The Nye family of Champlain originates from Plympton, Mass., and descends from Mayflower passenger Richard Warren. Revolutionary War veteran Elias Nye settled in Burlington, Vermont, around 1806 with his wife and children and became a successful businessman. His house, which still stands on Champlain Street in downtown Burlington, is supposed to be one of the oldest houses in the city. Elias had many sons who became prominent businessmen in Burlington, Champlain, New York, and Montreal. Elias and his wife are buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Burlington and all but one child were buried in the Nye vault in Glenwood Cemetery in Champlain. Daughter Eliza is buried in her husband’s plot in Glenwood.
Elias’s son, Isaac Nye, was a businessman and ran a store near the lakefront in Burlington which he built in the 1830s. He owned the wharf behind the store and it was known as “Nye’s Dock.” Today, this dock is greatly expanded and is called King Street Dock. Isaac died in the mid-1870s and his property was given to his nephews and nieces.
Sons Freeman and Bartlett moved to Champlain and became successful business partners. Freeman, who was older than Bartlett, served in the War of 1812 and later settled in Lacolle, Québec, only yards north of the Canadian line. His estate was called “The Lines” and is where the I-87 border crossing is today. A few years after he settled in Champlain, his brother Bartlett arrived and they formed a partnership in 1815 called “F. & B. Nye.” Over the years, the brothers acquired numerous farms in Champlain and Lacolle, built buildings on Main Street in downtown Champlain that were used for businesses and a hotel, and established a boat yard on the Great Chazy River where they built several schooners to sale Lake Champlain. The Beer’s 1869 map of the village and town of Champlain show dozens of references to F. & B. Nye. The Nyes are credited with taking unproductive farms and making them profitable.
Freeman and Bartlett Nye were farm owners and merchants and needed boats to ship their products to market. In 1838, Bartlett built the schooner “Champlain” and sailed it between Champlain and Whitehall. It is likely Bartlett built the boat on land he owned on the north bank of the Great Chazy River at the end of River Street (the site of the sewage treatment plant today). This site became Kellogg and Averill’s boat yard in 1879 (Sylvester Alonzo Kellogg and James Averill Jr. are both buried in Glenwood Cemetery). In 1839, Bartlett Nye built the schooner “General Scott” and named it after General Winfield Scott who had visited Champlain that previous year during the rebellion in Canada. The boat was used to transport commodities to St. Johns and Whitehall.
Bartlett built a brick house on Elm Street in 1851 which was called the “Locust Hill” house (he planted Locust trees around the house which survived into the 1990s). In the early 1930s, the house was renovated and converted into a hotel. It was known as the “Savoy Hotel” for decades and had a restaurant and bar. It hosted travelers, dinners, parties and many Sheridan “Old Timer’s” gatherings. The house burned down in 2003.
Freeman and Bartlett’s sister Ruth lived in Lacolle with Freeman and his wife Cornelia who was related to Revolutionary War general Philip Schuyler. Freeman and Bartlett had another brother named Thomas. He was an 1822 U.V.M. graduate and successful lawyer who lived in Montréal. He was married but had no children.
Bartlett Nye married Lucretia Matilda Moore who was the daughter of Noadiah Moore. She died from the measles and he married again. He had one child from his first wife and seven children from his second wife. The first child, Elizabeth Nye, married Charles Woodberry McLellan of Boston and united the Nye and McLellan families. Their children were Hugh and Malcolm McLellan. Hugh was a prominent architect in New York City and Champlain. He was also a printer and Champlain historian. In 1919, he established the Moorsfield Press and published historical papers that were gathered from his extended family in Champlain. Brother Malcolm was a stockbroker in New York City and retired to become the librarian at the Champlain library in the former First National Bank of Champlain. The McLellan brothers inherited the former Pliny Moore estate property (later rented to the Clark Funeral Home and now owned by this business) as well as the Session House (now known as the Knights of Columbus Hall). The Patrick family of Plattsburgh descends from Malcolm McLellan.
Bartlett Nye died suddenly in 1857 only a year after his youngest child Bartlett was born. His brother Freeman helped to provide for his widowed wife and children. Years later, Bartlett’s sons Charles Freeman and Bartlett (Jr.) helped to manage their uncle Freeman’s farms and businesses in Champlain and Lacolle. They later inherited the properties and managed them into the early 1900s.
All of the children of Elias Nye, except for Eliza, are buried in the Nye vault in Glenwood Cemetery. Daughter Eliza is buried with her husband, Lt. Col. Robert Hoyle, in a family plot in Glenwood Cemetery. Several wives of the Nye brothers, and their children, are also buried here. Most of Bartlett Nye’s children are buried in the vault. The last Nye to pass away was Patricia Bartlett Nye who died in 1998. Her grandfather would have been born in 1799. Her middle name derives from the name of Robert Bartlett who married Mary, the daughter of Richard Warren. Richard and Mary had sailed on the Mayflower in 1620.