USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 82
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About the year 1814 Hlon. Elihu Cutler with others erected a thread-inill on Winthrop Brook. This enterprise was embarrassed by the general depression in business, but it gave an impulse to the industries of the town which was the beginning of its later prosperity. This water-power, supple- mented by a steam-engine, is now used by Mr. Warren L. Payson, for the manufacture of church, office, and store wood-work, and boxes.
The manufacture of straw goods in Holliston dates back to 1815, when it was commenced by Charles and George Leland. The business has also been carried on by Messrs. Thayer, Slocomb, and others. The building, now used as a straw- shop, was erected in 1862, since which time it has received several additions. Messrs. Mowry, Rodgers, & Co. are the proprietors. There is room in the building sufficient to accommodate two hun- dred and fifty hands. Seventy straw-sewing ma- chines and binders do the work formerly done by hand, and thirteen hydraulie presses are used in finishing the bonnets. The average amount of business per year is not far from $150,000, and the pay-roll from $2,000 to $3,000 per month, three-quarters of which is paid to those who live in town. The motive power is steam. The braid which is used in the manufacture of hats and bon- nets is principally imported from China, where it is produced at about half a cent per yard.
It is not known when the first store was opened in lTolliston. It is safe, however, to conclude that, as the inhabitants increased, and their needs began to multiply, stores were opened. Counting dry-goods stores, grocers' stores, hardware stores, apothecary shops, markets, &c., there are twenty- six stores in town, each one securing more or less trade.
In 1834 a comb factory was built on Jar Brook. The hard times of 1837 cansed it to stop
work for a season, after which it was again in operation till it was burned in 1859. When its production was the greatest its annual sales amounted to about $100,000. In 1866, Messrs. Stetson & Talbot commenced in the same place the manufacture of shoe-nails, and shoe and upholstery tacks. These are made of iron, zinc, and copper. About twenty persons are employed in this factory, and in good times it turns out not far from three hundred tons of manufactured material per annum. Its power is furnished by the water of Jar Brook, supplemented by a steam engine.
In 1837 Messrs. Houghton & Joslyn began to manufacture copper pumps. At first they made only from two to three hundred per year. In 1851 the firm took the name of S. Wilder & Co. This business increased till from four to five hundred pumps were made in a single year. The pumps made by this firm have secured a reputation which has created the demand for them. They are begin- ning to be known in England and some of the countries of South America. This business, in common with all others, is feeling the pressure of the times.
Laurin Leland, Esq., commenced the cultivation of cranberries in 1854. He has eight acres of meadow, two acres of which are cultivated, the ground having been prepared, and the vines set out, and the rest being a natural cranberry bog, improved by spreading sand upou it. The average yield is from three to four hundred bushels of ber- ries per year.
In 1860 Deacon George Batchelder planted one hundred square rods of meadow land with cran- berry vines, and since that time he has increased the ground devoted to the cultivation of this berry to eight acres. This land cost in 1860 $130, and it has so increased in value that it has for several years been taxed on a valuation of $2,000. The average yield per year for the last six years lias been not far from a hundred and fifty barrels, sell- ing, at an average price of $ 10 per barrel. The land is near the Factory Bridge, adjoining the Mil- ford Branch Railroad.
In 1874 Mr. George B. Fiske bought and com- menced to use a single Lamb Knitting maeline. From this small beginning he has continued to in- crease his machinery, till he has thirty-five machines, and in the busy season he employs twenty-five girls. He manufactures all kinds of ladies' and gentle- men's cotton and woollen hosiery, infants' Saxony shirts, suspenders, ladies' and children's gaiters,
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mittens, etc. The business which had so humble an origin has established itself among the manu- facturing enterprises of the town.
There has been a rapid increase of the popula- tion of Holliston since 1850. The boot and shoe business has furnished employment for a large number of men ; the railroad facilities have greatly helped the industries of the town, and when pros- perous times again return it will doubtless hold its place among the enterprising and thrifty towns of Middlesex county.
Holliston has ever had a good record in respect to temperance, and the people, as a whole, have not given countenance or encouragement to the selling or using of intoxicating liquors as a beverage. As early as July 7, 1827, a society was organized under the name of " Holliston Society for the Pro- motion of Temperance." At the present time there are three organizations, numbering in all seven hun- dred and eight members. This is a good record for future generations.
Holliston presents to the eye of the beholder a
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pleasing picture. Its principal village lies at the foot of Mt. Hollis and Powder-House hills, and Lake Winthrop adds a water view to the scenery. Its houses, while they are not expensive, are, for the most part, kept in good repair, giving an air of thrift to the general appearance. An abundance of shade- trees, especially when they are clothed in their sum- mer verdure, adds much to the attractions of the place. Its inhabitants have generally dwelt to- gether in harmony. There are none very rich, and few poor. Within the last thirty years many per- sons of foreign birth have come to reside in the town, adding largely to the number of its inhabi- tants ..
With a past which will compare favorably with that of its sister towns in old Middlesex County, the prospects of llolliston for the future are cheer- ing; and when, at some future time, its continued history shall be written, is it not safe to prediet that it will be a history of which its inhabitants will have no cause to be ashamed ?
HOPKINTON.
BY REV. ELIAS NASON.
HE town of Hopkinton, contain- ing 4,503 inhabitants, and sit- uated in the extreme southwest- ern angle of Middlesex Connty, was incorporated December 13, 1715, O. S., and named in honor of Governor Edward Hopkins. Its present bounda- ries, beginning at the north and proceeding easterly, are Westborough, Southborough, Ashland, Holliston, Milford, and Upton. It lies about twenty-nine miles southwest of Boston by the Boston and Albany, and the Hopkinton, Milford, and Woon- socket railroads. The Congregational church is in 42° 13' north latitude, and in 71° 31' west longi- tude. The land is broken, elevated, and rocky ; but well watered and productive.
Branches of the Blackstone, the Charles, and the Sudbury rivers rise near the centre of the town.
The principal sheets of water are the White Hall Pond and the North Pond ; and the chief emi- nences are Saddle Hill and Bear Hill, from both of which, as well as from the highlands in the cen- tre of the town, extensive and varied prospects may be enjoyed.
Originally the easterly part of the town was in- habited by the Indians, whose burial-place is still visible. Here the Rev. John Eliot had a company of " Praying Indians," and here on the northern slope of Magunco 1 Hill an Indian fortification was erected.
As early as 1669 these aborigines had learned to make " cedar shingles and clarboards unto which work in moyling in the swamps ye are fitter yu many English and many English choose rather to
1 Variously spelled, as : - Mogoncooke, Moguncoz, Magun- kook, Magunkoog, Magunkaquoy, Mayuaguncok, Magaguncock, Magwoukkommuk, Magunchog, etc. It means "a place of great trees."
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buy ym of the Indians yn make ymn themselves." So says Mr. Eliot in a petition to the General Court " in the behalf of the poor Indians of Natik and Mag- woukkommok, this 14th of the 8,69." "Whereas," he adds, " a company of new praying Indians are set downe in the westermost corner of Natik bounds called Magwonkkommok who have called one to rule and another to teach ym, of whom the latter is of the church, the former ready to be joyned and there is not fit land for planting toward Natik but westward there is enough very rocky, these are humbly to request yt fit accommodations may be allowed ym westward, and thus committing this honorable Court unto the holy guidance of the Lord I rest, your humble petitioner."
Ensign Grout and Thomas Eames were appointed a committee to report on the subject ; but the de- cision of the court does not appear. The petition was attested by Edward Rawson and William Tor- rey, October 21, 1669.
Of these Indians Major General Daniel Gookin in 1674 gives this account : "Magunkaquog is the seventh town where the praying Indians inhabit. The signification of the place's name is the place of great trees. It is situate partly within the bounds of Natick and partly upon the land grauted by the country. It lieth west southerly from Boston, about twenty-four miles near the midway between Natick and Hassanamesset. The number of its inhabitants are about eleven families and about fifty-five souls. There are men and women eight members of the church at Natick and about fifteen baptized persons. The quantity of land belonging to it, is about 3,000 acres. The Indians plant upon a great hill which is very fertile and these people worship God and keep the Sabbath and observe civil order, as do other towns. They have a constable and other officers. Their rulers name is Pomhaman, a sober and active man and pious. Their teacher's name is Job, a person well accepted for piety and ability among them. This town was the last settling of the old towns. They have plenty of corn and keep some cattle and swine, for which the place is well accommodated."
Job Kattenanit was friendly to the English, for whom he acted as a spy during Philip's War; but he unfortunately fell into the hands of some white soldiers who took from him his clothes and gun, and then sent him as a prisoner to Boston, where "more to satisfy the clamors of the people than for any offence he had done," he was immnred in jail. On being liberated, he again served as a Thomas Waban, Samuel Abraham, Solomon Thomas,
spy, for which the sum of £5 sterling was paid to him.
Among other Indians then living at Magunco were Netus, Annecocken, Joshua Assatt, John Dublet, William Jackstraw, Joseph Jackstraw, and John Jackstraw.
On the 1st of February, 1676, Netns with ten or more followers made an assault upon the house of Mr. Thomas Eames, near Farm Pond in Fram- ingham. His family consisted of himself, his wife, and nine children. He had gone to Boston for ammunition, and the enemy therefore chose this opportunity for the attack. The mother and her children made a stout resistance ; but she and three or four of them were killed and the remainder taken captive. The house and barn were burned, and the cattle and grain destroyed. One of the agents sent to redeem the children was himself, it is said, taken captive by Miss Margaret Eames, and subsequently made her his wife.
Netus, the leader of this marauding party, was killed at Marlborough on the 27th of March fol- lowing the assault. Annecocken died soon after- wards, and three others were tried, condemned, and executed on the 21st of September, 1676. Old Jacob and Joshua Assatt were pardoned. They assigned as the reason of the assault, " their missing of corn, which they expected to have found at Mogoncocke." Mr. Eames died January 25, 1680, aged about sixty-two years. The lands of Magunco, embracing 4,000 acres more or less, were in 1679 exchanged by the town of Sherborn for the same quantity of land belonging to the town of Natick.
By a plan of Sherborn, drawn by Mr. Joseph Sherman, August, 1701, it appears that that town then embraced, not only the Magunco lands, but also the larger part of what is now Hopkinton.
At the close of Philip's War, in 1676, the In- dians had mostly disappeared from Magunco and even from the town of Natick. "Generally such as remaine," say the Shattuck MSS., " are of those indians yt formerly (before y war) lived under our government at Ilassanamesit, Magunkog, Marl- borough, and Wamesitt. The men belonging to these are not above fifteen, and they are abroad in the army at the eastward under Capt. Hunting." Still the Indians of Natick held for a long period possession of the whole, or a part of the Magunco lands. It was voted by them, September 24, 1715, "1. That the lands of Magunkook be sold to the trustees of Mr. Hopkins legacy. 2. That Capt.
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HOPKINTON.
Abraham Speen, Thomas Pegan, Isaac Nehemiah, and Benjamin Tray be a committee of agents for the proprietors of Natick, to agree with Captain Sewall, Mr. John Leverett, Major Fitch, and Mr. Danicl Oliver for ye sale of the lands of Magun- kook, and to do all things requisite in the law for ye effectual investing the said lands in ye trustees of Mr. Hopkins legacy."
As late as March 30, 1752, the town of Natick voted " to dismiss Francis Fullam, Esq., and chose Jonathan Richardson in his room to procure their rent money of their Maguncog lauds and pay it to each proprietor according to his proportion."
Samuel, John, and Solomon Wamseum were the last of the Magunco Indians living in Hopkinton. One of them was frozen to death, and Solomon, " a very good limner," died in Sherborn in 1790.
A tract of 500 acres of land between the Sud- bury River and the Cold Spring Brook, now the site of the village of Ashland, was granted by the General Court to Colonel William Crowne, Octo- ber 3, 1662, in consideration of service done by him in England for the Colony.1 This tract of land, with some additions, amounting in all to 631 acres, was conveyed by Henry Crowne to Savill Simpson, cordwainer of Boston, July 4, 1687, for the sum of thirty pounds, and a survey and plat of it, now iu my possession, was made by John Smith, March 6 and 7, 1688-89. The Indian title was relinquished, June 20, 1693, and the estate subsequently came into the hands of Colonel Jolin Jones, who married Hannah, a daughter of Savill Simpson, and was one of the early settlers of Hopkinton.
A large part of the territory of the town was purchased with money left as a bequest in the will of Edward Hopkins (1600-1657), "for the pur- pose of upholding and propagating the kingdom of the Lord Jesus in New England." The money came to Harvard College, and amounted, Febru- ary 5, 1711, to £800 sterling. At a meeting of the trustees for its management, held in Boston, 1711, it was voted, 1. "That the committee for signing leases to the tenants of the lands in Hop- kintou, be directed and empowered and they are hereby directed and empowered, to allot and set out 12,500 acres of the best and most improvable of the lauds within the said township. 2. That they are directed to lay out 100 acres of land for the ministry iu such convenient place and manner as they shall fiud most suitable for that use. That
1 Sce a description of this tract on p. 227. - ED.
| 100 acres of land shall be laid out for the first minister that shall be ordained and settled in the town, to be for him and his heirs for the term of ninety-nine years from the 25th of March last past, free from paying any rent; and that 100 acres shall be laid out for the school, a training field and burying-yard by the said committee, as they shall judge most accommodable; and 200 acres more shall be reserved to be allotted for other publick uses as the trustees from time to time shall see meet to direct. 3. That the residue and remainder of the lands over and above the above mentioned 12,500 acres within the said township belonging to the trustees, either by purchase or the General Court's grant (the cedar swamps in that part of the town granted by the General Court excepted), shall be and remain a common to and among the tenants that shall hold their lands by leases under the said trustees for their use and benefit, each tenant to have a right and privilege to said common according to the quantity of land contained and specified in their leases for and during their term." The lands were rented to the tenants for the term of ninety-nine years at three- pence per acre annually and this was to be increased to sixpence per acre at the expiration of the leases.
The settlement of the place was commenced by the English about the year 1710, and, as the terms were favorable, people in indigent circumstances came in from the neighboring towns to take pos- session of the land and to establish homesteads.
On the 13th of December, 1715, the act of - incorporation was passed, although the tenants did not establish a municipal government until March 25, 1724 (O. S.) when the following town officers were chosen : John How, John Wood, Henry Mellen, Joseph Haven, and James Cellar, selectmen ; John How, town clerk; Elnathan Allen, treasurer ; and Samuel Watkins and Ben- jamin Burnap, constables.
Among the early settlers were several families of the Scotch-Irish who had emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland, in the year 1718, in com- pany with those who founded the town of Nutfield, now Londonderry, N. H., and whose descendants have been greatly distinguished for their piety and ability.
The people voted, May 21, 1723, " to have preaching constantly on the Sabbath;" and the ser- vices were then held in the house of Mr. John How. On the 20th of May, 1724, it was voted to give Mr. Samuel Barrett, who had been preach-
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ing for some time in the place, "£60 in day-labor, oxens work, boards, shingles, clapboards, slitwork and other materials to build him a house and if not paid in those articles, to be paid in money ; " also, " £ 35 in addition to cutting and carting his fire-wood for three years, and seventy afterwards, with the cutting and the carting of his fire-wood, which was to be his aunnal salary." On the 30th of June following, the trustees of the Hopkins legacy gave £30 towards building Mr. Barrett's house. It stood on the site of the present town- hall, a little to the westward of the meeting-house. In his diary under date of December 20, 1722, the Rev. Samuel Dexter says : " I diverted myself (I hope) with a lawful recreation in hunting with Mr. Barrett." He also wrote three days afterward : " Preached at Hopkinton. Preaching seemed to strain my lungs and make me pent up at the breast but thro' God's goodness I was carried through ye duties of ye day." A church, consisting of fif- teen members, was organized September 2, 1724, and on the same day the Rev. Samuel Barrett was ordained as pastor. The original members were Samuel Barrett, Samuel Watkins, William Mont- gomery,* Robert Hamilton,* Samuel Wark,* Ben- jamin Burnap, Robert Cook, * Elnathan Allen, John Wood, Joseph Haven, Robert Huston, * William Dunaghoi *, Patrick Hamilton, * Obadiah Allen and Jacob Gibbs. Those marked with a star were from the north of Ireland.
Measures were soon taken for the erection of a meeting-house. A committee was appointed Jan- uary 5, 1724 - 25, " to provide ye timber for ye meeting-house and to frame it, improving ye peo- ple of ye town to work out their rates." The house was to be forty-eight feet long, thirty-eight feet wide, and twenty feet between the joists. In June following, three places were selected on which to set the building, and casting lots thereon, " it fell upon that south of ye burying-ground." In No- vember of the same year £10 were granted for raising " ye meeting-house with spike poles"; and so the first church edifice in Hopkinton went up, and continued in use more than one hundred years. The interior was finished and furnished from time to time, as the people had leisure and means to do it.
It was voted in 1727 that Mr. Jones' pew may be seven and a half feet long and five feet wide, and also that there should be a " ministerial pew on the north side of the west door." The town at this time had about one hundred and twenty ten- ants, and they had Icased about 1,200 acres of land.
Attention was early given to the instruction of the children, and on the 20th of May, 1728, a com- mittee was chosen " to agree with a school-master for nine months." The town voted, March 28, 1729-30, " to provide some school dames and a master." Mr. Peter How was the master, and the school was taught in his house. The sum of £12 was appropriated for the support of the schools, and the " school dames " were to have 5s. or 68. per week. It was voted, February 3, 1730-31, " That the town shall be divided by a committee in order to a moveing school "; Mr. Paul Lang- don was the teacher this year, and his wages were £3 per month.
On the 9th of April, 1732, the church voted " to comply with ye platform of church discipline agreed to by ye synod of churches assembled at Cambridge, 1649, as ye rule of discipline so far as they apprehend it to be agreeable to the word of God." In the year following, Captain Edward Goddard and sixteen others, dissatisfied with the Rev. Mr. Swift of Framingham, left his church in order to unite with that of Mr. Barrett.
The acceptance of the Cambridge platform gave great offence to the Scotch Presbyterians, and James Montgomery, Robert Cook, William Henry, Walter Stewart, Robert Huston, John Hamilton, Robert Barrett and others absented themselves from com- munion, and signified their intention of leaving the town. Robert Cook said, " that he desired no dismission ; but that the church ought to ask a dis- mission from him."
These disaffected brethren subsequently built a small meeting-house near the residence of Walter McFarland, Esq. ; but they eventually removed to New Glasgow, now Blandford, west of the Con- neetieut river.
It appears from the papers of Colonel John Jones, that the sentences against offenders at this period were unusually severe. One John Gallo- way of Hopkinton, " did own himself guilty of stealing a sheep that appeared to be Ensign John Woods and is therefore sentenced to pay said Wood 20s, and three fold and to be whipt 15 lashes on his naked back and to pay cost aud to stand committed until sentence be performed, Oct. 7, 1734."
At this period, and long afterwards, persons settling in the town without permission of the authorities were warned to leave or to run the risk of paying heavy penalties. Such warnings were duly entered on the records.
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HOPKINTON.
It was voted, Angust 13, 1734, that the town should have " three school houses, one at White Hall, one at the meeting house and the other be- tween Mr. Brewers and the road coming from Woodwells into the country road "; and on the 3dl of December following, "it was voted to allow Elias Haven £4 per month for keeping school." Mr. Charles Morris was employed in 1734 to teach a grammar school. Captain John Joues was chosen, May 27, 1735, to represent the town in the General Court ; and he was the only person . elected by the town to that office until 1767, when Captain Joseph Mellen took his place. The sum of fifteen shillings was granted in 1735 to " Mr. How for making the town stocks "; but where this terror to offenders stood no person now can tell.
In January, 1736, an extensive tract of land in New Hampshire, then called Number Five, and sub- sequently New Hopkinton, was granted to Captain John Joues and others ; when several of his neigh- bors, among whom was David Woodwell, removed to that place. They lived in a garrison-house which was assaulted by the Indians on the 22d day of April, 1746. Mr. Woodwell, his wife, two sons, and his daughter Mary, Samuel Burbank and his sons Caleb and Jonathan, were taken captive. The rescue of Mary Woodwell from the Indians at St. Francis, Canada, and her subsequent career, afford rich material for a historical romance.
The town voted, September 29, 1740, " that the school should be kept in 5 distinct places "; one of which was at the house of Mr. Charles Morris in the Centre. It also voted to enclose "the burial place with a sufficient stone wall."
Inasmuch as the tenants now found it burden- some to pay the quit rents, it was, in 1740, agreed between them and the trustees of the Hopkins' legacy, that, instead of paying three pence per acre annually, they should for the remainder of the term of ninety-mine years' pay only one penny per acre annually, and after March 25, 1823, the annual- sum of three pence per acre. This agreement, sanctioned by an act of the legislature in 1741, gave for a while satisfaction to both parties.
What was called "the Spanish War" occurred in 1741, and the unfortunate expedition against Carthagena cost England as many as 20,000 men, most of whom died of the plague and fever. Of the five hundred sent from Massachusetts, only about fifty ever returned. The dreadful sufferings of the soldiers are most graphically described by Thomson in his Summer, and by Dr. Smollett, who
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