MIDDLEBOROUGH

A short history of Middleborough

The town was first settled by Europeans in 1661 as Nemasket, later changed to Middlebury, and officially incorporated as Middleborough in 1669. From time to time, documents and publications spell the name as Middleboro. The name Nemasket or Namasket 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, Middleboro 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 the summer of 2007, Middleborough became the proposed location for a controversial future resort casino, sponsored by the Wampanoag Tribe of Mashpee, Massachusetts.

Teams from Middleborough have twice reached the Little League World Series (LLWS) the only Little League in the state to reach twice in the International Era (1958+). Middleborough reached the 1994 edition by defeating Milburn-Short Hills, New Jersey, to take the East Region title. In South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the team lost two games (to Virginia and California) and won one game (over Minnesota). They were one of only two Massachusetts Little League teams to win the East title (the other being from Andover in 1988) before it was split into the New England Region and Mid-Atlantic Region in 2001. Middleborough advanced to the 2022 edition of the LLWS with a 10–1 win over Maine. They were the first Massachusetts team to reach South Williamsport since Peabody in 2009. Middleboro lost each of its two games falling 5–3 to Southeast (Tennessee) and 7–5 to Mid-Atlantic (Pennsylvania).

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Middleborough, Massachusetts, revision 1379018799 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.