Gazetteer of Orange County, Vt., 1762-1888 (PART FIRST)

In presenting to the public the "Gazetteer and Business Directory of Orange County," we desire to return our sincere thanks to all who have kindly aided in obtaining the information it contains, and thus rendered it possible to present it in the brief space of time in which it is essential such work should be completed. Especially are our thanks due to the editors and managers of the local papers for the uniform kindness they have evinced in calling public attention to our efforts, and for essential aid in furnishing material for the work. We have also found valuable aid in the writings of the various authors in Miss Hemenway's "Historical Magazine"; "Thompson's Vermont"; "Deming's Vermont Officers"; Hall's "Early History of Vermont"; the "Documentary History of New York"; in the reports of the Adjutant-General and State School Superintendent; F.W. Beers & Co.'s "Atlas of Orange County"; and also the geological reports of Hitchcock and Hagar. Our thanks are also due to the clergy throughout the county, and to Salmon B. Hebard, of Chelsea; Roswell Farnham, of Bradford; William Hutchinson, of Washington, D.C; and to many others throughout the county, who have rendered valuable aid.

That errors have occurred in so great a number of names, dates and statements, is probable, and that names have been omitted which should have been inserted, is quite certain. We can only say that we have exercised more than ordinary diligence and care in this difficult and complicated feature of book-making. Of such as feel aggrieved in consequence of errors or omissions, we beg pardon, and ask the indulgence of the reader in noting such as have been observed in the subsequent reading of the proofs, and which are found corrected in the Errata at the close of this volume.

It was designed to give a brief account of all the churches and other societies in the county, but owing in some cause to the negligence of those who were able to give the necessary information, and in others to the inability of any one to do so, we have been obliged to omit special notices of a few.

We would suggest that our patrons observe and become familiar with the explanations at the commencement of the directory, on page 3, part 2d. The names it embraces, and the information connected therewith, were obtained by actual canvass, and are as correct and reliable as the judgment of those from whom they were solicited renders possible. Each agent is furnished with a map of the town he is expected to canvass, and he is required to pass over every road and call at every dwelling and place of business in the town in order to obtain the facts from the individuals concerned whenever possible.

 

Read the Book - Free

Download the Book - Free ( 51.6 MB PDF )

Daring the progress of these wars the territory of Vermont was often crossed and re-crossed by portions of both armies, and a few military settlements sprang up. The first of these, however, was even before the wars, in 1665, on Isle La Motte, where a fort was erected by Captain De La Motte, under command of M. De Tracy, governor of New France. In 1690 Capt. Jacobus De Narm, with a party from Albany, N.Y., established an outpost in the present town of Addison, at Chimney Point, where he erected a small stone fort. The first permanent settlement, however, and the first of any kind by Anglo-Saxons, was begun within the limits of Windham county, in the town of Brattleboro, in 1724, when Fort Dummer was built. For six or seven years the garrison of this fort were the only white inhabitants. In 1730 the French built a fort at Chimney Pomt, and a considerable population settled in the vicinity. In 1739 a few persons settled in Westminster, and about the same time a small French settlement was begun at Alburgh, on what is now called Windmill Point, but was soon abandoned. The colony a Westminster increased but slowly, and in 1754 the whole population, alarmed by the Indian attack upon Charlestown, N.H., deserted their homes. Forts were erected and small settlements were commenced in several other places, but fear of the Indians prevented any large emigration till after the last French war, when, the Province of Canada being then ceded to Great Britain, the fear of hostile incursions subsided and the population rapidly in- creased.