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Gc 974.4 N182ga pt.1 1829588
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00084 9684
-
A
GAZETTEER
OF THE
STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS.
WITH
Numerous Illustrationg.
-
- .
BY
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=
THE REV. ELIAS NASON, M. A.,
AUTHOR OF THE "LIFE OF SIR CHARLES HENRY FRANKLAND," THE "LIFE OF THE HON. HENRY WILSON," ETC. ; AND MEMBER OF THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC. GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 1 AND OF OTHER LEARNED BODIES. -
Pt.1
REVISED AND ENLARGED BY
GEORGE J. VARNEY,
AUTHOR OF "A GAZETTEER OF MAINE," BTC., ETC.
"Enge petit placidam sub libertate quietem."
BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 57 CORNHILL. 1890
494
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STOCKin
BRIGHAM STOFFORD ARCH
Brigham & Spofford, Architects,
19 Milk Street, Boston.
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, SHOWING THE EXTENSION.
(ENGRAVED EXPRESSLY FOR THE GAZETTEER OF MASSACHUSETTS, B. B. RUSSELL PUBLISHER.)
1829588
1
Copyright, 1889, Br B. B. RUSSELL.
Mendoza - 5.00
1
TO
THE CITIZENS OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
This Work is Respectfully Dedicated
BY
THE AUTHOR.
.
PREFACE.
THE design of this work is to present in alphabetical order a clear and concise topographical description, together with a brief histori- cal and statistical notice, of the several counties, cities, towns, and villages of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Since any at- tempt of the kind was made the State has rapidly advanced, not only as to its population, but also in respect to its industrial and commercial enterprises, its literary, social, and religious institutions, and its intercommunications by the railroad and electric telegraph. New cities and towns have been organized; new branches of in- dustry introduced; new methods of utilizing waste material, and new machines for lessening manual labor, adopted ; and thus new sources of wealth and power disclosed.
Since the closing of the war, art, industry, education, aspiration, have received fresh impulse; and the Massachusetts of to-day is by no means the Massachusetts of 1860. Advancement everywhere is distinctly visible. Now, while we have many excellent town his- tories and directories, and innumerable special reports of industrial, educational, and civil interests, we have no work giving the topogra- phical, geological, and general social, religious, literary, and business aspect of the entire Commonwealth with its several sections as it now presents itself; we have no compendium from which the public may obtain a just conception of the progress which the State of late has made, or of the attitude in which it is now stand- ing.
To meet this want; to portray the varied local scenery, the genius, the spirit, the industrial and intellectual activities, of the people; to form a guide-book of the State adapted to the family, the student, the man of business, and the man of leisure, the editor and the literary institution, - has been, both as it regards the plan and the detail, the writer's constant aim. His material has been abundant; his chief difficulty has been in the selection and the condensation.
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1
PREFACE.
The notices of the Indian and other names of places, of the geo- logical formations and peculiar minerals and plants, of eminent men the towns have given to the world, of, soldiers sent to the late war, of memorials in honor of the lost, of town histories, libraries, and lyceums, as well as the illustrations of the artist, will, it is believed, be found to enhance in no small degree the value of this work. The census given is that of 1870; and the dates of the incorpora- tion of the towns are generally those of the late George W. Chase, made under the direction of the Secretary of State, unless other- wise designated.
The valuation, rate of taxation, number of dwelling-houses and of legal voters, are from the official returns of 1872; and the edu- cational statistics, from the Thirty-sixth Report of the Board of Education, made in January, 1873. The writer most gratefully acknowledges his obligations to nearly all the clerks of the cities and towns of the State for the prompt and valuable services they have rendered him by transmitting important information; to John Ward Dean, A.M., for assistance cordially and politely given ; to S. N. Gifford, Esq., Clerk of the Senate, and to the Hon. Charles Adams, jun., Treasurer of the Commonwealth, for friendly aid and counsel.
Very essential help has been derived from the accurate and ex- cellent "Dictionary of American Biography," by Mr. Francis S. Drake; from the carefully-prepared " Bibliography of the Local History of Massachusetts," by Jeremiah Colburn, A.M. ; and from an able " Essay on the Origin of the Names of the Towns in Mass- achusetts," by William Henry Whitmore, A.M.
As the materials for this work have been drawn from many dif- ferent and sometimes conflicting sources, as the topics are so numer- ous and so varied, and as the social, industrial, educational, and re- ligious condition of the cities, towns, and villages, is ever changing, it is altogether impossible that some inaccuracies should not occur. No one will regret them more sincerely than the writer ; and, when made known to him, the earliest opportunity to correct them will be embraced.
NORTH BILLERICA, MASS.
ELIAS NASON.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
IN this revision of the "Gazetteer of Massachusetts," it was not at first intended to change the original form of the work, but simply to bring it to greater completeness on Mr. Nason's plan,- by dropping obsolete portions, and substituting therefor matter supplied by subse- quent occurrences, later investigations, and the latest statistics, - bringing every article up to date ; but on entering upon the work it was found that in the passage of time the conditions in nearly every town had so changed, sometimes by a reduction of population and business, oftener by increase, and frequently by a change of indus- tries, that the account of every one had of necessity to be rewritten ; only rare paragraphs and occasional sentences having been adopted intact, except in the part relating to the State at large.
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A new feature in the book is the addition of a heading for every village and post-office the name of which is not in part the same as that of the containing town ; also, for the principal mountains, ponds, rivers, capes and islands ; and still another is the grouping of the counties by themselves between the first division, relating to the State, and the towns. It will be evident that each of these several additions and changes renders the book more useful and valuable.
The statistics of this edition are from the State census for 1885 (the last volume of which was issued in June of the present year), or from later sources, as, in part, from the clerks of the towns and cities. The topographical survey of the State, now in progress, has opportunely furnished corrected figures for many elevations, areas and distances.
The Reviser here renders his thanks for valuable aid to Messrs. Wadlin and Pidgin, of the Bureau of Labor Statistics; to Mr. Til- linghast, of the State Library ; to Hon. Henry B. Peirce, Secretary of the Commonwealth ; to Samuel W. Abbott, M.D., Secretary of the State Board of Health; to Mr. Henry B. Wood, Dr. J. F. Pratt, and others of the State Department; to Mr. Edward A. McLaugh- lin, Clerk of the House of Representatives; to Hon. Samuel A. Green, M.D., of the Massachusetts Historical Society; to John Ward Dean, A.M., of the New England Historic Genealogical Society; and to many others whose courtesy has facilitated the work of this revision.
The Editor's thanks are also due to the city and town clerks, who have so kindly contributed local facts and statistics for this work.
BOSTON, December 31, 1889.
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1
GAZETTEER OF MASSACHUSETTS.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE STATE
NAME AND BOUNDARIES
11
GENERAL ASPECT OF THE STATE
13
MOUNTAINS
15
RIVERS, LAKES AND PONDS
16
CLIMATE .
19
SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS
21
TREES, SHRUBS AND PLANTS
22
QUADRUPEDS, BIRDS AND FISHES
23
CIVIL DIVISIONS AND POPULATION .
25
MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE
29
RAILROADS AND TELEGRAPHIS
31
RELIGIÓN
34
CHARITABLE AND REFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS
36
GOVERNMENT, FINANCES AND MILITARY ORGAN- IZATION . 37
EDUCATION, LITERATURE AND THE PUBLIC PRESS 40 THE ABORIGINES 43
CIVIL HISTORY 44
THE COUNTIES OF THE COMMONWEALTH 59 to 98
THE CITIES, TOWNS, AND VILLAGES .
· 99 to 724
11 to 57
BAYS, HARBORS, CAPES AND ISLANDS
11
GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY
14
THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS.
NAME AND BOUNDARIES.
THE State of Massachusetts is distinguished for its local scenery, its liberal institutions, and the enterprise and intelligence of its in- habitants. Its name is supposed to be derived from two Indian words, - massa, " great," and wachusett, "mountain-place." The Rev. John Cotton defines Massachusetts as " a hill in the form of an arrow-head;" and Roger Williams says, "The Massachusetts were so called from the Blue Hills." In allusion to its broad and beau- tiful bay, it is often called the OLD BAY STATE. It lies on the Atlantic Ocean, in the north-eastern section of the United States, between the parallels of 41º 10' and 42º 53' north latitude, and be- tween 69º 57' and 73º 30' west longitude. In form it is quite irreg- ular, the south-eastern portion projecting far into the ocean, and in part enclosing Cape-Cod Bay. Its length is about a hundred and forty-five miles, and its breadth about ninety miles in the longitude of Boston, and about forty-eight in that of Springfield. It is bounded on the north by Vermont for the distance of forty miles to the Conneticut River, and thence by New Hampshire about ninety miles to .ne sea-coast ; on the east, in a very circuitous line, by the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by the same, together with Rhode Island and Connecticut ; and on the west by New York. A part of the boundary-line between Massachusetts and Rhode Islantl was settled in 1861 by an exchange of territory, in which the former received a section of Tiverton over which Fall River was extending, and the latter the whole of Pawtucket and about one-third of Seekonk. The superficial area of the State is about 8,040 square miles, or 5,145,600 acres, of which about 939,260 are cultivated.
BAYS, HARBORS, CAPES, AND ISLANDS.
The coast is indented by three large bays, which lend a peculiar aspect to the littoral section of the State. Massachusetts Bay, having a breadth of about forty miles, is formed by Cape Ann, a rocky promontory on the north, and Cape Cod, a long incurvated
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12
GAZETTEER OF MASSACHUSETTS.
strip of low, sandy land upon the south, Its broad and deep waters wash, to a great extent, the eastern shore of the State. Of the harbors in this bay, that of Boston is the best; it being deep, capacious, and well protected. Its other important harbors, com- mencing at the north, are those of Gloucester, Salem, Marblehead, Lynn, Plymouth, Barnstable, and Provincetown. Cape-Cod Bay is included between the eastern point of Plymouth and Provincetown, and forms the south-east part of Massachusetts Bay. Buzzard's Bay, in the southern part of the State, extends thirty miles north- easterly from the ocean, between the Elizabeth Islands and Barn- stable County on the east, and Bristol and Plymouth Counties on the west. Towards Cape-Cod Bay it contains the harbors of New Bedford, Fairhaven, Wareham, and Rochester. Between this bay and Cape-Cod Bay, a distance of only five miles, it is proposed to cut a ship canal. In addition to those enumerated, the State has important harbors at Newburyport, Ipswich, Rockport, Harwich, Falmouth, Fall River, Holmes's Holl, Edgartown, and Nantucket. Cape Ann extends about fifteen miles easterly into the sea, and its rocky headlands afford delightful maritime scenery. Cape-Cod -- sometimes called, from the character of its people, "the strong right arm of the State" - projects from the mainland some forty miles easterly, forming the southern side of Massachusetts Bay, and then, turning like an elbow at right angles, runs northerly about thirty miles, and terminates, after making another sudden bend to the westward, at Provincetown. It varies in width from five to twenty miles, and resembles a man's arm turned inward, both at the elbow and the wrist. The land upon the ocean-side appears in some localities to be wearing away, the creeks and harbors to be changing their places ; and an island of twenty acres off the eastern shore, once covered with trees, now lies six fathoms below the surface of the sea. Nahant, which lies nine miles north, and Nantasket on the south, of Boston Harbor, are noted peninsulas, having handsome beaches, to which many people resort in the summer season for boat -. ing, fishing, gaming, and sea-bathing.
Commencing at the north, we find a narrow strip of sandy land, called, from an edible fruit it bears, Plum Island. It extends from the mouth of the Merrimack River along the coast nine miles to Ipswich Harbor. The sand is drifted into fantastic forms ; and the eastern shores is subject to continual changes from the action of the sea. A bridge connects the island with the mainland.
Thatcher's Island, on which there are two lighthouses, lies off
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THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS.
Cape Ann. Long Island, Deer Island, Castle, and other islands, beautify and protect Boston Harbor. Clark's Island, celebrated as the landing of the Pilgrims 1620, is a beautiful knoll in the southern part of Duxbury Bay. Monomoy, like Plum Island, is a long strip of low, sandy soil, extending southerly from the outer point of the elbow of Cape Cod. Nantucket lies in the form of an irregular cres- cent, some twelve miles south of Monomoy. It contains an area of about fifty square miles. The land is level, sandy, and almost entirely destitute of trees. The climate is very mild and healthful. South of this island lies a long and dangerous reef of sand, called the Nan- tucket Shoals, on which many vessels have been lost. Martha's Vineyard, about twenty miles long and ten miles broad, extends west- ward from the Island of Nantucket, and has a good soil and commno- dious harbors at Holmes's Holl and Edgartown. The Indians called the island Capawock. The Vineyard Sound separates Martha's Vine- yard on the north-west from a chain of sixteen small islands, recently incorporated as the town of Gosnold. They are called the Elizabeth Islands, and will be described under the town to which they now belong. Noman's Land is a little solitary island, lying about six miles south-east of Gay-Head Light, containing two or three habita- tions, mostly used by fishermen, and pilots looking out for vessels bearing towards the coast.
GENERAL ASPECT OF THE STATE.
The surface of Massachusetts is greatly diversified : being, in the eastern and south-eastern parts, undulating or level; in the central section hilly and broken ; and in the western, rugged and mountain- ous. The scenery along the seaboard, especially at Newburyport, Ipswich, Manchester, Nahant, Nantasket, Duxbury, Gay Head, and Fall River, is exceedingly beautiful; while from the highlands of Haverhill, Andover, Hopkinton, Bolton, Princeton, Ashby, and other elevated places east of the Connecticut River, the most varied and extensive prospects are enjoyed. The valley of the Connecticut abounds in picturesque views of alpine scenery, contrasting grandly with the winding glades and luxuriant intervals through which the majestic stream pursues its way. The view from the summit of Mount Holyoke, embracing the beautiful towns of Amherst, Hadley, and Northampton, the windings of the river, and the near and dis. tant mountains, is one of the most charming in the country ; and the romantic scenery of the Deerfield River, of the Housatonic River,
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GAZETTEER OF MASSACHUSETTS.
the broad panorama which the eye sweeps over from the summit of the Hoosac Mountain, and the magnificent range of vision gained from the top of Saddle Mountain, command the admiration of the lovers of the grand and beautiful in nature, and render Massachu- setts worthy of the study of the landscape-painter and the poet. .
GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY.
A third of a century ago, it was the universal belief that the meta- morphic rocks of the State were mostly of the primitive formation : but more recent investigations in geology seem to establish the fact, that granite, gneiss, schists, and other crystalline rocks have been transformed by fire from the original clays, sandstones, and lime- stones ; and, although belonging to the eozoic age, are not, therefore, to be classified as primitive. According to Prof. C. H. Hitchcock, the sienite and porphyry, gneiss, granite, and hornblende schists of the eastern section of the State, the sienite flanking the sandstones of the valley of the Connecticut River, and the gneiss of the Hoosac range of mountains, should be referred to the period in which the dawn of animal life appears, now called the eozoic. Such rocks, vary- ing in form and inclination, constitute the geological structure, and mark the scenic features, of a large portion of the State. The Merrimack schists run along the valley of the Merrimack, Concord, and French Rivers, from Salisbury to Webster. Sienite underlies large sections of Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, and Plymouth Counties. A. strip of granite extends across the State, from Duxbury to Fall River; and calcareous or ferruginous gneiss is the basis of the central section of the State. The alpine region also, from Munroe to Sandisfield, rests upon the same formation. Vast sienite quarries of excellent building-stone are found at Rockport, Westford, Quincy, and other places ; and bog-iron ore appears in connection with gneissic rocks in various localities.
To the paleozoic rocks, or those which contain no form of plants or animals now living, may be referred the slates, conglomerate and carboniferous rocks, in the eastern part of the State; certain meta- morphic strata appearing at various intervals as far west as the Hoosac Mountains, together with the rocks beyond that range. In one kind of this rock at Braintree there has been discovered a large fossil trilobite, called the Paradoxides Harlani, which Prof. Hitch- cock thinks should be regarded with veneration, as "one of the oldest inhabitants of the State." The Levis and Potsdam limestones,
.
15
THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS.
which occupy the valleys of the Hoosac and Housatonic Rivers, and the "coal measures " of Norfolk, Bristol, and Plymouth counties, in which ferns and fruits have been found, may be referred to the palæ- ozoic group. The beautiful white marble at Lanesborough, Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, and other towns in the Berkshire Valley, is repre- sented in the buildings of almost every city in the Union.
To the mesozoic period belong the red and gray sandstone, the shales and greenstone of the valley of the Connecticut River. In these sandstones, at Turner's Falls and other places, have been dis- covered the footprints or ichnites, of more than one hundred and fifty species of birds and other animals of remarkable size, structure and habits, which have long since ceased to exist, and of which no other traces have in any place been found. It is supposed that this valley once formed an arm of the sea; and that the tracks, being made dur- ing the recession of the tide, were, in its rising, covered by a thin layer of mud, which, hardening beneath the rays of a tropical sun, held the footmarks distinct and clear for the examination of future ages.
In the "Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet " at Amherst there are more than 20,000 of these fossil impressions. The largest footprint, twenty inches long, is that of the Otozoum Moodii, - a gigantic frog. The drift, or alluvium, consisting of sand and gravel, of which the whole of Cape Cod, Nantucket, and the western part of Martha's Vineyard are composed, together with the beds of peat and lignite found in various parts of the State, belonging to the cenozoic period, and contain fossilized leaves of plants, and bones of fish and animals still living. The bowlders which cover the surface of the State were deposited in the glacial period. marks of which may be distinctly traced in the scratching of the ledges from the shore of the ocean to the summit of the mountains.
(For a notice of the localities of mineralogical specimens, see de- scription of the different towns.)
MOUNTAINS.
The Green-Mountain range, divided into two parallel ridges, called, in general, the Taconic and the Hoosac mountains, runs from north to south across the western part of the State. The Taconic ridge divides the waters of the Housatonic from those of the Hudson; the Hoosac ridge, the waters of the Connecticut from those of the Hoosac and Housatonic. Between these ranges, in the north- western
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GAZETTEER OF MASSACHUSETTS.
part of the State, stands Greylock, 3,505 feet above sea level. The rocks of Greylock are a " shining schistus " of a light blue color ; and the land is covered with forests of maple, beech, and birch, among which appears a luxuriant growth of lichens, mosses, and evergreens. In the extreme south-western part of the State, is Mount Everett, or Taconic Dome, 2,624 feet high.
The Hoosac is not as elevated as the Taconic range ; the greatest eminences being Spruce Hill in Adams, 2,588 feet high, and Mount Hazen in Clarksburg, which has an altitude of 2,272 feet. Mount Tom on the right and Mount Holyoke on the left bank of the Con- necticut River are peaks of the Greenstone range which extends across Connecticut. Mount Toby in Sunderland and Sugar Loaf in Deerfield are isolated peaks. Bear Hill in Wendell, and Mount Grace in Warwick, seem to constitute a part of the White-Mountain range. Wachusett Mountain, 2,018 feet above the sea, belongs, perhaps, to the same system. The most elevated points in the eastern section of the State do not, in any instance, reach an altitude of 1,000 feet. The most noted are Powwow Hill in Salisbury, 328 feet high; Pros- pect Hill in Waltham, 482 feet high ; Blue Hill in Milton, 635 feet high ; Manomet Hill in Plymouth 394 feet high; and Nobscot Hill in Framingham, 602 feet high.
The mountains and hills of Massachusetts are mostly clothed with verdure, and many of them are cultivated even to the summit. The soil is generally strong, and excellent for grazing. From their sides many fresh and sparkling springs and streams flow forth to irrigate the land, and furnish hydraulic power for the manufactories.
THE RIVERS, LAKES, AND PONDS.
Of water-power this state has an abundant supply ; and few towns, excepting those in the south-east, are destitute of valuable mill- privileges, and springs and rivulets for mechanical or domestic pur- poses. A large portion of this hydraulic power, especially in the western section of the State, is still unemployed.
The Hoosac River rises in Berkshire County, drains the northern part of the valley between the Hoosac and the Taconic Mountains, furnishes valuable motive power at Adams, and leaves the State by a north-west course at Williamstown. The interval through which it runs is very fertile ; and the scenery on either hand magnificent. The Housatonic River, so called from the Indian word Hooestennuc, meaning " over the mountain," rises near the sources of the Hoosac
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THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS.
River, and pursuing a southerly direction, drains more than half the territory of Berkshire County, furnishes many valuable mill-sites in the towns through which it passes, and discharges its waters into Long-Island Sound. The valley of this river is celebrated for the fertility of its soil and the beauty of its scenery. The Connecticut River, which receives its name from an Indian word signifying " long river," enters the State, a large and beautiful stream about thirty rods wide at Northfield, and flows in a meandering and south- erly course through one of the most beautiful and fertile valleys of the country. It receives the waters of Deerfield and Westfield Rivers on the west, and Miller's and Chicopee River on the east ; and thus- drains a hydrographic basin of about sixty miles in width from east to west. It has a fall of about a hundred and thirty feet in passing through the State, and thus furnishes a vast amount of motive-power for manufacturing purposes. The most remarkable descent is at Turner's Falls, near which a busy manufacturing town is rising. Holyoke, on the next grand fall below, has grown to a city.
The Quinnebaug River enters the State from Connecticut at Hol- land; and after making a détour through Brimfield, Sturbridge, South- bridge, and Dudley, to which towns it affords manufacturing power, it re-enters Connecticut, and unites with other streams to form the Thames at Norwich. The French River, so called from a company of Huguenots who settled near its left bank in Oxford, rises in Leicester, and, running southerly, joins the Quinnebaug at Thompson, Conn. Though but a narrow stream, it has a rapid current ; and this, together with some large reservoirs which retain the surplus waters of the spring for summer use, gives hydraulic power for the extensive manufactories at Webster and other places in the valley through which it flows. The Blackstone River rises in the highlands of Worcester County, and, after furnishing motive power for the manufactories at Millbury, Blackstone, and other places, meets the tide-water in Providence River. The Nashua River and its tribu- taries drain the north-easterly part of Worcester County, and furnish important mill-sites at Fitchburg, Clinton, Shirley, Pepperell, and other places. It is a very beautiful stream, and enters the Merrimack. at Nashua, N. H. The Concord, another tributary of the Merrimack, rises in Hopkinton, and, flowing centrally through Middlesex County, joins the larger stream at Lowell. It receives the waters of the Assabet, a valuable stream at Concord; and has motive-power at Ashland, Framingham, North Billerica, and Lowell.
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