History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 165

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 165

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To trace the beginnings and locality of early settle- ment-the circumstances which dictated the direction of progress and development; the causes which gave a turn to local political affairs and led to divisions and the creation of new towns; the names and qualities of the " forefathers of the hamlet," and of those of their descendants who have guided public sentiment and have fostered and encouraged private and public enter- prise; the incidents of local history, important in their results rather than in the nature of their oc- currence-is a subject worthy of the historian in the hearing it has upon the institutions under which we, as a people, have sought peace and prosperity. The town is the unit of our system of government. It is the primitive source of popular sovereignty. It is the child as well as parent of our institutions, and in New England attains a power and individuality not known and recognized to so full an extent in the rest of the country. The details of its history are pregnant with the fate which has wrought great events on the continent.

Waltham was incorporated January 4, 1737-38, old style-by the modern calender January 15, 1738. Its history for the first century of settlement is so blended with that of the parent town of Watertown that it is

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difficult to separate the incidents of its existence for that period or to fix upon what was distinctive to its territory and inhabitants. With no defined village or local parish interests until shortly before its in- corporation, the early records give us but vague infor- mation as to what portions of the annals of Watertown particularly apply to the early history of the part subsequently set off as Waltham. Until the last of the seventeenth century its territory was practically a wilderness. A fringe of farms occupied the bills in its northern limits. The Great or Sudbury Road traversed the plain on its southern limits by Charles River, but no collection of houses, church or school- house marked any locality to give prominence in traditions or data to anything distinctively belonging to the locality.

Watertown, within the limits of which, as above stated, Waltham was included for the first century of its settlement, was one of the first settled places in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ranking as fourth in the order of incorporation. It has well been called the " mother of towns," for out of her territory have been formed the towns of Weston and Waltham and parts of Lincoln, Cambridge and Belmont. Besides these contributions from her area she sent forth col- onists to the Connecticut River settlements, to Weathersfield, Connecticut, Martha's Vineyard and the neighboring new settlements in Eastern and Cen- tral Massachusetts, so that hardly a town in Middle- sex County but has families which trace their origin to this prolific and enterprising mother. In 1636 it was the most populous town in the Colony, and fears were entertained that the population was getting too crowded for the general welfare. This feeling was doubtless one of the reasons which prompted the healthy exodus to other localities.

Within its original limits is the location of the newly-discovered city of Norumbega. This illusory town of the early voyagers, half-mythical, half-au- thentic, has recently given rise to considerable specula- tion. The discoveries made have not been accepted as establishing an ante-colonial settlement, but at least have given a touch of romance to the beautiful and historical Charles River, and the localities along its banks, where enterprising traders from other lands may have given the primitive wilderness a dis- play of thrift and busy civilization. The imagination may fondly picture the waters of the river along the borders of Waltham and Watertown freighted with strange and picturesque craft, bearing to unknown countries the products of the forests, the results of the long and patient toil of the trapper and of the barter with the aborigines. Here, by the researches of the eminent man who has zealously followed his investi- gations, are the evidences of a busy, intelligent popu- lation who have left their record in various places within the ancient borders of Watertown. But the early colonists make no note of their observations of any evidences of previous occupation by civilized

men, and it is only after the lapse of two centuries and a half that additional renown and pre-historic information have been given to the region.

In the cursory review of the history of Watertown in its general relation with that of Waltham, and so far as it has special reference to the latter, we find much of sterling and absorbing interest that cannot be omitted and yet must be touched upon but lightly. The first authoritative record of discovery or of a visit by European settlers was May 30, 1630, when a party of ten from Dorchester went up Charles River in a boat and landed at a spot supposed to be where the United States Arsenal now stands. They were hos- pitably received by the Indians, who were quite numerous in the vicinity, and were supposed to have planted some crops, but they made no permanent settlement. Later, in June of the same year, Sir Richard Saltonstall moved from Charlestown up the Charles River, and established a settlement, to which the name of Watertown was given. Rev. Mr. Phil- lips accompanied him as the pastor of the church, and thus on its religious and municipal basis the nucleus of the original town and prosperous offspring was se- curely and permanently located. The new settlers were of the best class of immigrants, hardy, indus- trious, familiar with husbandry or some trade, and imbned with those staying qualities necessary to suc- cessful colonization. Many of them were from the west of England, but the greater number doubtless came from London and vicinity. They were Puritan non-conformists who came to worship God in their own way and to bear heroically the consequences of their acts. Physically and morally they were well equipped to wrestle with the wilderness and to lay the foundations of a State where the nobility of man should be above that of rank.

On July 30, 1630, the church estate was formally established as the first work for permanent organiza- tion, the covenant was subscribed by about forty men and civil and ecclesiastical government authorita- tively commenced. At the Court of Assistants, Sep- tember 7th, it was ordered that the town be called Watertown.

The character and qualities of the early settlers are conspicuous for an occurrence which had an im- portant bearing upon the future policy of the Colony, and reflects honor upon those who manifested the spirit of the occasion. It was the resistance to tax- ation without representation. When the Court of Assistants, in 1632, ordered Watertown to pay its pro- portion of a levy towards making a palisade about Newton, the assembly of the people voted "that it was not safe to pay moneys after that sort," as they were not represented in the Court of Assistants. The agitation of this subject gave origin to the committee of two from each town and to the representative body composed of these committees to manage the affairs of the Colony and to become what is now known as the House of Representatives. Thus to the people of

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Watertown is due the historic credit of originating this popular representative body, and of establishing its power over taxation. With a prophetic instinct its primitive law-makers composed of the freemen in their collective wisdom seemed to have foreshadowed the contest that was to occur between their descend- ants and the mother country nearly a century and a half later on the same great principle of taxation without representation.

The first recorded adventure and exploration of the part of the country now comprised within the limits of Waltham was on the 27th of January, 1632, when Governor Winthrop and "some company with him went up by Charles River about eight miles above Watertown." This journey was doubtless on foot and for the purpose of laying out a public road. The account of this visit is a valuable contribution to local history and description, and the names applied by the explorers to the prominent features of the landscape åre retained to the present day. Winthrop's journal says they "named the first brook, on the north side of the river (being a fair stream and com- ing from a pond a mile from the river), Beaver Brook, because the beavers had shorn down divers great trees there, and made divers dams across the brook. Thence they went to a great rock, upon which stood a high stone, cleft in sunder, that four men might go through, which they called Adam's Chair, because the youngest of their company was Adam Winthrop. Thence they came to another brook, greater than the former, which they called Masters' Brook, because the eldest of their company was one John Masters. Thence they came to another high pointed rock, having a fair aspect on the west side, which they called by the name of Mount Feake, from one Robert Feake, who had married the Governor's daughter-in-law. On the west side of Mount Feake they went up a very high rock, from whence they might see all over Neipnett, and a very high hill due west, about forty miles off, and to the N. W. the high hills by Merrimack, above sixty miles off." Beaver Brook is still quite a large stream, emptying into Charles River on the north, and forming the natural eastern border to what has been known as Waltham Plain. The pond described was what is now a meadow between Lexington Street and the Lyman estate. This pond was on the western branch of the brook, a half-mile or more above the confluence with the eastern branch. It would seem from Winthrop's own record that he regarded the western branch as the main stream and so applied the name. The pond, or its present site, is the only one that can be identified with his record. But within the past generation a heated and quite amusing contro- versy has arisen over the appellation of this and the eastern branch. It is claimed that the latter is the only original and duly accepted Beaver Brook of history and tradition, and that the western branch is Chester Brook. To the eastern branch has been

given the appropriate and euphonious name of Clem- atis Brook. This application was considered almost a sacrilegious innovation upon the sanctity of old names, but it remains in popular use. The wordy contest over the subject was conducted zealously in the local paper of the day, almost to the personal estrangement of the principal advocates of the re- spective names, but still the brooks run on as men may come and go and dispute over what was the proper name to be applied to carry out the original designation of the Puritan Governor.

The next local object, Masters Brook, emptying into the river on the north, forming the western boundary of the plain, retains its designation, while Mount Feake is the site of the cemetery of the same name. The high rock may be what is called Boston Rock Hill, near where the reservoir of the water- works is located ; while Adam's Chair is supposed to have been destroyed by the Fitchburg Railroad. But historical lore is doubtless at fault or Winthrop's journal was inaccurate. He speaks of Masters Brook as larger than Beaver Brook. This could never have been. That description fully meets the case of Stony Brook, a mile up the river, and flowing into it like- wise on the north. This journey and the facts ad- duced therefrom have been amply treated by local historians, but with evident inability to reconcile the account with objects visited. The conflict of names and descriptions doubtless arose from Winthrop's in- advertence in writing his journal or to the coufusion of localities iu making up his record after his return from his tour of exploration.

The Indian name of Charles River in Waltham was Quinobin, and the designation has been preserved in the name of some local organizations.

The query has often arisen as to what was the face of the country in the early settlements. Was it con- tinuous and uninterrupted forest and wilderness ? Were the settlers obliged to make a clearing in the primitive forest for every tract of land to be cultivated, for every house to be erected ?

Reference is seldom made to the fact by historians, either because it has not been deemed of sufficient ini- portance, or because the settlers made little record on the subject. But " Wood's Prospect," that quaint and highly-instructive volume of experience in New Eng- land in 1633, states that the country was not all for- ests. There was much clear land, not only naturally, but from the work of Indians, who had made and pre- served such tracts for their planting.

The first grant of land within the limits of Waltham was that of five hundred acres to John Oldham. This grant was in the southwestern part of the town, and included Mount Feake and in the vicinity of Roberts Station. No reason is assigned for this especial favor to one individual. Oldham was a prominent man of those days, and had figured quite conspicuously in the Plymouth Colony and among the wayward and con- vivial settlers at Merry Mount, and established a

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reputation not quite consistent with Puritan simplicity and rectitude. He had led an eventful life, and his leading qualities were quickly recognized by the community with which fortune or his own inclinations united him. He was one of those men who naturally and by force of circumstances come to the front when occasion requires a leading mind. When the General Court was established he was chosen one of the first representatives from Watertown, and in the original town he continued to reside, never occupying the grant allowed him. He met his death tragically by Indians when trading off Block Island. His death was followed by even more tragic and war-like results, for it gave origin to the famous Pequot War. Thus the first and largest grantee of Waltham, the enter- prising trader, the energetic magistrate, unconsciously brought about the first serious and disastrous Indian war in New England.

As the necessities for land increased with a growing population, more territory was divided into large areas, to which local designations were given. These divisions relate almost exclusively to the territory of Waltham. The earliest general grant after the original small lots was that of the Great Dividends, made in July, 1636. The land was divided into four divisions, each one hundred and sixty rods in width, running parallel along the northern limits of the town. These divisions were sometimes called squad- rons, and the lines dividing them the squadron lines. It is conjectured that they commenced near the pres- ent boundary lines between Watertown and Waltham, and ran in a northwesterly direction. The next general grant of land was the Beaver Brook Plow Lands, extending from the Driftway (now Gore Street), near the eastern line of Waltham, south of the great dividends to the Oldham grant in the west. The part of this grant situated east of Beaver Brook was called the " Hither" or "Little Plain," while the section west of Beaver Brook was known as the Farther or Great Plain. These designations are now all obsolete, save that, perhaps, of the Great, or Walt- ham plain, on which the city is now principally located.

In addition, in 1638, was the' Lieu of Township lots apportioned to those freemen who had no lots at the township. They were situated west of the Plain south of the great dividends and extended westward beyond Stony Brook. This completed the general di- vision or allotment of lands in Waltham.

The course of settlement was not towards the level lands of the plains, but for some reason it followed only the hills skirting the northern part of the town. As the population was quite exclusively of farmers it doubtless chose the stronger and more fertile land of the hills rather than the sandy soil of the plain. Be- sides that, it was moving in the direction of the gen- eral trend of migration from the original settlement at Mount Auburn. In this section of the town for nearly two centuries was located the numerical and

intellectual strength of the town. The region is now devoted to farming and still retains the local appel- lations of Pond End and Trapelo, applied to different sections. The former derives its name from the large pond in the northwest of Waltham, called at different times Mead's, Sherman's or Hardy's as the chance of the possessor of adjacent lands or the caprices of the day may determine. Trapelo traces its name from no reliable origin, though it is supposed or imagined that the word may be a corruption of the words " trap be- low," used to localize a place of trapping. It is to be regretted that this historical and expressive name is not officially recognized in any local designation. The well-known Trapelo road, still an important thorough- fare, named often in ancient records and famous in tradition, is modernized into North Street. But in popular parlance the name is still applied to the dis- trict.

Another locality in that part of the town still re- tains its ancient cognomen of "Piety Corner," a name derived from the fact that some of the deacons and leading men of the church formerly resided in that vicinity.

Sudbury road, now Main Street, early laid out as a principal thoroughfare to the western settlements, ex- tended through the comparatively uninhabited plain, important only as a means of communication to dis- tant regions. The fact that the territory was unsettled doubtless accounts for its generous width and straight direction, as otherwiseit might have followed a course to lead past the scattered farm-houses situated at the caprice and convenience of their owners.

The first bridge over Beaver Brook was built in 1673, and the records state that a gallon of " liccur" was provided on the occasion, doubtless as a neces- sary element in its construction.

The growth of Waltham as an outlying part of Watertown was slow and without annals of note. Its areas were used mainly as pasturage grounds, into which it was divided by local and natural bounds. Large ranges were established extending from Beaver Brook to Stony Brook, and doubtless for a half-cen- tury that land was held in common, unfenced, though allotted in small sections to different owners. The principal hills received early in the settlement the names they now bear, and Mackerel Hill, Prospect (at first, for some reason never explained, called Knop's Garden), Bear Hill, are recorded as landmarks to bound and designate tracts of land and the progress of set- tlement.

With the increase of population dissensions natur- ally arose in regard to church and educational affairs. The people thought it a hardship to go to the east end of Watertown to church. The school also was situated at the same place. These two pillars upon which New England progress and advancement rested were desired for local convenience. Military neces- sity also prompted a more convenient policy of as- sembling the able-bodied men. In 1691 the town

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was divided into three precints, Eastern, Middle and Western, practically now the municipalities of Water- town, Waltham and Weston respectively. Lieut. Garfield's company was the train-band of the Middle Precinct, and thus on a semi-military basis Waltham commenced its territorial identity.

In 1692 a town-meeting was held to decide upon the location of a new meeting-house nearer the cen- tre of population, but the irreconcilable division of sentiment prevented any agreement. An appeal was made to Governor Phipps and Council to settle the dispute through a committee. The committee made a recommendation that a new meeting-house be erec- ted at Commodore's Corner, in the westerly part of the present limits of Watertown, and about one-half mile east of the Waltham line. This meeting-house was to take the place of the original church and be the " place of meeting to worship God, for the whole town." After much controversy and under protest of many of the freeholders, the request of the committee was accepted and the meeting-house built in 1696. Rev. Henry Gibbs, the pastor of the old church, re- fused to accept the charge of the new church. With the disappointed portion of the residents, he remained with the old church, and Rev. Samuel Angier was chosen as pastor of the new church. The town sup- ported from its treasury both churches, and constant difficulties arose from the expense of repairing the houses, and otherwise maintaining two antagonistic societies. Mr. Angier's church subsequently became the First Church of Waltham, and its establishment foreshadowed the inevitable division of the town. The dissensions were maintained in an embittered struggle of several years, and all efforts for adjust- ment only confirmed the contending parties in adhe- sion to their course. The General Court was brought into the controversy, and in 1712 ordered that the church be moved at the expense of both precincts to such a spot in the Middle Precinct as the latter should select. This order was treated with contempt- nous disobedience, and affairs continued to work out their solution by the ordinary development of local interests and prejudices.

In 1713 Weston was set off and incorporated as a town, and the territorial division of Waltham, com- prising the Middle Precinct, became thenceforth known as the Western Precinct. The reduction of the area and population of the town, by giving munici- pal independence to the part which had been most strenuous in its demands and complaints, in regard to facilities for attending church, proved to be no sol- ution of the difficulties between the remaining sect- ions. Permanent reconciliation seemed as far off as ever, and the two churches divided the counsels of the town on all matters pertaining to local govern- ment in religious, political and educational matters. Efforts were made for the location of a church cdifice in the Western Precinct, and in 1715 the town voted " to build a meeting-house for the accommodation of

the inhabitants of the most westerly part of the town," but naught came of the decision. Before this, in 1703, a grave-yard at present called Grove Hill Cemetery, in Waltham, had been laid out in the westerly precinct. This sacred abode of the dead, around which in our New England towns the affec- tions of the people are centred, added an increased local attachment to the precinct, apart from the pa- rent town. The spiritual consolation of the church within their limits seemed as essential to the inhabit- ants as the holy and mournful associations of the

last resting-place, to which, from the administrations of the pastor and the simple and pathetic solemnity of the funeral, the dead were borne. At the death of Mr. Angier in 1719, and his interment in this grave- yard, the determination for a meeting-house in the precinct gathered new force. The town relented in its opposition, and in April, 1721, approved the rec- ommeudations of a committee, that "the west meet- ing-house be removed within two years to a spot about twenty rods west of Nathaniel Livermore's house."

In 1720 the line separating the Eastern and West- ern Precincts was determined and laid out conform- ing to the present boundary line, and the Western Precinct began to exercise the powers approaching those of separate municipal government

Precinct-meetings were held, records kept, local committees for public affairs chosen, and the farmers began to realize the privileges of a primitive kind of popular sovereignty in their governmental affairs.

As the church was not considered worth moving, an edifice of the kind was purchased in Newton and removed and set up on the new location. This loca- tion was at the junction of the present Lyman and Beaver Streets, in the triangular lot west of the beau- tiful mansion and grounds of the Lyman estate. The site is at some distance from the circle of the settled limits of the town, in the midst of sylvan beauty of the most grand and picturesque character on one hand and on the other the expanse of highly culti- vated fields and lawns. The repose of its early life is scarcely changed by the progress and activity of a busy town whose growth has proceeded in an opposite direction. llere for upwards of a century it stood in its solitary simplicity, the spiritual home of the com- munity, the monitor of events most marked and im- portant in local history. From its pulpit came the inspired teachings of the successors of the beloved Angier, many of them men of eminent ability and honored reputation, whose names have a veneration belonging to a life passed in sincere service for the welfare of their followers, leaving its impression of good done for no love of favor or earthly reward. Rev. Wareham Williams was chosen pastor in 1723, and was the first settled minister of Waltham, serving in the pastorate until his death, in 1751.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 165

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