108 VERMONT HISTORICAL MAGAZINE.
WALTHAM.*
WALTHAM, a snug little farming and stock-growing town, embraces the territory annexed to Vergennes from New Haven in 1791; set off from Vergennes, Nov. 1796, as a separate town, and a tract upon Otter Creek, ceded from Addison, Oct. 25, 1804, making an area equal to 9 sq. miles. The town was organized March 30, 1797, at the house of Andrew Barton, Jr., Esq., the first town clerk and treasurer, and named by Phineas Brown, the moderator, after his native town in Massachusetts. P. Brown, Moses Pier, and Jos. Langworthy, first selectmen; Dr. Griswold, constable and collector; Christopher Denison was the first representative. The town has never had a post-office, separate from Vergennes. Religious denominations, — Baptists and Congregationalists, but no meeting house. School districts, 4. Population in 1850, 270. Buck Mountain, extending through the centre, N. to S., is the highest land in the county west of the Green Mountains, from whose summit, with the naked eye, may be seen Burlington, (24 miles north,) and the lake at the Point, thence south, the entire range, on the New York side of vision-sweep, over the villages of Moriah, Pt. Henry, Westport, and Essex, to Ticonderoga, and on the Vermont side, east and south, Middlebury,
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* Authorities: N. A. Saxton, Esq., of Waltham, Thompson, etc.
WALTHAM. 109
New Haven, Monkton, Bristol, Lincoln, and Starksboro'.
FIRST SETTLERS. 1767. Mr. Barton and others made some preparation for a settlement; but soon returned to Connecticut.
1768. Mr. Barton and family came on; were driven off by the Yorkers and Indians; Mr. B. taken prisoner; when set at liberty, returned, and found his home in ruins, but, nothing discouraged, commenced again on the same farm. About this time, Messrs. Griswold, Cook, and others probably settled, who were captured by the British in 1778. Mr. Barton and family were imprisoned at Crown Point, the others at Quebec. Mr. Barton and family were released before the close of the war, and returned to their old farm, where he lived till his death, in 1813, aged 77. He was one of the original proprietors. He and Phineas Brown were the most prominent men in town. Those imprisoned at Quebec are supposed to have been released in 1782. First settlers after the war, Messrs. Griswolds, Brown, Cook, Langworthy, Pier, Eld. J. Howard, (Baptist,) etc. Phineas Brown lived in town until his death, in 1818, aged 70. He was the first representative in New Haven.
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MEMORIES.
THERE are memories sad, that come
Like some unbidden guest,
And cause some half-healed wound to smart
Far down within the breast.
The power is not ourself within,
To bid them all depart;
The lurking memories that hide
Within the human heart.
MARY HAWLEY.
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