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Lib: tin
Conane-
Lewis S. Conant
STON UNIVERSITY BC
LEARNING . VIRTUE . PIET
BOSTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BEQUEST OF EMMA L. CONANT IN MEMORY OF HER HUSBAND Lewis S. Conant 1951
1
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
R. T. COBLEIGH'S HOUSE.
PARSONAGE.
BOXBOROUGH :
A New England Town and Its People.
COMPILED FOR THE MIDDLESEX COUNTY HISTORY.
With Sketches and Illustrations, Additional, BY
LUCIE CAROLINE HAGER.
" The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be. and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."
PUBLISHED BY J. W. LEWIS & CO., Philadelphia. 1891.
·
COPYRIGHT 1890, BY J. W. LEWIS & Co., PHILADELPHIA. TRANSFERRED TO LUCIE C. HAGER.
COPYRIGHT 1890, BY LUCIE C. HAGER.
Williston press,
47 FRANKLIN ST., BOSTON
74 3.53 E91
PREFACE.
I have been led to believe, by conversation upon the subject with some of the older residents of the place, that a history of Boxborough printed in a small volume, separately from "The History of Middlesex County," would be favorably received by many of those who are interested in the welfare of the town, or who have been connected with it from early years.
I therefore issue the book in its present form. It is with some misgivings that these pages are placed before the citizens of Boxborough, many of whom are familiar with its history from the beginning. For besides laboring under the disadvan- tage of having been a resident of the town, and acquainted with it, only a few years, I have been obliged to glean a part of the facts from somewhat incomplete town and church records, and the rest from the personal recollections of the people. Upon perusal, therefore, should errors become apparent to any, the author asks for lenient criticism.
For myself, I would say, I have become very much inter- ested in the town and also in its early inhabitants while engaged in studying and writing this history.
I wish here to express my indebtedness to Messrs. J. W. Lewis and Co., for according to me the privilege of using, in this volume, whatever material was recently published in the Middlesex County History under the head of "Boxborough ;" also, to assure my friends of my gratitude for and appreciation of their many efforts in my behalf while I have been engaged
4
Preface.
in this work. Suggestions, scraps of information, use of records and genealogies, etc., have been freely given, and very helpful. And. further, in this last venture, for assistance in interesting and securing subscribers, I would render my sincere thanks.
Thanks are hereby given. also, for the engraving of the Congregational Church, which was presented by The Ladies' Cirele, and for the engraving of the Town Hall, the gift of Deacon S. B. Hager.
LUCIE C. HAGER.
BOXBOROUGH.
COMPILED BY LUCIE C. HAGER.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Early History - Formation - Scenery - Situation -Reason for New Town-Harvard Meeting-house- Petition to General Court - Act of Incorporation 11
Page
CHAPTER II.
District Officers - Boundary Troubles - Estates Transferred - Location of Boundaries - Working of New District -Town Hall -Incidents - Roads - Fitchburg Railroad - Political 20
CHAPTER III.
Military History - Luther Blanchard -1812- War of the Rebellion - Soldiers' Names - Schools Division of Town - School Buildings - Reports 28
CHAPTER IV.
Ecclesiastical - Church Organized - First Pastor - Installation - Sermon - Mr. Willard - Contro- versy - Rev. Aaron Picket
37
6
Contents.
CHAPTER V.
Page
Separation - New Society - Rev. James R. Cush- ing - New Church - Pastors - The First Parish - Methodist Church - Statistics - Centennial - Town Officers . 44
CHAPTER VI.
Geology - Flora - Fauna 50
CHAPTER VII.
Miscellaneous 61
CHAPTER VIII.
Biographical Sketches -- Bigelow Family - Blan- chard Family - James S. Braman - Charles H. Burroughs - Chester Family 85
CHAPTER IX.
Cobleigh Family - Francis Conant -Stuart P. Dodge - Draper Family -John Fletcher . 109
CHAPTER X.
The Hager Family - Sketch of Author, by Jane M. Read
CHAPTER XI. 123
James R. Hayden-Hayward Family - John Hoar - Wm. S. Houghton - Littlefield Family 149
Contents.
CHAPTER XII.
Page
Mead Family -Wm. Moore - Joseph H. Orendorff - Page Family - Patch Family - Amasa A. Rich- ardson - Dr. Robins 163
CHAPTER XIII.
Stone Family - Taylor Family 178
CHAPTER XIV.
Wetherbee Family - Whitcomb Family - John R. Whitcomb- Wood Family - Dea. M. E. Wood - George C. Wright · 195
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
Frontispiece
BOXBOROUGH CENTRE, TOWN HALL 23
L. WALDO BIGELOW 86
SIMON BLANCHARD, SR. 87
SIMON BLANCHARD, JR.
88
LEONARD CHANDLER
91
LUKE BLANCHARD
92
JOHN AND MARGARET BLANCHARD
96
E. B. COBLEIGH
110
FRANCIS CONANT
114
JOHN FLETCHER
119
GEORGE HAGER
125
BENJ. S. HAGER .
127
LUCIE C. HAGER .
128
JOEL F. HAYWARD
152
JACOB LITTLEFIELD 159
ALBERT LITTLEFIELD
162
BENJ. S. MEAD
164
PHINEHAS STONE .
178
PHINEHAS J. STONE 180
AMOS STONE 184
JONATHAN STONE
186
VARNUM TAYLOR
189
OLIVER WETHERBEE 199
A. W. WETHERBEE . 200
MARTIN E. WOOD 213
GEORGE C. WRIGHT
215
THE HISTORY OF BOXBOROUGH.
BOXBOROUGH :
A NEW ENGLAND TOWN AND ITS PEOPLE.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY HISTORY- FORMATION - SCENERY - SITUATION REASON FOR NEW TOWN - HARVARD MEETING-HOUSE PETITION TO GENERAL COURT -ACT OF INCORPORATION.
SOME one has said, " Time, like distance, lends enchantment to the view, and the pictures of the past, seen through the mellow light of centuries, become soft and beautiful to the sight, like the shadowy outlines of far-off mountain peaks, whose purple heads half hide themselves behind a screen of clouds." The men and women who lived, and loved, and labored, and reared their homes among these hills and in these valleys, a hundred years ago and more, had they been interrogated, would doubt- less have replied, as did one of the present citizens when questioned with regard to his ancestry, " Oh no, we never did anything remarkable, nothing worthy of notice." And yet to us of the present day, as we gaze down the vista of the departed years, their words and acts are of very great interest and impor- tance, and the labors and the toils which to them may have seemed to bear such meagre fruitage, are to us, after the lapse of more than a century, invested, as it were, with a halo of glory.
12
Boxborough : a New England Town and its People.
We look back still farther into the past, through another century or more, and lo ! the red man is lord of all these sunny slopes and vales : and here, wild and free as his own native hills, he made the forest his hunting-ground. We are informed by early historians that the Rev. John Eliot of Roxbury visited this region some time in the seventeenth century. He was a philanthropie man and an earnest Christian. With him came General Daniel Gookin, the historian, who had in charge at that time. as an agent of the Government, all the Indian tribes in
Massachusetts. Here they found the chief of the Nashoba Indians, John Tokatawan, and the venerable Eliot preached and prayed in the open air, and James Speen and his Indian choir sang a psalm. But early in the eighteenth century the white men sought a place in this region where they might build their log huts, found their homes, and rear their families. We of today can scarcely realize through what difficulties and dangers the first permanent settlements were made.
Boxborough was formed by taking a portion from three adjoining towns,- the largest part from Stow, a smaller portion from Littleton, and a piece of Harvard making up the town whose outline - until the recent change in the Littleton bound- ary-was nearly a square. Previous to 1750 the boundary line between Stow and Littleton was near where the present town- house stands, running in a south-easterly direction past the house now owned and 'occupied by Mr. E. B. Cobleigh, which was then in Stow, and onward to a heap of stones in a field in front of Mr. Furbush's dwelling, thence in the direction of Mr. Herbert Blanchard's residence.
Boxborough, though the smallest town in Middlesex county. is yet " beautiful for situation." From her lofty hill-tops the true lover of nature is never weary of gazing on the panorama of beauty which is everywhere spread out before him. Which- ever way he turns- north, east, south, or west - pictures of rare rural loveliness greet his eye and delight his soul. No wonder that her sons and daughters love and are proud of their birthplace. Said one of her former residents, as he came up to an annual gathering "in the old meeting-house on the hill "
13
Scenery and Situation.
(now the town hall) : " I always feel as if I was nearer Heaven when I come up this hill,"-words lightly spoken, doubtless, and yet they should be true, for surely when one long since gone forth from his early home to active, earnest life among men returns again and feels his feet pressing once more the soil of his own native hills, hallowed by so many happy and sacred associations ; when his eyes behold again, as in his youth- ful days. the delightful scenery so familiar grown; when his hand clasps the hand of neighbor and friend as in early youth, and his ears hear as of old the loved voices of his childhood,- he may feel more nearly akin to the early days of free-hearted innocence and happiness, and therefore "nearer Heaven."
To the eastward, in the distance, the gleaming church spires designate the position of the three Acton villages, while in a southerly direction the new city of Marlborough lies quietly resting upon her sister hills. Turning toward the western hori- zon, Monadnock, Wachusett and other eminences meet the eye, while to the north-east, the village spires of Littleton and Westford are visible amid the distant trees.
The residents on the outskirts of the towns mentioned,- - Stow, Littleton and Harvard,- drawn there probably by the fer- tility of the soil, tilled their farms and raised their crops, but found themselves subjected to much inconvenience through their remoteness from any place of public worship. So they formed a society among themselves, purchased the old meeting- house in Harvard in 1775, and then petitioned the General Court to be set off as a separate town.
The town is situated in the west central part of Middlesex county, and is bounded north by Harvard and Littleton, east by Littleton and Acton, south by Stow, and west by Harvard. From the assessors' report for the year 1889 we have the follow- ing: 6,428 acres of land: total valuation of assessed estate, $246,705 ; polls, 108 : number of scholars in the public schools, 63. According to the census of 1885 the population was 348 : in 1850 it numbered 395 : and in 1837 the number was 433. The number of voters in 1889 was 76: in 1834 the number was 99. In 1847 the whole valuation was $268,913. The
14
Boxborough : a New England Town and its People.
amount of taxes for 1889 was 2,840.71; in 1847 the amount was 1,299.08. In the town safe, in very good condition, there is an outline map on parchment by Silas Holman -- scale two hundred rods to an inch. His survey was made in 1794, and the area given is 7,036 acres and 100 rods. By a com- parison of some of the foregoing figures, it would seem that the town had been slowly losing ground for at least a half century. There seem to be good reasons for this. It has been a farming community from the first ; but although smallest in population of any town in Middlesex county, it yet ranks second only in agriculture. The value of its agricultural products in 1885 was $92,349. But it is situated at a distance from market towns and main thoroughfares; though two busy streams, Stony Brook and Assabet river, have their source here, it has no water-power of its own by which the many industries of the present age are carried forward to so great an extent in other places : it has not the advantage of being a railroad centre.
The Fitchburg Railroad skirts its eastern border, with stations at both Littleton and Acton - a flag station at Hoar's Crossing in Boxborough -and that is all; it was of later incorporation than any of the other towns about us. As a farm- ing town it began its existence over a century ago, and as such it is destined to remain. There is no employment other than farming to call in those from without, and her own sons and daughters are drawn away to other towns and cities in the hope of enjoying their greater advantages. A good town for one's birthplace : a good place to begin the culture of those sterling qualities which shall grow and increase and actuate in all the affairs of after-life.
As I look at the materials before me for the making of this history of Boxborough, gathered in many different ways and brought together under various heads and dates, I feel as though it would be, at least, a saving of thought and labor, could one do what the "projector " in Gulliver's Travels was trying to accomplish ; viz., the writing of books of philosophy, poetry, politics, laws, mathematics, theology and history ( ?) without any assistance whatever from study or genius, by
15
Harvard Meeting-house.
simply throwing upon a frame all the words of his vocabulary, - in the "ordinary proportion of verbs, participles, nouns," etc., - and then setting his pupils at the work of grinding out the various tomes. But upon second thought it would be better, doubtless, to classify and bring under the correct dates and headings these facts and incidents of early times.
As we have already remarked, it was for convenience of public worship, not the desire for a new town, that first led the residents of these remote portions of three other towns to band themselves together. The purchase of a church building has also been alluded to. In an ancient record purporting to be " The Town Book for Births and Deaths and Strays and Poor Persons for Boxborough," we find the following : -
" At a meeting Held on the 31 Day of January, 1775, By a Sartain Society part Belonging to Stow and part of Littleton and part of Harvard, at the house of Ens Abel Fletcher, in order to Erect a meatting-house for the publick worship of God -1 ly. chose Mr. Coolidge Moderator, 2ly. Chose Mr. Bennet Wood of Littleton, and Mr. Joseph Stone of Stow, a Committee for purchasing Harvard Old meatting-House.
A Covenant to indemnify sd Committee :
This may certify that we the subscribers Do Covenant and engage with Each other that we will pay our subscriptions as is hereafter set Down towards purchasing the Old meatting hous of Harvard, for which purpose we have chosen Mr. Bennet Wood of Littleton and Mr. Joseph Stone of Stow to Represent and act for us at a vandue in order for Sail of sd House on the Second Day of February next and Do engage hereby to fulfill according as they the sd Bennet Wood and Joseph Stone Shall bid or otherways agre at sd vandue, in testimony thereof we Do hereunto set our hands this 31 Day of January, 1775.
Silas Wetherbee Edward Brown
One-quarter part. One-sixteenth part.
s. d.
Joseph Stone . 2 0 0
Samuel Wetherbee
3 0 0
16
Borborough : a New England Town and its People.
s. d.
Phinchas Wetherbee 1 10 0
AAbel Fletcher
2 0 0
Reuben Wetherbee
140
John Taylor
1 12 0
Ephraim Whitcomb
2 0 0
Oliver Taylor
0 18 0
Solomon Taylor
0 18 0
Henry Coolidge
2 0 0
Levi Wetherbee
0 18 0
James Whitcomb, Jun.
0 18 0
Abel Whitcomb
200
Boston Draper
2 0 0
Lieut. Daniel Wetherbee 1 10 0
Edward Wetherbee, 2,000 of shingles. 3 ly. Voted to adjourn to meatting hous Spot."
Then the society met and voted to accept the Committee's report, and farther " voted to take down sd Old meatting house and move it to the spot agreed upon By sd Society and Raise the Same." Mr. Silas Wetherbee is recorded as making a present to the society of three acres of land "for the use of a meatting hous Lot." Record is also made of the pecuniary aid rendered by each member of the new society, and of the work performed upon the newly purchased house of worship. Nov. 25, 1776, the society "voted to Except of the Report of the Committee Chosen to Examine accounts for work done which is as followeth :
€
s. d.
q.
Daniel Wetherbee
26 17
9 2
Abel Fletcher
17 12 1 2
Ephraim Whitcomb
25 13 1 2
Samuel Wetherbee
19 7 10 2
James Whitcomb, Jr.
26 17 10
2
Abel Whitcomb
19 0 10 2
Phinehas Wetherbee
12 12 1
2
Henry Cooledge
9 15
1 2
Bennet Wood
31 13 S 2
17
Petition to General Court.
42
s.
d. q.
Oliver Taylor Solomon Taylor
21 19
7
34 1 1 2
Boston Draper Old ten.
11 16
7 2
We the subscribers Being appointed a Committee to Ex- amine the accounts of the Society of Stow, Littleton, and Harvard have accordingly Examined the Same and we find Due for Each man above Named to pay the sum as set against his Name in the List above written."
In 1777, November 24, the society again met and "voted to ehuse a Committee to Petition the General Cort to Sett of sd Society," and they accordingly chose Silas Taylor, James Whitcomb and Bennet Wood a committee for this purpose. The new society seems to have been unsuccessful in their efforts in this direction at the first, but committees were repeatedly chosen from among her citizens to present the petition to the General Court, and June 14, 1779, they voted to apply to Mr. Francis Dana, attorney, - of whom Hon. Richard H. Dana was a grandson, - "to Carry on our Memorialist Petition and Present it to the General Court, and voted $100 for that purpose." But the attorney's efforts, even, must have failed, or the $100 was too small a sum to attract him to the cause for a sufficient length of time, for during the next four years the names of committees from among the citizens are often recorded. In 1780, when a committee was again chosen to apply to the General Court to be set off, they also voted "to chuse a committee to treat with the obstinate part of Our Society in Littleton." The " obstinate party " is referred to again a little later. It is not strange that the towns called upon to yield up a part of their own territory to form a new town should make objection, but there is no record of any demur on the part of either Stow or Harvard. Littleton seems to have been opposed to the tran- saction from the beginning. Three times more - December, 1780, January, 1782, and January 21, 1783 - the same petition is presented to the General Court, and at last, after a six
18
Boxborough : a New England Town and its People.
years' struggle, on the 24th of February, 1783, the pe- tition is granted. The following is a copy of the Act of Incorporation :
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-three .-- An Act for Erecting a District in the County of Middlesex by the name of Boxborough.
WHEREAS a number of Inhabitants living in the Extreme Parts of the Towns of Stow, Harvard and Littleton, Labour under many Inconveniences by Reason of their grate distance from any Place of Publick Worship and have Requested this Court that they May be Incorporated into a District with all the Privileges of a town, that of sending a Representative to the General Court Excepted - Be it therefore Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court Assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That a Part of Stow, a Part of Harvard and a Part of Littleton, all which are Included within the Boundarys following, viz: Beginning at the Road Southerly of John Robins' Buildings, and Running Southerly in Acton line to a Place called Flag hill. being two miles, three-quarters and ten rods to a heap of Stones; from thence Westerly in Stow, Two miles and a quar- ter to a Stake and Pillar of Stones in the Harvard Line, then turning Northerly through part of Harvard to a white oak tree by a Causeway : from thence to the Place first Set out from, be and hereby is incorporated into a District by the Name of Boxborough. And all the Polls and Estates that are Included within the said Boundaries shall belong to the said District, Except those of such of the Inhabitants of that Part Set off from Littleton as Shall not, within the Term of twelve months from the Passing of this act Return their Names into the office of the Secretary of this Common-wealth, Signifying their Desire to become Inhabitants of the said District. And be it further Enacted by the authority aforesaid that the said District be and hereby is invested with all the Powers, Privileges and Immunities that Towns in this Common-wealth do or may Injoy, Except the Privilege of Sending a Representative to the General Court, and the Inhabitants of the said District Shall have leave, from time to time, to join with the Town of Stow in Choosing a Representative, and shall be notified of the Time and Place of Election in Like manner with the Inhabitants of the said Town of Stow by a Warrant from the Selectmen of the said Town to a Constable or Constables of the said District, Requiring him or them to warn the Inhabi- tants to attend the meeting at the time and Place appointed, which warrant shall be Seasonably Returned by the said Constable or Constables of the said District, and the Representative may be Chosen Indifferently from the said Town or District, the Pay or allowance to be borne by the town and District in Proportion as they shall, from time to time, Pay to the State Tax ; and be it further Enacted that Jonathan Wood, Esq., of Stow, be and hereby is impowered to Issue this Warrant, directed to some Principal Inhabitant within the said District, Requiring him to warn the Inhabitants of the said District, Qualified to vote in Town affairs, to assemble at some Suitable time and Place in the said District to Chuse Such officers as Towns and Districts
19
Act of Incorporation.
are required to Chuse in the month of March annually, Provided, Neverthe- less, that the Inhabitants of the said District Shall Pay their Proportionable Part of all Such Town, County and State Taxes as are already assessed by the said Respective Towns from which they are taken, and their proportion- able part of all Publick Debts Due from the said Towns, and also Provide for the Support of all the Poor who were Inhabitants within the said Dis- trict before the passing of this Act, and shall be Brought back for main- tenance Hereafter, And whereas it is fit and Necessary that the whole of the said District should belong to one and the same County, be it therefore further Enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that that Part of the said District which is set off from the Town of Harvard, in the County of Worcester, shall be and hereby is annexed and set to the County of Middle- sex, and the line established by this act as the Boundaries betwixt the said Town of Harvard and the said District, shall hereafter be the boundary Line betwixt the said County of Middlesex and the said County of Worcester.
This instrument bears the signatures of Samuel Adams, president of the Senate, and John Hancock, Governor.
20
Borborough : a New England Town and its People.
CHAPTER II.
DISTRICT OFFICERS-BOUNDARY TROUBLES-ESTATES TRANS- FERRED - LOCATION OF BOUNDARIES - WORKING OF NEW DISTRICT -TOWN HALL - INCIDENTS - ROADS - FITCHBURG RAILROAD - POLITICAL.
ACCORDINGLY, Jonathan Wood, Justice of the Peace of Stow, issued the warrant - notifying and warning all voters to asseni- ble at the meeting-house that they might perfect their organiza- tion by the election of the customary officers -to Bennet Wood, one of the principal inhabitants of the new District of Boxborough. To the people of today the officers chosen and the offices filled, on that 10th of March, 1783, may not be without interest, and we give them entire. Jonathan Wood, Esq., presided as moderator.
Capt. Silas Taylor was chosen clerk of the District; Capt. Silas Taylor, Silas Wetherbee, Ens. Abel Fletcher, Lieut. James Whitcomb, Lieut. Ephraim Whitcomb, selectmen ; Capt. Phinehas Taylor, treasurer; Capt. Silas Taylor, Abel Whit- comb, Lieut. Ephraim Whitcomb, assessors ; Joseph Howe, Lieut. James Whitcomb. Bennet Wood, constables ; Bennet Wood, Paul Hayward, wardens : Judah Wetherbee, Capt. Eleazer Fletcher, tithing-men ; Oliver Mead, Ephraim Taylor, Bennet Wood. Oliver Taylor, highway surveyors' and collectors ; Oliver Wood, sealer of leather; Edward Brown, Thomas Law- rence, fish-reeves ; Capt. Phinehas Taylor, Lieut. Nehemiah Batchellor, deer-reeves ; Joseph Raymond, Boston Draper, hog- reeves ; Richard Wetherbee, Ebenezer Phillips, fence-viewers ; Phinehas Wetherbee, Ephraim Wetherbee, firewards ; Jonathan Wetherbee, Joseph Sawyer, field-drivers ; Edward Brown,
21
Boundary Troubles.
Solomon Taylor, surveyors of boards and shingles ; Jonathan Wood, justice of the peace.
From time to time other officers were chosen, as pound- keeper, surveyor of lumber, hoops and staves, vendue-master, sexton, etc.
The disinclination, on the part of Littleton, towards the new district, was a difficulty which did not seem to adjust itself in later years, and down through the century, even to the present time, the disagreement may be traced. There was a great deal of trouble about the boundaries, although they were described and established by the letter of the act of incorporation already given. All the polls and estates within the given limits were to belong to the new district except those of such of the inhabi- tants set off from Littleton as should not return their names to the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth within a year from the passing of the act. So although the boundary was designated between Littleton and Boxborough, the people of the Littleton part were left to go or come - as they chose - to pay their taxes to the mother town as before, although residents of the new district. The towns were continually in trouble over the boundary line. It was at last referred to the General Court, and an act fixing the boundary was passed February 20, 1794. This act also gave permission to those of Littleton who had not returned their names, "their polls and their estates," who still voted and were assessed in Littleton, "to belong to said Littleton " so long as this state of things continued ; that such persons might at any time apply to said Boxborough to become members thereof, and, upon vote of her inhabitants, be accepted as citizens of Boxborough, with their polls and estates.
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