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

Meadow Brook, 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. It stands on Meadow Brook. The Survey maps it on the Norton quadrangle.

Meadow Brook 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 Meadow Brook, surveyed 1987

Topographic sheet of Meadow Brook, 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.

Ansel Keith and Jonathan Smith were among the first to commence the hat business here about 1808. George Gilbert commenced the manufacture of bonnets, etc., about the same time. Soon after Thomas Danforth (2d) entered into the business, and carried it on quite extensively. Hiram H. Wetherell, either alone or with his brother Horace B., carried on the business from 1833 to 1844. Sept. 3, 1850, the Norton Straw Manufacturing Company, consisting of the Wheaton Manufacturing Company, L. M. Wheaton, Zeno Kelly, L. D. Anthony, and A. Barrows, was organized, with a capital of seven thousand dollars, and made bonnets, hats, etc. Jan. 14, 1854, the company was dissolved, and the Norton Straw Company was formed, consisting of L. M. Wheaton, Zeno Kelly, and T. T. Rockwood, with a capital of fourteen thousand dollars. Nov. 12, 1855, another change took place, T. T. Rockwood, A. Dunham, and D. S. Hardon assuming the business under the name of the Norton Manufacturing Company. Oct. 6, 1856, Dunham and Hardon retired from the film and C. M. Dean became a member, and in the spring of 1857 the company stopped business.

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 1 more 1 time.

Fires near this place

52 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 52 fires within 5 miles of Meadow Brook between 2004 and 2020, burning about 34 acres in total. None 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	23
Debris and open burning	15
Smoking	6
Recreation and ceremony	3
Fireworks	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	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
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
3 August 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
13 August 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
11 August 2020	Misuse of fire by a minor	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	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	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

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Bristol County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,367 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,367 specimens collected within 10 miles of Meadow Brook between 1855 and 1975: 936 Animalia, 348 Plantae, 76 Fungi, 6 Chromista, 1 Unrecorded. 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 1,367 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 Meadow Brook: 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
Raynham 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 Furnace (historical)	0.4 miles	33
Copper Works	1.0 miles	33
Cranes Station	1.5 miles	33
Barrowsville	2.0 miles	33
Norton	2.3 miles	33
Oakland	2.4 miles	33
East Norton	2.6 miles	33
Centre Mills	2.7 miles	33

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 617720. 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.