1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Barre

BARRE, a city of Washington county, Vermont, U.S.A., in the north central part of the state, about 6 m. S.E. of Montpelier. Pop. (1890) 4146; (1900) 8448, of whom 2831 were foreign-born; (1910, census) 10,734. It is served by the Central Vermont and the Montpelier & Wells River railways, and is connected by electric street railways with Montpelier. Barre is an important seat of the granite industry, and manufactures monuments and tombstones, stone-cutting implements and other machinery. In 1905 the city’s factory products were valued at $3,373,046, of which 86·9% was the value of the monuments and tombstones manufactured. Among its institutions are the Aldrich public library and Goddard Seminary (1870; Universalist). There is a beautiful granite statue of Burns (by J. Massey Rhind), erected in 1899 by the Scotsmen of Barre. The water-works are owned and operated by the municipality. Settled soon after the close of the War of Independence, the township of Barre (pop. in 1910, 4194) was organized in 1793 and named in honour of Isaac Barré (1726–1802), a defender of American rights in the British parliament. The present city, chartered in 1894, was originally a part of the township.