The History of Woodstock, Windsor County, Vermont

The Township of Woodstock was granted July 10, 1761. Indians had lived on the meadow where the North Branch joins the Ottauquechee, but generally had avoided this part of the Green Mountains. There are faint legends of the sacrifice of Indian girls at Pogue Hole on the upper side of Mt. Tom.

The first printed reference to this region was August 10, 1622, when Charles the First gave Mason and Gorges this part of New England, and called it Laconia. Consecutive claimants were: John Mason, the states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York and finally, David Page and his associates. Governor Wentworth named the town from the English Woodstock. The first white men passed through this valley in 1748 on their way from Fort Dummer to Crown Point. In 1761 Ensign Richardson came here, but was discouraged by the outlook.

In 1765 Timothy Knox, a graduate of Cambridge University, England, built a hut along the South Branch, later called the Kedron, and lived alone for three years. Romantic interest says that he had been disappointed in love and sought the wilderness to cure his sorrows. His confidence in the wilderness was justified for later he married and had a large family. Knox Ledge, near his later home, on the hill above Lincoln Street, may be visited by hopeful persons.

In 1768 a few other settlers came to the near-by hill-top farms along which ran the earliest trails. James Sanderson was one of the first. He built a brush hut on Blake's Hill where he lived one winter with his wife and child. Joab Hoisington, in 1771, bought one thousand acres in the township, including all of what was named "The Green."

The river valley at that time was dense woods, once described as a spruce hurricane, a thick tangle of standing and fallen spruce trees and undergrowth. The river was impassable because of the fallen timber. There were no through trails. There were no carts or wagons until after 1775.

In 1771 there were 10 families and a population of forty-two. In 1772 Hoisington built a log cabin where the Savings Bank now stands, took out a tavern keeper's license, offered entertainment for man and beast, and the real history of the village began. Hill roads were soon laid out, corner markers were set, lots were established, mills were erected, leather sealers and hog-reeves were appointed, asheries and tanneries were built, shunpikes laid out, stores selling European and West India goods gradually came to care for the trade of the people who lived upon the sixty-two grants, and pioneer life was established. The first dwellings were log cabins, the chief food was rusk and milk. Shoes were scarce. Every third man had a blacksmith shop. Abraham Powers settled his family in Beaver Meadow on Hartland Hill. 'Tis said he was the laziest man in Woodstock, watering his sap to save gathering more.

Dr. Stephen Powers came in 1772, purchased some three hundred acres of land, then moved his family here. He was a field doctor at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He built a house on Church Hill in 1778 in which was born his grandson, Hiram Powers, the world-famous sculptor. The house fell into decay and was taken down long ago.

The first frame building was erected in 1772 near Hoisington's log cabin. The first frame dwelling house was erected in 1777, having glass instead of isinglass. This was built on the site of the first farm house on the left going from the village towards the east. The ell on the present house was the original building.

Artemas Baker built a house in 1793 on the site of the Court House. He was a trader and tavern keeper. In the building Abraham Hodge kept for sale a stock of drugs and medicines for "Practitioners of Physic and the Public," which he was willing to exchange for "salts of lye, beef-cattle or even money."

Rev. Aaron Hutchinson was preaching in this village as early as 1774. There was a military company by 1776. By 1794 there was a singing school. In 1793 Captain Richardson put up another tavern in front of the present Inn. It was done chiefly to accommodate court people. Near what is now the middle bridge were the stocks, the pillory, and the public sign post which was also the whipping post. Houses were soon built around "The Green" which struggled for recognition until in 1830 when it took its present shape. The native growth which covered it in 1773 was burned in 1774. In 1775 it was cleared of stumps, holes were filled and a large triangular plot was set apart as public ground. "The Green" has always been the center of village interest and in the earliest days was used for horse races and frequent fairs.

One of the earliest show ground was in front of the Library. Here appeared the first menagerie in Woodstock, and its chief attraction was the "Behemoth of Holy Writ." The flamboyant show bills said: "He esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood."

--Woodstock Vermont - The old and the Modern Town and Village and What to See Therein - The Elm Tree Press, Woodstock Vermont 1933 Page 11-19

Transcribed by Nancy Piper