(Editor’s note: the first installment of this 10-part series appeared in the Wayland Post on Sept. 11, 2026. Read the series to date online at www.waylandpost.org/postcards.)
Dear readers,
Most of Cochituate lies on land granted to Elizabeth Glover, Henry Dunster, and William Jennison during the 1600s; a small part falls within the limits of the Sudbury Plantation. Before the village and surrounding area were called Cochituate, some buildings were already standing here. Over the years, their occupants belonged to the Cochituate community, a distinctive subgroup of Wayland.
Cochituate was defined by strong social connections within the village and surrounding area, not by lines drawn on a map. For example, the 1980 census map placed the western side of Old Connecticut Path in Wayland, but the 1887 and 1893 Wayland and Weston Directory listed people from both sides of the street, from the Framingham line up to the intersection with Route 27, as living in Cochituate. Old-timers count both Lavin’s (Moulton’s Tavern) and the Samuel Maynard farm (Irving farm, Schofield farm, and Wayland High School grounds) as absolutely part of Cochituate. Warren and Julia (Irving) Lawrence lived at the Irving farm from the early to mid-1900s. They were active in the Cochituate Grange, and the Natick Citizen reported on them under Cochituate happenings. Warren’s WWII draft registration listed his address as Old Connecticut Path, Wayland, and the contact address as R.F.D. Cochituate, Mass. What’s more, a Schofield family member who grew up on that farm told me he was raised in Cochituate. Locating Cochituate’s exact boundaries on a map isn’t clear-cut because a community exists in people’s hearts and relationships.
P.S.: Look at the stamp. That’s a photo of Julia (Irving) Lawrence standing in front of the family farm. (Courtesy of Julia’s grandson, Ernie Columbus.)
Sincerely,
Sheila Carel (Wayland Post Contributor)
