Upton was originally the home of the Nipmuc, who inhabited most of central Massachusetts. Upton was not an original grant. It was first settled in 1728 and was officially incorporated by the General Court in June, 1735 from the outlying areas of four nearby towns, Hopkinton, Mendon, Uxbridge and Sutton. Rev. Thomas Weld was ordained the pastor, and the first meeting house was erected on the first burying ground located at the junction of Mendon and Grove Streets. Many of the first citizens are buried there. It is not clear who chose the name Upton for the town; however, it is known that in England there is an Upton which is situated 13 miles south of Worcester. Many towns in New England were named after English towns. In Massachusetts, the town of Upton, like its counterpart is also 13 miles south of Worcester.
This town presents a varied surface, changing from smooth to rough, and from hilly to more level ground. The soil is generally good and is pretty-well watered. A small stream, known by the name of West River, passes through the west part of the town, and flows into the Blackstone in the lower part of Oxbridge. Families worked small farms, with the women spinning wool, making candles, and preserving food, while the men plied supplemental specialties such as blacksmithing or shoemaking.
The main industry in Upton for 100 years was boots and shoes. Between 1730 and 1850, Upton was dotted with small shoe production shops, called “ten-footers” because the buildings were ten feet by ten feet. These operations were gradually merged into large assembly-line manufacturing companies. In 1837 the Upton factories produced 21.7% of all the boots manufactured in Worcester County. This was followed by the making of hats and bonnets. Many Upton women braided straw hats in their homes. In the 1830s, entrepreneur William Knowlton turned this cottage industry into what became, for 90 years, the largest women's hat factory in the world, employing nearly 1,000 workers.
Upton City Hall - Intersection of Main St and Grove St.
Old Burying Ground - Mendon and Grove Streets
Isaac Fisher, brother of Margaret Fisher and uncle of Joseph Hills, died in Upton.
Upton Beehive Chamber in the Upton Heritage Park - 18 Elm Street - a Neolithic chamber with a corbelled vaulted ceiling, similar to some of the ancient temple/burial places in Ireland. Julia Hills may have seen this as a child in Upton.
The Upton Historical Society arranges visits to an authentic, circa 1812, "ten-footer" boot shop.
Joseph Hills had property in Upton, but the exact location is unknown. In her piography of Julia Hills, Linda Thayne says that Joseph Hills’ farm sat on the southwest side of Upton, west of Hungry Hill, Andrew’s Brook and the West River, bound on the southwest by Northbridge, with Zachary’s Pond to the north and Moses Hill to the northwest. However, that was actually the property of a Joseph Hill, not Hills.
History of Upton from the Upton City Website
1845 History of Upton by John Warner Barber