Stone's Bridge entry in MACRIS database by Wayland Historical Commission

Inventory No:

WAY.901

Historic Name:

Stone's Bridge - New Bridge

Common Name: Address:

Stonebridge Rd

City/Town:

Wayland

Village/Neighborhood: Local No:

F-2

Year Constructed:

r 1858

Architect(s):

Whitman and Howard

Architectural Style(s):

Arch Barrel Drilled Split Voussoir

Use(s):

Abandoned or Vacant; Other Transportation

Significance:

Engineering; Transportation

Area(s): Designation(s): Building Materials(s):

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Commonwealth of Massachusetts Massachusetts Historical Commission 220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, Massachusetts 02125 www.sec.state.ma.us/mhc This file was accessed on: Thursday, September 25, 2014 at 1:22: PM

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORIC BRIDGE INVENTORY rraminaliam/ Wajsrd

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owner:

coordinates:

National Register status

(insert

date)

Field rating:

* Entered: Eligible:

5 %

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Date b u i l t

( s o u r c e ) : prob.

Date(s) r e b u i l t (source): B u i l d e r (source):

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V i s u a l q u a l i t y , ( b r i d g e and s e t t i n g ) : Site

integrity:

Retained

High x

Average

Low

FRM.911 I

Violated y

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FRM.911 STLNE'S BRIDGE IN STONE An Attempt t o Document t h e b u i l d i n g of the icur-Arched Stone Bridge over the Sudbury River between Wayland and Framingham

by Helen F. Emery, Wayland H i s t o r i c a l Commiesion February, 1976 a

In December, 1975 s t a f f member o f The Massachusetts H i s t o r i c a l Commission suggested t o The Wayland H i s t o r i c a l Commission that a serious attempt be made to document t h e building o f the four-arched stone bridge across the Sudbury River between Wayland and Framingham. In connection with the documentation of another four-arched bridge over the Sudbury R i v e r , the one i n Wayland near the bord er jgf_jud bury just o f f Route 27, i t had been stated i n a report to The Massachusetts H i s t o r i c a l Commission e a r l i e r i n 1975 that a stone bridge further upstream, crossing from Stoneoridge Road i n Wayland t o Pctter Road i n Framingham , was much older and was reported t o have ueen b u i l t i n about 1722. If true, this bridge would be older by quite a few years than the e a r l i e s t documented, stone arched bridge i n Massachusetts - The Choate :ridge i n Ipswich - which has been proven1 to have been b u i l t i n 1764, And, i f b u i l t before the winter of 1776, ' Stone 8 Bridge between Wayland and Framingham would have considerable h i s t o r i cal s i g n i f i c a n c e i n connection with the Revolutionary War since the s t o r y , which has been current, that General Knox brought the cannon over i t from Fort Ticondercga to the outskirts of Boston would probably be true* I f t h i s were the case, i t wae thought that Stone's Bridge should ue placed on The National Register of H i s t o r i c Places and would be a much more appropriate addition to that l i s t ( every item of which i s required to be documented).than was the Four-arch Bridge (often a i l e d the Town Bridge) i n Wayland which was nominated for the National Register i n 1975 by the Great Meadows National W i l d l i f e Refuge. After Stone's Bridge had been s e r i o u s l y damaged by r i v e r flooding which followed Hurricane Diane i n the summer of 1955# there arose the question of whether to tear the o l d , unmortared structure down and route t r a f f i c from that corner of Framingham to Wayland over a new bridge. Various group* and i n d i v i d u a l s thought that the apparently very old and consequently h i s t o r i c bridge should be saved because i t WSB a structure of real h i s t o r i c a l s i g n i f i c a n c e . Spearheading the efforts to 1 save the old bridge was The Wayland H i s t o r i c a l Society whose spokesman, Mrs. Margaret Bent Morrill,v.rote a report s t a t i n g that the bridge was b u i l t i n 1722. This report was widely quoted i n newspapers and used by Representative to the General Court James deNormandie i n the successful e f f o r t to save the bridge. Mrs. M o r r i l l bused her statement on an h i s t o r i c a l folder e n t i t l e d "Plaoes of H i s t o r i c a l Interest i n Framingham, Massachusetts" published by The Framingham H i s t o r i c a l and Natur a l History Society i n 1 9 J 6 . This l e a f l e t , compiled by Har.y C. Rice, Mrs. Zetta L e a v i t t , and Cra C. D a v i s , l i s t e d among places of i n t e r e s t i n the S a x o n v i l l e sect i o n an early fordway on Potter Read across the Sudbury River and saids " ( j h i a j w a s the s i t e of (1} the f i r s t bridge i n Framingham, a horse bridge (before 1674) (2) a cart bridge b u i l t by Samuel How {of Sudbury! i n 1674 and The New Bridge ( about 1722) " I t i s not within the scope o f t h i s report t o d e t a i l the efforts made and steps taken t c save and repair the bridge i n 1956-57* t o cut i t o f f from the Framingham bank, to build an a l t e r n a t i v e bridge a l i t t l e upstream for Potter Road and Stonebridge Road t r a f f i c , and to place the bridge under the j u r i s d i c t i o n of Wayland. I n a ceremony i n the l a t e 1960's an h i s t o r i c marker was placed by o f f i c i a l s of the Town of Wayland on the Wayland end of the bridge. 1. and the l o c a l DAR chapter

V A M / . <?c|

FRM.911

•

I n t h e 1 9 6 0 ' s , as a M a s s a c h u s e t t s S t a t e program f o r r e c o g n i z i n g a n c i e n t and. s i g n i f i c a n t l y h i s t o r i r ] » n d m « r k s c-ime i n t o b e i n g , i t was p r o p o s e d t h a t t h i s b r i d g e be d e s i g n a t e d as a S t a t e . l a n d m a r k . T h i s c o u l d not be done w i t h o u t r e a l documentat i o n of the b u i l d i n g o f the bridge. M r s . M o r r e l l was a s k e d t o s u p p l y any d o c u m e n t a t i o n t h a t c o u l d be found i n S u d b u r y , Wayland and Framingham h i s t o r i c a l sourcese For Thomas B o y l s t o n Adams o f The Mas a c h u e o t t s H i s t o r i c a l S o c i e t y , M r s . M o r r i l l w r o t e a r e p o r t enumerating a l l t h e r e f e r e n c e s t o t h e o r i g i n and h i s t o r y o f t h i s b r i d g e w h i c h she c c u l d f i n d i n s u c h s e c o n d a r y s o u r c e s as Hudson's A n n a l s o f S u d b u r y , Wayland and M a y n a r d , 1891 and T e m p l e ' s H i s t o r y o f Framingham, 1897* She a l s o i n c l u d e d i n her r e p o r t r e f e r e n c e s t o t h i s b r i d g e w h i c h I had found i n an exh a u s t i v e r e a d i n g o f t h e o r i g i n a l Sudbury and E s t Sudbury r e c o r d s t h r o u g h t h e 1 8 t h century. There were i n t h e s e r e c o r d s v a r i o u s m e n t i o n s o f t h i s b r i d g e but no c l e a r i n d i c a t i o n o f i t s b e i n g b u i l t . M r B . M o r r i l l ".oncluded t h a t t h e s t r u c t u r e whioh she t h o u g h t was p r o b a b l y b u i l t around 1722 and s u r e l y was t h e r e i n R e v o l u t i o n a r y t i m e s must have been b u i l t by t h e Town o f Framingham. A c c e s s c o u l d not be g a i n e d a t t h a t t i m e by M r s . M o r r i l l t o t h e e a r l y Framingham r e c o r d s a n d , as f a r as t h i s w r i t e r knows, t h e r e s e a r c h was pushed no f u r t h e r . Without d o c u m e n t a t i o n , t h e b r i d g e was not g i v e n s t a t e landmark s t a t u s . a

Having worked a good d e a l on t h e e a r l y h i s t o r y o f Sudbury and Wayland, I wanted t o h e l p M r s . M o r r t l l . c a r r y her d o c u m e n t a t i o n e f f o r t f u r t h e r , but i n 1969 I was u n a b l e t o spend t h e t i m e r e q u i r e d . R e c e n t l y , however, as Chairman o f The Wayland H i s t o r i c a l C o m m i s s i o n ^ ! have somehow found t i m e t o spend o v e r one hundred hours s e a r c h i n g t h e Sudbury and W y l a n d r e c o r d s , t e n s o f hours a t t h e Framingham Town C l e r k ' s o f f i c e r e a d i n g t h e i r e a r l y h a n d w r i t t e n town m e e t i n g r e c o r d s a n d , f o r a l a t e r p e r i o d , t h e i r p r i n t e d town r e p o r t s . H e l p e d by two a s s i s t a n t r e s e a r c h e r s , I spent two days i n t h e r e c o r d s o f t h e M i d d l e s e x County C o u r t s and Commissioners and many hours l o c k i n g t h r o u g h t h e r a t h e r v o l u m i n o u s f i l e s o f l o o s e papers d i e carded by Wayland town o f f i c i a l s i n 1958 when t h e town r e c o r d s were moved from t h e o l d town h a l l t o t h e p r e s e n t town b u i l d i n g . These p a p e r s a r e now being p r e s e r v e d and made a v a i l a b l e f o r r e s e a r c h a t The Heard House by The Wayland H i s t o r i cal S o c i e t y . a

When I s t a r t e d t h i s job I e x p e c t e d t h a t by s e a r c h i n g d i l i g e n t l y I c o u l d f i n d as d e f i n i t e a d o c u m e n t a t i o n o f t h e b u i l d i n g o f S t o n e ' s B r i d g e as I had found i n 1972 o f t h e b u i l d i n g o f t h e F o u r - A r c h Town B r i d g e . I hoped t h a t t h e s e a r c h would be i n t e n s i v e but b r i e f . The t a s k has t a k e n a v e r y l a r g e p a r t o f my time f o r s i x weeks, a n d , f r u s t r a t i n g l y , an e x a c t d a t e o f b u i l d i n g has not been found f o r S t o n e ' s B r i d g e , t h a t i s , t h e s t r u c t u r e b u i l t o f s t o n e w h i c h was r e p a i r e d and set o f f as a monument i n 1957. By r e a d i n g and i n c o r r e s p o n d e n c e w i t h e x p e r t s on e a r l y A m e r i c a n s t r u c t u r e s a t O l d S t u r b r i d g e V i l l a g e and a t The S o c i e t y f o r t h e P r e s e r v a t i o n o f New England A n t i q u i t i e s , I have e x p l o r e d what i s known o f the h i s t o r y o f New England b r i d g e b u i l d i n g i n c o l o n i a l times and i n t h e 19th c e n t u r y . A n d , I have l e a r n e d a g. eat d e a l about a l l t h e b r i d g e s i n Wayland. More t o the p o i n t , I have p i e c e d t o g e t h e r t h e s t o r y as t o l d i n our town r e c o r d s o f Stone's B r i d g e up t o 19J0. As s t a t e d a b o v e , I have net found a r e c o r d o f t h e b u i l d i n g o f t h i s b r i d g e but I have d e f i n i t e l y a e c e r t a i n e d t h a t i t was not b u i l t i n 1722 and have found what seems t o me t o be c o n v i n c i n g e v i d e n c e t h a t i t wae not b u i l t before the middle of the 19th century. Note on Names o f t h e B r i d g e Before o u t l i n i n g t h e e v i d e n c e t h a t l e a d s me t o my r a t h e r s u r p r i s i n g c o n c l u s i o n , I s h a l l m e n t i o n t h a t l o c a l h i s t o r i a n s i n F n m i n g h a m , Wayland and Sudbury warned me t h a t the' names a p p l i e s t o t h i s b r i d g e , i n d e e d t o a l l t h e b r i d g e s a c r o s s t h e Sudbury R i v e r , would be v e r y c o n f u s i n g and make i t d i f f i c u l t t o know what b r i d g - I wa£ r e a d i n g about i n t h e r e c o r d s . I f one reads t h e r e c o r d s c o n s e c u t i v e l y f o r Sudbury, E a s t Sudbury and Wayland ns f o r t h e most p a r t I d i d , t h e r e i s no

_W A y .<?C j

FRM.911

prcblem. There are q u i t e a few mentions c f expenditures by the town on bridges which are unnamed. One cannot be sure in these instances what bridge was being repaired, but these are usually minor repairs and not rebuildinge. Where the bridges are named, and especially with respect to the bridge from Wayland to Framingham, there i s really no difficulty wi.th the names used in our town records. Contradicting the 1956 Framingham statement aDout crossings at this l o cation, the term New Bridge " has apparently been used since Samuel Howe built his c". rt bridge i n 1674. The name New Bridge was used for this bridge and perhaps even for its predecessor horse bridge because, as far as Sudbury was concerned, i t wae the newer or second bridge they had over the river. For nearly a century and a half "New" was used not in the sense of recently built or newly rebuilt, but to designate this particular crossing of the river and to distinguish i t from the Town Bridge which sometimes was called in the records " The Old Bridge " or " The Old Town Bridge" . cf. East Sudbury Treasurers Record 1787-1824 " October 1791 grant to rebuild the Cld Town Bridge out East Sudbury Town Clerk's record of October 7, 1795 calls this "Old Bridge". 11

1 ernp 1 s, the late 19th century historian of Fn».mini;ham, believed* and so do I, that before Framingham was incorporated afl a town i n 1701 the term New Bridge was being applied by the settlers ( many of them from Sudbury) in the territory that wae to become Frimingham. For the person unaccustomed to reading early records the tern i s confusing becnuoe town clerks and other writers of the 17th, 18th and enrly 19th centuries did hot capitalise the t i t l e as we would today. In en rly records many nouns , especially the subjects of sentences, are capitalized, but both parts of a proper name are not. In most of the records U P to the 1820'a the name is usually written " new Bridge " Fortunately the qualifying phrases " over the Sudbury River to Fr-tmingham " or " near Joseph Stone, Adams Stone, Isaac Stone, or Aaron Stone"( a l l of whom successively lived near this bridge cn the Wayland side) are present in the records eo that there are only one or two references to the new Bridge about which one has to puzzle.

lhe name Stone's Bridge by w h i c h we know the bridge today was not used until the l84o's and then only after an evolutionary decade <-r two when i t was called " the bridge near Aaron Stone's ". However, i f one dipB into the Sudbury records of the 1770'a and the East Sudbury (Wayland) records of the 1780'B and aiterwardB, one can become confused because, in 1779, a small stone bridge was built on the road from East Sudbury center to Weston. This bridge underwent several rebuildings and was known as " the Stone Bridge"( often uncapitalized) • This bridge took the Boston Pest Road across Hayward Brook near what is now the Wayland House and was variously referred to as " near Micah Graves! ", " near Edward Ride's ", and " near H.R. Newton's ". A knowledge of where houses were located, gleaned mostly from J.S. Draper's street l i s t i n g , is very helpful in locating this bridge which is now a mere culvert under Route 20. Conclusions My conclusions that The stone bridge s t r u c t u r e we see today was d e f i n i t e l y not b u i l t i n 1722, nor i n 1771 when a major r e b u i l d i n g was undertaken, and that i t was probably b u i l t sometime a f t e r 18p5» most probably Detween 1859 and 186^, w i l l be evident from an o u t l i n e o f what the records show about the bridge from 1720 to 1950.

For t h i s study I have riot senrched the 1 7 t h century records of the town of Sudbury 0

20 Although the bridges w e r e repeatedly being newly b u i l t , " new Bridge " seldom was used i n the records unless i t meant the c r o s s i n g to FrRmingham. One of the rare cases i s i n the Town Meeting Oct. 29, 1781 when the c l e r k r e f e r r e d ——u—-——-._k»f...qivciTwo.nLni! L_uaija_ll.v._called. Sherman's aridge ) .

FRM.911

a ridge not built in 1722 . Hiving read B O many reports ^hat the present bridge was ouilt around 1722 , I started out expecting to find the record of this having been done<> In the early 18th century this bridge carried an important county road, called the South County Path, west from Weston across what was then Sudbury ana across the northern part of Fr mingham. In the late 17th century this had been an important route to the western part of Massachusetts. In the Sudbury records there is no record near 1722 of the building cf a bridge to supplant the bridge which Middlesex County records show as being built by Samuel Howe in 1674, nor is there any record of ouilding a new bridge there at that time in the Framingham town clerk's record. The only indication that a bridge might have been -built there i n 1722 or just after appears to be a footnote on page 16 of the earliest printed history of Framingham, a book published i n 1847 , written by William Barry, a former minister in that town turned historian. Since this is a book of considerable rarely, ( with only one copy said to oe in existence in the town of Framingham), I am including a copy of the relevant page of Barry's book as Exhibit A in this report. Barry mistakenly thought that the name " New Bridge " was not used until a new bridge was built at this location i n 1722. That is beside the point. The important thing is his mention of a petition addressed i n 1722 to the Middlesex County Court of Quarter Sessions to"improve the highway and order the building of a bridge. Barry says that In the action of the court upon this petition may have originated the name of the " New Bridge ". Barry obviously did not check in the county records as to what happened to this petition. A search cf the so-called Sessions Books in the v m l t of the Middlesex County,Courthouse i n Cambridge revealed i n the Sessions Book covering 1705- 1722 on page 408,reporting the April session of 1722» the following entry» " Petition of sundry of his MajeBtie's subjects.,, Inhabitants of county, praying for a committee to review an old highway by one Livermore and for building a bridge over Sudbury -liver, as in the petitions at large, set forth on f i l e , 'continued at" the last court and ordered that the Selectmen of Marlborough and Sudbury be served with a copy of the petition for their appearance at the court to show ciuse why the petition miy not be granted. Whereas the s i d Selectmen appeared and the court upon hearing sa h party, i t is considered by the oourt end ordered that the said petition read'and i s dismlst." \ .»•*« ovid^e .tie 0; ••••ly not built by the county or at the order of the county ao a result of this petition. '1 he two chief authors of the 1956 Fnmingham historic 1 pamphlet are now dead and c nnot be consulted, but i t seems apparent th*t the Barry footnote , which implies that a bridge was built S B a result of this P « ~ tition,was the basia for the 1956 statement that the bridge was built about 1722. M

dridce built ca 1745-47 Further search cf the Middlesex County court recordB revealed that i n 1748 a pair of petitions was addressed to the Court of Quarter Sessions by Joseph Smith 1. A Fr'-mini:ham h i s t o r i c 1 committee got out i>n h i s t o r i c a l brochure f o r t o u r i s t s and i n t e r e s t e d c i t i z e m a few years ago. Part of t h i s i s a f o l d i n g map which locates Stone's Bridge as an important s i t e and states t h a t the bridge was o u i l t ca 1722. 2. The county records are so disorganized and ti.e only person who r e a l l y knowe them w e l l i s so u n a v a i l a b l e becnuse he serves i n court from day to day, that i t was impossible to l e a r n whether a copy of the p e t i t i o n i s extant i n the Middlesex County records. Soon a f t e r he published his book, Vdlliam Barry moved, to Chicago where he became one of the rounders of The Chicago h i s t o r i c a l S o c i e t y . It i s p o s s i b l e that his copy cf the o e t i t i o n i s i n the f i l e s of that Society. Since the p e t i t i o n was dismissed, i t did not seem worthwhile to look f o r i t i n connection with t h i s repi r t o

fly.^

FRM.911

- 5 end ethers of Sudbury asking that the ccurt confirm a new layout of part of the South County Highway near the bridge between Sudbury and Framingham. One at least of these petitions explained that the Town of Sudbury had " a few years ago " changed the road near the river and had erected a bridge. (See Exhibit B ) A bridge erected " a few years ago " would certainly not mean the bridge built 75 years ago by Samuel Howe, so the t r a i l led back to the Sudbury Town Records 0

Before going into what appears i n The Sudbury Records, i t should be stated that i f a new bridge was built at this location a l i t t l e before 17^8, this i s not when the term " New Bridge " first occurred in the records. The Sudbury Proprietors Records (Book of Grants p. 97) contains an entry of Jun~ 28, 17l4 referring to " the highway from New Bridge to ye hous of Sgt Joseph Gleason. Other such records could be cited. In the Ku^bury town meeting of March 6, 1757 the bridge is referred as " ye New Bridg by M Joseph Stone's in sd Town" . And i n the Framingham town meeting of July 15, 1757 ther is reference to the layout of a highway to "the new bridge." Perusal of the Sudbury town clerk's record of 1747 shows that in the f a l l of 17^7 the town was concerned with correcting the layout of the South County road and getting their recent change cf the road accepted. There, is nothing in the records of the 1750's or earlier i n the 17^0's which indicates that the town had built a new bridge there. However, there is i n the record of the town meeting j f Cctober 19, 1747 evidence that in that summer or i n the previous year or two the New liridge was rebuilt. Exhibit C gives the exact citations found. They are extremely fragmentary but of great importance. By using the term " raising " and shewing that rum was supplied for the occasion, we learn that this must have been a wooden framed bridge, A stone bridge is never raised} i t has to be built stone by stone. " Raising " in the term applied to the assembling of strong men ( made stonger by ruin or the like ) to put up the main stuctural pieces of a wooden framed structure. Barns and large house were raised and we have a vivid description of the raising of our present Unitarian Church in 1814. 0

Nothing was found in the Framingham town clerk's record about work on this bridge in the mid-1740'a. At a later date Framingham shared the cost and respensibiiity for the upkeep of this bridge with Sudbury and subsequently with Wayland. I have not been able to determine when this agreement was made. In tne 1740's Framingham was a young and very poor and struggling town faced with the need to build various other bridges across the Sudbury River. The Sudbury Records are most fragmentary on the rebuilding of this bridge in the 1740's. There was no town meeting a r t i c l e and no specific grant for i t as there was at that same time to build the Lanham Bridge. But what record we have is very significant because i t indicates that the New Bridge was not an arched stone bridge in 1748. I have shown this record to Mr. Roger Parks, Director of Research at Old Sturbridge Village, and he draws the.same conclusion from i t that I do,that this wae a wooden bridge. New Frr.med Wooden Bridge Built 1771-2 Whatever was done to the bridge in 17^7> i t appears t o have lasted well because the next record concerning i t is in the Town Meeting of Cctober 24, 1768 when, as was the custom for years, b i l l s to the town were brought in to an Cotober town meeting. This record shows: " Allowed to Capt Richard !eard for Repairing the Bridg between Sudbury and Framingham 16 sh" But by t h e ' f a l l of 1771 the bridge must have been in poor condition because we find 1. Claims to the town often cms i n as long as two years a f t e r work was done or materials f u r n i s h e d .

10 f)f. cfo I

FRM.911

i n t h e w a r r a n t f o r t h e Town M e e t i n g o f C c t o b e r 1 4 , 1 7 7 ] j A r t i c l e 15 " t o see i f t h e Town w i l l Grant Money t o r e p a r t h e i r p a r t o f t h e New B r i d g e Near Deacon S t o n e ' s " A t an a d j o u r n e d s e s s i o n o f t h e m e e t i n g on C c t o b e r 2 8 t h t h e r e is under A r t i c l e 15x " The Town v o t e d t o r e p a r t h e i r p a r t o f t h e New B r i d g e a n d Granted the sum o f 5 pounds t o r e c a i r t h e Some." We have h e r e t h e f i r s t ' i n s t a n c e o f t h e s h a r e d r e s p o n s i b i l i t y ( w i t h Framingham) for the b r i d g e . " Wear neacor. g t o n e ' s meant near v&cvn. Adams Stone who l i v e d i n a house s o u t h o f t h e road about o p p o s i t e t h e p r e s e n t Henley house on S t o n e b r i d g e Read. T h i s W&J t h e l o c a t i o n o f t h e e a r l i e s t Stone f a m i l y house a l o n g t h i s road on t h e Sudbury s i d e o f t h e r i v e r . M

The Sudbury town c l e r k ' s r e c o r d s f o r t h e 1771-1772 p e r i o d were v e r y d e t a i l e d and c o m p l e t e , e s p e c i a l l y a s t o d e b i t s and c r e d i t s . Cne l e a r n s by e x a m i n i n g t h e s e f o r C c t o b e r 12, 1772 t h a t t h i s was d e f i n i t e l y a wooden framed b r i d g e . Because o f t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f t h i s r e c o r d , I have i n c l u d e d a s E x h i b i t D c o p i e s of pages 210, 2 1 1 , and 212 cf Book 6 o f The Sudbury Records c o v e r i n g 1755-1790. T h i s ve y f i n e t y p e w r i t t e n t r a n s c r i p t i o n o f t h e o r i g i n a l h a n d w r i t t e n r e c o r d s i s a recent gift t o t h e Town o f Wayland and t o t h e Wayland H i s t o r i c i l S o c i e t y by t h e Town c f S u d b u r y . Marked o n - t h e pages w i t h a r r o w s a r e a l l t h e items w h i c h e x p l i c i t l y p e r t a i n to a c l e a r major r e b u i l d i n g o f t h e New B r i d g e . Other b r i d g e i t e m s u n s p e c i f i e d may a l s o a p p l y t o t h i s o n e . Cne sees t h a t t h i s was a t i m e of v e r y a c t i v e b r i d g e r e p a i r , p o s s i b l y due t o bad i c e c o n d i t i o n s i n t h e w i n t e r s of 1770 and 1771. Most i m p o r t a n t f o r c u r a n a l y s i s is t h e e n t r y : " To Capt Heard f o r 4 Days F r a m i n g New B r i d g e a t Deacon S t o n e ' s " and items i n t h e d e b i t s e s s i o n o f t h e m e e t i n g o f C c t o b e r 25, 1775 when D v i d Stone war p a i d f o r t i m b e r f o r t h e New B r i d g e and W i l l i a m Bent was p a i d 25 ah, 8 d f o r " R a i s i n g the B r i d g e near Mr S t o n e s " . A l t h o u g h s t o n e s were p l a c e d i n t h e water to help h o l d t h e abutments i n p l a c e , t h i s was c l e a r l y a wooden framed b r i d g e , newly b u i l t or s t o n g l y r e b u i l t . And i f G e n e r a l K n o x ' s t r a i n o f a r t i l l e r y c r o s s e d t h e r i v e r by t h i s r o u t e , as i t a l m o s t s u r e l y did , they c r o s s e d on a s t r o n g l y b u i l t wooden b r i d g e . Myths d i e h a r d , but t h e s t o r y t h a t t h i s r o u t e was chosen to t a k e advantage of a s t o n e b r i d g e s t r o n g enough t o w i t h s t a n d t h e w e i g h t o f cannon i s j u s t not t r u e . a

( lev England B r i d g e s of C o l o n i a l Times) It seems a p p r o p r i a t e t o i n t e r p o s e h e r e a n o t e on b r i d g e b u i l d i n g i n New Engl a n d i n c o l o n i a l t i m e s . A l t h o u g h E n g l a n d , from w h i c h t h e o r i g i n a l s e t t l e r s of M a s s a c h u s e t t s came, had many s t o n e a r c h e d b r i d g e s i n t h e 17th c e n t u r y , h i s t o r i a n s o f A m e r i c a n modes and methods o f b u l l d i n ? have found t h a t s t o n e a r c h e d b r i d g e s were v i r t u a l l y never bui*t i n New E n g l a n d . There i s one e x c e p t i o n - the Choate B r i d g e i n I p s w i c h , b u i l t j o i n t l y by ciasex County and t h e Town of IpBwich i n 1764 and e n g i n e e r e d by C o l . John C h o a t e , a prominent r e s i d e n t o f I p a w i o h who had gained e x p e r i e n c e i n b u i l d i n g i n atone i n w o r k i n g on f o r t i f i c a t i o n s for the French and I n d i a n Wars. Appended a s E x h i b i t E is a s e r i e s of q u o t a t i o n s from C a r l W. C o n d i t ' s book p u b l i s h e d i n 1968 e n t i t l e d A m e r i c a n B u i l d i n g - M a t e r i a l s 2. There a r e no r e c o r d s t h a t I have Peon a b l e t o l e a r n about in contemporary a c c o u n t s of K n o x ' s p r o g r e s s a c r o s s t h e B t a t e t o i n d i c a t e t h a t t h i s r o u t e was chosen b e c a u s e . t h e r e was a s t o n e b r i d g e h e r e . 1.

E x h i b i t D is c o p i e d from t h e bound two-volume t y p e s c r i p t r e p r o d u c t i o n o f Book 6 o f The Sudbury Records 175>-1790, g i f t o f George Max, Sudbury Town H i s t o r i a n t o The W^yiand H i s t o r i c a l 3 o c i e t y 0

LA) A-y.^oi FRM.911

and Techniques from the First that especially inNew England century. Also that stringers the New Bridge, are essential

Colonial Settlement to the Preaetito toe Bee here wooden bridges vjere the common thing into the 19th or string pieces , which we find in the records of components of wooden bridges.

It has been argued that small, local bridges i n out of the way places could have been built of stone i n the 18th century. A prominent man did design a stone bridge for Ipswich, but one needs to find definite documentation to be able to claim that a bridge between Sudbury and Framingham would have been an exception to the rule. Ihe argument that the 18th century inhabitants would have known how to build stone bridges bee-use they came from England doesn't hold. The people i n 18th century Sudbury and Framingham were third to sixth generation descendants of the settlers who had known English bridges. The farmers of this area did not travel and weie certainly not acquainted with English atone arched bridges or those built by the Dutch settlers in New York state. The

Jew pridge in the Early East Sudbury Period and Ma.ior Repair in 1804 In East Sudbury's r e c o r d s of the first decade of the town's separate existence we find a few significant items i n the town clerk's record, a l l i n debit and credit sessions at f a l l town meetings,, They are as followss T.M. Nov. 20, 1780 " To C pt Caleb Moulton for 27 ft plank for the New Bridge 6 0* 0" T.M. Oct. 29, 1781 " To Isaac Stone fson of Deacon Adams Stone] for plank for New Bridge 9eh 6d " T.M. Oct. 29, 1787 " To Capt Jesse Ernes for one string piece for New Bridge 15 B h 6d " " To Isaac Stone for one string piece for New Bridge 12 ah " These are small repairs , but they definitely indicate that the New Bridge was s t i l l a wooden structure. One apparently controversial incident occurred at the New Bridge i n the winter of 1796 when we find articles i n the warrants of town meetins of March 7» April 4, and May 9 of that year about Mr. Cutting losing an ox on the bridge and the town finally granting $15 to settle with Cutting* a

It may be noted that, in response to a request i n 1794 to a l l towns by the state of Massachusetts that they send i n surveyors maps , the town of East Sudbury hired Matthias Mossman of Sudbury as i t s surveyor. McBaman's map, dated 1795» the o r i gial of whioh i f in the Massachuset: t Archives, has about 400 words .of descriptive material on the town written beneath the map. He says i n parti " and have noted the Bridges over the same [Sudbury .'iverl whioh are as followeth beginning at framingham l i t Bridge 0*11e3 Mew Bridge built and repaired in Equal Halves by East Sudbury and Fr mingham 2nd Heard's Bridge over sd River but no Open Road to sd Bridge and has a causey c f p. bout 40 rods Jrd Town Bridge at the long Causey over the Main Stream and another over the Canal and a causey l 4 i £ rods long about 4 fest high which is kept in Repare by E st Sudbury Excepting the Canal Bridge &> 52 rods of sd ossey which the Town of Sudbury keeps i n Repare 4th Bridge is called Sherman's dri'Jge one half of which Belongs to East Suda

1. This is the only record concerning the New Bridge between 1795 d 1800. George F. Marlowe, an architect who lived i n Framingham for a time,wrote «i book entitled Byroads of Old New England, published 1951. Ibis.book contains a picture of Stone's dridge (called S< dbury i\iver Bridge) and a brief description of i t in which he says that " s. reoord " Jhows the bridge to have been built o£ stone betwe n 1795 nd 1800. Marlowe died about ten years ago and present day Fr mingham historians don't know where he got his information. They doubt that Marlowe saw a record pertaining to this bridge and so do I. Many statements in t h i B book are unreliable. a n

W AY

H0 I

FRM.911 bury and 16 rods of a causey" This is a careful enumeration and i t occurs to me that i f the New Bridge had been at that time a stone arched structure Mossman would have noted t h i s . By 1804, 55 years after the major rebuilding of 1771, the New Bridge apparently needed major repairs or rebuilding. We find in the warrant for the town meeting of April 2, 1804 : Article 7 "To see i f the town w i l l rebuild their part of the New Bridge (socalled) or do or a c t . . . . " the clerk recorded: " The tcwn voted tc rebuild their part cf the new Bridge and chose the Selectmen for their Committee to let out the earn and inspect the work, they to report their doing at May meeting next. Under Article 10 of the May 7, 1804 town meeting the town " chose the selectmen to superintend the repairs of their part of the new Bridge and granted the sum of $75" It muBt have cost more because an E st Sudbury Treasurers Book of 1787-1824 contains an entry t " Town Grant to Reouild Half of the New Bridge so called $110 " Beneath this notation i 3 e receipt reading: " Dec 6, 1804 Reed of the Selectmen : j r d e r of one hundred and ten dollars in f u l l for rebuilding one-half cf the new Bridge so called 110.00 [pinned j . Israel St, Whereas it: 1771 » at -.te last major rebuildmg or repair of the bridge, we have accounts which definitely t e l l us that tUey were working on a wooden structure, there is nothing in the extant Er>st Sudbury records which t e l l s us what materials were used or what kind of work tie. It did co6t mere than expected os Article 5 of the town meeting of Nove" er 5» 1804 saysi • To see i f the town w i l l grsrt a sum of money to compleat the rebuilding the new Bridge." the clerk's record:is phrased as follows: " The town by their vote Granted the sum of $55 to complete the repairs of their New Bridt- J . . . . " Rebuilding or repair; take your choioe. 11

l Q

Reoaira in the 1850'a and 184O'B After ite repair in 180A the bridge seemed good for another thirty years a l though we find Israel Stone b i l l i n g the town of E^st Sudbury $1 May 1, 1820 for 2 days repair at the New Bridge. And in A p r i l , 1855 we find a b i l l to the town from Israel Stone for one string piece for "the Bridge near Mr. Aaron Stone's " The matter was referred to the Selectmen. The following year, on April 6, 1855 $50 was granted for the repair of this bridge. In connection with this repair, there is in the possession of The Wayland Historical Society, among others, a receipt as follows: May 11, 1855 To Ira Draper for carting F ank &. joist for Bridge near Aaron Stone 65.46 cwt $10.58 The 1655 repairs didn't last Jong and we find under Article 6 of the March 1, 1841 town meeting Walter Stone- being chosen as " agent to rebuild repair the bridge nearer. Aaron Stone's", At the Town Meeting of April 5» 1841, $50 was granted for repair of the bridge near Aaron Stone s, This $50 is acoounnted for by % b i l l , the original of which iB i n the files.of, The Wayland.Historical Society»sent to the To«n by Walter Stone, th.; agent for the .bridge* It. reads*: o

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for cash paid Israel & Aaron Stone for timber and labour to repair the New Bridge Boca lied near my house ?30.77 for c*sh paid John Allen for Irons " " " " " " carpentering work " " " " " " labour ii

ÂŤ

Wayland Aug. 27, 1841

^ejQ

for my own work and time end trouble to repair said bridge Received payment

1*55 7.00 5.00

3.1? $50.00

Although the town clerk's record does not say anything about working with Faringham in the moderate repairs in 1841 to the bridge, we gather that waB done* or an attempt- made tc have i t , from a b i l l to the Town i-f Wayland from Jotham Dullardi

The Town of W yland to Jotham Bullurd Dr July 1840 To Labor on the Bridge near Aaron Stone's To spikes fcr said bridge Feb 1 8 4 l To see to the Bridge by Aaron Stones To meet Fremmingham Bridge Committee at A. Stones Wayland April 5, 1841 R

$1.00 .06 0.50 0.50

For 1841 I could find no mention o f the New Bridge o r any bridge shared w i t h W yland i n the Framingham town clerk's record. Framingham at this t i m e had a Bridge Committee separate from i t s Highway. Committee. I do not know whether there are extant any records of this committee before expenditures by this committee show in that town's printed town reports which s t a r t i n t h e early 1 8 6 0 ' B , a

Wayland D e c i d e s to Consider Stone A r c h e d B r i d g e s a c r o s s t h e Sudbury River Very â&#x20AC;˘ i g n i f i o a n t f o r this s t u d y i s an a r t i c l e in the w a r r a n t f o r a town m e e t i n g

i n Wayland December 2 8 , 1846, the r e c o r d of which reads aa x o l l o w s i T . M . D e c . " 8 , 1846

Warrant Article 4

"To see i f the town w i l l choose a committee t o view and o b t a i n

information upon the propriety of rebuilding some o f the bridges upon the Sudbury river with stone arches" Action Article 4

"Voted to choose a committee of three to examine and consider the subject matter of this article and report at some f u t u r e meeting then chose Josiah Russell, hervey Reeves and Richard H e a r d . "

This committee reported t c t h e town under Article 7 at the town meeting o f November 8, 1847. Appended to this report as Exhibit F is Josiah R u s s e l l ' s r e port as i t is included in the town clerk's record. Thie, and the article a c cepting the bridge and arranging for a railing for i t i n AuguBt, 1848,constitutes the documentation cf the four arched stone Town bridge. The finding o f that documentation is import-nt in i t s e l f . And, for the purposes of this a n a l y s i s , A r t i c l e 4 of the Dec. ,1846 town meeting seems very revealing in i t s wording. I t seems to me -o imply that tne tiu.nor of the article thought that the town would for the firBt time be considering building one or more stone

FRM.911

arched bridges , bridges big enough to span the Sudbury had already been buiit cf stone, i t would seem that the been worded in the way i t was . Thus, B B I see i t , the been built of stone before 1847> i t is unlikely that i t taken at exactly the same time as the Town Bridge.

River. If the New Bridge a r t i c l e would not have New Bridge cannot have would have been under-

When between 1848 and 1890 was the New Bridge by the Stones Built in Stone ? Enormous frustration overtook me as I seemed to narrow down the period when the New or Stone's Bridge could have been constructed cf stone. The New Bridge, or Stone's Bridge,as i t was coming to be called, was soon i n trouble again. The winter of 1854-55 had been hard on the bridges. Article 17 in the town meeting of March 5> 1855 reads* " To see i f the Town will choose an agent to borrow a sum of money sufficient tc pay for reconstructing the bridges that have been destroyed by the freshets of the paBt winter." The selectmen were to report at the April meeting. The warrant of the town meeting of May 25, 1855 contained as Article 5» " To see i f the Town will choose an agent or agents tc rebuild or repair the Stone bridge so called" ( In reading this warrant a r t i c l e one cannot be sure that the small stone bridge on the road between Wayland and Weston was meant. But ) Action: " Voted tc choose a Committee and to give them power to rebuild or repair or to take any other measures they see f i t after conferring with the Town of Frrimingham or their agents. Voted to choose two Agents. Chose Walter Stone and Horace Heard." At a town meeting September 17, 1855» under Article 4 " Horace Heard a Committee chosen at a former meeting mad© a.repoct upon the "Stone Bridge". " This report must have been controversial or inadequate because at a town meeting November 6, 1855 under Article 7 "Horace Heard on a Committee about the "Stone Bridge"made a report, the whole matter was then recommitted with Instructions to the same ' Committee to make our part of said bridge secure or to rebuild i t of stone as they shall think best for the good of the town." The meaning of this record could be interpreted in different ways. It seems tc me, however, to have meant that the committee was tc decide whether to f i x up the wooden structure or tc build a stone bridge. ( I cannot believe that making the Wayland half of stone while leaving fie Fr mingham half of wood would ever have been contemplated.) Strangely, nothing further on thiB bridge came up in Wayland town meetings of 1856,1857• s.nd 1858. This may have been because other more important bridges needed rebuilding cr repair. Cn April 7, 1856 $150 was voted to repair the F„rm Bridge and in March, 1857 the Bridle Point Bridge seems to have had $200 voted for its repair. In A p r i l , I858 a grant of $500 was made for rebuilding the Bridle Point Bridge. Finally, at the town me ting of April 4, 1859, under Article 5 " A I B O the. Ccmmittee to rebuild Stone's Bridge made a report which was accepted." There is no hint of what was included in the 1855 and 1859 reports and no money was granted specific l l y for this bridge. Furthermore, while in the 1860's, 70's and '80's much was done on various other bridges, nothing at a l l appears in t h e Town of W«,yloads records on Stone sBridge Piter t h e 1859 notation that 1

FRM.911

a report was accepted. It i s not known whether these .reports, v were written out and i f they were ever f i l e d . No such reports seem to have been saved although considerable numbers of b i l l s and receipts concerning ( ighways were Baved and are at The Heard House. These have been carefully scrutinized and,if one i s to draw any conclusion from them,one would have to infer that nothing much was done to Stone's Bridge , at least by the Town of Wayland i n the 1850's. Strangely, -nefching appears on this bridge in the Wayland town clerks record or in the available (but incomplete) Wayland Treasurers reports for the three decades of the i860'a, 70's, and '80's. Bec-.use the Wayland record of this bridge, stopping with the 1855 and 1859 items, wa6 so inconclusive and puzzling, I examined the Framingham town clerk's record for that period. The o f f i c i a l , handwritten town meeting records were read from the beginning of 1855 through the year 1865 and printed town reports of that town were examined through 1871. There WSB only one entry on Stone's Bridge. Article 15 in the warrant for the Framingham town meeting of June 5, 1856 reads" " To see wh^t action the Town will take i n regard to repairing or rebuilding the Bridge over Sudbury River and between Wayland and Framingham." actions " Voted to raise the sum-of w50 for rebuilding or repairing and that the asses* sors be authorized to expend the same" If 950 was Framingham s share of the repairs considered necessary i n the two reports made by Horace Heard i n 1855' to the Wayland town meeting, this can not have been a major rebuilding and couldn't possibly have paid for building the bridge in stone* That something happened i n 1859 i n hinted at , or at least suggested, in the Framingham town record. At a town meeting April 4, 1859 ( probably only ooincidentally the very day when Horace Heard delivered his last report on Stone's Bridge to the Wayland town meeting) under Treasurer's Report David Fisk was granted $4 "for half the expense of drawing a contract, Town cf WÂťyland "â&#x20AC;˘ There is no hint cf what the contract was about, but D vid Fisk had In M rch, I858 been chosen as one of three men to superintend the town's bridges. Cne wonders i f this contract cculd have had to do with some 1859 arrangement to rebuild Stone's Bridge. But, i f this happened, where were the Frrainghamand Wayland grants for this contract T 1

Time did not permit me to examine the town reports for Framingham beyond that cf 1871. Perhaps there is something on the bridge in the 1870's or 1880's. The Framingham town reportB are nicely bound and kept accessible at the town clerk's office. They include the records of a l l tcwn meetings as well as elaborate Tresarer's records which set forth the details of a l l major projects costing money undertaken by the town. Instead of going on with the rending of the r'rsimingham records beyond 1871, and on the assumption thrt i f Framingham did anything substantial to the bridge Wayland would have discussed the matter in i t s town meeting, 1 decided to explore the Middlesex County Commissioners Records ior the one hundred years from 1820 to 1920. Except for entries of 1900 and 1901 which throw light on but do 1. The V.ayland Historical Society has the following b i l l i " April 2, 1855 The town of Wayland to Samuel M. Thomas Dr. to 166 ft of plank to repair Stone Bridge so-called ^2.98 " also one from Walter Stone , dated l856,for plank, boards, timber, work and spikes "to repair bridge". 2. The County Commissioners succeeded the Court cf Quarter Sessions as the Middlesex County agency i n charge of highways and bridges in the. 1820's.

FRM.911 not directly concern Stone's Bridge ( to be discussed below), there were numerous layings out and petitions for highways through W yland, but nothing concerning the road which goes over Stone's Jridge or the bridge i t s e l f . County o f f i cials have not been able to t e l l me how to find cut when a road ceased to be a ccunty road. Ihe Mossman map cf E st Sudbury cf 1795 obsignated what is now Stonebridge Road as "County .toad from New Bridge ". Cn the 1851 state survey map of East Sudbury prepared by Willaim Grout of E st Sudbury that road i s not shown as a county road.* Clearly, by the middle and latter part of the 19th century the road over Stone's Bridge had become a much less traveled one, for local traffic only and through sparsely populated parts of Wayland and Framingham. a

Lne is reminded of the change in importance to the through transportation system of the New Bridge from early 18th century years to mid- to late-19th century years when cne reads about this bridge in Alfred S. Hudson's Annals of Sudbury, Wayland and Maynard published in 1891, the best reference work on the .etails of Wayland history. As Exhibit G,I am appsnding the two pages from the appendix aection on Wayland which discusses the "New Bridge". This and the sections on the other bridges is awkwardly written but Bhows considerable careful research. It will be noted that the author of this section, who may have been Alfred Hudson or James S. Ira per, says that the bridge is built wholly of stone and that between Howe's cart bridge erected in 167^ and this one ( with no hint of date or its recency) a succession of bridges were located here. I have found new or virtually new bridges being uuilt i n a^out 1746, i n 1771* in 1804; these were a l l wooden bridges. Repairs in the 1850's, 'AO's, and even the mid-'50's were of wood. I therefore conclude that the bridge must have been rebuilfof stone in 1858 or 1859 or i n the 1860's, '70's or '80's, i f Hudson's Annals is correct , as I believe i t to be, in spying that i B was of stone at the time of writing. An interesting item appea rs in the Wayland town clerk's record in the early l860's. In the town meeting of November 5Âť 1865 appears: Article 4 "To see i f the town w i l l take any measure to procure suitable plank for their bridges " Action! "Voted that the Selectmen take the subject under c o n s i d e r a t i o n . a n d voted that when any large bridge be rebuilt in town i t be built of â&#x20AC;˘tone" Thia vote was not followed. She-man's Bridge, aridle Point Bridge and the Farm Bridge continued to be repaired i n wood and to need rebuilding about every thirty years. Meanwhile, the Town Bridge, which had been built in 1848 as a four-arched stone structure seemed to require no repairs u n t i l 1899. It seems indicative of a stone bridge when we find nothing in the W yland and Framingham records about repairs to Stone's Bridge between 1859 and 1892.5 B

1. The Clayes-Nixon survey map of Frmingham, dated 1852, calla the road to the New Bridge from Framingham " Road to EaBt Sudbury". 2. This was the stone bridge building era in this section of the Sudbury River Valley. Sudbury town records show that that town rebuilt the Canal Bridge ( within V.ayland, but Sudbury's responsibility) in stone in 1858. In the Framingham town records we find that that town undertook a stone-arched bridge over the Sudbury River i n Saxonville in 1865, 5. It is interesting to note that in making a contract with Josiah Russell to have him build a lour-arched bridge at the iown Bridge location ( see Exhibit F ) the town stipulated that this bridge must last at least thirty years. The town would seem tc have v,anted assur nee that their experimental first stone arched bridge should last at least s long as the ave age of the wooden bridges with which the town haa coped.

FRM.911

Appended as Exhibit H i s the statement in the Wayland Selectmen's Report of March, 1893 that in September, 1892 the Woylnno Selectmen received notification from the Framingham Selectmen that a c i v i l engineer by the name of W.W. Wight had inspected Stone's 3ridge and had declared i t unsafe and that the Wayland Selectmen f e e l sure that the bridge w i l l need rebuilding i n the spring of 1895* At the annual town meeting on March 2 7 , 1893 we find: Article 11 "To see what action tne lown w i l l take in relation to rebuilding Stone's Bridge ( so c a l l e d ) . . . " Action: " Voted t h a t the Seleotmen be authorized to unite with the Selectmen of Framingham i o r the rebuilding of " Stone Bridge". At that same town meeting , under Article 5» $500 was appropriated for rebuilding Stone's Bridge. However, nothing was aone , apparently, to the bridge that year. The next year (189^), we find i n the March 26th town meeting: Article 15 "To see i f the Town w i l l continue the apprpriatidn for rebuilding Stone's Bridge so called" Action: " article passed over" The town report published in March, 1895 shows in the Treasurer's Report that the $500 appropriated for Stone's Bridge was transferred to the contingency fund. Either W.W. Wight's report was a false alarm or some other agency like the State paid this time for_ repairing the bridge. The Woyland Selectmen made no further mention of i t . I t would be of great value for this study.if Wight'.i report on the bridge were s t i l l on f i l e in Framinpham. In i t he may have commented on the age of the bridge, even on how and by whom i t was built. But, since this Bomewhat puzzling incident happened after Hudson's Anna 1 s had been written stating that the bridge was "built wholly of stone", whether the bridge 'lid cr didn't have repairs or rebuilding and whether i t needed them i n late 1892 is not relevant t 6 the documentation of the building of this bridge i n stone. I hope that someone better qualified than I to search the Framingham town records cf a l l Borts w i l l look i o r this report. B i l l s i n the collection at The Heard House show that W.W. Wight , f i r s t located i n Ratick then in Newton, aid engineering work on several occasions f o r the Town of Wayland. He also seems to have worked f o r the Town of Fr mingham.at the turn of the century. Rebuilding; of the Four Arched Town riridge i n 1901 — Implications for Stone's Bridge In an effort to learn a l l but the most recent hiBtory of Stone's Bridge, I scrutinized a l l Wayland Town Reports up to the year 1930. In doing so, I found nothing at a l l on Stone's bridge but I did f i n d an i n t e r e s t i n g and significant addition to what i n recent years has been g e n e r a l l y known about the Town Bridge. In the ?.• ylona -own Rupert of rch 1, 1898 t o M rch 1, I89> the Selectmen, i n t h e i r report (p. l j ) , s a i d : "Early i n the; ye. r, one of the arches cf 3oldwin's Bridge* gave way. I he bridge w-s e w p c r - r i l y r e p a i r e d , but w i l l not long be s"fe. " V.e then f i n d i n the wi r Tint f o r the I-lnrch 27, 1699 annual town meeting : A r t i c l e 19 " Tc see what a c t i o n the town w i l i take i n reference to rebuilding "doldwin's Bridge s o - c a l l e d " . A c t i o n : "/cted that the celectmon procure plans a nd s p e c i f i c a t i o n s and the estimated expense cf a s i n l e spun i 0 foot arch stone bridge i n place c f tne present three span stone bridge." !

The Selectmen's n p o r t i n the Vown Report of the next year, that ending March 1900, s t a t e s : " I n regard to Baldwin's Bridge we have p e t i t i o n e d the county

T h e Town B r i d g e

v.'.s; c l i e d

Baldwin's Bridge

this

time.

FRM.911

commissioners to rebuild the bridge and have re eon to believe they w i l l take the matter up in a Bhort time." It was thus not surprising to find that there are records of this bridge in the 1900 and 1901 County ComrniBeioner Records. Appended as Exhibit I is an abbreviated transcription from f a i r l y lengthy reports in the County Commiesionera neoords for 1900 and 1901. Bearin.3 on our study of Stone's Bridge, there are two important things to note in theBe reports. First is the fact that when the bridge was completely rebuilt oy the County Commissioners in 1901 the stonee were laid i n mortar for the first time. This indicates that the original 1848 four arched bridge built by Jooiah Russell was an unmortared or dry laid stone briage. One of the most frequent arguments I have encountered that Stone's Bridge is "very old* is that the stones were crudely laid without mcrtar. This was the way the Town Bridge was originally built . I am sure that,if the County Commissioners had not rebuilt the bridge with mortar,it too would now look " very ancient". The comparison of the two bridges has been made on the false premise that the lown Bridge looks essentially as i t did when first b u i l t . Ii' i_ne studies the -eneral shape and appearance cf the two bridges, one sees quite a resemblance. They definitely seem tc me to be of the same period. As explained above, I feel that the Town Bridge was the first stone arched bridge to be built by the town of ivc-yiand over the Sudbury River. Stone's Bridge could have be..n an imitation. Josiah Russell was not on the committee to make plans icr this bridge in 1855* Re died in Wayland Feb. 1, 1858 of dropsy at the age cf 6 5 . He was perhaps too i l l in 1855 to work on the bridge or on plans for i t in 1855. The other thing which mi ,ht be of significance in the County Commissioners Records as cited in Exhibit I is the reference to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts having recently built a now edition of the C nal Bridge. I have not been able to get a very clear otory as to how or why the Commonwealth built this bridge which had for nearly 120 years been the responsibility of the Town cf Sudbury even though i t wsc located in Wayland. Forrest Bradehaw, Town Historian of SudburyÂŤ told me that he believed '.hat the State stepped in because of a controversy. The f"Ot that the Commonwee 1th did build a bridge for Sudbury in Wayland, probably in the 1890's, led me to wonder i f the St'.t. could have built Stone's Bridge. As of this writing, I have not arrived at a satisfactory answer to that oueetion. 1

If no record of Stone's Bridge being built of stone occurs in the Wayland and Framingham town records which I have searched ( Fr-mingham leap exhaustively than Wye land), and i f the records show,as they do, that the Middlesex County Commissioners were not at any time ccncernea with this bridge, then there seem to be only two p o s s i b i l i t i e s t (1) that the State of Massachusetts hod the bridge built (2) that a private citizen or a group from either or both towns built i t . 2

The second possibility doesn't seem too l i k e l y . In the early 1860's a bridge such as Stone's would have cost about $1,000 unless a l l the labor was donated. The bridge was not on a well traveled road. Draper's street listing compiled i n tne late 1880's calls Stonebridge Road " the rcaa to Stone's Village". There

1. this I pelieve tc be the one that lasted until eliminated in the change of old Sudbury Road in 1 9 5 5 5 Â° -

2. Apart from the chance that I overlooked the record in the above-mentioned sources.

FRM.911

could be a remote possibility that one or mere cf the Stones or other residents of the area got tired of the constant need tc repair the wooden bridge and built a stone structure at no cost to the towns. I don't consider this l i k e l y . If the State of Massachusetts rebuilt the C-nal Bridge in the I890's',it seemed to me as least worth locking into tc try to find out i f the Commonwealth had anything to do with Stone's Bridge. This turned out tc be a very d i f f i c u l t matter tc explore.I have.talked with three people i n the Bridge Division of the Department of Public Works, ihey t e l l me that records of state actions about highways and bridges before the second decade of the 2 0 t h century are non-existent or at least unknown to those presently working i n the area. Lew Bowker, our Town Engineer, corroborates this; he has encountered a blank wall in trying to get at early state road layouts. Cne man told me that e l l the older records were thrown away during or'after World War I . I have net had the time this winter to go on an elaborate hunt i n state records. But I did spend two days at the State Library trying to find out i f there is a l i s t of early bridges built by the State. Since there is no detailed administrative history of the Commonwealth, I had to dig back into the records of various agencies which preceded the D.P.W.. In reading through annual reports of the State Highway Commissioners who had tc do with highways from 1895 to 1916, I found a short'list of bridges b u i l t ' i n or between small towns but no mention of the whys or tne wherefore. These bridges were Duilt from 1895 on and this could have been the agency which built the Canal Bridge which was new at the time of the Middlesex County Commissioners Record of 1900. Stone's Bridge must have been built well before the existence of The Highway Commission.! I have been able tc think of only two reasons why the State would have rebuilt Stone's Bridge i n the 1860's or after. Cne would have been disagreement between the two towns. The other would have been some angle to do with the furore and the law suits that arose and came to a climax about i n I860 over the overflowing of the Sudbury River meadows due to the dam at B i l l e r i o a . The State might have built a new bridge for the towns to appease the oppostion to the height of the dam which was particularly strong and vocal in Wayland. I found no evidence of any such action by the State and, when this is the case, i t is both foolish and unprofitable to speculate along these lines. Final Conclusion This report ends on an inconclusive note in that I did not find the record of the buiding of the bridge of stone. Bee-use the records show successive wooden bridges to 1855 at the New Jridge location, and since the stone bridge was reported to be there in 1891, the atone structure must have been built in that interval. That was the era of stone arched bridges and this one was not very different from one we know to have been built in 1847. I hope th?Âťt further work on various people's parts will someday solves the puzzle nnd uncover resl documentation for this bridge. 1. The bridges built by the Commonwealth o f Mussachusetts seem in the Highway. Commissioners reports to have been early efforts tc accommodate automobile traffic for which the State Beemed to take an early responsibility. This would explain the rebuilding o f the Canal Bridge as i t was on a dangerous corner.

la Ay.*?

FRM.911

Other commitments r e q u i r e t h a t I t e r m i n a t e , a t l e a s t f c r t h e next two months, my i n t e n s i v e e f f o r t s t o f i n d out when Stone's o r i d g e was o u i l t ae a s t o n e structure. F u r t h e r avenues o f r e s e a r c h w h i c h might be f r u i t f u l a r e : (1) An a t t e m p t t o f i n d C i v i l E n g i n e e r W.W. wight's 1892 r e p o r t t o t h e F r a m i n g ham Selectmen o r t h e i r B r i d g e Committee on S t o n e ' s Bridge.. Someone f a m i l i a r w i t h Framingham r e c o r d s and town p e r s o n n e l s h o u l d do t h i s . Framingham road nd b r i d g e committee r e c o r d s s h o u l d be sought and examined. My r e s e a r c h was c o n f i n e d to t h e town c l e r k ' s r e c o r d end t o T r e a s u r e r s Reports and o t h e r m a t e r i a l i n t h e p r i n t e d town r e p o r t s f o r the e l e v e n y e a r s 1861-1871. (2) S e a r c h i n nevepapers p u b l i s h e d i n Framingham and nearby towns. The s y s t e m a t i c r e a d i n g o f e a r l y newspapers i s immensely time-conBuming but o f t e n very retarding. Framingham newspapers go back no e a r l i e r t h a n 1871; t h e r e were , however, newspapers c i r c u l a t e d l o c a l l y and c- r r y i n g i t e m s c o n c e r n i n g W y l a n d p u b l i s h e d i n L o w e l l B t a r t i n g i n 1845, i n Waltham i n 1864, i n N a t i c k i n 1869 and i n M a r l b o r o u g h i n l877o S i n c e t h e r e i s no d e f i n i t e d a t e t c p i n p o i n t , newspaper r e s e a r c h l o o k i n g t o r a m e n t i o n o f Stone's B r i d g e s h o u l d o n l y be u n d e r t a k e n i n c o n n e c t i o n with a p l a n t c l o o k f o r o t h e r s u b j e c t s o f h i s t o r i c a l i n t e r e s t such as C o c h i t u a t e ' B shoe i n d u s t r y or t h e c o m p l i c a t i o n s o f g e t t i n g a r a i l r o a d to come to Wayland* 9

(3) A s e a r c h o f t h e deeds t o t h e p r o p e r t i e s n e a r e s t t c t h e b r i d g e on both s i d e s o f t h e r i v e r i n t h e remote hope t h a t some deed may c o n t a i n a d e s c r i p t i v e p h r a s e about t h e b r i d g e . I t i s u n l i k e l y t h a t l a n d was t a k e n by the towns when the s t o n e s t r u c t u r e was b u i l t . (4) An a t t e m p t t o f i n d l i v i n g descendants o f t h e Stones who l i v e d near the bridg around 1850-60 who m i g h t c o n c e i v a b l y have f a m i l y l e t t e r s or f a m i l y lore that ccn> cerns the b u i l d i n g o f t h e s t o n e b r i d g e . The Simon Stone Genealogy by J . Gardner B a r t l e t t , p u b l i s h e d i n 1926, names two g r e a t grandsons o f Walter Stone who was on t h e 1855 committee t o r e b u i l d t h e b r i d g e and who l i v e d n e a r b y . These two men were born i n Waltham i n 1916 and 1920. l h e y a r e not l i s t e d i n the Boston area t e l e p h o n e d i r e c t o r i e s . I f a l i v e , t h e y may have moved to a n o t h e r part o f the country. T h i s t y p e o f g e n e a l o g i c * 1 a p p r o a c h i s u s u a l l y enormously timeconsuming, out sometimes b r i n g s r e s u l t s . (5) A s t u d y of t n e s t o n e m a t e r i a l o f the b r i d g e to see i f t h e g r a n i t e used i n the o r i g i n a l s t r u c t u r e ( not t h e s t o n e used t c r e p a i r t h e b r i d g e i n 1956) g i v e s any c l u e s ae t o t h e d a t e when t h i s m a t e r i a l was put h e r e . George K . Lewis of t h e Wayland H i s t o r i c a l Commission sees p o s s i b i l i t i e s i n t h i s a p p r o a c h . (6) Followup o f a s t o r y t h a t when t h e b r i d g e was under r e p a i r i n 1956 a s t o n e w i t h a d a t e on i t was found and p l a c e d i n t h e p a r t of t h e b r i d g e w h i c h was r e i n f o r c e d w i t h m o r t a r as i t WBB r e b u i l t , i h e s t o n e i B aupposed tc be near the bottom o f one o f t h e p i e r s . Lew Bowker i s prepared t o l o o k f o r i t when t h e l e v e l of t h e r i v e r goes down and t o t r y t o check f u r t h e r on t h e s t o r y .

^ew_ INDIAN HISTOEY OJ'THI PLANTATION.

TRAMLIN GUAMPLANTATION. . u

At a County Court holden in Cliarieslown, Dec. 23, 1C73, John Sione sen'r of Sudbury, Scrg't (John) Woods of Marlborough, and Thomas Etimes of Framingham, together with John Livcnnore of Wattertown, (or any two of them,) were appointed and impowered to lay out an highway for the use of the country, lending from the house of the said John Lrvermore to a horse-bridge (then being) near the house of Daniel Stone, jun., and thence the nearest and best way to Marlborough, and thence to Quabuog," (now Brookfield.) * The above highway was laid out, and the return mode Oct. 6, 1674. It is tlie highway at the North part of Framingham, extending from the " New Bridge," (so called in 1750), W. towards Marlborougb..f The * horse bridge " referred to, is probacy eiplained by the following, extracted from the County Records, iii. 87: "April 7, 1674. In answer to the petition of Samuel How, referring to some allowance to be made him, for his expenses about the bridge he had lately erected upon Sudburyriver,above the lovne, he is allowed to lake toll of nil travellers, for a horse and man 3d, and for a cart 6d, until there be an orderly settling of the Country highway, and some provision made for repayment to him of bis disbursements."

INDIAN HISTORY OP TUB PLANTATION. As our narrative of events approaches the period of King Philip's war, it may be proper hero to eondenso such information as we have obtained relative to the early Indian history, as connected with this township. History and tradition alike faQ of throwing much light upon the Indian tribes, who most once have inhabited this town. The spacious ponds and theriver,particularly at the falls, abundantly stored withfish,undoubtedly attracted them within these borders. , _ _ _ _ _ * Co. Record*. rough »n<$ the towns lying above *^ f The identity of tits road is and westward thereof, than «ny other /proved by a petition, (an attetted road now in mm, yet through neglect copy of which is in theanthor's poi- . and disuse, nnpunble." A commit. session), signed by fourteen persons, lilee waa prayed for " to view the said nearly all of Framingham, and bear- 1 highway and order l i e building of a in j dste 1722. The petition, ad- bridge over the river there," or elsedressed to lbs Coast of Quarter where, " and order the said way to be Sessions a! Cambridge, refers to the laid open and made passable for Iravorigin of the road, and represents it ellers."* In the action of the Coort as "nearer and more commotions for open this petition mav have origin• i i — r.— t - > . . Vn-iw sled the name of the • Jfew -rtfje."

FRM.911

Ancient records refer to the " Indian graves" in the neighborhood of Saxonville, as well known, but the precise locality (probably upon the plain E . of school house No. 9) is now lost. The remembrance of it has passed away with the interesting and unfortunate people it commemorated. . The- only information we possess, which seems to indicate their actual occupation of the territory in this neighborhood, after the settlement of the colony, is contained in a letter of John Eliot,* who, writing in 1649, says: " Some SUDBURY Indians, some of Concord Indians, some of Maestick Indians, and some of Dcdham Indians, are ingenious and pray unto. God, and sometimes come to the place where I teach, to hear the word." Wo have preserved also the religious confession of an Indian named William, of Sudbury, alias Nataous, whp is probably the Hctus, referred to in the note to the Corlett Grant. He is described, 1662, as living at Nipnap Hill,t three miles N. of the Indian Plantation (Natick T). Hubbard speaks of him as " very familiar with the whites." Gookin, in 1674, refers to Nattous as among " the good men and prudent" who were rulers at Natick. Ho is also described as a Nipmuck Captain. The Co. Records, u early as 1659,$ notice him, by the name of Nctus, as having been sued by Serg. John Parmenter, of Sudbury, for a deLt. This same Netus was the leader of the Indians at the assault upon Mr. Eames' house, soon to be related. The name of Jacob's Meadow, (E. of Indian Head), and Jacob's Further Meadow, both in this town, indicate the probable residence here of " Old Jacob," as he is named in the accounts of the praying Indians. Old Jacob (his Indian name being Aponapawquin), " was among thefirstthat prayed to God. He had so good s memory that he could rehearse the whole catechism, both questions and answers. When he gave thanks at meat, he would lomcliracs only say the Lord's Prayer." Dr. Homer of Newton states that he died at the age of 90 years, recommending union to his brethren at large, and an inviolable regard to the laws of equity and to the civil authorities.$ Old Jacob will soon appear •bo as a participator in the " Eames' burning." * Coll. . • •. • *' 7" ^ • , *» *v •e . seen • • * • unable "—hie to to iden^rr identify IMe M l . , , ^ been * * • - » - n u n e fc. NoVssc*. hill, w!hose B

position is about three miles N . from mr tbe sncien ancient bonnds of Natick. j iX.i157. . 157. { 1 M . E . Coll., ix. IDS; T . 264.

m ^ y

FRM.911

Volume e n t i t l e d SeBsipna M y, 1748-M »y, 17^1 r

;;

rage 8

May 17. 17*8

" A p e t i t i o n o f Joseph Smith & Sundry others Inhabitants

f Sudbury l i v i n g by or

whose lands adjoin to the Highway or Road leading thro e i d Sudbury from Weston to a

Fr-iminghaB commonly c a l l e d &, known by the name o f the County Road shewing .that tee way WQB l a i d out by

Com

appointed by the Court c f Sessions A D 1673 from the

'..esterly part c f Watertown (now Weston) thro sd

Scudbury eight rods wide and i t

being now u n c e r t a i n w h e r e ed rood was l a i d out i n a l l places , the Town of Sudbury near ? a few years ago have l a i d cut a way i n exchange o f the above

sd way next

the .'liver

which dividos between Sudbury and Frjainghom and have erected a Bridge over Said River where i t Was thct to bo~far more b e n e f i c i a l to the F u b l i c k than i t could ever have been where Said read Was formerly l a i d . form themselves of the

Therefore p l a y i n g t h i s Court would i n t ee

Circumstances of these things

by sending a Com

to view

the same & confirm <fc e s t a b l i s h the above ed Exchange & also order the laying out & confirming the other Tartu o f sd Way three rods wide which Said Petition wa« aOcompanyed w i t h another .signod by Robert C u t t i n g H o p e ^ t i l l Bant and J a o n Gloason to tho Bane purpose. The. two f u r j going F o t i t i o n o read and ordered that Francis Foxtoe a

croft William T r . t t l o L Edrund Trowbriige Esq be a Com u l c e r a t i o n and t i n t thw-y view the Highway or %id and roport to t h i s

o u r

to take the Same under oon-

In tho said Petitions mentioned

t at the noxt t o r n t U n i r o r i n i c n what ic proper for the Court

t do thereon and tho P e t i t i o n s ,re roforred tc th..t time a c c o r d i n g l y . " I age >5 Loccml er 13, 17'lfl Report of Committee of ""r-.ncis F o x c r o f t , W i l l Jam Br t t l o and Eduund Trowbridge eonc- rning the highway r..-,ugh Uv'bury from '.'to to a to Fr-imingham refers on page 35 to u

;

" the new Bridge Lstween u 'bury I Fr minrhnm '

• i v a n r c r i b e d by H e l e n F . finery J ^ a i u r y 1?,

County Courthou-e

1976 f w . volume i n Vault o f Middlesex

FRM.911 Wayland H i s t o r i c - , 1 Commission

<udbury Town Record J.

1735-1760

{ Mury Heard

January,

197-

copy)

:?o Town M e e t i n g O c t o b e r

12,

17^7

W rr nit a

"To see i f ye Town w i l l

prefer

a pettition

to the g e n e r a l

cessions

Peace to be h o l d e n at C h u r l e a t u w n o n ye second Tueaday i n December p r a y i n g a i d C o u r t t h a t i n e much s a

o f ye

uppeaTb by n o l d Record t h a t t h e r e

n County Road t h r o u g h p a r t o f Sudbury e i g h t

rod wide from Mr Livermtrra t o

Frurdinghaa bound by Dea Adorns S t o n ' s t h u t s a i d EIUHJ may bo reduced t o t h r e e ©r f o u r rod i n b r e a d t h and e x c e p t o f yo Road l n i d o u t o v e r ye new b r i d g e i n lew o f the /_

ad o l d Road by ad Dea S t o n ' s above ad now b r i d g e

no d i s p o s i t i o n o f t h i a

a r t i c l e ahown on t h e r e c o r d

" J

235

Town M e e t i n g o f O c t o b e r 19, hebita

and

17^7

Credits

'io Jacob Mo©ro f o r one q u a r t o f rum f o r r . d e i t i g y e new b r i d g e P.

2J6

" to S m

1 1

Daken d i t t o

" to C h a r l s Johnaon t h e hutments"

for timber

0-7-7

0-„VQ " f o r butmenta f o r ye new b r i d g e and mending 0-10-0

own

"ci

Book6

/ c w n ffecovdi

Sucl bury

nrs-mo

FRM.911 ::p

OCTPD-R 1"72 i**

To See if the Town w i l l Grant H* Jacob Biglow t » t > Hundred

foT one Day J, h a l f of Jonathan Graves

two Hundred pounds f o r h i s S e t t l e i e r . t end Seventy f o u r pound*

f o r Edward How 8 1/2 Pays part

f o r h i s Salary a Year, as he has Contracted f o r , with the West

1C"

Parish i n said Town, and al<o the itprovemcr.t

of the M i n i s -

t e r i a l l a n d , belonging to said P e r i s h - - - -

f o r Eenj: Tower J Days fcr Per;.j-ir for

i n the Kater

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

l'j

Isaac A l l e n 5 Days 5 Bjrbark

1/2 Day

to S e t t l e an A c t i o n between Sudbury and Franinghaie, concerning

f o r J A M S Thiccpsor. 6 Reuben Vnrce 1/2 Pay each

fc*" Dun with a Ccaatittee o f Franinghajs chosen f o r that

f o r P r o v i s i o n s f o r the Work-Ten

I'urpose - - - - -

f o r Then - s Trask 3 Pavs r.id Liouor

- - - - - - - - -

To 5ci; i f the Ti>»n w i l l G r « * e r t h e i r .-owjer House to be removed

f c r Baasite Done Lieut Moore.s Cart Pope - - - - - - -

for cne - a y of Ja;-.b J o h n s . -

f o r Aaron Johnson

- - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

To s i r e S u i t a b l e Place

To See i f the Town w i l l Grant a sun of Money t o r e p a i r and

To Cap' Heaid for C u t i n : 4 Mad S e l l s 16/ -IP Days hork on

f i n i s h t h e i r School Houses

9 Pays a.-rk. ct the »ewr. ! r t J j e i-S, - \* foot

And rcakc Due return of t h i s Order with your doings t h e r e i n t o

S t r i n g p i e c e s 3 / taken out f c r your Board 10/ -

K™ Baldwin Town C l e r k

A l s o To Car' ;:earj f o r 4 Da>s F i a i u n g New S r i - , s at Pcacon

Sutfhary Sep" 26"' |"?72

Stones l P / « - 2 Pays wort i n the K a r r r 6' Cash p.d K"

M i J d l e s e * Ss !:. 71

S/7 -

Tirbcr

and f o r i-a-age d-ne t c Ca-ae £ Rope 2/5 e r e Pay C u t t i n g

the Select-Men, or Town Clerk at t i a e anJ place above nentioned Ey Order of the Select Hen

L i i s h a Kheler J u r : twelve Days part i n the hater -

the Canal Bridge SC/S - 1 4 feet white c.-V. T i r e r

- - - - - -

S Day; 1 Pay : r the V s t e r - - - - -

f o r Liquor

[page]

- - - - - -

To See i f the T o - - w i l l Choose a Committee and iicpower t h e *

"emit

- - - - - - - - -

r l d l r v 7/8 f c r V i c t a i l "-ins 2' Met IS.'- Six Pays fc'or* at : . _ . - e of t h i s G r o t :

I have warnei: ar.d Caused l o be w m «

ISM

Sri£< e 16/

K:e_ i 2L:;..-

S.'i - 24

feet 7ir.be r f / S

311 that ai e in r y hard that are * o t e r s in Town A f f a i r s t o ceet to eseet ( s i c ] at t i r e and place as within mentioned S-.db-.iry October ltf* 177; ~>.c k f . : r ' . c f the oti.er

Ss=uel l.r.:j;M

To M i l i r e Baldwin f j r T l - b e r f o r t!ie B r i d i e - - - To

Ct. . • : l S e

Sath

nTJ.r.'

l o r 2 I'-vs ftcrl. p i r t

To TILKIJ- US ?!!««.-.-U

three Constables Ciwvrs were .is the

f-.-r i i/2 2 j y «

'-.Vr'-. p. r t

irs the 5>:.t er

Tc C o r n e l i u s !>••>! Jr. fer S.-C- - 12" K a i l s - - - - -

!.nh r-irfcts a .d were Accepted by the Tcvn

the hater

- -

To ! r - - n r ; e r 'tf

t T«'-7. a t ! : ' - ;

>ui: 'jry Le-.'sHy 2rned Gctc-ber 12"" v

St-.rler. <Yr .'• 1/2 l a y s 1'ert

- - - - - - -

To L e a ' .'un^than l a r t - n i e r 1 1/2 Pay- *>.-.rk '-art

:n the Water

i 7 7 2 7i.t I U A htjr.g Ktt at tj*-e ar c i jace proceeded and

Tt> Tit-ot'ty 'Jn-ifr-rot! 1 !,'2 fays Kor!: part i n the hater

.;...'( .:„"-,.-,

To Jo'rir. " c r i a r . f c r 6 lay? hcri. at the LTidgcs -

5 •-

r!.-ivr«ts»r

t!-en The lu>-'! i lui-eedtrd as

fsll&ws v i z ' 1"

To Cnn' . ' [ . n * Nf>v-s for *wn '^-w**' ^the 07

t h i t were [ s i c ] allowed by t h e i r C o ^ r i t t e c i. Allowed to Leiu'

KhcicT f a r t h i r t y two Days fc'ar> t the.

Bridge - - - (v

To Deaecr< Plyrjpton

The Town by t h e i r Vote allowed the l i s t o f Debts that were follows v i z *

tvo Pa-s KnrV cf John llndcrvood oart i n the Vater -

II 6

4 3

-i.';-e -

tko s t r i n g p i e c e s )

1 Ouart Rur. 1/6

To J a » . e s Frewer f o r T i r - - r

) )

f o r 9 Days h-rk 2'/

2 4 / - ; lbs Suear i

f o r the ? r i d c e

)

- - - - - - inf.

To S.i""jel tator. f o r Kcrk done at the h n d r e 6 Karniny Marcli MeetTo Uriah Moore f o r 3 1 / 2 Days

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FRM.911

o f . SuJilury

i c u'n

}out\ Records

Book L

irSS-lllO

711 '

OCTOBER 1772

OCTOBER

To 2ebadiah F a r r i x f o r 1/2 Days Bark . . . . . . . . . . . .

To Joseph Dudley f o r 1 Days Kork r a i s i n g the Bridge

To Mi can Goodenow f o r Kork at the Bridge % Warning three Meetings

To sr Dudley f o r

To Ednund Paraenter

To Daniel Rice f o r

To Tnaddeis R u s s e l l tor

To Feter Johnson f o r 2 Cays kork

To James Pirwenter

for Kork s i the Bridge t P r o v i s i o n s

- -

f o r Kork done at the Bridge - - - - - - - - -

To Sajiuel Parnenter

for Kork at the Bridge - - - -

- - -

- - - -

To John Maynard f o r work at the New Bridge and ) Costs f o r E t t i a j i _ y To

l a i d t o h i s land

X 6

)

Hoare f o r 3 1/2 Days work at the Bridge (, oxen - -

To Asah-1 Y n r l e r

f o r 6 Days Kork a : th? Fridges 16/

To Tbo~as Raynes f o r 1 Pays Kork at the Bridge

- - -

- -

- - - - - -

To Charles Haynes f o r 1/2 Days Work f, Oxen - - -

- -

To Phileaoc E r e * ™ f o r the use o f the tout 12/

- -

the Bridge - - - - - - -

To Ma:* Joseph C u r t i s f o r 2 Days work 1 l i n b e r

- - -

To Cap' St.:th f o r 3 Cays Kork at the S r i d g e - .

I s t a c ^zyK»rd

}

- - - -

- .

on? 5 n a i f I'2y f>

To I s r a e l Kheier f o r 1 1/2 Cay Warn

To J o n a t h i n Graves f o r 3 1/2 3.<vs Kork - - x

To Daniel Rice f o r Stone plan! T i _ « r done to Natick

Bridge

S 15

- -

ar.d Labour

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

To S a i j c l Read i o r 4 'Jays Kork - - -

- -

To C o l : Noyes f o r a Plsnk and a C o f f i n f o r Edward Grout )

- -

To C a r ' E o * f o r 103 feet plar.l

To Roaand Eogle f o r 1C f a y s Kork - - -

To Jonathan Kaynard for a Days Kcr! at the Bridge

Berk Doie o3/

)

IS 1/2 Days Kork (. Spikes f o r the Bridge S8/S) To E l i s h a Kheier J u n ' 1 1/2 L>ays at

1 Days B > - « i n the Water

To Dar.iel Wait f o r 1 Days Kork i n the Water

1 6

To Daniel Bowker for plank i u r n i L ; two Town Meetings

- -

] rays Kork

To Uriah "layJen f o r Tltaher e r j C a r t i n g - - -

)

To Jonathan Harv.cs f o r 1 Days Kork - - -

1 Days Kork ir. the Water •

To Moses Stone l o r 1 Days Kork i n the Knter 4/ 6 f o r 1

)

3 pine Trees 9/ oxen one Pa* 1/4

1772

i other A r t i c l e s 48/

and three Windows 9/'

)

To Roland Bennct f o r 4 Davs Kork at Town Bridge To Phineh-S Gleren f r r

wr-mjfrj Town Meeting

i s March

"To

To John h-tas f o r three D.:ys Kork part in the Kater

h' :!ur.; f ? r W;>rL tn

at "anhars B r i J s c

Viirjst'.is Moore f o r one l"a>s K?rk at

Shcrran Fridge

To Uriah Kheier 2 Days at Shermans Bridge

Isaac L i n c o l n f o r takinc Care o f the Kest Meeting House —

'ID Eenjajrin B a l l f o r taking Care the East Meeting House

'«bro5e Tower f o r S n - c r i e ' dor.e tc Kest Meeting House — —

To Lciu" Mo~re for 11 1/2 Pays work at the B r i d r e

To !_' Ja;ob Read

for Work at

1/2

Isaac Read for

lanhrr. Bridge

Pays Kork ar*J

V.-.T for 7 i r > ! r : K

flxen

at Ix.hnf ."ridge

I s ™ : Stone f - r

1 1/2

f - r i . Z D.-.vs wit).

p,en

To Lieu" Brown for 173 feet plank white nek

To John Max-nard f o r C To

14 16

3 13

**•* feet plank '"Jgc

To Ch neier Johnson for 20 f e e t white Oak Tico. • " '6 ) n

z:i 1 1/2 'Jay s o r t I s y i n f Pecks 5/

- -

—

Tc Jor.n Noyes J u n : for 7 L'ays £ t the Bridge h i m s e l f Crave* a i d J a - v s Neyes To Nat . -

) ]

Lorir.r. f o r p r o v i d i n g f o r the M i n i s t e r s

)

over the Sabbath, f r o n V j r c h S " to October l l "

)

1/2

Day of En" F a r r a r

m X

To Joseph Shencan for S Days Kork at the Bridge To Thoxas Jcnkinson f c r 4 Days K^rV

' c

Acco—

Isaac Hibbs f c r 2 Tons Timber Standing

To Ephralr, Abbot f c r t h r e e Davs Kork "

- -

To L'aniel Ka:t for Kork at lonhas i r i d g c

for Carting Stone 6 T i c ! i r

- -

To En<ign J a b e : I'uifcr f o r the s;i-c S e r v i c e

7r Caleb tlaulton for Work done at the Bridge by Dec? Stone

To John l i J t o n for two Days "ork at SaiJ

•'• "hidcells - - -

To Maj: C u r t i s f o r Serving as a C o - - ' — - in Allowing

3 -

Te * ! » : waller J u n ' f o r 207 feet -lar.k 14/ Knrr.irg 1 Meeting

To Tho^a'. Cent f r r X

13 —

12 R

f o I FRM.911

WAy.

i-ii Colonial Building Development

ti-ior Framing

There wasrelativelylittle need for permanent spans in the colonies: the movement of goods and people between settled areas was very small, the manufacture of most material necessities was done in the home, and such trade as existed was carried on largely between the mother country and the colony, with raw materials moving to the homeland and thefinishedgoods outward to the colonies. Indeed, had there been any great need for bridges, the colonial builders could hardly have satisfied it. The major coastal cities either lay upon or were dissected by waterways of great breadth and depth. We have only to recall that the Hudson was not bridged at New York until I93l, or the Mississippi at New Orleans until 1936, torealizehow formidable the problem of large-scale bridge construction is. In the colonies there were no public bodies to raise taxes or issue bonds, and no private corporations with the means to invest money in toll tructures. Yet bridges offer obvious advantages over ferries, and ins colonists recognized their necessity wherever produce had to b moved from farm to town and the intervening streams were broad enough to make fording impossible but small enough to make ferrying a nuisance. Most bridges in the colonies were constructed of logs or hewn tim>6ers on piling, although smaller structures of rubble masonry held in place mainly by friction appear to have been built in New England and Pennsylvania. Masonry bridges with dressed blocks laid up in mortar would have been prohibitive in cost The pile-and-beam type of timber bridge was invented by Rorasn military engineers, from whom the Celtic and later the Anglo-Saxon people probably learned the art. The technique was developed well enough for the Sixons to bridge the Thames at London at the end of the tenth century. "Die factors governing bridge construction in the colonies continued to be major determinants until the C5vD War. Wood was plentiful; it was durable and strong in both tension and compression and easily worked, and its properties were long familiar. The rapid growth of agriculture and commerce in the colonies, as well as in the republic, meant that it was most expedient to build bridges for subsequent replacement rather thari^rmahence, or to build with the aim of

—* ~

r*c

A, i ,, r £

C t% . * * f e

l *t e• f

:r*r fcewn flat that was laid across a stream from bank to bank. I ,»<• trunks, or a large trunk split in two, were laid side by side. 1:: curliest intermediate supports were crude pile frames of two •; : • . . > capped by a cross piece to take the ends of the logs or planks t:..,i t'oimcd the deck. The laterjmilt-up structure of hewn timbers ted t>l the following elements: transverse rows of piles driven .:the stream bed. the number of rows depending on the length of :u t-ndpe. with longitudinal girders spanning from one group of :.:. v t.< the next; light transverse beams laid across the girders; and i deck nailed to the beams. The separate piles of any one group -r;c joined by a transverse beam or cap piece laid across the tops. ViJi a group of connected piles is called a bent, and the longituclina^ ...-vicrs are known as stringers. Methods of joining appropriate re t ...Jiue frames could be used in bridges, but since iron spikes were r.per and easier to place, they eventually came to replace the - .»xlcn pegs and tenons. Span length in the colonial bridge seldom .-u.-t.led 20 feet and was usually shorter. The easier construction ,•! >i-.nl .spans, however, was offset by the higher cost of driving a , -citer number of piles, the most laborious and expensive operation is budding pile-and-beam bridges. I .T bridges of some weight, shore supports were a necessity, since m banks were generally too soft to sustain even a moderate *..«.i-n trallic. Abutments were usually built up of logs laid horizon'.J!K in a three-sided crib with notched joints to make stable corners. I he wide interstices were filled with earth, clay, or field stones. Abut:i -ntmf loose rubble were sometimes used, but these were exposed :•> the undermining action of currents. For bridgesof more than one •pan in which piers took the place of piles, the piers were generally cribs filled with loose stones. Foundations presented the most diitTTuTrpT^lcm to the colonial builder, since he was not equipped t.» build in cofferdams from bedrock or hardpan. The simplest techaiquc was to stabilize the sediments of the stream bed by spreading ra-s over the area under the pier. A morereliablefoundation was !J»c weighted raft—a grillage of timbers laid in two layers at right an-les and sunk in place by boulders. The weight of the stone-filled

WAy. <?tf i Ii c -,-t r

/V> - -

i ' - ^. ..f

r - . . . ,

C *•>

|-,„_-T

FRM.911

tt j-

Framing

area. Thefirston record was the Cradock Bridge, constructed about 1630 in the pile-and-beam form to span the Mystic River at Medford, Massachusetts. One of the longest was the Great Bridge, built over the Charles River at Cambridge in 1662. The stringers were set at variable spans, from 15 to 20 feet in length, and were carried on piers in the form of stone-filled cribs. The plank deck was spiked to transverse beams. The Great Bridge survived until nearly 1800, and up to 1786 it was the only span between Boston and the communities on the north bank "of the Charles. Samuel Sewall of New England was the major bridge builder of the eighteenth century. Thefirstof his structures, and the oldest for which the builder's drawings survive, was the pile-and-beam bridge over the York River at York, Maine. The span was completed in 1761 and remained in continuous use with repairs until 1934. It was 270 feet long, 25 feet wide, and its deck was supported by 13 braced bents of four piles each. The bents were assembled on land, floated out to position, and sunk for some distance through the soft mud of the bed to a stable footing. The largest of Sewall's bridges was completed in 1786 across the Charles at Boston. Its 1,503-foot deck rested on 75 bents, with the usual maximum span of about 20 feet. The piles were hand-driven into the bed by means of a heavy block raised by tackle and allowed to fall by gravity. The pontoon bridge was the only other timber form to be built in the colonies. Two such bridges were associated with the early campaigns of the Revolutionary War, but few details of their construction remain. Thefirstwas built over the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia in 1776 to move troops in Washington's New Jersey campaign. It was built under the direction of Israel Putnam, the general in command of the Continental Army at Philadelphia. The bridge has been described as constructed like a graving dock for ship repairs. A second structure was built by the British Army in 1777 over the same stream near Gray's Ferry but was soon replaced by a pilc-and-log span. The simple beam structure was not superseded untfl the last dec-

•. - n which was an elaboration of colonial antecedents was the bridge : ..it by Enoch Hale over the Connecticut River at Bellows Falls, »r.-nn'M. in 1785 (Fig. 7). A two-span structure with a total length • '(>S feet, it has been regarded as the first truly framed bridge in • .- I'nited Slates. It was a primitive variation of a type that first ..•;v.ircd in the early second century A.D., when Apollodorus of ;»_n.i-cus built the great wooden span over the Danube River for Roman emperor Trajan. The superstructure of Hale's bridge r.-.teJ on abutment walls of rubble and on a braced timber bent at center. The de:k planking and beams were carried on heavy •.a.cd timbers arranged in a trapezoidal archlike form, with four ...ii arches set in parallel planes for each span. What we know of ^construction suggests that the deck beams, arched stringers, and . . : . U T bent constituted a framed structure that bears some resem': ...ace to a truss in action. Hale's bridge was demolished sometime re 1803. Mihough the truss bridge came to be a necessity for road and •_:! trallic over major streams, the pile-and-beam form with braced ••.-.'Us never entirely disappeared. It survives to this day for very short -.[•.ins on railroad branch lines and rural roads. One may say as c:.:Ji. as a matter of fact, for timber construction in general. The viiuity shown by the colonial carpenter was constantly improved the builders of the early republic and adapted to a steadily widenraniic of structural needs as the industrial base of the new nation .•ipjnded. In American building the great period of timber framing to come with the nineteenth century, but certain aspects of the fH U-choiquc were to become permanent features of the structural arts. I'T all the native ingenuity, however, American dependence on I ufupc for ideas, fundamental inventions, scientific theory, and ~* i.atlicmatical techniques was also to remain a permanent character- t"T\ \-'.\< of the construction industry. The European builder has always ^ Ken more scientifically minded, more aware of his dependence on '—' wicmific theory and hence more flexible in his adoption of new • '-civ His American counterpart has seldom freed himself from a ? irr,m-lv n . i n m n i r . nrtint of vi/Mi- fnctr>rf>r| hv nnri nt thr! enmc time

FRM.911 *«

cord suspended at its ends, or a parabola, which corresponds tl<i>c!» to the catenary; but it was not until reinforced concrete construct-.« was fairly well advanced that arches could be built economically t& the parabolic form. Although the engineers often revealed great i l i l i and daring in the construction of long railroad viaducts, they ucrt closely bound to the accumulated experience of a two-thousand-JCJI tradition. There is little evidence, as we have noted, for the building of masonry bridges in tne colonies, tty 180t3Tnpdestspans were Jvinj constructed of cruaeiystressed stone in New England and the Middle Atlantic states. In someTcases the spandrel walls of the bridge ucrc built of rubble masonry without mortar, only the wedge-shaped vou»soirs of the arch proper being dressed to provide matching surfaces The first work of finished design and execution, with carefully dressed stone and uniform mortar joints, is the Carrollton Viaduct, constructed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1829. The engineers of the single semicircular arch of 100-foot span were Jonathan Knight and Caspar Wever of the company's engineering staff, and the architect was James Lloyd. The Carrollton bridge is suH in use and is thus the oldest rail structure in the United States. The railroad, which was the only transportation system that required the large masonry bridge, was also the only one that could ifford to sponsor it Within a few years of the Carrollton Viaduct, he B. and O. pioneered again when it built the first multispan nasonry bridge for American railroad use and the first in the United States to be laid on a curving alignment. This masterpiece of the nason's art is the Thomas Viaduct over the Patapsco River at Relay, daryland, opened to traffic in 1835 and named after Philip E. "nomas, the first president of the railroad. The chief engineer of fie project was Benjamin Latrobe II, son of the celebrated Greek Levival architect. The Thomas Viaduct, divided into eight graniteaced semicircular arches of 60-foot span, extends 600 feet in over-all ingth measured along the arc, and the double-track rail line stands S feet above mean water level. The unique feature of the structure the placement of the lateral pier faces, which are laid out on radial

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,- : .- tur.ir.e plan, each pier thus having a wedge. . , , - j . u»ii.»n. The bridge was built for locomotives that ...... « «»>•«» 'he Mi ions of the B. and O.'s "York," but r-kii . i material in tlie arches and piers is great enough -fu- r^<m>HJs compressive loads and bending forces exerted „ i . •. u\o>. it continues to carry successfully the passenH . . . . • i • • :-A!;eof the railroad's eastern main line. The Thomas i . i i-.v.-h work of architecture as well as of engineering: i t * . , . H . tr. mi.:.* and the rough-faced granite blocks carefully set * *.;«.» n » L-.:* ,ivc the massive span great power and dignity. ; M> ii..:/ rii-p:»>'n to railroad sponsorship among early masonry 4 . . . H.-.< »i K.jacd-jct Bridge, which crosses the Harlem River at .-«.-. u -. IT. Ni-v» York City (Fig. 22). Popularly known as High l,. r »•» built between 1839 and 1842 under the direction of ^ i {-.->.* t,» carry water from the original Croton Dam to the i n . •_*vjti:ie reservoir at Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street, i* ..i- . / the New York Public Library. The total length of li.-.Jj-c is nearly 1,200 feet, originally divided into fifteen I . . / , : ii, span from 50 to 80 feet. The high palisade that i.:-, v ..--.I (Manhattan) bank of theriverfixedthe over-all • r i t " ill li-et above mean water level arid gave the piers the - i « i r ir> height that earned the bridge its popular name. After i •l i.'twluic carried three large water mains, but these were » » : »-;vrseded by the present underground siphons. The im..• . _ [ural innovation of the Aqueduct is the elaborate system . . -. ':.r-uting walls within the hollow volume enclosed by the * ; deck, and spandrel walls. In most bridges this space I •nit rubble as a support for the deck between the spandrel I* :U Aqueduct span the extremely heavy water load in the • -i v, as transmitted to the arch barrels by a system of longi•*-«" •»-l transverse brick walls braced by monolithic diagonal i.. v. drf horizontal plane across the corners of the intersecting * 1-i |«*.V? the five arches spanning the river and the New York i *». -*. Railroad tracks werereplacedby a single steel arch, but the ». < ( u* bridge remains substantially as built. » * ;i» rich texture and slender proportions, the handsomest ,

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US"*"' •"" end DI the seventeenth ecntur>. An early classic with . carefully selected regular blocks is the Ten Brock butt*. ..i between 1676 and 1695 ul Kingston, New York. Stone masonry seems to have encouraged experiments in form, especially amon-' English and German builders in the Philadelphia area. The house built by Sir William Keith, governor of Pennsylvania, for example, is an extremely long, high, narrow block capped by a gambrel roof. Located in Montgomery County, the Keith house was constructed from 1721 to 1722. The Georg Mueller house, built at Milbach. Pennsylvania, in 1752, spreads out in a number of wings, its rubble walls contrasting sharply with the carefully dressed blocks of the quoins. The arch erf stone masonry was even rarer than its brick counterpart because of the added cost of dressing stones, however crudely, interfile wedgefike shapes of the archvoussoirs. What is very likely the earliest use of the stone arch appears in the most puzzfiog of all colonial structures, namely, the Old Stone Mill at Newport, Rhode Island, built sometime before 1677. The mill is a squat cylindrical tower of irregular stone fragments carried at its base on eight cylindrical piers joined by crudely made semicircular arches in which the pieces of stone are laid roughly as voussoirs. The outside diameter of the tower is about 23 feet, and the wall thickness and pier diameter are 2 feet 6 inches. Who erected this strange tower and to what purpose have never been determined. One romantic theory is that it was built by Norsemen who were thought to have explored the Newport region in the fourteenth century. The only reliable evidence indicates thai the tower was owned and used as a mill by Governor Benedict Arnold, whose will of 1677 contains the first reference to it The cylindrical mill itself was not uncommon, having been built by the French in the form of solid towers without arcades along the St. Lawrence River and at St. Louis. The stone arch was ordinarily jsed in connection with window and door openings, in a few cases n the Gothic form, as in Sleepy Hollow Church at Tarrytown, New r'ork (1699), but always during the eighteenth century in the Roman emicircular form, as in the great stone house known as Mt, Airy in Richmond County, Virginia (1758-62). >

FRM.911

\r,h 1-tiJ.r* «'t stone were extremely rare in the colons g + J , - J s J»C non-existent. There is scarcely any evidence to. -ft. r w r " l "tone bridges in the seventeenth century, and jktîyhtKûsJKsi the exact form of those built in the eighteenth. .,. . it iu.li vlructuic appears to have been the multiple-arch bridge i„ : „:vut K»VK «jvcr Peunypack Creek in Philadelphia. Possibly ;»« uvnJ was the stone bridge built in 1740 to carry Third Street - U u luek in Philadelphia. This was undoubtedly an arch • jithoucli the available descriptions do not specify the struc. LJiura^ter. A bridge of unspecified material was known to !. .- ivca built in 1720 to carry Second Street over Dock Creek, and iu ... u .«»»t half again as much as the Third Street bridge, it may also \i, : tvcn .'f masonry construction. We may conclude that there was . pK rcss in the art during the late colonial period because a |r>'»»« ifan si.<ne arch bridge was constructed at Lancaster, Pennsyl. . i _t the end of the century. Construction in stone masonry conU-.-.J to tlourish in the first half of the nineteenth century, but v-.-lHcTits role was progressively superseded by iron and concrete. I he ereal works of masonry construction were built in the Spanish . :wcs that once stretched without break from Florida to California. '.. c Spaniards, who came to find precious metals and to convert the i ^.:îs. established their permanent settlements on feudal and hierual lines, with the consequence that the wealth of church and »•.*:< was available for the construction of missions, fortifications, eosernment buildings. The richness and complexity of Spanish iur.sjue architecture could thus be duplicated in the New World in .' cms and on a scale impossible to the bourgeois economy of the I .-..Iish colonics and antipathetic to their Protestant spirit. Whereas ruulJing inheritance of the English colonists were initially rnedie• al that of the Spanish domains was derived from neo-Renaissance {•rcwcdcnLs at the start.

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140

APPENDIX TO THE ANNALS OF WAYLAND.

£*k*l»*'t

"OLD TOWH BRIDGE.

(For early facts concerning this ancient structure sue pp. 7, 8.) In 1661 it is supposed that Peter Bent, son of John Beat, erected a new " cart bridge " ut this spot A t that time he made a contract to build a bridge across Sudbury River, fur hurse and man and laden carts to pass over." The bridge to be built by Mr. Bunt ut that time, and in accordance with this contract, was evidently at the site of the " Old Town Bridge," or of the "New Bridge," or " Stone's Bridge "„as_it4iasun .recent years been called, As, however, no ** cart bridge " was erected at the latter spot until 1674, when Samuul How, of Lanham (Sudbury), erected a "oart bridge" there (see sketch of "New"or "Stone's" bridge), it is evident that the bridge erected for "horse and man and laden carts to pass over "'was at the site of the "Old Town Bridge." In 1717-18 the town voted to have "a New bridge built over Sudbury river where the old bridge now stands at Ihu end of the long Causeway," In 1729 the town voted to build a now bridge at the east end of the "Long Causeway;" and in connection with this record we have the two following of about the same date: The first is, that "part of the effects of the old meeting house" were to be paid towards the building of the bridge over Sudbury River; tlie other is the teport of the committee appointed by the town to build a bridge at the uusterti end of the toug causeway —-"To David Baldwin 87 pounds," for bridge frame. Iu two men were to repair the bridge at the east Bide of the causeway, "so as ye said hutments may nut be washed down or be / carried away by yefloodsas iu times past" In 1785 new plank was provided "for the great bridgâUheEy •«v i ,. t tJE^d ,,. .,of,,phoLong - Long C«Causewa." The bridge was rebuilt in 1791. The present i / ^ j . , bridge*was constructedL byîlHam'ft UBsell, with stone arches, at a cost of $500. t ÎfiP i J f° » boats passed from Boston, through the old Middlesex Canal, to Concord \ je""^River, Within the present oentury iron ore that WUM dug iu Sudbury was laden in boats fio^'q^ at the "Town Bridge," and oonveyed to Chelmsford. N.'nr the bridge, on the east bank, •* pieces of the ore could recently be found. The original bridge at this spot is said to be the first frame bridge in Middlesex Couuty. 11

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This bridge is iu the southwesterly part of the town, and crosses the river on the road from Wayland to Framingham, and is partly in eauh of these towns. A bridge built at this sunt was probably the ssoond ons erected lu Sudbury, and doubtless dsrlvsd Its name from this fact. The s»roe clung to it through many years, but latterly it has been culled "Stone's Bridge," a name derived from the Stone family, whioh has lived in this district almost from the settlement of the town. This bridge is built wholly of stone. Like other of the town's bridges, it has had various predecessors. Previous to 1678, the river at this point was crossed by a "horse bridge," mention of which is made in the following recordi "At a Couuty -Court holden at Charlestowu, Deo. 28, 1678, John Stone, Sen. of Sudbury, John Woods of Marlborough, and Thomas Barnes of Fnimingbaui, together with John Llvermort of Watertown (or any two of them) were appointed and impowered to lay out an highway for the use of the country leading from the house of said Livermoro to a Horse Bridge' (then being) uear the house of Daniel Stone, JUH. and thence the nearest and best way to Quaboag" (Brookfield). The road here referred to was soon constructed, and the return was made to the oourt, Oct. 6. Ui74. The same year a " cart bridge " was made by Samuel How, who lived in the Lanham distriot of Sudbury. It wiw for u time a " toll " bridge ; and the following from the oounty records, with date April 7, 17U4, sets forth some ulrcurastance* 1

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FRM.911

APP^WJQIX TO THE ANNALS OF. WAYLAND. —

141

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by which it h.-itame suerrs > In answer to the petition of Samuel How, referring to some allowance to be made him for his expense about the bridge he had lately erected upon Sudbury river above the town, he is nilowed of all travellers, for a horse and man, 8 , and for a cart 6 , until them he an onl< ily settlement of the country highway and some disbursement." Since the erection of this iirst cart bridge, a succession of others have followed in tlie slow course of yi•urn. The road that this bridge was made to accommodate was one which led off from the "Old Connecticut Path" at Happy Hollow, and extended through the northerly part of Framingham territory towards Nohscot Hill, Sudbury, and, passing northerly, joined the road from Sudbury to Marlboro. According to the record quoted concerning this road, it was the best thoroughfare from Watcrtown westerly iu the seventeenth oentury. A large portion of the ancient way, in its course from this bridge through Framingham and Sudbury, is now along a quiet and sparsely inhabited tract of country. The route by way of this bridge was perhaps the more valuable in the early times because, being BO far up the river, it was less liable to be submerged hy flood. Even in modern times, when high water has made other of the town bridges impassable, travelers hiivo found a safe route here. It was serosa this bridge that the British spies, Captain Brown and Ensign I)'Herniate, passed March 2u, 1775, on then way from " Jones's Tavern," Weston, HI Worcester, when oil their tour of observation previous to the march of the regulars into tho oouittry. <u

"BHKRMAN'B JIBinOK. '

"Sherman's Bridge" wan erected about 1748. At that time a subscription was made for a bridge between the land of "John Haynos on the west side of the river and John Woodward on the east aide oi the river, ami Mr. Edward Sherman and John Woodward agreed, if the subscribers would erect the bridge, to give a good and convenient way two rods wide through their land." In the town division Sherman's Bridge was left partly in each town. This bridge is one hundred foet long, and there are twenty-five rods of causeway, It orosses the river at lltd north part of the town on the road from Sudbury to Lincoln, ill the old Sherman Dist net. It tukes its name from the numerous families by the name of Sherman, who have resided in the vicinity. THK " C A N A L , BRIDOH."

This bridge is situated wtwt of the town bridge at a point nearly midway of the insadow land. At what date it was built has not been ascertained, although the records have been carefully examined with a view to making tho discovery, The bridge is so named lieoause it crosses that portion of tlie river which It is supposed Hows through an artificial channel. No bridge in that immediate vicinity is mentioned iu the earlier reoords but the " Town Bridge," aud the stream formerly passed near the eastern upland, or wholly under the town bridge. Thq e/M :i"st CBfiuaJ ut wliinli wn have any kiio wladgu wjujjh haareferenoe to the .canal bridge . is in llijfl, which is ajiill.for the repairing of tlie "new brujgg BMI Pet>- gtflne's, Lanham, * 9li«um>li!s, Vlir '"»» bridge? ami Out Canal bridge" This ahowa its existence at that tiinu, iiut gives no in ination as to whuti it was made. An artificial opening might not have ...•on made there moil after the construction of the bridge. Thefirstwaterway may havo lu-en a natural one . inch only required a small crossing, and may subsequently have heon enlarged by the current. In other words, when the causeway was built a small outlet may have been left at this point for the purpose of allowing the water to pass off the meadow more readily in time of a Hood. This passage at first may have been an open, shallow fordT

FRM.911

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faj't+t >.,.n WtJ-yi - • :

SELECTMEN'S

REPORT.

The Selectmen submit the followinj::

In the month of September, 18'J2, we received notification from the Board of Selectmen of the town of Framingham that by their order, Civil Engineer W. Wight inspected Stone's Bridge (socalled), located on tlie,boundary line between Waym m • land and Framingham, and he reported tlie bridge to be in an unsafe condition. In compliance with notification a conference was held to consider the report of Engineer Wight, and at which it was decided to defer calling the attention of the town to the matter until the annual town-meeting. If he bridge is not safe for heavy teams, and must be soon re-to* ' • built, prohubly the coming season i therefore, we recommend i l l ; Vt that the Town take some action in relation to the matter at the Maroh meeting. ** Owing to the excessive snow-fall the appropriation for highways was overdrawn two hundred and fifteen dollars and - f''''tw«itty-two cents ($215.82). The contingent aooount wns

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It will be necessary for the Town to appropriate money to pay the overdraws, and also to transfer one thousand four hundred and fifty dollars ($1,450) from water acoount to tho interest account. - In view of the fact of the Town having a standing finance committee, we do not deem it necessary to offer any recommendations in relation to the regular appropriations for the year ensuing. L L E W E L L Y N FLANDERS, { v THOMAS W . FROST, EDWIN W. MARSTON, Selectmen of

'^Sfe'df '«>»tive birtt '•r'^^^fnaUveend "Whole nut being twenty-

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FRM.911

(Marginal:

County <I ommisad on ars Records 1900 "InlvVbitaiv: s o f Way! ind", r e l o c a t i o n of Sudbury

road")

p 237

"The i n h a b i t a n t s o f Wayland ... by t h e i r p e t i t i o n t o 3 a i d Cornmi i o n e r s ...,pray t h a t the Sudbury r o a d from n e a r the house o f Marshal; Baldwin to the now b r i d g e over Che Sudbury r i v e r may be r e l o c a t e d an a l t e r e d as w i l l more f u l l y a p p e r r ... P e t i t i o n p r e s e n t e d a t meeting Cambridge f i r s t Tuesday of June, 1900, where s a i d Commissioners c.ius n o t i c e ... t o meet f o r purpose of v i e w i n g the pre^mises ... a t a d j u r n ed meeting s a i d a l t e r a t i o n s wer-3 adjudged to be o f convenience and n e s s i t y .... and now s a i d Commission maku r e t u r n . Met a t Selectmen's Koora i n Town H a l l Wayland ... o i 12 September 1900 ... a l l p a r t i e s f i h e a r d ... Commissi oners proceedsd to l a y out ... (Layout) c o n s i s t i n g 31 t y p e w r i t t e n l i n e s ...

p 238

"The o l d atone b r i d g e over the o l d r i v e r bed s h a l l b e ' r e b u i l t i i the form o f a s i n g l e e tone a r c h o f a t l e a s t t h i r t y (30) f e e t c l e a r span, c o n f o r m i n g n e a r l y t o the iev/ b r i d g e b a i l t by the Commonwealth ov«sr the c a n a l o r main c h a n n e l of s a i d Sudbury. The stoir? work e h a l c o n s i s t of a t l e a s t b e s t r u b b l e work l a i d i n cement m o r t a r . The foui a t i o n s s h a l l be s e c u r e d by p i l i n g o r o t h e r w i s e arid the whole done i n workmanlike manner -to the a c c e p t a n c e of the Commissioners

... And the ... Conmission I T S f u r t h e r o r d e r ... t h a t two t h i r d s of the money expended by s a i d t own ... i s a f u r and ,iust o r o p o r t i o n tc be p a i d by the County ... p r o v i d e d ... that the amount t o be pa. by the Coun;y ... s h a l l not excaed 42000. H

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P 51 and p

;»or.:-nis3.i oners He cor as lf)01

"At rroeting o f County Comifli s s i o m - r s i t Oir-bridge June 1 , 1 9 0 1 . ; In the matter o f the p e t i t i o n of. the i -habi tar.ta o f Wayland f o r a l t e i < R a t i o n s of the Sudbury r o a d from near t \e house of tors ha 11 C; Baldwij to the nev b r i d g e ove> the Sudbrry R i v e r , on which p e t i t i o n deqree wi made S e p t . 22, 1900, i t appears t h a t the p r o v i s i o n s of s a i d decree hi not been f u l f i l l e d by the town of Wayland and i.he time f i x e d f o r the :,' corapletior. t h e r e o f h vv i n g e x p i r e d , i t booowes the duty o f a a i d , Oomfflii , i o n e r s t o o.-mnoftaid I t e r a t i o n a to bo oompletod ... the Ooromiseionaj do o r d e r n change i n I he r c j u i r »ments of on-strut:fcion •... by; s t r i k i n g out and s u b s t i but in; ... ' . j;,'-'^

p 51

, ; "The o l d b r i d g e ever the o l d r i v e r bed si- t i l be r e b u i l t i n i t s p r e s e n t f c r m of f o u r freshes r e s t i r g on n i e r s r i d abutments, but the masonry s h a l l be l a i d i n cement m o r t a r . A ? x i t a b l e coping and guard r a i l s h a l l 'oe e r e c t e d on each s i d e of she I rhi,ae the roadway .to be ; i*e s t o r e d n f t e r tne i> n onry a s r ; - b u i l t and njifc g r a d i n g done on the n way approaches "-s i 11 r.r ka the A e n form to th.- new s t r u c t u r e , the i f r e e of the roadw ay to c o n s i s t of prrav 1 ... ;; i.gned and d a t e d Aug. 1 1901. f

Jount^ p 52

C.'ommijysi on r g I ejsords 1 j f j .

"and on the 11th o f October 1901 ... n u i c 5 i o n e r s f i l e t h e i r iccep v;ince o f the wcrh of r e but Id i nf : i d br irt.aeand the a nu»oachea therefor" '\ page 71 x of e ranee .is exact dupl.it .te :f .» >.,co 1; 1

FRM.911 / WAY.901

FORM

F -

STRUCTURE

[n Area no.

F o r m no.

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, State House, Boston ^Town___Wayland/ Framingham Address

Pn4

., , , +

a + i

HndbTjry

River Name

store's

Present use

T ^ I P I O - P

not used

Present owner

[Type of structure (check one) pound powder house street tower tunnel wall windmill

4. Map. Draw sketch of structure location in relation to nearest c r o s s streets, buildings, other structures, natural features. Indicate north. other

Framingham Assessor's Map Reference Sheet 678 - Block 1 <

5. Description Date

between 1857-1859

Source Wayland Historical Commission

• • • • PoTTTg.^

•

• *

Report by Helen F. Emery

R A.

•

Construction material granite block and rubble Dimensions Setting Condition

D O N O T W R I T E I N THIS S P A C E USGS Quadrant

Residential Poor

6. Recorded by S. Roper; L. Dennison Organization Framingham. Planning- r) t,. fi?

M H C Photo no. Date

(over)

*v.«---\j-v75(y74 ( R e v .

1-75)

1/23/80

FRM.911 / WAY.901

7 . Original owner (if known) Original use

Bridge

Subsequent uses (if any) and dates 8. T h e m e s (check a s many as applicable) Aboriginal Agricultural Architectural The A r t s Commerce Communication Community development

Conservation Education Exploration/ settlement Industry Military Political

Recreation Religion Science/ invention Social/ humanitarian Transportation

9. H i s t o r i c a l significance (include explanation of themes checked above) There are four stone round arches from the Wayland shore out to a solid pier from ' which apparently sprang a (timber?) span to the Pramingham shore, now gone. Bridges have been located over the Sudbury River near the location of this bridge since before 1700, providing access to the northern portion of Pramingham and the towns to the west from Wayland. This stone bridge was erected sometime between 1857 and 1859 according to the best information available. It may be that a new bridge was needed at this time due to the higher water in the Sudbury River caused by the erection of the dam at Billerica. This bridge is mentioned by Henry David Thoreau in his Journal of July JL, 1 8 5 9 .

2.0. Bibliography and/or references such as local histories, deeds, assessor's records, early maps, etc. J. H. Temple, History of Pramingham, Massachusetts, Pramingham 1887 (p. 1 5 6 ) 1699 Map of Pramingham, Temple Reports on Stone's Bridge by Helen P. Emery, February 1976 and March 1 9 , 1 9 7 9 , Wayland Historical Commission.

In A r e a no.

F o r m no.

FRM.911 1. Town

Wayland

A d d r e s s a t the end o f S t o n e b r i d g e Rd, a c r o s s Sudbury R i v e r ( c u t o f f from Framingham s i d e )

Name

Stone's Bridge

P r e s e n t use

monument

P r e s e n t owner -

Town o f Wayland

3. Type of s t r u c t u r e (check one

s, Ate

bridge canal dam fort gate kiln lighthouse

pound powder house street tower tunnel wall windmill

north. other

5. D e s c r i p t i o n

Date unknown ( p r o b a b l y between I 8 5 9 5 ) -D

Source " R P e

o r

t on Date o f B u i l d i n g o f

S t o n e ' s B r i d g e " , H e l e n F. Emery, Wayland H i s t . Comm. 1Q?6 C o n s t r u c t i o n m a t e r i a l rcmgfa,] Dimensions

l 6

"?'

9 ' long

Setting

r e s i d e n t i a l a r e a ., . nu L no s x n n™s\;+i™ -me good _________ condition Condition RT> e p a i• r e dJ 1 9% 1

D O N O T W R I T E I N THIS S P A C E USGS Quadrant

6. R e c o r d e d by

Organization MHC

5M-5-7 3-075074

Photo no.

M A S S . HIST. "COMM.

Jane H. S c i a c c a

Wayland H i s t . Comm.

111

Ay. <?oi FRM.911

Original use

bridge

Subsequent uses (if any) and dates 8. Historical significance. Due

t o t h e f l o o d i n g o f the Sudbury R i v e r caused by H u r r i c a n e Diane i n

1955, t h e f o u r - a r c h e d stone b r i d g e , c a l l e d S t o n e ' s B r i d g e , was s e r i o u s l y damaged. old

A t t h a t t i m e , some townspeople b e l i e v e d t h a t the b r i d g e was v e r y

and h i s t o r i c a l l y s i g n i f i c a n t .

F o r t h i s r e a s o n , even though a new

b r i d g e was c o n s t r u c t e d between Wayland and Framingham a l i t t l e

f u r t h e r up

the r i v e r , Stone's B r i d g e , b a d l y damaged and c u t o f f from the Framingham bank, remained s t a n d i n g .

I n l a t e 1975 and e a r l y 1976, e x h a u s t i v e

research

by H e l e n F. Emery o f the Wayland H i s t o r i c a l Commission l e d t o t h e c o n c l u s i o n t h a t the e x i s t i n g s t r u c t u r e was not o f any h i s t o r i c a l cance and t h a t i t almost

c e r t a i n l y was b u i l t a f t e r the c o n s t r u c t i o n o f

the O l d Town B r i d g e i n stone

(1848).

Other b r i d g e s o f g r e a t e r s i g n i f i c a n c e o c c u p i e d t h i s s i t e In

signifi-

earlier.

1674, i t i s known t h a t Samuel How, a Sudbury r e s i d e n t , e r e c t e d a

c a r t b r i d g e a t t h i s spot and was a l l o w e d by the G e n e r a l Court t o c o l l e c t t o l l s t o pay the expense. one

The r o a d c r o s s i n g t h i s b r i d g e was a p o p u l a r

d u r i n g the c o l o n i a l p e r i o d l e a d i n g from Watertown to Framingham,

M a r l b o r o u g h and beyond.

I t i s b e l i e v e d t h a t Henry Knox p a s s e d a l o n g

highway and over a wooden b r i d g e a t the l o c a t i o n o f the p r e s e n t B r i d g e on h i s famous j o u r n e y from F o r t T i c o n d e r o g a , Cambridge,

this

Stone's

New York to

Massachusetts.

9. B i b l i o g r a p h y a n d / o r r e f e r e n c e s s u c h as l o c a l h i s t o r i e s , deeds, a s s e s s o r ' s r e c o r d s , e a r l y maps, etc.

A n n a l s o f Sudbury, Wayland, and Maynard, appendix p.140, A l f r e d S. Hudson,I89I "Report on Date o f B u i l d i n g o f Stone's B r i d g e " , H e l e n F. Emery, Wayland H i s t o r i c a l Commission, 1976

vo Ay. qo i March 12, 1979

FRM.911

To the R e c i p i e n t s o f the 1976 Report on Date o f B u i l d i n g o f Stone's B r i d g e between Wayland and Framingham [ A/ay l a n d Selectmen, M a s s a c h u s e t t s H i s t o r i c a l Commission, Sudbury Town H i s t o r i a n s , iafavland H i s t o e i c a l S o c i e t y , 'Wavland L i b r a r y , F r a mingham H i s t o r i c a l Commission J J

In e a r l y 1979 Edwin Way T e a l e , a u t h o r and n a t u r a l i s t , who i s worki n g on a book on the Sudbury, Concord and Assabet R i v e r s p o i n t e d o u t to me the e n c l o s e d marked passage i n Henry David Thoreau's J o u r n a l o f J u l y 31, 1859. T h i s i s u n m i s t a k a b l y Stone's B r i d g e and, i f Thoreau was c o r r e c t l y i n f o r m e d t h a t the b r i d g e was b u i l t "some two y e a r s ago", t h e date o f t h e s t r u c t u r e now s t a n d i n g would be 1857. Reference to page 10 o f t h e Stone's B r i d g e Report shows t h a t my r e s e a r c h i n town and other r e c o r d s i n d i c a t e d that t h e f o u r - a r c h e d stone b r i d g e must have been b u i l t by 1859 but that no town a p p r o p r i a t i o n seemed to be made f o r i t (as f o r p r e v i o u s r e b u i l d i n g s o f t h i s b r i d g e ) by e i t h e r Wayland o r Framingham. A f t e r r e c e i v i n g Mr. T e a l e * s v a l u a b l e c l u e , I r e r e a d t h e Wayland town c l e r k ' s r e c o r d s and d e c i d e d t h a t an attempt s t a r t i n g i n 1856 and cont i n u i n g t o 1859 t o g e t money from the C i t y o f Boston as compensation f o r tne l o s s o f t h e power_to t a x the l a n d taken from Wayland f o r the C o c h i t u a t e Aqueduct and f o r f u r t h e r encroachment by the r a i s i n g o f the l e v e l o f Lake C o c h i t u a t e ( f i r s t proposed i n 18 56 ) might have p r o v i d e d funds f o r the b u i l d i n g o f Stone's B r i d g e . The Report o f The C o c h i t u a t e Water Board f o r 1 8 5 9 , p u b l i s h e d as C i t y Document No. 13 I n 1860, s t a t e s on page 8 t h a t i n 1859 the C i t y o f Boston p a i d $1,000 to the Town o f Wayland and $4,800 t o the Town o f Framingham. There are no t r e a s u r e r ' s r e c o r d s f o r Wayland f o r any o f the y e a r s i n t h e 1850's i n t h e town v a u l t . The p r i n t e d A u d i t o r ' s Report f o r 1871 p o i n t s out t h a t u n f o r t u n a t e l y t r e a s u r e r ' s r e c o r d s f o r Wayland were not up to t h a t p o i n t l e f t on f i l e w i t h the town but were c o n s i d e r e d the p r i v a t e p r o p e r t y o f r e t i r i n g t r e a s u r e r s . Henry Wight was Wayl a n d ' s t r e a s u r e r from 185^ through 18?1. H i s descendants do n o t know o f the e x i s t e n c e o f any such r e c o r d s . A u d i t o r ' s r e p o r t s e x i s t f o r 18.55 and f o r 1861 but a r e not a v a i l a b l e f o r 1856-1860 . Thus we cannot determine how Wayland's $1,000 was spent. Horace Heard who was chairman o f the Wayland committee t o r e b u i l d Stone's B r i d g e Ln t h e 1850's had e x t e n s i v e d e a l i n g s w i t h t h e C o c h i t u a t e Water Board over the f l o o d i n g o f the Sudbury Meadows. I t can be assumed t h a t he and/or h i s b r o t h e r David Heard who i n e a r l y 1857 was Chosen a t a town meeting w i t h A b e l G l e z e n t o d e c i d e what measures the Town would take r e l a t i v e t o the p e t i t i o n o f the C i t y o f Boston f o r p e r m i s s i o n to r a i s e the l e v e l o f Lake C o c h i t u a t e c o n c e i v e d the i d e a t h a t the sum o f money which Wayland demanded b e f o r e i t would g r a n t p e r m i s s i o n c o u l d , when e v e n t u a l l y r e c e i v e d , be used t o pay f o r Wayland's share o f the b r i d g e . The r e p o r t made a t the Wayland town meeting o f A p r i l 4 , 1 8 5 9 p r o b a b l y s t a t e d t h a t t h e money was now i n hand and the b r i d g e would be p a i d f o r w i t h o u t a town a p p r o p r i a t i o n . The f a c t t h a t Thoreau says that he 'was t o l d t h a t t h e b r i d g e was b u i l t i n 1857 whereas t h e money to pay f o r i t was. not f o r t h c o m i n g u n t i l 1859 g i v e s some d i f f i c u l t y . I t i s c o n c e i v a b l e t h a t Thoreau was m i s i n f o r m e d about the time o f b u i l d i n g o f the new stone b r i d g e which he saw i n l a t e J u l y o f 1859. The b r i d g e c o u l d have been b u i l t i n the summer o f 1858. I t seems u n l i k e l y t h a t i t was b u i l t between A p r i l 4,1859 when the Heard r e p t was made and w u l y 31st v ->n Thoreau saw i t . •••

—

•

FRM.911 T h e h e i g h t t o w h i c h w a t e r h a d come o n t h e b r i d g e i n w h a t w e r e p r o b a b l y s p r i n g f l o o d s w a s p o i n t e d Out t o T h o r e a u . It i s inconceivable t h a t t h e b r i d g e w a s b u i l t i n t h e w i n t e r o f 1859. I can b e l i e v e t h a t t h e b r i d g e w a s b u i l t i n 1857 o r 1858 b e f o r e f u n d s w e r e a v a i l a b l e t o pay f o r i t . I t w a s v e r y common f o r t h e Town o f a / a y i a n d t o p a y f o r l a b o r , m a t e r i a l s and o t h e r o u t l a y s one o r two y e a r s a f t e r t h e charges w e r | i n c u r r e d . F r o m 1857 o n t h e Town e x p e c t e d t o r e c e i v e m o n e y f r o m Q

I t i s h o p e d t h a t now t h a t a n a l m o s t e x a c t d a t e o f b u i l d i n r . o f S t o n e ' s B r i d g e i s known t r e a s u r e r ' s r e c o r d s a r e a v a i l a b l e i n Framingham t o show payment f o r t h a t t o w n ' s s h a r e o f t h e b r i d g e . The F r a m i n g h a m H i s t o r i c a l C o m m i s s i o n i s the l o g i c a l agency to examine the F r a m i n g -

ham r e c o r d s

f o r 1857-1859.

P l e a s e append these in your f i l e s .

pages

i f

you have

Wayland

kept

Historical

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;ki

the

Stone's

Commission

Bridge

Report

M A C R I S No. M A y . g o )

FRM.911

jaaa_s i

• A. p lt£ 266

JOURNAL

[JtTLT 31

and they become invisible. They are revealed by the dew, and perchance it is the dew and fog vhich they reveal which are the sign of fair weather. It. is pleasant to walk thus early in the Sunday morning, while the dewy napkins of the cobwebs are visible on the grass, before the dew evaporates and they are concealed. Returning home last evening, 1 heard that exceedingly fine z-ing or creaking of crickets ( ?), low in the KIM8 ir» the meadows. You might think it was a confused-ringing in your bead, it is so fine. Heard it again toward evening. Autuinnalish. On the 26th I saw quails which had been picking dung in a cart-path. Probably their broods are grown. The goldfinch's note, the cool watery twitter, is more prominent now. We had left our paddles, sail, etc., under one of Rice's buildings, on some old wagon-bodies. Rice, who called the big bittern "cow-poke, baked-plumpudding." It is worth the while to get at least a dozen miles on your journey before the dew is off. Stopped at Weir Hill Bend to cut a pole to sound with, and there came two real country boys to fish. One little fellow of seven or eight who talked like a man of eighty, — an old head, who had been, probably, brought up with old people. He was not willing to take up with my companion's jesting advice to bait the fish by casting in some of his worms, because, he said, " It is too hard work to get them where we live." Begin to hear the sharp, brisk dittle-ittle-ittlc of the wren amid the grass and reeds, generally invisible.

1859]

TALL

(

f»itrf-l.i..

. OA— fs

CAT-TAILS

267 I only hear it between Concord line and Framingliam line. What a variety of weeds by the riverside, now, in the water of the stagnant portions! Not only lilies of three kinds, but heart-leaf, Utricularia vulgaris and purpurea, all (at least except two yellow lilies) in prime. Rium in bloom, too, and Bidens BecMi just begun, and f{u>ittnculuD I'urshii still. The more peculiar features of Concord River are seen in these stagnant, lake-like reaches, where the pads and heart-leaf, pickerel-weed, button-bush, utricularias, black willows, etc., abound. Above the Sudbury causeway, I notice again that remarkable large and tall typha, apparently T. latifolia (yet there is at least more than an inch interval between the two kinds of flowers, judging from the stump of the sterile bud left on). It is seven or eight feet high (its leaves), with leaves flat on one side (only concave at base, the sheathing part) and regularly convex on the other. They are so much taller than any I see elsewhere as to appear a peculiar species. Long out of bloom. They are what you may call the tallest reed of the meadows, unless you rank the arundo with them, but these are hardly so tall. The button-bush, which is, perhaps, at the height of its bloom, resounds with bees, etc., perhaps as much as the bass has. It is remarkable that it is these late flowers about which we hear this susumis. You notice it with your back to them seven or eight rods off. See a blue heron several limes to-day and yesterday. 1

Vide [p. 27SJ.

M A C R I S No.

'AiAV • FRM.911

JOURNAL

2fi8

[ J U L T

1859]

Can it be that in this wild and muddy meadow the same plant grows so rankly as to look like a new species ? It is decidedly earlier as well as larger than any 1 find in C. It does not grow in water of the river, but. densely, like flags, in the meadow far and wide, five or six feet

U99

• sstmt

269

meadows, the Sudbury meadows, and is very winding, — as indeed the Ox-Bow was. It is only some thirty or forty feet wide, yet with firm upright banks a foot or two high, — canal-like. This canal-like reach is the transition from tlie Assabet to the lake-like or M uskelaquid portion. At length, off Pelharn Pond, it is almost lost in the weeds of tlie reedy meadow, being still more narrowed and very weedy, with grassy and muddy banks. This meadow, which it enters about the Sudbury line, is a very wild and almost impenetrable one, it is so wet and muddy. It is called the Beaver-Hole Meadows and Ls a quite peculiar meadow, the chief growth being, not the common sedges, but great bur-reed, five or six feet high and all over it, mixed with flags, Scirpus fluviatilis, and wool-grass, and rank canary grass. Very little of this meadow can be worth cutting, even if the water be low enough. This great sparganiura was now in fruit (and a very little in flower). 1 was surprised by the sight of the great bur-like fruit, an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, the fruit-stems much branched and three or four feet - . high. It is a bur of sharp-pointed cones; stigmas linear. I can hardly believe that . this is the same species that grows in C. It is apparently much earlier than ours. Yet ours may be a feeble growth from its very seeds floated down.

They must therefore breed not far off. We also scare up many times green bitterns, perhaps young, which utter their peculiar note in the Beaver Hole Meadows and this side. For refreshment on these voyages, [we] are compelled to drink the warm and muddy-tasted river water out of a. clamshell which we keep, — so that it reminds you of a clam soup, — taking many a sup, or else leaning over the side of the boat while the other leans the other way to keep your balance, and often plunging your whole face in at that, when the boat dips or the waves run. At about one mile below Saxonville the river winds from amid high hills and commences a great bend called the Ox-Bow. Across the neck of this bend, as I paced, it is scarcely twenty rods, while it must be (as I judged by looking, and was told) a mile or more round. Fishermen and others are accustomed to drag their boats overland here, it being all hard land on this neck. A man by the bridge below had warned us of this cut-off, which he said would save us an hour! A man fishing at the Ox-Bow said without hesitation that the stone heaps were made by the sucker, at any rate that he had seen them made by the sucker in Charles River, — the large black sucker (not the horned one). Another said that the water rose five feet above its present level at the bridge on the edge of Framingham, and showed me about the height on the stone. It is an arched stone bridge, built some two years «goAbout the Sudbury line the river becomes much narrower and generally deeper, as it enters the first large

m ma • .

T H E BEAVER-HOLE MEADOWS

FRM.911

11,

1979

f o . Massachusetts H i s t o r i c a l Commission F i n a l C o n c l u s i o n on the Date o f Stone's B r i c g e Proini Helen F. Emery, Wayland H i s t o r i c a l

Commissi on

Responding t o my s u g g e s t i o n made i n the memorandum of March 12, 1 9 7 9 t h a t someone i n Framingham examine Framingham t r e a s u r e r ' s r e c o r d s f o r 1 8 5 7 - 1 8 5 9 , Stephen W. H e r r i n g , C u r a t o r o f The Framingham H i s t o r i c a l S o c i e t y , has found an o f f i c i a l r e c o r d o f payment i n the f i s c a l y e a r A p r i l 1, I 8 5 8 through March 3 1 , 1 8 5 9 fey the Tcvm o f Framingham o f $ 4 3 0 , 2 3 " f o r b u i l d i n g New b r i d g e ( s o c a l l e d ) n e a r A. 3 t o n e " s . " T h i s i s Stone's B r i d g e and the amount r e p r e s e n t s Framingham's share o f one h a l f o f the c o s t . Thus Stone's B r i d g e was b u i l t e i t h e r i n the summer of f a l l of 1857 as Henry David Thoreau a p p a r e n t l y was t o l d o r i n the summer o r f a l l of I 8 5 S . T h i s i n f o r m a t i o n comes from the Head and B r i d g e s S e c t i o n o f the Framingahm T r e a s u r e r ' s Report of 1858-59* Also i n t h a t r e p o r t i s the i n f o r m a t i o n t h a t the b r i d g e was b u i l t by W i l l i a m Simmonds and t h a t expenses were p a i d f o r j o u r n e y s t o Wayland, Waltham arid A s h l a n d f o r c o n t r a c t s . Thus ends s u c c e s s f u l l y my a t t e m p t , b e g i n n i n g i n December, 1 9 7 5 , t o date the p r e s e n t s t r u c t u r e o f Stone's B r i d g e , I f you have kept the I 9 7 6 Report on Stone's B r i d g e , p l e a s e append t h i s memorandum.