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

Townsend, Massachusetts

42 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Townsend town. It lies in ZIP code area 01469. It stands on Bayberry Hill Brook. The Survey maps it on the Townsend quadrangle. 1,213 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 315 feet above sea level.

Townsend within Middlesex County

Population over time

2 figures

Townsend grew from 1,128 to 1,213 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
2010	1,128
2020	1,213	+85 (+8%)

Then and now

1893 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 95 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Townsend, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of Townsend, surveyed 1893

Compare 1893 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

42 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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Townsend town, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From History of the Town of Townsend, Middlesex County, Massachusetts : from the Grant of Hathorn's Farm, 1676-1878, published 1878 - Townsend Town

Lawyers And Physicians

In 1814, he married Roxanna Warren, daughter of Moses Warren. She survived him, and afterward married Elisha Glidden. Colonel Hastings died, June 6, 1821, and at his solicitation, he was buried with military honors, at Townsend Centre. The Townsend Light Infantry, Captain Levi Warren, was in attendance as a guard of honor, and discharged "the last farewell shot'' at the portals of his sepulchre.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

102,465 words on this township

History of the Town of Townsend, Middlesex County, Massachusetts : from the Grant of Hathorn's Farm, 1676-1878, published 1878 names this settlement in its chapter on Townsend Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

In the study of records, I have been brought in contact with some excellent minds. I almost feel acquainted with Samuel Manning, Daniel Adams, James Hosley, and others, who placed on record the acts of the town, through the eventful days of the colonial and revolutionary times. I have almost heard their voices and peered into their pleasant but determined faces. Some of the most interesting facts, however, concerning the transactions which occurred during the first hundred years of our history, and even after that time, were gleaned from outside of the town records. The puritans were men of action not words. They had little time to commit their thoughts to writing. What the}' wrote was done more from necessity, than the love of perpetuating the remembrance of their acts.

Passage source: History of the Town of Townsend, Middlesex County, Massachusetts : from the Grant of Hathorn's Farm, 1676-1878, published 1878.

The history of Townsend should have been written long ago, before the third generation from the fathers passed away. Many things, of great interest, can never be known which might have been learned if a timely effort had been made. Even tradition seems to have died out. The farms, on our hill-sides, once occupied by large families, the sons and daughters of which filled the school houses, and wended their way to one common place of worship, on the sabbath, are now in the hands of strangers. The history of the earliest settlers of this town can never be written satisfactorily. It is impossible to point out the exact location where many of them "broke the wilderness" and built their cabins. In this work, with reference to the ecclesiastical affairs of the town, I have aimed to exhibit a complete and impartial history of the church and its ministers, during the period that the church was a town institution. I have studied the characters of these ministers who brought glad tidings to the fathers during the first hundred years of the towns existence, and I hope I have done justice both to them and the subject. The ministers, who followed Mr. Palmer with the Congregationalists, I have described impartially as they appeared to me. Concerning the other clergymen sketched in this work, I have given their characters as I have learned them from other sources, rather than from observation.

Passage source: History of the Town of Townsend, Middlesex County, Massachusetts : from the Grant of Hathorn's Farm, 1676-1878, published 1878.

It is impossible that a work of this description, containing such a mass of facts and abounding in dates, should be free from errors. That errors are herein contained -is beyond question. I beg my readers to point them out to the next man who will write the supplementary chronicles of the town.

Passage source: History of the Town of Townsend, Middlesex County, Massachusetts : from the Grant of Hathorn's Farm, 1676-1878, published 1878.

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 Townsend Town - it names this place 22 more 22 times.

Fires near this place

23 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 23 fires within 5 miles of Townsend between 2010 and 2020, burning about 7 acres in total. 1 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
Debris and open burning	16
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Natural	1
Recreation and ceremony	1
Fireworks	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
29 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
27 August 2015	Natural	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
25 July 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 June 2017	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	New Hampshire Division of Forest and Lands	not named
7 June 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
30 June 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
9 May 2020	Power generation/transmission/distribution	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
9 May 2015	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 Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

11 of 124 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 124 specimens collected within 10 miles of Townsend between 1900 and 1974: 37 Animalia, 35 Protozoa, 27 Plantae, 21 Fungi, 4 Unrecorded. 11 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. K. Moore, B. N. Gates, C. M. Litch 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
Pholiota carbonaria (Fr.) Singer	1900	H. Webster	Groton.
unnamed	1926	F.A. Gilbert
Anavitrinella pampinaria (Guenée, 1857)	1926	not recorded	Lunenburg
Arcyria cinerea (Bull.) Pers., 1801	1926	Collector unspecified
Arcyria pomiformis (Leers) Rostaf., 1875	1926	Collector unspecified
Alopecurus aequalis Sobol.	1930	M. L. Fernald; C. A. Weatherby
Epitheca cynosura (Say, 1840)	1930	Davis, E. M.	MA, Middlesex Co., Shirley
Hemaris thysbe Fabricius, 1775	1930	not recorded	Lunenburg
Coccyzus erythropthalmus (A.Wilson, 1811)	1950	Collector(s): James Lee Peters	Groton
Salix sericea Marshall	1950	B. N. Gates	Bordering Leominster water supply; Fitchburg.
Crematogaster Lund, 1831	1974	E. V. Gregg	Wayside park, 6 mi E of Los Fresnos

All 124 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

8 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Townsend: 7 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. 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
Adams Excavating Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Harbor Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
R L Robichaud	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Raymond Heywood	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Raymond Heywood Pit and Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Robert L. Robichard Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Townsend Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Townsend Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms near this place

27 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Townsend in 27 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 14 thunderstorm wind, 11 hail, 2 lightning. The reports record 3 injuries. 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
August 2004	Lightning	Townsend	3 hurt	no account filed
August 2004	Hail	Townsend	$25,000	no account filed
September 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Townsend	$20,000	Trees and wires were downed on Pearly Brook Road, Route 13, Brookline Road, and Meadow Road.
June 2008	Lightning	Townsend	$10,000	Lightning struck a house, setting it on fire.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Townsend	$10,000	no account filed
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Townsend	$10,000	no account filed
April 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Townsend	$8,000	no account filed
March 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Townsend	$5,000	In Townsend, a large tree was down on a house on Riverbank Terrace.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	West Townsend	$5,000	A large tree was downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	West Townsend	$2,000	At 6:05 PM EST, thunderstorm winds brought a tree and wires down on West Meadow Road in Townsend.
May 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Townsend	$2,000	no account filed
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	West Townsend	$800	In Townsend, a tree was down on wires on Barker Hill Road near Turnpike Road. Report relayed by amateur radio.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	West Townsend	$500	In Townsend, a tree was down along New Fitchburg Rd in the area of Pearl Hill State Park.
May 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Townsend	$500	In Townsend, a tree was down at the intersection of Old City Road and Fitchburg Road.
June 2007	Hail	Townsend	-	Half-dollar size hail.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Townsend	-	Trees and wires down on Battery Road.
July 2007	Hail	Townsend	-	Nickel size hail.
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Townsend	-	A spotter reported trees blown down.
May 2011	Hail	Townsend	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Townsend	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Townsend	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Townsend	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Townsend	-	no account filed
July 2008	Hail	Townsend	-	no account filed
July 2000	Hail	Townsend	-	no account filed
July 2000	Hail	Townsend	-	no account filed
October 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	West Townsend	-	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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Townsend Harbor	2.0 miles	42
West Townsend	2.0 miles	42
South Row	2.3 miles	42
Old City	2.4 miles	42
Rogersville (historical)	2.7 miles	44
Burkinshaws Factory	4.9 miles	39
Vose	5.3 miles	44
South Pepperell	5.6 miles	39

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.

Wikipedia article on Townsend	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7830158	The 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 610801. 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.