USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Acton > History of the town of Acton > Part 14
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house and receive bids for its erection John Edwards, Capt. Daniel Davis, William Stearns, Robert Chaffin and Lt. Simon Tuttle were chosen.
At first it seemed as if the site of the new edifice was to be readily- decided but very shortly the various interested parties began to vie for supremacy until a battle reminiscent of the first meeting house was at a high pitch. Acton has always had a penchant for going all out on major issues. The location of the railroad, the bounty quest- ion, the site of the high school, and in the present the problem of zoning, although far in the future, were foreshadowed by this classic of political mayhem. A round by round account of the fray, lasting for three years, goes something as follows.
In April of 1804 a committee of twelve, six from each of the two parts of the town, was chosen in the effort to reach some agreement. In August it was voted to reconsider all former votes and to hold a special meeting on the first Monday of September to try to fix upon a location. The question of building a meeting house somewhere was not at issue. Everybody wanted one built and this same session voted to raise two thousand dollars for the purpose and Simon Tuttle, Robert Chaffin, Daniel Davis, Phineas Wheeler and William Stearns constituted the committee to make the plans and let out the work.
About three weeks later, on September 25th, another committee, consisting of fifteen, failed to agree and decided to convene again on November 5th with the proviso that in the meantime the building committee should take no action. Apparently this group came to no decision because on November 19th a special town meeting was called which adjourned for half an hour while a committee of nine deliber- ated as to a site. In due course this committee submitted a report together with two alternate suggestions, all of which were voted down. After much argument the town meeting as a whole voted to build "on the flat rock near where the old way from Lt. Moses Richardson's to the residence of Josiah Noyes crosses the town way that leads from the west part of the town to the present meeting house". This location was somewhere between the residence of the late Murray Brown and the little frog pond on the land of Howard Reed. It is of passing interest only since it was reconsidered on the first Monday in April of 1805 when by a vote of 69 to 61 it was decided to build "on the most convenient height of land between the present meeting house and the residence of Deacon Joseph Brabrook". This would have placed the building somewhere between the present school house and the present post office but, as seen from the closeness of the vote, the two camps were so evenly matched that this decision was of short duration.
On September 2nd a real show-down town meeting went into session with both sides determined to hold fast in spite of anything.
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First off a motion to reconsider all past actions failed by 65 to 62. Then a motion to build on the land of Josiah Noyes failed by 66 to 61. Then the suggestion was made that the question be submitted to outside referees but that failed by 63 to 60. Matters being thus at a stalcmate it was proposed that a new committee be chosen to again look over the ground and report. This motion by some strange quirk of circumstance passed and after considerable haggling twenty was agreed upon as an acceptable number to constitute the committee. By this time the day was far spent and an adjournment was made to Sep- tember 6th. When this meeting convened the opening gun was a motion to dismiss all previous actions on the matter. It failed by a vote of 63 to 58. Then a motion to build on the land of John White prevailed by 65 to 62 but no sooner had the result been announced than a motion to reconsider and build on the land near to Mr. Bra- brook's passed. This in turn was immediately followed by a vote of 62 to 46 to choose a committee of outside judges. By this time another day had waned and the weary citizens adjourned sine die.
All this happened in September of 1805. During the winter the pot must have continued to boil since May 5th, 1806 all previous votes taken on the matter were voided and the start made anew. A motion to have a committee of three disinterested outsiders finally prevailed after considerable argument as to the number. A committee of ten was chosen to select the aforementioned group of three1 and the session recessed for twenty minutes while the deliberations were in progress at the residence of Paul Brooks across the road in the old Brooks Tavern. In due time the committee reported the choice of General Joseph Varnum of Dracut, General John Whiting of Lan- caster and Walter McFarland of Hopkinton. This group proved to be acceptable and in consequence David Barnard and Samuel Jones from the east part of the town and Winthrop Faulkner and Aaron Jones from the west part were chosen a committee to notify the said gentlemen and wait upon them.
This group met in due course and on May 22nd made report to the town wherein it was stated that the chosen location was close to the residence of Mr. John White, or in other words on the site now occupied by the town hall.
On June 30, 1806 the town finally agreed to accept the choice by a vote of 73 to 59, a figure which shows conclusively that even then all was not peace and harmony. At the same time it was decided that a committee of fifteen be chosen to stake out the ground and ascertain the cost of purchasing from the several owners the necessary land. The committee acted immediately and during a recess the voters viewed
1 Aaron Jones, Winthrop Faulkner, Stevens Hayward, Moses Richardson, Joseph Brown, David Barnard, Samuel Jones, Daniel White, Robert Chaffin, Simon Tuttle.
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the area staked out. Upon reassembling it was voted (64 to 42) to reimburse the owners to an aggregate amount of $571.80. The larger purchases were from Deacon Joseph Brabrook, 25 rods at $200 per acre; John White a little over half an acre, Mr. White to remove his house and fruit trees; of Paul Brooks one half acre and 27 rods. In addition James Fletcher gave to the town nine rods and Samuel and James Jones donated one acre 27 rods.
It would appear from Fletcher (p. 264) that the gift of land from Mr. Samuel Jones was made simultaneously with the others but there arises here a conflict in chronology since in 1806 Mr. Jones was already deceased and his wife remarried. He was a lawyer and an important citizen, maintained an office in the north end of the house now occupied by Mr. Dewey Boatman, and once represented the town in the General Court. He was known to have an aesthetic interest in the village and was an ardent advocate of a spacious common. He built and resided in the dwelling where Mr. Oliver D. Wood now lives and constructed a turnpike, later abandoned but now known as Wood Lane. He was the second husband of Mrs. Isaac Davis to whom he was married in 1782.
Subsequently Mr. Jones and his wife went to New Orleans and then to Natchez where Mr. Jones died. The widow returned by sea, was shipwrecked off Cape Cod, was washed ashore by clinging to a bit of wreckage, and returned to marry in 1802 Mr. Francis Leighton of Westford.
Aaron Jones, David Barnard, Winthrop Faulkner, Phinehas Wheeler and Capt. Daniel Davis were chosen a committee to make a draft of the new meeting house. They went about the business with dispatch and energy and in the early autumn (October 6th) the plan, which envisioned a building fifty seven feet by fifty four feet with a fifteen foot projection on the front was accepted and the committee was empowered to build the same and sell the pews therein. The same committee was also delegated to assume charge of the grading of the new town common. This they did by setting dates by school districts for the inhabitants to come in groups to do the work.
An intriguing item relative to the sale of pews appears in an article in the warrant for the meeting held on November third wherein it was propounded whether the committee, "shall at the sale of the pews give the people any spiritous liquors at the expense of the town". Much to the chagrin of many no doubt, the vote was in the negative. Thereby hangs a tale. In all probability the negative vote was not so much on moral grounds as because of the fact that to supply all comers to their satisfaction would have involved no mean expense.
According to the Acton Patriot for February 20th, 1875, the amount of liquor consumed in Acton for the year 1807 was in excess of five gallons per capita including children. Between the two Sabbath
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church services it was quite common for selectmen, deacons, and other estimable citizens to repair to the taverns for assorted drinks.
The new meeting house when completed was universally admired as a model in its design. It had an elevated square tower for the belfry and above the belfry another ornamental circular tower, supported by high posts, with a circular roof.
The interior arrangements consisted of a spacious vestibule with three doors from the outside and the same from within; square pews with rising seats; an elevated pulpit approached by long and winding steps on either side; a high gallery running around two sides and the rear with a curved front; a high, arched ceiling.
The townspeople had reason to be proud of their new temple of worship. It was not only artistic but it was sturdily wrought. There was timber enough in it to construct a whole village according to modern building methods. A crew of sailors was imported from Boston to handle the massive beams at what were then considered to be lofty heights.
The deacons of the church were Simon Hunt, Benjamin Hayward, Josiah Noyes, John Wheeler, John White, Phinehas Wheeler, Daniel Fletcher Barker, Silas Hosmer, John White 2nd.
The holders of the left body pews were Mrs. Simeon Hayward, David Barnard, Stevens Hayward, Deacon John White, Luther Conant and on the right side Simon Hosmer, Silas Holden, Levi Waitt, Deacon Benjamin Hayward, Seth Brooks.
With respect to the musical part of the service the choristers were Winthrop Faulkner, Silas Jones, Luther B. Jones, Daniel Jones; the players on musical instruments, Jonathan Billing and Abraham Handley (bass viol) ; Eben Davis (double bass viol) ; Winthrop Faulkner, Henry Skinner (violin) ; Elnathan Jones, Samuel Hosmer (clarionet), and the singers were Polly Davis, Ellen Jones, Lucy J. Jones, Abigail Jones, Jerusha Brooks, Ann Piper, Capt. Abel Jones. Simon Davis, Seth Davis, Benjamin Wilde, Amasa Wilde, Edward Wetherbee, Oliver Wetherbee, Jedidiah Tuttle, Rebecca Davis, Susan Davis, Catharine Wetherbee, Lucinda Wetherbee, Polly Wetherbee, Susan Piper, Lucinda Piper, Mary Faulkner, Charlotte Faulkner, Catharine Faulkner, Susan Faulkner, Clarissa Jones, Amasa Davis, Jessie Pierce, Uriah Foster, Alden Fuller, Jonathan Piper, Dr. Harris Cowdry.
Mr. Henry Skinner mentioned above married Mary Hayward, daughter of Simeon Hayward. It may interest some to know that in 1814, at a cost of two hundred and thirty dollars, she brought into Acton its first piano.
Rev. Moses Adams, the second minister, enjoyed the use of this new and spacious church during the last eleven years of his pastorate and
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his life, and Mr. Shedd during the eleven years of his pastorate. The building stood for over fifty years. By court decision it came into the possession of the First Parish and this parish deeded it to the town June 4, 1859.
Even after the new meeting house, at a cost of ten thousand dollars, was to all superficial appearances complete, there were numerous details that demanded attention. In October of 1807 the ground around the building to a distance of forty feet was levelled for "stable ground" for the equipages of the citizenry Eventually horse sheds to the number of thirty or more were built.1 Subsequent years saw the decoration of the pulpit and the building of a seat in front of it "to accomodate town business and the church";2 the recording of pew deeds by the town clerk at ten cents per entry; the making of air holes in the underpinning to preserve the timbers; the purchase of a bell for $570 in 1811; and the engaging of John White to ring it upon all public occasions for eight dollars a year. It was also voted to have the bell rung each night at nine o'clock provided it could be done at no expense to the town. Apparently this desire to ring the bell was because the people enjoyed hearing it. The idea of a curfew is nowhere found in the records.
During the time taken for these operations other civic matters were afoot. In the spring of 1809 it was decided to sell the old first meeting house and a committee was appointed to determine the bounds and report at a later date. There is no record of the report of this committee nor of a similar one chosen in March of 1809. In April of 1810, however, a vote was passed to give to Rev. Moses Adams "the land where the old meeting house stood". Further evidence comes from a newspaper clipping in a family scrapbook quoting Mr. J. W. Tuttle as asserting that he was born in 1805, three years before the old meeting house was torn down. It appears safe to conclude therefore that the old first meeting house was razed either late in the year 1808 or during the year 1809 and removed from the premises upon which the Centre schoolhouse now stands.
Mention has previously been made of an Acton legend associated with the building of the second meeting house, the Brook's Tavern,
1 A list of shed owners, as numbered by the selectmen, on Nov. 8, 1825 is given below :
1. Ebenezer Davis, 2. Ebenezer Davis, 3. Ebenezer Davis, 4. Stevens Hayward, 5. Simon Hosmer, 6. Mary Faulkner, 7. Aaron Jones, 8. Luther B. Jones, 9. Josiah Bright, 10. Benjamin Hayward, 11. William Reed, 12. Edward Wetherbee, 13. Ephraim Forbush, 14. Abel Jones, 15. Nathaniel Faulkner, 16, Nathan Hosmer, 17. William Stearns, 18. James Keyes, 19. Joseph Chaffiin, 20. Jonathan Billings, 21. Ephraim Billings, 22. Paul Dudley, 23. Amos Noyes, 24. Ebenezer Davis, 25. Seth Brooks, 26. Joanna Noyes, 27 Betsey Hayward, 28. L. Conant & J. Edwards, 29. Daniel White, 30. John Robbins.
2 On December 14, 1807 the town voted twenty dollars to Aaron Jones as damages incurred by him in having his pew moved for this purpose.
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and the Rocky Guzzle. It has been most interestingly recorded by Rev. Frederick Brooks Noyes, Acton native and a grand-son of Capt. Paul Brooks who was proprietor of the famous tavern at the time of the events about to be cited.1
The Brooks Tavern, a huge gambrel roofed structure, an excellent water color of which by the brush of Mr. Arthur Davis, hangs in the Memorial Library, stood on the level ground at the approximate site of the present residence of Norman Livermore, opposite the school house in Acton Centre. The older inhabitants used to assert that portions of the present building were made in part from wood taken from the old tavern.
At the time of the episode about to be given a system of turnpikes connected the centers of the three towns of Concord, Sudbury, and Acton leading to the three best known inns in Middlesex County, namely, Howe's Tavern in Sudbury (Longfellow's Wayside Inn), Wright's Tavern in Concord, and the Brooks Tavern in Acton. The names of these taverns often appeared in the early records of the three towns in connection with elections, training days and ordination dinners. A whole volume could be written concerning the Brooks Tavern alone and the persons of prominence that were sheltercd under its roof, among whom were two presidents of the United States, William Lloyd Garrison and John Greenleaf Whittier, who incident- ally planted a pear tree that was thriving at the turn of the century. Had Longfellow lived in Acton he would have found in the tales of the Brooks Tavern more than he found in those of the Wayside Inn.
Mr. Noyes obtained his information from Miss Elizabeth Brooks who was born in the historic old inn and was six years old at the time of the events in the tale.
Concerning the appearance of the inn itself Mr. Noyes makes the following comment:
"I remember the Brooks Tavern,
"As somewhat fallen to decay,
With weather stains upon the wall, And chimneys high and tiled and tall."
The upper corner blocks of the front door frame were carved with concentric circles, a design we often see today in colonial architecture, but these blocks must have been out of all proportion to the casement, for the wooden rings of prodigious size. The effect was also greatly heightened by the singular fact that the circular spots remained white, while the rest of the building had grown black. When a boy, on my way to school I had to pass this house and I felt as if I were undergoing inspection by an old lady
1 New England Magazine, Nov. 2, 1902.
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wearing spectacles. The stare of those great eyes over the front door certainly made the inn more unreal and ghostly, for it gave the building an expression which only old age could acquire. Few were alive who could remember when it was used as a tavern but the tales that had come down in our family quickened my imagination, and had a strong historic influence over my early school days."
But to get on with the tale! When the group of sailors previously mentioned arrived by stagecoach and were lodged at the Brooks tavern they occasioned considerable interest. Among them was a man who, although a sailor with the rest, was obviously more than that. Even the village loafers could note the difference, quite apart from the fine and distinctive scarf which he wore. At the end of a fortnight the sailors departed, with the exception of the strange fellow with the scarf. He remained behind and wrote and received long letters, the incoming ones being from across the ocean. At times he borrowed the landlord's mare and rode down to the Rocky Guzzle where he was seen many times in conference with another horseman. This second rider was a bent and wizened old hermit, well known about the countryside, who lived in the first house along the bridle path leading from the Rocky Guzzle to Faulkner's mills. He was considered to be a pirate who had come to the same house twenty years previous at which time he was reputed to have buried treasure in the Guzzle.
One day in the autumn of 1807 the stagecoach swept up to the tavern with an unusual flourish and the bystanders were amazed to see emerge the second and sixth presidents of the United States. The landlord, having heard that they were in Concord, had ridden over and induced them to visit the Brooks Tavern. Whether the presence of the impressive stranger with the distinctive scarf was the factor in the episode is still undisclosed but it is not hard to conclude that in the maze of world politics then existing one thread could be traced to Acton. Paul Brooks may not have gone to Concord to extend the invitation solely on his own initiative. Neither is it likely that the two presidents would have altered their itenerary solely upon the request of a country tavern keeper. If he was sent he was assuredly a man of discretion since no whisper of explanation has come down to posterity.
Eventually the stranger, who by this time had come to be spoken of as the Count, disappeared, leaving no clue as to his destination or his future plans. The townspeople went about their business with only an occasional query as to who or where he might be. The one sincere mourner over his departure was the landlord's daughter Caroline who watched the arrival of each stagecoach with hope, and
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each time met only with disappointment.
In the late autumn when the days were clear and frosty the coach one day approached with a clatter and drew up with a grinding of brakes as the driver hastened into the tavern bearing in his hands the Count's fine blue scarf which he had picked up by the roadside in the Rocky Guzzle It was hopelessly stained with blood The tavern loungers gossiped, the townspeople debated, and one broken female heart suffered, but all to no avail. Dozens of possible explanations were tossed hither and yon but the truth was not disclosed then or ever. His meetings with the pirate, the visit of the Adamses, the pecu- liarity of his association with the sailors-all were assessed and re- assessed to unbelieveable lengths.
The year following this incident Capt. Paul Brooks sold the tavern and moved to Westmoreland, N. H. in which town his remains lie today. His widow and three daughters returned to Acton, and for four generations all these traditions have been handed down in the old Brooks house which is still standing, as in 1807, directly opposite the site of the church on which the young nobleman worked. It is said he often called there. Since the second meeting house burned in 1862 and the tavern was razed in 1873, this structure, now the residence of Mr. Howard Billings, is the only building on the Common connected with the tale.
Regardless of the details of the story there are, however, certain facts that cannot be gainsaid. When a prospective railroad line was surveyed in 1857 it ran through the Rocky Guzzle and the engineers, ordering some of the bank on the east side of the present highway removed, came upon a human skeleton and a few French coins. There is also the additional fact that after the discovery of the skeleton a descendant of the man with whom the old pirate had taken refuge drove regularly at sundown to the woods near the Guzzle, tied his horse to a tree, and passed the night in digging for buried gold. The holes he made were still visible at the turn of the century. There is reason to believe that his efforts were not in vain since shortly he paid off a large and long standing mortgage on his farm and at the time of his death left an estate of proportions which could in no way be otherwise explained.
Previous to the erection of the second meeting house the village at the center scarcely deserved the term since it embraced not more than half a dozen buildings. According to Fletcher there was the first meeting house and across the road from it the Brooks Tavern, kept successively by Daniel Brooks, his widow Caroline, and his son Paul; the parsonage built for Rev. Moses Adams, for many years called the Bullard place (now the residence of Gen. Edward Mckinley) ; the house of Benjamin Brabrook, no longer standing but described as
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a little easterly of the house of Edward Tuttle, built at the same time as the meeting house and now occupied by Norman Collins; the house of John White, blacksmith, located just west of the present town hall; a cottage house on the site of the present residence of C. A. Bancroft; and the house now occupied by Clark C. McElvein. To these must be added the old Brooks home previously mentioned (now the home of Howard Billings) and the Jones house (now the residence of Oliver D. Wood).
The building of the meeting house stimulated operations to the extent that in a short time the tavern, first occupied by Henry Durant, and afterwards by Silas Jones and Horace and Daniel Tuttle, was put up. This was burned in the great fire of 1862 but another hotel, later known as the Monument House, was erected on the same site by John E. Cutter. John and James Fletcher built a house where the Library now stands. The houses now occupied by Mr. Duren (formerly the Arthur Davis house) and the residence of Dr. Board- man (the Cyrus Dole place) came shortly afterward.
About this time Dr. Peter Goodnow built on the site of the Roger Crafts bungalow, the most pretentious mansion in town. For many years it was the residence of Mr. Stevens Hayward. This grand old homestead, with the two mighty horse chestnut trees which stood just outside the white boundary fence in the front, made an imposing addition to the common for over a century.
At a later date the store now serving Acton Centre was built and kept by Joseph W. Tuttle. Later merchants at the same stand were Francis Tuttle, James Tuttle, Rufus Holden, Daniel Jones, John Cutter and Emery Taylor, the latter being in possession for over sixty years.
As indicated by the list of musicians given for the second meeting house, music had long been an important item in Acton communal life. In consequence the town voted at the May meeting of 1807 to spend forty dollars for a singing school and designated Winthrop Faulkner, Simon Hosmer, Jonathan Billings, Abel Jones, and Silas Jones as a committee to set it up in the middle district school house. This was the beginning of a town sponsored project which continued for many years with financial support that varied according to the musical temper of the succeeding generations.
In order to make a coherent story of the meeting house battle it has been necessary to set aside temporarily some other events that will now be considered.
In the national election of 1804 Acton again went all out for the Jeffersonian or Republican party as against the Federalists by a vote of ninety six to fifteen.
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