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North Bellingham, Massachusetts

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Bellingham town. It lies in ZIP code area 02019. It stands on Stall Brook. The Survey maps it on the Franklin quadrangle.

North Bellingham within Norfolk 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 North Bellingham, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of North Bellingham, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

21 surveys from 44 printed 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

10,816 words on this township

History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884 names this settlement in its chapter on Bellingham Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

As crows previously became so far a nuisance as to demand a bounty, so this year a bounty of twentyfive cents was allowed on woodchucks. In November the town so far relented as to allow, for the first time, the leasing of the town hall for " public entertainments of a moral nature." In the same month, after an uninterrupted and persistent effort to choose a representative for the next year, the idea was finally abandoned, and no choice was made. The Charles River Railroad being agitated, and the town recognizing the benefit naturally derived from direct communication with Boston, resolved, in 1849, - fare of this town to have the Charles River Railroad extended to the State line, near the village of Woonsocket, in the State of Rhode Island, and the town in its co-operative capacity does most earnestly pray that the said railroad may be chartered agreeably to the report of the committee on railroads and canals which is now before the honorable Senate on its final passage, as the passage of the bill chartering said railroad would be the means of building it, and thus opening a communication by railroad to the inhabitants of Bellingham not only with Boston, but with Woonsocket and Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, and with the city of New York." tion was made for the town hall for a dance, and the town considered the request, as it '' Voted that the town let the town hall for all good and lawful dances." In 1856, Martin Rockwood was sent to the General Court, and during the next year Ruel F. Thayer In 1858, Horace Rockwood In 1858 our present tax collector came to light in the same official position _which he has held for a long term of years, with

Passage source: History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884.

In the year 1856 the town abated the taxes on the stock of the above road. In 1854 and 1855, Charles Cook (2d) served at At the March meeting Eliab Holbrook was elected town clerk. About this time applica- the first public action of the town in an appropriation of two thousand dollars to fit out and drill those men who had gone and were going in defense of their country. In the same year Hon. Daniel J. Pickering was sent as representative. In July, 1862, the town offered a bounty of one hundred dollars for each volunteer until seventeen were obtained, and to all who enlisted in ten days after that date ten dollars additional was paid. A call coming in August town refusing the prayer of the petition, the county commissioners granted the same, and charged the expense to the town. In 1866, William Fairbanks

Passage source: History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884.

Cornelius H. Cutler, William Fairbanks, Hiram W. Whiting, EK. Baron Stowe, Ruel F. Thayer, and Nathan A. Cook. The town is divided into localities, as follows: At the south end of the town, ' Rakeville" and "Scott Hill'; west of and approximate to the town centre, '' Crimpville" ; toward the north part of the town, '' North Bellingham"; and at the extreme north end, " Caryville," named from William H. Cary, formerly a resident, but now of Medway. Bellingham Centre has a post-office, with one mail per day from Boston. North Bellingham has a postoffice, with two mails per day from Boston, and Caryville also has a post-office, and besides having two and one to Medway. Bellingham is in the form of a parallelogram, is nine miles long by two wide, and is bounded by Medway and Franklin on the north and east, the State of Rhode Island on the south, and the towns of Mendon and Milford on the west. The Charles River enters the town at South Milford, and flows through the town centre, North Bellingham, and Caryville. property of Seneca Burr, who runs a saw- and gristmill; the other, known as "the old red mill," is owned by the Rays, of Franklin, and is now used to grind At North Bellingham the Ray Woollen Company has an extensive privilege for the manufacture of satinet cloth, and which was formerly run by Noah Arnold as a cottonmill. Dr. Seth Arnold, of "Dr. Seth Arnold's Balsam," formerly resided here with his relative.

Passage source: History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884.

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 Bellingham Town - it names this place 3 more 3 times.

Fires near this place

154 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 154 fires within 5 miles of North Bellingham between 2003 and 2020, burning about 219 acres in total. None started naturally. 36 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined45
Arson/incendiarism36
Recreation and ceremony24
Debris and open burning24
Smoking15
Equipment and vehicle use7
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
4 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
28 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBELLINGHAM
27 September 2015Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBELLINGHAM
27 September 2015Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBELLINGHAM
25 September 2015Equipment and vehicle use2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBELLINGHAM
24 September 2019Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.4 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Norfolk County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 2,105 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 2,105 specimens collected within 10 miles of North Bellingham between 1843 and 1974: 1,716 Animalia, 266 Plantae, 113 Fungi, 7 Unrecorded, 2 Chromista, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A Herz, A. B. Seymour, A. M. Rogers; D. P. Rogers 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.

Image SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Specimen of Hypoprepia fucosa Hübner, 1831Hypoprepia fucosa Hübner, 18311900not recordedSherborn
A photograph of the species Polygala paucifolia, not of this specimenPolygala paucifolia Willd.1843ShoreWoonsocket
A photograph of the species Grammia arge, not of this specimenGrammia arge Drury, 17731867not recordedSherborn
A photograph of the species Operophtera bruceata, not of this specimenOperophtera bruceata (Hulst, 1886)1873not recordedSherborn
A photograph of the species Nitella tenuissima, not of this specimenNitella tenuissima (Desv.) Kütz.1874Piper, S. M.
A photograph of the species Carex vestita, not of this specimenCarex vestita Willd.1875Collector unspecifiedNorfolk.
A photograph of the species Haploa clymene, not of this specimenHaploa clymene Brown, 17761875E. J. SmithSherborn
A photograph of the species Carex cryptolepis, not of this specimenCarex cryptolepis Mack.1876T. MorongAshland
A photograph of the species Carex cumulata, not of this specimenCarex cumulata (L.H.Bailey) Fernald1876T. MorongAshland
Juncus marginatus Rostk.1876T. MorongSandy bog, Ashland.
A photograph of the species Lythrum salicaria, not of this specimenLythrum salicaria L.1876T. MorongAshland
A photograph of the species Carex brevior, not of this specimenCarex brevior (Dewey) Mack. ex Lunell1877T. MorongAshland.

All 2,105 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 North Bellingham: 12 past producers, 4 producers, 1 unknown. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Castellucci and SonsGranitePast ProducerGranite
H E FletcherGranitePast ProducerGranite
Milford Pink Granite QuarryGranitePast Producer
Milford QuarryGraniteProducer
Bird PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Carl A MolinariSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Carl A. Molinari PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Franklin PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
High Street PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Highway PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Norfolk County

Storms near this place

2 since 2017

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names North Bellingham in 2 storm reports between 2017 and 2018: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2017Thunderstorm WindNorth Bellingham$2,500At 1:10 PM EST, a tree was brought down on power lines at 711 Pond Street in Franklin. A tree was also brought down on Annabel Lane.
January 2018FloodNorth Bellingham-At 1140 AM EST, an amateur radio operator reported Stall Brook was out of its bands and flooding Hartford Avenue/Route 126.

Every storm recorded in Norfolk 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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Caryville1.0 miles41
Valley View1.0 miles44
Happy Hills1.0 miles44
Westview1.5 miles44
Wethersfield1.6 miles44
Brushwood1.9 miles44
Country View Estates2.0 miles44
Forest Park2.1 miles44

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 Q122592491The 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 611719. 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.