History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 103

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 103

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General Micah Maynard Rutter was a descendant of John Rutter, who came to America in the ship "Confidence," in 1638. He was born in 1779, and lived on his farm in what has since been known as the Rutter District, on the road from Weston " Cor- ner " to the "Five Paths." He was a patriotic, pub- lic-spirited man, and interested in all matters that concerned the welfare of society. For years he had the office of sheriff, and received from Governor Lin- coln the commission of major-general. He died in 1837, and his remains were interred in the Rutter family tomb, in the old burying ground.

Franklin Fisk Heard, Esq., was born in Wayland, and graduated at Harvard University in 1848. He studied law and became noted in his profession as a writer and compiler of works of law. In his latter years he resided in Boston, where he practiced his profession until his death, which occurred in 1889.

Dr. Ebenezer Ames was born in Marlboro' in 1788. He studied medicine with Dr. Kittredge, of Framingham, and began the practice of medicine in Wayland in 1814, and died in 1861. He early identified himself with the Evangelical Trinitarian Church, of which he was made deacon November 11, 1829. He was some- what noted as a physician, and had an extensive prac- tice, not only in Wayland, but in the adjacent towns. As a citizen he was respected by all. He was emi- nent for his wise counsel and noble, manly character. As a Christian his conduct was exemplary, and he was steadfast in what he believed to be right. At first he lived in the centre village, but soon after built the house upon the Sudbury and Wayland high- way, about an eighth of a mile westerly, where he lived and died. His design in building this house was to provide a home for himself and his minister, and the west end of it was used as the parsonage for many years.

Rev. Edmund H. Sears, D.D., was born at Sandis- field in 1810, graduated at Union College in 1834,

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and at the Harvard Divinity School in 1837. He was ordained February 20, 1839, and installed at Lancas- ter December 23, 1840.

Mr. Sears continued pastor of the Old Parish (Uni- tarian) Church, Wayland, until 1865, when he took charge of the Unitarian Church at Weston. He was a useful citizen and greatly esteemed by his fellow- townsmen. For years he served on the School Com- mittee and also on the Library Committee, and per- formed such other services as greatly endeared him to the people. As a public speaker he displayed great ability, beiug substantial in thought and clear and forceful in expression. As a writer he excelled, and his books have been popular among those who were of his school of theological thinking. He exhibited fine poetical talent, aud some of the sweet hymns of the church are of his authorship. In theology he was of the conservative class of Unitarians. His residence in Wayland was on the "plain," about a mile easterly of Wayland Centre, near the Summer Draper place. He died at Weston January 16, 1876.

THE RIVER MEADOWS .- These border on Sudbury River, and are more largely in Wayland than Sud- bury. They extend, with varying width, the eutire length of the river course. In some places they may narrow to only a few rods, while in others they ex- tend from half a mile to a mile, where they are com- monly called the Broad Meadows. They are widest below the long causeway and Sherman's Bridge. Comparatively little shrubbery is seen on these mea- dows, but they stretch out as grassy plains, nninter- rupted for acres by scarcely a bush. At an early date these meadows yielded large crops of grass, and subsequent years did not diminish the quantity or quality, until a comparatively modern date. From testimony given in 1859 before a Legislative Commit- tee, it appeared that, until within about twenty-five years of that time, the meadows produced from a ton to a ton and a half of good hay to the acre, a fine crop of cranberries, admitted of " fall feeding," and were sometimes worth about one hundred dollars per acre. The hay was seldom "poled " to the upland, but made on the meadows, from which it was drawn by oxen or horses. Testimony on these matters was given before a joint committee of the Legislature, March 1, 1861, by prominent citizens of Sudbury, Wayland, Concord and Bedford. Their opinions were concurrent with regard to the condition of things both past and present.

From evidence it appears that a great and gradual change in the condition of the meadows came after the year 1825. The main cause alleged for this changed condition was the raising of the dam at Bil- lerica. This dam, it is said, was built in 1711 by one Christopher Osgood, under a grant for the town of Billerica, and made to him on condition that he should maintain a corn-mill, and defend the town from any trouble that might come from damages by the mill-dam to the land of the towns above. In

1793 the charter was granted to the Middlesex Canal, and in 1794 the canal company bought the Osgood mill privilege of one Richardson, and in 1798 built a new dam, which remained till the stone dam was built in 1828.

It would be difficult, and take too much space to give a full and extensive account of the litigation and legislation that has taken place in the past near two centuries and a half, in relation to this subject. It began at Concord as early as September 8, 1636, when a petition was presented to the Court, which was fol- lowed by this act : "Whereas the inhabitants of Concord are purposed to abate the Falls in the river upon which their towne standeth, whereby such townes as shall hereafter be planted above them upon the said River shall receive benefit by reason of their charge and labor. It is therefore ordered that such towns or farms as shall be planted above them shall contribute to the inhabitants of Concord, proportional both to their charge and advantage."1 On Nov. 13, 1644, the following persons were appointed commis- sioners : Herbert Pelham, Esq., of Cambridge, Mr. Thomas Flint and Lieutenant Simon Willard, of Concord, and Mr. Peter Noyes, of Sudbury. These commissioners were appointed "to set some order which may conduce to the better surveying, improv- ing and draining of the meadows, and saving and preserving of the hay therc gotten, either by draining the same, or otherwise, and to proportion the charges layed out about it as equably and justly, only upon them that own land, as they in their wisdom shall sec meete." From this early date along at intervals . in the history of both Concord and Sudbury, the question of meadow betterment was agitated. At one time it was proposed to cut a canal across to Water- town and Cambridge, which it was thought could be done " at a hundred pounds charge." Says Johnson : "The rocky falls causeth their meadows to be much covered with water, the which these people, together with their neighbor towne (Sudbury) have several times essayed to cut through but cannot, yet it may be turned another way with an hundred pound charge." In 1645 a commission was appointed by the colonial authorities (Col. Rec. Vol. II., page 99) "for ye btt" and imp'ving of ye meadowe ground upon ye ryvr running by Concord and Sudbury." In 1671 a levy of four pence an acre was to be made upon all the meadow upon the great river, "for re- claiming of the river that is from the Concord line to the south side, and to Ensign Grout's spring." Later a petition was sent by the people of Sudbury, headed by Rev. Israel Loring, for an act in behalf of the meadow owners. But legislation and litigation per- haps reached its height about 1859, when most of the towns along the river petitioned for relief from the flowage. The petition of Sudbury was headed by Henry Vose and signed by one hundred and seventy-

1 Shattuck's "History of Concord," page 15.

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six others; and that of Wayland by Richard Heard and one hundred and sixteen others.

For any one to attempt with great positiveness fo clear up a subject which has perplexed legislators and lawyers, might be considered presumptuous. It is safe, however, to say that while there is evidence showing that the meadows were sometimes wet in the summer at an early period, they were not generally so ; it was the exception and not the rule. It was a sufficient cause of complaint if the settlers had their fertile lands damaged even at distant intervals, since they so largely depended upon them ; but the fact that they did depend on them, and even took cattle from abroad to winter, indicates that the meadows were generally to be relied upon. Certain it is that, were they formerly as they have been for nearly the last half-century, they would have been almost worthless. Since the testimony taken in the case before cited, these lands have been even worse, it may be, than before. To our personal knowledge, parts of them have been like a stagnant pool, over which we have pushed a boat, and where a scythe has not been swung for years. Dry seasons have occasionally come in which things were different. Such occurred in 1883, when almost all the meadows were mown, and even a machine could, in places, cut the grass. But this was such an exception that it was thought quite remarkable. For the past quarter century peo- ple have placed little reliance upon the meadows; and if any hay was obtained it was almost unexpected. This condition of things in the near past, so unlike that in times remote, together with the fact of some complaint by the settlers, and an occasional resort by them to the General Court for relief, indicates that formerly freshets sometimes came, but cleared away without permanent damage to the meadows. At times the water may have risen even as high as at present. It is supposed that at an early period the rainfall was greater than now, and that because of extensive forests the evaporation was less. The little stream that may now appear too small to afford ade- quate power to move saw and grist-mill machinery, may once have been amply sufficient to grind the corn for a town. But the flood probably fell rapidly, and the strong current that the pressure produced might have left the channel more free from obstruc- tions than before the flood came. Now, when the meadow lands are once flooded they remain so, till a large share of the water passes off by the slow pro- cess of evaporation. The indications are that some- thing has of late years obstructed its course. As to whether the dam is the main and primal cause of the obstruction, the reader may judge for himself.

GRASS .- Various kinds of grass grow on the mead- ows, which are known among the farmers by the fol- lowing names : " pipes," " lutc-grass," " blue-joint," " sedge," " water-grass," and a kind of meadow " red- top." Within a few years wild rice has in places crept along the river banks, having been brought

here perhaps by the water-fowl, which may have plucked it on the margin of the distant lakes.

COCHITUATE .- This village is situated in the sonth part of the town. Its name is of Indian origin, and was originally applied, not to the pond near by, which was formerly known as Long Pond and at present Cochituate Pond, but to the land in the neighborhood, and the locality so-called gave its name to the pond. The evidence of this is the use of the word in the early records. In a record of the laying out of the "Glover farm" in 1644, is this statement : "The southwest bounds are the little river that issueth out of the Great Pond at Cochituate." The word has been spelled in various ways, some of which are Wo- chittuate, Charchittawick and Cochichowicke. It is said (Temple's "History of Framingham ") that the word signifies "place of the rushing torrent " or "wild dashing brook ; " and that it refers to the outlet of the pond when the water is high. There are indica- tions that on the highlands west of the pond the In- dians once had a fort, and it is supposed the country about was once considerably inhabited by natives.

Cochituate village is probably largely situated upon lands which were once a part of the Dunster or Pond farm or on the Jennison grant before men- tioned. Both of these farms early came into the possession of Edmund Rice, who purchased the Jen- nison farm in 1687, and the Dunster farm in 1659. The Old Connecticut Path passed by this locality and took a course northerly of the pond into the territory now Framingham. Not far from Dudley Pond a honse was erected, about 1650, by Edmund Rice. This was probably the " first white man's habitation in this vicinity." The lands on which he built were a part of the Glover farm, and leased for a term of at least ten years. One of the terms of the lease was that Mr. Rice should erect a dwelling on the premises within five or six years, and that it should be of the following dimensions : " thirty foote long, ten foote high stud, one foote sil from the ground, sixteen foote wide, with two rooms, both below or one above the other; all the doores well hanged and staires, with convenient fastnings of locks or bolts, windows glased, and well planked under foote, and boarded sufficiently to lay corne in the story above head."

Mr. Rice was probably the first white settler of the place, and from this lone dwelling-place streamed forth a light into the dark wilderness that must have looked strange to the native inhabitants. The coun- try in and about this village continued to be like the other outskirts of the town, a quiet farming com- munity, until the early part of the present century, when the manufacture of shoes was commenced in a small way by William and James M. Bent. In the course of a few years, this business developed into quite a source of employment, not only for people in the immediate vicinity, but for some living in the ad- joining towns. Stock was cut and put up in cases at the Bent shop, and workmen came and took it to their

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homes to finish. The shoes were mostly what were known as " kip " or " russet " shoes, and were sold in cases of from fifty or sixty pairs.

The " russets " were for the Southern market and used by the slaves on the plantations. Since the in- troduction of modern machinery, the shoe business in Cochituate has mostly been done in one or two large shops. The village has grown in size and prosperity to an extent in proportion as the shoe business has increased ; and a large share of the dwelling-houses are owned or occupied by persons who are connected with this important business.

Cochituate has two meeting-houses, one for the Wesleyan Methodist, the other for the Methodist Episcopal Church. The former building is situated in Lokerville, and was erected in 1850. The latter is at Cochituate village and was built about twenty-five years ago. The construction of a Catholic Church was recently commenced on Main Street. It is de- signed for the use of the French Catholic people of the place. Sabbath services are only occasionally held at the Wesleyan meeting-house, but at the Methodist Episcopal Church they are held regularly.

Cochituate has six public schools, five of which are kept in the grammar school house in the central vil- lage, the other is a primary school and kept at Lok- erville. The village has a cemetery pleasantly located near Cochituate Lake. The place is supplied with water from Rice's Pond by means of works, con- structed in 1878, at an expense of $25,000.

A street railroad was recently made from Cochitu- ate to Natick, and arrangements have been made the present year for the survey of a branch railroad from Cochituate village to the Massachusetts Central Railroad at Wayland Centre.

The place has several stores of various kinds, and a bakery. Recently it has been provided with electric lights.

THE QUARTER MILLENNIAL ANNIVERSARY .- In accordance with a plan arranged by the joint committee of Sudbury and Wayland, the Quarter Millenial Anniversary exercises began at Wayland on the morning of Sept. 4, 1889, by the firing of cannon and the ringing of the meeting-house bells.

The exercises were of an interesting character. The children of the public schools of Wayland, Co- chituate, South, North and Sudbury Centre, all be- decked in festal day attire, and headed by the Fitch- burg Brass Band and a rear guard of the "Sudbury Cavalcade," made a detour of the town, and then as- sembled in the Town Hall, where they were ad- dressed by Rev. Robert F. Gordon, pastor of the Congregational Church, and William H. Baldwin, president of the Young Men's Christian Union of Boston.

When the speaking was ended, the children repair- ed to the lower room, where a collation was served, after which the people went to South Sudbury by a special train. From South Sudbury a procession

moved to Sudbury Centre, where a dinner was served in the town hall. At about half-past two an oration was delivered by Rev. Alfred S. Hudson, from a platform erected just east of the old parish meeting-house. After the oration, speeches were made by distin- guished guests, and the services of the day closed with a concert and fire-works at Sudbury Common, and a ball in the Town Hall at Wayland.

The battery that gave the salute at Wayland in the early morning was from Waltham, and was stationed on the sandy knoll a little southeasterly of Wayland Centre. During the firing, it is stated by those pres- ent that a large eagle, a bird quite rare in any part of the State at any time, alighted upon a tree not far away from the battery and remained on its perch as the salute went on. The attendance upon the ex- ercises was greater than the most enthusiastic had an- ticipated, and it was the general opinion of the great multitude assembled that the day was very enjoy- able and one long to be remembered by those who love the two towns. Nature was at her best. The summer lingered in its beauty, while the early au- tumnal hues and breezes contributed just sufficient to what summer afforded to make the day one that was exceptionally adapted to the celebration of a great event.

CHAPTER . XXXVIII.

MAYNARD.

BY REV. ALFRED SERENO HUDSON.

MAYNARD is a new town incorporated April 19, 1871. Its territory consists of 1300 acres taken from Stow, and 1900 acres taken from the northwesterly part of Sudbury. It is situated about twenty-one miles by highway west of Boston ; and is bounded north by Acton, south and cast by Sudbury and west by Stow. The town contained in 1875 a population of 1965; and has a central village, the principal busi- ness of which is the manufacture of woolen goods. The territory is divided by a stream now called the Assabet River, but which has at different times been known as Elzabeth, Elzibeth, Elzebet, Elisabeth and Elizebeth. On an old map of Sudbury by Mathias Mosman, bearing date April 17, 1795, and made by authority of that town in obedience to an order from the General Court of June 26, 1794, the name is spelled Elsabeth. In a note explanatory of the map, is the following statement by the author: "The rivers are also accurately surveyed and planned ; the river Elsabeth is from four to five rods wide, but [there is] no public bridge over the river where it joins Sudbury." On a map of Sudbury by William H. Wood, published in 1830, the name is spelled Elzibeth. But although the river has at times been called by what has sounded like an English word, it

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is not probable that this was its original name. On the contrary, the evidence is that Elzibeth or Elzibet and similar ones arc corruptions of the Indian word Assabet or Assabacth. At a date prior to the use of the name Elzibeth, Elzibet, ctc., as before given, the terms Asibath and Isabaeth were used. When the lands south of the Assabet River were being laid out and apportioncd to the settlers, about the year 1650, the farm of William Brown is spoken of as being in the "northwest angle beyond Asibath River," and in the "Colony Records," vol. iii. page 225, with date May 22, 1651, is the statement that " Captain Willard and Licutenaut Goodenow are appointed to lay out the thousand acres of laud at Isabaeth which Jethro the Indian mortgaged to Hermon Garret."

Another matter of consideration is that the tribu- tary which flows into the Assabet River just above the upper bridge, near the old Whitman place, was early known as Assabet Brook. It has thus been designated by tradition and document, and the term has come down to the present, notwithstanding that the terms Elzabeth, etc., have been applied to the river. We consider it, then, fairly established that the river, the locality and also the brook were all called by the Indian name. The words Elsabeth, Elizabeth, etc., may have crept into use as corruptions of the original Indian name, and the map-makers doubtless took the name that was popularly used. It is probable that the Indians would have a name for a stream of such size, and also that the settlers would call it by the same name.

Assabet is a convenient form of the Indian names before mentioned. The very sound is a reminder of those far-away days when the home of the red man was here, and the stream and its borders were his fish- ing-place and hunting ground. It is suggestive of the murmur of pines, the rippling of water and the rustling of leaves. Such a stream as the Assabet would naturally be a favorite with the aborigines, and attract them to its neighborhood. The Indians, to quite an extent, relied upon fish for subsistence, which they took at certain scasons in large quantitics, and preserved, by drying, for future use. The Assabet River is a tributary of the Musketaquid (Concord and Sudbury River), which stream was formerly well stocked with salmon, alewives, shad and dace. These were taken in abundance at different points along the river, one favorite fishing-place being near Weir Hill, by the Concord and Sudbury boundary, and another at Rocky Falls (Saxonville). Surely we may sup- pose, then, that up a tributary like the Assabet many of these fish would ascend in the spawning season, and give ample opportunity to the natives for obtain- ing them in abundance. Various methods were em- ployed by the Indians in fishing. As the fish as- cended the stream, they would watch at some fall or where there was shoal water, and take them with the arrow or spear. The scoop-net was also used at such places. Many were captured at night, when the In-

dian sat in his canoe, with the blazing torch at the bows, which attracted the fish. When the fish de- scended the stream a weir was used. This was a fence constructed from the bank towards the stream centre, and running diagonally to an apex, where a net was placed for their " capture as they were passing through. Thus this stream, now so busy and important, and associated with so much of the town's life of to-day, was also important and serviccable to the inhabitants long since passed away.

The sounds and the sights are as different from what they once were as are the traits of the two races who have dwelt on its banks. Instead of the hum of machinery and the rumbling of the carriage and car, was the dashing of waves on the rock, the lone whistle of the wild wood-duck's wing, the occasional crash of some worn-out hemlock or oak, the shriek of the wild- cat or the howl of the wolf. Instead of the reflection of scores of bright lights at night of the noisy mill and quiet homes, was the flash of a birch-bark or pitch-pine torch, as, borne at the bows of a light canoe, it flitted noiselessly by inlet and curve. To the very river bank the forest grew, and in place of the meadow or well-tilled field was the oak and dark cvergreen grove or the tangled, swampy morass. From these circumstances, theu, we may suppose that the Assabet River has played an important part in the history of the place. It is a beautiful stream, with its swiftly-running waters at times and places, and with its picturesque scenery outstretching to the surrounding country.

As Maynard is composed of territory taken from Sudbury and Stow, a few facts concerning the settle- ments of these old towns may be interesting, and as- sist to a better understanding of the early history of the place. Sudbury was settled in 1638 by a com- pany of English emigrants, some of whom came di- rect from England and some from Watertown, after a brief stay there. The lands were attained by per- mission of the Colonial Court. The first grant was of a tract about five miles square, and was purchased of the Indian proprietor Karto, or Goodinan, as he was called by the English. This tract extended from Concord on the north to what was then the " wilder- ·ness land" (now Framingham) on the south, and from Watertown (now Weston) boundary on the east to a little westerly of the village of Sudbury Centre. In 1649 the settlers obtained by petition another grant, which extended westward, and was called the "Two-Mile Grant."

The town was incorporated Sept. 4, 1639, when the Court ordered that " The new plantation by Coucord shall be called Sudbury." The name was taken from Sudbury in England, from which town some of the settlers are supposed to have come. Que great in- ducement which led to the selection of this spot for a settlemcut was the extensive meadow lands along the river. Upon these lands the people depended to a great extent for their subsistence during the first

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 103

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1226

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226