History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II, Part 8

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

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 8

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The first Baptist meeting-house was built in 1822, of brick, and stood where Mr. John P. Tuttle now lives ; it was dedicated July 9, 1823, when Rev. Amasa Sanderson was ordained, and acted as pastor until March 23, 1831. The suc- ceeding ministers were Rev. Silas Kenney, 1831 - 1834; Rev. O. Ayer, 1837-1843; Rev. T. H. Lunt, April, 1844, to March, 1845 ; Rev. Aaron Haynes, April, 1845, to -, 1847; Rev. B. H. Clift, June, 1847, to February, 1848 ; Rev. George Mathews, May, 1848, to -, 1852 ; Rev. F. E. Cleaves, June, 1852, to October, 1857 ; Rev. D. F. Lampson, July, 1858, to April, 1861; Rev. C. M. Willard, August, 1861, to November, 1867; Rev. C. L. Frost, August, 1868, to June, 1869 ; Rev. J. F. Morton, September, 1869, to Septem- ber, 1872; Rev. B. N. Sperry, January, 1873, to May, 1875 ; Rev. William Read, July, 1875, to May, 1878 ; Rev. Paul Gallaher, November, 1878. The brick meeting-house was burned, probably by an incendiary, August 5, 1840, and the present wooden one was then built at the Old Common, and dedicated June, 1841.

In 1825 the town purchased a farm on which to support the poor.

After the death of Mr. Foster the town voted, October 29, 1827, to call Rev. William H. White to settle as minister. He was born in Lancaster, Mass., in 1798, and lived on a farm in Westminster until twenty-one, when he fitted for college under the tuition of Rev. Dr. Stearns of Lincoln. Mr. White graduated at Brown University in 1824, and at Cambridge Divinity School in 1827 ; he received a call to preach in Kingston, Mass., but preferred Littleton, where he was ordained January 2, 1828.

We learn that it had long been his ambition

to settle in this town and win his predecessor's daughter, Sarah Bass Foster, whom he married a year after his ordination. He died July 25, 1853, in the twenty-sixth year of his ministry. He was succeeded by Rev. Frederick R. Newell, September, 1854, to November, 1856; Rev. Eugene Denor- mandie, February, 1857, to July, 1863; Rev. Albert B. Vorse, June, 1864, to June, 1869; Rev. David P. Muzzey, October, 1869, to April, 1871; Rev. T. H. Eddowes, January, 1872, to December, 1872; Rev. S. R. Priest, January, 1873, to August, 1874; Rev: J. Wingate Wink- ley, March, 1876. In 1841 the society took down their old church and built the present one on the same spot, the fourth building of the First Parish.

We have to record the formation, within a few years of each other, of three other societies, viz. the Universalists, the Unionists, and the Orthodox Congregational.

The Universalists held meetings in the Centre school-house and in Chamberlin's Hall from 1830 until December, 1846, when they bought at auction the meeting-house the Unionists had built a few years previous, a short distance east of the present union school-house, on the old road between the Cen- tre and Common. The house was burned by an in- cendiary in 1847, after which the society dispersed.

The Unionists, or Millerites, were an outcome from the Baptists, in whose meeting-house William Miller first preached in town. They built a small meeting-house for themselves in 1840. The con- tinued existence of the world beyond the time they had fixed for its destruction was a blow which the society did not survive.

The Orthodox Congregationalists withdrew from the First Church in 1840, and formed their society March 23, and their church May 14, of that year. They met in the hall over George Lawrence's Yel- low Store until the present meeting-house was completed in the fall of 1841. Their pastors have been Rev. J. C. Bryant, October, 1840, to March, 1845 ; Rev. James M. Bacon, October, 1846, to November, 1849; Rev. Daniel H. Babcock, April, 1851, to February, 1853; Rev. Elihu Loomis, October, 1854, -, 1870; Rev. Henry E. Cooley, May, 1872, to October, 1874 ; Rev. George E. Hall, September, 1875, to February, 1877; Rev. William Sewall, March, 1877.

The Littleton Lyceum was organized Decem- ber 2, 1829, through the efforts of Rev. Mr. White, and has been continued every winter until the present day. It was at first a debating society

LITTLETON.

with an occasional lecture preceding the debate, but has of late years developed into a lecture course, which, from its antiquity and the quality of its lectures, is the pride of the town.

The first mention of schools in the town records is under the date of March 31, 1725, when it was voted "that the selectmen provide a school mas- ter." They hired John Powers. At that time and for many years after, it was the custom to have one school from four to six months in the year, kept in private houses, and generally moving from one part of the town to another during the time, but in some years it was kept wholly in the Centre.

May 19, 1760, the town voted "to abate Mr. Stephen Shattuck the Rates for his Son's Poll ye last year on condition his Son Goes to college the next year."

Repeated attempts to pass votes for school- houses were unsuccessful until 1795, when the town voted to build five, but afterwards changed the number to four, which were built the following year, the South near the house of J. A. Priest, the West near the present school-house in that quarter, the North near the " long-store," and the East at the corner of the road near the house of Mr. Elbridge Marshall.

This arrangement was unsatisfactory, as it left the Centre and Old Common without school-houses, and a long struggle for changes was commenced, which resulted in building school-houses in the Centre and at Nashoba in 1822, - of brick to pre- vent their being moved, - and the moving of some of the others; after another struggle a school- house was built on the Common in 1843, making seven in all. This number was preserved with re- newals of buildings, and slight changes in location, until 1867, when the Union school-house, with grammar and primary schools, was built for the Common and Centre villages combined. For the past few years a high school, of one term yearly, has been kept in the brick town-house.

The selectmen during the Rebellion were in 1861-62 John F. Robbins, John Cutter, and James A. Parker; in 1863-64-65 Joseph A. Priest, William Kimball, and George W. Sander- son. The town-clerk in 1861, and all through the war, was William Kimball.

The first town-meeting to consider matters re- lating to the war was held May 1, 1861, when it was voted to raise by taxation one thousand dol- lars, and to authorize the selectmen to borrow more, if needed, to pay each soldier belonging to

the town ten dollars a month while in the service, and to provide for their families. In July a com- mittee consisting of Richard Hall, F. P. Knowlton, Thomas S. Tuttle, and Benjamin Edwards were chosen to act with the selectmen in expending the money appropriated. In July, 1862, it was voted to pay a bounty of one hundred dollars to each three years' volunteer, and in August, 1863, the bounty was raised to one hundred and twenty-five dollars. It was also voted to keep a full record of each volunteer belonging to the town. The town continued recruiting and paying bounties until the end of the war.

The whole number of men furnished was one hundred and seventeen, a surplus of eighteen over all demands. Two were commissioned officers. When the nine months' volunteers were ready to leave, the people met and escorted them in pro- cession to Central Hall, where a full meeting was held to bid farewell to and encourage them.

In one instance the town brought home and buried at its own expense one of the slain. The total amount of money appropriated and expended by the town on account of the war, exclusive of state aid, was $11,104.33. In addition to this, the ladies under the presidency of the late Mrs. S. B. White formed a Soldiers' Aid Society, and sent many boxes of clothing, bandages, and com- forts to the seat of war.

A Farmers' Club formed February 22, 1869, has had three successful town fairs, in 1870, 1873, and 1874.

Littleton is almost entirely a farming town ; there are three stores, and two mills for grinding and sawing. About the time of the Revolution there was a factory for dressing cloth on the brook near the house of Peter S. Whitcomb; it was owned by a stock company, which had in 1779 seventeen share-holders, mostly residents. The population in 1875 was 950; in 1860, 1,063 ; and in 1776, 918; this number, however, included inany who were soon afterwards set off to Box- borough, so that the number has not been so con- stant as would appear at first sight.

The valuation of the town was in 1860 $666,270; in 1865, $602,720; in 1875, $707,835.

The town has been represented in the state sen- ate by Rev. Mr. Foster, Hon. Jonathan Hartwell, and Hon. Joseph A. Harwood, who is now a mem- ber of the exceutive council, holding the highest office yet attained by a citizen of Littleton.

The state-engineer of the Hoosac Tunnel, com-

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

pleted in 1875, was Benjamin D. Frost of this town.

A few facts selected at random illustrate the many changes in customs during a century. First, the inventories of 1770 and 1771 give the number of slaves owned as eight. A carriage was a great luxury, and subject to a duty ; in 1786 the town boasted two only, - both chaises. The selectmen were empowered to warn out of town any persons whom they thought likely to become paupers, or for other reasons. In 1790, all persons who had come to town since 1767 were warned out. The chief items of expense for the funeral of the town's first pauper were for kid gloves and rum !

The railroads running through the town are the Fitchburg, with a station in the westerly part, dis- tant thirty-one miles from Boston, and the Stony Brook, with a flag-station in the north part, distant twelve miles from Lowell.

Since the building of the railroads the local travel has gradually diminished, so that it does not support a hotel, and the traveller through the town must depend upon the hospitality of the citizens,

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1768

In former times there were many taverns ; the first, kept by Samucl Hunt, is mentioned as early as 1722 ; it probably stood near the house of P. S. Whitcomb. Another was the Lawrence taveril, kept in the house now occupied by Henry Crane ; the sign, on which was painted a soldier and the

words, " Pay To-day and Trust To-morrow," with the date 1768, is still in the house. Others were kept by John Fox and Captain Leonard Whiting in the Centre, previous to the Revolution; by Saml. Gilbert, and afterwards by Captain Kidder, called the Tremont House (where the Baptist par- sonage stands) ; by Simeon Proctor (where Solo- mon S. Flagg now lives), and by Madison Loring (in the house now occupied by J. W. Adams) and Samuel Smith on the Common in later times. The Tremont House was struck by light- ning and burned in 1842 or 1843. Smith's hotel was afterwards kept by J. M. Colburn, William Chamberlin, Boynton Needham, and others, and last by George D. Brown, who owned it when it was burned in 1878. It had not been a public house for a number of years.

The town has two cemeteries remaining; the first, at Nashoba, having been long since dese- crated, as before mentioned. The one at the Com- mon was laid ont in 1721; we give two of its epitaphs : -

MEMENTO MORI

HERE LIES THE BODY OF DR. ENOCH DOLE OF LANCASTER, Æ 33 YRS. 5 MOS. & 3 DAYS,

he unfortunately fell with 3 others ye 9th of Mar. 1776 by a Cannon Ball from our cruel & unnatural Foes ye British Troops while on his Duty on Dorchester Point,

No warning giv'n, unceremonions fate ! A sudden rush from life's meridian joys ! A wrench from all we are, from all we love. What a change From yesterday ! Thy darling hope so near (Long laboured prize) Oli how ambition flushed Thy glowing cheek, Ambition truly great, of virtuous praise. And oh ! ye last (what can word express, Thought reach) ye last last silence of a friend. Meaning his entrance into Boston which so soon took Place & on which his heart was much set.

HERE lyes the body of Isaac Powers One of those sweet and pleasant flowers Who in his Lifetime Lived well, But God did toll his mournfull bell Let this be a call unto the rest When God doth take from us the best Who was a pattern to us all But God can give a louder call All Earthly Parents now behold The price of Grace is more than gold Prepare to meet your Children first At the Resurection of the Just -

Who died December 15th 1729 in the 29th Year of his age.

LOWELL.

BY ALFRED GILMAN.

OWELL, in Middlesex County, State of Massachusetts, was taken from the northeasterly part of Chelmsford. It is sit- uated twenty-five miles north by west from Boston, in latitude 42° 38' 46" north, longitude 71°19' 2" west from Greenwich. It is bounded on the north and east by Dracut, on the east and south by Tewksbury, and on the south and west by Chelmsford. Its original bonnds, as defined in the charter, were as follows : " Beginning at Merrimack River, at a stone post, about two hundred rods above the mouth of Paw- tucket Canal, so called, thence running southerly in a straight course, until it strikes the Middlesex Canal, at a point ten rods above the canal bridge, near the dwelling-house of Henry Coburn ; thence southerly on said canal twenty rods ; thence a due east course to a stone post at Concord River." Its area is 7,735 acres, or about twelve square miles. Since its incorporation as a town, in 1826, it has received two additions from Tewksbury on the east, two from Dracut on the north and east, and one from Chelmsford on the west. These addi- tions will be appropriately noticed.

The territory now belonging to the city of Lowell was originally granted to Cambridge, June 2, 1641, and again June 14, 1642. This grant was condi- tional. " All the land lying upon Shawshin Ryver, and between that and Concord Ryver, and between that and Merrimack Ryver, not formerly granted by this Court, are granted to Cambridge, so as they erect a village there within five years, and so as it shall not extend to prejudice Charlestowne village, or the village of Cochitawit" (Andover), etc. This grant was confirmed absolutely March 7, 1643-44, and included the present town of Billerica, portions of Bedford and Carlisle, and a part of Tewksbury and Chelmsford, or of both. " All the land between Concord and Merrimack rivers " includes Lowell.

In order to prevent confusion, it is well to state

that there were two villages of Indians inhabiting the territory on which Lowell stands. The Wame- sits occupied the land on both sides of Concord River, and the Pawtuckets, the region in the vi- cinity of Pawtucket Falls. They belonged to one tribe. Allen, in his History of Chelmsford, says, " It was customary to call those of the same nation or tribe by the different names of the villages at which they resided. Inattention to this circum- stance has introduced great uncertainty and con- fusion in those transactions of the town which related to the Indians in Wamesit and Pawtucket. They belonged to the same tribe, and, living so near together, constituted but one village. They are sometimes called Pawtuckets ; more commonly, Wamesits."1

Lowell can claim no share in the patriotic efforts that achieved our independence. The history of these belongs to Chelmsford, Dracut, and Tewks- bury. The names of Ford, Walker, Spalding, Parker, Varnum, and Clark are still held in vener- ation, and will continue to be until patriotism ceases to be a virtue.

Two important enterprises, both connected with the present territory of Lowell, were inaugurated in the years 1792 and 1793. Dudley A. Tyng, William Coombs, and others were incorporated as The Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on Mer- rimack River August 8, 1792, and James Sulli- van, Esq., and others were incorporated June 22, 1793, as The Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal.

The Locks and Canal Company was formed to improve the navigation of Merrimack River. The great obstacle in the way, at this period, was Paw- tucket Falls. They were so precipitous, the current so violent, and the rocks in the channel so abun- dant, that it was impossible, unless in time of a freshet, to run lumber over them with any pros- pect of success. The water in Concord River, which enters the Merrimack below Pawtucket Falls, is thirty-two feet lower than the water at the head

1 For the early history of Lowell, see articles Cambridge, Bil- lerica, and Chelmsford, Vol. I. - ED.

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

of the falls in Merrimack River. Previous to the building of the canal around Pawtucket Falls, the lumber and wood that came down the Merrimack had to be teamed around the falls and then made up into rafts.

The canal was opened in 1796. Its length is about one and one half miles, and it has four sets of locks. Its direction is nearly east. It cost $ 50,000, and the stock was divided into five hun- dred shares. The yearly dividend on these shares varied from two to ten per cent. As it plays an important part in the history of Lowell proper, it will call for further notice.

At the opening, the directors, and other gen- tlemen who were invited, occupied a boat that was to make the first trip through the locks. Hun- dreds stood around to witness the passage, - men, women, and children. "Scarcely had they entered the first lock," says Allen, "when the sides sud- denly gave way. The water, bursting upon the spectators with great violence, carried many down the stream. Infants were separated from their mothers, children from their parents, wives from their husbands, young ladies from their gallants, and men, women, timber, broken boards, and planks were seen promiscnously floating in the water. . . . . All came safely to land without any material in- jury."

During the year 1792 Parker Varnum of Dra- cut and others, incorporated as The Proprietors of the Middlesex Merrimack River Bridge, built the first bridge across the Merrimack at Pawtucket Falls. It was built of wood. Previons to this, the conveyance across the river had been by a toll ferry-boat. The average width of the river in Chelmsford is about four hundred yards.

In May, 1792, a number of gentlemen held a meeting to consider the project of "opening a canal from the waters of the Merrimack, by Concord River, or in some other way, through the waters of Mystic River, to the town of Boston." There were present at this meeting the Hon. James Sulli- van, Benjamin Hall, Willis Hall, Ebenezer Hall, Jonathan Porter, Loammi Baldwin, Ebenezer Hall, Jr., Andrew Hall, and Samuel Swan, Esq. Sulli- van, Baldwin, and Ebenezer Hall were chosen a committee to obtain an act of incorporation. They presented a petition to the General Court, and their petition was granted in an act of incorporation dated June 22, 1793, and on the same day it was signed by John Hancock, governor of the com- monwealth. Hon. James Sullivan was chosen

president, Loammi Baldwin, Esq., and Hon. John Brooks, vice-presidents.

The survey was completed August 2, 1794. The work on the canal was prosecuted with great caution from the commencement to the year 1803, at which time it was so far completed as to be navigable from the Merrimack to Charles River.

This canal was thirty-one miles long, thirty feet wide, and three feet deep. It was fed by Concord River, had seven aqueducts over rivers and brooks, and twenty locks. The company had the privilege of converting Concord River into a canal for twen- ty-three miles of its extent, through the towns of Billerica, Bedford, Carlisle, Concord, and Sudbury.

The improvements in the navigation of the Merrimack in connection with the canal were : the locks built at Wickasee Falls, round Tyng's Island, which were afterwards rendered useless on account of the back flowage when Pawtucket Dam was built ; the locks at Moor's Falls, at Little Cohoes, at Short's Falls, at Moor's Big Falls, at Amoskeag (now Manchester), at Hooksett Falls, Craven's Falls, and Turkey Falls, a little below Concord. Going up, those locks had to be used ; but, coming down, the boats, in an ordinary state of water, ran the falls.

In 1851 the proprietors surrendered their char- ter, and in 1852 sold the property in sections, and the owners of land on its borders were, in most cases, the purchasers. On the 3d of October, 1859, says Cowley, the proprietors were declared, by a decree of the Supreme Judicial Court, to have forfeited all their franchises and privileges by rea- son of non-feasance, non-user, misfeasance, and neglect.

BEGINNING OF MANUFACTURES.

" IN 1801 Moses Hale set up a carding-machine in his mill on River Meadow Brook." This fact is stated by Allen in his history of Chelmsford, and is corroborated by Mr. Bernice S. Hale, one of his (Moses Hale's) descendants, in a paper read before the Old Residents' Historical Association, November 10, 1876.

In 1807 sundry Masonic brethren from the towns of Chelmsford, Dracut, and Tewksbury peti- tioned the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts for leave to erect a lodge in Chelmsford at Pawtucket Falls. The petition was granted, and a lodge organized under the superintendence of Captain Isaac Coburn, Master. It was consecrated in due form October 12, 1809, and called Pawtucket Lodge in Chelinsford.

LOWELL.

In 1812 Mr. John Goulding invented " a very curious loom for weaving boot-straps, moved en- tirely by water." Mr. Goulding, who resided in Worcester, gave the following account of his labors in this vicinity : -

" I settled there in the year 1812, had a factory built for me by Fletcher and Whiting, on Concord River ; hired it for eight years at $200 a year ; carried on the business of spinning cotton yarn in a small way, as all our manufacturing was done at that time ; spun about twenty pounds of yarn per day ; also had a carding-machine for carding cus- tom wool for spinning by hand, making what was called homespun cloth ; carried on a machine-shop, making cotton and wool machinery ; made looms for weaving suspender webbing and boot webbing, and a tape loom to weave thirty-six pieces at one and the same time.

" The place was very thinly settled at that time, - say Mr. Fletcher, Joseph Tyler, and Philip Ged- ney, - just over into Tewksbury ; Major Fletcher, William Warner, and Tavern House belonging to the canal, and I think one other, were all the houses that could be seen there at that time. I oceu- pied the building I hired of Fletcher and Whiting for some four years, when Mr. Thomas Hurd pur- chased it, and used it for making satinet. I built a small mill on the canal property, and took water from the canal, and made machinery there ; helped fit up Hurd's mill. I moved from there just before the Canal Company sold out to the present owners, who came in possession and established Lowell. Mr. Tyler built a grist-mill just below me on the canal."

From the close of the Revolutionary War to 1812, England had enjoyed an almost uninter- rupted monopoly in supplying the United States with manufactured goods. The War of 1812 put a stop to her trade with us ; and the attention of capi- talists was directed to supplying these goods for home consumption. Mills were erected in various localities, wherever a sufficient water-power could be obtained for the purpose. Congress passed a law, approved July 1, " adding one hundred per centum to the permanent duties then levied upon imports, with an additional ten per cent on goods imported in foreign vessels," the effect of which was to en- hance the price of everything. It is curious to look back to those days when families carded, spun, and wove the cloth they wore. The antobiography of a mill overseer, Daniel Knapp, throws a little light on home-life in New England. "We had

cotton brought to our house by the bale, to pick to pieces and get out the seeds and dirt. The children had to pick so many pounds as a stint. We had a whipping-machine made four square; and about three feet from the floor was a bed-cord run across from knob to knob, near together, on which we put a parcel of cotton, and with two whip-sticks we lightened it up and got out the dirt, and made it ready for the card." In families the hand-card and the one-thread spinning-wheel were in use. "There was no chemical process of bleaching in the country at this date. My mother put loops in the selvage on both sides, and stayed the cloth down on the green grass with sticks, so the wind should not blow it about. When she had a quarter of an acre spread out she would take her watering-pot and sprinkle the whole ; and as soon as she got through the lot, the first was ready for another sprinkling. The bright sun drying up the water did the bleaching."

In 1813 Captain Phineas Whiting and Colonel Josiah Fletcher erected a building sixty feet long, fifty feet wide, and forty feet high, for a cotton manufactory, at an expense of $2,500, on Concord River, about three hundred rods from its mouth. This occupied the present site of the Middlesex Mills ; and in 1818 it was sold to Thomas Hurd of Charlestown. Hurd fitted it up for the manufac- ture of woollen goods, and employed twenty per- sons. The product from sixteen looms amounted to about one hundred and twenty yards of satinet per day. The whole process of carding, spinning, weaving, and dyeing the cloth was completed in this mill. Bishop says : " Hurd erected a brick edifice, and converted both into a woollen factory, which ran fifty power looms, and was burned in 1826. It was rebuilt on a larger scale, and sold in 1828 to the Middlesex Company."

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II, Part 8

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