USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Medfield > History of the town of Medfield, Massachusetts, 1650-1886 : with genealogies of the families that held real estate or made any considerable stay in the town during the first two centuries > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01114 8886 n REYNOLDS HISTORICAL
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
Gc 974.402 M46T
7064645
HISTORY
TOWN OF MEDFIELD.
MASSACHUSETTS.
1650 1886
WITH GENEALOGIES OF THE FAMILIES THAT HELD REAL ESTATE OR MADE ANY CONSIDERABLE STAY IN THE TOWN DURING THE FIRST TWO CENTURIES.
EDITED BY
WILLIAM S. TILDEN.
ILUSTRATED WITH POKIEALS AND WITH ENGRAVINGS AFTER DRAWINGS FY
JOHN A. S. MONKS.
974. 402 m+Gt
BOSTON GEO H ELLIS, PUBLISHER, HA FRANKLIN STREET ISS7.
7064645
PREFACE.
"To know nothing of our ancestry or from whence we came, to have no reverence for the precious memories of the past, ... is to ignore the elements and influences that have made us what we are, to repudiate the natural instincts and affections of the human heart. .. . And what more precious testimonial of your love of kindred and home can you leave than that which provides for the transmission of the history of your ancestors ? And who so dead to sympathy and affection, to kindred and country, that would not preserve the record of his ancestors, the place of his birth, the home of his childhood, and the sacred spot where repose the loved and lost ones of earth?" -Marshall P. Wilder.
"The utility and importance of collecting and preserving local histories is becoming a matter of increased attention and interest. Public and private libraries already contain histories of a large number of the cities and towns of the Commonwealth. The desire to obtain and transmit historical and genea- logical facts and traditions is well-nigh universal, and the gratification of it tends in many instances to foster and stimulate the best affections of the heart and the noblest qualities of the character and life.
" Do we not owe it to our ancestors, to those who planted this fair town, and who encountered innumerable hardships,- the fruits of whose toils and trials we are now enjoying,- to preserve their memory, and transmit it to those who shall come after us?" - Rev. C. C. Sewall.
This book was not undertaken in the hope of pecuniary gain. The interest awakened by the bicentennial celebration in 1876 led many citi- zens to desire that a more complete memorial of the town might at some future time be prepared. The conviction that by the destruction or loss of old papers, too many of which were already beyond recovery, and by the passing away of the elderly people, the work of collecting materials was yearly growing more difficult, led several persons to com- mence gathering data and putting them in condition for future use. This effort called out a very general interest in the subject, and grew gradually into a determination to place these materials together in a form suitable for publication.
This work, while slow and laborious (upward of ten years in prog- ress), has been pleasant, nevertheless; and the editor feels that the citi- zens generally are deserving of the greatest credit for the cheerful assistance which they have rendered in placing family records and papers at his disposal as well as for a multitude of facts and reminis- cences communicated orally.
IO
HISTORY OF MEDFIELD.
It is plain that no work of this kind can be anything like a full history. The greater part of what we would desire to know has passed into abso- lute oblivion. A thousand questions will arise in the mind of the reader, which cannot be answered by any researches whatsoever.
" We shall never know how much unwritten history centres around the humble homes of the former inhabitants. We see traces of the cellar; we see the door-stone, the well, and the garden with its cluster- ing lilacs blooming year after year, though the hand that planted them long since crumbled into dust. But who crossed the threshold or drank from the mossy well or gathered the flowers we cannot tell. We wonder who toiled on those rocky slopes, till a pathetic interest attaches itself to the very stone walls stretching over the hills or outlining some small enclosure long diverted from its original use and abandoned as pasture land."
It is only the immaturity of youth, the thoughtlessness of the frivo- lous, or sensibilities calloused by an unrefined mode of life, that can pass, unheeding, those spots
. " where once the garden smiled, And still where many a garden flower grows wild."
In the preparation of this memorial to those who walked these streets and tilled these lands before us, we have endeavored to present facts, not fancies. Had we the power to indulge in fine writing, and should we allow ourselves to soar with fancy's flight, a more enjoyable book might doubtless be presented to the reader. But it would not be history. Then, again, many of the traditions that have come down to us are found, when scrutinized in connection with recorded facts, to have very little, if any, substantial basis. These are given, when given at all, as traditions only.
In the selection of facts to be presented, it has been the aim to bring forward such as might be of interest to natives of the town, and espe- cially those who are or have been intimately acquainted with various localities, to whom each hill and stream, each rock and vale, has a ten- der and special interest; such facts, also, as shed light upon the daily life as well as the public acts of the early inhabitants, our own ancestors ; and such, again, as are of interest to the general reader of New England history. In this, the suggestions of the Massachusetts Historical Society have been followed.
In collecting these facts, every known source of information has been consulted ; yet, very probably, there are still many ancient papers in existence which have escaped the most diligent inquiry, and which might assist in deciding or elucidating some obscure or doubtful points.
The suggestions of the Massachusetts Historical Society have also been followed with regard to the treatment of our religious or church record. This is made as full as possible during the early years, when
II
PREFACE.
town and parish were identical, and down to the time when the differ- ent denominations arose. The beginning of these is noticed, but the minutia of their subsequent and separate life are left to those who com- pile church or denominational histories.
CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT.
In the arrangement of the historical part of the work, after much con- sideration and consultation, the chronological plan has been adopted as, on the whole, best fitted for the purpose of a history of such a town as this. Medfield has not such a multiplicity of interests as many larger towns possess; and, while a topical plan gives a more connected account of each separate interest than a chronological arrangement can do, and thus offers special facilities to those who wish only to read up in certain lines of historical research, it is believed that the very com- plete indexes which accompany this work will give all necessary help in special reading.
GENEALOGICAL DEPARTMENT.
The genealogies are intended to give an account of all families which made any considerable stay in the town during the first two centuries, 1650-1850. Members of these families are followed to their removal from town; and the places to which they went are given, when possible. Owing to the large amount of matter in this department, the dates of births, deaths, and marriages are given in years only, leaving the exact month and day to those who are preparing family histories, and who care to be exact in this particular. The dates given are intended in all cases to correspond with New Style.
Biographical sketches are purposely brief, giving only well-known facts in regard to the persons mentioned, omitting generally expressions of opinion as to abilities or personal character, and confining biographi- cal notice, for the most part, to persons deceased at time of writtng.
Great pains has been taken to insure accuracy in statements con- cerning the early families. Most writers on this subject have followed Morse in his work on the first settlers of this region. But, several errors having been discovered in his books, it has been thought neces- sary to submit all cases to a new scrutiny and comparison with the original records as well as with the records of the settlement of estates in the Suffolk County Probate Office. Some important changes are thus made imperative, and it is believed that the arrangements of the families as given in this book are to be relied on.
The works of Rev. Abner Morse above referred to, Early Puritans and History of Sherborn and Holliston, are the result of much pains- taking research, and are most valuable for reference. Nevertheless, sub- sequent study has shown that caution must be used in accepting them at all points. The collating and copying of our own records, which have
1 2
HISTORY OF MEDFIELD.
been recently done, make that easy of discovery which before was laborious and difficult.
We find in some instances that dates upon tombstones and in family memoranda differ from those given in the public records. We have in such cases followed the latter.
But it is well known that no work of this kind has yet been produced that is free from errors. We do not expect that this will be. Though the greatest care in respect to accuracy has been exercised, members of the families mentioned will doubtless be able to add many important items from knowledge in their possession, and to detect some mistakes which have escaped the most careful scrutiny. In this, we shall but share with others who have been compilers of genealogical accounts.
The entire risk of publication has been assumed by Mr. George H. Ellis, of Boston. Ilis enthusiasm in regard to the history of his native town, together with the well-known character of the work that comes from his printing and publishing house, insures the typographical excel- lence of the book.
The illustrations and portraits, which add so much to the interest and attractiveness of the work,- first suggested, as we believe, by the late Rev. C. C. Sewall,- have been obtained very largely through the efforts of another of Medfield's sons, Hon. R. R. Bishop, who has on more than one occasion addressed our citizens on the subject of facts in our local history, and who has shown a lively interest in every- thing pertaining to the place of his nativity, especially in this attempt to gather together and preserve in permanent form these mementos of the past. Mention should be made also, in this connection, of another warm friend of the enterprise, the late J. R. Cushman, through whose energy and activity the fund necessary for the engravings was, after unexpected delays, at last completed. The drawings for the illustrations were made by the well-known artist, Mr. J. A. S. Monks, who, though not a native of this town, is connected, by his marriage, with a Medfield family.
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THE ENGRAVING FUND.
Daniel D. Curtis.
W. C. Langley.
D. D. Curtis & Co.
Mary Ellis.
Mrs. D. D. Curtis.
Jacob R. Cushman.
Thomas Minns.
Tyler Thayer.
Robert R. Bishop.
F. L. Babcock.
John W. Fairbanks.
Elizabeth S. Sewall.
Willard Harwood.
Jeremiah B. Hale.
G. E., N. T., and J. T. Allen.
Moses F. Clark.
H. R. and J. L. Plimpton.
Thomas L. Barney.
Henry and Lowell Mason.
John H. Gould.
William Gammell.
Irving Curtis.
E. V. Mitchell.
Charles Breck.
Moses Ellis.
Hamlet Wight.
Henry M. Parker.
George M. Fiske. James Hewins.
Alonzo B. Parker.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY,
17
CHAPTER II.
THE LANDS OF CHICKATABOT,
21
CHAPTER III.
THE PLACE COMMONLY CALLED BOGGESTOW, 24
CHAPTER IV.
GLIMPSES OF COLONIAL LIFE, 1630-1650, . 28
CHAPTER V.
THE SETTLEMENT OF MEDFIELD,
34
CHAPTER VI.
THE YEARS BEFORE KING PHILIP'S WAR,
51
CHAPTER VII.
KING PHILIP'S WAR, AND BURNING OF MEDFIELD,
79
CHAPTER VIII.
REBUILDING AND PROGRESS, 1677-1699,
93
CHAPTER IX.
ANNALS OF THE TOWN DURING THE TRANSITION PERIOD, 1700-1764,
. IIO
CHAPTER X.
MEDFIELD IN REVOLUTIONARY TIMES, . 1 50
14
HISTORY OF MEDFIELD.
CHAPTER XI.
PAGE
CLOSING ANNALS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, . 181
CHAPTER XII.
MEDFIELD IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, . 199
TOWN STATISTICS, 1885-1886,
267
LIST OF STREAMS, BRIDGES, AND LOCALITIES, 274
GENEALOGIES, 279
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
DRAWN BY J. A. S. MONKS.
PAGE
SITE OF OLD FORT, FOUNDRY STREET, 85 BAXTER HOMESTEAD, IOS
NOON HILL ACROSS THE MEADOWS, 184
MEETING-HOUSES OF THE FIRST PARISH, IS7
BIRTIIPLACE OF LOWELL MASON, 200 THE WILLOWS, 204 BIRTHPLACE OF HANNAH ADAMS, 211
ROCK NARROWS,
214
ONION'S CORNER GROCERY, 219
MEETING-HOUSES OF THE ORTHODOX SOCIETY, 230 JAMES CLARK'S TAVERN, 232 MEETING-HOUSES OF THE BAPTIST SOCIETY, 235
CHIENERY HALL (NEW, WITH RUINS OF THE OLD), 261
EXCELSIOR STRAW WORKS, .
263
ALLEN HOMESTEAD,
296
PEAK HOUSE,
34S
PORTRAITS.
HANNAII ADAMS; 284
DANIEL ADAMS, . 287
ELLIS ALLEN, .
303
JONATHAN P. BISHOP,
319
GEORGE W. CIIENERY,
343
DANIEL D. CURTIS,
366
JACOB R. CUSHMAN,
368 JOHN ELLIS, 3So
JAMES HEWINS, 412
LOWELL MASON, .
434
JONATHAN WIGHT,
519
HISTORY OF MEDFIELD.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
PRIOR to the year 1620, no permanent settlement was made by white men upon Massachusetts soil. Its coast had been explored in 1614 by Captain John Smith, of Virginia fame, who gave the first detailed account of this part of the world, and drew a map of the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod. He gave the names also of the principal Indian tribes with which he came in contact. He tells us that the country of that tribe called the Massachu- setts is "the Paradise of all those parts ; the sea coast, as you pass, shewes all along large corne fields."
The Massachusetts River, he says, "doth pierce many daies iourney the entrailes of that country." The name of this river was soon after changed to Charles, in honor of the king's second son, afterward Charles I. Describing the country, he adds, "The waters are most pure, proceeding from rockie countries ; the hearbes and fruits are of many sorts and kindes : as currans, or a fruit like currans, mul- berries, vines, goosberries, plummes, wallnuts, chesse-nuts, small nuts, &c .; pumpions, gourds, strawberries, beans, pease, and mayze; a kind or two of flax wherewith they make nets, lines, and ropes both small and great, verie
18
HISTORY OF MEDFIELD.
strong for their quantities. Oke is the chiefe wood." He mentions, however, several other kinds of wood as common.
The most glowing accounts were given by the early cx- plorers of the beauty, fertility, and resources of this part of the world; and it was regarded at that time by the people of England as a land of unsurpassed richness. Yet none were ready to leave their native land for a home in this western world till the date above mentioned. In the winter of that year came the Pilgrims, seeking freedom from oppression, and built a rude shelter above their heads upon the lonely shores of Plymouth. In the following spring, they reared their seven houses, and planted twenty-six acres of corn, peas, beans, and barley.
During the next ten years, settlements were commenced at Weymouth, Mt. Wollaston, Cape Ann, and Salem. In 1621, ten of the Plymouth men came by boats to Shawmut, now Boston, to trade with the Indians. But, in those days, no white man, probably, penetrated as far inland as this.
THE BAY COLONY.
In 1628, a patent was granted by the crown to six persons of all "that part of New England lying between three miles to the north of the Merrimack and three miles to the south of Charles River, and of every part thereof, in the Massa- chusetts Bay ; and in length between the described breadth, from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea." This patent included the territory now embraced within our township.
The year 1630 brought Winthrop's fleet of eleven vessels : in that year, thirteen hundred persons came over the seas, and Boston was founded. Soon after Winthrop's arrival, a party, in endeavoring to find a favorable place for settle- ment, went "three leagues up Charles River," and found a satisfactory location at Watertown. The same year also, settlements were made at Dorchester, Roxbury, Newtown (now Cambridge), and Lynn.
The oppression and persecution of the non-conformists in England reached their height when, in 1633, Laud was
19
INTRODUCTORY.
made Archbishop ; and the decade commencing with 1630 witnessed the great emigration from the old country. New settlements were made not only along the coast northward to New Hampshire, but also farther inland.
In those days, the Dutch were flourishing along the Hudson, the renowned Wouter Van Twiller having become governor there in 1632. From the Dutch, the English colonists first learned of the fertile lands in the Connecticut Valley ; and, in 1633, William Holmes of Plymouth went by boat up the Connecticut, and built a trading-house at the mouth of the Windsor River. That locality still bears the name of "Plymouth meadow." The same year, John Old- ham and three others went from Boston to Windsor by land. He followed the paths of the Indians all the way, and lodged with them in their huts by night. All of them treated him with kindness. He brought home some hemp, said to be much better than the English, and which grew in abundance there ; also "some black lead, whereof the Indians told him there was a whole rock." He was undoubtedly the first white man who penetrated the country in that direction. He was followed by Samuel Hull, who started in November to go through the woods to the Connecticut River, return- ing in January. The next year, men were sent to examine the country along the river; and their glowing accounts of the fertility of those lands soon spread among the towns along Massachusetts Bay, and some of the more advent- urous determined to go there. In 1635, a company from Watertown made a settlement at Weathersfield, others from Newtown settled at Hartford. In October, "sixty men, women, and children, with their horses, cattle, and swine, journeyed through the wilderness to Windsor, Conn. They were fourteen days in going." The next year, William Pynchon, who had come over with Winthrop, went with a small company from Roxbury, and commenced a settlement at Springfield.
What route these parties took in their overland journey is uncertain : the oldest map of the "Bay Path," in the State archives, was drawn in 1645, and represents it as lying
20
HISTORY OF MEDFIELD.
somewhat to the northward of us. But it is stated that the route of those going and returning between Connecticut and the Bay lay through Dedham, to which our territory originally belonged. It is probable, therefore, that this locality became known to white men about the time of these first overland journeys.
In these years, new towns were being founded in the eastern portions of the colony. Besides the crowded condi- tion of the seaboard places from the large arrivals from England, several causes contributed to the planting of new towns. There was a disposition to go to extremes in the formation and advocacy of political and religious opinions. As early as 1637, eighty opinions, which had spread in the country, were condemned by the synod. Controversies waxed warm, and it frequently became more comfortable for men of such positiveness to separate and found new towns. The possession of landed property also was new to most of these first comers, and a desire was developed for large domain. This disposition was characterized in a poem published in London in 1648, entitled "Good News from New England," as follows : -
" Most men, unlanded till this time, For large lands eager sue : Had not restraint knocked off their hands, Their farms too big had grew."
CHAPTER II.
IT
THE LANDS OF CHICKATABOT.
T "HE Massachusetts Indians were divided into several petty tribes, each with its chief or sachem. The tribe of the Neponsets ranged along the river which still bears their name. Their sachem was Chickatabot. He claimed the territory lying between the Neponset and Charles Rivers.
Chickatabot was one of the chiefs who, like Massasoit, were friendly to the whites. He signed a treaty with the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1621 ; and ten years after, when the Bay Colony had been established, he entered into an agree- ment with the colonial officers that he, with another chief named Sagamore John, "would make satisfaction for what- ever wrong any of their men should do to the English, to their cattle or any other ways." Soon after, a swine belong- ing to Richard Saltonstall of Watertown was shot by an Indian ; and Chickatabot was called upon to make good the loss by payment of "one beaver skin." In a time of scarcity of provisions at Boston, when the colonists were reduced to great want, he made a visit there with his "sannops and squaws," as the record has it, and presented the governor with a hogshead of Indian corn.
When new towns were organized, it was with the condi- tion that the Indian titles to the land were to be extin- guished by purchase or agreement; and the chiefs were generally found ready to part with lands for a small consid- eration. Soon after the landing of Winthrop, William
22
HISTORY OF MEDFIELD.
Pynchon bought of Chickatabot certain lands lying between the Charles and Neponset Rivers. That purchase included our own township with several others. The extent of the purchase was somewhat indefinite; and no deed of it was preserved, if one was ever given.
In 1633, the small-pox broke out among the Indians to the westward of Boston, and swept off great numbers of them. In a single locality, it is said that as many as thirty died in a day. The disease spread eastward to the Piscataqua, and also westward among the Narragansetts and the Pequots. It was reported that it had gone as far as there were any Indian plantations to the west. While it was so fatal among the red men, it was remarked that very few whites were attacked by it. Among those who died at this time was old Chickatabot himself. In his death, the colonists lost a good friend ; although they considered that in the thinning out of the natives the facilities for extending settlements were increased.
In 1635, the General Court directed "those Indians who were present when Chickatabot sold lands to Mr. Pynchon, or who know where they were, to set out the bounds thereof." No response seems to have been made, the son of Chickatabot having been killed in a great war undertaken by the Massachusetts Indians against the Mohawks. Fifty years afterward, his grandson, Josias Wampatuck, brought a claim against the town of Medfield for the land, which was settled by the payment of a small sum. Other towns settled his claims in the same way. A deed from Josias to the town of Dedham is still preserved, in which he says that, "forasmuch as he is informed by several ancient Indians" that his grandfather did convey the land to the planters, he quits claim to the same.
Roxbury was probably the first town formed from the Chickatabot purchase; but, in 1635, the inhabitants of Roxbury and Watertown had leave to remove, and several persons embarked above the falls of Charles River (Newton Upper Falls) on a voyage of discovery. They selected the site now Dedham as the place for a new settlement.
23
THE LANDS OF CHICKATABOT.
The name of the town was to be Contentment; but out of respect to some persons lately arrived from Dedham, Eng- land, its name was changed by the General Court.
Dedham was founded in 1636; and their grant allowed them "to enjoy all the lands on the easterly and southerly side of Charles River not formerly granted unto any Towne or particular person." Dedham originally included the territory now embraced within Dedham, Norwood, Walpole, Norfolk, Wrentham, Franklin, Bellingham, Med- field, and Dover, also Needham and parts of Natick and Hyde Park.
The years from 1630 to 1640 were those of the most extensive immigration. In that period, twenty thousand persons came into the country. Few came after 1640, and but few returned. Winthrop, in 1641, says, "The Parlia- ment of England settling upon a general reform both of Church and State, the Earl of Strafford being beheaded, and the Archbishop, our great enemy, and many others, im- prisoned and called to account, this caused all men to stay in England in expectation of a new world, so as few coming to us." Our own town, as well as others formed from the Chickatabot lands, was settled by men who came in the great immigration,-the kind of men who stamped New England character, and from whom "have descended three- fourths of the native population of this section, half of New York and Ohio, as well as a large portion of those who have settled the newer States farther west."
-
CHAPTER III.
THE PLACE COMMONLY CALLED BOGGESTOW.
THE name Boggestow is understood to be that given by
the aborigines to the valley of the Charles River lying between Medfield on the east and Medway and Sherborn on the west, with the adjacent lands. From "Rock narrows" a very broad expanse of meadow lands stretches southward for several miles. Smaller streams empty into the river in this locality,- Boggestow Brook on the west, Stop River, Vine Brook, and North Brook on the cast. The confluence of these streams, and the very slight fall in the river, cause a great extent of meadows hereabout.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.