History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 7

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 7

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

In obedience to the above order, the Declaration of Independence was copied into the town records by vote of the town, the citizens thus adopting the action of the Continental Congress as their own.

· Roger Sherman, a native of Newton, was one of the committee who reported the Declaration to the Con- gress in Philadelphia.

In March, 1777, a committee was appointed by the town of Newton to hire soldiers, if need be, to make up Newton's quota for the next campaign. Among those of whom the town treasurer borrowed money under this vote, thirty-one in number, two were women, and all but three were in the army-by a double sacrifice, devoting their treasure as well as their lives to the cause of freedom. The amount bor- rowed was £2989 13s. Many loaned smaller sums, whose names are not given. The town paid faithfully to their soldiers the sums that were promised. Dur- ing the entire continuance of the war Newton was not backward in voting supplies of money and provis- ions as they were needed by the army, in hiring sol- diers and providing for the wants of the families of those in the service. In 1779 a vote was passed to raise more men ; the same again in June, 1780, and £30,000 were appropriated to defray the expenses; in the following December, £100,000, depreciated cur- rency, were appropriated for the same purpose. In September, 1781, voted that £400 in silver money be assessed ; in March, 1782, €800; in April, 1783, £1000; in March, 1784, £1500.

Finally, October 19, 1781, the end came, and Lord Cornwallis surrendered his whole army to Washing- ton, at Yorktown, Va. Terms were agreed upon, and the British army, to the number of about 7000 men, marched out and capitulated as prisoners of war, with seventy-five brass and 160 iron cannon, nearly 8000 stand of arms, twenty-eight regimental colors and a large quantity of munitions of war.

" These records of the Town," says Mr. Jackson, "and the facts here grouped together, will serve to prove how fully, and at what sacrifices, the pledge of 1776 was redeemed. History, we think, will be searched in vain to find a parallel to the indomitable and long-continued exertion and devotion which, in common, doubtless, with New England generally, the inhabitants of this Town exhibited."

In consulting the military records of the Revolu- tionary period, we tind the names of the following Newton men who bore office among their fellow-sol- diers: Col. Joseph Ward, aid-de-camp of Major-Gen. Ward; Michael Jackson, colonel, and William Hull, lieutenant-colonel of the Eighth Massachusetts Regi- ment ; Ephraim Jackson, colonel of the Fenth Mas- sachusetts Regiment; Nathan Fuller, lieutenant of the Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment ; seven cap. tuins, nine lieutenants and two ensigns. Alnost every one of the families of the early settlers of New- ton had their representatives among the soldiers of the Revolution. Forty-four descendants of Edward

Jackson, bearing the name of Jackson, were in the armies, representing the patriotism and the military spirit of Newton; twenty-two bearing the name of Fuller ; sixteen, the name of Parker ; fifteen, of Hyde; eleven, of Stone: nine, of Clark; six, of Seger. Capt. Henry King, of Newton, was one of the guard at the execution of Major Andre.

After the close of the war came a period which was marked by few exeitements. "Shays' Insurrection." as it was called, ran its brief course, but, though so- licited, Newton did not care to be embroiled in it. The Baptist Church at Newton Centre was formed in 1780, and its first edifice built, but that was only a matter of local interest. The most important event of public concern was the settling of the Constitution of Massachusetts. A State Convention met in 1778, to agree upon a form of a Constitution. The plan of the proposed Constitution was, in due time, reported to the Convention, and submitted to the people of New- ton, as to the other towns. It was read publicly and fully debated, and rejected. The voters present num- bered eighty, of whom only five favored its accept- ance. The next year a new form was proposed to the town and approved, and the people of Newton held their first town-meeting under it in 1780, for the election of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and five Senators from Middlesex County. Hon. John Han- cock received the whole number (eighty-six) of votes for Governor. The votes for Lieutenant-Governor were about equally divided ; Benjamin Lincoln had twenty-six and Azor Orne, twenty-five. For Sena- tors, Josiah Stone and Abraham Fuller had forty-one and forty votes respectively ; the other three Senators, forty, thirty and twenty-three each. At the first meeting for the choice of Presidential electors, De- cember 18, 1788, Nathaniel Gorham and Abraham Fuller had eighteen votes each, and were chosen. At the same meeting, Nathaniel Gorham was elected Representative for the District of Middle-ex in the Federal Government. Four times in twenty years the vote of Newton for Governor was unanimous, viz. : in 1780, 1782 and 1784, for John Hancock ; and in 1794 for Samuel Adams. From 1789 to 1800 the citizens were apparently very negligent of the right of suffrage; twice in that period the votes cast were over 100 (118 and 117); seven times, less than fifty ; average for twenty years, about fifty-nine. The smallest vote was four only, in the year 1785, for John Hancock, his sixth nomination ; after one year they returned to him again for six years.

The War of 1812 was unpopular with the people of Massachusetts, and the people of Newton expressed very clearly their disapproval of it and remonstrated against it. Gen. William Hull, of Newton, who was at that time Governor of the Territory of Michigan, two or three weeks after the declaration of war, col- lected an army of upwards of 2000 men, and crossed the line into Canada, as if he designed to attack Mon- treal. But, bearing that the Indians had invaded his

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territory, and that the British forces were near at hand, he retreated, and was besieged by Gen. Brock, in Fort Detroit. Feeling that he was not adequately supported by his Government with arms and ammu- nition to sustain an attack, he surrendered to the British general. For this act he was tried by a court- martial and condemned to be shot ; but recommended to the mercy of the President, on account of his dis- tinguished services in the Revolutionary War, and pardoned. Many thought his condemnation nnjust. He afterwards published a defence of his conduct.

If any of the citizens of Newton were in any of the conflicts of the War of 1812, they must have engaged in the service as individuals only, and no record of the facts remains.

For a considerable period following the war there were few incidents claiming a place in the history of Newton. It was mainly a season of silent growth, and preparations for the stirring periods to come. The most important events were the founding of New- ton Theological Institution, and the slow unfolding of the educational spirit, which issued in the change from district to graded schools, from a lower, though necessary, intellectual training, to the broader meth- ods of modern times. But this long period was not without its excitements. These arose from an agita- tion, which lasted many years, in reference to a di- vision of the town. All the villages were disposed along the edges of Newton and remote from one another, generally not less than two miles apart. The First Church was established at the centre of the town, and in 1830, "after the separation of the civil and ec- clesiastical state in the Commonwealth of Massachu- setts, the proprietors of the First Parish meeting- house objected to having the town-meetings holden there." The proprietors judged that the time had come when the town ought to have a place for hold- ing its meetings, which should be provided at the town's expense, and be under the town's control. The residents of the four villages, Newton Corner, West Newton, Newton Upper Falls and Newton Lower Falls, had no special interest in the Centre of the town, except that they must travel thither, twice at least every year, to the town-meetings; nor any inter- est in one another; nor had the Centre any interest in them. Neither business nor social interests, nor the worship of God on the Sabbath, bound them to- gether. As early as 1807, the infelicity of the situa- tion began to press itself upon the attention of the citizens ; and they endeavored to meet it by distrib- uting the town into five wards, and ordering that one selectman and two surveyors should be chosen from each ward. For several years they lived in peace under this arrangement. But in 1830 the situation became a matter of heated controversy, which lasted, with varying aspects and with great vigor, full a quarter of a century. Methods without number were proposed ; to divide the town into two separate, in- corporated organizations, now by one line of division

and now by another; to hold the town-meetings in rotation in the meeting-houses of the several villages ; to build a town-house, now in one village, and now in another, and now in the forest in the geographical centre of the town; and again to build two town- houses, one at the Centre and one in the village of the West Parish. The controversy was so earnest that it parted friends, and embittered the relations of social life. A serious proposal was made to set off the Lower Falls to Needham or Weston, but the question was at once dismissed. April 19, 1841, au historic an- niversary, a vote was passed to appoint a committee to consider the division of the town; December 22d following, another historic day, the vote was recon- sidered. If the town were divided, where should the line of separation be drawn ? And which portion should retain the old and venerable name, and which should content itself with a new one, abandoning the prestige of its honorable history ? The solution of the question was aided by the cession of the extreme southern part of the town to Roxbury, in 1838, and the "Chemical Village," about 600 acres, in the northwest part, in 1844, to Waltham. The residents in those remote parts of the town were thus relieved from the necessity of traveling many miles to the town-meetings, whether held in West Newton or in Newton Centre. But the minds of the citizens were gradually coming together. In 1848-49 a vote was passed by the town to hold the town-meetings in West Newton. And on the 12th of March, 1855, a resolution was passed " that the inhabitants of New- ton will oppose any and all measures for the division of the town, and that they will regard with disfavor the disturbance of their peace and harmony by the further agitatiou of the subject." The motion was carried by a very large vote. Many who had taken part in the agitation in its earlier stages belonged to a former generation, and had long since passed away. And now, as one great and populous city, one wide, wealthy and prosperous organization, with its churches, its schools, its libraries, its Fire Department, its gas and electric works, its water works, its tele- graphs and telephones, and all its common interests, perhaps not a citizen walks in the streets of Newton, through its whole extent, who is not glad that the whole is bound together and cemented in one peace- ful union.

CHURCHES.1-Second Congregational Church, West Newton .- During the ministry of Mr. Meriam in the First Church, as early as 1760, meetings were held in the west part of Newton, a century after the for- mation of the First Church, and a Second Parish in Newton was thus distinctly foreshadowed. At first, subscriptions were solicited to build a meeting-house, and a minister was hired to teach school during the winter season and to preach on the Sabbath. About

1 The history of the First Church is given in a separate article, by Rev. D. L. Farber, D.D , pastor emeritus.

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

eight rods of land for the meeting-house were sold to the Building Committee by Phineas Bond, innholder, for £2 88., bounded on his own land and land of Isaac Williams. The meeting-house was forty-three by thirty feet. In 1767 Jonathan Williams and others petitioned the town that a sum of money might be granted to support preaching in the meeting-house in the west part of the town in the winter season. The request was refused. The petitioners renewed their request in 1770, 1772, 1773 and 1774, trying the virtue of importunity. In 1775 they petitioned the General Court for a grant from the town treasury to support preaching four months, though it is not clear that that body had any right to assume the manage- ment of the finances of an incorporated town. In 1778 the General Court granted an act of incorpora- tion, setting off West Newton as an independent par- ish. The church was organized October 21, 1781, with twenty-six members. The First Church granted to the organization four pewter tankards and one pewter dish for the communion service; the Second Church in Boston gave a pulpit Bible, and Deacon Thomas Greenough, father of the pastor, Rev. Wil- liam Greenough, who was elected November 8, 1781, presented a christening basin, two flagons and two dishes for the communion service. One who was pres- ent at the ordination service writes : "A small house and a little handful of people." Mr. Greenough's pastorate continued fifty years and two days. In 1812 the church was enlarged and a gallery, spire and belfry added. The house, when Dr. Gilbert began his ministry in West Newton, had fifty windows, above and below, without blinds, and two doors. The poet's , a new church, erected on land given for the purpose " dim, religious light" had no place there. The church was furnished with square pews, seats hung on hinges, and no "great waste of paint, outside or in." The gallery was occupied by children or tran- sient people, and the seats were never very full.

The second meeting-house was dedicated March 29, 1848. The parish ineluded that part of Waltham, south of Charles River, since ceded to Waltham by Newton, Auburndale, Newtonville and Lower Falls, a territory which then included only fifty-five or sixty dwelling-houses. Dr. Lyman Gilbert, then a young man, was elected colleague pastor and ordained Jnly 2, 1828. The new church was extensively repaired in 1870. A parsonage was ereeted in 1866. The church has had five pastors: Rev. William Green- ough, 1781-1831; Rev. Lyman Gilbert, 1828-56; Rev. Joseph P. Drummond, 1856-57 ; Rev. George B. Little, 1857-60; Rev. H. J. Patrick, 1860 -. The Sabbath-school was first held in a school-house, the pupils numbering from twenty to forty. The school was held only in summer. The Newton Sab- bath-school Union, embracing all the Sabbath-schools in the town, was formed in the church at West Newton.

First Baptist Church, Newton .- The first Baptist residing in Newton, of whom we have any account, was Mr. Jonathan Willard, of the Lower Falls. For

some years he and his daughter were alone, being members of a church in Boston. In 1749 Noah Par- ker was added, who was also a member in Boston. In connection with the preaching of George Whitefield a New Light Church was formed in the southeast part of Newton about 1740. The majority of the members, after a time, became Baptists, and the first Baptist Church, of which they were the nucleus, was organized July 5, 1780, the public services being held in the house of Mr. Noah Wiswall, since the estate of Deacon Luther Paul, opposite the lake in Newton Centre. Elhanan Winchester was an effective preacher among them, and many of his name were among the early members. Mr. Wiswall received forty pounds a quarter as rent for the room in which the meetings were held. Often, in mild weather, the congregation as- sembled under the large elm- which still overshadow the yard. Mr. Wiswall gave the land for the build- ing of the first church, which still stands, altered into a dwelling-house, on the west side of Centre Street, on the border of the pond, and where the congrega- tion continued to worship till December, 1836. It was fourteen years from the date of the vote to build till its completion, the congregation, in the mean time, worshiping in the unfinished building. The house was enlarged in 1803. In 1795 the society voted " to procure a stove for the warming of the meeting-house." It was also voted "that the singing be carried on in a general way by reading a line at a time in the fore- noon and a verse at a time in the afternoon." The last service held in the old edifice was the funeral of the aged pastor, MIr. Grafton, December, 1836, when by one of the members, Mrs. Anna (King) White, was ready for occupaney. The present stone edifice was erected in 1888. The following have been the pastors : Rev. Caleb Blood, 1780-87; Rev. Joseph Grafton, 1788-1836; Rev. F. A. Willard, 1835-38; Rev. S. F. Smith, 1842-54; Rev. O. S. Stearns, 1855-68; Rev. W. N. Clarke, 1869-80 ; Rev. Edward Braislin, 1881-86; Rev. L. C. Barnes, 1887 -.

First Religious Society, Newton Upper Falls. - A religious society was formed in Newton Upper Falls without a church and without denominational pledges, -the first in the village,-in consequence of the gift by the Elliott Manufacturing Company, of land for a meeting-house, that the people might be supplied with religious privileges without the necessity of traveling full two miles away from their homes. The meeting- house was begun in 1827, and dedicated February 27, 1828. The pulpit was supplied chiefly by Unitarian ministers. In 1832 the building was sold for a Method- ist Church, and the first religious society was dis- solved.

Universalist Church at. Newton Upper Falls .- A Universalist Church was organized at Newton Upper Falls in 1841, and a meeting-house erected on High Street, and dedicated in May, 1842. There were twenty-two proprietors. Rev. Samuel P. Skinner

NEWTON.

was the only pastor. He served about three years, after which the pulpit was occupied by various sup- plies. After a career of six or seven years the society was dissolved. The church building became useful as a village hall, denominated Elliott Hall for several years, and finally was utilized for a private residence.

The Second Baptist Church of Newton was organiz- ed at Newton Upper Falls in 1835, with fifty-five original members, dismissed from the First Baptist Church, Newton Centre. The meeting-house had already been built by proprietors, of whom Mr. Jonathan Bixby was the most prominent, and was dedicated March 27, 1833. The pastors have been Origeu Crane, 1836-40 ; C. W. Dennison, 1842-43; S. S. Leighton, 1846-47; Amos Webster, 1848- 54; William C. Richards, 1865-71.

Methodist Episcopal Church, Newton Upper Falls .- The church edifice of the "Religious Society of Newton Upper Falls" passed into the hands of the Methodist people in 1832, and the Methodist Church was organized November 11, 1832, with fifty- three members. The pastors best known have been Rev. Charles K. True, who was the first minister, aud Rev. Z. A. Mudge, known also as an author. Mar- shall S. Rice, of Newton Centre, bought the church edifice of the original proprietors for $2660 on his personal responsibility. In 1836, enlarged and im- proved, it was conveyed to the First Methodist Epis- copal Church in Newton. In 1833 a bell was placed in the tower, which served twenty-eight years, and, having been cracked, was replaced by a better one in 1861. The church has been since that date repeatedly enlarged and altered. Two large rock maple trees in front of the church were pulled up out of the grass in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, by Mr. Rice in 1835, and brought home in his chaise-box. Three similar trees in front of his house at Newton Centre, have a similar history.

St. Mary's Church, Newton Upper falls (Catholic) .- The first Roman Catholic services in Newton were held at the Upper Falls from time to time, as early as 1843, and there was a Roman Catholic missionary here from 1852 to 1864, who purchased an acre of land for a church site. The Catholic Church was built in 1867, and enlarged in 1875, so as to accommodate about 1000 hearers. The parish embraces a large territory, including the Catholic population of Need- ham, Newton Upper Falls, Newton Lower Falls and Newton Centre as far as Beacon Street.

St. Mary's Church, Newton Lower Falls (Episcopal) .- For more than fifty years St. Mary's Episcopal Church was the only church at Newton Lower Falls, and people of that persuasion in all Newton, Need- ham and Weston united in its support. April 7, 1812, an Episcopal parish was organized. Services were held first in the school-house, and afterwards in a hall at the corner of Main and Church Streets, con- ducted by candidates for the ministry. The parish

was incorporated in 1813. Mr. Samuel Brown, of Boston, gave the parish two acres of land for a church and cemetery. The corner-stone was laid by the Society of Free and Accepted Masons, September 29, 1813, and the house dedicated April 29, 1814. Bishop Griswold preached the dedication sermon. Services were conducted by various clergymen till November, 1822, when the Rev. Alfred L. Baury was ordained priest and rector. The number of families in the parish in 1847, when Mr. Baury preached his quarter- century anniversary sermon, was over one hundred. The rectors have been Rev. A. L. Baury, 1822-51; Rev. Henry W. Woods, 1851-53; Rev. Andrew Crosswell, 1853-56; Rev. Henry Burroughs, 1856- 58; Rev. A. F. de Costa, 1859; Rev. W. W. Sever, 1860-65; Rev. Joseph Kidder, 1865-68; Rev. R. F. Putnam, 1868-75; Rev. Henry Mackay, 1876- 82; Rev. B. T. Hutchins, 1883-84; Rev. William G. Wells, 1885 -.

Methodist Episcopal Church, Newton Lower Falls .- A separate charge, known as the Methodist Episco- pal Church of Needham and Newton Lower Falls. began to hold worship in Wales' Hall, Lower Falls, in April, 1867, and afterwards in Boyden Hall and Village Hall. A church edifice was erected and dedi- cated in 1889. The Village Hall was purchased by the society for its permanent place of worship, pre- vious to the erection of the church.

The Eliot Church, Newton .- Among the most effi- cient promoters of the Eliot Church, at Newton, were Deacon William Jackson and family, descendants of the founders of the First Church in the town of New- ton or Cambridge Village, as it was then called, 180 years before. The Eliot Church was organized in 1845 with thirty-seven members, thirty-one of whom were dismissed from the First Church to con- stitute the new body. 'The corner-stone of the First Church edifice was laid March 19, 1845, and the building dedicated, and at the same time the church re-organized by an Ecclesiastical Council, July 1, 1845. The first pastor was ordained December 3, 1845. The congregation increased so much, in con- nection with the gradual growth of the village, that better accommodations were demanded. The church was therefore sold, and removed a few yards farther north, and changed into a hall, called Eliot Hall, and afterwards destroyed by fire. A new church was erected on the site of the former one, very large and commodious, built of wood, with tall steeple, bell aud clock, and dedicated April 4, 1861. Cost, $42,500. So far as known, twenty-one young men of this church and congregation enlisted in the army during the war for the preservation of the Union. This church was burned in 1887, and the present edifice of stone took its place. It was dedicated in 1889. Pastors, Rev. William S. Leavitt, 1845-53; Rev. Lyman Cutler, 1854-55 ; Rev. J. W. Wellman, 1856-73; Rev. S. M. Freeland, 1875-78; Rev. Wolcott Calkins, 1880 -.

Unitarian Church, Newton :- The Unitarian Church

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

of Newton held its first meetings in Union Hall. The society was formed in 1851, and the Sabbath-school in 1852. Dr. Henry Bigelow was the first superin- tendent. The first pastor was Joseph C. Smith. The first church edifice was erected on the south side of Washington Street, and after having been occupied for several years, was changed into an armory for military drill, and the new and beautiful building of stone was erected on Farlow Park. During the war sixteen members of the congregation served in the army. Pastors : Rev. Joseph C. Smith, supply for four years; Rev. Edward J. Young, 1857-69 ; Rev. Eli Fay, 1870-73; Rev. George W. Ilosmer, 1873-79; Rev. F. B. Hornbrooke, 1879 -.

Newton Baptist Church .- Worship was begun by this society in Middlesex Hall, April 10, 1859; re- moved April, 1860, to Union Hall. The church was publicly recognized July 12, 1860. The first church building was ereeted at the corner of Washington and Hovey Streets, and dedicated March 16, 1864. When the cellar was dug, the remains of five Indians were found in the soil, two feet below the surface, also several arrow heads and copper coins, one of them dated 1720 or 1729, indicating that the spot might have been once an Indian burying-ground. Pastors : Rev. Gilbert Robbins, 1860-61; Rev. J. Chaplin, 1862-63; Rev. J. Tucker, Jr., 1865-70; Rev. Thomas S. Sampson, 1873-80; Rev. H. F. Titus, 1880-88; Rev. George E. Merrill, 1890 -. The old church edifice was sold and the location abandoned, and the new edifice of stone erected on Church Street, and dedi- eated in 1888. The plans were drawn by the celebrated architeet, HI. II. Richardson, Esq., who was the architect of Trinity Church, Boston.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 7

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