Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 22.

[p. 53] through the picturesque Shaker glen, receives the tributaries, lingers a while in Horn pond (Lake Innitou) and Wedge Pond (Echo Lake), and joins the Aberjona in Winchester. Still another in Stoneham reaches the main stream two miles farther up in Montvale.

On the Aberjona, Edward Converse built one of the earliest grist mills in the colony, and only recently has the power ceased to be used. Still, the fall remains, but as an ornamental feature. There were as many as fourteen mill privileges on this Aberjona and its tributaries.

Two other brooks contribute to the flow of the Mistick pond, the Squa Sachem and Sucker brook. The latter rises in Lexington, and in its course turned the wheels of nine mills, the lowest of which is still in use.

On the Mistick itself there have been six water mills at various times, two undisputably within the most ancient Medford bounds and the other four on the opposite bank. The earliest was the Broughton mill in ‘Minnottomies field’ in 1656,¹ and over its dam the road from Cambridge led to Woburn via present Grove street. Another, at a later date, was just above present Harvard avenue, and remains of the same came to light but a few years ago.² The old tide-mill at the lumber yard on Ship street, discontinued twenty-five years ago, the Cutter mill on the turnpike, and the Woods mill near Wear bridge have all been mentioned in the Register. The sixth was the Tufts mill in Charlestown, a tide-mill just below Sullivan square.

But with the coming of the white man the Missi-tuk solitude and quiet was broken. The woodman's axe rang among the locust trees of the Ten-hills farm, and ere long the Blessing of the Bay took her initial plunge into the Mistick, the forerunner of the hundreds that were later to follow. But this was not in Medford, as has been so often said, but rather in ancient Charlestown.

Along with and following the governor in those early