1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Leominster (Massachusetts)

LEOMINSTER, a township of Worcester county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., about 45 m. N.W. of Boston and about 20 m. N. by E. of Worcester. Pop. (1890) 7269; (1900) 12,392, of whom 2827 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 17,580. It is a broken, hilly district, 26.48 sq. m. in area, traversed by the Nashua river, crossed by the Northern Division of the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad, and by the Fitchburg Division of the Boston & Maine, and connected with Boston, Worcester and other cities by interurban electric lines. Along the N.E. border and mostly in the township of Lunenburg are Whalom Lake and Whalom Park, popular pleasure resorts. The principal villages are Leominster, 5 m. S.E. of Fitchburg, and North Leominster; the two adjoin and are virtually one. According to the Special U.S. Census of Manufactures of 1905 the township had in that year a greater diversity of important manufacturing industries than any place of its size in the state, or, probably, in the United States; its 65 manufactories, with a capital of $4,572,726 and with a product for the year valued at $7,501,720 (39% more than in 1900), produced celluloid and horn work (the manufacture of which is a more important industry here than elsewhere in the United States), celluloid combs, furniture, paper, buttons, pianos and piano-cases, children’s carriages and sleds, stationery, leatherboard, worsted, woollen and cotton goods, shirts, paper boxes, &c. Leominster owns and operates its water-works. The township was formed from a part of Lancaster township in 1740.