Belt is made of bridle leather and meas. approx. 1 11/16 inches wide with a tooled line along each edge. The leather is clean and supple and there is very little surface finish loss and almost no crazing. The belt is complete with all drops, brass hooks and snap-hooks as well as the leather support strap.

Attached to one end is a Model 1851 officer’s rectangular eagle sword belt plate with a bench marked #690 while the opposite end of the belt has the brass keeper and a matching mark. The face of the plate has strong details on the eagle and a small narrow tongue on the reverse.

Inked inside the belt in approx. 1.00 inch high letters is A. H. SLAYTON.”

Abiel H. Slayton was born in Stowe, Vermont on February 28, 1828. He was still living in Stowe when he was commissioned Captain of Company H, 9^th Vermont Infantry on August 27, 1862. He went with the regiment to Harper’s Ferry where he was captured and paroled on September 15, 1862 during the Antietam Campaign. Captain Slayton resigned on December 8, 1862.

His obituary from the June 17, 1917 edition of the Morrisville Messenger reads:

“ABIAL H. SLAYTON, one of the oldest and most respected residents of Stowe, died at his home south of the village on the main road to Waterbury, about 4 pm Sunday after a long illness of hardening of the arteries… In 1849 Mr. Slayton joined the throng of gold seekers in California, going by way of the "Isthmus", which he crossed on foot. He spent four years in California with varied experiences and success. After he returned he discovered traces of gold in Gold Brook, on a farm adjoining his own, which he purchased. He sluiced the brook, taking about $200. 00 worth of gold, of which he had a heavy gold watch and other pieces of jewelry fashioned. Mr. Slayton always said there was gold in that brook, but not in paying quantities. In 1855 Mr. Slayton married Mary L. Wilson, who died in 1856, leaving an infant daughter. The child died at the age of six.. On June 2, 1861, Mr. Slayton married Almira Smith, who survives him. The four children born to them died in infancy to their great grief. In the summer of 1862 he engaged in recruiting a company for the North Vermont Regiment and was mustered in on July 9 as Captain of Company H. He was captured with his regiment at the surrender of Harpers Ferry, Sept. 15. He was paroled and sent to Chicago to await exchange and resigned December following..  Mr. Slayton served a term of Side Judge for Lamoille County, and represented Stowe in the State Legislature 1876-67 [sic -1887]. Though not a member he was formerly for many years an attendant of the Methodist Church and always contributed toward its support. For the greater part of his life he had been a prosperous farmer and kept the management of his large farm in his own hands and actively engaged in the farm work until the close of his long life. He was a genial man, with a fun for anecdotes, and was loved and respected by all who knew him…”  [AD]

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