1619: Fur trading was begun by English on Thompson's Island. Native
Americans used the Neponset River to bring skins down to island for sale.
before 1633: Richard Collicott built a small wharf on Guiliver's Creek to
carry furs to Thompson's Island and Boston.:
1633: Massachuset Sachem Kutchamakin moved his tribe to the high
ground above the falls of the Neponset along present-day Medway Street.
1635: Israel Stoughton's grist mill begun on falls of Neponset.
It was the first of three mills for flour, gun powder and paper making.
1640: Shipbuilding was begun at Gulliver's Creek Wharf. Small ships
called shallops were built.
1658: Native Americans were moved to Ponkapoag, on the banks of
Ponkapoag Pond in present-day Canton by John Eliot.
1658: The first Milton Town Landing was built on Gulliver's Creek
downstream from Collicott's Wharf.
1673: John Trescott built a lumber mill on the Neponset River
upstream on the present-day Mattapan-Hyde Park line.
Eighteenth Century
1765: A chocolate mill was begun at Neponset River.
1770: Daniel Vose's Wholesale Shipping Warehouses at the second Milton
Town Landing at Lower Mills were at the peak of their operation. Ship
building and commercial shipping were the major river industries at the
estuary.:
1773: George Clark built a paper mill on remnants of Trescott's Lumber
Mill. This became the Tileston and Hollingsworth Paper Mill in 1836.
Nineteenth Century
1826 The first railroad in America began operation moving granite from
Quincy quarries to Gulliver's Landing in the Neponset River. The landing
was at the mouth of Gulliver's Creek at the Neponset River.
1837: The Granite Avenue Bridge was built and opened for travel.
1844: The Old Colony Railroad was established by the State Legislature.
1846: The 3-1/4-mile-long Dorchester and Milton Branch Railroad was built
between Port Norfolk and present-day Mattapan Square.
After it opened for travel December of 1847, river traffic and shipbuilding.
stopped.
1854: Henry L. Pierce, nephew of Walter Baker, assumed control
of Baker Chocolate Mills. Over 40 years Pierce expanded chocolate
manufacturing to include 7 mills over 14 acres.
1893: The Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) was established.
The Neponset River Reservation was proposed to preserve the Neponset
Marshes between Lower Mills and Granite Avenue.
1899: 43 parcels of land totaling 232 acres were acquired by the MDC
as the Neponset River Marshes Reservation.
Twentieth Century
1959: The Old Colony Line ceased operations.
1964: The Walter Baker Co. relocated to Dover, Delaware.
1978: Consolidated Railways (Conrail) acquired the Dorchester and Milton
Railroad right-of-way.
1985: The MDC acquired the former Neponset Drive-In and Hallet Street
Dump as riverfront parkland.
July 1990 Rails removed from Dorchester and Milton Branch Railway
right-of-way
July 1992 The MDC acquired the Dorchester and Milton Branch Railway
right-of-way for $530,000 to link the drive-in and dump site parkland
with the Neponset Marshes.
![[Neponset Greenway]](nepicon.gif)
