184 



GAZETTEER OF VERMONT. 



Part III. 



WEAXnEnSFIELD. 



■\VEATHERSFIELD. 



lat. 44° 33', and is bounded north by 

 Bakersfield, east by Belvidere and John- 

 son, south by Cambridge, and west by 

 Fletcher. It was chartered Oct. 26, 1788, 

 to James Whitelaw, James Savage -and 

 William Coit, by the name ofCoit's 

 Gore, and originally contained 11,000 

 acres. It, with some portions of the ad- 

 joining towns, was incorporated into a 

 town by the name of Waterville, Nov. 15, 

 1824. The settlement was commenced 

 about the year 1789. The first mills were 

 erected in 1796 and 1707, by John John- 

 son for Wm. Coit. It is v/atered princi- 

 pally by the north branch of Lamoille 

 river, which atfords several good mill 

 privileges. Along this stream is a tract 

 of very good land. Other parts are some- 

 what mountainous and broken. TJiero 

 are here G school districts, 1 grist, 3 saw 

 and 2 fulling mills, 1 woollen factory and 

 2 stores. Statistics of 1840. — Horses, 

 110; cattle, 874; sheep, 1,557; swine, 

 270; wheat, bus. 697; oats, 2,542; rye, 

 20 ; Indian corn, 1,104 ; potatoes, 23,054 ; 

 hay, tons, 1,319; sugar, lbs. 11,020; wool, 

 3,118. Population, 610. 



Weatmersfiei.d, a post town in the 

 eastern part of Windsor county, is in lat. 

 43" 23' and long. 4° 30', and is bounded 

 north by Windsor, east by Connecticut 

 river, v.-hich separates it from Claremont, 

 N. H., south by Springfield, and west b}' 

 Cavendish and Baltimore. It is 70 miles 

 south from Montpelior,and 21 south from 

 Woodstock. It wa? chartered to Benja- 

 min Allen and others, Aug. 20, 1761, and 

 contains 22,030 acres. The early settlers 

 of this town emigrated principally from 

 Connecticut. It was organized in March, 

 1778. Bcnoni Tultlo was the first town 

 clerk, and Israel Burlingame its first rep- 

 resentative. The Piev. James Treadway, 

 of the Congregational order, its first min- 

 ister, was settled by the town in J 779, 

 and continued their pastor until 1783. 

 Rev. Dan Foster was settled in 1767, and 

 dismissed in 1799. Rev. James Converse 

 was ordained Feb. 10, 1802, and remain- 

 ed their pastor until his death, Jan. 7th, 

 1839. Mr. C. was eminently useful, and 

 died universally beloved and lamented. 

 During his succes.':ful ministry, there 

 were several e.xtensive revivals of relijrion 

 in town. Rev. iVelson Bishop was set- 

 tled in 1840, and dismissed in March, 

 1842. In 1835 a Congregational church 

 was formed at Perkinsville, in the west 

 part of the town, which have erected a 

 house of worship, but have no settled 

 minister. Previous to this a neat and 

 commodious house of worship, of the 

 Gothic style, had been erected here by 

 the united efforts of different denomi- 



nations, which is now principally occu- 

 pied by the Baptists, under the pastoral 

 care of the Rev. Mr. Lunt, who was ordain- 

 ed in 1841. In 1825 the Methodists erec- 

 ted a meeting house in the north part of 

 the town, and in 1836 a more numerous 

 society built a neat chapel of brick at 

 Perkinsville. In 1S38 a church was or- 

 ganized in the southeast part of the town, 

 formed mostly of members from the cen- 

 tre church, which has erected a beautiful 

 church. Rev. John^Dudley, the present 

 pastor of this church, was installed in 

 1841. Tlie first meeting house, situated 

 near the centre of the town, was built by 

 a land tax, and was consumed by fire in 

 March, 1821, generally supposed to be 

 the work of an incendiary. The same 

 year the Congregational society, which 

 had been previously organized, built a 

 beautiful brick edifice on the same site. 

 During the spring and summer of 1791, 

 there were more tiian 70 cases of the small 

 pox here, 9 of which were fatal. Araonor 

 those who sacrificed their time and rno- 

 ney, and were indefatigable in ameliora- 

 ting the sufferings of their neighbors, may 

 be mentioned Tliomas Prentiss, Joscjjh 

 Hvhbard, and Samuel Steele, the earliest 

 settlers of the town, now dead. The ep- 

 idemic of 1312 ])revailcd extensively, car- 

 rying off about 70 of the inhabitants. Con- 

 necticut river washes the eastern border 

 of this town, upon the banks of which 

 are some of the best farms in the state. 

 In the southeast part the river makes a 

 bend, significantly called " the Bow," 

 from its resemblance to an ox-bow. This 

 encloses several hundred acres of the 

 most productive land, principally owned 

 by Hon. Wm. Jarvis, late United States 

 Consul at Lisbon. Mr. J. resides upon 

 this farm, and has done much toward im- 

 proving the qualitj' of wool throughout 

 the state. His flock of full breed merino 

 is probably not excelled hy any in Ver- 

 mont. Black river waters the western 

 section of this town, affording numerous 

 privileges for mills and manufacturing es- 

 tablishments. The meadows upon this 

 river are rich and fertile. The remain- 

 ing part of the town is undulating, but 

 fertile, and richly rewards the labor of 

 the husbandman. Large quantities of 

 pork, beef, liutter and cheese were for- 

 merly furnished for the Boston market, 

 by the enterprising farmers, but of late 

 the attention of the agriculturist has 

 been turned more to wool growing, for 

 which the high lands are admirably fitted. 

 The bed of Black river, for a considerable 

 distance, is a solid mass of gneiss and mi- 

 ca slate, and upon each side of it are con- 

 siderable elevations of the same material, 



