Middlebury, Vermont, USA (East Middlebury) (Farmingdale)
1849 Middlebury

Addison Co. Chief town. This is a large and flourishing town on both sides of Otter Creek. The surface of the town is generally level. Chipman's Hill, 439 feet above Otter Creek, is the highest elevation.

The soil is fertile and productive, and furnishes large quantities of wool, beef, pork, butter, and cheese. The town is admirably watered by Otter Creek and Middlebury River At the falls on Otter Creek, the site of the flourishing village, are extensive manufacturing establishments; and large quantities of white and variegated marble, with which the town abounds, are sawed and polished for various uses and transported to market. Middlebury is a very beautiful town, and the mart of a large inland trade.

Nearly on the line between this township and Salisbury, is a bed of the sulphuret of iron, connected with the carbonate of lime. It is thought to exist in large quantities and has a powerful effect upon the magnetic needle.

Middlebury is a delightful place of residence, and has long been the site of considerable manufactures. The advantages of a great hydraulic power, united with a speedy conveyance, by railroad, cannot fail of rendering Middlebury one of the most important marts of trade and manufactures in the State. This is the site of a flourishing college.

Boundaries. North by New Haven and Bristol, east by Ripton, south by Salisbury, and west by Cornwall and Weybridge.

First Settlers. The first clearing was commenced by Col. John Chipman, in 1766, on the north bank of Middlebury River, where the west and centre road from Salisbury now unite. At this time there was no dwelling house in the State, on the west side of the mountains north of Manchester, distant sixty miles from Middlebury. The prospects were so discouraging that Mr. Chipman. soon returned to Connecticut, and did not visit the township during the seven succeeding years. In 1773, Col. Chipman and the Hon. Gamaliel Painter, from Salisbury, Ct., determined to risk their all in effecting a settlement of this township. They came into the town in May of this year with their families, and threw up a small log hut for a shelter from the weather. Benjamin Smalley had previously commenced and built a log house, which was the first house built here. Chipman located himself on the lot which he had commenced clearing seven years before, and Painter erected his habitation near the road leading to Salisbury, on the west bank of Middlebury River, near a spot of alluvial land, which had been an Indian encampment. On this spot are found numerous articles of Indian manufacture, such as arrows, hammers, &c, some being made of flint, others of jasper. A pot composed of sand and clay, of curious workmanship and holding about twenty quarts, was dug up here nearly entire in 1820.

First Ministers. A Congregational Church was organized in 1790. It was placed the same year under the pastoral care of the Rev. John Barnet, who was dismissed in 1795. The Rev. T. A. Merrill was settled in 1805. The Episcopal Church was organized in 1810.

Productions of the Soil. Wheat, 2,310 bushels; Indian corn, 7,500 bushels; potatoes, 23,023 bushels; hay, 8,900 tons; maple sugar, 1,200 pounds; wool, 52,300 pounds.

Distances. Thirty-five miles southwest from Montpelier, and thirty-three south south-east from Burlington. The great Southern Railroad between Boston and Burlington passes through the town.


A gazetteer of Vermont... by John Hayward Boston - Tappan, Whittemore, and Mason 1849

Visit Middlebury, Vermont, USA (East Middlebury) (Farmingdale)
Discover the people who lived there, the places they visited and the stories they shared.