History of Fall River, Massachusetts
From its beginnings as a rural outpost of the Plymouth Colony, the city grew to become the largest textile producing center in the United States during the 19th century, with over one hundred mills in operation by 1920.
At the time of the establishment of the Plymouth Colony in 1620, the area that later became the city of Fall River was inhabited by the Pocasset Wampanoag tribe, headquartered at Mount Hope in what is now Bristol, Rhode Island.
In 1703, Benjamin Church, a prominent veteran of King Philip's War, established a sawmill, a gristmill and a fulling mill on the Quequechan River.
(This transaction became extremely valuable 100 years later, helping to establish the Borden family as the leaders in the development of Fall River's textile industry.)
During this time, settlement also occurred in the northern part of modern-day Fall River, along what is now North Main Street.
On May 25, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Freetown was fought when about 150 English soldiers, under the command of Major Ayers, sailed up Mount Hope Bay in the night and landed near the mouth of the Quequechan River.
(His grandfather, Richard (Sr.) (b.1722 d.1795) had been kidnapped by the British in May 1778, according to "Reminiscences of Colonel Joseph Durfee,"[7] who was then a Captain of the local Freetown Militia.)
In 1856, the town of Tiverton voted to split off its industrial northern section as Fall River, Rhode Island.
)[7] By 1843, the town of Fall River was a bustling center of about 8,000 people, along with the adjacent population in what was then still Tiverton, Rhode Island.
On Sunday, July 2, 1843, with the temperatures in the 90s, a fire alarm rang out around 4 p.m. Water in the Quequechan River had been stopped so that some work could be done.
The fire had begun when two boys were playing with a small cannon, igniting a pile of wood shavings near the corner of Main and Borden Street.
Fed by high, dry winds, the entire space of buildings between Main, Franklin, Rock and Borden streets soon became engulfed in fire, beyond the control of firefighters.
After an uncertain start, in which some early investors pulled out, the Fall River Iron Works was incorporated in 1825, with $200,000 in capital.
The iron works began producing nails, bar stock, and other items such as bands for casks in the nearby New Bedford whaling industry.
[11] The iron works continued to play an important role in the early development of the textile industry in Fall River.
In 1824, Andrew Robeson, arrived from New Bedford and established the first print Works in the city,[12] a segment of the industry that Fall River dominated in later years.
For three generations, the Borden family dynasty had control or business interests in the city's banks, the gas company, steamboats, railroads and mines.
Unlike the well-spaced boardinghouses of early Lowell and Lawrence or the cottages of Rhode Island, worker housing in Fall River consisted of thousands of wood-framed multi-family tenements, usually three-story "triple-deckers" with up to six apartments.
The Chateau-sur-Mer mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, is perhaps the best example of Fall River Granite being used for private home construction.
This was due to the high costs associated with transporting the rock through the city and down the hill, where no rail lines existed because of the steep grades.
The northern mills faced serious competition from their southern counterparts due to factors such as lower labor and transportation costs, as well as the South's large investment in new machinery and other equipment.
In 1924, the American Printing Company opened a new plant in Kingsport, Tennessee, moving much of its operation there, and slashing many Fall River jobs in the process.
The worst fire in Fall River's history[19] occurred on the evening of February 2, 1928, when workers were dismantling the recently vacated Pocasset Mill.
In 1937, their huge plant waterfront on Water Street was acquired by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and soon employed 2,600 people.
Also during the 1970s, several modern apartment high-rise towers were built throughout the city, many under the auspices of the Fall River Housing Authority.
On November 5, 1981, the 100-year-old Richard Borden Mill on Rodman Street caught fire in the afternoon and burned for many hours through the night.
Then, just a few months later, on May 11, 1982, while in the process of a major renovation project, hot sparks from a worker's torch ignited a fire near the roof of the Notre Dame de Lourdes Church in the city's Flint Village section.
Fed by high winds and dry roof timbers, the fire spread quickly, soon engulfing the twin copper-clad spires of the church as well as several triple-decker apartment houses across Bedard Street.
The Kerr Mill site was redeveloped in the late 1990s, and in 2001 the Advanced Technology & Manufacturing Center of UMass-Dartmouth opened its doors at this location.
[25] In 2019 Correia was charged by federal prosecutors with bribery and extortion in connection with distributing favors to marijuana vendors in exchange for cash bribes.
