History and Antiquities of Every Town in Massachusetts

History and Antiquities of Every Town in Massachusetts by Barber, John Warner & Alice S. Kane. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780880823210.

American historian and engraver John Warner Barber (1798–1885) was well known for his books on local, state, and national history. This work, organized by county, gives historical background on all the Massachusetts towns that existed at the time of publication in 1839. Barber supplies facts and details of each town’s early settlement, including original Native American place names, and he presents statistics on local industries and agriculture, descriptions of landmark architecture and cultural organizations, and brief biographical sketches of historic residents. Barber’s numerous engravings, mostly “taken on the spot” when he visited towns to gather information, attractively supplement the descriptions. Readers with family history in Massachusetts can view nineteenth-century life through the eyes of their ancestors and find context for family stories.