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Worcester Vermont
Real Estate
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It
has been reported that excellent records were kept on file at the first
Town Clerk's office when the Town of Worcester was first settled, but
today the exact date of the Town's organization remains a mystery. A fire
destroyed the Town's early records.
It is known that Worcester was chartered by Governor Ben Wentworth of New
Hampshire on June 8, 1763 to 64 people who originally owned the 71 shares
of a plot of land they chose to name Worcester. At the time, the Town
measured six miles square and contained 23,040 acres.
It wasn't until 1797, however, that Worcester's first settlement was made
by John Ridlan and George Martin. Early census reports show the Town was
not settled rapidly at first. By 1800 the population was a scant 25
persons and by 1810 had increased to 41. The population increased by only
three more persons during the next decade. In 1816 the Town was nearly
deserted for reasons that remain unclear. There has been speculation that
1816 was the "Year With No Summer" when volcanic ash altered
weather patterns in the Northern Hemisphere, causing a frost every summer
month and driving foodless settlers from the Town. However, between 1820
and 1830, the Town experienced a population explosion when about 400
people were added to the census.
Duncan Young was the first Worcester Town Clerk and he organized the Town
on March 3, 1803. The Town Records were maintained in Worcester until that
fateful year of 1816, when they were moved to Burlington for storage. That
was the year the records were lost in a fire.
After 1816, the Town's history is more clear. One of the first recorded
Town Meetings occurred on March 14, 1821 at the home of Amasa Brown. A
number of candidates were elected to several committees and boards and
Amasa Brown managed to be elected to most of them. The first recorded
marriage, after new record keeping began, was between Oliver Watson and
Esther Brown in 1817.
The Reverend Harvey Gurnsey succeeded in building Worcester's first
Methodist Church in 1848, about two years after he began preaching in
Town. In 1888 a new church was constructed with seating for 250. The
Sunday School program began the same year and had weekly attendance of 40
students. The church occupied the present Town Hall location until it
burned in 1907. The site remained vacant until 1912, when the Town Hall
was erected.
During the first half of this century, agriculture played a prominent role
in the community. Many hill farms were operating in addition to those in
the North Branch valley. A combination of economic cycles and government
programs forced the number of local farms to dwindle. Today, one dairy
farm and several smaller agricultural operations continue.
Worcester continues to have a modest commercial and employment base. A
transportation company, a retail store, an auto repair shop, a machine
shop and realtors operate in the community. Less apparent but equally
viable are the many home-based professions and businesses that operate at
many locations in Worcester, including a cabinetmaker, computer
consultants, attorneys, a landscaping operation, two publications and
others.
Nearly
200 years after its first settlement, Worcester still enjoys the rugged
beauty of its mountains and valleys that attracted the first settlers
here.
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