Charities and Corrections.— The usual home for destitute poor is found in every town. The State supports a large Hospital for the Insane at Waterbury with capacity of 700 patients and makes provision for the care of 200 at the Retreat at Brattleboro. There are hospitals for the sicic or injured in many of the larger towns as well as several sanatoriums, relief associations, orphan children's hotnes, State Home for the Feeble Minded, etc. The State Prison at Windsor has usually about 200 inmates and the House of Correction at Rut land has over 700. For offenders who are minors there is a State Industrial School at Vergennes with 300 inmates. The penal insti tutions of the State are administered by a State board.
Militia.— The militia of the State are under the immediate command ot the adjutant-general, the governor being ex-officio commander-in chief. In peace times there are one regiment of infantry, a squadron of cavalry and sanitary and hospital corps, all enlisted as National Guard. In several of the larger towns there are well-equipped armories for the use of the local companies, built by State appropriations. The adjutant-general has a permanent office in the State House from which the affairs of the Na tional Guard are administered. Legislative ap propriations provide for all necessary expense.
In the State there are, in round numbers, 775,000 men of military age from whom such troops as may be needed are taken.
Religion.— The people of Vermont have in general always been a religious conununity. The predominant denomination from the first has been the Congregational, but there are more than 20 other religious organizations in the State. The Congregationalists founded the first Protestant church in 1762 at Bennington, but there was a Roman Catholic chapel on Isle La Motte in 1666. This, however, was continued for only two years. The table below gives the date of the establishment of the larger denominations.
The religious denominations are Roman Catholic, Congregational. Methodist Epis copal, Baptist, Episcopal and Universalist, es tablished in the order given. Numerically the churches report as follows: Congrega tionalist, 216 churches, 22,979 members, $2,213,675 church property; Methodist Episcopal, 200 churches, 19,000 members, $1,355,000 church property; the Baptists report 115 churches, 9,439 members, ..:50,000 church prop erty; Episcopal, 65 churches, 6,289 members; Christian Adventists, 22 churches; Seventh Day Adventists, 27 churches, 618 members; Uni versalists, 54 churches, 3,204 families, $353,000 church property. In addition to these, with
smaller numbers, are Lutherans, Unitarians, Christian Scientists; other sects are very small in numbers. The Roman Catholics report 102 churches and 20 stations with congregations numbering 87,824. In early times there were many Quakers in the State and a number of meet ing houses, but for many years no services have been held in any of them. At first the State granted two town lots of 200 acres each to the first permanent minister of whatever denomina tion and two lots to the Society for the Propaga tion of the Gospel. The former are devoted to the public schools.
History.— Samuel de Champlain was un doubtedly the first white man to sail through the lake to which his name was afterward given, it having been known to the French set tlers as Lac des Iroquois. From his canoe he saw the ((very high mountains to the east and the valley of the lake Champlain tells us that his Algonkin allies with whom he sailed said that the country on both sides of the lake was then, in 1609, occupied by Iroquois tribes and that because of frequent hostilities there were no permanent villages near the lalce, since they were too lia.ble to attack by the frequent war parties who went to and fro through the region. A half century later when the first white settlers came into the Champlain Valley they found it occupied by Algonkins, as was the whole of New England. So far as the numerous stone implements and pottery that have been found in western Vermont indicate both Iroquois and Al gonkin tribes visited it if they did not form settlements. The facts are not to be fully ascer tained, but all the evidence obtainable seems to show that the Champlain Valley was during several centuries prior to 1700 held now by the Iroquois, now by the Algonldns and that these latter people held the territory till finally driven out by the coming of Europeans. The New York side of the lake was, apparently, always occupied by the Iroquois as when the French and English settlers came into the region. That the Iroquois had some claim to the east side of the lake is shown by the fact that from 1798 until 1874 some of the Caughna wagas urged a claim to a large part of western Vermont because, as they declared, it had de scended to them from their fathers. This claim was discussed for years by the Vermont gen eral assemblies and carefully investigated, to be finally rejected as without foundation.