Waitsfield, Vermont, USA
1839 - Waitsfield

Waitsfield, Vermont
Washington county. Mad river, a small rapid stream, passes circuitously through this town, fertilizing the soil, and affording it good mill seats. The uplands are a deep loam, fertile, and productive of all the varieties of a northern climate. Here are fine pastures, and between 5,000 and 6,000 sheep.

There are some manufactures in the town, but the people are generally farmers and make a good business of it. Good clay for making earthen ware, iron ore, and rock crystal are found here. This town lies 11 miles S.W. from Montpelier, and 30 S.E. from Burlington. Population, 1830, 985.

The settlement of Waitsfield was commenced in 1789, by General Benjamin Wait, from Sudbury, Massachusetts. General Wait entered the service of his country at the age of 18, and performed much difficult service with great bravery and success. At the age of 25 he had been engaged in forty battles and skirmishes: his clothes were several times perforated with musket balls, but he never received a wound. In 1776 he entered the revolutionary army as a captain, and acquired the rank of colonel. After the war, he was made a brigadier general of the militia, and was high sheriff of the county of Windsor seven years. General Wait, having lived to see the town he had planted in its wilderness state, covered with fruitful fields, and peopled by independent yeomen, died in 1822, aged 86 years.

The New England Gazetteer containing descriptions of all the states, counties and towns in New England: also descriptions of the principal mountains, rivers lakes, capes, bays, harbors, islands and fashionable resorts within that territory. By John Hayward, author of the Columbian Traveller, Religious Creeds, &c. &c. Boston: John Hayward. Boyd & White, Concord, N.H. 1839

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