History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 182

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 182

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

He gave large bequests to many charitable enter- prises, and munificent donations to Harvard College and the Boylston Medical Society and Library.

Thomas Boylston, the son of another brother, set- tled in School Street, Boston, and was identified with Brattle Street Church. He endowed a professorship at Harvard College. He dictated his executors to purchase the homestead of his ancestors in Brookline and convey the same to the First Church in this town,

As he grew somewhat infirm with years, he retired from his profession, which had kept him much in Boston, and devoted himself to his farm in Brookline, which he bought of his brother Peter, and on which he built the present house. He was greatly interested | on condition that the church officers would allow his

862

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

nephew, Joshua Boylston, to live upon the place, for which he should pay a rent of ten pounds annually to the church. The estate was to be entailed in the male line from this heir in the same way from gener- ation to generation, and failing the heir who should have the right to live upon it, it should go to the church. But the property was in the hands of Mr. William Hyslop, who had bought it of the doctor's heirs, and the Brookline Church never received the intended bequest, neither did Joshua Boylston ever have a male heir, and with him the family name became extinct in Brookline.

Mr. William Hyslop, the purchaser of the Boylston house, was a native of Scotland. He came to this country in his youth, and began business as a peddler of dry goods, which he carried from house to house in a pack upon his back. He was very successful in this humble beginning, and having invested money in goods at a fortunate time and way, he was able to enter the dry-goods trade still more extensively, and became very wealthy.

He had a son of the same name, the one mentioned as having lived for some years in the house now occu- pied by Mr. Chapin, a son David, and one daughter, Elizabeth, who became the wife of Governor Increase Sumner.

There was a Scotch Presbyterian clergyman with whom Mr. Hyslop was acquainted in the old country, who emigrated to Massachusetts with twenty or more of his parishioners, and settled in Worcester. His name was Abercrombie. After a residence for some time in Worcester, Mr. Abercrombie removed with his people to a more congenial situation on the Pel- ham hills. When this good man could number eleven " olive plants round about his table," he was suddenly left a widower. The youngest had been named Me- hitable, for Mrs. Hyslop, and when the little girl was six years of age Mr. Hyslop adopted her as his own, and she remained in his family till her marriage. Mr. Hyslop's business called him occasionally to Europe, and on his return at one time he brought with him a slab, or pier table, which was supported by a pair of large spread-eagles, the claws of which each clasped a round ball. It was placed between the parlor win-| dows. This was a highly ornamental piece of furni- ture for those days, and as such was much admired and prized. When the Revolutionary war broke out, Mr. Hyslop was in Europe, and the contingencies of the war were such that he could not return till it was over without imperiling his life. While the British troops occupied Boston a great alarm was one day created in the upper part of Brookline by a man, who rode up the old road furiously on horseback, telling

all whom he met that the British troops were at the church green. This was at the green in front of the church on Roxbury Hill, but the people of the upper part of this town naturally enough supposed that the Brookline church green was meant, and great was the terror that ensued. The first impulse was to flee for safety, the second to carry off something valuable, but like distracted people at a fire, who throw mirrors out of the windows and carry mattresses carefully down- stairs, they seized upon anything but what the British would have taken had they come.

The table with the spread-eagles was hurriedly wrenched from the wall and laboriously carried up into the woods, which then covered the whole hill back of the house, and there buried by the servants. The little adopted daughter was not to be outdone by the rest of the family, and she secured a new pair of red bellows which hung beside the fireplace, and never let them go during the flight and the temporary ab- sence.

Colonial troops were afterwards quartered in the house, and the family took refuge in Medfield from the fortunes of war. When a return was safe and the buried eagles were dug up for restoration to their proper place, one was broken. It was mended and the table replaced, being fastened to the wall with nails instead of screws, thus making the thing legally a part of the house, and not a movable article. Not many years ago the eagles were claimed by Governor Summer's descendants as a part of their inheritance, but it was shown that they were a part of the house, and the demand was not allowed. They remained there at the last accounts, and are an appropriate adornment for the ancient and curious house. Mr. Hyslop returned after the war was over, and died in 1796, aged eighty-five years.

His son David inherited the homestead. This singular man is well remembered by many persons now living. He was lame, of uncouth figure, and such excessive homeliness of countenance as is seldom seen, amounting almost to hideousness. He also had an impediment in his speech, or rather never learned to speak plainly, always articulating his words like a little child, and the order of his mind being below the average, he never acquired much education. But he inherited great wealth, and this consideration in the eyes of many counterbalanced all his defects.

"O what a world of vile, ill-favored faults

Look handsome in three hundred pounds a year."

He found a wife notwithstanding his personal pe- culiarities, was left a widower, and when quite ad- vanced in years married a lovely young girl of great personal beauty, who was sacrificed to her father's

863

BROOKLINE.

ambition for wealth. Mr. Hyslop was not a bad man, however, but his singularities were a source of annoy- ance or amusement to all with whom he had any deal- ings. He had a strange aversion to music of all kinds, and especially to the instruments used at church and the anthems so much practiced in those times, and which he always called " tantrums." He would not attend church on Thanksgiving-days, on account of the " tantrums" which formed a prominent part of the service. Soon after the old gentleman brought his young bride to Brookline a bassoon was added to the orchestra at church by Capt. Robert Davis, who played well. Mrs. Hyslop lingered one Sunday after service to hear the choir practice a little, while her husband went out for his horse. As soon as he was ready, however, he made his appearance at the church door, and beckoning to his wife, he called out loudly in his broken speech, "Jane! tome ! tome along! Don't 'tay there to hear the bagpipe."

It was his custom to make a long prayer every morning before breakfast, at which every member of the household was requested to be present. He always | he expressed a wish to visit once more the old place prayed with his eyes open, and the consequence was where his mother was born, and where his grand- parents had lived and died. that material things and spiritual were apt to get de- cidedly mixed. On one occasion, while thus praying, Accordingly, Mr. Hyslop made a dinner-party, and invited the venerable ex-President, Governor Brooks, Gen. Sumner, and other distinguished guests. It was a grand affair, and passed off with great éclat, but there was something pathetic in the sight of the almost helpless old man, supported by his grandson, going feebly about the place and taking a last look of scenes once so familiar to his boyhood. he happened to see through the open door into the kitchen a monkey which he kept making free with the | sausages which had been set frying before the morning worship began. Pausing in the prayer, he interpolated a direction to " Hetty" that the sausages should be protected, and went on with his prayer without the slightest perception of anything ludicrous in the situa- tion. His remark must have had a peculiar effect on those who had not observed the performance in the kitchen.

In the third story of the house at the southwesterly corner was a small room, which was dark and only ac- cessible through another room, and not easily noticed. (Perhaps this was where Dr. Boylston was secreted from his enemies.)

This room Mr. Hyslop called his " iron 'tudy," and it was the only study he ever made use of. In this he hoarded up all the old iron he could collect on the premises, and quantities of other things useful and useless. The key he always carried with him. Ar- | ticles of daily domestic use would disappear. In- quiries and search would be of no avail. After weeks or months perhaps, the proposal often before made, that he should look in his "iron 'tudy" for the miss- ing article, would result in the restoration of it, as composedly returned as if no inconvenience had arisen from its absence.

Anything on the place, from a silver spoon to a

bread-trough, a rake or a halter, would be liable to spend a season in the " iron 'tudy." His peculiar ideas were also evinced in the management of his fruit. The place abounded in choice fruit, especially peaches, plums, and cherries. These he could not use, would not sell, and did not give away. Bushels upon bushels of the finest fruit lay and perished under the trees every year.

There were two daughters and one son by this mar- riage, and both the former died in childhood. The son, who was a fine lad, lived till within a few days of his twenty-first birthday.

While John Adams was President of the United States he came to Brookline, and was the guest of Hon. Jonathan Mason, who lived on what is now Col. Lyman's place. While there he spoke of the last time he had passed along that road as riding on horse- back carrying his mother on a pillion behind him.

He never lost his interest in this home of his an- cestors, and in 1821, when he was very aged and so infirm that he was unable to walk without assistance,

The following letter from the elder John Adams, President of the United States, to his cousin gives a fine description of the surroundings of the old mansion on the occasion of his visit :

" MONTEZILLO, September 16th, 1820.

" MY DEAR COUSIN BOYLSTON :

" O that I had the talent at description of a Homer, a Milton, or a Walter Scott. I would give you a picture of all that Ihave visited, with more pleasure than I should Mount Irea or Monte- cello.

" Mr. David Hyslop has been importuning me for seven years to dine with him in Brookline. I have always declined till last Wednesday ; when taking my grandson George Washington Ad- ams, for my guide and aide de camp, I went to visit the original habitation of the Boylstons-where my mother was born, and where she carried me frequently in my infancy, and where I used to sport among the fine cherrys and Peaches and Plums and Pears as well as among the flowers and roses on that fertile spot or garden. It is more than seventy years since I set my feet upon that hill. Indeed my mother seemed to have an aversion to visiting or thinking of it after her father sold it to his brother Dr. Zebdial Boylston, and removed into Boston. There are I ancient trees Elms and Button-woods some of which I seem to remember ; but I have inherited the feelings of my mother.

864

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

The weather was very fine and I know not that I ever passed a pleasanter day ; I ascended the Hill which is exuberantly fertile to the very top where there is a handsome summer house to the roof of which I mounted where are convenient seats and suffi- cient railing from whence your Wachusett is plainly seen ; and even your own mansion House was visible through a prospect glass, at least George imagined he descried it. On that eleva- tion my imagination was exalted almost to extasy, a prospect nearly as vast as that from Wachusett opened all around me. Land and sea conspired together to produce an assemblage of beauties. The grand city of Boston and the Town of Charles- town; The Castle the Islands, the Rivers the Ponds of Water, the Orchards and the Groves were scattered in such profusion over this great scene that I was lost in admiration of its variety. And to add to its sublimity in my estimation Whites Hill was full in view, the seat of my Great Grandfather and the Birth place of my Grandmother ; All these lands have passed into the hands of other families and other names. I said to Mr. Hyslop, ' If I was worth money enough on the face of the whole earth I would buy it of you.' Your uncle Nicholas was well born, he had a soul bien née, but Thomas had not; otherwise he would certainly have purchased it and given it to you. We had a very agreeable Company at dinner ; very good cheer and very pleas- ant sociability. But there I took my final farewell of Boylston and Whites Hill. My Grandfather and Grandmother were de- sirous that my Father should purchase it when it was sold to Dr. Boylston, and my mother was very desirous that he would. But my Father was a very cautious man-had a great aversion to being in debt, and although my Grandfather was willing to take his bond for the purchase, and wanted only the interest of the money, my Father was afraid he should not be able to ac- complish and fulfil so large an engagement. And now I fear the estate has departed from the name and the blood forever, unless you will purchase it, and give it to your son or grandson. "Thus much for family vanity and family mortification- Now for Politics and Legislation. I hope you will attend the Convention and come up to Montezillo and talk with me and I with you about Plato and Solon and Lycurgus. I shall rejoice to see the name of Boylston among the members of that Con- vention, as that alone will be sufficient to preserve it.

"George who bears his honours meekly, is now humbly employed in writing this letter for

" Your affectionate Cousin, " JOHN ADAMS."

(Signed)

Mr. Hyslop died in 1822 at the age of sixty-seven, and thus ended the Hyslop name.

His widow married again, her second husband being Mr. John Hayden. There were no children. She survived her husband, and at her death the Hyslop wealth, which comprised much real estate in Roxbury and Chelsea, as well as the place in Brookline, went to the heirs of Elizabeth Hyslop, and by them the homestead was sold to Henry Lee, Esq.

War of 1812 .- During the war of 1812, or the second war with Great Britain, Brookline did her part in furnishing her proportion of men for active service. A company was sent from this town, of which the following is a muster roll :

Mens names who were detached, Sept. 18, 1814, by order of Col Joseph Dudley, for the defence of the State.

Lieutenant, Robert S. Davis; Ensign, Thomas Griggs; Ser- geant, Daniel Pierce ; Fifer, Thomas Chubbuck.

Privates.

David Smith.

John Graves.

Thomas Farnsworth.

George Morse. Samuel Townsend.

Charles Stearns, Jr.

Joshua Loring.

Jonathan S. Ayres.

Joseph Goddard.

Samuel Williams.

James Holden.

Amasa Jackson.

James Whidney.

William Otis.

Edward Hall.

John Warren.

Artemas Fairbanks.

Joseph Whitney.

Charles Leavitt.

John Vose.

Nathaniel Talbot.

David Colby.

William Atwood.

Eli Hunter.

William M. Tennant.

George Richardson.

This company was located at Fort Independence. Timothy Corey was captain of this company. There was but little to do except guard duty, and nothing of special interest to mention in connection with their duties. There were others enlisted in the gov- ernment service at this time from this town of which we have no data. There is one, however, worthy of special notice, who did valiant service at Lake Erie and lost an arm. The particulars can be better de- scribed in the following letter, showing the patriotism of our late esteemed fellow-townsman, Col. Thomas Aspinwall :

" WILLIAMSVILLE, N. Y., " 11 MILES FROM BUFFº, " Oct. 1, 1814.

" MY DEAR FATHER,-

" You must excuse my silence since I have been on this fron- tier. I arrived the last of July, and immediately repaired to Fort Erie, and assumed the command of Gen1 Scott's brigade, which I continued to command until a few weeks since, when Gen1 Miller was placed in command of it. I superintended its operations on the 15 Aug., when the fort was stormed, and had the pleasure of seeing the whole of it perform its duty most | gallantly, and essentially contribute to the glorious result of that contest, which, with a loss of about 80 in killed, wounded, | and missing on our part, diminished the force of the enemy about 1300 men. Such was the consequence of their madness in presuming on our ignorance of the art of war. From the 5th of August our Camp was bombarded and cannonaded inces- santly. On the 13th & 14th they threw about 800 or 1000 shot and shells upon us each day, and, having succeeded in ex- ploding a small and almost empty magazine, on the evening of the 14th were induced to attack in four columns next morning at 2. The night was wet and dark, and the soil, being of clay, made it difficult for us to keep up to our new works. Three of their columns only came near us, and two of those were engaged by my brigade and the artillery of the adjacent works. This cannonade and bombardment was continued until the 17 Sept., so as to keep us all continually employed in labor. We were also harassed by continued alarms at night, so that for six weeks I seldom got more than 3 or four hours' daily repose, and never undressed or even pulled off my boots except to wash my- self and change my clothes. My tent was often struck by frag- ments of shells and by musket-balls from their shrapnells, and the tents almost in a range with mine and their batteries often perforated by cannon-balls, that I thought myself preserved only by a special protection. I had during this period hardly time to write a line to Louisa, and, had her health been firm, I

865

BROOKLINE.

should not have done that. The enemy continued to receive reinforcements, and to strengthen and multiply their batteries, until they had four ready to play on us. The Gen1 had learned that their defences were open on their right flank, although they supposed a swampy, perplexed wood was a sure protection against us on that flank. He caused to be cut thro' part of the wood a road communicating with an old concealed overgrown cross road leading toward the right and rear of their batteries. He had ascertained that their main camp was two miles back, and the path from it narrow, obstructed, and muddy, so that they could not send in season to support the light brigade of 1500, that was stationed at the batteries, in case it was sud- denly attacked. About 1500 of our militia, with the riflemen, volunteers, and 23 Regt, were in the forenoon of the 17th cau- tiously pushed on through the new road, and Miller's brigade (late Scott's), of which my Regt composed the van, was, unper- ceived by the enemy, introduced into a deep revine between the fort and the front of their lines, ready to storm their batteries the moment the signal announced our troops to have gained their rear. The Gen1 at last, just as a heavy shower of rain had ceased, ordered us to march. We started immediately, and passed through the wood, driving in their sharp shooters, sen- tries, and guards, until I had arrived within 20 paces of their breastworks, where, as I was passing along the front of the first platoon to give it a concerted direction to the right, I re- ceived a musket-shot above the elbow of the left arm, which completely carried away about an inch and a half of the bone. I, of course, had no further part in the active duty of that day, which terminated in our complete success, except as to one of their four batteries. Their cannon, mortars, and howitzers were spiked, the carriages cut to pieces, their large magazine, containing upward of a 1000 24-1b. cartridges and several bar- rels of powder, destroyed entirely, excepting 500 cartridges let off. They lost, according to the repeated accounts of several of their soldiers, who deserted at different periods since the action, 1182 men, of whom we have 385, including 12 officers, 2 of whom are majors, and should have had upwards of 500 had not sev- eral bodies of prisoners been entrusted to militia officers, who followed, contrary to express directions, the only route they knew,-the circuitous new road by which they came,-and were taken with their prisoners by the enemy. The surprise would have been complete had not a drunken Lieut., late of the regu- lar army, with a body of militia, raised an Indian yell three minutes before he got in sight of the enemy. This gave them notice to prepare, and corrected their mistake in supposing our men, whom they had partially seen, to be the English coming to relieve them in the tour of duties at the batteries. The con- fliet was the hardest, and the fight, during the time it lasted, the most furious and desperate, that has occurred this war. The soldiers climbed, guns in hand, over the tops of the block-houses, bayonetting all that opposed them, and rushed in half platoons into redoubts defended by companies. Two soldiers attacked a block-house, which, to their surprise, they found defended by a german major and his party. The Major's party rose, ordered them to surrender, and the Major told a soldier to take them to the rear, to which at that moment he turned his head, and dis- covered there an advancing party of our men. 'Gentlemen,' said he, in broken English, to the two soldiers, 'I surrender. Your are at libertee, & I am your prisoner,' and with the great- est good humor gave up his sword, and ordered his party to lay down their arms. So much terrified and astonished at our boldness were the English that it is reported by deserters that Gen1 De Watteville exclaimed to Gen1 Drummond that they were surrounded and must surrender. In two days after the battle not an Englishman was near us. They raised the siege, and precipitately decamped in the night, just at our tatoo. We

sent out some parties to harass them, and compelled them to burn a magazine of stores some distance down the Niagara river, and have since taken a dragoon picquet of 8 or 10 men.

" I shall be able to begin to travel home slowly in about 10 days, and shall, with the blessing of God, soon see you all. After being wounded I walked back to my tent, and in about an hour had only one arm, a circumstance which does not af- flict me, my dear father, and must not you. But let us both thank God that he has so formed us that you have lived almost all your life happy & respectable, notwithstanding the loss of an eye, and I may spend the remainder of my life in the same manner with the loss of a limb, of all the most conveniently spared. I have been so blest hitherto that it would be the deepest sin to murmur against this dispensation of Providence. My bodily pain has been what you have always known to be usual in such cases, and no more. The Dr. Lovell says it will make a very good stump. Give my love, my dear father, to all my friends, brothers and sisters, and believe me still your affectionate son, THOMAS.

" I write with some difficulty because the paper moves under my pen, as I have no left hand to steady it."

"Punch Bowl" Tavern .- The changes in the appearance of our town, especially in the thickly set- tled portions of it, have been so great within a few years past as almost to perplex former residents who return to it, and as many inhabitants now living here can remember still greater changes, it has been sug- gested that some description of the town in the earlier part of the present century, and some account of the progress of its subsequent changes, might be interest- ing to many of the present residents.

On the 26th of the Eighth month, 1640, a bridge was ordered to be built at Muddy River. " Mr. Col- bourne, our brother Eliott, and our brother Peter Oliver were appointed to See the Same donne." This was probably the first highway leading into this sec- tion of country and the first road to Boston. From that time to the time of building the mill-dam the present Washington Street was the only road to Bos- ton in this direction, the heavy teaming from the country towns west of us came through Brookline. There was an immense amount of travel of this kind, as there were no railroads then in existence, and thus the ancient " Punch Bowl" Tavern was a necessity of the times ; here all the teams stopped for " refreshment for man and beast," and this old building as a nucleus gathered around itself the village which took its name. Even to this day this place is remembered by old men in New Hampshire, Vermont, and the back towns of this State as " the Punch Bowl Village."

The original house, built long before the war of the Revolution, was a two-story hipped-roof house, to which, as increasing patronage made it necessary, the proprietor made additions from time to time, by pur- chasing old houses in Boston and vicinity and remov- ing them hither. The result was in the aggregate a

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 182

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534