1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Saint Johnsbury

SAINT JOHNSBURY, a township and the county-seat of Caledonia. county, Vermont, U.S.A., on the Passumpsic river, about 34 m. E.N.E. of Montpelier. Pop. (1890) 6567; (1900) 7010; (1910) 8098; of the village of the same name (1900) 5666 (1309 foreign-born); (1910) 6693. Area. of the township, about 47 sq. m. Saint Johnsbury is served by the Boston & Maine and the Saint Johnsbury & Lake Champlain railways. The farms of the township are devoted largely to dairying. In the village are a Y.M.C.A. building (1885); the Saint Johnsbury Awdemy (1842); the Saint Johnsbury Athenaeum (1871), with a library (about 18,000 volumes in 1909) and an art gallery; the Fairbanks Museum of Natural Science (1891), founded by Colonel Franklin Fairbanks; St Johnsbury Hospital (1895); Brightlook Hospital (1899, private); the large scales mannufactory of the E. & T. Fairbanks Company (see Fairbanks, Erastus), and also manufactories of agricultural implements, steam hammers, granite work, furniture and carriages. There are two systems of water-works, one being owned by the village. The township of Saint Johnsbury was granted to Dr Jonathan Arnold (1741–1793) and associates in 1786; in the same year a settlement was established and the place was named in honour of Jean Hector Saint John de Crevecoeur (1731–1813), who wrote Letters of an American Farmer (1782), a glowing description of America, which brought thither many immigrants, and who introduced potato planting into France. The township government was organized in 1790, and the village was incorporated in 1853.