Plymouth, Vermont Genealogy
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Welcome to the town of Plymouth, Vermont,
including the present villages of Plymouth Union, Plymouth Notch, and Tyson, and the historic villages of Five Corners and Plymouth Kingdom.

Neighboring towns: Bridgewater on the north, Reading on the east, Shrewsbury (Rutland county) on the west, Mt Holly (Rutland county) and Ludlow on the south.

The town of Saltash was chartered by Governor Wentworth of New Hampshire on July 6, 1761. On February 23, 1797 the Vermont legislature passed an act changing the name to Plymouth. The original grantees numbered 64 and were headed by Jeremiah Hall. Though granted a charter in 1761 the first settlers did not appear until 1777 and the town was not organized until 1787.

More on the history of Plymouth, from Aldrich & Holmes' 1891 History of Windsor County, Vermont

Plymouth in Hamilton Child's 1883-84 Gazetteer of Windsor County.

Notes on the history of the town's names, from Vermont Place Names, by Esther Munroe Swift.

What was it like to work at Tyson Furnace? Take a look at this page from the Vermont Historical Society.

Plymouth Contacts
Census Information
Plymouth Cemeteries -
Plymouth Notch Cemetery
Five Corners Cemetery
Tyson-Pollard Cemetery
Plymouth Kingdom Cemetery

Genealogical and historical researcher Rebecca Tucker has compiled a book of Cemetery Inscriptions in Ludlow Vermont, and Indexes for the Histories of Ludlow and Baltimore VT. See her website for these and other books which she has for sale. She is also willing to do lookups from her books if you are only looking for one or two names.
Plymouth on the Map
Books about Plymouth
Plymouth in Context - a selective bibliography of sources on Vermont history

Events that affected people in Plymouth

1816 was "the year without a summer," when throughout New England there were only one or two months without frost, and snow fell in June. This was early in the settlement of Plymouth and must have been very hard on the settlers. A very good history of this event, quoting many contemporary accounts, is at Eighteen Hundred and Froze To Death. Another history with a broader perspective, is The Year Without a Summer, which describes the unusual weather of that year worldwide, in Canada, Europe, and Asia, as well as New England. The cooling was aparently caused by the vast quantities of dust thrown into the atmosphere by the Tamboro volcano in Indonesia, which erupted in April 1815, in "one of the most explosive eruptions of the last 10,000 years," according to the latter site.

According to the 1970 Earlham College report on the history of Plymouth, "Diseases... played a large role in the early emigration from Vermont. In March of 1813 a 'fever' epidemic hit hard in the south central portion of the state. Reports state that the town of Bridgewater [adjacent to Plymouth] was affected. Later, after the Civil War, a spotted fever outbreak brought drastic population decline. At this time also, TB was invading the state, forcing many settlers to leave the cold and unstable climate of Vermont for warmer climates of the South.... An influenza outbreak in 1875 in the Town of Plymouth left few unaffected." This last was part of a nationwide influenza outbreak from 1873 to 1875, according to Epidemics in the US 1628-1918.

"The farms and towns were often victims of nature. Floods were especially devastating. One report of a flood in the summer of 1811 states that Windsor County was particularly hard hit, with about two-thirds of the mills being washed out. Much later, a flood in 1927 washed out most of the remaining mill foundations in the Plymouth area." Find out more about The New England Flood of November 1927 at Karima�s Vermont Gateway web site.

Take a look at the Vermont in the Civil War site. Look under "People" to search for a particular person you believe to have enlisted, go to "Places" to bring up a list of everyone who enlisted from Plymouth, read the history of the unit in which your ancestor served, or descriptions of battles he fought in.

Lookup Help

Do YOU have access to any sources on Plymouth history & genealogy that you'd be willing to use to help out other researchers? Let me know!

Make connections with other
Plymouth Researchers!      Let me know if you'd like to to be added to this page.

This site maintained by Nancy Wygant of Philadelphia, PA. My Lesslie and Strong relatives in Plymouth go back to 1818.

All the information I have about Plymouth is right here, so there's no use writing to ask if I have any information about your ancestors. Unless, of course, your ancestors also happen to be mine.

Last updated 5 June 2013.

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