Thomas Mears House

The Thomas Mears House was the farmhouse of the "Old Mears Place", a farm of about fifty-two acres on the southeast side of High Street, the old road from the corner to the Canal Mills, half a mile south of North Billerica. It stood across the road from the Barker House lot, and Hazen's History of Billerica (1883) places the Indian raid of August 1692 "near the turn in the road by Mr. Russell's house".

The farm was the homestead of Thomas Mears, a yeoman who died in February 1807. His inventory lists "The homestead of said deceased situated in said Billerica, containing 40 acres with the buildings thereon" and twenty acres nearby on the road to the canal. His widow Lydia (Carleton) Mears received as her dower "the two story or upright part" of the house and the east end of the barn, and in 1809 the whole estate was assigned to their son Nathan Mears. After Nathan's death in 1828 and Lydia's in 1829, the guardians of Nathan's children sold the Old Mears Place at auction on March 20, 1832 to Michael Murphy, describing it from "an elm tree a little east of the house by the road", "together with the house and barn and barn yard". Murphy bought out the dower heirs and in 1833 conveyed the farm "with all the buildings thereon" to Joel Davis of Lowell, who later reconveyed it.

On March 12, 1839 Murphy sold the farm for $825 to Jonas W. Russell, a Lowell trader born in New Hampshire, who moved onto it with his wife Sarah. In 1850 he was a farmer of 45 with real estate worth $2,850, living next to William Pollard. His 1852 mortgage describes "a certain farm ... containing fifty two acres more or less, with a dwelling house and barn thereon", and the 1856 county map marks "J. W. Russell" on the road beside Barker. Russell mortgaged the farm several times to William W. Russell, and in August 1879, "being unmarried", sold it for $2,100 to Warner W. Simonds of Cambridgeport.

The farm then changed hands quickly: in 1881 to Mary A. Simonds, wife of William Simonds, and the same year to Albert C. and Georgia A. Robinson of Lowell, who sold about twenty-two acres of the north end and then, in 1883, the remaining farm to Selden W. Kimball. In 1885 Kimball sold the twenty-six acres to Rev. John Haskell, who owned the land to the north. The Robinsons' mortgagee Andrew C. Wheelock of Lowell entered to foreclose in July 1888, Haskell quitclaimed to him, and on November 5, 1888 Wheelock sold the twenty-six-acre farm for $1,450 to Timothy Devine of Billerica. The Devine mortgages of 1888 and 1894 describe "a certain farm with buildings thereon".

On May 1, 1911 Ellen A. Devine and Margaret B. Devine sold the farm, "with the buildings thereon", about 21.3 acres fronting 850 feet on High Street, to the Boston and Maine Railroad, which was assembling land on High Street, Pond Street and the road to Salem for the Boston and Maine Billerica Shops. In December 1947 the railroad sold 16.6 acres along High Street, including the old farmstead, to Charles A. Phillips, trustee of Terminals Trust, and the old house was gone by about 1949. In May 1953 Alden M. Rollins, who had the land from Phillips, laid out house lots on the south side of High Street (Plan Book 82 Plan 177A); Lot 4, 43 High Street, was sold that month to the Parson Realty Trust, and a ranch house was built on it in the early 1950s. It has since passed through private owners.

References

1. Billerica assessor, 43 High St (parcel 23-43-0): Lot 4 of Plan 82-177A, ranch house built about 1950

Title References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted; Probate # is a Middlesex probate case, Ctf a Land Court certificate of title.