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 4
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Barnes sustained high rank as a scholar pursuing his studies in Harvard Medical College, and completing his course in Paris, 1846. Dr. Baker, the principal physician in Marlboro at that time, having died, he succeeded to a large portion of the latter's extensive practice and grew to be not only highly respected and an influential citizen, but was appreciated as a kind hearted, honest friend and tender physician whose memory long remained cherished. He died in 1878. His widow still remains with us, a beautiful old lady of 88 years. [His sisters, Mrs. Jones and Miss Ruth Barnes died within a few years.] Of their seven children we will mention the beloved adopted daughter, Josephine, who died 1904, and Olive C., who married Charles L. Fay,-son of Mark Fay,- the children of whom are Henri- etta, [m. Mr. Herbert Hudson, a prominent coal dealer of Marlboro, their son Lewis is a well known Pharmacist] and Mary Frances, who married Samuel P. Cannell of Everett.
THE SAMUEL-BARNABAS-ADDINGTON BRIGHAM HOMESTEAD, BRIGHAM STREET.
Addington M. Brigham, son of Barnabas and Mary [Fife] Brigham, was born in Marlboro, 1837, on this old Farm of Samuel Brigham, and married Mary Estabrook of Westminster, Mass.
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This Farm originally covered 175 acres and has ever been occupied by Brighams. It was first owned by Capt. Samuel 3d, then by Samuel's son George, who left it to Ashbael Samuel, who sold it to Doctor Daniel, who was followed by Barnabas and then by Addington. George, Ashbael Samuel, and Addington Brigham were all born here on this old homstead, which was a Garrison place and stands on Brigham street in the south part of the town three-quarters of a mile from Marlborough Junction. Addington Brigham has served the town as Road Commissioner and the city of Marlborough as member of the Common Council of which he has been president. He is charter member of Marlborough Grange and member of the G. A. R., enlisting in 1864 in Co. E, 5th Mass. Inf. His children are Abbie A., who married George Fred Nichols and lives on the homestead land of Thomas ; Ella, who married Wm. A. Porter; Cora E. who died 1892; and William M. Brigham a graduate of Boston University, a promi- nent lawyer who has served on positions of trust in Marlborough and was Representative to General Court from 21st Middlesex District, 1899-1907 inclusive. He married Florence R. Eyers of Northampton, England, ch. Ulysses A., Alfred E., and William Munroe, Jr. They as their father were all born here in the old home.
1295366
THE LORING AND CALEB WITHERBEE HOMESTEAD, BY THE LAKE.
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The Loring Homestead, setting back from the road in our picture, was one of Marlboro's old landmarks. John Loring was the son of Jonathan, who was the first of the name to settle in Marlboro, and died in 1782. His son John married in 1783, Mary Beaman, daughter of Noah and Lydia Howe Beaman, and was one of the leading men in town, representing Marlboro eight years in the General Court and holding the office of Justice of the Peace. Here in the above house he lived until his death.
Benjamin Johnson bought the neighboring homestead, (at left in picture), from Caleb Witherbee and lived here until both houses were purchased and taken down for city purposes. Years before this, Caleb Witherbee coming to Marlboro from Southboro, where he had married Hepzibah Brigham, lived first on the north side of "Williams Pond" with Capt. Aaron Brigham and then moved to this house on the south side of the above Pond or Lake where he lived until Rev. Asa Packard left town. Cabel was at that time the only market man, bringing from all parts of this and the neighboring towns, calves, lambs, pork, butter, eggs, poultry and farmers' produce. Capt. Hastings who lived even as far off as Sterling used to bring his produce to Mr. W., who at time of old election week killed more calves than any other time of the year when he was known to have sent into Boston several loads of the above animals. To illustrate his sharpness as a trader they tell the story that he had agreed with a man in Boston to bring him some nice dressed pigs. On his way to the Boston market he fell in with a man in Cambridge who himself wanted to buy these same pigs, so taking the man's shekels he delivered the pigs and passed on to Bos- ton, where he soon met his disappointed customer. Mr. W. was equal to the emergency and had his excuse ready. "Well sir, 'twas the wrong time in the moon, sir, to kill your pigs, sir, they will shrink in the pot, sir. Next week will be the right time to kill them, sir." Mr. W. was very gentlemanly and polite and it is said that the use of the word "sir," the way he would use it, brought him a great many hun- dreds of dollars. He used to say that when it rains porridge, you must have your bowl the right side up, and it is believed Caleb always kept his bowl "the right side up." When Rev. Asa Packard moved out of town, Mr. Witherbee bought and moved to that large house and so increased the purchase of land that he became a large farm owner; keeping over thirty fine cows there, besides oxen and horses. He was a member of the West church, where he and his family al-
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ways attended, and was very prominent in town affairs, holding many town offices : selectman, overseer, etc. In those days it was the custom to allow the tax payers five percent discount on all town taxes paid previous to October 1. Mr. W. was one of the heaviest, if not the leading tax payer in town, and this five percent made quite a discount. The story goes that at one time when he came to pay his tax he was perfectly delighted at the percent returned, apparently thinking more of that than the 95 percent that the collector received. He would laugh and say, "the bigger the tax, sir, the more percent you get back, sir." When he died he left a large property to his seven chil- dren, six sons and one daughter. Jabez, who carried on the Gates Tavern till his own death; Brigham, who formerly kept the store at Jacob Fairbanks corner; Nathan, the well known Trial Justice; Den- nis, who after his father carried on the homestead, and died there; John, who went into banking business in Boston; and Wallace, who was one of the supporters of the "Big Shop," after his brother-in- law, Samuel Boyd.
THE OLD PETER BENT HOMESTEAD, STEVENS' CORNER.
Centuries ago in 1596, John Bent was born in Penton, Grafton, England. It seems a long time past, for old Queen Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII., was then living. John grew to manhood,
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and when the rule of Charles I. became unbearable, and despotic taxa- tion and the tyranny of religious Bigots, made the wildernesses of America seem the only asylum in which the sufferers could enjoy civil and spiritual freedom, John became filled with the pioneer spirit which he has handed down to posterity, and made the willingness to brave the unknown quantity of the wilderness to make a home-the spirit of independence that is the foundation of the Republic. At this time John was forty-two years old and his good wife Martha, had borne him five children, all of whom for many nights were sleeping the sleep of innocent childhood while the parents were deep in con- sultation with friend and neighbor and in prayer for guidance in this inomentous time of their life. At last the final decision was made; and little Peter, then nine years of age, entered into the excitement of the day of embarkation, when they all in 1638 set sail from Southampton for the land of freedom, in the ship Confidence, among whose pass- engers at this same time were the ancestors of our poet, Whittier. Arriving at their destination in due time and finding their way to that part of Sudbury which was afterwards incorporated in 1639, with but 54 inhabitants, John settled down, and soon was made free man. That is, he became a member of the church of the Puritans, for the church was first in those days and only members were allowed to vote-and was thereby allowed to take part in all town affairs. Prompted to find a home for his son Peter, as the latter grew to man- hood, John joined the petitioners in 1656, for the grant of land which became Marlboro; altho he himself remained in Sudbury, where he and his wife were both buried some years later in the old cemetery. Now for distinction we will call his son, Peter Bent the First, and say that the grant of land being given to the Sudbury petitioners, Peter moved to the new plantation and became a busy, prosperous man and a large landholder. He built the old grist mill on Stony Brook, in the now town of Southboro, where one day a small band of Indians crept up and scalped and left for dead his son Zacheus; and in 1661, he contracted to build a bridge across Sudbury River "for horse and man and laden carts to pass over." More than once he went to England-a great undertaking in those days, leaving his faithful wife Elizabeth, to guard the house and to protect their eight little children. He had located himself upon the lot just south of Williams Pond, about a mile from the present center of Marlboro, and here his little family was growing up when suddenly the Indians, stirred up by the animosities of the Narragansett chief, King Philip,
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swooped down upon the town that eventful Sunday morning while all were at church, applied the fire brand and Marlboro was no more. The neighboring garrison had afforded protection to their lives; but their property was laid in ashes; their fences thrown down; their fruit trees hacked and peeled, and their cattle killed or maimed. The Bents then returned to Sudbury and two years later Peter died in England, where he had again gone on business; leaving behind him in America, his poor, sorrowing widow Elizabeth, whose pathetic petition to the Governor gives us a partial hint of her dire distress :
PETITION OF ELIZABETH.
(The Mass. Archives, Vol. 69-P 229, contain the following petition em- bellished with many scrolls,)
"To the Honoble Gov. and Councill sitting in Boston the 29th May, 1679 :
"The petition of Elizabeth Bent, relict, widdow of Peter Bent of Marlborough deceasd, Humbly sheweth that your Petitionrs Habita- tion and almost all that shee had was consumed by the Indians in the Last Warr and her husband went for England and there dyed and Lost all that he carryed with him and Left your petitioner a very poore Widdow with seven children, and in the time of the Late Warr, Shee billeted severale Souldiers so Long as that her bill did Amount to six pounds and Capt. Hull gave her a Note to the Constable for the payment of the same who will pay her onely Thre pounds in money. So that she is an Extraordinary Looser thereby. Also she had Two Horses Imprest (viz) one from Watertowne and another from Charlestowne wh. were out many months and at Last dyed never be- ing returned home to her againe, and being a poore Ignorant widdow She never Looked after any Tickett or pay for them to this day. Yor Poore petitionr therefore humbly Intreats the favor of yor honor to Impute this Neglect of Duty onely to her Ignorance and that the Law which doth exclude all persons from making further claims to debts due from the Country after the time therein Limited may nott debarr your Petitior from that wh. is justly due, so shall your Petitior and her poore fatherless ones Ever pray for yor honole Ct.
ELIZABETH BENT."
Peter Bent the second, was born in Sudbury and was three years old when his father petitioned for the township of Marlborough and
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nearly all his life had been spent in the latter place. As he grew to late manhood he married his second cousin-tradition says she was thirty years younger than her husband-Abigail, daughter of Richard Barnes. To them six children were born; and after the return to Marlborough, he had the old homestead re-built which the Indians had burned down (in olden times emigrants to a new town or coun- try did not as now sell out, but retained their former places for a retreat) and later on, his son Peter the third, added still more to the old house, which is standing today. This last mentioned Peter was the one about whom Marlborough knows the most. Here he was born -in 1707-and here he spent the whole of his long, honorable life. Both he and his good wife Mary, died centuries ago and were laid away in the old burial ground just back of the new High School Building. His large tombstone tells us today that he was a man justly esteemed for his integrity and usefulness, both in public and private life. He was a man of great public spirit and his townsmen elected him to the highest office in their power: Assessor, Selectman, Repre- sentative to the General Court and member of three Provincial Con- gresses-at the second of which, convening at Cambridge, 1775, he was appointed by John Hancock one of a committee of three to ex- amine the returns of the several towns and report upon their stock of powder, etc. At the third, which assembled in Watertown, Gen- eral Joseph Warren was presiding officer, and Peter, who was again representative of Marlboro, was on two or three committees. At one time when he was re-elected representative, he was instructed to "pay no acknowledgement to any unconstitutional and new fangled Counsellors, etc." In the days of the French and Indian wars, 1757, he was in Captain Abraham Williams' Company of militia. In 1770, he was one of the six richest men in town. The old Bent farm in his day extended for a mile and a half along the road to Northboro. In those days the wealthier a man was, the greater amount of work was carried on in his household. Getting up early to five o'clock break- fasts in the summer, and six o'clock in the winter, a long day was before each one to complete the tasks regularly set before them. Peter raised beef for the market and that meant much work for those days of soap making, barrels of salted pork and of beef corned to a nicety, the sausage links and candle dripping; for altho lamps were beginning to be used frequently in the beginning of the eighteenth century and altho wax candles were often imported, the tallow candles were mostly in vogue. Mary B. Claflin, in her "Brampton
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Sketches," has an interesting account of the great housekeeping event of candle-making and states that in Berrytown (Marlboro) they pre- ferred bayberry tallow to beeswax as necessary addition to give hard- ness and consistency to the candles. Near the large old apple orchard was the spot where yearly the Indians used to come to camp. These annual visits were continued well into the nineteenth century and about a mile from the old homestead is their ancient burial place. Behind the old farmhouse, this interesting, long, rambling, old struc- ture, built by successive generations, the oldest part dating back more than two centuries-on the slope toward the pond, stood until within a few years a gigantic, hollow chestnut tree, ten feet in dia- meter. It would hold nineteen people, and was often used by the Indians in time past and also was a shelter and hiding place for the white man. By the little brook which forms the outlet to the pond, half imbedded in the earth, covered with lichens and surrounded by brush, are two enormous old mill stones, which tradition says no doubt were those used by Peter Bent the First. This old homestead has been owned but by two families, the Bents, who came into posses- sion of this farm by original grant, 1660, and the Stevens family, who inherited it when the Marlboro line of Bents became extinct. For Peter Third left Peter, who was the one to march to Cambridge at the Lexington alarm, April 19, 1775, in Captain Daniel Barnes' Company, and was in the same company during the siege of Boston, May to December, 1775; and who lived on the old Bent place, and at his death bequeathed all his lands in Marlboro, Westboro and Southboro to his sister's son, Daniel Stevens. [And here we must pay tribute to his unmarried brother, Jabez Bent, the last of the line of Bents in Marlboro, who at the Lexington alarm, was out six days in Captain William Brigham's Company and at his death made a bequest of one hundred dollars to the West Parish (Unitarian) of Marlboro, the income to be used for an annual lecture for the improvement of the young. This Bent lecture being still given every year.] Daniel Stevens, Jr., was a man greatly respected. He represented the town in General Court many years and for over twenty years was Justice of the Peace. The following story, full of dramatic humor, has been told of him. He was a man of remarkable size, weighing some 300 pounds. On one occasion the sheriff sought him for some purpose at a time when he was in the field. He asked the officer his business and the latter replied : "I have come for you." Whereupon the whole 300 pounds lay flat on the ground, and looking up in the officer's face,
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dryly remarked : "Take me then." He felt great anxiety, it is said, lest there be not trees large enough for his coffin, for shrank from the idea of pieced boards for his last resting place, and kept the planks already sawn in his house. He married Eunice Robinson of Concord, and of the three children born, Isaac Temple Stevens, who married Catherine Felton, took the Bent farm until his death, 1844, when it passed into the hands of one of his thirteen children, William Robin- son Stevens, who has lived there for many years with an unmarried sister, Susanna, now deceased. William R. Stevens married Sarah Lamson. Their children are Stillman, who married Ruth Newton; Bertha A., who married Clifton Russell, and whose children are Wil- liam, Thelma and Clifton; Clarence, who married Jennie Macomber, their children are Gladys, Mildred, William, Cora and Clarence. All thirteen children of Isaac and Catherine were born here under the old roof. The late Mr. Levi Stevens, a courteous old gentleman, re- membered well the Indians, who in his time camped down on the old ancestral fields ; and he related to the writer many a story of the kind- ness shown to the red people by his parents, his mother even taking in at one time a suffering red mother, as she gave birth to a little papoose, under the hospitable, old roof. And to him we are indebted for this story of the old Bent house centuries old and standing today. Levi married Mary E. Bishn, ch. Daniel, Waldo and Mary C. He mar- ried for his second wife, Ellen A. Salisbury, and their children were Waldo L., who married Emma R. Wood (ch. Florence, Herbert and Ida) ; Oscar H. m. Charlotte A. Howe (ch. Herbert, Oscar, Louis) ; John S. m. Alice M. Dailey (ch. Irving, Vira) ; Geo., H. m. Florence Wilkins (ch. Marshall) ; Harriette H. m. Edwin F. Simpson (ch. Lin- coln, Geo., Wm., Oscar).
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CHAPTER III.
THE JOSEPH BRIGHAM OR LEWIS AMES HOMESTEAD, GLEN STREET.
Many years ago over in the county of Cumberland in old England, there was a parish adjoining Scotland called Brigham. In the reign of Edward II. one heard about the " Barony at Brigham, " and the word is an object of interest to the antiquarian today, for one learns that after the Norman conquest it was assigned to Waldeof, Earl of Northcumberland, who built a stupendous castle which became the Baronial seat of his successors, the lords of Alerdale. Here as feudal kings they reigned for generations, maintaining in splendor a school and theatre of chivalry. This fortress was one of the strongest upon the island and is not yet in total ruins, and could the walls speak they might relate of royal embassies and visits, splendid tournaments, thrilling events and scenes of honor. As time went on, English nobility began to assume lower or sir names and noblemen took their names from their estates. At this time some successor of Waldeof assumed the name of Brigham.
Thomas Brigham was 32 years of age when he embarked 1635 at London for New England in the ship Susan and Ellyn, Edward Payne,
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master. Journeying to Watertown he became proprietor of a 14-acre lot on the strip which was taken from Watertown and in 1754 annexed to Cambridge. Thomas settled " hard by " and built his house in Cambridge on the lot of three and one-half acres which had been assigned to him. This was the very spot which Governor Winthrop and assistants agreed was a "fit place for a fortified town " and the capitol of the colony. Here a number of chief men built their houses and the General Court held their first sessions. And here Thomas Brigham resided until 1648. He filled standing and responsible positions, became proprietor of immense herds of cattle and swine, and when the land was divided to settlers according to their estates, he purchased a new site and built at once on the spot where now is Somerville, about one-third of a mile south of Tufts College and east of the Cambridge poor house. Thomas Brigham's last place of worship must have been Medford, and in her ancient graveyard, according to Morse Genealogy, his ashes repose await- ing a monument. He left an estate of considerable value and for his time, a spacious house, which consisted of a hall, parlor, kitchen and two chambers all completely furnished and stored with necessary provisions. The inventory of his estate was peculiar. In the settlement of other estates prior to that time it would be difficult to find one of more personal property, including so many articles of luxury. Silver spoons and other utensils of silver, "join chairs" and "join stools, " cushions, pieces, damask cloth, livery, table, one flock and four feather beds are enumer- ated; and his wardrobe, for the age was that of a New England gentleman. He had two bound servants, five horses, fourteen sheep and ten cattle. His inventory footed up £449, (four hundred 49 pounds). Thomas Brigham, as we have said in the Rice story married Mercy Hurd who bore him five children, and when he died he appointed her sole executrix of his last will and testament.
Among Thomas and Mercy Hurd's five children was Thomas Brigham, the 2d, who when his mother married Goodman Edmund Rice of Marlborough continued, with his brothers and sisters, to live with his mother on his stepfather's estate. On attaining his majority, Thomas married Mary Rice (daughter of Henry) and bought from his stepfather, Edmund Rice, 24 acres of land in the southwestern part of the town on the site known as the Warren Brigham Farm on what we now call Glen street. Here he built a log cabin. One day being called to Lancaster, he left his family to care for the home. "Breaking flax " was one of the many household duties of the time, and in an unguarded moment this combustible material took fire and the home was soon in flames. When
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Thomas returned his little log hut was no more to be seen. But rather a fire from flax than from treacherous foe, and in 1706 up went on the same spot of land another home, a frame house, so well and safely built that it was one of the 26 chosen as garrisons by the 137 families in town at that time.
The farm of Thomas Brigham 2d was the starting of that immense farm which he acquired from the Indian occupants, and finally included in his own right thousands of acres stretching for miles away to Chauncey pond. Surely an extensive landholder who "conferred estates with as much facility, " quoting Miss Martha Ames, "as little Miss Flite was hoping to do when the suit in 'Jarndyce and Jarndyce should be settled.'" Quoting again our friend, Miss Ames: "In one sense the life of Thomas Brigham 2d seems not far away from our own time. The road winding through the valley where his dwelling stood; the fair and fertile fields which he cultivated ; the stately and beautiful trees on which no doubt he often gazed, have come down through generations of his descendants uniting the past with the present. We think of him as often passing this way to church or elsewhere, enjoying the distant scenery and the magnificent sunsets, even as do we now. Yet in reality we know very little of his life. There are many missing links in the chain of events which only imagination can supply. Living in those troublesome times when wars followed each other in quick succession, he must have been surrounded by elements of danger of which only the echo comes down to us. He is said to have been a large strong man of whom the Indians stood greatly in awe. It was his custom in war times when going to mill to have an escort of two dogs and two guns. Probably the guns if not the dogs accompanied him to church and to other places." We imagine that the two dogs went also to divine worship as we know that in early times it was the custom in cold weather for the favorite dog to be brought to meeting where he could be a warmth to his master's feet. Indeed, those living stoves became such a fashion and oft times such a nuisance to the congregation at large, that dog whippers were appointed and the owners of these pets were fined did they not see to it that they came not into the meeting house during the worship.
One day Thomas was found sleeping in his chair. He was 76 years old when this great sleep came upon him. They laid him away in 1716, and his son Gershom took his father's house for an L to his own newly built two-story house. Gershom was a man well known in the annals of Marlborough. An impartial surveyor, an intrepid constable ; a selectman and one of the distinguished committee to seat the meeting ; and woe unto
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