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

Centre Mills, Massachusetts

33 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Norton town. It lies in ZIP code area 02766. The Survey maps it on the Norton quadrangle.

Centre Mills within Bristol County

Then and now

1885 to 1987

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 Centre Mills, surveyed 1987

Topographic sheet of Centre Mills, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

33 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

31,415 words on this township

History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883 names this settlement in its chapter on Norton Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

John Skinner was a brother, or perhaps only halfbrother, of Thomas, for Mary, the wife of Thomas Skinner, died at Maiden, April 9, 1671, and John was born April, 1673. He settled in the west part of the North Purchase about the time Thomas did.

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

The water privilege was formerly owned by Ebenezer Burt, who in 1744 deeded to William Stone forty and a half acres of land adjoining, and in 1766 to his son, Nathaniel Stone, all the rights and privileges in the stream reserved in the deed of 1744. This property remained in the Stone family many years, and the water privilege was utilized for an iron forge, a saw- and a grist-mill.

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

Dr. Lewis Sweeting was undoubtedly the son of Lewis and Zibiah (Whiting) Sweeting, of Wrentham, who were married in 1721, and were afterwards of Rehoboth. He probably came to Norton soon after reaching his majority, and seems to have lived a part of the time within the present limits of the town, and a part of the time in Mansfield, in which town he was

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

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 Norton Town - it names this place 2 more 2 times.

Fires near this place

36 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 36 fires within 5 miles of Centre Mills between 2015 and 2020, burning about 40 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	16
Debris and open burning	9
Recreation and ceremony	5
Fireworks	2
Smoking	1
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Arson/incendiarism	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
8 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
16 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
12 September 2017	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	PLAINVILLE
28 August 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
11 August 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
10 August 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
20 July 2016	Fireworks	1.2 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
15 July 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.8 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Bristol County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,318 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,318 specimens collected within 10 miles of Centre Mills between 1855 and 1975: 911 Animalia, 320 Plantae, 84 Fungi, 3 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A. A. Eaton, A. C. Birch 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
Apocynum cannabinum L.	1855	F. C. Seymour	Rehoboth
Astur Lacepède, 1799	1860	C. D. Lincoln	Taunton
Carex panicea L.	1863	J. H. Dean
Carex L.	1864	J. H. Dean	Taunton.
Carex vulpinoidea Michx.	1864	J. H. Dean
Hypoxis hirsuta (L.) Coville	1874	not recorded
Chelidonium majus L.	1875	not recorded
Lygodium palmatum (Bernh.) Sw.	1875	not recorded
Berberis vulgaris L.	1876	not recorded
Empidonax minimus (W.M.Baird & S.F.Baird, 1843)	1877	C.P. Snow	Taunton, North
Chaetura pelagica (Linnaeus, 1758)	1878	C. F. Snow	MASSACHUSETTS: Bristol County; Taunton
Coccyzus erythropthalmus (A.Wilson, 1811)	1878	not recorded	Taunton

All 1,318 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Centre Mills: 4 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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
Taunton Plant	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Allen R. Nelson Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Gary Nelson Excavating Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Pine Street Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Bristol 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
Norton	0.6 miles	33
East Norton	0.8 miles	33
Norton Grove	1.3 miles	33
Copper Works	1.9 miles	33
Barrowsville	2.2 miles	33
Cranes Station	2.6 miles	33
Meadow Brook	2.7 miles	33
Chartley	2.8 miles	33

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 617099. 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.