USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Acton > History of the town of Acton > Part 13
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ber of the provincial congress in 1774 and also served as representative in General Court in 1783, '84, and '85. He was a member of the com- mittee of safety and of several important conventions held during the Revolution. He held a military commission under George III but renounced it in order to work for the opposers to the crown. In February or March of 1775 he was elected major of a regiment to contest any invasion. On the morning of April 19th Dr. Prescott was sent to warn him that British troops were enroute for Concord. He fired three guns to give the alarm and marched to the North Bridge with the Acton men under Simon Hunt. He was a Lt. Colonel in a regiment of Middlesex militia that was called to reinforce the Continental Army at Dorchester Heights in March of 1776, was in service at the surrender of Burgoyne and was in command of the regiment that took the prisoners back to Cambridge. He was a gentleman, a patriot, a cultivated citizen, an able and practical legislator and a public servant of unusual common sense. He mar- ried Elizabeth Muzzy of Lexington in 1755. She lived but two weeks. In 1759 he contracted a second marriage with Rebecca Keyes of Brookfield of which union there were eleven children.
Francis Faulkner was one among the small group of men whose service to the town has been of long duration, superior quality, and performed without stint and without expectation or desire for more than token renumeration.
In 1799 the town sought to solve one angle of the care of the poor by putting out to the lowest bidder the care of David Chaffin and his wife. The contract was struck off to Noyes Richardson for ninety-six dollars per annum. At the same time Robert Barbour was awarded the rental of the town farm for the sum of twelve dollars.
There are in Acton, still functioning as comfortable and imposing dwellings, four houses built during this general period that were for many years designated as "the lottery houses". Their story is unique and well worthy of the telling.
Previous to the Revolution and on into the first decade of the nineteenth century lotteries flourished in the Commonwealth under legislative sanction. The first of these was granted to Harvard College in 1765 for the building of a new dormitory but for some reason the lottery never went into operation. One of the more famous of these devices for the raising of funds was the lottery of 1794-96. In 1793 the Governing Board of Harvard petitioned the General Court for the right to hold a lottery to provide for a new building. There was some opposition to the project on the ground that the virtuous National Convention of France had abolished lotteries "forever"; but Harvard obtained the desired privilege, appointing a highly respectable board of managers which included
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George Richards Minot the historian (A. B. 1778) who received five per cent of the ticket sale. The act granting the lottery in 1794 also appointed Benjamin Austin, Jr., Samuel Cooper, Henry Warren, and John Kneeland as managers.1
Three classes of 25,000 tickets at five dollars each, 8350 of them "in the money" and a grand prize of ten thousand dollars went off very well. The drawing of the first class began November 13, 1794, the second class April 9, 1795, and the third class September 17, 1795 at the Chamber of the House of Representatives in Boston. These three went so well that the managers were induced to try a fourth class at ten dollars per ticket for a grand prize of twenty thousand dollars plus numerous lesser ones, scaling down at last to 3700 prizes of sixteen dollars each. Despite heroic appeals to "lovers of litera- ture and the college to aid the cause" this last issue failed and the affair ended in an unseemly squabble between the winner of the grand prize, the managers who could not pay, and the Harvard Corporation. The net result so far as the college was concerned was a little in excess of eleven thousand dollars. This sum, together with eight years interest and about five thousand dollars from the general funds, completed Stoughton Hall in 1805.
Tickets were sold at lottery offices, which flourished like the bucket shops of a century later, and were advertised extensively in the newspapers. Prominent among the agencies were Gilbert & Dean, 79 State St .; Eben Larkin, 50 Cornhill; W. & T. Kidder, 9 Market Square; Wright, Goodwin & Stockwell, 27 Union St .; and William Hilliard, Cambridge Book Store, to mention merely a few of a long list.
The act of 1794 forbade the selling of fractional parts at advanced prices but the practice of selling halves, quarters, and eighths origin- ated in the lottery offices and was very prevalent. This scheme drew in as adventurers many who could not afford whole tickets.
The foregoing explanation provides the background for the tie-up with Acton. In one of the Harvard lotteries, presumably the one of 1794, Mr. Abel Conant bought a ticket for five dollars and then sold three quarters of it to neighbors at a dollar and a quarter apiece. One of these was almost certainly Dr. Abraham Skinner and another must have been John Robbins who married Sally Jones of Acton in 1791. The identity of the third is unknown to the writer. The ticket won the grand prize and with their respective shares the winners built new houses in three cases and embellished one already standing, apparently, in the fourth.
1 Three Centuries of Harvard by Samuel Eliot Morrison; Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Transactions, Dec. 1928, vol. XXVII, P. 129-222. Material re-arranged and edited by C. P. Burrill, May 13, 1952.
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The original ticket has been preserved in the Conant family since the day of the drawing and is now in the possession of Mr. Augustine B. Conant who kindly loaned it for the accompanying photograph showing the ticket and the four houses involved in the transaction. For more than a century the residences have been identified as the Conant place, the Elbridge Robbins place, the Charles Tuttle place, and the Horace Hosmer place. Mr. Conant still resides on the family homestead. The other three are now occupied by the William Hinckleys, the Thomas Snows, and the Robert Davisons respectively.
The Conant house has the date 1793 cut in one of the cellar stones. It would appear from this that Abel Conant had his house started when he received the lottery windfall because he was not a man of wealth and the main structure has had no additions since the original building was erected. Mr. Horace Tuttle on his map of Acton drawn in 1890 ascribes the date 1799 to the Tuttle house and the date 1800 to the Robbins house. The Hosmer house is presumably considerably older. During its occupancy by lawyer Millan about a generation ago the date 1775 was painted on the chimney. If this was authentic it would imply that the owner used his money to amplify the old mansion.
In connection with the affair two bits of amusing legend have come down to us. Through the Conant family we hear that Abel Conant, after due deliberation concluded that five dollars was quite a con- siderable sum to risk in a single plunge and hence induced the other men to put in with him. Via the late Mrs. Taylor Fletcher comes the pungent version that the four friends, being citizens of high standing in the community, and in the church in particular, were a wee bit suspicious of the attitude of their townsmen on the subject of gam- bling, and concluded that the moral stigma, if any, would be less damning if shared.
To those of us who in our automobiles move about so nonchalantly and settle down here and there at our sheerest whim the old fashioned practice of "warning out" may come as an intriguing surprise. It was customary to insist that persons newly coming to the town obtain permission from the selectmen, otherwise they were warned out. The sample given below, from which the identifying family name has been deleted, is but one of many appearing in the ancient records.
To either of the constables of the Town of Acton, greeting:
You are in the name of the Commonwealth of Massachu- setts directed to warn and give notice unto Jonathan T. . .
. . of Dorchester in the County of Suffolk labourer who has lately come into this town for the purpose of abiding therein not having obtained the town's consent therefore that he with his wife and their children depart the limits thereof
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within fifteen days and of this precept with your doings within twenty days next coming such that further proceed- ings may be had in the premises as the law directs.
Given under our hands and seal of Acton aforesaid this twentieth day of August A. D. 1790.
Francis Faulkner Aaron Jones Selectmen
In obediance to the warrant I have warned and given notice to the within named persons as within directed. Benjamin Hayward, Constable.
Apparently the error of brother Jonathan above mentioned was that he neglected to secure the permission of the selectmen. For those who enjoy something a bit on the piquant side mention may be made of the case of a certain Mr. W .... and the Widow C ... , both of Stow, who, "now being resident in the same house and lately come to town" were precipitately informed that, "they and their children depart the limits of the town in fifteen days".
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF ACTON
PART IV
1800-1850
The census of 1800 showed that nine hundred and one persons resided within the township limits.
In the gubernatorial election of that year the contest was between the Federalists and the Jeffersonian Party, then known as Republicans. Elbridge Gerry, who received seventy seven Acton votes, was a Republican and subsequently Vice-President under Jefferson. Caleb Strong, who received but twelve votes, was later governor of Massa- chusetts as a Federalist and defied Madison when the President tried to call out the Massachusetts militia in 1812. In the same election the Acton vote for Lieutenant-Governor was eighty eight for Moses Gill and one for Elbridge Gerry.
An angle not previously noted in connection with the support of the poor appears in the minutes of the town meeting of March 2, 1801, wherein a memorandum is made that Ephraim Brooks is to be let out for one year to Abraham Hapgood, said Hapgood to pay the town the sum of twenty seven dollars and in addition the clothes of the said Brooks are "to be kept good".
Somewhat similar agreements were frequently made in connection with apprentices seeking to learn a trade. Fletcher gives a charac- teristic one with respect to Gill Piper . A particularly good one now in the possession of Dr. Wendell F. Davis is given herewith in detail.
This indenture witnesseth that Josiah Headen of Littleton in the County of Middlesex and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, cooper, hath put and by these presence doth put place and bind out his son Joshua Headen and the said Joshua Headen doth hereby put and bind out himself as an apprentice to Ebenezer Davis of Acton in said County, Wheelright, to learn the art and trade of a wheelright, the said Joshua Headen after the manner of an apprentice to dwell with and serve the said Ebenezer Davis from the day of the date hereof until the ninth day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixteen at which time the said apprentice, if he be living, will be twenty one years of age during all which time or term the said appren- tice his said master well and faithfully shall serve, his secrets keep, and his lawful commands everywhere at all times readily obey, he shall do no damage to his said master nor wilfully suffer any to be done by others and if any
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to his knowledge be intended he shall give his master seasonable notice thereof, he shall not waste the goods of his said master nor lend them unlawfully to any. At cards, dice, or any other unlawful game he shall not play. Fornication he shall not commit, nor matrimony contract during the term, taverns, ale houses or places of gaming he shall not haunt or frequent, from the service of his master he shall not absent himself but in all things and at all times he shall carry and behave himself as a good and faithful apprentice ought during the time or term aforesaid
And the said Ebenezer Davis on his part doth hereby promise, covenant, and agree to teach and instruct said apprentice or cause him to be instructed and taught in the art and trade of a wheelright by the best way and means he can if the said apprentice be capable to learn, and during said term to provide the said apprentice with meat, drink lodging washing nursing and doctoring and to allow him sixteen weeks schooling and to give him one Hundred Dollars to provide his own Cloathing which is to be a full compensation for his labor, said money to be paid an proportion of it each year if he may want it. I further- more agree that the said apprentice shall work at his trade all the time after March the Ninth 1814 except in haying time.
In testimony whereof the said parties have to and one other indenture of the same tenor and date interchangeably set their hands and seals the twenty first day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirteen.
Signed sealed and delivered
in presence of us
JOSIAH HAYDEN
NOAH STEARNS
EBENEZER DAVIS JOSHUA N. HAYDEN
It will doubtless come as a surprise to some to learn that the Wilde Memorial Library was not the first venture in the town toward literary improvement. In 1910 there came to light in the garret of an old homestead in East Acton1 a document which revealed the existence of a library in 1801.
The manuscript was an order from the trustees of the Acton
1 Town report of March, 1910, p. 71.
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EVANGELICAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 1846
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DAVIS MONUMENT,
OCTOBER 29th, 1851.
The General Committee of Arrangements of the towns of Acton, Con- cord, Sudbury, Stow, Littleton, Boxboro', Carlisle, and Westford, desireto notify the public, that said Monument will be dedicated on the 29th mstant. The inhabitants of all those towns, whose citizens bote arms in that GREAT FIRST BATTLE DAY OF OUR COUNTRY, the 19th of April 1775, the Council, Senate and House of Representatives of 1851, are particu- larly urged to attend-and the patriotic men of this Commonwealth gener- ally. And this is the more fitting, because the Commonwealth corporate with the town of Acton to build said monument. True, all alike would be glad to perpetuate the fame of these glorious deeds of patriotism, and to hand down to posterity the loved names of those who died for us in that opening conflict of the American Revolution, and especially the names of DAVIS and HOSMER, who fell heading the column of attack at Old North Bridge, in Concord, believed to have been the very first organized attackupon the troops of King George in that memorable war.
A Procession will be formed on the common at Acton Centre, two miles from the Depots, on the Fitchburg Rail Road, at 9 o'clock A. M., to be escorted by the Ancient and Honorable Artillery of Boston, and several companies of the Mass. Militia, all under the general direction of Col. W. E. FAULKNER, Chief Marshal of the day. The procession after moving towards the Old Grave Yard, and receiving the dis-interred remains of Capt. ISAAC DAVIS, and Privates, ABNER HOSMER and JAMES HAYWARD, all of Acton who fell at Concord Fight, will proceed to the recently erected Monument, and there under the same, re-inter those remains; thence mareb to the Pavilion to hear an Oration from Gov. BOUTWELL, and a Poem from REV. J. PIERPONT, of Medford; and some original Hymns from REV. M. DURANT, of Bifield, a native of Acton, sung to the cherished tunes of our fathers.
Addresses are expected from Gov. Everett, R. Rantoul Jr., R. Choate, J. P. Hale, Jr. and' other distinguished guests. The shoe buckles, Davis bad on wlien shot, and the powder horn through which flayward was kill- ed with other relies of the old war will be exhibited. Mr. Jonathan Har- rington, the only survivor of those scenes, now alive at Lexington, will probably be present .- fle was Capt. Parker's fifer.
Ladies will be accommodated, and the whole audience, at least all who have tickets for dinner, will be comfortably seated under the Pavilion.
All pasengers will be conveyed to and from the two depots in Acton on the Fitchburg Rail Road, to Acton Centre, at reasonable prices. The Military, Fire Companies, Odd-Fellows, and other regular Societies, in bod- ics, with uniforms or badges, will be carried over the Fitchburg Railroad at half price if passage is applied for by officers of companies.
All civil and literary societies, and all military companies, whether particu- larly written to or not, are hereby respectfully invited to attend, and places will be assigned them in the procession, on presenting themselves to the Chief Mar- shal at the Town Hall. All persons having tickets to dinner will be sure of a convenient scat to hear the Oration, &c. and as many besides as the Pavilion will accommodate. All are advised to procure tickets for dinner. The "dinner is to be furnished by JOHN WRIGHT, of Boston, and the tickets to be, for Gent- tlemen, $1,00 each, and for Ladies and the Military at 75 cents each.
By Order of Committee of Arrangements : J. T. WOODBURY, Chairman, J. M MILES, Secretary.
Chisholm's Fast Presa, 5000 per hour, No. 5 Water Street, Boston
Social Library to Seth Brooks, as Collector, to obtain from diverse persons certain moneys for fines and damages.
The social library originated in England and had its inception in America in Connecticut in the 1730's. By 1775 each of the New England states had at least one and by 1780 Massachusetts had six- teen.2
Rigorously defined a social library was a voluntary association of individuals who had contributed money toward a common fund for the purchase of books. Although every member had the right to use the books of the organization, title to all was retained by the group. The organization could be informal, as the Acton group appears to have been, or legalized into a corporation.
The free public library, an institution supported by the town as a public trust, was a child of the 1830's.
Because of its unique character the manuscript mentioned above is given below in full.
Acton, June 1st, 1801, to Seth Brooks, Collector for Social Library in Acton, you are directed to collect the following fines of the several persons hereafter named and to pay in the same to Capt. John Robbins, Treasurer for said Social Library, within six months for the use of the said Library:
Seth Brooks, Eveling. Vol. 1, kept one day too long $ .03
Capt. Joseph Brown, Pilgrims Progress, soiled page 194, 195 .04
David Davis, Stack house, Vol. kept 5 days too long .15
John Dexter, Spectator, Vol. 2, grease spot on edge p. 49 to 59 .05
Capt. Stevens Hayward, Hunter, Vol. 3, 2 days to long, .06
John Hunt, Hunter Vol. 2, one day too long
John Hunt, Hunter, Vol. 3, last day after 1 Monday of May .28
Nathan Hayward, Stack house, Vol. 1, 4 days after last
Monday of May 1.00
Amos Noyes, Blair Vol. 3rd, 1 day after last Monday
of May .24
John Prescott, Hunter, Vol. 3rd, too long 4 days .12
Dr. A. Skinner, Morse, Vol. 1, spot p. 200 .03
Lt. Samuel White, Stack house, Vol. 6, 2 days too long .06
Samuel Wright, Jr. N. E. Farmer, 14 days too long .42
Paul Hayward, Moors Journal, Vol. 1, leaves loosed at beginning .06
James Coolidge, Gordon, Vol. 3, 1 day too long
.03
Deacon Simon Hunt, Stack house, Vol. 4, spot page 421 Moses Wood, Doddridge, Vol. 1, spot page 265.
2 Jesse H. Shera, Foundations of the Public Library, p. 54.
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Abraham Skinner Samuel Parlin
Aaron Jones John Edwards
David Barnard
Trustees
In December of 1801 Massachusetts published a new map of the Commonwealth and the town voted that a copy be framed and deposit- ed with the Rev. Moses Adams for the use of the inhabitants
In March of 1802 it was decided that the time had arrived when two constables were no longer needed. Consequently the number was reduced to one and the office was sold to the highest bidder. Calvin Heyward was awarded the contract at a figure of twenty five dollars and sixty cents. He must have been a typical forehanded Yankee trader because he also secured the position of tax collector with a bid of four and a half pence per pound. This item is interesting not only for its intrinsic value but furthermore because it illustrates how tenacious was the custom of using the old terminology with respect to money.
It was in 1802 also that another step was made along the lines of social consciousness and civic betterment. For the first time the town voted "NAY" on the question of permitting hogs to run at large. This question had appeared in the town warrants perennially since the days of incorporation and a positive decision had become a foregone conclusion. Now however, at long last, in spite of vigorous opposition by those who were reluctant to build fence, a growing sense of propriety appeared to have taken hold of the public mind.
Acton has been a town where civic pride was ever an important consideration. Visitors frequently comment upon the appearance of the common with its vista of well-kept greensward and lofty rows of ash, elm and maple and upon the freshly painted neatness of the town buildings. In consequence it is not surprising to discover that in July of 1801 the question was laid before the voters as to what action should be taken with respect to the bushes and vines that had grown up in the cemetery. Anyone acquainted with the trimness of the better type of New England village will be aware that here was a veritable call to Armageddon. Unanimously it was voted that the selectmen should choose a day when the inhabitants should meet in a body and "subdue the brush in the burying ground".
At the same meeting we find broached for the first time the question of a new meeting house. The old one had served the town for over sixty years and was not only showing signs of age but was becoming too small for the increasing population. The article was dismissed as was another at a subsequent meeting but the question was in the minds of the people and was to bear fruit within a decade.
At this time also the town first specified the sum to be expended for
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the maintenance of the highways. Heretofore the citizenry had been called upon to labor personally or supply a substitute but now the sum of four hundred dollars was set aside to be expended at the rate of eight cents per hour for a man and a like amount for the use of a pair of oxen and a cart.
Nor did the trend stop there. The movement blossomed forth in a wholly new direction. Taxpayers are prone to think that money is squandered in this day and age but contemporaneous chagrin is mild compared to that of certain of the citizenry when the idea of "paint- ing the schoolhouses" was broached. In modern parlance they had now "seen everything". They put up a lively fight but the craze of the new era was not to be denied. The progressives went on to new heights and specified that the color was to be red and Spanish brown with the windows done in white lead. Then, with the bit in their teeth they perpetrated an added bit of sheer insanity. With delightful primness the town clerk records that it was decided not only to erect but paint "necessary houses" for each school. As a gem of propriety descriptive of the old fashioned privy the idiom can scarcely be surpassed, particularly in the minds of the generation old enough to recall but not to regret certain January mornings in the distant past.
Having decided to go on such a spending spree the electorate had to retrench somewhere. Consequently it was voted in the April meet- ing of 1802 to rent the land portion of the town farm to the omni- present Calvin Heywood for nine dollars. He was to have the hay but it was specifically stipulated that he return to the farm as much manure as the hay would make. Just how this problem in agricultural logistics was to be solved is not made clear. It would appear that Simon Hosmer, who rented the buildings and one half acre of land for eight dollars and a quarter, made the simpler bargain.
By May of 1803 the question of a new meeting house had so far developed that it was decided to hire Colonel Holman of Bolton to survey the town and ascertain the center of the land area. John Edwards, Capt. Joseph Brown, Lt. Simon Tuttle, and George Robbins were chosen as a committee to assist in the matter and to help decide as to the location of the projected house of worship.
Colonel Holman and the committee completed the work and erected a pile of stones at the spot of their decision but the town, convened in meeting on September 5th, voted not to accept the location but did agree to build as near to the then standing first meeting house as the lay of the land would permit.1 As a committee to design a meeting
1 It is not known where Col. Holman and his committee designated the center of the town. On a present geological survey map, if one draws a line from the extreme northeast corner of the town (the Westford, Carlisle, Acton corner) perpendicular to the Maynard, Acton line, the middle of such a line falls almost exactly at the laboratory of the Technology Instrument Corporation in Acton Centre.
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