History of Benson, (Rutland County) Vermont United States of America

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Biographies:

Stephen Wallace Dorsey, senator, was born at Benson, Vt., Feb. 28, 1842. He received limited school training and at an early age removed to Oberlin, Ohio, where he worked as a machinist and was subsequently employed by the Sandusky tool company. He was one of the first to join the U.S. volunteer army and served at Shiloh, Perryville, Stone's River, Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. He was transferred to the army of the Potomac in 1864 and he took part in battles of the Wilderness and Cold Harbor. On being mustered out at the close of the war he returned to the Sandusky tool company, of which he was subsequently elected president, and also president of the Arkansas Central railroad. He removed to Arkansas, where be became actively interested in politics. He was chairman of the Republican state committee and was offered the nomination as representative to congress from the 1st district, which he declined. He was elected almost unanimously to the United States senate by a combination of the Republicans and Democrats, and served 1873-79. He became interested in railroad and stock raising ventures in New Mexico and acquired great wealth. In 1880 he was made secretary of the Republican national committee and directed the campaign of Garfield and Arthur. He was given a princely banquet in New York city by his political friends in February, 1881. Soon afterward he was accused of complicity in the Star route scandal, made public that year, and the grand jury of Washington, D.C., indicted him, but his sudden disappearance made his arrest impossible for several months. When he finally appeared in court and was put upon trial the jury disagreed and on a second trial gave a verdict of "not guilty as indicted." He came out of the contest broken in fortune and in health.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Rufus Wilmot Griswold, author, was born in Benson, Vt., Feb. 15, 1815; son of Rufus and Deborah (Waas) Griswold, who came from Connecticut to Vermont, settled first in Orwell, then in Benson and in 1818 in Hubbardton. His mother was a native of Martha's Vineyard, and descended from Governor Mayhew, 1642. He travelled extensively in the United States and Europe, and became a printer, afterward a Baptist clergyman, and finally a journalist and author. He was editor-in-chief of Graham's Magazine, Philadelphia, 1842-43, and was later on the editorial staff of various papers in Boston and New York city, including the New Yorker, the New World and Brother Jonathan, and edited the International Magazine, New York city, 1850-52. He published a volume of poems and a volume of sermons (1841); Poets and Poetry of America (1842); Biographical Annual (1842); Christian Ballads and other Poems (1844); The Present Condition of Philosophy (1844); Poets and Poetry of England in the Nineteenth Century (1845); Prose Writers of America (1847, 2d ed., 1853); in collaboration with others Washington and the Generals of the Revolution (2 vols., 1847); Curiosities of American Literature (1847); Female Poets of America (1848); Sacred Poets of England and America (1849); The Republican Court (1855). He also brought out the first edition of Milton's prose works in America and as the literary executor of Edgar Allan Poe, he published in 1850 three volumes of that poet's essays and poems with a biographical sketch. He was twice married: first to Catherine Searles who died in 1842, and secondly, Aug. 20, 1845, to Charlotte Myers of Charleston, S.C. He died in New York city, Aug. 27, 1857.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Robert Everett Pattison, educator, was born in Benson, Vt., Aug. 19, 1800; son of the Rev. William and Sarah (Everett) Pattison; grandson of Capt. Robert and Elizabeth (Cochrane) Pattison and of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Warren) Everett. Capt. Robert Pattison and his wife were both Scotch, but living in the north of Ireland, whence they immigrated to America, and settled in Vermont. Their son, the Rev. William Pattison, was the first male child born in Halifax, Vt. Robert Everett Pattison graduated from Amherst A.B., 1826, A.M., 1829; was tutor at Columbian college, Washington, D.C., 1826-27; professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Waterville college, Maine (which institution became Colby university, Jan. 23, 1867), 1827-29; pastor at Salem, Mass., and Providence, R.I., 1829-36; president and professor of intellectual and moral philosophy, Waterville college, 1836-39; pastor at St. Louis, Mo., 1840-41, and at Providence, R.I., 1841-42; secretary of the Baptist Missionary Union, 1842-45; president of the Western Baptist Theological institute, Covington, Ky., 1845-48; professor of Christian Theology at the Newton Theological institution, 1848-54; again president of Waterville college, 1854-57; proprietor of Oread institute, Worcester, Mass., 1859-64; professor of systematic theology and history of doctrines at Shurtleff college, 1865-69, and professor of theology at the Union Baptist Theological seminary, Chicago, Ill., 1870-74. Brown university conferred on him the honorary degrees A.M., 1832, and D.D., 1838. He is the author of "Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians" (1859). He died at the home of his eldest son, Everett Wilson Pattison, St. Louis, Mo., Nov. 21, 1874.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor