USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > Historical sketches of Brookline, Mass. > Part 22
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One of the children of Deacon Eliot, whose name with her husband's appears in this old deed, was the wife of Elizur Holyoke. This couple were the parents of Ed- wark Holyoke, afterwards President of Harvard College.
Three years previous to this purchase John Ackers had bought of Samuel Ruggles a tract of land on the east side of "the lane, " or Brighton Street, now belonging to the heirs of the late Jacob Pierce.
These old deeds are in excellent preservation, the one containing the signature of the Eliots, bearing heavy black seals. John Ackers married Desiretruth Thorne of Bos- ton, and their children " Desiretruth and Elizabeth," per-
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haps twins, were baptized and recorded in Roxbury in July, 1666. There were afterwards several other children. including two sons, John and William. The father after- wards moved to Dunstable, and the son John occupied the homestead. This John was a thrifty farmer, fre- quently buying tracts of land around him as well as wood- land and marsh lands, as the ancient deeds prove. All the Ackerses have been farmers through seven genera- tions. In the mean time, on the corner of Brighton and Boylston streets, where Mr. Fisher's house now stands. was the house of Joseph White. Nathaniel Holland mar- ried one of his daughters, and to him the place was deeded in 1695. In 1705, the same year that the town was set off and incorporated, John and William Ackers purchased the house and land.
The names of these two men and that of their father appeared on the petition for the separation of Muddy River from Boston the previous year. In 1735 William Ackers, son of the last named John, then a youth of sev- enteen, brought from the woods, upon his shoulder, and set out, the fine elm tree which now casts its luxuriant shadow upon the lawn. In 1744, John Ackers built a fine large house on this spot, which was quite imposing for a farm-house in those days. In Revolutionary times it was occupied as barracks for colonial troops, but the family did not leave it, as many families left their houses, but divided with the soldiers and bore the inconvenience. The old road was then much narrower in front of the house than at present. The well, where a sweep was poised for lifting the water in " the old oaken bucket," was at the foot of the grassy slope, and all the water was carried by hand with much toil, to the house and barn up the hill. The road has since been widened, and the old well is now under the sidewalk. Mr. William Ackers,
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THE ACKERS PLACE.
second, died in 1794, at a good old age. His son William, the third of the name, was the next owner of the house. He married Mehitable Hyslop Abercrombie, the adopted daughter of Mr. William Hyslop.
Mr. Hyslop gave her a great wedding, which was a grand event in the town for those times, and was not only a theme for tea-table chat, but was remembered, talked of, and written about, long after. The sons of this marriage were outlived by their father, who died in 1841, the last male member of this ancient family.
The place was sold by the heirs to Mr. John Howe, and was purchased from him in 1850 by the late Francis Fisher. The old house was taken down, and though it had stood for more than a century it was in excellent pres- ervation. The present fine house was built the same year.
The great elm has been preserved with assiduous care. In 1839, during a gale of wind, a large lower branch was torn from the tree and fell upon the end of the house, breaking it through. A large cavity was left in the trunk, which had increased by the action of the weather and natural decay, till the very existence of the tree was threatened. Mr. Fisher immediately set about the work of rescuing it. The cavity was carefully excavated to the solid wood ; all the decay being removed, the opening was then carefully filled with bricks laid in cement, and the whole covered with a plate of lead to protect it from the weather. The dead and unsightly branches were removed, the bark scraped to destroy moss and insects, and a flower bed opened near it to admit of a constant supply of nutriment to the roots. The result was a complete renovation of the patriarchal tree. It com- menced growing again with vigor, and new wood formed which from time to time pushed out the bricks till the open- ing was greatly reduced in size, while the girth of the tree
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
was much increased. In 1829 the large tree nearer the street was broken in two by a weight of ice. This also was suffering from neglect, but a similar course was the means of its preservation, and new bark has nearly oblit- erated the marks of the injury.
It is a curious coincidence that Thomas Stedman was one of the abuttors upon the Ackers farm in 1698; and that Mr. Fisher, who is a descendant from that family, on the mother's side, should, without design, come to live in this neighborhood of his ancestor, so far removed, and beau- tify the grounds so familiar in their primitive wildness to his predecessors of more than a century ago.
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SAMUEL WHITE.
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CHAPTER XV.
THE HOUSE OF SAMUEL WHITE, ESQ., AFTERWARDS THE HEATH PLACE. - AUNT WHITE. - THE WINCHESTERS.
ITHE first White who settled in Brookline was John White, who came from Watertown very early in the days of the Colonial settlement, and from him all the old families of Brookline by that name have descended. He settled in " the village." Major Edward White, of whom an account has been given, was his son, as was also Joseph White who lived on the corner of Brighton and Boylston streets, before the place was purchased by the Ackers brothers. Joseph and Benjamin White both signed the petition for the separation of Muddy River from Boston, and both were prominent in founding the First Church.
Samuel White, son of Joseph, built a house on the site of the one now occupied by Mr. Cabot, between Heath and Boylston streets. This was a century before Boylston Street was opened, and the land belonging to the house extended northward across what is now Boylston Street and abutted upon " the lane," or Brighton Street, and the Ackers' lands. On the opposite side of Heath Street it extended to the Reservoir ground, which was then a part of the " Commons," or five hundred acres set apart by the town of Boston " for perpetual commonage at Muddy River." Samuel White married Ann Drew, an energetic woman of those early days, who made a practice of arrang-
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
ing her toilet on Sunday mornings over a tub or pail of water for lack of a looking-glass, and then walked to " Rox- bury meeting-house," to attend a long day's service. After the Brookline church was established Mr. and Mrs. White were identified with it during their lifetime. In 1759, about a year before Mr. White's death, he gave by deed to the Selectmen of Brookline twenty acres of woodland at Needham, " to supply the minister or ministers that may be settled in the town from time to time." This deed was witnessed before the eminent lawyer Jeremiah Gridley, Esq., then residing in the present Chapin house, and was probably written by him. Ann, a daughter of Samuel White, became the wife of Henry Sewall, grand- son of Chief Justice Sewall of this town. She had three sons, Henry, Hull, and Samuel. The two former each died at the age of twenty-four. Samuel, who outlived his parents, inherited his father's property, or the home- stead. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, this young man, being a Loyalist or Tory, abandoned his native land and took refuge in England. The banishment act was passed in 1778, and our Brookline Tory, being proscribed as a refugee, never returned. After the close of the war the confiscated property was sold by order of Government. It was purchased by Mr. John Heath and thus passed into the hands of those from whom it after- ward took the name of " the old Heath house." Samuel Sewall died unmarried at Bristol, England, in 1811.
Susanna, the other daughter of Samuel White, was the wife of Ebenezer Crafts of Roxbury, who built the house known as "the old Crafts house," on the Roxbury road, now Tremont Street. Its date, 1709, upon the chimney, is familiar to all. Mr. John Heath married Mr. Eben- ezer Crafts' daughter, and thus, by this purchase, Mrs. Heath came to live in the house of her grandfather. One
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" AUNT WHITE."
branch of the Goddard family (Samuel Goddard) also de- scended from this daughter of Samuel White. There was also an intermarriage several years before between the White and Crafts families. Mrs. Elizabeth (Crafts) White was one of the most interesting of the many occu- pants of this old White or Heath house. She was born in 1746. In her childhood, books were rare, and the oppor- tunities for the education of girls very limited. The Bible and the Almanac were almost her only literature. But her mind was of the order that must grow, and will not be repressed. She read and re-read the Bible till her knowledge of it was wonderful. As other books came scantily into her possession, she read and studied them, and from her small stock culled a larger store of informa- tion and gained more strength of understanding and real thought than is often gained .by those who skim swiftly the boundless surface of the light literature of modern times. She had a superior memory and wrote remark- able letters, and occasional verses. Her husband was a young man of education and unusual promise. Early in their married life, however, he was stricken down by a fever which deprived him of his reason and he died by his own hand. This sorrow overshadowed the whole life of the widow thus bereft. She never married again, but lived to a great age beloved and respected by all. As she advanced in years she came to be called " Aunt White " by a host of friends, and is still so called in affectionate remembrance.
Several slaves were kept in the Crafts and Heath fam- ilies. A bill of sale of one of these is still extant among old papers. It reads as follows : -
"To all People to whom these presents shall come, I Richard Champion of Boston, in the County of Suffolk, of ye Massachu-
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
setts Bay in New England School-Master, sendeth Greeting, Know ye that I the said Richard Champion for and in consider- ation of the sum of one hundred pounds in good and passable bills of New England aforesaid, the receipt whereof I do hereby confess and acknowledge . . .. have Bargained and Sold, Re- leased and granted and confirmed and by these Presents do bar- gain and sell unto Ebenezer Crafts of Roxbury, Cordwainer, a Negro Girl named Dina, about eleven years old, together with all her wearing apparel, To have and to hold the said Negro Girl unto the aforesaid Ebenezer Crafts, and to his heirs and assigns forever."
This is dated in 1739.
This Dinah proved well worth the hundred pounds which her master invested in her at eleven years of age, and during sixty years she faithfully served those who claimed her allegiance.
At the death of Dinah, in 1803, Mrs. White wrote the following lines, which show not only her feeling, but the view of slavery, which she held even then, before the anti-slavery agitation had even begun in New England : -
" Tho' now no pensive father mourns her death, Nor tender mother her departed breath, No brother kind, no child nor sister dear Sheds o'er her silent grave one friendly tear,-
" Yet once the tears her parents' cheeks bedewed When human monsters, worse than tigers rude With hearts anfeeling as the direst fiend Snatched her from every joy and every friend.
"How were their bleeding hearts with anguish torn, When she was o'er the raging billows borne, No more to see her native land again, But distant far, to feel hard Slavery's chain. Tho' black her skin as sky where clouds deform, And temper boist'rous as the wintry storm, Yet sometimes mild as summer eve was she And oft her ebon visage smiled on me.
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THE WHITE FAMILY. 317
"In days of yore when in my infant state, Her weary arms did oft sustain my weight, And oft with trifles did she win my love, Ere lapse of time had taught my feet to move.
" And shall no tear fall on the lifeless clay, Of one who has in servitude grown gray ? Forbid it heaven ! My breast shall heave a sigh, While trickling tears descend from either eye.
"Rest, rest in peace, thou relic of a slave ! Soft be thy slumbers in the silent grave, And may'st thou rise washed in the Saviour's blood, Spotless and white at the great day of God."
There are other verses extant which this lady wrote when nearly ninety years of age. Her taste for books and writing continued to the end of her life. The great- est recreation for these quiet wives and daughters of the Brookline farmers in those old days was to look on at the gayeties of "Commencement Day," at Cambridge, or witness the display made by those who could attend and participate in it. Mrs. White and others of the Crafts family who came to live in Brookline were in the habit of going to the old Crafts house on the Roxbury road, - before the bridge to Cambridge was built, - on Commencement Days to see the gay riding, which all passed through Roxbury and Brookline on these occa- sions.
Mrs. White died in 1838, aged ninety-two years.
John White, another son of Joseph, and brother of Samuel, born in Brookline, in 1677, became a minister, and settled in Gloucester. Letters written by Rev. John White, more than a hundred years ago, but when he was at an advanced age, addressed to his brother Samuel, are still preserved, and manifest the devout and affectionate spirit which characterized him. He died in 1760, aged eighty-three.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
The papers left by the venerable Mrs. White have been a means of the preservation of various bits of family or local history, and some amusing incidents which would otherwise have been lost. A complete genealogy of the Crafts, White, and Heath families is thus pre- served, and many interesting letters. In one of the latter there is an account of an accident which occurred in Cypress Street, in the last century, which just missed of being a tragedy, and resulted in a comedy.
It will perhaps be remembered by many persons, that that part of Cypress Street where the railroad crosses, and the brook passes under the street, was formerly three or four feet lower than at present. The great oak tree at the entrance to Tappan Street, stood, within the last thirty years, on ground that was walled up at least three feet ; and it was then easy to drive a horse down through the brook at the west side of the road. In the time of the incident we are about to relate, the brook always ran over the road, when swollen by the rain. The letter from which we gather the story, is dated March 9th, 1795, and was written by Mrs. White to a member of the family, who was away from home.
It seems that on the Saturday night previous, March 7th, there had been a great southerly storm which had melted the snow and caused a great freshet, which made Cypress Street impassable. Rev. Mr. Tappan of Cam- bridge was to preach in the First Church for Rev. Mr. Jackson, who was then out of health. Not knowing the unsafe condition of the street, or " the New Lane," as it was then called, he attempted to ford the torrent with his horse and chaise, his son being with him. But · the horse went off the bridge, and chaise and riders were plunged into the flood. The son came very near being drowned, but having finally struggled out of his predica- ment he set off to Captain Croft's, to call assistance.
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A FLOOD IN CYPRESS STREET.
The letter goes on to say : -
" Your brother has just come in from Town Meeting. He says that Mr. Jackson told him that after Mr. Tappan had sent his son to call assistance, he stayed in the water while he dis- engaged the horse from the carriage, and then mounted bare- backed, followed his son, borrowed a saddle, and rode round by White and Sumner's store " (at the foot of Walnut Street).
" This accident happened at first bell ringing. He did not get to Mr. Jackson's till after the second began. He was so surprised and fatigued, he could not give much account of him- self, only that he had been in the water. Mr. Jackson dressed the poor unfortunate man in a suit of his clothes, but as his small clothes did not cover his knees, he was obliged to wear his wet ones.
" David Hyslop said he was very sorry he did not send to him for a pair, but as 'the legs of the lame are not equal,' if one knee had been covered the other must have been bare. But he dried and fixed himself as well as he could, and went clumping into meeting in borrowed shoes just as Mr. Jackson had done his first prayer.
" Mr. Jackson's cloak was so short for him he could not look very buckish. Although there were some circumstances a little diverting, it was really a serious affair. Mr. Jackson prayed in the morning and at night; both times he returned thanks that they were preserved when in imminent danger, and prayed that their health might not be injured. Mr. Tappan put his notes and his band in his book and put them on the cushion behind him when he set out from Cambridge, but the current was so rapid that they were all carried off. Notwith- standing, he preached two excellent sermons from notes which he happened to have in his pocket. The chaise, which he borrowed of the President,* was very much damaged. It seemed as if fire and water were against them, Sunday. His son stayed at home in the forenoon, to dry himself, left his shoes in the sitting room, aud went out to the kitchen fire.
* Rev. Dr. Willard was President of Harvard College at that time.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
Meanwhile, a brand fell down on one of them and burnt the heel quarter almost up. But Mr. Jackson was kind enough to look up one that answered, so that he followed his father to church in the afternoon."
There is an additional appropriateness in the name of Tappan Street of which we had not been aware till the above incident suggested it.
In Mr. John Heath's family were two old slaves, Cuff and Kate, and one Primus, of whom various anecdotes are related. Mr. Heath, who was fond of quizzing Pri- mus, asked him one day which was the heavier, a pound of lead or a pound of feathers.
" A pound of lead, Massa," said Primus, promptly. "Course, a pound of lead is de heaviest."
A laugh ensued at Primus's expense.
"Don't you b'lieve it, Massa ? You go stick your head in de fireplace and let Primus go up a top de house and drap a pound ob fedders and a pound ob lead down de chimbley on your head ; den see which de heaviest."
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On the occasion of the great alarm in this part of the town in Revolutionary times, occasioned by a party of British "regulars," riding out into Roxbury, and the announcement being made that they were at " church green," there was a general stampede from the Heath house, as well as from all the other houses in the neigh- borhood. Everybody, white and black, sought a hiding place in the woods, except poor old Kate, Cuff's wife, who was too old and infirm to run away. She squeezed behind the tall, old-fashioned clock, which stood in a corner, and stayed there for hours, and there the family found her when they returned. The only article carried off by the family for safety was a bag of salt, which was seized by one of the female members of the household in the moment of flight.
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OLD-FASHIONED VISITING.
This part of the town was very social in customs in the old times, and the quaint, old-fashioned style of visit- ing prevailed, long after it was discontinued in the more thickly settled portions of the town. Persons now living can remember when it was the fashion to send a child early in the morning with her mother's " compliments," to some neighbor, and say that "if it was convenient, mother would come and spend the afternoon." By two o'clock, the visit was begun, and often the small spinning wheel was carried, instead of the sewing, but how the necessary amount of talking could be done with two or three spinning-wheels in motion, we, of the days of sew- ing machines, are at a loss to understand. By "milking time," the visit was over, and the guests gone home to their chores and their early bed-time.
It is easy to perceive, when familiar with our early history, as a people, how the New England habit of talk- ing about everybody and their affairs grew up as a nat- ural consequence of the mode of life and the state of the country. With no holidays, or public amusements, and few recreations of any sort, with a few great common interests, as the church, the crops, and the state of the country, - with many common inconveniences and pri- vations growing out of the newness of the country, and the difficulty of communication with England, it is no wonder that when they met, the interest or the misfor- tune of one neighbor, which was the interest or misfor- tune of all, was the common subject of discussion.
It is easy, too, to perceive how the very habit which grew out of common human sympathy, and the needs of the heart, was liable to perversion by envy and uncharita- bleness, into the gossip and scandal which are even now the bane and curse of thinly settled towns, and small villages.
Out of this same common sympathy and need, has
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
grown also the prompt, quick, willing, helpful spirit which is never appealed to in vain for a case of real need, whether it is a private family stranded by adverse cir- cumstances, a battle which has struck a blow to every household in the land, or a burnt city which stretches out imploring hands for help. If New England gossips over her tea-table, not the less does she empty her full hands into the lap of the needy, and help the struggling up into security and peace.
The journals or private diaries, kept for years by per- sons resident in this town, though cumbered with many family cares, are a faithful transcript of the daily life which made the women of those times strong but not un- feminine, and left them no leisure to seek a share in the government, or administration of public affairs.
Mr. John Heath in his old age relinquished his farm to his son. A curious old deed of subsistence is still pre- served in which are specified all the items for his main- tenance. This method was not uncommon in former times, and seems to have been a wise provision both for parents and children. Mr. John Heath died in 1804, aged seventy-two.
Mr. Ebenezer Heath, the only son of Mr. John Heath, succeeded his father as proprietor of the homestead or farm. He married Miss Hannah Williams of Roxbury, and built the house now occupied by his daughters. The old house was rented for many years to a succession of tenants.
One of the daughters of Mr. John Heath became the wife of Dr. John Goddard of this town, who settled in Portsmouth, N. H.
After the death of this lady he married a second time, then a third, and finally for his fourth and last wife he returned to Brookline and took one from the same house
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MRS. EBENEZER HEATH.
whence he had taken his first, this time marrying Anne, the only child of Mrs. Elizabeth White. This lady sur- vived her husband about three years, but not her venera- ble mother.
The wife of Mr. Ebenezer Heath was a woman of more than ordinary ability, and great strength and beauty of character. She brought up a family of nine children, and with all the household cares which a farmer's wife neces- sarily had in those days (and she was an accomplished housekeeper) she found time for the improvement of her mind, and the extracts which are extant in her own hand- writing from religious and other books which she read, in- dicate her good taste, her humble, conscientious, and grateful spirit, and her tender sympathies.
She also kept a diary of noteworthy local events with many interesting comments, and recorded much of her own personal experience and reflection thereon.
The latter was for her own improvement and not for the eyes of others, but her growth in the traits which make up a beautiful and consistent Christian life, is uncon- sciously manifested upon almost every page. Under date of July 9th, 1826, she speaks of a party of friends meet- ing "to celebrate Lafayette passing by." The same week, she speaks of a visit from her daughter, with her husband and young child, in which great pleasure had been anticipated, but which was turned to grief by the illness and death of the little one. She writes, "Dr. Pierce returned from the. funeral of President Adams, who had lived in this world ninety years, to pray with our little grandson who had lived but forty-two days."
Long years after Mrs. Heath's death, a voluntary trib- ute was paid to her memory and her worth, by one who had in early life, being an orphan, been placed in the family of Mr. Heath, a mere child, to earn his board on
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
the farm. He has since been prospered till he is able to ride in his own carriage. The little kindly acts by which this excellent woman made the almost friendless little boy her devoted friend, were also strong in their influence upon him in his manhood, making him careful for the rights and the feelings of those in his own employ similarly situ- ated. And so " the good, men do, lives after them."
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