This is a rough and mountainous township,
with very little productive land, on the west side of Connecticut River,
and connected with Orford, N.H., by a bridge across that river.
Fairlee
pond is two miles in length and about three fourths of a mile wide.
It formerly had no fish. Some years ago a gentleman placed some pickerel
in it, and the legislature passed a law protecting the fish from molestation
for two years. Since that time the pond has had an abundance of pickerel,
of good size and quality.
Boundaries.
North by Bradford, east by Connecticut River, which separates it from Orford,
N. H., south by Thetford, and west by West Fairlee.
First
Settlers. The settlement was commenced in 1766, by a Mr. Baldwin,
who had settled the year before in Thetford. In 1768, Mr. Samuel
Miller, Samuel Bentley, and William and David Thompson, Noah Dewey, and
Joel White, settled here.
First
Minister. A Congregational meeting-house was erected here, in 1806.
Distances.
Seventeen miles east south-east from Chelsea, and thirty-one south-east
from Montpelier. The Connecticut River Railroad passes through this
town.
(Gazetteer
of Vermont, by John Hayward, 1849, p. 60-61)
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