engineer of the fire department. He also represented the town of Rutland in the State Legislature in 1882-83, a distinction the more prominent by reason of the relative numerical population and commercial and manufacturing importance of the town. Of course Mr. Landon is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, as what soldier is not . He has been a member of the Knights of Pythias ever since the organization of the order in Vermont. He is now, and since its beginning has been, one of the directors of the Baxter National Bank, is one of the directors of the True Blue Marble Company, and treasurer of the Evergreen Cemetery Association. On the 16th of June, 1861, Walter C. Landon married Mary M. Manley, of Rutland. They have one child, a son. Charles Huntoon Landon, who was born April 31. 1867. and is now at home attending school.


 

LOTHROP, HENRY FRANKLIN. Hon. Henry F. Lothrop, son of Howard and Sarah (Williams) Lothrop, was born in Easton, Mass., March 1, 1820.

Howard Lothrop was son of Edmund, one of the early settlers in Easton. The family has been prominent in all the history of that town. A sister of Henry Lothrop married Hon. Oliver Ames. Cyrus Lothrop, a brother, is now a leading citizen of the town. Another brother, Hon. George V. N. Lothrop, has been an eminent lawyer in Detroit, Mich., and is now I 1886) United States minister to Russia.

Mr. Howard Lothrop came to Pittsford near the close of the last century on business connected with what was then known as the Keith Iron Furnace, in which he had invested some capital. He became superintendent and greatly enlarged and developed the business, which was then an important industry of the county. In 1809 he sold the property, of which he had become the principal owner, to Gibbs & Co., and returned to Easton and there resided till his death in 1857. During his stay in Pittsford. and afterward, he acquired possession of considerable real estate. To look after this, and other interests of his father's property, Henry F. Lothrop, at twenty-four years of age, came to Pittsford and made the town his home. In 1846, two years after his arrival here, he built the house in which he lived till his death.

In 1848 he was married to Eleanor, daughter of Captain Sturges Penfield. For more than fifty years Mr. Penfield was prominent in all the business interests of Pittsford. He and his brothers Allen and Abel were eminent among the early and influential settlers. They established and carried on various branches of manufacturing, which were important and valuable to the town, in their time. They were foremost in the support of the church and the schools. Very soon after his settlement in Pittsford, Mr. Lothrop became a leading man in the affairs of the town. His judgment in all matters of business was excellent. His integrity and uprightness were never questioned. No man in the town was more resorted to for counsel. No one has been a more valuable friend to those in need. No one has had more to do in the care and trust of unsettled estates. Thoroughly true himself, he respected and admired all that was true in others. That which was false or pretentious, he profoundly hated. He was a patriot who loved his country and his town. Unable himself to go as a soldier, because of physical infirmity, he was unwearied in his efforts to provide for the comfort of those of his townsmen who did go, and thoughtful for the welfare of their families in their absence. To the last his interest in the soldiers who went from the town was manifested, not only in the zeal with which he helped them to observe their anniversaries, but to more efficient purpose and with more sacrifice in the aid which he often afforded them. His purse was always open to their necessities; and he generously lent or gave of his money to those who were trying to secure houses for themselves. He was several times selectman of the town. He served with honor both as representative and senator in the Legislature of Vermont. He was influential in securing the passage of the bill creating the State Board of Agriculture. When the board was formed he was a member of it, till failing health and strength made it impossible for him longer to bear the burden of it. He was also, for a time, president of the Rutland County Agricultural Society. Himself a practical farmer, he was deeply interested in all matters relating to the improvement of farms and the rearing of stock. And always, whether in public office or out of it, his generous public spirit was shown in time and work and money, which, almost without stint, he put into whatever was for the general good of the community. From its organization till his death he was a director in the Baxter Bank of Rutland. His business sagacity and financial wisdom contributed not a little to the soundness and strength of that most stable institution. Mr. Lothrop had no children. He died of pulmonary disease at his home April 20, 1885.


 

MUNSON, ISRAEL, was born in the town of New Haven. Conn., on March 18, 1808. His parents and grand parents were natives of this town. He was the sixth child of a family of nine children, who were all born in New Haven, Conn., but one. He is the only one now living. The names of the family in the order of their births are as follows : Sarah. Elizur, Caroline, Mary, Isaac B., Israel, Ann, Louisa, Edward and Francis (who was born in Wallingford. Vt.). Israel Munson came with his parents to Wallingford, Vt.. in December, 1814. His parents were Isaac and Sarah (Bradley) Munson, who came to Vermont mostly through the persuasions of Israel Munson. who was an elder brother of Isaac, and a merchant in Boston, Mass., and while coming through this part of Vermont, purchased the farm south of the present residence of Israel Munson, jr., which then consisted of 200 acres. He persuaded his brother to move here. Isaac owned a house in New Haven, Conn., and did not dispose of it until ten years after coming to Vermont, thinking that he might at some future time return to his native town. He, however, concluded to remain in Vermont, and added one hundred acres to the farm (where Israel Munson now lives), where he died in 1836. Elizur, Isaac and Israel then borrowed 87,000 from their uncle Israel Munson, of Boston. Mass., and bought the remaining heirs out. They then divided it into three farms ; Israel, giving fifty dollars for his first choice, took the farm on which he now resides; Elizur taking the old homestead, and Isaac taking the one over the river where Mr. Childs now resides. Israel Munson received his education in the public schools of his day and has been a thorough business man, clearheaded and successful in all his business transactions and investments. When the war broke out in this country and the government wanted means, he came to the front with $30,000 ; if the country was successful the investment was a good one, and if not he would go down with the government. He was ever ready with his money and voice to aid the government when it needed them most. He has been selectman, overseer of the poor, and lister of his town, although his forte has never been in the field of politics. He has always lived on his farm, and more than one has been helped over their financial difficulties by Israel Munson's means and clear head, sometimes by his own loss.

He was married on September 19, 1845, to Matilda Clark (a daughter of Chauncey Clark, of Mount Holly, Vt.). They have had two children born to them. Kirk G. and Isaac E. Mr. Munson has for forty years been attending to his varied financial investments, and in all his loans he has never forced or distressed any one ; foreclosing only in a few cases, and then at the request of the parties interested ; and in several cases accepting from five hundred to one thousand dollars less than his claim. He is now in the seventy-seventh year of his age. enjoying good health and would pass for a man of sixty. His wife died on December 9, 1881. She was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church, and was mourned by a large number of friends and neighbors.

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