History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 10

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III > Part 10

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BURIED TREASURE .- At the time of the Revolu-

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tion, three young men of the Prentiss family, living in the Joshua Loring house, on Centre Street, oppo- site Mill Street, are said to have buried considerable property near the brook north of the old cemetery, and going to the war, they never returned. Parties are said to have sometimes dug for the treasure, but it is not known that any has ever been found.

Two LISTS OF FREEHOLDERS-that is, of persons holding some estate and competent to vote-remain ; the first, dated 1679, contains sixty-seven names ; the second, in 1798, contains 211 names. The latter list is a tax-list, taken under an act of the Congress of the United States, levying upon the country a direct tax of two millions of dollars. The list embraced the houses with their valuation, acres with their valua- tion, and total valuation. Twenty persons are re- corded as owning each one-half of a house; one, two- thirds ; sixty-five, one house each ; one, two, and one, three. We know not on what principle the assessors determined their estimate of the value of houses in Newton a century ago. Possibly they designedly set the value very low, for the purposes of taxation, com- passionating the slender resources of the townsmen and their own. But even if they put upon it no more than a two-thirds valuation, it seems to us that the dwell- ings of the fathers of the town in the fourth genera- tion after its incorporation were ridiculously cheap. According to this list, there were only two houses in the town valued above $2000; only eleven, above $1000; only thirty-seven above $600; more than two- thirds of the whole, less than $500; sixty-eight less than $300; forty-five less than $200; seven less than $100. The three ministers were not required to pay taxes, though each of them owned both house and land. The largest number of acres owned by any in- dividual was 249; twenty-seven owned between one and two hundred; 141 less than one hundred; four less than twenty ; twenty-two less than ten; thirty- four none at all; 531} acres stood in the names of women.

A LARGE BOULDER IN THE MIDDLE OF CHARLES RIVER, called " the County Rock," marks the spot where the counties of Norfolk and Middlesex and the towns of Newton, Wellesley and Weston adjoin one another.

NEWTON HAS A SURFACE FINELY DIVERSIFIED by hills of considerable elevation. The following, with their respective heights, are worthy of mention : Bald Pate Hill, the highest of all, is 318 feet; Waban Hill, near the Chestnut Hill reservoir, 313; Institu- tion Hill, 301; Oak Hill, 296; Chestnut Hill, 290 ; Sylvan Heights, 252; Nonantum Hill, 249; Cottage Hill, 230; Moffatt Hill, 223; Mount Ida, 206.

THE POPULATION OF NEWTON, at various periods, is as follows : In 1820, 1850 ; 1830, 2376; 1840, 3351 ; 1850, 5258; 1860, 8382; 1870, 12,825; 1880, 16,995; 1885, 19,759.

CHURCHES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN NEWTON .- In 1889 Newton had thirty-two churches and twenty

school buildings, including one High School. After 116 years the First Church saw its first shoot; after 148 years there were three; after 226 years, thirty- two.

THE NEWTON AND WATERTOWN GAS-LIGHT CO. was organized March 18, 1854.

A little below Riverside, on the Waltham side of Charles River, is " the Norumbega Tower," crected by Prof. Horsford, of Cambridge, and dedicated in 1889. The tower marks the site, as Prof. Horsford believes, of the principal settlement of the aboriginal tribe which once roamed over these forests.

STATISTICS .- In 1885 there were in Newton ninety- five farms, valued at $189,886. The woolen-mills, em- ploying 343 laborers, produced goods valued at $600,- 406; the hosiery-mill employed 46 female operators ; the watch factory, 40; the cordage factory, 67. Ma- chinists, iron-workers and blacksmiths numbered 192. There were five houses employed in furniture manu- facturing and thirty, clothing. The aggregate of goods manufactured was valued at $2,389,018. Deposits in the two savings banks at the end of 1889, $1,563,750. At the close of 1888 there were 4018 dwelling-houses in the town. The valuation by the assessors for the purpose of taxation was $33,278,642.

MOUNT IDA .- The story of Mount Ida is interest- ing. It is the magnificent swell of land which rises immediately south of the railroad station at Newton, and is adorned with many fine residences. In the year 1816 John Fiske bought the entire hill for $3300. In 1850 the same was held at $10,000. After the Civil War it was bought by Langdon Coffin, Esq., who named it Mount Ida and laid it out in building lots. At that date there were only three houses on the whole estate; now the real estate of the same territory is valued at over half a million dollars. From the summit of Mount Ida admirable views are obtained of the valley-towns on the north-Cam- bridge, Watertown and Waltham, the long and shaggy ridge of Prospect Hill, the blue highlands of Essex, the spires and towers of Boston, the shining waters of Massachusetts Bay, the many villages of Newton and the crests of Wachusett, Monadnock and other inland mountain peaks.

BLOCK-HOUSE ON CENTRE STREET .- On Centre Street, north corner of Cabot Street, the residence of E. W. Converse, Esq., on the site of the mansion, once stood a block-house, with a stone base and open- ings above for defense, to which the neighboring col- onists planned to retreat in case of hostile invasion by the Indians, who had shown at Sudbury, Medfield and Medway how much their attacks were to be dreaded. The old refuge at last fell to decay, having never been practically tested. The present house was erected and the grounds were graded at an expense of $60,000 by the late Israel Lombard, Esq. The property passed into the hands of the Converse fam- ily in 1866. The old garrison-house was occupied in its latter days as a residence by Enoch Baldwin,

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

whose sons were afterwards known among the able financiers of Boston.

PARKS IN NEWTON .- Besides the Common at New- ton Centre, the city has several pleasant open spaces, more or less adorned. The most noted is Farlow Park, at Newton, given to the city by the gentleman whose name it bears, and adorned at the public ex- pense, in 1885. Kenrick Park, also at Newton, was laid out in 1854 by William Kenrick, under the name of Woodland Vale. Linwood Park, between Walnut Street, Crafts Street and Linwood Avenue, was founded by a contribution of $2000 by citizens in the vicinity, a handsome donation by W. J. Towne, Esq., and an appropriation of $1000 from the city treasury. Washington Park, at Newtonville, was laid out by Dustin Lancey in 1865. It is one-sixth of a mile long and sixty feet wide. Lincoln Park is a pretty open space on Washington Street, West Newton, in front of the First Baptist Church.

DICKENS AT NEWTON CENTRE .- When Charles Dickens, the renowned novelist, was in the United States he, with three companions-George Dolby, James R. Osgood and James T. Fiells-undertook a walking-match, February 29, 1868, from the begin- ning of the mill-dam in Boston to Newton Centre and back, " for two hats a side and the glory of their respective countries." Dickens and Osgood were the contestants, the other two companions and spectators. Dickens, in describing the contest, says that " at their turning-point, Newton Centre, the only refreshments they could find were five oranges and a bottle of black- ing" (which was a fib). Dickens reached the goal first, but Osgood finally won the match by seven min- utes ; and they celebrated the contest at night; with a few friends, by a dinner at Parker's.

GOODY DAVIS, OF OAK HILL, who lived to the age of one hundred and sixteen years, was thrice married, had 9 children, 45 grandchildren, 200 great-grandchildren and above 800 great-great-grandchildren before her death. She was often seen, after she was a hundred years old, at work in the field. She was at last supported by the town, though she retained her faculties till she was a hundred and fifteen years old. Dr. Homer remarks that "She had lived through the reigns of Charles I., Oliver Cromwell, Charles 11., James II., William and Mary, Queen Anne and George I. and HI. She was visited by Governor Dud- ley and also by Governor Belcher, who procured the painting of her portrait, now in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

and bringing into market a large quantity of desira- ble land suited to residences and business.

CHAPTER II.

NEWTON-(Continued).

THE FIRST CHURCH IN NEWTON. (At Newton Centre.) BY REV. DANIEL L. FURBER, D.D.

THE first church in Newton was formed in 1664, and was a colony from the church in Cambridge, of which Rev. Jonathan Mitchel was at that time pas- tor. Newton was a part of Cambridge and was called Cambridge Village. The people of this place, in go- ing to meeting on the Lord's Day, went through Watertown as we do now.

In 1664 Charles the Second was on the throne of England, Sir Isaac Newton was a young man, John Milton was writing "Paradise Lost," John Bunyan was in Bedford jail, and Richard Baxter was preach- ing the gospel "as though his soul was drenched therein."

Our early ministers used forms of expression which would sound strange if we should hear them now. One of them says, " We should show thankful resent- ment to God for his favors to us ;" "Let us resent the hand of God in the death of so many of his useful ser- vants ;" "I will now shut up all with an exhortation." Another says, "Christians should chew over their former consolations ;" that is, they should call them to mind and ruminate upon them as an ox chews his cud, and thus renew their enjoyment of them. The word "ingenuity " is used for "ingenuousness :" " Let us with candor and ingenuity confess our faults."

In 225 years this church has had only nine minis- ters-John Eliot, Jr., son of the apostle Eliot, Nehe- miah Hobart, John Cotton, great-grandson of the famous John Cotton, of Boston, Jonas Meriam, Jon- athan Homer, James Bates, William Bushnell, Dan- iel L. Furber and Theodore J. Holmes. Seven of these nine ministers were ordained Lere, and the work of six of them was both begun and ended here.

The original members of this chuch were an intel- ligent people. Trained as they had been in the vicin- ity of Harvard College, and listening every Lord's Day to the same preaching to which the professors and students listened, they had been under highly educating influences. No doubt we are in some which now characterizes our people, for the character which is stamped upon a church or town in the begin- ning of its history is apt to go down to succeeding generations.

NEWTON CIRCUIT RAILROAD .- In 1886 the Boston and Albany Railroad Corporation bought of the New York and New England that portion of the road and franchise lying between Brookline and Newton Highlands, about five miles and one-tenth, for $415,- | measure indebted to this fact for the intelligence 000, to form a part of the Newton Circuit Railroad, and immediately proceeded to complete its line across Elliott and Boylston Streets to Riverside ; thus opening three new stations -Eliot, Waban and Woodland -

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Sound doctrine has always prevailed here. In the early part of this century, when ninety-six of the 361 Congregational churches of Massachusetts became Unitarian, and thirty more were nearly so, when all the Boston churches but one abandoned the ancient faith, together with the churches in Roxbury, Dor- chester, Cambridge, Watertown, Dedham, Brookline, Brighton and Waltham, the church in Newton and its first-born child in West Newton stood firm. The doctrinal belief of our fathers was thoroughly Calvin- istie. John Cotton, of Boston, said that after study- ing twelve hours a day, he wanted to sweeten his mouth with a morsel from John Calvin before he went to sleep. If our fathers used some liberty, as no doubt they did, in the interpretation of Calvinism, we prob- ably use still more, lopping off what Dr. Woods, of Andover, used to call the " fag ends" of it. Still, we are Calvinists, and we agree with James Anthony Froude, when he says, "If Arminianism most com- mends itself to our feelings, Calvinism is nearer to the facts, however harsh and forbidding those facts may seem." But we have the warmest Christian af- fection for those who differ from us, and join hand and heart with them in the grand endeavor to give the Gospel to mankind.

Calvinism, notwithstanding all the prejudice which there is against it, is a mighty system. It has asserted human rights and the equality of all men before God as no other system ever did. David IIume said that England owed all the liberty she had to the Puritans, and George Bancroft says that the monarchs of Eu- rope, with one consent and with instinetive judgment, feared Calvinism as republicanism. John Fiske says that "the promulgation of, the theology of Calvin was one of the longest steps that mankind has taken towards personal freedom." We boast of what New Eogland did in the War of the Revolution. It fur- nished more than half of the troops that were raised. The descendants of the Puritans did that. The Con- gregationalists at that time were seven times as numerous as all other denominations put together, and they were descendants of the Puritans, and the Puritans were Calvinists. Let this show what kind of moral and religious forees achieved our indepen- dence. Everywhere the influence of this system of belief has been to establish human freedom, to edu- cate the masses, to elevate society, and to free the en- slaved. "Take the Calvinists of New England," said Henry Ward Beecher ; "persons rail at them, but they were men that believed in their doctrines. They put God first, the commonwealth next, and the citizen next, and they lived accordingly, and where do you find prosperity that averages as it does in New Eng- land, in Scotland and in Switzerland? Men may rail as much as they please, but these are the facts."

Our church has been blessed with a godly and faithful ministry.

Rev. John Eliot, Jr., was called one of the best preachers of his time. Hubbard's "History of New

England " says he was second to none as to all litera- ture and other gifts, both of nature and grace, which made him so generally acceptable to all who had the least acquaintance with him. We have no sermons from bis pen, but there is a record of precious utter- ances made by him upon his dying bed, which can be found in the Congregational Quarterly for April, 1865. It was not known until about that time that the record was in existence. Cotton Mather had said nearly two hundred years ago that Mr. Eliot "upon his death-bed uttered such penetrating things as could proceed from none but one upon the borders and con- fines of eternal glory. It is a pity," said he, "that so many of them are forgotten." About twenty-five years ago was found in the attic of an old house in Windsor, Conn., in which lived and died Mr. Eliot's son, Judge John Eliot, a portion of a manuscript, yellow with age, in which was a copy of the "dying speech." While containing language of the deepest self-abasement it is a speech of triumph. The pros- peet of being so soon in glory with one whom he loved with all his soul, filled him with exultation and rapture. As old John Trapp says: "He went gal- lantly into heaven with sails and flags up and trum- pets sounding." This for a young man only thirty- two years old, with the brightest prospects before him in this world, loved and admired by all who knew him, was certainly most remarkable.

After Mr. Eliot's death dissensions arose in the church, about which we know almost nothing. But in 1672 Nehemiah Hobart came and healed the divi- sions and restored harmony. In him a rich blessing came to the little church, and he is to be reckoned among the eminent men of his time. President Stiles, of New Haven, requested an aged clergyman, Rev. John Barnard, of Marblehead, whom Dr. Chauncey called "one of our greatest men," to give him the names of those New England divines of whom he had conceived the highest opinion for sanc- tity, usefulness and erudition, and he gave him the names of eighteen men, among whom was the name of Nehemiah Hobart, of Newton. Other names in the list are Samuel Willard and Ebenezer Pemberton, of the Old South Church in Boston ; Cotton Mather, of the Old North Church; Benjamin Colman, of Brat- the Street Church, and Increase Mather and Benjamin Wadsworth, presidents of Harvard College. But if Mr. Ilobart is entitled to rank with such men as these, why is he not better known? The reason may be that he was an extremely modest man. A minister who knew him intimately said that his modesty was ex- cessive, and that he had a singular backwardness to appearing in public.

Mr. Hobart died August 25, 1712. Eight days be- fore his death be preached morning and afternoon, and at the close of the day blessed the congregation in the words prescribed in Numbers 6 : 24-26, which made an impression upon many. They thought that he had taken lave of them and that they should never

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

hear him again. Ile had nsed that form but once be- fore. Ile said to President Leverett, of Harvard Col- lege, who made him a visit a few days before his death, that he had been at forty- nine commencements, never having missed one from the very first time that he had " waited on that solemnity." The President said that he was a great blessing and ornament to the Corpora- tion of Harvard College. Judge Sewall states that the Governor (Dudley) was present at his funeral with four horses. "A great many people there. Suppose there were more than forty graduates." The President was one of the bearers, and the Governor and Judge Sewall followed next after the mourners.

Mr. Hobart's ministry continued forty years, during which time an unshaken harmony subsisted between him and his people. If there were revivals and large additions to the church under his ministry, or under the ministry of Mr. Eliot, we know nothing of them, for the records of our church have been twice burned, once in 1720 and again in 1770.

Our next minister was Rev. John Cotton, who was ordained here in 1714. The desire of the people to secure him for their minister was very strong. Rev. Edward Holyoke, a'terward President of Harvard College, had preached here as a candidate, bnt Mr. Cotton was preferred. When he came, a youth of twenty-one, the whole town went in procession to meet and welcome him. Dr. Colman, of Brattle Street Church, spoke of him as a man in whom the name and spirit of the famous John Cotton revived and shone. Twelve of his sermons were published and are preserved. Fifty persons were added to the church soon after the earthquake of 1727, in consequence of that awful event, and of the use which he made of it in his preaching. One hundred and fonr were added in 1741-42 in a revival which probably began with the preaching of the celebrated Gilbert Tennent.

As an illustration of the attention which in former times was bestowed upon the young, there were many towns in New England about the year 1727 in which young men set up meetings for religious exercises on the evenings of the Lord's Day. Such meetings were held here, and Mr. Cotton delivered fur sermons on the text " Run, speak to this young man." In the re- vival of 1741 scores of children and young people called upon their minister from week to week for re- ligious conversation. This interest was greatly deep- ened by the death of Mr. John Park's three children, who died within the space of two weeks, after very brief illness, one of them eighteen years old, another sixteen, and the other ten. These deaths produced such an effect upon the young that the se res who had called upon the minister were increased to hundreds, and Mr. Cotton states that more than three hundred had been with him, expressing a serious concern about the salvation of their souls. This is really a most as- tonishing instance of deep and wide-spread interest in religion among the young. We are apt to think that the young were not enred for in past times as they are

now, but who ever saw anything like this ? Who ever heard of a place before, no larger than this, where three hundred and more of the children and youth were calling upon their minister to know what they must do to be saved? The young came from sur- rounding towns to attend the meetings here, and in one instance at least Mr. Cotton made a special ad- dress to them. Now it is impossible for such a wave of religious interest to roll over this place without leaving ineffaceable marks of itself. Accordingly, when Dr. Homer, forty years after, received his call to this place, he said, " I have noticed the diligent and solemn attention of the people and especially of the youth of this place to the public services of religion, in which I have seldom, if ever, found them eqnaled elsewhere. This is a circumstance of my call which 1 cannot resist, and would prefer to every other possi- ble consideration." There is no doubt that we feel to this day the effect of the revival among the young which occurred here one hundred and fifty years ago.

Mr. Cotton died in 1757, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and in the forty-third year of his ministry.

In 1758 began the ministry of Rev. Jonas Meriam, which continued twenty-two years. He is remembered as the minister who bought and gave liberty to a slave nearly one hundred years before slavery was abolished in our country. His second wife was granddaughter of Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, of Brookline, the man who introduced the practice of inoculation for small-pox, in the face of such outragenus opposition that he did not dare to go out of his house in the evening, knowing that men were on the streets with halters in their hands ready to hang him.

During his ministry Anna Hammond, who lived to be one hundred and four years old, joined the church. She married Rev. Joseph Pope, of Spencer, and spent the remainder of her life in that town, occupy- ing one sleeping-room eighty-two years. Her longev- ity was owing in great measure, it is believed, to her habitual cheerfulness. She believed that she had had the best husband, the best children and the best grandchildren that ever a woman had. "Your grandfather, my child," said she, "was as good a man as God ever made, and no minister ever had a better parish, and no old woman ever had better or kinder care." And so her life was one continued hallelujah.

The doors of the Spencer parsonage were continu- ally open with hospitality. The leading ministers of the time, Emmons, Spring, Bellamy, Backus and such men, were often entertained there, and they made the long evenings lively with their theological discussions protracted to late hours of the night around the old hearth-stone. During the depreciation of the Conti- mental curreney, when it is said that a whole year's salary went to buy a block tin tea-pot, the hospitality was still kept up, though nobody knew how, and the large-hearted hostess said she never knew what it was to want. Here was a character of the true New Eng-

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land type, in which were piety and intelligence fed by God's word, and by the writings of Edwards, Bel- lamy, Hopkins and men like them.

The allusion to Spring and Emmons as her guests is the more interesting when it is known that both of them were her suitors. The tradition is, that Dr. Spring, when a young man, was on his way to New- ton in search of a wife, when he met Mr. Pope on his way to the same house and with the same intent. The situation was delicate and perplexing. After some deliberation Dr. Spring said, " Brother Pope, you have a parish and I have none; I give way to you."

When Mrs. Pope was a widow about seventy-five years old, and Dr. Emmons was a widower of about eighty-five, he sent her by the hand of a ministerial brother, probably his son-in-law, Rev. Dr. Ide, of Med- way, a proposal of marriage. The offer was declined, and when it was pressed with some urgency, with refer- ence, probably, to the eminence of the suitor, she re- plied, " No elevation of character or circumstances conld have a feather's weight toward inducing me to change my name. I hope to bear it while I live, and lie by the side of him who gave it to me when I die."

The mini-try of Dr. Jonathan Homer began in 1782, and continued fifty-seven years. When he ac- cepted his call to this place he had declined a call to the new Sonth Church in Boston, the church whose edifice was on " Church Green," in Summer Street, near the head of Lincoln Street. It was a, noble triumph of Christian principle for him, for conscience' sake, and on the ground that the " half-way covenant" was in use in the new Sonth Church, as, in fact, it was in most of the churches in Boston, to prefer New- ton, with a small salary, to Boston, with a large one, and with its refined and literary society. He had a deeply religions spirit, literary taste, a pleasing style of writing, spoke easily in the pulpit without notes, and excelled in conversation. Blake's " Bio- graphieal Dictionary " says he was one of the most be- loved clergymen in Massachusetts, universally es- teemed as a man of learning and piety. He read Greek, Hebrew and Latin, and learned Spanish after he was sixty years old.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 10

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1278

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278