USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 84
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The Rev. Elijah Fitch died December 16, 1788, and it was said of him, " that no man ever more feelingly participated in the happiness or misery of his fellowmen than he, or better filleul the several offices of pastor, husband, friend, neighbor, and townsman." He was an eloquent preacher, a fine scholar, and a poet. He wrote and published a poem of several cantos, entitled The Beauties of Religion, which has considerable merit ; also a shorter poem, called The Choice, in which he felici- tously describes his manner of life in Hopkinton. He was fond of angling and the chase, in which amusements he frequently participated with Dr. John Wilson and Major William Price.
The selectmen for 1788 were Gilbert Dench, Isaac Bnrnap, Joseph Walker, and Nathan Perry. Samuel Freeland was the town clerk. The town this year first voted for a representative to congress under the new constitution, casting thirty-three ballots for Nathaniel Gorham and ten for Elbridge Gerry. A committee reported December 28, 1789, that there were not two hundred families in town, and therefore not enough to maintain a grammar school. The population in 1790 was 1,317, and twelve of these were colored persons living mostly on the "Frankland Place."
On the 5th of October, 1791, the Rev. Nathan- iel Iowe, born in Linebrook (Ipswich) October 6, 1764, and a graduate of Harvard College in 1786, was ordained as pastor of the church, the Rev. Ebenezer Bradford of Rowley preaching the ser- mon. The sum of £200 was given to Mr. Howe as a " settlement," and his annual salary was to be € 70, together with the use of the ministerial land.
A brief history of the town by Dr. Jeremy Stimp- son was published in 1794, in which he says : " The people have been very industrious since the late war, and have improved their lands to much greater advantage than formerly. A spirit of emu- lation prevails amongst the farmers, their enclo- sures, which used to be fenced with hedge and log frices, are now generally fenced with good stone walls. The roads, which used to be remarkable
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for their roughness and were almost impassable, are now good and are constantly becoming better. The inhabitants manufacture the principal part of their clothing. There is scarcely a house but has looms, spinning-wheels, etc. suitable for this pur- pose."
The town voted, April 6, 1795, to erect guide- posts, and also to give a bounty of Is on every crow that should be killed in it ; and on May 6th of the same year, it cast sixty-six votes for and twenty- five against a revision of the state constitution. It voted April 3, 1797, "To choose a committee of three to petition the General Court that shad and alewives might come to White Hall Pond through the mill-dams in their way to said pond." The town at this time and afterwards was strongly democratic, the only men voting for Increase Sum- ner as governor this year being the Rev. Mr. Howe, Colonel John Jones, Major William Price, Dr. Jeremy Stimpson, Dr. John Wilson, Mr. Bara- chias Morse, and Mr. Isaac Surriage, a brother of the celebrated Lady Frankland.
The town cast, April 16, 1798, one hundred and nine votes against and one vote for arming ves- sels. This act of the town was severely criticised in an article which appeared in the " Massachusetts Centinel," on the 19th of May following; and a report was then drawn up in reply to it by a com- mittee, consisting of Nathan Perry, Isaac Burnap, Nehemiah IIowe, Joseph Walker, Phineas Howe, and Asa Eames, who say, in concluding it, that " It ought to be published in the court papers and ' The Centinel' to be a warning to others so that envy may not lead them to commit the blackest of crimes."
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An excellent map of the town was drawn this year by Matthew Metcalf, Esq., by which it appears that the town then contained about 20,532 acres ; and that the area of White Hall Pond was six hun- dred, and of North Pond seventy acres. The popu- lation in 1800 was 1,372. A committee for ex- amining the public schools was chosen for the first time in 1804, and in November of this year it was voted "to build a wall around the burial-ground." In 1806 Mr. Howe petitioned the town to add fifty per cent to his salary, " because," said he, " my salary has continued depreciating and labour rising, till it is not worth more than half it was when I was settled." This petition the town by a large majority refused to grant, nor was it willing to grant him a dismission ; so in order to make up the deficiency in his salary he labored on his farm, und maintained a most rigid system of economy. In
1SOS the town appropriated the sum of $30 for the support of the public schools.
Ilopkinton generally favored the war of 1812; and in November of that year " Voted to have the selectmen appropriate $3 to each man that turned out as a volunteer soldier on the Ist of June last and likewise to pay to each soldier that was de- tached at the same time, provided they be ealled upon to march into actual service." Matthew Met- calf, Esq., Nathan Perry, Esq., Nehemiah Howe, John Goulding, Walter McFarland, Nathan Rock- wood, and Joseph Morse were chosen as a committee of safety.
On the 24th of December, 1815, the Rev. Mr. Howe preached a remarkable sermon, reeounting the principal events of the town during its centu- rial existence and the grievances he himself had been called to bear for want of adequate support during his ministry. It abounds in flashes of wit and in sharp allusions to the treatment he had ex- perienced from his people. " It has been onr lot," says the North American Review, November, 1816, " to read more polished sermons than the present, but never one half so abounding in plainness and originality. It is a unique specimen, and beyond all price. That it should have been delivered is remarkable, -that it should have been printed still more so ; particularly as it was printed by request and dedicated to the parish with affectionate wishes for their peace, prosperity, and eternal happiness."
In it Mr. Howe says : " My health has some- times been poor and my mind greatly depressed : poverty has stared me in the face. My brethren, may I ask you one question ? - Do you know by what means I have become so rich as to have a great house finished and furnished ; a farm, a herd of cattle and a flock of sheep, horses and money at interest ? I say nothing about my debts today. Shall I answer the question ? The principal reason is this ; because I have been doing your business and negleeting my own. What is your business ? Your business is to support your minister, and that is what I have been doing for more than twenty years ; and what is my business ? My business is to study and preach ; and in this I have never abounded. - I have sometimes administered reproof, both to the church and society in a manner that has been thought to discover some degree of severity ; but in these cases you have always had good sense enough to know you richly deserved it."
This quaint sermon has been several times pub- lished : but it failed to move the hearts of the peo-
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ple of Hopkinton to raise the preacher's salary. A subscription of $65 was, however, obtained the day subsequent to its delivery for purchasing for Mr. Howe a suit of clothes.
The town voted, May 4, 1818, " To build a powder-house ; " and on the 16th of October, 1820, Nathan Phipps and Colonel Joseph Valentine were chosen delegates to the convention for the revision of the state constitution. The articles of amend- ment were, with the exception of the tenth, all accepted and ratified by the town, April 9, 1821. The number of district schools in 1822 was seven, and the population about 1,660. The psalms and hymus of Dr. Watts were used in the church ser- vice, and the choir was assisted in singing by the bass viol.
By the expiration of the term for which the lands were leased to the tenants, March 25, 1823, the rent became three pence per acre ; but this the occupants declined to pay, asserting that after so many changes and the loss of the records, it was now impossible to determine the quit rent from the common and the other land, and therefore what was and what was not liable for the rental. Actions were instituted in 1826 against several of the largest landholders for the recovery of the rents ; but they were defended with so much ability that it was resolved in the General Court in 1832 that the sum of $ 10,000 be drawn from the state treasury " in full settlement, satisfaction and dis- charge of the rents due," and paid to the trustees of the charity of Edward Hopkins; and thus the lands were exempted from farther taxation on this account. The present Congregational church was erected in 1839, and dedicated in January, 1830, the Rev. Mr. Ilowe preaching a memorable ser- mon on the occasion. On the 14th of September, 1830, the Rev. Amos A. Phelps, born in Sims- bury, Conn., November 11, 1804 (Yale College, 1826), was ordained as the colleague of Mr. Howe. He was dismissed May 1, 1832, and was followed by the Rev. Jeffries Hall, June 5, 1833. Mr. Hall was dismissed May 22, 1838. The Rev. Mr. Howe died February 15, 1837, aged seventy- two years, and after a pastorate of nearly forty-six years. For his life and character, see his memoir by the Rev. Elias Nason, published in 1851. The Rev. John C. Webster, a man of signal ability, was installed as sole pastor of the church December 19, 1838. His successors have been the Rev. Joseph Boardman ; the Rev. George H. Ide (Dart- mouth College, 1865), installed October 28, 1869,
dismissed November 1, 1876; and the Rev. Horatio O. Ladd, the present pastor, installed March 25, 1877. The church was remodelled in 1846, and furnished with an organ, the first in Hopkinton. The building was again improved in 1859, a better organ introduced, and the reded- ication occurred on the 19th of January, 1860.
The Methodist church was dedicated in 1856, and has had a succession of able pastors. The church of St. Malachi (Catholic) was erected in 1852, and the elegant church of St. John, just completed, now takes the place of it. A church was organized in the easterly part of the town, or old Magunco, then called Unionville, January 21, 1835, over which the Rev. James McIntire was settled as pastor. The meeting-house was dedi- cated January 21, 1836. The second pastor was the Rev. Joseph Haven, ordained November 6, 1839, and retired December 16, 1846. On the 16th of March of that year Unionville was incorpo- rated as the town of Ashland. There is a pleasant postal village, called Hayden Row, in the southerly part of Hopkinton, and another having a small Baptist church in the northerly part, called Wood- ville. The population of the town in 1840 was 2,245. In 1850 it had, notwithstanding the loss of Unionville, arisen to 2,801 ; in 1860, to 4,340 ; in 1870, to 4,419; in 1875, the last census, to 4,503.
The cause of this rapid increase in the popula- tion, of the improvements in the buildings, the streets, the schools, and general prosperity of the town, is the introduction and successful prose- cution of the manufacture of boots and shoes. To this town belongs the credit of showing the world that the bottom of a boot or shoe might be se- curely held together by a wooden peg. About the year 1819, Mr. Joseph Walker (son of Solomon and Sarah Bullard Walker, and born December 26, 1760, married Mehitable Gibbs, and died Janu- ary 9, 1852) made the discovery that he could, instead of stitching the sole of a boot as had here- tofore been practised, fasten its parts together, and the whole to the upper leather, by the insertion of rows of pegs, cut out of well-seasoned birch or maple wood. This little invention or discovery has produced a revolution in the leading branch of industry in this commonwealth. Mr. Walker originated, and with his five sons long carried on, the boot and shoe business in this town. In 1826 bis two sons, Leonard and Lovett, set up a manu- factory for themselves, and for ten years continued
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to carry their boots and shoes in a one-horse wagon to Boston and Providenee market. The work was then done mostly by the hand in small shops near the dwellings of the workmen. By degrees divi- sion of labor was introduced into the business, and subsequently machinery impelled by steam. Mr. Lee Claflin, father of ex-governor Claflin, estab- lished in 1840 a manufactory in Hayden Row, employing Mr. Lovett Bowker to do the work here, while he himself attended to the sale of the goods in Boston. The firm of Davenport & Gibbs com- inenced the business about that time ; other firms followed, improvements were introduced, foreign help employed ; and such has been the growth of this industrial art, such the enterprise of those engaged in it, that for the year ending May 1, 1$75, goods to the value of $1,797,000 were manufactured, the capital invested in the business being 8555,000. The total valuation of the town for that year was $2,240,986 ; the amount appro- priated for the public schools, $9,000.
For the War of the Rebellion Hopkinton fur- mished its full share of men and money, and well sustained its reputation as a brave and patriotic town. The whole number of men it sent into the Union service was 345.
Of men born in Hopkinton, the following may be noted : -
The Rev. John Mellen was born March 14, 1722 (H. C. 1741), ordained pastor of the church in Sterling December 19, 1744, and subsequently of the church in Hanover. He was grandfather of Prentice Mellen, the poet.
Colonel John Jones, a prominent citizen and justice of the peace, son of Colonel John Jones, was born in 1722, married Mary Mellen in 1749, and died in 1797, leaving a numerous posterity. He lived in what is now Ashland.
Captain Daniel Shays, leader of the insurgents in 1756 - 87, son of Patriek and Margaret Demp- sey Shays, was born at "the Shays Place " on Saddle Hill, in 1747. He left Hopkinton when about twenty-two years old, and served in the army during the War of the Revolution. He raised a company of which he was appointed eap- tain, and was wounded during the service. He married Mary Hayden, and after the war he settled in that part of Pelham which is now Prescott. After the rebellion he fled to New Hampshire ; but was eventually pardoned. He finally settled in Sparta, N. Y., where he died poor, September 29, 1525. In the latter part of his life he received
a pension from the government. His sister Cathe- rine married Noah Bigelow, January 22, 1766; another sister married Elijah Barnes of Shutes- bury, October 17, 1775. The only vestiges re- maining of the birthplace of Daniel Shays are some aged apple-trees, a well, and the cellar of the house. His father was an Irishman, and the name is in the early records spelled Shea, Sha, and some- times Pshia.
Jolin Barrett, teacher and author of an English grammar, 1819, son of Samuel Barrett, and grand- son of the Rev. Samuel Barrett, was born in 1769, and died April 4, 1821. He had a remarkable talent for acquiring and teaching the classie lan- guages, and it is said could repeat the whole of Virgil from memory. He was one of the early teachers of Horace Mann.
Colonel Joseph Valentine, son of Samuel Valen- tine, was born November 18, 1776, and died March 26, 1845. He possessed sterling common sense, and was for a long period one of the most prominent men of the town. He was a delegate in 1820 to the convention for the revision of the state constitution, and served as chief marshal at the conseeration of the Bunker Hill monument.
Matthew Metcalf, son of Matthew Metealf, was born in 1783, became a noted school-teacher, and held many publie offiees. He was an elegant pen- man, an accurate surveyor of land, and a man of sterling integrity.
Dr. Appleton Howe, son of the Rev. Nathaniel Howe, was born November 26, 1792 (H. C. 1815), and settled as a physician at South Weymouth, where he died October 10, 1870. He was at one time commander of a division of the state militia, and held many other responsible offices.
Aaron C. Mayhew was born in 1812, resides in Milford, and has been entrusted with many public offices. He is largely engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes.
Lee Claflin, son of Ebenezer and Sarah Claflin, was born November 19, 1791, and died February 23, 1871. He became wealthy by the manu- facture of boots and shoes, and served one term in the state senate. He was, with Colonel Joseph Valentine, Dr. Thomas Bucklin and others, aetive in establishing the Hopkinton Academy, and was noted for his cordial support of the Methodist ehurch.
The Rev. Elias Nason is engaged in preparing an extended history of Hopkinton, for which ma- terial is not wanting.
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
HUDSON.
BY HON, CHARLES HUDSON.
I IT is a misfortune to many of our most enterprising cities and towns, so far as their his- tory is concerned, that the date of their corporate exis- tence is so recent. Though the substantial elements of their being may have virtually existed for a long period, they can have no distinct record until they were made a separate municipality. This disability applies emphatically to the town of Hudson, and renders it difficult to present a full account of all the acts and doings that properly belong to her, or were performed within her borders.
Though her corporate existence extends back only about a dozen years, she has existed in embryo - had a kind of pre-existent or corporate being - for more than two centuries. She can trace her pedigree through Marlborough to Sud- bury on the one hand, and through Bolton to Lan- caster on the other, all of which have existed more than two hundred years. She has also a kind of In- dian paternity. But she has had no distinct record of her own. If an event occurred in what is now hier territory, or if an act worthy of record was performed by a citizen residing in the northern part of the town, the record would speak of it as what occurred in Marlborough, without specifying the part of the town where the event occurred. In the thrilling events of the Indian wars, and the efforts made to sustain the Revolution, and even the incidents connected with the late Civil War, and the names of the patriotic citizens who stepped forward to sustain our rights, and jeopardized their lives in the high places of the field, -everything of this kind is recorded as of the parent town; and nothing is found directly to show the part performed or the honors due to the families which resided in the present town of Hudson. These facts are men- tioned, not to cast any imputation upon the parent town, but simply to show the embarrassment under
which any historian must labor who writes the history of any town similarly situated. The diffi- enlty arises not from any design in the parent towns.
The early history of Hudson is necessarily in- volved in that of Marlborough and of the Indian plantation, a portion of the latter territory being included in the new town. In fact the history of these Indians is so interwoven with the local and even the general history of this section, that we can not in justice pass it by without a brief notice. When our fathers first came to Massachusetts, the country was sparsely peopled. The desolating wars among the tribes and a destructive pestilence, which had not only " wasted in darkness, but destroyed at noonday," had in a great degree depopulated this section of New England. The few savages left were generally disposed to live peaceably with the whites. In 1645 their principal chiefs came in, and voluntarily submitted themselves to the General Court of Massachusetts, on the assurance that they should be allowed certain plantations, and be protected in their rights. The Indians who were located at Marlborough were a small remnant of the Natick and Wamesit tribes. They had a planting-field at Ockoocangansett, before the Sud- bury men had petitioned for a township; and when that prayer was presented, the petitioners were in- formed that the court had not only confirmed the Indians in their plantation-field, but had granted them a plantation of six thousand acres ; and that the Sudbury grant, so far as location was concerned, must be subordinate to the Indian grant.
When the locations of these grants were made, they presented the singular and almost ridiculous sight of an Indian plantation nearly surrounded by the grant of a township to the Sudbury men. The Indian Planting-field, which they had enjoyed for some time, consisted of about one hundred and sixty aeres, and included what was afterwards known as the Old Meeting-house Common, and the hill or swell of land extending east to Spring Ilill and north to the road passing by the residence
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of the late William Loring Howe. The Planting- field penetrated into the very heart of the Marl- borough grant, and was always an eyesore to the English inhabitants. In fact, it was so far consid- ered as an interference with their wants and neces- sities, that when they built their meeting-house they located it on the Indian Planting-field, to the great dissatisfaction of the Indians. To understand this matter correctly, it must be observed that the Indian Planting-field and the Indian Plantation, though connected in location, were distinct and separate grants. While the Planting-field com- prised about one hundred and sixty acres, the Ockoocangansett or Indian Plantation contained six thousand acres. The west line of the planta- tion grant commenced in the valley immediately west of the Old Common, near where the present high-school house stands, and ran north seven de- grees west, about three and a half miles, crossing the Assabet River between the present cemetery and the dépôt in Iludson ; thence the line ran easterly to the town line. The southerly line of the plantation commenced near Spring Hill, on the road leading to Hudson, and ran three miles east to the line of Sudbury ; thence on Sudbury line till it met the line before mentioned, running east from Hudson. This plantation, as will be seen, embraced a large quantity of valuable land, which, of course, was coveted by the Marlborough people. This plantation was granted to the Indians in fee simple, with no restriction except that they should not sell or alienate it without the consent of the General Court. And this restriction was inserted in the grant as a protection to the Indians against land speculators, who might fraudulently dispossess them of their lands.
The English and the Indians generally lived peaceably together. Not only the people of Marl- borough, but the General Court, were disposed to deal kindly with the Indians, and protect them in their rights. The court encouraged the Apostle Eliot in his laudable effort to civilize and Christi- anize these children of the forest, and so convert them into valuable citizens. Not only the rem- nant located in Marlborough, but several other plantations shared Eliot's care. They were gener- ally known by the designation of Praying Indians. There were six other plantations besides that at Marlborough, to which Eliot ministered, being sincerely devoted to the Indians. He translated the Bible into their language that they might be able to read the Word of Life in their own tongne.
These Praying Indians, though generally peace- able, were more than suspected of aiding Philip in his attempts to annihilate the English settle- ments. During that war many of those of the Marlborough tribe were absent from their planta- tion ; and such was the evidence of their hostility, that the government sent Captain Mosely with a detail of men, who surrounded their fort at Marl- borough, made them all prisoners, and took them to Boston, where they were confined as prisoners of war. At the close of this bloody contest they were liberated, and a portion of them returned to their plantation at Marlborough, though the spirit and unity of the tribe seemed to be broken.
Their territory, which the English had long coveted, attracted great attention at the close of the war. The fact that the tribe appeared in no small degree to be broken up and scattered, and the belief that some of them at least had been treacherous, and had aided the enemy, strength- ened the impression that their lands, which pene- trated the very heart of Marlborough, should be devoted to other and more valuable purposes than their retention as a mere hunting ground. In 1677, certain citizens of Marlborough, Lancaster, and Sudbury preferred a petition to the General Court, setting forth that the Marlborough Indians during the recent war had been perfidious, and had taken part with the enemy, and so liad forfeited their title to the plantation of Ockoocangansett; and that the petitioners had been in their country's service, and had suffered in their persons and estates ; wherefore they humbly prayed that the court would grant to them the said tract of land, or that it be sold to them on moderate terms; but the court did not see fit to grant their request.
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