FRAMINGHAM  , a township of

Middlesex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., having an area of 27 sq. m. of hilly surface, dotted with lakes and ponds . Pop . (189o) 9239; (1900) 11,302, of whom 2391 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 12,948 . It is served by the Boston & Albany, and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways . Included within the township are three villages, Framingham Center, Saxonville and South Framingham, the last being much the most important . Framing-ham Academy was established in 1792, and in 1851 became a part of the public school system . A state normal school (the first normal school in the United States, established at Lexington in 1839, removed to Newton in 1844 and to Framingham in 1853) is situated here; and near South Framingham, in the township of Sherborn, is the state reformatory prison for women . South Framingham has large manufactories of paper tags, shoes, boilers, carriage wheels and leather board; formerly straw braid and bonnets were the principal manufactures . Saxonville manufactures worsted cloth . The value of the township's factory products increased from $3,007,801 in 1900 to $4,173,579 in 1905, or 38.8% . Framingham was first settled about 164o, and was named in honour of the English home (Framlingham) of Governor Thomas Danforth (1622-1699), to whom the land once belonged . In 1700 it was incorporated as a township .

The " old

Connecticut path," the Boston-to-Worcester turnpike, was important to the early fortunes of Framingham Center, while the Boston & Worcester railway (1834) made the greater fortune of South Framingham . See J . H . Temple, History of Framingham . . . 1640-1880 (Framingham, 1887) .