1690s Mill Site Tied to Abraham Lincoln's Ancestry
62-68 Mordecai Lincoln Road, Scituate, MA 02066
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Grounds open to the public, free of charge. Restoration is in progress on the house and outbuildings.
Access
Limited Access
Half-mile loop trail with stone walls, rocky outcroppings, and gardens
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1691 · Lincoln Family Heritage · Colonial-Era Mill Site · Massachusetts Heritage
Mordecai Lincoln arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1680s and erected a mill and homestead on the brook system that drains into the Gulf River around 1691-1692. The Lincoln family connection to the property is direct: Mordecai Lincoln was the great-great-great-grandfather of Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States. A roadside historical marker installed by the Massachusetts Bay Tercentenary Commission identifies the property and its lineage.
The mill complex relied on the impoundment of Bound Brook to power its machinery. The Hunter's Pond Dam, which created the millpond visible from the homestead, stood from the late 1600s until it was removed in 2017 as part of a regional dam-removal initiative aimed at restoring fish passage and reducing flood risk. The pond itself has reverted to a flowing brook, changing the character of the mill's immediate surroundings.
The Town of Scituate acquired the property and operates it through the Mordecai Lincoln Property Committee. Restoration work is ongoing on the house and outbuildings. The grounds include stone walls, rocky outcroppings, formal gardens, and canoe and kayak access to Bound Brook and the Gulf River. The North and South Rivers Watershed Association coordinates with the town on stewardship of the riverine portions of the site. The property is accessible from the North Scituate commuter rail stop and sits near the Cohasset town border.
Sources
Local accounts describe the figure of a small child standing in the upper windows of the mill, reportedly clawing at the glass or simply staring out across the trail. Walkers on the loop have reported the sound of children's cries, sometimes accompanied by the mechanical sound of a saw running and seizing.
The story attaches the figure to a child who drowned in the millpond. The Massachusetts haunted-place aggregators, including the regional MA Haunted Houses listing, repeat this attribution. No primary historical source is offered in the available material, and the Town of Scituate's published history of the mill, which covers ownership transitions and restoration efforts, does not include the drowning narrative.
The practical experience of the site is a quiet half-mile walk through stone walls and gardens with the brook running through. With Hunter's Pond now drained following the 2017 dam removal, the visual frame of the original story has changed, and the figure-in-the-window report is now grounded in a different landscape than the one folkloric accounts describe.
Walk the half-mile loop through the Mordecai Lincoln Mill and Homestead grounds in North Scituate. The site has stone walls, rocky outcroppings, gardens, and canoe access to Bound Brook and the Gulf River. The historic mill structure adjacent to former Hunter's Pond is the focal point. The Hunter's Pond Dam was removed in 2017.
View the mill exterior from the public road. The figure of a child is reported in the upper windows in the surviving regional folklore.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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