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married 756. ‘Peace and harmony prevailed in his congregation for the space of fifty-six years,’ said Dr. Stearns, and no stronger testimony could be offered to the character and influence of this well beloved pastor.
From the beginning considerable attention was given to the highways.
£ 100 and afterwards £ 200 were appropriated annually for roads, and surveyors were appointed.
A resident of the town twenty years ago, after carefully examining the records, especially for 1739, wherein the bounds of the Overseers of Highways are described, came to the conclusion that of all the roads and streets in Waltham, the following only were in existence when the town was incorporated, viz.: Mill Street, part of North Street or Trapelo Road; Pigeon Hill Road, part of the old Forest Street; part of Quince; Beaver; Winter; part of Lincoln, the way up the hills; a way by Mr. Hagar's unknown; Prospect; Weston; Main, the country road; part of South, the way to Dummer's farm; the road over Prospect Hill, beginning above the house of Hon. N. P. Banks; Bacon Street, Skunk, or Mixer's Lane, from Country Road to School-house; Pleasant; Grove and Warren Streets. Gore Street was an ancient way, but is not mentioned as a highway in the Surveyors' bounds.
The northern portion of the town had nearly double the population of the southern portion.
With the exception of a few residences on the Main or Country Road (Main Street), the earliest settlers in Waltham seem to have lived upon Trapelo1 Road (North Street), Beaver Street, and their vicinity, in the districts known as Trapelo and Pond End. At the Watertown line was the house and lands of Thomas Straight, referred to in the Act of Incorporation, afterwards the property of Mrs. Phelps and the subject of a law-suit between Watertown and Waltham for the recovery of taxes which had been paid to the former town.
Among the early owners
1 The origin of the word ‘Trapelo’ is not known. A traditional explanation of its derivation states that it is a combination of the words ‘traps below,’ a phrase used by the early settlers, who trapped beavers in Beaver Brook, and who made use of the expression ‘we will look at our traps below.’—‘record’ in Waltham Sentinel.
Thomas Lewis, Landscape Photographs, 1879.
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