mong the Green Mountains. Having put his hand to the plow, he did
not turn back. He did not perhaps like to have his Connecticut kindred
and friends think he had failed in what he had undertaken. He had saved
a good portion of his wages for six or seven years. He had received, as
the most faithful man in the crew, a double share in the prizes taken by
the _Oliver Cromwell_. He had perhaps received some aid from his father.
Though he had paid for and lost one unimproved farm, he was able to buy,
and did purchase another. He came to Rutland, Vt., in 1782 and bought
one hundred acres of heavily timbered land from the estate of Rev.
Benajah Roots, whose blood has long flowed in the same veins, with his
own. He perhaps thought that if he bought of a minister, he would get a
good title. He may have known Mr. Roots, at least by reputation, in
Connecticut, for he had been settled at Simsbury, Ct., before coming to
a home missionary field in Rutland. The owner of the land was in doubt
whether to sell it.

The would-be purchaser had brought the specie with which to buy it, in a
strong linen bag, still it is supposed preserved in the family, near the
same spot. "Bring in your money," said a friend, "and throw it down on a
table, so that it will jingle well." The device was successful, the
joyful sound, where silver was so scarce, brought the desired effect.
The deed was soon secured, for the land which he owned for nearly sixty
years.

A clearing was soon made on this land at a point which lies about
one-half mile south of Centre Rutland, and a-half mile west of Otter
creek on the slope of a high hill. It was then expected that Centre
Rutland would be the capital of Vermont. In 1783, he erected amid the
deep forests, broken only here and there by small clearings, a small
framed house. He never occupied a log-house; as he was himself a
skillful carpenter, house-joiner and cabinet maker and had been reared
in a large village, a city, just as he left it, his taste did not allow
him to dispense with so many of the comforts of his earlier life as many
were compelled to relinquish.

He returned to Middletown, and was married, Sept. 28th, 1783, to Mary,
the eighth child and fifth daughter of Capt. Samuel Ward of Middletown,
who had twelve children. The Ward family were of equal standing with his
own. The newly married couple were each a helpmeet unto the other, and
had probably known each other from early life in the same church and
p