Fall River, Massachusetts, USA
Fall River Massachusetts, 1890

FALL RIVER, a beautiful manufacturing city and port of entry in the southwest side of Bristol County, lies on the easterly shore of Mount Hope Bay and Taunton River. Freetown bounds it on the north and east; Dartmouth on the southeast; Westport, together with Pocasset in Rhode Island, on the south; and on the west are Mount Hope Bay and the town of Somerset, on the right bank of the Taunton River. Its assessed area is 18,272 acres, and which includes 2,607 acres of woodland.

The city proper is 49 miles south of Boston, 183 miles northeast of New York, 17 miles south of Taunton, 18 miles southeast of Providence, 14 miles west of New Bedford, and 18 miles north of New port. Along the whole extent of the water front run the tracks of the Old Colony Railroad, affording the best facilities for the transfer of freight and passengers between the cars and the numerous steamers that run to New York, Philadelphia and Providence. The Old Colony steamboats running daily between this city and New York are among the finest in the world for size, safety, and luxuriance of equipment. Trains also run direct to Providence by the railroad bridge over the Taunton River at the upper part of the town; while a branch from the New Bedford line of the Old Colony road enters the city at the greater elevation on the east.

The city has much rural territory, occupied by 83 farms; the product of these, in 1885, having a value of $102,260. The country is hilly, the elevations within five miles radius varying from tide-water to 355 feet above sea-level. The geological structure is granite, in which beds of iron-ore occur — a foundation which affords inexhaustible quarries of good building stone. The granite frequently crops out in extensive ledges; and numerous bowlders are scattered about, generally resting on the bed-rock, over which the soil is often shallow. The latter is composed principally of sand, gravel and gravelly loam.

Source:
A Gazetteer of the State of Massachusetts, with Numerous Illustrations written by Rev. Elias Nason, M.A.; revised and enlarged by George J. Varney. Boston: B.B. Russell. 1890, 724 pages



Visit Fall River, Massachusetts, USA
Discover the people who lived there, the places they visited and the stories they shared.