History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 109

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 109

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A miniature directory of Woburn, prepared by Nathan Wyman in 1850, contains the names of the following physicians resident in Woburn in that year : Augustus Plympton, Benjamin Cutter, S. Wat-

minute facts in relation to the history of the town and its inbabitaets. He could tell you, for he has visited them, the precise spot where nearly all the first settlers of Woburn lived, and where they died, and what became of the succeeding generations of children. With a retentive memory, a well cultivated and inquiring mind, and a familiar profes- sional acquaintance with nearly all the families residiog in town for the last thirty-eight years, his decision in relation to any genealogical fact was considered final.

For the last thirty-five years he has been one of the most active and influential members of the first Congregational society, and for many years the clerk of the church, and at the time of his death was en- gaged in making an historical catalogue of all the members of the church from its organization ; a work of this kind from a pen like bis would have been of the greatest historical value.

In social life he was an affable, true-hearted friend. His honesty was proverbial, and his character was above reproach. His modesty was akin to bashfulness, yet he was possessed with a courage that did not seek the approbation of others, por fear their censure. He early en- listed in the cause of temperance, when to be its advocate insured to one cold looks, bitter words, and a loss of practice. He never thought of these things, however, but only asked what was the duty of a true man. The ready and cheerful manner with which he worked in all causes which tend to elevate and educate society is itself a noble monument to his memory.

He had a noble professional pride, and was not envious of his follow- laborers in the medical profession. 1 do not think he ever spoke un- kindly of any of theci. It was not his way to parade the mistakes or faults of others before the world, und if he bad anything to say it was to them, not of them.

No one could be more missed by the community at large than he, and many are the tears that will drop with those of his bereaved family inte his newly-opened grave.

Issue for March 18, 1864, contains a notice of Dr. Cutter's funeral. Cf. also Townsmun for April 1, 1864, and Woburn Journul, April 2, 1864.

" John L. Parker.

b By Nathan Wyman.

375

WOBURN.

son Drew, John Nelson, Truman Rickard, Richard U. Piper, John Clough, Thomas S. Scales.1

We will not attempt a history of the physicians in Woburn since 1850. The oldest of them now living here is Dr. John M. Harlow, a native of Whitehall, N. Y., and in early life a teacher; he began the study of medicine in 1840, studied in the Philadel- phia School of Anatomy, and graduated at the Jef- ferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1844. In January, 1845, he commenced the practice of his profession at Cavendish, Vt., and remained there fifteen years, till obliged to retire from ill health. He settled in practice in Woburn in 1861,2 where he has held a great variety of offices, and among them that of State Senator two terms.

Dr. Harlow has a world-wide reputation for a case under his treatment of recovery from the passage of an iron bar through the head. The subject of it was a young man who, while engaged in drilling a hole in a rock in Cavendish, Vt., on the 13th of Septem- ber, 1848, a premature explosion of the blast drove this iron implement completely through his head and high into the air. The iron was three feet seven inches in length, round, and comparatively smooth by use. After the accident the man was carried some distance in an ox-cart, but got out of the cart himself with little assistance, and later walked up a long flight of stairs, with the help of his physician, and got upon the bed in the room where he was placed. The man spoke and said : "The iron entered there," pointing to the hole in his cheek, "and passed through my head." He hoped he was "not much hurt." The iron had passed through the brain, and the patient con- tinued in a reasonably comfortable state, with his mind clear, saying he did not "care to see his friends," and said he should "be at work in a few days." After lingering between life and death-his friends were so certain of his immediate death that they had his coffin and clothes in readiness-he gradually improved under treatment and recovered, after which he took to traveling, visited many places near home, and in 1852 turned his back upon New England never to return. He remained nearly eight years in Chili, South America, and eventually went to San Francisco, Cal., and died there of convulsions on May 21, 1861, twelve years and six months after the date of his accident.3

THE LEGAL PROFESSION .- The legal profession does not have auy exclusively professional repre- sentatives in Woburn till a comparatively late period. The ordinary law business that existed in the earlier time was performed by persons holding the offices of magistrates, and it may be supposed that the more liberally educated members of the community, such as the clergymen, and, even where such were to be found, the physicians, attempted some forms of that business, such as the writing of wills and deeds. There were various justices of the peace in the earlier period, specimens of whose handiwork in the prepa- ration of legal documents are still preserved. Among these may be mentioned William Johnson, son of Edward ; Samuel Carter, son of Rev. Thomas; James Converse, the major; Jonathan Tyng; Eleazer Flagg ; Jonathan Poole; and, of still later date, James Fowle, whose commission is still preserved, dated November 19, 1761; Josiah Johnson,1 Samuel Thompson, Samuel Wyman and Zebadiah Wyman ; and later still, before lawyers were accounted numer- ous, Timothy Winn and Benjamin Wyman. Two of the above personages, viz. : Samuel Thompson and Benjamin Wyman, have left papers which are still accessible in abundance, showing the large number of actions which were prosecuted before them and the great number of estates which were settled.

LAWYERS .- JOSEPH BARTLETT, EsQ., attorney-at- law in Woburn as early as 1790, per that valuable pub- lication called the Massachusetts Register, was named in Esquire Thompson's accounts in Woburn from August, 1788, to December, 1792. This Esquire Bartlett was styled "Captain " in Woburn from 1789 to 1796. In 1797 his career as a lawyer in Woburn had ended by his removal to Cambridge. He was a graduate of Harvard College in 1782, and is said to have been a native of Plymouth. He left Cam- bridge about 1809, and afterwards resided in Ports- mouth, Saco and in Boston, in which place he died in 1827, "his sun" said to have "went down in a cloud." He had no children. The Woburn diarist, Esquire Thompson, refers to him, under date of January 2, 1789, as follows : "Cloudy and fair. At Capt. Bartlett's." This entry shows that the Es- quire had settled in Woburn by that date. Again Esquire Thompson records : " August 25, 1790. Some cloudy and some fair. Mr. Bartlett's house raised." And again he records : "June 20, 1797. Went to Cambridge to Capt. Bartlett's." This shows that the captain, otherwise the squire, had then, or by that time, removed to Cambridge. His house in Wo- burn was known by the name of the Black House,

1 For obituary notice of Dr. Stephen Watson Drew, see Woburn Jour- nal, Feb. 20, 1875 ; Woburn Advertiser, Feb. 25, 1875 ; for Dr. John Nel- son, Woburn Towusman, March 25, April 1, 1864 ; Woburn Journal, April 2, 1864; Truman Rickard, Woburn Journal, August 10, 1861 ; Woburn Budget, Ang. 9, 16, 1861 ; John Clough (physician and dentist), Woburn Journal, Dec. 6, 1879; Woburn Advertiser, Nov. 27, Dec. 4, 1879 ; Thomas S. Scales (Homeopathic), Woburn Journal, June 17, 1881; Woburn Ad- vertiser, Juoe 16, 1881.

Dr. Drew was a native of Milton, N. H. ; Dr. Nelson, of Milford, Mass. (Cf. Ballon's Hist. Milford, 928); Dr. Rickard, of Cornish, N. H. ; Dr. Clough, of Sanbornton or Tilton, N. H. ; Dr. Scales, of Henni- ker, N. H.

" Cf. Woburn Budget, Nov. 8, 1861.

a For a published account of this case, see " Recovery from the passage

of an iron har through the head," by John M. Harlow, M.D., of Wo- burn ; with a plate. An address before the president and fellows of the Massachusetts Medical Society, read June 3, 1868. 20 pp.

4 Some of these names are recognized in Whitmore's Civil List of Muss., viz., justices of the peace: William Johnson, 1692; Major James Converse, 1700, 1702; Jonathan Tyng, 1700; Eleazer Flagg ; Jonathan Poole, 1727, 1729, 1731 ; Josiah Johnson, 1755, 1761 ; James Fowle, 1761.

376

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

from its color, and was called by that name as long as it stood, which was after the year 1850. It stood on the estate now numbered 732 Main Street, near present Central Square, the residence where dwells the writer of this brief sketch of the first lawyer by profession to settle in Woburn. The low, one-story building, now occupied as a dwelling at Central Square, near the junction of Main and Vine Streets, but located ou Main Street, and sometimes called the Poole honse by the older citizens, is said to have been erected for his law-office. This point in his day was an important business centre in Wo- burn, being on the line of two important stage- routes, and conveniently reached. His practice was probably as fair as the circumstances of the town would warrant. He possessed a singular taste for his time in house-decoration. In Woburn he had his house painted black, with white paint for the window-sashes and green for the doors. At Saco he is said to have built a house of a round form, and to have painted it a fiery red color. Cf. Paige's Hist. Camb., 484.

LOAMMI BALDWIN, attorney, 1803-1805. Gradu- ate Harvard College, 1800. Died 1838. Son of Col. Loammi Baldwin. Born in Woburn, 1780. He was the distinguished civil engineer.

Loammi Baldwin, "father of civil engineering in America," is one among the leaders of industrial work in this country, to whom the community owes much. There were few works of internal improvement car- ried out in America during the first thirty years of the present century with which he was not connect- ed. Two great works-the Government dry docks at Charlestown and Norfolk-stand unsurpassed to-day among the engineering structures of the country as specimens of his skill. Such is the commendation passed upon him by his biographer, Prof. George L. Vose, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Loammi Baldwin, Esq., was the son of Colonel Loam- mi Baldwin, and was born in Woburn, May 16, 1780. He fitted for college, and graduated from Harvard College in 1800. His inclination at that time was towards mechanical subjects, to which very little at- tention was paid in the college curriculum, and while in college he made, with his own hands, a clock, which kept good time, and was the wonder and ad- miration of his class. He commenced the study of law at Groton, after graduating from college, and sig- nalized himself there in a mechanical capacity by the construction of a fire-engine in 1802, which is still in use. Loammi Baldwin, the subject of this notice, died June 30, 1838.

He opened an office in Cambridge, as a lawyer, in 1804, which business he pursued about three years, when he turned his attention to engineering, going to England in 1807 with that object in view, and on his return settled in Charlestown. For a fuller account of his ability as an engineer and his professional works, see A Sketch of the Life and Works of Loammi

Baldwin, Civil Engineer, by George L. Vose : Boston, 1885, 28 pp., 8vo, with a portrait. An account of the fire-engine, "Torrent," 1802, with an illustration, is given in Dr. Samuel A. Green's Groton Historical Series, vol. ii. pp. 393, 394. This was the first fire- engine in Groton, and after a use of more than eighty- seven years will throw a stream of water over the highest roofs in town. Thus Loammi Baldwin's con - trivance for extinguishing fires has been a very useful and effective one, and Dr. Green says, on several oc- casions it has prevented serious conflagrations in the town of Groton.

ABNER BARTLETT, attorney, 1804-1806. Removed to Medford, where his name appears 1808.

He was a native of Plymouth, and graduated at Harvard College 1799, and died in 1850, aged seventy - four. Cf. Brooks' History of Medford, 309. Ab- ner Bartlett and Sarah B. Burgess, both of Woburn, were married December 21, 1806.

WYMAN RICHARDSON, ESQ., attorney-at-law, in Woburn, in 1811, and still the same in 1837, was for a long period apparently the only lawyer living in the town. He died in 1841. He was adjutant in the militia, 1820, and brigade major, 1823-1836. He was born in Woburn, February 19, 1779; graduated at Harvard College, 1804; studied law and practiced in Woburn; and died suddenly in this town, June 22, 1841, aged sixty-one. Cf. R. Mem. 336, 337.

WILLIAM C. JARVIS, EsQ., attorney-at-law, 1831- 1833. He represented Woburn in the Legislature in 1830, was Speaker of the House of Representatives, 1823, 1824, 1826, and 1827, and at one time a candi- date for Governor. Cf. Winchester Record, i. 128.

" WINCHESTER, Oct. 21, 1889.

" MR. CUTTER :- I send you some facts about William C. Jarvis, which you can use as you please. 1 well remember him when he lived in South Woburn, although I was a small boy when he came here in 1825 or '26. He bought the Swan farm, where the Grammers lived when they moved out here in 1822. After Jarvis moved away, about 1835 Isaac Shattuck bought the farm-tho Shattuck who at one time kept the Academy boarding-house in Woburn. Jarvis, 1 am sure, came bere from Pittsfield, Mass., where he was living in 1820, and where he wrote and published a book of 400 pages, called the 'Republican, or a series of essays on the principle and policy of free states.' I have read it, an in- teresting and able work. I do not know where he was born, but do know that he moved to Claremont, N. H., and in 1838, when about fifty years old, went over the Connecticut River to the town opposite and shot himself, dying instantly. He was quite a book farmer, a good echolar, a stout-built man. He bad a law-office in Woburn, where he went daily, riding in a two-wheeled chaise, with a dog always following behind. He was round-shouldered, had a cock-eye, red face, was a high liver, hard drinker aud fond of women ; had no children. I think his wife died here. When he left town his furniture was sold at auction. My father bought a mahogany dining table, which 1 now have. It was said he bought a farm and moved here to run as a candidate for Gover- nor. I am sure he was a candidate and rau as the free bridge candi- date-to abolish the toll over Warren Bridge, which at that period was being agitated. 1 think he was elected Speaker of the house when a inember. IIe was a Whig in politics and strongly opposed by Col. John Wade, but on account of his being strong for the free bridge was elected. Most respectfully yours, etc., N. A. RICHARDSON.11

ALBERT H. NELSON, EsQ.,1 attorney-at-law, 1842-

I Lawyers uamed in miniature Woburn directory for 1850. For obituary notices of James M. Raudall seo Woburn Journal, August 3, 1861 ;

377

WOBURN.

Albert Hobart Nelson, Esq., of Woburn, died omerville, June 27, 1858, aged forty-six years. was son of Dr. John Nelson, and was born in .ilford, Mass., March 12, 1812. He graduated at Harvard College in 1832, studied law in the office of Samuel Hoar, of Concord, Mass., and in 1839 entered on the practice of his profession at Concord, and in 1842 removed to Woburn. He was appointed district attorney for Middlesex about 1846, and filled the po- sition in a most satisfactory manner. He was a member of the Massachusetts Senate for two succes- sive sessions, 1848 and 1849; a member of the Execu- tive Council in 1854, and continued thus till trans- ferred to the chief justiceship of the Superior Court of Suffolk County in 1855. He sat on the bench till the spring of 1858, when he was obliged to resign be- cause of continued ill-health, severe shocks of paraly- sis mastering him and carrying him to the grave. He was an able and accomplished lawyer, of culti- vated intellect, popular, easy and graceful in manner. Woburn had reason to be proud of him as a citizen, for his many able qualities and his public spirit. Cf. Woburn Journal, July 3, 1858; Woburn Budget, July 2, 1858 ; Ballou's Hist. Milford, 928.

ASA SPAULDING and JAMES M. RANDALL,1 1847. JOSHUA P. CONVERSE1 (under the firm of Nelson & Converse). GORHAM PARKES.1

The lawyers since this period have been numerous and we may be pardoned if their names are omitted. Most of those who have settled here since 1850 are still living, and their names also are given under the history of the bar in Middlesex County in another part of this volnme.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

WOBURN-(Continued).

MILITARY HISTORY-THE COLONIAL AND PRO- VINCIAL PERIODS, 1642-1775.

BY W. R. CUTTER.

THE TRAIN-BAND .- A few remarks of a general nature on this hitherto neglected subject in the history of Woburn may not be out of place. The militia of the colonial period was intended for the public de- fence, and the companies composing it were expected to perform arduons duty and to accomplish important military achievements. The training-day was then no " mere playing at soldiers," but a serious study for the defence of the Commonwealth. The regulations covering many pages of the Colony records, and the

acts and resolves of the Province, testify to the im- portance attached to it [see Mem. Hist. Boston, ii. 481]; and the colonists placed on record their belief that their safety and peace could not be preserved "without military orders and officers." Military ser- vice was required of all able-bodied men to 1686, and such service commenced at the age of 16 years, and no limit was prescribed for its close. Men of 76, and even older, were active in the ordinary train- ings, and men of 60 were always found drilling in the ranks. In the old country it had been the practice to enlist men in the train-band at 16 years and to dis- miss them at 60.2 In 1689 the term of service was shortened from 16 to 60 years, though the officers often voluntarily served till a much later period of life. The historian of Cambridge mentions several notable examples in that town, such as Samuel Green, the veteran printer, who held military office at Cam- bridge about sixty years, being sergeant, 1643; ensign, 1660; lieutenant, 1686, and captain, 1689, when he was seventy-five years old. He died, evidently still in office, in 1702, aged 87. He possessed, it was said, an extraordinary martial genius, and in an obituary notice of his son, in 1733, it was stated that his father took such great delight in the military exercise, that the arrival of the training-days would raise his spirits, and when he was so aged that he could not walk, he would be carried out in his chair into the field, to view and order his company. Daniel Gookin, of Cambridge, whose name is frequently mentioned in connection with Woburn affairs, was another example of a person of great age serving as an active military officer. He was captain of the Cambridge train-band about forty years, and continued to be the captain or commander of his local company, while he held the offices of a sergeant-major, or commander of a county regiment, and major-general, or commander of all the military force of the Colony; the immediate command of his company while he occupied these higher offices being exercised by a lieutenant, sometimes styled captain- lieutenant. Promotion was slow, and the practice prevailed, and continued probably till the Revolution, for a captain to be the captain of his company, how- ever highly he might be promoted, so long as he was in office. Other instances might be cited of old men remaining long in office, such as Captain Thomas Prentice, of Cambridge, the part now Brighton, cap- tain of the troop distinguished in Philip's War, sev- eral members of which were from Woburn; John Wyman, of Woburn, holding the office of its cornet and later of its lieutenant in that war. Edward Oakes, of Cambridge, was quartermaster of this troop in 1656, and twenty years afterwards was engaged with it in Philip's War, with the office of a cornet and later a lieutenant. All these Cambridge officers

Woburn Budget, August 2, 1861. He was born in Princeton, son of Ed- ward and Eliza, and died of apuplexy August 1, 1861, aged forty years, one month, nine days. For similar notices of Joshna P. Converse see Woburn Journal, March 18, 1876; Woburn Advertiser, March 16, 1876. Mr. Converse was a graduate of Brown University, 1844.

2 See a contemporary document of date 1659, printed in Paige's Hist. of Cambridge, pp. 401-02, on the subject wby old men of sixty should not be required to train. Another example of the effect of training on old men is given in the same work, p. 402.

378

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

named were old men at the end of their service, and the youngest of them died at the age of 75, and the oldest at 89 years. Thus it will be seen that a com- missioned officer in the colonial militia served prac- tically for life; that the unit of military organization was the company otherwise called the town training- band or train-band, and that the direct maintenance of military discipline depended upon the captains. These officers were clothed with considerable power. Promotion was also systematic and regular, and long service in any office the rule. The duties of any office, however dangerous, were considered as an obli- gation and an honor. Revelations from contemporary documents show that some of these men possessed a severe and crusty temper, but they exhibited un- doubted bravery in battle.1

Two-thirds of a company, to 1673, were often mus- keteers, or men carrying fire-arms, while the other third were armed with pikes or lances. The pike- men wore corselets and head-pieces, and those who could not afford corselets wore buff-coats, or quilted coats. The commissioned officers of an infantry company were three a captain, a lieutenant and an officer called an ensign, who, when the company could afford to have one, carried a standard or ensign or flag. These officers had power to punish their men for military offences. A foot company had sixty- four members, besides officers, and each foot company had two drums. A cavalry troop was not allowed to exceed seventy members, and one troop was assigned to each county regiment. The commissioned officers of a troop were a captain, a lieutenant, and a cornet- the last the third officer in rank, whose duty it was to bear the ensign or colors of the troop, a duty anal- ogous to that of the ensign of infantry.

The latest instance found of the use of the term training-band for au infantry company in Woburn is in 1787. The term is found in a document en- dorsed with the title "The Train-band," containing the list of the names of the members, and an account of the arms, equipments and ammunition possessed by the company, which, on Monday, April 30, 1787, met for a review or inspection, of which the above docu- ment is a report.

The list following comprises the officers of the local train-band, or foot company, in the town of Woburn during the colonial period. All the offices held by an individual are included under his name.

OFFICERS OF THE TRAIN BAND IN WOBURN, 1642-1692. Captains.

Edward Johnson, died 1672, aged 73 ; lieutenant in Woburn, 1644-49 ; of military company of Middlesex, 1645; captain, 1650-72.

John Carter, died 1692, aged 76 ; ensign in Woburn company, 1651-61; lieutenant, 1664-72 ; captain, 1672-92. Iu the General Court records is this entry : " Woburn military officers. Upon a motion in behalf of Wo- burn company, it is ordered that Lieut. John Carter be captain, William Johnson, lieutenant, und Jaines Converso, ensign, to the foot company

1 A curious instance of hasty temper on the part of Major Gookin is given in Paige's Hist. Cumb., p. 563. John Johnson, apparently of Wo- burn, was one of the witnesses.

there," 1672. The inscription on his gravestone in the first burying- gronod at Woburn Centre is as follows: "Captain John Carter, aged about 76 years, deceased the 14th of September, 1692."

William Johnson, died 1704, aged 74 ; eusigo in Woburn company, 1664-72; lieutenant, 1672-88 ; captain, 1690-91; major, 1692-17(4. There is preserved one incident of his military experience. Oo the night of August 23, 1695, after au alarm occasioned by the killing aod capture of fifteen persons by the Indiaos at Billerica on the 5th iust. preceding, some 300 men assembled in arms at Billerica, from Wo- buro, Reading, Malden and other towns, under the conduct or com- mand of Major William Johnson and other officers, where they were found by another officer who had been deputed by the government to command them. Their further operations, with Major William Jobu- 800 as second io command, are described in a document presented in Frothingham's Charlestown, 24], and in Hazen's Billerica, 132-33. A thorough search of the conutry to the north ward of Billerica by this ex- pedition failed to discover the enemy io force anywhere, and the men who had assembled for the pursuit of the foe were dismissed.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 109

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