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The Town of Clinton Massachusetts
straddles the valley of the south branch of the Nashua River and is the
site of the Wachusett Reservoir, formed by damming the river in 1905 to
provide drinking water for the City of Boston. Clinton's terrain was partly
shaped by retreating glaciers which created the present landscape.
The town's abundant water power potential
invited textile manufacturing, and a diverse ethnic population followed
the creation of mill jobs. These included Irish, German, Scots and English
immigrants who worked in the cotton and fabric mills and made combs.
The invention of power looms brought
young women from New Hampshire and Vermont to tend the looms. The town
was incorporated in 1850 and was already a sizeable community with over
3,000 in population and the fourth largest manufacturing center in Worcester
County. Clinton benefited greatly from the ability and ingenuity of the
Bigelow brothers, who invented new kinds of power looms and set up profitable
mills to house them.
Clinton Massachusetts is located
in Central Massachusetts, bordered by Bolton and Berlin on the east, Boylston
on the south, Sterling on the west, and Lancaster on the northwest and
north. Clinton is 13 miles north of Worcester, 16 miles south of Fitchburg,
35 miles west of Boston. |