Strafford
contains two plesant villages. The surface is uneven, but the soil
is generally good. It is watered by a principal branch of Ompomponoosuc
River, which affords several good mill privileges, on which are erected
a number of mills and other machinery.
In
the north-easterly part is a pond covering about 100 acres, called Podunk
Pond, which is a place of considerable resort for amusement and angling.
In
the south-east corner of Strafford is an extensive bed of the sulphuret
of iron, from which immense quantities of copperas are manufactured.
Boundaries.
North by Vershire, east by Thetford, south by Sharon, and west by Tunbridge.
First
Settlers. The settlement of this town was commenced just before the
revolutionary war.
First
Ministers. The first meeting-house was built in town by the Baptists,
in 1794, and the second in 1799. The Rev. Joab Young was the first
settled minister. He was settled by the Universalists in 1799, and
died in 1816.
Distances.
Thirty miles south south-east from Montpelier, and eleven south-east from
Chelsea.
This
town adjoins Thetford, through which the Connecticut River Railroad passes.
(Gazetteer
of Vermont, by John Hayward, 1849, p. 119-120)
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