The history of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, founded in 1727, may be divided into its prehistory, its colonial history and its modern industrial history. Uxbridge is located on the Massachusetts-Rhode Island state line, and became a center of the earliest industrialized region in the United States.
Highlights This community was one place of the earliest beginnings of the American Industrial Revolution. Industrial growth was driven by location, abundant water power, and the Blackstone Canal. Innovators left their mark on America's textile industry. It offers a glimpse of early America- Nipmuc lands, King Phillips War, colonial rule, the Great Awakening, Quakers, and the American Revolution. Uxbridge is the geographic center of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, the earliest industrialized region in the U.S. There are over 375 state or national historic sites here, with an excellent variety of architectural styles. Military uniforms were manufactured here for over 100 years in several large mills. The first U.S. Air Force dress uniform, dubbed "Uxbridge Blue", was made here (see Bernat Mill). In woman's history it claims America's first woman voter, Lydia Chapin Taft.
The town was named after the Earl of Uxbridge, in Uxbridge, England. The Taft family, of England, settled in Mendon (originally called "Mendham"), in 1680, in a section that later became Uxbridge. The Tafts were founders of the town of Uxbridge and Robert Taft, II was on the first Board of Selectmen (town council). The Tafts were said 'locally' to be relatives of the Earl of Uxbridge (though this is not referenced in the appendix of Alfonso Taft's biography). Uxbridge, England derived its name from a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon tribe known as the "Wuxen", (Wuxen Bridge). Early settlers included the Aldriches, the Wheelocks, the Farnums, the Reeds, the Halls, the Willards, the Caprons and the Thayers. The Taft and Aldrich families, began from local immigrant ancestors, and went on to become influential in their new nation. Seth Reed was instrumental in adding "E Pluribus Unum", from many, one, to all U.S. coins. President William Howard Taft's grandfather was an Uxbridge native.
This town played early roles in public education, human rights, women's suffrage, and public health. In the 18th century, the town played early roles in public education as early as 1731, and by establishing 13 district schools in 1797. By the late 20th century, the New York Times recognized Uxbridge, for education reform. Congregational and Quaker traditions emphasized human rights and abolition. Uxbridge was the home of six notable women including: 1) Lydia Chapin Taft, America's first legal colonial woman voter, 2) Deborah Sampson, America's first woman soldier, 3) Abby Kelley Foster, a 19th-century radical social reformer, 4) Alice Bridges, a 1936 Olympic medalist, 5) Jeannine Oppewall, a Hollywood film art Producer, and 6) Jacqueline Liebergott, the first female President of Emerson College in Boston. In 1922, two years after women's suffrage was introduced, the Board of Selectmen defied the Massachusetts's Secretary of State, by appointing the first women jurors in this state. In 1775, the town voted against smallpox vaccination. Footnotes of "unique" public health progress dotted the town's later history. LDS apostle, Ezra Taft Benson grew up here, married, had a child, and ran a local hotel. Effingham Capron not only led the first power looms for woolens in his mills, but was a champion and leader of the local, state and national anti-slavery societies as well as a liberator on the underground railroad.
Photos
History
Pre-colonial era Prehistoric indigenous people inhabited this region of Massachusetts. Arrowheads and artifacts have been found in the areas near the local rivers. A first nation, indigenous people, the Nipmuc, pronounced "Nip-Muck", and translated as "small pond people”, settled at Wacentug ("tribe that fished rich waters") and Shock-a-log ("burned place or dry fox place)". Nipmuck is also translated as "people of the fresh waters". The village of Wacentug was located in the plain between the Nipmuc, or "Kuttacuck river",("at the large (or principal) tidal river"), today known as the Blackstone River, and the West River at "Miscoe, ("the great hill)". The "Kittacuck" river was said to have been plentiful with Salmon and Lamprey in the pre-colonial and colonial time. Wacentug had about 50+ inhabitants by the mid-17th century. The Nipmuc were an Algonquian tribe who had a highly developed agriculture. In this region of small lakes and rivers, they grew corn (maize), beans and squash, (the "three sisters"), had a graphite mine (at Sturbridge), and developed a written language. The tribe moved with the seasons, fishing and farming in the gently rolling hills, woodlands, and streams of what would become the heart of southern New England. Nipmuc villages were typical of their Algonquian heritage. The Nipmuck nation people still live in the southern Worcester County area, especially near Grafton and Webster.
Colonial era Puritan Missionary John Eliot helped start Praying Indian villages such as Wacentug. The Praying Indians were also visited by Rev. Gookin. "Unofficial" European settlement of the area began in the 1640s. In 1659, The Massachusetts General Court granted early pioneers the rights to purchase land in the Nipmuck territory. In 1662, settlers from Braintree and Weymouth signed a deed with the Nipmuc chief "Great John" and bought Native land, "8 miles2(13km)2 W. of Medfield" "for 24 pound Ster". Squinshepauke plantation became Mendon in 1667. Robert Taft 1, reportedly, had first settled here in 1669. The settlement burned in King Philip's War in 1675, and the first Massachusetts colonists were killed.
Here is a quote of the signing of the original deed for the Squinshepauk plantation which became the town of Mendon later in 1667. Signed, sealed and delivered the day and year above written in the presenfe of John Eliot senior John Eliot junior Daniel Weld senior Great John set to his hand & seal and delivered the deed to Moses Payne & Peter Brackett this 8th day of September 1663 as witnesses William Allis, N"athauiel Brackett Anawassanauke Ills ^ Marke and A seale Quashaamiit, liis /C Marke and A seale Namsconont liis Q Marke and A seale Great John :^ his marke and A seale A Seale O and noe hand, source document: Metcalf, Annals of the History of Mendon, 1880.
King Philip’s War took its toll on settlers and the local indigenous people. Native Nipmuc and other indigenous people were taken into slavery in the aftermath. https://www.brown.edu/news/2017-02-15/enslavement
When the war ended, resettlement followed in 1680, and more families moved westward and settled near Wacentug. Farmers cultivated fertile land in the intervals between its three rivers. The patriarch of the famous American Taft family, Robert Taft I, and the Aldriches settled here circa 1680. Settlers became increasingly anxious to have their own separate town, but the process took years.
The town of Uxbridge was finally incorporated in June 1727, and Farnum House held the first town meeting. One of the first official acts at the next annual Town Meeting, was to appropriate fifteen gallons of 'ye good rum for ye raising of ye meeting house'. The colonial town was an agrarian center, with a smattering of grist mills, distilleries, and iron works. The town was named for the Earl of Uxbridge, who was then a member of the "Privy Council" in England.
The first listing of officers of the town is as follows: the town moderator was Eddie Greene, the first listed selectman was Robert Taft, 2nd, followed by Ebeneazer Read, Wooland Thompson, Lieutenant Joseph White and Edmund Rawson. The Constables were Thomas White and William Brown, Jr. "Tything men" were Joshua Whitney and Joseph Taft. Salmon [sic] Wood was the Treasurer. Fence Viewers were John Cook and William Holbrook while "hog-reaves")[keepers of the peace involving swine], were Gershom Keith and Simeon Peck. The incorporated colonial township also included the jurisdiction of what is today the town of Northbridge.
Reverend Nathan Webb's church, the first church in Uxbridge, was the Colony's first new Congregational church in the Great Awakening period. Webb and his church played a prominent role in the colonial history of Uxbridge. Members of Nathan Webb's church would help to make history, including among others, Josiah and Lydia Taft, Captain Bezaleel Taft, Sr., Seth Reed, and Samuel Spring. Uxbridge settlers, like Lieutenant John Read, and Captain Josiah Taft, fought in the French and Indian Wars. Captain Josiah Taft's widow, Lydia Chapin Taft, voted to fund this war in 1756, a first step for women's suffrage, legislated by the Uxbridge Town Meeting. Her estate paid the largest taxes in the town of Uxbridge. The town meeting minutes record her voting again in 1758, and 1765. She lived to see her son, Captain Bezaleel Taft, Sr., fight to defend the new United States in the War for independence. Lydia Chapin Taft died in 1778. Judge Henry Chapin later wrote, in 1864, that by allowing the "widow Taft" to vote, the town followed the principal of "no taxation without representation" and "Uxbridge may one day become famous in the history of women's suffrage. Lyida's historic vote was 164 years before the XIXth Amendment in 1920 which allowed women in America to vote.
The little town's future as an industrial center was secure, with good quality bog iron ore, three or more iron forges, and renewable energy from the Mumford, West, and Blackstone rivers.
Quakers
Smithfield, RI Quakers, including Richard Mowry, came here and built mills, railroads, houses, tools and Conestoga wagon wheels. Southwick's store housed the "Social and Instructive Library". The Uxbridge Friends Meetinghouse, built from bricks made on Mosses Farnum's farm, had nationally prominent abolitionists Abby Kelley Foster, and Effingham Capron as members. The 450 member local anti-slavery society, led by Effingham Capron, had a quarter of the town, as members.
Photos
Shortly before the Revolution, circa 1769, Smithfield, Rhode Island Quaker abolitionists, with ties to Moses Brown, who founded Brown University, settled here. Among them was Richard Mowry, an inventor of significance in the industrial revolution. Local families, such as Moses Farnum, also settled at the Quaker colony in the southern outskirts of Uxbridge, along what is today Massachusetts Route 146A. The "Quaker City" settlement changed the character of the town. The Quakers built mills, railroads, houses, tools and Conestoga wagon wheels. Southwick's store housed Uxbridge's "Social and Instructive Library", established in 1775.
Friends Meetinghouse, built on Moses Farnum's farm, with bricks made from a local brickyard, claimed "fiery abolitionist" Abby Kelley Foster. Kelley Foster became a national figure in the radical wing of the abolitionist movement, leading Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony into the cause. The Second Great Awakening touched Quakers, women's suffrage, human rights, and changed local mortuary practices for the poor. The "Uxbridge monthly meeting" later disowned Kelley because of her "radical views". Historic Quaker homes were Underground Railroad sites at least from the time period of Abby Kelley Foster. Abby Kelley, at Dutchess County New York, would later write to a friend, "our cause is steady onward". Effingham Capron, was a member here and rose to national leadership in the local, state, and national anti-slavery societies.