Glastenbury, Vermont
Encyclopedia
New England town
The New England town is the basic unit of local government in each of the six New England states. Without a direct counterpart in most other U.S. states, New England towns are conceptually similar to civil townships in other states, but are incorporated, possessing powers like cities in other...
in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The town was unincorporated by an act of the state legislature in 1937, and is now essentially a ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
. The population was eight at the 2010 census. Along with Somerset
Somerset, Vermont
Somerset is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 5, and is one of only a handful of places in the United States with a population of five people. Somerset is one of five unincorporated towns in Vermont. The town disincorporated...
, Glastenbury is one of two Vermont towns where the population levels have dropped so low that the town is unincorporated. The town has no local government and the town's affairs are handled by a state-appointed supervisor.
Geography
According to the United States Census BureauUnited States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the town has a total area of 44.5 square miles (115.2 km²), all land.
History
Glastenbury was first chartered in 1761 by New Hampshire GovernorGovernor of New Hampshire
The Governor of the State of New Hampshire is the supreme executive magistrate of the U.S. state of New Hampshire.The governor is elected at the biennial state general election in November of even-numbered years. New Hampshire is one of only two states, along with bordering Vermont, to hold...
Benning Wentworth
Benning Wentworth
Benning Wentworth was the colonial governor of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1766.-Biography:The eldest child of the John Wentworth who had been Lieutenant Governor, he was born and died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Wentworth graduated from Harvard College in 1715...
, but settlers did not begin trickling into this rocky, forbidding mountainous area for some years after. At the time of Vermont’s first census as a new state in 1791, only six families inhabited it. These first settlers found life on Glastenbury Mountain difficult, as would residents ever after, and by 1800 they had been replaced by eight entirely different families. Of these eight, only three would stay on until the next census ten years later, and only one of these would remain in later decades.
Despite the many hardships that greeted Glastenbury settlers, newcomers continued to arrive in small numbers, and the population grew slowly to 76 in 1810. But the years following 1810 were hard ones for all of Vermont, and by 1840 there were only 53 left in Glastenbury. After the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Glastenbury finally began to experience more rapid growth. Business interests in nearby Bennington were eager to take advantage of the vast timber resources there, and by 1872 had finally begun construction on a railroad (trolley) which ran up the mountain. The line ran along Bolles Brook and terminated at the place where the brook forked. It was an improbable achievement, with some parts of the line climbing as much as 250 feet in altitude per mile. Remains of the old trolley tracks can still be seen today.
Meanwhile, the population had grown to 199 in 1870, and to 241 in 1880. This includes only the enumerated population; there were many more transient workers who were drawn to the mountain to work in the then booming logging business. Two additional sawmills were built in the 1870s, one at the original settlement, called Fayville, and one at the new settlement at the railroad terminus, which became known as South Glastenbury. Dozens of kilns were built at South Glastenbury for converting the lumber to charcoal; at this time Glastenbury was one of the three foremost sites in Vermont for producing the charcoal which was feeding iron production in nearby Shaftsbury
Shaftsbury, Vermont
Shaftsbury is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 3,767 at the 2000 census. The town was chartered on August 20, 1761...
and Troy
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
, New York.
By the late 1880s, however, the mountain had been cleared of nearly all of its mature trees, and the town’s economy dipped dramatically. In 1889 the railroad operation ceased. It was revived briefly in 1894 as an electric passenger trolley run by the Bennington & Woodford Railroad and a brief and initially promising effort was made to convert South Glastenbury to a tourist attraction. A small fortune was spent to convert the area into a mountain resort area which opened in the summer of 1898. Unfortunately, a freshet
Freshet
A freshet can refer to one of two things:* A flood resulting from heavy rain or a spring thaw. Whereas heavy rain often causes a flash flood, a spring thaw event is generally a more incremental process, depending upon local climate and topography...
wiped out the railroad tracks that winter, marking the beginning of the end of Glastenbury as a functioning town. Population dwindled in the early twentieth century, down to only seven in 1937, when the legislature unincorporated the town.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 16 people, 6 households, and 4 families residing in the town. The population density was 0.4 people per square mile (0.1/km²). There were 11 housing units at an average density of 0.2 per square mile (0.1/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 93.75% White and 6.25% from two or more races.
There were 6 households out of which 33.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.7% were married couples living together, 16.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 16.7% were non-families. No households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 2.60.
In the town the age distribution of the population shows 25.0% under the age of 18, 6.3% from 18 to 24, 18.8% from 25 to 44, and 50.0% from 45 to 64. The median age was 46 years. For every 100 females there were 77.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 71.4 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $14,583, and the median income for a family was $14,583. Males had a median income of $56,250 versus $0 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the town was $15,436. None of the population was below the poverty line.
Further reading
- Resch, Tyler (2008) Glastenbury: The History of a Vermont Ghost Town, Charleston: The History Press.