Part III. 



GAZETTEER OF VERMONT. 



Ill 



MARLBOROUGH. 



MARLBOROUGH. 



down, and a commodious town house erec- 

 ted. There is also a respectable Baptist 

 church and society, partly in this town 

 and partly in Newl'ane. A Baptist meet- 

 ing house was built here in ISI.5. Rev. 

 Phinehas Howe is their pastor. The Uni- 

 versalists convene at the town house, and 

 have preaching some part of the time, from 

 ministers abroad. Centre mountain is a 

 considerable elevation, and is so called on 

 account of its being situated near the cen- 

 tre of the township. Allen's pond in the 

 northeast part of the town, is about l.J 

 mile long and three quarters of a mile 

 wide. South pond, in the south part, is 

 about the same size. It is watered by the 

 west branch of West river. Whetstone 

 brook, and Green river, which rise Jiere 

 and afford several valuable mill seats. 

 The only mill privilege whicii is perma- 

 nent through the 3'ear, is on the outlet of 

 South pond. On this stream is situated 

 the fulling mill and carding machine own- 

 ed by Dan Mather, Esq., also the mill 

 for manufacturing starch,owned by Messrs 

 Cotton and Dan Mather, Esqrs. The soil 

 is, in genera], rich and deep, and produ- 

 ces good crops of grass, rye, corn, wheat, 

 oats, barley, flax, potatoes, apples, pears, 

 jilums, and various wild fruits. In 1838 

 the females formed themselves into an 

 association for the purpose of making clo- 

 thing to send to foreign nations, and in 

 1840 they also formed themselves togeth- 

 er and purchased a libraiy, for the purpose 

 of improving their minds b}'^ reading mor- 

 al and religious books. Each of said soci- 

 eties succeeded very well, and probably 

 much good will arise therefrom. The tim- 

 ber is beech, birch, maple, bass, spruce, 

 oak, hemlock, pine, fir, ash, and cherry. 

 The minerals are sulphur, serpentine, gar- 

 nets, steatite of different varieties, clay, 

 sulphuret of iron, and sulphuret of cop- 

 per. There are some springs impregna- 

 ted with sulphur and iron. Sometime 

 since there was a stone dug out of the 

 earth in the south part of the town, in the 

 shape and form of a tapping iron, which 

 is supposed was dropped by the Indians 

 when the town was nothing but a wilder- 

 ness, and before it was inhabited by white 

 people. During the year 1780 the inhab- 

 itants, in this vicinity, were in continual 

 apprehension of a hostile visit from the 

 Indians and tories, and meetings were 

 held to concert measures for the common 

 safety, whereupon it was agreed that ev- 

 ery able bodied man should hold himself 

 in constant readiness to defend the settle- 

 ments. -On the eve of the last day of Oc- 

 tober, in the same year, after a clear and 

 pleasant day, a violent snow storm com- 

 menced, and this evening Mr. Stockwell, 



of this town, received a letter from Col. 

 Sargeant, of Brattleboro', calling upon 

 the inhabitants to defend themselves a- 

 gainst thelndiansand tories, whohad reach- 

 ed Newfane.* Chs. Phelps, a lawyer from 

 Hadley, Mass., moved into town in 1764, 

 and his was the third family here. Durmg 

 the controversy with New York, his son 

 Timothy was high sheriff of the county of 

 Cumberland. About the year 1768, two 

 young women, of Irish descent, by the 

 name of McLaughlin, came to this town, 

 and resided v/ith Mr. W. Clark. In the 

 fall of the same year one of them went 

 out towards evening, after the cow, and 

 was probably lost, and perished in the 

 woods, or devoured by wild beasts, as she 

 never was afterwards heard of. In 1769 

 and '70, Col. Wm. Williams, who distin- 

 guished himself in the Bennington battle, 

 moved from Northboro', Mass., accompa- 

 nied by Capt. Nathaniel Whitney and his 

 two brothers, Samuel and Jonas, from 

 Shrewsbury, Mass. The latter has been 

 a representative of the town in the gen- 

 eral assembly seven years, 32 years 

 a justice of the peace and 47 years a dea- 

 con of tiie church, and now resides in 

 the state of Ohio. In 1770, the settle- 

 ment was considerably augmented by 

 emigrants from Massachusetts and Con- 

 necticut, and about this time meetings 

 were established for religious worship, but 

 they had no preaching in town for sev- 

 eral years. In 1771 the Rev. Abner 

 Reeve, of Brattleboro', married the first 

 couple (Perez Stockwell and Dinah Fay) 

 in this town. James Ball died here in 

 December, 1762, aged 26. This was the 

 first death known to occur in town. The 

 same year. Col. Williams erected a saw 

 mill, which was the first mill built in 

 town. Capt. Nathaniel Whitney was a 

 celebrated hunter. In 1773 he killed a 

 bear, a little west of this township, which 

 weighed, after being well dressed, 466 

 pounds. Of bears and deer, Capt. Whit- 

 ney killed more than 100 of each. He 

 also killed one moose and 14 wolves. 

 Rev. Abner Reeve preached the first ser- 

 mon ever preached in town in 1774, from 

 Markxvi. 1.5. The first physician in town 

 was Samuel King. The following are 

 those who have since practised here, viz: 

 Docts. Morgan, Wood, Torrey, Baldwin, 

 Percival, Taylor, Greenleaf, Ransom, 

 Smith, Pulsipher, and Ebenezer Tucker. 

 The latter has practised in town for more 

 than 20 years, and has had great success. 

 A stage runs through this town daily 



* For the particulars respccling this alarm, see 

 Part 2d, p. 70, anil also article, Alliens, Part third- 

 There is a discrepancy in the dates, but both undoubt- 

 edly have reference to the same event. 



