Vermont AHGP

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Fayston, Washington County, Vermont

By Mrs. Laura Brigham Boyce

This township is in the S. W. corner of the County, 20 miles from Montpelier; by north by Duxbury, east by Waitsfield, south by Warren and Lincoln, west by Huntington and Buell's Gore; 6 miles square; land elevated, lying in large swells, except along Mill brook and Shephard's brook, where there is some intervale. Shephard's brook runs through the North part of the town, and empties into Mad River in Waitsfield. It affords ample water power, and several flourishing mills are in operation on its banks.

What's New in Fayston <NEW>

The town was organized Aug. 6, 1805. James Wait was the first town clerk; Thomas Green the first constable; and Lynde Wait, Rufus Barrett and William Williams the first selectmen. August 27, 1805, there was a town meeting called to petition the General Assembly to be set off with other towns from Chittenden County, which was not granted until sometime in 1810 or 1811, when Fayston became a part of Jefferson County.

There was an extensive beaver meadow on this stream, and many of the trees on its banks were partly cut down by these animals. The brook received its name from one Shephard, who used to hunt beavers here.

Mill brook runs through the South part of the town, in an Easterly direction, and empties into Mad River in Waitsfield; this stream has good water-power, and several mills and one tannery are located on it. There is considerable good lumber in town, especially in the more mountainous parts, the most valuable of which is spruce. As many as 7,000 or 8,000 clapboard logs are annually cut in Fayston, besides the common lumber, ash, basswood, etc. There is also a good deal of hemlock, the bark of which is used extensively in tanneries. The spruce and hemlock lumber is a source of profit to the inhabitants. The maple is abundant, and there are many valuable sugar orchards; some have a thousand handsome second growth trees in one body. This adds an item to the income of the farmer, at the prices that have prevailed for maple sugar and syrup of late years.

The soil is strong and fertile, though not as, easily tilled as a more sandy loam. These fertile upland farms are well adapted to dairying, as the sweetest grass is found here, and water as pure and soft as ever drank, two indispensable requisites for the dairy. Dairying is the chief source of in-come of a greater part of the inhabitants, though wheat and oats are raised here in abundance, but potatoes more especially. Corn is often a remunerative crop; but not so sure as on the intervales.

Fayston was granted Feb. 25, and chartered Feb. 27, 1782, to Ebenezer Walbridge and his associates. It was first settled by Lynde Wait in 1798. In 1800, there were 18 persons in town.

Lucia Wait, daughter of Lynde Wait, better known as Squire Wait, was born in 1801, the first child born in town; subsequently, Wait Farr, a son of William Farr, was born, and received a lot of land from Griswold Wait, as being the first male child born in town. From which we see in those primitive days the weaker were oppressed by the stronger, as they are still. There was no orthodox reason why Lucia Wait should not have had that lot of land as her birthright, except that she wasn't a boy.

The town was organized August 6, 1805. James Wait was the first town clerk; Thomas Green the first constable; and Lynde Wait, Rufus Barrett and William Williams the first selectmen. Aug. 27, 1805, there was a town meeting called to petition the General Assembly to be set off with other towns from Chittenden County, which was not granted until sometime in 1810 or 181 1, when Fayston became a part of Jefferson County.

The first highways were surveyed in 1807, by Edmund Rice, surveyor. The first school district was organized in 1809, and consisted of the whole town, but subsequently, in 1 8 10, we believe, it was di-vided into two districts. The first tax levied on the grand list was in 1807, which was 5 cents on a dollar, to be worked out on the highway. The first tax levied on the grand list to be paid in money was in 1810. It was 1 cent on a dollar, and we have no doubt was as hard for these people as were the excessive taxes during the war for their descendants. The taxes levied on the grand list in Fayston during the war in one year were $10.79 on a dollar of the grand list, making a poll tax of $21.58, and school and highway taxes besides, which must have made another dollar. This was in 1864. There were several other bounty taxes raised during the war, but this was the heaviest. Fayston paid her war debt as she went along, and can show a clean record. In 1812, the town voted to raise 1 cent on a dollar for the support of schools, which was to be paid to the town treasurer in grain. At this time there were 25 children in district No. 1, between the ages of 4 and 18.

In March, 1809, William Newcomb, William Rogers and Marjena Gardener were elected "hog ho wards," an office now obsolete, and exactly what its duties were, even then, we are unable to learn. But it was an old-time custom to elect newly-married men to that notable office, which might have been no sinecure after all, as the swine in those days all ran where they listed, and unless they were much less vicious than their modern descendants, it must have needed three "hog constables" to a town to have kept them in order.

In April, 1808, William and Paul Boyce, two Quakers, emigrated from Richmond, New Hampshire, and settled near beaver meadow, on Shephard's brook. This was the first opening in what is now called North Fayston. There is a little romance connected with this same William Boyce. It seems that William's susceptible heart had been touched by one Irene Ballou, a Quaker maiden of his native place, and when he had made a beginning on his new home in the woods he began to be lonely, and feel the need of a helpmate to wash his wooden plates and pewter porringer, and also to assist him in picking up brush, planting potatoes, and several other things wherein the good wives made themselves useful in "the olden time," being then truly helpmates for men, instead of help spends, as many of the more modern wives are. So William journeyed to Richmond to claim his bride. He tarried long, and when he returned it was not the gentle Irene who accompanied him. Whether he met with a fairer Quakerness than she, and lost his heart with her against his will, or whether Irene was averse to going into the new country, among the bears and wolves, tradition saith not, but that it was not the latter reason we may infer from her farewell to him: " William, I wish thee well, I hope the Lord will bless thee, but I know He wont." Says one of his descendants: "I think He didn't, for he was always in some sort of trouble or other." Let the fate of William be a warning to all young Quakers, as well as those who quake not at all, to always keep their promises.

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Source: History of Washington County Vermont, Collated and Published by Abby Maria Hemenway, 1882.

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