Waitsfield, Washington County, Vermont

By Rev. P. B. Fisk

Note.-The writer desires at the outset, to acknowledge gratefully the assistance he has received from several of his fellow-townsmen, and especially to give the credit due to the late Jennison Jones, Esq., for his MS., in which most of the facts and dates prior to 1850, were faithfully recorded.

The township owes its name to Gen. Benjamin Wait, the first settler and leading proprietor of the town. It is situated in the south-western part of Washington Co., bounded by Moretown, Northfield, Warren, and Fayston. Its post-office is 20 miles (more or less) from the capital of the State, and lies snugly embedded just in the "Fork of the Y" of the Green Mountain range. The valley of the Mad River, running from south-west to northeast intersects it, the serpentine course of the stream both beautifying the scenery, and enriching and devouring by turns the meadows through which it winds its way.

Mad River received its name doubtless from the fact that, the mountain slopes being so near and steep-the surplus water is almost immediately thrown off into the brooks, and by them poured out into the river, which of course rises like sudden anger overflowing its banks and devouring them at will.

Waitsfield is almost precisely at the geographical center of the State of Vermont, and tradition has it that the commissioners to locate the State Capital "stuck their stake" almost precisely where the village now stands. But Gen. Wait declared "he wouldn't have his meadow cut up," and so he saved the town from that honor.

Incorporation

The charter is dated February 25, 1782, or 5 years after Vermont declared herself a free and independent State, signed by the venerable Thomas Chittenden, governor at the time. It was then a part of Chittenden County until 1811, when embraced in the new county called Jefferson, formed afterwards, called Washington. The township was supposed to include a tract of 23,030 acres. In 1788, it was found to contain 13,850 acres, or plus 840 acres. The description in the charter runs: 6 miles, 126 chains on the northerly side; 5 miles, 27 chains on the easterly side; 6 miles on the southerly side; 6 miles, 67 chains on the westerly side.

Proprietors and their Doings

The grant of the township was made "to Benjamin Wait, Roger Enos, and their associates, to the number of seventy." It was designed to have been divided into 75 equal shares (five of which were to be set apart for public use), containing 318 acres each, two lots of 150 acres each in the 1st division, and one lot of 18 acres in the 2nd division. The survey of the 1st division, viz.: of that part lying west of the mountain, was made in 1788, and this survey and plot was accepted by the proprietors. But as the lots began to be taken up and cleared, it was found the survey was very inaccurate.

The first proprietors' meeting was held in Windsor, June 30, 1788, adjourned to meet at Timothy Lull's, in Hartland, Nov. 4, 1788. It is probable that the adjourned meeting was held, but the record does not decide it so. The next date upon the records is "Woodstock, June 2, 1789," when a tax was voted to defray the expenses of obtaining the charter and making the survey. The names of those who voted the tax are given, together with the number of "rights" which each represented:

 Eight men representing 40 shares out of the 70. The remaining 30 shares were sold Sept. 23, 1789, for taxes, at auction.

Washington County | Vermont AHGP

Source: History of Washington County Vermont, Collated and Published by Abby Maria Hemenway, 1882.