History of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, USA

The first account of a white person to enter Fitchburg was on February 11, 1676 when Mary Rowlandson, wife of the minister of Lancaster, was kidnapped by American Indians and held one night on Rollstone Hill.

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1730 - Fitchburg is settled

Massachusetts City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates

In 1735, the first resident of Fitchburg was David Page, son of Samuel Page, one of the original founders of Lancaster. His home was located near what is now Pearl and Blossom Streets. Page soon moved to Vermont.

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1764 - Fitchburg is incorporated

Massachusetts City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates

In 1776, Fitchburg sent 176 service to fight in the Revolutionary War. The town’s total population was 800.

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In 1804, Thomas French built Fitchburg’s first paper mill.

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The year 1816 was called "1800 and froze to death."
In June, temperatures dropped to freezing and stayed that way all summer. Crops froze, birds died in the woods, animals died from lack of food, the ground was covered with snow and the 1600 residents of Fitchburg celebrated the 4th of July in overcoats and mittens. The cold was caused by a volcanic eruption.
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The first edition of the Fitchburg Sentinel was published on December 20, 1838.

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1839 - Fitchburgh
Fitchburgh [Fitchburg], Massachusetts
Worcester county. The township was first granted by "the Great and General Court of His Majesty's Province of Massachusetts Bay, Nov. 4, 1719." The township thus granted included the territory of some of the neighboring towns. The town was incorporated in 1764. A large branch of the Nashua and two smaller streams pass through the town, and afford it an extensive and constant water power. Over the Nashua, in the distance of two miles, are eleven dams for the accommodation of manufactories. This a very flourishing town, and exhibits in a striking manner the effect of water power on the increase, wealth, and respectability of many of our interior towns. There are many valuable mill sites at this place still unimproved. In the immediate vicinity of the principal village is an immense quarry of excellent granite. This town lies 47 miles W.N.W from Boston, 24 N. from Worcester, 30 W. by S. from Lowell, and 60 N.E. from Springfield. There are in... Read MORE...

In 1842 Alvah Crocker raised $750,000 to build a railroad that would connect Fitchburg to Boston and also to points west.

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1845 - FITCHBURG. [Pop. 2,604. Inc. 1764.]
Fitchburg, originally a part of Lunenburg, and including a part of Ashby, was probably named after John Fitch, one of its own citizens at the time of its incorporation.

This and the whole of Lunenburg were at first called Turkey Hills, in consequence of the great number of wild turkeys that resorted hither. Dr. Franklin is said to have proposed the wild turkey us the emblem of this country, instead of the eagle.

The soil is good, though hilly. A branch of the Nashua furnishes water-power for the manufacture of cotton and woollen goods, paper, and scythes. The 6th Railroad from Boston is named from this town.

Distance from Worcester, 24 miles; from Boston, 47.
An Elementary Geography for Massachusetts Children by William Bentley Fowle and Asa Fitz, 1845
Get it HERE!

1848 - Fitchburg
This town was originally a part of the town of Lunenburg, and wholly included in the grant made to the proprietors of Turkey Hill. It was incorporated a town in 1764. A part of Fitchburg, to the north, was cut off in the year 1767, to aid in forming the town of Ashby. What the Indian name given to this territory was, is not known; but the first name applied to it by white men was Turkey Hills, so called on account of the great number of wild turkeys which frequented the place for their favorite food of chestnuts and acorns there abounding.

When the order or grant of the general court passed, in 1719, there was but one family residing in the territory of Turkey Hills. The head of this family was Samuel Page, universally designated by the honorable title of "old Governor Page.” When the general court’s committee (as they were styled) first visited the place, in Dec. 1719, in the performance of their duty, they found Governor Page, whose faithful subjects were composed of his wife... Read MORE...

1854 - Fitchburg
Fitchburg, a thriving post-town of Worcester co., Mass., 50 miles N.W. of Boston, is the terminus of three important railroads, has 2 banks and 1 newspaper office, and extensive manufactories. Pop. of the township, 5120.
A New and Complete Gazetteer of the United States: Giving a Full and Comprehensive Review of the Present Condition, Industry, and Resources of the American Confederacy ... Thomas Baldwin (of Philadelphia.) Joseph Thomas January 1, 1854 Philadelphia : Lippincott, Grambo & Company 1854.

1854 - The Destructive Gate - Its Effects at the East.
...In Fitchburg, the large brick engine-house, belonging to the Fitchburg and Worcester Railroad Company, was blown over with a tremendous crash, a portion of the brick work staving through the gas building adjoining, demolishing the gasometer, causing the gas to escape so that it will be impossible to light the place to-night. There were no persons in either building at the time.

A top of one of the railroad bridges on the Boston and Fitchburg Road, was taken by the wind, and carried a la balloon, some distance from the birdge.

A new two-story wooden building, unoccupied, located near the Catholic Church, in Fitchburg, was blown down. Nearly all the houses in the vicinity had to be propped up to keep them from being levelled.

Some of the streets of Fitchburg, this morning, it is said, were almost black with slates, blown from the tops of houses...

The New York Times
New York, New York
March 21, 1854

After his wife complained about the difficulty in using sewing patterns from magazines, Fitchburg business man Ebenezer Butterick created the first sewing patterns for men’s dress shirts in 1863.

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Fitchburg sent 824 men to battle in the Civil War. Of them, 142 were killed.

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The current site of Lincoln Drug on Water Street was once a women’s prison that held women in the Civil War who were charged as spies.

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1872 - Fitchburg is incorporated as a city

Massachusetts City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates

1887 - HORSE CAR ACCIDENT. A PANIC ON A STREET RAILWAY RESULTS FATALLY.
Fitchburg, Mass., July 5. - (Special Telegram to the Bee) -- A terrible accident occurred yesterday afternoon of the Fitchburg horse railroad in which one woman was killed and two more passengers received injuries which will probably prove fatal, while several others were badly hurt. The car left Fitchburg soon after noon for the fair grounds and had ninety people on board on their way to see a ball game. Many persons were hanging to the front and rear platforms and sides of the car. When a short distance out of the city the horses became frightened and the driver lost control of the animals. They ran along at a rapid pace and some one shouted from the rear platform: "Jump for your life." In an instant the passengers, who were crowded together and could not see the horses or the driver, became panic stricken. They rose from their seats, forcing those who were standing in the aisles between the seats and the platforms. These were already full and the sudden rush pushed off several of... Read MORE...

1889 - A Narrow Escape.
George E. Hayward narrowly escaped being crushed by the falling of a gravel roof about 6 p.m., Friday. The wooden ell of the brick building, 337 and 339 Main street, had been removed, except the roof, which had been left to shelter the sheathing of the new brick ell in process of erection. Mr. Hayward, fearing that the roof was not properly secured, was putting shores under the roof, when it (ineligible) and fell with a crash that was heard at a considerable distance. Mr. Hayward was knocked down, but was fortunately standing near a barrel which took the weight took the weight of the roof and probably prevented his being crushed beneath it, but two fingers of his left hand were caught between a rafter and the chine of the barrel, and he was held a close prisoner till liberated by Henry P. Tracey, who came to his assistance. The bones of the fingers were crushed. The gravel roof probably weighed two or three tons.
The Fitchburg Sentinel
Fitchburg, Massachusetts
April 27, 1889

Fitchburg Massachusetts, 1890
FITCHBURG is a flourishing manufacturing city, the semi-capital of Worcester County, situated in its northeasterly section, 50 miles from Boston by the Fitchburg Railroad.

This road, by a northward curve in the town, following nearly the curve of the Nashua River, connects with the four principal villages, Crockerville in the southwest, West Fitchburg, Fitchburg (centre), and South Fitchburg in the southeast. From the central village (which is the city proper) proceeds the Cheshire Railroad through Bellows Falls to Lake Champlain and Montreal. At this village also terminates the northern division of the Old Colony Railroad, which connects it directly with Worcester, Boston and New Bedford.

Ashby lies on the north, Lunenburg on the east, Leominster and Westminster on the south, and. the latter on the west. The assessed area is 16,850 acres; of which 5,134 are woodland. The township is nearly a parallelogram, and is beautifully diversified with numerous hills and valleys, ponds... Read MORE...

1893 - Fire
Fire caught on W. A. Garno's boiler and engine house, probably from the furnace, about 9 p. m., Saturday, and an alarm was rung in from Box 37, to which Hose 4 responded so promptly that the damage was confined to burning off the roof of the engine house, a temporary structure, burning the main belt and a smaller belt and ruining one circular saw. Loss about $50; no insurance.

Chief Engineer Kendall has received a note from William A. Garno, extending thanks to the firemen for their service in saving his property at the fire, Saturday night, and also enclosing a check for $10, which chief Kendall turns over to the Firemen's Relief association.
The Fitchburg Sentinel
Fitchburg, Massachusetts
January 6, 1893

1895 - Fitchburg
Fitch'burg, a city and one of the capitals of Worcester co., Mass., on the Nashua River, 50 miles W.N.W. of Boston, and 26 miles N. of Worcester. It is at the junction of the Fitchburg and Old Colony Railroads. It contains 14 churches, a city hall, 14 paper-mills, a high school, 4 national banks, 2 savings banks, and a public library. It has also manufactures of saws, ginghams, worsteds, bicycles, revolvers, lumber, doors, sash and blinds, cotton and cotton warps, bricks and tiles, rubber stamps, batting and twine, steam-engines, pianos, and paper. About 2000 men are employed here in the manufacture of machinery. Two weekly and 2 daily newspapers are published here, Quarries of granite are extensively worked. Pop. in 1890, 22,037.
Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Places ... Joseph Thomas January 1, 1895 J.B. Lippincott

In 1905, after being frustrated by trying to figure out how much a half teaspoon was, Fitchburg resident Francis Boutelle invented the first half-teaspoon measure, selling 40,000 through mail order.

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In 1907, the entire mounted police of Moscow Russia were equipped with Iver Johnson revolvers made in Fitchburg.

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1912 - WRECK ON BOSTON & MAINE.
Two Killed When Engine and Train Have a Collision.

FITCHBURG, Mass., Nov. 16. - One railroad employe[sic] was killed, another probably fatally injured, and six passengers slightly hurt when passenger train No. 2 from Rotterdam, N. Y., for Boston, over the Fitchburg Division of the Boston & Maine Railroad, ran into a light engine near the station here to-night.

Israel Sarkey, aged 30, an employe[sic] in the Boston & Maine machine shops, who was riding on the light engine, received wounds that caused his death. R. W. Rines, fireman of the light engine, was probably fatally hurt. The injuries of the passengers were confined to cuts and bruises.

After a delay of an hour and forty minutes traffic was resumed.
The New York Times
New York, New York
November 17, 1912

1916
Fitchburg, a city and one of the capitals of Worcester co. Mass., on the Nashua River, 50 miles WNW. of Boston, and on the Boston and Maine and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Rs. It contains numerous paper-mills and has important manufactures of edge-tools, chairs, ginghams, worsteds, cotton and cotton warps, steam-engines, bicycles, and machinery. A state normal school, the Burbank Hospital, and old ladies' and children's homes are located here. Quarries of granite are extensively worked. Pop. in 1890, 22,037 ; in 1900, 31,531.
Lippincotts New Gazetteer: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World, Containing the Most Recent and Authentic Information Respecting the Countries, Cities, Towns, Resorts, Islands, Rivers, Mountains, Seas, Lakes, Etc., in Every Portion of the Globe, Part 1 Angelo Heilprin Louis Heilprin - January 1, 1916 J.B. Lippincott - Publisher

1927 - Flood
...A railroad accident was averted at Fitchburg, Mass., early today when police flagged a Boston and Main train after discovering a washout...
The Oelwein Daily Register
Iowa
November 4, 1927

Here's a list of places to go and things to do in Fitchburg:
Fitchburg Art Museum: Start your visit by exploring the Fitchburg Art Museum. It's home to an impressive collection of American and European art, including paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts. The museum frequently hosts exhibitions featuring contemporary and local artists.

Coggshall Park: This scenic park covers over 200 acres and includes two beautiful, spring-fed ponds. You can go hiking, have a picnic, or enjoy a relaxing day by the water. In the winter, the park is perfect for cross-country skiing and ice skating.

Wachusett Mountain State Reservation: Located just a short drive from Fitchburg, this state park offers hiking and skiing opportunities. Hike to the summit of Wachusett Mountain for stunning panoramic views of the surrounding area. In the winter, the mountain becomes a popular spot for skiing and snowboarding.

Rollstone Boulder: This iconic boulder, located in the heart of Fitchburg, is an interesting geological formation. It's also a significant part of ... Read MORE...