History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 141

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 141

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

tell and Franklin Dexter were counsel for the presi- dent and cashier, who were charged with embezzle- ment, and Asahel Huntington and Charles Allen, district attorneys, conducted the prosecution.

This court-house was thoroughly remodeled in 1840 and was burned in June, 1849, by an incendiary who wished to destroy a criminal indictment against him.

Previous to the fire Lowell had drawn away from Concord the April term of the Supreme Court and the September term of the Common Pleas. This last had been for years the great holiday of the county. On the farms haying must be done, and corn-stalks cut before the September Court or the hired men and boys could not be spared to attend its sessions. A long row of booths for the sale of eatables and drink- ables and for shows of various kinds covered botlı sides of the square. Crowds of both sexes and all sizes came for the fun, which was often fast and furious. Drinking, gambling and horse-racing went on openly, sometimes ending in fights and rows. The disorder occasionally rese to such extremes that the court would adjourn and the sheriff and his deputies, with the judges and jurors as a posse, would sally forth to put down the riot.

After the burning of the Court-House an attempt was again made to remove the terms of the court to Lowell and Cambridge and prevent rebuilding in Concord. This failed mainly through the sagacity of the town in sending as its Representative to the Legis- lature the Hon. Samuel Hoar, whose wisdom and in- fluence controlled votes enough in that body to defeat the removal. The present Court-House was built in 1851, and during the interval the courts were held in the vestry of the church. With the change of the Common Pleas to the Superior Court, the March term was removed to Lowell, and only a civil and a criminal term in the summer were left in Concord. In 1857 the Supreme Judicial Court held a session here for capital trials. The presence for a week of Chief Jus- tice Shaw, Justices Metcalf and Bigelow, with Attor- ney-General Clifford, revived the former glory of Concord Courts, while Abbott, Butler, Train, Somer- by, Gale and Kelly kept up the old reputation of the Middlesex Bar by successful defences of the accused.

These were the last important trials in this town, and in 1867 the courts were removed to Cambridge and Lowell, and Concord ceased to be a shire. The act authorizing this removal provided that the county property here should be given to the town which had furnished the sites of the county buildings. This was done, and the Court-House was sold by the town to the Middlesex Mutual Fire Insurance Company. 1

The jail, built in 1791 of split granite, with large rooms, strong doors and safe gratings, frequently crowded with prisoners duriug terms of the courts had held in its walls Alcott and Thorcau for refusing to pay their taxes, was sold, taken down and used for ulverts and cellar walls. This jail took the place of

an carlier one built of wood that stood on the rear of the Main Street Burying-Ground, in which Sir Arch- ibald Campbell, lieutenant-colonel of the Seventy-first British Regiment, was confined with other prisoners of war during the Revolution, and his sketch of the build- ing now hangs in the Public Library. There are some traditions of a still earlier jail that is said to have been placed near the Orthodox Church grounds, but it has left no distinct record. The county house near the jail became the property of the Catholic Church, and all traces of the shire-town were taken from Concord.

MILITIA COMPANIES .- The two companies into which the Concord soldiers had been for nearly a hundred years divided were the originals of the two which fought at the North Bridge.

The heavy drafts on the town by the Revolution and the organization of the Light Infantry Company, left but one company of militia, called the Standing Company, in Concord. This continued till the change of the law, in 1840, enrolling the militia. Great consideration to military titles was always paid in the town. These are set out in the earlier records, dis- played on the old grave stones and handed down in the speech of the generations. Since the Revolution, there have been in Concord three generals,-Hildreth, Colburn and Buttrick,-a dozen colonels, several majors, and two-score captains, who were always spoken of and to by their titles.

In 1804 a company of artillery was chartered for Concord, and made its first parade the 4th of July of that year. By the charter act it was ordered that two brass field-pieces, suitably engraved, be provided for the company, and in pursuance of this a pair of six- pounders were given them.

The inscription on these cannon reads :

" The Legislature of Massachusetts consecrates the names of Major John Buttrick and Captain Isaac Davis whose valour and example excited their fellow citizens to a successful resistance of a superior number of British troops, at Concord Bridge, the 19th of April, 1775, which was the beginning of a contest in arms that ended in American Independence."

These field-picces, after a service of more that forty years in the company, were exchanged for a new pair having the same inscription, pursuant to a resolve passed in 1846. The first pair now stand in the Doric Hall of the State-House, on either side of the statue of Washington. The new pair, after nearly forty years of service, were transferred by the Legis- lature to the town of Concord, and with all their equipments of caissons, harnesses, &c., are carefully

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CONCORD.

kept in the town-house under the charge of an iude- pendent battery of light artillery.

The Concord Light Infantry gave up its charter in 1848, being then the oldest corps in the State next to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery of Boston. The Concord Artillery, about the same time, changed its drill to infantry, secured an armory on Bedford Street and has since become a leading company of the Mas- sachusetts Volunteer Militia-Co. L, Sixth Regiment. A few years ago the town built a new and convenient armory on Walden Street, iu which this corps take pride and keep up the spirit and drill of their high rank as soldiers. While the two uniformed compan ies, the infantry and artillery, continued, great rivalry existed between them, and showed in their street pa- rades as well as in their military balls.

These dances were held each winter by the infan- try at Shepard's Coffee-House, on Main Street, and by the artillery at the Middlesex Hotel, and great efforts were put forth by either company to secure the fairest partners, the finest music and the best supper of the season. The rivalry culminated in a grand training in October, 1838, when each company turned out with a full band of music from the city and paraded on opposite sides of the square. The bands strove to drown each other's music, the soldiers to crowd the ranks of the other company off their line of march as they passed and repassed, till hot blood was raised and spilled be- fore the interference of wiser and cooler heads stopped the fray.

The next year "Cornwallis day" was duly honored in Concord by a gathering from all the county. The uniformed companies, under the command of Gen. Joshua Buttrick, as Lord Cornwallis, repre- sented the British army, and the militia companies led by Col. Sherman Barrett, as General Washington, the American force. The line was formed on the Common in the forenoon, extending the whole length- in double ranks of Continentallers, displaying every old and odd article of dress that could be ransacked from the garrets of the county. They were armed with any and every kind of weapon that had seen service, from the old fire-locks of the Indian wars to the modern rifles and fowling-pieces. A more quaint motley than these presented has rarely been seen in this age and community.

The two armies had a sham fight in the afternoon, that was hardly bloodless, one or two being wounded with ramrods, fired off in the haste of loading, or a bayonet prick in the excitement of a charge. At dark Cornwallis surrendered, and this was duly celebrated at the taverns, where both forces frater- nized afterward. The occasion fully proved the truth of Lowell's lines :

" Recollect what fun we had, You'n' I an' Ezra Hollis, Up there to Concord plain last fall, Along of the Cornwallis."

Twenty years later, in 1859, Governor Banks as-

sembled the whole volunteer militia of Massachusetts for a five days' muster at Concord. Seven thousand well-drilled uniformed soldiers were present, and were reviewed by the State officers and the Legislature, in the presence of a great crowd of people. This mus- ter helped materially to make the State troops ready for the breaking out of the Civil War. After that war was over, in 1869, Major-Gen. Butler, then in command of the Massachusetts Volunteer Milicia, repeated this general muster of all the force, on the same field in Concord. It was almost a review of the veterans of the Uuion Army from this State, so many of them who had gallantly borne themselves on Southern battle-fields, had continued in the service to that time.

MEADOWS .- Stretching along the Concord River and its south branch are great meadows, containing more than 10,000 acres. These were the beds of ancient ponds or lakes, now drained by the river, and are covered with deep, rich soil. The early settlers found on these a supply of grass for their cattle, and gradu- ally, as the forest was cleared off, the meadows should have become dryer and fit for cultivation. But in 1793 the Middlesex Canal Company was chartered to make a canal from the Merrimack River to the Mys- tic River. This was then a great public work, and so much interest was taken in its success that the char- ter was very loosely drawn, withoutsuitable provisions for damages to private property. It was intended to take the water of the Merrimack and bring it through the canal to the Mystic near Boston. Complete sur- veys showed the Concord River, where the canal would cross it at Billerica, too much above the level, aud the plan was changed. The Concord River had to be used as the feeder, and the water of that stream taken to fill both ends of the canal. To get a suf- ficient supply a dam was required at Billerica that would hold the water of the Concord iu the dry sea- son. Au old mill-dam, used only in the wet portion of the year, existed there, and was secured by the canal for its purposes, raised and tightened so that the river was flowed back on the meadows, and they grew more wet every year and of less value. The meadow owners brought various suits for damages sustained by this flowing, but were never successful in getting any pay, because of the insufficient provisions of the Canal Act.

After the Boston and Lowell Railroad was in oper- ation the canal lost most of its business, and was finally given up as a water-way, and in places filled up and the land put to other uses. In 1851 the Canal Company released all their land and rights in the dam and water-power at Billerica to the Messrs. Tal- bott for $20,000. This was a small consideration if they had a right to maintain the dam after the canal was abandoned. Earlier than this the city of Boston built large reservoirs on the upper waters of the Con- cord River to compensate for taking the water of Lake Cochituate to Bostou. The natural outlet of

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

this lake was through the Sudbury River, and the plan was to make good the supply of water to the mills at Billerica and below. Between the dam below and the reservoirs above these meadows, the wetness so increased that they became worthless, and the owners at last were roused to take measures of redress. In 1859 the citizens of Bedford, Carlisle, Concord, Sud- bury and Wayland petitioned the General Court for relief, and a special committee of the Legislature sat in Concord during the recess to hear and examine the complaints and the cause of the trouble. This committee reported their findings and all the evi- dence, both documentary and oral, to the Legislature of 1860. The case of the meadow-owners was so strong that an act was passed by a great majority ap- pointing commissioners to take down the dam at Bil- lerica to the level from which it had been raised by the Canal Company, and to pay the damages cansed by such reduction of the dam, if any, from the State Treasury.

This act was to take effect the next September, in order to give the mill-owners time to substitute steam for the water-power they might lose. When Septem- ber came legal proceedings were had, and an injunc- tion laid on the commissioners, on the ground that the State might not pay these damages, which delayed their action till winter had set in, and the work was difficult. Meantime a new Legislature had been chosen, to which the manufacturers were incited to send representatives by the alarm that dams were in danger. The Legislature of 1861, although chosen to some extent under manufacturing influence, could not be induced to repeal the act of the former year, so strong was the case of the meadow-owners for re- lief. The most that could be passed was an act to suspend the former law, and have a commission ap- pointed to examine into the trouble again. This commission sat, surveyed and experimented all snm- mer at an expense of $15,000, and reported to the next Legislature in substance that although the top of the dam was higher than the bottom of the river for its length of over twenty miles, and that there was only thirty-four inches of fall to the stream in that distance, there were so many bars and weeds and rocks in the river that the dam didn't do all the harm. This report was adopted, and the law taking down the dam repealed in 1862, so that the meadow- owners got no relicf for the depreciation of their crops for more than half a century, and the decrease in valne of the land from one hundred to ten or fifteen dollars an acre; in all a loss of more than a million dollars by a dam that was never worth or cost more than $20,000, and the improvident legislation under which it was built.

EDUCATION .- The schools of Concord have been from the earliest days objects of great interest. The town had a grammar school before 1680, and in that year the constable returned, on an order of the Council, that he " had made dillegent inquiry and find no de- fccts to return ; " i. e., of any children or yonth not

"taught to read the English tongue, have knowledge of the capital laws, be taught some orthodox cate- chism, and bronght up to some honest employ- ment." This grammar school has been kept since 1692 to the present time, some years in the centre of the town, and in other years partly in the centre and partly in the different quarters of the town.

After the Revolution the districts were revised, and the moncy appropriated for schools divided among them according to the taxcs paid by the rcsi- dents, but there never were legal school districts es- tablished. In 1831 a new system of division of the school money was made, by which each district re- ceived a certain percentage of the sum raised. There were six outer districts in addition to the centre one as early as the present century. In 1799, when new school-honses were built in nearly all of the districts, a School Committee was chosen for the first time, con- sisting of five citizens, who had the general charge of all the schools, and a prudential committee for each district was usually chosen to provide teachers and sundries for that school. This system substantially continued until 1860, when a larger committee was chosen, consisting of three from the Centre District and one each from the other six districts, one-third of the number being elected annually. Under this new sys- tem a superintendent of schools was appointed by the committee, and this plan is still in force. A high school was established by this committee, though the gram- mar school had been called high school for a few years previous, and a superintendent of schools had been sometimes chosen before 1860. The sum raised by the town for the schools that year was $3300. This has been almost yearly increased, till in 1890 $14,400 was raised for schools, besides $1,000 for text books, and $800 for repairs of school-houses.

Meantime a still greater change in the school sys- tem has taken place. The school-honses in five of the six onter districts are closed, and the scholars of each of these districts are brought to and car- ried from the Centre, so that except at Westvale all the children of the town are taught in the graded Emer- son School and in the High School, both new and modern school-honses of eight and four rooms. At the Junction a new four-room school-house was built in 1887, and the children of that village, Westvale and the Reformatory attend there in a graded school.

The teachers of the grammar and High School since 1830, have been,-

C. C. Field, 1833-34. Newton Goodhue, 1835-36. E. J. Marsh, 1836-37.

Frederick Parker, 1838. Henry D. Thoreau, Hiram B. Dennis, 1839.

Mr. Ellison,

Mr. Brown, 1840.

Mr. Nonrse, S Henry A. Barrett, 1840-42. James Sherman, 1843-47. Sereno D. Hunt, 1847-55. Charles J. Frost, 1855.

IIenry Chase, 1856-57. Charles Carroll, 1858. Charles A. Allen, 1858-60. Edward O. Shepard, 1860-62.

G. A. Stone, 1862. N S Folsom, 1863-65. Emma F. Moore, 1866. George W. Neal,' 1867-71.

H. K. Spaulding, 1871. Charles Almy, 1872-74.

George W. Minns, 1874-75.

William L. Eaton, 1875 and since.

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CONCORD.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS .- Since the close of the acad- emy in 1834, various private schools have existed in Concord at different times, some of these remarkable for a high order of teaching and scholarship. As an instance of longevity and continuance of families in town, out of twenty-two scholars attending a private school here, sixteen were living fifty years after its close, and twelve of these were present at a wedding in Concord half a century from its commeuce- ment.

SOCIETIES .- Beside those already mentioned, various associations were formed that have had much influence in this town. The first and oldest, growing out of the Committee of Safety of the Revolution, is the Social Circle in Concord. This was formed in 1782 and con- sists of twenty-five members, meeting at each other's houses weekly, in the season from October to April. It has, with two slight interruptions, been steadily continued to the present time and celebrated its cen- tennial in 1882. The proceedings of that meeting were printed with the memoirs of the twenty-five original members. During this century of its life it consisted mainly of the leading citizens of the town, and contributed to the improvement of Concord in many ways. Of late years its chief work has been the preparation of memoirs of all its deceased mem- bers. In 1889 a second series of these memoirs was printed, containing sixty-two more, conclud- ing with that of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by his son, and completing the list to 1839, the date of Mr. Emerson's admission, of all who joined the Circle previously. It is of this club that Emerson wrote, in 1844, "Much the best society I have ever known is a club in Concord called the Social Circle, consisting always of twenty-five of our citizens, doc- tor, lawyer, farmer, trader, miller, mechanic, etc. Solidest of men who yield the solidest of gossip." Perhaps it should be noted, that of the present mem- bers, only one, Hon. E. R. Hoar, belonged to it at the time of that writing above quoted.

In 1879 a similar club of fewer members and some- what younger men was formed, called the Tuesday Club. Not to be outdone by the gentlemen, last year the ladies got up a club of their own, which, like the other two, meets for the same purpose on the same evening‹.

In 1794 a Fire Society was formed, each member of which was required to keep in readiness for use, two leather buckets, a ladder and a large canvas bag. It was expected that each member, at an alarm of fire, would seize his buckets and bag and go to the scene and help save the property from destruction. This society, with its annual supper, paid for by the fines of delinquent members, was for many years a useful and flourishing institution of the town, till superseded by a Fire Department in 1855.

The Female Charitable Society was established in 1814 and has continued ever since its good work of relieving the wants of the poor and needy. It has

now more than a hundred members and a fund of two thousand dollars.

Musical, Temperance, Colonization, Anti-Slavery, Bible and Missionary Societies have existed in Con - cord for many years, changing from time to time as their purposes waned or expired. In recent years church associations, lodges, orders and clubs have multiplied till they include in their membership a large part of the population. The latest society, and destined to become one of the great interest, is the Concord Antiquarian Society. This was incorporated in 1887, and received from Mr. Cummings E. Davis his collection of antiquities and relics valued at many thousand dollars. The society purchased the old Reuben Brown house, near the Square, for a home for their collection, has held regular meet- ings at which historical papers are rcad, and by its annual meeting on the 12th of September keeps up an interest in the anniversary of the settlement of the town. The rooms are open daily for visitors, on the payment of a small fee, and its attractions receive much praise. It furnishes a nucleus around which in the future will gather many interesting articles that will whisper of the Past, and become rarer and more valuable with years.

The gift of twenty thousand dollars by Miss Mar- tha Hunt for a Home for the Aged in Concord caused the incorporation of such an institution in 1886. The large mansion of the late Cyrus Snow, on Walden Street, was purchased for the purpose, and several inmates have availed themselves of its shelter and support.

The literary epoch of Concord closed with, if it did not culminate in, the School of Philosophy. This was got up in 1879 by A. Bronson Alcott and held its first session in his house. It attracted a class of metaphys- ical thinkers and speakers from various sections of the land, and was reported largely in the newspapers and quoted as a new departure in Philosophy. A small chapel-like structure, capable of holding several score persons, was built the second year for the purpose, and in this lectures, essays and discussions went on for seven summers. Some old and some new ideas were uttcred, some worshiped and some scoffed, and the world outside made fun of its dialec- tics and lucubrations. Eminent men and women at times read papers at its meetings, but the failure of Alcott's mind and health, and the secession of some of its leaders, took away from its interest. The at- tendance fell off, and after a season or two of literary and biographical notices of Goethe, Dante and Emer- son, it quietly passed away in 1887 to the oblivion it merited. The outcome, except to those who attended its sessions, was little except the ridicule of the unbe- lieving world.

NEWSPAPERS .- In 1816 Messrs. Bettes & Peters be- gan the publication of a weekly in Concord called the Middlesex Gazette. This was changed to the Yeo- man's Gazette in 1830, and continucd under various

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

editors till 1840. The last editor was William S. Robinson, a native of this town, and well known in after years as " Warrington."

Meantime in the Anti-Masonic excitement of 1834 another paper, the Concord Freeman, was published here by Francis R. Gourgas, and continued by him and Charles C. Hazewell till about 1850. While these two rival shcets existed, much controversy went on between them, and lively, sharp and personal ed- itorials appeared. A curious instance of their disa- greement was shown in September, 1835. The Gazette for several issues was filled with the notes of prepara- tion for the Bi-Centennial of the town, and printed a long account of the celebration. The Freeman of that time makes no mention of the occasion, either be- fore or after that date, although nearly the whole peo- ple of the town were present or interested in the great event.

In 1875 the Concord Freeman was revived as a branch of the local newspapers of several of the neighboring towns and still continues to be published.

In 1885 the Concord Transcript was started by Frank A. Nichols, and issued for a single year, printing in the paper of September 19th a full account of the 250th anniversary of the town and a verbatim report of the speeches at the dinner (with the oration of Sen- ator Hoar, in a supplement), making over thirty col- umns of the paper. More recently the Concord En- terprise was published on the same plan as the Free- man, and still exists, so that the town has the advan- tage of two local newspapers and their advertise- ments.

MANUFACTURES - Damon Manufacturing Com- pany .- The earliest industry engaged in by the col- onists of New England, which could properly be called a manufacture, was the working of iron, estab- lished in 1643, in Lynn, Mass. Considerable quanti- ties of bog-iron ore had been discovered in the western part of that town, and a company was organ- ized in London to furnish capital for the erection of a furnace and forgc, which was effected, and the business was continued for many years, until the supply of ore was so far exhausted that it became unprofitable. The superintendent of the works, about 1658, was Oliver Purchis, who was also one of the most influential citizens of Lynn, as was indicated by his election to various offices of civil trust, such as selectman, town clerk, representative to the General Court, etc. Through his influence, as is probable, a company was incorporated on the 5th of March, 1658, "to erect one or more Iron Works in Concord." A considerable deposit of iron ore had been discovered in the southwest part of the town. The company was immediately formed, and consisted of Oliver Purchis, who held five thirty-seconds of the stock ; John Payne, a merchant of Boston, thirteen thirty- seconds ; Edward Bulkley, the parish minister of Concord ; Robert Meriam, Timothy Whceler, Sr., William Buss, John Niles, Joseph Hayward, and

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 141

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