Peacham

Photographers and painters have been drawn to Peacham's hilltop village for generations, and it's easy to see why. The white Congregational Church, framed by blazing maples in autumn, has appeared on more calendars and postcards than perhaps any other scene in Caledonia County. The village was laid out on a ridge, giving it long views in every direction.

Chartered in 1763, Peacham was settled by families from Connecticut after the Revolution. The town was a stop on the Bayley-Hazen Military Road, and its early prosperity was built on sheep farming and potash production. Thaddeus Stevens, the fierce abolitionist congressman who led Reconstruction-era reforms, attended school in Peacham as a young man — a connection the town remembers with pride.

About 663 people live in Peacham today. The Peacham Library, founded in 1810, is one of the oldest continuously operating libraries in Vermont. Town meeting each March draws residents to the same kind of democratic gathering that Stevens would have witnessed in his youth.