Growth of Government: (1777-1940)
Vermont State House; Montpelier
In 1777 Vermont declared itself an independent republic. Fourteen years later, in 1791, the Continental Congress declared Vermont the fourteenth state, making it the first state to join the Union. Prior to the establishment of a state capital, the Legislature moved about from town to town. In 1805 Montpelier was chosen as the state capital and a state house was constructed. Throughout the 19th century the town was the principle repository of government, while the county's primary function was judicial. The presence of the Federal Government was largely confined to commerce regulation and the development of the postal system. Towards the end of the 19th century, the State government began to play a more visible role in the day to day lives of Vermonters. Declining tax bases in many rural towns, and the growing dependence of Vermont's farmers on market forces beyond their control, prompted a greater local reliance on state aid, both financial and regulatory. The Progressive movement of the early 1900s, the Flood of '27 and the Great Depression of the 1930s resulted in an unprecedented expansion of state government in areas such as highways, penal and social welfare systems, and education.
Education: (1777-1940)
Brighan Academy; Bakersfield, Vermont
In 1782 a general school law was passed by the Vermont Legislature providing for the division of towns into districts and a system of local supervision and taxation. This law created a system of local control which lasted throughout the 19th century and into the 20th. In addition to the district "common" schools, a number of private academies were established as early as the 1780s. The provision for higher education in the 1777 Constitution was realized in 1791 with the founding of the University of Vermont. Nine years later Middlebury College opened as the first community-founded college in the nation. Specialized learning institutions were founded throughout the 1800s, first for medicine and law, and later for teacher training and agriculture. Sectarian academies were founded at a rapid pace in the 1830s during the great wave of religious revivalism. Libraries were established in some towns as early as the 1790s; however, the public library movement did not get underway to any significant degree until the 1890s. Vermont's educational system underwent major reforms during the late 19th century and early 20th, including the provision for public education, and the abolition of the age-old district school system.
Religious Trends: (1790-1940)
East Montpelier Center
When Vermont was declared an independent republic in 1777 its population consisted of a mix of regular Protestant denominations, and "free thinkers" such as Ethan Allen and his Deist brethren. The mainstream sects predominated, however, the Congregationalists, Episcopalians and Baptists being the first to organize. Churches were soon established by the Methodists, Presbyterians, Free Will Baptists and Quakers, and by the early 1800s the Unitarians and Universalists had joined the swelling denominational ranks. During the early decades of the 19th century various fanatical sects appeared, such as the Millerites and Perfectionists. The fires of revivalism raged through Vermont during the 1820s and 1830s as missionaries scoured the state in an effort to extinguish any fanatical tendencies and restore orthodoxy. In 1830, the Catholic Church, having made temporary inroads during the 1660s, returned to Vermont in response to the needs of the rapidly growing French Canadian and Irish populations. The second half of the 19th century was marked by the appearance of numerous other sects, most of which were imported by the various immigrant groups coming to Vermont at the time, and included Judaism, Welsh Presbyterianism, Swedish Lutheranism and Greek Orthodoxy. Added to the denominational increase was the establishment of secular societies and organizations associated with a particular church or group of churches, such as relief missions, and homes for orphans and unwed mothers. Beginning around 1880, concomitant with the rise of outdoor recreational activities, religious organizations began to establish camp and outdoor retreat centers. Since 1900, churches have taken on a more secular role (i.e. fund-raising activities) in an effort to maintain their existence in an increasingly secular society. In recent decades, many rural churches have come under joint ownership by two or more denominations due to the decline in membership.
Reform Trends: (1790-1940)
In the 1820s, what had started as a purely religious reform movement stemming from the Second Great Awakening expanded its focus to include social and political issues as well. Temperance and Antimasonry were among the earliest reform issues. By the 1830s Antislavery sentiment had gained a strong foothold in the northeast; Antislavery societies, and even a few underground railroad stations, were established in communities around the state. The Women's Suffrage movement gained momentum after the Civil War, culminating in the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1921. Vermont's industrial boom, following the construction of the railroad around 1850, paved the way for subsequent labor unrest on the part of poorly paid immigrant workers. The early decades of the 20th century were marked by significant reform efforts on the part of State government which began to assume a far greater responsibility in areas such as transportation, social welfare, criminal justice, and education.
Health and Medicine: (1790-1940)
Vermont's medical profession had its beginnings in 1784 when the first medical society was chartered. Twenty years later, in 1804, the first lectures in medicine were offered at the University of Vermont; by 1827 there were three medical schools in the state. During the 1830s and '40s, health was caught up in the general wave of reform, and various types of alternative medicine were developed. Samuel Thomson's theories of botanic healing were popular enough in Vermont to merit the establishment of special infirmaries and Thomsonian societies. Meanwhile, mineral spring resorts drew throngs of visitors thirsty for the widely touted water cures. The Vermont Asylum for the Insane, established at Brattleboro in 1834, was very progressive for its time in its method of treatment. The first hospitals in Vermont appeared during the Civil War, and in subsequent decades numerous general hospitals were founded, some with associated nursing schools. Other specialized hospitals developed after the turn of the century such as tuberculosis sanitoriums, and the Vermont school for the Feeble-Minded (later Brandon Training School).
Ethnic Groups: (1770-1940)
Ahavath Gerim Synagogue; Burlington, Vermont
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Vermont's population was relatively homogeneous. This situation began to change by the mid-19th century as the coming of the railroad and Vermont's subsequent industrial boom brought a significant influx of foreigners from Canada, the British Isles, and Europe to labor in the state's mines, quarries, factories, retail business, as well as on farms. The largest groups included French Canadians, Scots, Irish, Welsh, Italians, Cornish, Jews and Swedes. Most of these groups tended to settle in close proximity to their fellow compatriots and distinct communities quickly evolved. Strong ties to the homeland were formalized by establishing a variety of social, cultural and religious organizations to reinforce and sustain each group's ethnic heritage in an otherwise foreign culture. By World War II, much of the ethnic diversity that had colored Vermont's urban communities had disappeared as industries declined, workers sought employment elsewhere, and descendants of the early immigrants gradually assimilated into the cultural mainstream.
Entertainment and Popular Culture: (1790-1940)
Broad Stage; Irasburg Town Hall
Until the late 1800s, much of the entertainment and culture that Vermonters enjoyed did not extend beyond the town or village boundaries; indeed, the school district constituted the unofficial social boundaries for many, if not all, of Vermont's rural communities. Since agriculture constituted an entire way of life, entertainment was frequently combined with, and fostered by, farm labor activities. Sugar-on-snow parties, kitchen junkets, corn-husking parties, quilting bees, and barn raisings are just a few of the typical social activities enjoyed by 19th century Vermonters. Parades, circuses, and agricultural fairs provided additional entertainment during the warmer months. After 1850, labor-saving machinery and mass production reduced the amount of farm labor, while the coming of the railroad gave some Vermonters the mobility to move beyond their traditional social boundaries. Leisure and recreation were by and large an accepted part of American society by the late 19th century; sports and recreation clubs proliferated, while communities large and small erected halls meant exclusively for entertainment. The automobile certainly proved a "chariot of democracy" where entertainment was concerned as increasing numbers of Vermonters were able to travel and take part in activities formerly enjoyed by only the wealthy. During the 1920s, when movies seemed to be replacing the legitimate theater, summer stock companies began to establish themselves in the Vermont hills, a tradition which is still very much alive today.
Arts and Literature: (1790-1940)
Artists and writers numbered among the early settlers of Vermont during the latter half of the 19th century. Itinerant portrait painters traveled from town to town, seeking commissions from the wealthy, while engravers were busy illustrating the proliferation of journals and newspapers put out by Vermont's early printing presses. Folk songs were written to both new and familiar tunes, while the early history of Vermont was chronicled in poetry and prose. Bookstores were established in some of the larger towns in the early 1800s, and circulating libraries were in existence by the 1790s. Around the mid-1800s a growing number of landscape painters began to look to Vermont for their subject matter. Towards the end of the century, writers, too, began to focus on the Vermont countryside, fostering an image of at once a broken country and an agrarian idyll. After the Civil War, art collecting became a fashionable pastime among the wealthy; such collections provided the basis for Vermont's earliest museums during the last quarter of the 19th century. By the turn of the 20th century, Vermont was not only a focus for a distinct segment of the American literary and artistic elite, but it also became a popular year-round and seasonal home for a growing number of artists and writers.
The New Deal In Vermont: (1933-1950)
Burke, Vermont
The New Deal was launched in 1933 under President Roosevelt in a program of massive Federal assistance to provide jobs and get the nation's severely depressed economy back on its feet. The first New Deal program to be adopted by Vermont was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), followed by programs under the direction of the Works Progress Administration, Public Works Administration, and others. While most of the New Deal programs were designed as short-term emergency measures to create jobs and pump money back into the economy, they also resulted in long-term physical improvements such as the construction of public buildings, sewage systems, highways, bridges, dams, reforestation and conservation projects, beaches, parks, and much more. by the early '40s, when the nation shifted its attention to the war effort, the New Deal had not only left an indelible mark on Vermont's built and natural environment, but the development that occurred in the state's transportation and communications networks, public services, and recreational resources helped bring Vermont more swiftly into the 20th century.
All information and photographs from the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation
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The Vermont Heritage Network
The University of Vermont Historic Preservation Program
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