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

Whittenton, Massachusetts

33 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Taunton City. It lies in ZIP code area 02780. It stands on Prospect Hill. The Survey maps it on the Taunton quadrangle.

Whittenton within Bristol County

Then and now

1885 to 1987

The same ground, surveyed 102 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Whittenton, surveyed 1987

Topographic sheet of Whittenton, 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.

What happened here

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

From History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883 - Taunton City

The Weather

How all the people are enjoying this nice weather we are having! Real summer weather. But to the farmers, or some in certain lines of farming, this moderate weather is "not so good." These premature samples of springtime are unfortunate, especially for the peach orchardist. As every groWar knows, peach trees are susceptible to cold weather, and if it does grow very cold again, and there is every likelihood of it, there will be much wood killed and a very small fruit yield in our section this coming season.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

195,005 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 Taunton City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The Union Congregational (Trinitarian) Church1 in Taunton was organized in the year 1868. For many years efforts had been made to sustain public worship in Whittenton and vicinity, the Baptist and Methodist denominations having occupied the ground at different times. At a meeting held Nov. 14, 1867, the Union Society of Whittenton was formed for the maintenance of public worship, and a constitution was adopted. At a meeting of this society held Dec. 25, 1867, it was voted to invite Rev. Isaac Dunham, of Westport, Mass., to preach the gospel here. Mr. Dunham accepted the invitation, and commenced his labors early the following year, and steps were at once taken towards the regular formation of a Church of Christ.

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

At a meeting held March 16, 1868, at the house of Charles L. Lovering, Rev. Isaac Dunham, chairman, and C. L. Lovering, scribe, on motion of Barnes L. Burbank, it was voted to adopt a confession of faith and covenant which had been drawn up by the Rev. Mr. Dunham. The substance of this confession and covenant is the same as that usually adopted by churches of the same faith. It was then voted to send invitations to the Trinitarian Congregational, Winslow, and West (Taunton) Churches, to the church in Assonet, and to the Second Congregational Church in Dorchester, and also to the Rev. Henry B. Hooker, D.D., of Boston, to assemble in council here at some appointed date to give advice, and to take action, if expedient, in the matter of the formation of a church.

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

The council called by these letters missive was convened at Whittenton, Thursday, April 2, 1868, and consisted of the individual and the pastors and delegates of the churches already indicated. Rev. E. Maltby was chosen moderator of the council, and Rev. F. H. Boynton scribe.

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 Taunton City - it names this place 35 more 35 times.

Fires near this place

73 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 73 fires within 5 miles of Whittenton between 2003 and 2020, burning about 49 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	33
Debris and open burning	17
Recreation and ceremony	9
Smoking	7
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Fireworks	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Natural	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
16 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 August 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
28 August 2007	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
15 August 2020	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
13 August 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
13 August 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
11 August 2020	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
10 August 2020	Recreation and ceremony	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 1,922 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,922 specimens collected within 10 miles of Whittenton between 1855 and 1975: 1,069 Animalia, 647 Plantae, 196 Fungi, 6 Chromista, 3 Unrecorded, 1 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A E Schuyler, A. A. Eaton 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
Apocynum cannabinum L.	1855	F. C. Seymour	Rehoboth
Condylura cristata (Linnaeus, 1758)	1855	Preparator(s): Edwin V. Komarek	Middleboro
Microtus pennsylvanicus pennsylvanicus (Ord, 1815)	1855	John W. Jenks	Middleboro
Peromyscus leucopus (Rafinesque, 1818)	1855	John W. Jenks	Middleboro
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
Baptisia tinctoria (L.) R.Br.	1866	Joseph Blake	Middleboro
Carex bullata Willd.	1866	Rev. J. Blake	Middleborough
Rhododendron viscosum (L.) Torr.	1866	Joseph Blake	Middleboro
Chelidonium majus L.	1875	not recorded

All 1,922 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Whittenton: 4 past producers, 4 producers, 1 unknown. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Taunton Plant	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
King Trucking Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Landfill Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Mc Cabe Sand and Gravel Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Mccabe Sand & Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Mccabe Sand and Gravel Company Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Raynham Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Raynham Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Bristol County

Storms near this place

2 since 2017

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Whittenton in 2 storm reports between 2017 and 2021: 1 flood, 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
April 2017	Flood	Whittenton	$5,000	At 1105 AM EST, an amateur radio operator reported a flooded basement on Green Street in Taunton.
November 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Whittenton	$800	In Raynham, a tree and wires were down on Thrasher Street.

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
Britanniaville	0.8 miles	33
Whittenton Junction	1.2 miles	33
Prattville	1.2 miles	33
Taunton	1.7 miles	33
Raynham	2.0 miles	33
Raynham Center	2.2 miles	33
Tracy Corner	2.3 miles	33
Oakland	2.5 miles	33

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.

Wikidata item Q122542162

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 619311. 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.