USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 23
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Besides rubber goods, the principal articles man- ufactured here are leather of various descriptions, sand and emcry papers, and shoe-lasts. Other goods are made to a limited extent ; but, with the exception of the articles mentioned, the products of the town are not of unusual importance. The number of persons employed in manufactures in 1875 was 1,062, and the goods produced were valued at $2,664,484.
While their material interests have advanced, the people of Malden have not neglected those in- terests which enhance the grosser forms of pros- perity. In its schools of all grades the town has taken a high rank, and it has not been niggardly in its expenditures to that end. While unwise coun- sels have at times prevailed, it has, upon the whole, performed its work in the interests of education with ability and discretion. Its twelve churches, of various denominations, are prosperous, and enjoy that best adjunct of prosperity, freedom from in- ternal strife and external opposition. Its charita- ble bodies and its societies of reform are of large membership and are ably directed ; and they watch over the various matters which they have in charge with spirit and success. A bequest by John Gard- ner, a native of the town, has been made the foun- dation of a public library, which, though of recent birth, has, by a large and increasing circulation of carefully selected books, already proved its great utility and insured for itself an ultimate liberal support and a permanent endowment.
DO MOIS HEURY NOUSOU!
Van Hyck & Cn Bontdi
LIBRARY
PUBLIC
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MARLBOROUGH.
MARLBOROUGH.
BY REV. R. A. GRIFFIN AND E. L. BIGELOW.
N May, 1656, Edmund Rice, | William Ward, John Bent, Sr., John Woods, Thomas King, John Howe, John Maynard, Edward Rice, John Ruddocke, Peter Bent, Thomas Good- now, Richard Newton, and Henry Rice, inhabitants of Sudbury, petitioned the Gen- eral Court for a tract of land eight miles square, affirming " God hath beene pleased to increase our children, which are now divers of them grown to man's estate, and wee, many of us, grown into years, so as that wee should bee glad to see them settled before the Lord take us away from hence, as also God having given us some considerable cattle, so that wee are so streightened that wee cannot so comfortably subsist as could bee desired ; and some of us having taken some pains to view the country ; wee have found a place which lyeth west- ward, about eight miles from Sudbury, which wee conceive might bee comfortable for our subsist- ence." On the 14th of the same month they were granted six miles in the locality desired. It contained 29,419 acres. This region was situated about a hill called by the Indians Whipsuffenicke, adjoining another, on which was land reserved for the aborigines called Ockoocangansett. In the colony records, 1658, it is spelled Ognoinkongua- mescit, and the name of the English plantation is called Whipsufferage. Daniel Gookin, in 1674, speaks of both tracts as Okommakamesit. I
The first meeting of the proprietors of the Eng- lish plantation occurred September 25, 1656, at which it was ordered that those who took lots should pay their proportion toward the general ex- penses, should either live themselves on the land two years or appoint some one the town would approve, or else forfeit their lots; "but if God shall take away any man by death, he have liberty to give his lott to whom he will." December 26, 1659, it was ordered " that all such as lay clayme
to any interest in this new plantation at Whipsuf- feradge (by the Indians called Whipsuppenicke) are to perfect their house lots by the 25th of March next insueing, or else to loose all their in- terest in the aforesaid plantation." November, 1660, thirty-eight house-lots, including one for the minister and one for the smith, were set off and confirmed to their proprietors. These grants aggre- gated 9922 acres, divided into holdings of from fifteen to fifty acres. The rest of the land, called cow commons, was left subject to future grants.
May 31 (O. S., June 12 as we now date), 1660, the town was incorporated under the name of Marlborow, it is supposed after the English town of that name, so called on account of the vicinity abounding in marl ; the word was formerly spelled Marlberg or Marlbridge. Why it was clrosen it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to say, though the most probable conjecture would be that some one or more of the early settlers hailed from Marlbor- ough in Wiltshire. Its records for the first thirty-nine years are missing; those extant begin April 27, 1699. The first selectmen were Edmund Rice, William Ward, John Ruddocke, John Howe, Thomas King, Solomon Johnson, Thomas Good- now. John Ruddocke was chosen clerk. One of the earliest acts of the municipality was to order an assessment for six months for the support of Rev. William Brimsmead, their preacher, "of 4 pence per acre upon house lots and 3 pence per pound upon cattle." In 1662 the frame of a house and the land on which it stood were given to the minister. It was thirty-six feet by eighteen, and twelve and one half feet high between the joints. It had four windows in front and two at the west end. It had two gables in front, ten feet wide and eiglit feet square, projecting eight feet, with two small windows on the front side of the gables. It was built by contract for £15, to be paid in corn : one third wheat, one third rye, and one third In- dian corn ; wheat at 48. 6d., rye at 48., and Indian corn at 3s. per bushel. In the payment of this sum, a rate was made of seven and a half pence per
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acre upon all house-lots in the plantation. This year they decided on erecting a meeting-house. Unfortunately the site chosen was within the Indian plantation. Although this land was subsequently bought, there seems to have been sufficient provo- cation given to the Indians to awaken the suspicion that it was afterwards burnt by them in revenge. Mr. Cyrus Felton says it is probable that at this time three fourths of the land within a mile of the meeting-house was covered with wood.
April 4, 1663, Anamaks, an Indian whose title was probably disputed by other Indian proprietors, sold to John Ruddocke and John Howe, for the use of the town, " the land that the meeting-house now stands on -also the land for the highway on the fore side of said meeting house, and so upon a square of ten feet, round about the said meeting House." The next month William Ward gave in exchange for other land half an acre in front of it, and it was ordered that the half-acre " surrendered into the town's hands as before said, shall be for a perpetual common or highway not to be taken or otherwise disposed of without the consent of every proprietor that hath town rights." This half-acre, it is thought, covered the ground on which the two manufactories in front of the High School Common now stand.
For fifteen years there was fear throughout the township. The Indian community consisted of about fifty persons. Their ruler's name was Ono- mog, who was described by a contemporary as a pious and discreet man. They had religious and civil institutions like their white neighbors; em- ployed a sehoolmaster, a constable, and other offi- cers. They had brought their land under cultivation, and remained pacific under the vexatious encroach- ments of the English settlers ; although they were in part to blame for their annoyances, seeing they were careless in fencing their fields. Their town lying, as it did, in the heart of Marlborough, the cattle wandered into it, and could hardly be pre- vented by their owners. The Indians passively re- tired about a mile into the interior of their land. The celebrated General Gookin of Cambridge, from whose account our knowledge is derived, proposed to the English settlers to buy part of this land from which they had retired, fence it with stone- walls, and on one part build a house for a school- master, with a school-room under the same roof, erecting a barn, and giving the teacher as his sal- ary the use of the rest of the land. He also says that at this time the English were backward about
employing a schoolmaster, availing themselves of the law which exempted towns of less than fifty families from being compelled to engage a teaeller, although they wanted but a few families to make this number. He suggested that if the Indian school proposed were instituted they might send their children to it, " being the most thrifty and facile way they can take." This field was conveyed to General Gookin by the Indians May 2, 1677. The English town grew unchecked, though not rapidly. Unhappily during this time the community was agitated, indeed distracted, with internal dissen- sions about both civil and ecclesiastical affairs. They had to do, first, with the reliability of the records and indirectly with the tenure of their lands ; secondly, with questions as to the support of the minister and the desirability of organizing a church. The public mind was apparently in a state of chronic irritability; to raise a question, was to raise a bitter dispute. Some light is thrown on this period from subsequent sentences in a petition and remonstrances to the General Court. The first explains that their difficulties are of long standing, arising " partly from our own corruptions and the temptations of Satan, hindering their own good feelings in matters both civil and ecclesiastical, which have been and are very uncomfortable to them and their friends." Even this devout and frank statement proved an irritant, -a denial fol- lowing that any considerable difficulty existed, and the declaration that they " never went about to de- stroy the Town Book but only to rectify what was amis in it "; nor had they attempted "to root out the minister." They vaunted the fact, that, in per- sonal character and liberality to religious and secular institutions, they were the equals of the petitioners, and coneluded with the caustic statement, "We are willing, with our persons and estates, to uphold the Authority of the country, and do therefore desire the liberty of the law which gives towns power to transact their own affairs." The appeal to the General Court resulted (1675) in the appointment of a committee which indorsed the records. The strife, however, was not allayed ; Thomas King and others demanded the reopening of the case. The war ensuing, the matter was not immediately pressed ; but in October, 1679, the quarrel was practically ended by the decisive action of a committee ap- pointed by the court to hear the complaints on the spot. They censured the turbulent opposition to the former decision, deelared better provision should be made for the minister, and gave orders
N'TH
A Settler Defending His Children.
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MARLBOROUGH.
as to the custody of the town records, enjoining a full and veracious report of the proceedings and decisions of the committee who had arbitrated in the case. Their action was approved and con- firmed by the court.
Their eeelesiastical dispute was considered by a council of ministers, who naïvely advised that they spend a day or days of humiliation and prayer, and " after their spirits are somewhat sweetened and satisfied mutually, it may be meet without too long delay to gather a church here."
The atmosphere was not yet clear. Mr. Brims- mead left the town, and preached at Plymouth for a time. He returned October 3, 1666, on which day the church was formed and he was ordained its pastor. A few years after, to quote the graphic and quaint account of Mr. Paekard, " On the Sabbath, when Mr. Brimsmead was in sermon, March 20, 1676, the worshipping assem- bly was suddenly dispersed by an outcry of ' In- dians at the door!' The confusion of the first moment was instantly increased by a fire from the enemy ; but the God whom they were worship- ping shielded their lives and limbs, excepting the arm of one Moses Newton, who was carrying an elderly and infirm woman to a place of safety. In a few minutes they were sheltered in their fort, with the mutual feelings peculiar to such a scene."
The meeting-house was burnt to the ground, and nearly, if not quite, all the dwelling-houses. Everything of value was destroyed, eattle were killed, and the fruit-trees hacked. "The enemy re- tired soon after their first onset, deelining," says Packard, " to risk the enterprise and martial prow- ess of the young plantation. The new settlers being mueh debilitated by their various losses, living in a frontier town, and still exposed to the 'adjudication ' of their savage neighbors, left their farms till the seat of war was further removed." Thus husbandry was interrupted for one year, and the municipal organization for two.
The growth of the town was materially checked by these incursions of the savages, and till this day traces remain of the fear and insecurity of those times. On the hill Sligo are the remains of an old stone fort connected with a well by a subter- ranean passage of about one hundred and fifty feet, which it is conjectured was constructed in view of those early invasions.
Incidentally, it may be mentioned that the name originated in mueh later times ; the authentic tradi- tion is that it was so called in allusion to the so-
briquet of an owner of the hill, who in the time of the Revolution was understood to be absent at the war, but who in reality remained at home, passing the nights with his family and slyly going, in the early morning and in the dusk of evening, to and from a cave situated aeross this land. Hence the name Slygo, as it was formerly spelled.
On the return of the inhabitants, while they found on every hand a scene of desolation, and were prac- tieally forced to the tasks and rigors of the emigrant, yet the war which had destroyed their buildings so far weakened the Indians as to facilitate, at length, possession of the whole township, and insured a larger measure of personal security.
Some of the Marlborough Indians had joined Philip, and those who remained apparently passive or amicable were suspected of treachery. Whether the suspicion was well grounded or not, the in- habitants lived in dread of them, and from tradition we learn that they, with other towns, sought protec- tion from the government, so that Captain Mosely, it is believed, with a company of soldiers, early in the morning surprised these Indians while they were in the fort to which they repaired at night, seized their persons and arms, fastened their hands behind their backs, connecting them with a cart-rope, and drove them to Boston, from whence they were taken with others to some island in the harbor and kept in duranee until the conclusion of hostilities. Those who returned denied the charge ; but while suffered to remain even when guilt had been proven, as in the case of David Munnanow who confessed participation in the destruction of Medfield, they were despised and uninfluential, and though their plantation was not formally forfeited by disloyalty, it was gained the more easily from so demoralized and enfeebled a people.
After the re-establishment of their municipal organization, and the rebuilding of dwelling-houses, they proceeded to the ereetion of a new meeting- house about 1678. Like the first one, it was thatehed with tall grass from Thatcher Meadow. It was left in an unfinished state ; an unsuccessful attempt was made to enlarge and repair it in 1680 ; it lasted only eight or nine years, and in 1689 was valued at only £10. The third meeting-house was built as early as 1689. The pulpit in the second meeting-house was valued at £4, " which was im- proved in the new meeting-house, for carrying on the finishing of that." This house was used be- tween twenty-two and twenty-three years. The fourth meeting-house was ereeted in 1711. It was
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
large enough to accommodate the whole town. In 1757 and 1758 the town had two porches built, one on the east end and another on the west end. This house was used for public worship ninety- five years, and exclusively for town-meetings four years. It was taken down in 1810. This and the two meeting-houses before it were situated about a rod or two north of the present horse-trough on Main Street.
In 1684 measures were taken to perfect the title of Marlborough to its lands, for as yet the proprie- tors had simply the permission of the court to settle on them. For about thirty years they had cultivated the soil, apparently without thought of purchasing the right of the natives. The Indians, however, were not unmindful of their elaim, and by virtue of it " were continually making demands upon the towne." At length, after the cessation of hostilities, the Indian plantation being broken up and most of its possessors dispersed, the tribe to which they belonged asserted their right in the whole township. A committee of three per- sons was appointed to confer with the elaimants ; and as the result, April 17 and 18, Major Peter Bulkley and Captain Thomas Hineksman, together with the committee, agreed to pay £ 31 for a deed in full. The money was immediately raised, and the deed was signed at Natick, June 12, 1684. The town now endeavored to possess itself of the Indian reservation. On the 15th of July, a little more than a month after seeuring all rights in their own possessions, they obtained a deed for the whole of the Indian plantation, some 5,800 aeres, with the exception of the Indian planting-field, which had been already conveyed to General Gookin, and was bought of his three sons for the town in 1688. But within three months the General Court, on petition of the Indians, declared that the deed of sale was null and void, because illegal, "being made and done expressly contrary to the law and order of this court." Despite the invalidity of their title, thus formally and authoritatively pronounced, the proprietors, after a delay of about two years, pro- ceeded to divide and appropriate the land. The first division consisted of thirty acres to each, of the land best in quality and situation. The task of surveying was assigned to Mr. John Brigham, - of whom it should be said, in passing, that he was one of the most popular and remarkable men of his day, having considerable capacity for public affairs, unusual ability as a surveyor, and some ambition as a land speculator ; he was styled " Doctor," and
was returned as representative from Marlborough in 1688, and from Sudbury in 1706. The pro- prietors engaged to board him while at work, and to pay five shillings a day, one half in money, the other half in rye and Indian corn, the one at four shillings a bushel, the other at three. The land was apportioned by lot. The proprietors now took measures to make their tenure secure, in spite of its illegality, by binding themselves together in such a way that each might possess his part undis- turbed.
At their meeting in March, 1695, it was agreed and subscribed to, " that whatsoever has been done and acted by the company or the major part of them as to any grants or acts or orders about the land purchased from the indians as will further appear by a deed of sale recorded in court rolls shall stand good to all intents and purposes if it be attested under the hand of John Brigham." The agreement eoneludes by stating it was passed by a full vote, and "that it should stand good to all intents and purposes for ever."
At a meeting of the proprietors held February 15, 1703, it was voted that " they would try to come into a way for a confarmation of gd land." The record continues, " Att ye samne meeting it was voted yt they would ehuse three inen to atain a confoar- mation of sª land if may be." . The committee consisted of James Sawyer, Thomas How, and Na- thaniel Jonson. On the 15th they were empow- ered "to take sueh sutable methods as they shall think fitt, or shall by ye best advice and instruc- tions as they find to be most sutable for ye Pro- euring of a Conformation of this our Purchase according to ye General Courts grant."
February 4, 1709, "It was acted that they would make arttekles to bind ourselves in covenent whereby what we do may stand in force." These articles provided that " all grants, acts, and records now entered in our book of records . . . . shall stand good for ever," and that all money granted by the company "at an orderly meeting" for mutual defence should be raised by "every par- ticular parson paying his equel propotion."
In their records about this time there is one noteworthy transaction. Among the proprietors was Mr. John Parry, who owned two and a half acres back of the meeting-house. The town natu- rally desired to have their graveyard, as was the ancient custom, close to their meeting-house. Here- tofore they had buried in what is now called Spring Hill Cemetery ; therefore at a meeting of the pro-
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MARLBOROUGH.
prietors, April 8, 1706, " it was ordered, granted, and concluded that the land exchanged with John Parry Taylor, adjoyning to the present meeting- house land for which he hath other land of the proprietors in the cow common - shall lay for a Trayning place and a Burying place for ever." This two and a half acres, it is thought, included the cemetery, the ground now occupied by the High School, and half of the common between the High School and Main Street.
In 1719 hope revived of obtaining legal sanc- tion. March 20, they decided to appoint a com- mittee to petition the General Court " to confirm our book of records ; and to make our propriatory capable to act in all things concerning our lands." After years of anxiety and effort they at last pre- vailed, and the plantation was formally annexed to the town, and their title to the property was confirmed.
There was another tract of land of two hundred acres called to this day " The Farm," of which the town possessed itself in 1718. It lay on the south- east border, and had been granted to John Alcocke, in lieu of the same number of acres which he had relinquished elsewhere. He was an inhabitant of Roxbury, who had received considerable gifts of land for services rendered to the colony ; part of the land thus transferred to him was claimed by the Whipsuffenicke Company, and, to adjust the dif- ficulty, he accepted the land since called "The Farm."'
In 1700 the town was enabled to absorb several tracts of land of this kind, but the Alcocke prop- erty still remained unannexed. The conviction, however, grew that it was unjust for people who largely shared in the privileges of the town organ- ization to be exempt from municipal responsibility and expense.
At length, in 1718, Joseph Morse, John Bigelow, John Sherman, Samuel Bigelow, Thomas Bigelow, and Daniel Harrington, residents of "The Farm," united with the town in a petition to the General Court for annexation, which was of course imme- diately granted.
The annals of the town for one hundred and fifty years have principally to do with ecclesiastical and military affairs.
Ecclesiastical History. - The first pastor, Rev. William Brimsmead, was a man of apostolic stead- fastness and capacity. He watched and sustained the flame of piety in the town, when the spirit of contention threatened its extinction. He was a
student of Harvard, of the class of 1648. He preached the election sermon in 1681, which was printed. From 1665 to 1695 he kept a journal in Latin; it is thought the second volume, cover- ing the years 1682 to 1695, is identical with a Latin journal of his now in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. From this it appears he preached not only in the meeting-house but also in the homes of the parishioners. He was beloved in the town and influential in the colony. His eccentricities are matters of tradi- tional interest ; the most quoted was by no means peculiar to himself, nor could it have struck his contemporaries as absurd; it appears he had con- scientious scruples which forbade his baptizing children born on the Sabbath day, and accounted for, in part, by the fact that he was never married. There are some curious entries in the town books showing the affectionate, almost paternal attitude the town sustained toward him in his old age. Dr. Allen quotes one of them with these prefatory remarks : "In the growing infirmities of age, he had neither wife nor children to care for him, and so his people very considerately and much to their credit voted, as the record says, ' to procure a place to remove their minister to, and to provide him a nurse.'" He died July 3, 1701, at an advanced age. After his death the community was afflicted with all the miseries of divided counsels and acri- monious controversies concerning his successor. The rival parties were found, for the most part, in different geographical sections; in the case of the first candidate, Rev. John Emerson, the west part being for him and the east against him. Mr. Emerson finally declined, and the town, at their April meeting, 1702, rescinded their call by a full majority. At the same time " it was agreed and voated that M' Remington be paid 20 Shillings the day, for two daies holy we had of him in the min- istry." In October a delegation of two was sent to "Seek for a transcient supply of holy in the ministry for three or four days."
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