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); (191o), 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 .