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Vermont State...
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Vermont Counties
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Vermont Counties
There are fourteen counties in Vermont. Each county has a county seat, known in
Vermont as shire town. In 1777, Vermont had two counties. The western side of the state was called Bennington
County and the eastern was called Cumberland County. In 1781 Cumberland County was broken up into three counties
in Vermont, plus Washington County, which eventually became part of New Hampshire. Today's Washington County was
known as Jefferson County until 1814. Essex County, Orleans County, and Caledonia County are commonly referred
to as the Northeast Kingdom. |
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Vermont Counties
The Vermont region was explored and claimed for France by Samuel de Champlain in 1609, and the first French settlement was established at Fort Ste. Anne in 1666. The first English settlers moved into the area in 1724 and built Fort Dummer on the site of present-day Brattleboro. England gained
control of the area in 1763 after the French and Indian Wars.
First organized to drive settlers from New York out of Vermont, the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen, won fame by capturing Fort Ticonderoga from the British on May 10, 1775, in the early days of the Revolutionary War. In 1777 Vermont adopted its first constitution, abolishing slavery and
providing for universal male suffrage without property qualifications.
Vermont was officially adopted as the new republic's name on June 30, 1777.
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County Resource Guide
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The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic
features of our country!"
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.
Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally,
act locally." |
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