USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Sudbury > The history of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638-1889 > Part 53
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CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE RIVER MEADOWS.
Width of the Meadows. - Former Productiveness. - Litigation and Legislation. - Change in Productiveness. - Causes of it. - Natural Features at the Present Time. - Grass.
Where merry mowers, hale and strong, Swept scythe on scythe, their swaths along. WHITTIER.
THESE meadows have been notable from an early period. They extend, with varying width, the entire length of the river course. In some places they may narrow to only a few rods, while in others they extend from half a mile to a mile, where they are commonly called the Broad Meadows. They
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
are widest below the long causeway and Sherman's Bridge. Comparatively little shrubbery is seen on these meadows, but they stretch out as grassy plains, uninterrupted for acres by scarcely a bush. At an early date these meadows yielded large crops of grass (see Chapter I.), and subsequent years did not diminish the quantity or quality, until a compara- tively modern date. From testimony given in 1859 before a Legislative Committee, it appeared that, until within about twenty-five years of that time, the meadows produced from a ton to a ton and a half of good hay to the acre, a fine crop of cranberries, admitted of "fall feeding," and were sometimes worth about one hundred dollars per acre. The hay was seldom "poled " to the upland, but made on the meadows, from which it was drawn by oxen or horses. Tes- timony on these matters was given before a joint committee of the Legislature, March 1, 1861, by prominent citizens of Sudbury, Wayland, Concord and Bedford. Their opinions were concurrent with regard to the condition of things both past and present. The following are testimonies by some of the witnesses from Sudbury.
John Hunt, eighty-two years (p. 105 Printed Report). - "I have owned meadows on the Gulf Brook, one or two hundred rods from the river. I had care of the " Ministerial Lot " on the river ; and the nine years I was out of town, I had care of twenty lots below for some years, from 1803 to 1807. I sold the grass on the former for $10 an acre, stand- ing. A great change has since taken place; I suppose it would scarcely pay taxes for some years past. They have mortgaged the 'Ministerial Lot' to pay for it, not getting enough to pay taxes. ... Loring's ' bank meadow,' which, when I was a boy, was worth $100 an acre, is not now worth $10. A horse could then be taken to the river shore, you could not now get near the river for the water. Where I have in the low meadows fished standing dry, it is now over my head. There are fifteen or twenty acres in this meadow. When I was fifteen, it produced the best of meadow grass - a kind of red-top, resembling, though not the same as the upland red-top - there is none of that, and not much except coarse grass, and poor - some of what we call sedge. There
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
was not much poling then ; then they took the horses to the river. They now pole it as far as I know. . .. The other lands in the same neighborhood suffer; cattle were turned in there for fall feed, as long ago as I can remember. It was quite an item to farms adjoining ; nobody now sends them for fall feed. Cattle could then go on the shore ; for years these floods have entirely destroyed the cranberries. My land on the Gulf Brook, has been torn up by freezing and breaking up."
William Stone, seventy-two years (p. 108). - " I bought, forty-three years ago, a meadow on the Sudbury River, close to the meadow mentioned by Mr. Hunt. When I bought it I used to get the hay almost every year. There were two acres of shore, and the rest, where the water came on, was such a meadow as I never saw, producing pipe and lute grass. I used to get a ton and a half per acre. I used to drive across the meadow to water my team. I mowed it about twenty years ; I began then to find the water came over. I built a causeway across, but the water seemed to stay. I tried to pole the hay out, but it cost too much. I sold it for $110 for eleven acres. At first it was worth to me $80 per acre. The water seemed to go away only by evaporation. . I have seen cattle getting fall feed on the meadows ; not even a man could now go there without miring."
William Rice, seventy-seven years (p. 109). - "I have always lived in sight of the meadows - I had seven acres, and the same in another place, separated by the road. I inherited the land. Blue grass and pipes grew there - there were other kinds of hay, good for meadow hay. We considered the river meadow hay, the best meadow hay - the quality is now affected. Sedge and water grass, of little value, now grows, which is used for cattle bedding. The lots have grown softer ; we could go on with a team gener- ally. I have known times when we did not pole a cock of hay. I have rode a horse over the meadow. I don't know when they could go on without rackets of late years. Rack- ets were not in fashion in the olden times. They used to drive the cattle on for fall feed, but have not for twenty or thirty years. They have not been fed there much for forty
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years. I do not own the meadow now, I gave it away two or three years ago. The meadows have been growing softer, as a general thing, for thirty years."
J. P. Fairbanks, thirty-three years (p. 131). - "I own meadow land; none runs clear to the river, but is on the ' Gulf' and ' Broad Meadows ' . .. The ' Broad Meadows' are entirely worthless since I have owned them. From 1500 to 2000 acres in the 'Broad Meadow' are of about the same level. Not much, if any, of the grass on the 'Broad Meadows' has been cut of late years. The best of my cran- berry vines are on the 'Broad Meadow ;' but for the water, a bushel of cranberries to the rod could be obtained; ... if the water should be off we could get good crops ; they are now worth $11 or $12 a barrel. ... In high flood we get 6 or 7 feet of water all over the 'Broad Meadows.' The water is on them most of the year."
From such evidence it appears that a great and gradual change in the condition of the meadows came after the year 1825. The main cause alleged for this changed condition was the raising of the dam at Billerica. This dam, it is said, was built in 1711 by one Christopher Osgood, under a grant for the town of Billerica, and made to him on condition that he should maintain a corn-mill, and defend the town from any trouble that might come from damages done by the mill- dam to the land of the towns above. In 1793 the charter was granted to the Middlesex Canal, and in 1794 the canal company bought the Osgood mill privilege of one Richard- son, and in 1798 built a new dam, which remained till the stone dam was built in 1828. As indicating that the dam has from time to time been raised, we give the testimony quoted from the argument of Hon. Henry F. French, before the Legislative Committee, March 1, 1861.
Jonathan Manning. - " In 1798 I helped build the dam. There was a dam previously there, - what some call a zig- zag dam, - leaky and not very high. The dam I helped build was higher than the former one. They made rafts to bring timber from the Merrimac, and there was not water enough to fill the canal " (p. 77). " I should think, from the difference in the height of the water, that after we made the
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
new dam, the dam must have been raised from nine to twelve inches. I think it made the water about a foot higher in the canal " (p. 80).
Herman Bay. - "New flash-boards were on the dam in 1817" (p. 168).
Theophilus Manning. - " After the dam of 1798 was built, they were obliged to put something upon it to fill the canal. A foot and a half was put on. They call it a figure four. In 1800 the flash-boards were on " (p. 169).
Daniel Wilson. - " In 1820 or 1821 they put timber and flash-boards on the dam of 1798, thirty inches high " (p. 266).
It would be difficult and take too much space to give a full and extensive account of the litigation and legislation that has taken place in the past near two centuries and a half, in relation to this subject. It began at Concord as early as Sept. 8, 1636, when a petition was presented to the court, which was followed by this act: " Whereas the in- habitants of Concord are purposed to abate the Falls in the river upon which their towne standeth, whereby such townes as shall hereafter be planted above them upon the said River shall receive benefit by reason of their charge and labor. It is therefore ordered that such towns or farms as shall be planted above them shall contribute to the inhabitants of Concord, proportional both to their charge and advantage." (Shattuck's History of Concord, page 15.) In 1644, Nov. 13, the following persons were appointed commissioners : Herbet Pelham, Esq., of Cambridge, Mr. Thomas Flint and Lieut. Simon Willard of Concord, and Mr. Peter Noyes of Sudbury. These commissioners were appointed "to set some order which may conduce to the better surveying, im- proving and draining of the meadows, and saving and pre- serving of the hay there gotten, either by draining the same, or otherwise, and to proportion the charges layed out about it as equably and justly, only upon them that own land, as they in their wisdom shall see meete." From this early date along at intervals in the history of both Concord and Sud- bury, the question of meadow betterment was agitated. At one time it was proposed to cut a canal across to Water- town and Cambridge, which it was thought could be done
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
"at a hundred pounds charge." Says Johnson, " The rocky falls causeth their meadows to be much covered with water, the which these people, together with their neighbor towne (Sudbury) have several times essayed to cut through but cannot, yet it may be turned another way with an hundred pound charge." In 1645, a commission was appointed by the colonial authorities (Col. Rec. Vol. II. page 99) " for ye btt r and imp'ving of ye meadowe ground upon ye ryvr running by Concord and Sudbury." In 1671, a levy of four pence an acre was to be made upon all the meadow upon the great river, " for reclaiming of the river that is from the Concord line to the south side, and to Ensign Grout's spring." Later, a petition was sent by the people of Sudbury, headed by Rev. Israel Loring, for an act in behalf of the meadow owners. But legislation and litigation perhaps reached its height about 1859, when most of the towns along the river petitioned for relief from the flowage. The petition of Sud- bury was headed by Henry Vose and signed by one hundred and seventy-six others; and that of Wayland by Richard Heard and one hundred and sixteen others. On April 6, 1859, a joint commission was appointed, to whom the petition was referred. The committee met, and ordered publication of notice for the hearing in five different newspapers in Bos- ton and Lowell. As data of evidence in the case, a careful survey was made of the premises along the river, the water gauge accurately taken by competent engineers, and a com- plete report rendered thereon.
After thirty days devoted by the committee to investiga- tion, on the 27th of January, 1860, the report of five hundred pages was submitted to a second joint committee appointed by the Legislature of 1860. This committee reported that the findings of the committee of the year before are sustained by the evidence, and that it appears that the dam at Billerica "is an efficient cause of the flowage of nearly 10,000 acres of the most valuable meadow land in the eastern section of the State," and that " this immense injury to those lands has been gradually accomplished by the canal corporation under their charter, without the payment of a single cent
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of damages to any land owner for the injury." (Sec Ho. Doc. No. 221, argument of Mr. French.)
A bill was reported for the removal of the dam, and passed by the Legislature. It was entitled " An Act in Relation to the Flowage of the Meadows on Concord and Sudbury Rivers." It provided that the governor, with the advice of the council, might appoint three commissioners with author- ity to remove thirty-three inches of the dam across the Con- cord River, at North Billerica, at any time after the first day of September 1860, and that when the same was so removed it should not be again rebuilt.
Time was considered necessary for the mill owners to put in steam, and the act was changed so as to leave six feet, two inches of their dam. An injunction was obtained from the Supreme Court, but the Legislative enactment was sus- tained. An effort was made in 1861 to have the act repealed. Thus strenuous have been the efforts to have the dam at Billerica lowered. In the contest able counsel has been en- ployed on both sides, among whom are Judge Abbott and Benjamin F. Butler, Esq .; skillful engineer service has also been made use of.
For any one to attempt with great positiveness to clear up a subject which has perplexed legislators and lawyers, might be considered presumptuous. It is safe, however, to say that while there is evidence showing that the meadows were sometimes wet in the summer at an early period, they were not generally so; it was the exception and not the rule. It was a sufficient cause of complaint if the settlers had their fertile lands damaged even at distant intervals, since they so largely depended upon them ; but the fact that they did de- pend on them, and even took cattle from abroad to winter, indicates that the meadows were generally to be relied upon. Certain it is that, were they formerly as they have been for nearly the last half century, they would have been almost worthless. Since the testimony taken in the case before cited, these lands have been even worse, it may be, than be- fore. To our personal knowledge, parts of them have been like a stagnant pool, over which we have pushed a boat, and where a scythe has not been swung for years. Dry seasons
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
have occasionally come in which things were different. Such occurred in 1883, when almost all the meadows were mown, and even a machine could in places cut the grass. But this was such an exception that it was thought quite re- markable. For the past quarter century people have placed little reliance upon the meadows ; and if any hay was ob- tained it was almost unexpected. This condition of things in the near past, so unlike that in times remote, together with the fact of some complaint by the setlers, and an occa- sional resort by them to the General Court for relief, indi- cates that formerly freshets sometimes came, but cleared away without permanent damage to the meadows. At times the water may have risen even as high as at present. It is supposed that at an early period the rainfall was greater than now, and that because of extensive forests the evaporation was less. The little stream that may now appear too small to afford adequate power to move saw and grist-mill ma- chinery, may once have been amply sufficient to grind the corn for a town. But the flood probably fell rapidly, and the strong current that the pressure produced might have left the channel more free from obstructions than before the flood came. Now, when the meadow lands are once flooded they remain so, till a large share of the water passes off by the slow process of evaporation. The indications are that some- thing has of late years obstructed its course. As to whether the dam is the main and primal cause of the obstruction, the reader may judge for himself. Before closing this subject, we give other quotations from the argument of Mr. French.
AVERY'S SOUNDINGS ON BARS IN CONCORD RIVER.
Depth of Water on Bars. 3.92 feet
Depth of Bar below Bolt & Dam. 3.11 feet.
On line " A. B." near dam,
On line "C. D." Fordway, one mile from dam,
3.26 «
2.29
At Barrett's Bar, one half mile below Con- cord N. Bridge, eleven miles from dam,
1.91
1.22
At Junction of Assabet and Concord,
2.65
1.56
Bar below Sherman's Bridge, fifteen miles from dam,
2.45
1.00
Bar at Canal Bridge, Wayland, twenty-one miles from dam,
.39 “
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
Commenting upon the data of the report, the counsel goes on to state as follows : " Add to these depths of the bars be- low the bolt, which is the top of the dam, the depth of water on the dam, and you have the least possible depth on these bars, when the dam is full. But we must in fact add much more to those depths, because water requires some fall to give it motion. The more crooked the stream the more ob- structed by weeds and bushes and logs, and the more rough the channel the greater is the fall required to move the water. Mr. Avery's surveys show how the water deepens as he goes up the river, till he finds a fall in all of forty-five inches in the distance. The dam prevents ang improvement. Being higher than anything else in the river for twenty-one miles, if every bar was cut out, and the channel made into a canal, the water must remain higher than any of the bars. The land owners expect and desire to improve the channel, which is rapidly filling up with weeds and deposits of sand and mud. Formerly they could do this to some extent. Of late years the greater height of water has prevented, and unless the dam is reduced their case will grow worse and worse. With the great increase of water and the obstructed channel, and this dam higher than any other object in the whole river, their condition is hopeless. Reduce the dam thirty-three inches, the water will fall proportionably on all these bars, which may be then cut out, and the river may be brought and kept within its banks in the growing season. I will only add that if any man is bold enough to assert that the bars in this river prevent the water from flowing off the meadows, and that the dam, which is by actual level higher than any of these bars, has no such effect, he is welcome to all the votes he can obtain from sane legislators for the re- peal of this act."
We will now turn our attention to a few things regarding the natural features that the later condition of the meadows have brought about. It is said to be an ill wind that blows nobody any good, and it may be that some new attractions have been afforded these lands that were not possessed of old. Sometimes when the flood is up, the large expanse of water with its irregular margin flashing in the sunlight, adds
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The meadow at certain
great beauty to the landscape. seasons, when in this condition, furnishes excellent fishing ground for such as take fish with the spear in the night-time. On mild spring nights the fish resort to the warm, shoal waters near the uplands, where, all unsuspicious, they are found by the wary fisherman, as with light dipping oar his boat glides over the flood. The outfit for such fishing is a small boat capable of carrying two persons, with an iron frame-work or "jack " set on an upright rod at the bows to hold the fuel or torch which is usually made of old pine stumps, and a six-pronged spear with an eight-foot handle. With this apparatus on a still night the fisherman sets out. The margin of the upland is followed, and at one time the boat glides by open fields or pasture lands, at another darts beneath the deep shades of an overhanging wood. Every now and then, at a signal from the spearsman at the bows, the boat is " slowed up," the spear poised in the air for an instant, then a dash, and up comes the fish. The frequent flowage of the meadows, it is supposed, has caused the " punk holes," so called, to which wild water fowl resort, while the clogged channel with its sluggish stream may have made the place a favorite haunt for the pickerel. Thus beauty and utility in some ways have resulted from the present condition of the meadows.
GRASS.
Various kinds of grass grow on the meadows, which are known among the farmers by the following names : "pipes," "lute-grass," " blue-joint," "sedge," " water-grass," and a kind of meadow "red-top." Within a few years wild rice has in places crept along the river banks, having been brought here perhaps by the water fowl, which may have plucked it on the margin of the distant lakes.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
ZOOLOGY AND GEOLOGY.
To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language.
BRYANT.
FUR-BEARING ANIMALS.
CHIEF among these, except those mentioned in connection with the river meadows, are the fox, rabbit, squirrel, wood- chuck, skunk and weasel.
RARE BIRDS.
Besides the smaller birds most common in the vicinity, and those mentioned in connection with the meadows, are the rose-breasted grosbeak ( Guiraca ludoviciana), indigo bird (Cyanospiza cyanea), scarlet tanager (Pyranga rubra) and red start (Setophaga ruticilla). Of late, the purple finch ( Carpodacus purpureus) has become quite common. A few years ago, in a hard winter, a flock of pine grosbeaks ( Pini- cola canadensis) visited the town. Sparrows, vireos, flycatch- ers, thrushes and warblers abound. Of the larger kinds, not considered game-birds though considerably hunted, are found the grackles (Quiscalinae), pigeon woodpecker ( Calaptes auratus ) and meadow-lark (Sturnella magna) ; hawks, crows and jays are frequent, and the latter have been so destruc- tive that, at different times, a bounty has been paid for them by the town.
GAME-BIRDS.
The most common of these and the most sought after is the partridge or ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), the quail ( Ortyx virginianus) and the woodcock (Philohela minor).
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
The grouse and quail vary in numbers with the nature of the season ; the former being favorably affected by a dry summer and the latter by a warm winter. Quail a quarter of a century ago were quite scarce, but of late years they have been more numerous. To shoot a half dozen partridges in the best of the season is now considered but a fair day's work for a good hunter, and so it has been for the past fifty years, such being about the average day's work of Sud- bury's old hunter, the late Nichols Brown. Woodcock have become quite scarce, very few being found except in the migratory season. Formerly they nested in town, but this is now unfrequently done. Fifty years ago the wild pigeon (Ectopistes migratoria) was abundant in Sudbury, a favorite locality being Peakham Plain. Considerable numbers were caught in nets; grain was scattered upon a small space of ground, over which, when the birds had alighted to feed, a net was sprung by a sapling which was artfully adjusted for the purpose. Dozens were taken in this way, but the bird is now scarcely seen in the town. (For fish, see chapter on Natural Features.)
GEOLOGY OF SUDBURY.
BY GEORGE H. BARTON, S. B.
In the history of a town as well as of a country, it is fitting that a few words at least should be devoted to its geology. For geology is in itself a series of records enabling us to trace the history of our globe back into the past far beyond any human records. So far, indeed, does it carry our knowl- edge backward, that the very earliest traces of human history are only as the deeds of yesterday as compared with the ages that elapsed before man made his appearance on the earth.
In order to understand the geology of an isolated political division of the country, such as forms a town, it is necessary to have a general understanding of the geology of the country of which it forms a part. The United States is a fair repre- sentative of the world, furnishing within its area a more or less complete record from the earliest known ages to the present time. Here, in geological development, as it is in
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RESIDENCE OF GEO. E. HARRINGTON.
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
human, time is naturally divided into certain grand divisions or eras, each marked by its own peculiar characteristics. The natural divisions coincide with the development of life from the lowest and most humble forms in the beginning to the high and varied ones of to-day which have finally culmi- nated in man. Thus, as in human history, we have the An- cient, Mediæval, and Modern Periods, in geology we have the Eözoic, Palæozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras.
In the records belonging to the first of these, the Eozoic, which means the dawn of life, we catch faint, glimmering traces of the condition of the world at that time. We see, indistinctly, a globe covered with an almost universal ocean, with here and there occasional islands rising above the general waste of waters grouped in such a way as to fore- shadow the continent which was to take their place. As time went on during this era land continually arose from below the surface of the waters till before its close the embryo continent was formed.
As the name implies, the first beginnings of life are here found, but they are nothing definite, they are only strong indications. With our present knowledge we know of no method by which large beds of iron ore, or large beds of graphite, can be formed except by the agencies of organic life. As such beds are abundant in the Eozoic they furnish grounds for the belief that life existed then in some little abundance.
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