Gazetteer of Towns

    NORTH NORWICH was formed from Norwich, April 7, 1849. It is an interior town, lying north-east of the center of the County. The surface consists of high rolling uplands divided by the valley of the Chenango River. The summits of the hills are from 200 to 600 feet above the valleys. The town is drained by Chenango River and its tributaries, Cold and Fly Brooks from the west, and Whapanaka and Thomson Brooks from the east. The soil is a gravelly and slaty loam, in some places mixed with clay.

    North Norwich, (p. v.) in the western part of the town, on the Chenango Canal, contains two churches, viz., Universalist and Union, three stores, a hotel, a wagon shop, a grist mill, a cider mill, a cheese factory and about 100 inhabitants. The railroad now in process of construction gives new life to the village and is adding greatly to its business.

    King's Settlement (p. o.) is a thickly settled farming district in the east part and contains a Methodist church.

    Plasterville, in the south-west part, is a hamlet containing a grist mill, a saw mill and a plaster mill.

    This town embraces most of township number ten of the Twenty Towns. The first settlement was made on lot number one in 1794, by Joseph Lathrop and A. Mead. The next year several others came in and settled at the village and along the valley of the Chenango; among them were Judge Joel Thompson, Jeremiah and Abner Purdy and Benjamin Ferris, from Dutchess County. In 1796 Jesse Rundell, Jacob Grow, Gen. Obadiah German, Ebenezer Hartwell and James Purdy, settled in the town.

    The first birth was that of Amos Mead, Jr., September 12, 1794; the first marriage that of Ebenezer Hartwell and Rachel Mead, in 1795; and the first death was that of Mrs. Abner Purdy, in 1795. The first school was taught by Thomas Brooks; the first inn was kept by Amos Mead, in 1803, and the first store by General Obadiah German. The first grist mill was built by Benjamin Hartwell, in 1803. The first church (Baptist) was formed in 1796. Elder Eleany Holmes was the first preacher.

    The population in 1865 was 1,068, and the area 17,382 acres.

    The number of school districts is nine; the number of children of school age, 302; the number attending school, 298; the average attendance, 134, and the amount expended for school purposes the last year was $1,877.14.

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Town of North Norwich
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