Rehoboth, MA
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Rehoboth
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Description of Rehoboth, Massachusetts
Rehoboth is an historic pastoral community in Bristol County incorporated in 1745. The town never had a large amount of agricultural land because of its extended marshy terrain and hills, but there was always good fishing on the Palmer River and an annual herring run provided abundant food. The first settlement of the town was about 1652 on the southern portion of the river. The colony suffered a good deal of damage in the King Philip war but the earliest house in town, Kingsley House, built 1680, still remains a part of the town. By 1704 there was an iron forge in town and by 1714 the Goff Inn was handling travelers coming through on the stage to Taunton, Providence or Newport, Rhode Island.
Sawmills were established in 1747 and the primarily agricultural economy was supplemented in 1809 by the opening of two cotton yarn mills at Rehoboth Center. One of these is thought to be the first to spin very fine cotton yarn. In the Perryville section of town, historians conjecture that Era Perry was the first in the country to manufacture bobbins for the area's cotton factories about 1850. The 325 farms of the town grew Indian corn and potatoes and fattened beef cattle. Rehoboth retains dozens of Colonial and Federal houses and cottages and there is a remarkably wide spread of historic houses and buildings preserved throughout the community.
It is located in southeastern Massachusetts, bordered by Seekonk on the west, Attleboro and Norton on the north, Taunton and Dighton on the east, and Swansea on the southeast and south. Rehoboth is about 9 miles east of Taunton; 13 miles north of Fall River; 42 miles south of Boston; 10 miles east of Providence, Rhode Island; and 186 miles from New York City.
Narrative compiled by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (
DHCD
).
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