USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Dracut > History of Dracut, Massachusetts, called by the Indians Augumtoocooke and before incorporation, the wildernesse north of the Merrimac. First permanment settlement in 1669 and incorporated as a town in 1701 > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
6ly Voted that this committee or the major Peart of them are fully Impowered To Layout all the Vndivided Land as soon as convenently Be Done and they shall Be aLowed four shillings a Day By the Propriators for the servise herein.
7ly Voted this committee are Impowered to sell some of this Land that is not yet Divided To pay the charge of Laying out this Land if they see cause and the sale to Be Posted up in some publiek place.
Sly Voted That For The Time To come any two of the com- mittee and the Clark shall have Power to call a Propriator meat- ing By setting up a Notification in some Publick Place fourteen Days Before sd meating.
9ly Voted that this committee shall have Power to imploy the Surveir or artis in Laying out this Land so much as shall Be needful & the Propriators to Bear the charge of it. 10ly Voted that this committee shall Have full Power To Lay out what High Ways thay shall judge needful 11ly It is votted and aGreed upon that no man shall Debar an other From coming to his medows But Every man shall have sufficiant Liberty To come to his meadows For moing and makeing and careing of his hay. These are the several things that were a Greed upon at this meating and Uoted With a clear and unanimous Uote.
Atest EZEKIEL CHEEVER moderator of sd meating a Trew Copey ATeste NATHANIEL Fox.
Propriety Clerke."
The remainder of the book contains records of lots of land laid out and the locating of roads. Many of the lots are im- possible to locate and a general description only can be given. The expressions "for quantity and quality" are often used, which implies that the number of acres laid out to a proprietor were governed somewhat by the value. With arable land, a generous tract of meadow or swamp that could be made into meadow, was provided. With these a liberal amount of wood- land was assigned, which though not as valuable was necessary
91
HISTORY OF DRACUT
for their wood and timber. The English government reserved every straight pine tree above a certain size, marking it with a broad arrow. These were to furnish masts for the Royal Navy, and a penalty was attached for their destruction except by officers who had anthority to cut them. This may to some ex- tent account for the fact that so much oak timber was used for frames for buildings.
Northward of the lots described as lying on the river and east of the Russell Grant, the line, as stated, crossing Central- ville Heights and near Dracut Center Church building, was a large territory. The 200 acre lot has been described. Opposite this, on the south of Fox avenue, was a tract of 49 acres, divided into eight lots. It extended from the old highway opposite Albert Fox's house, now Chapman street, to the line of the farm formerly owned by Calvin Richardson.
Eastward of these lots and extending to the east line of the town, there were lots assigned to different ones, amongst them Nathaniel Fox, whose descendants in the seventh genera- tion occupy them, William Colburn, who lived near the Wallace Thissell farm; Ephraim Curtis, who lived at the farm now owned by Mr. Daigle; Joseph Varnum and Onesiphorous Marsh, who settled on their lots. Commencing at the line of the Billerica Grant, near Frank P. Fox's, and running eastwardly over Marsh and Burns' Hills to the vicinity of the Corliss Smith farm, was a range of twelve or more lots. They were bounded south on the Cedar Pond road, which is north of the Dracut reservoir and north on the Colburn New Meadow Farm, which was the meadows lying north of Marsh Hill.
Beginning at the west end, the first lot of 50 acres was laid out to Nathaniel Fox and Onesiphorous Marsh. The last named evidently sold to Fox, where descendants are now in possession ; it included the Darius L. Fox farm. Then in succession from west to east the proprietors were John Barron, Benjamin Wood, Anthony Negro, Ephraim Curtis, Ezekiel Cheever, and Ebenezer Thornton. The last named had the seventh and eighth lots of 62 acres each. Beyond these lots the owners were Cheever, Thornton, Marsh and Josiah Richardson. The seventh and eighth lots laid out to Thornton passed in 1789 with some of the other lots on the west to the Peabody family. The ninth lot
95
EARLY GRANTS AND ALLOTMENTS
came into possession of Ephraim Hall about the time of the Revo- lution and was long owned by his grandson, the late Ira Hall; it is now owned by Bert A. Cluff. A tract of woodland near or on Burns Hill is still known as Thornton Woods. The twelfth lot was purchased in 1729 by Joseph Chamberlain. Directly westward of the residence of Corliss Smith may be seen the re- mains of an old cellar where stood the Chamberlain house. The Chamberlain lot, when purchased, was bounded eastward by the "homestead of Anthony Negro."
East and northeast from this point to the east line of the town and embracing Cedar (now Peters) pond were many lots which cannot now be identified. Very singularly the name of Cedar pond is still given to a little pond lying north of Peters' pond. It is possible that in former times it was a part of the larger pond. In this vicinity a tract of 15 acres of meadow was laid out to Rev. John Higginson, who had the river lot already described. It was long known as the Higginson meadows and lies in Pelham, south of the road leading from Pelham center to Methuen. From these meadows flows a brook called at that time Dennison's, but later West or Bartlett's brook. Northward of the present state line was a range of lots extending from "Colburns Old Meadows and T Cove" on the west to the east line of the town. Colburns Old Meadows were north of New Boston Village and T Cove was a well-known bound and seems to have been the name applied to the easterly end of the Old Meadows, about a fourth of a mile west of the County road through Pelham, now Bridge street.
The southerly bound of this range of lots was the Coburn New Meadow Farm, already described as lying north of Marsh hill. The northerly bound cannot be definitely located, but as several lots abutted on Island Pond on the north, it shows that the range reached from the Old Meadows in a northeasterly di- rection and covered all of school district No. 5, called the Cur- rier district in Pelham. These were owned by those men al- ready mentioned, viz: Thornton, Curtis, Wood, Barron, and Marsh to which may be added the names of Nathaniel Cheever and William Colburn, and the tract comprised at least 800 acres. The greater part of this land was sold by the proprietors to in- vestors who were not residents of the town and later it came
96
HISTORY OF DRACUT
into possession of actual settlers. Northeast of Island pond a lot of 300 acres had been laid out to Jeremiah Belcher on his petition by right of an Indian deed to his father, reference to which may be found in the chapter on Indian History. North- ward of the range described was upland and meadow called the Tony Brook lots. The brook, sometimes called Mirey Brook, rises east of the Asa Carlton farm and runs northwesterly through the Hobbs farm entering Beaver brook a short dis- tance below the stone bridge south of Pelham center called Abbott bridge.
Northeast of Tony brook, a lot of 250 acres was laid out to Ebenezer Wright and 73 acres to Benjamin Wood. These would include the Atwood farms, east of Pelham center. Lots are men- tioned as lying on Island pond brook which is the outlet of Island pond and is known as Gage's brook. With the exception of the small grants to Caldicot and Negus, the latter called Goulding Farm, all of the territory north of the tracts described was reserved land and was laid out in lots. They were usually located with reference to certain natural features as Goulding's Pond, Goulding's Brook, Ledge of Rock's Pond and the Dis- tracted Meadows. The latter are partly in the Gage Hill dis- triet and partly over the Windham line. Goulding's Pond is in Windham and is called Cobbett's Pond. It is one of the sources of Goulding's brook which flows into Beaver brook near Pelham center. Ledge of Rock's Pond has been called Gould- ing's but is now Simpson's Pond.
CHAPTER V
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PROVINCE LINE
T HE first charter of the Massachusetts Colony given by King Charles I under date of March 1, 1628-9, granted to the Colony "all that part of New England lying between three miles to the north of the Merrimack and three miles to the south of the Charles river and of every part thereof in the Massachusetts Bay; and in length between the described breadth from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea." At that time little was known of the interior of the country and the king and his coun- cillors labored under two errors. The first was the assumption that the continent was narrow, as in Central America. They supposed that the Pacific Ocean or South Sea as they called it would be reached about where the Middle States are located. If this grant was accepted as stated it would give to the state its present width but would be 3000 miles long, including a portion of every state now lying west of Massachusetts in this latitude, between the two oceans.
The second error laid in the supposition that the course of the Merrimack river was like that of the Charles river, practi- cally east and west not realizing that for a large part of its course it ran north and south. This error was the cause of a controversy between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which has ended only in recent years. As the true course of the Merri- mack became better known, Massachusetts claimed her territory to extend to three miles north of the source of the river and the General Court in 1652, appointed a commission to ascertain that point. The order appointing a commission was in part as follows:
"31d. 3m. 1652. Concerning the north lyne of this juris- diccon itt was this day voted vppon pvsall of our charter, that the extent of our lyne is to be from the northernmost parte of the River Merremacke and three miles more north, where it is to be found be it a hundred miles more or lesse from the sea and thence vppon a straight lyne east and west to each sea."
98
HISTORY OF DRACUT
Two men were appointed, viz .: Capt. Simon Willard, who had fought in the Colonial service against the Indians and who was an ancestor in a direct line of the writer, and to whom many in eastern Massachusetts may trace their descent, and Capt. Edward Johnson, an influential man in the colony. These com- missioners with surveyors and guides ascended the river and located its source at a place called by the Indians Aquedahtan, now known as the Weirs. At this point they found a large granite boulder in the bed of the stream near the outlet of the lake on which they cut the letters
EI WP
SW IOHN
ENDICVT Gov.
Bearing in mind that at that time the letters I and J were the same letter and that WP probably meant worshipful, we may read it Edward Johnson, Simon Willard, Worshipful John Endi- cott, Governor. This stone and inscription being later covered with water, it was forgotten until 1833, when excavating for a dam it was recovered. A point three miles north terminated at a pine tree known as Endicott's Pine, and here the commissioners located the northern boundary of Massachusetts. According to their interpretation this would give to this state the larger part of what is now New Hampshire with a considerable part of York county in Maine.
"The New Hampshire grantees placed a different construc- tion upon the language of the charter and claimed that the northern line could not be in any place more than three miles to the north of the middle of the river. The territory there- fore lying between these extremes became 'disputed territory.'"
"Subsequently, in 1667, at a hearing before the King Charles II and Council, the agents for Massachusetts, by advice, so far modified their claim as to disclaim all right of jurisdiction beyond three miles north of the river according to its course, that is, their line should run parallel with the river from its mouth to Endicott's rock and thence due north to Endicott's Tree, and thence due west to the South Sea. It was determined
99
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PROVINCE LINE
that they had a right as far as the river extended. Massachu- setts, however, continued to retain jurisdiction over those parts of the towns already granted, which were more than three miles north of the Merrimack, of which New Hampshire continued to complain." ("History of Haverhill.")
In 1692, under William III, a new charter was granted to Massachusetts, which defined the northern bound as "extend- ing from the great river commonly called Monomack, alias Mer- rimack on the north part and from three miles northward of the said river to the western sea."
"About the year 1720, New Hampshire began to claim that the line should commence at the point three miles north of the mouth of Merrimack river and from thence run due west to the South Sea. With the setting up of this new claim com- menced a series of disputes, contentions, and suits that lasted nearly a third of a century." ("History of Haverhill.") In 1731, a royal order was issued, referring the matter to a board of commissioners. This board met at Hampton and after several weeks of discussion agreed upon the east bounds of New Hamp- shire, a different matter in dispute, but not upon the southern bounds and by agreement this question was submitted directly to the King, at that time George II. It was not until August 5, 1740, that a decree was issued by the king and council which ordered: "That the northern boundary of the Province of Massachusetts Bay is and be a similar curve line pursuing the course of Merrimac River at three miles distance on the north side thereof beginning at the Atlantic Ocean and ending at a point due north of a place in the plan returned by the com- missioners called Patucket Falls and a straight line drawn from thence due west across sd river till it meets His Majestys other Governments." ("Hist. of Haverhill.")
Again the want of information of the course of the river led the king and council into error, they failing to understand the southerly trend of the river from its mouth to Pawtucket Falls. By this decision New Hampshire was given more than she had ever claimed. Massachusetts feeling herself unjustly treated refused to join in the survey of the line, and Governor Belcher, as authorized by the decree appointed George Mitchell and Richard Hazen, spelled Hazzen, surveyors. Selecting a point at the
100
HISTORY OF DRACUT
bend of the Merrimack river below Pawtucket Falls, they measured a line three miles north which terminated at a large pine tree at the northern end of the farm formerly owned by the late Zechariah Coburn, now in possession of James W. Mozley. This was known as Mitchell's Boundary Pine and was the point from which the two surveyors started out. Mitchell surveying the line parallel with the river from this point to the sea, and Hazen running the line west.
The diary of the latter surveyor has been preserved and we copy that portion of it relating to Dracut.
"Saturdayy March 21 1741 Concluded at what part of the falls to begin to measure a due North line (the place concluded on being directly opposite to Tyngs Saw Mill and called the Great Bunt). The said Mitchell set forward on his Course & measured the said three miles which ended about fourteen poles Southerly of Colburns Old Meadow & near the Easterly end of it, where the said Mitchell caused a pitch pine to be marked and erected a pillar of stones around the same tree & then we parted and I set forward on my Course from sd Pine Tree a course due West or according to my instructions, that is West 10° North variation allowed pr order of the Governor and Council and the same night measured 1m 16P to Beaver River. This line crossed Conants Farm (see Early Grants) and meadow and Nathaniel Clements lot. Monday Mar 23. We began to mneas- ure a little after sunrise and the same day went on our course 4m 24P. In this days travel at 40h 40₽ from Beaver River we crossed the path which leads from Dracutt Meeting house to that part of the town called Gumpass at which path William Richardsons house bore north of us and distant about 40 poles, and Nathaniel Clements Southerly and distant about 60 poles."
Nathaniel Clement was the great great grandfather of the late Asa Clement, and his house was located on the slope of the hill south of the present Clement buildings. Capt. William Richardson was the great grandfather of the late Honorable George F. Richardson of Lowell, and his house stood on the right hand side of the road beyond the Clement farm and north of the Pelham line. The highway now called Mammoth Road was
101
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PROVINCE LINE
then called the "Path," as the highway was not laid out until 1792; while Dracut Meeting House refers to the first church structure erected in Dracut and stood on Varnum avenue. The Peter Coburn house, which is the old house south of the Clement farm and still in existence, was undoubtedly the first house built in this neighborhood and the "path" led past these houses. We quote from the diary: "At the end of 274 poles from the path we came to a pond called Long Pond the general bearings whereof were North and South, in our way crossing said Rich- ardsons land and Clements. The pond was 74 poles over and on the west side of it Dracut and Nottingham join together." The diary records the survey which ended April 16th at Hudson River. In several places reference is made to the snow being three feet deep and at one place near five feet, yet at the end of the diary he records: "The weather proved so favorable that we never stopt in the woods for any foul weather nor did we make a camp any one Night & Stretchd our Blankets but three times all the Journey but Lodged without any Covering Save the Heavens and Our Blankets."
All records or marks of the exact spot on the Merrimack river where they started are lost, but according to the journal, they surveyed, a line running three miles north of a place called the Great Bunt, which is the broad expanse of the river west of the mouth of Beaver brook below Pawtucket falls, long known as Pawtucket Pond. By the establishment of this new province line the town lost about half of its territory and with other towns similarly affected felt much aggrieved. At a town meeting held November 26, 1741, it was voted: "That a petition be preferred to ye Kings most excellent majesty setting forth our distressed circumstances and praying that that part of sd town that is taken away by said line may be annexed to ye sd province of Massachusetts Bay, and that Messrs. John Varnum, Darius Richardson and Nathaniel Fox or any two of them be a committee and be fully empowered to sign one such petition and prefer it to ve Court of Great Britian."
It was first necessary to present the petition to the General Court for its sanction. The Court, while sympathizing with the town, did not grant their request, but appointed a committee who reported as follows: "The committee appointed on the peti-
102
HISTORY OF DRACUT
tion of John Varnum of Dracutt have taken ye same under consideration and apprehend that for Ending the Difficulty mentioned in said petition and all difficulty of ye Sort In any other towns within ye Province Bordering on the Province of New Hampshire, a committee be appointed by the Genl Court to Goe into the said several towns and Enquire what number of Polls and ratable Estates is taken off from this Province by the Lines Lately run Betwixt said Provinces and make Report thereof to this Court as soon as may be, and that in the meantime the Constables of Dracutt and Nottingham be released from Charlestown gaol."
What offence had been committed by these constables does not appear. Referring to this matter, a writer says of this transaction : "No record thereof appears in the Town of Dracut. It is probable that the town still insisted on its rights and instructed its constables to regard that part of the town thrown into New Hampshire by the new line as still a part of the original town and under its jurisdiction, although why said constables should have been arrested by the Massachusetts authorities does not appear."
It appears that one of the peculiar results of this division of the town was to canse the Ministers' Commons, or land which belonged to the parish, as a perquisite of the minister for the pasture of his cattle or supply of his fuel, to be situated in New Hampshire. The town was afterward allowed, by the act of the legislature, to dispose of this tract with the proviso that the proceeds should be applied to the support of the ministry of the town. Thus, so far as the town was concerned, the business of annexation was concluded. To the people it was evident that a petition from an obscure town like Dracut would have but little little influence with King George II to change any decree which had been made. In 1803, a petition was prepared and signed by Peter Coburn and 113 others showing that "since the incorpora- tion (of the town) a large proportion of the land has been loped off by the brittish government" the town had been deprived of its rights by such "loping" and they prayed that a portion of the town of Chelmsford might be annexed. The new town would include all of the territory lying at that time west of a line drawn from the mouth of Beaver brook, passing near Oliver
103
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PROVINCE LINE
J. Coburn's house, to the State line. Also all that part of Chelmsford lying within a line drawn from Middlesex village to the City Farm and east to Concord River.
At that time what is now the thickly settled part of Lowell was farm land. A small mill on Hale's brook being probably the only manufacturing establishment included in the limits mentioned. Thus a more satisfactory shaped town would exist but would be subject to being divided by the river.
In 1825 commissioners were appointed by both states to make a re-survey for the purpose of ascertaining the exact location of the old line surveyed in 1741. The surveyors for Massa- chusetts were Caleb Butler and Benjamin F. Varnum. In the report of the Massachusetts commissioners, reference is made to the Boundary Pine station as being "two miles and three hundred and thirteen rods due north of a point in Pawtucket Falls called the great pot hole place." In 1827, the General Court authorized Benjamin F. Varnum of Dracut to erect stone posts at the angles on the east part of the line from the sea to the Boundary Pine which was then standing, also at the intersec- tion of the line with any highways. Copy of commission author- izing erection of monuments :
"COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
Resolved, That the Honorable Benjamin F. Varnum of Dracut in the County of Middlesex be, and hereby is, authorised and directed, to cause good Stone Monuments, not less than one foot in diameter, nor less than four feet high from the surface of the ground, to be set up and placed at each angle of the line between this Commonwealth and the State of New Hampshire, from the Atlantic Ocean to Mitchells boundary pine (so called) between the towns of Dracut and Pelham; and also on said line between the several towns in this Commonwealth from said Mitchells boundary pine to the line of the State of Vermont, so as to preserve the said line, as the same has been run and ascertained by the Commissioners appointed for that purpose, which monuments he shall cause to be permanently set in the ground, and to be lettered with the letters Ms on the Massachusetts side thereof -; and that he lay his account for his expenses and services in the premises before the General Court for allowance.
104
HISTORY OF DRACUT
In Senate March 10th 1827 Read and passed. Sent down for concurrence. JOHN MILLS President.
House of Representatives March 10th 1827 Read and passed in concurrence WILLIAM C JARVIS Spkr.
March 10 1827 Approved LEVI LINCOLN
A true copy of the original resolve
Att EDWARD D. BANGS Secy of Commonwealth.
Caleb Butler was a great grandson of John Butler the first settler in Pelham, N. H. His wife was Clarissa, daughter of Parker Varnum. His associate was Benjamin F. Varnum the youngest child of General Joseph Bradley Varnum. His wife was Caroline Bradley. The commissioners failed to reach an agreement. New Hampshire asserted that Hazzen was in error in allowing ten degrees for the variation of the needle, thus de- priving that state of a gore of land commencing at the Boundary Pine and reaching to the Connecticut river. But Hazzen states in his diary that he was so instructed by the Governor and Council of New Hampshire. Nothing further was done until 1885, when the Legislators of both states again appointed com- missioners "for the purpose of ascertaining and establishing the true jurisdictional boundary line between the two states." The survey was completed about 1890 from the sea to the Boun- dary Pine station. At this point (the three mile line due north of Pawtucket pond), a polished granite monument has been erected and the rough stone placed there by B. F. Varnum re- moved. It is about four feet in height. On the east side there may be seen the figure of a pine tree cut in the stone and occupy- ing about one half of the height of the monument which bears the following inscription :
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.