USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Acton > History of the town of Acton > Part 5
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2 on the second article Propounded what Dementions thay would build it voted they would build it forty six
feet long and twenty Eight wide and twenty feet in hight.
Apparently there was considerable difference of opinion on article two since the meeting adjourned to January 2nd at which time the dimensions were changed to forty six by thirty six by twenty one. It was also decided that all the members of the community be given opportunity to assist at "giting out timber". The committee members, previously listed, were allotted six shillings per day and the other workers five shillings. The sum of seventy five pounds was voted toward setting up the frame.
The first public worship was held in the meeting house in January 1738 even though it was far from ready. In fact not all the pews were installed nine years later when the building was commonly regarded as finished. The actual shell was completed in 1739 but space does not permit a recital of the difficulties encountered. One fact stands out above all others. The starting of a New England town was not a thing to be done nonchalantly after the Indian fashion. The petitioners must needs immediately shoulder the burden of a meeting house and a minister in addition to the erection of their own domiciles and the attendant cultivation of the land. Too much credit cannot be allotted to those who had the courage to meet the challenge. .
At the March meeting of 1738 John Cragin was appointed caretaker of the meeting house and became therewith Acton's first janitor, or sexton, as one may choose. At the same meeting it was voted that the last Thursday of March should be a day of fasting and prayer at which time the town should have the advice and assistance of five neighbor- ing clergymen in calling a minister, namely, Mr. Loring of Sudbury,
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Mr. Cook of East Sudbury, Mr. Gardner of Stow, Mr. Peabody of Natick, and Mr. Rogers of Littleton. This vote carried with it the added instruction that the selectmen be a committee to manage the affair and also to arrange for the future filling of the pulpit.
The stepping stone of the old first church was in later years set by Mr. Mason Robbins into his wall and lettered with white paint. It still stands there at the lower end of the wall of Mrs. Katherine Condon.
The term "second division" used in connection with the land pur- chased from Dr. Cuming appears to be a localism of indefinite significance. One could take the position that the original lay-out of old Concord was the first division and that the whole of the later grants comprising Concord Village constituted the second division. A more natural viewpoint, however, is that the grant of 1655 was the first and the one of 1665 the second. If the plausable assumption is made that the first grant was made by moving the westerly side of the old Concord square parallel to itself a sufficient distance to form a rectangle of five thousand acres the extreme boundary of the first division would have been a line at present defined by the piano stool factory, Woodlawn Cemetery, and the junction of Brook Street with the Great Road, thus leaving the Cuming tract more than a half mile inside the second division.
Having disposed of the meeting house for the present we will return to the political affairs of the town
The first regular town meeting was held on March 22, 1735/36. Today we would call it 1736 but at that time March rather than January, was the first month of the year. The official change in the calendar was made in 1752 but the Latin forms of the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th months were never altered. The following town officers were chosen.
Moderator, John Heald, 1253512
Town clerk, Thomas Wheeler,
Constables, Mark White, Simon Hunt,
Selectmen, Joseph Fletcher, John Brooks, Thomas Wheeler,
Assessors, Joseph Fletcher, John Brooks, Thomas Wheeler, Town Treasurer, John Barker,
Surveyors of Highways, David Procter, Jonathan Billing, Jonathan Knight, Hezekiah Wheeler, Daniel Shepard,
Tythingman, Jonathan Hosmer, Fence Viewers, Samuel Jones, Nathan Robbins,
Surveyor of Hemp and Flax, John Cragon,
Hogreeves, Benjamin Brabrook, William Cutting, Enoch Cleveland
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At this same meeting it was voted to accept the several highways then in existence and newly laid out by the surveyors. The accom- panying map gives the approximate location of the essential arteries of traffic as they existed at the time of the incorporation. To attempt a meticulous reproduction is hopeless since locations and relocations, in general inadequately described, appear by the score in the records. It will be noted that a pronounced bend appears in the Great Road in the vicinity of the point of its crossing the present Main Street. This is due to the fact that when first laid out, in order to avoid the long fill through the valley of Nashoba Brook, the highway turned abruptly to follow the present Davis Road to a point just beyond the Bellows Farm, then, turning to the left, crossed the brook by means of a ford, and joined the present Great Road at the top of the hill. The present so-called Wampus Ave. (although never so named officially) together with the cart path still discernable, leading down to the brook, represent the vestiges of the original highway. The road was straightened in 1797.
One further comment is apropos concerning the map. Since no one can today define exactly the waterways and ponds as they then existed the map shows them as of the geological survey of 1943. Certainly Nagog, the level of which was raised several feet by the erection of the dam in the middle of the nineteenth century, was radically altered in contour.
An old newspaper clipping cites a legend to the effect that Sinking Pond was so named because a hill suddenly sank and formed the isolated but picturesque sheet of water existent today. The story is highly apocryphal since no known geologic phenomenon likely to occur in New England since the appearance of humans on this planet could produce any such result.
Once the questions relating to the position and size of the meeting house had been settled other decisions were made with reasonable dispatch. On September 15, 1736 it was voted to frame and raise the building before winter and John Heald, Thomas Wheeler and Simon Hunt were chosen as the committee to superintend the project. At the same time it was decided to do nothing about preaching the ensuing winter. Two months later a vote was passed that the siding, doors, windows, pulpit and floor were to be finished a year hence, namely November 1737.
On May 30, 1737 it was voted to underpin the meeting house by working each man a day. Apparently then as now not all were over- zealous when it came to actual physical labor, whether for the benefit of God or their individual souls, since the vote carried with it the stipulation that delinquents were to be forced to work at the highways and were to put in one day extra over and above what their share
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would have been. At the same meeting it was voted "to pint ye under- pining of ye meeting house and at same time to let out sd work to Jonathan Billings to do for ye sum of £2-10-00 which work he, sd Billings, Ingaged to do it Spedely & do It wel". Throughout the year 1737 various sums were raised to pay Jonathan Billings, Joseph Fletcher, and Joseph Barnes for stone work, carpentering and glaz- ing.
While these matters were maturing for the good of the citizenry the fact was not overlooked that man is mortal and must needs have a proper resting place after death. The burying ground then in use near Deacon Heald's, at the northeastern end of town, was too small and too remote for general use by the envisioned community. In consequence the older part of what is now Woodlawn Cemetery, was purchased on February 9, 1737 from Nathan Robbins for the sum of one pound.1
In May of 1738 the town voted to invite Mr. John Swift of Framing- ham to settle in Acton as minister. In addition he was voted a settle- ment or bonus of two hundred and fifty pounds for accepting the charge plus an annual salary of one hundred and fifty pounds payable semi-annually in Massachusetts bills, which at that time was equiva- lent to one hundred seventeen pounds settlement and seventy pounds salary. A committee consisting of John Heald, Samuel Wheeler, Joseph Fletcher, John Brooks, Simon Hunt and Ammiruhammah Faulkner was chosen to meet with Mr. Swift and come to an agreement with him.
Since it may be of interest to some readers the contract between Rev. John Swift and the town of Acton is herewith given in detail.
"Whare-as the Town of Acton at a Town Meeting Duly warned May 19, 1738, did invite ye Rev. John Swift into ye work of ye ministry among them, and did all so pass a vote to give him two hundred and fifty pounds towards a settlement, and a hundred and fifty Pounds Sallary yearly and since, at a town meeting October ye 10th, 1738, did vote that said Sallary should be kept up to ye value of it and paid in every half years End yearly, and did also chuse John Heald, Joseph Fletcher, John Brooks, Samuel Wheeler and Simon Hunt as a Committ to contract with the Said Mr. Swift about ye said Sallary, the contract and agreement between said Mr. Swift and said Committ is as follows:
1st. That said sallary shall be paid According to ye ould tenure of the Massachusetts Bills or in an equivalency of such bills of pr. cent or lawful currency as shall pass from time to time.
1 See Fletcher p. 246.
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2d. That the value of said sallary be kept up from time to time according as when it was voted on May afore ac- cording to ye prise of the necessary provisions of life. 3d. That the payment of said salary continue so long as said Mr. Swift shall continue in ye work of ye ministry in said Acton and in witness her of said Mr. Swift and said Committe have hereunto set their hands this 30th day of October A.D., 1738. John Swift, John Heald, Joseph Fletcher, Amme Faulkner, Simon Hunt, John Brooks.
Ordered on this book of Records, Attest Simon Hunt, Town Clerk.
Aside from the dignity and uniqueness of the document it is inter- esting to note that the clerk inadvertantly omitted in the preamble the name of Ammiruhammah Faulkner when listing the committee. That long Biblical name was a monstrous hurdle for more than one recorder, particularly in an age when schooling was brief and the rules of spelling were well nigh non-existent. As a matter of fact the minutes of the town meeting of the May previous give the name as Ammiruhami and in the document just cited the clerk felt inclined to abbreviate it to Amme .. This latter form has something to be said for it.
The contract was faithfully kept by the people of Acton and the pastorate of Mr. Swift continued until he succumbed at the age of sixty two to small pox on November 7, 1775, after having served for thirty seven years lacking one day.
He was ordained on the eighth of November, 1738. No par- ticulars of the ordination appear in either the town or church records other than the simple notation that "the Council had entertainment at the home of Mr. Joseph Fletcher."
Mr. Swift was the only son of the Rev. John Swift of Framingham. He was born there in 1713, was graduated from Harvard College in 1733 and at the time of his ordination was twenty five years of age. According to Fletcher he was little above the common height, rather slender, with manners and address agreeable and pleasant. He was economical in the management of his affairs, but kind to the poor and a good neighbor. He was opposed to excess and extravagance of every kind and the promotion of peace and good feeling was his constant care. He had some singularities of character but led an exemplary life and retained the respect and affection of his people throughout his entire ministry. His preaching was practical, plain, and serious, though it was said he had occasionally some unusual expressions in the pulpit which were rather amusing.
As was the custom of many clergymen of his day, he received young men into his family for instruction in the studies preparatory
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to college. In one year five such were presented by him at Cambridge and all passed the examination and were admitted. There are a few samples of his handwriting extant and these seem to indicate an ease in the use of Latin. This is particularly true as to his church records but they are so abbreviated and interspersed with a kind of personal shorthand as to make the significance dubious in places. The volume is a very small one, without caption or heading and there is nothing to indicate what the contents are to be. It is obvious that he regarded the document as merely a memorandum for his personal convenience. In one place he remarks,“ I regret that I did not at the beginning of my ministry procure a larger book, and keep a more particular and extensive record. I hope my successor will profit by this hint".
Some other interesting items are typical. Under date of June 4, 1739 appears the following: "After blessing was pronounced I desired the church to tarry, and asked their minds concerning the remainder of the elements after communion and they voted, "I should have 'em". Somewhat later (Sept. 11, 1744, he says, "I made a speech to the church thus, 'Brethren, I doubt not but that you have taken notice of the long absence of brother Mark White, Jr. from the ordinances of God in this place. If you request it of him to give us the reasons of his absence some time hence, I desire you would manifest it by an uplifted hand. Whereupon there was an affirmative vote."1
Another entry in the records of about the same period causes one to wonder if there be any connection. In the case of an erring brother we find the following comment, "They desired Bro. W. seriously to consider his reasons offered, that he might discover ye insufficiency of 'em and give ye ch. sufficient satisfaction and return to his duty."
It was the custom to labor at length with the erring and try to im- press upon them the magnitude of their sins. Many times the effort was a success but now and again a recalcitrant sinner seemed bent on damnation. Such was the case of Titus Laws who, remaining com- pletely immovable after five years of exhoratation was suspended and allowed to go his own way.
The faithful parson apparently took no offense at slavery. In the Goodnow Library in Sudbury is a bill of sale given by him on November 2, 1745 for "a Neagrow man Servant named Frank Benson of about twenty three years old" to Josiah Richardson of Sudbury.
Rev. Swift lived to see the opening of the Revolution. Davis's company marched by his door on the way to Concord. Thomas
1 Subsequently the young man, then twenty-eight, became a deacon.
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Thorpe, one of the Minute Men,1 in a deposition made before the selectmen and a committee of the town in 1835, asserted that as the company passed the minister's house2 his son, Dr. John Swift, seeing that Thorp had no cartridge box, gave him one having on the outside a piece of cloth in the shape of a heart.
This brief survey of the life of Rev. Swift will provide a glimpse of the type of man the town chose to direct its religious life. We must, however, turn our attention back to the years when the good minister took up his charge.
From time to time the list of town officers was augmented as seemed necessary. Some of these were decidedly obscure. On March 5, 1739, for instance, Mark White, then aged twenty three, was elected to the office of "Graninrowman", whatever that may mean. Thus far inquiry among authorities on New England town government and antiquarians has provided no explanation. One could guess that it has something to do with grain but there the trail ends.
Mark White was the great-great grandfather of Mr. Chester Robbins3 and operated the old post road public house then known locally as White's Tavern. In its hey-day it was a favorite stopping place on the Great Road. When Acton was incorporated Mark White was forty six and was engaged in a very popular occupation. Eastern Massachusetts was full of taverns. Crowell in his history of Stow asserts that at one time that town had sixteen. Daniel, the son of Mark, took over in due course and was succeeded in turn by Jonas Putney, Mr. Robbins' grandfather.
With the coming of the railroads and the cessation of the stage coach traffic the tavern ceased to function with its former vigor but continued on during the latter part of the nineteenth centruy under the regime of Ephraim Forbush and William Hartwell. With the era of the automobile and universal vacations Mr. Robbins, in 1899, completely altered the building and grounds and conducted a high class resort hotel until the time of his retirement in 1934 and his entrance into the insurance business, without however, changing his office or his abode.
Deacon John White, the son of Daniel, maintained during his life- time an active store nearby, on a site just between the present resi-
1 Thomas Thorp, the last surviving member of Davis's company, was taken from an almshouse and put to live with an Acton family. In his adult years he resided on or near the site of the house now occupied by Mr. Carl Schontag. He died on October 12, 1849 at the age of ninety three.
2 Rev. Swift lived in a house, later burned, on the site of the present residence of Mr. Liebfried. Former owners were Josiah Noyes, David Barnard, Joash Keyes, Eliab Grimes, Jona Teele, Deacon W. W. Davis and James B. Tuttle.
3 Mark White was also the ancestor of Mrs. Florence White Durkee and her brothers Professor Leonard Dupee White and Richard Peregrine White, resi- dent in Washington as executive secretary of the National Nurserymen's Asso- ciation.
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dence of Mrs. Bertha White and the one formerly occupied by her father Job W. Dupee.
In 1740 the office of sealer of weights and measures was created and Mark White was elected to the position. Acton was in no mood, however, to rush into needless expense, and so, it made the office vacuous by refusing to vote the requisite funds to purchase standard weights and measures.
It would be natural to expect that as soon as the town became well organized the matter of schooling would present itself. Furthermore it might be expected that, as in the case of the location of the meeting house, there would emerge decided differences of opinion. Some would feel that despite the cost a common schooling was imperative.
Opposed to these would be two groups, those who while admitting the necessity, desired to delay action until the more immediate burden of the cost of the meeting house had been removed, and those who due to miserliness, shiftlessness, or total lack of civic interest, were opposed to taxes for any purpose whatever.
In any event the battle waged for several years with public opinion about equally divided. At the annual March meeting of 1740 there appeared in the town warrant an article to see if the town would erect schools for "Reading and Righting". This is the first recorded action respecting the schools. The motion did not prevail but the more progressive citizens were tenacious individuals in con- sequence of which an affirmative vote was passed on May 2, 1741 with respect to an article, "to se If ye town woold agree to have Reading, riteing and moveing school for six months or do anything Relating to that affare". This certainly looked like a forward step but somehow the opposition corralled sufficient votes to prevent the raising of any money for the project and furthermore scuttled a similar proposition at the March meeting of 1742.
The term "moving school" may need some clarification. From the outset it had been deemed too expensive to build school houses. The opposition to that had been too strong for any argument. Con- sequently certain of the voters had advocated holding the school in private homes for several weeks consecutively, first in one part of the town and then in another. Eventually this was done but the time was not yet.
Along with other matters the growing town had need to establish its boundary lines. Usually this was done by joint committees from the adjacent towns who met at a convenient date, perambulated the line, and agreed as to its proper location. For the most part these meetings were harmonious and the business was completed with dis-
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patch but with respect to Stow there were definite exceptions.1 Hence we find the following recorded as of April 30, 1741.
It appears that Amos Brown and William Farr of Stow met John Brooks and Simon Hunt of Acton to walk the bounds. In the inimit- able style of Simon Hunt we are informed that they, "Began at ye southeasterly mark near ye Rever being a white oak in a wall & a large maple & a white oak by a dead oak". During the day a violent controversey arose over the corner and Hunt goes on to say:
"on the side of a Large Hill whare there is Leverit remarks made on trees near by it, it being the Corner of Acton and Leverit lines Demolished which was supposed to be done by Stow people and now it was Erected and renewed as follow- eth viz most of ye Stoon being removed it was disputed whether it was ye Corner or not Stow people being very Contravary about it it was agreed upon by Each party that if it Could Appear by Evidence Sufficiently to be ye Antiant Bound or Corner to renew ye same. Cor'l John Flint Esq & Cor'l James Minot Esq being present with many Concord Stow and Acton people It was Desired If thair was any parson present that had any Knowledge of ye Corner to manifest it and Lt Joseph Wright, Wm. Wheeler & Stephen Hosmer, all of Concord, and Abraham Whitney of Stow had ye following owth administered to them by Coll Flint to this Effect that ye Evidence that they should give in Relaiting to that corner or any other mark to be param- bualted and in answering all such Questions yt Should be asked by Each party concerned to be ye truth ye whool truth & nothing but ye truth. Whoose Evidence agreed and was full to ye purpose allso a coppy of ye return of ye Gineral Courts Commtt was (next word undecipherable) to Excepttence & ye Bound Renewed".
The full import of the foregoing will be obscure to the uninitiated without some explanation. The corner in dispute was undoubtedly the western extremity of Acton where the three towns of Acton, Stow and Boxborough have a common point. At the time of the controversy a large portion of what is now Boxborough belonged to Stow so that Acton formed a right angle jutting into Stow. Ap- parently certain Stowites took exception to this and had made bold to destroy the markers and tree blazes set up by order of Governor
1 Stow was originally composed of a tract bounded by Sudbury, Concord, Groton, Lancaster, Marlboro, and the Indian Plantation of Nashoba. The Indians called it Pompasetticutt. In 1666 a part of this area was formally laid out to Major Eleazer Usher; and a little later some five hundred acres to Daniel Gookin, and one hundred fifty acres to Richard Heldredge. The town was incorporated 1683. According to Crowell the Gookin tract lay in the Heathen (Heath Hen) Meadow area.
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Leverett (this is what Simon Hunt means when he mentions "Leverit remarks"). These Leverett marks were almost certainly corrobora- tory to the lines and corners of the original Beers and Noyes survey and likewise the ones used by Stephen Hosmer in his survey of Concord Village in 1730. It is to be noted that among the con- siderable group that apparently went along on this memorable perambulation was Stephen Hosmer and other men of Concord. They doubtless were all aware of the original bounds of Concord Village and were witnesses for Acton in the controversey. It appears that they recommended the reinstatement of the Leverett boundary lines.
In the excitement of building the meeting house, settling bound- aries, and deciding upon school matters the question of town finances had been allowed to lapse to the extent that in 1743, at the request of certain of the citizens, an accounting was demanded. The detailed wording of the vote taken and the resultant action are of interest as examples of simplicity and economy in government.
March 7, 1743, "Voted to here ye Request of Samuel prescott & others as follows first to se if the town will Chuse a Commett to Recen with the present town Treasurer & all those that have sarved as town treasurers in said town since ye year 1735 to Se what of the towns money Is yeat in there hands & to se if the town will Chuse a Commett to call all those that ware selectmen & assessors of the said town of Acton for and since sd year 1735 to an account to se how they have Disposed of the towns money and to Reckon & Adjust accounts with them Relaiting to the same and make return at the next town meeting."
Phineas Osgood, Joseph Berry, and John Davis were chosen as the committee. They met with the interested parties on the following May 13th and paid to Jonathan Billings 77 pounds 8 shillings nine pence, to Dr. Joseph Fletcher 17 pounds 2 shillings 1 pence, to Mark White 12 pounds 7 shillings 5 pence, and for glazing the meeting house 42 pounds. From this it appears that these gentlemen had ad- vanced money from their personal funds to meet the town obligations upon occasion.
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