In 1830, a survey map of the town of Northborough was created by resident Gill Valentine.  The historical significance of the rendering comprises the names of landowners, vital industries, and familiar topography of the town. Curiously, the streets are not labeled, although they were named at that time.

Today those are the same streets we drive on regularly, whose names are often too familiar to warrant a second thought. While many bear the names of old families, such as Brigham and Fay, others simply carry the ID of landmarks and land forms, such as Church and Stirrup Brook.  Attractive and elegant new red street signs are a testimony as to the importance of street naming and I like how they show you both where to go as well as where we have come from.

As for those signs? My friend who lives on Valentine Road is used to her street sign disappearing every February, a la incurable romantics.  My friend who lives on Tomahawk pretty much assumes that anything with the high school mascot's name on it won't last more than a week or two. So when Fox News showed up last week to cover the story that over 100 street signs in town have gone missing, I wasn't very surprised.

You may or may not have seen the coverage on the late evening news a few weeks back, but as my other friend, Serendipity, will tell you, always put on lipstick and style your hair before heading out to a baseball game near the center of any town. Yes, a few of the sound bites were ME (and my hand gestures) explaining what I have seen and heard about this local scandal.

The $15,000 price tag to replace those elegant new red signs is a serious matter, as are the safety and "getting lost in your own hometown" factors. Off camera, though, I'll admit that I joked that I was more concerned about the loss of visible reminders of Northborough's founding families' names.

Mapmaker Gill Valentine would certainly have gotten a huge chuckle out of this, considering he did not use the street names 1830 anyway, and that his namesake sign had nothing to do with a holiday!

SOURCE:

Map of  Northborough, Surveyed by Gill Valentine. Northborough Historical Society, 1830. 

Excerpts from Northborough History by Josiah Coleman Kent (Garden City Press,1921)

SOURCES:
Abstract of Middlesex Court Files from 1649 [to 1675]. R. Stanton Avery Special Collections Department. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Boston.  Handwritten transcription of original records: Vol. 1 1649-1664; Vol 2. 1664-1675.

Allen, Rev. Joseph.  Topographical and Historical Sketches of the Town  of Northborough, with the Early History of Marlborough, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: Furnished for the Worcester Magazine. Worcester: W.  Lincoln & C. C. Baldwin, 1826.

Brigham, Emma Elisabeth.  The History of the Brigham Family: Second Volume. Rutland, Vermont: The Tuttle Company, 1927.

Brigham, Willard Irving Tyler. The History of the Brigham Family: a Record of Several Thousand Descendants of Thomas Brigham the Emigrant, 1603-1653. New York: Grafton Press, 1907-1927.

Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Marlborough, Middlesex County, Massachusetts: From its First Settlement in 1657 to 1861 : With a Brief Sketch of the Town of Northborough, a Genealogy of the Families in Marlborough to 1800,  and an Account of the Celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town. Boston: Press of T.R. Marvin & Son,1862.

Kent, Josiah Coleman.  Northborough History.  Newton, Massachusetts: Garden City Press, 1921.

Schutz, John A.  Legislators of the Massachusetts General Court, 1691-1780: a Biographical Dictionary.  Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1997.

Vital Records of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850: Volume 1. Births.  Boston: The New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1914.

Vital Records of Sudbury, Massachusetts to the Year 1850. Boston: The New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1903.

JOHN BRIGHAM (1644-1728):  We know who the first settler was, both from tradition and court records, but I want to know more about the circumstances that brought him here and what happened to his family.  One of the Town Proprietors in 1744 was a Brigham and a family relationship should be confirmed or ruled out. (HINT: There's not a direct line between John and Jesse, but they are actually related.)

BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND:    John Brigham's father Thomas came to Watertown from England when he was 34.  He eventually settled in Cambridge, where all his children, including our John, were born.  After Thomas' death, his widow married a Sudbury man who, with his new family, signed on to be one of those first settlers of the Marlborough Plantation.  John grew up as a Marlborough man, had a well-respected career as a multi-tasking pioneer, and became the very first inhabitant on the land that became modern Northborough.  His story is colorful enough that I have been purposely distracted from the Brigham Street to-do list. Truthfully, though, understanding John Brigham's life circumstances will give us insight into what happened to his family and what life was like for his descendants that stayed here.  His daughters may be mothers of children buried at Brigham Street and their stories should be uncovered as well. 

CURRENTLY READING:  Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony by George Francis Dow (Dover Publications, New York, 1988)

SOURCE:
Brigham, Willard Irving Tyler. The History of the Brigham Family : a Record of Several Thousand Descendants of Thomas Brigham the Emigrant, 1603-1653. New York: Grafton Press, 1907-1927.