Chittenden

HIGBEE, Lewis

Vermont Historical Magazine, No. XI, October 1867, p 853
(extracted from a section on the history of St. George, Chittenden County, 
Vermont)

Lewis HIGBEE was born in 1788 in St. George [Chittenden County, Vermont]. He 
was the first representative to the Legislature, and re-elected to that 
office several times. He was possessed of no more than an ordinary degree of 
profundity, yet he had an inexhaustible fountain of wit and sarcasm, which 
made him somewhat conspicuous. Being without the advantages of an education, 
and having no particular taste for refinement, his manners were peculiarly 
rough and unpolished; nevertheless he seemed to possess the power of turning 
his very rudeness to the best account, which many times gave point to his wit 
and repartee. An antidote is related of him in connection with the Hon. Henry 
CLAY, which goes to illustrate this characteristic.

Some years ago, while in the zenith of Mr. CLAY's popularity, it was 
announced that he would be in Burlington on a certain day and address the 
people there. Thousands were assembled on and near the wharf, anxiously 
awaiting his arrival. Mr. HIGBEE had secured a commanding position on a high 
pile of boards, near the carriage which stood awaiting to convey Mr. CLAY to 
the hotel. One of the marshals seeing him there, requested when he heard the 
sound of the bugle, which was to be the signal of Mr. CLAY's arrival, to 
"Shout hurrah, so that they can hear you to the Empire State, and when we 
hear you we will join the chorus." At length the boat neared the wharf, and 
Mr. CLAY stepped forward and mounted the carriage, when Mr. HIGBEE, 
recognizing him by his tall and manly form, instantly resolved to shake hands 
with the honored statesman, without waiting for the formality of an 
introduction. So stretching himself at full length from his precarious 
footing, to reach the hand of Mr. CLAY, lost his balance, and was about 
plunging headlong, when Mr. CLAY, seeing his danger, sprang forward, seized 
the hand of Mr. HIGBEE, and righted him on his feet; whereupon, quick as 
thought, without waiting for the sound of the bugle, HIGBEE cried out, at the 
top of his sharp tenor voice: "Henry CLAY from Kentucky; thrice he saved his 
country, and once Lewis HIGBEE; hurrah for Henry CLAY!" Mr. CLAY 
acknowledged the compliment with great glee, and after often referred to it 
when he saw a Vermont man.

From p 852: Early in the following year [1785] Elnathan HIGBEE and Zirah 
ISHAM, with their families, settled in town [St. George]. And not long 
afterwards, Jehial ISHAM, Reuben and Nathan LOCKWOOD, John MOBBS, James 
SUTTON, Wheeler HIGBEE, and others joined the settlement. And by the census 
of 1791, seven years after the settlement commenced, there were fifty-seven 
inhabitants, being nearly half the present population, which according to the 
census of 1850, is one hundred and twenty seven. The first male child [born 
in St. George, Chittenden County, Vermont] was Lewis HIGBEE [no date is 
given]. The first death is supposed to have been that of Heman HIGBEE, 
infant son of Wheeler HIGBEE, who died 17 September 1791. The town was 
organized in March 1813, at a meeting called for the purpose. Jared HIGBEE 
was first town clerk. Reuben LOCKWOOD, Lewis HIGBEE, and Levi HIGBEE first 
selectmen.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly