Vermont AHGP
Part of the American History and
Genealogy Project
Organization of Warren
The town was organized September 20, 17980.
Ezra Miller, moderator; Samuel Laird, first town clerk; Ruel Sherman, Joseph Raymond, Seth Leavett, selectmen; Samuel Laird, John Sherman, Joseph Raymond, listers; Ruel Sherman, collector; John Woodard, grand juryman; and Joseph W. Eldridge was the first representative in 1810.
The first physician was Dr. Fish; the first merchant, Watrous Mather; first lawyer, A. P. Huntoon; and the first tavern-keeper, Amos Rising.
It is quite impossible at the present day to form a just conception of the labor and hardships these earlier settlers encountered, leaving the comforts and conveniences of older towns, and moving with their families into a mountain, wilderness town, and into houses that were insufficient to protect them from the winds of winter, and with but scanty fare for large families; but with untiring zeal they felled the dense forest trees. The grand old maples and hemlocks grouned beneath the woodman's axe, and they soon had sufficient land cleared to raise the grain for their families, and before this was done, they must have made long foot-journeys, or on horseback, to distant towns for grain to Waitsfield, over the Roxbury mountain to Roxbury, and thence to Randolph, some 30 miles distant, and even at times to Windsor, some 65 miles distant, and that by bridle-path and marked trees, fording streams.
Rev. Nathaniel Stearns a Methodist, was the first minister settled in town. Rev. Mr. Wheelock, Congregationalist, was expecting to be settled first, but the Methodists, thinking that the privilege equally belonged to them to settle the first pastor, and thereby to obtain for their minister the right of land by charter to the first clergyman settled, went in the night for Elder Stearns, and installed him first. He was secured a salary of $100 a year, paid in grain.
Warren River Meeting House Society
Warren River Meeting House Society was organized January 19, 1838, and a committee chosen to build the house, 40x50 ft., of fair proportion, finished plain but well; Daniel Ralph built the house.
Rev. E. Scott, M. E., from Montpelier, preached the
dedication sermon, and the M. E. Conference sent ministers here
for several years. The house is a union building, and the
different denominations have had stated times to preach; the
Episcopal Methodist, the 1st Sabbath in every month and every
other 2nd Sabbath; the Universalist the 3rd Sabbath in every
month; the Protestant Methodist, the 4th Sabbath in the first 9
months in the year; the other denominations to occupy the
remainder of the time. The other denominations in this vicinity
are Baptist, Congregationalist, Adventist, Seventh day
Adventist, and Spiritualists. Much of the time no regular
preaching has been sustained in the union meeting house.
Rev. J. Waldron came here in 1871, to preach for a
year, and staid 2 years. He was from St. Lawrence Co., N. Y.,
and was liked very much. Rev. Mr. Burgin, the next pastor, came
from Lincoln, and staid 2 years.
The church at East Warren was built in 1834. It is also a union
building, but the people are mostly Methodists in that vicinity;
and there is a M. E. Church, a branch of the church at
Waitsfield, here. Rev. J. Boyce, from Waitsfield, preached here
half of the time, for there has never been a settled minister
there. I have tried to find the church records, but cannot.
Rev. Joshua Tucker, was born in Salem, Mass., June 14,
1800. In 1826, he married Anna S. Cook, of Chelsea, Mass. He
received his theological education in New Hampshire, and
commenced to preach at the age of 28. In 1830, he was ordained
at Washington, and was pastor of Washington and of Vershire
until 1833, when he removed to Chelsea, but remained pastor of
Washington, Vershire and Williamstown until 1839. He then
removed to Warren, where he preached 2 years. Since then he has
lived at different times in the towns of Lincoln, Washington,
Huntington, Starksboro, Middlesex, Northfield and Hydepark; from
Hydepark he removed for the third time to Starksboro, where he
now resides. He gave up preaching about a year ago from ill
health. He preached the gospel 50 years, had 11 children, 7 now
living; died in Lincoln, aged 78. His wife is now (1881) living
in Starksboro.
Rev. Jairius Eaton, came to this town from Enosburgh,
in 1854, and preached here ever after part of the time, until
his death, Dec. 25, 1861. He was a Wesleyan Methodist.
Joseph W. Eldridge, Esq., born in Stonington, Ct., May
17, 1777, married at Brooklyn, Ct., Jan. 30, 1804, to Betsy
Tyler, daughter of William Tyler, and grand-daughter of Gen.
Putnam. Mr. Eldridge moved into town early; was town clerk 14
years, and the first post master, which office he held 30 years.
He was the first representative from this town to the
legislature, and married the first couple in town. He came into
town himself before he was married, and went back to Connecticut
after his wife. Mrs. Eldridge made her bridal-journey to her new
home in the wilderness of Warren, on horseback.
She was a member of the Congregational church, and an exemplary
Christian. Their door and purse were always open for the benefit
of the gospel. The ministers always found a home with them. He
had nearly lived man's allotted time when he was suddenly
called. He stepped out to speak to a neighbor passing his house,
tripped on a small stick, fell upon his hands and knees, broke a
blood vessel in falling, and lived only 36 hours after; aged 65
years, 1842. Mr. Eldridge's first wife died in 1831; in 1833, he
married Mrs. Deborah Durkee, who died in 1869.
Deacon James Allen, born in Walpole, N. H., May 28,
1787, married Achsah, daughter of David and Effie Young, in
1807, and moved into this town, on the farm now owned by John
Cardell, in 1810. He soon bought the farm now owned by Sylvester
Wheeler. It was a wilderness farm then, and there was only
weather to work out doors, he made spinning-wheels for the wives
and daughters of the settlers a path by marked trees by which he
went to his land to chop. He was a very industrious man, and
when it was not weather to work out doors, he made
spinning-wheels for the wives and daughters of the settlers.
Source: History of Washington County Vermont, Collated and Published by Abby Maria Hemenway, 1882.
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