Framingham is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 66,910, making it the most populous New England town town in New England. There have been several proposals to change the town's charter to make Framingham a city, but none have succeeded.

Pronunciation
The first syllable of the name is pronounced with a long a; that is, the name of the town is pronounced exactly like the two words'framing'and'ham. '

History

Framingham, sited on the ancient trail known as the Old Connecticut Path, was first settled when John Stone settled...

Framingham is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 66,910, making it the most populous New England town town in New England. There have been several proposals to change the town's charter to make Framingham a city, but none have succeeded.

Pronunciation
The first syllable of the name is pronounced with a long a; that is, the name of the town is pronounced exactly like the two words'framing'and'ham. '

History

Framingham, sited on the ancient trail known as the Old Connecticut Path, was first settled when John Stone settled on the west bank of the Sudbury River in 1647. In 1660, Thomas Danforth, an official of the Bay Colony, formerly of Framlingham Framlingham, Suffolk, received a grant of land at'Danforth's Farms'and began to accumulate over. He strenuously resisted petitions for incorporation of the town, which was officially incorporated in 1700, following his death the previous year. Why the'L'was dropped for the new town's name is not known. The first church was organized in 1701, the first teacher was hired in 1706, and the first permanent schoolhouse in 1716.

On February 22, 1775, the British general Thomas Gage sent two officers and an enlisted man out of Boston to survey the route to Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester. In Framingham those spies stopped at Buckminster's Tavern. They watched the town militia muster outside the building, impressed with the men's numbers but not their discipline. Though'the whole company'came into the tavern after their drill, the officers managed to remain undetected and continued on their mission the next day. Gage did not order a march along that route, instead ordering troops to Concord, Massachusetts Concord on April 18-19. Framingham sent two militia companies totaling about 130 men into the Battles of Lexington and Concord that followed; one of those men was wounded.

In the years prior to the Civil War, Framingham was an annual gathering-spot for members of the Abolitionist movement. Every Independence Day (United States) Independence Day from 1854 to 1865, the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society held a rally in a picnic area called Harmony Grove near what is now downtown Framingham. At the 1854 rally, William Lloyd Garrison burned copies of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, judicial decisions enforcing it, and the United States Constitution. Other prominent Abolitionists present that day included William C. Nell, Sojourner Truth, Wendell Phillips, Lucy Stone, and Henry David Thoreau. >http://www.masshist.org/objects/2005july.cfm