USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Stoneham > History of Stoneham, Massachusetts > Part 3
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HISTORY OF STONEHAM.
When the division of land among the inhabitants of Charlestown was made, in 1658, the northwestern section of the town was not included ; that is to say, the territory between High Street and Woburn line, and north from about Captain Rufus Richardson's Lane. This was subsequently known as the Charlestown Farms, and in the early part of the eighteenth century was leased to different individuals. . The two hundred acres in the extreme north- western section were leased, in 1705, to Stephen Williams, of Woburn, for twenty-one years, and were bounded on the south by the old road from Read- ing to Woburn. There was a provision in the lease that the lessee should "build and finish upon said Land A Dwelling house wich shall be Twenty Two foot Long and Eighteen foot wide, nine foot studd between joists, and a Leanto at the end of said house, Twelve foot Long, the bredth of the house six foot stud, and shall Dig and sufficiently stone A Convenient Seller under said House, and shall build and cary up a Double stack of Brick Chimneys to A Convenient height above the house, and shall Lay two floors in said house, and Leanto and fill the Walles Between the Studs and Ceile them with Plained boards or Lime morter on the inside, and shall make Convenient Stairs, and shall board or Claboard the outside of said house, and board and Shingle the Roofe, to make it every Where Thite, and make Convenient Lights in said house, and Glaze the same ; And shall also erect and build A Barn upon said Land Thirty foot Long and Twenty foot wide, and Cover the same on the Sides, Ends and Roofe, to make it thite; and at his own proper Cost and charges suport, maintaine, Repair and Amend the said house and barn with all needful Repairations and Amendments during said Term, And shall also plant Two acres of said Land with Good fruit Trees, for an Orchard, the Trees to be planted thirty Two foot asunder, and Fence said Orchard intire, With A Good sufficient fence aboute the same, and make and maintaine A Good sufficient fence, stone Wall, or posts and Railes about What Land he Improves ; And the said Land, medow, house, barn and fences erected and sett up on said Land as above said, so well and sufficiently repaired and Amended ; with the orchard sufficiently fenced intire, and as above expressed, all the improved Land so fenced ; as above said at the end of said Term of Twenty one years shall and will Leave, etc."
Eighty acres were to be reserved for woodland. For rent he was to pay during the first ten years twelve pence per year, and for the other eleven years the sum of five pounds and ten shillings per year. How long he remained is uncertain, though twenty years later there was a Stephen Williams, Jr., here, probably the same man. The house which he built was one story high, and probably stood on the north side of the old road a little easterly from the Woburn line, though possibly the original dwelling was located near the spot where the late Caleb Wiley lived. The latter spot is said to have been the scene of an Indian butchery. The tradition is, that after the murder the neighbors assembled and pursued the savages. Near a large rock, which may
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"GILT EDGE" BOARDING HOUSE, MAIN STREET, T. E. ROLFE, PROPRIETOR.
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HISTORY OF STONEHAM.
be seen to this day about a third of a mile west of the house, one of them wis seen and shot. Also seven packs were found on the rock, from which it appeared that six others were in his company and had escaped.
The farm east of that of Williams, consisting of one hundred and sixteen acres, with a house, barn and orchard, just such as has here been described, was leased to John Wesson, of Reading, and extended to the Geary' land near the present High Street. "The house was probably located in the vicinity of where the late James Pierce lived. Wesson also in 1705 leased ninety one acres south of his other farm, with the same provisions in the lease as to house, burn and orchard as in that of Williams. The latter extended from near Oak Street to High Street. The buildings were located a few rods east of the old house of John B. Tidd south of the road, and were still standing in the early part of the present century. Some years later this farm was occupied for many years by James Hill, the founder of the family of that name.
The next and last farm to the south was one, of one hundred and ten acres, let to Thomas and Daniel Gould, with the same conditions as in the other leases, and extended from near Oak Street on the west to land of Ken- dall Parker on the east, extending a little easterly of High Street, and em- braced a large portion of Farm Hill. Two ancient homesteads stood on this territory, and it is not quite certain which was the original farm house, but probably it was one built on the east side of the road, nearly opposite the house of John Paine, and just south of land now owned by the town. It was here that Grover Scollay was afterwards said to have lived, though for a time he hired one of the Charlestown farms formerly occupied by Wesson. When Stoneham was set off, the Gould farm was conveyed to the town towards the support of the ministry.
West of the Gould and Wesson farms, and south of the old road, was a farm let to Timothy Baldwin, of eighty-six acres. There were no buildings upon this farm, and in 1787 it was conveyed by Charlestown to Thaddeus, Oliver, Caleb and Elijah Richardson, and afterwards divided between them.
It is believed that the names and, so far as possible, the location of almost every inhabitant who founded a family here, prior to 1725, have been given in the preceding pages. It may have seemed tedious to the reader, but it is a duty we owe their memory that their names should be preserved. No one of them is known to have acquired a distinction beyond his immediate neigh- borhood. None of them could boast of Harvard as his alma mater. Neither of the so-called learned professions had had a representative at Charlestown End ; probably no town within a radius of ten miles from Boston had an humbler origin than ours.
It may be interesting to know something of the domestic life of the earli- est settlers, and nothing indicates this more certainly than the inventories of their estates as they were made at their decease. Let us for a moment eon-
William D. Stevens
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HISTORY OF STONEHAM.
sider a few of them. The first one who died was Thomas Cutler, whose de- cease occurred in 1683. He left twenty-five acres of land and a house valued at £40; "3 cows, 4 young cattle, {18; i mare to colts, three pounds, 10 swine, 40 bushels Indian corn and some rye and oats and barley, 9 pounds and ten shillings ; I plough and ax and implements for husbandman's work ; 2 beds with bedding; 3 pair sheets with other linen, woolen and flax, 2 pounds, 4 shillings ; 5 yards home-made cloth and some yarn, 2 iron pots with iron things and pewter and brass, 2 pounds, 5 shillings; chests and boxes with other usable things in house, I pound 10 shillings; wearing clothes, 2 pounds ; gun and sword, I pound." The inventory of John Gould, filed March 27, 1691, is as follows: "One feather bed, bolster, blanket, bedstead, etc., £5 ; pewter and brass, £2; Iron ware, £1 15s .; household linen, £6 Ios. ; table, chests, boxes and chaires, £2 15s .; 2 oxen, £4; 2 cows, £4; 12 sheep, £3 12s. ; Dairy vessels, {1 13s." Matthew Smith's valuation, dated December 15, 1691, shows that he left "Two oxen valued, £9;4 cows, £13; 3 yearlings, £4; I horse, £4 Ios .; 9 sheep, £4; 4 swine, £3 ; Iron and Ring and plough irons, etc., {2; Iron and two axes, etc., £1 18s; a whifaltree, chains and cart ropes, Iron and tongs, Iron bolts, shave, some other eage tools and ax, £2 9s. ; Indian corn and Inglish corne, flax, and woolen yarns and linen yarns and linen cloath and hemp, £3 18s .; beds and cording, £5; tobacco, 15s .; hops, Ios .; chests and boxes and pailes, trays and dishes, with other wooden things visabal in the house, {1 15s. ; I baril and a half of pork, £4 Ios. : sadell and bridell, £1 ; Iron arms and ammunition, {2 Ios. : Cloathing, woolen and linen, £3 5s .; books, 8s. ; a broad axe, a book, a pair of shoes, £3 Ios." Coming down to the early part of the next century, and to the second generation, when wealth had somewhat accumulated and luxuries increased, John Gould, the second of that name, who died in 1712, left a much larger personal property, which was described as follows: ""Wareing close, the best feather bed, one bolster, 2 pillows, £6 5s. 6d. ; a straw bed, a coverlaid, £6 IIs., I blanket, 2 sheets, cord and bedstead, £4 8s. 6d .; another feather bed, bolster, · coverlaid 9d. ; another feather bed, I bolster, I coverlaid, 2 blankets, 2 sheets, £4 2s. 6d. ; 6 napkins, I table cloth, I bed blanket, £1 3s. ; pillows, 4s. ; 3 pewter platters, one bason and other puter and tinn, {1 7s. IId .; brass cettle, 15s. ; worming pan, 6s. : a scollet and oyrn pot, 4s. : friing pan, 6s. ; an oyrn cettle, 7s. ; an oyrn scelet, 4s .; fire shovel, tongs, 7s .; box oryn and pot hook, I gun, 15s. ; a pare of pistils and holster, 18s .; a cut- lash, 4s. ; 2 chests, 2 boxes, 19s. 6d. ; 2 saddles and pilian, Is. ; Io books, 13s. ; 5 barils and a pipe, 16s. 6d. ; lumber, 6s. ; a loome, 2 slays, {I IOS. ; carpenters tools, £1 14s. ; 2 sickles and wedge and old oyrn, 17s. 6d. ; and tackling, 15s. ; axes, 14s. ; forks and 2 chains, 16s. ; I plough and oyrns, 8s. ; hoe, yoke and rings and staples, 12s. ; I shovel and grindstone, 7s. 8d. ; I cart and wheels, £4 Ios. ; sled and tumbril, Ios. ; a flax comb, 9s. ; stone
3
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HISTORY OF STONEHAM.
cart, 8s. ; 20 bushels ry, Ios. ; 5 bushals wheat, {1 2s. 6d .; 16 bushals of molt, 1 B I-2 barly, £2 12s. 6d. ; Indian corn, 55 bushals at 2s. 3d. per B, £6 17s. 6d. ; 8 pounds of wool, 5s .; a cross-cut saw, 5s .; 5 swine, {2; 2 pair of oxen, £15 15s. ; I horse, £4 Ios. ; one mare. £4 IOS. ; 6 cows, £17 15s. ; 2 yearlings, {1 18s. ; 23 sheep, £8 Is .; timber hieved for a barn, 3s. ; flax, Ios. ; a paire of new shoos, 5s. ; 2 sacks, 3s .; 2 baskets, 3s. 9d. ; 300 bords, 12s. ; I baril and half of pork, £4 Ios. ; sword, small things, Ios. 6d."
By an examination of these lists it will be observed there were no carriages, no crockery or glass-ware or hardly any furniture except bedsteads, chairs and boxes. The only fire was that of the fire-place. Carpets or rugs had not come into use. No curtains were required to shield the inmates from the curiosity of passers-by. There were no watches or clocks to indicate the time. No metal more precious than iron and brass and pewter and tin filled their cupboards, or covered their tables. Potatoes had not come into general use. The staple articles of food were Indian corn, wheat, rye, barley and pork, with mutton and beef at intervals, and doubtless veal and lamb now and then. Coffee and tea were luxuries of the future, and probably sugar was very little in use. Flour as we have it was unknown. Garden vegetables were cultivated to no great extent. Milk and butter and cheese they pos- sessed at an early day in abundance. Wild game was plenty. The cloth was for the most part home-spun. To a very large degree their purchases were exchanges, grain taking the place of money as a medium of exchange. Fruit trees were set out at an early day, orchards started, and afterwards great quantities of cider were made and consumed, but the first John Gould and Thomas Cutler hardly lived to reach that blissful day. It is safe to assume that during the first years of the settlement, wagons were not in common use.
As the years went on comforts gradually increased. As appears in the in- ventory of John Gould, who died in 1712, pillions were used, and we can imagine our great-great-grandfathers on horseback in front, and our great- · great-grandmothers on pillions behind. Every household contained a gun, and from necessity all the men, and many of the women were familiar with the use of firearms. This was not a border town, but still the Indians in small numbers made occasional incursions. John Gould and Thomas Geary, as already stated, were soldiers in King Philip's War, and later Ebenezer Damon and Joseph Arnold in the war against Canada. Perhaps there were no slaves here in the seventeenth century, but there were several in the eigh- teenth. Timothy Baldwin in 1708 made his will, giving to his wife his "best feather bed with the furniture thereunto belonging, and six pairs of sheets, one paire of them being cotton and lining, and ten pounds in money, the chamber which is in the east end of the House, with the Improvement of a third part of my seller Roome, well and oven, and my Brass Kettle skilet,
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HISTORY OF STONEHAM.
Iron Pots and Kettels, and all my Pewter During the Terme of her widow- hood. Also the use of a good cow and horse, half a hundred weight of good Pork annually, fifteen bushels of Indian corn, five bushels of malt, two bushels of ry, and two Barrils of sider, ten cords of firewood, liberty of raising one swine and of gathering six bushels of apples."
Gould's saw-mill was in existence certainly as early as 1708 and quite prob- ably much earlier, being located south of Mill Street, on or near the spot where stood the saw-mill of the late David H. Burnham. A grist-mill was built here by John Gould, Peter Hay, Timothy Baldwin and James Hill in 1737 or 1738. There was also a mill in the early part of the century near the outlet of Spot Pond. The only public building was the school-house in the easterly part of the town near where Charles Buck resides. The appro- priations for the school, however, could not have been very munificent if the usual amount was spent in 1713. That year four pounds were voted "to pay for teaching children to write among our inhabitants near Reading." No record is known to exist of a public house prior to the year 1725, but there is a tradition that one was kept at an early day, located a few rods north of South Street, on the Wilson farm. Numerous relics have been ploughed up at this place, one of the most interesting of which was a large mug in an almost perfect state of preservation, similar to what is now known as Flemish ware.
In 1725 the population of Charlestown End had been gradually increasing till the number of male inhabitants who were taxed was sixty-five. They were so far from Charlestown that they derived none of the advantages of a connection with the parent town, and suffered all the inconveniences attend- ing a community separated from the church and the school by miles of wil- derness. The time had come when they had outgrown the dependence of a distant settlement and aspired to become a separate town. So this year Captain Benjamin Geary and fifty-three others petitioned to be set off, but the town voted not to grant the petition. The General Court, however, in De- cember, 1725, passed the following act :
"Whereas the Northerly part ofthe Town of Charlestown within the County of Middlesex is competently filled with Inhabitants who labour under great Difficulties by their Remoteness from the place of public worship and have thereupon made their application to the said town of Charlestown, and have likewise addressed the Court that they may be set off a Distinct and Separate Town, and be vested with all the powers and privileges of a Town, and the Inhabi- tants of Charlestown by their agents having consented to their being set off accordingly, and a committee of this court havin viewed the Northerly part of the said Town of Charlestown, and reported in favor of the Petitioners. Be it therefore Enacted by the Lieutenant Governor, Council, and Representatives in General Court assembled and by the authority of the same. That the Northerly part of the said Town of Charlestown, that is to say all the Land on the East side of Woburn, the South side of Reading, the West side of Malden and the North side of the Fifth Range of the First Division of Charlestown Wood Lots be and hereby is set off and constituted a separate Township by the name of Stoneham. And the Bounds and the Limits of the said Town of Stoneham be according to the agreement made in November one Thousand seven hundred and twenty-five by and between the committee and Agents for and in behalf of the said Town of Charlestown, and the petitioners of the Northerly part thereof, wherein it was
1127802
A VIEW FROM THE INDEPENDENT CUPOLA, LOOKING WESTWARD.
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HISTORY OF STONEHAM.
consented and agreed, that the five ranges or remaining part of the said First Division do re- main to the Town of Charlestown, agreeable to a former grant of the Town made in the year 1657-5S, and that the Inhabitants of the Northerly half of Charlestown should have and enjoy that Tract of Land lying in' he bounds aforesaid, commonly called and known by the name of Gould's Farm, now under lease to Messrs. Thomas and Daniel Gould, containing one hundred and ten acres, or thereabouts ; also one-halt of all the Town's Meadow (and uplands) lying on Spot Pond, both for quantity and quality containing seventy-nine acres (by Captain Burnapp's platt) an estate in Fee with an equal share in Spot Pond, the said Land or the value thereof to be improved for settling and maintaining an Orthodox minister to dispense the word and ordi- nances among them. The Inhabitants of the said Northerly half of Charlestown being by virtue of the said agreement to be debarred from any claim or demand of and to any Land money, Rents or income of what kind soever, which now are or shall belong to the Town of Charlestown as well those several Farms and Land lying within the Bounds above said, as all other Estate or Income either Real or Personal, and from all demands for High Ways; that so the Town of Charlestown may quietly and peaceably enjoy the same. And further it is to be understood that none of the Land contained in the 'I wo hanges and Half belonging to the first Division shall on any pretence whatsoever be assessed or taxed by the said Town of Stoneham, except those Lands that shall be put under Improvement, such as mowing, ploughing and pas- turing. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the In abitants of the North- erly half of Charlestown living within the Bounds aforesaid be and hereby are erected with the Powers, Privileges and Immunities that the Inhabitants of any of the Towns of the Province by Law are or ought to be vested with; that the inhabitants of the said Town of Stoneham do within the space of two years from the Publication of this Act, Erect and finish a suitable House for the public worship of God, and so soon as may be procure and settle a Learned and Orthodox minister, of good conversation and make provision for his comfortable and honorable support; and likewise provide a school-master to instruct their youth in Writing and Reading, and that thereupon they be discharged from any payment for the maintenance of the ministry and school in the Town of Charlestown, Provided that the Inhabitants of Stoneham neverthe- less, are to pay their respective proportions to Two several assessments already made by the Assessors of Charles town for County and Town charges, and David Gould, one of the present
constables of Charles-town, is required to collect and pay in such parts and proportions of each ot said assessments as are permitted to him by the said Assessors of Charlestown according to the powers and directions in the warrant duly made and delivered; anything in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding- December 17, 1725, This Bill having been Read three several times in the House of Representatives passed to be enacted. William Dudley Speaker."
The first town meeting was held December 24, 1725. Timothy Baldwin, Sen., was chosen moderator and Daniel Gould, Jr., town clerk. The select- men the first year were Captain Benjamin Geary, Captain John Vinton, Mr. Peter Hay, Sr., Mr. Timothy Baldwin, Sr., and Lieut. Timothy Wright. The following is the list of the remaining male inhabitants who were residents this year and paid a tax.
John Gould Sr., Daniel Gould Sr., Daniel Gould Jr., Daniel Green. Abraham Gould, William Rogers, Thos. Cutler Sr., Benjamin Geary Jr., William Lewis, Benjamin Wesson, Benjamin Gould, John Hay, Ebenezer Phillips, Samuel Williams, Jonathan Green, David Green, John Green, John Cowdrey, David Gould, Thomas Geary Sr., Joseph Arnold, Ebenezer Knight, Edward Bucknam, Stephen Parker, Ebenezer Parker, S: muel Williams Jr., John Vinton Jr., Stephen Williams Jr., Timothy Wright Jr., John Dexter, Peter Hay Jr., Ebenezer Damon, Thomas Grover Sr., John Souther, Nathaniel Souther, Thomas Geary Jr., John Geary, Thomas Geary, Jonathan Griffin, John Howe, Samuel Holeen, Jr., Joseph Holden, Jacob Howe, An. thony Hadley, Ephraim Larabee, Samuel Sprague, Richard Belcher, John May, James Taylor, Samuel Wesson, Jeremiah Belcher, Ebenezer Cutler, James Hill, Joseph Bryant, Grover Scollay and Thomas Williams.
The first business of importance which came before the town was the elec- tion of committees to provide preaching and to take preliminary steps for the
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HISTORY OF STONEHAM.
erection of a meeting-house, which was raised the next year. It was located in the easterly part of the town, a few feet southerly from the residence of Charles Buck, and was a plain building thirty-six by forty feet, with galleries on three sides and posts twenty feet high. There were three doors, one on the east, south and west. It could make no pretensions to architectural beauty ; at first, was destitute of paint, and for years its bare walls looked down upon a congregation who did not enjoy the luxury of pews. It was spoken of by a person who remembered it in her girlhood, as having no bel- fry or tower, and no entry, and was situated on the easterly side of the road. The pulpit stood at the north end. It was voted "that the meeting-house shall stand between the black oak tree and the red oak tree, upon the hill near the east end of the school-house." Stones for the foundation were laid by Ebenezer Phillips, and the building was framed by Lieut. Timothy Wright. Our ancestors were men of strong religious convictions and in the main were severe and exemplary in their morals, but in some respects they were more convivial than their descendants.
On the day when the inhabitants assembled to raise the frame of the meet- ing-house it must have been an occasion of great hilarity and festivity. Re- freshments were served, and it requires no flight of the imagination to sup- pose that the pious enthusiasm of the earnest workers as they erected the great posts and lifted up the heavy beams may have been somewhat stimula- ted by liberal potations ; for besides a quantity of cider they consumed five gallons of rum. For many years there were no pews, the people sitting upon benches, the men on the west side, and in the west gallery, and the women on the east side and in the east gallery, the negro men occupying the rear seat of the men's gallery and the negro women occupying the rear seat of the women's gallery. Numerous town meetings were called, many appropriations made, and a considerable time elapsed before the edifice was completed. Four years after its erection a minister's pew was built and at the same time the doors and window sashes were painted, also the eave troughs, weather- boards and end-boards. It appears upon the records that the women of Stoneham contributed towards the completion of the house, £5 IIs. 9d., to which additions were made by the gentlewomen of Malden, Woburn and Reading. The first town meeting was held in the school-house, and those persons only were allowed to vote who were freeholders, having an estate of freehold in lands within the Province of forty shillings per annum, or other estate to the value of forty pounds sterling.
About an acre of land was purchased of James Huy on which to locate the meeting-house, and at the same time a quarter of an acre for a burial place, it being the northerly part of the old graveyard south of Pleasant street. Town meetings were called and conducted almost identically the same as those of today. By means of them the people learned to govern themselves. They were the very foundation of our republican institutions. De Tocque-
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HISTORY OF STONEHAM.
ville says, "Town meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to sci- ence ; they bring it within the people's reach; teach them how to use and how to enjoy it." About ten or twelve years after the completion of the meeting-house a vote was passed that family pews might be built which should be "lotted out to such men as appeared to be the highest in rate and right ;" and by the subsequent distribution it would appear that the men of the most consideration were the Hays, the Goulds and the Greens. It may be interesting to pause for a moment and consider the appearance of Stone- ham at this period" There were probably about fifty houses in the town, but not the remotest semblance of a village. Almost every man was a farmer, some of them combining with agriculture the occupations of cordwainer, weaver, carpenter or blacksmith. Stoneham was inferior to most of its neighbors in territory, population and wealth. We may suppose its popula- tion to have been between two hundred and fifty and three hundred. Al- though numerous clearings had been made, and many farms were under cul- tivation, a large portion of the territory must have been covered with forest. Let us start from the meeting-house as a centre, perambulate the town and make as perfect a picture of it as we may. There were but three or four highways, none of them straight, but crooked country roads. In explana- tion of the circuitous course of the old road over Farm Hill, as it existed forty years ago, it used to be said it was laid out by a drunken man. A large portion of the houses were scattered about on lanes and private ways. The buildings in a country town a century and a half ago did not present the neat and thrifty appearance which characterizes a New England village today. The dwelling houses were generally dark and weather-stained. It was the day of things useful and not ornamental. The meeting-house stood on one of the few highways facing to the south, on an elevation overlooking the site of the future town. Proceeding northerly, the first house a little beyond the church, and on the west side of the road, was owned by James Hay, al- though he himself did not live in it, being a shopkeeper in Charlestown. The next one, not far distant on the right of the road, was probably where Andrew Phillips had lived, the one which Nathaniel Dunton built. Keeping on until we come to Spring Street, somewhere hereabouts a private way led to the east, on which lived Daniel Green, Ebenezer Phillips and, a little later, Thomas Knight and Ephraim Brown. Winding our way up through Bow Street, by the stand-pipe, the next old-time citizen we know of on the left, was John Souther (the Oakes Green place). It was here the church was organized. Souther's next neighbor on the north, and on the same side of the street, was Joseph Bryant. From Bryant's the road followed the present course of Green Street till its intersection with Elm, and then easter- ly by the latter till its junction with the old road to Wakefield, and by the last-named old road till it reaches the foot of Cowdrey's Hill. This was one of the very earliest highways of Charlestown End, and on it lived, in 1725,
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