MILESTONE MEMORIALS ALONG NEWBURYPORT TURNPIKE A stroller's notes on an old road built through the Second and Third Parishes of Lynn a century ago, enlivened by lantern slides assembled by the Committee on Photography, under the direction of its Chairman, Mr. George S. Bliss. By HON. NATHAN MORTIMER HAWKES, December 11, 1913. This story starts from a granite milestone on the Newburyport Turnpike. What is a milestone? how is it marked? and what does it mean? The building of this old road with its milestones and its spacious hostelry in Lynnfield, and its arrowlike course from the Merrimac to the Mystic, are well nigh as unsolved mysteries to the modern traveler as the stone walls of the fathers in the Lynn Woods. But the modern traveler did not tramp through the woods nor ride over the Turnpike in the early days. The walls were laid on range lines by the first settlers, who were devout readers of the Hebrew Scriptures. They attempted here to establish a Mosaic community especially as to their flocks and herds. The whole community plan failed when the English settlers learned how good it was to hold their lands in severalty. The old walls remain to mystify the modern devotee of Nature. Nor need the Turnpike, which cost four hundred and eighty thousand dollars, and its failure to earn dividends, although it traversed a picturesque region, be a mystery to the foot traveler or the carriage rider who essays its hills and swamps to-day. It is not so secluded as it was when one young man, a good many years ago, found it a hard road to travel. He started to tramp from Farmington, New Hampshire, to Natick, Massachusetts. When he reached Newburyport he bought a pair of slippers for twenty-five cents, as the roads had blistered his feet. Then he took the Turnpike. At North Saugus he tarried over night at a house where there was a young man of his own age. They renewed the chance acquaintance in later years, when both were members of the Constitutional Convention of 1853. The tramp was Henry Wilson, the Natick Cobbler. The Salem Turnpike was incorporated in 1802 and the Essex Turnpike in 1803, as well as the Newburyport Turnpike, "from State Street, Newburyport, by as nearly a straight line as practicable to Malden bridge,” in the same year. is entitled Chapter 102 of the Acts of 1802. (Chapter 82, January Session) An Act for incorporating certain persons for the purpose of laying out and making a turnpike road from Newburyport to Chelsea Bridge. Incorporators named in the Act-"Micajah Sawyer, William Coombs, Nicholas Pike, Arnold Welles, William Bartlett, John Pettingell, William Smith, John Codman and James Prince, and all such persons as are or shall be associated with them." Name, "The Newburyport Turnpike Corporation.' The road was to begin at the head of State street, so-called, in Newburyport, and from thence to be continued in a course south twenty-four degrees west as nearly as possible, through the towns of Newbury, Rowley, Ipswich, Topsfield, Danvers, Lynnfield, Lynn, Malden and Chelsea, to the Chelsea Bridge, so-called; the said road to be as nearly in a straight line as practicable, from the head of State street in Newburyport to Chelsea Bridge." The Act contained the usual clauses protecting the Commonwealth, the users of the road, the stockholders, the directors, and all others who might be interested in the wonderful road. The Act was approved March 8, 1803, and with all its verbiage may be seen in the archives at the State House. This screed is not required to solve any query as to whether the intended straight or about straight road reached Malden Bridge or Chelsea Bridge.1 Either terminus would have resulted in bitter failure and ultimate absorption in the towns through which it passed. It was the Turnpike era. Both Saugus and Lynnfield were then parts of ancient Lynn. About four miles of the road were in Saugus and two 1 It is not important now, but the road after a struggle reached Malden bridge by the aid of the Legislature, as appears by the Special Act passed March 9th, 1805. An Act in Addition to an Act, entitled "An Act for Incorporating Certain Persons for the purpose of making a Turnpike Road from Newburyport to Chelsea Bridge." Whereas the turnpike from Newburyport can be made with much less expense from Jenkins's Corner, so called, in Malden, to Malden Bridge, than from the same corner to Chelsea Bridge, and be as useful to the public; therefore Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That The Newburyport Turnpike Corporation have liberty to make their turnpike from Jenkins's Corner aforesaid, to Malden Bridge, and shall not be obliged to make the same to Chelsea Bridge; anything in the Act to which this is an addition to the contrary notwithstanding. And the said Corporation shall be subject to the same duties, and be entitled to the same privileges relative to the said turnpike so to be made to Malden Bridge, as they would be subject and entitled to, had the said Turnpike been made to Chelsea Bridge. |