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

Mansfield, Massachusetts

40 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Mansfield town. It lies in ZIP code area 02048. It stands on Robinson Brook. The Survey maps it on the Mansfield quadrangle.

Mansfield within Bristol County

Then and now

1886 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 103 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Mansfield, surveyed 1989

Topographic sheet of Mansfield, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

40 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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Mansfield town, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From Bristol County Farmers' Bulletin, published 1918 - Mansfield Town

Dairy Outlook For 1935

The dairy industry is headed towards a rather favorable year according to the State College economists and they list these factors to back their statement. There has been a 4% reduction in milk cans in 1934 with a further reduction expected in 1935. There are fewer heifers being saved for milk cows and the drought cattle liquidation along with high feed costs have reduced the number of dual purpose cows milked.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

183,038 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 Mansfield Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Upon the failure of Mr. Briggs' ability to preach, the pulpit was supplied for a while by Rev. Nathan Holman, of Attleborough, until June 16, 1833, alternating with Rev. D. Saunders, ofMedfield. This division of labor was caused by a difference in the minds of the worshipers upon some theological matters. On the 30th of January, 1835, Mr. James H. Say ward arrived, and preached on the following Sunday very acceptably to his hearers, and on the 27th April, same year, a call was extended to him to become their spiritual adviser, at a salary of five hundred dollars per year for three years. His affirmative answer was received upon the same day. He was ordained upon the 17th of June, but remained only two years with the society, asking his dismission, which was granted, and he was dismissed June 17, 1837. He married May B. Pratt, daughter of Hon. Solomon Pratt. He died at the age of thirty-six in Fitzwilliam, N. H., and is buried in the .same yard with his predecessors. He was an active, earnest worker in all reforms, was anxious to secure unanimity among his people, visited much, held weekly meetings for prayer at private houses, quite sensitive, and resigned because of the growing dissension among his people, arising from a desire upon the part of some to liberalize the creed.

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

The new society at once commenced worship in a school-house near the old church, and the first minister was Rev. N. Holman, of Attleborough ; they afterwards hired a hall in the Mulberry Tavern, which stood where the Methodist Church now stands.

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

Rev. Mr. Hunt, who afterwards became private secretary of the Hon. Henry Wilson, and died a few years since in Attleborough, supplied the pulpit for a short time, when the church and society extended a call to Rev. Mortimer Blake, of Franklin, who graduated at Amherst in 1835 ; he accepted, and was ordained Dec. 4, 1839. The society built a new meeting-house in 1839, which has since been thoroughly remodeled and enlarged. Rev. Mr. Blake remained with the society until 1855, when he became pastor of the Winslow Church in Taunton, where he has ever since been. The society, under Mr. Blake's administration, grew rapidly, and pastor and people were strongly united, and it was with sad hearts the sacred ties were severed. After Mr. Blake's removal the Rev. Jacob Ide, Jr., of Medway, son of Rev. Dr. Ide, and grandson of Rev. Dr. Emmons, accepted the call extended to him, and was ordained in 1856, and has remained with the society ever since ; and wonderful unanimity has all the time existed in the church and society, and there has never been the slightest rupture between pastor and people. After the death of Rev. Mr. Briggs, Rev. James L. Stone, of Brown University, accepted a call to become pastor of the old society, and was ordained in 1840, October 28th. He was dismissed in 1844, subsequently taught school in Foxborough, then became agent for a life insurance company, and died a few years since at Taunton.

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 Mansfield Town - it names this place 101 more 101 times.

Fires near this place

69 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 69 fires within 5 miles of Mansfield between 2002 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	23
Recreation and ceremony	19
Smoking	14
Debris and open burning	8
Equipment and vehicle use	3
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
3 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	FOXBORO
23 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	PLAINVILLE
22 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
15 September 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	FOXBORO
12 September 2017	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	PLAINVILLE
8 August 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	FOXBORO
8 August 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	FOXBORO
5 August 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	FOXBORO

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Bristol County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 606 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 606 specimens collected within 10 miles of Mansfield between 1874 and 1973: 326 Animalia, 211 Plantae, 69 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A. A. Eaton, A. Clark 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
Hypoxis hirsuta (L.) Coville	1874	not recorded
Empidonax minimus (W.M.Baird & S.F.Baird, 1843)	1877	C.P. Snow	Taunton, North
Eubotrys racemosa (L.) Nutt.	1878	Mrs. M. L. Owen
Deutzia scabra Thunb.	1880	S. M. Holman, Jr.	Attleboro.
Habenaria lacera (Michx.) R.Br.	1880	S. M. Holman, Jr.	Attleboro.
Lilium superbum L.	1880	S. M. Holman, Jr.	Attleboro.
Setophaga americana (Linnaeus, 1758)	1880	William C. Flint
Setophaga discolor discolor (Vieillot, 1809)	1880	C. T. Snow
Woodsia ilvensis (L.) R.Br.	1880	S. M. Holman, Jr.	Attleboro.
Passerina cyanea (Linnaeus, 1766)	1881	C. F. Snow	MASSACHUSETTS: Bristol County; Norton
Contopus virens (Linnaeus, 1766)	1883	Collector(s): W. H. Lewis	Attleboro
Spinus tristis tristis (Linnaeus, 1758)	1884	Collector(s): W. H. Lewis	Attleboro

All 606 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Mansfield: 6 past producers, 3 producers. 3 still produce. 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
Easton Pit	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Boro Sand and Stone Inc	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Boro Sand and Stone, Inc. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Dorrance Inc	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Easton Sand and Gravel Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Pine Street Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Plain Street Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Wrentham Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Bristol County

Storms near this place

13 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Mansfield in 13 storm reports between 2005 and 2023: 9 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 2 lightning. 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
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Mansfield	$15,000	Trees and wires on Bonney Lane were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Mansfield	$10,000	no account filed
July 2013	Lightning	Mansfield	$5,000	Lightning struck an apartment building in Mansfield, knocking out a fire alarm system.
June 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	East Mansfield	$2,500	In Easton, multiple trees and wires were down on Norton Avenue and a tree was down on Bay Road.
July 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Mansfield	$1,000	At 107 PM EST, a tree was brought down on wires on West Street in Mansfield.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Mansfield	$1,000	A large limb at the intersection of Madison and East Streets was downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2013	Lightning	Mansfield	$1,000	Lightning struck a tree near a house on Morrow Street. The lightning traveled along the invisible fence line to the house, damaging the invisible fence circuitry.
June 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Mansfield	$800	In Mansfield, a tree and wires were down on Pratt Street.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	West Mansfield	$500	In North Attleboro, there was a large tree down on power lines on Lindsay St.
June 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	East Mansfield	$300	In Norton, power lines were down on Kilsyth Road.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Mansfield	-	Numerous large branches down.
August 2014	Hail	Mansfield	-	no account filed
July 2009	Hail	Mansfield	-	no account filed

Every storm 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
Whiteville	1.7 miles	40
East Mansfield	2.3 miles	40
Purdy Corner	2.4 miles	40
West Mansfield	2.8 miles	33
Robinsonville	2.9 miles	39
Norton Grove	3.1 miles	33
Ginty Corner	3.3 miles	40
Centre Mills	4.4 miles	33

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 612484. 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.