4 



GAZETTEER OF VERMONT. 



Part III. 



ARLINGTON. 



ARLINGTON. 



off eiffht persons. The surface of the 

 township is nneven and the soil and tim- 

 ber similar to that of the other towns ly- 

 ing' along the eastern side of the Green 

 Mountains. Markham's Mountain and 

 Mount Terrible lie alon^ the western 

 part of the township. These mountains 

 occasioned the division of the town, and 

 render the communioation between this 

 town and VVi.'ston somewhat difficult. 

 There are no considerable streams. The 

 town is watered principally by the head 

 branches of Williams river. In 1&24, the 

 town was divided into eight school dis- 

 tricts with a school house in each. 

 There were at that time three grist mills, 

 three saw mills, one fulling mill, one 

 carding machine, two stores, two taverns 

 and one tannery. Statistics of 1S4Q. — 

 Horses, 11)8; cattle, l,6:^;i ; sheep, 5,165; 

 Bwine, 523 ; wheat, bu. ] ,15'.t ; barley, 77!); 

 oats, 6,31!J; rye, 1,348; b'k wheat, 420; 

 In. corn, 882 ; potatoes, 5,050 ; hay, tons, 

 1)88; sugar, lbs. 1255; wool, 9,000. Pop- 

 ulation, 87^. 



Arlington, a post town in Bennington 

 county, lies in lat. 43° 4' and long. 3" 54', 

 and contains 3!) square miles. It is bound- 

 ed north by Sandgate, east by Sunder- 

 land, south by Shaftsbury, and west by 

 Salem, New York, and is situated 40 miles 

 from Troy, 40 miles from Saratoga springs, 

 40 from \V'hitehall and 40 from Rutland. 

 It was chartered July 28, ]7t)l, to a num- 

 ber of persons mostly belonging to Litch- 

 field, Connecticut. Tiie first settlement 

 was made in the year 1763, by Dr. Simon 

 Burton, William Searls and Ebenezer 

 Wallis. In 1764, Jehiel Hawley, Josiah 

 Hawley, Remember Baker and Thomas 

 Peck, removed into this town. The for- 

 mer was a principal land owner, and has 

 left in this place a numerous and respecta- 

 ble posterity. The early records of this 

 town were lost or destroyed in the year 

 1777, by Isaac Bisco, then town clerk, 

 who became a tory and fled to Canada. 

 Hence the precise time the town was or- 

 ganized, is not known. It was about the 

 year 1768, and Remember Baker, an ac- 

 tive and distinguished leader in the con- 

 troversy between the New Hampshire 

 grants and New York, was the first town 

 clerk. Thomas Chittenden was a resi- 

 dent in this town during the revolution, 

 and was chosen to represent it in the first 

 assembly after the adoption of the consti- 

 tution, but, being elected governor the 

 same year, was succeeded as representa- 

 tive by Ethan Allen. This town was orig- 

 inally settled by Episcopalians, and an 

 Episcopal society v/as organized here some 

 years before the revolution, which has e.x- 

 isted ever since. The records of this 



church, which is called St. James' Church., 

 go back to August 16, 1784. The first 

 rector of this church was the Rev. James 

 Nichols, settled in 1786. His salarv was 

 £,20 a year, wiiich was raised by an as- 

 sessment upon "the grand list." His 

 conduct proving irregular and unsatisfac- 

 tory, he was dismissed about the year 

 17112, and the Rev. Russell Catlin, whose 

 conduct proved still more exceptionable, 

 succeeded him. In the beginning of 1803, 

 the Rev. Abraham Bronson took charo-e 

 of this church for half the time. This 

 connexion, happy and much blessed, last- 

 ed till January, 1826. He was succeeded 

 by the Rev. Joseph H. Coit. In 1828, 

 Mr. C. was succeeded by tlie Rev. James 

 Tappan, who, the next year, was succeed- 

 ed by the Rev. W^m. S. Perkins, who re- 

 signed in 1833. Since that time the min- 

 isters have been the Rev. Luman Foote, 

 the Rev. John Grigg and the Rev. Anson 

 B. Hard, who is a native of the town and 

 the present rector. The first church was 

 erected in 17S6, by a tax assessed on the 

 grand list. In 1831 a new and elegant 

 stone church was erected at a cost of $10,- 

 000. Total baptisms 352; present com- 

 municants 80. Arlington, lying lower 

 than the surrounding towns, has the 

 j)rincipal streams in the county, passing 

 througii it. Roaring branch enters the 

 eastern pnrtof the town from Sunderland, 

 Mill brook the southeast part from Glas- 

 tenbury. Warm brook the south part from 

 Shaftsbury, and Green river the north 

 part from Sandgate. These streams all 

 fall into the Battenkill, which enters the 

 town near the northeast corner, runs 

 southwesterly about three miles, thence 

 nearly west about si.x miles further, and 

 crosses the west line of the town into 

 Washington county. New York. These 

 streams afford many very excellent mill 

 privileges, and along their banks are con- 

 siderable tracts of the finest intervale land. 

 The principal elevations are West Moun- 

 tain and Red Mountain, which extend 

 from south to north through the west part 

 of the town. These mountains are sepa- 

 rated by the Battenkill, in its westerly 

 course through the township. They are 

 covered with a considerable variety of 

 timber, consisting of white, red and black 

 oak, white and black birch,, chestnut, 

 hickory, &c. The soil is rich and very 

 productive of English grain. The soil in 

 the eastern part of the town is chiefly 

 loam, and the timber principally beech, 

 maple, ash, birch, elm, bass and butternut. 

 A glade of land, thlee miles in lenth, and 

 one in breadth, extending from north to 

 south, near the foot of West mountain, 

 was formerly covered with an extraordi- 



