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THE
STORY OF
NATICK
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THE STORY OF NATICK
Copyright, 1948, by Natick Federal Savings and Loan Association John S. M. Glidden, President
THE SUBURBAN PRESS NATICK, MASS.
"John Eliot Preaching to the Natick Indians"
The Story of Natick
To the elder residents of Natick much of the story related in this booklet is well known and is a source of the pride they feel in their town. Our purpose in telling it here and in searching out some facts not so generally known is to make sure that the younger people and the many families now moving to Natick will also know something of the town's traditions and accomplishments.
In preparing this record we have gone as far as possible to the original documents, a procedure we were able to follow because of the full cooperation of our public libraries, the historical societies and also of individuals who have made available their private collections. The limited space of this booklet made it necessary to condense our findings more than we would have liked, but even in this outline form, the record is impressive: one of which every resident of Natick may well feel proud. It would be hard to find a town that has typified more truly the ideals of a growing America.
ATICK FEDERAL SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION
INCORPORATED 1886
John S. M. Glidden, President
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JOHN ELIOT
This model of the Apostle, John Eliot, and his praying Indians was made by John Rogers for Dr. Ellsworth Eliot of New York City, who presented it to Eliot Church, South Natick, on July 5, 1901. According to Chetwood Smith, the American authority on John Rogers, this was the only statue ever cast from this mould. It is on exhibit in the South Natick Historical Society Museum at the Bacon Memorial Library. There is no authentic portrait of Eliot. The statue represents the sculptor's picture of him.
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NATICK
This was the Indian name. Some say that it meant "Place of Hills." There is foundation also for the opinion that it signified "my land." Either interpretation may be right. Certainly the founding of Natick was unique, in that it was the first effort in America to provide a community in which the Indians would be protected in their rights and afforded the same opportunities as the white settlers in the towns around them.
The man who founded this new type of settlement was John Eliot. He selected the site as the best of all the land within riding distance of old Boston, or specifical- ly, Roxbury, where he served as "teacher" in the church. As early as 1646 he had started teaching a group of Indians at Nonantum with the aid of the local chief, Thomas Waban. Eliot's primary purpose was to convert the tribes to Christianity. A born missionary, he had set himself, at the age of forty-six, to learn the local Indian language and in this he persevered until he was able to make a complete trans- lation of the Bible for the use of his flock. But he knew that his converts would drift back to paganism if they kept to their old nomadic customs and that what he termed "civility" was necessary to lead them to a Christian way of life. Natick made a perfect setting for this project. Its natural advantages, the river, lakes and rich land, made possible a self-supporting community. The distance from Boston was short enough so that, by travelling on horseback, Eliot was able to divide his week between his old and new parishioners.
It was in 1651, only twenty years after the settlement of Boston itself, that Eliot's "praying Indians" were, at his request, granted 6,000 acres of the old Ded- ham grant by the General Court of Massachusetts, a tract that comprised about two- thirds of the area of the present town of Natick. The Indians formed their com- munity and built their church beside the Charles River at the spot that now is the center of South Natick. This was the first Indian church in America and the first Christian Indian village. The church, a combination of meeting house, school, par- sonage, community center, storehouse, town hall, and fort, was on the identical site of the beautiful old "Eliot Church" now standing. Almost directly opposite, on the slope beside the river, was the Indian burial ground.
Most of the land for the new village had belonged to an Indian family of which John Speen was the head. Eliot's written account of the founding tells us that Speen and his kindred gave all their land, retaining only the same lot appor-
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......
MAMUSSE WUNNEETUPANATAMWE
UP-BIBLUM GOD
NANEESVE NUKKONE TESTAMENT KAH WONK WUSKU TESTAMENT.
Ne questkurarak vafaire Warmingcamels CHRIST
JOHN ELIOT.
CAMBRIDGE Prinsensoposible Samuel Green kala Marmaduke Jabanfre.
At left: Title page of the Indian Bible trans- lated into the Massachusetts dialect of the Algon- kin language by John Eliot. The New Testament was printed in 1661; the Old Testament was added in 1663. An original copy is on exhibit at the Bacon Memorial Library. South Natick. Up-Biblum God-the Book of God.
At right: Tombstone in the wall at the corner of Pleasant and Eliot Streets, South Natick, marks the grave of Daniel Taka- wombpait, Indian convert and pupil whom Eliot ordained as the minister to succeed him and who held the church together some thirty years until his own death. The in- scription reads:
Here lyes the Body of Daniel Takawombpait Aged 64 years Died September the 17th 1716
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tionment that was given to the others. Under Eliot's counsel, a representative form of government was put into effect. Particularly impressive was the covenant to which each member of the new village made pledge:
"We give ourselves and our children unto God to be His people. He shall rule us in all our affairs; not only in our religion and affairs of the church, but also in all our works and affairs in this world. . . .
Let the grace of Christ help us, because Christ is the wisdom of God. Send Thy spirit into our hearts, and let it teach us. Lord, take us to be Thy people and let us take Thee to be our God."
Protected from aggression by law, which forbade any white person from owning land in the town, the little community of "praying Indians" made good progress. Relations with the settlers in surrounding towns in general were good, and both Eliot and the Superintendent of the Indians, Major General Daniel Gookin, saw to it that the property rights of the colony were respected. The first registered brand for cattle in America was the symbol of a bow and arrow that was recorded by the General Court in 1670, so that stock belonging to the Natick Indians could be identified. All members of the town government were Indians and this continued for about the first seventy years of the town's existence.
Eliot's purpose to teach his converts to live industriously and thriftily succeeded in part, for we have record of numerous members who grew into admirable citizens. Such leaders were Thomas Waban, who served as town clerk, proprietor, selectman and constable for more than fifty years, and Deacon Ephraim, the first deacon in Eliot Church. There were John Speen, Jethro, Mattocks, Pegan and Boston, and their descendents. Probably the person upon whom Eliot relied most was Daniel Taka- wombpait,* a convert whom Eliot had taken with him as a boy and who had worked with him throughout most of his ministry. About 1685, when advanced age and failing health forced Eliot to give up his parish, he ordained Takawombpait to take his place as minister, a duty which this noble Indian carried out successfully until his death thirty-one years later.
When King Philip's War broke out in 1675 and threatened the life of every white person in New England, the "praying Indians" of Natick were almost entire- ly loyal to their colonist neighbors. Two hundred Natick Indians marched as an expeditionary force against Philip's raiders! Indian leaders such as Chief Waban, the physician Joshua Bran, whose courage was inspired by love of a white girl, known to us only as Lydia, who later married him, and the teacher, John Sassamon, were invaluable to the whites as scouts, spies, interpreters, and instructors in the ways
* Also spelled Takawampbait, Takawambpait and otherwise in different records. Often he signed himself simply as "Daniel."
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of forest warfare. Sassamon paid for his loyalty with his life; he was ambushed and murdered by some of Philip's warriors.
Unfortunately, in the hysteria that followed Philip's massacres, and notwithstand- ing the record of loyalty of the Natick Indians, suspicion turned against them and several hundred of them were interned during the winter of 1675 under inhumane conditions at Deer Island. Through the efforts of Eliot and Gookin, and Thomas Oliver, a resident of Cambridge, they were returned to what was left of their homes the following spring. Feeling among the whites against all Indians made Eliot's task much more difficult from then on. It is significant, however, that in the Natick area the people throughout the years carried forward in part the Christian attitude toward the Indians that Eliot's example had taught.
P
Eliot Bridge across the Charles River, South Natick, marks the site of the original foot-bridge built by Eliot in 1651. At the left is part of the old Indian burying ground and the site of the mill and home built by Deacon William Biglow.
S
For seventy years or more white settlers were prohibited by law from owning land in the area set aside for the Natick colony, except by special permission of the General Court. About 1686 Thomas Sawin estab- lished a grist mill on a site in what is now the Stillman estate, using the water of a brook that still bears his name. The dam at the original site is well preserved and probably is the original itself, for it is buttressed on both ends and in the center by ledges Indian Burying Ground on Pond Street in Natick. This land was set apart from the ministerial lot as a burial place for the Indians about 1750. In all, one hundred acres here had been set aside by the twenty Indian proprietors in 1719 toward the sup- port of their preacher. of natural rock. Two other dams built in the early 1700's below the first one are also in good condition. The entire scene makes one of the outstanding beauty spots of Massachusetts. In the foundation wall of a cottage on the estate is a corner stone bearing the inscription T 1696
Apparently the letters "D" and "A" were transposed by mistake.
A 1791 S On the evidence of this stone, it seems reasonable to conclude that it marks the site of the first white man's house in the Natick area. The entire cottage is very old, but the back part appears to have been built earlier than the front. A logical assumption is that the date 1696 marks the building of the original house and that 1791 was the date of the addition. The first mill in the vicinity of Natick apparently was a saw mill built on Waban Brook near Lake Waban in 1658 and was included within the Indian lands by vote of the Dedham planters. The mill on Sawin's Brook undoubtedly was the first grist mill in the town.
In 1721 the Reverend Oliver Peabody came as a missionary to take over the pul- pit that had been vacant since the death of Takawombpait some thirteen years before. Eight years later he was ordained as the minister. When Peabody first came, the historian William Biglow tells us there were but two white families in the town: John Sawin, son of Thomas Sawin, and David Morse. Jonathan Carver's family probably made the third soon thereafter. If we include the Needham Leg and other land that now is Natick, we find among the settlers of about that time the names of Stephen Bacon, Samuel Morse, Ebenezer Felch, John Underwood, John Goodnow, Thomas Coller, Moses Smith, Thomas Dunton and Thomas Frost. By 1735 the names of white men occupied about half of Natick's town offices. The map on page 10 shows how thoroughly the little community was mixed by 1750. The Reverend Mr. Peabody and his successor, Reverend Stephen Badger, who was Parson (turn to page 12)
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NATICK
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This is a Plan of the Roads nie the Subaction of the houses in The Parish of Varick. The Red Sports art. English kruges and the black Spett are Indian Houses and Wigwams Laid down by the Scale of two hundred rods to un Inch august the got 1749
Whitney
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BY HAROLO W. WHITTIER C.E. 17 SOUTH AYE. NATICK MASG
R
42 MILE
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MARION
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MAP OF NATICK MASS.
1948
NVHONIN
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Old Roads and Landmarks
Samuel Livermore's map of Natick in 1750 enables one to visualize the early community and to place old landmarks. In the main, the old roads have been con- tinued with little change and can readily be identified by comparison with the cur- rent map. One exception was that Bacon Street, the northern road to Framingham, originally crossed Lake Cochituate at the old ford, near the point that the Saxon- ville railroad branch now crosses. This road later formed part of the Worcester Turnpike, built in 1809.
The Central Turnpike, now known as Central Street through Natick, was not built until 1824. This turnpike was the principal stage route between Boston and Hartford, Connecticut. Prior to building of the Central Turnpike, Pond Street pro- vided the principal road to West Natick, as shown on the old map, connecting with Mill Street and Hartford Street to what is now Framingham Center, and from there to Marlborough and Worcester. The third "through road," called the "Old Hart- ford Road," passed through South Natick on Eliot Street and led to Hartford by way of Mendon and Uxbridge.
The eastern boundary of the town was changed in 1797 when Natick acquired the Needham Leg, which was the wedge-shape tract of land shown on the 1750 map projecting into the northern part of the town practically to Lake Cochituate. In return, Natick gave a strip of land along its eastern boundary, including the Pond Road area and to the west of Morse's Pond. Several other boundary adjustments also are apparent.
Dug Pond in 1750 still was known by the Indian name, "Washamug." The white settlers later gave it its present name because the steep banks made it appear to have been dug. The pond on the opposite side of Pond Street, now known vari- ously as Fisk Meadow or Dug Meadow, did not exist until the dam was put in at the "Horseshoe" on West Central Street about 1848 when the Boston Metropolitan Water system was built. This caused Beaver Brook, not shown on the old map, to flood the meadow land through which the brook ran and make the present pond. At the same time the original Indian name was restored to Lake Cochituate. The settlers for years had called it "Long Pond."
Particular interest centers in the location of the early homes and names of the families owning them. Many of these are still standing. The hollow circles on the 1750 map represent the homes of white families, the black dots those of Indian fam- ilies. While it is possible that these homes were put in sometime after the original map was drawn and even that some houses existing in 1750 were omitted, the map in general seems to be well authenticated by other data.
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(Continued from page 9) Lothrop in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Oldtown Folks, lived out long and useful lives in Natick, serving all races with zeal and convic- tion. Their graves may be seen in the burying ground near Eliot Church.
The early and middle decades of the eighteenth century were placid enough for Natick. Indian warfare became a matter for the reminiscences of the old The culvert connecting the second and third bodies of Lake Cochituate is near the site of the old ford used by travelling Indians and later by white settlers. King Philip is said to have used this route for his raid upon isolated families in this vicinity during the uprising known as "King Philip's War." folks and the Indians them- selves began to disappear, either by selling their hold- ings and moving away, or too often, falling victims to epidemics of such diseases as measles and chicken-pox which they seemed constitu- tionally unable to withstand. The minister was, by virtue of his position, the chief authority and leading intellect of the community, and King's Justice William Boden personified the law, besides serving as an efficient blacksmith, and later as a captain in the Continental army. There was some shoe manufacturing but this was before the days of advanced machinery so it can hardly be designated an industry. The mass of the population was composed of independent small farmers who cultivated their land with the help of their sons, occasional hired hands, and in certain families a number of negro slaves.
It is not surprising that such a homogeneous, individualistic, and essentially democratic society should have risen, almost to a man, to the challenge of the Amer- ican Revolution. The first blood shed resulting from the pre-Revolutionary unrest was that of Crispus Attucks, descendent of Indian, Negro and white strains, who lived in Natick and Framingham and took part in the demonstration that resulted in the "Boston Massacre." On the historic nineteenth of April, 1775, when the news came to Natick that British troops were in Concord, an eye-witness reported that "every man that morning was a minute man" and marched away to join the citizen army on the field at Lexington. One, Lieutenant John Bacon, lost his life in this action. His home is still standing at the corner of Bacon and North Main Streets.
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!
The Thomas Sawin house on the Stillman estate, South Street, South Natick. The por- tion of the house having a steeply pitched roof, seen at the left, apparently was the original cottage, built, according to the cor- ner stone, in 1696, the rest of the house being added in 1791. All has been perfectly preserved, even to the old solid beams that form the treads of the cellar stairs.
By the seventeenth of June, 1775, a company of Natick militia had been formed and drilled. This company played an honorable part at Bunker Hill, and suffered numerous casualties. A few days later the town records inform us that a unanimous vote committed the community to the Revolutionary cause. The temper of the times is expressed in vigorous style in the report of Daniel Morse, Town Clerk:
It was unanimously Voted, that in con- sideration of the many acts of the British Parliament, passed in diverse sessions of the same ... by which every idea of moderation, humanity, and Christianity is entirely laid aside, and those principles and measures adopted and pursued which would disgrace the most unenlightened and uncivilized tribe of aboriginal natives, in the most interior part of this extensive continent; and also in consideration of the glaring impropriety, incapacity, and fatal tendency of any State whatever, at the distance of three thousand miles to legislate for these Colonies, which at the same time are so numerous, so knowing, and so capable of legislating . . . and for diverse other considerations which for brevity's sake we omit to mention,-we, the inhabi- tants of Natick, in town meeting assembled, do hereby declare, agreeably . . . that should the Honorable Continental Congress declare these American Colonies independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain, we will with our lives and fortunes join with the other inhabi- tants of this Colony, and with those of the other Colonies, in supporting them in said measure, which we look upon to be both important and necessary; and which, if we may be permitted to suggest an opinion, the sooner it is entered into the fewer difficulties shall we have to conflict with, and the grand objects of peace, liberty, and safety will be more likely speedily to be restored and established in our once happy land.
This, in one long sentence, was indeed the "spirit of '76!" Natick townspeople assisted the cause of the Revolution with all the supplies and money that they could muster and, better still, with men.
At right: Indian pothole for grinding corn, cut in this rock on Sawin's Brook before the water level was raised by the mill dam. The hole. about the size of a mixing bowl, held the corn which was mashed into meal by a hand stone or pestle.
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At that time the complete population of the town numbered five hundred and thirty- three and from this number came one hundred and ninety volunteers. The rolls of the original militia company indicate that scarcely a household did not send one man or more. Here was the beginning of the long and famous Natick tradition of patriotic service to the whole nation.
It should be recorded, too, that during the difficult early years of our nation the men and women of Natick maintained a fair-minded attitude toward the few among them who differed in political opinion. When such movements as Shay's rebellion threatened the internal security and outward prestige of the new nation, Natick men were indeed ardent "Government Men." But their ardor never made them so intolerant as to resent the Tory sympathy of Lady Badger, the minister's wife, whose anti-Congress views were even affectionately regarded as a great lady's pardonable eccentricities. And when after the war a Tory family brought suit before Justice William Boden for property damage committed by their neighbors during a demonstration, that honest magistrate and Revolutionary veteran decided in favor of full redress for the Tories, an unusual and most courageous ruling in those times.
Boden Lane Cemetery on Boden Lane, West Natick
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William Boden may be considered typical of the men who have influenced and personified what is best in the New England tradition. He was a good black- smith and a good farmer. He seems to have been mostly self-educated and with- out formal legal training, but he owned and studied his "Blackstone's Commentar- ies" and his known decisions are models of fairness and insight. Significant of the respect in which William Boden was held by the community is the fact that, although before the Revolution he had served as King's Justice, the people after the war elected him as Town Justice. His grave, together with those of many other Revolutionary veterans, is in the old Boden Lane Cemetery. The land for this cemetery was given by Captain Boden. Washington Elm, standing on the west side of Eliot Street, South Natick, in front of the old Hezekiah Broad house. Under this tree George Washington conferred with Captain Broad and other officers while on his way to Boston to organize the Continental army. On the stones there one finds names of men familiar in Natick history of the Revolutionary period and later. Among them are those of Nathan Stone, 1793, Joshua Washburn, 1797, David Haven, 1805, Elijah Drury, 1817, Josiah Walker, 1821, William Perry, 1842, Captain William Stone, 1844, Samuel Washburn, 1848, Major Dexter Drury, 1849, Samuel Morse, 1854 and Elliot S. Wright, 1862.
All Natick inhabitants were deeply interested when the question of ratification of the proposed Constitution of the United States came up for consideration. By a narrow margin the town voted against ratification and so instructed the Natick dele- gate to the state constitutional convention. His protest remains in the official records of that body. Anti-Constitutionalists in Natick objected to clauses in the Constitution that recognized slavery, already most unpopular among them, and also disapproved of the extent of the powers given to the President. However, when the Constitution was nationally accepted, Natick proprietors loyally swore an oath of allegiance to sup- port and defend it and the new government which it established.
Just as the eighteenth century ended, the most serious internal dispute of Natick, which had been waged with varying degrees of intensity for some seventy years, was brought to a settlement. To the north of the original Natick settlement was a long strip of land shown on the early map (page 10) and known as the Needham Leg.
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Residents in this area were compelled to attend church in Needham, a distance five to six miles away. This hardship was but little relieved when the Reverend Peabody rebuilt the Eliot church, for residents of the "Leg" still had to support the Need- ham church. On the other side, a strong faction, including the Needham parish, opposed any new church. The "Meeting House War," bloodless but bitter, had troubled some of Minister Peabody's and all of Minister Badger's long pastorates.
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