History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

1742.1 SCHOOL LANDS—SCHOOLS—MILL CONTROVERSY. 93
" abiding monument " designating the height of the dam,
and the Kingsleys were permitted to " dig in the river so as
to bring the fall in the river below the bridge up to their
dam."
The Coutroversy For about nineteen years the matter was
Continueii. apparently settled, when the subject was
again in agitation. The owners of the upper
mill, once more brought suit, and by mutual consent the
controversy about the height of the dam was referred to
arbitrators in 178G. Five years elapsed before the question
was again opened, and then the town complained that the
lower mill was not kept in proper condition. It had apparently
been allowed to run down. In the meantime a change
of proprietors had taken place, and in 1791, Daniel Pomeroy
and Moses and Enos Kin^sley built an entirely new
dam, put in a new water-wheel, and new grinding and bolting
machinery. When the new dam was completed, the
selectmen and the proprietors of the mill placed an iron
bar in the rock, thirty-six feet above it, by which to mark
the height of the dam. This ended the contest.
Controversy about Nearly thirty years had passed since the
the Common Lands coutroversy about the common lands had
been adjusted. It was seemingly acquiesced
in for a time, but broke out again and blazed into
fiercer intensity than before. This time it was a question
of privilege, causing much bitterness of feeling and keeping
the community in a constant turmoil. The dispute
assumed such proportions in 1742, that a resort to legal
measures became necessary. Once more the question
turned upon the right of the general public to cut wood
and timber upon pasture and unimproved commons. This
right, expressly guaranteed in the division of 1684, seems to
have been overlooked or purposely omitted in the readjustment
of 1715. The matter came before the town at a meet-
ing held January 11, 174|, when the following action was
taken —
:
" Whereas there hath been a Controversie long Subsisting between
the Town & Proprietors respecting their Rights to the Undivided
Lands Near the body of the Town.