History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 166

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 166

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With the settlement of the ecclesiastical question another remained of almost equal magnitude to dis-

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turb the harmony of the two precincts. This was the educational question in the establishment of a local school. It is to the credit of our ancestors that they considered the school interests of so vital importance as to justify the division of the town and public re- sentment over the manner in which their requests for years for the creation of schools had been ignored. The regular article in the town warrant for the grant- ing of "money for the encouragement of learning in the West Precinct" would come up only to be mea- gerly acted upon. Finally two of the assessors, Wil- liam Brown and Nathaniel Harris, refused to levy the usual school tax upon the inhabitants of the West Precinct. This was another instance of the spirit of resistance to taxation without representation, which from the first animated the people and cast its beacon light for the future. Upon a petition to the General Court that body ordered " that the town have two school-houses and two masters, of which each precinct to have one."

At a precinct-meeting in 1729, Allen Flagg offered a part of his orchard as a site for a school-house. After some opposition on the part of the town the order was passed to fix upon a piece of ground be- tween old Deacon Sanderson's and Mr. Allen Flagg's, near Harris' Corner, to be the place to build a school- house on for the West Precinct. This place is what has since been known as "Piety Corner."

The final cause of controversy and ultimate division was the refusal of the town to grant the precinct the care and extension of highways required by itsgrowth and increase of population. Both precincts had by this time come to the wise conclusion that a house divided against itself cannot stand, and the East Pre- cinct reconciled itself to the fact that a permanent separation was better than an inharmonious union. For some years the Western Precinct had repeatedly petitioned for a separation and for their incorporation into a town, but the Eastern Precinct had strenuously and successfully opposed the action. Now it gener- ously consented to a division and took formal action to that end.

A petition was presented to the House of Repre- sentatives on December 14, 1737, by William Brown, Daniel Benjamin and Samuel Livermore in behalf of the inhabitants of the West Precinct of Watertown, " praying the said precinct may be created into a separate and distinct township, which is also agree- able to the East Precinct in said Town, as appears by their note accompanying the petition." A bill to that effect was passed and was signed by His Excel- lency, Governor Belcher, January 4, 1737-38, and the name of Waltham given to the new town.

The name given in the act is the first intimation of what it was proposed to call the town. It is not known by whom or why it was suggested. But it is supposed to have been given because some of the res- idents came from one of the towns of that name in England. Waltham Abbey, a town near London, is 45-iii

generally accepted as the place from which the name was derived. The name is beautiful and appropriate in its signification, being a compound of two Anglo- Saxon words meaning a forest home. The wild and extensive forests still extant in Waltham and those which are preserved and cared for on some well-known estates, with the shaded roads winding amidst their borders of native trees, give even at this day a pleas- ing suggestion of the appropriateness of the name.

At the time of the act of incorporation it was or- dered that William Brown be informed to assemble the legal voters to elect the town clerk and other of- ficers, to stand until the anniversary meeting in March. At a meeting held January 18th, pursuiant to the notification given by Deacon Brown, the following officers were chosen :

Moderator : Deacon Thomas Livermore.

Selectmen : Deacon William Brown, Deacon Thomas Livermore, Mr. Daniel Benjamin, Mr. Joseph Pierce, Lientenant Thomas Biglow.

Town Clerk and Treasurer : Samuel Livermore.

Constable : Mr. Joseph Hastings.

Assessors : George Lawrence, John Cutting, John Chadwick.

Sealer of Leather : Mr. Joseph Stratton.

Fence Viewers : John Ball, Jr., Joseph Hagar.

Surveyors of Highways: John Ball ye 3d, John Viels.

Tytheing-Men : Isaac Peirce, Theophilns Mansfield. Hogreves : Josiah Harrington, Elnathan Whitney.

Thus the new town was fully inaugurated in its municipal character and started on its career to work out its destiny.

The number of inhabitants at that time was proba- bly about five hundred and fifty. The boundaries of the town were the same as those of the precinct, and the area comprised about eight thousand eight hun- dred and ninety-one acres. Since the incorporation but two changes of any moment have been made in the boundaries and area. In 1849 it received an ac- cession of territory from Newton, on the south side of Charles River, and in 1859 it lost a part of its terri- tory in the northeast part of the town to form a part of the new town of Belmont.

The situation of Waltham is most eligible and its natural scenery is varied and beautiful. It combines the rugged and picturesque outlines of eminences which skirt the northern and western limits of the city, wild forest growth, the cultivated areas of thrifty farms and estates under a high state of tillage, walks and drives amid sylvan beanty, stretches of water in ponds and brooks and rivers to diversify the scene and give to the landscapes the effect so pleasing to mind and eye, and withal the busy and thrifty ap- pearance of a typical American manufacturing town where a great proportion of the laborers and artisans live in houses of which they hold the title. The thickly-settled part of the city is on an undulating

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plain, while the surrounding hills form with it a kind of natural amphitheatre. This is intersected by Charles River, giving rise to the designations of "North Side" and "South Side" respectively of those parts of the city. The river is spanned by numerous bridges of substantial structure, which af- ford ample communication to bind the people together in the bonds of common local interest. Charles River, besides being the primal element of Waltham's prosperity in the facilities it furnishes for manufac- turing purposes, is one of the chief elements of the natural attractiveness. Its course above the factories, where its waters are devoted to the utility of man, is one of great beauty and charming effect. Winding amid picturesque banks densely wooded, with the foliage extending to the water's edge, broadening into a miniature lake with a beautiful island in its midst like a gem upon its bosom, furnishing in the intrica- cies of its shores the delightful vistas where the eye loves to lose itself, occasionally varying its natural features with the outlines of some residence, it sug- gests, with its irregular expanse and wild romantic banks for many miles of its course, a theme worthy of the artist's pencil or poet's imagination.

On the other hand, Prospect Hill, one of the high- est eminences in the vicinity, rising four hundred and eighty-two feet above the sea-level, an elevation per_ haps insignificant in its comparative height, affords a remarkable view, combining in its range of vision every variety of landscape and giving at a glance so much that may be said to be representative of New England in its traditions and history, its learning and culture, its arts and manufactures, its commerce and agriculture. In this connection no more faithful sketch of the scenery here unfolded can be given than that presented by the most prominent and distin -. guished son of Waltham in a local address :

"From the crest of the lesser Prospect Hill is presented a panorama o beauty, embracing an entire sweep of the horizon, except when broken by the summit of the adjoining eminence. The unaided vision follows the vessele of our own or of distant lands, entering and departing the harbor of Boston. On the west, the many mountain ranges of New England rise up before ns, movotain on mountain, until summit and cloud are quited. You can here watch the heavy, varying shadows of Wachuset and Monadnock, and follow range upon range, until the monotains disappear in the cloud-caps of the azure sky. Oo the south, in the river valley, clusters the line of picturesque and prosperons New England villages that fill the platean of the river to the sea. In what part of the world can we find a cluster of thrifty towns and cities that, in beauty or prosperity, equal thoso that lie at the foot of the Tri-mono- tain city ?- river, lako, and ocean, bill aud vale, copre, dell and forest, plain cottage and the stately mansion, diversifying the prospect. Every line of railway that creeps out upon the plain is marked upon this bnay and beautiful map of New England life by an unbroken succession of tho habitations of men and the houses of God. Nature and art thus combined, the evidences of happiness aod prosperity multiplying ou overy side, present a scene that surfeits every sense with pleasant emo- tions."

The soil of Waltham and the natural features otherwise are well adapted to agriculture and the purposes of more thickly populated residence. The soil in the northern part, which, as has heretofore been stated, was the locality first settled, is strong

and fertile; that of the plain on the north side of the river is a lighter, sandy loam, with a substratum of sand, while that of the south side is of the same general character, but with a substratum of almost impervious clay. There are no sterile tracts or irre- claimable swamps of any great extent to impede the successful progress of the husbandman or present obstacles to the resident. The rocky summits and sides of the hills are covered with a thrifty growth of forest when allowed to grow without the impediment of axe or forest fires. Oak, in its several varieties, white pine, elm, the common maple, birch and hem- lock are the principal indigenous trees, while nearly all kinds of this latitude are found scattered through its forests.

Such are some of the natural features of Waltham at its incorporation, which exist to a greater or less extent to-day, and are appropriately connected with its history. Their utility has entered into its develop- ment. The physical characteristics of a place have their political significance in the broad sense of the term.

It may be interesting also, both for casual and his- torical purposes, to note the general appearance, char- acteristics and environment of the town in other than its natural aspects at the time of its incorporation, when it entered upon its history as a separate muni- cipality, and took the cares and responsibilities of an individual township. Waltham was then little more than a community living in scattered farm-houses, with no well-defined village or centre of population. Between Beaver Brook and Pleasant Street was an inn and a few houses, presenting the nearest sem- blance to a village. The single church was quite isolated, standing at some distance from this locality. The territory to the west, where is now located the busy and thickly populated limits of the city, then extended as vacant land, devoted to pasturage, a little agriculture and forest growth. Waltham Plain, a familiar appellation in all the surrounding country, was only a broad tract of unoccupied land, intersected by a wide and straight country road-the Sudbury Road, then a great thoroughfare of traffic and communication, and one of the main arteries of travel in the Colony from Boston to the interior and western towns.

Consequently, the number of taverns for the enter- tainment of man and beast was out of proportion to the population. There were two or three in the east- ern section of the town and as many in the western section. In this connection it is said that towards the close of the century the Sudhury Road was the greatest highway leading from Boston, and the travel of stages to New York and the interior of heavy teams and lighter vehicles of use and pleasure was important and incessant. There were at one time nine inns within the limits of the town. As in those days, next to the meeting-house on Sunday, the inn was the centre of news and local gossip, as well

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as a place of hilarity and hospitality, the imagination may picture along the old road many characteristic scenes of life and excitement incidental to the olden time and to the traditions of the country inn as cel- ebrated in prose and poetry.

There were few other streets in the town. Beaver Street, as at present named, and the Trapelo Road, were the principal thoroughfares leading in the direc- tion of Boston. Traverse roads, like Skunk or Mixer's Lane, sometimes recorded as the way to the school-house, now called Bacon Street, leading to Piety Corner ; Prospect Lane, running over the hill as at present ; South Street, extending to the Poor Farm, a lane where now is Harvard Street, running to the fields adjacent to Mt. Feake; Grove Street, known as the back road to Watertown ; a road leading from Piety Corner to the hills towards Lincoln, Pig- eon Lane, running northward to Trapelo, were about all the highways which broke the solitude of the lit- tle town and opened the intervening land to cultiva- tion and settlement.

In the northern part lay the social, political and financial strength of the town. The farmers of Trapelo, Pond End and Piety Corner came over to the town-meetings in the church and managed public affairs both by intellectual and numerical force. At this period they furnished the most prominent town officers and representatives and administered the gov- ernment with firmness and good judgment. The abilities of the early residents are displayed by their acts and results ; and the names of Wellington, Bright, Smith, Livermore, Lawrence, Stearns, Niles, Clark, Childs, Sanderson, Fiske are represented among the citizens of the present day.

At this period the Province was in a quiet state in its political affairs and in its relations with the mother country. The contest between the New England Colonies and the French, which was to test so severely the spirit and valor of the people in the successful attack upon Louisbourg, had not commenced, but the cloud was rising upon the horizon. The Provinces still regarded England as their old home. No sub- jects were more loyal. There was no thought of aught but devotion to the mother country. Jonathan Belcher was Governor. He was appointed by the Crown, and although he was born in the Colonies, was an ardent advocate of the royal prerogative. George the Second was King and Walpole was at the head of the ministry, hastening to his fall, which was to close a remarkable career in office. While the Provincials felt a deep interest in everything pertain- ing to the welfare of the kingdom, they were jealous of any infringement of their rights of local government, and already controversies were arising between the Governor and the General Court on questions of local issue, which were eventually to be settled only by war and final separation. Already had Montesquieu, with his far-reaching prescience in political affairs and keen penetration of coming events, noted the

fact that in the forests of America was arising a peo- ple who would ultimately become a nation and shake off the trammels which bound them to another govern- ment.

Religiou had lost much of its austerity and intol- erant character among the people through the lapse of time and change of mind and character since the early settlement. But still the church ruled in secu- lar as well as in spiritual affairs. Its potent influence was felt in all the walks of life. It was the nucleus of the body politic as well as the soul of the spiritual body. On every Sabbath-day the greater part of the population congregated at the meeting-house. The men, and women, and boys sat apart, the latter often on the pulpit or gallery-stairs. The deacons sat in front facing the congregation, while the sexton turned the hour-glass as the hours were exhausted in the discus- sion of the heads of the long sermon.

The choir, made up of the graduates of the winter singing-school, rendered the plaintive and vigorous hymns of the ancient psalmody with native harmony and sonorous effect. The gathering of the people at church, especially those who came from a distance, and brought their dinners, gave to the community an opportunity for neighborhood greetings and for the in- terchange of the current news of the day and the gos- sip which gave a savor to the uneventful routine of life. The sacred and secular associations which clus- ter around the meeting-houses of that day are an effective part of the unwritten yet not less important and interesting history of the land.

It was about this period that the great awakening in religious matters took place in the Colonies. Ed- wards, the great philosopher and theologian, repre- sented the Calvinistic doctrines and expounded them with a vigor and effect, earnestness and erudition bitherto unknown in the country. Whitefield, re- cently arrived from England, was making a tour of the Colonies and quickening religious zeal by his fer- vid eloquence, his charm of manner, sincerity of views and marvelous versatility as a pulpit orator. A lively interest was created throughout the Colonies by the controversies over opposing principles of faith, and acrimonious and sometimes bitter discussions arose through a more liberal interpretation of the Scriptures and progressive independence among the people on sectarian matters.

Newspapers were hardly known in the country towns, and not of general circulation. There were but a very few throughout the broad extent of the Colonies, and those gave but the most meagre synop- sis of what may be called the news of the day.

In general literature we find our times in the days of Pope, Swift and Fielding in England, and of Franklin and Edwards in our own land, who may be consid- ered the pioneers in American literature. There was little variety to select from throughout the households, and that pertained mainly to a religious character. In private libraries, as shown in the enumeration of

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books bequeathed or administered upon, it is curious to note the religious commentaries and works upon di- vinity, without one ray of the light of poetry, or fiction, or descriptive writing, though such works were then extant, and to-day are regarded as of standard char- acter. The constant reading and re-reading of these works gave a fund of limited knowledge on those sub- jects, but above all ineuleated a purity of style and diction and a vocabulary of excellent English which- marked the writings and utterances even of those whose ways of life led them from the domain of let- ters. Subsequently when our towns sent forth their little manifestoes against the tyranny of the British Crown, and the farmers gave expressions to their sentiments in words full of meaning, their written protests called forth admiration in British Parliament for their incisive English, purity of style and ele- vation of thought and expression.

In financial matters an irregular and debased paper currency was afflicting the people and causing em- barrassments and losses in trade. There were differ- ent issues of paper, and the early and latest were ealled respectively old and new tenor and passed in a ratio of three or four to one. In nearly all trans- actions and payments recorded at this time, the stip- ulation is made that the terms shall be of old or new tenor.

Slavery existed to a limited extent, and we may occasionally note the sale of a servant or quaint observation upon the disposition of such a chattel in a will.

Local amusements were few and simple. They were confined mainly to the neighborhood gathering or perhaps a dance at the tavern. Stern realities took the place of the social amenities of life and taught the dependence of all upon the pursuit of a livelihood amid the severe scenes of nature and the primitive hardships and inconveniences of a country still new and unredeemed from the wilderness.

But in Boston the colonial life shone resplendent, and the town, with its closer connection with Eng- land and its centres of wealth and trade, reflected in ambitious imitation the customs prevailing in the old countries. And I cannot close this sketch of the times at the period when Waltham was enrolled among the towns of the Bay Colony better than by introducing, from the interesting book of W. R. Bliss on " Colonial Times," a vivid picture of Boston as it appeared to the denizen from the outlying country in this very year, 1738: "From the elevated site of St. George's Tavern on Roxbury Neck the traveler saw the stecples of Boston, its harbor lively with vessels, the King's ships riding before the town. As he rode along the narrow way leading into the quiet town the most prominent object attracting his attention was a gallows standing at the gate. When he rode within he found in everything around him a wonderful eon- trast to the quiet and monotonous views which had always surrounded his life at his country home. The

streets were paved with cobble-stone and were thronged with hackney coaches, sedan chairs, four- horse shays, and calashes in some of which gayly- dressed people were riding, the horse being driven by their negro slaves. Gentlemen on handsome saddle- horses paced by him. He noticed with amazement the stately brick houses and their pleasant gardens in which pear-trees and peach-trees were blooming. In the Mall gentlemen dressed in embroidered coats, satin waistcoats, silken hose and full wigs were tak- ing an after-dinner stroll with ladies who were attired with bright silks and furbelowed scarfs, and adorned with artificial flowers and patches on their cheeks. Boston was an active, thrifty, trading town; its shops, distilleries, wind-mills and rope-walks were all agoing, and as he turned into King St. and pulled up to the Bunch of Grapes tavern, he was near the Town House and conveniently situated for all purposes of business or pleasure."

Such is an imperfect view of the aspect of the country and of affairs at the time Waltham entered the sisterhood of towns of the Massachusetts Colony. And as every town, as an integral part of the Colony, had its direct influence in the policy that was to de- cide the destiny of the country, we can trace the humble yet important sphere of such a community, the relations which it bore in the pending era of his- tory. It was the character and sentiment of the towns banded together by a common feeling and in- dependently asserting their rights and publishing to the world their principles of government which pre- pared the whole people for concerted action, as though by common impulse, and precipitated the Revolution that was to startle the world and work changes in governments and peoples far heyond the limits of the American Continent.

In the first annual election after the incorporation, in March, 1738, an entire change was made ju all the officers from the highest to the lowest, with the excep- tion of the clerk. Thomas Hammond, John Bemis, John Smith, Ensign Thomas Harrington and Deacon Jonathan Sanderson were chosen selectmen. Samuel Livermore was chosen clerk and treasurer, an office he was to continue to hold for many years in suc- cession. Lt. Thomas Biglow was chosen Represen- tative. A pound was built, as we are informed by the appropriations, and the "town Stockes were fitted up." Thus we are impressed with the facts that un- ruly cattle and men were to be cared for and re- strained in the very inception of government. Action was also taken in July of the same year towards the permanent establishment of a school, and a commit- tee was appointed "to treat with Mr. Thomas Har- rington and agree with him if they can to keep the school for one-quarter of a year as cheap as they ean." The agreement was made, and annually there- after for some years £80 were appropriated for the ensuing year. Subsequently, the same year the school was made a moving school. For this purpose, the

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territory was divided into three squadrons or districts, and the school was to be kept a proportionate part of the year in each squadron. Each squadron was to furnish a place for the school and board for the teacher. The First Squadron included that portion of the town east of the church and north of Beaver Street ; the Second that west of the church and north of Beaver Street; and the Third all south of Beaver Street, including the plains from the Watertown line to Stony Brook. This division gives an adequate idea of the sparse population within the limits of the present thickly populated portion of the city, and of the disproportionate number of inhabitants in the farming area of the north and east. The regular school-house remained at "Piety Corner " where it was first located.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 166

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