Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Braggville, Massachusetts

41 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Holliston town. It lies in ZIP code area 01746. It stands on Beaver Brook. The Survey maps it on the Holliston quadrangle.

Braggville within Middlesex County

Then and now

1887 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 102 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Braggville, surveyed 1989

Topographic sheet of Braggville, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

41 sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

In the county-history sources

22,152 words on this township

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1890 names this settlement in its chapter on Holliston Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Several old cemeteries are found in HollLston, and they were established at different periods, according to the locations of the inhabitants and their requirements for burial-places. The oldest is the Central Cemetery, near the first church and the town-house, where several of the early ministers are interred. There is also quite an old cemetery at the north part of the town, one inthe western portion, two at Braggville, andoneat East Holliston. Glenmount Cemetery was laid out some years since inthe eastern quarter of the town, but is not at all used at present. Although some of these cemeteries are not without rural attractions, yet most of them are limited in space and belong to the old order of burying-grounds. In a cultivated community like this there was therefore a natural desire for a more extensive location, and one which should be capable of more ornamentation. And accordingly a plot was selected on the banks of Lake Winthrop, containing thirty acres. It contains a grove, which, with the water-view of the lake audits islands, forms a diversified and beautiful si>ot for the interment of the dead, and one which is attractive and pleasant to the minds of the living. It was incorporated in 1859 as Lake Grove Cemetery, and was consecrated June 1, 1860, Rev. J. C. Bodwell, of Framingham, delivering an eloquent address, and Rev. Dr. Tucker the consecrating prayer. It contains more than three hundred burial lots, many of which are tastefully adorned, and there are several hundred not yet laid out. Beautiful monuments have been erected near the graves, and the entire enclosure is an honor to the town. It has always, since its opening, continued to be a favorite place for interment, and

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1890.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Holliston Town.

Fires near this place

85 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 85 fires within 5 miles of Braggville between 2015 and 2020, burning about 182 acres in total. None started naturally. 37 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Arson/incendiarism	37
Debris and open burning	23
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	19
Recreation and ceremony	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Fireworks	1
Equipment and vehicle use	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
24 September 2019	Power generation/transmission/distribution	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
26 August 2018	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
24 August 2016	Arson/incendiarism	3.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	MILFORD
24 August 2016	Arson/incendiarism	4.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	MILFORD
24 August 2015	Arson/incendiarism	3.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	MILFORD
24 August 2015	Arson/incendiarism	4.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	MILFORD
20 August 2016	Arson/incendiarism	2.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	MILFORD
20 August 2015	Arson/incendiarism	2.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	MILFORD

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 352 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 352 specimens collected within 10 miles of Braggville between 1898 and 1975: 250 Animalia, 90 Plantae, 12 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Strong, Altpeter, Arthur French and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Actaea pachypoda Elliott	1898	Ernest Charles Smith
Bromus ciliatus L.	1898	Ernest Charles Smith	Framingham.
Bromus secalinus L.	1898	Arthur French	Framingham.
Carex brevior (Dewey) Mack. ex Lunell	1898	Ernest Charles Smith	Framingham.
Carex laxiflora Lam.	1898	Ernest Charles Smith	Framingham.
Carex pallescens L.	1898	Ernest Charles Smith	Framingham.
Carex straminea Willd. ex Schkuhr	1898	Ernest Charles Smith	Framingham.
Carex vulgaris var. hydrophila Holm	1898	Arthur French	Framingham.
Dichanthelium sabulorum var. patulum (Scribn. & Merr.) Gould & C.A.Clark	1898	Ernest Charles Smith	Framingham.
Agonopterix atrodorsella Clemens, 1863	1900	E. J. Smith	Sherborn
Apantesis Walker, 1855	1900	E. J. Smith	Sherborn
Apatelodes torrefacta J.E.Smith, 1797	1900	E. J. Smith	Sherborn

All 352 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 23 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 23 workings within 5 miles of Braggville: 19 past producers, 3 producers, 1 plant. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Ashland Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Holliston Plant	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Plant
Barretto Granite Co	Granite	Past Producer	Granite
Castellucci and Sons	Granite	Past Producer	Granite
H E Fletcher	Granite	Past Producer	Granite
Milford Pink Granite Quarry	Granite	Past Producer
Milford Quarry	Granite	Producer
Simeone Stone Corp	Granite	Past Producer	Granite
Trimount Bituminous Prod	Granite	Past Producer	Granite
Bird Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms near this place

1 since 2020

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Braggville in 1 storm report between 2020 and 2020: 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Braggville	$2,000	In Holliston, a high voltage power line was down on Pearl St. A tree and wires were down on Holly Ln. A tree was down on South St. at Fisher St.

Every storm recorded in Middlesex County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Braggville Station	0.4 miles	41
Metcalf	2.2 miles	41
Hayden Row	3.1 miles	42
Holliston	3.7 miles	41
Camp Bob White	4.2 miles	41
East Holliston	4.5 miles	41
Hopkinton	4.8 miles	42
Gooch Corners	5.1 miles	41

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611657. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.