Editing Somerville, Massachusetts (section)

===Early European colonization===
The territory now comprising the city of Somerville was first settled by Europeans in 1629 as part of [[Charlestown, Massachusetts|Charlestown]]. In 1629, English surveyor [[Thomas Graves (engineer)|Thomas Graves]] led a scouting party of 100 [[Puritans]] from the settlement of [[Salem, Massachusetts|Salem]] to prepare the site for the [[Great Migration (Puritan)|Great Migration]] of [[Puritans]] from [[England]]. Graves was attracted to the narrow Mishawum Peninsula between the [[Charles River|Charles]] and [[Mystic River|Mystic]] rivers, linked to the mainland at the present-day [[Sullivan Square]]. The area of earliest settlement was based at City Square on the peninsula, though the territory of Charlestown officially included all of what is now Somerville, as well as [[Medford, Massachusetts|Medford]], [[Everett, Massachusetts|Everett]],  [[Malden, Massachusetts|Malden]],<ref>{{cite web | title = A Condensed History of Melrose | url = http://www.cityofmelrose.org/Interns%2007/a_condensed_history_of.htm | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090615120514/http://www.cityofmelrose.org/Interns%2007/a_condensed_history_of.htm | archive-date = 2009-06-15 }} City of Melrose. Retrieved 2010-07-15.</ref> [[Stoneham, Massachusetts|Stoneham]],<ref>{{cite book
|title = A History of New England
|volume = 1
|editor=R. H. Howard |editor2=Henry E. Crocker
|page = 202
|year= 1880
|publisher = Crocker & Co.
|location = Boston
|url = http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/m/mdp/pt?seq=228&view=image&size=100&id=mdp.39015014744588&u=1&num=202
}}</ref> [[Melrose, Massachusetts|Melrose]], [[Woburn, Massachusetts|Woburn]], [[Burlington, Massachusetts|Burlington]], and parts of [[Arlington, Massachusetts|Arlington]] and [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/historytownmedf00broogoog | quote=History of Medford Massachusetts. | title=History of the Town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts: From Its First Settlement, in 1630, to the Present Time, 1855 | publisher=J.M. Usher | author1=Brooks, Charles | author2=Whitmore, William Henry | page=[https://archive.org/details/historytownmedf00broogoog/page/n24 2] | year=1855 | location=Medford, Mass. | oclc=1183559}}</ref> From that time until 1842, the area of present-day Somerville was referred to as "beyond the Neck" in reference to the thin spit of land, the [[Charlestown Neck]], that connected it to the Charlestown Peninsula.<ref name="early">{{cite web|url=http://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/GroupA-IntroAndNarrative.pdf|title=Introduction to Early Somerville: 1600-1865|date=2009-10-16|pages=1–2|access-date=December 27, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213023000/http://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/GroupA-IntroAndNarrative.pdf|archive-date=December 13, 2013|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

The first European settler in Somerville of whom there is any record was John Woolrich, an Indian trader who came from the Charlestown Peninsula in 1630, and settled near what is now Dane Street.<ref>M. A. Haley, ''The Story of Somerville,'' (1903), p. 8 (accessible on google books)</ref> Others soon followed Woolrich, locating in the vicinity of present-day [[Union Square (Somerville)|Union Square]].  In 1639 colonists officially acquired the land in what is now Somerville from the [[Squaw Sachem of Mistick]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/storyofsomervill00haley|title=The story of Somerville|first=M[ary] A[lice|last=Haley|date=August 4, 1903|publisher=Boston, The Writer publishing company|accessdate=August 4, 2022|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> The population continued to slowly increase, and by 1775 there were about 500 inhabitants scattered across the area. Otherwise, the area was mostly used as grazing and farmland. It was once known as the "Stinted Pasture" or "Cow Commons", as early settlers of Charlestown had the right to pasture a certain number of cows in the area.

[[John Winthrop]], the first colonial governor of the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]], was granted {{convert|600|acre|ha|sigfig=2|abbr=off}} of land in the area in 1631. Named for the ten small knolls located on the property, Ten Hills Farm extended from the Cradock Bridge in present-day Medford Square to Convent Hill in [[East Somerville]]. Winthrop lived, planted, and raised cattle on the farm. It is also where he launched the first ship in Massachusetts, the "[[Blessing of the Bay]]". Built for trading purposes in the early 1630s, it was soon armed for use as a patrol boat for the New England coast. It is seen as a precursor to the [[United States Navy]].<ref>{{cite book | title=John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father | publisher=Oxford University Press | author=Bremer, Francis J. | year=2005 | location=New York, New York | isbn=9780195179811}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/lifelettersofjoh00wint | title=Life And Letters Of John Winthrop: Governor Of The Massachusetts Bay Company At Their Emigration To New England 1630 | publisher=Ticknor and Fields | author=Winthrop, Robert C. | year=1864 | location=Boston, Mass. | pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifelettersofjoh00wint/page/64 64] | oclc=22225288}}</ref> The "[[Ten Hills]]" neighborhood, located in the northeastern part of the city, has retained the name for over 300 years. New research has found that less than a decade after John Winthrop moved to the farm in 1631, there were enslaved Native American [[prisoners of war]] on the property. Each successive owner of Ten Hills Farm would depend upon slavery's profits until the 1780s, when Massachusetts abolished the practice.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/01/18/new_englands_scarlet_s_for_slavery/ |title= New England's Scarlet 'S' for Slavery |last1= Manegold |first1= C.S. |date= January 18, 2010 |publisher= [[Boston.com]] |access-date= December 7, 2013 |archive-date= December 12, 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131212175649/http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/01/18/new_englands_scarlet_s_for_slavery/ |url-status= live }}</ref>

In a short time, the settlers began laying out roads in all directions in search of more land for planting and trade with various Native American tribes in the area. Laid out as early as the mid-1630s, the earliest highway in Somerville was probably what is now Washington Street, and led from present-day Sullivan Square to [[Harvard Square]]. In its earliest days, Washington Street was known as the "Road to Newtowne" (renamed Cambridge in 1638). During the 1700s and early 1800s Somerville Avenue was "Milk Row," a route favored by [[Middlesex County, Massachusetts|Middlesex County]] dairy farmers as the best way to get to the markets of Charlestown and Boston.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Cheney |first=Isobel M. |url=http://archive.org/details/socialhistoryofs00chen |title=A social history of Somerville, Massachusetts 1630-1842 |date=1949 |others=Boston University Libraries |pages=55–57; 66–67 |language=en |quote="...belonged to Peter, known as  'Peter of Milk Row' (now Somerville Avenue)"}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Beyond the Neck: The Architecture and Development of Somerville - Ch 1 Charlestown Beyond the Neck and its Buildings |url=https://www.somervillebydesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Ch.-1-Pt.-1-Intro-Through-Charlestown-Beyond-the-Neck.pdf |page=10 |access-date=March 29, 2024 |archive-date=March 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329021719/https://www.somervillebydesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Ch.-1-Pt.-1-Intro-Through-Charlestown-Beyond-the-Neck.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Laid out in 1636, Broadway was likely the second highway built in the area. Originally called "Menotomie's Road", it ran from the Charlestown Neck to the settlement at Menotomy (present-day [[Arlington, Massachusetts|Arlington]]). Initially bordered by farmsteads, Broadway would come into its own as a commercial thoroughfare after horse-drawn trolleys were
introduced to the highway in 1858.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/2011-BrochureFinal-ForTour5-1-2011.pdf |title= Hidden in Plain Sight: Eyes on Historic East Somerville |last1= Somerville Historic Preservation Commission |date= 1 May 2011 |website= somervillema.gov |publisher= City of Somerville Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development |access-date= December 7, 2013 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131212235421/http://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/2011-BrochureFinal-ForTour5-1-2011.pdf |archive-date= December 12, 2013 }}</ref>