Bennington
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Bennington. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Vermont, a prosperous county seat with a population of 8,000. Its factories produce a large quantity of woolen and knit goods. There is a home for Vermont soldiers there; also a soldiers' monument. The town has good schools and other evidences of New England thrift and intelligence. The battle of Bennington was fought on August 16, 1777. General Burgoyne sent a column of 1,000 men eastward under Colonel Baum to collect supplies. They were met by the Green Mountain Boys under General Stark, who whipped them soundly, taking 600 British prisoners and 1,000 stand of arms . The American loss was 14 killed and 42 wounded. Two hundred and seven British fell before the rifles of the woodsmen. This victory gave new life to the American cause. The muskets and ammunition were of great service. A fine granite monument, 300 feet high, commemorates the victory. See Vermont
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
town and countyseat of Bennington co., Vt.; on the New York Central railroad; 36 miles E. of Troy, N. Y. It contains the villages of Bennington, North Bennington and Bennington Center; and has large woolen and knit goods factories; a Soldiers' Home, a Memorial Battle monument, dedicated on the centennial of the admission of the State into the Union, March 4, 1891, two National banks, and graded public schools. There are valuable deposits of brown hematite ore in the famous town. Bennington is historically battle fought Aug. 16, on account of the 1777, when General Stark with his Mountain Boys" defeated a large "Green British detachment sent from General Burgoyne's army to capture the public stores near North Bennington. Pop. (1910) 6,211; (1920) 9,982.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The mills that Aiton's praised in 1910 and Collier's listed in 1921 are gone: Bennington's woolen and knit-goods trade collapsed over the twentieth century, and the brown hematite deposits Collier's called valuable are no longer worked. The town has grown from the 9,982 counted in 1920 to roughly 15,000 today, and its best-known institutions are now Bennington College, opened in 1932, and the Bennington Museum, which holds the largest public collection of Grandma Moses paintings. The Soldiers' Home survives as the Vermont Veterans' Home, and the monument still stands at 306 feet, though modern accounts are careful to note what neither entry mentions: the fighting of 16 August 1777 actually took place several miles west, at Walloomsac in New York State. Vermont still closes its state offices for Bennington Battle Day each 16 August.
Written for this edition, 2026.