An essay written in 1952 by Elizabeth Joslin (Part One)
On July 30, Steven Joslin gave me a folder full of essays that his mother, Betty Joslin, wrote. Elizabeth (who was called Betty in The Valley) was born in New Hampshire and graduated from Bates College in Maine. She became a teacher when she came to Waitsfield and worked at the old Waitsfield High School on Route 100. The first essay in the folder is simply called “Waitsfield.”
“As I become acquainted with the early history of the state of Vermont, I am impressed by the many parallels in the history of the town of Waitsfield. Between the founders of the state, Ethan and Ira Allen, and Benjamin Wait, the founder of Waitsfield, there is a marked similarity both in exploits and in character; moreover, many of the social movements found generally throughout the state seem to have existed on a smaller scale in the town.
“Waitsfield lies in the geographical center of the state, and at one time is said to have been considered for the possible location of the capital. However, Benjamin Wait, the founder and principal land holder in the town, prevented this by refusing to "have his meadow cut up." In the Mad River Valley, Waitsfield lies nestled among the Green Mountains, which come down close on both sides. Like most of rural Vermont, this town has always been mainly agricultural, with lumbering the only other industry of importance. Although in 1850 the population numbered 1,048, for many years now it has remained fairly constant at about 700.
“After the close of hostilities about seventy-five new towns were chartered between the years of 1779 and 1782; Waitsfield was among the number. The location had been chosen some time previously by General Benjamin Wait, but it was not until the spring of 1789 that he was free from duties to his state and his country to make a settlement. His log house was the first building in the town. This was soon replaced by a one-story frame house which, moved to a different location and increased by a second story, still stands at the northern end of the village. The tall marble shaft marking his grave is in the cemetery close by. At an early date some of his sons and two of his brothers were settled on some of his extensive holdings in the new town.
“Benjamin Wait seems to have been a colorful, vigorous, and versatile man not unlike Ethan Allen, under whom he served in the Green Mountain Boys. Born in Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 1736, he went with his family in 1745 to Brookfield, Massachusetts, where he grew up hearing the exciting stories of fights with Indians told by travelers who stopped at his father’s tavern. At the age of eighteen he began his long military career. During the first campaign he was taken prisoner by the Indians and forced to run the gauntlet. After observing the ordeal of others, he decided that ‘spunk would be a good antidote for barbarity’ so, as his grandson related, he ‘ran through with clenched fists as vicious as a wild bull, knocking them from one side to the other, and when they saw him approaching, they had little time enough to take care of themselves.’
“He was rescued by the French and sent by them to France as a prisoner until rescued by the British. As soon as he arrived back in this country, he enlisted in Roger 's Rangers under his brother Joseph. During the next few years he participated in, among other campaigns, the capture of Louisburg, the expedition against the St. Francis Indians, and the expedition to take the forts near Detroit. Many years later Wait used to tell of an episode during this last campaign which gives us a picture of the kind of leader he was. The men under him, “becoming disheartened and benumbed with cold, would beg of him to shoot them, instead of which he switched their legs with sticks until aroused by anger they resumed their march.
“When these troops returned and were disbanded, Benjamin Wait was twenty-five years old and had taken part in forty battles.
“Sometime after returning to his home in Brookfield, he was married, and in 1767 the young couple was the third family to settle in Windsor, Vermont. There they lived the next twenty years and raised a family of six boys and two girls. These were busy years for the leader in military and in 'civil affairs. He was active on behalf of Vermont in its controversy with New York, and, as might be expected, he supported the United States through the Revolutionary War; at the end of this he was raised to the rank of brigadier general.
“From Windsor he served as a member of the Cumberland Convention as well as the convention at Windsor which formed the state constitution; for seven years he was high sheriff of the county; and he represented his town in the General Assembly.
“The remaining thirty-three years of his life, spent in Waitsfield, were filled with the business of building a new community. In the town Benjamin Wait served as the first selectman, first moderator, second treasurer, and first representative to the state legislature. His barn or his house served as the meeting place for the first church services and school meetings.”
In Betty’s essay she calls General Wait a colorful, vigorous, and versatile man. That’s a bit of an understatement isn’t it? Can you imagine being just 18 and serving in the French and Indian War? Being captured by Native Americans and living through a gauntlet line up? Then prisoner of the French and sent to France. Somehow, he then became the responsibility of the British. And how did he get back to America? By 25 he had fought in 40 battles. It seems that he was present for every important Vermont event of his time — from being our own sovereign nation, The Vermont Republic, to becoming the 14th state of the United States of America. He was like a superhero. And aren’t we lucky to have the home of our founder of Waitsfield in our historic village? Let’s resolve to treasure that old homestead!
Those interested in efforts being made to save the historic Wait House from deterioration can email
