USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wilmington > Wilmington, Massachusetts : its growth and progress, 1730 to 1930 > Part 1
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A story ston 930
Wilmington Memorial Library Wilmington, Mass.
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Boston Public Library
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Wilmington, Massachusetts
Its
Growth and Progress
1730 to 1930
PREPARED BY A SUB-COMMITTEE
OF THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY COMMITTEE
HARRY R. DEMING General Chairman
Photographs Made by MISS MILDRED HOLT of Boston
1
NOLONIWEIN
Aerial Photograph of Wilmington Railroad Station. By courtesy of 26th Division Post 136 American Legion. Note the marker on the train-shed (~ ~~ 0)
Historical
Sketch
Growth
and
1730 to 1930
Progress
of
Wilmington,
Massachusetts
w 974.444 1.155
BEGINNINGS OF WILMINGTON
Our Wilmington, generally spoken of as having been formed out of portions of two towns, Woburn and Reading, really was formed from segments of three, and, it might perhaps be said, of four. It was in 1730 that the Great and General Court passed an act setting off a portion of what was then Woburn and a smaller portion of what was Reading, as a separate town, which was in- corporated under the name of Wilmington. Each of these sections was a rough sort of triangle, and to the union there were added the farms of seven men from Billerica. Oddly enough, there was another triangle, which lay outside the jurisdiction of any of these three towns, the status of which remained something of a riddle until it was incorporated in Wilmington. The town was created in re- sponse to a demand for a separate civil organization as the basis for support of "Public Worship," a very real necessity according to Puritan ideas.
Charlestown received a liberal grant of land in 1640, which be- came Charlestown Village, two years later incorporated as the Town of Woburn. To Woburn, in turn, in 1664, were added 2,000 acres which included the "Land of Goshen," the Biblical name the Fathers gave to what is now the Centre and the West District of our town. In 1644 part of the outlying domain of Lynn, known as "Lynn Fields" or "Wood End" was incorporated as the Town of Reading. In this were included the present town of North Reading, the Town of Wakefield, then South Reading, and much of the East District and some of the North District of Wilmington.
The dividing line between the Reading and Woburn contribu- tions to Wilmington began at the point where these three towns meet today, near the Loring place on West Street, ran northwest- ward, and terminated at a big pine, called "Brock's Tree," that stood about where the Salem Street Crossing of the Boston & Maine Rail- road (formerly known as the Widow Blanchard or the Lizzie Blanchard Crossing) now is. This tree also marked the southwestern boundary of the Land of Nod, the portion of Wilmington that be- longed to neither Woburn, Reading or Billerica. This Land of Nod, another Biblical designation, lay north of the north line of Reading, which is almost exactly followed today by the line of Salem Street. Nod included all the land between that line and Andover. The line ran from the western boundary of what is now North Reading to Brock's Tree. This territory, which was a triangle, belonged to "The Proprietors of Nod" and consisted of about 3,000 acres. There is much about it in the diary of Judge Samuel Sewall, one of the three judges who tried the Salem Witches.
The Town of Charlestown claimed it, but the "Proprietors"
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HISTORICAL SKETCH, GROWTH AND PROGRESS
sustained their claim before the Great and General Court and the territory never was within the jurisdiction of any town until it was joined to Wilmington. A man named Nathan (?) Willoughby got title to 800 acres of it, which he sold to one Moore, the father-in- law of Judge Sewall and the latter acquired title to it through his wife's inheritance. It was set off to him in particular lots. Today Lot 1 is the property of John W. Hathaway, a portion of it being the land which the town has acquired for its water supply. Lot 2 is the property of Caleb S. Harriman.
Both Nod and Goshen kept their distinctive characters until well within the recollection of many of the present generation, and often have a place in colloquial conversation today, but their lines have become more or less dim and blurred. Nod was erroneously sup- posed to be a quaint way of saying North. The North School was quite frequently called "Nod School," while High Street ("New City" or "Hardscrabble" of other days), was spoken of as "up Nod." Other names came into usage to designate particular parts of the town. The lower "East Part" from the East_School to Perry's Corner and south to Sawpit Woods, long held forth as "The City."
The tract from the Centre west to Goshen and north to Nod line was called Lebanon, because of the cedars that grew in great numbers in the swamp back of the old Cemetery and stretching northwestward to what is now Wilmington Junction. Lebanon and Goshen were back ends of Woburn.
FIRST WHITE SETTLERS
When anyone attempts to say who was the first white man to settle in what is now Wilmington he gets into hot water. The evidence in favor of any claimant is always met with a strong counter claim. Abraham Jaquith (known by the military title of Sergeant Abraham Jaquith) settled close by what is now Aldrich Road, per- haps as early as 1660. Going a very short distance beyond the old Aldrich House one finds a cellar hole to the right of the road, which is believed to be where his house stood, and there is an old well near it said to have been dug in that year. Sergt. Jaquith was one of the seven men of Billerica whose farms were included in the formation of Wilmington. About 1658 the Boutwell House was built, past which Boutwell Street now runs. Somewhere between 1675 and 1685 the Tweed-Manning House, on Ballardvale Road, was built. It was an old house when James Tweed bought it just after the Revolutionary War and settled there. It is easily the oldest house that is or was in the Nod part of the town.
Richard Harnden, the first of his name who is known to have come to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, settled in the part of Lynn
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HISTORICAL SKETCH, GROWTH AND PROGRESS
that became Reading and is now part of Wilmington. He came from England. He had a grant of land from the Ipswich River at Jenkins Bridge, and running north along Lubber's Brook and what is now Woburn Street, as far as Nod. The first Harnden House was on the brow of the hill where High Street curves down to Woburn Street, about the site where Augustus T. Norton's new house now stands. The old cellar hole was a landmark there until the Osborne House was built that was moved farther up High Street. There is much interesting lore about the old Harnden place.
The latest claimant to the honor of being the first settler of Wil- mington is William Buck, and a genealogy of the Buck family, re- cently published, states that he arrived on the ship Increase and that he settled in Wilmington in 1635 and built the original part of the house now owned and occupied by John Henry Buck, a descendant, between Wildwood and Woburn Streets, close by Buck's Corner.
Whatever the historical truth about the priority of settlement, certain it is that by 1700 the total number of settlers was but few, and also that by 1720 a sufficient number had arrived to make the question of church-going a serious one.
John Harnden and Samuel Eames headed a petition Sept. 5, 1729, that the region be made a separate precinct. This was denied and the petitioners were joined in a similar appeal Nov. 26 the same year by Daniel Pierce, Benjamin Harnden and Samuel Walker; this also was denied, but a subsequent petition for separate township was received with favor and on September 25, 1730, an act of the General Court incorporating the new town as Wilmington was passed. The condition was imposed that "the inhabitants" be "re- quired" to provide themselves with a minister "within the space of three years," which was done.
Wilmington took 43 tax-payers from Woburn; from Reading it is uncertain how many. The farms of seven residents of Billerica were detached from that town and joined to Wilmington, these men and their families becoming part of the population of the latter. They were Abraham Jaquith, John Beard, Ebenezer Beard, Jacob Beard, Jonathan Baldwin, Peter Cornell and Richard Hopkins.
A good idea of the families then living in the town is gained from the list of the founders of the church, which as required by the act incorporating the town, was set up in 1733. These were headed by the minister first "settled" here, the Rev. James Varney. The others were James Thompson, Abraham Jaquith, Kendal Peirson, Daniel Eames, Thomas Rich, Jr., Stephen Wesson, Cadwalader Ford, Joseph Killam, Stephen Wright, Isaac Buck, Samuel Leman, John Cram, James Townsend, Ephraim Buck, Jr., Zacheus Hebbard and John How.
To these were added the following members of the church in the same year : John Harnden and Mrs. John Harnden, Sarah Harn-
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WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1730 TO 1930
den, John Jaquith and Mrs. John Jaquith, Mrs. James Thompson, Mrs. Abraham Jaquith, Mrs. Kendal Peirson, Mrs. Stephen Wesson, Mrs. John Cram, Mrs. James Townsend, Mrs. Samuel Leman, Mrs. Daniel Eames, Mrs. Ephraim Buck, Jr., Mrs. Stephen Wright, Mrs. Isaac Buck, Mrs. Ephraim Buck, Sr., Mrs. Lydia Roberts, Mrs. Mary Rich, Mrs. William Tucker, Rachel Buck and Mrs. Hannah Wood. The names and descendants of not a few of these still linger in the town.
INDIAN MASSACRE
Although the town, because of its late founding, escaped. the Witchcraft delusion and certain other horrors, it had one grim epi- sode in the Harnden Massacre. John Harnden, who had been one of the earliest movers for the setting off of Wilmington from its parent towns, was- the oldest son of the settler Richard Harnden and was born in Reading in 1668. He was chosen as one of the deacons of the very first church and also acted as "cash keeper" for the town. One night in 1706, while he was away from home, five Indians, of a war-party that had been attacking Dunstable, came down to his house while he was away, made an entrance through the roof and killed Mrs. Harnden and three of the children. The others hid behind a great rock, henceforth known as Indian Rock, but were discovered and carried off, though they were rescued later by infuriated pursuers. One of the girls was struck by an arrow and was thought dead and her body was thrown by the marauders into a small pond close by, but the water revived her and she was rescued after the savages had gone and lived to grow to womanhood.
The Indians were prompted to this deed by a desire for revenge for the death of a drunken squaw of their tribe who was run over and killed by a Harnden near a small pond on the way to Woburn. This pond, now obliterated by a recent relocation of the highway, is a short way south of the old Isaac Damon place, which stands where Eames Street joins Main Street.
One legend has it that the squaw was run over by an ox-cart, and another that Harnden was riding a horse and that the animal galloped over the prostrate woman, one of its hoofs striking her head. The Indians, however, took their revenge on the wrong family, as the one who ran over the squaw lived in a house at the foot of the hill. The house of the massacre stood almost directly back of the Rev. Joshua Buffum's home of later years, in High Street, and the site today can plainly be distinguished by the cellar-hole and well. The pond, on which children of the neighborhood long used to slide in winter, is back of what used to be known as the John Morris house.
WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1730 TO 1930
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Middlesex Canal House Corner Shawsheen Avenue Prior to 1802
Middlesex Canal Acqueduct 1802
Of' Swinning' Hole in Shaw-heen River
Oldest and Largest Hemlock in New England
Baldwin Apple Monument 1802
Perrys Corner and Asa G. Sheldon's Blacksmith Shop About 1825
Squire Eames' Place and Whitfield Elm North Wilmington
Town Pound and First Town Hall
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HISTORICAL SKETCH, GROWTH AND PROGRESS
CAPT. KIDD LEGEND
There is another, and an eerie tale, about the original Harnden house. The family one morning saw a wagon with four horses going north along the road (now Woburn Street) apparently loaded heav- ily. A negro was on the seat beside the driver. Later in the day the team returned, running empty, but the driver was alone. This gave rise to the story that the wagon was laden with Capt. Kidd's treasure; that it was taken up into the Nod district and buried somewhere there, doubtless in the land in front of the Devil's Den Rock, now near Brown's Crossing; that the negro was slain and buried above the loot in true piratical fashion, to guard it. Long afterward it was said that when anyone sought to unearth the treasure the negro's ghost arose and dragged it out into the field where the pumping station now stands and secreted it again until the searchers had given up their quest, and then dragged it back. A pretty faithful old slave, thus to serve the cutthroats who had murdered him!
REVOLUTIONARY WAR
A book might be written about the old houses, landmarks of the town, of which fortunately quite a number still are in use today ; or of the part that grand trees have played in the local history; but the achievements of strong pillar men who once lived here claim the precedence.
The year 1773 opened with the mutterings of the approaching Revolution. A town meeting pledged the town to join with Boston, "yea, with the whole continent," for the security of the civil rights and the recovery of those that had been taken from the colony by force. A year later the town began to take action about building up its stock of powder and ball-which were stored in the attic of the meeting-house. In that meeting-house, Sept. 7, 1774, the town voted to accept the declaration of the Middlesex County convention of Aug. 30 and 31, at Concord, calling in ringing words for resistance unto death in defense of freedom. On March 6, 1775, but little more than a month before Concord and Lexington, Wilmington voted to call on every able-bodied man from 16 to 60 to report the following Wednesday with arms and ammunition, and three days later voted to enlist 2+ "good able-bodied minute men."
Diligent searchers of the archives have long since established that from the beginning men of Wilmington have given a good account of themselves in the armed conflicts that have "made and preserved us a nation." In the French and Indian Wars they fought as sub- jects of the Crown, in the Provincial forces. The character of that
HISTORICAL SKETCH, GROWTH AND PROGRESS
fighting may be judged from the fact that 1+ of our Wilmington citizens, with their gallant Captain, Ebeneezer Jones (who built the original house on the Stanley Farm) were buried in one grave following the battle of "Half-way Brook," in 1768. The Rev. Isaac Morrill, for more than half a century the minister of the Wil- mington congregation, took the field with his neighbors, and as a "fighting parson" gave evidence of the sturdy qualities that caused him long to be regarded as the outstanding national figure in the history of our town. Again, like a true soldier of the Lord, he drew his sword in the Revolution. His is the chimney-like tomb in the southwestern angle of the New Cemetery, close by the Town Hall, and on the slate slab on top, among his and other names, is cut that of "Capt. Cadwalla (n) der Ford." The Fords and the Morrills were related through marriage.
On the fated morning of April 19, 1775, two companies of Minute Men started out on the road to Lexington very early in response to the "alarum," one of them commanded by Captain Cad- wallader Ford, the other by Capt. Timothy Walker. Later another went out, commanded by Capt. John Harnden. They fought at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill. The number of Wilmington men who fought in the Revolutionary War was 260, including 2+ captains, several of whom rose to higher command. This indicates that nearly all the able-bodied men of Wilmington were engaged in the struggle for liberty.
Records of the Gowing Family, proudly cherished by the Gowing Family Association, which meets yearly in Wilmington to keep alive the traditions of the line, bear out the above story of the march to Lexington. Daniel Gowing, the original member of the family to settle here, lived on the old Gowing place situated on what is now Park street, not far from the North Reading line. He was a mem- ber of the Wilmington Train Band and in response to the "alarum" he hastened to report at Wilmington-doubtless at the meeting- house-the morning of the 19th, to Captain Cadwallader Ford. He rode his horse to the rendezvous, and, thinking there was need for haste he reached for a switch, seizing a sapling that grew beside the road. We can see him bending from the saddle, grasping it with the grip of a sturdy farmer, and aided by the motion of his horse tugging it loose, roots and all. It may be that he left his horse at the Centre when he set out in the ranks of Captain Ford's company. When he returned home after the epic events of the day he found the sapling still on his saddle. It proved to be an elm seedling and he planted it in front of his house. As if marked by destiny to serve as a monu- ment, it took root and grew and was long known as the Lexington Elm. It was cut down about the time of the World War, but its huge stamp bears testimony to its nearly a century and a half of age.
Besides Cadwallader Ford, who rose to the rank of "Leftenant-
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WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1730 TO 1930
Colonel" as it was styled, after the British fashion, Wilmington boasted two full colonels, Colonel Joshua Harnden and Colonel William Blanchard, besides Major John Jaquith and Captain John Gowing and a number of other commissioned officers whose graves are marked by the Sons of the American Revolution as those of men who fought in the War of Independence.
The valor and the service of Wilmington men in the Civil War were of a quality to mark them as the peers of their forefathers of the Revolution. Ninety-six men formed the Wilmington quota. Of these 14 lost their lives and 11 were discharged for disability. A Wilmington youth, full of martial spirit even as a boy, became General William Henry Harnden of that great struggle. He was a colonel when, as it chanced, commanding a Wisconsin regiment his men captured Jefferson Davis, near Macon, Georgia. He left a written account of this affair. He was a brother of Everel Harnden, long a citizen and farmer of Wilmington, whose children and chil- dren's children look back to the town as their old home.
The War with Spain, though not the great national crisis that either the Revolution or the Civil War was, met with response from young men of Wilmington, two of whom enlisted with the Wakefield Company of the 6th Massachusetts Regiment and saw service in Porto Rico. Since those days other men who saw service in that war, or in its correlated campaigns in the Philippines and China have come to make their homes in Wilmington, adding the color of their ex- periences to the military traditions of the town.
With these examples to emulate, is it a wonder that the men of Wilmington responded in a manner worthy of their patriot fore- bears to the challenge of the World War? Their records are writ- ten in the annals of many far-stretched fronts and widely scattered services. The Wilmington service flag, among its 137 stars, numbers three of gold-those of John Regan, Harold Rogers and Martin Nec, youth of the present generation, playmates and schoolmates of those now active in town affairs, to whose honor the town has made suitable memorials. A few have died since the war, and a vigorous American Legion post keeps alive their memories and the ideals for which they offered their lives. Four young women went out as nurses.
WILMINGTON INDUSTRIES
The first half of the 19th Century was the period of the greatest agricultural, industrial and commercial activity for Wilmington, and was noted for several outstanding personalities. From 1806 to 1837 was the "hop era". The light lands of the uplands proved suitable to the growth of this erop and during this period some 76,806
HISTORICAL, SKETCH, GROWTH AND PROGRESS
bags of hops were raised, about 16,500,000 pounds. Their total value was $2,169,430, probably the greatest value of any one product of the town in its history. William Blanchard, Jr., known in his day as Squire Blanchard, son of Col. William Blanchard of Revo- lutionary War fame, was State Inspector of Hops, a position of some dignity and importance inasmuch as his salary, $2,000, was equal to that of the Governor, and with the exception of that was the highest of any official in the state. The hops were sent to Albany and there manufactured into beer. The highest price received was 34 cents a pound, in 1817 and the lowest five cents a pound in 1819.
Diversified farming furnished the livelihood for most of the in- habitants during the early days, and in 1874, when there were 866 inhabitants, domiciled in 179 homes, there were 100 farms. By 1890 the number of farms had been doubled. The area of the town was but 5,845 acres, 4,901 of which were covered with forest growth at the outset and much land had to be cleared. There were great stretches of meadow land along the Shawsheen River, which watered the territory on the West, and more bordering the Ipswich on the East, with its many branches one of which seems to take its origin in Sandy Pond, of recent years called Silver Lake. It is plain that not many of the farms were on a large scale. Hence the people turned to specialties. The cranberry throve-still thrives-in the fresh water meadows; but the total crop in 1885, when the late Mrs. Hiller's artificial bog was in operation, was worth but $5,537.
The meat business probably did more to build up the general pros- perity of the people of Wilmington than anything else. Over "Buck's Hill," now Wildwood Street, from the Centre and West District three or four mornings of the week, used to wind a string of white- covered butcher-wagons, heavily laden with excellent beef, to be re- tailed in Lynn and the "lower towns." A similar caravan, from Nod and the East Part, joined it at the City or wended down the Deacon's Road, now West Street.
The beeves, and likewise many head of sheep for the mutton trade, were driven over the road from Brighton stockyards. At one time it was said in jest, that "every other farm in Wilmington had its slaughter-house." Speaking for the entire 19th Century the jest came closer to the truth than many realized. But as the meat dress- ing industry centered in the great packing-houses of the West, the business of driving meat declined. Today a few drive out from Wilmington, but they are becoming motorized rapidly, and the day of long processions of prairie-schooner like wagons is past.
In the early part of the century, even past the Civil War, many of the farms had each its shoemaker's shop where the menfolks of the family made shoes in the winter to increase their earnings. Some-
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WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1730 TO 1930
Morrill House, Middlesex Ave. Harnden Tavern Late Maria Hathaway House Prior to 1730
Harriman Residence (formerly) Cadwalader Ford House, prior to 1730
Joseph McMahon Residence 1930
Norton House High St., 1930
Walker House Now Alden Eames' Residence
Asa G. Sheldon Residence Now the Mitchell Farm
Edward N. Eames House
Edward M. Neilson House
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WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1730 TO 1930
Vista in New Park
Old Meat Wagon Built by Milt Holt Model of Canal Boat 1802-1837
Civil War Monument
Isaac Morrill Monument Monument to Veterans of All Wars
Harriman Tannery Lumber Yard
HISTORICAL SKETCH, GROWTH AND PROGRESS
times the farm women bound shoes. Today, many an old "cobbler- shop" has been incorporated in the modern home group, as a shed, an ell or garage, while lap-stones, awls, waxed ends, clasps and benches are preserved as family antiques.
The largest single industry of the town, in the past or present, is the Tannery, where as many as 75 Wilmington men have been employed at one time and where not a few have learned this valuable trade.
Lumbering, with its by-product, firewood, has been an important business. There have been several permanent sawmills in town, not to mention many of the portable type, two shingle mills and at least three grist-mills.
A bakery put out $220,000 worth of bread in one year (1857) and about that time long wooden pumps were manufactured. The value of English hay in that year was $10,000 and the output of fire- wood was worth $13,533.
"Elmwood Spring" in the north part of the town was famous for its pure water, and in the 90's there was talk of building a sum- mer hotel near it. It is possible that our fine town water is drawn from the same vein. A few names stand out during the early times ; between 1800 and 1857 several men of distinction were born in Wilmington.
Joseph Reynolds, M. D., was a well known physician and the writer of several books, including "Peter Gott, Cape Ann Fisher- man" a vivid picture of sea-faring life of that day.
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