History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 139

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 139

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In 1863 the whole vote of the town was cast for John A. Andrew for Governor. Sixteen men enlisted and constituted the quota of Weston under the call of the President of October 17, 1863. All these men were hired by the town. Under the additional call for 200,000 men, made the same year, were the fol- lowing :

James J. O'Connell, 4th Cnv. ; Charles H. Benton, 59th Regt. ; John Lund, 59th Regt. ; James Welch, 59th Regt. ; Arthur Martin, 3d Cav. ; Wm. Barrey, 4th Cav. ; Daniel Robinson, 56th Regt ; Cbnrles A. Fitch, 5th Cav. ; Win. C. Roberts, 55th Regt. ; Joseph Faybran, 59th Cav. ; Jolin Robinson, re-enlisted, 24th Regt. (killed Mny 14, 1864; Wm. Henry Carter, re-enlisted, 26th Regt. (killed Sept. 19, 1864); Eben Tucker, re-enlisted, Independent Bat. Cav .; William Cames, U. S. Navy (died in prison, June 13, IS64).

In town-meeting, November 14, 1863, voted that a committee of six be appointed, one for each district, to assist the recruiting officer in filling the town quota of soldiers, and placed $3200 in their hands for that purpose. In May, 1864, the town voted $125 for each man, to aid in filling any call that the Gen- eral Government has made or shall make upon this

497

WESTON.

town for soldiers for the year 1865. In June and July twelve men enlisted to fill the quota of Westou under the call of the President, July 18, 1864.

The amount the town paid for bounties during the war was $9025, to which amount the town's people, by private subscription, raised $5104.95. The ex- penses attending the drafts of 1863 and 1864 were $3524.90, making a total of $12,528.90. To this must be added the amount of State aid paid to the families of the soldiers in Weston, from 1862 to 1866, $3824.16. The town also paid $416.03 for the recovery of the bodies of George and William H. Carter and John Robinson, killed in battle. The number of men be- longing to Weston who went to the War of 1861 was 126. Of these, eight were killed, three died of wounds, and one died in Andersonville prison. A memorial tablet has been erected in the town library to the memory of the dead soldiers of the town.

The Massachusetts Central Railroad, in its concep- tion purely a speculative enterprise, has now come to maturity, on a solid basis, after twenty years of incu- bation. Not one of the original officers had per- sonally any practical experience either in building or operating railroads; they went to work blindly, and began their road "nowhere" and had ended in about the same place, as regards being within the reach of business. In 1868 an act passed the Legislature in- corporating the Wayland & Sudbury Railroad, which was to run from Mill Village, in Sudbury, to Stony Brook, on the Fitchburg Railroad. This was the origin of the Massachusetts Central. In 1869 the bill incorporating the Massachusetts Central passed the Legislature, superseding the previous act of the year before. The capital stock was fixed at $6,000,000, but the company voted to issue only $3,000,000. As the two years in which to file a location was about to. expire, a special act was passed extending the time to 1874. N. C. Munson, the contractor, failed, and all the sub-contractors failed with him. For several years the road was in a comatose condition. The cost of construction, in the fall of 1878, amounted to $2,782,932.78; there was a funded debt of $995,000 and an unfunded debt of $37,428.76. Work was re- sumed on the eastern end of the road, and in October, 1881, was opened from Boston to Hudson, twenty- eight miles ; in June, 1882, to Oakdale, forty-one miles, and to Jefferson, forty-eight miles. Governor Boutwell became president in 1880, remaining such until 1882, when he was succeeded by the Hon. S. N. Aldrich, of Marlboro'. Upon the failure of Charles A. Sweet & Co. work on the road was again suspended.

In 1883 the road was sold under foreclosure to a committee of the bondholders, S. N. Aldrich, Thomas H. Perkins and Henry Woods, and in 1885 they made a contract with the Boston and Lowell Rail- road to operate the Central. It was in operation under this contract for one year. In 1886 the Lowell road leased the property for ninety-nine years, the company issuing bonds to the amount of $2,000,000.

The road has to earn $500,000 to meet the interest on the bonded indebtedness, and there is prospect of its doing better than that. The credit for rescuing the Central road from a total wreck is due to the presi- dent, Hon. S. N. Aldrich, the assistant treasurer of the United States. This road, running through Cen- tral Massachusetts and Middlesex County, has a great and prosperons future before it. If the directors will follow in the footsteps of the Boston and Albany it can, in a few years, create a suburban population along its route, equal to that which now secures the yearly dividend of the Boston and Springfield Branch of the Albany road. Weston, through which the Central runs, can, by generous accommodation, be made the centre of a large population. The present size of Weston is 10,967 acres by actual survey, and has 155 acres in ponds. It is in general an uneven, and in some parts a broken tract of land; high cliffs, or ledges of rock are found within its limits. The town is elevated above the common level of the sur- rounding country and affords an extensive view of other parts. The soil is of a deep, strong loam, favor- able to the growth of trees, for the beauty of which this section is noted ; the hills are springy and suffer little from frost or drought ; brooks and rivulets abound on every side, and for the greater part rise within the limits of the town. The character of its inhabitants would not suffer by a comparison with those of any other towns in the Commonwealth. Few towns within a radius of twenty miles of Boston have preserved the old-time characteristics, both as regards population and customs, as Weston. The names of the descend- ants of the men of Concord and Lexington are to-day on the voting-list of the town ; property and estates have changed owners but little within the past cen- tury. The present population of the town is 1430. There were fourteen deaths in 1888, of which number six had reached the age of 70 and upwards, the oldest being 84 years. The property valuation in 1876 was $1,629,083 ; in 1888 it was $2,076,600, The town debt is $5695.93, and the rate of taxation $6.00,-among the lowest rates in the Commonwealth. The school ap- propriation was $4000. The finances of the town are managed with great care, while its roads and public buildings and improvements are liberally provided for in the yearly appropriations.

It is among the probabilities that more interesting details concerning the past history of Weston could have been introduced in this article were the records and documents belonging to it in a proper shape and order, and made accessible to the historian. In this respect Weston is sadly in need of immediate and in- telligent action. The records which should be in safes are now scattered over the town in careless in- difference to its good name, and those documents in the hands of the town clerk have never been properly filed or examined in the memory of the present gene- ration, and access to those in his hands are surrounded by such unwarrantable restrictions as to render them

498

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

of little use to the historian. It is to be hoped the State Commissioner will give this subject his earliest attention.

NORUMBEGA, THE ALLEGED FRENCH FORT ON THE CHARLES RIVER,-That it should have been the original intention of the founders, as far back as 1630, to have established the city of Boston in the southeast corner of Weston, seems to us, at this date, curious reading, to say the least of it. Winthrop's journal and Dudley's letter to the Countess of Lincoln leaves us in no doubt but that the point in Weston selected for a stockade fort or palisade was really established in Weston in 1631, as a French trading post command- ing the Indian trading resort near by. Mr. Justin Winsor calls this post the abandoned Boston. Pro- fessor Horsford in his untiring researches sought a spot at the confluence of Stony Brook with Charles River, in the town of Weston, and found there a ditch and embankment, which apparently had escaped the attention of all the local antiquaries of Watertown, Waltham and Weston. This ditch, which is not far from sixteen hundred feet in length, runs parallel to the water-line of the river and brook within the angle caused by their confluence, and follows the contour line of fifty-one feet above tide-water. About midway it bends into a loop, which nearly fills the apex of the angle. Across the base of this loop is another exca- vation of a like kind, which seems to have completed the circuit of the knoll lying within the loop. The earth of the ditch is thrown towards the river ; it is just such a ditch as would be dug in which to plant a stockade, returning the earth about the base. The work was evidently left unfinished, the stockade not being planted in the portions already excavated. We know that a few days after the arrival of Winthrop at Salem he set out on the 17th of June, 1630, for the purpose of exploring to find a convenient spot to found their town, and that they discovered such a place as " liked" or suited them "three leagues up Charles River."

At a later date, learning of the intention of the French to attack them, and finding their company so weakened by sickness that they were " unable to carry their ordnance and baggage so far" as the three leagues up the Charles, they changed their mind ; the news of the French led them to take more hasty measures ; they scattered about the mouth of the river, and it was probably at this time that work on the fort ceased, leaving their work incomplete. Mr. Winsor states that it is not impossible that these works at Stony Brook may be found to be this prema- ture and abandoned Boston. It was just such an extensive circumvallation as it may have been in- tended some months later to establish at Cambridge. In commenting upon Dudley's " three leagues up the Charles," Dr. Palfrey says that the spot must have been somewhere in Waltham or Weston, and "most likely near the mouth of Stony Creek," hitting pre- cisely the spot of Professor Horsford's discovery.

The grist-mill at Stony Creek, to which Professor Horsford alludes as having been freed from rates for twenty years from 1679, and to which was added a saw-mill, was in running order down to about 1850. The Brewer mill, spoken of by Drake, was not at Stony Brook, but is to-day in active operation as both a saw and grist-mill, on the farm of Harrington, for- merly within the limits of Weston, but now of Lin- coln. Professor Horsford has purchased a portion of the land embracing the Norumbega fort, and has erected upon it a stone tower which was dedicated in 1889 at Watertown; but why the ceremeny should have been held at Watertown, and not within the town upon the land of which the tower has been erected, has not been satisfactorily explained, and is considered by the inhabitants as a slight to their time- honored town.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

IVESTON-(Continued).

BIOGRAPHICAL.

ISAAC ALLEN, born in Weston, Oct. 31, 1771. After spending some years in learning a trade, he was encour- aged by his minister, the Rev. Dr. Kendall, to enter the ministry. Although much opposed by his parents, he commenced to prepare for college, and was fitted by Dr. Kendall for Harvard College at the age of twenty-three, graduating with the class of 1798. His class-mates were Judge Story, the Rev. Drs. Tuckerman and Channing. After pursuing a preparatory course with Dr. Kendall he began to preach, and received a call from the town of Bolton. He was ordained March 14, 1804, Dr. Kendall preaching his ordination sermon. He remained pastor of the church in Bolton for the remainder of his life-a period of forty years. During this long period he was never prevented by indisposi- tion from preaching but one Sunday. At the com- pletion of his seventieth year, in 1843, he applied for a colleague, and the Rev. R. S. Eads was installed as junior pastor. Mr. Allen died March 18, 1844, at the age of seventy-four years. He never married, and at his death left all his property to his church in Bolton.

EBENEZER ALLEN in 1710 married Elizabeth Eddy. She died, and in 1712 he married Sarah Waight. He had eleven children. Ebenezer Allen, the tenth ehild, married Tabitha, daughter of Francis Fullam, Esq., in 1742. He was town clerk of Weston in 1721, 1735 and 1738.

CAPTAIN ALPHEUS BIGELOW, sixth child of Josialı Bigelow, of Waltham, afterwards of Weston, was baptized in 1757, and married Euniee Mixer, of Waltham, in 1783. He went to the battle of Con- cord in Captain Whittemore's company of artillery,

ncis Blake

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WESTON.

of Weston ; he served through the War of the Rev- olution and was on picket guard at the surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga. Alphens was the fourth captain of the Weston Light Infantry Com- pany in 1797, organized in 1787.

ALPHEUS BIGELOW, eldest son of Captain Alpheus Bigelow, horn in 1784; graduated at Harvard Col- lege in 1810. He married Mary A. Hubbard Town- send, of Weston, and had seven children. He studied law in the office of Isaac Fiske and Tyler Bigelow, and was admitted to the bar in 1815. He repre- sented the town of Weston in the Legislature in 1827-28.

FRANK WINTHROP BIGELOW, son of Alpheus, born in 1833; graduated at Harvard in 1854, and studied law in the office of Senator Hoar. He en- tered the army in 1861 in the Thirteenth Regiment. He resides on the Bigelow homestead.

FRANCIS BLAKE was born December 25, 1850, at Needham, Mass. His birth-place was a short dis- tance from the Weston line, and a few rods only from the line separating Needham from Newton Lower Falls, with which village are associated the recollections of his early childhood.

Mr. Blake is of the eighth generation descended from William and Agnes Blake, who came to America from Somersetshire, England, in 1630, and settled at Dorchester, in that part of the town now called Milton. This aucestor was a distinguished leader in colonial affairs, and his descendants have kept his name in honorable prominence to the pres- ent time.

Mr. Blake is a grandson of the Honorable Fran- cis Blake, of Worcester, State Senator and for many years one of the most prominent members of the Worcester County bar, and son of Francis Blake, who engaged in business pursuits in early life, and from 1862 to 1874 served as United States ap- praiser at Boston. Mr. Blake's mother was Caro- line Burling, daughter of George Augustus Trum- bull, of Worcester, a kinsman of General Jonathan Trumbull, the original "Brother Jonathan," who was private secretary to George Washington.

Mr. Blake was educated at public schools until the year 1866, when his uncle, Commodore George Smith Blake, U.S.N., secured his appointment from the Brookline High School to the United States Coast Survey, in which service he acquired the scien- tific education which has led to his later successes in civil life.

Mr. Blake's twelve years of service in the Coast Survey have connected his name with many of the most important scientific achievements of the corps.

His first field work was in December, 1866, when he served as aid in a party organized for a hydrographic survey of the Susquehanna River, near Havre de Grace, MId., and his subsequent career in the service is outlined in the following synopsis of instructions received fro:n the superintendent :

January 8, 1867, ordered to hydrographic duty on the west coast of Florida and the north coast of Cuba.

April 1, 1867, raised one grade in the rank of aid.

June 20, 1867, ordered to astronomical duty at Har- vard College Observatory.

November 29, 1867, ordered to astronomical duty in Louisiana and Texas.

August 24, 1867, raised one grade in the rank of aid.

October 31, 1868, ordered to astronomical duty at Harvard College Observatory in connection with the trans-continental longitude determinations between the Observatory and San Francisco. On this occa- sion, for the purpose of determining the velocity of telegraphic time signals, a metallic circuit of 7000 miles with thirteen repeaters was used; and it was found that a signal sent from Cambridge to San Fran- cisco was received back, after traveling 7000 miles, in eight-tenths of a second.

April 29, 1869, ordered to the coast of New Jersey for astronomical and geodetic work.

May 1, 1869, raised three grades in rank of aid.

July 8, 1869, ordered to Shelbyville, Ky., to ob- serve the total solar eclipse of August 7, 1869.

October 7, 1869, ordered to determine the astronom- mical latitude and longitude of Cedar Falls, Ia., and I St. Louis, Mo. It was understood that the successful accomplishment of this work would be deemed ground for promotion, and on November 11, 1869, Mr. Blake was promoted to the rank of sub-assistant.

October 15, 1869, ordered to Europe for the deter- mination of the astronomical difference of longitude betweet Brest, France, and Harvard College Observa- tory, by means of time-signals sent through the French Atlantic cable.

June 27, 1870, raised a grade in the rank of sub- assistant.

September 12, 1870, ordered to Harper's Ferry, Md., for astronomical duty at station " Maryland Heights."

November 22, 1870, detached from Coast Survey and appointed astronomer to the Darien Exploring Expedition, under the command of Commander Self- ridge, U.S.N. This expedition was for the examin- ation of the Atrato and Tuyra River routes for a ship canal across the Isthmus of Darien. Mr. Blake's work included the determination of astronomical lati- tudes and longitudes of several points on the Gulf and Pacific coasts, and in the interior, as well as a determination of the difference of longitude between Aspinwall and Panama. In a letter dated March 9, 1871, Commander Selfridge wrote to the superinten- dent as follows :

"Upon the close of Mr. Blake's connection with the expedition, it gives me great pleasure to bear wit- ness to the zeal, ability and ingenuity with which he has labored, and to recommend him to your favorable consideration."

July 1, 1871, raised a grade in rank of sub-assist-

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ant, the letter from the superintendent to the secre- tary, recommending his advancement, stating that- " His observations have invariably borne the severest tests in regard to accuracy."

July 3, 1871, ordered to the Shenandoah Valley, Va., for astronomical duty at stations "Clark's Moun- tain " and "Bull Run Mountain."

Assistant Charles O. Boutelle, at the close of the work, wrote, under date of October 30, 1871 :

" The symmetrical precision of the latitude observa- tions made by you at Maryland Heights, Clark and Bull Run stations has never been excelled in the Coast Survey. The results do you great credit, and I shall take very great pleasure in reporting upon them to the superintendent."

January 1, 1872, raised a grade in the rank of sub- assistant.

March 21, 1872, ordered to Europe for astronomical duty in connection with the third and final determi- nation of the difference of longitude between Green- wich, Paris and Cambridge. Mr. Blake was engaged for more than a year in this great work, which was carried on under the general direction of Professor J, E. Hilgard, then assistant in charge of the Coast Survey Office, and later superintendent of the Coast Survey. Mr. Blake made all the European observa- tions, being stationed successively at Brest, France ; the Imperial Observatory, Paris; and the Royal Ob- servatory, Greenwich. Returning to the United States, he was stationed at Cambridge and Washing- ton for the determination of differences of personal equation.

April 1, 1873, promoted from the rank of sub- assistant to the rank of assistant.

June 9, 1873, ordered to astronomical duty at Madison and LaCrosse, Wis., and Minneapolis, Minn.

June 17, 1873, offered charge of Transit of Venus Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere, which was reluctantly declined on account of domestic ties.

November 21, 1873, ordered to astronomical duty at Savannah, Ga.

May 18, 1874, ordered to duty in the preparation for publication of the results of transatlantic lon- gitude work. This work involved a re-discussion of the result of the transatlantic longitude determi- nations in 1866 and 1870, as well as an original dis- cussion of the final determination of 1872, Mr. Blake was so engaged for more than two years, and the results of his labors are embodied in Appendix No. 18, "United States Coast Survey Report, 1874."

The finally accepted values for the difference of longitude between Harvard College Observatory and Greenwich, derived from three independent determi- nations, are ;

HOURS.

MIN.

SEC.

1866

30.99

1870.

30.98

1872.

30.98

Mean

414

30,98

The precision of the work will- perhaps be more evident to the general reader when it is said that the above results justify the statement that the distance between London and Boston has been thrice meas- ured, with a resulting difference in the measurements of a little more than ten feet,

Mr. Blake's observations of 1872 gave a new result for the difference 'of longitude between the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and the Imperial-Observa- tory at Paris,-9 min., 20.97 sec. The previously ac- cepted value was 9 min., 20.63 sec., which left a dif- ference of 0.34 sec., or 111 feet, to be accounted for.

Subsequent observations by European astronomers have confirmed Mr. Blake's results, and the finally accepted value is 9 min., 20.95 sec.

It was found that the transmission time of.a signal from France to America through 3000 miles of cable was a little more than one-third of a second.

June 16, 1877, ordered to represent the Coast Sur- vey at a conference of the Commission appointed to fix the boundary line between New York and Penn- sylvania.

September 11, 1877, ordered to geodetic duty in connection with a re-survey of Boston Harbor under the direction of the Massachusetts Board of Harbor Commissioners.

This was the last field work performed by Mr. Blake, whose active career in the Coast Survey closed with the following correspondence :

" WESTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 5 April, .1878.

"Sir : Private affairs not permitting me at present to discharge my official duties, I respectfully tender my resignation as an Assistant in the United States Coast Survey.

"It is impossible for me to express in official language the regret with which I thus close the twelfth year of my service.

" Very respectfully yours,

"FRANCIS BLAKE, Assistant U. S. C. S.

"To the Honorable C. P. PATTERSON,

"Superintendent U. S. Coast Survey, Washington, D. C."

"U. S. COAST SURVEY OFFICE, Washington, April 9, 1878.

"Sir : I regret very greatly to have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of April 5th, tendering your resignation as an Assistant in the United States Coast Survey.

" I accept it with the greatest reluctance, and heg to express thue officially my sense of your high abilities and character,-abilities trained to aspire to the highest honors of scientific position, and character to inspire confidence and esteen.

"So loath am I to sever entirely your official connection with the Survey, that I must rr quest you to allow me to retain your name upon the list of the Survey as an 'extra observer,' under which title Prof. B. Pierce, Prof. Lovering, Dr. Gould, Prof. Winlock and others had theil. names classed for many years. This will, of course, be merely honorary ; but it gives me a 'quasi' authority to communicate with you in a semi-official way as exceptional occasion may suggest.

"Your resignation is accepted to date from April 15th.

" Youre respectfully,

"C. P. PATTERSON, Supt. Coast Survey. " F. BLAKE, Assistant Coast Survey."

During the last two years of his service in the Coast Survey Mr. Blake had much of the time been engaged in office-work at his home in Weston.

In his leisure moments he had devoted himself to experimental physics, and in so doing had become an enthusiastic amateur mechanic; so that at the

J.It Bruwr st

"KEEWAYDIN." RESIDENCE OF MR. FRANCIS BLAKE, WESTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

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WESTON.

time of his resignation he found himself in possession of a well-equipped mechanical laboratory and a self- acquired ability to perform a variety of mechanical operations. It was natural, under these conditions, that what had been a pastime should become a seri- ous pursuit in life; and in fact within barely a month of the date of his resignation Mr. Blake had begun a series of experiments, which brought forth the " Blake Transmitter," as preseuted to the world through the Bell Telephone Company in November, 1878.

Mr. Blake's invention was of peculiar value at that time, as the Bell Telephone Company was just begin- ning litigation with a rival company, which, beside being financially strong, had entered the business field with a transmitting telephone superior to the original form of Bell instrument.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 139

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