USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Middleborough > History of the town of Middleboro, Massachusetts > Part 26
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Colonel Sproat had a brother Thomas, who, upon the death of his father, succeeded to the paternal estate and successfully carried on the old tavern. It is much to be regretted that a building so connected with the historic events of the town, county, and state could not have been preserved as a memorial of former times.
Dr. Thomas Sturtevant, a physician of skill, and widely known throughout this and adjoining towns, commenced his practice on the old Sturtevant farm, and died in 1836, leaving several children. George became a well-known physician, and succeeded to his father's estate and practice. Another son was Thomas, whose genial good-nature, ready wit, and remark- able fluency of language gave promise of much which was, unfortunately, never realized. There was scarcely an event in town which was not made a subject of his ready rhyme in longer or shorter poems, epitaphs, or sonnets. While a prisoner in Canada, in the War of 1812, he wrote at one sitting, ap- parently without thought or preparation, the following acrostic on the Lord's Prayer : -
1 Hildreth, Lives of the Early Settlers of Ohio, p. 240.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO [1812
" Our Lord and King, who reign'st enthroned on high, Father of light ! mysterious Deity ! Who art the great I AM, the last, the first, Art righteous, holy, merciful and just. In realms of glory, scenes where angels sing, Heaven is the dwelling place of God our King, Hallowed thy name, which dost all names transcend. Be thou adored, our great Almighty Friend, Thy glory shines beyond creation's space, Named in the book of justice and of grace. Thy kingdom towers beyond thy starry skies ; Kingdom satanic falls, but thine shall rise. Come let thine empire, O thou Holy one, Thy great and everlasting will be done ! Will God make known his will, his power display ? Be it the work of mortals to obey. Done is the great, the wondrous work of love, On Calvary's cross he died, but reigns above, Earth bears the record in thy holy word, As Heaven adores thy love, let earth, O Lord ; It shines transcendent in th' eternal skies, Is praised in Heaven, - for man the Savior dies. In songs immortal angels laud his name, Heaven shouts with joy, and saints his love proclaim. Give us, O Lord, our food, nor cease to give Us that food on which our souls may live ! This be our boon to-day, and days to come, Day without end in our eternal home : Our needy souls supply from day to day. Daily assist and aid us when we pray. Bread though we ask, yet Lord thy blessing lend,
And make us grateful when our gifts descend. Forgive our sins, which in destruction place Us the vile rebels of a rebel race ; Our follies, faults, and trespasses forgive, Debts which we ne'er can pay, or thou receive ;
As we, O Lord, our neighbor's faults o'erlook,
We beg thou'dst blot ours from thy memory book. Forgive our enemies, extend thy grace Our souls to save, e'en Adam's guilty race. Debtors to thee in gratitude and love, And in that duty paid by saints above. Lead us from sin and in thy mercy raise Us from the tempter and his hellish ways. Not in our own, but in his name who bled, Into thine ear we pour our every need.
1730]
THE GREEN
327
Temptation's fatal charms help us to shun,
But may we conquer through thy conquering Son ! Deliver us from all which can annoy Us in this world, and may our souls destroy. From all calamities which men betide, Evil and death, O turn our feet aside ; For we are mortal worms, and cleave to clay ; Thine 't is to rule and mortals to obey. Is not thy mercy, Lord, forever free ? The whole creation knows no God but thee. Kingdom and empire in thy presence fall ! The King eternal reigns the King of all.
Power is with thee, to thee be glory given, And be thy name adored by earth and Heaven, The praise of saints and angels is thine own ; Glory to thee, the everlasting One,
Forever be thy triune name adored ; Amen ! Hosanna ! blessed be the Lord !"
A little beyond the house of Dr. Sturtevant, southwest of the Deacon Tilson place, were the house and lands of Luke Short, who died at the age of one hundred and sixteen, having lived during the reign of eight British sovereigns. He was born in Dartmouth, England, where he spent the first sixteen years of his life. He had seen Oliver Cromwell ride through the streets, of whom he spoke as "a rough, burly, soldierly looking man and a good soldier," and was present at the execution of Charles I. After leaving England, he pursued a seafaring life in Marblehead, then settled in Middleboro and there reared a family of children. At one hundred years of age he used to work on his farm, and his mental faculties were but little impaired. He was hoeing corn one day, and stopping to rest at a rock near by, recalled a sermon preached ninety years before by John Flavel, the great London preacher, who at the close of his sermon had said: "How can I bless whom the Lord hath not blessed !" He had paused and all was silence ; no one moved, or spoke; an English baronet who was present fell to the floor in a swoon. The recollection of this scene was so vivid that Mr. Short became a changed man, a devout christian, uniting with the church, of which he remained a loyal member until his death in 1746.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO
[1740
REV. THOMAS PALMER,1 the second pastor of the church, lived in one of the garrison houses built soon after the re- settlement, later known as the Morey place, on the northern side of Plymouth Street, west of the house of Ira Bryant. The house had four gable-ends and two ridge-poles, after the style of the old meeting-house. He died June 17, 1743, aged seventy years.2 A stone which has this inscription marks his grave in the parish burial-ground : -
" All ye that pass along this way, Remember still your dying day, Here 's human bodies out of sight, Whose souls to - have took their flight, And shall again united be In their doomed eternity."
His wife Elizabeth died April 17, 1740, aged sixty-four. He had a numerous family, most of whom died young. His estate descended to a daughter, who married a Mr. Cheney, and from her to Mrs. Morey and her children, Jack and Hannah, well known for their marked peculiarities, which made them the subject of constant jest and joke.
Until recently there has been no business here save a black- smith shop opposite the mansion house, and later one on the Green.
1 See chapter on Ecclesiastical History.
2 History of the First Church of Middleboro, p. 36, gives his age as seventy ; p. 82 as seventy-eight.
CHAPTER XX
THOMASTOWN, ROCK, ROCKY MEADOW, RAYMOND NEIGHBORHOOD, FRANCE, SOUTH MIDDLEBORO
H
ISTORY associates the name of Thomastown with that of David Thomas and his descendants, but Deacon Benjamin Thomas, whose residence is still standing, was, in the century before the last, per- haps the most prominent man of the place. He was not lib- erally educated, but was a man of strong common sense, of sturdy principle, well versed in the scriptures, conscientious in the performance of every duty, and was well known through- out the county. He was chosen deacon of the First Church May 23, 1776, and filled many important positions in the town.
"In 1782, he was a representative, and in 1788, a member of the convention which adopted the Federal Constitution. When a bill was under discussion for repealing the law of pri- mogeniture, the deacon declared his doubts, as the Scriptures showed special favors for the first born. A Boston gentle- man said, the deacon mistook the Scriptures, for they said that Jacob, though the younger brother, inherited the birth- right. The deacon said, the gentleman had forgotten to tell us how he obtained it, how Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and how Jacob deceived his father, pretending to be Esau, and how his mother helped on the deception - he had forgotten all that. The laugh was at first against the deacon, but at last turned against the gentleman from Boston." 1
He died January 18, 1800, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.
Deborah Sampson, a young woman widely known for her patriotism in enlisting as a young man in the Revolutionary
1 History of the First Church of Middleboro, p. 61.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO
[1779
army, lived in this neighborhood in the early part of her life. She was born in the adjoining town of Plympton, December 17, 1760, and was a descendant of William Bradford. Her father, Jonathan Sampson, Jr., was deprived of the portion of the property which should have descended to him, and is said to have fallen into habits of intemperance; this finally led to the separation of his children, and the family were scattered. At the age of ten years Deborah was received into the home of Jeremiah Thomas, where she lived for ten years and more, until the time of her enlistment. Mr. Thomas, as an earnest patriot, did much towards shaping the political opinions of the young woman in his charge, who early developed talent and a strong de- sire for knowledge. Her perceptions were quick and her imagination lively ; DEBORAH SAMPSON she soon became absorbed in the stir- ring questions of the day. For a few years before she lived with Mr. Thomas, she was in the home of the Rev. Peter Thacher, the third minister of the First Church.
It is said that early in life she kept a journal, recording her good deeds on one page and her bad deeds on the opposite page. The events during the early years of the war for inde- pendence made a deep impression upon her mind, and without informing her closest friend of her intention, she had probably determined to see something of the world beyond her neigh- borhood and to help in some way the patriot cause. Such was her ability that before she was nineteen, in 1779, she was employed to teach six months in a public school in Middle- boro. She had been bound out to service, but after this term expired, she was at liberty to choose for herself. The house in which her school was kept stood on the spot where Elisha Jenks now resides, but the building was afterwards moved to Water Street and occupied as a dwelling-house. She then
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THOMASTOWN
1782]
boarded in the house of Abner Bourne, and such was her suc- cess as teacher that she was engaged for the next season. She was accustomed to attend church at the meeting-house in the Upper Green, but afterwards became interested in the preach- ing of Rev. Asa Hunt, a Baptist minister at the Rock, and joined that church. While she was with Deacon Thomas, she grew very skilful in spinning linen and worsted, and during the winter months was employed by many of the residents of the town to do their nicest spinning. She was often in the old Morton house, the Bourne house, and at the Sproat Tavern, engaged in her work. The hope that she might in some way serve her country had been cherished for months before she determined to assume male attire and enlist as a soldier in the Continental army. She had purchased from Mr. Leach's store in Muttock cloth which she secretly took home and made into a suit, working after her day's spinning was finished and at odd hours that her secret might not be discovered. It is said that after she had completed these clothes she walked to Taunton in the night for fear of meeting some of her old acquaintances on the road, and remained there until she be- came accustomed to her new attire. Early in the year 1782, as a recruiting officer was in Middleboro, she en- listed under the name of Timothy Thayer. When the supposed Timothy Thayer was signing the articles of agreement, an old lady who sat near the fire carding wool remarked that Thayer held his pen DEBORAH SAMPSON'S HOME just as "Deb " Sampson did. Feeling that this circumstance would excite suspicion, she absented herself from that neigh- borhood. Her disappearance and the suspicions excited created no little talk thereabout, but her courage and determination were undaunted. It is said that from Middleboro she walked
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO
[1782
to Taunton, and from Taunton to New Bedford, where she offered to enlist on an American cruiser, but withdrew upon learning that the commander treated his men badly. From that place she walked to Boston, Wrentham, Worcester, Rox- bury, Dedham, and finally enlisted in May, 1782, in Medfield, with fifty others. She marched with her company to West Point under the name of Robert Shurtleff, and followed the fortunes of the army until the close of the war. She was in many of the skirmishes and battles of the Revolution, and belonged to Captain Webb's company of Light Infantry in Colonel Shepherd's regiment. In the first battle of the regi- ment she was wounded in the left breast by a musket-ball, and never recovered from its effect. She hastily staunched the blood, and by the light of the camp-fire took out the bullet with a soldier's sharp knife, and dressed and took care of her wound without any assistance. She said afterwards that the pain made her faint, but that was of small account compared with the danger of having her sex discovered, as it would have been had she submitted to the examination of a sur- geon. After the first battle she met Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, but fortunately he did not know her, although she had often been employed as spinster in his father's house. By her skill and adroitness she was not recognized as a woman by the army, although one day, while waiting on a poor wounded soldier, she spoke to him in such tones of kindness that he exclaimed in amazement, "Bob Shurtleff, you are a woman, no man ever spoke in a tone like that;" then seeing, no doubt, the distress his remark had caused, he said quickly, " but never mind, Bob, your secret is safe and I will never be- tray you."
On one occasion her duty called her near General Washing- ton, and she used often to relate incidents and sayings which she had heard from the great father of his country. She served with Lafayette and worked in the trenches at the siege of Yorktown, where she was again severely wounded, but her sex seemed to escape the notice of the surgeon, and before the wound had healed she rejoined the army and continued to do
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1784]
most valiant service.1 In the spring of 1783 she was appointed aide-de-camp to General Patterson and taken into his family. At the close of the war she remained but little in Middle- boro, and the church with which she had been connected commenced proceedings against her, and excluded her for unseemly conduct in assuming the dress and manner of a man. This did not affect her standing in the estimation of all who had known her, and some of the ladies of Middleboro, after the war was over, used to say that they wished they had taken some part in the war as " Debbie" did. In the early part of 1784 she resumed the apparel of a woman and her old employment of spinning, and on the 7th day of April, 1784, she married Benjamin Gannet, a respectable and industrious farmer, who resided in Sharon. She was placed on the pen- sion list in 1805, and by a special act of Congress, her heirs were granted the same pension as was allowed to widows or orphans whose husbands or fathers had died from wounds received in the army. She was placed on the pension roll of invalid pensions by the commonwealth of Massachusetts, where she received $48 per year, which was afterwards in- creased to $76.80 per year. This she relinquished in 1818 for the benefit of the act of May 18, under which she received $8 per month, which was continued until her death.
She died April 29, 1827, aged sixty-eight years. It is worthy of remark that while she served in the army and all through her subsequent life, no word of suspicion was ever raised against her character. She seems to have been a worthy, upright woman, respected and revered by all who knew her.2
1 She used to relate that at one time she felt the wind from a cannon-ball, which passed over her head and killed four men behind her. She was with a detach- ment under General Lincoln opening trenches within a short distance of the enemy's lines. The labor and exposure were such that she contracted a severe cold, blistered her hands, and showed signs of extreme exhaustion. When General Lincoln noticed her condition, he said, "You have too great a mea- sure of fatigue upon you, my fine lad, retire to your tent and pleasantly dream an hour or two." Then followed several days when she was in the thickest of the fight. She witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis. Sampson Genealogy, p. 60. 2 For many of these facts, see the Life of Deborah Sampson, the Female Soldier of the War of the Revolution.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO
[1845
ROCK
A large ledge running for half a mile from one road to an- other has given the name to this thriving little village, which was before this called Beaver Dam. The post-office was estab- lished here in 1849. On this rock the early settlers worshipped, and after the church was established it was called Rock Meet- ting-house, but this has now been changed to Rock. Since the erection of the Atwood Lumber Mill and the box factory, and the establishing of a post-office and the stores of Turner and Atwood, it has grown to its present size.
In early days there was a training-green on the common, which was used until the land was sold, about 1845, and set apart as an addition to the Rock Cemetery.
ROCKY MEADOW
Rocky Meadow is sometimes known as Mahuchet, probably from an Indian chief by that name, and like many other parts of the town, was formerly much more thickly settled than at present. In this neighborhood is a hill called Robin's Hill, said to be the highest point of land in the county, and to the northwest is a remarkable tract of land, known as Rocky
VIEW OF THE ROCK
335
1676]
ROCKY MEADOW, RAYMOND NEIGHBORHOOD
Meadow Pond. It has an area of about forty acres entirely turfed over with grass, and is sometimes called Mahuchet Pond, and from it a brook by that name flows to the south. The roots are so woven together that when people walk upon them the surface waves like that of the ocean, but they are strong enough to bear up a man without difficulty. Under this depth of grass and roots there seems to be water to the depth of from twenty to thirty feet. Nearby there was a sawmill dat- ing back for more than one hundred years, owned by Captain Joshua Eddy ; on its site has been erected a house for the storing of cranberries, which are gathered in large quantities from the extensive bogs.
RAYMOND NEIGHBORHOOD
In the change of population, this place has, within the past fifty years, lost much of its significance. It is situated between Waterville and Thomastown, and although in the early settle- ment its soil was productive, it is now one of the poorest and most uninviting parts of the town. A hundred years ago its population was quite numerous. They were the descendants of John Raymond, who came from Salem during the witch- craft excitement. While a resident of Salem, he early enlisted in King Philip's War in the company commanded by Captain Joseph Gardner, and was one of the bravest and most effi- cient men in his command. He was in the great battle at the taking of the Indian fort in the Narragansett country on the afternoon of Sunday, December 19, 1675, and is said to have been the first soldier who1 entered the fortification. After this campaign, he continued in various commands until the close of the war. He united with the First Church, April 29, 1722, and was a worthy, devoted christian, a man of much influ- ence, commanding the respect of all. He died July 5, 1725, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. Some of his descendants, with other residents of Middleboro, moved to Woodstock, Ver- mont.
1 History of Plymouth County, p. 949.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO
[1703
FRANCE
France takes its name from Dr. Francis Lebaron,1 a native of France, who bought a large tract of country in the early part of the eighteenth century, some two miles in extent, on the south side of the Weweantitt River.2 His son James and others of his descendants settled there shortly after. About the middle of the last century the numerous families of that name moved to other parts of the country, and only a few now reside here.
Dr. Lebaron was a surgeon of a French ship of war which was wrecked in Buzzard's Bay in 1694, when England was at war with France. He, with the officers and crew of the ves-
1 The modern spelling is Le Baron.
2 The real estate purchased by Dr. Francis Lebaron in the South Purchase was as follows : -
From Philip and Thomas Delano of Duxburrow, November 16, 1701, lots 145 and 146, containing 90 acres, more or less.
From Abram Jackson of Plymouth, April 13, 1702, lot number 193 in the seventh division and lot number 215 in the eighth division, with other rights in the land belonging to the said Jackson.
From Francis Curtis of Plymouth, May 6, 1702, lots 112 and 124.
From John and Samuel Dogget of Marshfield, August 17, 1702, lots 142 in the fifth division and lot 176 in the sixth division.
From John Jones of Marshfield, March 31, 1703, all of his share in lot 121 in the South division one half mile in length, and lot 143 in the fifth divi- sion.
From John Benson, Jr., of Rochester, April 17, 1703, lot 23 and lot 24.
From Joseph Vaughan, June 16, 1703, lot 144 in the fifth division and one other lot bounded but not numbered in the deed.
From David Thomas of Middleboro, July 5, 1703, two acres of meadow.
From Jeremiah Thomas of Middleboro, August 31, 1703, one third of the meadow bought with his two brothers as appears in the town records of Middle- boro.
From Nathaniel Jackson of Plymouth, October 19, 1703, one share of upland which was Major Winslow's in the 130th lot in the fourth division and lot 211 in the eighth division. One share which was John Winslow's in the 14th lot in the first division and in the 122d lot in the fifth division. One share which was John Alden's, the 109th lot in the fourth division and the 58th lot in the second division.
From William Thomas of Middleboro, November 9, 1703, one half share of the lot 217.
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FRANCE
1704]
sel, was made a prisoner of war and sent to Boston. As they stopped at Plymouth for the night, they were lodged in the house of William Bacon near the Plymouth Green, where Dr. Lebaron learned that a lady residing in the town had suffered a compound fracture of the leg. The doctors were about to amputate it, but Dr. Lebaron, by his skilful treatment, pre- vented the operation. The war ended soon after the prisoners reached Boston, and such had been his success, and so win- ning were his manners, that at the request of the selectmen of Plymouth, with the consent of Lieutenant-Governor George Stoughton, he settled permanently in Plymouth. He married Mary Wilder, a daughter of Edward Wilder of Hingham, and died in Plymouth in 1704, and was buried on Burial Hill. He left three sons, James, Lazarus, and Francis.
At the time of his capture he was called by his brother offi- cers " Le Baron," and refused to give his rank or name even to his wife and family. He was a cultivated gentleman, of courtly bearing, far better educated in his profession than the physicians of the colony, and was always reported to be a nobleman in disguise. The leading events in his life at Plym- outh, with his romantic marriage, are the subject of an inter- esting romance by Mrs. Jane G. Austin. He was a Roman Catholic, wearing a cross upon his breast, and although he had no sympathy with the religion of the colony, he remained silent in reference to his faith.
His oldest son, James, inherited his father's ability, and in the early part of his life was a surveyor. There is a well- authenticated tradition that he came to Middleboro to survey the lands which his father had purchased, and while there was overtaken by a severe storm which made the roads impass- able for some time. He stopped in the house of John Benson, and while there became engaged to his daughter Martha. His proud-spirited father did not approve of this marriage, and threatened to disown him, but he afterwards became recon- ciled, and the son settled upon the land which had been pur- chased by his father. At his death he was a man of wealth, as
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[1775
shown by his inventory,1 and prominent in the affairs of the colony.
Captain Joseph Lebaron, who served in the volunteer mili- tia in the War of 1812, and with his company went to the defence of Wareham, was a descendant of "the nameless nobleman."
Among other men who lived in this neighborhood was Lieu- tenant Josiah Smith, and the cellar of his house can still be pointed out. He served in the army throughout the Revo-
1 A true Inventory of all & singular the Goods Chattels & Real Estate of Mr. James Lebaron prized at Middleboro Oct. 2nd. 1744 by John Shaw, Benjamin Churchill and Neh. Bennet as followeth, to the value of bills of the old tenor.
Impremis.
His apparel, silver spoons & silver buttons & silver pieces . £29. 4
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