Twitchell Pond

History of Twitchell Pond

The oldest camp was built across the road from the pond sometime in the early 1900s. Today it is known as Sawyer's Camp, but no one knows who built it. In recent years a camp was built on the east shore of the pond and a number of camps have been built across the road from the pond.

Twitchell Pond was named for Eleazer Twitchell the original grantee for the northern half of the Township of Greenwood. At 763 feet above sea level, Twitchell Pond, is one of the highest ponds in the township. The area surrounding the pond remained a wilderness until after 1820 when the original Greenwood Road was built.

Calvin Cole Sr. and his sons were the first settlers on the shores of this pond. They settled on the west shore which was originally called Shadagee and later Greenwood Center. The original pond was a little smaller, but in 1849 Samuel B. Locke built a dam and saw mill at the outlet on the south end of the pond which raised the water level.

The original Greenwood Road passed over Rowe Hill on it's way to Locke's Mills. A few years later the road was rerouted over from Sheepskin Bog and it passed along the East shore of Twitchell Pond. In the mid 1850s the last Greenwood Road was built along the West shore through Shadagee as it does today.

Twitchell Pond and the surrounding area remained a small farming community until around 1900 when summer cottages became fashionable and started to appear. The locals tended to call them camps much to the dismay of the cottage owners from away. Ben Billings from Bryant's Pond built the first cottage on Twitchell Pond. It was located on the West shore of the pond. Mr. Billings soon sold to the Wagner Family who owned it for many years. Spot Herrick built the first cottage on the East shore. Within a few years, Gib Coffin bought this cottage and moved it to Round Pond where it still stands today as Camp Pine Cone. Hollis Cushman bought the Center Baptist Church around 1921 and moved it across the ice from the West shore to the East shore where it stood for many years as Camp Shadyacre. Other early cottages were Eichels, Goodman, Case, Prall & Kenyon. The spread of cottages along the shore was slow until after the 2nd World War when a lot of land became available around the pond. Today, Twitchell Pond probably has more cottages than any other pond in Greenwood.