History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
LEXINGTON,
BY HON. CHARLES HUDSON.
EXmGTON is situated in latitude 42°
26' 50" nortli, and in longitude
71° 13' 55" west ; and is about
eleven miles west-northwest from
Boston. It has Winchester, "Wo-
burn, and Burlington on the
northeast; Burlington and Bed-
ford on the north ; Lincoln on
the west ; Waltham on the south-
and Belmont and Arlington on the southeast.
The shape of the township, like that of the neighboring
towns, is somewhat irregular. The town
contains about twenty square miles, or about thirteen
thousand acres. Lexington as a whole is more
elevated than any of the adjoining towns, unless it
be Lincoln ;
and hence the water from her territory
finds its way to the ocean through the Shawshine,
the Mystic, and Charles rivers. The water-power
in the town is inconsiderable ; and what there is, is
remote from the centre. There is at present but
one mill in the town, that being in the easterly part,
at the outlet of the Great Meadow, so called. On or
near the site of this mill was erected the first mill
in the township, probably as early as 1650. It
was owned by Edward Winship of Cambridge, and
was given by his will to bis son Edward, and remained
more than a century in the family.
The township is rather uneven, furnishing a
pleasant variety of hill and dale. Though the
surface is sometimes broken, the soil for the most
part is productive. The rock formation through a
great part of the township is a species of green-
stone ; and though it frequently crops out of the
ground, the rock is so irregular, and the sides so
precipitous, that the soil is deep, and often capable
ledges. The presence of this rock generally indi-
cates a hard, but at the same time a warm and
productive soil, well adapted to grass, grain, and
fruit trees of every sort, and in fact to every
vegetable production.
There are many good farms in the town, and
their value is gi-eatly enhanced by the peat swamps
which are found in almost every neighborhood.
These swamps, when properly drained, constitute
some of the most valuable land for cultivation;
and at the same time the material taken from the
drains serves to fertilize the rest of the cultivated
land. These reclaimed swamps, when properly
cultivated, are found to be very productive, yield-
ing large crops of hay, corn, potatoes, and every
variety of garden vegetables. Lexington may be
regarded as a good agricultural township. She
has heretofore been somewhat noted for the hay
and fruit she has sent to market; but at the
present time milk may be regarded as her great
staple. Many of our farmers keep from twelve to
thirty cows, and a few of them keep from thirty to
sixty, or even seventy. It appears by the returns
of the assessors, published by the authority of the
state, that the whole number of milch cows kept in
town the last year was 1,081, — a larger number
than that kept by any town m the county, with
one single exception; and by the census return
for 1875, it appears that Lexington furnished for
the market 510,551 gallons of milk annually, a
larger amount than is produced by any city or
towTi in the state, except Worcester.
Lexington has not been able to boast of her
mineral treasures. Within the last few years,
however, a granite quarry has been discovered in
of being cultivated up to the very face of the the northern part of the town, which, when prop-