Swift, Esther Munroe. Vermont Place Names: Footprints of History. (Montpelier, Vermont: Vermont Historical Society, 1977). Pp. 187-189.

Underhill town (New Hampshire grant of 8 June 1763) today is the largest town in Chittenden County in terms of land area, although that was not so when the town was granted. It is the kind of town that prompts the Vermonter to say that his state would be as big as any in the Union, if it were flattened out.

Two members of the Underhill family were listed in the grant--either a grandfather and grandson of an uncle and nephew. They were Benjamin Underhill and Underhill Horton. Various members of the family were listed in other Onion River Company grants (including Westford--which was granted the same day as Underhill--and Jericho and Huntington, both granted the day before); but they must have been far down in the pecking order, because Underhill got more mountains and hills per square mile than the other towns. Probably neither Wentworth nor the grantees knew just how appropriate the town's name would be; Underhill really is an under-hill town!

The town of Mansfield, which got the mountains in the area that had not already fallen to Underhill's lot, was granted on the same day as Underhill. Mansfield had almost no land suitable for farming, and the peaks of the Green Mountains, running through the center of the town, made it impossible to go from one side to the other. In 1839 the western section of Mansfield was annexed to Underhill, thereby bringing that town to its present size. After a long hassle with the Mansfield townspeople, who wanted to have their town remain a separate civil entity, the legislature managed to give the rest of the town to Stowe (q. v.) in Lamoille County to the east.

Mount Mansfield, at 4,393 feet the highest mountain in Vermont, is in the eastern section of Underhill, which originally had been the western section of Mansfield town. The Abnaki gave this peak the name Mozodepowadso, "mountain with a head like a moose," because they thought the mountain's profile resembled that of a moose. When the white man came along he thought the mountain looked like the profile of a man's head--with forehead, nose, lips, chin and Adam's apple. This fancied resemblance gave rise to the oft-repeated story that the name of the mountain was a made name--Man's-field--and, in turn, that the town's name came from the mountain.

The true story is less picturesque: the Vermont town was named for Mansfield, Connecticut, the home town of some of the grantees; and the mountain had its name from the town. . .

Like many Onion River Company proprietors, the Underhills took an active part in establishing their new town. The first proprietors' meeting was held at the home of Captain Abraham Underhill at Dorset in Bennington County. Another one of the family--Augustin--was chosen for the committee that would lay out the town in lots. One can hope that he was one of the younger Underhills, and that he liked mountian climbing. Eventually several Underhill families moved north and took up land in the town that bears their name.

The first post office was opened in 1826 at the village called Underhill Flats, which sits astride the Jericho-Underhill town line. That office has always been named simply Underhill, and it is still in operation. The North Underhill office was opened in 1864 and closed in 1908. Lorenzo Dow, the 19th Century preacher and evangelist, spent two years at the Flats village, preaching in Elijah Benedick's tavern because there was no church. As late as 1902 most maps indentified a small settlement west of the CHin of Mount Mansfield as Stevensville, the village taking its name from one of the first three selectmen, Cyrus Stevens, as did Stevensville Brook.

and from the St. Thomas web site: http://www.stthomasvt.com/

Father Jeremiah O'Callaghan visited the area of Underhill in 1833, celebrating Mass at the Michael Barrett residence, in Fletcher, where the Barretts lived before moving to Underhill. He also visited many other hillside farms of Irish immigrant settlers at that time.

On November 15-16, 1853, less than ten days after his installation, Bishop Louis DeGoesbriand journeyed to Underhill, ministering to the 63 Catholic families living there. The congregation of St. Thomas remained a mission of Burlington until 1865 when it was attached to Richmond.

A wooden church was built in Underhill, in 1856. It was blessed by Bishop DeGoesbriand on December 14, 1856. Then, in 1866, the church was renovated and expanded. That same year there were 53 Baptisms, 50 First Communions and five marriages.

The wooden structure of St. Thomas Church burned in 1889. Construction began immediately for the brick church we presently occupy. Mass was celebrated for the first time in the basement of the new church on Christmas Eve 1891. This new church, our present church, underwent many minor renovations as pastors came and went.

In 1989 while Father Jean-Paul Laplante was pastor, major renovations, interior and exterior, were accomplished in preparation for the Church's Centennial 1991 celebration.