USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 30
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CANALS AND RAILWAYS.
arrangements were on the most limited scale. A one-story building, barely sufficient to receive two cars at once, sufficed for the indoor freight. Bales of cotton were loaded by a derrick in the open air, exposed to the weather, while the track-room and car-room were altogether insufficient.
"The road relied principally on passengers; short cars were used for passengers and freight; the light engines in use could take, on an average, but forty-eight tons to a train, and as late as 1838 could find at Worcester but twelve tons, on an average, to return. So little was the freight esteemed, that one · of the directors, Mr. Bond, is reported to have proposed to lease this branch of business for little more than a nominal return.
" At first the line met with indifferent success. Worcester had been alienated from Boston, and united to Providence and New York by the Black- stone Canal, and it required time to revive a busi- ness with Boston. But gradually trade increased; the Norwich and Western lines were commenced, the operatives and their supplies added to the traffic while these enterprises were in progress, and their completion opened new sources of revenue."
While the Worcester was approaching comple- tion earnest endeavors were making to procure its extension to the Hudson. The effect of the com- pleted line upon business was immediate and marked. Indeed, it surpassed the expectations of the most sanguine. If so much could be accom- plished by fifty miles of road, what might not be claimed for one four times as long, traversing a region not tributary to the Massachusetts capital. Influential movers of popular opinion, such as Edward Everett, Abbott Lawrence, T. B. Curtis, and others, aroused, by public speeches and printed arguments, a popular demand for the measure, as one vital to the true interests of the state. A charter had been obtained in 1833. Within a month after the completion of the track to Worces- ter books were opened for subscriptions ; and so firmly had the idea that the stock would imme- diately become remunerative fixed itself in the public mind, that the directors were charged in the public prints with a desire to prevent subscriptions being taken except by a favored few.
What the Worcester road had done for Boston was presented at a monster meeting in Faneuil Hall, in that city, as follows : " I trust," said Mr. Lawrence, " that you all know from experience, what I certainly do, the vast increase of business in our city within a few months past. I ask yon,
as business men, what has caused this increase ? We have yet no great connecting link with any dis- tant country, -still, there is at least a quarter more people in the city every day, engaged in traffic. What, - if the small matters already completed (not extending over forty miles) can do so much, - what will result from connecting our city with the Erie Canal, with Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and with the mighty Mississippi ?
" You will call me enthusiastic, but I cannot tell you half the advantages which I think would be derived from opening this road to the Hudson River. I believe the city of Boston and its neigh- borhood are destined, if this project should be effected, to change far more than the city of New York changed, when the Grand Canal was com- pleted. Many people doubted the expectations of advantage from that work, but it caused real es- tate in the city of New York to advance fifty per cent. Within one year, in our own city, it has advanced more, it has doubled in value; it could not, without real value, during the pressure of the two past years, have held its own, but it has come out with an advance. What will be the effect of a railroad to connect this city with the great West, I forbear to estimate. If I expressed my feelings, I should be called latitudinarian."
The Western Railroad was completed to Spring- field in 1839, and to its terminus, opposite Albany, in 1841. A consolidation of the two lines took place in 1867, when the two corporations adopted the name of the Boston and Albany Railroad Company.
This road has the following branches in Mid- dlesex County : the Newton Lower Falls Branch leaves the main line at Riverside; the Milford Branch, twelve miles, leaves at Framingham, trav- ersing Sherborn and Holliston ; the Saxonville Branch leaves at Natick, and terminates at the manufacturing village of Saxonville, in the north- east corner of Framingham.
The completion, in 1841, of the railway which Captain Hall regarded as " madness," was sure to give for many years to come all needful facilities for the expected traffic between our northern sea- board and the lakes. It was not, therefore, until ten years later that a new line approached Hoosac Mountain over the route traced by Mr. Baldwin.
The Fitchburg Railroad was chartered in 1843; opened to Waltham in December of the same year; to Concord June 17, 1844; and to Fitch- burg March 5, 1845. Its ronte lies for nearly its
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
whole length of forty-nine miles within the county. It passes through the county from east to west, changing its direction in the town of Acton to northwest, and traversing the tier of towns on that border. Somerville, Cambridge, Belmont, Wal- tham, Weston, Lincoln, Concord, Acton, Box- borough, Littleton, Groton, and Shirley all lie upon the main line ; while Watertown, Marl- borough, Stow, Hudson, Townsend, and Ayer arc reached by its branches. The Watertown Branch, six miles long, diverges at the brickyards, passes through Watertown, and again enters the main line at Waltham. The Marlborough Branch, twelve miles, leaves the main line at South Acton, trav- erses Maynard, Stow, Hudson, and Marlborough. The Peterborough and Shirley Branch, twenty-three miles, leaves the main line at Ayer Junction, pass- ing through Groton and Townsend in the county.
While its importance as a local road is probably greater than that of any within the county limits, the Fitchburg, by its connections with the Vermont and Massachusetts, and Troy and Greenfield rail- roads, and the New Hampshire and Vermont systems, has become one of the trunk lines to the West. It now operates the connecting roads as far as North Adams, 143 miles, where a junction is effected with the Troy and Boston Railroad and by it with the New York Central.
The Boston and Maine Railroad does for the eastern tier of townships what the Boston and Albany does for the southern. It was first operated as a part of the Boston and Lowell, having been opened to Andover in 1836, to Dover, New Hampshire, in 1841, and in 1843 extended to a connection with the Portsmouth, Saco, and Port- land Railroad, at South Berwick, in Maine; and also diverted from its parent stem by the building of an independent line through Wilmington, Read- ing, Melrose, Malden, and Somerville to Boston, which was opened in 1845. In 1873 a separate line was built from Salmon Falls to Portland, through the picturesque and much-frequented sea- coast towns between. The Boston and Maine has a branch to Medford, and operates tributary lines to Newburyport and to Danvers, both of which join it in Wakefield. It also manages the Lowell and Andover Railroad, which crosses the town of Tewksbury, uniting with the main road at Lowell Junction. This road enters upon the New Hamp- shire system at Lowell and Lawrence, and the Maine system at Portland. Within the county it passes through a region of great natural beauty,
which it has already done much to develop into homesteads for a thrifty and energetic population.
Besides the four principal trunk lines enu- merated, numerous roads intersect the county in every direction. The Worcester and Nashua, opened in 1848, traverses Ayer, Groton, Pepperell, and Dunstable.
The Hopkinton, from Milford to Ashland, eleven miles, opened in 1872, connects by Milford with Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It is operated by the Providence and Worcester corporation.
The Eastern, since its connection, in 1854, with Boston, by continuous rail, lies for a few miles within the county, and by its branches reaches the towns of Everett and Malden via the city of Som- erville. This road was first opened from East Boston to Salem, Angust 27, 1838.
The Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg, and New Bed- ford Railroad, now forming a part of the Old Col- ony line, enters the county in Framingham, crosses the Boston and Albany, taking a southeast direc- tion through Sherborn into Norfolk County. It was opened from Fitchburg to Stirling Junction in February, 1850, to Framingham December, 1855, to Mansfield February, 1870.
The Framingham and Lowell, leased by this road, passes through Framingham, Sudbury, Acton, Carlisle, and Chelmsford to Lowell, twenty-six and one half miles. It lies wholly within the county, and was opened to the public October 1, 1871.
The Stony Brook Railroad, extending from Lowell to Ayer Junction, seventeen miles, is also wholly within the county. It passes through Ayer, Westford, and Chelmsford into Lowell.
The New York and New England Railroad (Woonsocket Division), opened October, 1863, traverses the central portion of Newton to the Upper Falls, where it crosses Charles River into Norfolk County.
The Nashua, Acton, and Boston Railroad passes through Dunstable, East Groton, Graniteville, Westford, East Littleton, and North Acton to Con- cord Junction, twenty-four and one half miles. It was opened July 1, 1873, and is leased to and oper- ated by the Concord Railroad, of New Hampshire.
The Massachusetts Central Railroad, now under construction, passes from east to west, almost through the geographical centre of the state, dividing, almost equally, the belt of territory which lies between the Boston and Albany and Fitchburg railways. The present eastern terminus is fixed by the charter " near the Stony Brook
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CANALS AND RAILWAYS.
station, on the Fitchburg Railroad," in the town of Weston; and its western terminus at Northamp- ton, on the west side of the Connecticut, whence it is designed to reach the Hoosac Tunnel by con- necting roads. This railway is expected by its pro- jectors to be a rival of the two great east and west lines now traversing the state, and to open rail- way communication with towns now having little or none with the metropolis. The grading and masonry between Stony Brook and Northampton are already half completed. The line in Middlesex County passes through the towns of Weston, Way- land, Sudbury, Stow, and Hudson.
The Mystic Valley Railroad (under construc- tion) was originally projected on the narrow gauge to pass through Wakefield and Reading, but the location was subsequently changed so as to run from the point of junction with the Boston and Maine Railroad in Somerville, through the towns of Medford, Winchester, Woburn, and Wilming- ton, when the road again joined the Boston and Maine. The gauge was also changed to that in common use. The intention of its projectors in making a change of location was, probably, to com- plete their line to Lowell, which would give them, in connection with the Boston and Maine, an inde- pendent route to the Merrimack, and in conjunc- tion with the Lowell and Nashua a connection with northern roads. About eleven miles are graded and ready for the ties, but the corporation has become involved in difficulties which may defer the completion of its road beyond the time an- nounced. It is expected that the Mystic Valley, when- completed, will be operated by the Boston and Maine. The seventeen miles of this road are wholly in the county.
The Northwestern Railway is a project to con- nect the state improvement, usually called the South Boston Flats, with the railways converging upon the Hoosac Tunnel, thereby giving them much needed facilities for their business in cattle and grain. The road will be short, and will prob- ably enter the Fitchburg tracks at Stony Brook Station. At the time we are writing, rival inter- ests are exerting a powerful influence to defeat the objects this connection has in view. The line as projected passes through Newton into Weston.
The Billerica and Bedford Railroad Company was organized in 1877, better to accommodate the central and southern portions of Billerica and Bedford. It was eight miles long, with a gauge
of only two fect. In the autumn of 1877 it was opened for travel, but has not proved a successful financial venture.
Street Railways. - These are so numerous as to forbid more than a brief summary. They have largely and advantageously replaced other methods of travel, being in many instances operated in con- nection with the steam railways of the county.
The principal lines operating within the county are the Union and the Middlesex companies. Thesc corporations daily convey great numbers of people into and out of the city of Boston, thus affording to a large suburban population an easy and expeditious mode of reaching their business, and of returning to their homes after the labor of the day is over.
The Union Street Railway Company operates lines from Boston to Cambridge, Watertown, Arlington, and Somerville, with numerous side lines in the city of Cambridge. It is the most extensive rail- way of its class in the county, having thirty-four miles of track over which it transported, in 1878, 7,555,094 passengers.
The Middlesex Railroad Company operates the Malden and Melrose line, completed only to Mal- den ; the Medford and Charlestown line, formerly extending to.Medford, but since the revocation of its location in Medford having its terminus near the summit of Winter Hill; a line from Somer- ville through the Bunker Hill District by both bridges into Boston, with lateral routes in the district.
The Lowell Horse Railroad Company operates lines from Belvidere and Pawtucket Falls to the Bleachery, on Middlesex and branch strects, and the Centralville Branch.
The North Woburn Street Railroad Company operates the line extending from the Boston and Lowell Railroad at Woburn Centre to North Woburn.
The Waltham and Newton Street Railroad, three miles long, connects Waltham with West Newton.
The Stoneham Street Railroad Company operates a line two and a half miles long, extending from the Boston and Maine Railway in Melrose to Stoneham Centre.
The official returns of the number of passengers carried during the year 1878 by these roads is as follows : Lowell, 609,496 ; Middlesex, 4,717,715 ; North Woburn, 44,566; Stoneham, 128,460 ; Union, 7,555,094; Waltham and Newton, 96,804. Total number of persons transported, 13,152,135.
TOWNS IN MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
ACTON.
BY REV. FRANKLIN P. WOOD.
CTON is situated twenty-four miles northeast of Boston, and is bounded on the north by Littleton and Westford, on the east by Carlisle and Concord, on the south by Sudbury, May- nard, and Stow, and on the west by Boxborough and Lit- tleton. Area, 12,795 acres. Valuation in 1875 : real estate, $974,485 ; personal estate, $261,771; total, $1,235,256. Population by the last census, 1,708. The climate of the town is pre-eminently healthful. The principal occupation of the people is farming ; and the soil, though natu- rally stony, is strong, and when properly improved is well fitted for agriculture. This town has very little waste land, as the unimproved hills are cov- ered with valuable forests and sweet pastures. The tidy, well-to-do look of the farmers' buildings, scattered over the town, are the surest evidences of the thrift of this portion of our population.
There are several very pretty and thriving vil- lages in the town. In the north part there is a pleasant collection of houses in the vicinage of Nagog Pond, a handsome sheet of water contain- ing about six hundred acres, partly situated in Lit- tleton and partly in Acton, which has been recently stocked with black bass by Acton. In the east part of the town is a growing village called Ells- worth. The Nashoba Brook flows through the eastern section of Acton, and at this village a prof- itable use is made of its unfailing water-power by Wetherbee's mills. As this stream has for a trib- utary Nagog Brook, and the Nagog Pond as a res- ervoir, the water privilege here is of great value. Here is also a station on the Framingham and Lowell, and the Boston, Acton, and Nashua rail-
roads. The new state-prison in Concord is in the · vicinity of this village.
At the centre of the town there is a village of unsurpassed beauty. It has a broad common, bor- dered with neat residences and adorned with well- kept rows of wide-spreading trees; and in its midst is a stately monument of granite, nearly seventy-five feet high, erected in 1851 over the ashes of the three Acton men who fell on the memorable 19th of April, 1775. Near this is the commodious Town Hall, of a tasteful architectural design. The village has one substantial and comfortable church.
In the west and south parts of the town, on the Fitchburg Railroad, are the two largest and most busy villages. The largest village is South Acton, having more than five hundred inhabitants. Here is also an excellent water-power, having Fort Pond (a beautiful sheet of water in Littleton and Acton) as a reservoir. This is utilized by the mills of C. A. Harrington. In this village there is a Uni- versalist Church, recently built, and it has many elegant residences.
West Acton is one and one half miles northwest from South Acton, and has a population of about four hundred people. Enoch Hall & Son have a manufactory of wooden ware which employs quite a number of hands, and a considerable quantity of cigars are manufactured here. The village has a Baptist and a Universalist church, both of which are well kept, and is further adorned by many pleasant residences.
In the southeast part of the town are the ex- tensive works of the American Powder Company, upon the Assabet Brook, which flows through the southeastern corner of Acton. Acton has four post- offices, - South Acton, West Acton, Acton, and Ellsworth, - and is accommodated by three rail- roads, the Fitchburg, through the south and west,
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ACTON.
and the Framingham and Lowell, and the Boston, Acton, and Nashna through the north and east.
From sundry entries in the oldest record-book of the town of Acton, it appears that the inhabi- tants of "Concord Village," or "New Grant," petitioned the town of Concord to be set off as a separate township, under the name of Acton, and that at a town-meeting holden on the 4th of March, 1733-34, the town of Concord set off the above-named territory, together with "Willard's Farms," so called, as the inhabitants desired. From the same record it also appears that the inhabitants of the said territory petitioned the Great ·and General Court for leave to set up, as a separate township; and that on the 27th of June, 1735, the requisite leave was given, and John Heald, one of the principal inhabitants, was au- thorized to call a town-meeting for the choice of officers, who were. to stand until the annual meet- ing in March; and that, in accord with this au- thority, a town-meeting was called, on the 21st of July, 1735, and the officers requisite to the proper management of town affairs were chosen, and Acton took her place, as an independent township, with the noble sisterhood of towns which was then comprised in the County of Middlesex.
As is indicated by the above extracts from the old record, Acton became a separate township, under the sanction of the General Court, July 21, 1735 ; but previously to that time its territory had been at least twice wholly, or in part, the subject of legislation. Through the influence of Rev. John Eliot, a township of land four miles square was granted to the Christian Indians, living in this vicinity. The name of this township was Nashoba, and nearly all of its territory is now within the limits of Littleton ; but that some of it was sup- posed to be within the present limits of Acton seems evident to us, from the fact that when this territory was granted to Concord, about the year 1650, the inhabitants of that town were particular to take deeds from the few Christian Indians who were then living, that their title to the land might be perfect.
As is intimated above, about the year 1680 the territory now comprised in Acton, and a small por- tion of that which was set off from Acton in 1780, and is now comprised in the town of Carlisle, was granted to the town of Concord, and was a part of that town for more than fifty years. The year 1680 probably indicates, very nearly, the time of the first English settlements within the limits of
this town. For more than fifty years there was a gradual increase of population, until, in 1735, when the town was incorporated, there may have been from three to four hundred inhabitants.
The principal plea put forward by the people of this town for an act of incorporation was the great distance of its inhabitants from any place of public worship; and the conditions under which the people were permitted to organize as a town were, that within three years they should erect a suitable house of worship and call and provide for the honorable support of "a learned, orthodox minister of good conversation." This being the case, the first thing which occupied the attention of the people of the town was the location of the " Meeting-House." It was necessary that the meeting-house should be located very soon, whether it was built immediately or not, for its location would determine to a great extent the position of the roads which were to be constructed. In the early history of the town roads seemed made to serve only two purposes : namely, to afford the farmers a facility for going to market with their produce, and to provide the peo- ple "a way to meeting ; " but the latter purpose of roads seems to have been the more important of the two, for, just as in the Roman Empire all the roads led towards Rome, so in Acton all the first roads led towards the " Meeting-house place." But, though it was of the highest importance that the location of the meeting-house should be fixed upon immediately, it proved to be, in this case, a vexed question. Only a few months after the incorporation of the town a town-meeting was holden to determine the location of the meeting- house, and it was voted to have it in the "centre," that is, in the centre of the territorial limits of the town; but it was thought afterwards that the centre of territory would not be the centre of popu- lation, and the former vote was reconsidered. A number of meetings were held without a conclu- sion ; but at length a decision was reached and the location was fixed upon a "Knowl," which is now adorned by a large and beautiful school-house, near the centre of the town.
As we have indicated above, there was an imme- diate necessity for settling the location of the house which did not exist for its erection ; indeed, had the house been erected immediately, it would have been of comparatively little service, as it would have been inaccessible, at certain seasons of the year, to a large portion of the town; hence we need not be sur- prised that it was nearly three years from the time
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
of the location of the house to the time when it was in a condition to be used for sacred purposes. During all this time the people were literally pre- paring the ways of the Lord, so that, when his house should be built, they could go up to worship him with their families.
CIVIL HISTORY.
Until very near the period of the Revolution there is nothing in the town records which seems to be very noteworthy as regards the civil history. As we have perused the record, however, we have been impressed with the apparent unanimity and good sense with which the town managed its own affairs. The early inhabitants of Acton evidently were people who watched their own interests very carefully, and paid little attention to others' con- cerns, so long as they did not interfere with their own. The last entry in the records of March meetings for nearly seventy-five years is, " That swine shall run at large the present year ; " and the first entry in the records of May meetings, until 1768, is that of a vote not to choose a deputy. The town had a representative in the General Court in 1768, but did not send another until 1774, when it was again represented, and in 1775 and 1776; it then remained without a member until the state constitution was adopted in 1780. In 1781, 1786, 1788, the town sent no representa- tive, but, since the last-named date, has been rep- resented in the popular branch, excepting in the years 1819, 1820, 1822, and 1847.
In another place we speak of the military history of the town in the Revolution, which is exceedingly honorable ; but a study of the records shows that the civil history at the same epoch is no less hon- orable. We cannot forbear inserting here some extracts from the records, which indicate not only the patriotic spirit but the good judgment and far- reaching wisdom of the people of Acton at that time, though in doing so we must throw out of our sketch, for the lack of space, other matter of much historical interest. At a meeting in January, 1768, the town voted " to comply with the proposals, sent to the town by the town of Boston, relating to the encouragement of manufactures among ourselves, and not purchasing superfluitics from abroad." And in September of that year a delegate was chosen to sit in a convention to be holden in Boston.
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