BROCKTON  , a

city of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., about 20 ni . S. of Boston, and containing an area of 21 sq. m. of rolling surface . Pop . (1870) 8007; (1880)13,608; (1890) 27,294; (1900) 40,063, of whom 9484 were foreign-born, including 2667 Irish, 2199 English Canadians and 1973 Swedes; (1910, census) 56,878 . It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway . Brockton has a public library, with 54,000 volumes, in 1908 . By popular vote, beginning in 1886 (except in 1898), the liquor traffic was prohibited annually . The death-rate, 13.18 in 1907, is very low for a manufacturing city of its size . Brockton is the industrial centre of a large population surrounding it (East and West Bridgewater, North Easton, Avon, Randolph, Holbrook and Whitman), and is an important manufacturing place . Both in 1900 and in 1905 it ranked first among the cities of the United States in the manufacture of boots and shoes . The city's total factory product in 1900 was valued at $24,855,362, and in 1905 at $37,790,982, an increase during the five years of 52 % . The boot and shoe pro-duct in 1905 was valued at $30,073,014 (9.4 % of the value of the total boot and shoe product of the United States), the boot and shoe cut stock at $1,344,977, and the boot and shoe findings at $2,435,137—the three combined representing 89.6% of the city's total manufactured product .

In 1908 there were 35 shoe factories, including the W . L .

Douglas, the Ralston, the Walkover, the Eaton, the Keith and the Packard establishments, and, in 1905, 14,000,000 (in 1907 about 17,000,000) pairs of shoes were produced in the city . Among the other products are lasts, blacking, paper and wooden packing boxes, nails and spikes, and shoe fittings and tools . The assessed valuation of the city rose from $6,876,427 in 1881 to $37,408,332 in 1907 . Brockton was a part of Bridgewater until 1821, when it was incorporated as the township of North Bridgewater . Its present name was adopted in 1874, and it was chartered as a city in 1881 . Brockton was the first city in Massachusetts to abolish all grade crossings (1896) within its limits .