USA > Massachusetts > Gazetteer of the state of Massachusetts, pt 1 > Part 32
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Here are the town's largest mannfactories, the mills of the Tur- ner's Falls Lumber Company, and the Fibre Pulp Manufactory. There are also a carriage factory and a stone quarry, with some other small industries. The aggregate product in 1885 amounted to $120,810. There is a very good soil - loam overlying clay. In addi- tion to the usual crops, broom-corn and tobacco have been largely cultivated. The farms number 108; and the product, in the year mentioned, reached the value of $140,733. The valuation of the town in 1888 was $433,633; with a tax-rate of $13.10 on $1,000. The population is 860, finding shelter in 163 dwelling-houses.
There is a town-hall, and a public library of some 2,000 volumes, while the Mt. Hermon School for Boys has about 1,500. This flour- ishing institution occupies eight buildings, at the village which bears its name ; its property being valued at $72,500. This is one of the schools founded by the influence of Moody the evangelist. The town has good primary and grammar schools, occupying seven build- ings. The post-offices are Gill and Riverside. The Congregation- alists and Methodists have churches here. The town sent 66 men into the war for the Union, of whom four were lost.
This place, originally the easterly part of Greenfield, was named in honor of Lieut .- Governor Moses Gill; and was incorporated Sep- tember 28, 1793. A part of Northfield was annexed to it February 28, 1795; and Great Island, in Connecticut River, March 14, 1805. The Rev. John Jackson, the first minister, was settled here in 1798.
On the 18th of May, 1676, Captain Turner, with 160 men, suddenly attacked a body of Indians encamped around the falls, since named for him, and slew about 300 of the enemy. His own loss was about 37 men. Aroused from their slumber, the Indians rushed to the river, exclaiming, " Mohawks, Mohawks!" and many were swept down the cataract, and lost. Others were killed upon the margin of the stream.
Glendale, a village in Stockbridge; also one in Wilbra- lam.
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Glenmere, a village in Lynn.
Glenwood, a village in Medford.
Globe Village, in Fall River ; also in Stockbridge.
GLOUCESTER, long celebrated as a fishing-port, occupies the larger part of Cape
Ann, the easterly extremity of Essex County, and is about 30 miles from Boston, on a branch of the Eastern Division of the Boston and Maine Railroad. Its boundaries are Annisquam Harbor and the ocean on the north, Rockport and the ocean on the east, Massachu- setts Bay upon the south, and Manchester and Essex on the west. The full area, including highways, water surfaces, and waste land, is 36 square miles -about 23,000 acres ; the assessed area being but 9,823 acres.
The town is quite irregular in form, being indented by inlets, creeks and harbors, and is almost divided by a broad, irregular, branch- ing inlet extending southward from Annisquam Harbor nearly to Gloucester Harbor on the south side of the peninsula, and connected with it by "The Cut." Over this the carriage road passes by a bridge some 500 feet in length; while the railroad crosses a broader part of the frith about a mile northward.
A short distance eastward, at the head of Gloucester Harbor, is the principal village, the city proper. The long peninsula of East Glou- cester separates the harbor from the ocean, and has, on its southern shore, the noted summer resort of Bass Rocks and Good Harbor Beach, and, on its northern, the fishing village of East Gloucester. Midway of the township, on Mill River, an eastern arm of Squam River, is the little village of Riverside, with a quaint mill and thrifty farms. On the western side of Squam River, near the centre of the township, is West Gloucester village, with its craggy hills of sienite, and charming vales between, marked with salt inlets and sparkling brooks. A mile westward on the railroad is Magnolia station, whence a fine carriage road winds southward to the shore through a region of the southern magnolia, or sweet bay, a tree elsewhere unknown in New England. Gloucester has about 1,000 acres of forest, almost exclusively of pines, except here; thoughi shrubs and plants are in great variety. Eastward from Magnolia, on the shore, is Rafe's Rock; and not far beyond is the little island named "Norman's Woe," marking the western side of the entrance of Gloucester har- bor; while Eastern Point, with its light, marks the eastern side. Up the harbor, on " Ten Pound Island," is the inner light. Within its illumination, and west of " The Cut," is Fresh Water Cove, with its dwellings, like beads strung along the main road to the city proper. Other localities are Cambridge Avenue, Fernwood, Folly Cove Village and Joppa.
From the elevation between East Gloucester village and Bass Rocks there is a fine view of the city proper and the harbor, and
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of the granite hills and dense woods of the interior, with here and there a green field to brighten the picture. Rail-cut Hill, in the eastern section, 205 feet in height, overtops all others in Gloucester, and affords sea- views on all sides except the western. Several pretty little ponds of fresh water are vis- ible, - Fernwood, Niles', Cape, and Dikes Meadow Pond, which is the source of water supply for the city proper. Four or five miles away at the north- west is the shining line of Annisquam Beach, 3 miles in length. Eastward are Annis- quam Village, with its great bowlders and Rocking Stone, then Bayview, favorite sum- mer resorts; and further still, at the northeastern extremity of the town, is Lanesville. In the broad space between the last two and this hill, appear here and there above the lower trees the tops of the tall der- ricks marking the locality of the vast granite quarries of this peninsula.
The soil here has some clay, generally more or less deeply overlaid with sand or sandy loam; yet in some parts it is quite fertile. The greenhouse product is large proportion- ately; also that of berries. The crop of cranberries, in 1885, amounted to $1,216, and that of strawberries to $3,590. The aggregate product of the 86 farms was $134,981. The man- ufactures of Gloucester are in great variety, the establish- ments numbering 332, and con- sisting chiefly of articles con- necting with shipbuilding, navigation, and the fisheries, and articles prepared from fish. The largest establishments are
MEMORIAL MONUMENT TO FREEDOM, CITY HALL GROUNDS.
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the net and twine factory, employing 125 persons, a hammock factory employing 50, and a shoe factory employing 75. The aggre- gate product of all these, in the last census year, amounted to $5,970,580. Nearly four millions of dollars were invested in the fisheries ; and the product of these was $2,667,164. There were engaged in this pursuit 388 schooners and four sloops, having a tonnage of 26,123; together with 1,393 dories, 267 sail-boats, and other craft. The largest catch was of cod, amounting to $1,057,137. Haddock amounted to $155,375 ; halibut, to $449,192; and mackerel, $859,628. Of shellfish, clams brought $4,360, and lobsters, $4,966. There was also a large sum realized from fish products for food, fertilizers, oil, etc. The mercantile vessels were seven schooners and three steam vessels, engaged in coastwise business ; but the for- eign imports are not as large as formerly. The city has four national banks, whose aggregate capital is $800,000; and the savings bank, at the close of last year, held in deposits the sum of $1,943,431. The dwelling-houses number 3,065; and the population is 21,703, of whom 4,952 are voters. The valuation of the city in 1888 was $12,991,498; and the tax-rate $17.50 on $1,000.
In the city proper the buildings are largely of brick. Perhaps the finest edifices, if not the most interesting, are the new High School house. (erected at a cost of about $90,000), the old High School house, the Police Court-house and the Armory, the Old Ladies' Home, and the churches. One of these-Saint Anne's - is of stone, of pure Gothic architecture and of very handsome interior. This and one other in the villages are Roman Catholic. The Congregational- ists have four churches ; the American Episcopal Church, one; the Methodist Episcopal, four; the Unitarians, one; the Baptists, three; and the Universalists, four. There is a free library of nearly 10,000 volumes, two association, two circulating, and 14 Sunday-school lib- raries. The schools are completely graded, and occupy 23 buildings, valued at about $300,000. The city is well supplied with newspa- pers and journals, the names of which are,-the " Gloucester Daily Times," "Cape Ann Evening Breeze" (daily), and the weeklies,- the " Cape Ann Bulletin," "Advertiser " and " Clipper."
The Indian names of this place were Wyngaersheek and Trabaga- zanda; and the friendly Masconomco was the chief of the tribe which dwelt here on the arrival of the English. A fishing station and a farming station were begun here as early as 1624; and, in the ensing year, Roger Conant came to superintend the stations. This company removed to Salem in 1626; and soon afterwards the Rev. Richard Blynman, an ejected minister of Wales, with about 50 others, made a permanent settlement.
The first vessel of the kind which bears the name of "schooner" is said to have been constructed here about the year 1714.
The town was bombarded for several hours by the British sloop- of-war "Falcon " on the 8th of August, 1775, which directed its fire principally upon the meeting-house, and caused considerable damage to the building. Captain Joseph Rogers, with his company of min- ute-men, aided by Colonel Joseph Foster, met the enemy, captured
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four boats, a small tender, a prize schooner, and forty men, and com- pelled " The Falcon " to withdraw. Two Americans named Lurvey and Rowe, and two British seamen, were killed in the fight. On the Sth of September, 1814, the town was again assailed by the Brit- ish frigate "Tenedos," which, after losing a barge and 13 men, retired, without having done much damage.
Gloucester furnished about 1,500 men for the army and navy dur- ing the war of the Slavehold- ers' Rebellion, losing about 100. Two monuments to perpetuate their fame have been erected in the town.
The first meeting-house here was built in 1639; the first church was organized in 1642, and the Rev. Richard Blynman was the first pastor. The Uni- versalist society, the first in the country, was formed here, under the preaching of the Rev. John Murray, in 1774. Glou- cester was incorporated as a town May 22, 1639, being named for a city in England, whence many of the settlers had come. It was incorporated as a city April 28, 1873.
Among the eminent names of Gloucester are these : Col. Paul Dudley Sargent (1745- 1828), a brave Revolutionary officer; Jonathan Haraden (1745-1803), a distinguished naval commander; Winthrop Sargent (1753-1820), a states- man and soldier; Col. Henry Sargent (1770-1845), a skilful artist; Samuel Gilman, D.D. (1791-1858), a noted clergyman, scholar and writer; John Os- borne Sargent (1810), an able lawyer and journalist, author SOLDIERS' MONUMENT AT LANESVILLE. of "Improvements in Naval Warfare," and other works; Edwin Percy Whipple (1819), a noted essayist and lecturer; William Winter (1836), a popular poet ; and Hons. John J. Babson, Addison Gilbert and Gorham P. Low.
Glover's Corner, a locality in the Dorchester district of Boston.
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Goodman Hill, i in Sudbury, 415 feet in height.
Gooseberry Neck, the southern extremity of West-
port and of Bristol County.
Gore District, a village in Webster.
Goshen is a small farming town in the northwest part of Hampshire County, having Ashfield on the north, Williamsburg on the east, Chesterfield by a serrated line on the south, and the same and Cummington on the west. The land is mountainous and broken. More's Hill, in the northeast angle, has an altitude of 1,713 feet. The town is rich in minerals, having a fine granite quarry, and furnishing specimens more or less abundant of tin ore, galena, graphite, granite, spodumene, blue and green tourmaline, smoky quartz, beryl, zoisite, mica, albite, and columbite. It is a delightful field for the mineralogist. Mill and Rogers' brooks flow around a beautiful eminence in the easterly part of the town, and thence into Mill River. Stone's Brook, which glides through Lily Pond, and Swift River, running through the westerly part of the town, are affluents of Westfield River. The otter, mink, fox and raccoon are common here; and the Canada lynx sometimes makes the town a visit. Grouse are very numerous, and trout are abundant.
The town has 68 farms, including 10,271 acres; and the people are engaged in raising neat cattle, sheep, corn, potatoes, oats, hay, fruit and tobacco, and in preparing wood and lumber for market. Honey and maple-sugar should be named among the valuable pro- ductions. The aggregate products of the town in 1885 were $59,- 688. The town has two saw mills, one post-office, a good town-hall, four school-houses, one Adventist church and a Congregational church organized December 21, 1780. Twenty-four soldiers, of whom seven lost their lives, went from this town to the late war.
Goshen was named from an old Hebrew town, the term meaning "approaching." It was incorporated May 14, 1781. The valuation in 1888 was $134,133, with a tax-rate of $17 on $1,000. The dwel- ling-houses numbered 74; there were 96 voters; and the entire population was 336. Williamsburg, five miles southeast, on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, is the nearest station.
Gosnold, in Dukes County, consists of what are known as the Elizabeth Islands (thirteen in number on the maps), extending from Woods Holl in Falmouth, southwesterly, and giving form to Buzzard's Bay and Vineyard Sound. These islands constitute, as it were, a beautiful chain, divided into sections by narrow spaces, and terminating in a point at Cuttyhunk. It is easy to imagine that they were once united in a long peninsula.
Commencing at the northeast, they succeed each other somewhat in the following order,- Nonamesset, which is about a mile and a quarter long and crowned by an eminence called "Mount Sod " in
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the southwest; Uncatena, which forms with it Hadley Harbor, in the north ; Ram Islands and Wepecket Islands; Naushon, the largest of the whole group, seven and a half miles long, and a mile and a quarter broad, having Tarpaulin Cove in its southeast, and Kettle Cove in its northwest centre; Pasque Island, separated from Naushon by Robinson's Hole; Nashawena, three miles and a quarter long and a mile and a quarter wide; Gull Island; Penakese (also called formerly Pune Island), comprising about 100 acres; and Cuttyhunk, which is two and a half miles long and somewhat less than one mile wide. As an aid to the memory, these names have been put into rhyme, as follows : -
" Cuttyhunk and Penakese, Nashawena, Pasquenese, Great Naushon, Nonamesset, Uncatena and Wepecket."
There are said to be really sixteen islands; but others are too small to be generally known. The soil of these islands is very good, and well adapted to sleep husbandry. The climate is mild and the air salubrious. Seen at a distance, their picturesque outlines and green hills, rising above the sea, appear very charming; and the view of the Vineyard Sound, alive with vessels, from the headlands of Naushon, has hardly a parallel on our coast. There is a peculiar softness and richness in the scenery of these islands, arising per- haps from the geological formation (miocene tertiary), which cannot be described, but which a landscape-painter can appreciate, and which imparts a kind of silent joy to the breast of the visitor, although unconscious of the cause. There is a beautiful sheet of water, called "Mary's Lake," in the northerly part of Naushon; and another sheet of fresh water, of 55 acres, in the southwesterly part. There is also a large body of fresh water, called "Gosnold's Pond," in the southiwesterly angle of Cuttyhunk.
The assessed area of this town is 8,488 acres, which includes 3,448 acres of woodland. These islands contain but here and there a human habitation, except at Tarpaulin Cove, on the south side, on Naushon, where there is a lighthouse, and one other point,- Cuttyhunk, where there is a lighthouse and a Methodist church. The whole number of dwellings is 39. The entire population is but 122,-a gain of seven, however, since 1870. There were only five farms reported in the last census (1885). The number of neat cattle was 76; of horses 8; and of sleep 3,770. The aggregate farm product was $8,488. A large proportion of the inhabitants were en- gaged in the fisheries ; the investments in this business being $7,938, and the value of the product, $15,822. The porgy catch amounted to $10,843; flounders (92,910 lbs.), $1,189; squeteague, $1,704. The valuation of the town in 1880 was $202,429; the tax-rate being $4.64 on $1,000. The post office is Cuttyhunk ; but Woods Holl is also used ; this being the railroad and steamboat station mnost con- venient to the town.
The island of Penakese was given by its owner, Mr. Jolin Ander- son, a wealthy tobacconist of New York, to Professor Louis Agassiz
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a few years before his decease, as a site for a school of natural history. To this the munificent donor added $50,000 for an endow- ment of the institution. Professor Agassiz took formal possession of the island in July, 1873, and opened his institution, which he called " The Anderson School of Natural History."
At Cuttyhunk was commenced the first white plantation in New England. Bartholomew Gosnold, with about 20 colonists, built a storehouse on the rocky islet in what is now called "Gosnold's Pond," in Cuttyhunk, in the spring of 1602; but discontent arising, the settlement was soon abandoned. Gosnold called the enclosing island "Elizabeth," in honor of the reigning queen; which name has been extended to the whole group. These islands were long a part of the town of Chilmark, but were incorporated as the town of Gosnold, March 17, 1864.
Goulding Village, in Phillipstown. Governor's Island, in Boston Harbor.
Grab Village, a locality of Jamaica Plain, in the West Roxbury district of Boston.
Grace, Mount, in Warwick, 1,628 feet in height. Grafton is an important and prosperous manufacturing and farming town in the southeastern part of Wor- cester County ; the station of the Boston and Albany Railroad at North Grafton being 38 miles from Boston. The Providence and Worcester has stations at Saundersville and Farnumsville, in the southwest part of the town, following the line of the Blackstone River. At the latter village this stream receives the Quinsigamond River, coming down through the midst of the town.
Grafton is bounded on the north by Shrewsbury and Westborough, on the east by the latter and Upton, on the south by Northbridge and Sutton, and on the west by the latter and Millbury. The assessed area is 13,467 acres; of which 3,890 are woodland. The geological basis is calcareous gneiss. The land is elevated, uneven, somewhat rocky, being stocked with innumerable rounded stones of various sizes, which are turned to good account in making wall fences. Chestnut Hill near the centre, George Hill on the Upton line, Keith Hill at the south, and Brigham Hill at the west, are all beautiful eminences, affording extensive prospects of the adjacent territory, which is charmingly diversified with woodland, cultivated field and meadow, lake, hamlet and village.
The soil is moist and strong; and the timber-growth is walnut, pine, oak, birch, chestnut and maple. The number of fruit trees is 22,881. Pear trees have here proved unusually productive. The cereal crop is larger in proportion to others than usual. The num- ber of farms is 150; and their aggregate product in 1885 was $218,022. The principal business of the people, however, is the
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manufacture of cotton and linen cloth, boots and shoes and leather. The value of the textiles made in the last census year was $809,500; and of boots and shoes, $564,921. There are also manufactures of straw goods, clothing, carriages, emery and sand paper, lumber, flour and meal. The aggregate of manufactures was $1,470,582. There are two national banks with a capital of $100,000 each; and the savings bank, at the close of last year, held $226,197 in deposits. The population is 4,498, -877 being voters; and the dwelling-houses numbered 867.
There are a good town-hall, a public library of about 5,000 volumes ; and further means of intelligence are furnished by the newspapers of the town - the "Herald " and the "Telephone," - both issued weekly. The public schools are graded, and occupy eleven buildings valued at about $30,000. The Baptists have here two churches; the Free Baptists, one ; the Congregationalists, two; the Methodists, one; the Unitarians, one; the United Presbyterians, one; and the Roman Catholic, one-Saint Philip's.
The town furnished 359 soldiers for the late war, of whom 49 lost their lives in the national service. A beautiful monument of Italian marble upwards of 30 feet in height has been erected to their memory.
This place was set apart as one of John Eliot's "Indian praying- towns ; " and here he had a prosperous Indian church, which Major Daniel Gookin visited, in company with the apostle, in 1674, and of which he gives the following account : -
" The name Hassanamisitt signifieth ' a place of small stones.' It lieth about 38 miles from Boston, west-southerly, and is about two miles eastward of Nipmuck River, and near unto the old roadway to Connecticut. It hath not above twelve families, and so, according to our computation, about sixty souls ; but is capable to receive some hundreds, as generally the other vil- lages are, if it shall please God to multiply them. The dimension of this town is four miles square, and so about eight thousand acres of land. This village is not inferior unto any of the Indian plantations for rich land and plenty of meadow, being well tempered and watered. It produceth plenty of corn, grain, and fruit; for there are several good orchards in this place. It is an apt place for keeping of cattle and swine; in which respect this people are the best stored of any Indian town of their size. Their ruler is named Anaweakin, - a sober and discreet man. Their teacher's name is Tackuppa- willin, his brother,-a pious and able man, and apt to teach. Their aged father, whose name I remember not, is a grave and sober Christian, and dea- con of the church. They have a brother, that lives in the town, called James, that was bred among the English, and employed as a pressman in printing the Indian Bible ; who can read well, and, as I take it, write also. The father, mother, brothers, and their wives, are all reputed pious persons. Here they have a meeting-house for the worship of God, after the English fashion of building, and two or three other houses after the same mode; but they fancy not greatly to live in them. Their way of living is by husbandry, and keep- ing cattle and swine ; wherein they do as well, or rather better than any other Indians, but are yet very far short of the English both in diligence and provi- dence. There are in full communion in the church, and living in town, about sixteen men and women, and about thirty baptized persons; but there are several others, members of this church, that live in other places. This is a. hopeful plantation."
All that now remains of these primitive owners of the soil is an
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ancient Indian burial-place, together with a few arrowheads and stone mortars, which have been ploughed up in the fields.
This town was settled by the English as early as 1728, when the land was purchased for the sum of £2,500; and the grant was made on condition that the settlers should " provide preaching and schooling, and seats in the meeting-house, for the remaining Indians." A church was organized here December 28, 1731, of which the Rev. Solomon Prentice was ordained the first pastor. The plantation of Hassanamiseo was incorporated as a town under the name of Grafton, April 18, 1735.
Granby lies a little east of the middle on the south side of Hampshire County ; and is bounded on the north by Hadley and Amherst, east by Belchertown, south by Ludlow and Chicopee, and west by South Hadley, on the Connecticut River. Its nearest railroad stations are at Belchertown (New London and Northern and Massachusetts Central railroads) on the east, and Chicopee Falls, Willimansett, Holyoke Village and Mount Tom, stations of the Connecticut River Railroad, westward.
The town is about six miles square,- equal to something over 23,000 acres; but the assessed area is only 15,591 acres. There are 5,493 acres of forest, consisting of maple, white and yellow birch, chestnut, elm, pine and hemlock. There is a large extent of nearly level upland and meadow varied by several elevations; as of Cold Hill in the northwest, then smaller ones, succeeded by Fox, Bagg and Turkey hills, running southeastward quite across the town. Extending east and west on the northern line is the long ridge known as Mount Holyoke, with Hilliard's Knob rising grandly, at the middle, to a height of 1,120 feet. A beautiful pond of about 200 acres lies at the eastern side, from which flows Bachelor's Brook westerly across the town to the Connecticut River, while Stony Brook drains the southern part of the town, discharging into the same river.
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