History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 113

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 113

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One of the great evils with which our forefathers had to contend during the last century was the fluc- tuation in the value of money ou account of the large emission of bills of credit and the consequent infla- tion of the currency. Prior to 1745, when Louisbourg was captured, specie had almost been driven from the country, and it was flooded with a depreciated cur- rency. Consequently many contracts were made pay- able in the staple products, such as corn and pork. The purchasing value of the pouud was constantly falling. No men suffered from this condition of af- fairs more than the ministers, and for this reason there was a constant friction between the successive pastors and the people about their salary, which is illustrated by the following letter fromn Mr. Osgood:

"To the select nien of Stoneham To be Cominunicated to the Inhabit- ants of said Town at their Town Meeting in May, 1737. Gentlemen. I gave my answer to settle among you in the work of the gospel minis- try, April, 1729, and in my answer I then Declared my acceptance of what you then voted me for my settlement, and my yearly salary. But in my further answer I further inserted this: (That I do expect that you will Readily & Cheerfully come into those Further allowances which in the course of my ministry I shall stand in need of for my Comfortable Sup- port. I am coming to a Family Relation among you & By Reasou of the Bills of Credit Being so much sunk in their value in Exchange Between Silver & ye Paper Currency ; for Silver money has risen from 18 shillings to 27 sbillings an ounce in Paper Bills; so that the Paper Bills sinking so much in their Credit, Cloathing, Provisions and Fire wood Have Rise in their price there upon, that with the one Hundred and Ten Pounds wbich yon voted me for my annual Support I cannot Purchase near equal to the value now iu the articles with the said one Hundred and Ten Ponnds now as I could when I first settled among you. Therefore I wd Request of you to allow me a valuable consideration for the sinking of Bills of Credit whereof I may be Enabled to comfortably subsist and Live amongst you. I do spend the Produce of my own Place among you. James Osgood, Clerk. Stoneliam, May 5, 1737."

In 1739 David Gould and Ebenezer Knight were chosen "to see to the preservation of the Deer," and after that time deer-reeves were annually chosen. The town having buried their first pastor, they sought

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

a successor and secured the Rev. John Carnes, who was ordained December 17, 1746. Mr. Carnes when he came here was a young man twenty-two years of age and a graduate of Harvard College. He rc- mained till 1757, was afterwards installed at Rcho- both, was subsequently a chaplain in the Revolution- ary Army from 1776 till the close of the war, and died at Lynn, October 20, 1802. It was during the pastorate of Mr. Carnes that the old parsonage on Central Street was erccted in 1747. Mr. Carnes ap- pears to have had more trouble about his salary cven than Mr. Osgood, and indulged in some rather pointed correspondence with the town. On May 17, 1750, which was the day of the town-meeting, lic sent them the following letter:

"To the inhabitants of the town of Stoneham, Gentlemen :- I have year after year desired you to consider me with regard to my Salary, but notwithstanding this, and notwithstanding I have sunk by ye fall sev- eral Hundred Pounds, I have never had since my ordination but a poor pitiful consideration of £80 Old tenor. Whatever you think of it, gen- themen, yon have been guilty of great Injustice & oppression and have witheld from your minister more than is meet, not considering wbat you read, Prov. 11, 24, 25, which Verses rnu tons. There is that scat- tereth and yet increasetli, and there is yt witboldeth more than is meet but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat ; and he yt watereth shall be watered also himself. You have never made good your contract with your minister, and was it not for some of his good Friends in this Town and other Places, he must have suffered. Time has been when I have had no corn nor meal in my House & wben I have wanted many other necessaries and havent had one Forty shillings in ye World, nor yet Thirty shillings, and when I have been obliged to live by borrowing ; and this is ye case now. But I shall say no more about my circumstances and your Injustice aud oppression. What I de- sire of you now is that you would at this meeting act like houest men and make good your contract that you would make such an addition to my Salary for the present year as that I may be able to subsist. I de- sire nothing that is unreasonable, make good what you first voted me and I shall be easy. I remain your friend and servant, John Carnes. P. S. Gentlemen-Please to send me word before your meeting is over what you have done, yt I may send you a Line or two in order to let you know Iam easy with what you done or not ; for if I cant get a Sup- port by the ministry I must pursue something else, must betake myself to some other business and will immediately do it."

The civil and religious dutics of those days must at times have been pursued at a disadvantage. The people sat through the long service in a cold and comfortless church, with no means of artificial heat. At the annual town-meetings in March they fulfilled the letter of the law by assembling at the meeting- house, acting upon a part of the warrant and then adjourning, often across the way to the hospitable inn of Lieut. James Hay, where, doubtless amid the fra- grant fumes of steaming punch and hot flip, they yielded to the seductive influence of good fellowship, and finished the town's business with great unanimity and satisfaction. Competent men were kept in office for long periods. Lieut. Dan'l Gould was town clerk and town treasurer almost continuously from 1725 to 1748, and Capt. Jonathan Green held the same office, with the exception of one year, from 1748 to 1769. As has been said, the women sat on the east side of the meeting-house and in the east gallery, and the men on the west side and in the west gallery, although after a few years those of the most consideration were

allowed to build for themselves pews. The colored people, thoughi in a state of slavery, were admitted as brethren and sisters to the church. Mr. Carnes, after a good deal of contention and dissatisfaction about his salary, preached his farewell serinon July 31, 1757, went away with a bitter fecling and appar- ently reflected upon the conduct of the town in the papers, for it was voted "that the town will make an answer to what the Rev. John Carnes hath put into the public print." Mr. Carnes was succeeded by Rev. John Searl in January, 1759. He had been previously settled in Sharon, Conn.,, and was a gradu- ate of Yale College. During the first fifty years of the town's history she had been called upon to fur- nish her quotas to the French and Indian Wars. After the French were driven from Acadia many of them were billeted upon the various towns of Massa- chusetts. A number were assigned to Stoneham aud appropriations voted for their support. An occa- sional house or barn-raising broke in upon the irk- someness of every-day life, for it was usually made an occasion of great hilarity to which came men and boys from far and near. The items of expense which were incurred at the raising of the barn of Daniel Green, Jr., in 1763, indicate how these occasions must have been celebrated : "English cheese for Raising, 68. 2d. ; 6 Quarts of Rhum, 48 .; New Eng- land cheese, 1s. 8d .; Bisket for Raising, 28 .; brown bread for Raising, 18. 3d .; sugar for Raising, 18. 2d .; butter for Raising, 8d. ; malt to make beer for Rais- ing, 1d." The training of the military company was also a feature of colonial times, and it is rather a sug- gestive fact that they were almost always summoned to meet at the tavern of James Hay. There was but one school, a schoolmaster being employed in winter and sometimes a schoolmistress in summer. Reading, writing and a little arithmetic were taught, although during the first years the girls did not generally learn to even write, it being considered an accomplishment not necessary for female usefulness. Among the teachers were Captain William Toler, Lieut. Joseph Bryant, Hannah Willy and Joanna Burditt. We may form some idea of the educational attainments required, when we remember that Joanna Burditt, in signing her name, made her mark. Captain Toler was engaged in various occupations, for besides teach- ing school, he kept tavern and carried on a store in the house heretoforc referred to as now owned by Miss Lynde. It was said to have been his custom to send a scholar at eleven o'clock to the tavern across the road from the school to bring him his grog. Stone- ham was ouc of the poorest towns of the county. Her comparative valuation appears from the Province tax assessed upon the different towns in 1754, which was as follows :

Cambridge, £125 14s. ; Charlestown, £162 13s .; Watertown, £66 138. 6d. ; Woburn, £117; Concord, £74 12s. 6d .; Newton, £117 ; Sudbury, £126 108. 6d .; Marlborough, £126; Billerica, £73 16s. ; Framingham, £96 68 .; Lexington, £55 188. ; Chelmsford, £72; Sherburne, £49 14s .. 6d. ;

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Reading, £118 16s. ; Malden, £94 16s. : Weston, £74 78. 4d. ; Medford, £93 4s. 6d. ; Littleton, £5011s. ; Hopkinton, £44 2s. ; Westford, £48 12s. ; District of Shirley, £12 "s. 6d. ; Waltham, £62 5s. ; Townsend, £27 10s. 6d. ; stow, £44 2s. ; Stoneham, £31 11s. 6d. ; Groton, £88 17s .; Wil- mington, £36; Natick, £25 ls. ; Dracut, £35 Ss .; Bedford, £41 6s. 6d. ; Holliston, £40 2s. 6d. ; Tewksbury. £35 &s .; Acton, £26 2s. ; Dunstable, £33 11s. 6d .; District of Pepperell, £2S &s .; Lincoln, £53 4s. 2d .; Car- lisle, £34 16s.

The inventory of many of the inhabitants in 1761 has been preserved, signed by each individ- ual, and is valuable as it affords us a view of the ma- terial prosperity that then prevailed. Captain Jona- than Green, who, at that time, was one of the most substantial, prosperous and intelligent citizens of the town, owned 1 dwelling-house, 2 servants for life, 3 horses, 6 oxen, 9 cows, 20 sheep, 16 bushels of Indian corn, 14 bushels ofrye, 17 bushels of barley, 30 bushels of oats, 30 barrels of cider, 108 acres of pasturage, 12 acres of tillage, 2 acres of orcharding and 33 acres of mowing land. Timothy Taylor, who owned the John Bucknam farm, returned 1 dwelling-house, 2 horses, 4 oxen, 3 cows, 3 swine, 70 acres of pasturage capa- ble of pasturing 20 cows, S acres of tillage land (the ordinary produce of which is 100 bushels of Indian corn, 32 bushels of rye and 34 bushels of oats), 2 acres of orcharding (the produce was 24 barrels of cider), 18 acres of mowing land, 14 tons of English hay and 6 tons of meadow hay.

Joseph Hill, the father of James and the grand- father of John and Luther Hill, was at that time a young man, and was taxed for 1 horse, 2 cows, 4 acres of pasture land, 3 acres of tillage, 1 acre of orchard- ing and £6 money at interest. In 1767 there were 78 ratable polls, 50 dwelling-houses, 1 mill, 10 serv- ants for life, £27 68. 8d. trading stock, £1160 68. 8d. money at interest, 42 horses, 41 oxen, 222 cows, 311 sheep, 33 swine, 2346 bushels of grain, 326 barrels of cider, 102 tons of English hay aud 205 tons of mead- ow hay.

Captain Peter Hay, son of the original Patrick, or Peter Hay, was one of the leading inhabitants during the middle of the century, a prominent man in public affairs, holding many offices and possessing a consid- erable estate. His homestead was near the Farm Hill Station, the house afterwards known as the Hay Tavern. Through the yard between the house and barn led a private way northerly to the Captain Rufus Richardson Lane, and so on by the houses of Caleb, Elijah, Oliver and Thaddeus Richardson, west- erly to the Woburn road. When he made his will, in 1768, the original pioneers were all dead, and a second and third generation had taken their places. Some of the changes which had occurred during the first century are indicated by Captain Hay's will. After commending his soul to God, committing his body to the earth and expressing his faith in the res- urrection of the body, he gives to his wife, Isabelle Hay, indoor movables, etc., 2 cows, 2 sheep, top- chaise and use of horse, the use of one-half of dwell- ing-house, 15 bushels of Indian corn and meal, 3

bushels of rye, 1 bushel of malt, 150 pounds of pork, 2 barrels of cider, 50 pounds of beef, 8 bushels of po- tatoes, ¿ bushel of beans, 8 cords of wood, etc., per annum.

About 1734 Reuben Richardson came from Woburn and settled on what is now known as the Thaddeus Richardson Farm, which was retained by his dc- scendants for more than 150 years. His nephew, Ol- iver, and sons, Elijah and Caleb, occupied farms be- tween his and that of Captain Hay.

From the incorporation of the town to the outbreak .of the Revolution but few events of a public nature transpired to vary the monotony which usually pre- vailed in a thinly-settled community.

From time to time, as expeditions were planned against the French in Canada, volunteers were called for, and soldiers impressed. Many a Stoneham boy, as he returned from Louisbourg, Fort William Henry and Crown Point, must have been a welcome guest, sitting before the blazing fire and recounting the thrilling tales of Rogers' Rangers, and Indian war- fare. During the middle of the century the long- continued peace which had blessed the people for over a generation was broken, and for a period of years savage war poured forth destruction along the northern and castern frontiers. Stoneham was called upon to contribute her quotas, and she responded with the same alacrity that has distinguished her in later times. Among her sons engaged in the wars, Thomas Gould and Titus Potamia in 1746 were sta- tioned at Fort Richmond, on the Kennebec. In the Crown Point expedition of 1756, in Captain William Peabody's company of Colonel Plaisted's regiment, Peter Hay was lieutenant, Thomas Hadley and Thomas Johnson were corporals. Among the privates were John Cades, Jonathan Griffin, Timothy Holden, Nathan Holden, John Carter, Titus Potamia, Jona- than Eaton and Philip Gross. Two or three of these were born in Stoneham and went from other towns. These men were stationed at Fort William Henry, at the head of Lake George, from early in the spring till late in the fall. Nathan Holden dicd there. The list of soldiers in the French and Indian Wars also includes the names of John Hill, Thomas Larrabee, John Converse, Ephraim Brown, Thomas Sprague, Timothy Wright, Aaron Brown, Daniel Connery, Abial Brown, John Gcary, Daniel Knight, Michael Negell, Simcon Wyman, Francis Phillips, Oliver Gross and Jonathan Morrison. A few of these were hired from other towns to fill our quota. John Hill was a sergeant in the company of Ebenezer Nichols, of Reading, and was in the expedition of 1757-58. Four Stoneham men were also in the famous Rogers' Rangers, whose exploits about Lake George and along Lake Champlain, in the campaigns of 1757-58, fiil some of the most thrilling chapters in savage warfare. The French and Indian War, which fell like a thunder- bolt upon the colonists, came as a blessing in disguise, for it prepared them for the greater conflict which so

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

soon was to loom up in the future. Greater events were casting their shadows before. Three millions of people are girding themselves for a struggle with the mightiest power on the face of the globe. The ad- ministration of Chatham had covered the British name with imperishable glory, but the government is now fallen into the weak hands of Lord North, whose ministry is assailing the rights we have enjoyed for five generations. The Stamp Act, the Tea Tax, the Boston Port Bill, the Military and Restraining Acts had aroused and incensed the Colonies. The Recon- struction Acts were intended to effect a complete rev- olution of the government, transferring the powers of the people to the creatures of the Crown. The jurors were to be appointed by the sheriff; the judiciary was to be controlled by the King ; certain classes of erimi- nals could be transferred for trial to a distant colony of the mother country! the matters considered in town-meetings were to be under the direction of the Royal Governor ! the people were alarmed, their lib- ertics were being threatened ; they elected delegates and organized Provincial Congresses. Entreaty and expostulation were followed by resistance. Military stores were being collected, companies of minute-men raised, and the genius of Sam Adams and his com- patriots was organizing revolt. The towns unanimous, war meetings held, resolves passed, men furnished, supplies voted, the first volley fired, and the conflict commenced. Stoneham in the mean time had not been idle. The walls of the old meeting-house resounded with the patriotism of our great-grandfathers. It was there that they met and gave utterance to the senti- ments that swept like a whirlwind over the Province of Massachusetts Bay and extended to the other English provinces in North America. There were held the war meetings of the Revolution, the Committee of Correspondence chosen, and the resolutions adopted which declared the rights of the colonists, and pledged to the common cause the lives and property of the freeholders and inhabitants in town-meeting assem- bled. Meeting after meeting was called to consider the questions which were agitating the country.

In January, 1773, a long communication was adopt- ed in town-meeting, and dispatched to Boston, which deserves attention, for it is a full description of the political questions of the day, and was probably writ- ten either by the minister, Jolin Searle, or else was framed in accordance with a general form adopted by the other towns. It contains these passages : "We fully join in sentiment with you, that the natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on carth, unless justly forfeited by some injurious abuse of it. The right of freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alien- ate this gift." " It is a point of undoubted evidence with us that the Commons of Great Britain have no right to seize upon the properties of the colonists; that the colonists are well entitled to all the essential rights, liberties and privileges of men and freemen

born in Britain. In special, we are deeply affected with some late threatening innovations upon our Constitution; that the Governor of this province is made independent of the general assembly for his support, whereby the ancient connection between hiin and this people is weakened, the confidence of the Governor lessened, the equilibrium destroyed, and our happy Constitution essentially altered." Again, in August, 1774, was passed the following covenant :

" We, the inhabitants of the town of Stoneham, being legally assembled, sincerely acknowledge our strict attachment to the Constitution of our na- tion, and our unfeigned loyalty to our rightful lord and sovereign, King George the Third. Ardently wishing that we might ever live in the ut- mnost harmony with Great Britain. Yet we are driven to the disagree- ahle necessity to say that, having taken into serious consideration the precarious state of the liherties of North America, and more especially the present depressed condition of this insulted province, embarrassed as it is by several acts of the British Parliament, tending, as we apprehend, to the entire subversion of our natural and charter rights, among which is the act of blocking up the harbor of Boston. Therefore, we do sol- emnly covenant and agree with each other

1. That benceforth we will suspend all commercial intercourse with Great Britain until they shall afford us relief. 2. That we will not buy, purchase or consuine any goods or merchandise which shall arrive in America from Great Britain from and after the last day of September next ensuing. These things we solemnly promise to observe, provided no better scheme shall be devised, to answer the same end, by the Con- gress who are to meet the next month at Philadelphia to consult the general political interests of America, and provided a majority of the inhabitants of the English Government of North America hind them- selves by the covenant above-mentioned, or one essentially similar to it ; further provided, that we hereafter shall think of no further method that shall he more worthy of our choice."

The population was small, but a common enthusi- asm possessed the hearts of the whole community, and a company of minute-men was organized, which comprised nearly all the inhabitants capable of bear- ing arms. Tradition says the place of rendezvous was in front of the house of Deacon Edward Buck- nam, and that it was arranged they should be called together by firing of alarm-guns in front of the meet- ing-houso. During the winter and early spring of 1775 they drilled and held themselves ready for ser- vice at the shortest notice. Rev. Caleb Prentiss, of Reading, under date of February 27th, in his diary, makes the following entry :

" At about 3 o'clock A.M. an alarm was made, the drums heat to arms, the hell was rung and alarm guns were fired in the Parish. The report was that a regiment of the Cambridge troops had landed at Marblehead and marched to Salen to take some cannon there, and that the people were defending the cannon, and wanted assistance. The people were mustered, and before daylight were upon the march towards Salem, Having marched ahout five miles we were informed hy the Lynn End company, who were returning, that the Regulars were retreated with- out the cannon, embarked and set sail, upon which we returned. On our return we met the West Parish company and the Stoneham com- pany, all which joined together, returned in order to this Parish, and went through the military exercise. The whole were more than two hundred."

" It was twelve hy the village clock When he crossed the bridge into Medford town."

We may suppose an hour or two later, on the morn- ing of the eventful 19th of April, 1775, a messenger knocked at the door of Captain Sprague and an- nounced that the British troops were on the march to capture or destroy the military stores at Concord. At

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all eveuts, the alarm was given, the company assem- bled and they marched to Lexington, reaching there in time to intercept and pursue the British ou their retreat from Concord. Before reaching Lexington it is said the company separated and scattered them- selves about in small groups. Ebenezer Buckuam, Timothy Matthews and James Willy were together. A bullet passed close to the head of Bucknam and through the hats of both Willy and Matthews. Another member of the company was Josiah Richard- son, of whom Mr. Dean, in his history, says, " Asahel Porter, on the morning of the nineteenth of April, was desired by a neighbor, Josiah Richardson, to pro- ceed with him towards Lexington about three o'clock A. M. Somewhere on the way they discovered some British Regulars. Porter and Richardson were also seen by the Regulars aud were taken by them. Rich- ardson requested permission to return aud was told by the individual to go to another person who would no doubt give him a release, but in case the second person he went to, told him to run, he was by the first ordered uot to run ; being informed that if hedid run he would be shot. Richardson did as he was told to do ; and though he was told to run, he walked away and was uot injured. The reason why he was ordered to run was this ! That the guard muight think him a deserter and thereby in the discharge of their duty. shoot him. Mr. Porter not being apprised of their artifice in telling him to run, got permission in the same way as Richardson. Having liberty to go, he set out upon the run. On getting over a wall, a short distance off, he was fired upon and received his death wound." His bones now lie in Lexington with the seren who fell on that morning while defending their rights as freemen. Samuel Sprague was captain of the company, Joseph Bryant lieutenant, Abraham Gould ensign, John Bucknam and Daniel Bryant sergeants, David Geary and Joseph Geary drummers, and the men were Caleb Richardson, Josiah Richard- son, Charles Richardson, Ephraim and Samuel Brown, Jacob Gould, Amos Knight, James Steele, Benjamin and David Blodgett, Jacob Gould, Jr., Ebenezer Bucknam, David Geary, Thomas Geary, John Hol- den, James Willy, Thomas Sweetser, Joseph Atwell, Elias and Ebenezer Bryant, Timothy and Ezra Vin- ton, Oliver Richardson, Moses Hadley, Thomas and John Knight, Jonathan, Daniel and Daniel Green, Jr., John Crocker, Benjamin Taylor, Nathan Willy, James Hay, Jr., Timothy Wright, Jr., Daniel Hay, Peter Hay, Jr., David and William Hay, John Wright, Daniel Gould, Jr., Samuel Ingalls, John Green, David Gould, John Benjamin, William Person, Joseph Mat- thews, William Connery, Aaron Putnam, Eben Law- rence, Thomas Vinton, Jacob Cutler, John Geary and Thomas Watson. The British, after retreating to Boston, were besieged by the Provincial troops and Captain Sprague's company was probably engaged for some time in the siege, for it appears by their mnster roll that many of them were in the service at that

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 113

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