History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 192

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 192

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This return was made and signed by Elisha Hutch- inson, and the Court allowed it, "provided it intrench not on any former grant."

The early history of Reading, and indeed the entire history of that town down to 1853, when North Read- ing hecame independent, may properly be considered the history of the latter town also; but as this lias been sketched in connection with the parent town, it will not be followed here, and we shall confine our

attention to the North Parish and to the present town of North Reading since its incorporation.

Some years after the grant of territory had been made the Colony Court ordered a second survey to be made of it, and to defray the charges or costs of such a survey the town gave to Shubael Walker, who performed the work, a tract comprising some 300 acres. The title to this land was afterward involved in a legal contest, wherein Captain Ephraim Savage, an influential citizen, sued the town for possession, claiming it under right of his wife. His suit was lost, however.

The limits of Reading now extended from the point of original settlement below Lake Quanna- powitt, northward some eight miles to the Andover line, and the first church having been built in the southern end of the town, the towns-people living on the new grant had a long distance to travel for the purpose of attending public worship. In 1696 the parish formally recognized this in these words :

" The glory of God heing the chief end that all men's actions ought to aim at, and the promotion and upholding of the public worship of God being one great part of our duty, we, the free-holders and other inhabitants of Reading, having considered the great distance of such in this town, as live on the north side of Ipswich river and Bare Meadow, from the place of God's worship among us, whereby they many times lahor under great difficulty in coming to God's house, oftentimes cannot eome, and seldom can hring their children, do there- fore, at a general town-meeting, held hy the proprietors and other in- habitants, on the 2d of Mareh, 1695-96 ; we, for ourselves, our heirs and successors, vote nnanimously, agree and order, and he it hereby enaeted, ordered and confirmed, that all that tract of land, in our town- ship, lying on the North side of the Ipswich river, so called, that is to say : hounded westerly by Woburn, hy Andover northerly, and by Salem line easterly ; as also all that land in our township, lying on the north side of Bare Meadow, commonly called 'Sadler's Neck,' as it is bouuded by Lynn line of township with ns, and so to river aforesaid ;- we say that when, and as soon as that there is such a suitahle and com- petent number of inhabitants settled on the tract of land aforesaid ; that when they do call and settle and maintain a godly, learned, ortho- lox minister, that they shall he free from paying to the minister or iniuistry in the town, or on the South side of the aforesaid river, and that for so long as they so do."

In 1711 the inhabitants on the north side of the Ipswich, believing that the time had come when the intent of this vote should be carried out, petitioned to be set off as an independent parish, but without success.

The division was made, however, without opposition in 1713, and the new parish was styled the "North Precinct," or Second Parish of Reading. The first parish meeting was held November 27, 1713. At this meeting Sergeant George Flint was chosen modera- tor, John Harnden being clerk.

The settlement of the precinct had gone .steadily forward since the land had been granted by the Colony Court. Six families were located there prior to 1680, and before the close of the century many others were added. These early settlers comprise the Uptons, Flints, McIntires-names still familiar in the town. There were thirty-nine members of the church in 1720, and a house of worship having been undertaken, concerning the location of which the advice of the

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NORTH READING.

town had been asked and duly giveu, the new parish extended a call to Rev. Daniel Putuam, of Dauvers, who was a graduate of Harvard, 1717, and who, no doubt, was a "godly, learned orthodox minister," such as had been contemplated in the original vote passed antecedent to the incorporatiou of the parish. At the date of Mr. Putuam's ordiuation there were fifty-three tax-payers in the precinct.

As an inducement for Mr. Putnam to settle in the parish, he had been given twenty acres of laud, and there had been built for him a house, "twenty-eight feet long, nineteen feet wide, and fifteen feet stud." This building was of the usual primitive type, having a " lean-to " or kitchen extension on the rear, one- story in height. It was to have three chimneys from the ground, besides a chamber chimney, and it was stipulated in the vote providing for its erection that Mr. Putnam should find uails and glass for the building.

The town having given to the parish £30 toward the erection of the meeting-house and parsouage, a request was also made that the common land in the precinct be dedicated to parish uses. The form of this request is characteristic of the time, and as far removed as possible from the style that would be now employed. After recognizing the goodness of the Lord, who had inclined the hearts of the towns-people towards the general gift of money, and formally re- turning the thanks of the parish therefor, the peti- tion proceeds as follows :

"And if it might please the Lord to incline your hearts, now iu our beginnings, to give us the common land that lyeth in our Precinct, near our meeting-house, for ministerial use, so we may be a building a min- ister's house, we shall readily accept it and account it an act of your Christian charity and compassion towards ns, who are and remain yonr humble servanta."

Notwithstanding the best intentions the parish found it impossible to render Mr. Putnam the finan- cial support he needed. Aid was from time to time solicited and rendered by the First Parish, and in 1724 it was voted to apply to the Governor and Council in relation to Mr. Putnam's troubles. In 1730, with the intent of strengthening the parish, it has voted " to petition the General Court for part of Reading, part of Lynn, and part of Andover, to be sett to them to help support the gospel in said Precinct." This threatened encroachment was resisted by the First Parish, which chose a committee to oppose the peti- tion before the Court.

Other things than parisb. matters occasionally dis- turbed the usual even current of events. In 1721 there was an alarming epidemic of small-pox, and on the 29th of October, 1727, there began an earthquake which, according to the parish record, " lasted at times, three months, and at the end of three months, very hard." There was then no local press to reg- ister important events, and the church record often bears items intended to perpetuate occurrences of extraordinary interest.

In 1740 the parish contemplated the erection of a

uew church, but not till 1751 does it appear that an effective vote to uudertake it was passed, and the fol- lowiug year the building was raised. It was to be forty-eight feet long and thirty-six feet wide, covered with shingles.

Rev. Mr. Putnam died iu 1759, aud was succeeded by Rev. Eliab Stone, who was ordained May 20, 1761.

In 1771 there were sixty-six voters in the parish, three more thau iu the Third Parish (now Reading), and fourteen less than in the First Parish (now Wakefield).

During the controversies with the mother country which preceded the Revolution, the North Precinct shared with the rest of the town the active duties of the hour. When, in 1774, the town voted " to main- tain their charter rights in every constitutional way," George Flint, David Damon and Benjamin Flint, res- idents of the Third Parish, were joined to a committee to draft a memorial that should fitly express the sen- timent of the towu respecting the grave questions at issue. The report of the committee took strong ground against the unjust taxation of the Colonies, but deemed it inexpedient for the town to adopt any particular measures for their future conduct in oppo- sition to the action of Parlianient uutil after the re- port of a congress of commissioners from all the Colonies, then proposed, had been made.

, During the previous session of the General Court Deacon Daniel Putnam, of the North Precinct, had represented the town, and had received from his con- stituents instructions which have been set forth in the historical sketch of Reading, enjoining him to be firm in resisting any encroachment upon the char- tered rights of the Colonists, and cautioning him not to give his consent to any measure that might limit the liberty of the people.

Either in 1774 or in 1742-the date is doubtful-a burying-place and training-field had been set out in the parish, and the committee appointed to perform this duty also laid out five "needful and necessary public ways " or roads. One of these led from Flint's mill to the Lynn line, and was a new alignment of an older road ; another extended "from George Flint's out to the ten-pole way before Samuel Dix's house, near the corner of Jona. Flint's land." A third ran from the saw-mill between the farms of Samuel Dix and Samuel Lues, Jr., to the road last mentioned. A fourth was a bridle-way from the road near Rich- ardson bridge up to Samuel Hartshorn's, and from thence up to a road leading from Jonathan Batch- eller's to the meeting-house, and the last led from said Batcheller's to the ten-pole way by or near "Nod Mill."

All mere local or parish interests were subordi- nated to the struggle for independence that in 1774 enlisted the energies of the Colonists.

Reading North Precinct, although only a parish of the town proper, was represented in every couference of the citizens respecting the issues involved in the

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

war. The names of Benjamin Flint, Daniel Flint and Benjamin Upton are prominent among the rest, and Amos Upton, another resident of the parisli, is said to have been in the battle of Bunker Hill, one of the first men of the number furnished from this pre- cinct toward the town's quota.

After the war the parish resumed the even tenor of its way. The population was somewhat scattered and devoted to agriculture, without manufactures, except boot and shoe-making, which to a limited extent, has been followed in later years.

In 1853 the precinct was incorporated as the town of North Reading. The population of the town in 1855 was 1050. In 1860 it was 1193 and the valua- tion of the town for purposes of taxation was then $527,890. The years that have since passed have brought little that was eventful, and the town pre- serves much the same character that it possessed when incorporated. To the War of the Rebellion the town gave more than its share of patriotic men, the total number being 137, or seven more than the required quota.

The town, though small, has given birth to men of influence in their day and generation, and whom any community might claim with pride. Such a man was Sergt. George Flint, the early settler, who has been previously mentioned, and in the same line at a later date, Benjamin Flint, 1746-1858, “ noted for his great firmness of purpose and determination of will, and much respected for his blameless life and personal worth ;" Col. Daniel Flint, born 1671, who " pos- sessed in an uncommon degree, a strong and vigorous intellect, with indomitable perseverance and great native force of character ;" Rev. Jacob Flint, 1768- 1835, "a good patriot, a well-read theologian, a faith- ful minister and a pious Christian; " Rev. James Flint, 1779-1855, " as a scholar, a preacher, a poet and a critic, eminent and distinguished ;" Rev. Tim- othy Flint, died 1840, pastor of the Congregational Church at Lunenburg "well known in America and on the other side of the Atlantic as the author of va- rious works that have given him a rank among the most distinguished writers of the country," and be- sides these Charles F. Flint, born 1808, died 1868, who was one of the most enterprising citizens of the town, and well known and highly esteemed outside its limits. After his death his wife presented to the town, as a memorial of her husband, the Flint Memo- rial Hall, erected opposite the Common and contain- ing the public library, to which Mrs. Flint also gave $1000. The hall contains memorial tablets to the honor of the deceased soldiers and sailors of the town, and the library comprises a well-selected collection of books. The building was dedicated October 21, 1875.

Benjamin Upton, also a descendant of the early settlers, was another citizen of sterling intelligence and worth whose name should be noted here.

The town takes an honest pride in its schools, and

has voluntarily established and maintained a High School, although not required to do so by the stat- utes.

During the school year ending in 1889, the amount raised by taxes for the support of schools, including expenditures for all school purposes, was $2335, the town ranking above the average for the State in the percentage of its taxable property applied to the sup- port of schools.

The churches of the town are the Congregational and Baptist.

The Congregational Church was the original church of the parish, and its first meeting-house was built in 1717, as we have noted. This stood upon the Com- mon until 1752, when the second church edifice took its place. The third building was erected in 1829, and was occupied until 1836, when a division occurred in the parish, resulting in certain members, who held Universalist views, retaining the old building, and the others erected in that year the church which is still in use.

The old building became the present town-hall, al- though religious services are occasionally held in it.

The Baptist Society was organized in 1817. It en- countered the usual opposition at that time mani- fested toward those who held the doctrines of that church. It gradually grew in strength, however, and in 1828 erected a church building. The first pastor was Rev. J. M. Driver, who has been followed by many others. The present church edifice was built after the destruction of the former one by fire in 1860.

The manufacturing and mechanical industries of the town are unimportant. Classed as such in the State Census of 1885 are fourteen establishments, having an invested capital of $32,760. The value of goods made in that year was $105,997. The agricul- tural products amounted to $103,269; the value of farm property being $483,943, of which $241,706 was the value of agricultural land. The town is located about four miles north of the central village of Read- ing, with which it is connected by a stage line, run- ning from the station upon the main line of the Bos- ton and Maine Railroad. The Salem and Lowell Railroad runs directly through the town. The pres- ent population is about 850.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

CHARLES F. FLINT.1

One of the names that North Reading will ever hold in grateful and honorable remembrance is that of Charles F. Flint. Born of one of the old families of the town, he loved its woods and streams, its lakes and hills, and the people among whom he was nur- tured, with no common affection.

1 By Chester W. Eaton.

Charles F. Flint

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BEDFORD.

Charles Frederick Flint was the son of Peter and Mary Flint, and traced his descent through captains and deacons of the earlier days from Sergeant George Flint, one of the leading citizens and pioneers of the North Precinct of ancient Reading. Mr. Flint was born at the old homestead of the family, in what is now North Reading, January 18, 1808, and obtained his mental acquisitions and training mostly in the district schools of his native town.

By labor on the home acres, and under good influ- ences, there developed in the young farmer a robust, moral character, as well as strong physical health, and a worthy ambition to mingle with busy men in the great world, and do a man's part in his day and generation.

He early became prominent in the affairs of his town, where his influence was felt as that of a pro- gressive, liberal and sagacious citizen. In occupa- tion a farmer, he was noted for his unwearied indus- try and sound judgment, and favored with ample returns. His restless mind, however, sought for larger exercise than was afforded by the simple activities of his native village, and found scope in real estate and railroad enterprises in Middlesex and Essex Counties, and was especially interested in working for the suc- cess of the Salem and Lowell Railroad, which was laid out through the town of North Reading. Com- ing to the assistance of this enterprise when it greatly needed help, he worked for it with all his energies and all his means, and had at last the satisfaction of seeing the railroad a complete success and established on a sure foundation. He was chosen a director of this Railroad and president of the Company, and was for years an influential director of the Wamesit Bank in Lowell.

He died January 13, 1868, at the age of sixty years, after a brief illness, of congestion of the brain, result- ing probably from a fall on the sidewalk in Salem. His loss was deeply lamented in the business circles in which he had moved, and was especially felt among the people of North Reading, where his loyal and generous public spirit had been freqently made mani- fest to the advantage and improvement of the town of his birth and his love.

Mr. Flint was married, in 1840, to Harriet N. Evans, daughter of Thomas and Phebe Evans, of South Reading. They had no children.

Mrs. Flint, deeply appreciating and sympathizing with her husband's affection for his native town, and desiring there should be some enduring memorial of the same, caused to be erected in 1875 an elegant and commodious edifice in the centre of North Reading at a cost of $20,000, adapted to the holding of town- meetings, and with convenient apartments for the uses of a public library and municipal officers, and on Oc- tober 21, 1875, sbe presented the building and a suit- able lot of land to the town, with fitting ceremonies of dedication, the Hon. George B. Loring pronouncing an eloquent oration on the notable occasion. This

building is appropriately known as the "Flint Me- morial Hall." Mrs. Flint supplemented the noble gift by the donation of a large and well-chosen selec- tiou of books, forming the nucleus of the present public library of North Reading.

Mrs. Flint now resides in Wakefield, and illustrates the character of a liberal Christian lady by numerous public and private benefactions.

CHAPTER LXV.

BEDFORD.

BY ABRAM ENGLISH BROWN.

The Parent Towns - Early Grants and Settlements-The Two Brothers- Discharge of Indian Claims-Garrisons-Incorporation.

BEDFORD stands number twenty-five in the fifty- nine townships thus far incorporated in Middlesex County. It has a twin mate-Westford. They were both incorporated by the General Court September 23, 1729.

Bedford was taken from Concord and Billerica, but not until the parent towns had almost reached their first centennial. It then appears that the early his- tory of the territory known as Bedford is included with that of the parental towns. That which may be designated as the south and west part of the town was taken from Concord, and the greater part of the north and east was from Billerica.

For nearly a century this territory comprised the outlying districts of Concord and Billerica.

It represents a part of the first inland town of Massachusetts and includes portions of very early grants.

A commendable pride prompts every true New Englander to seek for Puritan descent, and to date the settlement of his locality from the landing of those grand worthies. Hence, in considering the origin of Bedford, it may be admissible to repeat a few familiar facts of history, with their dates.

The Pilgrims landed in the year 1620. The charter of Massachusetts was granted in 1629, by King Charles I. In 1630 came Winthrop and Dudley with fifteen hundred passengers. September 2, 1635, Mus- ketaquid (Concord) was granted to Mr. Buckley (Rev. Peter Buckley) and - Merchant (Major Simon Willard), with other families.

November, 1637, the Court made grants to Gov- eruor Winthrop and the deputy, Mr. Dudley. In the following spring the grants were located, the original having been somewhat enlarged.

In June, 1641, "Shawshin is granted to Cambridge, prvided they make it a village."

The town of Bedford comprises a portion of the Musketaquid grant, the whole of the Winthrop and a portion of the Shawshine grant.

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IHISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

The first house occupied by English, within the present limits of Bedford, alluded to in a report made in 1642 as the "Shawshin honse," proves that the first settlement was made here within twenty-two years after the landing of the Pilgrims.

The nature of the land included in the above named grants is seen in reports and descriptions made about that time. Hubbard describes the Concord settlement as "right up in the woods," and Johnson as "iu desert depths where wolves and bears abide," and the journey to it he describes as " through watery swamps, through thiekets where the hands were forced to make a way for the bodyes passage, and their feete elambering over the erossed trees, which when they missed, they sunk into an uncertaine bottome in water, and wade up to their knees, tumbling, some- times higher and sometimes lower."

Of the grants made to the Governor and deputy (lieutenant), the whole of the former is included in the present limits of Bedford. Its western boundary being Concord River. The grants were located 1638, May 2d, as follows :

" It was ordered by the p'sent Court that John Win- thrope, Esq', the p'sent Governor, shall have 1200 acres of land whereof, 1000 was formerly granted him. & Thomas Dudley, Esq", the Deputy Governo", has 1000 acres granted to him by a former Courte, both of them about 6 miles from Concord, north- wards ; the said Governo" to have his 1200 acres on the southerly side of two great stones standing neare together, close by the ryver side that comes from Con- eord."

The deputy's was north of it within the present limits of Billerica. Winthrop has given us an ae- eount of the location of these farms in his journal.

"Going down the river about four miles, they made choice of a place for one thousand aeres for each of them. They offered each other the first choice, but because the deputy's was first granted, and himself had store of land already, the Governor yielded him the first choice. So, at the place where the deputy's land was to begin there were two great stones which they ealled the Two Brothers in re- membranee that they were brothers by their ehil- drens marriage and did so brotherly agree, and for that a little creek near those stones was to part their lands."

A little later the Court added two hundred acres to the Governor's part, and still later he received an additional portion of sixty aeres of meadow " within a mile or two of his farme, beneath Concord, towards the southeast of the said farme."

In 1636 Matthew Cradock expressed a desire to obtain a grant of two thousand aeres "at a place ealled Shawe Shynn," and in 1637, August, "Capt. Jeanison & Lcift. Willi : Speneer were appointed to viewe Shawslıin & to consider whether it be fit for a plantation." The report was not made, however, until after it had been granted to Cambridge. The

explorer's experience is thus described by Sewall as taken from Woburn records: " As they were engaged Nov. 9, 1640, shortly after their appointment, in cx - ploring the land about the Shawshin river they were overtaken and lost in a snow-storm, and in this sad dilemma they were forced as night ap- proached, for want of a better shelter, to lyc under the Rockes, whilst the Raine and snow did bediew their Roekye beds." The following is the report of the committee, which is not as valuable for accuracy as it is helpful, in locating the Shawshine house :

" Wee, whose names are underwritten, beiug appointed to viewe Shawshin & to take notice of what fitness it was for a village & accord- ingly to or apprehensions make returne to the Crt ; wee therefore mani- fest thus much : that for the quantity it is sufficient, but for the quality in or apprhensions no way fit, the uplaud being very barren & very little medow there about, nor any good timber almost fit for any use. Wee went after we came to Shawshin house, by estimation. Some 14 to 16 miles at the least, in compass ; from Shawshin house wee began to go downe the ryver 4 or 5 miles near East ; then we left that point & went neere upon north, came to Concord Ryver, a little belowe the falls, about one mile or neare ; then wee went up the ryver some 5 miles untill wee came to a place called the Two Brethren : and from thence it is about two miles & 12 to Shawshin, & the most part of all the good land is given out already ; more land there is at the south side of the house, between the side of Concord line & the heade of Cambridge line, but littell medow, & the upland of little worth ; & and this is what we can say hearin.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 192

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