THE FIRST HOMES. 169 



economically used as to do a full week's work from Sunday 

 to Sunday. His method of doing it was to shut the up- 

 permost dam at Turtle Island in Beechwood until a good- 

 sized pond was formed. Then on Monday and Tuesday 

 the Turtle Island mill would work under full power. The 

 water that passed on down stream was caught at the second 

 dam, where the Morris ice pond now is in Scituate ; there, 

 for two days, Wednesday and Thursday, another mill wheel 

 was turned. 



Again at the Bound Rock dam the water was recuper- 

 ated for the work of Friday and Saturday, when it was 

 finally released to the ocean. It is said that " a mill never 

 grinds with the water that has passed," but Mordecai Lin- 

 coln's mills made the water do triple service. 



About halfway between these two Lincoln brothers, 

 Daniel at the north end and Mordecai at the south, stood 

 a dwelling house at Jacob's Meadow near Cold Spring, 

 somewhat more than a stone's throw from the present 

 Catholic Church. This dwelling was built earlier than the 

 year 1693 ; for in that year John Jacob bequeathed it and 

 the barn to his son* John, only fourteen years of age. The 

 son, who afterwards became the first deacon of the Co- 

 hasset church, was obviously too young to use it, and the 

 father could not have used it as a permanent dwelling, for 

 he lived in the old homestead on Hingham Plain. 



But, I whoever might have been the first tenant, the 

 house itself was one of the earliest recorded dwellings in 

 Cohasset. 



There is an interesting event connected with this place 

 at Cold Spring, one of the first instances of public road 

 building. It was a contract, October 21, 1672, between a 

 committee of the town and John Jacob, Sr., by which the 



*This youngest son of John Jacob was named for the first son John, wlio was 

 slain by the Indians near his father's house in Hingham, April 19, 1676, aged 22 

 years. 



1 1 have found out that Francis Harlow occupied this liouse at the time of the 

 will. (See History of Hanover.) 



