History of West Boylston, Massachusetts, USA

West Boylston, Massachusetts
Worcester county. This territory was a part of Boylston until 1808, and was first settled about the year 1720. It is 42 miles W. from Boston and 8 N. from Worcester. Population, in 1830, 1,053; 1837, 1,330. The surface of the town is very pleasant; the soil good, and well cultivated. The Quinepoxet and Stillwater rivers meet the Nashua in this town. These streams fertilize a large portion of the town, and afford a water power to propel a number of mills.

There are in the town 7 cotton mills, and manufactures of boots, shoes, leather, palm-leaf hats, cotton machinery, baskets, boxes, straw braid, hatchets and school apparatus; annual value about $200,000.

The venerable Robert B. Thomas, author of the Farmer's Almanac, is a resident of this town. There are some mineral treasures in West Boylston, and a spring, the waters of which are strongly impregnated with iron.

West Boylston, once a part of Boylston, Holden, and Sterling-, was named in honor of the family of Boylston.

The soil is excellent, and the town agricultural.

Two sources of the southern branch of the Nashua meet in West Boylston, fertilize the soil, and afford sites for several cotton-mills.

Distance from Worcester, 7 miles; from Boston, 42.

This town was settled as early as 1720, by several families from Marlborough, being then included in the grant of land called Shrewsbury. Among the first settlers were Benjamin Hinds, Isaac Temple, Edward Goodale, William Whitney, John Bixby, and William Holt. The town was incorporated in 1808.

In 1796, the present town was incorporated a separate parish. In the same year a Congregational church was gathered, consisting of 32 members. Rev. William Nash, the first minister, was ordained on the 11th of Oct., 1797. His successor. Rev. John Boardman, was ordained in 1821; the next minister was installed in 1834. Rev. Philemon Russell, pastor of the Unitarian society, was ordained in 1834. In 1813, a society of Baptists was formed in the town. In 1818, they built a meeting house. The next year the church was organized, of about 50 members, who had been dismissed from the church in Holden. In 1821, they had constant preaching by Rev. Nicholas Branch. The first settlers of the town built...

West Boylston, a post-township in Worcester co., Massachusetts, 40 miles W. by N. from Boston, intersected by the Fitchburg and Worcester railroad. Population, 1749.

Worcester, Mass., June 11. - A sweeping tornado passed through the towns of Paxton, Holden and West Boyleston this afternoon at 4 1/ 2 o'clock, demolishing every building in its track and tearing up trees by the roots. The first account of it received here was of its appearance in the town of Paxton, where it demolished the barn of L. N. PARKHURST, and blew off one gable of his house. From there it went in a north-easterly direction and blew down the buildings of MR. BIGELOW, on the old town farm. From thence it went through the woods, sweeping all before it, and striking the house and barn of LEWIS MARTIN, in Holden, entirely demolishing both. The village of Holden was next in its destructive march, and here five barns, three houses and one carpenter shop were blown down. Three persons were injured, one, CHARLES BURRETT, seriously. A strip of heavy stone wall, some twenty rods long, was completely blown over, and large trees were blown thirty rods with upward of a ton of earth upon...

West Boylston, noted for its beautiful scenery, lies near the middle of the easterly section of Worcester County. The West Boylston station on the Massachusetts Central Railroad is 40 miles west of Boston. Another station of this road is at Oakdale, a busy manufacturing village in the northern part of the town; where it forms a junction with the Worcester and Nashua Railroad, which has a station at West Boylston (centre). Both are adjuncts of the Boston and Maine Railroad. The post-offices are West Boylston and Oakdale. Central Village, Depot Village, Harrisville, Lower Factory, Old Common, and Valley Village are names of other settlements.

The town is bounded on the north by Sterling, on the east by Boylston, on the south by Shrewsbury and Worcester, and on the west by Holden The assessed area is 8,826 acres; of which 1,397 acres are devoted to the growth of pine, chestnut, oak and birch. Rock maple, elm, buttonwood and oak line many of the streets in and near the villages. Some...