USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 53
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The second ecclesiastical secession was a separa- tion of the Trinitarians from the First Church, a majority of that church being of the Unitarian faith.
The new organization was effected March 12, 1828, and was named the Orthodox Congrega- tional Church in Shirley.
A small brick meeting-house was erected in the centre of the town, which remained the place of worship for the new society until 1850, when, by a majority vote, the society removed the location of its Sabbath services from the central to the south village of the town, where a new meeting- house was erected, more capacious than the first, which has ever remained the place of its solemn assembling.
The Orthodox Society had been in existence for two years, when its first minister, Mr. Hope Brown, of Fitchburg, received a call to the pastor- ship. He was ordained June 22, 1830, and re- mained in the connection for nearly fourteen years, when he was dismissed, by his own request, and re- moved to Naperville, Illinois, where he for a time had the charge of a parish. Thence he removed to Rockford, where he still lives, but without a stated ministry.
While Mr. Brown held his pastorship in Shirley
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he conferred the rite of baptism upon forty-nine persons, and received eighty-eiglit into church com- munion. He was very active and faithful in the dis- charge of his parochial duties, and had frequent calls from other towns to sit in ecclesiastical councils, and wherever he was known he secured the confi- dence and respect of his fellow-citizens. His sep- aration .from his parish and his removal from the neighborhood were very generally regretted, and many of his friends could hardly be reconciled to a policy that dissolved a connection which had been so long and so prosperously sustained. The sub- sequent history of this society has been one of frequent change.
A secession was made from the Orthodox Society in 1853, of a few of its members of Baptist pro- clivities, who formed a church, erected a chapel, and have sustained their identity as a distinct peo- ple, withont a settled ministry.
The only remaining ecclesiastical revolution wor- thy of notice in this place occurred in 1781 - 82, and its singularity will impart a peculiar interest to the reading community. At the date named, Ann Lee, the famous prophetess and preacher of Shakerism, having immigrated to this country with several of her followers, and having established themselves a home in the wilderness near Albany, in the state of New York, made a missionary tour through parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and at length found a family in Harvard, in the last-named state, where she and her doctrines were kindly received, and where she abode, dispensing the word for a long season. She taught that Christ must appear twice, in and through one per- son of each sex, in order that his system of faith might be perfect and effectual in the work of human salvation. She said that lie had appeared the first time through Jesus of Nazareth, the son of a car- penter, and that his second coming was through herself, the daughter of a blacksmith, and by receiv- ing her faith - the distinguishing article of which was celibacy -Christians would have a perfect scheme of salvation, would be like the angels in heaven, and that when it should be fully carried out it would introduce a universal spiritual exist- ence, where men could no more be born or die.
While " Mother Ann," as she was reverently called by her disciples, remained in Harvard, many persons from the neighboring towns went to see her and hear her speak, some with a desire to find a purer faith, and others out of curiosity.
A portion of her hearers became believers in her
mission ; among whom were two farmers who lived in the extreme southern part of Shirley. They were brothers, Elijah and Ivory Wilds. These were joined by two other families, living in Lancaster, whose estates joined those of the Wilds. Their names were John Warner and Nathan Willard. The farms of these four individuals were united in a joint-stock proprietary, and it forms the territory now owned and occupied by the Shirley Shakers. The two dwellings where the Wilds lived are yet (1879) standing, time-worn and weather-beaten, amid the more imposing structures which the larger temporal means of these humble believers have enabled them to rear around. They contain the rooms, unaltered, in which the holy " Mother Ann " discoursed to her spiritual children, where hier elders knelt in prayer, and where they led in the sacred songs, the devout march, and the solemn dance.
These meetings for worship were of frequent oc- currence during the early periods of their history, and were often attended by strangers from a dis- tance. Women have been known to come to them on foot a journey of twenty and more miles, and return on the evening of the same day. On one occasion two women walked from Mason, New Hampshire, twenty miles, on a rainy Sunday, and were even obliged to stop and wring the water from their stockings, then proceeding on their journey unharmed by the elements, being protected by their faith.
Those who have witnessed the mild and graceful movements of the modern Shaker worship cannot fully understand the zeal with which the early believers labored in the same vocation. Their dances and marchings were accompanied with vio- lent twitchings and stampings, with shakings and whirlings, and oftentimes individuals dropped in a swoon, in which they would lie for hours, and even for days.
Though the Shakers of Shirley had few, if any, legal persecutions, they have not wholly escaped the violence of mobocracy, especially in the early stages of their existence. The most notable instance of mob persecution occurred at the house of Elijah Wilds on the evening of June 1, 1873, and on the morning of the day following. From a written testimony of said Wilds the following account lias been mainly derived. Ann Lee and her elders - James Whittaker and William Lee - had come over from Harvard to hold a religious meeting with their friends in Shirley, " in consequence of
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Mother's testimony against all sin and every kind of impurity of flesh and spirit, and the great con- viction it [her testimony] produced among the people in this vicinity, a tumultuous mob was raised, mostly from the town of Harvard, and con- sisting altogether of the enemies of the cross. The malicious crew came to my house on Sabbath evening, about eight o'clock, and surrounded the house. Some of the leaders of the mob were or had been captains in the militia, and still bore that title. They were followed by a large number of men, for the evident purpose of abusing Mother and the Elders."
The little assembly of worshippers, thus invested by a furious mob, knew not how to protect them- selves. They had no disposition to use the means of physical defence, if they had them. Supposing the malice of the invader would be aimed chiefly at their female leader, they hurried her into a small, dark closet, that led from a chamber, and concealed the door of the closet by placing before it a high chest of drawers. Their next plan was to convey intelli- gence to the municipal authorities, and claim pro- tection. But this could not be easily effected, as the house was completely surrounded by the mob, and none were allowed to pass out. At length a woman who lived in the neighborhood, and who had a nursing infant at home, asked permission to depart and attend to her little one. Her request was granted, and she lost no time in reporting to the proper officers the perilous condition of her friends at the house of Elijah Wilds.
The written narrative proceeds : "When day- light appeared, the leaders of the mob called for Mother and the Elders to come out to them. With this demand they did not see fit to comply, but gave them liberty to come into the house, and they came in accordingly. Mother and the Elders re- quested us to prepare some breakfast for them, which was done, and the mob leaders sat down and ate. Mother then advised me to feed the residue of the mob who were in the dooryard. Accord- ingly, I carried out bread and cheese, of which they eat freely. After this the elders went into the dooryard, and Elder James [Whittaker] addressed them, and said, ' Why have ye come here to abuse or hurt us ? What have we done ? Have we injured your persons or your property ? If we have, make us sensible of it, and we will make you restitution.'
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" These words so enraged the mob with enmity, that they seized the speaker by one arm, and the
brethren seized him by the other, and held him till he cried out, 'Lord have mercy ! you will pull me in pieces.' At this cry the hands of the mob were loosed from him."
The police, arriving at this moment, ordered the mob to disperse. This brought the intruders to a stand, and after some parley the leaders in the riot proposed that if the two elders - James Whit- taker and William Lee - would return with them to Harvard, to the house of Jeremiah Willard, one of their brethren, they would not injure them or their friends. Though the elders had no confi- dence in the professions or promises of their per- secutors, they consented to their proposal, hoping thereby to draw them away from the house of Mr. Wilds, when an opportunity would be presented of relieving the " Mother " from her closet confine- ment. Accordingly, with a number of the brethren, they proceeded to Harvard, followed by the mob that had molested them through the night.
On arriving at Harvard the rioters violated their engagement with the elders that they would not in- jure them, and, dragging them out into a convenient place for their purpose, first tied James Whittaker to the limb of a tree, where they scourged him with a whip until he felt that the skin was almost flayed from his back. This flagellation he received with calm submission, and blessed God that he was accounted worthy to suffer in the cause of his Master. They next brought out William Lee, who told them he would not be tied, but kneeling, bade them lay on their stripes, which he would receive like a good soldier of the Cross. Just, however, before the lash fell, a sister broke through the gang of desperadoes, and throwing herself under the uplifted whip, begged that she might receive the blows instead of her beloved elder. The perse- cutor turned his whip, and, by design or accident, struck this sister a blow upon the temple which opened a wound that bathed her face in blood. At this the rioters became alarmed, and, having released the elders, left their disgraceful work but half finished.
Wilds says, in his testimony, that at evening " the Elders returned and were gladly received by Mother, and the brethren and the sisters at our house. 'Have they abused you, James ?' speak- ing to Elder Whittaker. 'I will show you, Mother,' said he; and kneeling down before her, he stripped up his shirt, and showed his wounded back covered with blood, which had run down to his feet. In washing his back it was found to be
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beaten black and blue from his shoulders to his waistbands, and in many places bruised to a jelly, as though he had been beaten with a club. 'I have been abused,' said lie, ' but not for any wrong that I have done them ; it is for your sake; I feel nothing against them for what they have done to me, for they were ignorant and knew not what they did, nor what manner of spirit they were of.' Mother and the Elders, with all the .brethren and sisters, kneeled down and prayed to God to forgive their blood-thirsty persecutors. Elder James cried
heartily, and said, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do !' After praying for them, Mother and the Elders were filled with joy and thankfulness that they were counted worthy to suffer persecution for Christ's sake."
From this time the Shirley Shakers have never suffered physical persecution, and no other could reach the moral equilibrium of their lives, and they have been permitted peaceably to use the gifts of this world while seeking for another, where perse- cution cannot reachı them.
SOMERVILLE.
BY E. C. BOOTH, M. D.
SOMERVILLE has a distinct municipal history of only thirty-seven years, but its territory has a record, con- nected with that of Charles- town, extending back two centuries and a half. The city of Somerville is situated two miles northwest from . Boston. It is four iniles long, varies in width from two miles to five hundred feet, and has an area of twenty-seven hundred acres. It is bounded as follows : On the north by Med- ford and the Mystic River, on the east by Boston, on the south by Cambridge, and on the west by Cambridge and Arlington. It was set apart from Charlestown in 1842, and became a city in 1872.
The surface is uneven, and rises into no less than eight considerable elevations, of which Prospect, Winter, Spring, and Central hills, and Mount Bene- dict are the principal. The soil is various, and in many places excellent for cultivation. Good sand for building purposes is abundant, and a vein of clay, suitable for brickmaking, underlies much of the sur- face. The only stratified rock to be found in Somer- ville is slate. The intrusive rocks, cropping out in numerous ledges, in which occur an unusual variety of minerals, are entirely diabase. The formation is particularly rich in dikes.
Most of the citizens are engaged in business in Boston, but there are several manufactories, and a few farms remain.
Ample facilities are afforded for transit to and from the metropolis, five lines of steam and three of horse railways traversing the city, so that scarcely an estate is situated more than fifteen minutes dis- tant from the business part of Boston. Seventeen churches and eighteen large and modern school- houses stand within its limits. A public library is in successful operation, and two newspapers are published weekly. The city is abundantly supplied with water from Mystic Lake.
At the founding of Charlestown in 1628, and for the first ten years, the area of the peninsula generally sufficed for the wants of the settlers ; but when, in 1637, land became so scarce within the neck that new-comers were rarely granted more than a citizenship, purchases were made of the In- dians, and settlements began to extend upon the mainland. The territory north and east of the Charles River was then owned by the Pawtucket Indians ; and by payment of thirty-six shillings in 1637, and twenty-one coats, nineteen fathoms of wampum, and three bushels of corn, two years later to Squa Sachem and Webcowit, rulers of the tribe, the latter were well satisfied to relinquish to the town of Charlestown all the territory that is now Somerville. A few settlers had established them- selves on the mainland from the earliest period.
The Ten Hills Farm recalls a place of the past.
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Extending along the right bank of the Mystic River, from Charlestown to the town of Medford, and formerly owned by one person, it has now been improved by the location of a Public Park and numerous avenues and streets, upon which have been erected many beautiful residences condueive to the wealth and beauty of that portion of the city.
In 1631 Governor Winthrop was granted six hundred acres on the Mystic River, to which, from the ten elevations upon it, he gave the name of The Ten Hills Farm. Here he had built a house, at some time previous, which was supposed by Sav- age to have been the governor's country residence. The mansion-house, recently demolished, is pre- sumed to liave marked the site of this earlier building.
At this farm Winthrop built the Blessing of the Bay, a bark of thirty tons, the first vessel con- structed in Massachusetts Bay. It was probably launched July 4, 1631, at the wharf the remains of which were visible until recently just southeast of the Middlesex Avenue Bridge.
In 1677 the farm passed out of the possession of the Winthrop family, and was in the hands of various owners, until it was bought, in 1740, by Robert Temple, who resided here at the outbreak of the Revolution. It was then less than half of its original area. In 1801, and for thirteen years, it was owned by Elias Hasket Derby, who stocked it with improved breeds of sheep. In 1831 it was bought by a party of wealthy gentlemen in the neighborhood of Boston, and styled "The Ten Hills Stock Farm." By them it was leased to Colonel Samuel Jaques, under whose care the farm became one of the objects of interest in the vicinity.
Colonel Jaques was born September 12, 1776. He was a man of strong and original mind, and active in the affairs of the day. He was chief marshal at the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1825, and acceptably filled the responsible position of Inspector General of Hops for the State of Massachusetts. In liis manners and surroundings Colonel Jaques re- sembled the English country gentleman. He was an enthusiastic huntsman, and frequently the sub- urban residents of Boston were awakened from their slumbers by the sound of his bugle and the cry of his fox-hounds. Webster, Clay, and other noted men were in correspondence with him, and were occasional visitors at the farm. His diary, fully recording the local events of the day, was continued for a period of forty or fifty years, to the time of his death, March 27, 1859.
Mr. John Woolwich, "Indian trader," lived a mile and a half without the neck, on the Cambridge Road, near Strawberry Hill, as early as 1630. He was a representative to the General Court in 1634. Jolin Libby and William Ayre were also early settlers in the same neighborhood.
The early inhabitants of Somerville were mostly farmers, and many of them large producers of milk. A few were engaged in alewife fishery at the proper seasons. Brickmaking was a branch of industry opened after the Revolution, and has been since con- tinued. At the time of the Revolution the popu- lation of the Somerville territory could not have been more than two hundred and fifty. The houses numbered a few more than thirty, and were prin- cipally on the Cambridge, Winter Hill, and Milk Row roads.
The land between these highways was divided into large farms, and held in comparatively few hands. Winter, Prospect, Spring, Central, and Walnut hills were pasture-lands, with an occasional growth upon them, mostly of red cedars. The now populous East Somerville was a farming tract. North of the Winter Hill road the fields stretched out to the marshes adjacent to the Mystic River, in an expanse unbroken except by the farm at Ten Hills. Mount Benedict was under cultivation, and was termed " Ploughed Hill." It was said to have been so named because it had been custom- ary to plough it in a circle around the hill, turn- ing the furrows always down the slope. Willis' Creek (the Miller's River of later times) took its rise at the base of Spring Hill, and flowed with pure and pellucid stream through the meadows to the Charles River.
The tide encroached upon the district now known as " Brick Bottom," and passed up to a clump of willows, whose stumps yet remain half-way be- tween Somerville Avenne and Washington Street. East of Prospect Street, within our limits, was largely marsh. On its west side was high land covered with wood. South of the Fitchburg Rail- road, in the vicinity of Medford Street, was an ex- tensive grove of stately oaks.
The main highways -to Cambridge, and over Winter Hill to Medford and to Arlington -are known to have been laid out as early as 1637, and the first is spoken of as a " path " four years earlier. The road from Union Square to Medford was also laid out at an early period. It began by following the course of Bow Street, from Union Square, and bore the name of Milk Row from the
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fact that nearly all the residents of the road were milkmen. A lane ran from the head of Prospeet Street over Bullard's bridge, which spanned the creek, and going through a birch-pasture came out at Inman's Farm. From Bullard's bridge there was an open way to the gate of the path which led to the Lechmere Farm. In 1637 the land between these principal highways - called the common - was divided into rights of pasturage, or the " com- mon was stinted," as it was termed. In 1685 this tract was lotted out and confirmed to propri- etors, and eight range-ways were laid out, connect- ing the Cambridge and Milk Row roads with the Winter Hill and Arlington roads. These correspond to Franklin, Shawmut and Cross, Walnut, School, Central, Lowell, and Cedar streets, and Willow Avenue. All are believed to have been two rods wide originally, but the one corresponding to Shaw- mut and Cross streets was in later years one rod wider, and was called Three Pole Lane. Middle, Cross, or still later Barberry, Lane ran from Cross Street, nearly opposite the head of Tufts, in a line with the upper part of Chester, into what is now Highland Avenue. At School Street it turned northerly ten rods, and then continued westerly, and terminated in Central Street.
The houses standing in Somerville at the time of the Revolution can be approximately placed as follows : Beginning on Broadway at the Charles- town line was the Locke place, with its low house still standing on the north side of, and a little back from, the road. Opposite was a building on the site of the residence of the late Mr. Fitch Cutter. It now stands on the corner of Sycamore and Foster streets. There was another house on the southwest corner of Cross Street. The next in order was on the northeast corner of Temple Street, formerly the entrance to Ten Hills Farm. On the summit of the hill just northwest of the residence of Mr. Jonathan Brown stood Joseph Tufts' house, which has been removed to Lowell Street. Daniel Tufts lived in a house which is a part of the stately mansion on the north side of Broadway, opposite the powder-magazine.
There was a dwelling upon the powder-house farm. The generous old mansion of Mr. Oliver Tufts was bought, and occupied during the war by John Tufts, father of the present owner.
David Wood's country-house was in Three Pole Lane, near the northeast corner of Pearl Street. Hither he brought his family after the battle of Bunker Hill. On the Cambridge road from the
Charlestown line nothing except a brook broke the monotony of the open fields, till the house of Joseph Miller was reached, on the easterly corner of Franklin Street. It is still standing, and in good preservation. It is believed there was a dwelling opposite the asylum gate. An old cellar, whose superstructure was unknown to any now living, existed as early as the year 1800, opposite the southerly end of Shawmut Street. The next was a small dwelling on the estate at the westerly corner of Boston Street. Mrs. Debby Shed lived above and opposite, in a house which, with a subsequent addition, is still standing, some fifty yards east of Mystie Street. As the road turns toward the west, opposite the " Yellow Block" stood the small gambrel-roofed house of Samuel Shed, which is now the second story of Mr. William Walker's residence. On the southeasterly corner of Prospect Street was a house, and in the vicinity of Bonner Place lived Mr. Samuel Shed, Jr. Pythian Block occupies the site of Benjamin Piper's tavern. No other dwelling existed on the Cambridge road, except a house at the entrance of Webster Avenue and another on the site of the small dwelling just west of the abutment.
Milk Row was somewhat more thiekly settled. After leaving the Union Square of to-day we should first have come to Samuel Choate's, on the west side of Bow Street, a few yards south of Wal- nut ; the house, though removed from its former site, is still standing. In the searred and bleached old building just under the eastern wall of the Methodist Church lived Mary Frost, a widow. Jonathan Ireland lived on the northwest corner of School Street, in a house which has been moved to the rear of the Franklin School building. Samuel Tufts occupied the old homestead still standing on the west side of the road near Laurel Street. The widow Rand lived on the northwest corner of Central Street, in a dwelling which has long since passed away. Samuel Kent resided in the low hip-roofed house yet in good repair at the corner of Garden Court. There was another dwelling on the opposite side, near the present greenhouse. The twin-brothers Hunnewell dwelt beyond, at the turn of the road, on the east side between Craigie and Lowell streets, in a very old house, demolished some fifteen years ago. After this there was no dwelling till we arrived at Timothy Tufts', near Willow Avenue. A hundred years have passed away, and this house is still standing unchanged, and still occupied by a Mr. Timothy Tufts.
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Although no battle was fought within the limits of Somerville, almost every considerable spot of her territory is associated with the opening scenes of the Revolution. T'en Hills Farm, the old Pow- der-House, Miller's River district, Milk Row, the road to Charlestown, Prospect, Central, and Win- ter hills, Mount Benedict, and the eminence on which the Asylum stands, successively call up a vivid series of events, from one of the first acts indicative of the hostile policy of Great Britain, to the time of the evacuation of Boston, - a series almost identical with the history of the war in this part of the country. The first of these events, the incursion to Quarry Hill, will be described under another head.
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