CHELMSFORD TOWN OVERVIEW
The Town of Chelmsford is a suburban industrial town located in the
Merrimack Valley. The community had a slow start since much of its present
area was contained in a so-called Praying Town, established as a preserve
for Christianized Indians in 1653. But fresh water fishing, access to
abundant fish runs in Merrimack and Concord, and good agricultural lands
along its rivers attracted residents and there was rapid growth in the
community after the eighteenth century annexation of the Indian lands.
(The native inhabitants of the Praying Town had been deported during King
Philip's War and few returned.)
Chelmsford was a community of agriculture and grazing, with dairying and
orchards as specialties. There was some lumbering, and a series of small
operations such as grist mills, lime quarries, and brick yards. In the
19th century, machine shops, match makers and a granite quarry which
supplied the material for Quincy Market, operated in Chelmsford. The
foreign-born population of the town was mostly from Ireland.
