[p. 56] was abandoned and the lower lake did not become a floating junk-yard.
Another project that failed was, in 1876, the Mystic Valley railroad that began to fill an embankment requiring a bridge across the old course of the Aberjona at the upper end of the lake.
This, the upper reach of the Mystic (and sometimes called Symmes' river) had been crossed by the long wooden aqueduct of the canal in 1802, replaced by the substantial stone structure of 1827, removed in 1865, as was also the Symmes dam and waterpower the same year.
If we trace the stream farther up we go beyond old Medford bounds and out of Upper Medford, as it used to be called.
We will find that our neighboring town of Winchester has improved its flow through her territory, making it permanently ornamental, adding much to its attractiveness.
And now we come back to our caption query, Why Mystic?
and answer, Mystic it is not, except by common usage.
Missi-tuk, the Indians called it. The early settlers adopted the Indian name, spelling it various ways, and later, almost discarding it, called it often Medford river and Medford pond or ponds, and latterly Mystic, which, we repeat, is a misnomer.
Since the preparation of this article there came to us in an exchange an interesting article concerning the name of the upper river that the earliest historian, Johnson, called ‘the first rise of the Mistick,’ which we reproduce as pertinent to this subject.
We do not, however, think that the Indians of this valley or locality, the ab-originis or aborigines, were acquainted with the Latin language, and as yet are unaware of the meaning of the word Aberginians, if indeed it was an Indian (or aboriginal) word, as was Missi-tuk.
M. W. M.
