Brattleboro
Established 1753. Before the Massachusetts General Court voted on December 27, 1753, to build a stockade and blockhouse on the Connecticut River near the site that would later become known as Brattleboro, the Abenaki peoples would travel through this area between their summer hunting grounds in northwestern Vermont and their winter camps in western Massachusetts.
Joined DVCUD June 2020
DVFiber representative Patrick Moreland; alternates Ian Goodnow and Sue Fillion
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 54
Brookline
Incorporated 1794. Brookline is the smallest town geographically in Windham County. The town runs along the valley of Grassy Brook and is bordered on the east by Putney Mountain. The famous Round
Schoolhouse, built in 1822 and fully restored in 2005, sits across from the Town Office.
Joined DVCUD July 2021
DVFiber representative Don Demaine
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 18.33
Dover
Settled 1779 by Captain Abner Perry of Hollister, Massachusetts. The real history of the town began when a Vermont Charter, signed by Governor Thomas Chittenden, head of the newly formed Vermont Republic, was granted on November 7, 1780, to William Ward of Newfane and 60 associates.
Joined DVCUD May 2020
DVFiber representative TJ Sibilia; alternates Diane McCormick and Shannon Wheeler
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 64
Dummerston
Settled 1715. Dummerston was part of the Equivalent Lands—several large sections of land given to settlers in the early 18th century. It lies on a tract given to the Connecticut Colony about 1715 by the Province of Massachusetts Bay as compensation for land mistakenly awarded to its settlers. In 1716, the town was auctioned to a consortium, which included William Dummer, lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. On December 26, 1753, the town was chartered as a New Hampshire grant and renamed Fulham. But when the grant was renegotiated, the name reverted to Dummerston.
Joined DVCUD November 2020
DVFiber representative Eric Lineback; alternate David Evans
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 73
Guilford
Chartered 1754. Guilford was first chartered in 1732 as Gallup’s Canada, Massachusetts, then chartered as Guilford, New Hampshire in 1754, then chartered as Guilford, New York in 1758, and finally chartered as Guilford, Vermont in 1791.There is some uncertainty as to who was the first settler to arrive; it was either Lucy Terry in 1760 or Michah Rice in 1761.
Joined DVCUD June 2020
DVFiber representative Jason Black; alternates Michael Becker and Lynn Pancake
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 74
Halifax
Established 1750. Halifax was chartered on May 11, 1750, by New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth. Halifax is the second oldest town in the state. The town was named for the George Montagu-Dunk, second Earl of Halifax.
Joined DVCUD April 2020, Founding Member
DVFiber representative Stephan Chait; alternate Tristan Roberts
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 71
Jamaica
Established 1780. The original grants for this area, issued by the Royal Governor of New York in 1767 and 1772, were for two towns. But in 1777, the Republic of Vermont was established, which ignored the previous grants, it gave charter on November 7, 1780, for “a tract of vacant land within this state which has not heretofore been granted.” The charter goes on to say “that the same be and is hereby Incorporated into a Township by the name of Jamaica”—its name from the Natick word for beaver. Not the Caribbean island.
Joined DVCUD May 2020
DVFiber representative Chris Robbins; alternates Jessica Pollack and Anne Connor
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 64
Londonderry
Established 1780. Between 1770 and 1772, Colonel James Rogers of Londonderry, New Hampshire, received a royal grant and led the first settlers into an area called Kent. By 1775, they had held their first Town Meeting at Great Pond (Lowell Lake). Kent was renamed Londonderry in 1780, by act of the new Vermont legislature. At that time, it included most of what is now the towns of Windham and Londonderry. During the 1790s, it was agreed between the settlers on the two sides of Glebe Mountain to divide Londonderry into two towns with the land on the east side of the mountain becoming the separate town of Windham. In 1804, the present dividing line was established and each town sent representatives to the state legislature.
Joined DVCUD July 2020
DVFiber representative Ellen Seidman; alternate John Hankin
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 67
Marlboro
Established 1761. Named “New Marlborough” for the Duke of Marlborough, the town was a New Hampshire grant chartered on April 29, 1751, to Timothy Dwight and 64 others from Northampton, Massachusetts and vicinity. The French and Indian War prevented settlement, so the first charter was forfeited and a new one issued by Governor Benning Wentworth on September 21, 1761, then again on April 17, 1764, as New Marlborough. The town was surveyed in 1762, and 64 equal “rights” (divisions) were created, with four lots in the center of town excepted.
Joined DVCUD April 2020, Founding Member
DVFiber representative Steven John; alternates Bob Anderson and Jean Boardman
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 63
Newfane
Chartered 1753. Newfane is the shire town (county seat) of Windham County. One of the New Hampshire grants, it was chartered on June 19, 1753, by Governor Benning Wentworth, who named it Fane after John Fane, the seventh Earl of Westmoreland. Because hostilities during the French and Indian War prevented its settlement, a first town meeting was not held within the required first five years after the charter was enacted. As a result, the original charter was deemed null and void, so Wentworth issued an entirely new charter on November 3, 1761, and named the town New Fane. A village was built atop Newfane Hill, including the county buildings. The village was relocated to the flatland below in 1825 and until 1882, it was called Fayetteville after the Marquis de Lafayette.
Joined DVCUD December 2020
DVFiber representative Jane Douglas; alternates Luke Stafford and Peter Novick
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 47
Putney
Established 1753. On December 26, 1753, Colonel Josiah Willard led a proprietors’ petition for a Putney charter to be established in the Equivalent Lands. The charter was issued that day by Governor Benning Wentworth, issuer of the New Hampshire Grants under the authority of King George II of England. Significant settlement of Putney did not begin until after the French and Indian War ended in 1760.
Joined DVCUD November 2020
DVFiber representative Cor Trowbridge; alternate Michael Mrowicki
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 39
Readsboro
Established 1786. Readsboro, in Bennington County, was named after John Reade, a landholder. The hamlet of Heartwellville is in the northern part of Readsboro, approximately 5 miles north.
Joined DVCUD April 2020
DVFiber representative Omar Smith; alternate Raymond Eilers
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 46
Searsburg
Chartered 1781. Searsburg is located in southeastern Bennington County. The town is traversed by Vermont Route 9, also known as the Molly Stark Trail. Searsburg is the home of a six-megawatt wind turbine farm owned by Green Mountain Power. The project is also an education and research facility for wind generation in the cold, northeast U.S. climate.
Joined DVCUD April 2021
DVFiber representative Jacki Jeffers Murano; alternates Matt Somerville and Tony Kilbride
contact [email protected]
Wikipedia website
Road miles
Stamford
Chartered 1753. Located in Bennington County, Vermont, Stamford’s population in the 2010 census was 824.
Joined DVCUD May 2020
DVFiber representative Robert Briggs; alternates William Levine and Christopher Warren
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles
Stratton
Chartered 1761. Daniel Webster spoke to 10,000 Whigs on Stratton Mountain in 1840. Stratton Mountain Resort on Stratton Mountain was the first ski resort to allow snowboarding. It has 91 ski trails and snowmaking capability.
Joined DVCUD April 2020, Founding Member
DVFiber representative Betsy Wadsworth
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 30
Townshend
Chartered 1753. Townshend, pronounced “towns end”, was named for the Townshend family, once powerful figures in British politics. The West River flows through the town, which has a total area of 42.8 square miles. Townshend in popular culture: H. P. Lovecraft’s story, “The Whisperer in Darkness” is set
near Townshend; Funny Farm with Chevy Chase was filmed in Townshend.
Joined DVCUD May 2021
DVFiber representative Bob DeSiervo; alternate Andy Snelling
contact [email protected]
Wikipedia website
Road miles 61.4
Vernon
Established 1672. Vernon was chartered in 1672 as part of the Massachusetts Grant. In 1736, the area was granted by Massachusetts as part of Fall Town, and in 1753, the area was granted as Hinsdale. When the Connecticut River was established as a boundary, two separate towns were created: Hinsdale, New Hampshire and Hinsdale, Vermont. The people who lived in Hinsdale, Vermont wanted a separate name and in 1802, the Vermont legislature changed the town’s name to Vernon, purportedly chosen in honor of President George Washington’s plantation home, Mount Vernon.
Joined DVCUD July 2020
DVFiber representative Munson Hicks; alternates Bronna Zlochiver and Mark Palionis
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 34
Wardsboro
Chartered 1780. Wardsboro, home of the delicious heirloom and official State Vegetable—the gilfeather turnip–was settled circa 1779 by Samuel Davis and his wife from Milford, Massachusetts. It was granted and chartered to William Ward of Newfane, for whom the town was named, and 62 others. In 1788, it was divided into north and south districts, the latter set off and incorporated in 1810 as Dover.
Joined DVCUD April 2020
DVFiber representative Thomas Almeida; alternates Donna Sebastian, James Hamilton, Mike Jones, and Donna Fernandes
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 54
Westminster
Established 1735. Westminster is Vermont’s oldest existing town and was chartered in 1735 by the Province of Massachusetts Bay and was called New Taunton or Township Number One. The town had no permanent settlers until 1751. The town was later incorporated in the Province of New Hampshire in 1752, becoming the third chartered town for New Hampshire, west of the Connecticut River. The Court of Common Pleas of the County of Cumberland of the Province of New York was moved to the town of Westminster in 1772. On January 15, 1777, a group of Vermonters met in the Westminster courthouse to declare the independence of the Republic of New Connecticut (later renamed the Republic of Vermont).
Joined DVCUD November 2020
DVFiber representative Lisa Colby; alternates Russ Hodgkins and Mike Oster
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 79
Weston
Incorporated 1799. Weston was originally the western part of Andover called West Town. Because Markham and Terrible mountains blocked travel between the town’s halves, it was set off and incorporated on October 26, 1799, by the legislature. A second village grew at the canal cut to divert the West River to power watermills. Called the Island, it developed into a small mill town. Vermont’s oldest professional theatre, the Weston Playhouse Theatre Company, was founded in 1935. The Vermont Country Store, a catalogue, retail, and e-commerce business, was established here in 1946 by Vrest and Ellen Orton.
Joined DVCUD October 2020
DVFiber representative Rusty Davis
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 49
Whitingham
Chartered 1796. Whitingham was named for Nathan Whiting, a landholder. Whitingham is the birthplace of Brigham Young, the second president of The Church of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and founder of Salt Lake City, Utah. Its village center is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Whitingham Village Historic District.
Joined DVCUD April 2020, Founding Member
DVFiber representative Phil Edelstein;alternates Lauren Fitzpatrick and Keith Thompson
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 72
Wilmington
Established 1751. Wilmington was chartered in 1751 by Benning Wentworth, colonial governor of New Hampshire. It was named in honor of Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington. Wilmington is the home of Haystack Mountain Ski Area, which operates the Hermitage Club.
Joined DVCUD April 2020, Founding Member
DVFiber representative Ann Manwaring; alternates Alan Baker and Gretchen Havreluk
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 82
Windham
Organized 1796. Windham was part of Londonderry until after 1792 and was “duly organized” in 1796. About 1783, Benjamin Pierce, from Westmoreland, New Hampshire, was the first settler of what was to become the village.
Joined DVCUD June 2020
DVFiber representative David Cherry; alternate Rory Rosselot
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles 32
Winhall
Winhall is located in northeastern Bennington County and bordered by Windham County to the east and south. The unincorporated village of Bondville lies in the southeastern corner of Winhall.
Joined DVCUD February 2021
DVFiber representative Fred Schwacke
contact [email protected]
Town website
Wikipedia website
Road miles
Top of page photo credit Gary King