History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II, Part 73

Author: Drake, Samuel Adams, 1833-1905
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Boston : Estes and Lauriat
Number of Pages: 650

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should have £ 10 each. Lieutenant Samuel Stearns, Samuel Stearns, Jr., Abijah Bigelow, Amos Ilar- rington, Abijah Fisk, Reuben Bemis, George Law- rence, and Elisha Stearns went in November, 1777, " to guard the troops of Convention," serving until April, 1778; they should receive £ 30 each. Cap- tain Abraham Peirce, William Coolidge, Jr., Ben- jamin Harrington, Jr., John Bright, Amos Fisk, Moses Warren, John Perry, Thomas Hoppens, and Bezaleel Flagg, who went in January last to perform the same duty, should be allowed £16 each ; and Jonas Child, Zachariah Smith, Nathan Sanderson, Elisha Livermore, Jr., Joshua Stearns, Daniel Warren, John Lawrence, Isaac Child, Jr., Isaac Peirce, Joseph Brown, and Josiah Hastings, Jr., for similar service should receive £ 12 6s., exclusive of what they have had and are to receive. Lieu- tenant Isaac Hagar, John Gleason, Samuel Bigelow, Eliphalet Warren, Alpheus Gale, Jonathan Hagar, Eli Jones, Moses Mead, Jr., Josiah Leavitt, Jona- than Sanderson, 3d, Amos Peirce, Jedediah White, Charles Cutter, and Jacob Bemis went to the Bos- ton and Roxbury lines last spring, for which they are entitled to £6 eachı. The following named persons paid the sums annexed to their names last spring "to fill the Continental Battalions and to secure the passes of the Northi River," namely : Cap- tain William Coolidge, John Dix, Jacob Bigelow, Ensign Samuel Harrington, Benjamin Harrington, Cornet Nathaniel Bridge, Eleazer Bradshaw, Jonas Dix, Esq., Elisha Livermore, Jonas Smith, and David Smith, £20 each ; William Hagar, Josiah Mixer, Matthias Collins, Mr. Peirpont, and Deacon Elijah Livermore, £15 each ; Captain Isaac Glea- son, £ 12 5s .; Elishia Cutler and Abner Sanderson, £11 each ; Daniel Taylor, Samuel Dix, Nathaniel Livermore, Uriah Cutting, David Townsend, John Durant, Peter Ball, Captain Abraham Peirce, John Gleason, Bezaleel Flagg, Daniel Cutting, Ephraim Hammond, Benjamin Stratton, Benjamin Green, Elijah Lawrence, Hy. Kimball, Zachariah Weston, Ebenezer Brown, Jonas Brown, Abraham Bemis, Captain John Clark, Lieutenant Daniel Child, Isaac Child, Jonas Dix, Jr., William Wellington, Jona- than Dix, Thomas Fisk, Jonathan Fisk, William Fisk, Samuel Fisk, Oliver Haggett, Josiah Hastings, Thomas Hammond, Abijalı Livermore, Phineas Lawrence, Joshua Mead, Moses Mead, Jonathan Sanderson, Jr., John Sanderson, Josiah Sanderson, and Nathan Viles, £ 10 each ; Benjamin Peirce, £9; and Peter Warren £6; and these sums should be allowed them. William Adams, William Bridge,

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

Deacon Amos Brown, Joel Dix, Thomas Livermore, Samuel Peirce, Ezra Peirce, Silas Stearns, Daniel Stearns, Jonas Viles, Josiah Whitney, Thomas Wellington, Jacob Bemis, and Thaddeus Bemnis each paid £10 to hire men to go to Rhode Island in the summer of 1777, and these sums should be refunded. George Stearns, Elijah Smith, Joseph Lock, Wil- liam Peirce, Samuel Gooden, and - Coburn went in July, 1778, "to guard prisoners of Con- vention," and were gone fifteen days ; they should be allowed £4 each. Josiah Leavitt, Ephraim Peirce, Jr., Jonathan Smith, Peter Warren, and John Livermore were of the guard which escorted prisoners to Rutland, and for that service should receive £6 each. Two men were also sent in the summer to guard prisoners until the 1st of Jan- uary ; there should be allowed for them the ex- pense of hiring them, £70 (supposed). Four men were sent for to guard the lines in and about Boston until the 1st of January, 1779; two of them are hired and sent, and are to receive £18 per month, including their wages ; this will cost about £66; the other two are drafted, and if they go or hire substitutes are to be paid at the same rate ; this will amount to about £54. Captain Abraham Peirce, Lieutenant Samuel Stearns, Samuel Bigelow, John Gleason, Joel Harrington, Elisha Harrington, Eliphalet Warren, Williams Cushing, Bezaleel Flagg, Samuel Green, Samuel Stearns, Jr., John Liver- more, Nathan Lock, Warham Cushing, and Jona- than Hagar went to the lines at the alarm in Au- gust, 1778; they should be allowed £2 each. If it should appear that there were other inhabitants of the town who had done service either in person or in money during the war, they should have the allowance made in the report in similar cases. The entire total of these sums is £ 3,308 6s. 4d., which amount should be proportioned and assessed upon the real and personal estate ; those whose payment as by the above list is short of their assessment to make up the deficiency, and those whose payment is in excess of the assessment to be reimbursed " in case they will receive it wlien offered." The sum recommended by the committee was granted, but the vote was subsequently reconsidered. James Barrett, county agent, acknowledges, April 8, the receipt of twenty-five shirts, twenty-five pairs of shoes, and twenty-five pairs of stockings from the selectmen of Waltham for the army. This closes the record for 1778.

At the regular annual meeting in March, 1779, Captain Abraham Peirce, Lieutenant Sam-

uel Stearns, and Isaac Hagar were elected com- mittee of correspondence, and at the May meeting Abner Sanderson was chosen representative, and he was instructed, by a vote of twenty-four to ten, to cast his ballot in favor of a new state constitu- tion under similar restrictions made under a pre- vious vote (sce 1777). On the 18th of June a committee was chosen to hire men for the army on the town's credit. A week later they reported but one man engaged, on account of the high bounties demanded ; the meeting directed them thereupon to make the best terms they could. A convention was held at Concord on the 14th of July to regu- late the prices of merchandise. On the 2d of August the report of the convention was read at a town-meeting in Waltham, and a committee of eleven chosen to carry out the vote of that body. On the 9th of August the committee reported the following scale of prices : Innholders, for a good meal of butcher's meat with vegetables, 12 s., if with tea, 15s .; West India flip, 12s. per mug ; bowl of toddy, 12s .; for labor, haying and stone- wall work, 42 s. per day and found ; mechanics, with their own tools and found, 60s .; for black- smith shoeing a horse, £4; shoemakers, best men's shoes, £5 8s., women's £4 1s .; tailors, making a coat, £6, breeches, £3; weavers, weav- ing cotton and linen shirting, 6s. per yard ; hat- ters, for a good beaver, £32 10s .; farmers, hay 36s. per cwt., oats 36 s. per bushel, etc. Per- sons taking more than above rates to have their names published in the newspapers by the commit -- tee of correspondence, inspection, and safety, in order that they may be dealt with according to Resolution 2 of the Concord Convention. It must be remembered, in considering these prices, that they are founded on a depreciating currency. On the 18th of August Jonas Dix, Esq., and John Clark were chosen delegates to the constitutional convention to be held at Cambridge, September 1. The town granted Jonas Dix, Esq., in behalf of the committee appointed to raise men for the army, £2,838. September 20, the town voted to hire four men to serve in the army in Rhode Island, and October 14, voted to hire eight men to reinforce the army under General Washington. In November the town granted £ 2,180 18s. 6d. to defray the expense of employing these men. In July the committee reported having hired Jo- sialı Wyer, Eli Jones, Elisha Harrington, Thaddeus Goodin, and Richard Hoppin at $ 1,540 each, and Habakkuk Stearns and Joseph Perry at $840 each.

421

WALTHAM.

Another committee reported in November that they had borrowed £1,714, and hired Artemas Cox, Moses Cummins, and Aaron Cummins to go to Rhode Island with orders to equip themselves ; Colonel Jacob discharged the last two for not being equipped, and they, being ordered to march again, refused either to do so or to return part of the bounty received. The committee also hired Sam- uel Trull for £216, Robert Dalrymple for £171, William Taylor, Joseph Spaulding, Joseph Dows, and Jonathan Gray for £246 each, and John Fletcher (who afterwards deserted) for £ 60. Mile- age was also reckoned for eight men, two hundred iniles, at 2s. per mile. Several orders are given during the year for the first company of militia to be ready to march at a moment's notice. In May an order is given for one private to march to Tiver- ton, Rhode Island, and in September for two pri- vates to go to Providence to ultimately join Colonel Jacob's regiment under General Gates. Samuel Kendall, Mr. Morse, Nathaniel Bridge's son, and Eunice Mixer were paid during this year for teach- ing school.

At the March meeting in 1780 the same com- mittee of correspondence was chosen, Isaac Hagar having this time the prefix " Ensign " to his name. A committee was chosen to examine the accounts of money received and disbursed for bounties. Some idea of the depreciation of the currency may be had from the fact that in the highway account $ 16 per day for a man and $32 per day for a man and team were allowed. The town elected Jonas Dix, Esq., representative in May, and in the same month appointed a committee to examine and re- port upon the new state constitution. The com- mittee reported on the 5th of June, favoring an amendment limiting the time of suspension of the act of habeas corpus to six months; if, however, this could not be donc, they favored the adoption of the constitution as it was. The report was adopted by a vote of thirty-two to four. On the 14th of June the town appropriated £15,000 to hire twelve men to reinforce the army, and for procuring shirts, shoes, etc., in accordance with the requisition of the General Court; money for support of the schools was refused. Twelve days later the town voted to raise fourteen men for the army, and appropriated £26,660 for military mat- ters, and on the 29th of July the selectmen or- dered the treasurer to pay to Jonas Dix, Esq., £1,000, Abner Sanderson £700, and Peter Ball £ 1,200, in payment for a horse which each of

these men had sold the town for use in the army ; £ 55 were also appropriated for expenses in pro- curing the horses. On the 4th of September the election of state officers under the new constitution was held. The result, for governor and lieutenant- governor, in Waltham, was : for governor, Jolm Hancock, Esq., fifty-four votes ; James Bowdoin, Esq., three ; for lieutenant-governor, Major-Gen- eral Benjamin Lincoln, forty ; James Bowdoin, Esq., eight. October 11, the town re-elected Jo- nas Dix, Esq., representative, and again refused to appropriate money for schools. To such an extent had the currency depreciated, that the minister's salary was now £5,600, and the total appropria- tions at this meeting £23,941. Seventy-two hundred pounds of beef for the army were ordered, to fill a requisition from the General Court, and £12,000 were appropriated for that purpose. On a petition from Timothy Flagg for additional pay for service in the army, he was voted leave to with- draw. On the 29th of November the town granted £3,360 for the support of schools. At a meeting, December 20, the town chose a committee to pro- cure twelve men for the army, under a requisition of the General Court; £21,000 were voted, to procure 13,824 pounds of beef for the army. Abijah Fiske petitioned for relief from the town, under the following circumstances : he was one of the sixteen men furnished by Waltham to fill a requisition of the General Court. By order of Lieutenant Hastings he went with soldiers to search the house of Edward Garfield for Felix Cuff (negro), one of the enlisted men. Cuff was, how- ever, claimed by Garfield as a servant, and Fiske was sued and fined. The town, taking into consid- eration the facts, granted his request by giving him his note for £7, which the town held, with interest. Elisha Brewer also presented a petition represent- ing that he had-served in the Continental army from the beginning of hostilities until July 3, 1779; that in the meantime his pay had depre- ciated until it was nearly worthless, rendering him unable to provide for himself and family. He prays for remission of his tax-bill, a portion of which is on real estate, of which he owns none, and which is more than he ought or is able to pay. The town refused to grant his petition. The com- mittee appointed in 1779 to procure men for the armies in Rhode Island and on the Hudson River reported the following names of men en- . gaged, and the bounties paid to each : William Taylor, £2,180; Loudey Harris and John Mixer,

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

£1,800 each; Elias Hastings, Moses Livermore, and George Stearns, £2,270 each ; Thaddeus Gooding, Jonathan Coburn, and Nathaniel Flagg, £1,100 and sixty bushels of corn each ; Eli Jones, paid by Captain Gleason ; Lieutenant Eliphalet Hastings, Joel Harrington, Abijah Fisk, and Moses Gearfield, £1,770 each; Timothy Flagg and Jolin Robinson, £1,500 each; Habakkuk Stearns, Joel Wellington, Asa Peirce, and Asahel Stearns, £600 and sixty bushels of corn each ; and Felix Cuff, £1,500 and sixty bushels of corn. Eunice Mixer, Samuel Kendall, Mr. Boardman, Ruhamah Wellington, and Nathaniel Bridge's sou were paid for teaching school.

On the 8th of January, 1781, the town voted to hire twelve men for the army for three years or the war, and appropriated £50,400 for that end. The men who were the committee of correspondence, etc., had been chosen to attend to hiring men to fill the requisitions on the town, but for some rea- son they seemed to lack success. They reported in December, 1780, and in January and February, 1781, that they could not find a man at any price in town. That this report was unsatisfactory, is evident from the fact that at a meeting on' the 12th of February the town voted to discharge this committee, and appointed Captain Isaac Gleason, Peter Ball, and Abner Sanderson, in their stead ; but this did not prevent their being re-elected Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety at the March meeting. At the regular an- nual meeting it was unanimously voted to accept Joshna Kendall for an inhabitant, provided he could be set off with his estate from the town of Cambridge. There seemed to be unusual trouble in electing town officers for this year. On several previous occasions one or two electees had declined to serve, and others had either been elected in their stead, and induced to accept, or the aid of the law invoked to compel those elected to serve ; but on this occasion William Hagar and Nathan Viles, chosen as constables, and William Fisk, Abraham Peirce, and Lieutenant Samuel Stearns (three of the four), chosen as assessors, refused to serve. In the case of the assessors three others were elected at a subsequent meeting in their stead ; William Fisk was chosen constable in place of Nathan Viles, and Williams Cushing in place of William Hagar. Hagar was to pay £6, or, failing to do so, thic selectmen were to apply to the Court of Sessions to compel him to pay the penalty in such cases provided. At this same meeting (March 12) the

town appropriated £ 25,000 (old issue) to hire sol- diers. In obedience to a resolve of the General Court the tax-payers were divided into as many classes as there were soldiers to be raised. Each section furnishing its man was relieved from further charge and responsibility. On the 26th of March John Smith, Lowdie Harris, and John Myre were returned as having been secured as soldiers in behalf of the whole town. A. receipt, signed by John Potimia, dated April 12, certifies that Cap- tain Abraham Peirce paid him two hundred Span- ishi-milled dollars to serve the town as a three- years recruit for the army, -this sum to be in full of all hire or bounty. On the 18th of June the selectmen reported having paid the following bounties in silver : to John Smith £ 90, to Lowdie Harris £60, to John Myre £ 60, to William Ben- jamin £78, and to John Robinson £76. William Peirce, Habakkuk Stearns, and Nahum Smith each furnished sixteen heifers, and were each allowed £1,200 (currency). General Brooks writes to the commander of the " second militia company in Waltham," under date of June 19, that two men were to be detached from that company. As men- tion was made of the first company in 1779, the natural iuference is that there were two. Jonathan Hammond and George Stearns were enlisted for the army in Rhode Island, for three months, and Jona- than Weston, Abijah Fisk, Moses Livermore, Jede- dial White, Jr., Alpheus Bigelow, Joseph Perry, John Collins, and William Taylor for the army at West Point, for the same time. The West Point men were all mustered into the service by the 23d of August, except John Collins. In May Jonas Dix, Esq., was chosen representative. On the 16th of July the town voted unanimously to procure men to fill another call, and granted £ 180 in silver to defray the expense; £ 300 (new emission) were also voted to purchase beef. The committee for raising recruits reported on the 30th of July that they had secured the men for seven hundred and eighty " hard dollars," and the town granted £ 60 in silver additional for that service. Felix Cuff must have given considerable trouble, for an article was in the warrant for a town-meeting held Sep- tember 10, to grant money to defend Eliphalet Hastings and others indicted for riot while en- deavoring to arrest said Cuff as an enlisted man last year. £ 45 were granted at the September meeting for the schools. On the 17th of Decem- ber the town ordered the remaining taxes to be collected in silver, at the rate of one dollar in silver

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WALTHAM.

for seventy-five in paper of the old emission. It was also voted to instruct Representative Dix to use his endeavors to have the voting qualifications of 1763 restored. The school-teachers who were paid by the town this year were Jonas Dix, Jr., and Nathaniel Bridge's son. In December the selectmen engaged Ebenezer Bowman to keep tlie school " near the meeting-house."

Early in 1782 the selectmen licensed David Townsend to retail tea. At the March meeting the town elected Captain Isaac Hagar, Lieutenant Samuel Bigelow, and Lieutenant Elisha Liver- inore committee of correspondence, inspection, and safety. It was voted to remove the school-house, and a committee was chosen to select a proper site. In accordance with a resolve of the General Court, Waltham was called upon to raise five men to- wards the contingent of fifteen hundred to be raised by Massachusetts for the army. Ebenezer Bowman was the school-teacher. No representa- tive was chosen in 1782, but in 1783 Jonas Dix was again returned for that position. The first business of importance occurring in 1783 was the adjustment of the accounts of Waltham, Water- town, and Weston for repairs on the Great Bridge. The method of calculation being on the basis of the state tax, the amounts paid by each will be per- haps some indication of the relative valuation : the share of Watertown was £4 11s. 9d., Weston £4 2s. 1d., and Waltham &4 1s. 2d. Nathan- iel Bridge, Jr., was paid for teaching school. At the March meeting the committee of cor- respondence of 1782 were re-elected. The se- lectmen ordered that a four-penny loaf of white bread should weigh 1 pound 7 ounces; a bis- cuit for two coppers, 7 ounces ; hard biscuit in the same proportion, allowing for drying. The following persons were licensed innholders : Isaac Gleason, Stephen Wellman, Isaac Bemis, Zacha- riah Weston, Jonathan Brown, Benjamin Hagar, Samuel Bigelow, Zachariah Smith, Widow Mary Hagar,- nine in all. At this time the population was only 689 persons, so that the proportion of taverns to the population was as 1 to 768. It must be remembered, however, that Waltham was on a great highway, and a very large amount of travel was a necessary consequence. The ap- proaches to Boston, and the avenues from that and all the large towns in the state, were few, and their importance was immensely greater than now. Towns were few, and the majority of houses none too large to accommodate the rapidly growing

families of their occupants, and hence the way- farers needed a larger number of inns.

There were other men who belonged in Wal- tham who were in the Continental armies, besides those mentioned in the town records, - how many, of course, it is impossible to say. The names of some of them, however, are to be met with among the state archives. Isaac Crosby, of Waltham, en- listed at Hingham, about 1780, for three years or the war; Isaac Parkes (fifer), Samuel Fuller, Ed- ward Bird, and Joseph Brown were in Captain Fuller's company (Colonel Brooks) ; William 'Tay- lor, Nathaniel Flagg, and Jolin Colburn were among the six-months men in 1780 ; Prince Collins enlisted in Newton; John Bennett, John Bemis, Jr., Abijah Child, Jr., Peirce Dewyer, Thomas Field, David Holland, Azel Hooker, Minhano (?) Mitchell, John Ryan, David Stoel (Stowell ?), James Twinas, are names on the rolls credited to Waltham ; John Bettis and Jonathan Wellington served from 1776 to 1780; Kera Chapple, Harvey Bezen, and John Kidder were among those drafted into Colonel Thatcher's regiment in 1778; John Potoma (aged 25,- black), Samuel Dale (37), John Robertson (35), William Benjamin (17), Nahum Stearns (22), John Wellington (49), and Francis Parker (21), enlisted in 1781 for three years or the war; William Glasscock served 37 months, 18 days ; Hugh Hines (deserter) served 28 days; Ariel (Azel ?- probably same as previous) Hooker, after serving 30 months and 7 days, de- serted ; Michael Minnehan died in the service after serving 48 months ; John Owins (deserter) served 12 months and 20 days; John Colburn and Abijah Fiske were in Captain Gage's company (Colonel Webb) ; Thaddeus Bemis and Joel Bemis were on board armed sloop Winthrop, Captain George Lit- tle; John Greenleaf, Josiah Barnard, and Thomas Wilbur were also credited to Waltham in the army rolls.

The population of the town, instead of preserv- ing its rate of increase, which would have increased it, in all probability, to nearly 1,000 souls in 1783, under the terrible pressure of the Revolution upon its vitality lost ground. In 1763 the population was 663; in 1783, under favorable circumstances, it should have been about 980, but instead it was 689, while in 1776 it was 870. On the 29th of September John Remington was engaged to keep the school near the meeting-house, and Joseph Jackson the one at the foot of the hill.

In 1784 Benjamin Green, Jr., was paid for

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

teaching school. For the first time for a long series of years the town, at the March meeting, voted the freedom of the highways to swine. Ab- ner Sanderson was elected representative in May. A letter to the selectmen from Timothy Tufts and others in behalf of Charlestown appears in the records for this year, desiring them to request the corporation of Harvard College to reduce the rates of ferriage between Charlestown and Boston, which had been advanced during the war, - that body having authority to regulate the matter. Benja- min Green, Jr., was again engaged, in 1785, to teach the grammar school. On the 5th of Sep- tember, 1785, the town was divided into four school-districts, --- Pond End, Trapelow, the south- west part of the town above Mixer's Lane (Bacon Street), and the remaining portion belonging to the middle district. On the 14th of February, 1786, the selectmen engaged Jonas Dix to teach the grammar school for one year, and authorized the engagement of an usher for that school. In March John Remington was paid for services as a teacher. Abijah Bigelow was engaged in March to teach at the new school-house at the west end of the Plain, until the appropriation was expended ; he was to keep "two schools a day " after the 1st of April. In May Leonard Williams was unanimously elected representative. In August the board of Mr. Jackson, and the salaries of Nathan Underwood and Abijah Bigelow, all school- inasters, were paid ; and in October the selectmen engaged John Child to teach the school near the meeting-house, and Jonas Dix to teach the one at the foot of the hills. In the latter part of 1786 occurred the outbreak known as Shays' Insurrec- tion, causing quite an excitement throughout cen- tral Massachusetts. That Waltham's sons were prompt to lend the state their aid is evident from the fact that, early in January, 1787, the selectmen directed Colonel Isaac Hagar to be paid for beef supplied to the militia at Cambridge in November, and on the 14th of that month the town voted forty-eight shillings per month to the thirty-days volunteers in the service of the government, the town, however, to receive any allowance made for such services by the state. At the March meeting the town voted to each private soldier who marched from the town in the 2d Division to join Gen- eral Lincoln in the service of the government, six shillings, exclusive of his public pay, and to each officer a like sum in proportion. Finally, in April the town voted the volunteers under General Lin-

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II, Part 73

Author: Drake, Samuel Adams, 1833-1905 Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Boston : Estes and Lauriat Number of Pages: 650

Author: Drake, Samuel Adams, 1833-1905
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Boston : Estes and Lauriat
Number of Pages: 650