The name of the Nashaway village, its people and the brook, pronounced by locals as /ˈnɒ nə ˌkɔɪ ʃəs/, was also recorded in early English sources as 'Nonajcoyjicus,' 'Nonocoyecos,' 'Nonacoiacus' and 'Nonaicoics.

'[3] According to the personal manuscripts of Justice Samuel Sewall, best known for his controversial role in the Salem witch trials, he was told sometime in 1698 by Hanah, wife of Sachem Ahaton of the Ponkapoag Massachusett tribe, that the name was actually Nunnacoquis (modern Wôpanâak Massachusett dialect Nunahkuqees /nənahkəkʷiːs/)[4][5][6] and signified 'an Indian earthen pot' although literally refers to a 'small dry earthen pot.'

[3] Very little archaeological evidence has been found of settlement in the region, most likely lost to centuries of cultivation and development, although a handful of stone tools or evidence of habitation have been found along the shores of the Nashua River, Nonacoicus Brook, Sandy Pond and Long Pond as well as a rock shelter on Snake Hill.

[7] In addition, portions of Main Street and Sandy Pond Road are believed to follow the vast network of trails used by Native peoples for trade, travel and communication.

[8] The Nashaway likely cultivated corn, beans and squash, but depended on foraging for fruits, nuts, tubers and seeds to supplement their diets.

Virgin soil epidemics such as smallpox, leptospirosis, influenza, scarlet fever and measles ravaged Native communities due to their lack of immunity to Old World diseases.

The influx of English settlers also led to competition for land and resources and efforts to subjugate and assimilate the Native peoples.

Land was set aside for the Indians for the Praying town of Nashoba in what is now neighboring Littleton, Massachusetts, which likely attracted many of the Nashaway families in the surrounding areas.

Although heavy losses were inflicted on both sides, the English won and executed a vast number of Indians or sold them into slavery in the West Indies.

The first settlement in the portion of Groton that would become Ayer was in 1667, when a mill was constructed to serve a small hamlet that had developed around the Nonacoicus Brook.

The presence of thousands of military and civilian personnel on the base shifted Ayer's commercial development towards meeting their needs until Fort Devens was closed in 1996, but was reopened the next day as a reserve training area.

A 700-foot-high wooden trestle build, the ski jump operated for a single winter season amid the hardships of Great Depression-era Ayer.

[10] Within its relatively small area Ayer boasts numerous industries, including plants belonging to Vitasoy and Pepsi, a historical downtown unique to the region, and modern commuter rail service to Boston.

Waters' sister Betty Anne worked with the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization devoted to overturning the wrongful convictions using DNA test results as evidence.

In 2009 the town and its insurers eventually paid a $3.4 million settlement in response to a civil rights lawsuit by the estate of Kenneth Waters.

The line currently serves as a major corridor of Pan Am Railway's District 3 which connects New Hampshire and Maine with western Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York.