USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Bolton > History of Bolton, 1738-1938 > Part 12
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I74
HISTORY OF BOLTON
This house is very quaint, having the appearance of being very old. There is a fireplace in each room, one brick oven, old latches and hinges. The ceilings throughout are very low, and at the back of the house the roof comes so far down that the back door is only five and one-half feet in height.
THE FAIRBANK-NEWTON HOUSE
The house now owned by Mrs. George Newton, on the corner of the Berlin Road and the Great Road, stood origi- nally on the site of the present fire station. The two west rooms, upstairs and down, were once a potash shop which was moved to this lot in 1826 or 1827, and the rest of the house added to it.
The builder was Phineas Fairbank, who sold it to Samuel Gutterson, in 1829. Samuel and his brother, Rodney Gut- terson, were harness-makers, and carried on their business there for a number of years.
The house still has fifteen-pane windows on the second floor. It has two large fireplaces and a Christian door.
THE WITHINGTON-CUNNINGHAM HOUSE
On December 20, 1830, Stephen Gardner of Bolton, "in consideration of the love and affection I have for my daugh- ter, Laurinda, and the kind offices her husband, George R. M. Withington has done for me," gave to them "a certain piece or parcel of land situated in said Bolton near the centre of the town and is a part of the farm where I now live and have improved for many years." Mr. Gardner lived in what is now the First Parish parsonage.
Laurinda Gardner and George R. M. Withington were married August 26, 1830. Their house is shown on the
THE CAPTAIN SAMUEL BAKER HOUSE
Vistas of solemn beauty, where I'd wander In happy silence, like the clear Meander Through its lone vales.
JOHN KEATS
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OLD HOUSES
1831 map. The Withingtons sold the place in 1837, and it finally came into the possession of Reverend Thomas T. Stone in 1863, remaining in that family until 1926. Reverend Mr. Stone's daughter, Mrs. Martha Waite, lived there for many years. It is now owned by Mrs. Naomi Cunningham.
This house is one of the few in town that has suffered little from remodeling. There are corner beams and wains- cots, with recessed windows. Four fireplaces are open, one, in the big living-room, being made of soapstone. In the kitchen is a Dutch oven. There are Christian doors, and the fine old latches still remain on some of them. There is an unusual lock on one outside door, with a key six inches long.
THE GARDNER-POWERS HOUSE
The house on the Great Road now owned by Frank A. Powers was built by Stephen P. Gardner in 1830, and presented to his son, Theodore, on his marriage. It was sold to David Carpenter in 1855. After his wife's death, it passed to his daughter, Ellen K. Powers, and after the death of her husband, Amos H. Powers, it passed to Frank A. Powers, the present owner.
The only changes in the original house have been the addition of a bay window on the east side, and a shed on the same side, which is of older construction than the house it- self. There is a Dutch oven in the cellar where the summer kitchen is located, and four other fireplaces in the house. The hardware on the doors is all original. Some have brass knobs, and others wooden, and some have pewter and iron handles. The only set of H and L hinges is in the cellar.
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HISTORY OF BOLTON
THE JACKSON-SPRAGUE HOUSE
In 1831, Simon Cunningham made a contract with Amory Holman, a neighbor, to dig and build a cellar, on which Cunningham built the house now standing at the corner of the Great Road and Harvard Road. On the east side of Harvard Road stood a tannery and barn which Simon Cun- ningham also owned.
In 1842, the buildings and land were purchased by Part- mon and Olinder Houghton. They lived there until they moved to Eastport, Maine, where Mr. Houghton became prominent as a merchant.
Edward Hall, a tailor, and Abigail his wife, of Quincy, purchased the property in 1848, for the sum of $1500. They sold the place nine years later to Abigail Hall's brother, Rufus C. Nourse. He is said to have been a carpenter by trade, and his wife, Abby Nourse, was a tailoress. Abby Nourse and her sons retained the farm for thirty years. In 1887, it was sold to Jonathan E. Heywood, of Braintree, who very soon transferred it to George and Lydia Jackson. George Jackson was a horse trader, collected old carriages, and was also noted for his ability to whistle, his flute-like notes often being heard throughout the neighborhood.
In May, 1910, the Jacksons sold the place to Mrs. Eleanor W. Trevitt, who lived there with her son, Harry, tax col- lector, assessor, and member of the Board of Public Welfare. They did much to improve the property, planting the lilac hedge which surrounds the house, and also the pines.
Walter L. and Mary E. Sprague, of Worcester and Law- rence, purchased the home and farm in May, 1917. Before taking up his business in Bolton, Mr. Sprague was a travel- ing salesman. He became interested in the town, and
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OLD HOUSES
accepted the office of Tax Collector, which he held from January, 1924, to September, 1931. In 1925, he established an insurance agency, which he still holds. Mrs. Sprague was elected Town Treasurer in September, 1923, and still holds the office.
THE SAWYER-OSTERTAG HOUSE
In 1855, Joseph and Nathan Sawyer sold to John Wallis "a certain tract of land with buildings thereon." This consisted of the house lot facing the street, and a strip of land back of the other houses as far as the Berlin Road, "Always excepting certain privileges granted to Joel Sawyer and Phineas Fairbank" by the deed recorded at Worcester. This deed was dated 1833, and one of these privileges was that "of raising their pond" (the present Mill Pond) "by a dam so regulated by a waste way as not to flow within eight inches of the level of the bottom of the cellar under the new house lately built by the grantors." The "new house" referred to is shown on the 1831 map, and tradition says it was built in Lancaster and moved to its present location by George Sawyer, brother of Joseph and Nathan, a house mover. It is a well-made house, with handmade latches and one open fireplace.
The house was for many years the home of Amory Haynes, Town Clerk, and is now owned and occupied by William Ostertag.
XVI
INNS
There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
IN days when travel was entirely by horseback or by horse-drawn vehicles, inns or taverns were a necessity. The entertainment of wayfarers was, however, but a small part of a country innholder's business. The inn was usually an ordinary farmhouse, one room in it being fitted up as a tap- room for the sale of strong drink. One or two rooms were set aside for the accommodation of travelers, who were furnished with ordinary country food.
The innholder was obliged to obtain a county license for which he had to be recommended by the selectmen of the town. The earliest license fees were paid on the basis of two-pence per quart for all liquor sold. In 1757, it is noted that the license fee was a flat rate of £ro and the innholders were required to be bonded in the sums of £50 and £25.
Very strict regulations governed all inns of this period. The prices of both food and drink were fixed by the Court. The landlord, of necessity a responsible person and often an official of the town or a deacon of the church, had, as one of his duties, to turn out any tipplers at nine o'clock. The tavern was the center of much of the social and political life of the community. Nightly a jolly company congregated in the barroom, and around the blazing fire of logs that
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179
INNS
roared and crackled in the wide-throated chimney many a song was sung and many a joke was cracked.
In the red coals upon the hearth lay the hot pokers used in the brewing of flip. Flagons, tankards, decanters, toddy bowls, with their toddy sticks, stood on mantel shelf, table, or bar. In the chimney corner sat the old soldier, recount- ing for all who would listen hair-raising tales of scalpings and burnings. To the tavern came the latest news, by word of mouth or later in one of the tiny and ill-printed sheets which were the first newspapers.
The earliest inn in Bolton territory was that of David Whitcomb, who was licensed in 1718. The inn probably catered to the liquor trade more than to the accommodation of travelers. However, the most traveled road from the Bay towns to Harvard territory went by its door, leaving the Bay Road at Brockway's corner, following Sugar Road to Golden Run Road, and turning right toward Harvard at the Gilbert Wheeler Place. It is likely, therefore, that some travelers lodged at the inn.
The Whitcomb inn is still standing after more than two hundred years. For many years it was known as the "Old Carville place," and in 1937 it was purchased by Philip Phillips of Cambridge, who is having it restored.
By following the same road a few years later, the traveler would come to another tavern, noted all over the country- side for its fine dancing green and the quality of the music produced by an ancient fiddler. This inn, like others of its day, had been nearly forgotten until Miss Clara Endicott Sears of Harvard wrote its story in "The Romance of Fiddler's Green." A statement by Miss Sears in the preface that the inn was not fiction and that she knew the spot where it stood, led to a careful investigation of maps and deeds.
180
HISTORY OF BOLTON
Jonathan Houghton was an innholder for several years before the incorporation of the town, and for two years afterwards. Jacob Houghton's land was on both sides "of the road that passes to Barehill." In 1736, Jacob deeded to his son Jonathan a part of his homestead farm, "it being that portion upon which said son hath built himself a house." · A later deed refers to the "pond hole" as being on the bounds of Jonathan's land. It is known that a house once stood on the northwest corner of the so-called Green Road and the road to Harvard, probably facing the triangle on which the Gilbert Wheeler house now stands. This triangle was doubtless the green "where the feet of those long since gone, have danced to the fiddler's tune! Young feet dancing - old feet joining in at slower pace ; up and down the green and round and round they tread the measure . and over the smooth turf of Fiddler's Green the feet of the dancers dance to the tune of the fiddle !"
Thomas Ball had an inn license for twelve years from 1738 to 1749. In his inn were held all the town meetings after the first until the building of the meetinghouse. It is known that his inn was on the Bay Road and also that it was on Wataquadock. Tradition places it on the south- eastern corner of Wataquadock and Bay Path.
Not far from Thomas Ball's inn was the house of Dr. Daniel Greenleaf. He held an inn license for the years 1750 and 1751.
The Wilder Mansion was built by Josiah Richardson in the year Bolton was incorporated. Two years later, in 1740, he obtained a license for an inn, but did not renew his license, however, and in 1741 sold his property to John Richardson of Roxbury, a distiller. Caleb Richardson, son of John, ran the place as an inn for seventeen years. Caleb
18I
INNS
was an important man in the town, holding many offices. His business, however, did not prosper and he went into bankruptcy.
Jonathan Robbins, who ran an inn for fourteen years from 1747 to 1762, at one time owned nearly the whole of the triangular tract of land on which the first meeting- house, the pound, and Reverend Thomas Goss's house were located. He also owned land on the easterly side of the Berlin Road, near the meetinghouse. He owned fourteen acres on the northerly side of the Great Road, not far from the present Post Office. The site of his inn is not known, but the last named location would seem the most logical.
The inn of Samuel Jones was located in Berlin. "Land- lord Jones" carried on his inn for twenty-seven years while Berlin was still a part of Bolton, and for several years after Berlin was incorporated. Fortunatus Barnes was also of Berlin, having his inn on Barnes' Hill.
John Temple, who had a retail license for the years 1781, 1782, and 1783, lived in the Goding house on the Pan. His deed to the place calls him a "cordwainer." Peter Tenney, in 1792, bought the same place and obtained a retailer's license for that year.
Jonathan Whitcomb, Jr., lived in the east part, probably near the site of the house now owned by Mrs. Cather- ine Leary. Thomas Osborne, who lived on the corner opposite Jonathan Whitcomb, Jr., built his house in 1789 or 1790, and for fourteen years held an innholder's license.
Colonel Caleb Wheeler had a house a little west of the present Post Office, either on the site of the Everett house or John Smith's house. He ran an inn there for eleven years.
A number of those who obtained licenses had stores, and a part of the stock in trade invariably was "West India
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HISTORY OF BOLTON
Goods." For thirteen years Stephen P. Gardner ran a store in a separate building near his house, having a retailer's license to sell liquor. Joseph Sawyer, who had a store in his house (now owned by Miss Ora Sawyer), had a license for twenty years. C. C. Moore, town treasurer for many years, ran a store in the building now used as a summer cottage on the estate of Lowell T. Clapp. Moore had a liquor license for seven years. Woodbury and Holman ran the Brick Store for a number of years, and from 1827-1835, William Woodbury had a license to sell liquor there.
In 1730, John Beaman deeded to Nathaniel Hapgood the land near Long Hill on both sides of the road and bounded on the north by Wigwam Brook. On this property, Hapgood built a house which, in 1746, he deeded to his son-in-law, Paul Gates, who had married Hapgood's daughter, Submit. Eleven years later Paul Gates sold this homestead to General John Whitcomb, who soon transferred it to Abraham Hol- man. Four generations of Abraham Holmans lived in the old house, Abraham 2d and Abraham 3d being innholders. The first Abraham was the father of a numerous family, Silas, of inn and stagecoach fame, being the eldest son. Abraham 2d died in 1804, his son Abraham 3d carrying on the tavern business until his death in 1815 at the age of thirty-one. He had married, in 1805, Azuba Whitcomb, granddaughter of General John Whitcomb.
Upon the death of Abraham 3d the tavern passed from the Holman family to John Earl, who sold it a year later to Joseph Hildreth. Hildreth operated the inn from 1817 to 1835, when he sold it to two brothers, Henry and Albert Sprague of Barre. Henry Sprague had an inn license until 1842. Two years later, he sold the inn to Nathaniel Bur- gess, who ran it for only a year until his death.
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INNS
The old inn once more came into possession of a Whit- comb when the administration of Burgess' estate sold it to Edwin A. Whitcomb (Squire Ed.). It was never used as an inn after 1844, and in 1868 was sold to M. Henry Ment- zer. Although fire destroyed it in 1890, the Mentzers still preserve the old door-stone and foot-scraper which, tradition says, were touched by the feet of Lafayette as he stopped for refreshment on the long dusty ride from Stow to Bolton, when he visited his friend S. V. S. Wilder in 1824.
William Woodbury's tavern was well known for twenty- five years in the early 1800's. It was a brick building and stood opposite the driveways to the Town House and the church. Here on Sunday Reverend Isaac Allen's parish- ioners partook of a bit of spirituous refreshment between the long morning and afternoon sessions of spiritual refreshment in the Meetinghouse across the road. Here, also, the ladies obtained fresh coals for their foot-stoves for the after- noon service.
In 1842, the County Commissioners refused to grant licenses to those applying from Bolton. A hearing was held "for and against," but the records do not show the outcome. The next year, Amory Holman and Elbridge Houghton were licensed as innholders, without authority to sell intoxicating liquors "on the ground of an unreason- able refusal to approbate on the part of the Selectmen." From that year no more liquor licenses were granted, but inn licenses were granted until 1858, when the last inn was sold.
The complete story of Bolton's most famous inn cannot be told in a few paragraphs; in fact, an entire book would hardly hold all the story of the Holman Tavern, its close connection with the business of the whole countryside, and
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HISTORY OF BOLTON
with the social and political life of the people. The place, made famous by the Holmans, was not built by a Holman, nor was it built for an inn ; in its early days it probably held slight resemblance to the busy and prosperous tavern it became in the first half of the nineteenth century. Dr. William Swan built the Holman Inn some time before 1767, having bought twenty acres of land from William Wilder in 1760. Dr. John Barnard, a surgeon in the Revolution, purchased the property from Dr. Swan, and in 1773 trans- ferred it to Eliakim Atherton, who had evidently lived there at least a year, as he had applied for an innholder's license in 1772. Atherton was a blacksmith and he may have car- ried on that trade while his capable wife, Elizabeth, man- aged the inn. At any rate, Mrs. Atherton must have been well acquainted with the details of inn management as, after Eliakim's death in 1786, she was licensed as an inn- holder for four consecutive years. She married Captain Thaddeus Pollard in 1790, and Silas Holman, husband of her daughter Betsy, took over the tavern in that year.
Stagecoach routes had begun to function regularly, and the Holman Inn became a popular stopping place. General Holman became financially interested in some of the stage routes, his time being taken up more and more by his busi- ness away from home. In 1806, he hired John Pinks to manage the inn, and from 1809 to 1817, Thaddeus Pollard, son of Captain Thaddeus, was the innkeeper.
Amory Holman, the General's second son, having come of age, obtained a license in 1818. Although he doubtless hired an innkeeper and much other help, the license re- mained in his name for forty years. The stagecoach routes, of which the Holmans were owners, all made the Holman Inn a regular stop. The inn became famous far and near for
DAVID WHITCOMB'S INN
THE CONCORD COACH
--
SNIM
185
INNS
its cordial hospitality and excellent food. Added patronage required extra room; wings were added and huge horse- sheds and stables built. Across the road from the inn a horse-shed was built which is reputed to have been one hun- dred feet long. The large barn in which General Holman kept the horses used for the relays on the stage routes is still standing, and is owned by Arthur Miner. A very long wing ran from the inn eastward, the lower part of which was used as a shed for the horses of transient guests, while above were rooms. A ballroom in the inn was often used for all kinds of gatherings. Much of the social life of Bolton and of surrounding towns centered around the "New Year's Ball," the "Leap Year Party," and the "Fourth of July Ball" held in the Holman ballroom.
Many Bolton people were employed at the inn, and many came from other towns to work here. Among the employees at the inn in 1845, were Mason Wheeler of Royalston and Sarah Richardson of Leominster. They were married in 1847, and several of their descendants are still residents of the town.
Toward the middle of the century the inn business de- creased rapidly, due to the building of railroads and the consequent discontinuation of stagecoach routes. Before 1858, General Holman had torn down the sheds across the road from the inn, and the material had been used in the construction of three houses. On March 4, 1858, all the Holman property was sold at "public vendue." A wing of the old inn was moved to a lot opposite the meetinghouse and remodeled into a house, which is now owned by Perley Sawyer.
The inn itself, its years of glory over, came upon evil days. It had one occupant after another, and was some-
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HISTORY OF BOLTON
times vacant. During the building of the railroad through Bolton in the 1870's, one of the contractors hired it for the accommodation of his laborers. In September, 1876, in the Clinton Courant, appeared this item : "The old tavern place, sold some months since, and which in larger or in smaller dimensions, has been familiar to local inhabitants and to travelers for more than a hundred years, is now either pulled down or moved away. Even the stones from the cellar wall have been removed and incorporated into other walls near the spot or farther away. It was said to be the best house of entertainment between Boston and the Connecticut River. It is now razed to the ground and its foundation walls obliterated."
INNHOLDERS
David Whitcomb
1718-1720
Jeremiah Wilson 1778-1779
Thomas Ball
1738-1749
Josiah Moore 1778-1779
Jonathan Houghton
1737-1739
Oliver Whitney 1780
Josiah Richardson
1740
Stephen Bailey 1780-1782
Jabez Beaman 1741-1746
Fortunatus Barnes 1781-1783
Jonathan Robbins 1747-1762
Jonathan Houghton 1781-1783
Daniel Greenleaf
1750-175I
John Temple 1781-1783 1782-1785,
Samuel Jones (Berlin) 1756-1783 1795
Joshua Townsend 1756-1760
Thomas Chase 1785
John Barnard 1787-1792
Elizabeth Atherton
1787-1790
Michael Newhall
1769-1776
Samuel Blood I788
Abel Moore
1770-1773
Thomas Osborne Silas Holman
1790-1803
Hooker Sawyer I77I
John Moore, Jr.
1772-1776
Peter Tenney
Eliakim Atherton
1772-1776,
John Richardson
I792-1793
1780-1787
S. P. Gardner 1793-1805
Abraham Holman
1776,
Joshua Patch I794
1794-1815
Timothy Jones 1795
Caleb Richardson 1754-1771
Robert Ruggles
Joshua Townsend, Jr. 1760-1764 Samuel Moore
1765-1768
1791-1805 I792
INNS
187
Joel Cranson
1797, 1803
John Earl 1816
Silas Reed
1798-1799
Joseph Hildreth
1817-1835
Shubael C. Allen
1800
John Haskell 1817-1818
John Read
1800-1803
Amory Holman 1818-1858
William B. Merriam 1804-1809 Asa Whitcomb 1804
Alpheus Moore 1827-1834
Jonathan Whitcomb, Jr. 1806
William Woodbury 1827-1835
John Pinks
1806-1808
C. C. Moore
1835-1841
Thaddeus Pollard 1809-1817
Henry Sprague 1836-1841
Caleb Moore 1809
Abraham Holman 1839
Nathan Corey
1809-1812
Elbridge Houghton 1843
William Woodbury 1810-1835
Nathaniel Burgess 1844
Caleb Wheeler
18II-182I
J. Sawyer, Jr. 1820-1839
XVII
THE STAGECOACH
Long ago, at the end of the route, The stage pulled up, and the folks stepped out. Stagecoach and Tavern Days
THERE is, indeed, little comparison between the means of transportation of today and that of two hundred years ago except that there still exists the dogged determination that the mail and passengers must reach their destination on time, and in good condition. The stage drivers of two centuries ago suffered many hardships and discomforts, little realizing the great step they were taking toward the progress of the nation.
General Amory Holman deserves all the credit due him, for it was he who first organized regular stagecoach routes in this part of the country. Prior to 1827, when the Bolton and Lancaster Stage Company was formed, there were a few very unreliable stages running from Boston, via Bolton, as far north as Brattleboro, Vermont, but they were mainly passenger coaches with the mail as a side line. Many times they neglected to stop at small post offices along the route, thus delaying the mail for several days.
For the next five years, 1827-1832, the Bolton and Lan- caster Stage Company was for the convenience of the traveling public only. The headquarters was in Bolton where the inn and stables were. At one time there were as many as ninety horses kept on the grounds. In 1832,
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THE STAGECOACH
however, the United States Government made a contract with General Holman to carry the mail regularly from Boston to Brattleboro, six times a week, for $2900 a year. If he failed to make connection with the waiting stages he had to pay a forfeit of $50. At the same time General Holman made a contract with Isaac Abercrombie to carry mail and passengers from Boston to Albany, New York, three times a week for $3000 a year, with the same forfeit.
From this time on, General Holman sublet contracts to at least twelve drivers to carry mail all over Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and part of Vermont. Naturally there was a great deal of enmity and competition between General Holman's stage company and rival companies. This is a typical letter of complaint :
Sudbury Sept 18th 1835
Genl Holman
When your stage first Started from Fitchburg by Jewett and Fox whether you was concerned in it or not I dont know I began to Pattronise it. and have continued it ever since not only my Self but have takin as much pains to have my folks and others take it as though I had an interest in it. I have left my store and been to your stage office at least one Hundred times first and last. with Strangers that they might take your line just because I felt an interest in it - and have been treated So well by you, and your drivers but of late there Seems to be a coolness or lack of attention - accept by Maynard who is always all attention - I come up last Tuesday I gave the driver express orders to call on Thursday for me as I have in the Same way for three week - and thay have not called either time for me - the first time I run a horse to Wheelock, and over took the Stage - last week I was left and had to go with Day, the next day - now I am left again - you may think it a Small disa- pointment but my business calls me at both places, and when I
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