The Lost Mill Village of Middlesex Fells

by Douglas L. Heath, Alison C. Simcox

Overview

One of the earliest mill communities in the Massachusetts Bay Colony formed along Spot Pond Brook, a few miles north of Boston. Thomas Coytmore built the first mill in 1640 at the brook's downstream end in "Mistick Side" (present-day Malden). Other mills sprang up along the brook as well. Today, most of Spot Pond Brook is hidden in culverts beneath the busy streets of Malden and Melrose. However, remnants of the lost mill village of Haywardville--foundations, millruns and ponds and waterfalls--are preserved within Middlesex Fells Reservation, part of Boston's world-famous Metropolitan Park System. Authors Douglas L. Heath and Alison C. Simcox trace the history of this thriving early American community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439661703
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	07/31/2017
Series:	Brief History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Douglas Heath was born in New Jersey and grew up in Taos, New Mexico, and New York City. He worked as a hydrogeologist at the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for thirty years, where he specialized in protecting drinking water supplies in New England. As well as his work as a scientist, he is an experienced genealogist, local historian and photographer in using nineteenth-century glass plate methods.

Alison Simcox was born in London, England, and grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts. In 1998, she was the second woman to earn a doctorate in engineering from Tufts University. She currently works in EPA's air quality program as a specialist in particle pollution and biomass energy. In her free time, she enjoys playing soccer, bicycling, running and ocean kayaking.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 9

Introduction 11

1 Early Days in Charlestown, 1628-1640 17

2 Coytmore's Corn Mill, 1640-1707 21

3 Decades of Conflict, 1707-1736 30

4 First Mills on the Ravine, 1792-1813 49

5 Downstream Mills Revisited, 1798-1838 56

6 Back in the Ravine: Satinets, Sashes and Brass, 1804-1869 63

7 The Stoneham Factory: Dyes to Rubber, 1813-1858 76

8 Haywardville, 1858-1870 85

9 Haywardville's Little White School, 1851-1899 91

10 Demise of Haywardville, 1870s-1914 102

11 Virginia Wood, 1891-Present 114

Bibliography 119

Index 123

About the Authors 128