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Cochituate Village
The area that became the village of Cochituate in 1721 had been three private colonial land grants (see Land Grants) made by the General Court. It included land between the southern boundary of Sudbury (Wayland) and the northern boundary of Natick. By the early 1700s, the twelve families living on the land had developed strong kinship ties to Sudbury and, though close to Natick, were not eager to join the “Indian Praying” town. When Sudbury began discussions to build a meetinghouse on the west side of the Sudbury River, families living along the town’s southern border with Natick, played a pivotal role in that decision. The west side of the river had the greater population and the addition of twelve families appeared to solve some of the east side’s problems. It added parishioners to the east side meetinghouse and 2,141 acres of land to the east side of the river. The General Court order passed on June 9, 1721 included “all land between what had been officially granted to Sudbury as a southern addition in 1640 and the northern bound established for the Indian plantation at Natick in May 1660.” The boundary has remained nearly the same all these years, in spite of the very vague wording of the order. (see Separate Towns)
At the time of annexation, the area was not called “Cochituate Village,” and it would not bear that name for a long time. It became a part of Sudbury’s farming community, later East Sudbury and today Wayland. When Natick and Saxonville began to embrace the industrial age, residents along the town’s southern boundary slowly gave up farming and joined them. What had been small family shoe shops developed into large successful factories and the little village exploded. By the 1840s, the section of today’s Cochituate near the intersection of Main Street and Commonwealth Road was referred to as “Bentville,” after the Bent family who owned the large factory on the southwest corner. A half-mile to the east at the junction of East Plain Street and Commonwealth Road, the area was called “Lokerville,” for the Loker families who lived in the area. (see Quaint Names)
In August 1846, at a ground-breaking ceremony for the aqueduct that would take water from Lake Cochituate, then named Long Pond, to Boston. Boston’s Mayor Josiah Quincy, Jr. proposed to the City Council that the name of Long Pond be changed to Lake Cochituate. The Mayor believed that an Indian name would connote wilderness and pure clean water to Bostonians. The Mayor’s proposal was enthusiastically adopted and thenceforth, Long Pond became Lake Cochituate. (see Water Works)
In October of that year a post office called “Cochituate” was established on Main Street in the southern part of Wayland, changing the name Bentville to Cochituate. Although there does not appear to have been any action on the part of the town to change the name of the village, records show that James Madison Bent served on the three-member board of selectmen in 1846 and 1847 and probably instigated the change. William and James Madison Bent lived in the area and were partners in the shoe business. James Madison had been employed as an agent with the Boston Water Board and had helped with the purchase of land for the aqueduct. Perhaps he got the idea to change the village name after Long Pond had been changed to Lake Cochituate.
Cochituate’s growing population increased the tax burden on North Wayland and led to a petition for separation in 1881. The petition failed to garner enough votes and was dropped. In 1890, however, another attempt was made to split into two towns. This time Natick was interested in annexing Cochituate so that it could become a city. It was taxes and not fear of Indians that made Cochituate residents reject this proposal. Tax increases to pay for schools and municipal facilities caused discontent between the two sides of town for a number of years.
The name “Cochituate”seems appropriate since the Indians in their language had always called the land around the lake “Cochituate”–meaning “place of the rushing torrent” or “wild dashing brook.” The word refers to the outlet of the lake to the Sudbury River when the water is high.
The history of the village is covered in greater detail in “Shoe Industry.”