HISTORY:
Early industry in the town included farming, cattle, fishing and salt marsh haying. Tragically, a number of the town's early families held people as slaves, including the Winslow family at Green Harbor, as well as the Winslow and Kent families at Rexhame beach. Some of the ancient and beautiful stone walls along the fields and roads in Marshfield were likely built by people held as slaves by Marshfield families.   An early nail factory, founded by Jesse Reed, was one of the first to manufacture nails by machine. Shipbuilding grew in the town, and over 1,000 ships were built along the North River in town during the nineteenth century. The town is also the site of Brant Rock, where Reginald Fessenden built the antenna from which he sent his first transatlantic voice radio broadcast in 1907.
In 1941, a great conflagration engulfed the eastern part of the town. Approximately 400 buildings burnt down in three hours. This was one of the largest fires in terms of structures destroyed in the history of the United States. The tragedy was the subject of national news coverage, including photographic coverage in Life Magazine

DEMOGRAPHICS:
Marshfield is located on the South Shore, about where Cape Cod Bay meets the Massachusetts Bay.   According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 31.74 sq mi (82.2 km²). 28.46 sq mi (73.7 km²) of it is land and 3.28 sq mi (8.5 km²) of it (10.33%) is water. Marshfield is bordered by Massachusetts Bay to the east, Duxbury to the south and southeast, Pembroke to the west, Norwell to the northwest, and Scituate to the north and northeast. Marshfield is eighteen miles (29 km) east of Brockton and twenty-nine miles southeast of Boston.   Marshfield is named for the many salt marshes which dot the landscape in the town. There are three rivers, the North (along the northern border of the town), South (which branches at the mouth of the North River and heads south through the town) and the Green Harbor River (which flows just west of Brant Rock and Green Harbor Point at the south of town).  The South River divides a peninsula from the rest of the town, where Rexhame village and the Humarock and Fourth Cliff neighborhoods of the town of Scituate lie. The Scituate neighborhoods can be reached by land by two bridges, or by foot along Rexhame Beach. The Rexhame-Humarock peninsula is a barrier beach with an 84 ft (26 m). high moraine, one of only two barrier beach moraines on the east coast of the United States.  Marshfield is also the site of several small forests and conservation areas, including the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary along the Green Harbor River and the North River Wildlife Sanctuary, along Route 3A.   

As of the census of 2000, there were 24,324 people, 8,905 households, and 6,598 families residing in the town. The population density was 854.8 people per square mile (330.1/km²). There were 9,954 housing units at an average density of 349.8/sq mi (135.1/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 92.69% White, 3.54% Black or African American, 0.11% Native American, 0.37% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.52% from other races, and 0.76% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.67% of the population. There were 8,905 households out of which 37.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.9% were married couples living together, 10.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.9% were non-families. 20.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.20.   In the town the population was spread out with 27.4% under the age of 18, 5.7% from 18 to 24, 31.2% from 25 to 44, 26.2% from 45 to 64, and 9.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 95.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.6 males.  The median income for a household in the town was $112,508, and the median income for a family was $140,541. Males had a median income of $98,600 versus $69,975 for females. The per capita income for the town was $66,768. About 3.8% of families and 0.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.7% of those under age 18 and 4.8% of those age 65 or over.

EDUCATION:
Marshfield operates its own school system for the town's nearly 4,700 students. There are five elementary schools: Governor Edward Winslow Elementary School, Daniel Webster Elementary School, Eames Way Elementary School, Martinson Elementary School and South River Elementary School.  The Elementary Schools serve students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. (Eames Way and South River, however, do not have pre-kindergarten classes).   The Furnace Brook Middle School serves students from sixth through eighth grade. FBMS is a top school, winner of the Jimmy Fund Cancer Research Foundation Contest in 2006, 2007, and 2009. The school consists of 3 clusters in each grade level (Red, Yellow, and Crimson in 6th, Green, Blue, and Purple in 7th, and Gold, Pink, and Orange in 8th).  Marshfield High School serves grades nine through twelve. Marshfield High School's athletic teams are known as the Rams, and their colors are green, white, and black. There are no private or vocational schools in the town; the nearest private schools are in neighboring Scituate and Duxbury (as well as a charter school in Norwell). The nearest college is Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, MA. 

TRANSPORTATION:
Route 3, also known as the Pilgrims Highway, skirts the town along the Pembroke town line, and can be accessed in Marshfield via the Route 139 exit. Route 139 loops through the town, with a long portion passing along the beaches of the Ocean Bluff and Fieldston neighborhoods before heading north and east into Pembroke. Route 3A also passes through the town, entering from the south in Duxbury and exiting over the North River into Scituate. There is daily bus service connecting with the MBTA station in Braintree and another bus connecting with South Station in Boston. The nearest train station is the Greenbush station in Scituate. There is a commuter ferry to Boston available in Hingham. The nearest airport is Logan International Airport in Boston. The area is also served by T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island. The nearest freight rail service is in Wareham.