Part III. 



GAZETTEER OF VERMONT. 



31 



BRIDPORT. 



BRIDPORT. 



were heads of families. There have been 

 no remarkable instances of longevity, 

 Several have lived to the age of 90 years. 

 In August, 1622, Mr. Aaron Lamb, while 

 sinking a well about 80 rods north of Ot- 

 t;\ Quechee river, dug up a living frog, at 

 the depth 26 feet below the surface of the 

 ground. It was in a state of torpor when 

 taken up, but revived after being ex- 

 posed a short time to the atmosphere. 

 This town is watered by Otta Qiiechee 

 river, which runs through the south part, 

 and by several considerable branches. 

 These streams afford numerous mill priv- 

 ileges. The surface of this town is un- 

 even and some parts rough and stoney. 

 Along the river, are tracts of valuable in- 

 tervale, and there are many good farms 

 in other parts. The summits of the hills 

 are, in general, covered with spruce and 

 hemlock ; the timber, on other parts, is 

 mostly maple, beech, and birch. The 

 rocks are mica, and talco-argillaceous 

 slate, gneiss, limestone, quartz, &c. There 

 is an inexhaustible quarry of steatite, sit- 

 uated nearly in the centre of the town. 

 It has been manufactured to some extent, 

 and makes excellent jambs, hearths, &c. 

 In the vicinity of the steatite, are large 

 quantities of beautiful green talc. Iron 

 ore is found in several places. Garnets 

 in perfect dodechedral crystals are com- 

 mon, and several handsome specimens of 

 rock crystal, crystals of hornblend and 

 schorl, have been found. There is a 

 small village, on the river, near the south- 

 east corner of the town in which are a 

 meeting house, several mills, factories, 

 stores, and mechanic's shops. Statistics 

 of 1840.— florses, 318; cattle, 1,943; 

 sheep, 9,309; swine, 752,; wheat, bush. 

 3,165; barley, 101; oats 12,628 ; rye, 480; 

 buck wheat, 2,119 ; Ind. corn, 5,815; po- 

 tatoes, 47,215 ; ha3% tons, 4,541 ; sugar, 

 lbs. 34,725 ; wool, 21,426. Pop. 1363. 



Bridport, a post town, in the west part 

 of Addison county, in hit. 43" 58', and 

 long. 3° 44', bounded north by Addison, 

 east b_y Weybridge and Cornwall, south 

 by Shoreham, and west by Lake Cham- 

 plain, which separates it from Crown 

 Point, N. Y. It is eight miles west of 

 Middlebury, 35 south of Burlington, and 

 41 southwest of Montpelier. It was char- 

 tered, October 10, 1761, to 64 proprietors, 

 mostly of Massachusetts, of whom Eph- 

 raim Doolittle and Benjamin Raymond 

 were active in the early settlement, and 

 it contains about 42 square miles. The 

 first attempt to settle the town, was made 

 in 1768, but was abandoned at that time 

 on account of the urgency of the New- 

 York claims. TJie first permanent settler 

 was Philip Stone, who was also tlie first 



colonel in the county. In 1768, being 21 

 years of age, he came from Groton, Mass., 

 to this place, purchased a lot of land, and 

 commenced clearing it. Two families, by 

 the name of Richardson and Smith, set- 

 tled under N. Y. titles about the same 

 time, and three others, by the name of 

 Towner, Chipman and Plumer, under N. 

 H. titles. The settlers mostly retired be- 

 fore Burgoyne and his army in 1776 and 

 '7. During the controversy with New- 

 York, no skirmishing happened in this 

 town between the New- York and New 

 Hampshire claimants, but the inhabitants, 

 frequently, aided their neighbors in the 

 adjoining towns, in inflicting the cus- 

 tomary punishment of whipping upon the 

 Yorkers, who refused to retire after the 

 usual warning. In 1772, Ethan Allen, 

 having been declared an outlaw by the 

 New-York government, and a bounty of- 

 fered for his apprehension, called in com- 

 pany with Eli Roberts, of Vergennes, at 

 the house of Mr. Richards of this town. 

 In the evening, six soldiers from Crown 

 Point garrison, all armed, as were Allen 

 and Roberts, stopped for the night. Mrs. 

 Richards overheard them making their 

 arrangement to take Allen and get the 

 bounty. All was quiet till bed time, when 

 Mrs. Richards, on lighting Allen and 

 Roberts into another room, raised a win- 

 dow, at which they silently escaped. 

 When the soldiers discovered that they 

 were gone, they reprimanded Mrs. Rich- 

 ards severely for favouring their escape. 

 But she replied that " it was for the safe- 

 ty of her house, for had they been taken 

 here, the Hampshire men would have 

 torn it down over their heads." Novem- 

 ber 25, 1773, Samuel Smith, frcm N. J., 

 moved his family into town, having been 

 three years in the vicinity, and his was 

 the second family which remained perma- 

 nently here. Philip Stone was married 

 the same day to a Miss Ward, of Addison, 

 whose family had recently moved into 

 that town from Dover, N. Y. Mr. Victo- 

 ry came with his family, the following 

 winter. He died on an island in lake 

 George of an inflammatory fever, having 

 no person with him but a son 14 years old, 

 with a skiff". The lad tarried by his dead 

 father till some people came so near that 

 he hailed them, who came on shore, bur- 

 ied his father, and took him off. The 

 early settlers suffered extremely from fe- 

 ver and ague, and the long, or lake fever. 

 They had no roads for many years, ex- 

 cept the lake and the road from Charles- 

 town to Crown Point, which passed 

 through this town. They derived much 

 aid from the garrison at Crown Point, in 

 occasional supplies of provisions and other 



