| THE POWNAL SAGA, con’t.
Since early mi- gration patterns would find whole fami- lies (cousins and such) moving on from one community to another, it is not sur- prising that no less that three Perrigos resided in the small village of Pownal. This is inferred from Petition, dated Feb 11, 1782, from same 20 citizens of Pownal, that they General Assembly of the State of Vermont, procede to build a bridge across the Hoosick river near Seelyes Mills (so called)in Pownal. John Perrigo, first mentioned, and whose military record includes serving in Nathaniel Seelye's militia, signed as well as Nathantel. Both David Perri— go and Rufus, his brother, were also signers. In addition, the other drummer in the battle of Bennington, Sias Pratt Jr, and his father, Wiliam Pratt, were also in on the petition. Needless to say, the petition was not acted upon as there was considerable disaffection be- tween Pownal and the Dutch settlement of Hoosick and the other side of the river. Recalling that mention has been made elsewhere regarding the Perrigos who settled in Willsboro. N.Y., the clan apparently moved en masse when the time came to go. Frederick Perrigo, born in Pownal, in 1765; David and Rufus Per- igo, [21] & [19] - all lived in Wills- boro and had their early children there. It was to take them about 15 years and 110 miles of migrating up the Lake Cham- plain waterway (on its opposite shore) to stake the change. The three Perrigos were never to be further than 25 miles away trom this watervay during their entire lives except when they were in- volved in military service. |
The first church in Pownal was a log building built by Benjamin Gard- ner and his Baptists in 1712 on the Mt. Anthony road. Later his congre- gation was to fall apart when the Rev was involved in some unknown scandal in l775. Part of Gardner’s problem was that, as the only minister in to- wn, he acquired a large number of land grants as a hedge against bad times. It was the newly arrived Meth- odists who challenged the Baptist mo- nopoly and finally dislodged Gardner. "As the Revolution approached, Geo- rge Gardner’s loyalty to the British Crown caused the loss of his power in Pownal. In l774, he purchased lands in Hancock, Mass. and left Pownal. There is a curious connection with the Perrigos in Gardner’s moved to the underlined(ours) Hancock area. Frederic Perrigo [25] traveled to and from Hancock after the war as was the same town when his father David was living with a sizable fami- ly listed under his name in the 1790 census. One wonders whether Rev. Gardner able to peddle some of his land grant to Pownal residents after he lost his welcom, in that factious community. Gardner, it must be added, was a co- operator in regard to his land grants. To cover his tracks, he took along the town records and when he finally ret- urned several pages had been torn out and which were never recovered, The above is as reported in the his tory of the town of Pownal previously sited. We will hear more about the village when we come to the story of the life and times of Frederick Perr- igo [25] |
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THE PERRIGO MEMORANDUMS
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