Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 17.

The ancient map of the Charlestown ‘Linefeilde’ is interesting to note just here, in that it shows two islands in the river directly adjoining the location of this old frame. It, however, shows none just below Wear bridge but one existed there, as shown on the ‘Fuller Plan,’ 1855, and was removed a few years ago by the Park Commission. Thus it is evident that the configuration of the river has been subject to some change. Just below this old framework was a broad inlet or bay, which would form a tailrace of the mill's outflow. It is now sixty years since Mr. Brooks wrote his history of Medford and he was then sixty years of age. He doubtless saw some remains of the building (of which this was a part) a hundred years ago, but it was so ruinous as to baffle his efforts to identify the builders or operators. And so arises the query: ‘How old was this? When was it constructed?’

Two facts are evident: First, it was on land purchased of Edward Collins by Thomas Brooks and his soninlaw, Capt. Timothy Wheeler. Second, it must have been built at a time subsequent to that of the Broughton mill ‘on the Menotomy side,’ which was 1656. The highway from Cambridge to Woburn passed over the Broughton mill-dam to present Grove street, and had become disused for some years and was discontinued in 1708, the travel being diverted and crossing made further up stream at Wear bridge. The plan of the ‘Linefeilde,’ showing the two islands referred to, was doubtless prior to the building of the mill by Broughton, as no reference to it is found thereon, though it was on the Menotomy side. Again Broughton's mills ‘he built in the river of Misticke,’ and had a dam extending across the river, which flowed the water backward over the Symmes' meadows in present Winchester. This dam may have become so insecure as to cause its disuse as a roadway and caused its final abandonment. With its disuse came the opportunity for the erection of another mill farther up-stream, with the islands as a favorable site on which