USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 44
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Mr. Stearns was united in marriage with Miss Mary Abbott Holbrook on the 26th of June, 1845, at Lowell, Mass. His death occurred at Concord, New Hampshire, on the 29th of December, 1878. Mrs. Stearns and five children, one son and four daughters, survive him.
Governor Stearns rose by his own efforts from the obscurity of a simple farmer's boy to the highest trust of his adopted state. Of a generous nature, the hospitalities of his elegant home in Con- cord were extended to many of the distinguished men of the country, - prominent among whom were Presidents Grant and Hayes. The honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred on him, in 1857, by Dartmouth College.
His Excellency, Thomas Talbot, present gov- ernor of the Commonwealth, is a distinguished citi- zen of Billerica, where he has resided for nearly forty years. He was born on the 7th of Septem- ber, 1818, in the town of Cambridge, New York, and was the seventh of eight children, of whom
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seven were sons. His parents had but recently come to this country from Ireland, - the father, who was a woollen weaver, obtaining employment at Cambridge. About a year after the birth of Thomas, the family removed to Danby, Vermont, at which place, five years later, the father died.
The care of the family now devolved almost en- tirely upon Mrs. Talbot, the oldest child being but eighteen years of age. The mother was a woman of much native strength of character, and succeeded in giving her children not merely a living, but op- portunities for their education and advancement in life.
About 1831 the family removed to Northamp- ton, in this state, where, at thirteen, Thomas Tal- bot began work in the carding-room of a woollen factory. At the end of four years he entered the employment of his brothers, Charles P. and Ed- ward Talbot, who had started a small broadcloth mill in Williamsburg; and at the age of twenty he was made overseer of the finishing department.
Education obtained from schools was, in his cir- cumstances, naturally limited ; yet he attended the Cummington Academy for two winter terms of six months each, the preceptor of the academy at the time being Rev. Dr. Stockbridge of Providence, Rhode Island.
The death of Edward Talbot occurred in 1837, and in the following year the Williamsburg factory was sold by the surviving partner, Charles P. Tal- bot, who then removed to Lowell and began the manufacture of dyestuffs.
Thomas Talbot remained for a few months with the purchaser of the mill, and then, going to Pitts- field, he was employed by the Pontoosuc Manufact- uring Company for a short time. In the latter part of 1839 Charles P. Talbot removed his business of preparing dyestuffs from Lowell to North Billerica. In the spring of the succeeding year he was joined by his brother Thomas, and the two associated themselves in the partnership of C. P. Talbot & Co.
The business, begun witha little capital and with- out powerful friends, has steadily increased in im- portance. New chemical works and woollen mills have been added from time to time, and although the prosperity of the brothers has been very great, it has not been more so than their industry, econ- omy, uprightness, and liberality deserve.
Governor Talbot has inade the village of North Billerica his residence since the establishment of his business there, and in every way has become thoroughly identified with the interests and wel-
fare of the whole town ; while the people have ever delighted to express their appreciation by especial marks of favor. He has repeatedly served the town in various positions of trust and honor. In 1851 he was returned to the legislature, and was elected a member of the State Constitutional Con- vention in the following year.
An earnest Republican in his political views, he was of great assistance to the town and state in the preparations and measures for suppressing the Rebellion, and aided largely by his generosity towards the support of the cause of the Union.
In 1864 he was elected a member of the ex- ecutive council, a position which he held for five consecutive terms, during which his prudent and able council won him the respect of all parties. In 1872 he was elected lieutenant-governor. He was re-elected in 1873, but became acting gov- ernor in the spring of 1874, in consequence of the election of Governor W. B. Washburn to the United States Senate.
The Republican party nominated Mr. Talbot in the ensuing year as its candidate for governor, but were not successful at the polls. In the guberna- torial election of 1878, which was one of the most hotly contested ever held in Massachusetts, Gov- ernor Talbot secured an election over his opponent, General B. F. Butler.
The inauguration of Governor Talbot to the chair of state was marked by a message which explicitly indicated the policy of retrenchment and honesty adapted to the needs of the hour.
Governor Talbot was first married January 20, 1848, his wife being Mary H., daughter of the late Calvin Rogers, Esq., of this town. She died, leav- ing no children, September 11, 1851. Mr. Tal- bot's second marriage was with Miss Isabella W., daughter of the late Hon. Joel Hayden, formerly lieutenant-governor of this state. It occurred October 18, 1855, and of the seven children who have blessed their union, four -two sons and two daughters -are living. The home of Governor Talbot is noted for its simple elegance and genial hospitality.
Miss Elizabeth P. Peabody, an eminent au- thority on education, was born in Billerica, May 16, 1804. Her father was Nathaniel Peabody, M. D. Her mother, as Miss Elizabeth Palmer, was the first preceptress of the first female academy in New England. At the time of Miss Peabody's birth her mother was teaching a private school in Billerica, Elizabeth being almost "literally born and bred in
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
Thomas Talbot.
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a school." Miss Peabody received a liberal and classical education, and at the age of seventeen began her life-work of teaching, and writing on education. In early life she paid great attention to developing methods for self-education. A com- plete list of Miss Peabody's works would include the departments of history, biography, essays moral and instructive, translations, and belles lettres. The efforts of Miss Peabody during the last ten years have been largely directed to the establish- ment of the " Kindergarten " method of teaching.
Miss Harriet B. Rogers, the principal of the Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes at Northampton, Mass., was born in Billerica, April 12, 1834, being
the danghter of Calvin and Ann Faulkner Rogers. She early chose the vocation of a teacher ; but not until 1864 did she undertake the difficult task of teaching deaf mutes the art of speaking and of reading from the lips. Her experiment was the first systematic attempt to teach the deaf by articu- lation made in this country. In 1866 she opened a private school in Chelmsford, Mass., where her efforts were most successful, and directly led to the founding, in 1867, of the Clarke Institution, of which she became and remains the chief instructor. The system in use at this school is that originated and mainly perfected by Miss Rogers.
BOXBOROUGH.
BY REV. NATHAN THOMPSON.
A T the last census the population of Boxborough was 318. The assessors for 1876 gave the following summary : Acres of land 6,429, dwelling-houses 72, horses 106, cows 431, valuation $ 243,863, polls 98. The school report gave the number of pupils in the schools as 67. In 1843, 130 were reported from the same schools. Between 1830 and 1840 the number was probably greater. " The population in 1837 was 433, being smaller than that of any other town in Middlesex County." Like so many other of the hill towns in Massachu- setts, for the last forty years it has been slowly losing its early prestige. Indeed, except some Hercules were born here, to be devoted to his native hills, the little town never stood any chance of extended growth. By nature, and the date of its organization, it was precluded from any such probabilities. A good farming area had brought in settlers. Here, in the outskirts of surrounding towns, they built their homes and were cultivating their farms. But they were so far from church that they purchased Harvard old meeting-house in 1775, and then asked the General Court to incor- porate them as a town. There is preserved in the safe of the town an old map in outline, on parch-
ment, on a scale of two hundred rods to an inch, by Silas Holman. He made the survey in 1794, and gives the area as 7,036 acres and 100 rods. It was not a great extent of territory, nor a locality favorable for growth, that urged the petition for the little square town to be set off, but the con- venience of the neighborhood. Distance from their old centres constrained them to work for a new one of their own. It was to be among the hills, and upon the highest of them. In its sum- mer scenery it is delightful, with a view to the north, south, east, and west fit to be the envy of the dwellers of the plain. It was aside from any of the " great Boston roads" that were, or were to be. It had no streams to turn the busy wealth- making wheels of the nineteenth century. It had only the possibilities of railways skirting along one or two of its borders. It was destined, from the later date of its incorporation, and the necessity of ยท its situation, to become one of the small, health- ful farming towns ; a good place to emigrate from; the home of sturdy, established New England yeomanry. Removed from the vices as well as the virtuous activities of cities and manufacturing vil- lages, it was to be blessed with whatever life its own citizens put into it. Taking its greatest part from Stow, a goodly piece from Littleton, and something from Harvard, it helped the shape of those towns in becoming itself well fashioned.
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It was natural for those towns to object to this loss from their own territory. Beginning the agi- tation of the question of distinct incorporation in the same year with the fight at Concord Bridge, Boxborough did not succeed in getting her little victory till 1783. During these years petition followed petition to the General Court. Most of them seem to have been carried by the hands of her own citizens. But in 1779 they " voted to apply to Mr. Francis Dana, Attorney " (grand- father of the Hon. Richard HI. Dana), " to carry their petition and present it to the General Court," and voted $ 100 for that purpose. We presume that even in those days the $100 did not secure the legal services of Mr Dana through the contest of the next four years. The names of citizen committees repeatedly appear. The residents upon the area to be taken from Littleton were from the outset somewhat averse to leaving their mother town. When, in 1780, the people chose a com- mittee to apply again to the General Court to be set off, they also chose one "to treat with the obstinate part of our society in Littleton." Those from Stow and Harvard are not recorded as requir- ing treatment. On the 24th of February, 1783, the prayer of the petitioners was granted ; the act of incorporation bears the signatures of John Han- cock, Governor, and Samuel Adams, President of the Senate. The preamble of the act of incorpo- ration is as follows : " Whereas a number of in- habitants living in the Extreme Parts of the Towns of Stow, Harvard and Littleton, Labour under many Inconveniences by Reason of their great distance from any Place of Publick Worship and have Requested this Court that they May be Incorpo- rated into a District with all the Privileges of a Town, that of Sending a Representative to the General Court Excepted, Be it therefore Enacted, &c." Jonathan Wood, Esq., of Stow was anthor- ized to issue the warrant, which he did to Bell- net Wood, one of the principal inhabitants of the district of Boxborough, to notify and warn the voters to assemble at their meeting-house on the 10th of March inst., to complete the work of their organization by the clection of the customary offi- cers. It is interesting to call up the long list found in the old records: moderator, clerk, treas- urer, selectmen, assessors, constable, highway sur- veyors, tithing-men, field-drivers, hog-reeves, fish- reeves, pound-keeper, surveyors of lumber, hoops, leather, vendue master, and sexton.
As each of these New England towns was such
a complete democracy, it is also interesting to notice the business that concerned them at the out- set. Their philosophy of the state held closely to self-government. What was for the good of one was for the good of all. So all must stand to- gether on the ground of the common good. Cer- tainly cach one was to be the arbiter of his own destiny. At the same time three things demand the common action, and are well secured only through the corporate life. These are the Church, the school, the highway ; or, to put it in the ab- stract, religion, education, facility for communica- tion and transportation. Like the three lines, - the smallest number that can enclose a space, - these three are the first necessities for the common- wealth. In this state the first of these has been left to voluntary organization since 1833. But a century ago there was good agreement to embody them all in the organic law. Boxborough gave due attention to them at the beginning.
The meetings for town business were always convened at the meeting-house till April, 1835, when they assembled in Bigelow's Hall, situated directly opposite. That year a town-house was built near the south end of the Common, and was opened for use in October. This remained till 1874. Out of the church division in 1829, through some changes, came the Universalist society, which held the old house of worship. But this society having disintegrated and ceased to use the house, it was purchased by the town and transformed into a town- hall in 1874.
The Puritan demand for good deportment is illustrated in the early records of this town. Re- peatedly offenders are brought before a justice of the peace and fined sundry shillings " for swearing one or more profane oaths." Repeatedly, also, by vote of the town, boys are bound to service; as in 1807 it was " voted to bind David Green to Chris- topher Page to learn the carpenter's trade, upon the same terms respecting clothing and schooling as though he staid with his old master."
Many of the town-meetings were of a unique character. We lack the details for their full description. The versatile novelist of the next century will find in the old pages a supply of quaint and curious matter for historic fiction. In the first half of the century there was a noticeable number of extra meetings, called for the various purposes incident to local action ; and they often illustrated the physical law, that action and reac- tion are equal and in opposite directions. Boun-
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dary lines, roads, schools, town buildings, the poor, | passed an act fixing the boundary on the 20th of town prosecutions, kept up the frequent demand. There has been a little change in the boundaries, -- most toward Harvard and Stow ; probably none toward Acton. The southeast corner on Flagg's Hill appears to be the same as in 1783. I had hoped to note the changes ; but the descriptions are vagne, the corner bounds perishable objects, - such as trees, stakes, and heaps of stones, - and the memory of the oldest inhabitant cannot define them with certainty. The boundary on the Little- ton side involved the two towns in dispute and threats of prosecution till 1794, when it was fixed by act of the legislature.
The opening of the highways would have been of both local and general interest. Some of them were bridle paths at first ; some were private ways ; some were half public for a while, - that is, a farmer was allowed to have a gate across at the limit of his estate. Many of these descriptions, doubtless good for their time, cannot now be accu- rately traced. The " Boston road," now known as " the old turnpike," through the southerly part of the town from Harvard to Acton, will doubtless be long known by that name, and be the main thoroughfare. What answers to the same road appears on Holman's map of 1794. It was accepted as the "Union Turnpike" by "the Court of General Sessions of the Peace" at its September term, 1806. May 11, 1830, it was declared a public highway of the county by the commissioners, in session at Concord, the town appropriating $300 for repairs.
I have referred to the opposition from the Little- ton side to being incorporated in the new district. It was the beginning of a century of history. This want of general agreement has been a continued fact. When the district was incorporated, in 1783, the boundaries were described in the act, and all within those limits was to be Boxborough, " except those of such of the Inhabitants of that part set off from Littleton as shall not within the Term of twelve months from the Passing this Act Return their Names into the office of the Secretary of this Commonwealth, Signifying their Desire to become Inhabitants of the said District." It was a peculiar exception. It declared and established the boundaries of the new district, and yet it rated quite a part of the polls and taxes out of it, unless changed by individual request. The towns were in repeated difficulty over the boundary. At length it was referred to the General Court, which
February, 1794. In that act it was further speci- fied that those who still voted and were assessed in Littleton, but at any time thercafter wished to be rated in Boxborough, must be received by a vote in town-meeting. From time to time they came and were received. The greatest number at any one time was in 1827, when four estates were transferred. Only two now remain assessed in Littleton. This continued tendency to dif- ference caused a large number of extra town- meetings. Votes were passed and reconsidered upon school districts and the division of school money, repairing the " meeting-house," borrowing money, building, laying out highways, etc. It has been more permanent in questions of politics and religion. But it is slowly wearing itself away. The children are supposed to be growing wiser than their fathers, so that, a hundred years hence, we anticipate that none but the antiquarian will suspect it had ever been.
Those familiar with the stations on the Fitch- burg railway have noticed " West Acton and Box- boro," on the depot at the former village. It suggests an item in the history of the town. Quite a long section of the track is through its low lands upon the northeast. There is no doubt that the people here, like so many others in that early day of railroads, were bad prophets about them, and did not very cordially welcome the new invention. At an especial town-meeting, however, in June, 1849, it was voted to ask the railway company for a station. The petition was not granted. The village of West Acton grew up. In 1869 an effort was made to have a part of Acton, including the village of West Acton, which is less than a mile from the Boxborough line, set off to Box- borongh. But this scheme, intended to favor both the town and the village, failed through opposition. That village is the station and nearest business point for the town, though West Littleton is more accessible for a few.
The record of presidential votes shows the town to have been pretty equally divided in its political sympathies with, for many years, a preference to- ward the democratic side. In late years the divid- ing lines in politics and religion have somewhat nearly coincided. Though we have called Box- borough both a town and a district, as a conven- ience, and also correctly to represent the records, strictly it was a district till 1836. The commonly accepted date of the change is May 1. Not by
-
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any special legislative enactment, but under a clause of the Revised Statutes of that year. But, if this date be correct, it did not at once enter into its full privilege as a town; for, in the November following, it still voted with Stow for representa- tive to the General Court. In the later years, at least, of this representative union, it was the cus- tom of the two towns, in sending two represen- tatives, to choose one from Stow and one from Boxborough. These votes were always recorded only at Stow.
The military history of Boxborough will be brief. Not having been incorporated till 1783, it has no colonial or revolutionary record of its own. As Hudson and Everett have a real, but not a separate record of the War of the Rebellion because not then organized, so Boxborough in the Revolution has her history with Acton and the other neighboring towns. Here, however, we ought not to omit men- tion of Luther Blanchard, whose name has gone into the history of the Acton company in the fight at Concord Bridge. The family home and estates were within the subsequent limits of Boxborough, and are still owned and occupied by the descend- ants. When the company, of which he was a fifer, were " within ten or fifteen rods of the bridge, a single gun was fired by a British soldier, the ball from which, passing under Colonel Robinson's arm, slightly wounded the side of Luther Blanchard, and Jonas Brown, one of the Concord minute-men. Blanchard went to the house of Mrs. Barrett, who, after examining his wound, mournfully remarked, ' A little more, and you 'd have been killed.' ' Yes,' said Blanchard, 'and a little more and 't would n't have touched me; ' and immediately joined the pursuers." Though the wound that day appeared slight, and only briefly detained him from his company, it became the cause of his death soon after.
The town makes no military record beyond mus- ter-days and keeping the customary military organ- ization and ammunition - lead, powder, and flints - at the meeting-house, till 1794; when a special town-meeting was called on the 18th of August " to see what the town will do about raising the eight men, in compliance with the request of con- gress, and give any instructions to Capt. Whitcomb about the same." They voted the " encourage- ment," that "each man that lists as a soldier, agreeable to Resolves of Congress, shall have the public pay as wages made up by the Town; to each man the sum of five pounds eight shillings
per month for the time they serve in the army ; and that they shall have six shillings in part of their pay paid them when they do list and engage, if they do not march out of town, and the sum of eighteen shillings more when they march in order to join the army." In October, three years later, another special meeting was called to raise soldiers, and bounties were also offered. Again, in 1808, 1812, and 1814, the town was called upon for quotas of men, and at these times various boun- ties were offered for their enlistment. Beyond the necessary record for muster-days and militia-rolls there is nothing further to be noted in military affairs till the late civil war. No town-meetings in behalf of the war were held in 1861. The first recorded meeting was July 23, 1862, when a bounty of $100 was offered for each volunteer. Immedi- ately there were offered in addition " five dollars apiece to those that will enlist within three days and be accepted." In October of the same year $150 were voted to each volunteer, and also to each drafted man, '" to be paid after they are mus- tered into service." In November the same bounty was extended to the substitutes of drafted men. The highest bounty offered was in September, 1864, when the town "voted to pay $125 in gold to each recruit to fill the town's quota." The advance in gold that month was from 85 to 165; which at the highest, or even at the average, made the bounty a large one. A good number of the young men of the town became volunteers. "Five per- sons came forward and enlisted " under one call. Boxborough furnished for the war fifty-one men, which was a surplus of seven over and above all demands. None of them were commissioned offi- cers. " The whole amount of money appropriated and expended by the town for war purposes, exclu- sive of state aid, was $7,046.87. The amount of money raised and expended by the town during the war for state aid to soldiers' families, and which was repaid by the commonwealth, was $1,347.53. About $200 was raised by the ladies of the town for the Christian Commission.") The town duti- fully and generously abated the taxes of her sol- dier when in the service.
Boxborough never became the seat of any of the higher institutions of learning, nor has it had the requisite number of families for a high school. Of course the smallest town would not naturally make any great exhibit in education. The names of her sons and daughters are to be scen in the
1 Schouler's Massachusetts in the Civil War.
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catalogues of neighboring, and sometimes more remote, academies. But the Puritan idea of local education was at once put into operation. In the same year of their incorporation they "voted to have four months' schooling this year, and that the selectmen provide and proportion the same." The " proportion " here does not appear to refer to schools in different parts of the town, but between the boys and girls. The separation of the sexes appears to have continued some time ; for we find in 1787 money was granted to have "four months' mans' and four months' wimings' schooling." Oc- casionally the town expressed itself in favor of the sex of the teacher; as in 1784 it was voted "to have a schoolmaster six months." Ten years later the particular choice ceased. Then the committee were instructed to " hire a school master or masters, and mistress or mistresses, as shall be most con- venient for the town's good." For eleven years the schools seem to have been in charge of the selectmen. Then they began to choose a special committee, but this office was not permanently established till some years later. The schools were frequently returned to the care of the selectmen. Work in schools is now becoming quite popular. The cycle of the ages has revolved. The sentiment of this little town had passed away from it in 1794, when it was voted " that no work should be done in or at the woman's school, as there usually hath been ; but the time to be spent in instructing the . children to read and wright." There appears 110 specific record of the wages of teachers for some time. Doubtless the pay in Boxborough was com- mensurate with that in surrounding towns. The teachers of the present day will be glad that they do . not live in " the good old times," when they read that in 1787 there were " granted fifteen pounds for to hire schooling, four months' man's and four months' woman's schooling." Whether there was a school-house within the limits of the newly in- corporated district is doubtful. Nothing extant here seems to imply it. No appropriations or ex- penditures indicate one. Probably the children all came together to one school till 1786, when a vote was passed dividing the town " equally into quar- ters," and a committee of four was chosen to do it.
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