Bethel (Vermont)
Windsor County
50-05800
Bethel is a town in Windsor County, the State of Vermont in the United States with 2,030 inhabitants ( according to the census of 2010). The place is surrounded by the mountain ranges east of the main ridge of the Green Mountains. The White River flows through the area and forms a valley that is used by road and rail.
History
The history of Bethel began on December 29, 1777 in Hanover, New Hampshire. There emigrating settlers had come together, who wanted to acquire and colonize a new piece of land on the White River. A similar petition was presented in March 1778, the administration of New York, which was responsible for the allocation of land for settlement in the territory of the later Vermont at that time, directed and a positive vote on 18 March 1778. In this petition, the name Bethel was already set for the new church. Meanwhile, the new, independent Vermont Republic was proclaimed, which included the affected area. Bethel was the first church that proclaimed the new Senate of Vermont on December 23, 1779 an area of 36 square miles ( about 120 square kilometers ) has been awarded a number of settlers.
The early settlers had already begun in the fall of 1779. A fortified house ( " stockade fort" ) was established at the founding of the Town on the north bank of the White River and named as " Fort Defiance ". His occupation was carried out first by soldiers from Royalton, after the Indian raid on the neighboring Barnard on August 9, 1780 in which a citizen of Bethel had been abducted to Canada, even by his own troops. The constituent town meeting was held in 1782.
Typhoid epidemics studied the community in 1788 and 1790 home. A large rubella epidemic that affected the community 1812/13, how many communities of interest, caused many deaths. 1822 led the dysentery to a further wave of deaths and disease decimated the young church.
From 1790 various religious communities, the pastors and bishops at times other communities were formed also assisted. A first house of worship was erected by the Universalists in 1816, from 1823 followed by other communities with their own churches and prayer houses.
The predominantly rural industry - statistics from 1840 has Bethel as a large supplier of potatoes, corn, sugar, and wool - was supplemented by the degradation of a granite deposit in the northern part of the municipality.
The development of processing technology and the construction of the railway Windsor Burlington, which had been put into operation on June 26, 1848 between Bethel and Windsor, led to a much larger market for agricultural products and increasing the dispersal of industries, the 1880s from the - years had a flourishing of the Town consequence. Through the construction of another route through the valley of the White River, the White River Railroad, the station for wedge station, the distributed traffic on one of the east-west axis through Vermont and Canada in the north to Montreal was. In addition, from 1905 the two quarries were connected to the railway system in the north of the village by a separate branch line, the Bethel Granite Railway. This branch line was operated until 1933 and 1937, finally closed down. This corresponded to the development of industry in the community, which decreased significantly from about 1922/23. This was due particularly in the declining efficiency of the relatively small local factories. The passenger traffic on the route between White River Junction and Essex Junction in 1966 decommissioned and Bethel thus to a pure freight station.
It was not until the late 1970s, the population recovered. The connection to the United States -wide highway system from Interstate 89, the establishment of new industries and the development of a dormitory town for the nearby population centers, the number of residents and jobs increased significantly again. Also the orientation of the local service providers in tourism, which focuses on the river and the surrounding forest areas, the community is an additional economic mainstay.
In the resort communities of the Assemblies of God, the Methodists, the Catholics and the Episcopalians are located. The local school system is expanded to high school; the responsible hospital is in Randolph.
Nearby Cities
All information bee-line distances from the center of Town.
- North Northfield, 31.0 km
- Northeast: Randolph, 12.0 km
- East: Royalton, 7.0 km
- South East Hartford, 33.5 km
- South: Barnard, 11.5 km
- Southwest: Stockbridge, 10.5 km
- West: Brandon, 32.5 km
- North West: Hancock, 14.0 km