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    Northfield
    Northfield
    Northfield
    Ebook163 pages47 minutes

    Northfield

    By The Northfield Historical Society

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    About this ebook

    Chartered in 1781, Northfield is nestled in the foothills of the Green Mountains, with highlands to the east and west and the Dog River running through the center of town. It was once home to primarily farms, sawmills, and gristmills. With Elijah Paine building the first mills on Mill Hill, Northfield grew into a town comprising four villages. The community began to thrive with the coming of the railroad in the mid-1800s. Large granite sheds brought stonecutters and artisans from Italy, Spain, and Scotland. With woolen mills and a slate industry, Northfield changed from a largely agricultural town to an industrial one. In 1866, it became home to Norwich University. A vital part of the community, Norwich offers a wide variety of athletic and cultural events. Northfield captures the history of a community that still celebrates its heritage today.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJul 28, 2014
    ISBN9781439646465
    Northfield
    Author

    The Northfield Historical Society

    The Northfield Historical Society was founded in 1975 to preserve and share the rich history of Northfield. Currently housed in the former Governor Charles Paine House, the society celebrates the town�s history by sharing in Northfield, a photographic journey using many never before published images from the collection.

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      Book preview

      Northfield - The Northfield Historical Society

      drawings.

      INTRODUCTION

      When the town of Northfield was chartered in 1781, the frontier was growing, people were looking for places to expand, and no one had settled in Northfield. Even though it was chartered in 1781, the first person to settle in the area was Amos Robinson in 1785. Elijah Paine was offered 200 acres of land if he would build a sawmill and another 200 acres if he would build a gristmill. From there, numerous other families settled the town.

      The 1790 census had nine families listed. The families of William Ashcroft, Isaiah Bacon, Aquilla Jones, Nathaniel Nicholas, Amos Robinson, Nathaniel Robinson, Eliphas Shipman, Stanton Richardson, and Ananias Tubbs are considered the founding families of Northfield.

      The town started at the North and most Westerly Angle of Williamstown, which happens to be at the top of what is now called Mill Hill. The town grew down the mountain and into the valley below. It took the town a while to grow down into the valley because of having to clear the land to make it livable. By the early 1800s, the land and swamps were cleared enough along Sunny Brook and the Dog River and were ready for settlers, such as David Denny, to get mills started along the water sources throughout the valley. The area where Denny built the mills and other dwellings later became known as South Village. It also had other names, including Slab City and Upper Village. By 1828, South Village had at least seven mills and factories, along with a blacksmith shop, a chair factory, and a casket factory.

      As the town grew northward from South Village, Center Village started to come alive with people. The first settler of Center Village was Joel Brown, who came to Northfield in 1800. His family stayed in the town for several generations and, at one point, ran the hotel in the Center. The Center Village was largely known to be the residential and social center for the town. This was because it sat a little ways off from the Dog River, meaning there was no good supply of waterpower, and, therefore, the area could not be useful to mills and such.

      As America and the town flourished, the need for more industry became apparent. Thus, Factory Village was born. The woolen mill, built by Elijah Paine along the Dog River, was the beginning of this village. In 1812, it cost Paine $40,000 to build and equip this woolen mill. It was five stories high, and he constructed a dam beside it that lasted until 1924. Once fully functional, the factory employed 175–200 people. Charles Paine, the son of Elijah and later the 15th governor of Vermont, took over the business in 1823. Factory Village started out small but grew fairly quickly. In 1813, a schoolhouse and three houses were added to the village. In 1837, Charles Paine erected the Northfield House. It had over 100 rooms and a fishpond. Later, this area was also home to the stone sheds of Northfield. These sheds were used for the cutting of granite and slate from the area. Granite from Northfield is used in such buildings as Union Station in Washington, DC, as well as the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The stone industry really boomed when Charles Paine brought the Vermont Central Railroad through Northfield in 1846.

      As the population of Northfield slowly grew north along the Dog River, another village began to take shape. This one was called the Falls, even though the real name is Northfield Falls. The daughter of Aquilla Jones, Nancy, of one of the founding families, first settled Northfield Falls in 1804. In 1824, Capt. Abel Keyes built a flannel mill. By the mid-1830s, another flannel mill and a few other mills had been started by various people. The mill of note was started by James Gould, who became a prominent citizen of the Falls.

      Each of these four villages had their own contributions to the makeup of the unique history of this town. Each one still has its own deep-set historical roots. Many of the businesses from the early eras have either been destroyed or have moved on to other areas of the town. The woolen mill business has moved but is still in operation. The dam built beside the woolen mill was destroyed in 1924 by one of the granite companies and replaced with concrete. It was then demolished in 1973, but parts of it can still be seen.

      After the birth of these villages, there was a turning point in the history of the town. In 1846, the Vermont Central Railroad, with Charles Paine as president, announced it would build the railroad through Northfield. This decision changed the entire way industry was done in the town of Northfield. The board of directors also decided to locate the Vermont Central Engine House and Machine Shops in Northfield. They did this because the depot was located

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