In conformity with the policy on which grants were made, Endicott at
once proceeded to occupy and improve it, by clearing off the woods,
erecting buildings, making roads, and building bridges. His
dwelling-house embraced in its view the whole surrounding country,
with the arms of the sea. From the more elevated points of his farm,
the open sea was in sight. A road was opened by him, from the head of
tide water on Duck, now Crane, River, through the Orchard Farm, and
round the head of Cow House River, to the town of Salem, in one
direction, and to Lynn and Boston in another. A few years afterwards,
the town granted him two hundred acres more, contiguous to the western
line of the Orchard Farm. After this, and as a part of the
transaction, the present Ipswich road was made, and the old road
through the Orchard Farm discontinued. This illustrates the policy of
the land grants. They were made to persons who had the ability to lay
out roads. The present bridge over Crane River was probably built by
Endicott and the parties to whom what is now called the Plains, one of
the principal villages of Danvers, had been granted. The tract granted
by the town was popularly called the "Governor's Plain." By giving, in
this way, large tracts of land to men of means, the country was opened
and made accessible to settlers who had no pecuniary ability to incur
large outlays in the way of general improvements, but had the
requisite energy and industry to commence the work of subduing the
forest and making farms for themselves. To them, smaller grants were
made.

The character of the population, thus aided at the beginning in
settling the country, cannot be appreciated without giving some idea
of what it was to open the wilderness for occupancy and cultivation.
This is a subject which those who have always lived in other than
frontier towns do not perhaps understand.