CS 71 .R66 1901 Copy 1 ANCESTOR HUNTING, Some Hccoutit of a meek 6pcnt in OQindham Coun- ty, Yermontt During tb« ^ontb of JunCf 190K ¥¥ ¥ "The man who cares not who his grandfather was, is worse than an infidel."— Horace Greeley. ¥¥ ¥ By HAMLINE E. ROBINSON, G. M. B. Editor Maryville Republican. ¥¥ ¥ Maryville, Missouri. Privately Printed by the Author. MDCCCCl ANCESTOR HUNTING. ¥ Some Hccount of a deck Spent in dindbam Coun- ty, Vermont, During the jMontb of lunc, 190K ¥¥ ¥ "The man who cares not who his grandfather was, is worse than an infidel."— Horace Greeley. i. ¥¥ ¥ By HAMLINE E. ROBINSON, Q. M. B. Editor Maryville Republican. ¥¥ ¥ ' ' J > > > ' * . > > > » > J » > . > » . • MARYVILLE, MISSOURL Privately Printed by the Author. MDCCCCI \ ^' Only Fifty copies of this little brochure were printed privately by the Author, in the month of July, 1901. This is Number /i^ ^^ .^^T-J^,^^^ ( « • • •• • AytJhor. <9MtQn). ♦t« ••• • « • « • '» t • . • :• ^ ^ "^\. ^c> ^' 0* K t» /V ^ :r^ o -<: ANCESTOR HUNTING. ,->- The Author. ANCESTOR HUNTING. ¥¥¥ Have any of my readers ever been on an ancestor hunting' expedition? If so, they will heartily sympathise with the fol- lowing- sketchy account of such a trip, and if not, perhaps something told here may awaken a desire to participate in like joys. For a long time it had been my desire to make some re??earches in New England, hoping to trace the footsteps of my forefathers who long ago con- quered the wild and rugged mountain sides, and by dint of incessant labor frugally brought up their children and trained them in the way they should go. If ever there was a "strenuous life," it was i)assed by the generations wh*? cleared and tilled New England during the two centuries and a lialf following its settlement Isy the Anglo Saxon. The years of conter^t with the aboriginal red man and his French and English allies, the savage beasts which glared from bt^hind almost everv rock and tree, the soil so filled witli flinty stone that every shower threatened to leave nothing but the worth- 6 ANCESTOR HUNTING less substratum— tho ruj^god human product of such a series of difliculties canuot but till the stu- dent with adniirntion. It was to search for some facts with regard to six generations of such men that 1 had set my heart. Knowing that my emigrant ancestor had settled near Boston, and that successive generations had lived in Worcester county, Massachusetts, Wind- ham county, Connecticut, and Windham county, Vermont, the only question to decide was whether to start in the beginning and work forward, or start in my own time and work backwards. Tlie fact that I was born in Brattleboro, and that my father and mother were natives of Windham coun- ty, Vermont, the tirst of seven generations to move from New England finally decided me upon the lat- ter method. On Saturday. June 15, 1801, we stepped upon Vermont soil (mo>tly rock). But the bills were beautiful! Of a green that almost transcends de- scription, no \>'on(ler the early travelers called them Green Mountains! And the rippling brooks that run adown the lields, their waters fed bv never fail- ing springs, clearer than most any ciystal, who shall picture their beauty? In J he language of one who had never seen these charming sights Defore — "SVhat a sensation of restfulness it gives!" Brattleboro, the metropolis of Windham county, has been a thriving place for years. Situated on the Connectii'-ut River its manufacturing interests have grown apace, and being in a manner the gateway to a large interior country, it has bene- fitted thereby without cease. Up the brawling West River runs a narrow guage ANCESTOF^ HUNTING 7 railroad making; sliort jerk^' turns that would seem at times about to throw the train from the track. It passes throu;4,h Newfane, wiiL're was horn Ros- well Field, the father of Eu;;ene, so ioved by all Missourians. On across brooks, around ledges like the course of a snake, its tortuous way leads some twenty seven miles to the old town of Jamaica. Here over a hundrey myself (righteous judgment) they were glad to welcome their cousins from the wild and wooly west, and certainly we had a most enjoyabU.' visit. A saddening sensation Is caused by the sight of so many deserted farms. Place after place can be passed, with good, although weatherbeaten, build- ings still standing, where within the memory of comparatively young people there lived large and intelligent families, now alas wholly unoccupied In the school district in which my father was born, where a half century or m(3re ago there were fifty school children, now scarcely one resides. The township has gonr backward fn»m about 1700 pop- ulation in 1N50 to less than 800 in 1900. And so it is in every direction. Where once were good mead- ows, now grows the brush and the tree, and na- ture seems to be taking quick revenge upon the long continued and tireless labor with which she was at one time conquered. And this desertion of farms brings about another condition, desertion of roads. With no one to work the highways, they become encroached upon by the trees, and the storms of a long winter gully 8 ANCESTOR HUNTING tl'-iM!i out so that they become almost impassable. In consequence, when my cousin and myself sought a team to drive us some three or four miles to the now deserted home of our grandfather, it was urged that the way was impassable, and only after much pursuasion could we induce a start. The drive up onto West hill was tedious and slow. And yet, not many years ago, many bright and happy people used to tread the road on their way to school and church. For they were a church going, God fearing class. Now none are in sight and the phice which knew them od enow Hats vul. caps vul Dree bushel ba^s vul Pockets vul, it'ouths vul Hearts vul and thankful — Huzzaj% old apple tree.^ The forest is narrowing down the once tilled fields, and soon the farm will only exist in a pris- tine state of savagery, if the changes of the last 30 years go on as rapidly in the future. And when we recognize that it w^ould be an almost physical im- possibility to haul out a 500 pound load on a wag- on from this farm, the only wonder is that it re- mained in cultivation so long as it did. Over against us to the northwest lies Winhall, and to the westward Stratt(jn Mountain rears its head, one of the highest peaks of the southernmost Green mountains. These sights bring to mind the storj^ of hov>^ in bj^gone days when the native inquired at the store for salt codfish, he asked for ''Stratton pork'"For as the old jingle went — Winhall for beauty, •hir.iaiea for priile; If It hadn't been for codfish Stratton would have died. So they jeered each other, but these mountains turned out bravesoldiers, beautiful women and scholarly, practical men, like the rocks in their rug- ged character, and likened after their beautiful lo ANCESTOR HUNTING scenic surroundings in their dispositions. In Winhall lived for many years an Irisliman, James Magarr by name, vvlio was a Revolutionary soldier. Old Jimmy, as he was called, liked his toddy extremely w^ell, and when about to die, selec ted his pall bearers and called them to his bedside for a last word. He was to be buried in Jamaica, and said he — •'As ye carry me down the hill, when ye get half way, stop and t*vke a drink; But when ye come back, dont drink, for Jimmy'll not oe with ye." Although these are more temperate days than then yet we can sympathise with and understand the half regretful mood of the dying old veteran. Over Jimmy NJagarr's resting place in the burial ground in Jamaica village stands a stone on which is engraved the following inscription — Behold ana see as you pass b3'' /» s you are now so once was I As i ani now so soon you'l be Prepare for death & fo low me. It is related that some irreverent person on reading this Immediately wrote — To follow you I'm not intent Until I know which way you went. I visited many old graveyards in Jamaica, Townsend and Athens. Some are found in places now almost inaccessible, onct in probably the thickest settled portion of the communit3^ These burial i>laces have generally from one to two hun- dred graves, and as a rule have been fairly taken care of, although not now used to great extent, But the old stone wall with which all are sur- rounded never rots away, and now^ more than a century old bids fair to last for ages. ANCESTOR HUNTING II Manv Inscriptions, more or less curious, were t noted in these J4;ravey circle. In those older, times it was the custom to put averse upon tlie headntone, or tell in some pithy way any out of the way fact concerning the deceased. Thus over one stone was found — He was drowuded at sea while, another, over a girl of 14, said — Her death was occasioned bj' her clothes taking fire while ironing. Could the sad story be told more succinctly? In the old hill cemeterj"^ at Athens, where lie the grandparents of General W. it. Shafter, by the w^ay a distant cousin of the writer, was read the follow- ing inscription over the grave of a young man who died when a little past twenty years of age- Sudden Death came hasting on Fore Id arrv'd to twenty-one To take ray soul from Earth away Heaven's decree all must obey. In the old Townsend cemetery, away off on the hillside were found the graves of my great grand- father and his wife, who died away back in the twenties, He was a Revolutionary soldier, serving first with the Minute men and afterwards in the line with old Putnam from (Connecticut. It was a pleasant surprise to his descendants to find the graves in good condition, and with good head stones over them, for they were unlvuown to us until this visit. Among tlie quaint verses read in tliis old Town- send grave yard was this — Come hither mortals cast an eye Then go thy way preparf- to die The time will come & die thou must And then like me be turned to dust. 12 ANCESTOR HUNTING In the same burial place was seen an Inscription which we copy literally— iMau. count thy days, and if Tkey fly too fast for thy dull Thoughts to count, count Every aay thy loss. It is but charitable in such cases to suppose that part of the error at least is to be ascribed to the ignorant stone cutter. As for instance, in the fol- lowing copied from a stone in Pouth Hill cemetery In Jamaica — Death is no more the king of dread Since our Immanuel rose He took the tyrants sting away And sPild our helish foes. Over a mother's remains in the Jamaica church yard the bereft father had carved — Come all mv children that survive <'ome let us mourn together For I have lost a bosom friend And you a ten 'er mother. In the same place a stone over two ittle children read as foUows — Oh yes tis hard to give them o'er And see their forms on earth no more To yield the flowers ere scarce they bloom And hide their beauties in the tomb One more from the same location as the last two and I am done for the present — Yes gone to the grave Is he whom we lov'd And lifeless that frame I hat so manfully moved The olods of the valley Encompass his head The marble reminds us A Husband and Father is dead. ^'-^ ^/ 1903 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 1 009 618 139 5