66 Miles to Boston - 1767 Milestones - Brookfield MA
Posted by: 
nomadwillie
N 42° 12.997 W 072° 06.595
18T E 738546 N 4677871
This milestone is located in Brookfield MA on Main St (RT 9) in Brookfield MA
Waymark Code: WM7CT0
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 10/06/2009
Views: 6
Travel between Boston and New York was a priority in Colonial times, just as it is today, and it wasn't long after the Quaboag Plantation was settled that viable routes were established to connect the area with the cities.
In 1672, King Charles II decreed a mail system to aid communication between the colonies. A rider on horseback, saddlebags marked for each town along the route, would deliver mail once a month from New York to Boston through the Quaboag Hills.
Fees for delivering mail were assessed according to the miles it traveled, the recipient paying the tariff. Benjamin Franklin, the country's first postmaster in 1767, devised a precise method to levy postage fees. He ordered brownstone markers placed each mile along the route between Boston and New York City, so mail carriers could charge the correct postage. These mileposts gave birth to the historic "Boston Post Road" now routes 9 and 67 in the Quaboag Hills.
The Post Road is rich in history. George Washington traveled the route prior to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War to meet with North Brookfield's General Rufus Putnam, the Continental Army's Chief Engineer. In 1775, Colonel Henry Knox pulled off one of the toughest missions in American military history, delivering sixty cannon 250 miles through the Quaboag Hills from Fort Ticonderoga, New York to Boston. Knox traveled along Reed Street in Warren, which joined Washington Street, leading along the main road into West Brookfield.
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