Editing Whitman, Massachusetts (section)

== History ==
Little Comfort, then part of [[Bridgewater, Massachusetts|Bridgewater]] was first settled by Europeans beginning around 1675. [[Abington, Massachusetts|Abington]] (including Little Comfort) separated from Bridgewater in 1712. South Abington was established as a separate parish in the 19th century.<ref name=recon /> It was incorporated as a separate town on March 4, 1875.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe/133632314/ |title=South Abington |newspaper=The Boston Globe |date=March 12, 1875 |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name=recon /> It was renamed Whitman by town vote on May 3, 1886.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.whitman-ma.gov/171/Town-History |title=Town History |publisher=Town of Whitman}}</ref> The name was in honor of Jared Whitman, a local lawyer who served in the [[1839 Massachusetts legislature|1839]] and [[1840 Massachusetts legislature|1840 state legislatures]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe/133631464/ |title=South Abington Named Whitman |newspaper=The Boston Globe |date=May 4, 1886 |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EF9AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA178 |page=178 |title=
History of the Town of Abington, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, from Its First Settlement |year=1866 |first=Benjamin |last=Hobart |publisher=T.H. Carter and Son}}</ref> Whitman's early industry included shoemaking.<ref name=recon>{{cite web |url=https://www.sec.state.ma.us/mhc/mhcpdf/townreports/SE-Mass/whi.pdf |title=MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Whitman |publisher=Massachusetts Historical Commission |year=1981}}</ref>

In the late 1930s, [[Ruth Graves Wakefield]] invented [[chocolate chip|chocolate chip cookies]] in Whitman at the [[Toll House Inn]] on Bedford Street.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/wakefield.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030403224649/http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/wakefield.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 3, 2003|title=Inventor of the Week: Archive|publisher=[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]|access-date=September 14, 2011}}</ref>  The Toll House burned completely on New Year's Eve 1984, in a fire that originated in the kitchen.  The inn was not rebuilt.  The site is marked with a historical marker, and that land is now home to a [[Wendy's]] restaurant and [[Walgreens]] pharmacy, with the Toll House sign still in existence.<ref>{{Cite web| last = Fontes| first = Kristina| title = A Taste of Old Colony History: Bake historical recipes with Old Colony History Museum| work = Taunton Daily Gazette| accessdate = October 18, 2023| url = https://www.tauntongazette.com/story/news/local/2021/01/27/taste-old-colony-history-toll-house-cookies/4267868001/}}</ref>

The former Whitman Savings Bank was the first in the country to offer [[savings bank]] [[life insurance]] (SBLI).{{cn|date=October 2023}} From 1968 to 1994, Whitman was also home to [[List of defunct amusement parks|King's Castle Land]], a children's amusement park owned by the Whitney family and located near the intersection of Routes 18 and 14.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kingscastleland.com/index.htm|title=King's Castle Land|access-date=September 15, 2011}}</ref>

In the 1970s, Whitman was home to a then-secret [[National Security Agency]] classified materials disposal facility built on Essex Street by American Thermogen Inc. It was code named "White Elephant No. 1" and it was to be the prototype for the government's premier "classified waste destructor". Reaching temperatures up to 3,400 degrees, the three-story incinerator did not work up to expectations—only operating a limited number of hours and not always fully destroying the material—and after spending $1.2 million to build the unit it was abandoned. It was one time used as a club house by children in the area, and later dismantled. The office section, and some of the warehouse area, still remain in use by new owners.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bamford |first=James |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/44713235 |title=Body of secrets : anatomy of the ultra-secret National Security Agency : from the Cold War through the dawn of a new century |date=2001 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-385-49907-8 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=44713235}}</ref>