by William B Darrow
Using the U.S. Census, public records, old maps, newspaper reports, and books, this paper traces the Blood family (and West Hill) history from 1782 to the early 1900s.
A little over 50 years ago when I was a boy growing up on West Hill in Putney, my father took my brothers and me on walks through the woods along abandoned roads. He pointed out cellar holes, sometimes noting an ancient, gnarled apple tree that stood in what was once a yard. Dad also took us to visit elderly Putney natives that he knew, living in out of the way places around town. He kept old Putney photos in his office, and old maps on his walls. He instilled in me an appreciation — dormant for many years — for old Vermont. After retiring last August during the pandemic, I had time to think about those walks on West Hill, and about the ghost population that lived there 200 years ago, in vanished farms and homes and churches. It struck me how little we knew about them.
Putney’s present population of around 2700 is a historic high. Remarkably, the last high before 1980 was in 1790 (1848 persons). Between 1790 and 1980 there was a U-shaped population curve: first a dramatic decline, reaching a low of 761 in 1920, then a retrenchment and steady increase. Why did Putney’s first population leave West Hill?
This paper was conceived in pondering these subjects. It seeks to open a window into Putney’s early community by focusing on a family that settled on West Hill in 1782. That year Robert Blood and Thankful Proctor from Groton MA, moved to West Hill with eight young children. They prospered and during the 1800s the extended Blood family became dominant West Hill farmers. In the late 1800s the family faltered, and by 1920 the main farm was abandoned. Both the houses the Bloods built on West Hill burned down long ago. There’s a small family graveyard where the main farm used to be — it’s off the road in the woods. By using the U.S. Census, public records, old maps, newspaper reports, and books, this paper traces the Blood family (and West Hill) history from 1782 to the early 1900s. Read More