Caledonia County

Caledonia County, Vermont
Caledonia Superior Court in St. Johnsbury
Location in the U.S. state of Vermont
Vermont's location in the U.S.
Founded	1796
Named for	Latin name for Scotland
Shire Town	St. Johnsbury
Largest town	St. Johnsbury
Area
• Total	658 sq mi (1,704 km2)
• Land	649 sq mi (1,681 km2)
• Water	8.7 sq mi (23 km2), 1.3%
Population (est.)
• (2015)	30,780
• Density	47.7/sq mi (18/km²)
Congressional district	At-large
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4

Caledonia County is a county located in the northeastern part of the state of Vermont, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 31,227. Its shire town (county seat) is the municipality of St. Johnsbury. The county was created in 1792 and organized in 1796. It was given the Latin name for Scotland, in honor of the many settlers who claimed ancestry there.

The county shares the same pre-Columbian history with the Northeast Kingdom.

Rogers' Rangers were forced to retreat through the county following their attack on Saint-Francis, Quebec in 1759. To confound their avenging pursuers, they had split up. One group came south over the summit into the Passumpsic River Valley.

Vermont was divided into two counties in March, 1778. In 1781 the legislature divided the northernmost county, Cumberland, into three counties: Windham and Windsor, located about where they are now. The northern remainder was called Orange county. This latter tract nearly corresponded with the old New York county of Gloucester, organized by that province March 16, 1770, with Newbury as the shire town.

On November 5, 1792, the legislature divided Chittenden and Orange counties into six separate counties, as follows: Chittenden, Orange, Franklin, Caledonia, Essex, and Orleans. There is a supposition that the county was called Caledonia, to commemorate the large number of Scottish settlers.

Caledonians joined the Union Army in response to a call for volunteers. In September 1861, they joined the Vermont 6th Vermont Infantry, and helped fill out Companies B, D and E. The regiment ultimately became part of the First Vermont Brigade.