Little River, the Cow Tunnel, William T.G. Morton, and the Marquis de Lafayette

Charlton has a lot to offer nature lovers and history buffs alike, whether you’re hiking the Midstate Trail or enjoying a short stroll.

The Midstate hike across Oxford ends and begins in Charlton just northeast of Buffumville Lake on Buffum Road, where a stone marker sits at the border of the two towns.

Fulling Mill Ruins at Little River is a half mile oasis connecting the Buffumville Lake trails to the Midstate Trail. It’s less than a mile down the road where you can park nearby and walk a short distance to the river.

I walked there in May and unintentionally startled (the feeling was mutual) what I think was a Great Blue heron. It squawked loudly and soared over me, quickly flying down the river with its giant wings flapping away. It was like stepping into the Land of the Lost and waking up a Teradactyl.

The Charlton Heritage Preservation Trust (CHPT) maintains this site, along with eighteen additional properties totaling over 200 acres. Additional information regarding their organization and these important nature preserves can be found at charltontrust.org.

The Midstate continues under U.S. Route 20 through what is known as the Cow Tunnel, which was built one hundred years ago this year. When I walked through this it was a walk through a small stream, which judging from online comments about the tunnel, is more often than not the common experience. But wet or dry it beats the alternative of crossing multiple lanes of traffic on the road above.

Exiting the tunnel you walk a short distance to Carroll Hill Road and then back into the forest going past an abandoned factory, eventually coming out to Northside Road, which goes over the MA Pike and brings you to the historic Old Northside Village.

The Old Northside Village is a pre-Revolutionary War section of Charlton (originally part of Oxford) that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There are more than a dozen historic buildings in this district, the oldest of which is the Jonathan Wheelock House that was built nearly 300-years ago in 1735. 

Jonathan Wheelock ran a tannery and distillery. His son, Eli Wheelock, built the Rider Tavern on Stafford Street in 1797.

Wheelock and his brothers Paul and David were the grandsons of one of the founders of the Town of Mendon, Benjamin Wheelock. They were among the earliest settlers of the Northside Village. Several of their sons served in the Revolutionary War. Their family history can be found in the voluminous compilation, The Wheelock Family of Charlton, Massachusetts at wheelockgenealogy.com.

Today the Rider Tavern on Stafford Street is the home of the Charlton Historical Society, but it was once a regular stop on a major stagecoach route. The Worcester-Stafford Turnpike opened in 1810 as a private toll road that ran from Worcester to Stafford, Connecticut where it connected to other turnpikes in Hartford.

The Rider Tavern’s most notable visitor was Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette, also known as the Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette was a French nobleman inspired by the Enlightenment and the principles and ideas that led to our Revolution. 

He first came to America as a teenager and became a close friend and aide to General Washington. Lafayette helped secure crucial French support for the American cause. He became a major general at 19 and commanded American troops in their victory at Yorktown. He also played a large role in the French Revolution.

Almost fifty years after our Declaration of Independence, Lafayette returned to the United States in his late 60s and embarked on a 13-month farewell tour of twenty-four states, which was the entirety of our nation in 1824-25. Thousands turned out and gave him a hero’s welcome across our new and growing nation. It was a whirlwind of visits to cities, to towns, to villages, to the tomb of his old friend, George Washington who died 25-years earlier, to Monticello to visit 81-year-old Thomas Jefferson, to Quincy to visit 88-year-old John Adams, to Montpelier to visit James Madison, to the White House to visit President James Monroe, and to his old battlefield at Yorktown. 

According to the American Battlefield Trust, “In New England alone, Lafayette made more than 170 stops.” One of his stops was at the Rider Tavern, which had recently been renamed Wilson’s Coffee House. Today, the Midstate Trail runs along the side of this historic property and crosses Stafford Street to a field where, according to the Charlton Historical Society, the local militia assembled and was inspected by Lafayette.

This site across the street from the Rider Tavern also commemorates the life and contributions of the father of anesthesia, William T.G. Morton, who was born and raised in Charlton’s Northside Village. Morton successfully used ether on a patient in 1846, with a painless tooth extraction. This garnered a lot of attention as he advanced the new concept of it being preferable for patients to be unconscious while undergoing surgery.

 Just a short distance from here is the scenic 65-acre Fay Mountain Farm, owned by the Town of Charlton. The town leases the property for its acres of orchards and other crops. Across the street on Cemetery Road is the beautiful Snows Pond and Northside Village Antiques. It’s a nice slice of New England living, especially on a beautiful Sunday morning in the Summer.

     The Midstate goes up and over Fay Mountain toward the back of the Northside Cemetery before hitting pavement. The trail continues for several miles along paved and dirt roads to the Four Chimneys Wildlife Management Area in Spencer.