Athens, Vermont, USA
1824 - Athens

ATHENS, a small township in the north eastern part of Windham county, is in latitude 43° 7′, and is bounded north by Grafton, east by Westminster and Rockingham, south by Brookline and Townshend, and west by Townshend and Acton. It is ten miles from Bellows-Falls, and 25 miles northerly from Brattleborough. It was granted March 11, and chartered May 3, 1780, to Solomon Harvey, John Moore, Jonathan Perham and their associates, and contains about 7628 acres. The first beginnings towards a settlement in this town were made in the fall of 1779, by Jonathan Perham, Seth Oaks, Roseph Rasier, James Shafter and Jonathan Foster. They chopped a few acres, erected a log-hut, and then all left the town. Feb. 25, 1780, Jonathan Perham and Ephraim Holden removed their families into the town from Rindge, N.H., and were soon followed by Seth Oaks and family, from Winchendon. The first settlers had may privations and hardships to encounter. The snow was four feet deep when they came into town, and they had to beat their own path for eight miles through the woods. A small yoke of oxen were the only domestic animals of any kind that they took with them. The families all moved into the hut above mentioned. In May following, Mrs. Oaks was delivered of a daughter, the first child born in town. The same month, Samuel Bayley, from Sterling, Mass., and Micah Reed, from Westmoreland, N.H., came into town, and during the following summer, they, in company, erected a saw mill, and the next year a grist mill, for which they received 168 acres of land, situated near the centre, upon a part of which. S. Bayley, who is the oldest person in town, now resides. This year, Simeon Evans, Ezra Chaffe and Jeremiah Tinkham began improvement, and on the 18th of Sept., Isasc, son of JOnathan Perham died, and was the first person who deceased in town. On the 25th of Nov. following, two men, at work in a remote part of town, were alarmed by the whoops and yells of Indians. They quit their work and spread the alarm as fast as possible. The people affighted almost out of their sense, hurried away with their women and children with all possible dispatch, expecting from each tree that they passed to be saluted by an Indian tomahawk or scalping knife. J. Perham and family decamped in such haste that they left their oven heading and their oxen chained to a tree. The alarm was spread with the greated reapidity through the neighbouring towns, atht Athens was destroyed by the Indians. The whole country was immediately in arms to defend themselves and property from the merciless foe. Some spent the whole night in preparing their guns and ammunition, and the fearful apprehension of impending destruction, chased sleep from every eye. "Lo, the mountain laboured and brought forth a mouse." The holloeing of a hunter, aided by imaginations rendered susceptible by fear, amounted in the course of a few hours to the destruction of a fine settlement and the massacre of its inhabitants. Athens was organized March 4, 1781, and William Beal was first town clerk. It was represented the same year by Abel Mattoon. The religious denominations are Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptist, Universalists and Christians. These several denominations united in 1818, and erected a very fine brick meeting-house, which is finished in good style. The surface of this town is uneven, but the elevations are not generally abrupt. The soil is good and produces well. It is, however, much better adapted to grazing than tillage. The apple tree flourishes and produces as well here as in any part of the state. The natural growth of timber is beech, birch, maple, ash, basswood, hemlock and spruce. There is but one stream of consequence in town. It originates in a pond of about 30 acres area in the westserly part and falls into Sexton's river in Rockingham, affording several mill privileges. Lily pond is small, lies in the south west part of the town, and derives its name from the great quantities of white lilies growing in it. The town is divided into three school districts with a school house in each. There are a saw and grist mill standin go the site where the first mills were erected and one store. Pop. 507.

July, 1924. J.B.

A Gazetteer of the State of Vermont Containing A Brief General View of The State, A Historical and Topographical Description of All the Counties, Towns, Rivers, &c. Together with a Map and Several Other Engraving by Zadock Thompson, 1824 Montpelier, Published by E. P. Walton and the Author E. P. Walton, Printer, 1824

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