Jenney Grist Mill
Posted by: 
NorStar
N 41° 57.201 W 070° 39.921
19T E 361976 N 4645937
This location along Town Brook in Plymouth had very old industrial activity, and, since then, a replica grist mill has been built, and alterations to the existing walls and fish ladders were recently done.
Waymark Code: WM176P
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 02/08/2007
Views: 36
The sign says:
"John Pory, speaking to the Earl of Southhampton, alewives going up Town Brook to Billington Sea in 1622 in 'Three Visitors to Early Plymouth.'
"In April and May come up another kind of fish which they call herring or old wives in infinite schools, into a small river running under town, and so into a great pond or lake of a mile broad, where they cast their spawn, the water of the said river being in many places not above half a foot deep. Yea, when a heap of stones is reared up against them a foot high above the water, they leap and tumble over and will not be beaten back with crudgets.'
"Jenney Grist Mill
"The Jenney Grist Mill is a reproduction grist mill and water complex. The grist mill is located at what was then known as the Sixth Water Privelege along Town Brook at the outlet of Alms House Pond (Fourth Mill Pond). Stephen Dean established one of the first grist mills for grinding corn in town, the Stephen Dean Grist Mill here ca. 1632. Corn was a principal diet staple for the colonists, and Dean had established an earlier grain pounding mill at another location, thought variously to have been either at the outlet of Billington Sea or on a small tributary of Town Brook not far from the settlement, possibly Prison Brook out of Murdock's Pond. In 1632 Dean received permission from the Colony Court to relocate his mill closer to town.
"Dean operated the mill until his death in 1633. A committee appointed by the Colony Court to arrange the building of a proper mill granted permission to John Jenney in 1636 to build a mill at this site. Originally, from Norwich, England where he had been a brewer, Jenney erected the John Jenney Grist Mill that operated until it was destroyed by fire in 1847...
[skipping some text - it gets into how his son, Charles, briefly took it over before Charles Stockbridge ran it.]
"The Herring Run
"The 1683 agreement between the town and Stockbridge also highlights how the newly established settlement valued the alewives that spawned in Town Brook. The parties concurred that Stockbridge would build 'a waste water course for the herring to pass over the dam and into the pond' and that the two would share the cost of maintaining the fish ladder. The practice of providing the fish ladders was always the case on Town Brook until the nineteenth century when industrial interests dictated the use of the brook. By the early twentieth century, alewives were being captured in a trap at the mouth and transported overland to the Billington Sea spawning grounds. The reintroduction of fishways occured sometime between 1920 and 1940 and continues to the present day.
"Jenney Park
"The area now known as Jenney Park is rich in history...[Skipping again. It talks about the area on Watson Hill as a Native American settlement area, the almshouse, which was demolished in 1967 when the park and pond were named in honor of John Jenney.]"
There are several pictures with more information that isn't narrated here. Perhaps a visitor can fill in these parts!
Agency Responsible for Placement: Other (Place below)
Agency Responsible for Placement (if not in list above): Town of Plymouth
Year Placed: 2005
County: Plymouth
City/Town Name: Plymouth
Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]
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