History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 99

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 99

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If with all these advantages the writers have failed to meet the reasonable expectations of the public in these sketches, it is hoped that their failure may be attributed to their want of ability, rather than to their want of zeal in the prosecution of their researches. The mass of material before them from which to select is immense, and the subject is one that possesses, be- sides, a great variety of aspects; to select judiciously is a task of no small difficulty, and opinions may differ on the wisdom of their choice. But it has been de- termined to rest generally on the decision of their own judgment, governed to some extent by the custom usual in such matters. It has been their determina- tion to present their facts in the most compact lan- guage at their disposal, to avoid disquisitions, and to confine themselves to a clear statement of facts, letting the facts carry their own weight of interest and im- portance, believing that the serious student will find in them much of value and usefulness, in spite of possible or positive defects.

THE SKETCH IN THE "SOCIAL STATISTICS OF CITIES."-The town assumed sufficient importance, even before its incorporation as a city, to form the subject of a chapter in the "Social Statistics of Cities," a report of the United States Government, published in connection with the census of 1880. In this sketch

the population in the aggregate, from 1800 to 1880, is given, with 1228 inhabitants in 1800; 6287 in 1860; 8560 in 1870, and 10,931 in 1880, the latter numbers illustrating the period of its greatest growth. Its latitude, 42º 29' north; longitude, 71.º 9', west from Greenwich, are given; also an outline map, showing its distance and direction from five neighboring cities-Boston, Salem, Haverhill, Lowell and Waltham, Mass .; also statistics of its population by sex, nativity and race, at census of 1880; and its financial condition, followed by an historical sketch, another map and statistical accounts collected by the census office to indicate the condition of Woburn in 1880, as to location, railroad communications, topog- raphy, tributary country, climate, streets, water- works, gas, public buildings, places of amusement, cemeteries; sanitary authority with features of Board of Health, infectious diseases and municipal cleans- ing ; police, Fire Department and public schools. On the larger map are shown the location of the "four villages," of greater or less size, comprised within its limits ; the area occupied by its "small rural popula- tion," and the situation of its nearly "75 miles " of streets ; 1 also the principal pond-Horn Pond-the principal elevations, such as Horn Pond Mountain, Mount Pleasant, Rag Rock and Whispering Hill, with other general features, such as streams and rail- roads. On the whole, giving a very good general idea of the character of the town. The historical sketch is comprehensive, beginning with the settle- ment in the wilderness, which then stretched to the west and northwest, broken only in one or two places by small settlements, while the nearest incorporated towns were Rowley and Ipswich on the north; Salem and Lynn, northeast; Charlestown, east ; Cambridge, southeast and south, and Concord, southwest. The territory roundabout had then been but very little explored. Two-thirds of the sketch, which iu the main is quite accurate, is devoted to the period pre- vious to 1700, and an account is given of the leather" industry, which has been for many years the leading manufacture of the place. This is the latest extended account of the town (1886), which we have seen pub- lished. Since the facts on which it was based have been collected the growth has been considerable, and by 1892-the year of its two hundred and fiftieth an- niversary-the population, it may be supposed, may be increased in number by at least one-half, if former years are a criterion of judgment on which to base a calculation of such importance.

NOTE .- Cf. Ency. Britannica, 9th ed., xxiv. 625-626; U. S. Census Re- port on the Social Statistics of Cities (Wash, 1886), pt. 1, 330-334.

1 An elaborate article on the streets of Woburn is published in the ap- pendix of Mayor E. F. Johnson'a inaugural address, Jan. 6, 1890. The actual length in miles is, however, 63.1 miles.

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CHAPTER XXIV.

WOBURN -- (Continued).

CIVIL HISTORY TO 1800.

THE civil history of Woburn to the year 1800 is much like that of other towns of equal age; town- meetings were held, officers were chosen, common lands were distributed, ecclesiastical and secular matters pertaining to the jurisdiction of a town were properly attended to, and till 1730 the town and par- ish were practically one in the effect of their action. Wilmington had been set off from Woburn in 1730, and in the same year the remaining portion of the town was divided into two parishes for religious por- poses-the First, or Old Parish, including the present territory of Woburn and Winchester, and the Second Parish, or Woburn Precinct, as it was often called, including the part later set off as the town of Burling- ton. Town-meetings after this period were often held alternately in each parish. This is evident from the entries to be found in the records and in the contem- porary diary of Samuel Thompson, Esq., a gentleman long identified with the town as a public and parish officer. The extant result of this business-besides the gradual effect of measures and duties consecu- tively performed upon the welfare of the public-is a series of handsomely written and well-kept records, well preserved and well cared for, of which, as a whole, the place has no cause to be ashamed, but canse for congratulation in the choice of her early clerks and the excellent handwriting of the greater part of them. Good ink and a large hand was the rule, and Woburn has in this series of books a price- less treasure, which we hope no fire will destroy or vandal purloin or mar.

contest imposed burdens which impaired the prosper- ity of her people, and when recovery had commenced the loss of nearly half her territory and much of her population to form the town of Burlington, in 1799, crippled her prosperity to a considerable degree. The principal dependence for wealth to that date had been agriculture, and the town was a large farming com- munity, in comparison with similar communities in the State. After the beginning of the present century the leather industry began to assume important pro- portions and became the principal production. The town suffered no further loss of her territory till the separation from her limits of the town of Winchester in 1850. Fourth, snch matters of great interest to the fathers, but now of little importance, as the Mistick or Medford Bridge controversy and the extinction by mismanagement of the loan funds ac- quired from'the Province, and the sale of the town's two thousand acres in 1734,-matters which were before the public for a long series of years,-having been fully treated in the already published history of the town, it seems needless to go over them again ; and the same might be said of the arbitrary proceed- ings of Sir Edmund Andros in Woburn in 1687-88, which belong especially to the account of the life of William Johnson. The greatest injury the prosper- ity and growth of the town received before 1800, was the separation from it of two towns and the conse- quent loss of territory and population. The losses of the Revolutionary War were partly supplied by the sale of some public lands.

NOTE .- The particulare of the settlement are given in Sewall's Woburn chap. i .; customs of the settlers for the first fifty years described, chap. ii. ; proceedings of Andros in Woburn, chap. iv .; Medford Bridge and loan business, chap. iv., vi. and ix .; separation of Wilmington as a town, and the part now Burlington as a precinct or parish, chap. viii. ; embarrassment of the town by debt after the Revolution, chap. xiii. ; incorporation of Burlington, ditto. Mr. Champney (Drake's Middle- sex County ii. 530) treats the Medford Bridge and the loan matters (532-533). The main points of the history of the town are concisely stated in a brief sketch by Dr. B. Cutter, in catalogue of First Church, published in 1844. The substance of thie statement was that Woburn anciently included the major part of the present towns of Wilmington and Burlington within its bounds, and for more than ninety years had but one church and one place of public worship for all its inhabitants. In 1730 Wilmington was set off ; and the remaining facts are ecclesias- tical in their nature. These facts are repeated in the church catalogue of 1852 and 1871.

In the course of events unusual transactions have occurred which possess a general interest, and atten- tion is directed to a few. First and foremost, the facts in relation to the settlement of the town set forth in the first volume of the town records, which volume has been published. The discovery of the territory was accomplished with difficulty, and the inducing of settlers to locate on the lots already laid out by the parent town, or on lots to be laid ont, or to stay after- In the following pages it is purposed to treat, under separate headings, various topics connected with the civil history of the town before 1800. We shall make use of such light as recent discoveries afford, and some of the topics will be :- The origin of the name; the early settlement, and certain contempora- neous incidents ; the earthquake of Oct. 29, 1727, concerning which much material is extant; the his- tory of the ancient public burial-grounds, etc. wards, was a matter of still greater difficulty, and subjected the leaders to periods of discouragement. The conrageous persistence of a few accomplished the work. Second, in the ordination of their first minis- ter, some proceedings esteemed irregular by the au- thorities occurred, which excited the attention of that time and some interest later until the present age. This matter belongs to the ecclesiastical history of the town. Third, when once established, the community ORIGIN OF THE NAME .- The reason why Woburn was named for the Woburn in Bedfordshire, England, is a recent discovery. Captain Edward Johnson, in some curious lines at the beginning of the first volume prospered, and with the exception of the loss of a portion of her territory and people to form another town, increased in population and resources till the opening of the war of the American Revolution. This ! of the Woburn town records, says in line four of this

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unique production, in which the town is supposed to be speaking in the first person :

" Nowell, Symmes, Sedgwick, these my patrons were,"

These were influential pames. Nowell, was In- crease Nowell, a well-known magistrate and leading citizen ; Symmes was Zachariah Symmes, the minis- ter of Charlestown, the parent town ; while Sedgwick was Robert Sedgwick, a military officer of eminence and one of the distinguished men of his time. Now- ell and Sedgwick were then both residents of Charles- town; and while much has been written in the past concerning Nowell and Symmes, developments of recent date place Sedgwick in an interesting light as the individual to whom the New England town of Woburn owes its name. This discovery was first made public by E. F. Johnson and W. R. Cutter in the first issue of their publication of the Woburn records in the Woburn Journal for May 18, 1888: the former is a lineal descendant of Captain Edward Johnson, and the first mayor of the city of Woburn. Cutter having read in the number of the New Eng- land Historical and Genealogical Register for April, 1888, a statement that Maj .- Gen. Robert Sedgwick, of Charlestown, was baptized at Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, investigation was immediately made to see what inti mate connection that fact might have with his relation to the Woburn in New England. The line above quoted from Edward Johnson in the rude poem at the beginning of the Woburn records, and designed to memorialize, if not to immortalize, the facts relating to the origin of Woburn, shows that he was one of the three principal patrons of the enter- prise ; and the fact noted by Savage ( Gen. Dict. iv. 48) that Sedgwick was "a neighbor" of Johnson when the latter resided in Charlestown, and the latter men- tioning Sedgwick, in the " Wonder-working Provi- dence," as "the first Sergeant-Major chosen to order the Regiment of Essex [equivalent to the present colonel], stout and active in all feats of war, nursed up in Lon- don's Artillery garden, and furthered with fifteen years' experience in New England exact theory ; besides the help of a very good headpiece, being a frequent instructor of the most martial troops of our artillery men,"' etc. (I)'. W. Prov., ed. 1867, p. 192), and the first mention Johnson makes of him in the Woburn records being in the words "Noble Captain Sedgwick," shows he was held in high estimation by Johnson. The Woburn records show Sedgwick's part in the work of exploring the lands at the time of the settlement of the town, and the influential position he had in selecting the present site for the village, or the spot where the meeting-house should be. He was also the chairman of the committee of thirteen appointed by Charlestown, Nov. 4, 1640, to set the bounds between the two places and select the site for the new town. This was the first important action on the part of the parent town in a corporate capacity, in regard to the setting apart and settling of Woburn.

A biographical sketch of Sedgwick is given in the number of the New England Historical and Genealogi- cal Register already referred to. He was the son of William Sedgwick and Elizabeth Howe, who were married, according to the registers of St. Mary's Church, at Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, April 10, 1604. His father, William, was a warden of that church, and was buried there July 25, 1632. Robert Sedgwick was baptized at Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, May 6, 1613. The family was one of dis- tinction in England. After a distinguished career in New England, he was sent by his friend and com- mander Cromwell to Jamaica, where he was high in office, and died in 1656.1

The fact that Sedgwick came from Woburn, Bed- fordshire, England, was the reason why the name of the place of his origin was given to the Woburn in New England, in whose founding he took such a lead- ing part ; to say nothing of the influence of Johnson, the father and projector of the infant settlement, in imposing such a name on the town, in honor of its principal patron. It is not so stated in the records ; but it is evidently true. The matter of naming a New England town in the seventeenth century from the leading man, either layman or pastor, is mentioned by an excellent English writer, Doyle, English Colo- nies in America, iii. 7; and he says, "The town was named, not after the individual, but after his former abode; thus Duxbury, Groton and Haverhill com- memorated the birthplaces of Standish, of Winthrop, and of Ward."

The theory in Sewall's Woburn, p. 539, which has been widely copied, therefore, has no force. The honor conferred on Richard Russell in this matter was misplaced. He came, also, from Hertfordshire, where none of the English Woburns are placed. There are three of these in England : Woburn, Bed- fordshire; Woo-burn, Bucks; O-burn, Dorset. All three spellings were used by the early settlers of New England, but which was our namesake was unknown. It was not known till this discovery that any person connected with the settlement of this Woburn had any relation with the English Woburns. From the statements made the matter is now clear, and Woburn, Bedfordshire, is the place whence our town derived its name.

NOTE .- For local articles on the subject of Woburn, Bedfordshire, sco Our Paper (1875), 34, and (1876) 54, 59, 62 ; also same, vol. 2 (1876) 6, 10, 14, 12, 67; Woburn Journal, Oct. 25, 1879, Oct. 3, 10, and Dec. 5, 1881, and Aug. 5, 1887. It would be enxy to add more. Natives of Woburn, New England, bave from time to timo visited Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, notably Edward F. Johnson, who gave a lecture on his expe- riences beforo the Rumford Historical Association on April 9, 1889, pub- lished in the Woburn Journal, May 2, 1890; and Ephraim Cutter, M.D., who gave a description of his visit in a letter published in the Woburn Budget for July 18, 1862. Also Leonard Thompson, trusteo and vice- president of the Rumford Historical Association, who gave an account of his visit in a letter published in tho Woburn Journal, July 26, 1889.

THE EARLY SETTLEMENT .- On the first page of

1 Cf. Frothingham's Charlestown (1846), 135-139, which cltes a quota- tion from Carlyle's Cromwell, ii. 198, regarding Sedgwick.

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the first volume of the town records are the following lines, composed by Captain Edward Johnson, intended to be a sketch of the history of the settlement of the town.1

Paulisper Fui.2

In penniless age, 1, Woburn towe, began ; Charlestown first moved the court my lines to span ; To view my laed place, compiled body rear,3 Nowell, Symmes, Sedgwick, these my patrons were. Soere fearing I'll grow great upon these grounds, Poor, 1 was put to nurse among the clowns, Who being taken with such mighty things, As had been work of noble queens and kings- Till habe 'gan cry and great disturbance make- Nurses repeat they did her undertake. + One leaves her quite 5-another he doth hic To foreign lands, free from the baby's cry. 6 Two more of seven, 7 seeing nursing prove so thwart, Thought it more ease in following of the cart. 8 A neighbor by, 9 hoping the babe would be A pretty girl, to rocking her went he. Twu nurses, less undaunted than the rest,10 First houses finish ; thus the girl 'gan dressed. It's rare to see how this poor town did rise By weakest means ; 11_too weak in great ones' eyes. And sure it is, that metal's clear extraction 12 llad never share in this poor town's erection. Withoot which metal, and some fresh supplies, Patrons conclude she never up would rise. If ever she 'mongst ladies have a station, Say 'twas from pareuts, not her education. Aud now conclude the Lord's own hand it was That with weak means did brieg this work to pass. Not only town, but sister church too add, Which out of dust and ashes uow is had.

Then all inbahit Woburn town, stay, make The Lord, not means, of all you undertake.13

1 Though the records begin in 1640, these liees were supposed to be composed in 1642, from the allusions to events of that year. They are published with the crudity of their original spelling by Sewall ( Hist. 530-1), Poole (IV. W. P., 1867, lxxxvi.), and Frothingham (Hist. of 0., 108-9).

" Lat. " I have lived for a short time," or I have been a little while, "I" meaning the town.

3 Meaning " my compact body to rear."-Frothinghum.

4 " Tbe distinguished patrons of Woburn, fearing it would one day rival Charlestown, discouraged the enterprise, and gave it to those they regarded of a lower grade in society, or as the 'clowns.' But dilhcul- ties discouraged them also, and they ' repent they did her vodertake.'" -Frothingham.

5 Exekiel Richardson, supposed. Others have thought Sedgwick the person referred to.

6 Thomas Graves, the admiral, evidently. For biog. sketch, see Frothinghanı (Hist. of C., 139-40), and Sewall (Ilist. 68-71) ; also see Winchester Record, ii. 397-8.

7 The number of the commissioners for the founding of Woburn.

¿ The two were the brothers Samuel and Thomas Richardson, evi- dently.

9 Edward Johuson, " the author of the metro in the text."

10 Edward Converse and John Mousall.

11 Or from the humblest circumstances imaginable.

12 A phrase signifying gold or silver money, mainly the latter.

13 The preliminary quotation is from Plautus (Ps. 1, 1, 36) " Comedy of the Liar :" quasi solstitiulis herba, paulisper fui, "As a summer's flower, I have lived for a short time, "-true as to the existence of Wo- buru iu 1612. The ascription of glory to the Lord for what had been accomplished, the failure of patrons to cucourage or aid, the opposition of Charlestown, the consignment of the undertaking to " the clowns," the absence of supposed solid means, the difficulty of the enterprise of opening a new settlement in a dense wilderness; all this, as expressed in Johnson's verse, truthfully shows, It may be supposed, the meagreness of the means at the outset. Tho enterprise was finally conducted by the common people in their own way.

At the present day one can little conceive the ob- stacles that surrounded these persons. The difficul- ties to be met in the forest were to be overcome by men with hard muscles, loug inured to severe toil, and such as the hardiest alone could stand ; work of a kind to be accomplished by laborers of the roughest sort-the "clowns " of Johnson's verse-rustic and ill-bred, but full of determination to win and over- come natural obstacles of a most disheartening char- acter. They toiled, says Johnson, their leader, with much difficulty, traveling through unknown woods and through watery swamps; sometimes passing through thickets where they were forced to make way with their hands for the passage of their bodies, and their feet clambered over crossed trees, from which if they missed their footing they sunk into an uncertain bottom in water and waded up to their knees; they tumbled, sometimes higher and sometimes lower, and wearied with this toil, at the end would meet with a scorching plain ; yet, in the quaint phrase of Johnson, it was there not "so plain," or easy, for the ragged bushes of the place manifested their. presence by scratching the explorers' legs " foully." The sun also cast such a reflecting heat in such places from the sweet fern, whose scent was very strong, that some of the party were very near fainting from it, although they had very able bodies to undergo such hardship and travel-the toil of a new plantation being like the labors of a Hercules-never at an end.

See a reference to the above extract from the Won- der-working Providence, in the Winchester Record, iii. 18, 23; also for a further quotation from Johnson, ibid. i., 49.

A publication entitled Good News from New England (London 1648), reprinted in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 4th s., cf. i. 201, 212-refers to Woburu thus: " Woo-burn, Wickham [meaning Wenham] Redding [Reading] built with little silver mettle [metal]." The "Good News " being a relation partly in rhyme, a comparison of Johnson's verse-making with that writer's shows that the work of one is about the same as the other; and a mixed relation in verse and prose appears to he a common feature of the lit- erary productions of the day, particularly in descrip- tions of New England.

A second reference to Woburn in this production of 1648 is the following, referring to Thomas Carter as minister (M.) of the town, and to his salary of £60 (60%.) in a list of towns and ministers : " Woo-burn : M. Tho. Carter, 607."

The territory called Woburn, says Frothingham (" Hist. of Charlestown," chap. xiii., A.D. 1846) was regarded in 1640 as remote land, whose roads were Indian pathways, with crevices of rocks and clefts of trees for shelters. To explore it, or occupy it, was viewed as a great labor, and not to be accomplished without danger. The Woburn records note every step. This author, with characteristic ability, gives each important incident in the history of Wob uru to

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the death of Rev. Thomas Carter, in 1684. Of some of the features of the town orders, he remarks- "small things, some may think . ... but let them not be despised ; for such are the fibres of our na- tional tree !" The history of the town's settlement, he says, is "minutely detailed by the early authori- ties "-referring mainly to the writings of Captain - Edward Johnson-and it afforded a "good illustration of some of the peculiarities of the times, and of the way in which towns were organized." The town, he said, shared largely in the early dangers, and "par- took of the prosperity of the country."

Thepeninsula which is known to us to-day as Charles- town was the site of the original settlement of that municipality, and territory was added to that small tract till the area of many present towns was covered by the name of Charlestown. The town of Woburn was the first to be set off. Shorn of this external ter- ritory in the course of years, Charlestown has again shrunken to her original limits, and has lost her name also in that of Boston.

Posterity owes a great debt to the perseverance of the first settlers of Woburn and to Edward Johnson, the leader, who patiently recorded the story of their labors. No fuller account of the origin and settle- ment of a town of equal age has been given in the annals of New England. His history is now the basis of many writers on historical and political science, when treating of the New England people. Froth- ingham called him " the father of Woburn." He was a native of Kent, of the parish of Herne Hill, in England. He was connected intimately with a place called Waterham, in that parish in the old country, where he left possessions mentioned in his will. Captain Johnson was a citizen of Charlestown after 1630, and returning to England, brought over on his second passage from that country his family, consist- ing of his wife, his seven children and three servants. This is supposed to be about 1636 or 1637. At Charlestown, says Frothingham, "he lived in Bow Street," anciently Crooked Lane, the location of his houses and gardens being verified in Hunnewell's Century of Town Life, plans, pp. 108, 129. "Yet," says Frothinghanı, " it is strange that the name of so noted a civilian and religionist is not found in the church records at all, nor on the town records before 1640, exceptin divisions of lands and in a description of his property, where he is styled captain." As we have intimated, he was " the author of the very curious work entitled Wonder- Working Providence of Zion's Sariour " (Lond. 1654), " a relation of the first plant- ing of New England." From the outset he took a leading part in the settlement of Woburn, and at the first meeting of the commissioners for the purpose presented a plot of the contemplated town and was chosen its recorder or clerk. He was active in found- ing the church and was the first captain of the mili- tary company at Woburn. He was a man of much

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 99

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