USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Weston > History of the town of Weston, Massachusetts, 1630-1890 > Part 15
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Nathan Hager owned and lived on the present Eldridge farm. His son Nathan married in 1832 Mary Ann Hobbs, daughter of Isaac Hobbs. Nathan Hager, Jr., owned and lived on the farm now of Mr. Frank Hastings, where he lived after his mar- riage. On the death of Isaac Hobbs in 1834 Nathan Hager moved over to the present Hager house, and formed the partner- ship of Hobbs & Hager. Mr. Hager sold his farm to Captain Dickinson, whose daughter married Mr. Hastings. The shoe factory was given up about 1850, and a short time before Mr. Hager's death, in 1860, the tannery also ceased to exist. Mr. Hager served as town clerk for twenty years. David Jacobs worked in the tannery for over forty years. Thus we see the
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tannery was in operation for a century, and the shoe factory about fifty years.
The business of cutting and selling barrel hoops would seem to have been quite extensive, if we may judge from the partial returns on record from 1764 to 1770, a period of five years only. The figures represent the returns of the several farmers employed in this industry, and are only partial. For instance, in 1763 there were made and sold 18,940; in 1764 the figures are 9,300; and in 1766 they are 11,080, etc.
One of the most important industries of Weston is that of the Stony Brook mills. This water power was rendered effective by one Richard Child, who in 1679 erected a corn-mill and later a saw-mill .* The grist-mill remained standing until about the year 1840. It was at the saw-mill that a great part of the timber was sawed for the early houses of the town. This prop- erty was sold in 1802 by Isaac Lamson, executor of Amos Bigelow, and was bought in by the heirs. At the time of the sale the property consisted of the mills, a dwelling-house, and two acres of land. Washington Peirce leased the mills, but, upon his mar- riage with the daughter of Joel Smith, removed, and kept the tavern. Coolidge, Sibley & Treat bought the property of Abra- ham Bigelow in 1831. They erected a machine-shop, and operated for a number of years the grist-mill, and also a mill for the manu- facture of cotton yarns. In the machine-shop for many years the specialty was the manufacture of cotton machinery, looms, etc. They supplied the factories of Lowell, Lawrence, Lancaster, and Clinton, besides which they manufactured extensively for mills in New York. Here was also made the first machinery for cotton mills in Alabama and Tennessee. Here also later were made large quantities of door-locks, expanding bits, and other articles of steel and iron hardware. In 1859 was begun the manufacture of wood-planing machines, the Sibley dovetailer, and the Sibley pencil-sharpeners for schools, now in use from Maine to Alaska.
* The third grist-mill, or corn-mill, erected in the Watertown district, was that at Stony Brook. At a town meeting held January 5, 1679, it was "granted that the new mill now set up and to be finished at Stony Brook be freed from rates for twenty years from date." In 1684 it was owned by John Bright and others. For many years it was known as Bigelow's Mill. Lieutenant John Brewer's Mill, established about the same time, was in the north- western part of Weston, now a part of Lincoln, and is at present operated by Mr. Harrington as a grist and saw mill.
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Sibley became the owner of this valuable property, having bought out both Coolidge and Treat.
Near these machine-shops was the little cañon, enclosing the pool out of which the cascade fell. From above, the waters of the brook came down the rapids white with foam, the banks covered with mosses and ferns, the oaks and hemlocks overarching the stream. Altogether it formed one of the most beautiful bits of natural scenery to be seen this side of the White Moun- tains, the delight of artists and the admiration of all beholders. All the available portions of this valuable plant have now been completely destroyed by the Cambridge water board, who have seized the mills and rendered its future usefulness as a factory impossible. This act of the Cambridge authorities wipes out all this important factory privilege and destroys the taxable value of this industry for the town. It is time our people should realize the immense injury to farms and manufactories which the free and easy grants of the legislature of late years to water com- panies are doing. They are giving away for the asking the control of springs and waterways, which bids fair to destroy the value of our farms and property. In 1833 a furniture factory was built over the dam on this estate belonging to Mr. Sibley, and was leased to Joseph H. Cummings. This building was destroyed by fire about 1850. George W. Cutting, Jr., worked for Mr. Cum- mings when a young man.
In 1852 Dr. Otis E. Hunt and Nathan Barker together pur- chased the Harrington farm, and in the year 1854 sold a part of the property to Mr. Samuel Shattuck. This gentleman estab- lished a chair factory there, which eventually did a large business. In 1875 Oliver Kenney succeeded Mr. Shattuck. The firm is now engaged in the manufacture, on a large scale, of school furni- ture, and employs a number of hands.
Marshall Jones, who was born in the Hannah Gowen house in 1791, bought the old Abraham Hews property in 1824. It was then in rather a dilapidated condition, and had never been painted since its erection in 1765. Mr. Jones had served his apprentice- ship in the harness business with Mr. Hobbs at the north side of the town, and here established the paint and harness business. His brother, John Jones, worked with him as a journeyman
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until taken into partnership, the firm then taking the name of M. & J. Jones. This business became very extensive, and the brothers became men of considerable wealth. Marshall Jones died in 1864, and Colonel John Jones in 1861, being killed while lifting a rock out of the ground on his estate. Colonel Jones was highly esteemed throughout the county, and was largely engaged in the settlement of estates in the town, so great confidence had our people in his ability and integrity. In 1825 he succeeded Colonel Daniel S. Lamson as lieutenant-colonel of the Third Middlesex Regiment.
David Brackett, a blacksmith of the town, had his forge on the main street in 1788-89, on the site of the Upham shop. He was succeeded by his son David, Jr., followed by Isaac Bigelow, son of Deacon Thomas Bigelow, who at that time owned the property. He was followed by Whitten and John Parks, and in 1830 Joel Upham bought the house and shop. Mr. Upham retired from the business in 1887, at the ripe age of eighty-five. . John Hobbs, sixth child of Nathan Hobbs, born in 1771, was a blacksmith on the north road in a shop west of Mr. Edward Brown's barn. In 1802 he was bitten by a mad dog, and died of hydrophobia. Jonathan Warren was a shoemaker, and a maker of ploughs on property now of Mr. Hastings. Ebenezer Tucker was a blacksmith in the old shop still standing near the Garfield wheelwright-shop. Converse Bigelow, also a blacksmith, had a smithy on property now of Mr. Coburn. Park Boyce was a blacksmith near the Daggett tavern. George and Nathan Up- ham erected a blacksmith-shop on property of General Derby, facing the house and land they purchased in 1839 of the heirs of John Lamson. Luther and Quincy Harrington had a machine- shop where the shoddy mill stood, near Kendal Green station. Abijah Upham, son of Lieutenant Phineas, born in 1747, built the house now the property of Abijah Coburn, and had a blacksmith- shop at this place. He moved to the old place when his father died.
Lieutenant John Brewer, who died in 1709, left a farm and 216 acres of other land, together with a saw-mill and grist-mill. His widow, Mary Brewer, in 1715 entered into a copartnership or agreement with Richard Parks for the purpose of carrying
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on the saw-mill, provision being made in the articles of agreement that this work should not interfere with the running of the grist- mill in possession of said Mary Brewer. These mills are still in operation, and are now owned by Mr. Harrington. The store of Henry Fiske on the north road was built in 1815, and the business was conducted by Henry and Sewell Fiske, John Williams, and Alonzo S. Fiske until 1852. Abijah Stearns was a clerk to Henry Fiske. Thaddeus and Abijah Peirce were wheelwrights, and in early days all such mechanics were also housewrights, or carpenters. Benjamin Rand was a housewright previous to 1800. He signs a "covenant, bargain or agreement made and concluded with Benoni Garfield, Benjamin Brown, James Jones, and Ebenezer Allen, of Weston [other names to contract lost], in behalf of the town of Weston for the building of the second church erected in Weston." The contract is signed by Randall Davis and Benjamin Rand, and is dated 1720. This interesting paper (the original) is badly torn, and only a part of it is decipherable. When Mr. Rand died, the town was in his debt over £300 for building this church. Daniel Rand, a wheelwright, began busi- ness in 1800 on the farm now owned by Mr. Caswell, and died in 1851.
The organ factory in the north part of Weston, now called Kendal Green, on the line of the Fitchburg Railroad, was estab- lished here by Mr. Francis H. Hastings in 1888. He moved his factory from Roxbury on Tremont Road, or Street, to Weston. It had been in operation there for forty years. In the year 1827 Mr. Elias Hook began the building of organs in Salem with his brother George Hook. They removed to Boston as E. & G. G. Hook. In 1855, when nineteen years old, Mr. Hastings entered their service, and in 1865 was admitted as a partner. Later the name of the firm was changed to "E. & G. G. Hook and Hast- ings," and in 1880, after the death of Mr. G. G. Hook, it was again changed to Hook & Hastings. In 1881 Mr. Elias Hook died, since which time the business has been conducted by Mr. Hastings. The business dates back over sixty years. Mr. Hastings has devoted himself to the building of church organs for thirty-five years. His relations with eminent European builders, the em- ployment of experts trained in their factories, the ingenuity and
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skill of our American workmen, and his constant endeavor to advance the standard of his work have enabled him to obtain and to hold the highest place in his craft. The work of the house is found in every part of the country, and has a world-wide reputa- tion. The large new factory at Kendal Green is situated on the Fitchburg Railroad, twelve miles from Boston. Trains stop at the factory for the accommodation of workmen and visitors. Mr. Hastings built this factory on land which formed part of the old Hastings homestead, and which has been in the family for four generations. He has built cottages for his workmen, and a club-house and hall, with reading-rooms attached, for pub- lic use. At stated times, lectures are given in the hall, together with musical and other entertainments fully appreciated by the workmen as well as by the townspeople generally.
XII.
SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS.
The earliest mention of the pay of a schoolmaster was Jan- uary 6, 1650, when £30 was voted to Mr. Richard Norcross. This sum continued to be the salary for about seventy-five years. In 1683 it was agreed that those who dwell on the west side of Stony Brook be freed from the school tax of 1683, that they may be the better able to teach among themselves. Mr. Norcross was employed in 1685-86. Those who sent children to school were to pay threepence a week each, and all short of £20 the town would make up to Mr. Norcross; the town to pay for such children as their parents were unable to pay for, the Selectmen to be the judges. November 16, 1690, the town allowed £15 for the schoolmaster's maintenance. The rate parents were to pay for tuition was established at threepence a week for English, fourpence for writing, and sixpence for Latin.
The town rates for 1687 were: rye, 4 shillings; Indian corn, 3 shillings; oats, 2 shillings. In 1691 the prices were: rye and barley, 4 shillings; Indian corn, 4 shillings. Two shillings in money were to be taken as 3 shillings in grain. In 1697 oak wood was 7 shillings; walnut, 8 shillings. In 1703 carpenters working in the water were allowed 3 shillings a day, laborers on land 2 shillings and 6 pence, and teams 5 shillings per day.
In 1690 Nathaniel Stone was chosen schoolmaster at £15, which was granted by the town, 20 persons agreeing to pay 50 shillings a quarter in addition. In 1693 Richard Norcross was chosen for one year to keep a month at the school-house, when, if a considerable number of scholars did not appear, he had liberty to keep all the year round at his house, the town to pay him £5 additional. If he finds the scholars to increase, then from April to October in the school-house and the remainder of the year at his own house. He was also to catechize the children and all
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others sent to him. In 1696 Edward Goddard was invited to teach the school. He replied, if the town would repair the school- house and give him £20, he would accept; but the town refused his terms. The result was the town was fined at General Sessions for not having a school. In 1696-97 the town refused to have a grammar school, and appointed a committee to estimate the cost of repairing the school-house. Two of the committee reported the cost at £3 to £4. The others reported from 30 to 40 shillings, and 40 shillings was granted. In 1697 Mr. Goddard was again asked to keep the school, but it does not appear whether he ac- cepted or not. In 1699, however, he did agree to keep the gram- mar school. The next year he obtained his £20 salary and the rates from the "parents and owners of children." Mr. Goddard could not have continued long at his post, for in 1700 Rev. Samuel Parris agreed to keep the school at his place of abode until some other person could be chosen. In September, 1700, Mr. Norcross again becomes the schoolmaster at £10 and the usual rates from parents, they agreeing to send one-quarter cord of wood in winter. At this time Mr. Norcross had been a school- master forty-nine years, and he was seventy-nine years old. In November, 1700, it was voted to keep the school in the first and third quarters at the old school-house and the second and fourth quarters in the middle of the town. In 1705 £30 was voted for schools.
In 1706, Mr. Mors having ceased to be the minister of the church in Weston in consequence of difficulties in the settlement, he was invited to keep the school and to be helpful to the minister for £40, and fourpence a week for all who sent their children. He accepted. This school was kept at Mr. Bigelow's house at Stony Brook. Mr. Mors removed to Dorchester in 1707, and died at Canton in 1732. In 1707 and 1708 Thomas Robie, who was graduated at Harvard in 1708 (probably the same who later is known as Dr. Robie of Wayland), engaged to keep the school half a year for £15,-the first quarter, seven hours, and the second quarter, eight hours, a day. Benjamin Shattuck fol- lowed in 1709, and continued to be the schoolmaster for six years, until 1714. In 1714 the town is presented at General Ses- sions for not having a writing-school, and the Selectmen report
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they have chosen Mr. Joseph Woolson for such a master, and that he is acceptable to the town. The presentment was dis- missed with costs. In 1714 the Selectmen visited the president of Harvard College in search of a schoolmaster. He informed them "they could not have any student to keep their school." The teacher whom the town reported to the General Sessions they had procured was Abraham Hill, who married Thankful, daughter of Ebenezer Allen, of Weston. Mr. Hill was gradu- ated at Harvard College in 1737.
In 1737 the town was again presented at General Sessions for not having a grammar-school master, but the Selectmen made return that they had provided one. The case was dismissed with costs. The town records being lost from 1712 to 1754, it is im- possible to give a history of the early progress in schooling for these years, but from other sources we find that from 1714 to 1751 (or thirty-seven years) there had been 14 teachers, some of them serving for three and four years each. They were all graduates of Harvard College. Benjamin Brown, in his diary for 1718, charges the town for schooling 4 boys one week 10 shillings; 2 boys five weeks, 5 shillings; and 1 boy four weeks, 2 shillings.
The first mention of schools in the second volume of town records, dated March, 1754, is the vote to pay Schoolmaster Cotton his last quarter, £6 6s. 11d., and to Nathaniel Williams £3 9s. 4d. for boarding Mr. Cotton. The town refused to grant money for a reading and writing school. They voted that the school shall be kept two months on the north side at Josiah Hobbs's, and two months at Benjamin Bond's.
In 1755 the town voted £40 for schools. This probably does not include the board of teachers, which the town paid.
In 1760 the town votes £100 for schools. Beginning with 1761, the citizens vote £160 for the same and for other town charges, so that it is found impossible to keep informed of what sum was paid for schooling. This system continued down to a very late period. Many of the townspeople, both men and women, kept school, and all took turns in boarding the schoolmaster, being paid by the town for so doing. The minister took his turn with the other inhabitants, and was probably glad of the addition to
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his slender salary. During the period of the Revolution the school-houses seem to have been very little in use, for we find at the close of that period that the buildings had been allowed to go to decay. Whatever schools there were during this time of trial were at private houses. Mr. Woodward and Dr. Kendal both kept school, and were paid by the town. Dr. Kendal received at his house the boys who were "rusticated" by the faculty of Harvard College for offences against discipline, and kept them up in their studies with the college classes. As we have elsewhere stated, many names of those who in after-life became distin- guished men in Boston passed periods of punishment in Weston. The small allowance of wood for the schools in winter strikes us to-day as almost cruel.
In the year 1782 a committee, appointed by the town to select a spot for the Centre District School-house, reported that the south-east corner of the Eaton land would best serve the pur- pose, and it was voted that Major Samuel Lamson, Captain Isaac Jones, and Jonathan Fiske be a committee to purchase the land and build the school-house. This land measured forty by sixty feet. It was bought of Daniel and Ebenezer Eaton, who then owned as far as the Benjamin Peirce place, and the school was situated just west of Joel Upham's blacksmith-shop. The land was bought for £12, and the town gave the Eatons its note for the purchase money; but as late as 1812 the note was not paid, and the town refused to pay it. This central school-house continued in use until 1793, when Isaac Jones gave land twelve rods square for a building on Highland Street, somewhat back of the present school-house. In 1793 Dr. Kendal gave land for a school building on Wellesley Street, and he received the thanks of the town. In the year 1795 all the school-houses were over- hauled. They were clapboarded, porches were added, and new benches and stoves introduced. In 1795, the old Eaton school- house being no longer occupied, Artemas Ward and others peti- tioned the town for the use of the building for a private school, which was granted. It would seem that at this early day it was as difficult to satisfy both parents and scholars as is the case to-day. The town officers receive a list of six charges brought against a teacher, signed by ten parents of children, who ask the
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dismissal of the teacher, as the money paid him is thrown away. The charges are worthy of a place here :-
Ist. You are requested to make the boys get their lessons, if not to thrash them and make them get them.
2d. That you ride down hill upon a hand sled with your largest scholars, and that you break the sled.
3d. You are charged with having severely punished the boy who owned the sled, without sufficient reason.
4th. You are charged with using insulting language and gestures to Miss -
5th. You are charged with partiality.
6th. You are charged with talking and laughing for a very consider- able time together with your largest scholars.
The final result of these charges is not recorded.
In 1796 the town voted $1,000 to build a school-house in the North-west District. The old school-house in the North-east Dis- trict was sold by auction, and bought by Joseph Russell for £6.
In 1803 $25 is appropriated to each district for a woman's school, $600 for the support of schooling, and $40 for each dis- trict for painting and repairing school-houses. In 1804 the ap- propriation is $125 for each district, a total of $750. In 1805 $150 for each woman's school and $750 for men's schools. In 1806 Dr. Bancroft, Isaac Fiske, and Dr. Samuel Kendal were chosen a committee to examine persons who apply to become school-teachers.
In 1807 a census of school-children between the ages of four and eighteen was taken as follows: whole number, 374,-East Central District, 71; West Central District, 71; South-east Dis- trict, 58; South-west District, 37; North-west District, 54; North-east District, 83. It was voted to enlarge the North-east School-house. Voted $716 for the reading and writing schools and $200 for the women's schools. In 1810 voted to employ a music-teacher. In 1812 voted to build a new school-house in South-east District.
Dr. Kendal in his centennial sermon, delivered in 1812, says :-
Our schools in general have been well taught; the youth in this place have been as fully prepared for active service and usefulness as in any town of equal size in this Commonwealth. The schools are the hope of our
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country. The culture of young minds, especially in religious and virtu- ous sentiments and habits, is of vast importance, not only to individ- uals, but to the community at large.
In 1813 the town had six school districts, each provided with a school-house.
In 1816 a new school-house was built in the South-west District. In 1817 $650 was appropriated for schools and wood, and $200 for women's schools. This appropriation continued down to 1837, with slight variation. In that year $1,000 was voted for schools and wood. In 1834 $50 was appropriated to purchase maps for the schools. In 1839 no teacher was allowed to keep an evening school without a vote of the majority of the in- habitants of the district. In those days, children were not allowed to wander about at night under any pretence whatever, and in many 'schools it was a rule for the scholar to report to the teacher the hour he reached home after the school of the day before.
In 1832 and 1833 Mr. Andrew Dunn taught the South School. He next taught in Wayland until 1836 and 1837, when he kept the winter term at the school "on the rocks" (so called) in Weston. In 1838 Mr. Dunn held a school in the hall in the Jones tavern, now the dwelling of Mrs. John Jones. This was probably a private establishment, answering to what later on became our "High School." This school was very largely attended, numbering about fifty scholars of both sexes. The charges were three dollars for the common course; higher English and Latin, four dollars. In the winter of 1838 Mr. Dunn taught the school on the north side. He was a most painstaking teacher, a strict disciplinarian; and to those who were refractory or idle he applied liberally the essence of birch, sending the boys to the Willow Lane, so called, to cut and bring in to him the rods which were to be applied in corrective measures. Mr. Dunn is still in active life and a clergyman in the Baptist church.
It was voted in 1839 "that a female teacher shall be employed in every school containing fifty scholars as the average number, also that the Selectmen report such measures as ought to be adopted to prevent the scholars from cutting, mutilating, defacing, and otherwise injuring the school-houses in the town and what
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punishment ought to be inflicted or penalty incurred for such offences."
In 1834 the State School Fund Act was passed under Governor John Davis. This fund was to be derived from the sale of lands in the State of Maine and from the claim of the State on the government of the United States for military services, provided, nevertheless, that said fund shall not exceed $1,000,000. A cen- sus of the population of Weston was taken by order of the Com- monwealth concerning the disposal of the surplus fund, and the return of the assessors gave a population of 1,051. A return was also made to the town of the number of scholars in each school district in the town. The schools were kept fifteen weeks in winter and fourteen weeks in summer. The wages paid the female teachers was $2.75 per week; the master, $26 per month if he boarded himself, or $18 if boarded by the town. The female teachers were paid $10 a month if they boarded themselves, or $5 a month if boarded by the town.
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