History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 41

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 41

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I. THE PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT, 1635-1732.

When the settlers in Cambridge began to push out to the westward they found the country thinly inhabited by the Massachusetts tribe of Indians. Over these reigned the widow of a former chief. She was known to our ancestors as the Squaw-Sachem, or as the " Queen of the Massachusetts " when they chose to dignify her with a finer title. This potentate had taken as a second husband, one Webcowits, the prime minister or principal medicine man of the late king, but he, apparently, was never regarded as anything more than a kind of prince consort. The Squaw- Sachem held no very permanent court, hut her chief dwelling-place seems to have been within the limits of Arlington, on those pleasant slopes that stretch down to the western edge of Mystic Pond. She early came into friendly relations with the Colonial govern- ment, and sold to the settlers-probably in the year 1638-all the lands that she held within the bounds of their towns, reserving only her homestead by the pond. This purchase cost the town of Cambridge ten pounds in cash " and also Cambridge is to give Squa Sachem a coate every winter while shee liveth." Ap- parently the town was slow to fulfill the second part of the agreement, for, in 1641, we find the General

The boundaries of the town were early defined and remained without substantial change until nearly the middle of the present century. Soon after the settle- ment of Cambridge the inhabitants wished to extend the limits of their new town. They had land enough already, if its extent alone is considered, but much of it was forest and swamp. Land good for pasturage and farming was not so plenty, and there was some competition among the different settlements to obtain grants of such land from the General Court. Cam- bridge thus obtained-not to speak of the country south of the Charles-the territory now comprised in Arlington, Lexington and Burlington. The Legisla- ture established the line of division between Cam- bridge and its neighbors on either hand, by extending the existing boundary lines eight miles back into the country. Accordingly the line between Cambridge and Charlestown, which formed the northern bound- ary of Menotomy, fell near the present course of War- ren and Mystic Streets. The southern limit, the | Court enjoining Cambridge to give the Squaw-Sachem

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" so much corn as to make up thirty-five bushels and four coats for last year and this." In March, 1644, in company with four other chiefs, she formally sub- mitted to the jurisdiction of the Colony. As a part of this transaction the five chiefs, in answer to questions, made a statement of their religious views, and one cannot help thinking that the condition of mind re- vealed by some of their responses must have proved rather puzzling to the Puritan theologians. For ex- ample, one answer runs : "We do desire to reverence ye God of ye English, and to speak well of him, be- cause we see he doth better to the English than other gods do to others; " and when questioned as to their willingness to refrain from labor on the Sabbath, they reply with a charming simplicity : " It is easy to them ; they have not much to do on any day and they can well take their ease on that day." The treaty was ratified with an exchange of presents, the Indians giving twenty-six fathoms of wampum and receiving five coats-two yards in a coat-of red cloth, together with a potful of wine. The Squaw-Sachem lived for many years after, the Cambridge people making vari- ous agreements to fence her land and to provide her with corn. She died not long before 1662, and with her royalty disappears from our local annals.

The proprietors of Cambridge began to grant farms in what is now Arlington as early as 1635. A high- way was made from the little settlement in old Cam- bridge to the other little settlement in Concord-the street that we now know as Arlington Avenue. And in 1636 or 1637 the history of the town fairly begins, with the establishing of Captain George Cooke's Mill on Vine Brook. This Captain Cooke made a consid- erable figure in the colony. He came from England in 1635, at the age of twenty-five, soon became captain of the Cambridge Company in the militia, was select- man several years, served in the General Court more than once, and held other positions, civil and mili- tary, during the ten years he remained in this country. Returning to England, he became a colonel in Cron- well's army and lost his life in Ireland in 1652. It was he who varied the activities of an adventurous life by setting up the first mill in Cambridge, and in fact in the neighborhood, if we except a wind-mill in Old Cambridge, which would not grind unless the wind was from the west. Captain Cooke's mill was situated a short distance above the present mills of Samuel A. Fowle. The remains of its dam may still be seen, and Water Street bore the name of "Captain Cooke's Mill-lane" down to a time within living memory.

The establishment of this mill was a great boon to the settlers in the neighboring towns, and the early roads were laid out with reference to it. Thus in 1638 a road was laid out from Watertown, and a little later roads from Woburn and Medford, all ending at the mill. They are substantially the same for the greater part of their course as our Pleasant, Mystic and Med- ford Streets. After Captain Cooke had abandoned the miller's trade in New England for the more stir-

ring profession of arms in Europe, his mill seems to have fallen into decay. At any rate nothing but a few ruins remained when John Rolfe bought the es- tate of the captain's heirs in 1670, built a new mill, house and barn, and revived the business. After his death, in 1681, the property and business passed to his son-in-law, William Cutter, in whose family it has ever since remained.

With the exception of the roads and the mill, Ar- lington presented few traces of civilization for many years. Along the banks of the Menotomy River stretched the Great Swamp. The labor and intelli- gence of more than one generation have since turned much of it into fruitful soil, but enough yet remains in its primitive condition to give us an idea of what the whole eastern end of the town was in the seven- teenth century. Much of the land about Spy Pond also was swampy. The land was well wooded, but the town found it necessary, in 1647, to check reck- less waste by forbidding persons owning land in Menotomy from cutting or taking away directly or indirectly any wood or timber on the easterly side of the road from the mill to Watertown.

Slowly, one after another, spots of cultivated land began to appear in the midst of the wilderness of woods and swamps. In 1646 Henry Dunster, the first president of Harvard College, obtained some land by Menotomy River, lying within the limits of Charles- town. John Adams lived near the present centre of Arlington and owned extensive tracts of land in the eastern end of the town. Other familiar names are found on the records-Dickson, Russell, Winship, Cutter-of men who settled here long before 1700. In 1688 twenty persons were taxed for person and estate as residents of Menotomy.

For a livelihood the people were mainly dependent on farming. Indian-corn was the principal crop, and the corn-fields were fertilized with the countless fish that swarmed in the Menotomy River and have given it its modern name. The alewives were caught by means of a weir which the General Court, in 1634, authorized the town of Cambridge to huild, and were regarded as a most valuable kind of property. When, in 1676, two enterprising persons obstructed the pas- sage of the fish to the weirs, the town brought suit and had the validity of its privilege judicially deter- mined. There was also good fishing in Spy Pond, and people journeyed from Boston and Charlestown to fish there. One summer day no less a person than the Reverend Cotton Mather came out to try his luck, and, like many amateur fishermen of later times, fell into the pond, "the boat being ticklish." History records that he received no hurt from bis misadven- ture.

The Menotomy settlers took their part in the war that broke upon New England in 1675 and furnished nearly a dozen men-a large proportion of their whole number-to the little army that went out to fight King Philip. Five years later Indian warfare

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seems to have come nearer home, for we read in Judge Sewall's diary, under date of July 8, 1680 : "Two Indians killed and several carried away by the Mohawks from Spy Pond at Cambridge : it was done about one in the morn." With these exceptions they lived undisturbed by the savages.

Little more can be said as to our early settlers. In whatever public events they engaged they took part as citizens of Cambridge, and their acts are a part of the history of Cambridge rather than of Arlington. They were doing the same monotonous hard work that was going on in so many New England conmn- nities of that time-gradually turning a savage wil- derness into a place fit for the habitation of civilized men.

II. THE SECOND PRECINCT OF CAMBRIDGE, 1732-1807.

It was in 1732 that the second period of our history began with the setting apart of Menotomy as a sepa- rate precinct or parish. The feeling had for some time been growing among the people that they should have a meeting-house of their own and a minister dwelling among them. In 1728 some of them had pe- titioned the town of Cambridge to consent to a divi- sion, but they failed to obtain their request,-the town taking the reasonable ground that it did not ap- pear that half of the inhabitants of Menotomy de- sired the change. With the persistence characteristic of those who have set their hearts on dividing a town, they tried again iu 1728; petitioned the General Court in June, 1732; had their petition rejected in November ; renewed it the next month and succeeded at last in obtaining favorable action. On December 27, 1732, the uorthwest part of Cambridge was set off as a distinct precinct, and its inhabitants vested with " all the powers, privileges and immunities that other precincts within the Province do, or by law ought to enjoy."

In order to understand the importance of this ac- tion, we must call to mind exactly what a precinct was. It was the same thing as a parish,-the words are used interchangeably,-but a parish then was not a collection of persons voluntarily uniting to support public worship. It was a territorial division-a cer- tain extent of land-like a county, a town, a school dis- trict or a ward. It might be co-extensive with a town, it might comprise part of a town or it might be made up of parts of two or more towns. It had the duty of maintaining a meeting-house and supporting a minis- ter, and every man living within it was just as much subject to be taxed for these purposes as he was for the support of highways and bridges. However cor- dially he might dislike the institutions of religion, he could no more escape paying his share towards their maintenance than he could avoid doing his part to- wards keeping the roads in order. On the other hand, he had an equal voice with his fellow-parishioners in the management of the parish affairs. Heuce an an-

cient parish, in its structure, closely resembled a town, and when, as happened in Arlington, a parish was incorporated as a town, the transition was an easy one. The inhabitants of the new town were merely obliged to apply to a somewhat wider range of subjects the system to which they were already accustomed.

The inhabitants of the new precinct met together in their school-house, January 29, 1733, and John Cnt- ter then began his long service of thirty-two years as parish clerk. They soon completed their organiza- tion by electing three assessors, a collector, a treas- urer and a prudential committee of five. They in- vited their neighbors in that narrow strip of Charles- town which lay between the new parish and Mystic Pond to join them in settling a minister. As it was obviously much more convenient for these Charles- town people to attend public worship in Menotomy than in the distant meeting-house of their own town, an arrangement was made, and confirmed by the Gen- eral Court, whereby they became united with the new parish, although continuing, in other respects, citi- zens of Charlestown.

And now our ancestors set about building their meeting-house. The site was not far to seek. Out of the common land that lay near the junction of the Watertown and Concord roads a portion had been reserved as a burial-place, although probably it had not yet been used for that purpose, and here it was de- cided to build the meeting-house. The building was to be forty-six feet long, thirty-six feet wide and twenty-four feet between the joists, and was to have a belfry ; and the sum of three hundred pounds was appropriated to pay for it. Meanwhile the people met for public worship in their school-house, various ministers of the neighborhood conducting the services. Rev. John Hancock, of Lexington, baptized Thomas Osboru here April 1, 1734, " the first child baptized in the congregation at the school-house in Menot- omy."

The meeting-house was raised in the spring of 1734, and we may suppose there was a cer- tain amount of festivity on the occasion, since the precinct appropriated the sum of twenty-three pounds " to defray the charges of provisions; " but it was not until February 1, 1735, that it was opened and consecrated. The building stood nearly on the spot now occupied by its successor, but faced sontheast. The pulpit stood against the northwest wall and the main entrance was directly opposite, at the other end of the broad aisle. In each of the other sides was a door. A portion of the floor was divided into eigh- teen pew lots, all of which were sold, except that to the right of the pulpit, which was reserved for the minister's pew. The prices of these pew lots varied from £14} down to £53; the two nearest the main door and the one to the left of the pulpit being ap- parently deemed most desirable. On these lots were built the high square pews, wherein sat the owners | with their families-the leading and prosperous

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people of the place. The more humble worshippers sat on benches placed upon that part of the floor not taken up with pews, or in the gallery which extended around three sides of the meeting-house. The men sat on one side of the broad aisle and the women on the other, and a like division was made in the galleries. A committee appointed by the parish assigned the seats, and they were instructed to take into account " persons' pay and age."

Such were the main arrangements iu regard to meeting-house and congregation. But as yet there was no church organization and no minister. The latter deficiency our ancestors earnestly set about supplying, but it was more than four years before they succeeded in their effort. They called in the neighboring ministers more than once for counsel and assistance. On two oceasions they set apart days of fasting and prayer when solemn public exercises were held. But whenever they had chosen a minister whom they judged of suitable character and qualities, their hopes were destined to disappointment. At last, after four persons had successively declined their invitation, they chose Samuel Cooke to be their minister. Mr. Cooke was chosen May 21, 1739. He considered the invitation with care and accepted it in a letter dated Juue 30th-a letter exhibiting that com- bination of practical forethought and of religions feeling characteristic of the man. He tells his people that he shall expect them to make allowance for the continued depreciation of paper currency ; that he depends upon the kindness commonly shown to ministers, particularly as to building and fire-wood ; and accepts their summons, "relying upon the Divine Grace for support and assistance, and recommending you and all your affairs to the Divine conduct."

The church was established on the 9th of the fol- lowing September, the men signing the covenant and the women giving their consent by standing up as their names were called. In all there were eighty- three church-members. Many of the names atlixed to that roll have a sound not at all unfamiliar to our ears,-Russell, Swan, Cutter, Adams, Winship, Fille- brown, Locke, Hall, Frost, Prentice and the rest- the founders of the families that have played so large a part in the life of the community. John Cutter and John Winship were made deacons. The First Church in Cambridge gave £25 towards furnishing the communion table-a gift especially gratifying to the new church.

Samuel Cooke was thirty years old when he came to his work in Menotomy-a work he was to lay down only with his life forty-five years later. The son of a Hadley farmer, he spent his boyhood on the farm and went to college at a much later period in life than was common in those days, He was grad- uated at Harvard College in 1735, kept school for a while, went back to Cambridge, where he was em- ployed in the college buttery for more than a year, then instructed Colonel Royall's son at Medford, and

finally, after another stay at college, began his min- isterial career -- preaching for six months each in Marlborough, Roxbury and Menotomy. The new minister's " settlement" was fixed at £260 in bills of the old tenor or an equivalent amount in bills of the new tenor-neither of which kinds of currency was worth nearly its face value. His salary was to be €190 a year with such additions as might come from contributions not destined for other purposes. Dur- ing his long pastorate his salary varied from time to time-noticeably during the War of the Revolution- but as the reckoning was sometimes made in paper and sometimes in coin, the variation was more appar- ent than real. In 1751 the amount was fixed at £60 in lawful money; a few years later it became £70; then in 1775 it was raised to £75 and it seems never to have been much more. Even this scanty snm was raised with difficulty. The collectors apparently found it hard to get in all the dues. Special contri- butions had to be taken np from time to time for the minister's support, and when he died the parish was indebted to him in a considerable sum. We ought not to attribute these facts to any lack of generosity on the part of our ancestors; they were evidently a result of their poverty.

In 1740 Mr. Cooke bought of Jason Russell an acre of land situated on the Watertown Road, next to the burial-ground, and here he built his house, his peo- ple furnishing much of the material and doing a good deal of the work. It was a substantial, comfortable dwelling, placed well back from the road, and was still standing twenty years ago.

The parish was now fairly started and for many years little of importance appears upon its records. The population was evidently increasing, for we find that it was necessary to put more seats into the meet- ing-house. In 1747 an effort was made to replace some of the seats on the floor with pews, but this at- tempt was stoutly resisted and it was not until 1755 that new pews were added. At the same time it was voted that there should be new seats over the gallery- stairs for the negroes to sit in. A committee was ap- pointed in 1747 "to inspect the behavior of young persons in our meeting-house on Sabbath days," and any persistent mischief-maker was to be marched into the main aisle aud made to stand there through- out the service. As we hear nothing more of the committee after a year, we may, perhaps, assume that the terrors of so public a penance produced a speedy reformation.

While the manners of youth on the Sabbath were thus looked after, their week-day education was not neglected. There was a school-house in Menotomy when the precinct was first set off, but it seems not to have been suitable for its purpose, for the parish voted, in 1743, to keep the public school near the meeting-house after a convenient house was erected, and three years later the town made an appropriation to help defray the charge of building a new school-

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house. This school was of a grade considerably be- low that of a grammar school of the present day, and was kept for a few weeks in winter. It was supported by the town, but the appropriation was usually placed in the hands of the parish. In 1768 it was voted that a grammar school or " man's school" should be kept for fourteen weeks in the winter, and that there should also be four "women's schools." The system thus established lasted some years.

The care of the church and the school formed sub- stantially all of the public business of the parish. But the people were not satisfied with this, and desired an entire separation from Cambridge. Accordingly they petitioned the General Court, in 1762, that they and certain of their neighbors in the adjacent towns might be incorporated as a town or district. The Legislature voted to incorporate the petitioners from Menotomy and Charlestown as a separate district, but annexed certain conditions to the grant. The Menotomy peo- ple made some unsuccessful efforts to induce the Leg- islature to alter the terms, but, nevertheless, voted to accept the act of incorporation as it stood.

A district had all the powers of a town except in one respect. Every town had a right to send a repre- sentative to the General Court, but a district did not have that right. The Governors much disliked to give their assent to the formation of new towns, for a new town implied a new legislator who was only too likely to set himself in opposition to the representatives of the King. The same objection did not apply to a dis- trict, and hence the device of forming a district in- stead of a town was not uncommon at that period. Menotomy, therefore, became a separate municipality in 1762. Upon their failure, however, to obtain any alteration in the terms of incorporation, the people apparently concluded that, on the whole, it was not worth while to take any advantage of the act, and so continued to act as before as a parish of Cambridge.

The foregoing are the principal public acts of the parish. Of the every-day life of the people few me- morials remain. We know that they were for the most part farmers, and their farms were usually of considerable size. There were several taverns in the place-a circumstance which we ought not to regard as reflecting at all on the industry or sobriety of our ancestors, since these houses of entertainment were required by the farmers from the inland towns, who used to drive their teams laden with produce down through Menotomy and Old Cambridge on their roundabout way to Boston. Along the brook where their successors stand to-day, were situated several mills-grist-mills and saw-mills-belonging to mem- bers of the Cutter family, whose lands comprised much on the northwestern part of the parish. Many of the families of the place were connected by marriage ; they were of the same race and the same religion ; there was no great wealth among them and no great poverty. They lived a hard-working life, somewhat isolated, a good deal dependent upon one another for

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society, with few amusements. Outside matters af- fected them little. A few of them served in the French and Indian War under Capt. Thomas Adams, a Menotomy man. These took part in the Louis- bourg expedition of 1758, and all came back safely except one, who died of sickness. Parson Cooke did not fail to preach a sermon on the occasion of their return. He often took notice in that way of import- ant current events-a common custom among thie clergy of that age. For the most part the years seem to have gone by monotonously enough until at last the day came when History passed through our streets, and the quiet country people took their place among those who were first to face death in defence of the liberties of a nation.

They were not without warning of the coming storm. Again and again during the dark years that preceded the outbreak of war did their minister speak to them words glowing with the spirit of resistance to oppression. He found in Scripture many analogies to the events that were passing before his eyes. To him the Roman tyranny in Jerusalem was as the British rule in Boston, and the publicans that served Cæsar were the prototypes of the instruments of George the Third. His people were not deaf to his appeal. The younger men were organized into an " alarm-list company " enlisted as " soldiers in the Massachusetts service, for the preservation of the liberties of Amer- ica," ready to act when the order came. Benjamin Locke was their captain, and his list of the members of the company, about fifty in number, is still extant.

On the 17th day of April, 1775, the Committees of Safety and of Supplies adjourned from Concord to meet at Wetherby's Tavern in Menotomy. This inn, also known as the Black Horse Tavern, stood on the north- ern side of the main road about half a mile below the meeting-house. The two committees, to whose hands was intrusted the direction of the patriot cause in the Province, met here on the 18th. Three of them, Elbridge Gerry and Colonels Orne and Lee, remained, intending to stay overnight. They were warned that there was an unusual number of British officers about in Cam- bridge, and Gerry was so impressed with the idea that trouble was brewing that he sent a messenger to John Hancock, then at Lexington, to put him on his guard. At about two o'clock the next morning the three members were aroused from their sleep to find the road filled with British regulars marching by towards Lexington. As the centre of the column was pass- ing, they saw by the bright moonlight an officer and a file of men coming towards the house. They es- caped, half-dressed, from the back of the building into an adjoining corn-field. Flinging themselves on the ground and protected from view only by the corn- stalks left standing from the previous season, they fortunately escaped the observation of the soldiers. These searched the house, but had to go on without making the coveted capture of three of the rebel leaders.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 41

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