Template:Wp-Brockton, Massachusetts-History

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

Before European colonization, the area was inhabited by Massachusett, Wampanoag, and Pokonoket peoples. In 1649, Ousamequin (Massasoit) sold the surrounding land, then known as Saughtucket, to Myles Standish as an addition to Duxbury. Brockton was part of this area, which the English renamed Bridgewater. On June 15, 1821, a portion of the then Bridgewater Township was established as North Bridgeton. Its name changed in 1874, after a contentious process finally decided on naming it after Isaac Brock (the initial British commanding general at Queenston Heights, where invading American troops suffered a rout, in 1812), after a local merchant heard of Brockville, Ontario, on a trip to Niagara Falls. Brockton became a city on April 9, 1881. During the American Civil War, Brockton was America's largest producer of shoes, and until the latter parts of the 20th century, Brockton had a large shoe and leather products industry.

Since the company's 1898 founding, Brockton has been the headquarters city of office supplies retailer W.B. Mason, itself founded to provide those supplies to the city's shoe industry.

Historical firsts

World firsts

• On October 1, 1883, Brockton became the first place in the world to have a three-wire underground electrical system when Thomas Edison threw a switch to activate it.
• The City Theater opened on October 24, 1894, the first theater in the world to be tied into the three-wire electrical system.

US firsts

• On December 30, 1884, the first electrically operated fire station in the United States opened in Brockton.
• The department store Santa Claus appeared in Brockton in December 1890, when James Edgar, of Edgar's Department Store, suited up for the first time.
• Brockton became the first city in the country to abolish grade crossings in 1896.

World Records

• On November 23, 2010, Brockton set the world record for the most Santa Hat wearers in one place at one time with 872 people participating in the event.
• On November 20, 2011, Brockton doubled the city's Santa Claus hat-wearing record with 1792 people in downtown Brockton wearing Santa hats.