USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 31
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The growth of Melrose has been very even, as will be seen by the different censuses. When incor- porated in 1850, it had a population of 1,260; in
1855 it had 1,976; in 1860, 2,526; in 1865, 2,865; in 1870, 3,414; in 1875, 3,990. It now has a population of 4,365. In 1850 its valuation, personal and real estate, was $483,446; now it is $3,666,343. In 1850 there were 125 buildings ; now, 1,045 dwellings, stores, churches, school- houses and halls, - Masonic, Temple of Honor, Good Templars, Unity, and Armory. There are now 1,203 ratable polls and 925 voters. Ac- cording to the census of 1875, there were thirteen manufacturing establishments and thirty - three occupations, which produced during that year $388,772 ; and fifteen farms, valued at $118,450, which produced $16,180.
Situated as it is, so near Boston, with admirable railroad facilities, delightful and varied scenery, charming drives, with every facility for home com- fort and enjoyment, churches of many denomina- tions, good schools, an unfailing supply of pure water for dwellings and public buildings, with soci- eties and associations of almost every kind, Melrose will continue to grow in the future, as it has in the past, and, in a time not far distant, there will, perhaps, be another city in the good old common- wealth of Massachusetts.
NATICK.
BY REV. S. D. HOSMER, ASSISTED BY REV. DANIEL WIGHT AND AUSTIN BACON.
T HE neighbor towns of Natick are, on the east Needham and Dover in Norfolk County, Sher- born to the south, Framingham west, and Wayland north. Lake Cochituate, the Long Pond of our fathers, but resuming its Indian name when it became Boston's water-supply, is a note- worthy natural feature. Charles River crooks through South Natick; and on the edge of Dover Pegan Hill rises four hundred feet. Natick has three villages : the compact, populous Centre, on the Boston and Albany Railroad, seven- teen miles from the city ; Felchville, a mile north ; and two miles southeast the original settlement, South Natick. Population, by the census of 1875, 7,419.
This town, one of the few in Massachusetts with an Indian name, preserves thus the fact of its abo- riginal origin ; for when John Eliot's missionary labors at Nonantum bore fruit, he wished to gather these converts into a community remoter from the whites. Riding in quest of a good location, and disappointed in one place examined, the record states that he prayed behind a great rock for guidance in this matter. Soon after a friendly Indian suggested another site, of which Eliot thus writes : "The Lord did discover that there it was his pleasure we should begin this work. When grasse was fit to cut, I sent some Indians to mow, and other to make hay, because we must oft ride thither in the Autumn, and in the spring before any grasse is come, and there is provision for our horses, their work was performed well, as I found when I went up to them with my man to order it."
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They next built a foot-bridge eighty feet long, rising from either end to the centre. It gave easier access, especially in the spring floods, to their gar- dens and orchards ; for on the left bank of Charles River lay a meadow previously reached by a ford. This bridge was so firmly set that it did good ser- vice for years. The Indians gave their labor, though Eliot offered payment, and the bridge was dedicated with religious exercises.
The Speen family (Indians) owned the land which by a quitclaim deed, yet treasured in the town archives, signed by Eliot and witnessed by seven- teen Indians, they generously gave to the common weal, taking only a single right in land, but retain- ing the weirs they had put in the stream.
But as the new plantation was within the limits of Dedham, that town through the General Court granted Natick two thousand acres.
Natick has been commonly thought to mean " the place of hills," which it certainly is. Anoth- er suggested signification links the word with the sound of water dashing over rocks. A third ex- planation gives " my land."
History is silent as to the exact time of removal from Nonantum; but on coming to Natick they laid out three parallel streets, two on the north, and one on the south side of the water, and divided the land into fifty lots more or less. That would show a population of two hundred probably. A few houses were built, but Gookin says they liked wigwams better as being warmer and more port- able. Then for the general good a fort was con- structed, ditched, banked, and stockaded ; round and capacious.
In the summer of 1651 they were building a framed edifice, fifty feet by twenty-five, with two stories - the lower a schoolroom week-days, a sanc- tuary on the Sabbath. The upper story became a warehouse for furs - one of their chief men, Waban, being a trader -and other valuables, with a corner walled off for a small chamber. Here Eliot lodged when at Natick. The natives sawed the timber, and only had the help of an English carpenter at the raising. An Indian despises man- ual labor ; but these friends of the white teacher proved their civilization and Christianity by their industry and skill. And now, below the wooded hills, we see the riverside plantation in the dense forest.
The next step established the village into a body politic. It was already under the general jurisdic- tion of the colony, and so Eliot's converts became
loyal subjects of the English crown. . But in local affairs, for his convenience and theirs alike, Eliot would teach them self-government. Read his ac- count : -
" Therefore upon the sixt day of the sixt Month of this present year, (their Pallizadoe Fort being finished) they had a great meeting, and many came together from diverse parts, though sundry were hindered and came not at that time : where with Prayer to God I read and expounded the eighteenthi of Exodus, and finally they did solemnly choose two rulers among themselves, they first chose a Ruler of an linndred, then they chose two rulers of fifties, then they chose Ten or Tithing Men." When ten captains of ten men each were elected, every private selected his captain. Totherswamp, we suppose, was generalissimo; our oldest acquaintance, Wa- ban, stood next in rank. So early were they in- structed in the science of government, and each man allowed the freeman's right to vote for his rulers. Does Eliot's policy in making his settlers landowners and voters suggest light on the Indian problem of to-day ?
October 8, 1651, was a notable day at Natick. Their revered teacher visited the place. Other dignitaries also came. The minister and the mag- istrate in those times received marked respect. Church and state were well represented on this occasion. Governor Endicott, Rev. Mr. Wilson of Boston, with others, wished to be eye-witnesses of the good work, and bid the workers Godspeed. The governor came as far as Dedham, resting there overnight, and next morning, escorted in official dignity by a troop of twenty horsemen, rode hither. We fancy the nine miles after leaving Dedham town found clearings scarce, and the bri- dle-path may have been on an Indian trail through the woods. Rev. Mr. Wilson, with cousin Rawson, the secretary of the colony, spent the night at Watertown Mill, and rode over in the morning.
After the guests had looked around meeting- time came. The drum-beat may have served for a tolling-bell, the falling sands of an hourglass as their clock to measure time. We suppose the service that day was held in the open air inside the fort. The meeting-house probably stood with- in the palisade. The visitors were seated under a canopy ; beneath a smaller awning were the village magistracy, twelve men; the Indian women were in one part, the men in another. What a scene ! - the governor in state; the reverend clergy, cager listeners ; the train-band with a trumpeter at least
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to make music; and before them the dark sons of the forest, men, women, and children, a hundred or more ! One of the best-taught natives preached. His name is not chronicled, but we have his text and homily, the treasures hid in a field, and the merchantman seeking goodly pearls. When he prayed he stood up, but gave his exhortation sit- ting on a stool. He was dressed like the English, and discoursed three quarters of an hour. Then Eliot expounded for an hour. The governor and Mr. Wilson briefly addressed the assembly through an interpreter. Finally the schoolmaster, Mone- quassun, deaconed off a psalm, which the Indians sang to an English tune cheerfully and "pretty tunable," the governor writes.
After service the chief men consulted with Endi- cott about a grist-mill they proposed to build. Mr. Wilson speaks of the fair house, the fruit- trees, of the goodly plain over the river toward Dedham, their planting ground, and their bridge.
Civil affairs being arranged, Eliot sought to gather the converts into church estate, a task need- ing more time and patience than the former; for the churches, as well as the converts, must be sure of their thorough preparation. Nor do we forget the helpers in England who watched their progress with unflagging interest. In 1649 had been in- corporated The Society for Propagating the Gospel in New England. Men like Baxter, Caryl, and Sir Thomas Boyle co-operated. They gathered funds to sustain Eliot and his coworkers. The letters of Wilson, Shepard, Mayhew, and Eliot were published and widely read; and the titles of these little books reveal a growing confidence in the good work : The Day Breaking, if not the Sun-rising of the Gospel with the Indians ; The clear Sun Shine of the Gospel; The Light appear- ing more and more unto the perfect Day. These tracts afford original information from the workers themselves.
Waban and others became Christians at Nonall- tum. Good Wampoas on his death-bed there said to his friends, "I now shall dye, but Jesus Christ calleth you that live to go to Naticke, that there the Lord might rule over you, that you might make a church, and have the Ordinances of God among you."
October 13, 1652, the elders and messengers of the churches inet with Mr. Eliot and his dusky friends at Natick. Five of the principal natives told their religious experience, which was trans- lated for the visitors. The waning afternoon gave
no time for others, but the confessions of fifteen were next spring published with the title, Tears of Repentance, and widely read on both sides of the Atlantic.
June 13, 1654, eight men from Natick went to Roxbury for examination. Monequassun, the school-teacher and chorister, was detained by sick- ness, of which he died soon after.
In 1656 Daniel Gookin of Cambridge became civil superintendent of all the Indians under Mas- sachusetts jurisdiction. This office brought him into close relations with Eliot, and the two wrought each in his sphere most lovingly ; one ordering the civil matters of the natives, and the other their religious. Roxbury and Cambridge were mutual helpers in gospelizing the aborigines in yet another way, as we shall soon see.
In the fall of 1658 a solemn fast was kept at Natick, partly preparatory to church gathering, partly also on account of excessive rains, hurtful to their crops. The substance of the exhortations, or sermons, by Waban and Nishokon is still extant.
At last the Natick church was gathered in 1660, composed of those whose confessions had been printed, with others ; but just when, and with how many members, and under what circumstances, we find no record.
In a letter of later date Eliot describes the church usages of the Praying Indians. Their practice was like the whites in the inchurching, and after a church was established they received members thus : "They were diligently examined both privately and publickly in the catechism, their blameless and pious conversation is testified to, their names are publickly exposed as desiring to make confession. When the teachers and chief brethren judge them meet they are called publickly to confess, confederate, and be baptized, both themselves and their children, if not grown up. . All the Indian churches in 1673 were furnished with officers, saving the church at Natick, and in modesty they stand off, because so long as I live, they say there is no need; but we propose (God willing) not always to rest in this answer."
In 1658 Mr. Eliot petitioned the General Court for more land to be granted the plantation " out of the common lands adjoining" ; four thousand acres were given in a northerly and westerly direc- tion. This tract covered what is now South Fram- ingham, and the lands westerly and southwest of Farm Pond, and on the northwest it touched Sud- bury River near Merriam's Hill.
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The church fairly planted, Natick became a missionary centre. ` Till the formation of other churches, those living at Hassanemesit, Magunkock, and Marlborough held membership here. Teachers and preachers were trained for the growing work. Already our untiring apostle, notwithstanding pas- toral labor at Roxbury (he had three colleagues during his fifty-eight years' ministry) and days of toilsome travel, - for he had explored the country from Martha's Vineyard to the Merrimack, from Cape Cod to Brookfield, - had devoted pains by day and night to a greater task of Christian scholar- ship. Having learned the language from an Indian servant, he could, in 1646, preach to Waban in his mother tongue. But Eliot longed that the natives should have the Bible at their wigwams. In 1649 he wished to translate the Scriptures ; in 1651 he wrote that he had no expectation to see the Word of God translated, much less printed in his day. The attempt was so heroic, we do not wonder at his fears. But he did see both. In 1658 Genesis and Matthew were in use at Natick. This transla- tion of the Bible must have been studied out partly in Roxbury, partly in his little chamber here ; thoughts, words, plans, came to him doubtless in his journeyings.
In 1661 the New Testament issued from the Cambridge Press, followed in 1663 by the Old Testament. Two hundred copies of the first, strongly bound in leather, had at once been cir- culated among the Indians. The whole Bible makes a stout quarto of over one thousand pages, and with it are bound the Psalter versified from the Bay Psalm-Book, and a short catechism. All were published at the expense of the English soci- ety, who sent over the press and materials. The building erected for Indian students became the printing-house for the second edition. A diffuse laudatory dedication to Charles II. prefaced the copies of the first edition sent to England, and Sir Robert Boyle tells how the merry monarch received the strange gift. "He looked a pretty while upon it, and showed some things in it to those that had the honor to be about him. Yet the unexpected coming in of an Envoye from the Emperor hindered me from receiving that fuller expression of his grace toward the translators and dedicators, that might otherwise have been expected."
We appreciate the difficulties and grandeur of Eliot's work, with no grammatical helps to acquire a dialect utterly unlike the Old-World languages, when we remember the college of scholars that
gave England King James' version, and the select company of English and American divines whose headquarters in preparing the latest revision are the Jerusalem Chamber, in Westminster Abbey.
Eliot made an Indian grammar, and describes his method of study. "I would pursue a word, noun or verb, through all the variations I could think of." As the savages had no written language, our author represented their sounds by the Roman letters. All the qualifying terms relating to the principal idea were joined by prefix or suffix to the leading word. For genders, nouns were divided as representing animate beings or inanimate things, and formed their plurals accordingly in og or ash. " They had no complete or distinct word for the verb substantive, but it is under a regular composition, whereby many words are made verb substantive." The personal pronouns had a separable and insepa- rable form, my being expressed by the letter N, prefixed to the word."
Our Apostle of New England assisted in organ- izing an Indian church on Martha's Vineyard, Au- gust 22, 1670, and in 1671 his own second church arose at Hassanemesit. But the Natick church, the first-born in the wilderness, was the largest, and enjoyed more of the missionary's presence. In 1670, ten years old, it had fifty communicants. That it was active in all good endeavors, is shown by the instructions of the Natick church to its chosen members, William and Anthony, also John Sausamon, whom it sent as ambassadors to the Missonkonog savages, to avert if possible their going to war with the English.
More Indians were educated for preachers by Natick schooling and exercising their gifts in church-meetings, than availed themselves of the Indian Hall at Cambridge, though a number stud- ied there. One aboriginal name graces the Har- vard Triennial, an islander from the Vineyard, a graduate in 1665. But the close confinement to books was more than the native temperament could bear. Mr. Eliot left at Quinbisset, now Thomp- son, Connecticut, in 1674, Daniel, a Natick Indian, as their teacher, - probably Takawampbait, of whom more presently.
Next year came that fearful conflict of the abo- riginal and European races, called, from its instiga- tor, Philip's War. Waban and Sausamon warned the whites of Philip's designs, and Sausamon lost his life thereby. Eliot, in the Roxbury records, thus characterizes him : " A man of eminent parts and wit, he was of late years conv'ted, joyned to the
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
Church at Natike, baptized, and was sent by the church to Asowamsick, in Plimoth Pattent to preach the gospel." Among his Taunton neigh- bors he was esteemed a good Christian, and his death was much bewailed.
A company of fifty-two soldiers was raised by the Praying Indians. In July Oneco, son of the famous Uncas, came to Natick with fifty Mohegan braves as allies of the English. After a successful battle the Mohegans went looting, while our Natick men wanted to pursue the foe. They knew the tactics of the wily savages better than the whites, and did good service, and might have helped much more. But the colonists grew unwisely distrustful of the Christian Indians. Says Eliot, "The pro- phane Indians p've a sharp rod to the English, and the English a very sharp rod to the praying In- dians."
To quiet the popular apprehension, the General Court had ordered the Christian Indians to confine their residence to five villages, - Natick was the first, - nor roam more than a mile away from these ; which order quite broke up their hunting and fish- ing. White superintendents were chosen, two residing at Natick. These measures did not satisfy the public.
Accordingly the General Court, "1675; October 13, ordered that all the Natick Indians be forth- with sent for, and disposed of to Deare Island as the place appointed for their present abode." Other praying Indians were also transported down the harbor. Deer Island to-day is a place of ban- ishment for the city's lawless boys, and the brick House of Industry is a familiar sight to all who come or go by water.
October 30, Captain Thomas Prentice, with a guard, came to bring away the villagers and their goods to the Pines, near where is now the Water- town Arsenal. Old Jethro and ten more escaped into the woods, preferring the range of the forest with his own race to the cold hospitality of the Massachusetts authorities.
Sadly the rest left their fish weirs and bridge, their orchards and gardens, their fort and meeting- house. Mr. Eliot writes : "When the Indians were hurried away to an Iland at half an hour's warning, pore soules in terror y left their goods, books, bibles, only some few caryed yr bibles."
From Natick they went afoot nine miles to the Pines, near the base of Nonantum Hill. Here Eliot, Gookin, and some others met them, and spent the night hours in prayer and exhortation.
An eye-witness says : " "T was affecting to see low Christianly these poor soules carried it, being in fear they should never return, but be transported out of the country." With the flood-tide at mid- night the waiting boats dropped down stream.
Through the dreary winter they suffered, espe- cially the aged and feeble. Some of their men had leave of absence for duty as guides and scouts. The Hassanamesit Indians were carried off by the enemy, who offered them plenty to eat and good treatment if they went with them. Job Katte- nanit escaped, but his family were taken. It ap- pears that these fared better among the heathen, as the hostile savages were called, than their Natick brethren with the Christian whites.
In December James Quannopowit and the Job just named were sent from Deer Island as spies, to learn the enemy's spirit and movements. They. took to the woods at Natick December 31st, and soon were among the warlike Nipmucks, where they represented themselves as wronged by the English. Here they found the Hassanamesit refu- gees. James' relation to the General Court we now follow. These Nipmucks sold beaver and wampum to the Mohawks, in exchange for powder obtained from the Dutch at Albany.
Some Indians mistrusted these spies, but John- with-the-One-Eye knew James, and said, "I know thee that thou art a valiant mnan, therefore abide at my wigwam and I will protect thee." But Job stayed with his children. They abode thus some days, and went forth to hunt deer. Early one morn- ing James, having gotten a pint of nokake, or pounded corn, went hunting with Job. Some Indi- ans suspected and watched them, but at night they were unobserved. About three o'clock before day James said to Job, " Now let us escape away if we can." But Job said, " I am not willing to goe now, because my children are here. I will stay longer, if God please he can preserve my life, if not, I am will- ing to die. I will use what policy I can to get away my children ; if I live three weekes hence I will come back to Natick. I shall if I live, by that time get more intelligence of affairs." Then James said : " I must now go away, for I am not like to have a better opportunity ; but I am sorry for you, lest they kill you for my sake." So, laving prayed, James travelled homeward night and day on snow- shoes, and reported his eighty miles' scouting to Major Gookin.
February 9, Job arrived, confirming the tidings, before brought, that Lancaster would be attacked,
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and naming the day. In the spring those at the island were allowed to dwell on Mr. Oliver's estate in Cambridge, whence in the autumn some came to the falls of Charles River, others to the original station at Nonantum.
Wattasascompanum, or Captain Tom, whom Gookin had made a magistrate in remote planta- tions, by that fact had stayed with the warring savages. Taken prisoner, he was on very slight evidence condemned, and suffered death in Boston, June, 1676. He died much mourned by Eliot and the better sort.
In September four chief captives were shot at the town's end, one of them Old Jethro, who, at the removal to Deer Island, had taken to the woods. Some others, once dwellers at Natick, found with the enemy, had been carried into slavery.
" 1676, Nov. 10, An account of the disposall of the Indians, our friends (pro tempore) presented to the Councill (at their desire) by Daniel Gookin, sen.
" The Natick Indians are disposed in fower com- panies as followeth, vict. one company with James Rumney Marsh, and his kindred living in Meadfield, with the approbation and consent of the English there; these are in number about twenty-five, 5 : 20.
" Another company live near Natick adjoyning the garrison-house of Andrew Dewin and his sons, who desire their neigliborliood, and are under their inspection ; the number of these may be about fifty soules, 10 : 40.
" A third company of them with Waban live neare the falls of the Charles River, near to the house of Joseph Miller, and not far from Capt Prentice. The number of these may be about sixty soules, whereof are 10 : 50.
" A fourth company dwell at Nonantum Hill, near Leift Trowbridge and Jolin Coones, who per- mits them to build their wigwams upon his ground. They are employed to cut wood, and spin, and make stone walls, being but a small distance from the hill of Nonantumn where their meeting is to keep Sabatlı. These may be about seventy five souls, 15: 60."
After the winter others returned to their old home. In 1679 Natick exchanged land with newly settled Sherborn, giving 4,000 acres north of Sherborn, and receiving a like amount at Ma- gunkook Hill, with two hundred bushels of grain to boot.
Philip's War and Mr. Eliot's infirmities of age sadly weakened the prosperity of the native churches in Massachusetts. But on the cape, as
well as at Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, dis- tant from the battle-scenes, the work still flour- ished. Waban puts his mark to a petition for the pecuniary encouragement of the pastor at Sherborn, son of Major Gookin, for lecturing regularly at Natick. They say, that, deprived of seeing Mr. Eliot's face, and hearing his voice (especially in the winter season) so frequently as formerly, the church and people of Natick invited Mr. Gookin, two and a half years before, to lecture, which he had done in English, and an interpreter translated his words. This letter lias sixteen Indian names subjoined. Old Waban marks first, and eight more also mark. Daniel Takawampbait, the sec- ond name is signed, and the last is Thomas Waban, son of the first. This document Professor Stowe, himself Natick-born, discovered in London. Its date is March 19, 1684.
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