Historical U.S. Census totals for Essex County, Vermont

This article shows U.S. Census totals for Essex County, Vermont, broken down by municipality, from 1900 to 2000.

Most areas of New England are entirely divided into incorporated municipalities, with no unincorporated territory. In the three northern New England states, however, some unincorporated territory does exist, generally in areas that are very sparsely populated. Essex County contains the bulk of Vermont’s unincorporated territory, although Bennington, Chittenden and Windham counties also include smaller amounts.

The unincorporated territory in Essex County consists of 6 distinct entities, covering about 160 square miles (approximately 25% of the county’s land area). Three are townships (essentially, areas that were drawn up as “future towns” in the 18th century, but never attained a large enough permanent population to formally incorporate as towns). Two of the others are gores, one a grant (tracts of land, typically smaller than a town, which were not included in any town when town boundaries were being drawn up in the 18th and 19th centuries). Most of the unincorporated territory in Essex County is in the interior northern part of the county. The remainder of the county is incorporated.

Due to the large extent of unorganized territory in Essex County, a separate section with detailed historical census totals for such areas follows the main tables below. In most of the last several censuses prior to 2000, the population of the unorganized territory had typically been about 30 residents. In 2000, it increased to 51.

There are three types of incorporated municipalities in Vermont: towns, cities and villages. As in the other New England states, towns are the basic unit of municipal government. Cities are independent of and equivalent to towns, but differ in their form of government. Villages overlay towns and assume responsibility for some municipal services within their boundaries. Incorporated villages are not found in any of the other New England states, and are less common in Vermont today than they have been in the past. A number of villages have disincorporated over the years, choosing to revert to full town control; most of those that remain are very small.

The main tables below show municipalities at the town level. The tables in the New England Historical U.S. Census Totals series differentiate between towns and cities; however, there have never been any cities in Essex County. For any census, adding up the totals for each town-level municipality and unincorporated entity should yield the county total. A separate section follows with population totals for villages from 1930 to 2000.

For more information on the New England municipal system, see New England town.

Corporate changes since 1900

There have been no changes in Essex County’s town-level municipality roster since 1900.

1900

County Total: 8,056

Unorganized territory reported 101 residents.

1910

County Total: 7,384

Unorganized territory reported 232 residents.

1920

County Total: 7,364

Unorganized territory reported 110 residents.

1930

County Total: 7,067

Unorganized territory reported 32 residents.

1940

County Total: 6,490

Unorganized territory reported 29 residents.

1950

County Total: 6,257

Unorganized territory reported 32 residents.

1960

County Total: 6,083

Unorganized territory reported 32 residents.

1970

County Total: 5,416

Unorganized territory reported 23 residents.

1980

County Total: 6,313

Unorganized territory reported 27 residents.

1990

County Total: 6,405

Unorganized territory reported 32 residents.

2000

County Total: 6,459

Unorganized territory reported 51 residents.

Unorganized Territory

The unincorporated entities in Essex County are as follows:

Avery’s Gore is the last survivor of what were once several different entities across Vermont called “Avery’s Gore”. According to Esther Swift Munroe’s “Vermont Place-Names: Footprints of History”, there were originally eight different tracts in six different Vermont counties named “Avery’s Gore”. All were granted between 1791 and 1796 to a man named Samuel Avery to compensate him for earlier grants that had been invalidated. The grants were made in piecemeal fashion because by that time there were apparently no large, town-sized areas left that had not been granted.

The population of the unincorporated entities has historically been light, with what population does exist often transitory. Some have rarely if ever reported any population at all. The only ones to report population in each census since 1900 are Ferdinand township and Averill township, both of which appear to have small but well-established population bases. At the other end of the spectrum, Lewis township last reported population in 1900, Warner’s Grant last reported population in 1910, and Avery’s Gore has only reported population once since 1900 (in 1950). There have been four post-1900 censuses in which Ferdinand and Averill were the only unincorporated entities in the county to report population.

1900

Total: 101

1910

Total: 232

1920

Total: 110

1930

Total: 32

1940

Total: 29

1950

Total: 32

1960

Total: 32

1970

Total: 23

1980

Total: 27

1990

Total: 32

2000

Total: 51

Villages

This section lists census totals for incorporated villages for 1930 through 2000.

As of 1930, Essex County contained one incorporated village:

The village of Concord disincorporated in 1969.

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970 through 2000

There have been no incorporated villages in Essex County at any time since the 1960s.

Notes

1970 Census

The 1970 Census reported a population of 353 for the village of Concord. This was in error, however, as the village had disincorporated in 1969.

2000 Census

The Census Bureau made a number of revisions to 2000 census totals subsequent to their initial release. The 2000 total for the town of Lunenburg was originally reported as 1,328; and for the town of Concord, 1,196. The totals were later revised to those shown in the list above. This was apparently done to correct an assignment error between the two municipalities; the collective population of the two is the same using either set of figures, so the county total was not affected.

See also

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