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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. (189o) 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 Academy (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 manufactory 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 Crevecceur (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.
ST JOHN'S WORT, in botany, the general name for species of Hypericum, especially H. perforatum, small shrubby plants with slender stems, sessile opposite leaves which are often dotted with pellucid glands, and showy yellow flowers. H. Androsacnium is Tutsan (Fr. tout saine), so called from its healing properties. H. calycinum (Rose of Sharon), a creeping plant with large almost solitary flowers 3 to 4 in. across, is a south-east European plant which has become naturalized in Britain in various places in hedges and thickets.