Charlton is a community long known for its rural atmosphere and for the broad vistas seen from its high hills. Once called "Cow Town" because of its many dairy farms, Charlton now hosts a score of housing subdivisions. Most Charltonians commute to jobs out of town but return to the quiet of the Charlton countryside after work. In Charlton, you will return to the one-hundred-year period from the nation's centennial to its bicentennial. Included are rare photographs of not only busy mills, bucolic farm scenes, rural schools, landscapes, and old houses but also sawmills, gristmills, and woolen and shoddy mills. In these pages, you will visit the four villages that grew up around the mills-Charlton Center, Dodge, Charlton City, and Charlton Depot-and experience the activity of Charlton Depot before its slow decline.