History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 204

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 204

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TION. OBADIAH W. ALBEE.

Hon. Obadiah W. Albee was the son of Moses Albee, and was born in Milford, Massachusetts, March 24, 1808. His father was a farmer of limited means ; he had an excellent reputation and was an honest man. Obadiah W. attended the district school and made good progress, and at eighteen years of age en. tered Milford Academy, and there fitted for college. He entered Brown University in 1828 and graduated in 1832. In college he was a member of the United Brothers Society, and in 1846 was chosen a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He worked his way through college, having only twenty-five dol- lars to start with. His graduation theme was the "Prospects of Liberty in Europe." He came to Marlborough in the spring of 1833. In polities he acted with the Whigs (thinking them the most anti- slavery) till the Mexican War convinced him of their pro-slavery proclivities. lle then acted partially with the old Liberty party, but used his best efforts, both by pen and speech, to form the Free Soil party which should unite the old Liberty men and the con- scientious Whigs. In the session of 1849 he repre- sented the town of Marlborough in the Legislature. Early in 1850 he sailed for California, going by the

way of Cape Ilorn, returning by the Isthmus in October, 1850. On arriving home he was returned to the ITouse of Representatives, where he served through the memorable session in which Charles Sumner was first elected to the United States Senate. Mr. Albee was elected to the Massachusetts Senate for 1855 and 1857 as a Republican. In 1849 he was a . member of the committe on elections. In 1855 he was the chairman of the committee on federal rela- tions and public lands, also one of the library com- mittee. His most extended legislative efforts, in speech-making, were the following: In 1849, on the anti-slavery resolutions ; in which debate Mr. Upham, the presiding officer of the Senate, borca distinguished part. In 1851, on the proposition for a liquor law ; and in 1855, on the Loring address and personal lib- erty bill. Mr. Albee married Miss Margaret Chip- man, and they had six children. Ile died in July, 1866.

DAVID GOODALL.

David Goodall was born April 1, 1791, married Millicent, daughter of Thaddeus and Incy Warren. He was engaged in early life as a school teacher. Ile was a man of decided talents, entergetic in character and prominent in both church and town affairs. Ile held the office of Deacon and filled from time to time the principal offices in the town. He was a repre- sentative to the General Court and a justice of the peace. He died Oct. 17, 1858.

CHAPTER LXIV.

WILMINGTON.

RV WILLIAM T. DAVIS.

SOON after the settlement of Charlestown the people feeling the need of more agricultural land applied to the (leneral Court for the same and received a grant of territory four miles square which was called Charlestown village. On the 17th of September, 1612, it was ordered by the court that " Charlestown village he called Wooburne."

In September 1639 the inhabitants of Lynn peti- tioned the General Court " for a place for an inland plantation at the head of their bounds." In compli- ance with the petition a tract of land four miles square was granted with the condition " that the pe- titioners shall within two years make some good pro- ceedling in planting so as it may be a village fit to contain a convenient number ofinhabitants which may in due time have a church there." This tract of land was called " Linn village," and on the 29th of May. 1644, it was ordered by the court " that Linn village at the request of the inhabitants thereof shall be call- ed Redding."

860

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

The territory of the town of Wilmington is nearly all within the limits of the old Charlestown village, only a narrow strip being a part of the old Lynn vil- lage. In 1724, the people living in that partof the town of Woburn which was ealled Goshen, asked the town either to remove the meeting-house to a spot more convenient to them or to allow them to be set off as a new town. Their request having been refused they ap- plied to the General Court in 1729 for the establishment of a separate precinct and their application was re- jected. In 1730 another application was made to be incorporated as a distinct town, and a committee of the General Court was appointed to meet the agents of the town, and consider the matter. The result was that on the 25th of September 1730, the General Court passed the following act incorporating parts of the territories of Woburn and Reading into a town with the name of Wilmington.

" An act for erecting the north-easterly part part of Woburn and weet- erly part of Reading into a township by the name of Wilmington.

" Whereas the inhabitants of the north-easterly part of the town of Woburn, and the westerly part of the town of Reading, in the county of Middlesex are 80 situated as to be very remote from the place of the publick worship of God, in either of the said towns, many of them living near seven milee' distance therefrom, who also labour under other grent difficulties and inconveniences on several eccounte and have thereupon addressed thie Court that they may be set off and erected into a separate and distinct township,-

" Be it therefore enacted by His Excellency the Governour, Council and Representives in General Court assembled, and by the authority uf the same.

"Sect. 1. That all the lands lying and being within the north-easterly part of Woburn, and westerly part of Reading aforesaid be and hereby are, set off and constituted a separate and distinct township by the name of Wilmington, according to the metes and bounds following, viz .: be- ginning at the South-easterly part of the Land of Nod, so called, so to extend to Andover line ; thence to Billerica line, and so upon said line, including Abraham Jaques his farm, and so to run from thence on Bil- lerica line one hutured rode further ; and from thence to extend to the Stone bridge, called the Cold Spring Bridge, near the tree called the Figure of Four Tree ; theuce on a line to the South-easterly corner of John Townsend's land, lately and now in the possession of Timothy Townsend, about sixty-four rods easterly froor Woburn line, including said Townsend'e land ; thence on a straight line to the eoutli-east part of the land of Joel Jenkins ; and from thence to extend to the first-men- tioned bounds.

"And be it further enacted,

"Sect. 2. That the inhabitants of the said town of Wilmington shall be liable nevertheless, and subject to pay their just proportion of their past dnee to all province, county and town rates, for this present year, in the towns to which they respectively belonged, and shall be accordingly assessed in such town in the same manner as they would have been if this act had not been made.

"Sect. 3. And the inhabitants of the said town of Wilmington are hereby required, within the space of three years from the publication of this net, to precure and settle a learned orthodox minister of good conver- sation, and make provision for his comfortable and honourablo support ; and also with all convenient speed erect and finish a suitable and con- venient house for the publick worship of God in said town.

"Sect. 1. And the said town of Wihnington is hereby accordingly en- dowed and vested with all powers, privileges, immunities and advantages, which other towns in this province by law have and enjoy." (Passed and juiblished at Cambridge Sept. 25, 1730).

The territory included within the limits of the new town was small and its population was scattered. The lands were good for agricultural purposes and the people occupying them were almost exclusively farmers. Like other scattered settlements, that in the out-lying districts of Woburn had suffered from

Indian depredations, but at the time of the formation of the new town, comparative peace prevailed, only to be disturbed by the French and Indian Wars, which, a few years later, again threatened it.

In obedience to the requirements of the act of in- corporation, a meeting-house was erected in Wilming- ton in 1732, and a church with seventeen male mem- bers was organized October 24, 1733. Wilmington was one of the few towns incorporated at an early period, in which a separate precinct did not anticipate a new municipal organization. It would, however, have been no exception to the general rule had its repeated requests to the town of Woburn and to the General Court been listened to and granted. It was an out- lying village of its mother-town, as its mother-town had been an outlying village of Charlestown, and the General Court believed that any substantial argu- ments in favor of a new precinct were quite as strong in favor of the incorporation of a new town.

On the day of the formation of the church Rev. James Varney was ordained as its pastor. Mr. Var- ney was a native of Boston, where he was born August 8, 1706, and graduated at Harvard in 1725 in the class with Rev. 'Mather Byles and Rev. Benjamin Bradstreet. In the Harvard catalogue of the period when names were inserted in the order of their social family rank, the name of Mr. Varney is the thirty- third in a class of forty-five. Mr. Varney was dis- missed April 5, 1739, on account of ill health and was succeeded by Rev. Isaac Morrill, who was ordained May 20, 1741. Mr. Morrill graduated at Harvard in 1737 in the class with Peter Oliver, Rev. Peter Thacher, Rev. Andrew Eliot and Ebenezer Gay. In the social order Peter Oliver stood at the head of the class, with John Eliot second and Mr. Morrill the twenty-fourth in a list of thirty-four. Mr. Morrill continued in the pastorate until his death, which oc- curred August 17, 1793, at the age of seventy-six. During his pastorate he served as chaplain in the French Wars, in which also were a number of his parishioners as soldiers, of whom Capt. Ebenezer Jones and fourteen others are known to have been killed.

Mr. Morrill was succeeded by Rev. Freegrace Rey- nolds, who was ordained October 29, 1795, and re- mained until June 9, 1830. He afterwards preached in Leverett in Franklin County, Massachusetts, and other places, and finally returned to Wilmington, where he resided until his death, December 6, 1855, at the age of eighty-eight years. During his pastor- ate in 1813 a new meeting-house was erected, to take the place of the old one built in 1732.

Rev. Francis Norwood, who followed Mr. Rey- nolds, was installed May 18, 1831, and continued in the pastorate until October 25, 1842.

Rev. Barnabas M. Fay succeeded Mr. Norwood and was installed April 23, 1845. He remained until luły 30, 1850, and was followed by Rev. Joseph E. Swallow on the 26th of March, 1851. Mr. Swallow

861

WILMINGTON.

was dismissed January 1, 1856, and was succeeded by Rev. Samuel H. Tolman, who was ordained August 14, 1856, and was dismissed June 7, 1870. During the pastorate of Mr. Tolman, in February, 1864, the meeting-house of the society was burned and the present house of worship was erected.

Rev. Benjamin A. Robie was installed April 13, 1871, and dismissed April 9, 1874. Rev. S. S. Matlı- ews succeeded Mr. Robie October 23, 1874, and after his dismissal, which occurred October 29, 1875, Rev. Daniel P. Noyes was installed October 11, 1877. Mr. Noyes was succeeded by Rev. Elijah Harmon, the present pastor.

In 1882, a Methodist Society was organized, and a church erected near the centre of the town. The Rev. William Thurston is its present pastor.

A Catholic Church was built at the Centre in 1887, and is occupied by a society under the care of the Andover pastorate.

In 1840, a Free Will Baptist Society was organized, and in 1841, a meeting-house was erected. The soci- ety was, for a few years, under the care of Elder John M. Durgin, but was finally dissolved, and its meeting- house sold to the town for town purposes, to which it is still devoted.

The early occupation of farming has always been continued up to the present time; according to the census of 1885, its products annually were as follows :

Animal products consisting of call' skins, bides, honey, manure, pelts and wool, $4520.

Clothing including shirts and shoes, $613.

Dairy products including butter, cream and milk, $19,444.

Food products including canned fruit, catsup, dried fruit, ice, pickles and vinegar, 8828.

Tomato plants, $17.

Liquors and beverages Including cider and wine, $954.

Poultry products including eggs, feathers, mannre and poultry, $4629.

Wood products including ashes, fence rails, fuel, hop poles, lumber and posts, $6846.

Axe handles, $7.

Hops,seeds and soft soap, $78.

Cereals including buckwheat, corn and rye, $1509.

Frults including apples, barberries, blackberries, blueberries, butter- nuts, cherries, chestnuts, citron, crab-apples, cranberries, currants, gooseberries, grapes, huckleberries, mangoes, melons, pears, plus, quinces, raspberries, shellbarks, strawberries and thimbleberries, $8337. llay, >traw, fodder, stock beets and turnips, $16,411.

Ments and game including beef, pork, mutton and venl, $1160.

Vegetables ineinding asparagus, beans, beets, cabbages, carrots, cauli- flower, celery, green corn, cucumbers, dandelions, lettuce, onions, oyster- plant, parsnips, peas, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, radishes, rhubarb, squashes, tomatoes, turnips, etc., $7653.

The property of the town exclusive of money, stocks and bonds was according to the census as fol- lows :

Valno

Hay land, 106474 acres

$ 44,369

Crop land, 402 acres .

25,181

Orchard land, 623 5 acres

3755

Pastore land, 1347 acres .

29,238

Unimproved land, 173016 ncres 25,96%

100

Unimprovable land, 14 acres .

1955

Mines, etc., 523 g acres .

122,837

Woodland, 490114 acres

141,605

Dwellings, 151

43,584

Barns, 120

Other buildings, 273 22,192

Machines and Implements 20,467

Domestic animals . 36,867

Fruit tree and vines . 10,228

Making an aggregate of products of 871,006, and of property of $728,646.

Among the products, the chief items were milk, $16,540; eggs, $3528; fuel, $3853; apples, $1630; cranberries, $5537; English hay, 80060; fresh hay, $3594; pork, $1904; beef, $1439; and potatoes $3939. The cultivation of cranberries has increased since the above census was taken, and the probable product of that article at the present time is about three thou- sand barrels, valued in the Boston market at twenty- four thousand dollars. The town has opportunities for a still further increase of this product, which can- not fail to aid its growth in population and wealth. The demand for cranberries is yet in its infancy, and wherever they can be grown, there is no fear that the supply will exceed it. There is no industry which circulates money with a more far-reaching hand than the cranberry industry, or one which promises better results in towns where it can be conducted. In the first place, at the very time when woodland has sunk in value to its lowest point, the swamps and shallow ponds scattered through it, before valueless, are con- verted into properties worth a thousand dollars an acre, and then in the annual management of these properties, there are to be paid for in cash, care, and superintendence, barrels, and their cooperage; cart- ing, pieking and packing, all distributing money to men, women and children in every needy family, and actually furnishing means of better living, which could in no other way be secured.

It is not many years since considerable attention was paid to raising apples, but with the exception, perhaps, of Mr. Henry Sheldon, one of the prominent men of Wilmington, none of the farmers of the town have either planted new orchards of any importance, or even done much to revive the old ones. It is well known that the Baldwin apple originated in Wil- mington, the first tree of that variety having grown on the farm of James Butters, which became known to Loammi Baldwin, of Woburn, who cut scions from it, and gave it both its reputation and name.

Besides the farming interests, there is little to give occupation to the people of the town. At the present time the shoe business is not carried on, though it is expected that an establishment will be soon located there. The tannery of l'erry, Converse & Co., at North Wilmington, the Merrimack Chemical Works and the ice business are the only industries worthy of mention. The time cannot be far distant, how- ever, when activity and prosperity will prevail. The location of the town is about sixteen miles from Bos- ton, and between that city and Lowell, about the same distance from Salem, and not far from Law- rence, and with the Boston and Lowell, the Bos- ton and Maine, the Salem and Lowell, and the Lawrence Branch Railroads traversing its territory,

862

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

it certainly seems favorably situated for business and growth. But whether or not it shall ever have any large increase of local industries, it is appar- ent that the overflow of population from Boston must, in time, reach and flow into it. Its popu- lation which in 1880 had only increased to 933 from 879 in 1875, has increased to 1250 in 1890, as is shown by the census of this year.

The schools of Wilmington reflect credit on a town with so small a population and valuation. With a population of 1250, and a valuation of $761,762, and 186 children between the ages of five and fifteen, one high-school, one grammar and six schools of a lower grade are maintained at a cost in 1889, of $3,225.94. That a town so far from the point in population where the law requires the establishment of a High School, should have voluntarily burdened itself with the needed taxation for its maintenance, shows the high character of the people and their appreciation of the benefits to be derived from a more thorough education than the common schools can furnish. The course of study in the High School embraces Geometry, Rhetoric, Civil Government, Latin, French, Composition, Drawing, Algebra, Physics, Physiology, United States History, English Ilistory and Music. The School Committee for 1889 were, Charles W. Swain, Frank Carter and Richard L. Folkins.

The expenditures of the town for the last year in its varions departments were as follows : for cemetery, $312; town officers, including police and fire wardens, $975.50 ; miscellaneous, $469.80; poor, $1447.72; highways, $2291.84; public buildings, $336.31 ; schools and supplies, $3572.69 ; library, $144.78 ; piano, $200; common, $40; public well, $104.69; town debt, $1941.56; State tax $129.77; county tax, $496.16; State aid $192, making a total of $12,954.82.

The item of a public well in the above list indicates that the town has no system of water-works. Its in- habitants are supplied with water from wells. It would be interesting if some comparison could be made of the death-rates in those towns supplied with water from wells with those in towns supplied from ponds or streams, and an analysis of the prevailing diseases in the two classes of towns. The writer has no data at hand for such a comparison, except so far as his own town (Plymouth) is concerned, which has water-works, and where, in 1889, the number of deaths was one and a half per cent. of the population against one and eight-tenths in Wilmington. So far as the causes of death are concerned, it is to be remarked that while in the lists of deaths throughout the State, about fourteen per cent. are caused by consumption, in Wilmington, in 1889, only one in twenty-two died of that disease. There may be a suggestion here worth following up, in order to discover, if possible, the remarkable exemption from a disease which com- mits such terrible ravages in thepopulation of the Northern States of our nation

In the War of the Rebellion the town of Wilming- ton performed its full share in rescuing our Union from dissolution. It is stated that the quota of the town was ninety and that the number was filled. The writer finds on the books of the adjutant-general the names of fifty-six credited to the town, but to these are to be added those who entered the naval service and the share belonging to the town of that large number of negroes and others who were credited to the State and divided among the towns. The follow- ing is a list of those whose names appear in the re- port of the adjutant-general with their rank and with the company and regiment to which they were attached and the term for which they enlisted :

Enlisted for nine months in Company D, 50th Regiment of Massachu- betts Volunteers : Levi Swain, sgt. ; Edward D. Pierson, sgt. ; James P. Morton, corp. ; Privates, George Bancroft, Henry L. Bancroft, Jr., Ed- win Blanchard, Daniel W. Case, Henry W. Eames, Wm. Fortiss, Gayton Gowing, Otis llarnden, Joho L. Iloward, George Milligan, Daniel N. Pearson, George O. Pearson, Ambrose Upton.

Fourteenth Light Artillery, for three years; Privates, Charles A. Nichols, Sydney White.

Fifteenth Light Artillery, for three years : Simevo Jaquithi, sgt.

First Battalion of Heavy Artillery, Company E, three years : Pri- vates, Charles M. Buck, Horace Eamies, Giluiao Gowing, George E. Or- cutt, George W. Sidelinker.

Third Cavalry, Company K, three years : Privates, Frauk F. Abbott, B. F. Upton.

Fourth Cavalry, Company E, three years : Private, Marcus M. Bau- croft.

Fourth Cavalry, Company F, three years: Corp., Heury F, Thomp- son.

Fifth Battalion, Frontier Cavalry, Company D, three years . Andrew B. Munroe, saddler.

Second Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, Company I, three years: Theodore S. Butters, corp. ; John H. Whitehouse, mius .; Pri- vates, George M. Bailey, Thomas A. Bancroft, Jamies O. Carter, Thomas B. Flagg.

Thirteenth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, Company G, three years : Private, Marcus Ml. Baucroft.

Sixteenth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, Company F. three years : George N. Chase, mus,

Twenty-second Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, Company F, three years : Private, James Ilale.

Twenty-sixth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, Company D, three years : Privates, Peter Alexander, Alanson Bond, John Wilson.

Twenty-ninth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, Company D, three years : Private, Albert V. Lancaster.

Thirty-third Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, Company D, three years: Privates, Albert Brown, George F. Eames, Frederick Lewis, David G. Pierce, James 11. Swain.

Fifty-eighth Regiment ot Massachusetts Volunteers, Company K. three years : Private, John Andrews.

Fifty-ninth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, Company B, three years : Privates, Robert G. Alludio, Peter Crook.

Fifty-ninth Regiment, Company C, three years : Private, Michael Bracken.

Fifty-ointhi Regiment, Company D, three years : Private, Ambrose E'pton.

Veteran Reserve Corps: Private, Win. H. Mckinney.

Regular Army : Private, John R. Nichols, Jr.

Among the eminent men born in Wilmington may be mentioned Timothy Walker, and his brother Sears Cook Walker. Timothy Walker was born December 1, 1802, and graduated at Ilarvard, in 1826. After leaving college he taught three years in the Round IIill School at Northampton, and in 1829 entered the Dane Law School at Cambridge, where he remained one year. In 1830, he continued his studies in Cin-

863

WILMINGTON.

cinnati, and was admitted to the bar in 1831. In 1833, in connection with Judge John C. Wright, he estab- lished a law-school in Cincinnati, which in 1835 was united with the college there. He continued a pro- fessor in the college until 1844. He was at one time Judge of the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, and Editor of the Western Law Journal. He was author of "Introduction to American Law," a " Treatise on Geometry," and other works. He died in Cincinnati, January 15, 1856.

Sears Cook Walker, was born March 28, 1805, and graduated at Harvard, in 1825. After graduating, he taught school in Boston and Philadelphia, to which latter place he removed in 1827. In 1834, he prepared parallactic tables for use in computing phases of an occultation, and in 1837, drew up a plan for the or- ganization of an observatory in connection with the Philadelphia High School. From 1840 to 1852, he published observations and investigations made by himself, and in 1841, published a memoir of the periodical meteors of August and November. In 1845, he was placed in the Washington observatory where he made valuable observations and discoveries. While Alexander Dallas Bache, had charge of the coast survey, Mr. Walker in connection with him carried out the method of telegraphic longitude de- terminations, and introduced the chronographic method of recording observations. He died in Cin- cinnati, January 30, 1853.

Among the citizens of Wilmington during the pres- ent and last generation who have been prominent in town affairs may be mentioned William Henry Car- ter, W. J. S. Marsh, Otis Carter, Edward A. Carter and Henry Sheldon among the living, and Dr. Henry Hiller, Samuel Nichols, Cyrus L. Carter, llenry Ames and Joseph Ames among the dead.

Twelve or fifteen years ago a Public Library was established in the town which has well served to sup- plement the public schools and to enable the gradu- ates of those schools to keep alive their thirst for knowledge, and constantly add to ite store. According to the report for 1889, the number of books in the library at the end of the year was 1590, and the num- ber taken out during the year, 2027. The payments by the treasurer on account of the library during the year were: for new books, $99.91; covering and re- pairing books, $4.45; salary of librarian, $25; and sundry items, 10.93.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 204

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