USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Watertown > Historical sketches of Watertown, Massachusetts > Part 3
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The old mode of farming required more room- room for cattle and sheep to graze, room to plow and sow grain and plant corn. The concentrated work of the modern market gardener, with his abundance of fertilizers, his glass to prolong the seasons, his rota- tion of crops, was not known and was not possi- ble. A score or two of acres would hardly have
1 John Smith, who visited this river in 1614, says "The country of the Massachusetts is the paradise of all those parts ; for here are many iales all planted with corn, groves, mulberries, [ealvage gardene and good harbors."
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satisfied the humblest colonist ; several hundred were the possession of a few. Now several men will find all they can do on a single acre. Now we are doing all we can to invite new-comers to share our rich possessions and make them, by increased ' methods and appliances. social advantages, still richer. But as early as July, 1635, it was " Agreed, by consent of the freemen (in consideration there be too many inhabitants in the Towne, and the Towne is thereby in danger to be ruin- ated), that no forainer coming into the Towne, or any family arising among ourselves, shall have any bene- fit either of Commonage or Land undivided, but what they shall purchase, except that they buy a man's right wholly in the Towne."
The agriculture of the past was at best the agricul- ture now common in the towns remote from the large cities. Even when people began to raise vegetables for sale in Boston, the mode of making these sales was most primitive in its simplicity. It is one of the traditions in the family of one of the largest and most successful market gardeners in this town that the vegetables raised by their grandfather were put into panniers over the back of a horse and sold out to the families of Boston by the grandmother, whose per- sonal attractions helped not a little in creating a market. Compare now the lofty piles of well-filled boxes which pass from the same lands each day of al- most the entire year.
It is difficult to obtain and to give exact descrip- tions of individual cases in this direction. Where almost every family raise a part or the whole of their vegetables, and a few raise a little to sell to others, to one who keeps forty or fifty men and boys and women at work all or most of the year, and has acres of grass to enable him to begin the season almost before the last season has been allowed to close, one finds no easy dividing line,
With our present easy and rapid means of trans- portation, any surplus of production, if excellent in its kind, like Boston asparagus or tomatoes, Brighton strawberries, or Watertown celery, finds a ready market, if not in Boston, why then in Portland or Providence, in New York or Washington. While Oldham, afterwards Cradock, obtained a grant of 500 acres, and Saltonstall one of 450 acres, and some settlers of farms grants of from one hundred to three hundred acres, not many farmers requiring so much room for their grazing and their mode of farming could be accommodated in a town of a little over 2000
acres or in the old town of 23,500 acres even. At the present time a much larger population is possible in the present narrow limits, where men can find pro- fitable employment with the improved concentrated
The population in 1890 on these 2000 acres is over 7000. It will be shown later that the principal in- dustries of the town are not now agricultural, yet your historian may be allowed the remark that, it all the land were cultivated as highly as the heirs of John Coolidge cultivate the " vineyard" and other portions of their lands, or as Joshua Coolidge and his sons cultivate their lands, or as Joshua C. Stone cultivates his land, or as Calvin D. Crawford cultivates his own and other people's land, some of these finding time
Even as late as the present century, when there was some prospect of the Boston & Worcester Railroad de- ; also to manage the affairs of the town, a still larger siring to pass through the town, there was a successful i population than at present might be supported from effort put forth to keep it from spoiling our valuable the soil, and there would be no thought of "there be- ing too many inhabitants in the Towne, and the Towne thereby in danger to be ruinated," as was agreed by consent of the freemen in 1635. lands. It is within the memory of the present gen- eration that lands were held with so great tenacity that it was next to impossible for any new man or new interest to get a foothold within the town. All thisshows the earlier and the later interests of the people in the cultivation of the lands for agricultural purposes.
CHAPTER XXX.
WATERTOWN-(Continued).
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
EARLY LOCATION OF FIRST CHURCH OF WATER- rowN.1-On July 30, 1630, Sir Richard Saltonstall joined with some forty other men in forming the first church at Watertown, which, next to that of Salem and Dorchester, was the earliest church of Massachu- setts Bay. Rev. George Phillips was chosen pastor and Richard Browne ruling elder. During the first four years Watertown was the most populous town in the Colony and probably continued so for fifteen to twenty years. It came next after Boston, "the cen- tre town and metropolis," " the mart of the land," as Johnson called it in 1657 in his " Wonder Working Providence," in wealth.
As the members of the church, even from the begin- ning, were too many to be accommodated in any one of the small, hastily built tenements at first erected, a -pecial meeting-house was very probably soon built ; at least the rate of £80 ordered by the town records of 1635 to be levied for " the charges of the new meeting honse" of necessity imply that there had been another and earlier one. Unfortunately the records do not show when or where this older one was situated, But doubtless as Richard Saltonstall, Mr. Phillips, Elder Browne and most of those first admitted freemen had all settled in " the town," as that part of the plantation just east of Mt. Auburn was designated, it was also sit- uated there.
1 By Bennett F. Davenport.
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
The new meeting-house of 1636, according to Rev. Converse Francis, stood upon the knoll on the north side of Mt. Auburn Street, between where long after- ward were the houses of Deacon Moses Coolidge and that of Mr. Daniel Sawin, on the corner of Arlington Street, and later the houses of Mr. George Frazer and Mr. Kimball, the level land where the later house now stands being the Common, used as a training-field.
In the town records of 1637 the meeting-house lot is mentioned as containing forty acres. This doubt- Jess was the whole lot now bounded by Mt. Auburn and Belmont Streets upon the south and north and by School and Arlington Streets upon the west and east. It was the land along this last street which the select- men, in 1667, ordered sold on the meeting-bouse com- mon, upon the west side of the way from the meeting- house to Pastor Sherman's house, the pay to go to- wards building the bridge at the mill. But the town- meeting held three days later voted not to allow of this sale and bargain with J. Coolidge, Jr. By the records of 1639, 12-25 the meeting-house was appointed for a watch-house. By those of 1638, April 23d, those free- men living remote from the meeting had been ordered to build and settle upon the town "Plott" as the two squares were designated bounded by Main and Bel- mont Streets upon the south and north and by Lex- ington and Warren Streets, upon the east and west, and between which from east to west Hager Lane, after- ward known as Warren Street, run, the latter, Warren Street, being the one within the Watertown pre- sent limits, while the former is that in Waltham. The records of 1669 February 6th, mention a bell-rope. It therefore doubtless had a bell.
As the settlements in the town had gradually ex- tended westward there had, ever since the death of Rev. Mr. Phillips in 1644, been contention in the town on account of the meeting-house being located in the eastern part of the town. On October 14, 1654, it had been ordered that a new meeting-house be built between Sergt. Bright's and John Biseoe's, -that is, between John P. Cushing's mansion-house and the northwest corner of Belmont and Common Streets. John Sherman was bargained with to build it by September 1656, for £400, with the use of the old seats, the Cambridge meeting-house to be the pattern in all points. This location caused so much dissension that the new house was built on or near the old site upon Meeting-house common. The seating of the meeting-house was ordered November 7, 1656, to be made according to office, age and estate, three rates, amounting to £453 128. 3d., having been raised. This building continued to be the meeting- house for the entire town, including both Waltham and Weston, until after the resignation of Mr. Bailey in 1692. After that the old controversy about the inconvenience of the location waxed more earnest and resulted in a division of the church in 1695, and the building of a new West Precinet meeting- house upon the southeast corner of Belmont and
Lexington Streets, upon the homestall lot originally granted to the Rev. John Knowles, who had been the assistant or colleague of Mr. Phillips. This building was upon the north side of the present Orchard Street. At the new house Samuel Angier was settled by the majority vote of the town and church, the Rev. Mr. Gibbs having declined to remove from the old building with those who preferred to still assemble there. The division did not result, however, in a legal separation till 1720.
In 1695 the farmers of Weston had amiably been assisted by the whole town in building a meeting. house more conveniently located for them, upon the land of Nathaniel Coolidge, Sr., on the road at the head of Parkhurst meadows, a little in front of the site of the church of 1850. They did not have a regularly organized church and settled pastor till 1709, although they began to oeeupy it in 1700. In 1722 they raised a new building.
In 1720 the Legislature ran a division line between the East and West Precinets and ordered the West within two years to locate their meeting-house upon the rising ground near Nathaniel Livermore's dwell- ing-house-that is, a little northwest of the George W . Lyman mansion-house, in Waltham. The East Pre- einet was within ten years to locate their meeting- house upon the southeast corner of Belmont and Common Streets, upon School-house Hill, afterward known as Meeting-house Hill. Both precincts attempted to secure the old West meeting-house, but to such a height had the dissension gone that both failed. The West, therefore, bought the old meeting- house of Newton for not over £80 and ereeted it upon the appointed location, that of the present Waltham church, and in 1723 Rev. Warham Williams was settled as pastor. The East Precinct ereeted a new building upon their location in 1723, and Mr. Gibbs having died, Rev. Seth Storer was settled in 1724; the old church records remained with the East Precinct. In 1754 they built a new house at the foot of Common Street, corner of Mt. Auburn Street, and in 1836 upon the present site.
The old West meeting-house was continued a while as a separate Third Church, Robert Sturgeon acting as pastor, for which he was indieted by the grand jury and fined £20. Not long afterwards the build- ing was demolished.
THE FIRST PARISH IN WATERTOWN.1-To the pas- torate of Dr. Francis .- On the 30th day of July, 1630, O. S., about forty men had assembled ( probably in the house of Sir Richard Saltonstall ) in Watertown, in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. The object of their gathering was the organization of the church known to history as the First Parish Church in Watertown. The first name on the list of those who subscribed to the covenant then adopted was
1 By Rev. Wm. H. Savage.
- 1
! 1
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that of Sir Richard Saltonstall. This is the cove- nant to which they set their names :
JULY 30, 1630.
"We, whose names are hereto subscribed, having, through God's mercy, escaped ont of the Pollutions of the world, & been taken into the Society of his People, with all thankfulness do hereby both with heart & band acknowledge, that his gracious goodness & fatherly care towards us; & for further & more full declaration thereof, to the present and future ages, have undertaken (for the promoting of his glory & the Church's good, and the honor of our blessed Jesus, in our more full and free subjecting of ourselves & ours, under his gracious government, in the practice of & obedience nnto all his boly ordinances & orders, which he hath pleased to prescribe and impose upon us) a long & hazardous voyage from East to West, from old England in Europe, to New England 1D America ; that we may walk before him, and serve him without feat in holiness & righteousness, all the days of our lives, & being safely ar- rived here, and thus far onwards peaceably preserved by his special providence, that we may bring forth our intentions into actions, & per- fect our resolutions, in the beginnings of some just and miert execu- tions ; we have separated the day above written from all other services, and dedicated it wholly to the Lord in divine employments, for a day of afflicting our souls, & humbling ourselves before the Lord, to seek him, & at his hands, a way to walk in, by fasting & prayer, that we might know what was good in his sight ; and the Lord was intreated of us. For in the end of that day, after the finishing of our public duties, we do all, before we depart, solemnly & with all our hearts, personally, man by man for ourselves & ours (charging them before Christ & his elect angels, even them that are not here with us this day, or are yet unhorn, that they keep the promise nnblamably and faithfully unto to the Coming of our Lord Jesus) promise, & enter into a sure covenant with the Lord our God, & before him with one another, by oath & serious pro- testation made to denounce all idolatry and superstition, will-worship. all humane traditions & inventions whatsoever in the worship of God, & forsaking all evil ways, do give ourselves wholly unto the Lord Jesus, to do him faithful service, observing & keeping all his statuten commands & ordinances, in all matters concerning our reformation ; his worship, administrations, ministry & government ; & in the carriage of ourselves, among ourselves & one towards another, as he hath prescribed in his holy word. Further swearing to cleave unto that alone, & the true sense & meaning thereof to the utmost of our power, as unto the most clear light & infallible rule, & all-sufficient canon in all things that concern us in this our way. In witness of all, we do ex animo, & in the presence of God, bereto set our names or marks, in the day & year above written."
That was the beginning of the First Church in Watertown. Over the church thus founded George Phillips was settled as minister, having for his rul- ing elder "one Richard Browne."
The task of the present writer is to give in brief the biographies of Mr. Phillips and his successors, with such marginal comment as the scope of the present work will admit.
Before proceeding to such biographical notices it is, however, fit that we should glance at some of the personal elements that went to the making of the First Church.
From the first day of its existence we may see the working of tendencies that were prophetic of all that has been notable in the history of the organization. From the first the people of Water- town were out of harmony with the idea of Church and of State that gave shape to the Puritan Theocracy, the ideas of government that found expression in Winthrop and the Board of Assistants, and the ideas of ecclesiastical exclusiveness and dogmatism that found expression in the ministers of Boston.
Early in the year 1631 the Governor and his assistants levied a tax of sixty pounds on the planta-
tions, for the purposes of fortifying the Newtown border.
When this action became known in Watertown, Rev. George Phillips and Mr. Richard Browne, bis ruling elder, united in calling the people together, and when they had assembled they were asked to consider the fact that they had not been consulted about the tax. Acting under the advice of their leaders, the citizens refused to pay. The result of this action on the part of Watertown was that the proceedings of the Boston oligarchy came to a sudden stop. Before any further taxation was attempted, it was ordered that " two of every plantation be appoint- ed to confer with the Court about raising a public stock." This was the origin of representative gov- ernment on this continent. The lineal and legiti- mate results of the action taken by the men of Watertown in 1631 came in the Boston Tea Party, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitu- tion of the United States. The men who made their homes on the Charles were the first on this conti- nent to show that they appreciated the gravity of what was taking place on these new shores and to exercise that "eternal vigilance" without which no people can keep its liberties.
In the organization and administration of the church Mr. Phillips and Mr. Browne were no less careful of the rights of the individual than they had shown themselves in the ordering of civil affairs. The covenant that was made the basis of their church was remarkably free from the hair-splitting dogmatismo that has been the bane of the world's re- ligious life. It- aim was to secure for the church and for the individual the rights claimed by its sign- ers as against the various forms of ecclesiastical hier- achy, and not at all to bind them to any set of doctrinal propositions. Mr. Phillips was a man of broad and charitable spirit, very liberal in his theo- logical opinions, and in his ideas of church govern- ment a thorough independent. In this last matter he was entirely at one with his parishioners. This appears in the fact that when, in 1639, Mr. John Knowles was settled as his colleague in the parish he was set apart for the work of the ministry by the Watertown Church. No council was called to assist or to sanction their act. No other church was noti- fied, and no minister save their own had any part in the service. This was the first clear assertion of strict Congregationalism on this side of the ocean, and established the claim of the Watertown Church to have been the first Congregational Church in this country.
In the position he took and held, Mr. Phillips had the countenance and sympathy of two men who are entitled to loving and grateful remembrance. One of these men was Richard Brown, who stood with Mr. Phillips in his controversy with the Gen- eral Court against taxation without representa- tion, and the other was Sir Richard Saltonstall. Mr.
1
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
Brown was a relation of Robert Brown, the founder of the " Brownist " movement in England. Before coming to this country he had been a ruler in a Separa- ist church in London, had there rendered important services to persecuted Non-conformists. He seems to have been a man of decided character, and of no mean abilities ay a thinker and administrator of public business. To the end of his life he retained the confidence and the esteem of the people of Watertown, and was honored by them with many offices of trust and responsibility. We have seen that he was quick to claim his right as a citizen, when a tax was demanded of him. He had a merit which is of a rarer sort-he was willing that other men should have their rights in matters of opinion and of worship. Hle opposed all persecution for opinion's sake, and took the (then) extreme ground that " churches of Rome were true churches." But such radicalism could not then be tolerated, and though Mr. Phillips seems to have agreed with him, Winthrop and Dudley, and others in power did not. The usual result followed. Brown was deposed from being elder, but his spirit remained in the church, and in due time found itself in the majority.
Sir Richard Saltonstall, after he had helped to found the church on the broad and generous plan exemplified in the faith and conduct of its chosen minister and elder, returned to England, where he resided for the rest of his life. The sentiments he entertained regarding the matter of religious liberty were not such as to commend him to the favor of those who were shaping the policy of the Colony at large, and he probably felt that a peaceful co-opera- tion with them would not be possible for him. How completely he was in sympathy with the leaders of the Watertown church is revealed in a letter that deserves a place in the remembrance of those who trace their religious lineage to a source so high and pure.
This letter was addressed to the persecuting reli- gionists of Boston :
" Reverend & deare friends, whom I unfaynedly love & respect,-
" It doth not a little grieve my spirit to beare what Sadd things are re- ported dayly of your tyranny and persecution in New England, as That yon fine, whip, & imprison men for their consciences ;- First, you com- pel such to come into your assemblys as you know will not Joyne with you in your worship, & when they show their dislike thereof, or witness against it, Then you styrre np your magistrates to punish them for such (as you conceyve) their publicke affronts. Truly, friends, this your practice of compelling any in matters of worship to doe that whereuf they are not fully persnaded, Is to make them sin, for sos the Apostle (Rom. 14 & 23), tells ns, & many are made hypocrites Thereby, conform- ing in their outward man for feare of punishment. We who pray for you, & wish you prosperitie every way, hoped the Lord would have given you so much light & love there, that you might have been eyes to God's peo- ple here; and not to practice those courses in a wilderness which you came s > farre to prevent. These rigid ways have layed yon very lowe in the hearts of the waynts. I due asanre yon I have heard them pray in the publique assemblies That the Lord would give yon meke and humble spirits, not to strive so much for nuiformity as to keepe the nuity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
" When I was in Holland, abont the beginning of the warres, I re- member some Christians there, that then had serious thoughts of plant- ing in New England, desired me to write to the governor thereof, to
know if those that differ from yen in ifan n, yet houlding the same foundation in religion, as Amaliaptit, Sekers, Antinomians, & the like, might be permitted to live among you, to which I received this short answer from your then Governer-Mr. Dudley-God forbid, (said he) our love for the truth should be grown . r could That we should tol- erate errours ; & when (for satt-f.r tion of my -elf & others) I desired to know your grounds, he referred me to th- books written here, between the Presbyterians & Independents, whi h, if that had been sufficient, I needed not to have sent so farie to understand the reasons of your prac- tice. I hope you do not assume to your-Ives infalhbilitie of judgment. when the most learned of the Apostles of weth he knew but in parts, & eaw but darkeley as through a glis, for diod is light, & no further that he doth illumine us can we see, be , or partes & learning never en great. Oh that all those who are brethren, though yet they cannot thinke & speake the same things, might to of one accord in the Lord, Now the God of patience and cons lities grint you to be thus mynded towards one another, after the example of Jesus Christ our blessed Suvyor, in whose everlasting armes of ph to tion hee leaves you who will never leave to be
" Your truly & Dinch affectionat- fr .- nul, in the nearest union, " RIC: SALTONSTALL."
" For my reverend & worthyly mu be-t. rmed friends, Mr. Cotton & Mr. Wilson, preachers to the church which is at Boston, in New England, give this-"
Over the church founded by such men in the spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice that characterized the Puritan movement, and in a spirit of enlight- ened liberality so far in advance of the Puritan age, was set, as we have seen, a man eminently fitted for the post of leadership.
Mr. George Phillips was born at Raymond, in the county of Norfolk (Savage says " at Rainham, St. Martin's, Norfolk "), England. He gave early evidence of uncommon talents and love of learning, and at the University (probably Cambridge) dis- tinguished himself by remarkable progress in his studies and developed a special fondness for theology. He settled at Boxstead, in Suffolk, and soon became suspected of a tendency to Non-conformity. As the troubles of the time increased, Mr. Phillips resolved to join his fortunes with the Puritans who were about to depart for New England. He arrived early in the year 1630, and soon after lost his wife, who died at Salem. Presently, in company with "that excellent Knight, Sir Richard Saltonstall," and " other Christians, having chosen a place upon Charles river for a town, which they called Water- town, they resolved that they would combine into a church-fellowship as their first work; and build the house of God before they could build many homes for themselves." In his office as minister of the Water- town Parish, Mr. Phillips was eminently faithful and successful. A man of firmness and independence in thought and in conduet, he was capable of main- taining his views with ample learning, and a vigorous and convincing logic. Though, in several respects in advance of his time, the nobility of his character, the candor and courtesy of his manner and the force of his mind secured and kept the confidence and respect of his fellow-citizens. He died on the 1st of July, 1644, lamented not only by his parish- ioners, but by the Colony at large. As the founder of representative government in America, he should
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