Phippen Family - Ourfolk

I just stumbled across your Averill genealogy on the Our Folk website. I thought you might be interested to know that there are still descendants of the Averills and Phippens in Westminster, Vermont; and a house built by John and Mary (Phippen) Averill's son Asa is still standing on the main street.

When I was a child I grew up in an apple orchard started by my greatgrandfather, George Dascomb, and one area of the orchard was called 'The Phippen Lot'. George was a descendant of the Averills and Phippens through his mother. The orchard hasn't been worked in over 40 years, and is mainly residential now, but my dad told me that when it was a working orchard there were old cellar holes down in the Phippen lot.

It's odd, I believe John and Mary Averill had around 70 plus grandchildren, but as far as I can tell, my sisters and brother and I are the only descendants still living in the area. Our name has changed many times, as we came down through the female lines.

Kathy Lisai

In 1755 John Perry, Philip Alexander and John Averill were the first settlers of Putney, Vermont.

In 1751 John Averill, wife, and son Asa removed with others from Northfield, Massachussetts, to Westminster.

(New England Families: Genealogical and Memorial, Vol. 4 page 1700)

Another 'summer person' to come to Westminster was Vermont born Texas lumber king George A. Dascomb, who realized his dream of starting an orchard in Vermont by organizing the Connecticut Valley Orchard in Westminster in 1911. The approximately twenty acre orchard was providing apples to New York City and all of New England by the 1920's.

It contributed significantly to the 16.3 acres of orchard and approximately 8,000 apple trees in the town at the time. Though Dascomb's orchard did not lie within the district, Dascomb had an important influence on the district through his generous donations to the town, the most notable of which was the Westminster Institute, #19, in 1923.
(Westminster Village Historic District)