In the 1700's as English settlers began to move into what was then called the Springfield Precinct of Dedham they found Noanet Brook. It was a lively stream that rushed down through the valleys and ravines between Noanet and Powisset Peaks and in some places it fell in rocky rapids and falls.
David Wight was the first man who tried to harness its power. A young man who owned land on both sides of the brook, he also owned a mill privilege with the right to divert the water to power a mill. Sometime about 1750 he started building a dam for a water powered sawmill. The spot he selected was where the stone dam is now, between the first two downstream ponds at Noanet Woodlands. Unfortunately, Wight died before he could finish the work.
Wight's administrators had to sell his land to settle his estate and on April 21, 1753 they sold the parcel where he had started the dam to Thomas Richards of Dedham, Husbandman, to '... erect and sett a saw mill upon and also all ye labor that David Wight did do towards ye making of a Dam upon said premises in order for said mill..'
The parcel contained an acre and nine rods -'....lying situate and being in Dedham near a place commonly called and known by ye name of Powellet [a misspelling of Powisset] being butted upon ye land of the heirs of David Wight on all parts as it is now marked and sett out and a plan also taken of said Land and given unto ye said Thomas Richards.... And also the privilege of a brook so far as it running through said Land.... with all the appurtenances and other privileges and cominodities to ye said premises belonging or in any wise appertaining....'
Richards paid two pounds and eight shillings lawful money for it and a plan was drawn to show its exact location on the brook. It probably was considered valuable property since it was not described by vague language often found in early deeds with references to such impermanent markers like heaps of stones or a white oak tree.
Frank Smith's "DOVER GENEALOGIES", published in 1917, says that Richards purchased Wight's uncompleted saw mill in 1753 and had a saw mill there for many years.
But did he?
Historian Electa Kane Tritsch questions whether Richards ever did build a sawmill here.
The following is from her "HISTORY OF LAND USE IN NOANET WOODLANDS AND POWISSET
FARM"
[May 2000]:
"Clearly Wight had intended to build a sawmill on
the site. He had already constructed a dam. Thomas Richards, who lived not
far from Noanet Brook on land that had been in the family for four generations,
knew the area well and snapped up this business opportunity at the cut-rate
price of two an a half pounds.
What is not clear is whether Richards or his sons ever developed the site.
In 1810, Thomas' sons sell the property to Frederick Barden, another Dover
resident who would become a substantial investor in the Dover Union Iron
Company.
"..said parcel lying in the [District of Dover] near
a place commonly called... powesset, it being Thomas Richards' (deceased)
sawmill lot..."
The deed does not refer to a sawmill standing on the lot, and in her monograph for the The Trustees of Reservations, Ms Kane Tritsch also points out that although the deed from Wight to Richards was executed in 1753, it was not recorded until sixty years later when the Dover Union Iron Company was in the formative stages.
Another indication that Richards did not operate a saw mill can be seen in
the deed from Joseph Richards to Frederick Barden dated December 26, 1810.
It conveyed an adjacent parcel north of Richards saw mill lot and described
Richards' lot only as "reserved for a sawmill privilege" - still no
mention of an actual sawmill:
".... a certain parcel of land in Dover containing
one acre and a quarter of an acre... reserved as a sawmill
privilege...."
NEXT: Capt. Fisher 's Sawmill on Noanet