SOUTHBRIDGE  , a township of

Worcester county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., on the Quinabaug river (which here falls 165 ft.), about 20 M . S.S.W. of Worcester . Pop . (1900), 10,025, of whom 3468 were foreign-born; (1910 census), 12,592 . Area, about 20 sq. m . The township is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway, and by inter-urban (electric) lines to Worcester and Springfield . The Southbridge public library (1870) contained 22,000 volumes in 1910 . Optical goods, cotton, woollen and print goods, cutlery and shuttles are the principal manufactures; in 1905 the value of the total factory product was $4,202,8J3 . The factory of the American Optical Company here is probably the largest of its kind in the world . In 18oi a poll parish, named the Second Religious Society of Charlton, and popularly called Honest Town, was formed from the west part of Dudley, the south-west part of Charlton and the south-east part of Sturbridge; and in 1816 this parish became the township of Southbridge . Sec the Leaflets published (1901 sqq.) by the Quinabaug Historical Society of Southbridge .