No. 18689 Detail from Plan of Neponset River and Part of Dorchester Bay showing the location of Glover’s tide mill pond. Intersection shown is Dorchester Avenue and Freeport Street.
Tide mills make use of the action of the tides to provide water for power. A dam is built is built across a narrow inlet with gates to allow the rising tide waters to flow in. When the tide is at its full height, the gates closed automatically as the tide reverses direction. When the water outside the gate has fallen sufficiently to allow the mill wheel to rotate, milling work may begin. The miller has an odd work day, because the mill operates only for a few hours after each tide. There are two work periods in each 24-hour day, and the work periods change a few minutes each day since the tide is not on an exact 12-hour cycle.
Glover’s Tide Mill Pond was located near Glover’s Corner on Commercial Street (now Freeport) and appears on the 1854 Plan of Neponset River showing Harbor Commissioners Lines.
In 1874 Glover & Jones owned the property where the tide mill was in 1854.
The 1850 Dorchester taxable valuation shows Alexander Glover (estate) had a mill and privilege – this Alexander must have been the one who died in 1842. – see p. 352 of Glover Memorials and Genealogies. The Alexander still living in the taxable valuation of 1850 must have been his son b. in 1807.
Alexander Glover [b. 1807], third, … having served an apprenticeship at the cabinet-maker’s trade in his youth, followed that occupation at what is now known as Glover’s Corners for several years, and was also engaged to some extent in carpentering and building and in manufacturing pumps. He carried on an excellent business, continuing in these lines until his death in 1881. … William Glover for many years has been engaged in the cabinet-maker’s trade as senior member of the well-known firm of Glover & Jones of Dorchester. – From American Series of Popular Biographies. Massachusetts Edition. This Volume Contains Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Boston: Graves & Steinbarger, 1891.