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Town of Rockland
Rockland Historical Commission
242 Union Street Rockland, Massachusetts 02370
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Page #1 of 5 CHRONOLOGY OF ROCKLAND |
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| During the Great Ice Age in
New England the glaciers passed over this district leaving many traces
and deposits worthy of mention. The rocks off Oregon Avenue and those
near union and Summit Streets. Also off Summer Street toward the brook
to the south of the road is the best rock deposit in the town today. It
shows the sand and the pebbles in the strata's as they were picked up
and then dumped as the glacier passed on. Beech and Round Top Hills are
of glacial formation. The ridges in the eastern section of the town as
well as the kettle holes at Accord are all of glacial origin. Lands of
the entire town was within the domains of the Massachusetts Tribe of
Indians whose Chief Sachem was Chickatabut. His encampment was at
Neponset near Squantum and sometimes at the Indian Ponds in Pembroke.
(See Aaron Hobart's Sketches Pages 22-24). We know of the Indians being
here because of their trails. The arrow points as well as their
implements that have been found about the area and traces of them have
been located at the corner of East Water and Howard Streets, at the rear
of the Beal and Maplewood Cemeteries on Webster Street, at the rear of
Sargent Place on Summer Street formerly the Stockbridge Farm near the
end of Concord Street, also on Summer Street near the town lines to the
south of the road, between Albion and Concord Streets, in the Rice Park
area and near the N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. on Liberty Street.
1623 Phinehas Pratt in his wanderings from Weymouth to the Plymouth settlement to give an alarm of an Indian attack was the first white settler to traverse the forest lands of our town. His descendants later became the first settlers here. See the History of Weymouth by the town, pages 35-37. 1629 Lands were also entirely in the jurisdiction of New Plymouth" established by the Colony Court under the Royal Charter 1629. 1629.1635 The streams of our territory yielded much beaver and the barter of their furs netted much profit for the Colony at Aptucxet. Aptucxet Trading Post, the "Cradle of American Commerce", Aptucxet an Indian word meaning "at the little trap by the river" was the first trading Post established by the Plymouth Colony and played a most vital part in the financial struggles of both the Indians and the early settlers. The restored trading post situated in Bourne near the south bank of the Cape Cod Canal is worthy of study. Refer to the Bradford's |
History as reprinted by the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, pages 266-282.
1640 First bounds established the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colonies at Accord Pond and was more definitely defined by a commission in May 1664. Between these two dates the Indians and the first white settlers came to an accord as to the different t lines. This accounts for the name Accord thus making the Pond the second most important land mark in the United States, the first being in the Chesapeake. Bay 1654 The Colony Court granted to Timothy Hatherly a certain tract of land out of the bounds of a~ township, on the westerly side of the Town of Scituate. See Aaron Hobart's History, page 11 1656 The Hatherly Grant. A tract of land more definitely defined to begin at Accord Pond, and to run three miles southerly on the west line of Scituate, and three miles westerly until it reached the Patent Line, being three miles square. 1668 The Cornet's Purchase. Lands granted to Cornet Robert Stetson by order of the Colony Court. Purchased of Chickatabut and known as Nanumackeuitt south of the lands of the Hatherly Grant. Nanumackeuitt is an In9ian word meaning the meeting of waters. See: the Stetson Kindred of America Booklet No.5, pages 33-40. 1676 King Phillips encampment southwest of the present spot known as the .'Webster Grounds" during the first and second raids on the Towns of Scituate and Hingham. The burning of the Cornet Stetson's Mill at Nanumackeuitt. 1700 First by ways through our town. Drinkwater Path which ran from King Street in West Hanover to Plymouth Street in Abington over what is now known as Summer Street. The path from Hingham over what is now Hingham street to the curve in the road at Cushing's Pond, now known as East Water Street. 1700 First frame house built on what is now Liberty Street. First a tavern and later the home of Maria Louise Poole. a noted writer. She wrote: In The First Person, Out of Step, The Two Salomes. The Meloon Farm, In A Dike Shanty, Friendship & Folly, Against Human Nature. Dally. The Red Bridge Neighborhood, Roweny In Boston, Little Bermuda, Mrs. Keats Bradford, Chums, A Vacation In a Buggy, Boss And Other Dogs, Katherine North, A Golden Sorrow, Tenting At Stony Beach, Mrs. Gerald, A Widower & Some Spinsters, Sand "N" Bushes. in Buncombe County. She also wrote many short stories for magazines.
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