History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 105

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 105

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WOBURN.

of the older stock in modes of business and life, in education and refinement.

In 1850, after the loss of the village of South Wo- burn, which in that year was incorporated as the town of Winchester, a miniature directory of Woburn was published, which contains some valuable particulars regarding the amount of business then performed in the town and the names of those conducting it./ The leather manufactories were then thirteen in number, conducted by Abijah Thompson & Co., in two yards, J. B. Winn & Co., in four yards, John Cummings, Jr., & Co., Bond & Tidd, Charles Tidd & Co., Cyrus Cum- mings, G. L. Ingerson, William Tidd, Heury Tidd, Harris Munroe, Warren Fox, John Shepard and Jo- seph Dow. The shoe manufacturers were Nichols, Winn & Co., John Flanders, Grammer & Brother, John Tidd & Son, D. Buckman & Son, F. K. Cragin, William Flanders, Luther Holden, Oliver Green, Je- duthun Richardson, S. Caldwell, Frederick Flint, Al- van W. Manning, James D. Taylor, Daniel Cum- mings, S. T. Langley, Harris Johnson, Augustus Roundy, C. H. Thwing, A. S. Wood, William Leathe, A. P. Smith, Nathan Hyde and H. H. Flanders,- twenty-four concerns. The boot manufacturers num- bered two concerns-Winthrop Wyman and S. R. Duren, Jr. Of stores there were six English and West India goods stores, kept by Nichols, Winn & Co., Thompson & Tidd, William Woodberry, Martin L. Converse, William S. Bennett and Thompson & Flagg ; two dry goods stores, kept by John Fowle (2d) and Nathan Wyman, Jr. ; merchant tailers' establish- ments, two, kept by Gage & Fowle and Philip Teare ; West India goods alone, four stores, proprietors, L. P. Davis, William Beers, The Protective Union or Union Store and J. S. Ellis ; hats, caps and shoes, B. F. Wyer & Co. ; millinery, M. A. Teare, J. Brainard and Betsey Roundy ; clothing, Amos Bugbee; hard- ware, Kimball & Ladd and E. Trull; books and sta- tionery, G. W. Fowle; jewelry, W. M. Weston; drugs and medicines, E. Cooper & Son and E. Troll ; paints and oils, Cutter & Otis; Inmber, Richardson & Colla- more. . There was the usual number of professional men for a population of nearly 3800 persons, viz., clergymen, lawyers and physicians. The number of dweilings in 1850 was 617 ; shops of all kinds, 279; tan-houses, 8 ; ware-houses and stores, 21; mills, 8; barns, 241.

After 1850 the cra of the weekly local newspaper commenced, which has continued regularly withont cessation to the present time. Many of these enter- prises had been started, and the existence of some of them was of brief duration only; others have had a well-nigh continuous existence from the time of their commencement, particularly the Woburn Journal and the Woburn Advertiser, in both of which a much fuller account is given of the current local events than could be in any manner attempted here. The Woburn Journal began in 1851, and has continued under various names, such as the Middlesex Journal,

1854, and the Woburn Journal again in 1873, to the present time. The Woburn Advertiser began in 1871, and continued till 1889, when, by the death of its edi- tor and proprietor, who had published it from the first, its existence ceased. Its place is now filled by the Woburn City Press, which has entered upon its second year. Two papers of ability and note-the Woburn Budget, 1857-1863, and the Woburn Towns- man, 1864-were published during the years men- tioued, but were abandoned on account of their pro- jectors and managers entering the army during the American Civil War.1 The period between 1850 and 1860, in Woburn, might be called a money-making period ; mechanics made good livings, store-keepers accumulated money, and professional men and man- ufacturers accumulated wealth. The financial trou- bles of 1857 did not make any great impression here. Indeed, the period might be termed the halcyon period of Woburn, when contentment and manufac- turing prosperity reigned supreme. In 1860 the Lynn strike of shoemakers made some impression in Wo- burn, and the writer remembers one procession of so- called strikers connected with that movement march- ing in the streets of this town. But. the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, created an enormous demand for leather-Woburn's staple product-and the growth of business and of the town itself was very marked-much greater than it had ever been before- and the impetus of that period has continued to the present. From 617 dwellings in 1850, the number had increased to 988 in 1860, to 1074 in 1861, to 1323 in 1870, to 1691 in 1880, and to 2007 in 1887, and 2145 in 1889. The most marked civil events of the period from 1850 to 1889 were this rapid growth, the action of the town during the civil war, which belongs more especially to the military history of the place; and an extensive fire in the month of March, 1873, which destroyed one church edifice and several business structures ; and the gift of a large sum of money from one of the citizens for a free public library ; the construction of a loop of the former Boston and Lowell Railroad, now the Eas- tern Division of the Boston and Maine Railroad, through the place in 1885; the extension of the horse

1 Other newspapers in Woburn were The Sentinel, 1839 ; Woburn Ga- zette, 1842-44 ; The New England Family, 1844 or 45 ; Gazette again 1846- 47 ; Weekly Advertiser, 1846; Guide-Post, 1846-48 ; Young Independent, (amateur), 1872; Our Paper (Unitarlan), 1875-78 ; Church at Work (Baptist), 1875-76 ; The Silent Worker (Methodist), 1876 ; Weekly Inde- pendent, 1878; Woburn Item, 1879; Grattan Echo, 1881-82 ; Woburn Courier, 1882-84 ; Union Weekly, 1884-85.

Under the topic of " All About Woburn " the publishers of tha Woburn Budget begau a series of articles Oct. 14, 1859, entitled, News- papars, Military, Woburn Bands, Firemen, Saw-Manufacturing, Gus- Works, Hat Manufactura, Woburn Tract Society, Leather Manufacture, etc., subjects of interest to the people of that time. A parish newspaper called Our Paper (1875-78), contained articles of a similar kind, e. g., Woburn in England, Liberal Christianity in Woburn, The Water Sup- ply, The Press, and Library.

The Herald of Truth and Evangelical Messenger, a religious periodical, was published and edited in Woburn by Mark Allen, vol. i. to vil. 1867 - 74.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

railroad from North Woburn to Winchester and the construction of another horse railroad from Woburn to Stoneham ; the introduction of electric light in ad- dition to gas, etc., etc .; the incorporation of the town as a city in 1888; the increase of institutions and facilities which accompany the growth of a large place-these are the evident features, to be observed by all comers, of her present prosperity.

NOTE .- The description of real estate in Woburn First Parish in 1798 was designed to serve as a basis for the valuation required by the assese- ment of the United States direct tax of that year. The original volume belongs to the Woburn Public Library, and a copy in manuscript has beeri made from it. All the details given are now very valuable to con- veyancers and antiquaries. In the original there is an attemptat alpha- betical arrangement The copy is indexed. The description gives the dimensione of the houses, the number of their windows, the amount of glass, the number of their stories, the names of their owners, and the value of the houses and the land on which they stood. The other prop- erty is treated in a similar manner. The original hook was pre- pared under the direction of Samuel Thompson, Esq., of Woburn, the "principal assessor" of the district, and the handwriting is supposed to be that of Jeduthun Richardson, "assistantassessor" for Woburn First Parieh, for the most part. An introduction to the copy above mentioned contains considerable information which we cannot give here. The description was not completed, because a portion of the act authorizing the tax was soon repealed, and the specifications in relation to dwelling houses, their situation, their dimensions or area, their number of stories, the number and dimensions of their windows, and their building mate- rials, were no longer required. A description of some of these houses, by Leander Thompson, is published in the Winchester Record, i. 131- 147, and extracts from the above description of real estate are given in articles in the Winchester Record, i. 147-161.

Some interesting plans of the Academy Hill lots, so called, of date 1846, are found in the Thompson Collection in the Woburn Pnulic Library. These were based on a previous plan of the Coolidge lots, 80 called, laid out by Luke Fowle in 1827. The names of the owners of lots are quite fully given on the plans, as well as in a copy of Luke Fowle's field-Look, made June 18, 1846, by Benjamin Cutter, and pre- served with them.

The particulars of the death of Mary Ann, child of Zebadiah Wyman, are told more fully by her father in the family MSS. The accident occurred at 3 o'clock P.M., on the Sabbath. Her mother and her- self were at home, while the rest of the family had gone to meeting. The child undertook to kiudle a fire in the house, when her clothes caught fire. By shaking them to put it out a blaze was created and instantly she was wrapped in flames. Her mother's exertions were unavailing; the child died in twenty- four hours after. At the moment of the accident, Mr. Chickering, the minister, was relating the deaths of the year past in the parish and entreating the peo- ple to consider the uncertainty of life. "At that moment," writes her father, "the fatal scene opened on Mary Ann !"

Nathan Wyman in a Bible (edition of Isaiah Thomas, Worcester, 1801) made the following entry in regard to the dedication of the meeting-house of 1809 : "June 28, 1809, Woburn new meeting-house dedicated. Rev. Mr. Osgood made the first prayer and Mr. Joseph Chickering preached the sermon from Acts 7: 48. Rev. Mr. Marrett made the last prayer." This Bible was the property of Nathan Wyman as early as 1805. Mr. Chickering in his printed dedicatory discourse, 1809, gives a number of

particulars concerning the new house and the burn- ing of the old one. The building was the fourth meeting-house which had been erected by the church and parish. The house was decent and becoming their circumstances; it united simplicity with ele- gance. After the former meeting-house was discov- ered to be on fire near the hour of midnight, June 17, 1808, in less than an hour it was reduced to ashes. Several circumstances evinced a design on the part of some one to destroy the house. Mr. Chickering re- cites them, but says nothing had transpired to justify a suspicion of any individual. It had been custom- ary to keep the town's stock of powder in the tower of the house, but the explosion of this was so incon- siderable on the night of the fire, that most of it must have been removed. The house which was de- stroyed was raised in 1748, and finished in 1752. Zebadiah Wyman (the 2d), in his family MSS., speak- ing of that house, says, " Our new meeting-house was erected in the first week in December, 1748; the stee- ple (or tower) was put up in June, 1749." The edi- fice of 1809 cost $7911, and the building was orna- meuted with a handsome steeple. A fund of $3000 was acquired by the sale of pews, the income of which was intended to be applied towards the annual ex- penses of the society.

An interesting illustrated article on the Middlesex Canal appeared in the Boston Globe, May 12, 1889. The principal writers on the subject of the canal are Eddy, Vose and Sherburne. The stock ledger of the canal company belongs to the Woburn Public Library. Cf. Woburn Journal, Jan. 30, and Feb. 13, 20, 1885, for sketches of a trip on the canal and its history.

THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE LEATHER BUSI- NESS .- John and Francis Wyman, brothers, and early settlers, were tanners, and had their tanning establishment near the corner of Main and the present Wyman Street, where the tan vats are still said to be buried up in the hollow spot directly south of the junction of these two streets. Another early tanning establishment was that of Gershom Flagg, to the north of Woburn Common, on 'a spot now traversed by Winn Street. Here, in 1673, he had one dwelling-house, a bark-house, mill-house, beam-house, and tan vats with an acre of land belong- ing, being situated, according to the description, in High Street, near the meeting-house, and bounded west on the lands of the Rev. Thomas Carter, the town minister, and east by the town burying-place, now the ancient cemetery on Park Street, and south by the training-field, or the present Common or its original limits. This land and house-plot was some of it bought and some of it was given by the town. As the proprietor of this tannery was killed in battle with the Indians in 1690, and as nothing further is heard of it, it probably was allowed to go out of use, and it is probable that none of these early establish- ments were conducted upon anything more than a small and very limited scale. The Wymans appear

WOBURN.

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to be followed in their business in the original place by a later member of their family, Jonathan Wyman, and still later David Cummings, Jonathan Tidd, Jeremiah Clapp and Jesse Richardson, the fourth, were engaged in the leather manufacturing business in buildings of small size in various parts of the town. David Cummings, the ancestor of the present Hon. John Cummings, of Woburn, came to Woburn from Andover, about 1756, and here engaged in the busi- ness of tanning and agriculture on land employed by Hon. John Cummings for the same purpose at a more recent date. This land was purchased by David Cummings of Israel Reed, about Nov. 12, 1756, and contained about thirty-six acres. In 1770 David Cummings purchased a farm in Woburn of Abijah Smith ; that farm contains the old Cummings home- stead, and has always been in the possession of the family since the date of purchase from Smith. The deed was recorded on Ang. 30, 1770. The farm contained about 127 acres, with a way across it. In his day the winter was devoted to tanning and the summer to farming, and the tanning business was conducted on a very small scale indeed. John Cummings, his grandson, followed David, by , beginning business as a tanner about 1804, and about 1830 took up the manufacture of " chaise leather " as a specialty, and succeeded in acquiring a wide repu- tation for that article. He next manufactured enam- eled leather, and was the first, or among the first, to use the splitting-machine, and was subsequently the almoner of the fund contributed by the leather interest for the benefit of the inventor of that useful machine.1 He relinquished in later life his business to the management and control of his eldest son, the present Hon. John Cummings, and it was this bus- iness which built np the village of Cummingsville in Woburn. General Abijah Thompson, who became an apprentice in the business of tanning and curry- ing leather, in 1810, and served four years, began

1 There is preserved in the Woburn Public Library ( Wyman Coll. MSS., index, p. 129), a paper of date 1811-12, entitled, "Account of my time and expense attending to the concerns of the proprieters of the patent machine for splitting or shaving leather," but to whom it refers is not evident. The inventor of the machine was evidently Samnel Parker, of Billerica, who obtained patents on leather-splitting machines in 1808, 1809, and 1813. He was a poor man, and was helped by Jonathan Tidd, of Woburn, at the ontset, and was the person to whom John Cummings, Sr., was almoner, as noticed in the text. Ile died at Billerica in 1841. Cf. Hazen's History, 281 ; Davis' Manufacture of Leather, 383. Woburn inventors who have obtained patents for improvements on these machines are John B. Tay, 1855; George Reynolds, 1874 ; J. D. McDonald and W. Beggs, 1883 ; E. Cummings, 1883-85. The machines of John D. Mc- Donald and William Beggs, and of Eustace Cummings are described at length io Davis' Manufacture of Leather, pp. 375-8, 380-83.

Other Woburn names connected with inventions used in the manu- facture of leather are the following : F. W. Perry and J. II. Pierce, 1864 ; J. W. McDonald, 1878, '79, '81; E. D. Warren, 1881-82; C. H. Taylor, 1881; J. Maxwell, 1874; J. Parker, 180G; J. H. Hovey, 1882 ; W. Ellard, 1861, 74; C. A. McDonald, 1872; E. B. Parkhurst, 1878 ; J. Champion, 1870; C. B. Bryant, 1883 ; J. T. Freeman, 1885-86 ; William H. Wood, 1884. Cf. Davis' Manufacture, pp. 235, 334, 335, 408, 439, 410, 466, 467, 551, 615. James W. McDonald's invention of an nnhair- ing machine ia mentioned in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th ed., suppl., vol. iii., p. 577.

with two dollars capital, in 1814, in Woburn, in a small tannery in the west part of the town, near the junction of the present Cambridge and Russell Streets. At this time he had two apprentices. He continued in this way for about ten years ; then he bought a tract of fifteen acres with a small water privilege near the centre of the town. It was a rough place, but he commenced clearing it, built a dam, erected a building and put down twenty vats, enlarg- ing by degrees his business as he gained in capital, till he was one of the largest and most successful leather manufacturers of the time. Thus the village of Thompsonville was commenced, and with the ad- vent of General Thompson's factory increased the leather manufacture in Woburn till it assumed very important proportions. Benjamin F. Thompson, a brother of General Abijah, commenced business in Woburn on a small scale in 1823, in a long and nar- row building, still standing in that part of the town now known as Cummingsville, and lived in one end of the same building that was also his manufactory. He was prospered, removed also his business to the centre, where he built a manufactory, and later re- moved to Winchester, and there built another. Snch was the history of the beginning of the leather busi- ness in Woburn.

MISCELLANY .- A printed report of the first annual meeting of the directors of the Woburn Agricultural and Manufacturing Company (1836) contains an ac- count of the enterprise known as the Woburn silk farm, and the matter was made the subject of an arti- cle by H. F. Smith in Boston Globe, July 15, 1883. A few of the mulberry trees set out at the time are said still to remain. The company expected to raise or- anges also on tbeir land, and this feature of their enterprise is preserved in the name of Orange Street, at Montvale.

An interesting article on the houses shown in Bowen Buckman's picture of 1820, and others, was published by the Rev. Leander Thompson in the Woburn City Press, Feb. 6, 1890.

A lithographie plan of the building lots owned by Sylvanus Wood and J. E. Littlefield, in 1845, in the present populous Highland District in Woburn, shows that in that year there was only one house on that tract-the house now occupied by the Hon. Joseph G. Pollard. The first person to live in the house was Mr. Littlefield, followed by Mr. Daniel Kimball, and later on by his brother, John R. Kimball. At the date of 1845 there was a stopping-place on the Wo- burn Branch Railroad at the Green Street crossing.2

THE MISHAWUM HOUSE. - Besides the Horu Pond Hotel there was another resort of some celebrity

2 Of some interest in this connectien are lithographic plans ef house- lots, belonging to Jeduthun Fowle, in this same neighborhood, of date 1849 and 1855. These plans show adjoining tracts of land and streets, besides the location of dwelling houses, etc. These, with the original drafts, are to be found with the Thompson plans in the Woburn Public Library.

362

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

in Woburn, known as the Mishawum House, which, though ou the line of the main stage routes, was also approached by way of the Middlesez Canal. This house was advertised as a "Hotel in Woburn " as early as the year 1813, in which year Thomas Murphy from Concord had taken it, describing it as a " pleas- ant and commodious honse, lately owned by Ichabod Parker." It was at that time "half a mile north of the [Woburn] meeting-house, and only nine miles from Charlestown bridge." Pains had then been taken to beautify the garden, to prepare walks and bowling-alleys, and there was also a large fish-pond near, and a variety of game in the neighboring woods and fields ; the place was also said to afford many charms to persons fond of exercise and sports. The proprietor, in 1813, had a large hall and could accom- modate companies for balls, fire-clubs, canal parties, etc., at the shortest notice; the canal, he said, at its season, afforded a romantic and charming ride. The house was only thirty rods from the canal banks. Small parties could take the packet boat, which arrived from Boston and Charlestown at one o'clock, after- noon, dine, spend the afternoon and the morning of the following day in fishing and gunning, and re- turn at one o'clock, the second day, in the same con- veyance, or they could be accommodated with a carriage, if desired. The house was on the direct road from Boston to Billerica, Amherst, N. H., Andover and Haverhill, Mass., and Portsmouth, N. H. The distance from Boston was just far enongh to ride without stopping, and boarders were accommodated on liberal terms. The house stood on Main Street, near corner of New Boston Street, on the estate now owned and occupied by Griffin Place. A portion of the building now stands on Kilby Street. Many years before, in 1775, Woburn was on the upper stage route from Boston to Portsmouth, and in 1812 the al- manacs speak of the town as being on the road from Boston to Amherst, N. H., all of which coincides with the statement given in the advertisement of the Mishawum Hotel of 1813. In 1828 the hotel was the half-way house between Boston and Lowell for the line of stage-coaches running between these two places, and fourteen stages each way are said to have made this house their frequent stopping-place. Cf. Woburn Journal, Angust 21, 1885.

EVENTS FROM THE GUIDE-POST .- The following list of notable events was prepared at our request by Mr. J. Cushiog Richardson, from the files of the Woburn Weekly Advertiser and Guide-post, 1846-1848. No. 1 of the former paper was dated Sept. 3, 1846. Vol. I, No. 1: Town-meeting, N. A. Richardson, moderator. Phalanx parade. Notice of Woburn Debating Club meeting and Episcopal services at the town-hall, Sept. 6. Advertisements of the Marion brass band, and of cemetery lots at auction, Sept. 24. No. 2: The daughter of Mr. Hood drowned in the canal near Hon. William Sturgis's. [Mr. Hood was butler for Mr. Sturgis .- J. C. R.] No. 4: A son of

Mr. B. Collins found drowned in a barrel of water. No. 5: Mr. Symmes buried in a well he was digging at South Woburn. No. 6: Rev. Mr. Sewall engaged for one year to preach at North Woburn ( New Bridge). No. 7: Decision in cock-fighting case.1 No. 8: New brick block (Wade's block) built. Debating clnb. Notice of lecture by Rev. Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois. No. 9: Fire, Isaac Shattuck's house, Richardson's Row entirely consumed. No. 11: A highway rob- bery, also a burglary. No. 15: Unitarian service. No. 17 : Advertisement for volunteers for Mexican War. Volunteers from the town. 1847. No. 28: Notice of a meeting for forming a Liberal Society. No. 31 : Notice of lecture by Rev. Mr. Sewal !- a lec- ture on Woburn. No. 37: Change of proprietors of the Guide-post. No. 48: Notice of Mr. Sewall, of Burlington, in relation to records of births, marriages and deaths. No. 50: Robbery of the A. and M. As- sociation. Vol. II, No. 1 (Oct. 7, 1847): Mr. L. Cox, Jr., ordained minister of the Second Baptist Church. Advertisement of man lost. No. 2 : Complimentary letter to A. H. Nelson, Esq., from the grand jury of Essex County. Married in Nashua, N. H., Rev. Joseph Bennett to Miss Caroline Esty, of Nashua. No. 3: Dr. John Nelson appointed justice of the peace. Card of Dr. T. Rickard. No. 4: Letter from grand jury of Middlesex County to A. H. Nelson, Esq. Notice of military muster. No. 5: Notice of a course of lyceum lectures. No. 6: Fire at New Bridge village. No. 8: The death of the Rev. Joseph Bennett; also notice of his funeral. 1848. No. 16: At a town-meeting held Jan. 18, voted to grant leave to fence the Common. No. 18 (Feb. 27) : Mr. John C. Stockbridge installed pastor of the First Baptist Church. No. 19: Mr. Jo-eph Richardson buried with military honors. No. 23: Town-meeting do- ings. No. 25: The First Cong. Church cail Rev. Jonathan Edwards, of Andover, to be their pastor.

The articles on local bistorical topics in the paper called Our Paper are found by the following references : Woburu in England (references already given in the first part of this article) ; Liberal Christianity ju Woburn, vol. i. (1876), pp. 65, 77, 85; vol. ii. (1876), pp. 1, 9, 17, 29, 37, 39, 57, 65, 73, 85, 86, 90 ; the Woburn Water Supply, vol. ii., p. 41 ; the Woburn Press, vol. ii., pp. 54, 62 ; the Woburn Library, vol. ii., pp. 54, 62, 71, 78, 91 ; also the issue for 1878, p. 2.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 105

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