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

South Natick, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Natick town. It lies in ZIP code area 01760. It stands on Carver Hill. The Survey maps it on the Natick quadrangle.

South Natick within Middlesex 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 South Natick, surveyed 1989

Topographic sheet of South Natick, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

46 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

21,769 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 Natick Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

HE neighbor towns of Natick are, on the east Neediiam and Diiver in Norfolk County, Sher- Imrii to the south, Franiingham west, and Wayland north. Lake Cochituate, the Long Pond of our fathers, but resuming its Indian name when it became Boston's water-supply, is a noteworthy natural feature. Charles River crooks through South Natick; and on the edge of Dover Pcgan Hill rises four hundred feet. Natick has three villages : the compact, populous Centre, on the Boston and Albany Railroad, seventeen miles from the city ; Felchville, a mile north ; and two miles southeast tlie original settlement, South Natick. Population, by the census of 1875, 7,419.

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

This town, one of the few in Massachusetts with an Indian name, preserves thus the fact of its aboriginal origin; for when John Eliot's missionary labors at Nonantum bore fruit, he wished to gather these converts into a community remoter from the whites. Riding in quest of a good location, and disappointed in one place examined, the record states that he prayed behind a great rock for guidance in this matter. Soon after a friendly Indian suggested another site, of which Eliot thus writes : " The Lord did discover that there it was his pleasure we should begin this work. When grasse was fit to cut, I sent some Indians to mow, and other to make hay, because wc must oft ride thither in the Autumn, and in the spring before any grasse is come, and there is provision for our horses, their work was performed well, as I found whiii I went u|) to llicm with my man to order it."

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

Just before this time died Joseph Ephraim, the Indian deacon. At his election all the whites gave him their votes, and he held the office from the organization of the church through Mr. Peabody's ministry, and probably till his death, about 1761. He was a n:an of good parts, and highly respected. Having been asked why young Indians when living with the whites kept sober and industrious, but returning to their own kindred soon grew lazy, intemperate, and shiftless, he replied, in his broken English, " Tucks (ducks) will be tucks for all old hen he hatch um." He had a descendant, John, Avho inherited his acres, but not his virtues.

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 Natick Town - it names this place 21 more 21 times.

Fires near this place

114 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 114 fires within 5 miles of South Natick between 2015 and 2020, burning about 48 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 3 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	42
Recreation and ceremony	31
Debris and open burning	22
Power generation/transmission/distribution	4
Smoking	4
Natural	3
Arson/incendiarism	3
Railroad operations and maintenance	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Fireworks	1
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Other causes	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
9 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 September 2018	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	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
23 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
21 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	NEEDHAM

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,606 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,606 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Natick between 1898 and 1975: 1,110 Animalia, 248 Fungi, 238 Plantae, 6 Protozoa, 4 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour & M. D. Feigley, A. E. Feldman 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
Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822	1900	not recorded	Wayland
Actaea pachypoda Elliott	1898	Ernest Charles Smith
Antennaria howellii subsp. canadensis (Greene) R.J.Bayer	1898	Williams, E.F.
Antennaria parlinii subsp. fallax (Greene) R.J.Bayer & Stebbins	1898	not recorded
Antennaria plantaginifolia (L.) Hook.	1898	not recorded
Aquilegia canadensis L.	1898	M. I. Gunn	Natick
Acanthis flammea flammea (Linnaeus, 1758)	1900	ZAPPEY, W R	ROSLINDALE
Agaricus brunnescens Peck	1900	Morris, G. E.	Waltham
Agonopterix atrodorsella Clemens, 1863	1900	E. J. Smith	Sherborn
Alnus serrulata (Aiton) Willd.	1900	J. Murdoch, Jr.	West Roxbury
Apantesis Walker, 1855	1900	E. J. Smith	Sherborn
Apatelodes torrefacta J.E.Smith, 1797	1900	E. J. Smith	Sherborn

All 1,606 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of South Natick: 6 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Peat. 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
Panlini Loam Co	Peat	Past Producer	Peat
Walpole Quarry	Stone	Past Producer
Framington Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Hi-Way Pit and Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Town of Natick	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Town of Wellesley	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Town of Wellesley	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms near this place

1 since 2020

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names South Natick in 1 storm report between 2020 and 2020: 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	South Natick	$500	In Natick, a tree was down on Glen Street.

Every storm 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
Morseville	1.7 miles	46
Natick	1.9 miles	46
East Natick	2.2 miles	46
Felchville	2.8 miles	46
North Natick	2.9 miles	46
Lake Forest Park	3.1 miles	46
West Natick	3.3 miles	40
Sherborn	3.7 miles	43

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 612002. 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.