Dunstable Village: Massapoag and the Woodward Mill

by A. Donald Kennedy

Editors note "Don" Kennedy was born in Dunstable in 1912, and lived here until his death in 1988. For many years, Don raised dairy cattle on his farm at the top of High Street, where he lived with his wife, Lucy. He was the state’s youngest selectman in 1934 at the age of 22, and remained active in town politics throughout most of his life. He was dedicated to protecting Dunstable farmlands from development. In this installment, Don shares some of the history of Massapoag Pond and the mill operated by Jonathan Woodward at "The Gulf". --di

At the time of the wash-out that destroyed the first grist mill in Dunstable, Massapoag pond covered an area of six hundred acres or roughly a square mile. When the level of the surface was lowered some twenty-five feet by the wash­out, what had been the outlet thus became an inlet. So from then on Salmon Brook began at the north end of Massapoag at "The Gulf". The current of the brook moves sluggishly through "Lower Massapoag". The inlet that used to be the outlet is close to the Tyngsboro-Dunstable line on Pond street and is called Sewells Brook. About a mile upstream in meadow land, the flow of water becomes northerly and is called Black Brook. This is the stream that was dammed to make the mill pond in the center of Dunstable that is now owned by the Town.

In 1775, Mr. Jonathan Woodward built another grist mill at "The Gulf". He was assisted by his wife who was well able to help him in its operation. She weighed nearly four hundred pounds. Once irritated by a British sympathizer, she beat him with a chair and tossed him out of her house. Jonathan Woodward, known as "The Miller of Massapoag", operated this mill, with Leonard Parkhurst in charge, for over a quarter of a century. In the early eighteen hundreds, it was replaced by a fulling mill run by Joseph Tucker. This did not last very long and was the last commercial enterprise at "The Gulf". Mr. Jonathan Woodward lived to be "101 years, 7 mos. and 13 days" old and is buried in Central Cemetery beside his wife Sarah.

Enough time elapsed between the destruction of Samuel Adams mill and the building of Jonathan Woodwards mill at "The Gulf" to allow large pine trees to grow in the area now covered with water. Many of these trees were four feet in diameter and towered over two hundred feet tall. In 1736, a pine tree measuring seven feet eight inches in diameter was cut in Dunstable along the shores of Massapoag.