History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 79

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 79

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The pulpit was constantly supplied by the town during the last sickness of Mr. Adams, and after his

decease. In the next month a committee was chosen to procure a candidate. They engaged Mr. Marshall Shedd, who was graduated at Dartmouth in 1817, and was then a member of the Rev. Mr. Greenough's church in Newton, Massachusetts, which was his native town.

On the 20th of February, 1820, Mr. Shedd was unanimously invited by the church to become their pastor, and on the 13th of March the town unani- mously voted to give him a call. Five hundred dol- lars was offered as a settlement, which was increased by subscription and the salary was fixed at six hun- dred dollars, with fifteen cords of wood. In case of permanent inability the salary was to be reduced to two hundred dollars. This liberal offer was accepted, and on the 10th of May Mr. Shedd was ordained pastor of the church and minister of the congrega- tion in Acton.

The ordaining council consisted of Mr. Willard, of Boxborough ; Mr. Newell, of Stow ; Mr. Greenough, of Newton ; Mr. Litchfield, of Carlisle; Dr. Ripley, of Concord ; Dr. Homer, of Newton; Mr. Foster, of Littleton ; Dr. Holmes, of Cambridge; Mr. Blake, of Westford ; Dr. Pierce, of Brookline; Mr. Noyes, of Needham ; Mr. Hulbert, of Sudbury, with delegates from their respective churches. Such a combination of religious opinions in an ordaining council obtained by a unanimous vote of both church and congrega- tion was very remarkable at that period, and dis- covers a liberality of Christian feeling which is worthy of all imitation.

Mr. Shedd was a pious, peaceable and exemplary minister, with more than ordinary talents and indus- trions in the discharge of duty. It was a time of great religious conflict. The heat of controversy became intense in all this vicinity of towns, resulting in the division of churches and congregations.

Parochial difficulties multiplied in all directions. Acton began to feel the irritations of the epoch. Mr. Shedd labored to harmonize the colliding elements, but the lines of divergence were too sharply drawn, and he bowed to the inevitable and gracefully retired.

Providence opened to him, as he thought, a more hopeful field for himself and family in what was then the new settlements in Northern New York, he decid- ed to enter it, and in May, 1831, the corporation, which was now called a parish, concurred with the church in granting Mr. Shedd's request that his connection might be dissolved, and in the same month that agree- ment was confirmed by an ecclesiastical council.

Mr. Shedd came to Acton a married man, his companion having been born in Newton, like himself a Miss Eliza Thayer, daughter of Obadiah Thayer. He resided with Mr. Shedd in Acton at the parsonage.

He is still remembered by some of the oldest in- habitants of Acton as a man of great excellence of character, a rare mingling of refined and positive traits, an unswerving advocate of truth and righteous- ness. He died in Hillsborongh, N. Y., in 1834.

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The first year of Mr. Shedd's pastorate was event- ful. On the 10th of May he was ordained. On the 21st of Jnne he became the father of one of the most notable and worthy men now living. It is no ordin- ary honor for the parsonage and the town to be the birth-place of Rev. Prof. William G. T. Shedd, D.D.

The simple surface record of the man runs thus : born in Acton, June 21, 1820; graduated at the University of Vermont, Burlington, in 1839; at Andover Seminary in 1843; pastor of Brandon, Vermont, 1843-15 ; Professor of English Literature in the University of Vermont, 1845-52; Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral Theology in Anburn Seminary, 1852-54; Professor of Ecclesi- astical History and Pastoral Theology in Andover Seminary, 1854-62; co-pastor of the Brick Presby- terian Church, New York City, 1862-63; Professor of Sacred Literature in Union Theological Seminary, New York City, 1863-74; Professor of Systematic Theology in Union Seminary since 1874.

His publications are: History of Christian Doc- trine, Theological Essays, Literary Essays, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, Sermons to the Natural Man, Translation of Guericke's Church History, Translation of Theremin's Rhetoric.

He has adorned every position which he has tonched. He is a scholar, a gentleman, an author, a preacher, a philosopher, a theologian, a Christian of the very highest order in the land, and so acknow)- edged even by those not always agreeing with his views.

He has not forgotten his birth-place or, the scenes of his boyhood, though leaving the place when eleven years old and visiting it but twice since that time.

He remembers his old family physician, Dr. Cowdry ; Deacon Silas Hosmer, one of the officers of the church, who died at the age of eighty-four ; the two Fletchers, Deacon John and his brother James; the Faulkner mills, where there were about a dozen houses when last he saw it ; East Acton, the place where he went to take the stage, upon the main road, when great journeys were to be made; Wetherbee's Hotel and some fine old elms, which he hopes are still standing; Deacon Phineas Wheeler and his grist-mill, to which he often carried the grist; the Common in Acton Centre, now covered with fine shade-trees, where there was not a siogle tree of any kind when he played ball upon it in his boyhood; those inscrip- tions upon the grave-stones around the monument which he used to read when a boy in the old ceme- tery ; the huckleberry and blueberry bushes still growing in the same rough pastures, where he has picked many a quart.

He is now in his seventieth year, but there are some still living who recall his early days on the street and at the parsonage. He was a model youth, and had in him at the start elements which all recog- nized as the promise of his future career, if his life should be spared.

The following tributes to the memory of his father and mother were received in a letter from him dated December 23, 1889: " My father lived to the great age of eighty-five, dying in Hillsborough, N. Y., in 1872. After leaving Acton he was never settled as a pastor, but for many years, until age and infirmities prevented, he preached to the feeble churches in the region, and did a great and good work in the moral and religious up-building of society. My mother died soon after our family removed to Northern New York, which was in October, 1831. She departed this life in February, 1833. I was only twelve years of age, but the impress she made upon me in those twelve years is greater than that made by any other human being, or than all other human beings collectively."

In the same letter he gives this record of his two brothers-younger than himself-whom several old schoolmates, now living in Acton, remember with interest. Marshall died in Hillsborough, N. Y., in 1879, in the Christian faith and hope. The younger brother, Henry S., is living, and for more than twenty years has been connected with the post-office in this city (New York).

The Acton town records give the following dates of birth : William G. Thayer Shedd, son of Marshall and Eliza Shedd, born June 21, 1820; Marshall, born April 11, 1822; Henry Spring Shedd, born February 21, 1824; Elizabeth Thayer Shedd, born September 9, 1825. In his last brief visit to Acton several years ago he said in conversation : "The old scenes and persons in Acton come back from my boyhood memories with outlines of distinctness more and more vivid as the years go by."

REVOLUTIONARY PRELIMINARIES .- At a special meeting in January, 1768, the town voted " to comply with the proposals sent to the town by the town of Boston, relating to the encouragement of manufac- ture among ourselves and not purchasing superflui- ties from abroad."

In September of that year Joseph Fletcher was chosen to sit in a convention at Boston, to be holden on the 22d of that month.

ACTION OF THE TOWN ON THE MEMORABLE 5TH OF MARCH, 1770.

"Taking into consideration the distressed circumstance's that this Province and all North America are involved in by reason(s) of the Acts of Parliament imposing duties and taxes for the sole purpose to raise a Revenue, and when the Royal ear seems to be stopt against all our bumble Prayers und petitions for redress of grievances, and coosid- ering the Salutary Measures that the Body of Merchants and Traders in this province have come into in order for the redress of the many troubles that we are involved in, and, to support und maintain our Charter Rights and Privilege and to prevent our total Ruin and De- struction, taking all these things into serious Consideration, came into the following votes :

" 1st. That we will use our utmost endeavors to encourage and support the body of mercbauts and traders in their endeavors to retrieve this Province out of its present Distresses to whom this Town vote their thanks for the Constitutional and spirited measures pursued by them for the good of this Province.

"2. That from this Time we will have no commercial or social connec- tion with those who at this time do refuse to contribute to the relief of this abused country -especially those that import British Goods contrary

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to the Agreement of the body of merchants in Boston or elsewhere, that we will not afford them our Custom, but treat them with the ut- most neglect and all those who countenance them.

" 3. That we will uss our utmost endeavors to prevent the consump- tion of all foreign superfluities, and that we will use our utmost En- deavors to promote and encourage our own manufactures.

" 4. That the Town Clerk transmit a copy of these votes of the Town to the Committee of Merchants of inspection at Boston.

" A true copy attested.

"' FRANCIS FAULKNER, "' Town Clerk."

A committee of nine of the principal men of the town was appointed to consider the rights of the Colony and the violation of said rights, and draft such votes as they thought proper.

In January, 1773, the following report of the Com- mittee was accepted and adopted :

"Taking into serious consideration the alarming circumstances of. the Province relating to the violation of our charter rights and privi- leges (as we apprehend) by the British administration, we are of opin- ion : That the rights of the Colonists natural, ecclesiastical and civil are well stated by the Town of Boston.

"And it is our opinion that the taxing of us withont our conseut- the making the Governor of the Province and the Judges of the Supreme Court independent of the people and dependent on the Crown, out of money extorted from us, and many other instances of encroachments upon our said charter rights are intolerable grievances, and have a di- rect tendency to overthrow onr happy constitution and bring us into a state of abject slavery.

" But we have a gracious Sovereign, who is the Father of America as well as Great Britain, and as the man in whom we have had uo con- fidence is removed from before the Throne and another in whom we hope to have reason to put confidence placed in his stead, we hope that ont petitions will be forwarded and heard, and all our grievances re- dressed.

" Voted also, that as we have no member in the house of Representa- tives, we earnestly recommend it to the Representative Body of this Province that you gentlemen, inspect with a jealous eye our charter rights and privileges, and that you use every constitutional method to obtain redress of all our grievances, and that yon strenuously endeavor in such ways as you in your wisdom think fit, that the honorable judges of the Supreme Court may have their support as formerly agreeable to the charter of the Province.

"Voted, That the sincere thanks of the Town be given to the inhabit- ants of the Town of Boston for their spirited endeavors to preserve our rights and privileges inviolate when threatened with destruction.

In March, 1774, resolutions were passed with refer- ence to paying duty on tea belonging to the East India Company.

In August, 1774, three of the principal citizens of the town were appointed delegates to a County Con- vention to be holden in Concord the 30th of that month.

In October of the same year two of the three dele- gates referred to above were chosen to sit in a Pro- vincial Congress, which was to assemble at Concord soon, and at the same meeting a Committee of Cor- respondence was appointed.

In December, 1774, £25 was voted for the use of the Province, and a vote was passed to indemnify the assessors for not making returns to the British gov- ernment. It was also voted to join the association of the Continental Congress, and a committee was ap- pointed to see that all inhabitants above sixteen years of age signed their compliance, and that the names of those who did not sign should be reported to the Com- mittee of Correspondence. Samuel Hayward, Francis

Faulkner, Jonathan Billings, Josiah Hayward, John Heald, Jr., Joseph Robbins and Simon Tuttle were chosen a committee for that purpose.

In November, 1774, a company of minute-men was raised by voluntary enlistment, and elected Isaac Davis for their commander. The company by agree- ment met for discipline twice in each week, through the winter and spring till the fight at Concord.

In January the town voted to pay them eight pence for every meeting till the 1st of May, provided they should be on duty as much as three hours, and should attend within half an hour the time appointed for the meeting.

In the winter of 1774-7 the town had two militia companies, one in the south and one in the east.

In 1775 Josiah Hayward was twice chosen a dele- gate to the Provincial Congress at Cambridge.

In June, 1776, a vote was passed giving the follow - ing instructions to the representative of the town : " To Mr. Mark White :

" Sta,-Our not being favored with the resolution to the lionorable House of Representatives, calling upon the several towns in this Colony to express their minds with respect to the important question of American Independence is the occasion of our not expressing our minds sooner.

" But we now cheerfully embrace this opportunity to instruct you on that important question.

" The snbverting our Constitution, the many injuries and unheard of barbarities which the Colonies have received from Great Britain, confirm us in the opinion that the present age will he deficient in their duty to God, their posterity and themselves, if they do not establish an Ameri- can Republic. This is the only form of Government we wish to see es- tahlished.

" But we mean not to dictate-

" We freely suhmit this interesting affair to the wisdom of the Conti- Dental Congress, who, we trust, are guided and directed by the Supreme Governor of the world, and we instruct you, sir, to give them the strongest assurance that, if they should declare America to be a Free and Independent Republic, your constituents will support and defend the measure with their lives and fortunes."

In October, 1776, when a proposition was before the people that the executive and legislative branches of the Provincial Government should frame a Consti- tution for the State, the town of Acton committed the subject to Francis Faulkner, Ephraim Hapgood, Samuel Hayward, Ephraim Hosmer, Joseph Robbins and Nathaniel Edwards, who reported the following resolutions, which were unanimously accepted :

"Ist. Resolved, that as this State is at present destitute of an estab- lished form of Government, it is necessary one should be immediately formed nud established.

"2. Resolved. That the Supreme Legislature io that capacity are by no means a hody proper to form and establish a constitution for the follow- ing reasons, viz .:

"Because a constitution properly formed has a system of principles es- tablished to secure subjects in the possession of their rights and privileges against any encroachments of the Legislative part, and it is our opinion that the same body which has a right to form a constitution Has u right to alter it, and we conceive n constitution alterable by the Supreme Legislative power is no security to the subjects against the encrouch- ments of that power on our rights and privileges.

" Resolved, that the town thinks it expedient that a convention be chosen by the inhabitants of the several towns and districts in this State being free to form and establish a constitution for the State.

" Resolo d, That the Honorable Assembly of this State be desired to recommend to the inhabitants of the State to choose a convention for the above mirpose as soon as possible.

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" Resolved, that the Convention publish their proposed constitution be- fore they establish it for the inspection and remarks of the Inhabitants of this State."

At a meeting in February, 1778, " the United States Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union," after being twice read, were accepted by the town.

In May, 1778, a Constitution and frame of govern- ment for the State, which had been formed by the General Court, was laid before the town for consid- eration, and was rejected by a vote of fifty-one to e ghteen.

The instrument was so offensive to the inhabitants that in May, 1779, an article being inserted in the warrant, " to see if the town will choose at this time to have a new Constitution or frame of government," the constitution was rejected.

The proposition, however, though rejected by this town, was accepted by a majority of the people, and in July, 1779, Francis Faulkner was choseu a dele- gate to sit in a convention in Cambridge to form a Constitution, and the result was that the present Constitution of this Commonwealth was laid before the town for consideration on the 28th day of April, 1780, and it being read, the meeting was adjourned for consideration till the 15th of May.

On that the articles were debated, and at a further adjournment on the 29th of the same month every article was approved hy a majority of more than two- thirds of the voters. These simple records show he- roic grit, combined statesmanship and patriotism worthy of those olden dates and worthy of any dates since or of any that are to follow.

THE FAULKNER HOUSE (South Acton) .- This is the oldest house now standing in Acton. You go from the railroad station south across the bridge and ascend the steep hill, and you at once approach the ancient structure. It has ou its face and surroundings an impress of age, which strikes the eye at first glance, and the impress deepens as the eye tarries for a second look.

Colonel Winthrop E. Faulkner, who died March 25, 1880, aged seventy-five years, used to say that they told him when a child it must have been 150 years old then. No tongue and no records fix the original date of this ancient landmark. It is safe to call it 200 years old, some parts of it at least.

It was a block-house, and iu the early Colonial times it was a garrison-house where the settlers in the neighborhood would gather in the night for pro- tection against the assaults of the Indians.

Enter the southwest room. It will easily accom- modate 100 persons. It is a square room neatly kept and furnished with antique mementos. Raise your hand and you easily touch the projecting beams of dry hard oak, which the sharpest steel cannot cleave, eighteen inches solid. The space between the beams of the sides of the room are filled with brick, which make it fire-proof against the shot of the enemy.

You notice the two small glass windows as large as

an orange in the entering door of this room. They were for use in watching the proceeding of the courts which ouce were held here by Francis Faulkner, the justice.

Measure the old chimney, nine feet by seven, solid brick furnished with three large fire-places and an oven below and an oven above in the attic for smok- ing hams, large enough to accommodate all the neigh- bors and hooks attached in the arch where the hams could remain suspended till called for.

Mark that fine photograph ou the wall. It is the life-like face of Colonel Winthrop E. Faulkner. Give him a royal greeting, for he was the life of the village and town in childhood's days and in later years, and there comes his aged widow, still living and gracing the old homestead and guarding the precious relics, uow in her eighty-third year.

Mrs. Lottie Flagg, her daughter, the veteran and successful school-teacher, who does a noble work in helping the outfit and hospitality of this historic site. Note her words as she repeats the tale of this rally- ing centre on the morning of the 19th of April, 1775.

Francis Faulkner, Jr., a boy of fifteen years, was lying awake early in the morning, no one yet moving and listening to the clatter of a horse's feet drawing nearer and nearer. Suddenly he leaped from his bed, ran into his father's room and cried out, "Father, there's a horse coming on the full run and he's bring- ing news." His father, Colonel Francis, already had on his pantaloons and his gun in his hand. The fleet horseman wheeled across the bridge and up to the house, and shouted, " Rouse your minute-men, Mr. Faulkner! The British are marching on Lexington and Concord," and away he went to spread the news.

Mr. Faulkner, without stopping to dress, fired three times as fast as he could load and fire-that being the preconcerted signal to call out the minute men.

" And so, through the night, went his cry of alarm To every Middlesex village and farm ; A cry of defiance, and not of fear ; A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, And a word that shall echo forever more."

Being the chairmau of safety and colonel of the Middlesex Regiment of Militia-the men were to as- semble at his house. Almost immediately a neighbor repeated the signal and the boy Francis listened with breathless interest to hear the signal guns grow faint- er and fainter off in the distant farm-houses. Sigual- fires were also lighted, and every house awoke from its slumbers to the new era. By this time the family were all up in the greatest commotion-the younger children crying because the British would come and kill them. Very soon the minute-men began to come in, every one with his gun, powder-horn, pouch of bullets and a piece of bread and cheese, the only breakfast he proposed to make before meeting the en- emy of his country. Some came hurrying in with their wives and children in the greatest excitement, to get more certain news and to know what was to be

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done. Word came from Captain Davis that he would march as soon as thirty should come in. In the mean time they were busy in driving dowu stakes on the lawn and hanging kettles for cooking the soldiers' dinners. They brought from the houses beef and pork, patatoes and cabbages. The women would cook the dinner, and some of the elder boys, of whom Francis, Jr., was one, were designated to bring it along packed in saddle-bags. By the time these prelimin- aries for dinner were made Lieutenant Hunt took command of the West Militia Company, Capt. Faulk- ner having a few days before been promoted to the position of colonel of the Middlesex Regiment.

The line was formed ou the lawn south of the house, and they marched amid the tears of their fam- ilies. Colonel Faulkner accompanied them to take command of the Middlesex Regiment, as the other companies would come in at Concord. Uncle Fran- cis, the boy, waited with great impatience for the dinner to be cooked and packed. Every woman wanted to prepare the dinner complete and separate for her husband or sons. But after much discussion it was agreed to pack all the beef and pork, bread and vegetables, each kind by itself, and let the men them- selves divide it. At length, after some hours of talk- ing and boiling and packing, the horses were loaded, and the boys started off.

I asked Uncle Francis why in the world they did not take a wagon, and one horse wonld be enough for the whole. Didn't they know enough to do that? "Oh, yes-they knew too much to do that," he said. The British soldiers might have the road. If we saw a red-coat we were told to give him a wide birth, or he might get us and our dinner. We could quietly top- ple over a stone wall or take out a few rails and escape through the fields and find our men wherever they might be. To the great surprise of the boy he found the Acton men in the highest spirits. They had made the red-coats run for their lives.

This house is so associated with the history of the Faulkner family, and this family is so blended with the history of the town, that a brief family record is here appended.

Francis Faulkner, the father of Ammiruhammah, and the grandfather of Col. Francis Faulkner, was a resident of Andover, Mass., and married Abigail Dane, daughter of Rev. Francis Dane, the second minister of Andover, a woman of noble character and exemplary piety. She was accused of witchcraft, tried and condemned to death. She passed through the terri- ble ordeal with unshaken firmness, and the sentence was revoked.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 79

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