Athol

Athol, a township of Worcester county, northern Massachusetts, U.S.A., having an area of 35 sq. m. Pop. (1900) 7061, of whom 986 were foreign-born; (1910 U.S. census) 8536. Its surface is irregular and hilly. The village of Athol is on Miller’s river, and is served by the Boston & Albany and the Boston & Maine railways. The streams of the township furnish good water-power, and manufactures of varied character are its leading interests. Athol was first settled in 1735, and was incorporated as a township in 1762. It was named by its largest landowner Col. James Murray, after the ancestral home of the Murrays, dukes of Atholl.