traversed only by the Indian trails, which were but narrow paths, hard
to find and easy to lose, unless the traveller had been bred to the arts
of wood-craft. Here passed the united trails from Washacum, Wachusett,
Quaboag, and other Indian villages of the west, leading to the wading
place of the Nashaway River near the present Atherton Bridge, and so
down the "Bay Path" over Wataquadock to Concord. The little plateau half
way down the sheltering hill, with fertile fields sloping to the
southeast and its never failing springs, was and is an attractive spot;
but its material advantages to the pioneer of 1645 were far greater than
those apparent to the Lancastrian of this nineteenth century in the
changed conditions of life. With the privilege of first choice
therefore, it is not strange that Prescott and his sturdy sons-in-law
grasped the rich intervales, and warm easily tilled slopes, stretching
along the Nashaway south branch from the "meeting of the waters" to
"John's jump" on the east, and extending west to the crown of George
Hill; lands now covered by the village of South Lancaster.

In 1650 John Prescott found himself the only member of the company
resident at Nashaway. Of the co-partners Symonds, King, and John Hill
were dead; Norcross and Child had gone to England; Cowdall had sold his
rights to Prescott; Chandler, Davis, Walker, and others had formally
abandoned their claims; Garrett, Shawe, Day, Adams, and perhaps two or
three others, retained their claims to allotments, making no
improvements, and contributing nothing by their presence or tithes to
the growth of the settlement, thus becoming effectual stumbling blocks
in the way of progress. Prescott, very reasonably, held this a
grievance, and having no other means of redress asked equitable judgment
in the matter from the magistrates, in a petition which cannot be found.
His answer was the following official snub: