History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 196

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 196

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

before. The annual appropriation then reached six hundred dollars and sixteen weeks of schooling were provided ; only two schools were in session at any one time, and pupils were not confined to district limits. This led at length to a bitter quarrel in the East District. The master lost all authority, and the committee failed to restore order or peace. The sev- eral sections were arrayed violently against one an- other. The east quarter boys were on one side called by their enemies "Shaberkins and Sharks." The boys from the centre and north were united as an op- posing force and named, from their locality, "North- quarter hogs and city pigs." No day was without its battle. Many parents sided with their children and things grew worse and worse, until the town took it in hand and voted, April 5, 1813, " To set off the East part of the town as a school district, according to law, and that they draw their proportion of the school money according to the valuation of estates in that section." A town library, chartered by the General Court, was now in a flourishing coudition. Each school district had a " prudential committee " to attend to the local interests of the school, and the town annually chose a committee of inspection whosc duty it was to regulate the text-books, to provide supplies for poor children and adjust all difficulties. An examination of all teach- ers was required as to moral and literary qualifica- tions. The by-laws were remodeled in 1819, and "master's schools" were required to be opened and closed with prayer, and the record further says, " which practice also is particularly recommended to the serious consideration of female instructors, who will be permitted to use an approved written form of prayer." It was found difficult to euforce rules and secure uniformity in text-books until 1827, when an agent was appointed to furnish supplics at cost, and was paid for his services, by the towns. This custom prevailed until 1884, when the State passed the law re- quiring towns to furnish all school supplies and made the schools literally free.

The people were now beginning to receive the bene- fit of the "Page and Hartwell Fund." A certain proportion of the income was required to be expended for teaching sacred music. A singing-school was inaugurated in 1827, and held annual sessions at the centre for the benefit of the whole town. In 1829 a two-story brick school-house was built at the cost of $2216.43. This furnished ample accommodation for the schools and for town business. The annual ses- sion of the singing-school for the benefit of the whole town was held in the " commodious" building until 1837, when the income for teaching sacred music be- came a denominational benefit. The apparatus of the school-room was meagre, indeed, until 1841. The open fire-place had given way to a close stove which necessitated the cutting of cord-wood sticks once in two, but this, with the "master's desk " and " battered seats " constituted the entire furnishings. A primitive volume called "The School-Book"

L-

826

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

was furnished each town by the State in 1806, in numbers equal to the districts. This town sold the volumes at "vendue." In 1840 the School Committee filed the first school report. In 1841 the sum of one hundred dollars was appropri- ated for maps and philosophical apparatus. Efforts were made in 1841 and 1850 to establish a High School, but without success. The first printed report of the School Committee was circulated in 1847, and in the following year each district was furnished with "Webster's Dictionary." The annual appropriation for schools reached $800 in 1847, and $1000 in 1856. This amount had been annually increased by the in- come of the " surphis revenue fund." An unsuccess- ful effort was made about 1850 to establish a free pub- lic library, but an association was formed and a library started, by which superior advantages were furnished for a small compensation.

In 1850 the town received an unexpected benefit through the will of Zadock Howe, of Billerica, by which a seminary was founded and endowed for the benefit of this as well as other towns. The public gratitude was manifested by spreading a copy of the will upon the town records, and individual apprecia- tion was manifested by turning to the Howe School for higher instruction.

In 1852 the demand for a high school was gratified, and of $885, the school appropriation for that year, $285 was apportioned for the trial of the experiment. It was abandoned after a trial of two years. The school-house in each "quarter" of the town stood as "a ragged beggar sunning" after sixty years of hard service, and in 1854 new houses were built at the east and north, and the west was thoroughly repaired, and a new one was soon erected at the south. In 1856 the brick house at the Centre was torn down and the pres- ent building, combining two school-rooms with a town hall, was erected at a cost of $8524. Mr. Charles Lane, of Boston, presented a valuable clock to the town for its use in the new hall. He was the same person who fell some years later, at his own threshold in Dorchester, by the assassin's bullet.

The dedication of the new building was an event of much importance, as the principal parts in the exer- cises were taken by sons of the town. Mr. Josiah A. Stearns gave the dedicatory address and Mr. John F. Gleason a poem; among other speakers was Mr. Charles Lane, the donor of the clock.

The efforts put forth in the erection of the new town building had a stimulating effect upon education among all classes of society. The youth were inspired with commendable ambition in school work and their elders sought improvement through the lyceum. The town appropriation now reached $1000. This was in- creased to about $1200 by the income of the surplus revenue, and the State School Fund, which was estab- I lished in 1834, The town expended the "surplus revenue," and increased the annual appropriations to $1100 in 1861. The half-day session of Saturday was

discontinued by the vote of the town in 1863. In 1872 an attempt was made to concentrate the dircct- ing power and to employ a superintendent, but this unfortunately resulted in an increase of the board of committee from three to six members. The results were not satisfactory, and a return was made to the original number as soon as the State law would ad- mit. Women were first elected as School Committee in 1872, and have proved wise and efficient workers in the department of education.

At the annual meeting of the town, in 1885, it was voted that the schools should be graded, that an English high school course of two years should be adopted, and that the school year should begin with the opening of the fall term. This plan, put in oper- ation September, 1885, had a most stimulating effect upon the students in the several departments, and led the parents to indorse a growing sentiment for con- solidation.

In June, 1886, the first graduates were presented with diplomas. The course of study was altered and amended in 1889, so as to include three years of High School study, in which is the Latin language. The appropriation gradually increased until it reached $2800, for ordinary expenses, to which is added the town's portion of the income of the "State School Fund." An annual appropriation is made for school- books and supplies.

After thirty-three years of service, the combined town hall and school building was declared inade- quate to the pressing demands of the evening of the nineteenth century, and preliminary steps have been taken, 1890, towards the erection of a modern struc- ture. In the schools of Bedford, thus briefly described, have been laid the foundations of some grand literary structures.

As the date is comparatively recent when progress has unbolted the doors of colleges to women, the list of those who have received a public education is con- fined to men.

In 1876 the Bedford Free Public Library Corporation was chartered for the benefit of the inhabitants of the town.

The property of the Bedford Library Association was donated and became the nucleus of a valuable collection of books and other publications. Every resident of the town having reached the age of twelve years has the right to draw books from the library without payment of fee. Appropriations by the town and private contributions have enabled the trustees to make frequent additions until in 1890 there are nearly 3000 volumes for circulation, besides many valuable works for reference, and a collection of an- tiquities, relics and articles of historic interest. The town has an annually increasing fund for the erection of a library building, much needed at present.

A local weekly paper, Bedford Bulletin, is published in connection with other towns, under the editorial care of Abram E. Brown. It is now in its thirty-

827

BEDFORD.

third volume. It has an extensive circulation in the town and in various sections of the United States where natives of Bedford are located.

CHAPTER LXXI.

BEDFORD-(Continued).

MILITARY HISTORY.

Indian Troubles-Individual Service-Experience of Mary Lane-Maxwell Family-French Neutrals-French and Indian Wars.

THE war cry was not an unfamiliar sound to the settlers of this territory. They were accustomed to hardships, many of them had done service in the early campaigns, and sacrificed blood and treasure long before the Revolutionary struggle burst upon the Colonies. Of the garrison-houses ordered by the " Honorable Council " in 1675, during the invasion of King Philip, four were within the present limits of Bedford. As the Bedford of to-day represents out- lying sections of Billerica and Concord, the homes of these scattered settlers did not suffer from any gen- eral invasion in the Indian Wars. Many of the men were away in the service, and the women were com- pelled to do double duty at home.

It is impossible to make up a complete list of those who served in the early campaigns. Job Lane was " impressed," but doubtless allowed to return and aid in the protection of his own garrison, agreeable to the order of the "Honorable Council" of 1675-76. Sec. 4. " The said towns have their own men returned that are abroad and freed from impressment during their present state." Lieutenant John Wilson, who had a "corne mill " on Vine Brook, did good service "to the Eastward " in 1692-93. Lieutenant John Lane received the following order in August, 1693 : "These are in his Majesty's name to require you forthwith to Impress eight Troopers with arms and ammunition for his Majesty's service, four of which are to be daily Imployed as a scout about yo' town, especially towards the great swamp."

In 1693 Lieutenant Lane received similar orders from the Lieutenant-Governor, and in 1702 he re- ceived the following order from Governor Joseph Dudley :

" CAMBRIDGE, 5 Nov., 1702.

" SIR: I desire you with two of your troops to repayr to the towns of Marlboro', Lancaster, Groton, Chelmsford and Dunstable, and there de liver severally the letters given you and encourage the officers in their duty, agreeable to the several directions, etc."

It is evident that the (Governor of the Colony was personally acquainted with Major Lane, he having attained that military title at that time, and knew him to be a trustworthy man. In the Lane papers filed in this town is the following :

" A list of the names of the Troopers which served under my command to the relief of Dunstable. July

the fourth, seventeen hundred and six." Six of the twenty-nine were from Bedford side of ancient Bil- lerica, viz .: Samuel Fitch, Josiah Bacon, Nathaniel Page, Nathaniel Bacon, Benj. Bacon, Josiah Fassett. In the succeeding August, under the same command, Josiah Bacon served as "Trumpetter" and Josiah Fassett with Benjamin Bacon were privates. The following anecdote was related by Leander Hosmer, a descendant of the heroine of the Lane family : "Mary, daughter of Colonel John Lane, was left during a season of alarm in the garrison with but one soldier on guard. Something behind a stump excited the suspicion of Mary, as she looked from a window in the roof. The soldier declined to open fire, and she took the gun and discharged it and saw a dead Indian roll into sight." The Lanes had an inherent love for military life. One writes from York, April 21, 1724 : "Lt. John Lane has been so imprudent as to suffer his men to kill sundry creatures belonging to the people of the County of York." He afterwards made satisfaction for the rash act.

By an act of the General Court, November 17, 1724, men were allowed two shillings per day for time in service and £100 for each male scalp in addition to other premiums established by law. This offer of the government was an approved means of defence against the Indians, and aroused Captain John Love- well, of Dunstable, to raise a company and set out into the wilderness. He made three expeditions, during which several Indians were killed and others were captured alive. The third and memorable ex- pedition of April 15, 1725, proved the most disas- trous to the company, nearly one-third being killed, among whom was their leader. In each of the ex- peditions Bedford men participated, and Josiah Davis was killed, Eleazer Davis wounded, and others experienced the most painful hardship.

From a published sermon of Rev. Thomas Symms, preached at Bradford, on the Sabbath following the return of the unfortunate company, the following account of the suffering of some of the number is taken : " Eleazer Davis, after being out fourteen days, came into Berwick. He was wounded in the abdo- men and the ball lodged in his body. He also had his right hand shot off." A tradition says that, ar- riving at a pond with Lieutenant Farwell, Davis pulled off one of his moccasins, cut it in strings, on which he fastened a hook, caught some fish, fried and ate them. They refreshed him, but were inju- rious to Farwell, who died soon after. Josiah Davis, another of the four, was wounded with a ball which lodged in his body. After being out fourteen days, in hourly expectation of perishing, he arrived at Saco emaciated and almost dead from the loss of blood. He recovered, but became a cripple." This manner of dealing with the Indians must be severely questioned, and enlisting to pursue the scattered rem- nant of homeless natives for such a purpose as ac- tuated Lovewell and his followers must be condemned ;

828

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

but the narrative serves to show the hardships to which the founders of this town were accustomed and by which they acquired the habits of self-reliance so evident in their later history.

The Maxwell family furnished some brave military men during the French and Indian Wars, and also in the struggle for freedom from British oppression. Hugh Maxwell entered the service as a private, served five campaigns and held a commission from Governor Pownall as ensign, dated March 31, 1759. Thompson, brother to Hugh, was with "Rogers' Rangers " at the destruction of St. Francis and all through the French and Indian Wars. He entered the service at the age of sixteen years. Lemuel Shattuck says : "Several of the inhabitants of Bed- ford sustained commissions."

The descendants of Nathaniel Page, who settled here in 1687, were commissioned officers for several generations : Cornet Nathaniel Page, born in Eng- land in 1679, died in Bedford, 1755; his son, John, born in 1704, held commission as cornet from Jona- than Belcher, Colonial Governor in 1737. Ensign Josiah Fassett was at the relief of Fort Williams in May, 1758. Sergeant Page, of Bedford, was with Thompson Maxwell in 1758. Maxwell had a hand- to-hand conflict with two Indians,-he shot one and brought the other "to a halt." He says in his pub- lished journal : "Being exhausted, I reached a stream and Page swam across with me on his back with his gun and my own. I could not swim. In 1759 our suffering from cold and hunger cannot be described ; thirty-seven of our number died on the banks of the White River in Vermont, where Royalston is now built. Sergt. Page was with us and a very stout man. He helped me or I doubt how it would have fared with me." "Nathaniel Merriam (son of Dea. Na- thauiel) died at Lake George in his Majesty's service, Sept. 15, 1758, aged 19 years."

When the "French Neutrals" were taken from their Arcadian homes and portioned out in the Col- onies, Bedford had her share to provide for. Joseph Fitch and John Moore filed the following bill : "The Province of the Mass. Bay Indebted to the Town of Bedford-To providing for the French Neutrals or- dered to said town the 16 of Feb. A.D., 1760, 'till the 17th of June, 1761, £21 7s." Bedford men were at Crown Point, Ticonderoga and at the decisive en- gagement on the plains of Abraham, and also on the northern frontiers, where troops were kept to watch the Indians until the treaty of peace was concluded, in 1762, by which Canada became a British posses- sion. It is gratifying to know that their services were appreciated as appears from the following :

Voted on March 2, 1763, "To abate Josiah Davis, his son Paul, lately deceased, and Joseph Wilson, their town and Highway Rate and all other soldiers their Highway Ratc." Thirteen received abatements. In 1763 the people of this town entered into the " Thanksgiving " ordered by the King for the restora-

tion of pcace, with the same will that they had mani- fested during the protracted war. They laborcd under the disadvantage of having no minister to in- spire or guide them from 1766 to 1771. The minister

1 was tlic vanguard in many towns. Concord had her Emerson, and Lexington her Clark, but in the ab- sence of such a leader in Bedford, there was no falter- ing on the part of the people. Hugh Maxwell, the " Christian Patriot," came to the front with some- what of the heroism and organizing power which inspired his father to lead his entire family across the ocean to escape oppression. There were other brave men whose names appear in the subsequent years of trial.

CHAPTER LXXII.

BEDFORD-(Continued).

Colonial Troubles-Boston Tea Party-Minute-Men-Concord Fight- Women's Part -- Battle of Bunker Hill.

MARCH, 1768, the town voted "To concur with the vote of the town of Boston in October last, to en- courage the produce and manufacture of the Prov- ince." The women were not behind in expressions of loyalty. They carried on spinning and weaving at an increased rate. A bride from one of the first families of the town is known to have been led to the marriage altar dressed in a "gown " of her own manufacture, the fruit of her own loom. The town sent no representative to the General Court until the Revolutionary struggle was well under way. The "letter of Correspondence " sent out from a Boston town-meeting asking for " a free communication of sentiments," was received and acted upon with a spirit of determination on March 1, 1773. In the following March the town voted "not to use any tea till the duty is taken off." In the "Tea Party," December 16, 1773, Bedford was represented by Thompson Maxwell, although not at that time a resi- dent of the town. His journal reads thus : "In 1773, I went with my team to Boston, which was shut up (blockaded), with a load of provisions for the poor of the town. I had loaded at John Hancock's ware- house and was about to leave town, when Mr. Han- cock requested me to drive my team up into his yard, and ordered his servants to take care of it, and re- quested mc to be at Long Wharf at two o'clock P.M., and informed me what was to be done. I went ac- cordingly, joined the baud under Captain Hewes. We mounted the ships and made tea in a tricc. This done I took my team and went home as an lionest man should." 1

1 Fearing that this narrativo and others that will follow, might be re- garded as too good to be credited, wo havo carefully studied tho facts and have no doubt of the validity of the journal. John Hancock, the famous patriot and merchant of Boston, inherited tho estato of his

829

BEDFORD.

When "Boston Port Bill" went into operation, June 1, 1774, the old bell pealed forth the sound of alarm over the hills of this town, and the already crumbling " Bell-House ". lost its equilibrium, but not so the people. They met on the last day of June, "To know and determine what measures are Proper to be taken at this present time of Trouble and Dis- tress," etc. They unanimously voted to adopt the covenant of non-intercourse. They chose the Com- mittee of Correspondence, which consisted of Deacon Stephen Davis. John Reed, Joseph Hartwell, John Webber and John Moore.

The town was represented by four delegates at the county convention held at Concord on August 30th and 31st. On October 11th the town was represented by Joseph Ballard and John Reed in the first Provincial Congress, which had met by adjournment from Salem on the 6th. John Hancock was chairman and Ben- jamin Lincoln clerk. After a session of three days the Congress adjourned to meet at Cambridge, and then continued from October 17th to December 10th.

Devotion to a noble cause prompted the Represen- tatives from this town, as there was no offer of com- pensation from a depleted treasury, but in March, 1775, the town voted " To allow Doct. Joseph Bal- lard four shillings per day, for twelve days at Cam- bridge, and four shillings for expenses at Concord."

January 18, 1775. They at first voted not to send a delegate to the Provincial Congress of February, but on the 27th, in a second meeting, chose John Reed, and, agreeable to a recommendation of the Continental Congress, chose a "Committee of Inspec- tion " consisting of Moses Abbott, Thomas Page, Ebenezer Page, John Reed and Edward Stearns. At the Provincial Congress held at Concord and Cam- bridge, the plan was adopted for enrolling all the able-bodied men, and the order passed "that these companies should immediately assemble and elect their propper officers; that these officers, when elected, should assemble and elect field officers, and they enlist at least one-quarter of the men enrolled." These were the "minute-men." The people of Bedford gave hearty assent to the appoint- ment of Henry Gardner, of Stow, as treasurer of the Province, and made payment to him rather than to the royal treasurer.

In March, 1775, the town voted "to pay twenty- five 'minute-men' one shilling per week until the first of May next,-they to exercise four hours in a week, and two shillings to be allowed two officers, they to equip themselves according to the advice of

the Congress." While John Reed was laboring in the interests of the town in the Second Congress, the minute-men were being faithfully drilled and the company of militia as well. The minute-men of Bed- ford were a fair specimen of those forces, so hastily prepared for war, of whom Lord Percy said: "We never saw anything equal to the intrepidity of the New England minute-men." The officers of the min- ute-men had no commissions, as did those of the militia already in service; hence their authority came through the suffrage of their associates. The Bedford minute-men organized by choosing Jonathan Wilson as captaiu and Moses Abbott as lieutenant; Cornet Nathaniel Page was standard-bearer.

MORI

The banner illustrated on this page was carried by Cornet Nathaniel Page in the company of minute- men from Bedford to Concord, April 19, 1775. It had, doubtless, been in the Page family in this town for nearly a century before the Revolution. It was re- turned to the Page mansion after the opening scenes of the war, and there kept until the centennial cele- bration at Concord, April 19, 1875, when it was car- ried with the Bedford delegation in the procession of that day. Ten years later, October 19, 1885 (the one hundred and fourth anniversary of the surrender by Cornwallis to Washington), it was presented by Captain Cyrus Page to the town of Bedford.

It was thus brought to the attention of the Massa- chusetts Historical Society at their meeting in the following January, when Mr. Appleton reported upon it as follows :

" It was originally designed in England, in 1660-70, for the three-county troops of Massachusetts, and be- came one of the accepted standards of the organized militia of this State, and as such it was used by the Bedford company." Mr. Appleton said that in his opinion "This flag far exceeded in historic value the famed flag of Eutaw and Pulaski's banner, and, in fact,

uncle, Thomas Hancock. The warehouse alluded to, was a portion, and had been in the family for many years ; here the country farmers had exchanged their produce for other wares, the Maxwells among them, very naturally, as they must have become interested in the family through Ebenezer Hancock, brother of Thomas, who had taught the Bedford school and boarded with the family of Rev. Mr. Bowes, whose wife was his sister. The mutual acquaintance had led John Hancock to confide the secret of destroying the tea to a worthy friend whose warlike spirit was gratified in this daring act.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 196

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