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Around And About Addison County-Whiting

Tuesday September 9, 2008

By M. Stuart Parks

   Whiting is one of the southern most towns in Addison County.  It is bounded on the north by Cornwall, on the west by Shoreham and Orwell, on the east by Salisbury and Leicester and on the south by Sudbury which is in Rutland County.  It was chartered by Governor Wentworth of New Hampshire on August 6, 1763 to forty-eight grantees.  Five of those grantees were named Whiting, giving the town its name.  Most of the grantees had little interest in settling in the town but were, in fact, land speculators which eventually caused trouble between the grantees and the settlers.  

    The first recorded proprietors meeting was held in Wrentham, Massachusetts on October 6, 1772 where it was voted that one half of the forty-eight divisions of the town would be given to the first fifteen who came to settle the land.  However, in order to actually get ownership of the land those fifteen had to get thirty-three others to locate in the town within five years.  John Wilson was appointed to find the first fifteen settlers and it appears that he had no difficulty in accomplishing that goal.  The second proprietors' meeting was held in Pittsford, Vermont on May 27, 1783.  Elihu Smith was chosen to be the moderator and everyone was required to show the clerk his deed or power of attorney in order to be able to vote.  At this meeting however, the proprietors claimed that John Wilson had not met his obligation and had forfeited the right to his land title.  The settlers came to the defense of Wilson and accused the proprietors of wanting to divide the town in a fashion that favored them.  Quoting the settlers at that meeting:  “Now we want to know what business a parsel of land jockeys have to lay out and chequer a town that has been settled and incorporated these seven years.  Now, in the name and behalf of the inhabitants of the town of Whiting, who are legally settled and lawfully possessed of same, we strictly forbid and publickly protest against your proceedings.”  The proprietors backed off and this appeared to settle the dispute.

    At the meeting of June 8, 1784 another vexing issue arose.  Encroachments were being made on the town's boundaries.  Claims were made by Leicester, Cornwall and Salisbury causing Whiting's acreage to shrink from over 14,000 acres to about 7,000 acres.  A considerable portion of the lost land is now known as Cornwall Swamp.  The proprietors, unhappy about the turn of events and wanting to keep control of the best land, moved the public lots (reserved for schools, government, etc.) into the remaining swamp land.  Over time, however, that land became valuable for the timber that was allowed to grow undisturbed.

    In 1783 the following men and their families had settled in the town:  John Willson, Aaron Persons, John Smith, Jeremiah Parker, Jehial Hull, Ezra Allen, Ebenezer  Wheelock, Jonathan Cormick, Charles Brewster, Joseph Williams, Jeremiah Williams, Captain Benjamin House, Aaron Holbrook, Alfred Hathaway, David Fisher, Preserved Hall, Jonathan Cook, Benjamin Andrus, E. Brown and a Mr. Adams.  It is estimated that by 1788 there were about fifty families in town and approximately 250 people.  By 1800 the population had increased to 404 and in 1806 the Grand List had reached the princely sum of $7,688.00.  The United States census of 2000 reports a population of 380 people.

    Whiting was home to Major Samuel Beach who, although born in New Jersey, came to Vermont before the Revolution.  He was the Whiting's first representative to the Legislature, first surveyor and first delegate to the Constitutional Convention.  Just before the taking of Fort Ticonderoga he was in Castleton with Ethan Allen when he was sent by Allen to rally the Green Mountain Boys.  He started on his mission at daylight, from Castleton to Rutland, Pittsford, Brandon, Leicester, Salisbury, Middlebury and then to Cornwall, Whiting and Shoreham, a distance of 64 miles in one day.  At first light on the following day he entered Fort Ticonderoga at the side of Ethan Allen.  Throughout the remainder of the war he served as a recruiter and in other capacities.  He was eventually awarded a military pension of forty dollars a month. He died on April 10, 1829 at the age of seventy-seven and is buried in the village church-yard.

    Even though Whiting has always been a purely agricultural town it has provided
more than its share of memorable people to Vermont and other places.  Captain Joel Foster served in the Legislature from 1797 to 1800.  Apart from his military service he is remembered historically as “a man of commanding talents and extensive reading for those early times.  He was full of the milk of human kindness.”  Both A.G. Flagg and Asher Nichols became comptrollers of the State of New York while Aaron Clark became an early mayor of New York City.

    Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote “Little House on the Prairie”, is a name most of us are familiar with.  Her grandmother, Laura Louisa Colby, was born in Whiting on November 5, 1810.  Laura Colby married Lansford Ingalls and moved with him to Wisconsin where she died in 1883.

    This early history of Whiting, Vermont provides a glimpse into a small town with a large amount of character.          

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