USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Bedford > History of the town of Bedford, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, from its earliest settlement to the year of Our Lord 1891 > Part 5
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discontinued by the vote of the town in 1863. In 1872 an attempt was made to concentrate the direct- ing power and to employ a superintendent, but this unfortunately resulted in an increase of the board of committee from three to six members. The results were not satisfactory, and a return was made to the original number as soon as the State law would ad- mit. Women were first elected as School Committee in 1872, and have proved wise and efficient workers in the department of education.
At the annual meeting of the town, in 1885, it was voted that the schools should be graded, that an English high school course of two years should be adopted, and that the school year should begin with the opening of the fall term. This plan, put in oper- ation September, 1885, had a most stimulating effect upon the students in the several departments, and led the parents to indorse a growing sentiment for con- solidation.
In June, 1886, the first graduates were presented with diplomas. The course of study was altered and amended in 1889, so as to include three years of High School study, in which is the Latin language. The appropriation gradually increased until it reached $2800, for ordinary expenses, to which is added the town's portion of the income of the "State School Fund." An annual appropriation is made for school- books and supplies.
After thirty-three years of service, the combined town hall and school building was declared inade- quate to the pressing demands of the evening of the nineteenth century, and preliminary steps have been taken, 1800, towards the erection of a modern struc- ture. In the schools of Bedford, thus briefly described, have been laid the foundations of some grand literary structures.
As the date is comparatively recent when progress has unbolted the doors of colleges to women, the list of those who have received a public education is con- fined to men.
In 1876 the Bedford Free Public Library Corporation was chartered for the benefit of the inhabitants of the town.
The property of the Bedford Library Association was donated and became the nucleus of a valuable collection of books and other publications. Every resident of the town having reached the age of twelve years has the right to draw books from the library without payment of fee. Appropriations by the town and private contributions have enabled the trustees to make frequent additions until in 1890 there are nearly 3000 volumes for circulation, besides many valuable works for reference, and a collection of an- tiquities, relics and articles of historic interest. The i town has an annually increasing fund for the erection of a library building, much needed at present.
A local weekly paper, Bedford Bulletin, is published in connection with other towns, under the editorial care of Abram E. Brown. It is now in its thirty-
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third volume. It has an extensive circulation in the town and in various sections of the United States where natives of Bedford are located.
CHAPTER VII.
MILITARY HISTORY.
Indian Troubles-Individual Service-Experience of Mary Lane-Maxwell Family-French Neutrals -- French and Indian Wars.
THE war cry was not an unfamiliar sound to the settlers of this territory. They were accustomed to hardships, many of them had done service in the early campaigns, and sacrificed blood and treasure long before the Revolutionary struggle hurst upon the Colonies. Of the garrison-houses ordered by the " Honorable Council " in 1675, during the invasion of King Philip, four were within the present limits of Bedford. As the Bedford of to-day represents out- lying sections of Billerica and Coucord, the homes of these scattered settlers did not suffer from any gen- eral invasion in the Indian Wars. Many of the men were away in the service, and the women were com- pelled to do double duty at home.
It is impossible to make up a complete list of those who served in the early campaigns. Job Lane was " impressed," but doubtless allowed to return and aid in the protection of his own garrison, agreeable to the order of the " Honorable Council" of 1675-76. Sec. 4. " The said towns have their own men returned that are abroad and freed from impressment during their present state." Lieutenant John Wilson, who had a "corne mill " on Vine Brook, did good service " to the Eastward " in 1692-93. Lieutenant John Lane received the following order in August, 1693 : " These are in his Majesty's name to require you forthwith to Impress eight Troopers with arms and ammunition for his Majesty's service, four of which are to be daily Imployed as a scout about yo' town, especially towards the great swamp."
In 1693 Lieutenant Lane received similar orders from the Lieutenant-Governor, and in 1702 he re- ceived the following order from Governor Joseph Dudley :
" CAMBRIDGE, 5 Nov., 1702.
"SIR: I desire you with two of your troops to repayr to the towns of Marlboro', Lancaster, Groton, Chelmsford and Dunstable, and there de liver severally the letters given you and encourage the officers in their duty, agreeable to the several directions, etc."
It is evident that the Governor of the Colony was personally acquainted with Major Lane, he having attained that military title at that time, and knew him to be a trustworthy man. In the Lane papers filed in this town is the following :
" A list of the names of the Troopers which served under my command to the relief of Dunstable. July
the fourth, seventeen hundred and six." Six of the twenty-nine were from Bedford side of ancient Bil- lerica, viz .: Samuel Fitch, Josiah Bacon, Nathaniel Page, Nathaniel Bacon, Benj. Bacon, Josiah Fassett. In the succeeding August, under the same command, Josiah Bacon served as "Trumpetter " and Josiah Fassett with Benjamin Bacon were privates. The following anecdote was related by Leander Hosmer, a descendant of the heroine of the Lane family : "Mary, daughter of Colonel John Lane, was left during a season of alarm in the garrison with but one soldier on guard. Something behind a stump excited the suspicion of Mary, as she looked from a window in the roof. The soldier declined to open fire, and she took the gun and discharged it and saw a dead Indian roll into sight." The Lanes had an inherent love for military life. One writes from York, April 21, 1724 : "Lt. John Lane has been so imprudent as to suffer his men to kill sundry creatures belonging to the people of the County of York." He afterwards made satisfaction for the rash act.
By an act of the General Court, November 17, 1724, men were allowed two shillings per day for time in service and £100 for each male scalp in addition to other premiums established by law. This offer of the government was an approved means of defence against the Indians, and aroused Captain John Love- well, of Dunstable, to raise a company and set out into the wilderness. He made three expeditions, during which several Indians were killed and others were captured alive. The third and memorable ex- pedition of April 15, 1725, proved the most disas- trous to the company, nearly one-third being killed, among whom was their leader. In each of the ex- peditions Bedford men participated, and Josiah Davis was killed, Eleazer Davis wounded, and others experienced the most painful hardship.
From a published sermon of Rev. Thomas Symms, preached at Bradford, on the Sabbath following the return of the unfortunate company, the following account of the suffering of some of the number is taken : " Eleazer Davis, after being out fourteen days came into Berwick. He was wounded in the abdo- men and the ball lodged in his body. He also had his right hand shot off." A tradition says that, ar- riving at a pond with Lieutenant Farwell, Davis pulled off one of his moccasins, cut it in strings, on which he fastened a hook, caught some fish, fried and ate them. They refreshed him, but were inju- rious to Farwell, who died soon after. Josiah Davis, another of the four, was wounded with a ball which lodged in his body. After being out fourteen days, in hourly expectation of perishing, he arrived at Saco emaeiated and almost dead from the loss of blood. He recovered, but became a cripple." This manner of dealing with the Indians must be severely questioned, and enlisting to pursue the scattered rem- nant of liomeless natives for such a purpose as ac- tuated Lovewell and his followers must be condemned ;
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but the narrative serves to show the hardships to which the founders of this town were accustomed and by which they acquired the habits of self-reliance so evident in their later history.
The Maxwell family furnished some brave military men during the French and Indian Wars, and also in the struggle for freedom from British oppression. Hugh Maxwell entered the service as a private, served five campaigns and held a commission from Governor Pownall as ensign, dated March 31, 1759. Thompson, brother to Hugh, was with "Rogers' Rangers " at the destruction of St. Francis and all through the French and Indian Wars. He entered the service at the age of sixteen years. Lemuel Shattuck says: "Several of the inhabitants of Bed- ford sustained commissions."
The descendants of Nathaniel Page, who settled here in 1687, were commissioned officers for several generations : Cornet Nathaniel Page, born in Eng- land in 1679, died in Bedford, 1755; his son, John, born in 1704, held commission as cornet from Jona- than Belcher, Colonial Governor in 1737. Ensign Josiah Fassett was at the relief of Fort Williams in May, 1758. Sergeant Page, of Bedford, was with Thompson Maxwell in 1758. Maxwell had a hand- to-liand conflict with two Indians,-he shot one and brought the other " to a halt." He says in his pub- lished journal : " Being exhausted, I reached a stream and Page swam across with me on his back with his gun and my own. I could not swim. In 1759 our suffering from cold and hunger cannot be described ; thirty-seven of our number died on the banks of the White River in Vermont, where Royalston is now built. Sergt. Page was with us and a very stout man. He helped me or I doubt how it would have fared with me." "Nathaniel Merriam (son of Dea. Na- thaniel) died at Lake George in his Majesty's service, Sept. 15, 1758, aged 19 years."
When the "French Neutrals" were taken from their Arcadian homes aud portioned out in the Col- onies, Bedford had her share to provide for. Joseph Fitch and John Moore filed the following bill : "The Province of the Mass. Bay Indebted to the Town of Bedford-To providing for the French Neutrals or- dered to said town the 16 of Feb. A.D., 1760, 'till the 17th of June, 1761, £21 78." Bedford men were at Crown Point, Ticonderoga and at the decisive en- gagement on the plains of Abraham, and also on the northern frontiers, where troops were kept to watch the Indians until the treaty of peace was concluded, in 1762, by which Canada became a British posses- sion. It is gratifying to know that their services were appreciated as appears from the following :
Voted on March 2, 1763, "To abate Josiah Davis, his son Paul, lately deceased, and Joseph Wilson, their town and Highway Rate and all other soldiers their Highway Rate." Thirteen received abatements. In 1763 the people of this town entered into the "Thanksgiving " ordered by the King for the restora-
tion of peace, with the same will that they had mani- fested during the protracted war. They labored under the disadvantage of having no minister to in- spire or guide them from 1766 to 1771. The minister was the vanguard in many towns. Concord had her Emerson, and Lexington her Clark, but in the ab- sence of such a leader in Bedford, there was no falter- ing on the part of the people. Hugh Maxwell, the "Christian Patriot," came to the front with some- what of the heroism and organizing power which inspired his father to lead his entire family across the ocean to escape oppression. There were other brave men whose names appear in the subsequent years of trial.
CHAPTER VIII.
Colonial Troubles-Boston Tea Party -- Minute- Men-Concord Fight- Women's Part-Bottle of Bunker Hill.
MARCH, 1768, the town voted "To concur with the vote of the town of Boston in October last, to en- courage the produce and manufacture of the Prov- ince." The women were not behind in expressions of loyalty. They carried on spinning and weaving at an increased rate. A bride from one of the first families of the town is known to have been led to the marriage altar dressed in a "gown" of her own manufacture, the fruit of her own Joom. The town sent no representative to the General Court until the Revolutionary struggle was well under way. The " letter of Correspondence " sent out from a Boston town-meeting asking for " a free communication of sentiments," was received and acted upon with a spirit of determination on March 1, 1773. In the following March the town voted "not to use any tea till the duty is taken off." In the "Tea Party," December 16, 1773, Bedford was represented by Thompson Maxwell, although not at that time a resi- dent of the town. His journal reads thus : "In 1773, I went with my team to Boston, which was shut up (blockaded), with a load of provisions for the poor of the town. I had loaded at John Hancock's ware- house and was about to leave town, when Mr. Han- cock requested me to drive my team up into his yard, and ordered his servants to take care of it, and re- quested me to be at Long Wharf at two o'clock P.M., and informed me what was to be done. I went ac- cordingly, joined the band under Captain Hewes. We mounted the ships and made tea in a trice. This done I took my team and went home as an honest man should." 1
. 1 Fearing that this narrative and others that will follow, might be re- garded as too good to he credited, we have carefully studied the facts and have no doubt of the validity of the journal. John Hancock, the famous patriot and merchant of Boston, inherited the estate of his
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When "Boston Port Bill" went into operation, June 1, 1774, the old bell pealed forth the sound of alarm over the hills of this town, and the already crumbling " Bell-House" lost its equilibrium, but not so the people. They met on the last day of June, "To know and determine what measures are Proper to be taken at this present time of Trouble and Dis- tress," etc. They unanimously voted to adopt the covenant of non-intercourse. They chose the Com- mittee of Correspondence, which consisted of Deacon Stephen Davis, John Reed, Joseph Hartwell, John Webher and John Moore.
The town was represented by four delegates at the county convention held at Concord on August 30th and 31st. On October 11th the town was represented by Joseph Ballard and John Reed in the first Provincial Congress, which had met by adjournment from Salem on the 6th. John Hancock was chairman and Ben- jamin Lincoln clerk. After a session of three days the Congress adjourned to meet at Cambridge, and then continued from October 17th to December 10th.
Devotion to a noble cause prompted the Represen- tatives from this town, as there was no offer of com- pensation from a depleted treasury, but in March, 1775, the town voted " To allow Doct. Joseph Bal- lard four shillings per day, for twelve days at Cam- bridge, and four shillings for expenses at Concord."
January 18, 1775. They at first voted not to send a delegate to the Provincial Congress of February, but on the 27th, in a second meeting, chose John Reed, and, agreeable to a recommendation of the Continental Congress, chose a " Committee of Inspec- tion " consisting of Moses Abbott, Thomas Page, Ebenezer Page, John Reed and Edward Stearns. At the Provincial Congress held at Concord and Cam- bridge, the plan was adopted for enrolling all the able-bodied men, and the order passed "that these companies should immediately assemble and elect their propper officers; that these officers, when elected, should assemble and elect field officers, and they enlist at least one-quarter of the men enrolled." These were the "-minute-men." The people of Bedford gave hearty assent to the appoint- ment of Henry Gardner, of Stow, as treasurer of the Province, and made payment to him rather than to the royal treasurer.
In March, 1775, the town voted "to pay twenty- five 'minute-men' one shilling per week until the first of May next,-they to exercise four hours in a week, and two shillings to be allowed two officers, they to equip themselves according to the advice of
the Congress." White John Reed was laboring in the interests of the town in the Second Congress, the minute-men were being faithfully drilled and the company of militia as well. The minute-men of Bed- ford were a fair specimen of those forces, so hastily prepared for war, of whom Lord Percy said: "We never saw anything equal to the intrepidity of the New England minute-men." The officers of the min- ute-men had no commissions, as did those of the militia already in service; hence their authority came through the suffrage of their associates. The Bedford minute-men organized by choosing Jonathan Wilson as captain and Moses Abbott as lieutenant; Cornet Nathaniel Page was standard-bearer.
HOMME
The banner illustrated on this page was carried by Cornet Nathaniel Page in the company of minute- men from Bedford to Concord, April 19, 1775. It had, doubtless, been in the Page family in this town for nearly a century before the Revolution. It was re- turned to the Page mansion after the opening scenes of the war, and there kept until the centennial cele- bration at Concord, April 19, 1875, when it was ear- ried with the Bedford delegation in the procession ot that day. Ten years later, October 19, 1885 (the one hundred and fourth anniversary of the surrender by Cornwallis to Washington), it was presented by Captain Cyrus Page to the town of Bedford.
It was thus brought to the attention of the Massa- chusetts Historical Society at their meeting in the following January, when Mr. Appleton reported upon it as follows :
" It was originally designed in England, in 1660-70, for the three-county troops of Massachusetts, and be- came one of the accepted standards of the organized militia of this State, and as such it was used by the Bedford company." Mr. Appleton said that in his opinion "This flag far exceeded in historic value the famed flag of Eutaw and Pulaski's banner, and, in fact,
uncle, Thomas Ilaocock. The warehouse alluded to, was a portion, and had been in the family for many years ; here the country farmers had exchanged their produce for other wares, the Maxwells among them, very naturally, as they must have become interested in the family through Ebenezer Hancock, brother of Thomas, who had taught the Bedford school and boarded with the family of Rev. Mr. Bowes, whose wife was his sister. The mutual acquaintance had led John Hancock to confide the secret of destroying the tea to a worthy friend whose warlike spirit was gratified in this daring act.
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is the most precious memorial of its kind we have any knowledge of." The three-county troops, referred to above, originated thus: In May, 1643, the whole Colony of Massachusetts Bay was divided into four shires-Middlesex, Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, named from the English counties. In the same year, 1643, a new organization of the militia was determined upon, and the Colony forces were divided into three regiments. Middlesex had one, Suffolk one and Es- sex was joined with Norfolk in one. The valuable relic now owned by the town of Bedford is, without doubt, the banner carried by the Middlesex Regi- ment.
" By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Ilere once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world. " -- EMERSON.
The "Lexington Alarm List," in the archives of the State, gives Bedford eredit for twenty-six minute- men, but has no record of the captain, Jonathan Wil- son, who was killed on April 19, 1775. This unfortu- nate omission is, doubtless, to be accounted for by his brief service (the sacrifice of life being made about mid-day) and the few miles of travel, making the de- mand against the Province too small to receive the attention of the bereaved family.
The same list is authority in regard to the number of men belonging to the Bedford company of militia of the Seventh Regiment, together with their time of service.
According to the sworn statements of the com- manding officers of the Bedford companies, there were, from this town, engaged in that part of the opening scene of the Revolution that took place at Concord, seventy-seven men in organized command, besides undrilled citizens who joined the ranks on that morning. If, as a recent writer of Coneord figlit has recorded, the Provincial forees " numbered possibly three hundred and fifty men " at half-past nine o'clock, more than one-fifth of them were from Bedford. Thompson Maxwell (before mentioned) was with the minute-men of Bedford on April 19th. His journal of that date is as follows : "I again hap- pened in Bedford with my team. I left Boston the 18th, and got to my native town that night, and put up with my brother, Wilson (who married my sister), and was Captain of the minute-men. Next morning early he had orders to march with his company to Concord. He requested me to go with him. I went, well armed, and joined in the fight. My brother, Wilson, was killed. Next day I hired a man to drive my team home." His home was at Milford (then Amherst), N. H. He later adds in his journal, "I never went home until after the Battle of Bunker Hill." It is not certain how early the news of the movement of the Regulars first reached Bedford on the night of April 18, 1775, but it is very probable that the town was warned among the first. Nathan Munroe and Benjamin Tidd, at Captain Parker's re-
quest, went up to Bedford from Lexington, some time in the evening, and, according to the sworn statement of one of them, " notified the inhabitants." The people had but little sleep that night, and were astir long before the break of day.
There is a tradition that Maxwell's familiarity with war led him to be suspicious of certain movements that he saw in Boston, and that he and Wilson were sitting, late at night, discussing the condition of affairs, when the messenger reached the house. The min- ute-men rallied at the tavern in the village, kept by Jeremiah Fitch, Jr., and there had some hastily-pre- pared refreshments. The Captain gave the following encouraging command as the company left for Con- cord : " It is a cold breakfast, boys, but we'll give the British a hot dinner; we'll have every dog of them before night."
It is probable that the militia rallied at the home of their captain, on the Concord road, and were at the scene of action before Captain Wilson's company reached there. On the arrival of the two companies at Concord they assisted in removing stores to places of greater safety. It is said that Cornet Page laid down his flag and went to work, and when returning to look for it "found the boys had got it and were playing soldiers with it."
The Bedford men were on the ridge when they first saw the British, but, with all the Americans, soon turned and made haste to get to the other side of the bridge.
The Bedford companies met with no loss at the bridge, and were all in the pursuit of the retreating enemy. They left the "Great Fields" at Merriam's Corner, and engaged in the attack, then hastened in the pursuit, and were in the thickest of the fight near the " Brooks' Tavern," where Captain Wilson was killed and Job Lane wounded. It is not probable that they continued in pursuit of the retreating en- emy, but, with saddened hearts, returned to their homes, bearing their dead and wounded. A British soldier said of them and others: "They fought like bears, and I would as soon storm hell as fight them again." Bedford homes were full of anxiety that day. The women were engaged in preparing food and sending it on to Concord. One good lady said, "All day long the bell was ringing and guns were firing ; people were dashing back and forth on horse- back, and saying there had been an awful fight." She had doubtless seen the Reading and Wilmington companies and others as they passed through the town or halted to rest at Fitch's tavern.
Admitting the militia roll, taken twenty-six days after the opening scene of the war, to have been sub- stantially that of a month earlier, it appears that all of the able bodied men of this town, between sixteen and sixty years of age, with the exception of eleven, were on duty in the organized companies at Concord, on April 19, 1775. Had this spontaneous uprising of the people been a mad craze for war they would have
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rushed to Lexington; but it was rather the natural act of children hastening to the relief of a mother threatened by a common enemy.
They received no cheer from their minister. When the people were hastening to the scene of conflict, the pastor was comfortably ensconced by his fire-side, where he was found by a neighboring clergyman, who halted while on his way to Concord.
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