History of the Town of West Boylston

Established in 1808, West Boylston created from parts of Shrewsbury, Boylston, Lancaster, Sterling and Holden. This land has been part of a previous grant made to the settlers of the region. The 18th century witnessed the arrival of the pioneers attracted to the area by soil fertility and the opportunities for development provided by its location in a place where the river joins Quinapoxet Stillwater River into the south branch of the River Nashua. Apple and ranch rye grown by a gradual change in the latter part of the century agriculture to manufacturing as a growing factory complex along the river mentioned above. A familiar name that dates from a period that includes Jonathan Fairbank, Edward Goodale, Robert B. Thomas, founder and editor of Almanac farmers, and Ezra Beaman, referred to as "the father of West Boylston". Many streets in the city named after these people. Want to take a trip to the Congregational Church in Boylston for church services and town meetings, thirty families, led by Ezra Beaman, built a church three miles west of Boylston public site present in West Boylston. State Legislature was petitioned and police status granted in 1796. Finally, in 1808, the General Court West Boylston incorporated as a city. Ezra Beaman served simultaneously as Selectman, Treasurer and first deputy of the City to the Legislature. West Boylston prospered through the 19th century and by 1890 there were 3,000 residents, five churches, ten schools and many mills and factories including Warfield Saw Mill, LM Harris Cotton Mill, West Boylston Manufacturing Company of Threads & Wire, which Cowee Grist Mill, Mill and Holbrook Mill Clarendon where Erastus Bigelow learn about the loom and find techniques to improve manufacturing carpet. Boots and baskets are also produced here. Availability of water, which attracts the factory here, is responsible for the selection of West Boylston as the best site for a reservoir that is needed to serve the needs of the city of Boston. From 1896 through 1905 West Boylston experience the construction of reservoirs and the destruction of factories and farms, including Agriculture and Beaman Beaman Oak famous, four churches and eight schools as well as acres of fruit trees. Twenty-five homes and cemeteries relocated and over seven hundred residents to evacuate. One decade and $ 11 million later Wachusett Reservoir finished with the impressive Old Stone Church (above) stands as the last remnants of the city that was once in the valley. No longer first factory industrial city. West Boylston has grown in population and renewed vitality into a residential community that is beautifully enhanced by the beauty of the tree-bordered Wachusett Reservoir.