History of Peacham, Vermont, USA

Peacham, Vermont
Caledonia county. As no town can be considered properly peopled without some of the fair sex, the date of the first settlement of Peacham must have been near 1777, when Henry Elkins, the first child in town, was born. The first mill was erected in 1781. The town is well watered by several ponds and streams; the surface is pleasantly diversified; the soil fertile and well cultivated by independent farmers. The agricultural products are considerable. About 6,000 sheep are kept. Peacham lies 20 miles E. by N. from Montpelier and 8 S. by W. from Danville. Population, 1830, 1,351.

Caledonia Co. Onion River Pond, so called from its giving rise to one of the principal branches of Onion or Winooski River, lies in the western part of the town, and covers about 300 acres. There are two considerable streams passing off to the east into Stevens' Branch, which afford numerous mill privileges.

A ridge of land passes through the western part, but there is no very considerable elevation in the town. The western part is a hard soil, but the eastern is rich, and pleasantly diversified with hills and valleys, being inhabited by a great number of respectable and wealthy farmers. There is, in the eastern part of the town, a natural bog meadow, containing an inexhaustible quantity of shell marl, from which lime has been manufactured to a considerable extent. The color of the marl is a bluish white.

There is also plenty of limestone, from which lime is made.

One of the most remarkable occurrences in the town was the loss of a man's great toe, by frost, in the month of...