Thoreau surveys the Concord/Acton town line and is paid $18 (A Catalog of Thoreau’s Survey at the Concord Free Public Library, 6; Henry David Thoreau Papers. Special Collections, Concord (Mass.) Free Public Library).
“H. D. Thoreau for perambulating town lines and erecting stones at Acton and Bedford lines, 18 00” (Concord Mass. Town Reports, 1851-1852, 18).
Thoreau writes in his journal:
Commenced perambulating the town bounds. At 7.30 am rode in company with [A A Kelsey] and Mr. [Tolman] to the bound between Acton and Concord near Paul Dudley’s. Mr. [Tolman] told a story of his wife walking in the fields somewhere, and, to keep the rain off, throwing her gown over her head and holding it in her mouth, and so being poisoned about her mouth from the skirts of her dress having come in contact with poisonous plants. At Dudley’s, which house is handsomely situated, with five large elms in front, we met the selectmen of Acton, [Ivory Keyes] and [Luther Conant]. Here were five of us. It appeared that we weighed, [Tolman] I think about 160, [Conant] 155, [Keyes] about 140, [Kelsey] 130, myself 127. [Tolman] describes the wall about or at Forest Hills Cemetery in Roxbury as being made of stones upon which they were careful to preserve the moss, so that it cannot be distinguished from a very old wall. Found one intermediate bound stone near the powder-mill drying-house on the bank of the river. The workmen there wore shoes without iron tacks. He said that the kernel-house was the most dangerous, the dryinghouse next, the press-house next. One of the powdermill buildings in Concord?
Thoreau and A. A. Kelsey make a statement on the Acton and Concord boundary lines:
We the subscribers, in behalf of the towns of Concord and Acton, being legally appointed for the purpose, met and perambulated the line between said towns, which is described as running from a split stone near the house of Paul Dudley S 35 W 1656 rods to a split stone near the powder mills, on which line there are intermediate bound stones by every public road, except the new road leading to the Powder Mill, also one on the back of the river, and another in the woods west of the Factory Village.
Also it was decided, as soon as convenient, to move the stone on the bank of the river to a point by the road leading to the powder mills, and on a straight line between the nearest bound stones.
All to the satisfaction of both parties, this fifteenth day of September 1851. A. A. Kelsey, Henry D. Thoreau , (In behalf of Concord); Ivory Keyes, Luther Conant, (Selectmen of Acton).
