Willis Pond History
Compiled by Rob Hershfield, August 1999
From Reference Materials at Goodnow Library

Geology and Geography

The Cenozoic age began about six to eight million years ago, following the tropical Mesozoic age when dinosaurs and forests flourished. The Cenozoic has two main sub-divisions, the Tertiary and the Quaternary, the latter of which is again divided into three divisions: the Glacial, Champlain and Terrace. During the Glacial, an ice sheet reaching six thousand feet in thickness covered the entire northern portion of our continent including New England, and had a constant tendency to move south.

During the Champlain Epoch, several small sheets of water such as Willis Pond, Bottomless Pond (now called Crystal Lake), Blandford’s Pond (on Cavicchio Farm – now filled in) and Pratt’s Pond (now Puffer Pond in the old Fort Devens Annex), were created in the Peakham area of Sudbury. These ponds probably owe their origin to large masses of ice having been left there, around which the sand was deposited by the currents, and later as these masses of ice melted they left the hollows which now hold the ponds. Willis Pond is the largest of these ponds and lies at the northwest part of town.

It is nearly surrounded by forests, and is a little lake in the woods. It has an outlet to Hop Brook called Run Brook, which flows into the Sudbury River, the Concord, the Merrimack and into the Atlantic. The principal trees include White Pine, Oak, Maple, White and Gray Birch and Hemlock. The old-growth trees were logged by the English settlers, and as the forests grew back, so did berry bushes including whortleberry and blueberry and high blueberry bushes or billberries. Up on the plains grew blackberries and raspberries. The lake is graced with many waterlillies, and around the perimeter can be found bulrush and arrowhead plants. It is about 10 feet at the deepest points.

1600s

Willis Pond became part of Sudbury as part of the third (“Two Mile”) land grant in 1649 by the Court of the Massachusetts Colony, being purchased from the Indians for twelve pounds. It appears from an old map that it may originally have been called Great Pond.

1700s

Willis Pond, and Willis Hill, are named after the Willis family who moved to the northwest part of Sudbury from Dedham, around the turn of the 18th century. In several old records and maps, it is referred to as Willis’ Pond, probably because Josiah Willis owned some or all of the land surrounding the pond. Some of the abutting land appears to have been sold also to Deacon Jonathan Rice and possibly also Captain David Haynes.

1800s

It appears from an old map that the pond left the Willis family and became property of L. Fountain. Another Willis Pond appears on one map at the easterly end of Gray’s Reservation on Old Lancaster and Peakham roads on the land owned by another member of the Willis family who owned a saw and grist mill, but records indicate it was really named Willis Mill Pond.

1900s

In 1914, Babe Ruth was sold to the Boston Red Sox and on July 11, he made his debut as a major leaguer in Fenway Park pitching against the Cleveland Indians. In the mornings, Ruth would frequent Landers’ Coffee Shop in Boston, and it is here that he met Helen Woodford, a seventeen-year-old waitress. They married on October 17, 1914 at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in Ellicott City, Maryland.

Babe had a passion for hunting and fishing and discovered Sudbury’s rural charm while visiting a friend’s camp on Willis Pond, supposedly on Butler Road. He fell in love with the area, and rented several local camps as vacation retreats. A story tells of how he became frustrated while playing the piano at one of the camps, and rolled it down the hill and into the pond. As Babe’s career began to blossom and his salary increased, by 1919 he was making $10,000 per year, he and Helen were able to buy the Perry Farm on Dutton Road.

In December of 1919 Babe was sold to the New York Yankees, and Babe and Helen moved into the Ansonia Hotel on Broadway, which was also the New York home for many celebrities. Unlike her husband, Helen was shy and reserved and did not enjoy the constant notoriety that accompanied Babe wherever he went. As a result, she preferred staying at Sudbury home, where they had a farm with some 200 acres of land and privacy. In 1921, the couple adopted a baby girl, Dorothy (far left), who lived with Helen in Sudbury until the house was sold in 1927. On January 11, 1929, at the age of 31, Helen died of suffocation in a fire. Dorothy, who was eight at the time was away at boarding school. Babe remarried a young widow, Claire Hodgson (second from left) who had come to New York from Georgia with her young daughter Julia (right) in 1920 and worked as a model and actress. In 1946, Babe was diagnosed with throat cancer. Even though doctors performed surgery and he received radiation treatments, the cancer could not be arrested. At 8:01 p.m. on August 16, 1948, Babe Ruth lost his battle with cancer.

During the 1950s and 1960s, story has it that locals had demolition derbies on the ice during the winter, and left the smashed up cars on the ice to fall in after the ice melted. Perhaps this is why the water looks so rusty today.

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