Topsfield is a town

New England town

The New England town is the basic unit of local government in each of the six New England states. Without a direct counterpart in most other U.S. states, New England towns are conceptually similar to civil townships in other states, but are incorporated, possessing powers like cities in other...

 in Essex County, Massachusetts

Essex County, Massachusetts

-National protected areas:* Parker River National Wildlife Refuge* Salem Maritime National Historic Site* Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site* Thacher Island National Wildlife Refuge-Demographics:...

, United States. The population was 6,085 at the 2010 census.

Part of the town comprises the census-designated place

Census-designated place

A census-designated place is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...

 of Topsfield

Topsfield (CDP), Massachusetts

Topsfield is a census-designated place in the town of Topsfield in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 2,826 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...

.

Colonial period

The Agawam

Agawam (tribe)

The Agawam tribe was a Native American tribe in New England at the arrival of the English colonists in the early 17th century. Decimated by pestilence shortly before the English colonization and fearing attacks from their hereditary enemies among the tribes of Maine, they invited the English to...

 tribe inhabited Topsfield prior to and during the British colonization

British colonization of the Americas

British colonization of the Americas began in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia and reached its peak when colonies had been established throughout the Americas...

 in the early seventeenth century. They were one of the Algonquian peoples

Algonquian peoples

The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...

. They claimed the land north of the Danvers River, the whole of Cape Ann

Cape Ann

Cape Ann is a rocky cape in northeastern Massachusetts on the Atlantic Ocean. The cape is located approximately 30 miles northeast of Boston and forms the northern edge of Massachusetts Bay. Cape Ann includes the city of Gloucester, and the towns of Essex, Manchester-by-the-Sea, and...

 and from there to the Merrimack River

Merrimack River

The Merrimack River is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Massachusetts, and then flows northeast until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport...

. However, the first European explorers had brought smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

 to New England, decimating all the shore tribes from the Penobscot River

Penobscot River

The Penobscot River is a river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's West Branch and South Branch increases the Penobscot's length to , making it the second longest river system in Maine and the longest entirely in the state. Its drainage basin contains .It arises from four branches...

 to Narragansett Bay

Narragansett Bay

Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound. Covering 147 mi2 , the Bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor, and includes a small archipelago...

 in 1616.

Chief Masconomet

Chief Masconomet

Masconomet, spelled many different ways in colonial deeds, was sagamore or chief of the Agawam tribe among the Algonquian peoples during the time of the English colonization of the Americas...

, for whom Masconomet Regional High School

Masconomet Regional High School

Masconomet Regional High School is located in Topsfield, Massachusetts, and serves the towns of Boxford, Middleton and Topsfield.Masconomet Regional Middle School serves grades 7 and 8 while the Masconomet Regional High School serves grades 9 through 12. Both schools are located on the same property...

 is named, was the sagamore

Sachem

A sachem[p] or sagamore is a paramount chief among the Algonquians or other northeast American tribes. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms from different Eastern Algonquian languages...

or chief of the Agawam at this time. He welcomed Massachusetts Bay Colony

Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...

 Governor John Winthrop

John Winthrop

John Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...

 on his arrival in Salem Harbor in 1630. Masconomet deeded all the Agawam's land to Winthrop in 1638 in exchange for twenty pounds sterling. The English had settled within the bounds of modern-day Topsfield by 1643. They originally named their settlement New Meadows. Tradition has long held that the Agawam called the place "Shenewemedy", meaning "the pleasant place by the flowing waters." More recent historians believe that "Shenewemedy" was how the Agawam pronounced New Meadows, rather than a word in their own language.

The General Court of Massachusetts renamed the place Topsfield in 1648, undoubtedly after Toppesfield

Toppesfield

Toppesfield is a small village, historically associated with arable farming, in north Essex, England.-Inhabitants:Toppesfield has approximately three-hundred inhabitants...

, England, a small parish in the County of Essex north of London. Topsfield was incorporated as a town in 1650. Masconomet died in 1658 and was buried on Sagamore Hill, now in Hamilton. Nine years later, two young men were punished for digging up the grave of the sagamore and carrying his skull on a pole. Native Americans were held in low regard and were poorly treated by the colonists. There is no record of hostilities between the colonists and Native Americans in Topsfield, however, even during the French and Indian Wars

French and Indian Wars

The French and Indian Wars is a name used in the United States for a series of conflicts lasting 74 years in North America that represented colonial events related to the European dynastic wars...

, which covered the period 1689-97. The Topsfield town records last mention Native American residents in 1750.

The Salem witch trials

Salem witch trials

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693...

 of 1692 touched Topsfield directly. Belief in witches was normal in the seventeenth century. People were accused of witchcraft in Europe and the colonies during this time, but executions were relatively rare. Historians conclude that only fifteen people were executed as witches in the American colonies before 1692. In that year alone, however, over one hundred sixty people, mostly from Essex County, Massachusetts, were accused of witchcraft. Of these, nineteen were hanged and one was pressed to death for refusing to plead. In July 1692, Rebecca Nurse

Rebecca Nurse

Rebecca Towne Nurse was executed for witchcraft by the government of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England in 1692, during the Salem witch trials. She was the wife of Francis Nurse, with several children and grandchildren, and a well-respected member of the community...

 of Salem Village (then part of the town of Salem, now part of present-day Danvers) was hanged at Gallows Hill in Salem. She was the daughter of William Towne of Topsfield. Young Salem Village girls allegedly possessed by the devil – the source of Rebecca Nurse's witchcraft accusation and most others – also named as witches Rebecca's Topsfield sisters, Sarah Cloyce

Sarah Cloyce

Sarah Cloyce was the sister of Rebecca Nurse and Mary Easty. She was accused of witchcraft but never indicted by a grand jury in the Salem Witch Trials.-In fiction:...

 and Mary Esty; while Sarah was eventually set free, Mary was hanged in September. Sarah Wildes and Elizabeth How from Topsfield were hanged along with Rebecca Nurse. Many other Topsfield residents were accused of witchcraft until the hysteria ended in May 1693, when the governor of Massachusetts set free all of the remaining persons accused of witchcraft and issued a proclamation of general pardon. While the causes of the 1692 witchcraft episode continue to be the subject of historical and sociological study, there is a consensus view that land disputes and perhaps economic rivalry among factions in Salem, Salem Village and Topsfield fueled animosity and played an underlying role.

The witchcraft delusion is an extreme example of how religion is alloyed in Topsfield history, but other examples abound. Indeed, Topsfield was founded in part based on "alarming" 1633 news that the Roman Catholic French had planted settlements nearby and intended to send settlers "with divers priests and Jesuits among them". Governor Winthrop and the Puritan

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

 establishment (who believed a Protestant theocracy was proper), countered the perceived Catholic threat in March of that year by sending English men and women into the wilderness that would become Topsfield. Among the first group was William Perkins, a preacher. From the beginning, Topsfield residents made provision for "the publicke worship of God". In 1684, they hired the Reverend Joseph Capen

Joseph Capen

Joseph Capen was a Massachusetts clergyman. Capen was the son of John Capen of Dorchester, Massachusetts, by his second wife, Mary, the daughter of Samuel Bass of Braintree. Joseph Capen was a member of the class of 1677 at Harvard and was a minister in Topsfield, Massachusetts, from 1682 to his...

, whose Parson Capen House

Parson Capen House

The Parson Capen House is a historic house in Topsfield, Massachusetts that was built in the late 17th century. It has drawn attention as an example of early colonial architecture and due to its well preserved condition compared to other houses built at that time.-History:The Capen house was built...

 still stands as the town's most notable historical landmark. A successor to Capen's original Congregational Church

Congregational church

Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

 building overlooks the Topsfield common. Its white steeple graces countless postcards. Topsfield's preeminent historian, George Francis Dow

George Francis Dow

George Francis Dow was an American antiquarian for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, active in Massachusetts....

, tells us: "No minister of those early days left a deeper impression on the town than Reverend Joseph Capen, who wisely led the minds of the people along the varied paths of knowledge until his death in 1725."

No minister in those early days may have left a deeper impression on Topsfield religious history, but it was a contemporary of Reverend Capen whose family has best connected Topsfield to the religious history of the world. Robert Smith settled in Topsfield in 1638. His descendants extended through five generations in Topsfield. They were respected townspeople and members of Capen's Congregational Church

Congregational church

Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

. Joseph Smith, Sr.

Joseph Smith, Sr.

Joseph Smith, Sr. was the father of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Joseph Sr. was also one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, which Mormons believe was translated by Joseph Jr. from the Golden Plates. In 1833 Joseph Sr...

 was born in Topsfield in 1771, and his son, Joseph Smith, Jr., founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The younger Joseph Smith was born in Sharon, Vermont

Sharon, Vermont

Sharon is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. It had a population of 1,411 at the 2000 census. The town is home to The Sharon Academy.-History:...

, in 1805, not long after his family moved from Topsfield. Mormons point out Topsfield in their church history books and continue to visit the Smith ancestral hometown today.

Revolution and New Republic: Minutemen, turnpike, gerrymander and the fair

The population of Topsfield grew slowly in the eighteenth century, reaching only 773 by the year 1776. Topsfield was much smaller and more agrarian than other Essex County towns by the time of the Revolution and perhaps for these reasons the town seemed a bit more conservative and less ardent for independence than its Essex County neighbors. Nonetheless, as tensions between crown and colonists mounted in the years before the American Revolution

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

, Topsfield joined the network of committees dedicated to preserving the rights of the people. On June 8, 1771, the town voted to stand ready "to preserve and Defend Our Own Lawfull Rights Libertys and propertys even to the last Extremity". Topsfield sent two militia companies numbering 110 "Minute Men" under the command of Capt. Joseph Gould, to answer the Lexington Alarm on April 19, 1775. As Dow tells us, "The news from Lexington, spreading like wildfire in every direction, reached this place at about ten o’clock in the forenoon. The farmers were busy in their fields, but there was no hesitation. The plough was stayed mid-furrow, and within an hour, many were on their way to the scene of the conflict." Topsfield men participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill

Battle of Bunker Hill

The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17, 1775, mostly on and around Breed's Hill, during the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War...

 on June 17, 1775, and were part of General Washington's Continental army throughout the remainder of the American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

.

Advances in communication, transportation and commerce in the nineteenth century wove Topsfield ever more tightly into the fabric of the new republic. In 1803, Governor Caleb Strong chartered the Newburyport Turnpike Corporation, a profit-making venture that proposed building a toll road straight from Newburyport through Topsfield to Boston. Proponents of the turnpike claimed it would be a far more efficient way between the two endpoints, cutting travel time from six to four hours. Work on the Turnpike began in August 1803 and involved immense amounts of manual and animal labor. When the Newburyport Turnpike opened for business on February 11, 1805, its builders claimed it was the best in the nation. The turnpike had tollhouses located in Newbury, Topsfield and Chelsea, each with a large gate that swung open and closed across the way. Stagecoaches ran regularly carrying passengers, mail and freight, though not without difficulty over the Topsfield's steep hills. Accidents were common. The Newburyport Turnpike Corporation was never particularly profitable and became less so with the advent of the railroad. The corporation ceased operations around 1847 and sold the turnpike to Essex County in the early 1850s.

In contrast to the straightness of the turnpike, Topsfield was one of the towns surrounded by the original "Gerrymander" - meandering electoral districts drawn by Governor Elbridge Gerry

Elbridge Gerry

Elbridge Thomas Gerry was an American statesman and diplomat. As a Democratic-Republican he was selected as the fifth Vice President of the United States , serving under James Madison, until his death a year and a half into his term...

 in 1812 to further the interests of his political party. The Gerrymander brought Topsfield little claim to fame; but on June 12, 1818, the State legislature did something that would bring Topsfield its greatest claim to fame - it chartered the Essex Agricultural Society, the organization that runs the Topsfield Fair.

Nineteenth and early twentieth century: railroad, Civil War, shoes and immigration

In the middle of the nineteenth century, entrepreneurs in New England started small railroad companies. John Wright and Asa Pingree were among the Topsfield men who chartered the Danvers and Georgetown Railroad in 1851, with plans to run a rail line between those two towns through Topsfield. Railroad cars entered Topsfield for the first time on August 12, 1854. When the line was open for public travel on October 23, the Boston Transcript wrote: "It was a great day for the hardworking citizens of several towns of Essex County when a new route between Boston and Newburyport was opened to the public. We understand a large number of persons from Georgetown, Boxford and Topsfield, who had never travelled with a steam horse, ventured the experiment of jumping on and trying him." The Topsfield station was first on Main Street and moved to a new location on Park Street in 1897. Railroad mergers and other unions were common at this time. By 1905, a number of the local lines – the Danvers and Georgetown, the Danvers Railroad, the Newburyport Railroad

Newburyport Railroad

The Newburyport Railroad was a railroad that came about from the merger of three small rail companies into one large company to compete with the Eastern Railroad....

 and the Eastern Railroad (Massachusetts)

Eastern Railroad (Massachusetts)

The Eastern Railroad was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts, to Portland, Maine. Throughout its history, it competed with the Boston and Maine Railroad for service between those two cities, until the Boston & Maine finally put an end to the competition by leasing the Eastern in December...

 among them – were effectively made part of the Boston and Maine Railroad

Boston and Maine Railroad

The Boston and Maine Corporation , known as the Boston and Maine Railroad until 1964, was the dominant railroad of the northern New England region of the United States for a century...

.

The news of the firing on Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter is a Third System masonry coastal fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.- Construction :...

 on April 12, 1861, reached Topsfield about five o’clock that afternoon. Topsfield sent 113 soldiers to the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 and appropriated funds for recruiting and supporting them. Dow adds that: "The ladies of Topsfield worked heartily in the cause of the soldiers during the war, and forwarded to the army, money, clothing and hospital stores". The Topsfield soldiers – many of whom may never before have "travelled with a steam horse" or left town at all – fought and died in places far from home: Bull Run, Virginia; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; and Fort Hudson, Louisiana, to name just a few. Several men of Topsfield died as prisoners in the Confederate's notorious Andersonville Prison

Andersonville prison

The Andersonville prison, officially known as Camp Sumter, served as a Confederate Prisoner-of-war camp during the American Civil War. The site of the prison is now Andersonville National Historic Site in Andersonville, Georgia. Most of the site actually lies in extreme southwestern Macon County,...

 in Georgia. In 1860, Topsfield had a population of 1,292, but in 1865 that number had fallen to 1,212. In his will, Dr. Justin Allen left money to the town to erect a monument to honor Topsfield soldiers of the Civil War. Alphonso T. Merrill's design, called "The wounded color Sergeant", is a prominent landmark on the Topsfield Common, dedicated in 1914.

Up to and through the 19th century, Topsfield was principally an agrarian town, but one industry - the manufacture of shoes - flourished for a while in Topsfield, as it did at this time across New England. The town records mention the first shoe maker in 1838. The industry picked up in Topsfield during the Civil War, as sewed shoes were beginning to supersede pegged ones, and many Essex County firms supplied shoes to the Union troops. In 1867, four shoe manufacturing firms were located in town. The Herrick family owned the largest, founded in 1837. Topsfield shoes found customers across the United States and it was said that, at its highest point of production, Topsfield shipped 200,000 pairs annually. The shoe business in Topsfield declined after the Civil War. The Herrick family, the last manufacturer in town, ceased operations in the early 20th century.

In one sense, all the people in Topsfield are immigrants, now that the Agawam people were gone. During the time of the Irish Potato famine, a wave of Irish immigrants came to America, arriving in Topsfield in the 1850s to work constructing the railroad. Dow tells us "The Irishmen employed in the making of the roadbed were brought into Topsfield in 50 tipcarts, just at the edge of the evening [after the work day was over]." The Irish workers slept in town and later occupied shanties located above the railroad bridge, which crosses West Street. The first known Catholic families moved to Topsfield during this time. Italian immigrants arrived in the wave of immigration, mostly from eastern and southern Europe, which occurred from 1890 to 1920. They worked constructing the great estates and summerhouses in Essex County. On the estate of Thomas E. Proctor, now owned by the Massachusetts Audubon Society

Massachusetts Audubon Society

The Massachusetts Audubon Society, founded in 1896 by Harriet Hemenway and headquartered in Lincoln, Massachusetts, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "Protecting the nature of Massachusetts." Mass Audubon is independent of the National Audubon Society, and in fact was founded...

 (the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary

Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary

The Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary, which is the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s largest wildlife sanctuary, is located in Topsfield and Wenham, Massachusetts. Much of its landscape was created by a glacier 15,000 years ago. The park's more than ten miles of interconnected trails wind...

), Italian immigrant stonemasons constructed the "Rockery" - a lavish rock garden and series of caverns - which still exists. They lived in shanties during the construction. Historians believe that Topsfield's first Italian families are descended from these masons.

Modern period: technological advances, automobiles, Route 128 and suburbia

The turnpike and railroad were important technological advances affecting Topsfield history in the early and middle 19th century, but the pace of technological change picked up dramatically as that century came to a close. The 1870s and 1880s saw the invention of three technologies that we take for granted today, but were revolutionary in their day: the electric light bulb, the telephone

Telephone

The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

 and centrally-generated electricity generation

Electricity generation

Electricity generation is the process of generating electric energy from other forms of energy.The fundamental principles of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s by the British scientist Michael Faraday...

. All three were available to Topsfield residents by the 1890s and boomed after the turn of the century. These technologies, like the turnpike and railroad before them, integrated the town of Topsfield ever more closely into the county, the state, the nation and the world.

The automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

, however, affected Topsfield more than any other technology by allowing its residents to disconnect where they lived from where they worked. Automobiles need roads, of course, and quality and quantity of road-building accelerated during the twentieth century. Massachusetts Route 128, with Boston at its center, quietly but powerfully influenced Topsfield's history and character. Originally known as the "Circumferential Highway", Route 128 was the first limited-access beltway in the United States. The Route 128 number dates from the origin of the Massachusetts highway system in the 1920s. By the 1950s, Route 128 ran from Nantasket Beach in Hull to Gloucester. With the rapid growth of high-technology industry in the suburban areas along Route 128, the highway came to symbolize the Boston high-tech community itself. In 1955, Business Week magazine ran an article titled "New England Highway Upsets Old Way of Life" and referred to Route 128 as "the Magic Semicircle". The number of companies grew rapidly from that point in time, many of them involved with space race

Space Race

The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national...

 and cold war

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 defense projects. In the 1980s, the positive effects of this growth on the Massachusetts economy were dubbed the "Massachusetts Miracle". Throughout this period of expansion, employees of the Route 128 companies made Topsfield their home.

For its first three hundred years, Topsfield was a small farm town. But each year from its colonial period Topsfield has grown more closely connected to the larger world. More than anything else, affordable automobiles and modern road systems changed Topsfield and made the town what it is today - a suburban bedroom community within the greater Boston metropolitan area.

Geography and transportation

According to the United States Census Bureau

United States Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, Topsfield has a total area of 12.8 square miles (33.3 km²), of which, 12.7 square miles (33.0 km²) are land and 0.1 square mile (0.3 km²) (0.78%) is water. Topsfield lies in the geographic center of Essex County, Massachusetts. Like its namesake

Toppesfield

Toppesfield is a small village, historically associated with arable farming, in north Essex, England.-Inhabitants:Toppesfield has approximately three-hundred inhabitants...

 in Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, England, Topsfield has within its bounds some of the highest land in the county. The Pierce Farm hill rises 280 feet above sea level and the Great Hill and Town Hill are both over 260 feet. The Ipswich River

Ipswich River

Ipswich River is a small river in northeastern Massachusetts, USA. It is long, and its watershed is approximately , with an estimated population in the area of 160,000 people. - Geography :...

 (called '"Agawam" by the Native American tribe of the same name) flows through Topsfield. Hood's Pond, covering an area of sixty-eight acres in the northern part of town, is the largest body of water in Topsfield, though most of it lies in Ipswich. Topsfield also includes parts of the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary, the Bradley Palmer State Park

Bradley Palmer State Park

Bradley Palmer State Park is a Massachusetts state park located in Hamilton, Massachusetts and Topsfield, Massachusetts. The park is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. The park is based on a former estate willed to the state expressly for the use of its citizens on the death...

, Willowdale State Forest and the entirety of Topsfield Town Forest.

Clockwise from the north, Topsfield is bounded by Ipswich

Ipswich, Massachusetts

Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,987 at the 2000 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island...

, Hamilton

Hamilton, Massachusetts

Hamilton is a town located in the eastern central portion of Essex County in eastern Massachusetts. It is primarily a suburban bedroom community, most commonly known for its equestrian estates...

, Wenham

Wenham, Massachusetts

Wenham is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,875 at the 2010 census.The Town of Wenham was originally settled in 1635 and has retained much of its unique historic character and tranquil rural scenery...

, Danvers

Danvers, Massachusetts

Danvers is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. Located on the Danvers River near the northeastern coast of Massachusetts, Danvers is most widely known for its association with the 1692 Salem witch trials, and for its famous asylum, the Danvers State Hospital.-17th century:The land...

, Middleton

Middleton, Massachusetts

Middleton is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 8,987 at the 2010 census.- History :Middleton was first settled in 1659 and was officially incorporated in 1728. Prior to 1728 it was considered a part of Salem, and contains territory previously within the...

 and Boxford

Boxford, Massachusetts

Boxford is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 7,965 at the 2010 census.Part of the town comprises the census-designated place of Boxford.-Geography:...

. Topsfield is located approximately ten miles north of Salem

Salem, Massachusetts

Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...

 and 22 miles north of Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

. Part of the North Shore

North Shore (Massachusetts)

The North Shore is a region in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, loosely defined as the coastal area between Boston and New Hampshire. The region is made up both of a rocky coastline, dotted with marshes and wetlands, as well as several beaches and natural harbors. The North Shore is an important...

 in name, if not in actuality, Topsfield is twelve miles south of the Merrimack River

Merrimack River

The Merrimack River is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Massachusetts, and then flows northeast until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport...

 and eight miles from Massachusetts Bay

Massachusetts Bay

The Massachusetts Bay, also called Mass Bay, is one of the largest bays of the Atlantic Ocean which forms the distinctive shape of the coastline of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Its waters extend 65 miles into the Atlantic Ocean. Massachusetts Bay includes the Boston Harbor, Dorchester Bay,...

 and the Atlantic Ocean. Interstate 95

Interstate 95 in Massachusetts

Interstate 95 is the main highway on the East Coast of the United States, paralleling the Atlantic Ocean from Florida to Maine. The Massachusetts portion of the highway enters from the state of Rhode Island in Attleboro and travels in a northeasterly direction to the junction with Route 128 in...

 passes through the southwestern corner of town, with exits in neighboring Danvers and Boxford. The town is nearly bisected from southwest to northeast by U.S. Route 1

U.S. Route 1

U.S. Route 1 is a major north–south U.S. Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs 2,377 miles from Fort Kent, Maine at the Canadian border south to Key West, Florida. U.S. 1 generally parallels Interstate 95, though it is significantly farther west between...

, known locally as the "Newburyport Turnpike" or "Old Boston Road." From northwest to southeast, Route 97

Massachusetts Route 97

Route 97 is a south–north highway in Essex County in northeastern Massachusetts. It connects the cities of Beverly and Haverhill before continuing into Salem, New Hampshire as New Hampshire Route 97.-Route description:...

 also crosses through town. (A few yards of Route 35

Massachusetts Route 35

Route 35 is a Massachusetts State Route running through the towns of Danvers and Peabody in northeastern Massachusetts.-Route description:Route 35 begins at Route 114 in Peabody, as that route turns left off the right-of-way towards Route 128 and the Northshore Mall. After passing Bishop Fenwick...

 enter the town as well, before terminating at Route 97.) The now-abandoned Boston and Maine Railroad

Boston and Maine Railroad

The Boston and Maine Corporation , known as the Boston and Maine Railroad until 1964, was the dominant railroad of the northern New England region of the United States for a century...

 line passes through town; the town lies west of the Newburyport/Rockport Line

Newburyport/Rockport Line

The Newburyport/Rockport Line is a branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, running northeast from downtown Boston, Massachusetts towards Cape Ann and the Merrimack Valley, serving the North Shore. The first leg serves Chelsea, Lynn, Swampscott, Salem, and Beverly. From there, a northern branch of...

 of the MBTA Commuter Rail

MBTA Commuter Rail

The MBTA Commuter Rail serves as the regional rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, in the United States. It is operated under contract by the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company a joint partnership of Veolia Transportation, Bombardier Transportation and Alternate...

. The nearest airport is the Beverly Municipal Airport

Beverly Municipal Airport

Beverly Municipal Airport is a public-use airport located three miles northwest of the central business district of Beverly, a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States...

, with the nearest national and international air service at Boston's Logan International Airport

Logan International Airport

General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport is located in the East Boston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts . It covers , has six runways, and employs an estimated 16,000 people. It is the 19th busiest airport in the United States.Boston serves as a focus city for JetBlue Airways...

.

Demographics

At the 2000 census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, there were 6,141 people, 2,099 households and 1,712 families residing in the town. The population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 482.1 per square mile (186.1/km²). There were 2,144 housing units at an average density of 65.0 persons/km² (168.3 persons/sq mi). The racial makeup of the town was 97.8% White, 0.4% African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

, 0.03% Native American, 0.85% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.34% from other races, and 0.65% from two or more races. 0.83% of the population were Hispanic

Hispanic

Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...

 or Latino

Latino

The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...

 of any race.

There were 2,099 households of which 40.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 73.7% were married couples living together, 6.1% have a woman whose husband does not live with her, and 18.4% were non-families. 16.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.87 and the average family size was 3.22.

Age distribution was 28.2% under the age of 18, 4.6% from 18 to 24, 24.7% from 25 to 44, 27.0% from 45 to 64, and 15.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 94.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.3 males.

The median household income

Median household income

The median household income is commonly used to generate data about geographic areas and divides households into two equal segments with the first half of households earning less than the median household income and the other half earning more...

 was $96,430, and the median family income was $104,475. Males had a median income of $67,428 versus $43,780 for females. The per capita income

Per capita income

Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the town was $37,770 1.7% of the population and 0.4% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 0.0% are under the age of 18 and 4.1% are 65 or older.

Topsfield town government

Topsfield is governed by a five-member Board of Selectman. One member is elected each year to serve for three years. The current members are: A. Richard Gandt; Karen A. Dow, clerk; Nancy J. Luther; Martha A. Morrison, chair; and Laura J. Powers.

The Board of Selectmen is an outgrowth of, or an agent of, the major decision-making body, the Town Meeting. The office has evolved through more than three hundred years of tradition and custom. In addition to those duties which have been established by custom, the Selectmen's powers and duties are determined by the provisions of the Massachusetts General Laws and the respective town bylaws. The Selectmen have general supervision over all matters not specifically delegated by law or town vote to some other officer or board. The Selectmen meet regularly on Monday night in the Proctor School Library. All meetings are open to the public and are televised and can be viewed on Channel 10/47, the Community Channel. Selectmen's meetings, like those of all public boards and committees, must be posted at least 48 hours in advance. They are open to the public and subject to the requirements of the state Open Meeting Law Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 39, Section 23B. The Board may retire to executive session only to discuss those matters permitted by law. The Board must state which of the eight provisions is being invoked at that time. All minutes are a matter of public record except when they need to remain secret long enough to protect the legal purposes of the session.

State government

Topsfield is part of the Second Essex state senate district (seat held in 2009 by Senator Frederick E. Berry (D)) and the Thirteenth Essex state congressional district (seat held in 2009 by Representative Theodore C. Speliotis (D)).

Federal government

Congress is part of the Sixth Congressional District of Massachusetts (seat held in 2009 by Representative John F. Tierney (D)).

Education

Topsfield has two public elementary schools: Steward School, serving preschool through third grade; and Proctor Elementary School, serving fourth through sixth grade. In the 1970s, each of these schools had all the elementary grades and students attended from different parts of town. Masconomet Regional Middle School and Masconomet Regional High School

Masconomet Regional High School

Masconomet Regional High School is located in Topsfield, Massachusetts, and serves the towns of Boxford, Middleton and Topsfield.Masconomet Regional Middle School serves grades 7 and 8 while the Masconomet Regional High School serves grades 9 through 12. Both schools are located on the same property...

, situated together in Boxford

Boxford, Massachusetts

Boxford is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 7,965 at the 2010 census.Part of the town comprises the census-designated place of Boxford.-Geography:...

, serve seventh through eighth grade and ninth through twelfth grade, respectively. Both the high school and middle school enroll students from Boxford and Middleton

Middleton, Massachusetts

Middleton is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 8,987 at the 2010 census.- History :Middleton was first settled in 1659 and was officially incorporated in 1728. Prior to 1728 it was considered a part of Salem, and contains territory previously within the...

. In athletics, Masconomet is part of the Cape Ann League.

Annual events

Topsfield is home of the Topsfield Fair, which attracted almost 500,000 visitors in 2008. The fair, one of the oldest in America, was started in 1818 by the recently formed Essex Agricultural Society. The first annual fair was a cattle show held by the society on October 5, 1818. The president of the society, Timothy Pickering, was awarded a first-place prize for the "superior performance of his plow." The Topsfield Fair ran every year following that first show, with the exception of three years during the Civil War and three years during World War II. The fair today features carnival rides, games and concert events in addition to the more traditional attractions, such as exhibitions of livestock, rabbits and cavies, crafts, horses and produce. The fair also hosts the All New England Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off. The current record-holding pumpkin was entered in 2007 and weighed 1,689 pounds.

Topsfield residents have traditionally celebrated Memorial Day

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...

 with a parade through the center of town to honor Topsfield's living veterans and those who have died in service of the county. Topsfield residents served in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Spanish American war and all of the wars of the twentieth century. A memorial to Topsfield's veterans is on the common.

Summer begins in Topsfield with the Topsfield Historical Society's Strawberry Festival in early June. Bowls of fresh strawberries, whipped cream and piles of shortcakes are served by volunteer members. This can be the first introduction to small town life for Topsfield newcomers - all the local groups such as the Garden Clubs, the Friends of the Library, the Newcomers Club among many others are available to explain their activities and invite new members. Old timers look forward to live music, displays of arts and crafts the latest donations to the Friends of the Library book sale.

Points of interest

• Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary
  Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary
  The Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary, which is the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s largest wildlife sanctuary, is located in Topsfield and Wenham, Massachusetts. Much of its landscape was created by a glacier 15,000 years ago. The park's more than ten miles of interconnected trails wind...
  
  
• Parson Capen House
  Parson Capen House
  The Parson Capen House is a historic house in Topsfield, Massachusetts that was built in the late 17th century. It has drawn attention as an example of early colonial architecture and due to its well preserved condition compared to other houses built at that time.-History:The Capen house was built...
  
  
• Coolidge Estate
  Coolidge Estate
  The Coolidge Estate, located in Topsfield, Massachusetts, is the former property of William A. Coolidge, a lawyer, financier, and art collector. Encompassing , it includes a 24-room Georgian-style mansion designed by architect Phillip Richardson in 1921, other buildings, and landscaping by the...
  
  

External links

• Topsfield Historical Society
• Topsfield Schools
• Masconomet Regional High School
• Council on Youth & Family Services
• Mormon Historic Markers in Topsfield