Town of Fall River Established
On February 26, 1803 "Fallriver", Massachusetts was incorporated as a town. A year later, on June 1, 1804, Fallriver changed its name to "Troy". The name "Troy" was used for 30 years and was officially changed to the separated "Fall River" on February 12, 1834.
The early town consisted of about two dozen families, including Richard Borden and his father Thomas. (His grandfather, Richard (Sr.) (b.1722 d.1795) had been kidnapped by the British in May 1778, according to "Reminiscences of Colonel Joseph Durfee," who was then a Captain of the local Freetown Militia.) The other notable family names included Durfee, Buffington, Davol and Cook.
The First Congregational Church in Fall River was organized in 1816. The church began with five members. Their first meeting house was dedicated in 1823. Some years later, they sold it to the Unitarian Society. That society later sold it to the city, which made a schoolhouse of it. It was burned in the great fire of July 1843.
Other early churches established in Fall River include the First Baptist Church (1825), Methodist Church (1826), Unitarian Society (1832), and the Episcopal Church of the Ascension (1836). Irish Catholics had been established in a small house by 1836, with their first church, St. John the Baptist, dedicated in 1840.
Read more about this topic: History Of Fall River, Massachusetts
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