The Name….
The Town of Wirt was formed from Bolivar and Friendship April 12, 1838 and named by Peleg Sherman after the writer, William Wirt. The first settlement was made in the northern part of the town of farms owned later by Mott Whitwood and D.S. Willard. The first pioneers were Benjamin Crabtree and Levi Abbott who came from Amsterdam, Montgomery County in 1912. Other earlier settlers where Chauncey Axtel, Horace Ketchum, Alvan Richardson, Nathan Gilbert, James Smith, Simon Wightman, Reuben Whitney, Philip Applebee, Josiah Wheeler, Joseph Allen, Jonah French, Gilbert Thomas, Levi Applebee, Calvin Wheeler, Isaiah Jordan, Elisha Dakin, Robert Almy, Pliny Evans, Aaron Smith, Sheldon P Stanton and John Scott. Clark E. Newton came early from Madison County and bought land west of South Branch Creek. With his brother, H. B. Newton, he began clearing land on Lot 39. Mr. Newton was a stone mason by trade and he helped plaster the first county courthouse in Angelica.
