Channels, Fall 2019

Channels • 2019 • Volume 4 • Number 1 Page 35 Clergymen in both states endorsed Haynes, while parishioners in neighboring towns grew to respect and appreciate him. A young schoolteacher from Granville, Elizabeth Babbit, admired Haynes so much she moved to Torrington in support of his ministry. Babbit, a white woman, demonstrated a disregard for several rules of society when at twenty-one years old she proposed to Haynes, who accepted. They were married on September 22, 1783. The motivations for Babbit to propose sudden marriage are unclear. Besides the passionate romantic love she felt towards Haynes, Babbit proposed in Connecticut to avoid the presence of miscegenation laws in Massachusetts. Babbit relocated from Granville to Torrington, cultivating a union with Haynes, running the household, and providing him further legitimacy as a minister. The young couple then set out on mission to make a new life for themselves in the newly self-proclaimed republic of Vermont. VERMONT: LAND OF DESTINY Vermont originated as a parcel of land grants claimed by New Hampshire and New York. Benning Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire, determined west New Hampshire to be an area of disputed land. Wentworth granted settlers townships in Massachusetts and the Connecticut River valley. Meanwhile, the government of New York counterclaimed the land for King George III, citing a 1764 King’s Order which ruled the New York border “to be the west bank of the Connecticut River.” 14 Their dispute intensified when a militia known as the Green Mountain Boys banded together to defend the land interests of original New Hampshire settlers from New Yorkers. The leader of the Green Mountain Boys, Ethan Allen, recruited likeminded farmers, settlers, traders, and owners who surveyed the New Hampshire Grant and purchased land from New Hampshire for resale. As hostilities grew during the 1770’s between New York “Yorkers” and the Green Mountain Boys, the influences of the American Revolution intensified. The conflict reached fever pitch following the violence in Lexington and Concord, when the Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, whooping and hollering “In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress, surrender the garrison.” Days later Haynes arrived with the Massachusetts militia to capture the garrison’s supply of cannon and powder and remained stationed at the fort for a matter of months. 15 In 1777 Vermont declared independence from New York and Great Britain. The Continental victory resulted in a subsequent population surge into a territory whose motto was “Freedom and Liberty” and which seemed at times to be its own sovereign nation. In 1791, Vermont paid a $30,000settlement to New York over disputed land titles, which admitted her to the Union as the fourteenth state. 16 Haynes made missionary journeys as an itinerant preacher in the late 1780 to rural Vermont, which resulted in a call to ministry. Haynes settled in the town of Rutland to shepherd the West Rutland Congregational Church, which then grew significantly. The people of Vermont formed a republic in 14 Duffy, John J., Samuel B. Hand, and Ralph H. Orth, eds. The Vermont Encyclopedia . New England: University Press of New England, 2003. 9. The Connecticut River flows southward from Vermont through Springfield Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut into the Long Island Sound forming the Connecticut River valley. 15 Cooley, Timothy M. Sketches of the Life and Character of the Rev. Lemuel Haynes. 46. 16 Duffy, John J., Samuel B. Hand, and Ralph H. Orth, eds. The Vermont Encyclopedia . New England: University Press of New England, 2003. 10.