Middlesex County Massachusetts, 1890

Middlesex County is situated mainly in the northeastern part of the State, extending from the New Hampshire line southward four-fifths of the distance to Rhode Island. Its outline is the most irregular possible, on all sides except the north, which is a straight line running from the western side slightly south of east, but terminating in an angular northward projection. Its general form is triangular, with the angles east, west and south. Its greatest extension north and south is about 38 miles, and east and west (middle and northerly part) about 33 miles. Essex lies on the northeast and east, Suffolk on the east, Norfolk on the southeast, and Worcester on the west, — but southward of the long northwest extension. Its area is about 830 square miles; the assessed land being 488,120. A large rock in Charles River, called "County Rock," marks a corner in the boundary of Middlesex and Norfolk counties, and a corner of three towns, — Newton, Weston and Wellesley.

The surface is uneven, and the northwestern part is generally hilly, but with no great elevation. In the southeastern part the highest are Nobscot Hill in Framingham (602 feet), Prospect Hill in Waltham (482 feet), Goodman Hill in Sudbury (415 feet), Reeves Hill in Wayland (410 feet), and Regan Hill in Natick (408 feet). The Merrimac River runs through the northeastern corner, receiving

at Lowell the Concord River, which receives in the town of Concord, near the centre of the county, the Sudbury, drawing its waters from the extreme southern towns, and the Assabet, which flows in from the south-southwest. The northwestern part is drained by the Nashua and its tributaries, which also swells the volume of the Merrimac while yet in the borders of New Hampshire; and the Shawsheen, in the northeastern section, finds the same noble stream. Along the middle of the eastern part flows the Mystic River, and with the Charles, which winds through the southwestern part, laves the shores of three cities about Boston Harbor. Within the county are 152,075 acres of forest, consisting of all the New England varieties of trees. There is an almost wilderness tract of about 4,006 acres lying within the confines of the towns, Stoneham, Medford, Winchester, Melrose and Malden, which it is proposed to make into a public park, under the auspices of the Commonwealth. The geological structure of this county is mainly calcareous gneiss, sienite, Merrimack schists and the St. John's group. Beds of peat and brick-clay are found in many localities.

The Fitchburg, the Boston and Maine, the Massachusetts Central, the Boston and Albany, and the Old Colony railroads cover the county as with a network; so that scarcely a town is without one or more roads passing through it, or close at its borders. The farms number 6,428, with a product in 1885 valued at $8,030,965. Of this the greenhouse product was $256,682, — exceeding that of any other county. There were 3,504 manufacturing establishments whose product was valued at $128,599,892. The dwelling-houses numbered 67,921, with 357,311 inhabitants divided into 75,968 families; the legal voters numbering 79,430. The density of population is only exceeded by Suffolk and Essex counties.

This county is one of the three existent original counties of Massachusetts; having been incorporated at the same date with Suffolk and Essex, May 10, 1643. It was named from the ancient metropolitan county in England.

Middlesex County contains seven cities — Cambridge, Lowell, Malden, Newton, Somerville, Waltham and Woburn. There are forty-seven towns, viz. : Acton, Arlington, Ashby, Ashland, Ayer, Bedford, Belmont, Billerica, Boxborough, Burlington, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Concord, Dracut, Dunstable, Everett, Framingham, Groton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hudson, Lexington, Lincoln, Littleton, Marlborough, Maynard, Medford, Melrose, Natick, North Reading, Pepperell, Reading, Sherborn, Shirley, Stoneham, Stowe, Sudbury, Tewksbury, Townsend, Tyngsborough, Wakefield, Watertown, Wayland, Westford, Weston, Wilmington. and Winchester. The shire towns are Cambridge and Lowell. Portions of the county are included in the 5th Congressional District with certain wards of Boston; in the 6th with Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop, and certain wards of Boston; in the 8th with four towns of Essex county, and four of Worcester County; in the 9th with several towns of Worcester and Norfolk counties. It is in the 3d Council District with parts of Suffolk County and in the 6th with parts of Essex County. It constitutes a State Senate District; excluding ward 3 of Cambridge; and it has 43 representatives in the House.

This county has 528 public-school buildings, valued, with appurtenances, at $3,232,781. There are also 30 private schools, including one university, three theological schools, one college, classical schools, academies and young ladies' seminaries, and two large commercial schools. There are 346 churches, and 429 public and association libraries, containing 901,505 bound volumes. Of periodicals, there are 7 daily newspapers, 1 semi-weekly, 33 weeklies, 2 bi-weeklies, and 2 monthlies, — a total of 45.

[The County Jail, Lowell]

Perhaps no single county in the State contains more points of interest to the historian and scholar. Here are Concord and Lexington, and the classic and patriotic Cambridge, with her ancient, noble and far-famed university. The list of notable scholars, scientists inventors, divines, statesmen and soldiers which this county has given to the world is long and admirable.

The first settlement was at Watertown early in 1630, by one of the three divisions of the company, whose other two made the first settlements in Roxbury and Dorchester. In 1631 a grant of land was made to Governor Winthrop near the Mystic River; and there he erected a house, and laid out a farm. He also built here a small vessel, "The Blessing of the Bay," which was the beginning of shipbuilding at Medford; an interest that afterward was of primary importance in building up the town. The year 1640 saw two new settlements made in this county, one at Reading, the other at Woburn. One other distinct settlement of this period deserves mention, since it was the first inland settlement, — the ancient town of Concord.

The courage and ability of the people here were amply shown in many a bloody conflict with the savages. In King Philip's War the rage of these enemies fell upon Sudbury, Marlborough, Chelmsford, and upon some other points with less destruction. Companies from this settlement rallied to the aid of the assaulted settlements in Worcester county, and made long excursions against the foe in New Hampshire and Maine.

Sixteen of the towns at present in this county were incorporated during the seventeenth century, and all but twelve of those in existence in 1880, during the next hundred years. The first conflict of military bodies in the Revolution was in this county, — at Lexington and Concord. In 1786, also, it suffered some disturbance from Shays' Rebellion. In 1792, the "Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on the Merrimac River" was incorporated, and then began the development of the cotton manufacture in Lowell. In 1805 the Middlesex canal connecting the Merrimac River at Lowell with Boston Harbor was opened. In 1830, the Boston and Lowell Railroad was chartered.

The jurisdiction of the County Commissioners of Middlesex extends over Revere and Winthrop, in the County of Suffolk.

pp. 76-79 in Nason and Varney's Massachusetts Gazetteer, 1890

Gazetteer