USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Weston > History of the town of Weston, Massachusetts, 1630-1890 > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18
Dr. Bancroft's son, Thomas Bigelow Bancroft, was graduated at Harvard in 1831, and studied medicine with Dr. Shattuck.
-
-
184
HISTORY OF WESTON
Dr. Benjamin James followed Dr. Bancroft as the physician of Weston in 1812, and remained its very popular and highly esteemed practitioner for over thirty-six years, until 1847 or 1848, when he removed to New Jersey, where he died. Dr. James filled different offices in the town, and was for many years town clerk, succeeding Isaac Fiske, Esq., in that office. He occupied for many years the house which stood adjoining the old Lamson store, where now stands the Cutting grocery. In 1814 Dr. James published a book on Dentistry, which was highly considered in its day.
Dr. Otis E. Hunt was born in Sudbury in 1822, and settled in Weston in 1848, where he remained until 1864, when he removed to Waltham, and now resides in Newtonville as a consulting physician. Dr. Hunt built the house now owned by Mrs. Sears.
Edgar Parker, of Framingham, followed Dr. Hunt in 1865. He was graduated at Harvard Medical College in 1863, and was assistant surgeon in the Thirteenth Regiment at the time of the war, and severely wounded in the battle of Gettysburg. He remained in Weston until 1867, when he relinquished his profes- sion and became a portrait painter, and is now among the ablest of our artists. While in Weston, he was very popular both as a physician and for his social qualities, and his leaving was much regretted by the people. From 1867 to 1878 Dr. Parker was followed by three or four young men, whose stay was too short to leave much, if any, noticeable record. Dr. Parker died at Bridgewater in 1892.
In 1878 Dr. Mayberry followed Dr. Smithwick. Little is known of his antecedents. He remained in Weston until 1885, when he removed to Weymouth.
Dr. Frederick W. Jackson, born in Jefferson, Me., in 1858, studied medicine with Dr. Whittemore, of Gardiner, Me. He was graduated at the Long Island Medical School, and came to Weston in 1885. He built the house south of the church, and still continues to be the resident physician of the town.
No mention is made among the records of Dr. Wheaton, of Weston. The only mention made of him is in the Journal of Howe, who was General Gage's spy in Weston previous to the battle of Concord. Howe was secreted in Dr. Wheaton's house
185
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION
when the Liberty Men of the town gathered at Isaac Jones's tavern, the Golden Ball, carrying tar and feathers with which to decorate the spy, if caught in the house. Mr. Jones had, previous to their visit, sent him to the doctor's house, he being a Tory friend. Dr. Wheaton's house was that now owned by Mr. Ripley, then known as the Goldthwaite house, and later occupied by the inventor, Ira Draper.
XV.
THE TAVERNS.
It has been found impossible at this late date to give what would otherwise be a highly interesting history of the old-time taverns that existed in such great numbers throughout Massa- chusetts previous to, and for many years after, the Revolution. It is often asked how it was possible for so many taverns to have been profitable in so close proximity to each other, as was the case in every village along main routes throughout New England. The main road through Weston was the most important thorough- fare in early days, connecting Boston with Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington. As late as 1835 the mail- coaches passed through Weston for Boston (about midnight). The mail agent, who accompanied each coach, was required by law to blow a horn as he passed through the towns, that heavy teams and other obstructions might be moved out of the way of the United States mails. The horn also gave notice to those desiring to take passage that they should be on the spot and not delay the mails. President Quincy gives an interesting picture of stage-coach travel at the close of the last century. He travelled frequently over our road on his way to New York, when he was engaged to a New York lady. Boston then had 20,000 inhabi- tants, and New York had only 30,000. Two coaches and twelve horses sufficed for the travel between the two commercial centres of our continent. The journey between the two cities was under- taken by few, and took as long to accomplish as it now takes a steamer to go to Europe. Mr. Quincy writes :-
The carriages were old, and the shackling and much of the harness made of rope. One pair of horses took the coach eighteen miles. Stopping- places for the night were reached at ten o'clock, and passengers were aroused between two and three in the morning, by the light of a farthing candle. Sometimes they were obliged to get out of the coach to help get it out of a quagmire or rut. They arrived at New York after a week's
187
THE TAVERNS
hard travelling, but wondering at the ease as well as the expedition with which the journey was effected.
"Oh! the days are gone when the merry horn Awakened the echoes of smiling morn, As, breaking the slumbers of village street, The foaming leader's galloping feet Told of the rattling swift approach Of the well-appointed old stage-coach."
The country postmaster's duties in those days (particularly in winter) were of a more disagreeable nature than now, to say nothing of the small compensation then received from the govern- ment. There were then few newspapers, and what there were the postmasters were not required to mail. Their transmission over mail routes was done by the drivers of the coaches, who threw the papers out as they passed along their routes. The newspapers of that day were taken by clubs of three or four persons, and were passed from one to another, as is still the practice in some parts of England. This is probably one reason why so few old newspapers have been preserved. They were printed on very poor paper, usually manufactured at the printing- offices, and were consequently little calculated to stand the wear and tear of time and handling.
As stage routes increased and opposition lines were established, each had its tavern headquarters for the exchange of horses and for the entertainment of travellers. This business, together with the enormous amount of teaming from Vermont and New Hampshire, as well as from back towns of our State, and the large droves of cattle and hogs which passed over our road on their way to the towns of Brighton and Charlestown, was a great source of profit to the numerous taverns. The access to Boston for some years after the Revolution was not so easily accomplished as now. It was long and circuitous. All teaming and travel to that city from the interior was through Cambridge, over Winter Hill in Somerville to Charlestown on one side, and through Brighton and Roxbury on the other. In 1780 there was no bridge over Charles River. All communication was by ferriage. Isaac Jones, of Weston, provided timber for the Charles River bridge to the amount of £159 18s. 6d.
188
HISTORY OF WESTON
The oldest record of a tavern in Weston is that of Thomas Woolson, who settled in the town in 1660. In 1672 he purchased 250 acres of land of Richard Norcross, and in 1697 he bought the farm of John and Richard Coolidge. He was sentenced in 1685 to a fine of 20 shillings and costs and one hour in the stocks for selling drink without a license. He kept a tavern from 1685 to 1708, and died in 1713. He was a Selectman in 1699, 1700, 1702, and 1703. Thomas Woolson, his son, succeeded his father in the tavern. He was born in 1677. Thomas's daughter, Mary, married in 1724 Major Fullam, she being his second wife. In 1737 Isaac Woolson, who succeeded his father, Thomas, in the tavern, petitions the Court of General Sessions, praying that his license may be continued to him, as he has moved his house some distance from the original site. The Woolson stand was that now in possession of the heirs of Isaac Fiske.
The next tavern of which we have any record is that of Lieu- tenant John Brewer, who was born in 1669 in Sudbury, but moved to Weston in 1690. In 1693 he married Mary Jones. He died in 1709, leaving a farm and 216 acres of other lands, also a saw- mill and grist-mill. His nephew, Colonel Jonathan Brewer, Jr., commanded a regiment at Bunker Hill, and was afterwards a tavern-keeper in Waltham. In 1716 John Brewer's widow was licensed to keep a public house in Weston. Josiah Smith, son of William Smith, born in 1722, married Hepzibah Stearns, of Lexington, in 1744. It is presumed he kept the tavern, now the residence of Mrs. John Jones. His son Joel succeeded to the busi- ness at his father's death. He was a leading Liberty Man during the Revolution, and his tavern is spoken of in Howe's Journal just previous to the battle of Concord. This tavern was one of the most noted between Boston and Worcester. It has passed through many hands since the death of Joel Smith. Washington Peirce succeeded Joel in the tavern in 1817 on his marriage with a daughter of Joel, and continued to be its landlord for ten years. He was succeded by J. T. Macomber, Colonel Woods, and others, until the property was purchased by Colonel John Jones. The tavern of the Golden Ball, kept by Isaac Jones (born in 1728), is also mentioned in Howe's Journal. Mr. Jones was a noted Tory, and was reported to have kept General Gage informed of
189
THE TAVERNS
the arms and ammunition held by the Liberty Men throughout this section. Squire Barnes, of Marlboro, also mentioned in Howe's Journal, married a daughter of Mr. Jones, and was also a pronounced Tory. So dangerous and obstinate an opponent to the cause of liberty was Mr. Jones considered that he brought down on himself the following denunciation in the Worcester Convention in 1775 :-
Resolved, That it be earnestly recommended to all the inhabitants of this county, not to have any commercial transactions with Isaac Jones, but to shun his house and person and to treat him with the contempt he deserves.
Mr. Jones died in 1813. The British officers were frequent guests at this tavern, driving out from Boston for suppers and sleighing parties. It was said that General Gage was also of these parties. Rebecca Baldwin, in her highly interesting diary, extending from 1756 to 1787, makes mention in 1773 of a dinner- party at Mr. Savage's at which her husband was invited to meet General Gage and his officers.
Captain Samuel Baldwin, who married for his second wife Re- becca Cotton, daughter of Rev. John Cotton of Newton, in 1762, succeeded Isaac Woolson in the tavern on the Isaac Fiske property. Captain Baldwin figures largely in town affairs through- out the Revolution. At the time of the Shays Rebellion in 1787 the troops from Boston, on their way to Springfield, bivouacked one night along our road, and the officers lodged at the Baldwin tavern. Here Dr. Gowen, of Weston, joined the forces as surgeon, and acted as such until the termination of the trouble. In 1806 Jonas Green kept this tavern, but in 1811 it became the property of Isaac Fiske.
The John Flagg tavern figures in history as the place where General Washington and suite passed the night in 1789, when on their way to Boston. A full account of this will be found in Chapter VII. of this volume. At what date Mr. Flagg began keeping this tavern has not been discovered. The first license on record is that of 1791; but he was the landlord before the Revo- lution, and continued to be such until 1812, when he sold the property to Thomas Stratton, taking up his residence on the prop-
190
HISTORY OF WESTON
erty now owned by Horatio Hews. Mr. Stratton kept the tavern until 1823, when he sold the estate to Alpheus Bigelow, who leased it to Lyman H. Hunter, J. T. Macomber, Dana Bruce, and William Drake, who succeeded each other in rapid succession down to 1830, about which time Mr. Bigelow sold to Mr. James Jones. Mr. Jones kept the tavern until his death, and was succeeded by his son James Jones, at whose death it ceased to be a tavern, and is now the property of Mr. Charles Emerson.
Benjamin Peirce, father and son, kept a tavern down to 1785 in what is now the house of Mr. Beals. The estate in that year was sold by Colonel Samuel Lamson, executor of Mr. Peirce, to Rev. Dr. Kendal for £490 3d.
Previous to the Benjamin Peirce tavern on the site of what is now the Beals house, Mr. Peirce either built or owned a tavern situated on a bridle road running through the present Perry farm, which road connected Weston with Lexington and Reading. The cellar of this old house may still be seen.
There were few houses of any importance in all these years that had not first or last served as taverns. It was the most profit- able business of all country towns along the main arteries of travel. It was not unusual for fifty to one hundred teams to be put up over night at a single tavern. The Lamson house was also a tavern for a while, even down to the death of Colonel Lamson in 1795. Benjamin Peirce, who married Mary Lamson, died there in 1819.
Joseph Russell, son of Thomas Russell, who was born in 1745, and in 1773 married Susannah Upham, kept a tavern for thirty- one years, from 1791 to 1822. How many years before 1791 he may have done so there is no record to show.
The Daggett tavern, so called, was built in 1821 by Charles Wesson. Daggett kept this tavern for twelve years, until 1833, when Davis succeeded him, but it was unoccupied when destroyed by fire in 1844. This tavern was on the Concord road, on the corner of the road to Lincoln. There was also an inn on the opposite corner.
Charles Warren at one time kept the famous Punch Bowl hostelry in Brookline, but sold out and returned to Weston in 1821, and assisted Wesson in building the Daggett tavern The
THE MARSHALL UPHAM HOUSE, ASH STREET.
Supposed to have been built about the year 1700, perhaps even earlier. It was torn down a few years ago by the Metropolitan Water Works, when their new water system was estab- lished.
THE FREDERICK T. BUSH HOUSE, SOUTH AVENUE.
Probably about two hundred years old, and originally known as the old Starr Farm. Formerly owned by Dr. Bowditch, by whom it was sold in 1856 to Frederick T. Bush, who extensively remodelled the house in 1858. It is still owned and occupied by the descendants of Mr. Bush. The photograph is of the old house.
191
THE TAVERNS
property on both sides of the road is still owned by George W. and Cornelius Warren, of Waltham.
Isaac Train kept a tavern on the south side of the town, the estate now of Irving, near the Needham line. Train was landlord for eight years,-from 1802 to 1810.
Daniel Upham, Luther Robbins, Samuel Clark, Joseph Darrah, and T. A. Stone were also licensed innholders in Weston, but their several locations are not stated.
It is deeply to be regretted that much of the jovial and social life within these taverns has not been handed down to us. Gam- bling, or, perhaps more correctly speaking, card-playing, was before the Revolution, and for many years after, a common practice, not by any means confined to any one class of people, but prevailed generally among rich and poor, old and young alike. None would have thought it wrong to stake money or valuables upon the result of games of chance of any sort. In fact, no games were played without a stake, however small.
Lotteries both among individuals and towns, States and col- leges, prevailed everywhere. In 1784 Weston petitioned the General Court for authorization to institute a lottery to raise £1,000 for the purpose of widening the great bridge at Water- town, and a committee was appointed by the town to dispose of the tickets. Isaac Jones would seem to have been the selling agent of these tickets. In 1790 the monthly State lottery was drawn in the chamber of the House of Representatives in Boston. In 1791 Thomas Hancock advertises State lottery tickets for sale, in halves, quarters, and eighths, for a prize of $10,000. Har- vard College raised funds by lottery, and in New York State lotteries were instituted for every conceivable purpose, until finally they became so corrupt that the legislature prohibited them by statute. Private lotteries in churches and fairs have, however, continued down to our own day. About the year 1830 commenced the temperance and anti-card-playing crusade, result- ing in 1838 in the first stringent laws against liquor selling, and especially against retailers. This movement led up to the famous "fifteen-gallon law," the result of which was that, from being obliged to have a large quantity of spirits on hand at one time, old topers were perpetually drunk.
192
HISTORY OF WESTON
With regard to card-playing and games of chance of whatever sort, the habit had become so general and firmly established that all manner of devices were resorted to for the purpose of con- cealment in taverns and public houses. Until within a few years there existed in the attic of Joel Smith's tavern a concealed room, not easily discovered by the uninitiated, in which was a table covered with a green baize cloth, where card-playing was continued as long as the house was a tavern. If report is true, the degenerate sons of early Bible-loving Christians were in the habit of resorting to this unhallowed spot even on the Lord's Day, and, while within reach of the preacher's voice across the way, would deal around the damning cards, now and again seek- ing to drown their quickening consciences in free potations of rum and sugar. While the names of some of these Sabbath- breakers are familiar to our people, suffice it to say, as a consola- tion to those who have forsaken the Calvinism of Dr. Watts or the strict letter of the Westminster Catechism, that many of those so unmindful of the ordinances of religion and propriety were, in after-life, overtaken with great worldly prosperity.
Although the taverns were gradually declining in their business, they continued to exist until about 1830, when the steamboats and railroads rendered stage routes unnecessary and competition un- profitable. Add to these obstacles the increasing restrictions on the sale of spirits, which finally broke down this once interesting and wide-spread business. So great has been the change in this respect in Weston that for more than thirty years there has not been an abiding-place for man or beast in the town outside of private hospitality. There are probably few other towns in the Commonwealth of which this can be said.
APPENDICES.
APPENDIX I.
REV. SAMUEL KENDAL'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. (SEE CHAPTER I.)
Mr. Samuel Kendal's answer delivered in town meeting :-
My Christian Friends,-You having given me a call to settle with you in the gospel ministry may justly expect that I should consider it in a religious view, and give such an answer as may appear to me to be con- sistent with my duty. My answer is important to both you and myself, and to heaven have I looked for direction and earnestly desired to know wherein my duty consisted, with a disposition to conduct accordingly: I have likewise used the ordinary means for obtaining direction by con- sulting many friends, whose advice ought, as in such cases, to be taken and well considered. The first thing to be attended in the call is the minority of the people, this not so great as I could wish. Several whose friendship would afford me peculiar satisfaction, are opposed to my settlement, but, having conversed with the majority of them, I find that their objec- tions are mostly founded upon misinformation and wrong apprehensions with respect to those things to which they object, and considering 'tis not probable the town will be better united in the choice of another, I can by no means suppose it to be my duty to give a negative answer, because some worthy men have not given their votes in favor of me, but I am sorry to say, that the measures taken by some amongst the nays, do, in some degree, lay me under a necessity to accept your call, and were there nothing further to be considered my answer would be affirmative, but it is no less a minister's duty to exercise prudence about those things that tend to his comfort and support, while he is engaged in his ministry, than it is for any denomination of men to provide for the comfort of them- selves and families: and as the salary proposed is thought by all my advisers and by myself, insufficient for the support of a minister, and as the wood offered will not, in my opinion, and the opinion of those who judge from experience be sufficient to maintain the fires that are neces- sary in a family, I must decline accepting your invitation upon the terms offered. Your offers too being less than for years past you found necessary to the support of your late worthy pastor you can hardly suppose that I should be willing to accept the call under the present cir- cumstances. I do not wish to burden the people more than to enable me to do my duty among them, nor would I dispute the generosity of this people more than that of any others, but those that better know than I
196
HISTORY OF WESTON
do what is necessary to support a family do say that what you offer is not sufficient, and therefore you will receive this as a Negative answer, unless such alterations with respect to my support be made as may render it expedient for me to accept your invitation. This answer would have been given some months ago had it not been for the encouragement given me that the offer would be made better at the renewal of my call, so that you will not blame me for keeping you so long in suspense.
I am with love and respect your sincere friend and well wisher,
SAMUEL KENDAL.
The town, having considered Mr. Kendal's answer, voted to grant the sum of £10 in addition to the £80 heretofore granted, and also five cords of woods in addition to the fifteen cords of firewood, which makes in the whole £90 of money and twenty cords of firewood, upon which Mr. Kendal accepts the call.
APPENDIX II.
REV. JOSEPH FIELD'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. (SEE CHAPTERS I. AND IX.)
BOSTON, January 7th, 1815.
My Christian Friends,-The result of your last meeting, and the vote by which you express your desire of my becoming your pastor has been officially announced to me. When I consider the office I am thus invited to accept, the duties which you are calling on me to perform, the char- acter which I am to assume, the relations in which I am to stand towards you, my mind is filled with anxiety and solicitude. I feel that it is no light matter to take upon me the load of a Christian minister. I feel that I am now called upon to decide a question the most important, the most interesting in its effects both to you and myself, whose decision involves subjects of the highest concern; consequences that extend beyond the grave. In forming a connection so lasting, so solemn, so in- timate as that between a minister and people, perhaps more time than you have given might have been desired for reflection and consideration; but the peace and harmony with which you have acted and the unanimity which you have shown has prevented those difficulties which might otherwise have arisen on my mind, and by opening to me the prospect of being useful and successful in my calling has made the path of duty more plain and easy before me. In forming my determination, however, I trust that I have not acted with rashness, nor been influenced by any but the purest motives, and it is not without having first seriously con- sidered the duties of the station and deeply and prayerfully reflected upon the importance of the subject, that I now, with the approbation of those whose opinions are ever to be valued by me, and impelled by the feelings of my own heart, solemnly accept in the presence of that being whose servant I am, and whose cause I am to defend, the invitation you have given me to exercise over you the pastoral charge. In doing this I am sensible of my inability to fulfill so perfectly as I would wish, the many obligations which arise out of the ministerial office, an office which I enter upon with more diffidence, when I reflect upon the ability and faith- fulness with which he discharged its duties whose labors I am to continue. I tremble, indeed, at the great and awful responsibility of the station. But I put my trust in God, and look up to him for strength, for knowledge, for help. And I earnestly hope and trust your prayers, my brethren, may mingle with mine, in imploring our common father and friend, that he will make me sufficient for these things, that the connection in which we are about to engage may be mutually useful, and that having been faithful to each other on earth, we may hereafter meet in another
198
HISTORY OF WESTON
and a better world, and enjoy forever the riches of divine love. With esteem and respect I subscribe myself yours, JOSEPH FIELD, Jr.
At the period of the call and installation of Rev. Mr. Field to the church in Weston in 1815 the long and heated controversy between Orthodoxy and Liberal Christianity may be considered to a certain extent as having culminated in this town; and, upon Mr. Field's occupancy of the Weston pulpit, its Congregational- ism ceased and Unitarianism became the prevailing creed, if so it can be called, of that church. It had become a rule at the latter part of the last century, when ministerial rates formed a part of the town taxes, and when the Baptist and Methodist churches were organized, to evade the taxes so levied for the maintenance of the ministry by declaring or "signing off" to other churches, and, by showing to the Selectmen of the town that they paid the tax for the maintenance of other churches, they were released from the town tax imposed for that purpose. By this means were removed in great part the doctrinal antagonisms which might otherwise have prevailed. That there should be still a sharp dis- play of criticism from many quarters over the new departure in church doctrine was to be expected. One of these criticisms was the charge made against the Unitarians of practising an adroit concealment of the changes of opinions they had under- gone in passing from Orthodoxy to Free Religion, the assigned motive for such concealment as stated being "to deceive an un- suspecting and confiding people" by "secretly undermining the prevailing faith " and "by working under covert towards a result which became too powerful for the people to resist." "Guilty silence had been practiced"; "insinuating methods had been used," etc. Dr. Morse, of Charlestown, published in 1815 a work in which all these explosive charges were made, and then war was indeed opened on the tented field of controversy. So far as Weston was concerned in all this war of creeds, the only re- maining published record which interested the Weston church were the verses written by Henry Pason Kendal, son of Rev. Dr. Kendal, of Weston, in the Concord Gazette of 1830, and addressed to those who say "religion is not preached at the Uni- tarian church in Weston, and is not possessed by its members" :-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.