USA > Massachusetts > Gazetteer of the state of Massachusetts, pt 1 > Part 29
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There are 40 farms having the usual crops, with a proportionately large production of vegetables and greenhouse products; the value of the latter in 1885 being $12,520. The aggregate farm product was valued at $66,076. There are 44 manufacturing establishments. The largest product in point of value was that of the chemical works-$492,497. The Dewey Governor Works, the brickyards, the rubber factory, the furniture factory, are next in order. Other manufactures are hosiery and knit goods, leather, carriages, bleachery, and sporting and athletic goods, emery and sand paper and cloth, food preparations and drugs and medicines. The aggregate value of the manufactures was $1,496,795. The valuation of the town in 1888 was $6,499,100, with a tax of $13.30 on $1,000. The population was 5,825, including 1,204 voters ; and the dwelling- houses numbered 1,624.
Most of the male residents are engaged in business in the metropolis and on the transportation lines. The town has had a rapid growth by reason of its proximity to Boston, with which it has hourly communication by steam and street railways, and because of its remarkably eligible sites for building. From its situation and soil the air is unusually free from dust. It has water-works, sup- plied from Mystic Lake; while in its midst is a spring of pure water which has been in high esteem by physicians and others for table purposes for 50 years.
There is a graded system of public schools, provided with six commodious school-houses, valued at some $40,000. Seven libraries are accessible to the public; the Everett Public Library and Read- ing-room having nearly 5,000 volumes. The Odd Fellows Block and the Masonic Block are recent and handsome buildings. The Con- gregationalists, Baptists, Methodists, Universalists, the Roman Catholic and the American Episcopal Church have houses of wor- ship here. Woodlawn Cemetery, beautifully decorated, lies in the northeast section of the town.
This town was taken from Malden and incorporated, March 9, 1870. It was named in honor of Hon. Edward Everett.
Everettville, in Princeton.
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EVERGREENS - FAIRHAVEN.
Evergreens, a village in Newburyport.
Ewingville, in Holyoke,
Factory Village, in Brockton; also one in Easthamp- ton and in Greenfield and in Middlefield.
Fairhaven lies on the eastern side of Acushnet River and of New Bedford Harbor, forming the south- east corner of Bristol County, 60 miles south of Boston by the Fair- haven Branch of the Old Colony Railroad. It is bounded on the north by Acushnet, east by Mattapoisett, south by Buzzard's Bay and New Bedford Harbor and west by New Bedford.
The assessed area is 6,985 acres, including 1,685 acres of wood- land. The streets, also, are well shaded with elms. The land slopes gently to the south ; and a narrow peninsula called "Sconti- cut Neck," with its little village, juts far out into Buzzard's Bay ; while on its eastern side lie West's and several smaller islands. The town has a fine harbor, an expansion to the northeastward of New Bedford Harbor. Upon its shore is the principal village, where the railroad terminates, and where is the post-office of Fair- haven. North of this, the harbor is divided by islands, and here a convenient bridge nearly a mile in length connects the town with the city of New Bedford. Near, on the north of the bridge, on the shore of the Aenshet, is the village of Oxford. Two others, in the eastern part of the town, are named Naskatucket and New Boston.
The soil is loamy and fairly fertile. The farms number 102, producing perhaps a larger revenue from the poultry yard ($14,459) and the vegetable garden ($17,181) than is usual. The aggregate farm produet for the census year of 1885 was $117,414. The place was formerly largely engaged in the whale fishery, but the pursuit has greatly declined; the entire fisheries product in the last census year having been only $24,914; and cod, alewives and mackerel made up more than half of this sum. The manufactures, however, have flourished ; and the American Tack Works, with its solid stone factory, and the Fairhaven Iron Foundry, in a substantial structure of brick, still lead the industries of the place. There are also four ship-yards, a cordage factory, picture-frame, clothing, and boot and shoe factories ; a printing establishment, and a lively weekly news- paper, -- the " Fairhaven Star." The aggregate product of the manu- factures in 1885 was valued at $241,730. The valuation of the town in 1888 was $1,509,532, with a tax of $14.27 on $1,000. The National Bank, Fairhaven, has a capital stock of $120,000; and the Fairhaven Institution for Savings, at the close of last year, held deposits to the amount of $422,685. The population was 2,880, of which 833 were voters ; and the dwelling-houses numbered 653.
The public schools include all the grades, and are supplied with six good buildings, one of which, the "Rogers Grammar School "
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GAZETTEER OF MASSACHUSETTS.
building, cost about $100,000; it was a gift to the town from H. H. Rogers, of New York city, a native of Fairhaven. There are houses of worship of the Congregationalists, Methodists, Unitarians, Adventists and Friends. The first church here was organized July 23, 1794. The town sent its full quota of soldiers into the war for the Union, and has honored those who fell with a suitable monu- ment.
The Riverside Cemetery, a beautiful resting-place for the remains of the departed, was consecrated in 1850.
Attracted by the beauty of the place, settlements were made in this town as early as 1764; and ten years later it had come to be an important village.
On the night of the 7th of September, 1778, the British troops made a demonstration on this place, with the design of reducing it to ashes, but were repulsed and driven away by the militia under Major Israel Fearing. Major Fearing, to whose valor the village owed its deliverance from sack and ruin, afterwards became brigadier-general of the militia of Plymouth County, and mustered his entire brigade at Halifax in 1803.
On February 22, 1812, the place was separated from New Bedford and incorporated as a town; its name being suggested by its beauti- ful bay.
Hon. John A. Hawes, United States senator, was a citizen of Fairhaven.
Fairmount, a village in Holyoke ; also one in Hyde Park.
Fair View, a village in Newton.
Fall River, a stream forming the line between Green- field and Gill, and discharging into the Connecticut River.
FALL RIVER, a beautiful manufacturing city and port of entry in the south- west side of Bristol County, lies on the easterly shore of Mount Hope Bay and Taunton River. Freetown bounds it on the north and east; Dartmouth on the southeast; Westport, together with Pocasset in Rhode Island, on the south ; and on the west are Mount Hope Bay and the town of Somerset, on the right bank of the Taun- ton River. Its assessed area is 18,272 acres, and which includes 2,607 acres of woodland.
The city proper is 49 miles south of Boston, 183 miles northeast of New York, 17 miles south of Taunton, 18 miles southeast of Providence, 14 miles west of New Bedford, and 18 miles north of New port. Along the whole extent of the water front run the tracks of the Old Colony Railroad, affording the best facilities for the trans- fer of freight and passengers between the cars and the numerous steamers that run to New York, Philadelphia and Providence. The
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FALL RIVER.
Old Colony steamboats running daily between this city and New York are among the finest in the world for size, safety, and luxuri- ance of equipment. Trains also run direct to Providence by the railroad bridge over the Taunton River at the upper part of the town; while a branch from the New Bedford line of the Old Colony road enters the city at the greater elevation on the east.
The city has much rural territory, occupied by 83 farms ; the pro- duct of these, in 1885, having a value of $102,260. The country is hilly, the elevations within five miles radius varying from tide-water to 355 feet above sea-level. The geological structure is granite, in which beds of iron-ore occur- a foundation which affords inexhaust- ible quarries of good building stone. The granite frequently crops out in extensive ledges; and numerous bowlders are scattered about, generally resting on the bed-rock, over which the soil is often shallow. The latter is composed principally of sand, gravel and gravelly loam.
Copecut Hill, in the midst of the eastern section, rises to the
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STEAMER " PILGRIM," FALL RIVER LINE.
height of 355 feet, while the rear of the city proper has an elevation of 259 feet, affording a magnificent view of the delightful scenery of Mount Hope Bay, and of Mount Hope itself. The Taunton River, here a broad and beautiful stream, washes the entire length of the town, gradually expanding to the bay, and affording anchorage to the largest vessels. The eastern part of the city is drained by the Cope- cut River. Copecut Hill rises from its western shore, and in the broad depression between this and the heights along the Taunton River lies the long and beautiful Watuppa Pond, the reservoir of the water-power of the city, and the source of supply for its excel- lent water-works. The name of this pond is an Indian term, signify- ing the "place of boats." It covers, with its connected ponds, an area of almost 5,000 acres; and its average discharge is 122 cubic feet of water per second, or 31,746,774 cubic feet for every working day of ten hours. Its outlet flows over a bed of granite and between high, rocky banks to Taunton River, - having a descent within the last half mile of 132 feet; and so numerously are the mills built along and across its course that, for much of this distance, it is an
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underground stream. This river is the Indian " Quequechan," signify- ing " falling" or "quick-running water;" and in like manner the present occupants have given the stream and the town which has grown about it'their own name of the same meaning, Fall River.
This place is emphatically a city of spindles; and they have been put in motion by capital furnished almost exclusively by its own people. In 1813 the first cotton mill was put in operation. In 1870 there were 18 incorporated companies, with a capital of $6,310,000, and 698,148 spindles. In 1888 there were 38 companies for the manufacture of cotton goods, owning 57 mills, with an in- corporated capital of $18,543,000, but a probable investment of $35,000,000, and containing 1,823,472 spindles and 41,219 looms. These employ 19,195 operatives, and turn out annually 480,500,000 yards of cloth. A careful comparison shows that this city has nearly one seventh of all the spindles in the country, about one fifth of those in New England; and manufactures over three fifths of all the print cloths. While this is the principal product, its industrial activity is also engaged in the bleaching and dyeing of cotton goods, the printing of calicoes, in the manufacture of cotton and other kinds of machinery, of cotton thread, woollen goods, comforters, felt hats, boots and shoes, leather, straw and palm-leaf goods, food prepara- tions, carriages, water-craft, and numerous other minor articles. The value of the textiles sent out from these factories in the census year of 1885 was $19,223,481; and the aggregate value of all manu- factures was $22,915,658.
In his historical sketch of Fall River, Mr. Earl says that, "In the union of hydraulic power and navigable waters it is probably with- out a parallel upon the American continent; " and were it not for its cotton manufactures, its citizens would doubtless be engaged largely in navigation. It has now five ship-yards; and 22 vessels owned here-consisting of 5 schooners, 1 sloop, a bark, a brig and 14 steam vessels-are engaged in coastwise and ocean commerce. Something was formerly done in the whale fishery; but its fisheries in 1885 were confined to menhaden and oysters, whose product had the value of $7,740.
The seven national banks of the city, by the last report of the comptroller, had an aggregate capital of $2,123,000; the four savings banks, at the close of last year, had 25,247 depositors, and held deposits to the amount of $11,295,737 ; and there were two co-opera- tive banks, authorized to hold capital to the amount of $2,000,000, and having actual property to the value of $257,225.
The valuation of the city in 1888 was 846,504,585; the tax-rate being $17.40 on $1,000. The population was 66,870; of whom 9,426 were voters. The dwelling-houses numbered 5,302; and many of these were unusually large.
The mills are distributed somewhat in groups ; on the Quequechan above the dam, following nearly to its head along its east side, are the Wamsutta, three Union, three Durfee, two Granite, the Crescent, Merchants, Barnard, Wampanoag, Stafford, Flint, Seaconnet and Merino mills. The last six, with their tenements, form a community
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FALL RIVER.
by themselves, known as Flint Village. On the west bank of the stream, above the dam, are the Tecumseh No. 1, Robeson, Davol, Richard Borden, Tecumseh No. 2, Chace and Barnaby mills. Some two miles north of the stream, and along the bank of the Taunton River at Bowenville, are the Mechanics, Weetamo, Narragansett, Sagamore, and the two Border City mills. Above is the village of Steep Brook, which has a post-office. Two miles south of the stream, and on the highlands overlooking the bay, are the Slade, Montaup, Laurel Lake, Osborn, King Philip, and Shove mills, -all taking water from Laurel Lake, which is about one mile in length. Be- yond them, across the State line, in Tiverton, are the Bourne and one of the Shove mills. The American Print Works, the Fall River Iron Works, the American Linen Company's two cotton mills, and the Mount Hope Mill, are located in successive order on the bay
southward from the stream. With some of these mills the motive power is furnished by steam. Slade Ferry Bridge, spanning the Taunton River; the Anawan Boat Club House; Grab Pond and Laurel Lake ; the city water works on the shore of Watuppa Pond, and their stand-pipe tower, 121 feet in height, on the hill above; the southern park, and Oak Grove Cemetery, are all special objects of interest.
Notable buildings are the new court-house, the remodelled city hall, the immense Borden Block, of brick, and containing the Acad- emy of Music, the largest auditorium in the city; Granite Block, occupying the front of an entire square; Brown Block, containing the public library ; Pocasset Block and Pocasset Bank, Notre Dame Asylumn and College, the new custom-house and post-office - a mag- nificent edifice of gray rock-faced ashlar, with carvings and other decorations in red and gray granite, and, at either end, semicircular pavilions projecting from top to bottom of the main body of the building. The longest frontage is S4 feet. It was completed in 1880, at a cost of about half a million dollars. The Central Congregational Church, on Rock Street, is built of smooth brick with sandstone trim- mings and has a fine tower and spire. The style is the Victorian Early English Gothic. The magnificent Durfee High School is the most conspicuous object seen on approaching the city from the west or south, and commands from its towers comprehensive views of the entire landscape. `The edifice is of granite, four stories in height, in the modern renaissance style of architecture. The most striking features are the two towers and a central pavilion with steep roof. It contains a fine gymnasium, drill-hall, laboratories, and an astro- nomical observatory consisting of a tower surmounted by a revolving dome of iron and steel, in which is an equatorial telescope having an eight-inch object-glass. In the south tower is the clock and a chime of bells. It was completed in 1887, and presented to the city by Mrs. Mary B. Young, as a memorial of her son, Bradford M. C. Durfee.
The city has a complete system of graded schools, including nor- mal and training schools, which, in 1885, were occupying 41 school- houses valued at about $700,000. The public library contained upwards of 30,000 books, and there was a public-school library of
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GAZETTEER OF MASSACHUSETTS.
652 volumes. There are published in the city three daily and four weekly newspapers and journals.
The Baptists have two churches here ; the Congregationalists, five ; the American Episcopal Church, four; the Methodist Episcopal, seven ; the Presbyterian, two; the Christian, three; the Roman Catholic, nine ; the Unitarians, one ; the Friends, one; the New Jerusalem Church, one; the Primitive Methodists, one; and the " Re-organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," one.
The territory of this city north of the Quequechan was originally in the limits of Freetown, and that on the south in Tiverton. By a royal decree in 1746, five townships, previously within the jurisdic- tion of Massachusetts, were set off to Rhode Island; and Tiverton was one of them. In 1803, that portion of Freetown on the north of the stream was set off as a separate township, and named Fall River. In 1804, the name was changed to Troy, but the previous name was restored in 1834. In 1854, Fall River was made a city. In 1856, that portion of Tiverton including Globe and Flint villages, and up to the accepted boundary line of Massachusetts, was erected into a Rhode Island town, and named Fall River. By the settlement of the boundary between the States (which had been in dispute) in 1862, the Rhode Island town was ceded to the city; by which the latter acquired nine square miles of territory additional, an increase of population by 3,593 persons, and an increase of $1,948,378 in taxable property. In reference to these conditions Fall River is also known as the " Border City."
Hon. James Buflinton, the first mayor of Fall River, was born in that place March 16, 1817. He received many honors from his city, the State, and the nation, being a member of Congress for many years, and occupying that position at his death March 6, 1874.
Falls Village, in North Attleborough,
Falmouth is a delightful seaboard town occupying the southwest corner of Cape Cod and of Barnstable County. Along its entire western side extends the Woods Holl Branch of the Old Colony Railroad, terminating 72 miles south of Boston. Its boundaries are Bourne and Sandwich on the north, Mash- pee on the east, Vineyard Sound (here six miles wide) on the south, and Buzzard's Bay on the west. Its assessed area is 21,903 acres, in- cluding 6,202 acres of woodland. The territory extends as a penin- sula at the southwest; and on a harbor at the extremity of this is Woods Holl, noted as the eastern of the two railroad connections for the Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket steamers, and as the loca- tion of the goverment works for fish-breeding, and as a principal govern- ment station for marine surveys and investigations. At the soutli- most point of this peninsula is Nobska Point and Hill, bearing its well-known light. Eastward is a fine beach, extending in a concave line to the first of three nearly enclosed basins of salt water, the east- ward one of which constitutes a harbor for Falmouth Village. Wa- quoit Bay lies on the eastern angle of the town, partially separating
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FALMOUTHI.
it from Mashpee; having at its northern extremity Waquoit Village, where the extensive Pacific Guano Works are located. Near the middle of the south shore are the friths called Great, Green and Bowen's ponds ; and between the last two is the village of Davis Neck, or Davisville.
The western shore of the town has, at the north, Cataumut Har- bor, near which is the village of North Falmouth ; and next southward Wild Harbor, then Hog Island Harbor, at West Falmouth; while Quamquisset Harbor laves the northern side of Woods Holl penin- sula. A range of hills of moderate elevation diversify the western part of the town, rising at one point to an altitude of 193 feet. From many points near the coast most charming views of maritime scenery are obtained ; while many of the inland scenes are also very beautiful. More than forty salt and fresh water ponds give variety and beauty in every quarter of the town. They abound in fish, as do the woods in game. The most noted are Ashunet Pond in the northeast, Coonemossett Pond in the midst of the northern section, Crooked, Jenkins, Spectacle, Nares and Long ponds; besides a scattered group about the centre, and several salt ponds on the south shore.
The geological formation is drift and alluvium, over which many bowlders have been strown. The land is for the most part level, and the soil is as good as any in the county. There are 118 farms, with the usual products, except that the cranberry product is very large, that of 1885 (an average crop) having been 2,234 barrels, bringing $17,379. The aggregate farm product of that year was $99,901. The town has a few vessels engaged in the coastwise trade, and a small number of boats and men in the fisheries ; the latter yielding a product, in the census year mentioned, of $16,078. Much the largest catch was of bass and bluefish. The manufactures consist of car- riages, leather, stone and timber, salt and other food preparations, and fertilizers, the latter constituting about nine-tenths of the aggregate product, which had a value of $902,555. There is a national bank with $100,000 capital. The valuation of the town in 1888 was $4,095,586, with a tax of $6.65 on $1,000. The population was 2,520, of whom 695 are voters. The dwelling-houses number 646.
Other villages not already mentioned are Quisset, Hatchville, High- field, Succonesset and Teatickett. The higher parts of the shores have many summer residences which adorn and enliven the scene. There is a new town-hall which cost $12,000. There are four public school-houses, valued at about $7,500, for the use of the schools, which are graded. The Lawrence Academy, at Fahnouth Village, serves the town as a high school. There is an association library of about 3,000 volumes; with a church library and three possessed by the Sunday schools. The churches here are numerous, the Congrega- tionalists having five; the Methodists, four; the Roman Catholics, two; the Friends, che; and the American Episcopal Church, also one. The Universalists have a camp-meeting ground at " Menau- hant."
The Indian name of this place was Succannesset. It was early settled by white people, and was incorporated June 4, 1686, under its
FALMOUTH VILAGE,
FAX
BOUND
VIEWS ALONG BUZZARDS BAY.
en
QUISSETT HARBOR AND HOTEL FALMOUTH
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FANEUIL - FENNER HIILL.
present name, which was derived from Falmouth, in England. The first church was organized in 1708. This town was bombarded by the British ship-of-war "Nimrod " in August, 1814, seven balls being shot into the house of the Rev. Henry Lincoln, minister of the church from 1790 to 1823. Other houses also were damaged, but there were no lives lost.
Falmouth sent 71 soldiers and seamen into the national service during the war for the Union, of whom 19 were lost. The town has been the birth-place of many men distinguished for energy and ex- cellence of character, as well as for patriotism and talents. Among those are General Joseph Dimmick, a soldier of the French and In- dian War and of the Revolution; and Samuel Lewis, lawyer and preacher, and esteemed the father of the common school in Ohio.
Faneuil, a locality in the Brighton district of Boston. Farleyville, in Wendell.
Farmersville, in Attleborough ; also in Sandwich.
Farm Pond, in Framingham, connected with Boston Wa- ter-Works.
Farms, a village in Cheshire; also one in Newbury.
Farnam's, a village in Cheshire.
Farnumsville, in Grafton.
Faulkner, a village in Malden.
Fay's Mountain, in Westborough, 707 feet in height. Fayville, in Southborough.
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Federal Hill, a village in Dedham.
Federal Street Village, in Belchertown,
Feeding Hills, a village in Agawam.
Felchville, in Natick.
Felton's Corner, a village in Peabody.
Fenner Hill, a village in Webster.
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GAZETTEER OF MASSACHUSETTS.
Fernside, a village in Tyringham.
Fernwood, a village in Gloucester.
Field's Corner, a locality in the Dorchester district
of Boston.
Fisherville, in Attleborough; also in Grafton.
Fiskdale, a village in Sturbridge.
FITCHBURG is a flourishing manufacturing city, the semi-capital of Worcester County, situated in its northeasterly section, 50 miles from Boston by the Fitchburg Railroad.
This road, by a northward curve in the town, following nearly the curve of the Nashua River, connects with the four principal villages, - Crockerville in the southwest, West Fitchburg, Fitchburg (cen- tre), and South Fitchburg in the southeast. From the central village (which is the city proper) proceeds the Cheshire Railroad through Bellows Falls to Lake Champlain and Montreal. At this village also terminates the northern division of the Old Colony Railroad, which connects it directly with Worcester, Boston and New Bedford.
Ashby lies on the north, Lunenburg on the east, Leominster and Westminster on the south, and the latter on the west. The assessed area is 16,850 acres; of which 5,134 are woodland. The township is nearly a parallelogram, and is beautifully diversified with numer- ous hills and valleys, ponds and streams. From Pearl Hill in the northeast, and Brown's Hill in the northwest, from Oak Hill in the Southwest, and from Rollstone Hill in the western section, rising grandly from the right bank of the Nashua River, to the height of 300 feet above the plain, may be obtained broad and sweeping views of many charming landscapes. Whitman's River and Nookagee Brook, entering the town from Westminster on the west, soon unite and form the Nashua River, which winds through a rocky valley flanked by steep and picturesque eminences, to the central village, thence, bending southward, leaves the township at the southeast corner. Though the current of this stream is neither broad nor deep, the descent is so considerable and the dams so frequent, that, in the aggregate, a very large motive power is afforded ; and to this, as well as to its railroad facilities and the public spirit of its citizens, the rapid growth of this city may be ascribed.
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