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

Forge Village, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Westford town. It lies in ZIP code area 01886. It stands on Kissacook Hill. The Survey maps it on the Westford quadrangle.

Forge Village within Middlesex County

Then and now

1886 to 1988

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 Forge Village, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of Forge Village, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

43 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

17,609 words on this township

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Westford Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Rev. Miner H. A. Evans was the first pastor, and remained two years. Rev. Nathaniel B. Fisk began his labors April 9, 1871, and continued three full years. Mr. Fisk's ministry was very successful, and at its close " the official members passed a resolution highly complimentary to the pastor."

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

Eihicaiional History. - The people of Westford have always supported the cause of popular education with commendable liberality. Schools were first kept in private houses, and for oidy one term in the year. At a later date there were two terms each year, but these were short. The town was early divided into school squadrons, of which there were four, - the Centre ; the South, corresponding to Parkerville ; the West, corresponding to Forge Village; and the North, including the region about Long-sought-for Pond. For a long time the selectmen seem to have had the entire control of the schools. They made all the contracts with the teachers, and gave the orders to the towntreasurer for the payment of their wages. In those halcyon days that long-suffering body of men, now known as the school-committee, had no existence.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

Next, perhaps, in prominence stands the name of James Prescott, Jr. He was the youngest son of Colonel James Prescott, of G roton, and was born there, April 19, 1766. He was a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1788; read law and commenced the practice of his profession in Westford, where he was residing at the time the academy was started, and Avhere he spent about ten years. He filled the office of secretary of the board of trustees for many years, and was succeeded by Rev. Caleb Blake. He was the president of the board from 1815 to 1837.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

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 Westford Town - it names this place 7 more 7 times.

Fires near this place

46 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 46 fires within 5 miles of Forge Village between 2015 and 2020, burning about 34 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None 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
Debris and open burning	28
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	13
Recreation and ceremony	2
Railroad operations and maintenance	1
Natural	1
Smoking	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
6 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
26 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 July 2015	Railroad operations and maintenance	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
26 June 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
24 June 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
10 June 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 May 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
5 May 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 472 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 472 specimens collected within 10 miles of Forge Village between 1898 and 1975: 306 Animalia, 62 Protozoa, 61 Plantae, 37 Fungi, 3 Unrecorded, 3 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. F. Newton 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
Exosporium pusillum P.Karst.	1898	King C. A.	Stony Brook
Viola brittoniana Pollard	1898	Henry A. Purdie
Galium tinctorium (L.) Scop.	1899	not recorded
Oryzopsis asperifolia Michx.	1899	J M Greenman
Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.	1900	Thaxter, R.	Stony Brook
Boletus frostii J.L.Russell	1900	A. W. Flint
Alabama argillacea (Hübner, 1823)	1930	not recorded	Lowell
Alopecurus aequalis Sobol.	1930	M. L. Fernald; C. A. Weatherby
Carex communis var. communis	1930	E. J. Palmer	Rocky banks, top of Hemlock Hill. [Inferred locality from precise loc.]
Carex nigra (L.) Reichard	1930	R J Eaton
Cistothorus stellaris (J.F.Naumann, 1823)	1930	Collector(s): James Lee Peters	Harvard
Colaptes auratus luteus Bangs, 1898	1930	Collector(s): James Lee Peters	Harvard

All 472 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 17 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of Forge Village: 12 past producers, 3 producers, 1 occurrence, 1 plant. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, Kyanite, Graphite. 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
Fiber Matls Plant--Graniteville, Ma	Graphite	Plant
Oak Hill Andalusite Occurrence	Kyanite	Occurrence	Metamorphic
Forest Road Quarry	Granite	Past Producer
Oak Hill Quarry	Granite	Past Producer
Oakhill Granite Co Inc	Granite	Past Producer	Granite
Black Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Forest Road Granite Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
J E Farmer Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Nardone Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Nardone Sand and Gravel Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working 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
Graniteville	1.7 miles	43
East Littleton	2.2 miles	43
Camp Wakitatina	2.4 miles	43
Littleton Common	2.4 miles	43
Westford	2.6 miles	43
Camp Nashoba	2.6 miles	43
Camp Cielo Celeste	2.7 miles	43
Centre Village (historical)	2.8 miles	43

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikidata item Q122553681

The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611222. 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.