In the Cambridge Town Records, 1630-1703, we find the river called ‘Menotomies,’ ‘Menotomy,’ ‘Notomy,’ and ‘Winattime’; in the Proprietors' Records, 1635-1829, it is given ‘Menotomy,’ ‘Manotomie,’ and ‘Menotamye’; the Commissioners' Records, 1638-1802, give ‘Winotamies,’ and ‘Menotomies’ river. Paige calls it ‘Menotomy’ river, and Wyman refers to ‘Menotomy’ river no less than forty times between 1637 and 1808, and once to Alewife river, in 1818.
Cutter gives ‘Menotomy’ river, and there have been found in the Middlesex Registry no less than thirty deeds between the years 1646 and 1794, in which Menotomy river is mentioned; it was also referred to as ‘little’ river or ‘Menottomy’ river in 1763. ‘Menotomy’ is the form of spelling used by far the greater number of times in the above records, and as the records show, Menotomy river was the name by which the beautiful little stream, winding its way through the marshes and meadows from Fresh pond to the Mystic was known for nearly two hundred years. Its waters were clear and of considerable depth and at the old weir below Massachusetts avenue it had a width in 1862 of about twenty feet, while above it had a less, and below, a greater width. On May 10, 1775, the Committee of Safety voted,‘that Mr. Watson be directed and empowered to remove to Cambridge, the boats now in Menotomy River.’
The year 1818 seems to have been near the time when Menotomy river began to be called Alewife brook, and doubtless because of the abundance of alewives taken from its waters.
Webster says, ‘the alewife is a North American fish of the herring family, and that the name is properly aloof the Indian name of a fish. It is also called ellwif, ellwhop and branch herring.’ He also says that alewife is a woman who keeps an alehouse.
The Century Dictionary says, ‘A particular use of alewife, probably in allusion to their corpulent appearance; the form aloof, as recorded in 1678, is said to be the ’
