USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 79
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Mr. Gibbs' successors in the First Church were : Seth Storer, from 1724 to 1774; Daniel Adams, from April to August, 1778 ; Richard R. Elliott, a descendant of the Apostle to the Indians, from 1780 to 1818; Convers Francis, from 1819 to 1842; John Weiss, from 1843 to 1847; Has- brouck Davis, from 1849 to 1853 ; George Brad- ford, from 1856 to 1859 ; Arthur B. Fuller, from 1860 to 1862; John Weiss, from 1862 to 1869; James T. Bixby, from 1870 to 1873; Joseph F. Lovering, from 1875 to July 30, 1878. During the period in which his functions in the Brattle- Street Church, Boston, were suspended by British occupancy, the eminently patriotic Dr. Samuel Cooper ministered to the Watertown church.
Many of the early settlers of the Farms were from five to eight miles distant from the meeting- house, and attended the meeting in Sudbury, but were taxed for the support of the ministry in Watertown. At a town-meeting held January 6, 1701-1702, it was voted that " the bounds of the Farmers' Precinct for the ministry is from Charles River along the brook called Stony Brook, that cometh out of a pond called Beaver Pond, said precinct being on the westerly side of said brook."
Already, in March, 1700, the farmers had built and occupied a small house of worship, thirty feet square, on the land of Nathaniel Coolidge, a little in front of the present house. A church having been gath- ered and organized here, Mr. William Williams was ordained pastor, November 2, 1709, some three years before the Farms were incorporated as the town of Weston.
A Universalist church, erected by the Watertown and Newton societies, was dedicated August 15, 1827, and Rev. Russell Streeter installed pastor. He was succeeded by Rev. W. S. Balch, May 15, 1830. Services were discontinued in November, 1865, and the building, which is on Galen Street, is now the South Grammar School.
The Baptist Meeting-house, built in 1858, is on the site of the first edifice, dedicated August 19, 1830, at which time Rev. Peter Chase was installed pastor. The society was organized, with forty-six members, July 18, 1830, at the house of Jesse Wheeler. Its pastors since Mr. Chase have been : Nicholas Medbury, from October 19, 1832, to August 15, 1843; Edward D. Very, from Decein- ber 19, 1843, to January 28, 1845; Charles H. Colver, from January 28, 1846, to 1850; B. A. Edwards, from September 17, 1850, to 1855; William L. Brown, from February 2, 1855, to February 1, 1861 ; Alfred S. Patton, from June 11, 1861, to 1866; William F. Stubbert, from Feb- ruary 13, 1866, to 1869; G. S. Abbott, from December 14, 1869, to November, 1876; Edward A. Capen, November 21, 1877. The present mem- bership is two hundred and eighty-four.
The Methodist Society originated at the house of Leonard Whitney, where its meetings continued to be held until, in the autumn of 1837, they bought the academy building on the hill. This estate was sold in June, 1847, and has since been in the pos- session of the Roman Catholics. The present church, on Main Street, was consecrated October 20, 1847. The weathercock that surmounted its steeple, for- merly belonging to the First Church, was blown down in February, 1879, but is carefully preserved. The society, consisting . at first of four persons, - Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Whitney, John Devall, and Joshua Rhoades, - now numbers one hundred and twenty. Its first class was established and a Sun- day school formed October 4, 1836, and at nearly the same period Charles S. Macreading officiated as pastor. Father Pickering was appointed their first conference brother, June 17, 1837. The pres- ent pastor is T. W. Bishop.
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The Phillips Congregational Church was organized April 17, 1855, with twenty-six members, Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher acting pastor. Until its first edifice was ready for occupancy in April, 1857, services were held in the town-hall, where Dr. Beecher, the champion of Orthodoxy, preached once each Sunday, another discourse of a decidedly un- orthodox complexion being given by Rev. Theodore Parker in the same place, on the same day, to se- ceders from the First Church. The present house, first occupied January 12, 1862, is on the site of the first, which was burned down on the night of January 13, 1861. Its successive pastors have been : S. R. Dennen, D. D., from July 11, 1855, to Angust 1, 1862 ; James M. Bell, from April 23, 1865, to May 23, 1871 ; Edwin P. Wilson, July 5, 1872. In the interim between the pastorates of Messrs. Dennen and Bell, William L. Gage, now of Hartford, preached one year, but was not settled.
Besides the religious organizations above named, there is St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, of which Rev. Robert P. Stack is rector.
Education. - Public instruction had before 1649 been made compulsory, each town of fifty house- holders being required to have a school for reading and writing, while each town of one hundred house- holders must have a grammar school, with a teacher competent to fit youths for the university. In that year the first school-house in the town was erected, probably on School-house Hill, and David Mitchell was requested to teach. The first known teacher, Richard Norcross, was hired January 6, 1650- 51, one year for £ 30, he being also allowed 2s. a head for keeping the dry herd. Norcross continued to teach until 1701, when he was seventy- nine years of age.
In 1667 the school was to be free to the inhabi- tants, others to pay as before, "their pay to go towards the teacher's salary." In 1667 the school hours were eight, between 7 A. M. and 5 P. M., from May to September, six hours from September to November, and in winter from 10 to 2. In 1679 the selectmen agreed that " they would go two and two through the town to see that all the children be taught to read the English tongue, and some orthodox catechism, and to take the names of all youths from ten years' old unto twenty years' old, that they may be publicly catechised by the pastor in the meeting-house." In 1683 those west of Stony Brook were freed from the school tax, that they might provide their own teaching. In 1694 schooling was to be paid by the parents, " for Eng-
lish 3d. per week, writing 4d. a week, Latin 6d. a week. The teacher also to catechise scholars and all other persons that are sent to him." In 1709 a school-house was built near Mr. Angier's meeting-house, 25 x 20 feet.
In accordance with the recommendation of the legislature in 1733, the town in that year resolved to have two school-houses, and to employ two schoolmasters. In 1771 it was agreed that there should be five women's schools, three on the north side of the town and two on the south side, and to allow 5 s. and 4d. per week to each of the mistresses " they finding houses to keep in. Said schools to be kept twelve weeks each." In 1830 there were four public schools, two of which were kept through- out the year, the other two being taught by masters in the winter and by female teachers in the summer, average attendance about 240. There are now six public schools, including a high school established in 1853, with an average attendance of 876.
On the southeast corner of Arlington and Mount Auburn streets is one of the oldest graveyards in New England. The first mention of it in the town records occurs July 5, 1645, when a " sufficient " fence was ordered to be set up about it. There is a tradition that on the opposite side of Mount Auburn Street, on the southerly corner of Joseph Bird's estate, there was an earlier burial-place, soon abandoned. Among the oldest stones remaining are those of Sarah Hammond, 1674, Captain Hugh Mason, 1678, and Hannah Coolidge, 1680. Here arc the tombs of Rev. Thomas Bailey and his wife, " Pions Lydia," with their quaint inscriptions ; . and here also a plain granite shaft, erected by his descendants, April 19, 1875, commemorates the patriot Joseph Coolidge, who fell at Lexington just a century before. The two next graveyards originated in a vote of the town January 1, 1702 -1703. That of Mr. Angier's society on Grove Street, near Beaver Brook, was the only one in Waltham for more than a hundred years. The Weston burying-ground was near the meeting- house. The Village Burying-Ground, in Water- town, at the intersection of Mount Auburn and Common streets, dating from 1754, has been re- cently enlarged upon its northern border. Since its opening few interments have been made in the old yard.
Mount Auburn Cemetery, the first of the rural cemeteries of America, renowned for its extent, its natural beauty, and its artificial embellishments, is the burial-place of many of the wealthy and dis-
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tinguished of the metropolis of New England, and of a wide region around it. Situated in the midst of the small lots of the first planters of the town, its area of one hundred acres doubtless includes some of their old homestalls. Owing to the roughness of its surface, its thick growth of forest trees, its ravines and rocky eminences, little of its area was adapted to tillage. Much of Deacon Simon Stone's estate of fifty acres is probably em- braced in it, licence its old name, - Stone's Woods. A number of Deacon Stone's descendants yet reside on portions of the ancestral estate, while on the very spot where he first pitched his tent Mr. Win- chester, thirty years ago, crected what was at that time the finest mansion on Charles River. Mount Auburn had for many years been the resort of parties of pleasure, when it came into the posses- sion of Mr. George W. Brimmer, who sold it for $6,000 to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for a cemetery, the idea of which originated with Dr. Jacob Bigelow. It was formally dedicated September 24, 1831. Its beautiful chapel contains statues of John Winthrop by Greenough, John Adams by Rogers, Joseph Story by his son, Wil- liam W. Story, and James Otis by Crawford.
A little to the east of Mount Auburn Mr. Rich- ard Browne was allowed by the court, November 5, 1633, "to keep a Ferry over Charles River against his house, to have 2d. for every single person he so transports and ld. apiece if there be two or more."
The earliest bridge in Watertown was the foot- bridge over Charles River at the head of tide-water, very near the first mill, usually called Mill Bridge, or the Great Bridge. In June, 1641, the court or- dered that " the toll of Mr. Mayhew's bridge is referred to the Governor and two magistrates to settle for 7 years." In 1643 the court granted Mayhew 300 acres of land in regard of his charges about the bridge at Watertown mill, and the bridge to belong to the country. The first horse-bridge was built here in 1648. Its frequent repairs or re- buikling in the first hundred years was a heavy bur- den to the town, and aid was several times asked of the county, but without success. The first bridge for wheel-carriages was built about 1720, where the present bridge is, a few rods above the site of the original structure.
The fishery of Charles River was formerly let out by the town, and produced an annual income of some $700, there being " great store " of bass, shad, and alewives. Latterly this sum had been
divided between Watertown and Brighton, the lat- ter receiving three tenths. Owing to the impuri- ties discharged from the gas-works, the dyc-house, and the factories, the fish ccased to come up the river, and since 1860 no income has been derived from this source. The weir was built just below the fall, in the spring of 1632, probably by the enterprising John Oldham, whose house, burned in August following, stood near it. Governor Winthrop's assent to its erection, without an order of the court, was brought up against him by Dep- uty-Governor Dudley when, not long afterward, these two worthies had their famous quarrel.
Owned at first by the town, the weir afterwards became private property, and was held in shares. In 1634 fishing near it with nets was prohibited. In 1635 " four rods in breadth on each side of the River and in length as far as need shall require, so as not to prejudice the water mill," was granted it, also in 1636 a tract of one hundred and fifty acres on the south side of the river opposite the bridge, confirmed by the court to Thomas Mayhew in 1641. In 1671 the Indians, being " like to buy the privilege," and " being like to be bad neigh- bors," the town voted, " all as one man," to pur- chase the weir for the use of the town. After Waltham and Weston were incorporated they re- tained a joint proprietorship in the weir, which continued until cancelled in 1802, on condition of their exoneration from contributing to the main- tenance of the Great Bridge over Charles River. Complaints were made of the Watertown people to the General Court as early as in 1738, and fre- quently thereafter, by Newton, Natick, and other towns, for stopping the course of the fish in the river.
It is probable that the first mill in Watertown was built in 1634 by Edward How. It was a grist-mill, on Mill Creek, a canal partly or wholly artificial, leaving the river at the head of the falls, where a stone dam was afterward made across the river. During Philip's War the mill was intrusted to the guard of Richard Sanger, his two sons, and three others. In 1789 Daniel Jackson had a saw-mill here. In 1795 Messrs. G. and F. Williams had a paper-mill here, the same afterwards known as Annis', and latterly as Hollingsworth and Whitney's. A fulling-mill on Beaver Brook, supposed to have been where Ken- dall's Mills now are, was the next mill built here. In 1679 a corn-mill was set up on Stony Brook. About 1760 David Bemis built a mill about a mile
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above the old one, and another was built by John Boies where the Waltham factories have since been built. Since the opening of the century a number have been erected, absorbing a large amount of capital, and giving employment to numerous fami- lies.
In 1778 the dam at Bemis' Station, where the Etna Mills now are, about one mile above the old nill, was built by David Bemis and Dr. Enos Sumner. Bemis owned two thirds of a paper-mill on the Newton side, built in 1779, and before 1790 also carried on a grist-mill and snuff-mill on the Watertown side, - the first mill at that point. His son Seth became sole proprietor about 1796, and in 1803 began to spin cotton by machinery, a business that proved exceedingly profitable. Cotton sail-duck, for which a twisting-machine of forty-eight spindles was constructed, was first made here in 1809. In 1816 the introduction of the power-loom and other improvements reduced the price of duck one half. Afterwards, in connection with his sou, Seth, Jr., and until he gave up busi- ness in 1836, he made inis the leading factory in the country for grinding and preparing dyestuffs.
Having in 1821 become sole owner of the water- power, Mr. Bemis built the present stone rolling dam in front of the old one. The Bemis Manufac- turing Company, incorporated in 1827, transferred its property and rights in 1860 to the Etna Mill Company, which enlarged the works, and which manufactures woollen fabrics by both water and steam power. Between 1790 and 1796 Bemis constructed a bridge over the river, which in 1807 was swept away by a freshet. A foot-bridge, built soon after, was also swept away in 1818. The present bridge was built not long after.
In September, 1635, John Masters was licensed by the court to keep an ordinary. June 6, 1637, George Munnings was fined 20s. for selling beer, and keeping a house of entertainment without a license. Captain Richard Beers was licensed in 1654, and Captain Abner Crafts in 1772. South of the bridge, on the east side of the way, is an old building of the Revolutionary era kept as a tavern from 1764 to 1770 by Nathaniel Coolidge, and afterwards by his widow. It was in 1770 known as the "sign of Mr. Wilkes near Nonantum Bridge," and was the appointed rendezvous for the Committee of Safety in May, 1775. Here Wash- ington tarried while on his way to Cambridge to take command of the army, in order to pay his respects to Congress, then in session, and here too
he lodged while making his presidential tour in 1789. Opposite the entrance to California Street, near by, is the old John Cook house, where Henry Knox, afterwards General Knox, resided for a while in 1775. In one of its chambers Paul Revere en- graved and printed the colony notes issued by the Provincial Congress.
The Spring Hotel, built of brick in 1824 by a son of Dr. Spring, was partly burned in the great fire of 1841. On its site Caleb Church kept an ordinary from 1686 to 1711. His successor was Thomas Learned, licensed in 1712. Mary, his widow, and his sons, Abijah and Bezaleel, kept it successively until 1771.
Early in 1816 Captain Talcott, an officer of the army, selected the site for the United States Arse- nal at Watertown, on the margin of the Charles River, where the first landing of white men in that town had been made, the state ceding to the United States the jurisdiction of an area not to exceed sixty acres. To the original purchase of forty acres subsequent additions were made, the last of which, September 25, 1867, of forty-four acres, brought its total area up to one hundred acres. An encampment of about fifty friendly Indians, of the Stockbridge tribe, nestled here during the investment of Boston by the patriot army, in 1775-76.
The buildings, completed in 1820 under the superintendence of Captain Talcott, were two maga- zines of stone, erected several hundred feet from the other buildings, which are of brick, upon the four sides of a parallelogram, which faces the four cardinal points, the spaces between being filled by a wall fifteen feet in height. There have since been constructed a number of other buildings, some of them made necessary by the exigencies of the great civil war, rendering it an arsenal of con- struction as well as of deposit. These include two large timber store-houses, a carriage and machine shop, and a smith's shop; also a laboratory, gas- works, brass and iron foundry, and new quarters for the commanding officer, built in 1865.
During the War of the Rebellion Captain, after- wards Brevet Brigadier-General, T. J. Rodman, the inventor of the famous Rodman gun, was in com- mand, the working force at that time being up- wards of one thousand persons, including men, women, boys, and girls. The operations were confined principally to the manufacture of wood- en field-carriages, iron carriages for heavy sea- coast guns, artillery implements and equipments,
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ammunition for small arms and for field, siege, and sea-coast service. The enlisted force dur- ing the war was one hundred and ten men; the present number is twenty-two.
Colonel Theodore T. S. Laidley, of Virginia, a graduate from West Point in 1842, has been in command since April 11, 1871. The former com- manders have been : Captain George Talcott, 1816 -1820 ; Major Abraham R. Woolley, 1820-1821; Lieutenant David T. Welch, 1821-1823; Lieuten- ant John W. Thompson, 1823- 1824 ; Lieutenant D. Van Ness, 1825 ; Major H. K. Craig, 1825 - 1838; Major M. P. Lomax, 1838-1842; J. A. Webber, military storc-keeper, 1842-1849; Cap- tain W. A. Thornton, 1849-1851; Major E. Harding, 1851-1854 ; Lieutenant-Colonel J. W. Ripley, 1854 -1855 ; Captain R. A. Wainwright, 1855-1859 ; Captain T. J. Rodman, 1859-1865; Lieutenant-Colonel C. P. Kingsbury, 1865-1870.
The town-hall was dedicated November 6, 1846. The free public library, established in 1868 and opened for the delivery of books in March follow- ing, occupies a portion of the building. It con- tains 12,000 volumes, nearly as many pamphlets, and has a well-furnished reading-room. Water- towur has a National Bank, opened in 1873, and a Savings-Bank.
Pequossette Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, constituted in January, received its charter Decem- ber 23, 1857, having thirty-three members. Its place of meeting until 1870 was in Dana's Block ; its present hall is in Noyes' Block, opposite the town-hall. Most of the charter members of Belmont Lodge, and many of Dalhousie Lodge, Newton, received their degrees in Pequossette Lodge. Its present membership is one hundred and twenty-two.
In the early days property was very evenly dis- tributed. For eighty years after the first settle- ment there were not more than one or two inven- tories that exceeded £700. Taxation, as in all new countries, was necessarily heavy. The annual ex- pense of supporting the ministry alone in the time of Rev. Mr. Sherman was about two per cent of the whole assessed value of the town. The num- ber of taxable persons between 1658 and 1685 fluctuated from 153 to 192. A tax of 4d. in the pound for the building of a new meeting-house in 1695 amounted to £ 320 4s., showing a total valuation of £19,212. In 1879 the total valna- tion was $7,027,500; number of polls, 1,266; school-children between the ages of five and fifteen
years, 834 ; the number of dwelling-houses, 905 ; acres of land taxed, 2,048.
For a time the population of Watertown, as shown by the tax-levy, equalled that of Boston, but it was soon outstripped by the superior advan- tages of the seaport town. In the first two hun- dred years it increased very slowly. Beginning in 1630 with forty heads of families- about 250 persons -in 1840 it had increased only to 1,810 souls, owing in part to amputations of its territory, and in part to successive migrations. These causes were especially active between the years 1651, when there were 160 families, and 1790, when they num- bered but 164. The largest increase, that of the decennial period ending in 1875, when the census showed a population of 5,599, 1,456 of whom were of foreign birth, was mainly due to building enter- prises.
Out of a population of 1,518 in 1820, 179 were engaged in manufacturing and 145 in agricultural pursuits. At present the occupations of the peo- ple are greatly diversified. According to the state census of 1875 there were engaged in manufactur- ing and mechanical occupations, 851; trade and transportation, 387 ; agriculture, 191. There were twenty-six manufacturing establishments ; capital, $1,033,075 ; value of product, $1,875,455 ; and thirty-six other occupations, with a capital of $272,292, producing $835,336. Value of hay and other agricultural produce, $101,500. The principal establishments are the Etua Woollen Mill, a paper-mill, a manufactory of bronze goods, and another for stoves. The Union Market, whose extensive buildings make one of the stations of the Fitchburg Railroad, now shares with Brighton the large cattle-trade once exclusively belonging to the latter.
Dr. Marshall Spring, a distinguished physician of Watertown, descended from John, an early set- tler, and his wife, Elinor, was born February 19, 1741-42, and died January 7, 1818. Graduat- ing at Harvard College in 1762, he was aided in obtaining his medical education by his maternal uncle, Dr. Josiah Converse, who hequeathed to him the larger part of his estate. With the exception of a brief sojourn in the island of St. Eustatia, lie always resided in his native town, sustaining a wide-spread professional repute, and attracting pa- tients from a great distance. In pleasant weather his house, especially on Sunday mornings, was thronged with persons seeking medical advice. He was an acute observer, possessed great sagacity,
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and was one of the few who could successfully meet Chief Justice Parsons in the keen encounter of wit. Though a tory in the Revolution, fully and firmly " convinced of the entire inexpediency of resist- ance," he was yet early in the field at Lexington, on the 19th of April, 1775, devoting his skill to his wounded fellow-citizens. So highly appre- ciated and so necessary to the people were his pro- fessional services, and so winning and benevolent were his manners, that, odious to them as were his political sentiments, he rarely suffered any serions annoyance on that account. He taught the school in Water- town in 1763, was a representative in 1787, and was frequently a member of the Executive Council of Massachusetts. Dr. Spring was rather short in stature, but was compact and well-proportioned, and was one of the handsomest men of his time. At his decease he left one of the largest estates ever bequeathed by a professional man in the state.
Colonel William Bond, fourth in descent from William, one of the early settlers of the town, was born February 17, 1733 - 34. He was lieutenant- colonel of the Middlesex regiment of Colonel Gardi- ner, who fell mortally wounded at Bunker Hill, and, succeeding to the command, led it in the disas- trous expedition to Canada. Retreating with the enfeebled remains of the army to Mount Indepen- dence, opposite Ticonderoga, he died there of small- pox, August 31, 1776. The family residence for one hundred and seventy years (1655- 1825), now in Belmont, and originally the homestead of Cap- tain William Jennison, was latterly the elegant seat of Mr. John P. Cushing.
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