Excerpt from Records of the Governor and Council of the State of Vermont, Vol. 6 He died at Westminster Aug. 10 1844. aged 84 years. - Lanman's Dictionary of Congress; Deming's Catalogue; and Vt. Watchman & Stale Journal of Aug. 23 1844. Gamaliel Painter, born in New Haven, Conn., May 22 1742, was one of the first three settlers of Middlebury in 1773. "He was a plain man, slow of speech and of few words," "but he had sound judgment and common sense, on which his friends placed implicit and sale reliance. He had great wisdom - some would say cunning - in forming his plans and in adopting the means to execute them. Thus he became a leader in all important enterprises." To him, more than to any other one man, the town of Middlebury is indebted for its college, its first church, its village square, and the first mills; so he is recognized as "the father of the town." He had derived very little advantage from schools, but much from association with men of more learning and experience, so that he became an efficient public servant, and was honored for his patriotism and practical business qualities. July 5 1776 he was appointed by Congress a first lieutenant in Warner's continental regiment; and as the officers of that regiment consisted of "such as have served with credit in Canada," it is apparent that Judge Painter had served in the campaign of 1775. Drake states that he served as quartermaster and captain in the revolutionary army. He was the first delegate of Middlebury, having been a member of the Conventions at Dorset in January and September 1776, and delegate for Cornwall at Windsor in June 1777. He was the first representative of Middlebury in the General Assembly, in 1786, and for fourteen years in all. On the organization of Addison County in 1785, he was appointed Assistant Judge of the County Court, but he resigned that office before the term expired, for the purpose of being Sheriff, as he was in 1786. In 1787 he again became judge and held the position until 1795, when he was again elected, but declined to accept the office. He was Councillor in 1813 and 1814, coming in as a candidate of the Federal parly, and going out with it in 1815. He died May 21 1819; and the Trustees of Middlebury College, to whom his estate was bequeathed, erected a monument over his remains. - Swift's History of Middlebury, in which see a portrait; Drake's Biographical Dictionary; and Deming's Catalogue. Samuel Swift, LL. D., seventh of the fourteen children of Rev. Job and Mary Ann Sedgwick Swift, was born at Nine Partners [now Amenia, ] N. Y., Aug. 2 1782, and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1800. He was tutor in Middlebury College 1801 to 1803, and a member of Addison County bar as early as 1808, and probably earlier. He opened a bookstore, and from Sept. 1812 to Sept. 1816 edited the Vermont Mirror, a weekly newspaper published at Middlebury, and also a Vermont Register and Almanac, 1803 until 1818. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.