Old City and Old City Falls

Strafford received its charter on August 12, 1761, and land near here was selected for the town's first settlement by early pioneers Ezekiel Parish and Frederick Smith, who with their families had established homesteads in this vicinity by 1767. Four more pioneering families, Brisco, Pennock, Thomas, and West, settled in Strafford the following year. On this stream, above the nearby forty-five-foot waterfall, stood the first sawmill and gristmill, both erected by 1769, as well as Strafford's first school and store. During the Revolutionary War, in 1779, a fort was built for the protection of Strafford's citizens. Nearby Old City Cemetery became the burial place of many of Strafford's earliest settlers.

Strafford, Vermont · United States