Come enjoy charming and historic Chelmsford Center!
"After a town had been planted and the land taken up, the hardy and adventurous young men who lacked the means to buy land were ready to band themselves with others in like circumstances and resolutely push on and make new homes in the wilderness. The General Court was ready to grant lands for such purpose to men of good character when their numbers promised to be sufficient for mutual protection and for the maintenance of religious worship.
Soon after 1650 a few venturesome families took up their abode in Chelmsford, Groton and Billerica where, in a short time, they were joined by a sufficient number to become organized as towns.
The first recorded movement looking to the settlement of Chelmsford was made in 1652 by some citizens of Woburn and Concord who petitioned the Court for the privilege of examining a tract of land on the 'other side of Concord River.'
The town was incorporated in 1655.
The town of Chelmsford was now organized with its church and town government, and it must now depend for its success and progress upon the industry, wisdom and fortitude of its inhabitants. The twenty or more families that now constituted the town were made up of the very best material with which to build a stable and well-ordered community. The heads of the families were for the greater part born in England and left their homes there previous to 1640, because of religious persecution, to take up their abode in the wilderness of America. As is always the case with people, who are willing to suffer hardship and privation for conscience's sake, they were men of strong character and deep religious convictions." -Wilson Waters