Newbury is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

Orange County, Vermont Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 29,277. Its shire town (county seat) is the town of Chelsea. Orange County was organized on February 2, 1781, as an original county wit ...

, United States. The population was 2,293 at the 2020 census. Newbury includes the villages of Newbury, Center Newbury, West Newbury, South Newbury, Boltonville, Peach Four Corners, and Wells River.

History

Located at the Great Oxbow of the

Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges into Long Isl ...

, with vast tracts of beautiful and fertile intervale, the area was a favorite of the Indians. Rivers teemed with

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

and brooks with

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

. Prior to European settlement, the Newbury area was the location of a village called Cowass or Cowassuck of the

Pennacook The Pennacook, also known by the names Penacook and Pennacock, were Algonquian Indigenous people who lived in what is now Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and southern Maine. They were not a united tribe but a network of politically and culturally ...

tribe. Cowass in

Abenaki The Abenaki ( Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was pred ...

is "Coo-ash-auke," meaning "place of pine trees," and was a general name these people gave to the upper Connecticut River Valley and Lakes region. In 1704 the

at Cowass kept several captives from the Deerfield Raid in the village, including Stephen Williams who was kept with Sachem George Tahanto The area was first settled by English colonists in 1762 by Samuel Sleeper and family. One of the

New Hampshire grants The New Hampshire Grants or Benning Wentworth Grants were land grants made between 1749 and 1764 by the colonial governor of the Province of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth. The land grants, totaling about 135 (including 131 towns), were made ...

, Newbury was chartered by Governor

Benning Wentworth Benning Wentworth (July 24, 1696 – October 14, 1770) was an American merchant, landowner and colonial administrator who served as the List of colonial governors of New Hampshire, governor of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1766. He is best known ...

on March 18, 1763, to Jacob Bayley and 74 others, some from Newbury,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. The town served as the southern terminus of the Bayley Hazen Military Road, begun by Bayley in 1760 and then continued until 1779 by Colonel Moses Hazen. Meanwhile, pioneer

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer ...

s had to carry their

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...

60 miles (97 kilometers) by

canoe A canoe is a lightweight, narrow watercraft, water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using paddles. In British English, the term ' ...

to Charlestown,

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

to get it ground into

flour Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredie ...

. By 1859, when the population was 2,984, Newbury had two

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

s, in addition to a

paper mill A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt ...

and steam mill to manufacture

mackerel Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. ...

kits. The principal industry, however, along the

alluvial Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

meadows was raising beef

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

and

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

, and the production of

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

and

dairy A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also des ...

goods. The Connecticut & Passumpsic Rivers Railroad opened on November 6, 1848, to the village of Wells River. It developed as an adjunct of the

railway town A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated, or was expanded, as a result of a railway line being constructed there. North America During the construction of the First transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, temporary, ...

across the Connecticut River at Woodsville, the once bustling village within

Haverhill, New Hampshire Haverhill is a town and the seat of Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,585 at the 2020 census. Haverhill includes the villages of Woodsville, Pike, and North Haverhill, the historic town center at Haverhill Corn ...

. In the summer of 1913 a large fire destroyed 21 buildings in Newbury, including a church, the public school, the hotel and a number of businesses and residences. Only a change of the wind saved the balance of the town since there was no fire department at that time. In 1958, Newbury gained widespread notoriety after an unpopular farmer disappeared. The discovery of his bound body in the river three months later led to his death being described as a "lynching" by newspapers along the East Coast. Two suspects were acquitted, and the crime was never solved.

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, one of New England's largest universities, traces its roots to the establishment of the Newbury Biblical Institute, a Methodist school founded in Newbury, Vermont in 1839.Boston University , Visitor Center , About the University , History
retrieved May 6, 2006

Geography

The town of Newbury is located in the northeast corner of Orange County. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the town has a total area of 64.4 square miles (166.9 km²), of which 64.2 square miles (166.2 km²) is land and 0.3 square mile (0.7 km²) (0.40%) is water. Bounded on the east by the

, which forms the Vermont–

border, Newbury is drained by the Wells River, Halls Brook and Peach Brook. The town is crossed by

Interstate 91 Interstate 91 (I-91) is an Interstate Highway in the New England region of the United States. It is the primary north–south thoroughfare in the western part of the region. Its southern terminus is in New Haven, Connecticut, at I-95, whi ...

U.S. Route 5 U.S. Route 5 (US 5) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway running through the New England states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Significant cities along the route include New Haven, Connecticut; Hartford, Conn ...

, and U.S. Route 302.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 1,955 people, 816 households, and 553 families residing in the town. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was 30.5 people per square mile (11.8/km²). There were 1,153 housing units at an average density of 18.0/sq mi (6.9/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 97.44%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.31%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.66% Native American, 0.20% Asian, and 1.38% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 0.15% of the population. There were 816 households, out of which 29.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.6% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 7.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.2% were non-families. 26.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.88. In the town, the population was spread out, with 24.2% under the age of 18, 5.5% from 18 to 24, 25.7% from 25 to 44, 27.3% from 45 to 64, and 17.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.9 males. The median income for a household in the town was $32,721, and the median income for a family was $42,262. Males had a median income of $30,169 versus $21,780 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the town was $17,659. About 8.6% of families and 12.9% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 16.3% of those under age 18 and 10.6% of those age 65 or over.

Sites of interest

* Bayley Historic District * Bedell Covered Bridge site * Camp Farwell, founded in 1889, and reported to be the longest running girls

summer camp A summer camp, also known as a sleepaway camp or residential camp, is a supervised overnight program for children conducted during the summer vacation from school in many countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer residential camps ...

in the United States. * Newbury Historical Society & Museum * Newbury Town House (1839) * Oxbow Historic District * Newbury Village Store,

Notable people

* Horace W. Bailey, US Marshal for Vermont * Jacob Bayley, general during the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

* Frank M. Bryan, political scientist *

Molly Gray Molly Rose Gray (born March 18, 1984) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 83rd List of lieutenant governors of Vermont, lieutenant governor of Vermont from 2021 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democ ...

, politician * Ernest N. Harmon, major general * Diana Mara Henry, photographer * Joab Hoisington, militia leader on the Patriot side in the

. Died in Newbury while on duty and was buried at Oxbow Cemetery in Newbury * Jeremiah Ingalls, early American folk composer * Jacob Kent Jr., U.S. Marshal for Vermont * Henry Keyes, politician and railroad president * Henry W. Keyes, US senator and 56th

governor of New Hampshire The governor of New Hampshire is the head of government of the U.S. state of New Hampshire. The governor is elected during the biennial state general election in November of even-numbered years. New Hampshire is one of only two states, along w ...

* Sydney Lea, Poet Laureate from Vermont * William T. Porter, journalist * Abel Underwood, U.S. Attorney for Vermont and state circuit court judge, practiced law in Wells River * George W. Webber, US congressman

References

External links

Town of Newbury official website

Tenney Memorial Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newbury (Town), Vermont Towns in Vermont Vermont populated places on the Connecticut River Towns in Orange County, Vermont Populated places established in 1763