Place Information
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East Bridgewater is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,974 at the 2000 census. History
The lands that would become East Bridgewater were first settled by Europeans in 1630 as an outgrowth of the Plymouth and Duxbury plantations. It was a part of Olde Bridgewater, as the "East Parish" founded in 1723, until it officially separated from Bridgewater and incorporated on June 14th 1823. The town was located on the northern portion of the Taunton River system, and had an economy primarily based on agriculture, though industrial development followed. Iron works in the town provided muskets and cannon for the Colonial armies during the American Revolution. There was more residential development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries along the community's rail and trolley lines. The famous bank robber Jack Turner had a brother who owned a home in East Bridgewater during the mid 1800s. It is widely believed that Turner had left his fortune there before he was mistakenly shot by Union agents outside of Richmond, Virginia in 1864. Today, East Bridgewater is mostly known as a residential community. Research Tips
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