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

Somerset, Massachusetts

33 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Somerset town. It lies in ZIP code area 02726. It stands on Labor in Vain Creek. The Survey maps it on the Somerset quadrangle.

Somerset within Bristol County

Then and now

1885 to 1985

The same ground, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Somerset, surveyed 1985

Topographic sheet of Somerset, 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

29,406 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 Somerset Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

George H. Talbot was born March 17, 1846, in Dighton, Bristol Co., Mass. He is tbe son of Joseph and Mary L. (Pratt) Talbot, of that town. His mother was a daughter of Lemuel and Alma Pratt, and was born Oct. 21, 1S11. His father, Joseph Talbot, was the son of Joseph and Anna Talbot, and was born Oct. 5, 1809. He was a farmer. It is impossible to trace with certainty the ancestral history of this particular branch of the Talbot family, as there have been no records kept. The name is one that has figured largely, however, in the affairs of both this country and Europe, and some of the early settlers of New England bore that cognomen.

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

The original record-book of the " Shawomat Lands" is still extant, and upon its first page bears the following inscription : " This Book was Begun in ye yeare, 1680, By Increase Robinson, Clark for The Said purchasers."

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

At this meeting it was " voted, as their joint agreement, that the said lands shall be divided into thirty and one shares, whereof one of the said shares shall be laid out in a convenient place for a minister, and to be perpetually for the use of the ministry."

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 Somerset Town - it names this place 60 more 60 times.

Fires near this place

40 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 40 fires within 5 miles of Somerset between 2015 and 2020, burning about 52 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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/undetermined	22
Debris and open burning	9
Recreation and ceremony	3
Arson/incendiarism	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	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
8 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
20 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
16 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
6 August 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.5 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
1 August 2020	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 July 2017	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
21 July 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
20 July 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	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 1,161 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,161 specimens collected within 10 miles of Somerset between 1844 and 1975: 719 Animalia, 344 Plantae, 83 Fungi, 12 Chromista, 3 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A E Schuyler, 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
Hibiscus moscheutos subsp. moscheutos	1844	not recorded
Pluchea camphorata (L.) DC.	1844	not recorded
Ranunculus bulbosus L.	1850	not recorded
Vitis labrusca L.	1850	not 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
Chondrus crispus Stackhouse	1874	F. Wolle	Fall River
Conomitrium julianum (Savi ex DC.) Mont.	1874	unknown	Fall River
Doellingeria umbellata (Mill.) Nees	1874	J. H. Redfield

All 1,161 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 Somerset: 3 past producers, 1 plant, 1 producer. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
Assonet Sand and Gravel Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
East Freetown Pit & Assonet Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Lanzisera Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Randy Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Swansea Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Plant

Every working recorded in Bristol County

Storms near this place

9 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Somerset in 9 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 1 flood, 1 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
June 1998	Flash Flood	Somerset	$570,000	Buffington Brook
August 2003	Flash Flood	Somerset	$15,000	no account filed
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Somerset	$6,000	In Somerset, three trees on Florida Avenue were downed by thunderstorm winds. A tree on Williams Street in Dighton was downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Somerset	$5,000	In Fall River, numerous trees, branches, and power lines were down across the city. At least one car was damaged due to a fallen branch.
July 2016	Lightning	Somerset	$5,000	Lightning struck a tree, causing it to fall.
March 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Somerset	$3,000	Wires were downed on Route 103 in Somerset. In addition a large tree was downed in New Bedford blocking County Street.
July 2023	Flash Flood	Somerset	-	In Somerset, the northbound side of Rt 138 was flooded and closed.
August 2009	Flood	Somerset	-	Two to four inches of rain fell across Bristol County, resulting in minor street flooding. In Dartmouth, Russell Mills and Horseneck Roads were flooded and impassable and Old Westport Road was flooded with six inches of water. River Road near Sylvia Street in New Bedford was closed due to flooding. Stafford Square in Fall River was flooded with water two and a half feet deep and the westbound lane of Roebson Street was flooded.
March 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Somerset	-	Wires were downed on Route 103 in Somerset. In addition a large tree was downed in New Bedford.

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
Pottersville	1.5 miles	33
Steep Brook	1.9 miles	36
Camp Merriwood	2.1 miles	34
Old Town Landing	2.4 miles	34
Assonet Bay Shores	2.8 miles	34
Dighton	3.1 miles	34
Fighting Rock Corner	3.2 miles	31
Bowenville	3.2 miles	36

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 612671. 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.