Thursday, July 22, 2010

Treasure Chest Thursday - 1870 Map of Leominster MA

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to find a nugget of information in my musty boxes or computer file corners.

I found this 1870 map of Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts in my computer files recently. I don't recall where I found it, perhaps I scanned it from a book or found it on a now-defunct website.

This image is the right half of a larger image - and shows the northern part of the town (in the image below, North is approximately off to the right):


I knew right where to look to see if my Edward Hildreth and Isaac Seaver families were on this map, and they are - in the lower left-hand corner. I cropped the larger image, and enlarged the left-hand quarter of the map, as seen below:



The names "E. Hildreth" and "I. Seaver" are very clear on either side of Lancaster Street. The Isaac Seaver house became 7 Cedar Street by the 1900 Census, and the Edward Hildreth house was 146 Lancaster Street in the 1900 census.

Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922), son of Isaac and Lucretia (Smith) Seaver, married Hattie Sophia Hildreth (1857-1920), daughter of Edward and Sophia (Newton) Hildreth, in 1874. I wonder how they met? I think I know - they lived right across the street from each other!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

We have corresponded before. My g-grandfather is labeled just off the top of your version of the map.
S. Follansbee is about two lots above on West St.

One other tidbit: Up to the 1960's the stream was different colors due to textile dying near the large pond.
Now it runs as clear water. It's great to see.

John Taylor
jtaylor1142001@yahoo.com

Heather Wilkinson Rojo said...

Randy, Do you have photos of these properties in Lancaster? I pass through their often on the way to visit my Mum, and I could snap a photo for you? I also remember the streams running different colors in the 1960s and 1970s. The Nashua River was the worst offender, dumping muticolored goo into the Merrimack. My daughter was on a crew team for seven years, and rowed the Merrimack daily and didn't believe my stories until I bought the book "A River Ran Wild". The Nashua and Merrimack are clean enough to swim in today.

Ginger Smith said...

Wow, that's really neat that the map has the your ancestors' names listed on it! What a great find!