USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Framingham > Memorial of the bi-centennial celebration of the incorporation of the town of Framingham, Massachusetts, June, 1900 > Part 15
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
In 1733- I hate to speak of these things - but with that degree of impartiality which is expected of those who stand
197
THE BANQUET
in places similar to that in which I stand, having heard so much in praise of the ancestry of this town, I think it is well to mention one or two entries I found in history which satisfied me that you have a long-headed Committee of preparation.
In 1733 this town was indicted for not having a decent house of public worship. The trouble was not because they were so irreligious, but because they were so anxious about it that they could not agree where to put it.
In 1748 or 1750 this town was indicted for not having a suitable grammer school, and paid a fine of eleven pounds seven shillings ; and thereafter the records are full of votes to build schoolhouses. A year or two after this indictment for not having a house of public worship I read in the town records that seven persons were appointed a committee to prepare suitable things for the raising of a meeting-house, and among those suitable things were three barrels of rum, three barrels of cider, five barrels of beer, and such meat and other articles as were needed; and then follows a sentence which shows the shrewdness of our ancestors, as well, perhaps, as some of the customs of the times - when they say that the committee are to see to it that nobody partakes of these things at the raising except those who help do the raising.
When I look at the ancestry of New England I prefer to look at them as they are, with all their peculiarities, with all their faults, if you please, for they had them; and I always delight in picturing before me that life which was lived in New England by the yeomanry of that New England two hundred years ago. And the life was the same, whether you were the celebrated town of Ipswich in the County of Essex, Rochester in the County of Plymouth, or Fram- ingham in the County of Middlesex.
What manner of men were they that got up in the morning here and went to bed at night? They would all have been asleep at this time two hundred years ago. Have you ever tried to picture it? What time did they get up in the morn- ing; what did they have for breakfast; and how in the world did the good house-wife cook it; what did they have
198
TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
on the table for dishes; how did they light the fire; how did they keep it in cold weather; and what did they do when it went out ? What time in the day did the man and his family go to work ; what time did they sit down to breakfast ; and you may be sure there was a large table there, and well surrounded with children. If he ploughed where did he get his plough? If he hoed, where did he get his hoe? If he raked where did he get his rake? How did he tell what time it was; and when he got through with his work what in the world did he find to amuse himself with ?
I never feel satisfied to know any man or woman until I find out how they pass the time when not at work - I want to find what their recreations are. What were the recreations of our ancestors? I never tire of asking these questions, and I wonder why it is that somebody, in all the town histories of the Commonwealth, has not reproduced in its minutest detail the actual life- not the figurative life we get so much excited over - but the actual life which was led by the men and women of those times in its minutest detail. He who could write that up and put it before us in all its vividness would write a book which would be read by all. As Rufus Choate said more than sixty years ago-" What we want is a corps of novelists who in their stories drawn from the pictures of that time will show us, and bring to us, all the life which those men and women led."
They were wonderful men and women - wonderful when you come to take their faults into consideration. They were earnest men ; the peculiarity of the period was earnestness. There was not much time for anything else. The woman was occupied in the duties of the household ; frequently she had a large number of children, and undoubtedly had to make whatever bread they had to eat with a child under the left arm, supported by the hip. The men - many of them - had no time as we have for recreation : it was an earnest life, hard to live.
They also had the sense to see that it was important to know how to read, write, and cipher. I doubt if they ever reflected much upon the consequences of their act; they were content to lead their simple lives in their simple way,
199
THE BANQUET
and let the consequences take care of themselves. They builded better than they knew.
And they were a God-fearing race. I do not know but that we are just as good as they were in that respect, but I sometimes have my doubts ; and I am inclined to think that if one of them was to live in these present times he would consider the race degenerated.
They were a law-abiding race, as every race is which is intelligent and which is religious. If one of our ancestors had seen in the street a police officer- no, they didn't have them ; it was the constable or something like that-if he had seen one of them in conflict with a man, instinctively, without asking a question, he would have gone to the assistance of the officer; and that, ladies and gentlemen, that little incident would indicate the law-abiding nature of the community.
I often think I should like to see the old church, the old church in this town, or any other town, that was indicative of the period, with the men and women ranged on one side and the other ; with the slaves - or a place for them if there were slaves ; for in this town, as in many of the Commonwealth, the place for the slaves was in the gallery.
And the old tithing-man looking at every boy and girl, to see that not a smile came on their faces whatever happened. And your records will show a vote by this town that if an unruly boy or girl in church did not respond quickly to one stamp by the tithing-man (the clap of the foot upon the floor) then his name was to be called.
Why, those old and curious incidents, gentlemen - I always take up too much time when I get to talking on them. (A voice- "Go on, go on ") No-I won't go on. I only want to say that if two hundred years from now our de- scendents can say so much in praise of us, and so little in adverse criticism, as we can say of our ancestors of two hundred years ago- safe will be our memory.
THE TOASTMASTER. - The next toast is - "Colonial Days and Times." It is very difficult for us to realize the condition of our Town in the days of its early history ;
200
TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
its trackless forests, impassable swamps, and unbridged streams; its few dwellings widely scattered and rude in construction ; the primitive, monotonous mode of life, the con- stant dread of wild beasts and Indians, the incessant vigilance which was the price of life.
As time went on the wild beasts and Indians disappeared, but it was long before life became what we should term worth living.
There is present with us tonight an honored official of Massachusetts who has spent much time in the study of the records of the past, and I ask the Honorable William M. Olin, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to respond to the toast - "Colonial Days and Times."
ADDRESS OF WILLIAM M. OLIN.
Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen : - You have wit- nessed one of the most remarkable pageants of the year. You have come here and listened to the oratory of my friend, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and others, and of course you are tired.
Now, I do not want to inflict myself upon you at any length ; I am not going to tell you about Colonial times and days to any extent. His honor, Mr. Justice Hammond, has covered that, but he did not say a word about the judiciary. He pitched into Framingham a little, and told you how your town was twice fined, but he did n't tell you how one of the the magistrates in those days was fined for non-attendance at court; and how another, Sir Richard Saltonstall, was cen- sured for whipping a man without due authority from the Court. Now, that is the sort of thing which the judicial mind can overlook while it sees all the faults in the Town of Framingham.
As I have said, I do not propose to occupy a great deal of time with my subject. It is altogether too large. I am some- what in the position of the very small tenor in an opera company, whose. part required him to carry off bodily from the stage the prima-donna, a lady who weighed 250 pounds. After exerting all his strength in vain he heard a voice in the gallery say, "Take what you can, old man, and come
Memorial Library
Framingham Common and Town Hall
ـر
201
THE BANQUET
back for the rest." I propose to touch a little on my subject and come back a hundred years from tonight - as Secretary of the Commonwealth - and I expect to find here on that occasion our venerable friend Mr. Bird still presiding over your town meeting; I expect to see my honored friend still presiding over the House, though they will be tired of him before that time. I shall expect to see my friend Elder, fresh from inspecting the Yale football team, and I am sure he will have one eye way back in Boston, fixed on the Westminster Chambers, and that you will hear him softly singing : - " All I want is a little bit off the top."
I am not going to eulogize the people who lived in the old days. I cannot do it conscientiously, and I am going to show you why. I have a very formidable mass of manuscript here, but there goes two pages (throwing paper on the table), and there goes two more; and that brings me down to a little extract from the archives showing how dearly our ancestors loved the Indian, and how gently they treated him.
This is a proclamation by his Excellency William Shirley, Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief, etc. It is entitled - A Proclamation for the Encouragement of Volunteers, to prosecute the War against the St. John and Cape Sable Indians. That sounds well-" for the encouragement of volunteers," and the way they encouraged volunteers in those days was to offer out of the public treasury to "any company, party or person singly of His Majesty's subjects, belonging to or residing in this province, who shall volun- teer, and at their own proper cost and charge go out and kill a male Indian of the age of twelve years or upwards," of certain tribes, after the 28th of October and before the last day of June, (you will notice there was a close season on Indians) in any place eastward of a line to be fixed by the Governor and His Majesty's Council, and produce his scalp in evidence of his death, the sum of one hundred pounds-in bills-of-credit of this province; and the sum of a hundred and five pounds in said bills for any male of like age who shall be taken captive, and delivered to the Captain-General; and the sum of fifty pounds for what ? - for women, and a
.
202
TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
like sum for children under the age of twelve years, killed in fight; and fifty-two pounds for such of them as shall be taken prisoner.
Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, what would be thought of the United States Government today making such a procla- mation as that, and offering a bounty for scalps of women and children ?
Here is something which I think will appeal to the ladies : here is a petition : - these are all copied direct from the original documents in the State House - here is something dated the 28th of May, 1653; it is a petition addressed to the Honorable Deputy-Governor and the magistrates. It comes from William Thompson, and he says that - " Whereas your petitioner being a stranger to the laws of this government did make a motion of marriage to Sarah Coyen, and was ignorant that he might not lawfully have done so without first acquainting her friends therewith, not knowing any friend she then had, but as soon as he understood thereof he repaired unto them to acquaint them thereon and gain their consent and approbatum therein ; notwithstanding your pris- oner is presented for so speaking to her, and is to pay a fine of five pounds, the which your petitioner beseeches may be remitted, it being done through ignorance, and far from thought of offence therein to any -and he shall humbly pray for your happiness long to continue."
What did the magistrates do? They abated fifty shillings of his fine, with the gallant Deputy's consent ; and so it cost this honest fellow only $17.00 to make an honorable proposal of marriage to a girl.
Here is something the ladies may be interested in: they undertook to regulate the dress of men and of women. In the records of the General Court held at Newtown, September 3, 1664, it is set down that the Court, taking into consideration the great, superfluous and unnecessary expense occasioned by some new and immodest fashion, as also the ordinary wearing of silver, gold, silk, laces, hat-bands, etc., hath therefore ordered that no person shall make or buy any garment, either woolen, silk, linen, with any lace on or silver, gold, silk, or either, under penalty of forfeiture of such
203
THE BANQUET
clothes. Also that no person, either man or woman, shall make or buy any slashed clothes, other than one slash in each sleeve and another in the back.
Now I am not going to weary you further. There is the record. I do not mean to say it is a complete picture of that day. I revere the character of those men ; we all honor that sturdy virtue and those magnificent lives that set an example for us today. I read these records to show you there are some advantages of living now. I shall not occupy your time in any attempt to make comparisons. I would only, if I made such an attempt, try to say something to the effect that while we study those old times with veneration, we should not feel that all the virtue existed then and not now ; we should think that while we may emulate their virtues- we should avoid the absurdities into which they fell; that we should look forward rather than back; - that we should remember - and it seems to me that this is the whole lesson, that the life of today is of chief importance and that
"They indeed are blest Who strive to make for others the present days the best."
Mr. Chairman :- It is my pleasant duty to present to the Town of Framingham this copy, engrossed upon parchment, of the original order of the General Court, establishing the Township of Framingham from the Plantation of the same name. I tender it to you, sir, in the name of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts.
The copy of the Act of Incorporation of Framingham as a Town, here referred to by Secretary Olin, has been framed and hung in one of our Town Offices. It is reproduced upon the following page, as nearly as can be done in type.
RESPONSE OF CHAIRMAN GOODELL.
Mr. Secretary :-- In behalf of the Town of Framingham I beg to accept this record copy of the incorporated be- ginning of the Town; I extend the thanks of the Town, assuring you it will always be kept in the archives to commemorate this action, and your kindness and generosity.
204
TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
At a Great and General Court or Assembly for his Matys Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England begun and held at Boston upon Wednesday the Twenty ninth of May 1700 In the twelfth year of his Matys Reign being convened by his Matys Writts.
IN COUNCIL
JUNE 2 1St 1700
Upon a full hearing of the matters in difference between the Town of Sherborn and the inhabitants of the Plantation of Framingham containing all that Tract of Land formerly granted to Thomas Danforth Esq' next adjoyning to Sher- born upon the North & Northerly .-
ORDERED,
That the said Plantation called Framingham be from henceforth a Township, retaining the name of Framing- ham and have and Enjoy all priviledges of a Town according to Law. Saveing unto Sherborn all their rights of Land granted by the General Court to the first Inhabitants and those since purchased by Exchange with the Indians of Natick or otherwise, And all the Farmes lying within the said Township according to former Grants of the General Court.
ISA ADDINGTON Secr'y.
Sent down for concurrence. June 22th 1700 In the House of Representatives. Read. June 24th Read, and Voted a Concurrence.
JOHN LEVERETT Speaker.
[Consented to by the Governor June 25, 1700.]
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS Office of the Secretary.
Boston, June 8, 1900.
A true copy.
Seal
Witness the Seal of the Commonwealth WM. M. OLIN Secretary of the Commonwealth.
205
THE BANQUET
THE TOASTMASTER. - With the founders of New Eng- land the interest of education came next after the interests of religion and civil government and the public school soon became a factor in every community. This was the case in Framingham. We read in the Town records under date of Sept. 3, 1706, as follows :
" Voted that Deacon Joshua Hemenway should be our school master for the year ensuing and that Benjamin Bridges and Peter Clayes, Jr. should agree with him what he should have for his pains." Nothing is recorded as to what the Deacon's pupils should have for their "pains."
This is the first record relative to public school instruction in this Town, but the good cause went on here, as throughout New England, and today we point with pride to the amount of money we annually expend for educational purposes.
The free public school is a New England institution and should receive recognition here tonight, and I ask the Rev. Henry G. Spaulding to respond to the toast, "The New England School."
REV. HENRY G. SPAULDING.
Mr. Toastmaster : - I am very sure if you had lived in those days we are thankful we did not live in, (after hearing the last speaker) you certainly would have been punished for one thing you have done tonight ; being so late in coming to school this evening.
In rising to speak for the "Framingham Schools " I am reminded of the small scholar who on being asked to define sins of omission said, " They're the sins you ought to have committed and haven't." Among the sins I ought to have committed and haven't is going to school in this grand old town. To make up for this deficiency I once gave to the good people of the First Parish, when I was their pastor, such corrective influences as I could bring from having received my early education in the schools and academies of Vermont.
In these delightful anniversaries we are facing backward in order to look forward. We are asking the 18th and the 19th centuries to give their message to the 20th century. Here
208
TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
in Framingham the schoolboy with his satchel and his shining morning face has crept unwillingly or hastened gladly to the schoolhouse for nearly 200 years. I say for nearly this period ; for the first schoolhouse was not built until 16 years after the Town was incorporated ; although before this, in 1706, Deacon Joshua Hemenway began to receive the scholars into his own house and was paid a small sum for his pains. By 1750 the district school system was fully established. This was looked upon at the time as a great improvement upon the previous system of the moving school; that is, of school sessions held during different parts of the year in different sections of the Town; the solitary school-building being only one of those numerous places where the school was kept.
At the beginning of the present century an important step forward was taken for the better schooling of the young, the establishing of the Framingham Academy. Finally, about the year 1850 the mixed system of the Academy and the District Schools gave place to the present system of graded schools, the Academy becoming in the new order the High School of the Town. This is the merest outline sketch of an institution which has done more than any other except its parent, the Church, to mould the character of the people of Framingham. How shall I give color to this outline and make of it a glowing picture? Let me, for a moment, decline into rhyme, and set before you the New England Schoolhouse as I knew it half a century ago. Why it was usually set upon a slight elevation above the road and why the ridiculously small building, hardly ever more than 25 feet square, with its four little windows and its two fire-places or air-tight stoves, was generally painted red, are among the mysteries of the Past, which are past our finding out.
My verses bear the title
THE LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOUSE.
How plainly I see, through the vista extended From manhood's clear heights to the mystical rill Whence the river of childhood its channel descended, The little red schoolhouse that stood on the hill !
207
THE BANQUET
Within, the rude desks and the benches still ruder, The platform on which stood the throne of our queen : No view were complete that did not include her, That gentlest of tyrants the world has e'er seen.
How she loved us, and how, when she pleased, she would scold us;
With our blunders and follies she patiently bore ;
In our griefs, to her heart she would fondly enfold us, And, again, use the rod till we (silently) swore !
She taught us arithmetic, reading and writing, And hardest of all, tried to teach us to spell ; Promotions and merits she made all inviting, And spurred our ambitions in deeds to excel.
But the little red schoolhouse we went to in childhood Had attractions surpassing all those the books gave ; We remember our playmates, the walks through the wildwood
With the girl that we loved, who made us her slave !
What fun we all had, on the cold winter mornings, When booted and muffled, we started for school ; And hitched our small sleds, unmindful of warnings, To the swift gliding sleighs- disobeying the rule !
And how joyous we were, when the springtide returning Brought the songs of the birds, with the blossoms of May, And the out-of-door sports, which, all weariness spurning, We played after school, till the night caught the day.
Oh visions of joy unshadowed by sorrows - Of Love, that knew nothing save Love's fair young dream -
Of Hope, that saw only the gladsome tomorrows - Aud Faith, that believed things are what they seem ; -
Ye gladdened our hearts, the old trust renewing, As again with the raptures of boyhood they thrill ; E'en as when, in life's morning, our tasks still pursuing, We were happy and free, at the school on the hill !
.
208
TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
The American public school is one of the safeguards of the republic. We justify our system of taxing everybody to pay for the elementary education of everybody's children on the ground that this is required for the security of the state and the nation. But what the public school has accom- plished in the past two centuries shows, I think, that it makes for progress as well as for safety. Indeed, if we follow its development in this single New England town we can see how it has kept pace with the general advance of the people in knowledge and in culture, an advance which the school itself has done much to promote. Your school- teacher today may be no sturdier in physique, no stronger in character and no more painstaking in service than was the good Deacon Hemenway of two hundred years ago. But he or she (and usually she) knows a vast deal more about the universe and about the human mind and the human body and is far more sensitive to the beauty and the power which God's great world reveals. Indeed, of such a teacher we may say, in Goldsmith's familiar lines : -
"And still the wonder grows, That one small head can carry all she knows."
In looking at the records of the Framingham schools I am gratified to find that the common school has kept well in touch with the higher seats of learning, - the Academy, the Normal School and the University. In the early days many of the teachers of the district schools were graduates of Harvard College. Later on several of the most prominent men and women in the town were educated at the Academy ; while the Academy, and afterward the Normal School, fur- nished the Town with a goodly succession of well-trained teachers. Let us remember that it is always from these seats of the higher learning that the common school receives not only its best teachers, but also educational impulse and guidance.
Security and progress I have said are the ends which the American school promotes -the security of the nation against ignorance and vice and the progress of the nation toward a higher average of trained intelligence. If the
-
209
THE BANQUET
spectacle were not so familiar as to pass unnoticed, the swift transformation of the raw material of the foreign elements of our population into respectable American citizens would almost seem to be a modern miracle. The process is like the culture of the orange crop in southern California. By a wise system of irrigation the water is brought from the mountain springs to the roots of thousands of trees and then all the water comes out orange juice. So, we irrigate the children of our immigrants with the knowledge that flows from our common schools and the product is good citizenship. As a result the Republic is safeguarded and " government of the people by the people and for the people " is preserved.
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.