Bennington

HARMON, Reuben

Vermont Historical Magazine, No. XI, October 1867, p 227
[extracted from a section on the history of Rupert, Bennington County, 
Vermont]

In 1785 the Legislature of Vermont, assuming the powers of an independent 
government, at the June session, granted to Reuben HARMON, Jr., of Rupert 
[Bennington County, in what was to be the State of Vermont], the exclusive 
rights to coin copper money within the state for two years after the first 
day of July following. Mr. HARMON had already procured a quantity of copper 
suitable for coinage, and had perhaps intended to make to manufacture 
coppers, without legal authority, but he had no difficulty in obtaining the 
approval of his project by the General Assembly, and a Committee was 
appointed to cooperate with him in the details of the undertaking. He was 
required to give bonds in the sum of £ 5,000 for the faithful performance of 
his contract, and no coin manufactured by him was to weigh less than a third 
of an ounce, Troy weight.

After much expense incurred in erecting a suitable building and much trouble 
and delay in obtaining the necessary apparatus, HARMON got his works 
operating. His mint house was in the northeasterly part of town, a little 
east of the main road leading from Dorset [Bennington County] to Pawlet 
[Rutland County], on a small stream called Mill Brook, which empties into the 
Pawlet River. It was a small building, 16x18 feet, made of rough materials, 
clapboarded, unplaned and unpainted; at the east end the furnace for melting 
copper and machinery for rolling bars; in the middle of the room machinery 
for cutting; and at the west end that for stamping, which was done by means 
of an iron screw attached to heavy timbers above, and moved by hand with the 
aid of ropes. Sixty coppers per minute could be stamped, but thirty was the 
usual number. The mint building is still standing, its location changed, 
long since removed to the edge of the adjoining town of Pawlet; now used as a 
corn house.

The first coins issued from this mint [had] a sun rising from behind the 
hills and a plough in the foreground; legend, "Vermontensium Res Publica, 
1786" ["Republic of Vermont"] and on the reverse a radiated eye, surrounded 
by thirteen stars; legend, "Quarta Decima Stella" ["fourteenth star," which 
expressed Vermont's desire to join the original thirteen colonies]. In 
October 1786 Mr. HARMON, on the ground that in the short time granted him he 
could not indemnify himself for the expenses he had incurred in commencing 
his enterprise, applied for and obtained [14 October 1786] from the General 
Assembly an extension of his privilege for eight years from July 1787. The 
weight of the copper pieces was fixed by law at four pwts. fifteen grs. each, 
and were to bear the following: on one side a head with the motto 
"Auctoritate Vermontensium" ["by authority of Vermont"] and on the reverse, a 
woman with the letters "Inde Et Lib" [an abbreviation for "independence and 
liberty"].

On 07 June 1787 HARMON's firm, which consisted of himself and William COOLEY, 
of Rupert [Bennington County, Vermont], Elias JACKSON of Litchfield 
[Litchfield County], Connecticut, and Daniel VOORKIS [text typo for Daniel 
van VOORHIES?], goldsmith of New York, formed a partnership with another 
company, consisting of six gentlemen of New York City [one of whom was Thomas 
("Capt") MACHIN, of Newburgh, Orange County, New York], for the said term of 
eight years, for the coinage of copper. By the first of July, the New York 
firm were required, by the terms of the copartnership, to complete, at their 
own cost, the works then being erected near the Great Pond in the County of 
Ulster, New York, while the other firm agreed to complete in the same time 
the works at Rupert. The ten partners [one of whom was Simon Alexander 
BAYLEY?] divided the affairs of the company between them, and agreed to meet 
on the first day of February, June and October of each year at Rhinebeck, New 
York, for the purpose of general business. It is supposed that William 
COOLEY [COLEY?], better known by the title of Col. COOLEY [COLEY?], who had 
been a goldsmith in New York City but who afterwards removed to Rupert, cut 
the dies and assisted in striking the coppers. [Remainder of coinage account 
edited. Reuben HARMON, father of the subject, removed early to Rupert and 
was a delegate to the famous 1776 Vermont convention which met at Dorset in 
Bennington County.]

Submitted by Cathy Kubly