History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 103

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 103

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The increase of the names in the tax rates and the number of men enrolled for military service show a corresponding growth in the town; but the actual population can only be guessed at. The grouping of the families under the names of their respective tithingmen also conveys an idea of the locality of their residence, so that it can be readily determined whether they lived in Winchester, or Woburn, or Wilmington, or Burlington. For this feature our readers are referred to the list as printed in the Woburn Journal (Woburn Records, i. 108, note).

The births exceeding the number of deaths would also, to some extent, show the rate of increase. Th number of births recorded in Woburn from 1641-170% was 1313; and the number of deaths recorded for the same period (1642-1701) was 340. The effects of immigration and emigration during the same period on the town itself were probably small, in view of the main cause of the growth of population being the large birth-rate, and the small death-rate above men- tioned. It is known that the birth-rate is high in new countries, owing to the large proportion of young men there, and an unusually large number of the women there being young also, or of the child- bearing age. Old people being the exception in such communities. Sewall (Hist. Wob. 241) has under- taken to show that the rate-payers of 1700 were only 187, against 305 in 1725. He also shows that in 1708 Woburn was the fourth town in Middlesex County in the point of numbers and wealth. Charlestown, Cambridge and Watertown exceeded her, and Con- cord and Medford were behind her. The number of her polls in that year was 225, and her real estate was estimated at £22 Ss. 3d.

Occurrences before 1700 .- The captain of a military company at Charlestown was ordered (Aug. 22, 1686) to impress twelve men from the two companies of that town "to appear at Woburn," at noon, "the 28th." There was trouble at that time with the Indians. About this period a farmer of Woburn was called to an account by the authorities for his wife's extravagance in dress,-the powers that be having vainly endeavored to suppress the love of dress inherent to the female sex. This honest farmer answered, " That he thought it no sin for his wife to wear a silk hood and silk neck [? neckerchief]; and he desired to see an example before him !" Froth- ingham, Hist. of C., 226. The anecdote is given by Frothingham, ib. 210, who refers to Rev. Samuel Sewall as his authority for it.

The First Church Records of Roxbury [N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg. xxxiv. 301; rept. in 6th Bost. Rec. Comr.'s Rept.], kept by Rev. S. Danforth, mention "a sad accident at Woburn " about Nov., 1670, where three men who were digging a well were met by a calamity in the earth's caving in, and burying two of them alive ; the third hardly escaping the same fate. This one was dug out; his head fortunately not being cov- ered with earth. Under date of Sept. 8, 1671, this

The northerly side of the grant measured one mile, sixteen poles ; the eustorly side two miles, twenty-eight poles, and one length on the wester- ly side was ono inile, 212 poles. The name of the pond on the map itself is spelled " Uncachowolonk Pond." The proper spelling of this name would appear to he Uucachewalunk. Cf. Early Records of Lancaster, index : and this pond is now in the limits of Lunenburg.

351

WOBURN.

statement was entered in the same records: "An Indian executed and hung up in chains for murder- ing an English maid at Woburn." Fixing the year of a murder, which is described in Sewall's Wo- burn, 120, being one not committed in a time of war, as was usually the case. The diary of Samuel Sewall, of Boston, mentions a few items, such as, there being a considerable quantity of snow, a warm rain swelled the waters, so that Woburn and other places suffered by the damage done, Feb. 9, 1682-3. There is a maid at Woburn possessed by an evil spirit, Jan. 21, 1685-6, a rumor. The Woburn church is "under much disquiet," another rumor, Aug. 19, 1687. One year afterwards, Aug. 19, 1688, the lieut .- gov. "goes " to Woburn to secure some Indians engaged in gather- ing hops. This severe measure was caused by the news of the slaying of five English persons by Indians at the westward. Before their arrest, it ap- pears that these Woburn savages had met together for religious worship, and were "praying" when se- cured, or shortly before. Dr. Increase Mather, His- tory King Philip's War, ed. 1862, 160, relates an inci- dent occurring at Woburn, which he regards as a solemn providence upon certain people for holding opinions partial to the sentiments of the Baptists, if such opinions were not influential among the causes which brought on that war as a judgment upon them for that sin. The incident he relates was the birth of a child, accounted a monstrosity, to the wife of Joseph Wright, at Woburn, Feb. 23, 1670, which was born without a breast and back-bone, and with other serious deformities of body, the head and shoulders being natural. The event occasioned some excite- ment, and a description was testified to, before Deputy-Gov. Francis Willoughby, on March 2d fol- lowing, by a number of persons belonging to Wo- burn, all of whom had seen the child. These were Mrs. Johnson, the mid-wife, Mary Kendall, Ruth Blodgett, Lydia Kendall, Capt. Edward Johnson, Lieut. John Carter, Henry Brooks, James Thompson and Isaac Cole. This misfortune to some apparently worthy people, Mather believed, "bore witness" against the " disorders of some in that place," mean- ing Woburn, and the activity of those who had im- bibed the principles of the Baptist sect, of which there were several in the town, including the Wrights. This theory was imparted to Mather's editor by the Rev. S. Sewall, the historian of Woburn, and Wright had been presented by the grand jury to the court, with others, Dec., 1671, for his connection with the practices of the Baptists. The wife of Joseph Wright was Elizabeth Hassell, and though a married woman with a husband living, and apparently well able to support her, she taught school in Woburn in 1673. One of her eleven children was Sarah, born Feb. 25, 1669-70, according to the Woburn records, and of this child we find no further date, and it appears to be the one referred to by Mather. The father, Joseph Wright, afterwards became reconciled to the tencts

of the Woburn First Church, of which he was a deacon, 1698-1724, and signer of a declaration of principles by that church, 1703. He was a select- man, a soldier in Philip's War, a lieutenant of the militia, 1693-1700, and held other offices. Woburn Journal, Jan. 12, Feb. 16, 1883; Savage's Gen. Dict. iv. 658; Sewall's Woburn, 151-56, 175; N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg. xxxvii. 76-7; also Mather's Hist. Philip's War, 160, already cited.

The accident to Samuel Converse, son of Edward Converse, who was killed by the water-wheel of his father's mill, February 20, 1669-70, was an event the mention of which was omitted in the local records, but a full account is found in the Middlesex Court Records, file 20, 1670, No. 3, in the "verdict on his death." Two persons-Isaac Brooks and James Thompson-being in the corn-mill belonging to the Converses at Woburn, on a sudden heard a voice at the mill-wheel, saying, "Stop the wheel." Thomp- son ran to the mill-gate, and looking towards the wheel, saw, as he thought, a man thrown down ; and being related to the victim of the accident, cried out, "My uncle is killed !" Brooks also, in the mean- time, ran to the water-wheel, and found Samuel Converse, the victim, with his head fastened between the water-wheel and the water-wall. Thompson having shut the gate, came running to the said Brooks, and the wheel being turned backwards was raised upwards sufficiently to release his head. The two then took him up alive, but bleeding excessively, and carried him into his house, where, soon after he was brought in, his bleeding stopped; but in about half an hour, as his hearers conceived, he was dead.

The verdict of the jury of quest on his death calls him by the title of Sergeant, and speaks of his "sud- den and untimely death," and conceives that he was cutting some ice off the water-wheel of the corn-mill, and overreaching with his axe, was caught by his coat in some part of the wheel, and the coat being rent to the collar and that not giving way, his head was drawn down until it was sucked in between the water-wall and the water-wheel. In all probability, decides the jury, he received his mortal wound soon after he spoke to stop the wheel. They saw much blood in the place where he was thought to stand, and there was blood upon the snow from the place to the house where he was carried alive. Being set in a chair his blood quickly settled within him, and wholly prevented him from speaking, and in about half an hour he was dead. The jury found the back- side of his head greatly bruised, and the gristle of his nose broken, as they conceived, and the "said Converse, his head lying as before expressed," they judged came to his death by means of the "water- wheel of the corn-mill" (verdict dated February 22, 1669-70). See article by the discoverer of this item, Arthur E. Whitney, in the Winchester Record, i. 257- 259. For genealogy of Samuel Converse's descend-

352

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ants, see Hill's Family Record of J. W. and E. S. Con- verse (1887), 95-177.

NOTE-The first volume of the town records being io priot, it is thought best to omit making any special extracts in illustration of further topics from them. The original entries are more full and explicit thao any ab- stract we might make from them. Before leaving them, however, we would like to refer to the second recorder or clerk of the town, William Johason. He was the son of Captain Edward Jobason, and a faithful town officer. His career as such may be carefully traced in the records. He was a prominent military officer, and these features are noticed more particularly uoder MILITARY HISTORY. He was noted for bis zeal for the old charter, or order of things in New England, io opposition to the changes brought about by the administration introduced by Sir Edmund Andros. His course in that matter was attended by some danger. On July 30, 1686, he was sharply reproved by the council for his carriage oo a fast day, when he staid at home out of dierespect to that occasion, and had besides a dozen med with him at his house. He was told he must take the oath of allegiance; and desiring an hour's consideration, then said he could not take it. A mittimus was the written, or in the process of writing, for hie committal to prisoo, when he considered the order again, and took the oath, rather than go to prison. He objected, says the diary of Samuel Sewall, Muss. Hist. Coll, 5th ser. v. 145, to the clause of "acknowledging it to be lawful authority who adminis- tered," and would see the seals. He was deprived of his civil offices natil the overthrow of the Andros government jo 1680.

THE EARTHQUAKE OF OCTOBER 29, 1727 .- A dis- course by the Rev. John Fox, entitled on cover : Mr. Fox's Sermons on the Earthquake; but on the title-page, "God by his Power causes the Earth and its inhabitants to tremble: the substance of two sermons on 1 Sam. xiv. 15, preached soon after the earthquake, at Wobourn ; by John Fox, A.M .; and now printed at the earnest request of many of the auditors for their own particular use ; Boston : printed for N. Belknap, at his shop near Scarlet's Wharf, at the North End, 1728. 58 pp. 16°. The earthquake, ' which was the subject of this discourse, is called "a work of God," and caused such a trembling of the earth and such a trembling among the people, that its effects were felt for hundreds of miles, causing mountains to shake, and the firmest artificial build- ings to totter. Such a trembling as this, says the sermon, "we have lately been sensible of, to our great consternation and astonishment." The awful trembling night, October 29th-“ a night never to be forgotten "-appeared to threaten a sudden and ter- rible destruction. The houses and beds trembled and shook. It was a dark aud dismal night indeed-a night that might be called magormissabib, fear and terror round about. The timber in the buildings, the stones in the walls were shaken ; the people were awakened in a surprising manner as their beds rocked under them like cradles; the quake was " loud to the bodily senses," and the people were brought into a sudden and great consternation by this "new and unusual voice." The preacher had delivered an im- pressive discourse to his people on the day preceding the evening when they were surprised by this earth- quake. From this published discourse the Rev. John Fox would appear to have been an able preacher, as able as the average ministers of his time; not bril- liant or sensational, but painstaking, solid and faith- ful. Professor Williams, who made a study of earth- quakes felt in New England, Mem. Amer. Acad. i.

260, writes, about 1783, of the great earthquake of October 29, 1727, as follows :

After an interval of sixty-four years, there came on another very memorable one, October 29, 1727, O. S., about 10 h. 40' P. M., is a very clear air and serede sky, when everything seemed to be in a most perfect calm and tranquility, a heavy rumbling noise was heard ; at first it seemed to be at a distance, but increased as it came sear, till it was thought equal to the roar of a blazing chimney, aod at last to the rat- tling of carriages driving fiercely on pavements. lo about half a miaute from the time the report was first heard the earthquake came on ; it was observed by those who were aliroad that as the shake passed under them, the surface of the earth sensibly rose up, and then sunk down again ; the violence of the shock, like that of other great earthquakes, wassuch as to cause the honses to shake and rock as if they were falling to pieces ; the doors, windows, and moveables made a fearful clattering ; the pew- ter and china were thrown from their shelves; stone walls, and the tops of several chimneys were shaken down ; in some places the doors were valatched and burst open, and people in great danger of falling. The duration may be supposed to have been about two minutes. The limits of this earthquake extended from the river Delaware, in Penn- sylvania, southwest, to the Kendebeck, northeast, and at both these places it was sensibly felt, though the shake was but small. Its extent orust at least have been 700 miles ; it was felt by vessels at sea, and io tbe most remote westerly settlements (1783), and several springs of water and wells, never koown to be dry or frozen, were suak far down into the earth, and some were dried up.1

There are no remarkable events of civic character after this, till the period of Samuel Thompson's diary [N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg., xxxiv. 397-401]. This writer records a number of incidents from the year 1755 and onward, connected with Woburn or with other places, e.g., a great earthquake, 1755; a violent wind, 1761 ; a remarkable storm, 1770; two remark- able freshets, 1771; twenty persons in Woburn were frozen on a very cold day, 1773; in 1777, August 15, a hurricane tore off nearly all the roof of Woburn Second Parish meeting-house (the one at Burlington), and parts of other buildings were destroyed, together with Joshua Jones' barns; a great many apple trees were blown down, many large and strong trees turned up by the roots, and almost all the limbs were blown off some, leaving their naked trunks standing, some five or seven, and others eight or ten feet high; the devastation reaching two or three miles in length. The account of the Dark Day, May 19, 1780, is a plain statement of that occurrence. It began to grow dark between nine and ten o'clock in the fore- noon, and the darkness increased by degrees till after twelve, when it was darker than usual on a star- light night. Candles were lighted at mid-day, and the people were astonished and affrighted, calling to

1 The catalogue of the American portion of the library of Rev. T. Prince, by W. HI. Whitmore, assigns another publication to our Woburn Jolin Fox. As the Prince library is now a part of the Boston Public Library, Ilonorable M. Chamberlain, the librarian, has kindly furnished a verbatim copy of its title :

Time and the end of time, in two discourses ; The first nhout Redemp- tion of Time ; The second about Considerations of our latter end. By JOHN Fox. Psalmn 90 : 12. So leach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Lam. 1 : 0. ller filthiness is in her skirts, she remembereth not her Inst end, therefore she came down wonderfully. Non pudet te reliquias vitro tibi reservare, et id solum Tempus bonne menti destinare quod in nullam rem conferri possit ! Quam forum est, tune vivere incipere, cum desirendum est ? Seu de brev. vit. Boston, in New England. Reprinted by B. Green and J. Allen, for Samuel Phillips, at the Brick Shop, 1701. 234 pp. 24º.

355

WOBURN.

mind passages of sacred writ, namely, the sun shall go down at noon; the sun, his shining shall be clothed with sackcloth. The darkness departed gradually, and the natural day revisited the earth about three o'clock in the afteruoon. In 1784 Meet- ing-House Hill was surveyed, the town having de- cided on its sale. In 1793 Independence Day (July 4th) was celebrated by about eighty Woburn inhabit- ants and a number of other gentlemen. A singing exhibition and a lecture occurred this year-unusual events. The era of Middlesex Canal commen ced by a preliminary survey. In 1794 a new burying-place was provided in the First Parish of Woburn. On July 4, 1796, one citizen raised a spire-vane or weather-cock - Independence having been declared twenty years past. In 1798 there was a school exhibi- tion-another unusnal occurrence. In 1799 a hear- ing occurred on the floor of the new State-House about dividing the town of Woburn, and on January 16, 1800, Dr. Morse, of Charlestown, addressed the people of Woburn on occasion of the public services of the town on the death of General Washington ; and on February 22d, following, Mr. Oliver, then preaching in the town, delivered a funeral sermon on Washington. Thus Woburn closes the century with prospects among the people of greater enterprise and hopes of future prosperity.

NOTE .- From 1755 to 1800 the town had its share of accidents and lesser calamities. A few are here citad : Henry Reed's wife was burned to death, 1768-a strange event. Benjamin Brooks, was killed while felling & tree, 1769. Moses Noyes having iujured Peter Alexander in a scuffie, 1771, who soon after died, Alexander being infirm at the time of the struggle, Noyes was tried, hut acquitted ; the jurors finding that Alexander died a natural death. In 1774, Thomas Jones, the pastor of the Woburn Second Church, or Burlington Church, was stricken with paralysis in the pulpit, and died the same day. Nathaniel Kendall died of injuries in- flicted by Benjamin Edgell's stallion, 1775. There was a great stir ahont the small-pox 1775 and 1785. Riots stop certain courts in the State, 1786, and troops are collected and marched off to the scene of trouble, 1787. The Rev. Samuel Sargeant's house in Woburn was on fire on a Sabbath in 1788. The shed of Jonathan Kendall was hlown down, and in its fall injured William Tay, by breaking his thigh, aud otherwise bruising him, 1789. The influenza prevailed in 1789 and 1790, and mauy aged persons died. Cyrus Baldwin, who was drowned at Dun- stable, was brought to Woburn and buried, 1790, and a strange malady, consisting of a swelling over the eye and then of other parts of the head and throat, occurred 1791. Luther Simonds was killed by a log that rolled on him at his saw-mill, 1792, being found dead under it, and his father's wife was killed by the kick of a horse, about ten years previous- ly, or in 1783. The small pox prevailed and inoculation was permitted in Woburn and other towns, 1792. A young man, Benjamin Edgell, Jr., died suddenly while dancing at a ball, 1793. Lightning struck Bar- tholomew Richardson's house, and hurt his daughter Phebe, 1794. The schoolhouse was on fire, but was put out soon, 1796. Benjamin Simonde's house was hurned down, 1797.

Of all these casualties, but one only, and that the most important, we have found to be the subject of newspaper notice : the strange death of lJenry Reed's wife was the subject of a notice in the Boston Weekly Newsletter for March 31, 1768. This was a mysterious affair, and - occur- red in the Precinct, or Burlington part of Woburn, January 18, 1768. The woman was found burned to death. Her husband went to do a day's work for a neighbor, leaving her as well se usual, and three of her neighbors had called to see her, leaving her about sunset ns well as ever, also ; the husband returned home about 9 p.M., and on opening the door saw a candle horning on the table; the fire on the bearth was secure, but the room was filled with smoke. The mau concluded that the honse was on fire, and on looking around thought at first that the wife was in bed, but afterwards to his great surprise found her body fallen

back ward on the floor some six or

The clothes on the forepart of b. having two windows of the singular to relate, neither her another store of lesser value, arms were burned above the "t. Winchester, and this building feet below the ankles. Impruden. There was a store at among a number of people who feared that violadiah Wyman, as ill-minded person might be the cause of the woman and not in a without a jury of inquest. This act . such a shocking manner. Her husband thereupon des ~~ ~ tances. body might be dug up, which was done on March 18, 1768, or nearly Br. weeks after hurial, and a jury of inquest sat on the case. After a strict enquiry, it appeared that Do violence had been offered her-two suspected persons, Mr. Reed and Mrs. Howard or Hayward, laid their hands on her body und declared their innocence, as the great God was their judge !-- and the jury agreed that she came to her death by her clothes catching fire. After this verdict some were better satisfied, while others were not so well ; but here the matter ended. The fact that an attachment was discovered between Reed and the Mrs. Hayward of the above state- ment, whom he married on September 22, 1768, she being the widow of Thomas Hayward, led to suspicions that the first wife had been foully dealt withi, and the two, according to the customs of the times, were forced, as above stated, to undergo the ordeal of touch ; the belief being that if the murderers were made to touch the murdered body, there would be some demonstration, possibly miraculous, of guilt. In the Reed case, it is said, there was no such demonstration. The house where the eveut happened was near Billerica line, and also near Wilmington line, in present Burlington. See Reed's Hist. Reed Fum. (1861) 69.

The list of casualties from 1768-1826, is the subject of articles in the Woburn Journal, July, August, 1870.

The diary (1755-1814) of Samuel Thompson, Esq., is extant, and copied and annotated, 1755-1805. It is full of particulars for the period covered.

ANCIENT PUBLIC BURIAL-GROUNDS .- Those in Woburn proper are two in number; the first and oldest is on present Park Street, Woburn Centre, and is probably coeval with the first settlement of the town (1642), and the second burial-ground-that on Montvale Avenue-and also like the other near the Common, was opened first as a parish burial-ground in 1794, and purchased later by the town in 1824. As the city has arranged to publish the matter pre- pared under this head, it is omitted here.

THE CENSUS OF 1800 .- From a volume containing the census of four towns-Woburn, Burlington, Lex- ington and Bedford-prepared under the direction of Samuel Thompson, Esq., assistant to the marshal, containing the names of the heads of families, the number in each family by age and sex and color, Woburn's total was 1228. Houses, 156. The first total obtained was 1217, but an omission of eleven persons increased the total to 1228. The details of population on the basis of 1217 inhabitants are made up as follows :

Males.

Females.

To 10 years, .

174

138

** 16

109

44 26

122

100

"$ 45

. 107

115

Above 45 years,

.100

104

Total . . 612

532

Negroes and mulattoes, male and female,

Male whites, . G12

Female whites,

532

Laborers on the Middlesex Canal, some foreigners, and some from the neighboring States, 55

Total,

1217

Omissions.

Elisha Clapp and wife,

354

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Samuel Eames Wyman and family

Total, 11

Previous total, 1217

Ne. returned to marshal,

1228

Wobura, 1228

Burlington, 534

Lexiogtea, , 1006

Bedfor

538

.v.Ú,

Whole number,

3306

PROFESSIONAL MEN .- The Ecclesiastical Profession. -Sketches of the lives of the members of this profes- sion in Woburu are given under the headiug of Ecclesiastical History.

The Educational Profession .- The Rev. Leander Thompson wrote an elaborate historical sketch of the schools of Woburn, Mass., for the century closing 1876, which was published in the annual town report of that year, pp. 131-185. He expresses his indebted- ness to the History of Woburn by the late Rev. Samuel Sewall, for items of interest regarding the schools previous to 1775, and gives the substance of all to be found on the subject in that work. Little is left unsaid, and the account for the period covered (to 1876) is very full and complete. There is not known to exist any record or notice of schools prior to 1673. In that year mention is made of Allen Converse's wife and Joseph Wright's wife as teaching school, and in the following year (1674) the selectmen agreed with Jonathan Thompson to teach the bigger children, and with Allen Converse's wife to teach the lesser children. Jonathan Thompson, therefore, was the earliest schoolmaster mentioned in the records of Woburn. Other teachers of this early period were Sam- uel Carter, a son of the first minister, Mrs. Walker, the' Rev. Jabez Fox and the Rev. John Fox, his son, Tim- othy Wadsworth, of Boston, or his son, John Tufts, and many others, most of them young men who had been connected with the college at Cambridge, and some of them natives ofthe town. Others were school- masters by profession and natives of Woburn, such as the three Richardsons, Adam, Isaac and Jabez, and the two Fowles, James and John-the latter a teacher of eminence-and Ebenezer Thompson. The schools were originally kept in private houses. In 1713 a school-house was erected by private subscrip- tion. The grammar school, kept by law by the town, was for a period of thirty-five years movable or rotary, or, in other words, kept for a while each in a number of different neighborhoods. In 1775 and 1776 a grammar school was kept in each of the two parishes. In 1792 the people of Woburn appear to be aroused from a long lethargy in relation to their schools, and active steps were taken to improve them. Soon after- wards nine new school-houses were built.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 103

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