History of the town of Milford, Worcester county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1881, Part 6

Author: Ballou, Adin, 1803-1890
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Boston : Rand, Avery, & co.
Number of Pages: 1328

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Milford > History of the town of Milford, Worcester county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1881 > Part 6

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Several of the Mendon proprietors, whose homes were in the town for life, anticipated the prospective settlement of our lands, and made haste to possess themselves of what they deemed eligible tracts, either for profitable sale to expected immigrants, or to provide for their own multiplying posterity. Among these were George Aldrich, his son Jacob, John Jepson, Simon Peck, John Harbor, James Lovett, Josiah Chapin, and others. John Sprague and his son William led the way, by pushing their possessions across Mill River. The feasible soil just east of that river was coveted. It was called " Mill Plain," and all up and down stream covered a considerable area. Nor was the land eastward of it, towards " Second Bridge " River (Charles), less tempting ; for it had much smooth surface, with considerable meadow, then thought extremely desirable. There, too, was another plain bor- dering on "Second Bridge " River, or approaching it. This they called the upper, or " Second Plain," as it lay higher up and north- easterly of " Mill Plain." The two Spragues had lands laid off to them, in several parcels, just east of the Mill Plain, perhaps not far from the Parkman place. This was in 1672 and the ensuing years. About the same time George Aldrich procured a grant from the town, of twenty-five acres on " Mill Plain," just north of Medfield road. In 1686 John Harbor had a quantity laid out to him a little east of Mill River ; precisely where, I have not ascertained. Likewise Simon Peck and John Jepson secured several parcels on Mill Plain before 1690. James Lovett made himself master, in 1690, of one hundred and forty acres just east of "Second Bridge" River, south of the

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North Cedar Swamp - the plain-land now largely covered with build- ings-as far south as the Parkhurst mill-seat. And not much later he acquired another large tract, opposite to the fore-mentioned, on the west side of the river, commanding "The Falls," as the mill- privilege in its natural state was then called. This was then sur- rounded by common, and reservation was made for the way after- wards known as the "Sherborn road." Samuel Hayward, a few years later, took up ample quantities for his numerous descendants, including the whole neighborhood of what afterwards acquired. the name of " Howardtown." It will be understood that nearly all these layings-out were made to non-residents, mostly dwelling in or near the old town-seat of Mendon. None of them were actual settlers within our limits, excepting John and William Sprague. It is not unlikely, though uncertain, that Matthias Puffer, successor to Benja- min Albee, in running the corn-mill, may have erected some sort of a dwelling near his mill. Besides these, it is improbable that there were any actual settlers on our territory much previous to the year 1700. It is barely possible there may have been one or two others.

EARLY SETTLERS DOWN TO 1710.

We have now reached a period at which settlements began to multiply vigorously within our lines. I will commence with Capt. Seth Chapin. He was the fifth son of Josiah Chapin, Esq., one of the original Plantationists, who removed to Mendon from Braintree between 1680 and 1682, became a distinguished proprietor and citizen there, was an eminent land-surveyor, held many official trusts, and dwelt on what has been known as the Doggett place, where he died in 1726, at the venerable age of ninety-two years. Josiah Chapin, Esq., had ample ability and opportunity to become a large landholder. He took up much wild land in various parts of Mendon, and considerable parcels in what is now Milford, especially east of Neck Hill, on Mill River, in what may be called South Hopedale, and its vicinity. His son, Capt. Seth Chapin, born in Braintree, Aug. 4, 1668, followed his father to Mendon, and settled on these South Hopedale lands. He married, for his first wife, Mary Read, May 23, 1689. She lived only a few months. For his second wife he married Bethiah Thurston, March 25, 1691, and reared up a large family of children, - some fourteen. (See Part II., Genealogical Register, -the Chapins. ) The oldest recorded laying-out of land to him bears date May 26, 1700. But it will be seen, by the following phraseology of the record, that he was already located there : -

HISTORY OF MILFORD.

" Forty-five acres of [his father's] 4th division laid out to Seth Chapin, and in possession of said Chapin, encompassing the said Chapin's Home- stead and Meadow upon the Mill River, bounded Westerly upon the west side of the River upon Common with a various line down stream from James Lovett's land to Thomas White's land; South with Thomas White's land, crossing the River, thence turning Westerly with said White's land to the River, thence running with the River to a Black oak tree marked near the old path; then turning Easterly, and bounding Easterly upon a Rocky Hill with a various line to the North corner; thence Westerly home to Ten acres of land laid out to, and in possession of, John Jones, home to Ensign Lovett's Swamp."

It is easy to see that these lands were afterwards included in the Peter Cook farm, previously owned by Col. Samuel Nelson, and, in 1856, by the Hopedale Community. I thought it necessary to pro- cure copies of nearly all the old layings-out on our territory ; but I do not propose to inflict their verbal details on my readers, except in a few seemingly importaut cases. I deemed the foregoing one of this kind. Where did Capt. Seth build his house? I am not absolutely certain. It must have stood on one of two known, but now obliterated, sites. One of these belongs to a smooth, gentle swell of land, a little north-east of the old Post Lane bridge, below which is the noted "Swimming Hole," sometimes so called. On the south side of that swell, perhaps six to ten rods north-eastwardly of the bridge, there once stood a humble dwelling-house. The late Newell Nelson, Esq., informed me that he remembered it as the asserted dwelling of his great-grandfather, Elder Nathaniel Nelson, whose wife was Deborah, a daugliter of Capt. Seth Chapin. The other site sustained the home of Seth Chapin, jun., a brother of Deborah (Chapin) Nelson. It crowned a handsome elevation somewhere about forty rods south of our Hopedale Corner, on the left-hand side of Hopedale Street. It is possible, but not probable, that Capt. Seth occupied that dwelling- place before his son. The other agrees altogether better with the description given iu the first layings-out,[ "Encompassing the said Chapin's Homestead and Meadow upon the Mill River," etc. So I can scarcely doubt that his house stood on the swell north-east of the bridge, on the north side of the old Post Lane road. There he probably dwelt for several years, adding land to land in all directions. At length, in 1715, he sold his homestead to Josiah Wood, returned to Mendon town, and probably resided on the paternal homestead, where he died, in April, 1746, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He left here his oldest son, Seth, jun., who became a rich man in land and other wealth of his time ; also his son John, who, with less property, won honorable distinction, both in secular and ecclesiastical

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affairs ; also his daughter Deborah and her husband, Nathaniel Nelson, who filled a conspicuous sphere through a long life ; and perhaps others of his numerous children. But Seth, jun., died before his father, in the midst of worldly prosperity, in 1737, being scarcely forty-five years of age.

Elder John Jones was the contemporary and near neighbor of Capt. Seth Chapin. It may have been noticed in Capt. Seth's oldest recorded laying-out, that John Jones was then - May 26, 1700-in possession of "Ten acres of land laid out to him," bounding Chapin, in part, on the north. This makes him, probably, contemporary with Chapin, as a landholder and settler in the " Dale," once so called. Who was Elder John Jones? I have ascertained that he was a native of Hull (first called Nantasket), near Boston, the fifth son of Abraham Jones, who was probably the son of Thomas Jones, an early emigrant from England. (See my Genealogical Register, - name Jones.) He seems to have been attracted to Mendon at the age of twenty-two or twenty-three years, and to have acquired taxable estate there, so as to be assessed for the support of Rev. Grindall Rawson, in the rate-bills for the year ending Oct. 25, 1691. From that time his name was omitted in the ministerial rate-bills till the year 1703. Where he was during those ten or twelve years, or why exempt from taxation, is somewhat uncertain. In an important vote of the town, passed March 1, 1703, granting him certain privileges, he is styled "John Jones of Hull." This, in connection with his having been taxed in 1691, and being possessed of ten acres in the "Dale," May, 1700, leads me to infer that his family may have had their principal home in Hull during many of those years ; that he transiently resided in Mendon, going frequently back and forth ; and that the townsmen, desiring to encourage his permanent settlement among them, exempted such im- mature estate as he had within their limits from taxation. Howbeit, he ripened into a substantial inhabitant. He was evidently an enter- prising and executive man, as well as an eminently pious and devoted church-member. Tradition says, that, in clearing up his first acres, he came down from Mendon hill, where he had his domicile, or lodgings, through the woods, generally single-handed, with only a dog for companionship, and plied his axe vigorously all day in felling the Insty primitive trees that studded the soil. He brought with him for his dinner plenty of Indian bannock, and a bottle of milk. At noon he spread out before him his wholesome but frugal repast, either on a suitable rock or one of his newly-cut broad stumps, yet never tasted it till first he had knelt and solemnly invoked the divine blessing.

HISTORY OF MILFORD.

Breakfast and supper he took at home, - prudently quitting work in time to return by daylight, so as to avoid the wolves and other beasts of prey that then made the night hideous.

When his clearing was sufficiently advanced, he built him a strong log barrack, and began to stay over night on the premises. The late venerable Jared Rawson told me that when he worked for Elder John's great-grandsons, during the years 1805-6-7, he and his fellow-workmen dug up the ancient hearth-stones and embers of that barrack. The spot was close by the river, only three or four rods westerly of the small house lately standing on the west side of Water Street, Hopedale, at its junction with Union. It is rather likely that this log barrack was already up in the spring of 1700, if not earlier. The elder prospered. He soon built the first framed dwelling-house in these parts, east of Neck Hill. Meantime he had possessed himself of the valuable house-lot at the town-seat, origi- nally assigned to a Mrs. Tapping of Boston, and began to have various-sized tracts of land laid out to him on Mill River. Having located his family in "the Dale," and provided himself with a small stock of cattle, - fed at first chiefly with hay cut on " Beaver Meadow," a little way up the river, - his wealth rapidly increased, especially in lands. The proprietary records show that, year after year, through his long life, he was having parcels, here and there, laid out to him. Most of these were near his home- stead, but some of them miles distant in different directions, - near the "Great Meadow," the "North Cedar Swamp," towards the Lowell Fales place, now so called, in the " North Purchase," and even in " Bungay." He brought with him from Hull three daughters and two sons, and had one daughter and two sons born in the "Dale." His sons - John, jun., Nathaniel, Abraham, and Joseph - became prominent citizens. He lived to see incipient Milford a thriving Precinct, and died in comparative affluence, March 28, 1753, in his eighty-third year. His wife Sarah preceded him about three years.

Next in order, perhaps Ebenezer and Joseph Sumner may be named. They were sons of George Sumner. (See my Genealogical Register.) It is thought George Sumner resided a while at the town- seat of Mendon, but this is not certain. We know, however, that he was a house-lot owner there, and taxed to support Pastor Rawson, 1685, and the ensuing several years. But he may have been taxed as a non-resident land-owner. Anyhow, his principal, if not his only, home was in Milton, where he was dea. of the ch., and died Dec. 11, 1715, aged eighty-one yrs. He had seven sons. Ebenezer was the fourth of these, b. Dec. 9, 1673 ; and Joseph was the fifth,

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b. Aug. 26, 1677. Their father made over to these two sons, in some way, all his proprietary rights in Mendon. There they took up their abode about, or soon after, the year 1700. They seem to have owned property for some years in close copartnership. Ebenezer married Abigail, dr. of James Lovett, one of the rich Mendon pro- prietors, Jan. 18, 1706. Joseph married Sarah Lovett, sister to' Ebenezer's wf. (the date not recorded), probably about the same time, as their oldest children were within a yr. or two of the same age. But before their marriage - May 15, 1702 - they had the " Great Lot " belonging to their twenty-acre house-lot, derived from their father at the town-seat, laid out to them in the immediate vicinity of what has been called in our times the Dexter Walker place, - then all Common land. This "Great Lot" contained (according to Rule), one hundred and twenty acres. And as this laying-out was probably the oldest in that direction towards what became the Precinct-seat forty years later, perhaps I shall be excused for giving the original description : "Laid ont on the Southeast end of Magomiscock Hill; the South line being 164 rods, bounded by Common ; the Westerly line 120 rods, bounded on Common ; the northerly line 120 rods, bonnded on Common; the easterly line 120 rods on Common, then turning Southerly 94 rods, then turning Easterly 44 rods, then turning Southerly 26 rods, being the South- east corner ; bounded on every side by Common: laid out with allowance for a 4 rod way across said land." This four-rod way afterwards became the Sherborn road, - now Main Street. We can see pretty clearly that the south line of this "Great Lot"_ one hundred and sixty-four rods in length - must have extended from a point easterly of James Batcheldor's place (formerly the Phineas Eames place, and still earlier the Joseph Sumner place), westward by the present Obed Daniels place, nearly with the road, then by where the schoolhouse stood some years ago, a little south of the Dexter Walker place, considerably into the hill westerly of the Cook slaughter-house. Thence the line ran northerly one hundred and twenty rods, i.e., over one-third of a mile, towards what became Precinct Centre ; thence the same distance easterly towards Sonth Main Street : and thence, by a zigzag course, to the south-easterly corner before mentioned. Thus the first direct approach was made towards the settlement of onr central village.

Whether the two Sumner brothers immediately set them up a log- cabin on their premises, and began to clear up a farm, I am unable to state on anthority, but think it probable. They did not get mar- ried till three or four years later ; but it is presumable they busily pre-

HISTORY OF MILFORD.

pared their new home. It is likely that their first domicile was set up at the Dexter Walker place, and that their two young families lived for some time under the same roof. A few years later their increase dictated separation. In the mean time, they had parcel after parcel of land laid out, some adjoining their " Great Lot," and others farther down the cart-path towards Holliston. In process of time Ebenezer worked down onto the Lovett lands, in the vicinity of "The Falls," so called. Both brothers became ultimately very considerable landholders, and their descendants have occupied influ- ential positions among our inhabitants down to the present time.

William Cheney, the ancestor of all our Milford Cheneys, was not long behind the Sumners as a settler. He was originally from Med- field. We find that he was in Mendon-town as early as 1695, with his wife Margaret, being taxed there that year. He became seized of Timothy Winter's house-lot rights in 1705, in virtue whereof he had the following laying-out, between Capt. Seth Chapin's land and that of the Sumners, very nearly bounding the latter southwardly : " April 13, 1706. Now laid out to William Cheney, Forty acres of Timothy Winter's 4th division, and butted and bounded as followeth : Thirty-four acres laid out upon a Hill a little Eastward of Seth Chapin's land, Easterly upon the Swamp lot of Benjamin Wheaton, and on all other sides upon Common land ; laid out with allowance for a Highway through it leading to Sherborn ; laid out two acres for one," etc., etc. We have here the highland beginning below the Sylvanus Adams and Newton Daniels places, and extending north- easterly to the Obed Daniels place. The Laying-out Committees generally threw in a certain quantity for " bad land," where there was such, and sometimes for reserved highways. In this case, they just doubled William Cheney's, giving him sixty-eight acres for what they nominally set down as thirty-four. At the same time they made out his full quota, i.e., the forty acres, by laying out six acres nomi- nally, yet twelve actually, situated on the westerly slope of Magomis- cock Hill, nearly half a mile north of the first parcel, and adjoining Jolin Jones's, Seth Chapin's, and Benjamin Wheaton's lands. Both parcels had much rough, rocky surface, and were rightfully doubled in quantity. William Cheney soon settled on his ledgy domain. Just where he first pitched his cabin, is somewhat uncertain ; but there is little doubt that his permanent domicile stood on elevated land, now owned by Charles F. Chapin, on the easterly side of the highway. The old cellar is hardly traceable now, but the original well is discoverable. William Cheney, jun., his son, born in 1704, is believed to have lived on the same spot, or in the near vicinity,

EARLIEST SETTLERS.

at least for many years. William, sen., lived to be an aged man, probably not less than ninety yrs.

Benjamin Wheaton, whose name has several times already occurred, was an early settler from Mendon, contemporary with the Sumners, and perhaps preceding them. I have not, at this writing, quite suc- ceeded in tracing out his nativity and pedigree; but I find that he had lands laid out to him, extending from somewhere north of the present Delano Patrick place, and thence southwardly, bordering westwardly on the Elder Jones estate as much as perhaps one hun- dred and fifty rods, down into open land now owned by heirs of W. W. Dutcher, formerly by Sylvanus Adams. There is good ground for believing that his ancient dwelling-house stood over an almost obliter- ated cellar, on the hill-side south of the highway leading from Hope- dale to the Scammell place, perhaps thirty or forty rods above Felix Kearney's, late David Saunders's, residence. There is an old well not far off, supposed to have been Wheaton's. If this was not the place of his domicile, it must have stood in the vicinity, at no great distance. I am, as yet, unable to say much of Benjamin Wheaton, except that, like his neighbors, he appears to have been a man of enterprise, owned several layings-out of land here and there, and left a son Benjamin, as well as other children, to be his inheritors.

Important Hayward settlements were made during this decade in and around what came to be called Howardtown : i.e., in the neigh- borhood of our present Hollis and Alonzo Howard, whose ancestors were all Haywards. Between 1702 and 1707, two Jonathan Hay- wards planted themselves in that territorial vicinity. One of these was a brother, and the other a son, of Samuel Hayward of Mendon- town, who was a wealthy man, and able to endow his relations with plenty of wild lands, or other needed favors. I conjecture that he and his brother Jonathan, and perhaps William (who, about this time, settled on the Rawson Farm), came from Swanzey. That matter I shall further inquire into before completing my Gen. Reg. Samuel came to Mendon in 1669 or 1670. He acquired two house- lots there, first and last, with all their rights of division in common lands. Probably he acquired by purchase other important parcels. He took up much land within our limits, some of it as early as 1702. His brother Jonathan was much younger than himself, and came to Mendon a youth. It is recorded, under date of Jan. 28, 1692, that " Saml. Thayer gave Bonds for Jonathan Hayward of Swanzy, resi- dent with him." That was the custom then in such cases, to insure the town against liabilities for maintenance. He began to be taxed about 1696 for the support of Pastor Rawson.

HISTORY OF MILFORD.

Samuel's son Jonathan could not have been much younger than his uncle. To this son Jonathan and to his brother Samuel, jun., their father conveyed considerable parcels of his land here, adjoining Charles River, between 1702 and 1706; and one or both settled on those lands. Samuel, jun., however, died unmarried in 1708, at the age of twenty-five years. Jonathan raised up a very large family, several of whom became conspicuous citizens. Jonathan, the uncle, had also a numerous progeny. He located himself east of Bear Hill, near the "Great Meadow." Both Jonathans became large land- holders, either by inheritance or purchase ; and from them descended most of the Haywards that ever inhabited Milford, not to speak of many more abroad.

Thomas White, sen., son of Joseph White, one of the old Men- don proprietors, must, I think, have settled within our limits during that decade. Of this, however, I cannot be very confident. By inheritance or otherwise he acquired much land on Mill River, includ- ing the water-privilege known successively in our day as Green's, Grady's, and Gaskill's mills, but now called Spindleville. It is cer- tain that his children, especially his son Thomas, jun., occupied portions of his land between 1710 and 1720; and I incline to believe that he was a settler here previous to 1710. I have the same impres- sion about John Green, who at an early period owned a part or all of the Samuel Warfield place, the level portion of which was first called, with its adjacencies, " Linfield's Plain." It is possible, too, that Obadiah Wheelock had settled on the Mill Plain, at or near what not long ago was known as the Stoddard place. He located there soon after, if not before, 1710. Dr. John Corbett (father, I suppose, of the second Dr. John Corbett) had several parcels of land laid out to him on the Medfield road (South Milford now) from 1701 and downward ; but whether he built any dwellings thereon, besides at the Dr. Scammell place so called, in Bellingham, is more than I feel warranted to affirm. I think it probable that one or two of the descendants of Benjamin Albee may have located within our southern borders before 1710; but of this I am uncertain. I must say the same of Jonathan Thayer, a son of Ferdinando, one of the Mendon patriarchs. If not in the first decade of the eighteenth century on our territory, he was certainly soon forthcoming ; for he inherited goodly possessions from his father on Charles River. John Rock- wood, son of Joseph, and gd .- son of John, another Mendon pro- prietor, may be put in the same category with Thayer, but perhaps with hardly as much probability. I may have overlooked two or three other individuals who had set up their emigrant cabins here pre-

REFLECTIONS.

vious to 1710. If I hereafter discover any such, I will give them their place of honor. But I think I may safely assume, that, down to that date, our settlers could not have exceeded fifteen families, nor fifty souls all told. I should prefer to guess that there were ten families, and not more than forty persons, - men, women, and chil- dren. Here let me insert a parenthesis. (Having referred my read- ers two or three times to the Second Part of this work, my Genealogi- cal Register, let me say, once for all, that they will find therein not only the names and essential genealogical data of nearly all the fami- lies ever established residents on our territory, but many biographical reminiscences and interesting incidents deemed less appropriate in this Historical Part.)

REFLECTIONS.

It may be well not to forget the crude state of things, and peculiar circumstances amid which our pioneer settlers originated this now populous municipality. They breasted a yet howling wilderness. Their clearings were few and small. Their dwellings were little other than log huts ; and their barns, rude hovels, whose fodder, when they had any in store, was in stacks. Their roads were rough cart-paths, and uncouth drift-ways. They had no grocery-store, much less post- office or schoolhouse. Blacksmiths, carpenters, shoe-makers, and other handicraft mechanics, were few, far between, and distant. Mendon-town was their material dependence for such necessaries as they could not produce on their own raw clearings. But Mendon depended for important supplies on Medfield and Marlborough, fifteen and eighteen miles distant ; and these, again, depended on Boston for imported goods. Food, raiment, and all the comforts of domestic life, were mostly home-wrought, coarse, simple, and often scanty, but, happily, healthful. They were religious, Puritanical people, - the adults, with rare exceptions, church-members, and their children all baptized. They were punctilious and devout attendants on public worship. None staid at home on the sabbath but with a good excuse. Away to the town-seat they posted on the Lord's day, either barefoot or shod, on horseback, single and double, or on their own sturdy legs, to sit under the ministrations of Parson Rawson, on uncushioned seats, and in the coldest weather, in a plain, unwarmed, old-fashioned meeting-house, through services often two hours long, forenoon and afternoon.

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History of the town of Milford, Worcester county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1881, Part 6

Author: Ballou, Adin, 1803-1890 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Boston : Rand, Avery, & co. Number of Pages: 1328

Author: Ballou, Adin, 1803-1890
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Boston : Rand, Avery, & co.
Number of Pages: 1328