History of Framingham, Massachusetts, early known as Danforth's Farms, 1640-1880; with a genealogical register, Part 4

Author: Temple, J. H. (Josiah Howard), 1815-1893
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Framingham, Pub. by the town of Framingham
Number of Pages: 822

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Framingham > History of Framingham, Massachusetts, early known as Danforth's Farms, 1640-1880; with a genealogical register > Part 4

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Huckleberry hill is the name sometime given in old deeds to the elevation north of Capt. Rufus Russell's.

Frost's hill lies to the west of the Joel Tainter place.

Gibb's mountain is near the Marlborough line in the northwest part of the town.

Work hill is northwest of Charles Capen's.

School-house hill is back of school house No. 6.

The Mountain is the name applied very early to the rounded emi- nence on the southerly side of Stoney brook, and northwest of J. H. Temple's.

Tower's hill is situated on the dividing line between Framingham and Southborough, nearly west from the Mountain. It is composed almost wholly of stony clay, which is now utilized in the manufacture of bricks.

The Lamb hill is southeast and near to Tower's hill. It received its name from Samuel Lamb, who built a house on its north slope about 1707. The Boston and Worcester Turnpike crossed its north- erly end.

Wild-cat hill is the counterpart of Nobscot, and is the highest point of land in the southwesterly part of the original township. It is now in Ashland.

Hills.

Ballard's hill is a name applied to the high lands lying to the northwest of the site of Cutler's mill. The range is now in Ashland.

Merriam's hill is a modern name applied to a beautiful elevation on the left bank of Hopkinton river, west of Farm pond. Dam No. 2 is built at its northeasterly foot.

Long hill is named in very early deeds. It extends from Park's Corner to near Washakamaug pond. It was owned by John and Nathaniel Haven ; John settling at the northerly end, and Nathaniel at the southerly.

Mount Wayte is a conical hill situated at the northwest of Farm pond. It was included in the grant made in 1658 to Richard Wayte, a man of note in our early colonial history. He sold to Thomas Dan- forth. It will always be memorable as the scene of the murder of the Thomas Eames family by the Indians, Feb. 1, 1676. The slopes of this hill are now occupied as a Methodist Camp-meeting ground, the projectors of which have christened the place with the insignificant name of "Lake View," in room of the old title so rich in historic associations.

Bare hill is situated in the Centre village. When the first explorers visited the spot, it was without trees, except a few stunted pines. Height above tide level, 289 feet.

. Indian Head hill was so named before the incorporation of the town. It is a conspicuous eminence, to the northeast of the Centre village. Mr. John L. Wilson has built on its western slope. It was the favorite residence of Old Jacob, an Indian somewhat noted in our early annals. Elevation above tide level, 336 feet.

Capt. Tom's hill is on the line between Natick and Framingham, east of Pratt's plain. It was named for the Indian sachem known as Capt. Tom, of Hassanamesit, who was captured at this place in June, 1676, and hanged in Boston, June 22. His history will be given in a subsequent chapter.

Gleason's hill is in the southeasterly corner of the town, north of the Boston and Albany railroad.

Fort hill is a name early given to the point of the bluff, at Saxon- ville, directly east from where the Cochituate brook enters Sudbury river. There is evidence that it was the site of an Indian fort.

There is another Fort hill, popularly known as Prospect hill, on the west border of Cochituate pond, south of the outlet. This was the true Cochitawick or cascade place, of the natives. An extended notice of this hill and fort will be given in another place.

Bridges' hill is east of W. E. Temple's and south of Reservoir No. 3. It was named for Benjamin Bridges, who located at its easterly foot in 1693.

History of Framingham.

Faques' hill is the name given in early deeds to a slight elevation of land on the west side of Union Avenue, near the north line of R. L. Day's farm. The roadway cut off part of it. It was named for John Jaques, who built and lived and died in a house on the top of the knoll.

FIDDLE NECK. This was a long irregular strip of land bearing some resemblance to a fiddle, lying on the north bank of Hopkinton river, extending from the west bounds of Framingham westerly into Westborough, where it came to a point near the Rocklawn mills. In Gore's survey, 1699, it is described as 234 miles long. In a survey made in 1708 it is described as 600 rods long by 114 rods wide at the base or east end. It was originally laid out to answer a grant by the General Court to Thomas Mayhew in 1643. Joseph Buckminster claimed ownership, under Mr. Danforth's lease; and Framingham held a quasi jurisdiction over it for a time. In 1727, on the incorpo- ration of Southborough, it became a part of that town.

THE LEG was a tract of about 280 rods long by 150 rods wide, running north, at the northwest corner of the town. It is marked on Gore's survey, 1699. How it came originally within our town bounds, does not appear. It contained several valuable farms, and was set off to Marlborough, Feb. 23, 1791.

STONE'S END is the name formerly given to that part of the town which now comprises Saxonville. It was so called because it was owned and settled by families of that name.

RICE'S END was the district east of Hastings' Corner, originally settled largely by families of the name of Rice.

GUINEA END was a designation applied to the south part of the town, near the railroad station.

SALEM END. This name was early given to the territory settled by the families who came from Salem village in 1693. It included Salem plain, and the dwellers as far south as the Badger farm, and west as far as the Nurse farm.

PIKE Row was the early name of the highway extending from the Capt. Adam Hemenway place, west to the Moses Haven place, now Reginald Foster's.

SHERBORN Row was the name of the highway from the north line of the State Muster Grounds, southerly through South Framingham to Sherborn line. There were fourteen houses on this road in 1699.

PARK'S CORNER is the modern name given to the district around where the old Baptist meeting-house stood. The "Corner " was at the present railroad crossing, south of the house of David Nevins. Jonas Dean and others kept a famous tavern here. John Park had a no less famous store here, which stood on the west side of the road north of the railroad track.

Geology.

NEW BOSTON is a name sometimes applied to the district around · Brackett's bakery and store. It is now known by the appropriate title of Nobscot, and has its post-office and railroad station.

Zachery's Point was the designation of the land which projected into Farm pond on the east side, about west a little north of the house of Luther Eames (the old Red house). Zachariah Paddleford owned a farm here, and had a barn and orchard on the lot. The railroad cut went through it, and much of the earth has been carried away for filling.

BRIDGE FIELD is at Saxonville, where Knight's new carpet-factory stood. It is often named in deeds.

ROGER'S FIELD was also at Saxonville, and took in the large tract bounded east by a line from the Falls along by Stone's hall to the turn in the river, north by the river, south by the river and Boman's brook, west by a ditch running from the brook to the river. Deeds of the property have been lately found.

JETHRO'S FIELD, referred to in the records of 1649, as near the line of Sudbury, was also named for the Indian owner. The following affidavit locates and describes it : "George Walkup being sworn saith, that for this five and forty years he hath known the old Fields on the westerly part of Nobscot called by the name of Jethro's Field, Peter's Field, and Concubine's Field." Sworn to Aug. 3, 1739. Old Jethro's " granary " still remains, near his field; and the orchard which he planted before 1650, has scarcely gone to decay.

GEOLOGY OF FRAMINGHAM.

The following outline sketch of the Geology of this town has been kindly furnished by George C. Mahon, Esq., a former resident, and a recognized authority in the science.

Hitchcock, in his report on the Geology of Massachusetts, terms the rock formation of Framingham "gneiss." The term is rather ambiguous ; originally it meant that kind of slaty granite, an elemen- tary crystalline rock, which forms the transition between granite proper (intrusive granite) and mica slate, the slaty appearance being caused by the parallelism in the planes of the mica contained. But latterly MacCulloch and other writers have used the term "gneiss" to express not only a different kind of rock, but as the generic name of an entire series of rocks of wholly different origin, first observed intelligently in the north of Scotland ; and it seems to be in this sense that Mr. Hitchcock has applied the term to the rock formation of Framingham.

In this sense gneiss means a series of rocks originally deposited in

History of Framingham.

water, and still stratified but metamorphosed by heat to the extent of becoming crystalline, and curiously imitative of granite and other igneous rocks, properly so called. These imitation rocks vary in their composition to the most extraordinary extent ; the constituent crystals which determine their character and name varying not only according to the chemical character of the stratum metamorphosed, but according to the degree and duration of the heat to which they have been exposed ; also no doubt according to electrical and other conditions at present but little understood.

Framingham is peculiarly rich in metamorphic rocks of this charac- ter. The passing visitor can see a good instance of this within two minutes walk of the railway station at Framingham Centre, in the face of the cutting opposite the tool-house at the junction of the Lowell railroad. Here a great variety of ribs or strata, differing lithologi- cally from each other, are exposed, dipping to the northeast at an angle of about 45° and presenting at least six different lithological characters within 100 yards. At the northern end, we have a band or stratum of green stone (or diorite); at the south quartzite, while half way between the two we have the original conglomerate, with its pebbles still easily detached from their bed, though metamorphosed, as well as the cement or paste that contains them.

Almost every variety of the normal crystalline rocks is simulated thus by metamorphism in Framingham. Some of the most striking instances are represented by specimens in the cabinet of the Science Association in the Town Hall at Framingham Centre, the labels stating the localities.

Though micaceous granite and mica slate exist in large quantities, yet as a general rule in Framingham, chlorite replaces mica in all kinds of rock in which mica is ordinarily a constituent. At Fisher's cutting, about a mile further to the north on the Lowell railroad, large masses of crystalline chlorite rock exist ; and near it in the same cutting particles of copper pyrites associated with pearl spar and crys- talline chlorite. Framingham is par excellence a chlorite locality. The crystals are sometimes very perfect.

On the Badger farm in Salem End, the rocks are greatly disordered, and there are even some signs of a disturbance apparently volcanic. Pumice stone and native sulphur are found there. This farm also contains a good deal of bog iron ore on elevated ground, so that the course of metallic mineral from whence the iron originally came cannot be very distant. A vein of silver in argillaceous schist, has lately been discovered. Galena, oxide of manganese, and yellow cop- per pyrites exist in large quantities in this locality. The three latter minerals are found disseminate in small quantities, in many parts of

Geology.

the town ; and there are courses of rock more or less impregnated with iron pyrites, which as they decompose resemble gossan, and would seem to indicate the existence of profitable mineral deposits ; but as yet, nothing has been found superior to the indications on Mr. Badger's farm.

Quarries of good building stone exist in all parts of the town, especially on the Rugg farm in the west part, on Fenton's farm in Salem End, and near Park's Corner. The main drawback to their commercial value is the discoloration owing to the presence of iron pyrites. The parsonage of the First Parish, and the dwelling-house of Mrs. F. W. Clapp, were built of stone taken from the cellar of the latter house. Memorial Hall is constructed of stone from the John Johnson farm; the Episcopal church from a quarry on the roadside near Richard Roby's.

The drift of Framingham presents splendid opportunities for obser- vation. The peat meadow near Nobscot railroad station is a square depression of several acres enclosed on all sides by high banks of drift. Learned's pond is something of the same kind.

There are undoubted glacier markings in all parts of the town. One deep and very clearly cut lateral groove is found on the west side of a gorge north of George H. Thompson's, near the Poor farm. It would be difficult to find a locality that will repay the student of glacial action and drift, better than Framingham ; or go further to settle the much vexed question as to whether drift of such a character is to be attributed -first, to the breaking up of a great glacial sheet thawing away rapidly from its southern limit; or secondly, to ordi- nary glaciers thawing away slowly; or thirdly, to the action of icebergs alternately floating and grounding, while the drift was still submarine.

Clay is scarce, except in the form of clayey gravel or "hard pan," of which bricks are made at the yard near Tower's hill. The Lamb hill, and Bridges' hill are of the same character. Some good clay, tenacious enough for grafting purposes, exists on the Rugg farm, in the west part of Salem End, and near Saxonville ; but though sought after for the use of the Boston Water Works, could not be found in sufficient quantity anywhere in the town.

No roofing slate is yet known to exist.

The best possible material for macadamizing roads exists in abun- dance in all parts of the town ; but as yet only gravel is used.

CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF THE INDIANS WHO OCCUPIED THE FRAMINGHAM TERRITORY.

HE natural features of the territory included in the limits of the original town grant, mark it as a desirable abiding-place of the native red man. The swamps abounded in beaver and other fur-bearing animals ;1 the ponds were stopping-places of migratory fowl, and the breeding-places of shad and salmon ; the several falls and the mouths of the smaller streams running into the Sudbury river and Stoney brook were excellent fishing-places; the higher hills sheltered the larger sorts of wild game, and were well covered with chestnut trees to furnish a store of nuts ; and the plain lands supplied rich and easily-tilled planting-fields.

We are apt to think of the Indians as a roving and predatory race, whose best idea of existence was the excitement and glory of "Wild life in the Woods"-in hunting and trapping game to supply him and his with food, and furnish amusement and exhilaration, and test his skill and prowess.

But - aside from war and games for the young men - an Indian was averse to everything that required bodily labor. He trapped and hunted only when necessity compelled him. It was the duty of his squaw to supply him with food. She planted and tended and gathered the corn, and cured the fish, and dug the ground-nuts, and skinned the game, and prepared the skins for clothing, and the mats to cover his wigwam. And it was only when her stores failed that he would go hunting. His idea of true dignity and true happiness was, to bask in the sun or over his fire, smoke his pipe, eat to repletion, and doze.

Higginson, in his Account of New England, 1629, says : "The men

1 The beaver dam on the brook of the same name, near the house of Joseph Phipps, will be described elsewhere. It would flood a large tract of the meadows above, and thus indicates the rendezvous of a large and permanent colony of beavers. The remains of a beaver dam and houses can be seen at the outlet of a miry swamp on Dunsdell's brook, northwest of the Calvin Hemenway place ; and another dam existed on the same brook at a point lower down. These animals also had a storehouse on Barton's brook, near the Badger place. Buckminster's swamp, on the old Worcester turnpike, was the permanent home of a large colony of beavers.

Indian Occupation.

for the most part live idly ; they do nothing but hunt and fish. Their wives set their corn and do all their other work. They have little household stuff, as a kettle, and some other vessels like trays, spoons, dishes and baskets."

Cotton Mather, in his Life of Eliot, says: "The Indian's way of living is infinitely barbarous ; the men are most abominably slothful, making their poor squaws or wives to plant, and dress and beat their corn, and build their wigwams for them."

These traits of character, and this ideal of marital privilege, were opposed to a roving life, and naturally led the different tribes and clans, and even isolated families, to choose an established abiding- place, where they severally claimed proprietary rights.

Many of them had two such homes, to meet the wants of the warmer and colder seasons. But the spot where they spent the spring, summer and autumn - when the squaws could furnish all the family supplies - was the place of which they claimed special owner- ship, and from which they were named.

The following extract from Hubbard's History of New England, written in 1679, will throw light on the Indian customs of habitancy and government, and help to a solution of some important questions respecting the tribal affinities and proprietary rights of the natives found in our neighborhood, when the first English families came on for settlement. "Every noated place of fishing or hunting was usually a distinct seigniory, and thither all theire friends and allyes of the neighboring provinces used to resort in the time of yeere to attend those seasons, partly for recreation, and partly to make provissions for the yeere. Such places as they chose for theire abode, were usually at the Falls of great Rivers, or neare the sea side, where was any convenience of catching such fish as every summer and winter used to come upon the coast ; att which times they used, like good fellows, to make all common ; and then those who had entertained theire neighbors by the sea side, expected the like kindness from them againe, up higher in the country ; and they were wont to have theire great dances for mirth at those generall meetings. With such kinde of entercourse were theire affayres and commerce carried on, between those that lived up in the country, and those that were seated on the sea coast about the havens and channells that issued into the sea ; where there used to be at all times, clams, muscles, and oaysters, and in the summer season lobsters, bass or mullet and stur- geon, of which they used to take great plenty and dry them in the smoake, and keepe them the rest of the yeere. Up higher at the Falls of great Rivers, they used to take salmon, shad, alewives, that used in great quantities, more than cart loades, in the spring to pass up into

History of Framingham.

the fresh watter Ponds and Lakes, therein to spawne, of all which they, with theire wiers used to take great store for theire use. In all such places there was wont to bee great resort. In time of yeere for theire denomination, they use to be divided, as the clans of Scotland, by the head of the tribes, and called after theire names. They were com- monly united under one chiefe person, who hath the rule over all those lesser fraternities or companies. Every son of such a chiefe person used if he could, to get a company to him, of which he also made himself the sagamore. The government of these sachems is rather arbitrary and customary, than limitted by any lawes or consti- tution knowne beforehand : so as they depend upon the absolute will of theire chieftains. As for succession, it is rather collaterall than direct." [Ed. of 1815, pp. 29-31.]

The two things taken into account by our interior clans, in fixing a village site, were, fishing-places and corn-fields. These furnished food during a larger part of the year than any other source, because the surplus products of both could be stored to meet an emergency of weather or war. The fishing season in our streams and ponds lasted a considerable time; and the fish, both in passing up and running down, were readily caught ; and during this season the natives gorged themselves on this delicious food, roasted on the coals. The larger sorts, like salmon and shad, were split and dried in the smoke of their wigwam fires, and stored for future use.

Their modes of catching fish were primitive and ingenious. When the shad and salmon are passing up to their spawning-grounds in the ponds, they commonly stop for a brief time at the foot of the falls or entrance to outlets. Watching their opportunity, the Indians caught them in a scoop-net, and shot many with arrows; and at night they would lay in their canoes at these points, with a blazing torch in the bows, and spear the fish as they crowded up to the light. As soon as all had passed up, they constructed a fish-way or wier, to capture them on their descent. These wiers were stone walls built from each side of the river down stream, till they nearly met each other at an angle of forty-five degrees. At this point a large cage was placed, formed of twigs fastened to hoops by strips of young elm or other tough bark. The wall conducted the fish that were passing down the stream, into this cage, which was called an eel-pot, where they were taken in great abundance.

It is related of the apostle Eliot, that when he was translating the Bible into the Indian language, and came to the passage in Judges v. 28, he could find no word for "lattice." Describing the thing as well as he could, he asked the natives for the right term to express it. They gave him a word, which he wrote. Some years after, when he

Indian Occupation.

had learned their language more correctly, he is said to have laughed outright, upon finding that the Indians gave him the term for "eel- pot." "The mother of Sisera looked out at the window and cried through the eel-pot."

To show the value attached by the Indians to fish as a food, and consequently to the fishing-grounds and their means of securing this supply, it may be stated, that when the Indians at Natick relinquished their private rights to public proprietorship of the town, in 1650, each one reserved to himself " his ownership and interest in the wiers which he had before put."

For corn-fields, the natives selected a piece of plain land, or a sunny hillside free from stones and easily broken up; and they retained the same field for a succession of years. These fields varied in size with the number of the clan or family. Some contained as many as a hundred acres. But more commonly they were from five to twelve acres, and single families cultivated much less. The original ene- mies to be guarded against were birds, coons and bears. But after the English settled in their neighborhood and gave their cattle the range of the country, the natives were forced to fence in their fields. Thus, in the deed to John Stone in 1656, the description is, "a parcel of broken up and fenced in land " - evidently the work of the grantors. The squaws broke up the ground with stone hoes, having a withe handle. Their time for planting was when the leaf of the white oak was of the size of a squirrel's paw. This varied in different seasons from the fifth to the twenty-fifth of May. In the year 1676, as the records inform us, corn-planting by the natives in Massachu- setts began on the ninth, and was finished on the sixteenth of May. As soon as the ears were well filled out in August, the squaws com- menced boiling them for food. This boiled corn was called in their language m-sick-qua-tash -indicating the origin of our word succotash. With their corn they raised abundance of pumpkins, which when ripe were cut in strips and dried in the sun, and used in preparing soups. At harvest time, the corn was gathered in great baskets, well dried, and threshed out, and hid in their underground barns. How much corn a single squaw was accustomed to store for winter's use, is indicated in the following paper, dated Jan. 11, 1676 :

For the honourable Governor and Council of the Colony of Massachu- setts : These are to certify that I John Watson Sen., being appointed by the honourable committee to looke to the Indians last summer, till after the Indian harvest ; Did goe up to Marlborough, and accompanied the Indians that belonged to that place and were abiding at Natick, to gather and put by thair corn in Indian barns; which corn, as I was informed, the country after made use of : And I remember said Indians that had come there were these that follow, vizt.

History of Framingham.

Josiah Nowell, about fourteen barrels.

Benjamin, about ten 66

Peter Nashem's widow, about fifteen

Old Nashem, about ten

Mary a widow cousin to James Speen, 1 5

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History of Framingham, Massachusetts, early known as Danforth's Farms, 1640-1880; with a genealogical register, Part 4

Author: Temple, J. H. (Josiah Howard), 1815-1893 Publication date: 1887 Publisher: Framingham, Pub. by the town of Framingham Number of Pages: 822

Author: Temple, J. H. (Josiah Howard), 1815-1893
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Framingham, Pub. by the town of Framingham
Number of Pages: 822