Chittenden

DEMING, Eleazer Hubbell

Vermont Historical Magazine, No XI, October 1867, pp 615-616 [excerpt from a 
section on the history of Burlington; editor's note states biography was 
furnished by "the family"]

Among the early and most successful business men of Burlington [Chittenden 
County, Vermont], was the late Eleazer Hubbell DEMING. His father was Pownal 
DEMING of Litchfield [Litchfield County], Connecticut, a captain in the 
United States navy; and his mother, Miss Abby HUBBELL of Bridgeport, a young 
lady described by her friends and those who knew her, as "of great beauty and 
much idolized by her parents," who was married to Capt. DEMING at a very 
early age, and died 18 February 1785, when only eighteen years of age, in 
giving birth, at Bridgeport [Fairfield County], Connecticut, to [Eleazer 
Hubbell DEMING] the subject of our notice. Deprived of his mother at the 
hour of his birth, with a father whose calling in life carried him far from 
home, the child was thrown wholly upon the care of his maternal grandparents, 
and was brought up by them.

Mr. HUBBELL, the [maternal] grandfather, was a farmer, and when young DEMING 
was but twelve years of age, the family removed from Connecticut to Jericho 
[Chittenden or Windsor County], Vermont. His advantages there for education 
were but limited, being no more than the scanty opportunities for acquiring 
the simplest rudiments of knowledge, such as the district school of those 
days afforded. This, as has been the case with many in like circumstances, 
was matter of much regret to him in after life; and one powerful stimulant to 
him for the acquisition of wealth, in which he was subsequently so 
successful, was that he might have means to give his children the high 
advantages of early education, which had been denied himself. As it was, 
however, it is still remembered of him that he made such good use of the 
opportunities afforded to him in the district school, that on one occasion, 
when through illness of the teacher, a vacancy occurred, he was selected 
temporarily to supply his place.

At quite an early age he came from Jericho to Burlington [Chittenden County], 
and at first resided for a while in the family of the late Mr. John JOHNSON, 
where he learned mathematics, surveying, etc. His first lessons in practical 
mercantile business were acquired from the late Samuel HICKOK, Esq., in whose 
store he was for some time employed as clerk. Subsequently to this, as we 
gather from some memoranda made by himself, he passed some time in New York, 
in 1804 and 1805, as clerk there, during which time, through the friendship 
of Mr. PEARSALL, an auctioneer of that city, he was able, by buying goods at 
auction and selling again, and by carefully saving his clerk-hire, to 
accumulate a moderate sum of money, sufficient as he deemed to warrant his 
embarking in business on his own account. He accordingly returned to 
Burlington with a small stock of goods in which he had invested his small 
capital, and there commenced business on 05 September 1805, at the age, as he 
himself has recorded it, of twenty years and six months.

It is curious to note that he sets down his capital at that time as 
amounting to the sum of $1,573.63: $1,000 in cash, of which $596 was left 
him from his father's [Pownal DEMING's] estate, and the balance had been made 
or saved by him, as before mentioned, in New York, and the remainder in some 
old goods and personal effects which never, as he himself expresses it, were 
turned to much use or profit. From that time he was accustomed to inventory 
his entire property every year, from the record of which, still remaining in 
his own handwriting, we are enabled to trace his yearly gains and to notice 
his steady and uniform success. He continued in business just twenty years, 
retiring from it in 1826, on account of failing health and premonitions of 
the fatal disease of consumption, which two years afterwards, on 05 May 1828, 
terminated his life; leaving behind him a large estate for those days, and 
the reputation of having been "the best business man in Chittenden County." 
We should add, that those who knew him well, speak of him as having been a 
man of untiring energy and perseverance, always persistently carrying out what 
he had undertaken; plain and simple in his tastes, having a marked dislike to 
display; unobtrusive in manner, of quiet humor, and "fond of a good joke;" 
and of great exactness in business, and of sterling honesty and uprightness 
in its transactions.

On 18 October he [Eleazer Hubbell DEMING] was married to Miss Fanny FOLLETT, 
daughter of Timothy FOLLETT, of Benington [Bennington County, Vermont], and a 
sister of the Hon. Timothy FOLLETT, of Burlington [Chittenden County, 
Vermont]. He [Eleazer Hubbell DEMING] had eight children, five of whom were 
living at the time of his death [05 May 1828]; one of these, however, an 
infant daughter, died soon after his decease. He left but one son, his 
eldest child, Charles Follett DEMING, Esq., who after having received every 
advantage of a finished education, and entered upon the practice of the legal 
profession, with a bright promise of success, was cut off at the early age of 
twenty-four years, by the same fell disease which had terminated the life of 
his honored father.

[The following, extracted from a section on the history of Dorset in Vermont 
Historical Magazine, No XI, October 1867, page 184, too brief for inclusion 
independently as a biographical note, is included here for the benefit of 
DEMING researchers. Any relationship which may have existed between Eleazer 
and Eli DEMING unknown to submitter, who is not researching this surname.]

Eli DEMING, one of the early settlers [of Dorset, Bennington County, 
Vermont], lived near Deming's Pond. He and his brother and William MARSH, 
another early settler, owned nearly all the lands lying in the valley south 
of East Dorset through the town.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly