Warners Grant, Vermont, New England USA
About Warners Grant, Vermont
Essex County
Chartered: November 29, 1791 (Vermont Charter)
Area: 2,048 Acres = 3.2 Square Miles [ Size Rank: 252* ]
Coordinates (Geographic Center): N 44° 55′ W 71°55′
Population (US Census, 2010): 0 [ Population Rank: 255* ]
[ Density Rank: 255* ]
Census Info: County State
*Area, Population and Density rankings refer to Warners Grant’s relative position among Vermont’s 255 civic entities (9 cities, 242 towns, 4 gores and grants). Complete rankings are here.
Warners Grant records one of the sad stories of war. Seth Warner, one of the Green Mountain Boys, probably did more than any other man to help keep Vermont free, from Yorkers and British alike. Yet he died in poverty and broken health, leaving a widow and three children who became destitute and were forced to apply to the Vermont legislature for relief.
In 1787, three years after Warner’s death, his widow petitioned the Vermont legislature for a grant of land to help support her and the children, saying in part:
“The petition of the subscriber sheweth that her late husband, Colonel Seth Warner deceased, took an early and very active part in opposing the unjust claims of the New York claimers… And that he also did do and perform many singular services, not only to the inhabitants of the state of Vermont, but also to the United States of America through their whole late contest with Great Britain. In doing and performing on his part the business in both cases, he employed the principal part of the prime of his life and rendered it impossible for him to pay such attention to agriculture as he would have undoubtedly otherwise paid in order to acquire an interest for himself through life, and for the support of such of his surviving family who he has left behind him, under the care of your petitioner.”
“By doing this business, its impairing his health, rendering some of the last years of his life, not only unhappy to his personal feelings but very expensive… he has placed dependence on the inhabitants of the New Hampshire Grants to make him ample satisfaction for such services… “
“Your petitioner therefore prays most earnestly in behalf of herself and orphans that the honorable General Assembly will take her request into consideration and by grant of land or other wise at least assist your petitioner in making provision for the support of herself and orphan children.”
(Signed) “Hester Warner, the unhappy relict of the deceased.”
The petition was filed with the legislature on October 17, read the same day in assembly and referred to committee. On the 20th the committee reported back that “the petition was true” and recommended that 2,000 acres of land be granted to the Widow Warner without any fees or charges. Then the legislature had to find 2,000 acres that were not already committed.
It took a year for the state’s Surveyor General to find the acreage, and then three more years for the charter to be issued. The records do not explain the delay, but it probably was because not all of the northern part of the state had been surveyed and many people were asking for land there. At any rate, Hester Warner finally got her land.
One can hope, however, that in the meantime she had found some other way to support herself and her children, for her grant was then, and still is, wild land which nobody has ever wanted to live on. Today, many generations after Hester got the charter for Warners Grant (sometimes Warners Gore), there are no residents, no roads and no topographic features shown on most maps except the single long height of land known as Beechnut Ridge.
Contact Info
Emergency Services (Statewide): 911
Supervisor: Gina Vigneault PO Box 417 Island Pond, VT 05846
802-723-5900
Neighboring Towns
This is a basic geographic reference, intended to show relative location of adjacent towns. Directional accuracy is limited to 16 compass points. There isn’t even the slightest suggestion that one can necessarily travel directly from one town to the next (as in “You can’t get there from here”).
Quebec
Canada
Warners Grant
