USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Chelmsford > History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts > Part 50
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Judge Hadley says: The territory between Black Brook and the present Chelmsford line was long a favorite Indian residence, and used by them for the purpose of their rude husbandry, and called "John Sagamore Plantation." The Indians sold to Henchman, and Henchman sold a part to Cragie and a part to the Howards. Cragie owned east of the present centre of the village, and the Howards all to the west. Cragie, or his grantees, sold to Capt. Tyler, and the Howards sold a part of their territory to Cyrus Baldwin.
On the bank of the river, opposite Wood street, was Major Hinchman's garrison house, used in King Philip's War.
The three-story house in Middlesex, a little way east of Hadley street and on the opposite side of Middlesex street, was owned by Samuel F. Wood, and occupied by S. P. Hadley, father of the Judge. The elder Hadley succeeded Cyrus Baldwin, who was in charge of the locks and the canal business at this point. Two immense pollarded willows stood in front of the house. In the second story of this house was the lodge-room of the Pentucket Lodge of Masons, chartered March 9, 1807. In the great gale of September 23, 1815, which inspired Holmes's poem, the roof of this house was blown off, and landed in the interval back of the building. The Bowers barn was also blown down, and other damage was done.
The Tyler and Baldwin houses were among the well-appointed homes. The hat factory of Bent and Bush, later of Boston, and the glass factory, were the prominent industries.
Within the memory of some persons now living, there was standing in a field opposite Hadley street, a buttonwood tree, twenty-two feet in circumference.
COLONEL JONAS CLARKE.
Some years since, James Bayles, a writer in the Courier-Citizen, gave an account of Col. Jonas Clarke, which is here reprinted. There is no record of the building of the Middlesex tavern; nor is there any tradition of the time when it was built, or by whom
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it was built. The supposition is that it was built by Jonas Clark, sometime early in the eighteenth century; for it is recorded that Jonas Clark presented a bill for the entertainment of the selectmen at his place in 1737. (He probably was there nine years earlier.)
Jonas was the son of the Rev. Thomas Clark, the second minister of Chelmsford, and was born December 2, 1684. Where he was educated is not known, but probably his education was received chiefly from his father, with a view to entering the ministry. But be that as it may, Jonas took to another course of life. He is recorded as living on what was later known as the "Cragie" farm in Middlesex Village. His house stood between the tavern and the river. Baldwin street was then the main road to Boston, via Golden Cove and Chelmsford, and to con- venience the people who lived across the river, Jonas established a ferry which was called "Clark's ferry." It is presumed that, conceiving the prospect of a profitable patronage, Jonas built the tavern which was known as "Clark's tavern."
In those days, the stream of travel from New Hampshire and the northern territories flowed past the tavern and, turning to the right, went over the hill toward Boston. There was no place of refreshment until Chelmsford village was reached, and Jonas Clark became a prosperous Boniface at his hospitable inn.
His sister, Elizabeth, had married Rev. John Hancock of Cambridge, and became the grandmother of Gov. John Hancock, who signed the Declaration of Independence, and it is supposed that the Hancocks were frequent guests at the tavern, as were all the fashionable folk who traveled in those days.
The tavern was then a square building, substantially built, as the timbers still show; a roomy, spacious house, with large square rooms and great open fireplaces. Its table had a fame, and its swinging sign waved a greeting to every advancing guest. The stables must have been in the rear, for there is an expansive stable yard there, and great must have been the stir when the coaches with their four and six horses drove up, the passengers alighted, and were greeted by the substantial, courteous host, who must have been a man of rare accomplishments and steadfast principles, for he was honored by his fellow-townsmen and by the people of his Commonwealth. He ranked high in military life, being a colonel, and he was a selectman in 1723, '26, '32, '35 and '36; a representative to the General Court in 1729; an assessor in 1728; a surveyor of highways and a member of important town committees.
He was assessed as Lieut. Jonas Clark in 1720; as Captain Jonas Clark he was elected surveyor of highways in 1721; he was chosen representative in 1729 as Major Jonas Clark; and in 1732 he was elected a selectman as Col. Jonas Clark.
Here are a few excerpts from the ancient Town records, which make mention of Jonas Clark:
1
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, NORTH CHELMSFORD
No. 28 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, NORTH CHELMSFORD, BURNED IN 1893
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In 1723-To Capt. Clark for the Selectmen expense at there meeting there and the committee expense at Running the neck line, 00 16 00.
1727-Capt. Jonas Clark for seven days about the valluation 01, 08 00.
In 1727-To Benjamin Fletcher for arranging the limits of the highway from Capt. Jonas Clarks to Jerathemeil Bowers to the Long Causeway.
May, 19, 1729-That Major Jonas Clark be Representative for the year ensuing.
In 1730-To Major Jonas Clark to answer his bill of expense and time expended about getting the neck land of from being a precinct 03, 04 06.
In 1732-That Major Jonas Clark be a member of the committee to confer for the management of the wammassett purchase.
In 1732-That Coll.11 Jonas Clark, Capt. Samuel Chamber- lain, Leut. Joseph Parker, be ye agents to Joyn with Sum of ye neighboring towns in order to obtain a new county.
In 1733-It was put to vote whether the town would allow the highway throw collonall Clarks land to Jonathan Howards Land at the town cost and it was passed in the negitive.
In 1733-To corn't Simeon Spaulding for one day spent in Laying oute a Road through the neck over Spens brook and across a Road from the Road that Leads from Coll'll Jonas Clarks to merimaeck River at Abbotts ferry, 00 02 18.
[Refer to Index of Topics for further mention of ferries.]
In 1736-Coll.11 Jonas Clark was a member of the committee to manage the afaire concerning a new bridge and way petitioned for by Leutt Joseph hill of Bilerica.
In 1736-Coll.11 Jonas Clark for fowr Dayes rating ye province tax 00 16 00.
In 1736-7 Coll.11 Jonas Clark have the Liberty of erichting a pew near Coll.11 Tyngs pew he being at the Cost of Cutting the Seatt according to the Direction of the Selectmen.
In 1738-On the day above said was measured out by the Selectmen that part of the Room in the meeting house neer Colonel Elizer Tyng's pew which was voted to Coll.11 Jonas Clark to erect a pew in which Room is in Lengthe six foot Betwixt coll.11 Tyngs Pew Dore and the Est Dore of the meeting hous allowing full Liberty of the opening of said Dore and the width five foot and three inches.
March 1, 1762-It was voted to except of a Bridle Road laid oute by the Selectmen from the north Side of the Road that leads from Hunt's ferry to Colo. Jonas Clark's bounded on the westerly side by a River Birch then running northerly to merrimack River low watter mark at Abbott's ferry extending two rods easterly from Said bound.
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Rev. Mr. Allen's history of Chelmsford, published in 1820, has this foot note to a sketch of Rev. Thomas Clark:
"Jonas, the eldest son, was born December 2, 1684; resided in what is now known as the 'Cragie farm,' where he kept a public house near the ferry, which has since ever borne his name. His house was the great resort of all fashionable people in these parts. He was honored with various civic and military offices; was very popular, was esteemed as a very good Christian.
"He was honored in his day and was the glory of his times.
"He closed his long and useful life April 28, 1770, aged 86.
"His highest military title was colonel commanding the Second Regiment Middlesex Militia. His descendants are now living in Tewksbury."
Full of years and replete with honors, the soldier, civic servant, landlord and freeman departed this life to the regret of all whom he had served, and was carried with martial pomp and laid upon the knoll at the foot of which his reverend father slept.
The tombstone of the colonel and that of his wife, Elizabeth, are fine specimens of colonial mortuary art, and are very well preserved. They are of slate and are very elaborately sculptured with floral borders, scallops and fleur de lis. There are two angels, one with a book, and the other with a trumpet, hovering over a head, which may be that of the colonel, on his tombstone, and the inscription reads:
HERE lies Interr'd the body of Coln. Jonas Clark, who departed this Life, April 28th, 1770. In the 86th year of his age.
God's creatures are his own, their lives He may at pleasure take, While he resumes but what he gives, Who can objections make? Death to the grave this dust conveys, There sleeps the hidden prey. Nor wakes till with a mighty noise The heavens shall pass away.
Thessalonians iv., 16. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
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On the tombstone of Elizabeth is one angel sounding the last trump. The inscription reads:
Here lies interr'd the remains of Mrs. Elizabeth Clark the wife of Jonas Clark, esqr. who departed this life April 27th 1767, aged 74 years.
Halt passenger as you go past Remember time it runneth fast, My dust in narrow bounds do ly; Remember man that thou must dye; This dust revive it shall again And in a grave no more remain;
When trumpet sounds I shall be raised For God's Holy word hath said.
Jonas Clarke was succeeded by his son, Timothy.
About 1815, Jesse Smith became the proprietor of the tavern, and made the alterations which connected the tavern with the store, and built the hall. The Middlesex canal was then in its prime, and the tavern was the resort of the passengers and the boatmen, while the hall was the place of assembly for the people of the village in their merrymakings. Jesse Smith was landlord until Simeon Spalding took the tavern sometime about 1820. After leaving the tavern Mr. Smith and his wife, who was a daughter of Joseph Warren, took up their residence with Mrs. Warren in the house opposite the training field, where his daughter, Miss Abba Smith, now resides.
Enoch Merrill became the owner in 1833 and made many improvements, and "Tom" Parker wa's the landlord. In addition to his reputation as a host, "Tom" had repute as a fiddler; and to sit by the open fire on a winter night and hear "Tom" fiddle was a never-to-be forgotten privilege.
[Jacob Howard was landlord prior to 1816. Thomas Parker was a brother of William, the agent of the Glass Company. In the early forties the sign read, "D. Poor Middlesex House." Daniel was his first name.]
But time works changes, and the iron horse came, and ban- ished the canal, the glass works and Bent and Bush's hat factory, and Middlesex Village subsided from the once busy place it was into the somnolent and peaceful section it now is. The busy days of the tavern ceased to be, and have but place in the remem- brance of those whom time has blessed with mature age.
Since then, among the landlords have been Orrin Wilkins, and John Arlin. There was a Keeley cure there at one time. Of late years it has ceased to exist as a place of public refreshment.
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CHELMSFORD GLASS COMPANY IN 1820.
On the east bank of Middlesex canal, at the distance of two hundred rods from Merrimack river, a large building 124 feet long and 62 wide, with necessary appendages for the manu- facturing of window glass, was erected in 1802.
Near it is a two-storied house, handsomely finished, designed for the residence of the overseer, and around it, at convenient distances, a number of smaller houses for the accommodation of the workmen and their families.
There are, says Allen, appertaining to this manufactory, about 20 families, consisting of 40 men, 20 women and 40 children, one hundred in all. It is now in a flourishing state. About three hundred and thirty thousand feet of window glass are annually made, or three thousand three hundred boxes of one hundred feet each, which, at $13 per box, will amount to forty two thousand nine hundred dollars. The situation is very favorable for the transportation of glass to Boston, and those raw materials from thence, which it would be expensive to convey by land. A ready and cheap supply of wood is also easily obtained, of which it is estimated, that about two thousand cords are annually consumed in the manufactory and houses attached to it.
The manufactory consists of 2 furnaces, 3 flattening ovens, 2 tempering ovens, 6 ovens for drying wood, cutting, mixing, and pot rooms, a kiln for burning brick, a mill-house and sand house.
[Allen, page 75.]
Various ornamental, as well as useful articles made at the Glass Works, of plain or colored glass, are still treasured in Chelmsford homes.
The sand used in making the glass contained so much iron that much of it was hued with various tints.
The Rev. Hezekiah Packard wrote, Oct. 11, 1831, while he was still living at Middlesex Village: "The spirit of enterprise is busy in this place. But Lowell still appears like enchantment. It once constituted a part of my parish, with a few, very few scattered houses and very little cultivation, and now the population almost sufficient to claim the privileges and hold the authorities of a city."
Clark's ferry, at Middlesex Village, ceased operation when the Pawtucket Bridge was built. This was a great undertaking for those days. It was the means of opening up travel from Vermont and New Hampshire through Dracut and Chelmsford to Boston. Thousands of teams loaded with pork, butter, cheese and all kinds of country produce passed over the bridge every season for many years, even after the railroad was in operation.
Hunt's ferry crossed the Merrimack at what is now Bridge street. It was afterwards called Bradley's ferry.
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EAST CHELMSFORD IN 1820.
At Middlesex Village was the Howard estate, the home of Nathaniel, 1682-1710, and of his son Jonathan, 1710-1758, then of his grandson, Benjamin. Along the bank of the river, past Pawtucket falls, were the residences of Silas Hoar, Amos Whitney, Archibald McFarlin, Capt. John Ford, the Spaulding place, now the home of the Molly Varnum Chapter, D. A. R., Capt. Phineas Whiting's place, where was afterwards built the residence of Frederick Ayer, (corner of Pawtucket and School streets); Asahel Stearns, Jonathan Fisk, Mr. Livingston (a house once used as Capt. Whiting's store), then the house of Joseph Chambers, a cooper. Then near the present Corporation Hospital, (Kirk Boott's house, moved from where the Boott Mills now stand), was "a red schoolhouse, from whose windows the pupils, when tired of their books, looked down upon the water- falls and the huge rocks of the river." Benjamin Melvin's place was close to the foot of the falls, and not far away were Nathan Tyler's saw- and grist-mills, which the ice carried away in the winter of 1810. Below the site of the present City Hall was the house of a blacksmith named Hall. Near the corner of John and Paige streets, lived Josiah Fletcher. East of the Concord river, stood the "Old Joe Brown House" of two stories, and further on was a tavern known as the "Old Yellow House," which, subse- quently, became Judge Livermore's home.
About 1737, Nicholas Sprake (Sprague), Jr., erected a fulling mill on the east side of Concord river, this being the first manu- factory for dressing cloth in what is now Lowell. A year or two earlier, Mr. Sprague also built the first dam across the Concord river, where the East Merrimack street bridge now is. (The easterly end of the bridge rested originally on an island.) Near the mill, above mentioned, were also a sawmill and a gristmill.
The Spragues sold a large tract of land, with the mill privilege, to Timothy Brown, in 1769. Six years earlier, Brown had bought land of William Hunt, and owned land bounding on Merrimack river. A road was cut on the south bank of the Merrimack to the Concord, at whose mouth Brown's ferry was established, across the Concord, and Bradley's ferry across the Merrimack. The river-bank road was known as the road to Salem until East Merrimack street superseded it.
Interesting articles on the dwellers of East Chelmsford will be found in Chapter X, also in Volumes I and III of the Old Resi- dents' Contributions.
In 1787, at Beverly, was made the first attempt in this country to manufacture cotton cloth by machinery.
In 1790, Moses Hale removed from Dracut (where his father had a fulling mill), to East Chelmsford, and built a fulling mill on River Meadow brook, which, at that point, was afterwards called Hale's brook. He was born in 1765 at West Newbury.
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In 1801, he introduced a carding machine into his mill, which was between Hale's mills and Whipple's mills, and was, for many years, run by Joshua Mather, a native of Preston, England, of which town was Richard Arkwright, the inventor of cotton- spinning machinery in that country.
In 1811, a protest was made against the building of a dam across Merrimack river, above Pawtucket falls, as it would flood the low land along the river. It did render useless the locks at Wicassee falls.
In 1812, the war with England put an end to our over-sea commerce, and attention was necessarily turned to the manu- facture of cotton goods in this country, as most of our manufactured goods had been brought from England.
In 1813, Captain Phineas Whiting and Major Josiah Fletcher erected a successful wooden cotton mill on the present site of the Middlesex Company's mills. A similar enterprise by John Golding failed. The former mill was bought by Thomas Hurd in 1818, and turned into a woolen mill.
In 1816, the Bowers saw- and grist-mills were built, and Nathan Tyler started a grist-mill where the Middlesex No. 3 now stands.
Hurd manufactured satinet. Winthrop Howe made flannels by hand looms until 1827, at Wamesit falls.
In 1818, Moses Hale started the powder-mills on Concord river, with forty pestles. The next year, William Tileston and Oliver M. Whipple entered the business. This institution con- tinued in operation until 1855, Mr. Whipple having been sole proprietor for twenty-six years. In a single year during the Mexican war, says Cowley, nearly a million pounds of powder were manufactured here. [See Chapter: "Annals," 1820.]
Nathan Appleton, in his "Introduction of the Power Loom and Origin of Lowell," gives an account of the beginning of the city, and how he and Mr. Jackson, on the suggestion of Ezra Worthen to Paul Moody, the Waltham manufacturers, after consulting Thomas M. Clark, the agent of the Pawtucket Canal Company, inspected the vicinity of Pawtucket falls, with a view to purchasing the canal.
They first visited the place in November, 1821. The party consisted of Patrick T. Jackson, Kirk Boott, Warren Dutton, Paul Moody, John W. Boott and Nathan Appleton. "At that time there were, I think," says Mr. Appleton, "less than a dozen houses on what now constitutes the city of Lowell, or rather, the thickly settled parts of it :- that of Nathan Tyler, near the corner of Merrimack and Bridge streets, that of Josiah Fletcher, near the Boott mills, the house and store of Phineas Whiting, near Pawtucket bridge, the house of Mrs. Warren, near what is now Warren street, the house of Judge Livermore, east of Concord river, then called Belvidere, and a few others." This was written in 1858.
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"Such," says Miles, "was East Chelmsford in 1820. A few scattered farmhouses, standing, however, on good soil, and occupied by intelligent and substantial families, the store, the tavern, the humble wooden factory, the few small buildings for the powder-works, the two gristmills-this was nearly all that the place possessed. The head of the canal had some promise of becoming a flourishing village. There was the house of Captain Phineas Whiting; that long occupied by the Hon. Asabel Stearns, before his appointment to the professorship of Law in Harvard University, and, subsequently, by Nathaniel Wright, Esq., who succeeded him in professional practice; the dwelling, also, of Mr. James Bowers; and the houses of Messrs. John and Elisha Ford.
Much of the land was low, interspersed with swamps, muddy ponds and clumps of bushes.
Mr. Clark made the purchase of the land and canal shares in his own name, the others furnishing the money. The story is told of how the prospectors were watched by the shrewd farmer, as they were apparently casting flies for salmon, on the river bank. He doubled the price of his farm over night, and said, 'I calk'lated su'thin' was in the wind when I saw two strangers across the river sit on a rock and talk, then one feller go up and the other daown, an' talk ag'in.' They bought four farms, containing about four hundred acres, paying from one hundred to two hundred dollars an acre. When they wanted more land, the farmers fixed their own prices."
[Old Paths and Legends of N. E .: Abbott.]
The story, as given by Gilman [Drake's Middlesex Co., p. 61], is this:
In Kirkland's Anecdotes will be found the following amusing notice of Kirk Boott: When the prospect of founding a large manufacturing town on the Merrimack river was in contemplation, some of the persons interested in that great commercial enterprise sent up to Mr. B --- , a young gentleman skilled as an engineer, and who was also fond of sporting, to view the water privilege carefully, and to make inquiry as to the prices of land in the vicinity. He went with his dog, gun, and fishing tackle, and obtained board in a farmer's house, a Mr. F -. He spent his time in viewing the falls, the canal, the river, and the grounds, with occasional fowling and fishing. After spending some time there, in talking with the farmer, one evening, he told him that he liked the place very well, and thought he should be pleased to come and live there. The man said he should be pleased to have him. "Well, Mr. F-, what will you take for your farm?" "Why, I don't want to sell it, Mr. B -- , nor would I unless I got twice what it is worth, as I am satisfied here, and don't want to move." "Well, what do you say it is worth, Mr. F -? " "Why, it is worth fifteen hundred dollars, and I can't sell it for less than three thousand dollars." "That is too much," said Mr. B-, "I cannot give that." "Very well, you need not."
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Here the conversation ended. Mr. B- continued his sporting, and, having received his instructions, in the course of a few days renewed his talk with Mr. F-, and said to him, "Well, Mr. F-, I have made up my mind that I should like to live here very well; and, though you ask so much, I will take up with your offer, and give you three thousand dollars." "Why, as to that, Mr. B-, you did not take my farm when I offered it to you, and I am not willing to sell it now for anything less than six thousand dollars." "You are joking, Mr. F -! " "Not so, Mr. B -; I am in earnest, and I shan't continue my offer more than twenty-four hours." B-, finding he was determined, went off for instructions, and the next day told Mr. F- he would give him six thousand dollars. The purchase was made, deed passed, and money paid.
Some time afterward, Mr. B- asked the farmer what reason he had, in the course of a few days, to double the price of his farm, and to insist upon it. "Why, Mr. B-, I will tell you; a day or two after I offered you the farm for three thousand dollars, I saw two men on the opposite side of the Merrimack river, sitting on a rock, and talking for some time; then they got up, and one went up the river and the other down, and, after some time they returned, seemed in earnest conversation half an hour or more, when they arose and went away. I did not know what it meant, but I thought something was in the wind, and I determined, if you asked me again to sell my farm, I would demand double the price." Thus began the purchase, by Boston merchants, of the land upon which the city of Lowell has been erected.
At Lowell's fiftieth anniversary, General Butler said: "First and foremost of the remarkable men who were its founders stands the name of Kirk Boott. * * The early engineers reported no water power here, and it remained for an English half-pay cavalry officer, wandering along the side of our fall, rod in hand, casting the fly for the salmon, to discover and appreci- ate the mechanical force of a river which now does the work of ten thousand horses. Kirk Boott reported this view of the capabilities of the Merrimack river to Patrick T. Jackson, which view was confirmed by Paul Moody.
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