History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 75

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 75

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Stone walls and dams and excavations may yet establish the faith of the builder of the tower to the Norumbega of the early French and English navi- gators, said to have been in the Vinland of the Norse- man, and possibly that the mythical city that figures on so many early maps may have been located where now are the wharves and streets of this Watertown, by the head of tide-water on the river Charles.

Even if the location of the ancient and almost mythical Norumbega in this town is a mistake, it has already invested these slopes with a wonderful poetic interest, and will lead many an investigator to turn the soil with more care and to examine the surface of the earth with the hope of possibly tracing the footsteps of former Scandinavian inhabit- ants. Even if the truth of these earlier navigators to priority of discovery to these northern New Eng- land shores should be well established, it would not detract from the honor due to the bold Columbus, whose faith led him to find the West India Islands, even against the derision of his most faithful follow- ers. What Prof. Horsford claims to be so far estab- lished, he is abundantly able, with a wealth of illustration and typography and quotation from early writers and a good appearance of logical reasoning, to show.

INDIANS .- When our early settlers came to occupy these banks, there seemed to be a well established village of Indians near the falls at the head of tide- water. That the highlands along the banks fron Cambridge cemetery nearly to Watertown bridge had been for a long time the dwelling place of Indians engaged in fishing seems to be attested by the abund- ance of Indian remains found in the soil in the shape of stone implements of various kinds, as well as in some places evidences of Indian graves. One can repeat the answer of Thoreau with hope of finding equally good illustrations anywhere along these banks. When, on the shores of Walden Pond, he was asked where one could find Indian remains, ho said "Anywhere, if one has eyes to see," as he

1 Copyright 1890, by Solon F. Whitney.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

poked out of the soil, with his foot, some Indian arrow -heads.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION AND LIMITS .-- Water- town is pleasantly located, for the most part on the north bank of the Charles River, between Cambridge on the east and Waltham on the west. A portion of the town opposite the principal village lies on the south side of the river, next the garden city of New- ton, while on the north it has Belmont, which sepa- rates it from Arlington. At present of very limited area, almost the smallest town of Middlesex County, it has Mount Auburn Cemetery, of one hundred and thirty-six acres, on its southeastern corner, and the limited States Arsenal, occupying one hundred aeres of its southernmost border, stretching along for a half-mile on the bank of the river. It is most com- pactly built about the falls, at the head of navigation of the Charles River, about eight miles from Boston, with which it is connected by a branch of the Fitchburg Railroad, by a branch of the West End Horse Railroad by the way of Cambridge, and by the main line of the Albany Railroad, a station of which is within a half-mile of the town hall. This latter station, although not within the town limits, greatly accommodates her people wishing to go to the westerly or sonthern portion of the city of Boston, or westward along the Mbany Railroad, or southerly along the Old Colony Railroad or its branches. The town is at present only about three miles in length from east to west, and scarcely a mile in width.

It was not always so insignificant in area. The history of its location, of its boundaries at different times, of its successive losses in territory and of the causes which led to these changes is interesting and instructive, and may form a fitting introduction to a larger history.

Sir Richard Saltonstall, Rev. Geo. Phillips, and their companions, of whom we shall speak later, soon after their arrival from England, and the removal of the colony from Salem to Charlestown, probably be- fore the middle of July of 1630, went up the Charles River,and, having found a suitable landing and con- venient fields for agriculture, brought thither their servants, their cattle, of which they had liberal store, and their goods, and began a settlement, which after- wards ( September 7th) was, by vote of the Court of Assistants, called Watertown.

The vote -- " It is ordered, that Trimountaine shall be called Boston ; Mattapan, Dorchester; and the towne upon Charles Ryver, Watertown."

The location of this landing is with little doubt the same as that which continued for many years to be the town landing, shown on the map in the archives of the State, in the secretary's office,-the map of 1712. This binding, known more recently as Gerry's Land- ing (also called in ohl records and deeds ns " the landing." "Oliver's landing," and "landing near Samuel's hill ), is below Mt. Anburn and the Cam- bridge Cemetery, near the present location of the

Cambridge Ilospital. It has been made quite noted by being selected as the most probable site of Lief's houses, by Professor Horsford in his claim that here the Northmen landed, more than six hundred years before the foundation of this Colony. However that may be, the reasons given by the professor for this particular landing-place for the Northmen are good a priori reasons why Sir Richard Saltonstall should select this spot for his landing. Traditions and all the indirect evidences of history also point to this spot as the landing, and the immediate vicinity as the location of the settlement which, we have seen, early received the name of Watertown.

It is well to dwell a little on this point, as it is the key to much given in connection with the early his- tory. The city of Cambridge in 1883 appointed a committee of the Board of Aldermen, who made, the next winter, an exhaustive report on Gerry's Landing, accompanied with plans and anthorities which places the subject beyond question.

"The landing was the original town-landing for Watertown, and, with the way leading from it, is mentioned in the early records of the town soon after its settlement in 1630, and continued a part of Water- town till annexed to Cambridge, April 19, 1754, in a grant of the General Court of the Province of Massa- chusetts Bay." It was here on the banks of the river that Sir Richard Saltonstall selected the site of his future home, to the north and east of the landing, on land now owned in part by the Cambridge Hospital.

In the Watertown Records, Division of Lands, p. 98, quoted as above, is the following : “ Sir Richard Saltonstall, 1, one honsestall of sixteen acres by esti- mation, bounded the north-east with Thomas Brigan (Brigham) and Robert Keie, the South-east with the river, the south-west with the highway, and the north- west, George Phillips, granted him."

When we come to consider the persons who com- posed the earliest band of settlers of the town, their minister, their buildings, church and houses, we shall find that here, on territory now no longer a part of the territory of Watertown, was located the town which, with the exception of the sea-ports, Charlestown and Boston, and the probable exception of Dorchester, antedates all other towns in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and which, from its inland situation and its being the open door to all the country beyond, was "a hive from which swarmed the people who settled a large part of the rest of New England," from which have gone out continually men and women to become famous in all parts of this broad nation.

To repeat, for the sake of emphasis, the " Town " of Watertown of 1630, 231, and perhaps '32 was no part of the Watertown of to-day. The location is swallowed up in Cambridge.

THE BOUNDS OF WATERTOWN .-- The bounds of Watertown have undergone great changes, both in the minds of men and on the maps of the country. At first there was no idea of limit except the limit

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placed by the charter and the convenience of the early settlers. By the charter the Massachusetts Bay Colony was entitled to enter upon all lands from three miles south of the Charles River to three miles north of the Merrimack. Charlestown on one side and Boston on the other side of Charles River near the sea were early chosen as the sea-ports, and began to be settled at once in 1630. Watertown was the first inland town. It was not limited on any side by any possible barrier to immense growth. London would not need more land than was possible to it in 1630. Charlestowu and Boston were mere peninsulas. In accordance with the words of the charter the lands of the colony stretched away one knew not how far, " from the Atlantic to the South Sea."

But her people were mostly humble farmers. Even Sir Richard Saltonstall, one of the wealthiest men of the new colony, the first assistant of the Governor in the government, who had brought good store of cattle and numerous servants, wished to herd these his cat- tle within narrow limits, where he could find them, and although each agriculturist wished a goodly number of acres for his farm, he wished also for safety against unknown savages, to be no farther away from his fellows than the needs of his farm and his cattle would require. With the traders the case was some- what different. They wished to be settled together as compaetly as possible. Their interest in their commodities called for protection from the savages. Hence within six months they began to look about for a convenient place to build a fortified town, -a fort, --- "a pallysadoe." In that part of the territory of Watertown which extended towards Charlestown a spot was selected as "a fit place for a fortified town," and in 1631 Deputy-Governor Thomas Dudley and others here erected houses. Governor Winthrop put up the frame of a house, which it is true he took down again and carried the next year to Boston, which he probably saw would be the most fitting place for com- merce and for the government.

In February, 1631-32, it was voted that "there should be three-score ponnds levyed out of the several plantations within the lymitts of this pattent towards the makeing of a pallysadoe aboute the new town."' Thus a new town, chosen as a convenient one for a fortified capital or home of the government, began to be built up on the east of " the towne," the bounds of which is the subject of onr inquiry.

No definite bounds were established between them for several years, until the people began to build near each other and the convenience of the tax-gatherers required some definite limita.

" William Colbran, John Johnson and Abraham Palmer, being ap- poynted, March 4, 1634-35, by the General Conrt to lay out the bounds betwixte Waterton and Newe Towne, did make this returo unto the Courte, 7th April, 1635 : ' It is agreed by us, whose names are here underwritten, that the bounds betwen Waterton & Newe Towne shall stand as they are already, from Charles Ryver to the great Fresh Pond, & from the tree marked by Water Towne and Newe Towne on the south east syde of the pound, ovor the pond, to a white poplar tree on the

north west syde of the pond, and from that tree upp into the country nore west & by west, upon a straight lyne by a meridien compasso ; and further, that Waterton shall have one hundredth rodds in length above the weire, and one-hundreth rodd beneath the weire in length, & three score rodd in breadth from the ryver on the sonthe syde thereof, and all the rest of the ground on thet syde of the river to lye to Newe Towne,'

" WILLIAM COLBRAN. " JOHN JOHNSON , "ABRAHAM PALMER. "

These boundary lives between Watertown and Cambridge were again confirmed by vote of General Court, 13th of March, 1639.

Here, after five years' growth and gradual encroach - ment npon the bounds that might easily have been claimed by early Watertown men, the General Court limits their spreading both on the east side and on the north side and by the river, with the small ex- ception about the " weare " on the south side. Only possible room left to grow in was to the west and southwest. To the fortifying of this " Newe Towne " on the east, Watertown was required to contribute the same amount as Boston, namely, ES, which was more than any other town in the Colony, thus showing probably, as the Governor and the wealthy traders lived in Boston, that. Watertown was then, as it con- tinued to be for several years, the most populous town in the Colony. To the west it might, under the char- ter, extend its limits indefinitely towards the Sonth Sea. There was, however, evidently, from the action in regard to the fortifications at Cambridge, a fecling that it was necessary to organize compact communities for defence against the savages, and perhaps the early settlers of Watertown had never contemplated the extension of their territory far from their first settle- ment, which soon began to be called "the town," in distinction from the more sparsely-settled country over which her people scattered in search of better lands. It is certain that in 1635, when there were large arrivals of people from England and consider- able confidence had been acquired in the peaceful or harmless character of the Indians, that settlers had pushed up the Charles River and westward to another river, which ran northward towards the Merrimack. By vote of the General Court on the 3d of September, 1635, " It is ordered that there shall be a plantation settled, aboute two myles above the falls of Charles Ryver, on the northeast syde thereof, to have ground lyeing to it on both sides of the ryver," etc.

Afterwards on the 8th September of the following year, 1636, it was "ordered that the plantation to bec setled above the falls of Charles Ryver, shall have 'hree years' immunity from public charges as Concord had, . . . and the name of the said plantation is to be Dedham.

The same court that ordered the plantation "above the falls of Charles Ryver," Dedham, ordered, "that there shall be a plantation at Musketequid, and that there shall be six miles of land square belong to it, . . . and that the name of the place shall be Con- cord."

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Thus on the southwest the town of Watertown was limited by the incorporation of Dedham, and on the northwest by the incorporation of Concord.

As the lands of Watertown were gradually filled up and some felt straitened for want of room, they naturally looked westward towards the pleasant meadows along the river "that runs towards Con- cord," and, greatly pleased by the prospect of posses. sions along that pleasant river, with its sedgy bank- and its grassy upland slopes, they finally petitioned the General Court for permission to go thither to found a new town. On the 20th November, 1637, it is recorded in the records of the General Court held at Newtowne (Cambridge) : " Whereas, a great part ot the chiefe inhabitants of Watertown have peti tioned this court, that in regard of their straitnes of accommodation and want of medowe, they might have leave to remove, and settle a plantation upon the ryver which runs to Concord, this court, having respect to their necessity, doth grant their petition.' It provided what should be done if said inhabitants of Watertown did not, to the number of thirty families or more, actually settle on the land,- ordered that they " shall have power to order the seitnation of the towne, and the proportioning of lots, and all other liberties as other towns have under the proviso aforesaid." "September 4, 1639, it is ordered that the new plantation by Concord shall be called Sudbury."

Thus was Watertown entirely circumscribed, and thus, although there are no very early maps, it is possi- ble to fix quite definitely the entire bounds of the town when its bounds came to be defined. Whatever indefinite ideas its early settlers may have had pre- viously to this, they henceforth, to obtain more room, must go beyond the bounds of other towns and settle in the boundless wilderness beyond. That they asked for and received grants of such extraneous portions of land for special services, as after the Pequot and again after the Narraganset war, we may have occa- sion to show. From the largest of such grants the town of Westminster on the slopes of Wachusett was largely made. In granting to the new town Con- cord six miles square, the General Court, from the want of exact surveys, unwittingly gave to Concord a portion of territory already included within the limits of Watertown. For this they granted two thousand acres of land afterwards located on the side of Wachusett. Whether Watertown ever profited by her part of this territory does not appear; Weston and Waltham sold their portion. But henceforward the changes in her territorial possessions, like those which have proceeded, will be of division, of curtail- ment Watertown henceforth, by division within, or by want of a common interest, suffers loss of territory, lo sof lesbitants, which too often the people were, after long contest, too willing to part company with, till now, when it is whispered that Belmont wants a portion on the north and Newton has long clamored

for a large piece on the south, and Cambridge has hardly recovered from her surfeit of grave-yards on the east, one can hardly know what our children's children will find to which the honored name of Watertown can legally be affixed.

Let us look a little more closely into this process of division, and follow the geographical changes in boundaries as they were made.

As to the manner of dividing the lands among the freemen of the town, we will speak later. The bounds of the town were hardly fixed before they began to settle the outermost portions in systematic manner. On October 14, 1638, it was "Ordered that the farmes granted shall begin at the nearest meddow .to Dedham line, beyond the linernnneth at the end of ye great dividenta, parallel to the line at the end of the Towne bounds, and so to go on successively from Ded- ham Bounds," etc. The earliest map preserved in the archives of the State is a map of a portion of the extreme southwest corner of the town, next to the Dedham line,giving the location of lines running east and north near "Nonesuch Pond," which lies partly in Sudbury.

This ancient map, bearing the date of 1687, gives the lines in position with reference to this Nonesuch Pond, and their direction by the compass, thus de- termining the boundary line between Watertown and Dedham, afterwards Needham, and later still, the line between Weston and Wellesley on the sonth, while on the west the line in position and direction between Watertown and Sudbury, now between Weston and Wayland. By continuing this line in a northerly direction until we meet the six miles square of Concord, we have the early western boundary. Of course this was fixed after many measurements and surveys by committees appointed by the towns, but this remains substantially the boundary between Weston and Wayland to this day.

The boundary on the east, between Cambridge and Watertown, has been changed several times, always at the expense of territory for Watertown. At first, as reported to the General Court in 1635, it was near what is now Sparks Street and Vassal Lane thence across Fresh Pond to a certain poplar tree on the northwest side; thenee by a straight line northwest by west, eight miles into the country, till it meet the west line between Sudbury and Watertown, or rather would have met it at an angle beyond and above Walden Pond, had not that portion been cut off'by the grant to Concord of six miles square.

Frequently during a period of many years after the apportionment of lands to the 114 townsmen, in 1637, the division of the lands at the West Farms was a source of disagreement and contention at the regular and at irregularly called meetings of the town. The historian of Westou will doubtless show how delight- ful those fields were, and what objeets of contention among all the townsmen, who had naturally equal right to some possession among them ; how many pro-

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minent men were drawn away from the older settle- ment to gain by occupancy these farms; of the remote- ness from church privileges, and from schools ; of the injustice of church rates and other taxes, which were spent where they could not easily profit by them, till finally, March 13, 1682-83, it was voted in town-meet- ing that "those who dwell on west of Stony Brook be freed from school tax;" and November 10, 1685, it was "voted that the farmers' petition should be suspended as to an answer to it until it pleaseth God to settle a minister among us." In 1692 a town-meeting was held to decide upon a site for a new meeting-house, but there was so great excitement and such differences of opinion among the people, that the Governor and Council were called in to decide the matter. The Governor and Council were unable to please either the people on the "Farms" or the people in the east part ofthe town. In 1694, at a town-meeting, the east bounds of the West Farms Precinct were fixed at Beaver Brook, but the General Court, in 1699, fixed them at Stony Brook. At the May session of the General Court the petition praying for leave "To set up the public worship of God amongst theinhabitants of the west end of Watertown" was granted, the farmers having been exempted from ministerial rates the preceding year. After long and vexatious con- tention the act for the incorporation of Weston was passed, on the 1st of January, 1713. Thus there was cut off from the territory of the old town nearly half of its area.

The next reduction of area came with the incor- poration of Waltham in 1738, which took about six- tenths of the lands left to her. Before Weston was incorporated that part was called the West Precinct (Weston), this the Middle Preeinct (Waltham) and the eastern portion the East Precinct. With the in- corporation of Weston, the part now Waltham be- came the West Precinct. The incorporation of Wes- ton took away about 10,372 acres, of Waltham about 8891 acres and left the old town only 3833 acres ; this was less than a sixth of the area of the three precincts together.

In April, 1754, a portion of the easternepart of the town was joined to Cambridge-all that part between the most northern bend of the river, near where Sparks Street now runs and along Vassal Lane to Mt. Auburn Cemetery. This took away, probably, most of the lands owned by Sir Richard Saltonstall and his early associates, the cluster of dwellings called " the town." The town of Watertown still re- taiued its right to the wharf and landing on the river for a century longer.

In 1859 all that part of the town north of Belmont Street was set off to Belmont, so-called. This was the result of a long struggle and a fierce contest like each other exeision of territory and loss of inhabitants. By this act, 1446 acres were taken from the town.

In 1704-5 a committee was appointed to find out · the line between Watertown and Newton on the 21-iii

south side of Charles River. The committee reported in 1705 the line nearly as at present represented on the map on the sonth side, giving by estimation about 88 acres. They have at different times been increas- ed, till at present, ineluding Water, Boyd and Cook's Ponds, they include one hundred and fifty acres.1

The last excision of territory was arranged amica- bly with Cambridge, she buying the lands of the owners and paying the town of Watertown $15,000 for loss of taxable property for lands taken between Mt. Auburn Cemetery and the river for the Cambridge Cemetery, and authorized by aet of the General Conrt, which transferred the Winchester estate to Cam- bridge ; also the road passing between Mt. Auburn and Cambridge Cemeteries.

There now remain within the bounds of the town including Charles River, the marshes, the ponds, Mlt. Auburn and Catholie Cemeteries, according to the surveys of Henry Crafts; 2668.25 acres, of about 4} square miles. The number of acres taxed in 1890, is 2027.

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE LANDS WITHIN THE ANCIENT BOUNDARIES .- The whole town, even in its greatest extension, lies mostly along the north banks of the Charles River, which finds its way irregularly over the drift, the broad deposits of sands and clays which fill the broad valley between Arling- ton Heights and Prospect Hill on the north and west and the somewhat elevated lands of Newton on the south. Beyond the southernmost limits of the old town, say in what was old Dedham (now Needham and Wellesley) the river gradually descends from its course through a higher plain, elevated say about one hundred and fifty feet above the sea, to the level above Waltham, which is thirty or forty feet only above the sea, and then by gentle falls here and at the Bleachery, at Bemis, and finally at the paper- mill in Watertown village, to mingle with the braek- ish waters of our higher tides from Boston harbor. The rocks which underlie this region seem to be slates and conglomerates-ancient rocks helonging to the lower strata of the earth's crust, from above which, in the progress of the geologic ages, all later fossil-bearing rocks havebeen removed by the process of plowing by the glaciers, whose traces, well marked in direction are now and then brought to view, as on the slate ledges on Morse's field. The hills and plains as well, as the geologists inform us, are but slight in- equalities in the general plain once smoothed otl' by a sheet of ice a mile in thickness. The depressious in the general level, like our ponds, perhaps mark the position of some stranded portion of ice when the advancing heat gradually drove the ice-field back towards the North, around which the currents drifted the sands and gravels which form their banks. By boring we know that the level of the bed-rocks dip below the sea here in our town, although their harder

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 75

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