USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > History of Newton, Massachusetts : town and city, from its earliest settlement to the present time, 1630-1880 > Part 75
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Joseph Fuller died January 5, 1740, aged eighty-eight years ; his wife Lydia, in 1726, aged seventy years.
TIMOTHY JACKSON, father of the Hon. William Jackson, was for thirty years a very useful citizen of the town of Newton. In March, 1780, he was elected a member of the School Committee, and also one of the committee to raise men for the army. And from that date until he was disabled by .
* DEED OF GIFT .- Edward Jackson to Joseph and Lydia Fuller, 1680, This present witnesseth that I, Edward Jackson, have given to Joseph Fuller, and to my daughter Liddia his wife, Twenty accers of land, lying and being vppon the South West corner of the farme which I bought of Mr. Broadstreete, and also I have sold some tenne accers more adioyning to the foresayd Twenty, as it is layd out and Bounded by David Fiske of Cambridge bounds Surveyor; also I doe by these presents acknowledge that I have receaved the sume of six pounds in money in, and his father John Fuller is to pay sixeteene more as followeth, upon the first of March in the year 1681, and five pound in the first of March, 1682, and the last five pound on the first of March 1683, the which somes beeing so payd as above expressed, I doe by these presents assigne and make over to the above named Joseph Fuller and to his heires forever, to have and to hold without any just mollestation of me, my heires, Executors and Administra- tors, or any of vs: In witness hereof, I have set to my hand and seale. JOHN MASON,
ISAAC BACON.
EDWARD JACKSON. [Seal.]
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
paralysis in 1811, he was continually serving in various town and State offices. " He was Adjutant and Brigade Major in the militia; kept the town school: in the North District two winters ; was Deputy Sheriff ten years, from 1791; Selectman many years ; Moderator of nearly all the town meetings from 1795. to 1810 inclusive, and Representative to the General Court fifteen years in succession, from 1797." The duties of all these offices he discharged with ability and faithfulness.
Timothy Jackson was the son of Timothy and Sarah (Smith) Jackson, grandson of Joseph and Patience (Hyde) Jackson, great-grandson of Sebas and Sarah (Baker) Jackson, and great-great-grandson of Edward Jackson, sen., of London, one of the first settlers of Newton. He owned part of the. same estate and occupied the same house that sheltered all his ancestors in this country. The house, which was demolished in 1809, occupied the same land afterwards covered by the house of Hon. William Jackson. The well is the same whose water has slaked the thirst of eight generations of the same name. He was born August 3, 1756, and inherited from his father a. military spirit, and from his mother, energy, courage and perseverance.
"At the age of fifteen,- one year earlier than the law of that period required, he enlisted in one of the Newton companies of militia, and at eighteen joined. an independent company of Minute-men, raised in Newton in January, 1775, in accordance with the military spirit of the time, and in view of the expected. struggle with the mother country. This company of Minute-men verified to the letter their claim to the name they assumed, on the morning of the Lex -. ington fight. He was a corporal in the company. On the morning of that. ever memorable day, he heard the signal guns which announced that the British troops were in motion. He went to the Captain's house at the break of day, and received orders to warn the company to meet upon their parade ground: forthwith. This order he promptly executed on horseback, and before eight o'clock the company were on the march to join their regiment at Watertown. Meeting-house ; and from thence took their march for Lexington and Con- cord. They encountered Lord Percy's reserve at Concord, and continued to. hang upon the flank and rear of the British troops until nightfall, when they took boat for Boston at Lechmere Point, where, after they had rowed beyond. the reach of musket shot, and that bloody day's work was ended, this com -- pany of Minute-men publicly received the thanks of General Warren for their zeal and bravery throughout the day.
" Soon after the battle of Bunker Hill, a company was raised, to serve. eight months, mostly of Newton men, commanded by Captain Nathan Fuller, of Newton, and joined the Continental army under General Washington at Cambridge. During the last four months of this term, he joined the company and was appointed by Captain Fuller Orderly Sergeant.
" In September, 1776, he entered on board a privateer fitted out at Salem, which sailed on a cruise on the 19th of that month. Ten days afterwards, the privateer was captured by the British frigate Perseus, after a running fight (in which he was wounded in the neck by a musket ball), and carried into New York, then in possession of the British, and confined in a prison. ship. After six months in that loathsome place, he was impressed into the English naval service, and placed on board a large Indiaman, pierced for-
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thirty-six guns, as a convoy to a fleet of transports to England. Of the thirty- six men composing the crew of this ship, ten were impressed Americans. After a rough and boisterous passage of eighty days, they arrived in London, when he was put on board a Spanish-built guard-ship of one hundred and twenty guns, in the Thames. From this ship he was transferred to the frigate Experiment, bound for Lisbon. On his return from Lisbon, he was put on board Lord Howe's flag-ship, and sailed with the fleet to the West Indies. While on that station, he was transferred to the frigate Grasshopper. From the cruel treatment he had uniformly received in all those ships, he deter- mined to make his escape at all hazards. While the Grasshopper lay at anchor in the harbor of Antigua, about half a mile from the shore, he took advantage of a severe shower of rain which drove the sentinel below, passed over the stern of the ship at midnight, unobserved, and sat upon the bow chains until the storm had abated, when he let himself down into the water and swam for the land, which he reached in about half an hour, landing upon a rocky shore, quite exhausted and much bruised among the rocks and surf. From thence he travelled to St. John's, where he shipped on board an English sloop, Captain Clark, who traded among the English islands, but was ultimately bound to New York.
" Captain Clark afterwards changed his voyage from New York to Cork, Ireland. In consequence of this change of voyage, he left the sloop at St. Vincent. From thence he went to St. Kitts, where he succeeded in gaining a passage to North Carolina in a pilot boat, which arrived safely, and from thence he shipped in a vessel bound to Boston. On this voyage he was again captured by the British, and carried into New York. While the vessel was furling sails and hauling alongside the wharf, he made his escape unobserved, and travelled by land two days and two nights, and had nearly reached the American lines, when he was captured by an advance guard of Hessian troops, carried back to New York and cast into prison with hundreds of his country- men, in January, 1778. He was kept in this loathsome prison about six months. His sufferings were appalling ; the small-pox prevailed, and scarcely a day passed that he did not witness the death of. some fellow-prisoner.
" Soon after the battle of Monmouth, he was exchanged, with many others, and passed over to the American army in July, 1778, in a state of perfect destitution, upwards of two hundred miles from home, and without a penny to sustain himself through so long a journey. Fortunately, he met with a townsman, Daniel Jackson, then a sergeant in Captain Bryant's company of Artillery, a kind-hearted man, who loaned him money enough to pay his expenses home, where he arrived in the autumn of 1778, after having been absent one year and ten months. After a few months' visit to the army in Rhode Island, he returned home again in the spring of 1779, took the home- stead at the age of twenty-three, and settled as a farmer."
Mr. Jackson, after three and a half years' quiet, married Sarah, daughter of Stephen Winchester, November 28, 1782, and settled on the homestead, and had six children. He died November 22, 1814, aged fifty-eight.
WILLIAM JACKSON, the eldest son of Major Timothy and Sarah Winches- ter Jackson, was born in Newton, September 2, 1783. His parents had.
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
strong minds and excellent education ; and, therefore, the early training of their son was all it should be. At the age of sixteen, he met with an acci- dent, which confined him to the house more than a year. During this time he acquired the taste for reading and literary pursuits, which ever after characterized him. When eighteen years old, he was sent to Boston to learn to manufacture soap and candles. At twenty-one, he took charge of a manufactory of his own. The same year he married Hannah Woodward, of Newton, and established his home in Boston.
It was the custom at that period for the workmen in manufactories to be called together daily at eleven o'clock, A. M., for drinks of liquor, at the expense of the owners. William Jackson, seeing the effects of this custom, and indeed of all use of intoxicating beverages, made an offer to his men, that all who would give up the custom should, at the end of the week, re- ceive the amount thus saved added to their wages, and very soon the rum- jug was banished from his manufactory.
The war of 1812 proved very disastrous to Mr. Jackson's business, and he lost very heavily. But this was soon forgotten, in the much heavier loss of his only sister. A few months later followed the death of his wife, leaving him with five orphaned children. This, he once said, "was trouble." In the following year he buried his father and mother. Thus in two years all that were dearest to him were swept away. And " all this," he said, " it took, to bring me to God." From that time he became a servant of Christ, and in his service he grew continually stronger and happier to the day of his death.
In 1816, he married Mary Bennett, of Lunenburg. In 1819, he was first elected representative to the General Court. At the age of thirty-seven le partially retired from business, and returned to Newton, to live at the old homestead, where five generations of his ancestors had lived and died.
He was early chosen on the Board of Selectmen, and also on the Board of the School Committee, and ever afterwards he was deeply interested in the schools of Newton. As one of the Selectmen, he was called upon to recom- mend for a license to sell liquor, the taverns and groceries of the town. This he refused to do, and thus took his first stand before the public on the side of the temperance reform. In this cause he was a pioneer, and he gave to it much time and effort, aiding in forming a Temperance Society, and establishing a Lyceum, where the subject was discussed and lectures given.
In 1826, his attention was drawn by Dr. Phelps, of Boston, to the enterprise of railroads. At once he became interested, studied into the whole subject, and volunteered a lecture on railroads before the Lyceum. In this lecture, his predictions of what might and would be the effect of the railroad enter- prise, in Massachusetts and the United States, were branded as the words of a lunatic ; but they have since proved to have been the prophecies of a keen and far-seeing intellect. This lecture at once attracted attention outside of . Newton, and he was invited to repeat it in Boston, Waltham, and many other leading towns and cities. He also wrote articles on the same subject for newspapers in Boston, Springfield, Northampton, Salem, Haverhill, etc. For the next eighteen years much of his time and thought was engrossed by various railroad enterprises. At different times he was Superintendent of .
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HON. WILLIAM JACKSON.
construction of the Boston and Worcester, Boston and Albany, New Bedford and Taunton, Bangor and Piscataquis, and Providence and Worcester Rail- roads. He was for nine years one of the Directors of the Western Railroad.
In 1829, he was interested in establishing a Savings' Bank in Newton, which went into operation in 1831, he being its first President.
In 1830, he was chosen to represent the town of Newton in the Massachu- setts Legislature. In his second term, the subject of freemasonry was dis- cussed in the House. He looked seriously into the subject, and his investi- gations resulted in his becoming firmly anti-masonic. Two years after this, he became the candidate of the anti-masonic party for the office of member of Congress for the Norfolk District, to which he was elected, after the ninth ballot. At the close of this term of service, he was re-clected by an over- whelming majority ; but declined to stand as candidate for a third term.
About this time, feeling that the prosperity of Newton required more fre- quent trains of cars to and from Boston daily, he used his influence for that purpose, and in 1844 the Newton special trains commenced running. The result was, as he expected, that people began to move into the various vil- lages on the route of the railroad; new villages sprang up, and the value of real estate greatly increased.
About this time, Mr. Jackson laid out a part of the land belonging to his homestead into house lots and streets around two parks, called Walnut Park and Waban Place, where land was sold by the foot for the first time in Newton. 1
With the inflow of people, the need of a church at Newton Corner became evident, there being none within two miles. To this point Mr. Jackson now turned his thoughts and energies. The Eliot church was formed with thirty- seven members, and a commodious house of worship was built. Of this church he was one of the Deacons. He had held the same office for many years previously in the Congregational church at Newton Centre.
In 1846, the American Missionary Association was formed, the necessity being felt by many Christians for a Missionary Society which should have no connection with slavery. Of this Association William Jackson was the ear- nest and interested President, for the first eight years of its existence.
In 1848, he formed a company which bought up the land in Newton now called Auburndale, laid it out with streets and house lots, many of which were soon sold and built upon. This was the commencement of that beauti- ful village.
In 1840, members from both the Whig and Democratic parties united in a new organization styled the "Liberty Party." This new party was opposed to slavery, and in the formation of it he took an active part, being their first candidate for Governor, and for several years their candidate for Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, or Member of Congress. In 1848, the Free Soil Party was formed, and the Liberty Party was merged into that. In 1850, a Free Soil party paper was started, The Boston Telegraph, and to it Mr. Jack- son gave much time, strength and money, being its Treasurer and one of its Trustees. It was too much for his strength. His health began to fail under his accumulation of cares.
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
To break away from these cares and secure the restoration of his health, the next year he went abroad, and travelled over the larger part of Europe, deriving much pleasure from the tour, as a man of such varied culture and keen observation must surely do. On his return, his health being scarcely at all improved, he withdrew almost entirely from public life, retaining only the presidency of the Newton Bank, which had been a pet enterprise with him since its foundation in 1848.
The derangement of his heart increased, till a cold taken January 14, 1865, brought the disease to a crisis, and confined him to his room till Feb- ruary 26, when he passed away.
Thus Newton lost one of her noblest and best loved sons, one of the most remarkable men of his generation. To his native town, he was both a private and public benefactor. The monuments of his enterprise and wisdom are on every hand. His characteristic liberality, his private charities, and per- sonal kindness to the poor, the sick, and the suffering, remarkably abounded. His genial hospitality drew around him many friends, for whom his doors ever stood open. He was a man of superior intellect, strong will, large heart, sound judgment, great executive ability, and untiring industry. He was quick of apprehension, prompt in action, honest in purpose, genial in inter- course, ready to undertake any thing that would benefit others, at home, in the church, the town, the state, the nation, or the whole world. His char- acter was an agreeable blending of the grave and gay. He could be witty, tender and serious at the same time. Whatever he did, lie did it heartily.
HORACE MANN was for several years a distinguished citizen of West New- ton. His estate was on the west side of Chestnut Street, nearly opposite the estate once owned and improved by Mrs. Abigail Lamb. A bronze statue in his honor stands in the Capitol grounds in Boston. Horace Mann was born in Franklin, Mass., May 4, 1796, and died in Yellow Springs, Ohio, August 2, 1859. He obtained his earlier education by his own exertions, and entered. the Sophomore class in Brown University, six months after he first opened a Latin Grammar. He graduated with the highest honors in 1819, was Tutor in Brown, and afterwards studied law in Litchfield, Conn. He was admitted to the bar in 1823, and commenced practice in Dedham. He continued the practice of law fourteen years, and, it is said, gained fully four cases out of every five in which he was retained. He was member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives 1828-33, and of the Senate 1833-7, and President of the Senate 1836-7. In his political affairs, he was distinguished for his devotion to every movement in favor of education and temperance. He was the originator of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester, which was the' parent of all similar Institutions throughout the country. He was the first Secretary of the Board of Education of Massachusetts (1837-48), and through his influence, important changes were made in the school laws and the educa- tional system of the State. He was honored with the degree of LL. D. from Harvard University in 1849. In May, 1843, he crossed the ocean for the purpose of inspecting the school systems of Europe, and especially of Ger- many, and the results of these observations are recorded in his Seventh An- nual Report. He was elected Member of Congress and successor of John
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Quincy Adams 1848-53, and spoke and voted in favor of excluding slavery from the Territories. He was President of Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio, from September, 1852, until his death.
In 1835, he was appointed a Commissioner to superintend the publication of the Revised Statutes of Massachusetts, for which he prepared the Mar- ginal Notes and References. His twelve Annual Reports of the Board of Education rank deservedly high. He edited The Common School Journal for several years, and published a volume of "Letters on Education " in 1848 : "Letters and Speeches on Slavery " in 1851; and " Lectures on Intemper- ance," 1852. In 1852, he was the unsuccessful candidate of the Free Soil party of Massachusetts for Governor of the State.
Mr. Mann was the originator of the Normal Schools of Massachusetts, and of Teachers' Institutes and Conventions. He mortgaged his Law Li- brary to raise the necessary means for starting the first Normal School, which was at Lexington. It was chiefly through his efforts that the school was removed to West Newton, and under his efficient interest and auspices it attained to popularity and success. He was conscientious, earnest, indus- trious, firm in his convictions, a man of great rectitude of life and manners, and his influence on the educational interests of Massachusetts created a momentum whose salutary efficacy is felt everywhere, and stands, an endur- ing monument to his honor.
DAVID HAVEN MASON was born in Sullivan, N. H., March 17, 1818, and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1841. His career presents an example of the success of a self-made man, in the best sense of those words. By his own unaided efforts, by rigid economy, without wealthy or influential friends, he procured means for his college and professional education, and came to Boston, an entire stranger in the city, to practise his profession. After he had secured his office, purchased the necessary office furniture and a few elementary law books, he had only twenty-five cents left in his pocket, and not a friend in Boston from whom he could claim the privilege of bor- rowing a dollar. But by means of energy, industry and devotion to business, and fidelity to his clients, he soon secured a lucrative and respectable prac- tice, and by his many honorable and genial traits of character, he gathered around him a large circle of appreciating and ardent friends.
After several years of close attention to the law, he entered the arena of public life, and by the various offices whose functions he discharged with admirable judgment, zeal and success, he made his influence felt, as a public benefactor, in Newton, in the neighboring city of Boston, and throughout the Commonwealth. Some of the most important and useful public improve- ments of the period when he was in active service in official relations, owe their origin and their successful achievement, with their untold utility, to his wisdom in planning and his skill in execution.
Mr. Mason was a resident of Newton for twenty-five years. He early won the confidence of his fellow-citizens, and was a very active and influential member of the House of Representatives, in the years 1863, 1866 and 1867. The patriotic Governor John A. Andrew leaned upon him with implicit con- fidence, and often applied to him for counsel and aid in important and difficult
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emergencies. In the struggles of the country, during the war of 1861-5, he showed the most devoted patriotism, and his tongue, and pen, and mind were never wanting to the exigencies of any occasion. He was a friend to the poor, and a helper to the distressed. Mindful of his own early struggles, he sympathized with young men, and was ever ready with his advice and influence to encourage and stimulate them to prepare themselves for spheres of useful- ness and honor.
He declined the honor of being a candidate for the senatorship, which he was urged to accept, on account of the claims of his profession. He often wrote able articles for the most influential journals, advocating public im- provements, and adapted to guide and lead public opinion on points involving the pecuniary, business or educational interests of the city of Boston, the town of Newton, and the Commonwealth.
In 1857, Mr. Mason was invited to deliver the oration at New London, Conn., at the celebration of the eighty-first anniversary of American Inde- pendence. The papers of that city, without distinction of party, spoke of the oration afterwards, as " a sound, able and patriotic production, beautifully written and very effectively delivered." On a similar occasion in Boston, he was invited to read the Declaration of Independence. He performed this service, according to the journals of the following day, "in a forcible and truthful manner, and the audience warmly evinced their approbation.".
In 1859, he was the orator of the day at the celebration of the eighty-third anniversary of Independence at Newton Centre, and his oration gave great satisfaction to the auditory. It was a refreshing example of originality, bold in expression as well as conception, and naturally suggested by the recollec- tion of the scenes which gave birth to the anniversary. " It was marked by careful research and sound judgment, and replete with noble sentiments and lofty eloquence."
July 14, 1864, Mr. Mason delivered the address at the Centennial Anniver- sary of the town of Lancaster, N. H.,- a very interesting production, which was afterwards printed.
While he was a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Mason attended to the business of the Commonwealth with great fidelity, and won for himself the reputation of being one of the best debaters in that honorable body. He watched carefully every measure that came before the Legisla- ture. He brought the whole weight of his influence in favor of every useful project, and, by his integrity and conscientious adhesion to the right, he made himself a power among his associates. His speeches before the Legislature, or Committees of the Legislature, on the Consolidation of the Western and the Boston and Worcester Railroad Corporations, on equalizing the Bounties of the Soldiers, on the adoption of the Fourteenth article of amendments to the Constitution of the United States, on making the Milldam free of toll, and on the levelling of Fort Hill, and thus adding immensely to the business facili- ties of Boston, as well as to its taxable property, are specimens of the efforts in which he proved himself pre-eminently a public benefactor. In regard to the last of these projects, one of the daily journals of Boston said,-"The credit of engineering the matter (Fort Hill improvement) through the Legis-
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