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Human History of Wildlands

Human History of Wildlands: Brockton Preserves

Stone walls traverse the woods at Brockton Audubon Preserve. Photo by Jerry Monkman.

By Skip Stuck, Key Volunteer

Back in 2018, Wildlands Trust President Karen Grey addressed an audience of land conservation professionals, town conservation commission members, and volunteers at the Southeastern Massachusetts Land Trust Convocation. Though Karen spoke broadly about Wildlands’ land protection, stewardship, and education initiatives, most of the audience’s questions and comments came when Karen described Wildlands’ activities in the city of Brockton. It was clear that many listeners were surprised that Wildlands would invest so much time and effort in the state's sixth-largest city of over 105,000 residents. Karen asserted that land conservation is an important goal anywhere, and perhaps even more so in a city where natural and recreational resources are limited.  

To help a city reconnect with its long-lost natural resources, we first need to understand its history. How have humans altered the landscape over time? What exactly has been lost? Only by knowing an area’s past can we begin to repair its future. 

Wildlands is lucky enough to work with someone who has witnessed Brockton’s history firsthand, who can share local stories that might otherwise have been forgotten. Since 2020, Frank Moore has protected his 20-acre farm and forest property in East Bridgewater through a Conservation Restriction (CR) with Wildlands. But in the 1930s and ‘40s, Mr. Moore spent his childhood in Brockton, where the lands of present-day Stone Farm Conservation Area and Brockton Audubon Preserve served as his “playgrounds.” In April 2024, Wildlands Land Protection Assistant Tess Goldmann and Communications Coordinator Thomas Patti visited Mr. Moore at his East Bridgewater home to hear his many stories from growing up on these lands. Mr. Moore’s encyclopedic knowledge of the area was crucial to my research for this piece.  

If you, like Mr. Moore, have oral, written, or photographic accounts to share pertaining to the natural or cultural history of Southeastern Massachusetts, we would love to hear from you. What may seem to you like trivial stories might be pivotal to our understanding of the places we strive to protect—and to our very ability to protect them.  

Please contact Communications Coordinator Thomas Patti at tpatti@wildlandstrust.org to share your stories. 

Glacial erratic at Brockton Audubon Preserve. Photo by Jerry Monkman.

Brockton’s Beginnings

Brockton lies within the Taunton River Watershed, the history of which I explored this spring. The area has a 10,000-plus-year history of habitation by native peoples, most recently members of the Wampanoag Tribe. Their population thrived, creating one of the most densely populated areas of local native settlement. According to the Wampanoag Tribe, the areas that now includes Brockton Audubon Preserve and Stone Farm Conservation Area also had religious significance, as evidenced by the rearrangement of some of the many glacial erratic boulders into formations that align with astronomical events, such as the daily and annual path of the sun through the sky.

However, in the early 1600s, exposure to disease brought by European trappers and fishermen—even before the 1620 arrival of the Pilgrims—decimated the local population by as much as 80 percent.

Then Plymouth Colony was founded, and within 20 years had out-grown its initial settlement. In 1649, Massasoit, sachem of the Wampanoag Tribe, sold the land then known as Saughtucket to Myles Standish. It was renamed to Bridgewater, and again to North Bridgewater in 1821. The area thrived as a farming and forestry community until the mid-1800s. During the years leading up to the Civil War, the area was a well-known stop on the Underground Railroad, helping runaway slaves reach safety in New England and Canada.  

But rapid change was coming. The end of the Civil War accelerated the westward migration of farmers out of New England. The Industrial Revolution was taking over, and farmers were soon replaced by immigrants from Europe and beyond, drawn by jobs in the burgeoning textile and shoemaking industries. The rapidly growing town was reincorporated as a city in 1881 and given its current name of Brockton in 1884. Interestingly, the name came from Sir Isaac Brock, a British officer in the War of 1812, who had no connection whatsoever to the town. Who'd figure?  

From the Brockton Daily Enterprise, April 3, 1937. “With the near completion of improvements to the new sanctuary, located off Pleasant street, the Brockton Society has one of the finest wild-life conservation areas in this section of Massachusetts. … [It] contains a diversified terrain suitable for a variety of birds and plants.” Clipping courtesy of Frank Moore.

Progress Spurs Preservation

Brockton was headed for the big time. In 1883, it gained the first municipal AC electrical power system in the world, with the first switch pulled by none other than Thomas Edison. By 1900, over one-third of Brockton’s male population was employed in the shoe industry. Growth was changing the character of Brockton. Land was developed for industry, and housing was rapidly replacing the wetlands, farms, and fields of 50 years earlier. 

Wildlands Trust was not the first organization to recognize the need for environmental protection and education in Brockton. In 1919, Amelia Brown and 88 others came together to found the Brockton Audubon Society, with a mission to save wooded areas and the wildlife within them. In 1921, the Society purchased 23 acres from Martin Packard to create the first Brockton Audubon Preserve. In 1937, they added 39 acres and built a log cabin-style building known as the Clubhouse to use as a headquarters and a site for picnics and special events. In the following years, the Society, under the leadership of Brockton tree warden Rufus Carr, obtained additional parcels to bring the preserve to its current 128 acres. For many years, the land provided a beautiful and popular resource for the community. However, as the founding Society members grew older, its membership shrank, and caring for the property grew difficult. In 2011, the remaining members voted to donate the land to Wildlands Trust to ensure its permanent protection. 

Adjacent to the Brockton Audubon Preserve was a City-owned tract of 105 acres known as Stone Farm Conservation Area. Over the years, this land witnessed many changes, as well. At various times, it has been a pasture, a timber plantation (until the 1938 hurricane leveled all of the pines), a horse farm, and an ice pond with an ice house. It has been the site of a Brockton police firing range and a city dump. Each successive use eventually faded into the woods and wetlands we see today. In 2018, the City of Brockton, while retaining land ownership, contracted Wildlands Trust to undertake the management of the property through Wildlands’ Community Stewardship Program. Wildlands staff completed new and restored trails in 2019, reopening the farm to the public.  

Brockton High School Envirothon Team members test water quality during the 2023 Massachusetts Envirothon competition.

A Bright Future

Not done yet, Wildlands continues to work closely with the City in other areas. Through the D.W. Field Park Initiative, Wildlands has spearheaded ecological and recreational improvements in Brockton's largest and most popular open space asset. In Brockton schools, Wildlands is working with Manomet Conservation Sciences on a NOAA grant to build outdoor classrooms at three Brockton elementary schools. Furthermore, Wildlands co-leads both the Brockton High School Envirothon Team and Green Team to engage Brockton-are youth in environmental education, stewardship, and community service.

Which brings us back to where we started. Karen Grey's message in that 2018 presentation was simple. Whether Wildlands is acquiring an urban preserve, providing resources and expertise to help a city reach its environmental goals, or advancing public education and youth development to foster long-term commitment to environmental protection, all of these initiatives flow from the same mission that drives the organization’s work elsewhere in the region. In many more affluent areas, Wildlands’ goal is to preserve the natural beauty that remains—to keep woods as woods and fields as fields. But in less fortunate areas, the time for preservation is long gone. Instead of turning its back on these communities, Wildlands proactively and holistically supports them, returning pistol ranges and dumping grounds to their historic natural conditions and helping future generations take pride and action to protect their local environment. Thus, the Wildlands mission is just as relevant in a city as it is anywhere. 

Learn More

I encourage you to visit Brockton Audubon Preserve and Stone Farm Conservation Area to search for evidence of this history on the landscape. Please also explore the following sources, which I consulted for this piece:

Human History of Wildlands: Striar Conservancy

Striar Conservancy in Halifax. Photo by Jerry Monkman.

By Skip Stuck, Key Volunteer

Wildlands Trust’s land conservation work is all about context. No parcel is protected before the staff scrutinizes its place within regional trends in ecology and land use. Last month, I decided it was time for “Human History of Wildlands” to adopt the same approach. In accordance with Wildlands’ decades-long initiative to protect land along the Taunton River, I zoomed out my lens from individual preserves to the entire Taunton River watershed. From this 30,000-foot view, much came into focus about how the region has evolved over time and why it’s so critical to protect. For the next few months, I will zoom back in to the diverse histories of Wildlands preserves within the Taunton River watershed. But first, I encourage you to read "Human History of Wildlands: The Taunton River Watershed." It is from this context that the following accounts will come to life. 

Striar Conservancy is a 162-acre Wildlands showcase preserve located in Halifax, on the northern bank of the Winnetuxet River. It was acquired by Wildlands in 1999 from the Striar family, with hiking trails established the following year. The Town of Halifax's Randall-Hilliard Preserve abuts Striar from the south, creating a cushion of undeveloped land on both sides of the Winnetuxet. 

The area that would become Halifax was part of the 1661 "Twenty-six Men's Purchase" by settlers from the Plymouth Colony. The land contained parts of several current towns, including Middleborough, Plympton, Pembroke, and Halifax. In 1669, one of these 26 men, John Tomson, built his house on a large landholding of 6,000 acres on the Winnetuxet River. What would become Thompson Street (named after John, albeit with an alternate spelling) was described as an ox trail and cart path between Middleborough Green and the Tomson homestead. Other settlers soon followed. The land was fairly flat, swampy, and muddy, with few rocks owing to its past as a lakebed for Glacial Lake Taunton. It did have abundant woodlands of pine, oak, and especially the highly valued cedar, clearing the way for logging to become a principal industry. 

From History of Halifax, Massachusetts by Guy S. Baker (1976), page 126.

The initial settlers didn't prosper for long, because in 1675, King Philip's War broke out. Since their houses were spread out along Thompson Street, they could not be easily defended, and the raids burned many. John Tomson and others abandoned their homes and fled to a fort in Nemasket. Tomson took charge, but it soon became apparent that that their location was untenable, so he led the settlers to Plymouth for safety. Tomson soon became known as Halifax's "First Soldier." 

The next year, Captain Benjamin Church fought and captured 120 of the Monponsett ("near the deep pond") band of the Wampanoag Tribe at White Island, imprisoning them until the end of the war in Plymouth. Monponsett was the original name for the town of Halifax, and Monponsett Pond lies near the town’s center. 

When the war was over, settlers returned and rebuilt their homes, and the community grew once again. Forestry and now farming were taken up by the residents. The Winnetuxet River’s flow proved suitable for waterpower, and dams were soon built by the Thompsons, the Sturtevant family, and others. The dams powered sawmills, granaries, and a thriving charcoal industry. Remains of the Thompson Mill dam remain to this day at Striar Conservancy.  

From History of Halifax, Massachusetts by Guy S. Baker (1976), page 168.

In 1677, the first public grammar school was formed, although for most of the next 100 years, there was no school building; instead, classes were held in private homes. In 1734, the Town of Halifax was incorporated from parts of Middleborough, Plympton, and Pembroke. Agriculture grew in importance, with cranberry cultivation leading the charge, as in the rest of Southeastern Massachusetts. 

Halifax played an active role in the American Revolution, hosting the longest continuous militia company in Massachusetts. In fact, the first official mention of the war was made in Halifax, before it even began: "On December 26, 1774, it was voted that minutemen drawn out for military exercise shall have their pay for two half days in a week at 8 cents per half day." A week later, the town voted to send a member, Ebenezer Thompson, to the Provincial Congress in Cambridge.   

From History of Halifax, Massachusetts by Guy S. Baker (1976), page 115.

Halifax experienced slow, steady growth in the 19th and 20th centuries. Forests returned to the landscape in the place of abandoned farms. Maintaining its rural character and continuing cranberry production, Halifax evolved into an attractive modern bedroom community. 

Here, I have to include what some might see as a digression, but many might find entertaining. During World War II, a Halifax native made national headlines as the person who invented graffiti. His name was James Kilroy. In the 1940s, he worked at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy. Perhaps out of boredom, he began signing his name on ships being built. The idea was picked up by servicemen, and soon the phrase "KILROY WAS HERE," often accompanied by a man with a big nose looking over a fence, adorned military ships, buildings, and equipment. Few might remember it now, but WWII vets and baby boomers might remember Kilroy as a local celebrity.

Kilroy engraved on the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

When you visit Striar Conservancy, the preserve’s natural history will speak louder than its human history. With pristine frontage on the Winnetuxet River, five certified vernal pools, and various other woodland and wetland habitats, Striar is home to as much wildlife as any Wildlands property. But when you imagine the battles fought, products made, and communities sustained in the area, the human stories are equally audible—if you’re willing to listen. 

Gray treefrog at Striar Conservancy in Halifax. Photo by Rob MacDonald.

Resources utilized in the preparation of this history include: 

The History of Halifax, Massachusetts by Guy S. Baker, 1976. 

Yesterday and Today: 250th Anniversary of Halifax, 1734 -1984. 

“History of Halifax Massachusetts,” Mega Matt’s Ponderings, YouTube. 

Recollecting Nemasket, Michael Maddigan, 7/17/2009. 

The Human History of the Taunton River Watershed, April 2025, Wildlands Trust. 

Photographs and background by Rob MacDonald: robsphotos.blog/wildlands-trust/striar-conservancy/index.html. 

Thank you to Wildlands Trust Communications Coordinator Thomas Patti for his editing and encouragement. 

Human History of Wildlands: The Taunton River Watershed

Striar Snake River Preserve in Taunton. A project is underway to improve public access at this preserve.

By Skip Stuck, Key Volunteer

Those of you who have been following our "Human History of Wildlands" series know that the approach so far has been to tackle one preserve or one community at a time and to dig as deeply into that story as historical resources allow. However, when I started researching the history of Wildlands Trust’s Great River Preserve in Bridgewater, it occurred to me that there was a different kind of story here, not just of one preserve, but of an entire region—namely, the Taunton River watershed. Here, I take a broader look at this 500-square-mile area, one within which Wildlands Trust and its partners protect a variety of landscapes that are important as individual parcels but carry even greater significance in the context of their shared history. In upcoming entries to this series, we will zoom back in to the stories of individual preserves in the watershed, like Great River Preserve, Striar Conservancy in Halifax, and Wyman North Fork Conservation Area in Bridgewater. Today, we will take this broader view.  

A watershed is a land area within which all rainfall and snowmelt funnels into the same place. A raindrop in Foxborough, even if it’s 15 miles from the headwaters of the Taunton River, will eventually work its way down smaller streams or in groundwater to the Taunton and empty into Mount Hope Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. So, the point where that raindrop first splashed down in Foxborough is part of the Taunton River watershed. 

The map below will help convey the size of the Taunton River watershed and its importance to Wildlands’ work. Of the 57 cities and towns that Wildlands Trust serves, 30 lie at least partially within the Taunton River watershed, which encompasses 562 square miles across Southeastern Massachusetts. Wildlands protects over 2,150 acres of land in the Taunton River watershed through outright ownership, Conservation Restrictions, and deed restrictions.

The Taunton River watershed is home to geographical and historical features that exist nowhere else in Massachusetts. It features the longest undammed coastal waterway in the state. This is in part because it drops only 20 feet from its source in Bridgewater to its mouth in Fall River, curbing its power generation potential. The Taunton River is tidal up to the City of Taunton, meaning it contains salt and brackish water for about half of its length. 

The watershed is home to over 500,000 people across 43 towns and cities, covering portions of three counties. Despite the dense settlement around it, the Taunton River is a federally designated Wild and Scenic River. The region is also home to the largest freshwater swamp in southern New England, the nearly 17,000-acre Hockomock Swamp. 

These features and many others play important roles in the area's human history. Now, let’s move back in time. 

Pre-history 

As the glaciers receded between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago, they left a landscape scraped and scoured, with piles of rocks, rubble, moraines, eskers, and other geological features. Across central Southeastern Massachusetts, a large moraine created a debris dam that prevented melting glacial water from draining into the ocean. The result was Glacial Lake Taunton, which spanned 54 square miles and plunged 130 feet deep. The lake lasted for about 300 years before the dam broke.  

Glacial Lake Taunton. From “Understanding Geological History when Selecting Trenchless Installation Methods” by Haley & Aldrich.

When the dam finally breached, the rushing water spread a mix of gravel and mud across the watershed area, building the foundation for some of the richest forests and farming soils in Southeastern Massachusetts. It also created today's Taunton River and its many tributaries.  

People soon arrived. We know a good deal more about the pre-European history of the Taunton River watershed than of much of the rest of Southeastern Massachusetts. In fact, some of the oldest archeological evidence of human habitation in New England comes from digs, finds, and studies in Bridgewater, Middleborough, and the "Titicut" site, dating back more than 9,000 years. The watershed was heavily populated for the time. Several area names survive. Cohannet, Tetequet, Titiquet were all used by the resident Wampanoag Tribe to describe the river and its valley.  

The flat, slow-flowing river also became a major route for Native Americans to trade and move seasonally to productive hunting and fishing areas. The 72-mile Wampanoag Canoe Passage was a well-traveled route that allowed relatively easy passage between Cape Cod Bay and Narragansett Bay via the North River and the Taunton River. The passage has been restored and cleared in some areas and can be followed today.  

Along the route, Natives likely passed through the Hockomock Swamp, derived from "Hobomock," the deity tied to death and disease, but also to the spirits of ancestors. It was also an area favored as a sanctuary and for its rich game and hunting resources. 

Great River Preserve in Taunton.

European Settlement 

After 1620, the English settlers of the Plymouth Colony soon moved west and found that the Taunton River area held great promise. Good soil. Easy river travel. And while the main river's current was too slow to produce power for mills, tributaries such as the Town, Matfield, Winnetuxet, Nemasket, and Three Mile Rivers all tumbled into the valley with sufficient energy to provide waterpower and to support the largest spring runs of alewives and river herring in the state. 

The watershed was initially part of the "Duxbury Purchase," but settlement soon created towns such as Taunton in 1637 and Bridgewater in 1645, and ultimately Plymouth and Bristol Counties. Farms thrived upriver, while ironworks and shipbuilding made Taunton a growing city. Eventually, Taunton earned the name "the Silver City" due to its reputation for silversmithing and jewelry making. 

As with nearly all of Southeastern Massachusetts, and much of New England, this prosperity was not to continue without setbacks. The most notorious one was King Phillip's War from 1675 to 1676. Initially good relations between European colonists and the Wampanoag Tribe and its chief Massasoit, crucial to the Plymouth Colony's early survival, had in two generations deteriorated into war. The Tribe, led by Massasoit's son Metacomet (who chose the name King Philip), was feeling taken advantage of by the colonists. A revolt ensued, and the Taunton River area, especially Hockomock Swamp, was its epicenter. While the hostilities eventually reached all of New England and upstate New York, the Plymouth Colony and adjacent Rhode Island bore the brunt of the fighting. Whereas the colonists feared and avoided the swamp, the Natives found safety and sanctuary there. In fact, the war only ended when the colonists finally entered the swamp and routed Metacomet and his people. In the end, King Phillip's War was the costliest in terms of property destruction and death—to both colonists and Natives—in all of colonial America. 

The Taunton River passes through the forests of Wyman North Fork Conservation Area in Bridgewater. In 2024, Wildlands acquired an additional 90 acres directly across the river from Wyman North Fork, further protecting this section of the Taunton River corridor less than two miles from its headwaters.

After the war, colonial prosperity resumed, and towns grew and flourished. Many attempts to drain Hockomock Swamp ensued, but each ultimately failed. The swamp served as a natural "sponge," absorbing water and preventing the kinds of floods that periodically disrupted life on many nearby rivers. Indeed, failures to drain the swamp substantially contributed to the Taunton River’s wild and pristine state today. Similarly, the Taunton’s incapacity for waterpower has benefited the watershed’s ecological health, as it kept the river undammed, free-running, and surrounded by forest and farmland. Thanks to its unique natural characteristics that stifled colonial industrialism, the Taunton River is now a federally designated National Wild and Scenic River.  

Today, the Taunton River watershed is home to many wonderful nature preserves. Wildlands Trust, MassWildlife, the Taunton River Watershed Alliance, and its cities and towns work together to protect this special place. Great River Preserve, Wyman North Fork Conservation Area, Striar Conservancy, Brockton Audubon Preserve, and soon Striar Snake River Preserve in Taunton are some of the Wildlands properties where you can see the results for yourself. 

To learn more, please see our website at wildlandstrust.org and visit some of our preserves in the Taunton River watershed.

Striar Conservancy in Halifax is located on the bank of the Winnetuxet River, a tributary of the Taunton River.

Learn More

Resources for this article include: 

Thanks to Thomas Patti for his editing and encouragement, to Owen Grey for his mapping assistance, and to Tess Goldmann for her analysis of Wildlands’ holdings in the Taunton River watershed.

If you have photographs, historical documents, or maps related to the history of the Taunton River watershed, we want to see them! Please send any information to communications@wildlandstrust.org. 

Photo Update: Human History of Willow Brook Farm

Andrew and Ann Dee Pelley (left) met with Skip Stuck (right) to share historical photos and other documents connected to the Willow Brook Farm property.

By Skip Stuck, Key Volunteer

Over the last year, I have completed nine "human histories" of Wildlands Trust's preserves and the communities that surround them. With each one, I am reminded of the near-impossibility of creating a truly accurate and clear-cut account of past people and events. History is always "in the eye of the beholder." History from the perspective of Native Americans will often be at odds with that of colonists. Farmers, academics, industrialists, religious leaders, the wealthy, the poor, the young, and the old will view the same events in different ways, colored by their cultures, experiences, hopes, and biases. "Accurate" history is a laudable, yet usually unreachable, goal. 

Pictures can bring us closer to that goal. While I've discovered many written narratives on local human history, pictures, paintings, maps, and illustrations have been much harder to find. That is why I was excited a few weeks ago when the Trust was contacted by Willow Brook Farm neighbors Ann Dee and Andrew Pelley, who wanted to share some historical photos of Wildlands’ Pembroke preserve. They saw the history that we published last April and its request for more information, especially pictures. After some intensive research at the Pembroke Historical Society, Ann Dee and Andrew visited us at our Plymouth headquarters, accompanied by some amazing pictures and documents.  

Before you read further, I encourage you to revisit the original April 2024 entry of “Human History of Wildlands: Willow Brook Farm.” Click here.

Barker & Pleasant Street Houses

The Barker House was built sometime between 1783 and 1810 and burned down in 1915. Photo courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society.

The Pleasant Street House was built in 1777 by Israel Turner. Photo courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society.

In 1877, the Pleasant Street house was moved to Barker Street on the Willow Brook Farm property, where it remains today. It is said that it took a team of oxen six weeks to move the house. Photo from 1979, courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society.

Above are two of the earliest dwellings on the property. The Barker house, owned by Benjamin Barker and his family, burned down in 1915. 

The property continued in Barker and relatives’ hands until 1914, when it was purchased by William Hurley. Hurley established the Willow Brook Dairy Farm, which became renowned for the quality of its Guernsey cattle.

“1st prize Breeder’s Herd | Springfield, October, 1917.” Photo courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society.

“IMP, Cherry’s Memento, No. 27562 | 1st Prize and Grand Champion, Brockton and Springfield | October, 1917.” Photo courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society.

Until the early 1950s, the farm thrived, adding a large barn, milking station, and many acres of pasture. 

William Hurley, owner of Hurley Shoe Company in Rockland, purchased the land in 1914. Thereafter, he built this dairy barn in the middle of the property. Photo courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society.

Willow Brook Farm milking station. Photo courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society.

Today, many reminders of that time remain, including the foundation of the milking station, numerous stone walls, falling fence posts, and open pastures, maintained as part of Wildlands Trust's commitment to preserving Willow Brook Farm’s agricultural history. 

We want to thank Ann Dee and Andrew Pelley for providing us with a richer understanding of the human history of Willow Brook Farm through their pictures. 

For others who have information of any kind that can help us refine our understanding of the human history of Wildlands, please contact Communications Coordinator Thomas Patti at tpatti@wildlandstrust.org or 774-343-5121 ext. 108. We may feature your insight in future “Human History” editions. 

And finally, please visit our online property description and trail map of Willow Brook Farm and explore its trails in person. 

Human History of Wildlands: Rochester Preserves

Leonard Farm; now the Hiller Farm on the Trustees of Reservations’ East Over Reservation in Rochester. Via the Plumb Library.

By Skip Stuck, Key Volunteer 

Wildlands Trust is fortunate to have three preserves in the town of Rochester: two “showcase” preserves, Stephen C. L. Delano Memorial Forest and Rounsville II Preserve, and one “community” preserve, Lincoln P. Holmes Memorial Woods, which, along with an adjacent Town-owned parcel, is known as Doggett's Brook Recreational Area. Together, these preserves comprise nearly 300 acres of protected woodlands, wetlands, streams, and vernal pools. 

Like most of Southeastern Massachusetts, Rochester has a rich human history, dating back more than 10,000 years to the retreat of the last glacier and the Native Americans who soon followed to hunt and eventually settle this new land. In what would become Rochester, they found a heavily forested and reasonably flat territory with soils relatively easy to work, but better suited for forests than farming. Nonetheless, the area was well populated by Native peoples who hunted, fished, and farmed small plots by the time of first contact with Europeans. By the early 1600s, the Natives were a band of the Wampanoag Tribe who called themselves Sippicans and the area Menchoisett (or Sippican to the English). 

Map of Old Rochester Territory. In Mattapoisett and Old Rochester Massachusetts: Being a History of these Towns and also Part of Marion and a Portion of Wareham (1907).

Old Rochester 

When originally settled by the English, Old Rochester included the present towns of Rochester, Mattapoisett, Marion, and a portion of Wareham. More on this later. 

The first documented description of the area comes from two sources, both members of the 1602 expedition to the area by Bartholomew Gosnold, who attempted to establish a settlement on nearby Cuttyhunk Island. As they traveled up Buzzards Bay, crew members Brereton and Archer noted seeing many shell middens, small harbors, and "open woods, kept open of underbrush by the Indians." Paradoxically, the "wilderness" often described by early European explorers was from its earliest times a land fully utilized and carefully sculpted by human hands.  

Rochester's first property grant from Governor Bradford of the Plymouth Colony was made in 1640. However, it only allowed settlers to negotiate with the Natives and purchase the property from them. Although there was much negotiation, there is little evidence that much land was actually purchased for the next 38 years. Nonetheless, settlers trickled in, first occupying the harbors, ponds, and river bottoms to trade and fish. This all changed following the Natives' defeat in King Philip's War (1675-78), when Indigenous lands became "open by conquest." In 1679, the Colony approved the "Rochester Township Grant," which permitted the small settlements to come together and incorporate a town. Once this finalized in 1686, family farms increased in the area. In 1704, the first corn mill was established in this part of the Colony by the Handy Family.  

Fishing, trading, whaling, and shipbuilding also grew in importance, causing rapid growth of the sections of town on Buzzards Bay. Meanwhile, the inland portion of town benefitted from logging and timber production. The Town of Wareham split off from Old Rochester and was incorporated in 1739. 

A prosperous area by 1775, Old Rochester gave early support to the campaign for American independence from England, voting to sustain the Continental Congress and support the revolution. In fact, Rochester provided a greater proportion of its men to serve in the war than any other town in Plymouth Colony. One notable Rochester son born in 1792 was Joseph Bates, who went on to found the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Yet Rochester suffered a significant setback in 1816, when its 1,500 residents were hit hard by an epidemic of spotted fever epidemic, a disease associated with typhus and several tick-borne infections. 

Town Common, 1880. Via the Plumb Library.

The birth of Rochester Town 

The success of the coastal sections of town soon resulted in other areas following Wareham’s lead and splitting off from Rochester: Marion in 1852 and Mattapoisett in 1857. Without these areas, Rochester became a landlocked community and turned its focus to forestry and farming, an agricultural identity it largely retains today. Cranberries, and to a lesser degree livestock and corn production, prevail. It is also a "Right to Farm" community, qualifying with zoning and tax incentives to preserve its farming history.  

In keeping with the Town's desire to retain its rural history and character, several families chose in recent years to preserve their properties from development and protect their natural beauty. In 1987, the family of Lincoln P. Holmes donated to Wildlands Trust 100 acres of woodland, which in combination with the Town of Rochester's Doggett Brook property became the Doggett Brook Recreation Area. Less than two miles away, Wildlands acquired two other parcels. In 1985, Susan Delano donated 111 acres of retired wood lot to become the Stephen C.L. Delano Memorial Woods. In 1994, Winnifred Rounsville donated 43 acres to create the Rounsville II preserve. These properties, in addition to the Trustees of Reservations’ Eastover Reservation, combine to make Rochester a great place for hikers and all nature lovers to visit. 

Memorial stone at Stephen C. L. Delano Memorial Forest.

Learn more 

Visit wildlandstrust.org/rochester to view the full descriptions of our Rochester showcase preserves. Then, explore them for yourself! 

Resources for this piece include the Rochester Historical Society, the historical photos collection of Rochester's Plumb Library, and especially the book Mattapoisett and Old Rochester Massachusetts: Being a History of these Towns and also Part of Marion and a Portion of Wareham, published 1907 by Grafton Press. 

A brief aside: although the event was mentioned only briefly in this piece, Rochester and surrounding communities played a large part in the most devastating conflict of colonial times, King Philip’s War (1675-1678). I strongly encourage readers to learn more about this event, which has been mentioned in other Wildlands Trust histories. A good starting point is Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick.