Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/45

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GLOUCESTER 37 cester runs daily to Boston. The manufac- tures are almost exclusively confined to articles pertaining to the fisheries, embracing anchors, ice crushers, bait mills, ships' blocks, masts and spars, boats, leads, fish guano, &c. There are six marine railways and 70 wharves. The extensive granite quarries on the N. side of the cape furnish stone which is mostly used for paving, but a considerable quantity is also prepared for other purposes. The new post office in Boston is built of Gloucester granite, and the base of the Scott monument in Wash- ington, an immense block weighing nearly 100 tons, is of the same material. The city con- tains three national banks, with an aggregate capital of $570,000, and three marine insurance companies. It is divided into eight wards, and is governed by a mayor, a board of aldermen of 8, and a common coun- cil of 24 members. There is a police court, an effi- cient police force, and a well organized fire de- partment. The assessed value of property in 1873 was $7,714,520 ; taxa- tion, $161,352; debt, $218,000; value of prop- erty belonging to the city, $330,785. It is lighted with gas. The principal charitable as- sociations are the Glou- cester fishermen's and seamen's widows' and orphans' aid society and the ladies' charitable so- ciety. There are 24 pub- lic schools, viz. : 1 high, 7 grammar, 12 primary, and 4 ungraded, attend- ed by about 3,000 pu- pils, and supported at an annual cost of about $40,000. Two weekly newspapers are publish- ed. The Sawyer free library contains about 4,000 volumes. The number of churches is 12, viz. : 2 Baptist, 2 Congregational, 1 Epis- copal, 3 Methodist, 1 Roman Catholic, 1 Unita- rian, and 2 Universalist. Besides these, there is a society of Swedenborgians who do not possess a church edifice. The Indian name of Gloucester was Wingaersheek. It was occu- pied as a fishing station in 1 624, being the first place settled by the English on the N. side of Massachusetts bay. In 1642 it was incorpo- rated as a town under its present name, some of the principal inhabitants having come from Gloucester, England. The first schooner ever constructed was built, here in 1713 by Capt. Andrew Robinson. The British sloop of war Falcon, Capt. Lindsay, assailed the town Aug. 8, 1775, bombarded it for several hours, and attempted to cut out some vessels in the har- bor, but was driven off by the inhabitants. In the second war with Great Britain, Sept. 8, 1814, Gloucester was attacked by the British frigate Tenedos, which, however, did no se- rious damage. In both of these wars the town sent out swarms of privateers, and contributed largely to the manning of the navy. It be- came a city in January, 1874. GLOUCESTER, a city and municipal and par- liamentary borough of England, one of the county towns of Gloucestershire, on the left bank of the Severn, 95 m. W. by N. of Lon- don; pop. in 1871, 18,330. The chief public edifice is the cathedral, originally the church of a Benedictine abbey. It was built and added to at various periods from the llth to the 15th century, and is one of the most celebrated Eng- lish cathedrals. It is remarkable for the perfec- tion of the styles of architecture which indicate Gloucester 'Cathedral, from the Southeast. the different periods of erection and addition, and the choir is considered one of the finest ex- amples of florid Gothic in the world. It con- tains many monuments, among others those of Robert, son of William the Conqueror, Edward II., Bishop Warburton, and Dr. Edward Jenner. The city also has several handsome parish churches, a college, blue-coat and free grammar schools, the county hall, hospitals, &c. The handsomest portion of the town is at the S. end, around a spring of saline chalybeate water discovered in 1814. The staple manufactures are pins, hardware, gloves, saddles, canvas, cutlery, ropes, and soap ; and some ship build- ing is carried on. A bell foundery was estab- lished prior to 1500, but it has recently been removed. Since the completion in 1827 of the Berkeley ship canal, by which vessels of 500 tons burden can come up to the city, the com- mercial importance of Gloucester has greatly