Part IIL 



GAZETTEER OF VERMONT. 



13 



BELAMAQUKEN BAY. BEI.LK POND BELLOWS FALLS BELVIDERE. 



BENNINGTON. 



er tributaries. It thence takes a westerly 

 direction tlirough Washington, N.Y. re- 

 ceiving in its course White creek, which 

 originates in Rupert and Pawlet in Ver- 

 mont, and falls into Hudson river, three 

 or four miles below Fort Miller. The 

 whole length of this stream is about 43 

 miles, and about one h;ilf the length of it 

 lies in this state. It waters, in Vermont, 

 about22.5 square miles, and affords a num- 

 ber of very good mill privileges. Along 

 its banks are considerable tracts of val- 

 uable intervale. 



Belamaqeen Bay. See St. Albans. 



Belle Ponu, called also Belle-water 

 pond, is 3 miles long and 1 J wide, situa- 

 ted in the southeastern part of Barton. It 

 derives its name from the clearness of 

 this water. 



Bellows Falls. These are the most 

 considerable falls in Connecticut river, 

 and are situated against the southeastern 

 part of Rockingham. See Rockingham. 



Bellows Falls Village See Rock- 

 ingham. 



Belvidere, a post town in the north- 

 ern part of Lamoille county, lying on the 

 western range of the Green Mountains, 

 about 32 miles north east from Burling- 

 ton, and about the same distance north 

 from Montpelier. It is bounded north by 

 Avery's Gore and Lowell, east by Eden, 

 south by Johnson, and west by Water- 

 ville, and contains 30100 acres. It was 

 granted to John Kelly, March 5, 1787, 

 and was chartered by the name .of Belvi- 

 dere, November 4, 1791. A considerable 

 part of this township is mountainous and 

 unfit for cultivation. The settlement was 

 commenced about the year 1800, and in 

 1810 the population was 217, being ten 

 more than at the present time. The 

 township is watered by two branches of 

 the river Lamoille, on one of which is a 

 saw mill. Statistics of 1840. — Horses, 42; 

 cattle, 246; sheep, 683; swine, 116; 

 wheat, bu. 332; oats, 820 ; rye, 39; Ind. 

 corn, 294 ; potatoes, 9,310 ; hay, tons, 5.^3; 

 sugar, lbs. 3,440; wool, 1,187. Popula- 

 tion. 2(»7 



Bennington, a half sliiretownof Ben- 

 nington county, lying near the southwest 

 corner of the state in lat. 42° 51' and 

 long. 3° 53'. It is bounded north by 

 Shaftsbury, east by Woodford, south by 

 Pownal and west by Hoosic, in Rensse- 

 laer county. New York, and is 100 miles 

 south easterly from Montpelier, 110 miles 

 west by north from Boston, 33 north east 

 from Albany, 160 northeasterly from New 

 York, and 375 east by north from Wash- 

 ington. The township was chartered by 

 Benning Wentworth, governor of New 

 Hampshire, Jan. 3, 1749, and was called 



Bennington in allusion to his name. It 

 was described as a township six miles 

 square, lying six miles north of the Mas- 

 sachusetts line, and 20 miles east of Hud- 

 son's river. The grantees were William 

 Williams and 61 other individuals, resid- 

 ing principally in Portsmouth, New Hamp- 

 shire. This was the first township grant- 

 ed within the present limits of Vermont, 

 and the conditions of this and subsequent 

 New Hampshire grants, may be seen in 

 tiic /^orm of a New Hampshire charter, 

 in part second, page 224. Immediately 

 after the grant the proprietors met at 

 Portsmouth and made a plan of the town- 

 ship, by whicli, after laying out 64 lots 

 of one acre each, for each proprietor, near 

 the centre for a " town plot," in conform- 

 ity with the provisions of the charter, they 

 divided the residue into 64 equal parts, 

 which they distributed among themselves 

 by lots. In the survey of the township, 

 which was made in October, 1749, an al- 

 lowance, in conformity with the custom 

 of tlie time, of one chain in every thirty 

 was made for " swag," by which the 

 townsjiip was enlarged and made to in- 

 clude about 39 square miles, instead of 

 36, the actual charter quantity. In a 

 statement of the claim of New York to 

 the territory now Vermont, published by 

 order of the assembly of that province, in 

 1773, it is said that the grantees of Ben- 

 nington attempted to avail themselves of 

 their grant in 1753, but were prohibited 

 from taking possession by a proclamation 

 issued by the governor of New York. 

 Such proclamation must have been un- 

 necessary, the disturbed condition of the 

 New England frontier being sufficient 

 to prevent tiie occupation of the lands 

 till after the conquest of Canada, in 1760. 

 The settlement of the town commenced 

 in the spring of 1761. The most advan- 

 ced posts at this time in New England, 

 west of the Green Mountains, were two 

 small forts, called east and west floosie ; 

 the one situated about a mile west of the 

 present village of North Adams, Mass., 

 and the other near the site of the meet- 

 ing house in Williamstown. Here, forts 

 had, for a number of years, given partial 

 protection to some families in their imme- 

 diate neighborhood, but afforded insuffi- 

 cient security against the French and In- 

 dians, to induce extensive settlements. 

 There were, also, to the west of Benning- 

 ton, along the banks ot the Hoosic, a fev/ 

 Dutch families, four of which had seated 

 themselves as far up the river as Pownal. 

 It is believed none of the grantees of the 

 town ever removed to Bennington. The 

 first settlers were purchasers under the 

 original proprietors and came from Mas- 



