USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 75
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The Universalist Society was started in the spring of 1837, and regular public services were held in the hall in the bank building on Main Street, Rev. William C. Hanscom being pastor; in 1838, Mr. Hanscom having fallen a victim to consumption, Rev. Sylvanus Cobb, D. D., succeeded him ; from the bank hall the worshippers removed into the then town-hall, in the grammar-school building, and from thence into the meeting-house of the old First Parish. On the 6th of March, 1839, they organized and took measures to be incorporated under the name of First Universalist Society of Waltham, and built a church on a lot of land presented them by Theodore Lyman, Esq., on the corner of Lyman and Summer streets. In 1840 Mr. Cobb was succeeded by Rev. Edwin A. Eaton, and in 1844 Rev. T. G. Farnsworth succeeded him. From 1848 to 1855 the pulpit was occupied only temporarily, though quite regularly. In 1854 the society sold the lot on Lyman Street, and removed the meeting-house to the corner of Main and Spring streets. From 1855 to 1857 Rev. Massena Good- rich was pastor, succeeded in 1857 by Rev. Henry A. Eaton. During his pastorate a dissension oc- curred in the society which in the end cost them
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
their church and organization. A new society was organized in 1865 under the name of the Uni- versalist Society of Waltham. Services were held in Rumford Hall (where they have ever since been continued), Rev. Benton Smith being pastor. In 1870 Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford succeeded Mr. Smith, resigning in 1871, and was succeeded in turn by Rev. M. R. Leonard, the present pastor.
Next in order of organization was the society called the First Parish. The old meeting-house of the original First Parish not proving central enough to please the people of the growing town, Mr. Rip- ley having developed opposition to himself among a few energetic ones of his society, and the Second Religious Society having split, measures were taken to erect a new building. This was built on the site of the present Unitarian Church, and was dedi- cated February 6, 1839. The society was formed under the title of the Independent Congregational Society, and was composed largely of the three classes just cited. The membership of the elder church dwindled to a mere handful, the new society proving the more attractive, and in 1841 the old First Parish, sacred by a century and a half of use- fulness, ceased to exist. Rev. George F. Simmons had been formally installed as pastor in October, 1841. Mr. Ripley was invited, on the dissolution of his own society, to become an associate, with the understanding that he was to have no salary and no parochial duties, and the society took to itself the old name. In 1843 Mr. Simmons resigned, and in 1845 Rev. Dr. Thomas Hill was ordained ; in April, 1846, Mr. Ripley, removing from town, resigned his pastorate; Mr. Hill continued as pas- tor until 1860, when he was succeeded by Rev. James C. Parsons ; in 1865 Rev. S. B. Flagg be- came pastor; in 1869, Rev. Clay McCauley ; in 1873, Rev. Edward C. Guild, the present pastor. The old building was thoroughly repaired and re- modelled in 1867.
- The Episcopal Society was organized, under Rev. A. C. Patterson, in 1848, services being held for about a year in Rumford Hall. In the mean time the present church was erected, and Rev. Thomas F. Fales called to the rectorship, entering upon those duties in November, 1849. He still con- tinues pastor, after nearly thirty years of continuous service. The building has been enlarged once and a vestry added.
The Baptist Society was organized November 4, 1852, holding its earlier services in Rumford Hall. The first pastor was Rev. M. L. Bickford, ordained
in August, 1853. During the early part of his pastorate the present meeting-house was erected, and on the 14th of February, 1856, was dedicated. Mr. Bickford remained as pastor until June, 1863, and was succeeded by Rev. E. B. Eddy, Rev. A. M. Bacon, and Rev. W. H. Shedd, each of them remaining two or three years. In January, 1872, Rev. W. C. Barrows became pastor, and he was succeeded in 1875 by Rev. F. D. Bland, D. D., who resigned in 1879. The church is at present without a settled pastor.
It would not be possible to give in any detail the history of Waltham and Waltham's sons and daughters during the late War of the Rebellion without exceeding the limits to which this sketch has been restricted. It is therefore only practica- ble to give a slight outline. When the booming of the first gun in Charleston harbor in 1861 roused the loyal North, Waltham was among the foremost to rally to the call to arms. A citizens' meeting was held and resolutions passed demanding imme- diate action by the town in its corporate capacity. On the 26th of April a town-meeting was held at which it was voted to furnish each soldier with a uniform, to pay him $ 10 per month for five months' service, and to provide for the support of his family during his absence. For this purpose the sum of $6,000 was appropriated. A resolution was also passed authorizing the town-treasurer to disregard any trustee process which might be instituted to divert any of this money from the purpose for which it was intended. The stirring sounds of the fife and drum were heard, and our streets and Com- mon were the scenes of frequent military parades and manœuvres. In July the town appropriated $5,000 to pay state aid to the families of volun- teers, in accordance with the law. This sum prov- ing insufficient, an additional grant of $2,000 was made in January, 1862. In July, 1862, the select- men were authorized to pay a bounty of $100 to each volunteer for three years who was credited to the town, and in August this bounty was extended to the nine-months men. In August, 1863, it was voted to pay state aid to the families of those men who might be, or had been drafted into the service. In July, 1864, the bounty to three-years men was increased to $125. The total number of men required from the town during the war was 693; the total number sent was 700; and in rank they ranged from the drummer-boy to the major- general, there being twenty commissioned officers. Of the entire number sent less than a dozen were
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conscripted. Fifty-three men were killed in battle or died from disease contracted in the service. The entire amount of money .raised by the town for military purposes was $94,892.29, of which $ 12,318.29, being for state aid, was reimbursed by the commonwealth, leaving the sum expended by the town $ 52,574.
The population of the town, according to the census of 1875, was 9,967. Its territory is nearly the same in area as when incorporated. In 1849 a portion of Newton, forming what is now called the South Side, of about five hundred acres in area, was set off to Waltham, and in 1859 four hundred and twenty-nine acres of Waltham's terri- tory were taken to help form the new township of Belmont. Water was first let on from the water- works in 1873.
Of the military history it is difficult to keep track. Of those companies mentioned in the town records it is quite impossible to learn of the dates of their beginning or end. The Waltham Artillery Company was transferred from Watertown in 1841, and after a few years of service was changed into an infantry company. For some time prior to 1861 its existence was merely nomi- nal, and in that year the accoutrements were taken by the state. The Waltham Dragoons were or- ganized in 1853, and in 1861 formed a part of the 3d Battalion, First Massachusetts Cavalry, most of the members serving during the Rebellion. In 1874 the present infantry company was organized.
Although some attention is paid to agriculture in the suburbs of the town, Waltham is pre- eminently a manufacturing community, and proba- bly at least three fourths of the population derive support directly from the manufactories. The earliest mill of which we have any account was one erected at or near the site known as Kendall's Mill, on Beaver Brook, and was formerly used for fulling cloth. On the 30th of May, 1662, Timo- thy Hawkins sold to Thomas Agar, of Roxbury, fuller, three quarters of an acre of land at this place " with all the accommodation of water, for the erecting and maintenance of a fulling-mill in the said place, and on the river that passeth through the same; also the right of way." De- cember 18, 1663, Agar sold this land "with the fulling-mill thereon erected to Thomas Loveran, late of Dedham, Co. Essex, Old England, cloth- worker." January 3, 1669 - 70, Loveran sold to Timothy Hawkins and Benjamin Garfield. Some time prior to 1690 the mill was used as a corn-
mill, and in 1700 the mills in whole or in part be- longed to Samuel Stearns, a son-in-law of Hawkins.
There was also a corn-mill on Stony Brook, built about the year 1684, and owned by John Bright and others, and about 1714 there was prob- ably a mill on the brook passing just east of Lex- ington Street, and across Beaver Street, a branch of Beaver Brook. At the time of the incorpora- tion of the Boston Manufacturing Company a paper-mill, known as Boies' paper-mill, was stand- ing on the land afterwards bought by that corpora- tion, and was used for the manufacture of brown and white paper. A similar mill, built by Gov- ernor Gore prior to 1800, at what is now called the Bleachery, was sold to the Waltham Cotton and Woollen Company in 1810. In 1810 a com- pany was formed for the manufacture of cloth. Land was purchased, and a mill for the manufac- turing of cotton cloth was built and in operation in the same year. In 1812 the proprietors were incorporated under the name of the Waltham Cot- ton and Woollen Manufacturing Company: In 1815, according to " M. U.," in the Massachu- setts Historical Society's Collections for that year, the cotton-mill contained 2,000 spindles, and worked 300 pounds of cotton per day; in the woollen mill were run 380 spindles, four jennies, and two jacks, and, with the 14 looms in opera- tion, 60 pounds of wool were used per day. A probable average of 10,000 yards of cloth, made under the direction of the factory, was attained, a portion of the weaving being done in neighboring and some in distant towns. The Boston Manufac- turing Company was incorporated in 1813, and in 1814 had built and put in operation a mill of brick, five stories high, ninety feet long and forty- five feet wide, running 3,000 spindles, and doing the weaving by a "loom of peculiar construction run by water." This is claimed to have been the first mill in the country where all the operations were performed under one roof. The character of the work performed at the lower mill has very much changed, it having passed into the control of the Boston Company, and being used now almost exclusively as a bleachery and dyeing establish- ment. The manufacture of hosiery was introduced here in 1868, but was afterwards removed to the upper mill, to a building erected more particularly for it. At the upper mill cotton cloth manufacture is still the principal business. The number of hands employed in both factories is about 1,200, the present capital $800,000, the number of spin-
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
dles 40,000, and the number of looms 700. Up- wards of 5,000 dozen stockings per week are made.
In 1819 the manufacture of sulphuric acid was commenced in Waltham by Patrick Jackson, the site of the first establishment being on the banks of Charles River and Beaver Brook, at their junc- tion. About 1825 the location was changed to the lot of land partially enclosed by High, Pine, and Newton streets, and for many years the manu- facture of this acid was very extensively carried on by a corporation under the name of the Newton Chemical Company, the district adjoining its lands being called the Chemistry. Up to within a few years of the time of the abandonment of its manu- facture (in 1872) this company was without a rival in its special business, but the land once occupied by its buildings is now cut up into streets and house-lots, and a large portion of it has been sold.
In 1802 a small wooden building was erected on Stony Brook by Nathan Upham, and used by him as a mill for the manufacture of coarse wrap- ping papers until the year 1820, when it became the property of John M. Gibbs. In 1835 it again changed hands, and was purchased by John and Stephen Roberts, still retaining its identity as a paper-mill. In 1845 John Roberts became sole owner, and at his death, in 1871, his son William took charge. A commodious building of stone occupies the place of the old building, and a large steam-engine is used to increase the power. The paper now made is mostly of the kind used for sheathing and similar purposes, and the annual product is about 1,900 tons.
In the year 1835 Dr. Francis F. Field invented a process for the manufacture of crayons for the use of schools, tailors, carpenters, etc. This was the beginning of a business which for several years was carried on in a small way, but which now, under the management of Parmenter and Walker, requires quite an extensive factory, and extends all over the civilized world.
Of all Waltham's industries there is none the fame of which is so wide-spread as that of the manufacture of watches. A small establishment, commenced under the charge of E. Howard and A. L. Dennison, in Roxbury, in 1850, was in 1854. removed to Waltham, and with the Waltham Im- provement Company formed a corporation under the title of Boston Watch Company. A factory was erected, two stories high, in the form of a hol- low square, about one hundred feet on each side. In 1857 the company failed, and at an assignees'
sale Royal E. Robbins, the present treasurer of the corporation, purchased the property in the name of Appleton, Tracy, & Co. A few months afterwards ownership. again changed to the firm of Robbins and Appleton, and in September, 1858, a new association was formed with the Waltham Improve- ment Company, under the present name of the American Watch Company. When incorporated the capital stock was $200,000, but increasing business and the need of increased facilities cansed a corresponding increase of capital, until at the present time it has reached $1,500,000. The small factory of 1854, with its seventy-five em- ployees, has grown to the large establishment of the present day, employing about one thousand hands, and turning out four hundred and fifty finished watches per day. Even the present factory is not considered of sufficient capacity for the business, however, and an enlargement is at present in prog- ress. Growing out of and an accompaniment to this business is the manufacture of watchmakers' tools, particularly lathes and lathe fixtures. In 1861 Messrs. Kidder and Adams, machinists in the employ of the American Watch Company, left that employment, and commenced the manufacture of lathes made after the style of those used by the Watch Company. The business was first started in Weston, but was soon removed to Waltham. In its early struggles the business often changed hands, passing successively under the control of Kidder and Adams, Stark, Adams, and Lloyd, Stark & Co., John Stark, and John Stark and Son, Mr. Stark, the present head of this firm, having been con- nected with the business since about the year 1862. In 1872 Messrs. Whitcomb and Ballou, also grad- uates of the machine-shop of the American Watch Company, entered into the same field. They contin- ned in it until 1876, when Mr. Ballou retired, and Mr. Whitcomb joined with Mr. Ambrose Webster, a former master mechanic in the Watch Company's employ, and formed the present firm, under the style of the American Watch Tool Company. Mr. C. E. Hopkins commeneed the business which he now carries on under the name of the Hopkins Watch Tool Company. The tools made by these differ- ent companies are known all over the country, and the American Watch Tool Company has exported many of its tools to England, Switzerland, etc.
There have been. numerous other minor manu- factures, but as most of them have been of merely local interest, and transient in their existence, they are not mentioned.
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WATERTOWN.
One of the earliest prominent men of Waltham, who achieved a reputation not purely local, was Uriah Cotting (Cutting), born in Waltham in 1766. At the age of fifteen he went to work in Marlborough, and four years later he went to Boston. When he arrived at the latter town his possessions consisted of his bundle of clothes and twenty-five cents in money, and his experience was begun as an errand-boy in a West India goods store at the South End. He developed in later years much talent as a civil engineer, obtained charters for and was mainly instrumental in open- ing Broad, Cornhill, Brattle, and other streets, and building Central and India wharves. He projected the Mill-Dam, which he did not live to see finished, and also planned a canal from Boston Harbor to the Back Bay basin, which should accommodate vessels of several hundred tons. He died in 1819.
The most prominent native of Waltham of our time is Nathaniel Prentiss Banks, who was born here in 1816. His boyhood was passed in the employment of the Boston Manufacturing Com-
pany. He was elected to represent Waltham in the General Court for the years 1848, 1849, 1850, and 1851. In 1852 he was elected to represent Massachusetts in the National Congress, in 1853 was president of the State Constitutional Conven- tion, and in 1854 and 1856 was re-elected to the national House of Representatives, in the latter year of which he was chosen Speaker, after a pro- tracted contest of over two months' duration. In 1857, 1858, and 1859 he was chosen governor of Massachusetts ; in 1860 he was elected president of the Illinois Central Railroad; in 1861 he re- signed his position on the railroad corporation, and was appointed a major-general of volunteers. He served as major-general in the army until 1864, when he was relieved of his command. Returning to Massachusetts, he was elected to Congress in 1864, 1866, 1868, and 1870; was chosen state senator in 1872; and in 1874 and 1876 again re- turned to the national House. In 1879 he was appointed United States Marshal for Massachu- setts, which position he at present holds.
WATERTOWN.
BY FRANCIS S. DRAKE.
ATERTOWN, one of the old- est towns in Massachusetts, is pleasantly sitnated on the left bank of the Charles River, in the southeastern part of Mid- dlesex County, seven miles from Boston, and is three miles in length, with an aver- age width of about one mile. It has Belmont on the north, Cambridge on the east, Boston and Newton (from both of which it is separated by Charles River) on the south, and Waltham on the west. One hun- dred and fifty acres of its territory lying opposite the bridge, on the south side of the river, adjoin the town of Newton. It is traversed by a branch of the Fitchburg Railroad opened in 1846, while a horse-railroad unites it with Cambridge and Boston.
Before Belmont was taken from it, this town,
whose manufacturing interests now predominate, was essentially agricultural, and was second, in productiveness and fertility among the towns of the county, to West Cambridge alone. These two towns were the market-gardens of Boston. The soil, with the exception of a portion at its south- eastern extremity, is remarkably good. It consists principally of black loam, having a substratum of hard earth, so that it suffers little from summer droughts. Few New England towns have so large a proportion of land well adapted to tillage, or so little broken or waste land. In consequence of the scarcity of woodland, strict orders were very early passed for the preservation of trees, one or more of which were sometimes taken as compensation for debt or service. The Indian name of the town was long perpetuated in deeds describing Pequusset common or meadow, a tract of land on the north border of the town, a little east of Lexington Street, for many years used as a cow common.
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
There are few hills of any magnitude. Straw- berry Hill and Whitney's Hill are mentioned in the old records. The former is the highest land in the town, and is identical with School-house Hill, afterwards called Meeting-house Hill. Whitney's Hill is supposed to be that latterly known as White's Hill. Near this hill, at the corner of Lex- ington and Belmont streets, stood the pound, con- structed about 1687. Prospect Hill, four hundred and eighty-two feet in height, now in Waltham, the highest elevation in old Watertown, commands a very wide, diversified, and beautiful prospect. Bear Hill, west of it, and bordering on Weston, has about the same height. Mackerel Hill, near the northeast corner of the town, has borne that name from a very early date. Mount Feake, the first hill spoken of in the early records of the town, named for Robert Feake, is insignificant in magnitude, and has been nearly obliterated for the grading of a railroad.
None of the very early towns could compare with this in respect to its ponds and water-courses. Fresh Pond, the largest in the town, with an area of one hundred and seventy-five acres, now within the limits of Belmont, is the source of numerous underground streams. It has long been a famous resort for summer recreation, and its attractive bor- ders have furnished sites for many beautiful country- seats. The water of this pond is remarkably pure, and its ice is shipped in large quantities to all parts of the world. The public-house then on the mar- gin of the pond was a place of refuge for the panic- stricken women and children of the neighborhood on the memorable 19th of April, 1775. Forest Pond, probably the ancient Shallow Pond, is in Mount Auburn Cemetery. Sherman's Pond, of about one hundred acres, more recently known as Fiske's Pond and Mead's Pond, is within the high grounds of Waltham, and is the source of the all- cient Chester Brook, or West Branch of Beaver Brook. In the summer of 1670 a remarkable mortality occurred among the fish in this pond, immense numbers of which were found lying dead on its shores. A pond and an extensive bog called Beaver Meadow, through which Chester Brook passes, is about half a mile west of the site of the old Waltham meeting-house. It is supposed that this bog was formerly covered with water, and was the pond where, as Winthrop tells us, "the beavers had shorn down divers great trees, and made divers dams across the brook." A little south of this is Lily Pond, of about four acres, with its outlet
through Beaver Meadow into Chester Brook. The town originally contained a part if not the whole of Walden Pond, now in Concord, a part of Sandy Pond and the whole of Beaver Pond, now in Lincoln, and a part of Nonesuch Pond, much of which is now in Natick.
Most of the southern border of the town is watered by the Charles, originally called the Massa- chusetts River. Its average width is eight rods ; tide-water extends above the east border of the town, and it is navigable for small vessels as far as the dam where the manufactories stand. At this point a fall furnished water-power for the first mill built in the town. Other falls above furnish power for the Etna Mills and for the upper and lower Wal- tham factories. Smelt Brook, one of the branches of the Charles, enters it on the south side, its source being in Newton. Beaver Brook, its first consid- erable tributary, is made up of two main branches which unite about two hundred and fifty yards from the river, entering it at the lower end of Waltham Plain. The West Branch, two miles long, originating in Sherman's Pond and passing through Beaver Pond, had upon it a mill, built probably by Deacon Thomas Livermore in the early part of the last century. The eastern and larger branch begins in Lexington, and runs through the eastern border of Waltham. This branch in early times was always called Beaver Brook, and the other, which watered Chester Meadow, was the ancient Chester Brook, named for Leonard Chester, who was here in 1633. Stony Brook, the largest tributary to Charles River, originates in Sandy Pond, runs south-southeast, and passing through Beaver Pond unites with the Charles about two miles above Beaver Brook. There are several mills upon it. Its principal branch, the ancient Stower's Brook, or Hobbs' Brook, originates in Lincoln, and after a course of four miles due south unites with Stony Brook about two miles from its junction with Charles River. This is supposed to be the stream formerly called Four- Mile Brook. Above and west of it is another small branch, called Cherry Brook.
Distinctive names marked the several localities of the original town. The Small Lots, as the house- lots and homestalls were called, were scattered over its eastern portion, which embraces the present territory of the town. They also included the meet- ing-house common of forty acres, Pequusset or King's Common, and Pequusset Meadow. The Great Dividends were four tracts of land, sometimes
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