Tart III. 



GAZETTEER OF VERMONT. 



145 



wheat, 1,072; Ind. corn, 11,147; pota- 

 toes, 28,21.5 ; hay, tons, 3,lG4 ; sugar, lbs. 

 G,087 ; wool, 22,3G7. Fopulation, 1,613. 

 Putney, a post town in the eastern part 

 of Windham county, i.s in lat. 42° 5;)' and 

 long. 4° 28', and i.s bounded north by 

 Westminster, east by Connecticut river, 

 which separates it from Westmoreland, 

 N. H., south by Dnmmerston, and west 

 by Brookline. It lies 10 miles north from 

 Massachusetts line, and 33 south from 

 Windsor. It was chartered by N. Hamp- 

 shire Dec. 26, 1753, to Col. Josiah VVil- 

 lard, and rechartered by New York Nov. 

 6, 1766, and now contains 18,115 acres. 

 A settlement was commenced and a fort 

 built on the " Great Meadow," so called, 

 in the eastern part of the town, a little 

 previous to the breaking out of the French 

 war in 1744 ; but on the connnencement 

 of hostilities, the fort was evacuated, and 

 the inhabitants, together with those from 

 adjacent towns, retired to Northfield, Ms., 

 which was the frontier post during that 

 war. One circumstance took place, how- 

 ever, previous to the breaking up of tlie 

 fort, which undoubtedly hastened that 

 event, whicli was as follows : — A man by 

 the name of William Phipps was hoeing 

 corn on tlie 5th of July, 1745, near the 

 southwest corner of the meadow, when 

 two Indians sprang upon him, and drag- 

 ged him into the woods near by. Here, 

 after a short parley, one of the Indians 

 departed, leaving tiie prisoner under the 

 care of liis comrade. Phipps, with the 

 liardihood characteristic of the pioneers 

 in these wilds, watching an opportunity, 

 struck his keeper down with his hoe, and 

 seizing his gun, gave the other, who was 

 returning, a fatal wound. Thus at liber- 

 ty again, he sought refuge in the fort ; 

 but, unfortunately, before he reached it, 

 he fell in with throe other Indians, who 

 butchered tlie brave fellow in cold blood. 

 Five days after this event the Indians 

 made an attack upon Upper Ashuelot, 

 (Keene, N. H.) and killed and scalped Jo- 

 siah Fisher. Shortly after, Neliemiah 

 Howe, as he was cutting timber on the 

 " Meadow," was captured by the Indians 

 and carried to Canada, where he died. In 

 1754 the first permanent settlement was 

 made in town, by John Perry, Philip Al- 

 exander, and Michael Gilson, emigrants 

 from Massachusetts. They located them- 

 selves on the Great meadow, as their ])re- 

 decessors had done, and in the year fol- 

 lowing, 1755, in company with others 

 lately arrived, built a fort on the site of 

 the house now occupied by Col. Thomas 

 White. (This fort was 120 feet long by 

 80 wide, and was built of yellow pine tim- 

 ber, hewed six iH«hes thick and laid up 



Pt. III. 19 



about 16 feet high, — the houses were built 

 against the wall, with a roof slanting up, 

 (called a salt-box roof,) to the top of the 

 wall, the wall of the fort making the back 

 wall of the house, and the houses all 

 fronting the hollow square in the centre 

 of the fort. It wa.s garrisoned by troops 

 from New Hampshire until abont 1760.) 

 The first settlement on Sackett's brook, 

 or what is now called Putney street, was 

 made by Joshua Parker, in 1764. The 

 town was organized, and the first town 

 oflicers chosen. May 8, 1770. Noah Sa- 

 bin was first town clerk. The religious de- 

 nominations are Congregationalists, Bap- 

 tists, Methodists, and Universalists. The 

 Congregational church was organized 

 Oct. 17, 1776, at which time they settled 

 the Rev. Josiah Goodhue, who died Nov. 

 14, 1797. His successors have been Rev. 

 Jairus Remington, from Feb. 12, 180U, to 

 Feb. 1.5, 1803 ; Rev. Elisha D. Andrews, 

 from June 25, 1807, to May 27, 1820 ; 

 Rev. B. H. Pitman, March 3, 1830, to 

 Nov. 1, 1832. Rev. Amos Foster, the 

 present minister, was settled Feb. 13, 

 1833. Their first meeting house was built 

 in 1773; their present house in 1808. 

 The Baptist church was organized in 1786. 

 The ministers have been the Rev. Messrs. 

 Jonathan Wilson, Lewis Allen, Ziba How- 

 ard, and Ferris Moore. Their present 

 meeting house was built in 1830. The 

 Methodist church was organized in July, 

 1,^28. The ministers have been the Rev. 

 Messrs. Justin Spalding, Jona. Hazeltine, 

 C. D. Cahoon, and John S. Smith. Meet- 

 ing house built in 1832. The Universal- 

 ist society was formed in 1833. The town' 

 has generally been healthy. The d^'senr- 

 tery prevailed here in 1775, and the epi- 

 demic of 1813 was very mortal. There 

 were 38 deaths by the latter between the 

 'Jth of Jan. and the 13lh of April. On 

 the 19th of August, 1788, a violent tem- 

 pest prostrated a great part of the forest 

 trees here. In 1770 the town was over- 

 run by immense swarms of worms, which, 

 like the swarms of Egypt, ate up every 

 green thing; also to a limited extent in 

 1823 and 4. The bottom lands on the riv- 

 er and Sacket's brook, in this town, are 

 rich alluvial tracts, and amply repay the 

 toil of the husbandman by tlieir abundant 

 crops. The "great meadow," with its 

 waving fields of corn and luxuriant vege- 

 tation, on a summer day affords a treat to 

 the lover of nature rarely equalled. The 

 uplands are mostly of a rich, strong soil, 

 and well adapted to grazing and the pro- 

 duction of the hardier kinds of grain. 

 The lowest meadow lands, when the coun- 

 try was new, were covered with a tangled 

 growth of butternut, elm, soft maple, and 



