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

Stow, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Stow town. It lies in ZIP code area 01775. It stands on Pilot Grove Hill. The Survey maps it on the Hudson quadrangle.

Stow within Middlesex County

Then and now

1887 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 110 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Stow, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of Stow, surveyed 1887

Compare 1887 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

43 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

9,652 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 Stow Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Who was the first settler in Stow after Philip's War is unknown. In 1681 we find a list of the twelve allotments of land. Lot number one was set apart for the first minister. The other eleven lots were probably taken up in 1678 or 1679, and were assigned to Boaz Brown, Gershom Heale, JolinButtrick, Ephraim Heldreth, Thomas Stevens, Stephen Hall, Samuel Buttrick, Joseph Ereeman, Joseph Daby, Thomas Gates, and Sydrack Hapgood. Subseciuently, and before the middle of March, 16S6, house-lots were granted to twentythree other persons. The inhabitants having so increased in mimbers as to be able to look after their own affairs, the prudential committee, on the 11th of October, 1681, ajjpointed Thomas Stevens, Boaz Brown, Thomas Gates, and Stephen Hall, to take charge of the plantation ; and they were invested with the powers of selectmen "for the carrying on of such affaires as shall relate to the good settlement of the place," subject, however, to instructions from the committee. This committee. April 24, 1682, appointed John Hay ward, of Boston, plantation clerk. In the early part of 1683 the inhabitants became anxicms to take their place among the towns of the colony, and made known their wishes to the prudential committee, who on the 9th of April chose Tliomas Stevens, of the plantation, as clerk, and directed the iidiabitants to meet, and choose five selectmen " to order and manage their Towne affaires, and a Constable for y" year Ensueing." The meeting was held on the 19th of April, 1683, and Sergeant Benjamin Bozworth, Thomas Stevens, Stephen Hall, Boaz Brown, and Joseph Ereeman were chosen selectmen, and Thomas Gates constable. Early in the following May the citizens met, and prepared a petition to the General Court, asking to be made a town with " some suttable comly English name," and to be freed " from Country publick Charges & Hates a while Longer," on account of the great expense they would be at in supporting a minister, making bridges, and "other unavoidable heavye secular matters, y' will sorely pinch a poore people in soe yong a plantation, where they can not yet Raise competent ordinary food & Rayment." On the 16th of May, 1683, the General Court granted their prayer, and ordered them to be a town by the name of Stow, and freed them "from ye Country Rates for three yea res."

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

Oidy a few items have been gleaned relative to the war of 1812-14. There was voted in May, 1812, to each volunteer two dollars down, and three dollars when called into service; and with what the government paid to make his wages ten dollars a montli. In September foUuHing it was agreed to make the monthly i)ay of the three soldiers drafted twenty dollars. In tliis w;ir it is believed none of the town's soldiers were killed in battle.

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

In 1730 the town ojiposed the taking of a portion of its territory to form the town of Harvard, giving to the General Court these reasons : Tiiat the great part of the land was unimprovable ; that it would take away one seventh of the ])opulation; that they were so poor as -to be hardly able to Mippdi-t their minister, and could not bear the country charges without the others. But their [)lca was unavailing. The incorjxiration ot Harvard in 17:32 left a'little strip of land west of the Nashua River belonging to the old town, w liicli for many years was called Stow Leg; but in 1761 it was annexed to and forms a part of Shirley. Between 1773 and 1780 the town four times opposed the incorporation of a part of her territory into the district of Boxborough. No particular opposition was made to the taking of a small slice in 1806 to hel[) form the town of Hudson, or to the larger |)ortiou taken in 1H71 to form the town of Maynanl.

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 Stow Town - it names this place 7 more 7 times.

Fires near this place

65 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 65 fires within 5 miles of Stow between 2003 and 2020, burning about 70 acres in total. None started naturally. 4 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
Debris and open burning39
Missing data/not specified/undetermined11
Recreation and ceremony4
Arson/incendiarism4
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Fireworks1
Smoking1
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
5 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 September 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
28 August 2017Fireworksunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlHUDSON
27 August 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlHUDSON
26 August 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 August 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 August 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 613 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 613 specimens collected within 10 miles of Stow between 1898 and 1975: 386 Animalia, 181 Plantae, 45 Fungi, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. F. Newton 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 Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 18221900not recordedWayland
A photograph of the species Boletus griseus, not of this specimenBoletus griseus Frost1898H. Webster
A photograph of the species Riparia riparia, not of this specimenRiparia riparia riparia (Linnaeus, 1758)1898not recordedBerlin
A photograph of the species Salix eriocephala, not of this specimenSalix eriocephala Michx.1898E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Viola brittoniana, not of this specimenViola brittoniana Pollard1898Henry A. Purdie
A photograph of the species Aythya marila, not of this specimenAythya marila nearctica Stejneger, 18851899Schiøler, Eiler Theodor LehnMassachusetts
A photograph of the species Chrysosplenium americanum, not of this specimenChrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.1899E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Marsilea quadrifolia, not of this specimenMarsilea quadrifolia L.1899not recorded
A photograph of the species Boletus auriporus, not of this specimenBoletus auriporus Peck1900G. E. Morris
A photograph of the species Boletus rubropunctus, not of this specimenBoletus rubropunctus Peck1900G. E. Morris
A photograph of the species Cephalanthus occidentalis, not of this specimenCephalanthus occidentalis L.1900M. RodmanConcord.
A photograph of the species Crataegus coccinea, not of this specimenCrataegus coccinea L.1900not recorded

All 613 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 15 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 15 workings within 5 miles of Stow: 8 past producers, 5 producers, 2 unknowns. 5 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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Acton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Acton Pit--Assabet S & GSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Acton PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Assabet Sand and Gravel CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Boxborough PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
D. B. Raymond Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Hudson PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Kane Corporation PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Lexington Sand and Gravel CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Melone PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms near this place

15 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Stow in 15 storm reports between 1998 and 2023: 7 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 lightning, 1 flood. The reports record 1 injury. 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
July 1998LightningStow1 hurtno account filed
June 2013Thunderstorm WindStow$25,000Trees and wires on Edgehill and Walcott Streets were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2017FloodStow$5,000At 243 PM EST, an amateur radio operator reported basement flooding on Hudson Road in Stow. At 302 PM EST state route 117 in Stow was flooded, as was an adjacent shopping center lot.
August 2005Thunderstorm WindStow$5,000no account filed
June 2023LightningStow$3,000In Stow, a lightning strike caused a shed fire on Great Road.
August 2021Tornado (EF0)Stow$2,000In Stow, a small, brief tornado touched down, causing minor damage along Great Road (State Highway 117) very near the Stow Police Department Headquarters. This tornado knocked down a large tree as well as a large branch, which fell across the road. Similar to the small Bolton tornado, it is believed that a funnel cloud formed to the southeast of the area and then it briefly touched down as it moved northwestward.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindStow$1,000In Stow, police reported a tree down on the 200 block of Box Mill Road and another tree down on the 400 block of Taylor Road. Reports relayed by amateur radio.
July 2008HailStow$250Windblown golf ball size hail broke a window in a house in the Birch Hill Road area.
June 2020HailStow-Quarter size hail was reported in Stow.
June 2017HailStow-At 352 PM EST, an amateur radio operator reported 1-inch diameter hail at Stow.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindStow-An amateur radio operator recorded a 63 mph wind gust on his home weather station. No damage was reported.
August 2008HailStow-Penny sized hail fell near the Sudbury/Hudson line.
June 2001HailStow-no account filed
July 2000HailStow-no account filed
July 1998HailStow-no account filed

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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Lower Village1.1 miles43
Gleasondale2.4 miles43
Maynard3.0 miles43
Gleasondale Station3.0 miles43
West Acton3.1 miles43
South Acton3.1 miles43
Kelly Corner3.8 miles43
Boxboro3.9 miles43

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611293. 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.