History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 82

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 82

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having been promoted to be Major; lived on Bright place ; Captain in the war; a good officer ; Jonas Hunt ; John Hunt, his brother, on Coffin place ; Paul Hunt, son of Simon ; Nathan Hunt, son of Capt. Simon ; ' Simon Hunt, Jr., son of Capt. Simon ; Oliver Houghton, Jonas Ileald, Israel Heald, Titus Law, Thomas Law, Stephen Law, Stephen Law, Jr., John Litchfield, John Lampson ; Aaron Jones, father to Capt. Abel ; Oliver Jones, Samuel Jones, Jonas Munroe, Nathan Marsh, Thomas Noyes (Lient.), Josiah Noyes, John Oliver, Abel Proctor ; Samuel Piper, at Ticonderoga in 1776; Samuel Parlin, Asa Parlin, Esq., Nathan Parlin, Josiah Parker, Jonas Parker, John Prescott ; Benj. Prescott, Jos. Robbins, Captain of East Company, lived near old graveyard ; Joseph Robhine 2d, also Captain ; George Robbins, Jolin Robbins, Jolin Robbins, Jr., Jona- than Robbins, Philip Robbins, Robert Robbins, Ephraim Robbins, James Russell (Captain in the French War), Amos Russell, Moses Richardson, Jonas Shepherd, James Shurland ; Samuel Temple, served during the war, a very good soldier, died 1826, aged 74; Sammel Tuttle ; Simon Tuttle, Esq., Francis' grandfather; Eleazer Sawtell ; Edward Wetherbee, Edward's father, gave the alarm up to Simon Tuttle's road to Littleton ; was at the taking of Burgoyne; Oliver Wetherbee, Ammi Wetherbee, Roger Wheeler, Thomas Wheeler, Sampson Wheeler, Ezra Wheeler, Hezekiah Wheeler, Jolin Proctor Wheeler, Oliver Wheeler, Timothy Wheeler, Samuel Wheeler, Jude Wheeler, John Wheeler, Daniel White, Mark White, Ebenezer White, Moses Woods, Abraham Young, Samuel Wright, John Willey, Lemuel Whitney, Nehemiah Wheeler.

The list is, no doubt, incomplete. Probably forty or fifty more names ought to he added; here are one hundred and eighty-one.

JAMES T. WOODBURY.

Supplies were furnished for the army as needed and called for.

Revolution Items .- Samuel Hosmer, father of Dea- con Silas, was in the Revolution. He went down to Rhode Island, lived upon horse flesh and berries. He was a born fisherman.

Ezekiel Davis, a soldier of the Revolution, brother of Captain Isaac Davis, in his company. Wounded in the hat at the Concord fight. Died February 15, 1820, aged sixty-eight.

John Cole, captain in Colonel Robinson's regiment ; served in Rhode Island from July, 1777, to January 1, 1778.

Simon Hunt, captain in Third Regiment Militia.

Benjamin Brabrook, second lieutenant ; died Jan- uary 14, 1827, eighty-five years, six months.

Thomas B. Darby, killed at battle of White Plains, 1776.

Fifteen Acton men were in that battle.

East Acton Company : Captain, Joseph Robbins ; Israel Heald, first lieutenant ; Robert Chaffin, second lieutenant.

Littleton, February 19, 1776 .- Jonathan Fletcher was a minute-man at Lexington, April 19, 1775. He enlisted in Captain Abijah Wyman's company, Wil- liam Prescott's regiment. He was at the battle of Bunker Hill, at which Colonel Prescott's regiment suf- fered such severe loss of life. At the siege of Boston, on Winter Hill, January, 1776, as fifer from Acton. He was lieutenant and captain until the close of the war-five years. Eighteen years old when enlisted. Son of Major Daniel.

Colonel Francis Faulkner and Captain Simon Hunt were in the battle of White Plains, Colonel Eleazer Brooks' regiment ; behaved finely on this occasion.

Ralph Waldo Emerson's Address .- At the second centennial anniversary of the incorporation of the

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

town of Concord, September 12, 1835, ten of the sur- viving veterans who were in arms at the Bridge on the 19th of April, 1775, honored the festival with their presence ; four of the ten were from Acton- Thomas Thorp, Solomon Smith, John Oliver, Aaron Jones. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the orator of that day, thus speaks of these men :

"The presence of these aged men, who were in arms on that day, seems to bring us nearer to it. The benignant Providence which has prolonged their lives to this hour, gratifies the strong curiosity of the new generation. The Pilgrims are gone; but we see what manner of persons they were who stood in the worst perils of the Revolution. We hold by the hand the last of the invincible men of old, and con- firm from living lips the sealed records of time. And you, my fathers, whom God and the history of your country have ennobled, may well bear a chief part in keeping this peaceful birthday of our town. You are indeed extraordinary heroes. If ever men in arms had a spotless cause, you had. You have fought a good fight. Aud having quit you like men in the battle, you have quit yourselves like men in your vir- tuous families, in your corn-fields, and in society.

" We will not hide your honorable gray hairs under perishing laurel leaves, but the eye of affection and veneration follows you. You are set apart, and for- ever, for the esteem and gratitude of the human race, To you belongs a better badge than stars and ribbons. This prospering country is your ornament, and this expanding nation is multiplying your praise with millions of tongues."

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR .- Acton has pre- served its record as a gunpowder settlement from the start. Before its separate organization as a town, during the Colonial period, there are proofs which show its preparations for self-defence, in case of at- tack from the Indians or any other foes. After that date the town records show the same. March 21, 1744, the town voted to procure powder aud bullets as a town stock. At a later date the town voted to re- plenish the stock of ammunition.

The town had an important part in "the French and Indian War," 1756-63.

There is a tradition that Captain Gershom Davis led out a company from Acton in 1759, and that Captain J. Robbins led another company four years later near the close of the war.

Major Daniel Fletcher was born within the present territorial limits of Acton, October 18, 1718. He was a lieutenant in Captain David Melvin's company from March to September in 1747, and was stationed at Northfield. He was a captain of a company-of foot in his Majesty's Service, in a regiment raised by the Province of Massachusetts Bay for the reduction of Canada, whereof Ebenezer Nichols, Esq., was colonel, in which expedition he was wounded and taken pris- oner. Enlisted as captain March 13, 1758, to No- vember 28, 1858. He was captain in Colonel Frye's

regiment, and in the service in the Province of Nova Scotia, after the 1st of January, 1760, and at the time of their discharge.

In 1768 he was a member of the House of Repre- sentatives of His Majesty's Province of the Massa- chusetts Bay in New England. On June 26, 1776, he was elected by ballot by the Massachusetts Assembly, major for the Third Battalion destined to Canada. He died iu the fifty-ninth year of his age. See his epitaph in the record of Woodlawn Cemetery. He had niue children, all born in Acton,-Daniel, Charles (died young), Peter, Sarah, Ruth, Joseph, Charles, Jonathan. His oldest son, Daniel, married Ann Bacon, of Acton, September 11, 1760. They had one child, Ann, born November 12, 1769, married May 27, 1788, to James Law. Peter married Martha Farrar, of Acton, and they had several children. Ruth married Joseph Barker, and they had several children. Joseph married Abigail Bacon, of Lincoln, Massachu- setts.

THE SECOND MEETING-HOUSE .- The town had much difficulty in locating this house. At one time they voted to build at the junction of the road lead- ing from West Acton with the road leading from En- sign Josiah Noyes to Moses Richardson, near a flat rock at that point, supposed to be the one lying east of the Puddle hole, on Joseph Reed's land, and west of Francis Barker's, now occupied by Mr. Maurice Lane.

This vote was afterwards reconsidered, and they finally left it to a committee to decide, consisting of Joseph B. Varnum, of Dracut, John Whitney, of Lancaster, and Walter McFarland, of Hopkington. The committee decided that the house ought to stand upon the site now occupied by the present town- house.

Their report was accepted by a vote of 73 to 59. After the house was located it was thought best to have it face a Common, and for this purpose the fol- lowing purchases of land were made: Of Deacon Joseplı Brabrook, 25 rods at $200 per acre, $31.40; of John White, a little over an acre, Mr. White to re- move his house and fruit trees, $460; of Paul Brooks, one-half acre and 27 rods, $80.40. In addition to these the following gifts of land were made to the town: By James Fletcher, father of Deacon John, 9 rods ; Samuel and James Jones, 1 acre and 27 rods. The town seems to have been especially indebted to him for its Common. He was a prominent man at that time and represented the town in the General Court that year, and he was doubtless a moving spirit in the matter. He was a lawyer, and had an office in the north end of the house lately occupied by A. L. Noyes, of the Monument House. He built and resided in the house now the home of Rev. F. P. Wood. He constructed a turnpike over the hill by his house upon the elevation of land over which it passed, but he became financially embarrassed and left for New Orleans to escape imprisonment for debt.

265

ACTON.

In connection with the building of the second meeting-house was the following vote :- " At a meet- ing, November 3, 1806, it was propounded whether the committee shall at the sale of the pews give the people any spirituous liquors at the expense of the town-passed in the negative." This prohibition idea seems to be no new notion in the history of the town :

"September 4, 1812.

"[To know if the town will provide any refreshments for the companies in this town on muster day, and pass any vote or votes the town may think proper upon the above article.

" Voted to provide some refreshments for the companies on muster day. " Voted to raise forty-six dollars.

"Voted to choose a com. to provide the following : 200 w. beef; 50 D. O. cheese ; 3 bushel of meal made into bread; 2 D. O. pottatoes; 200 pickles ; 10 gallons of W. I. Rum."

This muster was to be on Acton Common, Septem- ber 1, 1806. The town voted to choose a committee of five persons to make a draft of such a meeting- house as they shall think proper for the accommoda- tion of the inhabitants, and report to the town at that next meeting. Voted to choose said committee by ballot. The following persons were elected for the purpose : Aaron Jones, David Barnard, Winthrop Faulkner, Phineas Wheeler, Captain David Davis. The dimensions of the building subsequently reported by this committee were fifty-seven feet long and fifty- five wide, with a projection of fifteen feet in front. Voted, to accept and build the meeting-house as re- ported. Voted, to build the year ensuing and have said house finished January 1, 1808. Voted, that the committee who drafted the plan be the committee to have charge of the building.

It was for the times a generous appropriation, and the structure was successfully completed and was universally admired as a model in its design. It had an elevated tower for the belfry and above the belfry another ornamental circular story, supported by high posts, with a circular and graceful roof, rising from whose centre projected the elevated iron shaft for the support of the vane.

The internal arrangements were in harmony-a spacious vestibule, with three doors from the outside and the same from within ; square pews, with rising seats ; an elevated pulpit, approached by long, wind- ing steps on either side; a gallery, high and ranging on three sides, curving in front ; a ceiling, high and arched overhead.

The artistic effect from within on the Sabbath, when the whole town was supposed to be present, and the great choir joiued with the pastor in giving effect to the service in prayer and song, and all the congregation stood with reverent mien, was impres- sive to any one participating. The Sabbath in those days had an interest, civil, social and religious, be- yond the ordinary rountine of later dates.

The sacrifices made in constructing this costly temple intensified the appreciation by the people of its beauty and its uses. There was timber enough in this building to construct a good-sized village,

spread lightly around according to modern style. It was of the best quality and furnished in lavish abund- ance.

The first bell, which was mounted high up in the tower, cost $570, and when it swung out its peals on Sabbath morn it was a missive to all the households in the town. It meant business as well as worship to get all things in readiness and reach the steps of the church before the last stroke of the tolling bell.

There must have been at one time at least thirty horse-sheds ranged in lines in the rear of the build- ing and giving an impressive outlook to its surround- ings, especially on the Sabbath and town-meeting days, when they would all be occupied.

John C. Park, Esq., grandson of Parson Adams, writes to Hon. John Fletcher from Boston, February 6, 1874, acknowledging the receipt of the Acton Moni- tor: "Some of the happiest days of my childhood were spent at Acton, and many pleasant memories are revived. I must come and see for myself, for I cannot realize the burning of gas in a village where I helped my grandmother and aunt to make 'dips.' Speaking of Hosmer, one of my earliest recollections is my childish admiration of the great 'H,' a silver- plated letter on the back of the chaire which brought Deacon Hosmer to meeting. Do you remember it? Do you remember how we used to turn up the seats for prayer in the old church, and the clatter it made letting them down at the close, and how one naughty little boy (John C. Park) used to keep his to the last ? "

Persons connected with this church so far as ob- tained: Deacons: Simon Hunt, Benjamin Hayward, Josiah Noyes, John Wheeler, John White, Phinehas Wheeler, Daniel Fletcher Barker, Silas Hosmer, John White 2d.

Pew-holders (left body pews): Mrs. Simeon Hay- ward, David Barnard, Esq., Stevens Hayward, Esq., Deacon John White, Luther Conant.

Right body pews: Simon Hosmer, Esq., Silas Holden, Levi Waitt, Deacon Benjamin Hayward, Seth Brooks.

Choristers : Winthrop Faulkner, Silas Jones, Luther B. Jones, Daniel Jones.

Players on musical instruments : Bass viol, Jona- than Billing, Abraham B. Handley ; double bass viol, Eben Davis ; violin, Winthrop E. Faulkner, Henry Skinner ; clarionet, Elnathan Jones, Samuel Hosmer.

Singers : Polly Davis, Ellen Jones, Lucy J. Jones, Abigail Jones, Jerusha Brooks, Ann Piper, Captain Abel Jones, Simon Davis, Seth Davis, Benjamin Wild, Amasa Wild, Edward Wetherbee, Oliver Weth- erbee, Jedidiah Tuttle, Rebecca Davis, Susan Davis, Catharine Wetherbee, Lucinda Wetherbee, Polly Wetherbee, Susan Piper, Lucinda Piper, Mary Faulk- ner, Charlotte Faulkner, Catharine Faulkner, Susan Faulkner, Clarissa Jones, Amasa Davis. Jessie Pierce, Uriah Foster, Alden Fuller, Jonathan Piper, Dr. Harris Cowdry.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Rev. Mr. Adams, the second minister, enjoyed the advantages of this spacious and elegant church during the last eleven years of his pastorate and of his life ; Rev. Mr. Shedd during the eleven years of his pastorate. The building stood for over fifty years as an attractive centre for civil and religious uses. By the decision of the courts the building came into the possession of the First Parish, and this parish deeded it to the town June 4, 1859.

In the great fire of November, 1862, which took in the barn of the hotel and which consumed the hotel, the tailor's shop building, occupied by Samuel Des- pean as a tailor-shop and by Daniel Jones as a store, the shoe factory of John Fletcher & Sons, and threatened at one time the whole village; a blazing shingle was wafted on high across the Common and struck the highest roof of the church tower, became fixed and soon ignited the steeple. The people below stood helpless and appalled, as nothing could be done to stay the raging flames. The whole building with all its massive timbers were in one brief hour a heap of smouldering ashes. This earthly structure went up as in a chariot of fire and was translated to the third heavens by the order of Him to whom it was originally dedicated. The building has gone, but its memories of pastor and choir and congregation abide.

WILLIAM D. TUTTLE .- The time when the very first settlements were made on the present territory of Acton is a matter of some uncertainty. It is evi- dent from the town records that the town was pretty well settled over at the date of its incorporation. People were living in all parts of it at that time. The Indians had withdrawn to other hunting-grounds, and had ceased to be a cause of fear or annoyance.

The first public enterprise was the building of a meeting-house for public worship, being one of the conditions of the act of incorporation, and the next was to construct roads by which the people could get to it.

These were little more than bridle-paths cut through the forest from one homestead to another and con- necting them all more or less directly with the meet- ing-house and the mills. That it was the day of humble beginning and of many privations and hard- ships we can well believe.

For lack of bridges, streams were crossed at what were called ford-ways. Forests were to be felled, houses to be erected, fences to be huilt, which required the strong arms of a sturdy race of men. Life was real and earnest to the men and women of that time. If their home life was barren of many of the luxuries and conveniences of modern days, there was in it a large clement of downright sincerity, hearty good cheer and mutual helpfulness.

The church was then the centre of the social as well as the religious life of the people. It must have been an interesting sight to see the people on Sunday coming up from all parts of the town on horseback or on foot, for carriages, whether spring or otherwise,

were not yet, to attend divine service at the ancient church.

It was here that neighborly courtesies were exercised, mutual acquaintances and friendship formed, many of which developed in after years into more intimate relations. The town-meeting-that nursery of states- men-was also another of the educators of those days. Four or five times in a year did the inhabitants come together as a body to discuss their local affairs, to choose their town officers and to make regulations for their mutual welfare. If any one had a grievance, if his taxes pressed too heavily, if his accommodations in the way of roads were insufficient-whatever might be the cause of his complaint, here was a trib- unal of his peers, where he could be heard and where justice was usually done.

From its first settlement to the present time Acton has been mainly an agricultural town. The first set- tlers depended for their livelihood on what they could get from the soil and from what grew above it. They had cattle, horses, sheep and hogs, the latter being permitted for many years to run at large and pick up their living in the woods.

Their agriculture was a varied one; money was scarce and hard to get. Everything that could con- tribute to the support and sustenance of a family was included in the farmer's course of husbandry. Wool, flax, Indian corn, rye, oats, beans, turnips, beef, pork and the products of the dairy were the principal products raised. Clothing was largely of home man- ufacture and the noise of the spinning-wheel and loom was heard in every well-appointed household.

They had plenty of apples, all natural fruit (the finer varieties being of later introduction), and nearly all the large farms had a cider-mill, which was kept busy during the months of October and November in producing a heverage all too common in those days.

From a census return made in 1790, it appears that no large number of cattle and horses was kept com- pared with what is usual at present, and but little English hay cut ; the natural meadows being relied upon to a great extent for the supply of hay for stock.

Coming down to a later time, to the year 1800, a period of sixty-five years, we find the town's people in comparatively easy circumstances. Many had ac- cumulated a fair estate for those times. More pre- tentious houses were erected and an era of general prosperity seems to have dawned.

In 1807 the town built the second meeting-house at an expense of nearly or quite $10,000, paid for by the sale of pews and a town tax of $1151, all of which was accomplished without apparent difficulty.

The manufacture of bellows was carried on exten- sively by Ebenezer Davis, senior and junior, for many years in the east part of the town.

A large and well-appointed flour and grain mill was erected on an ancient mill site by Daniel Weth- erbee, in 1840, which, under the management of him- self and son, has continued to the present time.

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ACTON.

The pencil manufactory of Henry M. Smith, East Acton, was built iu 1848, by Ebenezer Davis, Esq., and has been occupied successively since that time by Benjamin Davis, sash and blind manufactory; by William Schouler, print works; by A. G. Fay as pencil manufactory, and by its present occupant also in the manufacture of lead-pencils.

Among the various industries pursued for many years in the early part of the century, was the coop- ering business, from fifteen to twenty thousand bar- rels annually having been manufactured. The little cooper-shops, so numerous in all parts of the town, in which many of the inhabitants found employment in the winter season, is conclusive proof that the busi- ness was a source of very considerahle income.

The indenture of Gill Piper March 25, 1790, copied from the town papers is here inserted as a specimen of the times and the business then popular.

THE INDENTURE OF GILL PIPER.

March 25, 1790.

This indenture witnesseth, That Francis Faulkner, Aaron Jones and Jonas Heald, Selectmen of the town of Acton, Mass, Middlesex Co., put and bind Gill Piper, a minor, now under the care of the Selectmen aforesaid, unto Paul Hunt, and Betsey, his wife, to Larne the Cooper's trade ; after the manner of an apprentice to dwell and serve from the date hereof until he, the said Gill Piper, shall arrive to the age of 21 years ; during all which term the said Gill, his said Master and Mistress worthily and faithfully shall serve, their secrets keep close, their Lawful and reasonable commands Readily obey and perform; damage to his said Master and Mistress he shall not do, or suffer to be done by others without informing his said Master or Mistress of the same ; tavern he shall not frequent ; at cards, dice, or any other unlawful game he shall not play ; matrimony he shall not contract, or fornication commit with any person ; but in all things behave himself as a good and faithful ap- prentice until his fulfilment of his years or term above mentioned ; and the said Paul Hunt, for himself and his heirs, do covenant, promise aud agree with the said Francis Faulkner, Aaron Jones, and Jonas Heald, selectmen of the said town of Acton, and their successors in said trust, in this manner following, that is to say, that said Paul Hunt will teach or cause to he taught the said Gill Piper to read and write and cipher (if capable to learn) by giving him one month's schooling in each of the first two years of his service and one month in the last two years of his service, and will find and provide for the same Gill Piper good and suffi- cient meat, drink, washing and lodging, and also sufficient apparel suit- able for one of his degree and calling, during the said term, and at the end of said term to dismiss the said Gill Piper with two good suits of Apparel, one suitable for Sabbath days, the other for. working days. Io witness whereof, the parties set their hands and seals to this indent- ure, the 22d day of March, 1790.

(Signed) PAUL HUNT. FRANCIS FAULKNER. AARON JONES. JONAS HEALD

Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of

JOSEPH BAKER, JR., JOB F. BROOKS.

Middlesex, 88 :

March ye 25th, 1790.

The above indenture considered and approved of hy

SILAS TAYLOR, FRANCIS FAULKNER, two Justices of Peace.

Gill Piper has not been heard from since so far as the town records go. We may infer with this start in life, that he became a worthy citizen. Nothing to the contrary has come to eye or ear.

Many hop kilns were erected, but in a few years the prices received were so fluctuating and unsatisfactory as to deter many from embarking in it and the busi-

ness at length became so unremunerative that their culture was abandoned altogether.

CENTRE VILLAGE .- Previous to the time of the building of the second meeting-house there was no considerable village in the town. There were at that time a very few dwelling houses in the Centre, proba- bly not more than a scant half-dozen in all. At this time there was, beside the first meeting-house, the old tavern, kept by Daniel Brooks, his widow Caroline and his son Paul, and afterwards occupied by Nathan- iel Stearns ; the well-known parsonage built by Moses Adams, sometimes called the Bullard place; the house of Benjamin Brabrook, situated a little easterly from the residence of Edward Tuttle; the house of John White, blacksmith, a little westerly of the pres- ent town-house; a cottage-house, where Francis Hos- mer now lives, and one where Eddie F. Conant resides.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 82

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