On Clay Hill Road there still stands a stately old home that went through some rough times in her old age, but luck was with her and love and care have returned her to stately elegance. People now-a-days refer to it as Fairview Farm but during the time that we are studying, it was known as Woodland. The Hon. Hampden Cutts lived here with his family. They moved there from Portsmouth, N.H
“—the family decided to move to Vermont where the young man’s father-in-law had offered him a valuable estate in Hartland if they would reside there. So in accepting the offer, he was accompanied by his mother and sister, Miss Mary Cutts , as well as his wife and son. He was admitted to the bar in Woodstock and represented the town of Hartland in 1840,41,47 and 1858. Windsor County in the Senate in 1843, and was Judge of the Windsor County court in 1849-51.
Mr. Cutts was known as a literary man and particularly as a public reader and lecturer. As a reader of Shakespeare he gained a very high reputation, and appeared many times in public. He was an officer of the Windsor County Agricultural Society and an active member of the Vermont Historical Society, before which he read several important and interesting papers At his death he was Vice President from Vermont, of the New England Historical Genealogical Society, of which he had been a member for years.
[Mr. Cutts wrote the History of Hartland for publication in Abby Hemenways’s Vermont Historical Gazetteer .. Unfortunately she was publishing her works by county alphabetically as she was able to raise the money and Windsor County burned before it could be published.]
During the time he lived in Hartland, from 1833 to 1860, his home was the scene of many interesting entertainments, and he and his children and wife did every thing possible to help make the religious life of the place what it should be, by constant attendance and contributing generously to the support of religious worship. There 8 children were added to the one they had on arrival, and 5 had been laid to rest in the adjoining cemetery (Cutts/Paddleford) before they reached mature years. His mother was also buried there at an early day, as she only lived to 1847
In April 1860 they moved to Brattleboro, Vermont, soon after the death of Consul Jarvis, where Mr. Cutts had found college classmates and where their three daughters, Anna, Lizzie and Hattie were married. Their eldest son Edward, had married and moved to Fairbault, Minnesota before they left Hartland.
At the outbreak of the Civil War he( Hampden) was very desirous of taking command of a regiment, but on account of his age, he did not receive the appointment
He said at the time, “It is hard, hard that they will not let me fight for my country.” He felt as capable as ever in this regard.
His death occurred April 27, 1875, in Hartland, on the old home place, where he and his sister happened at that time to be spending a vacation, and the place had never left the family, for over 40 years. It was known then as the “Governor Spooner Farm” , and situated near the North Hartland. Services were held at the house attended by his widow, his daughter Harriet, one grandson, and his devoted sister, as well as many relatives. The internment took place in the adjoining cemetery, where his mother and children were buried. He was survived by his widow, Mary P.S.J. (Pepperell, Sparhawk Jarvis) Cutts, the author of a life of her father Consul Jarvis.(Consul Jarvis ,Wethersfield, Vt. introduced Merino sheep to Vermont , bringing them from Portugal where he was Consul. I have tried to find evidence that sheep were raised on the farm in Hartland but all I have found to date is accounting with the Mallory Woolen Co. of Hartford., which began in 1836. This may have just been an investment.) His son and grandchildren( Capt E.H. Cutts of Fairbault, Minn, His daughter Mrs. Anna Holyoke Cutts Howard ( more on her later) and daughters Anna and Harriet. . . .”
Author unknown.
Reprinted from the Fall 2006 Hartland Historical Society Newsletter