In 1734 the General Court in Boston granted a six-mile square township to the residents of Salem in Essex County, Massachusetts — land that would become New Salem. Jeremiah Meacham became the first settler there in 1737. Others followed, and in 1740 the first grist mill was built. In 1753, the settlers petitioned to become a town and New Salem was incorporated. By 1820, New Salem was the largest town in Franklin County, with 2,145 inhabitants. At that time, the town’s industry consisted mainly of palm leaf hat production, logging, tanning, and agriculture. After 1820, the population began to decline and by 1900 it was only 809. When the Quabbin Reservoir was formed by flooding part of the Swift River valley starting in 1939, New Salem lost some land and also gained some. The village of Millington in the southeast corner was flooded, and the town gained a long peninsula of land with the flooding of the town of Prescott.