USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 79
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to $25,000." The donations of his brother Wil- liam Lawrence amounted to more than $45,000, his first gift April 6, 1844, being $10,000. In grateful acknowledgment for this gift and for the numerous donations from Amos Lawrence, the trustees at their annual meeting holden August 20, 1845, chose a committee to petition the General Court to change the name of the corporation to " The Lawrence Academy at Groton," which peti- tion was granted at the next session. In view of the interest manifested in the institution by the father during the early and struggling-for-exist- ence period of its history, and the subsequent donations of the sons, it is evident that no more fitting name than " Lawrence " could have been chosen.
The original academy building was a plain, square structure, with the entrance at the left-hand corner in front. The school-room was below, and the upper story was the academy hall for exhibi- tions, etc. This was afterward converted into a school-room and was occupied at one time by the celebrated school of the Misses Prescott. In 1842 a projection was added in the rear, and in 1847 other changes and additions were made nearly doubling its original capacity. On the 4th of July, 1868, this historic builling and much of its valuable contents were destroyed by fire. " A beautiful brick edifice was erected on the old site, at an expense of $23,000. It was dedicated June 29, 1871. The whole number of pupils connected with the school from the beginning, in 1793 (to 1877), is 7,612, of which about sixty per cent have been males and forty per cent females."
Among the alunni of this Academy who have become distinguished in later life may be named Rev. James Walker, D. D., Hon. Joel Parker, LL. D., Hon. Abbott Lawrence, Hon. Ether Shep- ley, Hon. Amos Kendall, Hon. John P. Bigelow, Rev. Andrew Bigelow, D. D., Mr. Samuel Law- rence, Mr. Isaac Parker, Mr. Henry Stearns, Mr. Thomas Sherwin, Hon. James G. Kendall, Rev. George Putnam, D. D., Rev. Alonzo Hill, D. D., Hon. Daniel Needham, Judge William A. Richard- son, and Hon. Benjamin K. Phelps.
From the long list of eminent men and women who have been born in the town or who have been residents, the following are selected, while many more might be added did space permit : -
Colonel William Prescott, the hero of Bunker Hill, was a provincial lieutenant at the capture of Cape Breton in 1754; a captain under General
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Winslow in Nova Scotia in 1756; commander of a regiment of minute-men in 1771; a prominent officer through the Revolutionary War until the end of 1776; and a volunteer in the campaign that resulted in the surrender of Burgoyne at Yorktown in 1777 ; and subsequently a member of the Mas- sachusetts Legislature for three years. lle filled the offices of clerk and selectman, and was an acting magistrate till his death, October 13, 1795, aged sixty-nine. To perpetuate his memory, or rather to show their appreciation of the honor his name has given to his native town, a monument has just been erected bearing this inscription : -
COLONEL WILLIAM PRESCOTT COMMANDER OF THE AMERICAN FORCES AT THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL WAS BORN ON THE 20TH OF FEBRUARY 1726 IN A HOUSE WHICH STOOD NEAR THIS SPOT.
Oliver Prescott, M. D., brother of Colonel Wil- liam, was equally eminent as a physician and a patriotie citizen. Previons to the Revolution he held the offices of major, lieutenant-colonel, colo- nel, and brigadier-general in the militia; was a member of the board of war, a justice throughout the Commonwealth, and a member of the executive council of the state for three years, declining to serve longer ; in 1778 was third major-general of militia, and in 1751 second major-general, but soon resigned on account of ill health. He was Judge of Probate for Mid.llesex from 1779 until his death, November 17, 1801. He and his brother William were active in suppressing Shays' Rebellion. He was a member of several medical societies and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at its incorporation. Harvard College conferred upon him the degree of M. D. in 1791, pro honoris causa. He was a trustee, patron, and benefactor of the Groton Academy.
Oliver Prescott, M. D., first son of the preceding, graduated at Harvard in 1783; studied medicine with his father and Dr. James Lloyd of Boston ; was surgeon in General Lincoln's army raised to suppress Shays' Rebellion, " and accompanied the expedition in the severe winter of 1787"; was often a representative to the state legislature ; was a founder, trustee, and treasurer of Groton Academy; removed in 1811 to Newburyport ; was a prominent mason of his time; in 1813 de- livered an address before the Massachusetts Medi- cal Society, which was republished in England, Germany, and France; and in 1814 he received
the honorary degree of M. D. from his alma mater, Harvard. He died September 26, 1827, univer- sally esteemed.
James Sullivan, LL.D., born in Berwiek, Maine, in 1744, was at one time a resident of Groton. He was a brother of General John Sullivan, of Revo- lutionary fame. He was a member of the Provin- cial Congress of Massachusetts, in 1775, and in 1779-80 of the State Constitutional Convention ; representative to Congress in 1784 - 85, and fre- quently a representative in the legislature ; he be- came attorney-general of Massachusetts in 1790, and was twice elected governor of the state. Ele wrote A History of the District of Maine and several other works. He died in Boston, Decem- ber 10, 1808.
Samuel Dana, born June 26, 1767, eminent as a lawyer and jurist (son of Samuel Dana, minister of Groton, 1761 - 75), represented the town in the General Court in 1802 - 03, 1825 - 27, and was senator from Middlesex 1805 - 13 and 1817, and president of the senate, 1807, 1811, and 1812; member of the State Constitutional Convention, 1820-21; in Congress, 1814 - 15, and chief justice of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas fromn 1811 to 1820 ; he died at Charlestown November, 1835.
Samuel Luther Dana, M.D., LL.D., the emi- nent chemist and writer on agriculture, was born in Groton, July 11, 1795. He was a lieutenant of artillery in the war of 1812. Studied medicine, receiving his degree in 1818; practised in Wal- tham from 1819 - 26 ; founded the Newton Chem- ical Company, and was afterward chemist to the Merrimac Print Works at Lowell. Ile made im- portant discoveries and improvements in bleaching and printing cotton goods. He was the author of The Farmer's Muck Manual and other works. He died at Lowell, March 11, 1868.
Timothy Bigelow, born April 30, 1767, though not a native of Groton, was for many years a dis- tinguished resident. He opened a law office in Groton, and was frequently the opponent of Sam- nel Dana in important cases. lle married into the Prescott family. He was representative of the town in 1793 and for the next succeeding thirteen years, except 1803. In 1802-1804 he was a member of the executive council. He was senator from Middlesex from 1797 to 1801, and again councillor in 1821. He died May 18, 1821.
Ether Shepley, LL.D., was born in Groton November 2, 1789. He was a lineal descendant
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of Jolin Shepley, who was captured by the Indians July 27, 1694, and held a prisoner for several years. He studied law and settled in Portland, Me. He was in the Massachusetts legislature in 1819, and a member of the Maine constitutional convention in IS20; United States attorney for Maine 182I - 1833, and United States senator in 1833-36. Was chosen a justice of the supreme court of Maine in 1836, and was chief justice from 1848 - 1855. He furnished material for twenty-six vol- umes of reports, and was sole commissioner to revise the statutes of Maine, published in 1857. He died in Portland, Me., January 15, 1877.
Abbott Lawrence, LL.D. born December 16, 1792, was a brother of William and Amos Law- rence, and, like them, was educated in the Groton Academy. In 1808 he became a clerk, and in 1814 a partner, in the dry-goods house of his brother Amos. He was sent to Congress in 1835-37 and 1839-41, and in 1842 was ap- pointed one of the commissioners to settle the northeastern boundary question with Great Britain. He was minister to England from 1849 to 1853. He founded the Lawrence Scientific School by a donation of $100,000 to Harvard University ; left $50,000 towards erecting model lodging-houses, and was noted for his liberality to worthy objects. He died in Boston, August 18, 1855.
Rev. Dudley Phelps, born at Hebron, Coun., January 25, 1798, graduated at Yale College, 1823, and at Auburn Theological Seminary in 1827 ; was ordained in January, 1828, at Haver- lill, Mass., over the Congregational church in that place, where he remained until August 28, 1333. He was among the early warm friends of the temperance movement, and after leaving Haverhill was for some time the editor of the Salem Land- mark, in which paper while under his charge Dr. George B. Cheever's celebrated vision of " Deacon Giles's Distillery " appeared. Mr. Phelps was in- stalled over the Union (Congregational) Church at Groton on the 19th of October, 1836, and re- mained its pastor till his death on the 24th of September, 1819. He married in 1831 Ann Kinsman, daughter of Dr. Aaron and Mary (Wil- lis) Kiusman of Portland, Me., by whom he had one son, Benjamin Kinsman. He again married Lucretia Gardner, daughter of Benjamin M. Far- ley, Esq., of Hollis, N. H., by whom he had, first, Lueretia G., who died in infancy ; secondly, Lucy Elizabeth, living in Boston ; thirdly, Dudley Far- ley, deputy collector of customs at the port of
New York; and fourthly, Francis L., residing in Boston.
Benjamin Kinsman Phelps, born at Haverhill, Mass., September 16, 1832, son of Rev. Dudley and Ann (Kinsman) Phelps, removed to Groton in 1837, after his father was settled there; fitted for college at the Lawrence Academy, under principals Barstow, Wells, and Means. Entered Yale College in October, 1849, and graduated in 1853. Oc- cupied most of 1854 in a voyage around the world, and upon his return studied law with Hon. Benjamin M. Farley of Hollis, N. H .; was ad- mitted to the bar at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in July, 1856, and in the same year began the prac- tice of law in the city of New York, where he has since resided. He was assistant district attor- ney of the United States for the southern dis- trict of New York from 1866 to 1870. In November, 1872, he was elected district attorney of the city and county of New York, receiving the support of the republicans and of the " Committee of Seventy," which represented the citizens' move- ment organized to oppose the so-called "Tweed ring," there being no democratic candidate against him. At the expiration of his term of office, Mr. Phelps was again elected in November, 1875, to the saine position upon a fusion ticket, composed of republicans and independent democrats, re- ceiving a majority of about 27,000 votes, and was a third time elected upon a similar ticket in No- vember, 1878.
Timothy Fuller, the eminent lawyer and Demo- cratic politician and orator, though not born in Groton, was a resident of the town at the time of his death, October 2, 1835. He published speeches on the Seminole War, Missouri Compro- mise, etc. His daughter, the celebrated Margaret Fuller d'Ossoli, passed two years of her girlhood at the sehool of the Misses Prescott. In the sum- mer of 1850, while coming from Europe, she, with her husband and child, was wrecked on the coast of New Jersey, and all three were drowned.
George Sewall Boutwell, LL.D., born in Brook- line, Mass., Jan. 28, 1818, was in mercantile business twenty years, then studied law, and was admitted to the bar; was seven years in the state legislature, between 1842 and 1850; was governor of Massachusetts IS51 - 53 ; member of the consti- tutional convention in 1853; bank commissioner 1849 - 50 ; five years secretary of the Massachu- setts Board of Education ; six years on the Board of Overseers of Harvard College ; first commis-
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Abbott Jaune
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sioner of internal revenue, under President Lin- colu, from July, 1862, to March, 1863; in Congress, 1863-69 ; and secretary of the United States Treasury from March, 1869, to March, 1873, when he entered the United States Senate for the term ending in 1877. In February, 1868, he ad- vocated, in an able speech, the impeachment of President Jolmson, and in April was one of the seven managers of the impeachment trial. He has long been an honored resident of the town, where he owns one of the largest and best managed farms in Middlesex County, widely known as the Chest- nut Hill Farm.
Daniel Needham was born at Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, May 24, 1822. Educated at the Friends' Boarding School, Providence, Rhode Isl- land. Studied law with Daniel Roberts of Salem, and continued in active practice until 1855. Was on the staff of Governor George S. Boutwell, 1851 and 1852 ; Treasurer of the town of Groton, 1853 and 1854. Removed to Hartford, Vermont, in 1855; was a member of the house of represen- tatives in Vermont, in 1857 and 1858, and a mem- ber of the senate from the County of Windsor, Vermont, 1859 - 60, and of the extra session which made provision against the Rebellion in 1861. Was appointed commissioner to represent Vermont at the International Exhibition at Hamburg in Germany, in 1863, and was successful in securing for Vermont first and second premiums upon merino sheep exhibited at that exposition, the result of which was greatly to stimulate sheep- breeding in Vermont, and secure for her leading sheep-breeders an important foreign trade. Re- turned to Groton, Massachusetts, to reside in the autumn of 1863, on his return from Europe. Was elected to the house of representatives in Massa-
chusetts at the November election in 1866, and to the Massachusetts senate at the elections in 1867 -1868. Was appointed United States National Bank examiner by commission dated March 31, 1871, and continues to hold that office. Has been secretary of the New England Agricultural Society since its organization in 1864, and was for eight years during his residence in Vermont secretary of the Vermont State Agricultural Society. Has been on the school committee of Groton twenty years, a considerable portion of the time chairman of the board, and was, while in Vermont, superintendent of the public schools in the town of Hartford. Has delivered many public addresses, which have been printed in pamphlet form and otherwise; among those commanding the largest attention being one before the Vermont State Agricultural Society in 1875 upon the "Condition of the Na- tion's Agriculture"; before the New Hampshire State Agricultural Society in 1877 upon the " Hard Times, their Cause and Remedy," and before the Fitchburg board of trade in 1879 upon the " Na- tional Outlook "; also two addresses at Philadel- phia in 1876 during the three days' session of " New England at the Centennial," one upon the " Position of New England at the Centennial," and the other upon the "Growth and Development of Art in America."
Charles H. Waters, agent for the Clinton Wire Cloth Company, to whose ingenuity that establish- ment is indebted for several important inventions and improvements in its machinery, has for many years been a resident of the town. Among his inventions may be noted the machine for rapidly painting wire window-gnards and window-screens in different colors, and in plain or figured patterns, and for almost as rapidly drying them.
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
HOLLISTON.
BY REV. GEORGE F. WALKER.
OLLISTON is situated in the extreme southern part of Middlesex County. The Mil- ford branch of the Boston and Albany Railroad runs through it from north to south, on which there are three stations : East IIollis- ton, Holliston, and Metcalf's. Its distance from Boston by rail is twenty-six miles. The town is bounded on the north by Ashland and Sherborn, on the east and southeast by Medway, on the southwest by Milford, and on the west by Hopkinton. It has, according to the census of 1875, 3399 inhabitants, and a valuation of $1,904,170. Its surface is uneven, and well divided into upland and meadow. Lake Winthrop, of one hundred and twenty-five acres, is situated south of the central village. It has no large streams of water. Beaver-dam, Chicken Jar, and Hopping Brooks flow southerly into Charles River, and with Winthrop Brook, the outlet of Lake Winthrop, furnish all the water- power of the town. The business of the town is both agricultural and manufacturing.
Holliston was originally a part of Sherborn, and its territory was explored as early as 1659. Dur- ing that year Major Eleazer Lushur of Dedham received a grant of land from the General Court, which grant comprised what is now the central part of the town. He sold his grant the next year to Lieutenant Henry Adams of Medfield, who occu- pied it for the pasturage of his cattle. One of his sons, Jasper Adams, established his camp near the foot of a hill, from the summit of which he could communicate by signal-fires with his father in Medfield. This hill, situated in the centre of the town, was named Jasper Hill; but it has since been called Mt. Hollis, which name it still bears. The second proprietor of land, like the first, lived in Medfield. There is no record of any actual settlement within the bounds of Holliston, till after the incorporation of Sherborn in 1674. July 12,
1682, a deed of three thousand acres of land, com- prised in the township of Sherborn, was signed by seven Indians, for themselves and " in behalf of the other Indian claimers of said land." There is little doubt that the remaining lands of the entire township, then including Holliston, were after- wards honorably purchased of the aboriginal pro- prietors. In proof of this purchase, there is a record of an assessment of the inhabitants to pay the price given to the Indians.
In 1682 there was a second division of the com- mon lands of Sherborn, including all in Holliston ; and John Hill, Benjamin Bullard, Obadiah Morse, Jonathan Morse, and Edmund West purchased two thousand acres for £10. These men and their families formed the nucleus of the subsequent town. About fifty years after the first actual settlement of the territory of Holliston, there were only thirteen subscribers to the petition to be in- corporated as a town; this probably included all the landholders but five. The population was then about 100.
The bill to incorporate the western part of Sher- born as a separate township was passed to be en- acted by both houses of the colonial legislature, December 3, 1724, and the name of Holliston was given " in honor of the illustrious Thomas Hollis Esq. of London "; and the same bill directed that " Mr. John Goulding, a principle inhabitant of Holliston, be empowered and directed to summon the inhabitants, qualified for voters, to meet for the chusing of town officers to stand till the next annual election according to law." The first town- meeting was held at the house of Tunothy Leland, Monday, December 25, 1724, at which five select- men and all other required officers were chosen, and the organization was completed.
At the second meeting of the voters of the town, held January 4, 1724-25, the following vote was passed : " Voted to erect a meeting-house Accom-, odable for the inhabitants of Said Town to worship God in, on Lord's day, and place it, or set it on the South Easterly side of Jasper Hill, so called,
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by the road side, on the Westerly side of the Road, on the most Rising ground the way goes over their, which is on the Honorable Colonel Brown's Farm." At the next town-meeting £ 100 were raised by tax on polls and estates, one half in money, each tax-payer being allowed to work out half his rate, at a price for the labor to be agreed upon with the committee. It was also " Voted, that the Demen- tions of the meeting-house shall be about Forty foot in Length, about Thirty too foot in bredth, and abont Twenty foot post." This meeting-house was built on the Common, on which the meeting- house of the Congregational Church now stands, and was completed m 1728, at a cost of about twice the appropriation, or £200. This sum is represented by $88.8 in Federal currency. In 1772 it was repaired and enlarged, and it remained the only house of worship in town till the building of the " new church " in 1822. Early in the first year of its corporate existence the town took meas- ures to procure preaching, and public worship was first held at the house of Mr. Timothy Leland, where it was continued till the meeting-house was completed.
On the 26th of June, 1727, the town held a meeting to make arrangements to secure a minis- ter. The second article in the warrant read thus : "to choose an orthodox, learned and pious person to dispense the word of God as a minister of the gospel in said town.". It was voted to call Mr. James Stone, and to offer him a yearly salary of £75, with a settlement of £100. He was not or- clained till November 20, 1728; at which time a church of eight members was organized. Mr. Stone died July 19, 1742, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, and in the fourteenth of his ministry. He was followed by Mr. Joshua Prentiss, who was called September 3, 1742, and ordained May 18, 1743. He was dismissed in 1785, after a ministry of forty-two years. Owing to some neglect or dif- ference, the town fell behind in the payment of his salary, and he entered upon a civil prosecution to obtain it ; the difficulty was, however, settled with- out a legal process, by mutual agreement entered into April 4, 1785. Mr. Prentiss died April 24, 1788, in his seventy-first year.
At a town-meeting held October 30, 1749, it was voted to seat the meeting-house, and a com- mittee was chosen to dignify the seats; the com- mittee reported as follows : " We the Subscribers, Being appointed a committee to Digmfy the seats in the Meeting house of Holliston, we are of
| opinion, That The Fore Seats Below, be the first Seat, and the Second Seats Below, Be S'cond Seat, and Third Seats Below, and The front Seats in the Gallery be equal. The forth Seats Below to be ye forth In Dignitee and The Side Gallery to be forth in Dignitee, and fifth below To Be The Sixth in Dignitee, and the Second Seats in the front Gallery, Which is the Eight Seat To be The Seventh Seats In Dignitee, as We Have Sot Them. That the Invoice Taken In The Year forty eight Be The Rule With Having a Proper Regard to age." Five men protested against this action of the town " as not according to Law and Reason."
Between December 18, 1753, and January 30, 1754, the town was visited by a fatal disease which was appropriately named "The Great Sickness." In his century sermon preached December 4, 1826, Rev. Charles Fitch thus speaks of it : " At the time of its appearance the town contained a population of about four hundred. The symptoms, which peculiarly marked the disease, were violent and piercing pains in the breast or side, a high fever, and extreme difficulty of expectoration, which in some cases, if not in most, resulted in strangula- tion. Some, it is said, apparently in the last stages of the disease, who eventually recovered, were evidently relieved by administering oil. No de- rangement of mind usually accompamed the disease ; the sick generally survived their attack only fromn three to six days. From notes taken, during the prevalence of the sickness, by the Rev. Joshua Prentiss, and which were found among his papers after his decease, we learn that on the 31st of December seven, and on the 4th of January ten, lay unburied ; that during the week, on which the last date occurred, seventeen died ; and that from two to five were buried in a day for many days successively. The whole number who died of this fatal malady is fifty-three, more than one eighth of the population. Of this number twenty-seven were heads of families, fifteen males and twelve females ; twelve were unmarried persons of adult age, eight males and four females ; seven were chil- dren, and seven were inhabitants of other towns, all of whom were males with one exception. In the fearful desolations produced by this disease, the church of Christ was bereft of fifteen of its members. Few families escaped, and four were entirely broken up by the removal of both the husband and the wife. For more than a month, there were not enough in health to attend the sick and bury the dead, though their whole time was
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employed in such services. The sick suffered and the dead lay unburied, notwithstanding charitable assistance and personal attendance were furnished by people in the vicinity. A most remarkable circumstance attending this sickness is its being almost wholly confined to a small town, without the smallest apparent natural cause for its exist- ence at all, especially for its restriction within so narrow compass."
Some considered this sickness as a special visi- tation of God, to manifest his displeasure at the contentions in which the people were violently en- gaged respecting the proceedings of the town in regard to certain roads. Two of the principal men in town were also engaged in a lawsuit, said to be respecting the value of a wig; both of whom were attacked by the disease on their return from court, one of them dying before he reached his home, the other soon after. These contentions were ended. by this visitation, and the inhabitants of the town lived in peace with each other.
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