Addison

CHIPMAN, Timothy Fuller

Vermont Historical Magazine, No XI, October 1867, p 100

Gen. [Timothy Fuller] CHIPMAN was born 01 February 1761 in Barnstable 
[Barnstable County], Massachusetts, son of Thomas and Bethia CHIPMAN. When a 
stripling of sixteen, he took his father's place, who was drafted into the 
army in 1777, and served on the retreat of the American forces before 
BURGOYNE's army, between Ticonderoga and Fort Schuyler, on the Hudson; was 
employed in felling trees into Wood Creek, to obstruct the passage of boats 
by water, and the army by land; being placed sentinel on an outer post at 
Fort Anne, was in the skirmish at Battle Hill, where a comrade was shot at 
his side; and having served the period of his enlistment, was honorably 
discharged a few days before the battle of Saratoga and surrender of 
BURGOYNE, after which he returned home to aid his father in providing for the 
wants of a numerous household. In 1783 he [Timothy Fuller CHIPMAN] came to 
Shoreham [Addison County, Vermont] with little else than the pack on his 
back. With Marshal NEWTON he was engaged to carry the chain in the original 
surveys of the townships of Shoreham and Bridport; in this survey, selected 
the lot on which he afterwards settled, built a plank house, and assiduously 
toiled until his decease.

On 24 May 1786 he [Timothy Fuller CHIPMAN] was married to Polly, daughter of 
Capt. John SMITH, and raised a family of eleven children. By persevering 
industry and economy he brought his lot in the wilderness under good 
cultivation, adding to his original purchase until he had one of the most 
valuable farms in town, and commodious buildings, where for many years he 
kept a public house. He was honored by his fellow citizens with several town 
offices; by the U. S. Government with an appointment as an assistant assessor 
of lands and dwellings in district No. 1, in the fourth division of Vermont. 
From the rank of a private he was promoted through various grades to the rank 
of major general of the fourth division of Vermont militia.

At the British invasion under Gen. PROVOST, as he crossed the line on our 
northern frontier, [Timothy Fuller] CHIPMAN volunteered for his country, took 
a musket from the arsenal at Vergennes, crossed Lake Champlain at Burlington 
into New York (beyond the limits of his Vermont commission), where he was 
chosen, at once, brigadier general under Maj. Gen. Samuel STRONG, and placed 
at the head of the Vermont volunteers, there assembled. The enemy commenced 
their retreat the day before he arrived at Plattsburgh [Clinton County], New 
York.

In his declining years he resigned his public stations, and retired to 
private life; in 1810, during a religious revival, became a hopeful convert; 
with his wife and several of his children, united with the Congregational 
church, and sustained his Christian profession unblemished until the day of 
his death, which occurred at his homestead on his original purchase, in the 
seventieth year of his age. On 17 May 1830 in Barnstable [Barnstable 
County], Massachusetts, he [Timothy Fuller CHIPMAN] died, aged sixty-nine 
years. His widow [Mrs. Polly CHIPMAN] died 05 March 1849, aged eighty-one.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly