Green Mountain Heritage, Julia McIntyre, Researcher and Writer.

"The influx of the Irish to work on the railroad in the 1850's brought a dramatic change in the social and ethnic make-up of Northfield's people, as well as economic change. For years the Irish had been leaving their overpopulated homeland, at first flooding into England and Scotland and then to the United States.

As Julia reports, few of the canals and railroads would have been built without the Irish. Canals required pick and shovel work in a country chronically short of labor. That brought across the water the first group of Catholic Irish who would change the cultural face of northeast America.

"This was certainly true as far as Northfield is concerned, for these 'foreigners' brought fresh blood to the community and gave it new vitality. Coming over the mountain from Moretown via Cox Brook, the newcomers settled on Cox Brook Road, which for a time received the name of 'Paddy Brook'; on Railroad Street, (? Water Street) where at one time there were about thirty substantial homes lining the Railroad tracks from 'Doyle's Crossing,' (located on the road from the center to Kingston's bridge and named for John Doyle who lived nearby) to the station; and on Turkey Hill.

"Town affairs were no longer dominated by the Robinsons, Averills, Dennys, Allens, Fiskes and others of English descent. Now the names of McCarty, Devine, Donahue, Collins, Sullivan, Ryan, Conway, Kingston, Mack and others appear in the town records. We find, for instance, notice of Thomas O'Grady who was born in Ireland and who came to Montreal, then to the United States in 1846 or 1847. For many years he was a switchman in the railroad yard. The names of Holland and O'Neill soon appeared and their descendants were later to take an active part in Northfield.

"Among the Irish settlers was William Kingston who was born in Ireland in 1835 and came to Northfield in 1867. Another was Robert Gillespie born in 1851 in Ireland, and who came to Northfield in 1882, where he worked for Perley Belknap in his Cox Brook sawmill, and then in the Gould Mills 'in charge of the power end of the business.'

"With the influx of newcomers, all needing housing, food and clothing, and with the building of the railroad, the town grew prosperous. Now 'Factory Village' became 'Depot Village' with businesses and social activities shifting rapidly from the Center to 'downtown.' For a long time the night trains stopped when they arrived at Northfield in the late afternoon and went no farther until the following morning, naturally giving the hotel and other businesses enormous patronage, thereby contributing significantly to Northfield's newfound prosperity.

We move ahead to the next influx of "newcomers."

"The granite industry brought many Italians to live and work in the sheds.

When Dominic Falzrano arrived on March 11, 1898, he said there was only one other Italian in Town. Among Italian names appearing in the Northfield Town Reports we find Ambrosini, Bernandini, Bernasconi, Broggi, Cardosi, Cilliti, Comi…Fabrizio, Galli, Mancini, Fontana. By 1908 there was a large Italian colony in Northfield.

Several Spanish families also came to work in the sheds. Among them were these family names: Garcia, Pando, Abascal, Revilla, Fernandez, Ortiz and Canales.

"A settlement of Scottish people, also drawn here to work in the sheds, grew up at the foot of Garvey Hill. Because of the Scot's reputed fondness for oatmeal porridge, the settlement was called Oatmeal Flat. Garvey hill was called the Highlands.

Among the names of Scottish families who became residents were Beattie, Hayes, Neilson, Matheson, Dinnie, Kenney, Smith, Simpson, Cruickshank, England, Coutts, Frazer and Powers.

I decided that our records at the Historical Society should be examined and printed in order to provide information to descendants of these early Northfield families. As you can see, we have many of those families who settled and remained in Northfield, their children and children's children still living here.

Many of you have traced your own genealogy. If you have and would like to share, we at the Northfield Historical Society would like to have copies. We have several local Genealogies that you are welcome to look at when the Paine House is open.

There is a book at the Brown Public Library that is worth looking at:

"Descendants of Early Settlers of Northfield, Vermont," by Rosina Hanson (with Sid Morse and Robert Allen), 1990.