USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Dunstable > History of the town of Dunstable, Massachusetts, from its earliest settlement to the year of Our Lord 1873 > Part 7
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Ensign EBENEZER PARKHURST came to Dunstable from Chelmsford subsequent to 1726, and settled on the place now occupied by Albert L. and John A. Parkhurst, about a mile south of the centre of the town. He died June 13, 1757, in his fifty-eighth year. The children of Ebenezer and Sarah Parkhurst were, I. Joseph, born Aug. 30, 1724 ; 2. Ebenezer, born Jan. 20, 1728 ; 3. Sarah, born Feb. 21, 1730 ; 4. Mary, born May 3, 1733 ; 5. Silas, born Sept. 1, 1737 ; and 6. Joel, born Aug. 3, 1741. John Spaulding, of Groton, sold to Eben- ezer Parkhurst, March 8, 1749, a tract of one hundred and fifty acres of land, bounded in part by Brattle's Farm and lying on Salmon Brook.
HENRY FARWELL, son of Henry Farwell, of Chelmsford, married Esther, daughter of Capt. Joseph Blanchard, and lived a little south of the Danforth place, in what is now Tyngsborough. His brother Josiah, who escaped from the ambuscade at Naticook, was killed in Capt. John Lovewell's fight with Paugus, at Pequawket. John Bulkley sold land, Dec. 25, 1710, to Henry Farwell on Little Naacook or Howard's Brook. In 1721 Henry Farwell conveys "Mill-
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HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE. [1744
stone Meadow" to John French, and in 1745 a certain lot of land to Joseph Danforth.
JOHN WOODWARD died July 18, 1738. The family came from Reading, and is still represented by that of James Wood- ward, of Dunstable.
EBENEZER PROCTOR married Elizabeth Blood, of Groton, Nov. 25, 1735.
EBENEZER BUTTERFIELD married Alice -, and was a member of the church in 1757. The family came from Chelmsford.
SAMUEL TAYLOR, son of Abraham Taylor, was born Oct. I, 1708. He married Susan Perham, was chosen deacon in 1757, and died Oct. 3, 1792. His son Samuel, born Oct. 15, 1734, died at Lake George, Nov. 18, 1755. Dea. James Taylor lived on what is now the Lowell road, about one mile . from the centre of the town. Jonathan Taylor sold land on Brattle's Farm, in 1732, to John French.
DAVID TAYLOR lived on the Wright place, and died Dec. 15, 1809, aged eighty-eight years.
JOSIAH BLODGETT married Jemima Nutting, of Groton, April 13, 1737, and died Feb. 9, 1792, in his eighty-fourth year. He was a member of the church in 1757, and lived in the vicinity of Massapoag Pond. His house was at one time a garrison.
JOHN STEEL was for some time clerk of the parish. He lived on an eminence in the southerly part of the town, and died Aug. 18, 1760, aged fifty-seven years. Inscribed on his head-stone on Meeting-House Hill are the words, "The Memory of The Just is Blist."
ROBERT SCOTT lived a little south of John Steel.
ADFORD JAQUITH was an active citizen, an original member of the church, and died July 16, 1791, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. He sold to Nathaniel Cummings, Dec. 14, 1734, twenty acres of land " a littell westward from ye said Jaquiths house which was on the northern side of Forest Hill." The deed was witnessed by John Woodward and John Cummings.
TIMOTHY BANCROFT lived on the river road, a short dis- tance south of the State line. He married Elizabeth Farwell,
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FORTIFICATIONS.
1744-5]
whose brother, Lieut. Josiah Farwell, was killed in the fight at Pequawket, on the 8th of May, 1725. He was born in 1709, and died Nov. 21, 1772.
STEPHEN ADAMS was a member of the church in 1757.
JONATHAN ROBBINS was born Nov. 4, 1718. His father, Lieut. Jonathan Robbins, was killed in the Pequawket fight. The Robbins family lived in the northwest section of the town.
SAMUEL HOWARD was born in 1684, and died Feb. 7, 1769. He owned a large tract of land on Howard's Brook.
SAMUEL ROBY lived about eighty rods north of John French.
ROBERT BLOOD married Sarah -, of Groton, and had inter alios Robert, born Dec. 26, 1733, who was a member of the church and lived near the garrison house, about a quarter of a mile east of Meeting-House Hill.
WILLIAM BLANCHARD was the son of Thomas and Ruth (Adams) Blanchard, and was born in 1701. He married Deliverance Parker, of Groton, Feb. 28, 1733-4.
As the town had no meeting-house, the people continued to assemble at Ebenezer Kendall's tavern for the transaction of public business. At a meeting held there May 2, 1744, it was voted " that the Select Men with Mr. Abraham Taylor and Mr. Timº Bancrafte be a committee to tak Cair to hier the Gospel to be preached among us." At a meeting held July 23, of the same year, it was voted " to except som of ye peopell of Groton Living in ye Northeaste parte of it Called Joynt Grass to be enexed to us." John Kendall, Joseph Eaton, and John Woodward were then appointed to petition the General Court " for fortifications to defend us." It appears that two at least were then, or at a previous date, erected, one of which stood a little to the eastward of the present home- stead of Mr. James Bennett, and the other in front of the house of Robert Blood and near the present residence of Mr. Dexter Butterfield. The well of the former garrison still remains. It does not appear that the Indians made any demonstrations against the town subsequent to this period.
On the 4th of March, 1744-5, the town voted "yt ye Swine shall go at Large ye year insuing "; and on the 14th of the same month, "y' Decon Abraham Taylors Hous shall be ye place to preach in for the Present."
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HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1746
Benjamin Butterfield, son of Joseph Butterfield who settled on the east bank of the Merrimack River in 1711, went to Cape Breton under Sir William Pepperell in 1745, and after having been appointed captain, died there in the service.
In November, 1746, the town " voted to raise 8 pounds law- ful money to pay for preach the current year " ; but to whom that money was paid for proclaiming the glad tidings in " Decon Taylors Hous " the records do not inform us.
At this period the " vexed question " of erecting a meeting- house began to be agitated, and it continued for several years to disturb the peace of the people. The territory of the town was long, extending from Dracut on the east, some ten miles or more, to Groton on the west. The families, amounting in all to fifty-four, were pretty evenly settled, if we except the Tyng estate, over the whole surface. A new church had been erected in 1738 on the New Hampshire side of the line, and was partly owned by the people on this side of it. Some of them still preferred to worship there ; others wished to buy the New Hampshire meeting-house and remove it, - some to the centre of the territory, some to the centre of popula- tion ; while still another party thought it best to build out- right, and to choose a disinterested committee from some of the neighboring towns to determine the location. It is very amusing to read the successive resolutions of the town in respect to this troublesome question. The contest continued almost as long as the old Trojan war. Meeting after meeting was held, plans of the town were drawn up, appeals were made to the General Court, and the decision of to-day was reversed by the decision of to-morrow. In his sermon at the dedica- tion of the second meeting-house in Pepperell, the Rev. Joseph Emerson said, with an eye to this state of things in Dun- stable, "It hath been observed that some of the hottest contentions in this land hath been about settling of ministers and building meeting-houses, and what is the reason ? The Devil is a great enemy to settling ministers and building meet- ing-houses ; wherefore he sets on his own children to work and make difficulties, and to the utmost of his power stirs up the corruptions of the children of God in some way to oppose or obstruct so good a work."
81
PLAN OF DUNSTABLE.
1748]
At a meeting held at the inn of Ebenezer Kendall, May 22, 1747, the town voted to raise £150 to pay for the meet- ing-house in New Hampshire and the ground on which to place it.
Some families in Nottingham, and in Joint Grass, petitioned the General Court, about this time, to be annexed to Dunsta- ble. Their petition was to be granted on condition that a meeting-house should be erected two hundred and forty-eight rods, fifty-two degrees west of north from the northeast cor- ner of Mr. John Tyng's land ; but this location did not satisfy the town .*
In July, 1747, the people, in a public meeting, voted to appropriate £25 for preaching and " to meet on ye Sabbath at ye house of Mr. John Woodward"; and on the 26th of October following they voted " to Sell or bye ye said meeting House and land purchased to sett it on."
The committee appointed to designate the place for the building was opposed to a proposition to erect it "near ye end of ye half milld to the Easte from ye senter of ye inhabitants." The town voted, Sept. 8, 1748, " not to set off yt parte of this town that was formerly Groton to Groton again." This sec- tion of the town, lying between Salmon Brook and Nashua River, and containing the Swallow, Fletcher, Blood, Read, and other families, was of much importance at this time, since it determined the balance of power on the question of fixing the site of the meeting-house towards the west.
It was also voted at the same meeting "to Rais Money to buld a Meting-house on ye Place yt was last voted for." This vote was, however, reconsidered Oct. 20, and it was then decided to place the house "about ten rod to ye south of Nathaniel Jewell's house on a Knowl." This place, it seems, had been recommended by a committee consisting of Col. Minot, Major Lawrence, and Mr. Brewer, who had been appointed for that purpose.
A map of the town, made by Joseph Blanchard, and bearing date Oct. 17, 1748, was laid before the General Court, in order
* Massachusetts Archives, Vol. CXV, p. 510.
6
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HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1749
to show the centre of land, and also of population to that body, and the fitting place for the location of the church. On this plan the farms of Col. Tyng and Mr. John Tyng embrace an area six miles and fifty-six rods in length, and one mile wide. Mr. Jeremiah Colburn's * house is designated as in the north- east, and Mr. Robbins's house in the northwest angle of the town. By the northern line of the town the distance from the Nashua to the Merrimack River is four miles, two hundred and twenty-nine rods, and from the latter river to the line of Dracut, three miles and seventy-two rods.t
For the purpose of building the meeting-house the town voted to raise £100 lawful money, and also, Nov. 15, "to buld ye said house 46 feet long, 36 feet wide, and 21 feet studes."
On the 27th of December, 1748, the town voted "to Raise thirty Pounds old Tenor # for the Suporte of a school." This is the first mention of any action respecting a school on the records. §
It was probably what was called a "a moveing school," that is, a school taught by the same person successively in various private dwellings of the town. The reading-books then used were the New England Primer, with its rude cuts of Adam and Eve, Jonah and the Whale, and rustic rhymes, such as
" The idle fool Is whipt at school,"
the Psalter and the New Testament. The birchen twig was liberally applied to the offenders, and the Assembly's Cate- chism frequently repeated. It was, perhaps, in the minds of many too often associated with the tingling of the aforesaid twig to be of much spiritual service.
It appears that in 1749 some of the timber had been pre-
* He was a Presbyterian, and attended church at Londonderry, N. H.
t The chain for the survey was carried by Messrs. Henry Adams and Timothy Colburn.
# One ounce of silver coin, valued at 6s. 8d. was, in 1749, worth 6os. in bills of credit. Three ounces of silver at 6s. Sd. per ounce was equal to { lawful money.
§ In 1742 the town of Groton made provision for a school at Unquetynasset. - Butler's History of Groton, p. 219.
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BOUNTY FOR WOLVES.
1749]
pared for the coming church ; for on the 26th of May, at a town-meeting held at the house of Simon Thompson, it was voted, "yt ye meting-house yt is to be bult in this town be erected on ye easte side of ye Rhoad yt Leads from Mr. Simon Thomsons to Capt. Cumings whare som of ye timber for said House now Lies, which place is about 40 Rods Northwardly from Isaac Colburn."
The Court declared, June 26, that the people of Nottingham and Joint Grass had forfeited the benefit of being incorporated with Dunstable, and that " the meting-house should be erected on the east side of the road from Capt. Cummings to Simon Thompsons house where the timber lies for it." The Joint Grass families at this time were those of John Swallow, Joseph Spaulding, Jr., Timothy Read, Joseph Fletcher, Benjamin Rob- bins, John Spaulding, and Samuel Cummings. In July follow- ing, the Nottingham and Joint Grass people, being dissatisfied with the place fixed upon for the church, petitioned the Court that they might be annexed to Dunstable ; and this, probably, in order that they might vote on the question.
Wolves were at this time very troublesome, and bears occa- sionally made their way into town ; the catamount also now and then annoyed the people. It is related that one evening, while Deacon Joseph Fletcher, who purchased a tract of about six hundred acres at twelve cents per acre in the Joint Grass district about the year 1735, was absent at the mill, his wife Elizabeth, hearing something like the screaming of a child, went to the door, and saw the eyes of a catamount glaring at her from a tree. She fastened the door upon her visitor, yet fearing he might gain an entrance through a win- dow, she crept into a barrel, and in that uncomfortable posi- tion spent the night .*
The town voted, in 1749, to pay 12s. 6d. to any person from Dunstable, Groton, Littleton, Westford, Lunenburg, Harvard, or Hollis, on condition that these towns should do the same, " that shall kill any Grone Wolf within one year within the bounds of any of these Respective towns or shall
* See The Fletcher Genealogy, P. 54.
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HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1752
tak the tracte in any of these townes & folow it till thay kill it where they will if ye hed be produced by way of evidence & ye Ears cut off as the Law directs."
March 5, 1749-50, it was voted "to alow a town way from David Taylors to Nathaniel Parkers"; and in July following, £20 were to be raised for " ye supporte of the gospell."
A committee, consisting of Eleazer Tyng, Esq., Josiah Blodgett, Timothy Bancroft, John Kendall, Jr., and John Woodward, was at the same time chosen "to fix a place for a meeting-house." The town could not agree on their decision, and at a meeting held Oct. 30, it was voted "not to buld a meting house for ye publick worship of God." It was then, at a meeting held at Robert Blood's house, Dec. 7, "voted not to Joyn with ye peopell in New Hampshire in settling the gospell." At the same time it was voted " to Raise money to suporte the gospell at ye ould meting house this winter season." This was the church erected on the New Hamp- shire side of the line in 1738, the people there using at this time the church subsequently built by Jonathan Lovewell and his associates .*
At a meeting held March 18, 1751, at the house of Robert Blood, a central point on the road from Joint Grass to the Merrimack River, where the bridge now stands, it was voted " to except a Curb way from Mr. Ebenezer Proctors to Groton line .; The sum of £15 was appropriated for mend- ing highways and bridges, and a man was to have one shilling per day for working thereon. At another meeting, held Dec. 19 of this year, it was voted "to set of Mr. James Colburn with ye land that lies between Hollis and groton from groton Corner to Nashua River be laid to groton." It was also voted " not to send to the Court to git Nottingham and Joynte grass anexed to us as formerly they was."
On the 20th of May, 1752, it was voted that the meeting- house be erected "on a knowl by the Road that leads from David taylors ¿ to Simon Tomsons, about five or six rods
* History of the Old Township of Dunstable, by Charles J. Fox, p. 149.
t He lived on the place now occupied by Elbridge G. Chapman.
# He lived where George P. Wright now lives.
85
FAMILIES FROM GROTON.
1753]
north where the road was lying"; and at the next meeting, July 6, it was voted that " Dea. Stikny, of billerica, Capt. Nickols of Redding & Deacon Stone of groton be a Com- mittee to fix a place for a meting house."
The decision of this committee satisfied the majority of the town in respect to the long-contested point ; for on the 2d of September it voted "to erect a meting house on the East corner of David Taylors land," as the said committee had determined. At the next meeting, Oct. 26, it was voted to raise £53 6s. 8d. to pay for that part of the New Hamp- shire church which the committee, consisting of Col. Tyng, Samuel Taylor, and Joseph Pike, had purchased, and for "taking down, removing & rebuilding sd meting house." On the 18th of December following, a committee was chosen to petition the General Court that " those living in the northeast part of Groton at a place called Joynt grass be ennexed to this town of Dunstable as they formerly were."
It appears from the following record that these people were willing, if the meeting-house were built upon a spot that suited them, to become again citizens of Dunstable : -
"Groton, May 10, 1753. We have concluded to Joine with Dunstable in settling the gospell and all other affairs hart & hand in case Dunstable woud meet us in erecting a meting house in center of Lands or center of Travel.
" JOSEPH SPAULDING, JR. JOHN SWALLOW. TIMOTHY READ. SAMUEL CUMINGS. JOSEPH PARKHURST."
This proposition was accepted June 7, 1753. "The Gen- eral Court ordered that Joseph Fletcher, Joseph Spalding, Samuel Cumings, Benjamin Robins, Timothy Read, John Swallow, Joseph Parkhurst, & Ebenezer Parkhurst, Jr., with their families & Estates, etc., be annexed to the town of Dunstable, agreable to the vote of the Town of Groton on the 18th day of May, 1747." Thus those families became a con- stituent part of the town of Dunstable. It was finally agreed to erect a meeting-house forty-two feet long, thirty-two feet wide, and with posts twenty-one feet high "by ye Highway
86
HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1753
Side which Leads from ye house of Mr. Temple Kendall to Mr. Robert Bloods house."
The spot selected is a rocky knoll on the left-hand side of the road, leading from the village of Dunstable to that of Tyngsborough, and about one mile distant from the former place. It commands a fine prospect towards the west, with the rounded summit of Wachuset Mountain in the distance. The land is now covered with a heavy growth of pine, oak, and maple timber, and no trace whatever of the old church remains. The graveyard on the western slope of the hill,
" Where the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep,"
alone indicates the place where the people for many years assembled for the transaction of civil and political affairs, as well as for the special service of the Lord.
The committee appointed to build the meeting-house con- sisted of Ebenezer Sherwin, Ebenezer Kendall, and Samuel Cummings, and they reported to the town Dec. 24, 1753, as follows : " We have built said house, & have erected it on ye north side of the road that leads from Ebenezer Butterfields to Robert Bloods, about 34 poles from said center and have finished it all saving the doors."
The raising of the edifice took place on the 18th of July, 1753, when we may suppose that the whole plantation was gathered together to assist in laying the ponderous sills, in erecting, with long spike poles, the heavy posts of oak, and in putting the rafters into place. We cannot but suppose that, in accordance with the custom of those days, they passed the flowing bowl freely from lip to lip, and that they partook joyously of the bountiful dinner which our good great-grand- mothers on such festivals provided. But a lamentable acci- dent occurred before the " raising " was completed, which filled every heart with anguish. When the frame was nearly up, two men fell suddenly from a spar, and one of them, Mr. Abiel Richardson of Groton, striking upon a rock, immediately expired ; while the other man, more fortunate, escaped with very severe bruises and contusions. The calamity is thus noticed by the Boston Weekly News Letter of July 26, 1753 :-
87
INTRODUCTION OF THE POTATO.
1755]
" We hear from Dunstable that a sorrowful Accident happened there as they were raising the Frame for a New Meeting House in that Town Yes- terday was sev' night. Two Men assisting in the work fell from a spar and one of them [Abiel Richardson of Groton] had his Brains dash'd out, his Head in the Fall striking upon a Rock, so that he expir'd imme- diately, the other was much bruis'd, but 'tis tho't will recover."
The Rev. Joseph Emerson of Pepperell made at the time this note of the accident in his journal : -
" July 19, 1753, Abiel Richardson, a man above thirty years old, assist- ing at the raising of Dunstable meetinghouse, fell, and died in a moment."
The frame was soon covered and a floor laid, so that the house could be used for public worship, but the seats were introduced gradually, and the structure was not completed for several years.
A town-meeting was held in the church March 27, 1754, and as it had now become a central point, several highways or bridle-paths, converging towards it, were permitted to be made. It was voted " to allow a town road from ye north side of Capt. Cumings old orchard to the meeting house," also, "a Curb road from Adford Jaquiths to the meting house," also, "a town road from Samuel Taylors to the road that leads from Joint Grass." At a town-meeting in May fol- lowing it was voted "to build ye two bodys of seats and to Provide Boards for the Pulpit."
Jonathan Tyng, John Alford Tyng, and Willard Hall, Jr., petitioned the General Court, this year, that three hundred acres of land in Chelmsford should be annexed to Dunstable, and although strenuously opposed by that town, the petition was granted .*
At a meeting held at Oliver Colburn's house, March 21, 1755, Benjamin Farwell, Timothy Bancroft, Joseph Danforth, and John Steel were chosen selectmen, and Ebenezer Sherwin was elected " Culler of Staves."
The income from the sale of this article, as well as from that of hoop-poles, shingles, peltry, and flax, was then considerable. The potato had just been introduced and was beginning to take
* Allen's History of Chelmsford, p. 50.
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HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1755
the place of the turnip at the table ; fish and wild fowl were abundant. The people spun and wove their own flax and wool into good, serviceable cloth, which they colored with vegetable dyes and made into garments. The women rode to church on horseback, seated sometimes behind the men. The tavern, the mill, and the blacksmith shop were the three sev- eral points where the men assembled for the discussion of the questions of the day, which had reference generally to the building of the roads, the condition of the crops, the husking party, the last matrimonial engagement, the last wild animal killed in town, or the singing or the sermon at the church.
89
THE FIRST PARISH OF DUNSTABLE.
1755]
CHAPTER VII.
THE MEETING-HOUSE OF THE FIRST PARISH. - FORMATION OF THE SECOND PARISH. - SLAVES IN DUNSTABLE. - ROBERT BLOOD'S SALE OF A NEGRO. - PAYMENT OF SEVERAL MINISTERS. - ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH COVENANT, AND NAMES OF MEMBERS. - THE SETTLEMENT OF THE REV. JOSIAH GOODHUE. - THE HALF- WAY COVENANT. - BOUNDS BETWEEN DUNSTABLE AND GROTON. - NAMES OF THE FIFTEEN HIGHEST TAX- PAYERS. - LINE BETWEEN THE FIRST AND SECOND PARISHES. - THE OLD FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. - SEATING THE MEETING-HOUSE. - FRENCH ACADIANS. - BOUNDARIES OF THE SECOND PARISH. - MEMBERS OF THE FIRST PARISH. - A REMARKABLE THUNDER-STORM. - THE FIRST STATE CENSUS. - THE POUND AND THE STOCKS. - A PROTEST OF ROBERT BLOOD AND OTHERS.
". I know no other landlord than the Lord of all the land, to whom I owe the most sincere gratitude." DICKINSON.
" Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke.
How jocund did they drive their team afield ! How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke !"
THOMAS GRAY.
As the location of the church on Meeting-House Hill did not well accommodate nor please the inhabitants in the east- erly part of the town, they formed themselves into a precinct, called the First Parish of Dunstable, and erected a small meeting-house, with two porches and a tall steeple,* near the spot where the Unitarian Church now stands, in Tyngsborough Centre.t
* It was blown down in the great gale of September, 1815.
t The Hon. John Pitts is credited with the authorship of these lines thereupon :-
" A very small meeting-house, A very tall steeple ; A very proud minister, A queer sort of people."
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HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1755
At a meeting of the members of this parish, Aug. 20, 1755, it was voted " that the place for a meeting-house in this pre- cinct be on the west of Merrimack River, near Mr. James Gordons Mills, where a fraim is erected for that purpose." It was also voted " to accept the fraim that is Now on the spot." It is also recorded " that John & Jonathan Tyng came into the Meeting & gave the Precinct Glass for the meeting-house." At a meeting of the precinct, held in 1756, Eleazer Tyng, Simon Thompson, and Oliver Farwell were appointed a com- mittee " to sett of the pew ground to those that have given & Payd most toward building Said house." In the ensuing year this parish raised £14 " to hire preaching."
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