History of Sterling, Massachusetts, USA

Sterling, Massachusetts
Worcester county. This town was first settled about the year 1721. It was taken from Lancaster in 1781. It lies 40 miles W. from Boston, and 12 N. from Worcester. It is watered by Still river. Its surface is uneven, and its soil light. Population, 1837, 1,650. The manufactures of the town consist of boots, shoes, leather, straw bonnets, palm-leaf hats, scythe snaiths, chairs and cabinet ware: total amount, for the year ending April 1, 1837, $76,528, of which $53,228, was for chairs and cabinet ware.

Sterling was once a part of Lancaster, and called Chockset. Its present name, though misspelled, was given in honor of Lord Stirling, a Major-General in the war of Independence.

Still River, a gentle branch of the Nashua, runs through the town. The soil is good, and the inhabitants turn their attention to agriculture, though they manufacture a considerable amount of cabinet furniture and palm-leaf hats.

Distance from Worcester, 11 miles; from Boston, 40

This was for many years the second parish in Lancaster, and was usually called Chockset. It was made a separate parish in the year 1743, and remained united with Lancaster until April 25, 1781; when it was incorporated by an act of the legislature, and received its present name in compliment to Lord Sterling, of New Jersey, who served as a general in the American army in the revolutionary war.

The first inhabitants established themselves in this town as early as 1720. Gamaliel Beaman was the first inhabitant, and was immediately followed by Samuel Sawyer, Benjamin Haughton, David Osgood, and Jonathan Osgood. They were all natives of Lancaster old parish, and of families who had long resided there. Their houses were all within short distances of each other, lying north westerly of the meeting house. The first meeting house was built in 1742. The church was gathered Dec. 19, 1744, and Rev. John Mellen was ordained their minister the same day. The second meeting house was erected in...

Sterling, a post-village in Worcester co., Massachusetts, on the Fitchburg and Worces ter railroad, near its junction with the Worcester and Nashua railroad, 40 miles W. by N. from Boston, contains 2 or 3 churches. Population of the township, 1805.

The Worcester Gazette has become nauseated by the many recent effusions concerning "Mary's Little Lamb," and disposes of the animal in this way:

"Mary had a little lamb,"
We've heard it o'er and o'er,
Until that little lamb's become
A perfect little bore!

So I propose there shall be dug
A grave both deep and wide,
In which that lamb and all its bards
Be buried side by side.

Sterling is a pleasant manufacturing and farming town of 1,321 inhabitants, lying in the northeastern section of Worcester County, 49 miles northwest of Boston; having for its boundaries Leominster on the north, Lancaster and Clinton on the east, Boylston and West Boylston on the south, and Holden and Princeton on the west. The assessed area is 18,668 acres; including upwards of 5,000 acres of forest, consisting of pine and walnut. It has three postal villages -- Sterling Centre (an uncommonly beautiful place), Sterling Junction, Pratt's Junction, and West Sterling, --all except the last being also railroad stations. The Boston and Maine and Old Colony railroads give it ready communication with Boston, Worcester and Fitchburg.

The formative rock is Merrimack schist and the St. John's group; and in the southerly part of the town specimens of iron pyrites, galena, carbonate of iron, spodumene, chiastolite, blende or sulphuret of zinc, and copper pyrites, are discovered. Justice Hill...