1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stoneham

STONEHAM, a township of Middlesex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Pop. (1890), 6155; (1900), 6197; (1910, U.S. census), 7090. Area, 6.6 sq. m. In the township is Spot Pond, a large lake with islets, so named in 1632 by Governor John Wlnthrop and others who then first discovered it; it is a storage basin for the Metropolitan Water District, and supplies Medford, Melrose and Stoneham. A large part (730 acres) of the Middlesex Fells Reservation of the Metropolitan Park System is in Stoneham. The village of Stoneham, with the only post office in the town- ship, is about 9 m. north by east of Boston, and is served by the Boston & Maine railway and by inter-urban electric lines; it has a public library. Steam power was first used in the manufacture of shoes in Stoneham by John Hill & Co., who introduced many labour-saving devices, notably the heeling machine (1862). Stoneham, long a part of Charlestown and first settled about 1668, was incorporated as a township in 1725, but its boundaries have been frequently changed since then.