and thrift. His advantages at school in the flourishing village of Middletown must have been exceptionally good; he early learned to write in an even, correct and handsome hand, which he retained for nearly three-quarters of a century; his school book on Navigation is before me.

More attention was paid to a correct and handsome chirography, at that time, the boyhood of Washington, Jefferson, Sherman and Putnam, than at a later day when a larger range of studies had been introduced. “The Young Secretary’s Guide,” a volume of model letters, business forms, etc., is preserved; it bears on the first leaf “Timothy Boardman, his Book, A.D. 1765.” The hand is copy-like, and very handsome, and extraordinary if it is his, as it seems to be; though he was then but eleven years old. A large manuscript volume of Examples in Navigation, obviously in his handwriting, doubtless made in his youth, is also before me. The writing and diagrams are like copper-plate. No descendant of his, so far as known to the writer could have exceeded it in neatness and skill. In his early boyhood the French and Indian war filled the public mind with excitement; reports of the exploits of Col. Israel Putnam were circulated, as they occurred. The conquest of Canada under Gen. Wolf filled the colonies with pride and patriotism. But already disaffection between the mother country and the colonies had arisen. Resistance to the tea tax and other offensive measures were discussed at every fireside. The writer before he was seven years old caught from the author of the Log-Book, then over eighty, something of the indignant feeling toward England which the latter had acquired at the very time when the tea was thrown overboard into Boston harbor. Timothy Boardman was ripe for participation in armed resistance when the war came. He was just twenty-one as the first blood was shed at Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775. Putnam who had left his plow in the furrow, was with his Connecticut soldiers, in action, if not in chief command at Bunker hill. Timothy Boardman joined the army which invested Boston, under Washington in the winter of 1775-1776. He was stationed, doubtless with a Connecticut regiment, on Dorchester Heights, now South Boston.

After completing this service, in the great uprising of the people to oppose the southward progress of Burgoyne, he was called out and marched toward Saratoga, but the surrender took place before his regiment arrived. With his father he had worked at finishing houses, and the inside of vessels built on the Connecticut river, on which Middletown is situated. In the winter he was employed largely in cabinet work, in the shop; I have the chest which he made and used on the Oliver Cromwell.

Congress early adopted the policy of sending out privateers or armed vessels to capture British merchant vessels. These vessels became prizes for the captors. The Oliver Cromwell was chartered by Connecticut, with letters of marque and reprisal from the United States. Captain Parker was in command. The Defence accompanied the Oliver Cromwell; they sailed from New London; Timothy Boardman then twenty-four years of age enlisted and went on board; he commenced keeping the Log-Book April 11, 1778; he seems to have been head carpenter on board the ship, and to have had severe labors. His assistants appear to have deserted him before the close of the voyage. It was his duty to make any needful repairs after a storm, or in an engagement and to perform any such service necessary even at the time of greatest danger. In a terrific storm it was decided to cut away the mast. His hat fell from his head, but he scarcely felt it worth while to pick it up, as all were liable so soon to go to the bottom. In action, his place was below deck, to be in readiness with his tools and material to stop instantly, if possible, any leak caused by the enemies’ shot. At one time the rigging above him was torn and fell upon him, some were killed; blood spattered over him, and it was shouted “Boardman is killed.” He, however, and another man on board, a Mr. Post, father of the late Alpha Post of Rutland, were spared to make their homes for half a century among the peaceful hills of Vermont.

In the following year 1779, he seems to have sailed down the Atlantic coast on an American merchant vessel. He was captured off Charleston, S. Carolina, by the British, but after a few days’ detention, on board his Majesty’s vessel, it was thought cheaper to send the prisoners on shore than to feed them, and he and his companions were given a boat and set at liberty. They reached Charleston in safety. The city was under martial law, and the new-comers were for about six weeks put upon garrison duty. About this time Lord Cornwallis was gaining signal advantages in that vicinity, while Gen. Gates, who had received the surrender of Burgoyne, three years before, was badly defeated. After completing this service the author of the Log-Book, started to walk home to Connecticut. He proceeded on foot to North Carolina, where Andrew Jackson was, then a poor boy of twelve years. Jackson’s father, a young Irish emigrant died within two years after entering those forests, and his widow soon to become the mother of a President, was “hauled” through their clearing, from their deserted shanty, to his grave, among the stumps, in the same lumber wagon with the corpse of her husband. He had been dead twelve years when the pilgrim from Connecticut passed that way. Overcome, probably by fatigue and by malaria, his progress was arrested in North Carolina by fever, and he lay sick all winter among strangers.

In the spring of 1780, unable probably, to proceed on foot, he embarked from some port, on a merchant ship bound for St. Eustatia, a Dutch island, in the West Indies. He was again captured and taken prisoner by the British.

He was, however, transferred to a British merchant vessel on which he rendered a little service by way of commutation, when he was set at liberty on St. Eustatia. The island has an area of 189 square miles, population 13,700; latitude 17°, 30', North. Climate generally healthy, but with terrific hurricanes and earthquakes, soil very fertile and highly cultivated by the thrifty Hollanders, with slave labor. It has belonged successively to the Spanish, French, English and Dutch. Having been enfeebled by his fever of the winter before, Timothy Boardman now twenty-six years old, worked for several months at his trade with good wages. I have heard him say that there the tropical sun shone directly down the chimney. He used to relate also, how fat the young negroes would become in sugaring time, when the sweets of the canefield flowed as freely as water. He returned home to Connecticut probably late in the year 1780. Vermont was then the open field for emigration. It was rapidly receiving settlers from Connecticut. I have no knowledge that he ever made any account of the immense tract in Maine, purchased and held by deeds, still on record at York, Me., by his grandfather, and in which he, as the oldest grandson, born a few days after his grandfather’s death and named for him, might have been expected to be interested.

He was now twenty-seven. A large family of younger children had long occupied his father’s house. He sought a home of his own. His younger brothers Elisha and Oliver were married and settled before him. He seems to have inherited something of the ancestral enterprise of the Puritans, “hankering for new land.” All his brothers and sisters settled in Connecticut, but he made his way in 1781 to Vermont. For a year 1781-1782, he worked at his trade in Bennington. During this time, he purchased a farm in Addison, it is supposed of Ira Allen, a brother of the redoubtable Ethan