History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 43

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 43

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During the remaining years of the eighteenth century little out of the ordinary course happened in the precinct. There was a growing feeling that Menotomy was now able to cut loose from Cambridge and become a separate town. In 1784 a committee was appointed to petition the General Court to set off the Northwest Precinct of Cambridge and Charles- town as a township. Two years later an effort was made to induce Cambridge to take some action in the matter. These propositions came to no immediate holes; another machine cut wire and bent it into result, but they show that the separation from Cam- bridge was not brought about by any sudden im- pulse.

Political differences no doubt had also a share in increasing the desire for separation. When parties began to be formed after the adoption of the Consti- tution, Old Cambridge took the Federalist side,

while Menotomy strongly favored the opposition. People who had seen their houses pillaged and their neighbors murdered by the King's soldiers could hardly be expected to lock with much favor on the cause of England, with which the Federalists were popularly identified. With France they had a warm sympathy. When the French Republic was established there were various celebrations of the event among the Republicans in and abont Boston. In Menotomy, instead of the usual civic feast, the women held a celebration of their own. About fifty of them met one Thursday afternoon in February, 1793, at the house of Mrs. " Wellington "-probably Mrs. Jeduthun Willington-who had ornamented her rooms with various kinds of evergreens, to con- gratulate one another upon thegreat events in France. With their caps adorned with the French national cockade of liberty, they sat down to a banquet con- sisting of coffee, wine and civic cake, and further cele- brated with music, vocal and instrumental ; until, as the reporter gallantly expresses it, "the joyful scene concluded with that harmony, civility and politeness which exalt their sex so far above the other." Civic cake, which was used at the festivals of the French .sympathizers, differed from other cake in having the words "Liberty and Equality " stamped upon it. That such a celebration should have taken place

at all in a parish like Menotomy, among such a sober and practical people as lived here, shows with pecu- lilar vividness the intensity of popular feeling. Very soon after this astonishing performance the news ar- rived of the execution of Louis XVI. and the begin- ning of that series of events that culminated in the Reign of Terror, and we hear nothing more of civic cake and cockades of liberty.

In 1799 a new industry was begun in the parish. which had a good deal of fame in its day. This was the card manufactory of Amos Whittemore and his brothers. Amos was a grandson of Samuel Whitte- more, whose experience in the battle of April 19, 1775, has been above narrated. He early exhibited an unusual taste for mechanics, and during his ap- prenticeship to a gunsmith, showed much ingenuity and a strong inventive talent. After a time he be- came engaged in Boston in the manufacture of cotton and wool cards.

The manufacture of cotton and woolen goods was beginning to be important, and the demand for cards- used in separating the fibre-was increasing. But this manufacture was a slow and expensive process. One machine punched a piece of leather full of

staples, and then the staples had to be placed in the holes, one by one, by hand, to make the card. Whitte- more set himself the task of contriving a machine that should perform the whole operation. The story is that of so many inventions. At the sacrifice of health, with neglect of food and sleep, he devoted himself to his work. Gradually overcoming one difficulty after

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another, he brought bis machine nearer and nearer perfection. One final obstacle remained which seemed insurmountable. Despairing oftentimes, but coming back with tenacious perseverance to the effort, at last the solution of the problem flashed upon him and the task was done. He obtained a patent in the United States in 1797 and afterwards oue in England ; and, with his brother William and Robert Williams, begall business in Menotomy under the firm of William Whittemore & Co. Their factory stood near the meet- ing-house. Two years after the business was started it employed forty people and turned out two hundred dozen cards a week. In so small a community as Menotomy then was-comprising but 85 dwelling- houses-this was a very important industry, and its removal to New York in 1812 was felt as a serious loss. Its fortunes in New York were various. Shar- ing in the sudden and perhaps unhealthy activity of manufacturing pursuits during the war of 1812, it felt severely the equally sudden reverses that followed. After the expiration of the patent in 1825, two of the inventor's sous again began business in West Cam- bridge in 1827 in a different place and in a smaller way, and carried it on until their factory was burned in 1862.

The principal work undertaken by the parish dur- ing the last years of its existence as the Second Parish of Cambridge was the building of a new meet- ing-house. Notwithstanding additions of seats and pews, the old one was too small to accommodate the increased number of worshippers. The building had undergone repairs from time to time. As far back as 1778 Rev. Mr. Cooke appears to have felt doubtful about the stability of the belfry, for we find his thrifty parishioners appointing a committee to see if they " could make him easy " not to take it down. The committee brought back the resigned answer that he would leave it to the people, and trust in the provi- dence of God. The new belfry appeared in 1783, when many alterations and repairs were made. Finally it was decided that a larger building must be had. At a meeting held January 9, 1804, it was voted to build a wooden house seventy feet long, fifty-six feet wide, and thirty feet posts. The old meeting-house was sold at auction, and after several changes reached the place where it now stands. It was turned into a dwelling-house, and is now occupied by Mr. Charles O. Gage.

The new house was raised without accident in July, 1804, and dedicated March 20, 1805. It had the same general appearance as many meeting-houses of that day-an oblong building painted white, having in front a porch with four pillars, and on top a short, square tower surmounted by a belfry, the dome-shaped roof of which supported a little spire with a vaue- still a familiar type of church architecture in New England villages. It contained ninety-two pews on the floor and fourteen in the galleries.

The prospect of a new building seems to have ex-

cited the zeal of the musical members of the parish to improve the singing on Sundays. There had been a choir for a considerable time-at any rate, since 1775, when William Cutter was chosen by the parish to lead in singing, and two seats in the front gallery were set apart for the singers. In 1796 instrumental music was added in the shape of a bass-viol, to the accompaniment of which the choir sang the hymns in Tate and Brady's Collection. In 1804 it became desirable to establish the Northwest Parish of Cam- bridge Singing Society, for, as was said in the 'pre- amble to the constitution, the spirit of music in public devotion "is become something languid, and its genius seems about to withdraw." Accordingly the society was formed for the laudable purpose of reviving the spirit and improving the members in the art of music. "Justice our principle, Reason our guide, and Honor our law." It was provided that every member should sit in the singing seats on Sundays when he was at meeting. This society lasted three years, and was immediately succeeded by the West Cambridge Musical Society, which con- tinued until 1817. The "Village Harmony," the " Middlesex Collection," and Belknap's hymnn-book furnished them withi material ; they met in the win- ter months for practice, and we may hope were en- abled to bring back the retiring genius of music.

The building of the new meeting-house was soon followed by the incorporation of a new town. A pe tition was presented to the General Court, and on February 27, 1807, an act was passed to incorporate the Second Parish of Cambridge as the town of West Cambridge. The act went into effect June 1, 1807. From that time the history of the parish continues simply as that of a religious society-no longer as that of a community. In its place come the more varied activities of a self-governing New England town.

III. THE TOWN OF WEST CAMBRIDGE, 1807-67.

When the town of West Cambridge was incorporat- ed it contained not far from nine hundred inhabit- ants. The increase in population had been gradual and had not affected the character of the place. It was still essentially the farming community that it had been for more than a century and a half. The roads that traversed the town were the old roads to Cambridge, Medford, Woburn, Charlestown and Wa- tertown, and the pathis that led from the highway to the mills on the brook. Of these mills there were several. Lowest on the brook was Ephraim Cutter's grist-mill, which he had recently built at his new dam just below the ancient site of Col. Cooke's mill, and of its successors, where for several genera- tions his own ancestors had labored. Next above came the mill of Stephen Cutter, on the present Mill Street. At the place where the saw factory was so long car- ried on, Abner Stearns had just erected a wool-factory, which he sold in 1808 to John Tufts, who kept the

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neighboring tavern. Stearns established himself a little farther up the stream and soon built a fulling- mill and set about spinning yarn. Near the Foot of the Rocks stood the mill where Gershom Cutter had, for some years, carried on the business of turning and grinding edge-tools ; and a short distance above came the grist-mill of Ichabod Fessenden, which he sold in 1809 to John Perry and Stephen Locke.

Besides the business that was carried on along the brook, the only manufactory seems to have been the Whittemore card-factory ; but that was the most im- portant of all, for the business was growing each year. In 1809 the twenty-three machines with which the business began had increased to fifty-five, capable of sticking eighty dozen pairs of cards in a day. From nine to ten thousand dollars was paid in wages yearly to the forty or fifty employees-a very large amount in the eyes of the people of the town. There were a number of stores-that of Col. Thomas Russell being the most important, and several taverns. These oc- cupations, however, employed a comparatively small portion of the citizens. The greater number carried on farming, as their predecessors had done. That was the distinctive business of the place.

On the 11th day of June, 1807, the people of West Cambridge met in their first town-neeting and chose their first board of town officers. Together with the officers who are still annually elected-the selectmen, overseers of the poor, town treasurer, constables- others were chosen whose names are not so familiar nowadays-fire-wards, hog-reeves, pound-keeper and tythingman. In the Massachusetts fashion, the citi- zens next set about providing for the education of their children. The old system of the four women's schools and the one man's school with the term of fourteen weeks was improved upon. The town was divided into four school districts-the South, Western, Middle and Eastern-and it was provided that there should be four and a half months' schooling in each.

In the following spring West Cambridge first took part as a separate community in a State election, and the political bias of the people appears very clearly in the result of the vote for Governor, for while the Republican Governor, Sullivan, received 147 votes, the Federalist candidate, Christopher Gore, had to content himself with thirty-three. Party spirit ran high in those days, for the embargo had been pro- claimed in the previous December and the effects of that measure were beginning to be felt in New Eng- land. The West Cambridge people had little to do directly with foreign commerce, and did not experi- ence that personal suffering that brought about such bitter opposition in many places to Mr. Jefferson's policy, while their patriotic feelings impelled them to take the side of the Administration. When the Fourth of July arrived they celebrated it with a procession, an oration and a banquet. The orator was William Nichols, Jr., then the master of the school at the cell- tre of the town, and he spoke in the new meeting-

house. The banquet took place out of doors near Tufts' Tavern, and was followed by a formidable list of toasts, proposed by the toast-master and responded to by persons selected beforehand. The general en- thusiasm was heightened by the playing of the band and the firing of the cannon, as the toasts were given. Beside the regular eighteen toasts there were five " volunteers." Some of these sentiments are worth quoting :

"The President :- a firm, undeviating and inflexible patriot and states- man ; he lives in the respect and veneration of the friends of liberty."

" The memory of Warren, and all those who fell in defence of our rights :- may their spirits haunt the wretches who servilely court the favor of their destroyers."

"The Embargo :- wisely calculated to preserve our peace and privi- leges ; may those who seek to destroy its efficacy feel its first effects."

"The people of the United States :- may they he fully sensible of their power and sovereignty, and never suffer a nobility to trample on their rights or be duped by Federal imposturs and hypocrisy."

" May the kidnappers of man, of every nation, he equally detested by the sons and daughters of Columbia."

We may safely assume that the few Federalists in West Cambridge took no great part in this interesting celebration. At a town-meeting held in March, 1809, the majority expressed their feelings "on the alarm- ing crisis of our publick affairs" in a series of resolu- tions that revel in figurative language. They begin with a long preamble reciting the seriousness of a moment " when Great Britain, like the leviathan of the deep, has sharpened her teeth against the com- merce of all nations; when, by her piracies and her illegal orders, she has swept from the ocean the com- merce of all nations; when, like the Ishmaelite of old, her hand is against every man and every man's hand against her." After particularizing some of the acts of the Ishmaelite and the leviathan the preamble goes on to denounce the opposition party at home, espe- cially for their proceedings in the State Legislature and various towns, "when the very men who charge the National Government with partiality to France, have justified or palliated the conduct of Great Brit- ain, and openly advised to unfurl the Republican banner against the Imperial standard; " and concludes by saying that it is time for citizens to come forward and express their sentiments. Then follow the senti- ments which citizens ought to express, in the form of resolutions of which a small part relates to the bad conduct of England and France and a great deal to the worse conduct of the Federalists. They approve the Embargo, express respect for the liberty of the press, with a dark allusion to that portion of it that is endeavoring to weaken the Administration, charge upon the leaders of the opposition that they are moved by "a thirst for power and place which they have uniformly been seeking the last eight years," and that they, "notwithstanding the risk of all the evils necessarily resulting from a dissolution of the Union, are determined to hunt down and lay prostrate the present Administration and to elevate themselves and families on its ruins." The whole closes with a commendation of Thomas Jefferson, whose Presi-

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dential term had just come to an end. One may fancy the disgust of the Federalist minority that this very unambiguons set of resolutions should go out as the voice of the town. However, they could muster but eight dissenting votes, and it was further voted that the resolutions should be published in the party newspapers, where no doubt they brought joy to the hearts of all good Republicans.

For the next two or three years the country was drifting towards war, and a strong military spirit was aroused. The West Cambridge Light Infantry was organized in 1811 and took part in a volunteer mus- ter that occurred in the town that year. A fort was built, garrisoned by a company which represented British troops, was attacked by the American forces, and captured after a desperate struggle. In another year came the second war with Great Britain. The town voted to pay ten dollars per month and five dol- lars bounty to each non-commissioned officer and sol- dier from West Cambridge in the service. Later in the war the allowance was increased, and then the in- crease was cut off. The war had little direct effect upon the town, except in 1814, when there was a scare as to a threatened British attack on Boston, and a large number of volunteers went into training to resist the invaders, who never came.

In 1816 measures were taken to protect the town against loss by fire. The selectmen were author- ized to get fire-ladders and hooks, fire-ward staffs and such other fire implements as they deemed necessary. These were kept in different parts of the town, some of them in the cellar of the meeting-house. There was already a little hand fire-engine-the " Friend- ship" belonging to individuals and kept in a house near the centre-but apparently of no very great ser- vice, since we find the town voting in 1820 to buy an engine on condition that the engine company would transfer their house and fire implements to the town. This burst of energy in relation to protection from fire seems not to have been without cause, for in 1817 the town found it necessary to offer a reward of $500 -a large sum for a town the yearly expenses of which were only abont $3000-for information as to per- sons setting fire to buildings or to combustible matter which might endanger buildings. The special com- mittee that advised this action made at the same time certain other recommendations aimed at the vices of gambling and drunkenness. The committee advised aud the town voted that the selectmen should see that the laws against gambling were rigidly executed and that they should make a list of all persons who were in the habit of excessive drinking or wasting time and property thereby, should place the list in the hands of all licensed persons and forbid them to sell intoxicating liquor to anybody on the list. The plan was certainly ingenious, although one is hardly disposed to envy the task of the selectmen in deciding who of their fellow-townsmen should go on the list of topers.

While making such laudable efforts to suppress crime and excess, the towns-people were not forgetful of those institutions that make for intelligence and morality. In each of the four districts into which the town was divided a school was kept, taught by a man in winter and by a woman in summer. The little children especially attended the summer school, while the older ones came to the master's school at a season when out-door work on the farms had largely to cease. The requirement for admission into the "man's school " was not very severe-an applicant need only be able " to read in words of two syllables by spelling the same." The oversight of the schools was first placed on a settled basis in 1827, when a general School Com- mittee of three members was chosen, with a Pruden- tial Committee of four -- one from each district-to act with them. Before this time the custom had var- ied. Sometimes the selectmen had formed part of the School Committee-at other times a separate board was appointed. Teachers' salaries were not exorbitant. Usually abont $600 were appropriated for salaries, which gave to each district $150, more or less, of which the master was apt to get the lion's share.

The older people found a means of improvement in the books of the West Cambridge Social Library. This institution was founded in 1807, a very few months after the incorporation of the town. It was a proprietors' library-one of a class not uncommon at that time, when circulating libraries were rare, and free public libraries practically unknown, but not often to be met with now in Massachusetts-the most conspicuous surviving example being the Boston Athenæum.

The library was a corporation wherein each mem- ber held a share, for which he paid five dollars, and upon which he paid an annual assessment of one dol- lar. With the money thus obtained, the library was founded and kept up. It was not in any sense a pub- lic institution ; the books were for the members and their families alone, and a heavy fine was imposed if a proprietor should lend a book to any one outside his own household. Many of the most respectable and intelligent citizens took shares. Each proprietor was at first allowed to take one book at a time, but this number was afterwards increased, as the library be- came larger. The length of time for which a book could be retained varied, but a consideration was shown to slow readers, which they do not often get at the hands of the managers of modern libraries. For example, a member might have twenty-five days to read "Gay's Fables " and thirty-five days for " Paradise Lost." He might reflect upon " Pilgrim's Progress " for forty days if he saw fit, and was allowed seventy days to struggle with "Ferguson's Astronomy." Notwith- standing this liberality in the matter of time, the rec ords of fines show that the Social Library had its full proportion of laggard book-borrowers. And it is not surprising that hard-working men took some time to

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

go through the solid pages of fine print that made up most of the volumes. The books were well selected, -probably by Rev. Mr. Fiske, who was the clerk of the corporation-but there was not much light read- ing in them. A few histories, Rollin, Gibbon, Hume, Robertson-biographies of Washington, Franklin, Putnam-books of travel, as "Capt. Cook's Voyages" or Bruce's " Travels in Abyssinia."-these will give an idea of the quality of the greater part of the collec- tion. A few essayists were represented in the library, several poets, hardly a novelist. The scarcity of American writers is noticeable; at that time there were few of them. But with all its unlikeness to a modern catalogue, one cannot examine the lists of the books of the West Cambridge Social Library with- out an added respect for the people who turned to such serious and wholesome reading as the employ- ment of their leisure hours. The library continued to exist until after the establishment of the Juvenile Library described below.

Some other events of this period may be more briefly dismissed. An almshouse was built in 1817. Before that time the poor were boarded out, or were aided by the town at their own homes. About $700 was spent for the support of paupers in the year 1810 -11, and nearly $800 in 1815-16. The almshouse stood on land bought of Josiah Whittemore, near the site of the Black Horse Tavern. It was used until the present almshouse was built, in 1853, was then sold at auction and continues to be occupied as a dwell- ing-house. In 1812 the town obtained the exclusive right of disposing of the privilege of taking the shad and alewives in the ponds and streams within its lim- its,-a grant which was revoked by the Legislature in 1823. In 1821 West Cambridge was placed under the operation of an act, passed in 1789, which pro- vided for the regulation of the shad and alewife fish- ery in Mystic River and its tributary ponds and streams; and thereafter preservers of fish were regu- larly chosen.

In 1823 we find the town taking measures against the danger of an epidemic of small-pox, by author- izing the selectnien and overseers of the poor to con- tract with some person to inoculate all inhabitants who wished with the cow-pox-the expense to be not over twenty-five cents for each patient.

West Cambridge was honored in the following year with the presence of Lafayette, who passed through on his way to Lexington, September 2d. No formal exercises were held here. Two arches, with appro- priate inscriptions, were thrown across the road, and the whole population-men, women and children- assembled by the meeting-house to cheer the veteran as he went by.

In 1835 the town received a legacy of $100 from Dr. Ebenezer Learned, of Hopkinton, New Hampshire, to establish a juvenile library. Dr. Learned was by birth a Medford man, a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1787, and afterwards a practicing phy-

sician at Leominster, Massachusetts, and Hopkinton, New Hampshire. Himself a man of learning, he was devoted throughout his life to the advancement of education, and took an active part, without any self- seeking, in the promotion of many good causes. Holding a high rank in his profession, he found time for outside pursuits, which he believed would bring benefit to the community. Thus he was active in the formation of the New Hampshire Agricultural So- ciety, and was one of the founders of Hopkinton Academy. He had taught school in Menotomy when he was a student in college, and had doubtless often thought how few were the books to which children had access; and when he came to consider to what use the savings of many industrious years were to be applied, he resolved that among his other benefac- tions he would do something for the benefit of the school-children of West Cambridge. He states his purpose in his will : " In consequence of a grateful remembrance of hospitality and friendship, as well as an uncommon share of patronage afforded me by the inhabitants of West Cambridge, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the early part of my life, when patronage was most useful to me, I give to the said town of West Cambridge $100 for the purpose of es- tablishing a juvenile library in said town. The Selectmen, Ministers of the Gospel and Physicians of West Cambridge, for the time being, shall receive this sum, select and purchase the books for the library, which shall be such books as in their opinion will best promote useful knowledge and the Christian vir- tues among the inhabitants of said town who are scholars, or by usage have a right to attend as schol- ars in their primary schools. Other persons may be admitted to the privileges of said library under the direction of said town, paying a sum for membership, and an annual tax for the increase of the same."

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 43

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