Mumford River

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Mumford River

The Mumford River is a roughly 18-mile-long river in south-central Massachusetts. It starts at Manchaug Pond, near the towns of Sutton and Douglas, and flows east through several ponds—Manchaug, Stevens, Gilboa, Lackey, and Whitins—before reaching Whitinsville and joining the Blackstone River in Uxbridge. It is a tributary of the Blackstone River.

The river was named after a hunter named Mumford who drowned there in the 1600s, before Mendon was split into the towns we know today (Douglas, Sutton, Northbridge, and Uxbridge). Mendon was first settled around 1660.

In the Blackstone Valley, the Mumford River powered early mills and factories. The Whitin Machine Works at Whitinsville grew into the world’s largest maker of textile machines. Other mills on the Mumford River included the Linwood Mill and the Crown and Eagle Mill in North Uxbridge, the Capron Mill in Uxbridge, and the Winfield Shuster Mill in East Douglas.

See also: List of rivers of Massachusetts.