USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > Brookline directory 1875 > Part 3
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 (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10
Thomas Gardiner, Jr., was probably a son of the Thomas Gardiner or Gardner, named above, and succeeded to a large share of the wealth and influence of his father. Of Roger Adams, we can find no account.
In 1686, thirty-two inhabitants of Muddy River petitioned to be allowed to manage their own affairs, and to be exempt from the poor rates of the town of Boston. The General Court granted this on condition that they should meet their own expenses and " within one year erect a school and pro- vide an able reading and writing master "; and at a public meeting the inhabitants voted an acceptance of the grant, agreeing to pay a schoolmaster £12 per annum, the balance of the schoolmaster's salary to be apportioned among the parents of the scholars, according to their ability, and the number of scholars in each family, a proper discrimination being made in behalf of the poorer settlers.
29
OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE.
In 1698 they again petitioned " that these privileges be confirmed," " and that the hamlet have liberty to choose assessors and one constable," the officers having thus far been chosen by the citizens of Boston proper. With a curious spirit of fairness, the petition embraces the names of twenty- seven signers in favor, two in the negative, and six undecided as to the wisdom of the proposed innovation.
In 1700 the principal inhabitants presented the following petition, as recorded in the records of the town of Boston : -
"To his Excellency the Governor, Council, and Assembly :
" The humble petition of the inhabitants of Muddy River. Humbly Sheweth, that they are another Hamlet belonging to Boston, have been lately settled there, and sometime since, in the year 1686, being grown to a good number of inhabi- tant's, represented to the Government then in being, praying to be acquited from paying duties and taxes to the town of Boston, being then willing to bear their own public charges of Bridges, Highwaies, and Poor, and were then accordingly released and ordered to maintain a Reading and Writing School, as the order annexed will show, which, accordingly we have ever since done, and now further humbly pray that being grown to a greater number of good settled inhabitants, we may be allowed a separate right to have Selectmen, and all other rights belonging to a Township, which may further encourage us as we are able to settle a minister, and other benefits amongst us, and we shall ever pray.
SAMUEL SEWALL, Jr. THOMAS STEADMAN, Sen'r. THOMAS GARDINER, Sen'r. JOSEPH WHITE. JOSIAH WINCHESTER."
BENJAMIN WHITE.
JOHN WINCHESTER, Sen'r. SAMUEL ASPINWALL.
This petition was read in a town-meeting called for the purpose, and created much indignation among the citizens of Boston, the general opinion seeming to be that the inhabi- tants of Muddy River were a thankless set, and should be punished ; and, accordingly, they were again compelled to pay the rates and assessments, from which they had for some years been excused, although with a desire to appear just in their anger they allowed the hamlet a schoolmaster, whose salary was paid out of the town Treasury.
In 1704 another petition was presented, but the people of Boston held several meetings, warmly remonstrated against the petition, representing it as "highly ungrateful in this people after receiving so many favors "; and the petition was
30
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH
accordingly disposed of without decisive action ; and in 1705 another petition, signed by thirty-two " house holders," was again presented to the General Court.
" To his Excellency the Governor, Council, and Assembly, in General Court convened. The humble petition of the in- habitants of Muddy River, sheweth :
" That at a session of this honorable Court, held at Boston, on 13th August, 1704, the said inhabitants exhibited their humble petition, praying that the said Muddy River might be allowed a separate village or peculiar, and be invested with such powers and rights as they may be enabled by themselves to manage the general affairs of the said place. Which pe- tition has been referred to the Selectmen of the Town of Boston that they may consider the same; since which your humble petitioners, not having been informed of any objec- tion made by the Town of Boston, aforesaid, we presume that there is no obstruction to our humble request made in our petition.
" Wherefore, we humbly beseech your Excellency, that this Honourable Court will be pleased to proceed to pass an act for the establishing of the said place a separate village or pecu- liar with such powers as aforesaid, and your petitioners shall ever pray.
SAMUEL SEWALL, JR.
THOMAS GARDNER.
BENJAMIN WHITE.
JOSEPH GARDNER.
THOMAS STEDMAN, JR. JOHN ACKERS.
JOSIAH STEDMAN. THOMAS GARDNER, JR.
RALPH SHEPARD.
EDWARD DEVOTION.
ABRAHAM CHAMBERLAIN.
JOSIAH WINCHESTER, JR. JOHN ELLIS.
PETER BOYLSTON. JOHN ACKERS, JR. WILLIAM ACKERS.
JOHN WINCHESTER, JR. THOMAS WOODWARD.
BENJAMIN WHITE, JR.
HOLLAND.
CALEB GARDNER.
GARDNER.
JOHN SEAVER.
JOSEPH WHITE.
HENRY WINCHESTER.
The constant endeavors of the petitioners was finally re- warded, as the following record shows : -
" Anno Regni Anno Regina Quarto." At a great and general Court for her Majesty's Province of
.
THOMAS STEDMAN. JOHN WINCHESTER. SAMUEL ASPINWALL. ELEAZER ASPINWALL. WILLIAM SHARP.
JOSIAH WINCHESTER. JOHN DEVOTION.
31
OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE.
the Massachusetts Bay, in New England, begun and held at Boston upon Wednesday, 13th May, 1705, and continued by several prorogations into Wednesday, 24th October following, and then met 13th November, 1705.
In Council.
" The order passed by the Representatives, upon the Peti- tion of the inhabitants of Muddy River, a Hamlet of Boston, read on Saturday last.
" Ordered, That the prayer of the petition be granted ; and the powers and privileges of a Township be given to the inhabitants of the lands commonly known by the name of Muddy River ; the Town to be called BROOKLINE ; who are hereby enjoined to build a meeting-house and obtain an able, Orthodox minister, according to the direction of the law, to be settled amongst them, within the space of three years next coming.
"Provided that all Common Lands, belonging to the Town of Boston, lying within the said bounds of Muddy River, not disposed of, or allotted out, shall still remain to the proprie- tors of said lands.
"Which order being again read, was concurred and con- sented to."
" JOSEPH DUDLEY.
" Taken from Mr. Addington's copy sent to the town.
" A True Copy Examined by me.
" ISAAC ADDINGTON, Secretary,
" Recorded by me.
" SAMUEL SEWALL, JR., Town Clerk."
Thus the hamlet granted to the citizens of Boston for farms, meadows, pastures, and wood lots grew from an outly- ing plantation, where no man could reside in safety, to an independent township which, no doubt wisely enough, threw off its dependency, and accepted that form of Town govern- ment which has, perhaps, had as much to do with the indepen- dent and self-reliant spirit of our nation as any other foster- ing influence surrounding our people through life.
The witch mania, which brought so much terror, gloom, and suffering into more northern portions of the province in the latter half of the seventeenth century, appears to have caused little or no trouble in Brookline ; and little could be said in this connection, were it not that Chief-Justice Sewall, whose sad duty it was to sentence many poor creatures to death,
32
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH
during the culmination of this " delusion" in 1692, was a large landholder here, and the name of his son, Samuel Sew- all, Jr., appears in the last quoted petition. The estate fell to the chief justice by inheritance from John Hull, the mint- master of Massachusetts, the designer of the Indian Archer, so often borne in battle on the stainless State flag of Massa- chusetts, and the coiner of the now rare and curious "pine tree shillings."
It is said that when the chief justice married Hannah Hull, the only daughter of the wealthy master of the mint, he re- cieved as her dowry, his estate here, and her own weight of pine tree shillings.
The judge lived to regret his share in the executions of the Salem witches, and made a manly and voluntary confession of his errors in the Old South Church at Boston. In 1700, he wrote and published a tract entitled, " The Selling of Jo- seph " ; a treatise so far ahead of the recieved opinions of his time, on the subject of human slavery, that many have won- dered that such a man should have fallen into the errors of witch mania.
It would appear, however, that that terrible psychical expe- rience was the culminating point of the extreme religious feeling, belief, and policy of New England. It is certain that the ministers were among the most zealous inquisitors into the alleged witchcrafts, and that their voices re-echoed the terrible law of the Hebrew law-giver, " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." It is difficult to believe that the whole was a delusion and imposture ; but there is no doubt that a storm of morbid mental impulse carried away the whole people for a brief but terrible period. When the reaction came, men shuddered at their own acts. and wondered at their own infat- uation ; but since that time the power of the ministers in sec- ular matters began to decay, whether for better or for worse, time alone can determine, "for the end is not yet." With this brief reference to the most terrible of all the phases of our early history, we bid adieu to the hamlet of Muddy River and the events of the seventeenth century.
The history of the earlier years of the next century pre- sents little of special interest to the new town, which, however, shared in the evils which at that time seemed about to over- whelm New England. The native tribes, it is true, had long since laid down the hatchet; but in their stead came the savages of Canada, urged by their own bloody longings, and made more dangerous by the skilled 'strategy of half-bred partisans and French adventurers. In the various expeditions into Acadia, which by turns were disastrous or successful,
33
OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE.
Brookline undoubtedly sent her quota of stur iy youths to die by chance of war, at its best, brutal enough, but intensified by religious hatred and the horrors of a barbarous warfare. "From 1675, when Philip's war began. to 1713 ( the date of the Treaty of Utrecht), five or six thousand of the youth of the country had perished by the enemy or by distempers con- tracted in the service." Thus speaks Hutchinson ; and the closest student of the sparse material at his disposal, can find but little record of the brave yeomen, who, by hundreds, gave up all that men hold dear to die a nameless death and be forever forgotton by those for whom they perished.
But the events connected with the erection of that first church which the new town was so strictly " enjoined " to erect and provide with " an able orthodox minister " are more easily to be obtained. On the 2d of March, 1713, it was voted " that three men be chosen and appointed to survey the limits of this town and to find the centre or middle thereof, and to inquire where a convenient place may be procured, whereon to build a meeting-house, as near the centre of said town as may be."
Voted, "That Samuel Aspinwall, John Druce, and Peter Boylston be appointed a committee to manage the affair re- lating to the meeting-house aforesaid."
Finally a committee of three members of the General Court was appointed to settle the question of the most convenient and appropriate location for the new church, which was shortly after raised, Nov. 10, 1714, under the superintendence of Mr. Samuel Clark, on land given for the purpose by Mr. Caleb Gardiner. The building was forty-four feet long by thirty-five wide, and contained fourteen pews and several benches. A narrow gallery on three sides contained benches for the chil- dren, who sat separate from their parents, and under the charge of the tithing-man, who kept the sleepy awake and promptly chastised the unruly.
The pulpit was of oak, with an immense " sounding-board" above the minister's head, and an hour-glass stood close at hand to regulate and keep in check the somewhat verbose exhortations and polemical discourses of those days. The men and women sat on opposite sides of the house, and were placed by persons duly empowered as became their various social and political deservings and dignity.
Rev. Mr. Thayer, of the Second Church in Roxbury, at which the people of Brookline had so long worshipped, gath- ered the new church for the first time, October 26, 1717. There were seventeen male and twenty-two female members.
3
34
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH
On the 21st of November the burial-ground was purchased, and dedicated to its consecrated uses.
The 5th of November of the same year, the Rev. James Allen was ordained as the first settled minister of the church. He died in February, 1747, after a long and weary illness, and was buried in Brookline Cemetery. At his ordination many influential men of the colony were present ; the celebrated Cotton Mather giving the young pastor charge of his new field of labor.
It is probable that in the Carthagena Expedition of 1741-2, the Louisburg siege of 1745, the disastrous expedition of Col. Arthur Noble to Minas, and the many other military succes- ses and reverses of our colonial forefathers, Brookline offered her tribute of strong hands, brave hearts, and precious lives.
In 1766, on the first of March, died Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, F. R. s., born at Brookline in 1684, who studied medicine with Dr. Cutler of Boston, a physician of great repute in that place. In 1721 the small-pox prevailed in Boston to a fearful extent, as will appear from the following estimates made when the plague was abating : 1721, No. of inhabitants, 16,380 ; died of small-pox, 771.
It would appear from cotemporaneous writers, that nearly two thirds of the entire population were often smitten with this loathsome disease in the course of a single season ; and Dr. Boylston, wearied with constant attendance on the sick, and anxious to stay the terrible mortality around him, lis- tened with eager interest to the learned Cotton Mather, who communicated to him a description of inoculation as prac- tised in Turkey, which had of late formed an interesting sub- ject of debate in the transactions of the Royal Society. In those days, owing to a want of proper attendance and neglect, caused by the intense fears of the people, about one patient in every six died. Inoculation was performed by a process similar to that of vaccination, save that instead of the com- paratively harmless " matter " now used, the virus of the small-pox itself was introduced after the system had been pre- pared by proper medicines and regimen ; and of those who submitted to the operation but few died. The doctor de- cided to introduce inoculation, and first submitted his own children and servants to the new process. They had the dis- ease very mildly, and recovered ; but the authorities sum- moned him before them to answer for alleged malpractice. He underwent many examinations, and from every side insults and abuse were heaped upon him. Even in England, no one had dared to commence the practice. Medical men wrote pamphlets, denouncing it as a crime, and clergymen wrote
35
OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE.
and preached against this manifest interference with the Providence which had sent the small-pox as a punishment for the sins of the people.
The people sought at one time to hang him ; and he spent fourteen days in a secure hiding-place known only to his wife ; the house being repeatedly searched by day and night, but luckily to no purpose. On another occasion a lighted hand- grenade was thrown into a room occupied by a young man, one of his patients, but the fuse went out and it did not ex- plode.
In 1722, 5,759 more of the inhabitants of Boston had the small-pox, of whom 844 died; while, of 286 persons inoculated by Dr. Boylston and others, only six died. In the face of these facts, the practice grew into favor, and the doctor no longer feared personal injury, although the senseless opposi- tion was still very constant and annoying. During this trying year he corresponded with Sir Hans Sloane, and at his invi- tation, visited the celebrated court physician in London. Here he received many courtesies and much attention, receiv- ing the honor of an admission to the Royal Society, and after a stay of a year and a half, returned to America.
When the small pox revisited Boston in 1752, the population numbered but 15,931, of whom 524 died out of between three and four thousand persons who took the disease in the nat- ural way. Besides these, 2,113 had the disease by inoculation of whom only 31 perished.
In 1762 Edward Devotion bequeathed, as the principal of a school fund for the town of Brookline, three hundred and sixty-eight " half-fives " or " pieces of eight," as certain gold coins of one of the Spanish kings, then much in use in the colonies, were termed, there being little specie of British coinage in general use. This money was loaned to the State in the Revolution, and suffered some diminution by the de- preciation of Continental " scrip," but in 1845 had accumu- lated to the amount of $4,531.01, and appropriated towards building the Town Hall.
It would take too much space and time to detail very mi- nutely the causes which led to the War of Independence. In the British Colonies of to-day, one may see a real picture of the feelings of our forefathers towards England, its king and institutions. To go to England was, in common parlance, " going home"; the English Ruler was "his gracious Maj- esty," and everything English was superior to all else on earth. But the loss of a myriad of the flower of the colony to obtain advantages which should be thrown away as mere make- weights in the delicate scales of European diplomacy, taught
36
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH
a bitter lesson to those whose settlements were thus again exposed to the ravages of the Canadian warriors and their French allies. Those, too, who had again and again served faithfully in the armies of the king, found that the merest holiday soldier who bore the king's commission in the regular army could outrank and command the veteran heroes of America's ceaseless warfare. From the landing of the first Pilgrim, one can trace the many causes which combined, through nearly one hundred and fifty years, to wean the hearts of a loyal people from the worn-out political idolatry of the Old World.
At an early date, Brookline took a decided stand on the subject of the later developments of that blind policy which deprived England of her most loyal and valuable colonies. In 1767 it was unanimously voted, " That this town will take all prudent and legal measures to promote industry, economy, and manufactures, and to discourage the use of European superfluities."
At a later date, we find one Hulton, one of the " Manda- mus counsellors," residing at Brookline, and receiving the visits of the British officers and the hatred of his neighbors, until he no longer cared to face the possible dangers of the outburst of popular indignation.
William Aspinwall, M. D., was the son of Thomas Aspin- wall, and the grandson of. Samuel Aspinwall, who was one of the force under Sir William Phips, which took Port Royal in 1 690, and afterward returned to his farm, and the leadership of the Brookline militia, of which his son was lieutenant.
In 1727 the veteran was drowned in Charles River, leaving to his son the farm on which he lived and died, having seven children, of whom two, Thomas and the subject of our sketch, did good service in the Revolution.
William Aspinwall married the daughter of Isaac Gardiner, captain of the Brookline " minute-men." He graduated at Harvard, and soon gained a large share of the onerous prac- tice of those days, when forty or fifty miles of horseback exercise often formed a part of the day's business. At the battle of Lexington he accompanied the Brookline men to the scene of action, and, it is said, did terrible execution, although his right eye had been destroyed by an accident, and he was compelled to fire from the left shoulder.
The great superiority of the American marksmen and their peculiar forest tactics nearly secured the complete destruction of the invading force ; and, as the sun declined, and the re- treating forces drew nearer the Charlestown peninsula, the gathering militia of the colony pressed closer upon the prey
37
OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE.
which was with difficulty snatched from their very grasp. It is said that Capt. Gardiner had a premonition on the morning of that fatal day, that he should never return ; and, bidding his fainting wife adieu, he hastened to the field, and that after escaping the dangers of that terrible day, he fell, pierced by many bullets, in Cambridge, while slaking his thirst at a well, before renewing fire of his men on the retreating English. Dr. Aspinwall took care of the body of his captain and fa- ther-in law, who thus died at the age of forty-nine, one of the first martyrs to the cause of American liberty.
Dr. Aspinwall applied for a commission, but taking the advice of his friend, the lamented Warren, was transferred to the medical staff of the Continental army, and during the siege of Boston, had charge of a hospital at Roxbury. On the conclusion of peace, he returned to his practice, which he greatly increased by the construction of establishments for the reception of the many who came to him to be inoculated with the small-pox.
Of course some died; and the buildings of some parts of Brookline are doubtless built above the bodies of those un- fortunates who might not even sleep in death with their kin- dred for fear that many years hence their graves should send the dread pestilence into the homes of the living. In the early part of the present century, the introduction of vacci- nation superseded the more dangerous preventive, and the new process found in Dr. Aspinwall an unbiased judge, and where satisfied of its reliability, an ardent advocate and skil- ful practitioner. Worn out by constant study, his only re- maining eye was overgrown by a cataract, and an unsuccessful operation rendered him totally blind, but he bore with cheer- ful and pious resignation the loss of the many pleasures of which this calamity had deprived him, and at the age of sev- enty-nine passed " into life everlasting."
His brother, Thomas Aspinwall, commanded the fort at Sewall's Point, which mounted six guns, and doubtless pre- vented the exit of many foraging parties. A water battery of two guns, and a square work built by Marshall, were also erected at Brookline during this siege. The " Davis House" was, for a short time in the early part of the war, occupied by the colonial troops, as may be learned from the frequent references to it in the journals of Paul Lunt and other revolu- tionary soldiers ; but barracks were soon after built, although no large force was ever concentrated in Boston.
During the siege many men deserted from the British, to their once despised foes, and as they chiefly escaped from the Neck, were escorted through Brookline to the headquarters
38
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH
at Cambridge. Finally the guards were doubled; and the recital of one deserter to the American officers is worthy of insertion. Carefully cleaning the priming from his piece and spitting into the empty pan, he bantered his comrade into an exchange of guns, promising him a glass of rum in the morn- ing. When the exchange was effected, he sprang over the works and an ineffectual shower of sparks was the only result of his tricked comrade's attempt to shoot the cunning deserter.
The "minute-men " who did such good service at Lexing- ton, Concord, and Bunker Hill, were soon found to be unfitted for the protracted operation of the long struggle which en- sued, and soldiers were accordingly raised " for three years, or the war," by assigning to each town a quota, according to its population and wealth.
The town was then divided into " classes" or divisions, each member of which had his proportion of the expense of procuring one man set opposite his name, as well as the ap- praised value of his property. Of course there were as many " classes " as there were men required of the town.
Lieut. Caleb Crafts of Brookline served during the entire war; and among his papers was found a number of orders, notifications, etc., as well as a list of some twenty-five men who served under him in the siege of Boston, among which are to be found those of Williams, Weld, Wiswell, Gore, Mann, and other families in this section.
In 1787 the first engine company was formed, in conjunc- tion with the town of Roxbury. The " tub " was of course filled by buckets, passed by lines of men from the nearest well, pond, or stream, and would create much amusement were it to appear beside the Good Intent hose carriage, or the powerful "steamer " of to-day. In 1785, the town contained fifty families, and in 1797, seventy-two residences ; in 1800, the census returns showed a population of 605; in 1820, 900; 1840, 1,265; 1860, 5,164 ; 1870, 6,650.
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.