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From Charles Thadeus Heald's autobiography, 1902 (cited by L. Heald):
"Grandfather died at Chester, Vermont, March 5, 1849 - aged 82 years. He had held many elective offices and positions of trust in his adopted town; perhaps as important as any was the office of Town Clerk, which was, and still is one of the chief offices of the town, as the Town Clerk duties are to keep all records of Deeds, Roads, Schools, Justices' suits, and various other important records which are kept there by the township authorities instead of by County officials, as in the western states. A singular record of continuous official service appears in relation to this Town Clerk's office. My great grandfather Daniel Heald held the office of Town Clerk of Chester for about twenty-five years, and on his retirement from the office, his son Amos - my grandfather - was elected and remained in the office till his death, a period of about twenty-eight years; then my father was elected and remained in office until his removal to Illinois, a period of about twenty-two years; or about seventy-five years in all, this office remained in one family."
"My grandfather was also one of the justices of the town frontier beyond memory and was familiarly called "Judge Heald," and many a local quarrel between neighbors has been referred to him as an arbitrator with the remarkable confidence that Judge Heald's decision would be just and fair. It was for many years said that no lawyer could make a living in Chester, because everybody went to court to Judge Heald and his decision was a decision of last resort. He was a Deacon and pillar in the Congregational Church, and to his judgment was referred all matters of importance in the church as well as state. "
"A peculiar custom or law of the times, was a requirement that the intended marriages must all be published from some pulpit on the Sabbath before, or on which the marriage was to take place. To my grandfather, who was a Justice of the Peace, fell his duty of proclaiming the intended marriage of all the young people, and just before the beginning of the sermon we could almost every Sabbath of the year see the tall erect form of Deacon Heald rise at the side of the preacher on the platform, or pulpit, where he always held place because of deafness, and announce the intended marriage of Charlie Brown and Daisy O'Neill or some other well known names. Another popular office he also held by universal consent, and that was joining these intending couples in marriage, and in my boyhood days it was almost a weekly exercise performed in my grandfather's sitting room with the whole household, for my grandfather's family lived in the same house as my grandfather - gathered together as witnesses, and I well remember the formula of his wedding service and many a time it has been adopted among the children who had become so familiar with it in their play marriages.
The invariable ending of the service when the fee was handed over to the officiating magistrate was for him to turn to the bride and handing the fee to her with these words: "I herewith present you this fee which your husband has so generously provided for this occasion, and request that you invest it in some useful piece of household furniture or utensil which may remind you of the event and the giver."
Occasionally when the groom perhaps not aware of what the outcome of the fee was to be, discovered that his generous provision of about thirty cents, had found its way to the bride's hand, there was a very evident embarrassment on his part, and though grandfather was never disposed to display the magnitude of such gifts, it was pretty closely sized by us youngsters who were on the watch for a chance to giggle and we frequently found it in the query of the groom, "well what's the damage," or similar questions that generally set us off."
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