Timeline of New Bedford, Massachusetts facts for kids

The following is a timeline of the history of New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States.

Prior to 19th century

• Prior to 1602 - the Wampanoags, 'People of the Morning Light,' an Algonquian-speaking Native American group, inhabit the area from Narragansett Bay to the tip of Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket
• 1602 - Bartholomew Gosnold an English privateer visits the site of New Bedford.
• 1652 - In the Dartmouth Purchase, John Winslow, William Bradford, Myles Standish, Thomas Southworth, and John Cooke purchase from Wasamequin (Massassoit) and his son Wamsutta a territory that would come to be known as Old Dartmouth, which included the current towns of Dartmouth, New Bedford, Acushnet, Fairhaven, and Westport
• ca.1665 - Influx of Quakers.
• 1760 - Village proper established.
• 1778 - September - Grey's raid by the British against American coastal communities.
• 1787 - Town incorporated.
• 1792
  • The Medley newspaper begins publication.
  • Post office in operation.
• 1796 - New Bedford and Fairhaven Bridge Company incorporated.
• 1797
  • first Clarks Point Light built.
  • Population: 3,313.
• 1798 - Columbian Courier newspaper begins publication.

19th century

• 1800 - Population: 4,361.
• 1803 - Social Library organized.
• 1804 - 59 whaling vessels were registered from New Bedford.
• 1807 - New-Bedford Mercury newspaper begins publication.
• 1808 - Old Colony Gazette begins publication.
• 1812
  • Fairhaven separates from New Bedford.
  • Friends' Academy incorporated.

Friends Meeting House, New Bedford

• 1816 - Bedford Commercial Bank incorporated.
• 1822 - New Bedford Meeting House built.
• 1825 - Merchants Bank incorporated.
• 1828 - Lyceum founded.
• 1829
  • Ash Street Jail built.
  • First Baptist Church built.
• late 1820's - Abolitionism in New Bedford, Massachusetts voiced by Quakers.
• 1830
  • New Bedford Port Society formed.
  • Population: 7,592.
• 1831
  • New-Bedford Weekly Register begins publication.
  • Dorcas Society organized.
• 1832 - Seamen's Bethel built.
• 1833 - Mechanics Association founded.
• 1834 - United States Customhouse and Rotch house (residence) built.
• 1837 - New Bedford Rural Cemetery incorporated.
• 1838
  • September: Frederick Douglass moves to New Bedford.
  • New Bedford and Taunton Rail Road incorporated.
• 1840 - Population: 12,087.
• 1841 - Charles W. Morgan (ship) built.
• 1843
  • Whalemen's Shipping List, and Merchant's Transcript begins publication.
  • Orphans Home incorporated.
• 1846 - Wamsutta Mills incorporated.
• 1847
  • City incorporated.
  • Abraham H. Howland becomes mayor.
  • Horticultural Society incorporated.
  • Joseph Grinnell built the first cotton mill.
• 1848 - Beginning of Arctic Whaling.
• 1849
  • J. & W. R. Wing Company in business.
  • Palmer Island Light built.
• 1850
  • Daily Evening Standard newspaper begins publication.
  • Population: 16,443.
• 1853
  • Rodney French becomes 3rd Mayor of New Bedford.[1]
  • Municipal public library established.
  • New Bedford Institute for Savings built.
• 1855 - New Bedford Five Cents Savings Bank incorporated.
• 1861 - Fort Rodman aka Fort Taber, built at Clark's Point.
• 1866

New Bedford Fire Museum

• • Hathaway & Soule in business.
  • Wamsutta Club founded.
  • Hutchinson's Circulating Library in business.
• 1867 - Fire Station no.4 built, now houses New Bedford Fire Museum.
• 1871
  • St. John the Baptist Church founded.
  • Whaling disaster of 1871
• 1877 - Church of the Sacred Heart built.
• 1884 - St. Luke's Hospital founded.
• 1888 - Fairhaven Bridge Light built.
• 1890 - Population: 40,733.
• 1891 - Charles S. Ashley becomes mayor.
• 1892 - Club of French Sharpshooters, a benevolent and fraternal organization founded by 80 French Canadian residents of the North End, founded.
• 1894 - Buttonwood Park Zoo opens.
• 1895
  • St. Anthony of Padua Church founded.
  • New Bedford Textile School founded.
• 1899
  • New Bedford – Fairhaven Bridge constructed.
  • Union Baptist Church built.
• 1900 - Population: 62,442.

20th century

• 1901 - Hotel Waverly built.
• 1903
  • Old Dartmouth Historical Society founded.
  • New Bedford Whaling Museum established.
  • Insect invasion.
• 1905 - Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish established.
• 1906 - Completion of harbour improvements.
• 1908 - St. Anthony of Padua Church built.
• 1910
  • Population: 96,652.
  • Local 147 of the National Industrial Union of Textile Workers (IWW) declares a strike against increases in work.
• 1912 - Orpheum Theatre opens.
• 1916 - Whaling Museum opens.
• 1919 - Alvorada Jornal Diario newspaper begins publication.
• 1920 - Population: 121,217.
• 1923 - April 2: The Zeiterion theatre opens
• 1927 - St. Casimir Parish established.
• 1942 - Airport built.
• 1946 - Your Theatre founded.
• 1958 - Northeast Airlines Flight 285 crashes at New Bedford Airport.
• 1962 - Waterfront Historic Area League organized.
• 1970
  • Club of French Sharpshooters, a French Canadian benevolent and fraternal organization, disbands
  • Racial unrest.
• 1972
  • New Bedford High School established.
  • John A. Markey becomes mayor.
  • New Bedford Historical Commission established.
  • Sister city relationship established with Horta, Azores.
• 1976 - New Bedford Fire Museum opens.
• 1977 - Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational-Technical High School established.
• 1985 - A labor strike breaks out between fishermen and a trade association of shipowners.
• 1987 - Sister city relationship established with Tosashimizu, Japan.
• 1988-89 - New Bedford Highway Killer active
• 1996
  • Multi-stage folk festival begins at the State Pier; this event evolves into Summerfest, then New Bedford Folk Festival
  • New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and New Bedford Historical Society [2] established.
  • City website online (approximate date).
• 1997
  • Azorean Maritime Heritage Society organized.
  • New Bedford Bay Sox baseball team formed.

21st century

• 2003 - Coast Guard Station New Bedford closes.
• 2006 - Scott W. Lang becomes mayor.
• 2010
  • Population: 95,072.
  • New Bedford Museum of Glass opens.
• 2012 - Jonathan F. Mitchell becomes mayor.
• 2015 - Marine Commerce Terminal begins operating.

Images for kids

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  Map of New Bedford, 1851

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  Hathaway & Soule, est.1866

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  Advertisements, 1873

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  Wamsutta Mills in 1876

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  Aerial view of New Bedford Harbor, 1984