USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Marlborough > History of the town of Marlborough, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement in 1657 to 1861; with a brief sketch of the town of Northborough, a genealogy of the families in Marlborough to 1800 > Part 51
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National glory and national greatness have been sought so far only, as that glory and that greatness tended to work out more perfectly individual security and individual happiness.
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I beg you to notice, Sir, that by this race have been built up all those great safegnards of individual rights, such as religious toleration, trial by jury, habeas corpus, &c. &c. No nation of Celtic origin has ever originated one of these, and very few have yet even adopted them.
A desire for religious freedom seems to have been a characteristic of all the nations of Teutonic origin. This desire culminated in the days of Luther, and effected the great Reformation. The Anglo-Saxon branch seems to have gone further, and aimed to secure directly civil liberty embodied in constitutions, and regulated by law. Time, Sir, obliges me to leap from peak to peak in history. I will therefore say, in short, that to effect this, to gain civil liberty, they throttled King John at Runnymede, beheaded King Charles I. in the street before the palace of White-Hall, and made King James II. an exile from the throne of his ancestors.
There is, Sir, yet another sprout from this old Saxon stock. I refer to the Anglo-Saxon-American branch. Has this degenerated, or has it improved by transplanting ? Sir, it is difficult to say what verdict history will record in respect to the present generation ; with regard to the past, the verdict is already given. 'Thou hast been weighed in the balance, and not found wanting.'
Conceiving a more free and perfect form of government, and de- manding a higher degree of religious liberty than England had attained, our Fathers left the pleasant hills and valleys of their native land, and braved the dangers of a tempestuous ocean. As they neared these New England shores, the Pilgrims looked out, not upon neatly thatched cottages. flowering hedges and smiling valleys, such as they had left behind them ; but they saw a verdureless coast, hills white with the snows of winter. In fact, nought but a blank wilderness lay before them. Hold, not so. These men and these women had faith in prin- ciples. They had principles. They came here for a purpose. And those noble men, and those courageous women, as in that solitary boat they neared that solitary rock in Plymouth harbor, saw, as they gazed in imagination down the (to them) illuminated vistas of futurity, a brighter picture than unfolding time has yet revealed-a nation founded on truth, practicing justice, enjoying liberty.
To the end that this vision might become history, our Fathers went to work systematically. Claiming as they did, in addition to the rights the Anglo-Saxon race had already secured, that every human being had a right to be educated, they founded free schools, " those little democracies " by whose instrumentality, aided by the territorial divis- ions of Parish, Town, County and State, their descendants were to be educated into a most perfeet form of representative national govern- ment.
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But, in process of time, the mother country claimed the right to tax these Colonies without their consent. Their reply was worthy the stock from which they sprung. Not a mill of tax that is laid without our consent will we pay. Here is an invasion of the rights of property ; our individual liberty is jeopardized.
Now, Sir, to show how general was this feeling of opposition to this unjust elaim of England, it is only necessary to state the fact, that many of the towns, especially in New England, early took action against it-the Borough towns among the rest. The bold, defiant, and yet polished declaration of Southborough on this occasion, you have listened to, in the speech of the gentleman who has spoken for that town. Marlborough also, as early I think as 1764 or '65, voted to devote, if need be, themselves and their property to the sacred cause of American liberty.
But England pressed her claim, and the result we all know. The Colonies drew up their great national manifesto. And in this is the crowning glory of the Saxon race. In this they laid higher claims for individual rights than Saxon or Anglo-Saxon had before conceived of; higher, in fact, than ever before had been shadowed forth, except in the Gospel of Christ.
They asserted, not that Anglo-Saxon, not that Anglo-Saxon- American, but that "all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pur- suit of happiness." And this declaration they triumphantly main- tained at the point of the bayonet, at Bennington, Saratoga, Trenton, Princeton, Valley Forge and Yorktown.
Such, Sir, were our immediate Fathers, and men of like stamina were those who,
" Daring storm and foe,
Sought this blest soil two hundred years ago."
9. Our Pilgrim Fathers .- " They built institutions for men, not men for insti- tutions."
Responded to by Rev. PETER PARKER, D. D., formerly resi- dent for many years in China, who spoke as follows :
Ladies and Gentlemen :
It is quite providential that I am here to-day. On arriving at Framingham, yesterday, from the seat of Government, I learned, inci- dentally, there was to be a Bi-centennial Celebration in Marlborough to-day. I instinctively decided, Providence permitting, to be present. I wished to be placed under the influences of such an occasion ; one so
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interesting and instructive, in its associations and memories. The realization of these influences has greatly exceeded my lively anticipa- tions. But in being unexpectedly called upon to respond to a senti- ment, I have not the advantage of pre-meditation, nor, like the learned Judge on my right, have I any "thread," to aid me, [Hon. Judge Mellen, who thus designated his brief.]
The eloquent Orator of the occasion has beautifully represented you as "standing, to-day, as it were upon an Isthmus of time, which con- nects the vast Continent of the Past with the illimitable domain of the Future." Here, how many reflections rush upon the mind ! What recollections of the past, facts and circumstances of the present, and thoughts of the future, come up upon the occasion! By the pro- gramme, the sentiment to which I am to respond is, " Our Pilgrim Fathers. They built institutions for men, not men for institutions." What a theme ! I would like to elaborate the subject, and dwell upon it half an hour ; but the lateness of the moment, and the limited time allotted us, preclude extended remarks, and I must content myself with throwing out a few thoughts which have particularly impressed my own mind.
Our Pilgrim Fathers ! How the mention of them thrills every heart ! The thought has sometimes presented itself, if it were possible for us to choose the nation, of which of all others we would prefer to be descended, which would we select ? Would it be Russia, the Muscovite stock, or France, Portugal, Spain, Greece or Rome ? No. Neither of them. It would be the very one we claim, the good old Anglo- Saxon race ; and in respect to our origin, it is our highest glory that the blood of the Pilgrim stock flows vigorously in our veins. Our Pilgrim Fathers ! They built institutions for men? Aye, more. They built institutions for God and men,-institutions for which men have, and ever will, bless them ; and God on high has already, and, to eternity, will reward them.
During these exercises I have contrasted the scene before and around me with the state of this town two hundred years ago. I have thought of the little band of the first settlers, described by the Orator, alluded to by the Poet, convened at the base of yonder hill, and who, while in the act of imploring protection from God, were surprised by their savage foc ; and could they have looked down the long vista of the coming two centuries, and beheld what we this day witness, and know what we know-how the prospect must have nerved their arm to resist the hostile Indian and other foes, and have stimulated their hearts to overcome all obstacles, and convert the then wilderness surrounding them, into the Eden we behold. From reflections on the past and present, the mind goes out and forward to the future, and conceives that, great and marvelous as are the changes of the last two centuries,
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whoever shall stand where we now do, on the Third and Fourth Cen- tennial Anniversary of Marlborough, they will behold progressive revolutions far surpassing all yet witnessed.
One of the most important sentiments ever uttered by the great Daniel Webster-name ever dear to us all-has particularly impressed me on this occasion. It was to this effect,-" Every man should re- member he is a LINK connecting the past with the future." It were well if every one present would take this sentiment home to his bosom, now and here. I behold venerable men around me that have acted in view of this principle ; some, by sending into the world families of chil- dren and grandchildren, with cultivated intellects and sanctified hearts, to bless the age in which they live ; others, by the productions of their pen, or by the principles they have cherished and maintained, have completed their link in the chain of continuity. But there are with us not only the grey-headed, the venerable remnant of the generation just passing away ; here are also the young women and young men of Marlborough, on whom it devolves to perpetuate the virtues of a noble and worthy ancestry, and to advance and preserve the great interests handed down to them as a sacred trust. 'To you let me especially commend the sentiment I have, in substance, quoted. Look you well to that link in time's great chain ; let it be of the best material and without a flaw.
It is worthy of special gratitude that you celebrate the Bi-centennial Anniversary of this town as a component part of a distinguished Com- inonwealth, and of the glorious and happy Union of all the States. I will only add the devout wish, in which all will cordially unite, that the Third and Fourth Centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the beautiful and pre-eminent town of Marlborough, may occur under the same blessed. Union-which Union may God-the God of our Pilgrim Fathers, and our God-grant to be perpetual.
10. The Orator of the Day .- Marlborough may well be proud of such sons. Response of Mr. HUDSON.
Mr. President :
After the indulgence granted me this morning in yonder Pavilion, it would be ingratitude in me to consume the time which has justly been appropriated to invited guests. I will simply say that the scenes I have witnessed this day, revive the recollection of past events, and early friendships, which render my native town peculiarly endearing to me. When I behold the familiar faces around me, I feel as though I had returned to the old homestead, to spend a joyful Thanksgiving
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under the parental roof. As Marlborough, in all periods of her history, has been a fruitful vine, I will give you this sentiment :
Marlborough-The Mother of Emigrants and of Townships.
11. The present Clergy of Marlborough .- Though their ranks are now sadly thinned, yet a remnant is left that will never be found wanting to the cause of sound learning, of vital piety, of unshackled freedom, and practical right- cousness.
Briefly responded to by Rev. L. E. WAKEFIELD.
12. The Memory of the Recent Dead .- Goodale, Field, and Bucklin.
" We sympathize with those who weep, Whom stern afflictions bend, Despairing o'er the lowly sleep Of kindred or of friend ; But they, who Jordan's swelling breast No more are called to stem, Who in the eternal haven rest- We mourn no more for them."
Dirge by the Band.
13. Our Spiritual Guides of Other Days .- We gladly welcome them from their distant fields of labor, to our Festival of Commemoration.
In response to this sentiment, Rev. GEORGE E. DAY, D. D., formerly pastor of the East church in Marlborough, now Pro- fessor in Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, spoke as follows :
Mr. President :
The time is fast waning, and therefore instead of saying all that I would, I avail myself of the opportunity of paying a humble tribute to the memory of my honored predecessor in the ministry in this place, the Rev. S. F. BUCKLIN. He had taken an active part in the preparatory arrangements for this Celebration, and had hoped to be present with us to-day ; but He " whose ways are not as our ways " had ordered otherwise. Rather more than two weeks since, he was borne to the tomb, amid the tears of three generations who loved him, and is now, we doubt not, in a brighter and more blessed assembly above.
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It may seem almost gratuitous to speak of the worth of one who has lived more than half a century in the midst of you, and with whose character none were unacquainted. But the peculiar relation which I sustained to him, for several years, will justify me in speak- ing of certain traits of his character which I had special opportunities for observing. As there are some countenances of which it is difficult to get a striking portrait, because no one feature is specially marked, so it is in respect to the characters of some men. Mr. Bucklin never aimed at eminence in the world of letters, and his gifts were of a solid and substantial rather than a brilliant kind. He was also by nature cautious in the formation of his opinions, and gentle in express- ing them; but along with all this, he possessed some traits to an uncommon degree, the remembrance of which will be certain to grow in the minds of all who knew him.
He possessed genuine benevolence of character. The law of kind- ness was ever on his lips. He spoke kindly of all men. During all the years of my acquaintance with him, I cannot recollect to have heard him speak an unfriendly word of a single human being. He was ever ready to render little acts of kindness, even at considerable inconvenience to himself. His conscientious fidelity in the perform- ance of little duties, in his relations with others, was also a marked trait in his character, and contributed not a little to the general conti- dence with which he was regarded.
It is often said that dismissed ministers make poor parishioners. It is certainly a trial of no ordinary kind, for one who has long occupied the central position of influence in a church and congregation to stand aside, and see the special tokens of regard and affection once his, transferred to another. But this trial Mr. Bucklin was enabled by . strength from above to convert into a triumph. He early determined to become a model of a dismissed minister. And he did. His suc- cessors in the pastoral office all regarded him as a father. One and all, they would testify, if they could be here to-day, that they never found him suspicious, querulous or exacting, but uniformly disin- terested, high-minded and fraternal. As years passed on, the people to whom he once ministered learned to appreciate more and more the nobleness of his position. The universal reverence and affection which attended his declining years were but the fitting tribute to the success which had crowned his high resolve to be a true friend to the parish, in his kindness to the ministers of their choice.
He also took a lively interest in all that affected the welfare of the community. The promotion of education, temperance and public morality, ever found in him a warm and steadfast friend. He was a good citizen, a good neighbor, a good man. His life and memory
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are now a part of the history of this town, and may the legacy of his example be long accounted among its treasures.
14. The First Settlers of New England .- It fell to their lot to establish Civil- ization and Christianity in a savage land. They laid the foundation of our prosperity ; let them be gratefully remembered by their children.
WILLIAM BRIGHAM, Esq., being called upon, responded to this sentiment.
Mr. Brigham, of Boston, remarked, that though he had not the honor of being a native of Marlborough, yet his ancestor was born and lived here, until mature manhood, and grew up to manhood in that perilous period of the history of the town known as Queen Anne's war. Ile lived here till the close of George's war, when he, and some fifteen of his friends, as though they had not had enough of frontier life, left the homes which they had so nobly defended, and made a new settlement at Grafton, he selecting for his home the beautiful hill in the westerly part of the town, which still bears his name, and from the summit of which the spire of the church of his native town is dis- tinetly visible.
Though not a native, yet he felt at home. He was among his friends and cousins, and perhaps one-third of the audience before him, had descended from a common ancestor with himself. Among these cousins, he included the Fays, and there was some doubt whether we should have had any Fays here to-day, had it not been for the Brig- hams. Mary Brigham, the daughter of John, well known in history as the heroic defender of her own fireside against the assaults of hostile Indians, became the wife of Gershom Fay, and the mother of numer- ons descendants of that name.
He was glad to meet his friends at this Celebration, for he loved to refer to the early history of the Commonwealth, and the heroic men who so nobly performed their mission in subduing the wilderness, and planting the institutions of learning and religion upon the soil of the New World. They were earnest men, and they pressed forward, not with doubt and fear, but with the determination of making the place which they had selected, their permanent home. When a new set- tlement was made, it was never abandoned. They might press on to still newer lands, and wilder scenes, but they never abandoned the hold which they had once made. The history of every town in New England, justifies this position. They were a people who were never
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troubled with doubts. They never neglected to build a meeting-house, or a school-house, or to construct roads, or to plant orchards, because it was doubtful whether they would be able to maintain the settlement which they had begun. A settlement once made, was forever there- after dedicated to freedom and to free institutions ; and the meeting- house was built at once, and the " gospel minister " settled. Roads were constructed, and orchards planted, and every means adopted to make the settlement permanent. Not one of the Pilgrims returned in the Mayflower, though one half of them had died before she sailed ; and a like determination to remain, and make this " remote corner of the earth " their fixed abode, is seen in every page of the history of the early settlers of New England.
Our Fathers have often been ridiculed for their love of land, and their desire to have plenty of room. And to us, it appears rather sin- gular that they should have been willing to extend their settlements so far into the wilderness, and to expose themselves to the dangers and horrors of frontier life. Cambridge and Watertown were settled im- mediately after Boston. In 1638, they went so far into the wilderness as Sudbury, and even here they soon found themselves straitened for land, and in 1656, obtained permission to settle in Marlborough. This love of expansion may be attributed in part to the character of these pioneers, and in part to the fact that they found in all parts of the State certain portions of land, in limited quantities, that was free from forests, and produced abundance of grass for cattle. It is a well known fact, that at that time, by reason of the constant annual burning practiced by the Indians, most of the meadows produced large crops of grass, and some of the uplands had been used for the planting of corn, and was as open to the plow as a western prairie, and when our Fathers spoke of being straitened for land, they meant nothing more than that they were straitened for land of that character which would afford sufficient hay and pasturage for their cattle. The mead- ows of Sudbury and Marlborough were the source of attraction to them.
At the time of the attack on Marlborough, by Philip, the population numbered about fifty persons in all, men, women and children, of whom perhaps thirty were fighting men. The war of Philip was one of a remarkable character. His movements were rapid, and the first notice of the attack of the enemy, was the attack itself. The assaults on Lancaster, Groton, Marlborough, Sudbury, Medfield, Weymouth, and Rehoboth, were all made within a period of about two months. That assaults so sudden, so destructive and cruel, should have pro- duced consternation throughout the Colony, is now no cause of wonder. Nor should we be surprised, if all the acts of the Government, in resisting such assaults and in providing against them, were not the result of wisdom and deliberation. The war was a severe blow to
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this early settlement. The beautiful orchards which they had planted were destroyed, and the humble dwellings which they had erected were committed to the flames ; yet notwithstanding all this, not a set- tler abandoned his home, but as soon as the storm was over, returned to it and made it his permanent abode.
But their troubles with the Indians did not end with Philip's war. During the subsequent wars, commonly known as William's war, Queen Anne's war, and George's war, this settlement suffered severely. In 1711, there were no less than twenty-six garrisoned houses, where the inhabitants gathered at night, and slept on their arms. During almost the whole period from 1675 to 1725, the settlers here were compelled to have their arms constantly in their hands, to carry them to the house of God, and to be ready at all times to meet their savage enemy. And yet we hear men talk of chivalry, and courage, as though the people of New England possessed neither. Of the folly of such persons, the whole history of New England bears evidence ; for there never was a people who met more manfully, and resisted more bravely, the obstacles in every path. The record of their courage and patriotism can be read, as well in the histories of Marlborough, Sud- bury and Lancaster, as in those of Concord, Lexington and Charles- town ; and while we honor the heroes of the Revolution, let us not forget, that the fathers of those heroes were trained in the severe school of the Seven Years' War ; and that they, too, were the sons of men who had passed through an ordeal as severe as that of fire. Prior to 1775, the people of New England had passed through five wars, extending over a period of nearly fifty years, of far greater severity, and attended with more suffering and privation, than that which finally gained them their independence. In all of these it is sufficient to say, that the inhabitants occupying the old eight miles square, acted their part manfully and patriotically.
Mr. Brigham concluded his remarks by the following sentiment :
The Future Generations who shall occupy the Territory of Old Marl- borough-May they emulate the courage, patriotism and virtues of the six generations, which have at all periods of her history defended her soil, and which now sleep so gently beneath the green sods of her beautiful hills and valleys.
Rev. CHARLES H. BRIGHAM, of Taunton, a descendant of the Marlborough Brighams, being called upon, made a very
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humorous speech, in which he amusingly commemorated the Brighams and Fays of other days, but of which we are unable to give any report.
14. The Memory of Hon. John Davis,-The only Governor of the State, and United States Senator, the Borough towns ever produced.
This sentiment called forth the following response from A. McF. DAVIS, Esq., of Worcester.
Mr. President :
No more grateful task could be assigned to a son, than to respond, on such an occasion as this, to a sentiment like the one just proposed.
Many of my earliest recollections are twined around the old home- stead of Deaeon Isaac Davis, in Northborough, where my father was born, and to which, in after-life, he was accustomed to pay frequent visits. The activity of a useful life-the greater part of which was spent in the service of the public-and the excitement of participating in the great events and stirring scenes of our country's history, during that period, never effaced, nor even dimmed his fondness for that spot ; and Tomblin Hill, Hop Brook, and the Plain, were always welcome siglits to his eye.
Although his visits to this portion of Northborough, which contained the home of his childhood, were more frequent than those to the vil- lage, yet he would often, in the course of his drive, take a look at the centre of the town ; and stopping at the old burial-ground, near the Unitarian Church, linger for awhile, examining the condition of the family monuments erected there. Sometimes, too, leaving behind him the village of Northborough, so eosily nestled in the valley of the Assabet, he would climb the hills of Marlborough, to search the records traced in stone, which tell where the remains of three gen- erations of his ancestors lie deposited in the old cemeteries of this village.
Among the names of those ancestors, perhaps none is more familiar in the history of Marlborough than that of Robert Breek, the second minister of this place. The prominence of his name in the annals of this town, and the frequent allusions to it to-day, render any further reference to him, on my part, a work of supererogation.
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