USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Woburn > Proceedings 1892 at the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Woburn, Massachusetts > Part 13
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
ADDRESS OF REV. ELIJAH HARMON.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, - I am very happy on this occasion to respond in behalf of Woburn's eldest daughter, the good old town of Wilmington. She brings this day her warmest salutations and well-wishings to her revered mother, so aged, and yet so young ; so crowned with honors, and yet so tenderly mindful of her first-born child.
I am not a little surprised, Mr. President, that, according to your testimony, which I am quite sure none for a moment would think to call in question, this daughter was married on the day that history has recorded as the day of her birth.
Hereafter let us do justice to this vigorous child in recording the fact that she was born, married, and settled down to house- keeping all in one day. The nick-name "Goshen," still adheres in the western part of the town, appropriately enough, as it would seem. But why the northern part received the appellation " Nod" (meaning wandering), none can tell. Some are begin- ning to fancy that the name got misplaced, and really belongs to Andover Hill near by.
Wilmington is still an agricultural town as of old. But we have changed front somewhat. We have given up the raising of hops, and have taken to cranberries instead. The Baldwin apple, originating on one of our farms, and of world-wide reputa- tion, is still cultivated, but its glories are beginning to be eclipsed by more promising youngsters. And various other products of the farm have come to fare in a similar manner.
And yet, Mr. President, you have hit the nail on the head in referring to our annual fair as indicating that the farming interest
180
1
0
se 1g
.
S
it
n
in
a-
be
er
in
est
Rev. ELIJAH HARMON.
October 7.]
still prevails. The annual fair of the Farmers and Mechanics' Club is on a broad basis, and is intended to represent all the industrial interests of the town. Seventeen years it has held on its prosperous way, and next year, if Deacon Sheldon and Mr. Porter Pearson and a dozen more like them hold on their good way, it will be better than ever, and you all will do well to stick a pin in your almanac against the date so as not to forget it.
Farming in Wilmington is well buttressed by other interests. For many years a large leather manufacturing industry has pros- pered without the drawback of strike or failure. It is just now under a cloud, but will doubtless be in the sunshine again ere long.
The products of our forests are large, and bid fair to continue an important element of our prosperity. From twenty to thirty of our most resolute and enterprising men are in the meat business ; some of them doubtless coining good honest money in selling good honest meat at your doors. Quite a number of our people are clerking or doing business on their own account in Boston, and others are in railroad work of various grades.
Wilmington has had the reputation of being staid and non- progressive. But from all that I can gather, I see not why she may not be clearly identified as a genuine chip of the old block.
You have gotten on a little more polish, but it is one and the same substance underneath. You are conservative, so is she ; you are progressive, so is she ; you are growing rapidly, and she will be doing so long before she comes to wear the crown of two hundred and fifty years as you now do. You had the start of us by ninety years ; give us ninety years more and you shall see great things.
We will be having, by that time, our City Charter, with the omnipresent policeman striding on his beat from Goshen to Nod, our population rounding up a full fourteen thousand or more, instead of a scant thirteen hundred, our business blocks, our palatial residences, our doctors of divinity, our electric lights and motors, our horse cars and electric cars, our banks and law offices, our superb dry goods and boot and shoe stores, - every- thing that you have now, we will have then, except your saloons and things akin which God grant we may steer clear of forever.
181
[Friday,
You look incredulous, but you must come to know that Wilming- ton is moving. We have gained about three hundred inhabitants in six years. Within seven years, we have built seventy dwelling houses, an average of ten a year. We are getting the taxes up to fifteen and one half dollars per thousand; is not this a sign that we are moving? The number of school children, now five hundred and fifty, is steadily increasing, and we are expending upwards of three thousand dollars annually in their education.
The grading of the schools is being perfected. We have re- cently built a high school building, heated by steam and furnished, at an expense of seventy-five hundred dollars. We have a public library of nearly two thousand volumes. We are getting a solid reputation for good roads, and for a beautifully kept cemetery, with land recently bought on adequate to our need for burial pur- poses for hundreds of years.
We have a vast acreage suitable for building lots, and remark- able railroad facilities. Within the limits of the town we have sixteen miles of railroad track belonging to four different lines ; two of them main lines, and two of lessor note, and five passen- ger stations. At the three principal stations, viz. : Wilmington, North Wilmington and Wilmington Junction, no less than ninety- five passenger trains stop daily, a few of them on signal, but most of them regularly.
The traits that may be noted as characterizing the people of Wilmington are their industry, honesty, intelligence, common- sense, and faculty of minding their own business. They are as yet comparatively free from the whirl and excitement of the city or large village. We. are all on a level; none rich, none poor. Wilmington is a good town in which to take breath, find elbow- ยท room, move moderately, live long, and die happy.
Your reference, Mr. President, to dollars and cents has puzzled me somewhat, but possibly I have the clue in calling to mind the fact that when Wilmington was set off as a town by itself, her people had just paid over their minister tax to the treasury of Woburn for the year ensuing. They immediately made effort to get that money back again for church purposes in the new town, but history, if I am rightly informed, makes no record of their suc- cess. Now, Mr. President, if this is the matter to which you so enigmatically referred, be assured our people are not the kind to
182
October 7.]
keep hard feelings over a small matter, for a century and a half ; in fact they had forgotten it altogether. But if your people are uneasy about it, and want to get rid of the load, we are willing to receive the money with compound interest, and use it as far as practicable for the purpose intended.
Your very appropriate mention of the religious motive which called for the setting off of the new town of Wilmington brings me, in conclusion, to remark that the early fire of consecration to Sabbath observance and public worship, as exhibited by our fore- fathers, has proved a marked feature in all the history of the town; and to this day, it is the choicest legacy to the people. We have not altogether departed from the good old ways. We, like the good mother town whose child we are, would be tena- cious for the things that make for the kingdom of God, and the blessings of the hereafter through Jesus Christ our Lord.
God bless the grand old town of Woburn and her daughter- towns, to the latest generation.
THE CHAIRMAN. In the same year that our old- est daughter, Goshen, set up housekeeping for herself, our second child, whom we had named Shawshin, was given the privilege of attending church away from home. She continued to stay with us on week days, however, and remained one of the family for many years after her church was organized. Finally, in 1799, she built a town-house beside her meeting-house, adopted the name Bur- lington, and became a full fledged township. Her progress since then has not been exactly phenome- nal, and her title to fame in the past has rested principally on the size of the democratic majority which she can be depended upon to furnish on every election day. But if Burlington has made little history for herself in the last ninety-three
183
0
E
1 -
[Friday,
years, she has done the next best thing in giving us the historian, to whose labors we are indebted for " The History of Woburn." I propose as the next sentiment Our Daughter, the Town of Burlington, and I invite the granddaughter of Rev. Samuel Sewall, Mrs. Martha E. Sewall Curtis, to respond.
-
ADDRESS OF MRS. MARTHA E. SEWALL CURTIS.
Mr. Chairman, Relatives, and Friends, - It is accounted one of the delights of childhood, to pay a visit to grandmother, because there we can have all we want to eat, and do as we please. You will excuse my being personal, as we are all of one family, when I say this is a notable and honorable event in my life, this home- coming to the old folks, because I have certainly had all I wanted to eat, and have done exactly as I pleased, until just now when our revered grandpapa called me up to " say my piece."
With due respect to old age, I would like to say that the daughter Burlington did not build her town-house until forty-five years after the date that Grandpapa Johnson has mentioned, but held her town meetings in the old meeting-house that still stands on the hill. It was a queer place with its unpainted walls and dark old beams, its sounding board over the pulpit, its rude seats, and the loose boards in the gallery, convenient for the boys to rattle on solemn occasions.
One of our older citizens used to relate that once at a town meeting, many years ago, when a man went up to deposit his ballot, a big owl flew down from among the rafters and hit him in the face. It is to be inferred that he might have been voting in opposition to the Democracy, for the good citizens seemed to take warning by this literal "slap in the face," and have been careful, even to this day, as our President has told us, to give a Democratic majority at every election.
In the list of toasts given at the celebration of the incorpora- tion of Burlington, in 1799, we find this sentiment, " The town of Woburn, although a part has been taken off, yet may ye re-
184
MARTHA E. SEWALL CURTIS.
October 7.]
mainder increase in number, wealth and beauty." The daughter gave a glance backward as she quitted her old home; she had a tender solicitude for the mother she left behind. She has always given proof of that feeling by sending her supplies of fresh vegeta- bles and fruit, and milk, with cream at the top, while the mother still provides her daughter with gowns, groceries, and shoe leather.
It seems impossible that there could have been any need of solicitude, but in 1730, when the separation as a parish came, there was mourning in Woburn, because eighty-two of the three hundred and twelve tax-payers were set off to the Precinct, and they were troubled about raising the minister's salary. The line between rural Burlington and the city of Woburn was not drawn in those days. Both were simple farming communities.
When the last stage was driven through our village, and the crack of the whip died away over the hill, our means of commu- nication with the world were straitened to narrow limits, and a great quiet settled over the place. Life has stood still with us on our green hills, and over our broad fields and fertile farms. Yet we love our country home. We may leave it, but we return, and are always thankful that we can come back to its rest, and peace, and beauty. We think our mother must be thankful also that her daughter has a country house close by where she can sometimes visit.
When, by and by, your " streets become too wide, and your lanes too narrow," we will welcome you to find your homes among us. Then our town will be the residential suburb of Woburn. And you, in these Anniversary days, have another rea- son to be thankful for Burlington. In the Puritan simplicity of our farming community, where the home remains in the family for generations, and the men till the soil and eat the fruits of their own planting, we are brought into touch with the life of the fathers. Let us be glad that Burlington remains as a representa- tion of old Woburn, a century or more ago.
His Excellency the Governor said, at our country fair last week, that it was his duty to visit Burlington once in a while in his official capacity as Admiral of our Navy. There is where we have an advantage over Woburn. Your good people must sleep with a greater sense of security, because your frontier is defended by Burlington Navy Yard.
185
[Friday,
It is my privilege and pleasure to extend to you, to-day, the greetings and congratulations of our town. In behalf of all her citizens, in the name of fathers who sleep in the Precinct bury- ing ground and on the green hill slope of old Woburn, in the memory of the past, in the joy of the present, and the ardent hope of the future, Woburn, our Mother, we salute you. We rejoice that, in the words of the old toast, you have " grown in numbers, wealth, and beauty." We rejoice that you have kept the faith and courage of the fathers ; and the school-house, the town house, and the meeting-house are still your most valued institutions. Well indeed, have you emulated the thrift and industry of our forefathers, and your prosperous city is the best proof of your success. May your prosperity still increase with the march of the years, till the city of Woburn is known and noted through the length and breadth of the land.
Our President has referred to the historian of Woburn. My earliest knowledge of the mother town was acquired, while hold- ing fast my hand, he conversed with men whose names are still revered among you, concerning the history of Woburn. He was interested in all that pertained to your community, and its civic and sacred institutions. To the preservation of its history he gave freely of his time and powers of research and study. The results of his toil are treasured in his book, which has interested many, even strangers, and is an inspiration to-day to the student of local history. Permit me to extend to you, in his name, the congratulations and best wishes and blessing of Father Sewall. In the collection of relics in your Public Library, none is more sacred than that cradle in which some mother of old Woburn rocked her baby while the wolves howled in the forest, and the warwhoop thrilled through the wilds of Shawshin. Let us remember there were mothers as well as fathers among the founders of Woburn, women who bravely encountered the hard- ships and perils of frontier life that they might light in the wilderness the holy fire of home. Their history is unwritten, their names unsung, yet to-day we would pledge in silence and with tears, "The Foremothers of Woburn."
-
It is an inspiration to our daily life, to our homely tasks and duties, to feel that the worthy men of old still have an interest in the city they founded ; that by inheritance, by transmission of
186
October 7.]
fine traits from one generation to another, the spirit of the fathers always lives and moves among us. It is joy to-day to remember that we are of one blood, and on our quiet hills and in your busy streets, we are all guided by the same " Wonder-Working Provi- dence."
THE CHAIRMAN. In the introduction of the next sentiment, I do not intend to revive the genealogi- cal conundrums with which we were so familiar two years ago, when the two hundred and fiftieth anni- versary of the settlement , of Charlestown Village was so successfully celebrated under the auspices of the ancient town of Winchester. As the official representative of the city of Woburn, and a guest on that interesting occasion, I was then allowed the courtesy of making the closing argument. If Win- chester, like the Prince of Denmark, " still harping on my daughter," desires to reopen the case to-day, she is peculiarly fortunate in the selection of the
advocate who represents her before this jury. Indeed, he must have a personal knowledge of all the facts ; for it so happens that he was born and christened the very same year that Winchester was created and named. As we were officially informed, two years ago, that the latter was then two hundred and fifty years old, it is mathematically certain that this elderly gentleman must be two hundred and fifty-two years of age at the present time. There- fore, in announcing as the next sentiment, Old South Woburn, or present Winchester, it is with great ex- pectations of learning many new historic facts that I introduce to you this gentleman who is coeval with
187
[Friday,
a town that has already observed its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, - Samuel J. Elder, Esq.
ADDRESS OF SAMUEL J. ELDER, ESQ.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, - So many presiding officers have worked off on me that Shakespearian conundrum, " How much Elder art thou than thy years? " that it is a profound satisfaction to have my great age fitly recognized. You are quite right, sir. Centuries have passed over my head. But I do not think even you realize how old I am. You ask me for "new " historic facts. Let me give you one or two. The last time I saw Methuselah, he was getting to be a very old man. There are, no doubt, scientific gentlemen present who will confirm me when I say that it is well ascertained that a man's stature de- creases in a fixed proportion as he gets older. And it has been figured out that our old friend was very short of stature when he died, which confirms what I have to say. I said to him, " Good morning, Mr. Methuselah." He said, "Good morning." I asked him how he was, and he said, " Oh, I am all right, only my shoestrings keep blowing in my eyes."
It is equally true that I remember the time when Winchester was founded. Being nearer to Boston than Woburn, it is no dis- paragement to the latter to say that Winchester was settled earlier. I know how sensitive you are upon the subject, and I should not have alluded to it if you had not opened the old con- troversy. But since you do, and since you admit my right to speak as an eye-witness like the veracious and unimpeachable oldest inhabitant, I will settle the question once for all. After Winchester had become a flourishing village of several inhabitants. beside myself, Woburn, the place where we now stand, was still part: and parcel of the howling wilderness. I am free to say that after the delightful entertainment to-day I do not wish it was so now.
I remember very well that Deacon Converse, after he finished his house in Winchester, used to hunt wolves with me up through these parts. You know there was a reward of ten shillings for every wolf killed, and they were very thick about Horn Pond: Mountain. This is all true, and if Bill Jones was alive I could prove it.
188
SAMUEL J. ELDER, Esq.
1
October 7.]
While I am settling these historic questions let me dispose of another, - the Baldwin Apple. I know, as seven cities claimed Homer dead, so Woburn, Wilmington, and Medford claim the Baldwin. But the original Baldwin apple-tree grew in Winchester. I remember it very well. It was about forty rods south of the Black Horse Tavern on Main Street, that it lived and flourished, and, in 1815, blew over. I remember the day that Col. Baldwin's father and Count Rumford came along, returning from Harvard College, and helped themselves to their pockets full. Samuel Thompson owned the tree, and as the boys passed along he called out, "Hi, there ! whose apples are those?" And the future Count, equal as usual to the emergency, sung out, "Them 's Baldwins." I trust you will pardon an old man for falling into these veracious memories.
If any doubt should arise in your mind as to the exact verity of what I have said you must remember the license granted the oldest inhabitant. A friend of mine, travelling in the West, was told at a country inn that a man named Ricker had a milk farm near by where he made one thousand tons of butter a week. My friend expostulated, but the man said he would leave it to a gentlemen standing there who was the oldest resident in these parts. " Well," said the old resident, " I can't tell exactly to a pound how much butter Ricker gets, but I know he's got three saw mills on his place that he runs with buttermilk."
Mr. President, two hundred and fifty years is a long time ; it is longer than most of you have lived. Perhaps I am warranted in saying that it is longer than any one of you has lived.
And it is these two centuries and a half which comes to us now. Seven men as brave as ever shouldered gun and carried Bible came out from Charlestown to found a town. I do not care where they struck the first blow or fixed their first lodgement ! They founded both towns, planted the school and built the church. The good-natured rivalry of to-day is well enough, but what I care for is that both were one in that early day. Shoulder to shoulder, and side by side, the men of both localities met the dangers of the forest and knelt in the house of God. The last stroke of the Indian's tomahawk fell alike upon the two sections, two settlers being massacred in each. In the Indian wars of that and a later period the names of Converse and John-
189
[Friday,
son are enrolled side by side with Richardson and Symmes. Together they assembled, despite the Royal Governor Andros, elected their town officers and asserted the right of the town meeting ; together they were roused on an April day and hastened to Lexington where, side by side, fell two of their young men. In the Revolutionary War they nobly did their part, enrolling more men during the seven years than the entire male population in any one year. Worshipping together till 1840, the growth of old South Woburn called for its separate place of worship. And when ten years later it seemed that the time had come for a sep- arate town, it is pleasant to remember that the mother town entered upon no harassing opposition but voted that it was " willing that the prayer of the petition should be granted."
Going out from your midst, then, with your good wishes and your God speed, we come back on your natal day to partake of your good cheer, to rejoice in your great prosperity, to invoke upon you the blessings of peace and good government, to assure you that, though separated by legislative enactment, we are not estranged, and that Winchester never forgets that she was once Old South Woburn.
THE CHAIRMAN. Woburn has always enjoyed a special and almost exclusive right to her name. Indeed, the name is not duplicated by that of any municipality on this side of the Atlantic, and there are but one or two Woburns in England. To those of us who have had the good fortune to visit the old English town from which our own town was named, the simple mention of Woburn, Mass., has been the " Open Sesame " to the most cordial greeting and hospitality. In recognition of these civilities, and more especially of the kindly interest which Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, has always evinced in the welfare and growth of her American namesake, we extended to the official representative of the Eng-
190
Rev. EDWARD G. PORTER.
October 7.]
lish town the freedom of our city, and invited him to be an honored guest at this table. That invitation was most cordially accepted, but the gentleman who had expected to attend, Mr. Geo. W. E. Russell, M. P., Under Secretary for India, has unfortunately been detained at home. His absence, however, shall not deprive us of the pleasure of proposing, as the next sentiment on this occasion, Old Woburn, Bedford- shire, England. To respond to this sentiment, I pre- sent to you a gentleman who has visited and been entertained there, and one who has always been a welcome guest here, - Rev. Edward G. Porter of Lexington.
ADDRESS OF REV. EDWARD G. PORTER.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, - It would have given us all much pleasure if some representative from the English Woburn could have responded to this toast. The committee had reason to hope that their invitation would be accepted by George W. E. Russell, Esq., M. P., a relative of the Duke of Bedford, whose seat is at Woburn Abbey ; but as I hear that he has recently been appointed by Mr. Gladstone Under Secretary for India, it is natural to suppose that public duties forbid his coming so far at present.
I should certainly hesitate to take his place here to-day were it not for the fact that, a few years ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the elder Woburn and the demesne which has made its name so famous.
The precise connection between the two towns has always been obscure. The records do not tell us why the little settle- ment planted here in 1642 received its name. The Act simply says : " Charlestowne Village is called Wooborne," and no con- temporary has told us why. But the painstaking Edward John- son, your first town clerk, to whom Woburn owes an incalculable
191
[Sunday,
debt, gives us a clew at the very beginning of his records where he speaks of Nowell, Symmes, and Sedgwick, as patrons of the new town.
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.