United States or Costa Rica ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It began on the east side of Nashua River a little below Nissitisset hills at the short turning of the River bounded by a pine tree marked with G. and so running two miles in a direct line to buckmeadow which p'rtains to Boston Farms, Billerica land and Edward Cowells farm until you come to Massapoag Pond, which is full of small islands; from thence it is bounded by the aforesaid Pond until you come to Chelmsford line, after that it is bounded by Chelmsford and Nashoboh lines until you come to the most southerly corner of this Plantation, and from thence it runs West-North-West five miles and a half and sixty four poles, which again reacheth to Nashua River, then the former west-north-west line is continued one mile on the west side of the river, and then it runs one third of a point easterly of north & by east nine miles and a quarter, from thence it runneth four miles due east, which closeth the work to the river again to the first pine below Nissitisset hills, where we began: it is bounded by the Farms and plantations as aforesaid and by the wilderness elsewhere; all which lines are run and very sufficiently bounded by marked trees & pillars of stones: the figure or manner of the lying of it is more fully demonstrated by this plot taken of the same.
"Well, yes; 'Bijah here came out late, and he says Davy has been telling him some story about killing a bear in Grimes's cornfield up on the Billerica road." "That must have b-been before we left and we didn't hear anything about it. How was it, 'Bijah?"
The Indians of those days, like their descendants, had no rights which the white men were bound to respect. During the war the white settlers were gathered for protection in garrison-houses. Billerica escaped harm, but Chelmsford was twice visited by hostile bands and several buildings were burned. Two sons of Samuel Varnum were shot while crossing the Merrimack in a boat with their father.
The following year the work of settlement swept onward, crowding in upon the cornfields of the red men; and Eliot, caring for his charges, procured the passage of an act by the General Court reserving a good part of the land on which Lowell now stands to the exclusive use of the Indians. The towns of Chelmsford and Billerica were incorporated May 29, 1655.
August 1, 1682, a hostile raid was made into Billerica and eight of the inhabitants were killed. August 5, 1695, fourteen inhabitants of Tewksbury were massacred. Colonel Joseph Lynde, from whom Lynde Hill in Belvidere derives its name, was in command of a force of three hundred men who ranged through the neighboring country to protect the frontier. The town of Dracut was incorporated in 1701.
"Young radical clergyman, and his wife, without a congregation, and hoping for a pulpit in Billerica. Parlor lectures on German literature in the mean time. Well?" "And Mrs. Savage, I thought." "Well-preserved young widow of uncertain antecedents tending to grassiness; out-door protegee of the hostess. Yes, Clara, go on and give your party. It will be perfectly safe!
Colonel William Prescott, of Pepperell, Massachusetts, Colonel James Frye, of Andover, and Colonel Ebenezer Bridge, of Billerica, whose regiments formed most of the original detail, were members of the council of war which had been organized on the twentieth of April, when General Ward assumed command of the army.
Lancaster, fourteen miles away, was its nearest neighbor in the southwesterly direction on the one side; and Andover and Haverhill, twenty and twenty-five miles distant, more or less, in the northeasterly direction on the other. No settlement on the north stood between it and the settlements in Canada. Chelmsford and Billerica were each incorporated about the same time, though a few days later.
Tewksbury was incorporated in 1734, its territory before having been included in Billerica. At the battle of Bunker Hill two companies of Chelmsford men were present, one under command of Captain John Ford, the other under Captain Benjamin Walker; and one company composed largely of Dracut men was under Captain Peter Colburn.
Tom and Abraham came to the conclusion that most of the officers of the newly arrived regiments were too vile to be worthy the society of decent people. Tom was boiling hot two nights later, at the treatment given Thomas Ditson of Billerica, who had come to market. A soldier persuaded the guileless young farmer to buy an old worn-out gun.
Word Of The Day