USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Genealogical history of the town of Reading, Mass., including the present towns of Wakefield, Reading, and North Reading, with chronological and historical sketches, from 1639 to 1874 > Part 20
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In May, the town took into consideration a resolve of the General Court, relative to Independence, and voted, unanimously, "to adhere to the determination of Congress in the above important article, and stand by it to the last with their lives and fortunes."
July 18. - The Declaration of Independence by the American Con- gress on the 4th is published from the balcony of the State House in Boston.
This year a census of the inhabitants of Massachusetts was taken.
By this census it appears that the town of Reading, with the single exception of Sudbury, was then the largest town, in respect to popula- tion, in the County of Middlesex.
The population of the three parishes was at that date nearly equal, the First Parish having a trifle the largest.
April 19. - " Whereas I, the subscriber, have a negro man, named Cato, who hath requested that he may, in some future time, be made free, I hereby declare it to be my purpose and design, that if said Cato continue an obedient and faithful servant for the space of three years next after the date hereof, that, at the end of said term of three years, said Cato shall be set free.
"SAMUEL BANCROFT."
This year, June 10, died Mrs. Anna Haven, "the amiable consort of Rev. Thomas Haven, minister, of the Third Parish, in the 22d year of her age." Upon her monumental stone it is written : -
" No more shall I her friendly converse share, Nor hear the dictates of her pious care ; Yet though the bright example is removed, Be its idea still revered and loved ; To imitate her virtues may I try, And on the path she mark'd, still fix my eye."
Selectmen of Reading petition the Court for relief in supporting people on donation, some from Charlestown, and some from Boston ; they give a list of some thirty persons. (See Appendix "K.")
1777. - Town chose Jonathan Flint for Tory Prosecutor, with author- ity to examine all persons suspected to be inimical to the success of the present war, and report the disloyal.
May 19, Col. Benj. Brown issues the following order : -
"To Lieut. Abraham Foster : Sir, agreeably to orders I have just received, you are ordered immediately to see that your company be ready to march on the shortest
183
OF THE TOWN OF READING.
notice, and see that every man is equipped according to law, and furnished with three or four days' provision. On an alarm you are to repair with your company at the South Meeting-house in Reading. From your humble servant,
"BENJ. BROWN, Lt .- Col."
Aug. 18, the Selectmen of Reading address the following certificate and request to the Board of War : -
"This is to certify that the number of men borne on the Training Band and Alarm List, in the several companies in this town, is 348. And agreeably to a late Resolve of the Honorable General Court of this State, we request the Hon. Board of War to order to be delivered to us our proportion of firearms, gun-locks, lead and flints.
" JACOB EMERSON, " TIMO. PRATT, JR. " Selectmen." "BENJ. FOSTER,
Sept. 26, Col. Fox issues the following order : -
"To Lieut. Joseph Bancroft : Sir, you are hereby ordered without any delay to draft or enlist one half of all the able-bodied men in your company to march to the northward with six days' provision, with arms and all accoutrements complete, ac- cording to act of Court. Hereof you must not fail, and make return to me of the men so enlisted ; you must make your return by Monday next.
"JONATHAN FOX (of Woburn), Col."
Whereupon Lt. Bancroft forthwith issues the following order : -
"To Mr. Thomas Eaton : Sir, in obedience to orders I have received, you are re- quired to warn all the Training soldiers in your ward to meet at the meeting-house in the Third Parish, with arms complete, the 27th of Sept. inst. at one o'clock in the afternoon. Also, to warn the Alarm List, that they attend at said time and place."
Lieut. Bancroft commanded the company in the Third Parish.
The military companies of the First and Second Parishes received similar orders.
The commissioned officers of the town of Reading were directed, No- vember 5th, to order their men to be ready to march on the shortest notice that may be, in case of an alarm, with three days' provisions.
For rolls of the several militia companies of Reading at the begin- ning of the war, and of a company of minute-men, see Appendix " H."
Town instructed their treasurer to receive none but Continental bills. Voted to raise £12 for purchasing lead and flints.
October, occurred the surrender of Burgoyne's army to Gen. Gates.
In the battles which resulted in this glorious victory, large numbers . of Reading men were engaged.
Joshua Eaton, of Reading, was killed in the battle of the day pre- ceding the surrender, October 7th. He was the son, probably, of
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GENEALOGICAL HISTORY
Joshua Eaton, who died in 1772, and grandson of Capt. Tho. and Mrs. Lydia Eaton, who lived in the West Parish.
1778. - The Committee on "Confederation" reported that the " Articles of Confederation " be approved of, which the town voted (Feb. 16) their acceptance of.
Town voted, May 18th, to raise £246 12s. to defray the charges of purchasing and carrying to Concord the clothing apportioned to this town, for the Continental army, by the General Court.
June 8, the town voted, seventy-five to one, " not to accept the new Constitution."
The Constitution mentioned above was formed and proposed to the people by the General Court of 1777-8, acting as a convention.
It was rejected by the people of the State by a large majority.
Measures were soon after taken for assembling another Convention, distinct from the Legislative body, the result of which was the adoption of the present Constitution. In these measures, as will hereafter ap- pear, the town of Reading joined and sympathized.
Sept. 19, an order came from the General Court, directing one third of the militia to be in readiness for marching to defend Boston, in case the French fleet there shall be attacked by the British.
1779. - Town voted that Messrs. Joseph Underwood, Daniel Put- nam, and Jonathan Weston be a Committee against monopoly.
Also voted that Capt. Abraham Foster, George Flint, and Thomas Damon be a Committee to prevent forestalling.
Also voted to impower our Representative to vote in favor of a State Convention to form a new Constitution.
In July, Lieut. Benjamin Flint was chosen a member of the Consti- tutional Convention to be holden at Cambridge.
In addition to the trials and troubles of a protracted war, the people of Reading were called upon to contend with the pestilence that walketh in darkness.
The small-pox broke out among them this year. Whereupon the town voted that measures be taken to prevent the small-pox from going through the town ; that houses be provided for persons taken with the small-pox the natural way.
Voted, also, that inoculation cease with the dissolution of the meeting.
Voted, also, to exclude Mrs. Prentiss, Mrs. Vinton, and the wife of Joseph Emerson, Jr., from the limitation of time.
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OF THE TOWN OF READING.
Voted, also, to prosecute, as the law directs, all those who presume to inoculate, or be inoculated, after the time above limited.
1780. - In complying with the numerous calls made upon the town for men for the army, the town sometimes chose a committee, with power to obtain them on the best terms possible, and sometimes they apportioned, as nearly as possible, the number required among the three parishes, in the following proportion, viz. where the First and Second Parishes provided four, the Third Parish furnished three.
But it appears that the town always filled its quota.
This year the town was required to furnish twenty-three militia sol- diers for three months, twenty-three Continental soldiers for six months, and twenty-three more for three years or during the war.
May 4th, at a town-meeting voted that Benjamin Brown, Esq., Lieut. Benjamin Flint, Capt. Abraham Foster, Dea. Jacob Emerson, Dea. Amos Upton, Capt. James Bancroft, Capt. John Goodwin, and Mr. Amos Upton, Jr., be a Committee to consider the new State Constitu- tion, and report.
Said Committee subsequently reported, " that they had maturely con- sidered the same by paragraphs, and are unanimously of opinion that the same in every part is well calculated for the comfort, peace, liberty, and happiness of a community, excepting the qualifications of members of Congress, which it seems is left wholly out of the question. We are humbly of the opinion, that it is as necessary that each member of Con- gress should be qualified, with as much estate and as long residence in the State as the Governor, for these reasons :-
" Ist. They have the right of apportioning the Continental taxes on each State, and if they have no estate, they will be void of the stimulus that chiefly governs mankind, they not being affected in their own in- terest.
"2d. They have the right of making peace or war with any Power, and also of entering into alliances with what power they may think proper.
"But, on the whole, it is our opinion not to be over strenuous in this matter, lest by our dissenting votes we frustrate the whole Constitution, which in Whole we had rather would take place, than have it suspended a length of time, which probably will be attended with pernicious con- sequences.
" By order of the Committee.
" BENJAMIN BROWN, Chairman."
24
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GENEALOGICAL HISTORY
The town then voted to accept the Report, 121 in favor, no one against it.
NOTE. - The above Report was probably written by Dea. Jacob Emerson, one of the Committee, and a graduate of Har. Coll. in 1756.
May 19th of this year, in addition to the constant demands and fear- ful uncertainties of war, and the prevalence of that terrible scourge, the small-pox (without the knowledge of the mitigating power of vaccina- tion), in addition to all this, on the day aforesaid, occurred the cele- brated "Dark Day," " when candles were lighted in many houses, the birds were silent and disappeared, and the fowls retired to roost." A very general opinion prevailed that the Day of Judgment was at hand.
It was, certainly, one of the dark days of the Revolution.
October, the town of Reading was called upon to supply 12,450 lbs. of beef for the Continental army.
Town voted to supply the beef, and to raise £20,000 for that purpose (old emission of currency). In December, another requisition was made upon the town for 23,905 lbs. of beef, and the town voted to raise £36,000 for the purchase of the same.
Town voted to raise £56,000 for paying the hire of twenty-three Continental soldiers for six months.
The following six months' men were hired at the following rates, namely -
John Weston, Jr., for 6 mo. service, £2340, or 130 bu. Ind. Corn.
Thomas Brown,
900, " 1500, “
50 " 833 “
Jesse Nichols,
Wm. Holt, 66
900, “ 50 "
66 Nathaniel Eaton,
Richard Mason,
Reuben Kemp,
Jacob Burnap,
Nicholas Holt,
¥
Jere'h Hartshorn, "
1800, “ 100 2400, " 133 I200, “ 66 1800, " 100
66
W. Stimpson, Jr., “
66
The Third Parish this year contributed £184 Ios. to Rev. Mr. Whit- ney, of Northboro', who had lost his house by fire.
1781. - January, town voted to raise £50,000 for hiring twenty- three men for the army for three years or during the war.
July, town voted to raise $250 in silver to purchase 9,866 pounds of beef for the army. (Which was about 6d. per lb.)
1800, " 100
1800, “ 100 900, " 50
66 66
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OF THE TOWN OF READING.
October, town voted that their treasurer receive £1 of new emission for £40 of old emission ; or fr in Specie for £75 of old emission.
Under the old custom of our fathers of warning new settlers out of town, to prevent their gaining a "settlement," it often happened that very valuable and desirable families were warned to depart.
This year, Ebenezer Pope and wife Sarah, and children: Lucy, who married Timothy Poole ; Oliver ; Polly, who married Hananiah Parker ; Betsey, who married (Master) Tho. Swain ; Jesse, who married Nancy Hay, and was long sexton ; Gould, - were warned to leave this town and depart to Danvers.
First Parish debt this year was £6,066 IIs. Id., equal to about £80 in silver.
1782. - Rev. Thomas Haven, first pastor of the third church in Reading, died May 7, 1782, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, and twelfth year of his ministry.
He was son of Rev. Elias (Har. Coll. 1733, and minister of Wren- tham, now Franklin); his mother was Mary Messenger. Thomas was the grandson of Joseph Haven, of Framingham and Hopkinton, who was the son of Moses, and grandson of Richard, of Lynn. Thomas was of Har. Coll. in 1665. The following is the inscription upon his tombstone in Reading (said to have been composed by Rev. Dr. Cum- mings, of Billerica): -
"Stript of its earthly dress, a genius, unfettered by bigotry, improved by study, sanctified by religion, ennobled by an evangelic temper, enhanced by the most dif- fusive benevolence, has taken its flight to its native country. Beloved and esteemed as a most worthy character, whose excellent natural and acquired abilities and emi- nent moral endowments afforded the most flattering hopes of great and growing usefulness, his exit, at such an early period, is sincerely lamented by all his acquaint- ance, and is especially a most sorrowful event to the people of his charge.
" According to common reckoning by days, months and years, his death was pre- mature ; but computing human life by the advances made in knowledge, wisdom, piety and virtue, he lived to a good old age."
The Third Parish re-purchased the estate they sold to Rev. Thomas Haven, of Mr. William Haven.
Persons dissatisfied with the preaching of Rev. Mr. Prentiss pe- titioned the First Parish :
Ist. To refuse to vote Mr. Prentiss his salary ; or,
2d. To release the dissatisfied ones from being taxed for his support ; or,
3d. To choose a Committee to see on what terms Mr. Prentiss will quit the desk.
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GENEALOGICAL HISTORY
After considerable debate the parish voted to "dismiss the whole."
It is understood that the objections against Mr. Prentiss were not against his moral character as a man and a citizen, not against his talents as a writer and public speaker, for in all these respects he main- tained a fair and respectable standing, but against his peculiar senti- ments as a divine.
Mr. Prentiss was of that class of divines then termed Arminian, and at the present day would be called Unitarian.
1783. - Francis Smith, who was soon after chosen deacon, was, this year, with his wife Sarah (Boardman), warned out of town to Lynn. He owned the place where Mrs. Benjamin Emerson now lives, on Elm Street.
1784. - First Parish voted to fence the Burial-Grounds. April 11th, Contents of the First Parish treasury : -
£ s. d.
Note against Edmund Eaton,
5 00
James Smith,
0 17 0
=
Do. and Benjamin Brown, 18 20
Benjamin Brown,
2 18 0
16 William Berd,
2 16 0
Cash : New Emission,
$3.
Old
$3048.
Town order for school money,
53 2 6
JOHN PRATT, Treas.
1785. - First Parish voted to petition the General Court to be set off as a distinct town, and chose Ebenezer Hopkins, Nathaniel Wiley, and John Hart a Committee to petition.
Third Parish voted not to find any wood for the schools.
1786. - Town chose a Committee, to be joined by Malden, respect- ing a bridge over "Penny Ferry."
This year the "Reading Social Library" was formed, and Hay Nichols, Esq., was appointed Librarian.
1787. - Men were called for this year "to march to the westward in support of Government." This expedition was for the purpose of subduing an insurrection headed by Daniel Shays.
Twelve men were called for at one time, and more at another, from the First Parish.
-
189
OF THE TOWN OF READING.
Parish voted " that each man should have 3 shillings per day and $2 bounty, they allowing the parish all State pay or wages which they may draw."
Among those who went on this expedition were : Thomas Emerson, Jr., Nathaniel Emerson, Joseph Gould, John Vinton, Jr., Ezra Cow- drey, Wm. Stimpson, Jr., Aaron Damon, Cornelius Sweetser, John Sweetser, Wm. Emerson, Benjamin Eaton, Jonathan P. Hay, Charles Eaton, and William Gould.
REV. PETER SANBORN.
1789. - The Third Parish voted to concur with the church in the choice of Rev. Peter Sanborn to be their pastor ; also voted to give him £80 salary and twenty cords of wood per year, and £200 as an encouragement to settle.
Mr. Sanborn, having been made acquainted with the doings of the church and parish, gave the following answer : -
" To the West Church and Parish in Reading: Seriously impressed with a sense of the events of Divine Providence, particularly one in which I am so deeply inter- ested, I cannot but listen to its language. You, my brethren and friends of this Church and Congregation, have not forgotten the day when the Providence of God extinguished the lamp, which, for a short period, burnt in this golden candlestick ; it is also fresh in your memories, that, in this dark and bereaved state, your eyes have been fixed on me ; you have presented me with a vote, which manifests your election of me to be your pastor, and to take the charge of your church and congregation. To suppress emotions of gratitude for such attention and respect would be ingratitude tself. Since you presented me with the above invitation, I have not been an inatten-
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GENEALOGICAL HISTORY
tive observer of the aspects of Providence, nor a stranger to the throne of grace, and that God, who giveth wisdom to those who ask him; my fathers and brethren in the ministry have been consulted for light and, direction in this important affair, an affair which is not circumscribed by the narrow limits of time, but extends its consequences forward interminable ages beyond the judgment day. I think I have not conferred with flesh and blood, but have endeavored to act by the grace of God, with a wise reference to that solemn day, when my great Master shall come again in the East, the piercing brightness of whose eyes will reveal the secrets of men's hearts, and reward or punish as their deeds shall be.
" Impressed with a sense of these things, at present, it appears to be my duty to expend the talent God has given me in the work of the Gospel Ministry. And while I view your circumstances, Providence appears to speak the same language; I do, therefore, with all humility and diffidence of my own strength, cordially accept of your election and approbation, and consent to take the charge of your Church and Con- gregation. I shall expect punctuality in all your engagements, and must beseech you by the bowels of mercy, to pray for me without ceasing, that utterance may be given me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel ; that the great Head of the Church would furnish me with every ministerial grace and qualification ; give the wisdom of the serpent, and the harmlessness of the dove ; that the Father of Mercies would fill me with divine wisdom and knowledge, so that I may be a bold and successful minister of the New Testament. .
" And now, my brethren and friends, God Almighty bless you, and grant that we may be rich in mutual blessings in our several stations to each other, while on earth, and finally make us partakers of his Eternal Glory, when time shall be no longer, for the sake of Jesus Christ, the great Head of the Church and Shepherd of Souls. " Reading,
" Jan'y 29, 1790.
PETER SANBORN."
Joseph Atwell, and Pearn his wife, from Lynn, with their children, Elizabeth, Joseph, Rebecca, Hannah, and John B., were warned out of town.
1790. - This year, Thomas Sweetser, son of Michael Sweetser, Jr., of Fitzwilliam, N. H., and grandson of Michael Sweetser, Sen., of Reading, a young man of about twenty-five years of age, suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. He was living on his grandparents' place, the same now owned and occupied by Asa N. Sweetser. The last known of his whereabouts was, that he was at the place in Stoneham, long known as the " Office," on the night preceding his disappearance. This " Office " was an old building that stood near the site of Hay's tavern, in Stoneham, and was a rum-drinking and gambling establish- ment. It is supposed that Sweetser was engaged in gambling at this place, until a late hour, and was probably a winner of considerable sums of money, and that he was murdered on his way home. No evi- dence was ever obtained to convict anybody of foul play, but the men who were his companions on the night in question were ever after
191
OF THE TOWN OF READING.
marked men. Sweetser, in taking the nearest course from said " Office " to his home in Reading, would be most likely to take a bridle-way that passed along by the north end of Smith's Pond, in what is now Wake- field. In 1845, while the Boston and Maine Railroad was being built through South Reading, the workmen, while removing the hill at the north end of said pond, and near said bridle-way, exhumed a human skeleton. The skull, the bones of the arms and legs, and some other large bones, were not much decayed ; remnants of smaller bones, locks of hair, and even what appeared to be bits of woollen cloth, were also found. The skeleton was found in a sitting or doubled-up posture, as if crowded into a round hole, feet foremost, the skull about a foot be- low the surface of the ground.
It was supposed that these were the remains of Thomas Sweetser aforesaid.'
The following persons were this year " warned out of town," viz. : -
William Deadman and wife Mary, and children, Mary, Nancy, Wil- liam and Lydia, from Salem; Dea. Daniel Green and wife Ruth, and children, Ruth, Abigail, Rhoda, Polly, and Charles, from Stoneham ; Daniel Green, Jr., and wife Sally, and children, Daniel and Ezra, also from Stoneham ; John Sweetser and wife Elizabeth, and children, John and Elizabeth, from Lynn ; Jonathan Pratt, Joseph Cheever, Ezra and Moses Sweetser, all of Lynn ; and John Hart, physician, of Ipswich, with wife Mary, and children, Polly, Abraham, John, William, Sally, and a child.
1791. - Town voted "not to raise any money to hire School Dames." Rev. Peter Sanborn was ordained pastor of the Third or West Parish.
West · Parish voted to sing Watts' hymns, instead of Gates and Brady's.
1792. - The cause of education seemed to take a start onward this year.
The appropriation for schools was raised from £80 in 1791 to $150 in 1792 ; and a regular school committee of nine members was chosen for the first time ; but lest the committee should have too much power, it was voted that the Selectmen should hire and pay the schoolmasters. And, notwithstanding the vote in 1791, female teachers began to be employed.
Town voted that no person coming from any place infected with the small-pox shall pass the smoke-house without being smoked ; that no person, not an inhabitant of this town, shall have the small-pox in this
192
GENEALOGICAL HISTORY
town ; and that those persons who wish to have the small-pox (by in- oculation) be indulged the privilege,of two remote houses in the First Parish for that purpose, for thirty days from this date ; they being at all the expense thereof. These houses were in Greenwood, one on Oak Street, and the other near the former residence of Judge Nash, where many went and had the disease by inoculation, vaccination not being then practised.
This year, John Walton, from Cambridge, kept the village school in the First Parish. He was a relative of the Reading Waltons, was born in Cambridge in 1770, graduated at Har. Coll. in 1791, studied medi- cine, and settled as a physician in Pepperell, where he practised his profession above sixty years. He died 1862, aged 92 years.
He was much respected by the people of the town of which he was so long a resident. Was a deacon in the Unitarian Church, but, it is said, never held a political office.
1794. - West "Parish voted that a stove might be put up in their meeting-house, if private individuals will be at the expense thereof.
1795. - This year, there was a civic feast in the South Parish in honor of French victories. An elm-tree was planted at the same time upon the Common, amid much ceremony, called the Liberty Tree ; it stood on the westerly side of Cann's Pond. It was soon after cut down by an opposing partisan. This tree was soon succeeded by a "Liberty Pole," a tall, handsome spire, that stood on the easterly side of said pond, near the present dwelling of Andrew Young, from whose main- top, on training days and other holidays, the starry flag was unfurled. This pole was blown down on the cold Friday of 1810.
1796. - The West Parish voted to build a school-house, to be lo- cated near the meeting-house. The new High School-house, just built, occupies nearly the same site.
1798 .- The Baptist Society in the First Parish was organized. The Mount Moriah Lodge of Freemasons was constituted.
1799. - The Baptist Society petitioned the First Parish for liberty to hold religious meetings in the Centre School-house, when the same is not in use, and obligating themselves to pay all damages. This request was not granted. Whereupon said society chose a committee to pro- cure a quarter acre of land of Mr. Joseph Gould, on which to locate a
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