Part III. 



GAZETTEER OF VERMONT. 



147 



RANDOLPH. 



REAUING. 



birch, with some hemlock and spruce. 

 The surface of the township is considera- 

 bly elevated,butis less broken than that of 

 the towns generally in this vicinit3r. The 

 soil is productive and the farming inter- 

 est extensive. There are here three 

 pleasant villages, one in the centre of 

 the tov/nship, another in the eastern, and 

 the other in the western part. The Ven- 

 tre village is very handsomely situated 

 on elevated ground, and contains 2 hand- 

 some meeting houses, an academy school 

 house, a post ofFce, 2 attornies' offices, 2 

 stores, 1 tavern, and a number of hand- 

 some dwelling houses. The Hon. Dud- 

 ley Chase, many years speaker of the 

 House of Representatives, afterwards 

 judge of the supreme court, and subse- 

 quently senator in Congress, resides here. 

 The union meeting house in this village, 

 erected in 1837, is occupied princi])al]y 

 by the Universalists and Methodists. Tiie 

 principal preachers have been Rev. Wm. 

 S. Ballou,Universalist, and Rev. S.P.Wil- 

 liams, JMethodist. P>.andolph Academj^ 

 or Orange County Grammar School, was 

 established here Nov. 8, 1806, and the 

 building erected in 1807. This institution 

 is well furnished with apparatus, and the 

 literary society connected with it has a 

 library of 300 vols., for the use and bene- 

 fit ofthe scholars. This academy has been, 

 for the most part, deservedly popular. 

 The following is a list of the prceptors : 



William Nutting, from t&O? to 1813. 



D. Bieck, from 1813 to 1814. 



Rufus Nutting, from 1814 to 1318. 



Georgo Bush, (rom 1818 to 18 'f). 

 Samuel A. Worcester, from 1819 to 1830. 



Joseph Sawyer, from 1820 to J821. 



Rufus Nutting, from 1831 to 1823. 



Clement Long, from 1823 to 1831. 



John Fairchild, from !83I to 1832. 



T. G. Brainard, from 1S32 to 183(1. 



Samuel A. Benton, from 1836 to 18.38. 



Azariah HyJe, from ]a38 to I84I. 



Ell ward Cleveland, from 1841 to — r-, 



Piandolph East village is situated on the 

 2d branch of White river, is compactly 

 built and a place of considerable business. 

 It contains a meeting house built in 1839, 

 and owned principally by the Universal- 

 ists, 3 stores, 1 tavern, a post office, an at- 

 torney's oflice, and mills of various kinds. 

 The "Infirmary and Insane Hospital" of 

 Dr. Jehiel Smith is in this village. Ran- 

 dolph Wc^t village contains a meeting- 

 house, 2 stores, 1 tavern, a post office, an 

 attorney's office, and mills, and other ma- 

 chinery. The meeting house is occupied 

 princi])ally by the Congregationalists and 

 Christians, the minister of the former be- 

 ing Rev. John Vinton, and Rev. Mr. 

 Marsh of the latter. There are in town 

 4 attornies, 7 physicians, 22 school dis- 

 tricts, with school houses, 1 oil, 5 grist, 



and 9 saw mills, 8 stores, 4 taverns, 

 five tanneries, two furnaces, two starch 

 factories, clothiers' works, and carding 

 machines, &c. Statistics of 1840. — Hors- 

 es, 589; cattle, 2,233; sheep, 17,792; 

 swine, 2,620 ; wheat, bus. 5,525 ; barley, 

 104; oats, 32,105; rye, 3,40G; b'kwheat, 

 7,287; Ind. corn, 18,499. potatoes, 112,- 

 598 ; hay, tons, 8,831 ; sugar, lbs. 34,660; 

 wool, 40,782. Population, 2,678. 



Random. — Name altered to Brighton 

 November 3, 1832. See Brighton. 



Readi.s'g, a post town in the central 

 part of Windsor county, is in lat. 43° 30' 

 and long. 4° 26', and bounded north by 

 Woodstock, east by Windsor, south by 

 Cavendish, and west by Plymouth. It is 

 53 miles south from Montpelier, and was 

 chartered to Israel Stowell, Jonathan 

 Hammond and others, July 6, 1781, and 

 contains 23,040 acres. The settlement 

 of the township was commenced about 

 the year 1772, by Andrew Spear, who 

 removed his family here from Walpole, 

 N. H. This was for several years the 

 only famil}' in town. About the year 

 1778, John Weld, Esq. moved his family 

 from Pomfret, Conn., and several young 

 men from that and the other New Eng- 

 land states, began improvements in the 

 south and eastern parts of the township. 

 Most ofthe early settlers were in low cir- 

 cumstances as to property, and, like the 

 settlers of other new townships, they had 

 to endure privations and hardships. The 

 town was organized March 30, 1780, and 

 Jedediah Leavens was the first town clerk. 

 It was represented the same year by Thos. 

 Hapgood. Col. Tyler, of Claremont, N. 

 H., built a saw mill here in 1780, and the 

 first grist mill in 1783. Capt. David 

 Burnham opened the first tavern in 1786. 

 On the 23d of November, 1737, the Rev. 

 Nahum Sergeant was ordained to the pas- 

 toral care of tlie Congregational church 

 in Reading, with a permanent salary for 

 life. A log meeting house was erected 

 about the same time. The church, how- 

 over, were not long blest with his labors; 

 for in visiting his friends in Chelsea, 

 Mass. he was disposed to have the small 

 pox by inoculation, of which he died on 

 the 7th of October, A. D., 1792. No oth- 

 er minister was permanently settled here 

 until the 22d of February, 1819, when the 

 Rev. Moses Elliott was ordained to the 

 pastoral care of the same church ; but 

 continued here only about a year. There 

 are at present, several religious denomi- 

 nations in Reading, viz. Congregational- 

 ists, Baptists, Methodists, Christians, and 

 Universalists. The Rev. Samuel C. Love- 

 land, minister ofthe Universalists, resides 

 here ; and the Revds. Jonathan Jones 



