14 



GAZETTEER OF VERMONT. 



Part IIL 



BENNINGTON. 



BENNINGTON. 



sachusetts. Samuel Robinson, of Hard- 

 wick, Massachusetts, who had been a 

 captain daring the French war, on his 

 return from Lake George to Hoosic 

 forts, while proceeding up Hoosic riv- 

 er, mistook the Walloomscoik for that 

 stream, and followed it up to the tract of 

 country now Bennington. Here he and 

 liis companions, finding they had lost their 

 way, encamped over night, and in the 

 morning changed their course and pursu- 

 ed their way to the forts. Capt. Robin- 

 son was much pleased with the country, 

 and returned to liis family with a deter- 

 mination to begin a settlement upon it. 

 He accordingly repaired to New Hamp- 

 shire, made purchases of a considerable 

 portion of the rights and then sought for 

 settlers. The firstemigration to the town 

 consisted of the families of Peter Har- 

 wood, Eleazer Harwood, Leonard Rob- 

 inson, and Samuel Robinson, jr., from 

 Hardwick, and of Samuel Pratt and Tim- 

 othy Pratt, from Amherst. The party 

 including women and children number- 

 ed about twenty. They came on horse- 

 back across the mountain by the Hoosic 

 forts and through Pownal, bringing on 

 their horses all their household goods, 

 and arrived in town the 18th of June, 

 176L Benjamin Harwood, a most esti- 

 mable man, now living in Bennington, 

 son of Peter Harwood, was the first per- 

 son born in town, Jan. 12, 1762. During 

 the fall of 176), other families to the 

 number of thirty or forty came into town, 

 among whom were those of Samuel Rob- 

 inson, sen. James Breakenridge, John 

 Fassett, Eleazer Wood, Elisha Field, Sam- 

 uel and Oliver Scott, Joseph SalFord, John 

 Smith, Joseph Wickwire, Samuel Mon- 

 tague, and Samuel Atwood. The fami- 

 lies of Clark, Fay, Hubbell, Henderson, 

 Walbridge, Dewey, Warner and Harmon, 

 were early settlers, but are believed not 

 to have arrived in town the first year. 

 The first settlers of Bennington encoun- 

 tered the usual dangers and privations at- 

 tendant at that early period on the pio- 

 neers of a new country. It is related that 

 many of the eminfrants arrived late in the 

 fall, and that but for the uncommon mild- 

 ness of the season, which seemed Provi- 

 dentially to postpone the setting in of 

 winter to an unusually late period, their 

 preparations for it could not have been 

 completed, and e.xtreme suffering must 

 liave been the consequence. 



The first town meeting was held March 

 31, 17G2. Samuel Montague was chosen 

 moderator, and it was then voted that 

 " every inhabitant and free-holder should 

 have free liberty to vote in said meeting." 

 The meeting proceeded to chaose town 



officers, which consisted of a town clerk, 

 five select men, a town treasurer, two 

 constables, two tything men, two hay- 

 wards, two fence viewers, and two deer- 

 rifts. Moses Robinson was the first town 

 clerk. Capt. Samuel Robinson had been 

 appointed a justice of the peace by the 

 governor of New Hampshire ; thus the 

 little community became an organized 

 government, acknowledging the authori- 

 ty of New Hampshire; though from their 

 distant and isolated situation, the settlers 

 were in a great measure independent of 

 all government, but that which they 

 chose to impose on themselves. Much of 

 the most important public business of the 

 settlers, for two or three of the first years, 

 seems to have been taken under the ju- 

 risdiction of the proprietors of the town, 

 who held separate meetings from the in- 

 habitants. The first proprietors meet- 

 ing, of which a record has been preserv- 

 ed, was held the 1 1th of February 1762, at 

 which meeting a committee was appoint- 

 ed " to look out a place for a meeting 

 house;" and on the 26th of the same 

 month the committee reported, and the site 

 was ao-reed upon. The house was built 

 partly by individual contributions and 

 partly by a ta.x on the proprietors, and 

 was erected and occupied about the j'ear 

 1764, though it was not entirely finished 

 until several years afterwards. It was 

 a wooden building, without a steeple, and 

 stood on the "town plot," between the 

 site of the present house and Hick's ho- 

 tel, the road passing both sides of it. It 

 was taken down about the year 1804, af- 

 ter the present house was finished. The 

 subject of schools also received the early 

 attention of the proprietors, who, in Jan. 

 1763, voted a tax for building a school 

 house, and the following April the inhab- 

 itants in town meeting voted a tax to sup- 

 port schools " in three parts of the town." 



The settlers suffered great inconven- 

 ience from the want of roads and bridges, 

 and also for the want of mills. To over- 

 come these difficulties the proprietors and 

 inhabitants taxed themselves freely, both 

 in labor and money. Roads were opened 

 to different parts of the town, and bridg- 

 es built where necessary. Samuel Robin- 

 son and Joseph Safford, had built "the Saf- 

 ford mills," a grist mill and saw mill, in the 

 east part of the town by the first of Sept., 

 1762, for which they received a bounty of 

 forty dollars for each mill, the bounty 

 having been previously promised by vote 

 of the proprietors. A bounty of forty 

 dollars was also given for erecting a saw 

 mill "on the west side of the town." 



On the 2d of December, 1762, a church 

 was organized, w^hich, by vote on the 



