Place:Middleborough, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States

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NameMiddleborough
Alt namesFour Cornerssource: USGS, GNIS Digital Gazetteer (1994) GNIS25006469
Middleborosource: Getty Vocabulary Program
TypeTown
Coordinates41.883°N 70.9°W
Located inPlymouth, Massachusetts, United States
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog
source: Family History Library Catalog


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

Middleborough (frequently written as Middleboro) is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,245 at the 2020 census.

History

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

The town was first settled by Europeans in 1661 as Nemasket, later changed to Middlebury, and officially incorporated as Middleborough in 1669. The name Nemasket came from a Native American settlement along the small river that now bears the same name. Nemasket may have meant "place of fish", due to the large amount of herring that migrate up the river each spring. There are no contemporary records that indicate the name Middlebury was taken from a place in England. The names Middlebury and Middleborough were actually derived from the city of Middelburg, Zeeland, the westernmost province of the Netherlands. Middelburg was an international intellectual center and economic powerhouse. The English religious dissenters known as the Brownists developed their governing institutions in Middelburg before emigrating on the Mayflower, and were the earliest settlers of Middleborough.

During King Philip's War (1675–1676), the town's entire populace took shelter within the confines of a fort constructed along the Nemasket River. The site is located behind the old Memorial High School (now a kindergarten), and is marked by a state historical commission marker along Route 105. Before long, the fort was abandoned and the population withdrew to the greater shelter of the Plymouth Colony. In their absence, the entire village was burned to the ground, and it would be several years before the town would be reestablished.

Western Middleborough broke away on May 13, 1853 and formed the town of Lakeville, taking with it the main access to the large freshwater lakes there, including Assawompset Pond.

Middleborough was once a large producer of shoes and is still home to the Alden Shoe Company, one of the last remaining shoe manufacturers in America. The local Maxim Motors manufactured fire engines from 1914 to 1989. Middleborough has since become the location of the corporate headquarters of Ocean Spray Cranberries.

Notable sights include the 1870s Victorian-style town hall and the Beaux Arts-style town library (1903). In the spring, the Nemasket River alewife and blueback herring run upstream to the Assawompset Ponds complex to spawn.

In 1994 the Middleborough All Stars of Little League Baseball reached the Little League World Series by defeating Milburn-Short Hills, New Jersey, to take the East Region title. The team finished third in the United States. They are one of only two Massachusetts Little League teams to win the East title (the other one being Andover Little League, 1988) before the splitting of the New England and Mid-Atlantic Regions in 2001.

In the summer of 2007, Middleborough became the proposed location for a controversial future resort casino, sponsored by the Wampanoag Tribe of Mashpee, Massachusetts.[1]

Profanity ban controversy

On June 11, 2012, Middleborough made national headlines after residents approved an ordinance outlawing the use of profanity in public, making it punishable by a $20 fine. It passed 183–50 in the town of over 23,000 residents. Many legal experts said the law violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Dozens of residents on both sides of the issue attended a protest in front of the town hall. The Massachusetts state director for the American Civil Liberties Union said, "the Supreme Court has ruled that the government can't prohibit public speech just because it contains profanity." In October 2012, Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley blocked enforcement of the law, saying it was inconsistent with the Constitution, and the town ultimately backed off the profanity ban.

Research Tips

  • Outstanding guide to Middleborough family history and genealogy resources (FamilySearch Research Wiki). Birth, marriage, and death records, town histories, city directories, cemeteries, churches, newspapers, libraries, and historical societies.


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