90 



they have long since been gathered to their fathers. ^Ir. 

 Oakes died on the 31st of July, 1848, a noted and enthu- 

 siastic botanist; Dr. Nichols, a valued physician, and one 

 particularly conversant with our local geology and botany, 

 March 31, 1853, just as the little Draba verna, a plant of 

 which he always delighted to make mention and collect 

 specimens, was expanding its tiny petals to another vernal 

 season. He also spoke of the field meetings iu Danvers 

 and Lynntield during the summer of 1849 and the great 

 interest which Dr. A. Nichols, Mr. Thomas Cole of Salem, 

 Dr. George Osgood of Danvers and others took in this 

 movement for the promotion of science. 



HISTORICAL NOTICES OF MIDDLETON. 



David Stiles of Middleton being called up, said he 

 proposed to say something about the beautiful pond (on 

 the shores of which the society had this day takeu their 

 repast), and two of the earliest settlers. Boston was set- 

 tled in 1630 and four years subsequently Newton people 

 under the care of Richard Bellingham, Esq., of Boston 

 (afterwards Gov. of the Colony), moved to Cochichcwick 

 (Andover) and settled on the fish brook leading from the 

 Great Pond to the Merrimac River. This small colony 

 was exempt from tax and had the direct care of an agent, 

 a compensation for the privations and dangers of an unpro- 

 tected company in the midst of savages and in the wilder- 

 ness. Bellingham must have passed to and fro within a 

 mile of this pond in Middleton. None of the towns west 

 of this were then settled and the roads at that time were 

 through Danvers, Topsfield and Boxford, to old Rowley 

 then called Salem Newmeadows, and Rowley Village. Bel- 

 lingham's keen eye found this pond, and in 1639 obtained 

 a grant for about twelve hundred acres which contained 

 the pondv and at that time an Indian plantation (relics and 



