History of Clinton, Massachusetts, USA

Clinton, a flourishing manufacturing post-village of Worcester county, Massachusetts, in a township of its own name, on the Nashua river, which affords good water-power, and on the Worcester and Nashua railroad, 35 miles W. by N. from Boston. The township was set off from Lancaster in 1849. Clinton is remarkable for its rapid growth, and for its extensive and peculiar manufactures, the more important of which consist of Lancaster ginghams, Brussels carpets, coach lace, figured counterpanes, fancy cassimeres, car pet-bags, and machinery. The most prominent among the numerous establishments are the Gingham or Lancaster mills, which are considered to be the most complete of the kind in the United States. The buildings are situated on the banks of the Nashua, in the eastern part of the town, and cover more than four acres of ground. About 800 hands are employed, who keep in operation 21,000 spindles and 600 looms, producing daily up wards of 13,000 yards, or between 4,000,000 and...

It was the first attempt to manufacture the fabric mentioned by machinery, and enabled the American manufacturers to compete successfully with those of England.

Clinton is one of the younger towns, remarkable for its carpetings and woven wire. It is situated in the easterly part of Worcester County, about 35 miles west of Boston. The Fitchburg Branch of the Old Colony Railroad and the Central Massachusetts Railroad have stations at the centre, and the Worcester, Nashua and Portland Branch of the Boston and Maine Railroad has a station at South Clinton. Lancaster bounds it on the northwest and north, Bolton and Berlin on the east, Royalston on the south, and Sterling on the west. The area is but 3,706 acres, besides highways and water surfaces; and of this 1,029 acres is woodland .

The land is much diversified with hills and valleys, but without extremes. The Nashua River pursues a serpentine course northeasterly through the town, affording, with other streams, much hydraulic power. The summer flow is enhanced by the storage afforded by ponds. Sandy Pond of 75 acres, Mossy Pond and Clam-shell Pond, west of the central hills, are beautiful...

Clinton, a post-town of Worcester co, Mass., on the Nashua River, and on the Boston & Maine Railroad where it crosses the Old Colony Railroad, 17 miles N.N.E. of Worcester, 45 miles W. by N. from Boston, and 14 miles $SE of Fitchburg. It contains 7 churches, a national bank, a savings-bank, 2 newspaper offices, and extensive manufactories of ginghams, plaids, Brussels and Wilton carpets, combs, machinery, woollen goods, thread, and wire cloth. The Lancaster Mills of this town employ nearly 1100 hands in the manufacture of ginghams and plaids. Pop in 1890, 10,424.

FOUR MEN KILLED, ONE BADLY HURT.
Dynamite Exploded in Water-Works Aquaduct at Clinton.

Four men were killed and one was fatally injured by an explosion of dynamite in the tunnel of shaft No. 2. Metropolitan water-works aqueduct, at Clinton, Saturday afternoon. The dead are ANDREW KELLY, 35, of Jersey City; JAMES PERRY, colored, 30, of North Carolina; SPENCER BURDEN, colored, 30, of Mississippi; WILLIAM GREEN, colored, 27, of Apple Grove, Va. The injured man is James Foley, 38, of Homestead, Pa. KELLY, PERRY, and GREEN were killed instantly. BURDEN lived four hours. Foley has had a bad fracture of the skull and a deep would in the abdomen.

Shaft No. 2 is on the edge of Clinton and West Berlin, on Clamshell pond. It is 100 feet deep to the bottom of the tunnel. From the shaft the tunnel extends east and west 150 feet through black rock. The accident was in the west shaft. The day shift at 5 p. m. had drilled 22 holes, six feet deep, into the rock and in each hole was placed six...