USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > Celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Newton, Massachusetts, December 27, 1888 > Part 2
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In 1838 eighteen hundred acres of this were set off to Roxbury, and are now a part of Boston. In 1847 six hun- dred and forty acres were set off to the now city of Waltham, being that part of Waltham south of the river, and a few years ago a small portion near Chestnut Hill Reservoir was set to Boston, leaving, according to one estimate, 10,500 acres as the present area of Newton ; or, by the other, 12,073. acres; or, if we add the two estimates together as given, and divide by two,- as modern juries do nowadays when they
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want to arrive at a verdict,-we shall find 11,286 acres, which is probably near the fact.
The inhabitants of Cambridge Village knew what they wanted, and, knowing, sought to carry their point. During the last of the year 1654 or first of 1655, they took the first step toward gaining their independence, at which time they began to hold religious meetings for public worship in Cambridge Village, in the territory now Newton. They asked to be released from paying rates to the church at Cambridge, on the ground that they were to establish the ordinances of Christ among themselves, and distinct from the old town. The selectmen of Cambridge strongly op- posed this division, and declared that there was no sufficient reason for such separation, and also, to quote their own words, "We hope it is not the desire of our brethren so to accommodate themselves by a division as thereby utterly to disenable and undo the Church of Christ with whom they have made so solemn an engagement in the Lord, which is apparent to us will be the effect thereof."
This was the beginning of a struggle for independence that lasted thirty-three or four years, and ended by the com- plete separation from the mother town. Let us follow this contest, step by step, until its consummation.
In 1656 the people of Cambridge Village, having been denied their request the year before, appealed to the "Great and General Court to be released from paying rates for the support of the ministry at Cambridge Church."
Of course the old town remonstrated, and the village people were given leave to withdraw, silenced for the time. They were not the men, however, to submit to what they believed to be an injustice, but quietly bided their time. Five years after, they presented another petition to the Gen- eral Court, asking for the same thing.
They had been holding meetings for public worship for four or five years in a large room in a private house, and the year before this petition was presented (1660) had built the first meeting-house, which fact no doubt had its influence ;
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and so in 1661 the Court granted them "freedom from all church rates for the support of the ministry in Cambridge and for all lands and estates which were more than four miles from Cambridge meeting-house-the measure to be in the usual paths that may be ordinarily passed -so long as the south side of the river shall maintain an able minis- try."
The year following the granting of this request, the line was so run and the bounds so settled between Cambridge and Cambridge Village as to settle the matter of ministerial support, and also to establish substantially what afterwards became the line between Brighton and Newton. These people had gained this point, and started a movement that was only to end with their entire emancipation from Cam- bridge. The first meeting-house was built in 1660 or 61, and located on Centre Street, opposite the Colby estate ; and in July, 1664, when there were but twenty-two land-owners in the village, the first church was organized, and the Rev. John Eliot, Jr., son of the apostle to the Indians, ordained as its pastor. And this consummated the ecclesiastical, though not the civil, separation of Cambridge Village from Cambridge.
The congregation of this church was composed of about thirty families, with about eighty members in the church, forty of each sex.
Our sturdy ancestors were not yet satisfied; and so, in 1672, they again petitioned the General Court to set them off, and make them a town by themselves. In answer to this request, the Court in 1673 declared "that the Court doth judge meet to grant to the inhabitants of said village annually to elect one constable, and three selectmen, dwell- ing among themselves, to order the prudential affairs of the inhabitants there according to law ; only continuing a part of Cambridge in paying County and Country rates, as also Town rates, so far as refers to the grammar school, bridge over the Charles River, and their proportion of the charges of the deputies."
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This action of the Court they refused to accept and act under, by which they would merely have become a precinct, though this was quite a step in advance ; for previous to this time the residents of the village had been permitted to hold few official positions.
At the session of the General Court commencing May 8, 1678, a lengthy petition was drawn up and signed by fifty- two freemen, setting forth many facts and humbly praying that they might be granted their freedom from Cambridge, and that they might receive a name, thus becoming a sepa- rate town. Cambridge remonstrated by their selectmen in quite severe terms. It declared that the petitioners "do not say words of truth."
"They knew beforehand the distance of their dwellings from Cambridge, yet this did not obstruct them in their settlements there, but before they were well warm in their nests they must divide from the town."
Alluding to what they had already been granted, and their repeated efforts to get free from the old town, they say : "All this, notwithstanding these long-breathed petitioners finding that they had such good success that they could never cast their lines into the sea but something was catched, they resolved to bait their hook again." They accused the freemen of the village of causing the old town "to dance after their pipes, from time to time, for twenty- four years, as will appear by the Court's record."
And again, to use their words : " He is a murderer if he takes away that whereby his father or mother lives, and this we apprehend not to be far unlike the case now before this honored Court." They go on to say further : " All parties of this nature are condemned by the light of nature."
"They who had grants from the heathen idolaters did not account it just that they should be dispossed by others ; and idolatrous Ahab, although he was a king, and a very wicked king also, and wanted not power to effect what he desired, and was so burthened for the want of Naboth's vineyard that he would neither eat nor sleep, and when denied by his
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own subjects, tendered a full price for the same ; yet he had so much conscience left that he did not dare seize the same presently, as the petitioners would be, so great a part of our possession as this, were it now in their power."
They still further say that "those who live in town - Cambridge-are put to hire grass for their cattle to feed upon in the summer time, which costs them at least twelve or fifteen shillings a head, in money, for one cow, the summer feed : and corn land they have not sufficient to find the town with bread."
"Cambridge is not a town of trade or merchandise as the seaport towns be, but what they do must be in a way of husbandry ; they having no other way of supply."
"We must be no town nor have no Church of Christ nor ministry among us, in case we be clipped and mangled as the petitioners would have."
Notwithstanding all this and much more of similar tenor, the General Court granted to Cambridge Village the right to choose selectmen and a constable and to manage the "mu- nicipal affairs of the village," substantially the same privi- leges that had before been granted in 1673, but which the village had never accepted. Dr. Smith says : "This was an important but not full concession on the part of the Court ; but the people had to wait nearly ten years more before they fully attained the object of their desire. The attitude of the settlers in Cambridge Village was one of persistent deter- mination ; and, as if foreshadowing in those early days the spirit of the Revolution which occurred a century later, they stood firm in their resistance of everything which in their judgment savored of oppression."
Jackson says, "The first entry upon the new town book of Cambridge Village records the doings of the first town meet- ing, held June 27, 1679, by virtue of an order of the General Court," at which meeting three selectmen and one constable were chosen, thus doing what they were authorized to do in 1673. There is no record of another town meeting until Jan. 30, 1681.
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It appears by articles of agreement made as late as Sept. 17, 1688, between the selectmen of Cambridge and the selectmen of the village, in behalf of their respective towns, referring to differences that have arisen as to charges for bridges, schools, the laying of rates, and some other things of a public nature, "that for the end above said the village shall pay to the town of Cambridge the sum of £5 in merchantable corn, at or before the first day of May next ensuing the date above, in full satisfaction of all dues and demands by the said town from the said village, on the account above said, from the beginning of the world to the IIth of January, 1688, by the present style of reckoning."
This brings us near the time when Cambridge Village was incorporated, as claimed by historians who have written later than Jackson.
We find in the records of the village that in 1686 "a com- mittee was chosen to treat with Cambridge about our free- dom from their town." It is undoubtedly true that Cam- bridge Village, in a large degree, became independent of the mother town in the year 1679, when, Jackson says, the town was incorporated ; for they did from that time control the prudential affairs of the village; but it is equally true that they were taxed together for several years after, for State and county and for some other purposes. It is cer- tain that they were not allowed to send a deputy to the General Court until 1688, when the separation was fully con- summated. The records of Cambridge -the old town - show that constables were elected for the village after 1679, every year until 1688, but none for the village after the latter date. Paige's recent History of Cambridge seems to entirely clear all doubts as to the true date of the incorporation of Newton.
He was fortunate enough to find two documents which probably Mr. Jackson never saw. "One is an order of notice preserved in the Massachusetts archives," of which the following is a copy : -
"To the constables of the town of Cambridge, or either
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of them ; you are hereby required to give notice to the inhab- itants of said town that they or some of them, be and appear before his Excellency in Council, on Wednesday, being the I Ith of this inst. to show cause why Cambridge Village may not be declared a place distinct by itself, and not longer a part of said town as hath been formerly petitioned for and now desired : and thereof to make due return. Dated at Boston the 6th day of January in the third year of his Maj- esty's reign A.D. 1687 By order &c J. West, D. sec'y."
" What was the result of this process does not appear of record ; for the records of the council, during the administra- tion of Andros, were carried away. Fortunately, however, a certified copy of the order, which is equivalent to an act of incorporation, is on file in the office of the clerk of the Judicial Courts in Middlesex County."
At a council held in Boston Jan. 11, 1687, present his Excellency, Sir Edmund Andros, and seven councillors, an order was issued a part of which we give: "Upon the reading this day in the Council the petition of the inhabitants of Cambridge Village, being sixty families or upwards, that they may be a place distinct by themselves and freed from the town of Cambridge, to which at the first settlement they were annexed, they being in every respect capable thereof," it was "ordered that the said village from henceforth be and is hereby declared a distinct village and place of itself, wholly freed and separated from the town of Cambridge, and from all future rates, payments, or duties to them whatso- ever." The order further provided how Cambridge bridge should be supported.
This order was signed John West, deputy secretary.
Then followed, "This is a true copy taken out of the original, 4th day of December, 1688 : as attests: Laur. Ham- mond, Clerk." Dr. Paige adds : "There remains no reasona- ble doubt that the village was released from ecclesiastical dependence on Cambridge, and obligation to share in the expenses of religious worship 1661, became a precinct in 1673, received the name of Newtown, in December, 1691,
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and was declared to be a distinct village and place of itself, or, in other words, was incorporated as a separate and dis- tinct town by the order passed Jan. 11, 1687-8, old style, or Jan. 1I, 1688, according to the present style of reck- oning."
It seems very strange that such an error should occur and be perpetuated for nearly two centuries, the town even adopting it and putting it upon its seal, where it remained for six years.
After Cambridge Village was set off or incorporated, it was sometimes called New Cambridge, until 1691, when, in answer to a petition to the General Court, it was called Newtown, and the name was variously spelled, New-Town, Newtown, Newtowne, and Newton in the records, until 1766, when Judge Fuller became town clerk, and spelled it in the town records "Newton"; and Newton it has been ever since. We have devoted much time and space to establish- ing the facts concerning the incorporation of Newton, be- cause Mr. Jackson in his history published, in 1854, gives the date as 1679, which has since been shown to be incorrect, both by Dr. Paige and Dr. Smith. After a careful exami- nation of the facts we are fully satisfied that they have fixed upon the true date. -
At this time ten of the first settlers had passed away.
Sixty families were dwelling within the limits of the town. We give a few brief items relating to the people living on these broad acres from 1639 onward.
In 1643 six acres of land were conveyed on payment of £5.
In 1645 " there were in all of Cambridge 135 ratable persons, 90 horses, 208 cows, 131 oxen, 229 young cattle, 20 horses, 37 sheep, 62 swine, and 58 goats."
"In 1647 the town bargained with Waban, the Indian chief and first convert to Christianity, to keep six score head of dry cattle on the south side of Charles River."
"1656, persons appointed by the Selectmen to execute order of General Court for the improvement of all families within the town in spinning and manufacturing clothes."
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In 1650 wild land sold for one dollar and a quarter per acre.
1676, town meeting called to consider the matter of forti- fying the town against Indians.
In 1691 first couple married in Newton after it was incor- porated.
1693, town paid 20s. for killing three wolves.
The two following years paid a bounty for killing wolves.
1699, voted to build a school-house 14 x 16 feet.
1700, hired a schoolmaster at five shillings per day.
1707, paid twelve pence per dozen for heads of blackbirds. Voted to choose two persons to see that hogs were yoked and ringed according to law.
17II, voted to have collections taken up Thanksgiving Days for the poor.
1717, vote passed to prevent the destruction of deer. Same in 1741.
1796, voted to have a stove to warm the meeting-house. The same year, voted that the deacons have liberty to sit out of the deacons' seat.
1800, voted to disannul the ancient mode of seating parish- ioners in the meeting-house.
In 1646 Rev. John Eliot first attempted to Christianize the Indians at Nonanetum, or Nonantum, where a company of them were located on land that had been bought by the General Court of the white owners and set apart for the use of the Indians. This tract of high land was considerably improved by them by the building of wigwams, walls, and ditches about the same, and the planting later of fruit-trees.
By advice of Mr. Eliot, tools and implements were sup- plied, as well as money to enable them to develop and im- prove their village. Homer says : -
"The women of Nonantum soon learned to spin and to col- lect articles for sale at the market through the year. In winter the Indians sold brooms, staves, baskets made from the neighboring woods and swamps, and turkeys raised by themselves ; in the spring, cranberries, strawberries, and fish
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from Charles River ; in the summer, whortleberries, grapes, and fish. Several of them worked with the English in the vicinity in hay-time and harvest."
The author of "Nonantum and Natick " says : "Here at Nonantum Hill was begun the first civilized and Christian settlement of Indians in the English North American colo- nies. This was the seat of the first Protestant mission to the heathen, and here Mr. Eliot preached the first Protes- tant sermon in a pagan tongue."
This was preached in the large wigwam of Waanton, or Waban, where a considerable number of Indians were as- sembled to hear this first sermon, which occupied over an hour in its delivery. The text was from Ezekiel xxxvii. 9, 10.
This Waban - whose name signified " wind," or " spirit " - was the chief man of this Indian village, and was called a "merchant." He seems to have been the man of business. " Perhaps he went to Boston sometimes to sell venison and other game which he had either taken himself or bought from other Indians." He was the first convert to Christian- ity, and lived a consistent life, dying in 1674, aged seventy years.
Newton thus enjoys the rare honor of having within its borders the spot made sacred by the labors of the apostle Eliot, whose saintly life and heroic service in the cause of the Master resulted in the civilization and Christianization of many of these sons of the forest. These Nonantum Indians seem to have been pretty bright and keen heathen, judging from some of the questions they put to the white men, a few of which are here given. One woman in- quired "whether she prayed when she only joined with her husband in his prayer to God Almighty." Another inquired "whether her husband's prayer signified anything if he continued to be angry with her and to beat her." Another asked "how the English came to differ so much from the Indians in their knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, since they had all at first but one Father"; another, "how
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it came to pass that sea water was salt and river water fresh."
The people of Newton from the very first took great in- terest in military affairs. The men of Newton took a prom- inent part in all the Indian wars. They were in King Philip's and subsequent wars with the Indians, as well as in the old French and Indian War. Some lives were lost in this service, among them Colonel Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams College. He was shot in the mem- orable battle fought with the French and Indians near Lake George, in September, 1755.
Of the part taken in the War of the Revolution by the inhabitants of this town, it has been well said that, "almost to a man, they made the most heroic and vigorous efforts to sustain the common cause of the country from the first hour to the last, through all the trying events which preceded and accompanied the war."
Our fathers were jealous of their rights; and, while they were willing to stand by the government, they were not the men to submit to any injustice. From time to time they met in town meeting to consider important questions relat- ing to the condition of the country. In December, 1772, a town meeting was held, and a committee appointed to con- sider and report what it may be proper for the town to do relating to the present unhappy situation of the country.
In 1773 they instructed their representative, Judge Ful- ler, to use his influence against the salaries of the judges of the Superior Court being fixed and paid by the Crown in- stead of by the Great and General Court. They were jealous of their rights, even though remotely assailed. It is prob- able that not a person in the colonies at this time seriously entertained the thought of taking up arms against the mother country, but relied upon constitutional methods only for the redress of their grievances.
Later, during the same year, a large committee was chosen "to confer with the inhabitants of the town as to the expe- diency of leaving off buying, selling, or using any India tea."
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On Dec. 16, 1773, there was a famous tea-party in Boston, such as never was seen before nor has been since. Newton was represented on that occasion by two or more of its cit- izens. One in particular, who drove a load of wood to market, stayed very late that day, and was not very anxious the next morning to explain the cause of his detention ; but, as tea was found in his shoes, it is not difficult to under- stand what he had been doing.
The following year, 1774, the town adopted a series of res- olutions, declaring they would not voluntarily and tamely submit to the levying of any tax for the purpose of raising a revenue, where imposed without their consent or that of their representatives ; and that any and all persons who advised or assisted in such acts were inimical to this coun- try, and thereby incurred their just resentment, and in such light they regarded all merchants, traders, and others who should import or sell any India tea until the duty, so justly complained of, should be taken off. They further pledged themselves that they would not purchase or use any such tea while the duty remained upon it.
A committee was appointed to confer with like commit- tees of sister towns as occasion required. During the same year the town voted that the selectmen use their best discre- tion in providing firearms for the poor of the town, where they were unable to provide for themselves. In October of the same year the town sent delegates to the Provincial As- sembly at Concord, and the next year to a meeting of the same at Cambridge. Early in the year 1775, the town voted to raise men to exercise two field-pieces that had been given, and also to raise a company of minute-men, and thus be pre- pared for any emergency.
This action furnishes the explanation of the fact that Newton had so many men engaged in the battles of Lex- ington and Concord.
On the 19th of April, 1775, a day ever memorable in the history of our country, when the first battles of independence were fought at Lexington and Concord, Newton had three
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organized companies of minute-men, all of whom were pres- ent and took part in the battles of that historic day, during which they marched about thirty miles.
The two hundred and eighteen men composing these three companies were not all that Newton sent to the battle-fields that day ; for many went who had passed the military age and so were exempt from duty, but who felt as did Noah Wiswall, the oldest man who went from Newton, and whose son commanded one of the companies, and who had other sons and sons-in-law in the fight. He could not be induced to remain at home, because, as he said, "he wanted to see what the boys were doing," and, when shot through the hand, coolly bound it up with a handkerchief, and brought home the gun of a British soldier who fell in the battle.
Colonel Joseph Ward, a master of one of the public schools,- a Newton man,-took a very active part. On the 19th of April he left Boston for Newton, took horse and gun, rode to Concord, to animate and assist his countrymen. He also greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Bunker's Hill, where he served as aide-de-camp to General Artemas Ward.
Soon after these earlier battles two companies were raised in Newton. In March following, these companies with others took possession of Dorchester Heights, which proved a short service, as on the 17th of that month the British evacuated Boston, much to the joy of the good people of that town.
Soon after, one of these companies joined in an expedition to Canada. On the 17th of June, 1776, the first anniversary of a day made memorable in the annals of our country by the heroic struggle on Bunker's Hill, where Newton was well represented, and two weeks before the Declaration of Independence, our forefathers in this busy season of the year left their fields and quiet homes, and gathered in town meeting to discuss and pass upon a matter of vital impor- tance to them, their posterity, and the world. At this town meeting, where Captain John Woodward was moderator, the
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