USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Marlborough > Historical reminiscences of the early times in Marlborough, Massachusetts : and prominent events from 1860 to 1910, including brief allusions to many individuals and an account of the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town > Part 11
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After the marriage of John to Mary Warren, these young people set up house-keeping of their own. John was the descendant of Lord Baguley of England's Manor of Ollerton Hall, and emigrating to America, he took the oath of fidelity at Watertown in 1652, and becoming a free- man, settled down to the trade of blacksmith, for which the town allowed him land and ten trees of good oak. In early times the relative interests in the town by the proprietors was computed in the distribution of house lots and meadows, and in those days the blacksmith came next to the minister ; for this very much needed mechanic was justly appreciated. So among the list of names of lots assigned to the early settlers we find "to a minister and to a blacksmith" thirty acres of land for each, was set apart. John was indeed kept very busy. They chose him to be surveyor and constable and one of the "seven men" (selectmen), and his homestead soon extended to sixty acres of land. Years passed. Mary Warren lived half a century, bore him thirteen children, and after her death he married Sarah Bemis. John was 86 years of age before he was carried to the old burying ground to be laid by his dearly beloved first wife, Mary Warren. Among the expenses charged for the funeral we find several pairs of black gloves, twenty gallons of wine, bottles for the same, allspice and sugar, and two men and horses to carry the wine and other articles to the funeral, etc., for funeral excesses prevailed at this time and we read of one funeral costing six hundred pounds, with its gloves, rings, mourning scarfs, tankards of wine, and men and horses.
It was many years ago when John Bigulah and Mary Warin were "joyned in mariag " before Mr. Norwell October 30, 1642, in the ancient town settled the same year as Boston and called Watertown, and this marriage was the very first recorded in that place. In the early days of the colonies, the all powerful minister could not perform the marriage ceremony. A magistrate, a captain, any man of dignity in the commu- nity could be authorized to marry Puritan lovers save the parson ; and not until the beginning of the 18th century did the Puritan minister assume the function of solemnizing marriages. Therefore the well- beloved pastor, the Rev. Mr. Phillips, first minister to Watertown (his colleague, Mr. John Knowles, had gone on a mission to Virginia) although present at the ceremony, could not legally pronounce the bans, and so Mr. Norwell, an Elder, had the distinction of being the important personage in this very notable affair, and great was the event to the
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JOHN BIGELOW AND MARY WARREN DANCING AT THEIR WEDDING IN WATERTOWN.
young matrons and unmarried folks at the time. In those early days the colonists married early, and bachelors were rare indeed in this land of unbroken forests where housekeepers were not to be found. And if the marriage were an important one, a sermon was preached in the church, the bride according to custom selecting the text. Can we not imagine Mary searching the Good Book for a text never so appropriate and sweet as this must be for them? For would not they, John and Mary, be there among the many congregated to hear what they had chosen?
For three successive weeks had the young couple been "cried in meetin " and everybody was on the tiptoe of expectation, for Mary was a favorite, and her father being a man of property and of consequence in town affairs, nothing was spared to make the day one of note and great pleasure. The old treasure chest from England had been unlocked by
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the mother weeks before, and an outfit found for the bride which caused pleasant gossip for many a day. A beautiful silken gown purchased in a more affluential life in London ; a string of gold beads taken right from the neck of the proud mother ; a dainty bit of lace ; a pair of high-heeled slippers and kerchief prettily knotted, turned Mary into a living picture and worthy mate for honest John in knee breeches, square skirted coat and nicely crimped shirt front, silken stockings, low shoes with silver buckles and cue well be-ribboned. Everybody wanted to lend a helping hand. The house was put in apple pie order ; the floor of the great living room freshly sanded, the old brass andirons and the pewter platters and porringers and dishes on the buffet scoured until they shone like silver, and the table loaded with refreshments for the guests, some of whom living a mile or more away, rode upon horseback, the women as was cus- tomary-for no carriages were then known-on pillion behind.
Mary was born in England and her father was on the list of 118 Freemen at Watertown in 1631. (In order to be admitted as Freeman it was necessary to be a church member, and for this reason there were some men holding respectable social positions who never were thus admitted or not until advanced age. It was not necessary, however to be a church member or a Freeman in order to hold office in the town or appointments from the Court. This could be done by taking the oath of fidelity, and in some instances townsmen who were not Freemen were allowed to vote. John Bigelow, Sr., took the oath of fidelity in 1652 but he was not admitted Freeman until April 1690 at the age of 73. Many were Selectmen, town clerk, etc., etc., twenty years or more before they were admitted as Freemen.) But to return to John Warin or Warren who was 45 years of age when he emigrated to this country in Winthrop's fleet on the good ship " Arabella " which sailed from Yar- mouth in 1630, ten years later than the "Mayflower." John was one highly respected and was selected in this new home by his fellow-citizens as one to lay out the highways and see that they be sufficiently repaired.
As we have said, he was possessed of some property and was chosen Selectman. But bringing with him to New England the same spirit of independence and free thought which prompted him to fly from the intolerance and bigotry at that time of old England, he incurred as the years went on the displeasure of his Watertown citizens by neglect of public worship and fined one day therefore, as was then the custom, three pounds and ten shillings. This was seventeen years after Mary's marriage and he must have been about 64 years old. In these days of the Puritan Sabbath, the barren meeting house without fires or music, and its tedious
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sermon running on to even the sixteenthly, timed by an hour-glass turned over and over again, the tything-men were often found necessary, and it was so ordered that two appointed every Lord's day " should walk forth in time of God's worshippe to tak notice of such as either lye about the meeting house, without attending to the word or ordinances, or that lye at home, or in the fields without giving good account thereof, and to tak the names of such persons, and to present them to the magistrate, where- by they may be accordingly proceeded against, " for not to be a meeting- goer in those days was to range one's self with thieves and robbers and other outlaws. As one has said, "No matter if the meeting house was cold, and there was danger of consumption, it was apparently 'more pleasing to the Lord ' that a man should get sick attending services in His house than by staying at home preserve his health, "
The blue laws of Massachusetts were then nearly as stringent as those in Connecticut, where a mother might not kiss her child on Sunday, or a girl smile during Divine service at her sweet young friends lest a complaint be made against them. Mary's father was a man of intelligent ideas and had the courage of his convictions. "Had they not," sturdy John queried, " broken away from persecution in the old home? And were not these very tithingmen petty tyrants and official harpies who, instead of spending the day as they ought, in worshipping God, confessing their own manifold sins, and praying that they may be endued with a more Christian temper, are riding or walking the highway ' seeking whom they may devour' and gratifying at once their malice and their avarice by plundering their fellow citizens and filling their own pockets? No indeed; he for one would come and go as he chose. Surely he was old enough to know what was good for himself, and he would take such friends into his house as he deemed fit." (In 1661 the houses of old Warren and goodman Hammond were ordered to be searched for Quakers). For as he said, "real Christianity cannot flour- ish by persecution," and though he must pay the fine this time for sheer peace, he warned them that he'd never again pay more., This spirit did not appease the Watertown searchers for iniquity. He had gone against their views too many times. He and Thomas Arnold had even given freely their opinion of the laws concerning baptism and were each fined twenty shillings therefor.
Quoting Alice Morse Earl in her "Customs of Old England :" " When we consider the chill and gloom of those unheated, freezing churches, growing colder and damper and deadlier with every wintry blast, we wonder that grown persons even could bear the exposure.
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Still more do we marvel that tender babies ever lived through their cruel winter christenings when it is recorded that the ice had to be broken in the christening bowl. In villages and towns where the houses were all clustered around the meeting house the baby Puritans did not have to be carried far to be baptized; but in the country parishes, where the dwelling houses were widely scattered, it might be truthfully recorded of many a Christian child : 'Died of being baptised.' One cruel parson believed in and practiced infant immersion, fairly a Puritan torture, until his own child nearly lost its life thereby. Dressed in fine linen and wrapped in a hand-woven christening blanket - a 'bearing cloth " - the unfortunate young Puritan was carried to church in the arms of the mid- wife, who was a person of vast importance and dignity as well as service in early colonial days, when families of from fifteen to twenty children were quite the common quota. At the altar the baby was placed in his proud father's arms, and received his first cold and disheartening reception into the Puritan church.
"In the pages of Judge Samuel Sewell's diary, to which alone we can turn for any definite or extended contemporary picture of colonial life in Puritan New England, as for knowledge of England of that date we turn to the diaries of Evelyn and Pepys, and find abundant proof that in- clemency of weather was little heeded when religious customs and duties were in question. On January 22d, 1694, Judge Sewell thus records : A very extraordinary Storm by reason of the falling and driving of the Snow. Few women could get to Meeting. A child named Alexander was baptised in the afternoon." He does not record Alexander's death in sequence. He writes thus of the baptism of a four days' old child of his own on February 6th, 1656 : " Between 3 and 4 P. M. Mr. Willard baptizeth my Son whom I named Stephen. Day was lowing after the storm but not freezing, Child shrank at the water but cry'd not. His brother Sam shew'd the Midwife who carried him the way to the Pew. I held him up." And still again on April 8th, 1677, another of his children when but six days old : "Sabbath day, rainy and stormy in the morning but in the afternoon fair and sunshine though with a Blustering Wind. Weeden the Midwife brought the Infant to the Third Church when Ser- mon was about half done in the afternoon."
Poor little Stephen and Hull and Joseph, shrinking away from the icy water, but too benumbed to cry ! Small wonder they quickly yielded up their souls after the short struggle for life so gloomily and so coldly begun. Of Judge Sewall's fourteen children, but three survived him, a majority dying in infancy ; and of fifteen children of his friend Cotton
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Mather, but two survived their father. This religious ordeal was but the initial step in the rigid system of selection enforced by every detail of the manner of life in early New England. The mortality among infants was apallingly large ; and the natural result-the survival of the fittest-may account for the present tough endurance of the New England people.
Five years went on and again was this very independent John Warin warned for not attending public worship, and upon the point of another fine. But this direct descendant of William the Conqueror, and of William de Warren, who fought at the battle of Hastings and received from the Conqueror two hundred and ninety-eight manors in England and at his death was buried in the abbey of Lewes in Sussex which he had founded ; this father of little Mary, whose ancestors, Earls of Warren and Surrey, held the very first rank in England and Normandy; wearied, it would seem, of the restrictions of the Puritan church, and "taking the reins," so to speak, into his own hands, as he had done before in old England, he decided not to pay such a considerable sum for acting according to his own conscience, and the record gives us the indisputable fact that "old Warin," meaning Warin, Senior, " is not to be found in town!" No one knows to this day how this affair of John Warin's was settled, but he " came back," so the records say ; probably in his own good time, and in the year 1667, five years after his wife Margaret died, he, at the age of 82 years, was laid beside her in the old graveyard in Watertown. All four of his children had been in England, John, Mary, Daniel and Elizabeth. Daniel's daughter Grace marrying Joseph Morse, and John or " Captain John's" daughter Elizabeth marrying Daniel Harrington, both of whom moved to Marlborough Farms with Morse and Bigelow. Statistics, therefore, are these : John Warren came to America, 1630; made freeman. 1631 ; appointed surveyor, 1635; possessed 176 acres, 1642 ; fined for offence against baptism, 1651 ; warned and fined for non- attendance at public worship, 1658; his house searched for Quakers, 1661 ; died in Watertown at the age of 82 years, 1667.
Among John and Mary Bigelow's thirteen children was one they named Samuel who married Mary Flagg and was, as his father, a promi- nent man in Watertown, which he represented in General Court, and set up as innholder which business he carried on until he and his sons began to feel with other Watertown and Sudbury men " straightened for want of more land." So when Mr. Alcocke died (the latter had been em- ployed by the Colony and was possessor of several grants of land on the southeasterly border of Marlborough called to this day "the Farms" which fell to the hands of his heirs, among whom was Ephraim Hunt
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who married Alcocke's daughter) Samuel Bigelow, Sr., John Bemis, Joseph Morse and Samuel Morse, " husbandmen of Watertown, " bought of Mr. Hunt 350 acres of this land, and here Samuel's three sons, John Samuel and Thomas, moved, built and settled.
THE HOMESTEAD OF JOHN BIGELOW, THE INDIAN CAPTIVE.
Here in the house above, the first Bigelow homestead in Marl- borough, remodelled no doubt from time to time, did the Bigelow brothers live. Ten children had been given to Samuel Bigelow of Watertown and his wife Mary Flagg (one of them being Mercy who married Lieut. Thomas Garfield, and became the direct ancestors of our late President Garfield) among whom was the John named after his grandfather and who had married in Watertown before they came here to build on the Farms, Jerushy Garfield, John being the first Bigelow who settled in Marlborough.
This was the time when the whole community was kept in constant alarm. Marlborough being a frontier town was greatly exposed to attacks from the Indians, and for a time it was the theatre of war. The horrors of Philips war have no parallel in our history and the inhabitants suffered every privation. No one felt safe. Scarcely had the smoke ceased to ascend from one burning building when the foe would be found prowling around another, and at all times the men were called away
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from home to encounter the enemy and protect the neighbors and those garrisons most distressfully in peril. At the time Lancaster was attacked and an eighth of the whole population either killed on the spot or carried into captivity, the gallant Captain Wadsworth, with his company from Marlborough, arrived just in time to rescue the garrisons there and those who were left. John Bigelow was one of those who had been called to the garrison house of Thomas Sawyer of Lancaster. In an unguarded moment he, with Sawyer and his son, Elias, were surrounded by the Indians, captured and carried by them to Canada where they were held prisoners by the French Governor. Soon their skill as mechanics was discovered, and they having ever the hope of freedom before them, made every effort to please their captors, and so far succeeded that less restric- tion was put upon them. But although the watch upon them apparently grew less vigilant, they well realized that to attempt escape by running away would only be quick death or lingering torture by the Indian foe, and so they bided their time. One day the following letter was placed in John's hands :
" MARLBURY, August 22, 1706.
Dear and loving Husband,-
In much grief and tender affection, greatly lamenting your miserable condition, hoping in the mercy of God who has prospered you and kept you alive hitherto and will in His own due time work your deliverance, that these few lines may find you in health as I am at the present and the children, blessed be God for it and for all his mercy bestowed on you and on myself. This may acquaint you that I received your letter dated January the 6th, on the 6th of August last, and for which I am, though in much sorrow and grief, thankful to you. And I do most Humbly and importunately petition the Governor to have pity and compassion on yourself and me.
Lamentations 3:25. The Lord is good to them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord, for the Lord will not cast off forever, but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion accord- ing to the multitude of his mercies. Wherefore should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins. Let us search and try our way and turn again to the Lord.
I remain your loving wife, greatly sorrowing for you.
JERUSHY BIGELOW.
I do further acquaint you that brother Samuel and Thomas are well and the rest of our relations. "
This letter incited a still greater desire for freedom, and seizing an opportunity when they could freely discuss a chance for their escape, John and Sawyer planned one night a way to obtain their release. Thomas
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Sawyer was a blacksmith and John Bigelow a carpenter, and their abilities had already been tested by the Governor to whom they went and proposed in exchange for their freedom that they would build a sawmill, there being none at that time in Canada. The offer was quickly accepted for this was what the Governor had for some time desired, and so they built a sawmill on the River Chamblay, the first mill built in Canada. After some delay, John Bigelow and the elder Sawyer were allowed to return, the younger Sawyer being kept there for several months to run the mill before being allowed to follow on. One can imagine the surprise and great joy of the lonely and bereaved wife when her good husband was again with her, and as an expression of the happiness and peace John then enjoyed as compared with that he suffered while a prisoner, and in token of his gratitude for his release from captivity, he called his daugh- ters, born after his return, Comfort and Freedom.
John and Jerushy's eleven children were all born in Marlborough, but became widely separated, only one of the five sons remaining in town. This was Gershom who married Mary Howe and they lived on the old homestead. Gershom was a much respected citizen, Selectman, etc., and member of Capt. Abraham Williams Co. 1757. He lived to be 97 years old.
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THE WILLARD MORSE, OR NEVINSON STONE HOMESTEAD.
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Here on the " Farms" was kept a neighborhood grocery store by Willard Morse, who was also a custom boot and shoe maker and owner of this farm, which though small, was a good one. Willard Morse and his wife, Mary Eager, were surrounded by an interesting group of boys and girls, among whom was Freeman, who married Georgianna Morse, and George, our respected ex-Alderman, who married Helen N. Leland. Freeman Morse started manufacturing shoes on the " Farms," continuing until 1856, when he and his brother George formed partnership and pur- chased the old Boyd brick shop on Maple street, where they continued business for many years. In later days the above old house became the home of one whom at time of his death was the oldest member of Post 43, G. A. R. When President Lincoln called for troops to put down the Rebellion, Nevinson Stone enlisted in Co. C, 25th Mass. Regt., and for three years served under Gen. Foster. He married Lucy Ames, daughter of Lewis, and coming home from the war in 1864, he returned to his home and engaged in farming, living to be 92 years of age.
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THE NEWTON, OR DADMUN HOMESTEAD.
Riding past the Morey house and turning to the southeast we come to the little old house of Daniel Robert Hayden, which has a curious tra- dition : One day the Indians who had smoked the pipe of peace with him, accidentally shot a favorite colt belonging to him, and as restitution gave Hayden a deed of this pretty farm. Not far distant, stands the above old Homestead. An old homestead seems like a book which if one could but read would be found containing stories replete with
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romance and history. And here the wonderful door stone nine feet long and five and a half feet wide makes a fitting preface to this interesting old time mansion with its enormous chimney, wainscoated rooms, and timbers and beams so sound and strong that they seem good for a century more. It was in 1640 that Richard Newton came over from England to settle in Sudbury, Mass. He was made freeman in 1645 and was one of the early petitioners for Marlborough. His land was in the southerly part of the town which became Southborough. Records say that he died aged " about 100 years." His son Daniel was born in 1655, and when the latter was about 25 years old he married Susanna Morse and built the house above. They named their first son Daniel, and he was in the French war. The great grandson of Richard named William whom the neighbors called " Old King Newton" because he was so resolute and fearless, married Elizabeth Wright of Framingham, whose children William and Lucy continued living on the old farm after the old folks had gone to their long home, each preferring a single life to the separa- tion of each other. Lucy, surviving her beloved brother, lived to be over ninety years of age, and died in the old Homestead where she was born. The Newtons had ability and were considered most capable. Besides the care of their farm they had a tannery, blacksmith shop and cider mill. Martin Dadmun born right on the borders of this farm was brought up on the farm and bought it in 1822, living there until his death in 1867, and the place has been in the hands of the Dadmuns ever since. The original farm contained 135 acres, and was considered strong and good land. Mr. Dadmun was the father of a large family of boys and girls who were so numerous and loved work so well that even the farm of their father could not keep them all employed, and the boys used to hire out to the neighboring farms for six months of the season, always com- manding the highest price. Martin was the father of one of the early shoe manufacturers of Marlborough, Mr. William Dadmun, who married a sister of William Dole, and resided in the house now the property of Edgar Weeks, Esq., on Pleasant street. It used to be said that altho' the Dadmun boys were so numerous, there was always too few of them, as the farmers found in the spring of the year when they were securing their help of the season, there never were enough of them to go round. Miss L. N. Dadmun and her brother-in-law, Henry H. Nourse, inherited this farm, which has grown to be of 218 acres, and the latter and his good wife still happily live there. Their daughter Helen married Walter D. Jackson of Waltham, (ch. Henry T. and Walter H.) Harriet married Charles E. Dudley of Providence, (ch. William V., Harriet L., Alden C.)
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CHAPTER VIII.
Riding along Lakeside Avenue, or the " King's Highway " as it was known in Revolutionary time-a name not long retained-one's attention is attracted to a picturesque building on the Fay estate. Mark Fay, son of Josiah, was a descendant in the sixth generation of John Fay 1st, who was among the first settlers of Marlborough where he was born in 1793 in the locality now called Southborough. In 1817 he married Sophia Brigham daughter of Jonathan. In his younger days he was a cabinet maker, as was his brother George, and when he married Sophia Brigham they began housekeeping on the most beautiful location in Marlborough, facing Lake Williams, in the picturesque little house this side of his brother's inherited old homestead. As time went on, Mark engaged in farming, and we hear of his living in the Smith house on Mechanic street whose sloping banks of green and beautiful old trees made it a fine residence in early times. Not many years passed before Mark Fay became identified with the banking interests of Marlborough, being one of the incorporators of the First National Bank. He was its
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