USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > History of the town of Brookline, Massachusetts > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
Their concern was not unfounded, for the effect of inocu- lation, as practiced at that time, was to give the patient a mild case of the disease, in contrast to modern vaccination, which merely stimulates immunizing forces in the body. There was repeated objection to the hospitals on the ground that they constituted a possible source of an epidemic in Brookline, and the town meeting of February 12, 1778, directed Elhanan Winchester, representative in the General Assembly, 'to en- quire by whose order the Barracks on Sewall's Point in this
152
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
Town are to be employed as Hospitals for inoculating the Soldiers of the Continental Army with the Small Pox; and that he exert himself to cause the same to be put under such Regulations and Restrictions as may tend most effectually to secure the Inhabitants of this Town from the Infection of that Distemper.' Whether anything was accomplished in this di- rection does not appear, but the town later received compen- sation for the damage which was presumed to have resulted from the presence of the smallpox hospitals. And meanwhile the town meeting refused the petition of Dr. William Aspinwall for leave to convert his home into a hospital for smallpox inoculation.
This, however, was not the only control by patriots of the personal inconvenience which effective prosecution of the gen- eral cause put upon them. Major William Thompson of Brookline became responsible for the presence in Massachu- setts archives of one of the finest examples of righteous indig- nation in recorded American history, when a detachment of some forty men under a Captain King appeared with an order from Assistant Quartermaster General Parke, directing them to take possession of Thompson's house on Harvard Street. The major protested that the quartermaster was without au- thority to appropriate his house, and refused admission to the soldiers. When they threatened to break in and take posses- sion, he proposed to provide them with shelter at his own ex- pense at the nearest inn. This was refused, and he then sug- gested that he ought in any case not to be asked to take in more than he could accommodate comfortably with his own family. Making no progress along that line, either, Major Thompson went inside, locked the door, and defied the soldiers until they broke in and compelled the family to move into a single room. All this he recited in a petition to the General Court, which he concluded with these resounding periods:
Your Petitioner humbly begs leave to assure your Hon- ours, that he is zealously attached to the Cause of this his native Country, has perseveringly exerted his small abilitys to oppose the Encroachments of foreign and unconstitu- tional Power - that it is the most ardent wish of his Heart that his country may be able to form and establish the most
153
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
perfect Systom of Freedom, and forever maintain and enjoy it; to which End he feels himself unalterably determined to contribute the last mite of his Property - that should the Exigencies of the army ever require it, he will cheerfully quit his House and other Possessions, for the Service and Benefit of the Public, whenever required to do it in a man- ner becoming a Freeman, and so as to leave him the humble merit and heartfelt Satisfaction that will arise from his poor but voluntary and utmost efforts in behalf of his Country.
Your Petitioner therefore prays your Honours attention to the most audacious Insult and enormous Outrage that has been offered him, and interpose your Authority to pro- cure him such Reparation as in your Wisdom and Justice shall seem meet, and your Petr as in Duty bound humbly prays.
The petition, one regrets to say, was read and referred to the next session, and it does not appear that any official action was taken to comfort the major.
CONFISCATION OF LOYALIST PROPERTY
Persons who were not in sympathy with the patriot cause found themselves living among unfriendly, if not hostile neigh- bors. Strong pressure had been brought to bear against mer- chants who, in the years preceding, had failed to co-operate in the non-importation program. Tar and feathers provided only one form of coercion. Anne Hulton's correspondence has disclosed others.
After the fighting actually began, therefore, it was not strange that those who persisted in their loyalty to the King should deem it wise to remove themselves, even though the process involved abandonment of their property. A Tory, now known only by his last name of Jackson, owned a house near the site of the present Public Library on Washington Street. More fortunate than many others of his class, he was able to sell his property before he departed, and it was con- verted into barracks for Continental soldiers.
The town had been prompt to move for confiscation. A meeting of the inhabitants on June 12, 1775, 'Voted that some method be taken to secure the Incomes of ye Estates Belonging
1
154
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
to the Refugees now in Boston which lately belonged to Sd Town.' At the direction of the General Court, the Brookline Committee of Correspondence, Safety, and Inspection, re- ported formally on their disposition of the confiscated property of Henry Hulton. His farm they rented at twenty-four pounds a year, lawful money, and their extensive inventory of the per- sonal estate 'Taken into our Care' includes the following:
one Matrass bed, two hats, one feather, one Sword
66 Iron Great
Plow Shares & Colter
“ Chest with about one Duzon of Glas Bottles
" Iron Pump handle
Shase Cushen, 11 Chana Plates, two Maps
Som Sheat Led, I Small bag of Brass Scruse
In the same report, dated July 2, 1776, the committee re- ported that they had also
Take into our Care Seven Acres of Land belonging to one Holmes of Boston and Let it out for one year to Robert Sharp of Brookline, he Paying Four Pound Thirteen Shillings & four pense Lawfull money Rent.
Also we have Taken into our Care the farm belonging to Sam'll Sewall & have Let it out for one year to John Heath of said Town, he Paying the Sum of forty Eight Pounds Lawfull money Rent.
The committee was troubled over the fact that there was other property of Sewall's in which his sister claimed an un- divided interest and which, in consequence, might not be con- fiscated in the same manner as the rest. Directions were asked from the General Court as to the proper procedure by which Sewall's interest might be taken over. He, meanwhile, had fled to England as a refugee.
Brookline was thoroughly committed to the war. To the somewhat academic co-operation expressed in resolutions of the town meeting, were added the administrative aid of the Committee of Correspondence, such quarters as citizens could spare, and the services of able men in the field. The town formed a part of Washington's line of siege about Boston, and in compelling the evacuation of that place by the Brit-
I55
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
ish, a Brookline man was perhaps the ablest lieutenant of the Commander-in-Chief.
THE SIEGE OF BOSTON I
As one historian has expressed it, 'The environs of Bos- ton presented an animating sight.' Hardly a century had elapsed since the two principal passes into the country, - Boston Neck and Charlestown Neck - were fortified to save the infant American civilization from the inroads of the sav- ages; now the beautiful hills that surrounded and commanded them were covered with all the pomp and pride of war, to protect the same civilization against being destroyed from without by the hand which should have protected it. A letter of a British officer 2 in Boston at that time records his impression in these words:
'The country is most beautifully tumbled about in hills and valleys, rocks and woods, interspersed with straggling villages, with here and there a spire peeping over the trees, and the country of the most charming green that delighted eye ever gazed on.'
The beauty of nature was now intermingled, on the land with white tents, glittering bayonets, and frowning cannon, while no small portion of the navy of England rode proudly in the harbor. Occasionally the scene was enlivened by a peaceful parade or a hostile skirmish. The sights were no less novel than interesting, and thousands flocked to the neighborhood, either to greet their friends, or to witness the exciting scenes.
Rev. William Emerson wrote: 'The Generals Washington and Lee are upon the lines every day. New orders from his Excellency are read to the respective regiments after pray- ers .... Thousands are at work every day from four to eleven o'clock in the morning .... It is very diverting to walk among the camps. They are as different in their form as the owners are in their dress; and every tent is a portraiture of the tem- per of the persons who encamp in it .... Some are made of boards and some of sailcloth. Some partly of one and partly of the other. Again, others are made of stone, and turf and brush. Some are thrown up in a hurry; others curiously wrought with doors and windows, done with wreaths and
I Quotation from Mr. Baker's 'Old Harvard Street' is resumed.
2 Captain, later Lord, Harris.
I56
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
withes in the manner of a basket. Some are your proper tents and marquees, looking like the regular camp of the enemy. In these are the Rhode Islanders who are furnished with tent equipage, and everything in the most exact Eng- lish style.
'General Washington is described as being truly noble and majestic in appearance, tall and well-proportioned. His dress a blue coat with buff-colored facings, a rich epaulette on each shoulder, buff under dress, and an elegant small- sword; a black cockade in his hat.'
For eight months, through summer and winter and until March in the next spring (1776) the occupants of houses along the old road to the colleges watched the passing and repassing of the different companies and regiments of raw recruits which patriotism and privations finally developed into the Continental Army. In the night they would be awakened and startled by the mounted messengers gal- loping at top speed between Generals Ward and Thomas at Roxbury and the Commander-in-Chief at Cambridge.
They looked with scorn and disdain on the Boston- bound Tories who forsook their homes and property and with their families sought protection within the lines of the royal forces; and they pitied, and assisted so far as pos- sible, that ever lengthening procession of poor exiles from the beleaguered town, who fled from suffering and starva- tion to ask shelter and support with their friends and fellow patriots in the country outside.
That was the time when the Harvard College buildings were used as barracks, when there were forts on both sides of the Charles river, one near where Cottage Farm Station now is, and another on the opposite side, - when the Amer- icans were so short of ammunition that window weights and the lead coats of arms on old tomb stones were molded into bullets. What a season of disturbance and anxiety it must have been for the family in the old Gardner house, right in the midst of events, their own family life saddened by the loss of a noble husband and loving father who at the Battle of Bunker Hill laid down his life in defense of home and country on that memorable seventeenth of June.I
, ' Quotation from Mr. Baker is suspended here.
157
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
MUNITIONS IN BROOKLINE
The spectacle of the siege was watched, of course, from the hills of Brookline. Nathaniel Goddard, son of the man who was one of Washington's most useful helpers, recorded 1 that
when I was about eight years old I saw from the window of the house in which I was born the shells thrown from Bos- ton to Lechmere's Point by the British, the burning fuse appearing like shooting stars. Boston being besieged, a regiment of Rhode Island troops was stationed on what was called Winchester Hill, near Jamaica Pond, as a surety for the shells, shot, etc. piled in by-places in my father's pasture, and the powder stored in the chamber of my father's shop, the building before alluded to as the tempo- rary residence of the family. There was also a corporal's guard of soldiers stationed particularly to guard the powder. My father being most of the time absent on public business, the farm was carried on by my elder brother, Samuel, and my mother gave liberty to the guard to take peas, beans, and such vegetables as they might wish, upon the condition that they would guard the fields by night from the straggling soldiers on Winchester Hill; but I believe they imposed on her credulity and allowed their comrades to depredate, as we missed many things, particularly our currants and other fruits.
Soon after this was the Battle of Bunker's Hill. We heard the cannon, and from our dwelling saw Charlestown burn- ing. While the powder was in my father's shop not more than fifteen feet from the house, and the corporal's guard watching it, the guard slept on straw on the lower floor of the building and amused themselves in the evening by play- ing cards by candle light. One night there was a most ter- rible thunderstorm; lightning struck and split to pieces a large Catherine pear tree not fifteen feet from the shop, rending it from the top to the roots. Notwithstanding this, it lived and bore fruit for nearly forty years. Had the light- ning struck the shop, I should not have been here to record the fact. The report was circulated that some person had said, 'There is the American powder in that building but it will not be there a week hence.' This report was sent to the commander on the Hill, and he increased the guard to
I Nathaniel Goddard, A Boston Merchant. Anonymous (Boston Privately Printed, 1906); pp. 57-65), passim.
158
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
a sergeant's command. The barn was filled with the can- teens of the soldiers, which, to prevent suspicion, were en- closed by hay in large wagons and carts to resemble loads of hay, the Tories being very much on the alert and from their superior knowledge of the country more troublesome than the British soldiers. The teams, to the shame of the country, were procured by my father's own funds and pro- mises, and were paid for with much good money. He re- ceived in return depreciated Continental money, much of which he had on hand when a hundred dollars was not worth a good ninepence. Soon the stores were transported to the army, Washington took command and planned the expedition to take and fortify Dorchester Heights. My father had men employed in cutting and making fascines to carry onto the Hill, and in getting the teams ready to transport all the stores for the troops.
The Tories, as I have said, were the most troublesome of our enemies. We had but few of these in Brookline. Even as early as the Battle of Concord all who favored the English had withdrawn, for I recollect that it was said that there was but one man in Brookline who did not go to the battle, and that was a Mr. Ackers who 'could not get ready'; but . he was not a Tory. But one of these was killed, but he was one of the first men of the town, Squire Gardner, father of the late General Gardner. My father's hired man, Joel Hager, got behind a tree where he loaded and fired all the time the British were passing, and on examining the tree afterwards it was found that seven balls from the enemy had hit it, but the man was not wounded.
THE WAGON-MASTER GENERAL
The father of Nathaniel Goddard, 'being most of the time absent on public business,' was the John Goddard who had carted supplies for the colonial forces to Concord. He was so obviously a man with a faculty for getting things done, that the Orderly Book of Abijah Wyman, commanding a company in Colonel William Prescott's regiment, records under the date of August 9, 1775:
Mr. John Godard is apinted By the Comander yn Cheaf wagon master genl to the army of the twelve united Col- linies, and is to Be obayed as such.
THE BARTLETT FARM, WASHINGTON AND BEACON STREETS Bartlett Crescent was laid out through this pasture
159
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
He had, however, been appointed by the town meeting of November 2, 1774, as 'waggon master for the army,' and had been active more or less continuously since early March of 1775. His account book states:
May 22. Began to be constant in service of the Province Myself.
John Goddard lent a hand in preparing the fort at Sewall's Point, as is attested by this entry:
July 7, 1775. To hand and team carting stons to the well in the fort at Brookline. 0-6-0
So useful did this able freighter prove, that General Wash- ington desired him to follow the army when the center of hos- tilities shifted to New York after the evacuation of Boston, but this Goddard was unwilling to do, although he continued to lend his assistance to the patriot cause.
His accounts reflect interestingly the conception of neces- sary refreshment which was common in those times. On Feb- ruary 10, 1779, he set out for Fishkill with a load. Excerpts from his accounts read:
12 to Dinner and horse bate I- 2-0
to oats & Drink . 0-12-0
to oats & Drink . 0-12-0 To Supper horse keeping Lodging 2- 0-0
Breakfast and horse bate 0-18-0
13th
to half mug of flip
0- 6-0
to entertainment from Saturday to Monday at Pompherst. . 5-18-6
15 to Dinner toddy & horse Bate. I-18
to supper horse keeping Lodging & oats 2-10-0
The drink and toddy keep recurring from day to day, a reminder that in those times a reasonable ration of alcohol was considered a necessary part of the daily diet. The prices seem a little high, judged by the standards of 1779, but there are at least two considerations to be remembered. Goddard had an assistant with him, and the prices which he paid were presumably in inflated currency, for approximately thirty dol- lars is a pretty generous fee, even for the entertainment of two men from Saturday to Monday at Pomfret.
160
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
To return, however, to the first years of the war, there are interesting records of Goddard's willing assumption and thor- ough performance of his duties. In the New England Chronicle and Essex Gazette for November 9-16, 1775, appeared the notice:
By Order of the Quarter Master General.
Wanted, directly, for the Use of the Continental army, a number of Teams to be employed in the camps, where they may have good encouragement and immediate employ, by applying to John Goddard, at his lodgings at Mr Samuel Chandler's in Cambridge, or to Mr Robert Champney's, Deputy Wagon-Master in Roxbury. It is desired that peo- ple would exert themselves, as they value the safety of their country.
John Goddard, W. M. G.
THE BUSINESS ON DORCHESTER HEIGHTS
The Wagon-Master General's big night in the service of his country was that of Monday, March 4, 1776. The siege of Boston had not progressed in a fashion indicative of any large success.
About dusk that evening, however, the patriot forces in Rox- bury opened a vigorous cannonade upon the British in Boston. As the Reverend William H. Lyon described it to his congre- gation in a sermon ª preached as late as 1912:
About seven o'clock two thousand men marched to Dor- chester Heights. Eight hundred formed an advance guard, followed by carts with intrenching tools, then came twelve hundred more troops, and last of all a train of three hundred wagons, carrying fascines and hay.
If one is disposed to believe that three hundred wagons can easily be moved by night, in silence, the experiment of moving one such wagon is respectfully suggested. The rumble of a wheel, the crack of a whip-lash, might have betrayed the move- ment to some Tory sympathizer. But this had been anticipated, and precluded.
The wheels of the carts were wound with hay, and the oxen shod with felt, and no whips were allowed to be used,
I John and Hannah Goddard. A Sermon by William H. Lyon, D.D., March 10, 1912; Brookline, Published by The Parish, 1912.
161
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
the poor uninterested beasts being prodded along with sharpened sticks. So, though there was a bright moon- light, the British were completely taken by surprise when they beheld, the next morning, the fortifications which made Boston untenable. 'Good God!' exclaimed General Howe, 'these fellows have done more work in one night than I could have made my army do in three months. What shall I do?'
EVACUATION
The British overestimated the force of the patriots surround- ing the town, and decided on a capitulation which they need not - at least at that time - have made. In consequence, they abandoned the town, surrendering 'over two hundred cannons, thousands of muskets, and great stores of powder, lead, and. other military necessities, and betook themselves to their fleet. So ended the siege of Boston.'
A contemporary wrote, under the date of Sunday, March 17, 1776:
Observed some very peculiar movements of the Shipping; they continued falling down the harbor, many of them sur- rounded with great numbers of boats till about noon, when I hear the Selectmen of Boston came out to Roxbury and informed the Generals that the British troops had all em- barked and left the town; whereupon a detachment from our army marched in with the American Standard dis- played, and took possession of the town about 2 P.M ....
As John Sullivan accounted for the affair in a letter to John Adams:
Lord Percy ... instead of his Prospect Glass, took a multi- plying Glass & viewed our people from the Castle, & made them fifty thousand, when, in fact, we had only sent on four thousand.
If it is evident to us now that the British forces evacuated Boston in consequence of a mistake in judgment, it is also ap- parent that the element of surprise was of the greatest impor- tance in influencing that hasty and ill-founded decision. And the one man whose responsible performance of an apparently impossible task did most to account for that surprise was John
162
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
Goddard of Brookline. It would hardly be exaggeration to describe him as the outstanding figure of the occasion.
OTHER CONSPICUOUS SERVICES
Apart from providing her share of the rank and file who made up the backbone of the colonial forces, Brookline con- tributed a number of men whose individual efforts for the cause were of an exceptional order. The ranking officer among soldiers from Brookline was Colonel James Wesson, who came from Sudbury, and on May 25, 1768, married Ann White of Brookline. He enlisted May 18, 1775, and as major of Colonel Loammi Baldwin's regiment served in the various forts around Boston for nearly a year, when he went to New York as lieutenant-colonel of the same regiment. He also saw service in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and in April of 1777 went with the Ninth Massachusetts Regiment to Ti- conderoga. Distinguished for bravery in the battle of Oriskany, he was promoted to the colonelcy of the Eighth Massachusetts Regiment.
Colonel Wesson fought at Saratoga and Monmouth Court- house, and in the latter battle narrowly escaped death when, as he leaned low over his horse's neck in an effort to see under- neath the smoke, a cannon ball grazed his shoulders. General Heath wrote: 'It was here that the firm Colonel Wesson had his back peeled of its muscles almost from shoulder to shoulder by a cannonball.'
Although he was partially crippled by this wound, Colonel Wesson continued in the army, was transferred to the Ninth Regiment again, and saw service at West Point and Orange- town. He was discharged in 1781, and returned to Brookline, only to move three years later to his farm in Marlboro.
Three medical men experienced more than ordinarily ad- venturous service. Dr. William Aspinwall and Dr. Eliphalet Downer were army surgeons, the former first attached to Gen- eral Heath's brigade, and afterward to the hospital in Rox- bury. In 1778 he was with General Sullivan's forces in Rhode Island.
Dr. Downer was busy with the army besieging Boston, until after the evacuation, when he joined the privateer Yankee and
163
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
acted as a gunner. The crew of a captured British ship suc- cessfully turned on their captors, and took them to England, where they were imprisoned. Dr. Downer, however, was ac- corded special privileges as a hospital assistant, and escaped to France, where he joined another privateer, the Alliance, and participated in her highly successful career in the British Channel.
After these adventures, the doctor started for home, but his ship became engaged in a desperate fight which continued for over seven hours, until both her masts were shot away, her ammunition was exhausted, and her company were carried off to Portsea prison, near Portsmouth. Here Dr. Downer, who had been severely wounded, took part in a plot to escape; a forty-foot tunnel was excavated with a jackknife; and though some of the prisoners were recaptured, the doctor made his way to France, and at last to Boston.
His grandson related: 'He escaped from Halifax prison, was also in Dartmoor and Forten prisons, and served as sailor and surgeon under John Paul Jones in the Bonhomme Richard.' Even these experiences, however, seem not to have dampened his patriotic ardor, for in the summer of 1779 he went as chief surgeon with the Penobscot expedition to Canada. On this service he lost his surgical instruments, and was awarded fifteen dollars on that account.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.