Beverly

Beverly, a seaboard city of Essex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., situated on the N. shore of Massachusetts Bay, opposite Salem. It is 18 m. from Boston on the Boston & Maine railway. Pop. (1890) 10,821; (1900) 13,884, of whom 2814 were foreign-born; (1910, census) 18,650. The land area of the city is about 15 sq. m. The surface is the typical glacial topography, with a few low, rocky hills, less than 100 ft. in height. There are beautiful drives through well-wooded districts, studded with handsome summer houses. In the city are a public library, the Beverly hospital, the New England industrial school for deaf mutes (organized, 1876; incorporated, 1870), and the Beverly historical society (1891), which owns a large colonial house, in which there is a valuable historical collection. The city has an excellent public school system. There are a number of manufacturing establishments; in 1905 the total factory product of the city was valued at $4,101,168, boots and shoes accounting for more than one-half of the total. Leather and shoe machinery also are important manufactures; and the main plant of the United Shoe Machinery Corporation is located here. Market gardening is a considerable industry, and large quantities of vegetables are raised under glass for the Boston markets. Fishing is an industry no longer of much importance. Beverly is connected by a regular line of oil-steamers with Port Arthur, Texas, and is the main distributing point for the Texas oil fields. The first settlement within the limits of Beverly was made by Roger Conant in 1626. The town was a part of Salem until 1668, when it was incorporated as a separate township; in 1894 it was chartered as a city. In 1788 there was established here the first cotton mill to be successfully operated in the United States. The manufacture of Britannia ware was begun in 1812. George Cabot lived for many years in Beverly, which he represented in the provincial congress (1779); Nathan Dane (1752-1835) was also a resident; and it was the birthplace of Wilson Flagg (1805-1884), the author of Studies in the Field and Forest (1857), The Woods and By-Ways of New England (1872), The Birds and Seasons of New England (1875), and A Year with the Birds (1881). It was also the birthplace and early home of Lucy Larcom (1826-1893), and the scene of much of her Story of a New England Girlhood (Boston, 1889).