Topsfield, Massachusetts
Essex county. This is a very pleasant town, watered by Ipswich river and its branches. The surface is agreeably diversified by hills and valleys. There are some fine tracts of intervale in the town, and the uplands possess a strong soil, rendered productive by industrious and skilful farmers. The principal manufacture is that of boots and shoes, in which between 500 and 600 hands are employed, making annually about $100,000 in value. This town lies 21 miles N. by E. from Boston and 9 N. by W. from Salem. Population, 1837, 1,049.
Topsfield was first settled about the year 1642. It was incorporated in 1650. Among the names of the first settlers were Peabody, Perkins, Clark, Cummings, Bradstreet, Gould, Town, Easty, Smith, and Wildes; many of whose descendants now cultivate the soil of their progenitors.
