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Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 12., A pioneer railroad and how it was built. (search)
803. Just before this a canal had been opened for the passage of boats and rafts around the Pawtucket Falls of the Merrimack, but the opening of the Middlesex Canal as an inland and more direct route to Boston had proved somewhat disastrous to the interests of the Proprietors of Locks and Canals, as the Pawtucket Canal Company was styled. Its disappointments, however, were destined to come to an end. Some mill owners on the Charles river at Waltham were seeking along the banks of the Shawsheen for additional power and new facilities, when one, Ezra Worthen, remarked, If they want water power, why don't they buy the Pawtucket Canal and get the whole force of Merrimack river? Strange it was that such a scheme had not dawned on people's thought sooner, and that the Merrimack had flowed on unharnessed, while the Pawtucket Canal had only served for a passage around the Falls for twenty-five years. A word to the wise was sufficient, and quietly the land along the river was acquired