Vermont AHGP
Part of the American History and
Genealogy Project
First Residents of Woodbury, Vermont
The town was organized March 3, 1803. Duncan Young with his family, himself, wife, 2 daughters, 2 sons, Daniel and John, came from Calais in 1802, and settled on right No. 13, where S. M. Seaver now lives, but stayed only two or three years, and removed to Montpelier. His oldest son, David, was a resident of this town in after years, and was the father of J. M. and P. D. Young, who yet live here, and Mrs. Martin C. Brown. From 1802 to '12, we find from the land records, residents: Henry Goodale. James Green from Waterbury, Carpus Clark, Elisha B. Green, (who built the first saw-mill on the present site of H. T. Clark's mill,) Daniel Colby, Uriah Stone, and Amasa Brown.
In 1818, there was but one family that of Amasa Brown, Esq., left in town. It was a standing jest for some years that Mr. Brown threw his family on the town at this time, for their support. Wild game was plenty, deer abundant, bears frequently seen.
The first settlers of the town were John Ridlon and George Martin, who came from Kennebec, Maine, in 1797, and commenced a settlement on the 1-acre lot, laid out in the center of the town on "Hampshire hill." They erected a house of split basswood logs, and cleared some 10 or 12 acres. It is said they soon left, and the farm where they first commenced was not permanently settled until several years after. They must have come back again soon and settled on the Branch, where L. M. Hutchinson now lives, as both tradition and the land records indicate they lived there in 1803, and made the first permanent settlement there.
Between 1818 and 1820, Wm. Arbuckle, Thayer Townsend, Job Hill and Jesse Flint came into the town. Mr. Arbuckle lived in a small log house on Amasa Brown's land.
Mr. Townsend settled on the hill on the "Closson" farm, where Wm. Brvice, Jr., now lives;
Job Hill, on the place where Leonard Hamblet lives.
In the fall of 1820, Allen Vail prepared a place for his family; also Thomas Reed, Jr., from Londonderry.
Mr. Reed moved his family to Middlesex early in 1820, to Mr. Benjamin Baldwin's, Mrs. Reed's father, who lived near Christopher C. Putnam's present residence.
Mr. B. had at this time built a saw-mill where Putnam's mill now is, the second in town. Reckoning from the time Mr. Reed commenced work on his farm, his was the third or fourth family here.
Others who came to town from 1820 to '23 or '24, were David Poor, Capt. Artemas Richardson and wife, Franklin Johnson, Oramel L. Smith, Cyrus Crocker, J. P. B. Ladd, Jonas and Nathan Abbott, Ebenezer S. Kellogg and wife, Joel H. Templeton and family, Eleazer Hutchinson and family, from Norwich; Dea. Matthias Folsom and wife and David Folsom and Amos Rice and wife, from Dover, Vt.; Leonard Hamblet, from Dracut, Mass., found mentioned in the records with others whose names have not been learned.
Source: History of Washington County Vermont, Collated and Published by Abby Maria Hemenway, 1882.
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