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

640 HISTORY OF DORCHESTER.
out their property in 1855, these- gentlemen purchased the mill, and are now prosecuting a successful business.
THE CORPORATION OF PROPRIETORS OF MILLS.
In 1798, Joseph Whiting, Moses Whiting, Joseph
Lewis, Jonathan Avery, Joseph Whiting, Jr., Hugh
McLean, J. Smith Boies, Michael McCarney, Samuel Leeds, Daniel Vose, William Sumner, John
Preston, Benjamin Pierce, and Jonathan Wetherbee, together with such other proprietors of one or
more mills on either the Neponset River or Mother
Brooks, were incorporated as " The proprietors of
mills on Mill Creek and Neponset River," for the
purpose of protecting, defending and recovering
their common rights, and were invested with
power to assess upon the several mills such sums as
might be necessary to defray their expenses. This
corporation was organized September 1, 1809, and
Edmund Baker chosen clerk and treasurer. Samuel
Louder, Daniel T. Vose and Edmund Tileston were
chosen assessors; J. Smith Boies, Samuel Louder
and Daniel Vose a standing committee; and Amasa
Fuller, collector.
The principal business of this corporation was to
settle, with the proprietors of mills on Charles River,
their respective rights to the water of the river.
This vexed controversy was settled, after many years
altercation, by placing permanent mudsills and abutments in Charles River, so as to send one third of
its water down the Mother Brook into the Neponset.