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Early Maps of Montague, Massachusetts 1715-1914

Introduction  (This is from page 1 of Early Maps of Montague)

1. The Beginnings

The Town of Montague came into being in 1754, two and a half centuries ago. In that year boundaries were set for the new town* and it was given its name. But our map history of Montague begins earlier, when most of Montague was a unsettled wilderness, and European settlement was concentrated in a few downriver enclaves.

Map 1 is an excerpt from a much larger map of Massachusetts and New Hampshire by William Douglass. The towns depicted here were all established by Massachusetts, which claimed all the land shown on this part of the map. Montague - not yet established - is in the center of this map above the word "Sunderland". At this time - about 1745, there are settlers within what would become the town of Montague, but they were residents of ancient Sunderland, then a much larger town than it is today. Note that the Sawmill River has its modern name even at that early year. The next stream to the north, Papaguntiquash Branch**, is now called the Millers River. The great falls of the Connecticut, today’s Turners Falls, are prominent on this map, as they should be for a time when rivers were the main thoroughfares. B

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Revised: 02/03/10
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