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.
Contents
Corporate changes since 1900
There have been no changes in Essex County’s town-level municipality roster since 1900.
1900
County Total: 8,056
- Brighton 2,023
- Concord 1,129
- Lunenburg 968
- Canaan 934
- Norton 692
- Bloomfield 564
- Guildhall 455
- Victory 321
- Maidstone 206
- Lemington 204
- Granby 182
- East Haven 171
- Brunswick 106
Unorganized territory reported 101 residents.
1910
County Total: 7,384
- Brighton 2,013
- Concord 1,080
- Lunenburg 880
- Canaan 869
- Bloomfield 496
- Norton 479
- Guildhall 445
- Victory 206
- East Haven 194
- Maidstone 175
- Lemington 138
- Granby 95
- Brunswick 82
Unorganized territory reported 232 residents.
1920
County Total: 7,364
- Brighton 2,280
- Concord 1,102
- Lunenburg 1,048
- Canaan 982
- Bloomfield 382
- Guildhall 376
- Norton 336
- Maidstone 171
- East Haven 148
- Lemington 145
- Victory 125
- Brunswick 89
- Granby 70
Unorganized territory reported 110 residents.
1930
County Total: 7,067
- Brighton 2,002
- Lunenburg 1,400
- Concord 1,043
- Canaan 906
- Bloomfield 417
- Guildhall 351
- Norton 339
- Lemington 133
- Maidstone 123
- East Haven 99
- Victory 80
- Brunswick 73
- Granby 69
Unorganized territory reported 32 residents.
1940
County Total: 6,490
- Brighton 1,754
- Lunenburg 1,374
- Concord 923
- Canaan 872
- Bloomfield 326
- Norton 314
- Guildhall 313
- Lemington 131
- Victory 104
- Maidstone 96
- East Haven 92
- Brunswick 86
- Granby 76
Unorganized territory reported 29 residents.
1950
County Total: 6,257
- Brighton 1,671
- Lunenburg 1,299
- Concord 979
- Canaan 969
- Bloomfield 291
- Norton 279
- Guildhall 270
- Lemington 105
- East Haven 85
- Maidstone 81
- Granby 74
- Brunswick 73
- Victory 49
Unorganized territory reported 32 residents.
1960
County Total: 6,083
- Brighton 1,545
- Lunenburg 1,237
- Canaan 1,094
- Concord 956
- Guildhall 248
- Norton 241
- Bloomfield 212
- East Haven 164
- Lemington 112
- Maidstone 78
- Brunswick 62
- Granby 56
- Victory 46
Unorganized territory reported 32 residents.
1970
County Total: 5,416
- Brighton 1,365
- Lunenburg 1,061
- Canaan 949
- Concord 896
- Norton 207
- East Haven 197
- Bloomfield 196
- Guildhall 169
- Lemington 120
- Maidstone 94
- Granby 52
- Brunswick 45
- Victory 42
Unorganized territory reported 23 residents.
1980
County Total: 6,313
- Brighton 1,557
- Canaan 1,196
- Lunenburg 1,138
- Concord 1,125
- East Haven 280
- Guildhall 202
- Bloomfield 188
- Norton 184
- Lemington 108
- Maidstone 100
- Granby 70
- Brunswick 82
- Victory 56
Unorganized territory reported 27 residents.
1990
County Total: 6,405
- Brighton 1,562
- Lunenburg 1,176
- Canaan 1,121
- Concord 1,093
- Guildhall 270
- East Haven 269
- Bloomfield 253
- Norton 169
- Maidstone 131
- Lemington 102
- Brunswick 92
- Granby 85
- Victory 50
Unorganized territory reported 32 residents.
2000
County Total: 6,459
- Lunenburg 1,315
- Brighton 1,260
- Concord 1,209
- Canaan 1,078
- East Haven 301
- Guildhall 268
- Bloomfield 261
- Norton 214
- Brunswick 107
- Lemington 107
- Maidstone 105
- Victory 97
- Granby 86
Unorganized territory reported 51 residents.
Unorganized Territory
The unincorporated entities in Essex County are as follows:
- One grant: Warner's Grant
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
- Ferdinand Twp. 41
- Averill Twp. 18
- Warren’s Gore 18
- Avery’s Gore 16
- Lewis Twp. 8
1910
Total: 232
- Ferdinand Twp. 213
- Averill Twp. 15
- Warner’s Grant 4
1920
Total: 110
- Ferdinand Twp. 106
- Averill Twp. 4
1930
Total: 32
- Ferdinand Twp. 18
- Averill Twp. 9
- Warren’s Gore 5
1940
Total: 29
- Ferdinand Twp. 17
- Averill Twp. 12
1950
Total: 32
- Averill Twp. 20
- Ferdinand Twp. 10
- Avery’s Gore 1
- Warren’s Gore 1
1960
Total: 32
- Averill Twp. 16
- Ferdinand Twp. 16
1970
Total: 23
- Ferdinand Twp. 14
- Averill Twp. 8
- Warren’s Gore 1
1980
Total: 27
- Averill Twp. 15
- Ferdinand Twp. 12
1990
Total: 32
- Ferdinand Twp. 23
- Averill Twp. 7
- Warren’s Gore 2
2000
Total: 51
- Ferdinand Twp. 33
- Warren’s Gore 10
- Averill Twp. 8
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, within the town of the same name
The village of Concord disincorporated in 1969.
1930
- Concord 353
1940
- Concord 313
1950
- Concord 348
1960
- Concord 389
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.
