USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 40
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The disquietnde of mind here alluded to was the same which culminated in Shays' Rebellion. This the town was ready to suppress by forcible measures, as will appear by the following vote :
" January 16, 1787, Voted to give the men that enlist to go to Worcester at the rate of forty-two shillings per month ; and also voted to pay each man as part of the above 42/ twelve shillings in case they have marching orders, and the town to have the wages allowed by the state."
The dangers of civil commotion being thus pro- vided for, the town again gave attention to its pri- vate affairs. It reconsidered all the votes that had been passed relating to the schools and sehool- houses, and appointed a committee to divide the town into five districts.
A little later an event happened which greatly scandalized the whole town. It was communion day ; the minister had long been noted for his eccentricities ; the people had openly suggested a cause for some of them, and now they were sure such suggestions were night. The meeting-house doors were closed against the pastor in the after- noon. Some wag, seeing the condition of things, perpetrated the following, which he inscribed upon the meeting-house : -
" A wicked priest, a crooked people, A cracked bell without a steeple."
September 16, 1793, the town unanimously voted " that the church refer their grievancy to a council, in case the Rev. Mr. Joseph Penniman doth not agree to have the relation in which he stands to the church and town dissolved."
November 3, 1793, the council concurred with the church in the dismission of Rev. Mr. Penni- man by a unanimous vote.
A demand was now made by the general gov- ernment for soldiers, either for the contemplated
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war with England or France, the war with Western Indians, or the necessary movement to suppress the " Whiskey Rebellion." In this matter Bed- ford was prompt, as she always has been, and voted, August 28, 1794, " to give each soldier that shall voluntarily enlist the sum of eighteen shillings as a bounty, and to make them up eight dollars per month including the state pay, in case they are called upon to march, and for the time they are in actual service." The soldiers that enlisted were Moses Abbott, Jr., John Reed, Jr., Eleazer Davis, Jr., Jolin Merriam, Jr., Job Webber, Asa Webber, William J. Lawrence, and William Kemp. The public schools, nevertheless, were not neglected. The town voted September 1, 1794, £65 for schools, to have the schools equally divided into five parts, that is, to have six weeks' writing- school in each of the school-houses in the winter season, and two months' reading-school in the sum- mer season in each of the school-houses.
At the meeting above noted one article was " to see if the town will choose a committee to take an accurate plan of the town of Bedford, agreea- ble to a resolve of the great and General Court of this commonwealth," and the town chose a com- mittee of three for that purpose, -Captain John Webber, William Merriam, Thompson Baeon.
After the dismission of Mr. Penniman, a good many candidates had been heard, though no record is extant of their names. In September, 1795, Mr. Samuel Stearns preached to them, and December 2S, 1795, the town concurred with the church in selecting him for the work of the gos- pel ministry. A committee, consisting of Deacon James Wright, William Merriam, Timothy Jones, Esq., Captain John Webber, and John Reed, Esq., waited upon the Rev. Mr. Stearns, communicated to him the vote of the town, and received in reply a letter from him aeeepting the office of pastor.
March 21, 1796, the town voted to accept the answer of Mr. Stearns, and ordered the same to be put upon the town records. The town appointed the ordination to take place on Wednesday the 27th of April.
Though Bedford has always held the reputation of a moral and virtuous town, she has sometimes had within her borders those who were willing to appropriate to their own use the effects of their neighbors. Tradition tells of one family so addicted to larceny that they wonld steal from one another for the very pleasure of theft. It also further says that one of these persons was brought to condign
punishment, and was publicly and legally whipped, being tied to an apple-tree in the little orchard between Minister Stearns' mansion and that of Jeremiah Fitch. I am unable to give the date of the public whipping.
The condition of the country had now become truly exciting ; war with France was in the minds of many inevitable. Bedford resolved to be ready. The town voted on the 5th of November, 1798, " that the selectmen be directed to show out to the officers, out of the town's stock, as much pow- der and ball, and as many flints as the law re- quires for each soldier of said company on their inspection days, and also that the seleetmen be directed to furnish each soldier on muster days with sixteen cartridges out of said town stock."
There was a custom at this time to prevent those who were in danger of becoming a publie eharge from obtaining a foothold as citizens. This was done by exempting them from public taxes, or otherwise warning them out of town.
The death of Washington gave occasion for an imposing ceremony. The town met on the 6th of February and considered the subjeet ; then continued the meeting to the 10th of February, when they agreed upon a method to testify their affectionate regard for the memory of General George Washington on the 22d of February, and to make necessary arrangements and provisions there- for. Rev. Samuel Stearns delivered a discourse on the oeeasion of the funeral solemnities.
When Mr. Stearns was settled, the town gave him a choice for yearly salary of $ 333.33} in money, or the same amount in beef, pork, rye, and Indian corn. After he had given his answer to the church and parish on the Sabbath, and before he had replied to the town, he was told that some were dissatisfied with the stipulation because it might lead to misunderstandings and disputes in fixing the value of articles year by year. In his reply to the town he accepted the definite sum with this condition : "Resting assured that the town will not willingly see me suffer by reason of the depreciation of the currency hereafter." The currency did depreciate, and the minister sold off land from the place which he had just bought at the value of a hundred dollars a year, and applied the proceeds to his living. After going in debt for about five hundred dollars he was absolutely compelled to present his case to the town. Not- withstanding the liberality with which the town responded, the pastor's salary was not adequate to
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his wants, and he supplemented it not only by receiving into his family suspended students from Harvard, but by establishing a young ladies' school in the parish. He hired a room in the tavern then kept by Jeremiah Fitch, and continued the school for three years. Mrs. Jonathan Lane, now more than ninety years of age, is the only one of the pupils known to be still alive.
Though the town had based their pastor's salary upon the stipulated value of beef, pork, rye, and Indian corn, it still proved inadequate to his com- fortable support. April 4, 1808, the town voted " to add the sum of three hundred dollars to his salary : fifty dollars of which to be paid at each semi-annual payment for three years if he doth continue to be pastor of the town ; if not, then to be paid in the same proportion for a shorter time ; they also recommend that the town add two cords of wood to each year above expressed."
The matter of arrears of salary did, however, eventually lead to contention and bitterness, which presented a chief obstacle to an amicable separation between the pastor and the people.
In 1807 a war with Great Britain seemed im- minent, and on the 27th of August we find Bed- ford passing the following vote : " Foted, to make up to the soldiers that may voluntarily turn out in defence of our country, fourteen dollars per month as wages, if called into aetnal service. Foted, to give the mnen ordered to be discharged from Cap- tain Lane's company if they shall voluntarily turn out, three dollars per man, as an encouragement to the same, whether they march or not."
Further provision was also made for the soldiers. December 27 the town " granted to Captain Lane's soldiers who should enlist in the defence of our country for the term of six months, $13 per month as wages during the time they are in actual service."
The warrant for a town-meeting March 5, 1810, gives an idea of the basis of suffrage at that time. It is issued to " the free holders and other votable. inhabitants of said town qualified to vote in town meetings, namely, sueli as pay, to one single tax besides the poll or polls, a sum equal to two thirds of a single poll tax." At this meeting "Daiz Skelton contracted to build a hearse-house, which stood for many years in the southwest corner of the old graveyard. Here were kept the hearse and the bier and the pall. Here was stored the old cracked bell. Here also were kept the town's stock of powder and other military paraphernalia. It was
a great event for the boys, a few days before every annual muster, to watch the soldiers as they pre- pared the cartridges for the occasion.
In 1812 the property qualification is declared to be a " freebold income of ten dollars or other property valued at $200." Few matters of in- terest signalize the town-meetings of 1812. In March the usual officers were chosen, and Thomp- son Bacon, a prominent republiean, was sent representative. Castilio Hosmer was permitted to move the pound upon his own land, and the structure still remains as the foundation of the old John Bacon shoemaker's shop.
The schools now demanded especial attention. Though the town had for some years been divided into five districts for school purposes, all children had a right to attend either or all of the schools when their own did not keep. From some unknown cause a bitter quarrel arose among children at- tending school in the east quarter. Master Grag was a quiet man, and they rode roughly over his authority, and the several sections arrayed them- selves violently against one another. On one side were the east-quarter boys, called by their enemies " shaberkins " and " sharks ; " and on the opposite side were the north-quarter boys and the centre boys in unholy alliance, but nicknamed in their turn, from their locality, "north-quarter hogs " and "eity pigs." So the Hogs and the Pigs fought the Shaberkins and the Sharks. No day was without its battle, till the feud became almost as fierce among adults as among the young. The town took the matter in hand March 29, 1813, and the East District being at once isolated from all the rest, the warfare gradually ceased.
A few months later an incident occurred which for a moment threw the town into dire consterna- tion. An order was received calling upon the militia to mareh at once for the defence of Boston. It was a beautiful September Sabbath morning. Fife and drum ealled, and soon the martial men and the people were on their way to the house of God. The old meeting-house was crowded. When the ring of grounded muskets ceased, all was silence. Then began the simple service; the song went up from faltering lips. The good pastor's exhortation was tender, sympathetic, earnest, but bold to in- spire with lofty and patriotic valor. Thus fortified, now came hasty farewells and the march. Who could have thought that all this solemn prepara- tion should soon turn into mirthfulness ? Yet such it did ; a single day effected the change. Their call
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BEDFORD.
proved to be a mistake. It was intended for Brad- ford or some other town. The Bedford men re- mained in Boston but a day or two, and then obtained their discharge.
After this there was no general call for men from Bedford during the war; but a few men were drafted and several others voluntarily enlisted.
When peace had been declared, Bedford was found in a condition of sufficient prosperity to cou- template the erection of a new meeting-house. The frame for each side and end of the building was put together and ready to be raised into position, when early on a bright summer morning multitudes of people assembled, listened to a short address and a fervent prayer by the pastor, and then, catching hold of the timbers with their hands, or standing by with pike-poles ready to lift when needed, they awaited in silence the appearance of a first ray from the rising sun, till suddenly the pro- longed shout of "Bear it up!" was echoed by the multitude, and in a moment the whole broadside was trembling in the air. In a few hours the heavy framework of the building was standing in its place, where it has remained without a sign of displacement for more than sixty years.
In June the meeting-house was dedicated with imposing ceremonies. The neighboring ministers were generally present, and the town was full of strangers come to witness the event. A sweet- toned bell was, through the agency of Mr. Jeremiah Fitch of Boston, imported from London, and a clock was placed on the front of the gallery. It was a gift from the same public-spirited gentle- man.
In the spring of 1818 a large and very efficient Sabbath-school was established in the old school- house. Nearly all the children in the town attended.
Bedford might now fairly be said to be in a prosperous condition. Since the commencement of the century several houses had been built, and several had been remodelled or put in repair. The town had a small but increasing fund for the sup- port of its ministry, and another for instruction in sacred music. The schools were in good con- dition, and this year they were each set off into separate districts. A town library, whose proprie- tors held a charter of incorporation by the General Conrt, was in successful operation. The relations between minister and people were of the most cor- dial and agreeable kind.
The business of the town was greatly on the increase ; several firms were employing numbers of
men in the manufacture of women's and children's shoes ; and many of the women and girls in all parts of the town found it convenient to increase their income by binding shoes.
In 1823 the town voted to open the Chelmsford road, so called. The Carlisle road, which was very reluctantly built, and which had cost the town much inconvenience and expense, was now in ex- cellent repair, and had become an avenue for con- siderable travel through the place; and now, when the Chelmsford road was completed, Bedford village became a constant thoroughfare.
In 1825 the town sold the old school-house, and erected a new one entirely of brick. It was a neat structure, two stories high, with a school-room upon the lower, and a town-hall upon the second floor. It was adorned with a cupola and a taste- ful weather-vane.
On the 4th of July, 1826, Bedford celebrated the semi-centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. A procession was formed at the west end of the street, which proceeded at once to the 'meeting-house, where prayer was offered, the Declaration of Independence was read, and an oration was delivered by the minister's oldest son, Samnel H. Stearns, a graduate of Harvard, and afterwards pastor of the Boston Old South Church.
Every department of life seemed to indicate pros- perity. The young people sought improvement by means of their debating society, their social library, and their neighborhood gatherings. This pleasant state of things continned till about 1832, when an event occurred which shook the social fabric of the town to its very foundations, and from which it has scarcely recovered to the present day. It was a rupture between the minister and a por- tion of his people. All through Middlesex County, and in some other parts of the state, a divergence of opinion had been taking place among the mem- bers of societies who had hitherto worshipped together. The difference was in doctrines and measures. The pastor adhered to the old standards of faith, and some of his people had embraced the new. A series of religious meetings had been held, and many converts had been the result. This brought into active opposition all the discontented elements in the town. The minister was requested by the parish to ask a dismissal ; while a majority of his pewholders adhered to him. A council was called, which failed definitely to settle the contro- versy by its award. A new society grew out of the rupture. Mr. Stearns, considering his relations
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
with the old organization dissolved by the action of the council, accepted the call of the new to become its minister, while the old still claimed him. A thousand dollars formerly loaned him by his society so long as he should supply its pulpit was the great obstacle to an amicable adjustment. The council's decision having awarded this sum to Mr. Stearns, an appeal was had to the law, and while the con- troversy was still unsettled, Mr. Stearns died. The court ignored the council, but a jury decided that the minister had virtually supplied the pulpit till his death.
The land for the new meeting-house was pre- sented by Mr. Jeremiah Fitch, the same who had imported the bell and given a clock and a Bible to the First Parish.
After the separation, the First Parish for a con- siderable time employed the Rev. Mr. Davis as a stated supply till the settlement of the Rev. Joshua Chandler, a graduate of Harvard, formerly settled over a church in Swanzey, N. H. His successors were Rev. George W. Woodward, Rev. William Cushing, stated supply, and Rev. George W. Web- ster, who was regularly settled. After Mr. Webster, Rev. Jason Whitman, minister of Lexington, sup- plied the pulpit half of each Sabbath for several years till his death. Then followed an interregnum of about twelve years, after which a similar arrange- ment was made with the Rev. Grindall Reynolds of the First Parish in Concord, and he continues their minister. Besides the church edifice, which has been twice partially remodelled to suit the times, this society inherits all the funds and church prop- erty formerly belonging to the town.
Shortly after the death of Mr. Stearns, the new society met for the purpose of calling Rev. Jona- than F. Stearns, a son of their former pastor ; but he had already accepted another call. A call was next given to the Rev. D. Talcott Smith (now Rev. D. Smith Talcott, D. D., of Bangor Theological Seminary), but he declined. The Rev. Jonathan Leavitt (Amherst College, 1825) was called, and after supplying the pulpit a year was settled. In 1840 Mr. Leavitt removed, and was settled over the Richmond Street Church in Providence, Rhode Island. His successors were the Rev. S. Hopkins Emery, Rev. Oren Sikes, Rev. J. H. Patrick, now of West Newton, Rev. W. J. Batt, now of Stone- ham, Rev. George Lewis, Rev. Edward Chase, Rev. Otis Crawford, and Rev. George E. Lovejoy, the present minister. This society is out of debt, - owns its commodious meeting-house and parsonage-
house. Its elegant communion service was the gift of the late widow IIannah Reed.
For many years a prominent occupation in the town was the manufacture of shoes. It was started in 1805 by John Hosmer and Jonathan Bacon. Several firms became engaged ; among them Benja- min and Zebedee Simonds, the Hon. Reuben Bacon, and Chamberlin and Billings. Two or three hun- dred persons were employed, and there were sold annually more than ninety thousand pairs of shoes. But the introduction of machinery elsewhere caused the manufacture to decline, till it has now almost ceased. For a time the decline of this business was compensated by the introduction of a paper-mill in the east part of the town. While this establishment was in the full tide of success, the population increased to nearly one thousand. But the mill was at length destroyed by fire, and never rebuilt. More than one hundred persons left the place, and all business except agriculture was found · to languish. Farming is now the principal busi- ness of Bedford. The town, however, did not lose its public spirit. A new and more commodious town-hall was built. It was dedicated with formal ceremonies. Mr. John F. Gleason read an appro- priate poem, aud Mr. Josiah A. Stearns delivered the dedicatory address. Speeches were made by several persons, among them Mr. Charles Lane of Boston, who presented the town with an elegant clock. This was the same Mr. Lane whose life was so tragically ended at Dorchester.
When the War of Rebellion commenced, the town proved itself true to its traditionary patriot- ism. It was lavish in voting bounties. The young men were prompt to enlist. The women and girls were zealous in preparing lint and articles of com- fort for the sick or wounded, which they sent for- ward through the various Christian and sanitary commissions. Some of them even gave personal ser- vice as nurses in the camp. About sixteen hundred dollars were earned and contributed by the ladies to erect a monument in the beautiful Shawshine Cemetery, to perpetuate the memory of fourteen soldiers of Bedford who yielded up life for their country. In various ways not less than five thou- sand dollars were contributed to the war by this little town. Every year since the strife ceased the soldiers' graves have been decorated with pious care.
Since the establishment of the Middlesex Cen- tral Railroad the village has taken a new start. Several houses have been erected, and it is still
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BELMONT.
growing. The people find themselves situated only ten minutes' ride from the patriotic towns of Lexington and Concord, and eight trains daily each way transport them to and from Boston. The nar- row-gauge railroad, though a mechanical success, has proved a pecuniary failure, yet there is some hope that it may erelong again come into opera- tion.
About a mile and a half from the village some valuable mineral springs were discovered a few years since. A commodious hotel has been erected on the spot. The house is well kept, and visitors find themselves almost as well environed with rural
scenery and seclusion as they would be at the White Mountains.
From the churches of Bedford have gone forth no fewer than fourteen ministers; and the town has furnished about the same number of college graduates, among them a trustee of Princeton Col- lege, a professor of St. James College, Md., a pas- tor of the Old South Church of Boston, a president of Amherst College, and a chancellor of the Uni- versity of Nashville, Tenn. The town has also furnished a large number of teachers, and has been well represented in the legal and medical professions.1
BELMONT.
BY JOHN L. ALEXANDER, M. D.
S
IX miles west of Boston is sit- nated the town of Belmont. It is four miles from Waltham, two from Arlington, two from Watertown, and three from the city of Cambridge. It is bounded northerly by Arling- ton, southerly by Watertown, easterly by Cambridge, and westerly by Waltham and Lex- ington.
Belmont was incorporated March 18, 1859, after a long and bitter contest of six years in the legis- lature with the old towns from which it was taken. From Waltham were taken 67 square miles or 429 acres, from Arlington 282 square miles or 1,773 acres, and from Watertown 226 square miles or 1,446 acres, making 575 square miles or 3,648 acres. These parts were outlying districts of old historic towns, having, at the time of the first petition for separation in 1853, a population of only 1,004, but when incorporated increased to 1,175 inhabitants. When Belmont was incorpo- rated it had a valuation of $2,127,737, increased to $3,061,798 in 1878.
The town lies in a valley, between two ranges of high hills, which cannot be styled mountains, neither range being more than four hundred feet above the sea. The one on the south side, anciently called Meeting-House Hill, King's Common, and Strawberry Hill, makes the boundary between Bel-
mont and the Charles River valley, in which Water- town lies. That on the northerly side separates the town from the valley of the Mystic River; and in this valley Arlington lies. This is the highest range of hills in the vicinity of Boston, and was called the Ox Pasture by the early settlers, being then common land, used for pasturage by all the inhabitants. It was sometimes called The Rocks, because great ledges of rock cropped ont on the top and sides. In recent times it obtained the name of Wellington Hill, from this circumstance: At the bottom of this hill lived, in the last century, Colonel Jedu- thun Wellington, a somewhat prominent citizen, who was first and foremost in procuring a char- tered turnpike road from Harvard Square in Cam- bridge to Concord, through this valley, thus making a little shorter route to Boston than the old roads through Waltham and Watertown, or Lexington and Arlington. But the turnpike must necessarily mount this hill by a very heavy grade, and, in or- der to induce Vermont and Southern New Hamp- shire travellers to take this middle route to Boston, he kept his oxen always ready to help loaded teams up the hill. Hence it became known far and near as Wellington Hill, and the railroad sta- tion, located near his residence, retained the same name till the incorporation of Belmont. The Fitchburg Railroad was built through this valley in 1845, making a depot here, and one about one
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