thumb|upright|Town sign on U.S. Route 5

Weathersfield is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,842 at the 2020 census.

History

The town of Weathersfield was named after Wethersfield, Connecticut, the home of some of its earliest settlers. The Connecticut town had taken its name from Wethersfield, a village in the English county of Essex.

William Jarvis was appointed by President Thomas Jefferson as U.S. Consul General to Portugal after founding a trading house in Lisbon. In 1811, Jarvis imported the first Merino sheep to America from Spain to his farm at Weathersfield Bow. Jarvis set aside eight of the 4,000 Merino sheep he imported as gifts to former President Jefferson and to President James Madison.

"I cannot forbear, Sir," Jarvis wrote to Jefferson, "making you an offer of a Ram & Ewes, both as a mark of my great esteem & well knowing that the experiment cannot be in better hands." Jarvis was a wealthy financier and gentleman farmer who had bought up most of the floodplain of Weathersfield. He was also one of the most prominent Republicans in the Connecticut River Valley. Thanks to his introduction of Merino sheep, he provided the underpinning for Vermont agriculture for the next century.

Jarvis married his maternal first cousin, Mary Pepperell Sparhawk of Boston, a fellow descendant of Sir William Pepperrell of Massachusetts. Katherine L. Jarvis, daughter of Hon. William Jarvis, married Harvard-educated lawyer and photographer Col. Leavitt Hunt, brother of architect Richard Morris Hunt and Boston painter William Morris Hunt, and son of Vermont congressman Jonathan Hunt. Leavitt Hunt and his wife later lived in Weathersfield at their home, Elmsholme.

Rev. John Dudley, a sometime missionary to the Choctaw Indians, a graduate of Yale Seminary, the descendant of one of the earliest families of Connecticut (his ancestor William Dudley settled in Guilford in the early 17th century) and a widely reprinted Congregational preacher, made his home in Weathersfield, where his son William Wade Dudley was born.

On August 20, 2011, Weathersfield celebrated the 250th anniversary of its town charter.

Romaine Tenney

In September 1964, a Weathersfield bachelor farmer named Romaine Tenney burned himself and his farm rather than allow construction of Interstate 91 which was then proceeding through the Connecticut Valley. The state transportation agency had offered landowners compensation, but could also seize land by eminent domain. Many landowners resisted, including one who shot a hole through a surveyor’s hard hat. Tenney happened to be the last local holdout. Finally, he was given an ultimatum to leave. That night a fire ravaged the barn, sheds, and farmhouse. Although Tenney’s body was not identified, it was evident he had nailed his bedroom door shut from the inside. The day after his memorial service, construction on the highway resumed.

Tenney was memorialized as the subject of poems, ghost stories, and songs. Tenney’s legacy has become a source of pride for some, despite its horror. It is a display of New England "flint", a story preserved by the Weathersfield Historical Society.

The farm eventually became a park and ride at Exit 8 (Vermont Route 131), where commuters could park their cars and board buses. In March 2020, the last vestige of the farm, a dying rock maple tree was removed. The Vermont Agency of Transportation acknowledged the site’s significance as the Romaine Tenney Memorial Park with a lawn, pavilion, memorial plaque, and picnic table.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and , or 1.27%, is water. The town of Weathersfield includes the village of Perkinsville.

Demographics

thumb|The church in Weathersfield Center

thumb|left|West Weathersfield Volunteer Fire Department

As of the census

Architecture

thumb|A house in [[Perkinsville, Vermont|Perkinsville]]

The architecture of Weathersfield, Vermont, reflects its rich history and the development of the area over the centuries. The town, chartered in 1761, saw modest settlement in the following decade. By the 1790s, the population had grown significantly, leading to the construction of notable buildings.

One of the key architectural highlights is the Weathersfield Center Historic District. This district encompasses a small cluster of historically significant buildings, including the town's second church building and the home of its first settled minister. The church, built in 1787 and later destroyed by fire, was replaced by a brick Federal style meeting house in 1821. This meeting house is notable for its restrained late Federal architecture, featuring round-headed door openings, a Palladian window, and a fully pedimented gable with an arched eyebrow window. It also has a multi-stage tower, comprising a square stage with a multilight oculus window, an open octagonal belfry, and a louvered cupola.

Another significant architectural feature in Weathersfield is the Foster House, built in 1825 as a Federal-style two-story house for the town's minister. This building, attached to a simpler 1-1/2 story Cape style house, stands on Weathersfield Center Road and is now a historic house museum operated by the local historical society.

Additionally, Weathersfield is home to an early stone animal pound, likely built in the 1780s, which reflects the town's agricultural heritage and the practical needs of its early residents.

Education

Primary and Secondary schools

The Weathersfield School District serves Weathersfield. There is one school in the district, Weathersfield School, located in Ascutney.

Public libraries

The Weathersfield Proctor Library serves the Weathersfield area. The library is on Route 5, north of the intersection with Route 131.

Media

A detailed history of the town is available for the years 1971 through 1986 in the form of a weekly newspaper, The Weathersfield Weekly, which covered the history and current events in the town. The newspaper was closed by its editors and publishers, Armstrong and Edith Hunter, in 1986, though they published a five-year retrospective in 1991.

Notable people

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  • Charles E. Billings, engineer, inventor and businessman
  • Aretas Blood, steam locomotive manufacturer
  • Clarissa Danforth, early female Christian minister
  • William Wade Dudley, politician
  • Barbara Galpin, journalist
  • Jarvis Hunt, architect
  • William Jarvis, consul to Portugal under president Thomas Jefferson
  • Franklin S. Lawrence, member of the Wisconsin State Assembly
  • Don A. J. Upham, mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin

References

Further reading

  • The Democratic Dilemma: Religion, Reform and the Social Order in the Connecticut River Valley of Vermont, 1791&ndash;1850, Randolph A. Roth, 1987, Cambridge University Press, pp.&nbsp;16, 103, 107, 113, 144, 145, 173–177, etc., on William Jarvis.
  • The Weathersfield weekly: an annotated index of selected articles, items and photos, April 22, 1971, to April 4, 1986, E.F. Hunter, 1988.
  • Town of Weathersfield official website
  • Weathersfield, Vermont, The New England Gazetteer, John Hayward, Boston, 1839
  • City-Data.com