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Northfield, Vermont

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A village of Washington county, Vermont, U.S.A., in Northfield township, about 35 m. S.E. of Burlington, in the Green Mountains region. Pop. (1900) of the village 1508; of the township 2855. Northfield is served by the Central Vermont railway. It is the seat of Norwich University, founded in 1819 as the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy at Norwich, Windsor county, Vermont, by Captain Alden Partridge (1785-1854). Captain Partridge was a professor in the U.S. Military Academy in1813-1816and acting superintendent of the Academy in 1816-1817, and was president of Norwich University until 1843; he founded various other military schools besides the one at Norwich. Norwich University was incorporated in 1834 under its present name, and in 1866, when the buildings at Norwich were burned, was removed to Northfield. The charter requires "a course of military instruction, both theoretical and practical," and the discipline of the institution is military in form and principle. In 1898 the university was recognized by the General Assembly of Vermont as the military college of the state. It offers courses leading to the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in civil engineering, in electrical engineering and in chemistry. In 1908 it had 13 instructors and 168 students. Dewey Hall (1902), the administration building, was named in honour of Admiral George Dewey, a former student in the university. In the township there are outcrops of good granite and of verde antique, and along a range of hills E. of the village there is a deposit of very fine black slate. The hills furnish excellent grazing for cattle, and much milk is shipped to New England cities. The township of Northfield was incorporated in 1781; the original settlement on the site of the present village was made in 1785, and the village was incorporated in 1855.