History of Harvard, Massachusetts, USA

Harvard, Massachusetts
Worcester county. This town was taken from Stow, Groton, and Lancaster, in 1732. It is washed on the W. side by Nashua river. It lies 30 miles N.W. from Boston, 20 N.E. from Worcester, and 13 W. from Concord. Here are two large ponds of fine fish, and quarries of slate used for monuments.
About 200 of that industrious sect, called shakers, reside here, and own a considerable tract of land. They live about 3 miles N.E. of the centre of the town and supply the market with a great variety of wares, fruits, seeds, herbs, &c. &c., the product of their mechanical ingenuity and horticultural skill.

There are three paper mills in Harvard, and manufactures of palm-leaf hats, boots, shoes, leather and grave stones: annual value about $40,000. Large quantities of hops have been raised in this place.—Population, 1837, 1,566.

This town was taken from Lancaster, Stow and Groton, and named
in honor of Rev. John Harvard, the noble founder of Harvard College, who died in Charlestown.

Harvard is hilly, but the soil is good, and watered by small streams
that run into the Nashua. Agriculture is the chief employment.

The Shakers have a thriving village in the northeast part of the town.

Distance from Worcester, 22 miles ; from Boston, 30.

This town was taken from Lancaster, Stow, and Groton, principally from the two former. It was incorporated in 1732, and named Harvard, in memory of Rev. John Harvard, founder of Harvard College. At that time it contained about 50 families.

The first church was formed in 1733, and Rev. John Seccomb was ordained. He eoutuiued with the people till 1757, when he was dismissed, and succeeded by Rev. Joseph Wheeler, ordained in 1759. He was dismissed in 1768, and the next year Rev. Daniel Johnson was ordained. He died in 1777, and in 1782 Rev. Ebenezer Grosvenor was installed pastor. In 1788, he died; and Rev. William Emerson succeeded him in the pastoral office, in 1792. Rev. Stephen Bemis, the next pastor, was ordained in 1801 he was succeeded by Rev. Warren Fay, D. D., who was installed in 1814. Dr. Fay was succeeded by Rev. Ira H. T. Blanchard, in 1823, and by Rev. Washing. Ion Gilbert, in 1831. Rev. George Fisher was ordained pastor of the second church in 1821. The Baptist society...

Harvard, a post-township of Worcester co., Mass., on the Worcester and Nashua railroad, 25 miles N. by E. from Worcester. Pop., 1630.

HARVARD, a township in Worcester co., in Massachusetts, U.S., 32 m. NW of Boston, skirted on the W by Nashua river. Pop. 1,571.

Mrs. Mary Woodward, of Harvard, Mass., has been held in $1,000 for trial on a charge of inhumanly treating her step-son, six years of age. It was testified in the Police Court that the child had been whipped by the hour at a time with a heavy stick; that one day in July the woman drew three buckets of cold water from the well, and, seizing the child, removed his clothes, and, placing him in a tub, dashed water upon his head, then took him by the feet and held his head in the water as long as she dared; that recently a cat brought meadow mole in the house, which the mother cooked and compelled the boy to eat it. Mrs. Woodward, in court, said it was not a mole but a rat.