Smithville, Massachusetts

31 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Barre town. It lies in ZIP code area 01005. It stands on Parkers Brook. The Survey maps it on the Barre quadrangle.

Smithville within Worcester County

Then and now

1887 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 101 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Smithville, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of Smithville, surveyed 1887

Compare 1887 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

18 surveys from 31 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1887 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
1889 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500, 7 printings
1908 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
1942 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
1946 USGS Barre quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
1954 USGS Barre quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1954 USGS Barre quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
1969 USGS Barre quadrangle1:25000
1969 USGS Barre quadrangle1:24000
1975 USGS Barre quadrangle1:25000
1985 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
1988 USGS Barre quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings

In the county-history sources

23,544 words on this township

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889 names this settlement in its chapter on Barre Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

During, or a little previous to, 1825, Silas Bemis and Benjamin Clark each and separately conceived the idea of erecting a cotton-mill and each made strenuous efforts to complete the first dam. Mr. Clark, having obtained control of the water privilege by purchasing it and a considerable lot of land of the heirs of Matthew Caldwell, ei'ected a brick factory, which at that time was the first of any importance in this section of the State ; by the erection of this and the necessary tenement -houses he became financially embarrassed, but he soon organized a stock company, consisting of Messrs. Mixter, Woods, Bowman and others, by whom the work was carried on and the manufacture of cotton commenced; Mr. Clark, becoming involved in a lawsuit growing out of a claim for priority of rights to the water privilege, became insolvent and retired from the manfacturing business. The success of the company, under the name of the Boston and Barre Manufacturing Company, was not at first propitious ; they entered into a contract with Mr. John Smith, who was a practical manufacturer, to take the mill and make the cotton cloth at a certain price per yard, in which he was successful, making the business remunerative for himself and the stockholders. While the business was thus prosperous the factory was destroyed by fire ; the company, not desirous of rebuilding, sold out by auction, the land, buildings and water privilege being purchased by Mr. Smith for himself and four others; subsequently purchasing their shares, he erected a new mill, which he managed with signal success until his death, in 1859, when the business passed into the hands of his two sons, by whom it was profitably carried on under the firm-name of C. W. & J. E. Smith. On the death of Charles W. Smith a few years ago and the settlement of his estate, J. Edwin Smith became sole owner, by whom some needed repairs and alterations were made, and now the establishment is in successful operation. The village, now and for many years known as Smithville, is a model factory village and with its neatly-painted houses, broad street and abundant and beautiful shade trees presents an attractive appearance.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889.

On the Ware River, about midway between Smithville and the woolen-factory village, buildings and mills for the manufacture of gunpowder were erected about 182G by Silas Bemis, one of the early settlers, and his son-in-law, Charles Bemis, and others, and did a good business under various ownerships until 1865, when this industry left the town. Here is a good water privilege awaiting utilization.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Barre Town.

Fires near this place

54 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 54 fires within 5 miles of Smithville between 2015 and 2018, burning about 56 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	33
Recreation and ceremony	9
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	8
Smoking	2
Arson/incendiarism	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
16 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
10 September 2017	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
7 August 2015	Recreation and ceremony	2.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 August 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 August 2017	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
6 July 2016	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 July 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 July 2016	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,556 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,556 specimens collected within 10 miles of Smithville between 1839 and 1974: 839 Animalia, 392 Fungi, 306 Plantae, 10 Unrecorded, 9 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. V. Schott, A. Melander, A. Melander & A. Melander and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.	1895	James F. Collins	South spur, Mount Wachusett
Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)	1900	Roscoe I. Giles
Bartramia pomiformis Hedw.	1839	unknown	Barre
Carex gracillima Schwein.	1839	M. S. Bebb	Barre
Carex intumescens Rudge	1839	M. S. Bebb	Barre
Carex lacustris Willd.	1839	M. S. Bebb	Barre
Carex stipata Muhl. ex Willd.	1839	M. S. Bebb	Barre
Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop.	1839	M. S. Bebb	Barre
Cypripedium acaule Aiton	1839	M. S. Bebb	Barre
Moneses uniflora (L.) A.Gray	1893	J. F. Collins
Calyptospora goeppertiana J.G.Kühn	1895	not recorded	US, Massachusetts, Barre
Vaccinium corymbosum L.	1895	not recorded	US, Massachusetts, Barre

All 1,556 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Smithville: 4 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Browns Trucking	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
E. J. Connors Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Landfill Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Legion Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
R Curtis Sand and Gravel	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Coldbrook Springs	0.4 miles	31
White Valley	1.4 miles	31
South Barre	2.3 miles	31
Barre Falls	2.8 miles	31
Oakham	2.9 miles	32
Heald Village	3.1 miles	31
Barre Plains	3.2 miles	31
New Boston	3.3 miles	46

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 617232. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.