Chittenden County

Judge Edward J. Costello Courthouse of Chittenden County in Burlington
administration
US state :	Vermont
Administrative headquarters :	Burlington
Address of the administrative headquarters:	County Courthouse 175 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401-8310
Foundation :	1787
Made up from:	Addison County
Area code :	001 802
Demographics
Residents :	156,545  (2010)
Population density :	112.1 inhabitants / km 2
geography
Total area :	1605 km²
Water surface :	209 km²
map

Chittenden County is a county in the state of Vermont in the United States . The county seat is in Burlington .

geography

The county is located in northwest Vermont, borders New York to the west and has an area of ​​1,605 square kilometers, of which 209 square kilometers are water. It is bordered clockwise by the following counties: Grand Isle County , Franklin County , Lamoille County , Washington County , Addison County , Essex County, New York, and Clinton County, New York.

The area lies between the east bank of Lake Champlain and the westernmost chain of the Green Mountains . It is crossed by a series of watercourses that drain from the mountains into the inland lake. The largest of these streams are the Lamoille River and the Winooski River . The soil is fertile; it consists of the sediments of a larger lake that was dammed up here by a glacier barrier after the Ice Age. Larger limestone deposits, particularly in the outskirts of the Green Mountains, have been used for the production of quick lime and cement since the British began to settle there. The highest point of the county is Mount Mansfield with 1339  m , the lowest is the surface of Lake Champlain with 30  m . The largest city in the area is Burlington , which is also Vermont's most important industrial center.

history

native people

Indian settlements are from around 8,000 BC. Proven in the entire area around Lake Champlain. Finds of old grave fields, deposits and artistic pottery from different periods of settlement suggest a succession of settled settlers and nomadic peoples as residents.

During the first forays of isolated French settlers from around 1665 and British settlers from 1772 onwards, the discoverers found Abenaki settlements on the fertile land at the mouth of the Lamoille River and northwards along Missisquoi Bay, all of which belonged to a tribe of the Abenaki. Before that, during the period of French settlement, the Abenaki had been at war with the Mohawks , who, as allies of the French, established a series of forts along the Sorel River (then called the "Richelieu River") down to Lake Champlain from 1664 erected and occupied with strong military forces, pushed to the west. However, a preferred position in connection with the construction of the French Fort St. Frederic at “Crown Point” (1731) is possible. Since no contemporary written documents are known on this point of defense, this question cannot be finally clarified.

The influx of white settlers, especially those from the southern British colonies along the Hudson River who reached Lake Champlain around 1760, also pushed the Abenaki out of their settlement areas; the in the area of ​​today's Chittenden County resident tribe joined another Abenaki tribe who lived at the confluence of the St. Francis River in the St. Lawrence River.

Not all Abenaki were ousted immediately. On May 28, 1765, representatives of the British administration and the chief of a single Abenaki tribe signed a contract for the transfer of a piece of land at the mouth of the Missiquoi River. At that time these Abenaki had been converted to the Christian faith by a local Jesuit mission station. The contract lasted 29 years.

But not all Abenaki were satisfied with that. In particular, the displaced tribe of St. Francis Indians continued to demand the return of the original land and underlined this by raids on settlements on Missisquoi Bay. These raids are recorded until 1788; a title petition was submitted to the Vermont Senate in 1798. In 1786, Ira Allen had referred the Indians to the Vermont courts with regard to their demands and ordered the use of the military in the event of assault.

Discovery by European colonists

The first settlement took place around 1665 by the French. During the first settlement by the British, ruins of houses and fortifications were found in the area of ​​the town of Colchester : probably a fort that was built as an extension of the defense line, which in 1665 was the last known southern branch known as the French fort “St. Annen ”on the Isle of La Motte , which is about a day's journey further north. No records are known about this branch. The area of ​​Chittenden County, in particular the river valley and the mouth of the Winooski River, were the central point of departure and passage for attacks by the French and their allied natives on the British settlements in the valley of the Connecticut River during the French Wars (from 1690). It makes sense to assume that this central route of retreat is secured by a fort. It is also possible, however, that it is a defensive settlement from the time of the construction of the French fort St. Frederic at Crown Point , which was built in 1731.

As far as is known, the first British settlers were Ira Allen and his uncle Remember Baker , who explored the course and valley of the Winooski River in autumn 1772. Both returned as settlers in the spring of 1773; Baker brought his family with him. The bachelor Allen lived with Baker and his family. Together they built a fortified log cabin on the banks of the Winooski River, which they named Fort Frederick and which became the focal point of the later settlement of the area. Two German settlers had settled at Shelburne Point around this time and were tolerated as peaceful (sic!). Her home was mapped by Allen in 1773 as part of a scouting trip along the eastern shore of Lake Champlain as Lodawick's House ("Ludwig's House").

The war between the British and the French for supremacy on the American continent had a significant impact on the settlement history of Chittenden Counties. After the defeat and death of General Richard Montgomery in Québec (December 31, 1775) and General Sullivan's retreat in the fall of 1776, most of the up to then 40 families who were resident on the lake shore and in the valley of the Winooski River fled; only Joseph Brown and his family remained (based on the Brown River named after him near Jericho ), but were kidnapped by hostile Indians. His log cabin was then used as a fort by the British soldiers previously stationed further west. Most of the settler families returned from 1788, after the end of the War of Independence and the proclamation of the county (1787), and brought a large number of new settlers with them. The county's population grew rapidly over the next twenty years.

Boundaries and the Vermont Republic

Population development
Census	Residents		± in%
1790	7287		-
1800	12,778		75.4%
1810	18,120		41.8%
1820	16,955		-6.4%
1830	20,967		23.7%
1840	22,977		9.6%
1850	29,036		26.4%
1860	28,171		-3%
1870	36,480		29.5%
1880	32,792		-10.1%
1890	35,389		7.9%
1900	39,600		11.9%
1910	42,447		7.2%
1920	43,708		3%
1930	47,471		8.6%
1940	52,098		9.7%
1950	62,570		20.1%
1960	74,425		18.9%
1970	99.131		33.2%
1980	115,534		16.5%
1990	131,761		14%
2000	146,571		11.2%
2010	156,545		6.8%
1790-1890, 1900-1990, 2000

Age pyramid of Chittenden County (as of 2000)

The county was proclaimed on October 22, 1787 by the Senate of the then Vermont Republic as an independent administrative unit. It was a first spin-off from Addison County. At that time, the county was inhabited by a few 1,000 settlers.

As early as 1791 the later University of Vermont was founded as the "Agricultural College of Vermont" in Burlington.

The area of ​​the original county was reduced by the separation of new administrative units. First, on November 5, 1792, Franklin County was split off from the northern half of Chittenden Counties. On November 5, 1792, the Orleans County was formed from further parts of Chittenden Counties and Orange Counties . On November 9, 1802, the islands in the lake that remained in the secession of Franklin Counties followed when Grand Isle County was founded. Last on October 26, 1835, Lamoille County was formed with shares of Chittenden Counties. Since then, the county's borders have been spared major changes.

Railway construction and industrialization

The location and fertility of the county's soils ensured that waterways into the region were opened up early on. In 1823, for example, the Lake Champlain Canal was opened , which made it possible to travel continuously from Montreal to New York. Burlington Bay serves as a natural harbor. So a constant cargo shipping developed on the Hudson River, the lake and the Sorel River, the tributary to the river system of the St. Lawrence River. In addition, Burlington developed into a junction for various railway lines, so that the handling of goods in and out of the region was concentrated from here. Burlington became the main port for the import of Canadian timber.

The construction of railway lines also multiplied the region's agricultural production. In 1862 what was then the Central Vermont Railroad reached the east bank of Lake Champlain, following the valley of the Winooski River. Sales agencies along the railway lines, which served as transshipment points for the farmers and which received their orders directly from Montreal , Boston and New York , ensured an intensification of agricultural production through significantly enlarged sales markets and at the same time shorter delivery times.

Civil war

With the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the War Department of the Northern States requested the affiliated states to provide certain contingents of soldiers. Chittenden County was called upon to recruit 78 soldiers and provide them to the Northern Army. There was great enthusiasm for the war, and within just ten days this demand was met by volunteers; there were no transfer payments. A total of around 1,700 soldiers were recruited into Chittenden County between 1861 and 1864; they provided 16 regiments of the army and one regiment of cavalry. In addition, the states of Maine , Massachusetts , New Hampshire and New York hired soldiers from Chittenden County to achieve their own target strengths. The Vermonters fought in a large number of civil war battles, mostly in secondary positions. No battles took place in the county. In the neighboring Franklin County to the north, however, a single raid of dispersed Northerners from the territory of Canada was carried out, the St. Albans Raid . It also caused some concern in the parishes of Chittenden County.

Economic Concentration and the Great Depression of 1929

Old Round Church , a 16-sided church listed on the NRHP

The particularly good traffic connection of Burlington with its port and the railway junction ensured a particularly strong flow of goods in this area. At the same time, the fast watercourses flowing from the nearby Green Mountains were a good basis for factories that could use their hydropower. As a result, a number of processing industries, such as sawmills, wool combing and grain mills, emerged in the vicinity of Burlington.

Due to the large variety of primary and processing companies, the effects of the global economic crisis of 1929 were noticeable because exports to Canada and, in some cases, sales of building materials to the major economic regions on the east coast and along the Hudson River declined, but the Concentration on the needs of the local industry will be largely absorbed. Roosevelt's economic measures , the New Deal , which had the aim of promoting the American economy, were not set up in the economic center of Burlington, but in the surrounding forests and mountains. Their primary goal was to get the unemployed in other areas of the United States into productive work by building ski slopes, roads and campsites. Vermont benefited in retrospect from the improved infrastructure and the expansion of national parks and winter sports areas.

The Second World War also had only a minor impact on the economy of Chittenden Counties because there was a lack of heavy industry and other war industries. The slight weakening of the local economy, which can be seen from the statistics, is apparently mainly due to the withdrawal of able-bodied men into the American army.

After the Second World War

The already existing concentration of industry in the Burlington area received a significant boost in 1953 when, after the collapse of some wool combing mills in Winooski , which resulted in the loss of around 1,000 jobs, an economic cooperation between seven towns, cities and villages in the greater Burlington area was formed . An initial success was the establishment of a still existing semiconductor factory in Essex Junction with 6,500 jobs, Vermont's largest employer to date. The cooperation continues to this day and ensures a stable economic area through the promotion and networking of the very different industries in their sphere of influence.

In Burlington, for example, systematic economic development is carried out through appropriate urban planning, which is intended to serve the entire metropolitan region. The development is focused on the industrial areas in the shores of Lake Champlain. After a project with a similar objective, which was completed in 2010, a new project has been aimed at improving the connection of the road, rail and water transport routes in another area around a freight station.

The concentration of Vermont's economic activities on the greater Burlington area with its adjacent communities also led to a strong concentration of the residents of the state in this region. The four most populous communities in Vermont (as of 2010 census) are all in the metropolitan area of ​​Burlington. Around a quarter of Vermont's residents live in Chittenden County, mostly in the lowlands by the lake. The mountain ranges of the Green Montains to the east, like the islands in Lake Champlain, are primarily used as local recreation areas with nature reserves, marinas, winter sports centers and wilderness campsites. The neighboring counties to the north, especially Franklin County, are also increasingly being used for tourist purposes.

The economic development of the county is clearly increasing. At the end of 2009, at the height of the financial crisis at the time, unemployment reached almost 7%, the highest level in decades. In May 2013 this value had already fallen back to 3.5%, with a further downward trend.

cities and communes

In addition to the independent administrative units listed below, there are two independent rights Villages Essex Junction and Jericho Village , which are co-administered by the respective higher-level towns. There are also four census-designated places for statistical purposes : Hinesburg, Milton, Richmond and Shelburne and the Unincorporated Village Buels Gore , Jonesville and Underhill Centers.

Locality	status	Population (2010)	Total area [km²]	Land area [km²]	Population density [inhabitants / km²]	founding	Specialty
Bolton	town	1,182	110.4	109.5	10.8	0June 7, 1763
Buels Gore	gore	30th	12.9	12.9	2.3	0Nov 4, 1780	without its own administration
Burlington	City	42,417	40.1	26.7	1,588.7	0July 7, 1763	County Seat
Charlotte	town	3,754	130.4	106.9	35.1	June 24, 1762
Colchester	town	17,067	151.7	94.1	181.4	0June 7, 1763
Essex	town	19,587	101.8	100.6	194.7	0July 7, 1763
Hinesburg	town	4,396	103.2	102.1	43.1	June 21, 1762
Huntington's	town	1.938	98.5	98.3	19.7	0June 7, 1763
Jericho	town	5,009	92.1	91.7	54.6	0June 7, 1763
Milton	town	10,352	157.7	133.1	77.8	0June 8, 1763
Richmond	town	4,081	84.8	83.7	48.8	Oct. 27, 1794
Shelburne	town	7.144	116.7	63.0	113.4	Aug 18, 1763
South Burlington	City	17,904	76.6	42.7	419.3	Nov 22, 1864
St. George	town	674	9.2	9.2	73.3	Aug 18, 1763
Underhill	town	3,016	133.1	132.9	22.7	0June 8, 1763
Westford	town	2,029	101.8	101.2	20.0	0June 8, 1763
Williston	town	8,698	79.2	77.9	111.7	0June 7, 1763
Winooski	City	7,267	3.9	3.7	1,964.1	07th Mar 1922

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chittenden County in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System . Retrieved February 22, 2011
2. ↑ Petition of the "Seven Tribes of the Lower Canadian Indians," in which they declare the land that is now settled by the whites as their rightful property. (Hemenway I, p 453: footnote) The Abenaki are also represented in these 7 tribes
3. ↑ Preparation of historical data from the University of Virginia
4. ↑ Extract from Census.gov . Retrieved February 28, 2011
5. ↑ Excerpt from factfinder.census.gov.Retrieved February 28, 2011
6. ↑ Project page of the Railyard Enterprise Project (REP) of the city of Burlington (English)
7. ↑ Evaluation of data from the US Department of Labor
8. ↑ Population data from the 2010 US Census in the American Factfinder
9. ↑ All founding dates of the table according to the corresponding individual entries on VirtualVermont.com ( Memento of the original from January 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

literature

• Zadock Thompson: History of Vermont, natural, civil and statistical, in three parts . Chauncey Goodrich, Burlington 1842, p. Volume III, p 55 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
• Abby Maria Hemenway: The Vermont historical Gazetteer, Volume 1 . Burlington 1867, p. 441-480 . for history up to 1864
• Francis Smith Eastman: A History of Vermont, from Its First Settlement to the Present Time . Holbrook and Fessenden, Brattleboro '1828 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Web links

Commons : Chittenden County, Vermont  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Coordinates: 44 ° 27 ′  N , 73 ° 5 ′  W