USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 6
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The first action of the town in relation to schools was September 2, 1754, when the town " voted
that there be a school kept in said town, and to remove to three several places, and that the select- men provide a school-master; " but the first pay- ments do not appear to be in accordance with this vote, Samuel Farrar and Amos Heald being paid, February 14, 1755, £1 6 s. 8d. each for teaching school, and Ephraim Flint and Timothy Wesson, Jr., in March, 1755, £2 13s. 4d. each for teach- ing school two months. During the earlier years of the town "a moving school " was kept, the teachers usually teaching in one school-house from six to ten weeks, and then going to another, ac- cording to the directions of the selectmen.1 No school committees were chosen till 1808, and ex- cepting that year till 1813, the duties of school committees being performed by the selectmen.
Among the teachers employed in the earlier years of the town were Micah Lawrence, Jacob Bigelow, Timothy Farrar, Samnel Williams, Joseph Willard, and Fisher Ames, and in later times Rev. Drs. Hosmer and Hill. Mr. Micah Lawrence was a cousin of Rev. William ; he afterwards taught in Worcester, and, later in life, was settled in the ministry in Winchester, N. H. He was a more pronounced loyalist than his Lincoln cousin, and, after a third council, was dismissed from the min- istry because he was unfriendly to the war. Mr. Bigelow, afterwards minister of Sudbury, taught here three years. He was not only popular as a teacher, but also succeeded in gaining the affec- tions of Miss Sarah Hartwell, to whom he was married January 14, 1773. Timothy Farrar, afterwards a distinguished judge and civilian in New Hampshire, was a native of the town.
But what graphic pen shall describe the schools, the teaching, the poverty of the appliances of learning ? Lead pencils, steel pens, and ruled paper were unknown in those days. The exercises of the school consisted of reading from the spelling- book and psalter, spelling, the study of arithmetic, and learning to write. Arithmetic was the sole science taught in those days, and the method of teaching it was somewhat peculiar; the teacher only was provided with a text-book, usually Cock-
1 The statements in Shattuck's history, "that at its incorpo- ration in 1754 Lincoln was divided into three school districts," and "in 1770, and some other years, the grammar school was substituted for all others," are incorrect. The town never was divided into school districts, and the votes of the town, May 28, 1770, "that the grammar school be kept in the middle of the town the ensning year, and that there shall he womans' schools set up in the extreme parts of the town," were reconsidered July 30 of the same year.
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
er's or Hodder's,1 and his business was to set sums for his pupils on their slates or in their manuscript- books. The rules of arithmetic were copied from the text-book of the teacher into the manuscripts of the scholars, and the examples set down under the rules. Now, taking into consideration that this was the method of teaching, it seems incredible that the schools of Massachusetts should have gone on for one hundred and fifty years without the ill- vention of a blackboard. These exercises, and the discipline of the school, - which was usually in accordance with the maxim of Solomon, - occu- pied the session.
Improvement was slow until 1792, when Morse's Geography was first published, and soon found its way into the schools, both as a reading-book and as a text-book in geography. Webster's Third Part was published about the same time, and the Scholar's Arithmetic, the meaning of the title of which has ceased to be understood, in 1801, which marks a new era in the history of common-school instruction.
The Liberal School, an institution differing in name only from the academies of the time, was established here in 1793. The house was built by an association of some of the principal men of the town, and Mr., afterwards Dr., Stearns taught the school. Instruction was given in rhetoric, astron- omy, and the higher branches of mathematics, and in the principles of religion and morality, text- books upon these subjects being prepared by the teacher and transcribed by the pupils. The Latin and Greek languages were also taught, and par- ticular attention was paid to the manners and morals of the pupils. This school gave a new impulse to the cause of education, and tended to elevate the character of the town. In it Samuel Farrar, Esq., Professor John Farrar, Hon. Samuel Hoar, Nathan Brooks, Nathaniel Bemis, Francis Jackson, Winslow Lewis, and other distinguished men received instruction preparatory for admission to college. The first exhibition was given Septem- ber 27, 1793, Misses Anna Harrington, Hannah
1 Copies of these text-books are in possession of the writer. Cocker's was licensed in 1653, printed in 1699. Hodder's, a later and more generally used book, is a small duodecimo, printed in London in 1719. The title-page reads, " Hodder's Arith- metic, or that necessary art made most easy. Being explained in a way familiar to the capacity of any that desire to learn it in a little time. By James Hodder, writing-master. The twenty- eighth edition, revised, augmented, and above a thousand faults amended, by Henry Mose, late servant and successor to the author."
Fiske, and Susanna Hoar being assigned the hon- orary parts. The innovation of allowing young ladies to speak in public provoked a good deal of discussion and some censure, but Dr. Stearns was able to sustain himself and his school, and the people became reconciled to it.
No part of the history of the town is more in- teresting or instructive than the part taken in the struggle for independence. Shattuck, in his his- tory, says, "in this controversy [with England] it became early enlisted, and uniformly on the popular side, and was distinguished for its ardent, decided, and independent patriotism, and for its intelligence and originality," - statements which will bear the scrutiny of history, and the judg -. ment of posterity. On the 15th of March, 1770, the town " Voted, That we will not purchase any one article of any person that imports goods con- trary to the agreement of the merchants of Bos- ton ; " and, in a long answer to a circular sent to the town, they say, February 8, 1773, "We will not be wanting in our assistance, according to our ability, in the prosecuting of all such lawful and constitutional measures as shall be thought proper for the continuance of all our rights, privileges, and liberties, both civil and religions; being of opinion that a steady, united, persevering conduct in a constitutional way is the best means, under God, for obtaining the redress of all our griev- ances.'
A committee of correspondence consisting of Samuel Farrar, Eleazer Brooks, and Abijalı Pierce was chosen November 2, 1773, and a similar com- mittee was chosen every year till 1784; several documents emanating from this committee have been preserved, and will bear comparison with any state papers of the time.
December 27, 1773, the town " Voted, That we will not purchase or use any tea or suffer it to be purchased or used in our families so long as there is any duty laid on such tea by act of the British Parliament, and we will hold and esteem all such as do use such tea as enemies of their country and will treat them with the greatest neg- lect." Afterwards the following agreement was signed by eighty-two of the principal inhabitants. " We, the subscribers inhabitants of the town of Lincoln do sincerely and truly covenant and agree to and with each other, that we will not for our- selves, or any for or under us, purchase or con- sume any goods, wares, or manufactures, which shall be imported from Great Brittain after the
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LINCOLN.
thirty-first day of August, 1774, until the Con- gress of Deputies from the several colonies shall determine what artieles if any, to except, and that we will thereafter, respecting the use and consump- tion of suel British articles as 'not be excepted, religiously abide the determination of said Con- gress."
At the annual meeting, March 6, 1775, the town " Voted, That £52 4s. be granted to provide for those persons who have enlisted as minute-men, each one a bayonet, belt, cartridge box, steel-ram- mer, gunstock, and knapsack ; and that they attend military exercises four hours in a day, twiee a week, till the first day of May next. In case any one refuse to attend, 2s. for each four hours, and in proportion for a less time, shall be deducted from their wages."
Companies of minute-men existed at this time in most, if not all, of the towns in Middlesex County ; those in the central part of the county had been organized into a regiment, of which Abijah Pierce of Lineoln was colonel. William Smith was cap- tain of the minute-men. Samuel Farrar was captain of the military company, and Samuel Hoar and James Parks were lieutenants ; these officers were chosen by their men, but were with- out commissions. Eleazer Brooks, the last cap- tain commissioned by the royal governor, had thrown up his commission and renounced the king's service.
Such was the condition of things in the spring of 1775. The Provincial Congress had collected a quantity of military stores at Concord, and an attempt to seize and destroy those stores was daily expected. On the evening of the 18th of April a detachment of the king's troops under the command of Colonel Smith was sent for the pur- pose.
The main road from Lexington to Concord, called in early times " the Bay-road," passed through the northerly part of Lincoln and by Captain Smith's house. Probably he was the first to receive intel- ligence that the royal forces were in motion. At about three o'clock in the morning the church bell was rung, and no one mistook its meaning. The officers and men soon began to gather at the meet- ing-house, and early in the morning took up their march for Concord to participate in the events of the day. After the departure of their husbands and sons for Concord many of the women gathered up their silver and best clothing, took their chil- dren and Bibles, and hid in the woods. The Brit-
ish soldiers passed up the north road between the hours of six and seven in the morning; the re- treating column re-entered the town about noon in good order. From the foot of Hardy's Hill, the first considerable ascent on the returning route, to the tan-yard which was near the foot of the next hill, the road was the dividing line of Lincoln and Concord. At the southwest corner of the tan-yard the line of the town left the road and turned northward. Eastward from the tan-yard the road aseends a sharp aeclivity and bends northward also. The rains, travel, and repairs of a century had worn a deep cut in the road at this place, and on its easterly side was a dense forest which afforded a covert for the provincials, while the curves in the road exposed the British to a raking fire from both rear and front. Two of the enemy were killed in this defile, and five others a little further on. At or near Cornet Ephraim Hartwell's house, Captain Jonathan Wilson of Bedford, Nathaniel Wyman of Billerica, and Daniel Thompson of Woburn were slain. It was now past noon and the heat was excessive for the season. The British continued their flight and passed the line of the town upon the run. Six hours before, they had crossed that line in all the pride and pomp of war ! Six hours, big with destinies of men and nations, had passed, and they were in ignominious flight ! At a short distance below the line of the town, where a preci- pice juts into the road, Smith halted and made a resolute attempt to re-form his column, which was partially successful. A few minutes afterwards he was severely wounded. Pitcairn, the evil genius of the day, was reserved for the bullets of Bunker Hill. The other events of the day belong to the history of other towns. The bodies of three Brit- ish soldiers were buried by the side of the road. Five other bodies were gathered up the next day and buried in the old burying-ground in Lincoln. One of these had on a fine ruffled shirt, and a queue tied with a silk ribbon. He was supposed to have been an officer. Tradition says that two others were buried in a knoll near Lexington line, but the evidence is not sufficient to warrant the assertion.
To write in detail an account of the doings of the town and the services and sacrifices of its men and officers in the field and at home during the eight eventful years that followed, would require a mueh larger spaee than is allotted to the his- tory of Lincoln in this work. A few events may be noticed. A new organization of the militia
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
was made in February, 1776, and Concord, Lex- ington, Weston, Lincoln, and Acton were assigned to the Third regiment ; Eleazer Brooks was com- missioned colonel, February 14, 1776, and held that office till October 15, 1778, when he was appointed brigadier-general. Samuel Farrar was commissioned captain, and Samuel Hoar and James Parks lieutenants of the Lincoln company Feb- ruary 14, 1776, and were in office March 7, 1780. Colonel Brooks commanded a regiment in the ex- pedition to Ticonderoga, and Samuel Hoar was a lieutenant in that expedition; both were at the surrender of Burgoyne. Colonel Brooks com- manded a regiment of Middlesex men at White Plains in 1776, and Samuel Hartwell was his quar- termaster. Colonel Brooks' regiment behaved with great bravery in the battle of White Plains, and received especial commendation from General Waslı- ington. Samuel Farrar commanded a company at the surrender of Burgoyne's army in 1777. This appears to have been a volunteer company composed of Lexington and Lincoln men. John Hartwell was a lieutenant in Colonel Dyke's regi- ment in 1776, and a captain in the same regiment in 1777. Thirteen men from Lincoln were in Captain Hartwell's company, and six others from Lincoln in the same regiment.
There were thirty-six calls upon the town for men during the war, besides repeated calls for pro- visions, clothing, and blankets. In 1780 £33,840 were granted to hire men for the army and £8,500 more to purchase provisions and clothing, and in January, 1781, £ 16,240 more were granted for the same objects. Afterwards, when men were called for, the town was divided into as many classes as there were men called for, each class being re- quired to furnish a man. In this way individuals, as well as the town, became greatly embarrassed. During the years of depression and gloom which followed the Revolutionary war, the people of Lin- coln continued steadfast and loyal in their attach- ment to the government they had labored so hard to establish, and Shays and Shattuck found but one sympathizer and no followers here. The ef- forts of these deluded men to stay the proceedings of the courts and overthrow the government were regarded with abhorrence.
The same spirit which animated the people of the town in the contest with England was mani- fested in the War of the Rebellion. In the former war a few men were suspected of toryism, and one wealthy and influential man left the town on the
19th of April, 1775, never to return. But not so in the War of the Rebellion; secession had here no sympathiizer or apologist, and no one - man, woman, or child - regarded the contest with indif- ference.
The first town-meeting to act on matters per- taining to the war was held May 13, 1861, and it was "Voted, That two thousand dollars be appro- priated to provide bounty, arms, ammunition, cloth- ing, provisions, and extra pay for such of the inhabitants of the town as have enlisted, or may hereafter enlist, into the military service of the United States, and for aid to their families."
July 28, 1862, on motion of Charles L. Tarbell, the town "Voted, That eighteen hundred dollars be raised to pay nine men who may enlist as our quota of soldiers in the service of the United States, and that said eighteen hundred dollars be forth- with assessed upon the taxable property of the town, and as much of it as may be necessary be expended by the committee appointed at a citizens' meeting in securing said recruits; and that all persons be requested to pay the same to the col- lector on the presentation of their tax bills, on or before the first day of September next." This vote was passed in a full meeting without a dis- senting voice or vote ; and, although it was known that the town could not enforce the payment of this tax, it was immediately assessed and more than nine-tenthis of it was paid upon the presenta- tion of the bills. Four weeks afterward, the town " Voted, To pay each volunteer who shall enlist for nine months, and be mustered in and credited to the quota of the town, a bounty of two hundred dollars," and the same committee which recruited the volunteers for three years' service was requested to recruit the nine months' men. At the annual meeting in March, 1863, six hundred dollars were appropriated for the payment of aid to soldiers' families ; and at the November meeting the treas- urer was authorized to settle with the state treas- urer for the town's proportion of the volunteer bounty-tax. In the spring of this year town offi- cers were forbidden to pay bounties, and the gov- ernment resorted to drafts.
April 25, 1864, fourteen hundred dollars were voted to refund the money raised by subscription and paid for recruiting ten volunteers in December and January last. Seven hundred dollars were voted at the same time to pay the veteran volun- teers belonging to Lincoln. June 13, 1864, Samuel H. Pierce, Francis Smith, and William F.
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LINCOLN.
Wheeler were chosen a committee to recruit eight men at least to serve the town as volunteers, and the treasurer was authorized to borrow twenty-five hundred dollars for the purpose. October 21, 1865, it was "Voted, To refund to the citizens thie money subscribed and paid by thiem last spring for procuring recruits to fill the quota of the town." Various other sums were voted during those years for expenses incidental to the war and for bringing home and burying their dead. Of those who sac- rificed their lives for their country in this war, the following deserve especial commemoration : -
First-Lieutenant Thomas J. Parker enlisted as a private at the breaking out of the war, and con- tinued in active service until his death. He was twice promoted for meritorious conduct, and was mortally wounded before Petersburg, March 25, 1865.
George Weston enlisted in the 44th regiment September 12, 1862, and was commissioned second lientenant in the 18th regiment March 4, 1863. He was wounded while leading his com- pany in the attack on Rappahannock Station, No- vember 7, 1863, and died of his wound January 5, 1864. He was a young man of fine promise, a graduate of Harvard of the class of 1860, and designed for the profession of law. A faithful delineation of his character may be found in the second volume of the Harvard memorial.
: Elijah H. Wellington enlisted in the 44th regi- ment at the same time as Lieutenant Weston, and died of disease at Newbern, N. C., in the winter of 1862. He was a young man of excellent charac- ter, universally respected and beloved.
The votes of the town given herewith convey, at the best, only a faint idea of the spirit which animated the town during the war of the Rebellion. They were, in fact, ouly the embodying in legal form aud registering the spontaneous outbursts of enthusiasm and patriotism which characterized thie citizens' meetings, where measures were discussed
and most of the war business transacted. The writer of this narrative served the town on its board of selectmen, as its treasurer, and on all its recruiting committees during the war, and can testify that lie never wanted for a dollar, - never asked of any of his fellow-citizens any service or assistance connected with the war, which was not promptly and cheerfully rendered.
Nor were the women of the town wanting on their part. They early enlisted in the work of providing hospital stores and comforts for the sick and wounded soldiers, -a work always "sanctified and ennobled by the blessed spirit which prompted its undertaking, and which kept alive to the last hour of need the earnestness so noticeable in a New England community."
Lincoln furnished seventy-nine men for the war, which was a surplus of four over and above all demands.1 The amount of money raised and ex- pended by the town on account of the war was $ 10,385.50, all of which was paid before the close of the year 1865. The town also expended $ 3,915 for aid to soldiers' families, of which sum $3,205 were reimbursed by the state.
The history of the town to be complete should contain notices of its college graduates and the dis- tinguished men who were born here, and early left their home for more promising fields of usefulness and enterprise. A history of the Brookses and Browns, Farrars and Flints, Hartwells and Hoars, Pierces and Russells, and others, would of itself fill a volume, and be a valuable contribution to New England literature. But the writer must stop here. He commends the task to some one of the gifted sons of the town, who were trained in the halls of learning, and have the ability and cnl- ture to do the subject justice.
1 This numher does not include Mr. N. F. Cousins, who enlisted for three years, went to Lynnfield in August, 1862, was prostrated by heat while preparing the camp-grounds, and came very near losing his life.
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
LITTLETON.
BY HERBERT JOSEPH HARWOOD.
A MONG the first Indians con- verted to Christianity by the Rev. John Eliot were the sa- chem Tahattawan, or Ahata- wance, and many of his people, who expressed a wish to be- come more civilized and have a town given them at Nashobah, the Indian name of the territory now Littleton. On May 14, 1654, " In ans". to the peticon of Mr. Jno. Elliott, on behalf of seuerall Indians," the General Court granted his request, viz., liberty for the inhabitants of " Nashop " and other places " to erect senerall Indjan tounes in the places pro- pounded," thus incorporating them under the colo- niał government.
Daniel Gookin wrote, in 1674: "Nashobah is the sixth praying Indian town. This village is sit- uated in the centre between Chelmsford, Lancaster, Groton, and Concord. It lieth from Boston about twenty-five miles west-northwest. The inhabi- tants are about ten families, and consequently about fifty souls. The dimensions of this village are four miles square. The land is fertile, and well stored with meadows and woods. It hath good ponds for fish adjoining to it. The people live here, as in other Indian villages, upon plant- ing corn, fishing, hunting, and sometimes labour- ing with the English. Their ruler of late years was John Ahatawance [son of the above-men- tioned], a pious man; since his decease Penna- kennet, or Pennahannit, is the chief. Their teacher is named John Thomas, a sober and pious man. His father was murdered by the Maquas in a secret manner, as he was fishing for eels at his wear. . At this place they attend civil and religious order, as in the other praying towns, and they have a constable and other officers.
"This town was deserted during the Maquas war, but is now again repeopled, and in a hopeful way to prosper."
Pennahannet was marshal-general of all the
Indian towns, and attended their chief court at Natick ; he was sometimes called Captain Josiah.
It is remarkable that the southeastern part of Littleton, now called Nashoba, was not a part of the Indian town, but was very early settled by white people and called Nashoba Farm. A fam- ily by the name of Shepard was living there in 1676, during King Philip's War. Tradition says that, in February of that year, Mary Shepard, a girl of fifteen, was stationed on Quagana Hill, a small rising south of Nashoba Hill, to warn her brothers, who were threshing, if any Indians ap- peared; but they stole up behind her, killed the brothers, and carried the girl away to Nashaway [Lancaster], from which place she escaped the same night, mounted a horse, swam the river, and rode home. The Reed house, the ruins of which may still be seen at the foot of Nashoba Hill, was built as a garrison probably about this time.
The praying Indians fared badly during the war, being distrusted by both sides and feared by the whites. During the month of November, 1675, the Nashobah Indians, numbering twelve men and forty-six women and children, were, by order of the General Court, taken to Concord and put un- der the charge of Mr. John Hoar, with the donble purpose of guarding and protecting them ; from there they were taken, in February, to the islands in Boston Harbor, whence they were removed in May, part to Pawtucket [Lowell] and part to Cam- bridge Village. Few returned to Nashobah, the greater number finally settling in Natick or other places.
Thomas Dublett, alias Nepanet, who, with his wife Sarah, was among the few who returned to Nashobah, acted as interpreter between a com- mittee of whites and one of the hostile sachems, in arranging a ransom of one of the white prisoners at Nashobah in the summer of 1677, for which service the court awarded him two coats.
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