Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Haverhill

HAVERHILL, a city in Essex county, Massachusetts, United States, is situated on the north bank of the Merrimack river, 18 miles from its mouth, and opposite the towns of Bradford and Groveland, with which it is connected by two fine bridges. It has railway communication with Boston, which is 32 miles south, and with Portland, 78 miles north. The city contains a handsome soldiers’ monument of white marble, erected in 1869, several public halls, including the city hall, the Freemasons’ and the Oddfellows’ halls, and a public library with 30,000 volumes. Haverhill derives its prosperity from the manufacture of boots and shoes, chiefly of the finer kinds, in which about 150 firms are engaged, employing from 6000 to 8000 hands, and turning out goods to the annual value of about £2,000,000. Besides these there are about forty manufactories of different articles used in this trade, as heels, lasts, shoe-nails, &c. The other manufactures include hats, paper-boxes, and woollen goods. The first settlement at Haverhill was made in 1640, and for 70 years as a frontier town it suffered much from savage attacks. A fine granite and bronze monument has been recently erected to commemorate the heroism of the early settlers. Haverhill was incorporated in 1645, and received its city charter in 1870. The population in 1870 amounted to 13,092, of whom 2003 were foreigners. In 1879 the number was estimated at 15,000.