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Mother Brook
Mother Brook is an artificial waterway in Dedham, and Hyde Park, Massachusetts, and the first man-made canal in the present-day United States. Constructed in 1639 by settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, it diverts water from the Charles River to the Neponset River and was originally designed to power water mills. Its creation helped establish Dedham’s early economy and laid the foundation for over 300 years of continuous industrial use. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Mother Brook powered a succession of grist, saw, paper, textile, and woolen mills, fueling the rise of East Dedham as a densely populated mill village. The brook was central to legal disputes over water rights and served as a key industrial corridor well into the 20th century. As the textile industry declined after World War I, the mills closed or were repurposed, and parts of the brook were redirected or covered. By the mid-20th century, decades of industrial waste had severely polluted the brook. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous states border Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, with the semi-exclave of Alaska in the northwest and the archipelago of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The United States asserts sovereignty over five Territories of the United States, major island territories and United States Minor Outlying Islands, various uninhabited islands in Oceania and the Caribbean. It is a megadiverse country, with the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, third-largest land area and List of countries and dependencies by population, third-largest population, exceeding 340 million. Its three Metropolitan statistical areas by population, largest metropolitan areas are New York metropolitan area, New York, Greater Los Angeles, Los Angel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abraham Shaw
Abraham Shaw (1590–1638) was a colonial American settler, tailor, builder, and miner. Personal life With his wife, Bridget, Shaw had three children, including a son, John. England Fairbanks lived in West Yorkshire, England, where he worked in coal mines. Jonathan Fairbanks, who would later emigrate to America and live in Dedham with Shaw, was from the same parish. He mined coal in the Hipperholme and Sowerby, Yorkshire areas. Massachusetts After moving from England to Massachusetts, Shaw settled in Watertown sometime after June 1636. His house there burned down in 1636, shortly before he moved to Dedham. Shaw arrived in Dedham, Massachusetts in 1637. The first town meeting held in Dedham was on March 23, 1636/37, with Shaw present. He was granted of land as long as he erected a watermill, which he intended to build on the Charles River near the present-day Needham Street bridge. A condition of the grant was that if Shaw ever sold the mill, the town would have the right of f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lynn, Massachusetts
Lynn is the eighth-largest List of municipalities in Massachusetts, municipality in Massachusetts, United States, and the largest city in Essex County, Massachusetts, Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line at Suffolk Downs, Lynn is part of Greater Boston's urban inner core and is a major economic and cultural center of the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore. Settled by Europeans in 1629, Lynn is the 5th oldest colonial settlement in the Commonwealth. An early industrial center, Lynn was long colloquially referred to as the "City of Sin", owing to its historical reputation for crime and vice. Today, however, the city is known for its immigrant population, National Register of Historic Places listings in Lynn, Massachusetts, historic architecture, downtown cultural district, loft-style apartments, and public parks and open spaces, which include the oceanfront Lynn Shore Reservation; the 2,200-acre, Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Lynn Wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Elderkin
John Elderkin was a colonial American carpenter who built mills, meetinghouses, and wharves around New England. Mother Brook While both the Charles River and the Neponset River ran through Dedham, Massachusetts and close by to one another, both were slow-moving and could not power a mill. With an elevation difference of between the two, however, a canal connecting them would be swift-moving. In 1639 the town ordered that a 4000-foot ditch be dug between the two so that one third of the Charles' water would flow down what would become known as Mother Brook and into the Neponset. The town also offered an incentive of 60 acres of land to whoever would construct and maintain a corn mill, as long as the mill was ready to grind corn by "the first of the 10th month" .e. December Abraham Shaw would begin construction of the first dam and mill on the Brook in 1641, but he died in 1638 before he could complete his mill, and his heirs were not interested in building the mill. Elderkin, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gregorian Calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It went into effect in October 1582 following the papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII, which introduced it as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years slightly differently to make the average calendar year 365.2425 days long rather than the Julian calendar's 365.25 days, thus more closely approximating the 365.2422-day tropical year, "tropical" or "solar" year that is determined by the Earth's revolution around the Sun. The rule for leap years is that every year divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are divisible by 100, except in turn for years also divisible by 400. For example 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, but 2000 was. There were two reasons to establish the Gregorian calendar. First, the Julian calendar was based on the estimate that the average solar year is exactly 365.25 days long, an overestimate of a li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mother Brook First Mill Marker
A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestational surrogacy. A biological mother is the female genetic contributor to the creation of the infant, through sexual intercourse or egg donation. A biological mother may have legal obligations to a child not raised by her, such as an obligation of monetary support. An adoptive mother is a female who has become the child's parent through the legal process of adoption. A putative mother is a female whose biological relationship to a child is alleged but has not been established. A stepmother is a non-biological female parent married to a child's preexisting parent, and may form a family unit but generally does not have the legal rights and responsibilities of a parent in relation to the child. A father is the male counterpart of a mother. Wom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Dwight (died 1661)
John Dwight (c. 1601–1661) was one of the History_of_Dedham,_Massachusetts,_1635–1699#Landing_and_first_settlement, first settlers of Dedham, Massachusetts and progenitor of the Dwight family. Personal life Dwight was born in Woolverstone, England circa 1601 and came to Massachusetts in 1635. He originally settled in Watertown, Massachusetts before becoming one of the original incorporators of Dedham, Massachusetts the following year. He brought his wife, Hannah, and children, including Timothy Dwight (Massachusetts politician), Timothy Dwight. He was married twice, first to Hannah, with whom he had five children: Hannah, Timothy, John, Mary, and Sarah. Hannah was named for her mother, and Timothy was possibly named for a family member or for their minister, Timothy Dalton. Mary was born while at sea on their way to Massachusetts. After Hannah died on September 5, 1656, Dwight married Elizabeth Ripley on January 20, 1658. They did not have any children together, and she died ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Chickering
Francis Chickering was an early settler of Dedham, Massachusetts who served in the Great and General Court of Massachusetts and on that town's Board of Selectmen for 15 years. He was also a teacher in the first public school in America, today well known as the Dedham Public Schools. He arrived in Dedham in 1637 from Suffolk, England with his wife, Ann, and admitted as a freeman in 1640. Together they had Elizabeth in 1638, Bethia in 1640, and Mercy in 1648. He was possibly the brother of Henry Chickering, with whom he served in the General Court. He was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. Chickering was a part owner of a mill on Mother Brook, the first man made canal in America. The Town was displeased with the "insufficient performance" of the mill under Nathaniel Whiting's management and so, in 1652, Whiting sold his mill and all his town rights to John Dwight, Chickering, Joshua Fisher, and John Morse for £250. Whiting purchased it back the following ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Fairbanks
Jonathan Fairbanks (1594 – December 5, 1668) was an English colonist born in Heptonstall, Halifax, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He immigrated to New England in 1633. Around 1641, Fairbanks built the Fairbanks House in Dedham, Massachusetts, which is today the oldest surviving wood-framed house in North America. Family Fairbanks married Grace Smith in Halifax on May 20, 1617. Together, they had six children. To celebrate the Fairbanks' 400th wedding anniversary, the Fairbanks Family in America offered half-price admission to the house, as well as wedding cake and popcorn on May 20, 2017. Settlement in New England Jonathan Fairbanks arrived in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, with his family in 1633. The Fairbanks family remained in Boston for about three years before settling in Dedham as one of the earliest settler families. The family purchased 12 acres of land, and in 1641, master carpenters began constructing their home. Jonathan Fairbanks signed the Cov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nathaniel Whiting (mill Owner)
Nathaniel Whiting (1609-January 15, 1682–3) was an early settler of Dedham, Massachusetts. He owned several mills on Mother Brook and is said to have dug the canal, the first man-made water way in America. Personal life Whiting was born in England in 1609 to Samuel and Sarah () Whiting. His mother's family came from Hoxden, Middlesex. He was in Watertown in 1635 and moved to Dedham in 1636. In 1638, he was granted 10 acres of land in Lynn, Massachusetts. Some sources have indicated he had a brother named Samuel, and claim that Samuel to be Rev. Samuel Whiting Jr. However, Rev. Whiting Jr's father's memoirs clearly demonstrate that Rev. Samuel Whiting Jr. had no brother named Nathaniel. Whiting married Hannah Dwight, the daughter of John Dwight. They were married on March 4, 1643. Together they had 14 children, of whom 10 lived long enough to have families of their own. He had a son named Timothy. Through marriage he was related to James Draper. He joined the First Church an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wash
The Wash is a shallow natural rectangular bay and multiple estuary on the east coast of England in the United Kingdom. It is an inlet of the North Sea and is the largest multiple estuary system in the UK, as well as being the largest natural bay in England and is the outflow for the rivers River Witham, Witham, River Welland, Welland, River Nene, Nene and the River Great Ouse, Great Ouse. It is also one of the most important places of conservation in Europe, with several nature reserves located within this area. The coastline is partly in Lincolnshire and partly in Norfolk, England, Norfolk. The Lincolnshire side forms part of the only coastline of the East Midlands region whilst the Norfolk side forms the north-west corner of the East Anglia, East Anglian region. The coastline stretches from Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire, Gibraltar Point just south of the seaside town of Skegness to Gore Point near the village of Holme-next-the-Sea, just east of the seaside town of Hunstanton i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fens
The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system of drainage channels and man-made rivers (Ditch, dykes and drains) and automated pumping stations. There have been unintended consequences to this reclamation, as the land level has continued to sink and the dykes have been built higher to protect it from flooding. ''Fen'' is the local term for an individual area of marshland or former marshland. It also designates the type of marsh typical of the area, which has pH, neutral or alkaline water and relatively large quantities of dissolved minerals, but few other plant nutrition, plant nutrients. The Fens are a National Character Area, based on their landscape, biodiversity, geodiversity and economic activity. The Fens lie inland of the Wash, and are an area of nearly in the south east of L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
