USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 34
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toric link with the past, was cut down. This act provoked great indignation. A lawsuit followed, which was settled by the offenders against public
JOHN'ELIOT
TO THE INDIANS ACKN-1604
DICO 20 MAY
Eliot Monument.
opinion paying the costs, and planting trees in the public green. The present Eliot Oak, just east of the Unitarian Church, is in better preservation than its fallen brother of the forest primeval. Tradi- tion links these trees with the Indian missionary.
Longfellow has a fine sonnet to the Eliot Oak.
" Thou ancient Oak ! whose myriad leaves are loud With sounds of unintelligible speech, Sounds as of surges on a shingly beach, Or multitudinous murmurs of a crowd ; With some mysterious gift of tongues endowed Thou speakest a different dialect to each ; To me a language that no man can teach, Of a lost race long vanished like a cloud, For underneath thy shade, iu days remote, Seated like Abraham at eventide Beneath the oaks of Mamre, the unknown
Apostle of the Indian, Eliot, wrote His Bible in a language that hath died, And is forgotten save by thee alone." 1
Sam Lawson, the good-natured, lazy story-teller in Oldtown Folks, put his blacksmith's shop un- der this tree. It was removed when the church was built. We saw a missionary from Turkey
1 J. H. T. (of Hartford) proves the closing lines a rule with one exception, by giving an Indian version of this sonnet. Vide Atlantic Monthly, May, 1877.
202
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
gathering its leaves as mementos of a hallowed spot ; and one midsummer afternoon a few years since, a well-known citizen, leaning against its trunk, took his own life.
There stands an ancient wide-spreading elm on the road near Cochituate, said to cover with its shade a space one hundred and fifteen feet wide. Those who knew these trees in "auld lang syne," the Natick residents of fifty years, hield a very pleasant gathering February 7, 1879.
The town has three modern cemeteries. Glen- wood, at South Natick, was opened in 1852, Rev. Mr. Alger delivering the address. Dell Park lies a mile west from the First Church, a pleasant natural site, and judiciously beautified. Rev. Samuel Hunt gave the consecrating address July 8, 1849.
Townsmen and strangers alike seek the grave of Henry Wilson. While vice-president he died at Washington in his official apartment, adjoining the Senate-Chamber, November 22, 1875, and was borne with eulogies, processions, and mournful music from the Capitol to be nobly received by his adopted commonwealth in the Doric Hall of the State-House. There, over the Sabbath, he lay in state, -- the statues of Washington and Andrew, his companions; the torn and blackened 'battle- flags of the Massachusetts regiments (his own gal- laut 22d too), in crape around him. After fitting honors there, the state gave up the remains to his townsmen, who completed the funeral ceremonies in which a weeping nation had participated. Pri- vate services were held at his home, and a thronged public memorial service at Concert Hall. And so, as the sun of November 30 sank beneath the horizon, they laid him beside his kindred, - his saintly wife and only son, who died in the army. Whenever we gather in our beautiful hall, the por- trait of Wilson looks down serenely on the assem- blage, and his memory shall ever make " our faith in goodness strong."
We name, too, the North Graveyard beyond Felchville, and the South Natick Burial-ground, where sleep the ministers of the last century. Mr. Peabody's stone, with a Latin epitaph, is here. This ground, the first English burial-place, was set apart in 1731, and the oldest monument bears the date of 1730. There were two other burial-places, one on Pond and South Main streets, the other where stands the post-office. Only older citizens or the antiquarian know their places now.
The Indians buried their dead a little farther along on Pond Street. At South Natick the road
before the Unitarian Church and the hotel was a graveyard. We daily ride and walk over the bones of Natick's earlier inhabitants. The stone of Taka- wampbait, Eliot's successor in the ministry, still stands against the sidewalk fence. In laying pipes for the water-works a number of skeletons were exhumed, also a small copper kettle, a heavy flask- shaped bottle, a sleighbell, beads, and trinkets, now to be seen in the Historical Rooms.
The American town of any size has and needs its fire-brigade. Three hand-engines with a hook- and-ladder truck constituted the old fire depart- ment. We now have two fine steamers, the ladder company, and two hose companies. With so many wooden buildings at the business centre, a large fire there was often predicted. Tuesday morning, January 13, 1874, it came. Starting on Summer Street, corner of North Main, the flames leaped upon Clark's Block and Walcott's shoe-factory. A building across Main Street caught, and stores, halls, houses, and the Congregational Church went down. Its spire was the last to burn, and just before its fall the bell struek three sad strokes. Nearly forty buildings were consumed, and the loss was estimated at $ 500,000.
Such a calamity roused the town to secure a better water-supply. Dug Pond (Pegan has been suggested as a fitter name) supplies water, pumped and forced two miles to the reservoir on Broad's Hill from which pipes run through the centre to Cochiituate line and to South Natick. Water was first let on August, 1875, and at South Natick September 1, 1877. That village had its great fire in March, 1872, consuming a block of stores, houses, and Bailey's Hotel. But the energy of the people rebuilt at once larger and better than be- fore. Bailey's new hotel is as comfortable a lios- telry as a man could ask. The locality lias been a tavern or hotel for a century. Mine host Cham- berlain, of Adams House (Boston) repute, once kept hotel here.
The Cochituate aqueduct crosses the extreme north section of Natiek, and the Sudbury River conduit runs through its southern part. Two tun- nels, the Rockland Street 1,760 feet, and the second 1,575 feet, bored through the solid rock of Carver Hill, are fine specimens of engineering skill.
Clark's Block covers the space of a block on Main Street, with fine stores and convenient halls for general uses. Natick's growing prosperity is seen in the new streets and residences on Walnut Hill, overlooking the workshops, schools, and
203
NEWTON.
churches, with Nobscott's Height and Hopkinton (Mrs. Stowe's Cloud Land) in the near view, and Wachusett and Monadnock on the distant horizon. A truly New England landscape is presented in Natick, - the church and school, the library and
factory, the public hall and stores, the green- house and the farm, the flying train and the tele- graphic wires. What would Waban or John Eliot himself say, to look upon the Natick of to-day ?
NEWTON.
BY SAMUEL F. SMITH, D. D.
HE history of Newton, in its earliest · stages, is intimately connected with the history of Boston, which was originally a very contracted peninsula. But though the territory of Boston was small, hostile In- dians were in the vicinity, and the inhabitants of the penin- sula, as well as of Charlestown, Roxbury, Dorchester, Water- town, and other places, felt it necessary to have a fortified place to flee to in case of invasion. With this view they commenced the town of Cambridge, under the name of "New Town," or "the new town." They undertook to surround this new town with a stockade, as a defence from the savage foe. The fortification was made, and a fosse dug around the town enclosing upwards of one thousand acres. The fence enclosing the place was about a mile and a lıalf in lengtlı.
This was the new town (Newtown). In 1638 the foundations of the college were laid in the new town; and, in remembrance of the University in England where several of the prominent settlers had received their early education, the new settle- ment took the name of Cambridge.
It was not long before the inhabitants of the insignificant peninsula of Boston and the enclosed settlement of Cambridge sought enlargement ; and grants of land were made to individual settlers in the remoter wilderness. Crossing Charles River at the point afterwards covered by the Great Bridge, so called, since Brighton Bridge, they began to settle on the south side of the river. When the north side of the river received the name of Cam- bridge, the settlement on the south side was called Cambridge Village, or New Cambridge; and, on
the 8th of December, 1691, recurring to the old designation, by authority of the legislature it be- came Newtown, which was gradually and imper- ceptibly, without any formal action, softened into Newton.
The town of Newton, in its earliest history, em- braced at one time a considerable part of Brighton and Brookline, also a small portion which at a later date belonged to Watertown, and a slice which was ceded in 1838 to Roxbury, and another, in 1847, to Waltham. A portion of the territory now belonging to Brookline was ceded by Boston to the Rev. Mr. Hooker and his company when they complained of lack of room, on the condi- tion that they should continue to be citizens of the town. They remained for a season, but soon grew uneasy again ; and, making their way a hundred miles through the untravelled wilderness with their wives and children and cattle, subsisting during the journey on the milk of their herds, they settled in Connecticut, and the grant of land that had been made for their benefit reverted to the town of Boston.
The early settlers of Newton, properly so called, numbered only twenty, or at most twenty-two. Foremost among them is the name of Jackson, - an honored name, which has mingled prominently with its entire history. Other early names were Fuller, Hyde, Park, Ward, Wiswall, Prentice, and Trowbridge. Most of these names still linger, either in the persons of their descendants or in connection with the lands and tenements which belonged to them. The men bearing these names exercised a leading influence in all the affairs of the town. By their prudence, piety, enterprise, patriotism, and virtue they impressed upon the town a character which it is still proud to maintain, and started it in a career which has led to prosper-
204
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
ity, education, culture, enlargement, influence, fame, and wealth. The first mayor of the city of New- ton, Hon. J. F. C. Hyde, was a direct descendant of this early stock. The Boston and Albany Rail- road owes its existence largely to the far-reach- ing foresight and influence of another, the Hon. William Jackson, in the Massachusetts legisla- ture.
The first settlers of the town did not come in a body, bnt family after family, and one by one. The first who came were Deacon John Jackson, of London, in 1639, and Samuel Holly, in the same year. In 1640 came Deacon Samuel Hyde, in 1643 Edward Jackson, both also of London, and the next year, John Fuller. In 1647 came Jona- than Hyde, from London, and Richard Park, from Cambridge; in 1649, Captain Thomas Prentice ; and in 1650, Messrs. John Ward, Thomas Ham- mond, John Parker, Vincent Drnce, and James and Thomas Prentice, Jr. John Jackson, Jr., born in 1639, was probably the first child born within the limits of the town. The hardships in- cident to life in a new country seem to have been
not unfavorable to health and longevity. Ont of thirty, whose age at the time of their decease is recorded, only two died under fifty, only eight under seventy, and fourteen lived beyond eighty. John Jackson's lot, including a dwelling-honse and forty-eight acres of land, was near the present dividing line between Newton and Brighton, bor- dering twenty-four rods on Charles River. The estate of the Parks was in the northerly portion of the territory of the town; the Hammonds in the east and sontheast ; Hydes, Prentices, and Springs, near the centre; Wiswalls and Clarkes, south of the centre; Fullers, from the centre to the west and northwest ; Woodwards, southwest. The Gov- ernor Haynes farm, of a thousand acres, was at the south. Up to the year 1700, the names of only seventy-one male settlers in the town are. found upon the records. Most of them were, at the time of their settlement, in the prime of life, - only two, so far as is known, being more than fifty years of age, and only five having reached the age of forty. The majority of them were between thirty-one and thirty-five.
Date of Settlement.
Age at Settlement.
Names.
Where from.
Date of Death.
Age.
Amount of Inventory.
1639
39
Dea. John Jackson
London
1674- 75
75
£1,230
0s. 0d.
1640
30
Dea. Samuel Hyde
London
1689
79
1643
42
Edward Jackson
London
1681
793
2,477
19
0
1644
33
John Fuller
England
1698
87
534
5
0
1647
21
Jonathan Hyde
London
1711
85
972
0
0
1649
29
Capt. Thomas Prentice
England
1710
89
412
2
0
1650
Thomas Hammond
Hingham, Mass.
1675
1,139
16
2
1650
27
John Ward 1
Sudbury, Mass.
1708
82
88
16
10
1650
2]
James Prentice
England
1710
81
286
14
0
1650
Thomas Prentice, 2d
England
1683
40
John Kenrick
Boston, Mass.
1686
82
1661
23
Isaac Williams
Roxbury, Mass.
1708
69
85
6
9
1662
34
Abraham Williams
Watertown, Mass.
1712
84
1664
28
James Trowbridge
Dorchester, Mass.
1717
81
240
0
7
1664
34
John Spring
Watertown, Mass.
1717
87
1664
28
John Eliot, Jr.
Roxbury, Mass.
1668
33
457
2
5
Besides these twenty settlers, there were in New- ton, at the time of the ordination of John Eliot, Jr. (1664), twelve yonng men of the second genera- tion, nearly all then unmarried, namely : Jolm Jackson, Jr. ; Sebas Jackson, Jonathan Jackson,
1 John Ward, previous to his death, had conveyed most of his property, by deed of gift, to his children. Several of the first settlers did the same thing; and this property was, therefore, not ineluded in their inventories.
sons of Edward Jackson; Noah Wiswall, son of Thomas Wiswall ; John Kenrick, Elijah Kenrick, sons of John Kenrick ; Vincent Druce, Jr., John Drnce, sons of Vincent Druce ; Samuel Hyde, Job Hyde, sons of Samnel Hyde; Thomas Park, son of Richard Park ; Thomas Hammond, Jr.
Deacon John Jackson was the first settler of Cambridge Village who remamed and died in it. He brought a good estate with him from England.
1647
Richard Park
Cambridge, Mass.
1665
1650
35
John Parker
Hingham, Mass.
1686
71
Vincent Druce
Hingham, Mass.
1678
271
19
0
1650
1654
Thomas Wiswall
Dorchester, Mass.
340
0
0
1658
205
NEWTON.
He bought a dwelling-house and eighteen acres of land of Miles Ives, of Watertown, in 1639. This estate was situated on the line which now divides Newton from Brighton. He took the freeman's oath in 1641, and was one of the first deacons of the church. He gave one acre of land for the church and a burying-place, on which the first meeting-house was erected in 1660, and which is now a part of the East Parish Cemetery on Centre Street. He was probably the son of Christopher Jackson, of London, who died December 5, 1633. He had by two wives five sons and ten daughters, and at the time of his death about fifty grand- children.
The time when Deacon John Jackson came into Cambridge Village may be properly considered the date of the first settlement of Newton. He died January 30, 1674-75. His widow, Margarct, died August 28, 1684, aged sixty. His son Ed- ward was killed by the Indians at Medfield in their attack upon and burning of that town, February 21, 1676. His house was near the. place in later times covered by the shop of Mr. Smallwood. The cellar remained till recently, and he is said by tradition to have planted the pear-trees on the premises, still bearing fruit. Abraham Jackson was the only one of his sons who reared a family. This son gave one acre of land adjoining that given by his father, additional to that set apart for the church and burying-place.
Deacon Samuel Hyde was born in 1610. He embarked in the ship Jonathan, at London, for Boston, April, 1639, and settled in Cambridge Village about 1640. In 1647 he and his brother Jonathan bought of Thomas Danforth forty acres of land, and in 1652 two hundred acres, of the administrators of Nathaniel Sparhawk. This land they held in common till 1662, when it was di- vided. He was one of the first deacons of the church. He had, by his wife Temperance, Samuel, Joshua, Job, Sarah, and Elizabeth. Sarah married Thomas Woolson of Watertown, in 1660. Eliza- beth married Humphrey Osland in 1667. Samuel Hyde conveyed to his son-in-law, Osland, a piece of his land on the west side of Centre Street in 1678, on which the latter had previously erected a house, being part of the land later of Israel Lombard, Esq., and now of E. C. Converse, Esq. Samuel Hyde died in 1689, aged seventy-nine, and his wife died shortly afterwards. George Hyde, Esq., of the sixth generation, now owns and resides on part of the same land occupied by Deacon Samuel. Job,
son of Deacon Samuel, married Elizabeth, daughter of John Fuller. Job and his wife both died in No- vember, 1685. His father took and provided for half their children, and hers for the other half. Samuel, son of the deacon, married Hannah Stead- man in 1673. His house was burnt May 21, 1709, and raised again, with the help of his neighbors, in fourteen days. He died in 1725, and his wife in 1727. His house stood on the east side of Centre Street, near where George Hyde afterwards built, and more recently Mr. Freeland.
Edward Jackson, Sr., was born in London, in 1602, according to his gravestone. Examinations of the parish register of White Chapel,. where he lived and followed the trade of a nail-maker, indi- cate that he was the son of Christopher Jackson, and was baptized February 3, 1604. His first wife's name was Frances ; by her he had four sons and four daughters. Family tradition affirms that the youngest son, Sebas (Seaborn ?), was born on the passage to this country in 1642 or 1643 ; if so, Frances, the mother, died on the passage, or soon after their arrival here. His second marriage, in 1619, was with Elizabeth, daughter of John New- gate, and widow of Rev. John Oliver (H. C. 1645), the first minister of Rumney Marsh (Chelsea), by whom he had four daughters and one son. He purchased land in Cambridge Village of Samuel Holly, in 1643, took the freeman's oath in 1645, and the year following purchased a farm from Governor Bradstreet, of five hundred acres, for £140, long known as the Mayhew farm, - Brad- street having purchased it of Thomas Mayhew in 1638, with all the buildings thereon, for six cows. This five-hundred-acre farm commenced near what is now the division line between Newton and Brighton, and extended westward, including what is now Newtonville, and covering the site where Judge Fuller's house stood, now the site of the residence of ex-Governor Claflin. The site where General Michael Jackson's house stood (later Hon. William Jackson's) was near the centre of the Mayhew farm ; and a few rods nearer the brook stood the old dwelling-house conveyed with the land in Mayhew's deed to Bradstreet. Of course it was built previous to 1638, and therefore it is highly probable that it was the first dwelling-house built in Newton. The cellar-hole, a few rods from the brook, was visible until recent times. In the laying out of the highway in 1708, which passed by the house, the description is, "crossing the brook near where the old house stood." The .
206
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
house, which was erected before 1638, was gone before 1708. It had stood about the allotted space of threescore years and ten. It was proba- bly the first residence of Edward Jackson, Sr., in Cambridge Village, from his coming in 1642 or 1643, till his marriage in 1649, and perhaps for many more years. His dwelling-house, at the date of his death, in 1681, stood about three quarters of a mile east of the old house, and is described as a spacious mansion, with a hall, designed, undoubt- edly, for religious meetings.
Edward Jackson was elected one of the deputies (representatives) from Cambridge to the General Court in 1646, and continued to be elected to that office annually or semi-annually for seventeen years in all, and was otherwise much employed in public life. He was one of the selectmen of Cambridge in 1665; chairman of a committee, of which Edward Oakes and Lieutenant-Governor Danforth were the other members, appointed by the town of Cambridge in 1653 to lay out all necessary high- ways in Cambridge on the south side of Charles River; chairman of a committee composed, in ad- dition, of his brother, John Jackson, Richard Park, and Samuel Hyde, " to lay out and settle highways as need shall require in Cambridge Village"; and one of the commissioners to end small causes in Cambridge, for several years. He was constantly present with the Rev. John Eliot at his lectures to the Indians at Nonantum, to take notes of the ques- tions of the Indians and of the answers of Mr. Eliot.
He was one of the proprietors of Cambridge, and in the division of the common lands in 1662 he had four acres, and in 1664 he had thirty acres. He was also a large proprietor in the Billerica lands, and in the division of 1652 he had four hundred acres, which he gave by his will to Har- vard College, together with other bequests. He was the author and first signer of a petition in 1678 to have Cambridge Village set off from Cam- bridge and made an independent town.
In Johnson's History of New England, in a notice of many of the leading men of the time, Ed- ward Jackson is referred to as one who " could not endure to see the truths of Christ trampled under foot by the erroneous party." Mr. Jackson had thirteen children and upwards of sixty grand- children. He died June 17, 1681, aged seventy- nine years and five months. His inventory' contained upwards of 1,600 acres of land and two men-servants, appraised at £5 each. He was prob-
ably the first slaveholder in Newton. His wife survived him twenty-eight years, and died Septem- ber 30, 1709, aged ninety-two. He was a land- surveyor, and not long before his death surveyed his own lands, and made a division of them to his children, putting up metes and bounds.
It is a remarkable fact in relation to these two brothers, John and Edward Jackson, that while Edward had but three sons and John five, there are multitudes of Edward's posterity who bear his name, and not more than three or four of John's. Forty-four of Edward's descendants went into the Revolutionary army from Newton, and not one of John's. In September, 1852, there were but three families in the town of his descendants bearing his name.
John Fuller was born in 1611, and settled in Cambridge Village in 1644. In December, 1658, he purchased of Joseph Cooke seven hundred and fifty acres of land for $160, bounded north and west by Charles River, south by Samuel Shepard, and east by Thomas Park. His house stood on the south side of the road, on the west side of the brook, and within a few rods of both road and brook. By subsequent purchase he increased his farm to 1,000 acres, Cheese-cake Brook running through it. He had six sons and two daughters ; his son Isaac died before him. He divided his farın between the other five sons, -Jolin, Jona- than, Joseph, Jeremiah, and Joshua. This tract of land was long known as the Fuller Farm, or Fuller's Corner. He was a maltster; he was se- lectman from 1684 to 1694, and died in 1698-99, aged eighty-seven. His wife, Elizabeth, died in 1700. They left five sons, two daughters, and forty-five grandchildren. His will provided that none of the land bequeathed to his sons should be sold to strangers until first offered to the nearest relation. Twenty-two of his descendants went into the Revolutionary army from Newton. His five sons died at the following ages : John, seventy- five; Jonathan, seventy-four; Joseph, eighty-eight; Jeremiah, eighty-five ; Joshua, ninety-eight. Joshua was married the second time in 1742, when eighty- eight years old, to Mary Dana, of Cambridge, who was then in her seventy-fifth year.
. Edward Jackson and John Fuller came into Cambridge Village about the same time. They probably knew each other in England, were the largest land-owners in the Village, divided their lands among their children in their lifetime, con- firming the division by their wills, and have had a
.
207
NEWTON.
Exploration of the Charles.
far greater number of descendants than any other of the early settlers of the town.
Jonathan Hyde was born in 1626. He bought two hundred and forty acres of land in Cambridge Village with his brother Samuel, which they owned in common until 1661. In 1656 he bought eighty acres, which was one eighth of the tract recovered by Cambridge from Dedham in a lawsuit. He settled upon the land, and increased it by subse- quent purchases to several hundred acres. His house was about sixty rods north of the Centre Congregational Church. He bought and sold much land in the town. He had twenty-three children,-fifteen by his wife Mary French, daugh- ter of William French of Billerica, and eight by his second wife, Mary Rediat, daughter of John
Rediat of Marlborough, with whom he made a marriage covenant in 1673, in which it was stipu- lated that, in case he should die first, she should have his house, barn, and about one hundred acres of land. This part of his homestead was bounded by the highway from Watertown to Dedliam (Cen- tre Street), one hundred and sixty rods, and one hundred westwardly, and south by the farm of Elder Wiswall, reserving a highway one rod wide next to Wiswall's. This highway ran from the training- field (Common) by the north bank of Wiswall's Pond, and for more than a century was known as Blanden's Lane, - its commencement on Centre Street nearly coinciding with Pelham Street, and bending southwestwardly, past the house anciently known by the name of Blanden, more recently
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