USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > Historical sketches of Brookline, Mass. > Part 27
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The next house is interesting for its great age and the old families connected with its history. This is the old Crafts house on the Denny place. It has been thoroughly repaired and painted, and now looks not unlike the old · houses seen on country roads, that were formerly kept as taverns. Its great age would not be suspected by a cas- ual observer. This house was built by Vincent Druce in
* This name is quite as frequently spelt Craft.
381
THE OLD CRAFTS HOUSE.
the latter part of the seventeenth century or beginning of the eighteenth, and is therefore nearly two hundred years old. Obadiah Druce, son of John, and probably a nephew of Vincent, inherited the house and spent his days there. John Druce, the third of the name, was a graduate of Harvard College in 1738 and settled as a physician in Wrentham.
An interesting item is preserved respecting the first John Druce. It seems that he was a soldier in Captain Prentice's company, a troop of horse, in King Philip's War, and in July, 1675, was mortally wounded in the battle near Swanzey. He was brought home and died in his own house; he was but thirty-four years of age. His son John, who was but a child then, was probably the father of the doctor who settled in Wrentham.
Deacon Ebenezer Crafts of Roxbury, next purchased the house. This family in all its branches in Roxbury and Brookline traces its pedigree in this country to Griffin Crafts, who came from England among the earliest settlers in this vicinity. His son Ebenezer was the builder of the old house opposite Hillside on " the Roxbury road " or Tremont Street, which bears its date, 1709, on the chim- ney. In this house the Deacon Ebenezer Crafts above mentioned, lived in his youth. He married Susannah, daughter of Samuel White, Esq., of Brookline. The de- scendants of this couple have been and still are ,promi- nent among the inhabitants of Brookline.
Elizabeth Crafts, a daughter of theirs, born in 1747, was the lady long known as " Aunt White," a sketch of whose life has been given. There is an old letter written by her in her youth to a young friend, inviting her to come and visit her at the old farm-house on Newton Street. It is written in rhyme, and describes the domestic life of those days with quaint simplicity.
Her brother Caleb, a few years older than herself, held
382
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
a lieutenant's commission during the War of the Revolu- tion. Many of the old military orders which he received are extant. Among them is the following : -
NEEDHAM, Jan. 31, 1778.
Sir, as the Trans Ports are Soon Expected for the purpose of Carring Burgoynes' army to Europ -I am directed to detach from my regt 86 men repair to Castle Island to do doty there untill the troops are embarked and gone out of the harbor. You are directed to detach from your Company one Corporal and five men for the above Purpose and see that they are armed and accutred according to Law with a good Blanket and two days Provision and hold themselves ready to march on the shortice nots to the above Postes, Let no Time be lost.
"your humble serv't " WM. MCINTOSH, Col.
" P. S. The fine is ten pounds if they refuse to march or Pro- cure some able Bodaid man in his roome in twenty-four hours after he is detached as aforesaid."
The old pay-roll of a company of twenty-five Brookline men who served under Lieutenant Crafts at Dorchester Heights contains the names of Williams, Weld, Gore, Wis- well, Mann, and other well-known names in this vicinity.
All the men wrote their own names but one, who was obliged to make his " mark."
A list of men who enlisted as "six months' men" in the service for special duty in the Northern or Canada de- partment, contains their agreement to provide themselves with " a good effective fire-arm, and if possible a bavonet thereto, a Cartridge box and blanket or in lieu of a Bay- onet a Hatchet or Tomahawk."
During a great part of the Revolutionary War, Lieuten- ant Craft commanded under Captain Thomas White, in the Brookline Company, but among the curious old docu- ments of those times is a note from a Captain Mayo, under date of Roxbury, July 9th, 1778, as follows : -
383
MILITARY EXPERIENCE OF 1782.
" Sur, Mr. Coller is cum to Do Duty in room of his Sun for a few days for won of the men of my Company, I Expect that you will have another man to-morrow.
" To Lieut. Craft in Dortichter,
" THOMAS MAYO, Capt."
Under date of 1782, July 9, we find a notice from the Selectmen to Lieutenant Crafts as follows : -
" Sir, The within is the fifth class in said town, which we the subscribers have classed in order to procure a man for the Conti- nental army for three years or during the war agreeable to a re- solve of the General Court of March last of which we have appointed you the head.
B WHITE
JOHN GODDARD Selectmen." W CAMPBELL
"N. B. You are obliged to Notifie all the Inhabitants of your Class to meet within four days in order to procure a man or you will be obliged to answer for all deficiencies."
On the inside are the following names : -
Caleb Crafts
57 £.
Wm Hyslop
122 "
Abr Jackson
8 "
Thad. Jackson
45. 15
Sol. Child
49.10
Nath'l Griggs
1. 5
John Harris
29. 15
Isaac Child
50.
Mary Boylston
24.
Gulliver Winchester
39.
Isaac Gardner
74. 10
Several names of non-residents follow variously rated.
Under date of Brookline, August 23d, 1782, we find the following action taken upon the above order : -
384
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
" This certifies that I Samuel Whipple of Hardwick in county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts Bay do Engage and oblige myself to procure two Good and Lawful able bodied men to Inlist and Serve as Soldiers for the Town of Brookline in the county of Suffolk and state aforesaid for the Term of three years for the Consideration of sixty pound for Each man, viz, for Class No 3 & No 5 Whereof Benjamin White and Caleb Craft are heads. Said men are to be inlisted and mustered at or be- fore the thirteenth day of September next and in falier thereof I Do Promise and oblige myself to pay all Damage that Shall arise on Sd Classes thereby as witness my hand,
" SAMUEL WHIPPLE."
Several orders issued before and during the Revolution bear the autograph of Captain, afterwards General Wil- liam Heath.
We turn from the military experience of the old Craft family for a brief glance at the domestic life of those an- cient days, for nothing seems to bring the past so com- pletely within the scope of our apprehension as a glimpse of the little daily vicissitudes which came to them as to us, small things in themselves, and yet which make up a large part of life.
Deacon Crafts' family, like other well-to-do people of this colony in those times, employed slaves. He had bought a negro girl named Flora, for the sum of one hun- dred and five pounds. We copy the following letter, now nearly a hundred and forty years old, in all its quaint simplicity. It was written by Flora's former master to Deacon Craft.
" Sr, I am sorey you did not Lett me see you yesterday. I perseve you still meet with troble with the Negro which I am Exceeding sorey to hear as I told you at your houes I intended you no harme but good. I did bye you as I wold be done by & I still intend to do by you as I wold be done by if I ware in your
385
AN UNCOMFORTABLE SERVANT.
Caess, but however you must think as to the Sale of the Negro it is - by means of selling her to you for it is all over town that your discurege and wold give ten pounds to have me take her agane. I apperehend I had better given you twenty pounds than ever you had been consarned with her I would not a thanked anybody to have given me an hundred pounds for her that morning befor you carred her away but however seeing it is as it is, we must do as well as we can I wold have you con- sult with the Justes and Consider my case allso and do by me allso you would be done by. if I had your money as the Justeses bond I should be under the same consarn that I am now pray Lett me see you if you please and if we can accommodate the matter to both our Sattesfactun I shall be verey free in the mat- ter that is if I hear no Reflecsions for I do declare I was sensere in the whole mater.
" from yours to Serve,
" EBENEZER DORR. " January the 6 1735-6."
An uncomfortable servant for whom one had paid over a hundred pounds was not so easy to get rid of as a dis- orderly Bridget from the intelligence office whose place · might be filled in three hours by one still more recently imported, and matters getting worse, the case was left out to referees consisting of " Messrs. Edward Ruggles of Roxbury, Thomas Cotton of Brooklyne, and Mr. Joseph Warren of Roxbury," who were to ascertain the particu- lars of the case and decide upon the best settlement of it between Mr. Dorr and Mr. Craft. It was decided by them in the course of a fortnight, that Mr. Dorr should take " the said Flora," back, and Mr. Craft should give him fifteen pounds in bills of credit, and Mr. Dorr pledged himself in case he should sell the girl to any other party for over ninety pounds that " the overplus of the sale shall be returned to said Ebenezer Craft, and the said fifteen pounds to Remain to me." And so the troubled domestic waters probably ran smooth again.
·
386
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
Edward Ruggles first appears in Brookline on this wise, in the town records: -
" Agreed with John Winchester, Jr., for his man Ed Rug- gles, to keep school at the new school house two months, he beginning Wednesday January 23, 1711-12, allowing for his services £4 per order of Selectmen."
From time to time allusions to him occur in old papers. No doubt " Ruggles Street," indicates the vicinity of the place where this old Brookline school-master or his children settled, or at least owned lands. There were Ruggleses in Roxbury, however, in 1632-37. The old Dinah mentioned in connection with the White family was a slave in this Craft family all the earlier part of her life. 1.
Deacon Craft was eighty-six years of age at the time of his death, in 1791. His son Samuel received from his grandfather, Samuel White, Esq., the gift of a farm on what is now South Street in this town, and has ever since been known as the Craft place. He was about to marry Ann, daughter of Deacon David Weld, and in- tended to occupy this place, but he died in 1775, aged thirty-nine, and the farm came into his father's posses- sion.
In 1791, it was purchased by the lieutenant, Caleb, his brother, who continued to live in the Druce house on Newton Street, till his marriage in 1812, to Jerusha, daughter of Benjamin White, who had married Sarah, daughter of Captain Samuel Aspinwall. From this mar- riage descended the present Craft family in South Street. His second marriage was to Sarah, daughter of Robert Sharp. From this marriage descended the Craft family on Washington Street. Caleb Craft lived, like his father, to be above eighty years of age. He died in 1826, in the house which he built in South Street.
387
EROSAMOND DREW'S SAW-MILL.
His son Caleb, also a grandson of the same name, lived upon the farm in South Street ; the Newton Street house was sold by his son Samuel, who removed to the lower part of the town. All of his children have settled in other places, and there are no young people growing up in the town to keep up this respected old family name.
"EROSAMOND DREW'S SAW-MILL."
On the western side of Newton Street there is an exten- sive tract of land which is comparatively an unknown re- gion. Once heavily timbered, the original forest was cut away, and no heavy timber has since been allowed to grow there, yet it is an unreclaimed wild covered with birches, alders, red maples, and many trees of larger growth. Bears lingered there long after they were exter- minated elsewhere, and foxes, musk-rats, minks, owls, and other wild game have until recently, and do perhaps still tempt adventurous sportsmen to tramp through these rocky and swampy fastnesses.
The land lying hereabouts, on both sides of the street, both in Brookline and in Newton to the extent of several hundred acres, was in the year 1650 conveyed by Nicholas Hodgden of Boston and Brookline, to Thomas Hammond and Vincent Druce, the same who built the old house before described.
Erosamon Drew, whose name is spelled in six different ways in old documents, came from Ireland in his youth. He married Bethiah, Vincent Druce's daughter. The elder Druce, who seems to have been a wealthy man for those times, left his son-in-law considerable property.
A most curious and elaborate old deed dated in 1683 conveys a tract of sixty-four acres of woodland for fifty- five pounds to Erosamon Drew from " Vincent Drusse and Elizabeth his wife," in which an imperfectly scrawled V
388
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
for his name, and E for hers, are their only attempts at penmanship.
An examination of the new map of the town will show a slight curving bit of road-way near Newton line, diverg- ing from the street on the left, and joining it again at Newton line.
The passer-by upon the street would scarcely notice the grassy entrance to this curve, and perhaps fail to ob- serve, unless attention were called to it, an old roof, to be seen almost on a level with the street, below the brow of the hill. Yet this curved bit of road was the original . street or old road dipping down into the valley, for what good reason nobody now living knows, unless it was because down here was " Erosamond Drew's saw-mill," and there must be a way to get to it.
A brook which is the natural outlet of Hammond's Pond, flows through the swampy lot opposite and under the road. It is nearly concealed by rank bushes and young trees, beyond which is a large open meadow, which still annually yields many tons of hay. This extensive tract is the property of numerous owners, and is desig- nated in ancient deeds as "the Grate meddows," also " Saw-mill meadows," and far and near colloquially as
" Ponica." These meadows were flowed to obtain water-power enough to run the saw-mill, on leaving which after passing under the old road-way, the water emptied into another tract of land called " Bald Pate Meadows," there forming a mill-pond for another saw-mill which stood a short distance below, many years ago, in the edge of Newton. Its site was plainly to be seen a few years ago (and may be still), though it long since yielded to the superior advantages of its Brookline rival.
Below the level of the road down the declivity of the hill, and standing endwise to the now deserted and grassy
389
EROSAMON DREW.
old road-way, is a low house (the roof of which was above mentioned), falling into ruins, though still inhabited .* It is not less than two hundred years old, and perhaps more. This was Erosamon Drew's house, and over the brook close to it stood his saw-mill, and here all the sawing of boards for miles around was accomplished. The owner of the saw-mill was evidently a thrifty and good citizen, as he held various offices of trust in the town, being one of the selectmen, assessor, a member of the grand jury, and one of the committee on building the First Church.
There were three sons of Erosamon and Bethiah Drew who died young, or at least unmarried.
Ann, the only child of this parentage who lived to marry, was born in 1683. In 1710, she became the wife of Samuel White, Esq., and was the Madam Ann White of whom an account has been given.
Ann White, a daughter of this marriage, became the wife of Henry Sewall, son of the chief justice of that name.
One of her sons married into the Sparhawk family of Cambridge ; there are also descendants of one of the daughters still living bearing the names of Walcott, and Ridgway ; from one of the sons comes a branch of the God- dard family, so that there are still lineal descendants of Erosamon Drew in existence, in several names, or families, as it will be recollected that in the history of the Craft family, it was stated that Deacon Ebenezer Craft married Susannah, daughter of Samuel and Ann White (Drew).
An old deed of Isaac Hammond in 1693 conveys land bordering on the saw-mill lot, to Erosamon Drew. By another deed in April, 1731, Drew conveyed ten acres of his land to his son-in-law, Samuel White, " by reason and
* Since the above was written we learn that the building has been demol- ished.
390
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
in consideration of the Love, good-will and affection which he hath and doth bear toward him," which was certainly a very substantial proof of his satisfaction with his daugh- ter's marriage.
This deed was witnessed by James Allen, the first min- ister of this town, and " hugh scot," but Erosamon Drew's signature, alas, was only " his mark," a round scrawl, for he could not write his name.
The deed was acknowledged before "Samuel Sewall, J Pacis," and rounds off in sonorous Latin, " Annoq Reg- nis Regis Georgius Magna Brittanica quarto," etc.
In August of the same year by another deed he gave his house and all his movable property to his son-in-law, wife and two children, for his being " helpful to him in his old age." In fact, from 1711 to this last date he seems to have been at short intervals bequeathing all his worldly goods to this beloved son-in-law. The grave-stones of all the Drews are still to be seen in Newton cemetery. The last of the Drews was gone before the middle of the last century, and large portions had been sold off the Druce and Hammond property, and that part of Samuel White's land which he inherited from his wife's father.
In the Revolutionary times this great tract, which still lies wild, was in the hands of Tories, who it is said secured some of King George's cannon and hid them in the thick woods, intending when the right time came to use them for the royal cause. But that time never came, and the Tories were forced to escape to the British Provinces, where they stayed till their property was confiscated. It was sold, and divided among many owners, and so remains. The old saw-mill came into the hands of Captain Curtis of Jamaica Plain, and afterwards of Edward Hall, who for- merly was a blacksmith on Washington Street.
For many years Erosamon Drew's old house was called
£
.
391
" HUCKLEBERRY TAVERN."
" the huckleberry tavern," because the tenant then occu- pying it was skillful in making a kind of wine from the abundant huckleberries of the surrounding pastures, and on election days and other festive occasions, the scattered residents of the adjacent parts of Brookline and Newton often resorted thither for the mild stimulants of society and huckleberry wine. The old saw-mill was taken down about twenty-five years ago ; Time with the slow fingers of decay is taking down the old house. It is a curious old place, the roof behind sloping almost to the ground. A part of the old flume and some of the stone underpinning of the saw-mill are still to be seen.
The extensive meadows through which the brook flows, and which were once rich with cranberry vines, are now all bush-grown. The old road down which teams drew heavy logs and took away the finished boards, is so nar- row, rough, and winding, as to be almost unsafe. At the side of the road near the end of the house is a little patch fenced with brush, which was this very summer* blooming and gay with purple amaranths and other well-kept flow- ers, which lent a bit of brightness to the lonesome and otherwise neglected spot. The picturesque old place is a fit one for the location of the scenes of a poem or a novel.
SOUTH STREET.
South Street, formerly known as the old upper road to Dedham, extends from Newton Street to the extreme southerly corner of the town, where it enters West Rox- bury. Several years ago a short cut was opened from Newton Street to South Street, beginning nearly opposite the old school-house on Newton Street, and ending on South Street at the Craft place, materially reducing the distance and avoiding a hill, in the journey from Brookline
1872.
392
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
to Dedham. This short street, which as yet has scarcely a house upon it, is known as Grove Street. The old way through the upper end of South Street is very little used, and probably few of the modern inhabitants of Brookline have explored it. It is such a road as one finds in moun- tain regions or backwoods, narrow, rough, and crooked, and heavily bordered with wild bushes, vines, and trees. nearly concealing the low, mossy old stone-wall laid up by the forefathers. It is a wild, picturesque, country road, such as few frequenters of the City Hall would believe to be in existence within six miles of that renowned locality. . There is no need of exploring Berkshire or the White Hills for retirement or country scenes, while South Street is unvisited by county commissioners and their inevitable followers, the surveyors, and the corps who reduce the face of nature with the axe, the pickaxe, the shovel, and the tip-cart.
It will be curious to observe, when once a railroad crosses this section of the town, with what rapid strides the changes which have quietly bided their time for two hundred and forty years, will walk through South Street.
On the corner of Newton and South Street, stood a century ago an old blacksmith's shop, the property of Abraham Jackson, who was farmer and blacksmith. Be- ing right on the way to the saw-mill, there was probably quite a business in his time, a hundred years and more ago, and till since railroads have been built, much teaming from Newton and travel to and from Dedham passed this corner. In 1712 Abraham Jackson was one of the survey- ors of the highways. The old house which stood on South Street, on the same spot now occupied by Mr. Good- nough, had double or folding doors in front. and persons who can recollect it, well remember how battered those heavy oaken doors were by tomahawks of the Indians, in
OLD HOUSES ON SOUTH STREET. 393
a desperate attack made upon it. Thaddeus Jackson, Jr., who was his grandson and lived in the old house, often related the tales of those stirring old times which he heard from his grandfather, in whose day Indians and bears were not unfrequently found prowling about these parts of Brookline.
A few rods south of the present Crafts house stood a house once owned by Samuel White, Esq., who gave it to his grandson Samuel Crafts (as mentioned in a previous chapter), which was once occupied by " Hugh Scott," whose, name appears frequently on old documents, but of whom we can ascertain but little. The old Crafts house near the corner of South and Grove streets, was mentioned on a previous page as having been built within the pres- ent century, by Caleb Crafts. On the opposite corner, around the modern house built by his grandson, grow many beautiful things which find their way to the charm- ing exhibitions in Horticultural Hall. This is the last house in the town. On the opposite side, a little further south, on land which is now included in the Crafts and Weld places, stood, two hundred years ago, a house which was the dwelling of James Griggs, one of the early inhab- itants of the town, the same who was appointed to "seat the meeting-house," was "tithing-man," and altogether, probably, a good church-goer of the old orthodox type till he became a " New Light " in Rev. Mr. Allen's day, and went off with the seceders to listen to Rev. Mr. Hyde's preaching in the old Winchester house. From thence we hear little of him. He was a relative of the families of the same name in other parts of the town.
Thomas Kendrick built a house a few rods south of the one last named, which would now be considered a curiosity, its site being but a few rods from the boundary line of the city of Boston. It was one story high only, of but two
26
394
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
rooms. It was lighted by little windows of diamond- shaped glass in leaden sash, which swung on hinges, like doors. There was no paint within or without and the best room was papered with old newspapers, not being even plastered. The only ascent to " the loft " was through a trap-door by a well worn ladder, and in a similar way access was had to the cellar. Thomas Kendrick married a Griggs, from the family above mentioned, and James Griggs' son George, at one time lived here. After the death of Kendrick his widow married Jacob Hervey or Harvey.
The Kendrick family, not now represented in Brook- line, will be remembered by many, chiefly by an old lady who died about twenty or more years ago, after a long and helpless illness, during which she was supported by the town, yet during all this time had successfully con- cealed several hundreds of dollars, which of course reverted to the town by way of compensation, after her death. This person was the wife of Thomas Kendrick, Jr. Ja- cob Harvey, his step-father, was a soldier in the service of the town in Revolutionary times. An old document, dated 1781, is still preserved, in which eight of the old citizens of the town " promise to pay Jacob Harvey on conditions of his serving as a soldier in the Contenantal army for the term of three years unless sooner regulerly discharged . . . the sum of fifty hard dollers and three thousand seven hundred and 50 of the oald Contenantal Dollers and to deliver at his hous in said town Four Cords of good Fire wood." This was to be repeated each year or frac- tion of a year thereafter that he remained in the service. An old receipt for a part of this money signed by his wife " Marey Hervey X her mark," is also extant. Mr. Her- vey died in 1812 aged 63 years.
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