Massachusetts Trivia & Tidbits - Page 17

Looking for Massachusetts trivia? Try our list Massachusetts little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The Kennedy Biscuit Works—now Nabisco—named the Fig Newton after the town of Newton. The name changed from Newton to Fig Newton after the fig jam inside the cookie gained good reviews.

first appeared: 2/11/2001

Boston inventor Elias Howe produced the first sewing machine in 1846. Later, Howe won a patent infringement suit against another manufacturer of sewing machines, Issac Singer.

first appeared: 2/4/2001

—Tanglewood in Lenox (pop 1,687), the summer home of the Boston Symphony, was named after the cottage where writer Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) lived for a brief period.

first appeared: 1/28/2001

The First Parish Old Ship Church in Hingham (pop. 21,400), built in 1681 by Puritan settlers, is one of the oldest church structures in the United States in continuous use as a place of worship.

first appeared: 1/21/2001

Poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) lived a largely reclusive life in the college town of Amherst (pop. 17,824), which is widely regarded as an educational “center” in New England. The University of Massachusetts and Amherst College are located there, and nearby Smith, Hampshire, and Holyoke colleges are all within a few miles of Amherst.

first appeared: 1/14/2001

Painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was born in Lowell, as was the jazz-inspired, 20th-century American novelist, Jack Kerouac (1922-1969).

first appeared: 1/7/2001

Although more than 30 communities in the colonies eventually were renamed in honor of Benjamin Franklin, the Massachusetts town of Franklin was the first, changing its name in 1778.

first appeared: 12/31/2000

In 1631, John Winthrop (1588-1649) became the first elected official in America—governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was re-elected to the office 11 times.

first appeared: 12/24/2000

Norfolk County is the birthplace of four presidents: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and George Herbert Walker Bush.

first appeared: 12/17/2000

The islands of Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and Chappaquiddick were formed by glaciers during the ice age.

first appeared: 12/10/2000

Physicist Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945), inventor of the first liquid fueled rocket, was born and lived much of his life in Worcester. He launched the first rocket propelled by liquid fuel from the neighboring town of Auburn (pop. 15,000) in 1926.

first appeared: 12/3/2000

The Cape Cod Canal, built at the base of the cape between 1910 and 1914, cut the New York to Boston shipping distance by 75 miles.

first appeared: 11/26/2000

The story of Johnny Appleseed is based on horticulturist John Chapman, born in Leominster (pop. 39,900) Sept. 26, 1774. Chapman loved apple trees and established orchards throughout the East and Midwest. Accustomed to walking through orchards barefoot, he died in Indiana in March of 1845 after contracting pneumonia from a midwinter journey to inspect a damaged orchard.

first appeared: 11/19/2000

The first U.S. flag to be raised over a schoolhouse was on Catamount Hill in Colrain (pop. 1,800) in the spring of 1812. It was sent up over the one-room, log cabin school by patriots who wanted to express their support for the War of 1812.

first appeared: 11/12/2000

Clara Barton of Oxford (pop. 5,569) founded the American Association of the Red Cross, which became the American Red Cross, in May 1881. Her gender prevented her from working with the International Red Cross during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), so she volunteered as an independent relief worker. Barton served as a volunteer for the Union during the Civil War.

first appeared: 11/5/2000

The first subway system in the United States was built in Boston between 1895 and 1897. Trolley streetcars, or tramcars, were used along its one-and-a-half-mile route.

first appeared: 10/22/2000

Boston Common, founded in 1634, is the oldest public park in America. The Common encompasses 50 acres and originally served as a shared or “common” pasture area for the village of Boston.

first appeared: 10/8/2000

William Morgan invented the sport of mintonette, now known as volleyball, in 1895 while teaching at a YMCA in Holyoke. He wanted to create a game for his classes of businessmen that would have less physical contact than basketball. Morgan combined aspects of basketball, tennis, and handball to create volleyball.

first appeared: 9/24/2000

James Naismith, an instructor at a YMCA in Springfield, created the game of basketball in December 1891. Originally, each team had nine players.

first appeared: 9/10/2000

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