Windsor, Vermont, USA
1849 Windsor

Windsor Co. The surface of this delightful town is uneven, but there are but few parts of it unfit for cultivation. It contains large tracts of alluvial meadow, and the uplands are generally fertile. Mill Brook waters the south part of the town, and furnishes it with mill sites.

The manufactures of Windsor are numerous and valuable. The agricultural interests are also valuable ; and many neat cattle, horses, and productions of the dairy, are annually transported to its various markets.

This town has become the centre of an important commerce, both from the river and a fertile interior country. The favorable position of Windsor, as a place of trade, was early discovered ; and it has been fortunate in possessing a succession of men, who, by their enterprise
and wealth, have rendered it one of the most flourishing towns on Connecticut River. The manufactures of Windsor are considerable.

The village of Windsor is on elevated ground, on the bank of the river ; it is compactly, and somewhat irregularly built, but very beautiful. There are but few villages in our country which make a more delightful appearance. It contains a great number of handsome dwelling-houses and stores. Some of the private houses, churches, and other public buildings, are in a style of superior elegance. This is the site of the Vermont State Prison The streets are wide, and beautifully shaded.

The scenery around Windsor is highly picturesque ; from the highlands across the river, in Cornish, which is united to Windsor by a bridge, or on the Ascutney, at the south part of the town, some of the best landscapes in our country are presented to view.

For the purpose of affording the village the advantages of water power, in 1835 a stone dam was constructed across Mill Brook, half a mile from its mouth. It is 360 feet in length, fifty six in breadth at the base, twelve at the top, and forty-two in height, forming a reservoir of water nearly one mile in length, with a surface of 100 acres, having an available fall of sixty feet in the distance of one third of a mile. The dam is built on the arc of a circle, over which, in flood time, the water flows in an unbroken sheet, 102 feet in length, forming one of the most beautiful cascades in the country.

A new epoch has opened to Windsor, by the opening of a railroad from Boston through it, and to the fertile and extensive country beyond it. Instead of the old process of conveying passengers and property by teams, stages, and river craft, the "Iron Horse" comes along two or three times a day, carrying in his train a burthen of 200 tons, or more, at the i-ate of twenty-five miles an hour ; smoking his pipe, the while, with as much composure as a Mohawk River Dutchman. The site of Windsor is such as will continue to command a large share of the trade of this section of country.—See Public Buildings.

Boundaries. North by Hartland, easterly by Connecticut River, which separates it from Cornish, N. H., south by Weathersfield, and westerly by Reading.

First Settlers. The first permanent settlement in the town was commenced by Capt. Steele Smith, who removed his family from Farmington, Ct., in August, 1764. At that time there was no road north of Charlestown, N. H. The next season, Major Elisha Hawley, Capt. Israel Curtis, Dea. Hez. Thompson, Dea. Thomas Cooper, and some others, came on and began improvements.

First Ministers. At an early period, two religious societies of the Congregational order were formed in Windsor ; one in the east, and the other in the west parish of the town. About the year 1778, the Rev, Martin Tuller and the Rev. Pelatiel Chapin were ordained the first ministers over their respective churches in those parishes.

Productions of the Soil. Wheat, 2,864 bushels; Indian corn, 12,920 bushels; potatoes, 61,075 bushels; hay, 5,673 tons ; maple sugar, 18,320 pounds ; wool, 25,343 pounds.

Distances. Fifty-five miles south by east from Montpelier, and eleven southeast from Woodstock.

The Central Railroad between this town and Hartford, united with the Sullivan Railroad in New Hampshire, was opened for travel on the 31st of January, 1849. The opening of these roads completes the line of railroad communication between Boston and Burlington, via Fitchburg. Mass., Keene and Walpole, N. H., and Windsor and Montpelier, Vt.

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

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