120 



GAZETTEER OF VERMONT. 



Part III. 



MONTPELIER. 



MONTPELIER. 



ing class of this town. This town was 

 constituted the permanent seat of govern- 

 ment of the state by an act passed Nov. 

 8, 1805, and became the shire town of the 

 county of Jefferson (afterwards changed 

 to Washington,). When the seat of gov- 

 ernment was established here, a large 

 wooden building was erected for a state 

 house, within five rods of the spot, it may 

 be interesting to relate, where the long 

 sighted Col. Davis, more than a dozen 

 years before, had predicted the public 

 buildings of the State would even- 

 tually be located, and within 15 rods of 

 the site on whicli the present splendid 

 granite State House now stands. The re- 

 ligious denominations in this town are 2 

 societies of Congregationalists, and 1 each 

 of Methodists, Universalists and Friends, 

 or Quakers. The Congregational churches 

 are in the village of Montpelier, the 1st, 

 or old church, numbering nearly 30U mem- 

 bers, the new, or 2d church, a little less. 

 Rev. C. Wright was the first settled Con- 

 gregational minister, who died in the 

 spring of 1840, having been nearly ten 

 years before succeeded by the Rev. Mr. 

 Hopkins, and afterwards Rev. Buel W. 

 Smith, the last settled minister. Rev. S. 

 Kellogg is the pastor of the 2d church. 

 The Rev. Mr. Harding is the located 

 preacher of the Methodist church, and the 

 Rev. Mr. Ballou of the Universalists. 

 There is also a Freewill Baptist society in 

 town, though small. The Methodists are 

 numerous, having two meeting-houses, 

 one in the village, and one mostly occu- 

 pied by them in the centre of the town. 

 The Friends have also a meeting house 

 in the easterly part of the town. The 

 township is watered by the Winooski 

 river, which runs through the southeast 

 corner, and along the southern boundary, 

 by the Little North Branch, which cross- 

 es the southwest corner, by Kingsbury 

 Branch, which crosses the northeast cor- 

 ner, and by several smaller streams. The 

 mill privileges are both good and numer- 

 ous. The surface of the town is uneven, 

 but the soil, for a general thing, is un- 

 commonly fine, and there is scarcely an 

 acre of waste land in town, — the most of 

 it richly, and all of it fairly rewarding the 

 labors of the industrious farmer. The 

 prevailing character of the rocks is slate 

 and lime, sometimes distinct, but more 

 generally combined. Rare minerals have 

 not been found here, unless the sulphurets 

 of iron, copper, and talc, which are com- 

 mon in the slate rocks, be reckoned. — 

 About 10 years ago there was a company 

 formed and a charter obtained, for boring 

 for salt, and, by the aid of machinery, a 

 hole perforated to the depth of 800 feet, 



through a solid rock, below the falls ou 

 Winooski river, but no salt water obtain- 

 ed. From the sediment drawn up, it ap- 

 peared that the rock, the slate-lime stone, 

 preserved its character, with an occasion- 

 al layer of flint or sand stone, through the 

 whole of that depth ; and one or two 

 springs, impregnated with iron, which 

 were come across in the course of the 

 drilling, were the only discoveries made, 

 till the project was relinquished. Mont- 

 pelier village, incorporated in 1818, em- 

 bracing a square mile, and, lying in the 

 southwest corner of the township, on tlie 

 bank of Winooski river, and on both sides 

 of the Little North Branch, contains, by 

 the census of 1840, 1,720 inhabitants. It 

 is about 10 miles northeasterly from the ge- 

 ographical centre of the state, and, besides 

 being the point of intersection of the roads 

 from all parts, is the great thoroughfare 

 from Boston to Canada, the travel going 

 through in not only in tliis, but in all di- 

 rections. Tiie situation is low, but the 

 streets and building ground have been 

 raised so much that it is now as dry as 

 other places of tlie like soil. With some 

 also it is rendered somewhat unpleasant 

 by the promixity of the hills. The whole 

 site of this village bears unequivocal evi- 

 dence of having been the bed of a lake 

 about 40 feet deep, the original surface of 

 the water being indicated by the strata of 

 earth and rocks on all the surrounding 

 hills, and the whole having been drained, 

 probably, by the deepening of the channel 

 at Middlesex narrows. The place, how- 

 ever, has had a rapid growth, and is now 

 one of the most flourishing interior villa- 

 ges in New England. Its public build- 

 ings are, the beautiful and durable State 

 House,* built under the superintendence 

 of A. B. Young, architect, in 1836-7, 

 which is superior, perhaps, to any State 

 House in the Union, unless we except 

 the recent one in North Carolina, — a court 

 house, jail, a brick academy, built on the 

 site of the wood one destroyed by fire in 

 1822, a spacious brick meeting house and 

 two handsome wood ones. The academy, 

 or county grammar school, was incorpora- 

 ted Nov. 7, 1800, and is now a flourish- 

 ing institution, with a library, philosoph- 

 ical apparatus, &c., under the care of Cal- 

 vin Pease, A. M., the number of pupils 

 having been, in some quarters of the past 

 year, about 100. There are in this vil- 

 lage, at present, 12 practising attorniesat 

 law, and 5 physicians There are 3 print- 

 ing offices, at which weekly newspapers 

 are published, viz. that of the Universa- 

 list Watchman, Vermont Watchman, and 

 Vermont Patriot, — one iron foundry, two 



* For a description see part second; p. 130, 



