History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 203

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 203

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IHISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

practice in the town of Bedford, two miles distant; visiting Boston upon an average of five times a week ; having for the past twenty-five years written all the company's hand-books and advertisements, attend- ing to the general business, and carried on a farm of forty acres. During Dr. Hayden's residence in Bed- ford he has served the town one term on the Board of Selectmen, and two terms on the School Board, and received a very large majority of the votes of the town for the Legislature. During the past three years Dr. Hayden has built two laboratories and one of the most beautiful houses in the country, and made an ex- tended tour of Europe, from Ireland to Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, England and Scotland.

Dr. Hayden has visited Europe several times and made the acquaintance of some distinguished men, among them Lord Lytton (Bulwer Lytton) Professor John Ashburner, Louie Blond, the Rev. James Smyth, and the great Robert Owen, Robert Cham- bers and many others, and in this country he enjoyed the personal acquaintance of William Lloyd Garri- son, Horace Greeley, Theodore Parker and other re- formers.

Bedford Springs, the residence of Dr. Hayden, is one of the most beautiful spots in New England, six- teen miles from Boston, on the Bedford and Billerica Railroad. The estate comprises about two hundred acres of cleared and wood land, one of the largest arti- ficial lakes in the State, a summer hotel, three medic- inal springs, railroad station, express and post-office, and is a little world in itself. ,

In religion Dr. Hayden is an agnostic, in politics a progressive Republican, believing in the party when it is in the right, but never when in the wrong. His ereed is, " Right and Justice for all men and women alike."

JONATHAN BACON.

Jonathan Bacon was descended from Michael Bacon, who went from England to the north of Ireland, where he lived for several years, when, in 1640, he came to this country and settled in Connecticut. Michael Bacon, son of Michael, settled in that part of Billerica which is now within the limits of Bed- ford. He built a saw and grist-mill on Shawshine River, which was burned by the Indians in King Philip's War. At his request a military guard was detailed for his protection, and his mill was rebuilt. A saw and grist-mill, owned by Charles Clark, now stands on the s'te occupied by him. In the early history of Bedford, which was incorporated in 1729, the Bacon family was a prominent one. In a petition to the selectinen of Concord for permission to be set off as a new town, dated May 1, 1728, the name of Joseph Bacon appears, and at the first town-meeting of Bedford, held October 6, 1729, Jonathan Bacon was chosen one of the Board of Selectmen. Among the taxable inhabitants of Bedford, in 1748, were Samuel

Bacon, Josiah Bacon, Josiah Bacon, Jr., Benjamin Bacon, Michael Bacon, John Bacon and Thomas Bacon. In 1780 Jonas Bacon enlisted as a soldier in the Revolution, and Jonathan Bacon was one of the signers to the covenant of the first church in Bedford, organized immediately after the incorporation of the town. Benjamin Bacon, who was born December 6, 1713, and died October 1, 1791, was chosen a dcacon of this church February 15, 1759.

Thompson Bacon, son of John Bacon, of Bedford, and a member of this family, married Martha Hos- mer and had nine children-Jonathan, John, Reuben, Elbridge, Thompson, Eliza, Nancy, Octavius and Albert. Of these, Reuben was an extensive manu- facturer of shoes in Bedford, and Albert is still living in his native town. Another of these children, Jona- than, the subject of this sketch, was born in Bedford April 15, 1785. With only the advantages of a common- school education, he was in his early life employed on his father's farm. Possessing a naturally thoughtful mind, his attention was soon turned to mechanical pursuits, in which he displayed an ingenuity which laid the foundation of his eventual success. Associated with John Hosmer, he was the first in this country to engage in the manufacture of women's and children's shoes, and his careful management resulted in the establishment of a profitable enterprise, which grad- ually increased and before many years was carried on by a considerable number of firms.

In connection with his shoe business he made pat- terns for lasts, and for shoes, which he manufactured himself, and thus opened the way for the display of his inventive powers in a broader field. He soon found that new mechanical enterprises, more conge- nial to his tastes, required the abandonment of his manufacture of shoes, and, selling out that business, he ever after devoted himself to inventive study and the manufacture of such devices as were its result, and their sale to the trade. George H. Gray, Joseph West, Charles Brooks and Horton, Hall & Co., of Boston, were among the principal dealers in his arti- cles of manufacture. Among these devices were sash and blind fastenings, latches and various carriage appliances, of which the article known as " Bacon's Patent Lever Blind Fastener " has been for upwards of fifty years on the market, and has never yet been equalled by anything used for the same purpose.

Mr. Bacon married Abigail, daughter of Eben Clark, of New Ipswich, New Hampshire, an officer in the Revolution, and at one time on the staff of General Washington. His children were Abigail, who married William Ripley, of Abington; Clark, who married Emma C. Burr, of Hingham ; Frederick, who married Ann Robbins, of Bedford ; Caroline, who marricd Isaac Hurd, of Concord; Eliza, who married Prescott J. Bigelow, of Abington ; Warren, who mar- ried Lucy A. Lawrence, of Bedford; Jerome A., who married Marion M. Darling, of Boston, Eliza F. Mer- riam, of Boston, and Anna R. March, of Bedford ;

Fan Bacon

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and Emma A., who married Sebastian Kramer, of Boston.

Mr. Bacon, though largely interested in public af- fairs, neither songht nor accepted office except such as he believed that he conld administer for the benefit and welfare of his native town. He was chairman of the Board of Selectmen of Bedford for many years, only consenting to an election because he believed it the duty of every citizen to bear his share of town bur- dens, and to perform his part of a townsman's duty. Further than this he refused to go, and at one time declined a nomination (equivalent to an election) to the State Senate. In politics he was a Federalist and Whig, and as long as he lived, after the organ- ization of the Republican party, he was one of its devoted members. Civil Service Reform, so far as a part of its policy is concerned, would, if he were now living, be no novelty to him.

As long ago as August 28, 1840, during the Harri- son campaign, he drew up and signed a constitution for a political association advocating the election of General Harrison as President, in which opposition was declared "to members of Congress distributing executive patronage nntil two years after they had ceased to be snch." He belonged to that class of men whom older readers well remember, distributed all over the Commonwealth, one in almost every town; who ruled the communities in which they lived, not by wire-pulling and trickery and self-seek- ing, but by advice and counsel, sought and followed on account of their wisdom, and by an honest and earnest effort to put the best men in office, and thus promote and secure the public welfare.

In theology he belonged to what was called in his day the liberal wing of Orthodoxy, and remained in the old church and parish when they became Unitar- ians and the conservative wing seceded. In the con- troversy which followed the division of the church, in which it was claimed that the property of the old territorial parish belonged to the town, he took an ac- tive part, and the claim, largely through his efforts, was successfully resisted.

It will not be difficult to portray the character of the man thus briefly sketched. With a mind elastic and susceptible of expansion and growth, with a training which had implanted within him a love of truth, integrity and faithful labor, he combined a ten- derness of spirit and an affection for his family and home, a regard for public interests and a respect for the rights and comfort and welfare of those about him, which made him a conspicuous figure in his town, and one receiving the entire confidence of his friends and neighbors.

His son, Jerome A. Bacon, is one of the eminent and successful merchants of Boston. Receiving his early education in the public schools of Bedford and at the Lawrence Academy at Groton, at the age of nine- teen, though fitted for college, he became the appren- tice of his brother, Clark Bacon, who was engaged in

Boston in the manufacture of gold leaf, foil and plate. So faithful was he in his work that, after a few months, apprentices were placed under his charge, and at the age of twenty-three he removed to Bedford and there established the same business on his own account. After a few years, upon his father's death, which oc- curred in August, 1856, he removed to Boston and engaged in the manufacture and sale of paper, which he has since carried on with eminent success.

CHAPTER LXXXVI.

LITTLETON.

BY HERBERT JOSEPH HARWOOD.

THE origin of the Indian town of Nashobah, which once occupied the greater part of the territory now Littleton, is traceable directly to Rev. John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians and the translator of the Bible into the Indian language. He began to preach to the Indians in 1646 at Nonantum, a part of Newton. Many became converted to Christianity and expressed a desire to become civilized and to live more like white people. Eliot advised them to adopt the gov- ernment which Jethro proposed to Moses for the Is- raelites in the wilderness (Exodus xviii. 21), and to choose rulers of hundreds, of fifties and of tens; he also advised that they live in towns apart from the white people, and accordingly obtained from the Gen- eral Court a grant of territory at Natick, where the "praying Indians," as they were called, formed their first town in 1651.

Other towns of the same kind were formed soon after, and among them Nashobah.

The Indians of this neighborhood were among the first to listen to Eliot's preaching, and Tahattawan the elder, sachem of Nashobah, was, according to Shattuck's " History of Concord," one of the first con- verts.

Rev. Thomas Shepard, of Cambridge, in his " Clear Sunshine of Gospel," speaking of the Indians and Mr. Eliot's preaching, says : "The last effect was their desire of having a town given them within the bonnds of Concord near unto the English."

Among the orders and regulations for the Indians, agreed to at Concord, January, 1646, is the following: "29. They desire they may be a town and either dwell on this side of Beaver Swamp (in Lincoln) or at the East side of Mr. Flint's Pond."

It would seem from these facts that the praying In- dians of this vicinity had it in mind to form a town in or near Concord for several years before they were granted the Nashobah plantation, and that they had discussed different localities.

It would be interesting if we knew more about Eliot's preaching to the Nashobah Indians, that he

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stood on such a spot on such a day, that he came again on such a day, etc., etc. ; but I have been nna- ble to find any record of his eoming to this vicinity. That both Eliot and Gookin eame here I have no doubt, for it is known that they were in the habit of going about to all the settlements of praying Indians.

From the fact that Tahattawan the elder was among the first of the converts we may conclude that he first listened to Eliot's preaching at Newton or in that neighborhood, and it may be that by his invita- tion the apostle afterwards came up into the wilder- ness beyond Concord; but these are mere eonjee- tures.

In May, 1654, Mr. Eliot petitioned the General Court for the incorporation of several Indian towns ; the part of the petition which interests us reads as follows : " First, therefore the inhabitants of Nashoba living 7 or 8 miles west of Concord, desire to have liberty to make a towne in yt place, with due aecom- modations thereunto. And though Concord have some conditional grants of lands yt way, yet I under- stand that we shall have a loving and Christian agree- ment betwixt them and the Indians."

The petition is dated Boston, 4th of the 3d (May), 1654.

In the General Court records, under date of 14th of May, 1654, is the following :

" In ansr to the peticon of Mr. Jno. Elliott, on behalf of seuerall In- dians, the Court graunts his request, viz. : liberty for the inhabitants of Nashop [Nashobah] and to the inhabitants of Ogkoontiquonkames [ Marlborough] and also to the inhabitants of Hasnemesuchoth [Grafton] to erect seuerall Indjan tounes in the places propounded, wth convejent acomodacon to each, provided they prjudice not any former graunts ; nor shall they dispose of it wth out leave first bad and obtained from this Court."

In reference to the incorporation of Nashobah, Mr. Shattuck, in his " History of Coneord," says :

"Nashobah, lying near Nagog Pond, partly in Littleton and partly in Acton as now bounded, accordingly became an Indian town ; and here a part of the Praying Indians in Concord, with others in the vicinity, gathered and adopted civil and religious order, and had a Ruler and other municipal officers, though no church was formed. Such as were entitled to Christian ordinances probably went to Natick to celebrate the communion after a church was organized there in 1660."

Let us hope that the last part of the quotation from Mr. Shattuck is more trustworthy than the first; he gives no authority for saying that Nashobah was " partly in Acton," and I am inclined to think that he drew on his imagination for the statement, as I am unable to find any authority for it what- ever, while, on the contrary, I have been able to locate the original Nashobah with tolerable aeeur- aey, as I shall show hereafter, and am morally cer- tain that the town of Concord never had a valid title to one ineh of the land where the Indian town was laid out, and consequently that it was never " partly in Acton," which, as we all know, was set off from Coneord.

We will drop the question of boundary for the present and take it up later. It may seem a little peeuliar that the white people, who had taken pos-

session of all Massachusetts, with very little regard to the Indians, who had occupied it from time im- memorial, should gravely grant back to them a small portion with restrictions; but such is always our " Indian poliey."

The white people took possession of all the land in the Colony by virtue of their charter from the Crown of England, and the Crown protected them merely by its power.

Thus we see why it is that Indian deeds are and were of little value in conveying a title, for the Indians, having no stable government, had no power to enforce a title, and therefore a title acquired from Indians could not stand against one from the Crown.

Daniel Gookin, in his "Historieal Collections of the Indians in New England," chapter vii. ¿ 10, says : "Nashobah is the sixth praying Indian town. This village is situated, in a manner, in the eentre, between Chelmsford, Lancaster, Groton and Concord. It lieth from Boston about twenty-five miles west north west. The inhabitants are about ten families, and consequently about fifty souls.

" The dimensions of this village is four miles square. The land is fertile and well stored with meadows and woods. It hath good ponds for fish adjoining to it. The people live here, as in other Indian vil- lages, upon planting corn, fishing, hunting and some- times labouring with the English. Their ruler, of late years, was John Ahatawanee [Tahattawan], a pious man. Since his decease, Pennakennit [or Pen- nahannit] is the chief. Their teaeher is named John Thomas, a sober and pious man. His farther was murthered by the Maquas in a secret manner, as he was fishing for eels at his wear, some years since, dur- ing the war. He was a pious and useful person, and that place sustained a great loss in him. In this village, as well in other old Indian 'plantations, they have orchards of apples whereof they make cider, whiel some of them have not the wisdom and graee to use for their comfort, but are prone to abuse unto drunkenness.

" And although the laws be striet to suppress this sin, and some of their own rulers are very careful and zealous in the execution of them, yet such is the madness and folly of man naturally, that he doth eagerly pursue after that which tendeth to his own destruction.

" I have often seriously considered what course to take to restrain this beastly sin of drunkenness among them ; but hitherto cannot reach it. For if it were possible, as it is not, to prevent the Eng- lish selling them strong drink ; yet they, having a native liberty to plant orehards and sow grain, as barley and the like, of which they may and do make strong drink that doth inebriate them, so that nothing ean overeone and conquer this exorbitancy but the sovereign grace of God in Christ, which is thie only antidote to prevent and mortify the poison of sin.

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" Near unto this town is a pond, wherein at some sea- sons there is a strange rumbling noise, as the In- dians affirm ; the reason whereof is not yet known. Some have conceived the hills adjacent are hollow, wherein the wind being pent, is the cause of this rumbling, as in earthquakes.

"At this place they attend civil and religious order, as in other praying towns, aud they have a constable and other officers.

"This town was deserted during the Maquas War, but is now again re-peopled and in a hopeful way to prosper."

This, then, was the state of affairs in 1674, the date of Gookin's writing.

The pond where the rumbling noise occurred is, of course, Nagog. Traditions are plenty of rumbling noises, sometimes said to be like the discharge of cau- non in the vicinity of Nashoba Hill, which is near Nagog Pond, but I have not heard of any occurring of late years. They were probably earthquakes.

John Ahatawance, mentioned by Gookin, was Ta- hattawan the younger, son of the elder of the same name.

Pennahannit, also called Captain Josiah, was the " marshal general " of all the praying Indian towns.

In the year following Gookin's account came King Philip's War, which proved disastrous to the Nasho- bah Indians, owing to the distrust of their loyalty to the Colony, and fears of their joining Philip and per- haps endangering their neighbors, the white people. I have never found that there were any grounds for these fears; but no Indian was trusted, and the atroc- ities of the hostile ones made the name Indian odious everywhere.

In the Massachusetts Archives, vol. 30, page 185, I find the following under date of November 19, 1675 :

" It is ordered By the Connsell that the comitte of inilitia of Concord and the select men of that towne with the advice of Major Willard do dispose & order matters referring to the Indians of Nashobah that have subjected to this Govermon, & to setle & secure ym in the towne of Concord under the inspection of John Hore of Concord ; (Who hath manifested himself willing to to take syd care of them & to secure them by day & by night) & to see they bee imployd to laubor ; for their lively hood that the country may be eased ; or in case they cannot or do not agree wh John Hoare affuresaid yt they are impoured to contract with any other person or persons in the said towne, for the sanie end, or to plase the said Indians or ay of them to servise, provided the mayne end bee attained vizt. : that the indians may be imployed to laubor & pesarved fron dange & the country & towne secured.

'. Past by ye Councel lath of November, 1675.

"E. R. S."

Also the following :

" 9 Dec., 1675. It is ordered that Major Willard, Capt. Gookin with Mr. Eliot by the first . opportunity are to repayre to Concord and Chelmsford & to examin those Indians there, & to use their best en- devor to settle them in anch a posture either at Deare Island or in the prace where they live so yt they who are friendly to the English may becured & and the English in those parts also secured & as much as may satisfied with their settlement and the said comittee or any two or tbre of them & impoured to effect this matter & they are to use their best indevor that those indians may be imployd & kept to lauber & take care they be all disarmned.

" 9 December 75 Part by ye Councel

"EDW. RAWSON, Secy."

In accordance with these orders, the Indians of Nashobah were taken to Concord and put in charge of John Hoar, who kept them employed and contented for a short time. Hoar was compensated for his trouble by being exempted from impressment and, perhaps, taxation.

Gookin, in his " History of the Christian Indians," gives the following interesting account of this epi- sode :

"About this time there befell another great trouble and exercise to the Christian Indians of Nashobah, who sojourned in Concord by order ; the matter was this. The Council had, by several orders, empower- ed a committee, who, with the consent of the select- men of Concord, settled those Indians at that town, under the government and tuition of Mr. John Hoare ; the number of those Indians were about fifty- eight of all sorts, whereof were not above twelve able men, the rest were women and children. These Indians lived very soberly, and quietly, and indus- triously, and were all unarmed ; neither could any of them be charged with any unfaithfulness to the English interest.

"In pursuance of this settlement, Mr. Hoare had begun to build a large and convenient work-house for the Indians, near his own dwelling, which stood about the midst of the town, and very nigh the town watch-house.

" This house was made, not only to secure those Indians under lock and key by night, but to employ them and to set them to work by day, whereby they earned their own bread, and in an ordinary way (with God's blessing) would have lived well in a short time. Bnt some of the inhabitants of the town, being in- fluenced with a spirit of animosity and distaste against all Indians, disrelished this settlement ; and therefore privately sent to a Captain of the army, [Captain Mosely] that quartered his company not far off at that time, of whom they had experience, that he would not be backward to put in execution anything that tended to distress the praying Indians ; for this was the same man that had formerly, without order, seized upon divers of the praying Indians at Marlborough, which brought much trouble and dis- quiet to the country of the Indians, and was a great occasion of their defection ; as hath been above de- clared.

" This Captain accordingly came to Concord with a party of his men, upon the Sabbath day, into the meeting-house, where the people were convened to the worship of God. And after the exercise was ended, he spake openly to the congregation to this effect : 'That he understood there were some heathen in the town, committed to one Hoare, which he was informed were a trouble and disquiet to them ; there- fore if they desired it, he would remove them to Bos- ton ;' to which speech of his, most of the people being silent, except two or three that encouraged him, he took, as it seems, the silence of the rest for

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consent ; and immediately after the assembly was dismissed, he went with three or four files of men, and a hundred or two of the people, men, women and children, at his licels, and marched away to Mr. Hoare's house and there demanded of him to sce the Indians under his carc. Hoarc opened the door and showed them to him, and they were all numbered and found therc; the Captain then said to Mr. Hoare, ' that he would leave a corporal and soldiers to secure them ; ' but Mr. Hoare answered, ' there was no necd of that, for they were already sccured, and were com- mitted to him by order of the Council, and he would keep and secure them.' But yet the Captain left, his corporal and soldiers there, who were abusive enough to the poor Indians by ill language. The next morn- ing the Captain came again to take the Indians and send them to Boston. But Mr. Hoare refused to deliver them unless he showed him an order of the Council; but the Captain could show him no other but his commission to kill and destroy the enemy ; but Mr. Hoare said, ' these were friends and under order.'

" But the Captain would not be satisfied with his answer, but commanded his corporal forthwith to break open the door and take the Indians all away, which was done accordingly; and some of the soldiers plundered the poor creatures of their shirts, shoes, dishes, and such other things as they could lay their hands upon, though the Captain com. manded the contrary. They were all brought to Charlestown with a guard of twenty men. And the Captain wrote a letter to the General Court, then sitting, giving them an account of his action.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 203

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