1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Montpelier

MONTPELIER, a city, the capital of Vermont, U.S.A., and the county-seat of Washington county, on the Winooski river, 40 m. (by rail) E.S.E. of Burlington. Pop. (1900), 6266 (952 foreign-born); (1910), 7856. Montpelier is served by the Central Vermont and the Montpelier & Wells River railways. Barre granite is mined extensively in the vicinity, and the city manufactures marble and granite products, flour, lumber, saddlery hardware and wood-working machinery. The principal building is the state house, crowned by a statue of Agriculture by Larkin G. Mead. The state house was first occupied in 1836. It was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1857, and was subsequently rebuilt and enlarged. Other prominent features of the city are the United States government building, the county court house, the Montpelier seminary and the Wood art gallery, a collection consisting principally of paintings by Thomas Waterman Wood (1823–1903), a native of Montpelier. The township of Montpelier, named from the city in France, was granted to a company of sixty proprietors in 1780. The first permanent settlement was made in 1787; and the township was organized in 1791 under a charter of 1781, replaced by another in 1804. In 1805 it was selected as the capital of the state, and in 1808 the legislature met here for the first time. At first the township was a part of Orange county, but in 1810 Washington county was created, and in 1811 Montpelier became the seat of government of the new county. In 1849 East Montpelier was set apart as a separate township, and in 1894 the township of Montpelier was chartered as a city.