Ludlow, Vermont, USA
1849 Ludlow

WiNDSOR Co, Black River passes through the centre of the town, and has many valuable mill sites. In the upper part of its course it widens into four large basins ; the largest in Ludlow being nearly circular, and one mile in diameter, known as the Ludlow and Plymouth Ponds. In the north-west corner of the town is the "Tiney Pond," several hundred feet above the level of the river, and nearly half a mile in diameter. No stream supplies it, but a small rivulet passes from it, tumbling from one rock to another in its rugged course, until, after passing half a mile, it empties into the largest Ludlow Pond. The only fish it contains is that commonly called the horn pout. There is another large collection of water in the western part of the town, and several extensive bogs upon both sides of the river, now presenting only a surface of mud, covered many feet deep with moss, but evidently once the bed of mountain ponds. These bogs afford the botanist many rare and curious varieties of shrubs and flowers. The soil upon the river is alluvial, and throughout the town is fertile, and well adapted for grazing and cultivation.

The prevailing rock is mica slate, and, imbedded in masses, or forming independent boulders, are found the white, ferruginous, and smoky quartz, black and green hornblende, and steatite, with localities of ligniform asbestos, its strands from twelve to twenty four inches in length, plumbago, galena, and garnet.

In the western part of the town are quantities of the carbonate mingled with the sulphate of lime, and containing beautiful specimens of calcareous spar. In the eastern border is a lofty range of serpentine, containing the harder varieties of asbestos, talc, and hornstone, and forming, near the line of Cavendish, that most beautiful variety of marble known by the name of verd antique. Limestone and serpentine mingle, and produce every possible shade of green, from the lightest grass to an almost perfect black, and these shades running into each other in a most pleasing and apparently never ending variety.

Boundaries. North by Plymouth, east by Cavendish and Chester, south by Andover and Weston, and its western line passes, for about nine miles, along the ridge of highlands which separate Windsor and Rutland Counties, and form the boundary between Ludlow and Mount Holly.

First Settlers. No attempt was made at commencing a settlement until 1784-5, when Josiah and Jesse Fletcher, Simeon Reed, and James Whitney, emigrants from Massachusetts, removed within the limits of the township, and began their clearings upon the alluvial flats bordering upon Black River.

First Minister. A Congregational Church was organized here in 1806, but had no settled minister until 1810, when the Rev. Peter Kead became their pastor.

Productions of the Soil. Wheat, 1 ,S85 bushels : Indian cotn, 3,060 bushels ; potatoes, 23,626 bushels; hay, 3,600 tons ; maple sugar, 5,154 pounds ; wool, 9,069 pounds.

Distances. Sixty-one miles south from Montpelier, and eighteen southwest from Windsor,

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

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