USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Milton > History of Milton > Part 3
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22
1662
Milton had been settled for almost a generation, yet there was still very little of it. Most of the houses were south of Milton Hill along the rough roadway that became Adams Street. The clapboarded Meeting House with its thatched roof stood near the crest at the point where Churchill's Lane led down into the hollow in which Brook Road now runs, and on uphill again to the vicin- ity of the cemetery, where two or three farmhouses then stood. What we now call Canton Avenue followed its present course down to Turner's Pond . and the large farm of the late John Glover of Dorchester, then recently pur- chased by Robert Vose. Another house or two existed in the general vicin- ity. The road seems to have ended about here, but some sort of a cartway extended on to the house of Andrew Pitcher, who lived on the north corner of today's Canton Avenue and Thacher Street. There was probably some rough roadway from here on up the line of Highland Street, for the first of the Wadsworths had his farm on the southeasterly slope of the hill, well away from any other house. Several farms had been started up on Brush Hill, far from the more settled part of the town. At the crossing of the Ne- ponset there was the little grist mill on the Dorchester side, with the miller's house, but nothing else, I believe, as the settlements in Dorchester were still somewhat to the north at this date. At the east end of town a cartway swung down into the marsh near Gulliver's Creek where the landing place then was. Another landing had already been established just below the grist mill, but on the Milton side of the Neponset.
By this time the Neponset Indians had been moved to the Ponkapoag Reservation, but there were probably a few stragglers camped near the low- er falls, at least part of the year, and others were employed as servants or farm hands. Since the Pequot War of almost a generation before, there had been no Indian disturbances, and the possibility was far from anyone's mind, hence there was no hesitancy in occupying scattered farms in the more wes- tern parts of the town.
23
GRIST MILL
PRUSH HILL
1
01
18
(Canton Ave)
NEPONSET
MINISTERIAL HOUSE
MEETING HOUSE
DANIEL'S TAVERN
(Churchill's Lane)
TOWN LANDING
WOLF PITS IN THIS AREA
(Adams St.)~
BLUE HILLS
MILTON About 1662 Pop. Est. 200-250 There were about 40 houses then in the Town. This map locates 32 of them. While those shown are not all precise, they are at least in the general vicinity. Sources : Ellen F. Vose, A. K. Teele, John A. Tucker, Milton Records E. P. H. Feb. 1954
The Story of the Town
Except for some building of scows and shallops in Gulliver's Creek, and perhaps a little fishing in Boston Bay, the sole occupation of all the inhabi- tants was farming. William Daniels was probably keeping a tavern on the north side of Adams Street a little way up the hill from Algerine Corner; he certainly was a few years later.1 That is all that Milton was at this time, a lit- tle hamlet on the road between Boston and the Plymouth Colony, with a few families engaged in simple farming.
We know relatively little about the life of this period, and the Town rec- ords are very scanty. We do know that the Meeting House had been built a few years previously, and at about this time or a little later there was a par- sonage slightly north of Brook Road and about halfway between Churchill's Lane and today's Randolph Avenue. Despite this, there was no formally or- ganized Church, nor would there be one for many years to come, a most un- usual omission, and one which it is surprising that the General Court over- looked. There were, however, various temporary preachers, and a couple of more permanent ones, who were never ordained because no formal Church existed.
I think it very likely that the Dorchester herd of cows and oxen were still pastured in the Central Avenue-Mattapan area-certainly there was no Mil- ton settlement near there to object. If we were able to go back and wander around the town, we would have seen scattered here and there one or more unpainted clapboarded farmhouses, usually with two stories and a central chimney, and each with some sort of barn2 and outhouses. Some of the old- er and cruder dwellings probably had thatched roofs, but the newer houses were shingled. The fences mostly would have been made of wooden rails set in posts, and we would have seen squealing pigs running around loose, with wooden board yokes around their necks, if it was late spring, summer, or early fall. These were designed to prevent them from grubbing and rooting among the crops. Many of them would also have had large iron rings in their noses put there for the same purpose. A considerable part of the town con-
1. In 1678 Daniels was licensed to sell beer, cider and wine, but not "strong water".
2. The barns were more what we today would call sheds. Examples are recorded which were in one case twenty feet square, in another twenty by twenty-four.
25
History of Milton
sisted of the old Indian fields, open pasture land. In parts of this we would have seen flocks of sheep tended by shepherds, and also herds of cows, as well as a number of hobbled horses. Other such animals would be free and unattended in fields enclosed in wooden fences. Stone walls would come la- ter as more fields were cleared.
At night we would often hear the wolves howling up in the Blue Hills, but this would not particularly disturb us as we were accustomed to them, and knew that they were cowards at heart. If it happened to be summer, we would note that the fields were covered with barley, rye, and Indian corn, principally the latter. We would have seen many pea vines, as well as most of the common vegetables with which we are familiar today. There of course would be some orchards of fruit trees, but probably still fairly young. In short, it was mostly a fairly open countryside, with a number of prosperous farms, comfortable, and yet not very far removed from the frontier stage, but with plenty to eat, and a little time to sit down and look around at what had been accomplished.
There is no record at all to tell us how large the settlement was, but from a count of the families then in the town, and of the old houses which are known to have existed by this period, I believe that there were about two score dwellings and perhaps two hundred and fifty inhabitants.
The town in those days was smaller in area than it is now. The southeast- erly boundary was then a line from the present limits in East Milton to the top of Great Blue Hill. This excluded all the present Hillside Street area, which was added in 1712, and the land around Houghton's Pond, annexed in 1754. Milton's bounds in those days included that part of today's Hyde Park which lies east of the Neponset. It was ceded to the then Town of Hyde Park in 1868.
26
1700
During the previous third of a century Milton increased considerably in size, nearly doubling in population. The road net grew materially, Brush Hill Road and most of Canton Avenue appeared, while Pleasant Street now extended from Algerine Corner to the southern end of Highland Street. A new Meeting House had been built at the Centre Street end of Vose's Lane, and Rev. Peter Thacher had moved from the old parsonage to his own house near our present Thacher Street at Pine Tree Brook. The Cemetery was at its present location, but of course very much smaller than it is today. The old Meeting House on Adams Street was now a schoolhouse, and there was a second one for the children of the western part of the town, probably situ- ated on Brush Hill Road near the head of Robbins Street. More farms had appeared on Brush Hill, and there were now others on Canton Avenue be- yond Pine Tree Brook. Today's Canton Avenue, then probably called the Taunton Road, extended south beyond the Blue Hills to the town line, where it connected with the road to Stoughton. At the lower falls of the Ne- ponset, the powder mill, a fulling mill, and a small house or two initiated the growth of Milton Village, but there was nothing else there, no tavern or store. The first farm appears south of the Blue Hills near Houghton's Pond.
The growth during the previous forty years was perhaps not quite as much as one would expect. At least a partial explanation for this was King Philip's War, which drove the frontier back to the very borders of Milton, and put a damper on expansion of the settlements for some little time to come. The Punkapoag Indians all remained loyal, but howling savages from the south and west got unpleasantly close to the outskirts of the town. The cost of this War, both in blood and in money, set New England back many a long year.
We know a great deal more of the life and times of this period, although the Town records are still far from satisfactory. A formal Church had been established in 1678, and Rev. Peter Thacher was ordained as its minister.
27
GRIST MILL
BRUSH HILL
POWDER MILL & FULLING MILL
(Brook Rd.)
(Canton Ave))
POUND
'NEPONSE
(Vose's Lane) (Centre St.)
BADCOCK'S SHIPYARD
MILLER'S
TAVERN
(Squantum St.)
(Pleasant St.)
BLUE
HILLS
...
MILTON
About 1700
Pop. Est. 350-400 There were about 64 houses then in the Town. This map locates 5 1 of them. While those shown are not all precise, they are at least in the general vicinity. Sources: 1700 Tax List, Ellen F. Vose, A. K. Teele, John A. Tucker
REV. PETER THACHER
(Brush Hill Rd.)
MEETING HOUSE-
The Story of the Town
He kept a detailed diary for the first few years that he was in town, a most interesting manuscript which goes quite a way in preserving a little of the life of the period. Milton was now a well-established country community, relatively small in size, but in a favorable location on a main artery of travel, with good landings and wharves on tidal waters, and within easy distance of the capital of the Province. Roads must have been relatively passable, for Mr. Thacher thought nothing of going to Boston and returning the same day, and he frequently visited Dedham and Weymouth.
ROBERT TUCKER HOUSE
The oldest house still standing in Milton, it represents the second and more am- bitious type of house construction.
The Tuckers had arrived in town. Robert, who built what is the oldest house still standing, had settled on Brush Hill Road at Robbins Street, and the family was soon going to spread out all over that district and to the south of Hillside Street. The first Davenport was to come to Milton in a very few years, and eventually almost every inhabitant of the western part of the town who was not a Tucker would seem to have been a Davenport. Voses were commencing to do their share in populating Milton, and Adamses, Ruggles, Clapps, Crehores, Blakes, Swifts, Houghtons and Cranes were here, not to forget Sumners, Pierces and Fennos.
Old men were now alive who had been born south of the Neponset, and
29
History of Milton
Milton was an old established town. I was about to write village, but that is just what it was not, as it was an area of scattered farms, and had no central training field with its Meeting House and a group of dwellings such as we would expect. The most densely settled part was still around Algerine Cor- ner, near which was John Daniels' tavern, but even this was not really a vil- lage, just a scattering of farm houses along a country road. The Meeting House was now at a convenient centralized location, but there were few dwellings in its vicinity.
The people were hard-working farmers, but there was time for a little play. There are records of parties going up into the Blue Hills on picnics, or on a boat trip down the harbor to visit Capt. Clapp, and see the fort at Cas- tle Island which he commanded. One visited around with the neighbors, and a group sometimes dropped in of an evening on Rev. Peter Thacher and sang psalms, or listened to him play his "bull fiddle" (viola da gamba).1 Mrs. Thacher probably produced some currant wine as the evening drew to an end, and Mr. Thacher may even have taken one or two of the older men into his study and given them a little glass of the "cordial water" which he had distilled in his alembic, while they talked over serious Town or Church matters.
The great relaxation and recreation, of course, was the Sunday trip to the Meeting House, where one met people from all over town, and picked up the latest gossip and scandal, talked crops and politics, and perhaps did a little courting between sermons.
We have by this time a well-established farming community, complete with schools and Church. There now probably was some tavern in the west- ern part of the town, but the taverns were still primarily for travellers. There is no record of any store, but Boston was not far, and it is possible that both Braintree and Dorchester might then have had a shop or two. There was a blacksmith, Stephen Kinsley, somewhere in the vicinity of Milton Hill, per- haps near Algerine Corner, but his exact location is unknown.
Stone walls had, at least partly, replaced the older wooden fences, and a
1. This was quite an unusual thing, as most of the Puritan ministers of this period strongly dis- approved of any sort of instrumental music.
30
The Story of the Town
pound for strayed cattle and "horsbes" had been built on Canton Avenue directly opposite the present Library.
Traffic to and from the South Shore, Plymouth, and the Cape must have made Adams Street quite an active thoroughfare in those days, and down in the Neponset marshes under the bluff of Milton Hill the Badcocks were building ships of real size. As you crossed the bridge over the Neponset you would have heard the clack of the grist mill, and the thumping of the fulling mill over the sound of the falling waters. Just what kind of a noise the pow- der mill made I am not prepared to say.
Town government had developed into something approaching its final shape, and, had we attended Town Meeting, we would have easily recog- nized much of our present form and practice. When the Constable came around to collect our taxes we would have probably tried to pay them all in the form of dried peas, Indian corn, and barley, while he would have insist- ed on a third of it in hard money. If it was Mr. Thacher's rate which he was collecting, he would probably have asked us to bring it to the parsonage, but if it was a Town or County rate, we would have dumped the produce into his cart.
Daniel Thomas Vose Huntoon, in his History of Canton, gives two little stories that are worth including here, even if they are not directly concerned with Milton. At about this period Edward Pitcher, son of Samuel, who late in life moved from Milton to Stoughton, fell into a wolf pit and found a wolf there ahead of him! This same Pitcher was troubled by a disappearance of some of his vegetables, so he dug a pit and carefully concealed its opening. The next morning he found it occupied by one of his neighbors, who ever afterward was nicknamed "Pitcher's Wolf".
There is no record of the population of the town in 1700, but from a study of the tax lists and of the houses known to have existed, I estimate it at a little under four hundred, living in some three score dwellings.
31
UPPER MILLS (Mattapan)
PAPER & SLITTING MILLS
GRIST, SAW, CHOCOLATE & PAPER MILLS (Also Fulling & Snuff on Dorchester side)
BRUSH
NEPONSET VILLAGE
HILL
DANIEL VOSE'S
HOUSE & STORE
(Robbins St.)
(Reedsdale Rd.)
GOV. HUTCHINSON
BENT'S
POUND (1729?)
TAVERNS
S. II.
..
S. II.
CCEMETERY
+(Highland St.)
(Gun Hill St.)/
BLUE
S. H.
HILLS
(Hillside St.)7
Gs. HI. = SCHOOL
MILTON
About 1770
Pop. 900-1,000 There were about 125 houses then in the Town. This map locates 117 of them. While those shown are not all precise, they are at least in the general vicinity. Sources : E. J. Baker, Ellen F. Vose, A. K. Teele, John A. Tucker.
NEPONSET
1770
During the two generations since 1700, Milton had a considerable growth and the first village appeared. The most important change in the road net was the extension of Hillside Street out beyond Houghton's Pond, the growth of the paths which are now Gun Hill Street and Highland Street in- to roads, and the construction of Robbins Street. That part of today's Reeds- dale Road between Central Avenue and Canton Avenue had also made its appearance.
The Meeting House had stood at Vose's Lane and Centre Street for inany years, but in 1719-201 it was proposed to move it up to the vicinity of the present Town Hall. The scanty records show that there was a tremendous squabble at the March Town Meeting of 1719-20. It was voted not to build on Nathaniel Pitcher's land, not to build on Church land, not to choose a committee to decide where the house should be, not to petition the General Court to determine the site, and not to put it on neighbor Trott's land! Al- together it sounds as if Town Meeting had gotten itself into a thoroughly cantankerous frame of mind. At a meeting two months later it was decided to put the matter up to the General Court. It would appear that this body ducked the issue, and in January of 1720-21 it was voted to elect a Town committee by written vote, an unusual action, to treat with Nathaniel Pit- cher about a site on his land. Some months later it was found that he could not give a good title, and in August attempts were again made to get the General Court into the row, and to approve a location near today's Wendell Park. Twenty-seven prominent citizens, including four women, disapproved of this location so strongly that they asked to have their names recorded, an extraordinary procedure. Next year a site on Ensign Samuel Swift's land was turned down. Then the whole matter appears to have been dropped for some time, until at last in 1727 it was decided to build on the approximate
1. Until 1750 the new year was considered to start with April and a date falling in Jan., Feb., or Mar. was written with both years.
33
History of Milton
site of the present Unitarian Church. Surely we may say that much time and thought was given to selecting the location where our civic center stands to- day.
During this period Milton Village came into being. At the start of the cen- tury there seems to have been nothing on the Milton side except the powder mill and a fulling mill, with perhaps a cottage or two. In 1706 Rev. Joseph Belcher of Dedham received the Town's permission to build a sawmill on the Milton side east of the Plymouth Road. In 1728 this mill had paper- making machinery installed in it, and a house for the foreman was built near by. Within a year or two William Badcock, son of Enoch, and the second shipbuilder of that name, put up a house where the steps go down to the present parking space on Wharf Lane. Before many years had passed this house had become an inn.
A prominent citizen of Milton now makes his first appearance, Daniel Vose, son of Capt. Thomas Vose, who lived on Canton Avenue near Ather- ton Street. In 1760 at the age of nineteen he formed a partnership with his cousin Joseph Fenno, bought a piece of land on the site of the present As- sociates Building, and started a store. Next year Fenno married a Dorches- ter Robinson, and built the house now standing just south of the Jenney Gas- oline Station. Within a very few years Fenno was drowned in the Neponset, and Vose bought his share in the partnership. By this time Vose had mar- ried Rachel, daughter of Jeremiah Smith, who owned the paper mill. Over the period up to the outbreak of the Revolution he built up a very prosper- ous business, wholesale to a considerable extent, and became a leading citi- zen of the town. Thus we find commerce being introduced into the Village where industry had already existed, and Milton acquired a healthy little center which was to show considerable further growth.
In other parts of the town there had been a steady spreading out of new farms. In 1700 there had been no settlement in the Hillside Street area, but a considerable number of farms and a schoolhouse have now appeared there. The old records always refer to this as "Scotch Woods",2 and it was only in
2. The derivation of this name has never been satisfactorily solved despite various suggestions and theories.
34
WENTWORTH & STONE SAW & CHOCOLATE MILL
1765
POWDER MILL Blew up 1744
GRIST MILL
{ANDREW
MCKENZIE
FULLING MILL
SNUFF MILL
C 1760
(Adams St.)
BRIDGE REBUILT 1765
Plymouth Rd.
WM. BABCOCK (Badcock)
FENNO & VOSE STORE 1760
1439161
JER. SMITH
PAPER MILL
SECOND POWDER MILL BECOMES PRESTON'S FULLING MILL 1757
LEDGE
WHARF
K K KI
*
1
-
1
1
1
MILTON VILLAGE 1765
(Canton Ave)
FENNO c 1760
NEPONSET RIVER
E. P. H. Jan. 1952
History of Milton
STOFFOYE HOUSE
comparatively recent times that it came to be written "Scott's Woods". A glance at the map of this period will show that most of the town, except for the Blue Hills themselves, and the swampy flood plain of Pine Tree Brook, was now well covered by farms, the houses lying along the roads, and the fields, pastures, and wood lots extending back to the rear. A little industrial settlement had grown up at Mattapan, but it was very small.
A new element was first introduced during these years, the summer resi- dent. Early in the eighteenth century some wealthy Bostoniaus decided that a place in the country would be very pleasant in summer. The first of these came originally perhaps as much for business as for pleasure. Jonathan Jackson, a wealthy merchant, built the slitting mill at Mattapan, and also a large house on the other side of the road, where he could live in summer and at the same time keep an eye on his mill.
Governor Jonathan Belcher was born in Cambridge, became a successful
36
BADLAM MIRROR
This painting, supposed to have been inade by Gen. Badlam, shows part of Milton Village just before 1800. The view is south and east and Milton Hill should (but does not) show in the background. In center foreground on the Dorchester side is shown the first fire engine house, while beyond it at the extreme left is the old paper mill. One of the small buildings in center background is Daniel Vose's dis- tillery, and under the arch appears John Lillie's shop.
1774 POUND
The Story of the Town
merchant and politician, and eventually was commissioned Governor of Massachusetts, taking office in 1730. About this same time he bought land east of Algerine Corner on the south side of Adams Street. The old Holman house was on his land, and he used it as a summer place for a number of years, meanwhile planning to erect a more imposing mansion house. He built an avenue to the site of the proposed new house. Dr. Teele says that the road construction was done by Provincial troops, a regiment working for a week and then being relieved by another, but I think this very improb- able. Provincial regiments existed only on paper in those days, and it is hard to imagine an independent New England militiaman working as a laborer for the personal benefit of a governor. Today's Governor's Road may or may not have been built along the line of this avenue, but it certainly was named after Governor Belcher. He was later appointed Governor of New Jersey, and died there in 1757. His widow returned to Milton, and lived in the old Holman house until it burned in January 1776. The house was soon rebuilt and today still stands at 401 Adams Street.
William Foye, Treasurer of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, was a nephew of Governor Belcher. In 1733 he bought the old John Daniels Tav- ern on Adams Street, tore it down, and put up a large house which he used as a summer residence. Nine years later Thomas Hutchinson, then a weal- thy merchant, active in the service of the Province, built a modest summer place at the top of Milton Hill, where for many years he passed his summers, and by the outbreak of the Revolution his winters as well.
Foye died before the Revolution, but his widow continued to live in the house. She moved to Stoughton during the war, but returned afterwards to Milton. Gov. Hutchinson's house was sold by Massachusetts, passed through various hands and eventually was torn down some ten years ago, by which time it had undergone extensive alterations.
We may summarize by saying that by 1770 Milton had become a fairly large and prosperous town, mostly agricultural, but with important indus- trial developments at Mattapan and at the Lower Falls, and an active com- mercial and shipping undertaking centered around Daniel Vose's store and wharf in Milton Village. A few wealthy summer residents had made their
37
History of Milton
GOV HUTCHINSON HOUSE
appearance, but the Revolution would put a stop to them, and it would be many years before they were to appear again on the scene. The first census of Milton that we have was taken in 1765, and showed seven hundred and forty-three inhabitants, and there were twelve hundred and thirteen only eleven years later. In 1770 my estimate would be a little under a thousand souls living in some one hundred and twenty-five houses.
A property census made in 1761 for purposes of establishing taxes showed the town to have the following:
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