Like many towns in the area, Littleton had an influx of Irish during the mid and late 1800s. Many of the Irish settled during the 1840-50s when the Fitchburg Railroad came through and the Irish help set the rails. They settled along Taylor Street to be near work. In fact, Taylor Street was referred to as “Dublin Street” until named Taylor in 1896.
This snippet from the 1880 census shows a number of Irish families living next to each other. The last three columns show the birthplace of the person, birthplace of their father, and the birthplace of their mother. The names are still familiar to us today.
