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WAKEFIELD MASSACHUSETTS
A HISTORY 1544:1944
TERCENTENARY
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Lucius Beebe Memorial Library
http://www.archive.org/details/historyofwakefie00eato
THE EVOLUTION OF A TOWN NAME
LYNN VILLAGE
1638-9
REDDING 1643
READING
1644
SOUTH READING
1812
WAKEFIELD
1868
.....
CYRUS WAKEFIELD
Born February 14, 1811
Died October 26, 1873
(Framed Portrait in Town Hall Auditorium)
This Volume Is Dedicated to the Inhabitants of the Town of Wakefield by the Tercentenary Committee May, 1944
"Ask, now," says the Prophet, "of the Days that are Past, and they shall teach thee."
"We have so much to do, to care for, to think, read and talk about, in regard to what is going on in the wide and wide-awake world about us that there is great danger in forgetting the PAST and what is due from the PRESENT."
FOREWORD
The story of the settlement of Ancient Redding, its people, its geo- graphical boundaries, its ponds and rivers, and its problems has been told and retold over the years by painstaking writers of local history.
Fruitful sources of Reading's early history are to be found on the shelves of libraries and homes-available to all, but too little sought for in these later days.
The town of Wakefield, in a town meeting held March 8, 1943, auth- orized the appointment of a committee to plan for a proper observance of the three hundredth anniversary of the town. The naming of a Tercen- tenary Committee followed, and one of its plans was to prepare and publish an up-to-date history of the town.
The memorable Bi-Centennial in 1844 ended with a great banquet with the following closing toast :
"The Inhabitants of Old Reading: One hundred years hence, when our posterity shall celebrate the third centennial anniversary of the incorporation of the town, may we, by faith and patience, have obtained seats in that pavilion of God 'not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.' "
And so, as the sun was sinking in the western skies, the President of the Day declared that "this gathering stands adjourned for one hundred years."
And now, Gentlemen of the Board of Selectmen, it is May, 1944, and will you, through your Tercentenary Committee, call the townspeople of Wakefield to continue the adjourned meeting of 1844, and proceed with the business of the 1944 Tercentenary.
WILLIAM E. EATON EVA G. RIPLEY HELEN F. CARLETON
History Committee
History is a collection of Facts having to do with humans, their ambitions, deeds, desires and achieve- ments. The inspirational lessons of the Past are brought to the individual as a result of the use and understanding of the Facts of History and its teachings, through the printed page.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page 15
CHAPTER I
EARLY HISTORY OF READING
Early Settlers - Their Homes - Land Grants - The Three Parishes Revolution - Separation of Parishes - Early Names
CHAPTER 11
43
SOUTH READING
Name Change - Town Life - War of 1812 - South Reading Stage Coach Company -Sale of Pew in Baptist Church - First Town House First High School - Stoneham-Wakefield Bounds - Two Hundredth Anniversary - Civil War A Second Change of Name
CHAPTER 111
WAKEFIELD 59
Name Change - New Town Hall and Dedication Exercises - Town Hall Portraits - Chronological Progress Over Seventy-four Years 250th Anniversary in 1894 - Historical Pageant of 1934
CHAPTER IV 88
THE TOWN IN THE WARS
Early Military History -Civil War -- Richardson Light Guard Spanish-American War - World Wars I and II State Guard Units
CHAPTER V
97
TOWN GOVERNMENT
Early Forms - Duties and Obligations of Town Officials and Departments, as of 1944 - Town Planning
CHAPTER VI 119
RELIGIOUS PROGRESS
Town and Church Begin Together Brief History of Each of the Churches - Co-operation Today
131
CHAPTER VII
OLD HOMES AND SITES
List of Old Houses and Historic Sites - Dates of Origin Identification Tablets Placed
CHAPTER VIII
141
EDUCATION
Dame Schools, "English" Schools, "Grammar" Schools Buildings in Order of Construction -- Evidences of Progress
CHAPTER 1X
153
LUCIUS BEEBE MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Story of Early Libraries - Lucius Beebe Memorial Library - The Gift Its Services to the Town Today
CHAPTER X 158
NEWSPAPERS
Journalism, Past and Present - Publishers Wakefield Daily Item and Item Press
CHAPTER XI
..... 162
INDUSTRIES
Early and Modern Shoemaking - Manufacturing Concerns Wakefield, a Thriving Industrial Town
CHAPTER XII
BANKS AND BANKING 177
Early Institutions - Wakefield Savings Bank - Wakefield Trust Company Wakefield Co-operative Bank
CHAPTER XIII
183
RED CROSS, HOSPITAL PROJECT, COMMUNITY CHEST
-
Wakefield Chapter in World War I - In the Twenty Years After In World War II - Wakefield Hospital Association Wakefield Community Chest
CHAPTER XIV 187
CIVILIAN DEFENSE
Organized Under Massachusetts Committee on Public Safety Massachusetts Women's Defense Corps
CHAPTER XV
189
PATRIOTIC AND VETERANS' ORGANIZATIONS
Brief History of Each Organization Since Its Formation
CHAPTER XVI
195
MEMORIALS TO VETERANS
Four Wars Recognized by Memorials Recalled in Yearly Exercises
CHAPTER XVII
203
HISTORICAL SOCIETIES
Wakefield Historical Society - Its Exhibition Hall Col. Hartshorne House Association - Its Activities
CHAPTER XVIII
TRANSPORTATION 205
Stage Lines - First Railroad Service - Upper Station - Street and Bus Lines - New Route 128 State Highway
.
208
CHAPTER XIX
LAKES, PARKS AND PLAYGROUNDS
Wakefield's Lakes, Parks and Playgrounds - Incentive to Healthful Recreation - Veterans', Moulton, Mapleway and Nasella Playgrounds
CHAPTER XX 212
CIVIC AND PHILANTHROPIC
Organizations Aiding Cultural and Philanthropic Progress Objects - Activities
CHAPTER XXI 226
CHARITABLE AND FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS
Lodges and Their Auxiliary Bodies - Relief Associations
CHAPTER XXII 237
CEMETERIES
The Two Early Burial Grounds - Lakeside Cemetery Forest Glade Cemetery - Jewish Burial Ground
CHAPTER XX111
239
NATIONAL AND STATE ACTIVITIES
Post Office - Selective Service - Rationing Board - U. S. Employment Office - District Health Office - State Armory - Camp Curtis Guild
CHAPTER XXIV 246
TERCENTENARY OBSERVANCE
Committees - Outline of Proposed Programs by the Town Veterans and the First Parish
CHAPTER XXV
HISTORIAN'S SCRAPBOOK 252
Wakefield of 1944 - Looking Backward - Items that Fell by the Wayside Incidents Down the Years, Amusing and Otherwise
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Armory, State
91
Bank Buildings
Old Bank, North Ave., cor. Albion
57
Savings
179
Trust Company 178
Bill (Jeremiah Bryant's, 1767)
261
Churches
Baptist
120
Congregational
120
Episcopal
120
First Baptist, Second Meeting House
50
First Parish Meeting House, 1644
251
Greenwood Union
120
Italian Baptist
121
Italian Catholic
121
Methodist
120
Most Blessed Sacrament (Greenwood)
121
St. Joseph's
121
Universalist
121
Communion Cup, Ancient 1740
41
Crystal Apartments
253
Crystal Lake
210
Elks' Home, Lakeside
233
Evans, L. B. Son Co. Factory
166
Fire Station, Central
104
Forest Glade Cemetery, Shrine
237
Heywood-Wakefield Co. (Former)
175
Influential Citizens of South Reading - 1868
60
Invitation to 250th Observance
75
Item Building
160
Lakeside Cemetery Memorial Chapel
238
Lakeside, Walk Along
87
Library, The Lucius Beebe Memorial
155
Maps
Early Lynn
24
Land Grants
22
Old Reading, 1647
26
Route 128 Highway
207
South Reading As It Was-1750
36
South Reading, About 1856
52,53
Wakefield, 1944
Insert
Wakefield, Location of
99
(OVER)
Memorials to Veterans
Common Boulder 197
Greenwood Boulder 196
Hiker Monument 198
Honor Roll Memorial Plaque, World War II Soldiers' Monument
209
Odd Fellows' Building
226
Old Houses
Eaton, Lilley
135
Emerson (or Kendall)
132
Green
137
Hartshorne, Col. James (1944 View)
202
Hartshorne, Col. James (Fireplace)
204
Hopkins, Joseph
131
Swain
16
Wakefield Mansion
64
Winn, Suel Homestead
133
Playground
211
Post Office
240
Sailboats on Quannapowitt
96
School Buildings
Franklin
140
Greenwood
140
Greenwood Seminary
138
High
147
Hurd
140
Lincoln
140
Montrose
140
St. Joseph's
140
South Reading Academy Buildings
56
Warren
140
Town Hall
62
Town House, First
69
Views, Old and New
Church Street, North Side
51
Civic Center, 1944
115
Hartshorne's Cove, 1882
72 70
Main Street, Easterly About 1870
44
Main Street, Westerly Side, 1872
84
Westward from Town Hall, 1875
68
Y. M. C. A. Building
216
Wakefield, Cyrus (Town Hall Painting)
4
Wakefield Upper Station
205
Washington, George (Town Hall Painting)
66
Winship, Boit Co. 169
Square, 1944 (Shopping Center)
200
0
READING
1644.1812
In 1639 sundry inhabitants of Lynn petitioned the Colony Court "for an inland plantation at the head of their bounds." This petition was granted upon condition that the petition- ers shall, within two years, make good proceeding in plant- ing, so as it may be a village, fit to contain a convenient number of inhabitants, which may in due time have a church there, etc. In 1644, a sufficient number of houses, (seven houses and seven families settled) having been built, and a sufficient number of families having been settled "the Court ordered that 'Linn Village' should take the name of Reading."
THE OLD SWAIN HOUSE Located on Vernon Street where DeVita's greenhouse now stands. Built in 1720 and later known as the "Batchelder House."
CHAPTER ONE
Early History of Reading
Early Settlers - Their Homes -Land Grants - The Three Parishes Revolution - Separation of Parishes - Early Names
Wakefield's birthday goes back 300 years to 1644, when Reading was incorporated as a Town. This period covering the growth from a primi- tive settlement to a prosperous progressive town of 18,000 people, has been crowded with events worthy to be recorded for this and future generations.
We have to go back to old England to learn the causes that led our ancestors to abandon their homes, churches and family connections, and embark on an emigration to a New World, to assist in creating a new nation. They were Christian men and women of good families, eager to escape from the relentless, religious persecution of the times, and to go to a place where freedom of action and worship might be their lot.
The first immigrants were Englishmen, not Welshmen, Irishmen or Scots, bringing with them to the New World "that inheritance of thought and language, of character and policies, of legal customs and political tra- ditions which had been gathered in that land by centuries of fortunate history." "These first settlers, their parents and families, had embraced the Puritan form of the Protestant religion; had been persecuted for long years; had learned of the opportunities beyond the broad Atlantic, and had left their homes in a great adventure in pursuit of a Freedom no longer theirs in old England."
The early Plymouth Colony of 1620 were Pilgrims; the Colonists to settle in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1624-30 and later, were Puritans.
Barry, in his history of Massachusetts, explains the difference between the Pilgrims and the Puritans:
"The Pilgrims were Separatists, having openly withdrawn from the communion of the National Church. Few of them had been reared in opulence or luxury. Few had enjoyed extensive opportunities for literary culture. Early inured to hardship and toil, unaccustomed to the ease and refinements of wealth, simple in their habits and moderate in their desires, they were eminently fitted as pioneers to New England.
"The Puritans on the other hand, were connected with the National Church, though not fully conforming to its service and ritual. Their
[ 17 ]
HISTORY OF WAKEFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
ministers were men of standing and influence. Of the laity, many were well versed in public affairs, possessed fortunes, accumulated or inherited, and lived in the enjoyment of the external comforts which wealth can command. Able of themselves to furnish both followers and funds, they could easily equip not one boat but a fleet, and send not one hundred but many hundreds, to inhabit the territory selected for their residence. The history of the Massachusetts Colony is of a stamp very different from that of the Plymouth Colony. Its enterprises were prosecuted with vigor and success. Its superior advantages gave it an immediate ascendency."
Roger Conant established a colony at Cape Anne in 1624, Conant being appointed Governor. Dissatisfaction with the location, and because of the unprofitableness of the experiment, these early settlers removed to Salem, where John Endicott and others joined the Colony. Here the settlement of Salem began under a "patent, granting all the land in that part of New England lying between three miles to the north of the Merri- mac, and three miles to the south of the Charles River, and of every part thereof in the Massachusetts Bay, and in length between the described breadth, from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea."
John Endicott, Esq., a Puritan of the sternest mould, sailed from Eng- land in June, 1628, in the "Abigail," landed at Salem with his wife and children, and soon was appointed Governor of the Plantation. This party of about fifty, with servants and "old planters," under Conant, made a settlement of about one hundred persons.
We now have a clearer vision of the landing in Salem, in 1629, of Governor Winthrop in the "Arbella" and the sister ships, the "Talbot," the "Ambrose," the "Charles" and the rest of the eleven ships in the fleet bearing Puritans from England to their new homes in Massachusetts.
We have referred to religious persecutions in England. The greater proportion of our first settlers were young men who had not, perhaps, felt seriously the outrages and restrictions endured by their parents, and fearful of the future, saw in the adventure a new life of liberty and happiness.
The great tide of Puritan immigration ceased in 1641, after which time few came to the Colony.
Those Englishmen! Those First Settlers! You of the present day should know more about them. They were capable, courageous and in- dustrious men following many trades.
First, there was Nicholas Brown, a husbandman whose home was in Inkburrow, Worcestershire. Lynn was first settled in 1629 and he was there! He came over with Cabot to Cape Ann or with Endicott to Salem. His family had means, for on the death of his father in 1660, he sent his eldest son back to England to obtain his inheritance.
[ 18 ]
READING-1644 TO 1812
There was William Cowdrey, probably the best educated of the first settlers, born in 1602 in Weymouth, England, who sailed from South- ampton in 1630. He was the lawyer of the settlement; drew all the early deeds, wills and other documents; was town clerk until his death in 1687. For six years before his death, the town kept him in office through the services of an assistant. William was also Clerk of the Writs, Deacon of the Church, Alcoholic Commissioner and at one time was appointed by the colony to a Committee to draw up "a confession of Faith and Discipline of the Churches."
There was Captain Richard Walker, the surveyor and soldier, who was in Lynn in 1629, coming with the Governor Endicott group. He was born in 1610. He was captain of Reading's first training band. After 25 years he removed to Boston when he developed a fur trade in Nova Scotia, serving as deputy governor of that province.
There was John Poole, the miller, glover and farmer, who was thought to be one of the wealthiest in the settlement. He was granted land on Water Street for "a mill to grind the Settlers' Corne." He was in Cam- bridge in 1632 and in Lynn in 1636. In 1650 he built a saw mill on Vernon Street at the Lynnfield town line. With Lieut .- Gov. Dudley in 1632, he was among the first eight proprietors of Cambridge. Though prominent in all ways in the settlement it is strange that he never held office nor was he a member of the Reading Church.
There was Deacon Zachary Fitch, born 1591, a native of St. Albans, England, who was at Lynn in 1633. He was among the very first to build a house in the Reading area. He was not one of the younger men, for he was 51 when he came from Lynn. Our present Fitch Lane is a reminder of his life in Reading.
There was Francis Smith, who was in Watertown in 1637; whose domicile on Main Street at the Junction, and farm of 200 acres or more, extended from Wappatuck Pond (later Smith's Pond and Crystal Lake) to the Woodville district. He died in 1650, the first of the early settlers to pass on. The nearest approach to the size of those first dwellings is contained in the inventory of Smith's estate-a house of a kitchen, parlour, bedroom and hall in which he reared six sons-John, Isaac, Abraham, James, Benjamin and Elias, and two daughters, Katherine and Mary.
There was Isaac Hart (or Heart) born in 1618, who came to the Bay Colony in 1637 as a servant to Richard Carver. Hart owned the land at "Hart's Corner," where the second meeting house was built in 1689 on land extending from Reading Pond to the present Baptist Church. During the witchcraft episode his wife, Elizabeth, an eccentric person, was arrested and imprisoned for ten months in a Boston jail.
[ 19 ]
HISTORY OF WAKEFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
There was Deacon Thomas Parker, who came from England in the "Susan Ellen," out of London in 1635, and was in Lynn in 1637. He was born in 1614, and was one of three brothers to come to America from Reading, England. The other two settled in Chelmsford and Groton. He was an influential man in the first settlement until his death in 1683
There was Captain Thomas Marshall, Sr., and his son, Lieutenant Thomas Marshall, born in 1613, sailed from London in the "James" in 1635. Both were members of the first Reading Church. Captain Marshall returned to England, served under Cromwell, returned to Saugus where he was an inn keeper. The son was a farmer and "sold good, sweet, well- salted and 'fatt beeff,' fat pork and dry pease and wheat" in the Boston market.
There was James Bouttell, born in England in 1615, who was in Lynn in 1638. That he was in Lynn Village in 1642 is shown by the birth in that year of his eldest son, James. It is recorded that one of the outstand- ing characteristics of the family is that they were patriots, for there never was a war in this country but that the name figured in a prominent manner. The family was originally of Norman-French, spelled Bouteville. In the ancient village of Bouteville near Rouen, France, the foundation of the old family castle can still be traced.
Among other settlers was Dea. John Damon born in 1621; Thomas Clark born in 1618; Robert Burnap born in 1595; William Eaton and his brother, Jonas, who came to America in 1637 in the good ship "Hercules,' first settling in Watertown; Henry Felch, probably of Welsh origin and said to have been a descendant of David Prince of North Wales, and his Princess Mary, granddaughter of King Henry the First of England. Thomas Hartshorne, born about 1614, was a "Taylor" and the ancestor of the local family of Hartshornes; William Hooper, born 1617, was only 18 when he arrived from England. Limited space forbids mention of others.
Reviewing the ages of the first Reading men, it is apparent that the majority were young men, going places with homes and families at the end of the rainbow in the new America. Brown settled on the east shore of Reading Pond near the upper end: Cowdrey opposite our Town Hall; Smith on Main Street at Wakefield Junction; Poole near the Rattan Factory; Taylor and the Eatons on the east shore of Reading Pond; Fitch between Salem and Pearl Streets; Sweyne near the junction of Lowell and Salem Streets; Kendall, Taylor and Clark on Prospect Street; Walker on Elm Street-and so Reading came to be settled!
Historians complain of the absence of preserved correspondence be- tween early settlers and their homeland folks in England. The best avail-
[ 20 ]
READING-1644 TO 1812
able records are the wills, deeds, agreements, etc., recorded in the courts, or held as family heirlooms by the descendants.
Prior to 1638 there was unrest among the men in Lynn-an urge to penetrate the land to the west where some of them had explored.
What wonders did these early settlers have spread before their vision as they gazed westward from "Castell Rock," or northward from what is now Hart's Hill?
Two beautiful lakes, two rivers rushing crystal waters eastward toward the ocean, a fair valley lying between lower hills, a pleasant prospect to those anxious, expectant men-explorers into the wilderness-a forest primeval! Geologists tell us that the valleys and hills are of glacial origin-"a silent witness to the might of the ancient sheet of ice that once enveloped all the region," and left Reading and Smith's Ponds and two rivers to the use of mankind forever.
Possibly there may be some foundation in the theory that in very early times the Merrimac River, or some tributary, flowed through Read- ing leaving, after some natural upheaval, our two lakes and the Saugus and Ipswich rivers, and Martin's Pond in North Reading.
Here were swamps, mighty trees, "such as are unknown in England," wild animals, enormous flocks of wild pigeons, the wild turkeys, "exceed- ing fat, sweet and in abundance, fish in the rivers and ponds, grapes, blackberries, blueberries in great quantities-and also the Indians, generally very friendly and from whom the Reading and Lynn settlers bought their land at a cost of £16 "of current sterling money of silver." Reading's share was £10, contributed by ninety-six of the early settlers. The Indians named in the old deed of 1686, now safe in the Salem Court House archives, were David Kunkshamooshaw, and Abigail, his wife, Cecily, alias Su-George; James Quonopohit, his wife, Mary, all nearest of kin and legal successors of George-No-Nose, alias Wenepoweekin, the earlier Chief of the Saugus Indians. It is interesting to note here that the first edition of the Bible ever printed in America (1663) was in the Indian language and was called "Um-Biblium God."
Following an irksome voyage across the Atlantic-a voyage averaging forty-six days -- we find our early settlers scattered in Salem, Lynn, in Charlestown and Watertown, the majority being in Lynn where they had been allotted land for habitations. A few at first ventured toward the early western boundary of the town-Nicholas Brown established his first home site in what is now Saugus Centre, near the old Saugus Iron Works. A short distance to the north, Richard Walker planted his first home on American soil; and still farther north, John Batchelder reared his dwelling.
[ 2] ]
1
MAP OF OLD READING MASSACHUSETTS - BAY COLONY - 1651-
1
NORTH ANDOVER
ANDOVER
MIDDLETON
SALEM
NON
SWAN POND
3
WILMINGTON CHARLESTOWN
SALEM . NOW PEABODY
NON
1
2
2
LYNN END
UGUS
SA
CHARLESTOWN
READING FOND
NOW
LYNN
CHARLESTOWN NOW STONEHAM
ONOd
1
LYNN GRANT - 1638 SIX MILES IN COUNTRY
3 COUNTY BJUNDS
-
SAUGUS
2
LYNN GRANT - 1639 FOUR SQUARE MILES BEYOND THE 1638 GRANT
BOSTONTOWN
3 READING GRANT- 1651 TWO MILES NORTH FROM THE IPSWICH RIVER TO THE ANDOVER BOUNDS
LAND GRANTS
(1) 1638. That portion first settled in what is now Wakefield. (2) 1639. Land extending west to Charlestown, now Stoneham and Woburn. (3) 1651. Land north of Ipswich River, now North Reading.
5
WOBURN
SHLINS
READING-1644 TO 1812
They were then nearer to their later, more permanent homes. Zachery Fitch, on the other hand, took land in the town village.
The coast land was not entirely suitable for permanent settlement. There was dissatisfaction with the lands allotted. This drew a group to- gether to consider removal of their families farther inland. Early explor- ers had reported the many advantages to be there found.
The decision was hastened by a grant of land in 1638 to Lynn inhabi- tants, by the Colony, extending six miles to the west from the first Lynn Church, established in 1635, to Reading's two ponds. That this group had several meetings to discuss ways and means of removal, is a matter of record at the Massachusetts State Archives, Exhibit 841, court records of 1683, on the authority of no less a person than William Cowdrey. In this group were Poole, Sadler, Marshall, Walker, Brown, Fitch and Martin. The Town of Lynn, naming members of this group as "deserters," peti- tioned the General Court for relief from taxes because of their removal to Reading, which relief was granted. An old Lynn record reads: "Those fewe able persons which were with us, its not known how many have de- serted us in removing to Redding."
Two other groups left Lynn about the same time but to more remote localities.
The 1638 grant gave the aforesaid group the opportunity to remove inland. Twelve hundred acres were allotted in a division as follows: 200 acres each to Nicholas Brown, Richard Walker, John Poole, and Richard Sadler; 60 acres each to William Cowdrey, John Smith, Boniface Burton and James Boutwell; 30 acres each to Zachery Fitch, Thomas Marshall and Thomas Parker; and George Taylor and Hugh Burt took 20 acres and Samuel Hutchinson ten acres. Sadler, Burton and Hutchinson sold their holdings without settling in "Linn Village." It is probable that these holdings were, for the most part, on both sides of our present Main Street and along the east shore of Redding Pond.
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