Town of Arlington, past and present; a narrative of larger events and important changes in the village precinct and town from 1637 to 1907

Front matter

Class Book

Copyright N''

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

Preface

In September of last year I accepted a proposition from a sub-committee of the general committee chosen by the Town of Arlington having charge of the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the to\\n's incorporation. It was to the effect that I should assume the duty of preparing for the printer and superintend the issuing from the press, in suitable book form, the matter filling the pages of this volume. The details of the transaction met the approval of the general committee.

The larger share of the material used in the construction of the narrative portion of this " Town of Arlington Past and Present," was gathered piece-meal during the past thirty and more years of my residence in Arlington, but with no thought it would ultimately be used in this way. It has, however, proved a pleasant task, althf)ugh making greater demands upon my time than was anticipated.

There has been one fixed purpose in ^•iew from the outset, — to magnify the name Arlington and, if possible, give to the town the place in history that is her legitimate right. The incidents named will be found true to the record, and it is hoped that they have been told in a clear and entertaining manner.

Sketches of Arlington by Hon. James P. Parmenter and others, and the "History of Arlington" published by Mr. William R. Cutter in 1880, have been drawn from, by permission of the authors, in constructing the story of those earlier days when a few people owned great farms in what is now Arlington (then called Menotomy); also for that other period between 1739 and 1807, when all that is now Arlington territory was a portion of the Northwest Precinct of Cambridge. Due credit is given in the succeeding pages to the parties named, where such matter is used, but it is eminently proper that in this formal way appre-

6 Preface

ciation of the value of the service they have rendered should be expressed. The courtesy of ^liss Edith Whittemore, custodian of papers and records stored with Arlington Historical Society, is also gratefully acknowledged.

The labor of constructing a narrative out of the material contained in the several Avell preserved volumes filled with records made by town clerks, also by selectmen, during the one hundred years of the town's corporate life, has been facilitated and in fact made easy through the card catalogue system introduced l)y Thomas J. Robinson, the present town clerk. His help has been freely given whenever sought while tracing lines not always easily followed, and my appreciation of his courtesy is difficult to express in words.

Through these means and from sources named, has been constructed a narrative, telling how a small group of colonists obtaining grants of land in this territory in the early part of the seventeenth century has grown to what Arlington represents today in population, business enterprises and wealth.

Arlington is, in extent of territory, one of the smaller towns of Middlesex County. It lies in the southeastern part of the County; is bovmded by Winchester and JMedford on the north, by Medford, Somerville and Cambridge on the east, by Belmont on the south and Lexington on the west. It is about three miles in length and two miles in width, with its Town Hall in almost the geographical center. The western part of the town is hilly, Arlington Heights and Turkey Hill (the former on the south and the latter the north side of Massachusetts avenue as the main thoroughfare is now named) being the more prominent elevations, while the eastern section is level. There are two ponds of considerable size — Mystic Pond along the northern boundary and Spy Pond on the southerly line. jMystic River forms a part of the northeastern boundary, and its tributary, Alewife Brook, separates Arlington from Cambridge and Somerville. Mill Brook runs through the town from west to east for about two miles, and then turning to the north flows into Mystic Pond.

The preceding paragraph from the pen of Judge Parmenter

Preface 7

(in his contribution to History of Middlesex County) describes the ArHngton of today, but not the boundaries of the town when incorporated in 1S()7. In 1842 the town gained a large block of territory from Charlestown. In 1850 a portion of this annexation was surrendered to be joined to portions of Woburn and Medford then taken to form the to^^n of Winchester. In 1859 the town of Belmont was incorporated, and by that legislative act Arlington lost more than a third of the acreage includerl in the bovmds named in the act of 1807 which created the town.

To illustrate the gains and losses of territory as mentioned above, the accompanying picture or map, as any one sees fit to name it, has been prepared. It is copied from a large map of Arlington, marked off with colored lines to show these losses and gains, made by Engineer Henry 8. Adams, of Arlington, and u.sed to illustrate an historical paper, and afterwards presented to Arlington Historical Society. This copy was made in Arlington Engineering Department by Draughtsman George E. Ahem, under directioii of Supt. Robert W. Pond, and is their free-will offering to their fellow citizens. It not being possible to reproduce colors used Ijy Mr. Adams in marking ofT divisions on his ma]), rings, dots, dashes, etc., have been substituted in this miniature reproduction, but are equally effective in accomplishing the purpose for which they are introduced. For some slight inaccuracies in lines, I am responsible. It was a plain picture, one to be taken at a glance, rather than a tracing of a survey of town boundaries, — a scientifically correct map, — that was asked for. This slight deviation in lines meant an immense saving of time, at no real loss in effectiveness in the picture. Supercritical critics must blame me, and not the draughtsman, for slightly technical errors, as in cases where it can be shown the lines vary the smallest fraction of an inch from those recorded in the town book.

For the sectional jjlan followed in the make-up of this volume I am responsiljle. It was in response to the committee's invitation that Arlington clergymen and others prepai-ed special articles appended to the general history. In consequence the reader will rliscover breaks in the record of several decades which

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8 Preface

will require turning to another section of the volume to complete. The more full details which will there be found ought to prove ample compensation for this inconvenience.

Frequently during the past few months the meaning of the word Menotomy has been asked. Every gazetteer and encyclopaedia has been scanned in vain, and all that can be said is that Menotomy is probably an Indian name. Possibly it describes the natural features of the locality. It may be, however, that the sluggish stream forming the easterly boundary of the village of Menotomy was first so named, and later accepted by the people of Cambridge to designate the outlying territory. Most of the Indian names for sections of eastern Massachusetts have been analyzed by experts, and the derivation made plain. This has not been the case with ^lenotomy. The fact that early settlers invariably adopted the Indian names for the territory where they located, is the only basis discoverable for the claim that Menotomy is an Indian name.

The purpose of some illustrations used in the following pages was to as far as possible show types of houses of succeeding generations, and availability has in tlie main been the deciding factor; certainly there has been no thought of discriminating for or against anything of historic value. To those who have so willingly loaned valuable originals, I return thanks.

With this explanation regarding my connection with the project and hints as to its compilation, " Town of Arlington Past and Present" is offered for the consideration of my fellow-citizens.

CHARLES S. PARKER.

Arlington, March 1, 1907.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Adams Hoxjse, Built IGSO 99

Addison Gage Mansion House 105

Arlington Boat Club House 304

Arlington Center in 1817 70

Arlington House, Built 1826 97

Arlington Town Hall, Built 1852 110

Baptist Church, Built in 1790 220

Baptist Church, Built 1902-3 223

Bird's Eye View of Spy Pond 287

Bit of Massachusetts Avenue 99

Blake Homestead 91

Building First Used by the Baptists as a Church 219

Cooke, Rev. Samltel 42

Corner Massachusetts Avenue and Mystic Street 98

Corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Pleasant Street .... 93

Cotting Academy, afterwards High School 259

Cotting House and B.\kery 94

Crosby School Building 248

Cutter Mill Pond 32

Cutter School Building 248

Cutter, Stephen, House (F. M. Chase) 99

Cutting Ice on Spy* Pond 289

Effect of Tornado of August, 1871 132

Fessenden House 96

Fire Warden's Outfit in 1843 271

First Arlington Boat Club House 303

First Baptist Church 207

First Church Building in Arlingto.v, Built 1734 105

First Parish Church, 1804 54

First Parish Church 207

First P.a.rson.\ge, Built 1740 44

First Univers.\list Church . 207

FiSKE, Rev. Thaddeus, D.D., Portrait 46

Flume at Mill Street 31

Grand Army Hall 204

Hicks, S.\muel D. Estate 104

10 List of Illustrations

PAGE

High School Building 248

Hiram Lodge, Parade ok, in 1897 294

Horse Car in Use in 1859 117

Hose Three House 275

Hot-Houses on the Rawson Farm 280

Jason Russell House (Tragedy of April 19, 1775) 184

Locke Homestead 95

Locke School Building 248

Map Showing Loss and Gain in Territory 6

Masonic Seal 295

Menotomy Hall 171

Middle District ScHf)OLHOusE, Built 1801 251

Modes of Travel 81

Monument to Memory of Killed in Civil War 154

Northwest District Schoolhouse, Built 1826 255

Old Eureka 273

Old-Time Stage Coach 77

Parmenter, Hon. William E. (Portrait) 257

Parmenter, William E., School Building 248

Park Avenue (Congregational) Church 244

Parson Fiske House, Built 1791 45

Peck, Abel G., Estate 105

Post Office Building, 1818 to 1840 82

Post Office Building, 1840 to 1852 83

Post Office Building, 1852 to 1895 83

Procession of June 17, 1867 126

Reception of Governor Bullock, June 17, 1867 128

Retreat of the Regulars 177

Revolutionary Soldiers' Monument 189

RoBBiNS Library 267

RoBBiNS, Eli (Portrait) 268

RoBBiNS, Mrs. Maria C. (Portrait) 268

Ruined Tower of First Parish Church 133

Russell, Capt. Edward, House 100

Russell Grocery 291

Russell School Building, Burned 1872 257

Russell School Building, Built 1872-3 248

School Building in Old Burying Ground, 1810 252

Site of Capt. George Cooke's Mill 19

St. Agnes (Roman Catholic) Church 23S

Tablet in Front of Jason Russell House 184

List of Illustrations 11

PAGE

Town Hall Site in 1907 165

Town Pump 158

Town Seal 134

Trinity Baptist Chukch 246

Tufts' Tavern (George Russell Hotel) 100

View of Arlington Center (West) in 1867 124

View of Arlington Center (East) in 1867 125

View of Arlington Center (East) in 1897 162

View of Arlington Center (West) in 1897 163

Wellington, Dr. Timothy (Portrait) 269

Wellington, Dr. Timothy (Dr. Hodgdon), House 103

Winn, Dr. William A. (Portrait) 261

Winn Homestead, Site of Capt. Cooke's House 20

Section One I'age

Arlixgtox as Men'otomy 17

Settled prior to 1635. — Why Menotomy was chosen as the site for a village. — ■ Mill Brook and its mill privileges. — Capt. George Cooke builds a mill in 1637; his real estate holdings and public service. — "Watertown road" (now Pleasant street) cut through the wilderness, 1638. — Road to Woburn, 1643. — Mill privilege passes to Cutter family. — List of tax payers in Menotomy. — Some old-time farms located. — Home-making in early times.

SECTION TWO Arlixgtox as Secoxd Precixct 34

The church the unit. — People of Menotomy petition for permission to build a church. — Petition granted. — Residents of Charlestown in adjacent territorj^ permitted to join Second Precinct church. — Church built and dedicated. — Difficulties encountered in securing a minister. — Rev. Sanuiel Cooke chosen and settled as pastor. — Charlestown members granted district privileges. — Sketch of Parson Cooke and his successor, the Rev. Dr. Fiske. — Homes of first pastors. — Old-time taverns. — Change in highways. — Incidents preceding war of the Revolution. — How the war affected fortunes of the people. — Water works introduced in 1799. — Larger church accommodation needed. — Building a new church.

Chapter I -59

The town is incorporated. — Separation not opposed by Cambridge. — Reasons financial and political suggested as contributing causes. — First town meeting. — Grand celebration July 4, 1S08. — Population in 1807. — Whittemore Card Factory and other business enterprises. — Middlesex Turnpike controversy and its outcome. — The old stage coach. — Post-office facilities.

14 Table of Contents

PAGE

Chapter II 73

Business enterprises enumerated. — Mount Pleasant Cemetery established and dedicated. — Section of Charlestown annexed to Arlington. — Becomes a suburb of Boston. — Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad. — Postal facilities, past and present.

— Naming streets. — River street bridge over Mystic River. — New dwellings contrasted with old. — Eliminating bogs and creating park lands.

Chapter III 102

Development of Pleasant street section. — Mystic street opened for fine estates. — County Commissioners order the town to build new outlet to Center. — The tornado of 1851. — Building Town Hall, — a ten year problem and how it was solved. — New fire engines bought. — Know-Nothing movement. — New town clock.

Chapter IV 115

Representative districts formed. — Arlington and Winchester constitute Sixth Middlesex. — The first horse cars. — Large section of land surrendered to form town of Belmont. — Street lighting with gas. — Russell Park accepted. — Flagstaff presented to town. — Civil War period.

Chapter V 123

The town renamed, and celebration of event. — The "training field" sold. — Tornado of 1871. — Adopting town seal. — Arlington Water Works heir to Arlington Lake Water Company. — Water Works inaugurated in 1872. — Bank Block erected. — Grading of Massachusetts avenue stopped by injunction. — Arlington favors a "Metropolitan District." — First newspaper enterprise. — Celebrating centennial of Battle of Lexington, and the aftermath.

— Swan's Block built. — The "P. L. L." movement. — Reynolds's refomi crusade and what came of it. — Cambridge fails to secure a slice of Arlington territory. — Movement for a Metropolitan District. — Change in method of street building.

Chapter VI 149

Diminishing historical items. — Shrinkage in real estate valuation. — Cambridge seeks a piece of Arlington territory. — Pollution of Alewife Brook. — Charlestown street named Broadway. — Old elm cut down. — First Union Thanksgiving service. — Arlington Improvement Association. — Catholic Cemetery established. — Telephones introduced. — Apartment houses started. — Free text-books for schools. — Soldiers' monument built .and dedicated.

— Change in leadership caused by death.

Table of Contents 15

PAGE

Chapter VII 157

Arlington Cooperative Bank. — Fire alarm .system. — Schools supplied with flags. — Australian ballot introduced. — Town pump abandoned. — First National Bank chartered. — Building Finance Block. — Patriots' Day inaugurated. — Board of Health chosen for first time. — Electricity in place of gas. — Changing grade of Massachusetts avenue. — Arlington has a state senator. — Two new brick blocks. — Main street renamed Massachusetts avenue.

— A new postmaster. — The "Advocate's " quarter-centennial. — Sherman Block built. — First electric car to Arlington. — Historical Society organized. — List of prominent people deceased.

Chapter VIII I(j4

Town buys Pattee and Robbins' estate for a new Town Hall site. — Committee of Twenty-one chosen. — Abolishing grade crossings.

— Rebuilding Broadway. — Stephen Symmes leaves his entire estate to found a hospital. — Town Hall fire discloses a serious defalcation. — Change in town's financial officers in consequence.

— Votes to choose .selectmen annually. — Old Menotomy Hall.

SECTION FOUR Military Record 173

Indian Wars. — Revolutionary War period. — Arlington's part in the events of April 19, 1775. — First capture of provisions and munitions made in this town. — Fatalities more numerous here than elsewhere. — The Civil War period and Arlington's part in the same. — The Drill Club. — Forming a Grand Army Post.

SECTION FIVE Arlington and her Churches 207

First Congregational (Unitarian) Parish. — First Baptist Church of Arlington. — Arlington Heights Baptist Church. — First Universalist Church of Arlington. — Orthodox Congregational Church.

— St. Agnes' (Roman Catholic) Church. — St. John's (Episcopal) Church. — Park Avenue Congregational Church. — 'I'rinity Baptist Cluirch. — Methodist Episcopal Church.

SECTION SIX Arlington Public Schools, 1693 to 1907 248

First schoolhou.se built in 1693. — Its dimensions and site named. — Used as a church. — New building erected in 1746. — New brick school in 1801 for "Middle District," in 1808 for "East District."

— Center school building removed to burying ground in 1810. — Names of teachers employed in 1811. — School building for

16 Table of Contents

PAGE

"South District" in 1826. — First Scliool Committee chosen in 1827. — New arrangement of school districts in 1838. — New schoolhouses built. — First four-room building erected in 1861. — High school established 1864. — ■ Russell School, of brick, built in 1872-73. — Wooden buildings replaced with brick structures 1893-1900. — Bequests for educational purposes. — School Committees from 1827-1907. — List of buildings and cost — Appropriation for school purposes in 1811 and 1906 compared

SECTION SEVEN Arlington and her Libraries 265

First Library in 1807. — Founded in 1835. — Dr. Learned's legacy. — First librarian. — Where the library was first located prior to 1852. — Transferred to Town Hall. — Finds a home in Swan's Block. — Transferred to Bobbins Library building. — Donors and their funds.

SECTION EIGHT Arlington Fire Department 270

Fire service compulsory in early times. — Fire Wardens and their outfit. — Old-time engines described and engine houses located. — ■ Changes in methods and introduction of up-to-date apparatus, through a gradual development. — Associations connected with fire department.

SECTION NINE Business Enterprises ' 280

Market Gardening. — Middlesex Aqueduct Company. — Harvesting the ice crop. — Schwamb Brothers and their enterprises. — Russell Store. — Whittemore Card Factory. — Schouler Print Works. — Welch & Griffiths Saw Factory. — Ice Tool Business.

SECTION TEN Societies and Associations 295

Hiram Lodge, F. and A. M. — Bethel Lodge No. 12, I.O.OF. — Arlington Boat Club. — Arlington Historical Society. — Arlington Woman's Club. — District Nursing Association. — Foresters of America. — Knights of Columbus. — Other societies and associations.

Section Eleven

Centennial Celebration. — Appropriation for same. — List of General Committees. — Sub-committees. — Features of the Day. — Special Guests.

TOWN OF ARLINGTON PAST AND PRESENT

Section One Arlington As Menotomy 1637-1732

Settled prior to 1635. — Why Menotomy was chosen as the site for a village. — Mill Brook and its mill privileges. — Capt. George Cooke builds a mill in 1637; his real estate holdings and public service. — "Watertown road" (now Pleasant street) cut through the wilderness, 1638. — Road to Woburn, 1643. — Mill privilege passes to Cutter family. — -List of tax payers in Menotomy. — Some old-time farms located. — Home-making in early times.

ALTHOUGH Arlington in this year 1907 is celebrating the -^Tj^ completion of her first century as an incorporated and separate township, it is not a new town. As a location of happy homes and prosperous business enterprises, some of the territory embraced within the town's corporate boundaries has had a distinctive name dating back to the earlier days of colonial history. The people having homes here have shared to a full degree in all the responsibilities resting upon the colony, the state, or the nation at any and all times during the two hundred and fifty years and more since the beginning of things on ''bleak New England shores," when demands for time, money, or the supreme sacrifice of life have come to them.

Sharing thus to the full measure which population and means demanded for anything intended to aid in carrying forward or solving the great problems which seem to have been assigned to the American people by an overruling Providence, it is fitting that the story of what Arlington is today should be prefaced with all that

18 Town of Arlingto7i

is obtainable regarding a distant past which a present prosperity evidences must have been honorable; and a special occasion of pride to those among us able to name as their ancestors men who carved for themselves homes in what was then the wilderness.

Writers of local histories are often at a loss to assign a good or sufficient cause why a certain locality was chosen by the earlier settlers of the territory secured as the place to found homes and establish a settlement. As a rule it would seem that chance, and not always the fortunate one either, ruled in the choice.

No such enigma presents itself to the one called on to answer the question why, early in the seventeenth century, homes were established and something worthy the name of a village came into existence in the territory now called Arlington. Nature had provided in this section that most inviting of all inducements, a stream of water capable of being utilized for mechanical purposes; and a history of Arlington, of its larger business enterprises at least, might be easily constructed out of what has occurred along the line of that little stream which, rising at the Great Meadows that form the westerly boundary of Arlington, flows in almost the geographical center of the town easterly and then northerly until it finds outlet in Mystic Lake , that is the northern boundary of the town. It is a narrow, swift stream, having a fall of over one hundred feet in its course of about two miles, and in earliest records is called "Mill Brook" and "Bull's Creek" at various times; Avhen Arlington took it for a water supply, in legal documents it is called "Sucker Brook."

Power with which to grind corn and run a mill to transform logs into lumber for various purposes was then, as it now is, the prime essential for a community where there is no other means of supplying bodily needs and comforts. Because her mill stream met this demand, Arlington's real history dates back to within about fifteen years of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.

In the year 1635 there arrived in Cambridge, in company with Rev. Thomas Shepard, the minister of that town, Capt. George Cooke and his brother Joseph. They came registered and designated on the list as servants "to enable them the more easily to escape from England." Both were men of means and the former evidently of signal ability. Shortly after arriving they purchased in "Newtowne," as Cambridge was then called, several houses and much land from the colonists who, under the leadership of Rev. Thomas Hooker, were on the eve of departure for Connecticut.

Two years later, namely in 1637, Captain Cooke obtained a grant from Cambridge of twenty acres of land on the border of Mill Brook, there built a dam and erected a mill. This location was near the lowest level of this water course and not a great distance from its outlet into Mystic River.

It was the first mill to be run by water in all the territory within

SITE OF CAPT. GEORGE COOKE'S MILL

the Cambridge grant, or adjacent territory either ; a single wind mill in Cambridge, "which would only grind when the wind was from the east," being the only means of grinding corn prior to this date. The site of that first mill is plainly marked even at the present time by banks of earth extending from either side and about the middle of the mill pond at Fowle's Arlington Mills. The accompanying illustration is a good picture.

The visiting stranger today will probably think as a young man expressed to the writer some years ago, ''a pretty small body of water to call a mill pond.'' But it should be remembered that in 1637 there was no railroad bed occupying a portion of it as there is at the present time; also that the dam at Mill street was not built until many years afterwards.

By striking levels it will be seen that Captain Cooke's mill pond must have covered all the territory westward as far as Grove street.

Captain Cooke's grant of land at this site con- 5!>aI«?!;'( , sisted of about twenty

acres on the margin of

W^

ALBERT WINN HOMESTEAD Site of Capt. George Cooke House, built I 637-8

Mill Brook, and in addition to the mill erected there he "built a dwelling house, barns and suitable outbuildings," as the record reads.

Capt. George Cooke was undoubtedly a man of strong convictions, great energy, and commanded the respect and confidence of the people of this section (then parts of Cambridge and Charlestown) , for he was selectman of Newtowne, as Cambridge was then called, in 1636, 1642-3; representative to the General Court 1642-5, and speaker of the House in 1645.

He was one of the earliest members of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, its captain in 1643, and was the first captain of a similar company incorporated in Middlesex County. In 1643 Captain Cooke was one of three commissioners and the commander-in-chief of a company of forty men comprising the guard to attend them, who were sent on an expedition to Rhode Island, "with authority to apprehend Samuel Gorton and his company, and to bring them to Boston if they do not give them satisfaction." In the House of Deputies he served on many of its important committees.

In 1645 he was elected one of the Reserve Commissioners of the United Colonies. Captain Cooke returned to England near the end of 1645 (being excused by the General Court, according to the record, "from further service, being to go for England"); was a colonel in Cromwell's army, and sacrificed his life in the service of the Commonwealth, being reported shiin in the wars in Ireland in the year 1652.

This pioneer in the territor}' now called Arlington, in business enterprises if not as a home maker, stands as a type of men in all New England at that early period in our history, of whom it ma}' be said Providence seems to have raised up to create a new world. Born amid trials, privations, persecutions, thus enured to bear hardships and overcome seeming unsurmountable obstacles, they attained a vigor sufficient to conquer for themselves wealth, power, honored names.

Better than all this, they imparted sufficient of their strength of character and nobleness of purpose to enable succeeding generations of their progeny to receive and transform into close similitude to their attainment the millions from other lands who, in these later years, have sought an asylum and an opportunity for growth and development in the home they had founded. It was a moral as well as a physical triumph, and because of the former the latter was signall}^ successful, and the results are apparently permanent.

With the departure of Captain Cooke for England the business of the mill was evidently abandoned and the property allowed to go to decay, for the mill was entirely demolished prior to the date when land and buildings connected with it passed to other hands.

In 1670, Edward Collins of Bedford, acting as attorney for Mary Cooke of England, daughter of Captain Cooke, sold ''the mill privilege, buildings, and twenty acres of land," to John Rolfe of Nantucket. ^Ir. Rolfe erected an entirely new mill on the old site.

In 1681 Rolfe 's widow was granted permission "to make a dam above the old mill pond to keep water in, for to accommodate the mill with water," and this is without doubt the dam at Mill street. On his decease the mill and certain other parts of his father's estate passed to his son, John Rolfe. William Cutter had married Rolfe's sister, Rebecca. The senior Rolfe had given to ^Ir. Cutter an acre of land, but without any legal conveyance of the same, on which he, being a carpenter, had built a house.

Dying intestate, the estate passed mainly to Rolfe's son John. In 1685 the junior John Rolfe, "in consideration that my honored father John Rolfe, late of Cambridge, deceased, did in his lifetime give unto my loving brother-in-law William Cutter, of the same town, carpenter, one small piece of land at the west corner of his homestead to set a house on," etc., gives to said Cutter four acres of land and a share in the mill privilege. William Cutter ultimately acquired, by purchase, nearly all the original holdings of the Rolfe family in Menotomy.

From 1693 to 1698, William Cutter was subjected to lawsuits instituted by Mary Cooke of England to recover the grant of twenty acres to her father, but he was able to maintain his title. The controversy is fully reported in the County Court Records.

It is a singular fact that the exact date when Captain Cooke secured title to the land surrounding and mill privilege at Mill Brook is not recorded. Contemporaneous records only fix it as 1637. No less remarkable, however, than that each historian who has gathered data locates the "600 acres granted Captain Cooke" by a subsequent vote, " in the vicinity of his mill."

In reality the grant was in another part of Cambridge, and has been definitely located by ]\Ir. Thomas Hutchinson's researches within the limits of what is now the town of Lexington, and Vine Brook passed through the same. Forest street. Bow street, and the road over Turkey hill were built or at least cut through the forest to obtain access to this farm from the mill.

Captain Cooke's name is not mentioned in connection with building the road "from Watertown to Cooke's mill in Menotomy," but he was one of the committee appointed by the General Court to 'May out the way from Cambridge to Woburn," in 1643, and described in the records of that town as "leading to Cambridge mill and town." This is the present Mystic street.