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 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 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 moreIt’s Halloween, and I was looking for a subject with a spooky theme. Although by the title it would appear so, our story today really isn’t a spooky one, but I think you will find it interesting. The Devil’s Den exists, and it lies between the new Ashland High School on East Union Street and Wildwood Cemetery on Chestnut Street. […]
» Read moreI have had a lot of requests to do a story on the infamous “Pout Rock,” but in order to do it justice we need to look at the larger picture. Pout Rock is part of the Old Connecticut Path. A trail originally used by the Indians dating back before the early 1600s, Old Connecticut Path, or The Bay Path […]
» Read moreA common name around Middlesex County is Eliot. You would be hard pressed not to see a signpost in Ashland, Natick, or any other of our neighboring communities that didn’t have “Eliot” in it somewhere. Most of us remember John Eliot as the Puritan that “converted the heathens and ministered the settlers” around the middle of the 17th century. A […]
» Read moreAfter the Native American group, Elliot’s Praying Indians, left Magunco Hill (now High Street) the land was open to settlers. One of the first families to take up residence was David Woodwell of Beverly. He married a local girl named Mary Carly and they raised their family (3 boys and a girl) on the hill. The daughter, also named Mary, […]
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