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Freetown, Bristol County, Mass.This county is the most populous in the
Commonwealth, and next to
Suffolk the most wealthy.
It has a grand historic renown: within its limits are ‘
Lexington,
Concord, and
Bunker Hill.’
It is bounded north by
New Hampshire, north-east by the county of
Essex, south-east by
Charles River,
Boston Harbor, and
Norfolk County, and west by the county of
Worcester.
Its rivers are the
Merrimac, Charles, Mystic,
Sudbury,
Concord, and
Nashua.
Nearly every town is now intersected with a railroad.
It contains fifty-four cities and towns.
Since the war the town of
Hudson, formed of parts of
Marlborough and
Stow, and the town of
Everett, formed of a part of Maiden, have been incorporated as separate and distinct towns; the former, March 19, 1866, and the latter, March 9, 1870.
Their war records form a part of that of the towns from which they were set off, and therefore do not appear distinct and separate in this volume.
In ‘old times’ the county seat was
Concord; at the present time the courts of the county are held in
Cambridge and
Lowell.
Middlesex is not only celebrated for its Revolutionary renown, but for containing Cambridge University, and the
Navy Yard at
Charlestown.
Lowell and
Waltham are well known for their cotton manufactures, as are
Marlborough,
Woburn,
Natick, and other towns for the manufacture of shoes.
The aggregate value of the agricultural and manufacturing products of the county in 1870 was $83,102,442. ‘The surface of the county is uneven, and the soil barren.
It presents a great variety for the admiration of the patriot, scholar, farmer, mechanic, and painter.’
The population of
Middlesex County in 1860 was 216,352;
