Cornwall (Vermont)

Cornwall
The Congretional Church in Cornwall
Location in Vermont
Cornwall
Basic data
Foundation :	November 3, 1761
State :	United States
State :	Vermont
County :	Addison County
Coordinates :	43 ° 58 ′  N , 73 ° 13 ′  W Coordinates: 43 ° 58 ′  N , 73 ° 13 ′  W
Time zone :	Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 )
Residents :	1,185 (as of 2010)
Population density :	16.1 inhabitants per km 2
Area :	74.1 km 2  (approx. 29 mi 2 ) of which 73.7 km 2  (approx. 28 mi 2 ) is land
Height :	101 m
Postal code :	05753
Area code :	+1 802
FIPS :	50-16000
GNIS ID :	1462076
Website :	cornwallvt.com

Cornwall is a town in Addison County of the state of Vermont in the United States with 1,185 inhabitants (according to the 2010 census).

geography

Geographical location

The community is located in the eastern plain of Lake Champlain and is characterized by small differences in altitude. Two rivers touch the area. Otter Creek flows on the eastern edge of the town ; in the southeast of the town it feeds a large swamp area, which covers about 20% of the area of ​​the town and is now a nature reserve. The Lemon Fair River also flows in the northeast . The highest point is the 177 m high De Long Hill .

Neighboring communities

All information as air lines between the official coordinates of the places from the 2010 census.

• North: Weybridge , 1.6 mi
• Northeast: Middlebury , 6.6 mi
• Southeast: Salisbury , 7.4 mi
• South: Whiting , 1.7 mi
• Southwest: Shoreham , 6.9 mi
• Northwest: Bridport , 7.9 mi

climate

The mean mean temperature in Cornwall is between −7.8 ° C (18 ° Fahrenheit ) in January and 21 ° C (70 ° Fahrenheit) in July. This means that the place is around 10 degrees cooler than the long-term average in the USA. The snowfall between October and May is up to six meters, about twice as high as the average snow depth in the USA, the daily sunshine duration is at the lower end of the range in the USA.

history

The area was proclaimed for settlement on November 3, 1761 by Governor Benning Wentworth as part of the New Hampshire Grants and sold to a group of 65 interested parties from Litchfield County , Connecticut . The first settlement did not occur until 1774 near the west bank of Otter Creek, which today belongs to Middlebury. None of the original buyers of the land can be found among the traditional names of the settlers.

It is true that there were minor incidents with Indians from the start; so fruit trees were felled and cattle stolen. But when the nearby Fort Ticonderoga fell into the hands of the British during the War of Independence in 1777, the pressure from marauding Indians and British soldiers was so high that the settlers, as in other towns in the area, moved back from their farms to their places of origin in Connecticut , Massachusetts and the south of what is now Vermont. Only after the end of the war in 1783 there were new branches in the area of ​​the town. The population grew rapidly: in March 1784 the constituent city assembly could be held; that winter, about 30 Connecticut families moved here.

Since the town's documents were lost until 1786, precise details can no longer be given on many points.

In 1796 the land west of Otter Creek was transferred to the adjacent town of Middlebury up to the height of the southern border of Middlebury. The reasons given by Matthews include: Few settlers were active in Cornwall, but the community would also have had to pay taxes to the governor for the less fertile swamps. In addition, the residents of Cornwall were responsible for building and maintaining the road network in their area. They had already built and paid for two bridges over Otter Creek; it was unclear how many more should have been built. In addition, Matthews suspects that many of the original settlers would rather belong to Middlebury as an emerging economic center.

The census of 1840 shows the municipality to be mainly active in agriculture: sheep breeding in particular was widespread; potatoes and maize in particular were cultivated as crops. Here, too, Cornwall did not differ from its neighboring communities. However, the development of a marble quarry and a deposit of hydraulic cement in the south of the municipality laid the first foundation for the industrialization of the area.

Railway construction, which covered Vermont from the mid-1840s, did not go past Cornwall either. With the connection to the Bellows Falls – Burlington railway line , the number of buyers for the community's products changed significantly. While the neighboring Middlebury had developed into the industrial center of the area, in Cornwall and the surrounding towns in particular agriculture was converted. Sheep farming was largely replaced by dairy farming until the 1890s. All types of grain, especially wheat and oats, were now cultivated as preferred crops. The railway construction also caused a migration to the industrial centers of America, particularly to the metropolises on the east coast.

Due to the low industrialization of the area, neither the First World War nor the Great Depression or the Second World War had any significant influence on the development of the community. As in most other towns in the area, the development of Middleburys into a local economic center since the mid-1960s has resulted in an increase in the number of residents who work in Middleburys and live in the surrounding area. Since the 2000 census, the number of inhabitants has roughly returned to the pre-1850 level and remains stable at around 1200 inhabitants. The current urban development plan does not provide for any significant increases through the creation of new residential areas, etc.

Religions

The first parish was founded on July 15, 1785 and the first full-time priest was employed a year later. Other parishes were founded in quick succession.

Today there is a United Church of Christ congregation in Cornwall .

Population development

Census results - Town of Cornwall, Vermont
year	1700	1710	1720	1730	1740	1750	1760	1770	1780	1790
Residents										826
year	1800	1810	1820	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890
Residents	1163	1279	1120	1264	1163	1155	977	969	1070	927
year	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990
Residents	850	789	782	640	670	728	756	900	993	1101
year	2000	2010	2020	2030	2040	2050	2060	2070	2080	2090
Residents	1136	1185

Culture and sights

Natural monuments

A large part of the area of ​​the town, about one fifth, is covered by a large marshland in the southeast of the municipality, which is managed as a landscape protection area under the name "Cornwall Swamp Wildlife Management Area" and brings in additional, low income from tourism. The swamp is part of a floodplain of Otter Creek and was declared a National Natural Landmark by the US National Park Service in 1974 .

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

After the railway station was closed, Cornwall is now mainly connected to the outside world by two roads: On the one hand, Vermont State Route 30, which runs in a north-south direction and connects Middlebury with Whiting, and, on the other hand, Vermont State Route 74, the connection the southwestern ferry at Ticonderoga in the state of New York. In addition, Vermont State Route 125 runs through the area, which connects to the northwest Lake Champlain Bridge .

Public facilities

With the exception of the town hall and schools, Cornwall has no public facilities. The closest hospital is Porter Medical Center in Middlebury.

education

Cornwall, along with Bridport, Middlebury, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham and Weybridge, is part of the Addison Central School District.

Cornwall has a six-class primary school, the Bingham Memorial School ; secondary schools are particularly offered in neighboring Middlebury. The closest universities are in Burlington and Norwich .

The Cornwall Free Public Library is located in the Cornwall Town Hall.

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

• William Slade (1786–1859), Member of the US House of Representatives and Governor of the State of Vermont
• Jonah Sanford (1790–1867), politician and member of the US House of Representatives
• Solomon Foot (1802–1866), Vermont politician and representative in both Houses of Congress
• Abram W. Foote (1862–1941), businessman, politician, and Lieutenant Governor of the State of Vermont
• Eugene Cook Bingham (1878–1945), chemist and developer of rheology

Personalities who have worked on site

• Ethan Allen (1738–1789) moved as a child with his parents to Cornwall and grew up there.

literature

• Zadock Thompson: History of Vermont, natural, civil and statistical, in three parts . 3rd volume. Chauncey Goodrich, Burlington 1842, p. 59 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
• Lyman Matthews: History of the town of Cornwall, Vermont . Head and Fuller, Middlebury 1862. Online version at www.archive.org (English) * Abby Maria Hemenway: The Vermont historical Gazetteer . 1st volume. Burlington 1867, p.  23 ff .
• History of Cornwall to circa 1880
  Copy from a "History of Addison County" from 1886, published by HP Smith. Middlebury College website. ( Memento from August 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

Commons : Cornwall, Vermont  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• The community site (English)
• Profile of the community on the official portal www.Vermont.gov (English)
• Entry on VirtualVermont (English) ( Memento from May 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cornwall in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System , accessed October 1, 2014
2. ↑ Population data from the 2010 US Census in the American Factfinder
3. ↑ De Long Hill on Peakery.com , accessed July 27, 2017
4. ↑ Coordinates of the locations of the Census Authority 2010
5. ↑ Climate data at www.City-Data.com (English)
6. ↑ Population 1790–2010 according to the census results
7. ↑ Report on the nature reserve at www.nature.org (English)
8. ^ Addison Central School District / Homepage. In: acsdvt.org. Retrieved July 27, 2017 (English). 
9. ^ Cornwall Free Public Library . In: Town of Cornwall, Vermont . ( cornwallvt.com ).