>From Hemenway's Vermont Gazetteer Vol. 2 pg. 370 Sheldon, Vermont Franklin County(the town was originally called Hungerford, from Samuel Hungerford, to whom, with 64 others, it was granted , in 1763. The first of the Sheldons that visited the town was Samuel B; or "Major Sam,' as he was afterwards called. He and Elisha, Jr.; and George were sons of Col. Elisha Sheldon. It was in 1789 that Major Sam first came to town. His object in coming was to look the township over and inspect the soil previous to purchasing. Instead of approaching as the early settlers afterwards did by the way of Fairfield, alone, unaccompanied by man or beast, he ascended the Lamoille to Cambridge; passed through Bakersfield, then an unfrequented wilderness, striking one of the branches that empties into Tyler's Branch, which he descended until he reached the point where the latter stream joins the Missisquoi, and, to him within the bounds of the promised land. It being nightfall, he stopped here until morning, and a large elm was long pointed out as the one beneath which he first slept; (distant many a mile from any habitation or human being save, perchance, the lurking red man,) with no covering or protection-nothing save a "portmanteau for a pillow." In the spring of 1790, George, the youngest son of Col. Sheldon, accompanied by a sturdy old Scotchman by the name of Mac Namara and his wife, together with several Negro servants, came to town as "first settlers; "their only means of locomotion being a yoke of oxen and sled. From the town of Fairfield--the nearest settled point for a distance of 10 miles, they marked trees for a road through the dense wood to the Missisquoi. Here, upon the north side of the river, opposite the outlet of Tyler's Branch, and scarcely more than a stone's throw from the old elm beneath which Major Sam passed a lonely night, the year previous, they constructed a log house--the first built in town by white men, and upon land now owned by J.Towle, Esq. Here also was the first tree felled, the first ground broken and the first seed planted. "What could lure their steps To this drear dessert? Bleak Nature's desolation wraps them round, Eternal forests, and unyielding earth, And savage men, who through the thickets peer With vengeful arrow." After the crops were harvested the Negroes (as written!) returned to Burlington to pass the winter. George also started for home in Connecticut, leaving Mac Namara and wife to keep watch and ward over matters at the settlement until the return of spring. The sufferings and sorrows of the lonely settler-his trust and determination--have passed into tradition. Well does it illustrate the stern, unflinching character of the pioneer, and none more worthy than this resolute son of Caledonia--it is this: on his way home George had requested a Mr. Hawley, living in Fairfield, to visit MacNamara occasionally and see to him. Hawley agreed to, but failed to do so, even once. Early the next spring George returned ,and when he learned that Hawley had not seen him, he felt much concerned and hastened on. What was his astonishment when he reached the settlement, to find that MacNamara;s wife had died and that he had covered the body in a snow-bank near the house. She was afterward buried on the south side of the river, about a quarter of a mile distant, upon a "hemlock ridge," and there, alone, where no monument nor tablet marks the spot, and where the exact place cannot be indicated, for. "The gravestone is the seal," is pointed out the "bold, bald bluff" wherein lies buried the f first known white person that died within the town's limits. Later in the spring, Col. Sheldon and his sons, Elisha Jr.; Maj. Sam. and son in law, Elnathan Keyes, together with their families and that of George, and their Negro servants, also James Herrick and James Hawley, arrived in town. While on their way, as near as can be ascertained, at the house of Daniel Stannard, in Georgia, the first town organization took place. Col. Sheldon, Elish, Jr.; Maj. Sam. and James Hawley were appointed selectmen, and James Herrick, constable. Settling at different points, all parties began in earnest the clearing of lands and growing of crops. Meanwhile others joined them and the settlement advanced, with considerable rapidity, so that, in 1796, 33 votes were cast for Samuel Hitchcock, M.C.; and, undoubtedly, some did not vote. The first birth in town was a colored child child' its mother, "Old Mary," was a servant of Col. Sheldon, who bought her in Connecticut where she was sold for the commission of some crime. The second child born was Harry Deming, son of Frederick Deming; the third, Louisa Sheldon, daughter of Geo. Sheldon. Although the early history of Sheldon has much of peculiar interest; there is no point, probably, around which so much of romantic and historic incident clusters, as in the immediate vicinity of the outlet of Tyler's Branch. Here, within the radius of a quarter of a mile, stood the elm, beneath which first slept Major Sheldon; here was built the first log house and barn --the later of which was afterwards burned by the Indians; here was born the first white female child in town; here, too, was erected the first framed barn, which is still standing, owned by J.Towle, though uch unlike the original, from much repairing; here, too, was a brick-kiln-fragments of brick being still seen; here, also the first death and first burial. Polly Pmanosh@pwshift.com