OUR SHARED HISTORY

Comprised of the beautiful towns of Auburn, Millbury, Charlton, Oxford and Leicester, the 7th Worcester District is packed with history, small businesses and a community. 

The district represents approximately 44,000 hard working people as of 2020. The 7th Worcester District is steeped in American innovation and New England's industrial legacy. Auburn, settled in 1714 and named for Revolutionary War General Artemas Ward, is celebrated as the birthplace of modern rocketry where Robert H. Goddard launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket in 1926 from his aunt's farm. Millbury, incorporated in 1813, thrived as a mill town along the Blackstone river where Thomas Blanchard invented the eccentric lathe and Asa Waters pioneered water-powered gun manufacturing. The historic Lapham Woolen Mill and the elegant 1832 Asa Waters Mansion standing as testaments to its industrial prosperity. Oxford, founded by French Huguenots in 1687 who built a fort during King William's War, is the birthplace of American Red Cross founder Clara Barton and diabetes research pioneer Dr. Elliot P. Joslin. Clara Barton's Birthplace Museum preserves much of her humanitarian legacy that has made global impacts. Charlton, established in 1755 and incorporated during the Revolutionary War in 1775, is where William T.G. Morton first demonstrated ether as a surgical anesthetic in 1846. Leicester, incorporated in 1713 and originally called Towtaid by the Nipmuc people, holds a pivotal place in American history as the birthplace of the term "Minuteman"—coined in 1774 by Colonel William Henshaw and as an industrial powerhouse where Pliny Earle helped Samuel Slater build America's first carding machine, sparking the Industrial Revolution. The town's mills produced one-third of all American hand cards by the 1780s. Leicester also housed the first medical school in Massachusetts through Dr. Samuel Green's training of physicians. The 7th Worcester District is rich in national & global innovations that can still be seen today.