1954

Starksboro, as originally chartered, was first settled by George Bidwell and Horace Kellogg. George Bidwell located on the farm where Nobel Wyman’s tenement house is now situated, while Horace Kellogg settled where Kenneth Besaw now lives.

They left Connecticut in August, 1787 and upon arriving in Starksboro camped east of the present location of the Wyman tenement house. After clearing two acres of land and laying up the body of a log hut they returned to Connecticut.

In March of the following year, George Bidwell, accompanied by his wife and two children, again set out for Starksboro. On April 7, 1788 they reached their new home which was then several miles from the nearest neighbor. At the spot where the house now stands they set up the sled boards and some bark thus providing shelter for the first two weeks. The following spring a small house was built. The frame is part of the house now standing on the place. About 1795 the family opened their home as a tav­ern and continued to entertain travelers there until about 1820.

Horace Kellogg and his family arrived in town at about the same time, perhaps accom­panying the Bidwells on the journey from Con­necticut. Hannah Kellogg was thought by some to have been the first child born in town but the first date that can be established is that for Cyrus Bidwell, December 11, 1790. The first marriage was that of David Kellogg and Christiana Traver, March 3, 1793.