Interior House Painter Uxbridge MA

Uxbridge
Town
Congregational Church and Civil War Memorial
Flag Seal
Nickname:  “Cradle of the Industrial Revolution” “Heart of The Blackstone Valley” “A Crossroads Village”
Motto:  “Weaving a Tapestry of Early America” “President George Washington really did sleep here”
Location in Worcester County and the state of Massachusetts.
Coordinates: 42°04′38″N 71°37′48″W / 42.07722°N 71.63000°W / 42.07722; -71.63000Coordinates: 42°04′38″N 71°37′48″W / 42.07722°N 71.63000°W / 42.07722; -71.63000
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
County	Worcester
Colonized	1662
Incorporated	1727
Government
• Type	Open town meeting
• Chair, Board of Selectmen	Brian Butler
• Vice Chair-Clerk, Board of Selectmen	Jeff Shaw
• Selectmen	Stephen Mandile, John Wise, Peter Demers
Area
• Total	30.4 sq mi (78.7 km)
• Land	29.5 sq mi (76.5 km2)
• Water	0.8 sq mi (2.1 km)
Elevation	270 ft (82 m)
Population  (2020)
• Total	14,162
• Density	480.1/sq mi (185.1/km2)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (Eastern)
ZIP code	01569
Area code	508 / 774
FIPS code	25-71620
GNIS feature ID	0618387
Website	http://www.uxbridge-ma.gov/

Uxbridge is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts first colonized in 1662 and incorporated in 1727. It was originally part of the town of Mendon, and named for the Earl of Uxbridge. The town is located 36 mi (58 km) southwest of Boston and 15 mi (24 km) south-southeast of Worcester, at the midpoint of the Blackstone Valley National Historic Park. The historical society notes that Uxbridge is the “Heart of The Blackstone Valley” and is also known as “the Cradle of the Industrial Revolution”. Uxbridge was a prominent Textile center in the American Industrial Revolution. Two Quakers served as national leaders in the American anti-slavery movement. Uxbridge “weaves a tapestry of early America”.

Indigenous Nipmuc people near “Wacentug” or “Waentug” (river bend), deeded land to 17th-century settlers. New England towns are beginning to acknowledge their indigenous lands. Uxbridge reportedly granted rights to America’s first colonial woman voter, Lydia Taft, and approved Massachusetts first women jurors. The first hospital for mental illness in America was reportedly established here. Deborah Sampson posed as an Uxbridge soldier, and fought in the American Revolution. A 140-year legacy of manufacturing military uniforms and clothing began with 1820 power looms. Uxbridge became famous for woolen cashmeres. “Uxbridge Blue”, was the first US Air Force Dress Uniform. BJ’s Wholesale Club distribution warehouse is a major employer today.

Uxbridge had a population of 14,162 at the 2020 United States Census.

History

Colonial era, Revolution, Quakers, and abolition

John Eliot started Nipmuc Praying Indian villages. Several praying Indian towns included Waentug (or Wacentug) and “Rice City” (later settled as Mendon.) “Great John”, sold Squimshepauk plantation to settlers in September of 1663, “for 24 pound Ster”. Mendon began in 1667, and burned in King Phillips War. Western Mendon became Uxbridge in 1727, and Farnum House held the first town meeting. John Adams’ uncle, Nathan Webb, was the first called minister of the colony’s first new Congregational church in the Great Awakening. The American Taft family origins are intertwined with Uxbridge and Mendon. Lydia Taft reportedly voted in the 1756 town meeting, considered as a first for colonial women.

Seth and Joseph Read and Simeon Wheelock joined Committees of Correspondence. Baxter Hall was a Minuteman drummer. Seth Read fought at Bunker Hill. Washington stopped at Reed’s tavern, en route to command the Continental Army. Samuel Spring was one of the first chaplains of the American Revolution. Deborah Sampson enlisted as “Robert Shurtlieff of Uxbridge”. Shays’ Rebellion also began here, and Governor John Hancock quelled Uxbridge riots. Simeon Wheelock died protecting the Springfield Armory. Seth Reed was instrumental in adding “E pluribus unum” to U.S. coins. Washington slept here on his Inaugural tour while traveling the Middle Post Road.

Quakers including Richard Mowry migrated here from Smithfield, Rhode Island, and built mills, railroads, houses, tools and Conestoga wagon wheels. Southwick’s store housed the Social and Instructive Library. Friends Meetinghouse, next to Moses Farnum’s farm, had prominent abolitionists Abby Kelley Foster and Effingham Capron as members. Capron led the 450 member local anti-slavery society. Brister Pierce, formerly a slave in Uxbridge, was a signer of an 1835 petition to Congress demanding abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Local influences from the First and Second Great Awakenings can be seen with the early Congregational and Quaker traditions.

Early transportation, education, public health and safety

The Tafts built the Middle Post Road’s Blackstone River bridge in 1709. “Teamsters” drove horse “team” freight wagons on the Worcester-Providence stage route. The Blackstone Canal brought horse-drawn barges to Providence through Uxbridge for overnight stops. The “crossroads village” was a junction on the Underground Railroad. The P&W Railroad ended canal traffic in 1848.

A 1732 vote “set up a school for ye town of Uxbridge”. A grammar school was followed by 13 one-room district school houses, built for $2000 in 1797. Uxbridge Academy (1818) became a prestigious New England prep school.

Uxbridge voted against the smallpox vaccine. Samuel Willard treated smallpox victims, was a forerunner of modern psychiatry, and ran the first hospital for mental illness in America. Vital records recorded many infant deaths, the smallpox death of Selectman Joseph Richardson, “Quincy”, “dysentary”, and tuberculosis deaths. Leonard White recorded a malaria outbreak here in 1896 that led to firsts in the control of malaria as a mosquito-borne infection. Uxbridge led Massachusetts in robberies for a quarter of the year in 1922, and the town voted to hire its first nighttime police patrolman.

Industrial era: 19th century to late 20th century