Indigenous Nipmuc people near "Wacentug" or “Waentug” (river bend), deeded land to 17th-century settlers. Uxbridge reportedly granted rights to America's first colonial woman voter, Lydia Taft, and approved Massachusetts first women jurors. The first hospital for mental illness in America was reportedly established here.[4][5]Deborah Sampson posed as an Uxbridge soldier, and fought in the American Revolution. A 140-year legacy of manufacturing military uniforms and clothing began with 1820 power looms. Uxbridge became famous for woolen cashmeres. "Uxbridge Blue", was the first US Air Force Dress Uniform.[6]BJ's Wholesale Club distribution warehouse is a major employer today.
John Eliot started NipmucPraying Indian villages.[8][9][10] Several praying Indian towns included Waentug (or Wacentug) and “Rice City” (later settled as Mendon.) “Great John”, sold Squimshepauk plantation to settlers in September of 1663,[11] "for 24 pound Ster".[11][12][13]Mendon began in 1667, and burned in King Phillips War. Nipmuck joined the native uprising, and many died. Western Mendon became Uxbridge in 1727, and Farnum House held the first town meeting.[14]John Adams’ uncle, Nathan Webb, was the first called minister of the colony's first new Congregational church in the Great Awakening.[15] The American Taft family origins are intertwined with Uxbridge and Mendon. Lydia Taft reportedly voted in the 1756 town meeting, considered as a first for colonial women.[16]
A 1732 vote "set up a school for ye town of Uxbridge".[11] A grammar school was followed by 13 one-room district school houses, built for $2000 in 1797. Uxbridge Academy (1818) became a prestigious New England prep school.
Uxbridge voted against the smallpox vaccine.[16]Samuel Willard treated smallpox victims,[42] was a forerunner of modern psychiatry, and ran the first hospital for mental illness in America.[4][5] Vital records recorded many infant deaths,[19] the smallpox death of Selectman Joseph Richardson, "Quincy", "dysentary", and tuberculosis deaths.[19][25]Leonard White recorded a malaria outbreak here in 1896 that led to[43] firsts in the control of malaria as a mosquito-borne infection.[43] Uxbridge led Massachusetts in robberies for a quarter of the year in 1922, and the town voted to hire its first nighttime police patrolman.[44]
Bog iron and three iron forges marked the colonial era, with the inception of large-scale industries beginning around 1775.[45] Examples of this development can be seen in the work of Richard Mowry, who built and marketed equipment to manufacture woolen, linen, or cotton cloth,[3][46] and gristmills, sawmills, distilleries, and large industries.[8]Daniel Day built the first woolen mill in 1809.[11][16] By 1855, 560 local workers made 2,500,000 yards (2,300,000 m) of cloth (14,204 miles (22,859 km)).[45][8] Uxbridge reached a peak of over twenty different industrial mills.[8][25] A small silver vein at Scadden, in southwest Uxbridge, led to unsuccessful commercial mining in the 1830s.[47]
John Sr., Effingham and John W. Capron's mill pioneered US satinets and woolen power looms.[8][11][45][52] Charles A. Root, Edward Bachman, and Harold Walter expanded Bachman-Uxbridge, and exhibited leadership in women's fashion.[53] The company manufactured US Army uniforms for the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the nurse corps, and the first Air Force dress uniforms, dubbed "Uxbridge Blue".[25][54]Time magazine covered Uxbridge Worsted's proposed buyout to be the top US woolen company.[6] The largest plant of one of the largest US yarn companies, Bernat Yarn, was located here from the 1960s to the 1980s. A historic company called Information Services operated from Uxbridge, and managed subscription services for The New Republic, among other publications, in the later 20th century.
Five bands of the original indigenous Nipmuck people live in the Worcester County region today.
In 2017, a new $9.25 million fire station was completed on Main Street next to Town Hall.[65] Voters approved the 14,365 square-foot station in 2015.[66] The station has five bays to accommodate modern fire trucks, a radio and server room for computer and phone servers.[66] The second floor includes a fitness room, kitchen, and showers for staff.[65] The station is located in the historic district, and was built in consultation with the Uxbridge Historic District Commission.[65] The old post office and fire station were demolished to make room for the new station.[66] Context Architecture was the designer.[67]
The McCluskey School parking lot and former Bernat Mill site were used for Netflix film crews setup in 2021. [68]
The Uxbridge High Spartans won the 2023 Division 7 Superbowl at Gillette Stadium with an undefeated record [69] The Uxbridge High Spartans Field Hockey Team clinched its third consecutive state championship in the 2023 Season.[70]
A USDAhardiness zone 5 continental climate prevails with snowfall extremes from November to April. The highest recorded temperature was 104 F, in July 1975, and the lowest, −25 F in January 1957.[71]
High tech, services, distribution, life sciences, hospitality, local government, education and tourism offer local jobs. A 618,000 square feet (57,400 m2) distribution center serves Fortune 500BJ's Wholesale Club's, northern division. Unemployment was 3.9%, lower than the state average .[84]
Local government granted the first woman in America the right to vote,[16] nixed a smallpox vaccine in 1775,[16] and defied the Massachusetts Secretary of State by approving women jurors.[98] The 2009 Board of Health made Uxbridge the third community in the US to ban tobacco sales in pharmacies, but later reversed this.[99]
State agencies control county elected offices, and Uxbridge has a District Courthouse but no gaol.
Local schools include the Earl D. Taft Early Learning Center (Pre-K–3), Whitin Intermediate School (4–7), Uxbridge High School (8–12), and Our Lady of the Valley Regional.
Uxbridge is also a member of one of the thirteen towns of the Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational School District. Uxbridge students in eighth grade have the opportunity to apply to Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School, serving grades 9–12.
The New York Times called Uxbridge education reforms a "little revolution" to meet family needs.[100]
Effingham Capron,[41] led Uxbridge as a center for pre-Civil War anti-slavery activities, and was a state and national anti-slavery leader, and an industrialist[41]
Daniel Day, a Taft, started the third US woolen mill
^ ab"DIGITAL TREASURES : Item Viewer". Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved January 4, 2015. Digital Treasures, Samuel Willard ran a "hospital for the insane", and trained young physicians, east side of Uxbridge Common (no longer standing)
^Buford, Mary Hunter (1895). Seth Read, Lieut.-Col.Continental Army; Pioneer at Geneva, New York, 1787, and at Erie, Penn., June, 1795. His Ancestors and Descendants. Boston, Mass. pp. 167 pages on CD in PDF Format.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Preble, George Henry (1879). Origin and History of the American Flag and of the Naval and Yacht Club Signals, Seals and Arms, and of the Principal National Songs of the United States; Volume II. Philadelphia: Brown. pp. 695–696.
^"The Uxbridge Meeting House". Blackstone Daily. Archived from the original on November 1, 2006. Retrieved September 23, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^Langenbach, Randolph (August 15, 1971). The Crown and Eagle Mills, A remarkable Massachusetts Relic of the Industrial Revolution now in danger of destruction. Boston. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^"Uxbridge-A walking tour". Blackstone Daily.com. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved November 16, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^Leonard, Lewis recounted Alexander. The Life of Alphonso Taft.Leonard, Lewis Alexander. The Life of Alphonso Taft.Leonard, Lewis Alexander (1920). Life of Alphonso Taft. Hawke publishing Company (incorporated). p. 308. Retrieved November 25, 2007.
^"1950 Census of Population"(PDF). Bureau of the Census. 1952. Section 6, Pages 21-10 and 21-11, Massachusetts Table 6. Population of Counties by Minor Civil Divisions: 1930 to 1950. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
^"1920 Census of Population"(PDF). Bureau of the Census. Number of Inhabitants, by Counties and Minor Civil Divisions. Pages 21-5 through 21-7. Massachusetts Table 2. Population of Counties by Minor Civil Divisions: 1920, 1910, and 1920. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
^"1890 Census of the Population"(PDF). Department of the Interior, Census Office. Pages 179 through 182. Massachusetts Table 5. Population of States and Territories by Minor Civil Divisions: 1880 and 1890. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
^"1870 Census of the Population"(PDF). Department of the Interior, Census Office. 1872. Pages 217 through 220. Table IX. Population of Minor Civil Divisions, &c. Massachusetts. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
^"1860 Census"(PDF). Department of the Interior, Census Office. 1864. Pages 220 through 226. State of Massachusetts Table No. 3. Populations of Cities, Towns, &c. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
^"1850 Census"(PDF). Department of the Interior, Census Office. 1854. Pages 338 through 393. Populations of Cities, Towns, &c. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
^Bonnie Adams (October 12, 2008). "Town Honors 1936 Olympian". The Worcester Telegram and Gazette. Archived from the original on January 4, 2015. Retrieved October 12, 2008.