USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Holliston > Genealogical register of the inhabitants and history of the towns of Sherborn and Holliston, 1856 > Part 44
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Sherborn > Genealogical register of the inhabitants and history of the towns of Sherborn and Holliston, 1856 > Part 44
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 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
ANCIENT GARRISONS.
Besides the three garrisons mentioned on pp. 24, 91, and 278, there were two others, viz., one near Holbrook's mills, another N. of Edward's plain, near Nath'l Dowse's, all built at private expense, and the three last, after Philip's war. At the commencement of the Revolution a build- ing was erected near Dea. Fisk's, for the storage of provisions for the army, and a guard stationed over it.
CEMETERIES.
These are eight in number, viz. :
1. The ancient South End, [see p. 25] which received the body of Hopestill Layland, 1655.
2. The Farm ditto that of Daniel Morse, senr., 1688.
3. The Central, [see p. 233] " in which ye first grain was sown," June ye 17, 1686.
4. The Brush Hill, in which the first interment was in 1785.
5. The New South, ditto ditto, March 2, 1790.
6. The Plain, ditto ditto, 1792.
7. The West Sherborn, ditto ditto, 1825, and perhaps earlier.
8. The New Central, most judiciously chosen by Dr. Everett, and laid out with much taste by Capt. Jacob Pratt, received, as its first de- posit, the remains of the lamented Dr. Everett in 1852, and the bones of Rev. President Locke in 1853. May it be further consecrated by the removal of those of Rev. Messrs. Gookin, Baker, and Porter.
The mineral character of this ground is eminently adapted to the preservation of the bones of the dead, and its situation to defend it against the sacrilegious encroachments of avarice, and the negligence of barbarism. It even claims attention from residents of the city in quest of lots more secure than those at Mount Auburn. For when the hearts of the children shall become wholly turned from the fathers, the land bereft of present security, and the metropolis subjected to another siege, Mount Auburn may be needed for a fort, and its monu- ments for a breastwork ; while in S., the contest may be decided on the plain, with shoe-knives, shillalahs and brickbats.
-
HISTORY OF HOLLISTON.
Holliston is situated between 22 and 28 miles S. W. of Boston, on the Milford Branch of the Boston and Worcester R. Road, and con- stitutes the S. W. corner of Middlesex Co. It has Medway on the S., Milford on the W., Hopkinton on the N. W., Ashland on the N., and Sherborn on the E. It began to be explored and settled long prior to its incoporation as an integral part of Sherborn. As carly as May 26, 1659, W'pful Maj. Elcazer Lusher, of Dedh., "one of the right stamp and pure mettle, a gracious, humble, and heavenly-minded man," dis- tinguished for his public services, received a grant from the General Court, [sec p. 268] of the land now occupied by most of the Village. The lot was laid out by Lt. Joshua Fisher the same year. The N. ex- tremity of it extended beyond Jar Brook, and probably touched the S. line of Natick, and the S. extremity reached to a point opposite to the Winthrop House. It had Jasper's Hill on the W., and through it flowed Bogistow Brook. This tract Lusher sold 15 (5) 1660, to my ancestor, Lt. Henry Adams of Medfield, who no doubt took immediate possession and mowed the meadows that year. Here he placed his cattle, and elder sons as herdsmen, and especially Jasper who gave name to "Jasper's Hill," from the top of which he could, by signal fires, communicate with his father near his own door in Medfield. A tenement, if not a farmery, Lt. Adams doubtless erected upon the place, and circumstances almost prove that he built 1-3 m. N. of the Common where Col. Whiting resides. Here Jasper Adams is pre- sumed to have lived unmarried, often visited and attended by his father, * until driven off in 1676 by Indian hostilities, a period of 14 years. +
* Lt. Adams did not permanently remove to his new farm, though his name is enrolled with the petitioners for Sherborn, and with those of the grantees at their first meeting in 1675-6 "for ordering the affairs" of the town ; for in 1674 he represented Medfield in the G. C., and had the command of her training band in 1675-6, when he was massacred. [See p. 1.]
Lt. Adams and wife having died intestate, leaving children in their minority, the farm was doubtless sold to Hon. Wm. Brown of Salem, whose son, Hon. Col. Samuel B. owned it in 1725, and until his death, June 19, 1731. In 1744 it was in the hands of his heirs; and Jacob Foster, presumed to have been one of them, sold to Dea. James Russell for £360 O. T., [or $160 in Fed. money] 50 acres of it, bounded E. and N. E. by Bogistow and Jar Brooks. May 15, 1745, having come into possession of the remaining 200 acres, he sold them to Jona. Foster for £200 N. Eng. currency, " excepting" in the deed " land for highways and private ways [to the meeting house] and 5 acres E. of the country road and adjoin- ing to the highway leading out of it to the pond," viz. : the land that had doubtless been preconveyed to Rev. Mr. Prentice for a house lot, now situated E. and S. E. of the common. In this deed, he mentions the land of Mr. Prentice and David Lea- land as forming parts of the S, or S. W. boundaries of the tract, and includes about 5 acres of the Pond meadow, and speaks of a way two rods wide laid out by Lt. Fisher from the 250 acre lot to the Pond meadow, through the land of Francis Varnum. This shows that the 12 acres of meadow included with Lusher's grant, [see p. 268] were not on Chicken Brook, but on the outlet of Winthrop's Lake, and suggests that the aboriginal name of that Lake was Winnekening, which the sur-
324
HISTORY OF HOLLISTON.
The second planter of Holliston was Wm. Sheffield, who settled at Chabboquasset, near the S. E. corner of the town, but not certainly before 1674, although he was the proprietor of a large tract at the place as early as 1663, (not 1673, as on p. 240) and extinguished the Indian claim in 1675. He probably resided in Medfield, and like Lt. Adams occupied his tract 1663-1674. Further than these no oc- cupancies appear to have occurred thus early, nor until about 1680 ; and then, only by proprietors of grants made prior to the incorporation of S. Sheffield was early upon the ground, and the encouragement given by the town [p. 284] soon drew Lind to commence the building of a mill below the junction of Bogistow and Jar brooks. But the 2d division of the common lands of S. which included all now in H., was not made until 1682, and other settlers were until then excluded. Complete preparation was soon after made for taking possession of these lands ; for Oct. 13, 1686, John Hill, senr., Benj. Bullard, Oba- diah Morse, Jona. Morse, and Edward West, in the name of the inhabi- tants of Sherborn, purchased for £10 [see pp. 270-1] of John Awasamog 2,000 acres, more or less, it being [the remainder of] all that tract granted to the town by the G. C., sitting Oct. 7, 1674, and bounded W. by Mr. Edward Rawson. *
veyor, in this solitary instance, applied to the outlet, either, not discovering that it was the identical stream which he had a day or two before called Bogistow Brook in his description of the grant, he first laid out to Dean Winthrop and Francis Vernon, alias Varnum, or, wishing to make more certain his description of these outlets, only one of which seems to have been upon the brook, while the other was nearer the W. shore of the lake, he applied to the stream the name of the Lake from which it issues. The meaning of the word Winne, is pleasant, and derived from two Indian words denoting the smile of the Great Spirit. This might, to barbarians, have seemed applicable to the Lake with its four islands and diversified banks, but by no means that can be conjectured to a stagnant brook without a romantic bank or enlivening fall in its entire course. [see p. 268, and on all preceding pp. for Wennekeen- ing read Chicken Br.] The long desired discovery of the true Indian name of our lake seems to be made ; and our Winnekening House may yet supplant the Winthrop, and Winnekening Lake that of Winthrop's Pond. The laying of a road through the land of Varnum shows that the W. part, 200 of the 700 acres granted to him and Wintrop, was assigned to V. This tract was probably purchased by the Hon. John Hull of Boston, and inherited by his only child the wife of the Hon. Samuel Sewall, who after the death of Hull was with his children the proprietor of a farm south of Brown's. After the death of Sewall in 1735, if not before, this farm, consisting probably of 200 acres, appears to have been divided, and the N. part owned by David Lealand,? the S. part by Capt. Goulding, and the N. W. corner by Rev. Mr. Stone. The first occupancy of this grant by tenants, is supposed to have commenced where the late Dea. Marsh resided, and as early as 1680. (?)
+ Jasper retired to the settlement in S., drew land in 1682, and afterwards moved with his cattle and built his cabin against a ledge, about 6 rods W. of a spring, and about 12 rods S. E. of the Morse meadow, where the trace of his cellar and natural fireplace in the rock is now plainly to be scen. The land was then owned, or had previously been, by John Frairy jun., of Medfield, in which it continued to be included until 1713. Here Jasper lived in double solitude for many years, and ncarly to the time of his grand nephew, Henry Morse's taking possession of the lot. When advanced in years, he retired to S., where he " died an aged bacheldor."
*Rawson owned a " farm" of 2,000 acres, now in Milf'd, which, as described in his Indian deed of 1685, fell entirely within the card-shaped plat of S, being bound- . ed E. by Medfield, S. by Dedham, W. by Mendon and N. by Sherborn, [common lands]. It was afterwards laid out pr. on the W. side of his two great Indian pur- chase and annexed to Mendon, by which event S. lost a corner of her protracted territory, and the W. line [now of II.] was rendered so irregular.
325
HISTORY OF HOLLISTON.
No considerable number of families, however, had settled in H. so early as 1700; and in 1723, when the settlers petitioned to be set off from S., the petition was subscribed by only 13 freeholders, [p. 297] doubtless a majority, and probably all except 5 then located W. of the line between the two townships. For the history of the incorpora- tion of H. see pp. 296-99. This happy event occurred Dec. 3, 1724, just 50 years from her incorporation with S., and 72 years after the first settlement W. of Charles River ; so slow was the progress of set- tlements in N. Eng'd, after the first emigrations in 1620-41.
The township at its incorporation comprised 15,086 acres. In 1826 it underwent a small reduction by an exchange of territory with Med- way, and a larger one in 1846 by the incorporation of Ashland.
Dec. 21, 1724, 18 days after H. was erected into a town the free- holders met at the house of Timothy Lealand, where Wm. Lovering re- sides, and according to the provisions of the act, elected town officers. " This gave the first impulse to the operations of this infant member of the body politick."
Jan. 4, 1724-5, only 11 days later, they resolved to erect a meeting- house, 32 ft. by 40 ft. with 20 ft. posts and to assess £100 Old Tenor, i. e. about $44.45 cents on the inhabitants towards defraying the cost, and to allow each man assessed the privilege of paying one-half of his rate in labor. This house was founded the next year and " completed in 1728," at a cost of little more than another £100. It was seated in 1749, repaired and enlarged in 1772, and remained the only house of worship in H. until the erection of the present Congregational Church in 1824.
1725. The next subject which engaged the attention of the town was the location of the House which they had resolved to build. Col. Samuel Brown, of Salem, seems to have promised them a site, but they hesitated from which corner of his farm to accept it. They first pitched upon the land that was finally accepted. But as nearly all the inhabitants then lived in the N. and E. parts of the town, they afterwards resolved to build near the comb manufactory on Jar Brook. This site they became convinced would not be commodious eventually to the inhabitants of the whole town, and they peaceably rescinded the vote, and resolved " to set their meeting house S. of Jasper's Hill on the W. side of the road that goes over [around] there on the Hon. Col. Brown's farm." A lot of 3 acres at that place was afterwards given by Col. Samuel Brown to H. " to be perpetually occupied as a site for a meeting-house and burying- ground." *
The town took measures the same year to procure preaching, and public worship was first set up at Timothy Lealand's and there continued while the house was being erected.
* Do not the conditions of this grant place the land on the same footing as Boston Common, and if any part of the ground is ever converted. as has been proposed, to another use, will it not be forfeited to his heirs of which he has many in the vicinity, able to prove their heirship and prosecute their claim ? and when improvements shall have greatly enhanced its value may they not be expected to do so ? N. B. "The act which shall forfeit the original S. E. half of the burying-ground, will likewise forfeit the beautified common and site of the orthodox chh."
326
HISTORY OF HOLLISTON.
June 26, 1727. " It was voted by the inhabitants to give the sum of £100 in bills of credit towards the settlement of the first Gospel minis- ter yt. shall be settled in ye said town. Jona. Whitney and George Fairbank were appointed a committee to address Hon. Samuel Sewall as to the obtaining a piece of land toward the settlement of a minister." In answer to their application, Judge Sewall May 9, 1723, and his sons, Samuel S. Esq., Rev. Joseph S. and son-in law, Rev. Wm. Cooper and wife Judith (Sewall) Cooper, all of Boston, signed a deed of gift con veying to them in trust 11 acres " for the ye sole proper use, benefit and behoof of ye first Orthodox, Congregational or Presbyterian minis- ter of ye Gospel which shall be settled in ye said town of H. and to his heirs and assigns forever." }
The 2nd article in the warrant for this meeting was " peculiarly char- acteristic" of our fathers, and reads thus, "to choose an orthodox, learned and pious person to dispense the word of God as a minister of the gospel in.ye said town." The result of the meeting was an invitation to Mr. James Stone to undertake the work of the ministry in H. But as the meeting-house was not finished, and no church as yet organized, his ordination was defered until Nov. 20, 1728. Then a church of 8 mem- bers including the pastor elect was organized, and he the same day or- dained. "Previous to the solemn and interesting occasion, a day of fasting and prayer was observed, a practice still followed for the purpose of devoutly seeking the divine blessing on such transactions."
Besides a settlement of £100 O. T., i. e. about $44, the town promised Rev. Mr. S. a salary of £75, i. e. $33.33, and to increase it to £85 on the addition of 20 more families to the Parish. In 1742 it was raised to £150 or $67. The salary of his successor was equally humble in amount.
" Rev. Mr. Stone, pursuant to ye choice and election of ye Church and Town of H., and with ye concurance and assistance of a council of neighbor Churches having accepted ye Pastoral office in said town and received ordination, it was resolved that Jona. Whitney and George Fair- bank make conveyance to him of their interest in the land given in trust by Hon. Samuel Sewall and children." This conveyance they accord- ingly made Jan. 2, 1729-30; and the same year was built as is pre. sumed for Mr. S. the ancient house still in repair and so long known as the Stone Tavern.
May 16, 1729, voted that Dea. Tho. Marshall and Dea. Timothy Lea- land be a committee fully empowered by said town and desired to pro- cure and provide &£100 in bills of credit and then forthwith to pay it to ye Rev. Mr. Stone according as ye Town have voted. Also that they go to ye Hon. Samuel Brown, Esq., for money and take up &100 upon interest on ye town's account if his Honr. pleases. Col. Brown dicd June 19, 1731, and the town by a vote acknowledged their obligations to his heirs for the aid they had received, and instructed a committee to remind them of " his promise to make it up £100."
+ This 11 acre lot was a corner of their farm of probably 200 acres. Upon it now stands the Winthrop House and most of the S. W. quarter of the village. It was bounded S. (or S. E.) by the road, 94 perches ; W. by Adams alias Sheffield's land 56 rods, and N. by Col. Brown's farm 60 rods.
327
HISTORY OF HOLLISTON.
1737-8. The town was divided into 3 districts, viz. : the North, the West, and the Central, and it was resolved that three school houses should be built, viz. : one for the N. between John Haven's and Lt. Isaac Bullard's, 14 ft. by 18 ft. with 7 ft. posts ; one of the same dimensions for the W. between Joseph Brown's (now Messinger's), and Hoppin River ; and another for the central district, 16 ft. by 20; that £100 be assessed upon the inhabitants to defray the cost, and that each man have liberty to work out his part of the assessment : That Gershom Eames, Ephm. Biglow and Sol. Park be the building committee for the N. ; Ebenr. Littlefield, Benj. Bullard and James Perry for the W. ; and Ephm. Twitchell, John Death and Jacob Foster for the Central district. The latter house was built in the street E. of the graveyard, the deed to the town of 3 acres adjacent not allowing even a school house to be placed upon it. This house continued to be used by the central district until about 1805. The No. of Districts have since been trebled, and education liberally promoted. But the most important event in the history of education in H. has been the erection of Mt. Hollis Academy on the S. side of Mt. Jasper. [See p. 250.]
1739 voted to raise £8 to make the stocks and to fence in the bury- ing ground ; and chose a committee to put the law in force for prevent- ing the destruction of deer.
1742 voted £60 to defray the expense of Rev. Mr. Stone's funeral.
1746-7 voted to remove (vacate) 2 rods of the S. side of a road laid out 3 rods wide by Sherborn in 1683 from the further side of Parker's Farm (grant) now E. of Maj. Goulding's in S. across (around) Jasper's Hill to the cedar swamp ; and to accept it at the S. end of said hill, so that the inhabitants on the W. side of H. might have a convenient way to the meeting house. The narrowing or discontinuing of the western part of this road has been the occasion of much uneasiness and trouble to individuals and the public.
1748. The families residing in the S. W. extremity of the town be- tween Medway and Milford, petitioned to be incorporated as a part of the W. Parish of Medway. While their petition was pending, the town forwarded a remonstrance to the G. C. without effect.
1749. The town was fined £5 for not keeping a school as required by law. .
Until this date the meeting house had been furnished only with tem- porary seats. This year it was internally completed and the town chose a committee " to dignify the seats." This committee reported that " the fore seat below should be considered the 1st in dignity, and the 2d be- low do. the 2d in dignity ; and the 3d below and the front seat in the gallery do. equal, and the 3d in dignity, &c., assigning to the seats 7 degrees of dignity. Whether seats built for the colored people were dignified, or they required to sit upon the stairs, has not been discovered. The committee proposed that " the invoice taken in 1748 should be the rule " for seating the meeting, " having a proper regard to age." Their report was accepted by the town ; but Geo. Fairbank, John Lealand, John Twitchell, Stephen and Jona. Foster protested, 1st, that the meeting was
328
HISTORY OF HOLLISTON.
not regularly carried on ; 2nd, that it was not opened according to law ; and 3d, that the rule of seating the meeting was not according to law or reason. Capt. John Goulding by a vote of the town was allowed to build a pew next to the pulpit stairs ; and Ebenezer Lealand, the father of Dea. Timothy, to build a second remove from that point of honour. Two other pews were probably allowed on the other side of the pulpit, and the one next to it given to the minister. Joseph Johnson was permitted to build on the right, and Isaac Bullard on the left of the great doors. These pews probably accommodated most of the nobility who did not occupy the deacon's seat, or act as clerk and chorister.
1753-4. From Dec. 18 to Jan. 30 of these years prevailed the great sickness unexampled in the history of the town, and probably of any other in N. England. Rev. Mr. Fitch, in his Cent. Serm. p. 32, says : -
" The symptoms, which peculiarly marked the disease, were violent and pirceing pains in the breast or side ; a high fever ; and extreme difficulty of expectoration, which in some cases, -if not in most, - resulted in strangulation. Some, it is said, apparently in the last stages of the disease, were evidently relieved by administering oil, who event- ually recovered. No derangement of mind usually accompanied the disease. The sick generally survived their attack only from three to six days. From notes taken during the prevalence of the sickness, by the Rev. Joshua Prentiss, and which were found among his papers after his decease, we learn that on the 31st of December, 7, and on the 4th of January 10 lay unburied ; - that during the week on which the last date occurred, 17 died ; and that from 2 to 5 were buried in a day for many days successively. The whole number who died of this fatal malady was 53 ; - more than one-eighth of the population. Of this number 27 were heads of families-15 males and 12 females ; - 12 were unmarried persons of adult age-8 males and 4 females ; - 7 were children ; - and 7 were inhabitants of other towns, all of whom were males, with one exception. - In the fearful desolations produced by this disease, the church of Christ was bereft of 15 of its members. Few families escaped ; and four were entirely broken up by the removal of both the husband and the wife. - For more than a month there were not enough in health to attend the sick and bury the dead, though their whole time was employed in such services. The sick suffered, and the dead laid unburied, notwithstanding charitable assistance and personal attendance were furnished by people in the vicinity. A most remark- able circumstance attending this sickness is its being almost wholly confined to a small town, without the smallest apparent natural cause for its existence at all ; especially for its restriction within so narrow a compass. [See p. 300.] To those, however, who arc disposed devoutly to trace whatever effects are discernable in the natural world back to the Great First Cause of all things, and to view every event as ordered and directed for some wise and righteous purpose, by his controlling hand, there will appear something, at least, remarkable in the facts, - of which there is little doubt, - that previous to the breaking out of
329
HISTORY OF HOLLISTON.
this desolating sickness, the people were violently engaged in fierce law contentions, which seemed to have originated in the proceedings of the town upon the subject of roads; - that two of the principal men in town were engaged against cach other in a lawsuit about a most trifling matter, and were the first seized with the disease while on their return from Court, both of whom fell its speedy victims - one of them before he could reach home, and the other soon after, - and that immediately upon the removal of the scourge with which the people had been most sorely visited, their contentions ceased ; their tumults were hushed, and peace and concord prevailed. Since that afflictive season no town has been more noted, probably, for the little its inhabitants have troubled themselves with disputes in law. May the children continue to profit by the lesson which the sorrowful experience of their fathers furnishes them."
1768 .- Voted, that this town will endeavor to raise more hemp, flax and wool, and take all prudent and legal measures to encourage the produce and manufactures of this province, and to lessen the use of superfluities : that we accept from Mr. Daniel Mellen the gift of his workshop [offered for the encouragement of manufactures by the town ;] that we will not give more for rhum, sugar, molasses and rasons than what they can be bought for at Boston ; that the representatives in G. C. be desired to use their influence to promote a suitable encourage- ment for raising wool and flax in such a way as to prevent importation of the same : that we will not have any gloves at funerals but what are made in this province ; nor procure any new garment on such occasions but what are absolutely necessary.
1769 .- Voted, [for the first time] to send a representative to the G. C., and elected Mr. Joshua Hemenway, and gave him instructions agreeable to those given to the representatives of Boston. He then presented to the town 13s. 4d., which they voted to accept.
1770 .- Voted, not to purchase any European goods of John Bernard, James Mc Masters and other importers who had been posted, nor to have any dealings with any country shop-keepers who shall purchase of such importers ; that we will use the utmost of our endeavours to encourage and assist those applauded merchants of Boston in their non- importation agreement ; and that the Moderator, Dea. James Russell, communicate to them our sincere and hearty thanks for those late measures pursued by them for the good of their country.
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.