Person
John A. Akeson
John A. Akeson
John A. Akeson of Woburn gave Billerica the land of Akeson Field, the town playing field on the east bank of the Shawsheen River in Pinehurst, on condition that any playground there be called the John A. Akeson Playground. He came to own land in Billerica as a mortgage holder. He took an assignment of the mortgage that Sylvester P. Beard, known as Percy, had given Albert H. Jones in 1922 on the old Bacon and Beard farm of about fifty-eight acres between Cook Street and the river, and when he foreclosed it he bought the farm himself at the auction on the premises on May 13, 1939, for $1,975.
Pinehurst had wanted a playground since 1946, when the town meeting set aside $5,000 for one, and in March 1951 a motion to buy or take "land adjacent to river now owned by Mr. Akeson" was lost. Akeson then offered the land as a gift. On November 24, 1951 a special town meeting voted unanimously to accept 200,000 square feet "bordering on the Shawsheen River in Pinehurst for playground purposes" for one dollar, "on condition that any playground located thereon shall be called the 'John A. Akeson Playground'", and the same meeting rezoned about twelve and three quarter acres of his Cook Street land for industry. He signed the deed on February 29, 1952, and the selectmen credited "the generosity of Mr. Akeson" with getting the town "a large tract of land ... at no cost to the Town". The playground was given its own board of trustees and a field house in the 1950s, and the name lives on in Akeson Field and its canoe launch on the river.
Akeson kept the rest of the farm and other land on Cook Street. In 1959 and 1960 he brought a Land Court petition to clear the old 1870 Beard mortgage from his title, and in 1960 he put his lands in Billerica, Burlington and Tewksbury into a trust. He had died by 1970, and in 1971 the trustees under his indenture, among them Evelyn Frances Akeson, sold thirteen parcels in the three towns, including about 57 acres on Cook Street beside the playground.
References
- Billerica town reports 1950-1954: March 1951 playground motion; Nov. 24, 1951 special town meeting accepting John A. Akeson's gift for the John A. Akeson Playground
- Billerica town reports 1955-1959: John A. Akeson Playground trustees and appropriations
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Property | Recorded |
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| 1939 | Foreclosure Deed | John A. Akeson of Woburn, assignee of the Jones mortgage | John A. Akeson of Woburn | Details | 929/162 | |
Foreclosure of Sylvester P. Beard's 1922 mortgage: the farm was sold at public auction on the premises on May 13, 1939 and bought by Akeson himself for $1,975, the highest bid. A 1947 town meeting article calls his river land land "of one John A. Akeson (formerly of one Beard)".
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| May 6, 1952 | Deed | John A. Akeson of Woburn | Inhabitants of the Town of Billerica | Details | 1194/430 | |
Gift, for one dollar, of 200,000 square feet "bordering on the Shawsheen River in Pinehurst", about 400 feet along the river and bounded southerly by land of the Pinehurst Amusement Association, for playground purposes as voted by the special town meeting of Nov. 24, 1951, "on condition that any playground located thereon shall be called the 'John A. Akeson Playground'", with "Plan of John A. Akeson Playground and Right of Way", James B. Monahan, December 1951 (not found in the plan books). Signed Feb. 29, 1952; part of the land Akeson bought at his foreclosure sale (Book 929, Page 162).
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| April 28, 1960 | Final Decree | Land Court, John A. Akeson vs. George Bacon (Case No. 30654 Misc.) | John A. Akeson | Details | 1473/394 | |
Final decree on Akeson's petition concerning the 1870 mortgage of Sylvester E. Beard to George Bacon (Book 72, Page 593), with a plan "Cook St., John A. Akeson, June 16, 1959"; recorded April 28, 1960 (indexed 1960 under Akeson, Book 1473, Page 394, and a related decree at Book 1482, Page 15).
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| 1960 | Deed | Gladys M. Carey | John A. Akeson, Trustee | Details | 1501/552 | |
Dated Nov. 1, 1960. Known from the 1971 trustees' deed, which gives it as the title to the Billerica parcels ("fourteenth item") and to several Tewksbury parcels; Carey held as a conduit for Akeson, who had put his lands in a trust dated March 18, 1960 (registered as Document 33612). Not found online at this book and page; the deed from Akeson to Carey was not found.
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.