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Waterville, Massachusetts

36 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Winchendon town. It lies in ZIP code area 01475. It lies near Benjamin Hill. The Survey maps it on the Winchendon quadrangle.

Waterville within Worcester County

Then and now

1887 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 101 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Waterville, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of Waterville, surveyed 1887

On record in Waterville

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register within a mile 2 records

The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.

Topographic sheets covering this place

19 surveys from 36 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

12,330 words on this township

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889 names this settlement in its chapter on Winchendon Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

William Webster Whitney was born in Winchendon May 5, 1833. He attended the public schools of that town, and Phillips Academy at Andover. At the age of eighteen he began an apprenticeship with Captain Ephraim Murdock, an extensive manufacturer of wooden-ware, and remained with him until he was twenty-seven. He then went into partnership with his father-in-law, Elisha Murdock, a brother of Ephraim, in the same business at Waterville, under the firm-name of E. Murdock & Co. In 1862 Mr. Murdock retired from the partnership on account of ill-health, and died in 1870. Under the same title Mr. Whitney formed a partnership with his cousin, .lames Alfred Whitman, son of Ephraim Parks Whitman, which continued seventeen years, until 1879. During the next five years he carried on the business alone, and in 1884 took his son Elisha Murdock Whitney into partnership, still retaining the old firm-name of E. Murdock & Co.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889.

at the High School. He left school at the early age of nine years, and served an apprenticeship with Peter Pierce, of Templeton, in the business of chairmaking, remaining with him until he was twentytwo years of age. After that time he worked with several different [)ersons in the same business until 1838, when he connected himself with his cousin, Moses Hancock, son of his Uncle John, in the manufacture of pails at Waterville, on that part of Miller's River about a mile and a half below the central village of Winchendon. During his connection with his cousin, which continued two or three years, the business was carried on on leased premises. After he began business alone, about the year 1842, he built a factory of his own, and continued until 1887 in the manufacture of pail ears and fixings. In 1887 he sold or transferred his business to his son, John, who has added to his product butts and hinges and other small articles of hardware. By faithful application to business in his younger days, by strict adherence to good principles, and by frugality and skillful management, Mr. Ozro Hancock has made himself what he is, and risen from slender means to a comfortable competency. He is one of those men who, no matter what may be said about the natural depravity of man, illustrate, on the other hand, the elastic and rising tendency of human nature, - a tendency which, without direct and positive hindrances, must have its way. They illustrate, too, the opportunities which the free and elevating influences of our institutions aflbrd to the honest, faithful man to occupy a higher station in life. They increase our respect for man as a man severed from all the adventitious aids and circumstances of life. They are the most effective examples to youth, - living examples of what youth, with uncorrupted morals and a determined will, can accomplish in the race of life.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889.

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 Winchendon Town.

Fires near this place

12 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Waterville between 2015 and 2020, burning about 10 acres in total. None 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 burning6
Recreation and ceremony5
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
3 July 2016Recreation and ceremony4.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 June 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 May 2018Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
31 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 May 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 May 2018Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 461 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 461 specimens collected within 10 miles of Waterville between 1856 and 1974: 218 Plantae, 155 Animalia, 87 Fungi, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A., A. F. Newton, A. J. Stone 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 Osmunda regalis L.Osmunda regalis L.1900Bates, J.A.Royalston.
A photograph of the species Pyxine sorediata, not of this specimenPyxine sorediata (Ach.) Mont.1856Charles C. Frost
A photograph of the species Carex maritima, not of this specimenCarex maritima Gunnerus1870J. W. CongdonWellville
A photograph of the species Veronica L., not of this specimenVeronica L.1871not recorded
A photograph of the species Drosera rotundifolia, not of this specimenDrosera rotundifolia L.1882not recorded
A photograph of the species Linnaea borealis, not of this specimenLinnaea borealis subsp. longiflora (Torrey) Hultén1882not recorded
A photograph of the species Moneses uniflora, not of this specimenMoneses uniflora (L.) A.Gray1882M. A. M.Winchendon
A photograph of the species Polygala paucifolia, not of this specimenPolygala paucifolia Willd.1882M. A. M.
A photograph of the species Utricularia vulgaris, not of this specimenUtricularia vulgaris subsp. macrorhiza (Leconte) Clausen1886M., K. M.
A photograph of the species Peltandra virginica, not of this specimenPeltandra virginica (L.) Schott1892A.
Rosa rubiginosa L.1892not recorded
Carex scoparia Schkuhr ex Willd.1896W. Deane

All 461 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 Waterville: 5 past producers, 1 occurrence, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Mica, Feldspar, Mica, Feldspar. 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
Beryl Hill Mica QuarriesMica, FeldsparOccurrenceFeldspar, Mica
Beryl Hill Mica QuarriesMica, FeldsparPast Producer
Lost Lake PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Sibley Road PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Templeton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Winchendon PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Winchendon PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms near this place

1 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Waterville in 1 storm report in 2018: 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2018Thunderstorm WindWaterville$2,000At 11:20 AM EST, a thunderstorm moving over Lake Dennison brought a tree down on wires on the state highway at the entrance to Lake Dennison.

Every storm recorded in Worcester 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
Hydeville0.6 miles36
Winchendon1.5 miles36
Winchendon Center1.7 miles36
Bullardville1.8 miles36
Glenallen2.3 miles36
Harrisville2.6 miles36
Pequoig3.0 miles36
Winchendon Springs3.1 miles36

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 609997. 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.