USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Weston > History of the town of Weston, Massachusetts, 1630-1890 > Part 3
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Concur'd by the Representatives. Consented to, J. DUDLEY.
The Precinct of Lexington was made a township in March, 1712/13, over two months after the town of Weston. In the article of its incorporation a proviso was inserted that Lexington should bear a part of the two-thirds of the charge of the great bridge over Charles River in Cambridge annually. This bridge was built in 1662 (destroyed in 1685). The expense of its main- tenance was apportioned two-sixths upon Cambridge, one-sixth upon Newton, and three-sixths upon Middlesex. In 1733 the second bridge was destroyed by ice, and rebuilt by the sale of town lands belonging to Cambridge. It was again rebuilt in 1862, at the expense of Cambridge and Brighton.
The importance of these bridges and the early mode of reach- ing the town of Boston by carriages and teams will be treated of later on. Weston continued to pay its share toward the main- tenance of the great bridge at Watertown down to the year 1803.
The town of Weston lies twelve miles west of Boston. It meas- ures about five and a half miles north and south and three and a half miles east and west, and contains about eleven thousand
20
HISTORY OF WESTON
acres of land. It originally formed a part of Watertown, settle- ments from which made up what are now Waltham, Weston, and Lincoln. The population of Weston, according to the 1910 census, is 2,259 souls. The town is bounded on the north by Lincoln; on the east by Waltham and Newton, Stony Brook and Charles River being the dividing line (Charles River divides it from Newton); southerly by Wellesley; westerly by Wayland (formerly East Sudbury) and Natick.
The old post-road from Boston to New York passes through the centre of the town, and for many years was one of the most important and best travelled roads of the Union. Over this road, in the mail-coach, travelled John Adams when on his way to Washington to take the oath as President of the United States, as did Daniel Webster and Samuel Dexter when they first went to Congress. They breakfasted in the old tavern on Ball's Hill, in its day one of the most important taverns in Massachusetts, but now gone to decay and condemned. Could the history of this house be told, it would make very interesting reading. Down to very nearly our own day it was famous among the lovers of good cheer, frequented by the Strattons, Rutters, Smiths, and others, who were its constant guests, particularly at night, in the times when card-playing was not looked upon as a vice. The Lancaster turnpike, or, as we call it to-day, the Concord road, passes through the northern part of the town, and in former years was the great thoroughfare between Boston and New Hampshire, and into the Canadas. The Framingham turnpike runs through the southern part of the town, but was of less importance in point of travel. It was over the post-road, so called, in the centre of the town, and over the south (or Framingham) road, that the prisoners, after the surrender at Saratoga, passed on their way to Winter Hill, Somerville, and there still exists in West Newton the bar- room at which the British and American officers stopped on their way, to take a drink. This tap-room is still in very much the same condition as at that period.
Weston is a generally uneven and broken tract of land. High cliffs and rocks are found within its limits. There are still grounds. for believing that Mount Feake and the other very high rock,. mentioned by Governor Winthrop, lie within the Weston boun-
GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND MILITARY ORGANIZATION 21
dary. The town is elevated above the adjacent country, and the views from its heights are unsurpassed by any within twenty miles of Boston. The soil is rich, though in parts rocky. Per- haps one reason of the undeniable salubrity of the town, over nearly every other section of our State, arises from the fact that the substratum of the soil is blue gravel. The hills are full of springs. A number of brooks and rivulets run into streams which empty into Stony Brook and Charles River. These brooks, for the greater part, rise within the town, and are fed by springs. A part of None-such Pond is within the southern limits of the town. The meadows in former days were much used for the ex- traction of peat of excellent quality,-an article now gone out of general use. Snake Rock at Stony Brook, more generally styled "Devil's Den," is a cave which, tradition says, was formerly a place of refuge and deposit for thieves and their plunder.
The inhabitants of Weston are mostly farmers, and perhaps there are few other towns in the Commonwealth where the land has descended from the early settlers to their descendants in such unbroken succession as in the case of Weston. It is pleasant for us of to-day to look back through the lists of the soldiers of the early French and Indian Wars, the patriots of the Revolution, and the men of the sectional war of 1861, and find among them many, very many, of the descendants of the pioneers of the Farmers' District, which came out from Watertown in 1650. Wes- ton can count among its inhabitants many who have distinguished themselves in every walk of life, as soldiers, lawyers, judges, mer- chants. An account of some of these will be found as we go on.
There were no Indian settlements within the bounds of Weston. The country hereabouts was probably used as their hunting- grounds. They had their settlements higher up on the banks of the Charles and Sudbury Rivers. The only tradition of a threatened incursion into the limits of the town relates to the time of the attack on Sudbury in 1676, when the Indians planned the destruction of Watertown and the other settlements. They then penetrated to the western part of the town, and burnt a barn standing on the farm now of Mr. Nahum Smith. It does not appear that any one was killed by them at that time. A few months before the attack on Sudbury, December, 1675, a wwur-
22
HISTORY OF WESTON
rant was issued to the militia of Watertown for impressing "twenty soldiers, with provisions, arms, amunition and cloth- ing," for the defence of the colony. In Captain Mason's return thereto (Mass. Archives, vol. 68, fol. 74) may be seen many names of the inhabitants of Weston, or what was then styled the "Farmers' District." The list follows :---
Names of those who responded.
Those most fit to goe upon the Service.
Daniel Warren Sr.
Daniel Warren Sr.
John Bigulah Sr.
John Bigulah Sr.
Nathaniel Hely
Nathaniel Hely
Joseph Tayntor Jr. John Whitney Sr.
John Whitney Sr.
George Harrington
George Harrington
James Cutting
William Hager Jr. John Parkhurst
Wm. Hager Jr.
John Parkhurst
Michael Flagg
Michael Flagg
Jacob Bullard
Jacob Bullard
Isaac Learned
Isaac Learned
Joseph Waight
Joseph Waight
George Dill William Prior, Jr.
George Dill Jonathan Smith
Wm. Prior Jr.
Nathaniel Sanger Moses Whitney John Windham
Nathaniel Sanger
Moses Whitney
Math Bamsham
Enoch Sawtelle
Joseph Smith
John Bright John Hastings John Bacon
John Barnard
John Chadwick
John Windham John Barnard
Ephraim Gearfield Joseph Smith
Sd HUGH MASON, Watertown.
Jacob Fullam, of Weston, son of Squire Fullam, joined the ex- pedition, commanded by Captain Lovewell, against the "Pequaw- ket" tribe of Indians in 1725. Fullam held the rank of sergeant. This tribe of Indians, with Paugus, their chief, had its home in the White Mountains, on the Saco River in New Hampshire.
Joseph Tayntor
GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND MILITARY ORGANIZATION 23
They were very troublesome, and this expedition was under- taken to capture and destroy them, and also to gain the large bounty offered by the province, of £100 for every Indian scalp. The expedition consisted of about forty men. They were led into an ambush by the savages, and the greater part were killed, in- cluding Captain Lovewell and Sergeant Fullam. Sergeant Fullam is reported to have distinguished himself in this fight. He killed one savage in a hand-to-hand encounter, and, when a second savage came to the rescue of his friend, Fullam and the second savage both fell at the same instant, killed by each other's shot. There was an old song about this fight, one verse of which runs as follows :-
"Young Fullam, too, I'll mention Because he fought so well; Trying to save another man, A sacrifice he fell."
The first steps taken toward a military organization were in September, 1630, induced probably by the danger which was threatening the charter of the province. This charter King Charles was said to be about to withdraw, and the withdrawal, had it been undertaken, would in all probability, in the then temper of the colony, have brought matters to an early crisis. The complications in which the British king found himself engaged on the Continent of Europe about this time led to the American colonies being for a time forgotten.
In 1636, at the time of the Pequot War, a more general organi- zation of the militia took place. In this year all able-bodied men in the colony were ranked into three regiments, the Middle- sex regiment being under command of John Haines. In 1637 lieutenants and ensigns were appointed for the train-bands in the towns. Information concerning these train-bands is difficult to obtain. Neither town nor county records give any very satis- factory information of them at this early date. All persons above the age of sixteen were required to take the oath of fidelity, and that was probably the age when they became subject to military duty. It was not uncommon for men to hold office in the mili- tary service to a very advanced age. In fact, they were never too old for duty.
24
HISTORY OF WESTON
In 1643 the danger from the Indians and the scattered popu- lation of the township led to the league of the four colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven, under the title of "the United Colonies of New England." These four States, or colonies, contained thirty-nine townships, with a population of about 24,000 inhabitants. In 1648 the Narragan- sett settlers asked leave to join the confederacy; but they were refused, as not having any stable government. Of the 24,000 people in the confederacy, 15,000 belonged to Massachusetts, while the three other colonies had a population of only about 3,000 each. In 1643 the thirty towns of Massachusetts were divided into four counties,-Middlesex, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk,-each county, as before said, containing a regiment, the chief commander of which held the rank of lieutenant, and the second in command was styled sergeant-major. The history of the Middlesex regiment, which more particularly interests Wes- ton, will be found in its place. The train-bands organized at this time in every part of the colony were intended for any public service in which they could be utilized. But, out of the total number in the train-band, one-third were set apart under the title of "Alarm Men." These men were to be ready at a moment's notice to repel any Indian invasion of the town or settlement. They were the home guard, and never went on expeditions calling the train-band away from home. They were reported separately on the "return lists" which the commander of the train-band was required to send to his colonel or superior officer. Some of these lists will be found later on in this volume. The "Alarm Men" took their arms to the fields when they worked at a dis- tance from home. They took their guns to meeting on Sunday, and stacked them in the church during divine service. After meeting they were formed in front of the church and inspected by the captain of the train-band (under whose orders they were, as forming part of his company), and in his absence by one of the deacons of the church. Every man was provided with a certain amount of powder and ball, furnished by the precinct, and, if any of the precinct ammunition had been used in hunting or other- wise, the delinquent was made to pay for such ammunition. All the early settlers were famous marksmen. The rifle was their
GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND MILITARY ORGANIZATION 25
usual weapon. One of the most frequent sources of complaint against the "Alarm Men," as well as the men of the train-band, was the illegitimate use of powder and ball in hunting and turkey matches. Turkey shootings in the fall of the year formed a favor- ite amusement, and continued all over New England down to 1840. The matches would now be considered as against law, and come under the head of cruelty to animals, but in their day they served an excellent purpose and made good marksmen, as many a bloodthirsty Indian could (if alive) attest. Even boys at twelve and thirteen years of age were familiar with gun and rifle, and were excellent shots. The change from this school of the soldier, as it certainly was in early days, was very perceptible in the War of 1861. It was then found that a large percentage of the agri- cultural contingents were utterly ignorant of the first principles of loading and firing a gun, and in this respect were very much inferior to the rank and file of the enemy. At a later period, when the danger from Indian incursions had passed, the "alarm list," taken from companies, still continued, and, as we approach the Revolutionary period, they were styled "Minute Men," and were held in readiness against the British, as were their fathers against the savages. The company returns still contained the "alarm list and minute men" down to about 1800.
John Speen and his Indian kindred, who owned 16,000 acres of land, described as the Indian plantation of "Naticke," were in- duced by the General Court to give up their title freely in 1650, and their consideration was the "bettering of their souls" (!), re- serving the right to take up lots after the English fashion, and also in the turbary, piscary, and staveries.
From 1700 until 1715 there were continual petitions from the towns about Natick for a division of this Indian commonage at Natick; and finally Adam Winthrop, Governor John Leverett, Judge Sewall, and the overseers of Harvard College formed the scheme of settling an English missionary at Natick. The heirs of the Speens were found, and those of the chief praying Indians of Eliot's day,-in all about nineteen families. The Indian missionary, Rev. Oliver Peabody, was made a "co-heir" with them, making twenty proprietors of John Speen's 19,000 acres. Hon. Francis Fullam, of Weston, a justice of the Middlesex
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HISTORY OF WESTON
Court, was intrusted with the business of forming the proprietor- ship; and he selected Samuel Jones, of Weston, to survey the land, a task he had completed by 1716. By 1719 the proprietor- ship had got into working order, and it was announced that the minister should receive his portion, the chiefs 60 acres apiece, all others 30 acres, and 100 acres should be set apart for the min- istry. Elijah Goodnow was proprietors' clerk. In 1799 the town took possession of the ministerial lot, and erected a meeting- house upon it, the first meeting-house belonging to the town, all former meeting-houses being missionary affairs.
III.
CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION AND FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS.
We have seen, in the preceding chapter, that the Farmers' District, or what is now Weston, was made into a legal precinct in 1698, with all the rights, privileges, and duties which go with a precinct organization. It has been shown that, after some delays and difficulties which arose concerning the settlement of a min- ister over the Farmers' church, Rev. William Williams was chosen pastor in 1709, and that soon after, in 1710, the Weston church was fully organized by the choice of deacons and the signing of the covenant by the eighteen members who then formed the church. The church records are full and complete in all that pertains to organization and matters purely ecclesiastical, by which is meant the record of births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths. They are of great value to us of the present day. The careful entry of all things pertaining to church matters is in perfect keep- ing with the exalted character of its eminent pastors,-Williams, Woodward, and Kendal. With all the above, and valuable as the church records are to-day, we have no precinct records down to the separation of Lincoln from Weston in 1746, a period of forty-eight years. We shall find in the next chapter that the town after its incorporation in 1712 performed all the functions which may have belonged to a precinct down to the year 1746, when a precinct record was begun, but continued only for the period of eight years, when its records again are merged into the town records, and entirely cease to exist. Whatever precinct records may have existed, and probably did exist, previous to the year 1746, are entirely lost, along with the records of the town.
The Lincoln petition to be set off from Weston was made in 1742, but was not granted until 1746. The petition of the people of what is now Lincoln to be set off into a separate precinct grew, as we have seen, out of the great difficulties they labored
28
TOWN OF WESTON
under of reaching the place of public worship in Weston, in con- sequence of the bad condition of the roads leading thereto, and the great distance from their homes they were obliged to travel, which in winter particularly rendered the proper observance of the Lord's Day impossible to them. Although the petition of these people was presented to the General Court in 1742, it was not until 1744, August 16, that the order granting their prayer was issued in the shape of the following document :-
Read and ordered that the Petitioners serve the Towns of Concord, Lexington and Weston with copies of this petition, that so they show cause if any they have, on the first Tuesday of the next sitting of this Court, why the prayer thereof should not be granted.
Sd J. CUSHING, Speaker.
The town of Weston made no objections to the separation or to the bounds regulating that precinct. At the time of the above separation the inhabitants of Weston addressed a petition to Edward Trowbridge, Esq., justice of the peace, for a precinct warrant. In the warrant that he issues he states that the inhab- itants had "never yet assembled." It must be borne in mind that this was forty-eight years after Weston had been made a precinct and thirty -four years after the incorporation of the town.
MIDDLESEX, SS.
WESTON, November 19th, 1746.
To EDWARD TROWBRIDGE, Esq., one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace of the County of Middlesex.
Whereas by an order of the Great and General Court of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, passed the 26th day of April last, a number of the Inhabitants of Weston with others, inhabitants of Concord and Lexington, are set off to be a precinct and thereby the remaining part of the said town of Weston is an entire parish. Therefore we are to request that your honor would issue a warrant for calling the first precinct meet- ing in the first precinct of Weston to choose precinct officers as the law directs.
JAMES MIRICK JONATHAN BULLARD
NATHANIEL ALLEN ABIJAH UPHAM
JOHN WALKER
JOHN HASTINGS
DANIEL LIVERMORE
ELISHA JONES
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CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION
MIDDLESEX, SS.
TO JOHN WALKER of Weston in said County, yeoman, Greeting.
Whereas application has been made to me the subscriber by more than five of the Freeholders of the First Precinct in Weston in writing, under their hands, for calling a meeting of the inhabitants of said precinct, never yet assembled.
You are hereby in his Majesty's name required to notify ye free holders and other inhabitants of said precinct qualified to vote in town affairs, that they assemble at ye public meeting house in Weston aforesaid, on Thursday ye eleventh day of December next at 2 o'clock afternoon. Then and there, first, to choose a Moderator of ye said meeting and then to choose a clerk to enter and record all such votes and orders as from time to time shall be made and passed in said precinct, and also a Committee for ye calling meetings of the said precinct in the future.
Sd EDWARD TROWBRIDGE, J. P. WESTON, December 11th, 1746.
MIDDLESEX, SS.
In obedience to this warrant I have notified the Inhabitants within mentioned to meet at ye within mentioned time and place for ye ends within mentioned.
Sd JOHN WALKER.
At the meeting, as above warned, which assembled on the twenty-fifth day of December, 1746, Mr. John Walker was chosen moderator, and Elisha Jones, Nathan Fisk, and John Walker assessors. At this meeting no treasurer was elected, but in the March meeting the following year Elisha Jones was made clerk and treasurer, and Ensign Joseph Woolson was chosen to take care of the meeting-house.
An interesting precinct meeting took place on the 25th of March, 1751. Francis Fullam presided, and after solemn prayer to God for his direction and assistance in so weighty a matter as the choice of a minister of the gospel to settle with them it was voted to invite Mr. Samuel Woodward to settle in the ministry of the church, the vote standing sixty-eight in favor, and not a vote for any other person. Deacon "Perkhurst," Deacon Allen, and Deacon Upham were made a committee to desire Mr. Williams, the former pastor, to deliver to the committee the church covenant, records, and papers which belonged to the church and which were in his keeping. It was also voted at the April meeting to give Mr. Woodward, as an encouragement to
30
HISTORY OF WESTON
settle with them, the sum of £133 6s. 8d. At the fall meet- ing of 1752, in concurrence with the church, it was again voted to give a call to Mr. Woodward, and the vote stood eighty in favor and none for any other person. His yearly salary was fixed at £66 13s. 4d. for such time as he should remain in the work of the gospel ministry. Colonel Fullam, Deacon Parkhurst, Deacon Allen, Deacon Upham, and Captain Jones had been pre- viously chosen a committee to wait upon Mr. Woodward and acquaint him with the votes of the precinct. His letter is dated Newton, June 4, 1751.
TO THE CHURCH AND CONGREGATION IN WESTON:
Gentlemen,-It is some considerable time since you were pleased to honour me with an Invitation to settle with you in the Ministry, which was backed with a desire that my resolution of the matter might be as speedy as was consistant with prudence. Wherefore, gentlemen, after my hearty thanks for the favourable opinion you have conceived of my labours, I would inform you that although your circumstances seemed to call for a sudden answer, yet the work you call me to engage in (as it appears to me) is of such moment, that the most mature consideration can't be more than it deserves. I have therefore been asking that wisdom from above that is profitable to direct: and I have kept you in suspense the longer because in the multitude of counsellors there is safety: and am now ready to inform you that the unanimity of your call appears matter of great encouragement to me, and affords a happy prospect of the good success of my ministry: and notwithstanding your circum- stances are something peculiar, yet I hope the consideration of duty would be more than a counterbalance for all the difficulties which at present appear. But, gentlemen, you are all, I presume, sensible of the great inconvenience and danger there is in a minister's being dependent upon the favour of his people. He must needs then have a great tempta- tion to unfaithfulness: lest otherwise he hurt his private interests. Wherefore as I propose to devote myself (by the grace of heaven) to the service of that people's souls whose minister I am: so I desire that if I sow unto them spiritual things, it may not be thought a great thing (by them) if I so far reap of their carnal things as to render my life com- fortable. And now, gentlemen, notwithstanding your proposals as to the nominal sums seem to be considerable: yet who is there among your- selves, were he to estimate what he spends in his family, that would not find that were he to purchase all by the penny, it would cost him more than sixty six pounds, thirteen shillings and four pence per annum? Gentlemen, upon consideration that you propose this without any privi- leges or perquisites which are common in other towns (I mean with
THE OLD JONES TAVERN, CENTRAL AVENUE.
It was formerly owned by Ephraim Bigelow, and later by William Smith and his de- scendants. His grandson, Joel Smith, occupied the tavern before the Revolution, and it is here that Howe, the British spy, was traced by the Liberty Men of Weston (see page 77). Later the property was purchased by Colonel John Jones, whose descendants still own and occupy it.
YK
THE ARTEMAS WARD HOUSE, CENTRAL AVENUE.
Built about 1785 by two brothers named Eaton, and purchased about 1789 by Artemas Ward, son of General Artemas Ward, of Revolutionary fame. Through various purchases it became in 1836 the property of Mr. Benjamin Pierce, Sr., and is still owned and occupied by his descendants.
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CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION
respect to a parsonage or any donations in lands or buildings or with regard to wood), and upon consideration that yours must needs be a place of great expense because near a great road, my best friends in, as well as out of, the ministry assure me from their own experience that I can by no means live with your offers. And now upon the whole, gentlemen, I think that nothing short of the addition of thirty cords of wood and in some other way a valuable consideration more to my yearly salary can be sufficient encouragement for my acceptance of your call. . .. Sd SAMUEL WOODWARD.
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