John Mixer House
John Mixer House
The John Mixer House stood at 9-11 Elm Street (now Old Elm Street) in North Billerica, on the north side of the road between the old Talbot mill and the Middlesex Canal locks. Its site is now part of the mill property at 1 Old Elm Street.
The land was part of the farm and mills at the falls of the Concord River that Thomas Richardson sold to the Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal in 1794, "commonly known by the name of Richardson's Mills". The Canal ran the mills as the Canal Mills and in 1816 had Samuel Whiting lay out small house lots along the road from Oliver Farmer's house to the mills. John Mixer, a canal boatman, and Caleb Pearson of Londonderry, New Hampshire, built "one large dwelling house" and a shingle and clapboard mill on Canal land near the mills, and in 1820 Pearson released his half of the buildings to Mixer. On March 15, 1826 Mixer gave the proprietors back "a three story dwelling house" on a quarter acre by the locks, George Tufts gave up a lot on which he "had thereon erected a house", and the proprietors sold Mixer, for $600, lots 1 to 3 south of the road and lots 14, 15 and 16 north of it, running back to the towing path of the canal. According to the Kohlrausch reminiscences the Tufts house burned and "the present Mixer house" was built on its site; a subscription list of November 1826 asked help for John Mixer in rebuilding his house destroyed by fire.
Mixer lived on the lot for a quarter century, mortgaging "my homestead ... on the northerly side of said road" to the town treasurer in 1838 and to Dr. Zadok Howe in 1844. In December 1849 the sheriff sold his equity of redemption at John A. Dix's tavern for a debt to Daniel Wilson, and Joel Dix Jr. of Charlestown, a nephew of Mixer's wife Nancy, bought it for $321. In September 1852 Mixer sold the half-acre lot "having a dwelling house and two Barns thereon ... being the same on which I now reside" to Charles P. and Thomas Talbot, as C. P. Talbot and Co., for $2,000, and Dix released his claim.
The house then belonged to the Talbot mills for more than a century, first to C. P. Talbot and Co. and from 1884 to The Talbot Mills, and appears on the 1875 and 1889 maps under the company's name. On the 1936 plan by which the mill sold off its houses it is Lot 70 on Elm Street, but it was not sold then. It passed with the mill to Talbot Mills, Inc. in 1944 and to Fabricon, Inc. in 1965, and in 1966 Fabricon sold Lots 70 and 71 to private owners. The house, numbered 9-11 Elm Street, was taken by the Arlington Five Cents Savings Bank on foreclosure in 1969 and changed hands privately in 1971, 1972 and 1978. The Historical Commission recorded it in January 1974 and later marked it demolished in 1978.
In 1979 the empty lot was bought for $3,000 by C R T Development Corporation, owner of the old mill, and in 1980 it passed to the CRT Development partnership. It has gone with the mill property since: to Cambridge Tool & Mfg. Co. in 1997 and, from its parent Leggett & Platt, to L&P Aluminum Holdings, LLC in 2008.
References
- MACRIS BIL.89
- Billerica assessor, 1 Old Elm St (parcel 9-94-0): the former Talbot mill property, 9.3 acres, which includes Lots 70 and 71 of Plan 60-28, the Mixer house site
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| April 21, 1794 | Deed | Thomas Richardson of Billerica, gentleman (Judith Richardson releasing dower) | Ebenezer Hall of Medford and Samuel Jaques of Wilmington, a committee for the Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal | 1794: Richardson's Mills and farm sold to the Middlesex Canal | 115/259 (South) |
For 1350 pounds, "about forty acres of Land" bounded easterly by Concord River, westerly by the highway and northerly and southerly by the road; the reversion of half the dower of the widow Hannah Carlton, conveyed to him by Solomon, Moses and Nathan Carlton; five sixths of a small piece at the northeast end of the mill dam, bounded easterly "by Timothy Sprague's Ditch that conveys Water to the Fulling mill"; "together with all the Buildings ... including the Mills Mill priviledges ... commonly known by the name of Richardson's Mills being the same which was formerly granted by the Town of Billerica to Christopher Osgood together with the Mill Dam and Stream", on the conditions of the town's vote of October 4, 1708, a passage for fish, and his 1791 agreement with Timothy Sprague. Dated March 25, 1794; recorded April 21, 1794. Billerica town book 9, pages 81-82. The Canal Mills land from which the proprietors sold their small house lots.
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| March 20, 1826 | Quitclaim | Caleb Pearson of Londonderry, New Hampshire, husbandman (Elizabeth Pearson releasing dower) | John Mixer of Billerica, husbandman | 1820: Caleb Pearson releases to Mixer the large house and shingle mill they built near the Canal Mills | 265/206 (South) |
For $2,100, "several buildings standing and being in said Billerica ... near the Canal Mills so called which were built and erected by me the said Pearson and said John Mixer in company & undivided (viz) one large dwelling house standing near said Canal Mills. Also a Shingle and Clapboard Mill so called with all the Machinery thereunto belonging likewise one Boat house". Dated December 5, 1820, witnessed by Francis Faulkner and George Tufts; recorded March 20, 1826. Billerica town book 12, pages 456-457. The buildings stood on Canal land; the large house is probably the three-story house Mixer gave back to the proprietors in 1826.
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| March 20, 1826 | Deed | Benjamin Guild of Boston, President of the Board of Directors of the Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal | John Mixer of Billerica | 1826: Canal Proprietors sell Mixer lots 1-3 and 14-16 (the house lot) | 265/208 (South) |
Under the proprietors' vote of March 13, 1826, for $600: a lot bounded easterly on land of Nathan Mears 10 rods, southerly on Mears 12 rods, westerly on Canal land 10 rods and northerly "on the road leading from O. Farmers house to the Canal Bridge at the Mills" 12 rods, three quarters of an acre (lots 1, 2 and 3 on Samuel Whiting's plan of May 1816); and "one other lot ... on the northerly side of the road leading from O. Farmers house to the Mills and directly on the opposite side of the road to the lot above conveyed", southerly on the road 12 rods, westerly on Canal land to "the towing path of said Canal", along the towing path 12 rods, easterly by Canal land about 7 1/2 rods to the road, "laid down as three lots marked number fourteen, fifteen and sixteen" on Whiting's plan of May 16, 1816. Dated March 15, 1826; recorded March 20, 1826. Billerica town book 12, pages 459-461. Lots 14-16 are the house lot.
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| March 20, 1826 | Deed | John Mixer of Billerica, boatman (Nancy Mixer releasing dower) | The Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal | 1826: Mixer gives the Canal back his three-story house | 265/210 (South) |
For $1,000, "a certain dwelling house and all the land thereto belonging", bounded southerly on "the Main road leading from O. Farmers house to the Mills and opposite the house of Nathan Mears", easterly by the road and Canal land, northerly "by the Locks and towing path of the Middlesex Canal" and westerly by Canal land, "containing one quarter of an acre more or less with a three story dwelling house thereon standing and all out houses". Dated March 15, 1826, witnessed by Francis Faulkner and Nathan Mears; recorded March 20, 1826. Billerica town book 12, pages 461-462. Given back the same day the proprietors sold him lots 14-16.
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| March 20, 1826 | Quitclaim | George Tufts of Billerica | The Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal | 1826: George Tufts gives up his lot and house to the Canal | 265/211 (South) |
For one dollar, "all my right title claim and demand in and unto a certain lot of land situated in said Billerica and for which I had contracted to purchase of the said Proprietors and had thereon erected a house", and all claim "growing out of my intended purchase", "and all the buildings thereon". Dated March 15, 1826, witnessed by Caleb Eddy and Nathan Mears; recorded March 20, 1826. Billerica town book 12, pages 462-463. The Kohlrausch reminiscences say the Tufts house burned and "the present Mixer house" was built on its site; a subscription list of November 1826 asked help for Mixer in rebuilding his house destroyed by fire.
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| 1838 | Mortgage | John Mixer of Billerica, yeoman | John Baldwin of Billerica, Esquire, Treasurer of the town | 1838: Mixer mortgages his homestead to the town treasurer | 377/294 (South) |
For $452.70, the half-acre lot south of the road (by land formerly of Isaiah Bussey, now Daniel Wilson's); "also my homestead situate in said town on the northerly side of said road and directly on the opposite side of the road to the lot above described", southerly on the road, westerly on Canal land to the towing path, 12 rods along the south side of the towing path and easterly by Canal land about 7 1/2 rods to the road; and 21 acres "conveyed to me by Levi Sprake by his deed December 25, 1820" (Book 241, Page 291) with a piece north of the "Sprake Bridge" over the canal. A loan from the town funds; discharged 1844 (MHC). Billerica town book 14, pages 444-445.
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| 1844 | Mortgage | John Mixer of Billerica, yeoman | Doctor Zadok Howe of Billerica | 1844: Mixer mortgages his homestead to Dr. Zadok Howe | 450/391 (South) |
For $900, the half-acre lot south of the road "leading from the Oliver Farmer house so called to the Canal Mills", bounded by Daniel Wilson; "also my homestead situated in said Billerica on the northerly side of said road & directly opposite to the above described lot", westerly on Canal land, "northerly on the towing path of said Canal", easterly on Canal land and southerly on the road, three quarters of an acre; the 21 acres by Oliver Farmer's and Joshua Radding's land; and a lot with a dwelling house north of the canal bridge "called the Sprake Bridge". Dated April 1, 1844. Billerica town book 20, pages 50-51. Assumed by the Talbots in 1852.
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| December 31, 1849 | Sheriff's Deed | Joseph Butterfield, deputy sheriff, on an execution for Daniel Wilson against John Mixer | Joel Dix Jr. of Charlestown, trader | 1849: sheriff sells Mixer's equity to Joel Dix Jr. | 574/396 (South) |
On a judgment of the Court of Common Pleas at Lowell for Daniel Wilson of Billerica, yeoman, the sheriff took Mixer's right in equity to redeem "A certain lot of land with a dwelling house and two barns thereon, situated near the 'mills' and on which the said Mixer now lives and occupies, containing about one half acre", bounded south on a road, westerly on Israel Colson and northerly and easterly on the Canal proprietors, and the 23-acre lot on both sides of the road from Lowell to Billerica Centre "with a small dwelling house thereon", subject to the Howe mortgage (Book 450, Page 391); sold at John A. Dix's tavern near Billerica Mills on December 22, 1849 for $321 to Joel Dix Jr., "he being the highest bidder". Recorded December 31, 1849. Billerica town book 19, pages 34-35. Mixer stayed on; Dix was his wife Nancy's nephew (MHC).
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| September 16, 1852 | Deed | John Mixer of Billerica (Nancy Mixer releasing dower) | Charles P. Talbot of Lowell and Thomas Talbot of Billerica, copartners as C. P. Talbot and Co. | 1852: Mixer sells the house and two barns to C. P. Talbot and Co. | 637/151 (South) |
For $2,000, "a tract of land having a dwelling house and two Barns thereon situate in that part of Billerica aforesaid called 'Billerica Mills' being the same on which I now reside", bounded northerly and easterly by land formerly of the Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal, southerly on the road from Billerica to Lowell and westerly on land of Israel Colson, about half an acre, subject to the $900 mortgage to Zadock Howe, which the Talbots assume as part of the price. Dated September 13, 1852; recorded September 16, 1852. Billerica town book 19, pages 334-335.
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| September 16, 1852 | Release | Joel Dix Jr. of Charlestown, trader | Charles P. Talbot and Thomas Talbot, copartners | 1852: Joel Dix Jr. releases to the Talbots | 637/152 (South) |
For one dollar and other consideration, quitclaim of "a certain lot of land with a dwelling house and two barns thereon standing, situated in Billerica aforesaid near the Mills and on which one John Mixer now resides, containing about one half of an acre", south on the road from Billerica Mills to Lowell, westerly on Israel Colson, northerly and easterly on Canal land: the equity he had bought at the 1849 sheriff's sale. September 1852. Billerica town book 19, pages 335-336.
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| September 30, 1944 | Deed | The Talbot Mills, a Massachusetts corporation of Billerica | Talbot Mills, Inc., Billerica | 1944: Talbot Mills to Talbot Mills, Inc. (Lots 70 and 71) | 1013/89 |
Quitclaim ($49.50 in revenue stamps) of the mill property: the First parcel on the northeasterly side of Lowell Street, both sides of Elm Street and the Concord River, running along Elm Street to Lot 69 on the 1936 Monahan Plan B (Plan Book 60, Plan 28) and by the right of way, being Lots 70 and 71, the west part of Lot 60 and the mill lot; with lots on Wilson, Rogers, Pollard and Faulkner Streets and the water rights. Recorded September 30, 1944. The Talbot Mills had held the Mixer lot since the 1884 incorporation of C. P. Talbot and Co.'s mills.
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| November 1, 1965 | Deed | Talbot Mills, Inc. (all its stock held by Massachusetts Mohair Plush Company, Inc.), by Ernest V. Horvath, President | Fabricon, Inc., a Delaware corporation | 1965: Talbot Mills, Inc. to Fabricon, Inc. | 1724/23 |
Under the stockholders' and directors' vote of October 25, 1965, deed of the real estate of Talbot Mills, Inc. to Fabricon, Inc., dated October 28, 1965 and recorded November 1, 1965, including Lots 70 and 71 on Plan Book 60, Plan 28 (recited in Book 1740, Page 82).
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| February 24, 1966 | Deed | Fabricon, Inc., by John S. Dickson, President | Two private buyers, tenants in common | 1966: Fabricon sells Lots 70 and 71 to private buyers | 1740/82 |
"The land in said Billerica, with the buildings thereon, situated on the Northwesterly side of Elm street and being shown as Lots 70 and 71" on Plan Book 60, Plan 28: southeasterly by Elm Street 200.03 feet, southwesterly by Lot 69 92.98 feet, northwesterly by a right of way 101.07 and 76.00 feet, northeasterly by other land of the grantor 50.58 and 43.20 feet, 17,391 square feet, with an easement to reach "the garage and sheds which are located on the Northerly portion"; "a portion of the premises conveyed to the Grantor by the Talbot Mills by deed dated 10/28/65". Dated February 14, 1966; recorded February 24, 1966. The Mixer house passed out of mill ownership after 114 years; in June 1966 the lots were passed through a straw (Book 1756, Pages 125-126) and mortgaged to the Arlington Five Cents Savings Bank (Book 1756, Page 127).
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| December 22, 1969 | Foreclosure Deed | Arlington Five Cents Savings Bank, holder of the mortgage of June 22, 1966 (Book 1756, Page 127) | A private buyer | 1969: bank foreclosure of Lot 70, 9-11 Elm Street | 1909/340 |
After the bank's vote of July 23, 1969, sale under the power in the mortgage for $14,000 of Lot 70 on Plan Book 60, Plan 28, "The land in Billerica ... with the buildings thereon, situated on the northwesterly side of Elm Street", 6,877 square feet, "The buildings on said premises are now numbered 9-11 on said Elm Street", subject to the Fabricon rights and the town's 1968 sewer taking (Book 1864, Page 588). Deed dated December 3, 1969 (page 341); recorded December 22, 1969. Lot 70 was then sold privately in 1971 (Book 1957, Page 68), 1972 (Book 1996, Page 48; the owners named on the 1974 survey form) and March 1978 (Book 2294, Page 189).
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| November 19, 1979 | Deed | A private owner | C R T Development Corporation, Faulkner Street, North Billerica | 1979: Lot 70 to C R T Development Corporation, after the house was taken down | 2396/113 |
For $3,000, Lot 70 on Plan Book 60, Plan 28, "a certain parcel with the buildings thereon at 9 and 11 Elm Street", 6,877 square feet; title Book 2294, Page 189 (March 1978, $29,000). The price fits the survey form's "demolished 1978": the house was gone and the lot joined the old Talbot mill property. In July 1980 the corporation passed Lot 70 to its three stockholders under its plan of liquidation (Book 2429, Page 703) and they put it into CRT Development, a limited partnership (Book 2429, Page 705).
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| July 25, 1980 | Deed | The three general partners of CRT Development, as tenants in common | CRT Development, a limited partnership, Faulkner Street, North Billerica | 1980: Lot 70 into CRT Development (partnership) | 2429/705 |
For one dollar, "a tax-free exchange for interest in a limited partnership", Lot 70 on Plan Book 60, Plan 28, "a certain parcel with the buildings thereon at 9 and 11 Elm Street", 6,877 square feet; "Being the same premises conveyed to the Grantor by deed of CRT DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION dated JULY 2, 1980" (Book 2429, Page 703). Recorded July 25, 1980 with the deed of the Talbot mill property (Book 2429, Page 692), which excepts Lots 70 and 71.
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| July 17, 1997 | Deed | CRT Development, a Massachusetts limited partnership of 67 Faulkner Street, by its general partner | Cambridge Tool & Mfg. Co., Inc. (c/o Leggett & Platt, Incorporated, Carthage, Missouri) | 1997: to Cambridge Tool & Mfg. Co., Inc. | 8673/213 |
For $1,480,000, the former Talbot mill property in Exhibit A, including the "FIFTH PARCEL: The land in said Billerica, with the buildings thereon, situated on the northwesterly side of Elm Street and being shown as Lots 70 and 71" on Plan Book 60, Plan 28, southeasterly by Elm Street 200.03 feet, 17,391 square feet, and Lots 68 and 69. Recorded July 17, 1997.
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| April 4, 2008 | Warranty Deed | Leggett & Platt, Incorporated, a Missouri corporation, successor in interest to Cambridge Tool & Mfg. Co., Inc. | L&P Aluminum Holdings, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (c/o Pace Industries, Fayetteville, Arkansas) | 2008: to L&P Aluminum Holdings, LLC | 22079/41 |
Dated March 27, 2008, consideration $0: the same parcels, including the FIFTH PARCEL, Lots 70 and 71 on Plan Book 60, Plan 28 (17,391 square feet). Recorded April 4, 2008. The site of the Mixer house is part of assessor parcel 9-94-0, 1 Old Elm Street (9.3 acres, the old Talbot mill), owned to date by L&P Aluminum Holdings LLC.
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.