The boundaries of Norwich were established on July 4, 1761, when Governor
Benning Wentworth of
New Hampshire defined the boundaries of townships in Vermont. The first settlers reached the area in 1763 and began to clear the wilderness and erect the first hand-hewn log buildings, wintering over for the first time in 1765. Early settlements occurred along the
Ompompanoosuc River. Later, the current village site became settled. The first
town meeting occurred in April 1768. The first
Congregational church was founded in 1770 and a structure built in 1778. The population grew from 206 in 1771 to 1,158 in 1791 and 2,316 in 1830. In the original charter, the name was spelled "Norwhich", but the additional 'h' was dropped shortly after the town was chartered. Originally pronounced "Norritch" (similar to the English pronunciation of the city of
Norwich,
England), the town name has in more recent times become more commonly pronounced "Nor-wich".
Alden Partridge and the founding of Norwich University In 1819 native son,
Alden Partridge, a former Superintendent of the
United States Military Academy at
West Point, New York, founded the private "American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy" in Norwich. He hoped to establish a new "American system" for training
cadets that included both humanities and science topics in the curriculum, in addition to
military science. In his six years of Norwich residency, Partridge achieved an academy population of nearly 500 "cadets". He moved that school back to
Middletown, Connecticut, in 1825, but returned in 1835 with a charter from the U.S. Congress to found another military academy, which remained in Norwich until 1866, when it burned to the ground. The school then relocated to
Northfield, Vermont, where it exists today as
Norwich University. ==Geography==