westfieldvt.com

History

Documented facts about Westfield, Vermont from public town and reference sources. No invented lore — citations below.

Location

Westfield sits in Orleans County in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Farm and forest dominate the landscape; shared peaks with Jay form part of the northern Green Mountains / Jay Peak chain. The 2020 Census recorded a population of 534.

Charter & name

Westfield was chartered on May 15, 1780 as one of six towns granted to raise funds; only Enosburg and Westfield paid granting fees on time that May. Among explanations for the name, the town’s About page calls the most plausible that it was named after Hon. William West, Esq., of Scituate, Rhode Island — a New England legislator who supported Vermont statehood. West sold related land interests in 1785; there is no record of him visiting the area.

Early settlement

First settler Jesse Olds (from Massachusetts) arrived in 1798 on West Hill. The 2019 Town Plan notes he was a lawyer and clergyman. The first town meeting was held March 29, 1802 at Olds’s residence (historic gazetteers).

In 1804, Capt. Medad Hitchcock from Brimfield, Massachusetts, moved in with sons Thomas, Heber, and Smith and settled the flats where the village now sits; the family built early saw- and grist-mills.

War of 1812 & Hazen’s Notch

During the War of 1812, residents feared a British invasion from Canada. Capt. Mead/Medad Hitchcock’s barn was converted into a blockhouse refuge but never had to be defended (town About page).

Hazen’s Notch, near Sugarloaf Mountain, is the northern terminus of the Revolutionary War–era Bayley–Hazen Military Road (Newbury → north).

Village green & Hitchcock Memorial

A village post office was operating by 1830, when the town’s population was just over 350. The green is a maple-shaded common on level ground at the edge of the Route 100 alluvial plain.

The Hitchcock Memorial Museum & Library — a square white building with a clock tower — was completed in 1899 as a gift of Aaron E. / Aaron Charles Hitchcock. Exhibits have included 19th-century farm tools, furniture, costumes, photos, and natural-history collections.

Population

Town Plan and About-page figures: about 149 in 1810, peak 763 in 1890, low 354 in 1940, roughly 500 in plan-era text, and 534 in the 2020 Census.

Monastery

Westfield is home to the Benedictine Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, founded in 1981 by Abbaye Sainte-Marie des Deux-Montagnes (Canada) — contemplative Benedictine nuns of the Congregation of Solesmes. Public visiting hours are not summarized here; see the town About page for official context.

Sources