BOXFORD
HISTORY
Boxford’s distinctive inland landscape features of rich soils and
many water sources were instrumental in shaping the history of the
community as an
important regional farming area and the location of several mills
– saw and grist - and the early factory that became the Diamond
Match Company.
Boxford’s early history of Native American activity is
conjectured from knownpatterns in similar areas; however, there
currently are no documented prehistoric archaeological sites. European
settlement began slightly later than in nearby coastal communities.
Boxford Center was settled ca. 1645 and known as Rowley Village,
however the town of Boxford was not incorporated until 1685. It was
named after the English town from where some of the first settlers
came.
Two meetinghouse centers emerged: one at Boxford Center where the First
Parish was established and one in West Boxford, which was settled after
1670. These were referred to as the East Parish and West Parish
respectively. The first meetinghouse in the East Parish was constructed
in 1701, while the West Boxford meetinghouse was built in 1734.
In 1668, an iron forge was started on Fish Brook by members of the
Leonard family from the Saugus Iron Works. It continued production
until 1681.
Boxford’s economic base remained primarily agricultural
throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th century. By the
1860s there were about 125 farms in Boxford. This number and the number
of acres in production as well as the production levels were maintained
well into the 20th century.
Farmland was used for cultivation of wet meadow and English hay. Dairy,
poultry and wood products accounted for most of the produce taken to
markets in nearby cities such as Haverhill, Lawrence and Salem. For a
brief period from the advent of the railroad in 1854 until after the
Civil War
some minor industrial activity contributed to the economic base,
including small shoe factories, and textile, shoe peg and saw mills.
After the Civil War in 1867 a match factory, first known as Carlton,
Byers & Co., was established on Fish Brook and was the main
manufacturing facility in Boxford in the late 19th century. In about
1885 the business was purchased by the Diamond Match Company and
continued to produce matches into the early 20th century.
Population rose to over 1,500 in the mid-19th century and declined to
just over 600 in the early 20th century. A substantial increase in the
population in the second half of the 20th century – from 926 in
1950 to 7,921 in 2000 - was the result of a new pattern of development.
The construction of Route 95 through the southeastern part of Boxford
in the 1950s led to the shift to a residential community of
single-family dwellings in the rural bucolic setting.
Exerpted from: Massachusetts Heritage Landscape Inventory
Program Boxford Reconnaissance Report