Vermont

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

one of the New England States. The name is French, meaning Green Mountain. Vermont is known as the Green Mountain State. It lies north of western Massachusetts, between New Hampshire and New York . The state is 157 miles in length from north to south, and from forty to ninety miles in width. Area, including water, 9,565 square miles. The waters of the state belong to the St. Lawrence, to the Connecticut, and to the Hudson River system. The scenic features of the state are the Green Mountains and Lake Champlain. MINERALS. The surface is mountainous. The state has great natural resources. It leads the Union in the production of cut and polished stone. The quarries yield a fine-grained marble of several beautiful colors to the value of $3,000,000 a year. Granite quarries yield another million and a half. There are rich supplies of slate, limestone, talc, and soapstone, mica, ochre, and kaolin. Deposits of iron and copper were considered profitable until of late. A considerable part of the state is forested. Lumber still leads the list of products. More maple sugar is manufactured in Vermont than in all the other states taken together. TRANSPORTATION. In early days communication was maintained with Boston by stage. Cattle were driven afoot to market. An annual trip to Boston with dairy products and poultry was taken usually in the sleighing season. This and the homecoming with precious purchases was the event of the year. Now canals connect Lake Champlain with the Hudson and the Connecticut. There are three trunk lines of railway, affording on an average a mile of track for every nine square miles of territory. AGRICULTURE. Although a state of varied industry, agriculture is the leading occupation. Wheat raising has been abandoned, because it is cheaper to buy Western flour than to raise it. Corn, oats, and other forage crops are raised. Merino sheep have given the state reputation for stock raising. HISTORICAL. Vermont was visited by white men under command of Champlain in 1609. He named the mountains and the lake. The first permanent English-speaking settlement grew up around a fort built in 1724 near the present site of Brattleboro. It was a stockade, erected by Massachusetts as a defense against the French and Indians. The territory of the present state was claimed in part by New Hampshire, by Massachusetts, and by New York. The northern boundary of Massachusetts was agreed upon readily, but New York still laid claim to all territory west of the Connecticut River. New Hampshire laid claim to all territory east of a line from the western border of Massachusetts to Lake Champlain. The dispute between New York and New Hampshire was still unsettled at the close of the Revolutionary War. The Green Mountain Boys, active and courageous under the lead of bold Ethan Allen,--the same who had demanded the surrender of Ticonderoga in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress, and who had led them on the field of Bennington,--then asserted their independence. March 4, 1791, Vermont was admitted to the Union, the first state to join the original thirteen. The early settlers were of English origin, largely from Connecticut and Massachusetts. The state has maintained a high reputation for sobriety, intelligence, industry, and economy. The younger people have migrated westward in great numbers, contributing not a little to the shaping of institutions in the newer states. In 1900 the population was reported at 343,641. It has increased but little in the past fifty years. The state government is modeled on the type common in the United States . The general assembly of one house was changed to the two-house form in 1836. There are fourteen counties. Montpelier is the capital. The old plan of school districts, small republics they have been called, was changed to the township plan in 1892. In 1840 there were fifty-three academies. In 1904 seventeen of the stronger survived; the rest had been reorganized as high schools or had been supplanted by them. There were at this date seventy-seven free high schools. The University of Vermont, located at Burlington, maintains the usual literary and scientific courses and departments of law and medicine. Middlebury College is located in the village of that name. STATISTICS. The following statistics are the latest to be had from trustworthy sources: Land area, square miles 9,135 Water area 430 Population (1906) 350,373 Burlington 21,070 Rutland 11,961 Barre 8,448 No. counties 14 Members of state senate 30 Representatives 246 Salary of governor $1,500 U. S. representatives 2 Presidential electors 4 Assessed valuation of property $172,000,000 Bonded indebtedness $1,165,000 State revenue $1,350,000 Acres of improved land 2,000,000 Agricultural Products-- Corn, bushels 2,499,000 Wheat, bushels 23,000 Oats, bushels 2,664,000 Potatoes, bushels 1,971,000 Tobacco, pounds 347,000 Butter, pounds 42,000,000 Cheese, pounds 5,000,000 Wool, pounds 1,050,000 Domestic Animals-- Horses 93,000 Mules 331 Milk cows 291,000 Other cattle 221,000 Sheep 223,000 Goats 102 Swine 99,000 Fowls 850,000 Manufacturing establishments 1,699 Capital invested $62,658,000 Wages and salaries $17,323,000 Raw material $32,425,000 Output of manufactures $60,083,000 Silver output $2,500 Copper output, pounds 696,000 Marble output $4,596,000 Slate output $1,447,000 Granite output $693,000 Miles of railway 1,073 Teachers in public schools 3,984 Pupils enrolled 66,524 Percentage of male teachers 8.4 Average monthly salary of teachers $31.45 Average annual expenditure per pupil $26.14 See Marble ; Sugar ; Allen