Poultney is a town in Rutland County in the southwest of the U.S. state of Vermont . New York state is on its western border. Castleton, Vermont is on its northern border. Poultney is home to Green Mountain College , a private liberal arts college with about 750 students. The Village of Poultney is entirely within the town. Poultney was charted in 1761 by Benning Wentworth , Royal Governor of New Hampshire , and named for William Johnstone Pulteney , Member of Parliament and at one time the richest man in Great Britain. The first settlers of the town came from Connecticut and Massachusetts . A grist mill was built in 1777 and the village grew up around this mill. There are many buildings of historic interest in East Poultney. Among these are The Eagle Tavern dating to 1780, the Federal style Baptist Church built in 1805 by master builder Elisha Scott, and the 1823 Horace Greeley House. East Poultney was the original home of Heber Allen ,brother and Ebenezer Allen , cousin of Revolutionary War hero, Ethan Allen . Horace Greeley, founder of The New York Tribune and George Jones, co-founder of The New York Times , both lived in East Poultney in the late 1820's. Greeley served an apprenticeship at the Northern Spectator newspaper owned by Amos Bliss from 1826 to 1830. The green and nearby streets look very similar to the way they were in the 1800s. Poultney and East Poultney are both listed in the National Registry of Historic Places , with many historical buildings. Among these are the Union Academy dating to 1791, The Melodeon Factory built in 1840 and the 1896 Victorian school house. Poultney shares Lake St. Catherine (about 800 acres) with the town of Wells . Poultney is the center of the world's rare slate belt, where slate roofing, tiles, and building blocks are mined and milled.