History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 100

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 100

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

influence in the Colony at large, held many offices, and died April 23, 1672.1

Edward Converse, another citizen of importance among the settlers, was the first ferryman at Charles- town, and a selectman there from 1635 to 1640. At Woburn he built and occupied the first house erected in the town and was the owner of the mill. These buildings were at what is now Winchester Centre. He represented Woburn in the General Court in 1660 and died Aug. 10, 1663. Frothingham states that he left an estate valued at £827 5s. 6d. to his wife, his three sons and daughter. He was of Charlestown in 1630. (See Frothingham, Hist. C., 78.2)

Thomas Graves, the rear-admiral, was a prominent character among the settlers also. His farm was lo- cated in North Winchester, near present Montvale. The celebrated John Harvard or Mrs. Harvard had a lot laid out near (120 acres) which was sold to Thomas Graves .- Winchester Record, ii, frontispiece, and pp. 15, 21.

The names of the seven commissioners for the founding of Woburn were: Edward Johnson, Edward Converse, Thomas Graves, John Mousall, and the brothers, Ezekiel, Thomas and Samuel Richardson.

NOTES .- THE COUNTY OF KENT WHENCE CAPTAIN EDWARD JOHNSON CAME IN ENGLAND .- The obligations of New England te the county ef Kent is the subject of an address by George F. Hoar, before the Amer. Antiq. Soc. (Worcester), 1885. Kent, frem tbe earliest historic period, says this writer, was the "England of England," and remarkable for the courage and warlike quality of its people, fer their tenacity in clinging to their own customs and for the part their customs have

1 Edward Jehnson was probably the best known citizen of the town in his time in the Commonwealth. His fame extended even in his life- time to England, where an English squire printed in Londen his unique and valuable " History of New England " as his own production. For many years the fraud upon the labor and brains of eur worthy town father passed unrecognized ; but posterity new recognizes its true source, and his name and fame are assured as the author of that early New England history. He was a pioneer explorer of the forest, and in connection with one expedition his initials were cut in a rock at the out- let ef Lake Winnepesaukee, and are still te be seen. As a deputy from Wehurn ie the General Court he was appointed to serve with the most distinguished men of the Colony on important committees, and it would be easy to enumerate from the colony records a long list ef his services. This has been already done by the present writer in a lecture before the Rumferd Historical Association, on April 8, 1887, a copy ef which lecture in manuscript is in the archives of that society. Johnson was a lieutenant, 1644, aud captain, 1650. After his decease the Gen- eral Court pronounced an opinion on him as a local historian, by men- tiening his name with others of the highest repute. There is no stone to mark his grave and the spet ie forgotten. For early sketches of Johnson, see N. H. Hist. Soc. Coll. (Concerd, 1834), iv. ; Columbian Centi- nel, June 16, 1819, copied, with a few alterations, into Farmer and Moore's Coll. (1822), article by John Farmer. Also among a great many other notices, one in the Winchester Record, i. 41-47.

2 Edward Converse and two others, in 1635, made the first exploration authorized by Charlestown, into the country. His ferry was where Charles River Bridge now is, and was established in 1631. He was a memberof Woburn Church from the beginning and a deacon in it, ene of the first two till his death. Selectman from the first choice, 1611, tilt his decease. lle was evidently a power in all these early enterprises. Of. Frethingham, Hist of C., 65, 94-5 ; Sewall's Woburn, 72-3 ; Winches- ter Record, i., 223-13, 247-59 ; ii., 208-22. For criticism of genealogi- cal position in ib., ii., 208-22, see N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg., xli., 344. Some curieus minor references to Coaverse, before 1612, are found in Colony Rec., vel. l. and ii.

340

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

played in the history of liberty. Blackstone has said, " When liberty dies out, it will give its last groan among the yeomen of Kent !" The county of Kent is the home of the original Yankee, and the people who emigrated thence to New England were the " Yankees of the Yankees." The following persons connected with the early history of Woburn were certainly from Keot, and their names were of Kentish origin : Ed- ward Johnson, Thomas Graves, John Mousall, Isaac Cole, Zachariah Symmes, Daniel Gookin and Simon Willard. Thus three of the seven commissioners for the settlement of the town were from Kent.

EARLY EXPLORATIONS AND MAPS .- The first recorded exploration of this vicinity was in 1621, when an exploring party from Plymouth entered Boston Harbor and made an excursion into the inte- rior in the direction of the present localities of Med- ford and Winchester. It is doubtful if they quite reached the latter place, although their explorations extended to the vicinity of Mistick Pond. Cf. on this subject the Mem. Hist. of Boston, i. 63, etc., and the authorities there mentioned. It is probable, also, that the few white settlers scattered about the site of Boston from 1623-24 to 1629 (see account in the Narr. and Crit. Hist. of America, iii. 311) had an ac- quaintance, more or less superficial, with this neigh- borhood. The principal immigration from England was between the years 1630 and 1640, and after 1630 the knowledge of the territory adjacent to the princi- pal settlements increased and was hecoming consid- erable by 1633, from the evidence shown hy two maps of this section of that date, one being recently discovered, i. e., the Winthrop map, the other being Wood's map. The Winthrop is evidently the older, and Wood's was apparently made from it. Gov. John Winthrop was the namesake of one and William Wood, author of New England's Prospect (Lond. 1634), of the other. Wood's work is the earliest topograph- ieal account of Massachusetts. The Winthrop map is minutely deserihed in the recently published Nurr. and Crit. Hist. of America, iii. 381, which expresses the opinion that the topography corresponds with Wood, if both are not drafted from an earlier map, the result of a previous survey. They are crude drawings. Spot Pond, Mistick Pond and Horn Pond are named on both maps. Horn Pond is the name given to a pond which is plainly Spy Pond, in Arling- ton, and the true Horn Pond is not represented. The use of its name, however, shows that the cognomen is of greater antiquity than the town itself and older even than the year 1638, when it was used in the de- scription of the Waterfield lots. The map-makers of 1633 evidently did not have an intimate acquaintance with the actual pond, or they would not have left it out of their maps. It is presumed that the whites had by that time penetrated to it and named it. Horn Pond Mountain, though unnamed, is shown as a hill in Winthrop's map, and three small ponds are repre- sented near, intended to be the ponds in Winchester, known as Wedge and Winter Ponds. The Mistick Pond is stated on the Winthrop map to be sixty fathoms deep; Fresh Pond, Cambridge, forty fathoms deep. On that map is a stream representing the Aberjona River as unnamed and as leading into the country.

Spy Pond, in Arlington, has been called by that name since 1656, and references to it by that name are frequent in that century. On Aug. 15, 1716, news was brought that the celebrated Cotton Mather, while fishing on Spy Pond in a ticklish hoat, fell into the water, but was not hurt from the bath. See Narr. and Crit. Hist. of Amer., iii. 347; Sewall's Diary (M. H. C.), 5th ser. i. 482, ii. 15*, iii. 98; Cutter's Arlington, 9, 20.

EXTRACIS FROM THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE CHARLESTOWN RECORDS RELATING TO THE EARLY PLANTATION OF WOBURN.1

1633. Any of the inhabitants have liberty to go with- out the town neck to build, and grounds are allowed to three individuals, and another tract to one of them, provided he plow it up in four years. The parties were Nowell, Beecher and Wade.

1635. Edward Converse, William Brackenbury - and Mr. Abraham Palmer were desired to go up into country upon discovery three or four days, for which they were to be satisfied at the charge of the town. Cf. Frothingham's Charlestown, 65; Charlestown Rec- ords, i. 18, 23, 24, etc. In this year an order was passed adverse to granting house-plots outside the neck. The order of the General Court is copied that Charlestown bounds shall extend eight miles into the country from their meeting-house .- Col. Rec., i. 168; the order was dated March 3, 1635-6. The following year (1636) grants were made to the brothers Ezekiel and Thomas Richardson, and to Thomas Pierce, outside the neck and near Cambridge line. Five hundred acres were also reserved to further the flax trade.

1638. Other lands to the amount of three hun- dred acres were reserved outside the peninsula's limits, and among them the Waterfield lots above Mr. Cradock's farm, or Medford, "to remain in the town's hands for the supply of such as may come with another minister." In this year Edward Con- verse and Ezekiel Richardson were desired to lay out a highway over the meadow at the head of the North River, on Mistick Side, Malden, and a record was taken (1638) of all such houses and lands as were possessed by the inhabitants, including the Water- field allotments, or the locality now covered by Win- chester and Woburn. These were divided among them " by a joint consent, after the General Court had settled their bounds by granting eight miles from the old meeting-house into the country Northwest-north- erly, and the bounds of the said town lying or heing betwixt Cambridge, alias Newton, on the West-south- west and Bostou land on the east, as it appears upon record by the several grants of General Courts to all aforesaid bounds." The Boston land is that on the Malden side, or more properly that adjoining Chelsea and Revere-by Malden, Everett and Malden are meant. Waterfield is explained by a map and de-

1From the abstracts executed 1853-54, by Thomas B. Wyman.

341

WOBURN.

scription iu the Winchester Record, ii. (1886) where the approximate location in 1638 of the lots granted to the Charlestown residents in the limits of Wo- burn is shown, four years before the incorporation, and two years at least before the actual settlement of the town was begun. Some remarks on this subject are published also in the same volume of the Record, 394-98. Waterfield, therefore, meant Wo- burn, or a locality in ancient Charlestown em- bracing the vicinity about Horn Pond and the greater portion of Winchester. The name does not appear of long continuance. E. F. Johnson, first mayor of Woburn, in his inaugural address, 1889, alludes to Waterfield, as follows: "In ward one were laid out fully four years before the incorporation of the town, the Waterfield lots, so called, which were the first possessions of civilized man within the present limits of the city."

So the votes go on through 1638 and '39, and Ed- ward Converse is a figure in them. The "Rocks" are mentioned as a locality in 1640: On the 4th of the 9th month, 1640, the committee appointed to set the bounds betwixt Charlestown and the Vil lage, afterwards called Woburn, and to appoint the place for the village, was chosen by the body of the freemen. The number of this committee was thir- teen. It included the following names: Captain Robert Sedgwick, Thomas Lynde, Edward Converse. Ezekiel Richardson, John Mousall, Mr. Thomas Coytemore, Samuel Richardson, Francis Willoughby, Abraham Palmer, Mr. Thomas Graves, Ralph Sprague, Edward Johnson and Robert Hale. These on occa- sion were to advise with Mr. Nowell, the magistrate, and the elders or ministers, in any difficulties they meet with.

It is a noteworthy fact that the name of Captain Robert Sedgwick, in whose honor Woburn was named, from his abode or birth-place in the old country, should head the list of this committee to select the site, and determine the bounds of the new town in 1640. It is also significant that this committee headed by him should select the spot for the village (Nov. 17, 1640) near the site where the meeting-house was afterwards erected, or the present Woburn Centre. Thomas Graves and others were in favor of a site at the easterly side of the town, at present Montvale, and secured a favorable recognition of their plan to the extent of laying the spot out (Feb. 10, 1640-41), but a Charlestown committee headed by Nowell and Sedgwick advised (Feb. 29, 1640-41) "to remove the house lots and place for the meeting-house" to the place that the original committee had selected, or Woburn Centre. Sedg- wick, therefore, was again influential in assuring this site for the town's village. He was a moving spirit in the enterprise always, and the town was fitly named in his honor. Edward Johnson, whose lands were at the extreme westerly side of the town, was also more favorable to the centre site, than to one so

distant. These facts are ably presented in the Winchester Record, ii. 397-98. On the Sth of the 10th month, 1640 (Dec. 8, 1640), a committee was chosen to join with the villagers, on Charlestown's behalf, to "compound any differences " that may occur. The members of this committee were Mr. Nowell, Thomas Lynde, Abraham Palmer, Richard Sprague, Ralph Sprague, Robert Hale, Francis Willoughby, Ralph Mousall, William Stilson and Robert Sedgwick.

The further references to Woburn in volume one of the Charlestown records relate to the bounds (1643, 1650), to land grants (1643, '47, '48, '49, '50, '52), and to the laying out of a highway from Woburn to Mistick Bridge, or Medford. With modernized spelling, this extract is as follows :

1660. Vol. i., p. 137. The 11th day of the 11th month, 1660. We, whose names are herenuto subscribed, viz., from Charlestown, Solomon Phips, Richard Lowden and William Symmes ; from Medford, Thomas Eames; from Woburn, Michael Bacon, Josiah Converse ; being depnted by the several places whereunto we belong, a committee to lay ont a country highway, viz., from Woburn to Mistick Bridge: We do unani- mously determine the highway to lie as followetb : viz .- That highway which bitherto hath been used commonly near Woburn meeting-house,1 that now is to Edward Converse's mill," to be full four poles in breadth, and so to remain where it hath been unto the parting of the ways of the Converses and Richardsons to their now dwelling-houses; 3 and the way to run along upon a brow + until yon come to a bridge 5 made at a place called Halfway Swamp,6 holding four poles breadth from the trees marked 7 on the southwest side ; and from the fore-mentioned bridge to run east aod by south as doth appear by trees marked on the south side, until you come to a valley, 8 wherethe highway is bounded by a way formerly used,9 until you come to a pine tree, which standeth in the middle of the way, as by the marks on each side 10 doth appear. And thence to run sontb and by east until you come to the highway now used, that is, by the mill-pond to the mill ; Il where is a white oak marked, north and south, being in the middle of the way. And thence in a way [that] hath commonly been used, over a place called - Bridge.12 From which bridge, still to keep the old way and the fore-

1 On the common at Woburn Centre.

2 At Winchester Centre, site of the present Whitney mill.

3 Or to the corner of Cross Street, or its equivalent, the main highway being Main Street from Woburn Common to that point. Cross Street was the way to the Richardsons (on Richardson's Row, or Washington Street, Winchester), and the ways to the Converses (at Winchester Centre), were by some equivalent of present Main Street, or by a way through Pond, Cambridge and Church Streets (Winchester)-the last two being " Plain Street " and " Driver's Lane." To Cross Street the way appears to be an old one in use from the beginning of the first settlement (probably the one laid out in 1646, the report being lost), and from Cross Street the way onwards to Winchester appears in some parts to be new (1660).

+ Description of its present passage through Cutter's Village.

" Evidently over the outlet of Horn Pond at that village.

G Halfway Swamp is the low tract at Winchester Centre, now and for many years past covered by water by the raising of Whitney's dam. 7 Marked or "blazed " trees ; practically a forest path. "On the southwest side," means, on the southwest side of the highway, i. e., the marked trees, in this instance, stood on that side of the highway.

8 Evidently near the present bridge over the ontlet of Wedge Pond.a

" " Improved" is the word in the original. This is evidence that an older way formerly existed, ou this route, from Cross Street to the pres- ent centre of Winchester.

W That is, by the marks [on trees] on each side of the highway. 11 Converse's mill.

12 Blank Bridge In the original. This bridge is supposed to be over the outlet of a pond which existed on the site of the present Sandersou's store.

a Crossing Main Street at right angles, it ran back of the houses of Blesgrs. P. W. Swan and Edmund Sanderson .- Winchester Record (1885), i. 280.

342

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

mentioned breadth, until you come to ao inclosure, pertaining to Ed- ward Converse, where by a tree marked southward, the way runs di- rectly from that tree unto the eastermost corner of his old orchard, and thence over the mill-dam, east and by sonth, until you come to a tree marked southwest; and then to run southerly in the way formerly used, until you come to the highway leading to 'Notomie'e Ware [Weir] ; 1 and thence to run east and by south, until yon come to a place called Bare Hill,2 the foot of that hill bonuding the [high- way] ; [p. 138] and tbeuce to a tree marked west ; aod so along to a place called Elbow Ilill,3 tbe foot of which hill, on the easterly side bouads the way westward. And thence to ruo along over the swamp called Halfway Swamp,4 between two ways formerly improved, as by marked trees is manifest, From the swamp, until yon come to Mistick Bridge, the way, from one end noto the other, [is] agreed to be four poles in breadth; and accordingly bounded on the north with marked trees.

[Report signed by] Solomon Phips, Richard Lowden, William Symines, Thomas Eames [mark : T. E.], Josiah Converse, Michael Bacon.

This was evidently the re-laying out of an old way, which had existed for some time. The account of a former laying out is preserved in the Woburn records, i. 9, but no report appears with it. On September 14, 1646, it is stated that Edward Converse and Sam- nel Richardson were appointed by Woburn "to lay out a highway between this town and Mistick Bridge"; they "being joined " in the work "with some of Charlestown and some of Mistick Honses," or Medford. This committee was constituted in the same manner as the later committee of 1660. There can be no doubt that they performed their duties, and that the highway had existed before 1646-even so early, probably, as August, 1641, when a bridge was built with great pains over the Horn Pond River, evidently the one referred to in the document above presented.5

1 Menotomy, now Arlington. The weir referred to was located on the Mistick River at the point where the road from Medford to Arling- ton passes. The bridge here being called the Weir Bridge for a long period. Here in ancient times vast quantities of fish were caught. The highway above described was probably a shorter cut to present Grove street.

2 The long height extending across the easterly side of Winchester, and lying partly in Stoneham.

$ Elbow Hill, a neighboring height of the former. Supposed to be the height latterly called Ridge Hill,a but now mostly dug down. The Winchester Unitarian Church edifice occupies a part of the spot.

4 The location of this part of Halfway Swamp is already described in the last part of the preceding paragraph as the low tract of ground below Symmes's corner, now occupied for agricultural purposes by Marshall Symmes. The way from this point to Medford or Mistick Bridge, was by the street called on the present maps by the name of Woburn Street, and thonce by High Street in Medford to present Mis- tick or Medford Bridge. Another way to accomplish the same object was a longer route by present Grove Street. This was the ancient way mentioned in the Symmes plan of 1705, as the "county road to Cnn- bridge." It was also the way to the Weir Bridge, between present Med- ford and Arlington, also to Menotomy, or Arlington itself; Arlington being originally a part of Cambridge principally, the part of that town nearest Mistick River and Pond being a portion of Charlestown,-the two parts together formed a district named Menotomy, from the Indian name of the river separating Arlington and Cambridge.

6 The appearance of the spot where this way once led in Winchester, is much changed. A body of water now covers a large portion, which was then dry land. The water was then confined to the channel of the Aberjona, and to the channel of two streams, the outlet of Horn Pond and Wedge Pond. These smaller streams united in one stream before they entered the Aberjona River, across which Converse's dato was built.

& Cf. Winch. Rec. i. 111, 208. The mumne wae extaot iu 1766.

Some help is gained in tracing this way on Thomp- son's road-map of 1797. The points shown on these comparatively recent maps demonstrate that the situ- ation in 1794 and 1797 was practically unchanged from 1660. There is a good description of Main Street in the Winchester portion, in the Winchester Record, i. 280, and a number of important historical facts are there stated. The author of that descrip- tion has furnished valuable aid in locating for our use the channels of these streams. Further aid in showing the old channels is found on a plan of the Abel Richardson farm, by Loammi Baldwin, Jr., 1835. The same situation of the channels is also shown on a much smaller scale in the plans of the town made for the first and second State maps of 1794 and 1832.

PLANS illustrating the present centre of Winchester, showing the past posi- tion of the streams and main road. The first two are loaned through the courtesy of Mr. Arthur E. Whitney, as they illustrate the history of his mill privilege, and were copied by his direction for that purpose.

1. Plan of the Abel Richardson Farm, Woburn, owned by S. S. Richardson, contains 39 acres. Surveyed and drawn by L. Baldwio, Jr., October, 1835.

2. A second plan, undated, of the same spot, including Wedge Pond, drawn about 1863, shows the mander of entrance at that date of Horn Pond River into Wedge Pond, a former inlet into the ontlet of Wedge Pond from Horn Pond outlet being at that time obliterated (see plan under I) ; the channels of Aberjona River and of the streams easterly of the present roadway of Main Street being obscured by the height of water, which covers nearly as much territory as it does now.

3. A plan of Woburn, surveyed in "October and September," 1794, on the scale of 200 rods to one ioch, by Sammel Thompson, surveyor, seo fac-simile in Winch. Rec., ii. 286. This was the plan of the town made for the first State map of 1794.

4. Plan of the town of Woburn, on a scale of 100 rods to one inch, in compliance with a resolve of the Legislature passed on the 1st day of March, A. D. 1830. Surveyed by Bartholomew Richardson, 1831-see fac-simile in Winch. Rec. ii. 417. This was the plan of the town mace for the second State map of 1832.

5. A road map by Samnel Thompson, Esq., of date abont 1797, enti- tled, " Road to Woburu : plan of road, two rontes (through Woburo) ; one from Charles Bridge (Boston) to Billerica line." The other route begins at the "Powder House " (in Somerville), and passes through present Arlington (the part formerly a part of Charlestown), the westerly parts of Winchester and Woburn, and into Burlington by present meet- ing-house to Billerica line also. The distances are given in rods. The original is in possession of the Woburo Public Library-Thompson Plans.

G. A plan of Symmes Farm, 1705, by Joseph Buroap, surveyor. 00 this is the following inscription : " These plans contain Captain William Symmes's farm in Charlestown ; his Bare Meadow ; his marsh at Menot- omy ; and a parcel of swamp that joins the farm, now in the possession of John Francis ; (also) the lines of Mrs. Mary Torrey'e thirds of the several parcels of land as they were set off. . . . The marsh may be drawn too near the farm, yet it lieth at Menotomy hy old Mr. Fille- brown's and Mr. Nathaniel Cntter's. Finished 3d July, 1705. Joseph Burnap, surveyor." On the plan of the farm proper are shown such well-known landmarks as the river (Aberjona), the county road, road to Charlestown, county road to Cambridge, road to Mr. Gardner's, Mr. Gardner's corner, Mr. Gardner's farm, the upper end of Mistick l'ond. The county road from Woburn Centre is seen crossing a part of this farm, from the junction of present Main und Washington Streets ip Winchester to present Symmes's corner. The county rond to Cambridge is seen branching off from this rond at Symmes's corner in a way anal- ogous to Grove Street, while the road to Charlestown crossing a plot called Mr. Symmes's swamp, continues on in the direction of Medford village to Charlestown. The Bare Meadow plot would imply a connec- tion with Bare Hill. The marsh at Menotomy, dear old Mr. Fillebrown's and Nathaniel Cutter's, is, as imphed in the inscription, at some distance from the farm, being located in present Arlington on the ancient Menot- omy River or present Alewife Brook.6 The swamp that joined the furm,

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 100

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034