USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 85
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Railroads. - The Stony Brook Railroad was opened to public travel July 4, 1848. Passing across the town in a southwest direction, it cuts it into two nearly equal portions. It has been the means of developing business, especially in Granite- ville, a village that sprung into existence after the road was built, and is now a thriving manufac- turing place. On this road there are four stations, - Brookside, Westford, Graniteville, and Forge Village, - all within the limits of Westford.
The Framingham and Lowell Railroad enters the town on the easterly side, a little south of Hart's Pond in Chelmsford, and passing what is known as " the Dupee place," furnishes good accommoda- tions to all who live in that section of the town. There is but one station in Westford, - that called by the company the Carlisle Station.
The Nashua, Acton, and Boston Railroad was opened to the public in July, 1873. Striking the town near its northwest angle, it passes longitudi- nally and leaves it at the southwest corner. It has three stations in town, -Graniteville, West- ford, and East Littleton, so called.
The town will complete one hundred and fifty years of its corporate existence in September, 1879. It is probable that the event will be commemo- rated in some fitting way. With its abundant resources, and its nearness to the markets of Lowell and Boston, there is every reason to ex- pect growth and prosperity for it in years to come.
488
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
WESTON.
BY C. A. NELSON.
T
HE town of Weston was incorpo- rated January 1, 1712 - 13, by an act of the General Court cutting off from the west end of Watertown about one half of its territory.
For nearly six years after its settlement in 1630, the western limits of Watertown remained undefined, the town extending indefinitely westward into the country and up the north or left side of Charles River. The first defi- nite boundaries were arranged with the people of Newtown in April, 1635; September 3, of the same year, orders passed the General Court for the settlement of the towns of Concord and Dedham, adjoining Watertown upon the northwest and south- west respectively. March 2, 1635 - 36, the western limit was fixed by an order of the court declaring that " the bounds of Watertown shall run eight miles into the country from their meeting-house." The grants to Concord and to Dedham were found to overlap the grant to Watertown, and " for the final end of all differences between Watertown, Concord, and Dedham," the court ordered, on the Sth of June, 1638, " that Watertown eight miles shall be extended upon the line between them [Watertown] and Cambridge, so far as Concord bounds give leave ; and that their bounds by the river shall run eight miles into the country in a straight line, as also the river doth for the most part run, and so to take in all the land of that [north] side of the river, which will not fall into the square five miles granted to Dedham ; and that the neck on the same [north or left] side of the river near to Dedham town, shall be cast into the said square of five miles to make up the same, so as the said square is to be accounted by quantity and not by situation, because the place will not admit of it; and that their eight miles from Watertown meeting-house shall be by a line be- tween both the other lines."
The extreme southwestern portion of the terri-
tory, that lying beyond Stony Brook, appears to have been from the beginning the favorite portion with the farmers. Only a fortnight after the first landing at Dorchester-field, Watertown, by Captain Roger Clap and his nine companions, May 30, 1630, and less than a week after his own arrival at Salem, Governor John Winthrop, with a small party, " went to Mattachusetts to find out a place for our sitting down, . ... for Salem, where wee landed, pleased vs not. And to that purpose some were sent to the Bay to search vpp the rivers for a convenient place, who vppon their returne reported to have found a good place vppon Mistick ; but some other of vs seconding theis to approue or dislike of their judgement; wee found a place liked vs better three leagues vpp Charles river." 1
" This," says Dr. John G. Palfrey, in his His- tory of New England, " would correspond to what is now Waltham or Weston, and I think it very likely to have been near the month of Stony Brook, which divides those two towns."
Winthrop's party liked this locality so well that it was resolved to make this the place of settlement for the whole company, and to name it Boston. " And there vppon," says Dudley, "unshipped our goods into other vessels and with much cost and labour brought them in July to Charles Towne; but . (many of our people brought with vs beeing sick of feaver and the scurvy and wee thereby unable to carry vpp our ordnance and baggage soe farr) wee were forced to change our counsaile and for our present shelter to plant dispersedly, some at Charles Towne which standeth on the north Side of mouth of Charles Riuer ; some on the South Side, which place wee named Boston (as wee in- tended to have done the place wee first resolved on) some of vs vppon Mistick, which place wee named Meadford ; some of vs westwards on Charles Riner, four miles from Charles Towne, which place wee named Watertoune."
More than half a century later John Dunton, a 1 Deputy-Governor Dudley's Letter to the Countess of Lin- cola, March 28, 1631.
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WESTON.
careful observer, gave the following description of this section in a letter written in 1686 to his father-in-law, giving an account of a ramble made by a party from Boston to attend the annual sermon preached to the Indians at Natick. The men rode upon horseback, each having a lady companion upon the pillion of his saddle as " luggage." Dun- ton was fortunate in escorting the Widow Brick, a fair lady whom he calls " the flower of Boston." They started early, and arriving at Watertown, " we alighted," he says, "and refresh't our Luggage, and while others were Engaged in Frothy Discourses, the Widow Brick and I took a View of the Town, which is built upon one of the branches of Charles River, very fruitful, and of large extent; watered with many pleasant Springs, and small Rivulets : The Inhabitants live scatteringly. . ... Having well refresh't our selves at Water-Town, we mounted again, and from thence we rambled thiro' severall Tall Woods between the Mountains, over many rich and pregnant Vallies as ever eye beheld, beset on each side with variety of goodly Trees : So that had the most Skilful Gardner design'd a shady walk in a fine Valley, it would have fallen short of that which nature here had done without him." This description is understood to apply to the road through Waltham and Weston, and is nearly as applicable to-day as when written, when it is re- membered that the " pregnant vallies " have swal- lowed up the " tall woods."
The territory of the original town of Watertown was so extensive that its several parts were very early known by distinct and peculiar names. The lands next west of Beaver Brook were called ." the lots in the Further Plain," or the Great Plain (and later Waltham Plain). The Remote or West Pine Meadows were probably in the southern or south- eastern parts of Weston. The Lien of Township Lots, or lots beyond the Further Plain, were west of Waltham Plain, south of the Great Dividends, and extended beyond Stony Brook. The Farms, or Farm Lands, included what remained as far as the Sudbury and Dedham bounds, comprising the main portion of Weston.
These names, applied in general terms to divis- ions of the territory of the original town of Water- town, are used in the early grants to the freemen ; the names of the grantees, and the number of acres allotted to each, are given by Dr. Bond in the first appendix to his History of Watertown.
From the Watertown records we take the follow- ing : " 1637, June, 26. A grant of the Remote
or West Pine Meadow, divided and lotted out to all the Townsmen then inhabiting, being 114 in number, allowing one acre for a person, and like- wise for cattle, valued at 20 1b. the head, beginning next the Playue Meadow, and to go on until the lots are ended." These meadows, Dr. Bond, who gave the matter careful and thorough investigation, thinks were probably in the southern and south- eastern part of Weston.
July 17, 1638, it was "Ordered, that all the Land lying beyond the Plowland [lots in the Fur- ther Plain] and the lots granted in liew of ye Towne- ship [extending west of Stony Brook], having ye great dividents on the one [north] side, Charles River and Dedham bounds on the other [south] side, and the Farme lands at the further end [west side] of it, shalbe for a Common for Cattle, to the use of the freemen of the Towne and their heirs forever, & not to be alienated without the Consent of every freeman and their heirs forever." This order is particularly noticeable as being the first instance upon the records where the term "Farm lands " is applied to the territory now Weston.
Three months later, October 14, 1638, it was " Ordered, that the Farmes granted shall begin at the nearest meadow to Dedham line, beyond the line that runneth at the end of ye great dividents parralell to the line at the end of the Towne bounds, and so to go on successively from Dedham Bounds in order as they are given out, as they wch are deputed to lay them out shall see good & appoint, the proportion of meddow being twenty Acres to One Hundred & fifty Acres of upland."
November 27, 1639, the Freemen's Common was disposed of to the Farms by the order " yt if the Land in View for Farmes shall not suffice to accommodate the rest of the Townsmen that are behind, that then they shall have their Farmes out of the Freemen's Common upon the same condition that the rest have theirs."
At the meeting held October 14, 1638, it was " Ordered, yt Daniel Pattrick, Abram Browne, John Stowers, Edmund Lewis, and Simon Eire, or the maior part of them, shall lay out these Farms as they are ordered."
In the files of the County Court is a schedule dated May 10, 1642, containing a list of names of persons to whom ninety-two farms, containing 7,674 acres, were allotted, and mention is made of " farms laid out formerly." The names of the committee do not appear on this schedule, but they do appear, with some half-dozen others, in connection with a
490
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
range of lots on the south side of the highway. "The first lot in the range, adjoining the Sudbury Line, was that of Bryan Pendleton, by him sold to Peter Noyes, and very early purchased by George Mun- ning." Adjoining this on the east were the lots of Daniel Pattrick, Simon Eire, John Stowers, Abraham Browne, John Whitney, Edward How, Jeremiah Norcross, and Thomas Mayhew, who thus appear to have been the earliest proprietors of lands in Weston. The allotment committee seem to liave provided farms for themselves and a few friends in advance of the general allotment of May, 1642.
From 1647 to 1663 there was much dissatisfac- tion and contention about the early allotments of the Remote Meadows, the lands in lieu of township and of the farm lands, and in the latter year this portion of the town was re-surveyed and plotted by Captain John Sherman for a new allotment. It contained 1,102 acres, bounded on the south by Dedham, west by Natick and Sudbury, and on other sides by the farm lands. This district is frequently referred to in early deeds as " the land of contention."
The westward growth of the town - particularly the taking up of the farm lands (in Weston) - re- moved the farmers so far from the meeting-house (from five to eight miles), that it was inconvenient for them to attend service there, and a considerable number of them united with the church in Sudbury, which was much nearer to them, but they were taxed for the support of the ministry in Water- town.
The earliest mention in the records of a boun- dary between the Farms and the rest of Watertown is March 13, 1682- 83, when it was voted that " those that dwell on west of Stony Brook be freed from school tax in 1683."
The Farms were afterward known for a few years as the Farmers' Precinct, sometimes as the Third Military Precinct, or the precinet of Lieutenant Jones's company, sometimes as the Westernmost Precinct.
November 10, 1685, the town "voted that the farmers' petition should be suspended, as to an answer to it, until it pleaseth God to settle a min- ister amongst us," from which, perhaps, it may be inferred that they had asked to be exempted from the tax for the support of a church which they could not attend.
In 1692 a town-meeting was held to decide upon a site for a new meeting-house, but the free-
men were too much divided in sentiment to come to an agreement. An exciting controversy fol- lowed, and the governor and council were called upon to settle the matter.
Their decision did not please all, and at a town- meeting held May 9, 1694, an earnest protest, signed by eighty-two inen and women residing in the eastern part of the town, and by thirty-three men and women residing at the western part, in the Farms, was presented against following the ad- vice of the governor and council. At an irregular town-meeting held October 2, 1694, Beaver Brook was made the eastern boundary of the Farmers' Precinct ; but the General Court, at their May ses- sion, 1699, fixed it at Stony Brook. At this meet- ing it was stated that the farmers were " upon endeavors to have a meeting-house among them- selves."
January 9, 1694-95 the farmers met, and agreed to build a meeting-house thirty feet square, and to place it on the land of Nathaniel Cooledge, Sr., by the side of the road, at the head of Park- hurst's meadow, a little to the west of the present tlag-pole. The next year agents were chosen to contract with workmen to build the house, which was to be called the Farmers' Meeting-house. The work was begun by subscription, money being contributed " Some time in August, 1695," by sun- dry persons for the purpose of presenting a petition to the General Court, praying for leave " to set up the public worship of God amongst the inhabitants of the west end of said town " (Watertown). This petition was granted at the May session of 1698. In February, 1697, the farmers were exempted from ministerial rates in the town. Votes were passed at precinct meetings in November, 1698, August, September, and November, 1699, making provision for completing the meeting-house. Feb- ruary 14, 1700, the precinet voted to have a min- ister to preach in the meeting-house, to begin the second Sabbath of the ensuing March, so that it was five years from the time the farmers voted to build a meeting-house before it was so far com- pleted as to be usable ; and from a vote passed March 30, 1710, granting money to finish the meeting-house, it appears not to have been fully finished until ten years later, fifteen years being thus consumed in erecting a building thirty feet square.
March 5, 1700, money was granted to support preaching, and grants continued to be made at successive periods for the same purpose, but it was
491
WESTON.
not till. 1710 that a minister was finally satisfac- torily settled, and a church duly organized.
Mr. Thomas Symmes, graduated at Harvard College in 1698, was chosen minister October 8, 1700, but he did not accept. March 10 and Sep- tember 12, 1701, the committee of the precinct was directed to provide a man to preach with them. December 19, 1701, they voted that Mr. Joseph Mors (H. C. 1695) should continue in order for settlement, and July 6, 1702, they gave him a call by a vote of thirty to twelve. September 28, they renewed their call, granting an annual salary, and promising to build him a house 40 x 20 feet. November 23, he accepted the call, conditionally, and the precinct accepted his answer January 8, 1702-3, and voted to begin the promised house, which was raised October 4, following, and put into Mr. Mors's possession the year after. Difficulties arose, and he was not settled. Perplexing delays followed, and the precinct finally decided to pur- chase Mr. Mors's "housing and lands," indem- nifying him against pecuniary loss, and that he should leave them in the spring of 1706. An agreement was not easily reached, as Mr. Mors did not convey the premises to the committee until December 31, 1707. Ineffectual efforts were ear- nestly made to bring about a reconciliation between Mr. Mors and his opposers.
In 1706 the precinct was presented at the Court of Sessions for not having a settled minister. Feb- ruary 11, 1707, the precinct chose Mr. Nathaniel Gookin to be their minister, but he declined the call, preferring the position of librarian at Harvard College, which he held from 1707 to 1709. The presentment still lay before the court, and they had to make two returns in April and June, 1707. July 16, 1707, they called Mr. Thomas Tufts, of the class of 1701 at Harvard ; he declined. Jan- uary 14, 1708, was observed as a day of fasting and prayer. February 4, 1708, they gave a call to Mr. William Williams (H. C. 1705), who, after the adjustment of preliminaries, accepted, August 23, 1709. A church was gathered and organized, and Mr. Williams was ordained Novem- ber 2, 1709, " about eleven years and a half after the Farms had become a distinct precinct."
" The church consisted at first," says Dr. Sam- nel Kendal, " of eighteen male members, -nine from other churches, and nine who had not been communicants." He gives their names as fol- lows : "Nathaniel Cooledge, Thomas Flagg, Jo- seph Lovell, John Parkhurst, John Livermore,
Francis Fullam, Abel Allen, Ebenezer Allen, Fran- cis Pierce, Josiah Jones, Thomas Wright, Joseph Allen, Josiah Jones, Jr., Joseph Livermore, Joseph Allen, Jr., Samuel Seaverns, Joseph Wool- son, and George Robinson." Josiah Jones and John Parkhurst were chosen the first deacons.
May 7, 1708, the freemen of Watertown ap- pointed a committee "to run a line between the town and the Farmers' Precinct, referring to the ministry." This was done May 28, and the line began at Charles River, followed up Stony Brook to Beaver Pond, " and from said pond to a black pine, at the bounds where Cambridge and Water- town and Concord meet ; said Farmers' Precinct being on the west side of said brook."
Having obtained their own church, the farmers soon gave their attention to procuring their own incorporation as a town.
A committee, consisting of Captain Francis Fulham, Lieutenant Josiah Jones, and Daniel Estabrook, presented a petition at the town-meet- ing held May 12, 1712, and, December 2, follow- ing, the town " did by a free vote manifest their willingness that the said farmers should be a town- ship by themselves, according to their former bounds," with the proviso and conditions : 1. That the farmers continue to pay a dne share of the ex- pense of maintaining the Great Bridge over Charles River ; 2. That they pay their full and dne share of the debts now due by the town ; 3. That they do not in any way infringe the rights of proprietors having land, but not residing among the farmers.
The petition was immediately presented to the General Court, and the act incorporating the town of Weston was passed January 1, 1712 - 13.
When the Indians began their attacks upon the settlements in 1675, the men of the Farmers' Pre- cinct were ready not only to defend their own homes, but to assist in the defence of the colony. In De- cember, 1675, a warrant was issued to the militia of Watertown to furnish "twenty soldiers, with provisions, arms, ammunition, and good clothing," for the defence of the colony. Upon Captain Hugh Mason's return to this warrant appear the names of thirty persons (including himself) who appeared in answer to the summons convening the company, the names of seven who did not appear, and a list of twenty names of persons " rationly most fitt to goe upon the servis." Mr. C. H. Fiske, in his oration, July 4, 1876, gives the names of the fol- lowing seven persons " who lived in the Farmers' Precinct and who are included in the above list "
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
of twenty who fought under Captain Mason : " John Parkhurst, Michael Flegg [Flagg], John Whettny, Jr., George Herrington, Jacob Bullard, Nathanell Hely, John Bigulah [Bigelow]."
At the attack upon Sudbury, April 18, 1676, Captain Hugh Mason and his band from Water- town, in which were doubtless included the farmers just named, " aided by citizens of Sudbury, were the first who engaged the assailants, on the east side of the river; but after a severe contest they were obliged to retreat." Tradition relates that, at the time of this attack, in order to carry out their threat to burn Watertown as well as the other settlements, the Indians " penetrated the western part of the town and burned a barn, standing on the farm now owned and occupied by Mr. Nahum Smith, on the back road, leading to Wayland, but it is not known that any one was killed."
At the famons Lovewell's Fight with the Pig- wacket tribe of Indians, which took place at Pigwacket (Fryeburg), May 8, 1725, Jacob Ful- ham, who was a sergeant in Captain Lovewell's company, was killed. " A sergeant named Fulham, and an Indian, distinguished by his dress and activity, singled out each the other, and both fell, mutually slain by their antagonist's weapon." This Jacob Fulham was the eldest son of Major Francis Fulham, who was justice of the peace of Watertown Farms ; one of the selectmen of Watertown from 1710 to 1711; and one of the committee chosen to secure the incorporation of the town of Weston, in which town he afterwards held numerous respon- sible offices, and was for a long time the most influential man, owning numerous parcels of land in the southwest part of the town. He lived to an advanced age, and as "Colonel Francis Fulham " was moderator of a town-meeting, March 25, 1751. In 1719 the records of Natick were in his keeping, and March 30, 1752, he resigned his agency for collecting rents for the proprietors of that town. He was for fourteen years, between 1713 and 1737, the representative of Weston in the General Court. June 19, 1721, he, with Jonas Bond of Watertown, and Francis Bowman of Lexington, were appointed " to be Commissioners of Sewers," and the immediate object of their appointment was " the cleansing and removing all such banks and other obstructions " in the Sudbury and Concord river, " which do occasion the overflowing thereof, and of drowning the meadows and other low lands adjoining or lying on said river." The extent of the work was " from the mill-pond of Christopher
Osgood, in Belerica bounds, to the cart-bridge in Sudbury." He was a chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas of Middlesex County from 1719 to 1755, when he resigned his place upon the bench.
Rev. William Williams ordained, as already stated, November 2, 1709, remained pastor of the church nearly forty-one years, until October 24, 1750, when he was dismissed by a mutual council, but the cause of his dismissal does not appear. He is briefly described by Dr. Kendal as a " scholar and a good preacher." A printed sermon of his, preached after the death of his wife, is deeply im- bued with the spirit of piety and resignation. He was a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1705, being a classmate of President Edward Holyoke. He was twice married, and was the father of eight children. William Williams, his eldest son, born May 14, 1711, graduated at Harvard College, 1729, was one of the first settlers of Pittsfield, a judge in Berkshire County, and a colonel distinguished in the French and Indian wars. After his dismis- sal, Mr. Williams continued to reside in the town until his death, March 6, 1760, at the age of seventy-two years. He was buried in the old burying-ground.
There is a vote of the town, recorded March 3, 1755, excusing " Mr. William Williams from pay- ing rates to be made so long as he remains in the town of Weston, provided he discharge said town in full of all demands upon said town of any arrears upon the account of deficiency of their grants to him, or getting his fire wood, etc., while said Wil- liams was in the work of the ministry in said town "; and Mr. Williams accepted this settlement of the arrears of his salary overdue nearly five years, and entered his receipt in full upon the town record.
The first congregation assembled in their little thirty-feet-square church, which stood within a few rods of the geographical centre of the town, for abont thirteen years, gathering not at the sound of the bell, -" no such music in that earlier time broke the stillness of Sabbath morning," - bnt "at the beat of drum," as was becoming the sol- diers of Christ. Inside the church there were 110 pews, only forms or benches, the men ranged on one side, the women on the other, and the boys by themselves, with a titlring-man, or constable, in their midst to keep them in order.
"Each of these constables," says Higginson, " had a wand, with a hare's foot on one end and
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