USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lawrence > History of Lawrence, Massachusetts : with portraits and biographical sketches of ex-mayors up to 1880 and other distinguished citizens, including many business and professional men now living > Part 2
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As has been above stated, the great warrior and chieftain of the Merrimack at the time of the first settlement was Passaconnaway, whose home was well up the head waters of the river. He was a friend to the white settlers and desired peace, and the residents along the river were never disturbed by Indian depredations during his life. He resigned his power as Grand Sachem of the tribes in 1660 to Wonolancet, about twenty years after the first white settlements upon
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HISTORY OF LAWRENCE, MASS.
the river. His successor afterwards became converted to christianity by the great Indian missionary Eliot, but notwithstanding this, he and his tribe received most cruel and inhuman treatment at the hands of the approaching settlers. The farewell address of Pas- saconnaway, who lived to be over 80 years old, well conveys to the reader of to-day the feelings that inspired the breasts of the aborig- ines. On a given day, he called around him the leading warriors, chiefs and principals of his tribes and thus addressed them :-
" Hearken to the words of your father. I am an old oak that has withstood the storms of more than a hundred winters. Leaves and branches have been stripped from me by winds and frosts ; my eyes are dim-my limbs totter-I must soon fall. But when young and sturdy, when my bow-no young man of the Pennacooks could bend it ; when my arrows would pierce a deer at a hundred yards, and I could bury my hatchet in a sapling to the eye, no wigwam had so many furs, no pole so many scalps as Passaconnaway's. Then I delighted in war. The whoop of the Pennacooks was heard upon the Mohawk, and no voice so loud as Passaconnaway's. The scalps upon my pole in the wigwam told the story of Mohawk suffering. The English came, they seized our lands. I sat me down at Pennacook. They followed upon my footsteps. I made war upon them, but they fought me with fire and thunder ; my young men were swept down before me when no one was near them. I tried sorcery against them ; but they still increased, and prevailed over me and mine, and I gave place to them and retired to my beautiful island of Natticook. I that can make the dry leaf turn green and live again,-I that can take the rattlesnake in my palm as I would a worm, without harm,-I, who had communica- tion with the Great Spirit, dreaming and awake,-I am powerless be- fore the pale-faces. The oak will soon break before the whirlwind ; it shivers and shakes even now ; soon its trunk will be prostrate ; the ant and the worm will sport upon it ! Then think, my children of what I say. I commune with the Great Spirit. He whispers me now :-
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"'Tell your people, peace, peace is the only hope of your race. I have given fire and thunder to the pale-faces for weapons. I have made them plentier than the leaves of the forest, and still shall they increase ! These meadows they shall turn with the plow ; these forests shall fall by the axe ; the pale-faces shall live upon your hunting
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grounds, and make their villages upon your fishing-places.' The Great Spirit says this, and it must be so ! We are few and powerless before them ! We must bend before the storm ! The wind blows hard ! The old oak trembles ! Its branches are gone ! Its sap is frozen ! It bends ! It falls ! Peace, peace with the white men, is the command of the Great Spirit, and the wish-the last wish-of Passaconnaway."
IV. EARLY SETTLERS.
In the year 1640 eight men belonging to the colony at Newbury, named William White, Samuel Gile, James Davis, Henry Palmer, John Robinson, Christopher Massey, John Williams and Richard Littlehale, together with four men from the Ipswich settlement, named Abraham Tyler, Daniel Ladd, Joseph Merrie and Jacob Clement being " strait- ened " for tillage and grass land, proceeded up the Merrimack River as far as "Little River," a tributary, that rises in Plaistow and empties into the Merrimack a few miles below Mitchell's Falls. Here they founded a settlement and called it Haverhill. They adopted the same course towards the Indians as did other New England settlers-that of purchasing of the rightful owners, as near as could be ascertained, the land they wished to occupy. A few of the remnants of the Pentucket tribe were scattered about this locality. The settlers sought out their chiefs, and two years after, the following deed was drawn, signed and acknowledged, which is now in possession of the city of Haverhill :
"KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that we Passaquo and Sag- gahew, with ye consent of Passaconnaway, have sold unto ye inhabi- tants of Pentuckett all ye lands we have in Pentuckett ; that is eyght myles in length from ye little Rivver in Pentuckett Westward ; Six myles in length from ye aforesaid Rivver northward ; And six myles in length from ye aforesaid Rivver Eastward, with ye Ileand and ye rivver
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that ye ileand stand in as far in length as ye land lyes by as formerly expressed ; that is fourteen myles in length ;
And wee ye said Passaquo and Sagga Hew, with ye consent of Passaconnaway, have sold unto ye said inhabitants all ye right wee or any of us have in ye said ground and Ileand and Rivver ;
And we warrant it against all or any other Indians whatsoever unto ye said Inhabitants of Pentuckett, and to their heirs and assigns forever. Dated ye fifteenth day of november Ann Dom 1642.
Witness our hands and seales to this bargayne of sale ye day and year above writted (in ye presents of us) we ye said Passaquo and Sagga Hew have received in hand, for & in consideration of y" same three pounds & ten shillings.
JOHN WARD, ROBERT CLEMENTS,
TRISTRAM COFFIN, HUGH SHERRATT, WILLIAM WHITE,
YE MARKE OF PASSAQUO (a bow and arrow) PASSAQUO. [SEAL.]
YE MARKE OF
ye sign of (1)
SAGGA HEW (a bow and arrow) SAGGA HEW. [SEAL."
THOMAS DAVIS.
It is impossible to determine with any degree of definiteness the boundaries of the territory intended to be conveyed by this deed, nor is it to be supposed that the purchasers cared much, except that they got possession of the land on the Merrimack for a dozen miles. More" than twenty years elapsed before any survey was attempted. In the year 1666 the General Court appointed a committee to "run the bounds of the town of Haverhill." They began at the meeting-house, which was situated about a half-mile east of Little River, and ran due west eight miles and reared "a heap of stones," which point must be a little west of Salem Village.' They then ran from that point due south till they struck the Merrimack River near Pine Island, a little way from the Bartlett Farm, three miles above this city. Thence northeasterly by the river, till they reached the point of beginning. The land on the northwest, between Methuen and Dracut, a strip about a mile and a half wide, was deeded by the General Court to individuals.
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ISAAC TEWKSBURY,
Physician and Surgeon ; office and residence, 295 Essex Street. Born at West Newbury, Jan. 13, 1795 ; brought up on a farm and educated at Atkinson Academy and Hebron Academy, Oxford, Me. Was clerk in stores and offices at Newburyport, Portland and New York for a short time, then studied medicine with Drs. Robinson of Newbury, Tewks- bury of Hebron, Maine, Little of Gloucester, Me., and Kittredge of Andover. Commenced practice at Hampstead, N. H., 1817, remain- ing 30 years in practice without vacation or sickness. Came to Law- rence in 1847. Married Sabra Foster, at Hudson, N. H., 1822, and Widow Harriet W. Smith, Lawrence, for his second wife, 1859 ; has six children. Is a member of the Congregational church, Hampstead. Dr. Tewksbury is the oldest man in active business in Lawrence and has been in the continuous practice of his profession sixty-one years.
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HISTORY OF LAWRENCE, MASS.
* The uplands at that time were mostly covered by a heavy growth of timber, except an occasional spot burned over by fires set by the Indians. The meadows were, many of them, cleared and covered with a tall dense growth of grass. The Indians were accustomed to burn the grass in the fall, that they might more easily capture the deer re- sorting to them to feed upon the young grass in the spring. These meadows appear to have been much sought after by the early settlers, who obtained from them the principal subsistence for their cattle. They cut and stacked the hay in the summer, and in winter drew it home on sleds. An early writer says of Haverhill : "The people were wholly bent to improve their labor in tilling the earth and keeping of cattle, whose yearly increase encourages them to spend their days in · those remote parts. The constant penetrating into this wilderness hath caused the wild and uncouth wood to be filled with frequented ways, and the large rivers to be overlaid with bridges passable both for horse and foot; this town is of large extent, there being an overweaning desire in most men after meadow land," &c. The records of the town of Haverhill show that no one was admitted to the · rights and privileges of the colony unless first voted in by the town.
The lands were divided among the inhabitants in accordance with a vote "That he who had £200 should have twenty acres for his house lot, and every one under that sum to have ten acres proportioned for his house lot, together with meadow and common and planting ground proportionately."
Lot-layers were chosen by the town to divide the land among the inhabitants as it was cleared up or became accessible. From this mode of division it happened that one man would own a number of small lots scattered over the whole town. It is now very difficult to exactly locate the lots as they are recorded in the Haverhill records, because they were usually bounded only by marked trees. These descriptions show that some of our local names were of very ancient date. In
* Howe's History of Methuen.
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1673, thirty-two acres of land were laid off to John Clements, bound- ed by "Sowe's Brook." In 1678, "eleven score acres of upland" were laid off to James Davis, Sen., bounded on the west by Spicket River, Spicket Falls being the southwest bound. In 1683, there is a record of a similar lot lying on the southerly side, running to " Bloody Brook on the east, and taken up by James Davis, Jr. These lots included the land now occupied by the east part of Methuen vil- lage.
In 1658 five acres of meadow were laid off in "Strongwater," near a "little pond." In 1666 a parcel of meadow was laid out to Mat- thias Button, on the south side of "Spicket Hill." In 1659 there was a division of the land west of the Spicket River, with a provision that "if more than two acres meadow be found in any one lot it shall re- main to the town. In the same year there is a record of the laying off three acres of land in " Mistake Meadow" in the west part of Haver- hill, whence it is concluded the name originated in somebody's blunder, and has become "Mystic." The distribution of common lands was continued from time to time, until finally, after much contention be- tween the old settlers and new comers, the " Proprietors," or owners of the common land, organized separately from the town and disposed of the remaining land as they saw fit. David Nevins, Esq., of Me- thuen, has in his possession a grant from the "proprietors," of the islands in the Spicket above the falls, to Asa and Robert Swan, for £2 Ios., and bearing the date of 1721.
No record can be found showing when the first settlement was made within the limits of Methuen, or who made it. It is certain that the east and south parts of the town, near the river, were first occupied, doubtless because they were nearer the villages of Haverhill and Andover. It is stated by Asa Simonds, Esq., that when repairing the old "Bodwell house"-now in Lawrence-some years ago, a brick was found bearing the date 1660, which had been marked upon it
ARTEMAS W. STEARNS,
Dry Goods Dealer, 309 Essex St., the first" dry goods dealer in the city. Residence, No. 7 Lowell Street. He came to Lawrence in 1846, from Methuen. Born at Hill, N. H., 1816. Educated at acad- · emies in New Market and Nashua. Mr. Stearns had a store in a brick block on Amesbury St., two years ; on Merchants' Row, three years ; where Taylor & Dow now occupy, three years. Built his present store in 1853; enlarged in 1877-8. Mr. Stearns has the largest dry goods store in the county ; employs 75 hands in its various depart- ments. He has also a farm of 60 acres on Lawrence St. Is presi- dent of the Lawrence National Bank ; treasurer of the Wright Manuf'g Co .; director and heaviest stockholder in the M. V. H. R. R., trustee Broadway Savings Bank, and member board of investment. Married Lydia Searles of Nashua, N. H .; no children. Attends Central Congregational Church.
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HISTORY OF LAWRENCE, MASS.
before the brick was burnt. This would seem to indicate that a house was built in the neighborhood near that date.
It is not unlikely that further inquiry may fix the date and place of the first settlement here with considerable certainty. It seems doubt- ful whether there were many settlers in Methuen until near the time it was set off from Haverhill. It is likely that the Indian troubles which extended over many years previous to 1700, seriously checked, if they did not entirely prevent, the settlement on farms. Andover and Haverhill were made frontier towns by act of General Court, and both towns suffered severely during the Indian war. But there is no record of any Indian attack upon settlers living upon territory which afterwards'became Methuen. There were many attacks on the scattered settlers in West Haverhill and in Andover, and if there had been many inhabitants in Methuen, it is hardly probable that the Indians would have passed them by.
In 1722, a petition was presented to the town of Haverhill by per- sons living in what is now Methuen, to be set off as a separate town or parish. This petition was not granted. The next year Joshua Swan and 26 others, with shrewd foresight, petitioned the town of Haver- hill to ".set off fifty or sixty acres of land southwest of Bare Meadow, together with a piece of land lying on a hill commonly called Meeting House Hill in times past, reserved by our forefathers for the use of the ministry, might in hard times make a convenient parsonage, if by the blessing of God the gospel might so flourish amongst us, and we grow so prosperous as to be able to maintain and carry on the gospel min- istry amongst us." This petition was granted at the next town meet- ing, but it did not serve to make the petitioners less intent upon a separation. Soon after, Lieut. Stephen Barker and other inhabitants of the western part of Haverhill, petitioned the General Court for an act to incorporate them into a new town. The act passed in Decem- ber, 1725, and was soon carried into effect.
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Unfortunately at the outset, a bitter quarrel sprang up concerning the location of the meeting-house. On the 28th of May, 1726, a meeting was called to "prefix" a place whereon to build a meeting- house. Twenty-eight persons voted in favor of locating the house "between James Davis's and Samuel Smith's house " ( Powder House Hill,) twenty-two entered their "dissent against the meeting-house being carried from the meeting-house land or hill, so called,"-the land which had been granted by Haverhill two years before-and supported their "dissent" by a quaint and vigorous argument. The dispute waxed hot, meeting after meeting was held, votes to provide labor and ma- terial were carried and reconsidered, but the majority finally prevailed and the new meeting-house was raised and boarded on "Powder House hill." The minority, however, were determined not to be beaten, and petitioned the General Court to reverse the popular decision. The committee appointed by the Court to visit the place concluded that the parsonage lot 'was the properest place for the meeting-house to stand,' so the minority were victorious, and in May, 1727, the town voted to remove the frame to the place where the Court ordered it should stand.
The town records show that the Sunday services, as well as the town meetings, were held at the house of Asie Swan until the meeting house was ready for occupancy. Asie Swan seems to have been a man 'prominent in those days,' and his house is said to have been situated a little east of Prospect hill. The meeting-house was "forty feet long, thirty feet wide, and twenty feet stud." There was but one pew, and that for the minister's family, the congregation generally being seated on benches. There were no means of heating the house in cold weather, until within the recollection of persons now living, and in the cold winter mornings the humble worshipers must have needed a fiery discourse to make them comfortable. It is said that there was a tavern in those days on the " Frye place " to which the meeting goers usually resorted at noon, where they found a kettle of
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JAMES DAY HERRICK,
Boot and Shoe Merchant, 139 Essex St. Residence, 356 Haverhill St., corner of Franklin St. Has been a resident of Lawrence from its organization. Was born in Derry, N. H., April 20, 1810. Worked on his father's farm until nineteen years of age. Attended school at South Reading, Phillips Academy at Andover, and Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H., five years and one half. Taught district school until 1846, when he commenced taking toll at the Andover bridge. Mar- ried Miss Louisa Robinson May 17, 1848, and continued in the employ of the Andover Bridge Co. twenty-two years, during which time he was frequently elected to the most responsible offices in the gift of the city : Chief of Police, City Assessor, Chief Engineer of the Fire De- partment, member of the Board of Aldermen, but oftener as one of the Board of School Committee.
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HISTORY OF LAWRENCE, MASS.
hot water ready, and plenty of spiritual comfort less etherial than that which they received within the sacred edifice.
The first road laid out by the Town of Methuen extended from somewhere on " Hawkes Meadow brook to James Howe's well," and was probably a part of Howe Street north of the Taylor farm. The records of the town of Haverhill show that previous to that time a large number of town ways had been laid out in the west part of the town-probably for convenience in reaching the meadows and wood- land.
The roads of those days were probably little better than an ordi- nary cart path in the woods. Occasionally may be found a record of money paid to the owners of land over which a public way passed, but no money appears to have been paid by the town for building. In fact scarcely more than a path was necessary, for there were no vehicles but ox carts and sleds. People traveled on horseback and went to market with their goods in saddlebags. Indeed it is said by persons now living in this vicinity that within their recollection there were no wagons of any kind, or pleasure carriages except a few chaises, which were introduced about the beginning of the century.
An old tax book among the town records, shows that the number of persons taxed in Methuen in 1740, was 165, of which 71 lived in that part of the town cut off by the New Hampshire line, and 85 in the present limits of Methuen.
The fact that strikes one most forcibly in reading over the early town records, is the prominence given to religious observances. The chief and only reason given for setting off the new town was that the people might more easily attend the public worship of God. The first business done was to provide themselves a minister and place of public worship. Their principal money tax was for support of those objects. Nothing could show more plainly that the hardy pioneers of Methuen were of genuine Puritan stock. Whatever may be thought of Puritan austerity and fanaticism and intolerance, one cannot help admiring the indomi-
€
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table energy, the iron will, and lofty purpose of those men who braved the dangers of hostile Indians, and suffered the privations of the wil- derness, that they might worship God in their own way. The old papers which have been preserved, the town records, and the old tra- ditions all show that the first settlers in Methuen were men of rugged, vigorous intellect, accustomed to think for themselves, and not afraid to express their opinions.
The number of inhabitants in Mcthuen in 1776, according to the Colonial Census, was 1326. The old tax book of that year gives the names of 252 poll-tax payers. This was at the breaking out of the revolutionary war, and let it be remembered that Methuen at the first call for soldiers to protect themselves against the British, with only 252 poll-tax payers, sent 156 men. They had no opportunity to meet the red coats till the battle of Bunker Hill, at which the Methuen com- pany, under Capt. John Davis, bore an important part.
Up to the year 1793 there were no bridges across the Merrimack River in this vicinity, and ferries furnished the only means of crossing. There were five of these as follows : "Gage's Ferry," near the house of Samuel Cross ; "Swan's Ferry," at Wingate's Farm ; "Marston's Ferry," at the alms house, Lawrence ; " Bodwell's Ferry," at the Law- ence pumping station ; " Harris' Ferry," a little east of Dracut line.
The territory now comprising Ward Six, south side of the river, was formerly a part of Andover. The first settlers of this town did not migrate up the Merrimack. In 1634, four years after the first plant- ing of Charlestown and Boston, those of Newtown, now Cambridge, complained of straitness for want of land, and desired leave of the Court to look out for enlargement, or removal, which was granted. They then "Sent men to Merrimack to find a fit place to transplant themselves." In the same year the following order of the Court was passed :
" It is ordered that the land about Cochickewick be reserved for an inland plantation, and whosoever shall go there to inhabit shall
AARON ORDWAY,
Was born at Hebron, N. H., May 4, 1814. Came to Lawrence Mar., 1847, establishing himself in business as an apothecary and in practice as a physician. This business and profession he followed for about twenty-four years. Eight years since he retired from practice, but is active as president and a principal owner and director in Brown's Lumber Co. of Whitefield, N. H. He is also president of the newly organized Whitefield & Jefferson R. R. Co. His father was a hardy pioneer settler of Hebron, N. H., living to the ripe age of 93. His uncle, John Ordway, was clerk and historian of the Lewis and Clark U. S. Exploring Expedition. In early life Dr. Ordway had only the advantages of a common school education, and for several years be- fore coming to Lawrence was engaged in mercantile business, and for three years in the practice of medicine. Alderman in 1857 and 1858. Has been twice married and has four children.
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HISTORY OF LAWRENCE, MASS.
have three years immunity from all taxes, levies, public charges and services whatsoever, military discipline only excepted."
It is difficult to ascertain the time of the first settlement in Ando- ver. The land was purchased of Cutshamache, the Sagamore of Massachusetts, by Mr. Woodbridge, for six pounds and a coat in be- half of the inhabitants. This purchase was confirmed by the Court in 1646. The first settlements were made upon the Cochickewick and Shawsheen. All of the early settlers were born in Great Britain and most of them in England. On a leaf of the town records of Andover the following list is written in ancient hand, without date, but probably when most of the first settlers were living :
" The names of all the householders in order as they came to town : Mr. Bradstreet, John Osgood, Joseph Parker, Richard Barker, John Stevens, Nicholas Holt, Benj. Woodbridge, John Frye, Edmund Faulkner, Robert Barnard, Daniel Poor, Nathan Parker, Henry Jaques, John Aslett, Richard Blake, William Ballard, John Lovejoy, Thomas Poor, George Abbott, John Russ, Andrew Allen, Andrew Foster, Thomas Chandler."
Such portions of land as were necessary for the use of the settlers were, from time to time, set off to individuals in proportion to the expenses or taxes paid by each, and their several divisions recorded in the town book. When a person moved into town for the purpose of settling, land was sold to him by the town and he was received as a commoner, or proprietor. The business was conducted in this manner for more than fifty years. The first divisions were made in small lots, few of them exceeding ten acres plough land, and land not easy of tillage, was granted at a distance on the plains ; swamp or meadow land for hay, and woodland often at quite a distance away. This method of laying off farms has rendered them very inconvenient and much inconvenience from this early division remains to this date, very few farms of considerable size being compact.
To show the tastes, temper and disposition of these early settlers
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