2 12 HIS'] DRY OF COH ASSET. 



were granted upon condition that the proprietors should 

 all have the right of way through each other's lots. As 

 soon as they began to settle that region, twenty or thirty 

 years after the division of 1671, they opened a way, as 

 straight as the rough lands permitted, leading to South 

 Main Street. The part of this Beech wood Street, or Wood 

 Street as it was frequently called, which lay across the 

 Beechwood lots soon had to be kept open permanently, 

 for the bars that kept the cattle and sheep enclosed could 

 not be tolerated by busy men. 



Accordingly, a legal covenant was signed April 21, 

 1726, by the following owners, keeping open for their 

 mutual benefit a way forty-four feet wide and about a mile 

 and a half long, reaching from lot sixty-three to lot 

 eight : — 



Joshua Bates. (Unknown.) Nathaniel Marble. 



Joshua Bates, Jr. Jonathan Pratt. Caleb Joy. 



Thomas Church. Steven Stoddard. John Wilcutt. 



Sarah Church. Aaron Pratt, Jr. Amos Joy. 



Philip Wilcutt. Ebenezer Kent. Abner Joy. 



Samuel Orcutt. David Marble. 



About forty years afterwards a persistent effort was 

 made by some owners to persuade the town to grant them 

 a part of the unused highway at the west end of .their 

 lots near Lily Pond in exchange for this mutually cove- 

 nanted way cut through their lots. There was no little 

 trouble over the matter ; but finally (1762) the town 

 accepted the highway without any mention of the unused 

 way as a lieu land. 



While this main thoroughfare was being located and 

 improved to the accommodation of the Beechwood part 

 of Cohasset, another way was having its destiny deter- 

 mined near Straits Pond. 



Israel Nichols and his descendants were settling the 

 Jerusalem Road region. 



The old path along the shore leading to Beach Islands 



