Editing Bolton, Massachusetts (section)

==History==
[[File:Bolton Public Library.jpg|alt=Bolton Public Library|left|thumb|[[Bolton Public Library]], built in 1904 in a [[Tudor Revival]] style]]
Prior to its incorporation, the area was settled by English farmers in the 1600s near where the [[Nashaway]] tribe fished and farmed along the Nashua River.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Contact and Plantation Periods (1500-1675) {{!}} Bolton MA |url=https://www.townofbolton.com/about-bolton/pages/contact-and-plantation-periods-1500-1675#:~:text=The%20territory%20now%20encompassed%20by,camps%20within%20Bolton's%20present%20borders |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=www.townofbolton.com}}</ref> In 1643 Thomas King of Watertown had purchased the land from the sachem [[Sholan]] of the Nashaway as the southeastern corner of the Nashaway (Lancaster) purchase.<ref>''Community-Wide Archaeological Reconnaissance Survey of Bolton, Massachusetts'' for Bolton Historical Commission citing Whitney, P. 1793  ''The History of the County of Worcester.'' Isaiah Thomas, Worcester.  https://www.townofbolton.com/sites/g/files/vyhlif2836/f/uploads/arsabridged.pdf (accessed 3/27/2024)</ref>
The land in what is now Bolton was formerly part of the town of [[Lancaster, Massachusetts|Lancaster]] until Bolton [[secession|seceded]] along the [[Still River (Nashua River)|Still River]], where the current boundary line still stands.<ref name="About Bolton">{{cite book|last= Whitcomb|first= Esther Kimmon|author-link= Esther Kimmon Whitcomb|title= About Bolton|year= 1988|publisher= Heritage Books, Inc.|location= Bowie, MD|isbn= 1-55613-105-4|url= https://archive.org/details/aboutbolton00whit}}</ref> The town of Bolton was incorporated on June 24, 1738, following an influx of settlers and was named after the [[Charles Powlett, 3rd Duke of Bolton|Duke of Bolton]].<ref>Whitcomb</ref>
 
In 1656 the Concord highway was laid out over [[Wattaquadock Hill]] in Bolton.<ref>"History of Lancaster," ''The Worcester Magazine and Historical Journal'', Volume II, 1826 Worcester County (Mass.)), p. 284, accessible on google books</ref> By 1711 more than 150 people were living on Bolton soil, despite a local history of Indian uprisings and one massacre during [[King Philip's War]].<ref>Whitcomb</ref> Many early houses were protected by flankers, and were designated as [[Garrison (architecture)|garrisons]].<ref>Whitcomb</ref> After the War various small industries developed in Bolton including the mining of limestone at [[Bolton Lime Kiln and Quarry Conservation Area|Bolton Lime Kiln and Quarry]].

During the [[American Revolution]] Bolton farmers erected a [[liberty pole]] at the town center and largely supported the revolutionary cause. General [[John Whitcomb (general)|John Whitcomb]] of Bolton was elected the first Major-General of the Massachusetts Army at the third Provincial Congress in 1775. He was a [[minuteman]] leader at the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]] and the [[Battle of Bunker Hill]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Federal Period (1776-1830) {{!}} Bolton MA |url=https://www.townofbolton.com/about-bolton/pages/federal-period-1776-1830#:~:text=Although%20Bolton's%20role%20in%20the,later%20in%20the%20continental%20forces |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=www.townofbolton.com}}</ref> By the Civil War in the 1860s Bolton residents had formed an [[abolitionist]] society, and twenty-one Bolton residents died fighting for the Union.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Early Industrial Period (1831-1872) {{!}} Bolton MA |url=https://www.townofbolton.com/discover-bolton/pages/early-industrial-period-1831-1872 |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=www.townofbolton.com}}</ref> The Bolton Fair was founded in Bolton in 1874 as an agricultural fair, but the fairgrounds were later moved to nearby Lancaster in 2004 where it is still held annually.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Doherty |first=Kevin |date=2010-08-10 |title=Bolton Fair stays true to agricultural roots |url=https://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/ci_15728975/ |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=Sentinel and Enterprise |language=en-US}}</ref>

In the 1920s Bolton was used as a setting and mentioned a number of times in [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s fiction: as a setting in his ''Herbert West—Reanimator'', and also mentioned in his ''The Rats in the Walls'' and ''The Colour out of Space''. However, [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s Bolton was located on the North Shore near [[Ipswich, Massachusetts]], and was described as a factory town bearing little resemblance to the actual town.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tentaclii.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/lovecraft-and-bolton-mass/|title=Lovecraft and Bolton, Mass.|first=David|last=Haden|date=July 15, 2013}}</ref>