Preface -- Like most family trees, this section is a work in progress. As most families, there is some interesting history to various members of the Chittenden family. Some family history is probably only relevant to family members. Any relatives with links or comments are welcome to post a message in the comment section. I would be glad to help.
The Chittenden family name is Old English. This means that the Chittenden's were settled in England before the Roman's invaded. There are various similar families with 'den' as part their last name. All are somewhat distantly related, at least in kinship to a local in Jolly Old England.
Numerous members of the Chittenden family were part of the Pilgrim migration to North America. The Chittenden name was found on the ship manifests of many of these early pioneering vessels. One can only speculate about the nature of a family that had so many early pioneers, with so few descendants to this day. In my observations, we are a long lived family with a large generational age. In other words, we tend to have families later in life.
The first governor of Vermont was a Thomas Chittenden. There is a county and city with the Chittenden name in Vermont. His contribution to history was to organize the various factions of Vermont into a single mindset that would allow for Vermont to be the first new state added to the original 13 of the Union. One can only speculate how difficult that might have been to get some cooperation in a rugged individualist area. Vermont is not all that different in terrain than the Balkans. There are some limited references to him in some of the electronic encyclopedias.
During the Civil War, the Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln was a Chittenden. His claim to fame is perhaps one of the first carpel tunnel war victims. He became treasurer at the start of the Civil War. There wasn't time to make up plates with his signature. The previous treasurer was a Southerner. When the North became aware of the South having several warships built in Britain, the treasurer was put to the task of manually signing a huge pile of money to allow the North to buy the ships right out from under the South. The result of this marathon signature session would appear to be carpel tunnels and its painful consequences. Perhaps he should have just initialed the bills? Having a long name shouldn't cause a disability.
There was a Chittenden who wrote a book on Mountain Men in the late 1800s. Perhaps this is the same individual for whom a lake and peak in Yosemite National Park is named. The peak is nothing spectacular, It is more of a large granite bump. However, it is vantage point from whose top one can view and feel at one with a large wilderness untamed wilderness.
Newton Henry Chittenden (my great grandfather) was a John Muir type of the Northwest and west coast. He traveled all around and amassed a huge collection of indian artifacts that remains at the Victoria Museum in British Columbia. He wrote articles that were frequently published in the East about the opportunities that were available in the West.
The founder of modern day Physiology/Biochemistry was a Chittenden. He worked to meld the 'sciences' of chemistry and biology together into a new science. He was one of the first professors of Biochemistry in the Ivy League.
A Chittenden ran for governor in the state of Colorado in the late 1800s under the "greenback" ticket. Just another example of the pioneering background of the family. It is likely this is was a cousin or brother of Henry Newton's.
Hiram Chittenden was the engineer in charge of Seattle's Locks that separate Lake Washington from the Puget Sound. This was an enormous project for its time. He also built the bridge in Yellowstone over the Yellowstone canyon, that bears his name. I believe he was the cousin to my grandfather.
As noted at the start, there is a wealth of pioneering history to the Chittenden name. One might conclude there must be some genetics behind the pioneering history of the family. It is also should be pointed out that the history of the Chittenden family couldn't exist without the existence of an equal number of unnamed female companions with their own maiden names to this pioneering effort.