History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 171

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 171

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From this point the town took a new departure in steady growth and prosperous development, until, in 1844, it had nearly doubled the number of its inhabit- ants and the value of its property. Dr. John Hart, the local magistrate, a physician of skill, and an ex- tensive land-owner, was a leading man of the town during this last-named period.

On the 29th of May, 1844, occurred an historical episode worthy of notice. The people of the three towus included withiu the limits of ancient Reading, putting away all jealousies aud heart-burnings, united in a grand celebration of the bi-centennial anniversary of the incorporation of the old town. The exercises were held in the village of the West Parisli, and included a brilliant military and civic display, with an excellent address by Rev. Dr. James Flint, a gifted son of the North Parish, an appropriate poem by Hon. Lilley Eaton, of the South Parish, re- plete with sparkling humor, racy anecdote aud his-

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torical reminiscence, and concluding with a bounti- ful banqnet in a spacious pavilion erected for the purpose. It was a day to be remembered for its cloudless beauty, the glad enthusiasm of the people, and the complete success of the celebration. This year (1844) was remarkable also for the location and construction of the Boston and Maine Railroad through the west centre of the town, displacing the old Boston stage'that had for so many years supplied the wants of the " traveling public; " but now, after nearly half a century of rapid transit, it is likely that electric street cars will soon be running over the same route to Boston formerly traversed by Flanders' tally- ho.

Following the opening of the steam railroad, the town rapidly advanced in material prosperity. There came large additions of business, wealth and good citizens. Old industries, like the boot and shoe manu- facture and others, felt a fresh impulse and expansion, while new business enterprises, notably the iron foun- dry and the rattan works, were soon launched, and under sagacious management steadily grew unto as- sured success. Gas for lighting streets and houses was introduced in town in 1860, by the Citizens' Gas- Light Company, and its pipes extended also to Stone- ham and Reading; and this company, as also other corporations, are now asking for authority to locate poles and string wires for the supply of electricity for lighting and power purposes.

In 1861 this course of peaceful prosperity was inter- rupted by the great Rebellion, in which the sons and daughters of South Reading nobly bore their part in sacrifices of property, lacerated hearts, and the best blood of many of their number.

The years succeeding the war was a period of won- derful growth and progress. All the industries flourished, people flocked to the town, real estate ad- vanced in price, graceful dwellings and business structures rose on every hand. The population in 1865 was 3245; in 1875, 5349. The valuation in 1865 was $1,778,786 ; in 1875, $4,706,056.

In 1868 the town changed its name. The inhab- itants had long felt the desire for a name more simple and euphonious, an identity more clear and distinc- tive.

In 1846 a special and almost successful effort had been made in this direction. The subject was agita- ted in earnest, a town-meeting was called to consider and act on the proposition for a change of municipal name, and a clear majority voted in favor of a new departure. Favorite names, having a local or his- torical significance, were presented and advocated by different citizens, and the decisive ballot is given as follows :

Winthrop, 71 Shawmnt, Lakeside, 4 5 Florence, 6

Calais . 5 Greenville, 1 South Reading, 35

Pursuant to this vote of the town, a municipal

petition was forwarded to the Legislature asking for the name of " Winthrop ;" but for reasons best known to the legislative Solons of that day the petitioners were given leave to withdraw, and the people's inter- est in the matter subsided, to be revived with almost universal favor in 1868.

At this time the late Cyrus Wakefield, Sr., a liberal citizen of the town, descended from one of its older families, came forward and unconditionally offered the town the princely gift of a new and costly town hall. A town-meeting was called, and in accepting this opportune donation, the voters resolved that the time had come to change the name of the town, and with unanimity and acclamation, voted in so doing to honor the name of their friend and benefactor. The authority of the General Court was invoked, and by its aid, on the 1st of July, 1868, the town exchanged its endeared name of South Reading for the new and significant name of Wakefield. The inaugural exer- cises were held on the 4th of July, 1868. The day was an occasion of double celebration. Bells rang in the day, cannon awoke patriotic echoes, fluttering flags, wreathed mottoes and decorated arches ap- pealed to eye and memory ; band concerts tempered and refined enthusiasm with the rhythm and melody of music; a long procession gave nearly every one active participation in the celebration; an historical address eloquently blended the stirring memories of the past and present; a sparkling poem added the blossoms and fragrance of wit and fancy to the occa - sion :

" With joyful voices join, to greet This birthday of the free ; Each glad return, more dear and sweet, -- The Nation's Jubilee.

" On all the winds her banner plays, Star-gemmed with folds of light ;

A nation's hopes are in its rays, The red, the blue, the white.

" Here, on this bright, rejoicing day Such hopeful omens crown, We come, a pleasant word to say For our dear, native town.

" Fair town, whose legends, strango and old, Wrought from her bending bowers, By nobler bard have been enrolled, In fairer lines than ours.

" From ont the shadowy haunts of eld, From ancient roofs, moss-grown, Arise the forms those years beheld, And swells aerial tone ;

" Forms, lost to sight, to memory dear, Those mystic chambers fill, Tones lost to earth, from purer sphere Our waiting spirits thrill !

" As the fond lovers linger long, Nor haste to say farewells, As the swan's sad expiring song In sweetest cadence swells,-

" So on memories fond, intent,

We linger with the past ;

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And the fair name, with childhood blent Seems sweetest at the last !

" Dear name, farewell ! Our task is o'er ; Tho coming glories sec ! South Reading, henceforth, nevermoro, - And Wakefield let it be !"

The grand celebration dinner in the mammoth tent upon the Common, made brilliant by the flash of wit and sentiment, was a notable feature of the occasion. The excessive heat that prevailed was the only draw- back to the full enjoyment of the festivities of the day. Races upon the lake afforded pleasurable ex- citement, and the day was closed by the roar of artil- lery and the explosion of fireworks.

The promised Town Hall was erected in due time, and, with a suitable lot of land, was presented to the town, with impressive dedicatory exercises, on the 22d of February, 1871, and is the same splendid edi- fice now used by the town for municipal purposes, and located at the corner of Main and Water Streets.

Until comparatively recent years the town was en- tirely without any adequate printed history of itself. In 1865 such a work was projected. By invitation of many prominent gentlemen, supplemented by a vote of the town, the late Hon. Lilley Eaton was induced to undertake the congenial service. This labor of love grew upon his hands, as his design for the book enlarged, to embrace in its scope the whole territory and people of ancient Reading. His sudden death in January, 1872, left the work nearly but not fully completed. A committee, of which John S. Eaton, Esq., was the efficient chairman, acting under author- ity of the town, carried forward the work to its proper end, and in 1874 was printed, at the town's expense, the "Genealogical History of the Town of Reading, Mass., including the Present Towns of Wakefield, Reading and North Reading, with Chronological and Historical Sketches from 1639 to 1874." This vol- ume is octavo in size, contains 815 pages, embellished with fifty portraits and engravings.

The matter of a public water supply has greatly in- terested the people of Wakefield in recent years. On May 4, 1872, the Quannapowitt Water Company was incorporated for furnishing Wakefield and Stoneham with water for fire and domestic purposes, from Crys- tal and Quannapowitt Lakes. The name was subse- quently changed to Wakefield Water Company. This corporation slumbered for about nine years, but in 1881 it made a proposition to the town of Wakefield to supply its inhabitants with water to be taken from Crystal Lake. After much discussion, some equity suits in the Supreme Court, and many town-meetings, the town and water company made a water contract, and before the close of the year 1883 an aqueduct system, having its source in the pure waters of Crys- tal Lake, was in successful operation in Wakefield and Stoneham.

In former ycars the boundary line between Wake- field and Stoneham was within a stone's throw of the

upper depot of the Boston and Maine Railroad ; and on petition to the Legislature a considerable tract of the territory of Stoncham, in this region -including one hundred and ninety acres-was in 1856 set off and annexed to Wakefield, with general acquiescence. As years passed by, Wakefield grew largely toward the west, and quite a number of houses were found to be over the line, in Stoneham, but occupied by people whose interests and affilia- tions were mostly on the Wakefield side, their homes being much nearer the schools, churches, stores, post- office and depots of Wakefield than those of Stone- ham. Therefore, on petition of these residents of the border land, the General Court, in 1889, set off to Wakefield another strip of land, containing 142 acres, from the easterly portion of Stoneham, not, however, without opposition from the last-named town. The territory thus annexed included sixty-two inhabitants and eighteen houses, with a real estate valuation of $40,000.

TOPOGRAPHY AND SITUATION .- Wakefield pos- sesses rare charms in natural scenery, and a location especially favorable and convenient. Her territory contains 4568 acres, with a surface romantically di- versified by hill and valley, groves and lakes. The central village occupies a plain between two lakes, and running up the gentle slopes of Shingle Hill, on the east, and Cowdrey's Hill and Cedar Hill on the west. The larger lake-Quannapowitt-is a beauti- ful sheet of water, containing 26+ acres, extending northerly to the borders of Reading, and much en- joyed for its yachting and fishing privileges. Its out- let is Saugus River, forming the boundary between Wakefield and Lynnfield, and flows southeasterly to the sea, emptying its waters into Lynn harbor. Crys- tal Lake, just south of the centre, contains, by esti- mation, sixty-four acres, but is remarkably deep, and its waters not excelled in purity by any lake-source of water supply in the State. The outlet is a small stream, flowing eastwardly to Saugus River, and in other years has been found sufficient to furnish water- power for grist-mills and saw-mills. On this little "Mill River" was built the first corn-mill of the town, at the very place now occupied by the Wake- field Rattan Works. Following along the valley of this stream, about a mile southeasterly from Wake- field, it expands into a fertile and peopled plain, forming the pleasant outlying village and school dis- trict of Woodville. The central valley of the town extends southerly below Crystal Lake, and there is discovered Wakefield's most flourishing suburb, the village of Greenwood, with depot, chapel and schools. The highlands to the west of the centre are very at- tractive for residences, furnishing many prospects of picturesque beauty. Along the easterly border of Lake Quannapowitt are home sites not less delight- ful, and there are to be seen many tasteful and ele- gant dwellings. On the eastern plains, toward Lynn- field, is the thriving village of Montrose, with a

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school, chapel, engine-house and railroad station. Mention should not be omitted of the spacious aud beautiful public park of the town, with its rows of noble elms, beginning at the frowning Rockery, where the dusty ways meet, and extending, in its verdant beauty, to the shores of Quanuapowitt, and still northerly along the easterly margin of the lake. The park is indeed the pride of the towu, and under fos- tering care grows more charming each year.

Johnson, the quaint Woburn historian, writing in 1651, remarked that " Reading hath her habitation in the very centre of the country," meaning, it is pre- sumed, that its location was in the centre of that por- tion of New England which was then settled. Even now it may be truly said that Wakefield occupies a position remarkably central in respect to other import- ant municipalities. Within a radius of fifteeu miles of her central park are grouped about Wakefield, like mighty protectors, the cities of Boston, Chelsea, Mal- den, Lynn, Salem, Lawrence, Lowell, Woburn aud Cambridge. These, with the towns that fill the spaces between, contain a population of 600,000 persons.

AROUND WAKEFIELD LAKES. BY JOHN S. EATON.

Where ancient Reading's slopes of green Outspread her lovely lakes between, - On level plain and hill's fresh crown Stands Wakefield's fair, historic town.

Her shining lakes ! calm, blue and clear, As in that far, primeval year, When, mirrored bright, they lay unstirred, Save by the wing of woodland bird, Or when, perchance, from shore to shore, With floating plume and flashing oar, Some Indian warrior's light canoe Across their sunlit waters flew.

Her crystal lakes ! sail-flecked and blue And fair, as those the red men knew, With added charms on emerald rim Would make their ancient borders dim. Now,-stately spire ornate appears,- And all the garnered wealth of years, Tonched by the sunset-spears of gold, Shows Wakefield's treasures manifold.

Among the ancient towns of Middlesex, one, con- spicuous for beauty of situation and for its romantic environment, nor lacking a record of historic achieve- ment, will be found where, beside sparkling waters, the progressive municipality of Wakefield offers its pleasant homes to home-lovers.

The lakes, between which the town shows its cen- tral location, with their sloping, sandy shores and wealth of forest foliage, must have seemed admirable even in their original wildness and solitude; and it is worthy of remark that a world-wide traveler and poet, while viewing Crystal Lake, is said to have de- clared its accessories of beauty to be unsurpassed by any similar waters that he had seen shining below Swiss or Italian summits.

The unlearned and those whose vocations are of the most prosaic nature, seem, unconsciously, to be- come admirers of the beautiful and the picturesque,

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and we may easily believe that the Indian chieftain (of whom this territory was originally purchased) and his tawny tribe found attractive charms, as well as abundant food, on the borders of these quiet lakes On their fertile aud now cultivated shores the plow oc- casionally turns up flinty arrow-head or spear-point- the only reminders of the rude, red warriors who, wrought and used them around these waters, where even their burial-places are unknown.

The native charms of these village lakes, scarcely diminished through the lapse of years, are still al- luring, while their peopled shores are rich in the added beauties that situation, artistic adornment and centuries have given them. Encircled originally, we may suppose, by woodlands redolent with spicy odors of the pines, and by meadow-lands brilliant with flowers, its wooded shores undulating in curves and promontories, its waters gleaming in sunlight or rush- ing with the winds to break in miniature surf on the beach, Lake Quannapowitt still retains (on its north- ern border) characteristic features of those distant years. Leaving the town's business centre, and crossing its old-time training-field (remembered also as a youthful skating-field), now smooth, secure and shadowy, beneath elms massive with fifty years of growth, the visitor may reach a point from whence, o'er lawn and lake and waving woodlands, a land- scape of remarkable extent and attractiveness stretches away to the distant purple hills.

Viewed from this position, soft, velvety and green, sweeps the Park's crescent curve around the lake's southern sands ; then, clasping its winding eastern shore as with an emerald belt, with here a pebbly beach and there a fringe of ferns, it meets and joins the level, grassy meadows on the north.

But the lake's crowning embellishment and the day's supreme moment will be found at the summer sunset hour, when a flood of crimson splendor over- spreads the unrippled surface; when all surrounding objects are mellowed by its glory and suffused with a warm, unwonted, golden glow; when sky and lake and lawn, forest and meadow, hill-slope and shelving shore, form a picture of vivid colors and enticing loveliness.

Who that has there witnessed such a sunset can . forget its opulent beauty ?

As faded the Indians' lcafy trails along these wave- washed forest borders, the first white settlers opencd broader and smoother thoroughfares on shore and summit (this pleasant region being one that early at- tracted the sturdy English emigrants); who brought hither and exemplified the simple and economic tastes, the quiet, temperate and virtuous lives, which were prominent characteristics of that period. We have abundant evidence that the original settlers in this territory were intelligent, industrious, patriotic and religious citizens; that the church and school- house arose almost simultaneously with the falling of the forest pines, and that the rugged inhabitants, strug-

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gling with difficulties quite unknown to their de- scendants, here laid firm foundations for the nation's future growth and grandeur.

True it may be that the hardy, economic and suc- cessful pioneers in these New England settlements cared less for the artistic than for the useful, less for the picturesque than for the practical, sometimes re- garding BEAUTY as undesirable (if not sinful), "not remembering that to some minds a relish for what is lovely in fancy and in art is as native as color to the violet, fragrance to the rose, or song to the bird; that God's own mind must eternally teem with beauty, since he lines with it the tiny sea-shell, and tints the fish and tones the hidden fibres of trees, and flashes it on breast and crest of flying birds, and, breaks the tumbling avalanche into a myriad feathery crys- tals, and builds the skies in a splendor which no thought can match."

This ancient town, planted on historic soil and con- spicnous in Revolutionary annals, has never lacked heroic defenders, from the distant year when from his lake-shore farm went forth the brave commander of the Colonial forces, until those recent and memorable years, when, on Southern fields, her sons gave their lives for the preservation of the Union.

As the years have passed (two and a half centuries from its settlement), and as the town has advanced to a prominent and prosperous position among other municipalities, generation after generation of its resi- dents has vanished from the scene, and on the mar- gin of the lake, beside which they had lived and loved and labored, on mossy and crumbling tombstones may be read the records of their departures. Beside gently-lapsing waters, where overarching, breeze- swept branches sound a perpetual requiem,-

" Each in his narrow cell forever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep,"

while on the lake's sunset-shore, in ground conse- crated and flower-embellished, other and later gener- ations have found and will find tender and tearful sepulture.

Beautiful Lakeside ! sacred, shadowy, serene! Above its silent sleepers are the summer's garnered freshness and flowers ; bee and butterfly, bringing the sweet splendors of the sunshine, wing their joyous flight over its grassy mounds ; its bird-songs have never a note of sadness, and the waves that meet its shores bear the lilies' fragrant and stainless blossoms to these pleasant portals of the tomb.

PRE-HISTORIC SIGNS .- Though the axe and the ploughshare of the English settlers, pushing out from Lynn to "the licad of their bounds," were first seen in the wilds of this town in 1639, evi- dences abound that for centuries before, the Amer- ican red men of the Saugus tribe found in this region their favorite haunts. The water privileges of this region, in later times so highly prized,

were also irresistible attractions to the dusky men of the early days. The great ponds now known as Lake Quannapowitt and Crystal Lake, and the small streams, now dignified with the names of Saugus River and Mill River, were like magnets to draw the red men to their banks, where cven now the intelligent searcher may any day find abundant traces of the aborigines only a few inches beneatlı the soil, in the shape of hatchets, arrow-hcads, knives, pestles, ham- mers, remnants of pottery, and various implements of stone and bone, fashioned with the curious skill of a lost art.

Enthusiastic and patient explorers beneath the surface of things have been rewarded by the discovery of numerous specimens of the rude skill of a pre- historic race, and in Wakefield may be found many large and valuable collections of these durable memorials. A comparison of results from these in- vestigations affords satisfactory proof that in what is now the centre of Wakefield were located, perhaps for centuries, the villages of Indians, who hunted deer and trapped rabbits in the adjacent forests, and in our brooks and lakes fished for trout, pickerel and bass without fear of fish committee or statute law. Evidences are conclusive that the wigwams of Indian homes were once thickly placed on the solid land be- tween Quannapowitt and Crystal Lakes, and the plain westerly of the new upper station of the Boston & Maine Railroad, on the slope of Cowdrey's Hill, and near Barehill Brook at the northwest, on the banks of Saugus River on the east, and on the plains of Greenwood, near the Pitman estate at the south.

A Wakefield bard "to the manner born" has looked back through the centuries and given wings to his imagination in the following lines :

"The native Indian, dull and rude, Threading the forest wild, Beside our lakes enchanted stood, Where the Great Spirit smiled.

" His wigwam's shield along these streams In rustic beauty sprang ; Here in the twilight's shadowy gleams, Ilis dusky daughters sang.

" And, later, here our ancient sires, By the same waters cheered, Over the Indians' smouldering fires Their scanty dwellings reared ;

" Fought for their title to the soil With hungry wolf and bear; And where the savage sought his spoil, Erected house of prayer.

" All honor to those rugged men, The coming needs foresaw, And laid foundations firmly then Of liberty and law."

Our forefathers, erccting here their log cabins two and a half centuries ago, came not to nupcopled soli- tudes, but occupied the places and hunting-grounds of a race possessing many noble qualitics and char- acteristics, but yet essentially a barbarous people, and

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entirely wanting in the graces, the humanities and the culture of a Christian civilizatiou. To the houor, however, of the early settlers of Lynn and Reading, be it said, that they obtained by peaceable negotiation from the former Indian possessors a good aud regular deed of the land included within the grants of the two towns, duly signed and acknowledged by the chief men and women of the tribe. This deed' was dated May 31, 1687, and is recorded with Essex So. Dist. Deeds, at Salem.

ECCLESIASTICAL. - A meeting-house of humble appearance and dimensions was among the first buildings erected by the settlers of Reading, and stood near where is now the Wakefield Post Office. This small house served the purposes of a church building until 1688, when it was sold for twenty-five shillings and a " watch-house frame," and the money obtained appropriated for the school. The second meeting-house was erected in 1688, a little north- westerly of the site of the stone structure now being erected in the easterly part of what is now known as " the old burial-ground." This edifice was enlarged in 1727, a steeple built upon it, and furnished with a bell. The third church edifice was erected in 1768, and for the times was a commodious aud handsome structure. It was turned aronud and essentially re- modeled in 1859, receiving a new steeple, new bell and tower-clock ; but the frame remained unchanged until the edifice was finally demolished in June, 1890, to make way for the stately and graceful house of enduring granite, not yet completed, to be sup- plied with every modern appliance and convenience, its tower and turrets pointing toward heaven. The new stone church is being built of Monson granite in two colors of gray, and is in style a simple, har- monious development of the Byzantine-Romanesque, in which form and color, rather than elaborate de- tail, are relied upon for architectural effect. The auditorium has 650 sittings; but the number can be easily increased to 1000 by moving the sliding sashes which separate the audience-room from the Sunday- school apartment on the same floor. The cost of the edifice and furnishings will be about $78,000. This church was organized in 1644 or 1645, was Congrega- tional in its faith and government, and was the twenty-fourth church founded in the Massachusetts Colony.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 171

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