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The
Town of Middleborough Mass is a 70-square mile historic industrial town
on the Nemasket River and was a major native settlement area used for seasonal
fishing, hunting, and berry gathering. The town is one of only a handful
of southeastern Massachusetts communities that retained a sizeable Indian
population throughout the Colonial period.
The first European settler was Sir
Christopher Gardner, a fugitive from English justice who settled among
the Nemasket Indians in 1633. When he was captured and returned to England,
it was several years before a small group of white settlers led by Elizabeth
Poole established themselves within the town. Agriculture, fishing, hunting
and some lumbering were the main occupations of early settlers and as Indian
settlements dwindled, the town's industries grew.
There was a good deal of bog iron
found in Middleborough which stimulated the iron and mill industries. A
large self-contained industrial complex was developed by Judge Peter Oliver,
including a blast furnace, forge, slitting mill, blacksmith, finishing
and hammer shops, grist mill and fuel storage, all of which, along with
a country estate, was confiscated when Oliver fled the Revolution as a
loyalist. Although the iron industry dominated the Federal period, Middleborough
also made shovels, textiles, straw bonnets and woolens. Immigrant populations
of Swedes, Italians, Canadians and Armenians followed the industrial jobs
available. After the Civil War, the town became a rail center, attracting
industrial development, lumbering, box mills, brick making and the well-known
Maxim Motor Company which has been producing fire trucks since 1914.
Town officials have recently approved
six parcels as sites for industrial parks and the town plans to embark
on an aggressive campaign to bring businesses in to offset the major suburban
residential development the town has experienced in recent years. Visitors
to Middleborough now can enjoy the partially restored Oliver Mills Park
on the site of Judge Oliver's industrial complex and follow the spring
herring run which brings thousands of alewives upstream to spawn.
Middleborough Mass is located in
Southeastern Massachusetts, bordered by Bridgewater and Halifax on the
north; Plympton and Carver on the east; Wareham on the southeast; Rochester
on the south; and Lakeville, Taunton, and Raynham on the west. Middleborough
is 35 miles south of Boston. |
