USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Weston > History of the town of Weston, Massachusetts, 1630-1890 > Part 11
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erected at each hospital, and bounds set round about each hos- pital, to which those that had the distemper might come, and no further. There is no record of the number of deaths in Weston from small-pox. The dead were buried in the south-west corner of the old yard without ceremony and without headstones.
Pleasure carriages were not introduced until the close of the century. The sole way of travelling was on horseback, the pil- lion-saddle being most in use, the father in front, the mother and small children on the pillion, the boys astride the horse's back as far as the crupper. The first chaise seen in Weston was owned and probably made by Isaac Hobbs, inasmuch as he made nearly all the vehicles of this sort used in Weston and neighboring towns for many years.
In January, 1793, in honor of the French Revolution, a grand fête was held in Boston, in which neighboring towns joined. An ox was roasted whole, then decorated with ribbons and the flags of France and the United States, and placed upon a car drawn by sixteen horses, followed by carts loaded with 1,600 loaves of bread and two hogsheads of punch. The school children paraded, and cakes were distributed, marked "Liberty and Equality." A party of three hundred, with Samuel Adams, lieutenant- governor of the State, at their head, sat down to a dinner in Faneuil Hall.
In 1795 a petition was presented to the town for a road from Abraham Harrington's, now Perry's, over the flat lands, around the base of Ball's Hill, and coming out on the Concord road, thus avoiding the great hill. The town objected, and chose Artemas Ward and Thaddeus Spring a committee to defeat the project. A petition was also presented that four seats nearest the wall in the front gallery of the church be removed, and converted into two pews, "to be decently furnished for the use of the singing men and singing women that already have or may hereafter acquire skill in that sublime art, as shall qualify them to carry on that part of the public worship of God in a decent and becoming manner." Fifty dollars was voted to encourage the art of sing- ing. It was also voted that a plan of the town be ordered made, with the length and direction of all the roads therein, with notice of all public buildings, etc. It is probable that this order of the
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town was not carried out, as no such plan is in existence, so far as can be discovered.
In 1796 is the first entry in the town accounts with substitution of dollars and cents for pounds, shillings, and pence. The change was slow and fitful. A sum of twenty dollars was voted for the relief of Samuel Livermore, Jr., who was reduced to straits by having his dwelling destroyed by fire.
In 1791, as we have seen, the town had ordered the meeting- house to be repaired. In 1799 it was voted again to repair the house and erect a steeple on the tower, if the expense be paid by subscription. A committee was appointed to collect the sub- scription of the people for this purpose. The list is still in exist- ence, and should be among the parish records.
There were sixty-eight subscribers for various sums, in all amounting to $414.75. The old bell was valued at $75.25, making total amount raised $490. The subscribers, however, make conditions that the additional expense for the spire and purchasing a new bell, to weigh not less than 800 pounds, shall be paid by the town. The subscribers who have a right in the old bell shall have credit for their proportion of the amount of its sale in their subscription. The new bell was purchased of Paul Revere, as I have stated in Chapter I. A copy of his bill to the town, traced from his ledger in his own handwriting, is now in the vestry of the church. The cost of repairing the church and building the cupola and pews was over $3,000, and the proceeds of the sale of the new pews was $1,066, leaving a balance paid by the town of $1,431.03.
The eighteenth century closed with great prosperity. The need of hard money was alone the drawback to large commer- cial ventures. In 1790 the whole capital of the United States was only $2,000,000, invested in Philadelphia, New York, and the Massachusetts Bank in Boston. In 1791 the National Bank of the United States was established with a capital of $10,000,000, but it did not commence business until 1794. The country at this time was thrown into political convulsions. The French Revolution was at its height, and the sympathies of Jefferson and his party were with the radical republicans of France. Among the Jeffersonians there was a feeling of gratitude for the
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assistance rendered to the colonies by France in the American Revolution. Washington and Adams realized from the first the difference between the French republic and our own, and they had little confidence in or sympathy with the hot-headed French radicals. The French Convention, acting upon a claim they pre- tended to have upon this country for the aid rendered by France in our Revolution, treated our ports as a part of their own domin- ion, and fitted out privateers sailing from the United States. The French minister Genet finally became so overbearing and insulting as to render his dismissal necessary. The settlement of the eastern boundary with the English, together with their impressment of American seamen on the high seas, added other grounds of enmity in the country, and war between the United States, France, and England seemed inevitable. Jay's treaty with England put off the evil day, which, however, followed a few years later. The debt of the United States in 1799 was $78,408,669.77.
We have already seen in the foregoing pages some account of the visit of President George Washington to Weston on his way to Boston in 1789, when he passed the night at Flagg's tavern. In 1798 we were visited by President John Adams, when he was on his way to Quincy. The Massachusetts Mercury of August 17, 1798, gives a full account of the visit and his reception by the citizens of the town. The Mercury states that,
Had it not been supposed here that the President of the United States had passed through a different road to his seat at Quincy, our company of Light Infantry, in complete uniform, would have met him at the line which divides East Sudbury from this town, and would have escorted him and his suite to Flagg's tavern, and have done him all military honors in their power. As the case was circumstanced, it was impossible.
The address delivered by Hon. Samuel Dexter is signed by the following prominent persons among many: Samuel Dexter, Thomas Marshall, Samuel Kendal, Isaac Jones, Artemas Ward, Amos Bancroft, and Caleb Haywood. The address delivered by Mr. Dexter on behalf of the citizens was as follows :-
To have the best government in the world, and that government ad- ministered in the best manner, is the distinguished lot of our happy
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nation. Ever since the adoption of the Constitution we have felt its benign effects: but in increased and increasing degree of late; since all have now learned the important lesson to respect themselves and de- spise foreign influence. This we owe, in a high degree, to your wisdom and patriotism. No longer ignorant of the devises of our enemies, ac- quainted with their true character, and with the means of defeating their nefarious designs, union and fortitude we are persuaded will be our impenetrable shield. In the town of Weston, Sir, there are no disorgan- izers. When called to elect public men, our suffrages upon every occa- sion have proved our federalism: and we pray you to be assured that, while we shall continue firm in the cause of our Country, and be ready to defend it upon all emergencies, we shall not cease to implore the Supreme Governor of the universe to "think upon you for good, accord- ing to all you have done for the people."
To this address President Adams made the following reply :-
Gentlemen,-I thank you for this Address, in which much excellent sen- timent is expressed in a few words. If in any degree I have contributed to assist my Countrymen in learning the important lesson to respect themselves and despise all improper foreign influence, I shall not have lived in vain. I sincerely congratulate the Town of Weston on their signal felicity in having no disorganizers. Two or three of this descrip- tion of characters are sufficient to destroy the good neighborhood, inter- rupt the harmony, and poison the happiness of a thousand families. A Town that is free from them will ever prove their federalism in election, be firm in the cause of their country, and ready to defend it in all emer- gencies. Upon all such towns may the choicest of blessings descend.
VIII. A RECORD OF FORTY QUIET YEARS.
1800-1840.
On June 1, 1801, by a tripartite agreement between Watertown, Waltham, and Weston, the towns of Waltham and Weston ceased to have any further obligation in the matter of keeping in re- pair the Watertown bridge over Charles River, which had for years been a great expense and no little annoyance to those towns.
In 1802, complaints having been made that cattle were allowed to pasture in the old burying-ground to the injury of the graves and stones, a question arose as to the town's title to the land of said burying-ground. No record could be found of any deed, and Jonas Harrington, the then claimant of the soil, held that the town had no title to it, but only permission to bury their dead, the fee of the land remaining with him. In January, 1839, a deed of the land was, however, obtained.
The town voted this year for representative in Congress, and Rev. Samuel Kendal had 32 votes, Hon. Timothy Bigelow had 27, and Hon. Joseph B. Varnum had 21. It was also voted to build an armory and powder-house for the deposit of arms and ammunition, the Selectmen being a committee to build the ar- mory. The building was placed in the north-east corner of what later became the second "God's-acre," where it stood until the latter part of the '30's, and after ceasing to be a powder-house was for a time used for the hearse.
In 1803 it was voted to pay Rev. Mr. Kendal $130 a year, in addition to his salary, instead of his twenty cords of fire- wood. The town was summoned before the Supreme Court about the highway from East Sudbury to Waltham. Five hun- dred dollars was voted for the repairs of said highway, and Isaac Fiske was chosen to make answer before the court on behalf of the town.
In 1804 Isaac Fiske was made town clerk. He held the office for twenty-four years, until 1828, in which year Dr. Benjamin
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James succeeded him. Dr. Kendal's salary, which had been $300, was raised to $550, a sum that included his firewood. The electors-at-large for President and Vice-President of the United States were in two party lists, nineteen in each list. The first list of electors received 97 votes each. The second list received 38 votes. These two lists represented the federal and anti-federal parties. For representative to Congress Hon. Timothy Bigelow received 98 votes, and John Slack was elected representative for Weston at the General Court.
In 1805 Moses Gill, of Princeton, releases to Reuben Carver his pew in the church and his title to the shed, and also all his rights, title, and interest in and to the Baptist meeting-house or any money due from said meeting-house, or society. By this it would appear that the first Baptist church was built upon the Nicholas Boylston place, Moses Gill by marriage being an heir to that property. The question came up of the advisability of selling the old poorhouse. The committee reported it to be capable of repair, and they add :-
It having been argued that the town's owning such a house augmented their poor, we find among those who have been its inmates Mrs. Middle- sex and Cornell, altogether objects of pity. Very few there are who would be willing to act the good Samaritan and administer to their wounds. There are others the town has to provide for by boarding or hiring a house for them. The poor we shall have ever with us, and it is for the interest of the town to have a house.
It was voted that, in the future, town meetings shall be warned by posting up the notice at the public meeting-house in the centre of the town. Before this regulation the constables gave notice of town meetings from house to house. It was also voted to lay out the Concord road from Dr. Bancroft's house, and $600 was appropriated for that purpose. It was voted to get a bath-tub for the town, probably for the poorhouse.
In 1808 the Worcester Turnpike Corporation was established from Roxbury to Worcester, through Framingham. This new route shortened the distance between Boston and Worcester con- siderably, and took off many of the stage-coaches which up to this time had run through Weston.
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In 1810 a committee was chosen to contract with Waltham, Watertown, and Newton for a road from Stony Brook to Water- town bridge; and it was agreed that the town would appropriate $2,000, provided said road be laid out by the court. It does not appear that this project was accomplished until some time later. It was voted to employ a music-teacher.
It was voted in 1811 that the meeting-house be painted, the expense of the work to be drawn from the town treasury.
War against England was declared early in 1812 .* It had been threatening for many years, and matters had arrived at the stage when the United States was forced to assert itself or become little else but a dependence of England. The great prosperity of the New England States, particularly of Massachusetts, since 1800, created strong opposition to warlike measures. The Em- bargo and Non-importation Acts of 1808 were bitterly opposed by this State. There was at this time fully as much disaffection expressed towards the general government as there was in the South previous to the breaking out of the Civil War in 1861. So strongly was this feeling expressed that it encouraged England to attempt to separate the Eastern States and have them unite with Canada. The party spirit between the federal and anti-federal factions was as bitter as we have seen was the case in 1795. A reference to the population and business interests of this section will explain the grounds of opposition to the war. By the census
* While the not over-glorious War of 1812 eventually gave this country commercial inde- pendence and the freedom of the seas, it developed during the war a system of inland trans- portation between the North and the South by wagon, due to the suppression of the coasting- trade by the blockade of our ports. Great canvas-covered wagons, drawn by double and triple teams of horses or oxen, wound their way like an Oriental caravan between Salem and Boston and intermediate cities to Augusta and Savannah. It was estimated that four thousand wagons and twenty thousand horses and oxen were employed in this transportation business. Two months went to a wagon-journey from Boston to Savannah; and what with the long time, the searches by customs officers for smuggled goods, and in New England the stoppage of Sunday travel by the tithing-men, and other mishaps of the way, the merchants became anxious for news of their ventures. So the wagons were named, and the teamsters instructed to keep a log of their meetings with other wagons, their destination and condition, and report to the newspapers of each town and city they passed through, the news to be published and copied by newspaper after newspaper for the benefit of the shippers. The journals entered into the spirit of the thing, and in the columns once devoted to shipping news recorded the wagon chronicles under such headings as "Horse Marine Intelligence," "Horse and Ox Marine News," "Jeffersonian Commerce." The wagons figured under such names as "Teazer," "Salt Hog," "Commerce Renewed," and "Old Times," "Sailors' Misery," "Cleopatra," "Don't give up the Ship," etc. One sample of the wagon "log" was this: "Port of Salem .- Arrived the three-horse ship Dreadnaught, Captain David Allen, 16 days from New York. Spoke in the latitude of Weathersfield the Crispin, Friend Allen, master, from New York, bound homeward to Lynn, but detained and waiting trial for breach of the Sabbath."
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A RECORD OF FORTY QUIET YEARS
of the United States the population was 5,905,782, of which the New England States and New York contained 2,615,587, almost half the population of the Union. The exports in 1811 amounted to $58,643,711, of which $27,045,425 was the amount from these States. The tonnage of vessels was 1,424,000, and these six States owned 882,005 tons. Massachusetts alone owned 496,000 tons, or more than a third of the total .* On the passage of the war act the six States voted in the House of Representatives against the war by a majority of 31 to 15, and in the Senate of 6 to 4.
In July Governor Strong appointed a day of humiliation, fast- ing, and prayer, and on the day appointed the pulpits everywhere resounded with bitter invective against the war. The governor was very lukewarm during hostilities, and refused the requisi- tion of the general government for Massachusetts troops to go out of the State. It was only when danger threatened our terri- tory or seaboard that he took any active measures. The State has no records at the State House of this war. All documents relating to the action of the State were sent to Washington, when the claim was made for money due the State in the war, and they never have been returned. The claim of the State against the government has not been paid.
In July a convention of the friends of the "Independence, Peace, Union, and Prosperity" of the United States (consisting of delegates from forty-three towns of Middlesex County) was held at Concord. Hon. James Prescott was made moderator, and Isaac Fiske, of Weston, was made secretary. There is no mention on the town records that he was a delegate of the town to the con- vention. A strong appeal to the people of the county was issued, and is still preserved.
It was voted in town meeting that Cambridge should continue to be the shire town and that the jail should be kept there.
Voted, That the soldiers, who volunteered and have actually been mus- tered shall draw from the treasury $3.25 each, and also those who shall hereafter be mustered.
Votes were taken for electors-at-large for President and Vice- President of the United States. The first ticket had 5 candi-
* This includes Maine, which was not set off as a separate State until 1820 .- ED.
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dates, and each received 93 votes. The second ticket had also 5 candidates, and each received 61 votes.
Voted, That proper gravestones be erected in memory of the Rev. Dr. Kendal, as large as those erected in memory of the late Mr. Woodward, at the town's expense.
Dr. Kendal died in 1814, after thirty-one years' service as pastor of the Weston church.
In town meeting held April 16, 1814, it was voted that the town pay the expenses of Dr. Kendal's funeral, including mourning apparel for the family, but they refused to print the sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Osgood at the funeral of Dr. Kendal. Isaac Fiske, Deacon Warren, Ebenezer Hobbs, Deacon Bigelow, and Captain Isaac Hobbs were chosen a committee to hire a minister to supply the pulpit, and granted $550 for that purpose.
Voted that the town accept the stove given by individuals, and that it remain in the meeting-house.
Voted to ascertain the bounds of the town's land (?) on which the meeting-house stands, and to erect monuments and make a plan thereof. No report is made, and no bounds set. The land goes to the church, and the town has no claim upon it whatever. The town passed a similar vote about 1784, and then failed to find any deed or bounds. The same is the case with the sheds land. It was voted this year (1814) that the Selectmen cause new sheds to be erected, near the town's pound, "where, or near where, the old horse-sheds now stand, with the right of having them remain there during the pleasure of the town" (it should be of the church), "and no longer, provided they can agree with the proprietors of said horse-sheds; and also that they be authorized to place an estimate of said pound upon the land of the heirs of Isaac Lamson deceased, and provided also that the whole shall be done without any cost to the town." The pound land and also the land upon which the sheds are built are all one, and the fee is in the Lamson heirs. In the deed to Jonas Sanderson it is stated that the sheds are partly on town's land (church) and partly upon land of the heirs of Isaac Lamson.
At a town meeting held December 27, 1814, it was voted to give Mr. Joseph Field, Jr., an invitation to settle in the ministry
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A RECORD OF FORTY QUIET YEARS
in the town of Weston, three only voting against it, as we have previously stated (see Chapter I., near end, for details of the ordination, etc.).
At the March meeting in 1815 it was voted to remove the pews on the lower floor of the meeting-house, and also the body seats, and to erect in their place long pews, so as to cover the whole floor, excepting space for the aisles and stove; to lay a new floor; and to provide a new door, to swing outwardly. It was voted not to send any representative this year.
At a town meeting held September 18, 1815, the Selectmen were empowered to agree and settle with the Boston Manufact- uring Company for all injuries or damages that have been done or may hereafter be done to the bridge and causeway over Charles River (so far as the limits are within the town of Weston) by reason of the dam which said manufacturing company has erected, etc. This was important, since the bridge was carried away and destroyed some years later, and it was said that the dam of that company was the cause. It was an accident that may occur again.
It was voted in 1816 that all the inhabitants who shall pay their taxes within thirty days shall have an abatement of six per cent., within sixty days five per cent., and all within one hundred and twenty days four per cent. $1,000 was voted for Mr. Field's salary for this year, but the year following it is only the $800 agreed upon with him. The addition of $200 was probably for the expense attending his settlement. Voted to build a new school- house in the South-west District. Voted that those soldiers who were drafted and served in the late war should be paid $14 per month for the time they served, and the same be allowed those of the Independent Light Infantry Company of Weston (who actu- ally served) upon a return made by the clerk of the company.
In town meeting, March 3, 1817, voted to sell the old poor- house and land, and purchase a site for a new poorhouse. Voted $60 for salary of town treasurer and collector.
In 1818 the committee appointed to purchase a site for the new poorhouse report that they have purchased of Habakkuk Stearns a farm on the northerly part of the town, containing about eighty acres with the buildings thereon, and have taken a deed therefor
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for the sum of $2,513.27; that the expense for placing the afore- said premises in condition for the use of the town was $1,550.62; that they have sold the old poorhouse and land to Samuel G. Derby for $230, leaving a balance due from the town of $3,835.89.
Voted in 1819 that the soldiers belonging to the town of Weston, whenever they are lawfully called to do military duty out of the town, shall each receive one dollar from the treasury, provided the clerk of the company shall certify that said duty was performed, said sum being in lieu of the powder now by law provided by the town when they are called to attend reviews.
Daniel S. Lamson was made town treasurer in 1819.
In 1820 $100 was voted for instruction in sacred music; also that a committee be appointed, consisting of three from the Con- gregational church, one from the Methodist, and one from the Baptist, who shall be authorized to draw said money for that purpose.
At a town meeting held August 21, 1820, to consider whether it be expedient that delegates be chosen to meet in convention for the purpose of revising or altering the constitution of govern- ment of this Commonwealth, the vote stood as follows: in favor of appointing delegates, 35; against the appointment, 15; and Isaac Fiske was appointed such delegate. At a town meeting held November 6, 1820, to choose electors-at-large for President and Vice-President of the United States, Hon. William Phillips had 47 votes; and Hon. William Gray, 47.
Dr. Benjamin James contracted with the town to inoculate the inhabitants of Weston with cow-pox for $50.
Voted in 1824 that there be appropriated to the use of the soldiers of Weston so much of the powder and ball as the law requires each soldier to be furnished with, the same, however, to remain in the powder-house. Electors-at-large in 1824 for Presi- dent and Vice-President of the United States: Hon. William Gray, 91 votes; Levi Lincoln, 91 votes.
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