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The National
Park Service has
recognized the
Hatch Mill’s
significance by
placing it and
Marshfield’s
surrounding Two
Mile district on
the National
Register of
Historic Places
and will restore
it.
Walter Hatch,
son of a wealthy
English wool
merchant,
settled on 260
acres of Two
Mile in 1647,
carving his
initials into
the trees to
mark his turf.
He was struck by
lightning and
died in 1699,
but not before
establishing the
farm that would
become home to
nine generations
of Hatches.
The area became
known as
Hatchville for
the large
numbers of
intermarrying
Hatches living
there along the
North River and
Two Mile Brook.
The family built
four mills on
the brook — all
powered by water
from man-made
ponds.
The structures
included the
still-standing
Hatch Mill,
which opened as
a grist mill in
1752 and was
converted to a
sawmill in 1812.
The mill, which
was expanded in
1859, provided
timber for the
thriving
shipbuilding
industry along
the North River.
More than 1,000
vessels launched
on the river;
the most famous
was the
Columbia, the
first ship to
circumnavigate
the globe under
an American
flag.
During the Civil
War, the mill
produced boxes
for shipping
shoes to Union
soldiers in the
South. And the
mill continued
to cut lumber
until 1965 when
Decker Hatch,
who also raised
rhubarb in
underground pit
houses, retired
at age 85.
My grandmother
remembers her
father's family
owing the mill
while it was a
box mill.
Pictured above
is her brother,
David Hatch at
the Hatch Mill
in1923.
*
source:
Hatch Mill
Restoration &
Preservation
Group, Inc
and
Boston.com |
