Preserving the Past
[No copy of the May 1975 issue of Ashland Directions has been found. The following history selection may have been the one printed.] So far as is known, the first white men to visit the territory which Ashland now embraces were John Oldham, Samuel Hall, and two others, who in 1633 traveled from Watertown to the Connecticut River in search […]
» Read moreby Henry E. Warren The incorporation of the Town of Ashland is a story by itself. In 1837, one hundred thirty people who lived in this vicinity, then called Unionville, were persuaded by a leading citizen, James Jackson, to present a petition to the General Court asking for incorporation as a separate town. Fewer than 10% of the population signed […]
» Read moreThe General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts made a grant of 500 acres of land within the great bend at “Cold Spring” to Colonel William Crowne in 1662. This was a reward for services the Colonel had rendered for the Colony [1]. The grant included what is now the center of Ashland. The Colonel died in 1687, never having […]
» Read morePost Office facilities were established in Ashland, when the village was still known by the name of Unionville, in 1835. The business center was then apparently on the north end of Main Street, for it was in a mill store at that location that the first post office was established. That was on January 7, 1835. The office remained in that […]
» Read moreThe first known white settler in Ashland north and west of the Sudbury River was John Coller, who in 1687 leased a piece of land on the eastern edge of the town, as it now stands. At one time the bridge at Cutler’s Mill, the site of which is now covered by the waters of the reservoir (Number Two) was […]
» Read moreThis name is the name of an Indian Village that once stood on the south side of the Sudbury river and it has become intimately connected with the town in that it has been applied in these later times to the first hand fire engine, to one of the markets, a club, and the hill on whose slope the village […]
» Read moreThe problem of providing a suitable town farm or almshouse for the poor arose shortly after Ashland was incorporated. For its first few years the town followed the common practice of “letting out” the paupers to the lowest bidders. However, in December, 1855 there appeared in the warrant for the town meeting an article relative to the purchase of a […]
» Read moreI generally try to avoid revisiting places we have been before, but if there is a significant change to a historic place it warrants another look. When the new Ashland High School was designed, careful consideration was given to the impact a facility of its size would have on the surrounding areas. A lot of the focus was on the […]
» Read moreBefore we look at today’s story, I would like to sadly note the passing of Ashland’s own Bill Cunis. Educator, coach, and all-around good guy, Bill was always involved in every aspect of life in Ashland. He wasn’t a politician, at least not in the classical sense, because he much preferred to work one-on-one with his students and athletes rather […]
» Read moreWithout mudding the waters with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, the one thing we can depend upon is the constant of time. We all know from our high school physics class that the “second” is the standard of time in both the metric and English systems. We see the different systems everyday on our car’s speedometer where both kilometers/hour and miles/hour […]
» Read more