Robert Taft (1724 - )Robert Taft was born in the year 1724 in Ireland. married Jane Creage/Mary Whitney. He and his descendants settled the area at the west end of Camp St., just across the Mill River in Upton. They cleared the woodlands near Peppercorn Hill and setup farmsteads. On the 1794 map of Upton, we can see the land in that area divided among his sons and grandsons. The walls that you see when you hike this conservation area were built by these men for roads and boundary markers. The Taft family were important members of early Upton society.It is most likely Robert Taft who first surveyed and laid out Camp Street. Rev. Adin Ballou mentions that Camp Street was widened in 1754 but had been a "proprietors way long before." Robert Taft was that proprietor. He was present for the first Town Meeting in Mendon that was held after the settlers returned from abandoning it during King Phillips War. Robert Taft's original homestead is located in the Peppercorn Hill Conservation Area along Taft Street in Upton. This can be accessed from Camp Street on the Milford end or Taft Street at the opposite end. Click here for a trail map.What is great about hiking this area is the fact that the old cart roads remain much the same as they were back then. The upper part of Taft Street was an engineering miracle for that time period. We can see on the 1754 map the the road did not extent strait as it does today. When it was first laid out, the road only ran westerly until it reached the spot that Robert Taft built his homestead and then took a sharp left turn. This was do doubt to avoid the steep terrain ahead. Years later his descendants would complete the road, building 30 foot retaining walls out of field stone and filling the area. This was quite the feat for the time and the walls are still holding up the road today.Robert Taft also had a mill along the Mill River. An 1831 map of Milford shows a mill pond and grain mill located on the property of Robert and Solomon Taft and it is not surprising since they were a large family with a lot of fields. It is unknown when the mill was built or torn down but it predates the Hunt Wool Mill that was built later. The location of the Robert and Solomon Taft Grain Mill is under the power lines at: 42.179395639674674, -71.56124423120981. Looking at it today from Google Earth, you can clearly make out where the old mill pond used to be. Another thing to note is the fact that not only does the Mill River flow to this area, but it is also joined by a stream that comes from a marshy area on the western side of Peppercorn Hill. Although most of the land on Peppercorn Hill was owned by Daniel Hunt, this odd shaped marsh area was owned by the Tafts. From above it looks like there once may have been a dam retaining water there at one time. When Hunt Wool factory was built upstream on the Mill River, it would have significantly reduced the flow of water to the Tafts mill and it looks like this might have also been a pond used to create an additional head of water for their mill.Our Puritan forefathers were none too pleased with Robert Taft who was accused of providing the local Nipmuck with alcohol. This endangered the community to the point that the natives had become violently drunk and the Town of Mendon petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for relief. From the "Annals of the town of Mendon, from 1659 to 1880" written by John Metcalf: "In reference to those good and wholesome laws that are in force against the selling of drink to the Indians and our care to detect such men as are transgressors of them. This sin is being practiced by some amongst us who drive a trade with the Natives out of a design of gain from that source, and we are in continual fear of what the dismal effect thereof will prove.
It has not been a month since there have been three murderous attempts by Drunken Indians amongst us so that if some effectual care is not taken there will be no comfortable abiding for us unless we will expose ourselves and ours to the rage and fury of such as are not masters of their weapons, but are ready to murder all that stand in their way" The General Court referred the matter back to Suffolk County: "Touching Robert Taft, the person complained of for irregular trading with the Indians, that matter is wholly left with the County Court of Suffolk, to do therein as they shall judge, and unto whom the petitioners may apply themselves for relief." The law of 1681, to which the petitioners were referred, authorized the Selectmen of Mendon to apprehend any Indian found at large and commit him to the House of Correction or to prison until he should engage to go to and abide in the Indian towns of Natick, Punkapauge or Wamesit. The praying villages had been set apart by the General Court as homes for the Indians. Whether any complaint was made against Robert Taft, in Suffolk court or if any proof of his "irregular trading with the Indians" was made is not known.
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Robert Taft (1724 - )
Robert Taft was born in the year 1724 in Ireland. married Jane Creage/Mary Whitney. He and his descendants settled the area at the west end of Camp St., just across the Mill River in Upton. They cleared the woodlands near Peppercorn Hill and setup farmsteads. On the 1794 map of Upton, we can see the land in that area divided among his sons and grandsons. The walls that you see when you hike this conservation area were built by these men for roads and boundary markers. The Taft family were important members of early Upton society.
It is most likely Robert Taft who first surveyed and laid out Camp Street. Rev. Adin Ballou mentions that Camp Street was widened in 1754 but had been a "proprietors way long before." Robert Taft was that proprietor. He was present for the first Town Meeting in Mendon that was held after the settlers returned from abandoning it during King Phillips War. Robert Taft's original homestead is located in the Peppercorn Hill Conservation Area along Taft Street in Upton. This can be accessed from Camp Street on the Milford end or Taft Street at the opposite end. Click here for a trail map.
What is great about hiking this area is the fact that the old cart roads remain much the same as they were back then. The upper part of Taft Street was an engineering miracle for that time period. We can see on the 1754 map the the road did not extent strait as it does today. When it was first laid out, the road only ran westerly until it reached the spot that Robert Taft built his homestead and then took a sharp left turn. This was do doubt to avoid the steep terrain ahead. Years later his descendants would complete the road, building 30 foot retaining walls out of field stone and filling the area. This was quite the feat for the time and the walls are still holding up the road today.
Robert Taft also had a mill along the Mill River. An 1831 map of Milford shows a mill pond and grain mill located on the property of Robert and Solomon Taft and it is not surprising since they were a large family with a lot of fields. It is unknown when the mill was built or torn down but it predates the Hunt Wool Mill that was built later. The location of the Robert and Solomon Taft Grain Mill is under the power lines at: 42.179395639674674, -71.56124423120981. Looking at it today from Google Earth, you can clearly make out where the old mill pond used to be. Another thing to note is the fact that not only does the Mill River flow to this area, but it is also joined by a stream that comes from a marshy area on the western side of Peppercorn Hill. Although most of the land on Peppercorn Hill was owned by Daniel Hunt, this odd shaped marsh area was owned by the Tafts. From above it looks like there once may have been a dam retaining water there at one time. When Hunt Wool factory was built upstream on the Mill River, it would have significantly reduced the flow of water to the Tafts mill and it looks like this might have also been a pond used to create an additional head of water for their mill.
Our Puritan forefathers were none too pleased with Robert Taft who was accused of providing the local Nipmuck with alcohol. This endangered the community to the point that the natives had become violently drunk and the Town of Mendon petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for relief. From the "Annals of the town of Mendon, from 1659 to 1880" written by John Metcalf:
"In reference to those good and wholesome laws that are in force against the selling of drink to the Indians and our care to detect such men as are transgressors of them. This sin is being practiced by some amongst us who drive a trade with the Natives out of a design of gain from that source, and we are in continual fear of what the dismal effect thereof will prove.
It has not been a month since there have been three murderous attempts by Drunken Indians amongst us so that if some effectual care is not taken there will be no comfortable abiding for us unless we will expose ourselves and ours to the rage and fury of such as are not masters of their weapons, but are ready to murder all that stand in their way"
The General Court referred the matter back to Suffolk County: "Touching Robert Taft, the person complained of for irregular trading with the Indians, that matter is wholly left with the County Court of Suffolk, to do therein as they shall judge, and unto whom the petitioners may apply themselves for relief."
The law of 1681, to which the petitioners were referred, authorized the Selectmen of Mendon to apprehend any Indian found at large and commit him to the House of Correction or to prison until he should engage to go to and abide in the Indian towns of Natick, Punkapauge or Wamesit. The praying villages had been set apart by the General Court as homes for the Indians. Whether any complaint was made against Robert Taft, in Suffolk court or if any proof of his "irregular trading with the Indians" was made is not known.
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