USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, 1622-1918, vol 1 > Part 16
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NAMING THE TOWN
Worthington's History of Dedham, published in 1827, says on page 31: "The celebrated John Rogers, of Dedham, in England, had been forbidden to preach before our first settlers came to this country. Many of his people emigrated to this country and several to this town. John Dwight and his son Timothy Dwight, John Rogers and John Page were of this number. From this circumstance we may suppose the General Court gave to this place the name of Dedham. The inhabi- tants requested the General Court to give it the name of Contentment, which name is written over the records of the first several meetings. It appears to me that the word well expresses the leading motives of the first twenty-four settlers in coming into this town."
ORIGINAL TERRITORY
The grant made to the Town of Dedham by the act of September 8, 1636, was princely in its proportions, though rather indefinite as to boundaries. South and east of the Charles River it embraced the present towns of Dedham, Dover, Fox- borough, Franklin, Medfield, Norfolk, Norwood, Plainville, Walpole, Westwood, Wrentham, and nearly all of Bellingham. On the north and west of the river it included Needham, Medway, Millis, Wellesley, that portion of Bellingham on that side of the river, and parts of Natick and Sherborn. On the east the town extended to the grant of land to Israel Stoughton and others, and it was not until nearly a century afterward that the Neponset River was made the boundary between Stoughton (now Canton) and Dedham. The boundary line between Dedham and the towns of Dorchester and Roxbury was not definitely established for several years. Dedham might be appropriately called the "Mother of Towns," as more than half the towns in Norfolk County were included within the limits of its original boundaries, as well as a large part of the towns of Natick and Sherborn, in the County of Middlesex, and portions of Hyde Park and West Roxbury, which have since been annexed to the City of Boston.
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A FEW PIONEERS
It is impossible, after a lapse of nearly three hundred years and in the absence of authentic records, to give the names of all the members of the first company that came to Dedham in 1635. The list of the signers of the covenant given above was compiled by Erastus Worthington in 1884. From this list and the annotations made by Mr. Worthington it can be determined with tolerable certainty that among those who came in each of the first three years of Dedham's history were the following :
1635-Edward Alleyn, Philemon Dalton, John Dwight, John Ellis (or Ellice, as it appears among the signers of the covenant ), John Gay, John Howard, Samuel Morse and Ralph Shepherd.
1636-Thomas Alcock, William Bearstowe, Richard Evered, Lambert Genere, Ezekiel Holliman, John Kingsbury, Nicholas Phillips, John Rogers and Abraham Shaw.
1637-John Allin, Francis Chickering, Thomas Fisher, Eleazer Lusher, John Luson, Michael Metcalf, John Thurston, Thomas Wight and probably Hugh Stacey.
Concerning the character of these pioneers, especially those who came first, Worthington says: "This company of men seems from their subsequent conduct, to have been a portion of that mixed population collected at Watertown, who possessed good sense and moderate principles and were desirous of forming a peaceable society. They were Puritans, but by no means of high proof. This company did in substance at least say to their fellow townsmen, whom they were about to leave: 'Let there be no strife between us and thee, and between thy herdsmen and our herdsmen, for we be brethren ; if you go to the right we will go to the left, for is not the whole country before us?'"
Edward Alleyn was unquestionably the leading man of the company. There is a tradition that he wrote the covenant, and that he was active in bringing the peti- tion of September, 1636, before the General Court is well known. When the town was incorporated in response to that petition, he was chosen a member of the first board of selectmen and the first records of the town are in his handwriting. Upon the establishment of the first church in 1638, he experienced some difficulty in being admitted, owing to objections caused by rumors regarding his conduct in England. The objections were removed, however, as soon as Mr. Alleyn could procure evidence from the mother country. In 1639 he was elected a representa- tive to the General Court and continued a member of that body until his death, which occurred suddenly on September 8, 1642.
Philemon Dalton was linen weaver by trade. He came over in the "Increase" in 1635 and located at Watertown. One account says he did not become a resident of Dedham until 1637, but as he was one of the first to sign the covenant and also the petition of 1636, it is certain that he was a member of the original company. About 1640 he went to Ipswich, where he died on June 4, 1662.
John Dwight first located at Watertown upon coming to America, but remained there only a short time before coming to Dedham. For sixteen years he served on the board of selectmen and it was from him that Dwight's Brook was named. His house stood near the brook, on High Street, and was removed in 1849 to make
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way for the railroad bridge. He died on the last day of June, 1674. When he first came to Dedham he was accompanied by his family. One son, Timothy Dwight, was then about five years of age. He grew up in Dedham, was town clerk for ten years and selectman for twenty-four years. In 1678 and again in 1691 he was elected representative to the General Court. His death occurred on January 31, 1718.
Samuel Morse and his two sons-John and Daniel-were among those who came over in the "Increase" in 1635. He was one of the original proprietors of the plantation on the Charles River that afterward became the Town of Dedham. In 1641 he was elected a selectman and served for two years. He died on June 20, 1654.
Ralph Shepherd came in the "Abigail" in 1635 and located at Dedham in the same year. After a short residence he removed to Weymouth and from there to Malden. He then bought a farm at Concord and lived there for a few years, when he went to Charlestown. He died there on September 11, 1693.
William Bearstowe (correct family name "Barstow") was one of the passen- gers on the "Truelove" in 1635 and soon after landing he became interested in the Dedham movement. He was one of the signers of the petition for the incorpora- tion of the town and afterward removed to Scituate. His brother George, who came over on the same vessel, in 1636 received an allotment of land in Ded- ham, but did not become a resident until several years later. He was a member of the Dedham artillery company for a time and then removed to Scituate.
Richard Evered was the founder of the American family bearing the name of Everett, of which Gov. Edward Everett was a distinguished member. He was elected one of the selectmen in 1661 and held the office for one year. His death occurred on July 3, 1682.
Ezekiel Holliman is mentioned in some of the early records as "a man of gifts and piety," though it seems he did not always conform to established customs. On March 12, 1638, he was "summoned" because "he did not frequent the public assemblies," and his case was referred by the court to the ministers for conviction. Previous to that time he had been fined for felling "one greate Timber tree for clapboards without his own lott," and also for covering his house with clapboards "contrary unto an order made in that behalfe." The following month the fines were remitted "in consideration of some moneyes disbursed by him for ye benefit of our Towne." About 1639 he removed to Salem and from there went to Rhode Island, where he became one of the founders of the first Baptist Church in America.
John Kingsbury came to Dedham from Watertown in 1636 and was one of the signers of the petition for the incorporation of the town. In 1639 he was elected one of the selectmen and served on the board for twelve years, and in 1647 he was elected representative to the General Court. He died in 1658.
Nicholas Phillips came to Dedham from Watertown and was one of the twenty- two men who signed the petition for incorporation. In August, 1639, he sold his property in Dedham to Rev. John Allin and removed to Weymouth. He died in September, 1672. His brother, Henry, who came about the same time, was a member of the artillery company in 1640, served as selectman in 1645, was an ensign in the militia company in 1648, and soon after that removed to Boston.
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Abraham Shaw first settled at Watertown when he came to America. His house there was destroyed by fire soon after it was completed and he came to Dedham. The town granted him the privilege of erecting a water mill on the Charles River and gave him a tract of land for that purpose, but he died in 1638 before the work was commenced.
John Allin, who is further mentioned in the chapters on Church History, was born in England in 1596. Cotton Mather says he had been engaged in the ministry before coming to America, and because of his refusal to conform to all the ceremonies and requirements of the Church of England transplanted himself to New England. He was one of the founders of the first church in Dedham, of which he was installed pastor on April 24, 1639, a position he held until his death on August 26, 1671.
Francis Chickering came from Suffolk, England, in 1637 and located in Ded- ham soon after landing in America. In 1641 he was elected one of the selectmen of the town and continued in that office for fifteen years. He became a member of the artillery company in 1643. In 1644 and again in 1653 he was elected repre- sentative to the General Court. His death occurred on October 2, 1658.
Eleazer Lusher, another pioneer of 1637, was for many years one of the most prominent men in Dedham. Worthington says: "He was the leading man in all his lifetime and directed all the important affairs of the town." For twenty-three years he held the office of town clerk, and to his careful and painstaking manner of keeping the records the people of the present generation are indebted for a knowledge of early events. He was a member of the board of selectmen for twenty-nine years and he was also for many years a deputy to the General Court. Through his activity in organizing the Dedham Artillery Company he acquired the title of "major," and in many other ways he was influential in promoting the interests of the town. In 1670 he was appointed commissioner of the Massachu- setts Bay Colony to revise and codify the laws, and in 1672 he was appointed to examine and classify historical papers. He died at Dedham on November 13, 1672.
Michael Metcalf, whose name appears as one of the selectmen in 1641, was born at Tatterford, Norfolk, England, in 1586. On July 14, 1637, he landed in Dedham. Two years later, soon after the First Church was organized, he was appointed one of the committee "to contrive the fabrick of a meeting house." He died on December 27, 1644. An old chest and a chair, both handsomely carved, that he brought with him from England are now among the collections of the Ded- ham Historical Society. His youngest son, Thomas Metcalf, afterward became a deacon in the church, and represented Dedham in the General Court in 1694 and again in 1697.
FIRST TOWN OFFICERS
Although Dedham was incorporated as a town on September 8, 1636, no town officers were elected until May 17, 1639. At that time a board of selectmen com- posed of seven members was elected, to wit: Edward Allen (or Alleyn), John Bachelor. John Dwight. Robert Hinsdale, John Kingsbury, Eleazer Lusher and John Luson. Edward Allen was also chosen town clerk, which office he held until 1641, when he was succeeded by Eleazer Lusher.
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DEDHAM IN 1664
Erastus Worthington, writing in 1827, gives the following description of the village of Dedham, as it appeared twenty-nine years after the first settlement was established :
"In 1664 ninety-five small houses near each other were situated within a short distance of the place where the new court-house now stands; the greater part of them east of that place and around Dwight's Brook. A row of houses stood on the north side of High Street, as that road was then called, which extends from the bridge over Dwight's Brook westwardly toward the court-house. The total amount of the value of these houses was 691 pounds. Four only of the houses were valued at 20 pounds. The greater number were valued from three to ten pounds. The greatest number of these houses were built soon after the first settlement was commenced. There were then very few carpenters, joiners or masons in the colony. There was no saw mill in the settlement for many years. The only boards which could be procured at first were those which were sawed by hand. The saw pits, now seen, denote that boards were sawed in the woods. The necessary materials, bricks, glass and nails, were scarcely to be obtained. These houses therefore must have been principally constructed by farmers, not by mechanics, and have been very rude and inconvenient. They were probably log houses. Their roofs were covered with thatch. By an ordinance of the town, a ladder was ordered to extend from the ground to the chimney, as a substitute for a more perfect fire engine. Around these houses nothing was to be seen but stumps, clumsy fences of poles, and an uneven and unsubdued soil, such as all first settlements in New England present. The native forest trees were not suitable shades for a door yard. A shady tree was not then such an agreeable object as it now is, because it could form no agreeable contrast with cleared grounds.
"Where the meeting house of the first parish now stands, there stood for more than thirty years a low building, thirty-six feet long and twenty wide, twelve feet high, with a thatched roof and a large ladder resting on it. This was the first meeting house. Near by was the school house, standing on an area of eighteen feet by fourteen, and rising to a height of three stories. The third story, how- ever, was a watch house of small dimensions. The watch house was beside the ample stone chimney. The spectator elevated on the little box called the watch house, might view this plain, on which a part of the present village stands, then a common plough field, containing about two hundred acres of cleared land, par- tially subdued, yet full of stumps and roots. Around him at a farther distance were the 'herd walks,' as the common feeding lands were called in the language of that time. One of these herd walks was on Dedham Island north of the Charles River, and one was at East Street and more fully in view. The other herd walk was on South Plain. The herd walks were at first no better cultivated than cut- ting down the trees and carrying away the wood and timber, and afterwards, when it was practicable in the spring of the year, burning them over under the direction of town officers called 'wood reeves.' Land thus treated would in the spring appear barren, for nothing would be seen but black stumps, the burnt soil and the rocks. It would scarcely appear better when the wild grass and cropped shrubs next succeeded. The meadows were not yet cleared to any great extent. Beyond these herd walks was a continued wilderness, which was becoming more disagree-
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, DEDHAM
NEW HIGH SCHOOL, DEDHAM
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
able to the inhabitants, for the cattle, goats and swine seem to have allured the wolves to their neighborhood. The dense swamps about Wigwam Swamp were not yet cleared. The numerous dogs in the plantation, which were so troublesome to the worshipping assembly, were not a sufficient guard against wolves. The inhabitants for many years after this period encouraged their hunters by addi- tional bounties to destroy these troublesome enemies."
This description has been reproduced here at some length, because it gives a fair idea of the conditions that prevailed at the time, and of the collection of houses that then formed the village. By comparing it with the Dedham of 1917 the reader can note the progress of two and a half centuries.
TRAINING GROUND
In 1644 the town proprietors set apart the triangular piece of ground at the junction of what are now High and Common streets for the use of the military company. This action was confirmed some four years later, as shown by the fol- lowing extract from the town records :
"7th Mo. 10, 1648. Granted to ye trayned company of this Town and to ye officers thereof and to their successors for ever the Free use of all that parcell of land comonly called the Trayning Ground always provided that the said Trayned Company & the officers thereof shall not at any time hereafter appropriate the said parcell of Land or any part thereof or improve the same to any other use than to the Publick exercise of ye said Company without the consent of ye Select- men of ye Town for the time beeing first attayned. Neither shall it be in the Libertie or Power of the Selectmen hereafter at any time to dispose of ye said parcell of Land or any part thereof in any case without the consent of ye said Trayned Company & the officers thereof first had and Manifest."
By the common consent of the selectmen and the officers of the military com- pany, one acre of the ground was granted to Amos Fisher in 1677, and at the same time Daniel Pond was given permission to cultivate one and a half acres, for which he was to pay "thirty shillings in merchantable corn." Other persons were likewise given permission to cultivate certain portions of the field from time to time, enough always being reserved for the use of the company as a drill ground.
In February, 1687, the voters of the town being assembled in town meeting, and the town being in need of funds, it was voted: "That if any appear to pur- chase the Trayning Ground & will give betwixt 30 and 40 pounds in money or not much less it may be sold if the trayned company the military officers and the Selectmen approve thereof." No buyer presented himself and the field still remained in the possession of the town and the military company. About 1773 an alms house was built on the western side of the ground and remained there until 1836. when the building, "together with the land and appurtenances thereto belong- ing," was sold by order of the town. Later a street was opened through the ground to connect with Bridge Street, and in 1842 the citizens planted the shade trees along the borders of the field.
EARLY MILLS
Realizing the importance of having some improved way of grinding their grain, one of the first acts of the Town of Dedham after its incorporation in 1636
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was to grant to Abraham Shaw and his associates the privilege of building a mill on the Charles River. Shaw built a dam, which Mann says was located "about three-fourths of a mile southwest from the new bridge," but he died in 1638 before the mill was completed. The place where this dam was constructed is frequently referred to in the early town records as the "Old Mill," and it is pos- sible that a mill of some kind was established there by some one after Mr. Shaw's death.
On March 28, 1639, it was ordered by a town meeting "That a ditch shalbe dug at common charge through Upper Charles meaddow unto East Brook that it may both be a partition Fense in the same and alsoe may form a suitable course unto a Watermill that is if it shalbe found fitting to sett a mill upon in the opinion of a workman to be employed for that purpose."
The ditch thus excavated became known as Mother Brook. At the same meet- ing at which it was ordered the town granted liberty to any one who would under- take it, to build a mill upon the stream and also to give him a lot of land adjoining the mill. It is not certain who was the first to avail himself of the privilege, but the records show that in 1641 "a foot path is laid out to the mill," indicating that a mill had previously been built and was then in operation. Not long after the foot path was laid out John Dwight and Rev. John Allin conveyed the mill to Nathaniel Whiting. He and his heirs continued in possession of the mill privilege until about the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, when it was sold to Ben- jamin Bussey.
In 1664 Ezra Morse and Daniel Pond asked the town for permission to erect a corn mill on Mother Brook, a short distance above the one owned by Mr. Whit- ing. Permission was granted and the mill erected, when it was discovered that it interfered with the rights of Whiting and a dispute arose, which finally resulted in the abatement of the new dam. This was the beginning of litigation over mill privileges and rights that went on for more than a century and a half, the last lawsuit of which there is any record having been settled early in the Nineteenth Century. Mann, in his "Annals of Dedham," says that soon after 1639, "Nathaniel Whiting and Ezra Morse became possessed of the principal mill seats in the town, and they have been held by their descendants to this day." That was written in 1847.
Joshua Fisher built a saw mill on the Neponset River in 1664, the town grant- ing him liberal inducements to undertake the enterprise. It was on the southern border of the town and as part of the franchise agreement. Mr. Fisher agreed to saw timber for the citizens at a stipulated price. When Ezra Morse was driven from Mother Brook, he was granted a mill site on the Neponset, not far from Fisher's saw mill. This is no doubt the mill seat held by his descendants in 1847, as referred to by Mann. Draper & Fairbanks built a fulling mill on the Neponset in 1681. In 1700 the corn mill on Mother Brook, then owned by Timothy Whiting, was destroyed by fire and the town agreed to loan him twenty-five pounds, with- out interest, to rebuild it.
DEDHAM ISLAND
Northwest of the village of Dedham the Charles River flows around a neck of land, which in early days overflowed easily, owing to the slight fall of the river
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at this point. Around the "horseshoe bend" of the river is a distance of almost five miles, while across the "heel" of the shoe the distance is less than three- fourths of a mile. To prevent damage to the meadows by overflows, the enter- prising citizens of the town in 1652 conceived the idea of cutting a ditch across the neck, through the "Broad Meadows," thus uniting the two channels of the river and carrying off part of the water that came around the bend. Thomas Fuller and "Lieutenant" Fisher were employed to make a survey for the ditch, the construction of which converted the land inclosed in the bend into an island, since known as "Dedham Island." One of the first brick yards was established on the lot of Michael Metcalf on this island, and along the narrow strip of land at the westerly end of the island ran the "Long Causeway," upon which a road was located in 1644, leading to the Great Plain, in what is now the Town of Needham.
PETUMTUCK
In 1651 the General Court granted 2,000 acres for a new Indian town in Natick, in which were to be collected those Indians converted to Christianity by Rev. John Eliot and taught the arts of civilization. The land included in this grant was taken from Dedham, and the proprietors of the town were given the privilege of selecting 8,000 acres of any unlocated lands within the jurisdiction of the Court. Messengers were sent out to examine "the chestnut country" (believed to be some- where near Lancaster, Worcester County), but they reported unfavorably. John Fairbanks and Lieut. Daniel Fisher were then sent to look at a tract on the Deer- field River, in what is now Franklin County. They passed through Sudbury, Lancaster and Hadley, all then infant settlements, and finally arrived at the valley. Upon their return Lieutenant Fisher reported as follows :
"We at length arrived at the place we sought after. We called it Petumtuck, because there dwell the Petumtuck Indians. Having ascended a little hill, ap- parently surrounded by rich meadow land, from that spot we beheld broad mead- ows extending far north, west and south of us. In these meadows we could trace the course of a fine river, which comes out from the mountains on the northwest, and running northerly through many miles of meadow, seemed to us to run in among the hills again at the northeast. The tall trees of buttonwood and eln exposed to us its course. That meadow is not soft and covered with coarse water grass like that around us here, but is hard land. It is the best land that we have seen in this colony. We dug holes in the meadow, with the intent to find the depth of the soil, but could not find the bottom. At the foot of the little hill we stood on is a plat of ground sufficiently large to build a village upon, and sufficiently high to be out of the reach of the spring floods. Providence led us to that place. It is indeed far away from our plantations and the 'Canaanites and Amalekites dwell in that valley,' and if they have any attachment to any spot on earth, must delight to live there. But that land must be ours. Our people have resolute and pious hearts and strong hands to overcome all difficulties. Let us go and possess the land, and in a few years you will hear more boast of it in this colony as a good land for flocks and herds than could ever be justly said of the land of Goshen, or any part of the land of Canaan."
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