The history of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, By a committee of the Dorchester antiquarian and historical society ...

596 HISTORY OF DORCHESTER.
as they at first contemplated, but sacrificed convenience and beauty to the wishes of those interested
in the mills. We have now a substantial bridge,
which will answer a valuable purpose until an increased local population shall demand better accommodations.
As far back as 1674, the town of Dorchester extended as far west as the south-west corner of Roxbury, so that in the passage from Dorchester to
Dedham it became necessary to cross the Mother
Brooks within the township of Dorchester. In that
year the town of Dorchester appointed a committee
to view a place for a foot bridge over Mother Brooks
river, in the way to Dedham, and to appoint the
supervisors of highways to call upon fit persons to
help, as need be. The next year the supervisors
were called upon by the town to look after the bridge
at Mother Brooks before the next Court. If anything was done about it, the bridge did not stand
long, for in 1691 the town was presented for not
having a bridge there. In 1731, the town chose a
committee to build a bridge over Mother Brooks,
and the next year they reported that they had
caused one to be built. This was the first bridge
built between Dorchester and Dedham.
In the early part of the last century, that part of
Dorchester now known as the Upper Mills, or Mattapan, was a wilderness, and known as the five hundred acre lot. It was mostly covered with wood,
but some portions of it were pastured by the commoners, as the proprietors of the common lands were
then termed, by turning out their cattle under the