Acton

From Wikipedia: Acton is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, approximately 21 miles (34 km) west-northwest of Boston along Route 2 west of Concord and about ten miles (16 km) southwest of Lowell. Concord was the first inland colonial town established in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The original boundaries of Concord included all of Acton and residents used the Acton land as grazing fields for their animals. In 1639, the first homestead was built within the modern day boundaries of the town. Acton was established as an independent town on July 3, 1735. Acton residents participated in the growing hostility with Great Britain by sending a list of grievances to King George III on Oct. 3rd, 1774. The anniversary of this day is celebrated in Acton as Crown Resistance Day. At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, on April 19, 1775, a company of minutemen from Acton responded to the call to arms initiated by Paul Revere (who rode with other riders, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, with Prescott the only one of the three who was able reach Acton itself) and fought at the North Bridge in Concord as part of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. The Acton minutemen were led by Captain Isaac Davis. When a company was needed to lead the advance on the bridge which was defended by the British regulars, Captain Davis was heard to reply, "I haven't a man who is afraid to go." The Acton men led because, unlike other militias there, they were fully equipped with bayonets. The colonists advanced on the bridge; in the exchange of musket fire that followed, Captain Isaac Davis and Private Abner Hosmer of Acton were killed. Davis was the first officer to die in the American Revolutionary War. In Acton they refer to "the battle of Lexington, fought in Concord, by men of Acton."

Gardner

From Wikipedia: Gardner is a city in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Gardner is home to Dunn State Park, Gardner Heritage State Park, Lake Wampanoag Wildlife Sanctuary, and Mount Wachusett Community College. Named in honor of Col. Thomas Gardner, the community was first settled by Europeans in 1764 and officially incorporated as a town in 1785 after receiving land grants from the surrounding towns of Ashburnham, Westminster, Templeton and Winchendon. Dating from about 1805, it became a center for lumber and furniture industries. Gardner is known as the "Chair City" and "The Furniture Capital of New England", due to its long history in furniture production. By 1910 it had 20 chair factories which produced 4 million chairs per year. It was also noted for silversmithing. The Gardner State Colony for the Insane pioneered the use of cottage residences. Gardner was incorporated as a city in 1923.

Gill

From Wikipedia: Prior to the arrival of English colonists, the Massachusetts portion of the Connecticut River valley was occupied by the Nipmuc, an Algonquin-speaking tribe. A site on the river near the great falls shows evidence of human habitation dating back 10,000 years or more. In the 1670s the Nipmuc had a village called Peskeompscut in that area. During King Philip's War in 1676, Captain William Turner led 150 colonists in an attack on this settlement, in which several hundred Indians (mostly women, children, and elderly) were slain. The falls came to be known as Turners Falls after Turner, who was slain in the battle. The falls thereafter gave that name to the village of Turners Falls in neighboring Montague. Gill was first settled in 1776 and was officially incorporated in 1793. The town is named in honor of Moses Gill, a member of Massachusetts' Executive Council who became lieutenant governor in 1794 and acting governor in 1799 when Governor Increase Sumner died.

Devens

From Wikipedia: The town of Devens, Massachusetts is more locally known as Fort Devens. It is an inactive United States Army military installation in the towns of Ayer and Shirley, in Middlesex County and Harvard in Worcester County. It was named after jurist and Civil War general Charles Devens. The first military base on the site was established by Major Simon Willard, an English army officer, in 1656. Willard, a founder of the town of Concord, Massachusetts, was the commanding officer of "Willard’s Dragoons" of the Militia of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, one of the earliest organized military forces in central Massachusetts. Willard's home was situated near the Verbeck Gate of Fort Devens, and was destroyed in 1676 in a raid during King Philip's War. The U.S. Army post which resided at Fort Devens was officially closed in 1996 after 79 years of service. In January 2011 a group of Devens residents filed a citizens' petition for Devens to become a legally incorporated town. Efforts to make Devens the state's 352nd town failed on the local level in 2006. As of 2018, Devens is designated "a regional enterprise zone and census-designated place in the towns of Ayer and Shirley, in Middlesex County and Harvard in Worcester County," ergo not a town.