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Archiver > GenMassachusetts > 2002-06 > 1025463311


From: Dave and Emma Richardson - <>
Subject: Re: [GM-L] Rutland, Worcester, MA - from which county?
Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2002 14:55:11 -0400
References: <50.d9e707e.2a4f9066@aol.com>


Rutland

The Town of Rutland is a residential hill town which is the geographic
center of the Commonwealth, and also the highest town between the
Berkshires and the Atlantic. The town common is 1,200 feet above sea
level. Rutland's original lands of about 12 square miles were purchased
from natives in Natick's Indian Praying Town in 1686. Frontier hostilities
delayed settlement and the land wasn't finally cut up until 1714 when 62
lots of 30 acres each were finally distributed. Settlers in Rutland came
from older eastern towns, like Boston, Lexington, Concord and Sudbury.
First settled in 1719, the town suffered repeated Indian attacks with the
last death from Indian warfare recorded in 1724. There were about 1,000
people in town in 1765 when a disastrous epidemic of dysentery killed 60
children of the town.
The early economy included agriculture and grazing. The first gristmill
was built on Mill Brook in 1719 and the town was the one of the earliest in
the county to establish a subscription library, before 1796. Three small
villages grew up around the water powered mills of the town by 1830 and
there was small-scale production of chairs, carriages, and woodenware. A
tannery was opened in the 1840's to supply local boot and shoe makers and
palm leaf hats were produced in quantity. The town's fresh air and still
rural environment drew increasing numbers of visitors and Rutland became a
minor recreational and health resort in the 1880's. In 1883 Muschapogue
House hotel was built. This development was followed by the building in
1898 of the Massachusetts Hospital for Consumptive and Tubercular Patients,
a state prison camp and hospital as well as the opening of a handful of
small private TB sanitoria. The town began catering to summer visitors
with market garden produce and Finnish immigrants came to town from
Worcester to farm. The state facilities and seasonal visitors provided a
ready market for town produce. In 1923 a veterans' hospital was erected.
When the Quabbin Reservoir was created, many of Rutland's industrial
buildings were razed, but the jobs created by state facilities took up much
of the loss. A three-mile long tunnel underneath Rutland was dug to carry
water from Colbrook Springs in Oakham to West Boylston and Wachusetts
Reservoir.


more towms see
http://www.state.ma.us/dhcd/iprofile/

found at
http://www.genealogyforum.rootsweb.com/gfaol/resource/

Rutland Historical Society
232 Main Street
Rutland, MA 01541
(508) 886-4893


Dave
******************************
wrote:

> I have several ancestors from Rutland, Worcester, MA, and have not found what
> I need to know on the web site for Rutland/Worcester. Hope someone can help
> me with the following: from a very old Handy Book, I see that Rutland was
> formed/organized 1714; but Worcester County not formed until 1731 from
> Suffolk and Middlesex counties - I usually like to show the original county
> in my database, and in parentheses show the current county, but I do not
> know which county that part of Worcester came from where Rutland is located.
> Does anyone know? Right now I am showing: Rutland, Suffolk/Middlesex
> [Worcester], MA
>
> Olive
> California
>
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--

See my surname list at:
http://www.mindspring.com/~dcrichardson/surnames.htm

The Richardson Memorial CD-Rom at
http://www.mindspring.com/~dcrichardson/cd.htm

Home page:
http://www.mindspring.com/~dcrichardson/

Most useful web sites:
http://www.mindspring.com/~dcrichardson/useful_sites.htm

David C. and Emma J. Richardson
130 Gingercake Ct.
Fayetteville GA 30214-7600

Emma's E-mail



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