Town of Norton
Established June 12, 1711

Norton was part of the Taunton North Purchase made in 1668. On June 12, 1711, it was established as a separate town named for Norton in Oxfordshire.

The first settlement is believed to have been in 1669 on the Winnicunnet Pond. A stone marker was placed there to commemorate the town's founding. The first frame house, a mansion in Chartley, was erected before 1700. Other buildings followed including the house of the first minister, in 1711 or 1712, and the first church on the common in 1710, this site identified by another stone marker.

Early churches served two Congregational groups and Baptists followed by Wesleyan Methodists, Methodist Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics. A Revere bell was purchased in 1810 for one of the Congregational churches.

Large farms dominated in early Norton. A 1784 report listed 758 cows, 290 oxen, 293 horses, 139 swine, 2922 sheep, 1844 tons of hay, and 1556 barrels of cider.

Early residents were afraid that newcomers would become paupers and therefore charges of the town so they customarily warned strangers out, even people of property. Those who didn't go willingly, man or woman, were carried out by the constable. The last of these warrants was issued in 1794.

Wheaton Female Seminary, now Wheaton College, was founded in 1834 and opened in 1835.

Numerous industries were established starting with an iron forge in Chartley in 1695 which continued operation by the Leonard family until 1800. Others included a saw mill (1710), corn mill (c. 1711), tannery (1740), fulling mill (1783), grist mill (1805), straw bonnets and hats (1808), cotton mill (1810), bleachery (1811), cutting mill (1811), copper rolling mill (1825) to which was added a zinc mill (1838), a factory making doors, window frames and sashes (1833), and jewelry (1871). In 1837 a company started making cents, preparing them for coining by the U.S. government. About 60 tons a year were shipped. Ultimately textile mills, copper mills, and iron works gave way to the lighter jewelry industry.

Norton's unique industry was the manufacture of friction matches starting in 1858. Later this business was sold to the Diamond Match Co.

www.nortonma.org


Historical Sites

Norton Historical Museum in Old Schoolhouse Three
Pitt Clark House(1797), 42 Mansfield Ave. - on National Register of Historic Places.
Wheaton College (1834), Rt. 123 at junction of Rt. 138.
Devil's Footprints - Depressions in rock resembling huge footprints. Legend has it that the "footprints" were left when the devil made a leaping escape "claiming the soul" of a leading 18th-Century citizen. Located on Rose Farm property at the junction of West Main and North Worcester Streets.