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.
See L. B. Caswell, Athol, Mass., Past and Present (Athol, 1899).