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 VERMONT

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VERMONT

retreat. On 16 August following the same troops participated, with a force from New Hampshire under General John Stark, in the important battle of Ben- nington, which resulted in a victory for the patriots that helped to bring about the final surrender of Bur- goyne's army. In the war of 1812 the state furnished its full quota of 3000 troops for service; in addition more than 2.000 of the inhabitants volunteered for the defence of Plattsburg, and participated in MacDon- ough's victory on 11 Sept., 1814. The state's troops were among the first to respond to the call of President Lincoln for service in the Civil War in 1861; they served principally in the Army of the Potomac and participated in all its engagements and campaigns. The total number of men furnished for the national forces was 3.5,242, or a little more than one-half of the total available population between the ages of 18 and 45.

Educational System. — The University of Vermont, founded at Burlington in 1800, provides instruction in the arts, engineering, chemistry, agriculture, and medicine. In 1910 it had a teaching staff of 53 in the collegiate departments and 37 in the professional de- partments, with an attendance of 498 students. Mid- dlebury College has 18 professors and instructors with 334 students enrolled; Norwich University has 15 pro- fessors and instructors, and 172 students; St. Michael's College (CathoUc) at Winooski Park, near Burlington, has 14 professors and 125 students; there are 18 academies with a total attendance of 1350 students, and 71 high schools, which in 1910 had 3650 students. Public schools are required to be maintained by the several towns and cities throughout the state, the total attendance in 1910 being 66,615. The total number of public schools is 2489 with 3266 teachers. The state agricultural college is located at Burlington, and is a department of the University of Vermont; inl910it had 35 students, and the medical department of the University had 168 students. There are 25 Cathohc parochial schools with 168 teachers and 5950 pupils. In the original township allotments lands were re- served for the maintenance of schools in each town, and the income is used to defray the expense of public schools. State supervision is exercised through a superintendent elected by the General Assembly.

Means op Transportation. — There are 1094 miles of steam railway in the state, of which the three princi- pal systems run to Montreal and Canadian points on the north, and to New York and Boston on the south and east. The Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada controls and operates the Central Vermont system extending from the Canadian border to the Connecticut River; the Rutland Railroad system ex- tending from Bellows p'alls, on the east, and Benning- ton on the South, through the western part of the state to the Canadian border, is controlled and oper- ated by the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad Company, which also controls the line ex- tending from the southern border of the state north- erly through the Connecticut valley. In all the cities and some of the larger towns there are electric street railways, which in 1910 comprised a total of 135 lines. The ports of Lake Champlain have water transporta- tion to Canadian points, and by means of the Cham- plain Canal, to the Hudson River.

Ecclesiastical. — As already noted, the state was discovered and named by a Catholic nobleman, Samuel ('ham])lain, whose high character is shown by the sentiment lie often exjiressed, that the "salvation of one soul is of more value than the conquest of an empire". The first sacred edifice to be erected within the state was the little chapel at l''t. Anne, which wa.'^ built in 1666, and the Sacrific-c of Ma,ss there offered up was the earliest ( 'liristian s(Tvice williin the terri- tory that now comprises the Slate of Vermont. Father DoUier de (a.Mson came to the fori from Mon- treal in the winter of 1666 and ministered to the

spiritual wants of a battalion of soldiers stationed at the fort. Father de Ca^on, in his youth, had been a soldier in France, and tradition credits him with wonderful physical strength; it is related that he was able to stand, with his arms outstretched, and hold up an ordinary man with each hand. He was of a most cheerful and genial disposition, as weO as courageous and zealous in his missionary work. A mission was preached by three Jesuit Fathers at Fort St. Anne in 1667, and in 1668 confirmation was administered there by Mgr Laval, Bishop of Quebec. This was, undoubtedly, the first administration of confirmation in New England, and probably in the United States. In the early years of the seventeenth centurj-, the Jesuits established several missions in the vicinity of Lake Champlain; they had a chapel at a permanent Indian settlement near the present village of Swanton, and another in the town of Ferrisburg. A Swedish naturahst, Peter Kalm, who went through Lake Champlain in 1749, says: "Near every town and village, peopled by converted Indians, are one or two Jesuits. There are, likewise, Jesuits with those who are not converted, so that there is, commonly, a Jesuit in every village belonging to the Indians."

Vermont was included within the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Baltimore, established in 1789, and the bishops of Quebec continued to look after the spiritual interests of the Catholic settlers and Indians. When the Diocese of Boston was formed in 1810 Vermont became part of its territory. In the early years of the nineteenth century, there were no resident priests in Vermont, but missions were given from time to time. Father Matignon, of Boston, visited Burling- ton in 1815 and found in that place about 100 Cath- olic Canadians. Commencing about 1818 Father MigneauU, from Chamblay, Canada, looked after the settlers on the shores of Lake Champlain for several years. He was appointed vicar-general of this part of the diocese by the Bishop of Boston and continued in that capacity until 1853. In 1808 Fannie Allen, daughter of General Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga, became converted to the Cath- ohc Faith, and entered the novitiate of Hotel-Dieu, Montreal, where she was received as a member of the order, and after a most exemplary life died there on 10 Sept., 1819. Orestes A. Brownson, the noted Catholic author and philosopher, was a native of the state. He was born in Stockbridge, Windsor County, in 1803. Father Fitton, of Boston, came to Burhng- ton for a short time in the summer of 1829. Rt. Rev. Bishop Fenwick, second Bishop of Boston, visited Windsor in 1826. The first resident priest in Ver- mont was Rev. Jeremiah O'Callaghan, who in 1830 was sent by Bishop Fenwick to Vermont, and visited successively Wallingford, Pittsford, Vergennes, and Burlington. He settled at Burlington, where his influence and pastoral zeal radiated far and wide for nearly a quarter of a century. His field of labour extended from Rutland to the Canadian hne, a dis- tance of about 100 miles, and from the shores of Lake Champlain to the Connecticut River.

In 1837 Rev. John Daley, who is still lovingly remembered by many of t he generation that is psissing, came to the southern part of the state. He is de- scribed as an "eccentric, but very learned man". During the time of his zealous labours in Vermont, he had no particular home; he usually made his head- quarters at Rutland or Middlebury. He was in every sense a missionary, travelling from place to place wherever there were Catholics, and stopping wherever night overtook him; he remained in llie state until lS.>t and died at New York in 1870. Bishop Fenwick made his lirst jiiistoral visit, as Bishoj) <if Boston, to Vermont in 1S:50, and in 1832 he dediealed the first church built in Vermont in the nineteenth century. This was erected at Burlington under the supervi.-iion of Father O'Callaghan. A census of the t'atholic