Woodstock's First Town Meetings at Oliver Farnsworth's House

Oliver, Eunice and Stephen’s oldest son, married Elizabeth Wheeler in July of 1768. Five years later, Oliver bought 420 acres in Woodstock, Vermont. Both of his brothers, and sisters Mary and Relief also moved to Woodstock.

Oliver held many offices in town government. His house was located near the village green and because of the central location of the house, and Oliver’s prominence in town affairs, town meeting was held there for many years. The citizens of Woodstock had a lot to deal with while they were meeting at Oliver’s house. Woodstock had been chosen to be the county seat of a new county, and a courthouse and jail had to be built.

All of Eastern Vermont was one county, Cumberland County, until 1781, when the General Assembly, in Windsor, divided Cumberland County into three counties: Windham, Windsor, and Orange. Woodstock was to be the county seat of Windsor County, but this was the cause of considerable controversy. A fair portion of western New Hampshire wanted to be a part of Windsor County in Vermont. In April of 1781, representatives of 35 former New Hampshire towns took their seats in the General Assembly of Vermont, which was not part of the United States at the time, but an independent republic. These 35 towns made Windsor County about half again as large. Not only that, but Hanover was one of the towns on the East side of the river that joined Vermont, bringing Dartmouth College with it. Most Vermont towns approved of this merger, but not Woodstock. At a town meeting held at Oliver Farnsworth’s house, the citizens of Woodstock voted to” petition the General Assembly to alter the lines of this county and not have them extend across the Connecticut River.” (Vermont Roots “History of Woodstock, Chapter 25” http://www.vt-roots.org/index.php/book-archive/23-history-of-woodstock-vermont/37-chapter-25). The citizens of Woodstock didn't want the towns on the other side of the Connecticut to join Vermont because they were afraid that this would cause Woodstock to lose its place as the county seat.

The people at Woodstock town meeting got their wish. The 35 New Hampshire towns that wanted to join Vermont were forced to rejoin New Hampshire. New Hampshire was getting ready to send troops to the Connecticut River Valley, when General George Washington himself sent a letter to Governor Thomas Chittenden addressing the issue. Written in 1781, the letter said, in effect, that the United States would be happy to have Vermont as the 14^th state, but in order to join the union, Vermont would have to give up claims to territory that had belonged to New Hampshire. Vermont would be the first state to be admitted into the union after the first 13, and Washington didn’t want to set a precedent of allowing new states to steal territory from states that had already been established. Governor Chittenden sent a letter back to General Washington, stating that, “as the dispute of boundary is the only one that hath prevented our union with the Confederacy, I am very happy in being able to acquaint your Excellency that that is now removed on our part, by our withdrawing our claims upon New Hampshire and New York”. Family Tales 2012 http://www.familytales.org/dbDisplay.php?id=ltr_toc3702 accessed 9/23/12)

I have often thought that many things would be so much easier to deal with if the whole Upper Valley was one state instead of being divided in half. The Upper Valley has two school districts that are in both states - Rivendell and Dresden. Even having school vacations the same for everyone across the Upper Valley would make planning family vacations much easier. Police departments would have an easier job coordinating their efforts at law enforcement. Obviously that’s never going to happen, but it is interesting to think about the fact that at one time the whole Upper Valley was part of Vermont.