BEVERLY  , a seaboard

city of Essex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., situated on the N. shore of Massachusetts Bay, opposite Salem . It is 18 m. from Boston on the Boston & Maine railway . Pop . (189o) 10,821; (1900) 13,884, of whom 2814 were foreign-born; (1910, census) 18,65o . The land area of the city is about 15 sq. m . The surface is the typical glacial topography, with a few low, rocky hills, less than loo ft. in height . There are beautiful drives through well-wooded districts, studded with handsome summer houses . In the city are a public library, the Beverly hospital, the New England industrial school for deaf mutes (organized, 1876; incorporated, 1879), and the Beverly historical society (1891), which owns a large colonial house, in which there is a valuable historical collection . The city has an excellent public school system . There are a number of manufacturing establishments; in 1905 the total factory product of the city was valued at $4,101,168, boots and shoes accounting for more than one-half of the total . Leather and shoe machinery also are important manufactures; and the main plant of the United Shoe Machinery Corporation is located here . Market gardening is a considerable industry, and large quantities of vegetables are raised under glass for the Boston markets .

Fishing is an industry no longer of much importance . Beverly is connected by a

regular line of oil-steamers with Port Arthur, Texas, and is the main distributing point for the Texas oil fields . The first settlement within the limits of Beverly was made by Roger Conant in 1626 . The town was a part of Salem until 1668, when it was incorporated as a separate township; in 1894 it was chartered as a city . In 1788 there was established here the first cotton mill to be successfully operated in the United States . The manufacture of Britannia ware was begun in 1812 . George Cabot lived for many years in Beverly, which he represented in the provincial congress (1779); Nathan Dane (1752-1835) was also a resident; and it was the birthplace of Wilson Flagg (1805-1884), the author of Studies in the Field and Forest (1857), The Woods and By-Ways of New England (1872), The Birds and Seasons of New England (1875), and A Year with the Birds (1881) . It was also the birthplace and early home of Lucy Larcom (1826- 1893), and the scene of much of her Story of a New England Girlhood (Boston, 188q) .