History of Worcester

Welcome to Did You Know a video series about Massachusetts where we take a look at interesting tidbits of state history. Each video will cover a different part of Massachusetts history and culture. Today, our topic is the history of Worcester, Massachusetts. Did you know that Worcester was settled three times in its early history? Let's find out more. In 2022, Worcester will celebrate the 300th anniversary of its founding as a town in 1722.

126 years before it became a city in 1848. It is the second largest city in Massachusetts, and it has a long and intriguing history.

Worcester was first founded in 1673 by Daniel Kotkin and Daniel Henchman. Thomas Prentiss and a few other English landholders, and was originally named Quinn Sigmund. After the large lake in the middle of the settlement, the settlement was abandoned at the start of King Philip's War. Two years later, as the local Nipmuc tribe, which had a settlement on top of nearby pockets Oak Hill, Edward King Philip, also known as, made a comment in his raids against English settlers in New England.

During the fighting, the settlement was burnt to the ground and was abandoned for the next ten years. The second settlement of the area was established after the end of the war in 1685 and it was named Worcester for the first time. The origin of this name is unclear, but it may come from the city of Worcester, England, where the Battle of Worcester, the last battle of the English Civil War, was fought in 1651.

This settlement was abandoned in 1701 as Queen Anne's War led to more conflict between native tribes and English settlers. And the area was not permanently settled until 1713. Becoming an official town nine years later. In 1720 ten. In 1731, Worcester was made the county seat and regional courts in an armory were established there in the next few decades.

In 1765, the Stamp Act was passed in Massachusetts and Worcester colonists protested it, passing an ordinance to avoid buying taxed goods. However, Worcester local government was run mostly by loyalists who limited local rebellion against the British Crown to the extent it occurred in Boston. In March 1773, the town meeting considered a petition that called for resistance against the British oppression of Bostonians and discussed the Boston pamphlet of 1772 that criticized violations of the rights of Boston citizens and called for all towns and cities in Massachusetts to rebel against the royal government.

Then May, Worcester officials formed a committee of correspondence to collaborate with Boston colonists against British injustices. And on December 27, 1773, local colonies formed the American Political Society to discuss methods to protest British taxes and restrictions. After the Boston Tea Party, the British Royal Government imposed harsh penalties upon Massachusetts Bay Colony, including the infamous Massachusetts government act that revoked the colonies charter that dated back to 1691.

Colonists across Massachusetts were outraged and immediately started organizing militias and planning to shut down county courts that would enforce the new law after it went into effect on August 1st, 1774. Colonists in Berkshire County occupied their courthouse on August 16th and refused to let royal judges conduct business. And on August 30th, colonists shut the Springfield Courthouse and forced the judges to renounce their positions.

The next court scheduled to open was in Worcester, and colonists demanded that Chief Justice Peter Oliver, who was paid by the Royal Government, resign his position. Massachusetts Royal Governor Thomas Gage considered sending troops to Worcester to keep the government running, but decided against it after the power of alarm. A September 1st expedition to seize gunpowder in Somerville led thousands of colonists to gather and force the resignation of several prominent Royal officials from local government.

On September six, 1774, 4622 men from local militias across Worcester County seized the county courthouse and surrounded the nearby streets in an effort to keep the courts from conducting business. When the judges arrived, they were unable to enter the courthouse and were forced to publicly swear oaths revoking their royal appointments. This bloodless revolt occurred seven months before the start of the Revolutionary War and was a major blow against the British colonial government of Massachusetts.

In the months leading up to the start of the war, local colonists formed an oath of non importation of British goods and prepared local arsenals and militias for conflict. Leicester was also the first town to create Minutemen companies by signing one third of its militia into minute companies who couldn't move out at a moment's notice. Worcester Minutemen participated in many battles of the Revolutionary War and were part of the large contingent of Massachusetts troops in the Continental Army.

On July 14, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was first read in Worcester, and a few days later, a public celebration was held with the raising of the American flag and burning the British SEALs above the courthouse in the Kings Arms Tavern. The celebrations continued with the drinking of 24 toasts in the tavern. But according to the Massachusetts spy newspaper, the greatest decency and good order was observed.

After the Revolutionary War, many Massachusetts veterans and merchants found themselves in debt with their creditors demanding payment in gold or silver instead of devalued state paper money. On September 5th, 1786, Worcester became involved in Shays Rebellion, a revolt by indebted veterans against the State government. When men led by Daniel Shays, supported a captain, Adam Wheeler occupied the courthouse in a move similar to the Worcester rebellion 14 years earlier.

Shays Rebellion was the tipping point of conflict as a result of postwar economic inequality between Eastern and western Massachusetts. Worcester served as a staging ground for the merchant funded militia organized to put down Shays men until the end of the rebellion in February 1787. In the early 1800s, Worcester became a prominent manufacturing city as the industrial Revolution spread from England to the United States with textile and industrial manufacturers.

Building factories. Transportation. Worcester improved after the first stagecoach line was established in 1783, running through Worcester on a route from Boston to Hartford, Connecticut. Additional travel routes were created with the opening of the Blackstone Canal in 1828 and the Worcester in Boston Railroad in 1835, increasing the size of the city and bringing in immigrants from Eastern Europe to work in Worcester's new industries.

These new transportation moves connected Worcester to the port cities of Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, allowing it to grow as a market for trade and manufacturing with the canal and railroads, shipping raw materials to local mills and factories, and transporting finished products to market. On February 29th, 1848, Worcester was incorporated as a city and it became known as the heart of the Commonwealth due to its location in the center of the state.

Worcester was also home to many different reform movements and hosted anti-slavery, temperance and women's rights meetings and protests. Leading abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson to call Worcester the seething center of all the reforms. The abolitionist movement was highly influential in the city and the police Royal Party was founded there in 1848 to oppose slavery. On October 31st, 1854, the Butman White occurred when local citizens attacked known slave catcher Aissa Butman and chased him out of town in protest for sending escaped slave Anthony Burns back into captivity earlier that year.

This riot marked the last time the controversial Fugitive Slave Act, which let federal officials capture escaped slaves in the north and sell them back into slavery, was enforced in Massachusetts. The suffrage movement was also established in Worcester when the first National Women's Rights Convention, a two day conference calling for increased rights for women, met. And when Lee Hall on October 22nd, 1850.

Prominent suffragists and abolitionists, including Susan B, Anthony, Lucy Stone, Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, attended the conflicts, along with hundreds of delegates from many U.S. states. The convention was met with fierce criticism from many local and national newspapers who derided the idea that women could hold equal rights with men as dangerous and destructive to society. Though these negative depictions of the conference helped spread the word about the movement and attract others to join it, Worcester is also known for its contributions to space exploration, pioneering rocket scientist Robert Goddard was born and educated in Worcester and set off his first rocket in nearby Auburn on March 16th, 1926.

Several local manufacturing companies provided parts for the early space shuttles and spacesuits astronauts used on missions. And some of these, including the David Clark Company, continued to produce materials and supplies for space missions today. Several important inventions were created in Worcester, including the monkey wrench in 1848. The typewriter in 1843. American Valentine's Day cards in 1847. And the iconic smiley face symbol in 1963.

Although the cities industrial manufacturing declined in the mid-20th century, it has since become a center for research in biotechnology. With the support of the many universities and colleges in the area, including Clark University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Assumption University and the College of the Holy Cross. On June 9th, 1953, Worcester was hit by a tornado that tore through £6, killing 94 people and causing $52 million in damage.

This tragedy caused the Storm Prediction Center of the National Weather Service to reorganize and implement a nationwide radar system to inform people of dangerous weather. Today, Worcester continues to evolve and create new spaces in the city, including a minor league baseball stadium. Polar Park, which will hold Worcester Red Sox games after it opens in May 2021. Throughout its history, Worcester has remained an important center of commerce and learning in the heart of Massachusetts.

Thanks for joining me to learn about the history of Worcester. If you'd like to know more, check out these resources. Thank you for watching.