Place:Acton, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States

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Acton is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States about twenty-one miles west-northwest of Boston along Route 2 west of Concord and about eleven miles southwest of Lowell. The population was 20,331 at the 2000 census. It is bordered by Westford and Littleton to the north, Concord and Carlisle to the east, Stow and Maynard to the south, and Boxborough to the west.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Main article: History of Acton, Massachusetts

Acton's history reflects the history of Massachusetts, New England, and the United States.

Acton was first settled by Native Americans who used the Assabet, Sudbury and Concord rivers for transportation and the fields for farming seasonal crops. There is evidence of Native American settlements in Acton which go back 7000 years. When the colonists arrived in this area, the Native American population dropped dramatically due to European diseases for which they had no immunity.

Colonization Era through Revolutionary Era

Concord was the first colonial town that was settled in this area. Concord residents used the land which is now Acton as grazing fields for their animals. The first colonial residents moved to Acton in 1639.

Acton was established as an independent town in 1735. Acton has held annual town meetings since 1735, the records of which are held at Acton's Memorial Library. [1]

Acton residents participated in the growing hostility with Great Britain by sending a list of grievances to King George III on Oct. 3rd, 1774. The anniversary of this day is celebrated in Acton as Crown Resistance Day. [2]

At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, on April 19, 1775, a company of minutemen from Acton responded to the call to arms initiated by Paul Revere (who rode with other riders, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, with Prescott the only one of the three who was able reach Acton itself) and fought at the North Bridge in Concord as part of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. The Acton minutemen were led by Captain Isaac Davis. When a company was needed to lead the advance on the bridge which was defended by the British regulars, Captain Davis was heard to reply, "I haven't a man who is afraid to go."

The colonists advanced on the bridge; in the exchange of musket fire that followed, Captain Isaac Davis and Private James Hayward were killed and Abner Hosmer, also of Acton, was mortally wounded. Davis was the first officer to die in the American Revolutionary War. In Acton they refer to "the battle of Lexington, fought in Concord, by men of Acton."

Each year on Patriot's Day (the 3rd Monday in April), the Acton Minutemen [3] lead a march from Acton Center to the Old North Bridge in Concord. This route is known as 'The Isaac Davis Trail' and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1957, Acton's Troop 1 [4] of the Boy Scouts of America have organized an annual march along the Isaac Davis line of march, and since 1976 the "Scouters of the Isaac Davis Trail" have organized the annual Isaac Davis Camporee [5].

Industrialization and Civil War

During the 19th century, Acton participated in the growing Industrial Revolution. By the mid-1800s, Acton was an industrial center for the production of barrels (cooperage). There were also three gristmills and four sawmills in town.

In 1843, the railroad came to Acton. The Fitchburg Railroad was routed through South and West Acton so that it could serve the mills. South Acton became a busy rail center and was the division point for the Marlborough Branch Railroad which ran through the towns of Maynard, Sudbury and Hudson. With the railroad came increasing development in those areas. In addition to the Fitchburg Railroad, two others crossed the town: the Nashua and Acton, and the Framingham and Lowell. These two railroads shared a double track right-of-way that ran from West Concord (aka Concord Junction) through East Acton and then splitting in North Acton in the vicinity of Route 27 and Ledgerock Way. The Nashua and Acton, which took a circuitous route through Westford and Dunstable to reach Nashua, New Hampshire, was absorbed into the Boston and Maine Railroad system and abandoned in the mid 1920s. The Framingham & Lowell was part of the Northern Old Colony division of the New Haven Railroad. The last trains ran on the line in the early 1990s carrying lumber to North Acton.

In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. In response, Acton Town Meeting passed a set of resolutions condemning the Act. The governor of Massachusetts, John Albion Andrew, in 1861 urged all towns to prepare their militia units for the threatening war. On April 12th, 1861 the American Civil War began.

"On April 15, President Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteers. By 7:30 the next morning, Captain Tuttle with his entire command of 52 men reported to Lowell, fully equipped and ready for duty. Company E of Acton of the 6th Massachusetts Regiment was to be the first company of the first regiment of the Union Army to arrive in Washington in response to the President's call."

In 1874, the population of the town was almost 1700. The town established its first newspaper, The Acton Patriot, and the residents of West Acton formed the first library, The Citizen's Library. In 1890, the Memorial Library was completed and given to the town by William A. Wilde as a memorial to the Acton soldiers who fought in the Civil War.

Twentieth Century

The twentieth century brought great changes to Acton. The population rose dramatically from approximately 2000 residents at the beginning of the century to 20,000 residents at the end. At the beginning of the century, the town consisted of five village centers and basic town services. By the end, the village centers were less noticeable, and the town services were more substantial.

W. R. Grace Superfund Site

In the early 1950s, W. R. Grace and Company established a manufacturing facility in South Acton to produce concrete additives, organic chemicals and other industrial materials. W. R. Grace disposed of industrial waste from this facility in unlined impoundments (lagoons) through 1980.

In 1978 vinylidene chloride and other industrial contaminants were detected in two of the town wells, Assabet 1 and Assabet 2, which were closed. In 1983 the Acton W. R. Grace site was placed on the list of EPA Superfund sites as a National Priority for cleanup.

In August, 2006, W. R. Grace and the EPA reached agreement on a scope-of-work pact that describes the work necessary to clean up the site.

Economics

At the turn of the twentieth century, the mills built along the Assabet River, Nashoba Brook and other tributaries were in decline. The primary business in town was agriculture.

The growth of the automobile and the roads to serve it changed Acton considerably. The importance of the railroads decreased as automobiles and truck traffic grew in importance. Route 128 was completed in 1927 and caused an industrial boom. During the latter half of the century, the road network made Acton accessible as a bedroom community which provided workers for other more industrial towns nearby. Acton's farmland turned into housing developments. The first large subdivision was Indian Village in West Acton in 1955.

Current commercial property in town comprises a lumber mill, an automotive fabric manufacuturer, the Nagog Office park, and retail properties located along routes 2A, 27 and 111.

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