Editing Sterling, Massachusetts (section)

== History ==
Previous to its incorporation, it was "the Second Parish of [[Lancaster, Massachusetts|Lancaster]]." It was commonly called by a portion of its Indian name, Chocksett.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://hometownsterling.blogspot.com/2009/08/records-of-court-of-general-sessions-of.html |title=Records of the Court of general sessions of the peace for the county of Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1731 to 1737 |access-date=August 10, 2009 |archive-date=August 18, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818004403/http://hometownsterling.blogspot.com/2009/08/records-of-court-of-general-sessions-of.html |url-status=live }}</ref> There was an Indian fort and graveyard located between East Waushacum Pond and West Waushacum Pond.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Whitney |first1=Peter |title=The history of the county of Worcester, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: with a particular account of every town from its first settlement to the present time; including its ecclesiastical state, together with a geographical description of the same. ; To which is prefixed, a map of the county, at large, from actual survey. / By Peter Whitney, A.M. Minister of the Gospel in Northborough, in said county. |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N20201.0001.001/1:9.33?rgn=div2;view=fulltext |access-date=19 January 2025 |date=1793}}</ref> [[Sagamore Sam]], a [[Nashaway]] sachem and insurgent during [[King Philip's War]], was from Waushacum.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sagamore Sam, - 1676 |url=https://nativenortheastportal.com/bio/bibliography/sagamore-sam-1676 |website=Native Northeast Portal}}</ref>

The Nipmuc minister, [[Peter Jethro]], worked in the area in the 1670s. The original Indian name of the area was Woonsechocksett. The land encompassing the Chocksett region was not originally included in the first land sold by the great Indian Chief [[Sholan]] to the settlers of the Lancaster grant. However, Sholan's nephew [[Tahanto]] would eventually sell the Chocksett land to the inhabitants of Lancaster in 1713.

The first white settlers arrived in Chocksett seven years later, in 1720, formerly inhabitants of Lancaster proper.<ref>History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Abijah Perkins Marvin, 1879</ref> Among these first settlers were families such as Beman, Sawyer, Houghton, and Osgood – names reflected to this day in the names of Sterling's oldest roads.<ref>Topographical and historical sketches of the town of Lancaster, in the commonwealth of Massachusetts: furnished for the Worcester magazine and historical journal (1826)p. 47</ref>

A short time after settlement, in 1733, the residents of the Chocksett area requested its own incorporation, separate from Lancaster, due to the "great inconvenience" of a long distance to the church in Lancaster's center. This request was denied. However, by 1780 the population of Chocksett was so numerous as to constitute a majority. So the voters of the area voted out the existing Lancaster town officers and began to conduct town business and meetings in Chocksett. This was enough to convince the rest of Lancaster that it was now time for Chocksett, the Second Parish of Lancaster, to go its own way.<ref>Topographical and historical sketches of the town of Lancaster, in the commonwealth of Massachusetts: furnished for the Worcester magazine and historical journal (1826) p. 56</ref>

In 1781, Chocksett was incorporated as its own town: Sterling. The town derives its name from [[William Alexander, Lord Stirling|General William "Lord Stirling" Alexander]], who served valiantly under Gen. [[George Washington]] in the New York and other campaigns. His portrait hangs in the town hall, and the town commemorated Alexander with a medallion during its bicentennial celebration in 1981. A duplicate portrait resides in the town hall of New Windsor, NY.