1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Middlebury

MIDDLEBURY, a village and the county-seat of Addison county, Vermont, U.S.A., in Middlebury township, on Otter Creek, about 31 m. N.N.W. of Rutland. Pop. of the village (1890), 1762; (1900), 1897 (221 foreign-born); (1910), 1866; of the township, (1900), 3045; (1910), 2848. Middlebury is served by the Rutland railroad. It is picturesquely situated near the Green Mountain range, and is the seat of Middlebury College (chartered, 1800; co-educational since 1883), which offers a classical course and a Latin-scientific course, and had in 1907–1908 12 instructors and 203 students (84 of whom were women), and a library of 35,000 volumes. The Sheldon art museum and a public library are among the public institutions of the village, and the principal buildings include the court-house and the opera-house. The principal industrial establishments are marble quarries, “Italian” marble works, iron foundries, lime-kilns, flour-mills, and door, sash and lumber mills. About 1 m. north of the village, in the township of Weybridge, there is a large United States government breeding station for Morgan horses; and merino sheep are raised in the vicinity.

The township of Middlebury was incorporated in 1761, and the first settlement on the site of the present village was made in 1773. At the outbreak of the War of Independence the settlement was deserted, and all except two or three of the houses were destroyed by British troops; but the settlers returned soon after the close of the war, and the township was formally organized and sent a member to the state assembly in 1788. Middlebury was incorporated as a borough in 1813, and as a village in 1832.