Scott Andrew Bartley
The history of printing in Vermont began as the area was evolving into an independent state. Noting a need for printers, the legislature voted brothers Judah Paddock Spooner and Alden Spooner to be appointed as the printers for the General Assembly in October of 1778. The Spooner brothers resided at Dresden (now part of Hanover, N.H.), then in the jurisdiction of Vermont. By the 1790s, printers were established in the major towns of the state. The first volume dedicated to the subject of Vermont history was not printed in the state: Samuel Williams'sThe Natural and Civil History of VermontHistory of the Town of Middlebury, in the County of Addison, Vermont: To which is Prefixed a Statistical and Historical Account of the County
(Walpole, N.H., 1794). The earliest published Vermont town history was Samuel Swift's(Middlebury, Vt., 1859). The publisher, A. H. Copeland, was responsible for most of the earliest histories that centered on towns around Middlebury.
Abby Maria Hemenway is a name to remember in Vermont genealogy. She gathered the pieces that became The Vermont Historical Gazetteer: A Magazine Embracing a History of Each Town. As the publication's editor, her goal was to cover each county in alphabetical order. She enlisted the aid of local town historians to write sketches of each town. These sketches became longer as the project continued. The histories often combined the collective memories of the oldest people in town with a survey of the earliest records. Because many of the collaborators were of the second generation in the town, the information gathered may not be found in any other source. There are short genealogies randomly placed in each town sketch.
The publication of such a large project inherently has an interesting history. Volume one was published serially from 1860 to 1867. The rest of the volumes were printed as single volumes though many town sections were issued as offprints. Volume five for Windham County was being edited while Hemenway was in Chicago, when most of the manuscript burned in a fire. Undaunted, she started the task of reassembling the sketches. She died in 1890 and her sister finished and published the volume. Brattleboro was first sketch in the volume and had its own pagination. Part two includes most of Windham County, though Westminster, between pages 560 and 669, is paginated 1 to 110. Part three included Guildford, Londonderry, Wilmington, and Windham, all of Windham County, and added the towns of Sutton, Caledonia County (not included in contents) and Bennington, Bennington County. Each town had its own pagination. It is best to use the table of contents, located in the back of many of the volumes, to locate a town. Volume six for Windsor County, the last in the series, had a dire end. Hemenway stated that volume six "was nearly prepared for press, one town printed," (Andover) when the manuscript fell victim to a fire in her sister's house. Hemenway died soon after and volume six was never published except for the Andover offprint. This is a great loss, but the Hemenway series is still the first stop for researching families before 1850. The state realized the value of this resource and the five volumes were indexed under the direction of the State Librarian to create a volume six in 1923.
Supported by the Genealogical Society of Vermont, Scott Andrew Bartley's Vermont Families in 1791 series consists of two volumes so far, with a third volume now in the works (2002). The project hopes to identify everyone listed in the federal census of 1790 (taken in 1791 for Vermont). Each volume consists of a sampling of edited sketches by a variety of amateur and professional genealogists as well as others who were interested in the project. The families, towns, or counties are not being done in any order, but as the sketches come in. The project is large. There are 14,983 heads of households enumerated in the census. Volume one included 126 households and volume two included 107 households. Both volumes amount to 1.5 percent of the total. The coverage is actually much higher as each sketch covers the children of each household that are often already married and part of another household. The grandchildren are listed when known.
The focus of this article is to determine what Vermont town histories have been published, while listing only the ones that include a genealogical section. The first place to look for town histories is T. D. Seymour Bassett's Vermont, A Bibliography of Its History (Hanover, N.H., 1981, reprint 1983), which is volume four of Bibliographies of New England History series. Additions can be found later in the series with volume eight (1989) and nine (1995). The best resource for genealogical content is Vermontiana collector and bibliographer John A. Leppman's A Bibliography for Vermont Genealogy (St. Albans, VT, 2000). There have been several town histories published since Leppman's work and these are covered in this article, which includes all published histories to 2002. The entries below are in alphabetical order by town. Following the citation for each town history is an alphabetical list of all surnames included in the history. A future installment will rearrange the material and provide a comprehensive surname index to all published Vermont town histories that feature a genealogical section
Virginia Wharton, ed., History of Albany, Vermont , 1806-1991 (S.l., 1991), p. 80-256.
Anderson, Bacon, Bill, Bosworth, Brown, Burt, Butler, Carter, Casavant, Chadwick, Chaffee, Chase, Cheney, Chicoine, Cormier, Cowles, Coapland, Coomer, Daniels, Darling, Davis, Dow, Dyer, Eldridge, Farr, Fulton, Gallagher, George, Gile, Goddard, Gonyaw, Graham, Hackett, Hayden, Heath, Honey, Horner, Hovey, Hyde, Ingram, Kelly, Kenneson, Kilby, Kilgallen, Knott, Lafont, Lawrence, Lesdin, Locke, Long, Lussier, Mailhot, Marsh, Martin, Mason, McGuire, Miles, Nelson, Newton, Pierce, Potter, Rogers, Rowell, Sanders, Shepard, Shute, Sinon, Skinner, Smith, Stone, Tremblay, Urie, Vahlteich, Vance, Wallace, Waters, Wells, Whitcomb, Winget, Wolford, Young.
Allen L. Stratton, The Unfinished Typescript for History of the Town of Alburgh, Vermont, volume 2 (Montpelier, Vt., 2000), all of volume two is genealogies, 216 pp., indexed.
Andrew, Babcock, Bell, Bockus, Bohannon, Brandigo, Burghardt, Cargill, Carrigan, Chambers, Clark, Conklin, Cook, Covey, Darrow, Davis, Deuel (Devol, etc.), Garlick, Hislop, Holbrook, Honsinger, James, Kinsley, Ladue, Lessor, Loop, McGowan, McGregor, McLain (McClean), McMillin, McNiel, Sewell, Soule (Sowle), Stoughton, Straight, Storm, Sweet, Taylor, Truman, Vantine, Waggoner, Way, Wedgeworth, Wood.
Lora M. Wyman, History of Athens, Vermont with Genealogies (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1963), p. 121-161, indexed (does not include genealogies).
Ball, Bemis, Butson, Dunham, Edwards, Hitchcock, Kelton, Knight, Oak(es), Ober, Parkhurst, Perham, Perry, Powers, Shafter, Shattuck, Smith, Upton, Whitney, Wyman.
Annie M. Pollard, The History of the Town of Baltimore, Vermont (Montpelier, Vt., 1954), p. 44-208, families arranged geographically not alphabetically, table of contents lists families.
Atherton, Batchelder, Bemis, Boynton, Campbell, Chaplin, Cheney, Davis, Glynn, Gregory, Graves, Harris, Hastings, Houghton, Leland, Litch, Martin, Page, Piper, Preston, Woodbury, Woodward.
William Monroe Newton, History of Barnard, Vermont with Family Genealogies 1761-1927 ([Montpelier], Vt., 1928), all of volume two is genealogies, 511 pp., indexed, miscellaneous names not included here.
Abbott, Adams, Aiken, Allen, Angell, Annis, Ashley, Atwood, Ayres, Babbitt, Babcock, Badger, Ball, Ballard, Ballou, Bancroft, Bannister, Barlow, Barnes, Bartholemew, Bartlett, Bedor, Beedle, Belding, Belknap, Benjamin, Bernard, Berry, Bicknell, Bigelow, Billings, Black, Blackmer, Blake, Blanchard, Blodgett, Bowen, Bowman, Boyden, Brannan, Briggs, Brigham, Brown, Brownell, Bruce, Bryant, Buckman, Bugbee, Burbank, Burke, Butman, Byam, Byram, Cadwell, Cady, Call, Campbell, Carlin, Carpenter, Carroll, Carver, Caryl, Cassidy, Caswell, Chadwick, Chamberlain, Chapman, Chase, Chedel (Cheadle), Cheney, Clapp, Clark, Cleveland, Cole, Conant, Connor, Cook, Coolidge, Cootey, Coughlin, Cowdry, Cox, Cram, Crowell, Culver, Cummings, Cushing, Danforth, Davis, Dean, Dewolf, Dexter, Dimoch, Dunham, Dutton, Eastman, Eaton, Egery, Ellis, Emerson, Evans, Fairbanks, Farrell, Fay, Fish, Foster, Francis, Frasier, Freeman, French, Fuller, Furber, Gale, Gambell, Gates, George, Gibbs, Gifford, Glover, Goff, Goodell, Graves, Gray, Green, Griffin, Hammond, Harding, Harlow, Harpin, Haskell, Hastings, Hatch, Hathaway, Hathorn, Hemenway, Henry, Herraden, Hewett, Hinchey, Hodges, Holden, Homes, Horton, Howard, Howe, Hunt, Huntoon, Hutchinson, Jaques, Jefferson, Jones, Keith, Kelley, Kendall, Kenney, Keyes, Kidder, Lamb, Lawton, Learned, Leavitt, Leonard, Lesure, Lewis, Lillie, Lucas, Luce, Lurvey, Lynch, Macia, Mack, McCormick, McIntosh, McNelly, McNutt, Marsh, Martin, Martindale, Mason, Maxham, Maynard, Merrill, Miller, Miner, Moore, Morgan, Myrick, Newcomb, Newell, Newton, Nickerson, Nott, Noyes, Nye, Paddock, Paige, Palmer, Pangborn, Parkhurst, Parmenter, Peck, Perham, Perkins, Perrin, Perry, Pierce, Pike, Pratt, Putnam, Ramsey, Rand, Reed, Reynolds, Rice, Richardson, Richmond, Riley, Rogers, Royce, Russell, Sabin, Savage, Sawyer, Sharp, Shipman, Simonds, Smith, Snow, Southgate, Spaudling, Spear, Spooner, Stearns, Stebbins, Stetson, Stevens, Steward, Stickney, Stone, Sweetser, Swift, Thacher, Thomas, Topliff, Town, Townsend, Tribou, Tucker, Tupper, Turner, Twombly, Walcott, Walker, Ward, Warner, Warrant, Warren, Washburn, Waters, Webb, Wheat, Wheelock, Whitcomb, White, Wight, Wilbur, Wilcox, Wilkins, Wilson, Wing, Winslow, Wood, Woodbury, Worthing, Wright.
Frederic Palmer Wells, History of Barnet, Vermont from the Outbreak of the French and Indian War to the Present Time (Burlington, Vt., 1923), p. 317-673, indexed (does not include genealogies).
Abbott, Adams, Aiken, Albee, Alger, Annis, Armington, Bachop, Bagley, Bailey, Bandy, Barnard, Barnett, Batchelder, Beard, Bedell, Bell, Beveridge, Bill, Bishop, Blain, Blair, Bliss, Boardman, Bole, Bovee, Bradford, Brewer, Brock, Brownell, Bruce, Buchanan, Buffum, Burbank, Bushway, Button, Buzzell, Cady, Caldwell, Carrick, Carter, Chamberlain, Chase, Chassell, Cheney, Chick, Choate, Clark, Clement, Clifford, Coben, Cobleigh, Colby, Cowles, Crane, Cross, Cummings, Cushman, Darling, Davison, Day, Denio, Dewey, Dole, Douse, Dow, Duncan, Dunnett, Dutton, Eastman, Elsey, Emery, Esdon, Fairbanks, Faris, Ferguson, Field, Finlay, Fisher, Fitzgerald, Ford, Foster, French, Fulford, Galbraith, Gammell, Garland, Gates, Gay, Gibson, Gilchrist, Gilfillan, Gilkerson, Gill, Gillander, Gilson, Gleason, Gochee, Goodrich, Goodwillie, Goss, Gould, Govan, Graham, Gregg, Guthrie, Hadley, Hale, Hall, Harriman, Harris, Harvey, Haseltine (Hazelton, etc.), Hastie, Hastings, Hatch, Hawes, Hawk, Hazen, Heath, Henry, Higgins, Hoyt, Hunt, Hurd, Hinman, Ide, Johnson, Johnston, Jones, Judkins, Kelly, Kendall, Kenerson, Kennedy, Kent, Kimball, Kinney, Kinsley, Lackie, Laird, Lang, Lawrence, Leavenworth, Liddle, Lindsay, Litch, Little, McArthur, McCallum, McCulloch, McDonald, McGill, McIndoe, McKinlay, McLaren, McMillan, McNab, McPhee, Manchester, Marshall, Martin, Mason, Matthews, Maxwell, Meacham, Miller, Moneith, Moore, Morgan, Morrill, Morrison, Morse, Mullen, Mulliken, Nelson, Nichols, Norris, Nutter, Oakes, Orr, Paddleford, Palmer, Parks, Patten, Peabody, Peck, Phelps, Pierce, Pollard, Potts, Prouty, Quimby, Ramsey, Ray, Randall, Redding, Richardson, Rider, Ritchie, Ross, Roy, Russell, Salter, Samuel, Sargent, Service, Shaw, Shearer, Sheldon, Sherburne, Simonds, Skinner, Smiley, Smith, Somers, Spencer, Sprague, Stanley, Stevens, Stevenson, Story, Strobridge, Stuart, Sutherland, Sylvester, Thayer, Thompson, Thornton, Thyng, Turner, Tuttle, Twaddle, Vance, Van Dyke, Vitty, Waddell, Wallace, Warden, Wark, Watts, Way, Welch, Wells, Wesson, White, Whitehill, Wilson, Winch, Woods, Wright, Youngman.
Isaac Jennings, Memorials of a Century. Embracing a Record of Individuals and Events Chiefly in the Early History of Bennington, Vt. and its First Church (Boston, 1869), p.204-335, arranged chronologically by arrival. They are generally biographical sketches that list some family members.
Armstrong, Barney, Bigelow, Bingham, Blackmer, Booth, Breakenridge, Brown, Brush, Carpenter, Chace, Chandler, Clark, Cochran, Colvin, Crossett, Cushman, Dewey, Edgerton, Fassett, Fay, Field, Fillmore, French, Galusha, Hall, Harmon, Harvey, Harwood, Haswell, Hathaway, Hawks, Haynes, Henderson, Henry, Hicks, Hinsdill, Hubbell, Hunt, Jewett, Kingsley, Loomis, Lyman, Merrill, Nichols, Norton, Olin, Paddock, Park, Patchin, Pool, Potter, Pratt, Roach, Robinson, Safford, Sage, Sanford, Sears, Selden, Squire, Swift, Thayer, Tichenor, Vanderspiegel, Walbridge, Watson, Weeks, Wood, Wright.
Fred G. Cox, The Illustrated Historical Souvenir of Bethel, Vermont (Bethel, Vt., 1893; rep. Ann Arbor, Mich., 1976), set up like Hemenway, p. 46-103, in no order, surname histories indexed.
Adams, Ainsworth, Arnold, Berry, Bird, Bowen, Brooks, Buckman, Bullard, Burnett, Cady, Chadwick, Chamberlin, Chase, Child, Clough, Curtis, Cushing, Davis, Emery, Gilson, Graham, Harrington, Hatch, Hunton, Kimball, Marsh, McIntosh, Meserve, Moody, Morrill, Morris, Morse, Noble, Parker, Richardson, Sanders, Sargent, Shaw, Shedd, Smith, Spaulding, Sylvester, Terry, Tupper, Wallace, Webster, Wellington, Wheeler, Williams, Wilson, Wight.
Silas McKeen, A History of Bradford, Vermont (Montpelier, Vt., 1875), p. 126-437, table of contents that includes sketches of physicians (surname can appear more than once).
Aldrich, Andross, Armstrong, Aubery, Baldwin, Barron, Batchelder, Bliss, Butler, Carpenter, Carter, Chase, Clark, Colby, Corliss, Cummings, Cushing, Davis, Doty, Farnum, Flanders, Greenleaf, Hardy, Hay, Hunkins, Johnson, Kimball, Low, Manson, Martin, McDuffee, McKeen, Nelson, Ormsby, Osborn, Pearson, Peckett, Peters, Poole, Preston, Pritchard, Putnam, Rogers, Ruter, Sawyer, Shaw, Simpson, Stebbins, Stevens, Strickland, Tabor, Trotter, Underwood, Warden, Whipple, Whiting, Willard, Wilson, Worthley, Wright.
H. Royce Bass, The History of Braintree, Vermont, Including a Memorial of Families that have Resided in Town (Rutland, Vt., 1883), p. 49-70 (personal sketches), 109-200 (family memorials, alphabetical), subject index (does not include genealogies).
Abbott, Adams, Allen, Amidon, Alban, Barry, Bailey, Bass, Batchellor, Battles, Belcher, Benton, Bigelow, Bill, Blanchard, Bolton, Bradley, Brackett, Brown, Bruce, Burke, Burridge, Cady, Campbell, Carpenter, Casavaw, Chase, Chadwick, Cleveland, Cleverly, Cobb, Coburn, Copeland, Craig, Cram, Curtis, Cushman, Drake, DuBois, Ducheney, Dunbar, Dunham, Dutton, Dyer, Eddy, Farnsworth, Ferry, Fish, Fisher, Fitts, Flint, Ford, Flagg, French, Fuller, Gooch, Goodno, Grow, Halleck, Harback, Harwood, Heath, Hill, Hoisington, Holman, Howard, Hudson, Huntington, Hutchinson, Hunt, Kendall, Kenney, Kidder, Killam, Lamb, Lane, Laport, Linfield, Loomis, Lothrop, Luce, Lyon, Mann, Marsh, Martin, Maun, McIntyre, Mongomery, Neff, Nevens, Nichols, Packard, Page, Paine, Parmly, Partridge, Peavey, Powers, Pratt, Randall, Richardson, Rickard, Riford, Rising, Rogers, Ruggles, Rumrill, Sargent, Scott, Seymour, Sharp, Smith, Snow (personal sketches only), Spear, Stearns, Stedman, Sumner, Tarbell, Thayer, Thresher, Thurstin, Tilden, Tilson, Trask, Vesey, Vance, Vinton, Vose, Waite, Wakefield, Warner, Watson, Webb, Webster, Weld, Wells, White, Whiting, Whitney, Williams, Willington, Woodward, Young.
Brandon, Vermont: A History of the Town (Brandon, Vt., 1961), p. 11-39 (short biographies of early settlers mainly from Hemenway), index (separate name index).
Ambler, Arnold, Avery, Bacon, Barker, Barnes, Bascom, Beebe, Bigelow, Bliss, Buckland, Burnell, Cheney, Collins, Cook, Cutler, Daniels, Dodge, Douglas, Durkee, Farr, Farrington, Ferris, Field, Finney, Fisk, Flint, Gilbert, Goodenow, Goss, Hack, Hall, Harris, Hawley, Hebard, Hines, Horton, Hurlburt, Jacobs, Jones, June, Keeler, Kelsey, King, Larkin, Lull, Lyon, McCollam, Merriam, Mott, Olds, Parmenter, Polly, Pomeroy, Powers, Prout, Robbins, Sawyer, Schofield, Sessions, Sheldon, Simonds, Soper, Squires, Starkweather, Stearns, Stewart, Stiles, Strong, Sutherland, Tracy, Tucker, Tuttle, Whelan, Winslow, Wooster.
Mary R. Cabot, Annals of Brattleboro: 1681-1895 (Brattleboro, Vt., 1921, in 2 vols.), early settlers: 32-45, 196-231, 251-298; biographical sketches: 473-559, 670-760, 912-993, indexed.
Allen, Arms, Babbitt, Balestier, Barnes, Barrows, Bigelow, Blake, Brackett, Bradley, Brooks, Burnham, Butterfield, Cabot, Cary, Chamberlain, Chapin, Chase, Childs, Church, Clapp, Clark, Collins, Conlan, Crosby, Crothers, Cune, Cutting, Cutts, Davenport, Day, Dearborn, Dickerman, Dickinson, Draper, Dutton, Dwinell, Eaton, Eddy, Elliot, Ellis, Esterbrook, Field, Fisk, Fitts, Folsom, Foster, French, Frost, Goodhue, Gow, Green, Greenleaf, Grout, Hall, Hardie, Harris, Haskins, Hawley, Hayes, Herrick, Higginson, Holbrook, Holton, Hopkins, Houghton, Howe, Hunt, Hyde, Kellogg, Keyes, Kipling, Kirkland, Knight, Lawrence, Mansur, Marshall, Martin, Mead, Merrill, Mondan, Moor, Nash, Newton, Noyes, Pratt, Ranger, Retting, Rockwell, Root, Sargent, Sawyer, Shea, Sikes, Smith, Spaulding, Starr, Stearns, Stoddard, Thompson, Townsley, Tyler, Van Doorn, Vinton, Waite, Walker, Waterman, Waters, Webster, Wells, Wheeler, Whipple, White, Whitney, Wilder, Wilkins, Willard, Williston, Wilson, Wright.
1.There are three works of early Vermont imprints: Elizabeth F. Cooley, Vermont Imprints Before 1800 (Montpelier, Vt., 1937); Marcus D. Gilman, The Bibliography of Vermont (Burlington, Vt., 1897); and Marcus A. McCorison, Vermont Imprints, 1778-1820 (Worcester, Mass., 1963) with three addendums (1968, 1973, 1985). Though all of these are important works, they do not focus on history and cover a period before the printing of the first town history.